With just one month to go before Cambodia submits an application for World Heritage listing for another of its magnificent temples, an ongoing border dispute with Thailand threatens to undermine the process.Presenter: Bo Hill Speakers:Srisakra Vallibhotama, anthropologist and archaeologist, Lek Prapai Foundation; Tharapong Srisuchat, director archaeology, Thailand Ministry of Culture
(MUSIC)HILL: Built more than 800 years ago, the Preah Vihear temple has been a destination for pilgrims of many faiths. It sits on a mountain straddling Cambodia and Thailand, and although lesser known, it's by no means less spectacular then Cambodia's tourist-drawcard, Angkor Wat. Professor Srisakra Vallibhotama is a Thai archaeologist and anthropologist. He says while the Preah Vihear temple is a wonder in itself, the mountain and surrounds are also significant.VALLIBHOTAMA: The temple was constructed by the King of Cambodia but when we review the history, that area is the sacred site where the spirit of the mountain resides and the people from both lowland and highland went up to pay homage.HILL As well as its significance to pilgrims, the Preah Vihear temple is also part of an ongoing dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which Professor Srisakra says dates back to its status during French occupation: VALLIBHOTAMA: That place is no mans land. It belongs to neither Cambodia or Thai. Because the border was created by the colonial period, the border created by the French.HILL: The International Court of Justice recognised Cambodian claims over the temple in 1962, a decision Thailand accepted. In recent years, however, Cambodia's unilateral efforts to have the temple and surrounds World Heritage listed, have caused concern in Bangkok. Thailand says maps drawn by Cambodian officials show a border encroaching on Thai territory. Some revisions were made, and last year the dispute was supposedly settled at senior government level. But it resurfaced earlier this year, when the Thai Defence Ministry again accused Cambodia of misrepresenting the temple border -- putting World Heritage status efforts in limbo. Tharapong Srisuchat, the director of Thailand's Ministry of Culture's archaeology department, says Bangkok doesn't oppose Cambodia's efforts to have the temple World Heritage listed, as long as it's done fairly: SRISUCHAT: By policy of Thai government we support that temple Preah Vihear be the World Heritage, Thai government support it. But we have to investigate about the how to management that area.HILL: The management of the border, and how it's represented on a map, will be a key part of a submission to the United Nation's Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation's assessment next month. Local Thai media reported this week of further speculation in Bangkok about the accuracy of Cambodia's map. Professor Srisakra Vallibhotama says things would be easier if Cambodia and Thailand were working together.VALLIBHOTAMA: We should join forces in order to make the temple be World Heritage. But if we settle in this matter we can talk about how we can compromise in terms of - we need to look at the temple, not only the temple but we must include the surroundings, because the temple itself is located in the centre of the community. And that area, the whole area, doesn't belong... become a no mans land that UNESCO can manage for the benefit of both sides.
by ABC Australia
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Chunghwa Telecom Plans To Launch Telecom Services In Cambodia
HANOI -(Dow Jones)- Chunghwa Telecom Co. (CHT) plans to cooperate with Vietnamese operator Viettel to offer telecommunications services in Cambodia, Chairman and Chief Executive Ho Chen Tan said Thursday.
"Chunghwa Telecom is working with Viettel to offer telecom services in Cambodia," Ho Chen told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview on a sidelines of a telecom conference in Hanoi.
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest phone company, has been looking overseas for growth, and has a 30% stake in an Internet data storage joint venture with Viettel, Vietnam's largest mobile operator by subscribers.
Viettel, which is run by the Ministry of Defense, is the only Vietnamese telecom company to have received permission to operate telecom services in Cambodia.
Ho Chen also said the company plans to finalize a plan to reduce capital by issuing new shares from the company's capital surplus and will submit a plan to the board by the end of June. He didn't elaborate on the size of the planned capital reduction.
-By Nguyen Pham Muoi and Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; alex.pevzner@dowjones.com
"Chunghwa Telecom is working with Viettel to offer telecom services in Cambodia," Ho Chen told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview on a sidelines of a telecom conference in Hanoi.
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest phone company, has been looking overseas for growth, and has a 30% stake in an Internet data storage joint venture with Viettel, Vietnam's largest mobile operator by subscribers.
Viettel, which is run by the Ministry of Defense, is the only Vietnamese telecom company to have received permission to operate telecom services in Cambodia.
Ho Chen also said the company plans to finalize a plan to reduce capital by issuing new shares from the company's capital surplus and will submit a plan to the board by the end of June. He didn't elaborate on the size of the planned capital reduction.
-By Nguyen Pham Muoi and Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557; alex.pevzner@dowjones.com
Cambodian children march against child labour
Cambodian school children have taken to the streets to mark World Against Child Labour Day, calling for parents to send their kids to school, rather than forcing them to work.
About 500 children marched through the capital carrying placards and banners with slogans such as "Work is not necessary for children, but schooling is," and "Child labour is unjust for children".
The demonstration was organised by the International Labour Organisation with the Cambodian Government.
One of the marchers, 15-year-old student Roeun Ra, said his parents used to make him work by scavenging through garbage.
"Many of my friends cannot go to school because their parents ask them to work for money," the boy said.
The World Bank said that last year about 1.5 million Cambodians under the age of 14 were forced to work, often in hazardous conditions.
Chey Chab, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Education, told marchers the Government was working to prevent the children from being exploited.
"Children are like bamboo shoots and are the [future] strong force for the country," he said in a speech, calling on all people to "take care, protect, and think of the interest of children".
Following years of civil unrest and Government mismanagement, Cambodia remains mired in poverty, with more than 30 per cent of its 14 million people living on less than 50 US cents per day.
by APF
http://www.abc.net.au
About 500 children marched through the capital carrying placards and banners with slogans such as "Work is not necessary for children, but schooling is," and "Child labour is unjust for children".
The demonstration was organised by the International Labour Organisation with the Cambodian Government.
One of the marchers, 15-year-old student Roeun Ra, said his parents used to make him work by scavenging through garbage.
"Many of my friends cannot go to school because their parents ask them to work for money," the boy said.
The World Bank said that last year about 1.5 million Cambodians under the age of 14 were forced to work, often in hazardous conditions.
Chey Chab, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Education, told marchers the Government was working to prevent the children from being exploited.
"Children are like bamboo shoots and are the [future] strong force for the country," he said in a speech, calling on all people to "take care, protect, and think of the interest of children".
Following years of civil unrest and Government mismanagement, Cambodia remains mired in poverty, with more than 30 per cent of its 14 million people living on less than 50 US cents per day.
by APF
http://www.abc.net.au
Borderguards detain two Cambodia-flagged crabbers within Russia's zone in the Bering Sea
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, June 12 (Itar-Tass) - Borderguards have detained two Cambodia-flagged crabbers within Russia's exclusive economic zone in the Bering Sea, an official in the public relations group of the Northeastern coast guard department of the Federal Security Service told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
The fishing schooner Nereus-2 under the flag of Cambodia was spotted by the border guarding ship Bars (panther) in its patrolling area. The skipper of the boat defied the borderguards' demand to take an inspection party on board and made an attempt to shake off the pursuers. The border guards succeeded in detaining the boat after a brief pursuit.
The schooner's crew consists of 11 Russians, five Indonesians, and two Koreans. The boat is equipped to catch and transport live crabs. The boat lacked permission for crab fishing. The boat has been arrested and all documentation has been confiscated.
The other refrigerated fish transport Cea-1 was in Russian waters without identification marks. Following the boat's detention, the skipper said it was registered at the port of Phnom Penh and operated under Cambodia's flag. All the crewmembers are citizens of the Russian Federation.
The borderguards found about 86 tonnes of crabs in the boat's holds. The boat lacked permission for crab fishing operations and did not maintain any documentation.
Both vessels are being escorted to the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for an inquiry.
by ITAR-TASS
http://www.itar-tass.com
The fishing schooner Nereus-2 under the flag of Cambodia was spotted by the border guarding ship Bars (panther) in its patrolling area. The skipper of the boat defied the borderguards' demand to take an inspection party on board and made an attempt to shake off the pursuers. The border guards succeeded in detaining the boat after a brief pursuit.
The schooner's crew consists of 11 Russians, five Indonesians, and two Koreans. The boat is equipped to catch and transport live crabs. The boat lacked permission for crab fishing. The boat has been arrested and all documentation has been confiscated.
The other refrigerated fish transport Cea-1 was in Russian waters without identification marks. Following the boat's detention, the skipper said it was registered at the port of Phnom Penh and operated under Cambodia's flag. All the crewmembers are citizens of the Russian Federation.
The borderguards found about 86 tonnes of crabs in the boat's holds. The boat lacked permission for crab fishing operations and did not maintain any documentation.
Both vessels are being escorted to the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky for an inquiry.
by ITAR-TASS
http://www.itar-tass.com
Cambodia Intimidates Media, Opposition Before Vote, Groups Say
June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia's government, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, is using the justice system to intimidate journalists and the opposition before next month's general elections, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.
Dam Sith, a candidate of the Sam Rainsy Party and editor of the Khmer Conscience newspaper, was arrested for questioning the role of Hor Namhong, the foreign minister, during the rule of the Khmer Rouge movement, the groups said in a statement.
The arrest ``demonstrates how the criminal justice system is used and abused to silence government critics,'' said Brittis Edman, a researcher at London-based Amnesty. It ``sends a message of fear to journalists and other media workers in the lead-up to national elections.''
The ruling Cambodian People's Party will repeat its victory of 2003 when elections are held July 27 in the South Asian country of 14 million people, Hun Sen said earlier this week. Sam Rainsy spent a year in exile in France from February 2005, during which he was jailed for 18 months in absentia for defaming the prime minister.
Cambodia's economy expanded 9.6 percent in 2007, after growing by at least 10 percent during the previous three years, according to data compiled by the World Bank.
Hun Sen wants to develop oil and mineral resources to attract international investment and reduce Cambodia's dependence on clothing exports and tourism for growth. About a third of the population live on less than 50 cents a day and 90 percent live in rural areas.
Intimidation Pattern
Dam Sith's arrest is part of a pattern of intimidation against the opposition and independent media in the run-up to the election, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.
On May 21, Hun Sen threatened the independent Beehive radio station after it broadcast programming from opposition parties, according to the groups. A week later, independent radio station Angkor Ratha had its license, issued less than six months earlier, revoked after it sold air time to opposition parties, the groups said.
Hun Sen said his party may win two-thirds of seats in the 123-member parliament, the Mekong Times reported yesterday.
The party will probably win at least 81 seats, up from 73, and receive 73 percent of the vote versus 64 percent in the 2003 election, the Phnom Penh-based English-language daily cited him as saying. The Sam Rainsy Party won 24 seats in the last ballot.
Hun Sen formed a coalition government in July 2004 with the royalist Funcinpec party, which won 26 seats in 2003.
Opposition Members
Dam Sith, who is running for election in Phnom Penh, was arrested as Hun Sen's CPP presses opposition members to join the party and punishes those who refuse, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.
In March, police detained local Sam Rainsy Party leader Tuot Saron in Kampong Thom. Tuot Saron is still in detention and faces charges of illegal confinement after seeking to assist a former party colleague following her alleged defection to the CPP, according to the groups.
The court issued arrest warrants against three other local Sam Rainsy Party leaders, who are in hiding after avoiding arrest, the groups said.
Cambodia's attention has been focused on five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge who are facing trial this year at a United Nations-backed genocide tribunal for crimes allegedly committed during the regime's 1975-1979 rule.
The Khmer Rouge forced the population out of cities as it tried to establish an agrarian state, killing an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution.
The regime was ousted when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, plunging the country into civil war. Most fighting stopped after the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that called for a cease-fire and democratic elections, which were held in 1993.
Penal Code
Two years after the elections, Cambodia passed a Press Law that provides some protection to journalists, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty said. It's rarely used. Instead, the so-called 1992 UNTAC Law, Cambodia's current penal code, is used in most legal cases against journalists or media representatives.
``There's little room for critical or opposition journalists in Cambodia, and those who express dissent risk harassment, intimidation and, at times, imprisonment,'' Sara Colm, senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.
Dam Sith has been charged with violating articles 62 and 63 of the UNTAC Law. His newspaper, Khmer Conscience, is one of the few in Cambodia that is not affiliated with the government or the CPP, which controls all television and most radio stations.
by Michael Heath
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.
Dam Sith, a candidate of the Sam Rainsy Party and editor of the Khmer Conscience newspaper, was arrested for questioning the role of Hor Namhong, the foreign minister, during the rule of the Khmer Rouge movement, the groups said in a statement.
The arrest ``demonstrates how the criminal justice system is used and abused to silence government critics,'' said Brittis Edman, a researcher at London-based Amnesty. It ``sends a message of fear to journalists and other media workers in the lead-up to national elections.''
The ruling Cambodian People's Party will repeat its victory of 2003 when elections are held July 27 in the South Asian country of 14 million people, Hun Sen said earlier this week. Sam Rainsy spent a year in exile in France from February 2005, during which he was jailed for 18 months in absentia for defaming the prime minister.
Cambodia's economy expanded 9.6 percent in 2007, after growing by at least 10 percent during the previous three years, according to data compiled by the World Bank.
Hun Sen wants to develop oil and mineral resources to attract international investment and reduce Cambodia's dependence on clothing exports and tourism for growth. About a third of the population live on less than 50 cents a day and 90 percent live in rural areas.
Intimidation Pattern
Dam Sith's arrest is part of a pattern of intimidation against the opposition and independent media in the run-up to the election, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.
On May 21, Hun Sen threatened the independent Beehive radio station after it broadcast programming from opposition parties, according to the groups. A week later, independent radio station Angkor Ratha had its license, issued less than six months earlier, revoked after it sold air time to opposition parties, the groups said.
Hun Sen said his party may win two-thirds of seats in the 123-member parliament, the Mekong Times reported yesterday.
The party will probably win at least 81 seats, up from 73, and receive 73 percent of the vote versus 64 percent in the 2003 election, the Phnom Penh-based English-language daily cited him as saying. The Sam Rainsy Party won 24 seats in the last ballot.
Hun Sen formed a coalition government in July 2004 with the royalist Funcinpec party, which won 26 seats in 2003.
Opposition Members
Dam Sith, who is running for election in Phnom Penh, was arrested as Hun Sen's CPP presses opposition members to join the party and punishes those who refuse, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.
In March, police detained local Sam Rainsy Party leader Tuot Saron in Kampong Thom. Tuot Saron is still in detention and faces charges of illegal confinement after seeking to assist a former party colleague following her alleged defection to the CPP, according to the groups.
The court issued arrest warrants against three other local Sam Rainsy Party leaders, who are in hiding after avoiding arrest, the groups said.
Cambodia's attention has been focused on five former leaders of the Khmer Rouge who are facing trial this year at a United Nations-backed genocide tribunal for crimes allegedly committed during the regime's 1975-1979 rule.
The Khmer Rouge forced the population out of cities as it tried to establish an agrarian state, killing an estimated 1.7 million people through starvation, disease or execution.
The regime was ousted when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia, plunging the country into civil war. Most fighting stopped after the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that called for a cease-fire and democratic elections, which were held in 1993.
Penal Code
Two years after the elections, Cambodia passed a Press Law that provides some protection to journalists, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty said. It's rarely used. Instead, the so-called 1992 UNTAC Law, Cambodia's current penal code, is used in most legal cases against journalists or media representatives.
``There's little room for critical or opposition journalists in Cambodia, and those who express dissent risk harassment, intimidation and, at times, imprisonment,'' Sara Colm, senior researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.
Dam Sith has been charged with violating articles 62 and 63 of the UNTAC Law. His newspaper, Khmer Conscience, is one of the few in Cambodia that is not affiliated with the government or the CPP, which controls all television and most radio stations.
by Michael Heath
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.
Cambodia Tackles Human Trafficking
Cambodia is regularly referred to as the human-trafficking hub of Southeast Asia, but it's hard to know by which measure. Anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are trafficked there annually. Without reliable data on these crimes, it's hard to combat this clandestine trade or to prioritize needs and services for its victims.
Which is why it's heartening to see Phnom Penh take action. Last week, the government launched its first-ever national effort to collect standardized data on human trafficking. Headed by the National Task Force, a collaborative effort between 14 government ministries and agencies and more than 200 nongovernmental organizations, the goal is to establish common definitions and data collection methodology.
This isn't as easy as it might sound. For example, does cross-border trafficking refer to national borders or movement across provinces? Should the recorded age of the victim be based on his or her age when first trafficked, or the age when the person was rescued? If a woman agrees to be sold by her parents into the sex industry, is she trafficked?
These questions matter. Policy makers can't construct effective laws without knowing the nature of the crimes committed. Law enforcement can't combat trafficking effectively without good data. NGOs can't provide the correct services to victims of trafficking without data on gender, age, education level, forms of exploitation and the location of rescue.
Once definitions are established, the National Task Force can start collecting and analyzing data to ensure that policies and programs respond to real needs. This is already starting to happen. The National Task Force, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and its partners, have agreed to collect 15 key data sets to determine the profile of the victim, forms of assistance and reintegration services provided. This data will help the Cambodian government and countertrafficking actors monitor and measure the impact of antitrafficking efforts.
This collaborative effort is the latest indication that Cambodia is getting serious about combating trafficking. Earlier this year, parliament passed the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation. This law is a watershed because it criminalizes a wide range of trafficking offenses, from sex slavery to bonded labor. Phnom Pehn has also started to crack down harder on offenders, in an effort to protect Cambodian nationals from exploitation.
These are just the first steps in a long war ahead. But it's worth it. Modern-day slavery is alive and well. It will only be eradicated when government and citizens make a concerted effort to fight it.
Ms. Sander-Lindstrom heads the Asia Foundation's Counter-Trafficking in Persons Program in Cambodia.
By MARIELLE SANDER-LINDSTROM
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
Which is why it's heartening to see Phnom Penh take action. Last week, the government launched its first-ever national effort to collect standardized data on human trafficking. Headed by the National Task Force, a collaborative effort between 14 government ministries and agencies and more than 200 nongovernmental organizations, the goal is to establish common definitions and data collection methodology.
This isn't as easy as it might sound. For example, does cross-border trafficking refer to national borders or movement across provinces? Should the recorded age of the victim be based on his or her age when first trafficked, or the age when the person was rescued? If a woman agrees to be sold by her parents into the sex industry, is she trafficked?
These questions matter. Policy makers can't construct effective laws without knowing the nature of the crimes committed. Law enforcement can't combat trafficking effectively without good data. NGOs can't provide the correct services to victims of trafficking without data on gender, age, education level, forms of exploitation and the location of rescue.
Once definitions are established, the National Task Force can start collecting and analyzing data to ensure that policies and programs respond to real needs. This is already starting to happen. The National Task Force, together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and its partners, have agreed to collect 15 key data sets to determine the profile of the victim, forms of assistance and reintegration services provided. This data will help the Cambodian government and countertrafficking actors monitor and measure the impact of antitrafficking efforts.
This collaborative effort is the latest indication that Cambodia is getting serious about combating trafficking. Earlier this year, parliament passed the Law on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation. This law is a watershed because it criminalizes a wide range of trafficking offenses, from sex slavery to bonded labor. Phnom Pehn has also started to crack down harder on offenders, in an effort to protect Cambodian nationals from exploitation.
These are just the first steps in a long war ahead. But it's worth it. Modern-day slavery is alive and well. It will only be eradicated when government and citizens make a concerted effort to fight it.
Ms. Sander-Lindstrom heads the Asia Foundation's Counter-Trafficking in Persons Program in Cambodia.
By MARIELLE SANDER-LINDSTROM
FROM TODAY'S WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA
The Ugly Canadian
Richard Beaulac says he is having fun.
But his idea of fun has the seaside town of Nha Trang in Vietnam sounding the alarm.
The locals led by anti-child sex activists believe that the 37-year-old Beaulac from Quebec has arrived in their tourist beach to prey on the young.
Beaulac is the same man charged with child sex crimes in neighbouring Cambodia, and his past has followed him to Vietnam.
His alleged penchant for local prostitutes, the party life and his writings on the web have upset the local community so much that they have lodged a police complaint against him.
Now they want the Canadian government to investigate his alleged sex tourism activities in Asia.
But Beaulac says he doesn’t deserve the bad reputation and according to his website, he is just having loads of fun.
In an e-mail this week, Bealuac said the charges against him in Cambodia are trumped up.
He said the charges were dropped.
But anti-child sex advocate Kimmy Le of Nha Trang suspects Beaulac is up to no good in her town.
Le, who runs a bar and a school for local street kids, said she has contacted the police in the Loc Tho District where Beaulac is suspected to be staying. Le, who is also known locally as ‘Crazy Kim’ for her die-hard dedication to catching sexual predators, said Beaulac came to relax at her bar about a week ago.
"He was playing pool in my bar," she told the Asian Pacific Post. "He asked me, ‘Are you Crazy Kim?’ I said, ‘Yes.’"
Beaulac has not returned since then, she said.
He plans to sue Le for releasing his "private information."
Le said others in the town have allegedly seen Beaulac cavorting with hookers and boozing it up with locals.
"He has been paying for a lot of prostitutes, and then he puts their pictures up on the Internet and rates them about skill and price," said David Heft, originally from California who lives in Nha Trang.
"We think this is disgusting."
Heft said several residents have confronted Beaulac about his alleged ugly behaviour and his past but Beaulac claims the charge in Cambodia was made up by local gangsters trying to extort money from him.
Last year, the Asian Pacific Post reported that Bealuac was charged with attempted rape after allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Cambodian street beggar, in the Angkor temple town of Siem Reap, where he worked as an English teacher.
Beaulac allegedly picked up the 13-year old girl along with three other female street children and took them back to his apartment. He then allegedly sent the three girls away before molesting the remaining girl. He told police he lay naked on the bed but denies molesting her. The Siem Reap Provincial Court in Vietnam subsequently charged him with attempted rape.
At that time Somath Khun, an English teacher who acted as Beaulac’s translator for the police, said Beaulac told him that he was innocent and claimed that police had demanded $7,000 to drop the charges.
In an e-mail Tuesday, Beaulac wrote: "This story is long time finish. It was all about extracting money. I did not pay the money they asked me and I took a lawyer, then it took a year to finalize all this, went to court and theses charges were dropped. All the officials who were involved . . . lost their employments . . . and some others.
"The girl and mom in my story. . . it was not the first time they were doing this to extract money."
Calls to the Canadian Embassy in Cambodia were not answered.
Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.
Le, who has helped authorities nab others wanted for sexually exploiting children, said Beaulac has been writing some disturbing stuff on his FaceBook website since he arrived in Vietnam about four months ago.
She runs the the Pedophiles Buster Team, where she leads investigations from the back of her bar.
Beaulac currently works as a scuba diver instructor for Scuba Zone, she says, a company frequented by tourists.
He is also listed as the administrator of "Boom Boom Divers," a group on the social networking site FaceBook.
On the group’s page, written by Beaulac, are hints of his behaviour that has the locals alarmed.
"In no way do Boom Boom Divers endorse binge drinking, but we do enjoy it. In no circumstances Boom Boom Divers agree to pay for sex relationships, but we agree for performance bonus donations so they can afford their taxi back home," the web page says.
On his website, Beaulac says he served in the UN Protection Forces in former Yugoslavia in 1993. His site features pictures of him at war, posing next to scorched bodies and melted flesh. There are pictures of young women posing seductively and tributes to the Nazi regime on the website. Beaulac states he is currently reading Mein Kampft, Adolph Hitler’s autobiography.
Heft says as well as using the services of local prostitutes, Beaulac has a new 21-year-old girlfriend, whom he plans to marry.
"We have told (the girlfriend) about him and she says it doesn’t matter," Heft told the Asian Pacific Post.
"He has asked her to marry him after knowing her for two weeks, and she is desperate to be married."
Beaulac is not on Interpol’s list but The Future Group, a non-profit in Calgary, has repeatedly called for the Canadian government to investigate the charges against Beaulac and to lay charges under Canada’s child sex tourism laws.
Only one person has ever been charged under Bill C-27 and C-15, amendments to the Canadian Criminal Code criminalizing child sex tourism. That prosecution of Donald Bakker in Vancouver is largely considered accidental, since the overseas crimes were originally discovered during the course of an investigation for offenses in Canada.
by http://www.asianpacificpost.com
But his idea of fun has the seaside town of Nha Trang in Vietnam sounding the alarm.
The locals led by anti-child sex activists believe that the 37-year-old Beaulac from Quebec has arrived in their tourist beach to prey on the young.
Beaulac is the same man charged with child sex crimes in neighbouring Cambodia, and his past has followed him to Vietnam.
His alleged penchant for local prostitutes, the party life and his writings on the web have upset the local community so much that they have lodged a police complaint against him.
Now they want the Canadian government to investigate his alleged sex tourism activities in Asia.
But Beaulac says he doesn’t deserve the bad reputation and according to his website, he is just having loads of fun.
In an e-mail this week, Bealuac said the charges against him in Cambodia are trumped up.
He said the charges were dropped.
But anti-child sex advocate Kimmy Le of Nha Trang suspects Beaulac is up to no good in her town.
Le, who runs a bar and a school for local street kids, said she has contacted the police in the Loc Tho District where Beaulac is suspected to be staying. Le, who is also known locally as ‘Crazy Kim’ for her die-hard dedication to catching sexual predators, said Beaulac came to relax at her bar about a week ago.
"He was playing pool in my bar," she told the Asian Pacific Post. "He asked me, ‘Are you Crazy Kim?’ I said, ‘Yes.’"
Beaulac has not returned since then, she said.
He plans to sue Le for releasing his "private information."
Le said others in the town have allegedly seen Beaulac cavorting with hookers and boozing it up with locals.
"He has been paying for a lot of prostitutes, and then he puts their pictures up on the Internet and rates them about skill and price," said David Heft, originally from California who lives in Nha Trang.
"We think this is disgusting."
Heft said several residents have confronted Beaulac about his alleged ugly behaviour and his past but Beaulac claims the charge in Cambodia was made up by local gangsters trying to extort money from him.
Last year, the Asian Pacific Post reported that Bealuac was charged with attempted rape after allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Cambodian street beggar, in the Angkor temple town of Siem Reap, where he worked as an English teacher.
Beaulac allegedly picked up the 13-year old girl along with three other female street children and took them back to his apartment. He then allegedly sent the three girls away before molesting the remaining girl. He told police he lay naked on the bed but denies molesting her. The Siem Reap Provincial Court in Vietnam subsequently charged him with attempted rape.
At that time Somath Khun, an English teacher who acted as Beaulac’s translator for the police, said Beaulac told him that he was innocent and claimed that police had demanded $7,000 to drop the charges.
In an e-mail Tuesday, Beaulac wrote: "This story is long time finish. It was all about extracting money. I did not pay the money they asked me and I took a lawyer, then it took a year to finalize all this, went to court and theses charges were dropped. All the officials who were involved . . . lost their employments . . . and some others.
"The girl and mom in my story. . . it was not the first time they were doing this to extract money."
Calls to the Canadian Embassy in Cambodia were not answered.
Cambodia has struggled to shed its reputation as a haven for pedophiles, putting dozens of foreigners in jail for child sex crimes or deporting them to face trial in their home countries since 2003.
Le, who has helped authorities nab others wanted for sexually exploiting children, said Beaulac has been writing some disturbing stuff on his FaceBook website since he arrived in Vietnam about four months ago.
She runs the the Pedophiles Buster Team, where she leads investigations from the back of her bar.
Beaulac currently works as a scuba diver instructor for Scuba Zone, she says, a company frequented by tourists.
He is also listed as the administrator of "Boom Boom Divers," a group on the social networking site FaceBook.
On the group’s page, written by Beaulac, are hints of his behaviour that has the locals alarmed.
"In no way do Boom Boom Divers endorse binge drinking, but we do enjoy it. In no circumstances Boom Boom Divers agree to pay for sex relationships, but we agree for performance bonus donations so they can afford their taxi back home," the web page says.
On his website, Beaulac says he served in the UN Protection Forces in former Yugoslavia in 1993. His site features pictures of him at war, posing next to scorched bodies and melted flesh. There are pictures of young women posing seductively and tributes to the Nazi regime on the website. Beaulac states he is currently reading Mein Kampft, Adolph Hitler’s autobiography.
Heft says as well as using the services of local prostitutes, Beaulac has a new 21-year-old girlfriend, whom he plans to marry.
"We have told (the girlfriend) about him and she says it doesn’t matter," Heft told the Asian Pacific Post.
"He has asked her to marry him after knowing her for two weeks, and she is desperate to be married."
Beaulac is not on Interpol’s list but The Future Group, a non-profit in Calgary, has repeatedly called for the Canadian government to investigate the charges against Beaulac and to lay charges under Canada’s child sex tourism laws.
Only one person has ever been charged under Bill C-27 and C-15, amendments to the Canadian Criminal Code criminalizing child sex tourism. That prosecution of Donald Bakker in Vancouver is largely considered accidental, since the overseas crimes were originally discovered during the course of an investigation for offenses in Canada.
by http://www.asianpacificpost.com
Prosecutor in Cambodia's genocide tribunal to deliver RP lecture
MANILA, Philippines - A top government lawyer in Cambodia’s genocide trials will visit the Philippines to deliver a lecture on the prosecution of grave crimes against international human rights and international humanitarian law.Robert Petit, the head counsel in an international tribunal which will try war criminals of Cambodia’s communist Khmer Rouge, will deliver a keynote speech and a lecture at an international training conference to be held at the Vista Marina Hotel in Subic Bay from June 16 to 17, 2008. A former Quebec and Canadian Federal (Crown) prosecutor, Petit shares the chief prosecutor’s role in the Cambodian genocide trials with his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang. He will speak at the Subic conference side by side with new Commission on Human Rights chair Leila De Lima, who will lecture on Philippine State Obligations on the Right to Life.Also speaking at the landmark conference is top forensic anthropologist Dr. Jose Pablo Baraybar, who heads the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team, one of several Latin American groups investigating the complicity of former dictatorships in acts of impunity. The organization has documented some 13,000 cases of enforced disappearances, almost 4,000 more than the estimate of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.The two-day conference is envisioned as a complement to the Seminar Workshop on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances by the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)). Around 30 public prosecutors from the Department of Justice and a comparable number of human rights activists and workers have been invited to join the conference, which features speakers from various international criminal tribunals who will share their expertise with their Filipino counterparts.“This activity is a follow-up to an international conference on the same theme that CenterLaw staged in Davao early this year," said Prof. Harry L. Roque Jr., one of the organizers of the Subic conference. He said the conference aims to acquaint Filipino prosecutors about developments abroad in the campaign against impunity, noting that the Philippines has been in the spotlight before the eyes of the international community because of the rising cases of human rights violations in the country since the Arroyo administration took power in 2001.“The establishment of the war crimes tribunal where Mr. Petit is a top prosecutor is in fact a warning to governments that in this day and age of human rights movements, impunity cannot remain unpunished forever," he said. Meanwhile, Dr. Baraybar’s work in Peru acquires an added significance today following the extradition to Peru of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, under whose regime many of enforced disappearances of dissidents took place. Dr. Baraybar served as an expert witness with both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and headed the Office on Missing Persons and Forensics of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. He also recently published a major textbook on the detection of torture and related human rights abuses and is a much sought after lecturer on forensic anthropology. Dr. Baraybar has also lectured before the Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) and was part of the sterling roster of international speakers at the first ever international conference on extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture held in Davao early this year, also organized by CenterLaw.Dr. Baraybar will lecture at the Subic conference on the forensics of impunity, drawing from his extensive experience digging up the truth in mass graves of victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances in Peru, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.The event will be held under the auspices of the Center for International law (CenterLaw), the American Bar Association (ABA), Rule of Law Initiative-US State Department-Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Asia Foundation (TAF), the Open Society Institute (OSI), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the University of the Philippine Foundation for Integrative and Development Studies (UPFIDS). - GMANews.TV
by http://www.gmanews.tv
by http://www.gmanews.tv
Cambodia: Release Jailed Editor
Journalists and Opposition Members Under Attack as Elections Near
(London, June 11, 2008) – The Cambodian government should release a jailed opposition newspaper editor and candidate, and end its intimidation of journalists and opposition party candidates in the lead-up to National Assembly elections in July, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.On June 8, military police arrested newspaper editor Dam Sith, 39, who is also running as a candidate for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), after his newspaper published allegations about the current foreign minister. “Dam Sith’s arrest demonstrates how the criminal justice system is used and abused to silence government critics,” said Brittis Edman, researcher for Amnesty International. “His arrest sends a message of fear to journalists and other media workers in the lead-up to national elections next month.” Dam Sith’s newspaper, Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), quoted allegations by opposition leader Sam Rainsy over the role of the current minister of foreign affairs, Hor Namhong, during the period of Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-1979. Hor Namhong filed a criminal complaint against Dam Sith for disinformation, defamation and libel under Cambodia’s 1992 penal code. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International believe that public officials who consider themselves defamed should not seek redress through the criminal law in order to protect their reputation. Moneaksekar Khmer is one of the few newspapers in Cambodia that is not affiliated with the government or the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which also controls all television and most radio stations. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said that the arrest of Dam Sith is part of a pattern of intimidation by the government against opposition and independent media in the run-up to the July elections. On May 21, Hun Sen threatened the independent Beehive radio station for running programming from opposition parties, stating: “You have one channel; we have 39 channels. If you curse me, you will receive bad merit. Those who [previously] cursed me already disappeared from the world.” On May 28, the government shut down independent radio station Angkor Ratha (FM 105.25) in Kratie province. The station, whose headquarters is in Siem Reap province, was granted a license to broadcast in January 2008. The Ministry of Information abruptly cancelled the license for the station’s Kratie broadcasts after it sold air time to opposition parties. “There’s little room for critical or opposition journalists in Cambodia, and those who express dissent risk harassment, intimidation and, at times, imprisonment,” said Sara Colm, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian authorities to respect and protect the right to freedom of expression, allowing journalists to report news and express opinions about politics without retribution. Dam Sith, who is running as an opposition candidate in the capital Phnom Penh, was arrested in the midst of an intense campaign by the ruling CPP to induce opposition members to join the CPP and punish those who refuse. In March 2008, police arrested and detained local opposition SRP leader Tuot Saron in Kampong Thom. Tuot Saron is still detained and faces charges of illegal confinement after seeking to assist a distressed former party colleague following her alleged defection to the CPP under controversial circumstances. The court issued arrest warrants against three other local SRP leaders, who avoided arrest and remain in hiding. “Arrests and other politically motivated legal actions are being used to intimidate, coerce and silence opposition members and journalists,” said Colm. “With elections pending, it’s crucial that Cambodians are able to receive information from a variety of news sources, and that opposition candidates are able to campaign without fear of reprisals.” The right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in the Cambodian Constitution and enshrined in international human rights law. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cambodia is obliged to promote and protect these rights and ensure that people can fully enjoy them. The 1995 Press Law provides for some protection of journalists, but is rarely used. Instead, the so-called 1992 UNTAC Law, Cambodia’s current penal code, is used in most legal cases against journalists or media representatives. These cases often violate the right to freedom of expression. Dam Sith has been charged with violating articles 62 and 63 of the UNTAC Law. Article 62 criminalizes the publication, distribution or reproduction of false information that “has disturbed or is likely to disturb the public peace.” Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consider the provision to be too vague and sweeping, enabling the government to intimidate and prosecute those who are exercising their right to freedom of expression. Article 63 provides that allegations against public figures “which the author, the journalist, editor, or producer knows to be false” may constitute defamation. The article does not carry a custodial sentence. This article also restricts the right to freedom of expression in violation of international law and standards. “It is time for Cambodia to repeal provisions in its laws that allow individuals, including journalists, to be criminally prosecuted for peaceful speech,” said Edman.
by http://hrw.org
(London, June 11, 2008) – The Cambodian government should release a jailed opposition newspaper editor and candidate, and end its intimidation of journalists and opposition party candidates in the lead-up to National Assembly elections in July, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.On June 8, military police arrested newspaper editor Dam Sith, 39, who is also running as a candidate for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), after his newspaper published allegations about the current foreign minister. “Dam Sith’s arrest demonstrates how the criminal justice system is used and abused to silence government critics,” said Brittis Edman, researcher for Amnesty International. “His arrest sends a message of fear to journalists and other media workers in the lead-up to national elections next month.” Dam Sith’s newspaper, Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), quoted allegations by opposition leader Sam Rainsy over the role of the current minister of foreign affairs, Hor Namhong, during the period of Khmer Rouge rule from 1975-1979. Hor Namhong filed a criminal complaint against Dam Sith for disinformation, defamation and libel under Cambodia’s 1992 penal code. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International believe that public officials who consider themselves defamed should not seek redress through the criminal law in order to protect their reputation. Moneaksekar Khmer is one of the few newspapers in Cambodia that is not affiliated with the government or the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen, which also controls all television and most radio stations. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said that the arrest of Dam Sith is part of a pattern of intimidation by the government against opposition and independent media in the run-up to the July elections. On May 21, Hun Sen threatened the independent Beehive radio station for running programming from opposition parties, stating: “You have one channel; we have 39 channels. If you curse me, you will receive bad merit. Those who [previously] cursed me already disappeared from the world.” On May 28, the government shut down independent radio station Angkor Ratha (FM 105.25) in Kratie province. The station, whose headquarters is in Siem Reap province, was granted a license to broadcast in January 2008. The Ministry of Information abruptly cancelled the license for the station’s Kratie broadcasts after it sold air time to opposition parties. “There’s little room for critical or opposition journalists in Cambodia, and those who express dissent risk harassment, intimidation and, at times, imprisonment,” said Sara Colm, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian authorities to respect and protect the right to freedom of expression, allowing journalists to report news and express opinions about politics without retribution. Dam Sith, who is running as an opposition candidate in the capital Phnom Penh, was arrested in the midst of an intense campaign by the ruling CPP to induce opposition members to join the CPP and punish those who refuse. In March 2008, police arrested and detained local opposition SRP leader Tuot Saron in Kampong Thom. Tuot Saron is still detained and faces charges of illegal confinement after seeking to assist a distressed former party colleague following her alleged defection to the CPP under controversial circumstances. The court issued arrest warrants against three other local SRP leaders, who avoided arrest and remain in hiding. “Arrests and other politically motivated legal actions are being used to intimidate, coerce and silence opposition members and journalists,” said Colm. “With elections pending, it’s crucial that Cambodians are able to receive information from a variety of news sources, and that opposition candidates are able to campaign without fear of reprisals.” The right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in the Cambodian Constitution and enshrined in international human rights law. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Cambodia is obliged to promote and protect these rights and ensure that people can fully enjoy them. The 1995 Press Law provides for some protection of journalists, but is rarely used. Instead, the so-called 1992 UNTAC Law, Cambodia’s current penal code, is used in most legal cases against journalists or media representatives. These cases often violate the right to freedom of expression. Dam Sith has been charged with violating articles 62 and 63 of the UNTAC Law. Article 62 criminalizes the publication, distribution or reproduction of false information that “has disturbed or is likely to disturb the public peace.” Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consider the provision to be too vague and sweeping, enabling the government to intimidate and prosecute those who are exercising their right to freedom of expression. Article 63 provides that allegations against public figures “which the author, the journalist, editor, or producer knows to be false” may constitute defamation. The article does not carry a custodial sentence. This article also restricts the right to freedom of expression in violation of international law and standards. “It is time for Cambodia to repeal provisions in its laws that allow individuals, including journalists, to be criminally prosecuted for peaceful speech,” said Edman.
by http://hrw.org
Minister gives each Cambodian Olympic Games candidate $200
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games PHNOM PENH, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Tourism Minister and National Olympic Committee (NOCC) President Thong Khon has donated200 U.S. dollars for each of the six Cambodian athletes and trainers heading for the Beijing Olympics in August, national media said Wednesday.
"I just visited them and offered them my personal money," he said, adding that he had asked the committee to raise the stipend for Cambodia's Olympic hopefuls, which is currently set at 50 U.S. dollars each athlete per month for three months prior to the games.
The minister confirmed that Cambodia receives annual funding from the International Olympic committee in Switzerland, but no member of NOCC could tell the amount and spending situation of the funding, reported English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily.
Cambodia's two Olympic track and field athletes said last week they had been preparing for the games with little to no support from NOCC.
Cambodia will send a 15-member delegation to participate in the Olympic Games in Beijing in August with focus on swimming and marathon medals. The team will include Thong Khon himself, who will depart for Beijing on August 7
King Norodom Sihamoni and Education Minister Kol Pheng also plan to attend the opening ceremony of the games.
It is not the first time Cambodia has sent athletes to the Olympics.
The first post-war delegation of five Khmers competed in the Atlanta Games in 1996, and Cambodia subsequently sent four athletes to both Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004.
by Chinaview
"I just visited them and offered them my personal money," he said, adding that he had asked the committee to raise the stipend for Cambodia's Olympic hopefuls, which is currently set at 50 U.S. dollars each athlete per month for three months prior to the games.
The minister confirmed that Cambodia receives annual funding from the International Olympic committee in Switzerland, but no member of NOCC could tell the amount and spending situation of the funding, reported English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily.
Cambodia's two Olympic track and field athletes said last week they had been preparing for the games with little to no support from NOCC.
Cambodia will send a 15-member delegation to participate in the Olympic Games in Beijing in August with focus on swimming and marathon medals. The team will include Thong Khon himself, who will depart for Beijing on August 7
King Norodom Sihamoni and Education Minister Kol Pheng also plan to attend the opening ceremony of the games.
It is not the first time Cambodia has sent athletes to the Olympics.
The first post-war delegation of five Khmers competed in the Atlanta Games in 1996, and Cambodia subsequently sent four athletes to both Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004.
by Chinaview
WFP resumes School Feeding Program in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN World Food Program (WFP) has resumed to provide free meals for some 450,000 primary school children across Cambodia, after obtaining new contribution to ease its financial strain, said a WFP press release Wednesday.
"The last minute contribution of 5.4 million U.S. dollars came at a time when WFP was forced to suspend its School Feeding Program (recently) in Cambodia because of rising food prices and lack of corresponding funds," it said.
The contribution was part of a WFP corporate fund established to help the organization's Country Programs continue to provide food assistance despite higher food procurement costs, it added.
Students in 1,344 schools are to benefit from the resumption which will continue until July 5.
by: Bi Mingxin
Chinaview
"The last minute contribution of 5.4 million U.S. dollars came at a time when WFP was forced to suspend its School Feeding Program (recently) in Cambodia because of rising food prices and lack of corresponding funds," it said.
The contribution was part of a WFP corporate fund established to help the organization's Country Programs continue to provide food assistance despite higher food procurement costs, it added.
Students in 1,344 schools are to benefit from the resumption which will continue until July 5.
by: Bi Mingxin
Chinaview
Tackling Cambodia's landmine legacy
On a wooded hillside above a village in north-west Cambodia, a man speaks into a radio.
Figures in body armour and visors head downhill to shelter from the sun under some trees.
A whistle sounds and then a siren. A few minutes later a loud crack echoes around the countryside. Grey smoke floats into the air.
The first landmine of the morning has been destroyed.
It was a Chinese-made type 72A - a small, green object that blows off the leg that treads on it or the arm that picks it up.
The team head back up the hill. There are many more mines to go.
This is a scene that is repeated day after day across Cambodia, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Between four and six million landmines are thought to have been laid during the country's three decades of civil war.
Several million landmines planted over 30 years of civil conflict
Highest concentration of landmines in north-western areas along the Thai border
Many eastern areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance
Khmer Rouge fighters, Vietnamese troops and government forces all planted devices, but did not record where or how many. Huge areas of land were contaminated, particularly in western border regions where the fighting was fiercest.
Across the country, victims of landmine blasts are a strikingly visible presence. More than 40,000 people are thought to have lost limbs.
Work to remove the mines has been going on ever since the conflict ended, and a great deal of progress has been made. But there is a lot still to do.
"Cambodia still has a significant landmine problem," says Rupert Leighton, Cambodia country director of the Mines Advisory Group. "They are not starting to dry up yet."
Casualties have fallen significantly in recent years, from more than 2,000 annually in the early 1990s to less than a quarter of that in 2006.
This is because the movement of displaced people has subsided, people know more about landmines and more clearance has been carried out. There are also fewer people facing acute hunger, meaning fewer people foraging in the forests.
The key issue now, says Mr Leighton, is the fact that so much land still cannot be used - at a time when competition for it has become fierce.
Ten families
Boeung Prolite lies 6 km ( 4 miles) from the Thai border, not far from the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin.
For more than two decades a guerrilla conflict raged in this area - and both sides laid mines extensively.
A red triangle marks a landmine which must be blown up
People began settling in Boeung Prolite in the 1990s, when the fighting wound down.
About 30% of villagers are former Khmer Rouge fighters, the rest are new arrivals from other provinces. They live in simple wooden houses and grow crops for subsistence and sale.
On high ground above the village lies a mine field about the size of 19 football pitches.
This one was laid mainly by the Khmer Rouge and, as well as 72As, contains type 69s - small grey mines which spring upwards to explode at waist height.
Nine casualties have been recorded on this minefield over the years. The last was in 2002, a farmer who wanted to plant more crops.
Roeu Sokhom heads the team that is clearing the site. He, a deputy supervisor, a medic, a driver and 12 deminers began work there in early March after the initial site survey was complete.
Using metal detectors to examine every inch of ground, working in high heat and humidity, they have already destroyed dozens of mines. They expect to complete the job by the end of June.
When it is done, 10 local families, comprising a total of 59 people, will be able to farm there, Roeu Sokhom says.
Some have already moved in to plant up earth cleared only days before, such is their hunger for land.
'Finish line'
One of the mine clearers is 26 year-old Khoeun Sokhorn. She lives with her family in a village near Pailin and has been a deminer for two years.
Khoeun Sokhorn demonstrates how she checks the earth for landmines
In 2002, she went into the forest to gather firewood. The area had been classified as "suspect", but people had been going there for years and everyone thought it was safe. A landmine blew off her right leg.
She wants to clear mines so that no-one else gets hurt the way she did, she says. She is proud that the number of casualties is continuing to fall.
But when she finds a mine, there is no flash of triumph - she just reports it to her supervisor and moves on to the next one.
She says she will clear mines as long as there is work for her. She does not need to look for another job yet.
"We will never clear all the mines out of Cambodia, but in 10 years we have a reasonable chance of saying that the worst areas have been cleared," says Mr Leighton.
"It depends on funding and also on how we define the finish line - are we talking about impact-free or casualty-free?"
"We could go on working in Cambodia forever, but the law of diminishing returns would mean that we become more and more expensive."
In Khoeun Sokhorn's village there are several mine fields that need to be cleared.
She is married and she has a three-year-old daughter.
The little girl does not know what a landmine is yet. But, Khoeun Sokhorn says, she is old enough to know that she must not go into certain parts of the forest.
By Philippa Fogarty
BBC News, Pailin
Figures in body armour and visors head downhill to shelter from the sun under some trees.
A whistle sounds and then a siren. A few minutes later a loud crack echoes around the countryside. Grey smoke floats into the air.
The first landmine of the morning has been destroyed.
It was a Chinese-made type 72A - a small, green object that blows off the leg that treads on it or the arm that picks it up.
The team head back up the hill. There are many more mines to go.
This is a scene that is repeated day after day across Cambodia, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.
Between four and six million landmines are thought to have been laid during the country's three decades of civil war.
Several million landmines planted over 30 years of civil conflict
Highest concentration of landmines in north-western areas along the Thai border
Many eastern areas contaminated by unexploded ordnance
Khmer Rouge fighters, Vietnamese troops and government forces all planted devices, but did not record where or how many. Huge areas of land were contaminated, particularly in western border regions where the fighting was fiercest.
Across the country, victims of landmine blasts are a strikingly visible presence. More than 40,000 people are thought to have lost limbs.
Work to remove the mines has been going on ever since the conflict ended, and a great deal of progress has been made. But there is a lot still to do.
"Cambodia still has a significant landmine problem," says Rupert Leighton, Cambodia country director of the Mines Advisory Group. "They are not starting to dry up yet."
Casualties have fallen significantly in recent years, from more than 2,000 annually in the early 1990s to less than a quarter of that in 2006.
This is because the movement of displaced people has subsided, people know more about landmines and more clearance has been carried out. There are also fewer people facing acute hunger, meaning fewer people foraging in the forests.
The key issue now, says Mr Leighton, is the fact that so much land still cannot be used - at a time when competition for it has become fierce.
Ten families
Boeung Prolite lies 6 km ( 4 miles) from the Thai border, not far from the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin.
For more than two decades a guerrilla conflict raged in this area - and both sides laid mines extensively.
A red triangle marks a landmine which must be blown up
People began settling in Boeung Prolite in the 1990s, when the fighting wound down.
About 30% of villagers are former Khmer Rouge fighters, the rest are new arrivals from other provinces. They live in simple wooden houses and grow crops for subsistence and sale.
On high ground above the village lies a mine field about the size of 19 football pitches.
This one was laid mainly by the Khmer Rouge and, as well as 72As, contains type 69s - small grey mines which spring upwards to explode at waist height.
Nine casualties have been recorded on this minefield over the years. The last was in 2002, a farmer who wanted to plant more crops.
Roeu Sokhom heads the team that is clearing the site. He, a deputy supervisor, a medic, a driver and 12 deminers began work there in early March after the initial site survey was complete.
Using metal detectors to examine every inch of ground, working in high heat and humidity, they have already destroyed dozens of mines. They expect to complete the job by the end of June.
When it is done, 10 local families, comprising a total of 59 people, will be able to farm there, Roeu Sokhom says.
Some have already moved in to plant up earth cleared only days before, such is their hunger for land.
'Finish line'
One of the mine clearers is 26 year-old Khoeun Sokhorn. She lives with her family in a village near Pailin and has been a deminer for two years.
Khoeun Sokhorn demonstrates how she checks the earth for landmines
In 2002, she went into the forest to gather firewood. The area had been classified as "suspect", but people had been going there for years and everyone thought it was safe. A landmine blew off her right leg.
She wants to clear mines so that no-one else gets hurt the way she did, she says. She is proud that the number of casualties is continuing to fall.
But when she finds a mine, there is no flash of triumph - she just reports it to her supervisor and moves on to the next one.
She says she will clear mines as long as there is work for her. She does not need to look for another job yet.
"We will never clear all the mines out of Cambodia, but in 10 years we have a reasonable chance of saying that the worst areas have been cleared," says Mr Leighton.
"It depends on funding and also on how we define the finish line - are we talking about impact-free or casualty-free?"
"We could go on working in Cambodia forever, but the law of diminishing returns would mean that we become more and more expensive."
In Khoeun Sokhorn's village there are several mine fields that need to be cleared.
She is married and she has a three-year-old daughter.
The little girl does not know what a landmine is yet. But, Khoeun Sokhorn says, she is old enough to know that she must not go into certain parts of the forest.
By Philippa Fogarty
BBC News, Pailin
Cambodian aircraft left at Vietnamese airport for over 1 year
VietNamNet Bridge – The abandoned plane named “Air Dream” broke down in May 2007 and it has been lying at Noi Bai International Airport since then, said an official of the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration.
Vo Huy Cuong, Head of the Transportation Department under the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration, said his agency revoked the flying licence of this plane a long time ago. In the future, if this aircraft is mended and meets flying conditions and wants to fly back to Cambodia, it must get an export flying certificate.
The plane belongs to Royal Khmer Airlines of Cambodia. The Cambodian Aviation Agency had scratched its name from its aircraft registration book. The Northern Airport Management Agency said Royal Khmer Airlines paid part of the parking fees.
“This is a great waste,” Cuong said.
In the world, broken-down aircrafts are often left at airports for one month but it is strange that the Cambodian plane has been at Noi Bai Airport for over one year. This is the first such case at Noi Bai.
by TP
http://english.vietnamnet.vn
Vo Huy Cuong, Head of the Transportation Department under the Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration, said his agency revoked the flying licence of this plane a long time ago. In the future, if this aircraft is mended and meets flying conditions and wants to fly back to Cambodia, it must get an export flying certificate.
The plane belongs to Royal Khmer Airlines of Cambodia. The Cambodian Aviation Agency had scratched its name from its aircraft registration book. The Northern Airport Management Agency said Royal Khmer Airlines paid part of the parking fees.
“This is a great waste,” Cuong said.
In the world, broken-down aircrafts are often left at airports for one month but it is strange that the Cambodian plane has been at Noi Bai Airport for over one year. This is the first such case at Noi Bai.
by TP
http://english.vietnamnet.vn
First Int’l Central Highland Gong Culture Festival scheduled for next year
VietNamNet Bridge - The Institute of Art and Culture, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has held a meeting with leaders from the five Central Highland provinces to organize the First International Central Highland Gong Culture Festival in Gia Lai province in March 2009. Apart from 11 ensembles from the five Central Highlands provinces and a number of ethnic minorities from around the country such as the Muong, Thai, Cham and Khmer, the organizing board will invite international artists from Laos, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Japan to join the festival. The event will focus on three main subjects, including performances showing unique features of Central Highland Gong space, a photographic exhibition taken by French artists before 1954 and an international seminar on preserving Gong culture.
by VOV
http://english.vietnamnet.vn
by VOV
http://english.vietnamnet.vn
Phnom Penh serves authentic Cambodian food
Like all Cambodians of a certain age, Saroeun Trou has stories to tell of the horror the Khmer Rouge inflicted on his country.
But Trou and his mother, Tuoch Keo, were among the lucky few who survived the slaughter that was later chronicled in “The Killing Fields.”
They escaped Cambodia and lived in refugee camps along the Thai border from 1979 to 1981. While in the camp, Trou worked for the American Embassy. In 1982 the two of them made their way to Kansas City. He has not been back since, although his mother has made a few trips home. Instead, he’s paying homage to his country through food.
In March Trou opened Phnom Penh Restaurant. He’d owned a Chinese restaurant years ago but had never included food from his homeland on the menu.
And I’d never had Cambodian food. It reminded me a little bit of Thai and Vietnamese food, although it was lighter than Thai and not as spicy as Vietnamese.
An exception was the Phnom Penh beefsticks, chewy, bite-size nuggets of beef threaded on a stick and served as an appetizer. Lacquered with a sweet, earthy sauce, the beefsticks were served with a shredded green papaya salad dressed in a bitingly spicy dressing.
Two of us shared three entrees, not knowing just how generous the portions were. The cha kreung was a mess of beef slices, green peppers and yellow onion slices spooned over white rice. The mee ka-thaing reminded me of pad Thai, without the fish sauce aroma and lime juice bite of the Thai dishes. The wide rice noodles were tossed with chopped Chinese broccoli, eggs and beef.
The favorite was the Phnom Penh machu, a tamarind-based brothy soup seasoned with crispy garlic pieces and loaded with pan-fried catfish hunks, lotus root slices, tomatoes, pineapple, Thai basil and chunks of some sort of Asian gourd. The tamarind gave the broth a snappy citrus taste. The lotus root, threaded with tiny holes, looked like pasta and had a vegetal crunch. The gourd pieces, which looked like cucumber, were slithery but al dente, while the pineapple gave the soup a tropical sweetness. It was fabulous.
Trou has two Cambodian desserts: sarai, a Cambodian-style gelatin made with coconut milk and loaded with jackfruit and longan, and loat, a dessert soup made with cooked tapioca flour bits stirred into a sweet cane sugar and coconut milk syrup.
A couple of things to keep in mind: Trou was waiting on the credit card machine to arrive, so take cash. And service can be slow; dishes are prepared to order. Although he does much of the cooking, two of his children, Julie and Jimmy, help out.
Phnom Penh Restaurant: 3537 Independence Ave. 816-231-1700. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday
By LAUREN CHAPIN
The Kansas City Star
But Trou and his mother, Tuoch Keo, were among the lucky few who survived the slaughter that was later chronicled in “The Killing Fields.”
They escaped Cambodia and lived in refugee camps along the Thai border from 1979 to 1981. While in the camp, Trou worked for the American Embassy. In 1982 the two of them made their way to Kansas City. He has not been back since, although his mother has made a few trips home. Instead, he’s paying homage to his country through food.
In March Trou opened Phnom Penh Restaurant. He’d owned a Chinese restaurant years ago but had never included food from his homeland on the menu.
And I’d never had Cambodian food. It reminded me a little bit of Thai and Vietnamese food, although it was lighter than Thai and not as spicy as Vietnamese.
An exception was the Phnom Penh beefsticks, chewy, bite-size nuggets of beef threaded on a stick and served as an appetizer. Lacquered with a sweet, earthy sauce, the beefsticks were served with a shredded green papaya salad dressed in a bitingly spicy dressing.
Two of us shared three entrees, not knowing just how generous the portions were. The cha kreung was a mess of beef slices, green peppers and yellow onion slices spooned over white rice. The mee ka-thaing reminded me of pad Thai, without the fish sauce aroma and lime juice bite of the Thai dishes. The wide rice noodles were tossed with chopped Chinese broccoli, eggs and beef.
The favorite was the Phnom Penh machu, a tamarind-based brothy soup seasoned with crispy garlic pieces and loaded with pan-fried catfish hunks, lotus root slices, tomatoes, pineapple, Thai basil and chunks of some sort of Asian gourd. The tamarind gave the broth a snappy citrus taste. The lotus root, threaded with tiny holes, looked like pasta and had a vegetal crunch. The gourd pieces, which looked like cucumber, were slithery but al dente, while the pineapple gave the soup a tropical sweetness. It was fabulous.
Trou has two Cambodian desserts: sarai, a Cambodian-style gelatin made with coconut milk and loaded with jackfruit and longan, and loat, a dessert soup made with cooked tapioca flour bits stirred into a sweet cane sugar and coconut milk syrup.
A couple of things to keep in mind: Trou was waiting on the credit card machine to arrive, so take cash. And service can be slow; dishes are prepared to order. Although he does much of the cooking, two of his children, Julie and Jimmy, help out.
Phnom Penh Restaurant: 3537 Independence Ave. 816-231-1700. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday
By LAUREN CHAPIN
The Kansas City Star
Anniversary of Preah Vihear ruling to be held at in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Khmer Civilization Support Association (KCSA) has announced its celebration of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)'s 1962 ruling that Preah Vihear belongs to Cambodia rather than Thailand, will be held Sunday at Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh, local newspaper the Mekong Times reported Thursday.
"The ceremony is being held in gratitude to our Cambodian ancestors who built Preah Vihear," said the KCSA statement, adding that it was also dedicated to former King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian head of state when the ICJ ruling was made.
The ceremony is also being held to thank the Cambodian government for maintaining sovereignty and integrity until the temple is registered as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site list, said the KSCA.
The UN body will discuss the temple's listing at talks to be held early next month in Quebec.
The KSCA announcement comes as the Thai government studies in detail a new drawing of the temple grounds that Cambodia submitted last week.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungwat told The Bangkok Post Wednesday that further talks between Thai and Cambodian officials are needed because the Cambodian map of the area slightly differs from the border map used by Thailand, the Mekong Times said.
Pai Siphan, spokesman for the Cambodian Council of Ministers, said Wednesday that the term "map" as opposed to "drawing" was causing confusion.
"We use the word drawing, as it was a drawing submitted to UNESCO and Thailand. We have sent the drawing to the Thai side and they approved it," he said.
He added that, according to Cambodian law, the legal premises of each temple are adjudged to be 30 meters starting from the base of its outer buildings.
"Currently Preah Vihear temple fences are too near the gate of the temple, which indicates that Thailand has moved its border markers into Cambodian territory," said the spokesman.
by: Jiang Yuxia
http://news.xinhuanet.com
"The ceremony is being held in gratitude to our Cambodian ancestors who built Preah Vihear," said the KCSA statement, adding that it was also dedicated to former King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian head of state when the ICJ ruling was made.
The ceremony is also being held to thank the Cambodian government for maintaining sovereignty and integrity until the temple is registered as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site list, said the KSCA.
The UN body will discuss the temple's listing at talks to be held early next month in Quebec.
The KSCA announcement comes as the Thai government studies in detail a new drawing of the temple grounds that Cambodia submitted last week.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungwat told The Bangkok Post Wednesday that further talks between Thai and Cambodian officials are needed because the Cambodian map of the area slightly differs from the border map used by Thailand, the Mekong Times said.
Pai Siphan, spokesman for the Cambodian Council of Ministers, said Wednesday that the term "map" as opposed to "drawing" was causing confusion.
"We use the word drawing, as it was a drawing submitted to UNESCO and Thailand. We have sent the drawing to the Thai side and they approved it," he said.
He added that, according to Cambodian law, the legal premises of each temple are adjudged to be 30 meters starting from the base of its outer buildings.
"Currently Preah Vihear temple fences are too near the gate of the temple, which indicates that Thailand has moved its border markers into Cambodian territory," said the spokesman.
by: Jiang Yuxia
http://news.xinhuanet.com
Monday, June 2, 2008
Rice from Thailand due to the ban from other countries
KUALA LUMPUR, Mon:
The government had to buy rice from Thailand to beef up the country’s stockpile due to the difficulty in getting supply from other countries.
Secretary-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idris said the difficulty was due to the ban on rice exports by India, Vietnam and Cambodia. However, he said, these countries had now lifted their ban and Malaysia would have more options to import rice apart from Thailand. "We bought rice from Thailand as these countries (India, Vietnam and Cambodia) stopped their exports due to production shortage but now they have lifted their ban on the export of rice,” he told reporters after opening the International Master Class in Plant Biosecurity: Isues and Responses here, today. Malaysia had requested 500,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter which sold 9.5 million tonnes overseas last year.
The order came in the wake of a record price for rice, which breached the US$1,000 per tonne (US$1=RM3.24) mark last month and Malaysia paid US$950 per tonne. The Thai Government had offered to sell 500,000 tonnes of rice to Malaysia from its existing 2.1 million-tonne stock under a government-to-government arrangement. — BERNAMA
resource: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/NewsBreak/20080602145244/Article/index_html
The government had to buy rice from Thailand to beef up the country’s stockpile due to the difficulty in getting supply from other countries.
Secretary-General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Datuk Dr Zulkifli Idris said the difficulty was due to the ban on rice exports by India, Vietnam and Cambodia. However, he said, these countries had now lifted their ban and Malaysia would have more options to import rice apart from Thailand. "We bought rice from Thailand as these countries (India, Vietnam and Cambodia) stopped their exports due to production shortage but now they have lifted their ban on the export of rice,” he told reporters after opening the International Master Class in Plant Biosecurity: Isues and Responses here, today. Malaysia had requested 500,000 tonnes of rice from Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter which sold 9.5 million tonnes overseas last year.
The order came in the wake of a record price for rice, which breached the US$1,000 per tonne (US$1=RM3.24) mark last month and Malaysia paid US$950 per tonne. The Thai Government had offered to sell 500,000 tonnes of rice to Malaysia from its existing 2.1 million-tonne stock under a government-to-government arrangement. — BERNAMA
resource: http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/NewsBreak/20080602145244/Article/index_html
Active Duty
Army Sgt. Jodi F. Stone recently was awarded a certificate of achievement and the Commander's Coin for serving with the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Camp Taji, Iraq. She and her explosive detector dog, appropriately named "Staff Sgt. Bango," completed more than 10 missions with the unit in Iraq. Stone is a patrol explosive detector dog handler regularly assigned to the 51st Military Police Detachment, 42nd Military Police Brigade at Fort Lewis in Tacoma. The sergeant has served in the military for nine years. She is the daughter of Francis and Barbara Stone of Stanwood and a 1998 graduate of Stanwood High School. The Commander's Coin was given to Sgt. Stone in recognition of her outstanding performance.Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Frank Coffey Jr. is at home on leave, visiting his parents Frank and Salley Coffey of Camano Island. A 1987 graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School, Coffey has served in the Navy for 20 years. His tours of duty include in Panama, Guam, Japan, Okinawa, the Persian Gulf and Iraq, where he was awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded a year ago. At the end of June, Coffey has been assigned to a tour in Afghanistan.Air Force Reserve Col. Paul Abson recently participated in a humanitarian mission in Cambodia. Dr. Abson, an ear, nose and throat specialist at The Everett Clinic in Everett, is a reservist with the 446th Airlift Wing based at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma. He worked at a clinic in Cambodia were he conducted medical examinations and distributed fluoride treatment kits to more than 500 children. The humanitarian assistance program is aimed to improve the cooperation between the armed forces of Thailand, Cambodia and the United States.Air Force Airman Jason D. Lurf has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. He is the son of Kenneth Lurf of Lakewood, Calif., and grandson of Donald Lurf of Marysville.Air Force Airman Della M. Sciascia has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. She is the daughter of Della Crookes of Granite Falls and granddaughter of Connie Smith of Edmonds. Sciascia is a 2007 graduate of Granite Falls High School.Air Force Airman Joshua D. Nicholson has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, and technology school at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, Texas. Airman Nicholson will be stationed in Germany. He is the son of Nic Nicholson of Granite Falls and Patricia Nicholson of Everett. He is a 2007 graduate of Weston High School in Arlington.
resource: http://heraldnet.com/article/20080602/NEWS01/574743983
resource: http://heraldnet.com/article/20080602/NEWS01/574743983
Sunday, June 1, 2008
US man convicted over Cambodia sex offences
A federal jury in the United States has convicted a retired marine captain of travelling to Cambodia to have sex with underage girls.Michael Joseph Pepe faces up to 210 years in prison for guilty verdicts on seven felony counts.During the trial, six girls aged 9 to 12 testified that Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them.A prostitute also told the court on videotape that she brought him young victims.Pepe was prosecuted under the Protect Act, which was adopted five years ago to increase penalties against predatory crimes involving children outside the United States.
by http://www.radioaustralia.net.au
resource: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200806/s2262156.htm?tab=asia
by http://www.radioaustralia.net.au
resource: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200806/s2262156.htm?tab=asia
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Where is Cambodia’s anti-corruption law?
Hong Kong, China — On May 16, 2006, a petition with over 1 million signatures and thumbprints was presented to the National Assembly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, calling on the assembly to urgently enact an anti-corruption law. The sheer number of people –one out of every 14 Cambodians – who supported the petition campaign with their signature or thumbprint in a period of just over five months, revealed the gravity of corruption in the country and the urgent need for government leaders and lawmakers to take action.
Corruption in Cambodia was already rife, affecting every walk of life, toward the end of the communist regime in the late 1980s. It was and still is prevalent in every public institution everywhere and at every level: in schools, hospitals, fire services, the police, the army, the civil service, the judiciary, the government and the Parliament. It has also ravaged foreign aid given to the country.
In the early 1990s when the communist regime ended, the public called on the government to tackle the problem. In the mid-1990s, civil society began to organize seminars to highlight the issue and urge the government to enact an anti-corruption law. Many national seminars were held, at times presided over by prime ministers or their colleagues, not to mention many smaller meetings.
There were study tours for concerned senior government officials and lawmakers to countries in the region, including Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which are renowned for their effective anti-corruption laws and agencies. In 1998, the newly elected government promised to fight corruption and enact a law against it.
For their part, international donors began to feel the gravity of corruption and its negative impact on the aid they had given to Cambodia, to the tune of some US$500 million a year since the early 1990s. In 2002, together with the Cambodian government, they made the fight against corruption and the enactment of an anti-corruption law one of the benchmarks for the flow of aid.
Under such pressure the government finally submitted to the National Assembly an anti-corruption bill – which had been drafted and redrafted many times, well before the adoption of the U.N. Convention against Corruption in 2003.
Shortly after, this bill was withdrawn, to be redrafted again to bring it up to the convention’s standards. Meanwhile, deadlines set for the enactment of that law have repeatedly passed and the final draft has not yet seen the light of day.
In parallel with the pressure on the government to enact an anti-corruption law, successive studies were undertaken to look into corruption in Cambodia. A 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Cambodia showed that corruption cost the government between US$300 million and $500 million in revenue every year, an enormous sum for a poor country.
Another survey conducted two years later by the Economic Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh showed that in 2005 the private sector paid “unofficial fees”—that is, bribes – to public officials amounting to US$330 million, an amount it said was “2.5 times higher than that of official payment” and “represented also about 50 percent of the total government budget revenue in 2005.”
A more recent survey conducted by Transparency International showed that 72 percent of Cambodians reported paying a bribe to receive a public service in 2007, a percentage which was then the highest in the Asia-Pacific region and second only to Cameroon (79 percent) internationally. The same survey also showed that the judiciary and the police were viewed as the most corrupt institutions in the country. It should be added that in 2007 Cambodia ranked 162 out 179 countries in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index.
Corruption has affected not only the Cambodian people but also foreign donors on whom Cambodia very much depends. In 1999 there was a corruption scandal at the Cambodian Mine Action Center, an internationally funded government landmine clearance organization. That scandal led to the suspension of foreign aid to CMAC for some time.
In 2003, the World Bank discovered the misuse of funds in a project to demobilize 30,000 soldiers, and forced the Cambodian government to repay the missing money. In 2004, the World Food Program found that US$1.2 million of its aid had gone missing, and forced the Cambodian government to make up for it. In 2006, the World Bank discovered fraud and corruption in three of the projects it was funding. It suspended its funding for these three projects and requested the Cambodian government to make prompt repayment of the missing funds.
In early 2007, within six months after its creation, the internationally funded Khmer Rouge Tribunal encountered allegations of corruption in its human resource management. These allegations led to the introduction of corrective measures for better management.
These are a few of the cases known to the public and acknowledged by the government. Yet in all corruption cases very few, if any, suspected government officials have been brought to justice and made accountable for their corruption. Generally, they have simply been disciplined and removed from office and then, when their cases are no longer in the public mind, they have been reappointed to other, sometimes higher, positions.
Enacting an anti-corruption law and setting up an anti-corruption body may not end what is a common practice in Cambodia. It is nevertheless a significant step toward that end. The Cambodian government must not let its officials indulge in corruption with impunity. It must not continue to break its promises to its people and its foreign donors. It must heed the petition presented to the National Assembly and submit the long promised anti-corruption bill for adoption without further delay.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
By LAO MONG HAYColumn: Rule by Fear
http://upiasiaonline.com
Corruption in Cambodia was already rife, affecting every walk of life, toward the end of the communist regime in the late 1980s. It was and still is prevalent in every public institution everywhere and at every level: in schools, hospitals, fire services, the police, the army, the civil service, the judiciary, the government and the Parliament. It has also ravaged foreign aid given to the country.
In the early 1990s when the communist regime ended, the public called on the government to tackle the problem. In the mid-1990s, civil society began to organize seminars to highlight the issue and urge the government to enact an anti-corruption law. Many national seminars were held, at times presided over by prime ministers or their colleagues, not to mention many smaller meetings.
There were study tours for concerned senior government officials and lawmakers to countries in the region, including Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which are renowned for their effective anti-corruption laws and agencies. In 1998, the newly elected government promised to fight corruption and enact a law against it.
For their part, international donors began to feel the gravity of corruption and its negative impact on the aid they had given to Cambodia, to the tune of some US$500 million a year since the early 1990s. In 2002, together with the Cambodian government, they made the fight against corruption and the enactment of an anti-corruption law one of the benchmarks for the flow of aid.
Under such pressure the government finally submitted to the National Assembly an anti-corruption bill – which had been drafted and redrafted many times, well before the adoption of the U.N. Convention against Corruption in 2003.
Shortly after, this bill was withdrawn, to be redrafted again to bring it up to the convention’s standards. Meanwhile, deadlines set for the enactment of that law have repeatedly passed and the final draft has not yet seen the light of day.
In parallel with the pressure on the government to enact an anti-corruption law, successive studies were undertaken to look into corruption in Cambodia. A 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Cambodia showed that corruption cost the government between US$300 million and $500 million in revenue every year, an enormous sum for a poor country.
Another survey conducted two years later by the Economic Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh showed that in 2005 the private sector paid “unofficial fees”—that is, bribes – to public officials amounting to US$330 million, an amount it said was “2.5 times higher than that of official payment” and “represented also about 50 percent of the total government budget revenue in 2005.”
A more recent survey conducted by Transparency International showed that 72 percent of Cambodians reported paying a bribe to receive a public service in 2007, a percentage which was then the highest in the Asia-Pacific region and second only to Cameroon (79 percent) internationally. The same survey also showed that the judiciary and the police were viewed as the most corrupt institutions in the country. It should be added that in 2007 Cambodia ranked 162 out 179 countries in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index.
Corruption has affected not only the Cambodian people but also foreign donors on whom Cambodia very much depends. In 1999 there was a corruption scandal at the Cambodian Mine Action Center, an internationally funded government landmine clearance organization. That scandal led to the suspension of foreign aid to CMAC for some time.
In 2003, the World Bank discovered the misuse of funds in a project to demobilize 30,000 soldiers, and forced the Cambodian government to repay the missing money. In 2004, the World Food Program found that US$1.2 million of its aid had gone missing, and forced the Cambodian government to make up for it. In 2006, the World Bank discovered fraud and corruption in three of the projects it was funding. It suspended its funding for these three projects and requested the Cambodian government to make prompt repayment of the missing funds.
In early 2007, within six months after its creation, the internationally funded Khmer Rouge Tribunal encountered allegations of corruption in its human resource management. These allegations led to the introduction of corrective measures for better management.
These are a few of the cases known to the public and acknowledged by the government. Yet in all corruption cases very few, if any, suspected government officials have been brought to justice and made accountable for their corruption. Generally, they have simply been disciplined and removed from office and then, when their cases are no longer in the public mind, they have been reappointed to other, sometimes higher, positions.
Enacting an anti-corruption law and setting up an anti-corruption body may not end what is a common practice in Cambodia. It is nevertheless a significant step toward that end. The Cambodian government must not let its officials indulge in corruption with impunity. It must not continue to break its promises to its people and its foreign donors. It must heed the petition presented to the National Assembly and submit the long promised anti-corruption bill for adoption without further delay.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
By LAO MONG HAYColumn: Rule by Fear
http://upiasiaonline.com
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Prosecution seeks $19M in pyramid scam case
Prosecutors plan to seek a 13-year prison term and $19.1 million in restitution today from a Rhode Island man who helped swindle hundreds of Cambodian immigrants out of some $30 million.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns is set to sentence Christian Rochon of Warwick, R.I., on mail fraud and other charges related to Canton-based World Marketing Direct Services Inc.
Rochon, 57, the company’s ex-president, pleaded guilty last year and agreed to testify against ring leaders James Bunchan and Seng Tan, whom a jury later convicted.
Defense lawyer James Krasnoo said he plans to seek home confinement instead of prison for Rochon, who claims to suffer from numerous health problems.
A court has already sentenced Bunchan and Tan, who are married, to long prison terms. Bunchan also faces charges for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill Rochon and other witnesses.
World Marketing billed itself as a vitamin and beauty-supply company, but prosecutors say the firm was simply a “pyramid scheme” that targeted Bunchan and Tan’s fellow Cambodian immigrants.
The company promised $300-a-month payments for life to people who invested $26,000, and many victims refinanced homes or raided 401(k) plans to participate.
But authorities say the ring spent much of the money on houses, cars and high-stakes gambling trips. World Marketing then used cash from new victims to send early investors monthly payments until the scheme collapsed.
Scammers partly used memories of Cambodia’s 1970s “Killing Fields” era to advance the scam.
Tan reportedly told would-be investors she had fought the communists who took over Cambodia in the 1970s and killed some 2 million people. One victim also told prosecutors that after challenging the ring, Tan told people the man was “lucky he was not back in Cambodia or else he would have disappeared already.”
By Jerry Kronenberg
http://www.bostonherald.com
ECONOMY-CAMBODIA: Resource Curse or Blessing?
PHNOM PENH, May 28 (IPS) - Cambodia is facing a natural resource boom, prompting donors and non-government organisations (NGOs) to warn that without measures to improve financial transparency, promote better governance and curb corruption, the potential windfall could be squandered.
In addition to significant oil reserves off Cambodia’s coast, there are major deposits of natural gas, as well as minerals such as gold, copper and bauxite, mainly in the northeast of the country.
"The risk of a resource curse is there," said Jo Scheuer, country director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in an IPS interview. "Included in this is the issue of corruption and funds disappearing."
At the same time Scheuer is keen to stress that Cambodia "has a great opportunity to avoid mistakes that have been made in other countries,’’ and translate the benefits to all Cambodians to ‘’create a resource blessing’’.
"The government says it is a little early to start to talk about revenue because the resources are still underground," said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum in Phnom Penh. "We think it is important for us to be prepared for the new situation and challenges."
NGO Forum is one of a number of local organisations behind a new coalition, yet to be formally launched, that wants to ensure the potential financial benefits from the country’s resource windfall are managed in a socially responsible manner.
The Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index ranked Cambodia 162 out of 179 countries, making it the most corrupt country in Asia after Burma and among the worst globally.
"I think the concern is the past experience," continued Sam Ath. "A lot of natural resources have been extracted often under concessions, but the revenue that has gone into the budget has been less than expected."
"It is generally accepted that poor governance, lack of transparency and corruption are serious problems for Cambodia," said Sek Barisoth, director of the Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption for Equity Programme with PACT Cambodia, another supporter of the emerging coalition.
While observers say the Cambodian Government is verbally committed to the fight against corruption, there has been little action. A proposed anti-corruption law, developed in early 2005 with technical assistance from PACT, remains in draft form. It would establish an independent anti-corruption commission and provide a better legal definition of corruption.
Oil is the current focus of the resource boom, with exploration well underway in the waters off Cambodia’s cost to determine the extent of the country’s reserves.
How much oil is there? "We do not know," said UNDP’s Scheuer. "The standard answer is that no one has done any work on exactly how much oil and gas there is."
Two years ago, U.S. oil giant Chevron, the lead partner in Block A, where exploration has gone the furthest, announced "significant" oil and gas reserves. Scheuer said the company is expected to announce the results of its exploration sometime after Cambodia’s July national election.
With the price of a barrel of crude currently hovering around 130 US dollars and some analysts expecting it to reach 200 dollars by the end of the year, the financial gains for Cambodia are significant.
"It is a potentially huge windfall for a country if invested wisely in the long-term development objectives such as health, education and expanding the labour market," said Scheuer. His organisation has been one of the key donors working to help the Cambodian government deal with the threats and opportunities presented by the oil boom.
It is collaborating with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority to build its capacity, and earlier this year cooperated with the government to organise a major international conference on oil and gas.
"It is not necessarily a blessing for a country to be endowed with petroleum resources," Arne Walther, a Norwegian diplomat said at the conference. Norway, one of the poorest countries in Europe until the discovery of oil and gas off their coast in the mid-sixties, is cited by many as a success story in terms of how to handle the issues raised by an influx of petro dollars.
"It is how governments arrange for their resources to be extracted and how revenues earned are used that determine the success or failure of being a petroleum endowed state," Walther said. "I believe Cambodia faces a challenging task in planning and developing its petroleum sector and developing policy and instruments for channelling the future oil and gas revenues in a best possible way for the benefit of Cambodians. It is actually a momentous task."
"We realise the opportunities that petroleum revenues may afford us to improve the livelihoods of the Cambodian people," Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told the gathering. "The translation of the capital value of oil reserves into the stored capital value of our people through improved health and social conditions and education is very important for the long term prosperity of Cambodia."
"While some technical people in the government are concerned that the Nigerian experience is not copied in Cambodia it is unclear how high up this goes," said Barisoth.
"The concerns are valid," agreed Scheuer. "It is still too early to make a judgement and we are cautiously optimistic that they will get it right," he says of the government’s efforts.
The threat of corruption is not the only factor bearing on Cambodia’s efforts. "It is extremely difficult for a country like Cambodia, with its capacity, to develop a petro industry because everything is so complicated," said Scheuer.
The appropriate contractual arrangements and tax regimes are just two of the complex issues the country faces. Other countries, including developed countries, have encountered unexpected economic difficulties in developing their resource wealth, often dubbed ‘Dutch Disease’.
This refers to the problems associated with dumping large amounts of resource revenue into an economy and the distorting impact this has on other sectors such as agriculture. It originated in the Netherlands after the rapid flow of funds from the discovery of North Sea gas led to significant structural changes, including price increases and the de-industrialisation of many sectors of the economy.
The key message from the conference earlier this year was that Cambodia should take time to develop the industry and get the policy fundamentals right.
"In Norway it was ten years from the first drilling to first revenue coming on stream. Their advice is not to rush it," said Scheuer. "The main point now is to get the governance and policy frameworks right. If they get it right with Block A it will flow onto the other blocks."
The other idea being suggested by donors and experts with experience in the sector is for Cambodia to set up a fund to store revenue from oil and invested appropriately. Similar funds already exist in Norway and East Timor.
"We need to learn more about this fund but in general we would support a transparent process for the resource revenue," said Sam Ath from NGO Forum. He is one of two Cambodian NGO people who are closely studying East Timor to look at how the fledgling state is handling its revenue from natural gas.
Timor was selected from among several countries because of its similarities to Cambodia. "It is very important to build capacity and learn from them how civil society can engage with the government over the distribution of natural resources," said Sam Ath. "NGOs are open and happy to work with the government. We are not working to oppose them but to help them make the most effective use of the revenue from oil and gas."
NGOs and donors are also keen that Phnom Penh sign up to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative supported by a coalition of governments, companies and civil society organisations aimed at ensuring companies disclose what they pay and governments what they receive.
By Andrew Nette
http://www.ipsnews.net
In addition to significant oil reserves off Cambodia’s coast, there are major deposits of natural gas, as well as minerals such as gold, copper and bauxite, mainly in the northeast of the country.
"The risk of a resource curse is there," said Jo Scheuer, country director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in an IPS interview. "Included in this is the issue of corruption and funds disappearing."
At the same time Scheuer is keen to stress that Cambodia "has a great opportunity to avoid mistakes that have been made in other countries,’’ and translate the benefits to all Cambodians to ‘’create a resource blessing’’.
"The government says it is a little early to start to talk about revenue because the resources are still underground," said Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of NGO Forum in Phnom Penh. "We think it is important for us to be prepared for the new situation and challenges."
NGO Forum is one of a number of local organisations behind a new coalition, yet to be formally launched, that wants to ensure the potential financial benefits from the country’s resource windfall are managed in a socially responsible manner.
The Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index ranked Cambodia 162 out of 179 countries, making it the most corrupt country in Asia after Burma and among the worst globally.
"I think the concern is the past experience," continued Sam Ath. "A lot of natural resources have been extracted often under concessions, but the revenue that has gone into the budget has been less than expected."
"It is generally accepted that poor governance, lack of transparency and corruption are serious problems for Cambodia," said Sek Barisoth, director of the Mainstreaming Anti-Corruption for Equity Programme with PACT Cambodia, another supporter of the emerging coalition.
While observers say the Cambodian Government is verbally committed to the fight against corruption, there has been little action. A proposed anti-corruption law, developed in early 2005 with technical assistance from PACT, remains in draft form. It would establish an independent anti-corruption commission and provide a better legal definition of corruption.
Oil is the current focus of the resource boom, with exploration well underway in the waters off Cambodia’s cost to determine the extent of the country’s reserves.
How much oil is there? "We do not know," said UNDP’s Scheuer. "The standard answer is that no one has done any work on exactly how much oil and gas there is."
Two years ago, U.S. oil giant Chevron, the lead partner in Block A, where exploration has gone the furthest, announced "significant" oil and gas reserves. Scheuer said the company is expected to announce the results of its exploration sometime after Cambodia’s July national election.
With the price of a barrel of crude currently hovering around 130 US dollars and some analysts expecting it to reach 200 dollars by the end of the year, the financial gains for Cambodia are significant.
"It is a potentially huge windfall for a country if invested wisely in the long-term development objectives such as health, education and expanding the labour market," said Scheuer. His organisation has been one of the key donors working to help the Cambodian government deal with the threats and opportunities presented by the oil boom.
It is collaborating with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority to build its capacity, and earlier this year cooperated with the government to organise a major international conference on oil and gas.
"It is not necessarily a blessing for a country to be endowed with petroleum resources," Arne Walther, a Norwegian diplomat said at the conference. Norway, one of the poorest countries in Europe until the discovery of oil and gas off their coast in the mid-sixties, is cited by many as a success story in terms of how to handle the issues raised by an influx of petro dollars.
"It is how governments arrange for their resources to be extracted and how revenues earned are used that determine the success or failure of being a petroleum endowed state," Walther said. "I believe Cambodia faces a challenging task in planning and developing its petroleum sector and developing policy and instruments for channelling the future oil and gas revenues in a best possible way for the benefit of Cambodians. It is actually a momentous task."
"We realise the opportunities that petroleum revenues may afford us to improve the livelihoods of the Cambodian people," Deputy Prime Minister Sok An told the gathering. "The translation of the capital value of oil reserves into the stored capital value of our people through improved health and social conditions and education is very important for the long term prosperity of Cambodia."
"While some technical people in the government are concerned that the Nigerian experience is not copied in Cambodia it is unclear how high up this goes," said Barisoth.
"The concerns are valid," agreed Scheuer. "It is still too early to make a judgement and we are cautiously optimistic that they will get it right," he says of the government’s efforts.
The threat of corruption is not the only factor bearing on Cambodia’s efforts. "It is extremely difficult for a country like Cambodia, with its capacity, to develop a petro industry because everything is so complicated," said Scheuer.
The appropriate contractual arrangements and tax regimes are just two of the complex issues the country faces. Other countries, including developed countries, have encountered unexpected economic difficulties in developing their resource wealth, often dubbed ‘Dutch Disease’.
This refers to the problems associated with dumping large amounts of resource revenue into an economy and the distorting impact this has on other sectors such as agriculture. It originated in the Netherlands after the rapid flow of funds from the discovery of North Sea gas led to significant structural changes, including price increases and the de-industrialisation of many sectors of the economy.
The key message from the conference earlier this year was that Cambodia should take time to develop the industry and get the policy fundamentals right.
"In Norway it was ten years from the first drilling to first revenue coming on stream. Their advice is not to rush it," said Scheuer. "The main point now is to get the governance and policy frameworks right. If they get it right with Block A it will flow onto the other blocks."
The other idea being suggested by donors and experts with experience in the sector is for Cambodia to set up a fund to store revenue from oil and invested appropriately. Similar funds already exist in Norway and East Timor.
"We need to learn more about this fund but in general we would support a transparent process for the resource revenue," said Sam Ath from NGO Forum. He is one of two Cambodian NGO people who are closely studying East Timor to look at how the fledgling state is handling its revenue from natural gas.
Timor was selected from among several countries because of its similarities to Cambodia. "It is very important to build capacity and learn from them how civil society can engage with the government over the distribution of natural resources," said Sam Ath. "NGOs are open and happy to work with the government. We are not working to oppose them but to help them make the most effective use of the revenue from oil and gas."
NGOs and donors are also keen that Phnom Penh sign up to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative supported by a coalition of governments, companies and civil society organisations aimed at ensuring companies disclose what they pay and governments what they receive.
By Andrew Nette
http://www.ipsnews.net
Ban promises UN probe of sex abuse by peacekeepers
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday the United Nations will investigate allegations by a leading children's charity that U.N. peacekeepers are involved in widespread sexual abuse of children.
The report by Save the Children UK, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers and international relief workers against children as young as 6.
It said some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.
"The report shows sexual abuse has been widely underreported because children are afraid to come forward," Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, told Associated Press Television News.
"A tiny proportion of peacekeepers and aid workers are abusing the children they were sent to protect. It ranges from sex for food to coerced sex. It's despicable."
Calling the sexual exploitation of minors a "very serious issue," Ban reiterated to reporters that he has a "zero tolerance" policy for such acts by U.N. personnel.
"I think that the report is very valuable and does give us some good points to which the United Nations should continue to address this issue," Ban said. "On all these cases which have been raised, we will very carefully investigate" and will take "necessary measures" where appropriate.
Earlier, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas had welcomed the report. "It's fair, and I think it's essentially accurate," she said.
Abuses have been reported in peacekeeping missions ranging from Bosnia and Kosovo to Cambodia, East Timor, West Africa and Congo. The issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations found in early 2005 that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.
Several month later, Jordan's then U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid al Hussein, wrote a report that described the U.N. military arm as deeply flawed and recommended withholding salaries of the guilty and requiring nations to pursue legal action against perpetrators.
In response, the U.N. adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward sexual exploitation and abuse and a universal code of conduct. It requires training for all peacekeepers, but punishment for wrong-doers is left to individual countries.
Montas said the report states the United Nations has already undertaken steps designed to tackle the problem, from establishing conduct and discipline units in all U.N. missions to strengthening training for all categories of U.N. personnel. She said the United Nations also needs to strengthen its investigative capacity.
The study was based on research, confidential interviews and focus groups conducted last year. The charity emphasized it did not produce comprehensive statistics about the scale of abuse but did gather enough information to indicate the problem is severe.
The report said that more than half the children interviewed knew of cases of sexual abuse and that in many instances children knew of 10 or more such incidents carried out by aid workers or peacekeepers.
The Save the Children UK researchers, who met with 129 girls and 121 boys between the ages of 10 and 17, and also with a number of adults, found an "overwhelming" majority of the people interviewed would never report a case of abuse and had never heard of a case being reported.
The threat of retaliation, and the stigma attached to sex abuse, were powerful deterrents to coming forward, the report said.
Ann Buchanan, an Oxford University expert in statistical attempts to quantify rates of child abuse, said the topic is so taboo it is virtually impossible to come up with reliable numbers. But she said the new report provides a useful starting point.
"This will never be a statistical study," she said. "We'd call it a pilot work exploring the start of an issue. All the research shows kids don't make it up."
Buchanan, who directs the Oxford Center for Research into Parenting and Children, said the biggest obstacle to accurate numerical studies of child sexual abuse is the reluctance of children to come forward and tell adults they have been taken advantage of.
"Sexual abuse is a hugely difficult, sensitive area and it's not something that you can usually do surveys about because kids feel terrible shame and are afraid to say what's happened to them," she said. "Given what we know about underreporting of sex abuse, I would say this report is probably true. They've gone about it as sensitively as you can."
Save the Children spokesman Dominic Nutt said U.N. peacekeepers are involved in many abuse cases because they are present throughout the world in such large numbers. But he praised the United Nations for improving its reporting and investigative procedures regarding sex abuse.
"We're not singling out the U.N. In some ways they do a good job. It's all peacekeepers and all aid workers, including Save the Children," that are involved in sexual abuses, he said.
The report says several Save the Children workers were fired for having sex with 17-year-old girls in violation of agency guidelines.
In its report, Save the Children UK makes three key recommendations: establish a way for people to report abuse locally, create an international watchdog agency this year to deal with the problem, and set up a program to deal with the underlying causes of child abuse.
Tom Cargill, Africa program manager at the London think tank Chatham House, said there is no "magic bullet" that can solve the problem quickly.
"The governance of U.N. missions has always been a problem because soldiers from individual states are only beholden to those states," he said. "So it's difficult for the U.N. to pursue charges and difficult for the U.N. to investigate them."
By EDITH LEDERER
The Associated Presshttp://www.mlive.com
Rice Futures Drop to Two-Month Low on Increased Global Supplies
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Rice futures plunged for a third day to a two-month low as producers resumed exports, boosting global supplies, and a report showed improved crop conditions in the U.S., the world's fourth-biggest supplier.
The July contract on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped as much as 5.5 percent to $18.52 per 100 pounds, the lowest since March 24, after declining by the daily limit for the past two days. Cambodia lifted an export ban this week, and Vietnam said May 21 it will remove a ban on new overseas shipments in July.
The staple for half the world has lost as much as 26 percent since reaching a record last month, when it was buoyed by export curbs from China, Vietnam and India. Record prices for food, including wheat, corn and palm oil, have stoked concern about shortages and caused unrest from Haiti to Egypt.
``We will see more supplies in the coming months as producers in Southeast Asia harvest their crops,'' Kazuhiko Saito, strategist at Interes Capital Management Co. in Tokyo said today. ``Producers may try to sell as much as possible following record price levels.''
The July contract fell 74.5 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $18.855 per 100 pounds at 9:23 a.m. Singapore time, after declining by the daily limit of 75 cents yesterday. The price is still 78 percent higher than a year ago.
In the U.S., about 72 percent of the rice crop was in good or excellent condition, up from 65 percent a week earlier and 67 percent a year earlier, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday in a report. About 94 percent of the U.S. crop was seeded as of May 25, compared with 84 percent a week earlier and 97 percent at the same time in 2007, it said.
To contact the reporter for this story: Jae Hur in Singapore at jhur1@bloomberg.net
By Jae Hur
http://www.bloomberg.com
Cambodia's fuel subsidies to cost 300 mln USD in 2008
PHNOM PENH, May 28, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- -- With discontent growing over rampant inflation, the Cambodian government has claimed it will spent 300 million U.S. dollars on fuel subsidies in 2008, local media reported Wednesday.
"We are trying to control inflation which is a phenomenon that influences Cambodia from outside by subsidizing gasoline," Keat Chhon, Cambodian Minister of Economics and Finance, was quoted by the Mekong Times newspaper as saying.
Keat Chhon predicted the subsidies would cost the state 300 million U.S. dollars by year's end, the newspaper said.
The government still imposes the same tax on oil - 309 U.S. dollars per ton for gasoline and 267 U.S. dollars for diesel - despite the fact imported oil has currently increased price to over 1,000 U.S. dollars per ton, Keat Chhon said.
"Currently, we do not take tax freight and insurance even though the oil price is rising," he added.
The Cambodian government claimed last month it had spent 29 million U.S. dollars on gasoline subsidies so far this year.
BY http://www.tradingmarkets.com
Rice tumbles as Cambodia lifts ban on exports
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Rice futures slumped by their daily limit of 50 cents for a second day on Tuesday after Cambodia, one of the world's top 10 rice exporters, said it will lift restrictions on exports.
Cambodia will resume rice exports Tuesday after a temporary two-month ban, the country's Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Monday, according to the Associated Press. Rice futures trading on the Chicago Board of Trade tumbled 50 cents to below $20 per 100 pounds.
Futures prices also slumped by 50 cents on Friday. Trading was closed on Monday in observation of Memorial Day.
Cambodia's move, however, may have a limited effect on the long-term world rice market, according to a U.N. rice expert, because the ban had already been somewhat lifted.
Cambodia has limited milling facilities, said Concepcion Calpe at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. The country has to export rice to two neighboring countries, Thailand and Vietnam, to get milled. Cambodian rice will then be re-exported from these two countries.
"They had lifted bans in a number of neighboring provinces along the boarder," said Calpe. Officially ending the ban will "make things a little easier, but there won't be much difference because rice has already been flowing through the boarder."
Export restrictions
Rice futures have almost doubled this year, touching a record high of $24.46 per 100 pounds in April, despite estimates that the world rice production is to hit a record high in the next crop season. The culprit is export restrictions among leading rice producers, analysts said.
India, the third largest exporter of the grain, banned the export of non-basmati rice in March. Commerce Secretary Gopal Pillai on Tuesday said that the country won't follow Cambodia and ease curbs on export restriction, Reuters reported.
India's "export restrictions spread to other suppliers and lead to urgent efforts by rice importing countries to secure supplies -- at any price -- in a thin global market," said Tom Slayton, an economist at Center for Global Development, a Washington-based nongovernmental organization, in a note.
Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter, reportedly may lift restrictions on rice exports in July. But the country lowered this year's export target to between 3.5 million and 4 million tons from last year's 4.5 million tons.
Other countries such as Argentina, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have also placed additional taxes or restrictions on exports of grains, rice and other products.
Export restrictions in some countries were driven by political reasons, Slayton said. India is facing a parliamentary election in May 2009 and "the government does not want to face further criticism."
To secure grain supplies, consuming countries have been encouraging imports by reducing or eliminating tariffs. Mexico on Sunday eliminated import tariffs on staples including corn, rice and wheat, according to Reuters. 
Moming Zhou is a MarketWatch reporter, based in San Francisco.
'India not considering easing rice export ban'
NEW DELHI: India is not considering relaxing its ban on exports of rice, Trade Secretary Gopal Pillai said on Tuesday, despite the promise of a bumper crop in 2008. India, like other Asian rice exporters, had in March banned exports of non-basmati rice after a series of earlier partial restrictions, in a bid to boost supplies contain inflation that is at 3-½ year highs.
It has since hinted that it may ship some rice to neighbours, while a local paper reported on Monday it was considering limited exports to some "strategically" important West African nations. On Monday, Cambodia lifted a ban on rice shipments it imposed two months ago, the first major Asian exporter to roll back such curbs.
by Reuters
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
It has since hinted that it may ship some rice to neighbours, while a local paper reported on Monday it was considering limited exports to some "strategically" important West African nations. On Monday, Cambodia lifted a ban on rice shipments it imposed two months ago, the first major Asian exporter to roll back such curbs.
by Reuters
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
11 parties finally approved to join parliamentary election of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The National Election Committee (NEC) of Cambodia confirmed that 11 out of the 12 political parties applying to join the general election on July 27 are eligible to vie for seats at the National Assembly, said a press release received Wednesday.
NEC made the ultimate decision, after the Constitutional Council inspected and rejected the application of the Khmer Popular Society Party, said the committee in its release.
Earlier last week, NEC preliminarily denied the party's application and sent its document to the council for further inspection.
The approved participants included the major ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the co-ruling Funcinpec Party, the royalist Norodom Ranariddh Party, as well as the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and Human Rights Party.
During the previous general election in 2003, 23 political parties vied with each other for the 123 seats in the Cambodian National Assembly. In that year, CPP led by Prime Minister Hun Senwon 73 seats, Funcinpec 26 seats, and SRP 24 seats.
by Editor: An Lu
http://news.xinhuanet.com
Rice falls to daily limit for 2nd time
Rice futures tumbled by their daily limit for the second session as producers eased export bans, alleviating concerns that global supplies will fail to meet demand.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that an export ban has been lifted, Chan Tong Yves, deputy head of the farm ministry, said yesterday by phone from Phnom Penh. Vietnam and India said earlier this month they may ease export curbs.
The staple for half the world, which reached a record $25.07 on the Chicago Board of Trade on April 24, slumped as much 50 cents. The record prices for food, including palm oil and wheat, have stoked concern about shortages and caused riots from Haiti to Egypt.
"The Cambodian news has damped market sentiment," Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst with Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co, said by phone yesterday. "With major producers in Southeast Asia braced for harvesting bumper crops in the next couple of months, the global market sees more supplies."
Rough rice for July delivery fell as much as 2.5 percent to $19.85 per 100 pounds, and traded at that level at 3:27 pm Singapore time. The price is still 88 percent higher than a year ago. The Chicago market, which fell 50 cents on May 23, was closed on Monday for a public holiday.
Cambodia would produce 6.8 million metric tons of unmilled rice this year after sufficient rains, compared with 6.7 million tons last year, the farm ministry's Chan Tong said.
The country has more than 1 million tons of rice available for sale overseas, the Financial Times said yesterday, citing the Cambodian premier. The ban on exports was put in place in March, the report said.
Global forecast
Global output of milled rice in 2008 will be 445.3 million tons, up 2.3 percent from last year's record 435.2 million tons, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on May 22. Consumption will rise 2.4 percent, the agency said.
The Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, has failed this year, to fill state tenders for the grain, driving prices higher last month. The country imports about 2 million tons a year to plug a supply deficit.
A Philippine food company was the sole buyer today at a rice tender for private companies in Manila, the National Food Authority said. Uni-Agro Native Products Inc was seeking 500 tons out of the total 141,440 tons of tariff-free imports on offer, Assistant Administrator Conrad Ibanez told reporters.
Source:China Daily/Agencies
http://english.people.com.cn
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that an export ban has been lifted, Chan Tong Yves, deputy head of the farm ministry, said yesterday by phone from Phnom Penh. Vietnam and India said earlier this month they may ease export curbs.
The staple for half the world, which reached a record $25.07 on the Chicago Board of Trade on April 24, slumped as much 50 cents. The record prices for food, including palm oil and wheat, have stoked concern about shortages and caused riots from Haiti to Egypt.
"The Cambodian news has damped market sentiment," Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst with Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co, said by phone yesterday. "With major producers in Southeast Asia braced for harvesting bumper crops in the next couple of months, the global market sees more supplies."
Rough rice for July delivery fell as much as 2.5 percent to $19.85 per 100 pounds, and traded at that level at 3:27 pm Singapore time. The price is still 88 percent higher than a year ago. The Chicago market, which fell 50 cents on May 23, was closed on Monday for a public holiday.
Cambodia would produce 6.8 million metric tons of unmilled rice this year after sufficient rains, compared with 6.7 million tons last year, the farm ministry's Chan Tong said.
The country has more than 1 million tons of rice available for sale overseas, the Financial Times said yesterday, citing the Cambodian premier. The ban on exports was put in place in March, the report said.
Global forecast
Global output of milled rice in 2008 will be 445.3 million tons, up 2.3 percent from last year's record 435.2 million tons, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on May 22. Consumption will rise 2.4 percent, the agency said.
The Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, has failed this year, to fill state tenders for the grain, driving prices higher last month. The country imports about 2 million tons a year to plug a supply deficit.
A Philippine food company was the sole buyer today at a rice tender for private companies in Manila, the National Food Authority said. Uni-Agro Native Products Inc was seeking 500 tons out of the total 141,440 tons of tariff-free imports on offer, Assistant Administrator Conrad Ibanez told reporters.
Source:China Daily/Agencies
http://english.people.com.cn
SMEs need access to world market data
Local small and medium-sized enterprises need better access to information on changes in international trade regulations if they are to prosper, according to local experts.
Nitinant Wisaweisuan, an economist at Thammasat University, said small firms would face increased difficulties coping with changing trade-related standards such as health and environmental regulations in Europe.
Local companies already face many non-tariff trade barriers, such as hygiene requirements for poultry products or rules on chemicals and waste management in industrial products.
''Local electrical appliance producers are faced with tough requirements on chemical and electrical waste management. Furniture producers have been told to switch to 'E zero' glue that must be imported from Germany from the 'E20' currently used,'' Assoc Prof Nitinant said at an economics conference yesterday.
''Such measures will keep evolving as people become more conscious of health and environmental issues.''
Western importers were more likely to switch suppliers to, say, Thailand or the Philippines if shortcomings are found in products produced elsewhere, such as China, she said. ''In such an environment, large firms will be able to adjust, but smaller firms may not.''
She said such regulations would not pose a problem so long as producers had the information available to make adjustments.
Databases are also important for local companies looking to invest abroad, as they need to be prepared to comply with foreign tax, labour and other regulations.Sorachon Boonsong, a partner with the law firm Baker & McKenzie, agreed that local firms lacked access to information on the rules and laws of other countries.
Meanwhile, Thailand's relatively high corporate tax, complicated state licensing requirements and uncertainties regarding the Foreign Business Act were disadvantages for the country in the competition for foreign investment.
''For instance, if a foreign investor wants to open a new hotel, he will have to do a lot of paperwork to secure permission from the government, such as construction permits, liquor sales permits, as well as the need to comply with cultural issues,'' Mr Sorachon said.
He said that Thai antitrust law, enacted seven years ago to prevent small companies from being at a disadvantage to larger companies, was toothless because of the lack of supporting legislation.
''If local firms want to invest abroad, they need to comply with antitrust law in all those countries. Thai law is backward in this sense,'' Mr Sorachon said.
Even access to information for neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Laos was difficult for many Thai small firms, he said, let alone information about the European market.
by PARISTA YUTHAMANOP
http://www.bangkokpost.com
Plane crashes in southeast Cambodia - official
PHNOM PENH, May 27 (Reuters) - An airplane has crashed in the remote province of Kampot in southeast Cambodia, a local military commander said on Tuesday.
"I can confirm there was a foreign plane that crashed in Cambodia in the province of Kampot this morning. We don't have any details," deputy Kampot military commander Kung Mony told Reuters.
Villagers in one district told Reuters they had heard a loud explosion. Soldiers and police were searching the area.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Sanjeev Miglani)
by http://www.reuters.com
"I can confirm there was a foreign plane that crashed in Cambodia in the province of Kampot this morning. We don't have any details," deputy Kampot military commander Kung Mony told Reuters.
Villagers in one district told Reuters they had heard a loud explosion. Soldiers and police were searching the area.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Sanjeev Miglani)
by http://www.reuters.com
UPDATE 1-U.S. corn, wheat futures fall as oil prices retreat
SEOUL, May 28 (Reuters) - U.S. grain futures, led by soybean and wheat, extended overnight losses to fall more than 1 percent in early Asian trading on Wednesday as a retreat in crude oil prices dampened demand for grains used to make biofuels.
A firmer U.S. dollar also weakened sentiment for the commodities, which are used by many large institutional investors to hedge against a weaker U.S. currency and inflation risk.
July corn futures
Soybean futures were slightly lower, supported by supply concerns, as farmers in Argentina, one of the world's major soy exporters, announced their third strike in over two months against higher taxes on grain exports.
After the U.S. markets were closed, Argentine farmers said they would halt grains exports until June 2 to protest a sliding-scale export tax. [ID:nN27314388]
July soybean futures
U.S. oil prices
CBOT July rice futures tumbled to two-month lows on signs that global rice supplies were likely improve and expectations that Vietnam would lift export curbs from July to follow Cambodia, which decided on Monday to lift a two-month rice export. [ID:nHAN11484]
July rice futures
Opinion: A hungry world tests skills of peacemakers
The food price crisis is threatening to plunge millions back into poverty and if not handled properly can blow out of proportion and spark global problems affecting economic growth and political security, writes MICHAEL VATIKIOTIS.
So what happens when people are driven to kill one another for food? It's a critical question to ask as the world faces a sudden and unexpected food price crisis that is threatening to plunge millions back into poverty.
The sharp spike in food prices this year has already generated violence. Food riots in parts of Africa and the Caribbean have created social and political instability. In rice-growing countries like India, Vietnam and Thailand hoarding has begun, with export bans already in place creating inter-state friction. Myanmar's rice-growing capacity has been devastated by cyclone Nargis, which will add to price pressures in the coming months.
This is largely a crisis born of inflation and other market factors, rather than fundamental shortages. Prices for the benchmark Thai variety of rice, a food staple across much of Asia, have increased threefold in a year, reports the Asian Development Bank. Meat prices have risen by 60 per cent in Bangladesh in the year ending in March, and by 45 per cent in Cambodia and 30 per cent in the Philippines. With this sharp increase in the price of basic staples people are already hoarding, stealing and fighting over scarce supplies. The World Food Programme calls it a "Silent Tsunami".
Hunger causes conflict when people feel they have nothing to lose and are willing to kill their neighbours over scarce resources. The peasant wars of the late 20th century in Central and South America and the wars that sprung from famine in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan are grim reminders of man's most basic instinct, which is to fight to survive.
The trouble is that in terms of resolving conflict, we have come to rely less on material remedies and more on political artifice. Many of the internal conflicts that have been peacefully resolved in recent years only superficially addressed the material seeds of conflict. Peace agreements have been elite affairs where leaders of armed groups and governments reached an understanding on how to share power within a common state.
This approach is a sensible first step toward conflict resolution: by convincing those inciting violence to lay down their arms, it becomes possible to start designing a wider range of policies addressing socio-economic issues. However, typically, the socio-economic changes and the economic reconstruction and development the public was expecting trickled down slowly, if at all. Aceh remains one of the poorest parts of Indonesia, as does Mindanao in the southern Philippines -- two areas of Southeast Asia where peace has been negotiated.
When hunger drives people into conflict, we might presume that peacemaking will simply be a question of providing food. We would be mistaken. In fact, the experience of humanitarian aid agencies in the 1970s and 80s in Africa was that food aid tends to fuel conflict as the combatants seek to harness the supply of nutrition to the goals of war.
Experts tell us that farmers will eventually adjust the supply of food to cope with higher demand so that prices stabilise. More encouragingly, there are signs that decades of improving co-operation between states is stimulating a collective urge to resolve the crisis. The sharing of technology is key says former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan. He believes that farmers in Africa could double food output in five to 10 years if rich countries partner them in a "Green Revolution" for a long-term solution to the continent's food crisis.
But realistically, trade agreements and technological advances are slow-moving transformations. In the meantime, officials in India warn that the food price crisis could plunge millions of people into poverty in a country that is already battling an internal Marxist insurgency that draws support from impoverished and landless peasants. In Bangladesh, where the soaring cost of staples has forced the marginally poor to give up meat and rice, there is a significantly increased risk of conflict in an already fractured polity.
The immediate challenge, therefore, is to prevent and resolve conflict arising from the food crisis. This places a significant burden on the international community to swiftly respond to outbreaks of violence. But if people driven to war by hunger are less inclined to compromise this makes the task of peacemaking rather more challenging.
For one thing, conflict fuelled by hunger will be more widespread, exerting strain on international agencies involved in peacekeeping and humanitarian work. Food security is already fragile in many African countries and protracted conflict tends to drift across borders, as we have seen in Sudan and Congo.
Peacemakers need to be more aware of the socio-economic roots of conflict. They should incorporate in peace agreements remedies for the population's grievances and to enlist the international community's support behind their implementation. Such remedies should include pledges by leaders to address in a meaningful manner contentious issues such as land distribution, job creation, and racial and ethnic discrimination leading to socioeconomic inequality.
The ethnic and religious wars of the last half of the 20th century have perhaps lulled us into a false sense of security. We have grown accustomed to resolving conflict by forging political accommodation and compromise in situations where protagonists had much to lose materially if they kept on fighting.
But in a world where environmental and market pressures can triple the price of staple commodities in the matter of a few months, it is harder to find the grounds for compromise. This calls for more effective negotiating skills both domestically and internationally, bilaterally as well as multilaterally, to resolve these crises. Markets must be kept open to assist with the flow of goods to crisis situations, and in affected countries solutions must be found that address both elite and popular grievances.
The writer is Asia regional director for the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
by http://www.nst.com.my
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