Heavy losses give Cambodia good reason to cry

Chhum Socheat (R) standing next to Hun Manet

29/04/2011
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

Gen Prawit, while on a visit to China this week, will hold talks to buy additional 130mm MRL systems and radars from China at a cost of 1.2 billion baht. [KI-Media note: Another intimidation attempt by Thailand?]

Cambodian defence spokesman Chhum Socheat did not shed crocodile tears to win sympathy from the world when he talked to reporters during a recent press conference on the Thai-Cambodia border clashes.

It could be true that heavy losses suffered by Cambodia during the border clashes with Thailand brought him to tears, and not the heart-wrenching drama in the Thai soap opera Dok Som Si Thong, as army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd suggested. Col Sansern earlier said that Lt Gen Chhum Socheat might have been a bit too impressed by Reya, a popular and artificial female character in the Channel 3 soap opera, which can be seen in Cambodia.

A highly placed military source said that when Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon telephoned Gen Tea Banh to discuss the prospects of a ceasefire after the clashes had entered a second day, his Cambodian counterpart turned down the peace overtures.

Gen Tea Banh told Gen Prawit that Cambodian soldiers were met with too much of a ''heavy-handed'' response from Thai troops and that a ceasefire was still not possible, the source said.

''A lot of Cambodian soldiers have died. They suffered heavy losses.

Red [phone] number is not a cause of death

Red phone numbers which cause panic (Photo: Koh Santepheap newspaper)

April 26 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian officials have moved to quell growing hysteria sparked by a rumour that a ghostly red number was appearing on mobile phones and killing people, local media and police said Saturday.

Officials have urged calm in the mobile-phone-crazy country, where rumours spread nationally like wildfire thanks to cheap calls and text messages, and have denied any red number exists.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister So Khun said the rumour was probably due to growing tension prior to scheduled national elections in July, the English-language Cambodia Daily reported.

"Anyone can make this up. In a moment we will hear that fish will grow legs and run away," the paper quoted the minister as saying.

Rumours such as this are not new to Cambodia, where people are deeply superstitious and believe in sorcerers and spirits but have nevertheless embraced texting technology as a national passion.

At the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003, a story circulated that people who did not eat a sugar palm dessert before midnight would die, sparking nationwide mass panic-buying of palm sugar that resulted in several market stalls being damaged.

In January of the same year, a false rumour that a Thai soap actress had claimed the national icon, Angkor Wat temple, was Thai led to an angry mob torching the Thai embassy and businesses.

Police warned Saturday that if the culprit for this latest text- message-fuelled scare was found they would be prosecuted, but admitted Chinese whisper investigations of this nature were virtually impossible to trace.

Cambodian garment workers return after organ transplant scare

Thu, 05 Jul 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Thousands of Cambodian garment factory employees who had refused to work nightshifts have returned to work after assurances by unions and police that a rumour they were being targeted by the human organ transplant trade was false, officials said Thursday. The story of powerful men driving cars with tinted windows and abducting garment workers to harvest their corneas and kidneys for rich international clients began spreading late last week.

By Tuesday, the Interior Ministry was concerned enough to issue a press release denouncing the story as a lie and saying a full investigation had found no evidence to support it.

Interior Ministry Criminal Police chief Mok Chito said Thursday that police were now seeking the people who began the false tale, which threw the country's garment industry into turmoil when it spread through the factories earlier this week.

"It was the plan of a group of people who wanted to cause turbulence and hooked into the workers' minds, but it did not succeed because the workers now have knowledge," Chito said in a telephone interview.

But he said the rumour was proving hard to pin down because it had apparently been spread by word of mouth, unlike previous rumours, which have been spread through SMS text messaging and can be traced.

"Cambodia is the easiest place for a rumour to get out of control," he said.

Chea Mony, the president of the Free Trade Union Workers of Cambodia, said the story had caused up to 20 per cent of garment workers on night shifts to stay at home out of fear for their lives.

"This affects the Cambodian economy and businesses might be afraid to invest if they see this sort of panic and what it does to production," Mony said by telephone.

The rumour came less than a month after the Cambodian parliament voted to amend the labour law and slash overtime rates for garment workers despite protests from unions.

Nightshift garment workers had previously earned about 100 dollars a month as opposed to around 50 dollars a month earned by their day shift counterparts, but the amendment cut that difference to 30 per cent more for nightshift workers.

Cambodia employs about 300,000 garment factory workers, many of whom are young female migrants from small rural villages to the city.

Previous rumours that have swept the country have included unsubstantiated claims in January 2003 that a Thai actress had claimed the national icon, the Angkor Wat temple, was Thai. Angry mobs then burned the Thai embassy and several Thai businesses.

A story that eating a palm sugar dessert before midnight would prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, caused a hysterical rush on sugar stalls a few years ago. Both those rumours were spread through SMS messaging. The sugar scare was later blamed on sugar merchants near the Thai border.

Police said they had received reports of motorbike taxi drivers spreading the garment factory rumour but currently had no suspects.

The garment industry is Cambodia's primary source of foreign trade and one of the national economy's most important sectors.