Cambodia denies claim of soldiers hired to help Thai PM in case of coup

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government denied Monday that it had allowed or supported some 5,000 hired Cambodian soldiers to help current Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in case of coup to arise.

In a statement released by the spokesman of the Ministry of National Defense, it said the Cambodian side "denies a fabrication of information and incitement by Mr. Somkiet Phongphaiboon, activist of the People's Alliance for Democracy (Yellow Shirt) at which he alleged that people who are close to former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had hired 5,000 Cambodian soldiers based along Cambodia-Vietnam border so as to help Thaksin's sister and his people in case of coup to arise."

The statement was made in response to Thai ASTV manager online which broadcast such allegation on Nov. 26.

The statement said based on the spirit of good cooperation between the two governments, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has highly valued the work of the General Border Commission (GBC) on the fight against terrorism.

Army aided loggers: US cable

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers patrol in Oddar Meanchey province earlier this year. (Photo by: Sovan Philong)

Friday, 22 July 2011
Vong Sokheng and James O’Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

An American diplomatic cable from the United States embassy in Bangkok claims that armed Cambodian soldiers have been used to protect loggers working illegally in Thai territory.

The cable, made public this month and originally obtained by the anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks, dates from December of 2009 and recounts an incident near the border from that month during which one Cambodian logger was killed by Thai troops.

Then-US Ambassador to Thailand Eric John wrote in the cable that a source had told the embassy “that Cambodian soldiers were protecting the loggers when shots were exchanged between the two sides, resulting in the death of one of the loggers, who suffered from shotgun and grenade wounds”.

“Patches confiscated from the Cambodians involved suggested involvement by security personnel, who were presumably moonlighting in this other role,” John wrote.

First they don’t have enough food to eat, now they don’t have clean water to drink: Fate of Khmer soldiers at Ta Krabei temple

Cambodian soldiers at Ta Krabei temple fell ill due to lack of clean drinking water


23 May 2011
By Hang Savyouth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Cambodian soldiers, stationed at Ta Krabei temple and who are prepared to fight with Thai soldiers, indicated that some of them are facing diarrhea because they use dirty water and they also asked for donation of clean water for their daily use.

Currently, Cambodian soldiers, who are defending Cambodian borders in the Ta Krabei temple zone, indicated that they have to pump water from wells along the slope of the hill for their use, and the water is not clean and contains large amount of calcium which affects their health condition.

A soldier, who declined to give his identity and who is now in combat station at Ta Krabei temple zone, said in the afternoon of Sunday 22 May that some of his comrades in arms came down with diarrhea and vertigo after they drank and used water from the wells which contains large concentration of calcium. The water was pumped from wells along the slope of the hills: “The amount of calcium is about half a cup, I boiled it and drank it, it didn’t taste right. Everyday, we have a dire need, we use this water for drinking and for shower as well. We can pump it to there only, then we have to use a container to carry it up to here. When there is a fight going on, we can’t go fetch the water at all.”

The Cambodian army commander in the region recognized that his soldiers stationed in Ta Krabei temple really face clean drinking water shortage.

Financing the front lines

Wednesday, 02 March 2011
Sun Narin and Kim Samath
The Phnom Penh Post

“I am not sure that this money can reach soldiers or not. I do not trust people collecting funds. Our society is difficult to trust for this kind of work.”

During our recent clashes with Thailand, just about everyone gave something to support Cambodian soldiers. Sun Narin and Kim Samath find out how it moved from you to the troops

Forty -six-year-old Chheng Sarann, an office official of Vocational Training at the Ministry of Education, has contributed money to support the military at Preah Vihear Temple four times now, at his home and workplace, and said the reason he gave money to the fund raising efforts was he just followed what his colleagues and neighbours did.

“No one forced me to give, but I had to because if I did not, I would have been considered strange and not like the other people who contributed money,” he said. He added that he was not worried about his contribution by explaining that if he did not give his money to the military it would be like committing a sin. As the Buddhist saying goes: “If you do something bad, you will receive something bad, if you do something good, you will receive something good.”

Where Does Bun Rany Get the Money From?

September 13 , 2009
Op-Ed By Sokheoun Pang
On the web at http://sokheounpang.wordpress.com

It is not new about the news of high ranking Cambodian leaders or Chhumteav handing out gifts or alm to poor people or soldiers.

This one seems interesting like before but so unusual and I can´t help writing to enlight it to the public.

Well, the news is posted on the Deam Ampil News today about “ Chhum Teav Bun Rany Hun Sen to donate 7000 mosquito nets and 130000 rain coats to Cambodian soldiers stationing at Preah Vihear and at region 4.

My question is where does Bun Rany get the money to buy these stuff? Where is Cambodian Ministry of National Defense? What is Cambodian Ministry of National Defense doing?

The problem is that the budget for national defense has always increased since 2006 which accounted for $75,7 million (the national budget in that year was $926 million) to $300 million in 2008 and while the number of soldiers has been decreased from 111232 to 78232 after three time processes of demobilization from the World Bank pilot project in year 2000 and 2001 which accounted for 3000 soldiers, and in year 2003 which acounted for 30000 soldiers.

As we know the anual national budget for the Ministry of National Defense is accounted for $300 million out of the $1.4 billion national budget in 2008 and it is proposed in October 2008 to be increased by Hun Sen to the amount of $500 millions in the proposed national budget of $1.89 billion in 2009.

Why the Ministry of National Defense can´t afford to supply these stuff with such amount of the annual budget? Why our beloved soldiers still don´t have enough supply? Where are all the hundreds of million dollar gone? I mean if the budget is transparently expensed wihtout corruption, our soldiers will surely have a very high salary, equipped with up-t0-dated technological equipments, weapon and sufficient day-to-day supply. Furthermore, if our soldiers are really cared by and deserve the respect from the current leader, they will live like a soldier but not like a beggar who depends his survial on alm.

Actually, I really feel sad to read or hear such a news. I mean our solidiers are cheated again and again by the current leader- Hun Sen. As we know Hun Sen keeps saying that he pities on our soldiers, but in fact he never cares for their well-being and life.

It is heart-breaking to see our soldiers go out to fight against the siamese invasion walking with their bare feet, torn clothes, no proper miliary uniform, food , medicine and all other needed supplies. Sadly, we see no sign of help from the Ministry of National Defense and even Hun Sen as leader.

With this, in stead of helping our soldiers through the administrative system, Hun Sen and his cronies take a chance to beg money from the poor Cambodians in the country and even Cambodian oversea for help to the soldiers and they even try to manipulate the issues and show off their personal generosity through the politics of demagogue. And suprisingly, we have seen that all the high ranking officials from the Ministry of National Defense and others minsitries who went down to give personal donations or alm to our poor soldiers are surounded by dozens of personal bodyguards and mordern, expansive vehicles. I just wonder how do these officials earn the money and become so rich?

Now it´s enough and please stop cheating our sacrificing soldiers. Bun Rany please just do your job by helping the people who have suffered by flood, the poor who have no rice to eat and the evicted people who are in need right now.

To Hun Sen, please open your eye and open your ears and listen to us. If you are really a strong and clean leader as you always boasts, please help our soldiers, investigate the budget allocated for the National Defense Ministry right now to see where the money has gone and how it is expensed. And then punish the criminal before the real justice. Do it and prove it to us that you are a man and a true leader, but not just a scarecrow leader.

To Soy Sopheap, you are Hun Sen´s advisor, please help remind him about my request and help him improve his leadership for all. Please do it!

Stop letting our soldiers living on alm and please respect them!

Participation of int'l peace-keeping exercise good for Cambodia's reputation

April 09, 2008
Xinhua

The participation of 40 Cambodian soldiers in a three-week multinational peace-keeping exercise in Bangladesh will help improve the country's international military reputation, national media on Wednesday quoted official as saying.

"We are really proud of our armed forces joining this international peace-keeping exercise," Tea Banh, minister of National Defense, told English-Khmer language newspaper the Mekong Times.

"We hope the exercise will help our soldiers improve their capacity in peace-keeping for the region and the entire world," he added.

The U.S.-led mission, named "Ambassador of Peace," began this week and involved 400 soldiers from 12 countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Nepal, Brunei, Mongolia, Tonga, Cambodia and the United States.

The drills involve checkpoint and convoy operations, patrols, search, relief mission and disaster management.

Cambodian soldiers previously took part in multinational peace-keeping exercises in Mongolia and Bangladesh as well as U.N. peace-keeping missions in Sudan.

Cambodian soldiers to join military exercise in Bangladesh

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government will send its soldiers to join international military exercise in Bangladesh at the end of this year, National Television TVK reported on Wednesday.

The troops have started their training course with the support from the U.S. Command Fleet for the Asia Pacific region, Sem Sovanny, senior official at the National Defense Ministry, was quoted as saying.

He made these remarks at the opening ceremony of the training course, named the Universal Peace Cooperation for Pacific, in Udong district of Kampong Speu province.

"The Cambodian soldiers are trying to strengthen its capacity for joining the international mission," said TVK.

Last year, some Cambodian soldiers joined an international military exercise in Mongolia and some other went to Sudan to undertake humanitarian affairs such as mine clearance.