Firt Internet Crime in Cambodia

Click on the government complaint in Khmer to zoom in

March 10, 2010

FIRST INTERNET CRIME IN CAMBODIA

Excerpt from
the complaint lodged by the Cambodian Government against Sam Rainsy
(Lawsuit filed at the Court on February 25, 2010 by the Government’s lawyer)

«Through the Internet and other information systems Sam Rainsy recently gave interviews and showed documents such as photos, maps and a several-page set of explanatory documents with the purpose of misleading the national and international opinion so as they misunderstand the work of the Committee in charge of border delineation between Cambodia and Vietnam.

[…]

The border issue is a sensitive one and can affect national stability and security. Sam Rainsy is using a trick based on technology in order to mislead the public opinion. This is a violation of national laws that are in force.

Sam Rainsy had a dishonest intention when forging public documents and using them to distort information and unfairly blame the Government so as to provoke destruction and create turmoil affecting public security. Moreover, Sam Rainsy used all means to disseminate this invented and erroneous information in order to mislead national and international opinion in the whole world.

Sam Rainsy’s act is a crime as specified in Articles 49 [Forgery of Public Document: 5- to-15- year imprisonment] and 52 [Wrongful Damage to Property: 1-to-3-year imprisonment] of the Criminal Law for the Transitional Period. »

[End]
_______
10 Mars 2010

PREMIER CRIME INTERNET AU CAMBODGE

Extrait de la plainte portée par
le Gouvernement cambodgien contre Sam Rainsy
(Plainte déposée au Tribunal le 25 février 2010
par l’avocat du Gouvernement)

« Tout récemment, au moyen du système de diffusion Internet et d’autres systèmes d’information, le dénommé Sam Rainsy a, à travers des interviews, montré des documents tels que photos, cartes et documents explicatifs de plusieurs pages dans le but de tromper l’opinion nationale et internationale pour que celle-ci se méprenne à propos du travail du Comité de délimitation des frontières entre le Cambodge et le Vietnam.

[…]

Le problème des frontières est une question sensible et peut affecter la stabilité et la sécurité nationales. La démarche de Mr Sam Rainsy est une ruse consistant à utiliser la technologie pour tromper l’opinion publique. Cet acte est une violation des lois nationales en vigueur.

Le dénommé Sam Rainsy a eu une intention malhonnête quand il s’est livré à la falsification de documents publics et l’utilisation de ces documents pour dénaturer l’information et rejeter injustement la faute sur le gouvernement dans un but de destruction pour créer des troubles à la sécurité publique. Pire encore, le dénommé Sam Rainsy a utilisé tous les moyens pour diffuser ces informations inventées et erronées pour tromper l’opinion nationale et internationale dans le monde entier.

Les actes commis par Sam Rainsy sont des délits relevant des articles 49 [Falsification de documents publics : 5 à 15 ans de prison] et 52 [Destruction illégale de biens appartenant à autrui : 1 à 3 ans de prison] du Code Pénal transitoire. »

[Fin]

Tweeting becomes a weapon

November 18, 2009
The Nation

Twitter proved to be an efficient tool for Barack Obama to win the US presidential elections late last year - he was one of the most popular tweeters with more than 2.6 million followers. However, the fact that Obama did not tweet himself was no surprise - the White House has its own media team that sends out messages to the public. Yet, it is a bit mystifying as to why he didn't personally send out any tweets during the primaries.

That revelation came on Monday at a Q&A session with Chinese youth in Shanghai. The president fielded a question about the restricted use of Twitter in China and he said: "I have never used Twitter, but I'm an advocate of technology and not restricting Internet access."

Now lets enter cyberspace in Thailand, or rather the battlefield it has become with politicians using the Internet to not just speak to their supporters but also to attack their rivals.

Like Obama, micro blogging has failed to impress Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva even though his account, PM_Abhisit, had 33,107 followers as of press time. He is known to have once said that he did not really like the concept of announcing all his actions to the whole world.

Initially though Abhisit did tweet himself, but later he had to hand the job over to his staff.

Yet, unlike Obama and Abhisit, fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra seems to love networking in cyberspace. In fact, he has been networking non-stop since just before his 60th birthday in late July via Twitter and Facebook under his "Thaksinlive" account.

According to the red shirts, Thaksinlive is a channel to fill the communication gap between Thaksin and his supporters. Through Twitter, Thaksin can send messages to his supporters across the Kingdom, indeed across the world, and can get direct messages from them as well. In fact, just a short message on his mobile phone can make big news. As of press time, he had 44,289 fellow tweeters following his every move.

However, things in the micro-blogging world seem to have become a bit confusing recently. There's now a copycat account called "taksinlive" with the ex-premier's photo probably set up to confuse the red-shirted tweeters.

Even though taksinlive looks very similar to Thaksin's account, the owner appears to intensely dislike the former PM. The taksinlive account, which was set up in late September and had 646 followers as of press time, carries nasty messages about Thaksin, especially in terms of his latest moves in Cambodia. And this tweeting seems to have woken some people up - just yesterday it had 100 new followers.

Thaksin supporters, however, are warning all their counterparts not to follow "taksinlive" because it is not "Thaksinlive". Hopefully, the red shirts will heed this warning, because we don't want to see bloodshed in the virtual world, do we?

jintana@nationgroup.com

Net help for persecuted tribes of Laos and Vietnam

The Internet has become an effective tool of communication. It is through the web that the indigenous people in the forests of Laos and Vietnam are letting the world know about their persecution by their respective governments.

14 April 2008, Monday
By Bhumika Ghimire
MeriNews - Power to People

ALERTNET BLOGGER, Amy Hutt, who has reported on human rights issues in Southeast Asia, Australia and South America, writes about how the Hmong and the Montagnards are reaching out to the world, through technology.

Hmong, who live in the forests of Laos, claim that the government is persecuting them and treating them like enemies for their supposed relation with the rebels, who fought against the communist regime 40 years back.

A video has now surfaced on the YouTube, which shows a 10-year-old Hmong boy, whose stomach is cut open and the internal organs are exposed. He was attacked by the government forces while searching for food. He died two days after the attack, without getting any medical care.

The report also talks about a video posted by the ’Montagnard Foundation’, which shows the Montagnard people being tortured and beaten up by the Vietnamese forces. Although they have given up violence and disbanded their separatist campaign, the Montagnards are still facing serious government actions. The report estimates that 350 are in prison. The majority of the prisoners are accused of seeking asylum into the neighboring country of Cambodia or being active in the religious activities.

The Hmong

According to the data provided by the Wikipedia, China has the largest Hmong population in the world at three million. In Laos, there are 3,20,000 Hmongs and in Vietnam there are 7,90,000. It is said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited Hmong men in Laos to fight the ’US Secret War’ in the country, in the early 1960s.

After the war ended, the Hmong were targeted by thecommunist regime and faced retaliation. Many fled to Thailand and other countries seeking refuge.

The Montagnards

According to the ’Save the Montagnard people’ website, the Montagnards are now facing political, economic as well as cultural retaliation from the Vietnamese government. Their language cannot be taught in the schools, and all the books written in their tribal languages were burnt after 1975.

Montagnard farmers are not allowed to use the public irrigation system, which affects their crop production and income level. They are also denied medical care and other facilities that other villagers receive from the government.

They are also facing religious persecution, many of their churches were forcibly closed down, and some were even vandalised. The government even arrested preachers and forced them to worship only in ’approved’ churches.

In Cambodia, Amnesty Int'l said the Internet has become the new frontier in the struggle for the right to dissent

Tue 22 May 2007
Politics of fear fuelling divisions -- Amnesty

By Paul Majendie

"People Power will change the face of human rights in the 21st century. Hope is very much alive" - Amnesty International

LONDON, May 23 (Reuters) - The politics of fear are fuelling human rights abuses and creating a dangerously divided world, Amnesty International said in a sombre assessment of man's inhumanity around the globe.

"Our world is as polarised as it was at the height of the Cold War and in many ways far more dangerous," Irene Khan, secretary-general of the human rights pressure group said in its latest annual report published on Wednesday.

She said fear has been a positive motivator for change over global warming with politicians being forced belatedly into action by the pressure of public opinion.

But she said fear was being used to erode the rights of people -- all in the name of greater security.

Pointing an accusing finger around the globe from Washington to Harare, Amnesty blamed governments for undermining human rights and feeding racism with short-sighted, fear-mongering and divisive policies.

"The politics of fear are fuelling a downward spiral of human rights abuses in which no right is sacrosanct," Khan said in the 2007 dossier from the pressure group which boasts 2.2 million members in more than 150 countries.

"The 'war on terror' and the war in Iraq, with their catalogue of human rights abuses, have created deep divisions that cast a shadow on international relations," she said.

Amnesty accused President Bush of invoking fear of terrorism to enhance his executive power. "The U.S. administration's double speak has been breathtakingly shameless," it said.

The pressure group said the Sudanese government is running rings round the United Nations over Darfur where 200,000 people have died in the conflict.

"Darfur is a bleeding wound on world conscience," it said.

Amnesty said Australian Prime Minister John Howard's government had raised a false alarm by portraying desperate asylum-seekers in leaky boats as a threat to Australia's national security.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe played on racial fears to push his own political agenda and grab land for his supporters, Amnesty said.

The human rights update makes for grim reading -- from the prosecution of writers in Turkey to the killing of left-wing activists in the Philippines and soaring violence in Brazil.

In Colombia and Cambodia, in Cuba and Uzbekistan, Amnesty said the Internet has become the new frontier in the struggle for the right to dissent.

It said increasing polarisation had strengthened the hand of extremists with Islamophobia and anti-Semitism both on the increase. Fear feeds discontent and discrimination, it said.

But after chronicling a catalogue of unremitting gloom, Amnesty did end its annual report on a positive note, arguing that human rights can be as effectively tackled as global warming if public opinion can be galvanised around the planet.

"People Power will change the face of human rights in the 21st century. Hope is very much alive," it said.

Internet Use Shaping Cambodia

A practice session after an Introduction to Blogging workshop at a computer lab of Pannasastra University of Cambodia. Image from Chantra’s Flickr.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
By Tharum Bun
Global Voices

With more than 50% of the population of almost 15 million people younger than 25, the future of Cambodia’s internet as well as the youth lifestyle looks vibrant.

Thousands of people - Internet users, IT professionals, computer enthusiasts and bloggers will gather at an event taking place at Raffles Hotel Le Royal, the premier hotel in the Cambodian capital on 19th and 20th May. In cooperation with Mobile Phone Magazine, Internet solution provider Manich Enterprise expects to host about 5000 attendees for an exhibition on all things Information Technology. The exhibition is called ‘Internet Party and this is the second time the event is being organised. The organizers are offering participants some exciting and entertaining sessions including an Internet Queen contest. Like previous year, vibrant Phnom Penhers are hoping to enjoy the social networking event.

In schools, talking about the latest mobile phone, fashion, or even car is a now a trend. The excitement is not because they are catching up with the rest of the world but they are glad to embrace and use what they can afford. Many Phnom Penh residents know too well that they were left behind some other nations in the region in terms of living a trendy life. However, after the rapid change in last couple of years, globalization and the nation’s free market has made its effect felt, particularly among those who are living in the urban areas.

Some years earlier, doing business in IT sector was a challenge due to small consumer market and low demand etc. In 1997 when the Internet just arrived in Cambodia, sending a message cost $0.15 per kilobyte(about 150 characters of text). It cost a news reporter US$160 to receive an email with a 400K graphic file attachment from his friend at that time.

In early 2003, the Asia Foundation partnered with USAID and Microsoft andestablished a network of Community Information Centers in 22 provinces and municipalities across Cambodia. The Internet-enabled Information Centers across the country provided greater access to news and information for provincial citizens. And that led to the first-ever blogging training in some provinces of this small South East Asian nation.

Following the first large-scale effort to bridge the digital divide through the establishment of Community Information Centres, on April 24, GTZ (the German Technical Cooperation) working in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the German software firm net-Com AG and the Royal Government of Cambodia launched two Khmer-language web sites. The sites provide business information on Siem Reap, the country’s most popular tourist destination and Battambang, the second-largest city of Cambodia. The sites also hope to offer local citizens useful information on the work and organisation of the district administration. Other offering is the One Window Service Office that includes services like fees, processing times, downloadable forms, etc. The site also serve as a source of information for local and foreign visitors and investors. Local businessmen can advertise on the site to increase visibility and to develop new clients.

Several key players are creating new markets with the support of government agencies. In April, Phnom Penh hosted the Digital & Electronics World Expo 2007. This event was supported by the Office of the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication, Ministry of Commerce Phnom Penh, Municipality of Phnom Penh, and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Cambodia. The three-day event saw resellers, distributors, and dealers of big-names brads promoting their products to a large number of potential users.

Last year the country also saw the arrival of WiMAX, a broadband wireless service. Media Ring, a Singapore-based VoIP company, officially launched its Angkor Net ISP in Cambodia. Angkor Net is the first ISP in the country to offer WiMAX wireless broadband services. WIMAX allows the new-startup Internet Service Provider to offer broadband internet speeds without installing telecoms infrastructure.

In many Phnom Penh Internet cafés one can find foreign tourists behind flat screen monitors and sitting next to them are Cambodian university students spending half a dollar for an hour for the net access. The next big thing for many Phnom Penhers is probably accessing internet at home.

As part of its Information and Communication Technologies policy, the Cambodian government hopes to embrace and exploit ICTs to increase the quality of peoples’ lives and also to fight poverty, disease and illiteracy in the country.

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About Tharum Bun

A German journalist describes ThaRum as a nerd. In Tamil-Hindi, ‘tharum’ means ‘gives, ‘presents’ something to the people. In November 2005, ThaRum joined Global Voices Online as a contributing author to cover stories from Cambodia.