Free Vietcong training and indoctrination offered ... with guaranteed Hanoi PhD

Vietnam Offers Military Training to Cambodia

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
20 April 2009

Vietnam’s deputy defense minister on Monday offered aid in military training to Cambodian soldiers and officers, at a time when Cambodian and Thai troops are entangled in a protracted border dispute in the north.

Maj. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh made the offer to Prime Minister Hun Sen following a ceremony for 22 senior military officials who recently returned from PhD and master’s programs in military science at the Army Institute of Vietnam, in Hanoi.

“He is ready to help for human resources development in the field of national defense and to strengthen the cooperation between the Cambodian Defense Ministry and the Vietnamese Defense Ministry,” Hun Sen’s spokesman, Ieng Sophaleth, told reporters Monday. “Vietnam and the Vietnamese army are ready to learn and share experiences between Cambodia and Vietnam, with the purpose of strengthening and building-up the capacity of territorial defense and the defense of respective sovereignties.”

Military officials have received training in Vietnam since the 1980s, when Cambodia was under Vietnamese occupation following the ouster of the Khmer Rouge, in 1979.

“From 2001 to 2009, there have been 170 Cambodian military senior officials going to study at the institute,” Nguyen Duc Xe, director of the Army Institute, said in remarks Monday.

The 22 graduates, all officers, wrote theses that “are not made for offensives to invade any countries,” Hun Sen said at the ceremony Monday, “but they are just about management and order of the military, to defend national sovereignty. This shows that Cambodia is not thinking about sending its troops to invade any countries.”

Graduates of the Army Institute who were recognized on Monday included Gen. Pol Saroeun, commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, and his deputy, Gen. Kun Kim, both of whom earned PhDs.

Pol Saroeun wrote his thesis on the defense of Military Region 3, which comprises the provinces of Kampong Speu, Kampot, Kep, Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Takeo. Kun Kim wrote about Military Region 5, which includes the provinces of Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Pursat, as well as Pailin.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Thai and Cambodian troops have been entrenched along the northern border of Preah Vihear province since July, when Preah Vihear temple was included on a list of World Heritage sites, sparking protests in Thailand. Talks have failed to bring about a resolution, and troops have clashed at least twice, leading to deaths on each side.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: General Pol Saroeun

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

Pol Saroeun: Another CPP Hanoi PhD

4-gold-star CPP General Pol Saroeun (Photo: Global Witness)

Gen. Pol Saroeun Defends Doctoral Thesis on Military Science in Vietnam

03 Jan 09
By Chea Chheang
Rasmey Kampuchea
Translated from Khmer by Anonymous

Vietnam: Senior General Pol Saroeun, deputy supreme commander and chief of the Joint Staff of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces [RCAF], defended his national-level doctoral thesis on military science after completing his four-year study that began in 2004 at the Dalat Military Academy of the SRV.

On the occasion of his 29 December 2008 thesis defense before the board of examiners consisting of Associate Professors Dr. Nguyen Duc Xe, Trung Thay Bin, Nguyen Kim Than, Nguyen Van Hoa, Nguyen Duan Tung, Nguyen Trong Thuong, and Trong Van Kvien, as well as several high-ranking Cambodian and Vietnamese officers, Snr. Gen. Pol Saroeun presented his thesis entitled "How the RCAF Organizes and Uses Forces in the Counteroffensive Campaign on the Terrain of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

"During the above thesis defense the board of examiners of the Dalat Military Academy posed several questions on issues concerning the tactics of counterattacking enemies on the terrain of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and all these questions were correctly explained in details to the point that it was accepted that this defense of the national-level military science doctoral thesis was a total success.

It should also be noted that the success of Snr. Gen. Pol Saroeun's thesis defense on that occasion was warmly approved and applauded by the board of examiners and the high-ranking Cambodian and Vietnamese officers who were present at this very solemn ceremony.

Hanoi PhD, Dr Hun Xen, knows the economy better than the IMF

Cambodian gov't rejects IMF s gloomy economic report

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government officials have rebuffed a gloomy economic forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying the Kingdom's predicted growth slowdown would not be as dire as the world body suggests, national media reported Monday.

At the culmination of a two-week mission Friday, the IMF announced that lower foreign investment, as well as runoff effects from the global financial crisis, would push Cambodia's economic growth down to 4.8 percent in 2009, from a previously predicted rate of nine percent.

But in a prepared speech Sunday for the 55th anniversary of Independence Day, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he was confident the government's strong economic record protected it against such a depreciative outlook, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

"During the last four years, Cambodia has maintained an economic growth of two digits," he was quoted as saying.

"In the fourth mandate, the government will ensure the achievement of economic growth of around seven percent a year and pull down the inflation rate to one digit," he added.

Cambodian Finance Minister Keat Chhon told the Post last week that economic growth would be no lower than 6.5 percent for 2009.