Question Hun Xen and gov't officials on KRT interference: Nuon Chea's lawyer

Khmer Rouge lawyers demand probe

Tuesday, December 01, 2009
AFP

Lawyers for a former Khmer Rouge leader have demanded that investigators at Cambodia's war crimes court question premier Hun Sen and government officials over alleged interference.

The defence for former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea cited a September statement by Hun Sen - who himself defected from the communist regime in 1977 - that witnesses do not have to testify to the UN-backed tribunal.

If Hun Sen has indeed told witnesses that they do not have to cooperate, then he has committed a criminal offence and is seriously affecting the judicial investigation, defence lawyer Michiel Pestman told AFP on Monday.

A copy of the request obtained by AFP also cited a government spokesman's remark in October that six senior government and legislative officials summoned by the court should not testify.

(Hun Sen's) conduct is affecting the fair trial of our client because some of these were witnesses we asked for, Pestman said.

Ultimately it could undermine the whole legitimacy of the court, he added.

The process has often been hit by allegations that Hun Sen's administration has attempted to interfere in the tribunal to protect former regime members who are now in government.

The troubled tribunal, which has also been hit by accusations local staff were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs, was created in 2006 to try leading members of the regime on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As the court has sought to investigate other suspects, Hun Sen has made fiery speeches warning further prosecutions could plunge Cambodia back into civil war.

The court plans to try Nuon Chea, former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith sometime in 2011.

The court's first trial, of former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, completed its final arguments last week.

Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.

The diplomatic crisis between Phnom Penh and Bangkok threatens the Trans-Asian Railway

11/30/2009
AsiaNews.it

Realization of the railway threatened - along six kilometres - which crosses the border between the two countries. The line should unite in Kunming in southern China to Singapore, along a path of 5300 km. End of work planned for 2015, for a total cost of 15 billion dollars.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The diplomatic crisis between Phnom Penh and Bangkok is seriously jeopardizing the completion of the Trans-Asian Railway in the area which will connect Kunming in southern China, to Singapore, along a path of 5300 km. The project of 15 billion dollars could vanish over just six kilometers: those needed to join Sisophon, Cambodia, to Aranyaprathet, Thailand.

Cambodian government sources, on condition of anonymity, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) they understand the reasons why Thailand "does not to continue the project while there are ongoing hostilities." A manager of the Thai State Railways confirmed that "negotiations are ongoing," but the situation is deadlocked.

To undermine the project, the diplomatic crisis flared up between Phnom Penh and Bangkok after the decision of Prime Minister Hun Sen to take as Cambodian economic adviser former exiled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sentenced to two years at home for corruption. The two countries withdrew their respective ambassadors. Following this a Thai citizen was arrested in Cambodia on charges of espionage.

The track that crosses the border between the two countries is reserved for freight traffic. The line along Cambodia and Vietnam is the most important part of the project, the completion of which is forecast for 2015. It represents the crossroads between the different rail lines and will serve to improve the Cambodian railway, in a strategic point for the entire region.

Paul Power, one of the engineers on the project, confirms that "it is difficult to imagine the completion of the work" if there is no stretch "along the border" between the two countries. "All this has implications at regional level" he adds, because "there is no point in the link between Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, without connection with Thailand."

The Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) is a project aimed at creating an integrated rail network for Europe and Asia, sponsored by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific United Nations (UNESCAP). The work got under way in the 60s of last century, with the aim of establishing a rail link - a 14 thousand km track- which could unite Istanbul with Singapore, that follows on to China.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Trials and Tribulations

A memorial at the Choeung Ek mass-grave site in Cambodia is composed of victims' skulls. A flag is reflected in the glass panel (Sarah Caron / Polaris)

Monday, Nov. 30, 2009
By CHRISTOPHER SHAY / HONG KONG
Time Magazine

When the Khmer Rouge emptied the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh of human inhabitants in 1975, one of Pol Pot's soldiers murdered 4-year-old Theary Seng's father. Later, Theary Seng, her mother and siblings ended up in a prison in southeast Cambodia. One day, Theary Seng awoke to an empty cell — the prison population had been massacred overnight. In a rare act of mercy, the Khmer Rouge soldiers allowed the handful of children to survive. Theary Seng eventually escaped to a Thai refugee camp and then to the U.S. Her story is by no means unique in Cambodia. In just this one prison in Svay Rieng province, between 20,000 and 30,000 people were executed, and during the Pol Pot era, about 1.7 million Cambodians died — more than 20% of the country's population.

Still traumatized by those years and subsequent decades of political instability, many Cambodians had hoped that the U.N.-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, a hybrid Cambodian–international court, would help push the country toward reconciliation. In November 2007, Theary Seng, now a human-rights lawyer in Phnom Penh, applied to become the first civil party at the Khmer Rouge tribunal — whereby she and other Khmer Rouge victims are participating in the criminal proceedings with their own set of lawyers. On Friday, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) — the official name of the tribunal — finished hearing its first case. Prosecutors sought a 40-year jail sentence for Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, (pronounced Doik) who ran the notorious S-21 prison, a Phnom Penh high school transformed into an interrogation center where Duch is accused of overseeing the grisly deaths of approximately 15,000 people. Over the last six months of hearings, the court heard accounts of interrogators who ripped off toenails, suffocated prisoners with plastic bags, forced people to eat feces, electrocuted prisoners and drained blood to extract confessions. During the trial, Duch, 67, said that Cambodians should hold him to the "highest level of punishment." But he also begged for forgiveness, saying he was only "a cog in a running machine." Duch's defense team painted the former math instructor as a mid-level bureaucrat who didn't personally torture anyone and was only following orders, and on Friday, Duch pleaded for the tribunal to release him.

(See pictures chronicling the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge.)

Such has been the topsy-turvy nature of the tribunal. Indeed, just getting to the end of the first case was an ordeal. There have been allegations of a kickback scheme where Cambodian employees at the tribunal are forced to pay back a part of their salaries to the government officials who gave them their jobs. On two different occasions, only last-minute donations from Japan allowed the Cambodian side of the court to pay its staff. Then, in a fiasco dubbed Waterlilygate, one of the international lawyers said documents found in a moat filled with lilies had been stolen from his office. And last week the New York–based Open Society Justice Initiative, an international law monitor, accused the Cambodian government of meddling with the tribunal, claiming "political interference at the ECCC poses a serious challenge to both the credibility of the court and its ability to meet international fair trial standards."

Despite these issues, Theary Seng says the tribunal has ultimately helped the healing process by encouraging people to talk openly about the Khmer Rouge era. She says that though most Cambodians assume there is some degree of corruption at the tribunal, "we are not to the point where it should shut down." She says that the Khmer Rouge tribunal is more than a court of law — "it's also a court of public opinion."

(Read about malaria prevention in Cambodia.)

About 28,000 people attended Duch's trial at the ECCC on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, and millions more Cambodians followed the tribunal on television and the radio. With about 70% of the Cambodia's 14 million people born after the Khmer Rouge regime, the trial enabled an entire generation to learn about their country's terrible past. Youk Chhang, the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, says that the fact that the tribunal was held in Cambodia was key to sparking interest in the trial and knowledge about the period. In January, the University of California Berkeley's Human Rights Center released a report saying that 85% of Cambodians had little or no knowledge of the trial. Now, with the distribution of a new textbook on the Khmer Rouge coinciding with the trial, Youk Chhang says "the whole country is aware."

The tribunal has also helped Cambodians in unexpected ways. A counselor sits next to every survivor who testifies — at one point during the Duch trial, a judge even ordered a witness to see a psychiatrist, according to Sotheara Chhim, a Cambodian psychiatrist and director of the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO). An estimated 14% of the population suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, and Sotheara Chhim says the number of people who suffer from depression or anxiety is likely much higher than that. Though information about mental health is still limited in rural Cambodia, "the trial brought out a lot," Sotheara says.

Now comes the waiting. A verdict for Duch isn't expected until March. For Theary Seng, the Duch case "is sort of a test trial" for the more important Case Two when four high-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders will be in the dock: Nuon Chea, 83, who was second in command to Pol Pot; former head of state Khieu Samphan, 78; former Foreign Affairs Minister Ieng Sary, 84; and Ieng Thirith, 77, the former Social Affairs Minister. They are expected to face the tribunal in 2011 in a case that could last years. Case Two, says Theary Seng, will make Duch's case look like "a cakewalk." Unlike Duch, the four defendants held high-level positions in the Khmer Rouge, have denied complicity in war crimes and refused to apologize. Time is also running out. With the youngest defendant aged 77, some or all of the defendants may not live long enough to face the tribunal.

If the past year is any indication, the tribunal will face many more hurdles, but Theary Seng says it has benefited Cambodia. The trial, she argues, has generated much needed discussions about history as well as mercy across the country. Says Theary Seng: "The Khmer Rouge tribunal has triggered a process of forgiveness." And perhaps a process leading finally to closure.

Khmer Rouge Death Camp Commander Awaits Sentence

30 Nov 2009
Luke Hunt
World Politics Review

However, Theary Seng -- an author, lawyer and human rights activist -- argued that Duch should be sentenced to two or three life sentences, even after taking into consideration his cooperation with the court. "There are too many counts on which he could be found guilty and each one carries a life sentence," she said.

PHNOM PENH -- The trial of a Khmer Rouge prison commandant who oversaw the deaths of at least 12,000 people has wrapped up. But in his final statement, Kang Guek Eav, also known as Duch, stunned the court by asking for an acquittal.

It was a complete about-face from a desperate man who had acknowledged he was guilty of crimes against humanity and breaches of the Geneva Conventions, although claiming he acted under orders and amid fear of retribution.

The three Cambodian and two international judges declined the request and ended the trial. Sentencing is expected early next year.

In summing up, Duch's lawyers attempted to downplay the role of S-21, an extermination camp converted out of a Phnom Penh school at Toul Sleng during the Khmer Rouge's rule, from April 1975 to January 1979.

Helen Jarvis, head of the court's victims unit, said many of the victims will be relieved that the court had wrapped up the trial, which began in February. "For the last seven months they have been here almost every single day, and have been following the ups and downs," she said. "They've been on the edge of their seats, crying, angry, upset, worried. Their emotions have been absolutely high-pitched for seven months."

About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge's rule -- from murder, starvation and illness caused by forced migration around the country -- as the ultra-Maoists attempted to establish their vision of an agrarian utopia.

At S-21, the court heard, prisoners were routinely beaten and whipped, had their toenails torn out, and faced electric shocks and water-boarding. Surgery was performed on prisoners without anesthesia, and blood was extracted from them until they lay dying. Westerners were burnt alive.

Prosecutors asked for 40 years in prison, instead of a life sentence, because Duch had admitted running the prison, apologized for his role and provided evidence against other senior leaders slated for trial.

However, Theary Seng -- an author, lawyer and human rights activist -- argued that Duch should be sentenced to two or three life sentences, even after taking into consideration his cooperation with the court. "There are too many counts on which he could be found guilty and each one carries a life sentence," she said.

Defense lawyer François Roux told the court that Duch was full of remorse, drawing comparisons with Albert Spear, Adolf Hitler's defense minister in World War II, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Roux said Duch had shed tears over the graves of the children who, after being processed at S-21, were subsequently transported to the Killing Fields on the outskirts of town, where, like their parents, they were bludgeoned to death.

The Khmer Rouge established 196 such camps around the country, all based on a prototype developed by Duch in 1971.

S-21 remained the principal camp among them, and Duch was central to the Khmer Rouge's policy of purging potential enemies of the state. "S" was derived from Santabel, the name of the Khmer Rouge secret police. "Twenty-one" was Duch's secret personnel number.

Prosecutors said Duch's crimes were comparable with those of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia. But Greg Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, said that footage shot by a Vietnamese cameraman who entered Toul Sleng along with invading Vietnamese troops in late 1978 indicated that the brutality under Pol Pot may have been much worse.

The film was ruled inadmissible by judges after it was challenged by the defense for its authenticity, and the footage remains unseen. But Stanton described the 10-minute, black-and-white, silent film as showing bodies chained to beds and burnt alive. "Bodies were shackled at the ankles and disemboweled. It's the most horrible thing on earth," he said. "You could tell the film was shot just after those people were burned alive."

But in comparing the evidence offered before the court with the information Duch surrendered a decade ago, photographer and author Nic Dunlop said the truth had been told -- if in varying degrees.

"He's been truthful up to a point, there is a measure of sincerity. There is consistency in what he says, but he's had 10 years to script it," Dunlop said. "The prosecution asserts he lacks sincerity and lacks empathy for the victims, perhaps, but 10 years ago he wasn't reading an apology from a piece of paper."

Dunlop is credited with tracking down Duch, who he found working at his old profession as a teacher in the countryside in 1999. As a consequence, Duch surrendered to the authorities. Dunlop later published a book about him, titled, "The Lost Executioner."

"It's like we are taking down a brick wall, brick by brick," Dunlop said, "a wall that separates his emotional life and reality. . . . He always seemed disconnected."

That lack of empathy and disconnection perhaps explains why Duch ignored seven months' worth of his own defense in asking for an acquittal.

International politics and three decades of war in Cambodia prevented a tribunal until now, with Duch the first Khmer Rouge leader to face trial. Trials of former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, his wife Ieng Thirith, former head of state Khieu Samphan and Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, are not expected to begin until late next year.

Other Khmer Rouge leaders -- including Brother No. 1 Pol Pot -- have died.

Luke Hunt is a Hong Kong-based correspondent and a World Politics Review contributing editor.

U.S says to continue help Cambodia to fight HIV/AIDS

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Monday that it will continue to help Cambodia in fighting against HIV/AIDS.

"The United States looks forward to continuing our support of successes like these and we are committed to furthering efforts that curb the spread of HIV in Cambodia," it said in a statement released here on Monday by its Embassy.

The U.S is considered as the largest bilateral HIV/AIDS donor in Cambodia, committing 18 million U.S. dollars in 2009 as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

The U.S helped Cambodia cut its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate by half among the general population and by two thirds among brothel-based sex workers, a remarkable success story in the global fight against the disease.

The U.S. assistance is also helping to provide life-saving antiretroviral medication to more than 31,000 Cambodians living with HIV/AIDS, reaching over 90 percent of those in need, the statement said.

Over the next five years, the United States will place a renewed emphasis on partnering with Cambodia to build the country's national HIV/AIDS response, it added.

Cambodia to consider bail request for Thai engineer on Friday

BANGKOK, Nov 30 (TNA) - A Cambodian court will hear Thailand's bail request bid on Friday for the Thai engineer in Phnom Penh on espionage charges and affirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had done its utmost to help him, according to MFA Department of Information director-general Vimon Kidchob.

Siwarak Chutipong, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), was arrested by Cambodian police November 12 on charges of passing to Thai diplomatic officials what the Cambodian authorities considered as privileged information regarding the flight of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he made his recent visit.

Ms Vimon said she believed that Simarak na Nakon Panom, Mr Siwarak's mother, understood the procedure and had made an appointment with the Thai officials to go to Cambodia again next Monday (December 7 to hear the court's verdict) on the next day but she may want to visit him sooner.

However, Ms Vimon said that the mother had not informed the ministry of her desire to visit her son earlier than planned.

Mrs Simarak on Monday met former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama at Thailand’s opposition Puea Thai Party headquarters, seeking his assistance to get bail for her son and permission from Cambodia to visit him again.

She claimed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had moved too slowly for her to help her son.

Mr Noppadon, a legal adviser to convicted ex-premier Thaksin, said he would help her on a humanitarian basis by using his old connections in Phnom Penh to help Mrs Simarak see her son again and he did not want his move to be seen as a political issue.

Mother seeks [Thai] opposition's help for detained Thai engineer

November 30, 2009
The Nation

Simarak Na Nakhon Phanom, the mother of detained Thai national Sivarak Chutipong Monday sought assistance from opposition Pheu Thai Party, blaming the Foreign Ministry for slow move to save her son from Cambodia prison.

She met former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama at the party headquarter to ask assistance to free Sivarak who was being detained for the charge of spying on former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's flight information.

"The Foreign Ministry is too slow. My son and I cannot wait. So I would do whatever to help him," Simarak told a press conference.

Noppadon said he helped the mother and son on humanitarian basis as used his connection in Phnom Penh to help Simarak to see her son again within a couple days from now.

Cambodia-Vietnam joint commission meeting to be held later this week

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Vietnam are set to hold a joint commission meeting later this week in Cambodia's southwestern province of Sihanouk.

In a statement released on Monday, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said the 11th Meeting of the Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Commission for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation will be held in Preah Sihanouk Province from Dec. 3-4, 2009.

It said that Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem will lead a delegation to attend the meeting.

During his stay in Cambodia, Pham Gia Khiem will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Hun Sen, and sign with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong on the agreed minutes of the meeting.

Hun Sen blasts Thai leaders

Mr Hun Sen (left) said that his country would 'have no happiness' while Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his foreign Minister Kasit Piromya were still in power. -- PHOTO: AP

Nov 30, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIAN Prime Minister Hun Sen criticised Thailand's leaders on Monday, saying they had insulted his country after Phnom Penh refused to extradite fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Hun Sen said that his country would 'have no happiness' while Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his foreign Minister Kasit Piromya were still in power.

'I'm not the enemy of the Thai people... But the prime minister and the foreign minister, these two people look down on Cambodia extremely,' Mr Hun Sen said in a speech at a provincial ceremony. 'Cambodia will have no happiness as long as this group is in power in Thailand,' he added.

The two countries have fought clashes near a temple on their disputed border since last year and were embroiled in a row this month when Thaksin visited Cambodia in his new role as an economic adviser to Phnom Penh.

Mr Hun Sen said he would not extradite Thaksin, who was toppled in a coup in 2006 and is living abroad to avoid a jail term for corruption, because his conviction was politically motivated.

The two countries withdrew their respective ambassadors and Thailand halted a series of aid programmes to Cambodia. The Cambodian leader slammed a further Thai threat to close the border between the two countries, saying: 'If you are (an) idiot, if you want the loss, please do it.'

Abhisit is the most difficult Thai PM : Hun Sen

Mon, November 30, 2009
By Rasmei Kampuchea
Asia News Network

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday described Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva as the most difficult Thai premier he has worked with. The mutual ties which has been sour for months would be normalised only if Thailand has a new government, Hun Sen told reporters in Phnom Penh.

He claimed that Abhisit phoned him during the weekend after Phnom Penh government sent a note to inform Bangkok last week that it decided to cancel its request to receive a loan of US$41 million for a road construction from a Thai border province.

"Abhisit called me, for the first time, on the weekend, asking me to withdraw the note. He said Thailand is still willing to give the loans to Cambodia," Hun Sen said.

Abhisit was informed that Cambodia needed an official letter from him. The Thai premier agreed but later failed to sign and send the letter by 10am as promised on Saturday.

"Abhisit as the most difficult person to work with among the Thai PMs I have worked with," Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen further criticised Abhisit government for looking down on Cambodia by threatening to withdraw its aids for Cambodia following fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra's visit to Phnom Penh in early November.

Hun Sen told reporters that from now on Cambodia would not accept any aid from Thailand.

"We decided to stop receiving any aid and assistance from Thailand. Cambodia can not allow itself to be humiliated," said Prime Minister Hun Sen.

He referred what he called threats by Thailand to withdraw its aids to Cambodia in a diplomatic spat between the two neighboring countries.

Svay Rieng villagers suspicious of activities by border survey officials

30 Nov 2009
By Uon Chhin
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On 26 November, a group of several dozens of officials from the Council of Ministers and border defense guards came to review the area and they also took video of the location where opposition leader Sam Rainsy uprooted border post stakes out a rice field belonging to a Cambodian farmer on 25 October.

Furthermore, on 26 November, RFA reporter and an activist for the Adhoc human rights group were not allowed to approach or take pictures of these officials.

Villagers who are currently concerned about losing their rice fields from border demarcation with Vietnam in Samrong commune, Chantrea district, Svay Rieng province, said on 29 November that two officials from the joint border committee came to survey the border under high secrecy on 28 November 2009. Such activities generate suspicion among the villagers.

On Saturday, 38-year-old Meas Srey, who lives in Koh Kban Kandal village and whose rice fields were planted with stakes for border post no. 185, are suspicious of the activities conducted by the two officials.

Meas Srey said: “[I told them:] If you do your work properly, you don’t have to survey in secrecy like this. You tell the people and let them know because whatever you do, you want to do it in secret and you are hiding everything. When you reach an important point, you are sending signals to each other.”

Meas Srey said that she had word altercations with the survey officials: “They climbed back on their motorcycles, they pointed at my face with their fingers and said: ‘For you, Aunty, they will not resolve the issue for you. If people lose their lands right now, they will resolve it for them, but for your village only, they will not resolve it for you because you, Aunty, are fighting too hard. You complained too much about them.' That’s what they told me! I complained a lot, every day. They follow me all the time, whichever road I take, they know everything … I am not scared about complaining…”

38-year-old Chhin Soveth, a farmer from Koh Kban Kandal village also, said that he did not understand the activities and the goals of these officials.

Chhin Soveth said: “They planted [the posts], but why didn’t they let the villagers know, because we are not well educated. We are puzzled to see them doing strange thing, we can only be puzzled and we can only talk and say it out!”

Pov Pheap, the no. 2 Samrong commune councilor, claimed that border survey officials never contacted or cooperated with commune officials. He said that he does not understand the action taken by these officials on Saturday.

Pov Pheap said: “What they did, they never say anything, they never tell anybody that their survey was done wrongly and they have to correct it in such and such manner. They did not tell us anything to let us know! The way they proceed is like young kids trying to poison dogs. They walked along the rice fields, they jotted something down.”

Chea Yeang, the Chantrea district governor, said that he did not know that survey officials came to work on 28 November.

On 26 November, a group of several dozens of officials from the Council of Ministers and border defense guards came to review the area and they also took video of the location where opposition leader Sam Rainsy uprooted border post stakes out a rice field belonging to a Cambodian farmer on 25 October.

Furthermore, on 26 November, RFA reporter and an activist for the Adhoc human rights group were not allowed to approach or take pictures of these officials.

[Thai] Govt doing its best to help [alleged Thai spy] Sivarak

30/11/2009
Bangkok Post

The government is doing its best within the limits of the law to help the Thai engineer accused of spying in Cambodia, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said on Monday.

Sivarak Chutipong, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), was arrested on Nov 12 on charges of passing a state secret to Thai diplomatic officials - flight information about fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra when he visited Phnom Pehn. Mr Sivarak is being held in Prey Sar prison.

The foreign minister said Mr Sivarak had been consulting his Cambodian lawyer, Kao Soupha.

"In addition, a lawyer from the Lawyers Council of Thailand is available to help Mr Sivarak, who insists he is innocent," Mr Kasit said.

Human Rights Council to review Cambodia’s human rights record

Cambodian Center for Human Rights

PRESS RELEASE
Phnom Penh, 30 November 2009
For immediate release

Human Rights Council to review Cambodia’s human rights record

PHNOM PENH, 30 Nov – Tomorrow, 1 December 2009, the Kingdom of Cambodia will be subject to the first Universal Periodic Review of its human rights record. The Universal Periodic Review, a process created in 2006 to review the human rights record of UN-member states, takes place in Geneva under the auspices of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council. The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) welcomes this opportunity to examine areas where the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) can adjust its policies and behaviour to ensure the protection of the human rights of those it was elected to serve.

The Universal Periodic Review, which takes place every four years, provides an opportunity for each State to outline the action taken in the preceding period to improve the human rights situation in the country and fulfil its human rights obligations. It also allows for civil society organizations to prepare submissions to the Human Rights Council on the state’s human rights record. On 13 April 2009, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), coordinated by the Alliance for Freedom of Expression in Cambodia (AFEC) and assisted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), made a Joint Submission to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Joint Submission, which included contributions by CCHR, raised serious concerns about the decline of freedom of expression and assembly in Cambodia in recent years. The submission, which concluded with a number of recommendations to help increase freedom of expression and assembly in Cambodia, has been incorporated into the stakeholder report compiled by the OHCHR. The full submission is available at www.cchrcambodia.org.

In the week leading up to the review, CCHR has been writing to Human Rights Council member states and other bodies with an interest in the review, including the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Information, to highlight recent developments and the recommendations included in the Joint Submission. It implores member states of the Human Rights Council to use the Universal Periodic Review as an opportunity to hold the RGC to account for its frequent violations of its international and constitutional human rights obligations. CCHR hopes that the UPR Outcome Report reflects the concerns outlined in the Joint Submission and that the UPR Working Group finds ways to ensure that human rights have a proper place in Cambodia and are duly respected.

The review process, beginning at 3pm Central European Time (9pm local time), will be available for viewing live via webcast at http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/.

The three reports that will be used as the basis for Cambodia’s review are available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Documentation.aspx.

For more information, please contact:
Mr. Ou Virak, President, CCHR
Tel: +855 12 404051
Email: ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

Son Chhay asks Sok An to explain on the border delimitation work

29 Nov 2009
By Mondul Keo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

SRP MP Son Chhay asked that vice-PM Sok An explains about the border delimitation work with neighboring countries on 17 December. The request was approved by Heng Samrin, president of the National Assembly (NA).

Son Chhay told RFA in the morning of 28 November that, as a MP, he asked through the NA president that vice-PM Sok An and his technical border colleagues come to the NA on 17 December to explain about the border issue.

Son Chhay said: “People are in the dark, they don’t know about these activities. When an incident occurs, people are wondering whether the government is performing the work correctly or not? Why do we lose rice field lands? Even the village of Samdach Heng Samrin was also lost. The people want to know because in the previous installation of border posts, reporters and MPs were not present!”

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said that any questions that are conforming to the law, the government never neglected to clarify them.

Phay Siphan said: “According to the law, the government must provide clarification according to the request made by any MP. Authorization from the NA president is the law!”

Var Kim Hong, chairman of the government border committee, considers these questions as repetitive old stories. Nevertheless, he said that he will provide the explanation if the government leader orders to do so.

Var Kim Hong said: “In truth, as I said, I did not hide anything. When we cross over to ratify the 2005 Supplemental border treaty, Hun Xen went to clarify the NA already. Therefore, they (MPs) cannot say that they do not know! Even the article of the Supplemental border treaty was distributed, including the government clarification.”

On 16 November, the NA decided to lift the parliamentary immunity of opposition leader Sam Rainsy because he uprooted temporary stakes for a border post. The Chantrea district authority sued Sam Rainsy for destruction of public properties. This lawsuit led to the lifting of Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity to allow the court to summon him to come in for clarification.

NGO representatives to attend the UN Geneva Human Rights meeting

28 Nov 2009
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Representatives for Human Rights NGOs plan to attend a yearly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, at the beginning of December. The meeting will also be focused on the current situation of human rights violation in Cambodia.
Major NGO activists who will attend the meeting include: Dr. Pung Chiv Kek, Licadho president, and Thun Saray, Adhoc president.

Prior to her departure, Dr. Pung Chiv Kek said that she plans to raise a number of issues during the upcoming meeting. “Land dispute problems in Cambodia, freedom of expression, freedom in the various lawsuits, and the freedom to receive information, even though these freedoms are the bases of the convention for the people’s rights and political rights, I want to see Cambodia clearly put into application this convention,” Dr. Pung Chiv Kek said.

Yim Sovann, SRP MP and SRP spokesman, said that he wants to see SRP MPs being invited to attend the meeting also. “To find a resolution, we must do all we can so that Cambodia does not lose face due to human rights violations because it strongly reflects on our economy, as well as on social and political development in the country,” Yim Sovann indicated.

There is no indication as to whether the Cambodian government plans to send a government representative or Om Yentieng, chairman of the government human rights committee, to attend this meeting.

Tith Sothea, a government advisor and a member of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the Council of Ministers said: “I can say that the human rights situation in Cambodia is good, and criticisms on the human rights situation in Cambodia deteriorating is a wrong evaluation. We cannot accept them,” he claimed.

The yearly UN Human Rights Council meeting will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. It will take place on 01 December and it will be attended by 40 important countries that are members of the advisory committee.

The upcoming review of the respect of human rights situation is taking place at the same time when various sources, such as the civil society and international organizations, are criticizing land-grabbing, use of violence in raids, tightening of the freedom of expression, lawsuits against government critics, and lifting of parliamentary immunity of opposition MPs – such as the cases of Mr. Sam Rainsy, Mr. Ho Vann and Mrs. Mu Sochua – that took place in 2009.

Motorcycle sales gain traction in Cambodia after slow year

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Motorcycle dealers in the capital Phnom Penh say sales have finally started to pick up following this year's downturn prompted by the global economic crisis, as buyers spend money generated in the provinces on upgrading to new models that have recently entered the market for 2010, local media reported on Monday.

Kim Chhay, one of the many dealers who operate on Phnom Penh's Sihanouk Boulevard, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying that sales had risen between 10 and 20 percent since October "due to demand for new models" of brands including Honda, which he said had recently launched its 2010 range.

Having seen sales plummet from around 100 units a month to between 30 to 40 during the first 10 months of 2009, he said sales have climbed. "Now we're selling around 60 motorbikes per month."

A reduction in retail prices had also spurred demand, he said. Last year's Honda Dreams sold for 1,700 U.S. dollars to 1,800 U.S. dollars per unit, compared with about 1,500 U.S. dollars for the new series.

Taing Ang, another dealer in the capital, said that people from the provinces who had completed land transactions were propping up demand, adding that Honda in particular had seen an upswing in sales.

"The Suzuki series hasn't seen an improvement yet," he said.

Vouch Lay, who deals Suzukis, said she had not seen sales pick up, blaming the rising demand for Honda's newly released models. "I don't see any recovery yet," she said.

She added that Suzuki was due to begin a new promotion shortly, which she hoped would "spur the number of sales to improve on the current situation".

Demand for motorcycles in Cambodia was expected to fall to 100,000 units this year from the previous 140,000 units, according to Matoba Micifumi, managing director of Yamaha Motors Cambodia Co, who previously said Yamaha motorcycle sales had dropped 25 percent in the first quarter.

Economic Thrust Eastwards

Hun Xen embraces Nguyen Tan Dung, meanwhile....
Villagers from the beseiged Kraya commune in Kampong Thom province say they have been forced to hide in cassava fields for fear of arrest and now face increasing health risks from a lack of medicine and the threat of malaria from sleeping outdoors. Authorities blockaded the commune following a violent protest last month over their impending eviction, during which equipment belonging to the Vietnamese-owned rubber company Tin Bean was set on fire (Photo by: Heng Chivoan, The Phnom Penh Post)

Alternatives Watch – 30xi09
Op-Ed by Ung Bun Ang

Almost three decades after sending its troop into Cambodia, which has since paid dividends so handsomely, Vietnam makes another strategic move that will have far-reaching implications for Cambodia. This year sees a thrust of Vietnamese investments that reaches a total of US$1.5 billion in Cambodian vital sectors: land, natural resources, and telecommunications.

Vietnam has secured the right to exploit in Block 15 – a 6,900 square km site off the northeastern shore of Tonle Sap – oil reserves for the next 30 years, and gas reserves for 35 years. It holds 100 percent interest in the venture giving Cambodia only an option to obtain later a share of up to a mere 5 percent. Meanwhile, to sweeten the deal, Vietnam presents to Cambodia a “social benefit fund” of US$2 million. There is no mention of how they will address inevitable environmental damages.

Back on land, Vietnam is to develop 100,000 hectares of rubber plantations in five Cambodian provinces to be completed in 2015. These involve land concessions that last almost 100 years – long enough for any land located close to the border to inconspicuously become part of Vietnam. The development has already led to a violent clash with local villagers; more than one thousand families live on the land that is now part of an 8,000 hectare land concession belonging to Vietnamese plantation firm Tin Bien.

Vietnam is shrewd in managing its own forests; it protects them and develops its economy by exporting its deforestation to Cambodia. Cambodia has become a major source of supplies of illegally logged wood to help fill a substantial hole left in Vietnam’s local lumber supply after the government implemented reforestation policies in the 90’s.

Vietnam sets itself up to control a significant chunk of the Cambodian telecommunication network. Vietnamese military-run telecommunication corporation Viettel is now the largest telecommunication service provider in Cambodia – six months after launching its Metfone mobile service network. Metfone currently accounts for 60 percent of all ADSL internet services and 50 percent of the fixed phone market; it has two million mobile subscribers. Vietnam claims its satellite system Vinasat-1, with its coverage over the Southeast Asia, can meet all the Cambodian needs ranging from television to internet. The sweetener is the Viettel’s donation of US$500,000 to help poor Cambodian children in need of medical treatments; it promises to provide internet services to 300 Cambodian schools this year. Vietnam agrees to help build a radio station in Siem Reap the Cambodian government claims it needs to give the local Vietnamese community a better access to information. With these benefits, Cambodia puts its national security that links to its communication network at the mercy of Vietnam.

The economic thrust eastwards will, first and foremost, benefit Vietnam. Cambodia will also gain; but the extent and nature of long term costs will be unknown for some time. Meanwhile, the thrust will divide Cambodian opinions, just like the Vietnamese military intervention and occupation of Cambodia. The combined impact of the two major Vietnamese strategies could only weaken Cambodia.

Ung Bun Ang

Quotable Quote:
“An inch of soil is an inch of gold.” - Anonymous, Vietnamese proverb.

Horror prison lifts the bar on atrocities

Claims of torture haunt Prey Sar jail

30/11/2009
Anucha Charoenpo
Bangkok Post

The Prey Sar prison which is presently home to Thai spy suspect Sivarak Chutipong and thousands of other Cambodian and foreign inmates is under fresh fire for its "appalling conditions".

The complex - described as one of the most notorious jails in Southeast Asia and often compared with the infamous Tuol Sleng prison under Khmer Rouge rule - has been slammed for alleged human rights violations.

"I've often heard about brutal torture against the prisoners there," said a 25-year-old Cambodian woman.

"It's really scary. I think most Cambodian people know well about its conditions."

Prey Sar is the largest of about 20 prisons in Cambodia. It houses 2,500 to 2,600 prisoners despite being originally designed to house a maximum of 1,200, a prison warder said.

Mr Sivarak, who worked at Cambodia Air Traffic Services, was arrested on Nov 12 for relaying information about the flight schedule of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who flew into Phnom Penh a day earlier after being appointed economic adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Prey Sar, in Dor Kor district about 10km from central Phnom Penh, is under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior and the Health Ministry.

The public perception of the prison is one of "fear and brutality". It is reportedly cramped and lacking in proper health care.

"We have treated all prisoners well - all the allegations are groundless," said the prison warden.

He said all prisoners had good sleeping arrangements.

If they were ill, the prison provided them with proper medication.

"I have seen and talked to Sivarak. He is healthy. We take care of him very well because we know what is what," the warden said.

It has been more than 10 years since the Cambodian government moved prisoners from the centuries-old jail built during French colonial rule in central Phnom Penh near the Royal Palace complex to Prey Sar.

Prey Sar was a commune and detention centre during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, when more than 1.7 million people lost their lives.

Some say the brutality at Prey Sar is reminiscent of Tuol Sleng, the torture and detention centre also known as S-21 and now a genocide museum.

"Prey Sar is not much different," said 51-year-old Sameth Tul, a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Sameth Tul was 17 when Khmer Rouge soldiers took control of Phnom Penh and later ruled all of Cambodia.

He was living in Takai [KI-Media note: Takeo?] province, south of Phnom Penh, at the time. His family was sent to work in a nearby commune and lived there for nearly four years until the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime.

"Fortunately, no one in my family was killed because we were all farmers," he said.

"Those being killed were doctors, teachers, academics and lawyers.

"I remember the whole experience of when I was locked up in the commune camp," Sameth Tul said.

"I had to get up at 3am and [go to] sleep at 11pm.

"Many people died of torture, and lack of food and sleep."

Cambodian Trial, Though Grim, Broke New Ground

Kaing Guek Eav, left, sat in the courtroom at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, during the closing statements in Phnom Penh on Friday. (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, via European Pressphoto Agency)

November 29, 2009
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The first trial to showcase the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge three decades ago concluded with the regime’s chief torturer still seemingly unable to grasp the magnitude of his actions. Yet despite that surprising end, the trial may have helped Cambodia begin to move beyond the horrors of its past.

The defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, 67, known as Duch, was the first leading Khmer Rouge figure to be tried in connection with the deaths of 1.7 million people when the brutal Communist regime ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Throughout the trial, he described in detail his role as the commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21, where at least 14,000 people were tortured and sent to their deaths.

After admitting his guilt and asking for forgiveness, Duch (pronounced DOIK) seemed on the final day of the trial on Friday to think that he had done enough, asking the court to set him free.

Duch’s plea seemed to contradict a carefully constructed strategy to seek leniency by admitting guilt, apologizing and cooperating with the court. He faces a possible term of life in prison for crimes against humanity and other crimes. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 40 years, taking into account his cooperation and the five years he already spent in a military jail. The judges are expected to announce a verdict early next year.

Despite long delays and concerns about corruption and possible political interference, “Case One” of the United Nations-backed tribunal mostly overcame doubts that it would meet international standards of justice.

The case broke new ground as a hybrid of national and international justice systems with the support of the United Nations. In another innovation, it included the participation of some victims as “civil parties” represented in court by their own lawyers.

After a slow start, the trial began to draw the attention of a nation that for the past three decades has mostly hidden from the traumas of the Khmer Rouge years. Coinciding with the trial, a new textbook about the Khmer regime began distribution to the high schools, breaking a silence in the education system that has contributed to widespread ignorance.

Human rights groups and legal experts said they hoped the trial would act as an example to help reform Cambodia’s corrupt justice system and erode a culture of impunity, in which powerful people often act beyond the reach of the law.

“The Duch trial itself proceeded methodically and, in the end, was a success,” said Alex Hinton, director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University. “Duch received the fair trial his victims never had.”

A more difficult challenge lies ahead in “Case Two” with the trials of four senior Khmer Rouge leaders who are accused of more far reaching responsibility in the mass killings but against whom the evidence is less concrete.

Unlike Duch, they have denied their guilt and refused to cooperate; their lawyers have already begun complicating the process with legal challenges. Their trial is not expected to get under way until 2012.

Beyond the legal and historical issues examined in the trial, the past nine months have been an exploration of more fundamental questions of human behavior — of guilt and responsibility, and the legal and moral weight of an apology.

“I am accountable to the entire Cambodian population for the souls that perished,” Duch said in a final statement to the court. “I am deeply remorseful and regret such a mind-boggling scale of death.”

But as with a similar statement at the start of the trial, he read on Friday from a prepared text with little sign of emotion, and both the prosecutors and many analysts derided his apology as insincere and tactical.

Nevertheless, “He has apologized and asked to be forgiven, and he has willingly assisted in many aspects of the case,” said Nic Dunlop, the author of a book about Duch called “The Lonely Executioner.”

“We can talk about his lack of empathy. We can talk about his detachment. But these are things he has done that nobody else has done,” Mr. Dunlop said.

For Cambodians who attended the final week of the trial, though, these apologies seemed far too little and the legal fine points of the prosecutors’ request for a reduced sentence seemed irrelevant.

“I can’t accept his apology,” said Peon Tol, 26, a villager who said her grandparents and aunt had been killed by the Khmer Rouge. “It’s not like he was stealing chickens. These crimes are too much to forgive.”

Seung Sophal, 41, a farmer who had traveled here by bus from the countryside, said, “Duch admitted killing people at Tuol Sleng, thousands of people. He committed the crimes and now he is apologizing. It is a little too late to do that.”

Duch’s apologies seemed at odds with the obvious pride he took in his administration of the prison, which the historian David Chandler called “the only institution that functioned” under the Khmer Rouge regime.

“He was an enthusiastic and proud administrator of S-21 who worked out techniques and organizational methodology from scratch,” said Mr. Chandler, who testified at the trial as an expert witness.

Like other analysts, he said Duch seemed to have been motivated by a desire to please his superiors.

“This is not the banality of evil,” Mr. Chandler said. “This guy, he’s a full-time performer. What he is concerned about is the accuracy of his story.”

"Samnaum Por Tuk Tvea Som Tos" a Poem in Khmer by Yim Guechse

Cambodia-Thailand Boundary: A must-read document by the US Dept. of State

Click here to read the document (PDF)

2001 MoU with Thailand regarding the overlapping maritme claims to the continetal shelf

Thailand and Cambodia Maritime Disputes: Thai Navy's perspectives

Click on the map to zoom in

By Captain Somjade Kongrawd
Originally posted at http://www.navy.mi.th/judge/

Introduction

An acre of sea is worth much more than an acre of infertile land, if there is oil and gas. Thus a number of coastal states have excessive maritime claims in order to fully utilize the benefits potentially empowered by international law, including UNCLOS. In the case of Thailand and Cambodia they have claimed their maritime zones to benefit their national interest leading to a huge overlapped claimed area. However, both try to solve this problem by reaching the memorandum of understanding to negotiate the maritime delimitation and establish the joint development area (JDA).

These disputes were initiated by different interpretation of the Francois-Siamese boundary treaty 1907 . Background fact as a matter of disputes and some arguments of both sides and the principal of delimitation, including scholar's views are given. Activities and conflicts in this area are also presented, followed by the way ahead and conclusion.

Click here to read the article (PDF)

Sam Rainsy: I will recover my immunity back soon

29 Nov 2009
By Kuoch Kunteara
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Sunday 29 November, Sam Rainsy, SRP President who is currently staying in France, called on the government to carefully think about the border problems, both the eastern and western borders. At the same time, Sam Rainsy hoped that he will soon recover his immunity back. However, he did not indicate the date of his return back to Cambodia.

Click here to listen to the audio program (MP3)
or
Click here

Communiqué from the 28 Nov 2009 demonstrators in Ottawa, Canada

COMMUNIQUÉ

Canada, our adopted home, a nation which holds truths to basic principles and values of human rights, freedom and democracy, that we, as Cambodian-Canadian, once victims of past communist regimes, are able to gather to express our views freely as free men. Not in Cambodia, our former country where democracy has merely existed on paper, and in theory - NOT in real life. Freedom of speech and the press has been taken away to a larger extend, so did was our freedom to a peaceful assembly. Today’s demonstration would have landed all participants in prison, if it were held in Cambodia. As such, we could not be free in Cambodia and so the same can be said to an entire population of Cambodia who are currently waking up to a new reality of political oppression orchestrated under the criminalized defamation act.

As Cambodian-Canadian, we come together on this November 28, 2009, to express our deepest concerns to the deterioration state of democracy in Cambodia once enjoyed under UNTAC. Furthermore, to call on our great Canadian government and donors’ countries to put an end to the systemic violation of human rights and freedom orchestrated by the Cambodian authorities. It is the only way to ensure long term peace and stability of the country as well as the region as stipulated under the spirit of signed Paris Peace Accord 1991.

Since the Cambodian executive body has effective control over three branches of the government, it has used the courts to effectively criminalize anyone on defamation charges, placing strict restriction on freedom of speech, the press and expression. Several journalists and other critics of the government have been imprisoned as a result of such practices.

The stripping immunity from elected members of parliament (MP), Mr. Sam Rainsy, Mrs. Mu Sochua, and Mr. Ho Vann, is a way to intimidate and silence opposition critics. It discourages people’s representatives from speaking out critical of government policies. Furthermore, it prevented them from fulfilling their elected roles and responsibilities.

These are the reasons which led to our gathering today:

1. Cambodia has no real separation of powers, only in theory.
2. Cambodian National Assembly functions merely as a rubber-stamp institution
3. Cambodian Courts are systematically biased - NOT an independent body.
4. Legal professionals are subjected to government intimidation as in the case of MP. Mu Sochua vs. PM Hun Sen.
5. Journalists and government critics have been jailed or killed while others remain outside the country, convicted in absentia on bogus defamation charges.
6. Cambodian government has aggressively acted to seal the mouths of its critics and its political oppositions through its highly vague defamation act.
7. On-going land evictions have caused severe hardship on Cambodian victims across the country.
8. International Emergency aids were selectively and intentionally given to only the government’s party members and their families while denying others belonging to an opposition groups (reported on Radio Free Asia).
9. Stripping immunity from elected members of parliament without any regard for the rights or any concerns of the people whom they represented at their districts.
10. Political killings and persecution still remain problematic for those who seek to involve in the process. One opposition activist has been recently axed to death, while many have fled overseas to escape jail times convicted on defamation charges.

WITH ABOVE FORE-MENTIONED, WE SEEK INTERVENTIONS FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA AND DONORS’ COUNTRIES TO PROCEED WITH THE NINE-POINTS RESOLUTIONS BELOW:

1. Reconvene on the signed Paris Peace Accord of 1991.
2. Pressure Cambodian government to respect its international obligations signed under the Paris Peace Accord of 1991.
3. Pressure Cambodian government to end the erosion process of civil liberties by calling for an end to its authoritarian policy and practices.
4. Call for an immediate restoration of immunities to all elected members of the National Assembly: Mr. Sam Rainsy, Mrs. Mu Sochua and Mr. Ho Vann.
5. Take all necessary steps to force for an overhaul to the highly corrupted Cambodian judiciary system. It’s a must, since the court itself has been totally corrupted through a well managed patronage scheme - Reward and Punishment.
6. Call for releases of all imprisoned journalists and an end to political persecution.
7. Condemn the flawed defamation law which has been used unconstitutionally to suppress people’s rights and freedom on issues critical to corruption and government’s improper activities.
8. Call for an end to forced land evictions.
9. Revoke as well as NOT providing Visa entries into the country by any corrupted official, including any human rights violators.

On this day, November 28, 2009, on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, we, as participants in this demonstration, with strong belief and conviction to the cause of human freedom and liberties in Cambodia, hereby submitted this petition for your utmost attention and consideration.

Thaksin willing to help jailed engineer

29/11/2009
Bangkok Post

Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is willing to help the detained Thai engineer in Cambodia if the Thai government could not help him, Thaksin's legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said on Sunday.

Sivarak Chutipong, an employee of Thai-owned Cambodia Air Traffic Services, was arrested on Nov 12 on charges of leaking information concerning the flight plan of Thaksin Shinawatra as he visited Phnom Pehn.

"Thaksin is willing to ask the Cambodian court for mercy for Sivarak if he is found guilty," former foreign minister Noppadon said.

He said Thaksin is still in Dubai.

Thaksin's activities had affected the government's stability and the image of Thailand to the eyes of foreign countries was less positive, he said.

"On the idea of having a mediator for the negotiation between Thaksin and the government, Thaksin is not sure about the government's sincerity," he said.

"Counter-Attack Strategy" of Viet-Nam and Hun Sen Monkey Role

Reading this article, I am grateful to Ms.Kong.

Let see, counter-attack strategy of Vietnam will also effectively work if there will be a crash between USNS and China submarine in Hainan near Danang of Viet-Nam. From this clash, Viet-Nam will benefit tremendously. As we know, the claim of Sprateley and Paracel Islands, Viet-Nam dare not turn their eyes straight toward China, but Viet-Nam has their good chess on the board, is to drag US into their side. Very interesting right?

But look at Cambodia, those drunkard leaders in Phnom Penh government are good only in taming and punishing Cambodian people, but they are only puppet playing monkey role in the political stage.

Like I have always said, Hun Sen is a strong man among Cambodians, but with foreigners he is a pure monkey who can jump into the stage to play his roles every time!

Vietnam has successfully played their "divide and conquer tactic" policy. The author is brilliant in bringing us to light the "counter-attacking strategy" approach of Vietnam to back up with the super power like the US, China and Soviet.

In the eyes of Viet-Nam's policy makers, no true enemy and no true friend in the political arena, but Viet-Nam benefits are their priority.

Vietnam totally infiltrated into KR troops to signal a wrong decision of China in supporting KR after Honoi betrayed China when they defeated the US and created a great national unification.

It can be possible to understand that Viet-Nam infiltrated Lon Nol, and the alliance of US with Lon Nol was the wrong choice with no-choice for US, that why the US didn't fully support Lon Nol.

It is the same scenario that China didn't fully support KR to invade Viet-Nam as KR planned because China realized that Viet-Nam was already inside KR troops.

Current Thaksin's issue is very interesting. Viet-Nam infiltrators in North-East Region especially in Ubon Thani province which are full of former Viet-Namese population led by Ho Chi Minh when he disguised as a Buddhist monk to spread Communist in Thailand.

But in Cambodia, Hun Sen is a pivotal actor to jump in the front stage like a monkey. Very interesting! Hun Sen is very patriotic about the Preah Vihear stone but allowing further encroachment and Viet-Namese troops inside Cambodia. Hun Sen is doing this because of his noneducational, or enforcement, or his exit theory to avoid life sentencing etc? Please help decode Hun Sen's mindset together here!!

Viet-Nam has always spread their people and agents in both sides of the rivals. Sometime, we don't have conflict, Vietnam will help us create conflicts. But when Viet-Nam can strengthen their force, they can minimize the conflict. How do you think about the current peace of Cambodia?

Let see, counter-attack strategy of Vietnam will also effectively work if there will be a crash between USNS and China submarine in Hainan near Danang of Viet-Nam. From this clash, Viet-Nam will benefit tremendously. As we know, the claim of Sprateley and Paracel Islands, Viet-Nam dare not turn their eyes straight toward China, but Viet-Nam has their good chess on the board, is to drag US into their side. Very interesting right?

But look at Cambodia, those drunkard leaders in Phnom Penh government are good only in taming and punishing Cambodian people, but they are only puppet playing monkey role in the political stage.

Like I have always said, Hun Sen is a strong man among Cambodians, but with foreigners he is a pure monkey who can jump into the stage to play his role every time!

In Solidarity,

KY

Koh Kong authority must help Cambodian, not Thai, fishermen

Op-Ed by Khmerization
28th November, 2009

“By banning foreign fishermen in Cambodian waters, thousands of fishing jobs will be generated for local Cambodian fishermen and incomes from fishing will undoubtedly help the local economy. And this will help in reducing the numbers of Cambodian migrant workers seeking jobs overseas, including constructions and fishing jobs in Vietnam and Thailand.”

I hope I won’t be labelled an “ultra-nationalist” or an “extremist” for what I am going to say in this opinion piece. With clear conscience, I hope the majority of readers will agree with my views here that the granting of fishing licences to foreign fishing companies to fish in Cambodian territorial waters off the coast of Koh Kong is not in the best interests of Cambodia and the Cambodian fishermen.

While the Cambodian fishermen have been fined and arrested for fishing in Cambodian waters, foreign fishermen like the Vietnamese and the Thai fishermen have been given unrestricted access to fish freely in Cambodian territorial waters for just a small amount of licence fees of 60,000 Baht ($1500) per month for each big fishing trawlers. Based on reports in the Thai press, more than 100 Thai fishing trawlers have been fishing in Cambodian waters everyday. With some trawlers having the capacity to load up to 100 tons of fish, those Thai trawlers seem to have made a handsome profit for a pittance.

Allowing foreign fishing trawlers to fish in Cambodian waters is bad for a number of reasons. Firstly, the anarchic granting of licences to foreign fishing companies looks fishy. It must have involved with rampant corruption because licences have been granted by the Koh Kong authority in secrecy, licence fees have not been made public and the Finance Ministry seem to have played no part in this affair. Secondly, the granting of fishing licences to too many big foreign fishing trawlers will lead to uncontrolled and anarchic fishing. This is a recipe for an irreversible depletion of the Cambodian fish stocks. Thirdly, but most importantly, the Cambodian markets are in short of fish supplies and fish products. Cambodia imported fish and fish products such as prohok, smoked and dried fish from Vietnam and Thailand. More often than not, these fish and fish products were fished from Cambodian waters, taken into Vietnam and Thailand, made into fish products and re-exported back into Cambodian markets. Sadly, incomes from Cambodian fish fall into foreign hands, instead of Cambodian hands.

The Cambodian government, or the Koh Kong authority for that matter, must look after and protect the Cambodian fishermen and Cambodian local fish industry first. While Cambodian fishermen are struggling to make ends meet, the government must not facilitate foreign fishermen at the expenses of the Cambodian fishermen. By this, I am saying that the government should ban all foreign fishing trawlers and give Cambodian fishermen full access to the Cambodian waters in question. Only by taking this measure can Cambodia protect its own interests and that of the Cambodian fishermen and local fish industry. By banning foreign fishermen in Cambodian waters, thousands of fishing jobs will be generated for local Cambodian fishermen and incomes from fishing will undoubtedly help the local economy as well as boosting Cambodian fish exports. And this will help in reducing the numbers of Cambodian migrant workers seeking jobs overseas, including constructions and fishing jobs in Vietnam and Thailand.

Border between Cambodia and Vietnam: The Trial

Click on the statement in Khmer to zoom in

Unofficial translation from French by Tola Ek
CFC/CBC 23112009F

Border between Cambodia and Vietnam: The Trial

What is the cost for uprooting wooden stakes planted in the mud of a rice field? The author of this act is currently being charged of “crimes for destruction of public properties and threat against national security.” Yes, you read it right: this is not out of a bad fiction story, this is the reality that reflects the current Hun Sen’s regime in Cambodia.

It turns out that these wooden posts represent temporary stakes for a border post between Vietnam and Cambodia, and they happen to be located in the Cambodian district of Chantrea, Svay Rieng province. The marking operation was conducted by technicians working for the joint Vietnamese-Cambodian government committee, following the official recognition of territorial treaties – which, by the way, are illegal – concluded in 1985 and 2005 by the two governments. The main author of this uprooting act is no other than Sam Rainsy, an opposition MP, and the charge was leveled by a prosecutor for the Svay Rieng provincial court. This charge was later repeated by the minister of Justice who, in light of the “dangerous” offense, immediately requested the lifting of Sam Rainsy’s parliamentary immunity so that he can be brought to face trial. The entire immunity lifting process took only 10 minutes during a closed door session of the National Assembly controlled by MPs from Hun Sen’s own CPP party.

Regarding the so-called destruction of public properties

What “public properties?” The bits of stakes involved were planted in the middle of rice fields belonging to several generations of Khmer villagers, i.e. on private properties that the government, by allowing these villagers to farm them, is de facto recognizing them as such up until now. Since the very first day of the arbitrary planting of these stakes took place, and in the ensuing days, the owners of these fields had protested and complained to the commune authorities which remained deaf to their plight. The provincial authorities also refused to look into the villagers’ complaints while claiming that it only involves the Phnom Penh government. Therefore, no agreement and no consent were made between the state authorities and the citizen-owners of the lands so that these stakes could be recognized as “public properties”. If there were to be expropriation of these lands for public interest, then no damage compensation was ever paid to the wronged owners, unlike what the Kingdom’s Constitution stipulated. Furthermore, no prior official announcement was ever made for the marking of the border, and the local population in this border commune was never shown with any official geographical map, in spite of the fact that the border delimitation agreements were concluded since 27 December 1985 and completed on 10 October 2005. Governmental authorities also claimed that the staking was only “temporary,” meaning that they could be moved in the future. In summary, on 25 October, these litigious stakes, in spite of them being planted by State agents, could not be qualified as “public properties” and the owners of these rice fields have all the rights to get rid of them if they deem it necessary.

Threat against national security

In a country with the rule of law, elements of the “national security” must be clearly defined so they can be used to evaluate the character and the amplitude of any hypothetical “threat” against such national security. Did the uprooting of these bits of temporary border stakes by Sam Rainsy led to danger for Cambodian lives? Did it risk provoking serious internal troubles, and possibly a civil war, or a war between Cambodia and Vietnam? When MP Sam Rainsy and his colleagues came to look at these marking stakes under the request of protesting villagers, they did not carry anything threatening with them (no knives, no axes and no guns). They simply denounced the “violations of Cambodia’s territorial integrity by Vietnam.” Such a denunciation was legitimate from the part of a parliamentarian – a constitutional representative of the Nation and not just a representative of a political party – who, along with citizens who are directly involved, have always been pushed aside from an in-depth examination of the territorial agreements and from the border demarcation process between their country and the neighboring country. Nowhere else in the world but in Hun Sen’s Cambodia can such government secrecy – a total rebuke to the Parliament right – exists, not even in Vietnam when the latter was involved in border delimitation with China.

At first, the Cambodian authorities did not react to Sam Rainsy’s action in Chantrea simply because there was no need for government intervention urgency to quell any public troubles or any risk of civil war existed. However, five days later, on 30 October, according to Vietnam News Service, Hanoi’s regime “sharply reacted” as it viewed that the uprooting of these stakes by a Cambodian MP as being an “arrogant and irresponsible act violating laws in both countries and the treaties and agreements concluded between the two countries … (and) the slandering statement (made by Sam Rainsy) is aimed at inciting animosity and sabotaging relationships between Vietnam and Cambodia.” VNS added: “the Vietnamese government strongly condemns Sam Rainsy’s acts and declarations and asks that the Cambodian government take due measures to deal with all acts of sabotage in order to assure fine progress in the border demarcation between the two nations”! The veiled sanction threat against Sam Rainsy came from Hanoi which forgot that Sam Rainsy is in fact a Member of Cambodia’s Parliament. It was then that the Svay Rieng provincial prosecutor and Phnom Penh’s minister of Justice initiated their judicial process in which they claim that the case is “highly dangerous for national security” and they demanded for an immediate lifting of the parliamentary immunity of the “arrogant saboteur.”

The fundamental question remains the following: is the Svay Rieng provincial court competent enough to be involved in the case? Can it render judgment on a destruction of “public properties” charge that is not even the case? Can it be competent enough to be involved in a border demarcation problem that involves international law? But, in Cambodia, there is no doubt that Mr. Hun Sen and his comrades can do anything, they are competent in everything, and everything always involves “public order” or “national security.” Let’s recall also that, under Pol Pot, to the eyes of the Kammaphibal (party cadres), any sight of protest, discontent or sadness by an individual is an attack on their Revolution, i.e., their “public order”. Such action can be sanctioned through physical elimination of the individual involved. Thus, it looks like Pol Pot’s lesson did not get lost among his disciples. Sam Rainsy’s trial will thus take place: the benign wooden stakes in Chantrea have been blown up into peace (or war) symbols between Cambodia and Vietnam. It’s an aberration, but this gives the proper perspective on the importance of Hanoi’s domination over the Hun Sen/CPP regime.

Paris, 23 November 2009

Cambodia’s Borders Committee in France and Worldwide

(Signed) Dy Kareth, Vice-President
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Frontière Cambodge-Vietnam : le Procès

Que vaut l’arrachage de quelques bouts de pieux de bois plantés dans la boue d’une rizière? – L’accusation contre son auteur de « crimes de destruction de biens publics et de menace contre la sécurité nationale ». Non, ce n’est pas une mauvaise fiction. C’est une réalité qui reflète l’image du régime Hun Sen du Cambodge actuel.

Car il se trouve que ces bouts de pieux représentent le marquage provisoire des bornes de frontière entre le Vietnam et le Cambodge, dans un village cambodgien de Chantrea, de la province de Svay Rieng. Le marquage était fait par des techniciens de la Commission mixte gouvernementale viêtnamo-cambodgiennne, à la suite de la reconnaissance officielle des traités territoriaux - illégaux - de 1985 et de 2005 par les deux Gouvernements. L’auteur principal de cet arrachage est Sam Rainsy, un député de l’Opposition, et l’accusation est décrétée par un procureur d’un tribunal provincial de Svay Rieng, reprise ensuite par le ministre de la Justice, lequel, au vu de la « dangerosité » de l’acte incriminé, demande immédiatement la levée de l’immunité parlementaire du député pour que ce dernier soit mis en examen et jugé. A l’Assemblée nationale, où dominent les membres du parti PPC de Hun Sen, la chose est faite, à huis clos, en dix minutes.

La destruction de biens publics

De quel « bien public » ? Les bouts de pieux en question sont plantés dans des portions de rizières appartenant à des villageois khmers depuis plusieurs générations, c’est-à-dire dans des propriétés privées - que les autorités gouvernementales, qui leur laissent l’exploitation, ont reconnu de facto jusqu’à maintenant. Dès le premier jour de la plantation autoritaire de ces pieux, et les jours suivants, les propriétaires des terrains ont protesté et porté plainte aux autorités de la commune qui font la sourde oreille. Les autorités provinciales ont également refusé d’examiner leur plainte, sous le bon prétexte qu’il s’agissait d’un acte (des autorités) du Gouvernement de Phnom-Penh. Il n’y a donc eu aucun accord ni consentement entre ces autorités étatiques et les citoyens propriétaires des terrains pour que ces bouts de pieux soient reconnus comme « biens publics ». S’il s’agissait d’une désappropriation d’intérêt public, il n’y a pas eu de dédommagement compensatoire aux propriétaires lésés, comme le prévoit la Constitution du Royaume. D’ailleurs, il n’y a eu aucune publicité officielle préalable de ce marquage de la frontière, par exemple par la publication à la connaissance des populations d’une carte géographique officielle de cette commune frontalière, alors que l’Accord de délimitation de celle-ci est conclu dès le 27 décembre 1985 et complété le 10 octobre 2005. Et, aux dires des autorités gouvernementales elles-mêmes, ce marquage n’était que « provisoire », sous-entendant qu’il pourrait être déplacé à l’avenir. En somme, au 25 octobre dernier, ces bouts de pieux litigieux, même plantés par des agents de l’Etat, ne peuvent être qualifiés de « biens publics », et les propriétaires des rizières sont bien en droit de s’en débarrasser, s’ils le jugent nécessaire.

La menace contre la sécurité nationale

Dans un pays où les lois existent, les éléments de la « sécurité nationale » doivent être clairement définis, pour que l’on puisse évaluer le caractère et l’ampleur d’une éventuelle « menace » contre elle. L’arrachage de ces bouts de pieux de marquage provisoire de la frontière par Sam Rainsy a-t-il mis en danger la vie du peuple khmer ou risque-t-il de provoquer de graves troubles intérieures, voire une guerre civile, ou une guerre entre le Cambodge et le Vietnam ? Or, le député Sam Rainsy et ses compagnons étaient venus constater ces pieux de marquage à la demande des villageois protestataires et ne portaient avec eux aucun objet menaçant (couteaux, haches ou armes à feu). Ils ont simplement dénoncé les « violations de l’intégrité territoriale du Cambodge par le Vietnam ». Une telle dénonciation était bien légitime de la part d’un membre de l’Assemblée nationale – donc, constitutionnellement, d’un Représentant de la Nation, non pas seulement un représentant d’un parti politique – qui, de même que les citoyens directement intéressés, a toujours été écarté de l’examen approfondi des accords territoriaux et des processus de la démarcation de la frontière entre son pays et le pays voisin. Ce genre de pratiques secrètes du Gouvernement, au mépris du droit du Parlement, n’existe qu’au Cambodge de Hun Sen et nulle part ailleurs, même pas au Vietnam dans ses problèmes de délimitation de sa frontière avec la Chine.

Dans un premier temps, les autorités khmères n’ont pas réagi à l’action de Sam Rainsy à Chantrea : il n’y a pas eu l’urgence d’une intervention gouvernementale pour prévenir des troubles publiques ou les risques de guerre civile. Mais, cinq jours plus tard, le 30 octobre, selon l’agence Vietnam News Service, s’annonce une « vive réaction » du Gouvernement de Hanoi qui a vu en l’arrachage de ces pieux par le député khmer comme un acte « arrogant, irresponsable, violant les lois des deux pays et les traités et accords conclus entre les deux nations... (et) la déclaration calomnieuse (de Sam Rainsy) a pour but d’inciter l’animosité et le sabotage des relations entre le Vietnam et le Cambodge ». Ainsi, lit-on encore, « le Gouvernement vietnamien condamne avec véhémence les actes et les déclarations de Sam Rainsy et demande au Gouvernement cambodgien de prendre des mesures appropriées contre tous actes de sabotage afin d’assurer la bonne marche de la démarcation de la frontières entre les deux pays » ! La menace de sanctions à peine voilée contre Sam Rainsy vient plutôt de Hanoi, qui oublie également que le même Sam Rainsy est un membre du Parlement cambodgien. Mais, c’est alors que le procureur de Svay Rieng et le ministre de la Justice de Phnom-Penh déclenchent leurs machines judiciaires, se saisissent de l’affaire «hautement dangereuse pour la sécurité nationale» et demandent la suspension immédiate de l’immunité parlementaire de l’« arrogant saboteur ».

La question de fond est encore celle-ci : le tribunal de Svay Rieng est-il compétent pour se saisir de l’affaire et juger la destruction d’un « bien public » qui n’en est pas un, et un problème de la démarcation de la frontière qui n’est pas du ressort de la province de Svay Rieng et qui touche au droit international ? Mais, au Cambodge, n’en doutons pas, M. Hun Sen et ses camarades peuvent tout, sont compétents en tout, et tout touche à « l’ordre public » ou à la « sécurité nationale ». Sous Pol Pot, rappelons-le, le moindre signe de protestation, de mécontentement ou même de tristesse d’un individu constituait aux yeux des Kamaphibal (chefs de service) une atteinte à leur Révolution, c’est-à-dire à leur « ordre public », et peut être sanctionné par le massacre de son auteur. La leçon de Pol Pot n’est pas perdue pour ses adeptes. Le procès de Sam Rainsy va donc avoir lieu : les petits pieux de bois de Chantrea sont les hauts symboles de la paix (ou de la guerre) entre le Cambodge et le Vietnam. C’est hallucinant. Mais, cela donne la bonne mesure du poids de la domination de Hanoi sur le régime Hun Sen/PPC.

Paris, le 23 novembre 2009
Le Comité des Frontières du Cambodge
en France et dans le monde.

Dy Kareth, Vice-Président