Who is the famous actress Duch Sophea?

Actress Duch Sophea earning first place in beauty pageant and 30 million riels (US$7,500) (Photo Koh Santepheap News)

Duch Sophea's brand new Lexus car still without license plate (Photo Koh Santepheap News)

Duch Sophea ducking reporters after police questioning (Photo Koh Santepheap News)

Duch Sophea, a Very Fast Rising Star
A woman came out to defend Duch Sophea and to threat news reporters

Koh Santepheap Daily News
Thursday, 23 Feb. 2006
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

Phnom Penh – Actress Duch Sophea seems to be under heavy criticisms lately. The actress had risen up during a very short period of time in her acting career, and she became a very well known actress, unlike other actors who had been working in this field for a long time. This can be attributed to her beauty which pleases the public. According to the Popular magazine, the criticisms leveled against the actress stem for her change in attitude which the public did not approve, like the episode in which she drove a new car chasing and trying to hit a school student, she then got out of the car and went to slap the student. Furthermore, she also violated the law right under the eyes of traffic police officers. The incident with the school student, and the accusation that she drove her car into police officers, earned her a visit to the criminal police office for questioning.

On 21 Feb. 2006, based on a police warrant, Duch Sophea and her sister Duch Samphoas was questioned at the police station. Police officers said that Duch Sophea and her sister were asked to come to the police station for questioning regarding the violence perpetrated on a school student as reported by the Phnom Penh mayor, and based on the order of the Phnom Penh police commissioner, following the report that Duch Sophea drove a white Lexus car with no license plate to chase and beat up a student from Wat Koh high school, she then also attempted to drive her car to hit police officers also. These bad incidents followed one another. A police officer said that on 16 Feb., following the beat up of Wat Koh students which caused a ruckus all over the city of Phnom Penh, Duch Sophea continued on and went to beat up another student from Sisowath high school also right under the eyes of Phnom Penh criminal police officers.

Duch Sophea and her sister, Duch Samphoas, showed up for criminal police questioning in Phnom Penh on 21 Feb., the pair was accompanied by Mrs. Pich Socheata, deputy Daun Penh district governor. It was not known if Pich Socheata was the protector of the pair or not, but she prevented news reporters from taking pictures of the sisters. She even threatened news reporters while the police officers were mocking her. It could be that the deputy governor received compensation for the sisters for her to come out and defend the sisters so ardently. News reporters spent almost five hours trying to obtain clarifications from Duch Sophea, but they were met by refusal and obstruction from the deputy governor instead. The deputy governor even threatened to use violence against the news reporters if they dare publish Duch Sophea’s story.

Police authority said that Duch Sophea could face legal action if she is sued by the victimized high school students, however, up to now, the police did not yet receive any complaint. The warrant for questioning was issued based on order from the Phnom Penh police commissioner after it was learnt that disorder was perpetrated against police officers. Koh Santepheap reporters had requested to meet the young actress but she denied that she perpetrated these incidents because, at the time the incidents occurred, she was in Thailand participating in a film festival under the invitation of the Thai ambassador in Cambodia. She claimed that herself, actor Yuthara Chhany, and actress Dy Savet also participated in the film festival, and that the two actors can be her witnesses. Regarding the 16 Feb. news reporting that the actress drove her Lexus car to chase and hit a student in front of Wat Koh high school, and that when she caught up with the student, she got out of the car to slap the student, she claimed that the driver of the car was her older sister who looks a lot like her, but that it was not her.

She said that on the morning of the incident, her sister drove the car chasing after a female student who beat up her niece, to ask her why she did so, and not to try to hit the student. When she caught up with the student around Wat Koh high school, Duch Sophea’s sister grabbed the hand of the student, but, the student started cursing her. Angered by the cursing, Duch Sophea’s older sister then slapped the student. Duch Sophea’s clarification contradicts with her police report where she indicated that she was also present with her older sister during the incident, but that she was not the driver.

A tearful Duch Sophea denied she drove her Lexus car to hit a police barricade near the stop light at Moha Montrey pagoda around 9:40 AM on 20 Feb. when driving from the west direction to the east. She said the story was not true. She said that she just returned back from Thailand when she heard this story about herself, in reality, she claimed she does not know anything about it.

The 20-year-old actress said that she is not alone in Phnom Penh to drive a Lexus car, she said that other people in Phnom Penh are also driving the same brand car, therefore this is a mix up.

According to the police authority, her claim is also in contradiction to the police declaration she gave where she said that she was not the driver of the Lexus car which hit the police barricade, it was her sister who was the driver. Currently, there are two lawsuit cases pending against Duch Sophea, one regarding the car chase after a motorcycle and the slapping of a school student, and the second case regarding the hitting of police barricades installed by traffic police officers. These were the reasons why she was asked to come to the police station for clarification on 21 Feb.

There are also rumors that Duch Sophea is maintained [as a mistress] by a high ranking government official who bought her the brand new car she is currently driving, that is why she is considered as very fast rising starlet. However, Duch Sophea denied the rumors: “If I am involved as the rumors claim, I would just sleep and eat, I would not have to earn a living acting under the heat of the sun which darkens my skin in order to film movies.” She said that in Cambodia nowadays, the sale of a plot of land would be enough for someone to buy a brand new car.

These incidents do not seem to affect her career. She is currently filming the movie “Pech Bovor Kanha” [Pech the beautiful girl] with the actor Chap Chean as the movie director. Furthermore, she also received an honor certificate for representing Cambodian actresses at the Thai film festival which she participated.

Duch Sophea just became famous recently, however, faced with innuendos, she did not feel good about it. She said: “since starting my acting career, I only encounter this type of bad stories. I do not like it, I just want to stop [acting].”

Vietnam allows overseas Vietnamese to buy land on disputed Koh Tral Island

Map location of the Cambodian island of Koh Tral, known as Phu Quoc in Vietnamese

Please read addendum at the end of the article to understand historical facts on the ownership of Khmer Koh Tral island (known as Phu Quoc) by the Vietnamese.

VietNamNet – New regulation allows overseas Vietnamese and foreigners to purchase property on Phu Quoc Island in southern Kien Giang Province. Chairman of Kien Giang People’s Committee Bui Ngoc Suong talks about the regulations.

The new regulation allows overseas Vietnamese to buy houses and transfer land on Phu Quoc Island, while Decree 81 only allows four subjects of overseas Vietnamese to buy houses in Vietnam. Are the regulations in Phu Quoc more open?

The regulations for Phu Quoc Island are more open than previous regulations. Now overseas Vietnamese, economic organizations, foreigners, foreign-invested companies, and foreign organizations are permitted to build houses for sale or lease, and to hire or transfer land with infrastructure on Phu Quoc Island; however the areas to do so will be restricted .

How will Kien Giang implement the regulations?

Provincial leaders met last week to discuss implementation of the regulations at the end of the month. In late March we will combine with HCM City People’s Committee to organize a seminar introducing planning, investment opportunities and policies of Phu Quoc Island. However, we need more time to deal with some difficulties that could hinder investment. At present we do not have detailed planning for the entire island, and infrastructure is still poor.

According to the new regulations, An Thoi Port and Phu Quoc Airport will be developed into international ports but we do not yet have detailed planning for this. If the two projects begin this year, construction will be complete in 2010. Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration told us last week that Phu Quoc Airport can firstly serve short-distance flights and will be upgraded to medium-distance in the future.

How do you expect development of Phu Quoc to occur after the new regulation is issued?

This is a big opportunity to turn the island into a high-quality ecological tourism, trade and service centre in Southeast Asia. Phu Quoc will become an economic centre, under the guidance of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. The number of investment projects on the island has increased considerably compared to two years ago. Nearly 100 projects have been licensed or await license. But as I said, difficulties of detailed planning and poor infrastructure has meant many projects are not licensed or cannot be implemented. We have hired foreign consulting companies to research and design detailed planning for Phu Quoc, to make it more attractive in the eyes of domestic and foreign investors.

Which areas does Phu Quoc want to call for investment in?

In accordance with planning for Phu Quoc island to 2010, the island will be a high-quality ecological tourism centre and a trade and service hub for Vietnam and the region. Nam An Thoi peninsula will develop sea- eco-tourism of high quality, and tourist sites will be developed at the beaches of Duong Dong, Sao, Khem and Truong. Duong Dong Town will become the administrative, service, commercial, industrial and tourism centre of Phu Quoc.

Phu Quoc now needs investment in golf projects at Cua Can, Ganh Dau, An Thoi, Bai Vong, racecourse and kite flying grounds in Duong To, a water sport site and sea diving at Ham Ninh. In addition, we also need the participation of investors in banking, services, and infrastructure development.

Koh Tral (Phu Quoc) History

By Dr. Say Bory (16 August 2000)

Historical Benchmarks:

• 1856: King Ang Duong apprise Mr. de Montigny, French envoy in visit to Bangkok, through the intermediary of Bishop Miche, his intention to yield Koh Tral to France (cf. “The Second [French] Empire of IndoChina”).
• 1863: Establishing the Protectorate of Cambodia, France annexed Kampuchea Krom, made a French colony out of it, and named it “Cochinchine”.
• May 25, 1874: Koh Tral (Phu Quoc) which belonged to Cambodia (under the reign of King Ang Duong) was placed under the administration of the Governor of Cochinchine, i.e. under the administration of France, by the French Protectorate.
• June 16, 1875: Koh Tral is attached to the inspection district of Hatien which was colonized by France. One needs to recall that in 1855, King Ang Duong reminded Napoleon III [first French President (1948-1852), later French Emperor (1852-1870)] that “the territories annexed by Vietnam located between the Western branch of the Mekong [River] and the Gulf of Siam (Hatien area) were “actually Cambodian land” (cf. A. Dolphin-Dauphin-Meunier – “History of Cambodia”, pg. 99). Therefore, Koh Tral always remains a Cambodian island, even though it is under the administration of colonial France.
• January 31, 1939: the “Brévié Line” which is not a maritime border demarcation, but rather a line dividing the police and administrative authority “on the islands along the Gulf of Siam” [was established]. By this act, Koh Tral was placed, as it did in 1875, under the French colonial administration of Cochinchine. Brévié himself specified that “the territorial dependence of these islands (including that of Phu Quoc) remains entirely reserved”.
• June 04, 1949: In spite of Cambodian protests and the Deferre Motion [the Deferre Motion has been part of the Bill of Transfer of French Cochinchine to Vietnam which spelled out specific rights of the Khmer Krom people], France voted a law allowing the attachment of the Cochinchine territory (Khmer territory) to Vietnam.
• April 24, 1954: at the Geneva Conference, Cambodia still continued to protest against the unjust and uneven transfer of her Cochinchine lands to Vietnam by France, and reserved her right to litigate the case at the United Nations.
• June 07, 1957: Norodom Sihanouk, President of the Council of Ministers, requested in a letter to Lon Nol, then National Defense Minister, to ensure the protection of all islands located along the Gulf of Siam (thus also including Koh Tral), and in particular, the group of islands of Poulo-Pangjang (Khmer name: Koh Krachak Ses; Vietnamese name: Tho Chu), Koh PouloWai (Khmer name: Koh Ach Ses) and Koh Tang.
• December 30, 1957: In his Kret regarding the delimitation of the Cambodian continental shelf, King Norodom Suramarit clearly reaffirmed that Cambodia reserved her retention on her historical rights to Koh Tral (cf. Article 6 of the Kret).
• 1963: In the book “Cambodia Geography” published in 1963 by Tan Kim Huon, a Khmer scholar who was also an agricultural engineer and forestry expert, [he indicated that] Koh Tral is indeed a Cambodian island (cf. maps no. 3, 12, and 19).
• 1969: Koh Tral (Phu Quoc) is included in the official list of Cambodian islands published by the Industry and Mineral Resources Ministry, and was numbered 61 (on a total of 64 islands).
• July 01, 1972: Following the July 1, 1972 Kret, the Khmer Republic Government maintains its reaffirmation of its sovereignty on its continental shelf and warns oil companies against [potential] consequences of any of their actions undertaken in this zone. Koh Tral still remains Cambodian.
• 1975 to End of 1978: Status quo.
• July 07, 1982: Koh Tral (Phu Quoc) and Poulo-Pangjang (Tho Chu) appear in the Vietnamese territory, on a map attached to the “Treaty on the Historical Water Zone between the Popular Republic of Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”.
• Therefore, Vietnam annexes 30,000 sq. km. of Khmer maritime territory, and it creates the “historical sea” extending 10,000 sq. km. off of Koh Tral (cf. Cambodia: Oil Research, Continental Shelf - Mr. Sean Pengse, April 1995).

Conclusion

Based on the facts cited above, a self-conclusion is obvious.

Phu Quoc Island Geography

Location: Phu Quoc Island lies in the Gulf of Thailand, 45 km from Ha Tien and 15 km south of the coast of Cambodia.

Characteristics: Phu Quoc, the largest island in Vietnam, part of Kien Giang Province, is also part of an archipelago consisting of 22 islands of all sizes. The island covers an area of 585 km2 and is 50km long.

The population underwent a sudden increase in the last twenty years; there are 55,000 people inhabiting the island now whereas there were no more than 5,000 people in 1975.

Phu Quoc is also called the Emerald Island because of its natural treasures and infinite tourism potential. The island is well known for its high-quality fish sauce; Phu Quoc fish sauce smells particularly good since it is made from a small fish, ca com, with a high level of protein. The island produces 6 million liters of fish sauce every year.

Phu Quoc Island has many harbors such as An Thoi and Hon Thom where international and domestic ships anchor. Also, there are several historical sites on the island: National Hero Nguyen Trung Truc's military base, Gia Long King relics from the time he spent on the island, and Phu Quoc Prison.

Off the coast of the island emerges a group of 105 islands of all sizes. Some of them are densely inhabited such as Hon Tre and Kien Hai, 25 km from Rach Gia. Visitors can spend time on the beach or hike while observing the wild animals - vietnam-tourism.com

Sirivudh warning Ta Prohm for criticizing Hun Sen

Prince Norodom Sirivudh, secretary-general of Funcinpec party

Prince Sirivudh warns Ta Prohm Radio Station for Broadcasting Information Contrary to Funcinpec Position

Koh Santepheap Daily News
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

Phnom Penh – An official letter was sent by Prince Norodom Sirivudh, the secretary-general of the Funcinpec party, to the manager of the Ta Prohm radio station known as a Funcinpec-leaning station. However, it is not known if the station is under the control of Funcinpec, but the station attacked prime minister Hun Sen and his CPP party.

The letter sent by Prince Norodom Sirivudh indicated that the [radio station] broadcasting brushed upon prime minister Hun Sen and the CPP party, this is in contradiction of Funcinpec position. The letter requested an urgent end to this type of broadcasting which comes at a time of a new political disagreement coinciding with the return of Mr. Sam Rainsy back home. The manager of the Ta Prohm radio station is Mr. Noranarith Anandayath, the chief of cabinet of Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh.

Prince Sirivudh, in his official position as Funcinpec Secretary-General, wrote in the letter: “As you already know, the current [political] climate in Cambodia had been improved because of the cooperation between the Funcinpec party and the CPP party. Funcinpec does not currently have a policy of attacking the CPP, on the contrary, we are still preserving our good partnership in order to secure political stability, security, and national development. Therefore, I am requesting that Ta Prohm station urgently stops the broadcasting of any information involving Samdech Hun Sen or the CPP from now on.”

The prince warned in his letter: “I hope you will change according to this advice, there will be no next time.” Copies of the letter were also sent to Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh, Funcinpec president, Samdech Chea Sim, CPP president, Samdech Hun Sen, CPP vice-president, Mr. Say Chhum, CPP secretary-general.

Prince Ranariddh Is Silent on PM Hun Sen's Criticism

Funcinpec President, Prince Norodom Ranariddh. His second wife had allegedly been criticized once before by Prime Minister Hun Sen for interfering with state affairs involving sales of official positions.

Reaksmey Heng Voice of America
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
27/02/2006

Prime Minister Hun Sen criticized Prince Norodom Ranariddh from Kampong Cham city, for the second time, criticisms alleged to be verbal attacks, and that may be ignited to be political conflict between the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), led by Mr. Hun Sen, and the royalist FUNCINPEC party, led by prince Ranariddh.

The conflict may lead to a split between the two parties, after the CPP shakes hands with the opposition Sam Rainsy party (SRP).

But a government high ranking official, Mr. Khieu Kanharith, says that the alliance of the two parties in the coalition government has no problem, because Mr. Hun Sen did not point to any individual or any particular party by name.

On Sunday 02-26-06, Mr. Hun Sen mocks a party and an individual, although not by name, but was perceived as saying that he attacked prince Ranariddh when he said that he will threaten to withdraw any government official who was appointed by a woman who is a mistress of a high ranking official.

Mr. Hun Sen compared this woman to a demonic fox.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh declines to comment to reporters upon his return to Cambodia from a visit to Singapore. A number of FUNCINPEC party's officials who went to the Phnom Penh international airport to greet the prince say that he does not wish to comment on current political issues.

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy welcomes the prince's position to remain silent.

Mr. Khieu Kanharith who is the government's spokesman seems to defend Mr. Hun Sen's criticisms, saying that the prime minister has not criticized prince Ranariddh openly, but that he hopes that the two parties will find a solution to this problem.

The CPP and the FUNCINPEC party have a conflict regarding Mr. Hun Sen's proposal to change the National Assembly's committees' structures.

Mr. Khieu Kanharith says that he hopes the issue can be discussed very soon.

NGOs Officials Are Concerned Over Political Conflicts

Sakada Chun
Voice of America
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
27/02/2006

NGOs officials worry about political conflicts that can happen between the three political party leaders because of verbal attacks through the media.

This happens after Prime Minister Hun Sen says that there is a political party that spreads rumors that the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), when allied with opposition Sam Rainsy party (SRP) will destroy the royalist FUNCINPEC party led by Prince Norodom Ranaridh, and that there are verbal attacks between opposition party leader Sam Rainsy and Prince Ranarith about the position of the National Assembly's committees' directors and deputy directors, as to what party can appoint its director and deputy directors and how many.

President of the Center For Social Development, Ms. Chea Vannath, human rights organization Licadho's director, Ms. Pung Chiv Kek, and Executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, Mr. Sok Sam Oeun, all say that the Cambodian politicians should sit down and solve their problems at a table, instead of attacking one another by radios or televisions.

KR Victim: "If there is no tribunal, they died in vain, like animals"

Seeking peace, Cambodians face Khmer Rouge nightmare again

AFP
Posted: 27 February 2006 1213 hrs

CHOEUNG EK, Cambodia : Phon Sam An stood with several hundred other Cambodian villagers amid the mass graves pitting the Choeung Ek killing fields, where the bones of thousands of Khmer Rouge victims were dug out of the ground more than three decades ago.

"I'm shocked by these graves ... after seeing this I can't even cry," said the 52-year-old widow, one of hundreds of rural villagers brought over the weekend to Khmer Rouge atrocity sites.

The grim tour was the first of several planned by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia ahead of a tribunal for former Khmer Rouge leaders that is expected to start late this year.

The Centre, which has been compiling evidence against the Khmer Rouge, brings rural Cambodians face to face - many for the first time - with the most notorious symbols of the genocide that devastated this small kingdom in the late 1970s.

The 300 villagers also visited the newly opened tribunal site outside the capital Phnom Penh, where UN administrators have been at work with their Cambodian counterparts since early February getting the long-stalled legal process under way.

"We want them to know this place so it's easier for them when the trial comes," Dara Vantan, deputy director of Documentation Centre of Cambodia, told AFP.

Centre officials worry that years of legal wrangling between the UN and the government - in which several former Khmer Rouge cadre hold posts - have alienated many regular Cambodians from the tribunal.

"This visit is to clearly tell them about the trial and to push them to participate in the process," Dara Vantan said.

As many as two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution during the 1975-79 rule of the Khmer Rouge, who erased all vestiges of modern life in their drive for an agrarian utopia.

Regime leader Pol Pot died in a remote jungle camp in 1998, while observers worry that other former regime leaders - including Pol Pot's number two Nuon Chea, foreign minister Ieng Sary and former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan - could die before the joint UN-Cambodian tribunal is convened.

So far only two former regime leaders are in jail awaiting trial: Ta Mok, a brutal military commander who ordered some of the regime's worst purges, and Duch, the slightly-built former math teacher who during the Khmer Rouge years ran the notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre.

Inside Tuol Sleng, a former school where 17,000 men, women and children were tortured before being taken to Choeung Ek and battered to death with farm implements, the villagers shuffled through corridors that still bear traces of the horrors that occurred there.

Tangles of rusting barbed wire bar the windows and many classrooms are lined with narrow, crudely built brick cells.

Only 14 Tuol Sleng inmates - a painter, a sculptor, an engineer and a handful of others the Khmer Rouge found useful - survived their incarceration.

One of these, 75-year-old Chhum Mey, pointed out the wire whips, clubs and knives used to torture prisoners, and explained how he was kept shackled with iron bars for most of his imprisonment.

"This reminds me of the bitterness I encountered under the regime," he said before breaking down into sobs.

Composing himself, he vowed to come before the tribunal to condemn his former tormentors.

"I will be one of the witnesses. I just want to ask them what led me to be put in Tuol Sleng," he said.

Cambodians appear divided over a Khmer Rouge tribunal, with some wondering what good it will do to put old men on the dock so many years after the genocide.

"I don't feel happy about seeing this because as a victim I don't know what justice can be had," said 40 year-old Nob Mei as he peered into the tribunal's future courtroom.

But Phon Sam An, whose husband and nine other family members were killed by the Khmer Rouge, said closure is needed for those who perished never knowing what alleged crimes had sent them to their deaths.

"This trial will help find justice for those victims who had done nothing wrong," she said.

"If there is no tribunal, they died in vain, like animals." - AFP/de

Cambodia launches 2008 general population census plan

Cambodia Monday launched the 2008 general population census plan to help the country to formulate specific policies and programs to balance the population growth and development.

The 2008 census will start in March with completion of data processing by mid-2009 and dissemination during 2009-2010. The census will be the second one in Cambodia. The first one was conducted in 1998.

The census will provide data on population size and a broad range of population characteristics that can be compared with the corresponding data from the previous census to assess the impact of various development program on the people and to provide guidelines for planning for the future, said Chhay Than, minister of planning.

Prime Minister Hun Sen pointed out that census "is an important work for our country." He said that "in general, the population census will reflect the demographic status of those countries and help their respective governments to formulate specific policies and programs balancing the population growth and development."

Based on the 1998 census, the Cambodian population was 11.4 million.

Hun Sen said that the Cambodian population will further increase even though the fertility rate among women is low. "By the end of this decade, our population will reach 15 million," he said.

"This is due to the growth pattern among women group who borne during high fertility generation between 1980 and 1995," the premier added. The population growth during the current first half decade is 1.9 percent per annum.

The estimated costs for the census is 6 million U.S. dollars. UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities) has pledged support for this plan, and is committed to providing 1.5 million dollars, and hopes to mobilize an additional 2-3 million dollars from other resources.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Sen urged the development partners to provide additional contributions in terms of technical and financial supports "to carry out this immense task."

Source: Xinhua

Funcinpec's Rebuke to Sam Rainsy

<Click on the page above to view a larger size version>

<Click on the page above to view a larger size version>

In a reply letter sent Friday to Prime Minister Hun Sen for the latter's request to Prince Ranariddh to provide two National Assembly chairman positions to SRP, Prince Ranariddh informed Hun Sen that the Sam Rainsy Party had foregone its opportunity to claim its committee seats following the 2003 national election. Sam Rainsy called the letter a sign of the prince's resistance to reconciliation and democratization.

"The content of the prince's letter shows that the Prince doesn't have any goodwill with the spirit of national reconciliation...and doesn't comply with the people's will as expressed in the general election in 2003," Sam Rainsy wrote in a Friday reply to the prince.

Subsequently, Funcinpec party issued a statement the same day calling Sam Rainsy an instigator of instability. "Recently, the Prince had forgiven Sam Rainsy," the statement read, "but within days, Sam Rainsy blasted the Prince and Funcinpec Party, and also provoked a lot of problems."

The above letter provides the rebuke Funcinpec issued against Sam Rainsy. Related story is also provided in the Cambodia Daily article posting below.

Cambodia Genocide Survivors Tour Khmer Rouge Trial Facility

Koung Eive (L), 52, a prisoner and survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime looks at her portrait at the Toul Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh February 25, 2006. Cambodia prepared a visit for more than 300 people to one of the genocidal crime sites in Phnom Penh. REUTERS/Khem Sovannara

Louve Sim , 49, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, points to her portrait at a genocide museum in Phonm Penh February 25, 2006. Cambodia prepared a visit for more than 300 people to one of the genocidal crime sites in Phnom Penh. REUTERS/Khem Sovannara

A Cambodian Muslim man speaks during a visit to the special courthouse prepared for former Khmer Rouge leaders in Kandal, Cambodia, on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006. Some 400 victims of the Khmer Rouge got a first look Sunday at the courtroom set up to try surviving leaders for genocide, with Cambodian officials saying this was proof that authorities are serious about putting them on trial. (AP Photo/Ker Munthit)

Taing Kim, 50, a former rape victim of the Khmer Rouge , speaks during a visit to the special courthouse prepared for former Khmer Rouge leaders in Kandal, Cambodia, on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2006. Some 400 victims of the Khmer Rouge got a first look Sunday at the courtroom set up to try surviving leaders for genocide, with Cambodian officials saying this was proof that authorities are serious about putting them on trial. (AP Photo/Ker Munthit)

KANDAL, Cambodia (AP)--Survivors of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge on Sunday toured a courtroom set up to try surviving leaders, as an official assured them the perpetrators would still face justice almost three decades after the regime collapsed.

Funding problems have prevented authorities from setting a date for the trials - to be convened by Cambodia and the U.N. - raising concerns that the remaining Khmer Rouge leaders may die before they can be tried.

However, trial administrator Sean Visoth told about 400 survivors who toured the courtroom that, "this court is sending a message to the perpetrators that they cannot escape from justice and that they will be brought to face it."

One frustrated survivor demanded to know an exact date for the first trial, but Sean Visoth was unable to provide an answer.

"I think people have been quite frustrated and want to get it over with," Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent group compiling evidence of Khmer Rogue crimes and which organized the tour.

"People have developed doubt about the upcoming tribunal," he said.

Cambodia and the U.N. agreed in 2003 to jointly convene trials of former Khmer Rouge leaders, who are blamed in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution during the group's 1975-79 rule.

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. The ultra-communist movement collapsed a year later, but none of its top leaders has been brought to justice. Many, aging and infirm, still live and move freely in Cambodia.

While funding problems in Cambodia have delayed the trials, some victims say that with the building of the courtroom they are hopeful justice will prevail.

"I wish I will live long enough to find myself sitting here again and watching the actual trials," said 67-year-old Sa Ly, a Cambodian Muslim man who lost his mother and brother during the Khmer Rouge rule.

"I'd like to know to what extent they (Khmer Rouge leaders) will be punished," he said.

Sa Ly was joined by Buddhist nuns, members of Cambodian Muslim community and former Khmer Rouge soldiers who visited the 500-seat amphitheater on the grounds of the court located 16 kilometers west of the capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodia's glimmer of hope

Hun Sen - Sam Rainsy - Norodom Ranariddh

By James D. Zirin
Published February 26, 2006
Washington Times

The Feb. 10 return to Cambodia of opposition leader Sam Rainsy after a year of exile is a ray of hope in that war-scarred, corruption-rife country. The Bush administration quickly welcomed the promising development.

Mr. Rainsy, former finance minister, made the mistake of taking on the Communist Prime Minister Hun Sen after the rigged election of 2003. He charged that Hun Sen who had a majority, but not a constitutionally required two-thirds vote to form a government, had paid a $25 million bribe to Prince Ranariddh, elder son of former King Sihunouk, to create a ruling coalition. Mr. Rainsy held a public rally in front of the National Assembly to level his charges and narrowly escaped death when several grenades went off in the crowd, killing 16.

When Mr. Rainsy accused the prime minister of complicity in the attentat, Hun Sen sued for defamation and Mr. Rainsy was sentenced in absentia to 18 months in prison. He fled the country. Recently, the king pardoned Mr. Rainsy, who returned expressing words of reconciliation and healing. It is hoped he is in no danger and continues to fight the Hun Sen government.

Cambodia has not totally emerged from the genocide committed in the late 1970s by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime. It is estimated 2 million of its best and brightest, nearly 25 percent of its people, perished in the killing fields near Phnom Penh, its capital city. The executioners themselves were not immune from the purge as Pol Pot eventually targeted many of them for torture and death.

Pol Pot died in 1998. None of the Khmer Rouge leaders has since been brought to trial before a domestic or international court. Ieng Sary, the former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, received amnesty in 1996 in the name of "national reconciliation." The U.N. continues to press Cambodia to try as soon as possible the principal alleged war criminals, including Mr. Sary, Noun Chea, Pol Pot's "brother No. 2," and Khmer Rouge kingpin Khieu Samphan but no date has been set, perhaps because China views the trials as a "waste of time."

As another sadistic feature of their crime against humanity, the Khmer Rouge peppered the country with land mines and even included the area surrounding Angkor Wat, the national treasure. Everywhere one sees beggars with missing limbs and hideously scarred faces -- land mine victims who were soldiers or even innocent farmers -- receiving no government aid.

Since 1999, when Vietnamese forces withdrew from the country, the Cambodian people, largely rice farmers and fisherman, have been ill-served by their government. The tourist concession at Angkor Wat has been sold to a Japanese consortium, including several public officials, who mulct millions annually from the high admission fees charged visiting tourists.

Even the horrific killing fields of Choeung Ek, a short distance from the capital, command a hefty fee from sightseers, with the proceeds going to Japanese and other politically influential Cambodian interests.

Mr. Rainsy now has Herculean work cut out for him as he pledged on his arrival at Pochentong Airport to "do whatever it takes for the country to progress."

Road infrastructure is poor. People everywhere talk of corruption in the government, but it is a way of life. Advertisements on billboards warn that child sex is a crime, but brothels flourish in the capital involving clearly underage females. In a country where the per capita income is $300 a year, 15-year-old virgins are sold for $600.

Cambodia has Asia's highest national prevalence of HIV, with an incidence of 2.6 percent among adults 15 to 49. Ads for a popular brand of condom plastered on the back of rickshaws proclaim, "Pleasure you want; protection you trust."

Public health is a serious problem. Poverty, malnutrition and poor health services have produced some of the worst health conditions in the world. It is a rare Cambodian who has not had malaria or tuberculosis. Ubiquitous mosquitoes also spread deadly dengue fever, which particularly affects children quarantined in roadside health centers.

The livelihood of fisherman is in serious jeopardy on the Tonle Sap, one of the world's most productive fresh-water fisheries, where daily hauls per hectare are 30 times the North Atlantic's.

China plans to dam the Mekong to the north for a hydroelectric project that will disturb the area's unique ecosystem that provides natural flood and drought mitigation. The Hun Sen government does nothing to rally U.N. opposition to the project.

Cambodia needs to develop. A recent report by the U.S. Agency for International Development said it ranks 130 among 170 nations in life expectancy, educational attainment and real income. Its principal industries are rice farming, fishing and some mining of precious stones, minerals and, lately, tourism.

Were it not for the wonder of the 12th-century temples of Angkor Wat, which Cambodia eventually won back from Thailand as a result of the French annexation in 1907, there would be little to induce a tourist to visit.

If Cambodian history is any measure, there is little basis for optimism. But, there is potential for real progress if the government can be reformed, disease controlled and the nation's wealth fairly shared with its tormented and exploited people. Meanwhile, national elections are two years away.

James D. Zirin is a lawyer in New York and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He recently visited Cambodia.

Plight of Cambodian Villagers along the Vietnamese Borders

With severe shortage of food in rural areas, destitute Cambodian people are coming in drove to the capital to seek relief. Food shortage is more severe for people living along the Vietnamese border (Photo Licadho)

Caught between the Vietnamese authority which prevented them from farming the land they own inside Cambodia, and land grabbing from Cambodian government officials, Cambodian villagers living along the Vietnamese border are caught in a cycle of poverty which they have a hard time to get out of. Poverty had forced a large number of them to pull their children out of school to help earn a living for the family. In this second installment, RFA is reporting this poverty cycle which the government authority is turning a blind eye on.

Livelihood of Cambodian villagers along the Vietnamese borders

23 Feb. 2006
By Ouk Sav Bory Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media

On the trip to Daung commune, Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province, located next the Cambodia-Vietnam border, crop growing fields are vast but they are all bare of any crops. Each village we passed by are almost deserted, the villagers told us that they have left their villages to work as laborers outside of their home.

The Daung commune authority, Mr. Ouk Soeun informed us that some of the villagers had left their villages to find work in Phnom Penh, while others went to work in Vietnam.

The reason they had left their villages was because they lack the mean to plant their own rice fields. Ouk Soeun told us that the villagers do not lack land for rice field, each family own three to four hectares of land, however, because of the border dispute, almost all of the villagers now have no land to plant rice. Furthermore, there is shortage of water combined with the successive droughts in the past few years, the villagers are now lacking food.

On top their plight, inside the district, there is no work so that 90% of the village young people had to find factory work elsewhere to earn money to feed their family. Four villages are destitute: Paun, Daung, Chheu Teal, and Prey Tuol villages.

Ouk Soeun added: “In these villages, there are about 400 to 500 families that lack land to plant rice. Even if they have land, they are very small plots.”

Pen Phon, a villager from Daung village, told us that people in his village lack both land and water.

He said that the border treaty had been agreed on but the installation of border markers are not done yet, and the villagers still don’t know which plot they can plant rice on.

Whenever the villagers start to plant anything on Khmer land, Vietnamese soldiers came in to prevent them and accuse them of plating on “white zone,” [areas where borders delimitation have not yet been agreed upon by both the Cambodian and Vietnamese parties] just like it was 20 years ago. However, on the Vietnamese side, the Vietnamese farmers can plant their crops all the way next to the Cambodian villages [even though they are considered as white zones also].

Pen Phon said: “On the Vietnam side, they can plow the land further and further into our side. Now, they plow the land, they dig canals to irrigate water.”

So Doeun, a woman from Prey Tuol village added: “They designate [these areas] as white zone, they said that the Vietnamese are not allowed to plant crop, and so do the Khmer people. But now, on the Vietnamese side, they plant crop everywhere, they can do anything they want. On the Cambodian side, even on a width of a plow, we are not allowed to plant on.”

An anonymous man from Prey Tuol village said: “Like my rice field, they [the Vietnamese] took half of it to plant their crop, the other half, they prevented me from touching it. They can plant, but we cannot in these so-called white zones. I saw the prime minister signing the border treaty, I was very pleased, but up to now, I am not happy at all, because they [the Vietnamese] can plant, but I cannot.”

Meung Nam, a woman villager from Daung told us that a small rice field does not produce enough rice for her feeding, and she has to go find work in Vietnam to earn some money for living.

Meung Ham said: “Anything I transport, they [the authority] come and confiscate it, I plant rice, the Vietnamese chase me away. Think about it, where can the Cambodian people live?”

Mao Sokha, a woman from Daung village told us that she has no land to plant rice, and she has no money for her children’s schooling. She will pull her children out of high school this year.

Mao Sokha said: “We have no rice field, the Vietnamese took all our land. When my children need to go to school, I have no money to pay for their schooling because I have too many children.”

Daung commune is located at the Vietnamese border, in Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province. It consists of 22 villages and 2,447 families. The area occupied by rice fields, although not yet clearly determined [because of the border dispute with Vietnam], is about 2,600 hectares. There are seven villages which are located directly next to the border.

We continued our trip from Romeas Hek district to Svay Teab district, and into Korki Som commune, also located next to the Vietnamese border. The commune authority, Mr. Chheang Bit told us that his commune consists of 8 villages with the village of Kampot Touk located next to the border.

He told us that the villagers do not produce much rice on the 4,000 hectares of rice field. Because of the drought in the past two years, villagers are lacking food this year.

We met with villagers from Kampot Touk village. They live next to the Vietnamese border, and their village is about 300 meters from the border. They told us that there is no work in the village. People went to work as potato and sugar cane field laborers in Vietnam. In a day, they earn about 4 to 5,000 riels (US$1) to buy rice to eat.

The villagers informed us that after hearing the government had resolved the border dispute with Vietnam, those who own land and could not grow rice on since 1985 because the Vietnamese authority prevented them from doing it by claiming their land to be in the white zone, when the villagers were about to start to plant their crop again, the former commune chief, Dam Savon, who is currently the councilor of Korki Som commune, prevented them to do so. He told the villagers that the land of these rice fields now belong to an upper government official instead.

An anonymous villager of Kampot Touk said: “After the signing of the [border] treaty with Vietnam, there was no reaction [from the Vietnamese authority] when we went to plant our crop or dig the field, or fence our plots. But, now the Cambodian authority is the one which prevents us from doing so.”

Dam Savon, the former Korki Som commune chief, admitted that when he was commune chief, he did issue land title to the villagers.

However, those land titles he issued in the 80s and 90s, it was only to give away all the land. He would write down that “X” owns a land extending from one landmark to another in the land title, and it was for 3 or 4 hectares each. After the commune election, there was an official land division which determined that there remains about 60 hectares of land still filled with landmines. He then divided this remaining land to those who don’t have enough land in the commune, and also to some government officials. But because the land was filled with landmines, the villagers and the government officials owning those lands cannot occupy their properties.

Following the 2005 signing of the supplemental [border] treaty, the villagers of Kampot Touk went to occupy those 60 hectares land and it caused a lot of commotion in the commune.

Dam Savon said: “When the tractors were brought in to plow the land, the Vietnamese prevented the plowing. It caused problem until the land was cleared but it cannot be plowed. This year the villagers forced in to take over this land. Those who came to occupy the land, they did not ask for authorization, they occupied it by force, it is anarchy. There are previous land titles.”

Kampot Touk villagers denied that the destitute villagers ever received any land from the commune. It was only Dom Savon himself who grabbed the land in the white zone which was not planted for many years, and he took it to give to new owners among whom are those government officials.

An old woman who does not own land confirmed that she never received any land from the commune.

Mr. Mom Am, the deputy-governor of Svay Rieng, declined to make comment on this issue.

Mr. Try Chheang Huot, the vice-chairman of committee 3 of the National Assembly in charge of economy, investment, agriculture, rural development, and environment, said that members of committee 1 of the National Assembly had gone to survey this problem.

Both of the communes located next to the Vietnamese border in the province of Svay Rieng: Daung commune in Romeas Hek district, and Korki Som commune in Svay Teab district, lack the ability to produce rice because of border dispute with Vietnam. That is why the villagers there are poor.

Kem Sokha: "Cambodia's a yoyo democracy"

Cambodia politics: A sudden outbreak of niceness
FROM THE ECONOMIST

Hun Sen's change of heart

THESE are bewildering times for followers of Cambodian politics. Opposition supporters, treated for years to vitriolic attacks accusing the prime minister, Hun Sen, of everything from corruption to murder, are now being told by their once abrasive leader Sam Rainsy that "We are no longer enemies, but partners in dialogue."

Earlier this month, Mr Rainsy made a dramatic return from exile. A year before, he had fled to France after being stripped of his parliamentary immunity. In December, he had been sentenced to prison for 18 months, in absentia, for defaming Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the president of the royalist party. But the sentence was overturned by royal pardon, on the prime minister's recommendation.

Mr Rainsy announced on his arrival back in Phnom Penh that his bitter personal disputes with Hun Sen had been discarded, and specifically recanted his claim that the prime minister was behind a deadly grenade attack in 1997 and other violence against his party. The man who used to fear assassination by Hun Sen's security forces now enjoys the protection of 12 bodyguards from the ministry of interior.

Mr Rainsy's case last year was the precursor to worse. Five outspoken critics of Hun Sen were jailed and others prudently fled during a government crackdown in December and January. The arrest of a prominent human-rights activist, Kem Sokha, soon after Christmas, sparked an international outcry. But in response to outside pressure and with a weather eye on an annual conference of donors due in Phnom Penh next month, Hun Sen, Asia's longest-serving prime minister, has shifted gears. The five dissidents were released, Mr Rainsy is back and Hun Sen has agreed to get rid of the law on criminal defamation that was used against him.

Cambodia's unpleasantly confrontational politics could do with a change. But many human-rights groups think it is too soon to celebrate. True, Cambodia is not exactly a totalitarian state: it has a free press and is home to plenty of human-rights NGOs. But Kem Sokha, recently freed from prison, calls Cambodia's a yoyo democracy. "Democracy is in the hands of the prime minister," he says. "He can give it and he can take it away at any time."

SOURCE: The Economist

Unpardonable practices

Kept in these shackles, prisoners could only sleep in one position.

Shackles

A torture and isolation room; cells measuring a mere 1mx1.5m.

A female prisoner cradling her baby in her arms, resigned to their fate.

By Pamela Phang Kooi Yoong
The Star - Malaysia
Saturday February 25, 2006

We were at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh and our guide Sambath had tears in his eyes. To him, as to many Cambodians, history wasn’t about distant events you read about, but something that turned one’s life upside down.

Sambath remembered the day the Khmer Rouge called on his home.

They dragged his father and second brother out of the house, while his mother hung to the trouser legs of one of the soldiers, begging for mercy. But there was no mercy. Sambath's father told his mother: “Go home. There are still seven more at home to feed and look after. Take care of them.”

Those were the last words he remembered his father saying. Sambath was only four years old at the time but the memories of it still affects him today.

The museum is a place filled with silent ghosts and the echoes of pain and torture. Every step of the way, you’ll find a story to be told. Some people will tell you the place gives off disturbing vibes. My sister, who has always been very sensitive to such things, could not bring herself to walk through the gates. She chose to wait for us outside

The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot took over Cambodia in 1975 and unleashed a reign of terror, systematically torturing and killing an estimated two million people. To this end, they established the S-21 (for Security Office 21) at Tuol Sleng in May 1976. The Ponhea Yat High School was turned into the S-21’s dreaded interrogation chambers.

The classrooms were converted into prison cells. In some, tiny cells (1m x 1.5m) were built, one for each prisoner. Each cubicle had a hole which served as a toilet. The women’s building was covered in barb wire to prevent the inmates from throwing themselves off the top floors and killing themselves.

“There was too much raping, so the ladies preferred to jump from the three-story building when pretending to go to the toilet,” said Sambath.

Two of the most feared persons in all of Cambodia then were Son Sen alias Khieu, the Minister of Defence, and Kang Kek Leu, a mathematics teacher who became the head of the S-21.

Civilian prisoners were dragged here from all over the country, mostly the intellectuals – and anyone wearing a pair of glasses was deemed one. An estimated 17,000 people passed through Tuol Sleng, out of which only seven survived.

We saw rooms with shackles. Often, the prisoners were held in large numbers in one room.

Sambath said they had to ask for permission before they could defecate into iron buckets and urinate into plastic ones.

Put up for all visitors to see today are the (verbatim) rules the prisoners had to heed:

1) You must answer accordingly to my questions – don’t turn away.

2) Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3) You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.

4) While getting lashes or electrification, you must not cry at all.

5) Do nothing, sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet.

6) If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.

Captors did their best to make life hell for the prisoners. Even to change their positions while trying to sleep, the prisoners had first to ask permission. If they did everything accordingly, they were still tortured three times a day just to show that it was useless to defy the Khmer Rouge.

Women were violated as onlookers cheered their rapists on. Fingernails were pulled out and salt rubbed into wounds.

“They killed babies like cricket, tearing them from their mothers and impaling them on bamboo spears or smashing their little heads against tree trunks. They always killed the infants in front of their parents,” Sambath said.

The instruments of torture are on display here: feet shackles, wooden spears, knotted ropes, bats, pipes, iron squeezers, a cobra box, a scorpion box, drills used to pierce the prisoner’s heads, the gallows.

The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of their atrocities. Each prisoner was photographed with a number board. These cover some of the rooms from floor to ceiling – thousands of haunting, black-and-white photographs of men, women and children who came to a grim end here.

I found myself transfixed with horror at this photo of a woman cradling her baby, a tear running down one cheek. There was no shortage of gruesome photos of dead and dying prisoners, most with eyes and mouths wide open.

The atmosphere was awful, depressing. We exited the Museum of Death with relief, glad to welcome the sunshine and fresh air, thankful we live in a time and place other than the one so horribly depicted here. W

Travel tips

AirAsia offers direct flights to Phnom Penh. From there, you can easily hire a moto (motorbike-trishaw) to take you to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

The Museum is located at the corner of Street 113 and Street 350. Admission fee: US$2 (RM8) and US$5 (RM19) with video camera. It is open everyday including holidays, from 8am-5pm, closed at lunchtime. There is a free movie every day at 10am and 3pm.

As a visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum can be a dark experience, it is best to go in the morning or early afternoon so that you can emerge in the restorative rays of the sun.

Mam Sonando: "Hun Sen is like a talented circus performer"

Hun Sen, the "talented circus performer" of Cambodian Politics, will go to great length to maintain himself in power, at any cost.

Seeing through Hun Sen

The Standard - China (Hong Kong) Business newspaper

The wily Cambodian prime minister has long held power by playing a cruel but effective psychological game with his opponents. Unsurprisingly, few are convinced that his latest gesture of reconciliation toward them is genuine, writes Vaudine England

Saturday, February 25, 2006

The wily Cambodian prime minister has long held power by playing a cruel but effective psychological game with his opponents. Unsurprisingly, few are convinced that his latest gesture of reconciliation toward them is genuine, writes Vaudine England

Almost overnight, Cambodia changed from a country where most of its opposition voices were in jail or exile to one where Prime Minister Hun Sen was loudly announcing an outbreak of peace.

Earlier this month he spoke at length of the "71-hour" outburst of "national reconciliation" in which "Cambodian talked to Cambodian" and solved the country's problems. Just like that.

By February 10, the seal on the apparent outbreak of peace and kindness was set by the return to Cambodia of opposition party leader Sam Rainsy.

He had been in self-imposed exile for a year but, in carefully arranged phone calls and letters, he had apologized to Hun Sen and promised a new non- confrontational attitude, getting a royal pardon in return.

A few thousand ecstatic supporters greeted his return, as they had greeted the releases from jail of his colleague Cheah Channy, radio journalist Mam Sonando, union leader Rong Chhun, and human rights advocates Kem Sokha and Pa Nguon Tieng. United States assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill had visited Cambodia in mid- January and requested the releases, adding his voice to a chorus of complaint at the crackdown.

It was another "miracle on the Mekong," in the wry words of a Cambodian diplomat.

In Cambodian geo-politics, the phrase "miracle on the Mekong" deliberately recalls in satirical tone the judgment of US Congressman Stephen Solarz on the July 26, 1998 elections. Despite massive intimidation, human rights abuses and perversion of the democratic process, Solarz judged the elections then as free and fair because more than 90 percent of the electorate still dared to vote.

Later forced to temper his claim of a miracle, Solarz pointed out that most people had voted against premier Hun Sen, but a split of the opposition between Prince Norodom Ranariddh's Funcinpec Party and the Sam Rainsy Party deprived them of victory.

Critics of Hun Sen, his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and of Solarz, argued that far from being a miracle, talk of a free vote was a travesty.

"What took place in Cambodia on July 26 [1998] may not have been, as I had originally hoped, a 'miracle on the Mekong,' leading to a new birth of democracy and reconciliation in that troubled land. But it would be unfair to the millions of Cambodians who had the courage to vote to dismiss it as a totally illegitimate electoral charade," Solarz wrote in September 1998.

Observers are faced with much the same dilemma now.

It seems good news that the clutch of opposition figures and human rights activists are now out of jail. It is also reassuring when a country's leader says he "needs opposition voices" and wants Cambodians to unite to solve their problems.

But the miracle is most probably a mirage, agree diplomats, analysts and even participants in the latest Cambodian drama.

Look at the pattern provided by history, advises Pa Nguon Tieng, a director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and of the Voice of Democracy radio station.

The key to it all is that Hun Sen always comes out on top. He does by first repressing then appearing to offer a hand of friendship to whomever his opponents are at the time. It's a twisted act of conflict resolution: The conflict is created by the person who then offers the resolution.

"I think Hun Sen has had a lot of experience [playing persecutor-rescuer]. He understands what will benefit him in terms of conflict resolution," Pa Nguon Tieng says.

"Look at 1993 - he faced lots of problems when he was in power in a coalition with the Royalists, leading to the bloody coup of 1997. Since then, all power has been concentrated in his hands alone.

"But he had lots of international problems, even from within Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] and the people here were in strife, very poor and crying out for food.

"So he came up a plan to bring all sides of politics back to the country to participate in the 1998 elections. The international community accepted it and new aid flowed in to hold the election, helping legitimate his rule.

"Most recently the government took violent action against the human rights community, put us in jail and again drew negative reaction. So once more he had to reopen dialogue," recounts Pa Nguon Tieng.

He seems a gentle, hopeful man, and takes all this as a sign that Hun Sen is learning something. He is prepared to wait and see if Hun Sen's current outburst of reconciliation will last or prove to be just another trick.

"I hope he has learned and that the arrests shouldn't happen again," he says. But few others are are prepared to give Hun Sen the benefit of the doubt.

A Western diplomat says: "Hun Sen is manipulating everybody, so everybody is beholden to him. He is positioning himself and others to play them all off against each other."

Precisely how the current drama began and is played out reveals key themes in Cambodian political life, from sensitivity over its weakness relative to its powerful neighbors of Vietnam and Thailand, to the dominant role of Western support for democracy in the impoverished country.

Back in 1993, the United Nations administration in Cambodia - which was supposed to disarm all factions, from the murderous Khmer Rouge to the Vietnamese-backed Hun Sen regime - made do with pronouncing a free election. It then stood by while the election victor, Prince Ranariddh and his Funcinpec Party, went into coalition with Hun Sen who then proceeded to abrogate power. Murder, intimidation, secession threats and more marked the body politic.

"Cambodians had seen [former King] Sihanouk and [his son] Ranariddh bow to the election losers, share power with them, and adopt avidly their undemocratic and corrupt ways," wrote long-term observer Henry Kamm in his 1998 book Cambodia, Report from a Stricken Land.

With the elite proving such a disappointment, Kamm reckons the most lasting contribution of the UN presence in Cambodia was the handful of private human rights organizations it left behind. These groups are now performing the role that opposition parties should be playing - educating people about rights and advocating peaceful change - while the personalities and parties of Cambodia's mainstream politics remain mired in conflict.

By the mid 1990s, Funcinpec's respected finance minister Sam Rainsy had quit the ruling coalition after being stripped of his post for outspoken criticism of corruption at all levels of government. He now leads the Sam Rainsy Party, which remains in some disarray following his year-long absence. Competition meanwhile had begun between Ranariddh and Hun Sen in seducing aging leaders of the Khmer Rouge to their side. Splits, be they real or created, among the old guard of the Khmer Rouge led to the "arrest" of Pol Pot by his brutal colleague, the one-legged Ta Mok. The legendary Brother Number One, Pol Pot, was dead by April 1998.

This was national stability achieved at last, according to the Hun Sen lexicon.

Last year, Hun Sen again invoked the issue of national stability when he sought to clarify the country's border with Vietnam, once and for all. The deal signed in October between Hun Sen and the government which first put him in power sparked off the latest round of trouble however.

The apparently visceral hatred of Vietnam among some Cambodians is often used by politicians to whip up passions, and the border deal provoked public outrage, dramatic media coverage and rising tension. This gave Hun Sen the opportunity to arrest activists and journalists: Mam Sonando of Beehive Radio was accused of provoking conflict with neighboring countries, and rhetoric on a banner at rallies in December - that Hun Sen had "sold" land to Vietnam, that he was a "second Pol Pot" and had "blood on his hands" - was pretext for scooping up popular rights advocate Kem Sokha.

The border law has since been passed, and signed into effect by King Sihamoni (Sihanouk's successor in the palace).

"That's why Hun Sen could release Kem Sokha and the others," judges Pen Samitthy, editor of the biggest circulation newspaper in Cambodia, the Rasmei Kampuchea Daily.

Aware of Rainsy's urgent need to return to Cambodia to rescue his political career, Hun Sen was similarly able to reach out to him in exile in Paris.

"I need him to come back. I need opposition views because sometimes my officials lie to me. I do not want to go ahead alone. If I go alone it is like being on a horse without holding the reins," said Hun Sen on February 6.

Out of jail and now back in the offices of his Beehive Radio, Sonando remains unimpressed.

"Hun Sen is clever. When he is in deadlock, with nowhere to go, he solves problems like this to maintain power," he says. "He is like a talented circus performer."

The political procedure, Sonando explains, is similar to being robbed of something and then having to feel grateful after being allowed to buy it back.

"It's not only me. Everyone in Cambodia has to pay bribes and say thank you for things which should be ours free, as a right."

He is grateful, however, to be out of jail and thanks Hun Sen for "taking the route of Cambodian talking to Cambodian" in arranging the return of Rainsy. "Compromise is better than confrontation, so I think we can solve problems step by step," Sonando says.

Crucially, a key event on March 30, 1997, which all independent observers agree was initiated by Hun Sen, has now become a non-issue in the latest reconciliation. On that day, Rainsy and about 200 followers were holding a peaceful demonstration in front of the National Assembly to demand an independent judiciary. Four grenades were lobbed into the crowd, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100. The culprits escaped thanks to intervention by CPP troops.

Rainsy blamed Hun Sen for the attack, and Hun Sen blamed Rainsy for trying to discredit the ruling party. Through all the ups and downs, the increasing militarization of politics since March 1997, the 2003 elections and more, that accusation has been sacrosanct for the opposition.

Yet in Rainsy's apology prior to his pardon which allowed him to return safely to Cambodia this month, he specifically retracts his accusation that Hun Sen was responsible for the grenade attack.

This turnaround alone may fatally damage his standing as an opposition leader and all eyes are now on Rainsy and his party.

"I think Sam Rainsy has lost credibility already, not just because of the latest compromise but because of his changing behavior. But he may restore his credibility through his actions should he tell the truth about what the government does," judges Pa Nguon Tieng.

He says his colleague at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, Kem Sokha, is a different man to Rainsy, and not a competitor for Rainsy's position as the only figure capable of standing up to Hun Sen.

"We are happy to work in civil society rather in a political party. We are just trying to spread information and the spiritual power of human rights and democracy," says Pa Nguon Tieng.

Kem Sokha, in person, is somewhat less modest.

He couldn't resist the classic politician's line - "if my people need me" - suggesting that if there was a strong call for him to wrest opposition reins from an enfeebled Rainsy's hands, then he would take on the mantle of history to do so.

At least Kem Sokha managed to avoid apologizing to Hun Sen. Indeed, he claims that his own and the other releases, and even the return of Rainsy, were all thanks to his intercessions with Hun Sen who, he says, called him several times a day in prison.

"I told him, if you want to rule the country longer you must support civil society. He will not change easily but I tried to change his mind," Kem Sokha says.

A politician before he turned to the human rights movement, Kem Sokha now claims he has two million supporters across the country and that Hun Sen has recognized his clout. Analysts agree that Kem Sokha remains a strong possible successor to Rainsy as opposition icon.

The upshot of it all is that Ranariddh's Funcinpec, the official ally of Hun Sen in government, now fears it may not be needed any more (or be allowed access to the perks and benefits of rule) if Hun Sen brings Rainsy on side. A hint of this tension was evident even before Rainsy landed at Pochentong Airport when Funcinpec Radio aired a commentary which described Rainsy as a habitual liar who had left his party members feeling hopeless.

"It's the same old fighters fighting the same old battles. . It's a matter of destabilizing the opposition, keeping them off balance, so that Hun Sen can reintroduce the facade of democracy when it suits him," a Phnom Penh- based diplomat said.

An important bone of contention remains however - the criminal defamation law that allows the courts to bring suits against opposition figures whenever it chooses (or is told to do so).

The law is an unfortunate legacy of the UN's tenure in Cambodia. It was first instituted to dampen abuse between political parties ahead of the 1993 election but has since become a tool of repression in Hun Sen's hands.

"We are trying to change the law because it is being used to silence critics; it is a very bad law that severely limits freedom of expression," Ou Virak, general secretary of the Alliance for Freedom of Expression in Cambodia told the Phnom Penh Post.

He hopes the law will be a major topic at the forthcoming Consultative Group meeting of donors this week.

Yash Ghai, a former Hong Kong University law professor who is now the UN Special Representative to Cambodia on Human Rights, agrees the law must go: "The combination of a rather loosely drafted law and the relative lack of independence and competence of the judiciary means that such laws can be used to harass political opponents and suppress freedom of expression."

Perhaps more revealing of the abiding concerns of ordinary Cambodians is the fact that circulation of the leading Rasmei Kampuchea Daily goes up when its front page stories are not about elite politics, but when coverage is focused on the recent arrests of 10 senior policemen accused of being paid assassins.

"People follow this story because they support this action [the arrest of police]. They know the police and the courts are corrupt. This is what increases circulation here, not stories about Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy," newspaper editor Pen Samitthy says.

Cambodian reconciliation is not a miracle yet, but not entirely a mirage either.