Wellington - A 17-year-old high school student pleaded guilty Monday to forging 150 drivers' licences with false birth dates that gave underage drinkers access to bars and pubs. Marcus Lim, who was born in Cambodia, was alleged to have sold forged licences for 100 New Zealand dollars to youths ages 16 and 17 at 15 schools in the Auckland region.
The minimum age to enter licensed premises in New Zealand is 18.
Lim was remanded on bail for sentence on April 20. The court was told that police were not asking for a prison sentence.
According to news reports, more than 60 students have turned in their fake licences to police, but many more have not been found.
by http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/296886,teen-admits-forging-licences-for-underage-drinkers.html
The province of Kratie in north eastern Cambodia is home to a stretch of the Mekong which is an important habitat for the rare Irawaddy dolphin, and is a strategic location to break overland journeys between Phnom Penh and the jungles of Ratanakiri or southern Laos.
At the present time few tourists explore this region, or travel these routes, due to the basic standard of accommodation available in the Kratie area. The dawn of the “Mekong Safari”, an overnight adventure in this area of the Mekong using portable African safari style tents, has opened up the north east of Cambodia and is an exciting development that will inspire new tours linking southern Laos with Cambodia.
“Mekong Safaris” are private tours for individuals staying in luxury tented accommodation, pitched by a team of guides and porters, on the white sands of an uninhabited Mekong island under the shade of trees. A covered boat is the mode of transport to the private island, and the safari includes a dugout canoe to explore the waterways and flooded forests with the help of an experienced boatman.
The location has been carefully chosen as the best place to see rare Irawaddy dolphins at close quarters, along with the diverse birdlife that thrives along the banks of the Mekong. Constructed using durable tarpaulin in two layers, the 2.5m high tents have an insect-proof inner layer with five meshed windows for light and breeze during the day. Inside the tents are equipped with proper beds and mattresses with soft linen, and private bathroom facilities include a simple shower.
Far East tailor-made experts Bamboo Travel can include the “Mekong Safari” as part of a tailor-made tour of the region, and have developed several new tours using the safari to open up new routes and areas that were previously inaccessible. These include an overland journey from the popular Four Thousand Islands region of southern Laos to Phnom Penh, and a tour of Cambodia visiting the isolated province of Rattanakiri in the far north east of the country. Dubbed the ‘wild east’ of Cambodia, Rattanakiri is a beautiful region with mountainous and forested landscapes, and a high proportion of minority tribes, making it a great destination for cultural and adventure tours.
For more information, visit bambootravel.co.uk.
by http://www.easier.com/62658-new-adventures-to-be-had-in-cambodia-and-laos.html
“They turned my patient away because she was HIV positive.” Discrimination of people living with HIV is found in every layer of society. Dr Vuthy King, from CAFOD partner Maryknoll, explains how he is working to stamp out stigma in the medical profession
“Some hospitals in Cambodia do not like to operate on people living with HIV. In Phnom Penh there are eight hospitals. In my experience, only two will operate on HIV-positive patients.
“This is not hospital policy, but a decision made by the surgeons. If medical professionals discriminate against HIV-positive people, you can imagine what kind of reactions they face from the public in general.
“A few years ago, I had a patient with appendicitis. I sent the patient to the nearest hospital at 9pm. But they said they wouldn’t operate on her because she had HIV. She would have to wait until 9am the next day so they could hold a meeting to discuss her case.
“When I went back at 10am, they rejected her from the hospital. By this time she was in a critical condition. I drove her to another hospital but they also refused to treat her. Finally the third hospital I went to accepted her.
“The Maryknoll hospice opened in 2000. We were the first non-governmental organisation in Cambodia to open a free hospice for poor people living with HIV.
“Almost 1,000 patients have used this hospice since it opened. Many would have died without the care they received here. Some poor people sell everything, their land, livestock, and home, to pay for medical bills because hospital fees are expensive.
“But when they recover they have no way to support themselves. It is a vicious trap for poor people. “We treat those with opportunistic infections like TB or meningitis. We also do complicated medical procedures like lumbar punctures but we’re not equipped to perform full operations.
“Recently, we opened a specialist HIV wing in Chey Chumneas hospital. We provide consultations with the patients and assess their needs. People travel from miles around to come and see us because they know they will receive the best staff. We are teaching hospital staff to treat HIV positive people with respect and care."
by http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=15246
By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
30 November 2009
The final stage of the trial for jailed Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Kek Iev ended Friday, with the defense split and the defendant asking to be set free despite admissions of guilt.
Prosecutors have demanded Kaing Kek Iev, better known as Duch, be given 40 years for his role as administrator of the Khmer Rouge prison Tuol Sleng, where they say more than 12,000 people perished.
The Trial Chamber’s five judges, two foreign, three Cambodian, are expected to announce a verdict early in 2010, for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and murder.
In the final week of arguments, Duch’s defense lawyers found themselves at odds, with French attorney Francois Roux arguing for leniency in the sentencing, for Duch’s admission of guilt and cooperation with the UN-backed court, and with Cambodian attorney Kar Savuth asking the most serious charges be dropped.
Duch himself stunned observers of the court Friday when he simply asked to be let free.
Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, which has been monitoring the tribunal, said the disunity among the defense could be a disadvantage for the defendant.
“It’s up to the judges’ decision, based on all the evidence received from civil parties and co-prosecutors,” he said. “But to set him free, I think, would be impossible, although the court may consider that he has been in detention for more than 10 years.”
Duch’s trial began in March, when he claimed he would take responsibility for his role as prison administrator and asked for forgiveness from his victims. He described the leadership of the Khmer Rouge communists.
“Duch has helped the court a lot,” tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said. “He made sure that the court and the people understood his point of view. He and his defense lawyers cooperated well with the court. We see that Duch has contributed to the success we have had and to the court’s operation.”
The tribunal, following Cambodian law, has no provision for the death penalty, only lifetime imprisonment. But an early release is not likely to go down well with families of victims or survivors of his prison.
“If Duch is set free, there will be a problem,” said Chum Mey, who lived through Tuol Sleng. “It will be a joke on the international community. The court has spent a lot of money, and what will happen if Duch is set free?”
Duch may not be a top leader, “but everybody knows that he killed people at Tuol Sleng,” Chum Mey said.
Were Duch to be set free, there remains a court mechanism for appeal for men like Chun Mey.
“In principal, any party who does not agree with the court decision can appeal to the [tribunal] Supreme Court,” said Neou Kassie, head of the court’s Victims Unit. “We have another level. This is the right of all parties.”
Crackdown on Dissent, Lack of Accountability, Forced Evictions Marr Country’s Record
(Geneva) - United Nations member states should express concerns about the dramatic deterioration of freedom of expression, assembly, and association in Cambodia at today's review of the nation's human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today.
Cambodia is undergoing its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Under the process, the rights record of each member state is reviewed once every four years. In its submission to the Council, Human Rights Watch highlighted political violence, the lack of punishment for senior government officials involved in serious rights abuses, forced evictions and land confiscation, arbitrary detention of drug users, and substandard prison conditions.
"In the past year there's been a sharp regression in Cambodia's respect for basic rights, with major setbacks in press freedom and a harsh crackdown on government critics," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Countries should ask Cambodia why it uses repressive tactics to silence peaceful dissent, while thrusting the poor even further into poverty by condoning illegal land grabbing."
In addition to intimidation, threats, and violence, the government increasingly uses the judicial system to muzzle journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition party members, who increasingly face unwarranted charges of criminal defamation and disinformation, Human Rights Watch said.
In recent months the government has pushed new laws through the National Assembly that further restrict freedom of expression and assembly, with little input from civil society. These include a new penal code and a law restricting demonstrations. A law regulating nongovernmental organizations (NGO) is expected to be taken up by the National Assembly soon, even though civil society groups have not been provided with the draft law for review and comment.
"Given the shrinking political space for human rights and advocacy groups in Cambodia, there's justified alarm that the NGO law will be used to shut down groups critical of the government," Adams said. "Countries at the Human Rights Council should ask the Cambodian government what it fears from a vibrant civil society."
Among Human Rights Watch's recommendations are for the Cambodian government to cease the harassment, arbitrary arrests, and physical attacks on human rights defenders, civil society activists, and opposition party members, and to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of such attacks. The government should also tackle longstanding cases in which those responsible have not been brought to justice, such as the deadly 1997 grenade attack on an opposition rally. And it should resolve more recent rights violations, such as excessive use of force by soldiers and police in forced evictions; physical abuse in detention centers of sex workers, people who use drugs, and homeless people; and the assassinations of labor leaders and journalists.
To address widespread evictions of people from their homes and their land, Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to enact a moratorium on forced evictions until the government has properly adopted and implemented a strict legislative framework on land and housing rights in general, and evictions and resettlement in particular.
Human Rights Watch also highlighted the need for continued UN engagement in Cambodia, especially given the worsening rights situation. Countries should urge the Cambodian government to continue to work with the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to improve prisons, fight impunity, and enhance the protection of human rights.
"Without an impartial judiciary and other independent institutions to provide checks and balances on the government, a close partnership with the UN human rights office is crucial," Adams said. "Cambodia's worsening rights record should come under careful scrutiny, with the UN and its member states insisting that it abide by its international human rights commitments."
by http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/30/cambodia-un-review-should-insist-respect-rights
When the Khmer Rouge emptied the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh of human inhabitants in 1975, one of Pol Pot's soldiers murdered 4-year-old Theary Seng's father. Later, Theary Seng, her mother and siblings ended up in a prison in southeast Cambodia. One day, Theary Seng awoke to an empty cell — the prison population had been massacred overnight. In a rare act of mercy, the Khmer Rouge soldiers allowed the handful of children to survive. Theary Seng eventually escaped to a Thai refugee camp and then to the U.S. Her story is by no means unique in Cambodia. In just this one prison in Svay Rieng province, between 20,000 and 30,000 people were executed, and during the Pol Pot era, about 1.7 million Cambodians died — more than 20% of the country's population.
Still traumatized by those years and subsequent decades of political instability, many Cambodians had hoped that the U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, a hybrid Cambodian–international court, would help push the country toward reconciliation. In November 2007, Theary Seng, now a human-rights lawyer in Phnom Penh, applied to become the first civil party at the Khmer Rouge tribunal — whereby she and other Khmer Rouge victims are participating in the criminal proceedings with their own set of lawyers. On Friday, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) — the official name of the tribunal — finished hearing its first case. Prosecutors sought a 40-year jail sentence for Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, (pronounced Doik) who ran the notorious S-21 prison, a Phnom Penh high school transformed into an interrogation center where Duch is accused of overseeing the grisly deaths of approximately 15,000 people. Over the last six months of hearings, the court heard accounts of interrogators who ripped off toenails, suffocated prisoners with plastic bags, forced people to eat feces, electrocuted prisoners and drained blood to extract confessions. During the trial, Duch, 67, said that Cambodians should hold him to the "highest level of punishment." But he also begged for forgiveness, saying he was only "a cog in a running machine." Duch's defense team painted the former math instructor as a mid-level bureaucrat who didn't personally torture anyone and was only following orders, and on Friday. Duch pleaded for the tribunal to release him.(See pictures chronicling the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)
Such has been the topsy-turvy nature of the tribunal. Indeed, just getting to the end of the first case was an ordeal. There have been allegations of a kickback scheme where Cambodian employees at the tribunal are forced to pay back a part of their salaries to the government officials who gave them their jobs. On two different occasions, only last-minute donations from Japan allowed the Cambodian side of the court to pay its staff. Then, in a fiasco dubbed Waterlilygate, one of the international lawyers said documents found in a moat filled with lilies had been stolen from his office. And last week the New York–based Open Society Justice Initiative, an international law monitor, accused the Cambodian government of meddling with the tribunal, claiming "political interference at the ECCC poses a serious challenge to both the credibility of the court and its ability to meet international fair trial standards."
Despite these issues, Theary Seng says the tribunal has ultimately helped the healing process by encouraging people to talk openly about the Khmer Rouge era. She says that though most Cambodians assume there is some degree of corruption at the tribunal, "we are not to the point where it should shut down." She says that the Khmer Rouge tribunal is more than a court of law — "it's also a court of public opinion."(Read about malaria prevention in Cambodia.)
About 28,000 people attended Duch's trial at the ECCC on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, and millions more Cambodians followed the tribunal on television and the radio. With about 70% of the Cambodia's 14 million people born after the Khmer Rouge regime, the trial enabled an entire generation to learn about their country's terrible past. Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, says that the fact that the tribunal was held in Cambodia was key to sparking interest in the trial and knowledge about the period. In January, the University of California at Berkeley's Human Rights Center released a report saying that 85% of Cambodians had little or no knowledge of the trial. Now, with the distribution of a new textbook on the Khmer Rouge coinciding with the trial, Youk Chhang says "the whole country is aware."
The tribunal has also helped Cambodians in unexpected ways. A counselor sits next to every survivor who testifies — at one point during the Duch trial, a judge even ordered a witness to see a psychiatrist, according to Sotheara Chhim, a Cambodian psychiatrist and director of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO). An estimated 14% of the population suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and Sotheara Chhim says the number of people who suffer from depression or anxiety is likely much higher than that. Though information about mental health is still limited in rural Cambodia, "the trial brought out a lot," Sotheara says.
Now comes the waiting. A verdict for Duch isn't expected until March. For Theary Seng, the Duch case "is sort of a test trial" for the more important Case Two when four high-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders will be in the dock: Nuon Chea, 83, who was second in command to Pol Pot; former head of state Khieu Samphan, 78; former Foreign Affairs Minister Ieng Sary, 84; and Ieng Thirith, 77, the former Social Affairs Minister. They are expected to face the tribunal in 2011 in a case that could last years. Case Two, says Theary Seng, will make Duch's case look like "a cakewalk." Unlike Duch, the four defendants held high-level positions in the Khmer Rouge, have denied complicity in war crimes and refused to apologize. Time is also running out. With the youngest defendant aged 77, some or all of the defendants may not live long enough to face the tribunal.
If the past year is any indication, the tribunal will face many more hurdles, but Theary Seng says it has benefited Cambodia. The trial, she argues, has generated much needed discussions about history as well as mercy across the country. Says Theary Seng: "The Khmer Rouge tribunal has triggered a process of forgiveness." And perhaps a process leading finally to closure.
by http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1943373,00.html
Author: Jew Mark
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By Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer,
Original report from Washington
30 November 2009
[Editor’s note: VOA Khmer recently spoke with specialists in the field of natural resource management in developing countries and learned that Cambodia is not alone in struggling to use natural resources to benefit its citizens. The resource curse, where natural riches fail to help the poor, is a worldwide scourge, the global experts told VOA Khmer in numerous interviews. Below is Part 13 of the original VOA Khmer weekly series, airing Sundays in Cambodia.]
Media outlets can play a critical role in natural resource management, but that has not been the case so far in Cambodia, where experts say exploitation of the country’s timber, minerals and other resources is often undertaken by political elites or businesses heavily involved in politics.
In order to build an informed society, according to Paul Collier, an Oxford University economist and author of “the Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It,” good media are needed, to inform citizens on issues of public interest.
Collier refers to these informed citizens as an important “critical mass,” which can help hold a government accountable on issues like natural resource management. However, he said, it is hard to build critical mass where good media are not in place.
“It doesn’t require everybody in the society to be well informed,” he said. “We need what’s called a critical mass, which is several thousand people who understand the issue and hold government to account.”
In the case of Cambodia, the local media have not been capable of informing people about the natural resource issue, said Chea Vannath, and independent analyst and former director of the Center for Social Development.
“Local media rarely broadcast about natural resource management,” one Phnom Penh resident, who gave only his given name, Sarom, said. “They broadcast mostly about improvement or development. But they have some short radio and TV spots to educate us not to kill wildlife and promote the government’s tree planting day, but other sensitive issues have never been broadcast.”
Puy Kea, Kyodo news correspondent and member of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, acknowledged that local media have limited coverage on the natural resource issue, while international media do better on sensitive issues.
Natural resources are not a priority for local media, he said. And there is a safety issue, as well.
“The real concern is when [journalists] go out to report on regions or institutions involving sensitive issues, such as corruption or irregularities,” he said. Meanwhile, he said, “in Cambodia nowadays, media have the tendency of leaning to the government and ruling party.”
Lao Monghay, a researcher for the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, said Cambodia has a number of media outlets; however, “people are scared.”
“We must have information to make judgments, and we must have freedom of expression too,” he said. “It’s also the responsibility of the media, newspapers and radio to report and publish or broadcast to the people.”
Eleanor Nichol, a campaigner for the watchdog Global Witness, which has had two of its reports on natural resources banned in Cambodia, said full freedom to cover the issue would bring an element of transparency to the process.
“If they allow the publication of information about who has access to what resources so that people on the ground and civil society in Cambodia are able to see what and who has control of their resources, [they can] begin to call the government to account on that,” Nichol said.
Kao Soupha is a lawyer who is well used to government pressure.
LEGAL-EYED: Kao Soupha
The 37-year-old Cambodian believes that if a lawyer is afraid of the state, then many innocent people will have no chance to defend themselves.
For this reason he decided to represent jailed Thai engineer Sivarak Chutipong.
Mr Sivarak, 31, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services, was arrested on Nov 12 on charges of leaking information concerning the flight plan of Thaksin Shinawatra as he travelled to Cambodia.
Mr Sivarak is being held at Prey Sar prison, pending a bail consideration and first hearing on Dec 8.
"I see he [Mr Sivarak] has a good chance of being freed as I believe he did not really steal the flight records," Mr Soupha said.
Mr Soupha admits his client was in a position to know of all the flights in an out of Cambodia but that Thaksin's flight plan was not a secretive matter.
Had Mr Sivarak "spied", he would not have left Cambodia and travelled to Laos on Nov 6 and returned to Cambodia on Nov 9, says Mr Soupha.
He acknowledged the arrest of Mr Sivarak was a headlining issue between the two countries, but it was not a complicated case because as far as he knew there was not much evidence supporting the plaintiff side.
Mr Soupha also believes the arrest of Mr Sivarak was politically motivated and the case should be resolved by the two governments.
"They are playing a game and Mr Sivarak is, unfortunately, in the middle," he said.
According to Cambodian law, if Mr Sivarak is found guilty of spying he faces a jail term of between seven and 15 years.
Mr Soupha specialises in providing legal counselling for Cambodian and foreign people. Most of his cases are concerned with human rights violations and alleged unfair treatment by the Cambodian government.
He often deals with the Thai community in Phnom Penh and is regularly contacted by the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.
by http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/28283/hang-tough-if-hun-sen-gets-rough
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday Cambodia's decision to scrap a 1.4 billion baht loan from Thailand to subsidise a road improvement project was the result of a misunderstanding.
He was responding to a news report which quoted Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong as saying Phnom Penh decided to cancel the loan.
Mr Abhisit said Cambodia thought Thailand terminated the loan so it sent a letter to inform the government that it would cancel the loan.
He said talks were under way to correct the mix-up. "Cambodia thought we had cancelled [the loan], so they sent a letter to cancel it," Mr Abhisit said.
"In fact, the cabinet hasn't made a decision on the loan scheme."
The 1.4 billion baht loan to upgrade a road from Surin to Siem Reap was discussed by the cabinet after the recent diplomatic spat erupted.
However, the termination of such an international agreement requires approval from parliament to take effect.
Thai-Cambodian ties turned sour when Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen appointed Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser.
Relations took a turn for the worse when Cambodia rejected Thailand's request for extradition of Thaksin to serve a two-year jail sentence and Thailand responded by threatening to review agreements and projects including the loan in question.
Mr Abhisit yesterday brushed aside former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai's suggestion that the government initiate talks with Phnom Penh to normalise the ties. He said the results of the meeting of the Thai-Cambodia General Border Committee (GBC), which concluded on Friday, were satisfactory.
Thani Thongpakdi, deputy spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, said yesterday the ministry received Cambodia's letter to terminate the loan deal. He declined to say if Phnom Penh's latest move was suggesting bilateral ties were further strained.
He said it was a normal practice for governments to review and if necessary cancel loan deals.
Meanwhile, the GBC meeting and the meeting between detained Thai engineer Sivarak Chutipong and his mother, Simarak na Nakhon Phanom, was seen as a good sign for bilateral relations.
Mr Sivarak, official of the Cambodian Air Traffic Services, was arrested on Nov 12 for allegedly stealing flight information concerning Thaksin. It took two weeks before his mother was allowed to visit him at prison.
His bail request is pending a court review.
Mr Sivarak is scheduled to appear in court for a first hearing on Dec 8.
by http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/28284/cambodia-b1-4bn-loan-still-on
Students look through Cambodia’s first textbook of Khmer Rouge history, which was issued to them earlier this week. Jared Ferrie for The National
PHNOM PENH // The 57-year-old teacher stood in a conference room packed with colleagues and observers and articulated what is perhaps the simplest yet most perplexing question about the regime that killed a quarter of its own population.
CAMBODIA NOV2009 Students at Hun Sen high school in Ta Khmeo City hold up Cambodia´s first textbook of Khmer Rouge history after receiving them during a distribution ceremony Jared Ferrie for The National
“Why did they behave the way they did?” asked Nguon Sophal, who teaches high school in the western city of Battambang.
She was one of 180 teachers attending a week-long training programme to acquaint themselves with the first Cambodian textbook to discuss the Khmer Rouge in detail. This week, they will fan out across the country to instruct about 3,000 more teachers who will finally begin educating young Cambodians about the horror their elders lived through three decades ago.
CAMBODIA NOV2009 Students at Hun Sen high school in Ta Khmeo City hold up Cambodia´s first textbook of Khmer Rouge history after receiving them during a distribution ceremony Jared Ferrie for The National
It was a professional question for Ms Nguon, but it was also a deeply personal one. In an interview afterward, she said her husband, child, father and sister were all taken away and killed for no discernible reason.
From his seat on an elevated panel at the front of the room, David Chandler, who first arrived in Cambodia as a US diplomat in 1960 and has written four books about the country and the Khmer Rouge, looked straight at her, thought about it for a few moments, and replied: “That is a very good question.”
Mr Chandler had just spoken for more than an hour about the movement. The inner circle of Khmer Rouge leaders were intellectuals who studied in France, yet they despised the educated class so much that they tried to exterminate them in their own country. They were Marxist-Leninists, but their later “blood-curdling nationalist slogans that spoke of the Cambodian ‘race’ replaced the austere and often impenetrable language of Marxist-Leninism,” Mr Chandler said.
The Khmer Rouge relied at different stages on support from Vietnam and China, as well as from the United States and its allies – odd bedfellows considering that the US dropped half a million tonnes of bombs on Cambodia while waging war against Vietnam, which then fended off a brief invasion from China in 1979.
Haunting questions about the Khmer Rouge live on. Why did they turn the country into a vast torture camp where as many as two million people starved to death or were executed on the basis of paranoid conspiracies? Why did they kill doctors? Engineers? Why did they smash babies against trees?
“If one of your students asks, ‘Why did the Khmer Rouge behave this way?’ it’s unfair to say you don’t know,” said Mr Chandler, who now teaches at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
The challenge of explaining this complex and confounding history fell to one Khaboly Dy, the textbook’s author who was born two years after the Khmer Rouge were vanquished to the jungles in 1979 by invading Vietnamese and Cambodian troops.
Previous history books issued by Cambodia’s Vietnamese-backed government boiled the Khmer Rouge down into five lines. Even those references were removed in the early 1990s when Khmer Rouge leaders signed peace accords, promising to end their guerrilla war.
As a high school student during the 1990s, Sayana Ser said she understood very little about her parents’ and grandparents’ experiences under the Khmer Rouge’s four-year rule.
Now 28, she is helping co-ordinate the teachers’ training programme that is run by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DCCAM), which produced the book. She began volunteering at DCCAM after she realised that all she knew about the Khmer Rouge were tales overheard from her mother talking with friends. The stories sounded so awful that she only half believed them.
“I heard them talking, but they didn’t tell their children,” she said. “I thought it was fiction, used to make us more careful.”
Poring over documents at DCCAM, she discovered that the stories of starving people foraging for leaves to eat, of torture, mass executions and rampant disease were true.
“The survivors want to us to know we won’t forget their suffering,” Ms Sayana said.
Khaboly Dy, the author, had another reason for writing the book: To “guide students away from anger, revenge, hatred”.
Rather than going into a detailed history of the Khmer Rouge, Mr Dy said he laid out a foundation that he hopes will encourage interested students to do further research on their own.
The textbook avoids in-depth political analysis of the movement. Instead it focuses on events. It names only the most senior leaders of the regime, including those now awaiting trial at a UN-backed war crimes tribunal. “Lots of people say the history of the Khmer Rouge is politically sensitive,” Mr Dy aid.
Many former Khmer Rouge members are now high-ranking officials, such as Keat Chhon, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Heng Samrin, the president of the National Assembly. The presence of former Khmer Rouge members in today’s government is no doubt one reason that Cambodia has been reluctant to educate its youth about the Khmer Rouge. But the textbook “doesn’t label too many individuals”, Mr Dy said, adding that he received “sincere support” from the education ministry.
On Wednesday, the ministry’s undersecretary of state, Tun Sa-Im, was on hand to help distribute the new textbooks to students in Ta Khmeo City, about one hour’s drive from Phnom Penh. A token number of students lined up and bowed politely to Ms Tun before receiving the textbook. Then the 180 teachers passed the rest of the books out to 3,000 students who were seated neatly in rows.
In their white uniforms, in the shade of large trees, many students eagerly flipped through the pages, examining the black and white photos, sometimes turning to comment to their schoolmates. A microphone was set up for some of them to ask questions. “Why did the Khmer Rouge kill people?” asked Sa Vattana.
Mr Dy explained that the Khmer Rouge leadership believed that their country was infested by spies and enemies of the revolution who needed to be eliminated.
“For more information go to chapter five,” he added.
by http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091128/FOREIGN/711279810/1135
Yet again there is a report that legislation to allow foreigners to buy property in Cambodia freehold is about to become law, according to a new report in the New York Times.
During the last boom Cambodia property became very popular with investors from all around the world, and rightly so; people were buying property and selling 6 months later for a 12% profit, 12 months later for a 24% profit on a regular basis. During this time a report that the government was coming closer to allowing foreigners to buy freehold would make the news at regular intervals -- we all waited and waited but it never came.
I was interviewed by a journalist from the Phhom Penh post round about October 2007, and he asked me if I thought the law would go ahead, depending on who was elected (elections were coming up). I said, at the moment the government doesn't need to change the law, because the economy and property market are doing well, but I see prices levelling off in the next 6 months, at which point the government of the day may reconsider the law.
I was right about prices levelling off; little did I know that this would be followed by Cambodia and many other nations falling prey to the global downturn. Now that Cambodia has suffered quite badly, it is entirely possible that the government may make it easier for foreigners to buy property, as an incentive to choose the country and hopefully cash-in on the rising investment levels seen in other Asian nations.
At the moment foreigners can only buy Cambodian property by setting up a company with a Cambodian senior partner. If they don't want to go that route then they must buy on leasehold, though some developers are giving 99 year leasehold tenures which is full ownership according to some judicial systems.
At this stage however, it is unlikely that changing the law would have a major impact on Cambodian property investment -- certainly nowhere near the effect it would have had during the boom. The international real estate investment landscape has changed; currently the best opportunities lie in established markets, where below market opportunities abound. Established markets are also currently the favourites because of the reduced appetite for risk among private investors.
That said, Cambodia will always be one of the top emerging markets for property investment in my opinion. Before the downturn the economy was growing at a blistering pace of 10-11% per year, based on massive growth in the industrial and services sectors, with construction and real estate also generating significant revenues. This economic growth continued to increase the affluence of Cambodians, and property values and rents continued to grow.
Cambodia has also been left with a number of unique traits from the brutal Khmer Rouge rule:
* Most of male population is under 25; a young vibrant workforce
* Both commercial and private property sectors are relatively new, so pricing is still finding its grounding
* A determination among the entire population to drive the nation forward and to reach their full potential.
These traits made it very popular for retail and commercial investment, on top of the astonishing economic growth. It is likely that Cambodia will regain its popularity with property investors once the economy can return to growth, and the massive bargains start to dry up in established markets. If the new law is improved it will no doubt increase the fervour of this boost.
by http://www.write-about-property.com/articles/cambodian-government-to-allow-freehold-for-foreigners--i-won-t-hold-my-breath-573.php
By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
27 November 2009
Prime Minister Hun Sen has said Cambodia must go ahead with its law governing non-governmental agencies, lest the country become a haven for terrorism and human trafficking.
Speaking before a gathering of NGO officials in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen downplayed concerns the law would be used to restrict the work of rights groups and other organizations.
“We will not limit the freedoms of the non-governmental organizations, and we will not take funding from those organizations,” he said.
In 2003, Cambodia was forced to close a local organization found to be funneling money for Islamic extremism and abetting an alleged plot to attack Western embassies in Phnom Penh.
Proponents of a law to enforce NGO funding have said it can prevent that from happening again, but critics of the proposed law worry it could be used to crack down on organizations the government sees as overly critical of its practices.
By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report form Phnom Penh
27 November 2009
Health agencies say they are worried about a high number of HIV infections among indirect sex workers, drug needle sharers and men who have sex with men.
Infections have risen since the inception of an anti-trafficking law that has driven sex workers out of brothels, where condoms are easily distributed, and into entertainment venues where distribution is more difficult.
Nearly one in every four intravenous drug users is HIV positive, according to government figures. Also, about 5 percent of male prostitutes in Cambodia are estimated to be HIV positive.
Unexpected problems have resulted from the closure of brothels after the passage of the anti-trafficking law in 2008.
“When we go to offer our condoms and sex education services in the entertainment facilities, the owners stop us saying their places do not offer sex services,” said Tim Vora, acting executive director of HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee.
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
27 November 2009
The National Assembly should be a place of justice and fairness, with serious weight given the suspended immunities of its members, a democracy advocate said Thursday.
“What is important is that there should be a place to find right and wrong and what is just in the National Assembly, and if immunity is removed, it should not be done very quickly like this,” said Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”
Hang Chhaya was referring to the Nov. 16 suspension of opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity, the third opposition suspension this year.
Sam Rainsy is facing charges in Svay Rieng of incitement and destruction of property, after villagers reportedly angered by Vietnamese encroachment allegedly pulled border markets out of the ground in Chantrea district.
Hang Chhaya echoed concerns of US congressman Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, who said this week that such court cases and the removal of parliamentary immunity could hurt democratic debate in the nation’s legislative body.
Callers to “Hello VOA” Thursday showed wide condemnation for the suspension, which occurred with only members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party present.
“Sam Rainsy is a member of parliament, and he has the right to serve the people,” said a caller named Un.
“What the government has done to strip [his] immunity is a clear threat not only to Sam Rainsy but other MPs,” said a caller named Ma. “That’s not respectful of freedom and people’s confidentiality, because those are representatives of the people.”
By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
27 November 2009
Defense Minister Tea Banh is in Bangkok for two days of talks with his Thai counterpart to help maintain peace along the northern border, officials said Thursday, as a diplomatic row between the two neighbors continues.
Tea Banh will meet with Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan in Pattaya, Thailand, to maintain stable security, good cooperation and management of troops on both sides, officials said on condition of anonymity.
Tea Banh confirmed on Thursday he would travel for a “regular meeting,” but he declined to give details.
Military officials say the meeting is the first of its kind since deep diplomatic divisions opened between the two countries in October over Cambodia’s appointment of ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser to Hun Sen.
Both sides have withdrawn their ambassadors over the row.
