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
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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
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