Cambodia on a Plate, as Rendered by a Frenchman

Though contemporary in presentation, Joannès Rivière's Sanday fish is made with Cambodian ingredients and incorporates eggplant cooked in a palm sugar braise.

Born in Roanne to a restaurateur and farmer who supplied fresh vegetables to Michelin-starred La Maison Troisgros, Mr. Rivière studied cooking in France and worked with pastry in the United States for three years before moving to Siem Reap in 2003 to teach cooking to underprivileged Cambodian youth.

The interior of Cuisine Wat Damnak, located in a converted bungalow.

Vendors at Psar Chas, a market in Siem Reap where Mr. Rivière buys ingredients.

August 30, 2012
By Robyn Eckhardt
The Wall Street Journal

Consider Joannès Rivière’s Sanday fish dish as his version of Cambodia on a plate.

Though it appears borne out of a contemporary European kitchen, the French-born 32-year-old chef insists it’s pure Cambodian, featuring fish from the Tonle Sap, the country’s main waterway, and eggplant cooked in a traditional palm-sugar khaw braise.

Mr. Rivière moved to Cambodia in 2003 to teach cooking to underprivileged youth. Born in Roanne to a restaurateur and farmer who supplied fresh vegetables to Michelin-starred La Maison Troisgros, Mr. Rivière studied cooking in France and worked with pastry in the United States for three years before moving to Siem Reap in 2003 to teach cooking to underprivileged Cambodian youth.

In 2005, he became executive chef at Siem Reap’s luxe Hotel de la Paix, a post he left in 2010 to open Cuisine Wat Damnak, an upscale restaurant with a relaxed vibe in a converted bungalow.

Researchers Find Rare Photo of Westerner Killed by Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
Voice of America

A Cambodian-led research team has uncovered a rare photograph of one of the few Westerners to be killed at a notorious Khmer Rouge prison in the 1970s.

The Documentation Center for Cambodia sent the photograph of French embassy worker Andres Gaston Courtigne to VOA's Khmer Service Thursday. Chief archivist Chhang Youk said his team found the photograph by chance while sifting through thousands of paper documents at the center, which seeks to preserve the history of Khmer Rouge genocide victims. The ultra-leftist group ruled Cambodia from 1975-79.

Courtigne already was known to have been one of 11 Westerners killed at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng interrogation center, also referred to as S-21. But the newly released photograph is the first known to show the Frenchman after his detention.

China charges Bo Xilai's wife with murder

The wife of disgraced Chinese political leader Bo Xilai, seen here in March 2012, has been prosecuted for murder, state news agency Xinhua says. (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

French architect Patrick Devillers speaks to reporters during an interview at Cambodia's Phnom Penh International Airport on July 17. The wife of Bo Xilai, the former political leader whose downfall sent shockwaves through China, has been charged with murdering a British businessman, state news agency Xinhua said Thursday. (AFP Photo/)

By Claire Cozens | AFP – 07/26/2012

The wife of Bo Xilai, the former political leader whose downfall sent shockwaves through China, has been charged with murdering a British businessman, state news agency Xinhua said Thursday.

Gu Kailai, a former international lawyer whose husband was one of China's most promising political leaders until his dramatic fall from grace this year, will face trial for intentional homicide, Xinhua reported in a brief dispatch.

Zhang Xiaojun, previously described as an orderly who worked for the high-flying couple, will also be prosecuted on the same charge, it said, citing authorities.

Xinhua said there was "irrefutable and substantial" evidence that the pair had poisoned Neil Heywood, a British businessman who had commercial dealings with Bo and his wife.

Cambodian police say Frenchman shot and killed in possible robbery or crime of passion

Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Frenchman living in the Cambodian capital has been shot and killed in what police suspect was a botched robbery or a crime of passion.

Police say 43-year-old Franck Mathieu was shot early Tuesday while riding his motorcycle in Phnom Penh. He later died in hospital.

District police chief Houth Chan Yaran says police are searching for three suspected attackers and investigating Mathieu’s Cambodian girlfriend.

Diplomats meet Frenchman in Beijing for Bo probe

24 July 2012
The Standard (China)

The French architect being questioned in Beijing in an investigation linked to former Communist leader Bo Xilai has met with French diplomats and is in "good shape'', an embassy spokesman said, AFP repots.

Patrick Devillers met consular officials at the weekend after flying to China from Cambodia, where he had been detained at the request of the Chinese government, said the embassy spokesman, who asked not to be named.

France's foreign ministry said earlier it had asked for access to the 52-year-old architect, who left Cambodia a week ago after agreeing to go to Beijing to assist in the enquiry.

Frenchman Is Held in China Case

July 20, 2012
By JEREMY PAGE
The Wall Street Journal

BEIJING—A French architect caught up in the scandal surrounding Bo Xilai, the sacked Communist Party official, has been taken into custody in China after returning there from Cambodia to cooperate with a murder investigation into Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, Cambodia Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told The Wall Street Journal.

Patrick Henri Devillers will be held in China for 60 days and then released if he isn't found to have been involved in any crime, the minister said.

Another person familiar with the matter said Mr. Devillers hadn't been officially detained, but was being held under guard by Chinese authorities after returning to China on Tuesday night following his release from custody in Cambodia.

Police post video message from Bo Xilai accomplice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eZ2x-9zUY

Friday, 20 July 2012
Kim Yuthana and Stuart White
The Phnom Penh Post

In a seeming effort to dispel any lingering doubt about Patrick Devillers’s willingness to go to China, the General Commissariat National Police posted a YouTube video yesterday showing the freshly released Frenchman giving a brief interview about his detainment in Cambodia.

The video, taken on Tuesday, shows the former associate of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailal, dressed in grey slacks and a white shirt seated at a table with a flower arrangement and French press-style coffee carafe, explaining the purpose of his trip and confirming reports that he was departing for China of his own free will.

“Now, I’m leaving for Shanghai tonight, and after a stop, probably on to Beijing in order to answer – one could say to cooperate in the case of the inquiry into Gu Kailai,” he said.

Cambodia tries to distance itself from Patrick Devillers' decision to leave for China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eZ2x-9zUY

Frenchman returns to China 'to help Bo Xilai probe'

A Chinese policeman blocks photos being taken outside Zhongnanhai which serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China after the sacking of politician Bo Xilai from the countries powerful Politburo, in Beijing in April 2012. A Frenchman connected to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has returned to China to help the investigation

Fact file on Bo Xilai, China's controversial mayor of Chongqing who was sacked from his post. Bo, the former leader of the southwestern Chinese megacity of Chongqing, is being probed for corruption while Gu has been detained for suspected involvement in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last year

By Suy Se
AFP 07/18/2012

A Frenchman believed to have close ties to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has returned to China to help the probe into the country's biggest political scandal in decades, Cambodian police said Wednesday.

Architect Patrick Devillers, arrested in Phnom Penh last month at Beijing's request, was freed on Monday and boarded a flight for Shanghai the following day "by his own will", deputy national police chief Sok Phal told AFP.

"He said he is going there to be a witness," the official said, adding that China had asked for his release. "The French embassy supported this 100 percent."

Embassy officials in Phnom Penh did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while a spokesman at the French embassy in Beijing declined to speak on the matter.

Cambodia frees Frenchman linked to scandal [-French Exocet may have somthing to do with it?]

French Exocet missile

July 18, 2012
By Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia has released a French citizen detained for nearly a month for alleged links to China’s biggest political scandal in years, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Police released Patrick Devillers on Tuesday after a request from China to do so, Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said. It was not immediately clear why China made the request.

At Beijing’s request, Devillers was detained June 13 for possible links to the death in China last November of British businessman Neil Heywood, but he was never charged with any crime.

Cambodia had said it would not extradite him to China or France unless it obtained more proof of wrongdoing.

Detained Frenchman Willing To Go to China, Cambodia Says

Patrick Devillers (Photo: Reuters)

Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“He tends to express his wish to go to China, and wherever he goes is surely his own decision..."

Cambodian officials say a Frenchman arrested last month in connection to a murder case in China is willing to be sent back there.

Patrick Devillers, who has been detained since his arrest in Phnom Penh on June 13, can return at his own request, said Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

“He tends to express his wish to go to China, and wherever he goes is surely his own decision, and if he decides to go to China, we are OK, we would follow his personal decision,” Khieu Sopheak said.

Tough decision on Bo's accomplice

Patrick Devillers (Photo: Reuters)

Monday, 02 July 2012
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

The government had been torn between the demands of France and China when deciding the fate of detained Frenchman Patrick Devillers, an official said yesterday.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, would not say whether Beijing had provided the government with evidence of Devillers’ alleged crimes yet, but said he was concerned about what to do with the 52-year-old.

“I hope these two countries, both friends of Cambodia, will understand our difficulty,” he told the Post. “If we send him to China, France will not be happy; and if we give him to France, it will disappoint China.”

Cambodia and China: No Strings Attached?

China's Vice President Xi Jinping toasts with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) after signing an agreement on cooperation at council of minister in Phnom Penh December 21, 2009 (Chor Sokunthea/Courtesy Reuters).

June 27, 2012 
Joshua Kurlantzick 
Council of Foreign Relations

Laura Speyer is an intern for Southeast Asian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Just three years ago, Chinese vice president Xi Jinping claimed that “Sino-Cambodian relations are a model of friendly cooperation.” This week, Vice President Xi may have reason to reassess Cambodia’s willingness to “cooperate” with—some might say “obey”—its powerful neighbor. The issue highlighting power dynamics between the two countries is the extradition of Patrick Devillers, a French citizen allegedly involved in the increasingly bizarre imbroglio surrounding Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai, who is suspected of murder.

Two things happened on June 13: first, the Cambodian government arrested Mr. Devillers at Beijing’s behest, although the Chinese government did not specify what charges they wished to investigate. Second, He Guoqiang, a member of China’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, arrived in Cambodia for a three-day goodwill visit during which he negotiated a series of loans worth $430 million. There are no official connections between Beijing’s arrest and extradition requests and the generous loan provisions. Still, the Chinese government might have had reason to believe it could trade monetary aid and investment for a few pesky evaders of the Chinese penal system—it has happened before.

In December 2009, China requested the extradition of twenty Chinese nationals, members of the Uighur ethnic minority, who had escaped to Cambodia following the July 2009 riots in Urumqi. Amid an international outcry, Cambodia deported all twenty Uighurs, including two infants. Cambodian leaders made the claim that the Chinese nationals had entered Cambodia without the proper documents, and were simply being deported according to Cambodia’s usual policy toward illegal immigrants. One day after the group returned to China, Vice President Xi arrived in Phnom Penh with almost $1 billion of foreign investment, loans and grants.

Cambodia says Frenchman may be financially linked to Bo case

By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH | Wed Jun 27, 2012

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A French architect in detention in Cambodia is being held because of alleged financial links to China's biggest political scandal in two decades and a Chinese judge could come to help with his questioning, a Cambodian minister said on Wednesday.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told reporters that Patrick Henri Devillers had been detained because of suspected financial links to Gu Kailai, wife of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai.

Gu Kailai has been named by China as a suspect in the murder last November of British businessman Neil Heywood. Both Heywood and Devillers were known to be close to her.

A french Exocet to Tuol Krasaing may help Cambodia speed up its decision!!!

A French Exocet missile aimed at Tuol Krasaing could help speed up Cambodia's review of the law

Cambodia Holds Frenchman as It Examines Extradition Laws

Monday, 25 June 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

"Cambodia has 60 days to decide."

Cambodia is still holding a French architect arrested at the behest of China earlier this month, while authorities examine national laws on extradition in what has become a complicated international case.

Patrick Devillers was arrested June 13 and has been linked to Gu Kailai, the jailed wife of former rising political star Bo Xilai who is accused of killing British businessman Neil Heywood.

It is unclear what charges Devillers faces, but government spokesman Phay Siphan said officials are considering whether he can be extradited. Cambodia has 60 days to decide, he said.

Cambodia refuses to extradite French architect to China

Patrick Devillers (Photograph by: Reuters File , Daily Telegraph)

Businessman Neil Heywood is suspected of being poisoned in November 2011 after threatening to ruin a Chinese leader's family over corruption allegations, sources say.

June 24, 2012

By JONATHAN MANTHORPE, Vancouver Sun

Cambodia has decided not to deport to China a French architect wanted by Beijing authorities as they investigate disgraced would-be leader Bo Xilai and the murder of a British businessman.

Meanwhile a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, on Friday quoted Chinese Communist Party sources as saying that Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo, the sacked party boss of the megacity Chongqing, has confessed to investigators that she was responsible for the killing of the British businessman, Neil Heywood.

According to the newspaper, Gu told investigators she killed Heywood in November last year because he was about to reveal that she was moving billions of dollars out of China into overseas accounts and investments.

The French architect, Patrick Devillers, worked on projects in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian when Bo was mayor in the 1990s.

Cambodia Ambiguous on Plans for French Architect

June 22, 2012
By KEITH BRADSHER
The New York Times

HONG KONG — Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country had no plans to extradite to China or France a detained French architect with links to a disgraced Chinese politician and his wife, but that the architect was not yet being set free, either.

Kuy Kong, a spokesman for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, said that he did not know how long the architect, Patrick Devillers, would be held, nor why he was being held.

Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s foreign minister, said late Thursday night that Mr. Devillers was still being investigated. The police in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, said earlier in the week that Mr. Devillers had been arrested about two weeks ago at China’s request. Chinese government offices were closed on Friday in observance of a national holiday, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry declined earlier in the week to comment on Mr. Devillers.

The French Embassy in Phnom Penh had no immediate comment.

Under Cambodia’s extradition agreement with China, the Chinese government has up to 60 days after Mr. Devillers’s detention to provide legal documents to support any extradition request. The agreement, one of only a handful that Cambodia has concluded with any country, allows the extradition of foreigners who are not citizens of either Cambodia or China.

The immigration police in Phnom Penh said that they were holding Mr. Devillers near the airport, but declined to comment further on his case.

Silence on Bo Xilai accomplice's arrest is 'worrisome’

Friday, 22 June 2012
Stuart White and Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodian, French and Chinese officials were tight-lipped yesterday about detained French citizen Patrick Devillers, who has been tenuously linked to the corruption scandal that ended the career of Chinese politician Bo Xilai and has seen his wife implicated in the killing of a British businessman.

According to reports from close friends, Devillers was arrested more than a week ago on undisclosed charges, and after confirming his arrest and China’s involvement, officials close to the case have refused to offer any further details.

That line held true yesterday.

Cambodia says it will not extradite Frenchman linked to Chinese political scandal [-Hun Xen scared of French Exocet?]

Thursday, June 21, 2012
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia said it will not extradite a Frenchman it detained for possible involvement in a murder linked to one of China’s biggest political scandals in years.

Cambodian authorities arrested French national Patrick Devillers on June 13 for possible links to the death in China last November of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Cambodian officials have said they detained Devillers at China’s request but needed more evidence of wrongdoing to hand him over to another nation.

Speaking after returning from an overseas trip late Thursday night, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia would not extradite the Frenchman to China or France.

France Demands Clarification in Arrest of Citizen

One Way to Obtain Clear and Definitive Answer:
French military personnel checking the missiles mounted on a French Rafale fighter plane before taking off from military base in Saint-Dizier, France, on Saturday. The jets head for Libya to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians and embattled rebel troops. (Sebastien DuPont/ French Ministry of Defense/ EPA)

Thursday, 21 June 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

French officials have told the government that no prosecution should be brought against Devillers “without clear legal basis.”

The government of France has asked Cambodian officials to clarify the reasons behind the arrest of Patrick Devillers, who has become entangled in a Chinese political scandal.

Devillers was arrested June 13 in Phnom Penh at the request of China, Cambodian officials said, but no specific charges have been brought against him.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in a statement that French officials had visited Devillers in custody.

French officials have told the government that no prosecution should be brought against Devillers “without clear legal basis,” he said.