Friday, August 31, 2007

Thai traders on Khmer border ask for reduced red tape

CHANTHABURI, Aug 31 (TNA) – Dozens of Thai traders in Chanthaburi's Soi Dao district who trade in fresh Cambodian-grown agricultural produce have called on the provincial authorities for help with a recurring problem on the Thai-Cambodian border.

Cambodian authorities in Battambang province had prevented the traders' trucks from going further than 500 metres inside Cambodian territory, using the excuse that their vehicles use right-hand steering wheels which are not legally allowed inside that country.

The traders petitioned Chanthaburi provincial governor Phanat Kaewlai to urgently assist them because fresh farm goods produced in Cambodia which required truck transport for importing the produce to Thailand were liable to rot quickly in the rainy season.

The current Cambodian ban on crossborder entry of the Thai trucks is causing heavy losses to the Soi Dao border traders, who reported it was the fifth such action this year, according to a leading trader.

The rise and rise of a Cambodian capitalist [-It helps to have good and highly placed connections]

Sep 1, 2007
By Shawn W Crispin
Asia Times (Hong Kong)

PHNOM PENH – Kith Meng's is the bold new face of Cambodian capitalism. Widely considered the country's richest entrepreneur, the Sino-Khmer businessman presides over a sprawling business empire held under his Royal Group of Companies which has leveraged into and helped drive Cambodia's recent economic boom.

With impeccable political connections - including not least his role as a personal advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen - Kith Meng, 37, has secured a growing trove of lucrative government concessions, licenses and land deals that his Royal Group has in sometimes controversial fashion translated into big business profits.

Those include his controlling stakes in CTN television, mobile telecom leader Mobitel, the Camlot lottery company and a 45% stake in a commercial banking joint venture with Australia's ANZ Bank, where he serves as board chairman and reportedly drives strategic decision-making.

Last year he purchased the swanky Cambodiana Hotel, newly established the Infinity Insurance company and accumulated extensive property holdings and development concessions in the capital Phnom Penh, in what his critics contend are often opaque deals brokered with various line ministries. (Kith Meng could not be reached through his Royal Group for comment.)

His growing service sector empire has drawn both favorable and unfavorable comparisons to neighboring Thailand's telecom tycoon-cum-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's commercial and political ascent. He reportedly will seek a seat on the national senate at upcoming elections and some Phnom Penh-based analysts see him one day as a potential successor to the 55-year-old Hun Sen, who they note rose to political prominence through his military prowess rather than business acumen.

A former refugee from political violence, Kith Meng's is one of Cambodia's most compelling rags to riches stories. His father, Kith Peng Ike, a Sino-Khmer businessman and landlord, was singled out as a "class enemy" during the Khmer Rouge's genocidal purges and he reportedly died from starvation in one of the radical Maoist group's labor camps.

Kith Meng and his family fled the country for Australia, where he was raised and educated. He returned to his war-torn homeland in the early 1990s to help his elder brother, Sophan Kith, to develop the resurrected family business, which upon reestablishment was first known as the Royal Cambodia Company. The enterprise started modestly, supplying furniture, food and office equipment to the United Nations authority that ushered Cambodia's rocky transition from civil war to parliamentary democracy.

In 1991 the Royal Group won the rights to distribute exclusively Canon copiers throughout the country and it quickly spun those monopoly revenues into a joint venture in 1993 with Motorola to establish one of Cambodia's first wireless communication networks. It later did a deal with Luxembourg's Millicom International Cellular, which over the years has grown into the country's leading mobile telecom outfit, Mobitel.

In 1994 Sophan Kith died under mysterious circumstances and, peculiar to cultural norms of seniority as the youngest sibling, Kith Meng took control over the family business. He now serves as both the company's chairman and chief executive officer and his cut-throat approach to business expansion has rapidly transformed the Royal Group into Cambodia's leading service sector conglomerate.

Young gun

As a Western-educated, 37-year-old entrepreneur, Kith Meng's resume stands out among the older generation of ethnic Chinese businessmen who dominate Cambodia's traditional economy. Cambodian politicians have long relied on Sino-Khmer businessmen to run crucial sectors of the national economy, similar to the ethnic-based government-business nexuses seen in Thailand and Indonesia.

In Cambodia that privilege comes with a royal title known as Okhna, which is bestowed on those who make sizable financial contributions to the royal family. Kith Meng is believed to be one of the youngest businessmen to ever receive the honorific and his meteoric commercial rise includes his recent selection as the head the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce.

As Cambodia becomes more integrated into the global economy, Kith Meng has emerged as the government's de facto spokesman for selling the country to potential foreign investors as a profitable and desirable place to do business. He is regularly seen on local television wining and dining foreign business delegations. On the Royal Group's website is a pitch to potential foreign investors to help build its proposed Royal Caesar Casino, which it's billing as "the largest and most dazzling gaming facility in the Cambodia hemisphere".

Beyond the diplomacy and hype, there is much more at play to Kith Meng's growing prominence than mere spin-doctoring. Some political analysts contend that Hun Sen has played an instrumental role in cultivating and mobilizing the young entrepreneur's modern business image in a vigorous public relations effort to shirk his and his government's notorious reputation as the "Mafia on the Mekong".

Cambodia emerged from nearly three decades of civil war only to become known as a regional hub for illicit business, including rampant money laundering, drug smuggling, human trafficking and illegal logging. Hun Sen and his Cambodia People's Party's (CPP) have been directly linked to shadowy figures reputedly involved in illicit businesses, including his established ties to businessman Theng Bunma, who has contributed millions of dollars to the premier's past election campaigns and also implicated by US authorities for alleged drug trafficking.

As Cambodia's aboveground economy booms, state concessions are no doubt providing rich new sources of legitimate revenues for Hun Sen's government. It is unknown whether Kith Meng contributes funds directly to his CPP, but his concession payments to line ministries are no doubt bolstering state coffers. One Phnom Penh-based Western businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity and claims to have personally conducted the due diligence research on the Royal Group's recent joint venture with Australia's ANZ Bank says that his in-depth investigations failed to turn up any "dirty laundry" in Kith Meng's past or present business dealings.

Reborn landed gentry

That's not to say his business practices lack for controversy. Kith Meng's style has reportedly ruffled feathers among the more established Okhna represented in the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, whereby the older generation of Sino-Khmer businessmen have bristled at his perceived patronizing lectures about globalization and at what some of them reportedly view as his overly direct Western-style of interaction.

Whether those complaints stem from genuine pique or instead heartfelt fear of Kith Meng's expanding reach into other Okhna's once monopolized markets is unclear. One Western aid agency representative, who spoke with Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity, says that soon after launching last year’s joint venture with ANZ Bank, Kith Meng pushed to expand the bank's local branch network much faster than ANZ first planned. That aggressive strategy, it turns, has paid off handsomely through a fast growing market share of deposits and the lion's share of loans in the nascent home mortgage market.

Other times, critics say, Kith Meng's Royal Group pushes too hard. In June 2006 police armed with batons, tear gas and AK47 assault rifles evicted at least 20 families from a contested land plot worth several million dollars next to Phnom Penh's Preah Monivong Hospital which the government had controversially awarded to the Royal Group for development. The resident families were reportedly given US$500-$1,500 in compensation and trucked to a relocation site 30 kilometers outside the capital which lacked electricity and water.

Similar complaints have arisen from his plans for the landmark Bassac Theater. In 2005, the culture ministry granted the concession, which called on the Royal Group to rehabilitate the damaged structure in exchange for the rights to outfit the theater's surrounding land with new offices and a conference center. The company has since decided to demolish the historic building and evict the scores of artists who after the Khmer Rouge's "class enemy" purges took refuge in the old theater.

Those same artists have resurrected the traditional Khmer art forms that the Maoist movement aimed to destroy and after squatting at the historic site for over a decade, each has received $300 to abandon an area where land prices now top $1,000 per square meter. The irony of such deals is not lost on Kith Meng's critics, who contend that the Royal Group is capitalizing on the legal vacuum for adjudicating land ownership rights created by the Khmer Rouge's destruction of the national land registries.

On the Royal Group's website, Kith Meng says in a statement that the company's origins trace "back to the early days of the Khmer Rouge occupation" – meaning, presumably, the property and businesses his father maintained before the radical Maoist movement killed him and drove his family, including a young Kith Meng, into exile. In Cambodia's latest capitalist incarnation, government connections often trump historical claims and reassert old social class divisions, of which Kith Meng's and the Royal Group's fast expanding commercial domain is living proof.

Shawn W Crispin is Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor.

60 Cambodian soldiers with scholarships leave for China for training

August 31, 2007

About 60 soldiers from different departments of the Ministry of National Defense of Cambodia left for China on Friday to get military training courses, an official said.

"We have received scholarships from the Chinese government to study in military sections," Meng Hay, an official in the information and propaganda department of the Ministry of National Defense, told Xinhua at the Phnom Penh International Airport where the soldier students had gathered in early morning before setting off to China.

"When we arrive in China, we will go to study at different schools in different provinces," he said, adding that each soldier will learn a professional skill, such as anti-terrorism, infantry, computer, Chinese language, navy, airplane repairing, tank and artillery.

"I am very happy to have the opportunity to learn in China because I can upgrade my knowledge about infantry," Meng Hay said.

He added that he got high scores at the Royal Military Academy of Cambodia in Phnom Penh and upgraded his English language skills nearly a year before he passed the test to get the scholarship.

Source: Xinhua

Teacher recalls Cambodian experience

ThisIsHampshire.net (UK)

A TEACHER from King's Somborne has returned from the trip of a lifetime teaching English to children in Cambodia.

Maggie Mackay, who has taught at Stanbridge Earls School in Romsey for 14 years, spent six weeks in Siem Reap after being inspired by her son's experiences in Cambodia.

The mum of three, a lifelong teacher, said she had many happy moments and that the children were "an absolute joy" to teach, although there were some difficulties.

advertisementShe said: "Like all teachers, learning the children's names was a priority. Unfortunately, the Khmer sound system has a considerable amount of sounds absent from our own English language.

"This meant I spent an inordinate amount of time asking each child to repeat his name in an attempt to transcribe the sounds into an English equivalent."

Mrs Mackay, who is married to Duncan, said classes were organised by ability, rather than age, so in one class there were 12, 15 and 19 year olds.

There were also some "guest appearances".

She added: "I had dogs wander into the classroom on at least three occasions. It was also accepted that pupils could bring younger siblings along to the lesson, most of whom would simply sit at the desk, sucking their thumbs or falling asleep."

Mrs Mackay was working for the Schools for Children in Cambodia charity, which supports six schools in Siem Reap.

One of the organisation's main aims is to supplement the teachers' $50 a month salary.

Summing up her trip, Mrs Mackay said: "Before I went, I was warned that Cambodia would 'get under your skin'.

"I know now exactly what is meant by this. A country of many contradictions, I am finding it very hard to stop thinking about both the country and the very wonderful people and children I had the privilege to meet."

The former monarch under the Khmer Rouge regime

30 August 2008
By Huy Vannak
Radio Free Asia

Translated from Khmer by Socheata
“In reality, Sihanouk is a meek tiger, which only has its skin and bones left, and waiting for his death" - Pol Pot
While qualifying the demand to lift the Hero King’s immunity as a savage, as a severe scorning of the king, and as a tactic to destroy Cambodia, prime minister Hun Sen also declared to the public on Tuesday 28 August that King Norodom Sihanouk is a king who met the most suffering among all other royalties in the world.

Hun Sen said: “Reading the Minutes of the Meeting of the Standing Committee of Pol Pot dated 11 March 1976, this is a very scary case.”

The meeting of the Democratic Kampuchea Standing Committee in 1976 was conducted after Samdech Sihanouk sent a letter to the Khmer Rouge Angkar (organization) to resign from his position as president because of his health, and he wanted to rest so he can look after his family.

RFA is quoting detailed portions of Samdech Sihanouk’s resignation which was reported in the KR document.

RFA located at least 5 KR documents regarding the KR political lines which are currently stored at the Document Center of Cambodia (DCCam).

Samdech Sihanouk resigned from the revolutionary movement of the Khmer Rouge, at least twice. In 1971, he resigned from the revolutionary movement once.

At a meeting in the Northern region regarding whether “Samdech Sihanouk is allowed to continue his participation in the revolutionary movement or not”, the meeting led by Pol pot and Khieu Samphan rejected his resignation.

One more time, after they came to power, the KR held another discussion on 22 September 1975 about Sihanouk’s case.

The KR document quoted Pol Pot as saying: “Sihanouk, we hold him in our hand because he has nothing, no finance, no power. Everything depends on us, even the royal palace is our palace. Later on if he changes, we consider him like a scab that will fall off by itself.”

At the beginning of 1976, Samdech Sihanouk sent another resignation letter from his position as president, after his return from Beijing, China.

His letter led to a meeting of the KR Standing Committee on 11 March 1976, with the participation of Pol Pot, Nhuon Chea, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan, Doeun, Tum, and Touch.

Khieu Samphan reported to the meeting that Sihanouk sent two letters in French to the Angkar, one to resign and the other one was his declaration to the Cambodian people stating that he was resigning prior to 20 March 1976.

Pol Pot reminded: “Sihnaouk did not resign just once only, he resigned in 1971 already.”

At the same time, Pol Pot gave his opinion on the good and bad consequences of this resignation by saying: “If he resigns, we will not allow him to leave the country. If he leaves, it will complicate China.”

Two days later, on 13 March 1976, Khieu Samphan reported to the meeting one more time that Sihanouk decided to make a categorical decision to resign. He asks Angkar that it takes pity on him. He lowers and humbles himself only requesting Angkar that it accepts his resignation.

Pol Pot replied back by saying: “In reality, Sihanouk is a meek tiger, which only has its skin and bones left, and waiting for his death. The goal of the Revolution is to end the feudal system in this manner. The kings who existed for 2,000-year, at the end, it must be cleansed. Henceforth, Sihanouk shall not be allowed to meet foreign diplomats. We shall give them valid reasons to explain the situation.”

At the same time, Pol Pot added that: “Dispatch telegrams to the sons of Sihanouk asking them to return as soon as possible, pointing out that they must come for the New Year and the National Day celebration. We must solve this problem once and for all.”

On 4 April 1976, the DK government issued a statement about Sihanouk’s retirement. The statement expressed the regret over his resignation and stated that the council of ministers agreed to give him the title of “Highly patriotic hero.”

In 2001, Samdech Sihanouk sent a letter to Chang Youk, DCCam director, following DCCam’s publication of an article involving Sihanouk’s resignation.

Chank Youk quoted Sihanouk’s rejection: “On the minutes of the meeting of the KR Standing Committee which stated that I asked for my resignation from the president position in French, this is not true. The KR were lying because, in reality, I wrote to them all in Khmer. I wouldn’t dare write to them in French. H.E. Chhorn Hay is my witness because he was in charge of handing my resignation letter to KR leaders.”

Nevertheless, in April 1976, The KR sent telegrams to Sihanouk’s sons, by cheating that it was their father’s calling them. At the time, Prince Sihamoni, the current king of Cambodia, was studying in Pyongyang, and Prince Narindrapong was studying in Moscow.

In the book “Prisoner of the Khmer Rouge,” authored by Samdech Sihanouk, the latter recounted the crying of Prince Sihamoni when he arrived in Phnom Penh, he said: “Please Papa find a mean to get out of Cambodia, I am ready to sacrifice myself for Papa.”

Sihanouk replied back to his son: “The Angkar cheated by using my name as the sender of the telegram to you, the Angkar will now allow us to get out of their grip. From now on, we are all prisoners of the Khmer Rouge.”

Under the KR regime, Samdech Sihanouk lost at least 14 members of his family, including relatives and children.

Regarding the former monarch’s position with respect to the ECCC, the king used to write a number of letters in which he stated that he stands ready to receive judgment with other KR leaders, as well as to provide clarifications on the criticisms that he played a role in the genocide in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.

Cambodia finishes neutralizing hazardous drug lab chemicals

Symbolic burning of the chemical products by the participants in the ceremony (Photo: Bunry, Koh Santepheap)


PHNOM PENH, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- About three tons of the most hazardous chemical found by police at a Cambodia's Kompong Speu province drug production lab have been neutralized and disposed of, local media reported Friday.

"I am relieved that the first phase of the cleanup has been completed," Lars Pedersen, officer in charge of project office for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), was quoted by the Cambodia Daily newspaper as saying.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by the UNDOC, 25 tons of reagent chemicals and 15 tons of water were used to neutralize 3.2 tons of thionyl chloride, a highly corrosive chemical that could explode if it comes into contact with water.

In the second phase of the chemical cleanup, 550 kg of acetone and 1.4 tons of other chemicals will be disposed of through incineration, the statement said.

The chemicals, said to be precursors for the production of amphetamines, were discovered during a police raid in April and are being disposed of by the UNODC and the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) of Cambodia, the newspaper said.
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity
30 August 2007
Special Statement

The Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity (CACJE) is happy to sees that the former monarch has decided to invite international officials of the KR Tribunal to meet him for 3-hour on 08 September, with the royal goal of filming the clarifications regarding the crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.

However, CACJE would like to point out that:
  1. The Royal Palace is not an office of the KR Tribunal, protected by its security co-presidents, and in which the judges and prosecutors can use with full impartiality.
  2. In a correct decision, it is not up to the suspects, or witnesses, or victims to summon the judges or the prosecutors to come over and listen to one’s recounting, it is the prosecutors or the investigating judges who have the right to summon the suspects, the victims, or witnesses for questioning in front of the court hearing.
  3. More than 2 million Cambodian people lost their lives under the KR regime, this cannot be explained through a 3-hour of storytelling, and then have it broadcasted for the people to listen to or to watch. CACJE encourages the former monarch to accept the lifting of his immunity and to go provide his clarifications at the KR Tribunal, as he stipulated in his letter broadcasted by the BBC on 04 January 1999.
(Signed) Suon Serey Ratha
Mission President

Nguon Nhel: Nobody can reject a meeting with King-Father

Friday, August 31, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

After the former monarch, King Norodom Sihanouk, issued a declaration to invite Khmer Rouge Tribunal official to come over to the Royal Palace to discuss, for 3-hour (at most), Nguon Nhel, a high-ranking CPP official and first vice-president of the National Assembly, said that nobody can reject a meeting with King-Father, and no one has the the right to summon him to provide clarification at the (KR) tribunal either. Nguon Nhel told The Cambodia Daily that: “This is the decision of the former monarch. This is inviolable.” Nguon Nhel added that King-Father would do well to clarify to the national and international community the depth of his suffering under the KR regime. Nguon Nhel said the clarification he would provide to the ECCC judges, would allow these judges to bolster the progress of this tribunal, and would clear all lingering doubts about him. Prince Thomico also said that nobody can force King-Father to provide clarifications. The prince said that after this clarification, King-Father no longer needs to testify at the ECCC anymore.

Nhiek Bun Chhay proposes the closing of NRP radio program

Friday, August 31, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Nhiek Bun chhay, Funcinpec secretary-general, proposed to Mam Sonando, the manager of Sambok Khmum (Beehive) radio station, to temporarily stop the “voice of the royalists” program after a NRP made a comment during this program, accusing him of being involved in the illegal drug production in Kompong Speu. In a letter sent on Tuesday, Nhiek Bun Chhay who is also the government vice-prime minister, said that the 1-hour program, in which Noranarith Anandayath is its commentator, criticized him and provided explanations that are contrary to the events by trying to link him (Nhiek Bun Chhay) to the (Kompong Speu) drug problem. In this letter, Nhiek Bun Chhay proposed to Mam Sonando to temporarily stop this program because it severely affects his name and his honor, and he is also preparing to bring a lawsuit in this case, in order to seek justice, soon. Noranarith Anandayath said that Funcinpec wants to silence the NRP voice, but he said that he will stop discussing about Nhiek Bun Chhay on the airwave.

Political Cartoon: Untouchable Turtle

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

Nhiek Bun Chhay plans to sue two local newspapers for defamation

30 August 2007
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia

Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

Nhiek Bun Chhay, vice-prime minister and Funcinpec secretary-general, claimed that the he is currently preparing lawsuits – to be sent to the Phnom Penh municipal court in the near future – against two newspapers for defaming him. He accused the two newspapers of publishing false information which affected his honor.

The two Khmer-language daily newspapers he plant to sue are: Samleng Yuvachon Khmer (Voice of Khmer Youth), and Khmer Amatak (Eternal Khmer).

Nhiek Bun Chhay told RFA on Wednesday that he is currently preparing the complaints so that his lawyer can hand them over to the Phnom Penh municipal court shortly.

Nhiek Bun Chhay said: “I have prepared these complaints, and maybe tomorrow or so, I will hand in the complaints because these NRP-supporting newspapers publish false information. Samleng Yuvachon and Khmer Amatak publish today information which affected me.”

He clarified that he has the full freedom to travel outside of the country as normal, and that there is no (travel) restriction (imposed on him) by the authority as a number of newspapers reported recently: “This information is false, I went to Thailand and I just came back. In a day or two, I will leave (to overseas) again.”

Regarding the plan to sue the 2 newspapers, Liev Sovanna, a defense lawyer involved in the lawsuit brought up by Prince Ranariddh, said that he did not receive the request from Nhiek Bun Chhay yet, but that he will handle these lawsuits as soon as Nhiek Bun Chhay will ask him to. He indicated that in his position as a lawyer, he has no political preference: “I did not yet receive Nhiek Bun Chhay’s request, maybe, he didn’t request yet.”

Reacting to Nhiek Bun Chhay’s lawsuits plan, Keo Sothea, the editor of the Samleng Yuvachon Khmer said: “If it involves an actual mistake, I will issue a correction or clarification.”

Bun Tha, editor of Khmer Amatak, reacted by saying: “We already know about the drug case, when (the story) is published, he must send a written clarification letter, not just for newspapers, but for the general public. In Cambodia, the drug issue is very stinky, it is a very bad issue.”

On 01 April 2007, a joint police force raided and confiscated about 6 tons of raw material used in drug production, in Treng Troyeung commune, Phnom Sruoch district, Kompong Speu province, and also in Phnom Penh, and the authority arrested 18 people during the raid: 14 Cambodian citizens and 4 foreigners.

In August, the authority arrested 2 important suspects: Oum Chhay who was the advisot of the National Assembly President Heng Samrin, but he committed suicide by jumping down a building on 21 August; and Chea Chung, the owner of the land and the farm where the raw drug material was stored. Chea Chung is known as the former advisor of Nhiek Bun Chhay.

For [US] Navy care providers, Cambodia mission is sobering, rewarding

Cambodian boys wait to be seen outside a makeshift medical clinic at the Ma’Ahad El-Muhajirin Islamic Center Aug. 17. (Photo by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke)

Petty Officer 3rd Class Roberto Alberto examines a Cambodian patient Aug. 17. (Photo by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke)

Story by: Sgt. Ethan E. Rocke
US Marine Corps News

KAMPONG SOM PROVINCE, Cambodia(Aug. 31, 2007) -- It’s 9 a.m. and the daily crowd of patients is lined up outside the makeshift medical clinic at the Ma’Ahad El-Muhajirin Islamic Center in southern Cambodia. They peer inside the building, watching a Navy medical team at work.

As medical officer, Lt. Jonathan Endres sees his fifth patient of the day, his face is bright and his spirits high. He knows exactly how to help 9-year-old Mutiah Zaynuttin. The rash on her scalp is textbook, and she has a mild cold. Endres writes her prescription, smiles and sends her next door to another dim, shabby room that serves as the team’s pharmacy.

Zaynuttin is one of the approximately 500 residents of the center, located in the midst of Kampong Som Province’s remote farmland. She is the 98th patient Endres and his team of corpsmen from the Okinawa-based Marine Wing Support Squadron 172 have seen since they began a medical civil assistance project here two and a half days earlier. She is one of the 96 whose ailments the “docs” have been able to effectively treat, and she is one of the patients that leaves Endres smiling.

But as Endres and his docs measure their worth with the care and comfort they can provide the sick, and the other patients – those few whose serious illnesses they can’t treat in this environment – weigh on their minds.

Their humanitarian mission is a familiar one that Okinawa service members carry out in countries all over the Pacific.

“It’s very challenging,” said Endres, who is deployed on his first medical civil assistance project. “You do what you can and want to help as many people as you can, and we are able to treat the majority. There are only a few that we got stuck on, and that’s frustrating.”

By the project’s third day, there were two patients Endres could not help. One, he suspects has hepatitis and another appears to be in the beginning stages of tuberculosis.

Many patients U.S. teams see on humanitarian assistance missions have never seen a doctor. And while they are the minority, cases that exceed a deployed team’s capabilities are a disheartening reality for American doctors accustomed to Western health care standards.

The team’s enlisted leader Chief Petty Officer Joe Palmares, a 20-year Navy veteran who planned and coordinated the Cambodia medical project, has been faced with that reality several times; the Cambodia mission marks the ninth medical civil assistance project he has been involved with while stationed on Okinawa.

“There are times that you really wish you could provide more,” he said. “Every time we do this, you can only do so much, so we do the best we can and hope.”

Their best means treating patients every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and also providing preventive medicine training that covers topics such as hygiene and preventing heat casualties.

Most patients have several diagnoses many of which are the result of poor living conditions. Infections and parasites are among the most common problems in the small Cambodian community.
The medical team hopes to lengthen its impact beyond the two weeks they are on the ground by showing the residents how to better protect against disease and infection, a responsibility that falls to preventive medicine technician Petty Officer 1st Class Kelly R. Wallen, who is also deployed on his first civil assistance mission.

“This can be an emotionally draining experience,” he said. “It’s backbreaking work at times, but I actually look forward to getting up in the morning, knowing it’s going to be hard, because I know I’m going to help people.”

Wallen and his colleagues share a driving sense of compassion and commitment that is a constant reminder to them that, while they cannot help everyone, there is something very special about helping those they can.

“We come out here and we care,” said Palmares. “That’s our mission, and we do it well. As Americans, we are very blessed. We’re such a strong country, and that’s why we provide this humanitarian relief, because we can and because we should. You can’t provide everything, but to touch somebody’s life, that’s special. They will cherish this; they will remember this.”

Former King Requests Meeting With UN Tribunal Officials

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
30 August 2007


Former king Norodom Sihanouk has issued a request to UN members of the Khmer Rouge tribunal to meet with him, as proceedings for trials of former leaders of the regime ramps up. The monarch aligned himself with the Khmer Rouge following his ouster by a US-supported coup in 1970.

A small advocacy group last week called for his constitutional immunity to be revoked as the tribunal proceeds.

Tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath said Thursday the UN tribunal office had received the former king's request, but declined to comment further.

The request was to meet with UN spokesman Peter Foster and others.

According to his Web site, the former king requested the officials meet him at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh on Sept. 8. If the UN tribunal officials do not meet him on Sept. 8 between 9 am and noon, the former king wrote, he would not see, talk to or correspond with them "any more."

US Official Pushes for Prosecution of Drug Suspects

Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Kampong Speu
30 August 2007


The suspects arrested in an April raid of a drugs lab in Kampong Speu province need to be prosecuted, but a case against them should be legal and proper, a US political officer said.

Jennifer Spande, who attended a ceremony where drug-making chemicals was destroyed Thursday, said the US was counting on Cambodia's emerging rule of law to fairly prosecute the men behind the methamphetamine production.

"Certainly we would hope that the trial would be speedy and that it would be impartial," she said, adding that the suspects should have competent defense.

The April raid led to the arrest of a handful of workers at the drug lab in Kampong Speu province, as well as at least two suspected ring leaders. One of those, Oum Chhay, apparently leapt to his death from a police building in Phnom Penh during interrogation. A second man, Chea Long, is still under arrest.

Approximately 2.8 kilograms of six different drug-making chemicals were burned in the ceremony Thursday.

Lt. Gen. Keng Savong, deputy director of the national anti-drug authority, said authorities would continue pursuit of the drug production "criminal group" and "send it to the court in the near future."

UN Office on Drug and Crime representative Lars Pedersen said he was encouraged by the commitment government authorities showed in the drugs clean-up.

Charting the Mekong's Changes

Photograph for TIME by Samuel Bollendorff / Oeil Public
Cambodian fisherman Bun Neang says the Mekong-fed Tonle Sap lake is yielding ever smaller catches—and blames China for it (Photograph for TIME by Samuel Bollendorff / Oeil Public)

Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007

By Hannah Beech
Time Magazine (USA)


The nets yield almost no fish today, the same as yesterday and the day before that. For generations, Bun Neang's family has depended on the bounty of Cambodia's Tonle Sap, a vast lake fed by one of the world's greatest rivers, the Mekong. Two decades ago, his father could rely on a daily catch totaling about 65 lbs. (30 kg). When the water gods were feeling particularly charitable, he would land a Mekong catfish, a massive bottom-feeder that can weigh as much as a tiger. But today, when Bun Neang dips his net into the caramel-hued waters near Chong Koh village, all the 30-year-old can hope for is a few kilos of sardine-sized fish. Overfishing is partly to blame. But Bun Neang knows of another reason Tonle Sap's big game have all but disappeared. "China," he says of the country that is now tiny Cambodia's biggest foreign investor and economic patron. "Instead of sharing the Mekong, they dam the river and keep it for themselves."

For millenniums, China hardly touched the mighty Mekong, content to let its raging headwaters flow unimpeded from the Tibetan plateau down through Laos, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. But over the past few years, the emergent superpower has begun turning the world's 12th-longest river into a highway for regional commerce and a source of hydroelectric power. For many Indochinese entrepreneurs, increased China trade and investment has allowed a backward region to participate in their upstream neighbor's remarkable economic expansion. Southeast Asian governments hope China will share the electricity it will harness after a series of massive dams on the upper Mekong are completed in the nation's western Yunnan province. Two have already been built. At least six more are planned.

But for tens of millions of residents downstream, China's efforts to manage the Mekong also threaten their way of life. An astounding 17% of all fish caught in inland waters worldwide come from this generous river, while 90% of the basin's residents are subsistence farmers who largely depend on the Mekong's nutrient-rich waters to feed their fields. Yet Chinese dams, along with engineering projects to make the river navigable by larger vessels, have begun to ravage the river's ecology by blocking sediment and producing unnatural water flows that dissuade fish migration and spawning. The nonprofit Southeast Asian Rivers Network estimates that fish stocks on the Thai-Laos border have already declined by half because of Chinese activity. Farmers, too, complain that the once-predictable floods needed to nourish their paddies have been disrupted by the two existing Chinese dams — and the cavalcade of future hydropower projects will only make things worse. "You can't talk about the Mekong today without talking about China," says Carl Middleton, a Bangkok-based consultant for environmental watchdog International Rivers Network. "So much that's happening on the river, whether it's economic, social or environmental, can be linked to China's rise."

Snaking its way from the icy reaches of Tibet to tropical rice paddies near the South China Sea, the Mekong serves as the lifeblood for 70 million people in six different countries. The river's wetlands alone cover an area the size of Ireland, while its fish diversity is rivaled only by the Amazon. But even as many of the world's other majestic rivers — the Nile, the Yangtze, the Mississippi — were efficiently exploited for trade or hydropower, the 3,000-mile (4,800-km) Mekong has until recently largely escaped the imprint of the modern world. During the colonial era, treacherous rapids stymied expeditions hoping to uncover its upstream secrets, leaving the waterway for local fishermen and farmers. By the mid-1900s, when the West was forced to withdraw from Indochina, the Mekong had become a byword for the failure of modern military might against dogged resistance forces nourished by the river's gifts.

The Mekong is not so unyielding these days. In 2001, Chinese crews, brought in by Southeast Asian governments eager to increase traffic and trade, began blasting and dredging a stretch of the river running from Burma and Laos to Thailand, clearing away islands, reefs and rapids that once blocked the passage of ships. Since then, sleepy Southeast Asian river ports have morphed into boomtowns, with boats from China disgorging cheap electronics, fruits, vegetables and every kind of plastic gadget imaginable. River traffic runs both ways: in December 2006, the first shipment of refined oil chugged up the Mekong bound for energy-hungry China, opening up a potential alternative shipping route to avoid the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca through which roughly half of its imported oil now passes. And with China needing somewhere to park its ballooning foreign-exchange reserves, the riverfront capitals of Phnom Penh and Vientiane now gleam with Chinese-built roads, buildings and other infrastructure. The torrent of investment will likely grow even greater next year when Chinese construction workers finish building a 1,100-mile (1,800-km) Yunnan-Bangkok highway that parallels a section of the Mekong. "Chinese are natural businessmen," says Liu Jingchun, a Chinese boat captain who transports goods between Yunnan and northern Thailand. "For so many years, we shut ourselves off from doing business. Now that we're allowed to trade again, it's like a giant floodgate has opened."

Few places on the Mekong have changed so dramatically as has the northern Thai river port of Chiang Saen. Located near the Golden Triangle, the point on the Mekong where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, Chiang Saen was for centuries a drowsy temple town. But when Chinese engineers opened up the river by blasting nearby reefs, trade exploded. Laborers from all three Golden Triangle nations converged on the docks looking for work. A few years ago, only boats carrying less than 100 tons of goods could navigate this stretch of the Mekong — hardly worth the trip. Now, ships can handle triple that amount — and when other reefs are removed in the coming months, they will be able to transport even more. The knock-on effects of the China trade are big, too. A giant casino opened last year to cater to the Chinese tourists pouring from Mekong ferries into northern Thailand, and Sichuan restaurants crowd the Chiang Saen riverside. At local institutes, Mandarin classes have become as popular as English ones. "If you want to be successful in business here, you need to learn Mandarin," says Sittichai, a school director. So frenzied is the China trade that the Chiang Saen government is building a $63 million container port that's set to open in a few years' time, replacing the current port, which is itself only three years old. "Because of China, we have been able to breathe life back into Chiang Saen," says Ratchaphol Ornnim, the local chief customs inspector.

More than 250 miles (400 km) downriver, China Inc. is also reshaping Laos' riverside capital, Vientiane. The landlocked nation has been shunned by many international investors as one of the world's last remaining hard-line socialist regimes. But what others consider a pariah state, China sees as an ideological soul mate and business partner. The biggest thoroughfare in Vientiane, as well as the capital's main park and the National Cultural Hall, were all built with money given to the city by the Beijing government. More than 3,000 Chinese laborers are also busy constructing a national stadium, the centerpiece of Laos' debut as host of the 2009 Southeast Asian Games. "Laos is profiting from China's own development path," says Sun Lei, the president of the Lao-China Business Association and owner of the Mekong Hotel in downtown Vientiane. "Without China's help and advice, Laos would be much more backward."

Private Chinese cash is flowing in as well. More than 20,000 Chinese now work in Laos, up from a few hundred a decade ago. Some are farmers who were lured by land so cheap they can grow rubber, corn and fruit and sell their crops back home at a profit. Others have grander ambitions. Lin Bo graduated this spring with an accounting degree from the Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics in Eastern China, and he has come to make his fortune along the Mekong. "Many students at my university had never even heard of Laos," says the 24-year-old, who with his family has rented a space to sell mainland products at China Business and Goods City, an $18 million wholesale market and shopping complex that just opened in Vientiane. "But for traders, it doesn't matter where you go. Everywhere in the world, people need to buy and sell things."

Not all Southeast Asians are quite as sanguine about the flourishing trade. Memories of imperial domination still haunt Vietnam, which was colonized by China and repelled invading Chinese troops as recently as 1979. In Cambodia, many still remember the People's Republic's patronage of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which oversaw the deaths of an estimated one-quarter of the population. And even in countries with less complicated historical ties to China, suspicions of an economic overpowering endure. Farmers in northern Thailand complain that they cannot compete with the influx of cheap Chinese-grown garlic, apples and onions. Even Thai customs official Ratchaphol expresses reservations about the future container port he is helping oversee. "We don't get many of the benefits," he says. "Most of our own people are not very educated, so the Chinese just bring in their own employees."

Such concerns are mystifying for the dirt-streaked farmers who are loading their produce onto ships in Guanlei, the Yunnan port from which most Chinese goods set sail down the Mekong. "I've heard it's hard to grow crops in the countries downriver," says Wu Zhencha, who has arrived in Guanlei with boxes of broccoli destined for Thailand and who is unaware that the Mekong basin is, in fact, one of the most fertile regions on earth. Because of the trade with Indochina, Wu's village now boasts a paved road linking it to the highway. Modern pleasures like electricity and television have followed. "I live a day's journey from the river," says Wu, "but my life still depends on it."

Deep in the verdant mountains of Yunnan province, an army of 10,000 workers, some wearing prison-labor uniforms, are toiling on a construction site of enormous proportions. In 2010, this remote section of the Mekong will be transformed into a placid reservoir, drowning the jagged gorges that now cradle the river. Constructed by the Huaneng Group, China's biggest power producer, Xiaowan dam is the nation's second-largest power project after the Three Gorges. As the biggest of the eight dams China plans for its portion of the Mekong, Xiaowan will dwarf the two hydropower projects that have already been built in Yunnan. Given that half the Mekong basin's water comes directly from China during the dry season, scientists worry that Xiaowan will act as a spigot that controls the destiny of millions of people in five countries. Environmental groups estimate that 35% of the silt that's needed to fertilize floodplains down south may be obstructed by the dam — distressing news for a region that depends on the Mekong for 80% of its protein needs and, in the lower river basin, rice production.

Yet many Chinese can't quite fathom the Mekong's importance to other countries. "This is our part of the river, so we should be able to do what we want with it," says Hu Tao, a geological engineer who has worked at Xiaowan for two years. "The other countries can do what they want with their sections of the river." In some ways, Hu's indifference is understandable. Roughly half the Mekong lies in China, but for most of that length its waters are too swift to support barge traffic or wide-scale fishing. (The Chinese name for the river, Lancang, means "turbulent.") The only real benefit humans can coax out of this stretch of water is hydroelectric power — and until recently the river's remoteness discouraged even that. "In China, the Mekong is not the same river as it is down in the basin," notes Eric Baran, a research scientist based in Phnom Penh for the nonprofit World Fish Center. "Here in Cambodia, it is a matter of life and death. In China, it is just another river — and not even a very major one."

But with China's energy needs soaring even in underdeveloped provinces like Yunnan, the Mekong is potent enough to be exploited for electricity. Some of that power, ironically, will be exported to countries like Thailand, where hydroelectric projects are controversial and have been blocked by ecologically minded citizens. Huaneng doesn't have to worry about public interference. The state-owned company is run by the well-connected son of China's former Premier, Li Peng. And with no shareholders calling for environmental-impact surveys or feasibility studies, Huaneng rarely makes public details of its plans until just months before it breaks ground. (The company declined requests for an interview.)

Nor does the Chinese government feel the need to consult its southern neighbors. Beijing has refused to join the Mekong River Commission, which was formed 12 years ago by four other riparian nations. (Burma is also not a member.) "I think China doesn't want to join the commission because then there will be environmental expectations," says the International River Network's Middleton. "But when the biggest country at the source of the river isn't part of the commission, it makes the group basically toothless."

That sense of helplessness extends to many in Yunnan as well. The Xiaowan project has forced 35,000 people from their homes, often with minimal compensation. Wang Zhengjun was uprooted in 2004 from his farmland on the banks of the Mekong with only six months' notice. Although he was provided a new house by Huaneng, the 42-year-old says it's much smaller than his old one — and it doesn't come with the fertile soil that supported his family for generations. Villagers were told the dam would be a financial boon to local residents. But Wang and others contend that the best jobs have gone to migrant laborers. Locals, many of whom are members of China's disenfranchised ethnic minorities, tend to earn less than half of what even the lowest paid outside workers get. "They promised us jobs, money, everything," says Wang, sitting in the ramshackle village overlooking the dam-construction site that is now his home. "But they have delivered us nothing."

China's dam building isn't limited to its sovereign stretch of the river. In June, the Laotian government gave initial approval for a $1.7 billion dam on the Mekong that will be built by two Chinese power companies. Another Chinese firm is conducting a feasibility study for a Mekong power project in Cambodia, in an area where other foreign companies have been reluctant to invest because of the adverse ecological impact. Several other Mekong tributary dams in Southeast Asia will be financed by China Exim Bank, the nation's largest credit agency, which has invested in power projects with the enthusiasm of the Great Depression-era U.S. government.

These dams may boost economic growth in developing countries facing severe energy crunches. Vietnam, for example, suffers from chronic electricity shortages, and compared with coal-fired and oil-burning plants, hydropower is a relatively clean and inexpensive solution. But dams also have severe, long-term environmental consequences. Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where the river finally meets the sea, is a vast web of waterways that serves as a giant rice bowl, providing the nation with half of its total agricultural output. Yet in part because of the increasing number of dams reducing the flow of the river, salt water from the South China Sea has begun traveling up the Mekong. The influx of brackish water over the past few years has ravaged farms and fisheries. This spring in the delta's Mo Cay district, Nguyen Thi Hong and her husband watched helplessly as salt water infiltrated their fish farms and fields. During the worst 10-day stretch, 100 catfish died a day, while their entire aquatic-vegetable crop withered. "Our pigs and cows are still sick from drinking the salty water," says Hong, who lives about 30 miles (50 km) inland. "Nothing was spared."

Even as one way of life begins to fade, another springs into existence. For so long, the Mekong Delta, despite its riverine abundance, has been scarred by a grueling cycle of war and poverty. Today, the area is welcoming Chinese investors, who have flocked to newly constructed industrial zones where Vietnamese factory workers churn out motorcycles, shoes and televisions. This year, a $1 billion industrial park funded by some 40 Chinese businesses is set to open near the South China Sea, providing jobs for tens of thousands of Vietnamese. Like the rest of the country, the delta has a booming young population that is profiting from Vietnam's economic reforms. For this striving generation, their homeland's historic enmity with China is all ancient stuff. Do Quang Tranh speaks of how magnificent imported Chinese products are, describing in wonderment the "beauty of Chinese-made bricks." If he had his wish, this farmer would trade his fields for a job in a Chinese-invested factory — even though his village's elderly commune chief warns against "that frightening country up north." The ebb and flow of the Mekong has both blessed and cursed the people of the Delta. For Tranh and other Vietnamese, they can only hope to profit from what the river now brings to Vietnam's shores: the energy of China's economic expansion, and the lure of a better life.

The gift of love that crosses the oceans

Making a little contribution: Ginette Patey in her Wallington home
Hard at work: Among the subjects Makura is studying is English

Thursday 30th August 2007
This is Local London (UK)

In the land of Angkor Wat, a Wallington PA found spiritual enlightenment of a different kind. KEVIN BARNES talks to Ginette Patey about how she came to make her little contribution' to help Cambodia's abandoned kids

Ginette Patey passed the sandstone spires of the ruined Angkor Wat temples and encountered a vision from another world.

The PA from Wallington is hardly alone. Nearly a million tourists enter the suffocating Cambodian jungle each year in search of enlightenment.

Her moment of inspiration diverged from the norm, though, in that it came several miles beyond the cicadas and carved stone giants that guard the city of gods.

It was only when Ginette travelled south, leaving behind the idyllic ancient capital of the Khmer civilisation, that she knew her life would never be the same.

In the tumbledown rooms of Kampong Cham orphanage, the 65-year-old found more than iconography and spectacular architecture: she found the grandson she always longed for.

They called him Rat Makura (State February [KI-Media Note: it should be Rath Makara, State January]) after the month he was found, abandoned and half-clothed at two months old.

He was tiny, ragged and shoeless - dressed from head to toe in yellow. Ginette thought he looked like a "grubby little puppy in a basket".

When she enquired who cared for Makura and his 70 fellow orphans, nurses told her they relied on sponsors. At this moment something inside Ginette clicked.

Her own mother had died in her teens and although she had a son, James, 39, there were no signs of grandchildren.

She says: "I knew right then I had to do something. If I walked away from this opportunity, I'd regret it for the rest of my life.

"For me, Makura embodied every little sad face you see in those adverts.

"I thought, well, I can't afford all the orphans, but I can afford one of them. It would be my little contribution, my way of giving him the chance to have better life."

For the rest of her air-conditioned, two-week cruise along the Mekong River she found it impossible to erase the image of Makura, his eyes brown and pleading, from her mind.

Other tourists laughed at her. They told her to forget the orphanage, said there was no way her money would reach its target. But Ginette simply couldn't forget.

The instant she returned home to Herald Gardens she began to send £16 each month for Makura's upkeep, and £63 to cover his education for a year.

The money ensures the orphan attends a private school in the morning, where he is taught English, and a Cambodian school in the afternoon.

Ginette also puts gifts in the post - most recently, a football, a toy car, a satchel and shorts.

And, like all good grandmothers, she dutifully sends a card on his birthday and presents at Christmas.

Barely a couple of months pass without her calling to speak to staff or to hear how Makura's English is developing.

"He knows who you are," the director of the orphanage told her excitedly one day.

"He tells everyone his mother has blonde hair and blue eyes and lives far away."

Moved by this knowledge, Ginette had little need to trawl through holiday brochures to select a holiday destination earlier this year.

In February, 18 months after their first meeting, she retraced her steps to Kampong Cham orphanage to see Makura, now aged six.

When she stumbled on him, peering shyly around a corner, she nearly wept.

Ginette always believed that giving the boy direct aid was a more efficient way of helping the destitute than donating money to impersonal fundraising campaigns.

Her philosophy is: you can't save the world but if you can save one life it's better than none.

As she strolled through the orphanage grounds with Makura, and he slipped his small hand into hers, Ginette knew her support had made a difference, knew she had been accepted.

Still, she wanted to do more. Having received confirmation from the British Embassy that her sponsorship was above board, she set up a charitable account with Barclays. In an unexpected show of generosity, the bank then agreed to match her donations pound for pound.

So far about 12 sponsors have pledged funds to the Cambodian Orphans' Appeal. Ginette instructs them to ask for photos, so they can see the orphans with any gifts they send.

She plans to visit regularly but has all but forgotten the temples that brought her to the country.

Tourist guides may fete the labyrinthine architecture in Cambodia but it has taken this "grandmother" from Wallington to build a future for the country's 3,000 orphans.

To donate money to Aspeca, the organisation that runs 14 orphanages in Cambodia, or sponsor a child, email ginette.patey@googlemail.com

Sihanouk's resignation from his post - A Minute of the KR Standing Committee

Standing Committee Minutes, March 11, 1976

Documentation Center of Cambodia Catalogue Number: D7562
[Unofficial translation by Bunsou Sour; edited by Prof. David Chandler]


MINUTE OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE
THE FRONT

11 March 1976
PARTICIPANTS: COMRADE SECRETARY GENERAL [Pol Pot]
COMRADE DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL [Noun Chea]
COMRADE VORN [Vorn Vet]
COMRADE KHIEU [Son Sen]
COMRADE HEM [Khieu Samphan]
COMRADE DOEUN
COMRADE TUM
COMRADE TOUCH

AGENDA: SIHANOUK'S RESIGNATION FROM HIS POST

I. Report on the Resignation of Sihanouk

Comrade HEM reported to the Standing Committee on the resignation of Sihanouk. Sihanouk has sent two letters written in French:

- The first letter conveys his resignation and explains the important reason for which he is resigning. In particular, he emphasizes his various health problems, which do not allow him to continue his work.

- The second letter is a statement addressed to the people of Democratic Kampuchea informing them that he wishes to resign from his post before the 20th March 1976.

During his meeting respectively with the Ambassadors of Mauritania and Senegal, Sihanouk has also indicated that he categorically resigns. But during his meeting with the Chinese Economic Delegation he grumbled about his illnesses...

II. Angkar's Opinion

1. Reason for his Resignation.

There are two: in the long term and in the short term.

A. In the Long Term: it is the difference of "classes", the difference between the grass roots of the Revolution and his own person and family. He cannot live with us. If in the past he was able to remain with us, it was simply because of his strategy. As we no longer go along with his strategy, he can onlyremain provisionally with us. It is not the first time that Sihanouk has resigned. He did that in 1971 already.

B. In the Short Term: It is a strategic difference together with the grass roots difference. An example was the case when we dispatched our Ambassadors abroad without consulting him. The incident has no importance but he would have thought that we no longer have any need for him. Thus the wrangle over position continues.

But the situation has evolved more thoroughly than before. Outside the country, Sihanouk can work with us. While inside the country he feels completely lost without any future. He is very frustrated. He lacks work, he is bored and the environment that surrounds him, in particular his wife who cries constantly, pushes him to the point that he cannot endure any longer. In the case that he decides to remain with us, that cannot last either, at the most l or 2 years. As he wishes to leave, his leaving now is the best.

2. POSITIVE and Negative aspects of his Resignation

A. Positive Aspects for our Revolution :

- All the people of Kampuchea will feel a huge surge of relief. The same applies to all our cadres and military. As far as the world is concerned, there won't be any problem.

- We can resolve the problem of the nomination in our State Organisation easily. And under these conditions we can work peacefully without any obstacles.

- Our work in External Affairs will thus be improved because henceforth we will make the decisions ourselves, we will express our position by ourselves. Without Sihanouk we are clean-cut.

B. Negative Aspects for our Revolution

- On the one hand, Vietnam attacks us and treats us as being too far to the left. Sihanouk has helped us, so why should we drop him? Vietnam will point out to others, saying something bad about us, but good about themselves. But it is a provisional problem only. If in the final analysis we remain very close to them, we shall certainly have no problem.

- On the other hand, the enemy is about to attack us, but we should let them be for say half a month. But even if Sihanouk had not resigned the enemy will always attacks us, their spies still exist. If the enemy does not cease attacking us, are we going to suffer? No, because they cannot isolate us.

3. MEASURES to be Taken: two directives

A. First directive: We don't reject him. We ask him to remain in the same position. If he wishes to remain with us, he could remain for 5 months, l or 3 years, as long he would like. If he cannot resist, it is not because of us, it is not our fault. In fact he won't be able to remain with us. He and his family can see very well that they won't have well-being We don't give him any choice, if he does not wish to remain, too bad for him.

Thus we must go and see him and ask him to excuse us for being unable to pay him visits as often as we would like, because we were very busy. We SHOULD acknowledge reception of his letter. That is why we come together to see him. The Situation of our country is very difficult, very poor, the country must face tremendous difficulties. We must resolve all the problems with national dignity. It is in this way that we can be truly independent. Our position, including that of the government, is of always recognizing his noble contribution, HIS deeds and efforts for the country, in particular in the international arena.

The [Khmer] Nation owes him its gratitude for his highly patriotic contribution, something which our Assembly has already noted in its resolutions. We respect a lot [our] collective decisions once they have been adopted. But we request that he remains with the people. The people will preserve his nationalist undertakings and we also will congratulate him and will do our utmost to implement the resolution of our extraordinary session of the National Assembly.

B. Second Directive: in the event that he insists on resigning. We thank him. In the recent past we fought together, shoulder to shoulder. We very much regret his resignation. We shall convoke a meeting of the Council of Ministers to take a decision. If he resigns we won't allow him to leave the country. His departure will render the situation complicated to China. The enemy does not cease to condemn and criticize us. If we refuse to allow him to leave, the enemy can criticize us at least for one month.

Certain reasonable attitudes of Sihanouk show a patriotic spirit, but his wife has no patriotic spirit at all. Consequently, if we are not clear in solving this problem, it is possible that unresolved questions will complicate our tasks later on. Thus we should go for the first solution and if that does not work, adopt the second one.

III. ANGKAR'S OPINION (meeting of 13 March 1976)

Comrade HEM made several reports to the Standing Committee on the Sihanouk problem. He has made a categorical decision to resign. He asks Angkar that it TAKE PITY ON him. HE lowers and humbles himself only requesting Angkar that it accepts his resignation. This resignation is not against us...

Comrade Secretary General pointed out that it is an important question to be decided by the Central Committee of the Party. But Comrade Secretary General has already prepared a number of ideas, which WERE supported by the Standing Committee:

1. To forbid Sihanouk from leaving the country is the first measure to be taken.

2. It is necessary to call a meeting of the Council of Ministers to submit to it reports on the matter, in order for the latter to make a decision and, then, to meet Sihanouk once again, with the presence of Penn NOUTH

It is necessary that arrangements be made to record the conversation with Sihanouk. It is necessary to speak to him in such a way for him to keep UP his hopes and allow the recording of his conversation. It is for our documentation.

3. To dispatch telegrams to the sons of Sihanouk asking them to return as soon as possible, pointing out that they must come for the New Year and the National Day celebration. We must solve this problem once and for all. We must also solve it for the interests of our revolution.

4. Is Our Decision TRUE TO Revolutionary Morality?

a. As the morality of the Revolution or the interests of the Revolution. The morality of the revolution must be based on the interests of the revolution. It is a gain for the revolution. To allow Sihanouk to leave is a loss for the Revolution. In reality, Sihanouk is a meek tiger, which only has its skin and bones left, without claws and the fangs. HIS beard has also been shaven. Thus all that remains is to wait for the day of his death. But if this old tiger is freed in the street, all the children would certainly be afraid of it. Certain old men that did not know this meek tiger would also be afraid.

b. Sihanouk participated with us in our Revolution despite his differences with us. That is the reason why our Party decided that Sihanouk should become President of Democratic Kampuchea. But Sihanouk refuses. Thus it is up to him, he can remain or not, it is his problem.

We consider him as a Senior Personality. We shall not kill him. But vis-a-vis the people and the Nation, Sihanouk must also be punished for his fault of having massacred the people.

Thus our decision is reasonably taken in every respect. We shall not change it. But if he continues to resist us, we shall take measures to liquidate him.

5. Direction of the Evolution of our Revolution:

Consequently, it is necessary to put an end to feudalism. We have reached this stage. The whole feudal regime has been destroyed and definitively dismantled by the Revolution. The Monarchy existing for over 2000 years has finally been dismantled. We do not have any other alternatives. Reactions will certainly take place, but we must follow the path of the Revolution in order to win.

6. Another Measure to be Taken:

Henceforth, Sihanouk shall not be allowed to meet foreign diplomats. We shall give them valid reasons to explain the situation.

The chicken and the egg dilemma: "I did not join the KR in 1970, it was the other way around" - Sihanouk

For our readers information, KI-Media is presenting below an article written by King-Father

UNOFFICIAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION by M. Preuk
(Posted on CambodiaNews Yahoo Groups)

original text in French:
http://www.norodomsihanouk.info/mes%202005/juin/textes/0906txt5.htm


INTERNET. My Website – Norodom Sihanouk & BMD

NORODOM SIHANOUK

Beijing, June 8, 2005

On June 6, 2005, a number of English and French language newspapers had, "for the hundredth time," written that in March 1970, after being deposed by the Putsch perpetrators, Lon Nol-Sirik Matak, I (Sihanouk) had joined (sic!!) the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge, and that shortly thereafter, these Pol Pot Khmer Rouge had put me and my family under house arrest.

"For the hundredth time," I am obliged, in this regards, to re-establish the following historical Truth:

1- After the March 18, 1970 Putsch, I did not join the Khmer Rouge at all.

The absolute Truth is the following (the People’s Republic of China bears witness to this):

Between March 18, 1970 and March 22, 1970, I did not make any decision. H.E. Chou En Lai, the PRC Prime Minister, asked me to think hard before making any decision.

On March 23, 1970, I launched to the world, in particular at the Peking State Radio (PRC), a solemn Appeal to my patriotic Compatriots from all [political] spectrum to invite them to willingly join me under the framework of the FUNK-GRUNC ([French acronym for] National United Front of Kampuchea – Royal Government for the National Union of Cambodia) that I just created.

o O o

In my message dated March 23, 1970, I told my Compatriots that we have to struggle together until [obtaining] the final victory in order to totally liberate Cambodia, our beloved Homeland.

It was thus that Messrs. Khien Samphan, Hou Yuon, and Hu Nim, in the name of the Khmer Rouge, had addressed me a letter of congratulations and of their membership to the FUNK-GRUNC.

2- The Khmer Rouge, under the explicit recommendation by President MAO TSE TUNG and Prime Minister Chou En Lai of the PRC, committed themselves to keep me as Khmer Head of State for life.

After noting that, following our victory of April 17, 1970 [1975?], the Khmer Rouge had deprived the Khmer People from all freedoms, I wrote, one after another, three letters to the Khmer Rouge leadership, asking him to allow me to take my retirement by giving as motive my age and bad health.

The Khmer Rouge Angkar (Leadership) did not at all want me to resign from my position as Head of State of the Democratic Kampuchea. To the contrary, this Angkar sent twice to the Khemarin Palace, a high level Delegation to ask me with insistence to remain Head of State of the Democratic Kampuchea. (Lok Chumtiev Ieng Sary and H.E. Khieu Samphan can testify to that). I refused.

It was because of the refusal from Norodom Sihanouk to vouch for their Regime, that the Angkar (Leadership) punished me by sending to their death 5 of my Children, 14 of my grandchildren, several other members of the Royal Family and those belonging to my Wife’s family, several Sinanoukists former members of the FUNK-GRUNC (including my very faithful aide-de-camp, Captain Ong Meang).

If my Wife and my two children (Norodom Sihamoni and Norodom Narindrapong) were spared, it was thanks to President Mao Tse Tung.

o O o

My observation: the News likes to trample on historical Truth when it is something concerning Norodom Sihanouk.

Signed: Norodom Sihanouk

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Khmer Rouge tribunal still faces funds shortfall

Thu, August 30, 2007
By Kek Naratevy
The Nation (Thailand)

UN set to ask member states for more cash for 'cheap' genocide court Published on August 31, 2007

Cambodia's UN-backed genocide tribunal to try senior members of the former Khmer Rouge still faces funding worries, according to the Open Society Justice Initiative, an NGO monitoring the tribunal.

The NGO has urged donors such as France and Japan to review the process of the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) and its US$56.3-million (Bt18.4-billion) budget.

Concern has been growing among NGOs and the media recently about whether the budget is sufficient for three years of trials.

"It is not true that NGOs have called on donors to look over the ECCC expenses, but the United Nations Development Programme is auditing the ECCC - and will continue to do this auditing," said Reach Sambath, a spokesman for the tribunal. He wasn't concerned about the lack of money for this year - but, rather, over the next two years.

The tribunal budget of US$56.3 million is modest in comparison to the International Criminal Tribunals for former Yugoslavia (US$1.2 billion), Rwanda (US$1.1 billion), and Special Court for Sierra Leone now trying former Liberian president Charles Taylor in The Hague (US$76 million).

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), said people were concerned about the lack of budget because they want to see a successful trial.

"The main goal is to push for joint tribunal from the international community to resolve the human rights violations in the past and for memory retention, which is of paramount important to justice," he said.

The Open Society Justice Initiative concluded there was no money in the budget for a plenary session before the trial commences, travel for UN staff to engage in outreach programmes, international witness protection, officers to develop trial completion strategies, travel money for prosecutors, scanners, and visual or audio recording equipment.

The tribunal budget is managed - and was negotiated - by a Cambodian government taskforce in 2004 with assistance from the United Nations.

The UN has received US$3 million from 18 countries including the European Union, plus a recent donation from Microsoft. The money is being used to pay for the international judges. It isn't enough, according to Reach. They need anotherUS$3.2 million.

Reach Sambath said the money from the Cambodian government amounted to US$13.3 million and it needed another US$4.9 million. The government is contributing US$1.5 million directly to the court for salaries and US$5.2 million for indirect costs such as premises, security, detention, medical care, outreach, utilities, and bus services.

Cambodia has also received about US$2 million from India and European Union as well US$30,000 from Thailand. The court decided to use this small amount to build a garden, said Reach.

The tribunal was established in February 2006 to try leaders or those most responsible for the death of about two million people during 1975-79, when the ultra-radical Khmer Rouge had power. Most victims died of hard work, malnutrition, starvation or complete lack of medical services, but thousands were also murdered.

So far, the judges have officially charged just one of five initial suspects. "Duch", whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, ran the infamous Toul Sleng (S-21) prison in Phnom Penh, where thousands were tortured and killed. Only a handful sent to Toul Sleng survived.

The other four suspects have not been named publicly yet and still live freely in Cambodia.

On October 10, moves will be made to raise further funds from all 192 UN member states.

Sihanouk invites UN representatives to a talk that will be filmed

30-08-2007
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr

King-Father Norodom Sihanouk launches an invitation to UN representatives at the ECCC for a talk over the subject “the Khmer Rouge and Norodom Sihanouk Affair.”

In his communiqué dated 30 Agust, King-Father Norodom Sihanouk invited the spokesman of the UN ECCC, as well as other volunteers to come to the Royal Palace on 08 September.

The conversation will broach on “the Khmer Rouge and Norodom Sihanouk Affair.” “This 3 hours (at most) ‘Conversation’ will be filmed on DVDs with sounds, from the beginning to the end, by a Team of TVK,” the communiqué detailed. The former monarch added that he intents to have this conference shown to the public in public parks of the capital. King-Father reacted in this fashion after he read The Cambodia Daily’s article published on 29 August, titled “PM Details KR victimization of King Father.” In this article, Peter Foster, UN spokesman for the ECCC, stated: “it was up to the tribunal judges and prosecutors to decide whom to call as a witness and whom to indict. The retired King, he said, could be called as a witness, ‘but whether he’s bound to show up is another question entirely.’”

Contacted by phone on Thursday 30 August, Peter Foster confirmed about hearing talk on this invitation, but that he did not have the communiqué in his hands yet. Therefore, he did not wish to comment about it. Also, according to Norodom Sihanouk, the Queen will assist in the conversation and will intervene as needed. “Following ‘this’, for me, there will no be ‘need’ whatsoever to see or to present myself in front of the ECCC’s UN,” King-Father wrote. He added that if this meeting date is not accepted, he wishes to never see, nor talk, nor correspond with the UN representatives anymore.

King-Father to "ECCC's UN": Come to the royal palace for a "conversation" on 08 Sept 2007, or forever leave me in peace


Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr

Communiqué from NORODOM SIHANOUK of CAMBODIA

In the important newspaper “THE CAMBODIA DAILY”, Wednesday, August 29, 2007, I read, among others, the article titled “PM Details KR Victimization of King Father”, by Yun Samean and Erika Kinetz, The Cambodia Daily.

In the article cited above, there was, among others, these lines: “Peter Foster, the ECCC’s UN spokesman, said it was up to the tribunal judges and prosecutors to decide whom to call as a witness and whom to indict. The retired King, he said, could be called as a witness, “but whether he’s bound to show up is another question entirely.”

O o O

I have the honor of bringing to the very high knowledge of H.E. Samdech HUN SEN, very respected and beloved Chief of the Royal Government of Cambodia (I am expressing to H.E. Samdech HUN SEN my most affectionate, moved, and admiring gratitude for His noble and so equitable position taken in my favor), and to the respected and beloved Khmer nation, Khmer people, the following:

I invite Mr Peter Forster and other (volunteer) Members of the ECCC’s UN who are in Phnom Penh to come and see me, on Saturday, September 8, 2007, at the Royal Palace, Pochhani Room. Our “conversation” on the “Khmer Rouge and Norodom Sihanouk Affair” (including Talks, Questions and Answers) will last 3 hours (from 9:00 AM to Noon) – at most –.

My Wife (H.M. Queen-Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk) will assist in this “conversation” and will participate in it, each time there will be a necessity or usefulness to talk.

This 3 hours (at most) “Conversation” will be filmed on DVDs with sounds, from the beginning to the end, by a Team of TVK (State TV of the Kingdom of Cambodia).

These DVDs will, next, be projected and shown to the general public, during a few successive days in some public parks in Phnom Penh, and, next, they will be shown to the public in all our provinces [one evening in a public park in each of our Provinces, one after another (by alphabetical order of the names of the Cambodian Provinces)].

O o O

In our “Conversation”, I will talk, depending on the cases, necessities, usefulness, in Khmer, English, and French.

O o O

Following “this”, for me, there will no be “need” whatsoever to see or to present myself in front of the ECCC’s UN.

Done, at the Royal Palace
Phnom Penh, August 30, 2007.

POST SCRIPTUM.The date of the “conversation” is fixed: Saturday, September 8, 2007. The ECCC’s UN accepts or does not accept this date. If the ECCC’s UN does not accept this date and these hours (from 9 AM to Noon), I do not accept and will not accept to see, nor talk to, nor correspond with the ECCC’s UN anymore.

Garment workers: "I am precious" ... but I'm being paid a very low wage

Cambodia launches a competition to promote value of garment workers

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- A nationwide competition titled "I am precious" was launched in Phnom Penh Thursday in order to honor Cambodian garment workers, value the work they do, and enable them for the first time to show their talents and expression through a dress design and song lyrics competition.

The competition is a joint campaign under a collaboration of Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs and some NGOs, including ILO Better Factories Cambodia and Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia (GMAC).

All workers from garment factories are eligible to submit their dress design and song lyrics until Oct. 15, a press release said.

The final event of the competition will be held in December this year, it said, adding that during the closing event, best dress designs and song lyrics will be presented in a show and the champions will be selected by representatives of the Cambodia's garment industry stakeholders.

This national competition is aimed to highlight the importance and contributions of the garment work and workers to Cambodia, and provide the workers an opportunity to release their self-worth and potential skills through a friendly competition, it said.

There are over 330,000 workers employed by the Cambodian garment industry, the press release said, adding that most of them are young women with limited education from rural areas.