Rape, abuse in Kingdom is reaching crisis level: minister

Thursday, 26 November 2009
Lily Partand
The Phnom Penh Post

Siem Reap - SEXUAL and domestic violence against women and girls has become a problem of pandemic proportions that is stalling development of the Kingdom, according to Minister for Women’s Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi.

She spoke on Wednesday at the opening session of the two-day Asia Pacific Regional Conference on Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children: Focus on Urban Youth, which included 120 participants and speakers from countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Ing Kantha Phavi said that although the number of rapes and sexual assaults that get reported is increasing, the number of cases that go unreported is of even greater concern.

“In Cambodia, the reported rate of domestic and sexual violence is 22 percent. But due to our culture of silence and shame, and the widespread practice of victims accepting compensation instead of prosecuting their abusers, the actual rate of violence could be much higher. This risks jeopardising the recent development and progress of Cambodia,” she said.

First lady Bun Rany spoke of the importance of youth in tackling the issue in Cambodia, where 56 percent of the population is under the age of 25.

“If we can develop effective initiatives for youth, we will be able to reach young people while their attitudes towards gender equality, relationships and violence are still being formed. If we succeed, this could have a significant impact on reducing violence against women and children,” she said.

Facilitator Ellen Minotti, who has worked in the field in Cambodia for 17 years, said the conference would help identify best practices and find ways to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention programmes.

“One of the points made ... was that there’s been lots of work done on domestic violence and sexual violence, and the rate is not going down anywhere. So we need to look at new ways, but we also need to measure if they are working or not,” Minotti said.

Dr Jean D’Cunha, regional programme director for the UN Development Fund for Women in East and Southeast Asia, said it was important to involve men and boys in the campaign against sexual and domestic violence.

“We’ve done very little work with men and boys, but this is not just an issue for women and girls – it concerns the whole of our society. Men and boys need to be partners with women and girls against violence.”

The conference, which concludes today, was organised by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The results will be used to shape recommendations for Cambodia’s National Action Plan to Prevent Violence against Women 2009-12.

Domestic violence flourishes in Cambodia

Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009
By JOEL BRINKLEY
Sacramento Bee (California, USA)
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Ing Kantha Phavi is an impressive woman. She's a medical doctor, a specialist in tropical diseases, but also Cambodia's minister of women's affairs. [KI-Media Note: Ing Kantha Phavi was a former Funcinpec minister before she defected to join Hun Sen's autocratic regime]

Male-hierarchical societies dominate Asia, and Cambodia is no exception. In this region, women's affairs offices are generally show-piece ministries. Presidents and prime ministers parade their women's affairs ministers before visiting Western leaders as unconvincing demonstrations of their interest in gender equality.

If Ing were the sort of person who could accept that, her ministry would fit nicely into this paradigm. But she's not. Still, her challenges are Herculean. As she told an interviewer last year: "When you come up against these male dinosaurs, do you sometimes feel like giving up? I feel like giving up always."

Nonetheless, four years ago, she pushed a bill through the national assembly that, for the first time, made it illegal for men to beat their wives and children. Domestic violence is an endemic problem here. Arguing for the legislation then, she cited statistics showing that almost one-quarter of the nation's women are beaten or otherwise abused by their husbands - sometimes even murdered. But that's a family matter, the male legislators argued. Why are you bringing us another one of those liberal Western fads?

"They treated me like a revolutionary," she said.

After voting it down once, in 2005 the legislators finally approved the domestic-violence bill. But now, four years later, domestic violence in Cambodian society has actually increased. Ing and others now talk about one-third of the nation's women as victims. One woman out of three - one of the highest rates in the world.

Some of this violence is positively grisly; Cambodia remains an extraordinarily violent nation. Consider a couple of recent news stories from local media:

-"A man has confessed to pouring gasoline on his fiancee and her sister and burning them at their home in Cambodia's northwestern Battambang province, authorities here say, amid what the government describes as a worsening pattern of violence against women."

-Also in Battambang, "police say they are searching for a man who beat his wife unconscious in an argument over $50, and then killed his brother-in-law when he tried to intervene."

After the government enacted the domestic violence law, it never wrote the enabling regulations, nor instructed police and prosecutors to enforce it. That happens often here when the government is pressured to enact laws it doesn't really like.

"I admit that it was never implemented," Ing told me. "We have a lot of good laws. The problem is the enforcement of the laws."

The problem is also history - centuries of subservience and docility. Nothing embodies this more than the Chbab Srey, a piece of Cambodian traditional "literature" that describes a woman's place in the home, written in the form of a mother talking to her daughter. One passage says: "Dear, no matter what your husband did wrong, I tell you to be patient, don't say anything ... don't curse, don't be the enemy. No matter how poor or stupid, you don't look down on him ... No matter what the husband says, angry and cursing, using strong words without ending, complaining and cursing because he is not pleased, you should be patient with him and calm down your anger."

For as long as anyone can remember, this home-spun advice, pulled together into a small booklet, was required reading in the nation's schools. Most every literate adult remembers reading it.

"It's not law, it's tradition," Im Sethy, the education minister, insisted. "It was taught as literature" until just two years ago, when the women's affairs ministry finally managed to have it pulled from the schools' curriculum.

In much of the world, women are second-class citizens, at best. In parts of the Arab world, that is legislated; Islamic law, followed in most Arab nations, places women in subservient roles. In Asia, gender discrimination is generally the result of cultural norms, not legislative mandates. As an example, Ing noted that, while the Chabab Srey was pulled from the schools in 2007, "it is still followed in rural areas."

But then, 80 percent of this nation's population is rural. Traditions, she lamented, are quite difficult to reverse. So are psychological paradigms. "It is well known," she noted, "that children who grow up in a home with domestic violence are likely to commit domestic violence themselves. The next generation will be the same. So the way to cut this vicious cycle is to cut into domestic violence now."

For this country, a tall order.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Joel Brinkley is a former Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Stanford University. Readers may send him e-mail at: brinkley@foreign-matters.com

Reahu.net owner claims his website ordered blocked in Cambodia

They've done it

Written by Reahu.net

Dear Fans and Supporters,

The Cambodian government had issue a note of blockage to many internet providers in Cambodia to block this website from the local people. If this kind of basic freedom is deny God knows what will happen next. Anyway, there are approximately 6 ISPs in Cambodia, some had taken the privilege to block the site from Cambodia, but others did not due to the lack of technological know how or it's too costly.

There are ways around this if you are accessing this site from Cambodia. Do not use Internet Explorer, instead use Mozilla Fire Fox. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my hosting provider to change the IP address. Or any of you know another way, so that we can provide our Khmer people equal access.

May Buddha bless those in charge of the country so they can see that the glass isn't always half empty.
-------
KI-Media note: The Cambodia Daily reported that So Khun, the minister of Post and Telecommunications, confirmed that he did send the letter to Internet Servcice Providers (ISPs) to block the "reahu.net" website after he received the complaing from Ing Kantha Phavy, the minister of Women's Affairs. However, attempts to reach Ms. Ing Kantha Phavy went unanswered.

Controversial artist [Reahu] fights back

Friday, 26 December 2008
Written by Sam Rith and Cornelius Rahn
The Phnom Penh Post

The mysterious artist whose depictions of bare-breasted Apsara dancers and Khmer Rouge soldiers unleashed a public outrage has fought back in a series of pointed attacks on critics

AFTER generating a firestorm of criticism for depicting topless Apsara dancers and scantily-clad Khmer Rouge soldiers, the Khmer-American artist who calls himself Reahu lashed back at his detractors in a series of web postings.

"If this brings down the Khmer culture, then your Khmer culture is still under the Khmer Rouge," he wrote in a recent message posted on his website, reahu.net.

Reahu's nude images have struck a nerve with conservative Cambodians, prompting scathing messages on his website and government calls for an outright ban of his website.

Among the critics is noted Cambodian painter Vann Nath, one of the few survivors of Tuol Sleng prison who called the paintings of a bare-breasted female Khmer Rouge soldier disrespectful.

A controversial erotic graphic depiction of an female Khmer Rouge fighter. (Graphic by Reahu at Reahu.net)

"I am concerned because [Reahu] took the sadness of millions of Cambodian people who suffered during the Khmer Rouge regime and joked around with it like this," he said.

Ing Kantha Phavi, minister of Women's Affairs, said she has requested that the website be blocked in Cambodia, claiming that 70 percent to 80 percent of Cambodian women were offended by the paintings.

"At that time, if [people had been naked] in such a picture, they would have been killed by Khmer Rouge cadres," she said.

But the artist is standing defiant in the face of the public backlash.

"Please enlighten me: [How can] a picture destroy Khmer culture?" he challenged critics.

"Unless there is something wrong with the culture. If the culture is strong and you have confidence, you shouldn't worry," he wrote in response to often angry comments on his website.

"Judging from the complaints, I wonder how we as Khmer will be able to make it in the 21st Century. Please be open-minded, you must be able to see beyond the four walls surrounding your hut."

Youk Chhang, director of the Document Center of Cambodia, said that many artists expressed their anger at the Khmer Rouge through art.

"Artists use emotional resistance and provocative design, painting what was impossible in the regime in order to reflect their cruelty back at the former Khmer Rouge leaders," he said.

"This is like [artists] pointing an AK-47 into the mouths of former Khmer Rouge leaders."

Reahu's work has also attracted support from many viewers, who accused critics of ignorance of Cambodian art.

"All Apsara women on the walls of our temples reveal the beauty of Khmer women the same way," one person posted on the site. "Are Khmer saying that our Angkor artists were bad too?"

Another user suggested that critical comments should be kept on the website. "It will [show] the contrast between what is art and what is ignorance about art, history and culture."

On his Myspace.com profile, Reahu describes himself as a "pure-bred Khmer" and a college graduate from Chicago.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Anti-Reahu.net

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Cambodian minister wants to shut down US website for showing too realistic Apsara image: Ing Kanthaphavy’s censorship stupidity?

Ing Kanthaphavy, CPP minister of Woman Affairs and former F'pec defector

One of the Apsara images from reahu.net that received the ire of Ing Kanthaphavy

Website displaying half nude Apsaras to be shut down

Thursday, December 19, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The ministry of Woman Affairs is planning to shut down a website displaying images of half-nude Apsaras (KI-Media Note: The “reahu.net” website is based in the US where Cambodian gov’t has no jurisdiction whatsoever) created by a Cambodian-American artist. Ms. Ing Kanthaphaby, the minister of Woman Affairs, raised the issue of the negative impact brought by this website on Khmer culture. She told The Phnom Penh Post that “Right now, we are preparing to shut down this website.” Van Sophat, Licadho liaison deputy director, said that this website should be shut down because it attracts too much attention from Cambodian youths. He said that these images are actually modeled after Apsara sculptures, but they are too realistic just like actual human flesh. Chuch Phoeung, the secretary of state of the ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, indicated that his ministry has no reaction to these images: “This is the freedom of the artist who drew the human body. If you visit European museums, you will see these types of drawings in the majority of museums.”

Defectors get preferential treatment from Hun Sen, something the CPP members don’t enjoy

Hun Sen shows his faithfulness to the defectors who joined his party

28 May 2008
By Duong Sokha
Ka-set
Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the original article in French
Click here to read the original article in Khmer

On Wednesday 28 May, Hun Sen announced that he would keep Ing Kantha Phavy as the minister of Women Affairs in his next government. A former Funcinpec member, she defected her party in January 2008, to join the ruling party. Ou Bunlong, the current secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and former defector from the SRP to the Funcinpec, then to the CPP, will also enjoy the same treatment.

Through this action, Hun Sen wants to show that the defectors who join the CPP will not be pushed out of power, once the legislative mandate is over. This seems to be Hun Sen’s reply to Sam Rainsy who accused the CPP of luring opposition party members only for the election reason, and he also warned those who are attracted to the CPP, that the CPP would get rid of them later.

Furthermore, Hun Sen also apologized to the Funcinpec ministers in the current government – Nuth Sokhom, the Health minister, and Kol Pheng, the minister of Education – warning them that their fate is not sealed for the upcoming government. “For the high ranking Funcinpec government officials, I cannot guarantee them anything. All will depend on their party’s results at the election, and on the decisions their president will make,” Hun Sen declared.

Defectors will automatically lose F'pec party membership; Defection will not cause concerns to F'pec: F'pec bravado or ignorance?

Some of the more recent Funcinpec defectors

10 F’pec officials to defect to the CPP?

05 January 2008
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

A high-ranking Funcinpec official issued a warning to a number of Funcinpec ministers and state secretaries who defected the party to join the CPP, saying that they will automatically lose their Funcinpec party membership, and that their defection will not cause concerns to Funcinpec.

A number of sources indicated that more than 10 high-ranking Funcinpec party officials defected from the party, however, these sources declined to name these defectors.

Nov Sovathero, Funcinpec spokesman, said that based on the alliance between the CPP and Funcinpec, these defections (to the CPP) will affect the goals (of the alliance), but he said that this is the freedom of the defectors.

Nov Sovathero said: “In concrete, we see that this will affect the political goal and the cooperation (between Funcinpec and the CPP), however, if we can’t prevent these individuals from defecting either.”

An anonymous high-ranking Funcinpec party official revealed that Mrs. Ing KanthaPhavy, the minister of women affairs, Chea Peng Chheang, the state secretary of the ministry of economy and finance, defected to the CPP, along with a number of other Funcinpec party officials.

Serei Kosal, Funcinpec deputy secretary-general, said that he wanted to see these defectors officially and openly announcing their resignation, and they should avoid keeping it quiet.

Serei Kosal said: “Those who already defected, please don’t remain quiet and don’t hide your head while you tail is sticking out, you would be called the “cashew” (svay chanty in Khmer) defectors. Send in your resignation letters to tell (us) that you are leaving.”

Ing KanthaPhavy could not be reached to ask for a confirmation and the cause of her defection to the CPP, however, Chea Peng Chheang, the state secretary of the ministry of economy and finance, confirmed that he did join the CPP.

Chea Peng Chheang said: “Yes, this is true! We are involved in politics, we must look at the standing of the leader of the political goal and such…”

Chea Peng Chheang indicated that he has no plan to publicly announce his defection from Funcinpec.

Regarding the defections above, Khieu Kanharith, the CPP party mouthpiece, could not be reached to obtain his comment on this issue, however, Cheam Yieb, the CPP MP from Prey Veng province and a high-ranking CPP official, said that the defection of the high-ranking Funcinpec officials did not need any enticement.

Cheam Yieb said: “Based on the CPP goal, we are open to all the volunteering (defectors), regardless of where they were from, we accept them all.”

Cheam Yieb said that, even if the CPP win the upcoming election in July 2008, is will preserve the alliance with Funcinpec as usual.

Hang Puthea, director of the Nicfec organization, said that it is normal to see party officials defecting from one party to another, especially prior to a national election planned for July 2008.