PM Hun Sen orders preparation of legal documents for Preah Vihear case

According to web media sources in Phnom Penh, Cambodia is preparing legal documents to lodge with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague complaints relating to long-standing border disputes with Thailand.

Mr. Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, said the ministry has received orders from Prime Minister Hun Sen to prepare the documents for the Preah Vihear case. He also said that Cambodia will take the border case with Thailand to both the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) and to the UN Security Council.

The spokesman said Cambodia has not lodged the legal complaints with the IJC yet, but it had already informed the court of its intention to lodge the complaints.

In the meantime, Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday said his government is taking diplomatic measures to ensure tension with neighboring Cambodia does not worsen. Thailand does not want to confront Cambodia and is doing what it can to prevent harm coming to people living on both sides of the border, adding that both countries need to take the utmost caution.

Tension has centered on the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded to Cambodia in 1962. But it did not rule on the surrounding land, which both countries claim. The relationship between the two nations has been tense for more than a year with sporadic clashes between troops near the disputed area surrounding the temple. Much of the border between the two countries has yet to be demarcated.

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Khmer Rouge 'First Lady' threatened co-leaders: prosecutor

PHNOM PENH: The Khmer Rouge “First Lady” has threatened her fellow former regime leaders and prison guards at least 70 times while detained at Cambodia’s UN-backed genocide court, a prosecutor said Monday.

The allegation was made as the former minister of social affairs, Ieng Thirith, 78, appealed for her release before she is tried for crimes against humanity and genocide for her role in the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge government.

She is one of five top regime figures detained at the court, which was set up to try leaders of the movement which killed up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.

“She regularly and violently, on at least 70 occasions, threatened co-detainees at the detention facility and also threatened guards at the detention facility,” prosecutor Vincent de Wilde told judges.

The prosecutor argued that if Ieng Thirith was released before her trial, expected to begin next year, she could “instil fear in victims and potential witnesses”.

In her previous appeal last year, Ieng Thirith said in a tirade that those who called her a murderer “will be cursed to the seventh level of hell”, blaming atrocities on Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea and prison chief Duch.

Nuon Chea and Duch are being held with Ieng Thirith in the jail at the court along with her husband, former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, and the regime’s head of state, Khieu Samphan.

The bespectacled Ieng Thirith sat with her arms folded during most of Monday’s hearing, delegating her lawyers to plead on her behalf.

Her defence team said her outburst last year showed she was “very vulnerable” and asked prosecutors “not to make any inflammatory statements”.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Final arguments in the court’s first trial, that of Duch, real name Kaing Guek Eav, ended in November and a verdict is expected after April this year. -- AFP

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Thai embassy to help Thai convicted of laying landmine in Cambodia

Thai embassy in Cambodia will offer aid to a Thai convicted of planting landmines along Thai-Cambodia border and was sentenced to 20 years in jail, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said recently.

The diplomats are looking into what assistance the government is able to provide, Kasit said.

In a hearing last week, Suphap Vong Pakna confessed to planting at least five explosive devices along the Cambodia-Thailand border, claiming Thai soldiers paid him to do so.

Pakna's lawyer says his client received a fair trial. "I think he is getting a fair judgment according to the evidence and his confession, because the court reduced the jail term from 30 to life imprisonment to 20 years in prison based on our terror law, article 75."

The 39-year-old was arrested in February of last year after he allegedly entered Cambodian territory and laid landmines.

A Thai investigation reportedly found Russian-made landmines in the area which they say were recently planted and of a type that Thai soldiers have never used.

Thai authorities said the findings suggested that Cambodia may have been guilty of breaking the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which bans signatories from using anti-personnel mines.

Cambodia, however, dismissed the accusation, saying any landmines in the area were remnants of the three-decade war.

The group Landmine Monitor says mined border areas between Cambodia and Thailand have the highest concentration of landmines in Cambodia. Read more!

Abuses of Cambodian Addicts in Detention Is Widespread, Report Says

By SETH MYDANS


PHNOM PENH — Nguyen Minh Tam said he got used to the routine during three months in a government drug detention center, although he sometimes lost consciousness: three punches to the chest when he woke up in the morning and three more before he went to bed.

Another heroin addict said he was whipped until he passed out with a twisted metal wire as thick as his thumb. “They used a blanket to cover me and they beat me,” said the detainee, who insisted that only his first name, Chandara, be used. “There were 10 of them beating me.”

Ban Sophea, on the other hand, an emaciated man who supports his heroin habit by collecting used cans and bottles, said things were quite different for him during a carefully monitored 10-day detention.

“They gave us medicine three times a day from a bottle that looked like a whisky bottle,” he said. “The rest of the time we just wasted time and ate. They let us dance and eat cake. We were eating all the time.”

These treatments — both the physical abuse and the involuntary administration of an experimental drug — have stirred concern in Cambodia since they were documented recently by the New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch described in detail abuses in 11 government-run centers that included electric shocks, beatings, rape, forced labor and forced donations of blood.

“Sadistic violence, experienced as spontaneous and capricious, is integral to the way in which these centers operate,” the report said. “Human Rights Watch found the practice of torture and inhuman treatment to be widely practiced throughout Cambodia’s drug detention centers.”

This description echoes a separate Human Rights Watch report, also issued in January, about compulsory drug detention centers in China that it said deny their inmates treatment for drug dependency and “put them at risk of physical abuse and unpaid forced labor.”

In Cambodia, the government dismissed the report as being “without any valid grounds” but did not address most of its allegations.

“The centers are not detention or torture centers,” said Meas Virith, deputy secretary of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, at a news conference early this month. “They are open to the public and are not secret centers.”

In December, the government tried another approach that also drew criticism from rights groups and health professionals: administration of an experimental herbal drug imported from Vietnam but not registered for use in Cambodia.

Twenty-one drug users were taken to one of the drug treatment centers and administered a potion called “bong sen” for 10 days before being released to their homes or to the streets. No systematic follow-up was done, and the national drug authority conceded that at least some of those treated returned to drug use.

“No information is known to exist as to the efficacy of this claimed medicine for the detoxification of opiate dependent people, nor to its side effects or interactions with other drugs,” said Graham Shaw, an expert on drug dependence and harm reduction with the World Health Organization in Phnom Penh, in a briefing note in early December.

Like its neighbors, Cambodia has experienced a surge in recent years in the use of methamphetamines, known here and in Thailand as “crazy medicine.” A smaller number of people are heroin users.

Vietnam has a network of drug treatment centers and is reported to be widely using the herbal drug in detoxification treatments. In 2003, Thailand embarked on a “war on drugs” in which an estimated 2,800 people said to be dealing drugs were summarily shot and killed.

Apart from the 11 government-run centers, drug users in Cambodia have few places to turn for help with their addictions. In some cases, desperate families commit their relatives to the centers, but most former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had been locked up there against their will.

The centers appear to be used not only for drug users but as a means to clear the streets of vagrants, beggars, prostitutes and the mentally ill, according to Human Rights Watch and the reports of other former detainees.

Government figures for drug use in Cambodia are unreliable and range from about 6,000 to 20,000. The United Nations has estimated that as many as half a million people in Cambodia may be drug users.

In 2008 the National Authority for Combating Drugs reported that 2,382 people were detained in government drug detention centers, almost all of them involuntarily. Some families, with no other recourse, pay the centers to take in relatives for what they hope will be a cold-turkey cure.

“If Cambodian authorities think they are reducing drug dependency through the policy of compulsory detention at these centers, they are wrong,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. “There is no evidence that forced physical exercise, forced labor and forced military drills have any therapeutic benefit whatsoever.”

Like other former detainees, Mr. Tam, 25, an ethnic Vietnamese, said he was committed involuntarily along with other drug users and street people. He confirmed allegations in the report that a number of the detainees were children.

He described what he called the “eight punishments” — painful and humiliating exercises that included rolling shirtless on the ground, running into walls and a series of physical contortions with names like leopard crawl, hopping like a frog, vampire jumping and shooting Rambo.

“I think this is not treatment; this is torture,” he said.

As soon as he was released, he said, he resumed his heroin habit.

“Inside you are thinking of drugs all the time,” he said. “When you come out you are free to use again.”


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Cambodia: Besieged Ratanakiri minorities to reap benefits of growing ecotourism

TOURISM to the remote northeast is booming, say Ratanakkiri provincial tourism authorities, who argue the province's ethnic minority communities are uniquely placed to benefit from the upswing in visitors to the region.

Feb 14, 2010 – TOURISM to the remote northeast is booming, say Ratanakkiri provincial tourism authorities, who argue the province's ethnic minority communities are uniquely placed to benefit from the upswing in visitors to the region.

Despite a global economic downturn that has seen international arrivals to the Kingdom decrease, Ratanakkiri welcomed 90,744 visitors in the first nine months of the year, up 12 percent on the same period last year.

Pal Vuth, director of the tourist office in the provincial capital Banlung, said international visitor numbers - numbering 15,236 this year to September - had been boosted by the improved road and air links to the province, including the opening of the international border into Vietnam's Gia Lai province earlier in the year.

"There is now more transportation and more services, [and] an international border crossing so tourists can cross from Vietnam directly into [Ratanakkiri]," he said, adding that visitors were drawn to the national parks and the ethnic minority villages that dot the province.

At the end of October, China announced it was providing Cambodia an US$80 million loan to pave the 118km stretch of road linking Banlung to National Road 7 at Stung Treng's O'Pong Moan, which tourism officials say will further increase tourist traffic.

Ecotourism potential Deputy Provincial Governor Sim You Song said local authorities were focusing on the province's ecotourism potential, promoting its natural beauty as an alternative to more expensive Asian destinations.

"We have promoted the tourism industry by informing people in the cities to visit the northeast region of Cambodia, particularly Ratanakkiri, rather than visit other countries," he said.

Another of the province's exotic attractions - its patchwork of distinct ethnic minority groups - is likely to witness the effects of the increase in tourist numbers, with local communities saying a growth in ecotourism could help preserve the local environment.

In Ratanakkiri, the government grants natural attractions to minority communities as "community commissions", which allow groups to maintain the sites independently.

Pal Vuth said that under the commissions, such as the one controlling Yeak Loam, a volcanic lake 5km from Banlung, the majority of money earned from the tourist sites goes to preserving the natural beauty of the sites.

"Since they live nearby, it is easy for them to manage tourist sites. The benefits belong to the communities," he said.

Trach Noung, a representative of the Tumpuon community-run Yeak Loam Lake Tourism Management Committee, said the community earned around 800,000 riels per month from admissions to the lake, which were poured directly into improving infrastructure at the site.

"To attract more tourists to Yeak Loam Lake, we try to keep everything around the lake in a natural state," he said. Six other sites, including lakes and waterfalls, are controlled in this way by local communities.

Cultural preservation Some community representatives also hope ecotourism will encourage the preservation of traditional customs.

Van Sokim, 25, a Krung indigenous representative from Tangkropu village in Ratanakkiri's O'Chum district, said his community welcomed tourists for the financial benefits, but said it could also help preserve indigenous traditions.

"Krung indigenous people do not care about their culture, they do not wear their traditional dress," he said. "If there were tourists visiting the community, people would preserve their culture in order to attract tourists."

Ek Yothin, provincial program director of the Indigenous Community Support Organisation, agreed that tourism offered many benefits to minority communities.

"The positive effect is that communities can benefit from selling the visitors arts and crafts," he said.

However, a fresh influx of outsiders could accelerate other developments that are eroding traditional cultural practices, he said.

"Some people come as tourists to assess the land of the villagers, to see what the possibility is for a rubber plantation. They do not come to help the community," he added.

Dam Chanthy, the Jarai director of the Banlung Highland Association, said tourism would be hurt by the threat of land-grabbing by rich businessmen, cases of which have multiplied across the province since 2004.

The Jarai village of Kong Yu, in O'Yadao district, is currently fighting a high-profile case against Keat Kolney, sister of Finance Minister Keat Chhon, over 450 hectares of communal land she claims to have purchased in 2004.

"If there is land-grabbing among ethnic minorities, it will strongly affect the number of tourists," Dam Chanthy said. "Most tourists want to see places where ethnic minority people live and farm, but if those lands are grabbed, where will they live and farm?"

Pal Vuth said that tourism, properly managed, could help preserve indigenous culture.

"The tourism authorities never talk about tribal peoples' tradition," he said. "The government takes care of Angkor Wat but ... [it] does not motivate tribal people to maintain their traditions."
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Thai PM says government wants to ease tension with Cambodia

Bangkok - Thailand's prime minister on Sunday said his government is taking diplomatic measures to ensure tension with neighbouring Cambodia does not worsen. Thailand does not want to confront Cambodia and is doing what it can to prevent harm coming to people living on both sides of the border, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said, adding that both countries need to take upmost caution.

Tension has centered on the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple, which the International Court of Justice awarded the to Cambodia in 1962. But it did not rule on the surrounding land, which both countries claim.

The relationship between the two nations has been tense for more than a year with sporadic clashes between troops near the disputed area surrounding the temple. Much of the border between the two countries has yet to be demarcated.

Over the past 18 months, Thai nationalists have used the Preah Vihear issue to stoke tensions, which last erupted in late January when troops from the two countries fired on each other in the disputed area. Neither country reported casualties.

Then early this month Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Preah Vihear in a politically charged trip.

At the time Abhisit played down Hun Sen's visit, and on Sunday continued to state that diplomacy was the best way to approach the issue.

The relationship between Cambodia and Thailand worsened markedly last October when Cambodia appointed Thailand's fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra to be a government adviser.

Cambodia appointed Thaksin, who has a two-year jail sentence still to serve in Thailand for abuse of power, as an economic adviser to the government and to Hun Sen.

Bangkok considers the appointment of Thaksin, the de facto opposition leader, as interference in its internal politics.

Thaksin was prime minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006 before being toppled in a bloodless coup. He fled the country and has live in self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai, since August 2008.
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Catching Cambodia on the cusp of development

By Elaine Moore


Douglas Clayton, founder of frontier market fund manager Leopard Capital, has a habit of relocating to the country he believes is on the cusp of development. Right now, his home is Cambodia.

“It’s fun to be in countries that are changing rapidly,” he says. “Cambodia is where Thailand was 30 years ago, and where Vietnam was 15 years ago. There is a lot going on.”

Leopard Capital manages funds in what it calls “overlooked, transitional economies”. It boasts contrarian investor Marc Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom and Doom newsletter, as a non-executive director and seeks to invest in start-ups as well as existing businesses in South East Asia.

In April 2008 it launched the Leopard Cambodia Fund, which closed in January 2010 with more than £34m (€39m $53m) to invest in a variety of multi-sector Cambodia projects. Mr Clayton says a second Cambodian fund is planned for later in 2010.

Investors tend to have some knowledge of Asian developing economies and tolerance for the idiosyncrasies that investment in these countries involves.

Cambodia’s economy is, at around $8bn (£5bn, €6bn), smaller than some multi-national companies, and with per capita gross domestic product of less than $800, it is still one of the poorest countries in the world.

Another obstacle to investment is the lack of transparency and endemic corruption in the country. The 2008 Transparency International survey ranked Cambodia 166 out of 180 countries.

“The legal system in Cambodia is a work in progress but it gets better every year,” says Mr Clayton. “Cambodia is no worse that any other south-east Asian developing country and most importantly, the government wants to attract foreign investment.”

In fact, Mr Clayton rates Cambodia alongside Hong Kong and Singapore as one of the most open countries to do business in. Corporate income tax is 9 per cent and there are no laws against 100 per cent foreign ownership of companies, although land can only be fully owned by Cambodians.

After it was ravaged by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s Cambodia has experienced 30 years of remarkable growth and has attracted a steady stream of investors lured by the country’s political stability under long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, and the potential for its undeveloped natural resources.

The capital city may still lack a coherent public transportation system or large shopping centre, but its transformation from ghost town to thriving city is used to illustrate Cambodia as a post-war success story.

Between 2000 and 2007 the country’s economy grew by 9.5 per cent a year, second only to China.

When the Cambodia fund was launched by Leopard Asia in April 2008, the founders planned to raise $100m, with a projected investment return of 30 per cent.

But as the global recession took hold across Asia, interest in frontier funds such as the Leopard Cambodia Fund, which require investors to tie in their money for relatively long periods of time, dwindled, and the group decided to close the first fund and invest the money.

So far the largest investment made has been $5m to CamGSM, which operates Cambodia’s largest mobile phone network. As with many developing countries, landline coverage in Cambodia is fairly sparse, but mobile phones are widely owned.

The fund has also invested $2m into Kingdom Breweries, a Cambodian beer brewery, which aims to produce high quality beer in a microbrewery in Phnom Penh; over $1m in Greenside Holdings to construct a rural power distribution system; and $1.5m for 24 per cent of a property project in downtown Siem Reap, near the tourist attraction of Angkor Wat.

The fund will also invest up to $4m into Cambodia Plantations to lease approximately 3,000 hectares of land to grow rice. The first harvest is expected in 2011.

Agriculture remains one of the dominant industries in Cambodia and a number of countries such as Malaysia and Korea have taken advantage of the cheap price of land to lease thousands of hectares to grow rice.

The second Cambodian fund is expected to continue investment in agriculture, as well as potentially including investment in Laos.

Before this is launched the group will focus on two new Sri Lanka funds. The private equity Leopard Sri Lanka fund aims to raise $100m, while the Leopard Sri Lanka Value fund will seek to raise $30m to invest in listed equity. Although Sri Lanka is a more sophisticated and larger economy than Cambodia, it has lacked investors while in the grip of a brutal civil war. Leopard Capital plans to invest in industries that were already well developed but came to a halt during the war, such as tourism, retail and agriculture.

“We are the first wave of money coming into the economy,” says Mr Clayton. “Once the world realises that this country is safe again this economy is going to take off.”


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Rain, snow threaten Lunar New Year

BEIJING — Heavy rain and snow storms were set to hit parts of China on Saturday, meteorologists said, threatening travel chaos as millions headed home on the eve of the Lunar New Year.

The Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, is China's most important holiday, reuniting families around the vast nation of 1.3 billion and triggering an exodus believed to be the world's largest annual human migration.

China's Meteorological Administration said on Saturday the country's south was set for rain and snow, while temperatures in the north would begin to fall.

Heavy snow would also fall over parts of the east.

"Everyone must make preparations for rain, snow and falling temperatures when returning home or going out to visit relatives and friends," it said in an earlier warning.

Authorities are hoping to avoid a repeat of the chaos after a massive cold wave and freezing rain hit southern and central China in 2008, crippling transport systems and stranding millions just as the travel rush got under way.

The government has said that 210 million passengers are expected to take the train during the current New Year period, which officially began late January. Nearly 30 million more will travel by air and millions of others by bus.

With many Chinese living and working in cities a long way from their family, the crush on transport and resulting price hikes was a problem, Xinhua said, adding the price of a return train ticket could be as much as one month's salary for some.

Guo Kai, a 30-year-old Beijing IT worker, told the agency tickets were hard to come by.

"A few of my friends queued up overnight outside ticket offices, and others bought tickets from scalpers," Guo said.

Other costs also make the trip expensive, he said, citing the tradition of handing out red envelopes containing money.

"I bought gifts for my parents, but no cash. I will do more house chores as compensation," he said.

South Koreans also gather in home towns or ancestral villages during the Lunar New Year to pay their respects to ancestors.

Transport officials there said the majority of the 25 million people on the move -- around half the country's population -- would be taking to the roads, some of which had been hit by heavy winter weather.

The Lunar New Year is also a major public holiday across several other parts of Asia.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a Lunar New Year message that he hoped the coming year would see a reversal of the city-state's plunging birth rate.

Lee said he was particularly worried about ethnic Chinese couples who chose to hold back having babies during Tiger years because of a superstition that children born during the year will have the animal's attributes.

"It is one thing to encourage ourselves with the traditional attributes of the zodiac animals," he said.

"But it is another to cling on to superstitions against children born in the Year of the Tiger, who are really no different from children born under other animal signs."

Singapore's first casino will start operating on Sunday, in time for the Lunar New Year, the operator said Thursday.

Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel is hoping to cash in on Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year starting the same day this year, the first time in decades in what has been dubbed locally as "double happiness".

The swanky hotel is offering a helicopter service that lets boyfriends propose to their sweetheart or married couples exchange vows mid-flight as they watch New Year fireworks in the city's famed Victoria Harbour.

Hotel spokeswoman Winvy Lung said it was rare for the two celebrations to coincide.

"It is traditional for people to spend time with relatives during the day but we can foresee that many couples would still like to celebrate Valentine's Day in the evening," she said.

In Cambodia, around 300,000 Cambodian Chinese prepared to join in the festivities.

Suon Sopheak, 27-year-old Phnom Penh resident, said it is becoming important in Cambodia's society, with even Cambodians of none Chinese descent joining the fun.

"My parents say their ancestors were Chinese. Even though I don't look like one, we have to celebrate it annually to send the offerings to ours like we celebrate the Khmer one," Sopheak said.

"When I was in school, friends always boasted about celebrating the New Year, and made the ones who didn't jealous."

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Ta Kwai not occupied by Cambodia

The army insisted that Cambodian troops did not occupy Ta Kwai Hindu temple in Surin last week.

Spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd yesterday said Cambodian troops entered the Ta Kwai temple in Surin province on Thursday but it was because of a misunderstanding between Thai and Cambodian forces.

Thailand claims Ta Kwai temple, 15km east of Ta Muan Thom temple, but Cambodia contests the claim. As a result, the two countries agreed neither side would occupy the temple.

Col Sansern said that on Thursday military patrols from both sides came face to face at Ta Kwai. The Thai forces decided to withdraw, but the Cambodian troops did not.

The army held talks with their Cambodian counterparts, who later withdrew.

Col Sansern said Cambodia agreed there had been a misunderstanding during troop rotation at the border.

In another development, a Cambodian military tribunal yesterday convicted a Thai man of planting landmines along a disputed section of the border and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Suphap Vongpakna confessed last week to planting at least five mines in territory disputed between Thailand and Cambodia, saying Thai soldiers had paid him to do it.

"The court has considered the accused man's confession, so it sentences him to a jail term of 20 years, which is open to appeal," military judge Pohk Pan said.

Suphap, arrested last February, faced a maximum of 30 years in prison for attempted murder, endangering national security and entering Cambodia illegally.

Defence lawyer Sam Sokong said he would consult his client on whether to appeal the decision.

Troops from both sides have been killed or injured by landmines along the border.

Thailand accused Cambodia of freshly deploying landmines after a pair of Thai soldiers were wounded in October 2008.

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Foreign Ministry seeking to help Thai national jailed in Cambodia for planting landmines

BANGKOK, Feb 13 (TNA) - Following the Cambodian court ruling, sentencing a Thai man to 20 years in jail for planting landmines along the Thai-Cambodian border, the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Kasit Piromya said on Saturday that the ministry is seeking to help the convicted Thai national and has dispatched Thai officials to visit him.

French news agency Agence-France-Presse (AFP) reported Friday that 39-year-old Suphap Pakna was sentenced to 20 years in Cambodian jail after he confessed in proceedings that he had planted at least five landmines in Cambodia's town of Anlong Veng near the disputed areas claimed by both countries.

The news service said that he was arrested one year ago and that the Cambodian authorities charged him with attempted murder, endangering national security and entering Cambodia illegally.

Associated Press (AP) quoted the Cambodian court record as saying Mr Suphap was arrested by Cambodian border guards just a few metres inside Cambodian territory while carrying a land mine on February 27, 2009.

The Thai foreign minister said that he has been informed that the Cambodian court read the verdict several days ago.

He said the foreign ministry wants to help Mr Suphap and has already instructed the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh to carry out consular visits to him.

The Cambodian court ruling came only few days after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited the ancient Preah Vihear temple and boost morale for his troops stationed in the area last weekend.

The Cambodian premier also planned to visit the Ta Muen Thom ruins which belong to Thailand, but he was not allowed to enter the area as Thai security agencies said the situation was unfavourable for fear of possible confrontation with protesters from Thailand's People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) gathering near the temple.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia, but Thailand has argued that the 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) area near the temple belongs to it. Demarcation of the area remains unresolved, leading to sporadic clashes between soldiers of the two countries since then. (TNA) Read more!

A golden leaf looking for a forest

Kilong Ung survived the Khmer Rouge; now he helps people learn from the past

By Myles Murphy
Ashland Daily Tidings


Kilong Ung was a young boy in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took power in the early 1970s. Between 1974 and 1979, Ung survived while his parents and sister died in a genocide that claimed the lives of as many as 3 million people.

He has documented his story in the book "Golden Leaf, A Khmer Rouge Genocide Survivor" and will talk about his experience at the Ashland Library from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday.

"I want people to get a better appreciation of life and to understand what happened," Ung said Thursday in a telephone interview from his office in Portland, where he now lives. "My theme is leveraging the past to make the world a better place."

Ung's talk is part of a collaboration co-sponsored by Gallerie Karon and the Friends of Ashland Library.

Gallerie Karon is hosting a show through February, "East Meets East IV" which features textiles, adornments, leatherwork and other artwork from, among other East Asian countries, Cambodia.

Actress Helena De Crespo, who performed in the recent one-woman-show "Shirley Valentine" at Oregon Stage Works, was instrumental in bringing Ung to Ashland while the Gallerie Karon exhibit was on display.

"I was introduced to Helena several months ago, but I couldn't get the time to do an art show at the time," gallery owner Karen Wasser said. "Helena suggested Kilong. He's very in demand these days so we're very lucky."

Ung, now a software engineer in Portland and an adjunct computer programming instructor at Portland Community College, made it to the United States in 1979.

With little English at his command, he learned quickly and graduated from high school in Portland in 1983, going on to earn degrees from Reed College and Bowling Green State University.

Now he spends time traveling around giving motivational speeches in different communities. He is a past president of the Cambodian-American Community of Oregon and participates in numerous community and business groups.

Ung's language becomes poetic as he describes his journey and his purpose following the publishing of "Golden Leaf."

"I was lucky," Ung said. "I was a golden leaf, blown by the wind. I went further and put down roots and became a tree."

He hopes through his talks to inspire others.

"As a tree I can only do so much," he said. "I want the audience to become my fellow trees. We all have a past. We all are ordinary people, but we can do uplifting things."

After one recent talk, Ung was approached by a man who bought his book. A short time later, after reading the book, the man returned with a $5,000 check to help Ung in his work building schools in Cambodia.

"The forest is growing," Ung said. "To be a tree is a privilege and with that privilege comes responsibility."

Still a very poor country, wracked by political instability, Cambodia is fertile ground for aid, Ung said. But helping often requires a political dance, and Ung strives to build schools there without becoming entangled in bureaucracy and political controversy.

"I'm not involved with government or politics," he said. "It's purely as humanitarian as possible. We have to walk very gingerly, navigate through political systems."

On a smaller scale, de Crespo is working on a similar project. She is organizing work to create a theater and housing for one specific theater group she came in contact with while traveling in Cambodia. She has collected shadow puppets and set pieces made of leather made by members of the Cambodia theater group, which will be on display at Gallery Karon through this month.

For more details on Ung's life, see the Web site www.kilongung.blogspot.com.

De Crespo also will give a talk and slide show about her experience in Cambodia at Gallerie Karon, 500 A St. No. 1, from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Myles Murphy is an editor and reporter with the Daily Tidings. Reach him at mmurphy@dailytidings.com.


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U.S. Naval Vessel to Make Port in Cambodia's Coast of Sihanoukville

The USS Patriot, an Avenger- class countermeasures vessel from the 7th fleet based in Hawaii will make port in Cambodia's coast of Sihanoukville early next week, according to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh.

The statement said the USS Patriot will begin a weeklong visit starting from Monday and to conduct exercises with the Cambodian Navy.

Sihanoukville province is located 230 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh.

The bilateral training exercises will focus on damage control, search and seizure and at sea rescue techniques.

In addition, naval surveyors who are also traveling on the ship will assist their Cambodian counterparts in taking sides scan surveys of the port area to check for possible obstructions in commercial shipping lanes.

Both the bilateral training exercises and the survey are being orchestrated at the request of the Cambodian Navy and the Port Authority.

This is the fifth visit by a U.S. naval ship since the resumption of military to military engagement between the U.S. and Cambodia.

The statement said that "each visit represents another important step in this evolving relationship as well as an opportunity for military personnel from both countries to exchange experiences, tips and techniques which will assist them in the future."

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Thailand deports crew of NKorean weapons plane

BANGKOK -- Thailand on Friday deported members of a foreign plane crew accused of smuggling arms from North Korea, a day after prosecutors dropped all charges against them.

The five crew members, from Kazakhstan and Belarus, were escorted to Bangkok's Suvannabhumi airport by at least a dozen police, and left in the early evening on an Air Astana flight for Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The five were arrested Dec. 12 when the Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane they were flying from the North Korean capital Pyongyang landed in Bangkok. Thai authorities, acting on a tip from the United States, seized the plane and 35 tons of weapons on board.

North Korea is barred under U.N. sanctions from exporting weapons.

Flight documents indicated the plane's destination was Iran, but officials there denied they were importing weapons.

Thailand's Attorney General's Office said Thursday the decision to drop charges against the Il-76 crew was made after the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan contacted the Thai Foreign Ministry and requested the crew's release so they can be investigated at home.

"To charge them in Thailand could affect the good relationship between the countries," said Thanaphit Mollaphruek, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. "They were only here for refueling."

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said Thai authorities were still awaiting advice from the United Nations on how to dispose of the weapons. Read more!

Cambodian court gives Thai 20 yrs for laying mines, AS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A Cambodian military court on Friday sentenced a Thai man to 20 years in prison for trying to lay land mines.

Judge Pohk Pan convicted Suphap Wongpakna, 39, of illegally entering the country and planting an explosive to cause bodily harm, an offense under Cambodia's terrorism law.

Relations between Cambodia and Thailand are tense over territorial disputes and the status of a former Thai prime minister.

Suphap was arrested by Cambodian border guards on Feb. 27, 2009, along the border near the town of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia. He was arrested just a few meters (yards) inside Cambodian territory while carrying a land mine, according to the court's record.

Speaking through an interpreter, the defendant said he was a former member of Thailand's paramilitary Rangers force — which operates mostly along the borders — and that he had been hired by his former commander to plant mines.

He said he had already planted five mines near the border before being arrested, and had received 2,000 baht ($60) for each mine.

In Bangkok, a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman, Thani Thongphakdi, said Suphap was not affiliated with any Thai government agency. Thani said the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh was seeking access to him to offer consular assistance.

Suphap's lawyer, Sam Sokhong, said he would consult with his client to see whether he wanted to appeal the verdict.

In a high-profile case last year, Cambodia convicted a Thai citizen employed by Cambodia's country air traffic control company on a spying charge.

The arrest of Siwarak Chothipong became a major issue in bilateral relations and in Thai domestic politics because of the involvement of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 military coup.

Thaksin is a fugitive from Thai justice, but was appointed an adviser to the Cambodian government and given a VIP welcome in November by Cambodian Premier Hun Sen.

Siwarak was accused of passing Thaksin's flight plans to the Thai Embassy. He was convicted of stealing information that could impact national security and sentenced to seven years in prison, but was pardoned less than a week later.

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The world is her stage

By Myles Murphy
Ashland Daily Tidings


Helena de Crespo always has been fascinated by the ancient complex of elaborately constructed temples of Angkor Wat deep in the jungles of Cambodia.

During a trip to the nearby island city-state of Singapore three years ago, de Crespo couldn't resist taking a side trip to satisfy her lifelong curiosity.

It was a decision that would set her life on a new track.

"I really stepped into another world," de Crespo said.

While returning from the temples, she saw a huge, colorful stage set up on the side of the road, complete with proscenium, painted curtains, lights and a large group of actors, stagehands and theater artisans. Herself an actor (she appeared most recently in Ashland in the one-woman Oregon Stage Works production of "Shirley Valentine"), she felt compelled to stop and learn more about the group.

"As I began talking to them, I began to learn more about Cambodia," de Crespo said.

A period of political unrest and violence in Cambodia in the 1970s climaxed when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. For the next four years, people were forced out of cities to work in the fields, banking and currency were abandoned in favor of an agrarian society, torture centers were created and public executions became common. Between starvation and killings, as many as 3 million people died during that period. Cambodia's population at the time was about 7.5 million, according to the U.S. State Department.

"Actors were among the first killed by the Khmer Rouge because they were keeping alive cultural traditions," de Crespo said. "Anyone closely resembling an intellectual was killed."

Many villages across the country had their own theater groups, which traveled from place to place retelling old stories, histories and mythologies. De Crespo had come across one such group that has been struggling to revive the tradition.

She decided to help. By using her connections to the theater community in the states, she was able to draw support and funds toward building a theater and housing for the group in Cambodia.

She also made contact with the Cambodian community in the U.S., which is how she met Portlander Kilong Ung, himself a refugee from Cambodia. Ung is speaking Saturday at the Ashland Branch Library as part of a collaboration cosponsored by Gallerie Karon and the Friends of the Ashland Library.

"He lived through it," de Crespo said. "I'm just a peripheral observer."

Searching for the most efficient way to help the Cambodian thespians, de Crespo learned that they were essentially homeless and that in the rainy season, their incomes dropped to nothing.

"They can't perform during rainy season and the company goes through hard times," she said. "The best way to help was to build a permanent housing complex with a performing area, stage, housing and buildings to construct costumes, sets and puppets."

The puppets are made from cow and buffalo leather punched with holes to allow light through to make for interesting silhouettes.

De Crespo has brought many examples of these puppets to Ashland for the show at Gallerie Karon.

De Crespo also will give a talk and slide show about her experience in Cambodia from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Gallerie Karon, 500 A St. No. 1. For information on de Crespo's Cambodia project, see the Web site cambodiantreasures.com.

Myles Murphy is an editor and reporter with the Daily Tidings. Reach him at mmurphy@dailytidings.com.


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Human development database

NEW YORK, USA, 11 February 2010 – DevInfo is a database system that harnesses the power of advanced information technology to compile and disseminate data on human development. The latest version – 6.0 – was officially launched in 2009 and is the most powerful and user-friendly version to date.

DevInfo 6.0 completed its global, region-by-region roll out last week in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

DevInfo allows users to organize, store, access, display, monitor and analyze standardized human development data in a uniform way, categorized by indicator, time period, geographic area or source.

Whether sharing data at the country level, across government departments, with UN agencies or development partners, DevInfo makes it easy to make informed, evidence-based decisions about development issues.

Reports and presentations

National statistics offices, UN agencies, donors, non-governmental organizations and civil society can use the system to produce tables, graphs and maps for inclusion in reports, presentations and advocacy materials.

The software supports both standard indicators – such as the Millennium Development Goals – and user-defined indicators in line with national priorities.

UNICEF manages DevInfo with the support of the United Nations Development Group. The software is distributed royalty-free to all end users. Thousands of current users contributed their insights and experiences to the DevInfo 6.0 development process.

User-friendly interface

The intuitive, user-friendly DevInfo interface provides straightforward navigation. Users can browse data in several different ways, while other techniques allow ‘drilling down’ into the details of each data value in the system.

A new Data Wizard allows first-time users to generate tables, maps and graphs in just three easy steps.

DevInfo 6.0 features powerful data presentation methods, enhanced web collaboration and extended mapping features. The software offers a range of tools to present disaggregated data by sub-national administrative units and by sex, location, age and other socio-economic dimensions. DevInfo 6.0 also includes enhanced reporting features, easy-to-generate, animated presentation objects – such as flipbook and video options – and advanced data analysis tools like animated bubble plots.

In addition, a new data exchange module introduces powerful data management utilities, allowing users to import data into the DevInfo format from industry-standard statistical software packages.

DevInfo initiatives worldwide

Presently, more than 275 adaptations of DevInfo are being used in over 130 countries; there are an estimated 24,000 trained DevInfo users around the world.

Beyond these national and regional adaptations, dozens of global organizations rely on the DevInfo database technology to disseminate the results of their work:

MDG Info 2009 is a customized version of DevInfo providing wide access to the official Millennium Development Goals data set maintained by the UN Statistics Division. The website, www.devinfo.info/mdginfo2009, allows stakeholders to access key human development data on all UN Member States.

CME Info – Child Mortality Estimate Info – is available at http://www.childmortality.org/. Powered by DevInfo technology, it allows users to track the progress of any country in reducing infant and child mortality.

MICS Compiler, powered by DevInfo, allows users to search indicators across UNICEF-sponsored Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, which are conducted worldwide and based on nationally representative samples. MICS Compiler indicators use standard definitions for international comparability and can be found at http://www.childinfo.org/, the one-stop source for UNICEF statistics on children and women.

CensusInfo, at www.devinfo.info/censusinfo, a software package adapted from DevInfo database technology, was launched in 2009 to help countries disseminate census data. Developed jointly by the United Nations Statistics Division, UNICEF and UNFPA, CensusInfo provides a method to organize, store and display data in a uniform format to facilitate census data-sharing at the country level across government departments and UN agencies.

Gender Info 2010 contains the official UN MDG data – disaggregated by gender – for more than 50 indicators, providing over 300,000 data values. Gender Info 2010, at http://www.genderinfo.org/, is the result of an Interagency effort supported by the Expert Group on MDGs, including: UNFPA, The World Bank, UNDESA/DAW, UNIFEM, ILO and UNICEF.

To learn more about the impact of DevInfo on people’s lives – and to obtain a free copy of DevInfo 6.0 software – please visit http://www.devinfo.org/. Read more!

On course for a better tomorrow in Cambodia

The children of Chumkriel in Cambodia are out of sight but not out of mind for Dubbo and Narromine residents who continue to fundraise for their future.

In mid-2009 the volunteers travelled to Chumkriel, which former Narromine woman Joselyn Barber has “taken under her wing”.

In the poverty-stricken community the Australians built a toilet block, taught youngsters to wash their hands, and offered expert advice to the Chumkriel Language School and Learning Centre on matters including its English curriculum and financial management.

In just weeks they broke down the barrier of distrust to become welcome visitors and contributors to the recovery from Pol Pot’s brutal regime.

Since returning to western NSW, the group has directed its efforts towards raising cash to help buy a block of land in Chumkriel where a much-needed new learning centre will be built by volunteers in May and October.

On March 7 it is teaming up with Narromine Rotary members in running a charity golf day.

Narromine’s Vicki Gainsford says all are welcome to attend, with the proceeds going “entirely into securing the block of land for the new classroom”.

“Cambodia’s population is predominately very young, very poor and uneducated, because of the slaughter during Pol Pot’s regime,” she said.

“One-in-five children will die of dysentery or related diseases.

“They are a beautiful people and they are so appreciative of the help we are giving them. We can give them a chance in life.”

Ms Gainsford was a member of the group that travelled to Chumkriel last year, as was Mark Horton of Dubbo Rotary Club.

“Mark informs me that Dubbo Rotary is still trying to raise several thousand dollars ... to seal the deal on the block of land,” Ms Gainsford said.

Dubbo and district residents are being encouraged to travel to Narromine next month and take part in the fundraising effort, a two-person ambrose.

The cost of $20 includes a barbecue lunch with “lots of prizes and fun guaranteed”.

Joselyn Barber is helping the people of Chumkriel “to realise the dream of gaining an education and learning English,” Ms Gainsford said.

“With Jos and Rotary driving the engine, we can be assured that no money is being wasted and Jos is there to see the project through to fruition,” she said.

For more information or to find a golfing partner, call 688 90115.

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Cambodia at the end of its tether

O SVAY (Cambodia) - Cambodia's Prime Minister says his country will complain to the International Court of Justice that Thailand is occupying its land.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday that Thailand had encroached on land around the landmark Preah Vihear Temple, in northern Cambodia, which the court awarded Phnom Penh in 1962. He made his remarks while visiting the disputed territory.

Thailand acknowledged Cambodian sovereignty over the temple, but both countries claim 4.6 square kilometres of nearby land. Their troops have clashed there several times.

"Cambodia has reached the limits of its patience," Mr Hun Sen said on Tuesday during a visit to the disputed territory.

"Cambodia wants to solve this territorial dispute by filing a complaint to the international court at The Hague," he said, adding he would ask the United Nations to help solve the issue.

Nationalist passions have run high at the border since 2008 after Thailand first backed, then opposed Cambodia's bid to name the 11th-century temple a UN World Heritage site.

Cambodia and Thailand share an 800-km land border, part of which was never clearly demarcated because each country relies on different maps.

Meanwhile, Internet giant Google has promised Cambodia it will review a map of Preah Vihear Temple, though it stopped short of saying it would change the document.

The Cambodian authorities accused Google of being "professionally irresponsible" in a letter sent last week, because its Google Earth map depicts nearly half of the Preah Vihear Temple as being in Thailand.

Google, in a letter sent to the government, said it was "carefully reviewing" Phnom Penh's objection but also suggested that it contact Tele Atlas, a mapping company it says provided the border data to the company. AGENCIES
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Surakiart to govt: Just get over Thaksin

The government needs to get over its obsession with Thaksin Shinawatra or it will lose what remains of its withered credibility overseas, says former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai.

Thailand's post-coup standing in the international arena was deteriorating and it had lost the confidence of its neighbours, Mr Surakiart told a Chulalongkorn University forum yesterday.

Thailand had also lost its unique role as a regional coordinator and venue provider for sensitive issues, said the foreign minister who served under Thaksin.

"We've dropped off the radar as a positive influence on the international community, and joined the negative radar for our ongoing domestic political rifts that destroyed several international meetings hosted here last year," he said.

Thailand could reverse the harm it had done to itself if domestic politics, especially its obsession with self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin, were detached from foreign affairs.

"Thailand needs to make friends with its neighbours again," he said.

"Informal meetings, phone calls, short visits or quick lunches must be reintroduced at both ministerial and leader levels with key countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and China."

On the Cambodian dispute, he advised the government to separate politics from boundary issues and think carefully before retaliating to jibes.

"Of course, the leader of one country slamming another is a disgrace and we all know that [Cambodia] should also detach itself from nationalism when it approaches issues concerning Thailand.

"Thankfully, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva did not respond to the latest provocations, which could have spurred on the latest bilateral dispute even more."

Mr Surakiart said Thailand consistently underestimates other countries.

"We need to overhaul the way we evaluate situations regarding our neighbours. They have dignity, connections and friends much more than they had in the past, which is why Thailand's veto of Cambodia's unilateral listing of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site was unsuccessful," he said.

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Google says it will look into complaint from Cambodia that border map with Thailand is wrong

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Google Inc. says it will look into a complaint from Cambodia that a map of a disputed border with Thailand is wrong, though it stopped short of saying it would change the document.

The company is responding to a complaint last week from Cambodia about the Google Earth map that it called "devoid of truth and reality, professionally irresponsible, if not pretentious." Cambodia is calling on Google to replace the map with one that is internationally recognized.

The border area near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple just across the border in Cambodia has been the focus of a long-running dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. The World Court awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but sovereignty over the surrounding land has never been clearly resolved.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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