Medics train Cambodian staff

Jun 11, 2010
By Victoria Vaughan
Straits Times (Singapore)

MEDICS from Singapore recently travelled to Cambodia to help train local doctors and nurses in paediatric intensive care.

The mission was part of a capacity- building project by volunteer charity Singapore International Foundation (SIF) which started in 2008.

The four-year project comes under the SIF's Singapore Volunteers Overseas programme and is funded by Metro for Children charity. It supports the further training of medical staff at the hospital with tutorials and practical demonstrations by medics from Singapore.

Two doctors and two nurses from KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) travelled to the capital, Phnom Penh, for two weeks in March to share their expertise with their Cambodian counterparts at the National Pediatric Hospital (NPH) of Cambodia.

The Singapore team, picked and led by Dr Loh Tsee Foong, senior consultant at KKH's intensive care unit, lectured on administration, admission criteria, the ventilation of babies and children, as well as the management of infection.

NPH's Dr Srour Yina said the training was helpful. 'Some of the things we are taught are new to us and will help us to further cut down the number of deaths. We're leaning to intubate and carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Before, we did these things but not so well.'

India trains Cambodian soldiers in jungle warfare ... while Cambodia has legions of idle former Khmer Rouge guerrilla soldiers?

India training Cambodian soldiers in jungle warfare

IANS (India)

New Delhi, Jan 1 - Thirteen soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Special Force (RCSF) are currently undergoing an intensive four-week course at the Indian Army's Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairengte in Mizoram, Asia's premier institute for imparting such skills.

'The RCSF is keen to learn from the Indian Army's experience in combating insurgency for the past 50 years. There is no better staging ground for this exchange of expertise that our facility at Vairengte,' an officer said.

The training will conclude by mid-January.

With its motto of 'Fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla', the school trains all ranks of the Indian armed forces, the paramilitary forces and personnel of the Central Police Organisations. The school has been recognised as a centre of excellence for counter insurgency training.

According to school commandant Brigadier R.M. Painuly, 'low intensity conflicts are becoming global in scope. It is widely believed that terrorism is becoming less territorially defined, global in reach and more decentralised.

'Indeed, terrorism has now truly become a global phenomenon. They are no longer bound by limits of geography, because of which modern militancy has become a complex phenomenon,' Painuly says.

'The globalised world is now matched by a globalised militant ideology. We need to tackle the menace of terrorism globally and hence, joint training is a step in the global war against terrorism,' the commandant maintains.

Toward this, the school is now providing training to officers and personnel below officer rank (PBOR) of various friendly foreign countries like Afghanistan, Bhutan, Botswana, Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Mauritius, Singapore, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nigeria and Uzbekistan.

'The training facilities at the school are greatly appreciated by the subscribing countries. Many other countries have elicited interest in the training being imparted at the school and the demand (for seats) is on the increase,' Painuly says.

Sophary Noy obtains training in leadership and resolving conflicts at SDSU

International students gathered at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego for a workshop during their three-week stay at San Diego State University. (Photo: EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune)

International students come together at SDSU

July 21, 2007
By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
San Diego Union Tribune (Calif., USA)

SAN DIEGO – Nadir Ozyukselen, a Turkish Cypriot, and Aristos Papaonisiforou, a Greek Cypriot, belong to opposing communities in the conflict over the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. And neither has ever known a person from the other side.

But they've met in America as part of the first program at San Diego State University designed to teach 21 young people from a dozen countries about leadership and resolving conflicts.

The international university students come from nations such as Bosnia, Moldova, Morocco, Kazakhstan, India, Romania, China and Nepal.

During the three-week program, which ends tomorrow, the visitors toured the border, visited the Maritime Museum, celebrated the Fourth of July in Coronado and participated in seminars on anger and revenge, diplomacy and nonviolent social change.

Sophary Noy, a 24-year-old student at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia, said the program gave her hope for the future and skills to deal with political problems at home. This will be useful, she said, in her role as staff writer for a magazine published by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has been gathering evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The program has been funded through a five-year, $1.7 million donation from the San Diego-based Fred J. Hansen Foundation. The program, which has one student from the University of San Diego and nine from SDSU, covers travel, room and board, and activity costs.

Students say most of the learning came from keeping company with peers from across the globe.

“I've built connections with people around the world,” Noy said. Dilip Ghimire, 21, of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said this was a rare opportunity to observe how the United States approaches conflict.

“We have different problems (in Kazakhstan),” said the student at Eurasian National University. “Some say we have a democracy, but I don't think we do. I think we're on our way, but it's not one yet.”

Ghimire, who plans to start a business in international construction or trade, said he's learned that these vastly different countries have common problems such as gang and border issues. Kazakhstan, which declared independence in 1991, is home to numerous ethnic groups, he said.

“We all want to establish peace,” he said. “I've learned that to do that, we should learn to be tolerant.”

Ron Bee, managing director of SDSU's Hansen Summer Institute on Leadership and International Cooperation, said the foreign participants are university students or recent graduates who have demonstrated leadership ability in their homelands. Noy, for example, coordinated 200 volunteers to help Cambodian villages rebuild many years after the Khmer Rouge was overthrown.

The students are all on their first trip to the United States and have been affected by poverty or conflict at home.

Goran Dedovic, for example, fled Bosnia in 1993 to escape starvation and the danger of bombs and snipers. Dedovic, 26, immigrated to Sweden and is studying media and communications at Sõdertõrn University College.

During a class this week on negotiations, SDSU lecturer Lisa Maxwell, a senior trainer for the National Conflict Resolution Center in San Diego, used aikido to make a point. She asked the students to pair up face-to-face and put their palms against one another and push.

“OK, who had control?” Maxwell asked. Nearly half raised their hands.

“Sometimes when we're negotiating we're trying to push our way to get what we want,” she said.

Through another martial arts move, Maxwell demonstrated how to step aside but, at the same time, not give in, enabling them to see the other person's perspective.

As SDSU's program winds down, many participants have formed friendships they plan to nurture when they leave. Ozyukselen has discovered that despite their differences, she and Papaonisiforou crave the same things for Cyprus, which has been split into a Greek Cypriot-controlled south and Turkish-occupied north since Turkey invaded in 1974.

“We've had lots of wars and fights about the territory, but (Papaonisiforou) said he wants peace,” said Ozyukselen, a 19-year-old student at Eastern Mediterranean University. “That's a surprise for me because that's what I want.

Ozyukselen said she's started to better understand the perspective of Greek Cypriots, who occupy about two-thirds of the island. The two both want a unified state, and Ozyukselen believes the summer program offered tools to get there.

Sherry Saavedra: (619) 542-4598; sherry.saavedra@uniontrib.com

SRP announces upcoming arrival of newly elected SRP commune councilors from Mondulkiri for training in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, June 2, 2007

LOCAL LEADERS FROM MONDULKIRI PROVINCE
IN PHNOM PENH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR LIFE

On Sunday, June 3, 2007, about 20 local leaders, most of them members of ethnic minorities, from the remote Mondulkiri province (North-East of Cambodia) will meet in Phnom Penh at the Sam Rainsy Party headquarters. Eight of them have been recently elected as commune councilors (1). Being in Phnom Penh for the first time in their life, they will attend a training session intended to help them to properly do their work as community leaders. They will be greeted by SRP President Sam Rainsy who will make his opening address at 8:00 am. Everybody is invited to attend.

SRP Cabinet

-----------
(1) Out of a total of 107 commune councilors representing 21 communes in Mondulkiri province, 98 are from the CPP, 8 from the SRP (representing 7 communes), and 1 from the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP).

If foreigners are involved [in training Thai muslims]

Monday May 21, 2007
Bangkok Post

One of the major and recurring questions about the resurgence of murderous violence in the South in January of 2004 has been whether foreigners are involved. Given the nature of international terrorism and crime, it is a valid question. Both separatist and Islamist gangs are known to operate in neighbouring countries. It has become clear in the past three years that outside involvement, if any, is low-key. Now, senior army officers are saying that training by foreign terrorist experts is taking place. There are problems with the military statements. Scepticism remains high. For one thing, although foreign terrorists have been arrested in Thailand, none has been linked to the southern gangs behind the violence. While outside involvement is definitely possible these days, the evidence so far is that Thai Muslims will not hide or shield foreign troublemakers. The refusal by Thai villagers and by any Muslim authorities is what has led to the arrests of foreign militants.

Thai authorities have stopped some highly important international terrorists in recent years. Indonesian chief of operations Hambali and the Malaysian operative Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, better known as Lillie, were seized in Ayutthaya. They were pretending to be foreign visitors until Muslims reported them to police as suspicious characters. Singaporean Arifin Ali, a Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) trainer, was arrested in 2003 in the South when villagers reported him to authorities even though he supposedly had a Thai wife.

Two senior army officers now believe that foreigners are helping the southern separatists. Col Akara Thiprote, a military spokesman, said that the brutality of the southern atrocities proves outsiders are involved. Thais would never teach such cruel killing methods as beheadings, he said, adding that Thais do not know how to behead a victim, and must have been taught. A few days later, Gen Wattanachai Chaimuenwong said that terrorism experts from Indonesia and Cambodia were training Thai insurgents.

The evidence of Col Akara and Gen Wattanachai is far from compelling. But critics have been far too quick to scoff at the claim. The JI terrorist group is centred in Indonesia, but operates throughout lower Southeast Asia. Its top operatives are believed to be working with Islamic separatists in the southern Philippines, a region once thought to be resisting outside influence. JI cells have been broken up in Singapore and Malaysia, and the group's ideology calls for an Asian caliphate that extends from the Philippines to Burma, through Thailand.

Gen Wattanachai, whose most recent field assignments have been in the North, believes that Indonesian and Cambodian experts are instructing Thai insurgents in weapons training, bomb making and general war tactics. He also believes that the southern gangs may be preparing for bigger operations such as organised attacks on military bases. The general believes there are not many foreign instructors, but that they are ''the real warriors, tough fighters''.

That may be so, and it is arguably not the general's job to know all the nuances of national policy. Still, Gen Wattanachai is a veteran with long experience of the nation's relations with Burma. He should be careful of his words about foreign countries, particularly the neighbours. Just hours after his interview last week with the media, Cambodian officials showed testiness over the general's remarks. Without proof, preferably arrests, Thai authorities must be ultra-careful about making charges against specific nationalities. After all, it was Cambodian police who arrested three alleged al-Qaeda members, two of whom turned out to be Thai Islamists.

It is certain that southern Thai extremists are getting aid, comfort and basic terrorist training from Islamist websites and from foreign-produced books and CDs. The roadside improvised explosive, or IED, is straight from the training manual of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as are the 29 terrorist beheadings conducted by Thai insurgents. The 700 Thai men who trained in Afghan camps prior to 2001 have obviously passed on their expertise.

It is less clear at this point that foreign terrorists are actually training or leading the Thai gangs. Authorities must get to the bottom of every report of outside involvement. If foreigners are working inside Thailand against the nation, they must be rooted out ruthlessly.

Cambodian Military Doctors Trained by U.S. Counterparts on Avian Flu

Veasna Mean
VOA Khmer
Cambodia
20/02/2007

Thirty eight Cambodian military doctors are receiving training for the first time on avian flu prevention from United States military doctors in Phnom Penh this week.

The four-day training starts Tuesday and is organized by the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Ten U.S. military doctors are training their Cambodian counterparts on how to deal with the deadly avian flu virus that has no cure yet.

Miss Viseth Ngauy, a Cambodian-American doctor from Maryland, says the training will focus on transportation, rescue work, patients' environment, and sick poultries.

The U.S. military doctors have provided similar training in Malaysia and Thailand.

Cambodian military doctors used to play an important role in treating soldiers and civilians during the wartime, but now that the country is at peace, they have not been very active.

Ministry of Defense's Office of Troops' Health, Major General Thou Tharith, says that Cambodian military doctors do monitor bird flu situation but lack the means to do more.

Bird flu has killed 6 people in Cambodia so far. The disease has killed 173 people around the world.