Bonn Phka at Wat Buddharaingsey, France

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fui1iErYXeY

Diplomats meet Frenchman in Beijing for Bo probe

24 July 2012
The Standard (China)

The French architect being questioned in Beijing in an investigation linked to former Communist leader Bo Xilai has met with French diplomats and is in "good shape'', an embassy spokesman said, AFP repots.

Patrick Devillers met consular officials at the weekend after flying to China from Cambodia, where he had been detained at the request of the Chinese government, said the embassy spokesman, who asked not to be named.

France's foreign ministry said earlier it had asked for access to the 52-year-old architect, who left Cambodia a week ago after agreeing to go to Beijing to assist in the enquiry.

Police post video message from Bo Xilai accomplice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eZ2x-9zUY

Friday, 20 July 2012
Kim Yuthana and Stuart White
The Phnom Penh Post

In a seeming effort to dispel any lingering doubt about Patrick Devillers’s willingness to go to China, the General Commissariat National Police posted a YouTube video yesterday showing the freshly released Frenchman giving a brief interview about his detainment in Cambodia.

The video, taken on Tuesday, shows the former associate of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai and his wife, Gu Kailal, dressed in grey slacks and a white shirt seated at a table with a flower arrangement and French press-style coffee carafe, explaining the purpose of his trip and confirming reports that he was departing for China of his own free will.

“Now, I’m leaving for Shanghai tonight, and after a stop, probably on to Beijing in order to answer – one could say to cooperate in the case of the inquiry into Gu Kailai,” he said.

Cambodia tries to distance itself from Patrick Devillers' decision to leave for China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eZ2x-9zUY

Frenchman returns to China 'to help Bo Xilai probe'

A Chinese policeman blocks photos being taken outside Zhongnanhai which serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China after the sacking of politician Bo Xilai from the countries powerful Politburo, in Beijing in April 2012. A Frenchman connected to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has returned to China to help the investigation

Fact file on Bo Xilai, China's controversial mayor of Chongqing who was sacked from his post. Bo, the former leader of the southwestern Chinese megacity of Chongqing, is being probed for corruption while Gu has been detained for suspected involvement in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last year

By Suy Se
AFP 07/18/2012

A Frenchman believed to have close ties to disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has returned to China to help the probe into the country's biggest political scandal in decades, Cambodian police said Wednesday.

Architect Patrick Devillers, arrested in Phnom Penh last month at Beijing's request, was freed on Monday and boarded a flight for Shanghai the following day "by his own will", deputy national police chief Sok Phal told AFP.

"He said he is going there to be a witness," the official said, adding that China had asked for his release. "The French embassy supported this 100 percent."

Embassy officials in Phnom Penh did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while a spokesman at the French embassy in Beijing declined to speak on the matter.

Cambodia frees Frenchman linked to scandal [-French Exocet may have somthing to do with it?]

French Exocet missile

July 18, 2012
By Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia has released a French citizen detained for nearly a month for alleged links to China’s biggest political scandal in years, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Police released Patrick Devillers on Tuesday after a request from China to do so, Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said. It was not immediately clear why China made the request.

At Beijing’s request, Devillers was detained June 13 for possible links to the death in China last November of British businessman Neil Heywood, but he was never charged with any crime.

Cambodia had said it would not extradite him to China or France unless it obtained more proof of wrongdoing.

Ah ça ira - We will win [Despotism will die, Liberty will triumph]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rauZMrXqRu0

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira,

Le peuple en ce jour sans cesse repete:

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira,

Malgre les mutins tout reussira!

Nos ennemis confus en restent la,

Et nous allons chanter Alleluya!

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira,

Quand Boileau jadis du clerge parla

Comme un prophete, il a predit cela,

En chantant ma chansonnette,

Avec plaisir on dira:

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira, ca ira,

Malgre les mutins tout reussira.

Ah! ca ira, ca ira, ca ira,

Detained Frenchman Willing To Go to China, Cambodia Says

Patrick Devillers (Photo: Reuters)

Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“He tends to express his wish to go to China, and wherever he goes is surely his own decision..."

Cambodian officials say a Frenchman arrested last month in connection to a murder case in China is willing to be sent back there.

Patrick Devillers, who has been detained since his arrest in Phnom Penh on June 13, can return at his own request, said Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.

“He tends to express his wish to go to China, and wherever he goes is surely his own decision, and if he decides to go to China, we are OK, we would follow his personal decision,” Khieu Sopheak said.

Madame Pas: from Phnom Penh to Vietnam, to Paris and back

This view photographed from an airplane shows where the Mekong River joins Tonlé Sap Lake near Siem Reap in Cambodia. Margery H. Freeman, (c) 1997

Originally published at
http://khmerican.com/2012/07/09/madame-pas-from-phnom-penh-to-vietnam-to-paris-and-back/

By Gea Wijers
Special to Khmerican

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Madame Pas was born in 1966 into a wealthy family connected to the royal court. She explains that there just was no question in those years: if you belonged to the elite then you would have pride in the French language, its culture and its etiquette. If you had the money and, thus, a choice, you sent your children and relatives to France well before the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975. As her grandfather refused to leave his country, however, her family never made it there in time.

Mme. Pas is hesitant. She has tears in her eyes as she tells me the story of her survival. The surviving family members could only get away after passing several years in Vietnam. Only by using their connections and by paying some bribes did the rest of the family finally manage to take a plane from Ho Chi Minh to freedom legitimately. France, the country they preferred, was the only place to go. As she explains, that’s where 80% of the refugees in Vietnam went at that time. Anyone who would have said they wanted to go to the United States would have landed in prison.

Cambodian politics in exile

The mixed reputation still connected with the Cambodian French and also, but to a lesser degree, the Cambodian American returnees seems bound up especially with their support and participation in the Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Indépendant Neutre, Pacifique et Coopératif (FUNCINPEC) party in the 1990s.

The FUNCINPEC was initiated in February 1981 by the Cambodian royal family and established later that year in Paris by a central committee of a hundred former Cambodian refugees. It grew exponentially with members of all levels of the overseas communities, especially in France and the United States. FUNCINPEC can be seen as a true “diaspora project” that evolved from the continuing transnational ties with the home country. Mme. Pas’ family was involved from the beginning (her story is paraphrased here in English).

Asean Postpones Passage of Nuclear Weapons Treaty

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin holds hands with (L-R) The Philippines' Foreign Minister Albert Rosario, Singapore's Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan, Thailand's Foreign Minister Surapong Towijakchaikul, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Brunei's Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Laos' Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia's representative and Secretary General of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Surin Pitsuwan during the opening ceremony of the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting (AMM) at the office of Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh on Monday. (Reuters Photo/Samrang Pring)

July 09, 2012
Antara (Indonesia)

Phnom Penh. Three documents on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), which were scheduled to be signed this week during an Asean summit in Cambodia, were postponed until November because four of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states (P5) have “reservations,” a Cambodian senior official said Monday.

Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia’s foreign ministry, said three documents were supposed to be signed this week, including the Asean Statement on the Protocol to the Treaty of the SEANWFZ, the Memorandum of Understanding between Asean and China to the treaty on SEANWFZ and the protocol to the treaty on the SEANWFZ by the P5 on July 12. The P5 includes France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and China.

“The SEANWFZ Commission decided to postpone the signings until the member states in Asean countries are able to work closely with the members of the P5 to resolve the reservations by members of the P5,” Hourn said in a press briefing after the 45th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) on Monday.

4 nuke states postpone signing SEANWFZ protocol next week

Xinhua | 2012-7-9

Four out of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states (P5) will not be ready to sign on the protocol to the treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting next week, a Cambodian senior official said Sunday.

The four countries are France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia's foreign ministry, said in a press briefing after the meeting of the SEANWFZ Commission, which was attended by ASEAN foreign ministers and chaired by Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong.

"They (the four countries) have introduced the text of reservation and position reservation to the SEANWFZ commission very late; therefore, the commission has not had more time to review them, and the commission decided that the signing will be postponed so that we will have more time to review the text of reservation and position of reservation," said Kao Kim Hourn. "We do hope that the signing by the four countries can take part during the 21st ASEAN Summit in November this year."

SRP Information meeting in Marseilles, France with the presence of Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy and Ven. Tim Sakhorn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmPuEaGSZ1M

Tough decision on Bo's accomplice

Patrick Devillers (Photo: Reuters)

Monday, 02 July 2012
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

The government had been torn between the demands of France and China when deciding the fate of detained Frenchman Patrick Devillers, an official said yesterday.

Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, would not say whether Beijing had provided the government with evidence of Devillers’ alleged crimes yet, but said he was concerned about what to do with the 52-year-old.

“I hope these two countries, both friends of Cambodia, will understand our difficulty,” he told the Post. “If we send him to China, France will not be happy; and if we give him to France, it will disappoint China.”

Cambodia and China: No Strings Attached?

China's Vice President Xi Jinping toasts with Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen (R) after signing an agreement on cooperation at council of minister in Phnom Penh December 21, 2009 (Chor Sokunthea/Courtesy Reuters).

June 27, 2012 
Joshua Kurlantzick 
Council of Foreign Relations

Laura Speyer is an intern for Southeast Asian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Just three years ago, Chinese vice president Xi Jinping claimed that “Sino-Cambodian relations are a model of friendly cooperation.” This week, Vice President Xi may have reason to reassess Cambodia’s willingness to “cooperate” with—some might say “obey”—its powerful neighbor. The issue highlighting power dynamics between the two countries is the extradition of Patrick Devillers, a French citizen allegedly involved in the increasingly bizarre imbroglio surrounding Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai, who is suspected of murder.

Two things happened on June 13: first, the Cambodian government arrested Mr. Devillers at Beijing’s behest, although the Chinese government did not specify what charges they wished to investigate. Second, He Guoqiang, a member of China’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, arrived in Cambodia for a three-day goodwill visit during which he negotiated a series of loans worth $430 million. There are no official connections between Beijing’s arrest and extradition requests and the generous loan provisions. Still, the Chinese government might have had reason to believe it could trade monetary aid and investment for a few pesky evaders of the Chinese penal system—it has happened before.

In December 2009, China requested the extradition of twenty Chinese nationals, members of the Uighur ethnic minority, who had escaped to Cambodia following the July 2009 riots in Urumqi. Amid an international outcry, Cambodia deported all twenty Uighurs, including two infants. Cambodian leaders made the claim that the Chinese nationals had entered Cambodia without the proper documents, and were simply being deported according to Cambodia’s usual policy toward illegal immigrants. One day after the group returned to China, Vice President Xi arrived in Phnom Penh with almost $1 billion of foreign investment, loans and grants.

Cambodia says Frenchman may be financially linked to Bo case

By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH | Wed Jun 27, 2012

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A French architect in detention in Cambodia is being held because of alleged financial links to China's biggest political scandal in two decades and a Chinese judge could come to help with his questioning, a Cambodian minister said on Wednesday.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith told reporters that Patrick Henri Devillers had been detained because of suspected financial links to Gu Kailai, wife of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai.

Gu Kailai has been named by China as a suspect in the murder last November of British businessman Neil Heywood. Both Heywood and Devillers were known to be close to her.

French spirit inspired me, Aung San Suu Kyi says [- ¡Viva la Revolución! Vive la Soupe à l'Oignon!]

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (L) is welcomed by French President Francois Hollande as she arrives at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on the first day of a three-day visit June 26, 2012. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

06/26/2012
Reuters

"I am such an admirer of Victor Hugo because he understood that true revolution begins within yourself. So we have to make those that are not yet committed to the path of reform understand that a revolution from within themselves is the best way to improve the situation in the country"

PARIS (Reuters) - France's revolutionary spirit, art, literature and even its onion soup served as an inspiration to Myanmar pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi during years of house arrest, she said on Tuesday.

Asked in Paris, as she nears the end of a 17-day European tour, what a visit to France meant to her, Suu Kyi, who studied the French language and culture during 15 years confined to her home, responded:

"Everything from Victor Hugo to onion soup."

"It would be difficult for me to say in a few short (words) what France means to me (but) the revolutionary spirit of France has always been inspirational to me in my political struggle," she told reporters during a joint news conference with France's new Socialist president, Francois Hollande.

A french Exocet to Tuol Krasaing may help Cambodia speed up its decision!!!

A French Exocet missile aimed at Tuol Krasaing could help speed up Cambodia's review of the law

Cambodia Holds Frenchman as It Examines Extradition Laws

Monday, 25 June 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

"Cambodia has 60 days to decide."

Cambodia is still holding a French architect arrested at the behest of China earlier this month, while authorities examine national laws on extradition in what has become a complicated international case.

Patrick Devillers was arrested June 13 and has been linked to Gu Kailai, the jailed wife of former rising political star Bo Xilai who is accused of killing British businessman Neil Heywood.

It is unclear what charges Devillers faces, but government spokesman Phay Siphan said officials are considering whether he can be extradited. Cambodia has 60 days to decide, he said.

Cambodia refuses to extradite French architect to China

Patrick Devillers (Photograph by: Reuters File , Daily Telegraph)

Businessman Neil Heywood is suspected of being poisoned in November 2011 after threatening to ruin a Chinese leader's family over corruption allegations, sources say.

June 24, 2012

By JONATHAN MANTHORPE, Vancouver Sun

Cambodia has decided not to deport to China a French architect wanted by Beijing authorities as they investigate disgraced would-be leader Bo Xilai and the murder of a British businessman.

Meanwhile a Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, on Friday quoted Chinese Communist Party sources as saying that Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo, the sacked party boss of the megacity Chongqing, has confessed to investigators that she was responsible for the killing of the British businessman, Neil Heywood.

According to the newspaper, Gu told investigators she killed Heywood in November last year because he was about to reveal that she was moving billions of dollars out of China into overseas accounts and investments.

The French architect, Patrick Devillers, worked on projects in the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian when Bo was mayor in the 1990s.

SRP information meeting in Lyon, France on 17 June 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igv53_JdgLc

Cambodia Ambiguous on Plans for French Architect

June 22, 2012
By KEITH BRADSHER
The New York Times

HONG KONG — Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the country had no plans to extradite to China or France a detained French architect with links to a disgraced Chinese politician and his wife, but that the architect was not yet being set free, either.

Kuy Kong, a spokesman for the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, said that he did not know how long the architect, Patrick Devillers, would be held, nor why he was being held.

Hor Namhong, Cambodia’s foreign minister, said late Thursday night that Mr. Devillers was still being investigated. The police in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, said earlier in the week that Mr. Devillers had been arrested about two weeks ago at China’s request. Chinese government offices were closed on Friday in observance of a national holiday, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry declined earlier in the week to comment on Mr. Devillers.

The French Embassy in Phnom Penh had no immediate comment.

Under Cambodia’s extradition agreement with China, the Chinese government has up to 60 days after Mr. Devillers’s detention to provide legal documents to support any extradition request. The agreement, one of only a handful that Cambodia has concluded with any country, allows the extradition of foreigners who are not citizens of either Cambodia or China.

The immigration police in Phnom Penh said that they were holding Mr. Devillers near the airport, but declined to comment further on his case.