Cambodian construction workers find remains of Khmer Rouge victims

Tuesday, September 11, 2012
By Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Workers building a house for a Buddhist monk in Cambodia have discovered the remains of 18 people believed to have been killed by the Khmer Rouge.

Laborer Nhoung Snieng said Tuesday that they started finding the remains, some shackled, when they began digging last week at Kes Sararam temple in the northwestern province of Siem Reap.

Angkor guides turn into porters

September 3, 2012
By Wanwisa Ngamsangchaikit
TTR Weekly

SIEM REAP, 3 September 2012: Authorities are worried that tour guides are being treated badly by Korean interpreters who fill in when there are no Korean speaking tour guides available.

Provincial tourism authorities claim registered tour guides are being relegated to the role of porters. They admit there is a shortage of guides who can speak Korean, but they reiterated the law clearly stipulates the job of guiding must be carried out by Cambodians and not by foreigners.

Local guides blame the so-called Korean interpreters who they claim treat Cambodian guides badly and ask them to carry water and umbrellas for tourists. The interpreters explain the significance of the temples directly to Korean tourists rather than just translating on behalf of the guide.

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.

The more you give, the more you receive

Li Kaiwen, a high school student in Beijing, poses with kids in Siem Reap, Cambodia, where she spent her summer vacation as a voluntary worker.

2012-08-29
ByZhang Yue ( China Daily)

Before leaving for Cambodia to do voluntary work, Li Kaiwen thought she was going to a poor country to offer her help. But, that was only half the story - she gained more from the experience than she ever imagined.

The Chinese high school student remembers trying with all her might to saw some plywood under the scorching sun of Siem Reap. She was sunburned, and beads of sweat rained down her cheeks. Yet she could not get the work done.

A 5-year-old Cambodian boy, seeing her struggling with the wood, ran to her and gently wiped off the sweat on her forehead with his sleeves. He offered to show Li how to saw the wood, which seemed like a piece of cake.

The 16-year-old from one of the best international high schools in Beijing says at that very moment, she felt like an idiot.

"If both the kid and I were left on a lonely island, the little one would be able to build himself a wooden shelter," she says. "But I, well educated, well fed and raised, would freeze to death."

Do Dantrei killing fields

The discovery of a mass grave in Do Dontrei brings back terrible memories for a community

Khmer Rouge survivor Chea Nouen. Source: AP

Skulls and bones have been unearthed at a newly-discovered grave site in Do Dantrei village in Cambodia. Source: AP

August 26, 2012
AP

Cambodia's regime prefers to literally bury the past, especially since some of its current leaders, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, were once Khmer Rouge.

IT was four gray skulls resting on a bed of jumbled bones that again triggered Chea Nouen's memories.

Breast-feeding her baby with her hands and feet shackled; her husband thrown into a pit to be turned into human fertilizer, her own marches to the killing fields - where she was saved three times by an executioner.

The past came hurtling back earlier this month when a new mass grave was discovered in a village in northwestern Cambodia, one of the bloodiest killing grounds in the country. Like most of Cambodia's 300 known mass grave clusters, it is not being investigated or exhumed to find out what happened.

More than three decades after the Khmer Rouge ultra-revolutionaries orchestrated the deaths of nearly 2 million people, or one out of every four Cambodians, the country has not laid its ghosts to rest.

Cambodia's regime prefers to literally bury the past, especially since some of its current leaders, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, were once Khmer Rouge.

44th ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting to kick off in Cambodia

SIEM REAP (Xinhua) August 26, 2012 - The 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting and related meetings are ready to kick off here Monday, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said Sunday.

"Everything is in place and the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting and related meetings will be opened by Prime Minister Hun Sen tomorrow," he told reporters after playing golf with some of ASEAN Economic Ministers at Angkor Golf Resort.

"The meeting will discuss topics related to trade liberalization and economic cooperation among the 10 ASEAN member states, and the cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue countries," he said.

Possible Khmer Rouge Mass Grave Found in Siem Reap, Cambodia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3c3Xo_hTj0

Crowds visit suspected Khmer Rouge mass grave

Police examine remains found in a suspected Khmer Rouge mass grave discovered in Siem Reap’s Kralanh district yesterday.

07 Aug 2012

DO DONTREI, Cambodia (AP) — Crowds of people traveled to a rural village in northwestern Cambodia on Tuesday after the discovery of what could be a Khmer Rouge mass grave. Some came to search for the remains of relatives.

Among them was 56-year-old Muoth Sam Khan, who believes eight of his relatives could have been killed and buried at the site, near a former Khmer Rouge prison.

"I have tried not to think about this for 30 years, but when I heard they had found bodies, I had to come," said Muoth Sam Khan, who lives in a nearby village.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians — about one in five people in the small Southeast Asian country — died of torture, starvation, medical neglect, hard labor and execution during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 rule. The regime ran nearly 200 prisons where inmates were tortured before being killed.

Cambodian villagers unearth skulls, bones from possible Khmer Rouge mass grave

Monday, August 6, 2012
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Villagers in northwestern Cambodia unearthed what authorities say could be a mass grave from the Khmer Rouge era that contains skulls and the bones of corpses — some with legs bound by rope.

The morbid discovery was made last weekend about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Siem Reap, home to Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temples.

Authorities said Monday that villagers were excavating land in a forested area when they discovered about 20 skulls and the remnants of skeletons.

Food Fridays: Cuisine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap

A refined version of a street eat–nom banh chok–is an example of Chef Riviere’s aim to serve modernized and creative Cambodian cuisine. Kaylene Hong/The Wall Street Journal

July 27, 2012
By Kaylene Hong
The Wall Street Journal

Be prepared to be surprised at Cuisine Wat Damnak, a contemporary Cambodian restaurant in Siem Reap that has entirely transformed native dishes seen on the streets into haute cuisine.

Having earlier eaten nom banh chok—a Cambodian dish of rice noodles with a thin curry gravy ladled onto it—at a local market after trooping through muddy walkways displaying squirming, bloody fish, the nom banh chok at Cuisine Wat Damnak was almost unrecognizable.

It had a different and rather elaborate description on the menu: “Mekong langoustine in light curry and coconut broth, fresh rice vermicelli and local crudités.” Essentially it was a sophisticated version of nom banh chok—with the broth tasting richly of shrimps, and the dish topped with expertly-seared mini lobsters and a borrowed French element, crudités, or sliced raw vegetables. Decadent, but delicious.

Life in Chong Khneas, Siem Reap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCBNR8tz9Gg

On top of Kulen Mountain this Friday, July 20, 2012 - Photo and Video by Theary Seng

Waving proudly on top of Phnom Kulen this Friday (Photo by Theary Seng)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLDkPlhqzBg

Crocodile farm in Siem Reap - Photos and Video by Theary Seng

(All Photos: Theary Seng)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPckyQcQejQ

CCHR Media Alert: Publ​ic Forum in Siem Reap

A Cambodia shaped by water, history and resilience

Houses in Kampong Phluk, Cambodia, are built on stilts to withstand the ebb and flow of the monsoon seasons. (BEN KUCINSKI/FLICKR)

A woman fried cakes of whole shrimp and rice flour in the village of Kampong Phluk, Cambodia. (Stephen Heuser/Globe Staff)

July 15, 2012
By Stephen Heuser
The Boston Globe Staff

KAMPONG PHLUK — The water around our boat is so opaque with yellow clay that I worry my hand will vanish if I dip it in. The boat itself is made of wooden planks sealed with resin, driven by an engine that looks like nothing I have ever seen, a propeller trailing far behind the stern on a rickety metal frame. Our pilot is 13, or might be, but I can’t really ask him over the noise.

But none of this is the interesting part. The interesting part, the reason we endured the hourlong scooter ride and all the dirt roads to get here, is rolling past us on the banks of this river, where the life of a village is unfolding 20 feet above our heads.

Children in their high stilt houses kick their legs out the front doors, dangling them precariously in the air. Bits of laundry, beaten as clean as it gets in yellow-clay water, hang on crossbars to dry. And on the water below, traffic moves around us: small launches, hand-paddled rafts, a floating fish farm.

U.S. Secretary of State to Visit Cambodia for Meetings

2012-07-10
Xinhua

The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on Wednesday afternoon to attend the 19th ASEAN Regional Forum and related meetings, said a press release from the U.S. Embassy here on Tuesday.

As scheduled, besides attending ASEAN meetings in Phnom Penh, Clinton will participate in the ASEAN-U.S. Business Forum in Siem Reap province on Friday afternoon.

Thailand plans to use Chong Jom as a gateway to Siem Reap

Thailand's Chong Jom To Become Regional Gateway

BANGKOK, July 6 (Bernama) -- Thai Cabinet, at its upcoming mobile meeting late this month, is expected to consider approving a state budget of some 25 million baht (RM2.5 million) for the development of the Chong Jom permanent border pass in Thailand's northeastern Surin province as a regional gateway, in preparation for the formation of the Asean Community (AC) by 2015.

Kittiphat Rungthanakiart, chief of Surin's Provincial Administrative Organization, led a group of the provincial administrative body's executives to visit the Chong Jom permanent border checkpoint on Thursday.

Thai News Agency (TNA) reported that the group's visit was to discuss with local officials on the development plan, aimed at upgrading the border pass to become a national and regional gateway to the globally-renowned Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ancient tourism sites in Cambodia.

New Photos of the Siem Reap Rubbish Dump

Photo: Omar Havana/Wostok Press

July 1st, 2012
By Tim LaRocco
Foreign Policy  Association
Southeast Asia

Click here to see all the photos

I can recall being in graduate school in New York having a conversation about Third World development with a fellow student, an American originally from Connecticut. At the time, the end of 2010, I had just returned from a stint with the South African Human Rights Commission and was pretty sour on the potential for poverty reduction. This student was proselytizing on what he felt the problem was in the Global South, rattling off UN statistics as if he had all the answers. The whole time I just stood there and nodded politely, trying to think of an excuse in my head for which to conclude the conversation.

But in the end, as the student lamented the fact that developed countries were cutting back aid programs, I couldn’t help myself.

“What’s the poorest country you’ve ever been to?” I asked.

Modern day's Robin Hood in Siem Reap?

​ឈ្មោះ សុខ ចក់ (រូបពាក់អាវគគី) និង បឿន សុខ (រូបពាក់អាវយឺតឆ្នូតពណ៌បៃតងចាស់)ដែល​តាំងខ្លួន​ជា​អាជ្ញាធរ​យក​ដីព្រៃ​របស់​ រដ្ឋ ទៅ​ចែក​ឱ្យ​ប្រជាជន​កាន់កាប់​នៅ​ភូមិ​ជប់​រំដេង ឃុំ​កន្ទួត តែ​អាជ្ញាធរ​មិនបាន​ចោទប្រកាន់​នោះទេ ទុកឱ្យ​ពួកគេ​កែខ្លួន​ចាប់ពីពេលនេះ​តទៅ​

Land title distributed to the villagers

មានការ​តាំងខ្លួន​ជា​គណៈកម្មាការ ហើយ​យក​ដី​រដ្ឋ វាស់​ចែក​ប្រជាជន ធ្វើជា​កម្មសិទ្ធិ​

ថ្ងៃទី 19 មិថុនា 2012
ដោយ: បាយ័ន
Cambodia Express News

Synopsis: Two men in Siem Reap have decided to establish an independent committee to distribute state forest land to villagers. The pair decided to distributed plots measuring 150 by 300-meter to each villager in exchange for a minimal sum of 1,500 riels ($0.38) to cover for their gas fee to travel from one place to another. The pair issued land title to the villagers, but the title prohibits the villagers from re-selling their properties. With Cambodia currently plagued by government forced evictions, the pair could be seen as modern day’s Robin Hood: taking away from the robbers (Hun Xen’s government) and giving them to the poor. The authority does not agree with their actions, but it does not take any action against the pair either.

សៀមរាប: គណៈកម្មាការ​មួយ បាន​ត្រូវបាន​គេ​រកឃើញថា បាន​តាំង​ខ្លួនឯង​ជា​អាជ្ញាធរ​ដែនដី ហើយ​វាស់ដី​ព្រៃរបស់​រដ្ឋ ចែកជូន​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​គ្រប់គ្រង ហើយ​ថែមទាំង​បានចេញ​លិខិតបញ្ជាក់ ទទួលស្គាល់ថា ដី​នោះ ជា​កម្មសិទ្ធិ ដែល​គណៈកម្មាការ​មួយ​នេះ ថែម​ទៀតផង​។

​ការរកឃើញ​នេះ គឺ​បញ្ជាក់​ឱ្យដឹង នៅ​ព្រឹក​ថ្ងៃទី​១៩ ខែមិថុនា ឆ្នាំ​២០១២​នេះ ស្ថិតនៅ​តំបន់​ភូមិ​ជប់​រំដេង ឃុំ​កន្ទួត ស្រុក​ស្វាយ​លើ ខេត្ដ​សៀមរាប ខណៈពេល ដែល​លោក ស៊ូ ភិរិន្ទ និង​លោក សៀង ណាំ ចុះទៅ​ឃ្វាល​ដី​ពី​ក្រុមហ៊ុន អ៊ិ​ច​សែ​ល ខាស់​ថើ ផ្លេ​ន​ថេ​សសិន ជូន​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​ចំនួន ២​ភូមិ ដែល​រស់នៅក្នុង​ឃុំ​កន្ទួត​ខាងលើ​។

​យោងតាម​ប័ណ្ណ​សំគាល់​សិទ្ធិ​ដី​កម្មសិទ្ធិ ដែល​ចេញ​ដោយ​គណៈកម្មការ​ខាងលើ បាន​បញ្ជាក់ថា គណៈកម្មាការ​មួយ​នេះ មាន​ឈ្មោះថា "​តំបន់​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​ដី​រលំ​រុន​ថ្មី ជប់​រំដេញ​" ( តាមពិត​ជប់​រំដេង​) ដែលមាន​ទីតាំង​ស្ថិតនៅ​ឃុំ​ស្រែ​ណូយ ប៉ុន្ដែ​តំបន់​ខាងលើ ស្ថិតនៅ​ឃុំ​កន្ទួត ស្រុក​ស្វាយ​លើ ឯណោះ​វិញ​ទេ​។