Codan ships mine detectors to Cambodia

Codan chief executive Donald McGurk with mine detectors made at Codan's Newton factory.

ADELAIDE technology firm Codan is supplying 405 landmine and unexploded ordnance detectors to Cambodia as part of a $2 million contract with Japan's Government.

The mine detectors, manufactured in Newton, are being donated by the Japanese Government to the Cambodia Mine Action Centre to help ongoing land clearance operations in the Cambodia.

The first shipment of the latest model Minelab F3 detectors has already been exported with a second shipment, including spare parts for older detectors, due to leave in December.

Codan's Minelab Countermine Division general manager Hugh Graham said the latest order adds to more than 3000 Minelab detectors already in use in Cambodia since 1998.

"Cambodia remains one of the most mined countries in the world Cambodia (with an estimated 4-6 million mines and unexploded ordnances scattered as remnants from wars from the 1960s to the mid 1990s)," he said.

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Minelab's detectors are considered to be highly effective in mineralised soils, such as those in Cambodia, and are sensitive to "minimum metal mines" used in the country, he said.

However the Cambodian shipment is not the division's biggest contract this financial year, Mr Graham said.

It shipped 1200 detectors to Angola for an estimated $4 million earlier this financial year and has upgraded detectors for the Australian Army with 600 units deployed this year in Afghanistan, he said.

Codan chief executive Donald McGurk told last month's annual general meeting that the company was on the acquisition trail and expected to bed a deal down this financial year.

Codan's Minelab division generated 54 per cent of the company's revenue last financial year, worth $92.1 million and exports to 55 countries including Angola, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Mozambique, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Minelab introduced its latest countermine model, the F3 Compact detector, to military, security and humanitarian customers last year.
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A shadow over Boeung Kak lake

“Having a well-placed Cambodian partner may ease the worries of Chinese investors. But high political benefits also bring high political risks. On September 11, Cambodia’s main opposition party issued a statement describing Shukaku as ‘an enemy of the Khmer people’.”



Perhaps concerned about the negative impact of the “relocations” from Boeung Kak, the commercial attaché at China’s embassy in Cambodia, counsellor Jin Yuan, gave an interview to the Global Times in January, rejecting responsibility on behalf of the Chinese firm. Shukaku bore sole responsibility for the relocations and Erdos Hongjun would only be involved after that process finished, he said, adding that compensation negotiations were being carried out by a special body appointed by the Phnom Penh government and had nothing to do with either company.

Admittedly, according to its contract, the Chinese company isn’t legally responsible for the relocations. But as a 50% shareholder in the joint venture and the project’s sole investor, doesn’t it have a social responsibility to the thousands of residents whose lives have been gravely affected by the scheme?

The Global Times report also stated that “Even though the residents’ buildings are mostly illegal, the development company has still paid out compensation and built alternative housing 20 kilometres outside of Phnom Penh.” The implication is that the residents’ demands are illegitimate, the developers have already done more than necessary and the Boeung Kak locals have no cause to bother the Chinese firm.

But in Cambodia, where the rule of law is weak, legality and justice may not always be one and the same. If you want to be a good investor, you have to make an effort to understand local realities, as well as obeying local rules.

Originally, the banks of Boeung Kak were uninhabited. But after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in the 1980s, Cambodians started to move back to Phnom Penh from the surrounding provinces and some settled here. In 2001, a new land law was passed: if a household could prove that it had lived in one place for the five years prior to 2001, then it owned the property.

Most of the residents around Boeung Kak meet that requirement. But the government has made slow progress certifying land rights, and so their ownership remains unrecognised. After the city government announced the leasing of land to Shukaku in February 2007, the locals started to fear they would sooner or later be driven away – and sure enough, the following year, government promises that locals would not be moved were broken, and pressure started to be applied. The nightmare began.

As the Global Times reported, the developers did provide compensation. Residents were given three choices: US$8,500 in cash; a new home 20 kilometres away from the city and US$500 for moving costs; or temporarily relocation to another site with the option of moving back in five years.

That may sound adequate, but it’s not. Land in the area already costs US$3,000 per square metre. Assuming each household originally had 50 square metres of land, it would have had a market value of US$150,000. And so $8,500 is far from a fair price.

The majority of the displaced residents had no choice but to head to the city’s outskirts and “spend about US$6,000 on a piece of land, and then another three or four thousand dollars building a house,” Sia Phearum, secretariat director of Housing Rights Task Force, a Phnom Penh-based NGO, told reporters. They couldn’t buy land in the city proper for two reasons, he said: one, it is too expensive, and, two, they would only be likely to be relocated again.

Unlike in Chinese cities, Phnom Penh does not have lots of residential property developments, and those that do exist are not built for ordinary people. If the average local wants a house, he or she “buys” a piece of land and builds on it. However, that “buying” normally means obtaining a proof of exchange from the village or county head, which has no legal force. If the government decides it wants the land, that piece of paper is not enough to prove ownership. Of course, residents can go through the proper formalities and have their land rights recognised, but that can cost US$1,500 in bribes to the authorities – more than an ordinary worker might make in a year.

The second option is no better. In early 2010, I visited the replacement housing provided to relocated locals by the developer: rows of single-storey buildings. Inside each house is just a large empty room. There are no kitchens, and the toilets are outside. Basic infrastructure is inadequate.

Most importantly, it’s too far from the city. Cambodia is not a developed nation, and leaving the city means going back to an agricultural society, away from modern infrastructure like electricity and running water. It can also mean losing your livelihood: Phearum said 60% of those who moved here ended up returning to the city and renting somewhere to live.

Moving has also caused employment and education difficulties. The women can no longer earn their usual income setting up small stalls by their front doors, as the area has very few residents – and those who do live here have no money to spend. Many of the men tend to work as motorcycle taxi drivers and this has problems too: it’s a 50 kilometre round-trip to the city, which means spending a lot more on fuel. There’s no nearby school, so some children dropped out. One middle school student told me that he’d missed a year of education, until an NGO gave him a bicycle so he could get to a school 20 kilometres away.

The third option, to move back to Boeung Kak in five years, is even less popular. The developers are promising apartments in high-rise buildings, meaning residents will not be able to run stalls at their front door. The community also has no confidence that the developer will keep its promises.

And so the remaining 800 residents are refusing all three proposals and demanding land where they can build homes near the lake. The developer can continue to say its compensation schemes are more than fair, but in reality the residents have been placed in a hopeless situation.

How did this project attract two or three different Chinese firms, and how can those firms ignore the pleas of the locals? Perhaps it has something to do with who the Cambodian partner is.

Shukaku’s chairman is senator Lao Meng Khin of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, and a special adviser to prime minister Hun Sen. He is also ethnically Chinese, and always accompanies the prime minister on visits to China. In 2009, Khin was invited to Beijing for the 60th anniversary celebrations of the People’s Republic of China. He is often found lurking in the shadows of large Sino-Cambodian joint ventures.

In March 2004, Cambodian International Investment Development Group (CIIDG) – of which Lao Meng Khin is also chairman – signed a deal with China’s Henan Jinqu Gold, forming Jinqu Mining, to extract gold ore in Cambodia. In November 2004, he imported a train from China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock, the first such purchase from China made by Cambodia. And, in February 2008, a consortium of four Chinese firms, led by the Jiangsu Hodo Group, invested in a special economic zone in Sihankouville, again in partnership with CIIDG.

An investigation by United Kingdom-based NGO Global Witness has found that Lao Meng Khin is also a director of a forestry company that cooperates with Chinese logging business Hainan Wuzhishan Group, and of two more firms which, judging by their names, are likely China-Cambodia joint ventures: Petrol Camchin and Sino Hydropower.

Clearly, he has excellent contacts with the authorities in charge of various resources. Global Witness estimates that Lao Meng Khin and his wife’s company, Pheapimex, has felling rights to 1.33 million hectares of forest – 7.4% of Cambodia’s total land area. According to a US embassy cable released by Wikileaks, Pheapimex has recently obtained usage rights for 315,000 hectares of land for plantations and mining.

Having such a well-placed Cambodian partner may ease the worries of many Chinese investors. But high political benefits also bring high political risks. On September 11 this year, Cambodia’s main opposition party, the Sam Rainsy Party, issued a statement describing Shukaku as “an enemy of the Khmer people”. It warned all law-abiding companies and organisations to avoid any connection with the company, including owning its shares, making joint investments, loans, guarantees, purchasing or supplying products or services or cooperating in any way. Although the governing Cambodian People’s Party still has a strong grip on power and the Sam Rainsy Party is very likely to remain in opposition for the foreseeable future, its rhetoric and the public opinion it represents must be taken seriously.

Liao Ruo is a reporter based in Beijing. Read more!

Cambodia highlights fruitful cooperation with China

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's National Assembly ( CNA) is satisfied with the fruitful relations and cooperation between Cambodia and China on economy and investment, the CNA's President Heng Samrin said Wednesday.

Besides solid political ties between the two countries, the trade and investment relations have been growing very fast, he said during a meeting with visiting Ge Zhenfeng, deputy director of Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress.

On the bilateral trade relation, he said that the two-way trade volume was 1.43 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, almost equal to the trade volume in the whole year 2010 that was 1.44 billion U.S. dollars. He added that it is expected the bilateral trade will reach 2 billion U.S. dollars this year.

As for the investment, China's total investment in Cambodia during the first nine months of this year was 1.14 billion U.S. dollars, up 68 percent from 680 million U.S. dollars at the same period last year, according to the reports of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

The reports said that from 1994 to September 2011, China's accumulative investments in Cambodia had reached 8.86 billion U.S. dollars, bringing China as the largest investor in the country.

More importantly, he said, China has actively helped Cambodia in the development of infrastructures such as roads, bridges, irrigation system and hydro-electric dams, as well as in humanitarian activities.

Meanwhile, Heng Samrin reiterated that Cambodia still sticks to one-China's policy for the cause of peace, stability and regional cooperation.

In response, Ge Zhenfeng said the visit was to strengthen and expand friendship relations and solidarity between China and Cambodia.

He also pledged to boost more cooperation between China and Cambodia on trade and investment for the interests of peoples in both countries.

Ge Zhenfeng arrived here on Nov. 15 for a four-day official visit. Read more!

Manulife expands into Cambodia's life insurance market

TORONTO / CAMBODIA / HONG KONG , Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Financial today announces that it has received "approval in principle" from Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance to set up a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Cambodia expands Manulife Asia's operations to an 11th territory.

David Wong , Senior Vice President, ASEAN Operations, said: "We are grateful for the Cambodian Government's support. This expansion demonstrates our commitment to Asia and our success as a forward-thinking leading insurance company that offers strong and reliable risk protection products and services to our customers.

"I am very excited to see Manulife expanding its footprint into Cambodia . Manulife's last new entry was Vietnam , in 1999. We hope that in Cambodia we can match the achievements of Manulife in other ASEAN markets and help develop Cambodia's life insurance industry to better serve the emerging life insurance needs of its population."

In entering the market, Manulife has agreed to support the Cambodian government's efforts to develop the insurance profession and build confidence in the industry, including through improved consumer education. The company is currently working closely with the government to expedite the final stages of the license approval. In the meantime, it is now actively in the process of establishing its operation in Cambodia , with its head office to be located in Phnom Penh .

With a population of 14.4 million, Cambodia is a World Trade Organization member experiencing rapid economic growth and significant foreign investment. Most importantly, Cambodia's commitment to aligning its growth with the wider development of the Greater Mekong region has unlocked great potential and given confidence to investors.

About Manulife Financial
Manulife Financial is a leading Canada -based financial services group operating in 21 countries and territories worldwide. For more than 120 years, clients have looked to Manulife for strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking solutions for their most significant financial decisions. Our international network of employees, agents and distribution partners offers financial protection and wealth management products and services to millions of clients. We provide asset management services to institutional customers worldwide as well as reinsurance solutions, specializing in property and casualty retrocession. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were C$492billion ( US$473 billion ) as at September 30, 2011 . The Company operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia and primarily as John Hancock in the United States . Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at manulife.com. Read more!

Leading Civil Party Withdraws Complaint from Tribunal

The withdrawal would “send a message to the court” that could lead to “more victims who will withdraw their participation in court processes.”

David J. Schefer, an U.S. Professor of Law of Northwestern University, right, and Cambodian genocide victim Theary Seng, front left, walk through a gate at the U.N.-backed tribunal court hall, file photo.



Seng Theary, a Cambodian-American lawyer whose family members were killed by the Khmer Rouge, had one word for the UN-backed tribunal when she withdrew her case from the court on Tuesday: “Enough.”

Seng Theary, who is the president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims, representing more than 3,800 complainants at the court, submitted her withdrawal because she felt the court “cannot provide justice to victims,” she told reporters later. She called the court “a farce.”

Seng Theary had been a civil party complainant in cases 003 and 004, which have come under intense scrutiny for alleged political interference and mishandling by investigating judges.

She blamed the UN for “complicity” in the poor handling of the cases, which would require five more indictments at the court, a move Prime Minister Hun Sen opposes on the grounds it would destabilize the country. She called on the government and international observers to work toward more independence at the court and further investigation into both cases.

Tribunal spokesman Huy Vannak said the UN and the government were committed to letting the court functional independently.

However, Long Panhavuth, a court monitor for the Cambodia Justice Initiative, said the withdrawal would “send a message to the court” that could lead to “more victims who will withdraw their participation in court processes.” Read more!

To err is human, to correct is only right and proper



In the eye of the Storm.....David Harley. Photo: Andrew Meares

 On Friday, smh.com.au posted ''Australian sailor dies in Cambodia'', a story about a woman who had been found dead in a hotel room in Sihanoukville while on shore leave from HMAS Warramunga. It had a time stamp of 12.35pm. The story said her family had been informed.

But the sailor was not a woman - he was later identified as Leading Seaman Boatswain's Mate Bradley William Livingstone - and on Friday evening I got a call from an irate chief petty officer, who said parents of every woman sailor on the Warramunga would be ''out of their minds with worry''. He was explicit in his opinion of journalists, including - when I said reporters would not have made it up - ''They do make it up! They do!''

They don't, of course, and the error was tracked back to an AAP report, picked up by news organisations which take copy from it.

The Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley, was quoted as telling Macquarie Radio: ''She was doing port visits after the exercise. We don't know any more …'' Someone who was unaware ships are referred to as ''she'' by the navy presumed the sailor was the ''she''. AAP sent a correction at 1.27pm, but by then the story had been posted on websites around the country. Yesterday they were still up on many, including smh.com.au and theage.com.au. (The Herald's national security correspondent, Dylan Welch, filed at 12.31pm on Friday a story with the line ''who was originally incorrectly reported as a woman''.)

It was an easy mistake for an inexperienced journalist to make but, as the chief petty officer said, heart-chilling for parents.

The Heralds make mistakes - as do all newspapers, news agencies and news organisations. It would be impossible to get it right every time. A weekday Herald is the equivalent of an average-size book, which can take a year to write, publish and distribute.

Journalists are only human - but I have not met one whose goal was anything other than perfection. They often do not meet that goal, and that can be put down to inexperience, a looming deadline, crossed wires or plain old sloppiness - and sometimes a combination.

Recently the Herald published errors of historical fact - Governor Phillip was alive and well more than 50 years after his death and Kaiser Bill was ahead of his time in being married to his mother. These are easily checked but were not. Embarrassing, very, but I am glad the Herald's editors believe what is wrong must be corrected.

Over the years editors have worried corrections would lead readers to the conclusion the paper is always making mistakes. I hold the opposite view. As the editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said in a recent speech: ''The truth, as all honest journalists know, is that newspapers are full of errors. Not just errors, but crude over-simplifications, mistakes of emphasis, contestable interpretations and things which should simply have been phrased differently. It seems silly to pretend otherwise. Journalism is an imperfect art … And yet many newspapers do persist in pretending they are largely infallible.''

Corrections should be in a prominent and regular position so readers know where to find them. (There are Herald readers who turn to page two even before they start on page one.) And when published online they should be attached conspicuously to the story. That does not always happen, but I have been assured steps are being taken to fix that. Soon, I hope.

Many believe an error should be attributed to the journalist who made it. I do not. A mistake made in a newspaper's name should be corrected in its name. Journalists work for the newspapers; they represent them. Although reporters' names are on the story, those stories appear under a masthead which we hope will be around a lot longer than the reporters.

Who made the mistake is of no consequence to the reader; what is of consequence is that it is corrected as quickly as possible. The pain caused by the story about the dead sailor is a perfect example of why.
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Second Cambodian-American Elected to Lowell City Council

“We need inter-racial communication within the community, especially cooperation with city authorities to establish after-school programs for students.”

Nuon Vesna became the second Cambodian-American to be elected to the city’s governing body on Nov. 8.



A Cambodian-American who ran on a platform of public safety, education and economic development has been elected to the city council of Lowell, Mass.

“We need inter-racial communication within the community, especially cooperation with city authorities to establish after-school programs for students,” said Nuon Vesna, who became the second Cambodian-American to be elected to the city’s governing body on Nov. 8.

Students need a variety of activities to partake in, he said, “rather than playing around in the streets and forming gangs to cause trouble in our community.”

Cambodians in Lowell tend to cluster around their own areas, he said, but businesses need to reach out more widely. He plans to work with city authorities to review permits and licensing in the city.

Nuon Vesna, who is a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, said he hopes to work with like-minded elected council members to achieve his goals.

“They also want public safety, they want business people to expand their businesses to other places in the community,” he said. They also want the creation of a Cambodia Town neighborhood, he said. “Therefore we need to work cooperatively with them to make the project a reality.”

A committee has been working on the establishment of a Cambodia Town, which is looking at the one already established in Long Beach, Calif. However, he said, in some ways that model may not work for Lowell.

Nuon Vesna said he decided to stand for election to represent Cambodians, who are a quarter of the population in Lowell. He said he hopes to solve the community’s problems and be an active mediator between the community and the city’s leaders.

His election, he said, was a good sign that Cambodians in Lowell are actively going to the polls.
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Lawmaker Investigating 10 Deaths of Cambodians in Malaysia

“It is very good for helping protect the basic rights of our laborers in Malaysia.”

This picture taken on January 19, 2011 shows a young woman reading advertisements for "maids wanted" outside a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur.



Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua is investigating the deaths of 10 Cambodian maids in Malaysia to prepare a complaint to the country’s parliamentary human rights committee.

The 10 women died from illnesses or suicide in a country that has earned wide condemnation for its treatment of migrant workers, said An Bunhak, president of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies.

Other Cambodian women have returned with stories of physical or sexual abuse at the hands of their employers, and Cambodia has banned workers from travel there pending investigations into allegations of abuse there and in Cambodian recruitment agencies.

Mu Sochua said she was clarifying documents with the Cambodian Embassy in Malaysia before submitting a complaint to the Malaysian National Assembly’s Human Rights Committee.

An Bunhak said the group was cooperating with Mu Sochua’s efforts.

“It is very good for helping protect the basic rights of our laborers in Malaysia,” he said. “We requested that the Malaysian authorities perform autopsies and that parents or family members were invited to directly see the autopsies in Malaysia.”

Moeun Tola, head of the Community Legal Education Center’s labor program, said the organization is seeking more detailed information of the deaths of the workers.
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CAMBODIA: Millions to receive insecticide-treated mosquito nets

PHNOM PENH, 14 November 2011 (IRIN) - Millions of Cambodians are set to receive insecticide-treated mosquito nets as part of a government-led effort to mitigate the risk of malaria and dengue fever.

"This is Asia's largest-ever distribution of mosquito nets. It will cover over 4,000 villages in 20 provinces in Cambodia," Steven Bjorge, malaria team leader at The World Health Organization (WHO) Cambodia, told IRIN on 14 November. "The goal is to ensure that every person at risk of contracting malaria has a mosquito net by the end of the year."

The US$14.5 million project to distribute 2.7 million nets is funded by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The nets will be distributed by the National Malaria Control Centre with technical assistance from WHO.

Speaking at the launch on 7 November in the remote northeastern province of Kratie, Health Minister Mom Bun Heng told about 1,000 residents: "It is urgent that we help people living in forest areas as they are at great risk of contracting malaria, particularly after the recent flooding."

The project aims to distribute 785,000 insecticide-treated nets in six provinces this month, including three of those hit hardest by the worst flooding in more than a decade.

Heavy flooding According to the National Committee for Disaster Management, the floods killed about 250 people and affected about 10 percent of the country's population, or 1.5 million people.

Out of 18 provinces affected by floods, Kandal, Kampong Thom, Prey Veng and Kampong Cham remain the hardest-hit, with relief organizations still finding it difficult to reach many affected communities. More than 250,000 displaced people have reportedly returned to their places of origin, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated on 10 November.

"This distribution of insecticide-treated nets is also necessary in the aftermath of the floods. As the waters recede we expect malaria to rise within six to eight weeks as malaria-carrying mosquitoes start breeding in pools of stagnant water," Bjorge said. "So these bed nets will help the flood-affected people protect themselves against malaria."

In December, 1,915,000 insecticide-treated nets will be distributed in 13 provinces, the health ministry said.

The National Malaria Centre has also planned a workshop to set national treatment guidelines for malaria at the end of this month. "Cambodia has yet to adopt a single first-line Artemisinin combination treatment for malaria," WHO's spokesman, Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan, said.

In western Cambodia, the combination first-line treatment is dihydroartemisinin-piperaquin (DHA-P) and in the rest of Cambodia Artemisinin-Melfoquine (A+M) is used. "A+M is not used in western Cambodia because the malaria parasites there are resistant to Melfoquine," Krishnan said.

In the first nine months of 2011, there were 43,991 reported malaria infections and 64 deaths, compared with 38,321 infections and 82 deaths in the same period last year, the National Centre for Malaria reported.

According to WHO, in 2000, the number of treated malaria cases in Cambodia stood at 129,167 with 608 deaths. In 2010, that dropped to 56,217 and 135 deaths, down 78 percent.

At the Cambodian National Health Congress in March, Prime Minister Hun Sen set a target for eliminating deaths from malaria by 2015, and infections by 2025.

vm/ds/mw Read more!

Danish support to Cambodian flood victims

Life With Dignity (LWD), supported by Denmark, recently distributed more food, water purifiers and mosquito nets worth US$55,000 to 1,424 families affected by flood in Battambang and Kampong Chhnang provinces.

This is the second time that LWD pooled resources locally and internationally in order to help Cambodian flood victims.

The humanitarian aid was donated by the Royal Danish Embassy, Danida upon an appeal for emergency relief made by ACT Allinace’s members in Cambodia namely LWD, Church World Service (CWS), DanChurchAid/Christian Aid (DCA/CA) and FinnChurchAid (FCA), all of which formed ACT Cambodia Forum.

The aid, which was administered by LWD in cooperation with DCA/CA and under the strong support of the Provincial Committee for Disaster Management (PCDM), aimed to release sufferings of the flood-affected people.

As the aid was limited, families who were mostly affected by flood and received less donations to date were selected as the recipients. They included 743 families from 3 communes in Kampong Laeng and 2 communes in Chulkiri districts of Kampong Chhnang and 681 families from 3 communes of 3 districts of Thmarkoul, Ek Phnom, and Sangkae in Battambang.

Speaking at the distribution ceremony at Tapon commune of Sangkae district, Dr. Sam Inn, LWD Executive Director, expressed his sympathy for the flood victims and advised them to take care of their health during the flood, especially taking care of small children who are the most vulnerable.

"Despite losing houses, properties, and animals, please don’t lose hope. We have to overcome any difficulty caused by flood," he said.

"We will try our best to raise more funds in order to restore flood damage. We will cooperate with local authorities at all levels to explore top priorities in order to improve the livelihood of the affected people," he added.

Tom Barthel Hansen, Head of Representation of the Royal Danish Embassy, Danida, in Cambodia, said today’s donation was from the Danish government as well as the people of Denmark. “The huge part of today donation is the international solidarity of Denmark and Cambodia,” he said, adding that Cambodia faced a lot of poverty and political challenges, but Khmer people are strong to overcome these challenges.

He also deeply thanked LWD for channeling the donation of the Danish government to help the flood-affected people in Kampong Chhnang and Battambang.

H.E. Uy Ry, Battambang Deputy Governor, expressed his deep thanks to the Danish government for their generous support to help Cambodian flood victims. He also thanked LWD and DanChurchAid/CA for their efforts in managing the distributions.

At the distribution ceremony in Peam Chhkaok commune of Kampong Chhnang’s Chulkiri district, H.E Hy Nat, Kampong Chhnang Deputy Governor, deeply thanked and requested LWD to provide more emergency aid for the remaining victims and continue its support to recover the damaged rice farms.

Mr. Chhuon Vuthy, LWD Human Resource Manager, expressed his sincere thanks to the Royal Danish Embassy and the Danish people for their generous support to help the Cambodian flood victims in a timely manner. “Though the donation is small, this is the culture of sharing sufferings and helping each other,” he said.

Each family received a kit of 25kg of husked rice, 1 liter of cooking oil, 1kg of ionic salts, 400g of detergent, 1 set of 13-liter water purifier, 1 mosquito net for those who live in malaria-prone areas, and 1packet of Diarrhea Treatment (Orasel) for those who didn’t receive it before.

The floods hitting Cambodia since August have affected 1.2 million people, killed 247 people, and destroyed 230,000 hectares of paddy fields, according to National Committee for Disaster Management.
Read more!

Forget the Gold Coast: Schools leavers focus on charity in Cambodia

New breed ... Mosman High School students skipping the schoolies scene in favour of charity work in Cambodia include Ben Cope, Morgan Forbes, Claudia Snell, Chloe de Ville and Astrid Milne. Photo: Janie Barrett

Louise Schwartzkoff, Andrew Stevenson

AS THEIR classmates flock to the coast for a schoolies week of sunshine and mayhem, Claudia Snell and her friends will celebrate the end of school by helping the less fortunate.

With the ink barely dry on their Higher School Certificate exam papers, 19 graduates from Mosman High School will fly to Cambodia to help build houses for impoverished families in a village outside Phnom Penh.

They are part of a growing group of HSC graduates eschewing the traditional Gold Coast knees-up in favour of alternative options.

''We wanted to end our school lives on a good note with something we'd remember, rather than getting trashed,'' said Claudia, 17.

The Gold Coast remains the leading destination for school leavers. Up to 40,000 students are expected to visit from next weekend.

But overseas destinations, notably Fiji, are also growing in popularity. Unleashed Travel will send 2500 students to Fiji on seven-night packages costing more than $2000. Bali and Vanuatu are other popular destinations for some of the 60,000 students on the move.

''It's just schoolies. We only sell to 17 or 18-year-olds so there's no older people or 'toolies' on the island whatsoever,'' the managing director, Jot Lynas, said.

''You can party with people your own age on your own private island for the week and it's the same price as going to the Gold Coast where you can scrap it out with 40,000 other people, fights and drugs.

''We're international so it's very hard to take drugs with you. As soon as they leave the airport we sort them onto buses which take them to the marina where they're put onto boats and out to the islands. There's no opportunities to get hold of drugs.''

While they prepared for their exams this year, Mosman High students spent time raising $55,000 for building materials. Working with the Tabitha Foundation, a non-profit organisation which promotes community development in Cambodia, they hope to donate a community well and build 30 houses. They will help Cambodian builders hammer walls and floors for houses sturdy enough to withstand the annual monsoon season.

''At the moment, these families live in houses made from bamboo and palm fronds, so when it rains, they flood,'' Claudia said. ''Hopefully we can improve that.''

They settled on Cambodia because some of the students had learned about the atrocities of Pol Pot's regime in modern history classes. Initially, about 50 students were interested in the trip, but enthusiasm waned when the student co-ordinators announced it would replace schoolies week - and that two parents and a teacher would accompany the group.

''Most people don't believe we'd do this instead of schoolies,'' Claudia said. ''They were a bit shocked, but they also gave us a bit of respect. Everyone thinks it's pretty cool.

''We can go out and party any time. This will be something we'll remember forever.'' Read more!

In Cambodia, anti-slavery reforms questioned

By David Ariosto, CNN

Cambodia, long suspected of being fertile ground for human traffickers, has drawn recent attention after reports of sexual abuse and widespread mistreatment prompted government actions to improve the plight of its young women and girls.

Considered a modern-day form of slavery, human trafficking involves the illegal trade of people and commonly includes sexual exploitation and forced labor.

In Cambodia, CNN uncovered stories of suspected abuse; ranging from girls as young as 4 years old being sold for sex - an industry thought to be bolstered by foreign tourists - to young women trapped in debt-bondage, having being lured to neighboring Malaysia for work.

In an effort to unravel a phenomenon that human rights groups say still plagues southeast Asia and the broader region, the CNN Freedom Project highlighted Cambodia because of both its reputation and a recent pledge to better the situation.

But whether recent reforms have since worked to stem the alleged abuses remains a subject of debate.

Domestic labor in Malaysia
Drawn by the prospect of a better life and the promise of more money, many young Cambodian maids working in Malaysia said they were recruited to go there by labor agencies, now only to find themselves unable to leave.

The women - often subject to poor treatment in prison-like facilities - forfeit their passports and are commonly left in a situation tantamount to indentured servitude, said Manfred Hornung, a legal adviser for the Cambodian Rights Group, Licadho.

On October 15, however, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a measure into law banning the practice of sending domestic workers to Malaysia, perhaps in response to mounting criticism.
The ban was enacted just days after a report by CNN's Dan Rivers examined a recruitment agency in the Cambodian capital.

The story "that aired on CNN has actually awakened the country up the whole country on this human trafficking issue again," said Cambodian parliament member Mu Sochua. "I have to say that his piece is just one little part of the whole problem, which is much worse."

She said the report prompted her to further petition the country's leadership to take action.
But only weeks later, Sochua told CNN that labor recruitment agencies in her country were still sending domestic workers to Malaysia, adding that many government officials either own or have close ties to the companies.

The country's ministries of labor and interior "are not taking any action," she said, noting that "many officials and familial members of some ministers actually own these dubious agencies."

Sochua did not identify the officials, ministers or companies to which she was referring and CNN cannot independently confirm her claim.

But a government spokesman called the practice of sending labor abroad "a learning process."

"We are finding out why it has happened and why it is happening," said Phay Siphan, a spokesperson for the country's Council of Ministers.

Recruitment agencies, meanwhile, forge identification papers in an effort to recruit children, charge "excessive recruitment fees" and mislead workers about potential opportunities, according to recent a Human Rights Watch report.

Up to 50,000 Cambodian women have migrated to Malaysia since 2008, the report said.

And yet just three days after the domestic worker ban was signed into law, 25 Cambodian maids - wearing shirts emblazoned with name of a recruiting agency - checked in for an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, according to Licadho.

CNN cannot independently confirm that account.

"It is a heartbreaking story," said Sochua. "I constantly meet with many parents who come to tell me that they don't know where their girls are, they simply disappeared and lost contacts with families after girls left to Malaysia."

Sex slavery
Often accused of being both a source of and destination for human sex trafficking, CNN explored allegations of abuse affecting young girls in Cambodia - notably in a village outside the capital of Phnom Penh.

The village, Svay Pak, appears to have a disturbing reputation as a place where little girls are openly sold for sex to foreign tourists.

One of the girls - who CNN is not naming to protect the identity of the victim - says she was forced to work in a brothel before she could read.

"I was about 5 or 6 years old," the girl said. "The first man said to me, 'I want to have sex with you.' At the time I didn't know what to do. No one could help me."

Dozens of girls in her neighborhood told CNN that they've had similar experiences.

Sex workers elsewhere in the country are also subject to other forms of sexual violence, according to Human Rights Watch.

Last year, the group released a report that detailed widespread allegations of 90 female and transgender sex workers that said police "had beaten them with their fists, sticks, and electronic shock batons."

"Several said officers raped them while they were in police detention," the report said. "Every single sex worker we spoke with said the police demanded bribes or stole money from them. Some officers demanded sex."

Two years earlier, the country had passed a law meant to protect sex workers. But rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, say there is "little evidence that this has happened, or that prosecutions for trafficking have been pursued.

Government officials decline to comment on those allegations.

Timeline
As the CNN Freedom Project continues to examine the effects and root causes of human trafficking, the following timeline reflects key aspects of coverage and events around the region.

October 3-5, 2011: CNN airs a three-part series that examines a recruiting agency, with alleged ties to the Cambodian government, suspected of trafficking maids to Malaysia. Just before the series airs, the young woman featured in the story begins receiving compensation, she says, but is still unable to leave the factory – her passport confiscated – until her "debt" is paid off. Read more of the report by CNN correspondent Dan Rivers

October 15, 2011: Cambodia's prime minister signs an order suspending the recruitment, training and sending of Cambodian domestic workers to Malaysia. Weeks later an opposition lawmaker says labor recruitment agencies are still sending domestic workers to Malaysia, adding that many government officials either own or have close ties to the companies. CNN cannot independently confirm that account and government officials say stopping the practice is "a learning process."

October 17, 2011: Malaysian Foreign Minister pledges to apologize to Cambodia if allegations of abuse of Cambodian workers in Malaysia are proved to be true.

October 22-23, 2011: CNN airs a two-part documentary called "Not My Life" that focuses on Cambodian brothels, specifically an area not far from the capital, where young girls are prostituted to visiting tourists.

October 24, 2011: CNN correspondent Sara Sidner reports from Cambodiagoogle. as a follow-up to what was revealed in "Not My Life." She files a story that focuses on a young woman who talks about how she endured repeated rapes from the time she was 5e years old. Shortly after the story airs, Cambodian authorities contact Don Brewster who runs the aid group featured in "Not My Life" to say they would act and make arrests. Brewster says he's been "yelling from the roof tops" for the past two years and it's not until CNN airs the story that suddenly there is action.

October 28, 2011: An article in the Cambodia Daily - an English-language daily newspaper - highlights government ties to recruiting agencies, including the one featured in Rivers' report.

October 31, 2011: Human Rights Watch publishes a report based on interviews with migrant domestic workers, government officials, non-governmental organizations, and recruitment agencies that highlight alleged abuses of women and girls in Cambodia and Malaysia, including allegations of forced confinement, heavy debt burdens and rape.

November 6, 2011: Journalist Nick Kristof accompanies a police raid at a brothel in Cambodia and posts message on the social networking site Twitter about how the army showed up and ordered police to cancel the raid as it was taking place. CNN cannot independently confirm that account, and the government has declined to comment. Read more!

Rediscover tranquility amid Cambodia's busy temples

Even before the first blush of sunlight has touched the jungle, I catch sight of the faces through the darkness. Crafted from great blocks of stone, mottled with lichen, weatherworn by centuries of tropical rain, they leer out towards the last strains of night. With each minute that passes more are revealed, as if their numbers are swelling, from a handful until there is a vast stone army of heads.

The jungle is stirring around me, the vines and dense undergrowth alive with all manner of life - macaques leap from one branch to the next, dragonflies pause on dew-covered leaves, and multi-coloured birds dart and swoop through the canopy. As the darkness melts away into light I make out the twisted roots of silkwood trees, curving through the ruins, a realm right out of Indiana Jones.

In a world abundant with possibility for the intrepid traveller, no destination is quite as bewitching as Angkor, the ruined capital of ancient Cambodia. The first time I visited, 15 years ago, the area was still heavily mined, a legacy of the devastating reign of terror at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Back then I had to examine the temples, monasteries, and fortified bastions from a distance. Venturing beyond the scarlet skull and cross bones signs - which peppered the undergrowth - would have put me at risk of losing my feet.

But time is healing Cambodia and, at last, Angkor - a Unesco World Heritage Site - is safe once more. Yet, despite its extraordinary size and significance, the ancient capital of the Khmer empire tends to be overlooked by visitors from outside the region.

A vast series of temples, statues, and religious buildings, spread over an area the size of Manhattan, Angkor was the most populated ancient centre of the pre-industrial age. Thought to have had a million inhabitants at its height 1,000 years ago (compared with London's 30,000 at the time), it was laid out on a jaw-dropping scale.

At the centre of it all, encircled by a moat as wide as two football fields, is Angkor Wat, its name meaning "Temple of the Capital". Regarded as the largest religious structure ever completed, it stands as tall as Notre Dame Cathedral, which was completed at about the same time. The cornerstone of a mighty civilization that rose, and eventually waned, it was subsumed into the surrounding jungle. And there it lay for generations, until rediscovered by the West a century and a half ago.

The French philologist Henri Mouhot was one of the first Europeans to set eyes on the ruins, back in 1860. But he didn't actually discover Angkor, because the ancient Khmer capital was never really "lost". The local tribesmen knew very well that the jungle was packed with ruins. Abandoning it all, they preferred to live on the margins of the nearby Tonlé Sap Lake rather than in the interior.

And it was the lake that, curiously, gave rise to the entire Khmer culture in the first place. But the story of how Angkor came to be begins far away - in Tibet, where the melted snows of the Himalayas flow down the great snaking length of the Mekong. Eventually reaching the shallow delta, the waters feed into the South China Sea. But at the height of the seasonal floods, the current stops and the waters back up, essentially reversing the Mekong's flow. In one of nature's most peculiar phenomena, the river flows in the opposite direction for four months each year, with the overflow pooling into the Tonlé Sap Lake.

With the waters surging through the surrounding forests, the lake quadruples in size, becoming an inland sea - 160 kilometres long and half as wide. Teaming with fish, more than in any other body of fresh water on earth, Tonlé Sap becomes an angler's dream. And then, as the flood waters recede, the mud plains provide the perfect conditions for cultivating rice. The abundance of fish and rice were, for the ancient Khmer, the foundation stones of an empire. As the Nile gave birth to ancient Egypt, so the reversing Mekong spawned the culture that had at the centre of its capital the magnificent Angkor Wat.

Constructed during the reign of King Suryavarman II, during the first half of the 12th century, the central temple was arranged with five towers, each one symbolic of a closed lotus bud. A curious feature of the temples at Angkor is that they are devoted to the Hindu pantheon, with the five towers representing Mount Meru, home of the Hindu deities. Brought on the monsoon winds by Indian traders from the subcontinent, 3,000 km away, Hinduism seems rather out of place in a land so firmly linked with the Buddhist faith.

Having defeated their ancient adversaries, the Vietnamese, at battle on the Tonlé Sap Lake, King Suryavarman's successor, Jayavarman VIII, set about fortifying the capital with massive walls.

He constructed a moat as well, filling it with crocodiles into which his enemies and detractors were flung. The carvings and exquisite reliefs that adorn Angkor's temples recount the trials and tribulations of Khmer rule and the myths. Among them is the "Churning of the Sea of Milk", a process believed to create the elixir of life. Just as interesting are the depictions of ordinary life - women beautifying themselves, labourers toiling away, children scampering through the forest, and soldiers marching off to war.

From the hundreds of Sanskrit inscriptions, archaeologists have decoded a full chronology of the Khmer dynasties, despite the fact there are no known records on paper. The palm leaf prayer books and other documents known to the Khmer - the kind still used locally by Buddhist monks today - don't hold up well in the intense tropical climate.

The one snapshot we have into life at Angkor, made at its height, was documented in the diary of a Zhou Daguan, Chinese diplomat in 1296. He wrote that guards were stationed at the gates to the city. They inspected the feet of arriving visitors because criminals tended to have their toes hacked off. No toes, no entry.

Zhou Daguan recounted that the inner palace was off limits to all but the royal family, the king's 2,000 female servants, and his many concubines. Each night, he said, the monarch would sleep in a golden tower, protected by a seven-headed serpent.

He and his concubines may be long gone, but one unlikely link to the glory days of his court still remains. Scan the stone friezes which adorn the palace walls, and you find yourself gazing on the lovely images of apsaras, dancing girls.

Shortly after Zhou Daguan left, the great Khmer capital was attacked by the Thai onslaught. After enduring for five centuries, the mighty civilisation of Angkor collapsed after a siege of just seven months.

Carried away by the invading Thai army, the original apsara dancers lived on, their performances still charming audiences across Thailand and Cambodia today.

Having been plundered, Angkor was left abandoned, allowing the jungle to reclaim it for itself.

Visiting Angkor today is an emotional experience. The magic of the place is interwoven along with the twisting, meandering roots of sprawling silkwood trees, the towering trunks of which intersperse a great many of the ruins. There's a sense that you are treading in the footsteps of the first foreigners who arrived, to find a city reclaimed by the natural world.

Flying to the international airport at Siem Reap, a town reliant on the ruins of Angkor for its survival, I find myself in a quirky hippyesque town. Like Kathmandu in the 1970s, it's populated by foreigners who just can't bear to leave. There are markets selling the usual assortment of Cambodian knickknacks and pirated DVDs, bars and yet more bars, each one with Wi-Fi and cut-price drinks. And, on every street corner, there are tuk-tuk drivers waiting to schlep you down the road to the ruins.

Most visitors stay three days, that is unless they never manage to break free. When you buy the $40 (Dh147) three-day pass at the main gate (single day passes cost $20), it allows you to enter the evening before the pass kicks in, a good way of getting an initial sneak peek.

When I arrive, I find it all quite baffling. All I know is that I want to steer clear of the Chinese package tourists who are marching about in tight-knit formation, taking pictures of each other rather than the monuments. On the first day I pay the requisite $25 (Dh92) for an official guide. He doesn't speak much English, but it doesn't stop him spewing a constant stream of historical trivia I can't understand.

Fortunately, I meet a tuk-tuk driver called Mutt. He doesn't speak much English either, but he understands I want to explore the ruins when no one else was about. Appearing as if by magic whenever I need him, he lets me into a little secret, related through mime: how to beat the crowds.

It's simple. Most of the visitors who tour Angkor do it in a certain order, starting with the great temple itself, and followed by the smaller outposts. The secret is to start well away from Angkor Wat itself, and to hit the jungle paths before dawn. As Mutt explains in sign language, most Chinese package tourists stay in bed until late, and then make the most of their hotel's buffet breakfast. His top tip is to shun the buffet, start early, and to go around in reverse order.

That is how I end up just north of Angkor Wat, at the Ta Prohm ruins, long before even the faintest glimmer of sunlight. It is still pitch black when Mutt swerves his tuk-tuk to a halt and points to the seething nocturnal undergrowth. I must seem anxious because he smiles, then gives me a thumbs up.

Carefully threading my way between the trees, the sound of cicadas deafening, I can feel the cool stone buildings all around me even before I see them. Like a set from a Hollywood epic, it all seems so perfect, a fragment from a child's fantasy. Vines and roots snaking between the stone blocks, many are carved with exquisite scenes of deities and court life. Lichen-encrusted, mossy and damp with dew, the stones had lain forgotten for centuries. But reminders of our modern age are present, too: graffiti carved into the silkwood roots and, worse still, empty niches where priceless statues have been hacked away and sold.

With the first strains of light breaking through the forest, I cross over a slender canal and find myself at Bayon, with its haunting towers - 37 of them - each one adorned with four faces. As I discover later, the ruins of Angkor Wat, the main temple, are awe-inspiring in an almost primal way. But the smaller clusters of ruins nearby, at Ta Prohm, Bayon, Roluous and Angkor Thom, are all the more impressive for the wannabe Indiana Jones.

Exploring the ruins, you can't help but be touched by a sense of tranquility as well as wonder. It's as if the destruction of the Khmer empire by the invading Thais and, more recently, the Khmer Rouge reign of terror, makes the peace all the more profound. During its four-year rule, Pol Pot's regime executed all but two of the thousand Cambodian archaeologists working at Angkor. Destroying all their plans and scholastic documents, then mining the area, they turned the clock back to Year Zero, just as they did in the rest of the country.

Thankfully, Angkor is thriving once again. Last year more than 2,000,000 tourists visited the ruins, more than twice the number living there at the height of the Khmer empire. Most of these sightseers hail from the Far East and the swelling tourist numbers pose a new threat. Traipsing up and down over the steps, and along the shaded corridors, the soft sandstone is being eroded like never before.

But, having fallen in love with Angkor, I find myself to be as guilty as all the rest. Climbing into the tuk-tuk, thrilled at beating the crowds, the driver, Mutt, gives me another thumbs up gesture. Miming a plane flying off, then coming back, he points at me and shrugs.

Will I come back?

"How could I not?" I say with a smile. Read more!

The Innovators: Coco Rocha's Jewelry for Senhoa

We were already excited about supermodel Coco Rocha's gorgeous new jewelry collection -- chains! studs! Swarovski crystals! -- but when we learned that each piece was hand-crafted by a survivor of exploitation in Cambodia, we were even more intrigued.

Made in collaboration with Senhoa -- a charitable organization that provides practical skills and education to survivors of human trafficking -- each of the seven pieces in Rocha's capsule collection is designed to empower both wearer and jewelry-maker. A true innovator of the fashion world, we asked Rocha to tell us about the process of designing her first jewelry pieces, and how she and Senhoa are making a tangible difference in the lives of Cambodian women.

How did the Senhoa project come about initially? I first found out about Senhoa at my wedding in France last summer. Lisa, the founder of Senhoa, was on hand as the girlfriend of one of my videographers and she gifted me a beautiful Senhoa bracelet, which I wore the first day of my wedding.

Lisa told me the story behind the making of the jewelry and Senhoa. From ages 4 to 19, these girls are rescued from brothels and human trafficking in Cambodia. Most of them do not have a family to return to, as it was their families who actually sold them into slavery in the first place. The girls receive a full education and rehabilitation in the Senhoa program and, when they turn 15, they are offered a job in jewelry-making where they are paid better than school teachers. ... Following my meeting with Lisa, I tried to wear Senhoa pieces and mention them whenever I could, at events or on the red carpet. Earlier this year, we decided that a jewelry collaboration was probably the best way I could lend my voice to the cause, and really the whole project was a natural fit.

Just to provide some context for the collection, can you tell us a bit more about the human trafficking problem in Cambodia?


When you hear some of the facts and figures, you realize the extent of the problem in Cambodia is staggering. Thirty-five percent of all prostitutes in Cambodia are under the age of 18, some as young as four years old. Of them, 40 to 50 percent are HIV positive. These girls endure the most miserable living conditions you can imagine -- abuse, beatings, inadequate food and sleep and little to no protection against sexually transmitted diseases.

Did you collaborate with the Cambodian jewelry-makers to come up with designs that would be relevant for a fashion audience?


Well, I was familiar with what the girls were already making because I had been wearing Senhoa pieces at red carpet events for a year. They make very pretty pieces and are amazing at bead work ... After sending a lot of sketches back and forth over email, I flew out to L.A. to put the jewelry pieces together myself. I'm glad I did, because I got to experience firsthand the intricate and painstaking work the girls put into this jewelry -- I spent a whole day beading just one piece! We used high-quality materials in the jewelry, like Swarovski crystals, which not only add to the beauty of the product but help instill a feeling of self-worth in these girls who are now associating themselves with materials of high value. 

Once my design prototypes were finished, they were flown to Cambodia along with Jenny, Senhoa's creative director, who teaches the girls how to construct these pieces. I think one of the great things about this jewelry line is that every hand that worked on it, from design to production, is deeply invested in its success.

How will the girls benefit from acquiring jewelry-making skills?Jewelry-making provides these young women with a safe and secure job so that they can gain economic independence. In a way, it's also a medium of art therapy. The girls are trained to produce these high-quality, semi-precious Senhoa pieces as well as design and make their own costume jewelry, exercising freedom within creativity. What's more fulfilling than seeing something so beautiful bloom from your own two hands?

The Senhoa program also provides a comprehensive life-skills curriculum to supplement their vocational training ... [including] Khmer and English language lessons, math, life-skills, science and physical education. The classes are carefully catered to the girls’ abilities, to rebuild the foundations for learning ... Often times, it is very hard for us to deal with the realities and atrocities of sexual exploitation -- who hasn't seen grainy, black-and-white photos of young children being sexual abused in Southeast Asia and felt helpless? It can get so depressing that people just want to "switch off." That's why Senhoa's goal is to engage people on the issue of human trafficking in a different way.

What was the most satisfying thing about the project for you personally?Definitely the most satisfying part of this project was hearing personal messages back from the girls in Cambodia. They were so excited about my designs and happy to see pieces they made around the neck of a famous icon like Iman. I would love to go visit the girls myself soon!


Read more!

Cambodia: forestry and development, it's not always clear cut

Is helping indigenous people develop community forestry good for development, or is it better to let foreign companies log the native forest and replace it with rubber plantations?

      Hea Samoeun is chief of the resin collectors in his village in Cambodia. Photograph: Duncan Green


Last week in Cambodia, some questions on forestry and development came into sharp relief. I visited a region where Oxfam's local partner is helping indigenous people develop community forestry and resist the encroachment of foreign companies (as well as Cambodian ones, and the odd party or army boss) intent on logging the native forest and replacing it with rubber plantations.

I expected a black-and-white case but, as so often happens, found a much more complex picture. First, the community forestry: the village of O Preah in Kratie province (north-east Cambodia) is home to 67 families of the Phnong indigenous group, who have set up a rather successful community resin association. They tap resin from three species of trees and sell it to varnish and paint producers in Cambodia and neighbouring countries – and since they formed a producer association to market collectively, things have been going well. Until now.

The Vietnamese company Dong Nai/Dong Pu has been granted the land under the Cambodian government's new economic land concessions law – large parcels of land are sold off to investors, usually foreign, for logging and industrial agriculture.

Hea Samoeun, chief of the resin collectors, said members are not happy. They spoke to the commune council, but were told to get jobs on the plantations. "We don't want to work for the company – resin collecting is what we have done for years. The company tried to negotiate by offering us $3 a tree, but if we agree they will cut down everything – so the community said no. They came back and offered us $200 per family and some land for two years for seven families, but we still said no. Why? Because in one day we can earn maybe $12 from collecting resin and still have time for fishing. The company pays you $3.50 and you work from morning to night."

The problem is the economic land concessions law overlaps with the law protecting resin trees in the community forest. Land titles have only been introduced in Cambodia in the last decade (previously all land belonged to the government), so the land rights of Hea Samoeun (as with most Cambodian farmers) are legally murky.

And here's where the politics and power kick in. The law is only part of the story, and sometimes it seems a fairly minor part (although Hea Samoeun shows us his carefully filed legal complaint, adorned by 67 red ink thumbprints from the largely illiterate villagers).

"It is illegal under the land law to log resin trees – the forestry administration tells us it should be up to five years in jail for cutting down a single tree," said Hea Samoeun. "The government claims the community agreed to give up the land, but has never shown us any document – and the law says it should be published."

The two sides are at a stand-off. So far, so black and white. But wait. On a car journey, we pass dozens of neat rows of worker housing and a clinic, all built by Dong Nai/Dong Pu. The rubber plantation will provide jobs for 20 times (maybe more) as many people as currently make a living from resin collecting – poor Cambodians migrating into the forest from the lowlands. After all, rubber tapping is just a form of organised resin collection. Provided wages and conditions are acceptable, isn't that development too?

The compensation that Dong Nai/Dong Pu offered was better than in many similar situations elsewhere in Cambodia, and the company stopped logging at the first protest – that's not what we've seen in far bloodier land grabs in Uganda and elsewhere. One local NGO even holds them out as a model of good practice.

Cambodian activists counter that the plantation jobs are badly paid, and will go to incomers (so what?), that the loss of biodiversity and other "environmental services" is an issue, and that indigenous people do badly when they migrate from their home village. Apples and pears – culture and economics; economic rights v indigenous rights v human rights (all supposedly indivisible). If the process was fair and transparent, it might be possible to argue out the pros and cons, but politics and power obscure and skew every decision.

As for Hea Samoeun and his people, it's incredibly hard to see a successful outcome. The companies don't want to engage and formal laws and politics are often a shadow play, while the decisions come from informal and unaccountable power and money.

Can we make a convincing business case for a different approach, and would investors even listen? Could a pro-poor investor make a decent profit and pay decent wages (eg for rubber), or buy their products from smallholders (with government or NGO support)? And would the government support such an effort?

Our outgoing country director thinks this is one way forward. NGOs have made some progress on other value chains, eg pharmaceuticals, garments and supermarkets, by being propositional and working with progressive businesses to develop the business case. Might it work for forests too?

Like I said, a much more complicated picture than I was expecting – what have I missed? Read more!

Cambodia attracts $476 M investments from ASEAN in 9 months

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - Cambodia had received the fixed asset investment of $476 million from its ASEAN member countries in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 66 percent versus the same period last year of $287 million, according to the government's reports on Thursday.

From January to September this year, the country had granted licenses to Vietnam's investment projects worth $246 million and to Malaysia's projects of $230 million, showed the reports from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).

During the first 9 months last year, the country received the fixed asset investment of $287 million, of which, $152 million from Malaysia, $114 million from Vietnam and $19 million and $2 million from Singapore and Thailand respectively.

The reports recorded that the ASEAN countries investing in Cambodia are only Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

From 1994 to September 2011, among ASEAN, Malaysia is the largest investor in Cambodia with the accumulative investment of $2.6 billion, followed by Vietnam at $812, said the CDC's data.

Thailand and Singapore are the third and fourth with $746 million and $636 million respectively.

They invested in various sectors of businesses here including agriculture, especially rice mill and rubber plantation; industries, garments and construction materials; mineral resources; tourism; aviation; telecommunications; and banking and finance.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Read more!

2,000 Schools Remain Closed



Many schools in Pursat Province remained closed

 Some 2,000 schools in Cambodia remain closed as the worst floods in more than a decade continue to wreak havoc in Southeast Asia, where the death toll has risen to 1,000, officials and reports say.

Most of the affected schools are along the lower Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, said Nhim Vannda, the first vice-president of the National Committee for Disaster Management.

Only 2,000 of 4,000 schools nationwide have reopened since the floods hit 18 provinces and cities in early October, officials said.

Nearly 250 people have perished in the floods in Cambodia so far, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest flood bulletin.

“We are very concerned about the students' education. I am afraid that they can’t finish their curriculum on time,” said Yoeung Rithy, chief of a village in Kompong Thom province on the banks of the Stung Sen river.

Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association President Rong Chhun said even while some schools remain open, their classes are delayed due to logistical problems.

School equipment has been damaged and documents destroyed due to the disaster, he said.

“The Ministry of Education must establish a supplementary curriculum for the students to make sure that they can finish their academic year as usual,” Rong Chhun said.

Ministry of Education Director Ung Ngohok said additional classes would be held to prevent affected students from falling behind in their studies.

"The government has also instructed the Ministry of Education to make sure that the students have enough time to prepare for their examinations," he said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has provided U.S $300,000 to help subsidize educational materials in flood-affected areas.

A Ministry of Education report obtained by RFA showed that there are still 900 schools in 15 provinces under flood waters.

Some of the schools where the floods have receded may not have resumed classes because the damage has not been rectified.

Climate change
At least 1,000 people have died in the region's floods, according to an Agence France-Presse tally on Thursday. Millions of homes and livelihoods have also been destroyed by the disaster.

The World Bank warned that climate change will bring more floods and extreme weather to Southeast Asia.

"What we are seeing is there are more floods, more extreme weather events, higher temperature, more variable rainfalls, and we believe that is caused by climate change," Andrew Steer, the World Bank's special envoy for climate change, said in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

"And we should expect this to increase, sadly," Steer said.

The death toll in Thailand, grappling with its worst floods in half a century, has reached 533, the government said, and the slowly advancing waters are now threatening the heart of Bangkok, a city of 12 million people.

Vietnam's government has reported at least 100 deaths, including many children, in southern and central parts of the country while a fresh deluge in central provinces prompted the evacuation of some 30,000 people.

At least 106 people have died in flash floods caused by heavy storms in central Burma in late October.

In Laos, 30 people lost their lives in the floods, OCHA said in a statement.

The U.N. body, which does not include Burma in its flood updates, also reported 98 deaths in the Philippines.

Vast swathes of rice paddy fields have been damaged or destroyed in Southeast Asia as a result of the inundations triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains that began some three months ago.

"To date, nearly nine million people have been affected by torrential rains and overflowing rivers," OCHA said.

Read more!

Southeast Asia: U.s. Completing Asian NATO To Confront China

By Rick Rozoff

Since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization adopted its first Strategic Concept for the 21st century a year ago this month in Portugal, and in the process all but formalized the bloc as a global military intervention force, discussion has been rife concerning a collective partnership with the 54-nation African Union, a "mini-NATO" in the Persian Gulf and another in the Arctic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, the culmination of the transformation of the Mediterranean into a NATO sea and the effective "NATOization" of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). [1-5]

The U.S.-dominated military alliance, whose current American ambassador, Ivo Daalder, for years has advocated becoming a full-fledged global NATO (in one instance in an article with that precise title), expanded from 16 to 28 full members in the decade beginning in 1999 and has over forty partners in four continents outside the Euro-Atlantic zone under the auspices of programs like the Partnership for Peace in Europe and Asia, the Mediterranean Dialogue in Africa and the Middle East, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative in the Persian Gulf, the Contact Country format in the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea), Annual National Programs with Georgia and Ukraine, the Afghanistan-Pakistan-International Security Assistance Force Tripartite Commission, the NATO-Russia Council, the NATO Training Mission-Iraq and NATO-Training Mission -- Afghanistan (with a Libyan version to follow), a bilateral agreement with the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia where NATO has airlifted thousands of Ugandan and Burundian troops for the war there and other arrangements.

Formal partnerships with the African Union and ASEAN would gain the world's only military bloc fifty new cohorts in Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco -- the last not an African Union member -- are already members of the Mediterranean Dialogue) and ten in Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore. Thailand and Vietnam.

In addition, in September U.S. permanent representative to NATO Daalder told Indian journalists visiting the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels:

"I think it is important to have a dialogue (with India) and deepen that dialogue.

"It is through dialogue, through understanding each other's perceptions and perhaps by working on misperceptions that may exist, that we can strengthen the relations between India and NATO."

He also bluntly suggested that India, a founding member of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement, should abandon its policy of neutrality and collaborate with the U.S. and NATO in the development of an international interceptor missile system.

In articles written in the last decade, including the aforementioned "Global NATO," [6] Daalder and fellow Brookings Institution and Council on Foreign Relations officials argued for partnerships between the bloc and nations around the world under Daalder's concept of an Alliance of Democratic States and other mechanisms. The countries mentioned by name include Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and South Korea. [7]

Immediately ahead of the NATO summit in Lisbon, Daalder was quoted stating:
"We're launching Nato 3.0.

"It is no longer just about Europe -- it's not a global alliance but it is a global actor. We need to look for opportunities to work with countries we haven't worked with before, like India, China and Brazil."

The month before, in October of last year, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a video post on his blog, "We should reach out to new and important partners, including China and India."

With NATO as the prime mover and in charge, that is. He added: "We should encourage consultations between interested allies and partners on security issues of common concern, with NATO as a hub for those discussions."

In September of this year he told the Xinhua News Agency: "I would very much like to see a strengthened dialogue between China and NATO." China and India were among 47 nations represented at a meeting at NATO headquarters on September 14 to discuss naval operations in the Gulf of Aden and in the broader Indian Ocean where NATO runs Operation Ocean Shield. Other non-NATO nations present were Australia, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. At the time the last two were supplying warplanes for NATO's Operation Unified Protector assault against Libya.

If the architects of an international NATO realize their ambitions fully, more than 140 of the world's 194 nations will be members or partners of the North Atlantic Alliance. Their troops, military hardware and air and other bases will be available to the U.S.-dominated bloc for actions nearly everywhere in the world, as warplanes from NATO partner Israel have recently been training in Romania, Greece and a NATO air base in Sardinia for strikes against Iran.

With every nation on the European continent and every European island nation except for Cyprus now either a NATO member or partner and with the Alliance now firmly ensconced in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean, the U.S. and its Western allies are concentrating their firepower on East Asia.

The war in Afghanistan is in its eleventh year and it has provided NATO the opportunity to integrate the militaries of over fifteen Asian-Pacific countries (including the Middle East and the South Caucasus in that category) through supplying troops and other military personnel to NATO's International Security Assistance Force: Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Georgia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Tonga, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. All but Bahrain and Japan are what the bloc refers to as Troop Contributing Nations, of which Kazakhstan is to be the 49th, with its parliament at least temporarily blocking the formalization of that status.

Before his death late last year U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke was recruiting Bangladesh to become the 50th official supplier of troops for NATO's Afghan war. [8]

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently concluded an eight-day trip to Asia, his first as Pentagon chief, where he visited Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.

On the first leg of his journey he met with the defense ministers of the ten members of ASEAN. Indonesia holds the organization's chairmanship this year. Next year it will be transferred to Cambodia, where at the same time Panetta was in East Asia his subordinate, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Robert Scher, visited for two days to solidify military relations with the host nation where U.S. Army Pacific has led multinational Angkor Sentinel military exercises for the past two years.

Xinhua quoted the Pentagon official as saying:
"It's a fruitful visit. I participated in a series of productive meetings with the Cambodian Ministry of Defense and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) to discuss the growing U.S.-Cambodia bilateral defense relationship""

He was additionally cited stating he "had discussions about Cambodia's objectives as it approaches to take over the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2012.

"The U.S. Department of Defense is committed to continuing to work with the RCAF to develop a professional force that will contribute to regional and international peace and stability" and "the United States' overall commitment is to enhance its engagement in the Asia-Pacific region in the future."

While in Indonesia, Panetta indulged in the affectation of identifying himself as "a son of the U.S. Pacific coast," having been raised in California, as his commander-in-chief, Hawaii-born President Barack Obama, has touted himself as America's first Pacific head of state.

He met with Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper, "to discuss growing bilateral military relations and broader issues facing Southeast Asia"[c]hief among those issues [being] China's growing assertiveness in an area it considers its own backyard."

In his own words, "I've made it very clear that the United States remains a Pacific power, that we will continue to strengthen our presence in this part of the world and that we will remain a force"in this region."

Later in Japan, the Pentagon chief told American troops at the Yokota Air Base near Tokyo: "We are not anticipating any cutbacks in this region. If anything we are going to strengthen our presence in the Pacific." Two weeks earlier Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken in a similar vein: "Probably the greatest opportunities in the years ahead will be found in the Asia Pacific region, which is why we have renewed America's leadership and pre-eminent role there."

In July of 2010 Clinton attended the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi and entered the fray in the disputes between ASEAN member states and China over the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea, in essence pledging the U.S. as guarantor for ASEAN against China. Panetta's meeting with his ten ASEAN counterparts last month provided an overt military component to the commitment.

While in Japan the defense secretary celebrated a half century of American-Japanese military colloboration enshrined in the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan of 1960, adding, "And it will be for the next 50 years as well."

Panetta also told assembled U.S. and Japanese troops: "I just had the opportunity to be in Indonesia and meet with the (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) defense ministers. And I conveyed the same message to them: the United States will continue to work with all of them to improve our cooperation, to improve our assistance, and to make sure that we strengthen security for all nations in the Pacific region."

Southeast Asia has a population of approximately 600 million, two-thirds that of the Western Hemisphere and almost three-quarters that of Europe. It contains one of the world's most vital shipping lanes, the Strait of Malacca. The strait runs for 600 miles between Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to the east and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the west.

According to the United Nations International Maritime Organization, at least 50,000 ships pass through the waterway annually, transporting 30 percent of the goods traded in the world, including oil from the Persian Gulf to major East Asian nations like China, Japan and South Korea. As many as 20 million barrels of oil a day pass through the Strait of Malacca, an amount that will only increase with the further advance of the Asian Century. [9]

Since the end of the Cold War the U.S. and its Western allies have expanded NATO throughout Europe and combined that effort with the creation of an Asian NATO that in part consists of the revival and expansion of other Cold War military alliances based on NATO: The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS).

But what is being built currently is far more extensive than all the latter three combined and is, moreover, not complementary to but in collusion with NATO, the Afghan war serving the purpose of unifying East and West under American and NATO control as the Korean War and Vietnam War did for the creation and consolidation of SEATO and ANZUS.

In May of 2010 the Atlantic Council of the United States, the main NATO lobbying group in the Western Hemisphere and indeed in the world, posted an article by Max Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and frequent lecturer at the Army War College and the Command and General Staff College, titled "Building an East Asian NATO."

It contained this excerpt:
"A common complaint heard among American officials and policy analysts is that in East Asia -- one of the most important and conflict-prone areas of the planet -- there is no security architecture comparable to NATO. The U.S. has ties to many key countries, notably Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, and Taiwan. But they do not have strong ties to one another, and there is no joint military planning of the kind that NATO undertakes"" [10]

In recent months the topic of a NATO-ASEAN military partnership has been given increased attention.

In August U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell gave an interview to The Australian in which he said:

"One of the most important challenges for US foreign policy is to effect a transition from the immediate and vexing challenges of the Middle East to the long-term and deeply consequential issues in Asia."

"There is an undeniable assertive quality to Chinese foreign policy and we're seeing that play out in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

"What has been effective in the past year or so is the number of countries in the Asia-Pacific (that) have been prepared to say to China that greater transparency (from China in military matters) is in the interests of the Asia-Pacific region.

"I think what you see is an across-the-board effort (by the US) to articulate India as playing a greater role in Asia, and also revitalising relations with ASEAN -- both ASEAN as an institution, and with its key members, such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore, and revitalising what used to be a very important relationship with The Philippines." [11]

His comments paralleled those of defense chief Panetta and other Pentagon officials in affirming that with the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the beginning of a drawdown in Afghanistan, the Pentagon is focusing on East Asia, with NATO to take a greater role in policing the Greater/Broader/New Middle East and Africa in order to free up the American military to shift to the east.

In July an article appeared in the Jakarta Post with the title "Sketching out a future ASEAN-NATO partnership" by Evan A. Laksmana, identified as a researcher for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, presumably an affiliate of the think tank of the same name in Washington, D.C. Indonesia, recall, currently chairs ASEAN.

The author's comments included:
"As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) enters its seventh decade and as ASEAN consolidates its regional community building ahead of and beyond 2015, the bodies have much to learn from each other.

"For NATO, ASEAN will be increasingly critical for the future of Asian stability and order and would be an ideal candidate for a strategic counterpart to tackle common regional and global security challenges -- especially when ASEAN consolidates its regional community building, allowing it to share NATO's role as a community of like-minded nations"

"Southeast Asia's geopolitical, geo-strategic, and geo-economic value also suggests that NATO's future missions beyond its traditional area of operations might increasingly depend on ASEAN."

Further, he recommended:
"Any future ASEAN-NATO partnership could at least be placed within five major policy areas: peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), maritime security, defense reform and counterterrorism."

"These five areas of engagement could be further executed in four levels of cooperation: strategic, institutional, operational and people-to-people.

"Strategically, NATO can engage ASEAN in discussions and dialogue regarding the five security issues using two tracks.

"In track one, the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (consisting of all ASEAN countries plus Australia, the US, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Russia and New Zealand) as well as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) provide critical dialogue venues.

"In track two, two groupings are crucial: the ASEAN Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS), a network of nine major think tanks in Southeast Asia, and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), a network of nearly all major Asia Pacific think tanks.

"Institutionally, NATO could explore future cooperation or collaboration with either the ASEAN Secretariat, the network of ASEAN Peacekeeping Centers, the ASEAN Center for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief or even the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

"Other forms of diplomatic defense activities such as port visits or officer exchanges that are more practical and "neutral' might also help alleviate some of the sensitivities of regional countries regarding NATO's visibility."

The writer ended his piece with these comments:
"This would slowly and gradually raise the public profile and awareness of NATO's potential contribution to regional stability.

"This is at least the writer's impression from discussions with various NATO officials on a recent trip.

"NATO should at least start thinking of engaging ASEAN early to avoid any surprises when a new, region-wide crisis in Asia comes knocking. For ASEAN, if we are serious about boosting our regional security community building, would it hurt to learn from a multi-national organization that has had the longest practical experience in the endeavor?" [12]

Three days later an article appeared in the Pakistani press called "NATO knocks at the door of ASEAN" by Dr. Jassim Taqui, which issued these warnings:

"Having failed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has decided to change direction towards Southeast Asia. In this regard, NATO shows a keen interest to establish a partnership with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)."

Although "the United States continued to influence ASEAN since 1997," now "Washington is combining with India to influence the region in a bid to neutralize the rising cooperation between ASEAN and China.

"During her visit to India, the US Secretary of State Ms Hillary Clinton urged India to expand its traditional sphere of influence from South Asia to Central Asia and Southeast Asia to contain China's increasing assertiveness. Ostensibly, Clinton's slip of the tongue suggests a strategy that aims to encircle China in its backyard in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim on one hand and to boost engagement in Central Asia, on China's western flank, on the other.

"Clinton's tone is confrontational. It justifies the containment of China by Washington and New Delhi on the ground of "common values and interests.' Clinton also announced that the Obama administration would soon launch a three-way dialogue with India and Japan to counter China." [13]

At the beginning of the year U.S. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters:
"We have 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula. We've got, I think, north of 50,000 troops in Japan. So we have significant assets already there. Over the long-term lay-down of our forces in the Pacific, we are looking at ways to even bolster that, not necessarily in Korea and Japan, but along the Pacific Rim, particularly in Southeast Asia." [14]

In September a U.S. Pacific Command spokesperson told The Diplomat "that ASEAN's pursuit of regional defence industry collaboration would help advance US national interests in the Asia-Pacific as it would usher in a new'set of standards, similar to NATO, (that) will facilitate interoperability among ASEAN and US militaries.'"

The feature also stated:
"From an operational perspective, the adoption of NATO standards by ASEAN would advance long-term plug-and-play interoperability between NATO and ASEAN militaries. While this would improve joint-military action across numerous mission spaces, it also would allow Pentagon defence planners to view ASEAN militaries as potential forward-based force multipliers for some regional scenarios with potential adversaries, including China." [15]

As the year nears it end it is apparent that the Pentagon and its increasingly global military bloc, NATO, are concentrating on integrating the militaries of Southeast Asia in their inexorable drive to contain and confront China and abort the emergence of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a viable, non-military alternative to them in Eurasia. Read more!