Social & Technologies.

Image Souvenir

2009-04-29T01:31:00.001-07:00

Image Souvenir

2009-04-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Fostering a sense of heritage

2009-03-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

Written by Anne-Laure Porre
Thursday, 19 March 2009

UNESCO's Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai sees stubborn pursuit of peace as the key to healing the rift between clashing cultures.

What were your impressions of Preah Vihear temple?

I knew the site before because I was vice chairman of the World Heritage Committee when the file was submitted [to UNESCO]. So I knew the file and the controversy. On the spot, I was not surprised because it was chosen for the universal value of its heritage.

But I said to myself that we did not make a mistake and that we should have listed it as a World Heritage site a long time ago if history would have allowed us to do so. Concerning the recent events, I saw pieces of shrapnel, bullets and the Thai soldiers at the border.

As I said to the Cambodians, I encouraged them to be patient and to look stubbornly for peace and for dialogue. Both sides have to hold on to the rule of law and on what international law says. This is a conflict that will resolve itself with the time.

Does UNESCO play any role in the negotiations between Thailand and Cambodia to solve the conflict?
No, we don't.

Before choosing Preah Vihear, you were aware of the tensions between the two countries?
A country petitions for the World Heritage's list. The file was technical, not political. We delayed our decision in order to allow the states to agree. We are interested in the universal value of the site. We would have preferred that this border heritage unite [Cambodia and Thailand].

Cambodian newspapers interpret your visit as showing political support for Cambodia. How would you characterise the purpose of your visit?
Does Cambodia need political support? You know, I could have come before. I was invited for a very long time. If my visit reinforces Cambodia, this is not my intention -- but good! I am acting as the president of UNESCO's executive council.

I have come in order to see Cambodia's heritage and to encourage Cambodians to submit more sites for World Heritage status. A lot of them deserve it. At UNESCO, we are interested in the heritage because it does more for peace than politics.

In what ways does heritage serve the cause of peace more than politics?
When heritage is known and shared by people who are strangers to your culture, they have to put their own culture in perspective. The other day I was joking: ‘The French probably had to relativise Versailles when confronted by Angkor Wat!' When you look at Angkor Wat, you have to think about the history, the ideas and the philosophy that led to it. This thought is an ingredient of peace, with education of course. And that's how humanity will appropriate this heritage. Peace grows in people's minds.

After that, if a country wants to declare war and the heritage is threatened, there will be people to say, ‘Stop'!. This is the sowing of peace.

Among the sites you have visited (Banteay Chhmar, Sambo Preykub, Beng Mealea, Koh Ke, Damrei and Leung Balang), which one do you think deserves World Heritage status?
I did not visit a single site that does not deserve it, natural sites included. I've visited a sanctuary for birds on the Tonle Sap Lake [Prek Toal], which maybe could be part of a mixed natural and cultural heritage [site] because of the fishermen's lifestyle in the lakeside village. It is like in my country, in Benin.

The difference is that in Benin, the people who live this way were forced to leave their land because of raids by those who wanted to catch slaves. They were refugees. They built their houses on piles on the water and created a new lifestyle. In this nature reserve of the Tonle Sap Lake, I was told that there is a great variety of birds and a great biodiversity. I am sure there are also a lot of different reptile and plant species.

Why did the site of Koh Ker make such a strong impression on you?
It never occurred to me that there was a pyramid in Cambodia! I was amazed. The pyramid is a way to express oneself that people have in common. All these civilisations were not contemporaneous: Khmer, Inca, Aztec. It proves the uniqueness of the human spirit, its universality. But these are not stories that are written in the newspapers.

Why have you said that Cambodians are very discreet about their heritage?
Some countries that have a tenth of this heritage would make more noise about it.

What are the most important factors for implementing sustainable protections of cultural heritage?
Besides conservation efforts, the involvement of the local communities is very important, so that they appropriate this heritage and understand that it belongs to them.

It is necessary to educate people about heritage because you can never take this notion for granted.

Education is a long-term process. You need to train one generation before getting the dividends of this education while heritage is visible and alive at the present time.

INTERVIEW BY ANNE-LAURE PORRE

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Yoeung Vorn’s story

2009-03-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Yoeun Vorn, a 52-year old widow, lives with her 4 children in a small palm-leaf lad cottage in Prey Veng village, Chumkiri district, Kampot. In front of her house is a small lean-to from where her daughter sells foodstuffs and household goods, and petrol from soft drink bottles. Everyday, Vorn packs her basket with dried fish and vegetables and heads off for the day, hawking her goods from house to house. The work is tiring and the profits are little but, for Vorn, life has never been better.

Born into a very poor family, Vorn was married at the age of 16 to a widower with two children. He was not of good character and soon began to abuse her both physically and mentally. Food was constantly in short supply and the couple worked as farm labourers to supplement what they could produce from her mother’s small piece of rice land. In the early 1980s her mother became seriously ill and subsequently died and the land was sold to pay the medical and funeral expenses.

Vorn’s husband died in 1998, leaving her with nothing but the four children from their marriage, 3 daughters and a son. Her life became extremely difficult and Vorn was reduced to harvesting water lilies from a distant lake to sell in the village. She had not participated in any of the development activities conducted in her village because she lacked the confidence and was anyway too busy to join meetings. Her three older children, none of whom had ever attended school, were absent for much of the year working as labourers on distant farms.

In early 2000, Yoeun Vorn was chosen to participate in an experimental “special projects for the poorest”. CIDSE spent many months developing a relationship with the family and gaining an understanding of their current livelihood strategies. CIDSE then helped the family establish the small goods store. The store is currently managed by Vorn’s eldest daughter and Vorn herself buys goods from producers and other retailers in the neighborhood and sells them to villagers further a field.

Asked to explain how she feels now that she has her own business, she smiles and says that she is very happy. She is able to get out and meet other people and, for the first time in a long while, is able to have her family all together. She is now interested in getting involved in other development activities in her village and is talking about possibly sending her youngest child to school. Developing a relationship and respect for this very poor woman, and a very small grant, was all that was needed to give her life meaning and a hope for a better future.

CIDSE CAMBODIA

Sihanouk donates archives

2009-02-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

Written by Neth Pheaktra

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Over one million documents, thousands of photos and rare films belonging to the former King have been sent to the French National Archives for preservation.

KING Father Norodom Sihanouk has donated his private records to the French government's National Archives in Paris, where they have been painstakingly catalogued since their arrival from Beijing two years ago.

"[Sihanouk] is the first foreign head of state to give his archives to France," said Olivier de Bernon, director of studies at the Ecole Francaise Extreme D'Orient (EFEO).

Over two years, with help from two researchers and one archivist, de Bernon catalogued manuscripts and photos belonging to the 86-year-old King Father, who abdicated in 2004.

"These archives have never been in Cambodia. They come directly from the King Father's residence in Beijing," said de Bernon, adding that an inventory of the "Sihanouk Fund" will be published next year.

A unique collection
The 50 boxes of archives deal primarily with the period following Sihanouk's ouster in the republican coup of March 1970, and as such do not cover the
period of his childhood, coronation and first reign - most of the records of which were destroyed in the upheavals of the 1970s.

"There is an enormous variety of documents," said de Bernon, who estimates that the collection contains one million documents, several thousand letters and 10,000 photos, which will be housed at the Soubise Hotel in Paris, an institution of the National Archives.

"We have the integrity of his speech in French, as he translated it all into Khmer by himself," de Bernon added. "His language is French. This is where Sihanouk's style is very recognisable."

The collection also includes rare film footage of the speech Sihanouk gave after his resignation as head of state of Democratic Kampuchea in April 1976, and large quantities of photos taken while the deposed King lived in North Korea as a guest of Kim Il Sung.

There is also an extensive collection of autographed letters from Zhou Enlai, Andre Malraux, Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and Ronald Reagan.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said that the Sihanouk archives are very important for the preservation of Cambodia's history.

"We need history to shape our future," he told the Post Monday.

"We hope the people of Cambodia and others can access the archives openly."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Angkor Wat Temple

2009-02-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country’s prime attraction for visitors.

Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple mountain and the later galleried temple. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 km (2.2 miles) long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and for the numerous devatas (guardian spirits) adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, in use by the 16th century,means “City Temple”: Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple. Prior to this time the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of its founder, Suryavarman II.

History

Angkor Wat lies 5.5 km north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred on the Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor’s main sites.

The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113 – c. 1150), Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king’s state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as Vrah Vishnulok after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended on the king’s death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.In 1177 Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometres to the north.

In the 14th or 15th century the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was Antonio da Magdalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it “is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of”. However, the temple was popularised in the West only in the mid-19th century on the publication of Henri Mouhot’s travel notes. The French explorer wrote of it:

“One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.”

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, was unable to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues.

The temple has become a symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of every Cambodian national flag since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.[9] In January 2003 riots erupted in Phnom Penh when a false rumour circulated that a Thai soap opera actress had claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand.

Architecture
Site and plan

Angkor Wat, located at [show location on an interactive map] 13°24′45″N, 103°52′0″ECoordinates: [show location on an interactive map] 13°24′45″N, 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire’s state temples, the later plan of concentric galleries, and influences from Orissa and the Chola of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean.Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level.

Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple. Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction—prasavya in Hindu terminology—as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services.The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat’s alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.

A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple’s alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that these indicate a claimed new era of peace under king Suryavarman II: “as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king’s power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above.” Mannikka’s suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.

Style
Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture—the Angkor Wat style—to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime have been suggested.

Angkor Wat has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design, which has been compared to the architecture of ancient Greece or Rome. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple “attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style.”

Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.

The Angkor Wat style was followed by that of the Bayon period, in which quality was often sacrificed to quantity.[24] Other temples in the style are Banteay Samré, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevoda and the early temples of Preah Pithu at Angkor; outside Angkor, Beng Mealea and parts of Phanom Rung and Phimai.

Features
Outer enclosure
The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is much the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper. Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple’s central shrine. Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as “elephant gates”, as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth.

The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres (203 acres), which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets.[28] Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.

Central structure
The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.[3] Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.

The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the “Hall of a Thousand Buddhas”). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water. North and south of the cloister are libraries.

Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru. Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.

Decoration
Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat’s extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, “the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving”. From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu mythology. Glaize writes of;

“… those unfortunate souls who are to be thrown down to hell to suffer a refined cruelty which, at times, seems to be a little disproportionate to the severity of the crimes committed. So it is that people who have damaged others’ property have their bones broken, that the glutton is cleaved in two, that rice thieves are afflicted with enormous bellies of hot iron, that those who picked the flowers in the garden of Shiva have their heads pierced with nails, and thieves are exposed to cold discomfort.”

On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu’s direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna’s victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, “The workmanship is at its worst”) and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna.

Angkor Wat today
Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has seen a resumption of conservation efforts and a massive increase in tourism. The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992, which has provided some funding and has encouraged the Cambodian government to protect the site. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to protect the devatas and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from damage. The organisation’s survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone but in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a Japanese team completed restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005. World Monuments Fund began work on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery in 2008.

Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 2004 and 2005, government figures suggest that, respectively, 561,000 and 677,000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia for both years. The influx of tourists has so far caused relatively little damage, other than some graffiti; ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance—as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the whole Angkor site was spent on the temples—although most work is carried out by foreign government-sponsored teams rather than by the Cambodian authorities.

Source: khmer Botra.

References:

* BBC Horizon (4 November 1999). Atlantis Reborn (script). Broadcast BBC2 November 4, 1999, retrieved 25 July 2005.
* Briggs, Lawrence Robert (1951, reprinted 1999). The Ancient Khmer Empire. White Lotus. ISBN 974-8434-93-1.
* Buckley, Michael (1998). Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Handbook. Avalon Travel Publications. Online excerpt The Churning of the Ocean of Milk retrieved 25 July 2005.
* Freeman, Michael and Jacques, Claude (1999). Ancient Angkor. River Books. ISBN 0-8348-0426-3.
* Glaize, Maurice (2003 edition of an English translation of the 1993 French fourth edition). The Monuments of the Angkor Group. Retrieved 14 July 2005.
* Higham, Charles (2001). The Civilization of Angkor. Phoenix. ISBN 1-84212-584-2.
* Higham, Charles (2003). Early Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia. Art Media Resources. ISBN 1-58886-028-0.
* Hing Thoraxy. Achievement of “APSARA”: Problems and Resolutions in the Management of the Angkor Area Retrieved 26 July 2005.
* Ray, Nick (2002). Lonely Planet guide to Cambodia (4th edition). ISBN 1-74059-111-9.
* University of Applied Sciences Cologne. German Apsara Conservation Project Retrieved 21 June 2005.

Thai border guards testing for malaria

2009-02-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

Written by May Tithara
Friday, 20 February 2009

LOCAL traders making day-trips into Thailand are coming under increased scrutiny, with a particular increase in medical checks - including blood tests - being applied by Thai officials, according to border guards.

Kim Sothy, an immigration official posted at the Cham Yeam international border crossing in Koh Kong province, told the Post that the new tests showed that Thai officials were "looking down on Cambodians".

He said that there had been no advance warnings of the new tests, which had put off local traders from doing business in Thai markets across the border.

"Three people were forced to do blood tests, and 30 minutes later Thai physicians come to apologise to us," he said, adding that the physicians had been told to give at least three days' advance warning to make it easier to inform local people.

Koh Kong Governor Yuth Puthong said the blood tests were unexpected, but that Thai authorities were screening border commuters for infectious diseases.

"There's no problem because the Thai physicians are testing blood to find malaria. But our people didn't know, so it made them afraid," he said. "If they tell us in advance, we will cooperate and work with them."

Suon Sovannarith of Legal Support for Children and Women, an NGO working with migrant workers in Thailand, said the new measures sounded unusual but had not heard confirmations of a new crackdown on infectious diseases.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Viettel launches service, 500,000 subscribers gained

2009-02-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

Written by George McLeod
Friday, 20 February 2009

Mobile network owned by Vietnamese military officially lauches its Metfone network after three-month trial period

THE latest mobile phone company to start up in Cambodia, Viettel, officially launched its Metfone service Thursday after a major nationwide drive to gain a foothold in the Kingdom's increasingly competitive mobile market.

Viettel - which is wholly owned by the Vietnamese military - has gained more than 500,000 subscribers in the Kingdom since beginning a trial launch three months ago, it said, largely by distributing free SIM cards. It already has more than 1,000 transmitter stations countrywide and 5,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable, including remote islands, according to a company press release to coincide with the launch on Thursday.

The company, which also plans to become an internet service provider, says it has established 50 stores countrywide. "Our target is 100 stores across the country," it said. Viettel obtained a licence to operate in Cambodia in June 2007.

One industry source said that the entry of Viettel could shake up a telecoms industry that has long been dominated by Mobitel.

"[Viettel] has close relations with the Cambodian military and will seriously challenge the existing companies," said the source, who requested anonymity.

Cambodia's major mobile operators are Mobitel with a 63 percent share of the market, CamShin with 18 percent and TMIC at 15 percent. Cambodia currently has 2.6 million mobile users.

Viettel - which is run by General Director Major General Hoang Anh Xuan - is among the top three telecommunications firms in Vietnam. The company is set to privatise, but a 51 percent stake will stay in the military's hands. Viettel is also active in Laos with plans to open offices in Myanmar, North Korea and Venezuela, Vietnamese state media have reported.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Memories of evil stir as Duch trial opens

2009-02-18T01:53:00.000-08:00

Written by Neth Pheaktra and Cat Barton
Wednesday, 18 February 2009

First prosecution of former Khmer Rouge leader gives many regime victims an uneasy look back into the past, but also a glimpse of hope.

VANN Nath, perhaps one of the Khmer Rouge regime's most famous survivors, has waited decades for the trial of his former tormentor, Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav.

As the landmark event began Tuesday, Vann Nath, who was one of only a handful to walk out of the torture centre after the regime was toppled in 1979, said: "I have been waiting for this day for 30 years and now the day is here".

"Last night, I did not sleep well because I was thinking a lot about my time at Tuol Sleng," added Vann Nath, who was spared execution because of artistic abilities, which his jailors put to use painting portraits of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

"I dreamed about going to the Khmer Rouge tribunal to join this hearing because it is very important for all people," he said.

For many victims, the opening of the trial at the UN-backed court marks the hoped-for end of a long wait for an explanation and an apology for their suffering.

"I lost all my relatives in the regime. I am an orphan," said Kuch Gnorn, 50, now a monk.

"I really want to know why the Khmer Rouge killed their own people. It makes me angry - so much violence in this Buddhist country of Cambodia," he added.

Francois Roux, the French lawyer representing the 66-year-old former maths teacher-turned-torturer, said his client, who is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, would like to answer his victims.

Kaing Guek Eav, who is better known as Duch, "would like to apologise to victims, but not today," Roux said after the hearing.

"He will apologise not only to victims of S-21 but to all Cambodians. He will explain everything, but ... in the future. So I make the request to victims, please, don't close the door yet."

Though largely procedural, with no witness testimony or statements from Duch, Tuesday's hearing still brought long-buried emotions to the surface for many in attendance.

Luch Bunthort, 54, from Kampong Thom province, who had travelled to the court, said: "I have been waiting for this hearing for years. I never thought that it would happen. ... I lost three members of my family during the regime".

Later in the day, the sky above rained for the first time after a long dry season, which many interpreted as a portent of the sorrow opening up old wounds.

"Cambodians everywhere are crying," court spokesman Reach Sambath told the Post.

Dredging up old memories for the new trial, even in the name of finding closure, comes with attendant risks.

"I hope that survivors who do attend or who watch the hearings or read about them in papers understand that everything is not going to be solved [Tuesday]," said Sara Colm, of Human Rights Watch.

"This kind of hearing can re-open old wounds so ... I'm thinking about the victims, and I hope the beginning of the proceedings delivers justice for them in their minds and their hearts," she said, adding that proper support - from friends, family or professional organisations - was essential for victims.

But many observers still question what the trial will ultimately achieve.

"On the one hand, it is good that the trials are finally commencing. But why start with Duch, who was a cog, albeit a willing cog, in a machine created and ordered by others?" asked historian Philip Short, author of Pol Pot: History of a nightmare.

"And why try Duch when all the KR Zone secretaries, the district chiefs ... the local chhlorp leaders, and so many others whose hands are steeped in murder, are not going to face any kind of justice? The politically imposed double standard is flagrant," he added.

For Short, the trials of [leaders] Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan will be far more important than Duch's trial, in that they - and particularly the first two - were in the top echelons of the leadership that created the KR machine.

"Duch may cast light on how the machine operated. Nuon Chea and Ieng Sary, if they choose to do so, could cast light on why it operated that way. That said, I don't have any great hopes that either will reveal, except inadvertently, much truth about what they did," he said.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Cupid highlights revealing depths of Cambodia's generation gap

2009-02-18T00:19:00.000-08:00

Written by Chhay Channyda and Mom Kunthier
Friday, 13 February 2009

While some view Valentine's Day celebrations as un-Cambodian, the younger generation embraces the occasion through buying gifts and spending time with their loved ones.

Where's the love this Valentine's Day? Apparently, not at Phnom Penh's Bak Touk High School, where director Sok Sovanna tells the Post he's imposed a "love-free" zone during what he calls a very un-Cambodian holiday.

"I don't support Cambodian youth celebrating Valentine's Day because it is not a part of Khmer culture, such as Khmer New Year or P'chum Ben," Sok Sovanna said.

"This is part of Western culture that makes our young people overwhelmed with joy and leads them to forget about their studies."

However, the adamant director acknowledged that his authority on this point does not extend beyond school grounds.
"I don't care if [students] celebrate outside school by giving gifts to loved ones. But if I see students doing such things in my school, I will re-educate them not to show their romantic love here," he said.

Sok Sovanna's "Cupid crackdown" could have an unintended economic impact.
Flower-sellers have done a brisk trade in recent years by setting up stalls near high schools and other areas where students gather. They may find business slow anywhere near Bak Touk High School.

If we celebrate in a good way, it will not have a negative impact on our tradition.

"At my school, there will be no flower-selling inside or outside. This is our rule to enforce discipline among our students," he said.

Jeopardising tradition
Resistance to the holiday is not simply a matter of enforcing parochial discipline but preserving national culture, Miech Ponn, an adviser to the Mores and Customs Commission within the Buddhist Institute, told the Post.

Miech Ponn challenged the capital's love-crazed youth to consider whether their culture will be lost as more young people become enamoured with Western traditions.

"I do not know how they celebrate Valentine's Day in Western countries, but the way we bring in their culture into Cambodia is too overwhelming," Miech Ponn said.

"We seem to bring in outside culture to destroy our own. I think many Cambodians just don't understand their own traditions very well."

If they did, he added, they would find little need to look towards the West.
"Valentine's Day means a loving day. We already have this in Cambodia. It's P'chum Ben and Khmer New Year, during which children and young people show their respect and love, and they make amends to anyone they have wronged. This is our traditional way of showing we love each other," Miech Ponn said.

"I understand globalisation, but if we bring such culture in, why do other countries not take some of our culture back with them? In the end, we expand their culture by forgetting our own," he added.

Celebration of love
But on a day given over to the celebration of friendship and love, questions of tradition or even geo-cultural trends are the last things on young people's minds.

Sok Liya, 18, a student at Indradevi High School, has no boyfriend but plans to celebrate the day by going out to eat with her friends.

"Valentine's Day is good for people who have love and can spend time with their lovers. But even though I don't have a boyfriend, I will spend time with my classmates and have fun," she said.

However, she cautioned young women planning a romantic day with the men in their lives to think of their security.
"[Some men] think that they can do whatever they want," she said.

Sok Chamroeun, 23, a student at Sisowath High School, is preparing for his first Valentine's Day with his girlfriend. Part of those plans will include ditching his studies for the day and purchasing flowers and gifts for his true love.

"I think Valentine's Day is a special occasion for me because I will be able to tell my girlfriend about my honest heart and my feelings for her," Sok Chamroeun said.

He added a word of advice to those who might look down on the holiday or dismiss it as another example of young Cambodian people losing touch with their heritage.

"I know some people will use this holiday to behave badly and in a way that contradicts their culture. But for me, if we celebrate in a good way, it will not have a negative impact on our tradition," Sok Chamroeun said.

"I don't think Valentine's Day is a bad day, as some people say. On this day, all people - young and old - can celebrate together. We don't focus simply on youths."

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Cambodia's first Khmer Rouge trial opens

2009-02-17T01:57:00.000-08:00

Written by Cat Barton, Georgia Wilkins and Neth Pheaktra

Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Three decades after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the first trial of one of the regime's top leaders, Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch, gets under way

Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav stood before Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal today in the first of at least five expected trials of former regime leaders that are hoped to bring closure to one of the 20th century's darkest chapters.

Three decades after the ultra-communist movement was driven from power, Kaing Guek Eav - who is better known by his revolutionary name Duch - is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The 66-year-old maths teacher ran a number of Khmer Rouge prisons, but is most infamous as commandant of the regime's main detention centre, Tuol Sleng, where as more than 16,000 men, women and children were brutally tortured before being executed in the nearby Choeung Ek killing fields.

Scores of Khmer Rouge victims were among the hundreds of people attending Tuesday's opening hearing, including Vann Nath, one of only a handful of people to survive Tuol Sleng.

"I have been waiting for this day for 30 years and now the day is here," he said outside the court.

"Last night, I did not sleep well because I was thinking a lot about my time at Tuol Sleng," added Vann Nath, who was spared execution because of artistic abilities, which his jailors put to use painting portraits of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

"I dreamed about going to the Khmer Rouge tribunal to join this hearing because it is very important for all people," he said.

Duch, a frail man wearing a blue shirt and eyeglasses, sat calmly behind his lawyers taking notes during Tuesday's largely procedural hearing, during which the structure of the upcoming trial proper would be determined.

Duch's lawyers said they intended to appeal his detention, saying that his imprisonment since 1999 - Duch was first held in military prison before being transferred to the tribunal's custody in July 2007 - is a violation of his basic human rights.

"The accused has been in pretrial detention for nine years, nine months and seven days until today," said Duch's international lawyer Francois Roux.

"This is unacceptable. A person cannot be kept in pretrial detention for more than three years under Cambodia law."

International co-prosecutor Robert Petit told court judges that his team would again push for the concept of joint criminal enterprise to be applied to Duch's case, a legal move with potentially far-reaching implications on other cases before the tribunal.

Joint criminal enterprise, which was rejected by tribunal judges in December, opens the possibility of several defendants who had acted as a group facing a single charge.

The move has sent a shudder of alarm through the defence teams of the four other Khmer Rouge leaders in detention, who say that their clients could be unfairly prosecuted for crimes committed by Duch.

Duch, a born-again Christian, is the only suspect to have confessed to his crimes, and his testimony is expected to shed light on the regime's inner workings, including the acts committed by other senior members arrested by the tribunal.

Pol Pot's "Brother No 2" Nuon Chea, along with former foreign minister Ieng Sary, social minister Ieng Thirith and head of state Khieu Samphan, are all in the tribunal's custody and likely to be tried as a group next year for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Fires deadliest in Australia's history

2009-02-10T02:08:00.000-08:00

Written by AFP
Tuesday, 10 February 2009

WHITTLESEA, Australia - Troops and firefighters battled raging Australian wildfires Monday that have left at least 131 people dead amid a landscape of charred homes, bodies and devastated communities.

The wildfires have become the deadliest in Australia's history, destroying entire towns and wiping out families, and Australian officials have warned the death toll will likely rise further.

Amid the heartache, there was also anger as police revealed they suspected some of the fires were started by arsonists, whom Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused of "mass murder".

"This is of a level of horror that few of us anticipated," he said, later choking up with emotion as he recounted the messages of support that have arrived from around the world.

Parliament suspended normal business to mark what Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard called "one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history".

Fires still burning
Thirty-one fires were still burning in the southeastern state of Victoria, where all the deaths occurred, and nervous communities were on alert as the flames burned everything in their path at the whim of the winds.

They have swept through some 3,000 square kilometres, fed by tinderbox conditions after a prolonged heatwave.

A number of the smouldering ruins are now surrounded by crime scene tape as police probe whether arsonists were to blame.
"What do you say about anyone like that? There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," Rudd said. AFP

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

England players top IPL auction

2009-02-06T01:46:00.000-08:00

Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen have become the most costly cricketers bought in the Indian Premier League.

The English cricketers were picked up for $1.55m (£1.1m) each, Flintoff going to Chennai and Pietersen to Bangalore at the 2009 IPL auction in Goa.

The amounts will be paid as salary but will be pro-rated as they can only play for three of the IPL's six weeks.

England's Ravi Bopara went to Kings XI Punjab for $450,000, while Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood joined Delhi.

Former England skipper Collingwood went for $275,000 while Shah was snapped up for $375,000.

They will all have to pay 10% of their share of their auction price to their counties for releasing them for the first part of the season.

The previous transfer record was set at the 2008 auction, when Chennai paid $1.5m (£1.04m) for India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Australia batsman Michael Clarke, who had a price tag of $1m (£686,345), pulled out of the auction on Thursday to give himself more rest and time with his family in preparation for a busy year which includes a Test series in South Africa, the Ashes series and the Twenty20 World Cup.

Bangalore's owner Vijay Mallya said he was prepared to pay more for Pietersen.

"It was a very worthwhile investment. Team balance was important and Kevin was certainly important in maintaining that balance," he said.

He also suggested that Pietersen may be a candidate for captaining the Royal Challengers.

"The captaincy slot is open, but a decision will be made after a discussion," he said. "Pietersen will be with us for three weeks and that is something we have to take into consideration."

Indian cricket board secretary N. Srinivasan, who owns the Chennai Super Kings, was delighted with the acquisition of Flintoff.

"Twenty20 cricket is a game for all-rounders and Flintoff is one of the best in the business," he said.

The chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association Sean Morris rejected any suggestion that the England side may be harmed by jealousy of Pietersen and Flintoff by other players.

"I can't see there being any jealousy," he told BBC 5 Live. "I think dressing rooms deal with the issue of money really well, probably better than most other workplaces.

"Ultimately what matters is what happens on the pitch."

England players were not involved in the auction last year because of international commitments and will be restricted to half this year's tournament because of the home Test series against the West Indies in April and May.

The 2009 IPL season will be held from 10 April to 29 May.

South African all-rounder JP Duminy was sold for $950,000 to Mumbai Indians, more than three times his reserve price.

Fellow South African Tyron Henderson went for more than six times his reserve price by joining Rajasthan Royals for $650,000.

Australia paceman Shaun Tait was the first player auctioned, going to defending champions Rajasthan Royals for $375,000, where he will join former Australia team-mate Shane Warne.

The only other Australian purchased was George Bailey who joined Chennai for $50,000.

The purchase of Bangladeshi all-rounder Mashrafe Bin Mortaza by Kolkata Knight Riders was one of the most surprising; his $600,000 tag was more than 12 times his reserve price.

All contracts are for two seasons, rather than the three of last year.

Essex all-rounder Bopara attracted "fierce bidding" and the Kings XI believe he will suit their plans perfectly.

"He is a great player and an all-rounder and we wanted such a player," stated co-owner Priety Zinta.

"We think he would be perfect for Kings XI Punjab and we think we are happy we got what we wanted."

There were no bidders for the other two England players in contention, Sussex batsman Luke Wright and Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel.

They join a long list of unsold players, which includes Australian's Phil Jacques and Stuart Clark.

Their only chance of making the IPL this year is if the franchises pick them up as replacements for the Pakistani players, who have been barred from taking part by their government.

Commissioner Lalit Modi said: "There are only limited slots, there are 50 players and you cannot expect to have all the players sold.

"The teams have strategies and they normally put in a lot more players so that they get the other teams to bid for them in the hope of upsetting their plan."
________________________________________
IPL auction results, country by country. (exchange rate as of 05/02/2009 is 1.4 dollars to the pound):

AUSTRALIA: George Bailey (Chennai Super Kings, $50,000), Shaun Tait (Rajasthan Royals, $375,000).

BANGLADESH: Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (Kolkata Knight Riders, $600,000), Mohammad Ashraful (Mumbai Indians, $75,000)

ENGLAND: Andrew Flintoff (Chennai Super Kings, $1,550,000), Kevin Pietersen (Bangalore Royal Challengers, $1,550,000), Owais Shah (Delhi Daredevils, $375,000), Paul Collingwood (Delhi Daredevils, $275,000), Ravi Bopara (Kings XI Punjab, $450,000).

NEW ZEALAND: Jesse Ryder (Bangalore Royal Challengers, $160,000), Kyle Mills (Mumbai Indians, $150,000).

SOUTH AFRICA: J P Duminy (Mumbai Indians, $950,000), Tyron Henderson (Rajasthan Royals, $650,000).

SRI LANKA: Thilan Thushara (Chennai Super Kings, $140,000).

WEST INDIES: Dwayne Smith (Deccan Chargers, $100,000), Fidel Edwards (Deccan Chargers, $150,000), Jerome Taylor (Kings XI Punjab, $150,000).

UNSOLD: Aaron Bird, Brett Geeves, Bryce McGain, Daniel Harris, Dominic Thornley, Jonathan Moss, Michael Dighton, Michael Hill, Phil Jacques, Shane Harwood, Steven Smith, Stuart Clark (All Australia), Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal (Both Bangladesh), Luke Wright, Samit Patel (Both England), James Franklin (New Zealand), Gulam Bodi, Morne Van Wyk, Yusuf Abdullah (All South Africa), Chamara Kapugadera, Kaushalya Weereratne, Nuwan Kulasekara (All Sri Lanka), Kemar Roach, Kieron Pollard (Both West Indies).

Source: BBC NEWS.

China's anti-porn drive to include cell phones, other mobile devices

2009-02-06T00:30:00.000-08:00

www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-04 20:18:35

BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-pornography drive will include videos distributed via mobile electronic devices, officials said Wednesday.

A special campaign was jointly launched by five departments, including the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, to combat distribution of porn videos via cell phones.

Public security units were ordered to step up inspection of cell phone and audio-video shops and cooperate with telecommunication authorities as part of the drive.

The campaign will last until mid-April, and the main targets are cell phone shops that provide game, music and video downloads. Pornographic videos are easy to download and store in the memories of cell phones, MP3 and MP4 players and portable gaming devices.

China has been cracking down on online porn and lewd content over the past month under a nationwide campaign. As of Tuesday, officials had blocked 1,575 porn sites and detained 41 people.

Editor: Wang Guanqun

Source: Xinhua

Border negotiators meet in Bangkok

2009-02-04T01:57:00.000-08:00

Written by Cheang Sokha
Wednesday, 04 February 2009

CAMBODIAN and Thai border negotiators resumed talks Tuesday in Bangkok in a bid to resolve the border standoff that last year boiled over into a military clash, officials said.

The last meeting of the Joint Border Commission in Siem Reap ended in November with the two neighbours failing to reach conclusive agreements on any of the key points.

Since then, a new Thai government has come to power, inheriting the long-standing territorial dispute over the land surrounding Cambodia's 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, where troops clashed in October, leaving four dead.

"I think the discussions will not run into any major obstacles," Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told the Post Tuesday. "Both foreign ministers have already agreed in principle [how to proceed] since the meeting in Siem Reap."

Thai and Cambodian officials on the commission agreed in principle last November to reduce the number of troops at the disputed border and to form a border task force, but there has been no concrete progress since then.

Phay Siphan said that the Bangkok meeting would focus on technical issues, such as how to find missing border markers and proceed with demarcation of the area around Preah Vihear temple.

The Joint Border Commission has so far found 48 border markers out of 73 along the two countries' 805-kilometre shared border.

Cambodia's top border negotiator, Var Kimhong, and an accompanying delegation departed for Thailand late Monday, saying before they left that they expected discussions to go well.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Google Earth dives into the oceans

2009-02-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

Google’s software upgrade gives users an oceanview

For the past three years, Google Earth has given its hundreds of millions of users a way to explore, tag and discover the surface of our planet. Well, the land parts at least. Today, Google completes the picture of the world by adding into its popular software the oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface. Ocean in Google Earth will let users dive below the surface of the water to examine wildlife, mountains and ship wrecks in this murky world.

To help users understand what they are looking at, Google has assembled a coalition of more than 80 organisations, including the National Geographic Society, BBC and the Marine Conservation Society, to provide images, video and analysis added to Google’s basic mapping technology.

Users will be able to track the movements of animals in the sea, view marine protected areas and even keep up to date on which fish species are good choices if you want to eat sustain ably.

“With this latest version of Google Earth, you can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet’s surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world’s oceans that cover almost three quarters... and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions of this magical experience,” said the former American vice president, Al Gore, at the launch of the new version of Google Earth in San Francisco.

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, said, “In discussions about climate change, the world’s oceans are often overlooked despite being an integral part of the issue. About one-third of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere ends up in the oceans. Furthermore, biodiversity loss in our oceans in the next 20-30 years will be roughly equivalent to losing an entire Amazon rainforest, but this goes unnoticed because we can’t see it. This is why today’s launch of Google Earth 5.0 is so important – it gives us an opportunity to change everyone’s perspective.

” Arctic explorer Pen Hadow said the launch of Ocean in Google Earth was a watershed. “There’s been a complete disconnect between our land based lives and the oceans,” he said. “What this service is doing is engaging everybody in a better understanding of how oceans work, what they are, how they work and what the dangers are for all of us.” THE GUARDIAN.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Khmer Front Party Seizes NRP’s Office in Retaliation

2009-02-02T01:11:00.000-08:00

By Prak Chan Thul

About 100 members of the ultranationalist Khmer Front Party broke ranks with its political ally, the Norodom Ranariddh Party, on Friday and took over the NRP’s headquarters in Phnom Penh in retaliation for the firing of a KFP member, party members said.

KFP spokesman Kim Sok said the NRP office in Tuol Kok district was seized in retaliation for the unexplained firing of Meas Sokum, who was originally a member of the Front but held the post of NRP chief for Banteay Meanchey province and was a member of the party’s board of directors.

Kim Sok also said that the front was legally entitled to take over the office because when KFP changed its name in 2006, it allowed the creation of the NRP during a time when Prince Norodom Ranariddh was having difficulty establishing a new party from scratch.

“ This morning, our aim was not to take over the office,” Kim Sok explained in a telephone interview.

“We were just demanding a strike, with no violence, in order to get the leadership of the Norodom Ranariddh Party to come out and solve the problems,” he said.

“But they didn’t agree, so we will control the headquarters temporarily until the leadership comes to solve the problems,” he said.

Following his return from exile abroad in October, Prince Ranariddh said that he would retire entirely from politics. This sparked questions regarding the future of the NRP and the co-opted KFP.

Kim Sok said Friday that Prince Ranariddh had signed a memorandum of Understanding that said, “In case Samdech Krom Preah ceases to lead, the party must be handed back to the Khmer Front Party.”

The KFP’s acting president, Em Sitha, will lead the breakaway front loyalists, he added.

Large signs in front of the disputed office with the NRP name and an image of the prince were defaced Friday with black and red spray paint.

Kim Sok, however, said that KFP supporters had merely placaed a new Front sign over the NRP sign on Street 608.

Suth Dina, NRP deputy secretary-general, said Friday that he supported the actions of the KFP members, and accused the prince of interfering in the NRP despite claiming to have resigned from politics, Suth Dina claimed that the prince had ordered NRP Secretary-General You Hockry to fire Meas Sokun after she refused to apologize to the prince regarding an unspecified mistake.

However, the NRP in a statement alleged Meas Sokun was fired for “looking down and using inappropriate language” with the prince,

You Hockry could not be contacted for comment.

The prince’s spokesman, Chea Chanboribo, denied that the prince was involved with the dispute.

“The prince has already quit from the party’s issues. The prince has already handed the party to His Excellencies You Hockry and Chhim Seak Leng,” Chea Chanboribo said, nothing that the prince was also not involved with the firing of Meas Sokum.

Phnom Penh municipal police chief Touch Naruth said Friday that his office exists to protect the public, so officers didn’t involve themselves in what was an internal party dispute.

Police witnessed the image of the prince being spray painted, he said. “It was the property destruction, but let them file the complaint to the court,” Touch Naruth said.

Source: Cambodia Daily.

Border officials to meet in Bangkok for further talks

2009-02-02T00:29:00.000-08:00

Written by Cheang Sokha
Monday, 02 February 2009

The Cambodian delegation due to travel to Thailand ahead of a Feb 6 meeting between the two countries' defence ministers.

CAMBODIAN border officials were to depart for Bangkok today for further talks related to the long-simmering territorial dispute with Thailand, officials told the Post Sunday.

Var Kimhong, Cambodia's top border negotiator, said he will lead the delegation today through Wednesday to resume talks pertaining to the demarcation of the countries' shared border, as per the January 26 agreement reached in Phnom Penh between Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and his Thai counterpart Kasit Piromya.

"I cannot forecast what the result of the meeting will be," Var Kimhong said.

Cambodia and Thailand have never fully demarcated their 805-kilometre shared border.
The current dispute stems from the July 2008 listing of Preah Vihear temple as a Unesco World Heritage site, which prompted Thai nationalists to demand that the then-government reclaim territory allegedly lost to Cambodia, including the 11th-century ruins.

Cambodia's Defence Minister Tea Banh and his Thai counterpart are scheduled to meet February 6 in Phnom Penh to discuss the drawdown of troops at the Keo Sekha Kirisvara pagoda and near the Preah Vihear temple.

Koy Kuong, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Thai and Cambodian negotiators remained optimistic with regard to the talks.

"I think the speed of the negotiations is good," Koy Kuong told the Post Sunday.

Prime Minister Hun Sen plans to discuss the dispute with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the forthcoming summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which is scheduled to be held from February 27 to March 1 in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

UN decries forced evictions

2009-02-02T00:18:00.000-08:00

Written by Sebastian Strangio and May Tithara
Monday, 02 February 2009

UN special rapporteur points to ‘grave consequences' facing Dey Krahorm evictees as local rights groups come under fire from municipal authorities.

A UNITED Nations housing rights expert has slammed the violent eviction of residents from Dey Krahorm, calling the January 24 actions a "grave breach" of human rights and highlighting the "harassment, intimidation and criminalisation" of NGOs and lawyers working on housing rights issues.

"It is regrettable that the ongoing negotiations with the residents were abandoned, casting aside a valuable opportunity to reach a just and lawful solution to this longstanding dispute," said Raquel Rolnik, the UN's special rapporteur for adequate housing, in a statement Friday.

"It is now of utmost importance that the rights of the residents to fair compensation for their lost homes and property and the provision of adequate alternative housing are fully respected."

Rolnik pointed to the "alarming" rise in forced evictions throughout the country, which she said were marked by a "consistent pattern of violation of rights", including excessive use of force, inadequate compensation and a systematic lack of due process.

In the early hours of January 24, police forcibly evicted an estimated 130 families from Dey Krahorm in central Phnom Penh, which was then levelled by construction workers contracted by developer 7NG.

But local authorities have rejected Rolnik's accusations, following last week's similar statement from the local office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, which called the eviction a "breach of residents' right to their land" and an "abuse of the Land Law".

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said: "The UN has written an official letter to the Phnom Penh Municipality asking us to continue negotiations with the people at Dey Krahorm, and we respect their request but we could not find a middle way.

"The UN has asked me why we took all of the people out to live on the street, but we told them that ... they will get housing as compensation."

Mann Choeun claimed that only 20 or 30 families had refused the compensation package offered by 7NG, and that authorities had already built a secondary school and were providing 50 free bicycles to residents at the Damnak Trayeung relocation site.

"We should not take a small problem and make it bigger," he added.

Quashing dissent
In a statement Friday, City Hall took aim at rights activists it claims have whipped up public sentiment over the Dey Krahorm issue.
"They have to have a scapegoat. they have to say that the ... NGOs are to blame. "

"Local and international NGOs and opposition parties accuse the authorities of using violence to evict Dey Krahorm people," the statement said. "They want to show that they love people very much. But they do nothing for the people."

Mann Chhoeun agreed, criticising those "foreigners who have lived in Cambodia for one or two years" but who only know "only one part of the issue".

David Pred, country director of rights group Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, who was singled out in City Hall's statement for his "uncooperative" attitude, told the Post that he and other rights activists have been subject to repeated accusations of incitement and defamation in recent radio and television interviews.

"The municipality singled me out for censure in its statement because I have been publicly outspoken about the forced eviction of the Dey Krahorm community," he said by email, adding that the government was "sending a message" to those speaking out against illegal forced evictions.

"This statement, and the more insidious radio talk-show and television interviews that have aired in the last few days accusing human rights organisations of inciting communities and defaming the authorities, appear to be aimed at frightening human rights defenders and chilling
freedom of expression and dissent," Pred said.

Kek Galabru, president of the rights group Licadho, said she was not surprised by the city's attacks on housing rights advocates.

"They have to have a scapegoat. They have to say to the international community that it is not the choice of the people but that the NGOs are the ones to blame," she said.

She added that while it was easy for the municipality to paint the Dey Krahorm protests as a fabrication of civil society, the community had taken action independently of NGOs.

"We support them morally, technically and legally," she said. "But the decision is up to them."

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Mini-Apsara

2009-02-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Written by Sovann Philong
Monday, 02 February 2009

Children from the Apsara Arts Association perform on stage at the InterContinental hotel on Friday night for The Finishing Post networking event. The nongovernmental organisation aims to revive and preserve Khmer traditional music and dance through teaching and performance both in Cambodia and abroad.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

New Version of Nokia Music PC Client, I’m Back To iTunes

2009-02-01T23:51:00.000-08:00

By TheGuru on October 2nd, 2008

This is actually a really hard post to write. Yesterday, the Nokia Music PC Client launched a new update to the application, simultaneously graduating it from the Nokia Beta Labs, and moving the download location to a new Music.Nokia.com destination. I immediately downloaded and installed the update…and…promptly went over to download and install iTunes.

Now, I know you’re a bit dismayed at the news, and I was hesitant, as well, but I just can’t hold out any longer if I’m going to use my phone for music. After 3 versions of the Nokia Music PC Client, I’m still unable to do anything with my podcasts, and I still cannot setup my own custom playlists, which means it’s really rather useless, in my opinion.

Personally, I love Winamp on my desktop - always have, for years. However, Winamp’s portable sync feature is horrendous. So why iTunes? Because I have 11k+ tracks on my computer, and let’s face it - those get stale really quickly. What I want is to be able to setup custom playlists that automatically update themselves. I want to be able to limit those playlists to a certain number of tracks, or a certain total size, and I want to be able to exclude specific Genres. These playlists would automatically populate themselves with tracks that I have not listened to on my computer in the past XX days/weeks. This way, every time I sync my phone, I get a whole new batch of music that I’ve not heard in a while. Brilliant.

Unfortunately, iTunes is the only desktop application that I’m aware of that allows me to do that, and then sync it to my phone. I’ll be making use of Salling Software’s Salling Media Sync, and will check back in with an update.

To the Nokia Music PC Client Team: I want desperately to use your app and again cleanse my system of iTunes, but I simply can’t with the current limited functionality of Nokia Music PC Client. I’d love to keep trying out new versions, but without this basic playlist functionality, I simply have no use.
Reference:

http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome/2008/10/new-version-of-nokia-music-pc-client-im-back-to-itunes.html

Deadly strike on Sri Lanka hospital

2009-02-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

The UN in Sri Lanka says many people - including children - have been killed by shells landing on a hospital in rebel-held territory in the north-east.

The government has said it will take care of civilians caught in the war zone

UN spokesman Gordon Weiss told the BBC the shells had hit a crowded paediatric unit. It is not clear who fired them.

Earlier the Red Cross said two people had been killed on a separate strike on the same hospital.

It is situated in an enclave held by the Tamil Tiger rebels and home to tens of thousands of civilians.

Mr Weiss said the shell hit the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital in Vanni shortly before midnight (GMT1830).

He said the last message the UN had received from their staff member on the ward said: "Woman and kids' ward shelled... Still trying to count the dead bodies."

See map of the region

Mr Weiss said it was not yet clear how many people had been killed but that the hospital had been so full, with many patients lying on the floor, anything landing on it was "almost guaranteed to cause significant casualties".

The earlier strike prompted a protest from the Red Cross.

"We're shocked that the hospital was hit, and this for the second time in recent weeks," said Paul Castella, head of the Colombo delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Wounded and sick people, medical personnel and medical facilities are all protected by international humanitarian law. Under no circumstance may they be directly attacked."

'Protection'

The hospital, which has some 500 inpatients, is one of the few still operating in the region.

Mr Weiss called the strikes "significant breaches of international humanitarian law".

"There seems to be no let up in the toll that is being taken on civilians caught up in this fighting," he said.

An army offensive has pushed the rebels into a 300 sq km (110 sq mile) corner of jungle in the north-east of the island, which aid agencies say also holds 250,000 civilians.

The government says the number of civilians is closer to 120,000 and that the army has a policy of not firing at civilians.

It accuses the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of not allowing civilians to leave, saying they are being used as human shields.

The rebels say the civilians prefer to stay where they are under Tamil Tiger "protection".

The reports cannot be independently confirmed as neither side allows journalists near the war zone.

'Utmost care'

Officials said about 300 civilians had crossed into government-held territory during the 48-hour truce, which expired late Saturday.

"We will now have to save the civilians and move in," the spokesman, Kaheliya Rambukwella, said.

"It is now very evident that [Tamil Tiger leader Valupillai] Prabhakaran is... using civilians as cover," Mr Rambukwella said.

"We will take the utmost care of civilians when we move in."

The military has captured the key towns of Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and the strategically important Elephant Pass to the Jaffna peninsula in recent weeks.

The BBC's Ethirajan Anbarasan has been in the city of Jaffna on one of the first government-approved media trips to the city - the cultural capital of Sri Lanka's Tamil community - in months.

He said thousands of people had attended a rally held by a pro-government Tamil party calling for the rebels to allow civilians to leave the war zone.

Meanwhile a senior government official warned that diplomats, aid agencies and media, including the BBC, will be expelled from Sri Lanka if they seem to favour the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said bias among some foreigners was damaging security forces as they dealt the "final blow" to the rebels.

Source: BBC NEWS.

Can Microsoft make its future mobile?

2009-01-31T02:28:00.000-08:00

By Tim Weber
Business editor, BBC News website

You want a phone that can do it all? Internet, music, photos, films, documents, texting, instant messaging, diary, contacts and ... err ... phone calls?

Then a smartphone is right for you. But as the market for high-end mobiles gets ever more crowded, which should you pick?

The global market leader, Symbian, makes the software that runs most of Nokia's smart phones (and a few others).

Research in Motion with its e-mail friendly Blackberry devices has cornered the corporate market and is pushing into the consumer space.

Apple is minting it with its sleek but expensive iPhone. And only a few months ago internet search giant Google entered the field with its Linux-based Android software, designed to power internet-savvy mobile phones.

Oh, and then there is Microsoft. For years the giant of desktop computing has tried to push into the mobile phone market - not without success, but ultimately remaining a niche player.

Two things held Microsoft back in the past: technology and usability.

For years mobile phone technology simply wasn't advanced enough to play to the strengths of devices that were actually mini computers.

Windows Mobile and other smartphones were held back because they had to "live with the hardware capabilities of the past; key pieces were missing," says Andy Lees, the boss of Microsoft's Mobile Communications group.

The Achilles heel

But the real Achilles heel of Microsoft's devices was their abysmal user interface - firmly wedded to the look and feel of old-fashioned computer desktops, a concept that doesn't work on small screens. At long last this is changing, although it is not Microsoft doing the job. Instead, phone manufacturers are busy building user-friendly interfaces to sit on the Windows platform.

Take Samsung's Omnia, for example, an all touchscreen phone that tries for an iPhone look and feel without being a rip-off.

It largely succeeds, with its 5 megapixel camera, highly useful expansion slot and overall good looks. On the downside, its touchscreen can at times be infuriating while Samsung's interface designer clearly is not a graduate of the Apple school of cool.

HTC's Touch Diamond is another contender. The Taiwanese company has been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the Windows mobile platform. Many smartphones sold under the labels of network operators like T-Mobile and Orange are actually HTC designs.

The Diamond goes the furthest in changing the way a Windows phone behaves. Its futuristic-looking screen has nice features like a picture-led phonebook: Two clicks and the phone's camera takes a picture of your mate and puts it in an easily browseable "stack" to ensure his or her phonebook entry stands out. This touchscreen phone, however, exposes another problem plaguing most smartphones: a slick interface requires serious hardware.

When HTC launched the Diamond, using its "Touch-Flo" screen felt like wading through treacle. Now, one memory upgrade later, the phone begins to deliver on its promise, albeit still reluctantly.

This is not just a Windows problem, though. Blackberry's first all-touchscreen mobile, Storm, is suffering a similar if not worse sluggishness, and has been panned by many reviewers and users.

Power hungry

Like all microcomputers masquerading as phones, Windows smartphones are power hungry. Intense usage - phone calls, web browsing, music and office applications - quickly drains the battery.

Here at least Windows devices can play a trump card over Apple's iPhone: their batteries are not sealed in and can be swapped easily for back-ups.

Take the most accomplished Windows mobile tested for this article, Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1. Its user interface can be changed with a couple of clicks to fit the owner's priorities of the moment - search, work or play.

It offers a surprisingly handy combination of touchscreen, touchpad, buttons, toggles and most importantly a slide-out keyboard. All this drains the X1's battery, barely getting me through the day without a recharge - at least on the pre-production models tested.

The tiny keyboard harks back to the days of Psion personal organisers but is very comfortable to use, easily beating any Blackberry (at least for me: large parts of this article were drafted on an Xperia X1).

"Windows Mobile is a very powerful platform for us," acknowledges Sony Ericsson's X1 product manager Magnus Anderson. "It's the perfect fit for both business and pleasure.

" The price of being smart

So far, though, these high-end phones are mainly for "early adopters" that need "seamless connectivity of email and office applications," says Mr Anderson - and they have a price tag to match.

The ease of synchronising diaries, documents and email with PCs is indeed a key selling point of Windows mobile devices, one that Microsoft executives are eager to underline as they list the synchronisation and compatibility woes encountered by owners of iPhones and Nokia smartphones.

Smartphones are expensive, regardless whether they run on Windows, Linux, Symbian or the iPhone's OS X, because it is hardware like the touchscreen that is driving up the cost.

That pushes the price of many such phones beyond $300 (£202) - before the network operator's subsidy - and a market share of just 7%.

It takes a lot of usage and high subscription fees to make such phones attractive for network operators to subsidise.

While Apple can ask network operators for hefty payments in exchange for the privilege of selling the iPhone, Microsoft's Andy Lees knows that his software "has to compete with free" - the smartphone operating systems based on open source Linux software.

Meet the Android

Arguably the most promising Linux phone is T-Mobile's G1, designed and built by HTC and running Google's Android software. For a first stab at an Android phone, the G1 is a very accomplished piece of kit. With an easy to use touchscreen that swivels away to reveal a full (albeit slightly uncomfortable) keyboard, GPS perfectly integrated with Google Maps and an excellent browser, the bulky G1 could be a winner.

Android, however, has a number of drawbacks. Like Apple, Google offers a "marketplace" of applications to customise your phone. The problem is the open source culture of this widgets.

Think Firefox (the browser) extensions gone bad. Most applications have whacky names, poorly worded descriptions and strange customer reviews that will leave G1 owners doubtful whether they should really click the download button - not least as some apps come with a price tag.

More importantly, key software is missing. The G1 cannot be synchronised with a computer's phonebook or diary, and I failed to find even basic office applications like a word processor.

Google executives promise that one day Android's marketplace will deliver, but until then Microsoft's Andy Lees will be able to claim that Android is "a lot less functional" than Windows Mobile.

The cheap alternative

Not everybody, however, believes that phones need all that computing power - not least when a credit crunch forces consumers to be careful with their money. Three, the mobile network owned by Hutchison Whampoa, has just launched the INQ1, a cheap and cheerful device marketed as the "Facebook phone".

The INQ embodies a back-to-the-roots approach. Operators were wrong to assume that customers want phones for computing on-the-go or to download music, says Three's Guy Middleton. The reality is that phones are all about communication - not just voice, but email, instant messaging, Voice over Internet and especially social networking.

The INQ's phonebook, for example, pulls in the profile pictures of your friends' facebook pages, shows you their status updates and whether they happen to be online.

Packed into a cheap handset, it allows network operators to offer highly competitive tariffs, says INQ boss Frank Meehan.

Windows everywhere?

Microsoft's strategy, however, aims far beyond the middle ground between INQ and iPhone.

Offering "Windows Mobile" as a reliable and highly customisable platform allows handset makers and network operators to flood the market with a large number of new and startlingly diverse smartphones. "People want to live their lives through the device," says Mr Lees, "use it for text, music, social networking, sharing photographs, ever richer experiences."

"The Windows Mobile is the computer that is with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Combine this with the fact that Windows software also powers more and more "embedded" devices such as clever fridges, car electronics and vending machines and we might soon find ourselves in an integrated world held together by Microsoft software.

Challengers

The company's ambitions will not go unchallenged.

Microsoft's nemesis Linux is also a big player in the embedded market. Google's experience in making software user-friendly will turn the Android/Linux combination into a formidable competitor.

Nokia, meanwhile, keeps pushing into the smartphone market, most recently with its N97, which the Finnish company describes as the world's "most advanced mobile computer".

Andy Lees appears unruffled. For the next 18 months he promises a string of Windows mobiles with "very interesting form factors".

Microsoft, he says, is "in this for the long-term".

Source: BBC NEWS.

Tech firms stake out Phnom Penh

2009-01-30T22:57:00.000-08:00

By Guy De Launey
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From the outside, the Phnom Penh home of Digital Divide Data (DDD) does not look like the launch pad for an IT revolution.

In fact, it is typical of the large, gaudy, "wedding cake"-style houses in the neighbourhood around the Tuol Sleng genocide museum.

Yet the unpromising exterior conceals what is, perhaps, Cambodia's most radical social enterprise.

DDD is a non-profit organisation that has, for the first time in its five-year history, turned a profit.

Quality work

Unlike many other NGO business projects, DDD focuses on technology rather than traditional handicrafts.

And success is measured - at least in part - by the number of employees who leave to start rival companies.

In a large, air-conditioned room on the second tier of the wedding cake, dozens of workers beaver away at computer keyboards.

DDD's main business is data-input, and the data in question ranges from client information for a local mobile phone network to the archives of an international news agency.

Other customers on the international client list include academic institutions such as Yale University.

They want to convert historical data, currently only available on paper, to a digital format that is easier to analyse.

This is the kind of outsourcing work with which technology companies in India started, before moving into more complex and lucrative enterprises.

DDD's founder, Jeremy Hockenstein, thinks something similar could also happen in Cambodia.

"We have started the IT sector here," he says.

"Cambodia is still associated with devastation in much of the world, and it doesn't have the reputation of India or China.

"But with projects like ours, we can prove that this work can get done and be competitive.

" Mr Hockenstein is based in the United States, where he drums up many of the company's clients.

He says that while the novelty of a Cambodian outsourcing operation often sparks the initial interest, it is the quality of the work that clinches the sale.

Extensive training

Back in Phnom Penh, Kann Kunthy oversees affairs in Cambodia.

It took him just four years to rise from working a keyboard in the data-inputting room to become DDD's general manager last year at the age of 26.

His progress typifies the company philosophy of employees "graduating" to better things.

"There are two ways to graduate: internally and outside," he explains.

"My future plan depends on having someone to replace me. More than a hundred people so far have graduated to better jobs earning three times more money.

" On-the-job training is supplemented by external academic and vocational courses paid for by the company.

Shifts are limited to six hours a day, so that employees can spend the rest of their time studying.

It is a policy that has given many of them the confidence and qualifications to start their own businesses, or find better jobs elsewhere.

Combined with a focus on hiring people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds, DDD has established a reputation as a socially-responsible employer.

Even more impressive for its many admirers, however, is the way it has built a sustainable business.

"It is a big success story and very inspiring," says Adam Sack of the International Finance Corporation's Phnom Penh office.

"Turning a profit is the enterprise part of social enterprise, and profit is a good indicator of a properly-run company.

"They are at the start, but they have shown they have a model they can replicate."

Growing independence

In fact, DDD already has a profitable branch office in the provincial town of Battambang and has also started an operation in Laos.

According to Jeremy Hockenstein, more than two dozen countries have approached him about the possibility of developing similar social enterprises.

"The idea of socially-responsible outsourcing really resonates with people," he says.

"After the first wave of controversy about outsourcing, more people now are focusing on how this work is being done in other countries.

"They are glad to know that in addition to getting output from us, the funds they are paying for this are helping to build better lives.

" Asking Cambodia to replicate India's achievements in the technology sector might be a little far-fetched, but its garment industry is thriving, thanks to an ethical approach to labour.

It employs more than a quarter of a million people now, compared with virtually none a decade ago.

DDD may yet prove to be the seed for something similar to happen in IT - and a signpost to show how Cambodia could end its dependency on aid.

Source: BBC NEWS.

"Push" premieres in California

2009-01-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-30 16:10:39

Cast member Dakota Fanning poses at the premiere of the movie "Push" at the Mann Village theatre in Westwood, California Jan. 29, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Source: Xinhua

Cambodian mobile phone operators to expand services

2009-01-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

www.chinaview.cn 2009-01-20 17:18:27

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) – Despite the economic downturn and concerns over corporate investment, Cambodian mobile phone operators say their expansion plans are on schedule for 2009 as the industry continues to grow, national media reported Tuesday.
“Our expansion plans are on track,” Adam Cabot, CEO of Star-Cell, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.
The company has announced it was going to expand services to all of Cambodia’s provinces for its 100,000 subscribers.
“Yes, (the crisis) will have an effect, but it is hard to say how much. We are still maintaining our position and doing well,” he said.
Cambodia’s mobile market has grown rapidly in the past five years, and companies are scrambling to gain a foothold as phones and the internet gain popularity.
Domestic mobile-phone usage surged 49 percent in 2007 but the national penetration rate remains a low 17 percent.
In contrast, neighboring Vietnam saw 75 percent growth with a 33 percent penetration rate in the same year, according to Budde Comm, an independent telecoms analyst.
Cambodia’s low mobile penetration rate is a draw for many companies such as Vietnam-based mobile operator Viettel, which is launching a major drive to tap Cambodia’s rural market and bring schools online.

Editor: Zhang Mingyu

Reference:

http://sneyou.com/

Source: Xinhua

KR trial raises questions

2009-01-30T21:02:00.000-08:00

Written by Georgia Wilkins and Neth Pheaktra
Friday, 30 January 2009

Observers say hybrid court needs to decide whether to try more suspects before first trial of ex-prison chief Duch opens on February 17.

THE trial of ex-prison chief Duch is now little more than a fortnight away, but with a decision on further prosecutions at the hybrid court still pending, the long-awaited hearing could raise more questions than it answers, observers say.

"Duch's hearing will generate more questions than clarifications," Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia told the Post via email.

Duch was not a "senior leader" but a member of "those most responsible" category that, coupled with the fact there were hundreds of prisons similar in size and scope to Tuol Sleng, poses the question: "Will the ECCC look into them [other prisons and prison directors] as well?" wrote Youk Chhang.

Moreover, the 67-year-old born-again Christian is the only one of five suspects currently detained at the court to have confessed to his role in carrying out purges under the regime and has agreed to cooperate in what observers say may be part of a plea bargain. Information regarding others involved in the wide-scale perpetration of Khmer Rouge-era crimes is likely to come out during the trial.

Consequently, observers say the tribunal must make it clear now, before Duch takes the stand, whether more prosecutions of lower-ranking KR cadre are likely.

Whether the court should try more than the symbolic, big-name five it already has in custody is a question that has been asked by those inside and outside the court since the tribunal's inception.

The court's international co-prosecutor, Robert Petit, and the Cambodian prosecutor are at odds on the issue, prompting Petit last month to file a formal statement of disagreement. The court's Pre-Trial Chamber must now decide, but there is no timeline for a final decision and the rules regarding its publicity remain ambiguous.

Observers are anxious that without an answer forthcoming, Duch may "name names" first, blurring the lines of who is accountable according to the court's mandate of bringing to trial "senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea and those who were most responsible for the crimes" under the Khmer Rouge era.

"This is the last sort of legitimacy crisis the ECCC needs, especially in light of the continued corruption allegations and investigations," Beth Van Schaack, international lawyer and author of the book Bringing the Khmer Rouge to Justice: Prosecuting Mass Violence before the Cambodian Courts, told the Post in an email.
________________________________________
This is the last sort of legitimacy crisis the ECCC needs.
________________________________________

"There are already rumblings throughout Cambodia that [Co-prosecutor Chea] Leang's position is purely political," she said.

Moving down the food chain
The six potentially new suspects have not been named, but sources close to the investigation say they are mid-ranking regime officials, possibly including at least one district chief.

As senior members of the current CPP government held similar positions under the Khmer Rouge regime, historians and observers say there is an understandable reluctance on the part of the government to allow further investigations to proceed.

Most international observers agree that the court should at least explore the possibility of further prosecutions.

"For the sake of perception and legitimacy, the process has to be open to explore evidence [regarding more suspects]," said David Cohen, director of the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Centre and the Asian International Justice Initiative at the East-West Centre, who are monitoring the court.

Whatever the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber, observers say it needs to be made - and made publicly - fast. Yet although the internal rules of the court have a whole chapter on how such disagreements should be resolved, observers question their efficacy in providing a solution.

"The rules do not provide a timeline or deadline for the decision," Heather Ryan, a tribunal monitor for Open Society Justice Initiative, said via email. "Also, the rules are ambiguous about if it will be made public," she said.

Ryan said her greatest concern now was the timing of such a decision, which, if delayed, could have ramifications not only for Duch's trial, but for the court as a whole.

"It's important, if the court wants to move on with its work and for the sake of its reputation, that they make this decision," she said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BRENDAN BRADY

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Decide on trials: observers to KRT

2009-01-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Written by Sovann Philong
Friday, 30 January 2009

A tourist reads an information sign at Choeung Ek outside Phnom Penh. The first trial at Cambodia's Extraordinary Chambers, that of ex-prison chief Duch, whose infamous management of Tuol Sleng prison helped fill the killing fields, will start next month. But observers say the court must decide whether to try more suspects, as the international co-prosecutor Robert Petit wants, before Duch's trial begins.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Click here to see full story

Ke Kim Yan uncertain of future plans

2009-01-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

Written by Thet Sambath
Friday, 30 January 2009

GENERAL Ke Kim Yan, former commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, is uncertain of the future following his unceremonious removal from the post last week.

"I have no idea of what work I will do in future," Ke Kim Yan told the Post Thursday. "The whole country knows I have stopped being commander-in-chief, [so] let everything be quiet from now on."

The general previously said he resigned his post for "health" reasons, but Deputy Prime Minister Nhek Bun Chhay said Tuesday that the CPP stalwart was removed by Prime Minister Hun Sen because his business activities were distracting him from his role as head of the armed forces.

"Prime Minister Hun Sen told a Cabinet meeting that Ke Kim Yan has a lot of land. He is a military officer, and he is also involved in business," he said. "While he is in the military and does business, he should give up his work."

But a senior official in the Council of Ministers, who declined to be named, said the prime minister was more specific, saying the former RCAF chief was removed for illegal land deals and failing to fulfill the duties of his office.

"Ke Kim Yan was withdrawn from the post of commander-in-chief because he has much illegal land and is not active along the border with the soldiers," the official quoted Hun Sen as saying during the Friday meeting.

"He has a lot of illegal land in the provinces ... and he is not as active as other commanders like Kun Kim and Hing Bun Heang."

"There are bigger problems than this, but we can't release them to the public. They are internal issues," the official added.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Country Experience with Petroleum Revenue Funds – Part 1

2009-01-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

Norway, Alaska, and Alberta have been operating petroleum revenue funds which are considered among the successful nonrenewable resource funds. Rules governing the three funds are quite different, from deposit and withdrawal rules to investment strategies and how the funds withdrawn are to be spent .This briefing note, third in a series of four, gives a brief description of each.

Financing non-oil budget deficit, paying out “oil dividends” every year to qualified residents, and funding capital projects for economic diversification are some of the ways in which the petroleum revenue funds in Norway, Alaska, and Alberta, respectively, have made use of petroleum income. The previous two briefing notes explained why petroleum revenue funds may be considered and how they may be run [1, 2]. This and the next notes provide information on how governments from around the world have been managing petroleum funds.

Norway

Norway’s aging population and associated rising pension expenditures—against the backdrop of declining oil revenues in the coming decades—were the main driver for establishing a petroleum fund. The Norwegian parliament adopted the Act on the Government Petroleum Fund in 1990. The fund has since been continued as the Government Pension Fund Global: the Norwegian parliament adopted the Act on the Government Pension Fund in 2005 and established the Government Pension Fund in 2006.

The Norwegian fund mechanism is markedly different from those of other funds, and has a parallel only with the fund in Timor-Leste. Money is allocated to the fund only when there is a budget surplus. This highlights an important fact: accumulating assets in the fund is possible only if the government runs a budget surplus. In this way, the fund balance reflects actual (that is, net) savings. The first half of the 1990s saw a strong recession and the government ran a deficit budget, as a result of which there was no net transfer to the fund. The budget went into surplus for the first time in 1995.

The fund income consists of net petroleum revenues and interests and dividends earned on the fund’s holding. The parliament determines the deficit on the government’s non-oil budget and that amount is paid out of the fund. More specifically, there is an annual transfer from the fund to the treasury corresponding to petroleum revenues used in the budget, which cover the nonoil deficit. The mechanism is illustrated in Figure 1.The fund invested only in fixed income assets until 1997.

New estimates of the fund’s future growth indicated that it would be a long time before the government would start drawing on the fund. Given that stocks are appropriate for a longer time horizon; new guidelines permitting an investment of 30–50 percent of the fund in stocks were adopted in 1998. Emerging markets were added to the investment portfolio in 2000.

Today, the capital is invested in non-Norwegian bonds, stocks, money market instruments, and derivatives—in 42 stock markets and 31 currencies for fixed income investments. The finance ministry is tasked with managing the fund. It lays down the fund management strategy including the long-term investment strategy. The latter includes choices on geographical, currency, and asset class distribution. The ministry selects a benchmark portfolio, which serves two purposes:

• The actual portfolio is not permitted to have a variation (in standard error) exceeding 1.5 percent from the benchmark portfolio.
• Actual returns are compared with the benchmark portfolio returns.

Ethical guidelines were established in 2004 and the Advisory Council on Ethics has been appointed.

The finance ministry has delegated responsibility for the fund’s operational management to the Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). NBIM is a separate part of Norges Bank (Norwegian central bank) and is responsible for investing the international assets of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund. NBIM uses a mix of internal and external managers. External managers are used for those assets with which the central Bank has little prior experience. Norges Bank reports results on a quarterly basis. Performance differences between the benchmark and actual portfolios are reported and explained. The auditing of the fund has been assigned to the Office of the Auditor General, which bases its audit on the work performed by the Central Bank Audit [3–5].

How the fund is used in the 2008 budget (January to December 2008) is shown in Figure 2. The budget was approved by mid-2007. The government assumed an oil price of 369 Norwegian kroners (NOK), or about US$69, per barrel. The government estimated that net deposits into the fund would consist of 301.8 billion NOK of net petroleum revenues and 78.7 billion NOK of returns on the fund’s holdings.

Alaska, United States

In 1969, the state of Alaska received $900 million in bonuses from the Prudhoe Bay oil lease sale. This amount was as much as all previous state budgets combined. The question was what to do with this windfall, and after some debate the government decided to spend it on education, health, and infrastructure projects. When the $900 million was spent within a few years, concerns were raised that some of the money might have been wasted and that future revenues might not last long. By 1975, there was enough negative reaction to the spending of the $900 million and a proposal for a permanent fund had gained a following in the Alaska legislature.

Because the state constitution at the time prohibited dedicated funds, a proposal to establish a permanent fund was put forward to Alaskan voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. In 1976, as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline construction neared completion, Alaskan voters approved a constitutional amendment to establish the Alaska Permanent Fund. The amendment reads.

At least twenty-five percent of all mineral lease rentals, royalties, royalty sale proceeds, federal mineral revenue sharing payments and bonuses received by the State shall be placed in a permanent fund, the principal of which shall be used only for those income producing investments specifically designated by law as eligible for permanent fund investments. All income from the permanent fund shall be deposited in the general fund unless otherwise provided by law.

An important feature of this amendment is that the fund’s principal (or capital, to be distinguished from earnings on capital) cannot be touched. Spending a portion of the capital would require another constitutional amendment. The legislature may spend realized earnings. Unrealized earnings—those resulting from the change in the market value of the fund’s holdings— cannot be spent. Earnings have been “inflation-proofed” almost since inception—the amount corresponding to inflation is subtracted from nominal earnings to arrive at earnings in real terms. Inflation proofing is designed to prevent the situation whereby the capital, after adjusting for inflation, declines in real value over time.

After four years of debate in the legislature and press about the use of the fund, a bill was passed in 1980 creating the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. The law provides for independent management by a board of trustees and requires the board to publish a report on the fund by September 30 each year. The report must include financial statements audited by independent external auditors, the amount of money received by the fund from each investment and a description of fund investment activity during the period covered, a statement of the fund’s investments including an appraisal at market value, and a comparison of the fund’s performance against various benchmarks. Initially the fund was invested in high-grade fixed income securities. Today, the fund is invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, and alternatives.

Beginning in 1982, out of its realized earnings, the fund has paid annual dividends to all residents of Alaska, including minors, who had resided for at least the previous 12 months in the state (numbering about 600,000 in 2007). The dividends are not necessarily correlated with world oil prices because the fund’s income is not determined by the price of oil but by overall returns on the fund’s investments (that is, the performance of the stock and bond markets, and so on). The historical dividends are shown in Figure 3. The highest dividend was paid in 2000, when oil prices were not particularly high; the lowest dividend in recent years was handed out in 2005, despite surging oil prices [5, 6].

Alberta, Canada

The Canadian province of Alberta has benefited from healthy petroleum revenues for decades. By 1975, royalties accounted for 41 percent of total government receipts. A savings fund was proposed in 1974 and, following vigorous debate during the 1975 election, the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act was passed by parliament in 1976. The act set out three objectives: (1) save for the future, (2) strengthen or diversify the economy, and (3) improve the quality of life of Albertans. The finance minister is responsible for the operation of the fund.

The fund was set up with a special contribution of C$1.5 billion from the General Revenue Fund—which is the province’s main operating fund—and 30 percent of petroleum revenue received by the government of Alberta amounting to C$620 million. This percentage was not fixed in the law for future fiscal years, and the transfer of petroleum royalty revenues to the fund was stopped in 1987. In the 1980s, some money from the fund was used for capital projects intended to help diversify the economy (such as medical and renewable energy research) and improve the quality of life (developing parks, preserving forests). The fund provided loans to Alberta corporations, mostly to Crown corporations (state-owned enterprises). These loans performed poorly, returning about 2 percent, against the 10 percent achieved by the commercial division of the fund [5].

In 1995, the government asked Albertans about the future of the Heritage Fund in a survey called “Can we interest you in an $11 billion decision?” The respondents wanted to keep the fund for future generations and focus on generating higher returns on long-term investments. In response, the Heritage Act was amended and the fund was restructured. The fund could no longer be used for economic development or social investment purposes. A new business plan, which included a plan to increase long-term investments, was implemented in 1997. The fund’s business plan is published as part of the provincial budget and the fund’s income is consolidated into the provincial revenue. The amendment created a new Standing Committee (of the legislative assembly) tasked with the following responsibilities:
• Review and approve the business plan annually
• Receive and review quarterly reports on the operation and results of the fund
• Approve the fund’s annual report
• Review annually the performance of the fund and report to the legislation whether the mission of the fund is being fulfilled
• Hold public meetings with Albertans on the investment activities and results of the fund.

Performance measures include timeliness of reports and public accountability meetings, knowledge of Albertans about the fund, and whether half of Albertans can estimate the fund’s value. In 1998, the government surveyed Albertans about their fiscal priorities. Albertans ranked increasing savings in the Heritage Fund high, fourth in overall priority. This was echoed in another survey in 2000, again on fiscal priorities, where Albertans indicated support for a savings plan, including saving an unexpected petroleum windfall for the future. A survey conducted in 2002 specifically on the Heritage Fund showed that 61 percent of Albertans wanted the fund to continue to operate primarily as an endowment fund. After a transition period, the fund is now an endowment fund.

The Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act requires the fund to be inflation-proofed once the accumulated debt of the province is eliminated. Debt retirement was achieved by 2005, and the government began inflation-proofing the fund in fiscal 2005/06. Today, the income earned by the fund, less the amount retained for inflation proofing, is transferred to the General Revenue Fund to help pay for priority programs. Although there were no new transfers into the fund for many years, the budget for fiscal 2006/07 included a C$1 billion transfer to the fund from the budget surplus. Another C$0.9 billion was transferred to the fund in fiscal 2007/08.

The fund’s investment managed by the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), which is the investment operations group of the provincial ministry of finance. AIMCo makes use of external managers for certain investments with the potential to generate high returns but that require specialized resources. The fund’s auditor is the Auditor General. The fund’s portfolio consists of stocks, bonds, real estate, and absolute return strategies (designed to achieve positive returns in both up and down markets). About half of the fund is invested in stocks (Canadian, U.S., and non-north American). As with the Norwegian and Alaskan funds, the Heritage Fund has benchmarks against which its performance is measured. Through its 32-year history, the Heritage Fund has generated C$30 billion in investment income [5, 7, 8].

Observations

The three funds discussed in this note are all characterized by transparency of operations. Accessible reports are published in the public domain. Audit results are made regularly available on the Internet and in print. There are vertical and horizontal checks and balances, and fund managers, board members, and others involved in fund management and oversight are selected on merit. All three funds have been operating as savings funds— in practice in the case of the Norwegian fund, although the saving function is not legislated.

There are important differences. The Alaska Permanent Fund operates under legal rigidity, requiring a constitutional amendment to change spending rules. The Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund Act provides much more flexibility to fund management. In the 1980s, with falling oil prices and gradual elimination of transfers into the fund, the failure to even inflation-proof the fund led to a decline in the fund’s real value. The Norwegian fund has no set accumulation or withdrawal rules, and it is thanks to the strong fiscal discipline of the Norwegian parliament that fund use has not been manipulated by election cycles and other political considerations aimed at short-term gains.

The government of Alberta has conducted a number of surveys to ask its residents how they would like to see the petroleum revenues used. Albertans have given overwhelming support for channeling petroleum revenues to a savings fund for future generations. There is little evidence that the initial strategy of using the fund for economic diversification and improving social infrastructure was particularly successful. Yet it is precisely this type of use that a developing country government might be tempted to follow—large prestige projects that would not normally be accommodated in the budget or chosen through rational project selection.

The loans made by the Alberta fund had weak constraints on financial performance. The survey response and support for an endowment fund might be an indication that there was no strong public perception that the earlier spending programs had achieved their goals well, and this offers an important lesson for governments considering use of new petroleum income.

References

[1] World Bank. 2008. “Petroleum Revenue Funds –Part 1.” Petroleum Sector Briefing Note No.
12, June–July.

[2] World Bank. 2008. “Petroleum Revenue Funds –Part 2.” Petroleum Sector Briefing Note No. 3, October.

[3] www.norges-bank.no/[4] IMF. 2003. “Stabilization and Savings Funds for Nonrenewable Resources” in Fiscal Policy Formulation and Implementation in Oil-Producing Countries.

[5] ESMAP. 2006. “Experiences with Oil Funds: Institutional and Financial Aspects.” Report 321/06.

[6] www.apfc.org/

[7] www.finance.gov.ab.ca/business/ahstf/index.html

[8]www.finance.alberta.ca/business/ahstf/publications.html#annual

(Source: The World Bank Newsletter, Petroleum Sector Briefing Note, No.4, January 2009)

[9] http://khmerviews.com/

Australian students build homes for evicted families

2009-01-30T01:47:00.000-08:00

Written by Sarah Whyte
Friday, 30 January 2009

Aussie team moved mountains of sand as part of Habitat for Humanity program to erect houses using volunteer labour.

Five students and two teachers visiting Cambodia from Australia's Geelong Grammar School spent the last week hauling mountains of sand - 90 tonnes to be precise, they say.

The team, from the state of Victoria, have been constructing two homes for recently evicted families. The project was organised by the NGO Habitat for Humanity to provide homes for families relocated to Phnom Penh's Samaki village.

Nimol Kive, Habitat's project manager, said his organisation plans to construct 30 homes for families in Samaki village by November with the help of around 500 volunteers.

For the visiting students, the labour has come with unexpected perks.

The students were visited on their work site by Deputy Prime Minister Nhek Bun Chhay and opposition leader Sam Rainsy, and Prince Norodom Ranariddh hosted them for lunch.

Hands-on help
"We've had a really rewarding stay." said Justin Corfield, the supervising teacher.

"A benefit of this program has been the practical side, where the students get to actually see where the money is going rather than writing a blank cheque," he said.

"The students also wanted to fund a project they could contribute to with their own time and efforts."

Students from the school independently raised more than US$8,000 during the year to fund the trip and building project.

"The students approached me with the idea to fund a community organised by Habitat for Humanity about a year ago. Cambodia was geographically the closest country for us to partner with, and we have had several dignitary visits to our school, with Sam Rainsy paying over three visits during the past 10 years," said Corfield.

The students were also drawn to Cambodia after hearing broadcasts aired on Australian radio programs about evicted families.

Sam Aull, 17, called the experience "challenging but rewarding".

"I have never been to Asia before, and the absence of a middle class has astounded me," he added.

Student Sabrina Tee saw the trip as the first of many.

"I hope this program continues to grow and students can again come over next year to help these families," said the 17-year-old.

"It's been such a rewarding experience, but definitely hard work."

Corfield said he planned to institutionalise the trip to make it a mainstay for successive classes at the school.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Hun Sen warns councillors

2009-01-29T01:18:00.000-08:00

Written by Vong Sokheng
Thursday, 29 January 2009

PRIME Minister Hun Sen has warned that future district, provincial and municipal councillors - to be elected through indirect nationwide elections in May - should not meddle in foreign affairs, despite the impending devolution of political power to the sub-national level.

Hun Sen, speaking to more than a hundred high-ranking government officials at Chaktomuk Theatre Wednesday during a decentralisation conference, highlighted the Taiwan-China dispute as one in which council members should hold their tongues.

"After the election, if the councils become independent and recognise Taiwanese independence, it will be wrong, as there is no such law," Hun Sen said, referring to Beijing's commitment to a "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan.

"Cambodia recognises the one-China policy," he said.

Cheam Yeap, spokesman of the ruling Cambodian People's Party , said that the prime minister was merely expressing concerns that the new councils may become confused about central government policy.

"The premier's message was to repeat government policy so that the new councils understand our foreign policy," he said.

On May 17, Cambodia will hold its first elections for positions on district, provincial and municipal councils as part of the government's drive to transfer more decision-making powers to the local level.

Hun Sen said also that the central government does not have sufficient ability to effectively provide public services in the Kingdom's remotest areas, and that it was preparing local administrations by equipping them with staff, finances and other resources.

"We hope that the reform will provide better services and bring about a reduction in poverty," he said, adding that after the May elections, councils will be able to remove local officials if their performance falls below a certain level.

But Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yim Sovann said that since the only eligible voters were sitting members of the country's commune councils, local people would have no hand in electing new officials.

"People are not able to express their rights to elect their leaders in their districts and provinces," he said. "The SRP will participate in the election. We will have our representatives, who will act as a watchdog over local developments."

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Microsoft makes mobile media push

2009-01-28T20:02:00.000-08:00

As Microsoft unveiled its MSN Music service, hardware firms have shown off gadgets that work with the new service.
Widely seen as rivals to Apple's iTunes and iPod the portable media players from Creative Labs, Samsung and iRiver will play music, video, TV and show still images.

The devices are designed to work with MSN Music and the latest version of Microsoft's Media Player software.

The first gadgets are available now but more will follow in the Autumn.

Press play

The handheld that has gone on sale first is Creative Labs' Zen portable media center.

Companion handhelds from Samsung and iRiver are due to be unveiled later in the year. All will work with Windows Media Player 10 software.

All the 20GB versions of the gadgets are expected to cost $499 in the US.

The gadgets were unveiled as Microsoft revealed details of a MSN Music download service that
lets people download songs for 99 cents (55p).

While there are many other portable media players already on sale, from firms such as Archos, Microsoft is rolling together a package of services, websites and specially created content in a bid to tempt people into using its technology. At the core of this push is the Windows Media Player.

Microsoft is also keen to portray the devices as much more than just music stores and has signed up several partners to provide movies and TV footage for these portable players.

Providing services for the media players will be the movie website CinemaNow and the Major League Baseball (MLB) site.

CinemaNow is planning a pay-to-rent system that will make a portable version of any rented film available to customers buying or renting PC versions of films. Portable versions are expected to cost 99 cents.

MLB is planning to make available full game downloads as well as highlights, home run reel, classic footage and programmes made just for viewing on the gadgets.

Microsoft is also working with TV card makers on a system that will make it possible to watch recorded TV shows on the portable devices without the need for converting the recording to a special format.

Content will be locked using Microsoft's Janus copy protection system.

Creative is planning a UK launch for its media player in mid-September. Other European nations will follow later. There is no information available about the European availability of the other players.

However, it is not yet clear if Microsoft is planning to set up movie and sports services outside the US.

Source: BBC NEWS.

City, developer demolish Dey Krahorm homes

2009-01-25T18:21:00.001-08:00

Written by Brendan Brady and Neth Pheaktra
Saturday, 24 January 2009

Scores of residents carted off by 7NG as bulldozers clear controversial riverside area.

Fleeing bulldozers, evicted Dey Krahorm residents could be seen today lobbing chairs, mattresses, framed pictures and cooking pots over a wall into an adjoining parking lot to salvage their possessions. Others hurled rocks at police, who returned fire with tear-gas cannisters, leading to injuries to four residents, according to onlookers who observed the curtains close on one of the biggest urban redevelopment stories in the capital over the last decade.

The whack of striking hammers and thud of swinging cranes drowned out the sound of roosters to awaken residents in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac neighbourhood this morning. But for residents of the slum community of Dey Krahorm, the day started around 2am, when, according to residents and housing rights workers, scores of police began cordoning off the controversial neighbourhood to clear the way for workers to demolish the last of its corrugated-metal and wooden homes.

Military, municipal and Interior Ministry police, some armed, presided over the demolition carried out by hundreds of workers hired by the company planning to develop the area, 7NG. They also prevented access to the area by journalists and rights workers.

Military Police Sao Sokha, Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth, and Interior Ministry and government spokesmen Khieu Sopheak and Khieu Kanharith, respectively, did not respond to repeated calls for comment today.

“At 6am, they started to tear down my home,” Mao Vuthy, one of residents who had still been negotiating a compensation deal, said this morning. “The company and city officials didn’t inform us they would do this today.”

Cash compensation or a home at a relocation site 16 kilometres from the city, in the village of Damnak Trayoeng, had been offered by the private developer.

The morning demolition left Mao Vuthy, who works in the centre of Phnom Penh at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, with little choice.

“I now must go to the relocation site. The cash isn’t enough to buy another home. Moving to the relocation site will be difficult for my daily life because it is very far from my job in Phnom Penh,” he said.

Speaking to reporters this morning outside Dey Krahorm, Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said the action was not an eviction.

“The activities of tearing down the homes at Dey Krahorm is not an eviction but just an effort to clear the area for development,” he said. “For those who want compensation, the Phnom Penh Municipality and the developer will discuss the issue tomorrow [Sunday] at the new location at Damnak Trayoeng.”

Srey Sothea, chairman of 7NG, said his company recognised 91 families who had remained at Dey Krahorm and said each would receive a home at the relocation site as well as 777,700 riel ($190). If more families could provide land ownership documents, he would extend the same compensation to them, as well, he added.

Despite claims by Mann Choeun today that residents were still entitled to $15,000, Srey Sothea said cash compensation was off the table.

“The offer of $20,000 we promised before the relocation is now finished,” he said. “I had encouraged the Dey Krahorm residents to accept it to avoid the administrative measure like we had today, but my proposition had been rejected,” Srey Sothea said.

“As for accusations that we are abusing people’s rights… we have announced this many times already to residents. We had prepared all administrative measures and people were asked to leave Dey Krahorm,” he said.

The municipality and 7NG announced January 13 they had a “green light” to forcibly remove the remaining residents of the embattled community, but sweetened the threat of eviction by raising cash compensation from $15,000 to $20,000 per family for those who go willingly.

Mann Chhoeun said today that while several notices of imminent eviction had been issued, the most recent on December 30, some residents remained -- paving the way for legal action by authorities.

Earlier this week, some high-profile residents from Dey Krahorm, chapei masters Neth Pe and Kong Nay, accepted homes within Phnom Penh and $10,000 from 7NG. But these were exceptional offers, and the rest of the residents holding out have argued $20,000 is too little to buy a new home, while the relocation properties are too far from their livelihoods in the city.

Contacted this morning by phone, Chan Vichet, a representative of the last residents, said he was “hiding” for fear authorities would intern him to prevent him from raising a public outcry against the day's events.

“I can see my home being demolished by a bulldozer. They consider us like animals,” Chan Vichet said.

While the city had estimated that 90 families remained in the community, Chan Vichet put the figure at closer to 150 families. Trucks belonging to 7NG shuttled them to the relocation site, he said.

Rights groups flocked to Dey Krahorm in the morning to observe the demolition of a community whose right to the land they had lobbied for years.

Without any prior notification and with compensations deals outstanding for families remaining there, around 200 police “encircled” the community in the middle of the night and were followed later in the morning by more than 300 workers with bulldozers, said Chan Saveth of the rights group Adhoc.

Yeng Virak, executive director of Community Legal Education Centre, said he had entered the Dey Krahorm complex at 4am but was forced by police to leave by 6am.

“It’s not fair and it’s illegal. People have possession rights to the land and their compensation needs to be settled before they are removed,” Yeng Virak said. “In Phnom Penh, business interests come before the rights of the people. This is another example of economic development at all costs -- not equitable or sustainable development.”

David Pred, director of rights group Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, said residents still have a civil complaint pending in an appeals court to cancel the land swap between the former community representative and 7NG that he said was patently invalid under the Land Law. An estimated 800 to 1,400 residents lived in Dey Krahorm before old community leaders signed a contract with 7NG in 2005, giving it the 3.6-hectare property in return for building relocation houses in Damnak Trayoeng village. Land rights group have challenged the legality of the original contract and accused city and 7NG officials of using intimidation tactics to force residents to accept the compensation deals offered.

Rights advocates also condemned the relocation site, which they described as allotments resembling brick shells and far from complete.

“Once again the municipality has carried out a brutal eviction in the heart of Phnom Penh without any apparent plan for relocation or meeting the humanitarian needs of the evictees,” Pred said.

Sara Colm, of the Cambodian office of Human Rights Watch, said residents delivered to Damnak Trayoeng appeared stunned.

“They’re just dumped there. There are no proper homes, no water. There was a woman there who looked like she was going into premature labour from having lifted all her stuff,” she said.

“People started erecting blue tarps with sticks to get shelter from the sun and getting water from ditches in rice fields.”

Meanwhile, at Dey Krahorm, 7NG is still deliberating on the future of its development plan.

“Our company will start construction on the new site soon, but we don’t know what we will construct,” Srey Sothea said. “We’ll let people know later.”
Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Ke Kim Yan removed from post

2009-01-23T03:52:00.000-08:00

Written by Post Staff
Friday, 23 January 2009

GENERAL Ke Kim Yan, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and long-time loyalist of Cambodian People's Party President Chea Sim, has been removed from his post in a sweeping reshuffle of the Kingdom's military leadership.

According to a royal decree broadcast Thursday on Apsara Television, Ke Kim Yan's deputy, General Pol Saroeun, has been appointed commander-in-chief, and seven officers have been bumped up to the post of deputy commander-in-chief, including Hun Sen loyalists General Kun Kim and General Meas Sophea.

When contacted by the Post Thursday, Pol Saroeun confirmed he had been promoted. When asked how he felt about it, he replied: "I am modest."

Nem Sowath, Cabinet chief for the Ministry of Defence, said that it was a routine reshuffle of the Kingdom's top brass. "There has been no problem," he said.

He added that Ke Kim Yan had led the army for many years and had made "enviable achievements" since being appointed to the post.

Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party , said the reshuffle was likely a result of internal CPP power politics.

"We have long heard rumours that Prime Minister Hun Sen had plans to remove Ke Kim Yan from commander of RCAF because of an internal dispute," he said, referring to speculation that has abounded since 1997 when reports of Ke Kim Yan's death in the factional fighting sent his family fleeing to Thailand. Although the reports proved erronrous, it later emerged Ke Kim Yan had disputed an order to deploy the army on the streets of Phnom Penh.

In 1999, when Hun Sen appointed Kun Kim to the general staff, observers cast it as a move by the prime minister to tighten his grip on RCAF.
A three-star RCAF general who declined to be named said that he was "very surprised" to hear of the transfer.

"If he was withdrawn from his post without real reason, there could be a reaction from soldiers and commanders," he said.

But Nguon Nhel, first deputy president of the National Assembly, denied the move was a sign of internal divisions in the party. "There is no such dispute in the CPP," Nguon Nhel said. "If there was a dispute, the CPP would not have such support."

Ke Kim Yan could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Google sees strong revenue growth

2009-01-22T20:57:00.000-08:00

Google, the internet search engine, saw revenue rise and profits fall in the final quarter of last year in what have been seen as positive year end results.

Net profit for the period was $382m (£275m), down from $1.21bn for the same period in 2007, a fall of 68%.

The results were affected by charges on investments during the quarter and were better than analysts had expected.

Total revenue was $5.7bn, up 18% compared with the same quarter the previous year.

One-off charges

Without the one-off charges on investments in Clearwire Corp and Time Warner, profits actually rose.

"Google performed well in the fourth quarter, despite an increasingly difficult economic environment," said Google boss Eric Schmidt.

"At least we have something to feel good about with this Google news in what has been shaping up to be a gloomy earnings period," said Keith Wirtz at Fifth Third Asset Management. Earlier on Thursday, rival Microsoft posted lower profits and announced up to 5,000 redundancies.

Source: BBC NEWS.

Microsoft to cut up to 5,000 jobs

2009-01-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

Microsoft says it will cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, including 1,400 immediately.

Is Microsoft's future mobile?

Microsoft accused by EU again

Source: BBC NEWS.

Yousefieh No.2 Appraisal Well Drilling Commences

2009-01-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

Source: www.gulfoilandgas.com 1/21/2009, Location: Middle East
Drilling

Emerald Energy announces that the drilling operations have commenced at the Yousefieh No.2 appraisal well, located approximately 1.8 kilometers east of the Yousefieh No.1 discovery well announced in November 2008.

The Yousefieh No.1 discovery well encountered approximately 63 metres of net oil pay in the Cretaceous aged reservoir and flowed oil to surface at a rate of 900 barrels per day, under natural flow, during a production test of a 19 metre interval at the top of the reservoir.

The Yousefieh No.2 appraisal well is planned to be drilled to a total depth of approximately 2,060 metres and take 45 days to drill and evaluate. The well will target the same Cretaceous reservoir as encountered in the Yousefieh No.1 discovery well but close to the currently interpreted eastern limit of this stratigraphic accumulation. The Company expects that a significantly thinner reservoir section will be encountered at this location but it is believed that the information on lateral variations in reservoir characteristics such as reservoir facies, porosity and permeability will assist in refining understanding of the reservoir and determining development plans.

The Yousefieh discovery is located close to existing infrastructure, with the Yousefieh No.1 surface location approximately 3 kilometres from the production facilities in the Khurbet East field.

Emerald’s Chief Executive Officer, Angus MacAskill, said:
"We are pleased to be progressing rapidly with the appraisal of this exciting discovery and look forward to the outcome from the first appraisal well."

The history of Soccer

2009-01-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

Soccer began in China around 2500 B.C. People played a ball game to celebrate the emperor's birthday.

The modern game of soccer began in England in the 1800s. How ever, it was very different then from soccer today. Sometimes players picked up the ball and ran!

Then in 1863, the London Football Association made the rules for a game they called "association football." Players were no longer allowed to use their hands. People called association football "assoc."

Finally, "assoc" became "Soccer".

British sailors took soccer to the rest of Europe and to south America and Asia. Soccer matches were soon being played around the world. In 1930, the world's greatest soccer competition began: teams from thirteen countries took partin the first world cup in Uruguay.

What's New: ANZ launch

2009-01-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

Written by Sebastian Strangio
Wednesday, 21 January 2009

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) launched a new mobile banking service, which company representatives say will open up new avenues into Cambodia's traditional cash economy. Known as WING, the service will allow customers to make person-to-person payments and transfers from their mobile phones. "WING will help improve people's livelihoods and reduce poverty by increasing their access to banking services," ANZ CEO Mike Smith said during WING's launch Tuesday. Mobile banking - also known as M-Banking or SMS Banking - has already taken root across the developing world, and Citibank introduced a similar system in the United States in mid-2007.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

The guardian of wooden houses

2009-01-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

Written by Kyle Sherer
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
SIEM REAP

A Siem Reap architect is waging a battle for wood as concrete takes over as building material of choice.

SIEM Reap designer and architectural researcher Hok Sokol has had a passion for old wooden Cambodian homes for almost nine years. He has studied them, documented them, filed them as case studies ... and seen many of them destroyed in favour of bland concrete buildings.

This motivated him to create a development company of his own - one that not only preserved old buildings, but also constructed new old buildings.

His firm, HHH Co, builds traditional Khmer wooden houses using the same designs and materials used in Cambodia for centuries.

As widespread urban development continues to change Siem Reap at a furious pace, Hok Sokol hopes his initiative will ensure that the emerging city maintains its personality of authentic Khmer culture.

Hok Sokal told Prime Location that wooden houses are "more impressive, more remarkable than concrete structures. They are an important part of Siem Reap's character that we cannot afford to lose".

Siem Reap is home to two of his new wooden houses, built in 2004 and 2008 near the Rolous temples on the outskirts of Siem Reap.

He also moved a 90-year-old wooden house from Kampong Cham province to a new location 300 metres south of Wat Damnak, with modifications to the bathroom and kitchen.

To build a new old wooden house, Hok Sokol explains he needs to synergise three elusive elements. "We need to find the right carpenter, the right wood and the right client," he said.

Hok Sokol's background in academia ensures that his houses are extremely authentic - from the layout of the rooms to the type of lumber used. "We use the same wood that was used in construction of the traditional houses," he said. "When I start a new project, I spend a great deal of effort locating the right wood. I use up to six types of wood in a house, including sokrom, kokoh, koki, sroloas and beng."

The meticulous sourcing of traditional timber isn't merely pedantic - it gives the houses a strength and durability that Hok Sokol says could rival their concrete competitors.

"It is remarkable that houses built in this style are still in good condition up to 100 years after their construction," he said.

Not for everyone
Even with a stock of the correct materials, Hok Sokol is still faced with finding the right client. "We need people who really love and understand wooden architecture," he said. "Most of my clients are well-educated, with a high degree of knowledge about Khmer art and culture. Some are Cambodians who have been educated outside the country, some are foreigners who have studied Khmer culture." One trait that is necessarily shared by Hok Sokol's clients is patience - the construction of a single wooden house takes an entire year.
However, construction is an area where modernity is definitely an ally. "With modern technology, carpentry and equipment we can build wooden
houses in half the time it took our ancestors," he said.

HHH Co's team consists of two architects, an engineer, a plumber, an electrician, five carpenters and 10 workmen. Other work, like tiling and concreting, is subcontracted, and the construction methods used vary from house to house.

"Depending on the project, we use a combination of traditional and modern methods. One hundred years ago, our ancestors could not build houses in certain areas - but with electricity and modern equipment we are not as restricted."

Hok Sokol says Siem Reap has great potential for traditional wooden-house development. In particular, he indicates the banks of the Siem Reap River as an example of where wooden restoration and construction work could be achieved with great effect.

However, he is unsure of whether his efforts are enough to ensure the continuity of the wooden house style. "It is hard for wooden houses to compete with concrete houses when there is less and less wood available, and more and more concrete. People are attracted to wooden houses, but sometimes will use the concrete style for convenience.

“We need people who really love and understand wooden architecture.”

"There are 100 concrete houses for every wooden house, and concrete houses are simpler to build. But the design and quality of wooden houses are better."

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Trials, tribulations and textbooks: Govt, DC-Cam review KR teaching

2009-01-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

Written by Robbie Corey-Boulet
Wednesday, 21 January 2009

After a long and at times contentious review by a government committee, a guidebook combined with a training program will advise teachers on controversial instruction methods.

THE Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) plans next week to publish a guide for high school teachers, advising them on the best ways to present A History of Democratic Kampuchea, a textbook detailing the history of the Khmer Rouge.

Monday's release of the 79-page guidebook, a draft of which has been obtained by the Post, will mark the end of a review process that saw members of a Ministry of Education review committee occasionally clash with DC-Cam staff over how the history should be taught.

Its distribution is to coincide with an expanded printing of the textbook itself, which was approved by the government as a supplementary text more than two years ago but so far has not been widely used in classrooms, said DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang.

Youk Chhang said the nationwide distribution of both books, combined with a teacher training program designed to familiarise 3,000 high school teachers with their contents, will standardise and improve the information students receive about the Khmer Rouge years. The information teachers currently provide too often takes the form of incomplete accounts based primarily on their own experiences and those of their relatives, he said, in part because their resources are limited: The government-issued social studies textbook devotes only eight or nine pages to the period.

The textbook, written by DC-Cam researcher Khamboly Dy, skirts some of the more contentious aspects of the period - for instance, whether Vietnam's defeat of the Khmer Rouge amounted to liberation or an invasion - so clashes over the content of the guidebook centred more on methods than message.
Painstaking review
The review committee was concerned about some interactive activities outlined in the guidebook. In one, described in the draft teachers' guide, students are instructed to illustrate and write a one-page news report about the scene in Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge arrived on April 17, 1975.

Youk Chhang said the committee objected to this because of concerns that students' imaginations would lead them to illustrate scenes "that go beyond the truth". He said Sunday that DC-Cam and the committee were still hashing out a compromise.

The committee responded favorably, however, to other interactive tasks. One lesson calls for students to be divided into two groups, one of which is given interviews with victims and the other interviews with former Khmer Rouge guards. Students are to read the interviews and then deliver presentations on them.

Though the committee approved it, not every reviewer was convinced it could be executed successfully. Cheng Hong, a lecturer at the National Institute of Education and a member of the review committee, said classes in some schools contain more than 60 students, making this type of managed role-play untenable.

He also said such activities might anger students unnecessarily.

Sambo Manara, a professor of history at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and a member of DC-Cam's review team, said he would like to do away with interactive tasks altogether, arguing that they had been rendered unnecessary by the proliferation of books and news reports in a range of media on the Khmer Rouge.

Other objections had to do with logistics. Cheng Hong questioned whether schools lacking in modern infrastructure would be able to screen films such as S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, which the guidebook recommends.

These disagreements aside, Youk Chhang said DC-Cam's relationship with the government reviewers was largely productive.

"They gave us a lot of good suggestions," he said, "and we think most of them are appropriate."

First print, then train
Since its approval, enough copies of A History of Democratic Kampuchea have been distributed for each of Cambodia's more than 1,300 high schools to carry four copies in their libraries.

"They disappear from the bookshelves, so we keep sending more copies when we can," Youk Chhang said.

With this year's expanded printing, funded by the German embassy, roughly 200,000 copies are to be made available to high school students.
The distribution of the books is to be followed by a training program set to unfold in three stages. In May, 24 people from the government review committee are to attend a workshop to become national trainers. In June, this group of 24 is to train 185 provincial trainers, who in turn will train 3,000 high school teachers across the country by September.

Youk Chhang said the 3,000 teachers would be split evenly along gender lines to ensure that different aspects of the period's history receive equal emphasis in classrooms.

"All male teachers want to talk about prison and torture," he said. "All females want to talk about food and starvation issues, and forced marriage."

There will also be an even split between teachers who survived the regime, who tend to focus on their personal experiences and neglect peer-reviewed academic material, and younger teachers, who might lack a personal connection to the events and thus be less engaging, Youk Chhang said.

DC-Cam and the Ministry of Education will observe how the guidebook is implemented over the next few years.

Youk Chhang said he expects some changes will be necessary.

"We anticipate some problems because this material is very new," he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY THET SAMBATH

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

$12 billion satellite city project protested by Siem Reap residents

2009-01-21T02:30:00.000-08:00

Written by May Kunmakara
Friday, 16 January 2009

Two companies plan a massive ecotourism destination and satellite city to ease congestion, but residents are saying ‘no’ the project

MORE than 500 residents of Varin district in Siem Reap province have lodged complaints over a proposed multibillion-dollar satellite city and ecotourism destination, an Adhoc regional coordinator told the Post Thursday.

The project is slated for 3,900 hectares of land granted to two private companies out of a total 7,000 for the site.
The dispute stems from an agreement last year between the government and Cambodian-based Banya Group and the Korean company Euro Corp, based in the United States - to build a US$12 billion satellite city in Sre Noy and Lavea Kreaing communes in Varin district.

Sours Sarin, a Siem Reap monitor for rights group Adhoc, said 540 families have appealed to the group and to provincial authorities to block the land concession.

"I have tried to reach representatives of the [Banya Group] to discuss villagers' complaints, but they have not answered my calls," Sours Sarin said.

He added that Varin district Governor Em Vat has offered villagers $200 per hectare in compensation for the disputed land but that the offer was rejected.

Instead, Sour Sarin said he had received reports that residents of other provinces had come to Varin district to seize land and broker compensation deals with Banya Group.

Em Vat was not available for comment on Thursday.
The land concession for the proposed satellite city, to be located on 7,000 hectares of land near the Thai border in Siem Reap province and some 50 kilometres from Siem Reap town, was approved by the Council of Ministers and Prime Minister Hun Sen in March last year.
Cambodian media reported last month that Siem Reap Governor Sou Phirin and representatives of the Baya Group and Euro Corp signed a memorandum of understanding for the project.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Mobile growth stays strong

2009-01-21T02:17:00.000-08:00

Written by Kay Kimsong
Tuesday, 20 January 2009

Phone companies say the Cambodian market is bullish.

Despite the economic downturn and concerns over corporate investment, local mobile phone operators say their expansion plans are on schedule for 2009 as the industry continues to grow.

"Our expansion plans are on track," said Adam Cabot, CEO of Star-Cell. The company announced last year it was going to expand services to all of Cambodia's provinces for its 100,000 subscribers.

"Yes, [the crisis] will have an effect, but it is hard to say how much. We are still maintaining our position and doing well," he said.
The company would not comment on its earnings for 2008, but said it plans "a very aggressive program for 2009".

Rural market
Cambodia's low mobile penetration rate is a draw for many companies such as Vietnam-based mobile operator Viettel, which is launching a major drive to tap Cambodia's rural market and bring schools online. Hong Anh Xua, president of Viettel, could not be reached for comment on Monday, but Prime Minister Hun Sen's spokesman Eang Sophalleth said Viettel's rural expansion is part of the government's own plans to increase phone usage outside the capital.

The Cambodian government says private operators like Viettel are therefore providing an important service for rural areas.

"Samdech [Hun Sen] supports the investment because it has contributed to the development of our country," said Eang Sophalleth.

Cambodia's mobile market has grown rapidly in the past five years, and companies are scrambling to gain a foothold as phones and the internet gain popularity.

Domestic mobile-phone usage surged 49 percent in 2007 but the national penetration rate remains a low 17 percent. In contrast, neighbouring Vietnam saw 75 percent growth with a 33 percent penetration rate in the same year, said Budde Comm, an independent telecoms analyst.

“SERVICES HAVE IMPROVED IN CAMBODIA WHILE PRICES HAVE DROPPED.”

Internet access is available in all provinces, but the lack of a national fiber-optic cable network means that service is slow and unreliable. One major cable line runs through the Thai border to Vietnam from Kampong Cham province to Sihanouk province. A second cable links Cambodia to Vietnam and Laos. The ministry is working with the Lao government to connect the fibre-optic cable from across border to Cambodian provinces, which it hopes to compete by April.

"This is a free-market policy that will benefit the people and will attract more investors. Telecommunications services have improved in Cambodia while prices have dropped," said Eang Sophalleth.

So Khun, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, told the Post last Tuesday that the ministry welcomes new competitors in the phone market and that more companies will lead to cheaper services.

"I think the telecom business still has a lot of room to grow. There are still many Cambodians who do not have phone services, which is a big opportunity for new companies."

He said internet and phone service prices will drop once more competitors enter the marketplace.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY GEORGE MCLEOD

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Obama-rama

2009-01-21T02:08:00.000-08:00

Written by Tracey Shelton Wednesday, 21 January 2009

A supporter of Barack Obama mingles with other fans of the new US president on Tuesday night as they celebrate his inauguration by watching a live broadcast of the event at Phnom Penh's Gym Bar, hosted by Democrats Abroad - Cambodia.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Internet to be regulated: minister

2009-01-20T20:40:00.000-08:00

Written by Sam Rith
Tuesday, 13 January 2009

The Ministry of Information is drafting legislation that allows existing print regulations to govern other media, including the internet, but vows not to curtail press freedom.

THE Ministry of Information is drafting a law that would extend existing libel, defamation and ethics rules currently governing print media to other media platforms, including the internet.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said the law would be used to formalise content management rules so that they could be easily applied by future information ministers. He said the law would not be used to curtail freedom of the press.

"We are drafting the legislation in order to have a proper law to manage radio, television and other platforms," he said in an interview with the Post Monday.

Khieu Kanharith said the recent explosion of media outlets outside of print made the law necessary, pointing to the increase in websites in recent years, as well as the growth in television and radio.

He said Cambodia has nine aerial television channels, 60 cable channels and several satellite and internet channels. The number of radio stations - including internet stations - is also growing rapidly.

He said he did not know when the draft law would be finished, noting that much work remains to be done before it can be sent to the Council of Ministers.

Control of the internet recently became an issue when several government officials suggested shutting down a website by Cambodian-American artist Reahu, whose depictions of semi-nude Apsaras they said were degrading to Cambodian culture.

Regulating radio
Mom Sonando, director of Sambok Khmum Radio (Beehive Radio), a private commercial radio station, said he supported the drafting of the law.

"I support the creation of a proper law to manage the media so that we will all know what we should do and what we should not do," he said.

He said he hoped the law would stipulate that all radio stations are entitled to the same broadcasting rights, which he said is not the case now.

For instance, he said his station does not have live broadcasting rights for Radio Free Asia and Voice of America programming, putting it at a disadvantage compared to stations that do.

Pen Samitthy, editor-in-chief of Rasmey Kampuchea and president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, said however, that such laws generally lead to limitations on the press.

He said he would prefer that any law related to the media address only infrastructure issues and management techniques, such as frequency regulation.

Extracted From: -The Phnom Penh Post.

Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza

2009-01-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Israel has begun a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, three weeks after launching a full-scale assault against Hamas.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had achieved its goals and Hamas - which has been firing rockets at Israel - had been defeated.

But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. Hamas said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza.

Nearly 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence began on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died.

The US has welcomed the ceasefire - which came into effect at 000GMT - saying it "expects that all parties will cease attacks and hostile actions immediately".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed relief, saying the ceasefire should be "the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza".

'Goals achieved'

The Israeli prime minister's announcement came in a televised address following a late-night cabinet meeting.

Israel's "goals have been achieved, and even more", Mr Olmert said.

Hamas was badly damaged both militarily and in terms of government infrastructure; rocket factories and dozens of smuggling tunnels had been destroyed, he said.

But the success of the ceasefire depended on Hamas, he said.

Troops would remain in Gaza for the time being and if Hamas held fire, the military would "consider pulling out of Gaza at a time that befits us".

If militant rocket fire into Israel continued, Israel would respond with force, the Israeli leader added.

A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhum, condemned the move. Hamas could not "accept the presence of a single [Israeli] soldier in Gaza", he said.

Osama Hamdan, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, said Israel had failed in its objectives

Israel must withdraw completely, lift its economic blockade of Gaza and open border crossings, the spokesman said.

BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen says the question now is whether Hamas decides to lick its wounds and regroup - or whether it gambles on dragging Israel into a war of attrition.

Hamas representatives have been taking part in talks in Cairo, brokered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, aimed at reaching a bilateral deal.

Egypt will on Sunday host a summit, attended by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the UN chief and several EU leaders, aimed at securing a permanent truce.

Minutes before Mr Olmert spoke, a rocket was fired from Gaza, a BBC producer in Gaza said.

'War crime'

The Israeli announcement came on the 22nd day of violence in Gaza.

Overnight Israel carried out more than 50 air strikes on Gaza, as Hamas rocket fire from the territory continued.

United Nations officials said two children, aged five and seven, were killed when Israeli tank fire hit a UN school where hundreds had taken shelter in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), said an investigation was needed "to determine whether a war crime has been committed".

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, told the BBC that Israel was waiting for more information on what happened.

Extracted From: -BBC News.

Dictators beware

2009-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

Written by Marc F Plattner

Friday, 16 January 2009

The competitive edge: Why authoritarian economies could have more to fear from the economic crisis

THE past few years have been tough for democracy around the world, and most observers have jumped to the conclusion that the US financial crisis will only make things worse.

Those who believe free markets are essential to democracy fear that the discrediting of market capitalism will undermine free and open governance. Even those less enamoured of capitalism are afraid that the global identification of democracy with markets is so strong that the crisis will weaken the standing of liberal politics.

There are other reasons for concern. For one thing, the Great Depression was devastating to democratic progress.

The period between the first and second world wars included what Samuel P Huntington characterised as the first "reverse wave of democratisation", as many of the European democracies that emerged after World War I succumbed to economic hardship and the rise of fascism.

Under harsh economic conditions, it is more difficult for a democratic government to deliver the prosperity that its politicians promise and its citizens seek. Long-established democracies with deeply rooted institutions and strongly liberal political cultures may be able to withstand even sharp drops in income and steep increases in unemployment, but newer and less consolidated democracies will find it much harder to avoid political breakdowns.

Yet these concerns present only one side of the picture. In fact, on balance, the economic crisis could bring global gains for democracy, largely because of its impact on democracy's competitors. In just the past few years there has been not only a stagnation of democratic progress but also, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the emergence of nondemocratic political systems that can claim to offer attractive models.

Some observers lump together these nondemocratic alternatives under the label "authoritarian capitalism" (though this is little more than a catchall category of countries that seem to be achieving economic success without providing political freedom). It cannot be denied that, until late last year, several such countries - China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran - were riding high.

But the economic crisis has rapidly gone global and reached them as well. With oil prices a fraction of their highs from just a few months ago, the oil exporters have taken a severe hit.

“Today's ... regimes are likely to be more vulnerable than their democratic counterparts.”

Even China's remarkable economic growth is likely to be imperiled as the downturn prompts its export markets to contract.
In this sense, what the crisis reveals is that the gains of nondemocratic countries have ultimately depended on the economic engine provided by the world's advanced democracies.

Democrats can hardly gloat about the fallout from the crisis, given the breadth of the suffering and the inevitability that some democracies will be at risk.

Performance legitimacy
Yet democrats' rivals are likely to suffer even more. For the most part, the "authoritarian capitalist" regimes are not based on a coherent ideology that has wide support among their populations. Instead, regimes such as those in Russia and China are propped up by what political scientists call "performance legitimacy": As long as they deliver the economic goods, most of their citizens may be willing to accept the accompanying limits on their political freedom.

Russian citizens who endured poverty after the fall of communism appreciated the improvement in their quality of life that Vladimir Putin's regime offered. But when such regimes stop delivering, what other sources of legitimacy can they fall back on to justify their rule? Over the long term, democracies, too, may succumb if they fail to deliver, but in the short term they have other resources, not just popular attachment to political liberty but also the ability to change their governments via elections without changing their regimes.

Authoritarianism threatened
Today's authoritarian regimes are likely to be more vulnerable than their democratic counterparts.

In the 1970s, the French political scientist Pierre Hassner used the phrase "competitive decadence" to describe the Cold War contest between the United States and the Soviet Union. This notion suggested that the superpowers were each beset with serious internal problems and that whichever side decayed more slowly was likely to emerge the winner.

The global economic crisis may well stimulate a similar kind of dynamic between democracy and its rivals. But democracy's advantages in such a struggle are not limited to its ability to take a punch and outlast its glass-jawed competitors. Democracy has often displayed a remarkable ability to reform and renew itself.

This gives it a resilience that may prove decisive in the competition with its more brittle authoritarian challengers.
_______________________________________
Marc F Plattner is co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and serves at the National Endowment for Democracy.

Pact aims to stamp out H5N1

2009-01-17T19:28:00.001-08:00

Written by May Kunmakara
Thursday, 08 January 2009

Govt signs agreement with Vietnam to monitor animal cargo at border in effort to curb the spread of the virus and boost livestock trade, officials say

CAMBODIAN and Vietnamese government officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week to inspect all animal cargo crossing their shared border, said a local government official three weeks after the eighth reported human case of bird flu struck the Kingdom.

A 19-year-old man in Kandal province was infected with the H5N1 virus last December. It was the only confirmed infection in the country last year, and was nonfatal - unlike the seven prior cases diagnosed in Cambodia.

The agreement, signed by the agriculture ministries of Cambodia and Vietnam on December 29, stipulates the construction of 11 inspection facilities along the border to separate the flow of animal cargo and humans, who primarily contract bird flu through contact with nasal secretions, saliva or faeces from an infected bird.

Kao Phal, director of the Animal Health and Production Department, said the ministry also requested training in veterinary expertise and the laboratory research required to detect the deadly virus. H5N1 has claimed nearly 250 lives around the globe since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.

"The agreement will help curb the disease from spreading from animal to animal and from animals to people," Kao Phal said.

Regulations to boost trade
Sok Sina, an independent economist, said the agreement would improve livelihoods on both sides of the border by cutting down on the virus's threat to humans and the animals they rely on for food and business.

Such enhanced regulations will "boost Cambodian entrepreneurialism in produce", he added.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said more than US$900 million worth of goods were traded between the countries in the first 11 months of last year, adding that he hoped annual totals would climb to $2 billion by 2010.

A number of programs to educate rural Cambodians about the deadly virus have been launched in recent years, including the "market forums" started last year by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation and the Agriculture Ministry to educate poultry vendors on good sanitation practises.

In Brief: Bird flu area quarantined

2009-01-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

Written by VONG SOKHENG
Thursday, 18 December 2008

A week after a 19-year-old boy was confirmed to have contracted the deadly H5N1 bird flu, the Cambodian government has quarantined a three-kilometre area around the center of the outbreak - which is near the Krangchek Cambodia-Indonesia Friendship Center in Damrus commune, Kandal Stung district, Kandal province - while investigations are ongoing. OnTuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries issued a warning saying all poultry in the area will be destroyed and outlined a temporary suspension of the sale, purchase or transport of poultry, which is to be in effect for the next 30 days. "Anyone who violates these conditions will be punished in accordance to the law," the statement said. Kao Phal, director of the Animal Health and Production Department of the ministry, told the Post that local authorities had destroyed 326 birds in the outbreak area and sprayed the area on Wednesday. "It was difficult to destroy the birds because the birds are not caged," Kao Phal said. "However, we have had good cooperation from residents and all levels of local authorities."

Boeung Kak Beach

2009-01-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

Written by Tracey Shelton Friday, 16 January 2009

The extent of the filling-in of Boeung Kak lake is apparent in this photograph taken last week. Developer Shukaku has been pumping sand into the lake since August, after City Hall granted it a 99-year lease to develop the natural reservoir. Rights groups and residents have decried the reclamation, which many blame for widespread flooding in the capital.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Internet prices set to slide

2009-01-17T02:44:00.000-08:00

Friday, 02 May 2008

The question on the mind of every internet user in Cambodia is “Why is it so expensive?” The answer, according to internet service providers (ISPs), is simple: it’s a matter of supply and demand.

Nokia to almost pull out of Japan

2009-01-17T02:35:00.000-08:00

TOKYO, Nov. 28 (UPI) — Finnish phone maker Nokia, facing a tough market in Japan, will pull out of that country except to market its high-end Vertu, Forbes reported Thursday.

Nokia’s Vertu phones, which cost up to $10,000, are handcrafted and feature precious metals, the financial magazine reported.
“There is definitely a market in Japan for Vertu,” [...]

Israel trade delegation planned

2009-01-16T02:12:00.000-08:00

Written by GEORGE MCLEOD
Friday, 16 January 2009

First high-level Cambodia visit aims to boost commerce.

ISRAELI officials are pressing ahead on plans to boost trade and investment in Cambodia with a high-level visit and a major trade show in the works for 2009.

The first official delegation of its kind to Cambodia is set for March 16-17 and is to include the Israeli ambassador to Thailand and possibly Israel's economic and telecoms ministers, said Tzahi Selzer, economic and trade attache at the Israeli embassy in Bangkok.

Selzer said the embassy could not confirm which ministers would attend until after Israel's February 10 elections, but added that the visit would focus on the agriculture and telecommunications sectors.

"Israel has made many advancements in the field of agriculture, including irrigation systems," he said. "Israeli [agricultural] technology can be seen all over the world. Being a farmer in Israel means being a rich person."

Selzer said that Israeli businesses are looking to Cambodia as a market for high technology, agriculture, telecommunications and green energy.

"Israel's top markets are Europe and the United States, but Asia is booming and there is a lot of potential here," he said. No figures were available on bilateral trade and investment, he added.

Cambodia has seen a flood of Middle Eastern investment in recent years, with Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates leading the pack. The prime ministers of Qatar and Kuwait visited Cambodia in 2008 to gain a foothold in the agricultural sector.

But the Israelis maintain that they are not eyeing Cambodia for geopolitical reasons. "We are not at all concerned with any country except Iran. We have very good relations with many Arab states," he said.

Selzer also dismissed growing international calls for a boycott of Israeli goods in the wake of the bombing of Gaza that has killed more than 1,000.

"We haven't seen much effect on the economy. ... The Israeli stock market has actually gone up, and the Israeli shekel is up," he said, referring the country's currency."

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Youth among ruins

2009-01-16T01:38:00.001-08:00

Written by Kevin Britten
Friday, 16 January 2009

Teens might find Angkor Wat tedious, but the city can offer more compelling entertainment

For most normal teenagers, visiting 11th century Khmer ruins is not high on the list of vacation choices. But now, Siem Reap offers enough attractions in and around the temples to make the trip less painful for the adults accompanying the adolescents.

"Lets face it, old stuff can be very boring if you're not interested in the history or art of the period."

Angkor Wat, despite its spectacular scale and beauty, is no exception to this. So how do you keep your teenage kids interested enough to make the trip fun for all?

Well, the first stop has to be the viewing balloon near Angkor Wat. It's fun to be hoisted 180 metres off the ground whether you're interested in the ruins or not.

The best panoramic photos of Angkor Wat can be taken from the air, and even the most boredom-prone teenagers will get a thrill from being suspended from a tethered balloon.

Unlike parents, teenagers seldom suffer from vertigo. So witnessing their parents' visible fear at close hand is bound to add excitement to the experience.

A new quad-bike operator has recently set up shop in the town and has just imported some large, new quad-bikes. They enforce the helmet rule for all visitors, and designated riders accompany groups until they're clear of the built-up area. One-hour tours are not expensive and are a lot of fun, as the bikes are pretty powerful.

The crocodile farm right in the middle of town can seem boring until the crocs start to thrash about. Throw in a fish and these huge creatures spectacularly burst into life, snapping and fighting over the small fish that the farm sells.

There are crocs of all ages and sizes in separate pens, and there's a frisson of fear generated by being so close to something so deadly - and so hungry.

Pub Street is another place to take the kids in search of teenage fun.
Although most teenagers get no joy out of watching old people drink, the atmosphere in some of the bars - Angkor What?, for example, with loud music and big-screen TV - will entertain the young. Lets face it, Old stuff can be very boring if you’re not interested in the history or art of the period.
The street is safe and clean enough during the day and late evening to let teens roam alone while the old folk relax at a nearby bar.

Shopping fun
Then there's the shopping. Siem Reap has good tourist-trinket shopping, and the new Night Market has all the normal range of kitsch with the advantage of being open in the cooler part of the day.

Plus, there's a comfortable, big round bar for parents to lurk in at a safe distance while shopping is done, and there are two fish massage places where you can get your feet nibbled smooth for only US$3 for 15 minutes.

Fish imported from Turkey do the work, and the favourite fodder of this species seem to be dead, flaking skin. For 15 minutes of cleansing and wriggling laughter, it's hard to beat.

The shops around the Old Market, which operate during the day, also have rich pickings for teens - particularly in the fashion bargains and oddball stuff departments.

The market itself only houses mainstream tourist kitsch, but the small boutiques are varied and plentiful, and you're never far from a bar or a restaurant.

The temples
So what of the temples themselves? The sheer size and scale of Angkor Wat itself means that there's plenty of walking and plenty to see.

Keep moving. Don't get too bogged down with all that carved-wall stuff from the Ramayana, and you'll be fine.
Above all, don't take a guide, as the chances are he or she will insist that you do the whole place. Get a feel for the temples, take some photos and move on.

Some of the best photos can be taken at the Elephant Terrace, Ta Phrom and the Bayon. Humorous photos are the way to go to amuse the young, with the best being the nose-to-nose at the Bayon.

With rates the way they are, it's crazy to stay in a hotel without a pool in Cambodia. For $30 a night for a single room, including taxes and breakfast, you can pick from a range of new and comfortable hotels to make up for anything that the adults in the group feel they've missed at the temples.

Of course, you may have kids who are seriously nerdy and have a genuine interest in Khmer art and architecture and history - unlikely, but possible.

For the rest of us, Siem Reap has now graduated to being a with-teens tourist destination.

Extracted From:
-The Phnom Penh Post Newspaper.

Vietnam steel plant set for construction: reports

2009-01-14T19:43:00.001-08:00

Written by Chun Sophal

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Local media say a Vietnamese company is planning a $70 million steel plant in Cambodia capable of producing 5,000 tonnes per month

A STEEL manufacturer based in Ho Chi Minh City is set to invest US$70 million in a steel plant in Cambodia, local media have reported.

"We want the steel factory to begin production in two or three years," Tran Totu, chairman of the Thep Viet Steel Corp, told Kampuchea Thmey last week, adding that the investment would help fill a vital need for the Kingdom's rapidly developing infrastructure.

Thep Viet Steel exports 5,000 tonnes of steel per month to Cambodia, Kampuchea Thmey reported.

Cambodia is reported to have large iron deposits, and Vietnamese companies have been granted concessions to explore for the mineral - a major feedstock for steel production.

Trinh Ba Cam, spokesman for the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh, said Vietnamese companies could play a major role in future development in Cambodia.

"Vietnamese investment will help fill a need in Cambodian markets because the country is badly in need of steel," he said.
Tann Kin Vin, secretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said he had no information about the plant.

"We know nothing about the plan, but we think it could not be implemented that quickly because no evaluation study on the availability of iron ore has been conducted," he told the Post on Tuesday.

"If they do their research, they will be able obtain ore and earn a lot of profit," he said.
He said that Japan is providing technical training on ore extraction.

"Iron ore will be a big source of income if the country is able to utilise this natural resource," Tann Kin Vin said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen last year called on foreign investment to take advantage of Cambodia's iron resources.

"I think Cambodia may have enough iron ore to sustain operations in a number of provinces in the centre and in the north of the country," said Mom Sambath, executive director of Development and Parntership in Action, an organisation that conducts research on mining operations in Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces.

He added that Cambodia could also support large-scale bauxite production.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Rice farmers see brisk trade with Vietnam in premium rice stocks

2009-01-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

Written by Hor Hab
Wednesday, 17 December 2008

The government, local millers say rising sales of high-quality grain to Vietnamese traders balances the lack of larger export markets

WITH this year's harvest in, traders report surging sales of high-grade rice to Vietnam where it is popular on the domestic market, experts say, adding that the trend is working in Cambodia's favour.

"It is good that farmers can sell at a high price to the Vietnamese because we don't have enough credit to buy rice from farmers and we also don't have a proper [local] market," Tes Ethda, president of the National Rice Millers Association of Cambodia, told the Post Monday.

According to Tes Ethda, this strong foreign demand has helped mitigate the impact of falling rice prices for farmers without driving up the price of the staple grain on the local market.

Tes Ethda added that Vietnamese traders only buy premium-grade rice - usually in an unprocessed form - while local demand is generally satisfied by poorer quality grains.

Cambodia is expecting a 2.81 million tonne raw rice surplus, which can be processed into 1.8 million tonnes of milled rice, at the end of this year's harvest season, according to a recent government report.

Suor Khieng, vice president of the Rice Millers Association of Kampong Cham, which represents about 30 rice millers, said local mills don't have enough money to buy up the Kingdom's premium-grade rice.

"We [millers] can buy only small amounts of rice for processing because we don't have drying machines," Suor Khieng said, adding that the mills also offer lower prices than the Vietnamese traders.

"Our association reserves about 50,000 tonnes of milled rice after the close of the harvest season," he said.

Suor Khieng said that without purchases from Vietnam, the rice sector would suffer because Cambodia does not yet have a developed domestic market.

"The Vietnamese want to eat Cambodian rice because it is good and more hygienic than their locally-produced rice," he said.

Song Hong, vice president of the Cambodian Rice Millers Association in Battambang, said the Vietnamese have been arriving in the province to purchase high-quality jasmine, phkar malis and phkar romdoul rice since November.

"We and the Vietnamese traders offer similar prices to farmers, but we are able to buy only small amounts of rice due to capital constraints and a lack of proper technology," Song Hong said. "No capital, no competition."

The Vietnamese buy wet rice from farmers, while local millers buy only dry rice because they don't have drying machines, he added.

"Hundreds of trucks containing premium rice are being driven to the Cambodian-Vietnamese border every day," Song Hong said.

He said the his milling association has about 20 local millers that produce rice for local demand, as well as for possible overseas exports.

"We have to wait and see whether we can find a proper export market for our rice," Mao Thora, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce, told the Post Monday.

He added that the government would be prepared to ban all rice exports in the event of shortages at home.
A ban on rice exports was imposed from March through May this year to ensure sufficient stocks for local demand.
Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Indian company eyes local pharmacy plant

2009-01-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

Written by May Kunmakara

Friday, 26 December 2008

The company hopes that producing high-quality pharmaceuticals in country will cut demand for counterfeit medicines imported from abroad

AN Indian investment group has tabled a plan at the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce to recruit private partners to build a new pharmaceuticals manufacturing plant in Cambodia, the body's director general, Nguon Ming Tech, told the Post.

He did not identify the investors but said they were prepared to devote up to US$1 million to the new facility in a push to curb counterfeit drugs in Cambodia.

"They are interested in this sector because they don't want to see Cambodia rely on imported drugs," Nguon Ming Tech said.

"Thousands of pharmacies in the country offer imported medicine, much of which is counterfeit."

Yim Yann, president of the Pharmacists Association of Cambodia, said Cambodia has about 1,000 registered pharmacies, with an additional 1,000 pharmacies operating illegally.

"I think a new pharmaceuticals factory will bring new technology to Cambodia and will be able to take advantage of local resources," he said.

"Presently, there are only seven local pharmaceutical factories, which can produce only basic medicine and which serves only about 20 percent of the population."

"A new factory must be able to produce specialised drugs. Otherwise, it will be of little use to us," Yim Yann said, adding that Cambodia spends nearly $100 million on specialised medicines each year.

Nguon Ming Tech said India is a leader in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and that a facility to produce drugs locally would represent a significant developmental step for the country.

"The Cambodian Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the investment plan because it will improve health care in the country by allowing the production of locally made and safe medicines," he said.

"The Indian investment group wants to establish a partnership with local business people, and we are waiting to see their official proposal. Now, we are only helping to facilitate negotiations with relevant government ministries," he said.

Health Minister Mam Bun Heng said on Sunday that he welcomed investment in the pharmaceuticals sector but warned that any such plan must comply with foreign investment rules.

He said many kinds of medicines are available across the nation but acknowledged the benefits of a local manufacturing plant.

"If the proposed factory can produce specialised medicine for the treatment of heart and lung disease, cancer and liver ailments ... this would be very crucial for our country," he said.

He said curbing drug counterfeiting remains a priority for the Health Ministry.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

High numbers of smokers dying of secondary disease

2009-01-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

Written by Khoun Leakhana

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

A low awareness of smoking-related illnesses such as chronic bronchitis is putting more Cambodians at risk.

DOCTORS say they are becoming increasingly alarmed by the high number of people suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a type of smoking-induced bronchitis that frequently leads to death.

Despite rising awareness of the links between smoking and cancer, people in Cambodia know little of the connection between cigarettes and other types of illnesses, doctors say.

"Poisonous substances in cigarettes give smokers inflammation in their lungs, which eventually becomes chronic bronchitis," said Vann Mich, chief of the Department of Pneumatology at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital and secretary general of the Cambodia Society of Medicine.

"It destroys the elasticity in the lung cells, which reduces the ventilation movements of the lung," he told the Post last week.

Vann Mich estimated that 90 percent of people who smoke a packet of cigarettes a day for 20 years will likely face this type of bronchitis.

"The disease] is not really a cancer. It is a different type of lung disease that is particularly caused by smoking. This kind of disease can be cured only by a very slim chance," Vann Mich said, adding that his hospital received as many as 20 patients per month.

Eav Sokha, the chief oncologist-radiation therapist at the Center of Oncology in Phnom Penh and the secretary general of the Cambodian Society for Oncology, said that more recognition needed to be given to smoking-related illnesses other than cancer.

"Since I became a doctor, I have also seen people who do not smoke get cancer," he said.

Prak Prang, a 79-year-old suffering from smoking-related bronchitis, has been receiving treatment at Vann Mich's hospital since he felt like he had water in his lungs a week ago.

"I never knew that smoking caused lung disease like this," he said.

"Now I have found out that I am in too serious condition to be treated," he added.

"If I could rewind time, I would not touch even a single cigarette."

According to the National Statistics Institute, 53.9 percent of men and six percent of women in Cambodia over the age of 20 smoke.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

VIP bank closes its doors in Cambodia

2009-01-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

Written by NGUON SOVAN AND CHUN SOPHAL
Monday, 12 January 2009

The Singaporean bank says it is unable to meet the NBC’s new capital requirements

THE Singaporean commercial bank VIP announced it would be shutting its doors in Phnom Penh because it cannot meet the government's capital requirement.

The closure is the first since the global credit crunch hit in September of last year.
The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) increased the minimum capital requirement from US$13 million to $37.5 million in September 2008. The closure is not expected to have a strong impact on the local economy.

Stiff competition
Tough competition in the local market and the economic slowdown also played a role in the closure of VIP, said Key Kak, chairman of the accounting firm Morison Kak & Associates, which was authorised by National Bank to liquidate VIP's assets and settle deposits.

"The bank opened in August and closed in December. It had less than a hundred customers," the liquidator said.
"We have three months to clear the assets, repay all deposits and clear customer debts," said Key Kak on Sunday.

In Channy, president and chief executive officer of ACLEDA Bank, said Sunday that the tripling of registered capital requirements was not a serious concern because the NBC has given commercial banks until 2010 to comply.

“I THINK THE NBC INCREASED THE REGISTERED CAPITAL TO FAVOUR THE BIG FISH.”

He added that the registered capital is not significant for Cambodia's large banks.
"I think that the tripling can help Cambodia's economy in the future. It will not kill the small banks," In Channy said.

Big fish
Houth Pum, professor of law and economics at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, said Sunday that the capital increase is an obstacle for small banks but would help large banks become stronger.

"For the current size of Cambodia's economy, about ten banks is sufficient, but we have more than 20.
"I think NBC increased the registered capital to favour the big fish in the banking sector so the small fish will die," Houth Pum said.

"Even though there are many banks, the extent of loans and deposits has not increased much because our economy is not large enough."

Officials from VIP and NBC could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
According to NBC figures, Cambodia has 25 commercial banks, six specialised banks and 17 microfinance institutions.
As of October 2008, commercial banks had $2.4 billion in loans outstanding and $2.49 billion in deposits.

NBC raised capital requirements following the onset of the global economic crisis. Its tightening measures also included stricter rules on lending to the property sector.

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

SDC conference in Switzerland features IRRC’s achievements in the Mekong Delta

2009-01-12T00:51:00.000-08:00

Fribourg, Switzerland— On 22 August, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) held the 2008 Annual Development Cooperation Conference. This year’s theme was “Switzerland and the Mekong Region— Development under the Banner of Food Security and Globalization.” More than 1,700 participants came to examine the complementary nature of bilateral and multilateral development cooperation. Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) were presented as examples of the challenges and successes of development cooperation today.

Development work done by the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC) is part of SDC’s success story. Funded by SDC for more than a decade, the IRRC has developed and tested ricelead to rice milling quality 12–40% higher than that of sun-dried rice. Thousands of farmers are earning more by using special airtight bags to safely store their seeds. Ecological rodent pest management reduces the use of chemical rodenticides by 50% and increases yields by about half a ton per hectare. Ecological rodent pest management has become the national policy in Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The IRRC builds the capacity of partner countries by enhancing the skills of researchers, extension workers, and farmers. The partnership program provides multicountry learning for national scientists and extengrowing technologies and crop-management approaches in Vietnam and Lao PDR and produced astonishing results. IRRC work in Vietnam is captured in a video called “Rice and the Mekong.” (See side story for details.)

Dr. Achim Dobermann, deputy director general for research of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), represented IRRI and the IRRC. During the program, he gave a 15-minute presentation about the IRRC and demonstrated how a drum seeder and leaf color chart (LCC) work. “These are the fruits of 15 years of research in a regional effort of many countries,” he said. IRRI had an excellent display at the exhibit, featuring posters, press releases, fact sheets, and brochures of the IRRC and tools such as the drum seeder, LCC, grain quality kit, Super Bag, and field water pipe. “It was a clear crowd pleaser,” said Dr. Dobermann. He and Dr. Carmen Thoennissen, SDC program manager for the Mongolia desk, entertained questions about the IRRC at the exhibit.

At the close of the conference, respective directors- general of SDC and SECO, Ambassador Martin Dahinden, and Secretary of State Jean-Daniel Gerber emphasized that successful development partnerships call for joint strategies and objectives.

Trina Mendoza
With reports from Achim
Dobermann (a.dobermann@ cgiar.org) and SDC
and photos from SDC

Source: IRRC.

Cambodia’s continuing postharvest quest

2009-01-11T20:02:00.000-08:00

In Cambodia, the Postproduction Work Group has joined resources with the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction in an International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) project called Improving Poor Farmers’ Livelihoods through Improved Rice Postharvest Technology. The project aims to demonstrate in eight villages, four in Battambang and another four in Prey Veng, that improved harvesting, drying, storage, and milling can help farmers increase incomes from their rice harvests and improve the quality of grain and seeds throughout the postharvest chain.

Activities started in February 2006 with establishing baseline data and identifying the needs of 382 farmers and 27 rice millers. In 2006, project counterparts and staff from the provincial agricultural extension services were trained on improved postharvest management options (training of trainers). In the second half of 2006 and 2007, farmers in the eight villages received training and advice on grain and seed quality, and safe storage options, including hermetic storage, drying, and milling. All farmers who participated in training activities received hermetic Super Bags, and farmers’ groups in each village are also field testing the low-cost moisture meter and were provided with scales to check with the scales owned by some traders.

Some highlights and indicators of impact follow.

Farmers can now safely store their seeds without losing germination for 6 – 9 months by using the Super Bags. This means that they can sell more grain in the market since they can reduce the seed rate. Many are now asking where to buy the bags. The project also helps farmers to improve their traditional granaries for grain storage.

In Battambang, the project has helped a farmers’ group set up a farmer processing center that includes a dryer, a village rice mill, and a commercial hermetic storage system with 5-ton capacity for safe storage. Farmers benefit from higher milling yields. The bran, a by-product from milling that usually stays with the miller as payment now stays with the group, and some rice from the mill is sold as under-milled rice at a higher price to health-conscious consumers.

In Cambodia, irrigated rice accounts for 15% of the national rice area and is cultivated on about 360,000 hectares, contributing to a national production of 5.8 million tons.

The project imported a mini combine harvester from Vietnam and conducted a series of training and demonstration activities in both provinces. Private contractors are starting to import combine harvesters from Vietnam, Thailand, and China, which will help farmers to lower harvesting costs and reduce losses. In each village, farmers now receive up-to-date market information about rice prices in village, provincial, and Phnom Penh markets. This information is posted on village price boards that are accessible to all villagers. The information is collected every 3 days and sent to mobile phones of the bulletin board managers. Farmers increasingly base their marketing decisions on the market information and believe that they are in a better negotiating position because they are better informed.

Martin Gummert.

Source: IRRC.

LOVE FOR SALE

2009-01-08T00:06:00.001-08:00

Neary Krop Lak and Economics of Sex

I believe the health of our nation hinges on the liberation of our female population. We, Khmers, cannot expect social progress and economic development to occur in a vacuum, without the empowerment of our sisters, daughters, and wives. This will require us to alter our thinking regarding what it means to be an “ideal Khmer woman’, neary kroup lak, as outlined by the Women’s Code of Conduct or Chbap Srei. She need not be the deferential, submissive, homely, soft-spoken, well-mannered, long-haired, almond-eyed Asian mannequin of society.

Instead, let her breathe air after 6 PM; let her be educated; let her speak her mind; let her explore; let her skin and scrape her knees a little.

Tradition and customs protect her from vices and being misunderstood, people explain. But I believe we hold on tightly to these customs and forms, partly, to counter the rising social ills of prostitution – to prove to ourselves and others that we Khmer pride ourselves on values and decorum. This holds true for men in particular, who proclaim their commitment to these values as a way of absolving themselves of their involvement.

We may excoriate the debased foreigners who come to our country to exploit the very fragile legal, enforcement infrastructure and the young girls, but we have to face the fact that the majority of the clients in the red light districts are actually our Khmer men.

Immorality and amorality
A while back I helped with translation of a film on prostitution in Cambodia. In an interview with a ‘john’ , I was struck by the glibness and lackadaisical attitude of this moto-taxi driver, who visited prostitutes on a regular basis because he wanted to try how a ‘fat’ one differs from a ‘skinny’ one, or how a ‘while one differs from his wife. Moreover, he could do things to prostitutes he could not do to his wife.

Besides repulsion, I was struck by a devastating thought: he lives in a society that is slopping beyond immorality into amorality. With immorality, at least his conscience pricks him to tell him his acts are wrong. But with amorality, a person is so de-sensitized that he does not care.

Where is love amidst this cruel bond? Where is romance and intimacy amidst this vile union? How can something so beautiful be so degraded? But sadly, as is often the case, the greater the beauty the greater is the perversion.

How is it that lust has replaced love, what is permissible preferred over the best? Has he not ever experienced that exquisite union of souls where the acute swelling of heart and tightening of muscles have nothing to do with carnal knowledge but everything to do with the best of the beloved? Where the knees give way, the chest pounds, and the throat dries up when we catch glimpses of the ethereal beauty of the adored?

Legacy of UNTAC

Under its rule, the Khmer Rouge can be credited with abolishing ‘the oldest profession’ in our country. This condition remained so until the presence of the United Nations in 1992. The invasion of 22,000 UN blue berets – young men culled from all over the world, paid in generous UN salary – created a demand that was quickly supplied by the poverty-stricken female population (many trucked in from Vietnam, commerce transacted by local officials) in satisfying the libido of these men. The United Nations paid these peacekeepers several thousand dollars per month in a country on the verge of extinction whose population lived on almost nothing.

The UN peacekeepers have been long gone, but the trade of selling bodies and souls continue. In certain situations, the girls sacrifice their bodies for the survival of their family. In other cases, the parents sell their daughters as part of the human cargo and trafficking that make for common occurrences that do not even raise an eyebrow anymore.

This social ill inflicts fatal wounds on all levels of our Khmer society, and its worst twists spiral down from the highest echelon of power.

Beauty and power

Beauty is attracted to power, power to beauty. A most despicable cycle of violence has been spiraling in our present-day society whereby the first wives of prominent men hunt down much younger second wives or mistresses of their philandering husbands. Time and again, we read the same storyline, with only the names changed: vengeful wives, armed with an entourage of bodyguards, attacking the girls with skin-eating acid thrown onto faces and bodies. The intent is not to kill so much as to deform. In a culture of impunity, these perpetrators have yet to face justice.

There is no winner in this situation. Everyone is to blame; everyone is a victim; everyone is a perpetrator. The issue is not one of justification for the younger women – sometimes a refusal can turn dangerous – but of proportionality and just deserts.

And the cruelty of it all – women are pitted against women, encouraged and circumscribed by a cultural, social and economic construct where the sexual degradation of one is to preserve the twisted ideal of another!

Economics of sex

The problem raises the larger issue of how we are to live, whether we want to live in a society where “love” is purely an economic equation and is up for sale; whether we want to live in a society where our daughters and sisters can aspire to nothing greater than the wife or commodity of a wealthy man, of an okhna, of a white man, of a minister. Have we resigned ourselves to accepting the union of a beautiful 16-year old girl with a scraggly 60-year old man as normal? Is it ageism or an issue of power and choice? If we believe love is the foundation of such a union, I don’t think we would be so uneasy (or queasy!), but rather rejoice with this most fortunate of a man! Do we as a society not feel the onus and responsibility for creating more opportunities and empowering our women or are we so ready to disown the many living in sexual slavery because we are free from it? Are we not concerned for the larger implication of what it means for us as a people, as a nation?

Or can we carelessly dismiss this as fate and neatly absolve the problem with a simple classification of neary kroup lak or “good” girls versus “bad” girls. If we are to pause and deeply assess the present-day status of Khmer women, our values and actions, is this categorization even meaningful? Many times, is not the line of respectability a bit blurred and skewered and based more on economics and social status rather morality or ethics? Does not our current society quietly admire or envy a beautiful kept woman with a man of means, but treat with contempt and discard the pretty farm girl who has been trafficked into the sex trade for pennies?

Neary kroup lak reassessed

The Chbap Srei and the concept of the neary kroup lak must be reassessed in light of the realities of current society of 2007 (and not 1907) and where our society is heading. We can pretend to exist in a society of 100 years ago and to close our eyes to the changes around us, or we can face straight-on the changes – oftentimes unsettling and seemingly uncontrollable – and try to shape them. Change is never easy, especially when our identity, honor and worth are at stake. But rather than retreat and be defensive or act like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand refusing to believe the obvious, we can, we should, we must take control of our destiny and impact it rather than living passively to be impacted upon.

If we are at all concerned about the state of affairs, we, Khmer women, need to be empowered through education and the exercising of our Constitutional and inherent rights; our Khmer men need to be educated concerning their own dignity and worth and the value and freedom of their Khmer women. It reflects our inadequacy and self-loathing when we feel we need to demean and one-up another; we must fight against this tendency to devalue each other as Khmer.

It also reflects our imbalance when we kow-tow to anything foreign or display passive-aggressive attitudes to them when we feel slighted; we must take care to not disproportionately praise or misplace our criticism of foreigners, for no one can give us or take away our inherent values, as no one can look down on us – without our consent.

And we are consenting when we mistreat each other, particularly our own women; we are consenting when we close our eyes to the misery of the vulnerable, of the fatherless, of the elderly, of the landless, of the disabled, of the needy; we are consenting when we abuse the rights of our own people and create conditions where they are forced to beg for the most basic of necessities.

We both need to understand that in destroying the souls of our wives, daughters and sisters, we are destroying our own souls; we are consenting.

We of both sexes must be braver to withstand the social stigmas and temptations and value each other. If we are at all serious and concerned for the welfare of our society, there is no other way. We must translate lip service into active service of care, compassion and individual transformation.

Presumption against Khmer women

To be human is to desire. But there are times, when our heart’s desire has to be subordinated and sacrificed for a larger good. Even as our heart is being ripped out of us, we know there are limits to our desires. Why is it that we so often do what we know we ought not to do, and so often love or desire someone whom we would be better advised to walk away from?

The problems have reached such an apex that presumptions against us Khmer women are growing. And these presumptions are impeding our progress. They shackle our mobility ad freedom, for these presumptions mistakenly inform Khmer women what is and is not permissible to do or not do, to be or not be. They are nefarious because our opportunities are limited by someone’s misperceptions, our choices dictated by a social construct that makes our interaction with men, particularly of power, suspect.

Consequently, we Khmers should not be too surprised when outsiders view us with weariness or disdain, or when they exploit this presumption to their advantage. .By not highly valuing ourselves or each other, and by not responding appropriately when others degrade or slight us, no matter how wrong their statement or action, we reinforce these presumptions. Let others take responsibility for their own wrongs, and let each of us expend our energy reflecting on our own life, and how we can do better.

And for those of us Khmers who have acquired education, power or wealth, let me say: do not think we are free from indignities heaped on us by foreigners because of the strand(s) of diamonds around our neck, or the perfect American accent we have cultivated, or the Gucci bag we carry, or the shiny Mercedes we drive, or the foreign degree(s) we have accumulated, or through any other means by which we believe can distance us from “the masses” and poverty’s ugliness – unless we want to altogether disown our Khmer identity. We are only fooling ourselves if we believe we have gained respectability through any of these things while still misusing and abusing ourselves and our women.

Long ago a non-Khmer man of immense wealth and authority responded to my refusal of his propositioning with a contemptuous “Cambodians are a dime a dozen.” I wanted so badly to direct him where he should go in the same manner we Khmers might use a finger to indicate where the sky is!

In the expatriate community of humanitarian workers, diplomats, businessmen (cleverly and accurately dubbed the ‘lords of poverty’ by one author), the presumption against us Khmer women can unfold either in explicit arrogance or subtle sophisticated undercutting.

I have encountered personally, on countless occasions throughout the years, the mixture of the two. In one particular situation, my forcing of an issue to expose the fraud of a foreign lawyer posed too great a risk to make it to print: the expatriate community was experiencing a backlash of anti-foreigner sentiments coupled with the possibility that I was just a disgruntled employee. Also, concerns were raised about the innocent local staff whose livelihood depended on the continued existence of the institution.

Later on, it was spun that I was the scorned lover of the foreign lawyer.

Of course...what else can I, a Khmer woman, possibly be?!

It will take years to chip away at this presumption made by us toward each other and by foreigners alike.

We need to return to the principle of first things. Genuine Love. For ourselves. And for each other.

Theary C. SENG
Executive Director

Smoking and Health

2009-01-05T03:45:00.000-08:00

Cigarette is very popular in some countries, many people love to smoke cigarettes. Some of them do not know how cigarette affect their lives. Actually, it cause the serious problem to smoker and non-smoker around them. With this concept, many non-smoker said "Smoking should be banned". So, how to deal with this debate. In my opinion, smoking should be banned. There are many reason that smoking should be banned.

The first main reason is smoking cause cancer to death. In the cigarette consists of nicotine, poisonous substance, that cause human have lung cancer and finally death. In the first time that they smoke, they will realize that there is no problem about their health because it just the starting period. After and after, they will notice that they have coughing.

The second reason is affecting people around them. Almost all of smokers have their own families and they live closely together. When they absorb the smoke everyday they will get sick to even they do not smoke. This problem is very popular in poor family.

Finally, smoking is wasting of money. Actually, smoking is absorb only smoking not physical food. After they absorb, they release out and get nothing. From day to day, they spend lots of money to cigarette and get nothing, but only disease.

As we have previously mentioned, smoking has many disadvantages to both smokers and non smokers such as lung cancer, waste money and other. So, if smoking is banned, the people will stay in comfort.

News Brief: HRP leader snubbed at Preah Vihear

2009-01-05T02:17:00.000-08:00

Written by Meas Sokchea
Monday, 05 January 2009

President of the opposition Human Rights Party, Kem Sokha, said he was denied access to Preah Vihear temple by military leaders there because of political discrimination. "I arrived at the foot of the mountain, and when I asked permission to provide gifts to the soldiers, I was not allowed. This kind of political discrimination is regrettable. The soldiers belong to the nation, not one political party," he said. The highest-ranking field commander in Preah Vihear, Srey Deuk, said HRP officials were not allowed to enter the temple compound because the road leading to it was closed due to "problems with Thai officials over repairing it," he added. "It is their right to distribute gifts, but, in any case, the soldiers do not want gifts from HRP. They know it is the opposition party."

EXTRACTED FROM:
-PHNOM PENH POST NEWSPAPER.

Ban 'insulting' opera: monks

2009-01-05T02:05:00.001-08:00

Written by Khouth Sophakchakrya
Monday, 05 January 2009

The world premier of rock opera Where Elephants Weep was held in PPenh and presided over by Sok An, but angry monks now demand it be banned

CAMBODIA'S much-vaunted rock opera Where Elephants Weep has fallen afoul of the Kingdom's Buddhist clergy, who have demanded the show be banned.

"Some scenes in the story insult Buddhism," said a letter sent to the Ministry of Cults and Religion by the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks. The letter - also sent to the media - went on to ask that the ministry "ban the performance and airing of the opera", and demanded an apology from the show's director, writer and actors.

Elephants, a post-Khmer Rouge take on the Cambodian classic Tom Tiev, was written by American playwright Catherine Filloux and Cambodian composer Him Sothy. The work merges pop and rock music with more traditional and historical Cambodian tunes, and played in Phnom Penh from late November through early December.

Last week, a local television station aired the show, prompting the monks' council to write to complain, asking that the government ban further broadcasts of the musical.

The opera tells the story a Cambodian-American man who returns after the demise of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime to reconnect with his roots. While he is a monk, he falls into a doomed love affair with a pop singer.

But in predominantly Buddhist Cambodia, monks are expected to be austere and eschew worldly pleasures such as entertainment. Consequently, the council objected to many scenes, including one in which the actor "left the monkhood and slept with a woman, but a moment later put the robe back on to be a monk again..." states the letter, dated Tuesday.

The show "oppresses Cambodian Buddhist monks, causes more than 50,000 monks to lose their honour, value and to express frustration," it added.

Minister of Religion Min Khin told the Post Sunday that he plans to discuss the issue with the minister of culture and fine arts and the minister of information at the upcoming Victory over Genocide celebrations on Wednesday.

"We have received the letter from Cambodia's Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks, and we think that showing the opera Where Elephants Weep on television inappropriate and presents Buddhist monks in an unacceptable way," said Min Khin.

We will not apologise: artist
Eang Sithul, president of the Cambodian Artists Association and a performer in the controversial show, told the Post Sunday that neither he nor any of the other performers had any intention of apologising.

"We did not look down on Buddhism," he said, adding the musical focused on the story of one individual monk and did not pass judgement on the state of the clergy as a whole.

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said his ministry was not planning on demanding an apology.
"We have no objection to the opera, we just do not want to televise it because it looks a bit messy when it is broadcast on TV," he said, adding that the bilingual opera was complex in theme and delivery and better left to those who could afford to shell out for a ticket to the Phnom Penh performances.

"It looks better if we cut the scene with the monks," Khieu Kanharith added.
But Thai Naraksatya, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, told the Post on Sunday that Elephants was an excellent performance that helped portray life in Cambodia in the post-Khmer Rouge period and could provide a moral education of sorts.

"Where Elephants Weep is not only providing a [moral] education to our people, but it also shows how much Cambodia's arts scene has improved," Thai Naraksatya said.

The show had a successful US preview last year, and after its run ends in Cambodia, it is expected to tour South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan before returning to the United States.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP

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-PHNOM PENH POST NEWSPAPER.

Police net offenders as new helmet law comes into play

2009-01-05T01:56:00.000-08:00

Written by Mom Kunthear
Monday, 05 January 2009

Authorities are reportedly raking in hundreds of thousands of riels in fines as the city goes on offensive against violators PHNOM Penh's helment campaign opened strongly last week, with more than 120 violators nabbed on the first day alone as authorities try to reduce the number of head injuries, which they say are the leading cause of traffic deaths.

Under the new rule, motorcyclists not wearing a helmet face a 3,000 riel (US$0.73) fine and a one-point deduction on their licences.

"On the first day that the traffic police started to fine, we saw 124 motorbike drivers who did not wear helmets, and we collected 378,000 riels (US$92.62) in fines," said El Narin, deputy director of the Phnom Penh Traffic Police.

He maintained about 85 percent of drivers are now wearing helmets, even though the number of helmet wearers on Phnom Penh streets appears to be significantly lower.

In June 2008, less than a quarter of all drivers wore helmets, according to the NGO Handicap International Belgium.
Authorities will expand the law soon to cover passengers as well.

"We fine drivers that don't wear helmets, and give passengers a warning," he said.

El Narin said officers are required to give a receipt for the fine and if they fail to do so, the offender can lodge a complaint at the police station.

Road kill
Meas Chandy, a traffic safety officer at Handicap International, said he is pleased the government is implementing the law.
"There are many reasons people die in traffic accidents, but we have found that among the victims killed or injured, most are on motorbikes and 80 percent suffered head injuries," he said.

Handicap International spearheaded the effort to force Cambodian drivers to wear helmets on the country's unruly roads.
"I cannot say traffic accidents will be reduced after we implement the law by asking them to wear helmets," Meas Chandy said.

"But I think it can reduce head injuries."
The police crackdown has led to a surge in helmet sales, with roadside vendors springing up along Phnom Penh's main thoroughfares doing a brisk trade.

EXTRACTED FROM:

-PHNOM PENH POST NEWSPAPER.

Govt to decide on graphic warning labels for cigarettes

2009-01-05T00:17:00.000-08:00

Written by Mom Kunthear

Friday, 02 January 2009

Health officials point to the strong and easily recognisable messages the disturbing logos send about the health risks of smoking NEW graphic warning labels will grace all cigarette packs sold in Cambodia beginning next month if the government approves a plan by the Ministry of Health, according to a government health official.

"Three of four families in Cambodia are suffering from the health impacts of smoking, so it is essential we alert people to the negative impact of cigarettes," said Lim Thai Khean, director of the National Center for Health Promotion of the Ministry of Health, adding that he was confident the government would support the proposal.

The six proposed warning logos would point to various adverse health effects associated with smoking, including lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease, stroke, tooth decay and the dangers of secondhand smoke, he said.

He said graphic logos have proven effective at deterring potential cigarette buyers in other countries because they expressed the health hazards of smoking in visual terms that cannot be ignored.

If the proposal by the Ministry of Health is approved by the government, the new labels would be tacked onto cigarette packs beginning mid-February.

Loud and clear
Currently, only some cigarette companies in Cambodia print warning labels on their packs, and their labels tend to be muted. Studies indicate that warnings using only text have little effect on the behaviour of cigarette consumers.

"I am optimistic all tobacco companies would follow the scheme. Some of them may be late [to conform], but they have to do what we tell them," Lim Thai Khean said.

Mom Kong, executive director of the NGO Cambodia Movement for Health, also emphasised the easily recognised message of graphic warnings.

"It's an efficient and straightforward way to reduce cigarette smoking because it sends a message about the impact of smoking that both literate and illiterate people can understand, even children," he said.

The labels are part of a wider government program to limit tobacco use among the population, including a recently introduced measure in Kampot to prohibit smoking in all of the province's government health clinics.

According to a recent report by the World Health Organisation, 5.4 million people die annually as a consequence of smoking, 80 percent of them in developing countries.

EXTRACTED FROM:

-PHNOM PENH POST NEWSPAPER.

Supreme Court ruling on Chea Vichea killers gets mixed reaction

2009-01-04T23:48:00.000-08:00

Written by Chrann Chamroeun and Christopher Shay
Friday, 02 January 2009

After nearly five years in prison, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun – convicted of killing union leader Chea Vichea – have been released pending an Appeal Court retrial BORN Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, the convicted murderers of outspoken union leader Chea Vichea, woke up in prison for the 1,798th time on Wednesday but went to bed free men.

The Cambodian Supreme Court on Wednesday sent their case back down to the Appeal Court and released them from prison, citing contradictory evidence in the previous trials.

For the first time in nearly five years, the two men were going home.

But many rights organisations - though pleased with Wednesday's decision - are not ready to believe in the independence of the Cambodian judiciary.

"Looking back later, we would hope that this is when the Cambodian judiciary turned the corner.... But we can't say this solves the problem. One case doesn't make or break a long pattern of deeply entrenched impunity," said Sara Colm of Human Rights Watch.

The intense local and international attention that this case received may have led to a rare set of circumstances where the court could decide on the facts, resulting in a decision that may not be indicative of the judiciary as a whole, Colm said.

“I AM VERY HAPPY AND EXCITED FOR THE COURT’S DECISION TO RELEASE ME ON BAIL.”

"The fact that the Supreme Court sent the case back is definitely a very welcome development.... But we don't know what will happen at the Appeal Court."

The US embassy said in a release that it hoped "the appeal court will take up the case expeditiously and finally resolve this matter in a way consistent with Cambodian law and international standards of due process".

Suon Sareth, executive secretary at the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, shared Colm's wait-and-see approach.

"When the Cambodian court has a case like this, they can't abruptly drop it. They delay, delay, delay and hope it will be forgotten. When they say they will conduct a new investigation, they will find nothing, and it will take years," he said.
"But we will follow. We will monitor," he promised. "[This] is only a first step in an independent judiciary."

Happy to be free
As Born Samnang was escorted into a car back to prison while his release papers were being processed, he told reporters: "I am very happy and excited for the court's decision to release me."

Sok Sam Oeun's father, Vuon Phon, told the Post, "I'm so happy my son will be released, and I could see him with a big smile".

In addition to requesting a new investigation into Chea Vichea's killing, Peung Yok Hiep, a lawyer representing Chea Mony, the deceased's brother, requested that the pair receive US$50,000 in civil compensation for their time in jail.
Prosecutor Chhoun Chantha remained adamant about the pair's guilt.

"It's normal for the accused to find ways to fool the court in order for them to be released from punishment," he told reporters after the hearing.
But around the courtroom, he was in the minority.

When Judge Dith Monty, the court president, announced his ruling after the four-hour hearing, the audience outside the courtroom burst into applause, ecstatic that the two men would have another chance at freedom.

"I am delighted about the Supreme Court's decision because it will provide a way for further investigations to seek justice for Chea Vichea," said Rong Chhun, a friend of the slain man, who was gunned down at a newspaper stand in 2004.

Though the convictions were widely and repeatedly condemned by local and international rights organisations, many expressed surprise at the court's announcement, temporarily releasing the men and opening the possibility that they could be freed permanently.

'Strange and surprised'
The executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP), Sok Sam Oeun - no relation to the defendant - was stunned.

"I feel strange and surprised because I never trusted the independence of the Supreme Court. I hope this means the judiciary in Cambodia is improving," he said.

Chea Mony, who has condemned the two men's conviction, did not even attend the trial, saying he had lost faith in the Cambodian judicial system.

"However, I now have a newfound confidence in the court system, and I think the investigation at the Appeal Court level will not take as much time as the previous investigation," he said.

The provisional release of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun is, said Sok Sam Oeun of the Cambodian Defenders Project, "the first case in our judicial history of a pretrial release following a Supreme Court case".

EXTRACTED FROM:

-PHNOM PENH POST NEWSPAPER.