Monday, December 31, 2007
Adjusting to a land their people once fled
Bun Bong, now in Phnom Penh and married, works at a center for addicts. Deported from Phila., he found himself in wretchedly poor rural Cambodia. (Photo: TROY GRAHAM / Inquirer Staff)U.S. deportees are struggling in Cambodia.
Mon, Dec. 31, 2007
By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
Last of two parts.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Bun Bong pulls up on a Yamaha dirt bike twice as big and many times more powerful than the mopeds typical Cambodians drive on this capital's chaotic streets.
But Bun, tattooed and menacing in the way of the American inner city gangster, is no typical Cambodian.
He is among a small but growing number of political refugees who were accepted into the United States as children in the 1980s, years after their families fled the war and starvation of the Khmer Rouge genocide, only to be deported back to Cambodia for committing adult crimes in America.
The gangsta culture embodied by Bun and some of the others makes them pariahs in this poor, hierarchical, Buddhist nation - a nation that the "returnees," as they're known, barely remember and can scarcely understand.
The reaction here to Bun's appearance, with his baggy clothes and Rasheed Wallace baseball cap, speaks volumes about the fascination with - and a revulsion for - American popular culture.
Bun said the locals called out to him, mockingly, "Yo, yo," and called him "deejay" because they assume he's a rapper. He does little to discourage those notions.
"I can't put on no small shirt, no small pants," said Bun, 27. "They say, 'These guys went to heaven, but they didn't know how to act in heaven, so they got sent back to hell.' "
The returnees' odyssey also underscores just how unprepared everyone here - the Cambodian government, nongovernmental aid organizations, and the returnees themselves - was for this new reality.
The returnees' criminal histories undoubtedly do more to bolster the argument for returning Cambodians than not, especially when sympathies in the United States run low for immigrants who commit crimes.
But those who advocate for the 169 returnees here, and for the Cambodian refugees still facing deportation in the United States, say there should be some leeway in America's rigid deportation law. It makes no distinction between refugees, who were brought to the United States fleeing war and oppression, and immigrants who come seeking economic opportunity, often illegally.
This is especially true for Cambodian refugees, they maintain, in light of America's role in destabilizing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. As many as two million Cambodians died in a genocide that ensued when the Maoist-inspired Khmer Rouge took power from 1975 to 1979 and triggered the Cambodian diaspora.
While advocates have begun lobbying Congress for relief, immigration officials remain unmoved. "What we like to say is that it's a land of opportunity, but it's also a land of laws," said Pat Reilly, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. "If you break the laws, you lose the opportunity."
The returnees find themselves back in Cambodia because they were among the two-thirds of Cambodian refugees in America who never applied for U.S. citizenship, which would have shielded them from deportation.
Bun left his family in Richmond, Va., and came to Philadelphia to live with an older brother as a teenager. He spent his teens dealing drugs in South Philadelphia. His friend and fellow returnee Mel Kosol, 32, whose family settled at Sixth and Jackson, ran with a neighborhood gang and was convicted in a shooting at age 15.
Bun and Mel were among the first refugees deported to Cambodia in 2003, both for gun-related crimes. Both had histories of violence that spoke to the tough neighborhoods where Cambodian refugees were resettled. Since most arrived in the 1980s, there have been individual success stories, but the community has struggled with extreme poverty, isolation, mental illness, high dropout rates, unemployment and substance abuse.
In Phnom Penh, Cambodian authorities immediately jailed Bun and Mel until they paid nominal bribes - $10 in Bun's case.
They were eventually released into a country as foreign to them as any other. Bun's only memories of his native land were vague impressions of air-raid sirens.
"I didn't know nothing about Cambodia. I was shocked, man. I was scared," Mel said. "I was, like . . . they got mosquitoes, no AC, no flush toilets."
Both men tried to live with relatives in the countryside - Bun in Siem Reap and Mel in Battambong province. Rural Cambodia is one of the poorest places on earth, where villagers live on subsistence farming. Bun and Mel were as unprepared for those conditions as their parents were for the United States.
"I can't stay in the country. It smells . . .," Mel said. "And the water from the lake - I take a shower and I get itchy."
Back in Phnom Penh, both have taken steps to assimilate and are now employed, Bun at a center for addicts, and Mel for a program that works with returnees.
Because relatives can send them American dollars, they and their fellow returnees are considered rich in such a poor country, where a third of the people live on less than 50 cents a day. Bun rented a two-story apartment for $65 a month. Mel was living in a $25-a-month room.
Given these relative advantages, both also have married Khmer women and fathered children.
Bun met his wife, Oeur Chomnan, 26, over cards. He used to go to her house to gamble with her father and uncles. After a few months of flirting, he had his parents in the United States call her parents in Phnom Penh to ask for her hand.
"I know the traditions," Bun said. "They accepted me."
A neighbor asked Oeur Chomnan's mother why on earth she would let her daughter marry such a man.
"I told my mom, 'Ignore them. Nobody is perfect,' " Oeur Chomnan said through a translator.
She likes that Bun is not like other Khmer men.
"He meets a rich and powerful guy, he never bows down," she said. "He doesn't care. I like that. I don't like a coward."
Indeed, Bun's and Mel's clash with the country's Buddhist ethos could not have been more severe.
For Bill Herod, an American minister who has been working with the returnees since the first group arrived, Bun's Yamaha dirt bike is a symbol of their unwillingness to adapt to Cambodian society.
"They're here, depressed, angry, alienated, jobless, homeless - it goes on and on," he said. ". . . A lot of them get into drugs and alcohol heavily. That's a big problem. They're regarded as Khmer, but they're not Khmer socially. You get these enormous misunderstandings."
While some returnees adapt to life in Cambodia and lead somewhat normal lives, Herod estimated that a third were "failing miserably."
More troublesome, Herod said, is that the returnees ignore customs that require a certain deference, especially to women and authority figures - traits not common in tough U.S. neighborhoods.
The easy availability of cheap drugs and sex, through the thriving prostitute trade, also presents a problem. Herod said Bun, Mel, and other early returnees had torn through numerous bars near his guest house until they had been kicked out of every one except the ironically named Sweet Home.
George Ellis, an American psychologist who worked with returnees here under a contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development, said many of the returnees "haven't accepted psychologically that they're here forever."
"The first big state is betrayal, that feeling of being victimized," he said. "A lot of the guys are not doing very well. They never left that stage."
Their situation is made more difficult, he said, by the symbols of their former lives, such as tattoos, which some Cambodians consider a sign of disgraceful thuggery. One returnee, Ellis said, has a chest tattoo of a couple having sex.
Chen Sokheang, a 25-year-old Cambodian woman, said she couldn't help but notice the tattoos on a returnee she had come in contact with. "I kind of freaked out when I saw those tattoos," she said.
Mel embodies the defiance that many returnees cannot leave behind. After a traffic argument on Phnom Penh's teeming streets, he recalled, he bashed a soldier in the face.
"He's lucky he's alive. I hit him soft - that's why his jaw broke," Mel said with cold bravado. "I hit him hard, he'd be dead."
Another time, a local gangster with a butcher knife tried to collect a debt from one of Mel's friends. Mel paid him a visit.
"I put a gun in his mouth," he said. "Then I start thinking I'm doing wrong. I should go talk to them nicely, see what happened. But I don't think like that. I think violent."
Despite these confrontation, Mel said he had not faced the inside of a Cambodian prison - unlike some returnees. In the fall of 2006, seven of them were locked up for various reasons.
"Before, the first time in Cambodia, you're like, 'I can't stay here,' " Mel said. "I don't care anymore. I'm used to it."
Bun hasn't been so lucky. He spent 3-1/2 months in a wretched cell, eating a cup of rice and soup every day, after he was charged with murder.
Although he denies any involvement, a man was stabbed during a brawl at the wedding of one of Bun's Cambodian cousins. Bun was charged with three other returnees and a local Cambodian.
"We didn't kill him," Bun said. "I saw him drop before I even touched him."
Bun said his family in Richmond had to pay $27,000 to get him out of prison.
"I got sick," he said. "But it all worked out. If you got family and money, it's cool."
Bun arrived for an interview at Herod's guest house on his Yamaha. He climbed off the bike with a limp, left over from a nasty crash six weeks earlier. It was the second time he had nearly been killed on his high-powered motorcycle.
He pulled up his baggy jeans to reveal horrific, swollen gashes along his shin and thigh. But he shrugged off any concern for his well-being.
"I'm used to Cambodia now," Bun said. "I don't know about the States anymore. If I go back to the States, I'd do the same thing - sell more drugs."
After the interview at Herod's house, Bun limped back to his motorcycle. As he tried to kick-start the engine, the bike listed toward his injured leg. Unable to put weight on his limb, Bun tumbled, and the bike crashed to the pavement.
Bun simply laughed, awkwardly, and got back aboard.
Herod, watching, could only shake his head as Bun roared into traffic.
Contact staff writer Troy Graham at 856-779-3893 or tgraham@phillynews.com.
Inquirer correspondent Erika Kinetz contributed to this article.
But Bun, tattooed and menacing in the way of the American inner city gangster, is no typical Cambodian.
He is among a small but growing number of political refugees who were accepted into the United States as children in the 1980s, years after their families fled the war and starvation of the Khmer Rouge genocide, only to be deported back to Cambodia for committing adult crimes in America.
The gangsta culture embodied by Bun and some of the others makes them pariahs in this poor, hierarchical, Buddhist nation - a nation that the "returnees," as they're known, barely remember and can scarcely understand.
The reaction here to Bun's appearance, with his baggy clothes and Rasheed Wallace baseball cap, speaks volumes about the fascination with - and a revulsion for - American popular culture.
Bun said the locals called out to him, mockingly, "Yo, yo," and called him "deejay" because they assume he's a rapper. He does little to discourage those notions.
"I can't put on no small shirt, no small pants," said Bun, 27. "They say, 'These guys went to heaven, but they didn't know how to act in heaven, so they got sent back to hell.' "
The returnees' odyssey also underscores just how unprepared everyone here - the Cambodian government, nongovernmental aid organizations, and the returnees themselves - was for this new reality.
The returnees' criminal histories undoubtedly do more to bolster the argument for returning Cambodians than not, especially when sympathies in the United States run low for immigrants who commit crimes.
But those who advocate for the 169 returnees here, and for the Cambodian refugees still facing deportation in the United States, say there should be some leeway in America's rigid deportation law. It makes no distinction between refugees, who were brought to the United States fleeing war and oppression, and immigrants who come seeking economic opportunity, often illegally.
This is especially true for Cambodian refugees, they maintain, in light of America's role in destabilizing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. As many as two million Cambodians died in a genocide that ensued when the Maoist-inspired Khmer Rouge took power from 1975 to 1979 and triggered the Cambodian diaspora.
While advocates have begun lobbying Congress for relief, immigration officials remain unmoved. "What we like to say is that it's a land of opportunity, but it's also a land of laws," said Pat Reilly, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. "If you break the laws, you lose the opportunity."
The returnees find themselves back in Cambodia because they were among the two-thirds of Cambodian refugees in America who never applied for U.S. citizenship, which would have shielded them from deportation.
Bun left his family in Richmond, Va., and came to Philadelphia to live with an older brother as a teenager. He spent his teens dealing drugs in South Philadelphia. His friend and fellow returnee Mel Kosol, 32, whose family settled at Sixth and Jackson, ran with a neighborhood gang and was convicted in a shooting at age 15.
Bun and Mel were among the first refugees deported to Cambodia in 2003, both for gun-related crimes. Both had histories of violence that spoke to the tough neighborhoods where Cambodian refugees were resettled. Since most arrived in the 1980s, there have been individual success stories, but the community has struggled with extreme poverty, isolation, mental illness, high dropout rates, unemployment and substance abuse.
In Phnom Penh, Cambodian authorities immediately jailed Bun and Mel until they paid nominal bribes - $10 in Bun's case.
They were eventually released into a country as foreign to them as any other. Bun's only memories of his native land were vague impressions of air-raid sirens.
"I didn't know nothing about Cambodia. I was shocked, man. I was scared," Mel said. "I was, like . . . they got mosquitoes, no AC, no flush toilets."
Both men tried to live with relatives in the countryside - Bun in Siem Reap and Mel in Battambong province. Rural Cambodia is one of the poorest places on earth, where villagers live on subsistence farming. Bun and Mel were as unprepared for those conditions as their parents were for the United States.
"I can't stay in the country. It smells . . .," Mel said. "And the water from the lake - I take a shower and I get itchy."
Back in Phnom Penh, both have taken steps to assimilate and are now employed, Bun at a center for addicts, and Mel for a program that works with returnees.
Because relatives can send them American dollars, they and their fellow returnees are considered rich in such a poor country, where a third of the people live on less than 50 cents a day. Bun rented a two-story apartment for $65 a month. Mel was living in a $25-a-month room.
Given these relative advantages, both also have married Khmer women and fathered children.
Bun met his wife, Oeur Chomnan, 26, over cards. He used to go to her house to gamble with her father and uncles. After a few months of flirting, he had his parents in the United States call her parents in Phnom Penh to ask for her hand.
"I know the traditions," Bun said. "They accepted me."
A neighbor asked Oeur Chomnan's mother why on earth she would let her daughter marry such a man.
"I told my mom, 'Ignore them. Nobody is perfect,' " Oeur Chomnan said through a translator.
She likes that Bun is not like other Khmer men.
"He meets a rich and powerful guy, he never bows down," she said. "He doesn't care. I like that. I don't like a coward."
Indeed, Bun's and Mel's clash with the country's Buddhist ethos could not have been more severe.
For Bill Herod, an American minister who has been working with the returnees since the first group arrived, Bun's Yamaha dirt bike is a symbol of their unwillingness to adapt to Cambodian society.
"They're here, depressed, angry, alienated, jobless, homeless - it goes on and on," he said. ". . . A lot of them get into drugs and alcohol heavily. That's a big problem. They're regarded as Khmer, but they're not Khmer socially. You get these enormous misunderstandings."
While some returnees adapt to life in Cambodia and lead somewhat normal lives, Herod estimated that a third were "failing miserably."
More troublesome, Herod said, is that the returnees ignore customs that require a certain deference, especially to women and authority figures - traits not common in tough U.S. neighborhoods.
The easy availability of cheap drugs and sex, through the thriving prostitute trade, also presents a problem. Herod said Bun, Mel, and other early returnees had torn through numerous bars near his guest house until they had been kicked out of every one except the ironically named Sweet Home.
George Ellis, an American psychologist who worked with returnees here under a contract from the U.S. Agency for International Development, said many of the returnees "haven't accepted psychologically that they're here forever."
"The first big state is betrayal, that feeling of being victimized," he said. "A lot of the guys are not doing very well. They never left that stage."
Their situation is made more difficult, he said, by the symbols of their former lives, such as tattoos, which some Cambodians consider a sign of disgraceful thuggery. One returnee, Ellis said, has a chest tattoo of a couple having sex.
Chen Sokheang, a 25-year-old Cambodian woman, said she couldn't help but notice the tattoos on a returnee she had come in contact with. "I kind of freaked out when I saw those tattoos," she said.
Mel embodies the defiance that many returnees cannot leave behind. After a traffic argument on Phnom Penh's teeming streets, he recalled, he bashed a soldier in the face.
"He's lucky he's alive. I hit him soft - that's why his jaw broke," Mel said with cold bravado. "I hit him hard, he'd be dead."
Another time, a local gangster with a butcher knife tried to collect a debt from one of Mel's friends. Mel paid him a visit.
"I put a gun in his mouth," he said. "Then I start thinking I'm doing wrong. I should go talk to them nicely, see what happened. But I don't think like that. I think violent."
Despite these confrontation, Mel said he had not faced the inside of a Cambodian prison - unlike some returnees. In the fall of 2006, seven of them were locked up for various reasons.
"Before, the first time in Cambodia, you're like, 'I can't stay here,' " Mel said. "I don't care anymore. I'm used to it."
Bun hasn't been so lucky. He spent 3-1/2 months in a wretched cell, eating a cup of rice and soup every day, after he was charged with murder.
Although he denies any involvement, a man was stabbed during a brawl at the wedding of one of Bun's Cambodian cousins. Bun was charged with three other returnees and a local Cambodian.
"We didn't kill him," Bun said. "I saw him drop before I even touched him."
Bun said his family in Richmond had to pay $27,000 to get him out of prison.
"I got sick," he said. "But it all worked out. If you got family and money, it's cool."
Bun arrived for an interview at Herod's guest house on his Yamaha. He climbed off the bike with a limp, left over from a nasty crash six weeks earlier. It was the second time he had nearly been killed on his high-powered motorcycle.
He pulled up his baggy jeans to reveal horrific, swollen gashes along his shin and thigh. But he shrugged off any concern for his well-being.
"I'm used to Cambodia now," Bun said. "I don't know about the States anymore. If I go back to the States, I'd do the same thing - sell more drugs."
After the interview at Herod's house, Bun limped back to his motorcycle. As he tried to kick-start the engine, the bike listed toward his injured leg. Unable to put weight on his limb, Bun tumbled, and the bike crashed to the pavement.
Bun simply laughed, awkwardly, and got back aboard.
Herod, watching, could only shake his head as Bun roared into traffic.
Contact staff writer Troy Graham at 856-779-3893 or tgraham@phillynews.com.
Inquirer correspondent Erika Kinetz contributed to this article.
Ranariddh: "If I am not allowed to be involved in politics, soon the republicans will squeeze each others, just like in the past"
Ranariddh: If the royals are prohibited from getting involved in politics, he will drop his royal titleMonday, December 31, 2007
Koh Santepheap newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, NRP president, declared one more time about his desire to remain in politics, in spite of the fact that there is a new current wanting to see royal family members ending their political involvements.
Speaking by phone from Malaysia, the prince discussed with his supporters at his party headquarters on 30 December 2007. The prince claimed that he will drop his royal title and become a normal citizen so that he can be involved in politics, if the current to end the political involvement of royal family members is indeed really strong.
The prince said that the reason he would drop his royal title, would be so that he can be involved in politics at a time when the Cambodian people live in misery, as is now. He said that, in the past, the people were subjected to hardship, like during the Khmer Republic regime, and this upset the royals.
The prince added: “There’s nobody else, only the royals are voicing for justice for the people who are the owners of the lands and waters, and owners of the nation, and if the royals are prohibited from being involved in politics, I will drop my royal title.” The prince asked how could he remain idle when the country is currently facing with all these problems? People should judge as to whether the royals should stop being involved in politics or not?
Recently, a number of royals declared that they resigned from politics, during a time when there is a current discussing about a draft law to pull the royals out of the political scene. Prince Ranariddh said: “A number of royals went into their (CPP) camp already, and a number of other royals are preparing to follow a neutral politics also.”
Prince Ranariddh called on Funcinpec party members who used to support him, to come and join the NRP instead because he claims that he will turn the NRP to be like Funcinpec when it was under his leadership, unlike the current Funcinpec party.
Prince Ranariddh said: “Should Ranariddh shut his mouth or not, if there is Norodom Ranariddh alone only? If I am not allowed to be involved in politics, soon the republicans will squeeze each others, just like in the past.”
The prince called again the SRP and the HRP to unite with his party, the NRP, and these two parties should not voice out on their own as they cannot win over the current ruling party. However, the prince’s call was recently rejected by both parties.
The prince also accused the National Assembly which plans to introduce a law forcing the royals to stay out of politics, calling it a human rights violation and a waste of time because the law is aimed at one person only (the prince himself). The prince also asked for the cancellation of the monogamy law and the army drafting law because the army drafting law does not (send soldiers to) fight with anybody, it is only used to draft into the army the sons of poor people.
The prince said that he is confident he will have the opportunity to return back to Cambodia before the upcoming 2008 election. However, he said that there is no clear guarantee yet on his return.
Vietnam does not live up to its international responsability, especially because of its mistreatment of Khmer Krom and Montagnard people
Vietnam's New Foreign Policy Activism
December 31, 2007
Eye on Asia
Radio Singapore International
December 31, 2007
Eye on Asia
Radio Singapore International
In January, Vietnam will become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the first time. This is a crowning achievement for Hanoi and caps a ten-year effort to build up Vietnam’s international profile.
However, Vietnamese leaders are wary about the kinds of new responsibilities that will come with Security Council membership. Rather than sit back and react to global developments, Vietnam has deliberately sought to make an active contribution to peace on the Korean peninsula. In doing so, Vietnam has received the backing of South Korea and encouragement from the United States.
The Cold War left both Vietnam and Korea divided. Hanoi and Pyongyang exchanged diplomatic relations in 1950. In 1957, Kim Il-sung and Ho Chi Minh exchanged presidential visits. During the Vietnam War, North Korea secretly sent pilots to help defend North Vietnam. Some perished in combat.
But not all has been smooth sailing between these communist states. Relations were strained during Vietnam’s decade long occupation of Cambodia in the 1980s. North Korea provided sanctuary to Norodom Sihanouk, the leader of the anti-Vietnamese resistance. Relations soured again in 1992 when Vietnam recognized Seoul and developed a substantial commercial relationship.
And relations were frayed in 2004 when Vietnam permitted several hundred North Korean refugees who arrived on its soil to be resettled in South Korea.
Since then, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has moved through several periods of crisis before entering its current positive phase within the framework of the Six Party Talks between China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
As a spin off to these talks, Vietnam hosted bilateral discussions on normalization between Japan and North Korea.
Vietnam has also initiated its own diplomacy towards Pyongyang. In mid-October this year, party Secretary General Nong Duc Manh and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem paid an official visit to North Korea.
Manh and Khiem then traveled to Seoul to further develop the already substantial bilateral commercial relationship. South Korea is currently Vietnam’s leading foreign investor. Manh briefed his counterpart on his visit to Pyongyang and declared that Vietnam was ready to play an active role in enhancing stability on the Korean peninsula.
In late October, Premier Kim Yong-Il made a reciprocal visit to Vietnam. In addition to holding discussions with his hosts, Kim visited the coal mining province of Quang Nam, tourism facilities in Ha Long Bay, the port of Hai Phong and the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.
From all these diplomatic initiatives signs are emerging that North Korea is looking closely and seriously at Vietnamese economic reforms known collectively as doi moi. The Chinese language media in Hong Kong reported that President Kim Jong-Il reportedly told Secretary General Manh that North Korea would adopt the Vietnamese model of reform and openness.
Perhaps more significantly, Vietnam has been able to ally some of Pyongyang’s suspicions about opening up to the outside world. During a research trip to Hanoi earlier this month, I was able to learn first hand from Vietnamese diplomats how isolated and distrustful North Korean officials really are about the motives of their closest neighbours as well as the United States.
Vietnam has been able to share some pertinent lessons from its experiences in dealing with Washington. After all, Vietnam suffered from a U.S.-imposed embargo that lasted three decades before both sides normalized diplomatic relations and developed a growing commercial relationship.
What is in store in the immediate future? Presidents Kim Jong-Il and Nguyen Minh Triet are likely to exchange visits in the new year. Vietnamese officials report that North Korea will send junior diplomats to study at the Institute of International Relations in Hanoi. Vietnam will quietly encourage North Korea on its present path. Both sides will also seek to promote cooperation in agriculture and science and technology.
The world has long become accustomed to Vietnam’s economic success and its rise as Asia’s next dragon. As Vietnam’s new foreign policy activism indicates, economic success has bred political confidence. Vietnam has shrewdly chosen the Korean issue to demonstrate that it can contribute to resolving international issues and is therefore worthy of a seat on the UN Security Council.
This is Carlyle Thayer, Professor of Politics at The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
However, Vietnamese leaders are wary about the kinds of new responsibilities that will come with Security Council membership. Rather than sit back and react to global developments, Vietnam has deliberately sought to make an active contribution to peace on the Korean peninsula. In doing so, Vietnam has received the backing of South Korea and encouragement from the United States.
The Cold War left both Vietnam and Korea divided. Hanoi and Pyongyang exchanged diplomatic relations in 1950. In 1957, Kim Il-sung and Ho Chi Minh exchanged presidential visits. During the Vietnam War, North Korea secretly sent pilots to help defend North Vietnam. Some perished in combat.
But not all has been smooth sailing between these communist states. Relations were strained during Vietnam’s decade long occupation of Cambodia in the 1980s. North Korea provided sanctuary to Norodom Sihanouk, the leader of the anti-Vietnamese resistance. Relations soured again in 1992 when Vietnam recognized Seoul and developed a substantial commercial relationship.
And relations were frayed in 2004 when Vietnam permitted several hundred North Korean refugees who arrived on its soil to be resettled in South Korea.
Since then, the situation on the Korean Peninsula has moved through several periods of crisis before entering its current positive phase within the framework of the Six Party Talks between China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.
As a spin off to these talks, Vietnam hosted bilateral discussions on normalization between Japan and North Korea.
Vietnam has also initiated its own diplomacy towards Pyongyang. In mid-October this year, party Secretary General Nong Duc Manh and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem paid an official visit to North Korea.
Manh and Khiem then traveled to Seoul to further develop the already substantial bilateral commercial relationship. South Korea is currently Vietnam’s leading foreign investor. Manh briefed his counterpart on his visit to Pyongyang and declared that Vietnam was ready to play an active role in enhancing stability on the Korean peninsula.
In late October, Premier Kim Yong-Il made a reciprocal visit to Vietnam. In addition to holding discussions with his hosts, Kim visited the coal mining province of Quang Nam, tourism facilities in Ha Long Bay, the port of Hai Phong and the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City.
From all these diplomatic initiatives signs are emerging that North Korea is looking closely and seriously at Vietnamese economic reforms known collectively as doi moi. The Chinese language media in Hong Kong reported that President Kim Jong-Il reportedly told Secretary General Manh that North Korea would adopt the Vietnamese model of reform and openness.
Perhaps more significantly, Vietnam has been able to ally some of Pyongyang’s suspicions about opening up to the outside world. During a research trip to Hanoi earlier this month, I was able to learn first hand from Vietnamese diplomats how isolated and distrustful North Korean officials really are about the motives of their closest neighbours as well as the United States.
Vietnam has been able to share some pertinent lessons from its experiences in dealing with Washington. After all, Vietnam suffered from a U.S.-imposed embargo that lasted three decades before both sides normalized diplomatic relations and developed a growing commercial relationship.
What is in store in the immediate future? Presidents Kim Jong-Il and Nguyen Minh Triet are likely to exchange visits in the new year. Vietnamese officials report that North Korea will send junior diplomats to study at the Institute of International Relations in Hanoi. Vietnam will quietly encourage North Korea on its present path. Both sides will also seek to promote cooperation in agriculture and science and technology.
The world has long become accustomed to Vietnam’s economic success and its rise as Asia’s next dragon. As Vietnam’s new foreign policy activism indicates, economic success has bred political confidence. Vietnam has shrewdly chosen the Korean issue to demonstrate that it can contribute to resolving international issues and is therefore worthy of a seat on the UN Security Council.
This is Carlyle Thayer, Professor of Politics at The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
Cambodia to buy electricity from Vietnam and Laos
December 30, 2007 Sunday
Vietnamese News Agency (VNA)
Vietnamese News Agency (VNA)
Industry officials from Cambodia , Laos and Viet Nam have inked a deal on power cooperation.
Under the agreement signed on December 29, Cambodia will buy electricity from the Electricity of Viet Nam corporation (EVN) to provide to Kongpong Cham province and electricity from Laos for the northern province of Stung Treng.
To implement the contract, Laos plans to build a transformer station and 25 km of 115 kV line from Champasak province to the Laos-Cambodia border. Viet Nam will also build a 110 KV power line to transmit electricity from southern Tay Ninh province to the border area with Cambodia .
Meanwhile, Cambodia will build two 110 kV transmission lines. Work on the two lines will start in early 2008 and is expected to complete in 2010.
Viet Nam has provided annually 24 million kWh to Cambodia through nine points in the southern provinces of Tay Ninh, Kien Giang, An Giang, Binh Phuoc and Long An. Viet Nam and Laos have also agreed to join hands in building hydropower stations in Laos to provide electricity to Viet Nam . One of their cooperation projects, the Sekaman 3, with a capacity of 240 MW, has already been underway and will start operation in 2009.
Under the agreement signed on December 29, Cambodia will buy electricity from the Electricity of Viet Nam corporation (EVN) to provide to Kongpong Cham province and electricity from Laos for the northern province of Stung Treng.
To implement the contract, Laos plans to build a transformer station and 25 km of 115 kV line from Champasak province to the Laos-Cambodia border. Viet Nam will also build a 110 KV power line to transmit electricity from southern Tay Ninh province to the border area with Cambodia .
Meanwhile, Cambodia will build two 110 kV transmission lines. Work on the two lines will start in early 2008 and is expected to complete in 2010.
Viet Nam has provided annually 24 million kWh to Cambodia through nine points in the southern provinces of Tay Ninh, Kien Giang, An Giang, Binh Phuoc and Long An. Viet Nam and Laos have also agreed to join hands in building hydropower stations in Laos to provide electricity to Viet Nam . One of their cooperation projects, the Sekaman 3, with a capacity of 240 MW, has already been underway and will start operation in 2009.
South African jailed after traffic accident in Cambodia
Mon, 31 Dec 2007
DPA
DPA
Phnom Penh - A South African man was jailed pending a police investigation into a traffic accident which left four Cambodians seriously injured, police said Monday. Traffic police chief of the south-western municipality of Sihanoukville, Prum Pov, alleged Michael Con Te, 38, had been involved in a high-speed chase with another vehicle when his rented Toyota Camry slammed into a motorbike carrying four Cambodian men.
Pov said one victim's leg had been ripped off on impact, another had suffered two broken legs and two others were in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
"Police maintain the South African smelt of alcohol. We arrested him and charged him on Saturday," Pov said.
Con Te faces up to five years in prison if convicted and will be subject to hefty compensation claims regardless of how the court finds, Pov said. Under Cambodian law he may be held in prison for six months while police investigate.
Pov said few details were immediately available for Con Te, who had apparently been working in Phnom Penh, 240 kilometers away.
Pov said one victim's leg had been ripped off on impact, another had suffered two broken legs and two others were in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
"Police maintain the South African smelt of alcohol. We arrested him and charged him on Saturday," Pov said.
Con Te faces up to five years in prison if convicted and will be subject to hefty compensation claims regardless of how the court finds, Pov said. Under Cambodian law he may be held in prison for six months while police investigate.
Pov said few details were immediately available for Con Te, who had apparently been working in Phnom Penh, 240 kilometers away.
Poverty, Corruption, Land eviction, Land-grabbing are not top news in 2007 according to Chinese-language news media ... but One-China policy was
Local paper unveils Top 10 News of Cambodia in 2007
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Major local Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial News here on Monday unveiled the Top 10 News of Cambodia in 2007, which presented a peaceful and flourishing picture of the country.
On top of the chart was the inauguration of the new National Assembly office building on July 7. The Khmer-style mansion took four years and cost 26 million U.S. dollars to become the most updated government building of the country.
Secondly, Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Prime Minister Hun Sen, the spirit of Cambodia's governing body, won new uttermost honorary titles from King Norodom Sihamoni on Oct. 12.
Thirdly, Hun Sen on March 15 emphasized that his government consistently supports the One-China Policy and won't allow the Taiwanese authority to establish representative office in Phnom Penh.
Fourthly, the Asia-Pacific City Coalition of Anti-Racism held its first meeting in Phnom Penh on June 5, with the attendance of the deputies from more than 10 regional countries.
Fifthly, Kim Yong Il, Prime Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid his four-day official visit to Cambodia.
Sixthly, the National Assembly approved the Civil Aviation Law on Dec. 5, which will provide legal security for passengers and boost the tourism industry.
Seventhly, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) arrested former leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK, 1975-1979) Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan in December.
Eighthly, the Cambodian government on Dec. 11 blasted United Nations Human Rights Envoy Yash Ghai's recent criticism of the country's judicial system and land rights management, calling him tourist rather than envoy.
Ninthly, Hun Sen on Oct. 28 attended the China-ASEAN Expo in Guangxi, China, for the fourth time consecutively, which bore witness to the ever growing political and trade ties between the two countries.
Finally, the major ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) scored landslide victory in the commune councils election on April 1, which guaranteed for CPP a secure forecast of its performance in the general election in 2008.
According to other recent reports of local media, political dominance by CPP and macro-economic stability are the key words to assess the situation of Cambodia in 2007.
CPP, in conjunction with the Funcinpec Party, has governed the kingdom for almost a decade, while the economy during this period developed positively, with its average growth rate from 2004 to 2006 standing at 11 percent.
Meanwhile, one third of the country's population still live poverty and the government has been under ever rising international pressure to cope with corruption and social injustice to testify its competence and legality, said the reports.
On top of the chart was the inauguration of the new National Assembly office building on July 7. The Khmer-style mansion took four years and cost 26 million U.S. dollars to become the most updated government building of the country.
Secondly, Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Prime Minister Hun Sen, the spirit of Cambodia's governing body, won new uttermost honorary titles from King Norodom Sihamoni on Oct. 12.
Thirdly, Hun Sen on March 15 emphasized that his government consistently supports the One-China Policy and won't allow the Taiwanese authority to establish representative office in Phnom Penh.
Fourthly, the Asia-Pacific City Coalition of Anti-Racism held its first meeting in Phnom Penh on June 5, with the attendance of the deputies from more than 10 regional countries.
Fifthly, Kim Yong Il, Prime Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), paid his four-day official visit to Cambodia.
Sixthly, the National Assembly approved the Civil Aviation Law on Dec. 5, which will provide legal security for passengers and boost the tourism industry.
Seventhly, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) arrested former leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea (DK, 1975-1979) Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith and Khieu Samphan in December.
Eighthly, the Cambodian government on Dec. 11 blasted United Nations Human Rights Envoy Yash Ghai's recent criticism of the country's judicial system and land rights management, calling him tourist rather than envoy.
Ninthly, Hun Sen on Oct. 28 attended the China-ASEAN Expo in Guangxi, China, for the fourth time consecutively, which bore witness to the ever growing political and trade ties between the two countries.
Finally, the major ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) scored landslide victory in the commune councils election on April 1, which guaranteed for CPP a secure forecast of its performance in the general election in 2008.
According to other recent reports of local media, political dominance by CPP and macro-economic stability are the key words to assess the situation of Cambodia in 2007.
CPP, in conjunction with the Funcinpec Party, has governed the kingdom for almost a decade, while the economy during this period developed positively, with its average growth rate from 2004 to 2006 standing at 11 percent.
Meanwhile, one third of the country's population still live poverty and the government has been under ever rising international pressure to cope with corruption and social injustice to testify its competence and legality, said the reports.
Cambodian monk arrested for molesting French girl at Angkor
12/31/2007
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
PHNOM PENH--A Cambodian monk has been arrested and defrocked for molesting an eight-year-old French girl while she was touring the country's Angkor temples with her family, police said Monday.
The monk, 16-year-old Ouk Ratha, confessed to touching the girl's genitals last Friday after luring her into a quiet corner of the Bayon temple, one of the Angkor complex's most famous monuments in northwest Cambodia, said police official Sun Bunthong.
The monk also said he forced the girl to fondle him, Sun Bunthong said.
The girl's parents first became aware of the incident after noticing that she appeared frightened to have her picture taken with the monk.
"She agreed to be photographed twice with the monk out of fear," Sun Bunthong said.
"Afterwards her parents asked her why she was scared and she told them what the monk did to her," he added.
The parents complained to police and Ouk Ratha was defrocked a few hours after his arrest.
He faces three years in jail if convicted on sexual assault charges.
"It was a bad thing to do since monks represent Buddhism," Sun Bunthong said.
Large numbers of monks gather at the Angkor temples, the devoutly Buddhist country's spiritual center and largest tourist attraction.
The monk, 16-year-old Ouk Ratha, confessed to touching the girl's genitals last Friday after luring her into a quiet corner of the Bayon temple, one of the Angkor complex's most famous monuments in northwest Cambodia, said police official Sun Bunthong.
The monk also said he forced the girl to fondle him, Sun Bunthong said.
The girl's parents first became aware of the incident after noticing that she appeared frightened to have her picture taken with the monk.
"She agreed to be photographed twice with the monk out of fear," Sun Bunthong said.
"Afterwards her parents asked her why she was scared and she told them what the monk did to her," he added.
The parents complained to police and Ouk Ratha was defrocked a few hours after his arrest.
He faces three years in jail if convicted on sexual assault charges.
"It was a bad thing to do since monks represent Buddhism," Sun Bunthong said.
Large numbers of monks gather at the Angkor temples, the devoutly Buddhist country's spiritual center and largest tourist attraction.
Phnom Penh organizes celebration to greet the New Year
Monday, December 31, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
The Phnom Penh city hall will organize a celebration for Phnom Penh dwellers at the Wat Phnom park, starting 07:00 PM, on 31 December 2007, to greet 2008, the New Year. According to a communiqué issued by the city hall at the end of last week, to celebrate the New Year and the environment award the city received from an organization based in London, England, the Phnom Penh city hall will display a band for the public to enjoy and dance to its music, in the evening of 31 December 2007, starting from 07:00 PM, at the Wat Phnom park. The event will be broadcasted live on TV Channel 3 also. At midnight, fireworks will be lit, and at 5:15 AM on 01 January, there will be a greeting of the first ray of light for the New Year 2008, in front of the royal palace.
Corruption at the KRT: Just because there was no authorization for it that corruption did not take place
Sean Visoth (R) talking with UN Michelle Lee (Photo: VOA)Sean Visoth denies ECCC corruption
Monday, December 31, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Sean Visoth, the ECCC (KR Tribunal or KRT) director of office administration, rejected the accusation claiming that this tribunal takes a cut out of the employees working there, and that it selected incapable employees. Sean Visoth said, in a letter sent to the KRT employees, for the New Year, that there is no such corruption or such authorized threat to cut the employees salary in this tribunal. Sean Visoth stressed that he will take strong measures if he were to know that such actions take place. He said that the office of administration asked all employees to sign the KRT integrity rule, and there is no authorization to allow such corruption action to take place. At the beginning of this year, the KRT was criticized because newspapers accused the KRT of being corrupt. However, these accusations seem to die down after rejections of this information were issued.
Journalists demand an end to the use of the UNTAC-era criminal code against them
Monday, December 31, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
A group of 34 newspapers editors and representatives of various newspapers associations issued a 12-point request, among which features the request to the authority to stop using the UNTAC-era criminal code in the sentencing of journalists, and they also asked for several amendments to the information law. The journalists’ demand came after they held a 2-day forum in Sihanoukville on 28 December. The group of newspapers editors asked the government, and in particular, the tribunal, to use the information law instead of the UNTAC-era criminal code whereby journalists could face arrest for expressing their opinion. Representatives of all these journalists said that the use of the UNTAC-era criminal code to sentence journalists means that Cambodia is a country that cannot guarantee the freedom of the press. In 2007, at least 7 journalists faced charges stemming from the use of the UNTAC-era criminal code, and they were accused of writing untrue newspapers articles.
Bird flu kills hundreds of ducks, chickens in Vietnam
Veterinarians vacinate ducks in Kien Xuong District’s Vu Cong Commune, in the northern province of Thai Binh.—VNA/VNS Photo Dinh HueBird flu kills hundreds of ducks, chickens in Tra Vinh Province
29-12-2007
VNS (Hanoi)
HCM CITY — Bird flu has killed hundreds of ducks and chickens in southern Tra Vinh Province.
The Viet Nam Animal Health Department has confirmed that the deaths this week in the province’s Tra Vinh Town, Chau Thanh, Cau Ngang and Cang Long districts were the result of the deadly H5N1 virus.
Some had not been vaccinated while the remainder were injected just two or three days before dying.
The vaccine needs at least seven days to help the birds develop sufficient antibodies against the virus.
Earlier, Animal Health Department officials announced that bird flu had been controlled.
But department director Bui Quang Anh had warned of its possible recurrence in the cooler weather.
The risk was heightened because poultry was being smuggled across the borders with China and Cambodia, he said.
The uncontrolled farming of free-range ducks also created risk.
The director said Mekong-Delta farmers must carefully monitor free-range ducks and increase the vaccination of poultry to prevent another outbreak.
Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said it was now the peak season for the spread of the bird flu virus.
The ministry was encouraging the monitoring of farm, household and commune poultry and the immediate notification of bird flu to veterinarians.
The minister has also instructed city and provincial administrators to station inspectors at border checkpoints to curb poultry smuggling.
Animal Health Department officials have recommended that small, scattered free-range duck farming be made large-scale to ensure hygienic produce.
Preventive Medicine Department director Nguyen Huy Nga said the death of a four-year-old child infected with the deadly H5N1 virus showed inspection remained lax.
The child had died even though the local veterinary office had reported dead poultry in his precinct two months ago.
The boy, from northern Son La Province, died in Ha Noi’s National Paediatric Hospital last Tuesday.
WorldHealth Organi-sation’s confirmation on Thursday of the world’s first human-to-human transmission, in Pakistan, shows the danger of the virus could heighten.
Refugees of chaos cast out
Mout Iv gives close shave to customer Ol Joe Khao in his barbershop, and contemplates his future,hopefully still here in the U.S. where he is living his American Dream. (Photo: GERALD S. WILLIAMS / Inquirer) Sun, Dec. 30, 2007
By Troy Graham
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The Philadelphia Enquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)
Decades after flight, Cambodians face deportation due to crime and a lost chance at U.S. citizenship.
First of two parts.
Mout Iv owns a barbershop in Olney. Chally Dang repairs copiers and fax machines. Hak Ouk works at a packaging company.
The U.S. government brought them to Philadelphia as refugees from Cambodia's killing fields. Now, two decades or more later, the U.S. government is threatening to deport them back - for what they did, and didn't do, here in America.
For Mout and Chally, both of whom arrived in the United States as children, Cambodia is a land they scarcely know or understand. For Hak, a generation older, Cambodia is the graveyard for his family, killed in the genocide.
This is a story about responsibility and obligation - theirs, and the government's.
With immigrants pouring into the United States, legal and illegal, it is also a cautionary tale about what happens to those from desperately poor countries who grow up in America's toughest city neighborhoods, isolated, desperate and confused.
The government's initiation of deportation proceedings against Cambodian refugees is but the latest painful chapter in America's long and tragic involvement in Southeast Asia, beginning in the 1960s with the Vietnam War.
As refugees, the Cambodians were eligible for citizenship after five years in the United States - but two-thirds have not become citizens. Thus, they remain subject to deportation laws if they commit crimes.
To date, 169 Cambodian refugees - including at least three from Philadelphia - have been deported since Cambodia signed a treaty with the fixUnited States in 2002, agreeing to accept those still legally its citizens. It was one of the last countries in the world to do so.
In Philadelphia's Cambodian community, the fourthcq-largest in America, the government's policy of deporting refugees with criminal records has become highly controversial, given America's role in destabilizing Cambodia and the hardships those refugees have faced since their arrival.
"They feel like they've been betrayed their whole lives," said Helly Lee, an advocate with the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. "Coming here and being thrown in ghettos, and being in that cycle of poverty - and then to be sent back to a country they don't know."
Pat Reilly, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, responded that U.S. law requires, without exception, the deportation of immigrants who commit crimes.
"We just enforce the laws that are on the books," she said, "and there is no special status for refugees."
Mout, Chally and Hak don't pretend to be choirboys. Mout, 30, and Chally, 25, take full responsibility for gang-related assaults they took part in when they were much younger.
Hak, 58, deeply regrets that night in February 2000 when he lost his cool at a Philadelphia Parking Authority impoundment lot and fired a gun in the air.
But their biggest mistake, it turns out, was what they didn't do: They never sought to become citizens.
"It's always in the back of your mind, to be a citizen," Mout said, "but the streets had me."
Should they now be subject to the same deportation proceedings as economic immigrants?
Leaders and advocates in the Cambodian community believe the U.S. government has a special obligation to those who came here as refugees. The Maoist-inspired fixKhmer Rouge regime emptied the cities, set up work camps, and killed as many as two million people in a geopolitical nightmare that the United States helped create.
They also wonder whether more could and should have been done to help Cambodian refugees navigate the citizenship process. The fact that so many Cambodians living here have not become citizens, they say, is evidence of the community's isolation, ignorance of the law, or fear of authority.
"Resources weren't available to help with the integration process. There was a lot of shock," Lee said. "Just surviving was totally different than what they were used to."
A dream deferred
If Mout had become a citizen, he would be considered a success story - someone who turned his life around in prison.
Like Mout, most of those facing deportation were children when they were brought here and thrown into an urban cauldron.
For Mout, born in 1977, Cambodia has existed only in hazy, painful memories of early childhood. Raised in the United States from the age of 9, he knows more about hip-hop and the Phillies than fixKhmer society and culture.
His old-school barbershop, at Front and Champlost Streets in Olney, is a shrine to Philadelphia sports: Flyers calendars and Sixers foam fingers, Phillies bobbleheads and framed front pages from the Eagles' last Super Bowl.
Standing at a barber chair, his clippers gliding through a customer's hair, Mout reflected on the path he had taken, from a sick child whose mother carried him through the Cambodian jungle to escape war and atrocity, to a homeowner and proprietor with a loyal clientele.
"I'm living the American dream," he said.
Mout can't quite believe that he owns a home and a business, just 31/2 years after getting out of prison. He gives all the credit to God.
"I went astray, but he let me go. Just like the parable of the . . .," he said, momentarily distracted.
"The prodigal son," his customer said.
It was in 1998, the day after his 21st birthday, that Mout and some friends robbed a man in Olney.
Mout served more than four years in state prison and then was held in federal immigration detention for a year pending deportation. He was set free in January 2004 under supervision, and has been waiting ever since for the Cambodian government to process his deportation papers.
Mout doesn't know when Cambodia will be ready. For now, he lives in the moment. Every six months he must report to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at 16th and Callowhill Streets.
"I'm scared to death when I go in there because you don't know if you're going to get out," he said. "But I go because I have faith in the Lord. . . . If it happens, it happens for a reason."
Surviving the streets
The 2000 U.S. census estimated the city's Cambodian population at 6,570 people, although the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia insists the number is three times that many.
While there have been many individual success stories, others in the community have been left isolated and needy because of poverty, lack of education, mental illness or language difficulties.
"Basically they knew how to survive in the jungle," said Rorng Sorn, an advocate at the Cambodian Association. "A lot of them, when they came into the city, they had a hard time adapting to the lifestyle."
For the children, often raising themselves, the lure of the streets was strong.
Chally, Mout's cousin, has never even set foot in Cambodia. Born in 1982 in a refugee camp in Thailand, he was an infant when his family was resettled in what he describes as a roach- and rat-infested apartment in Logan.
"Stuck us right in the 'hood," he said. "Programs that helped get us on our feet? Welfare, and not much else."
His mother was still traumatized by her experience in Cambodia's killing fields. Once in Philadelphia, she fought the ghosts of the past and found solace in drink.
With such a depressed parent, Chally ran the streets, joined a gang of Asian kids, and got arrested for burglary for the first time at age 10.
"If you're with other Cambodians, they understand you," he explained. "You can relate to each other. 'Oh, you were a refugee? I'm a refugee.' "
In 1997, when he was 15, Chally was involved in two shootings, one of them a drive-by in which he fired at a rival gang.
He was arrested that year and tried as an adult for aggravated assault. He served more than five years, then did six months of detention in Immigration Court in York, Pa.
Chally, using the jail law library, won his freedom by citing a 1996 Supreme Court decision that said deportable immigrants cannot be held indefinitely if their home countries can't take them back. The court placed a six-month limit on detention.
In prison, Chally picked up vocational skills and now works as a digital tech, repairing copiers and other office electronics. He has, he said, left his old ways behind.
No matter. Chally could now lose contact with his three children, all younger than 3, if he gets deported.
"I really want to be around until the kids get to an age that I can explain to them the way things are, the way things will be," he said. "I don't want them to be at an age when they don't understand. . . . 'Why is Daddy in another country? Does Daddy love me?' "
Defiance, resignation
Unlike Mout and Chally, Hak grew up in Cambodia. As a young man, he served in the army under Prime Minister Lon Nol, a U.S. ally. Lon Nol sent about 500 troops, including Hak, to fight in Vietnam alongside the Americans.
During the Vietnam War, the United States destabilized Cambodia with a massive bombing campaign that was aimed at North Vietnamese troops, but killed and displaced thousands of civilians. The U.S. government also supported a coup by a more pro-American regime. Historians believe both actions aided the rise of the Khmer Rouge, whose crimes the United States then largely ignored.
When the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia and killed his mother and eight of his siblings, Hak made his way to a refugee camp in Thailand - and then to Philadelphia in 1976 as a refugee.
"I no want to come here," he said, "but you bring me here. My whole family die in Cambodia, and now I have family here. And you try to send me back?"
Hak soon became a leader of his community, helping neighbors and coworkers. He has children nearly the same age as Chally, all educated in Philadelphia's Catholic schools.
But all of his good deeds and hard work have been overshadowed by what happened one night in February 2000 at a Philadelphia Parking Authority lot near Oregon Avenue.
Hak, working as a tow-truck driver, got into a fight over a friend's car and was beaten by another driver, he said.
Hak said after he had tried in vain to get a police officer to intercede, he returned with an unregistered .45-caliber Beretta and fired two shots.
Hak insisted he had fired in the air. The other driver, who denied beating Hak, said Hak had fired at his truck.
In the end, Hak served five months of house arrest for aggravated assault.
Hak believes the United States, in seeking now to deport him, is being unfair. "I fought for the American Army for three years," he said. "I'm lucky I didn't die. If I didn't go to Vietnam War, I never come here, no way."
In an interview at his South Philadelphia home, Hak alternated between defiance and resignation.
"Two more years and I'll hit 60," he said at one point. "If they want to send me back, OK. I want to stay at least two, three more years, and OK."
He said he hoped he could see his youngest son, 17-year-old David, get his diploma. "That's what I tell my lawyer: 'Just help me until my three boys finish high school, then I go,' " Hak said.
But while most returnees are troubled by the uncertainty and separation of deportation, Hak's fears run deeper.
"I go to my town, maybe they kill me," he said. "My town all Khmer Rouge."
Contact staff writer Troy Graham at 856-779-3893 or tgraham@phillynews.com.
First of two parts.
Mout Iv owns a barbershop in Olney. Chally Dang repairs copiers and fax machines. Hak Ouk works at a packaging company.
The U.S. government brought them to Philadelphia as refugees from Cambodia's killing fields. Now, two decades or more later, the U.S. government is threatening to deport them back - for what they did, and didn't do, here in America.
For Mout and Chally, both of whom arrived in the United States as children, Cambodia is a land they scarcely know or understand. For Hak, a generation older, Cambodia is the graveyard for his family, killed in the genocide.
This is a story about responsibility and obligation - theirs, and the government's.
With immigrants pouring into the United States, legal and illegal, it is also a cautionary tale about what happens to those from desperately poor countries who grow up in America's toughest city neighborhoods, isolated, desperate and confused.
The government's initiation of deportation proceedings against Cambodian refugees is but the latest painful chapter in America's long and tragic involvement in Southeast Asia, beginning in the 1960s with the Vietnam War.
As refugees, the Cambodians were eligible for citizenship after five years in the United States - but two-thirds have not become citizens. Thus, they remain subject to deportation laws if they commit crimes.
To date, 169 Cambodian refugees - including at least three from Philadelphia - have been deported since Cambodia signed a treaty with the fixUnited States in 2002, agreeing to accept those still legally its citizens. It was one of the last countries in the world to do so.
In Philadelphia's Cambodian community, the fourthcq-largest in America, the government's policy of deporting refugees with criminal records has become highly controversial, given America's role in destabilizing Cambodia and the hardships those refugees have faced since their arrival.
"They feel like they've been betrayed their whole lives," said Helly Lee, an advocate with the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. "Coming here and being thrown in ghettos, and being in that cycle of poverty - and then to be sent back to a country they don't know."
Pat Reilly, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, responded that U.S. law requires, without exception, the deportation of immigrants who commit crimes.
"We just enforce the laws that are on the books," she said, "and there is no special status for refugees."
Mout, Chally and Hak don't pretend to be choirboys. Mout, 30, and Chally, 25, take full responsibility for gang-related assaults they took part in when they were much younger.
Hak, 58, deeply regrets that night in February 2000 when he lost his cool at a Philadelphia Parking Authority impoundment lot and fired a gun in the air.
But their biggest mistake, it turns out, was what they didn't do: They never sought to become citizens.
"It's always in the back of your mind, to be a citizen," Mout said, "but the streets had me."
Should they now be subject to the same deportation proceedings as economic immigrants?
Leaders and advocates in the Cambodian community believe the U.S. government has a special obligation to those who came here as refugees. The Maoist-inspired fixKhmer Rouge regime emptied the cities, set up work camps, and killed as many as two million people in a geopolitical nightmare that the United States helped create.
They also wonder whether more could and should have been done to help Cambodian refugees navigate the citizenship process. The fact that so many Cambodians living here have not become citizens, they say, is evidence of the community's isolation, ignorance of the law, or fear of authority.
"Resources weren't available to help with the integration process. There was a lot of shock," Lee said. "Just surviving was totally different than what they were used to."
A dream deferred
If Mout had become a citizen, he would be considered a success story - someone who turned his life around in prison.
Like Mout, most of those facing deportation were children when they were brought here and thrown into an urban cauldron.
For Mout, born in 1977, Cambodia has existed only in hazy, painful memories of early childhood. Raised in the United States from the age of 9, he knows more about hip-hop and the Phillies than fixKhmer society and culture.
His old-school barbershop, at Front and Champlost Streets in Olney, is a shrine to Philadelphia sports: Flyers calendars and Sixers foam fingers, Phillies bobbleheads and framed front pages from the Eagles' last Super Bowl.
Standing at a barber chair, his clippers gliding through a customer's hair, Mout reflected on the path he had taken, from a sick child whose mother carried him through the Cambodian jungle to escape war and atrocity, to a homeowner and proprietor with a loyal clientele.
"I'm living the American dream," he said.
Mout can't quite believe that he owns a home and a business, just 31/2 years after getting out of prison. He gives all the credit to God.
"I went astray, but he let me go. Just like the parable of the . . .," he said, momentarily distracted.
"The prodigal son," his customer said.
It was in 1998, the day after his 21st birthday, that Mout and some friends robbed a man in Olney.
Mout served more than four years in state prison and then was held in federal immigration detention for a year pending deportation. He was set free in January 2004 under supervision, and has been waiting ever since for the Cambodian government to process his deportation papers.
Mout doesn't know when Cambodia will be ready. For now, he lives in the moment. Every six months he must report to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at 16th and Callowhill Streets.
"I'm scared to death when I go in there because you don't know if you're going to get out," he said. "But I go because I have faith in the Lord. . . . If it happens, it happens for a reason."
Surviving the streets
The 2000 U.S. census estimated the city's Cambodian population at 6,570 people, although the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia insists the number is three times that many.
While there have been many individual success stories, others in the community have been left isolated and needy because of poverty, lack of education, mental illness or language difficulties.
"Basically they knew how to survive in the jungle," said Rorng Sorn, an advocate at the Cambodian Association. "A lot of them, when they came into the city, they had a hard time adapting to the lifestyle."
For the children, often raising themselves, the lure of the streets was strong.
Chally, Mout's cousin, has never even set foot in Cambodia. Born in 1982 in a refugee camp in Thailand, he was an infant when his family was resettled in what he describes as a roach- and rat-infested apartment in Logan.
"Stuck us right in the 'hood," he said. "Programs that helped get us on our feet? Welfare, and not much else."
His mother was still traumatized by her experience in Cambodia's killing fields. Once in Philadelphia, she fought the ghosts of the past and found solace in drink.
With such a depressed parent, Chally ran the streets, joined a gang of Asian kids, and got arrested for burglary for the first time at age 10.
"If you're with other Cambodians, they understand you," he explained. "You can relate to each other. 'Oh, you were a refugee? I'm a refugee.' "
In 1997, when he was 15, Chally was involved in two shootings, one of them a drive-by in which he fired at a rival gang.
He was arrested that year and tried as an adult for aggravated assault. He served more than five years, then did six months of detention in Immigration Court in York, Pa.
Chally, using the jail law library, won his freedom by citing a 1996 Supreme Court decision that said deportable immigrants cannot be held indefinitely if their home countries can't take them back. The court placed a six-month limit on detention.
In prison, Chally picked up vocational skills and now works as a digital tech, repairing copiers and other office electronics. He has, he said, left his old ways behind.
No matter. Chally could now lose contact with his three children, all younger than 3, if he gets deported.
"I really want to be around until the kids get to an age that I can explain to them the way things are, the way things will be," he said. "I don't want them to be at an age when they don't understand. . . . 'Why is Daddy in another country? Does Daddy love me?' "
Defiance, resignation
Unlike Mout and Chally, Hak grew up in Cambodia. As a young man, he served in the army under Prime Minister Lon Nol, a U.S. ally. Lon Nol sent about 500 troops, including Hak, to fight in Vietnam alongside the Americans.
During the Vietnam War, the United States destabilized Cambodia with a massive bombing campaign that was aimed at North Vietnamese troops, but killed and displaced thousands of civilians. The U.S. government also supported a coup by a more pro-American regime. Historians believe both actions aided the rise of the Khmer Rouge, whose crimes the United States then largely ignored.
When the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia and killed his mother and eight of his siblings, Hak made his way to a refugee camp in Thailand - and then to Philadelphia in 1976 as a refugee.
"I no want to come here," he said, "but you bring me here. My whole family die in Cambodia, and now I have family here. And you try to send me back?"
Hak soon became a leader of his community, helping neighbors and coworkers. He has children nearly the same age as Chally, all educated in Philadelphia's Catholic schools.
But all of his good deeds and hard work have been overshadowed by what happened one night in February 2000 at a Philadelphia Parking Authority lot near Oregon Avenue.
Hak, working as a tow-truck driver, got into a fight over a friend's car and was beaten by another driver, he said.
Hak said after he had tried in vain to get a police officer to intercede, he returned with an unregistered .45-caliber Beretta and fired two shots.
Hak insisted he had fired in the air. The other driver, who denied beating Hak, said Hak had fired at his truck.
In the end, Hak served five months of house arrest for aggravated assault.
Hak believes the United States, in seeking now to deport him, is being unfair. "I fought for the American Army for three years," he said. "I'm lucky I didn't die. If I didn't go to Vietnam War, I never come here, no way."
In an interview at his South Philadelphia home, Hak alternated between defiance and resignation.
"Two more years and I'll hit 60," he said at one point. "If they want to send me back, OK. I want to stay at least two, three more years, and OK."
He said he hoped he could see his youngest son, 17-year-old David, get his diploma. "That's what I tell my lawyer: 'Just help me until my three boys finish high school, then I go,' " Hak said.
But while most returnees are troubled by the uncertainty and separation of deportation, Hak's fears run deeper.
"I go to my town, maybe they kill me," he said. "My town all Khmer Rouge."
Contact staff writer Troy Graham at 856-779-3893 or tgraham@phillynews.com.
Border security with Vietnam or a ploy to arrest more Khmer Krom people?
30/12/2007
Vietnam, Cambodia continue with efforts to maintain border security
Vietnam, Cambodia continue with efforts to maintain border security
VietNamNet Bridge - Representatives from Cambodia’s Svay Rieng province and Vietnam’s Tay Ninh and Long An provinces have met to review their cooperation in maintaining border security in 2007 and work out a cooperation programme for 2008.
Cheang Um, from Svay Rieng province, highly appreciated the cooperation of the two countries’ security forces in fighting crimes and maintaining security in the common border area, particularly in the fight against drug and human trafficking and preventing illegal immigration.
“The three provinces effectively cooperated in dealing with violation of entry and exit regulations and of security and social order in the common border area of the three provinces,” the meeting agreed.
The representatives discussed measures to promote cooperation and implement the plan to join hands to prevent crimes and ensure security in their common border area.
Source: VNA
Cheang Um, from Svay Rieng province, highly appreciated the cooperation of the two countries’ security forces in fighting crimes and maintaining security in the common border area, particularly in the fight against drug and human trafficking and preventing illegal immigration.
“The three provinces effectively cooperated in dealing with violation of entry and exit regulations and of security and social order in the common border area of the three provinces,” the meeting agreed.
The representatives discussed measures to promote cooperation and implement the plan to join hands to prevent crimes and ensure security in their common border area.
Source: VNA
Madge hunt for girl in Cambodia
Monday, December 31, 2007By THOMAS WHITAKER and VIRGINIA WHEELER The Sun (UK)
POP queen MADONNA wants to adopt a girl from CAMBODIA, The Sun can reveal.
The millionaire singer, 49, and husband GUY RITCHIE, 39, have sent aides to scour the poor Asian country for a new daughter.
Madonna chose Cambodia after being impressed by ANGELINA JOLIE’s adoption of Maddox, six, from the country in 2002.
She was also frustrated by the red tape involved in her adoption of two-year-old Malawi youngster David Banda. That adoption is still waiting to be formalised.
Madonna also has a daughter Lourdes, 11, by fitness trainer Carlos Leon and seven-year-old son Rocco by Guy.
Her latest adoption bid comes after a social worker praised her for being a model mum to David.
Social welfare officer Simon Chisale said the tot “had bonded well with the Ritchies” and that it will not be “in the best interest of David” to be taken away from his new life.
Mr Chisale also witnessed how David enjoyed a happy and relaxed relationship with Madonna and Guy and “enjoyed being cuddled”.
His relationship with Guy was particularly noted as being “warm, playful interaction”, whilst Madonna was seen as a “confident and able parent”.
His report clears the way for the adoption of David to officially go through possibly by next April.
Madonna originally looked at Malawi for a girl. But a pal said: “Malawi is bound up in red tape and she hopes that Cambodia will be easier.”
The millionaire singer, 49, and husband GUY RITCHIE, 39, have sent aides to scour the poor Asian country for a new daughter.
Madonna chose Cambodia after being impressed by ANGELINA JOLIE’s adoption of Maddox, six, from the country in 2002.
She was also frustrated by the red tape involved in her adoption of two-year-old Malawi youngster David Banda. That adoption is still waiting to be formalised.
Madonna also has a daughter Lourdes, 11, by fitness trainer Carlos Leon and seven-year-old son Rocco by Guy.
Her latest adoption bid comes after a social worker praised her for being a model mum to David.
Social welfare officer Simon Chisale said the tot “had bonded well with the Ritchies” and that it will not be “in the best interest of David” to be taken away from his new life.
Mr Chisale also witnessed how David enjoyed a happy and relaxed relationship with Madonna and Guy and “enjoyed being cuddled”.
His relationship with Guy was particularly noted as being “warm, playful interaction”, whilst Madonna was seen as a “confident and able parent”.
His report clears the way for the adoption of David to officially go through possibly by next April.
Madonna originally looked at Malawi for a girl. But a pal said: “Malawi is bound up in red tape and she hopes that Cambodia will be easier.”
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Dancing in 'Shadows' Stamford professor writes about experiencees as UN official in Cambodia
December 30 2007
By Scott Gargan
Special Correspondent
The Advocate (Connecticut, USA)
"They were fighting us with 900 people," says Widyono, who called his wife from a phone inside UNTAC's Australian communications unit. "She was up all night worrying about me."
Before their ouster by the Vietnamese-led People's Republic of Kampuchea in 1979, the KR starved or executed some 2 million of their own people in a four-year campaign to force Cambodia's population into agrarian labor communes. Now 14 years later, they were shelling Widyono's city in protest of UNTAC-coordinated elections.
Widyono admits he could have waited to call his wife. But, he says UNTAC "timidity" toward the KR - born out of a UN mandate recognizing the group as a legitimate administrative faction in Cambodia - gave them the audacity to strike in the first place.
"How can you recognize a genocidal regime? Without UN recognition, the KR wouldn't have been as confident," says Widyono, who discusses his experiences as part of UNTAC from 1992-1993 and later, as a UN special envoy to Cambodia from 1994-1997, in his memoir, "Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge and the United Nations in Cambodia."
As the title suggests, Widyono's narrative focuses on the role of what he calls the "unholy trinity" - King Norodom Sihanouk, the KR and the UN - in fomenting political chaos. Widyono writes how the UN refused to recognize the PRK, even though it freed Cambodia's citizens and worked to rehabilitate the country. Instead, it was slapped with economic sanctions (withholding aid for thousands) and denied representation at the UN.
Those seats, Widyono says, were kept for representatives of the Sihanouk-led Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea - comprised of the KR and other anti-Vietnamese groups - at the behest of western nations like the United States. Rather than support Cambodia's de facto rulers or leave the UN seat open, Widyono explains, the West backed a powerless government in exile - all because the PRK was installed by Vietnam's communist government, a hated enemy of the United States in the Cold War.
"It's like letting Hitler represent Germany at the UN," Widyono said during a Dec. 11 lecture at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, where he teaches economics. "Did anyone ask the Cambodian people who they wanted to represent them?"
On the ground, this meant Widyono and his UNTAC colleagues could not disarm Cambodia's warring factions (the KR was non-compliant) or protect civilians from the KR's pre-election violence.
Widyono says his comments have "raised eyebrows" at the UN, which views UNTAC as an overall success for its organization of elections and repatriation of refugees. He still believes UNTAC's mission was fundamentally flawed.
"The Paris Peace agreements (ending the civil war) were born with original sin because UNTAC had to recognize the KR," says Widyono, who wrote the book during a three-year stint as a visiting scholar at the Kahin Center for Advanced Research in Southeast Asia at Cornell University. "Our mandate was a joke."
Oddly enough, Widyono didn't hear complaints from Cambodia's ostentatious King Sihanouk, whom he criticized for backing the KR. He was surprised to receive a thank-you note from Sihanouk for the copy of "Dancing..." he sent to the former king for his birthday.
"I was quite critical of him, so I wasn't sure if he would like the book," says Widyono. "But he likes to have his name mentioned everywhere and my book revives him. He is even in the title."
Widyono may be firm in his criticisms of UNTAC and pessimistic about the UN, but he still thinks there can be lessons for future missions, such as the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur.
"The UN is constrained because they don't have their own troops," Widyono says. "But that doesn't mean they can't stand up to those who have committed atrocities."
By Scott Gargan
Special Correspondent
The Advocate (Connecticut, USA)
"I was quite critical of him [Sihanouk], so I wasn't sure if he would like the book ... But he likes to have his name mentioned everywhere and my book revives him. He is even in the title" - Benny WidyonoBenny Widyono was talking by phone with his wife, Francisca, who was at home in Stamford, when a UN soldier screamed "get down!" Siem Reap, where the Indonesian diplomat served as provincial governor for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia - the peacekeeping mission deployed in 1992 after decades of civil war in the country - was under attack by the Khmer Rouge.
"They were fighting us with 900 people," says Widyono, who called his wife from a phone inside UNTAC's Australian communications unit. "She was up all night worrying about me."
Before their ouster by the Vietnamese-led People's Republic of Kampuchea in 1979, the KR starved or executed some 2 million of their own people in a four-year campaign to force Cambodia's population into agrarian labor communes. Now 14 years later, they were shelling Widyono's city in protest of UNTAC-coordinated elections.
Widyono admits he could have waited to call his wife. But, he says UNTAC "timidity" toward the KR - born out of a UN mandate recognizing the group as a legitimate administrative faction in Cambodia - gave them the audacity to strike in the first place.
"How can you recognize a genocidal regime? Without UN recognition, the KR wouldn't have been as confident," says Widyono, who discusses his experiences as part of UNTAC from 1992-1993 and later, as a UN special envoy to Cambodia from 1994-1997, in his memoir, "Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge and the United Nations in Cambodia."
As the title suggests, Widyono's narrative focuses on the role of what he calls the "unholy trinity" - King Norodom Sihanouk, the KR and the UN - in fomenting political chaos. Widyono writes how the UN refused to recognize the PRK, even though it freed Cambodia's citizens and worked to rehabilitate the country. Instead, it was slapped with economic sanctions (withholding aid for thousands) and denied representation at the UN.
Those seats, Widyono says, were kept for representatives of the Sihanouk-led Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea - comprised of the KR and other anti-Vietnamese groups - at the behest of western nations like the United States. Rather than support Cambodia's de facto rulers or leave the UN seat open, Widyono explains, the West backed a powerless government in exile - all because the PRK was installed by Vietnam's communist government, a hated enemy of the United States in the Cold War.
"It's like letting Hitler represent Germany at the UN," Widyono said during a Dec. 11 lecture at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, where he teaches economics. "Did anyone ask the Cambodian people who they wanted to represent them?"
On the ground, this meant Widyono and his UNTAC colleagues could not disarm Cambodia's warring factions (the KR was non-compliant) or protect civilians from the KR's pre-election violence.
Widyono says his comments have "raised eyebrows" at the UN, which views UNTAC as an overall success for its organization of elections and repatriation of refugees. He still believes UNTAC's mission was fundamentally flawed.
"The Paris Peace agreements (ending the civil war) were born with original sin because UNTAC had to recognize the KR," says Widyono, who wrote the book during a three-year stint as a visiting scholar at the Kahin Center for Advanced Research in Southeast Asia at Cornell University. "Our mandate was a joke."
Oddly enough, Widyono didn't hear complaints from Cambodia's ostentatious King Sihanouk, whom he criticized for backing the KR. He was surprised to receive a thank-you note from Sihanouk for the copy of "Dancing..." he sent to the former king for his birthday.
"I was quite critical of him, so I wasn't sure if he would like the book," says Widyono. "But he likes to have his name mentioned everywhere and my book revives him. He is even in the title."
Widyono may be firm in his criticisms of UNTAC and pessimistic about the UN, but he still thinks there can be lessons for future missions, such as the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur.
"The UN is constrained because they don't have their own troops," Widyono says. "But that doesn't mean they can't stand up to those who have committed atrocities."
Listen - A booklet by Pang Sokhoeun
Right click here to download a free PDF copy of Pang Sokhoeun's booklet(left click to read the booklet online)
Preface By Pang SokheounTranslated from Khmer by KI-Media
This booklet, Listen, is a collection from my follow up of the political situation and from my listening of the speeches given by our country’s leader for several years. This collection shows the political viewpoints, moral conduct, responsibility, and leadership of a Cambodian leader under the leadership of Mr. Hun Sen who stressed about the economic development in the country, the measures taken to protect forests, the provisions taken to prevent illegal Vietnamese immigration, the anti-corruption fight, the measures taken to resolve high gasoline prices, etc… The majority of the quotes cited in this booklet are true, while some contain additional information only to make the writing livelier.
This collection was done as a satire aimed at the current country leader who is an incapable man, lacking moral code of conduct, leading Cambodia to becoming one of the poorest country in the world, and one who does not respect human rights, in addition to being coarse and rude.
I hope that we will have a good leader who will be capable and has a good moral code of conduct in the future.
Thank you!
Regarding salaries
People accused me that I did not think about raising salaries. I want to ask where do we get the money? Our country is extremely poor, we borrow money from others, and we beg every year.
They say that salary is too low and it cannot support the living condition. I want to ask: was there anybody dying because of low salary yet? I observe that Cambodian people never die because of low salary under my leadership, they only die because they are too happy, such as dying in traffic accident when they go out for pleasure, or when they out to night clubs in the evening, then they fight each others during the parties, some are distraught and they go and jump off from very high bridges built by us, or they die because of high blood pressure, AIDS, only… One more thing, if their salary is low and cannot support their living, why would they keep that job? Why don’t they resign? I tell you, I am not begging you (to keep your job).
They say that MPs’ salary is very high, but low level government workers receive very low salary. Why don’t they use their head to think, each MP represents tens of thousands of constituents, the MP has a car, bodyguards, and he is high ranking, if we give him a low salary, would that make sense?
They say that I and people in my group receive only so much salary, why do we have modern cars, very nice and numerous villas, send our children to study overseas in very pricey schools, have money to build realizations everywhere, enjoy ourselves in famous tourist areas? I am telling you, this is because we are not lazy. Besides fulfilling our role as government leaders, we work hard day and night to earn a living, and we take no time to rest. We have no time to discuss in leisure, to drink, to gamble, to hold cock fighting, and to sit idle looking for lice uselessly. Even when we go out to play golf, or meet at the National Assembly, we never forget about doing business.
This collection was done as a satire aimed at the current country leader who is an incapable man, lacking moral code of conduct, leading Cambodia to becoming one of the poorest country in the world, and one who does not respect human rights, in addition to being coarse and rude.
I hope that we will have a good leader who will be capable and has a good moral code of conduct in the future.
Thank you!
o O o
Excerpt from Learn, pp. 5-6
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
Translated from Khmer by KI-Media
Regarding salaries
People accused me that I did not think about raising salaries. I want to ask where do we get the money? Our country is extremely poor, we borrow money from others, and we beg every year.
They say that salary is too low and it cannot support the living condition. I want to ask: was there anybody dying because of low salary yet? I observe that Cambodian people never die because of low salary under my leadership, they only die because they are too happy, such as dying in traffic accident when they go out for pleasure, or when they out to night clubs in the evening, then they fight each others during the parties, some are distraught and they go and jump off from very high bridges built by us, or they die because of high blood pressure, AIDS, only… One more thing, if their salary is low and cannot support their living, why would they keep that job? Why don’t they resign? I tell you, I am not begging you (to keep your job).
They say that MPs’ salary is very high, but low level government workers receive very low salary. Why don’t they use their head to think, each MP represents tens of thousands of constituents, the MP has a car, bodyguards, and he is high ranking, if we give him a low salary, would that make sense?
They say that I and people in my group receive only so much salary, why do we have modern cars, very nice and numerous villas, send our children to study overseas in very pricey schools, have money to build realizations everywhere, enjoy ourselves in famous tourist areas? I am telling you, this is because we are not lazy. Besides fulfilling our role as government leaders, we work hard day and night to earn a living, and we take no time to rest. We have no time to discuss in leisure, to drink, to gamble, to hold cock fighting, and to sit idle looking for lice uselessly. Even when we go out to play golf, or meet at the National Assembly, we never forget about doing business.
She Was Supposed to Be Dead
Webb reported from smack in the middle of everything. (Photo: UPI/Bettmann/Corbis)December 30, 2007
By MAGGIE JONES
The New York Times (USA)
Kate Webb | b. 1943
When Kate Webb reported from the battlefields of Cambodia, she kept her chestnut hair cropped G.I.-short and wore jeans and loose shirts to obscure her breasts. This was 1971. Only a handful of women were full-time correspondents in Vietnam, and even fewer women roughed the front lines next door in Cambodia, where military officers believed foreign women were, at best, a distraction. At worst, they were bad luck.
Bad luck was a virus among foreign correspondents in Cambodia. Unlike in Vietnam — where Webb arrived four years earlier at age 23 with a philosophy degree, a one-way ticket from Australia, a Remington typewriter, $200 in cash and a whiskey-and-cigarette voice so soft people leaned in to hear her — there were no reliable phone lines in Cambodia to call your editor in an emergency. There were no American military hospitals to sew up your bullet wounds; no helicopters to evacuate you when things got bloody. By April 1971, several years before the Killing Fields, at least 16 foreign correspondents were missing and 9 were dead.
On April 7, it was Webb’s turn. A 28-year-old bureau chief for United Press International, Webb was covering a clash on Highway 4, south of Phnom Penh. As bullets flew from every direction between North Vietnamese and United States-backed Cambodian troops, Webb and her Cambodian interpreter plunged into a ditch. By the time they eventually belly-crawled their way out, four other refugees from the attack had joined them: a Japanese photojournalist and his Cambodian interpreter along with a Cambodian newspaper cartoonist and a Cambodian photographer.
Throughout that afternoon and night, the six of them crept through the wooded foothills of Cambodia’s Elephant Mountains, holding their breath as they stood within inches of chatting North Vietnamese soldiers. At 11:30 the next morning, tired, thirsty, their clothes and skin shredded by branches, they were crouching in the underbrush when they looked up to see two skinny North Vietnamese soldiers with AK-47’s. The soldiers bound Webb’s arms behind her back with wire, vine and tape and roped all of the captives together in a single line. They confiscated their notebooks, their ID cards, their cameras, their watches. Then they took one thing that Webb held dear: a gold Chinese charm that she wore around her neck. She had clung to that charm in foxholes and always came out alive. Now without it, she felt naked.
After a soldier tossed her and other prisoners’ shoes into the trees, laughing, Webb was forced to walk barefoot on the hot asphalt and through woods littered with bamboo splinters and stones, until another soldier brought Webb a pair of thongs. She winced, knowing they had been stripped from a dead paratrooper.
Following a week of night marches, they arrived at a military camp where Webb slept in a hammock and alternated between stretches of numbing boredom and piercing fear. Why, she wondered, hadn’t they shot her? Did they believe her during the interrogations when she said she wasn’t an American, wasn’t with the C.I.A., wasn’t a soldier? Maybe they would turn her over to the Khmer Rouge, where death — perhaps preceded by starvation — was almost certain. Maybe they planned to march her to the Hanoi Hilton, where United States pilots were being brutally tortured. There are worse things than a single bullet to the head.
As Webb would later write in her memoirs, “On the Other Side: 23 Days With the Viet Cong,” there wasn’t all that much that separated soldier from prisoner. Both subsisted on two meals a day of rice and pork fat in a salted broth and wrestled with hunger, malaria, homesickness. Webb and a soldier she nicknamed Li’l Abner compared their scarred feet (his were worse) and, in French, discussed the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Napoleonic Wars. Three weeks into captivity, Webb had lost 25 pounds — down to 105, on her 5-foot-7-inch frame — and shook with fever from two strains of malaria. She longed to take a bath, to shave her legs, to eat an orange.
She was not, however, dead. On April 21, 1971 — while Webb was sitting in the jungles of Cambodia — this newspaper ran her obituary. Near Highway 4, two Cambodian officers had found a woman they believed was Webb with a bullet in the chest. In accordance with Cambodian military procedures, they cremated the body.
Around that same time, the North Vietnamese were telling Webb about their plans to free her. They figured out a drop-off spot where Cambodian forces might rescue them. And on April 30 — following what Webb would call a “Mad Hatter’s” farewell party with tea, cigarettes, candy and bananas — Webb and the other captives made their final night march, this time with their possessions returned, save for their notebooks and cameras. In the predawn darkness, the soldiers and their former prisoners said fast farewells and Webb and the others walked onto Highway 4 waving a small piece of white cloth. “Miss Webb,” said a Cambodian officer who spotted her on the roadside, “you are supposed to be dead!”
That night Webb stayed at a friend’s empty apartment, where three hot baths washed the filth from her skin and 15 glasses of iced orange juice finally quenched her thirst. A bed with clean sheets awaited her, but Webb chose the balcony; she missed her hammock. She thought about the soldiers she had nicknamed Dad, Gold Tooth and Mr. Lib, who risked their lives to walk her to safety.
Another journalist might have parlayed three weeks of captivity into celebrity status. Webb got back to work instead. For the next three decades, she wrote for wire services from Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and India, living outside the usual expat neighborhoods, learning the languages, outreporting many of her younger colleagues and using her own modest income to supplement the salaries of in-country wire-service staff.
When she finally retired from front-line reporting at age 58, she returned to Australia, where her family had lived since leaving New Zealand when she was a child. There, she tended her garden and sketched nature scenes. And on some nights, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and a rapt audience of friends and family, she told stories about a few of the places she had seen.
Bad luck was a virus among foreign correspondents in Cambodia. Unlike in Vietnam — where Webb arrived four years earlier at age 23 with a philosophy degree, a one-way ticket from Australia, a Remington typewriter, $200 in cash and a whiskey-and-cigarette voice so soft people leaned in to hear her — there were no reliable phone lines in Cambodia to call your editor in an emergency. There were no American military hospitals to sew up your bullet wounds; no helicopters to evacuate you when things got bloody. By April 1971, several years before the Killing Fields, at least 16 foreign correspondents were missing and 9 were dead.
On April 7, it was Webb’s turn. A 28-year-old bureau chief for United Press International, Webb was covering a clash on Highway 4, south of Phnom Penh. As bullets flew from every direction between North Vietnamese and United States-backed Cambodian troops, Webb and her Cambodian interpreter plunged into a ditch. By the time they eventually belly-crawled their way out, four other refugees from the attack had joined them: a Japanese photojournalist and his Cambodian interpreter along with a Cambodian newspaper cartoonist and a Cambodian photographer.
Throughout that afternoon and night, the six of them crept through the wooded foothills of Cambodia’s Elephant Mountains, holding their breath as they stood within inches of chatting North Vietnamese soldiers. At 11:30 the next morning, tired, thirsty, their clothes and skin shredded by branches, they were crouching in the underbrush when they looked up to see two skinny North Vietnamese soldiers with AK-47’s. The soldiers bound Webb’s arms behind her back with wire, vine and tape and roped all of the captives together in a single line. They confiscated their notebooks, their ID cards, their cameras, their watches. Then they took one thing that Webb held dear: a gold Chinese charm that she wore around her neck. She had clung to that charm in foxholes and always came out alive. Now without it, she felt naked.
After a soldier tossed her and other prisoners’ shoes into the trees, laughing, Webb was forced to walk barefoot on the hot asphalt and through woods littered with bamboo splinters and stones, until another soldier brought Webb a pair of thongs. She winced, knowing they had been stripped from a dead paratrooper.
Following a week of night marches, they arrived at a military camp where Webb slept in a hammock and alternated between stretches of numbing boredom and piercing fear. Why, she wondered, hadn’t they shot her? Did they believe her during the interrogations when she said she wasn’t an American, wasn’t with the C.I.A., wasn’t a soldier? Maybe they would turn her over to the Khmer Rouge, where death — perhaps preceded by starvation — was almost certain. Maybe they planned to march her to the Hanoi Hilton, where United States pilots were being brutally tortured. There are worse things than a single bullet to the head.
As Webb would later write in her memoirs, “On the Other Side: 23 Days With the Viet Cong,” there wasn’t all that much that separated soldier from prisoner. Both subsisted on two meals a day of rice and pork fat in a salted broth and wrestled with hunger, malaria, homesickness. Webb and a soldier she nicknamed Li’l Abner compared their scarred feet (his were worse) and, in French, discussed the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Napoleonic Wars. Three weeks into captivity, Webb had lost 25 pounds — down to 105, on her 5-foot-7-inch frame — and shook with fever from two strains of malaria. She longed to take a bath, to shave her legs, to eat an orange.
She was not, however, dead. On April 21, 1971 — while Webb was sitting in the jungles of Cambodia — this newspaper ran her obituary. Near Highway 4, two Cambodian officers had found a woman they believed was Webb with a bullet in the chest. In accordance with Cambodian military procedures, they cremated the body.
Around that same time, the North Vietnamese were telling Webb about their plans to free her. They figured out a drop-off spot where Cambodian forces might rescue them. And on April 30 — following what Webb would call a “Mad Hatter’s” farewell party with tea, cigarettes, candy and bananas — Webb and the other captives made their final night march, this time with their possessions returned, save for their notebooks and cameras. In the predawn darkness, the soldiers and their former prisoners said fast farewells and Webb and the others walked onto Highway 4 waving a small piece of white cloth. “Miss Webb,” said a Cambodian officer who spotted her on the roadside, “you are supposed to be dead!”
That night Webb stayed at a friend’s empty apartment, where three hot baths washed the filth from her skin and 15 glasses of iced orange juice finally quenched her thirst. A bed with clean sheets awaited her, but Webb chose the balcony; she missed her hammock. She thought about the soldiers she had nicknamed Dad, Gold Tooth and Mr. Lib, who risked their lives to walk her to safety.
Another journalist might have parlayed three weeks of captivity into celebrity status. Webb got back to work instead. For the next three decades, she wrote for wire services from Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and India, living outside the usual expat neighborhoods, learning the languages, outreporting many of her younger colleagues and using her own modest income to supplement the salaries of in-country wire-service staff.
When she finally retired from front-line reporting at age 58, she returned to Australia, where her family had lived since leaving New Zealand when she was a child. There, she tended her garden and sketched nature scenes. And on some nights, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and a rapt audience of friends and family, she told stories about a few of the places she had seen.
Inauguration of SRP chapter in Finland
Helsinki-Espoo, 29 December 2007: Inauguration of SRP chapter in Finland
Sok Yoeun delivering a speech. (All photos: SRP Finland)
SRP-Finland Steering Committee. President Sok Yoeun and Vice President Sar Sophorn respectively at the right and left of Sam Rainsy.
Sam Rainsy with Erkki Tuomioja, MP (Social-Democratic Party), former Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Blessing dance performed by young SRP supporters.Ranariddh Calls for Resolving Border Issue with Neighbors, Unifying Democrats
12 Dec 07
By Veasna
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer
Translated from Khmer and posted online
By Veasna
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer
Translated from Khmer and posted online
Cambodia's border issue with neighboring countries, especially with Vietnam and Thailand, continues to be a major worry for Cambodians of all political tendencies. Concerning this vital problem of the country, the president of the Norodom Ranariddh Party [NRP] noted the inability of the current ruling party to resolve this border issue, saying that it is not able to settle the problem even with Thailand with which all the documents are already available.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh reminded all Cambodians about the country's problems, such as the border problem with their neighbors. He said, "Cambodia must reexamine this problem if it does not want to become another Champa."
The prince referred to the motherland of the ethnic Cham people in present-day central Vietnam that was erased from the world map following its annexation by Vietnam.
Because of the policy of Vietnamizing the Cham country, or Champa, the Cham who were the masters of their country have become a minority in their own motherland and have lost all opportunity to easily recover the freedom of their race.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh talked about the danger facing Cambodia due to the policy of annexation pursued by the neighboring countries during a telephone conversation from abroad with the NRP leadership and activists in Phnom Penh a day before the International Human Rights Day during which he discussed Thailand's exploitation of the Cambodian leaders' situation and position of weakness.
He said, "The settlement of the border problem with Thailand cannot be done by the Cambodian Government. I expect the Thais to set up their posts wherever Cambodia cannot reach. They have talked about the White Zone, something that never existed in the past. For example, they planted their new border markers in Otdar Meanchey province."
The prince talked about the problem concerning the planting of border markers with Vietnam, saying that it was done incorrectly.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said, "The planting of border markers with Vietnam was not right."
He said that although Cambodia made the supplementary law on 10 October 2005 to legitimize the law signed by Hun Sen with Vietnam on 25 December 1985 regarding the Cambodia-Vietnam border, the implementation of the border marker installation was not correctly done.
To emphasize it, the prince noted that in 2006 when the first Cambodian-Vietnamese border markers were planted the ruling Cambodian People's Party [CPP] did not invite the representatives of the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party, which he then headed, to take part in any thorough inspection of the process of planting the markers. And because he kept publicly talking about this issue so that the Cambodian people would know about the incorrectness of the operation to plant the border markers between Cambodia and Vietnam, Hun Sen, prime minister and vice-president of the CPP, ordered Nhiek Bun Chhay to oust him from his post as the FUNCINPEC Party's executive president.
Consequently, Nhiek Bun Chhay, Lu Laysreng, and their cronies staged a party coup on 18 October 2006 to overthrow Prince Norodom Ranariddh despite the fact that two days earlier His Majesty the Heroic King, founder of the FUNCINPEC resistance movement, issued a message affirming that he had handed full ownership of the FUNCINPEC Party to his august son, Samdech Krom Preah [royal title] Norodom Ranariddh.
The president of the NRP also talked about the border problem, saying that His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk prepared documents relating to the Cambodian territory of 181,035 square kilometers and deposited them in Vietnam [as received] during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum [Sihanouk's pre-1970 ruling party] regime.
The prince also talked about the immigration issue, meaning the huge number of Vietnamese nationals who continue to pour into Cambodia without anything or anyone stopping them.
The prince said that Cambodians cannot go in or out in a massive number as immigrants to neighboring Vietnam and Thailand like the Vietnamese nationals are pouring into Cambodia now.
The prince talked about Cambodians going to neighboring countries surreptitiously, working as beggars in the cities of these countries, and regularly being arrested and deported by the governments of Vietnam and Thailand back to Cambodia.
In addition to all of this, the prince pointed out the poverty of the Cambodian people under the leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP.
The prince said that in Cambodia of the times of Sangkum Reastr Niyum headed by His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk in the 1970s Cambodians lived a decent life and were not so poor as to be reduced to beggaring in neighboring countries.
The leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP, although the prime minister has boasted all along that he has been in power for more that 20 years now, has not been able to resolve the poverty problem affecting the Cambodian people.
On the contrary, since the natural resources of the country and the country's national assets have fallen into the hands of the big shots that rely on their power and the rich who rely on their riches, these big shots and rich people have become ever richer while more and more Cambodians have become poor and the poor have become even poorer.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said that as a solution all democratic, royalist, and liberal parties should unite into a single party in response to the call of the people in order to win next year's election and jointly tackle all these problems of the nation.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh reminded all Cambodians about the country's problems, such as the border problem with their neighbors. He said, "Cambodia must reexamine this problem if it does not want to become another Champa."
The prince referred to the motherland of the ethnic Cham people in present-day central Vietnam that was erased from the world map following its annexation by Vietnam.
Because of the policy of Vietnamizing the Cham country, or Champa, the Cham who were the masters of their country have become a minority in their own motherland and have lost all opportunity to easily recover the freedom of their race.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh talked about the danger facing Cambodia due to the policy of annexation pursued by the neighboring countries during a telephone conversation from abroad with the NRP leadership and activists in Phnom Penh a day before the International Human Rights Day during which he discussed Thailand's exploitation of the Cambodian leaders' situation and position of weakness.
He said, "The settlement of the border problem with Thailand cannot be done by the Cambodian Government. I expect the Thais to set up their posts wherever Cambodia cannot reach. They have talked about the White Zone, something that never existed in the past. For example, they planted their new border markers in Otdar Meanchey province."
The prince talked about the problem concerning the planting of border markers with Vietnam, saying that it was done incorrectly.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said, "The planting of border markers with Vietnam was not right."
He said that although Cambodia made the supplementary law on 10 October 2005 to legitimize the law signed by Hun Sen with Vietnam on 25 December 1985 regarding the Cambodia-Vietnam border, the implementation of the border marker installation was not correctly done.
To emphasize it, the prince noted that in 2006 when the first Cambodian-Vietnamese border markers were planted the ruling Cambodian People's Party [CPP] did not invite the representatives of the FUNCINPEC [National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, and Peaceful Cambodia] Party, which he then headed, to take part in any thorough inspection of the process of planting the markers. And because he kept publicly talking about this issue so that the Cambodian people would know about the incorrectness of the operation to plant the border markers between Cambodia and Vietnam, Hun Sen, prime minister and vice-president of the CPP, ordered Nhiek Bun Chhay to oust him from his post as the FUNCINPEC Party's executive president.
Consequently, Nhiek Bun Chhay, Lu Laysreng, and their cronies staged a party coup on 18 October 2006 to overthrow Prince Norodom Ranariddh despite the fact that two days earlier His Majesty the Heroic King, founder of the FUNCINPEC resistance movement, issued a message affirming that he had handed full ownership of the FUNCINPEC Party to his august son, Samdech Krom Preah [royal title] Norodom Ranariddh.
The president of the NRP also talked about the border problem, saying that His Majesty King Father Norodom Sihanouk prepared documents relating to the Cambodian territory of 181,035 square kilometers and deposited them in Vietnam [as received] during the Sangkum Reastr Niyum [Sihanouk's pre-1970 ruling party] regime.
The prince also talked about the immigration issue, meaning the huge number of Vietnamese nationals who continue to pour into Cambodia without anything or anyone stopping them.
The prince said that Cambodians cannot go in or out in a massive number as immigrants to neighboring Vietnam and Thailand like the Vietnamese nationals are pouring into Cambodia now.
The prince talked about Cambodians going to neighboring countries surreptitiously, working as beggars in the cities of these countries, and regularly being arrested and deported by the governments of Vietnam and Thailand back to Cambodia.
In addition to all of this, the prince pointed out the poverty of the Cambodian people under the leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP.
The prince said that in Cambodia of the times of Sangkum Reastr Niyum headed by His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk in the 1970s Cambodians lived a decent life and were not so poor as to be reduced to beggaring in neighboring countries.
The leadership of the current government of Hun Sen's CPP, although the prime minister has boasted all along that he has been in power for more that 20 years now, has not been able to resolve the poverty problem affecting the Cambodian people.
On the contrary, since the natural resources of the country and the country's national assets have fallen into the hands of the big shots that rely on their power and the rich who rely on their riches, these big shots and rich people have become ever richer while more and more Cambodians have become poor and the poor have become even poorer.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh said that as a solution all democratic, royalist, and liberal parties should unite into a single party in response to the call of the people in order to win next year's election and jointly tackle all these problems of the nation.
New Year Greetings from around the world
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Thank you All!
KI-Media Team
Thank you All!
KI-Media Team
[KR] Tribunal needs support
December 29, 2007
The Register-Guard (Oregon, USA)
The Register-Guard (Oregon, USA)
More than three decades have passed since 1.7 million people died in the killing fields of Cambodia. Yet the U.N.-Cambodian tribunal has yet to bring those former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime who are most responsible for the genocide to trial.
The long-delayed tribunal faces numerous obstacles. Not least among them is the passage of time.
Many Khmer Rouge leaders are either old or dead. Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, died in 1998, a free man. Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouges’ former president, is 73 and recently suffered a stroke. Leng Sary, the Khmer’s former foreign minister is a frail 82, and Ta Mok, the regime’s former military chief, was hospitalized earlier this month. Among the youngest of those indicted to date is a 67-year-old known as Duch, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Pehn.
Time is truly of the essence for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which seeks to provide some measure of accountability and justice for one of the most heinous of 20th century atrocities.
But the tribunal’s future depends on the willingness of foreign donors to provide the assistance necessary to bring the five high-ranking former leaders of the Khmer Rouge now in detention on trial for crimes against humanity.
A U.N. spokesman estimates that the tribunal, which has a budget of $56.3 million, will run out of funds in six months due to unanticipated costs.
Recent U.N. reports have raised troubling questions about the tribunal’s administration, but many of the expenditures appear reasonable. For example, U.N. officials say the court needs to increase the number of translators to 40 from the current 14, and to create victim support and court transcription services.
Tribunal officials will soon approach foreign donors — including the United States, which did not contribute to the original budget — with an urgent request for additional funding. Providing that the tribunal can produce evidence of progress and actions taken to fix problems identified in the U.N. reports, the United States should lead the way in providing the assistance needed to make certain justice is done in Cambodia.
The international tribunals set up to deal with atrocities in Rwanda, the Balkans and Sierra Leone have proven to be expensive and imperfect instruments of justice. But they have served the profoundly necessary purpose of sending a message that justice, however delayed, awaits those who commit crimes against humanity.
The U.N.-Cambodian tribunal deserves the full and timely support of the United States and the rest of the world.
The long-delayed tribunal faces numerous obstacles. Not least among them is the passage of time.
Many Khmer Rouge leaders are either old or dead. Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, died in 1998, a free man. Khieu Samphan, the Khmer Rouges’ former president, is 73 and recently suffered a stroke. Leng Sary, the Khmer’s former foreign minister is a frail 82, and Ta Mok, the regime’s former military chief, was hospitalized earlier this month. Among the youngest of those indicted to date is a 67-year-old known as Duch, who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng torture center in Phnom Pehn.
Time is truly of the essence for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, which seeks to provide some measure of accountability and justice for one of the most heinous of 20th century atrocities.
But the tribunal’s future depends on the willingness of foreign donors to provide the assistance necessary to bring the five high-ranking former leaders of the Khmer Rouge now in detention on trial for crimes against humanity.
A U.N. spokesman estimates that the tribunal, which has a budget of $56.3 million, will run out of funds in six months due to unanticipated costs.
Recent U.N. reports have raised troubling questions about the tribunal’s administration, but many of the expenditures appear reasonable. For example, U.N. officials say the court needs to increase the number of translators to 40 from the current 14, and to create victim support and court transcription services.
Tribunal officials will soon approach foreign donors — including the United States, which did not contribute to the original budget — with an urgent request for additional funding. Providing that the tribunal can produce evidence of progress and actions taken to fix problems identified in the U.N. reports, the United States should lead the way in providing the assistance needed to make certain justice is done in Cambodia.
The international tribunals set up to deal with atrocities in Rwanda, the Balkans and Sierra Leone have proven to be expensive and imperfect instruments of justice. But they have served the profoundly necessary purpose of sending a message that justice, however delayed, awaits those who commit crimes against humanity.
The U.N.-Cambodian tribunal deserves the full and timely support of the United States and the rest of the world.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Christmas in Cambodia is a dangerous, exhilarating time
Saturday, December 29, 2007
By June Seabaugh
Southeast Missourian (USA)
By June Seabaugh
Southeast Missourian (USA)
Editor's note: June Seabaugh is an occasional columnist for the Southeast Missourian. She is from the area but is currently teaching English in Cambodia.
It's two days after Christmas, and I think I'd like to tell you about a "cool event" among my holiday memories this year. Then I'll try to share about one of my student's lives so you can understand why I'm so excited to be here.
On Christmas Eve I went caroling with the boys and girls from the Asian Hope orphanages. Since we're in Cambodia, we definitely were not caroling on the streets. So 25 of us squeezed into a school van. We headed to the houses of some of the missionaries whose children attend my school. At each house they unlocked their security gates and we sang our medley of songs with children perched in palm trees in 90-degree heat. At one house the old van's side door wouldn't open, and we all climbed over seats to exit the back hatch door. What a hoot!
That was wonderfully spiritual for me, but I think the highlight of the evening was not so spiritual; it was incredibly patriotic for me. After we finished our house caroling, the girls' orphanage supervisors wanted me to get to see the American embassy since it was lit up for Christmas. We dropped off the boys (who'd already seen the display) and went to the U.S. Embassy.
I really believe that they'd managed to put a light bulb on every blade of grass, every palm leaf, and every edge of every roof. No, there was no manger or Nativity scene, no baby Jesus or anything religious, but America was proud of the holiday enough to have lighted Santas, sleighs, poinsettias, snowmen, reindeer, two-story trees and just plain ol' palm trees lit in myriad colors. Yeah, there were guards in case terrorists took a notion to destroy it, but it was kind of fun to see America enjoying its display of power and wealth.
No other embassy put out a single string of lights, not Canadian, British, European or Australian. But America celebrated Christmas in Cambodia. Our little group found a missionary family from our school and we sang our little hearts out in Christmas carols under the Cambodian sky. I laughed that I ought to be singing "I'm Proud to Be an American," but I still like living on Earth too much to do that here.
My Canadian friends razzed me about my tax dollars being burned. Maybe we're stupid to do something so outlandishly extravagant, but I was proud of us. I would have been happier to see a manger scene, but I still sang myself happy. I didn't have my family around me, but I had America's lights and our group's songs raised to worship our Savior -- and I had fun!
And now for the reason I'm here: It's to share the gospel with people like Srey*, one of my seniors in high school. When Srey was 5, she lived among rice fields with her parents, a younger sister, Kiri*, and a baby brother. Srey's mother had TB. Srey remembers that one day her father came home from gambling again, and her mother cried to him that she would rather be dead. An hour or so later two men came, shot at Srey's dad and missed, but killed her mother. Srey and Kiri were taken to live with their uncle and his family. She has not seen her father or brother since then and doesn't know where they are.
After a year of living with their uncle's family (where they were miserably abused) at the edge of Phnom Penh, the Funcinpec party tried to take over the government. As their house burned, Srey, Kiri and their uncle's family ran to take shelter in a Chinese man's house. Bullets whizzed by and bombs exploded around them. About 50 people hid there for two days, but one night soldiers from the Cambodian People's Party came and ordered them to leave, saying there were spies among them. That's when the miracle happened that changed Srey's life.
A new neighborhood woman from another country had been telling her neighbors about Jesus. Srey prayed to him that night as she listened to the bullets and bombs going off, smelled the smoke of burning buildings and watched the two neighboring gas stations explode. She prayed, and she remembers stepping on a grenade as she walked. She says she saw it, but didn't have time to stop. She felt it under her foot, but it didn't go off. She knows she received a miracle.
Later, the neighbor found the two sisters and adopted them, along with four other Cambodian children, before the adoption laws in Cambodia changed in 2004 and essentially stopped Westerners from adopting Cambodian children. Two days before the law changed, the adoptions were finalized. Because her mom is from another country, Srey will attend college there next year. She will study accounting.
By the way, Srey's hard-praying Christian family sees a lot of miracles. Four years ago the children in the family didn't want their mother to take in a baby whose parents had died of AIDS and who also was dying of AIDS. They just didn't want to face watching another child die. But, in Srey's simple words, "We could not ignore him."
Today he's one of their adopted children, and the tests during 2007 have all come back negative for HIV/AIDS. He's a happy, healthy 4-year-old.
These are the children I teach. And Srey's mother is one of the many missionaries whose children I teach. I get to hear their miracle stories and be a part of their miraculous lives, and I realize each day how miraculous life is for each one of us.
I pray that you are enjoying the blessings of Christmas as you consider the miraculous birth of our Savior. And I pray that you appreciate the love of God who gave you the miracle of life and then offers the miracle of eternal life.
* Names were changed to protect the girls.
It's two days after Christmas, and I think I'd like to tell you about a "cool event" among my holiday memories this year. Then I'll try to share about one of my student's lives so you can understand why I'm so excited to be here.
On Christmas Eve I went caroling with the boys and girls from the Asian Hope orphanages. Since we're in Cambodia, we definitely were not caroling on the streets. So 25 of us squeezed into a school van. We headed to the houses of some of the missionaries whose children attend my school. At each house they unlocked their security gates and we sang our medley of songs with children perched in palm trees in 90-degree heat. At one house the old van's side door wouldn't open, and we all climbed over seats to exit the back hatch door. What a hoot!
That was wonderfully spiritual for me, but I think the highlight of the evening was not so spiritual; it was incredibly patriotic for me. After we finished our house caroling, the girls' orphanage supervisors wanted me to get to see the American embassy since it was lit up for Christmas. We dropped off the boys (who'd already seen the display) and went to the U.S. Embassy.
I really believe that they'd managed to put a light bulb on every blade of grass, every palm leaf, and every edge of every roof. No, there was no manger or Nativity scene, no baby Jesus or anything religious, but America was proud of the holiday enough to have lighted Santas, sleighs, poinsettias, snowmen, reindeer, two-story trees and just plain ol' palm trees lit in myriad colors. Yeah, there were guards in case terrorists took a notion to destroy it, but it was kind of fun to see America enjoying its display of power and wealth.
No other embassy put out a single string of lights, not Canadian, British, European or Australian. But America celebrated Christmas in Cambodia. Our little group found a missionary family from our school and we sang our little hearts out in Christmas carols under the Cambodian sky. I laughed that I ought to be singing "I'm Proud to Be an American," but I still like living on Earth too much to do that here.
My Canadian friends razzed me about my tax dollars being burned. Maybe we're stupid to do something so outlandishly extravagant, but I was proud of us. I would have been happier to see a manger scene, but I still sang myself happy. I didn't have my family around me, but I had America's lights and our group's songs raised to worship our Savior -- and I had fun!
And now for the reason I'm here: It's to share the gospel with people like Srey*, one of my seniors in high school. When Srey was 5, she lived among rice fields with her parents, a younger sister, Kiri*, and a baby brother. Srey's mother had TB. Srey remembers that one day her father came home from gambling again, and her mother cried to him that she would rather be dead. An hour or so later two men came, shot at Srey's dad and missed, but killed her mother. Srey and Kiri were taken to live with their uncle and his family. She has not seen her father or brother since then and doesn't know where they are.
After a year of living with their uncle's family (where they were miserably abused) at the edge of Phnom Penh, the Funcinpec party tried to take over the government. As their house burned, Srey, Kiri and their uncle's family ran to take shelter in a Chinese man's house. Bullets whizzed by and bombs exploded around them. About 50 people hid there for two days, but one night soldiers from the Cambodian People's Party came and ordered them to leave, saying there were spies among them. That's when the miracle happened that changed Srey's life.
A new neighborhood woman from another country had been telling her neighbors about Jesus. Srey prayed to him that night as she listened to the bullets and bombs going off, smelled the smoke of burning buildings and watched the two neighboring gas stations explode. She prayed, and she remembers stepping on a grenade as she walked. She says she saw it, but didn't have time to stop. She felt it under her foot, but it didn't go off. She knows she received a miracle.
Later, the neighbor found the two sisters and adopted them, along with four other Cambodian children, before the adoption laws in Cambodia changed in 2004 and essentially stopped Westerners from adopting Cambodian children. Two days before the law changed, the adoptions were finalized. Because her mom is from another country, Srey will attend college there next year. She will study accounting.
By the way, Srey's hard-praying Christian family sees a lot of miracles. Four years ago the children in the family didn't want their mother to take in a baby whose parents had died of AIDS and who also was dying of AIDS. They just didn't want to face watching another child die. But, in Srey's simple words, "We could not ignore him."
Today he's one of their adopted children, and the tests during 2007 have all come back negative for HIV/AIDS. He's a happy, healthy 4-year-old.
These are the children I teach. And Srey's mother is one of the many missionaries whose children I teach. I get to hear their miracle stories and be a part of their miraculous lives, and I realize each day how miraculous life is for each one of us.
I pray that you are enjoying the blessings of Christmas as you consider the miraculous birth of our Savior. And I pray that you appreciate the love of God who gave you the miracle of life and then offers the miracle of eternal life.
* Names were changed to protect the girls.
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