khmervirgin: September 2010

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

khmer

Advisor to Cambodia's PM apologizes for making statue

Mea Culpa: Om Yentieng (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

June 18, 2010 Xinhua

An advisor to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has apologized for making a statue without permission. In a letter made available to the media on Friday, Om Yintieng, advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen said he had made a statue of the Prime Minister in a way to express his respect and gratitude, but without knowledge or consent from him. He thus made a public apology and asked for forgiveness from the premier. Om Yintien made the apology soon after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a statement on Thursday saying a number of places have been displayed with statues of the country's leaders or certain artists make sculpture or reproduction in objects of the leaders for decoration at homes or as souvenirs. The statement said the gesture has affected the country's tradition and culture which does not allow any statue or sculpture of the leaders be displayed while they are still alive. In the letter of apology, Om Yintieng did not mention the details of Hun Sen's statue that he had built and where exactly it will be displayed, but local media has reported Friday saying the premier's statue was designed for display inside the premise of government's anti-corruption unit, where is chaired by Om Yintieng. The statue which was seen Thursday by reporters under the wraps was already removed from the site on Friday.

* News * World news * Cambodia Cambodia garment workers strike for minimum wage hike

A Cambodian worker addresses colleagues outside a garment factory in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images
Strikes by about 200,000 Cambodian textile workers – mainly women – in the capital Phnom Penh and the provinces, in protest over low wages, were suspended after three days last week.
The action followed the announcement in July that the minimum wage for workers in the garment and footwear industry would rise from $50 to $61 a month. The level of the rise outraged trade unions, prompting demands for $93 a month.
Last week's industrial action ended peacefully, but strikers threatened to further action if their demands were not met. "We are not demanding a minimum wage, we want a living wage," said Ath Thorn and Kong Athit, of the Cambodian Labour Confederation.
Their demands are supported by a study published last year by the economist and head of the Cambodian Development Institute Kang Chandararot. He said garment workers could only make a living by doing overtime so were closely dependent on the economic climate. He proposed a viable minimum wage of $90.
Cambodia was hard hit by the international crisis in 2008. Textile exports to the US and Europe, the country's main markets, fell by 23% in 2009. More than 90 factories, often owned by Chinese or Taiwanese operators, closed, laying off about 60,000 workers out of a total of 345,000 in the trade. Conditions in the first half of 2010 have improved, with a 7% increase in exports, but business is still far below its level three years ago. Above all there is still no overtime, prompting the massive strike turnout.
"New demands are surfacing now, after two relatively quiet years, because the worst of the crisis is past and exports are picking up," said Jean-Raphaël Chaponnière, an economist at France's Development Agency (AFD).
François-Marie Grau, the General Secretary of the Women's Clothing Federation in Paris, endorses this view. "What is happening in Cambodia is symptomatic of widespread upward pressure on manufacturing costs all over Asia. The region is enjoying powerful growth so workers are putting pressure on their employers," he said.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Hun Sen Expects October Sideline Talks With Thai Premier

Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, left, greets Prime Minister Hun Sen during their meeting in Hua Hin, Thailand, on April 4, 2010.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday he expects to meet his Thai counterpart on the sidelines of an Asia-Europe meeting in October, where the two could discuss ways to resolve the ongoing border dispute near Preah Vihear temple.
Both sides are at loggerheads over a small stretch of land west of the ancient temple, but they only just resumed diplomatic ties that have been suspended since late 2009.
Both sides had withdrawn their ambassadors over a separate incident, when Cambodia hired Thailand's fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser, incensing Bangkok.
Hun Sen told a graduation ceremony of students at the National Education Institution Wednesday that he expected to see Abhisit Vejjajiva on the sidelines of the Brussels meeting as a matter of course.
Other chances to talk could include an Asean summit in Vietnam later in October and a Mekong countries economic meeting in Cambodia in November.
Talks between the two premiers could focus on the border dispute, but also investment, trade, transportation, environmental protection along the border, transnational crime or regional pandemic, Hun Sen said.
Hun Sen said he was disappointed that Thailand still had troops occupying a small pagoda near Preah Vihear temple that is at the heart of the dispute. Thailand claims the pagoda was built on Thai soil. Both sides have reported thousands of troops amassed along the northern border.
“As long as Thai soldiers have not withdrawn from Cambodian territory, the relations are not normal,” he said.
He also stressed the need for a resolution to the ongoing problem, which could require third-party mediation, a step Thailand has said is not necessary.
“Cambodia cannot wait for so long,” Hun Sen said.

Siem Reap (Cambodia), Sept 17 (IBNS) Remarks of Indian President Pratibha Patil at a banquet hosted by the Governor of Siem Reap Province on Thursday:

I deeply appreciate the warm hospitality extended to me and my delegation. I am delighted to be in the historical city of Siem Reap which is home to so many magnificent monuments including the world heritage site - Angkor Wat. These monuments reflect the glory of the Khmers at that time and are a visible symbol of strong cultural ties that existed between India and Cambodia.

India is proud to have been involved in the conservation and restoration efforts of Angkor Wat from 1986 to 1993 and is currently working for Ta Prohm Temple. Today, I had the honour of laying the foundation stone for MGC Asian Traditional Textiles Museum, which would be an added testament of Indian cultural cooperation between India and member countries of the Mekong Ganga Cooperation in this beautiful city of Siem Reap.

I see such joint initiatives as proof of the desire of the two Governments to keep alive the historical cultural ties that exist between the two countries.

I wish to commend Your Excellency, the Governor of Siem Reap Province, and your officials, for their untiring efforts in making the city as well as the Angkor area a tourist paradise. vExcellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I invite you to join me in a toast:

- to the age old friendship between India and Cambodia; - to the progress and prosperity of the people of Cambodia; and

- to the historic city of Siem Reap and to the World Heritage site of Angkor Wat.

Man About Town 17-09-2010

Friday, 17 September 2010 15:00 Peter Olszewski

Anyone for tennis?
We’re used to seeing unusual events staged at Angkor Wat, and now the temple will be graced with a tennis court – but only for a day.

An AstroTurf tennis court will be set up in front of Angkor Wat on September 28 by online service provider Ezecom in conjunction with the Tennis Federation Cambodia.

A move is afoot to resurrect Cambodia’s tennis legacy, which was lost during the Khmer Rouge era and has never since enjoyed the upper-class popularity tennis had in the Kingdom in the 1960s. The Ezecom promotion is part of this push.

The tennis court at Angkor Wat will, on the day, be the stage for Indian tennis great, Leander Paes, a Wimbledon title winner and former captain of the Indian Davis Cup team. He will demonstrate his prowess and conduct a workshop for junior federation members.

CNN will also be in town at the time filming a documentary, and the plan is to have footage of the tennis action at Angkor featured.

London photo showing
The NGO Anjali House, founded in 2006 by the Angkor Photography Festival Association, is about to build some serious brand recognition in London.

Some of the the Anjali House children’s photographs from last year’s festival workshops will be complementing the launch of a book at Asia House in London on September 30.

The evening will include readings from author Sue Guirney’s new book set in Cambodia, accompanied by projections of the children’s photography.

Anjali will be represented on the night by Mr Boris T Van, who will make a short presentation on the work of Anjali House.

Meanwhile, The Angkor Photo Festival coordinator Camille Plante undertook her annual migration from Paris on Monday, and is now ensconced in Siem Reap. As usual, the French dynamo is busily preparing for this year’s festival, which will run from November 20-27.

Blake is coming
Times have been set for Fragments, the bronze sculpture exhibition by the renowned artist Blake, next Thursday, September 23. Blake will give a talk at 6.30pm at the Hotel de La Paix’s Arts Lounge, and then another of the hotel’s famed receptions will kick off, lasting until 10pm.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Sept. 17 (UPI) --

The second in command of Cambodia's deadly Khmer Rouge regime during the 1970s will stand trial next year charged with genocide, torture and religious persecution.
In the dock will be Nuon Chea, who, as deputy to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, was the second most powerful person in the regime that lasted from 1975-79.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians -- one-fifth of the population -- lost their lives under the regime, which was overthrown by an invading army from neighboring Vietnam in 1979. Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians fled the country into exile and uncertain refugee status.
The Khmer Rouge abolished religion, schools and currency to create an agrarian utopia through forced migration from the cities into the countryside. But most are believed to have died of starvation, overwork or were executed by government officials and the military.
Chea, 84, will be joined by three other senior Khmer Rouge leaders, all indicted by Cambodia's U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal. Facing the same charges are former head of state Khieu Samphan, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was the regime's social action minister.
Chea is believed to have been a key architect of the regime's mass killing strategy. He has acknowledged that deaths took place but denies he had any authority to stop them.
Ieng Sary, 84, was the former minister of foreign affairs. He was found guilty of genocide in a Vietnamese-backed trial of former leaders in 1979.
Ieng Thirith, 78, studied English literature in Paris and was Pol Pot's sister-in-law.
Khieu Samphan, 79 and also French-educated, was one of the regime's few diplomats who had contact with the outside world because he was officially head of state.
There were fears that the trial, expected to be one of the most complicated genocide trials, wouldn't happen.
The four Khmer Rouge leaders were arrested in 2007 and have consistently denied the charges that include torture, rape and murder. The tribunal judges were facing a Sept. 19 deadline to hand down indictments or release them.
The court has decided to "send forward these four accused for trial," Judge You Bunleng said at a news conference.
The trial of the four leaders is the second such trial for the country that still feels the pain of what became known as the "killing fields" because of huge number of deaths and subsequent unearthing of mass graves.
Many families remain traumatized and also in the dark about what happened to their kin and friends after they were forcibly removed to the countryside.
In July the 67-year-old math teacher, Christian convert and Khmer Rouge cadre Kaing Guek Eav was given a 35-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity committed during the regime. It was the court's first guilty verdict against a senior Khmer Rouge party figure.
Eav, commonly known as comrade Duch, was director of the notorious prison and feared interrogation center Tuol Sleng, or S-21, in the capital.
An estimated 16,000 men, women and children were systematically tortured, many beaten to death, at the prison. Cambodian officials say only 14 people survived Tuol Sleng. In particular, Duch is alleged to have ordered the executions of 160 children in a single day.
Judges at the trial of Duch, who is the only one to have shown remorse, reduced his sentence by five years after ruling that he had been illegally detained by a military court following his arrest in 1999. Another 11 years were loped off the sentence because of time served in jail awaiting his trial, meaning he faces 19 years in prison.
Despite his stated remorse, Duch always contended that he was simply carrying out orders from his superiors and did so because he feared for his own life.
The top leader, Pol Pot, fled the country after the Vietnamese invaded in 1979 and he died in 1998.

Vietnam-Cambodia Trade Fair to open

Vietnam-Cambodia Trade Fair 2010 will be held in Battambang, Cambodia, from October 20-24, attracting 150 businesses.

The event is being organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Centre.
On display in 250 booths will be products in many categories: agriculture, consumer goods, processed food, footwear, cosmetics, interior decoration, textile and garments, and electronics.
During the fair, a survey on three retail markets in Battambang, Cambodia, and a seminar on connecting Vietnamese and Cambodian businesses, tourism promotion, and publicising HCM City’s socio-economic achievements will take place.
The fair has been created to introduce Vietnamese goods to Cambodia’s northwestern region.

When does a massacre become a genocide?

Sep 17th 2010, 11:27 by B.B. | PHNOM PENH

CAMBODIA’s United Nations-backed war-crimes court formally indicted four former Khmer Rouge leaders on September 16th. Their trial, set to begin next year, will be the second of its kind. In July Comrade Duch, the commandant of an infamous prison, was handed a 35-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity, reduced to 19 years against time served and a period of illegal detention. Next in the dock are the Khmers Rouges’ chief ideologue, Nuon Chea, their former head of state, Khieu Samphan, and Ieng Sary and his wife, Ieng Thirith, both ministers in their government. The four stand charged, like Duch, with war crimes and crimes against humanity—and also with genocide. The court’s new charge should prove most contentious yet.

The term genocide has been used freely by Cambodians and foreign observers alike in reference to the atrocities committed during the Khmers Rouges’ ultra-Maoist revolution. In the mid- to late 1970s it cost the lives of nearly one in four Cambodians; all told, at least 1.7m people died. But the tribunal, started in 2007, only introduced this monumental charge at the end of last year. Investigating judges and prosecutors proposed adding it on the basis of their research into the defendants’ alleged role in the slaughter of Cambodia’s ethnic Vietnamese and Cham Muslims.

In 1999, UN experts concluded that there was strong evidence pointing to genocide by the Khmer Rouge. Ben Kiernan, a scholar of the Khmer Rouge and founder of Yale University’s Cambodian Genocide Project, for one, is adamant that the mass killing in Cambodia constitutes a genocide. In his research Mr Kiernan cites the disproportionate death toll inflicted on those two non-Khmer ethnic groups. The regime officially called for the elimination of both minorities.

Many advocates contend that the symbolic weight carried by the charge of genocide will prove to the Cambodian public that the Western-backed tribunal—known officially as the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia—acknowledges the gravity of their country’s loss. Theary Seng, a survivor who works as a rights advocate in Phnom Penh, believes there is a strong legal basis for prosecuting the regime’s leaders for genocide. Moreover, she says, it can be an effective means of bringing "gravitas to the tribunal”.

“Genocide” is increasingly being used as a generic label for all the world’s most serious mass crimes. “As a result, the absence of the term ‘genocide’ can be interpreted by survivors as meaning they didn’t suffer as much as others”—ie those who have been deemed survivors of genocide—says John Ciorciari, a lawyer and assistant professor at University of Michigan’s School of Public Policy. He has been tracking the tribunal’s genesis and operations for 11 years in his capacity as a legal adviser to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which conducts research for the court.

Despite its growing popularity, the concept of genocide maintains a narrow legal definition which hinges on specific intent. This makes it especially hard to prove. Few dispute that the Khmer Rouge led a campaign to annihilate groups of people whom were considered to be incompatible with its revolutionary aims. The question is whether these groups were targeted first and foremost because of their ethnic or religious type, or rather because they represented perceived political and economic enemies. Somewhat perversely, victims belonging to the latter lot fall outside the crime’s definition.

Not everyone involved with the trial is eager to see the charge introduced. Some have argued that introducing genocide will further entangle a process already beset by delays and confusion. The “Extraordinary Chambers” have already suffered extraordinarily complex internal disputes and accusations of various improprieties, political interference and even outright corruption. One sharply pointed criticism sees the charge of genocide as a cynical move foisted on the proceedings by foreign jurists who want to enhance the profile of the court’s work and their role in it—thereby distracting attention from the Western powers’ history of wrongdoing in Cambodia. “This tribunal has from the beginning been muddled by political objectives,” says Philip Short, who wrote a biography of the late Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge’s paramount leader.

Many scholars of the Vietnam war blame the American bombing of eastern Cambodia for having driven much of the peasantry into the hands of the Khmer Rouge. America’s role in Cambodia became even grimmer during the 1980s, after the Khmer Rouge were driven from power by a Vietnamese invasion force. In a terrible exercise of cold-war realpolitik, American agents supported the Khmer Rouge in exile as a means of resisting the regime installed by Vietnam.

Or, perhaps, the court is simply following through on its mandate. “The purpose of the tribunal is to adjudicate the most serious crimes,” as Mr Ciorciari says. “To the extent that genocide is distinct from war crimes and crimes against humanity, it’s productive to consider this specific charge.” There is, after all, evidence to support it.

CAMBODIA: Government opens first methadone clinic

Photo: Brendan Brady/IRIN

Cambodia came under fire earlier this year over its drug treatment services

BANGKOK, 17 September 2010 (IRIN) - Cambodia is piloting its first methadone clinic for heroin addicts, a move welcomed by NGOs after the government was heavily criticized for its boot-camp style drug-rehab facilities.

Methadone is a heroin substitute used to assuage withdrawal symptoms and for decades has been the treatment method preferred by health practitioners in developed countries, even though it comes with its own addiction problems.

Introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and administered by the Ministry of Health, the year-long pilot programme officially launched this week in the capital, Phnom Penh.

"We don't have a strong history of [professional] drug treatment in Cambodia," Chhit Sophal, head of the Ministry of Health's Centre for Mental Health and Drug dependence and in charge of the programme, told IRIN. "This centre can be a model and other centres here can learn from it."

Some 60 patients are already enrolled and Chhit wants the figure to top 100 within a year.

By deterring heroin users from injecting, methadone clears the body of harmful toxins and also prevents the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis from needle-sharing within this high-risk group, said Chhit.

Almost a quarter of Cambodia's estimated 3,000 injecting drug users are HIV-positive, according to the government. This rate is much higher than the national average of less than 1 percent, according to UN statistics.

Graham Shaw, a drug dependence specialist with WHO in Phnom Penh, said the new treatment could turn around the lives of heroin addicts.

"Rather than having your whole life focused on finding money to buy more heroin, you can focus on repairing relationships with family, finding jobs, and using income for things other than drugs," he said.

Shaw said the benefits of clinical treatment would unravel, though, unless other organizations stepped in to help patients find employment and avoid drug-using communities.

Progress and lingering concerns

According to a Human Rights Watch report released in January, drug users were involuntarily interned at government centres where they faced beatings and forced labour, while being deprived of effective treatment for their addiction.

The WHO reported in a publication last year that only one in 405 people in Cambodia entered a drug treatment centre voluntarily.

The methadone programme is a strong step in the right direction, said Shaw. "One of the reasons this clinic is so critical is that it's the first attempt by the government to use a voluntary [rehab] service," he said.

David Harding works with the NGOs Friends International and Mith Samlanh, which refer heroin users to the methadone clinic on a voluntary basis.

He said this more sophisticated therapy was a sign of progress but that the overall picture of the government's rehabilitation protocol remained "mixed", citing the opening of a new state provincial rehab centre that he said used "boot camp" methods.

The government's intentions aside, the country's bigger drug problem, methamphetamine use, remains far more difficult to treat clinically.

The WHO estimates there are some 40,000 methamphetamine users in Cambodia. The international medical community has yet to find a strong antidote to methamphetamine dependence, though.

"That's the Holy Grail, to find the methadone equivalent [for methamphetamine addiction]," said Shaw.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Ta Prohm Photo Gallery

Ta Prohm Temple is an eye candy for a photographer. To King Jayavarman VII, Ta Prohm was a centerpiece of his masterplan to restore Khmer empire to a never before seen splendour after it was reclaimed from Cham invaders; to me, Ta Prohm was a centerpiece of my photography adventures at Angkor Archaeological Park. Even though Ta Prohm was my favourite Angkorian era temple, I have only visited it once and all I could capture in rather tricky lighting conditions I had available during my visit is in this photo gallery.
Just as any other day in Cambodia, it was extremely hot and humid on the day I got to Ta Prohm so excessive sweating and subsequent heat exhaustion were inevitable. I was looking forward to taking pictures of Ta Prohm but much of the time spent at the temple was spent hiding in a shade of large trees in an effort to escape the frying power of the intense Cambodian sun. There is no such thing as catching a cooling breeze anywhere at Angkor so all you are left with is inescapable heat. High on natural energy from uplifting coconut water I got from the girls at the Banteay Kdei temple, but unceasingly dripping sweat out of every single pore on my skin, I crisscrossed the temple grounds back and forth to not miss a single opportunity for a perfect picture.
It was early afternoon when I got to Ta Prohm so the sun was right above our heads not causing any backlight no matter which way I turned to take a picture (unlike when I first got to Angkor Wat), however because the sun was super intense and because there’s a pretty elaborate maze of tree branches above Ta Prohm, many cool spots of the temple were subjected to severe contrasts caused by parts being in the sun, while other parts were in the shade. It was rather difficult trying to balance it out so neither highlights are too bright nor shadows too dark but I tried my best.
The Ta Prohm photo gallery below: