Torture ‘still plagues Kingdom’

Choun Ny, who was beaten by police in an attempt to extract a confession to a crime he did not commit, attends a conference on torture in Phnom Penh yesterday. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Stuart White and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

Reports of torture in Cambodia in 2011 rose nearly 30 per cent from 2010, highlighting a culture of forced confessions and prison abuses, officials from rights group Licadho said yesterday at an NGO-hosted event marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Cambodia ratified the UN’s Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, or CAT, in 1992, but the 135 complaints received by Licadho last year only hint at the rampant torture and impunity that still plague the Kingdom, participants said.

Presenter Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said that the high priority placed on extracting confessions has led to a system in which forcing statements through torture is de rigueur, despite the Cambodian constitution not recognising the validity of confessions extracted under duress.

The imprecise definition of torture, he added, has rendered that law “inapplicable”.

“So far there have been no convictions for torture, so Cambodia doesn’t have any torture, or what?” he asked.

Defence attorney Dun Vibol, who did not attend the event, said more than 70 per cent of his clients claim to have been beaten or threatened, and that many are made to thumbprint statements they haven’t read.

“Sometimes they fry them with an electric stick,” he said, recounting his clients’ experiences.

According to Vibol, the court has relied on confessions as the sole evidence in the majority of cases he has handled, and that investigating judges rarely leave their office to investigate further.

Suon Visal, an attorney and former public defender also unaffiliated with the event, echoed Vibol’s claim.

“They do not bring any other evidence,” he said. “If the statement of the accused is different from the testimony, sometimes they will ask the prosecution to bring evidence.”

But defendants who claim their confessions were forced have to “prove how or when or why the police abused them”, usually without an attorney, Visal said.

And while the practice of forcing confessions through torture is less prevalent now than in the 1990s, he said, it is still common, especially in rural areas.

“Sometimes the police beat the suspect whether or not they confess,” just to send a message to other would-be criminals, Visal said.

Chhith Seng, deputy police chief in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district, denied that police torture suspects to get confessions.

“Why would we do that?” he asked. “It is useless for us, and it can destroy the police’s honour, or the suspect will complain to us about torturing.”

Choun Ny, a victim who shared his experiences at yesterday’s event, said that he was brutally beaten by police in an attempt to extract a confession for a crime he didn’t commit.

“Because I didn’t confess, I was taken to jail for one month, and my wife had to sell everything to pay for things in prison,” he said, adding the beatings were so severe they damaged his eyesight. “I used to be able to read, but now I can’t even recognise the letters.”

Phou Povsun, a Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge, declined to comment.

Appeals Court Orders Release of Thirteen Boeung Kak Protesters

 

Thirteen women hastily convicted in May after their arrest in a land demonstration were released from jail on Wednesday. Photo: by Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Heng Reaksmey

VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Thirteen women hastily convicted in May after their arrest in a land demonstration were released from jail on Wednesday, following a decision by the Appeals Court.

The women had gone on a hunger strike to protest their detention, but it was the decision of the Appeals Court, who said they had not committed violence against authorities in their protests and should therefore have a reduced sentence, that ultimately freed them.

The women left the court in prison clothes, many of them weeping.

“I am happy today to have justice,” said Tep Vanny, a leading representative of the protesters, who have refused buyouts and relocation at the Boeung Kak development site since 2008.

As the women were being released, about 200 of their fellow Boeung Kak residents were blocked by riot police from demonstrating in front of the court. Police pushed back the protesters, who retaliated by throwing water bottles at them.

The 13 women had been given sentences of up to two and a half years by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but Appeals Court judge Seng Sivutha said Tuesday he had taken into account the non-violence of their protest, in which they attempted to reconstruct a house that had forcibly demolished, and their children. The judge said they had served adequate time for the crime. They had been charged with the illegal occupation of land and of acting against public officials and were serving there sentences at Prey Sar prison outside Phnom Penh.

Pung Chhiv Kek, president of the rights group Licadho, welcomed the decision but remained critical of their May 24 sentencing in the first place. “I’m disappointed that the municipal court sentenced them unjustly,” she said.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said Tuesday’s decision had been made to “save face” for the initial Municipal Court conviction.

“We are delighted that the 13 women will be released and reunited with their families and community,” Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s Cambodia researcher, said in a statement. “They should not have been arrested in the first place,” he added, “and their imprisonment has caused unnecessary distress to both them and their families.”

On Tuesday, however, allegations of injustice from the protesters themselves were muted.

“The court in Cambodia really is just,” said Heng Mom, one of the accused, as she left the court. “The Court of Appeals did provide justice, so Khmer society will prosper.”

Cambodian court frees 13 women who were jailed for protesting eviction from their homes

June 27, 2012
By Associated Press
 

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A Cambodian appeals court Wednesday ordered the release of 13 women who had been sentenced to 2½ years in prison for protesting their eviction from their homes without adequate compensation, in a case that was widely seen as an example of injustice.
The women cheered in the courtroom, their supporters applauded and observers from foreign embassies, including the United States, smiled in the audience after the judge’s ruling. Local and foreign human rights groups hailed the women’s freedom, but said the court also should have overturned their guilty verdicts.

“Finally, justice has been done for us,” defendant Heng Mom said tearfully. “From now on I can see my children and live with them.”
The women had lived in Phnom Penh’s Boueng Kak lake area, which the government awarded to a Chinese company for commercial development, including a hotel, office buildings and luxury housing. Residents complained that they were not given the new land titles they had been promised by the government.
Their joy Wednesday was marred by a clash outside the court between police and the women’s supporters, a reminder of the evictees’ prolonged struggle against a government with little tolerance for dissent.
About 200 human rights activists and relatives of the women tried to gather near the court to demonstrate their support, but clashed with about 300 police and military police who were deployed to block them. Human rights groups said at least a dozen people were hurt.
Judge Seng Sivutha upheld the convictions of the women for aggravated rebellion and illegal occupation of land, for which each had been sentenced to 2½ years. They had been arrested when they symbolically tried to rebuild their homes on land where their old houses had been demolished by developers in 2010.
The judge reduced their sentences to time served of one month and three days and freed them because he said they had children to take care of and had little knowledge of the law. He also said that testimony indicated that they did not resist arrest. They were to be freed later Wednesday after being processed out of prison.
Concern has risen in Cambodia over land grabbing, which sometimes involves corruption and the use of deadly force in carrying out evictions.
The human rights group Amnesty International said the appeals court “should have overturned the women’s convictions, not simply suspended the remainder of their sentences and allowed the convictions to stand.” The group earlier said the original trial was unfair because lawyers were not given sufficient time to prepare and not given access to evidence or witnesses.
A statement issued jointly by 13 Cambodian rights organizations also welcomed the women’s release while regretting that their convictions were upheld.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Cambodia Remains Source of Trafficking, US Says

 

Prum Vannak Anan, 34, spent three years aboard a fishing vessel after he was lured there with promises of work. Photo: by VOA Khmer

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

Cambodia remains a source of human trafficking, the US State Department said in an annual report, keeping the country as a “Tier 2” country that “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”

“However, it is making significant efforts to do so,” according to the annual Trafficking in Persons report, released Tuesday.

Cambodia continues to prosecute sex trafficking cases, the report said, citing the convictions of 20 trafficking offenders in 2011. But it has done so at a much slower pace, with 36 prosecutions the year before.

“Cambodia is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” the report said. “Cambodian men, women and children migrate to Thailand, Malaysia and other countries for work, and many are subsequently subjected to sex trafficking or forced to labor in the Thai fishing and seafood processing industry, on agricultural plantations, in factories, in domestic work or for begging and street selling.”

The report noted ongoing corruption at all levels of government, which thwarts efforts to crack down on trafficking.

In a ceremony Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave awards to ten people, including former trafficking victim Prum Vannak Anan, a Cambodia man who survived forced labor aboard a fishing vessel off Malaysia.

Speaking to VOA Khmer in Washington Tuesday, Prum Vannak Anan, 34, said he felt “honored” to receive the reward. He said he spent three years aboard a fishing vessel after he was lured there with promises of work. He has spent time since his escape drawing pictures of his ordeal to raise awareness in Cambodia of the perils of forced labor.

Keat Chantharith, a spokesman for the national police, said authorities have a commitment to stop human trafficking in Cambodia and have made gradual improvements.

“This is not to satisfy the US,” he said, “but the main purpose is to protect the fate of Cambodia.”

Monitor Counts Irregularities at Half of Last Month’s Polling Stations

Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Kong Sotharnarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

The Committee for Free and Fair Elections said Wednesday Cambodia needs to reform the National Election Committee ahead of parliamentary polls next July.

The independent monitoring organization counted 3,000 irregularities at 5,810 polling stations in last month’s local elections, it announced Wednesday.

The NEC must be improved if elections in the country are to be considered free and fair, said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, who also heads Comfrel.

“Comfrel urgently urges the government, donors and civil society to start discussing the improved composition of the NEC,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Considerations include improved registration practices, more accurate voter lists, proper investigations of complaints, improved freedom of expression and media, access to information by all parties and enforced neutrality of armed forces and civil servants, Thun Saray said.

Officials from the opposition Sam Rainsy and Human Rights parties said they agreed with the findings, having filed numerous complaints in last month’s commune council elections.

Tep Nitha, secretary-general of the National Election Committee, acknowledged there had been “some irregularities” during this year’s election. The national body will hold meetings among its provincial arms in the next two months to “consider challenges we met” during the election, he said.

Cambodia Holding Frenchman Linked to Chinese Political Crisis

 

In this March 13, 2012 photo, former Chongqing Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai attends the closing session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, China. The new leadership in the southwestern Chinese city beset by a murder scandal that took down its Communist Party boss says lessons must be learned from the embarrassing episode and efforts made to repair the city's image. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)

Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Cambodian authorities say they are seeking more evidence from Chinese officials before considering the extradition of a Frenchman arrested recently with ties to a Chinese political scandal.
Patrick Devillers, who has professional and personal links to the wife of Bo Xilai, the ousted communist chief of Chongqing, China, was arrested in Phnom Penh, police confirmed. However, officials declined to give more details of his arrest.
“Cambodia has an extradition agreement with China,” said Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. “And as for the case of Patrick Devillers, we are now waiting for more evidence from China before sending him there. It is still pending on where we should extradite him to because as of now we don’t know whether Patrick is guilty or not.”
It is not clear whether Devillers has been charged with any crimes. Police have not released any information related to his detention, other than to confirm it.
Devillers, 52, reportedly lives in Phnom Penh and owns land in the coastal town of Kep. He was a business associate of Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai, who is under arrest in China for the alleged murder of a British national there.
Her arrest and the ouster of her politically popular husband from the Communist Party has set off a major political crisis in China.

Unification of Royalist Parties in Doubt

 

Funcinpec’s secretary-general Nhiek Bunh Chhay, left, standing along side with Prince Norodom Ranariddh. Photo: by Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer

Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Kong Sothanarith
VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

Officials from two royalist parties that suffered major defeats in local elections last month said Tuesday they would be unable to merge into one ahead of next year’s general elections.

Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who heads his self-named party, blamed the failure on Funcinpec’s leadership, which he described to reporters as “responsible for this new fragmentation.”

Funcinpec’s secretary-general, Nhiek Bunh Chhay, said in a phone interview his party would not join in a royalist coalition because Norodom Ranariddh wants to join together with the opposition. “Funcinpec is in the government,” he said.

Both parties have seen waning popularity in recent elections, following the ouster of Norodom Ranariddh from Funcinpec in 2006.

The parties announced in May their plans for unification ahead of parliamentary elections next year, in hopes of strengthening their positions. Each has just two seats in the National Assembly. Party leaders thanked Prime Minister Hun Sen for his role in bringing them together.

Nhiek Bun Chhay called Ranariddh’s decision not to join in a coalition “regrettable,” but he said his party remains open to an alliance. “The fusion depends on both parties,” he said.

Less Power for Cambodian Women, Report Says

Monday, 18 June 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer

Cambodian women have fewer opportunities than men, and less access to economic and political positions of power, a World Bank report says.

Women in Cambodia and other countries in East Asia and the Pacific do have more economic access and business ownership than in some Western countries, but they have less power in family, politics and civil society, the report says. Women also face a greater risk of human trafficking in the region, according to the report.

In Cambodia, women earn $0.75 to every dollar a man earns, said Andrew Mason, a co-author of the report, “Entitling Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific.”

“As in Thailand, we’ve seen a very high level of female labor-force participation in Cambodia, but we also see very high levels of unpaid family labor in agriculture,” he said.

Mason also noted the high number of women in the garment sector, Cambodia’s top economic driver.

Hun Phanna, director of the Women’s Development Association, said Cambodian women have less income and less opportunity than men, especially in the rural areas.

The World Bank recommends that Cambodia prioritize gender in economic development and strengthen the role of women in public positions.

Secret SRP recording to be probed by court

Monday, 18 June 2012
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

The Battambang Provincial Court has summoned an opposition party council member to appear for questioning 10 days from now in connection with the secret and illegal recording of a Cambodian People’s Party official who was caught on tape offering hundreds of dollars in exchange for support in January’s Senate elections.

On January 20, before the election, CPP official Cheam Pe A summoned Mok Ra, a council member in Battambang town’s Tuol Ta Ek commune, to a meeting in a local hotel.

He then offered Mok Ra US$700 for his support in the upcoming elections, according to a taped version of the conversation that the SRP released.

Commune council members elect members of the Senate.

Citing the recording, the SRP filed a complaint with the Battambang Provincial Election Commission against Cheam Pe A, who shot back with a lawsuit against Mok Ra.

The Battambang PEC fined Cheam Pe A US$1,230, a punishment that SRP officials ridiculed as a slap on the wrist.

A provincial council member from the SRP argued at the time that CPP member Run Thel, who can also allegedly be heard speaking in the taped conversation, should face penalties too.

Mok Ra, who is supposed to be questioned by Judge Kem Ravy on June 28, fears he won’t get the same light treatment as Cheam Pe A.

Article 301 of the penal code forbids taping another person without their consent. If convicted, Mok Ra could go to jail for a year.

“And I am afraid of the court not being independent,” he said. Still, he plans to show up in court to defend himself.

“If we do not go, it means that we are wrong.”

Battambang Provincial Court Judge Kim Ravy declined to comment yesterday.

In the lead-up to the Senate election, the SRP repeatedly made allegations that CPP members were vote-buying from opposition councilors or trying to persuade them to change parties.

Boeung Kak Lake children protest during the queen’s birthday – Will she choose to be the queen for the rich or for the poor?

BKL Children kneeling down near by Buddhist shrine (Preah Ang Dong Keur) asking the Queen Mother during Her birthday to help release these children’s mother (Photo: CLEC)

A young girl BKL holding the Queen Mother’s photo and paper-print “Freethe15! and Stop Violence!”. (Photo: CLEC)

BKL Children kneeling down near by Buddhist shrine (Preh Ang Dong Ka) asking the Queen Mother to release their mothers from prison during Her birthday. (Photo: CLEC)

Cop in civilian (white cap, walkie talkie…) in the middle is taking photo of BKL children. (Photo: CLEC)

Cambodian women earn $0.75 a day … with the exception of one who earns millions a day

ស្ត្រីខ្មែ​ររកចំណូលបា​ន ៧៥សេនដុល្លា​រក្នុងមួយថ្ងៃ …

ខណៈដែល​ជំទាវស្រីធុំ រកប្រាក់រាប់លាន ​ដុល្លារ​ ចួលក្នុង​មួយថ្ងៃ​ ចាយ តចៅ
ស្ត្រី​កម្ពុជា​រកចំណូលបាន ៧៥​សេន​ដុល្លារ ខណៈដែល​បុរស​រកចំណូលបាន ១​ដុល្លារ​ក្នុង​មួយថ្ងៃ​
ថ្ងៃទី 18 មិថុនា 2012
ដោយ: រតនា
Cambodia Express News

ភ្នំពេញ: ​លោក អេ​ន​ឌ្រូ​វ ម៉េ​សុន អ្នកដឹកនាំ​សរសេរ​របាយការណ៍ នៃ​ធនាគារពិភពលោក បាន​និយាយថា ដូច​ខ្ញុំ​បានធ្វើ​បទ​បង្ហាញថា ប្រទេសមួយ​ចំនួន​ក្នុង​តំបន់ (​អាស៊ី​) នៅតែ​ប្រឈម​នឹង​បញ្ហា​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ និង​ការអប់រំ​ជា​មូលដ្ឋាន ហើយ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា គឺជា​ប្រទេសមួយ​ក្នុងចំណោម​នោះ​។ លោក​បានលើកឡើង​បែបនេះ នៅក្នុង​សន្និសីទកាសែត​វីដេអូ​ខ​ន​ហ្វឺ​រឹន​ពី​ទីក្រុង​បាងកក ប្រទេស​ថៃ ជាមួយ​ធនាគារពិភពលោក​ប្រចាំ​នៅ​កម្ពុជា កាលពី​វេលា​ម៉ោង ១១ ដល់​ម៉ោង ១២ ថ្ងៃត្រង់ នា​ថ្ងៃទី​១៨ ខែមិថុនា ឆ្នាំ​២០១២​។​

​លោក អេ​ន​ឌ្រូ​វ ម៉េ​សុន (Andrew Mason) បាន​លើក​ឧទាហរណ៍​នៅក្នុង​កម្រិត​មធ្យមសិក្សា យើង​បាន​ឃើញថា មានតែ​យុវនារី​ចំនួន ៨៥ ភាគរយ​ប៉ុណ្ណោះ បាន​ចូលរៀន បើ​ធៀប​នឹង​ចំនួន​យុវជន ដូច្នេះ​នៅមាន​គម្លាត​នៃ​ការអប់រំ​ដែល​ត្រូវបំពេញ​។

​លោក​បន្តថា ដូច​នៅ​ប្រទេស​ថៃ​ដែរ យើង​បានឃើញ​មាន​កម្លាំង​ពលកម្ម​ស្ដ្រី​ខ្ពស់​ខ្លាំង​ក្នុង​ការងារ​នៅ​ប្រទេស ​កម្ពុជា ហើយ​យើង​ក៏​ឃើញ​ស្ដ្រី​មាន​ចំនួន​ច្រើន​ខ្លាំង​ដែរ ក្នុង​ការងារ​កសិកម្ម​ប្រចាំ​គ្រួសារ និង​ក្នុង​វិស័យសេដ្ឋកិច្ច​ផងដែរ​។ ស្ដ្រី​នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា​រកប្រាក់​ចំណូល​បាន ៧៥ សេន ក្នុង​មួយថ្ងៃ នៅពេលដែល​បុរស​រកបាន ១ ដុល្លារ ដូច្នេះ​នៅមាន​គម្លាត​ក្នុងការ​ទទួលបាន​ប្រាក់ចំណូល​ផងដែរ​។​

​ជាមួយគ្នានេះ អ្នកស្រី រី​ណា បា​ឌី​យ៉ា​នី (Reena Badiani) មានប្រសាសន៍ថា ស្ដ្រី​ប្រឈម​គ្រោះថ្នាក់​ច្រើនជាង​បុរស ចំពោះ​អំពើ​ជួញដូរ​មនុស្ស​។​

​របាយការណ៍​ថ្មី​មួយ​របស់​ធនាគារពិភពលោក បាន​បង្ហាញថា ខណៈដែល​សមភាព​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ​មានការ​កើនឡើង​នៅ​ទូទាំង​តំបន់​អាស៊ី​បូព៌ា និង​ប៉ាស៊ីហ្វិក គម្លាត​ជាច្រើន​នៅតែ​កើតមាន​នៅក្នុង​តំបន់​សំខាន់ៗ​មួយចំនួន​។ របាយការណ៍​ដែលមាន​ចំណងជើង​ថា “​ឆ្ពោះទៅរក​សមភាព​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ​នៅក្នុង​តំបន់​អាស៊ី​បូព៌ា និង​ប៉ាស៊ីហ្វិក​” បានអោយដឹងថា ការលើកកម្ពស់​លទ្ធភាព​របស់​ស្ដ្រី​ឲ្យ​ទទួលបាន​ការងារ និង​កាលានុវត្តភាព​សេដ្ឋកិច្ច អាចបង្កើត​ផលិតភាព​យ៉ាងច្រើន​នៅក្នុង​តំបន់​។​

​លោកស្រី ផា​មេ​ឡា អនុប្រធាន​ធនាគារពិភពលោក ប្រចាំ​តំបន់​អាស៊ី​បូព៌ា និង​ប៉ាស៊ីហ្វិក បានធ្វើការ​កត់សម្គាល់​ថា “​ការលុបបំបាត់​វិសមភាព នៃ​កាលានុវត្តភាព​ក្នុងការ​ចូលរួម​ក្នុង​សកម្មភាព​សេដ្ឋកិច្ច អាច​បង្កើន​ផលិតភាព​របស់​កម្មក​រ​នៅក្នុង​តំបន់ ពី ៧ ភាគរយ ដល់ ១៨ ភាគរយ​។ សកម្មភាព​នេះ មាន​ឥទ្ធិពល​យ៉ាងច្រើន ចំពោះ​កំណើនសេដ្ឋកិច្ច និង​ការកាត់បន្ថយ​ភាពក្រីក្រ​។ ដូច្នេះ​ការពង្រឹង​សិទ្ធិអំណាច​សេដ្ឋកិច្ច​របស់​ស្ដ្រី មិនមែន​ត្រឹមតែ​ជា​រឿង​ត្រឹមត្រូវ​ដែល​ត្រូវធ្វើ​នោះទេ ក៏ប៉ុន្តែ​វា​ជា​រឿង​ដែល​ឆ្លាត​វៃ​ត្រូវធ្វើ​”​។​

​របាយការណ៍​នេះ (​ដែល​បានទទួល​ការគាំទ្រ​ពី​ទីភ្នាក់ងារ​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍​អន្តរជាតិ​ប្រទេស​ អូស្ដ្រាលី​) កំពុង​ត្រូវបាន​ផ្សព្វផ្សាយ​ដោយ​ក្រុម​ជំនាញ​ផ្នែក​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ របស់​ធនាគារពិភពលោក នៅ​ទីក្រុង​បាងកក​។ ក្រុម​នេះ​កំពុងតែ​ពិភាក្សា​ជាមួយ​អ្នកតាក់តែង​គោលនយោបាយ សង្គម​ស៊ីវិល និង​មេដឹកនាំ​ដែលមាន​គំនិត​យោបល់​ល្អៗ ស្ដីអំពី​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ និង​របៀបវារៈ​អភិវឌ្ឍន៍ ព្រមទាំង​កំពុង​ពិភាក្សា​អំពី​ការជ្រើសរើស​គោលនយោបាយ ដើម្បី​លើកកម្ពស់​សមភាព​យែ​ន​ឌ័​រ និង​ជំរុញ​ការអភិវឌ្ឍ​ឲ្យ​កាន់​តែមាន​ប្រសិទ្ធភាព​ជាង​នេះ​។

​លោកស្រី អា​ណែ​ត ឌី​ក​សុន នាយក​ប្រចាំ​ប្រទេស របស់​ធនាគារពិភពលោក​ប្រចាំ​តំបន់​អាស៊ីអាគ្នេយ៍ បាន​មានប្រសាសន៍ថា “​ធនាគារពិភពលោក​បាន​ប្ដេជ្ញាចិត្ត​គាំទ្រ​ដល់​ប្រទេស​នានា ក្នុងការ​ដោះស្រាយ​បញ្ហា​នានា ដែល​ស្ដ្រី​ជួបប្រទះ​ក្នុងការ​ទទួលបាន​នូវ​លទ្ធភាព​ចាប់យក​កាលានុវត្តភាព​ សេដ្ឋកិច្ច ទាំង​ទាក់ទង​ទៅនឹង​ការពង្រឹង​ជំនាញ​ក្នុងការ​រកប្រាក់​ចំណេញ ការបង្កើន​លទ្ធភាពរ​បស់​ស្ដ្រី ដើម្បី​ទទួលបាន​ដីធ្លី និង​មូលធន ឬ​ការបង្កើន​សំឡេង និង​ឥទ្ធិពល​របស់​ស្ដ្រី​នៅក្នុង​សង្គម​”៕

Cambodia to cede two villages to Vietnam

Monday, 18 June 2012
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

National Assembly president Heng Samrin speaks during a meeting in Phnom Penh last year. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia would have to give two villages to Vietnam if it wanted to retain another two deemed the territory of the Kingdom’s eastern neighbour by the former French Indochina colonial administration, a government minister said yesterday.

Last year, the Cambodian government announced it was speeding up the process of demarcating its borders with Vietnam and Laos, which were renegotiated in 1985, six years after Vietnam ousted the Khmer Rouge.
Va Kimhong, senior minister in charge of the Cambodian Border Affairs Committee, said the government would have to compromise to keep Thlok Trach and Anlung Chrey villages, in Kampong Cham province’s Ponhea Krek district, as part of the border demarcation process.
“We have still kept both the villages the same, but we have an obligation to find any area in Kampong Cham province to give back to Vietnam,” he said. “That is what we call a compromise.”Va Kimhong did not specify which villages would be given to Vietnam in exchange for retaining the territory, which includes Anlung Chrey, the home town of National Assembly president Heng Samrin.But Sean Penh Se, president of the NGO alliance Cambodia Border Committee, said from France yesterday that any exchange would be unacceptable without consulting those who stood to lose land from such a deal.”As I know, the map that France has kept [for us] has [Ponhea] Krek [district] belonging to the Khmer,” he said. “There has never been such an exchange, like an exchange of bread and oranges. [We] must have agreement from all people, because that land does not belong to Mr Va Kimhong and Mr Hun Sen.”Alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory stirs strong passions in the Kingdom and has been a pivotal issue in all of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party’s election campaigns.Party president Sam Rainsy lives in self-imposed exile in France after receiving more than a decade in jail terms in Cambodia for pulling up a border demarcation post and publishing a Google map to support his claim of Vietnamese encroachment.
SRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday the Vietnamese claim was based on an unacceptable 2005 supplementary treaty to the 1985 Treaty on Delimitation of National Boundaries between the two countries.
“I think Va Kimhong is very wrong. According to the names of the villages, they belong to Cambodia, and since the beginning, we did not agree with the additional treaty since 2005,” he said.Ros Va, 71, and Chum Chin, 71, residents of Po Preuk village, which neighbours the two villages in question, said they believed the villages were inside Cambodian territory but had been used as hiding places by Vietnamese soldiers during the war with the US.”Those villages really are Khmer land. It is not confusion,” Ros Va said.Heng Samrin could not be reached for comment yesterday, but senior Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Cheam Yeap said the National Assembly president had lived in Anlung Chrey village for close to 80 year”I have gone [to Heng Samrin's village] often; it is next to the border. Samdech Heng Samrin has already declared that since he was born. He has lived there since a long time ago,” Cheam Yeap said.

មន្ត្រី​ថា ភូមិ​កំណើត ហេង សំរិន ជា​ភូមិ​ស្ថិត​ក្នុង​ទឹក​ដី​វៀតណាម

សមត្ថ​កិច្ច​វៀត​ណាម ​ឈ​​រ​មើល​គណ​បក្ស​ប្រឆាំង​​ទៅ​​ពិនិត្យ​​​បង្គោល​ព្រំ​ដែន​​​ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ ពញា​ក្រែក​កាល​ពី​ឆ្នាំ ២០១០​។ រូប​ថត ហេង ជីវ័ន​

18 June 2012
មាស សុខ​ជា
The Phnom Penh Post​

«​គេ ​ (វ៉ា គឹមហុង​) ថា ភូមិ​របស់​ លោក​ហេង សំរិន ជា​ភូមិ​របស់​វៀតណាម​យូរ​ហើយ មិន​អាច​ទេ​…ខ្ញុំ​ធ្លាប់​ចុះ​ទៅ​ផ្ទាល់​ជួប​ចាស់​ទុំ​នៅ​ទី​នោះ​ គាត់​ប្រាប់​ខ្ញុំ​ថា កាល​ពី​អំឡុង​ឆ្នាំ ៦០ ដី​ខ្មែរ​ទៅ​ពី​ព្រំ​ដែន​បច្ចុប្បន្ន​ ៣-៤ គីឡូម៉ែត្រ​ទៀត»

ភ្នំពេញៈ មន្រ្តី​ជាន់​ខ្ពស់​នៃ​គណៈ​កម្មាធិការ​កិច្ចការ​ព្រំ​ដែន​ បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា កម្ពុជា ​ កំពុង​ត្រៀម​រៀបចំ​ភូមិ​​ចំនួន​ពីរ​ ក្នុង​ខេត្ត​កំពង់ចាម ដើម្បី​ស្នើ​ទៅ​វៀតណាម​ដោះដូរ ដើម្បី​រក្សា​ភូមិ​ ២ ដែល​គេ​ស្គាល់​ថា ជា​ភូមិ​របស់​លោក ហេង សំរិន ​ប្រធាន​រដ្ឋ​សភា ដែល​ជា​ភូមិ​របស់​វៀតណាម​។

លោក វ៉ា គឹមហុង ​ទេស​រដ្ឋ​មន្រ្តី​ ទទួល​បន្ទុក​កិច្ចការ​ព្រំ​ដែន របស់​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​កម្ពុជា បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា ភូមិ​ពីរ គឺ​ភូមិ​ថ្លុក​ត្រាច ​និង​អន្លង់​ជ្រៃ ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ពញាក្រែក ខេត្ត​កំពង់ចាម ​ដែល​គេ​ស្គាល់​ថា​ ជា​ស្រុក​កំណើត​របស់​លោក ហេង សំរិន ​ប្រធាន​រដ្ឋ​សភា​នោះ ជា​អតីត​ភូមិ​របស់​វៀតណាម ដោយ​លោក​អះអាង​ថា ភូមិ​ទាំង​ ២ ត្រូវ​បាន​ដាក់​ចូល​ក្នុង​ទឹក​ដី​វៀត​ណាម ​តាំង​ពី​កម្ពុជា​ ស្ថិត​ក្រោម​អាណា​និគម​បារាំង​មក​ម្ល៉េះ​។ ​លោក​បាន​អះអាង​បន្ត​ទៀត​ថា វៀត​ណាម​ ប្រគល់​ភូមិ​ថ្លុក​ត្រាច និង​អន្លង់​ជ្រៃ មក​ឲ្យ​កម្ពុជា​ តាំង​ពី​អាណានិគម​បារាំង ហើយ​ថា ​ក្នុង​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​ភូមិ​រវាង​ប្រទេស​ទាំង​ពីរ ប្រសិន​បើ​កម្ពុជា​ចង់​រក្សា​ភូមិ​ទាំង​នេះ កម្ពុជា​ត្រូវ​រក​ភូមិ​ផ្សេង​ទៀត​ដើម្បី​ប្រគល់​ឲ្យ​វៀតណាម​វិញ។ ​លោក វ៉ា គឹម​ហុង បាន​ប្រាប់ ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ កាល​ពី​ម្សិលមិញ​ថា៖ «​យើង​នៅ​តែ​រក្សា​ភូមិ​ទាំង​ពីរ​ដដែល ប៉ុន្តែ​យើង​ត្រូវ​មាន​កាតព្វ​កិច្ច​រក​តំបន់​មួយ​ទៀត​ក្នុង​ខេត្ត​កំពង់ចាម ដើម្បី​ប្រគល់​ទៅ​ឲ្យ​វៀតណាម​វិញ​។ នេះ​យើង​ហៅ​ថា ការ​សម្រុះ​សម្រួល»។ ​ទោះជា​យ៉ាង​ណា លោក វ៉ា គឹម​ហុង មិន​បាន​ប្រាប់​កាល​បរិច្ឆេទ​ពិត​ប្រាកដ​ នៃ​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​ភូមិ​រវាង​កម្ពុជា និង​វៀតណាម​នៅ​ឡើយទេ​ ប៉ុន្តែ​លោក​បាន​បញ្ជាក់​ថា ដំណើរ​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​ភូមិ​ នឹង​ចាប់​ផ្តើម​ក្នុង​ឆ្នាំ​នេះ។​

ប៉ុន្តែ​លោក ស៊ាន ប៉េងសែ ប្រធាន​គណៈកម្មាធិការ​ព្រំដែន​កម្ពុជា​នៅ​ប្រទេ​សបារាំង​ បាន​ធ្វើ​ការ​រិះគន់​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង ​លើ​គម្រោង​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​ភូមិ​រវាង​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​កម្ពុជា និង​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​វៀតណាម​នេះ ដោយ​លោក​អះអាង​ថា ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​នេះ​ មិន​អាច​ទទួល​យក​បាន​ទេ ប្រសិន​បើ​ដំណើរ​ការ​ គ្មាន​ការ​ចូល​រួម​ពី​ប្រជាជន ព្រោះ​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​នេះ​ នឹង​ធ្វើ​ឲ្យ​កម្ពុជា​បាត់​បង់​ដីទៅ​វៀត​ណាម។ ​លោក​បាន​បញ្ជាក់​ថា៖ «​ដូច​ដែល​ខ្ញុំ​បាន​ដឹង ​ផែនទី​ ដែល​បារាំង​បាន​រក្សា​ឲ្យ​យើង​ប្រើប្រាស់​រហូត​មក​ដល់​ពេល​នេះ ស្រុក​ពញាក្រែក ជា​របស់​ខ្មែរ​»។ លោក​បាន​បន្ត​ថា ប្រសិន​បើ​ភូមិ​ទាំង​ពីរ​ ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ពញាក្រែក​ ត្រូវ​បាន​ដាក់​ជា​ដី​វៀតណាម តាំង​ពី​សម័យ​អាណានិគម​បារាំង ​ម្ល៉េះ​សម​ជន​ជាតិ​វៀតណាម​នឹង​ចូល​មក​រស់​នៅ​ក្នុង​ភូមិ​ទាំង​នោះ​ពេញ​ ហើយ មិន​អាច​ខ្មែរ​យើង​រស់​នៅ​បាន​ទេ​។ ​លោកស៊ាន ប៉េងសែ ​បន្ត​ថា៖ «​បញ្ហា​ទឹក​ដី មិន​ដែល​អាច​ដោះ​ដូរ ដូច​ជា​ដោះ​ដូរ​នំប៉័ង​ នឹង​ផ្លែ​ក្រូច​នោះ​ទេ។ យើង ត្រូវ​មាន​ការ​យល់​ព្រម​ពី​ប្រជា​ជន​ទាំង​អស់​ព្រោះ​ដី​នោះ​មិន​មែន​ កម្មសិទិ្ធ​របស់​លោក វ៉ា គឹមហុង និង​លោក ហ៊ុន សែន​ទេ»។

លោក ហេង សំរិន ​ប្រធាន​រដ្ឋ​សភា មិន​អាច​ទាក់​ទង​សុំ​ការ​អត្ថាធិប្បាយ​បាន​ទេ កាល​ពី​ម្សិលមិញ​ ប៉ុន្តែ​លោក ជាម យៀប តំណាង​រាស្ត្រ​ពី​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា ភូមិ​ខាង​លើ​ជា​ស្រុក​កំណើត​របស់​លោក ហេង​ សំរិន ដែល​គាត់​ធ្លាប់​រស់​នៅ​តាំង​ពី​កំណើត​ រហូត​ដល់​គាត់​មាន​អាយុ​ជិត ៨០ ឆ្នាំ​។ ​ប៉ុន្តែ​លោក​បន្ត​ថា មុន​ពេល​លោក ហេង សំរិន កើត​ លោក​មិន​បាន​ដឹង​ទេ​ថា ទី​នោះ​ ជា​របស់​កម្ពុជា ឬ​វៀតណាម​។ លោក ​លើក​ឡើង​ថា៖ «​ភូមិ​របស់​សម្តេច​ពញា​ចក្រី ​ខ្ញុំ​ធ្លាប់​ទៅ​ទី​នោះ​ជា​ញឹកញាប់​។ វា​នៅ​ក្បែរ​ព្រំដែន សម្តេច​ ហេង សំរិន បាន​ប្រកាស​រួច​ហើយ​ថា តាំង​ពី​សម្តេច​ចាប់​កំណើត សម្តេច​បាន​រស់​នៅ​ទី​នោះ​»។ ទោះ​យ៉ាង​ណា លោក​បាន​បន្ថែម​ថា ​ការ​ដោះ​ដូរ​នេះ ត្រូវ​មាន​ការ​សម្រុះ​សម្រួល​ឲ្យ​បាន​ត្រឹម​ត្រូវ​រវាង​កម្ពុជា និង​វៀតណាម និង​ថា ប្រសិន​បើ​ភូមិ​លោក​ ហេង សំរិន ជា​របស់​វៀតណាម កម្ពុជា​គួរ​មាន​កន្លែង​ផ្សេង​ទៀត​ប្រគល់​ឲ្យ​វៀតណាម​វិញ។

លោក កឹម សុខា ប្រធាន​គណបក្ស​សិទ្ធិ​មនុស្ស បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា វៀតណាម គេ​បាន​រៀបចំ​ផែន​ការ​កាត់​ច្រឹប​យក​ទឹក​ដី​ខ្មែរ​នៅ​តាម​ព្រំ​ដែន តាំង​ពី​ក្រោយ​ឆ្នាំ​ ១៩៧៩ មក​ម្ល៉េះ គឺ​មាន​លោក​ប៉ែន សុវណ្ណ ដែល​កាល​នោះ​ជា​នាយក​រដ្ឋ​មន្ត្រី ​ជា​សាក្សី គឺ​គាត់​បាន​ប្រឆាំង​ជំទាស់​ រហូត​ដល់​មាន​ការ​ទម្លាក់​គាត់​ចេញ​ពី​តំណែង​។ លោក​កឹម សុខា បាន​បញ្ជាក់​ថា​៖ «​ប្រសិន​បើ​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​កម្ពុជា ព្រម​កាត់ (ភូមិ​ខ្មែរ​) ឲ្យ​គេ (វៀតណាម​) នោះ​ប្រវត្តិ​សាស្ត្រ​ នឹង​ចារ​ទុក…ជា​កំហុស​ធ្ងន់​ណាស់​»។

លោក រស់ វ៉ា អាយុ ៧១ ឆ្នាំ និង​លោក ជុំ ជិន អាយុ ៧១ ឆ្នាំ ជា​អ្នកភូមិ​ពោធិ៍ព្រឹក ក្នុង​ស្រុក​ពញា​ក្រែក​​ក្បែរ​ភូមិ​ទាំង​ពីរ បាន​អះអាង​ថា ភូមិ​ថ្លុកត្រាច និង​អន្លង់​ជ្រៃ ពិត​ជា​របស់​កម្ពុជា ដែល​ពលរដ្ឋ​ខ្មែរ​រស់​នៅ​ជា​ច្រើន​ជំនាន់​មក​ហើយ​និង​ថា ទាហាន​វៀតណាម​ធ្លាប់​ពួន​ក្នុង​ព្រៃ​ក្បែរ​នោះ នៅ​ពេល​ពួក​គេ​ប្រយុទ្ធ​ជាមួយ​នឹង​ទាហាន​អាមេរិក។ លោក រស់ វ៉ា បាន​បញ្ជាក់​ថា៖ «ភូមិ​ទាំង​នោះ​ពិត​ជា​ដី​ខ្មែរ​។ វា​មិនមែន​ជា​ការ​ភាន់ច្រឡំ​ទេ»។

លោក រ៉ុង ឈុន សមាជិក​ក្រុម​ប្រឹក្សា​ឃ្លាំ​មើល​កម្ពុជា ដែល​ធ្លាប់​ត្រូវ​បាន​ជាប់​ពន្ធនាគារ ដោយ​សារ​​ការ​បញ្ចេញ​មតិ​លើ​បញ្ហា​ការ​បោះ​បង្គោល​ព្រំ​ដែន​កម្ពុជា-​វៀតណាម ដោយ​ផ្អែក​ទៅ​លើ​សន្ធិសញ្ញា​ព្រំដែន​បំពេញ​បន្ថែម​ដ៏​ចម្រូង​ចម្រាស បាន​ថ្លែង​ថា បញ្ហា​ព្រំ​ដែន ​ជា​បញ្ហា​អាយុ​ជីវិត​របស់​ជាតិ​ទាំង​មូល​ ដែល​មុន​នឹង​ឈាន​ទៅ​ដល់​កិច្ច​ព្រមព្រៀង​ណា​មួយ​ គឺ​ត្រូវ​តែ​មាន​ការ​ពិភាក្សា​ហ្មត់ចត់​ពី​រដ្ឋ​សភា និង​ត្រូវ​ស្វែងរក​ការ​ឯកភាព​ជាតិ​ មិន​មែន​ត្រូវ​ពឹង​ផ្អែក​តែ​ទៅ​លើ​គណៈកម្មាធិការ​ព្រំ​ដែន​តែ​មួយ​នោះ​ទេ ​។ លោក​បន្ត​ថា៖«​គេ​ (វ៉ា គឹមហុង​) ថា ភូមិ​របស់​ លោក​ហេង សំរិន ជា​ភូមិ​របស់​វៀតណាម​យូរ​ហើយ មិន​អាច​ទេ​…ខ្ញុំ​ធ្លាប់​ចុះ​ទៅ​ផ្ទាល់​ជួប​ចាស់​ទុំ​នៅ​ទី​នោះ​ គាត់​ប្រាប់​ខ្ញុំ​ថា កាល​ពី​អំឡុង​ឆ្នាំ ៦០ ដី​ខ្មែរ​ទៅ​ពី​ព្រំ​ដែន​បច្ចុប្បន្ន​ ៣-៤ គីឡូម៉ែត្រ​ទៀត»។ លោក​បញ្ជាក់​ថា ការ​កំណត់​ព្រំដែន គេ​មិន​ត្រូវ​ពឹង​ផ្អែក​ទាំង​ស្រុង​តែ​ទៅ​លើ​ផែន​ទី​នោះ​ទេ គឺ​គេ​ត្រូវ​តែ​ពិនិត្យ​មើល​ពី​ភូមិសាស្ត្រ​ជាក់​ស្តែង ដែល​ប្រជា​ជន​ក្នុង​ប្រទេស​នីមួយៗ​រស់​នៅ​តាំង​ពី​ដូន​តា​របស់​ពួក​គេ​មក​ ផង​ដែរ​៕TK

រាយការណ៍​បន្ថែម​ដោយ​ សូ វិសាល

Less Power for Cambodian Women, Report Says

Monday, 18 June 2012
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer

“In Cambodia, women earn $0.75 to every dollar a man earns.”

Cambodian women have fewer opportunities than men, and less access to economic and political positions of power, a World Bank report says.

Women in Cambodia and other countries in East Asia and the Pacific do have more economic access and business ownership than in some Western countries, but they have less power in family, politics and civil society, the report says. Women also face a greater risk of human trafficking in the region, according to the report.

In Cambodia, women earn $0.75 to every dollar a man earns, said Andrew Mason, a co-author of the report, “Entitling Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific.”

“As in Thailand, we’ve seen a very high level of female labor-force participation in Cambodia, but we also see very high levels of unpaid family labor in agriculture,” he said.

Mason also noted the high number of women in the garment sector, Cambodia’s top economic driver.

Hun Phanna, director of the Women’s Development Association, said Cambodian women have less income and less opportunity than men, especially in the rural areas.

The World Bank recommends that Cambodia prioritize gender in economic development and strengthen the role of women in public positions.

Opposition Slams Border Agreement

Border Commission Chairman sVar Kimhong speaks to reporters, June 18, 2012. (RFA)

Nguyen Tan Dung gives a hug to his dog, Hun Xen

The party says it won’t abide by any decision which forfeits Cambodian territory to Vietnam.
2012-06-18
Radio Free Asia

A leading Cambodian opposition party Monday strongly condemned plans by the leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia to finalize the demarcation of their shared border, which would result in each side exchanging swaths of land.

Cambodian Border Commission Chairman Var Kimhong announced Monday that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung will inaugurate the last of 314 border posts on June 24 between Cambodia’s Kampot and Vietnam’s Kien Giang provinces, both of which lie on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand.

Var Kimhong said finalizing the border is important because it will also allow the two countries to proceed with defining their coastal territories.

“Border post 314 is very important in defining the sea border,” he said.

“Now that we have agreed on the [location of the] 314th border post, we can start to demarcate the sea border at any time.”

Var Kimhong added that Cambodia and Vietnam have been using information from French colonial era maps, the Cambodian constitution, and Cambodian King Norodom’s dealings with Vietnam in 1873 to define their borders. Norodom ruled as king from 1860 to 1904.

Var Kimhong said that as part of the deal, Vietnam had agreed to allow Cambodia to reincorporate Along Chhrey and Thlok Trach villages as part of Kompong Cham province’s Ponhea Leu district—the original home of Cambodian National Assembly President Heng Samrin.

In return, he said, Vietnam will be permitted to claim part of Cambodia, although he did not specify which part of the country.

Opposition concerns

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) spokesman Yim Sovann said his group would never accept any deal between Cambodia and Vietnam regarding the demarcation of the shared border.

“The opposition party opposes any demarcation that affects Cambodian territory,” he said.

The SRP said it would also refuse to recognize a recent move by the national assembly, or Cambodian parliament, to ratify an additional treaty concerning Cambodian and Vietnamese border pacts.

SRP leader Sam Rainsy currently lives in exile in France and is facing a two-year jail sentence for uprooting markers at the border with Vietnam in 2009, if he returns.

Sam Rainsy said earlier this month that he plans to meet with Vietnamese officials to convince them to pressure Cambodia to allow him to enter the country, but Hun Sen responded by saying that he is not a Vietnamese puppet and telling Sam Rainsy he would face his punishment if he returned to Cambodia.

Joint demarcation

The inauguration of the 314th border post will mark the second time Cambodia and Vietnam have cooperated to demarcate their shared border. In June 2006, the two countries installed the 171st border post between Cambodia’s Svay Rieng and Vietnam’s Tay Ninh provinces.

Cambodia and Vietnam share 2,570 kilometers (1,600 miles) of land and sea border and have completed 280 of 314 planned border posts, or about 90 percent of the project. Cambodia’s Rattanakiri and Mondukiri provinces have yet to be demarcated.

The Cambodian government has spent about U.S. $16 million to build the concrete border posts, excluding the cost required to transport them and demarcate the border.

Many Cambodians are wary of Vietnam’s influence over their country’s affairs.

An estimated 1.7 million people, or one in four Cambodians, died in what has been known as the “Killing Fields” after the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. The regime was unseated when Vietnam invaded the country four years later.

Vietnam occupied the country for a decade before withdrawing its troops and signing the Paris Peace Agreement to restore sovereignty and stability to Cambodia.

Reported by Sok Serey and Seng Sereyroth for RFA’s Khmer service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Ship flying Cambodian flag of convenience used to transport missile vehicles from China to North Korea

In this April 15, 2012, file photo, a North Korean vehicle carrying a missile passes by during a mass military parade in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square. The enormous 16-wheel truck used to carry the missile was found to be exported from China. (AP photo)

Document confirms Chinese firm sold missile transport vehicles to N. Korea
June 13, 2012
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan)

Japanese government sources have confirmed that a Chinese company exported four large vehicles capable of transporting and launching ballistic missiles to North Korea last August, which would be a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

While the Security Council mandate prohibits the sale of major weapons systems to Pyongyang, the official Chinese government position continues to be that it has never broken such a resolution.

Because the United States, Japan and South Korea need Chinese pressure on North Korea to prevent it testing a nuclear weapon for the third time, the three governments have not pressed Beijing on the issue, sources said.

On the urging of the United States, the three governments also decided not to publicize the shipment of the vehicles to avoid publicly embarrassing China.

The Japanese government obtained a document last October that recorded the export of the vehicles from China to North Korea.

The four vehicles believed to have been exported were likely the same ones that were prominently displayed by North Korea at a military parade in April commemorating the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder.

According to several Japanese government sources, the four vehicles were transported aboard the 1,999-ton Harmony Wish, a cargo ship registered with Cambodia.

Spy satellites of Japan, the United States and South Korea have confirmed the ship left Shanghai on Aug. 1, 2011, and arrived at Nampho in western North Korea on Aug. 4.

On Oct. 3, the Harmony Wish anchored in Osaka Port. At that time, officials of the 5th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, based in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, conducted an on-board inspection and discovered the detailed document of the export of the vehicles that was issued by the exporting agent in Shanghai. A report was passed on to the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office via Japan Coast Guard headquarters.

According to the document, four large WS-51200 transport vehicles with a total length of 21 meters were transported after completion in May 2011 by a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., which is affiliated with the Chinese military.

The Chinese military normally uses the WS series of off-road vehicles to transport ballistic missiles. The 51200 model is believed to be a modified version of the 12-wheeler 2900 model. The 51200 was turned into an 16-wheeler and was likely developed to transport the Dongfeng 31 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which has a range of about 8,000 kilometers.

Wuhan Sanjiang Import and Export Co. is listed as the shipper of the vehicles. Wuhan Sanjiang is believed to be affiliated with China Aerospace Science and Technology.

While a North Korean trading company was listed as the recipient, the company does not exist in files on weapons export companies held by the Japanese government, leading officials to believe it was a paper company created to get around economic sanctions.

Japan passed on the intelligence it gathered from the Cambodian ship to the United States and South Korea via the Foreign Ministry.

At the April 15 military parade held in Pyongyang, eight 16-wheeler transport vehicles carried what appeared to be ICBMs. Because North Korea does not have the technology to develop such vehicles on its own and because the vehicles were very similar to the WS-51200, officials of Japan, the United States and South Korea decided that the four vehicles shipped from China were among the eight.

The three nations concluded the import of the four vehicles was a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans the export to North Korea of all weapons and related materials except small arms and light weapons. The resolution was adopted in response to Pyongyang’s second nuclear test in 2009.

U.S. officials informally passed on such information to their Chinese counterparts in April.

Sources said while Chinese officials admitted for the first time to the export of the vehicles they also said the exports were intended for civilian use to mainly transport large pieces of lumber.

However, because there are no Chinese trade records of the export of the four vehicles, some intelligence sources said Chinese officials may have used that explanation about civilian use to fend off criticism, since the WS series of off-road vehicles were developed with the capability of being able to raise ballistic missiles into launch position.

Khmer Rouge suspect’s rights at risk: Amnesty

The Cambodian government counts many former [KR] cadres among its ranks and does not want the court to go beyond its current trial of three ex-regime leaders, claiming further prosecutions could destabilise the country.

PHNOM PENH, June 14, 2012 (AFP) – A refusal by Cambodia’s UN-backed court to appoint a defence lawyer in a politically sensitive new Khmer Rouge case has “severely compromised” the suspect’s rights, Amnesty International has said.
The London-based rights group urged the United Nations to probe allegations that court administrators had interfered with justice by blocking the appointment of the unnamed suspect’s preferred defence lawyer Richard Rogers.
“Amnesty International is concerned that the rights of a suspect… to instruct lawyers of his choosing and conduct an effective defence, have been severely compromised,” it said in a statement released late Wednesday.
The suspect is yet to be charged but, along with four other mid-level Khmer Rouge members, faces allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the 1975-1979 regime blamed for the deaths of up to two million people.
British lawyer Rogers, who used to work in the court’s defence section, has denied accusations that there could be a conflict of interest if he joined the suspect’s legal team after his administrative role.
It is the latest controversy to dog the tribunal, which is frequently accused of bowing to political pressure to bury the cases.
Criticism is usually aimed at local officials and staff at the court, but Amnesty said the UN “may leave itself open to a charge of double standards” if it fails to appoint Rogers while frequently accusing the Cambodian government of interference.
Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities, voiced concern over the tribunal’s latest controversy.
“Rogers is qualified and his client wants him. They (court staff) don’t have the authority to question that,” she said.
The Khmer Rouge oversaw one of the worst horrors of the 20th century, wiping out nearly a quarter of the population through starvation, overwork and execution in a bid to forge a communist utopia.
The Cambodian government counts many former cadres among its ranks and does not want the court to go beyond its current trial of three ex-regime leaders, claiming further prosecutions could destabilise the country.

Cambodia’s rice exports surge by 13 pct in first 4 months

14 June 2012
Source: Xinhua

Cambodia had exported 49,450 tons of milled rice in the first four months of this year, a 13 percent rise from 43,730 tons in the same period last year, showed a report from the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.

The report said from January to April 2012, the country earned revenues of 35 million U.S. dollars from the rice exports, up 40 percent from 25 million U.S. dollars in the same period a year earlier.

The rice has been exported mainly to European markets and the United States, and some to Asian countries including South Korea, China, and Japan.

Cambodia is an agrarian country with more than 80 percent of the population being farmers. The country produced some 8.25 million tons of paddy rice last year. With the amount, it’s estimated that there is around 4 million tons of paddy rice left over for exports this year.

The Southeast Asian nation sets its goal to export at least 1 million tons of milled rice by 2015.

Thai, Cambodian military forces meet

Thai Vice Adm. Pongsak Pooriroj and Cambodian Adm. Kaew Samual agree to cooperate on economics and border stability.

Friday, 15 June 2012
By Patcharapol Panrak
Pattaya Mail

Thai military officials responsible for the Trat and Chantaburi border met with their Cambodian counterparts in Pattaya to work out further measures on economic cooperation and border stability.

The periodic Regional Border Commission meeting, held June 1 at the Ambassador City Hotel, covered routine agenda items related to border operations, economic cooperation, social issues, health care and the environment.

Thai Vice Adm. Pongsak Pooriroj, responsible for Trat and Chantaburi Defense, and Adm. Kaew Samual of Cambodia’s Region 3 command, announced no new major agreements or initiatives at the session also attended by Trat Permanent Secretary Wirat Rattanavijit.

Inmates at Prey Sar prison now connected to mains water

The Prey Sar prison main gate. Previously only dirty well water was available to drink freely. This water is now used for the toilets and sanitation.

The Prey Sar prison and outside wall in Phnom Penh. Previously only dirty well water was available to drink freely. This water is now used for the toilets and sanitation.

14th of June 2012
Demotix

Prisoners held at the Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh Cambodia have finally got access to ten litres of tap water to drink each day. Inmates include the 13 women protestors who claimed their homes at the Boeung Kak lake had been illegally seized.

Description:

Prisoners held at the Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh Cambodia, including the 13 women protestors who claimed their homes at the Boeung Kak lake have been illegally siezed, have finally got access to ‘clean’ drinking water.

The project funded by the Red Cross and the Phnom Penh Water Authority, inmates now have access to 10 litres of ‘clean’ tap water every day. This water is from the mains supply water to Phnom Penh and the connection was only possible due to Red Cross NGO assistance and funding.

Previously only dirty well water was available to drink freely. This water is now used for the toilets and sanitation. If inmates had the cash to splash then they could buy bottled water or sometimes rainwater, otherwise they had no clean water to drink.

The women Boeung Kak protestors, who are now allegedly on hunger strike, were jailed for an average of 2 years after a three hour court case held only two days after they were arrested for protesting on the land where their homes stood until recently. The prime development land at the Boeung Kak lake site is now owned by CPP government senator Lao Meng Khin and his development company cleared the land.

The much criticised trial of the women on May 24th 2012 has again highlighted the use of ‘strong-arm’ tactics by officials in Cambodia to oppress protestors when they challenge the legality with which their land and homes have been taken for use by property development companies.

The Phnom Penh Post today reported that: “US Embassy spokesperson Sean McIntosh said the US was “concerned” by the sentencing. “This trial was marked by serious irregularities, such as the defendants being taken to court without having been charged and being tried in three hours without lawyers or witness testimony,” he said by email.”

ANALYSIS: North Korea nuke fears spare China on U.N. resolution violations

June 13, 2012
By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Staff Writer
Asahi Shimbun (Japan)

Security experts suspect that Cambodian-registered ships operated mainly by Chinese crews have been used to provide underground support to such nations as North Korea, Myanmar and Laos.

When North Korea held an elaborate parade to show off its military might, it inadvertently provided further damning evidence against its only ally.

Images of the April 15 parade in Pyongyang, held to commemorate the centennial of the birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, featured large 16-wheeler transport vehicles carrying ballistic missiles.

The vehicles were believed to have come from China, the same ones mentioned in a shipping report obtained by the Japanese government.

Japan, the United States and South Korea had solid evidence to prove that China, despite its repeated denials, had violated a U.N. Security Council resolution banning weapons exports to North Korea.

But the three countries decided not to pursue the matter in the Security Council, underscoring the complexities in international horse trading.

“That was not a good time to force China into a corner,” one Japanese government source said.

The chief concern among the three nations was to prevent a third nuclear test by North Korea and alleviate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and they needed Beijing’s help on that matter.

Japan had gone out of its way to prove that China was not adhering to the U.N. Security Council resolution, which prohibits the export of all weapons and related material to North Korea except for small arms and light weapons.

The Japanese government solidified its case when it obtained a document showing that a Chinese company had exported four large vehicles–capable of transporting and launching ballistic missiles—to North Korea.

The document was obtained through a search of the cargo ship Harmony Wish, which has long been suspected of having illicit ties to North Korea.

According to Japanese government sources, although the Harmony Wish is registered in Cambodia, almost all its crew members are Chinese. Security experts suspect that Cambodian-registered ships operated mainly by Chinese crews have been used to provide underground support to such nations as North Korea, Myanmar and Laos.

Over the past four years, the Harmony Wish has made close to 10 calls at such North Korean ports as Chongjin, Wonsan and Nampho.

Japanese government officials got their chance to search the Harmony Wish when it docked at Osaka Port on Oct. 3, 2011.

After gaining the consent of the ship captain, officials of the 5th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, based in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, conducted an on-board inspection.

Although no suspicious cargo was found, officials did discover a detailed export document showing that four large vehicles, developed for the Chinese military to transport ballistic missiles, had been shipped from Shanghai to Nampho in August 2011.

China has shipped materials in the past to North Korea that could become part of weapon development programs, including hydrazine and kerosene, which can be used as rocket propulsion fuel, and lead glass that is used in nuclear facilities.

Beijing brushed aside criticism from the international community on those occasions by explaining that the materials also had civilian uses.

A panel of experts from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Japan and South Korea, was set up to ensure adherence to the provisions of the Security Council resolution against weapons exports to North Korea.

The panel has indicated a number of times that Chinese ports were being used as transit points for the export of weapons to North Korea.

But Chinese experts denied such allegations, saying they lacked scientific basis and depended excessively on media reports. Chinese representatives on the panel have on most occasions refused to allow the panel’s reports to be publicized. They have even refused to sign off on some of the reports.

The WS-51200 off-road vehicle that was transported to North Korea was developed specifically to allow it to be equipped with a device that raises ballistic missiles in preparation for launches.

China faced possible international criticism and demands for an explanation because the exported item was related to ballistic missiles that are obvious threats to neighboring nations.

But nothing was made of the vehicle exports until they were seen in the April 15 military parade in Pyongyang.

According to Japanese sources, officials of the United States, which had received information from Japan about the cargo shipment, informally sounded out their Chinese counterparts about the exports.

Chinese officials acknowledged the export of the vehicles, but they again explained that they were meant for civilian use.

Although Japan, the United States and South Korea could have taken the matter to the Security Council, concerns about a possible North Korean nuclear test took precedence.

One Chinese official reportedly told a Japanese counterpart, “You probably do not realize the extent of the efforts we have been making (to prevent a nuclear test).”

One event that greatly influenced the issue was an April 23 meeting in Beijing between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kim Yong Il, head of the International Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

One week earlier, on April 16, the Security Council unanimously adopted a president’s statement in response to North Korea’s launch of a long-range ballistic missile. The statement warned Pyongyang that the Security Council would take appropriate measures if it conducted another missile launch or a nuclear test.

North Korea, clearly surprised that China accepted the hard-line stance, dispatched Kim to Beijing to meet with Hu.

Chinese officials were also surprised by the sudden visit by Kim. Wang Jiarui, the head of the Communist Party’s International Department who was on a trip abroad, was instructed to change plans and return to Beijing.

In his meeting with Kim, Hu said North Korea’s actions had strengthened the defensive posture of Japan, the United States and South Korea, which “affected China’s national security.”

Hu added that if North Korea went ahead with another nuclear test, it would “produce a decisive effect on relations between China and North Korea” and possibly force Beijing to rethink its assistance and economic cooperation projects with Pyongyang.

For his part, Kim issued a warning to the international community, saying, “If an inappropriate response is made to the peaceful rocket launch by North Korea, we will also take the appropriate retaliatory measure.”

However, Kim also said, “As long as the current situation is maintained, we will not implement a hard-line measure.”

After the Hu-Kim meeting, China began taking a softer approach toward North Korea.

Japan and South Korea proposed at a meeting of the Sanctions Committee of the Security Council that about 40 North Korean companies and associations be added to a list of those subject to sanctions. But China objected, and only three companies were added in the end.

Japan, the United States and South Korea concluded that China was acting based on Kim’s proposal made during his meeting with Hu. At the same time, the three nations also determined that the possibility had decreased that North Korea would conduct its third nuclear test in the near future.

Japan has no effective diplomatic measure to use against North Korea since it has implemented all possible sanctions. The only alternative open to Japan was to go along with the decision by the United States to seek a compromise with China.

In April 2002, Japan introduced a “catch-all” regulation that limits the export of products and parts that could be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction. As part of that regulation, Japan has been able to prevent the export to North Korea of large tractor-trailers.

But Japan lost an opportunity to point out that China’s transport of the vehicles to North Korea clearly denied the efforts being made by Tokyo.

Japan, the United States and South Korea also decided not to publicize the information related to the export of the vehicles to North Korea through a panel of experts set up under the Sanctions Committee.

In its latest report released in May, the panel only said that North Korea did not possess the capability to manufacture the missile transport vehicles that were used in the military parade and that an investigation will continue.

US urges fair elections in Cambodia, stops short of calling for return of opposition leader

Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to the media at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, June 13, 2012.

June 14, 2012
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The United States is urging Cambodia to allow diverse participation in next year’s general elections and release women who were imprisoned last month for protesting a property development.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, in talks Tuesday, discussed the importance of “appropriate participation across the political spectrum” in the 2013 elections.
But Nuland said Wednesday that it was “an issue for the Cambodians” whether opposition leader Sam Rainsy is allowed to take part in the vote. Rainsy lives in exile in France following 2010 convictions in Cambodia that he claims were politically motivated.
This year, Cambodia is the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping that Washington wants to engage more actively as the Obama administration steps up the U.S. diplomatic and security presence in the Asia-Pacific.
Cambodian’s prime minister, Hun Sen, has dominated the Southeast Asian nation for nearly three decades. Rights groups accuse him of squelching dissent and intimidating political opponents.
Last month, 13 women were sentenced by a Cambodian court to 2½ years in prison for protesting their eviction from the land where their homes once stood. The case was seen as emblematic of a broader problem of forcible evictions of poor Cambodians to make way for property development in its fast-growing economy.
Their houses were demolished in 2010 to make way for a Chinese company’s development of a hotel, office buildings and luxury houses in Phnom Penh’s Boueng Kak lake area. The women were found guilty of aggravated rebellion and illegal occupation after attempting to reconstruct their homes. Four have reportedly begun a hunger strike in prison.
Nuland said Clinton urged Cambodia grant the detainees due process, and said their release “would be a sign of support for freedom of expression.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Cambodia bans smoking around famous Angkor temples to prevent fires, aid health of visitors

June 14
By  Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia is banning smoking at the Angkor temple archaeological site.

A government official said Thursday the rule will promote the health and comfort of visitors and prevent forest fires.

Tan Sambu said “No smoking” signs will be added and workers will help spread the word under the effort started Wednesday. He is vice secretary general of the Apsara Authority that manages the temples.
More than 2 million foreign and domestic tourists visit the site in Siem Reap in the country’s northwest annually. The structures were built from the ninth to the 14th century.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Somaly Mam: Cambodian sex slave-turned activist

Fri, 06/15/2012
Susan Long
Asia News Network (The Straits Times), Singapore

Somaly Mam is so tired of being a victim.

The Cambodian sex slave-turned-anti trafficking activist is adamant that she does not want to recount her life story again and be haunted afresh by nightmares of her past.

The 42-year-old wears her hair long to her waist, refuses to get “fat and grey” and takes meticulous care of herself so that she can be a role model to girls everywhere.

“I need to love myself, I'm not a victim any more,” she declares, as she poses for pictures at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore, where she was a guest speaker at last week's Nomura Asia Equity Forum.

The survivor is now squarely focused on the future lot of Cambodian women, which she feels she – once the lowest of the low as a “dark-skinned” sex slave from a “savage” minority tribe – now has the capacity to change at the highest levels.

Five years ago, she launched her eponymous foundation to raise funds and give sex trafficking victims a voice. Since then, she has been reforming their image from weak and powerless to courageous overcomers. She encourages them to teach classes and give talks to the police, military and magistrates on sex slavery.

Through radio shows and public talks, she lobbies for more sex education and gender equality, in a country where boys routinely have their first sexual encounter in brothels and girls are taught to feel ashamed of their bodies. She implores men to respect women, and see them not merely as toys or slaves, or chattel.

She also goes to the root of the problem by bringing small business to desperate mothers, to provide them with an alternative to selling their daughters into a life of vice for US$20 (S$25).

Today, it's no longer easy to “buy a virgin” in Cambodia, she says triumphantly. In 2008, the Cambodian government finally introduced an anti-trafficking law criminalizing sexual exploitation, especially of minors, which resulted in police raids of red-light areas. But enforcement remains patchy. In this area, she thinks Singapore, with its strides in curtailing trafficking and strengths in “strict law enforcement”, can provide a “good, clean model” for Cambodia.

Although sex trafficking numbers have gone down – it is estimated that one in 40 girls born in Cambodia gets sold into sex slavery – she warns that the incidence of rape, especially by stepfathers or relatives known to the girl's family, is on the rise.

Ever younger girls are being trafficked, as a growing number of Asian sex tourists to Cambodia – including Singaporean men – believe that sex with a virgin whitens the skin, bestows longer life and even cures Aids. “To be sure they are virgins, they are taking them as young as five,” she says.

Violence by pimps has escalated. Some women have an eye gouged out, are found chained to sewers, or given electric shocks to ensure compliance. She attributes this to the state of moral bankruptcy in Cambodia, after years of carpet bombing by the Americans, and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

It is dark and disturbing but her message to Singapore, in whose backyard this is happening, is: Don't look away.

“Trafficking is not just in Cambodia; it's around the world, everywhere. People think the girls wish to do it. I want everyone to know that no woman wants to be raped. We all want to have sex with men we love. Start to ask questions, talk and understand,” she beseeches in patchy English, her fifth language, after Khmer, French, Laotian and Thai.

Today, her proudest achievement is not the 7,000 girls her organization Afesip (a French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Situations) has rescued across Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand since 1996.

It's a mother's pride in her girls who graduated, got married, made good. Last year, with tears in her eyes, she sent off one of her charges to law school in Cambodia, relishing the irony of how she – like other prostitutes – once had many brushes with the law.

But she gets riled up when they decide to give up their careers after marriage. “Why do you stop? You get your own salary, you speak English, you're travelling, and then just because one man asks you to stop, you stop. Keep working. Women have to live independently,” she upbraids them.

What also gets her goat, she says, are rogues pretending to be knights on white horses.

Some Caucasian men, after reading her autobiographical bestseller The Road Of Lost Innocence, first published in French in 2005, get inspired to “save” a girl. They “buy” a beautiful girl from the brothel, bed her, enjoy their holiday, then call Mam from the airport to collect her.

“I hate that,” she says heatedly. “What am I going to do with her? This woman, who has been with a foreigner with money, enjoyed great food, an iPhone, how can she stay in my center? In my center, the girls have no phone to use; we cannot feed them meat every day. These men, I want to kill.”

“If you want to save a girl, don't save her and have sex with her. Provide skills, training, education; empower her.”

It takes five minutes to save a girl from forced prostitution but five to 10 years – and the patience “of a mother” – to “recover” her.

For the past 16 years, she has given the police tip-offs on sold or kidnapped girls in brothels, observed the raid, held their hands as they gave their statements, then taken them back to the centre to train them in sewing or hairdressing and begin the long process of emotional healing.

Some call their mother, go home and end up back in the brothels. “You have to look after them as your own kid, not as a victim, and go back to the brothel to get them every single time,” she recounts, adding she has done this four times for one girl.

Some of these mothers who sold their own flesh go on to lodge complaints with human rights groups when their daughters are in her shelter, claiming they have been denied access. She is aware this adds to the controversy already swirling over her hardline stance that all sex workers are “victims”, regardless of consent, in poverty-stricken Cambodia.

In a rehearsed spiel, she maintains she is focused on “sex abuse and sex trafficking” and is “not against sex workers”. If a girl over 20 has decided to prostitute herself for a living, she says her role will be to “care for her, empower her, give her more opportunities”. “If she decides to leave, I'm there to help her,” she says.

Accusations have flown over how she ignored issues of consent and security by allowing New York Times correspondent Nicholas Kristof to live-tweet a brothel raid in November last year.

When asked about this, her defense is that Kristof is “like a brother” to her. She draws attention instead to how the subject of his tweets – a young Vietnamese girl who was trafficked to Cambodia – was rescued to safety on the day of her 14th birthday.

“The most important thing is to see her laughing again,” she says with finality.

Whenever challenged, she closes the subject with: “No one is perfect and I'm not perfect too.”

She seems to have no inkling of how big her staff strength is, or how much they operate on. She adds disarmingly that her management style is plain bad. “I don't know how to do it at all. I'm bad at management and finance... I tell my staff I'm the worst and they tell me the same too.”

Though abandoned as a toddler, growing up an orphan among the minority Phnong tribe in Cambodia's mountainous Mondulkiri province were her happiest days. “There was no beating,” she says.

She foraged for her own food in the forest and slept among the trees till age 10, when an elderly man from the city “adopted” her, promising to find her birth parents. “Grandfather”, as she called him, beat her into submission, then sold her off several times – first her virginity to a Chinese merchant at age 12, in marriage to a violent soldier at 14, and finally to a Phnom Penh brothel at 16.

She ran away, only to be gang-raped by the police, and had maggots poured down her throat upon her return. She worked off her debt till “Grandfather” died, then took up with a series of Caucasian clients because they did not beat her, “paid more” and took her to “nicer places”.

At 20, she met Pierre Legros, a French aid agency worker who spoke perfect Khmer and was “brilliant”, if a bit “rough” around the edges. She opened a bar with him, married him and followed him to France three years later. In Paris, she was confronted with a cold, distant land and a hostile mother-in-law (“Today, I understand her; no one wants her son to marry a prostitute,” she confides).

Barely 18 months later, in 1994, they returned to Cambodia when he landed a job with medical humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres. She pretended to be a nurse and infiltrated Cambodia's brothels handing out condoms. Then she started helping girls held against their will to flee.

Their home was crowded with 20 of them at one point. That was how Afesip started its first shelter in 1996, as she gave birth to their first child. They had a second child in 2002, but parted ways in 2004. Mam, who has “never known what love is”, says in her book: “It is difficult for me not to blame all men for the actions of a few.”

There were warnings – delivered at gun point – by brothel owners. In 2006, she told journalists that her then 14-year-old adopted daughter Ning was kidnapped and raped in retaliation for her activism.

But two months ago, her account was refuted by former husband Legros, a former Afesip director. He called it a “marketing” ploy for her foundation and told The Cambodian Daily that the girl had just run away with her boyfriend. Likewise, Cambodia's anti-trafficking police say they did not hear of any kidnapping.

Asked how Ning is doing now, Mam clams up, sighing heavily that there is “big trouble”.

These frequent attacks no longer faze her. The hardest part, she lets on, is steeling herself to enter the dank, dirty brothel alleys, talking to victims about wounds which mirror hers.

There, the engulfing stench of “sperm and sweat” makes her gag. She has drawers full of perfumes and potions, which she douses herself in, but she feels she can never ever exorcise the stench of her past.

The divorcee, who holds French and Cambodian citizenship, spends about a third of her time travelling to raise funds but can stay away from Phnom Penh no more than 10 days at a time – or else the nightmares return.

The Buddhist, who refuses to believe it is her “karma” to suffer for past misdeeds, says she has embraced forgiveness and now meditates twice a day.

If she could give her children three pointers about life, what would they be?

She thinks for a while, then says: “Be happy for what you are. Life is short, continue to help and share with everyone. Life is love and love has no conditions.”

Cambodian opposition seeks unity

Jun 15, 2012
By Irwin Loy
Asia Times Online

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's fragmented opposition parties are promising to work together rather than compete against each other for votes in the next election. All it took was another crushing victory at the polls by the country's ruling party.

Few expected the governing Cambodian People's Party, with Prime Minister Hun Sen at its helm, to lose in nationwide local elections held here June 3. Yet the way in which it won - securing 97% of commune chief seats nationwide - was particularly decisive.

If the election was a barometer to gauge the political climate ahead of key parliamentary elections scheduled for 2013, then it showed that a great deal of work lies ahead for what is still a divided opposition.

Just as troubling for the opposition is that more Cambodians than in previous elections are choosing not to vote. Election monitors say the June election drew roughly 60% of registered voters. This suggests a trend of declining voter turnout, from the 67% that voted in the previous commune elections in 2007, and the 87% who turned up a decade ago.

The sagging numbers could be hurting the opposition more than the ruling CPP.

"The CPP know how to motivate their supporters to come to vote," says Thun Saray, president of Adhoc, a local rights group. "They try to facilitate everything for the voters to come to vote."

While the CPP has controlled the political landscape in Cambodia for the better part of two decades, the two largest opposition groups - the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party - run separate campaigns even though both promote a similar social justice agenda.

Saray says sympathetic would-be voters may be choosing to stay home, unable to see a viable alternative to the ruling party in a divided opposition.

"If they are separate, if they are divided among themselves like this, the voters don't expect to have political change through the election because they already see the results," Saray says. "One big party competes with the two small parties. You see the results."

Those results saw the Sam Rainsy Party lose ground this month, even in areas where it is traditionally strong, such as the capital, Phnom Penh. At the same time, the Human Rights Party, competing in its first commune elections, walked away with almost as many commune chief seats as the more established SRP.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, says both parties were expecting a larger return at the polls, eager for momentum before next year's important parliamentary elections. Rather than the opposition gaining ground, however, the CPP merely cemented its dominance.

Virak says the results should come as a wake-up call to the opposition. He says the parties should join forces or merge if they have any hope of mounting a significant challenge to the CPP next year.

"Smart politicians will definitely consider that and look at that option," Virak says. "That's probably the best option for them now."

The parties have floated the idea of a merger before , but failed to hammer out a deal before the election. The HRP's performance this month may give it an added bargaining chip.

In an interview, party president Kem Sokha said the low voter turnout this election is a concern. He says the two opposition parties need to cooperate "for the sake of the Cambodian people."
"For us, we want to merge into one political party," Sokha says. "Because if we remain separate, with separate voter lists, different political parties, we cannot combine our votes together against the ruling party."

The SRP, for several years the clearest opposition to CPP rule in Cambodia, appears to be more amenable to the idea than in the past. Party leader Sam Rainsy remains in self-exile in Europe after fleeing prosecution for incitement that was widely seen as politically motivated. In a telephone interview after the election, Rainsy said his goal is to "unite all the opposition forces".

The two parties plan to meet for discussions in July. But whether all the personalities can co-exist is a question mark. Rainsy, for his part, appears eager to remain the opposition figurehead.

"I don't say if. I say when I return, inevitably in the near future, the potential of the SRP will come back," Rainsy says. "If some voters were demotivated because of my being absent, when I return, my name is going to mobilize people."

Before the opposition can mount a united campaign going into next year's elections, it will have to find a compromise among its own ranks. That, says the CCHR's Ou Virak, will be no less of a challenge.

"It's so difficult to get these two parties to be strategic," Virak says. "Most of them believe they'd rather see the other parties, the other politicians, just vanish, and not participate. I don't see them being able to actually overcome this. I think it's going to be very difficult."

Either way, much would have to change in the next 13 months for the CPP to relinquish its dominance over Cambodian politics.

In the June election, opposition parties attempted to exploit growing discontent around controversial land evictions. A series of violent publicized evictions before the vote left the government open to criticism.

Yet while the SRP and HRP's social justice platforms may speak to human rights concerns and the increasing number of Cambodians affected by land disputes, the election results showed that many more Cambodians are just as willing to park their votes with a government that has overseen steady economic growth and relative stability following years of war. And that may be something even a united opposition will have difficulty overcoming.