Hun Sen warns cash-strapped ministries to watch air-con bills

Nov 30, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told government staff they must stay within budget for electricity use or take pay cuts to compensate for any overruns, local media reported Tuesday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of a ministry building on Monday.

'Starting today, if ministries have electricity costs such as those from air-conditioning higher than the target in their budget, the minister (and deputy ministers) will face a three-month salary cut,' Hun Sen said, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

He said officials who objected to having their salaries cut were welcome to quit, and promised to monitor the electricity usage of the worst offending ministries.

Most of Cambodia's electricity is imported from neighbouring countries. Electricity prices, which are among the highest in the region, are regularly cited as a barrier to investment.

Senior Cambodian prosecutor arrested by new anti-graft body

Nov 30, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Officials from Cambodia's fledgling Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) have arrested a senior provincial prosecutor on unspecified charges, national media reported Tuesday.

It marks the first known arrest of a public official by the ACU, which was launched earlier this year to tackle pervasive corruption in public life.

The Cambodia Daily newspaper said Top Chan Sereyvuth, the senior prosecutor in Pursat province, was arrested early Monday.

ACU head Om Yentieng, who led the operation, refused to disclose the grounds on which the prosecutor was being held.
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Stampede evacuations discussed

Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Tep Nimol and Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post

Doctors at Calmette Hospital met on Tuesday to discuss the evacuation of patients severely injured in last week’s deadly Diamond Island stampede to hospitals in neighbouring countries.

The meeting followed an announcement on Monday by Prime Minister Hun Sen that the government would pay evacuation and hospital costs for any patient requiring treatment not available locally.

Sok Khon, director of administration at Calmette, said that no patients had yet been evacuated, but that staff were preparing for that possibility.

“Our top doctors met on Tuesday and carefully checked the status of the victims to determine whether they need to be sent out of the country for further treatment,” he said.

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Koh Pous group puts first island villas on market

Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Soeun Say
The Phnom Penh Post

LUXURY homes slated for the US$1 billion Koh Puos development off the coast of Sihanoukville have been put on sale and are already attracting interest, according to the island’s developer.

The firm behind the Morakot Island resort put 36 forthcoming sea-front villas on the market this month, according to Marina Khrisanova, director of sales and marketing for Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group.

With a square metre starting at $2,000, the homes will range from 450 to 570 square metres each – making each property worth at least $900,000.

An official from the company confirmed the villas are part of phase one of construction, set to begin early next year.

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Chinese firm seeking investment opportunity in rice exports, hotel industry in Cambodia

November 30, 2010
Source: Xinhua

China's COFCO, the largest oils and food importer and exporter in China and a leading food manufacturer, on Tuesday afternoon expresses its interest to invest in rice exports and tourism in Cambodia.

"We are very interesting in rice exports from Cambodia and hotel industry in Cambodia,"Yang Hong, vice president of China Oil and Foodstuff Corporation (COFCO), said on Tuesday during a meeting with the officials at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).

"After the possibility study about the investment opportunity here, we will take the two sectors into investment consideration," she added.

She said that the Beijing-based COFCO Group is a leading firm in the businesses of biofuel and biochemical production, oilseed processing, rice trading and processing for exports, brewing materials production, and wheat processing, moreover, the group also engages in real estate businesses.

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Preah Vihear temple border gate with Thailand likely to open on weekend

November 30, 2010
Source: Xinhua

Ten Thai soldiers stationed in Wat Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak pagoda at Preah Vihear temple have already withdrawn and the Preah Vihear temple border gate with Thailand is likely to open on Sunday, said a top official at the Preah Vihear National Authority.

"Since Monday's evening, both sides have pulled out each side of the 10 soldiers stationed in Wat Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak pagoda and Thai side asked to keep five of them dressed uniforms and equipped with radio transmitters, but no weapons to station at the Police station 795 nearby the Cambodian market nearby the temple," Hang Soth, General Director of the Preah Vihear National Authority told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Both sides have also been re-filled bunkers since on Monday, he added.

"We, both sides, agreed in general to open the border gate at Preah Vihear temple on December 5 upon the request by a Thai army commander," he added. "However, we are not yet to agree with the Thai request to allow her vendors to sell in our market nearby the temple."

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Cambodia PM says no one responsible for stampede

29 November 2010
BBC News

Cambodia's prime minister says no one will be punished over a festival stampede in which 351 people died.

"The incident that happened was the responsibility of the government," said Hun Sen, describing it as "a historical lesson that we must remember".

The country's worst tragedy in decades happened last Monday when revellers at the annual water festival panicked on an overcrowded bridge.

Some people were crushed, while others fell into the river and drowned.

The majority of victims were women, and questions have been raised over who is to blame for the disaster.

Hun Sen said that no state officials were responsible, and described calls for senior government figures to step down as politically motivated.

But he admitted that the government was at fault.

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Cambodia PM says no one responsible for stampede

November 29, 2010
By Prak Chan Thul
Reuters

Hun Sen drew parallels with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States under the presidency of George W. Bush, which killed 2,995 people. "Did Bush administration officials resign following the incident in the U.S. of planned attacks that were preventable? Did New York's governor resign? Did Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resign?" he asked.

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's prime minister said on Monday no state officials were to blame for a stampede last week that killed 351 people and ruled out resignations in the aftermath of the country's worst tragedy in three decades.

Long-serving premier Hun Sen said calls for senior figures within the government and security forces to step down were politically motivated to serve opposition parties, but he said mistakes had been made and the situation was badly handled.

"No one will resign from their positions after what happened," Hun Sen said during the opening of a new government building in the capital, Phnom Penh.

"The incident happened because of carelessness and we didn't expect this thing to happen," he added. "The biggest mistake was that we had not fully understood the situation."
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Cambodian PM says no punishment for fatal stampede

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen delivers a speech at a newly-constructed building for Ministry of Social Affairs in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, Nov. 29, 2010. Hun Sen said Monday that no one will be punished for last week's stampede in which at least 351 revelers died. (Xinhua/Phearum)

Ethnic Vietnamese relatives pray for victims near the site where hundreds of people stampeded during a water festival in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Monday, November 29, 2010
By SOPHENG CHEANG
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia's prime minister said Monday that no one will be punished for last week's stampede in which at least 351 revelers died after the swaying of a suspension bridge cause mass panic.

Hun Sen said many people share responsibility for not anticipating the problems that caused the Nov. 22 tragedy but that rescue efforts were adequate and, without them, the death toll would have been higher.

"No one will receive punishment for this incident," Hun Sen said at the opening of a new government building. "We have to learn a lesson from this for solving such problems in the future."

Preliminary findings by an official investigation committee found that the natural swaying of a suspension bridge ignited fears it would collapse among an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people on the structure. In frantic efforts to escape, the crowd pressed and heaved, crushing hundreds of people and leading some to dive off the span into the water.
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Jam instead of terrorism causes stampede tragedy in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Final assessment released on Monday afternoon by the government showed that stampede tragedy at Diamond Island bridge was not caused by terrorism or criminal act, but a jam with too many crowded people.

"It was estimated nearly 4 million people during the water festival and about 7,000 to 8,000 people on the tragic bridge at that time, meaning that about 10 to 12 people on one square meter," Prum Sokha, the secretary of state for the interior ministry, and chief of sub-committee on investigation said during a press briefing on Monday afternoon at the Council of Ministers.

"It was too crowded and people walking in opposite directions and the flows of words on electric shocks and about the bridge was about to collapse."

Reason to the accident is too crowded, pushing each other, suffocation, while words on electric shock, a bridge to collapse were at the same time caused to the panic. The authorities were making great efforts to rescue the victims on time.
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Each Dead from Stampede Receives at least $12,000- Cambodian PM

2010-11-29
Source: Xinhua

Each of 351 people killed during a stampede at Diamond Island bridge on Monday night last week has received the cash donation of at least 12,000 U.S. dollars, said Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday.

So far, 3,771 U.S. dollars from the King, the government, Cambodian Red Cross, and the owner of the Diamond Island has already been donated to each family of the dead, Hun Sen said during the inauguration of the office of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation on Monday.

"And at least another 9,000 U.S. dollars will be donated to each corpse through their families," he said, adding that the donations were raised by the foundations of Bayon TV, CTN ( Cambodian Television Network), and donated from China, Malaysian investors, and Vietnam.

"I would like to thank our compatriots from all walks of life for their generous donations to help the dead and the injured in the stampede," he said. "And also thank to foreign countries."

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Cambodia: Lessons from the Water Festival stampede

29 November 2010
By Sopheap Chak
Global Voices Online

During this time of the year in previous years, Cambodians were sharing holiday stories and how they happily participated in the Water Festival celebrations. But not today. Cambodians are still mourning the death of 347 people in the stampede tragedy which happened last week at Koh Pich Bridge.

Mainstream media channels and even online social network tools have been used to send news updates, to call for support, and to express condolence to families of the victims. Top government officials, civil society organizations, youth networks and individuals joined together and launched numerous initiatives to help those who are recovering in the hospitals and to support the victims’ family members.

While there were controversial issues like how government should be accountable for its failure to protect and ensure the people's safety, a number of individuals consider the tragedy as an opportunity to learn rather than focus on blame finding.

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Cambodia Catholics visit water festival victims

Father Bruno Cosme (in the foreground) and other Catholics visit those injured in hospital

November 29, 2010
By Keo Kagnha, Phnom Penh
UCANews.com

Phnom Penh Catholics have responded to last week’s Water Festival tragedy which killed at least 375 revelers by organizing hospital visits to survivors of the deadly stampede.

“We come here to share the sorrow,” said Sang Yeth, a member of the charity committee of St. Joseph’s Church.

On Nov. 26, she led a group parishioners to Preah Ketomilia Hospital in the capital where more than 40 of the injured were hospitalized.

Hundreds more injured are being treated at two other hospitals.

The parishioners also distributed 40,000 riel (about US$10) to each victim, most of whom were poor farmers who came from the provinces to celebrate the Water Festival in the capital.
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Clinton blasts State Department leaks [by Wikileaks] as 'an attack'

11/29/2010
By Mimi Hall and Richard Wolf
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration scrambled Monday to control the diplomatic damage from a quarter-million leaked State Department documents reverberating across the nation's capital and around the globe.

The White House ordered a government-wide review of procedures to safeguard classified data and vowed to prosecute anyone who broke U.S. law by leaking the latest trove of documents to the online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. "It is an attack on the international community — the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations, that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity."

Attorney General Eric Holder said the government was conducting a criminal investigation and would hold responsible "anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law."

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US Officials say Cambodia's Debt to US is "an irritant" for Better Relation

Witness account of the Koh Pich tragedy

One of Cambodian Victims at Diamond Bridge Back from Presume Dead

No punishments' over deadly Cambodian stampede: PM

Monday, November 29, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's premier said Monday that nobody will be brought to justice over a festival stampede last week that left more than 350 people dead, adding the tragedy was the result of a "joint mistake".

"Nobody will be punished for the incident," Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the inauguration of a new government building in the capital.

"We were careless," he added. "This was a joint mistake that nobody expected."

Cambodia's annual water festival ended in tragedy last Monday after crowds panicked on an overcrowded bridge leading to an island that was one of the main event sites.'

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Cambodian PM Hun Sen says no one to be punished from stampede accident

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that no one to be punished from stampede accident that occurred last week in the country.

Delivering speech at a newly-constructed building for Ministry of Social Affairs, Hun Sen said "no one is deserved to be punished for this accident," but the whole of them.

He said the main cause of the accident was the "under- estimation and the carelessness to the situation."

On the last day of a three-day water festival, 351 people died and 395 others injured by the stampede occurred at Diamond Island Bridge in Phnom Penh.

Hun Sen said the water festival will be celebrated as usual in the following years despite such accident, saying it is the national event, while at the same time, the island known as Diamond Island will be developed as planned without any change.
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Each Dead from Stampede Receives at least $12,000- Cambodian PM

2010-11-29
Source: Xinhua

Each of 351 people killed during a stampede at Diamond Island bridge on Monday night last week has received the cash donation of at least 12,000 U.S. dollars, said Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday.

So far, 3,771 U.S. dollars from the King, the government, Cambodian Red Cross, and the owner of the Diamond Island has already been donated to each family of the dead, Hun Sen said during the inauguration of the office of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veteran and Youth Rehabilitation on Monday.

"And at least another 9,000 U.S. dollars will be donated to each corpse through their families," he said, adding that the donations were raised by the foundations of Bayon TV, CTN ( Cambodian Television Network), and donated from China, Malaysian investors, and Vietnam.

"I would like to thank our compatriots from all walks of life for their generous donations to help the dead and the injured in the stampede," he said. "And also thank to foreign countries."

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Photos from Koh Pich Bridge on Sunday 28 Nov.

A handful of monks with a dozen mourners paying their respect, as the military police lingered in the shade within the cordoned sight of tragedy. (All Photos: Courtesy of Theary Seng)

Wreaths and bouquets of flowers from embassies and individuals lined the entrance of the Koh Pich bridge, which has been cordoned off. Incredible to comprehend that hundreds of people died at one moment in time on this tiny bridge, which takes less than a minute to walk across.

Folded white and pink lotus flowers piled in mounds with incense, surrounded by rows of wreaths and fake $100 dollar bills littering and fluttering about on the ground - offerings to the dead, should they need currency in the afterlife.

The swaying bridge of Koh Pich, a very contained scene for the deaths of hundreds - incomprehensible.

On the edge of the river, a small crowd trying to comprehend what happened. The entrance to the swaying Koh Pich bridge in the back.

A relatively small, short swaying bridge containing the corpse of hundreds in one moment earlier this week. Police keeping watch under the shades.

Small, short swaying Koh Pich bridge, site of tragedy which took lives of hundreds in a blink of an eye. Life is but a breath.

With Independence Monument behind me, view of obscene Naga Casino and Koh Pich swaying bridge in background.

Stampede death toll rises to 351

Phnom Penh, November 28, 2010
Agence France-Presse

The number of people killed in a bridge stampede during the Cambodian capital's annual water festival now stands at 351, the social affairs minister said on Sunday. The figure, which included 222 females, is four higher than previously announced, while the number of injured stood at 395, said a statement signed by Ith Samheng, who sits on a committee investigating the disaster.

It said each of the wounded would receive free treatment and assistance from the Cambodian Red Cross as well as 1,000,000 riels (USD 244) from the government.

Cambodia's most popular festival ended in tragedy on Monday after crowds panicked on an overcrowded bridge leading to an island that was one of the main event sites.

Authorities have said a full report on the incident would be released in the coming week.

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Cambodia's stampede death toll reaches 351

November 28 2010
Source: Xinhua

Four more Cambodians reported on Sunday dead in the stampede tragedy happened on Monday night on Diamond Island bridge during the final day of the Water Festival, bringing the total number of the dead to 351.

The four new dead, two died from serious injury and the other two were reported from the families of the dead to the local authorities, said a letter signed Sunday by Minister of Social Affairs Ith Samheng, who is also the chairman of the sub-committee on urgent settlement on Diamond Island Casualties.

The letter recorded 351 dead people including 129 men and 222 women and 394 injured. The injured people are in hospitals and get free-of-charge treatment and get 1 million riel (250 U.S. dollars) donation from the government and charitable groups.

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Boy who fled Cambodia's 'Killing Fields' returns as US naval commander

US Navy Commander Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz who left Cambodia and his family 37 years ago to escape the Khmer Rouge It will be the first time Commander Misiewicz, 43, has set foot on home soil since he left in 1973.

As a boy in Cambodia Michael Misiewicz fled the civil war with the Khmer Rouge. Now 37 years later he is about to return to the country of his birth as commander of US warship.

28 Nov 2010

Ian MacKinnon in Hua Hin, Thailand

The Telegraph (UK)

The guided missile destroyer USS Mustin, with a complement of 300 crew, is due to dock in the south-western port of Sihanoukville later this week.

"I have been fighting a lot of emotions about coming back to my native country," he said by ship-to-shore telephone. "To know that I have relatives there who have wanted to see me for decades . . . I don't know if I will be able to hold back the tears." Commander Misiewicz, who was born in Vannak Khem, left Cambodia as the fighting between the Khmer Rouge and the US backed regime of Lon Nol intensified.

His father had arranged for him to be adopted by a woman at the US embassy who was leaving for home as the situation in Cambodia grew more perilous.

While studying at naval college he began to learn more to of the atrocities committed by the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished in the "Killing Fields", of torture, starvation or disease.
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Boy who fled K.Rouge returns to Cambodia a US navy commander

28 Nov 2010
By Michelle Fitzpatrick (AFP)

PHNOM PENH — When the destroyer USS Mustin docks in Cambodia next week it will be more than just a routine mission for the ship's commander.

Michael Misiewicz is Cambodian by birth and was just a child when he was wrenched from his family and homeland 37 years ago, to be sent away from the country to escape the civil war with the Khmer Rouge.

He has not set foot on Cambodian soil since.

"I have been fighting a lot of emotions about coming back to my native country," said Misiewicz, who was born Vannak Khem, of his impending return.

"To know that I've got relatives there that have wanted to see me for decades... I don't know if I will be able to hold back the tears," he told AFP by telephone aboard the US warship.

The 43-year-old was a small boy in the early 1970s when Cambodia was engulfed in a civil war between government troops and communist Khmer Rouge fighters.

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Eyewitness video from Pich Bridge on 22 Nov 2010

The Cambodian every year celebrates the 3 days of Water Festival 20th 21st and 22nd of November in Phnom Pehn City...this year 2010, they expected hungreds of people coming or celebrating the event..alots of entertainment, live cambodian band music, a huge fireworks, boat racing in the mekong river, and alots of stuff to with great discounts..ive been celebrating the water festival for three times, this time me, myself is there walking at the diamond island through the bridge not knowing that stampede will happen..at first the flow of the crowd is well organise and so on, after that when ive reached to the center of the bridge the crowd stop flowing and then suddenly somebody shouts.maybe like " move forward" the others "move backward" then people pushing each from my side and to the other end side of the bridge they keep pushing and pushing,some they do elbow and i was heat at that time they step on my feet..then i was thinking its gonna be a stampede..after that ive reached to the nearest metal of the bridge. when i look back its still very far and alot of people stuck and i cant move forward and backward already, so i had to climb up and jump off the bridge but not into the water that was the first stage of stampede..and after that my hands and feet are shaking and yet still taking pictures and video at that time.. thanks to the LORD JESUS CHRIST, MOTHER MARY, SNR. SAN ROQUE, SNR. SANTO NINO, AND SANTO THOMAS DE VILLANEUVA..theyve heard my prayers and lead the way to escape from the stamped.. thank you for the second chance and a second LIFE oh praise the LORD JESUS CHRIST...

Cambodia Mourns Stampede Victims at Diamond Bridge

Cambodian anger over stampede management

Sunday, November 28, 2010
Zoe Daniel
Correspondents Report
ABC Radio Australia

Listen to MP3 of this story

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Cambodia is still coming to terms with the deaths of hundreds of people killed in a stampede on Monday at Phnom Penh's annual Water Festival. Most of the bodies have been identified and some funerals have been held, but anger over the management of the event and the lack of control over the huge crowd has grown.

Here's our South-East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel.

ZOE DANIEL: Cambodian people are extraordinarily resilient, possibly as a result of the country's horrific past. But Monday's stampede shocked the nation, the mass death a grim reminder of the dark days of the Khmer Rouge and an image that Cambodia is trying desperately to shake.

Outside hospitals across the city the confusion and devastation was raw as people searched for the missing and found the dead.

(Sounds of anguished people)

Hundreds lay in makeshift morgues and hundreds more laid inside hospital rooms, battered and bruised but alive. Fifteen-year-old Moeum told me through a translator that he was pinned under a pile of bodies for two hours before he was pulled out by rescuers.
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Political Sacravatoons: "Croc Tears"

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Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://www.sacrava.blogspot.com/)

Cambodian stampede had air of inevitability

AFTERMATH: People place offerings and incense sticks for the victims of the stampede near the Diamond Gate bridge.

The appalling human tragedy during the annual Bon Om Touk Festival in Phnom Penh was not only predictable but also preventable

28/11/2010
Luke Hunt
Bangkok Post

When the authorities investigating the tragedy ask themselves who could have seen this coming, the answer really should be everybody. When they try and figure out exactly why so many died last Monday, one also hopes they will look at themselves and the man who employs them.

Cambodia's Rainbow Bridge tragedy is the country's biggest peacetime disaster, and the world's second worst such calamity after a similar stampede across the Tigris River in Baghdad left about 1,000 dead in 2005.

Rumours, panic and flight dominated both catastrophes as the sheer weight of numbers at this year's Bon Om Touk, or Water Festival in Phnom Penh resulted in an extraordinary death toll.

At the last count 347 (seems to be the most recent figure) people, mostly women, had died and at least another 755 were injured on the suspension bridge that linked the recently developed Diamond Island with the Cambodian capital across the Bassac River.

The response - dominated by the blame game, the launch of special investigations, a day of mourning, pledges of financial support and condolences from across the globe - was sadly almost as predictable as the crush itself.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith perhaps encapsulated the perspective of authorities before Monday evening's tragedy when he told journalists that police had been more concerned with pickpockets and boats capsizing than ''this kind of incident''.

The facts speak for themselves.
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Cambodia's Koh Pich Tregedy--AlJazeeraEnglish Video

Ghosts descend on bridge of death

27 Nov, 2010
BEN DOHERTY
The Armidale Express

The OCIC in turn laid blame with the government's police force. "It happened mainly near Diamond Island, but - not really on the island," a project manager, Susi Tani, said.

PHNOM PENH: The short, narrow suspension bridge that links Phnom Penh with Diamond Island has not re-opened, but it hardly matters. Few are likely to walk on it again.

The Khmers of Cambodia are Buddhists, but they hold strongly to ancient animist beliefs. The bridge is a bad place now. The spirits of those killed - the 347 who died when a crowd celebrating the water festival stampeded here on Monday night - will keep people away.

Sopheap Meng has come back one last time to farewell his brother. They were together when the panic hit.
He gripped Sovaan's hand as tightly as he could, fighting the crush that pushed him to the ground. "But there was no air; I could not breathe. I got pushed to the side of the bridge. People were falling all around, onto my arm, so I had to let go."
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Hundreds die in Phnom Penh bridge stampede

27 November 2010
By John Roberts
World Socialist Web Site

The Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen declared November 25 a national day of mourning for the lives lost on Monday night when a panicked stampede took place among thousands of people crowded onto a narrow bridge in the capital Phnom Penh. The tragedy occurred during the annual Water Festival, which celebrates the end of the wet season.

As of November 24, Ith Samheng, chairman of the committee set up by the government to investigate the catastrophic event, declared that 456 people were confirmed dead—109 who lost their lives at the scene and 347 who died in Phnom Penh’s overwhelmed public hospitals. Hundreds more were injured.

The 50-metre Diamond Gate suspension bridge is one of two bridges that connect the 100-hectare (250 acre) Koh Pich (Diamond) Island in the Bassac River to central Phomn Penh. The stampede on the bridge occurred as concerts were ending on both sides of the bridge. Survivors reported being trapped by surges of people pushing in both directions. Some reports state that the second bridge had been closed by organisers.

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Cambodia calls for resumption of six-party talks on Korean Peninsula tension

November 27, 2010
Source: Xinhua

The Cambodian government issued a statement on Saturday calling for a resumption of six-party talks on problems in Korean Peninsula.

The statement sent out to the media on Saturday morning said the Royal Government of Cambodia has "learned with great concern the exchange of artillery shelling on the Yeonpyeong Island of the Republic of Korea, on 23 November, resulting in damages and casualties."

"The Royal Government of Cambodia calls for the resumption of the six-party talks at the earliest possible in order to prevent further escalation of the tension which will endanger peace, security in the Korean Peninsula as well as in the whole region," according to the statement of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

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Paying a high price for cheap sex

Prostitutes outside a brothel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photograph: Rob Elliott/AFP/Getty Images

MAGAN' WORLD: Manchán Magan’s tales of a travel addict

Saturday, November 27, 2010
IrishTimes.com

HOW MUCH for a really good hooker in Cambodia these days? For a young one, just down from her remote mountain village.

As a travel supplement aimed at helping travellers get the best from their holidays it would be remiss of us not to cover this important tourism growth area. After all, 22 per cent of foreign visitors to Cambodia in 2000 were there for sex; no doubt some may have been Irish Times readers. So, in the interests of catering to readers of all tastes, let’s seek out the best value for yam-yam and bam-bam.

It might help first to take a quick glance at international sex trafficking statistics, as a large proportion of Cambodian sex workers are trafficked in from Vietnam and northern Thailand. The pretty little girl you buy is likely to have been either kidnapped by neighbours or sold by desperate relatives for a few hundred euro.

She will probably have been held in the brothel you found her in, or in some squat belonging to the pimp from whom you bought her, but one needn’t think of it as imprisonment.
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First Vietnamese supermarket to open in Cambodia

11/27/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)

The first Vietnamese supermarket in Phnom Penh Cambodia will open at 717-719 Monivong Street on December 29.

This was announced by the Chairman of the Vietnamese Supermarket brand and Deputy Chairman of the Vietnamese Business Association in Cambodia, Seng Meng (Le Minh).

The supermarket was build with a total investment capital of US$3 million by the Z38 Company to introduce and sell Vietnamese products to Cambodians and overseas Vietnamese living in Cambodia.

Vietnamese Supermarket hopes to become an effective promoter and distributor of Vietnamese goods for the country’s businesses and create credibility among the Cambodian consumers.

Memorial for the Victims: RFA Videos

Restoration of Ta Keo temple begins in Angkor Archaeological ParkRestoration of Ta Keo temple begins in Angkor Archaeological Park

By Nguon Sovan

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Work on the restoration of the deteriorating Ta Keo temple in the complex of Angkor Archaeological Park began on Saturday afternoon under the financial aid of China.

"The restoration work will be taken eight years to complete ( 2011-2018) under the financial support of 40 million Yuan (about 6 million U.S. dollars) from the government of China," Bun Narith, director general of Apsara Authority, which is in charge of management, protection and conservation of Angkor Archaeological park, said during the opening ceremony of the restoration work on Saturday.

This is the second phase of Chinese government assistance for safeguarding, conserving and restoring Angkor activities after the first phase on the conservation and restoration of Chausay Tevada temple from 2000 and ended in December, 2008, costing 14 million Yuan (about 2 million U.S. dollars).

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National Assembly Passes $2.4 Billion Budget

NatASS
The 2011 budget, totaling $2.4 billion, allocates military and security spending of $304 million, including $190 million for the Ministry of Defense. (Photo: by VOA Khmer)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 26 November 2010

“The sectors of the government considered a priority, like the Ministry of Agriculture, received 1.8 percent of the total expenditure.”

With a day of mourning for the Diamond Bridge tragedy behind it, the National Assembly took up debate and passed next year’s budget, approving an increase of nearly half a billion dollars.

The 2011 budget, totaling $2.4 billion, allocates military and security spending of $304 million, including $190 million for the Ministry of Defense. The Interior Ministry received $114 million, health $169 million, and education $223 million.

Ouk Rabun, secretary of state for the Ministry of Finance, told lawmakers his ministry would accept recommendations from the National Assembly on “better public finance management.”

The main opposition, the Sam Rainsy Party, said it did not support the budget, claiming it had misplaced funding priorities.
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TV Raises More Than $1 Million for Victims of Tragedy

CTN and Bayon have continuously taken donations, at time broadcasting pleas for aid and running donation totals during regular programming. (Photo: Courtesy of CNN)

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 26 November 2010

"...but what I’m worried about is that the expenditure of funds will not be transparent for the victims.”

Following Monday’s Diamond Bridge tragedy, nearly $1.5 million has come in from concerned Cambodians via fund drives by two TV stations, for both the families of the dead and for those injured.

By Friday evening, Bayon TV had raised more than $1.08 million and CTN had brought in more than $500,000.

A total 347 people died on the bridge and another 395 were injured, when a mass of Water Festival revelers stampeded on the crowded bridge Monday night.

The country’s worst tragedy in decades was felt across Cambodia and in expatriate Cambodian communities abroad, culminating in a national day of mourning Thursday.
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Survivors Recall Horrifying Hours on Bridge

From left to right: Ros Kong, Bun Sophal, and Math Seila. The Diamond Bridge survivors were guests on Hello VOA, on Thursday. (Photo: by Heng Reaksmey)

Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 26 November 2010

"The whole crowd became like trees bent in a gust of wind, to the left or right, as the wave of pushing surged.”

On Monday night, there were sounds of joy, as revelers spent the last few hours of the three-day Water Festival on Diamond Island. But as they crossed the bridge, those sounds were replaced by groans, as more and more people packed onto the structure.

People were pressed from all sides, three survivors of the tragedy, which claimed 347 lives, told “Hello VOA” on Thursday.

“When the crowd became more and more narrow, with people pushing in, it was hard to breathe,” said Ros Kong, who was stuck among the mass of people that would eventually panic and stampede. “People then tried to push upwards to breathe. The whole crowd became like trees bent in a gust of wind, to the left or right, as the wave of pushing surged.”
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