‘Enemies’ Gathers Audience at Maryland Temple

“In ‘Enemies of the People,’ I couldn’t figure out who was really behind the killing.”

Thet Sambath, filmmaker of the 'Enemies of the People', talking to former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea.

“Enemies of the People,” an award-winning documentary that follows one journalist’s search for answers about the Khmer Rouge, screened at a pagoda in Maryland this weekend, prompting many questions from the audience, some of them yet unanswered.

The film follows journalist Thet Sambath as he interviews former low-level cadre and the regime’s chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, who is now facing atrocity crimes charges at the UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh.

The film screened at the Buddhikarama pagoda in Silver Spring, Md., on Sunday.

In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, a former soldier re-enacts what it was like to cut the throat of a victim. The knife he uses on a reluctant demonstration partner is plastic, but the scene is chillingly real.

“I could imagine the frightening killings of the Khmer Rouge,” said Chhun Chhoammana, secretary for the Cambodian Buddhist Society. “It was horrifying.”

Thet Sambath and co-producer Rob Lemkin answered questions from nearly 50 people in the audience after the film. Some said they’d asked questions they had never brought up before. Others said they had still more.

“We screened it here because a pagoda is where people come together,” said Thet Sambath, who had come to the Washington area to collect a prestigious Knight International Journalism Award, for the years of reporting he undertook before the film was made. “I believe that all Cambodians are still wondering why and how the massacre of Cambodia’s people took place between 1975 and 1979.”

In another scene in the film, Thet Sambath questions Nuon Chea over the decisions that led to so many deaths. Nuon Chea and the other main cadre in the film, soldiers Khuon and Suon, “talked very honestly, frankly, openly, truly for the first time,” Lemkin said. “So this is history, history in the making.”

For viewer Kong Heng, who lost 12 relatives to the regime, the film raised questions about the Khmer Rouge tribunal under way.

“The government and the UN decided in their agreements to try only the top leaders and most responsible persons,” he said. “If the trial expands to small cadre, like these killers in the film, there will be too many of them to try.”

An expansion of the court’s work could also cause “insecurity,” he said. “It is good enough.”

The producers said they were now trying to raise money for a second film, which would explore the political motivations behind the killings.

“In ‘Enemies of the People,’ I couldn’t figure out who was really behind the killing,” Chhum Chhoammana said. “Sambath said those who ordered the killing would be revealed in the second film.”
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Cambodia deluge leaves a million desperate

Isolated … a man waits for help on a small strip of land surrounded by waters in Tapon village, outside Battambang. Photo: International Herald Tribune


BATTAMBANG, Cambodia: The high water is devastating even for a country inured to monsoon rains and waterlogged rice fields. Wide swathes of Cambodia's countryside have become giant lakes, with villagers and livestock marooned on scattered patches of dry land.

The United Nations estimates floods have affected three-quarters of the country's land area. They have been overshadowed by similar troubles in Cambodia's wealthier neighbour, Thailand, where the government is scrambling to protect central Bangkok from inundation.

In Cambodia, though, aid workers describe a more Darwinian struggle and a generally higher degree of desperation among villagers.

''This is the worst I've seen in my career,'' said Soen Seueng, 58, a doctor who tended to a long line of flood victims on Wednesday, most of them women and children, who were camped on a strip of land accessible only by boat.

Dr Seueng grasped the limp arm of a girl, Lor Chaneut, 6, who received a diagnosis of dengue fever, the mosquito-borne disease that can be fatal without close medical attention. ''You must take her to the hospital,'' Dr Seueng urged the family.

The girl's mother, Jeok Kimsan, said the family's savings were wiped out by the floods. ''We will go to the hospital when we get some money,'' she said, as her husband built a fish trap.

Flood victims, many of whom begged a foreign visitor for help, took shelter here under plastic sheeting, like refugees from a civil war.

Cows, pigs and chickens shared the strip of dry land, which was covered with animal and human waste.

''The toilet is everywhere,'' said Henry Sophorn, a Cambodian-born American who represents a charity, Disadvantaged Cambodians Organisation, which is part of a syndicate delivering aid to flood victims.

In Thailand, the government has used helicopters, military vehicles and equipment to reach and assist flood victims, but in Cambodia the work of providing basic necessities has been largely left to private organisations.

''The government can only help a small number of people - they don't have the capacity,'' said Mr Sophorn, whose organisation has supplied 3400 families with medical care, rice, instant noodles, canned fish and bottled water, using money from a donor in Hong Kong who has asked to remain anonymous.

With little or no government assistance, many villagers have been left to fend for themselves. ''The big impact is just starting,'' said Sen Jeunsafy, a spokeswoman in Cambodia for Save the Children. ''What we have done is provided immediate relief. But collectively, we have not been able to reach every family.''

Aid workers say the full scope of the crisis in Cambodia is not yet known, because many affected areas are remote and out of communication. The UN estimates that 1.2 million people out of a population of 15 million may have been affected.
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Tribunal Observers Split Over Value of Two More Cases

Peter Maguire, a former law professor at Columbia University and the author of “Facing Death in Cambodia,” told a group of students at Bard College, in New York, this week.


With the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal prepared to open a major trial for four jailed regime leaders later this month, observers are divided as to whether its completion will be enough to count the court a success.

The court has two more cases before it that would require five more indictments, but these have created continued controversy and debate inside and outside the court.

Peter Maguire, a former law professor at Columbia University and the author of “Facing Death in Cambodia,” told a group of students at Bard College, in New York, this week that Case 002 will be all the court can manage.

“Their job is to try the senior Khmer Rouge leaders,” he said. “Prime Minister Hun Sen has made it very clear that he wants no more trials in Cambodia. There will be no Case 003, so let’s see if they can complete Case 002 before the defendants die. If they fail to complete Case 002 before the defendants die, then this trial, this series of trials, will be a failure.”

Douglas Irvin, an international affairs doctorate student at Rutgers University and a researcher for the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said Case 002, to try leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, should be the court’s priority.

“If they succeed, in the perspective of the United Nations, I think this is sufficient,” he said. “Going further than 002 is not as important as achieving 002. And the reason for that is you can keep on trying people indefinitely and you can end up with so many people to bring in. It’s pointless to a certain extent. I think the value is symbolism, taking the people on the top to try them and hopefully find them guilty.”

However, Mary Orsini, a law student at Rutgers who has done research for the Documentation Center, said the court should go beyond Case 002.

“Although some people may think the UN should concentrate on those cases, the bottom line is that when the court was initiated, they discussed at least 10 to 15 people,” she said. “This has gone back and forth. But the fact that we end up with five, that’s not the initial purpose of the court.”

Elena Lesley, an international affairs student at Rutgers who blogs on the tribunal for the Phnom Penh Post, said the court should “try to do both.”

“I don’t think they should allow the court to be derailed by this controversy involving cases 003 and 004,” she said. “But I do think that prosecution of Case 002 is important.”

Andrew Cayley, the tribunal’s international prosecutor, who gave a talk at Rutgers recently, said, “There isn’t any other way to deal with” cases 003 and 004.

“There has to be an investigation,” he said. “There has to be a consideration by the investigating judges of the evidence, and then there either has to be a dismissal order or a closing order, an indictment. That’s what the rules say.”
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Migrant Workers Struggling to Escape Thai Floods

Migrant workers from Burma, who were trapped in floods and have been out of work for weeks, hold food rations in Thailand's Ayutthaya province November 1, 2011.


Migrant workers, largely from Burma, Cambodia and Laos, are still struggling to escape inundated areas of Thailand.

There are no reliable estimates of how many people are stranded in the scores of flooded communities in Bangkok and areas north. Aid workers say that among the millions affected in Thailand, as many as 600,000 migrant workers, largely from Burma, are stranded in worsening conditions.
Plight of migrants
Trapped in apartments without electricity, food or drinking water, many are forced to pay exorbitant fees to be transported to dry areas.

Despite the situation, many government shelters have not reached capacity as residents stay with relatives or remain in their flooded homes to protect their possessions.

Human Rights and Development Foundation consultant Andy Hall says the plight of the migrant workers remains difficult.

“Why are the migrant [workers] staying there? They are staying there because maybe they do not understand the situation, maybe they are scared because the do not have documents, maybe they are being coerced to stay in their communities there are mafia [style] organizations in those areas who want to prevent undocumented workers coming in contact with authorities,” said Hall.

Thai industries are estimated to employ more than two-million migrant workers. Many of these workers are employed in construction and industrial estates in the provinces near the capital, Bangkok, where flooding has been concentrated.

Discrimination
Mekong Migration Network spokesperson Jackie Pollock says many migrant workers, especially from Burma, face ‘neglectful discrimination’ due to language barriers with Thai aid organizations.

“The relief services have got to reach the migrants," she said. "So I would think it is getting interpreters together with the most organized coordinated relief services, maybe the Thai Red Cross, the organizations which can get out there and really reach people taking these interpreters with them. The Thai Red Cross they are very happy to get to the migrants, they just cannot reach them.”

Those migrants who are officially registered with the government are wary to return home, because their work permits are void once they leave the country.

Documentation
But thousands of Burmese migrant workers have fled to the Thai border town of Mae Sot to return to Burma. Thai authorities are reported to have been detaining many because they failed to have adequate documentation.

Aid workers say Thai and Burmese authorities have moved to stop guards at border checkpoints from demanding bribes from the fleeing workers. But locals report that Burmese immigration authorities are allowing only 150 people to pass into Burma each day, leaving a massive backlog.

Human Rights and Development Foundation’s Hall says the plight of the migrant workers remains a crisis the government should address.

“The ministry of labor should be responsible, but it seems to be that because of the politics involved in this nobody is raising the issue of migrant protection and we see once again that the migrants at a time of crisis are being left behind and they are being shifted to brokers who are exploiting them and also the law enforcement agencies,” added Hall.

The Mekong Migration Network says Thailand must allow registered migrant workers to temporarily leave Thailand and return once the crisis passes without any penalties to assist in the economic recovery. Read more!

Cambodia arrests two generals for drug trafficking

PHNOM PENH, November 1, 2011- Two high-ranking Cambodian army generals have been arrested for allegedly trafficking methamphetamine, police said Tuesday.

Two-star generals Lay Virak and Khuon Roeun, who also act as advisors to the defence ministry, were detained on Monday with nearly one kilogramme of the drug in their possession, national police spokesman Kirth Chantharith told AFP.

“They were arrested while exchanging the drug,” he said, without specifying who the other party was in the deal.

The police spokesman said the arrests were made following months of surveillance.

Cambodia has ramped up its war on drugs in recent months, resulting in hundreds of arrests, some involving high-profile officials.

Earlier this year, the chief of Cambodia’s anti-drug trafficking agency was charged with accepting bribes in drugs cases.

Cambodia became a popular trafficking point for narcotics, particularly methamphetamines and heroin, after neighbouring Thailand toughened its stance on illegal drugs in 2002.

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1st Fashion Week kicks off in Cambodia

Cambodia on Friday evening launched the first ever Fashion Week 2011, aimed at boosting the country's fledgling fashion industry, said Ellen Jones, the event' s public relation manager.

The Cambodia Fashion Week 2011, running until Saturday next week, would highlight global fashion trends, featuring international and national designers and introducing up and coming designers from Cambodia and across the region, providing designers with opportunities to network with buyers and potential investors, she said.

The event includes invitation-only runway shows, exclusive parties, a fashion exhibition and more, at selected venues across Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

The CFW 2011 is being hosted by the Cambodia Fashion Council. It will direct 10 percent of all proceeds to fund scholarships for Cambodian youth pursuing careers in the fashion industry, according to the press release.

It is expected to attract over 2,000 participants from across the Asia and South East Asia region, it will be by far the biggest fashion event to be held in the Kingdom, it added.

Em Riem, painter and designer at X-M Design-Cambodia, said, "it 's the largest and most impressive fashion show I have ever seen in Cambodia."

"In recent years, Cambodia's fashion industry has been mushrooming -- clothes with most famous brands around the globe are available in most shops in Phnom Penh," he added.

Sun Sreymom, a model and trainer at Saphor Fashion Training School, attributed the growing fashion industry to Cambodian people's better living conditions.

"Now, most urban Cambodians, especially among teenagers, have begun to look at up-to-date fashions and expensive clothes," she said. Read more!

Singapore, S.Korea airlines to launch flights to Cambodia in winter season

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two new foreign airlines, Tiger Airways Singapore and South Korea's Eastar Jet, will launch their regular flights to Cambodia in this winter season, from November to March, a senior official at Socit Concessionaire d'A roport (SCA), the operator of Cambodia's airports, said on Friday.

The Tiger Airways will start its daily flights between Singapore and Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, by A320 (180 seats) and one flight a week from Singapore to Siem Reap, Cambodia's largest cultural tourism destination, Emmanuel Menanteau, Chief Executive of SCA, said during a press briefing on the promotion of the winter season flights schedule.

He said the Eastar Jet is due to operate four weekly flights for the winter season between Seoul and Siem Reap with a B-737 ( 149 seats).

Including the two airlines, there have been 23 airlines operating regular flights at Cambodia's airports, said Emmanuel.

Cambodia has three international airports, one is Phnom Penh International Airport, another is Siem Reap International Airport, and the other is Sihanoukville International Airport. So far, only two airports have been in full operations as the Sihanoukville International Airport has no plane landing due to the low number of passengers to the area.

According to the passenger records by the SCA, in the first ten months of this year, the Phnom Penh International Airport had received 1.47 million passengers, up 11 percent compared to the same period last year, and the Siem Reap International Airport got 1.39 million travelers, up 14 percent.
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Two Rivers: The Chance to Export Power Divides Southeast Asia

The Irrawaddy River, which flows north to south through the heart of Myanmar, is a commercial and cultural lifeblood for millions of residents.

Jeff Smith

For National Geographic News

Published October 25, 2011

The Mekong and Irrawaddy rivers, though unconnected and hundreds of miles apart, are both integral to life in Southeast Asia, supporting millions of people and more than 1,200 species of animals, including freshwater dolphins and-in the Mekong-giant catfish.

Now, in an energy-hungry age on the continent, the rivers share another distinction, as wellsprings of financial temptation for the struggling countries that rely on their flow, Laos and Myanmar (Burma). Both countries are grappling with decisions on whether to build massive hydropower dams on the two significant rivers. The projects could put fragile ecology and associated livelihoods at risk, but the dams could help the two countries reap billions of dollars by exporting the megawatts to China and Thailand, two neighbors with rapidly growing energy demand.

For now, it looks like the two nations are taking different paths. In Laos, the government appears to be going ahead with the $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River-despite opposition by environmental groups, some international donors, and some neighboring countries. In Myanmar, meanwhile, the government shocked many observers last month when it announced it would suspend work on the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River. The decision came without notice to its Chinese partner, and just weeks after Myanmar's power minister was adamant the project would go forward. Some observers both within and outside Myanmar are skeptical the suspension will hold.

A Region's Changing Flow
The dams, if completed eventually, would be the first on the mainstreams of the lower Mekong and the Irrawaddy. But China has been building a series of dams on the upper Mekong.

Energy demand has been rising exponentially as the region becomes more prosperous. The money could transform the poorly developed economies of Laos and Myanmar, although many worry the revenues would just enrich the elite.

Scientists and environmentalists are concerned the dams will displace thousands of people, and damage river ecology and the livelihoods of people along the river. They are concerned the dams will lead to additional projects that could have even more devastating impacts.

The dams on the upper Mekong and on the Mekong's tributaries are already triggering changes in river flows.

There are longstanding plans to build as many as 11 additional dams on the Mekong in Laos and Cambodia. Researchers project that if all those dams were built, the impact on wetlands and migratory fish such as the endangered giant catfish could be disastrous.

In addition, 30 percent of the protein sources in Laos and Cambodia would be at risk, according to an environmental assessment (pdf) done for the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an international cooperative body that aims to manage river uses sustainably.

Many poor people living along the Mekong subsist on a diet of rice, fish paste, and some vegetables.
(Related: Video on the Mekong giant catfish)

Diana Suhardiman, a research scientist for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Vientiane, Laos, said the issues are complex, with "formal political/environmental agendas, vested interests, desire for economic growth, all mixed up and contextualized into one single dam development." (Suhardiman was speaking about Laos's planned Xayaburi, but Myanmar's Myitsone reflects similar conflicting interests.)

IWMI is one of 15 nonprofit research centers collectively known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, funded by 60 governments, private foundations and international organizations.

Potential Financial Gains Immense

Laos and Myanmar stand to benefit immensely from hydroelectric plants.

Laos-long referred to as a potential "battery" for the region-would primarily sell power from the 1,260-megawatt Xayaburi to neighboring Thailand. If Laos eventually moves ahead with all six of its planned foreign investor-financed dams on the Mekong, it could generate more than $2.5 billion a year in revenue, according to estimates.

Myanmar's suspended Myitsone project was envisioned to have a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, nearly the size of the largest hydroelectric plants in the United States and Russia.

Myanmar was under contract with the state-owned China Power Investment Corporation to sell 90 percent of Myitsone's power to China and reap an estimated $500 million of revenue a year. There also was an agreement between the two countries for six additional large dams in the region.

But the economic costs could be steep as well. Although there is no similar analysis of the potential impact of Myitsone, this issue as it pertains to the Mekong River has been studied intensively.

Losses from the damage to the fisheries and agricultural industries on the Mekong could reach $500 million a year if planned dams are completed, according to the environmental assessment done for the Mekong River Commission (MRC). The lower Mekong strategy began during the Cold War, when the United States, Soviet Union, and China similarly envisioned large hydropower dams for economic development. However, costs, water management disputes, and conflicts such as the Vietnam War impeded the plans. (A 1,070-megawatt hydropower plant recently was completed on the Nam Theun River in Laos with the backing of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.)

In 1995, the Mekong River Commission, originally a United Nations body but now an independent international oversight organization, was reformed with an agreement that its four member countries-Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam-would discuss the 12-dam Mekong River plan before any decisions were made. But the MRC has no legal authority.

Laos earlier paid heed to the process and opposition by such neighboring countries as Vietnam. But the Laotian government apparently has chosen to ignore the MRC's April consensus to delay a decision on Xayaburi.

Laotian energy ministry officials didn't respond to a query. In July, a letter leaked to the environmental organization International Rivers revealed that the government told its Thai partner that the study process had been completed. Construction work at the dam site has been proceeding for months, says International Rivers, a nonprofit that works to protect rivers and the people who live along those rivers.

Complex Environmental Impacts

The Mekong has been researched extensively, but the impacts of large hydroelectric development can be complex. The potential for damage depends on the location of the facility in the river system, said Tira Foran, a research scientist who has studied the Mekong for years and is now with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization in Canberra.

Hydropower dams redistribute river flows; dry season flows generally increase, and monsoon peak flows generally decrease. Theoretically that can lead to better flood control in the wet season, and benefit irrigation during the dry season. But a hydropower operator's first priority is to produce electricity, not to prevent floods or irrigate dry season crops.

Researchers project that dams and the changing water flows on the lower Mekong will have significant, negative impacts on river ecology. Preliminary research indicates the impact on migratory fish is potentially catastrophic and unlikely to be mitigated by fish ladders and other technology.

Foran and other researchers also note the Tonle Sap wetlands area in Cambodia-which bulges in size during the wet season-may be threatened. The Tonle Sap is one of the most bountiful inland fisheries in the world. During the monsoon season, the Mekong River swells and exerts such a force of water that the Tonle Sap tributary reverses direction and floods the lake.

Similar conclusions have been made for the Myitsone in Myanmar, with devastating impacts predicted for many species of migratory fish.

In Myanmar, a Case of Unity

Activist groups long have opposed dam building on Southeast Asia's main rivers.

Opposition in Myanmar came from an unusually passionate discourse in a country that has had a civilian government since early this year, but where a military junta remains in firm control.

The Irrawaddy has a special place in the hearts of the Burmese and in their folklore. One local legend describes the Irrawaddy being formed by water poured from two gold cups by a great spirit sitting in the Himalayas. (The Irrawaddy starts at the confluence of two smaller rivers fed from the Himalayan region.)

The Burmese tested the boundaries of a limited democracy by speaking out against the dam, holding art and photo exhibitions, and circulating a petition to stop the dam. Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest last year, has spoken out against the project.

In a surprise turn of events last month, President Thein Sein, in a letter to parliamentarians, suspended work on the Myitsone, saying the government would respect the wishes of its people.  He added the project could damage the natural beauty of the area, the livelihoods of local people, and agricultural plantations.

Other factors besides public pressure may have been at play as well.

An environmental impact assessment commissioned by the Chinese power company and recently released concluded such a massive project wasn't needed.

Fighting has been intense between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Kachin army in the region, according to reports by the Kachin News Group. Some Burmese observers note there may have been concerns that the Chinese were exerting too much power over Myanmar's affairs; there may be hopes that the West will ease sanctions against the country.

(The United States already has made signals it may do so not just because of the Myitsone suspension but because Myanmar has released some political dissidents, has relaxed its control over the media, and has made other "welcome" gestures that signal "a trend toward greater openness," a U.S. State Department official said in a briefing this month.

Whatever the motive or combination of motives, Burmese see the dam suspension as a milestone.

"Irrawaddy has become the first issue on which the government, opposition and the people have become united since the 1962 coup," Yangon journalist Ye Naing Moe wrote in an email. "It could be public pressure or it could be the so-called new civilian government's effort in seeking legitimacy. Anti-Chinese sentiment could be a part of it as well. Anyway, the decision to suspend Myitsone dam has encouraged Myanmar people to keep pushing forward and has taught the government that being loved by the people is good."

Ye Naing Moe traveled to the area in late 2009 with a group of journalists to document and photograph the

Irrawaddy as it was before the dam was built. Their efforts were made into a photo book called "Sketch of a River: Irrawaddy," which was published recently as part of an art and photo exhibition.

Uncertain Futures

It's unclear what will happen next in Laos and Myanmar.

Activist groups hope that Laos reconsiders its decision.

"The decisions now are being made without knowledge but with politics," said Pianporn Deetes, Thailand campaign coordinator for International Rivers.  "They forget that livelihoods and food security of millions are at stake."

In Myanmar, hundreds of Chinese and Burmese construction workers have left the area but some remain, according to the Kachin Development Network Group. Fighting between the ethnic Kachin army and the Myanmar army has continued, the Kachin News Group has reported.

More than 2,000 people living near the dam site already have been relocated to "model villages," according to the government's New Light of Myanmar newspaper. Aung San Suu Kyi in August said 12,000 people had been relocated.

An ethnic Kachin, who asked that her name not be used because of security concerns, said she has heard from villagers that they can't grow anything on their soil because it is covered with rocks or gravel, and they feel separated from their homelands. But she said she doesn't know whether they will try to go home.

Deetes of International Rivers said there's a window of opportunity to pressure the government to be more transparent and to consider more responsible development and environmental standards. The Burmese people also hope for greater openness.

"People want the transparency because they are not sure how much they will benefit from the project," Aung Htun U, a consultant, said in an email from Yangon. Like many, he's skeptical the Myitsone dam project is dead for good.

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
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Cambodia's unrealized promise

By Ou Virak

PHNOM PENH - Twenty years ago this week Cambodia entered a brave new dawn. The four Cambodian factions that had fought a protracted civil war since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 came together with signatories from 18 countries in Paris to sign the Agreement on a Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, otherwise known as the Paris Peace Agreement. It was a document that promised the Cambodian people peace, stability, democracy and human rights after decades of war and hardship.

The RGC has made some laudable achievements since signing the Paris Peace Agreement. It presided over the ultimate disintegration of the Khmer Rouge after more than three decades of war, slaughter and widespread suffering; it established the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in an attempt to provide justice to the victims of the genocidal regime; it signed various international human-rights covenants and treaties; it oversaw Cambodia's entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and it has achieved a fair degree of economic prosperity and development.

In the fields of democracy and human rights, however, its accomplishments are less clear. Prime Minister Hun Sen's government has routinely flouted many of the covenants it has ratified; further entrenched a pervasive culture of corruption and impunity, allowed the wealth gap between the elite and vast majority of poverty-ridden Cambodians to widen alarmingly, and waged a sustained legislative and administrative campaign to control every aspect of the Cambodian people's lives, showing scant regard for the rule of law, democratic institutions and human rights and freedoms.

Freedom of expression in Cambodia has been steadily squeezed, with those wanting to speak openly and protest peacefully increasingly stifled by legislative and judicial means. Leveraging its strong parliamentary majority won at the 2008 polls, the governing Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has passed and continues to pass restrictive laws that play to its political advantage. The courts, which are under total executive control, often act as anti-democratic enforcer, implementing draconian measures under a legislative veil of legitimacy.

For example, the Penal Code, which came into force in December 2010, maintains the dissemination of "disinformation" and defamation as criminal offenses punishable by prison terms. These codes have since been used to silence human-rights activists and others who question or criticize the RGC's personalities, policies and actions.

Limiting freedom of association has recently been given government priority. The latest - and most controversial - law in this legislative campaign is the pending Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO), which is set to impose mandatory registration requirements on all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations while allowing for arbitrary administrative sanctions, including suspension and closure.

The forthcoming Law on Trade Unions, as currently drafted, also threatens to deal a serious blow to the right of freedom of association in Cambodia, imposing onerous registration processes and reporting obligations on groups of employees.

Under both laws, groups must register their activities and the very act of forming associations without official approval will be deemed illegal. Recent events, including the suspension of an NGO involved in monitoring a government compensation program and the official harassment and intimidation of other watchdog and advocacy NGOs, suggest that such laws are part of a wider effort to erode democratic space and silence civil society.

Without a viable political opposition, Cambodia now functions as a veritable one-party state. Sam Rainsy, the eponymous leader of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, is in exile fleeing a raft of politically-motivated criminal charges. Kem Sokha, head of the Human Rights Party, has also come under legal threat. It is not inconceivable that the next general election in 2013 could be contested without the leaders of the two main opposition parties.

Hun Sen outlined his intention "to make the opposition group die" in a speech earlier this year and later pledged to arrest a government critic whose comments about the Arab Spring were perceived as an attempt to foment a similar popular uprising in Cambodia.

Rather than limiting the space for opposition voices, the RGC should ensure that the government's ongoing development is shared by all, with social development prioritized as much as economic development. An increasingly educated and technology savvy new generation can play its part, as young people take advantage of opportunities that their elders were deprived of by the grim demands of the Khmer Rouge's brutal regime.

A rising professional class envisions Cambodia as a high-tech, educated, prosperous country playing a leading role in ASEAN. Under the current regime and restrictions, it's a democratic vision that risks going unrealized.

There is much that the international community can do. While the RGC contends that the implementation and protection of democracy and human rights is a sovereign issue not subject to international interference, the 18 other signatories of the Paris Peace Agreement - as well as the United Nations (UN) - are legally bound to protect and promote democracy and human rights in Cambodia.

These parties can use their economic and political leverage to ensure that the long-suffering Cambodian people can at long last enjoy the democracy and human rights that were promised to them two decades ago.

All stakeholders in Cambodia's future - the RGC, the signatories to the Paris Peace Agreement, the UN, the donors and the people of Cambodia - should use this anniversary as an opportunity to ensure that their substantial commitment and investment is not squandered.

Ou Virak is president of the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
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Angelina Julie unwittingly purchased land from Khmer Rouge offial accused of crimes against Humanity, report says

Angelina Jolie has long been a champion for the impoverished nation of Cambodia, from which she adopted her first son Maddox in 2002. But a new report says the actress may have purchased land in the country to operate a foundation in her son’s name from a former official of the Khmer Rouge, the communist party that committed mass murder in the country in the 1970s.

HOT SHOTS: Angelina Jolie

According to interviews with Cambodian officials and documents obtained by Global Post reporters Douglas Gillison and Phann Ana, Jolie’s associate Mounh Sarath purchased 225 acres for approximately $25,000 from a man named Yim Tith in 2003. The land was for housing for Jolie and staff and other purposes, including a ranger station and an educational center for the locals.

 

In 2005, when Jolie was granted Cambodian citizenship and allowed to own land herself, she sought to transfer the land into her name.

In 2009, Yim Tith was charged with crimes against humanity by international prosecutors working with the United Nations and the Cambodian government in Phnom Penh, which alleged that he participated in eliminating government officials between 1977 and 1979.

According to the Global Post reports, Yim Tith allegedly had control over an area of Cambodia where 600,000 died as a result of the Khmer Rouge misrule.

“He is wanted for crimes against humanity,” Gillison told Fox411. “His job was to eradicate all the local officials and he oversaw operations of the prisons and execution sites across that part of the country. These were brutal places and things were very bloody. He had effective control over all these crime scenes.”

The Global Post reporters, working with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, spoke with Yem Yorn, chief of Samlot’s Meanchey commune, near where Jolie has her Cambodian base.

He confirmed to the Post that Yim Tith sold the land to Jolie’s intermediaries.

Jolie’s camp did not respond to calls and emails for comment; Gillison said that despite repeated attempts to reach out to the actress for the story, he never heard back from her camp either.

Gillison is not sure Jolie knew of Yim Tith’s crimes when she purchased the land in 2002, but that after the 2009 charges against him, it would have been hard for the actress to be unaware, given how much time she devotes to Cambodia.

“These crimes happened in the 1970s, and it is not clear to me anyone suffered as a result of her actions,” Gillison told Fox411. “While she may have known or should have known this individual is who he is, he had not been charged when this deal went down in 2002, and the charges weren’t brought until 2009.”

Jolie began the Maddox Jolie foundation in 2003 as a community development organization in Cambodia’s Battambang province. According to the foundation’s official website, its goal is “creating peace and stability in all communities by planning and implementing interventions that prevent negative environmental changes. Working with impoverished rural villagers and local governments to alleviate food insecurities and increase access to primary healthcare and education.”

Since the land transaction was made nearly a decade ago, there is little Jolie could do now to make amends for buying the land from a known criminal.

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Archaeologists says statues unearthed at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat are biggest in 8 decades

By Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Archaeologists at Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex say they have unearthed the largest Buddhist statues there in eight decades.

Ly Vanna, an artifacts expert for the government’s Apsara Authority that oversees the site, said Thursday the two stone statues found at Ta Prohm temple were headless but the larger one if complete would stand about 10 feet (3 meters) tall. He says the statues are believed to date from the 12th century and are the biggest discovered since the 1930s.

Saurav Ray of the Indian embassy says the statues were found by workers carrying out the Archaeological Survey of India’s 10-year, $4 million restoration project. Angkor’s rehabilitation follows decades of neglect due to civil war.
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Ex-king Sihanouk returns to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's ailing former king Norodom Sihanouk returned home on Thursday from Beijing where he spent nearly three months receiving medical treatment.

Sihanouk and his wife, accompanied by their son King Norodom Sihamoni, were given a red-carpet welcome by family members, Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials upon arrival at Phnom Penh airport.

A smiling Sihanouk, who will turn 89 on October 31, pressed his hands together in a traditional greeting to well-wishers before getting into a car that whisked him off to the royal palace.

"The health of his majesty has been good," Sihanouk's personal secretary Prince Sisowath Thomico told AFP, adding that the former monarch may stay in Cambodia for "many months" this time.

Sihanouk has suffered from a number of ailments in recent years, including cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

One of Asia's longest-serving monarchs, the revered king abruptly quit the throne in October 2004 in favour of his son, citing old age and health problems.

Despite abdicating, Sihanouk remains hugely popular and tens of thousands of Cambodians are expected to flock to the palace on Sunday to mark the 20th anniversary of his return to the country from exile after years of civil war.
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Khmer Rouge defendant says he won't testify

(AP) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — One of four former leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime to be tried for genocide next month gave notice Wednesday that he will not testify.

Ieng Sary, the regime's 86-year-old former foreign minister, notified the U.N.-backed tribunal that he will not testify or submit to cross-examination. The tribunal is seeking justice for an estimated 1.7 million people who died of starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care or execution under Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s.

Ieng Sary's Cambodian lawyer, Ang Udom, said his client would cooperate completely with the trial but planned not to testify in order to help the proceedings move faster.

The trial of Ieng Sary and three former colleagues on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture is scheduled to begin Nov. 21.

Ieng Sary has the legal right to remain silent, but his decision will hurt efforts to have the trial help illuminate the dark chapter in Cambodia's history.

"It is a fundamental human right that any defendant in criminal proceedings has the right to remain silent, and cannot be compelled to testify against himself," said Lars Olsen, a tribunal spokesman.

Testimony by former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, the tribunal's first defendant, shed light on the group's atrocities. He was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other offenses, mostly in connection with his supervision of a torture center from which an estimated 16,000 inmates were taken to be executed.

On Monday, lawyers for another defendant filed a complaint accusing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of interfering in the proceedings.

Two lawyers for Nuon Chea, the No. 2 Khmer Rouge leader, alleged in the criminal complaint at Phnom Penh Municipal Court that Hun Sen and others in the government had blocked some witnesses from testifying and interfered with the defendants' right to a fair trial.

The lawyers on Wednesday filed a motion with the tribunal seeking to have the start of the trial put off until the criminal complaint is heard. The tribunal issued no immediate reaction to the request.

Previous similar challenges on side issues have failed to affect the proceedings.

Keo Ramy, a spokesman for Cambodia's Cabinet, said the government has not interfered in the tribunal's work and that Nuon Chea's lawyers are just carrying out a delaying tactic.
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130 workers faint in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH: At least 130 garment workers were hospitalised Monday in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province as they fainted after inhaling insecticide, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

The incident occurred at a garments factory in Samrong Tong district, some 50 km from capital Phnom Penh.

"The accident happened due to the carelessness of the factory’ s management," said Chuon Mon Thol, president of Cambodia’s confederation of trade unions. "They sprayed pesticides in the factory just a few hours before the workers entered the factory hall to work, so the smell caused them to fall ill."

The workers felt fatigue, dizziness and nausea.

Keo Pisei, the provincial police chief, who said the victims were now stable and some had left hospitals, confirmed Tuesday that the mass fainting occurred due to the smell of the pesticide. Read more!

Officials from 10 countries meet in Cambodia to discuss Millennium Development Goals

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Oct 25, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Approximately 50 government officials and civil society representatives gathered here on Tuesday to discuss ways to accelerate the attainment of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Speaking during the opening session of the three-day Advocacy Training Workshop for Least Developed Countries, Cambodia's Minister of Planning Chhay Than said that among the least developed countries, Cambodia is a leading one in its active work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

"The workshop is to find ways to accelerate the governments' efforts to achieve the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals and to identify the needs of the poor and vulnerable people in order to fight poverty effectively," he said.

He said that in the last decade, Cambodia has seen a success in fighting against poverty by reducing the poverty rate of at least 1 percent a year. By the end of 2010, the poverty rate has declined to 25.8 percent.

He added that the GDP per capita is 830 U.S. dollars in 2010, up 8.5 percent compared to that in 2009.

The UN's Millennium Development Goals focus on extreme poverty and hunger eradication, universal primary education, gender equality and women empowerment, child mortality reduction, maternal health improvement, HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases combat, environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

The 10 countries attended the workshop are Cambodia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.

The workshop was organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific.
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Malaria death toll in Cambodia down 22% in 9 months

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Malaria had killed 64 Cambodians during the first nine months of this year, 22 percent decline from 82 deaths at the same period last year, said health officials on Tuesday.

From January to September this year, some 43,991 cases of malaria had been reported, up 15 percent from 38,321 cases during the same period last year, Char Meng Chuor, the director of the National Center for Malaria, said in a press briefing on the mosquito net distribution campaign on Tuesday.

He said that Cambodia is committed to eradicate the death of malaria by 2015. With this target, Cambodia needs the total budget of 131 million U.S. dollars.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease. In Cambodia, the disease is often found in rainy season and mostly happens in border provinces, forest and mountainous provinces.
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Robert Pattinson - Robert Pattinson Helps Cambodian Charity

Robert Pattinson is auctioning off a private screening of the latest 'Twilight Saga' movie, which he hopes will raise money to build a home for young girls in Cambodia.

Robert Pattinson has arranged for a private screening of the latest 'Twilight Saga' movie to be auctioned off for charity.

The British actor - who stars as vampire Edward Cullen in the movie franchise - has organised a bidding war for a viewing of 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1' which will take place in Los Angeles on November 17, the night before the film officially opens.

Profits from the sale of the private screening will go to the GO Campaign, which is raising money to build a permanent home for PAGE (Program Advancing Girls Education), an organisation helping to educate teen girls in Cambodia.

PAGE - which is run by Cambodian monks in Siem Reap - currently houses 12 girls in a rented facility and the new facility hopes to accommodate 20 girls.

The auction will coincide with the GO Campaign's fourth annual GO GO Gala which will be hosted by Ewan McGregor at the London Hotel in Los Angeles.

Last year, Robert donated a set visit to 'Breaking Dawn' to the same charity which raised $80,000.
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UN urges Cambodia not to meddle

The United Nations has 'strongly urged' the Cambodian government not to meddle in the work of a UN-backed Khmer Rouge court after a judge quit, citing political opposition to two new cases.

'The Legal Counsel strongly urged the royal government of Cambodia to refrain from statements opposing the progress of cases 003 and 004 and to refrain from interfering in any way whatsoever with the judicial process,' said UN under-secretary general for legal affairs Patricia O'Brien in a statement on Thursday.

The high-ranking UN official was speaking after meeting Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An in the capital, Phnom Penh, amid mounting concern over political pressure on the tribunal.

German judge Siegfried Blunk resigned on October 9 claiming repeated government statements opposing two possible new cases linked to the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime effectively made his position untenable.

The shock departure of Blunk, one of two judges responsible for issuing indictments, has rocked the court and prompted observers to call for UN action against long-standing allegations of government meddling.

Phnom Penh has strongly denied interfering but Prime Minister Hun Sen - himself a former cadre - has made it clear he wants the court's work to end with the current second trial, even saying further cases were 'not allowed'.

Court monitor Randle DeFalco, a legal adviser to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities, cautiously welcomed O'Brien's comments, the UN's strongest reaction yet to the court controversy.

'It's a step in the right direction,' he said.

'But an inquiry still appears necessary to restore public confidence in the court,' he added, noting that Blunk's resignation raised questions over whether the court's investigating office has been properly carrying out its duties.

In a media release after the meeting with O'Brien, the government said both parties had 'reiterated their strong support' for the Khmer Rouge tribunal, which has cost more than $US100 million ($A98 million).

Sok An also urged both sides not 'to be distracted by intense speculation, pressure and interference from the media and other outside parties', it said.

The tribunal's controversial third and fourth cases involve five ex-regime members who are accused of an array of crimes, including mass killings and forced labour.

Their cases are officially still under consideration but critics said Blunk and his Cambodian counterpart were failing to investigate them fully in the face of government objections and they were widely expected to be dismissed.

The court, made up of Cambodian and international legal officials, was set up in 2006 to provide some justice for the nation traumatised by the deaths of up to two million people under the communist movement's reign of terror.

It has so far completed just one trial - jailing Kaing Guek Eav, a former Khmer Rouge prison chief, last year for 30 years for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people. The case is now under appeal.

A second trial involving the regime's four most senior surviving leaders - including Brother Number Two' Nuon Chea - is expected to start hearing testimony next month.

A lawyer for one of the accused in that case, ex-social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, told the court on Thursday her client suffers from dementia and should not have to face trial.

Judges are expected to rule on the elderly woman's mental fitness in the coming weeks.

Led by Brother Number One' Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork or execution in a bid to create an agrarian utopia. Read more!

Kidnap Victim Released Unharmed, Father Says

So Ath No was recovering from his ordeal and would not speak to reporters, So Phon said.

So Ath No, the 49-year-old son of a senior government official, was released by kidnappers in the predawn hours Monday, nearly two weeks after his abduction.

The kidnappers had originally asked for a $1 million ransom from his father, So Phon, who is an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Interior.

So Phon said Monday he had paid no ransom and did not know the reason his son was released.

So Ath No was taken by four men from his home in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district on Oct 8. He was released around 1 pm in Tuol Kork district and took a motorcycle taxi home, So Phon said.

So Ath No was recovering from his ordeal and would not speak to reporters, So Phon said. He said he wanted to thank the kidnappers for releasing his son unharmed.

It remains unclear whether police have any leads in the kidnapping. Kiet Chantharith, a spokesman for the national police, said he had not been informed of So Ath No’s release.

Other police officials were not available for comment.
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Khmer Rouge defense files suit against Hun Sen

By SOPHENG CHEANG - Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Defense lawyers in Cambodia's Khmer Rouge genocide trial filed a complaint Monday accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of interfering in the proceedings.

Two lawyers for Nuon Chea alleged in a criminal complaint at Phnom Penh Municipal Court that Hun Sen and others in the government had blocked some witnesses from testifying and interfered with the defendants' right to a fair trial.

Previous similar challenges on side issues have failed to affect the proceedings.

Keo Ramy, a spokesman for Cambodia's Cabinet, said the government has not interfered in the tribunal's work and that Nuon Chea's lawyers were just carrying out a delaying tactic.

Nuon Chea, the No. 2 Khmer Rouge leader, is to go on trial with three other defendants late next month. The U.N.-backed tribunal is seeking justice for an estimated 1.7 million people who died of starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care or torture during the communist Khmer Rouge's 1970s rule.

The four defendants have been indicted on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, religious persecution, homicide and torture.

Hun Sen has publicly chided and threatened the tribunal several times, saying it should not extend its prosecutions beyond the four people to be tried next month and one who has already been convicted. He says more trials could be divisive and even lead to civil war. Many believe, however, that Hun Sen fears his political allies could face indictment.

Some human rights groups accuse the U.N. of bending to Hun Sen's will at the cost of true justice.

Earlier this month, Siegfried Blunk — the tribunal's German judge responsible for indictments — resigned, alleging that government interference in the investigation of new cases could give the impression he was bowing to pressure.

Blunk defended his record, blaming government pressure for the lack of new cases. He cited Cambodia's information minister as saying in May that if investigating judges wanted to probe new cases, "they should pack their bags and leave."

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