A life on the margins

Workers at the Siem Reap dump form orderly queues while they wait for the next rubbish truck to arrive.Photo by: MICHAEL SLOAN

17-year-old Pruen Sokhim, one of the youngsters forced to scavenge at Siem Reap’s dump each day.Photo by: MICHAEL SLOAN

Friday, 24 June 2011
Michael Sloan and Thik Kaliyann
The Phnom Penh Post

PERHAPS it’s only in Cambodia that a rubbish dump can become a tourist attraction. Phnom Penh’s former Stung Meanchey dumpsite is a case in point, with HotelTravel.com saying: “If you ever wanted to remind your children how lucky they are, this is the place to bring them.”

But not so with Siem Reap’s garbage dump. Twenty kilometres out along National Road Six, there is a small village known only half jokingly by local NGOs as “Siem Reap’s dirty little secret”: a ramshackle slum built around the rim of a one-acre pit filled daily with garbage from the city.

More than 140 children and countless adults queue up alongside a column of garbage trucks each day, scraping a living by picking bottles and plastic out of the waste they deposit.

While Stung Meanchey garbage dump in Phnom Penh featured regularly in international news reports about poverty in Cambodia, the geographical isolation of Siem Reap’s dump means its inhabitants receive only limited assistance from a few under-resourced NGOs operating in the area.

Dug out of a rice field next to Rulu Village in April 2009, the city dump quickly became a gathering point for those with nowhere else to go, according to 20-year-old Sot Sa Em, who has lived on the rim of the pit with her three children since it opened.

“I work here because I don’t know where I can find another job,” she said. “It’s very difficult to survive but at least there is work. When my first daughter is older I want her to find another job, whatever she wants. It’s better than being here.”

Sot Sa Em explained that working life at the dump is dictated by the daily arrival of 10 smelly rubbish trucks.

As we arrived at the dump, one truck was reversing down the dirt road leading to the pit. It was chased by a group of children jostling for the best position from which to pick out the more valuable waste, usually Angkor beer bottles according to Sot Sa Em.

“Glass bottles are the most valuable,” she explained. “Four of them are worth 100 riel, and plastic or paper sells for around 100 riel a kilo. But it’s very difficult to get bottles because they are the most valuable. Sometimes when we rush the truck, it can be dangerous if they open the doors without warning because you can be hit and injured.”

Wearing gumboots and swathed in layers of heavy clothing, a group of around 20 people with sharpened sticks surrounded the truck. Forming two orderly lines behind the children who were the first to arrive, the group stood up to their waists in a mound of garbage as the truck opened its doors, before diving in to scoop the deposited plastic and glass into sacks.

Clustered around the pit are a number of better maintained wooden buildings where scavenged glass and plastic can be redeemed for cash, according to 17-year-old Pruen Sokhim, who told 7Days that the scrap dealers operating out of them sell their recycled goods several kilometres away at Samaki Market.

“They pay best for glass beer bottles, plastic bottles come second. If you are fast you can earn one dollar per day. Myself, I want to find another job to help my family but I have no choice. Working in the dump has become a habit.”

Paper, plastic and glass scrap dealers at the dump tend to segregate themselves by type, with those dealing in the most lucrative – glass – occupying the best positions upwind from the stench.

As we walked along the rim with Sokhim to deposit a load of paper with a Vietnamese scrap dealer, he joked that we must hate the smell, although if we stuck around for a few days we wouldn’t even notice.

“You have to ignore the smell if you want to find things that sell,” he said. “It’s hard because the most valuable rubbish is taken out in Siem Reap before it reaches the dump.”

At the nearby Kaliyann Mitt Centre operated by NGO Friends International, group monitor Kem Phalla said there were 145 children living in the dump according to a survey this year, with 42 attending local schools.

“This is the last place that people come to when they need work,” she said. “Some days the mothers go to the dump and leave their babies for someone to find and take care of, and then go and find a job farming or something else.”

Phalla, who coined the “dirty little secret” moniker for the dump, said casualties from working in its disease-filled environment trickle into the centre’s clinic every few days, with broken bones and infected cuts among the most common injuries.

“Usually if a wound is bad it’s become infected from handling glass bottles. At the centre we mostly try to divert children away from working in the dump towards other jobs. We send the children who want to find skills to our education centre in Siem Reap where they can learn tailoring, cooking and other trades.”

In addition to a small medical clinic, the Kaliyann Mitt Centre operates a pre-school for dump children as well as a drop-in centre for older kids, which Phalla notes has been successful in teaching hygiene and harm minimisation skills to dump inhabitants.

In addition to the Kaliyann Mitt Centre, children also attend three local schools, including nearby Anlong Pi Primary, which About Asia Schools volunteer coordinator Chris Smith said his organisation has been supporting with donations of uniforms and equipment over the past three months.

“Most of the families here can’t afford uniforms for students which is a prerequisite for attending government schools. Anlong Pi is one of the poorest schools in the area, with around 10 percent of the students here living on the dump itself.”

During an earlier visit to the school during Khmer New Year, about 100 Anlong Pi students were on hand to receive new uniforms and laptops donated by students from Melbourne Girls Grammar School in Australia. Smith hopes such philanthropy will increase, following the announcement of a new charity campaign by Hotel de la Paix.

“De la Paix has announced it will donate five uniforms to our students for every Mastercard transaction made between March and June,” he said. “It’s a big vote of confidence in the work we’re doing with Anlong Pi and other schools. The more uniforms and equipment we have, the more kids can attend school.”

But in the meantime life at the dump goes on as usual. Fifteen-year-old Li Mak, from Rulu Village, said that although his father’s job as a district official meant he could afford to attend nearby Bakong High School, he visits the dump once a day to catch up with friends who aren’t as fortunate.

“I go to school and when I have free time I come here to visit my friends,” he said. “When I finish school I would like to be a doctor and work here. No one should have to live here if they don’t want to.”

Som Niyeay Phorng – Op-Ed by Angkor Borei News

Solved puzzle reveals fabled Cambodian temple

Rebuilding Cambodia’s ancient temple (File/Graphic)

Tourists walking around the ruins in Siem Reap, Cambodia (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Cambodia’s Baphuon temple in Siem Reap province, some 300 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh (AFP/File, Tang Chhin Sothy)

Thursday, June 30, 2011
By Suy Se (AFP)

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — It has taken half a century, but archaeologists in Cambodia have finally completed the renovation of an ancient Angkor temple described as the world’s largest three dimensional puzzle.

The restoration of the 11th-century Baphuon ruin is the result of decades of painstaking work, hampered by tropical rains and civil war, to take apart hundreds of thousands of sandstone blocks and piece them back together again.

“When I first saw how devastated the monument was, I never thought we would be able to put it back together,” said Cambodian restorer Ieng Te, who joined the project as a young student in 1960 and was tasked with numbering stones.

“I am so happy and excited that we were able to rebuild our historic temple,” the now 66-year-old said as he oversaw the final construction activities at the site.

On a recent rainy morning workers were adding a final layer of paint to newly-installed wooden staircases at Baphuon, one of the country’s biggest temples after Angkor Wat, the largest structure in the famed Angkor complex.

It is one of the last jobs to be done before the temple reopens to the public next week, finally revealing itself in full glory after spending decades in pieces.

Cambodian King Sihamoni and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon will be among the first to tour the impressive three-tier temple during an inauguration ceremony on July 3.

The story of the 10-million-euro ($14m) renovation began in the 1960s when a French-led team of archaeologists dismantled the pyramidal building because it was falling apart, largely due to its heavy, sand-filled core that was putting pressure on the thin walls.

The workers numbered some 300,000 of the sandstone blocks and laid them out in the surrounding jungle.

But efforts to rebuild the crumbling towers and lavishly ornamented facades abruptly came to a halt when Cambodia was convulsed by civil war in 1970.

The records to reassemble Baphuon, including the numbering system, were then destroyed by the hardline communist Khmer Rouge which took power in 1975.

In 1995, when the area in northwestern Cambodia was again safe to work in, the French government-funded project was restarted under the leadership of architect Pascal Royere from the Ecole francaise d’Extreme-Orient (EFEO).

“It has been said, probably rightly so, that it is the largest-ever 3D puzzle,” Royere told AFP.

The team carefully measured and weighed each block and then relied on archive photos stored in Paris, drawings and the recollections of Cambodian workers to figure out where each part fits.

“We were facing a three-dimensional puzzle, a 300,000-piece puzzle to which we had lost the picture. And that was the main difficulty of this project,” Royere said.

“There is no mortar that fills the cracks which means that each stone has its own place. You will not find two blocks that have the same dimensions.”

The restoration of Baphuon, one of Angkor’s oldest ruins, was completed in April and Royere said it was a moment of joy for the 250-strong, mainly Cambodian, team.

Finishing the “unique” undertaking was “a collective satisfaction because it was a complicated project,” he said.

Built around 1060 by King Udayadityavarman II in honour of the Hindu god Shiva, Baphuon was the country’s largest religious building at the time, 35 metres high (114 feet) and measuring 130 by 104 metres (426 x 340 feet).

In the 16th century, a 70-metre long reclining Buddha statue was built into a wall on the second level using stones from the top of the temple.

These two phases of construction, hundreds of years apart, further complicated the restoration, said Royere, and working during the rainy season proved another major challenge.

But those struggles are behind him now and as the Frenchman watched camera-toting tourists amble along the long elevated walkway that leads to the temple, he said he was confident the site would become a top attraction.

Located at the heart of the Angkor park, it “certainly promises to be a great success,” he said.

Gazing up at Baphuon, first-time visitor to Cambodia Gayle Sienicki from Washington DC marvelled at the temple’s long journey to recovery.

“It’s just amazing, I mean truly amazing, that they could take these bits of stones and figure out how to put them all back together,” she said. “I’m in awe. I think this is just the coolest thing.”

Thai PM refuses challenge by Hun Sen

WHC decision ‘is not Cambodia’s concern’

30/06/2011
Bangkok Post

The government has brushed off a challenge by Cambodia that it formally withdraw from the World Heritage Committee, while denying it was playing up the issue for political gain.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said Cambodia should stop interfering in Thai affairs, after its leader Hun Sen stepped into the debate over the government’s decision to leave the WHC.

Hun Sen has challenged the government to officially inform the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) if it was serious about withdrawing.

“If you have the heart of a son, you will write a formal letter to the WHC,” he told a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh.

Political commentators have criticised the government for showboating over the issue to attract the support of voters allied to the People’s Alliance for Democracy, who have campaigned for the government to withdraw from the WHC to safeguard Thai territory in the disputed border area.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who walked out of a WHC meeting in Paris last week, has been forced to defend his decision amid claims that it discredits the country internationally.

Mr Abhisit said Thailand’s decision did not concern Hun Sen, and he should not interfere in the government’s work.

He said the government would discuss with Unesco the effects of the WHC’s decision not to consider Cambodia’s management plan for Preah Vihear temple.

The matter concerned Thailand and Unesco only, Mr Abhisit said. He insisted the government’s decision to withdraw from the WHC was meant to protect Thai territory, and not done merely for domestic political advantage.

Thailand has yet to formally withdraw from the body, despite Mr Suwit’s assertion from Paris last week that his withdrawal took immediate effect.

The government had campaigned against the WHC discussing Cambodia’s management plan for the disputed Preah Vihear temple, and threatened to withdraw if the plan was put on the agenda.

Sources say the meeting was drafting a statement confirming that discussion of the plan would be postponed, which was in line with a decision reached at an earlier WHC meeting in May.

However, the Thai delegation took exception to the wording of the draft, so Mr Suwit walked out.

Campaigning in Samut Sakhon yesterday, Mr Abhisit, who is also Democrat Party leader, said the public should decide whether to vote for the party that was “really” protecting the national interest in a way that might upset the leader of a neighbouring country, or back the local party that was close to Hun Sen.

He was referring to Pheu Thai Party, whose de facto leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, worked as a consultant to Hun Sen’s government in 2009.

Mr Abhisit said he did not believe Thais wanted to risk losing border territory, and that his government had succeeded in foiling the World Heritage Committee’s consideration of the management plan.

He said if Cambodia sincerely wanted to solve bilateral problems, it should stop complaining to the international community about their border dispute, and resume bilateral negotiations with Thailand.

Cambodian complaints in international forums would only compound bilateral tension, Mr Abhisit said.

Meanwhile, Mr Abhisit denied a rumour in Cambodia that Thailand would attack Cambodia as a ruse to postpone Sunday’s election.

Reports suggest Cambodia is reinforcing its military near the border. Mr Abhisit said that while the Thai army had yet to reinforce its own troops, soldiers stood ready to defend the country.

First Army commander Lt Gen Udomdet Seetabut, said Cambodia had fielded infantry companies at two important locations opposite Sa Kaeo province.

While movements on the Cambodian side did not yet justify any concerns, he had ordered troops to strictly screen immigrants and their vehicles entering the country from Cambodia.

In Surin province, Lt Gen Tawatchai Samutsakhon, commander of the 2nd Army, said Cambodia was replacing soldiers along the border, and the risk of a clash could not be ruled out.

Visits to the Ta Muen Thom temple in Phanom Dong Rak district had been suspended for safety reasons.

Cambodian soldiers visited the temple to monitor the movements of Thai soldiers. Thai soldiers told their Cambodian counterparts to disarm before entering the temple.

Border trade continued and gamblers still crossed the border to casinos in Cambodia through the Chong Jom border pass in Surin as usual.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Thailand’s withdrawal from the World Heritage Convention complied with a cabinet resolution which required action in case of developments which might affect sovereignty.

Mr Abhisit said on Tuesday that the next government should decide Thailand’s fate with the WHC.

‘Pretty, rich and smart’ woman to be Thailand’s first female PM?

Yingluck Shinawatra reaches out to shake hands with supporters after speaking at a rally during her election campaign on June 29, 2011 in Burirum, Thailand. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

Thursday, June 30, 2011
By Warangkana Chomchuen
NBC News

BANGKOK, Thailand – Less than a week before Sunday’s general election, opinion polls unanimously suggest that Thailand is likely to get the first female prime minister. Only a few months ago she was nowhere near the political limelight. But it’s not that hard to see why Yingluck entered into politics with a bang and is rising quickly to the country’s top job.

Her last name is Shinawatra. She shares it with her older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the two-time elected prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup, and is now living as a fugitive from Thai justice in Dubai.

Thaksin picked his sister over other candidates to lead the Pheu Thai, or “For Thai,” party that he founded originally as Thai Rak Thai. This nepotism, to some people’s disdain, turned out to be a brilliant move on Thaksin’s part.

Despite little political experience, the 44-year-old business executive has generated as much buzz as a veteran politician: Yingluck has monopolized covers of major political weekly magazines for weeks. Thousands gathered to wait under the blazing sun to see her on her campaign tour.

“I know you love my brother Thaksin,” she cooed in northern dialect to an animated crowd of supporters in Chiang Rai. “I wonder if you could also love me, Thaksin’s little sister?”

At another appearance in a northeastern province, a group of a hundred schoolgirls rushed to greet her after her helicopter descended. They squealed as they pushed to get close to her, busily snapping photos from cell phones while holding up one index finger to show support for her party, which is No. 1 on the ballot.

‘Pretty, rich and smart’
Yingluck embodies the “suai, ruai, keng” – a Thai description of “pretty, rich and smart” woman.
She looks youthful, confident and at ease. Cameras love to capture her ceaseless smiles.

Her clout and celebrity aura match those of her major rival, Abhisit Vejjajiva, prime minister and leader of the ruling Democrat Party.

They are equally presentable: under 50, well-educated, and successful in professional and personal life (married with kids), which differentiate them from other candidates.

But while Abhisit’s Oxford education, wit, charm and impeccable British-accent English translate well with elites and the Bangkok middle class, these qualities often alienate him from residents of rural parts of the country, who make up the majority of the vote.

He may exude confidence and poise at international forums or during interviews, but when mingling with crowds, he’s stiff, appearing uneasy before his constituents.

Yingluck, on the other hand, is easier to connect with. Her provincial upbringing and self-made success at her family-run telecommunications and real estate companies make her likeable. Thai people feel that she and her brother understand the hardship and grievances of the poor.

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Thaksin’s clone
Her supporters are aware she’s a political novice. But they also trust that she has an army of top-notched political pundits and economic advisers lurking behind the scene to support her and even coach her public speaking.

Her shrewdest campaign manager is Thaksin, the actual de facto leader of the party. He called Yingluck “my clone” and the Pheu Thai party readily responds by using a slogan, “Thaksin thinks, Pheu Thai implements.”

Yingluck isn’t the first Thaksin’s proxy premier candidate.

Thailand had two prime ministers who acted as Thaksin’s proxies, but they didn’t last very long.

Cantankerous Samak Sundaravej was forced by court order to resign overa conflict of interest linked to his cooking show on TV. His successor, Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, had to step down after a constitutional court found his party guilty of electoral fraud.

By appointing Yingluck, Thaksin makes it clear that this election is about him. It’s his biggest battle yet against the country’s old power – the military and royal establishment – who tried to uproot him.

Reconciliation, not revenge
One of Yingluck’s Facebook profile pictures is that of her wearing a red hijab next to a Muslim woman who snapped their picture from her Blackberry.

The picture was taken during her campaign trail in the Islamic south, the Democrat’s political stronghold where Thaksin, leader from the north, could never quite penetrate.

The picture bodes well with Pheu Thai’s PR scheme to promote Yingluck as a baggage-free, fresh face leader who can heal the divisive country.

But her imminent victory at polls is making the military and the 2006 coup makers jittery.

Her Pheu Thai party says it will issue a blanket amnesty for all its allies and rivals charged in relation to the 2006 coup, which could pave the way for Thaksin’s whitewashing and triumphant return.

After all, Thaksin is the man the coup makers have put tremendous efforts in different devising to get rid of.

Critics fear the military will be tempted to stage another intervention. Thaksin’s return will be a big blow that can change the political landscape and dynamics of power in a significant way.

Yingluck tries to ease the fear by saying her first priority is the people’s wellbeing and moving the country forward, not one man’s fate.

But so far, she has never clearly stated her political opinions or standpoints. She lets Thaksin handle all the tough talks, in-depth interviews with foreign media from abroad. At home, she chooses to stick to scripts and keep her messages simple.

Besides her commitment to continue her brother’s populist policy legacy – i.e. free tablet PCs to a million school children, a wage hike, and low interest loans to villagers – it’s hard to say what kind of leader she will be.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear to bother her supporters, who remember what it was like when Thaksin ruled.

Nation Watching Preliminary Khmer Rouge Hearing

Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Reporters, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“I just think that if the court tries only four senior-most Khmer Rouge leaders, it’s not justice, because it does not reach completion, and other cases are kept secret.”

Defense teams for three of four jailed Khmer Rouge leaders facing trial at the UN-backed tribunal argued Wednesday that a 10-year statute of limitations under previous Cambodian law precluded their clients from trial.

The lawyers made their arguments on the third day of a preliminary hearing that marks the official beginning of the court’s most important trial, as people across the country viewed the proceedings on television.

Lawyers for Khieu Samphan, the nominal head of the regime; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; and Ieng Thirith, social minister, said the 1956 penal code of Cambodia put a 10-year limitation on trials.

“Under the penal code of 1956, the prescription of the crime is limited to within 10 years,” Phat Pouv Seang, a Cambodian defense lawyer for Ieng Thirith, told the court, in arguments echoed by lawyers for the other two.

Defense for Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the regime, did not join the arguments.

All four have said they are innocent of the charges against them, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The hearing is aimed at answering such legal questions before the trial starts in earnest later this year.

Despite the nature of the hearing, it has already provided a major boost in coverage of the tribunal process, which began in 2006 and saw the trial in 2009 of the chief of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious prison, Tuol Sleng.

National coverage of the hearing has provided a chance for everyday Cambodians to consider the crimes of the regime and the role of the UN-backed court.

Yuth Thing Dy, who is now 43 and lost five relatives under the Khmer Rouge, said from Banteay Meanchey province that he has watched the proceedings on TV and is happy a trial is moving forward, but he wants to see more people indicted.

“I just think that if the court tries only four senior-most Khmer Rouge leaders, it’s not justice, because it does not reach completion, and other cases are kept secret,” he told VOA Khmer.

The court is locked in debate over two more cases at the court that would require indictments for five additional senior leaders. Those two cases are opposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials, angering victim representatives who say they want the court to broaden its prosecutions.

Lao Lay Heng, 53, from Oddar Meanchey province, said he lost 13 relatives during the regime’s four-year rule. He was happy that a trial for the four top leaders is making progress, he said, “and I hope that the victims will receive justice.”

“I see the trial as historic, and it will be a model for young Cambodian leaders not to follow the style of the Khmer Rouge and not to carry out a dictatorship,” he said.

KRouge defendant vows to help court find ‘truth’

Thursday, June 30, 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A top ex-Khmer Rouge leader on trial for genocide on Thursday vowed to cooperate with Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court to reveal the truth about the country’s “Killing Fields” era.

“I personally am not fully knowledgeable about everything, but I will try from the bottom of my heart to make sure that everything is fully revealed,” said Khieu Samphan, the former head of state of the brutal regime.

“This is the most important moment for me and for my compatriots who are eager to know and understand what happened between 1975 and 1979.”

Along with “Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, one-time social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan faces charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The elderly defendants are the most senior surviving members of a regime whose reign of terror led to the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork or execution. The four deny the accusations against them.

As their trial entered its fourth day with a debate about witness and expert lists, the defence complained that the court had failed to admit many of their proposed witnesses.

Khieu Samphan, dressed casually and reading a brief prepared statement, urged judges to accept his key witnesses “in order to have a fair trial and so that the truth and my honesty and fairness can be revealed”.

The 79-year-old also paid his respects to the hundreds of Cambodians, including many monks, who packed the court’s public gallery, and acknowledged them with a traditional greeting — the first suspect to do so.

The public face of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan has never denied the horrors suffered by the Cambodian people.

But he claims he was an intellectual and a nationalist and knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought under the regime.

Led by “Brother Number One” Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the movement emptied Cambodia’s cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.

The initial hearing is set to conclude on Thursday, with full testimony to follow in the coming months.

Landmark Khmer Rouge genocide trial: Do Cambodians care?

In this photo, Cambodian Buddhist monks gather during the second trial of the top leaders of Khmer Rouge in the court hall of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, June 29. The UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Wednesday held its 3rd day trial on top four surviving members of the Khmer Rouge regime, blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s. (Mark Peters/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia/AP)

The Cambodian government is stepping up efforts to inform the country about the Khmer Rouge’s bloody rule.

June 29, 2011
By Simon Montlake, Correspondent
The Christian Science Monitor

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Inside a purpose-built courtroom, four elderly Khmer Rouge leaders went on trial here this week in a case that was hailed as a landmark for Cambodian justice under a UN-backed war-crimes tribunal.

But on the streets of the capital, many ordinary Cambodians seemed unsure about what exactly was unfolding and why they should take time out from their daily struggles to pay attention. Others expressed bafflement at the circuitous path of the hearings, the rights afforded to truculent suspects and the tribunal’s lavish budget in a war-ravaged country mired in poverty.

“They spent a lot of money. So where is the verdict?” asks Kosal Kong, a motorized-cart driver who lost relatives during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-79 genocidal reign.

In fact, the tribunal last year convicted a prison-camp director who confessed to war crimes. But the leaders currently on trial are bigger names, particularly for Cambodians who lived through that dark period. But a survey taken in December found that most Cambodians can’t name the four leaders, though overall awareness of the tribunal was on the increase. A quarter of respondents said they knew nothing about it. In 2008, the equivalent figure was 39 percent, according to the University of California, Berkley, which carried out the surveys.

Efforts to publicize trials stepped up

Officials at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), say they’re stepping up efforts to publicize the latest trials. “We need to work harder to bring more people to come here. The people are the victims of the Khmer Rouge. They want to know what happened,” says Neth Pheaktra, an ECCC spokesman.

During this week’s hearings, the ECCC bussed in hundreds of villagers from across the country to watch from the 482-seat public gallery. At least 100,000 Cambodians have visited the tribunal since 2005, said Mr. Neth. Many others have attended public screenings of official documentaries on the court’s proceedings.

The hearings are also broadcast live on radio and television, though Chea Sopha, the owner of a roadside café said her customers preferred to watch a movie channel. She said she was too busy to attend but was supportive of putting the leaders on trial so that Cambodians could know the truth. “It’s good to know what the Khmer Rouge regime did in the past,” she says.

At another cafe in a bus station, a middle-aged man said the government was using the tribunal to cover up its own actions. He said the Khmer Rouge had killed his mother, aunt, and grandmother, and a guilty verdict for the leaders would not bring them back.

Among court officials and human rights activists, it’s an article of faith that justice and accountability can bring healing to a traumatized nation like Cambodia, despite the lapsed time since the crimes. For some victims of the Khmer Rouge, a dwindling population, there is a measure of satisfaction in seeing notorious killers in the dock.

But the idea that a war-crimes tribunal can provide “therapy,” as well as justice, is debatable, says Peter Maguire, the author of “Facing Death in Cambodia,” who has taught on the laws of war at Columbia University. He says international opinion shifted in the 1990s toward a broader notion of post-war justice than simply trying suspects for their crimes, without any evidence that it works.

“A tribunal isn’t a forum for teaching lessons. It’s a forum for adjudication,” he says.

Lengthy trials that allow ideologues to expound their views can also stoke sympathy, as some scholars have found after the Nuremburg Trials of Nazi leaders, according to Mr. Maguire, though this doesn’t apply to Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia.

Sensitive topics

For many years, Cambodians knew little about the historical forces that shaped the Khmer Rouge. Teachers shied away from this and other sensitive topics, mindful of political tensions over who did what. Parents told their children of their pain and suffering, but were either unwilling or unable to explain the mass executions, or why some killers still lived freely among those they terrorized.

Gradually, high schools have begun to teach about the Khmer Rouge period at grade 12 using documentary materials from war-crimes researchers. While these initiatives haven’t come from the tribunal itself, it opened up political space for teachers and students, says Anne Heindel, a legal adviser to the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.

Students are “interested in the trial because they learn about it in school, then they come in and see it,” she says.

At the Lycée Sisovath, an elite colonial-era school whose alumni include Khieu Samphan, one of the accused leaders, students in the outdoor cafeteria seem keen to know more about their country’s darkest chapter. Khon Sovansreyneth, a student in grade 11, says she’s heard stories of hardship from her parents and seen the tribunal on television. “It’s important. We’re Khmer. We have to know about the terrible history,” she says.

Khmer Rouge survivors aghast at trial antics

June 29, 2011
Agence France-Presse

Khmer Rouge survivors reacted with dismay Tuesday as a top regime leader walked out of his genocide trial for a second day and a co-defendant sought acquittal under a 15-year-old amnesty.

The elderly suspects’ defiant attitude underlined the challenges facing Cambodia’s UN-backed warcrimes court in a case long awaited by victims of the 1970s totalitarian movement, which wiped out nearly a quarter of the population.

“Brother No. 2″ Nuon Chea, wearing a woolly hat and his trademark sunglasses, refused to stay for the second day of proceedings focused on preliminary legal objections by his co-defendant, Ieng Sary.

Nuon Chea said he would only return to “actively participate” when his own case was discussed, and was escorted out of court by security guards.

On Monday, the 84-year-old had left the courtroom after only half an hour in protest at the handling of the investigation and legal proceedings.

The four accused face charges, including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, over the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork, torture or execution during the Khmer Rouge’s brutal 1975-79 rule.

“Nuon Chea is a bad person. I am quite disappointed with his behaviour,” said farmer Thein Ouen, one of hundreds of people watching the hearing from the public gallery.

“I think he does not want to take part in the trial. We want him to tell us the truth about the Khmer Rouge, but he is trying to hide it.”

The four elderly defendants, who also include former head of state Khieu Samphan and one-time social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, are allowed to be absent if they refuse to co-operate.

Ieng Sary, a former foreign minister, further angered victims of the regime with his claim that he should not be tried because he was granted a royal pardon and amnesty in 1996 in exchange for leading a mass Khmer Rouge defection.

The complex trial, expected to take years, is seen as vital to healing the traumatized nation’s deep scars.

But Va Chhorn, who was also watching from the public gallery, said of the defendants: “They are trying to avoid their responsibilities. This is not good.”

Pol Pot’s Final Four

June 29, 2011
By Luke Hunt
The Diplomat

When the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge first walked into court an audible and collective sigh was heard across the public gallery. Efforts to find justice for the two million people who perished under their rule had found traction in an international court.

They almost all looked healthy, Ieng Thirith, the former minister for social affairs and first lady of the ultra-Maoists wore a yellow cardigan. Her husband, former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, was in business grey.

Nuon Chea looked frightening. He wore a black and white ski cap and sunglasses, apparently for protection from the air conditioning and the bright glare of the courtroom lights. As legendary photographer Al Rockoff quipped, ‘he looks like the godfather of a Long Island gang.’

Nuon Chea also walked out of the court room claiming he wouldn’t get a fair trial and was allowed to retire to his cell. Khieu Samphan maintained a cheeky aloofness and was supposed to follow Nuon Chea, but surprised the packed gallery with a change of heart.

All four were on form as their defence began to outline its case.

The Extraordinary Chambers for the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh are a long way from Pailin, the remote Khmer Rouge outpost. It was there that I first saw Nuon Chea and met Khieu Samphan almost 10 years ago.

With me was the South African journalist Robert Carmichael and French correspondent Deborah Pasmantier, the French photo editor Laurence de Suremain and Khmer journalist Suy Se.

Nuon Chea spotted us and darted out the back door of his hut while Khieu Samphan stood his ground and agreed to chat on the steps of his stilted home. He switched randomly between English, French and Khmer with ease and was well aware that efforts to try him were underway.

He was also a little disconcerting. Given the death and carnage that happened under the Khmer Rouge it was easy to imagine a demonstrable personality was lurking inside this man who on the surface at least had oodles of charm and smiled like a favourite uncle.

Throughout the interview, Khieu Samphan would consistently fall back on one argument when asked about the Killing Fields. ‘Foreign influences’ was a regular remark, communist cliché and excuse for anything that went wrong when Pol Pot and his followers ran amok across Cambodia.

The Americans did this, the Vietnamese did that. Cambodia was a pawn unfortunately caught in a Cold War power play, constantly being squeezed then torn between the likes of China and the Soviet Union. There were a lot of people who did a lot of killing.

His argument was that all the systematic killings and the deaths of a third of his country’s population – also through disease, famine and the slave labour that allegedly resulted from his government’s policies – were somehow a by-product of the shocking misdeeds of others.

Such arguments are asinine, insulting to the dead and unlikely to win any favour at the ECCC. The tribunal’s mandate covers crimes only committed in Cambodia and only between April 1975 and January 1979 when Cambodia was shut down by the likes of Khieu Samphan and totally isolated from the rest of the world.

During that period, the only foreign flag that curried any influence with the Khmer Rouge was China and how much Beijing knew about what was really going on behind the scenes in Democratic Kampuchea has been an intriguing source of material for journalists, analysts and academics ever since.

Back then, Khieu Samphan’s arguments had a hollow ring, and they still do today.

There were lots of stories out of the ECCC this week as the trial got off to an historic start. But given his past it was Khieu Samphan’s decision not to follow Nuon Chea and walk out on the trial that was for me, the choice moment of the opening days.

He also said he had decided to support the tribunal and that he wanted all Cambodians to understand what went on back then. If he is true to his word, then the tribunal is off to a flying start.

Court hears submission on reparations for Khmer Rouge victims

Jun 29, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh – Lawyers for victims of the Khmer Rouge told a UN-backed tribunal Wednesday they planned to seek a combination of memorials, psychological support and educational initiatives as reparations.

The tribunal has charged four surviving leaders of the ultra-Maoist movement with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Any awards are contingent on the court handing down a guilty verdict against the accused, and on sufficient funding being found to pay for them.

Victims had also suggested an annual remembrance day and a museum, said Pich Ang, co-lead lawyer for the civil parties.

‘And civil parties will request the preservation of killing sites,’ he said. ‘We need to study in detail which sites were those where a large number of people were executed.’

Earlier the tribunal heard legal arguments surrounding Cambodia’s 10-year statute of limitations, which was extended by 30 years in order to permit the court to bring charges against the accused under the national law in force in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control.

Among those alleged crimes are homicide, torture and suppression of religion.

Defence lawyers said the extension amounted to a breach of their clients’ rights since it meant applying the law retroactively.

‘It is also problematic because (the extension) applies only at the tribunal,’ said defence lawyer Ang Udom. ‘This means that Ieng Sary (the Khmer Rouge’s former foreign minister) could be charged with a crime that a similarly situated accused in any other court in Cambodia could not. This violates his right to equality before the law.’

All four defendants appeared in court on the third day of preliminary hearings. However Nuon Chea, who was deputy to the late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, left early.

He was followed soon after by Ieng Sary, who cited ill health. The other two defendants are former head of state Khieu Samphan and Ieng Thirith, the former minister for social affairs.

The four deny the array of crimes allegedly committed during their government’s rule from 1975 to 1979.

This week’s preliminary hearing concerns arguments over witness lists and procedural elements ahead of the likely start of the trial proper in September.

In its first case the court last year sentenced the regime’s security chief, Comrade Duch, to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Duch has appealed his conviction.

The tribunal estimated that 1.7 million to 2.2 million people died in less than four years of rule by the Khmer Rouge, which emptied Cambodia’s cities as it advocated a rural, agrarian society. It said 800,000 of those deaths were violent with the rest attributed to overwork, starvation and illness.

Is Judgment Day too late for Engineers of Cambodian Genocide?

June 29, 2011
By Michael Martin
Business & Law

Has judgment day come too late for the ailing Khmer Rouge engineers of the Cambodian Genocide, now on trial at a UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh?

The accused are between 79 and 85 years of age.

Some 36 years ago, at the close of the genocide, a life sentence may have meant more to the then-40 and 50-year-old inner circle of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.

“Personally I think it’s too late. They are all old now,” said Rorng Sorn, executive director at the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia and a survivor of the genocide, “We were crying for 30-something years for justice.”

“Taking those four people to trial is symbolic of injustice, but it doesn’t make any difference in my life.”

Now age 43, Sorn was only nine years-old when she was separated from her family and relocated to a commune, where children were forced to carry water to canals and fix potholes.

It was 1976, Pol Pot’s Year Zero, when the Khmer Rouge regime emptied cities and relocated everyone in the country to communes, where they were forced to work toward a Communist agrarian utopia. During that time, some 1.7 million people, over 20 percent of the Cambodian population at the time, were killed, often for disloyalty to the regime.

From a rural family, Sorn says commune leaders didn’t target her as much as city children, who were often starved and publically humiliated for disobeying orders.

Unlike Sorn, some Cambodians believe a symbolic conviction is just what Cambodia needs.

“I think this tribunal cannot satisfy and cure the trauma of all direct victims and victims’ relatives who are still alive, but it is a symbol of justice for victims and a model of criminal leader condemnation,” said professor of Khmer and Southeast Asian history at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Sotheara Vong.

“The trial can frighten future criminal leaders into not committing crimes like the Khmer regime,” he added.

The Cambodian government has been working together with the United Nations to try the ex-Khmer Rouge, many of which surrendered in what was a final blow to the Pol Pot regime and given royal amnesty.

Vong believes that two decades of political instability after the Khmer Rouge’s fall prolonged trials like the one that commenced this week. But also complicating the issue is the fear that a legal battle against the ex-Khmer Rouge would lead to the trials of high-ranking officials in the contemporary Cambodian government.

Hun Sen has been the Prime Minister of Cambodia since 1998. In 1976, he was a low-ranking soldier in the Khmer Rouge, but escaped to Vietnam before Pol Pot’s fall in 1979.

The Khmer Rouge who fled to Vietnam before 1979 received royal pardons, largely because “These people fled to Vietnam to ask for the help of the Vietnamese government,” Vong said, “Vietnam used this group’s appeal to drive the Khmer Rouge out. Most of the Khmer victims were then salvaged from the open killing fields.”

Vong’s own family was saved by early defectors like Hun Sen.

Similar to Hun Sen, former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary defected to the Cambodian government in 1996, bringing with him many of the soldiers who fought in the protracted insurgency that followed Pol Pot’s fall.

Analysts say that unlike Ieng Sary, there is no evidence to prove Hun Sen engaged in the mass-slaughter that characterized Cambodia’s years in the killing fields, but still there are some who wouldn’t rule out a trial.

“I think all Khmer Rouge cadres and soldiers must have blood debt,” Vong said, “On the other hand, they were the power tools of the top leaders. I have never seen the criminal courts sentencing basic level soldiers like them.”

“It’s hard to say, although legally speaking, those who commit crimes must be punished by the law,” said Sopheada Phy, a Cambodia expert and Peace Research Scholar at the University of Pittburgh’s Center for International Studies.

Phy believes that the costs would outweigh the benefits in terms of Cambodia’s nascent political stability.

“From a peace perspective, based on the status quo of Cambodia, trying the Prime Minister Hun Sen is no benefit for the country as it will not only debilitate the current Cambodian government, but also create more conflicts in the country,” he said.

Landmines kill 20, injure 75 Cambodians in 5 months

June 29, 2011
Source: Xinhua

Cambodia has seen 95 landmine casualties in the first five months of this year, with 20 killed and other 75 injured, a report said on Tuesday.

According to the report from the Cambodian Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Victim Information System, from 1979 to May 2011, a total of 63,901 mine/ERW casualties were recorded. Of the casualties, 19,595 were killed and 44,306 injured from mine/ERW accidents.

It added that 81 percent of the victims were men, 8 percent were women, and 11 percent were children.

Cambodia is one of most mine affected nations in the world as the result of 30 years of armed conflict. Mines had been laid in Cambodia during the decades of chronic conflicts from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.

Cambodia’s five most mine-laid provinces are Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pailin and Preah Vihear.

Thai Army ‘has no plan to attack’

29/06/2011
Bangkok Post

Commander of Army Region 1 (Northeast) Lt-Gen Udomdej Sitabutr insisted on Wednesday that Thailand has no plan to attack Cambodia.

“The army chief has made it a clear-cut policy that Thailand will not invade any country first, but if our country is invaded, the armed forces are ready to protect it,” Lt-Gen Udomdej said, responding to unsourced rumours.

The commander of Army Region 1 said Cambodia had reinforced its infantry along the Thai-Cambodian border but not by many, and the reinforcements had no effect on the Thai armed forces.

He said border trade in Sa Kaew province continues as usual.

Lt-Gen Udomdej said the border dispute has nothing to do with the July 3 election and that the polls will take place as planned.

He denied as baseless a report that the military had lobbied people to support a particular political party, insisting that the military will definitely stay impartial.

Cambodia approves 2.61 bln USD investments in 5 months, up 182 pct

June 29, 2011
Source: Xinhua

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Tuesday reported that the domestic and foreign investments in Cambodia in the first five months of this year reached 2.61 billion U.S. dollars, 182 percent rise from 925 million U.S. dollars in the same period last year.

The figure showed that from January to May this year, investments in tourism have hit 2.18 billion U.S. dollars, up from just 17 million U.S. dollars in the same period a year ago.

Besides tourism, there were investments in telecommunication maintenance services, garment industry and agriculture.

A CDC’s senior official said more and more investors have been seeing Cambodia’s potentials for their business ventures and have more confidence in this country.

“This year, they flocked to invest in tourism as this sector has a lot of room to grow,” said Yuon Heng, director of the CDC’ s Evaluation and Incentive Department.

The statistics showed domestic investors rated No.1 with 1.23 billion U.S. dollars, followed by China with 1.1 billion U.S. dollars and the United States with 95 million U.S. dollars.

In 2010, Cambodia approved the investment projects worth 2.69 billion U.S. dollars.

Thailand’s hard stance on UNESCO under scrutiny

June 29, 2011
Boris Sullivan
Thailand Business News

Thailand announced its departure from the World Heritage Convention with‬ ‪immediate effect on Saturday, after the World Heritage Committee failed to heed its request seeking postponement of the Cambodias unilaterally-proposed Preah‬ Vihear Temple management plan, as Thailand fears that it may threaten national sovereignty.

Thailands Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, leading the Thai‬ delegation at the 35th session of the WHC meeting in Paris, earlier notified Mr Mounir‬ Bouchenaki, director-general of International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and‬ ‪Restoration of Cultural Property, who represents the director-general of United Nations‬ ‪Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO, that Thailand would leave the World‬ Heritage Convention and would also withdraw from the 21-member World Heritage Committee as the‬ body continues to ignore any negative consequences which may arise from the consideration of the temple management plan which he said overlooks sensitive issues which could adversely affect Thailands sovereignty and territory.‬

However, the withdrawal was not fully backed by the Foreign Ministry, a government source said.

Officials from the Foreign Ministry who attended the meeting together with Suwit in Paris were satisfied with their negotiations with the Cambodian delegation on the draft of the World Heritage Committee’s decision.

The Thai business opportunities in Cambodia in the long-term inevitably will be harmed if the border conflict persists.

Suwit, who led the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris last week, reported to the Cabinet on his decision to walk out of the session and the announcement of denunciation. The action is to protect Thai sovereignty over the territory adjacent to the Preah Vihear Temple, Panitan quoted Suwit as telling the Cabinet.

Abhisit backed Suwit’s decision and most of ministers in the Cabinet agreed with him, but the caretaker government decided not to carry out the procedure of denunciation, Panitan said.

‪Mr Suwit also said the World Heritage Centre, instead of revising the wording of the draft, decided to put it on the agenda of the WHC meeting in Paris, despite Thailands request to have the plan deferred, pending border demarcation with Cambodia. ‬‪Thailand is opposed to the terms of “urgent repair and restoration” but preferred using the wording “protection and conservation” in the draft.‬ ‪The head of the Thai delegation also said the pullout means that any WHC resolution will not be binding to Thailand.‬‪

The withdrawal has resulted in the Director General of the Fine Arts Department, Mrs Somsuda Leyavanija, one of 21 members of the WHC, to leave her post.‬‪ Mr Suwit earlier posted a message on his Twitter account late Saturday night saying, “Thailand has no choice but to withdraw as the meeting has resolved to put the issue on agenda.”‬

via Thailand pulls out of World Heritage Convention ‬.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand’s decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.

Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand’s decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.
Mr Abhisit, before the weekly cabinet meeting, showed reporters a letter from the UNESCO chief and said briefly that he would address a news conference on Thailand’s stance after today’s Cabinet meeting.

National Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, as head of the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris, will report the issue to the Cabinet and agencies concerned will study the implication of the UNESCO agency’s resolution on Cambodia’s management plan for Preah Vihear after Thailand leaves the convention.

In her letter dated June 26, Ms Bokova has expressed deep regret with Mr Suwit’s declaration on the Thai intention to leave the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

“The World Heritage Committee did not discuss the management plan of the Preah Vihear temple nor did it request for any reports to be submitted on its state of conservation. Moreover, it needs to be clarified that UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre never pushed for a discussion of the Management Plan by the Committee,” Ms Bokova said in the letter.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Suwit denied he would benefit from the decision to withdraw from the convention.

He said the decision was not premature and was intended to protect the country’s dignity and territorial integrity.

During the past three years he had done everything he could to lobby and convince member nations that the management plan was a sensitive issue and that approving the plan could lead to problems.

He said a resolution relating to Preah Vihear adopted at the Paris meeting of the World Heritage Committee had allowed Cambodia to carry out maintenance and repair work for Preah Vihear and the areas surrounding it and to seek financial assistance from Unesco.

Mr Suwit said he found the resolution unacceptable because it could lead to the loss of Thai territory.

If Thailand had accepted the resolution, it would have given Cambodia a chance to use it to fight at the International Court of Justice for ownership of the disputed areas around the temple.

Thai 2nd Army: No reinforcements to border

29/06/2011
Bangkok Post

No troop reinforcements have been sent to the border with Cambodia, there has been only routine rotation of units, Army Region 2 commander Lt-Gen Thawatchai Samutsakhon said on Tuesday.

He said it was necessary for soldiers to be on alert around the clock. Thai and Cambodian troops had long confronted each other along the border and a clash could occur at any time without warning.

However, Army Region 2 had not sent reinforcements to the border, he said.

Lt-Gen Thawatchai advised the people who want to visit Ta Muen Tom temple in tambon Ta Miang of Surin’s Phanom Dong Rak district to postpone their trip for safety reason.

A military source said the cross-border trade at the Chong Chom – O’Smach border checkpoint in Kap Choeng district of Surin province went on as usual on Wednesday.

Cambodian people came over to Thailand to buy consumers goods and to sell wild products, while Thai gamblers continued to travel through the checkpoint to casinos on the Cambodian side of the border.

The 2nd Army Region is responsible for the Northeast down to Prachin Buri, which is within the 1st Army Region.

Abhisit: Border issue won’t derail polls

29/06/2011
Bangkok Post

The longstanding border conflict with Cambodia is not a factor which could derail Sunday’s general election, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said while campaigning in Samut Sakhon on Wednesday morning.

The caretaker prime minister was referring to reported comments by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, that Thailand would launch an attack across the border into Cambodia and then use the border conflict as a reason to cancel the election.

Mr Abhisit said he did not worry about the border situation because he was confident the Thai military was ready to protect the country.

He said there was no reason for Thai forces to clash with Cambodian soldiers and the election would definitely not be cancelled.

However, he admitted that polling in certain localities could still be postponed for other reasons.

Hun Sen should not be trying to interfere in Thai politics, he said.

Thai premier denies planning Cambodia offensive to delay election

Jun 29, 2011
DPA

Bangkok – Thailand will not escalate a border conflict with Cambodia in order to delay a general election scheduled this weekend, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday.

Abhisit was responding to comments reportedly made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that Thailand would use a conflict over a border dispute to attack Cambodia as a excuse to postpone the election, the Bangkok Post online news service said.

Abhisit, who was campaigning for votes in Samut Sakorn province Wednesday, said there was no reason for Thailand to clash with Cambodia and the election would ‘definitely not be cancelled.’

Thailand and Cambodia have been at loggerheads over joint claims to a 4.6-square-kilometre plot of land adjacent to the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, perched on a mountain range that defines their common border.

The International Court of Justice ruled the temple to be on Cambodian soil in 1962, but stopped short of defining the border.

A 2008 decision by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to designate the ruins as a World Heritage site over Thai objections has led to several border clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops over the past three years.

On Saturday, a Thai delegation attending a UNESCO meeting in Paris announced plans to withdraw from the World Heritage Committee over the issue.

Official withdrawal would need to be decided by the next Thai government.

The general election pits the Democrat Party, leaders of the government, against the Pheu Thai Party, whose de facto leader is fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, prime minister from 2001-06, was overthrown by a coup.

A Pheu Thai victory at the polls is expected to irk the Thai military.

‘If the Pheu Thai win the election, after three months there will be problems if it fails to negotiate a deal with the military,’ said Chuvit Kamolvisit, founder of the Love Thailand Party.

‘But if the Democrats win, its likely that the protesters will return to Bangkok,’ he said.

The capital was wracked by anti-government protests from March to May last year, with demonstrators calling on Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call for elections.

The protests led to street battles that left 92 dead and about 2,000 injured.

Abhisit dissolved parliament on May 13 and called a new election.

Thailand’s hard stance on UNESCO under scrutiny

June 29, 2011
Boris Sullivan
Thailand Business News

Thailand announced its departure from the World Heritage Convention with‬ ‪immediate effect on Saturday, after the World Heritage Committee failed to heed its request seeking postponement of the Cambodias unilaterally-proposed Preah‬ Vihear Temple management plan, as Thailand fears that it may threaten national sovereignty.

Thailands Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, leading the Thai‬ delegation at the 35th session of the WHC meeting in Paris, earlier notified Mr Mounir‬ Bouchenaki, director-general of International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and‬ ‪Restoration of Cultural Property, who represents the director-general of United Nations‬ ‪Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO, that Thailand would leave the World‬ Heritage Convention and would also withdraw from the 21-member World Heritage Committee as the‬ body continues to ignore any negative consequences which may arise from the consideration of the temple management plan which he said overlooks sensitive issues which could adversely affect Thailands sovereignty and territory.‬

However, the withdrawal was not fully backed by the Foreign Ministry, a government source said.

Officials from the Foreign Ministry who attended the meeting together with Suwit in Paris were satisfied with their negotiations with the Cambodian delegation on the draft of the World Heritage Committee’s decision.

The Thai business opportunities in Cambodia in the long-term inevitably will be harmed if the border conflict persists.

Suwit, who led the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris last week, reported to the Cabinet on his decision to walk out of the session and the announcement of denunciation. The action is to protect Thai sovereignty over the territory adjacent to the Preah Vihear Temple, Panitan quoted Suwit as telling the Cabinet.

Abhisit backed Suwit’s decision and most of ministers in the Cabinet agreed with him, but the caretaker government decided not to carry out the procedure of denunciation, Panitan said.

‪Mr Suwit also said the World Heritage Centre, instead of revising the wording of the draft, decided to put it on the agenda of the WHC meeting in Paris, despite Thailands request to have the plan deferred, pending border demarcation with Cambodia. ‬‪Thailand is opposed to the terms of “urgent repair and restoration” but preferred using the wording “protection and conservation” in the draft.‬ ‪The head of the Thai delegation also said the pullout means that any WHC resolution will not be binding to Thailand.‬‪

The withdrawal has resulted in the Director General of the Fine Arts Department, Mrs Somsuda Leyavanija, one of 21 members of the WHC, to leave her post.‬‪ Mr Suwit earlier posted a message on his Twitter account late Saturday night saying, “Thailand has no choice but to withdraw as the meeting has resolved to put the issue on agenda.”‬

via Thailand pulls out of World Heritage Convention ‬.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand’s decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.

Director-General Irina Bokova has sent a letter expressing her regret over Thailand’s decision to withdraw from the World Heritage Convention.
Mr Abhisit, before the weekly cabinet meeting, showed reporters a letter from the UNESCO chief and said briefly that he would address a news conference on Thailand’s stance after today’s Cabinet meeting.

National Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, as head of the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris, will report the issue to the Cabinet and agencies concerned will study the implication of the UNESCO agency’s resolution on Cambodia’s management plan for Preah Vihear after Thailand leaves the convention.

In her letter dated June 26, Ms Bokova has expressed deep regret with Mr Suwit’s declaration on the Thai intention to leave the 1972 World Heritage Convention.

“The World Heritage Committee did not discuss the management plan of the Preah Vihear temple nor did it request for any reports to be submitted on its state of conservation. Moreover, it needs to be clarified that UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre never pushed for a discussion of the Management Plan by the Committee,” Ms Bokova said in the letter.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting yesterday, Mr Suwit denied he would benefit from the decision to withdraw from the convention.

He said the decision was not premature and was intended to protect the country’s dignity and territorial integrity.

During the past three years he had done everything he could to lobby and convince member nations that the management plan was a sensitive issue and that approving the plan could lead to problems.

He said a resolution relating to Preah Vihear adopted at the Paris meeting of the World Heritage Committee had allowed Cambodia to carry out maintenance and repair work for Preah Vihear and the areas surrounding it and to seek financial assistance from Unesco.

Mr Suwit said he found the resolution unacceptable because it could lead to the loss of Thai territory.

If Thailand had accepted the resolution, it would have given Cambodia a chance to use it to fight at the International Court of Justice for ownership of the disputed areas around the temple.

Thai 2nd Army: No reinforcements to border

29/06/2011
Bangkok Post

No troop reinforcements have been sent to the border with Cambodia, there has been only routine rotation of units, Army Region 2 commander Lt-Gen Thawatchai Samutsakhon said on Tuesday.

He said it was necessary for soldiers to be on alert around the clock. Thai and Cambodian troops had long confronted each other along the border and a clash could occur at any time without warning.

However, Army Region 2 had not sent reinforcements to the border, he said.

Lt-Gen Thawatchai advised the people who want to visit Ta Muen Tom temple in tambon Ta Miang of Surin’s Phanom Dong Rak district to postpone their trip for safety reason.

A military source said the cross-border trade at the Chong Chom – O’Smach border checkpoint in Kap Choeng district of Surin province went on as usual on Wednesday.

Cambodian people came over to Thailand to buy consumers goods and to sell wild products, while Thai gamblers continued to travel through the checkpoint to casinos on the Cambodian side of the border.

The 2nd Army Region is responsible for the Northeast down to Prachin Buri, which is within the 1st Army Region.

More questions for KRT Case 003

Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

Senate president Chea Sim yesterday appeared to endorse Prime Minister Hun Sen’s stated opposition to prosecutions at the Khmer Rouge tribunal beyond its second case, while the visiting United States ambassador for war crimes urged the court to resist political interference.

Chea Sim, who is also president of the Cambodian People’s Party, said that his party “supports” the court’s process “along the line of what was stated” by Hun Sen to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon during a meeting in the capital on October 27 last year.

In that meeting, Hun Sen “clearly affirmed that Case 003 will not be allowed”, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters at the time, fuelling speculation that the government was meddling in judicial decisions.

“The court will try the four senior leaders successfully and then finish with Case 002,” Hor Namhong added.

Speaking yesterday at the 60th anniversary of the CPP, Chea Sim said his party “supports the process” of the court “to try the crimes committed by the most senior leaders of the regime”.

While the court’s mandate gives it jurisdiction to try two categories of people – “senior leaders” and “those most responsible” for the atrocities of the regime – Chea Sim mentioned only the first.

Government officials have repeatedly stated that trying mid-ranking cadres, such as the three suspects in Case 004, could spark unrest and plunge the Kingdom back into civil war.

Both cases remain officially open but the court’s co-investigating judges have apparently sabotaged the Case 003 investigation, which concerns former KR navy commander Meas Mut and air force commander Sou Met. No information has been released on the Case 004 investigation.

In comments to the press yesterday during a visit to Phnom Penh, the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, Stephen Rapp, said the US expected decisions at the tribunal to be based on the law and the facts of the case.

“We know that people would like to see this tribunal finished at the end of Case 002, but that is not a political decision. The decision is to be made by this court according to the statute, according to the law, according to the facts that are developed,” he said.

Clair Duffy, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative who attended the press briefing, said yesterday that Rapp’s statement “fail[ed] to recognise that previous statements of this nature have had no impact on the situation”.

“Right now, action – in the form of an independent inquiry – is what’s required here, not general statements about judicial independence,” Duffy said.

OSJI has called for an investigation into claims that Case 003 had been deliberately botched by the co-investigating judges – who did not interview suspects or investigate crime sites – amid political pressure.

Duffy said Chea Sim’s comments were “definitely suggestive” of pressure on the court.

“Why would there be need for any reference to the executive in talking about an independent judicial process, particularly knowing that the Prime Minister expressed clear opposition to Cases 003 and 004 during that 27 October meeting?” she said.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government respected the mandate of the court.

“But we do have a right to express ourselves as a government too, or as a political party, too,” he added.