Cambodian Histories
Jan 8, 2010 |
Cambodia-Kingdom Of Wonder Cambodian Angkor TourA Short Cambodian HistoriesFUNAN The first civilization of Cambodia existed from the 1st to 6th century in a State referred to as Funan.
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 | It was the oldest Indianized state in Southeast Asia, and from this period Cambodia’s first writing language Sanskrit began. Influenced by Indian cultures, Funan accepted Hinduism, which was latter converted to Budddhism. What makes Cambodians different from its neighbors is due to the fact that Cambodians wear scarves, called Kramas, rather than straw hats, |
ANGKOR From 9th to 13th century Angkor period existed. The period began with King Jayavarman II taking the throne in 802. At its peak, Angkor Empire extended from the border of modern day Burma east to the South China Sea and north to Laos of great kings who built famous temples were King Suryavarman II who built the world’s renowned Angkor Wat, whereas King Jayavarman II successfully made agressive construction of most of largest temples of Angkor, particularly Great City known as Angkor Thom. Not only the temples were the success of those Angkor Kings. This enabled rice cultivation for 3 times a year, ealthy empire. As Angkor period ended, the city moved to Phnom and that Angkor Wat was wPenh , Longvek, then to Oudong and finally to the present day capital of Phnom Penh. The hall of angkor marked the collapse of Cambodia Empire, which resulted in invasion and ransacks by its neighbors including the Thais and Vietnamese from the 15th to 17th centuries. This was mainly to conflict by royal courts. The post Angkor era also brought about a rapid expansion of Theravada Buddhism. |
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PRESENT DAY In 1863, Cambodia agreed to protection from France that ruled Cambodia for nearly 90 years. Like other colonial countries, France introduced modern Western government structure, education, courts and architectural styles on its land,thus one can see to day many colonial buildings remain. |
 | In 1945, the Japanese briefly ousted the French protectorate. After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the French returned and ruled until 1953 when Cambodia gained full independence. King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated the throne to his father and led political party to unite the country from 1950 to 1960. |
In 1970, Vietnamese war spilled over into Cambodia, and King Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown by General Lon Nol. Lon Nol government was defeated by Khmer Rouges in 1975, |
 | Then Cambodia embarked a dark period for more than 3 years. During in the Khmer Rouges time, the country’s entire infrastructure was completely destroyed. No region, no money, no education, no school and so on that the historical wheel turned to year zero. In 1979, the Khmer Rouges was toppled by Vietnamese backed movement. |
| People’s republic of Kampuchea which administered the country against the Khmer Rouges was then ousted to northern jungles. |
 | In 1991, Paris Peace Accords was signed, which then brought United Nations to temporarily administered and organized a free and fair elections in 1993 a here by internationally recognized Cambodia government headed by two prime minister were created. Monarchy has also been reinstated and King Norodom Sihanouk is a lead of State. |
This was by no means putting an end to Cambodia civil war. In 1997 fighting between ruling political parties took place in the capital of Phnom Penh until cease fire was agreed to and next national elections administered by Cambodians themselves were conducted in May, 1998. |
After creation of new coalition government headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, and with establishment of House of Senates in addition to the lower law making institution the National Assembly, Cambodia has experienced stability in terms of politics and economics. This allows Asean to accept Cambodia as its member. Being part of regional groupings, Cambodia needs to look forward to attracting investments from the region and elsewhere |
Cambodia Confronts the "G" Word
The horrors of the Khmer Rouge's rule may be in the past, but the question of whether its crimes amounted to genocide lingers on.
JANUARY 8, 2010
BY BRENDAN BRADY
Foreign Policy
The Khmer Rouge liked to say, "When pulling out weeds, remove the roots and all." Fulfilling this dogma, the ultra-Maoist regime killed the babies of supposed traitors of the revolution and "smashed" -- its euphemism for executed -- pregnant women carrying the children of men whose loyalty was in question. The term genocide is often used reflexively to describe the Khmer Rouge's rule of terror that led to the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians from overwork, starvation, and murder from 1975 to 1979. It was not, however, one of the charges former Khmer Rouge leaders had faced in the three-year-old U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal. This is changing, though, and the new move is controversial.
The hybrid Cambodian-U.N. tribunal has been trying five former top regime officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its first trial, of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the warden of a prison code-named S-21, where an estimated 15,000 prisoners deemed enemies of the revolution were tortured before being executed in the nearby "killing fields," concluded in November. A verdict is expected in March. Last month, the tribunal added genocide as a charge against the four remaining defendants for their alleged role in the slaughter of ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims in Cambodia. The charges need to be finalized in the court's closing order, but it is widely thought that they will all be included in the formal charges against the defendants.
Duch admitted to his role in overseeing the S-21 prison. But the regime's chief ideologue, Nuon Chea (known as "Brother No. 2"), former President Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, and his wife and social affairs minister, Ieng Thirith, have all denied culpability for the charges they face. By all reliable accounts, however, they were the chief architects of the regime's catastrophic experiment to forge an agrarian utopia by methods that included forcing the population onto rural collectives; abolishing money, schools, and religion; and exterminating perceived enemies of the revolution.
In 1999, U.N. experts concluded that the Khmer Rouge should face charges for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. They said there was strong evidence -- including Khmer Rouge statements, eyewitness accounts, and the nature and number of victims of each group -- pointing to genocide against the Cham and Vietnamese as ethnic groups and against the Buddhist monkhood as a religious group.
In light of the denial and obfuscation of the former regime's leadership, the court's role in clarifying the historical record is now especially important. "That is part of the healing process," says David Scheffer, a former U.S. war crimes ambassador, "to confront these charges head-on inside the courtroom rather than see them abandoned forever." It was for this purpose of direct confrontation that the tribunal included an innovative "civil party" system allowing victims into the courtroom to air grievances and question the defendants.
Many advocates of minority rights applaud the addition of genocide charges as a way for these groups to reaffirm their rights in Cambodian society. Lyma Nguyen, a lawyer representing a group of 17 ethnic Vietnamese survivors, says the genocide charge would allow her clients to formally pursue the truth about why they were targeted and, in the process, "reconstitute their identity." Lawyer Lor Chunthy said the more than 200 Cham Muslim civil parties he represents are still consolidating their place in Cambodian society. "There is still discrimination against the Cham, so this sends an important message that Muslims in Cambodia are part of the country," he notes. Both lawyers said the groups they represent unequivocally think they were singled out because of their ethnic or religious identity.
Cambodian advocates of the charge also say it carries enormous symbolic weight that will help the tribunal receive local support. "The addition of genocide charges reflects what the millions of Cambodians who survived have wanted since 1979," says court spokesman Reach Sambath. The charge resonates with all Cambodians, he says, because, according to their understanding of the term, it best describes the crimes inflicted upon them. The Khmer term for genocide is pralaay puch sah, as it approximately sounds transliterated from Khmer, and literally means to "destroy from the root" or "kill the seed of the race." Given the Khmer Rouge's maniacal obsession with cleansing society of unwanted elements, it is not hard to see why Cambodians frequently use this particular expression to describe the regime's policies.
But genocide, in an international court, has a strict definition and is notoriously hard to prove. There is little doubt the Khmer Rouge led a campaign to wipe out groups it considered incompatible with the revolution. The question is whether the groups were targeted first and foremost because of their ethnic or religious identities, or because they represented perceived political and economic enemies of the state -- categories that fall outside the crime's definition. The fact that certain ethnic or religious groups suffered disproportionately and sustained severe repression of their practices does not necessarily constitute genocide.
This point is still vigorously debated among academics who study this bloody era in Cambodia's history. "They weren't mowed down because they were Cham. They were mowed down because they resisted and anyone who resisted during that time was killed," says David Chandler, a scholar on the Khmer Rouge and the author of A History of Cambodia. "They were forced to eat pork because they were Cham -- but that's not genocide."
Some observers fear that the genocide charge is being wielded by international powers for political gain. Philip Short, author of Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, a biography of the now deceased Khmer Rouge leader, argues that the term genocide has been bandied around by foreign powers as a "political commodity." Short says that the U.S. government, whose war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s is often believed to have contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, has pushed for genocide to be applied to the regime so it can condemn the crimes and assume a moral high ground, while distancing itself from the circumstances that lead to the horror and terror.
"The Jews were killed in Germany because they were Jews. Not because of any resistance to the Nazis, but because they were considered detritus or scum. In Rwanda, the Hutus killed Tutsis simply because of their racial type," Short says. "But this wasn't the case in Cambodia. This regime was one of the greatest abominations of the 20th century. It's bad enough without now trying to [add] politically motivated charges."
The court's coinciding request for an additional $93 million from donor countries to finance the court over the next two years has also prompted murmurs that ulterior motives lie behind the new charge. "It smacks of a publicity stunt," says Michael Karnavas, the international defense lawyer for one of the accused, Ieng Sary. "It seems like this new charge is a way to show the importance of the tribunal and to help get funding." The court says there is no connection.
Piyamin Yusoh, an enlisted civil party with the tribunal, holds out hope that the genocide charges can draw attention to the persecution his people experienced during the Khmer Rouge's reign. He is the current Muslim leader, or hakim, of Svay Khleang village, the historical heart of Cambodia's minority Muslim community. It was here that the Cham staged a bloody, and unsuccessful, uprising after the Khmer Rouge carried out secret executions of their men. "I'm hoping the tribunal will acknowledge the particular suffering of the Muslim people," Yusoh told me in an interview I did for IRIN News. "We weren't allowed to practice our religion; we were forced to eat pork; our women couldn't wear hijabs. For us, this was humiliating. The Khmer Rouge wanted to annihilate all people who practiced Islam." The Khmer Rouge, he says, tried to "destroy us from the root," referring to what he perceived as genocidal intent.
But, as a participant in the tribunal, Yusoh is an exception -- many victims are unfamiliar with the tribunal and the legal classifications of the Khmer Rouge's crimes. A month before proceedings opened in the Duch trial last February, a survey showing that 85 percent of Cambodians had little or no knowledge of the tribunal was published by the University of California-Berkeley's Human Rights Center. That number would now certainly be lower following the publicity of the initial trial, but it nonetheless reflects the disparity between Cambodia's impoverished countryside and the highly technical legal machine in the capital, Phnom Penh.
For regular Cambodians, the tribunal's most important task may be delivering some sense of justice in the form of concrete results, rather than contributing to endless legal debates that could risk prolonging the process. "Scholars have been debating [whether the Khmer Rouge's crimes constituted genocide] for 20 years," says Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a custodian of primary documents on the Khmer Rouge. "For the victims, it meant watching someone take a piece of wood to the back of your husband's head. You can call it smash, crush, or whatever, but it was, most importantly, what people experienced."
That is how Ly Sarfyas, a 66-year-old woman in Svay Khleang, feels about the tribunal. "I would just like to kill them myself," Sarfyas, who was left without any family after the Khmer Rouge's rule, told me. "It's difficult to wait for the court, but it's what we are relying on."
JANUARY 8, 2010
BY BRENDAN BRADY
Foreign Policy
The Khmer Rouge liked to say, "When pulling out weeds, remove the roots and all." Fulfilling this dogma, the ultra-Maoist regime killed the babies of supposed traitors of the revolution and "smashed" -- its euphemism for executed -- pregnant women carrying the children of men whose loyalty was in question. The term genocide is often used reflexively to describe the Khmer Rouge's rule of terror that led to the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians from overwork, starvation, and murder from 1975 to 1979. It was not, however, one of the charges former Khmer Rouge leaders had faced in the three-year-old U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal. This is changing, though, and the new move is controversial.
The hybrid Cambodian-U.N. tribunal has been trying five former top regime officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its first trial, of Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the warden of a prison code-named S-21, where an estimated 15,000 prisoners deemed enemies of the revolution were tortured before being executed in the nearby "killing fields," concluded in November. A verdict is expected in March. Last month, the tribunal added genocide as a charge against the four remaining defendants for their alleged role in the slaughter of ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims in Cambodia. The charges need to be finalized in the court's closing order, but it is widely thought that they will all be included in the formal charges against the defendants.
Duch admitted to his role in overseeing the S-21 prison. But the regime's chief ideologue, Nuon Chea (known as "Brother No. 2"), former President Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, and his wife and social affairs minister, Ieng Thirith, have all denied culpability for the charges they face. By all reliable accounts, however, they were the chief architects of the regime's catastrophic experiment to forge an agrarian utopia by methods that included forcing the population onto rural collectives; abolishing money, schools, and religion; and exterminating perceived enemies of the revolution.
In 1999, U.N. experts concluded that the Khmer Rouge should face charges for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. They said there was strong evidence -- including Khmer Rouge statements, eyewitness accounts, and the nature and number of victims of each group -- pointing to genocide against the Cham and Vietnamese as ethnic groups and against the Buddhist monkhood as a religious group.
In light of the denial and obfuscation of the former regime's leadership, the court's role in clarifying the historical record is now especially important. "That is part of the healing process," says David Scheffer, a former U.S. war crimes ambassador, "to confront these charges head-on inside the courtroom rather than see them abandoned forever." It was for this purpose of direct confrontation that the tribunal included an innovative "civil party" system allowing victims into the courtroom to air grievances and question the defendants.
Many advocates of minority rights applaud the addition of genocide charges as a way for these groups to reaffirm their rights in Cambodian society. Lyma Nguyen, a lawyer representing a group of 17 ethnic Vietnamese survivors, says the genocide charge would allow her clients to formally pursue the truth about why they were targeted and, in the process, "reconstitute their identity." Lawyer Lor Chunthy said the more than 200 Cham Muslim civil parties he represents are still consolidating their place in Cambodian society. "There is still discrimination against the Cham, so this sends an important message that Muslims in Cambodia are part of the country," he notes. Both lawyers said the groups they represent unequivocally think they were singled out because of their ethnic or religious identity.
Cambodian advocates of the charge also say it carries enormous symbolic weight that will help the tribunal receive local support. "The addition of genocide charges reflects what the millions of Cambodians who survived have wanted since 1979," says court spokesman Reach Sambath. The charge resonates with all Cambodians, he says, because, according to their understanding of the term, it best describes the crimes inflicted upon them. The Khmer term for genocide is pralaay puch sah, as it approximately sounds transliterated from Khmer, and literally means to "destroy from the root" or "kill the seed of the race." Given the Khmer Rouge's maniacal obsession with cleansing society of unwanted elements, it is not hard to see why Cambodians frequently use this particular expression to describe the regime's policies.
But genocide, in an international court, has a strict definition and is notoriously hard to prove. There is little doubt the Khmer Rouge led a campaign to wipe out groups it considered incompatible with the revolution. The question is whether the groups were targeted first and foremost because of their ethnic or religious identities, or because they represented perceived political and economic enemies of the state -- categories that fall outside the crime's definition. The fact that certain ethnic or religious groups suffered disproportionately and sustained severe repression of their practices does not necessarily constitute genocide.
This point is still vigorously debated among academics who study this bloody era in Cambodia's history. "They weren't mowed down because they were Cham. They were mowed down because they resisted and anyone who resisted during that time was killed," says David Chandler, a scholar on the Khmer Rouge and the author of A History of Cambodia. "They were forced to eat pork because they were Cham -- but that's not genocide."
Some observers fear that the genocide charge is being wielded by international powers for political gain. Philip Short, author of Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, a biography of the now deceased Khmer Rouge leader, argues that the term genocide has been bandied around by foreign powers as a "political commodity." Short says that the U.S. government, whose war in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s is often believed to have contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, has pushed for genocide to be applied to the regime so it can condemn the crimes and assume a moral high ground, while distancing itself from the circumstances that lead to the horror and terror.
"The Jews were killed in Germany because they were Jews. Not because of any resistance to the Nazis, but because they were considered detritus or scum. In Rwanda, the Hutus killed Tutsis simply because of their racial type," Short says. "But this wasn't the case in Cambodia. This regime was one of the greatest abominations of the 20th century. It's bad enough without now trying to [add] politically motivated charges."
The court's coinciding request for an additional $93 million from donor countries to finance the court over the next two years has also prompted murmurs that ulterior motives lie behind the new charge. "It smacks of a publicity stunt," says Michael Karnavas, the international defense lawyer for one of the accused, Ieng Sary. "It seems like this new charge is a way to show the importance of the tribunal and to help get funding." The court says there is no connection.
Piyamin Yusoh, an enlisted civil party with the tribunal, holds out hope that the genocide charges can draw attention to the persecution his people experienced during the Khmer Rouge's reign. He is the current Muslim leader, or hakim, of Svay Khleang village, the historical heart of Cambodia's minority Muslim community. It was here that the Cham staged a bloody, and unsuccessful, uprising after the Khmer Rouge carried out secret executions of their men. "I'm hoping the tribunal will acknowledge the particular suffering of the Muslim people," Yusoh told me in an interview I did for IRIN News. "We weren't allowed to practice our religion; we were forced to eat pork; our women couldn't wear hijabs. For us, this was humiliating. The Khmer Rouge wanted to annihilate all people who practiced Islam." The Khmer Rouge, he says, tried to "destroy us from the root," referring to what he perceived as genocidal intent.
But, as a participant in the tribunal, Yusoh is an exception -- many victims are unfamiliar with the tribunal and the legal classifications of the Khmer Rouge's crimes. A month before proceedings opened in the Duch trial last February, a survey showing that 85 percent of Cambodians had little or no knowledge of the tribunal was published by the University of California-Berkeley's Human Rights Center. That number would now certainly be lower following the publicity of the initial trial, but it nonetheless reflects the disparity between Cambodia's impoverished countryside and the highly technical legal machine in the capital, Phnom Penh.
For regular Cambodians, the tribunal's most important task may be delivering some sense of justice in the form of concrete results, rather than contributing to endless legal debates that could risk prolonging the process. "Scholars have been debating [whether the Khmer Rouge's crimes constituted genocide] for 20 years," says Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a custodian of primary documents on the Khmer Rouge. "For the victims, it meant watching someone take a piece of wood to the back of your husband's head. You can call it smash, crush, or whatever, but it was, most importantly, what people experienced."
That is how Ly Sarfyas, a 66-year-old woman in Svay Khleang, feels about the tribunal. "I would just like to kill them myself," Sarfyas, who was left without any family after the Khmer Rouge's rule, told me. "It's difficult to wait for the court, but it's what we are relying on."
SRP petitions King to drop Rainsy case
Friday, 08 January 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
This is not a request for amnesty because Sam Rainsy has not been found guilty yet.THE opposition Sam Rainsy Party has been collecting thumbprints for a petition calling on King Norodom Sihamoni and the National Assembly to urge the dropping of a criminal complaint against Sam Rainsy, who faces charges of destroying public property and racial incitement in connection with an October border protest in Svay Rieng province, SRP lawmaker Ho Vann said Thursday.
Ho Vann said the petition had more than 200,000 thumbprints, and that it would also be sent to King Father Norodom Sihanouk. He said he did not know when the petition would be finalised.
King Norodom Sihamoni has the formal authority to grant pardons, though Ho Vann stressed that the petition was not a pardon request.
“This is not a request for amnesty because Sam Rainsy has not been found guilty yet,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that he would not ask the King to pardon Sam Rainsy if the Svay Rieng provincial court were to hand down a guilty verdict in his upcoming criminal trial.
The charges against Sam Rainsy stem from an October 25 incident in which he joined villagers in uprooting six wooden border markers in Svay Rieng close to the border with Vietnam, which they said were planted in their rice fields by Vietnamese authorities.
Senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap on Thursday dismissed the petition as irrelevant, saying that any decision to drop the criminal complaint would need to be made by the provincial court.
“If the court doesn’t agree to this, then the complaint will continue,” he said. “The National Assembly would not think to intervene because it is up to the court.”
Govt marks liberation from KR
Sokheng and Sebastian Strangio
Opinions again divided over Vietnam’s role in toppling the Pol Pot regime in 1979.
Photo by: Dc-CAM
The extraordinary events of January 7, 1979, are celebrated by people in Siem Reap in the early 1980s in this file photo.THOUSANDS turned out on Thursday morning for celebrations marking the 31st anniversary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime, reigniting an annual debate about the meaning and legacy of the event.
During an official ceremony at the headquarters of the Cambodian People’s Party, party chairman Chea Sim paid tribute to the Vietnamese offensive that led the overthrew of Pol Pot in 1979.
“We celebrate the 31st anniversary of the great victory on January 7, 1979, which saved our nation and people from the genocidal disaster caused by the regime of Democratic Kampuchea,” he said in an address.
“At the same time, Cambodia forever carves in its heart [the] invaluable services of the voluntary army and people of Vietnam, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, for their effective and timely mannered response to the call of the people of Cambodia.”
Chea Sim also took the opportunity to laud the achievements of the Vietnamese-backed People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) – the forerunner to the CPP regime of today – and castigate those local and international forces that opposed it during the civil war of the 1980s.
“All of their actions have failed one after the other in face of the national forces in great solidarity, with support and assistance provided by friends from near and far,” he added.
But the implications of January 7 and the ensuing civil war between the Phnom Penh government and resistance groups camped on the Thai border continue to cast a long shadow over Cambodian politics. Some critics maintain that the liberation from Pol Pot merely ushered in a new form of domination from communist Vietnam.
Photo by: Sovan Philong
Prime Minister Hun Sen and senior officials from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party release doves to mark the anniversary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.“Cambodian sovereignty has been transferred to Vietnam over the past 30 years,” said Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party. He said the party welcomed the fall of the Khmer Rouge, but that January 7 had brought with it a host of problems, including illegal Vietnamese immigration, political repression and the routine violation of Cambodian sovereignty.
Former resistance fighters, who opposed the PRK regime with international backing throughout the 1980s, agreed that the fall of the Khmer Rouge was no excuse for the problems that resulted from the Vietnamese presence.
“When we were in the jungle, we were against January 7. We were happy about the end of the Khmer Rouge, but our duty was to look to the future,” said Pol Ham, the former information minister of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, which opposed the PRK.
“The 7th of January brought the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, but the start of the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia.”
A day less divisive
Lu Laysreng, the deputy president of Funcinpec and a former resistance figure, proposed October 23, 1991 – the date of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords – as a more unifying national event.
“Some day, when democratic political parties are able to rule the country, we will have the ability to eliminate the January 7 [holiday] and replace it with October 23 … as an anniversary of reconciliation,” he said.
But others said that the overthrow of the “genocidal” Khmer Rouge – and preventing their return – justified the involvement of Vietnamese assistance and made January 7 a worthy celebration.
“In order to save the lives of Cambodian people [and prevent] the return of the Khmer Rouge regime, we needed Vietnamese soldiers to remain in the country to fight against the KR,” said Ros Chantraboth, a professor of political science and deputy director of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.
The country owed a debt of gratitude to the Vietnamese army and the National Front for the Salvation of Kampuchea, he said, referring to the resistance group established by Khmer Rouge defectors in Kratie province in December 1978.
But despite opposing the event in principle, Pol Ham added that both sides repeating the same statements year after year only detracted from the national challenges still remaining. “I don’t care about the celebration – if many people are happy about it I don’t mind,” he said. “We must look to the future of our country.… January 7 is history.”
Chea Sim warns KRT against 'ill intentions'
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A SENIOR government official has again warned the Khmer Rouge tribunal not to threaten national reconciliation and development, echoing earlier government concerns about additional prosecutions of former regime figures.
“We oppose any attempts to use the chamber for ill-intentions that would have an impact on peace, national reconciliation and development, which are our hard-won achievements,” said Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People’s Party.
Speaking at an official ceremony marking the anniversary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Chea Sim pledged the party’s continued backing for the court.
The CPP would support the tribunal “in trying crimes committed by senior leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea regime”, he said.
Chea Sim’s comments were an apparent reference to disagreements between the government and the UN-backed court over whether to proceed with more prosecutions of former regime figures.
In October, the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges also summoned six senior government officials to testify in the upcoming trial of four former regime leaders. None has so far expressed any willingness to appear before the court.
In response to Chea Sim’s comments, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said the court was independent and makes its decisions “independently in accordance with the law”.
“We do not seek approval or advice from lawmakers or people from the executive branch in our work,” he said.
read more “Chea Sim warns KRT against 'ill intentions'”
A SENIOR government official has again warned the Khmer Rouge tribunal not to threaten national reconciliation and development, echoing earlier government concerns about additional prosecutions of former regime figures.
“We oppose any attempts to use the chamber for ill-intentions that would have an impact on peace, national reconciliation and development, which are our hard-won achievements,” said Chea Sim, president of the Cambodian People’s Party.
Speaking at an official ceremony marking the anniversary of the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, Chea Sim pledged the party’s continued backing for the court.
The CPP would support the tribunal “in trying crimes committed by senior leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea regime”, he said.
Chea Sim’s comments were an apparent reference to disagreements between the government and the UN-backed court over whether to proceed with more prosecutions of former regime figures.
In October, the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges also summoned six senior government officials to testify in the upcoming trial of four former regime leaders. None has so far expressed any willingness to appear before the court.
In response to Chea Sim’s comments, tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said the court was independent and makes its decisions “independently in accordance with the law”.
“We do not seek approval or advice from lawmakers or people from the executive branch in our work,” he said.
KR Tribunal: Civil party increase for Case No 2
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KR Tribunal
The Khmer Rouge tribunal has so far approved 246 civil party applications for its second case, up from 93 for the case against Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, UN court spokesman Lars Olsen said Thursday. The tribunal had received 3,533 civil party applications along with 3,598 complaints as of the end of December. All applications are to be processed by the time co-investigating judges issue their closing order against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith. The deadline for applications is two weeks after the investigation in the case concludes, which is expected to happen next week, Olsen said.
read more “KR Tribunal: Civil party increase for Case No 2”
KR Tribunal
The Khmer Rouge tribunal has so far approved 246 civil party applications for its second case, up from 93 for the case against Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, UN court spokesman Lars Olsen said Thursday. The tribunal had received 3,533 civil party applications along with 3,598 complaints as of the end of December. All applications are to be processed by the time co-investigating judges issue their closing order against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith. The deadline for applications is two weeks after the investigation in the case concludes, which is expected to happen next week, Olsen said.
SRP petitions King to drop Rainsy case
Friday, 08 January 2010 15:03 Meas Sokchea
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THE opposition Sam Rainsy Party has been collecting thumbprints for a petition calling on King Norodom Sihamoni and the National Assembly to urge the dropping of a criminal complaint against Sam Rainsy, who faces charges of destroying public property and racial incitement in connection with an October border protest in Svay Rieng province, SRP lawmaker Ho Vann said Thursday.
Ho Vann said the petition had more than 200,000 thumbprints, and that it would also be sent to King Father Norodom Sihanouk. He said he did not know when the petition would be finalised.
read more “SRP petitions King to drop Rainsy case”
E-mail Print PDF
THE opposition Sam Rainsy Party has been collecting thumbprints for a petition calling on King Norodom Sihamoni and the National Assembly to urge the dropping of a criminal complaint against Sam Rainsy, who faces charges of destroying public property and racial incitement in connection with an October border protest in Svay Rieng province, SRP lawmaker Ho Vann said Thursday.
Ho Vann said the petition had more than 200,000 thumbprints, and that it would also be sent to King Father Norodom Sihanouk. He said he did not know when the petition would be finalised.
The Great Divide
First of all, thank you to KI Media for the reminder for us to be more civil and constructive in our postings. Of my periodical perusal of these comments, I am at once encouraged and dismayed. Encouraged, by the lively engagement which is a welcoming developing step of democracy; dismayed, by the quality of this engagement.The not-so-uplifting, not-so-constructive comments (regarding me or Madam Mu Sochua or Mr. Sam Rainsy, etc.) reminded me of a sermon I heard once, that the phrase "I don't like Mozart" says everything about the person making the utterance than anything about Mozart.
Of course, no one of us is claiming to be Mozart, and we know no one is perfect. And, God only knows how we all need humility (particularly as public voices with the unabashed goal to lift up society to a higher plane and quality of discourse and living) to heed constructive criticisms seriously. Dr. Mark Strom speaks of leadership requiring simultaneously humility and nobility which everyone of us can take heed.
The Great Divide, first published in May 2008 in The Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns, still has resonances for us today.
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The Great Divide:
Opportunity costs of living in year 1008 when in 2008
Opportunity costs of living in year 1008 when in 2008
Every time I ride through Oddar Meanchey from Samrong to Anlong Veng or cut through the hills and villages of Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri, Stung Treng or weave through rice paddies of Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Takeo, I am constantly taken aback by the changelessness and timelessness of the villages, lifestyles and mentality of my countrymen. It is as if I have been thrown back in lime to the dark ages or the year 1008; as if there is a great divide between my life in Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia: in Phnom Penh, I live in the year 2008; when I step outside of Phnom Penh, I am in the year 1008.
Historians have noted this frozen-in-time Cambodian setting; casual visitors (traditionally Westerners) have romanticized this timelessness as bucolic beauty to be preserved (of course, for the culture and traditions of the Cambodians, never for their enjoyment!). Rural Cambodia is one of the few places left where modem visitors can insert themselves into another millennium for a moment of their choosing in a manufactured manner, well-oiled with sunscreen and their Cafe Lattes in hand.
Without vs. within perspectives
The without perspective is beautiful and romantic because it is sanitized and temporary; running water, electricity to run the air conditioner, CNN and fresh sheets are awaiting us (be it in guesthouses, riverside apartments or suites at Le Royal) after our excursion from venturing into another millennium of 1008.
But what is it like to be trapped within the year 1008 while the rest of Phnom Penh and the world live in 2008? The within reality is often times Hobbesian - where there is "continual fear, and danger of violent death" and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". I am fortunate (or cursed!) to have the without and within perspectives, even if the within perspective of living in grinding poverty is now only a distant memory, but nonetheless still strong enough to know that I want to live in 2008 with the educational, health, material benefits and comfort that this affords. I can say with great certainty that my relatives in rural Svay Rieng, the villagers I met in Oddar Meanchey and elsewhere would also like the choice to live in the year 2008 with all its comforts and opportunities.
Opportunity cost
For me, the issue is best framed by asking, what are the opportunity costs of living in the year 1008 when in 2008? Well, let's first define "opportunity cost".
Scarcity of resources (including ideas!) underpins the basic concepts of economics. Scarcity requires trade-offs; trade-offs lead to an opportunity cost. While the cost of a good or service often is thought of in monetary terms, the opportunity cost of a decision (or idea!) is based on what must be given up (the next best alternative) as a result of the decision. Any decision that involves a choice between two or more alternatives has a sacrifice or opportunity cost.
An opportunity cost differs from an accounting cost in that accounting costs do not factor in foregone opportunities. Consider the case of an MBA student who pays US$5,000 per year in tuition and fees. For a two-year MBA program, the cost of tuition and fees would be US$10,000. This is the monetary (accounting) cost of the education.
However, in making the decision to return to school, a person is confronted with the opportunity cost of the income that the student would have earned from the alternative decision of remaining in a job. If the student had been earning US$20,000 a year, then US$40,000 in salary would be foregone as a result of the decision to return to school. This amount combined with the educational expenses results in the cost of US$50,000 for the degree.
Opportunity cost is useful when evaluating the costs and benefits of choices. It often is expressed in nonmonetary terms - the real cost of output foregone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility. It expresses the tension between scarcity and choice; it is the choice between desirable, yet mutually exclusive results. Stated differently, opportunity cost is expressed in relative price, the price of one choice relative to the price of another.
Back to the Great Millennial Divide
The concept of opportunity cost has a wide range of applications, including consumer choice, production possibilities, cost of capital, time management, career choice, analysis of comparative advantages. Here, I want to relate the application of opportunity costs to governance and public administration and management, and how poor governance and mismanagement - of government and civil society alike - contribute to the widening of the great millennial divide, whereby Cambodia lives simultaneously in the years 1008 and 2008, with the majority in a Hobbesian existence.
Every action has an opportunity cost. With one million dollars, Leader A builds 100,000 schools. With the same one million dollars, Leader B builds 1,000 schools of the same quality and size. What is the opportunity cost of poor leadership? 99,000 schools.
The opportunity costs of poor governance and mismanagement are the relegation of a people, of a nation to living in the year 1008, while the Phnom Penh elites and much of the rest of the world live in the year 2008 and use their knowledge and opportunities afforded by 2008 to exploit and suppress those limited by the opportunities and knowledge of 1008.
In sum, the opportunity costs of living in the year 1008 when in 2008 are education, health, culture, identity, dignity, grace and soulfulness foregone. The costs are lives and quality of life.
Theary C. SENG, former director of Center for Social Development (March 2006—July 2009), founded the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (www.cjr-cambodia.org) and is currently writing her second book, under a grant, amidst her speaking engagements.
Reds ready to rumble in Thailand
Jan 9, 2010
By Nelson Rand and Chandler Vandergrift
Asia Times (Hong Kong)
UDON THANI and BANGKOK - Thailand's United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) red-shirted protest movement is poised to launch a renewed campaign to topple Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's wobbly coalition government. The protests promise new rounds of instability after a period of relative political calm and threaten to derail the country's still tentative economic recovery.
The new push will commence on Monday with a planned rally of 10,000 protesters around a royal privy councilor's allegedly ill-gotten land in a provincial forest reserve and eventuate in what UDD leaders contend will be a "decisive" mass rally in Bangkok later in the month. The UDD's symbolic leader, exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, wrote in a Twitter message to his supporters on Friday that soothsayers he had consulted foresaw violence on the horizon in 2010.
Since last April, when the UDD stormed and disrupted an Asian summit meeting with global leaders in attendance in Pattaya and later fought running street battles with Thai security forces in the capital, Bangkok, the movement has undergone what its proponents claim has been a major transformation. The overhaul aims to establish a better-organized and more unified movement, in part to avoid freelancers acting independently, as UDD leaders claim occurred during April's mayhem in Bangkok, and also to bolster its support from the general population after losing popularity in the wake of that meltdown.
The changes have entailed a more organized leadership structure, a formalized membership system, a fundraising program, weekend training sessions in the provinces on democratic participation and a growing media network that includes 30 community radio stations, 10 newspapers, numerous websites and a television station that boasts 10 million regular viewers.
According to the UDD's international spokesman, Sean Boonpracong, the new leadership and organizational structure have been designed as a "big tent" in which regional red-shirted associate groups and others sympathetic to the movement's call for social justice are all accommodated under one unified UDD banner. While various groups' ideologies and strategies may differ, they are now purportedly united in a common struggle to topple the Democrat Party-led coalition, which many of them point out was not directly elected by the people.
The new structure, Boonpracong said, aimed to widen the UDD's support base while distancing the movement from the actions of certain associate groups, including the Rak Chiang Mai 51, a red-shirted group known for its thuggish actions, including the violent disruption of a gay-rights parade and alleged murder of a rival yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporter's father.
Although the UDD's main support base is drawn from the northeastern and northern region's rural poor, who benefited under the populist policies of Thaksin during his six-year premiership, certain factions are bidding to disassociate the movement's professed wider democratic aims from Thaksin's personal political agenda. Boonpracong, for one, claimed that the UDD was fast becoming a more independent grassroots political and social movement.
Certain academics and analysts agree. "They have tapped the sentiments of tens of millions of Thais, in both Bangkok and the provinces, and their message captures those Thais' aspirations to see a very different Thailand emerge," said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow and Thailand specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
The UDD's expanding media network now regularly spreads messages of democratic disenfranchisement, economic inequality and judicial discrimination, ills it believes a Thaksin-aligned government could resolve if allowed to govern. Critics note such claims conveniently overlook Thaksin's less than democratic record and his own alleged judicial interventions during his six controversial years in power.
"Our main message is that there is no justice - that there are more than two standards used," said Kwanchai Poipana, a UDD leader from Udon Thani who runs the pro-Thaksin community radio station 97.5 FM. "When the red-shirts do something we are always guilty, when the yellow-shirts do something they are never guilty," he said.
UDD supporters frequently point to the PAD's seizure of Bangkok's two airports in 2008 and the fact that the group's leaders have yet to be charged, while UDD leaders were arrested and detained after the military put down their violent April revolt. "Taking over an airport is a crime anywhere in the world," Kwanchai said.
As the UDD flexes its new organizational muscles, the specter of a violent rerun of April's mayhem looms. The UDD now has about 1,000 security guards, including a group of Bangkok-based Ramkhamhaeng University students trained by the UDD to maintain order and protect their protesters from outside attack, according to Boonpracong. It is also clearly bidding to create splits in military unity.
War and peace
At previous UDD rallies, uniformed paramilitary rangers, or thahan phran, have also acted as guards. Some of these soldiers are known to hail from Pak Thong Chai in central Nakorn Ratchasima province and have ties to controversial army specialist Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, known more commonly as Seh Daeng.
During the PAD protests of 2008, Seh Daeng accurately predicted bomb attacks against PAD security guards and trained dozens of youths in combat to counter the PAD. After a grenade was launched at the PAD's most recent rally in November, Seh Daeng said the attack was carried out by an "unidentified" armed group and that it was only intended as a deterrent, not as an attempt to cause violence.
He has consistently denied involvement in the various bomb attacks and no evidence has linked him directly to the blasts other than his timely warnings. In 2008, he was relegated to a military position promoting public fitness at marketplaces and is currently embroiled in numerous court battles for disciplinary violations, including an unauthorized trip to Cambodia in November to meet with Thaksin.
That trip was especially sensitive in light of unconfirmed reports of arms-smuggling from Cambodia to UDD supporters in bordering northeastern provinces - reports UDD leaders have denied. Nonetheless, they have fueled speculation that the UDD may be preparing for an armed struggle in the provinces if their next round of protests in Bangkok is violently suppressed by the armed forces. A high-ranking Thai military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would neither deny nor confirm the accuracy of such reports, saying, "It's a very porous border, it's easy to get things across."
While core UDD leaders deny they are planning armed struggle, international spokesman Boonpracong admits that radical elements may be emerging which "may not agree with the UDD's peaceful measures". After April's failed uprising, UDD co-leader Jakrapob Penkair, who has since fled into exile, told news agencies that the UDD was willing to launch an "armed struggle" to achieve its goals.
While the UDD prepares to ramp up its protests, Abhisit's government is holding firm, despite perceptions that his Democrat party-led coalition would - despite signs of economic recovery - still come up short in new elections against the Thaksin-aligned Puea Thai party. His government is expected to vigorously resist the protests, as it did last year through frequent invocations of the Internal Security Act, which gives authorities the power to deploy troops, ban gatherings and impose curfews in the name of law and order.
The military effectively suppressed April's UDD protest, but questions are emerging about possible cracks in the chain of command. While Thailand's military has long been factionalized along graduating class lines, it is now also believed to be divided among competing units, according to experts. The 21st Infantry Regiment of the Royal Armament, more commonly known as the Queen's Guard, is now perceived as the dominant unit and is led by its former commander, army commander in chief General Anupong Paochinda.
"The cause of the current fracture derives from an upset in the promotion line - denying certain senior military deemed to be close to Thaksin their right to be promoted," said Paul Chambers, a senior research fellow specializing in Thai military affairs at Heidelberg University. "The new phenomenon with regard to [Thai] military factions is that unit, rather than class, dominates the military," he added.
Anupong and his Queen's Guard clique, including Defense Minister Prawit Wongsawan and the deputy army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, are expected to maintain their backing for Abhisit and steer clear of another coup, according to analysts. This is in part to ensure a smooth succession at the army's top from Anupong to Prayuth when the former faces mandatory retirement in September 2010.
At the same time, the UDD is playing up the prospect that factions inside the military could break the chain of command if the UDD's rally is forcibly dispersed. "If the army starts to suppress us, there are factions of the military that will fight back," claimed one UDD leader who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If there is another coup, it will be violent."
As an indication of those fissures, the UDD points to the dozens of retired military officials, including more than 50 Thaksin classmates from the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School and special forces soldiers, who recently joined the Puea Thai party. "The moves by soldiers into Puea Thai [and other parties] can only further destabilize Thailand," said Chambers. Other analysts note that Anupong has strategically placed known loyalists in top command positions, including those who were instrumental in past coups.
While UDD leaders insist their campaign will be peaceful, they also indicate that their protest movement is near a breaking point over what they perceive as a series of non-democratic power grabs and partisan judicial decisions. "We fight through peaceful means," explained pro-UDD radio broadcaster Kwanchai, while suggestively placing a pistol on a nearby table. "But if the government uses force, we will fight back."
Nelson Rand is a Bangkok-based journalist with a master's degree in Asia-Pacific policy studies. He can be reached at nelsonrand@hotmail.com. Chandler Vandergrift is a consultant specializing in conflict analysis and management in Southeast Asia and is based in Bangkok. He can be reached at chandlerv@gmail.com
The new push will commence on Monday with a planned rally of 10,000 protesters around a royal privy councilor's allegedly ill-gotten land in a provincial forest reserve and eventuate in what UDD leaders contend will be a "decisive" mass rally in Bangkok later in the month. The UDD's symbolic leader, exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, wrote in a Twitter message to his supporters on Friday that soothsayers he had consulted foresaw violence on the horizon in 2010.
Since last April, when the UDD stormed and disrupted an Asian summit meeting with global leaders in attendance in Pattaya and later fought running street battles with Thai security forces in the capital, Bangkok, the movement has undergone what its proponents claim has been a major transformation. The overhaul aims to establish a better-organized and more unified movement, in part to avoid freelancers acting independently, as UDD leaders claim occurred during April's mayhem in Bangkok, and also to bolster its support from the general population after losing popularity in the wake of that meltdown.
The changes have entailed a more organized leadership structure, a formalized membership system, a fundraising program, weekend training sessions in the provinces on democratic participation and a growing media network that includes 30 community radio stations, 10 newspapers, numerous websites and a television station that boasts 10 million regular viewers.
According to the UDD's international spokesman, Sean Boonpracong, the new leadership and organizational structure have been designed as a "big tent" in which regional red-shirted associate groups and others sympathetic to the movement's call for social justice are all accommodated under one unified UDD banner. While various groups' ideologies and strategies may differ, they are now purportedly united in a common struggle to topple the Democrat Party-led coalition, which many of them point out was not directly elected by the people.
The new structure, Boonpracong said, aimed to widen the UDD's support base while distancing the movement from the actions of certain associate groups, including the Rak Chiang Mai 51, a red-shirted group known for its thuggish actions, including the violent disruption of a gay-rights parade and alleged murder of a rival yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporter's father.
Although the UDD's main support base is drawn from the northeastern and northern region's rural poor, who benefited under the populist policies of Thaksin during his six-year premiership, certain factions are bidding to disassociate the movement's professed wider democratic aims from Thaksin's personal political agenda. Boonpracong, for one, claimed that the UDD was fast becoming a more independent grassroots political and social movement.
Certain academics and analysts agree. "They have tapped the sentiments of tens of millions of Thais, in both Bangkok and the provinces, and their message captures those Thais' aspirations to see a very different Thailand emerge," said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow and Thailand specialist at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
The UDD's expanding media network now regularly spreads messages of democratic disenfranchisement, economic inequality and judicial discrimination, ills it believes a Thaksin-aligned government could resolve if allowed to govern. Critics note such claims conveniently overlook Thaksin's less than democratic record and his own alleged judicial interventions during his six controversial years in power.
"Our main message is that there is no justice - that there are more than two standards used," said Kwanchai Poipana, a UDD leader from Udon Thani who runs the pro-Thaksin community radio station 97.5 FM. "When the red-shirts do something we are always guilty, when the yellow-shirts do something they are never guilty," he said.
UDD supporters frequently point to the PAD's seizure of Bangkok's two airports in 2008 and the fact that the group's leaders have yet to be charged, while UDD leaders were arrested and detained after the military put down their violent April revolt. "Taking over an airport is a crime anywhere in the world," Kwanchai said.
As the UDD flexes its new organizational muscles, the specter of a violent rerun of April's mayhem looms. The UDD now has about 1,000 security guards, including a group of Bangkok-based Ramkhamhaeng University students trained by the UDD to maintain order and protect their protesters from outside attack, according to Boonpracong. It is also clearly bidding to create splits in military unity.
War and peace
At previous UDD rallies, uniformed paramilitary rangers, or thahan phran, have also acted as guards. Some of these soldiers are known to hail from Pak Thong Chai in central Nakorn Ratchasima province and have ties to controversial army specialist Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, known more commonly as Seh Daeng.
During the PAD protests of 2008, Seh Daeng accurately predicted bomb attacks against PAD security guards and trained dozens of youths in combat to counter the PAD. After a grenade was launched at the PAD's most recent rally in November, Seh Daeng said the attack was carried out by an "unidentified" armed group and that it was only intended as a deterrent, not as an attempt to cause violence.
He has consistently denied involvement in the various bomb attacks and no evidence has linked him directly to the blasts other than his timely warnings. In 2008, he was relegated to a military position promoting public fitness at marketplaces and is currently embroiled in numerous court battles for disciplinary violations, including an unauthorized trip to Cambodia in November to meet with Thaksin.
That trip was especially sensitive in light of unconfirmed reports of arms-smuggling from Cambodia to UDD supporters in bordering northeastern provinces - reports UDD leaders have denied. Nonetheless, they have fueled speculation that the UDD may be preparing for an armed struggle in the provinces if their next round of protests in Bangkok is violently suppressed by the armed forces. A high-ranking Thai military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would neither deny nor confirm the accuracy of such reports, saying, "It's a very porous border, it's easy to get things across."
While core UDD leaders deny they are planning armed struggle, international spokesman Boonpracong admits that radical elements may be emerging which "may not agree with the UDD's peaceful measures". After April's failed uprising, UDD co-leader Jakrapob Penkair, who has since fled into exile, told news agencies that the UDD was willing to launch an "armed struggle" to achieve its goals.
While the UDD prepares to ramp up its protests, Abhisit's government is holding firm, despite perceptions that his Democrat party-led coalition would - despite signs of economic recovery - still come up short in new elections against the Thaksin-aligned Puea Thai party. His government is expected to vigorously resist the protests, as it did last year through frequent invocations of the Internal Security Act, which gives authorities the power to deploy troops, ban gatherings and impose curfews in the name of law and order.
The military effectively suppressed April's UDD protest, but questions are emerging about possible cracks in the chain of command. While Thailand's military has long been factionalized along graduating class lines, it is now also believed to be divided among competing units, according to experts. The 21st Infantry Regiment of the Royal Armament, more commonly known as the Queen's Guard, is now perceived as the dominant unit and is led by its former commander, army commander in chief General Anupong Paochinda.
"The cause of the current fracture derives from an upset in the promotion line - denying certain senior military deemed to be close to Thaksin their right to be promoted," said Paul Chambers, a senior research fellow specializing in Thai military affairs at Heidelberg University. "The new phenomenon with regard to [Thai] military factions is that unit, rather than class, dominates the military," he added.
Anupong and his Queen's Guard clique, including Defense Minister Prawit Wongsawan and the deputy army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, are expected to maintain their backing for Abhisit and steer clear of another coup, according to analysts. This is in part to ensure a smooth succession at the army's top from Anupong to Prayuth when the former faces mandatory retirement in September 2010.
At the same time, the UDD is playing up the prospect that factions inside the military could break the chain of command if the UDD's rally is forcibly dispersed. "If the army starts to suppress us, there are factions of the military that will fight back," claimed one UDD leader who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If there is another coup, it will be violent."
As an indication of those fissures, the UDD points to the dozens of retired military officials, including more than 50 Thaksin classmates from the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School and special forces soldiers, who recently joined the Puea Thai party. "The moves by soldiers into Puea Thai [and other parties] can only further destabilize Thailand," said Chambers. Other analysts note that Anupong has strategically placed known loyalists in top command positions, including those who were instrumental in past coups.
While UDD leaders insist their campaign will be peaceful, they also indicate that their protest movement is near a breaking point over what they perceive as a series of non-democratic power grabs and partisan judicial decisions. "We fight through peaceful means," explained pro-UDD radio broadcaster Kwanchai, while suggestively placing a pistol on a nearby table. "But if the government uses force, we will fight back."
Nelson Rand is a Bangkok-based journalist with a master's degree in Asia-Pacific policy studies. He can be reached at nelsonrand@hotmail.com. Chandler Vandergrift is a consultant specializing in conflict analysis and management in Southeast Asia and is based in Bangkok. He can be reached at chandlerv@gmail.com
US caucus meets with PM
US Congressmen Eni Faleomavaega (left) and Mike Honda field questions Thursday during their three-day visit to Cambodia. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)Friday, 08 January 2010
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post
A VISITING delegation of three American congressmen met Thursday with Prime Minister Hun Sen, during which they offered encouragement for the Kingdom’s business community while also raising concerns over the government’s controversial deportation of a group of Chinese Uighur asylum-seekers last month.
Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Mike Honda of California and Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting Congressional delegate from American Samoa, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam.
The discussion with Hun Sen, Faleomavaega said, focused largely on financial concerns. Cambodian garment manufacturers are currently seeking duty-free access to the United States, the largest market for Cambodian exports. Government officials, meanwhile, want the US to cancel US$300 million in debt accrued during the Lon Nol era.
Though the congressmen made no specific commitments, the three men – members of the US Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus – said they would advocate on Cambodia’s behalf when they returned to Washington.
“In studying the history of the debt, it seems like it’s something that we as a caucus can deal with in Congress ourselves,” Honda said during a press conference following the meeting.
The discussion with Hun Sen also touched briefly, Faleomavaega said, on Cambodia’s controversial deportation of the 20 Uighur Chinese back to China last month, where activists say the group may face arrest or persecution in connection with riots between Uighurs and ethnic Chinese last July.
“The feeling of the international community is that they will likely be executed if they were to return to China, and this has been our very serious concern,” Faleomavaega said.
The US State Department released a statement last month saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which came just days before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and senior Cambodian officials signed 14 economic aid agreements totalling US$1.2 billion, adding that it would “affect Cambodia’s relationship with the US and its international standing”.
Cao questioned whether China had “imperialistic intents”, while Faleomavaega noted the country’s “tremendous influence” in the region, acknowledging questions about the timing of the aid package.
“I don’t know if this was a quid pro quo ... but a lot of people would take that as there seems to be a connection,” he said, adding that the Cambodian government deserved the chance to publicly explain its decision to the international community.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA
Joseph Cao of Louisiana, Mike Honda of California and Eni Faleomavaega, a non-voting Congressional delegate from American Samoa, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday after visiting Vietnam.
The discussion with Hun Sen, Faleomavaega said, focused largely on financial concerns. Cambodian garment manufacturers are currently seeking duty-free access to the United States, the largest market for Cambodian exports. Government officials, meanwhile, want the US to cancel US$300 million in debt accrued during the Lon Nol era.
Though the congressmen made no specific commitments, the three men – members of the US Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus – said they would advocate on Cambodia’s behalf when they returned to Washington.
“In studying the history of the debt, it seems like it’s something that we as a caucus can deal with in Congress ourselves,” Honda said during a press conference following the meeting.
The discussion with Hun Sen also touched briefly, Faleomavaega said, on Cambodia’s controversial deportation of the 20 Uighur Chinese back to China last month, where activists say the group may face arrest or persecution in connection with riots between Uighurs and ethnic Chinese last July.
“The feeling of the international community is that they will likely be executed if they were to return to China, and this has been our very serious concern,” Faleomavaega said.
The US State Department released a statement last month saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the incident, which came just days before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and senior Cambodian officials signed 14 economic aid agreements totalling US$1.2 billion, adding that it would “affect Cambodia’s relationship with the US and its international standing”.
Cao questioned whether China had “imperialistic intents”, while Faleomavaega noted the country’s “tremendous influence” in the region, acknowledging questions about the timing of the aid package.
“I don’t know if this was a quid pro quo ... but a lot of people would take that as there seems to be a connection,” he said, adding that the Cambodian government deserved the chance to publicly explain its decision to the international community.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA
Freeing women from poverty, violence
Friday, January 8, 2010
By Mindelle Jacobs
Winnipeg Sun (Canada)
Occasionally, an extraordinary book comes along with the potential to galvanize people into reaching beyond their own little spheres to help someone impoverished elsewhere in the world.
That book is Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a passionate clarion call to help stop the brutal oppression of females in the developing world.
Undoubtedly, you have read plenty of chilling statistics on the extent of the human rights violations girls and women suffer. But nothing you have read can possibly prepare you for the shocking, gut-wrenching, yet ultimately uplifting true stories in Half the Sky.
There is Srey, a Cambodian girl who is forced by gangsters to work in a brothel in Malaysia. When she escapes, a police officer sells her to a trafficker who hands her over to a Thai whorehouse.
In India, Meena is kidnapped and enslaved in a brothel for a dozen years. And in case you think all the villains in this book are men, the owner of the brothel is a woman who prostituted her own daughters.
Thirteen-year-old Woin-eshet, in Ethiopia, is kidnapped and raped in a rural area where that's what men do to the girls they want to marry.
There is Dina, from the eastern Congo, who is gang raped by five men who then shove a stick inside her. The stick causes a fistula, or hole, in her tissues and leaves her incontinent and paralyzed.
Make no mistake. Half the Sky isn't unrelentingly grim, even though it chronicles the brutally creative ways women are abused in the Third World. Aid organizations and individuals determined to make a difference are helping the oppressed women of the world one female at a time.
Srey now sells shirts, hats and costume jewelry in a little stall. Meena is free and working as a community organizer, trying to discourage parents from prostituting their daughters. Woineshet is finishing high school and plans to study law.
Challenge
Kristof and WuDunn, the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism as New York Times correspondents, are challenging us all to battle gender inequality as fiercely as good people fought slavery in the 19th century and totalitarianism in the 20th.
"People get away with enslaving village girls for the same reason that people got away with enslaving blacks 200 years ago: The victims are perceived as discounted humans," they write.
Half the Sky is a beautifully written, heartfelt exhortation to empower oppressed women by, for instance, educating girls, reducing maternal mortality and expanding microfinance.
"Women and girls cloistered in huts, uneducated, unemployed and unable to contribute significantly to the world represent a vast seam of human gold that is never mined," the authors write.
And countries that repress women -- mainly nations with large Muslim populations -- tend to be economic laggards that breed terrorism, they add.
Read this book and then make a difference by donating to a group, like CARE Canada, that supports women in the Third World. (Check out halftheskymovement.org for details.)
A documentary based on the book will be aired March 4 in Cineplex theatres in major cities across Canada with a portion of the proceeds going to CARE Canada.
"We've seen firsthand how empowerment of women makes a difference in an entire community," says CARE Canada spokesman Andrea Lanthier-Seymour. "These are real stories. They're stories we see everywhere we go."
That book is Half the Sky, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a passionate clarion call to help stop the brutal oppression of females in the developing world.
Undoubtedly, you have read plenty of chilling statistics on the extent of the human rights violations girls and women suffer. But nothing you have read can possibly prepare you for the shocking, gut-wrenching, yet ultimately uplifting true stories in Half the Sky.
There is Srey, a Cambodian girl who is forced by gangsters to work in a brothel in Malaysia. When she escapes, a police officer sells her to a trafficker who hands her over to a Thai whorehouse.
In India, Meena is kidnapped and enslaved in a brothel for a dozen years. And in case you think all the villains in this book are men, the owner of the brothel is a woman who prostituted her own daughters.
Thirteen-year-old Woin-eshet, in Ethiopia, is kidnapped and raped in a rural area where that's what men do to the girls they want to marry.
There is Dina, from the eastern Congo, who is gang raped by five men who then shove a stick inside her. The stick causes a fistula, or hole, in her tissues and leaves her incontinent and paralyzed.
Make no mistake. Half the Sky isn't unrelentingly grim, even though it chronicles the brutally creative ways women are abused in the Third World. Aid organizations and individuals determined to make a difference are helping the oppressed women of the world one female at a time.
Srey now sells shirts, hats and costume jewelry in a little stall. Meena is free and working as a community organizer, trying to discourage parents from prostituting their daughters. Woineshet is finishing high school and plans to study law.
Challenge
Kristof and WuDunn, the first married couple to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism as New York Times correspondents, are challenging us all to battle gender inequality as fiercely as good people fought slavery in the 19th century and totalitarianism in the 20th.
"People get away with enslaving village girls for the same reason that people got away with enslaving blacks 200 years ago: The victims are perceived as discounted humans," they write.
Half the Sky is a beautifully written, heartfelt exhortation to empower oppressed women by, for instance, educating girls, reducing maternal mortality and expanding microfinance.
"Women and girls cloistered in huts, uneducated, unemployed and unable to contribute significantly to the world represent a vast seam of human gold that is never mined," the authors write.
And countries that repress women -- mainly nations with large Muslim populations -- tend to be economic laggards that breed terrorism, they add.
Read this book and then make a difference by donating to a group, like CARE Canada, that supports women in the Third World. (Check out halftheskymovement.org for details.)
A documentary based on the book will be aired March 4 in Cineplex theatres in major cities across Canada with a portion of the proceeds going to CARE Canada.
"We've seen firsthand how empowerment of women makes a difference in an entire community," says CARE Canada spokesman Andrea Lanthier-Seymour. "These are real stories. They're stories we see everywhere we go."
Cambodian and Nigerian citizens accused of smuggling narcotics from Azerbaijan to China stand trial
08 Jan 2010
APA (Azerbaijan)
Baku. Ramil Mammadli – APA. The Court of Grave Crimes has today held a hearing on the case of Cambodian and Nigerian citizens accused of smuggling narcotics from Azerbaijan to the People’s Republic of China. APA reports that Amir Bayramov presided over the hearing. Hearing on the case of citizen of Cambodia Sak Makara and Nigerian Odek Emmanuel has been scheduled for January 11.
According to the indictment, Sak Makara was detained by the officers of the Customs Service while smuggling a great deal of narcotic drugs from Azerbaijan to China in July, 2009. 2395g heroin was found on his person. Nigerian Odek Emmanuel was detained basing on the testimony of Makara. 4kg heroin was found in his house in M.F. Akhundov street, 107.
They faced charges under articles 206.4 (smuggling), 234.4.1 (illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, psychotropic substances by a group of persons or an organized group) and 234.4.3 (in large amount) of the Criminal Code.
According to the indictment, Sak Makara was detained by the officers of the Customs Service while smuggling a great deal of narcotic drugs from Azerbaijan to China in July, 2009. 2395g heroin was found on his person. Nigerian Odek Emmanuel was detained basing on the testimony of Makara. 4kg heroin was found in his house in M.F. Akhundov street, 107.
They faced charges under articles 206.4 (smuggling), 234.4.1 (illegal manufacturing, purchase, storage, transportation, transfer or selling of narcotics, psychotropic substances by a group of persons or an organized group) and 234.4.3 (in large amount) of the Criminal Code.
Cambodian government holds first video conference
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government held a video conference on Friday for the first time since it took office in 1993.
The weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen involved as many as 350 officials from Phnom Penh and all provinces across the country, said Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers.
He said several governors were able to communicate with Hun Sen during the morning session.
He added that the new technology helped government save a lot in terms of timing and budget spending.
The weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen involved as many as 350 officials from Phnom Penh and all provinces across the country, said Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers.
He said several governors were able to communicate with Hun Sen during the morning session.
He added that the new technology helped government save a lot in terms of timing and budget spending.
Khmer Krom: No Housing for Group Deported from Thailand
Friday, 08 January 2010
Source: UNPO
A group of 24 Khmer Krom who fled persecution in Vietnam have not been allocated a place to live in Cambodia. Below is an article published by Phnom Penh Post:
A group of 24 ethnic Khmer Krom remain in limbo after the chief of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tumpun commune said he could not guarantee them a place to live.
The group – deported from Thailand December 5 as illegal immigrants after fleeing persecution in their native Vietnam – presented a letter to the commune chief Wednesday, asking for a place to live. Ang Chanrith, former executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said the group had sent a letter requesting identification cards, birth certificates, a family book and resident book on Tuesday to the Ministry of Interior.
Chau Sokha, 34, said the process could not take longer than a month. “The NGO that is sheltering us can only do so for another month,” he said. If the process “takes any longer than that, we will protest at the Ministry of Interior”.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak confirmed the group were free to live as Cambodian citizens, but questioned their demand for places to stay and identification cards.
“Any Khmer Krom under the Cambodian constitution are entitled to live here,” he said, but accused local NGOs and opposition parties of using the group to push their own agendas. “They are being used as political hostages,” he said.
A group of 24 ethnic Khmer Krom remain in limbo after the chief of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tumpun commune said he could not guarantee them a place to live.
The group – deported from Thailand December 5 as illegal immigrants after fleeing persecution in their native Vietnam – presented a letter to the commune chief Wednesday, asking for a place to live. Ang Chanrith, former executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said the group had sent a letter requesting identification cards, birth certificates, a family book and resident book on Tuesday to the Ministry of Interior.
Chau Sokha, 34, said the process could not take longer than a month. “The NGO that is sheltering us can only do so for another month,” he said. If the process “takes any longer than that, we will protest at the Ministry of Interior”.
Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak confirmed the group were free to live as Cambodian citizens, but questioned their demand for places to stay and identification cards.
“Any Khmer Krom under the Cambodian constitution are entitled to live here,” he said, but accused local NGOs and opposition parties of using the group to push their own agendas. “They are being used as political hostages,” he said.
Cambodians commemorate the end of the 'Killing Fields'
1/8/2010
By Christina Killion Valdez
Post-Bulletin (Rochester, MN, USA)
Newly married in 1974, Sarasarith Chhum, 57, had everything to look forward to. Unfortunately that newlywed bliss was short-lived.
Months after Chhum and his wife,Vanna, embarked on their life together in their native country of Cambodia, their world was ravaged by misery, starvation and executions during one of the worst genocides of the century.
Yet on Thursday, Chhum was able to look back with gratitude that he, his wife and their young daughter survived the "Killing Fields."
"We saw death in front our eyes day and night. We thought we'd never survive," Chhum said.
About 2 million people, approximately 25 percent of the country's population, died between 1975 and 1979 under Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. On Jan. 7, 1979, Pot was deposed during an invasion by Vietnam.
"We remember Jan. 7, 1979, as the day we live again -- the new resurrection of Cambodia from the killing field," Chhum said.
Commemoration march
To commemorate the occasion, Chhum contacted several other Cambodian families living in Rochester to gather at the city-county Government Center and a couple of Asian grocery stores Thursday in remembrance. While marches are held in Cambodia each year on Jan. 7, Chhum said this was the first time Cambodians stepped out in Rochester.
The demonstrations were important he said so that people never forget and so that new generations understand what happened, he said.
"I remind my children all the time," Chhum said.
Among the dead were Chhum's father, brothers sisters, uncle and wife's uncle, said Chhum who moved to the United States in 1982 with his family.
Remembering the past
Still today, he said he wakes up at night thinking he's living in a dream and cries for those who didn't survive.
Recalling a night spent listening to a man cry out for food, Chhum said that in the morning the man was found dead, holding a spoon, fork and plate.
"I didn't let my wife see that," he said.
Lack of food was an issue for them, too. When Vanna was pregnant with their first child, Chharvina Senevisai, now 32, she labored for nine days without food, Chhum said.
"At the time, a lot of mothers and babies died when giving birth," he said.
And while starvation was a problem, so was lack of education, he said.
Much work was needed to reconstruct the country, but today students in Cambodia can obtain a master's degree or Ph.D., something they couldn't have done before Jan. 7, 1979, he said.
"We are thankful for the 7th of January," Chhum said. "It gave life back to Cambodia and the light of education."
Months after Chhum and his wife,Vanna, embarked on their life together in their native country of Cambodia, their world was ravaged by misery, starvation and executions during one of the worst genocides of the century.
Yet on Thursday, Chhum was able to look back with gratitude that he, his wife and their young daughter survived the "Killing Fields."
"We saw death in front our eyes day and night. We thought we'd never survive," Chhum said.
About 2 million people, approximately 25 percent of the country's population, died between 1975 and 1979 under Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. On Jan. 7, 1979, Pot was deposed during an invasion by Vietnam.
"We remember Jan. 7, 1979, as the day we live again -- the new resurrection of Cambodia from the killing field," Chhum said.
Commemoration march
To commemorate the occasion, Chhum contacted several other Cambodian families living in Rochester to gather at the city-county Government Center and a couple of Asian grocery stores Thursday in remembrance. While marches are held in Cambodia each year on Jan. 7, Chhum said this was the first time Cambodians stepped out in Rochester.
The demonstrations were important he said so that people never forget and so that new generations understand what happened, he said.
"I remind my children all the time," Chhum said.
Among the dead were Chhum's father, brothers sisters, uncle and wife's uncle, said Chhum who moved to the United States in 1982 with his family.
Remembering the past
Still today, he said he wakes up at night thinking he's living in a dream and cries for those who didn't survive.
Recalling a night spent listening to a man cry out for food, Chhum said that in the morning the man was found dead, holding a spoon, fork and plate.
"I didn't let my wife see that," he said.
Lack of food was an issue for them, too. When Vanna was pregnant with their first child, Chharvina Senevisai, now 32, she labored for nine days without food, Chhum said.
"At the time, a lot of mothers and babies died when giving birth," he said.
And while starvation was a problem, so was lack of education, he said.
Much work was needed to reconstruct the country, but today students in Cambodia can obtain a master's degree or Ph.D., something they couldn't have done before Jan. 7, 1979, he said.
"We are thankful for the 7th of January," Chhum said. "It gave life back to Cambodia and the light of education."
Cambodia: As rickshaws [cyclo] get cycled out, some look back
In Cambodia a decade ago, some 10,000 cyclo drivers – as rickshaws are called here – wheeled along Phnom Penh streets. Today there are fewer than 1,500.
Cyclo driver Porn Eab stands by his machine.(Arantxa Cedillo)Online Petition to End Cambodian Government's Human Rights Violation In Cambodia
PETITION TO END CAMBODIAN GOVERNMENT'S
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN CAMBODIA
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IN CAMBODIA
January 4, 2010
The Honorable Ann Syauta, Human Rights Officer
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
Room DC1-640
New York, NY 10017
Dear Her Excellency Syauta:
We, as American Cambodian origin, citizens of the United States, Cambodia, and other nationalities undersigned writing to ask for your support and intervention with respect to the declining state of human rights in Cambodia.
Cambodia has no real separation of powers; only on paper and in theory. Because the executive branch has total control over the legislative and judiciary bodies, people are extremely fearful to be on the wrong side of the government. The control runs deep, through a highly sophisticated patronage system, through reward and punishment. Almost all judges and legal practitioners are members of the ruling party. Justices of the Cambodian Supreme Court come from the elite ranks of the ruling party as well. The highest court will not strike down any unlawful passage of law contravening the Constitution, particularly when it comes to placing limit on freedoms of its people.
On November 16, 2009, the National Assembly voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of Mr. Sam Rainsy, Members of Parliament (MP), without any regard for his rights or the people he represented, not to mention the integrity of the institution, itself–something which is excessively abusive and ridiculous by any democratic standard.
The revoking of MP Sam Rainsy's parliamentary immunity is a result of the abuse of power by the Cambodian government. We demands an end to the selective and undemocratic stripping of parliamentary immunity from Members of Parliament, whose duty is to represent the people and to act in their interest, particularly the MPs who speak for people who are deprived of their rights and abused by those in power. Two other opposition lawmakers, MP Mu Sochua and MP Ho Vann, were also stripped of parliamentary immunity after the government filed separate defamation lawsuits in June, 2009. This action is among several others recently taken by the Cambodian authorities aiming to silence dissents and intimidate the opposition.
The immunity-stripping of MPs is indicative to what lies ahead for a country which has become less and less tolerant on freedom of speech and expression by its people. Anything anyone says or does could be viewed as an act of incitement, a risk to the national interests or security of the nation. One can be easily jailed for asking the wrong question or simply disseminating information considered to be critical of those in power. The government is determined to send a clear threatening message to other elected MPs and the public of its zero-tolerance policy on any dissent vis-Ã -vis its own interests. Allow criminal charges to be brought against them for exercising their freedom of speech regarding matters of public concern.
We ask you to remain aware of the erosion of civil liberties in Cambodia, and to take any possible action to put the Cambodian government on notice that such abuse of power will not be tolerated by the international community. We are truly thankful for your concern about our issues of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. We hope that you and your colleagues will continue to play a vital role in re-directing Cambodia to be a nation with strong independent institutions.
We the undersigned, thank you for the opportunity to bring to your attention the key issues regarding the ongoing violation of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. The United Nations was established for precisely this purpose, the sharing of information and coordinated response to international failures in law, security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and conflict resolution.
Petition:
As Cambodian/American, citizens of the United States, Cambodia, and other nationalities adhering to this petition, we invite and recall United Nations to liaise with the Cambodian ruling parties, local and international media, local NGOs, and the civil society for securing the political crisis, which had already proven severe consequences on human rights abuses.
We request the United Nations to unwaveringly endeavor to the social development of Cambodia: We ask the United Nations to concretely commit to:
* Defend the human rights of the Cambodian population from government abuses
* Steadfastly restore and guarantee the freedom of speech and freedom of expression
* Guarantee the freedom for the protesters and human rights defenders
* Ensure the release of all villagers who jailed for protesting to defend their farm land
* Solidly demand to restore immunity for MP Sam Rainsy, MP Mu Sochua and MP Ho Vann
* Condemn Cambodian government to withdraw the arrest warrant for MP Sam Rainsy
We request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Officer to:
* Increase the basic rights of freedom for Cambodian citizens from fear
* Decrease of the harassment on the civil society in Cambodia and Human Rights defenders
* End land confiscation and forced eviction in Cambodia
* Continue to mediate Cambodian government
Thank you for your precious time and your utmost consideration to this matter.
Respectfully Yours,
Undersigned, Cambodian/American Community
Cambodia and other nationalities adhering to this petition
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations
Room DC1-640
New York, NY 10017
Dear Her Excellency Syauta:
We, as American Cambodian origin, citizens of the United States, Cambodia, and other nationalities undersigned writing to ask for your support and intervention with respect to the declining state of human rights in Cambodia.
Cambodia has no real separation of powers; only on paper and in theory. Because the executive branch has total control over the legislative and judiciary bodies, people are extremely fearful to be on the wrong side of the government. The control runs deep, through a highly sophisticated patronage system, through reward and punishment. Almost all judges and legal practitioners are members of the ruling party. Justices of the Cambodian Supreme Court come from the elite ranks of the ruling party as well. The highest court will not strike down any unlawful passage of law contravening the Constitution, particularly when it comes to placing limit on freedoms of its people.
On November 16, 2009, the National Assembly voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of Mr. Sam Rainsy, Members of Parliament (MP), without any regard for his rights or the people he represented, not to mention the integrity of the institution, itself–something which is excessively abusive and ridiculous by any democratic standard.
The revoking of MP Sam Rainsy's parliamentary immunity is a result of the abuse of power by the Cambodian government. We demands an end to the selective and undemocratic stripping of parliamentary immunity from Members of Parliament, whose duty is to represent the people and to act in their interest, particularly the MPs who speak for people who are deprived of their rights and abused by those in power. Two other opposition lawmakers, MP Mu Sochua and MP Ho Vann, were also stripped of parliamentary immunity after the government filed separate defamation lawsuits in June, 2009. This action is among several others recently taken by the Cambodian authorities aiming to silence dissents and intimidate the opposition.
The immunity-stripping of MPs is indicative to what lies ahead for a country which has become less and less tolerant on freedom of speech and expression by its people. Anything anyone says or does could be viewed as an act of incitement, a risk to the national interests or security of the nation. One can be easily jailed for asking the wrong question or simply disseminating information considered to be critical of those in power. The government is determined to send a clear threatening message to other elected MPs and the public of its zero-tolerance policy on any dissent vis-Ã -vis its own interests. Allow criminal charges to be brought against them for exercising their freedom of speech regarding matters of public concern.
We ask you to remain aware of the erosion of civil liberties in Cambodia, and to take any possible action to put the Cambodian government on notice that such abuse of power will not be tolerated by the international community. We are truly thankful for your concern about our issues of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. We hope that you and your colleagues will continue to play a vital role in re-directing Cambodia to be a nation with strong independent institutions.
We the undersigned, thank you for the opportunity to bring to your attention the key issues regarding the ongoing violation of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. The United Nations was established for precisely this purpose, the sharing of information and coordinated response to international failures in law, security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and conflict resolution.
Petition:
As Cambodian/American, citizens of the United States, Cambodia, and other nationalities adhering to this petition, we invite and recall United Nations to liaise with the Cambodian ruling parties, local and international media, local NGOs, and the civil society for securing the political crisis, which had already proven severe consequences on human rights abuses.
We request the United Nations to unwaveringly endeavor to the social development of Cambodia: We ask the United Nations to concretely commit to:
* Defend the human rights of the Cambodian population from government abuses
* Steadfastly restore and guarantee the freedom of speech and freedom of expression
* Guarantee the freedom for the protesters and human rights defenders
* Ensure the release of all villagers who jailed for protesting to defend their farm land
* Solidly demand to restore immunity for MP Sam Rainsy, MP Mu Sochua and MP Ho Vann
* Condemn Cambodian government to withdraw the arrest warrant for MP Sam Rainsy
We request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Officer to:
* Increase the basic rights of freedom for Cambodian citizens from fear
* Decrease of the harassment on the civil society in Cambodia and Human Rights defenders
* End land confiscation and forced eviction in Cambodia
* Continue to mediate Cambodian government
Thank you for your precious time and your utmost consideration to this matter.
Respectfully Yours,
Undersigned, Cambodian/American Community
Cambodia and other nationalities adhering to this petition
Cambodia approves China-Cambodia Consular Convention
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodia's government on Friday approved the China-Cambodia Consular Convention aimed to not only improve the two countries' diplomatic ties but also to facilitate the trade flows between the two countries, said the government's release.
"The cabinet meeting agreed and approved a draft agreement on China-Cambodia Consul given gradually increasing of economic, trade, investment and tourism relations between Cambodia and China," said the release.
"This convention is also aimed at protecting the rights and the individual interest of the two peoples," it added.
The government release also said that Cambodia has six consular offices in China.
Cambodia received 2.16 million tourists last year compared with about 2.13 million in 2008, a two percent increase, while 114,894 tourists from China.
China is also the Cambodia's biggest foreign direct investment (FDI), according to the state-run investment agency of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).
"The cabinet meeting agreed and approved a draft agreement on China-Cambodia Consul given gradually increasing of economic, trade, investment and tourism relations between Cambodia and China," said the release.
"This convention is also aimed at protecting the rights and the individual interest of the two peoples," it added.
The government release also said that Cambodia has six consular offices in China.
Cambodia received 2.16 million tourists last year compared with about 2.13 million in 2008, a two percent increase, while 114,894 tourists from China.
China is also the Cambodia's biggest foreign direct investment (FDI), according to the state-run investment agency of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).
Cambodia hosts friendly boat race
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Big Pond News
Cambodia has hosted a friendly boat race to foster good relations with its neighbours, Vietnam and Thailand.
The race was held at Koh Kong in the southwest of the nation, almost 300 kilometres from the capital Phnom Penh.
The race marks the 31st anniversary of the CCP, Cambodia's ruling party, which supplanted the Khmer Rouge regime.
Four boats from each country took place in the Friendship Boat Race, with a Thai team coming out on top this year.
The race was held at Koh Kong in the southwest of the nation, almost 300 kilometres from the capital Phnom Penh.
The race marks the 31st anniversary of the CCP, Cambodia's ruling party, which supplanted the Khmer Rouge regime.
Four boats from each country took place in the Friendship Boat Race, with a Thai team coming out on top this year.
Cambodia begins using own Unicode
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The long-awaited Unicode in Cambodian language has been allowed to use in all government's institutions and private sectors, a government spokesman said on Friday.
Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers said that the Khmer Unicode, the only standardized encoding of the Khmer script has been allowed to be used nationwide.
He said the government already announced the use of this Unicode last month by a decree dated Dec. 24.
He said most of the government's institutions and ministries, especially, the Council of Ministers have already used this Unicode for about two months.
So far, many Cambodian computers users have complained about the changeable computer script and time constraint once they type in Cambodian language.
According to the legal procedure and law, the decree on the official use across the country will come into effect 60 days after the official announcement is made.
Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers said that the Khmer Unicode, the only standardized encoding of the Khmer script has been allowed to be used nationwide.
He said the government already announced the use of this Unicode last month by a decree dated Dec. 24.
He said most of the government's institutions and ministries, especially, the Council of Ministers have already used this Unicode for about two months.
So far, many Cambodian computers users have complained about the changeable computer script and time constraint once they type in Cambodian language.
According to the legal procedure and law, the decree on the official use across the country will come into effect 60 days after the official announcement is made.
Eni Faleomavaega: Purposely ignorant or really simpleminded?
From left to right: US Congressmen Joseph Cao, Eni Faleomaveaga and Mike Honda. Mr. Eni Faleomavaega was the only US congressman who celebrated 07 January, the day of Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, with the CPP. The other two congressmen decided to pay a visit to the Choeung Ek killing field memorial instead. Mr. Faleomavaega claimed that he was only paying attention to the toppling of the Khmer Rouge regime. Could it be possible that the congressman from American Samoa be really simpleminded or was he ignorant on purpose to the fact that he was actually sharing the podium with former KR commanders? (Photo: Sok Serey, RFA)One US Congressman joins the 07 January celebration
07 January 2009
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy
Click here to read the article in Khmer
One US congressman among three of them who concluded their short visit to Cambodia on 07 January, indicated that he decided to join the CPP’s commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the 07 January 1979 victory only to commemorate the toppling of the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime only (sic!).
The KR regime has been blamed by both the national and international community for the killing of almost 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 through torture, forced labor and starvation.
On Thursday, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa), one of the three congressmen who just concluded his visit to Cambodia, said at a press conference held at the Phnom Penh International airport that: “What I pay attention to on 07 January is the toppling of the Pol Pot regime, following the cruel killing and torture of almost 2 million people. This action should not take place again against innocent people.”
Ouch Borith, secretary of state of the Cambodian ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was also present during the press conference, said: “It was the 2nd birthday for all of us. All our people have clearly indicated that they join this celebration to welcome the toppling of the genocidal Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime.”
The presence of the US congressman at the 31st anniversary of the 07 January victory of the CPP takes place also on a day that a number of people consider as a day of Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
US Congressmen Mike Honda and Joseph Cao did not join the CPP celebration and they went to pay a visit to the Cheoung Ek killing field memorial on Thursday instead.
SRP spokesman and MP Yim Sovann indicated in reaction that: “They commemorate past history, however, they should also review the current situation also.”
Yim Sovann said: “Human rights violation, curtailing the people’s freedom rights, killing of journalists, jailing of victimized farmers who lost their lands, these are experiences that we must remember. He [Eni Faleomavaega] should help provide advice so that the violations above would not take place anymore in the Cambodian society.”
The KR regime has been blamed by both the national and international community for the killing of almost 2 million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 through torture, forced labor and starvation.
On Thursday, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa), one of the three congressmen who just concluded his visit to Cambodia, said at a press conference held at the Phnom Penh International airport that: “What I pay attention to on 07 January is the toppling of the Pol Pot regime, following the cruel killing and torture of almost 2 million people. This action should not take place again against innocent people.”
Ouch Borith, secretary of state of the Cambodian ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was also present during the press conference, said: “It was the 2nd birthday for all of us. All our people have clearly indicated that they join this celebration to welcome the toppling of the genocidal Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime.”
The presence of the US congressman at the 31st anniversary of the 07 January victory of the CPP takes place also on a day that a number of people consider as a day of Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
US Congressmen Mike Honda and Joseph Cao did not join the CPP celebration and they went to pay a visit to the Cheoung Ek killing field memorial on Thursday instead.
SRP spokesman and MP Yim Sovann indicated in reaction that: “They commemorate past history, however, they should also review the current situation also.”
Yim Sovann said: “Human rights violation, curtailing the people’s freedom rights, killing of journalists, jailing of victimized farmers who lost their lands, these are experiences that we must remember. He [Eni Faleomavaega] should help provide advice so that the violations above would not take place anymore in the Cambodian society.”
Hochimonks celebrating communist Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia
First row: Hochimonk Tep Vong (L) and Hochimonk Non Nget (R)Cambodian Buddhist patriarchs sit during a ceremony, marking the downfall of Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010. A Cambodian official warned a U.N.-backed genocide tribunal on Thursday not to interfere in the country's internal affairs as the Southeast Asian nation marked the overthrow of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime 31 years ago. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: A Good Hyena
"You can lie about anything, but you cannot lie to yourself. It is very difficult for bad people to recognize the historical truth. Furthermore, we can say that they are not human beings, because, even animals know who give birth to them."Required reading for the sons and daughters of Cambodia's "Nouveaux Riches"?
King Bhumibol and HRH princess Sirindhorn as a young teenagerA letter from HM the King to HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
Monday , January 4 , 2010
By krajog The Nation
The [above] text in Thai is a letter HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn received from His Majesty the King dated Oct. 6, 2004. HRH Princess Sirindhorn has granted her permission for the public viewing.
As the content of the letter reflects His Majesty the King’s thought on doing good deeds and the sense of kindness and compassion for other people, I think this essence of the letter is worth a reading to my blog readers. I have translated it for those who are not familiar with the Thai writing as follows.
The following is my translation.
My dear daughter,
In this world, everything has at least two sides. There are darkness and brightness, goodness and evilness. If we can choose what we like, we all would want to have brightness and goodness. But what we want would become real only when we have a method to get it, the brightness or goodness.
The path towards goodness is the love for other people. This is because love for other people can solve every problem. If we want the world to be a place of happiness and peacefulness, the love for other people must be real.
I would like to tell you as follows.
1. Seeing other people as friends in terms of birth, getting old, falling into illness and death, without any exception, no matter who they were in the past, at present or in the future.
2. Seeing the world in an optimistic way but it would be better if you see the world in a realistic perspective, which is the right and appropriate way to solve any problem.
3. Have a sense of Santosa-
…This means having contentment as a basic principle in your mind. Always satisfied with what have come to you without clinging to anything. And always think that having something is good enough while having nothing is not a problem at all. It also means being content with our personal power or ability. Be happy with what we got no matter how small it is.
…Not become the same as an overblown toad, it will bring to us nothing but troubles afterwards.
…Be relatively satisfied with the job you are doing.
…Make a living that suits your status.
4. Having mental stability. This means seeing the negative effects of laziness while realizing the benefits of being persistent. If an undesirable thing happens, pray this mantra:
“Having good fortune and status, happiness and sadness might follow.
It’s the same with praises and criticism. Losing a fortune or status is so natural.
Don’t stay being sad but keep saying “let it be, let it be.”
Your Dad 6/10/2547 (6/Oct/2004)
HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has made her comment for readers of this HM the King’s letter as follows:
”I hope this teaching of my Dad I have collected would be useful to everyone as well as sons and daughters who are the loved ones of their fathers who have the chance to read this letter.”
I LOVE MY DAD SO VERY MUCH.
CMAC chalks up three-year high in 2009 demining efforts
PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- The area cleared of land mines and unexploded remnants of war reached 31 square km for the first 11 months of 2009, surpassing the combination of the previous years, which hovered at around 27 square km, local media reported on Friday.
data from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) said the increase was due to a combination of training in new methods of mine clearance and a flexible application of clearance tools, the Cambodia Daily quoted Oum Sang Onn, CMAC's director of operations and planning, as saying.
After years of practice, including a burst of training in 2008,CMAC teams are now skilled at using everything from mine-detection dogs to bulldozer-like bush cutters that unearth and safety detonate mines and UXOs, Oum Sang Onn said.
Although the amount of land demined increased last year, the number of mines that were actually cleared fell from 26,206 separate mines in 2008 to 18,046 for the first 11 months of 2009. Oum Sang Onn said this may be because most of the heavily-mined areas of the country have already been cleared.
In contrast, the number of cleared UXOs increased from 114,101 in 2008 to 122,557 in the first 11 months of 2009, which Oum Sang Onn attributed to efforts to teach villagers to report locations of mines and UXO, and of more UXO-clearance teams being deployed beginning in 2008.
The northwest is the country's most heavily mined region, with Battambang province having the most, Oum Sang Onn said. UXO are spread across the country, he said, a result of bombing in the east and ground fighting in the west.
Casualties of mines and UXO have declined steadily in recent years, according to the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System, falling from 450 in 2006, to 352 in 2007, to 271 in 2008. Figures for 2009 have yet to be published.
data from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) said the increase was due to a combination of training in new methods of mine clearance and a flexible application of clearance tools, the Cambodia Daily quoted Oum Sang Onn, CMAC's director of operations and planning, as saying.
After years of practice, including a burst of training in 2008,CMAC teams are now skilled at using everything from mine-detection dogs to bulldozer-like bush cutters that unearth and safety detonate mines and UXOs, Oum Sang Onn said.
Although the amount of land demined increased last year, the number of mines that were actually cleared fell from 26,206 separate mines in 2008 to 18,046 for the first 11 months of 2009. Oum Sang Onn said this may be because most of the heavily-mined areas of the country have already been cleared.
In contrast, the number of cleared UXOs increased from 114,101 in 2008 to 122,557 in the first 11 months of 2009, which Oum Sang Onn attributed to efforts to teach villagers to report locations of mines and UXO, and of more UXO-clearance teams being deployed beginning in 2008.
The northwest is the country's most heavily mined region, with Battambang province having the most, Oum Sang Onn said. UXO are spread across the country, he said, a result of bombing in the east and ground fighting in the west.
Casualties of mines and UXO have declined steadily in recent years, according to the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System, falling from 450 in 2006, to 352 in 2007, to 271 in 2008. Figures for 2009 have yet to be published.
A Fresh Start: Asian villages carve out a new life
The thick forest, winding streams and rivers and abundant wildlife around Chi Phat Commune, pictured, made it a natural spot for an ecotourism business. (Photo: Wildlife Alliance)Friday, January 8, 2010
By STEVE MOLLMAN
The Wall Street Journal
The village of Tmatboey in the northern plains of Cambodia seemed to have little going for it. It lacked clean water; there were no real roads. The people toiled mostly at subsistence farming, barely scraping by.
The villagers didn't realize they had a valuable asset -- hiding in plain sight, so to speak: a tourist attraction that a niche group of international travelers would happily pay to see, even if it meant a stay in basic accommodations.
It's a bird. Actually, two: the long-legged giant ibis and the white-shouldered ibis, both among the rarest in the world. In the eyes of hard-core bird-watchers, they carry near-mythical status.
And now they're making money for Tmatboey. In 2004, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which credits itself with having saved the American bison a century ago, set up the Tmatboey Ibis Ecotourism Project to lure bird-watchers. During the most recent peak season, November 2008 to May 2009, providing services to bird-watching visitors brought in more than $12,000 all told, a fortune by local standards. About 30% went into a community fund for improving basics like education and plumbing; today, life in Tmatboey has been significantly improved by new wells, water pumps, roads and a new school.
In villages in many parts of Asia, nonprofit groups from around the world are putting into practice that time-worn proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Rather than donating clothes or books, handing out mosquito nets or building schools, they're bringing money-making enterprises to rural Asian communities. Some involve training in activities such as sewing and bamboo craft; many are tourist-related.
Among environmental groups, there has been a shift in the past decade or so toward "a more integrated view of conservation and development," says Graham Bullock, a former ecotourism coordinator for the Nature Conservancy's China program. For instance, says Tom Clements, a technical adviser to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Cambodia program, the Tmatboey project works "by empowering local people to manage their own tourism enterprise, in a way that explicitly links revenue received to conservation outcomes."
The goals of each organization vary, of course, as do the circumstances of each village. "One size definitely does not fit all," says Mr. Bullock. But more organizations now seek "the participation and empowerment of local communities," he adds.
Below, a pair of projects aimed at helping villages help themselves.
Chi Phat Commune, Cambodia
The Chi Phat Commune -- a collection of four villages that's home to about 550 families, or nearly 3,000 people in all -- sits on the banks of the Piphot River in Cambodia's Cardamom mountains near the Thai border. Getting there from Phnom Penh takes four to five hours and involves two highways and a scenic ride upriver on a long-tail boat.
The villagers get by mostly on rice farming and fishing. To make extra money, some work as laborers on nearby plantations. Others sell livestock and other goods at the local market.
And some engage in illegal activities like poaching and logging -- which, along with land-clearing for farming, have exacted a heavy environmental toll. While large animals including elephants still roam the Cardamoms, their numbers -- along with those of scaly anteaters, wild pigs, deer, monkeys, bears and lizards known as Bengal monitors -- are dwindling. And so is their habitat, one of Southeast Asia's largest remaining tracts of rainforest.
After studying the Chi Phat village situation, the Wildlife Alliance, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit founded in 1994 with the goal of protecting wildlife, forests and oceans, concluded that poverty was the root cause of wildlife and forest loss in the Cardamoms. The alliance also saw that ecotourism -- the area's thick forest, winding streams and rivers and abundant wildlife make it ideal for mountain biking and trekking -- offered the possibility both of alleviating poverty and leading villagers to see value in the nature surrounding them.
Before Wildlife Alliance started to help develop Chi Phat as an ecotourism gateway (its Web site: www.mountainbikingcardamoms.com), though, it approached not only villagers, but also local authorities and tour operators to see if the project could fly. One challenge would be attracting customers; little has been written about the area. Another would be explaining ecotourism to the locals.
"Often throughout the world, NGOs enter a local community telling them that tourism is the answer to their problems and very much raising expectations, without any consultation with local tour operators to see whether there will actually be any market for what they are proposing," says Mark Ellison, who runs Asia Adventures, an independent tour operator. "Then one or two years down the line they sit back and scratch their heads wondering why after all the training, capacity building, meetings, and infrastructure development, no tourists are coming."
Today a handful of private companies make up the Friends of Chi Phat tour-operator group, which works with Wildlife Alliance to attract tourists. They market Chi Phat as a destination, handle reservations and bring guests to and from the village.
The "Friends" operators can charge tourists whatever they wish, but they pay upfront for services provided by the villagers, such as cooking, guiding, bike maintenance and lodging. About 80% goes to the villager providing the services; the remaining 20% goes into a community fund that improves the village's education, water supply, roads and so on.
Of course some training was needed at first: The villagers of remote Chi Phat were not accustomed to seeing tourists, much less catering to them. In fact, says Mr. Ellison, "until a few years ago many of the locals had not even seen a foreigner."
So in early 2008, Wildlife Alliance -- which established a permanent base in the village in January 2007 (after more than four years of research) -- and its tour-operator partners set up training programs in sanitation, hospitality, English, first-aid and waste management.
A bike mechanic, for instance, was brought in from Phnom Penh to teach villagers how to maintain a modern mountain bike. The hiking and biking trails were created by former hunters and loggers from the village, who now serve as trail guides. So far they've finished two mountain-biking trails (both there-and-back routes) and four circular trekking trails, including some night-camping sites. More trails are in the works.
Not surprisingly, old habits die hard. One villager who was asked to head the group for transporting guests on motorbikes was caught transporting something else instead: a wild pig. The local village council demoted him, with a warning that another transgression would get him kicked out of the project.
"People have been dependent on the forest for livelihoods and domestic needs for quite some time now -- and still are," says Oran Shapira, a 33-year-old Israeli working in Chi Phat for the Wildlife Alliance. "This will not completely change in one day or one year. It's a process."
Tourists stay in a handful of villager huts that have been converted -- with help from the Wildlife Alliance -- to accommodate guests. They're still rustic, but a little better-equipped than before. Squat toilets were added, for instance, so that guests didn't have to relieve themselves in the fields.
The first guests arrived early in 2008, and by year's end there had been about 200. Last year, the village received more than 670 guests, who biked, hiked, swam in the river and played volleyball with the locals.
Asia Adventures charges $250 a person for a three-day trip that includes a one-day mountain-biking excursion and transport to and from Phnom Penh. In 2008 the village collected about $7,000, says Mr. Shapira; last year, more than $19,200.
David Miller, who works for the Australian Taxation Office in Canberra, visited Chi Phat for three nights in December 2008. He wasn't expecting luxury: "You don't go visit a place in the middle of the jungle if you're expecting comfort all the way," he says.
He went on a guided hike one day and on a mountain-biking trip another. "Cycling through remote jungle, and not recognizing much of the flora, made it much more exciting" than biking back in Australia, he says. His tour guides were village men who didn't speak English but were friendly, communicated well with body language, and knew the forest like the back of their hands.
On his bike trip, he passed large swaths of burned land. (Fires not only clear land but also chase out animals, making them easier to catch.) "I don't know of many other ways to offer alternatives to these people so they will stop cutting down the rain forest," he says. "Action like ecotourism is better than no action at all."
Nawung, Indonesia
In 2006, an earthquake in central Java reduced many small villages to near rubble. But aside from some light damage to a few ramshackle buildings, the quake had little outward effect on Nawung, a rural village of about 500 people in the foothills near Yogyakarta. Below the surface, however, was a different story: Geological shifts caused the village's few natural wells to dry up.
It was a blow to farming, the village mainstay, already a challenge in the dry, hilly land. The village needed a new gig.
Enter Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, a century-old German aid organization that bolsters rural communities through reconstruction, livelihood training and disaster-risk reduction. Some years ago in Kosovo, it reconstructed homes and taught returning war refugees to cultivate saffron as a cash crop.
At the time of the Java earthquake, more than half the people of Nawung earned less than $1 a day, says Sae Kani, an ASB program manager for Indonesia who specializes in disaster-risk-reduction education. Young villagers typically left to find work in retail, manufacturing, housekeeping or construction in places like Jakarta and Yogyakarta.
But in 2007, ASB noticed the village had something going for it -- a new road linking Nawung with Yogyakarta, 45 kilometers to the west, and other significant towns, including Sleman, to the northwest, and Wonosari, to the south. The road -- a scenic route through hills, forests and paddy fields -- significantly boosted the trade and tourism potential between Nawung and Yogyakarta, a hub for Indonesian arts and crafts, as well as other towns and villages.
Within this setting, ASB set out to help make the village self-reliant by teaching villagers to make crafts and foods that they could sell to nearby merchants and retailers.
The ASB team -- three field staff members and a project manager (plus, in the beginning, an architect and engineer) -- moved into the village and set up workshops to train villagers in four skills: bamboo weaving, stone carving, textile making and food preparation.
The food-preparation group is the largest, with about 50 members, all women. Tumiyem, a mother of two small children who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, is one of them. Through an interpreter she says that before the training, "we knew nothing about cooking snacks." Now, she says, the benefit is two-fold: The women can generate extra income and "we can gather with our friends regularly."
About 18 men studied stone craft; now nine of them churn out soap dishes, small statues and water fountains for gardens. The textile group -- three women and two men -- sew pillowcases and containers.
ASB helps with marketing and business connections, teaches bookkeeping and profit management, and provides a little start-up capital for each group. The food-preparation group, for instance, received about $550, part of which went to buy supplies.
Sales are climbing. Last year a woman named Atun who makes chips -- primarily from banana and cassava -- sold about $390 of her snacks from July to November, compared with $110 in the first six months of the year. The stone-masonry group, which sells most of its products to a pair of buyers from Yogyakarta, saw the biggest jump in sales: Between March and November, it pulled in nearly $900, up from about $110 for all of 2008.
ASB has spent about $100,000 on the project, along the way building things such as a small showroom to display the village's goods, production and storage houses for the bamboo-weaving and stone-masonry groups and a Web site (www.nawung.com). Its three staff members in Nawung will stay through the end of this year, when ASB plans to focus more on tourism development and improved marketing for village handicrafts.
The German nonprofit also set up a microfinance fund within each group so members can take out small loans. For instance in the food group, borrowers can obtain three-month loans at an interest rate of 5% a month. (The interest income is used to benefit the groups, such as for raw materials.) And villagers have a good track record of repaying the loans, which they've used for a variety of purposes. Last spring, for example, a member of the stone-craft group named Tukino borrowed $21 to buy fertilizer and pay his children's school fees.
Today, Nawung is on the upswing: New homes are springing up, streets are better paved and cellphones are a more common sight. More important, when ASB leaves, the skills it has taught will likely remain.
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