Protest to be lodged over flag

Preah Vihear tense after influx of Cambodian troops

The government will flex its muscles for the protesting yellow shirts from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to show it will protect land in disputed border areas. It plans to issue a statement of protest against Cambodia.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has instructed the Foreign Ministry to issue a protest, because Phnom Penh has refused to remove its national flag from the disputed area adjacent to the Hindu temple at Preah Vihear, the ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said.

"Concerned officials are working on it and we could issue the statement soon," he said. Abhisit said last week that Cambodia had no right to fly its national flag at Wat Keo Sikkha Kiri Svara temple as Thailand also claimed territorial rights to the area.

Thailand managed to convince Cambodia to remove two stone tablets saying the area where Thai troops invaded in 2008 belonged to Cambodia.

However Phnom Penh refused to follow any further demand from Bangkok to remove its national flag there. It says the temple built by Cambodian people in 1998 is clearly situated in Cambodian territory.

"Therefore the national flag of Cambodia is legitimately able to fly over the pagoda," a statement by Cambodia's Foreign Ministry said last week.

The border area adjacent to Preah Vihear has been argued over ever since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 1962 that the temple was situated in Cambodian territory.

Abhisit has argued that the ICJ ruled only the stone ruins belong to Cambodia while surrounding areas belong to Thailand.

The areas have not been demarcated yet but the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2000 to set up a joint mechanism to try to settle the dispute.

The PAD, which has staged a rally near the Prime Minister Office, wants Abhisit to use force to remove Cambodians from the disputed area and scrap the 2000 MOU on land boundary demarcation. They have pressured the government by vowing to stay until their demands are met.

Cambodia, meanwhile, is reported to have boosted troops in the area, notably near Preah Vihear. Thai news teams have said the border areas are tense while outlets in Phnom Penh have reported that the Cambodian military is ready for war with Thailand.

Abhisit insisted he would settle the border dispute with Cambodia by peaceful means. The 2000 MOU was an effective instrument for settling the border dispute, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who oversees security matters, said the Thai military was strong enough to protect the country but would not boost forces in the area near the historic temple.

The government would continue to negotiate with Cambodia over the border issue, he said.

"Please do not provoke any news to create tension with our neighbouring country. We have to live with them peacefully," Suthep said when asked about Cambodian troops along the border.

"We don't have any problem with Cambodia and our two governments have no problem," he said.

Asked if the government in Phnom Penh criticised Thailand every day, Suthep said, "don't look only at one side. If you are in Cambodia, you would see a group of Thai people scolding Cambodia every day."

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Troops reinforced at tense border

Sunday, 30 January 2011
Cheang Sokha and Thet Sambath
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia officials have sent military reinforcements to the border area near Preah Vihear temple in the midst of a public spat with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over the removal of Cambodian flags at a nearby pagoda.On Friday, Abhisit requested that the flags be removed from Wat Keo Sekha Kirisvara, adjacent to the temple, a plea that came amid reports of a Thai plan to hold military exercises close to Preah Vihear.

Srey Doek, commander of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Military Division 3 at the border, said additional personnel, tanks and heavy artillery had been dispatched to the border on Friday in response to the exercises.

“They [Thai troops] are doing maneuvers and we are also doing them – that is why we need to send tanks and other weapons to the border,” Srey Doek said. “Our armed forces are on alert.”

Information minister Khieu Kanharith said today that the situation could erupt “this afternoon or tomorrow” if the Thais threatened Cambodia’s construction of a road leading up to Preah Vihear.

“Our stance is that [Thai troops] should not cross the border without Cambodian agreement,” he said.

Tensions in the area first broke out in 2008 following the inscription of Preah Vihear as a UNESCO World Heritage site for Cambodia.

The confrontation over the flags follows Thai demands that Cambodia remove a stone tablet placed last month at Wat Keo Sekha Kirisvara which read: “Here! is the place where Thai troops invaded Cambodian territory on July 15, 2008, and withdrew at 10:30am on December 1, 2010.”

On Tuesday last week, the sign was removed and replaced with another proclaiming, “Here! Is Cambodia”, a sign that was itself later destroyed at Thailand’s request.

Abhisit’s call for the removal of Cambodian flags from Wat Keo Sekha Kirisvara, however, has been rejected outright.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Abhisit’s request, saying the pagoda was on Cambodian territory.

The ministry claimed the demand was made “in parallel with Thailand’s military exercises at the border”, which were “clearly provocative and [constitute] a casus belli for future acts of aggression against Cambodia”.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation wishes to emphasise that this statement made by the prime minister of Thailand is unacceptable and that the Kingdom of Cambodia firmly rejects such an insulting demand,” the statement read.

“Cambodia reserves its legitimate rights to [defend] its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In his weekly television programme today, Abhisit reportedly pledged to work with Cambodia to have the flags near Preah Vihear removed.

“The temple is located on the disputed border area, and if the claim by the Yellow Shirt people is true, the government will coordinate with Cambodian authorities to remove the flag,” Abhisit said in Davos, Switzerland, according to The Bangkok Post.

Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia intensified last month following the arrest of Thai parliamentarian Panich Vikitsreth and six other Thai nationals for trespassing on Cambodian territory.

Panich and four of the other Thais were found guilty but released earlier this month on suspended sentences.

However, two others including Yellow Shirt activist Veera Somkwamkid are being held on espionage charges and are set to be tried on Tuesday.

They have also been charged with illegal entry and unlawfully entering a military base, facing up to 11 and a half years in prison.

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PRAYER for our children

So let me just end with a prayer that I say a lot this year, to reaffirm what each of you knows, that we can remake this world, we must remake this world for our children. And I’m so grateful for all of your presence, because so many people are waiting for Gandhi to come back, or Dr. King to come back. They’re not. We’re it! And we have the capacity and the power to build a different world in a new era. Your presence here is a very important witness of that fact.

But I feel inadequate most hours and days, and say:

Lord, I can’t preach like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or Jesse Jackson or turn a poetic phrase like Maya Angelou, but I care, and I’m willing to serve, and to use what talents I have to build a world of peace. I don’t have Fred Shuttlesworth’s and Harriet Tubman’s courage or Andy Young’s political skills, but I care, and I’m willing to serve. I can’t sing like Fannie Lou Hamer or organize like Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, or John Dear, but I care, and I’m willing to serve. I’m not holy like Archbishop Tutu, forgiving like Mandela, or disciplined like Gandhi, but I care and I’m willing to serve and to fight in a nonviolent manner. I’m not brilliant like Dr. Du Bois or Elizabeth Cady Stanton or as eloquent as Sojourner Truth and Booker T. Washington, but I care, and I’m willing to serve. I don’t have Mother Teresa’s saintliness, Dorothy Day’s love or Cesar Chavez’s gentle, taught spirit, but I care and I’m willing to serve. God it’s not as easy as the Sixties to frame an issue and forge a solution, but I care, and I’m willing to serve. My mind and body are not as swift as in youth, and my energy comes in spurts but I care, and I’m willing to serve. I’m so young nobody will listen, I’m not sure what to say or do, but I care and am willing to serve. I can’t see or hear well, speak good English, stutter sometimes, and get real scared, and I really hate risking criticism, but I care, and I’m willing to serve. Use me as Thou wilt to save Thy children today and tomorrow, and to build a nation and a world where no child is left behind, and every child is loved, and every child is safe.

- Marian Wright Edelman (founder of Children’s Defense Fund), “Caring Enough to Build a World of Peace,” Fellowship. Jan-Feb. 2001: 4-5.

Read More

The US agents tracking down sex tourists in Cambodia

US agents rely on locals to provide information about suspect Americans

As part of an initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas, special US agents operating in South East Asia have brought more than 80 alleged child sex tourists back to America to face justice.

Sihanoukville looks like paradise, or at least a decent, low-rent version. Golden beaches, swaying palm trees, cheap alcohol and shimmering sea.

Retired American pharmacist Ronald Adams had come here for the good life - setting up a beachside cafe. But one morning last February Adams' personal vision of paradise was shattered, when officers from the Cambodian National Police raided his apartment.

They found a collection of sex aids, child pornography on DVDs and a variety of illegal drugs. Adams was accused of drugging and raping a 12-year-old girl.

Under the radar

For Westerners arrested on child sex charges in South East Asia, things do not always turn out too badly. Gary Glitter got a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Vietnam for obscene acts with girls aged 10 and 12.

These are poor countries, where $100 can buy your freedom. But Ronald Adams had more to reckon with than the local police. An agent from America's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) was part of the group carrying out the raid.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

If Americans are coming here to do this against the Cambodians... it's our responsibility to bring that person to justice”

End Quote

Special agent Chris Materelli

If a US citizen is caught abusing children abroad, American agents are now on hand with the specific aim of getting the suspect on a plane to stand trial back in the US.

ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, based in Washington, with a severe, Brooks Brothers-suited lawyer, John Morton, as its director.

"Don't think that simply by buying a plane ticket to leave the United States and going to a country with less robust investigative and prosecutorial capacities that you are going to be able to get away with it again," Morton said.

"Perfect example - the three gentlemen we brought back from Cambodia."

The "three gentlemen" were given the moniker Twisted Travellers by ICE in a heavily publicised and deliberately humiliating extradition from Cambodia 18 months ago.

All three had previous convictions for abusing small children in the US. The oldest, 75-year-old former marine Jack Sporich, now faces a sentence of 15 years for sexually abusing a number of young boys.

Cambodia's jails are full of foreign paedophiles, but for most of them a short sentence is all they have to worry about. But even that can be avoided if you have the money to pay off the police and the judge.

Agent Vansak Suos was once a conscripted boy soldier in Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army

America was the first country to be positively pro-active about arresting and returning their child abusers to face justice. It has been joined in the past 12 months by Australia and Canada.

For US special agent Chris Materelli, it is as much about moral responsibility as law enforcement.

"If Americans are coming here to do this against the Cambodians, it's our job to try to help the Cambodians clean it up," he says. "They're our citizens, it's our responsibility to bring that person to justice."

In the seven years since the Protect Act was passed, America has brought back 85 child sex tourists to face justice in the US.

But none of this would work without a ground-breaking change in the way US agents work - not just with local police, but NGOs run by ordinary citizens.

In the tourist hot-spots of Cambodia, Action Pour Les Enfants (Action For Children, APLE) acts as the eyes and the ears of ICE in keeping surveillance on suspect Americans.

Continue reading the main story

“

Start Quote

That's a common defence - that these kids are older than what they appear to be because they're Asian”

End Quote

Gary Philips

ICE agent

Young men on motorbikes patrol the streets with video cameras supplied by the Americans. It was an APLE undercover team that came across Ronald Adams openly asking for sex with underage girls, "the younger the better".

This kind of co-operation with ordinary locals represents a massive change of attitude, almost unthinkable 30 years ago in the wake of America's bombing of Cambodia.

Cambodians are welcome within the ranks of ICE agents. Vansak Suos, once a conscripted boy soldier in Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, now occupies an office in the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, with a photo of himself and Bill Clinton on his desk.

Vansak's story is bleak, his brother, two sisters, and grandfather were all killed in the time of Pol Pot. He, himself, barely survived, but having done so was determined to use his life to protect other children.

Big catch

Forty-five-year-old millionaire from Florida, Kent Frank, is probably ICE's biggest catch so far. He is a serial global child sex tourist, who was caught abusing four underage girls in his hotel room in Phnom Penh.

Vansak describes how Frank tried to bribe the local police chief.

"Kent Frank just stood up and put his hand in his pocket. Then, shaking the hand with the boss. And the boss just found $100 in his hand," he says.

Frank admitted to having sex and taking photos of the girls he had been with, saying that he believed they were all over 18.

"That's a common defence, that these kids are older than what they appear to be because they're Asian," says ICE agent Gary Philips. "And if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that, I'd probably be a millionaire."

Frank tried to delete the incriminating photos on his digital camera, but at ICE's state-of-the-art cyber forensics lab back in the US, 1,600 deleted pictures were recovered. Frank is currently serving a 40-year sentence in a federal jail.

But it doesn't always end that way. After seven months on remand in a Cambodian prison, Ronald Adams was released without charge. The court decided that because his alleged victim says she was drugged, her evidence could not be relied on. He has since disappeared.

Vansak shrugs and moves on. He is, he says, proud of what he has done. Every sex offender convicted means that many more children are now safe.

Read More

Cambodia 'tears up freedom to muffle dissent'

Cambodia remains haunted by its past, after decades of civil war and the brutal 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime

via CAAI

Posted: 30 January 2011
By Michelle Fitzpatrick (AFP)

PHNOM PENH — The Cambodian government is choking freedoms and locking up detractors in an increasingly bold effort to silence critics as elections loom, observers say.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, 59, who has vowed to remain in power until he is 90, recently said on national radio that his aim was "not just to weaken the opposition, but to make it die".

The comment was the latest in a string of outbursts against critics, prompting fears that freedoms are under threat as the government looks ahead to local polls next year and a general election in 2013.

"The space for dissent has shrunk to the point where people are gasping for air," said Mathieu Pellerin of local rights group Licadho.

"Vast areas of political debate have been effectively declared off-limits. The most minor venture into these fenced-off topics can bring the authorities' wrath, whether you are a prominent politician or an anonymous village farmer."

Outspoken opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile, has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in jail over two cases related to border issues with Vietnam.

If the sentences are upheld, he will be unable to challenge Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the 2013 poll.

"The CPP is preparing for the next election, that much is clear," said a Cambodia-based Western expert, on the condition of anonymity.

"To do that, they want to reduce as much as possible any public criticism that would cost them ballots."

Dismissing concerns about a crackdown on freedoms, government spokesman Tith Sothea said the government was "working to protect human rights and carry out reforms in order to ensure political stability".

Mark Turner, a Cambodia expert at the University of Canberra, said the legacy of the country's recent bloody history has allowed the ruling party to tighten its grip on power.

"One of the leading themes of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia has been the search for stability," he said. "If incomes are rising, education improving, health facilities more accessible, then people may accept a certain curtailment of freedoms."

Cambodia remains haunted by its past, after decades of civil war and the brutal 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime that left up to two million dead in its bid to forge a communist utopia.

Cambodian independent analyst Chea Vannath said it was important to recognise how far the nation had come considering its "terrible past".

Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, has been credited with the country's long spell of peace and stability, while also improving infrastructure and opening up the country's markets.

But he also has a history of riding roughshod over his rivals, and analysts say the CPP -- bolstered by a 2008 election landslide -- has exerted executive power without limits.

It is now a crime to criticise judges or public officials under a new penal code that activists say could be used as a government tool to muzzle freedom of expression.

"Impunity is deepening for government power-holders and their cronies to abuse rights," said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

"At the core of all of this is the continued lack of independence of the Cambodian judiciary, which suffers endemic political interference from the CPP and other governing elites."

One of the first to be arrested under the new code was a World Food Programme worker, sentenced to six months in prison for incitement after he printed an article from an anti-government website.

The government has mounted what Robertson terms a "campaign of intimidation" against the UN in Cambodia, threatening to expel the organisation's resident coordinator Douglas Broderick after he called for more transparency in the debate about a new anti-corruption law.

The government also used a high-profile visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to demand the removal of local human rights director Christophe Peschoux.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Peschoux had acted as "the spokesman for the opposition", after the Frenchman spoke out on issues such as land-grabbing and crackdowns on government critics.

Despite steady economic growth Cambodia remains one of the region's poorest nations, presenting foreign donors with an opportunity to defend those that have come under attack, activists said.

Outside aid contributed around one billion dollars, or about nine percent of Cambodia's economic output in 2010.

"Donors need to wake up and recognise the human rights situation in Cambodia is rapidly deteriorating," said Robertson

Read More

Sam Rainsy's letter sent to Kem Sokha on unification of democrats

On January 24, 2011, Sam Rainsy, President of the Sam Rainsy Party sent a letter to Kem Sokha, President of the Human Rights Party on unification of democrats.

SRP Cabinet

Click on the letter to zoom in

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The US agents tracking down sex tourists in Cambodia

US agents rely on locals to provide information about suspect Americans

Agent Vansak Suos was once a conscripted boy soldier in Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army

29 January 2011
By David Henshaw
BBC News

As part of an initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas, special US agents operating in South East Asia have brought more than 80 alleged child sex tourists back to America to face justice.

Sihanoukville looks like paradise, or at least a decent, low-rent version. Golden beaches, swaying palm trees, cheap alcohol and shimmering sea.

Retired American pharmacist Ronald Adams had come here for the good life - setting up a beachside cafe. But one morning last February Adams' personal vision of paradise was shattered, when officers from the Cambodian National Police raided his apartment.

They found a collection of sex aids, child pornography on DVDs and a variety of illegal drugs. Adams was accused of drugging and raping a 12-year-old girl.

Under the radar

For Westerners arrested on child sex charges in South East Asia, things do not always turn out too badly. Gary Glitter got a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Vietnam for obscene acts with girls aged 10 and 12.

These are poor countries, where $100 can buy your freedom. But Ronald Adams had more to reckon with than the local police. An agent from America's Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) was part of the group carrying out the raid.

“If Americans are coming here to do this against the Cambodians... it's our responsibility to bring that person to justice” - Special agent Chris Materelli

If a US citizen is caught abusing children abroad, American agents are now on hand with the specific aim of getting the suspect on a plane to stand trial back in the US.

ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, based in Washington, with a severe, Brooks Brothers-suited lawyer, John Morton, as its director.

"Don't think that simply by buying a plane ticket to leave the United States and going to a country with less robust investigative and prosecutorial capacities that you are going to be able to get away with it again," Morton said.

"Perfect example - the three gentlemen we brought back from Cambodia."

The "three gentlemen" were given the moniker Twisted Travellers by ICE in a heavily publicised and deliberately humiliating extradition from Cambodia 18 months ago.

All three had previous convictions for abusing small children in the US. The oldest, 75-year-old former marine Jack Sporich, now faces a sentence of 15 years for sexually abusing a number of young boys.

Cambodia's jails are full of foreign paedophiles, but for most of them a short sentence is all they have to worry about. But even that can be avoided if you have the money to pay off the police and the judge.

America was the first country to be positively pro-active about arresting and returning their child abusers to face justice. It has been joined in the past 12 months by Australia and Canada.

For US special agent Chris Materelli, it is as much about moral responsibility as law enforcement.

"If Americans are coming here to do this against the Cambodians, it's our job to try to help the Cambodians clean it up," he says. "They're our citizens, it's our responsibility to bring that person to justice."

In the seven years since the Protect Act was passed, America has brought back 85 child sex tourists to face justice in the US.

But none of this would work without a ground-breaking change in the way US agents work - not just with local police, but NGOs run by ordinary citizens.

In the tourist hot-spots of Cambodia, Action Pour Les Enfants (Action For Children, APLE) acts as the eyes and the ears of ICE in keeping surveillance on suspect Americans.

“That's a common defence - that these kids are older than what they appear to be because they're Asian” - Gary Philips, ICE agent

Young men on motorbikes patrol the streets with video cameras supplied by the Americans. It was an APLE undercover team that came across Ronald Adams openly asking for sex with underage girls, "the younger the better".

This kind of co-operation with ordinary locals represents a massive change of attitude, almost unthinkable 30 years ago in the wake of America's bombing of Cambodia.

Cambodians are welcome within the ranks of ICE agents. Vansak Suos, once a conscripted boy soldier in Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army, now occupies an office in the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, with a photo of himself and Bill Clinton on his desk.

Vansak's story is bleak, his brother, two sisters, and grandfather were all killed in the time of Pol Pot. He, himself, barely survived, but having done so was determined to use his life to protect other children.

Big catch

Forty-five-year-old millionaire from Florida, Kent Frank, is probably ICE's biggest catch so far. He is a serial global child sex tourist, who was caught abusing four underage girls in his hotel room in Phnom Penh.

Vansak describes how Frank tried to bribe the local police chief.

"Kent Frank just stood up and put his hand in his pocket. Then, shaking the hand with the boss. And the boss just found $100 in his hand," he says.

Frank admitted to having sex and taking photos of the girls he had been with, saying that he believed they were all over 18.

"That's a common defence, that these kids are older than what they appear to be because they're Asian," says ICE agent Gary Philips. "And if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that, I'd probably be a millionaire."

Frank tried to delete the incriminating photos on his digital camera, but at ICE's state-of-the-art cyber forensics lab back in the US, 1,600 deleted pictures were recovered. Frank is currently serving a 40-year sentence in a federal jail.

But it doesn't always end that way. After seven months on remand in a Cambodian prison, Ronald Adams was released without charge. The court decided that because his alleged victim says she was drugged, her evidence could not be relied on. He has since disappeared.

Vansak shrugs and moves on. He is, he says, proud of what he has done. Every sex offender convicted means that many more children are now safe.

This World: The Paedophile Hunters will be broadcast on BBC Two at 2200 GMT on Sunday 30 January, or catch up on BBC iPlayer.

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Viets in Cambodia to celebrate Viet New Year, whereas ... Khmer Krom in South VN are not allowed to celebrate Pchum Ben

Comrade Mem Sam An

OV in Cambodia celebrate Lunar New Year

30/01/2011
VOVNews/VNA

The Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia held a meeting to celebrate the Lunar New Year (Tet) holidays on Jan. 28 in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

Attending the meeting were Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An, heads of ministries and state agencies and overseas Vietnamese.

Speaking at the meeting, the Cambodian Deputy PM congratulated Vietnam on its successful 11th National Congress Party. She hailed the economic achievements the country had recorded during the last year as well as its investment activities in Cambodia, which, she said, have helped generate jobs for local residents.

On the occasion, she also sent her New Year greetings to Vietnam leaders and people and expressed her wish for the two countries’ traditional friendship to be strengthened.

During the meeting, Ambassador Ngo Anh Dung briefed the attendants on Vietnam ’s socio-economic achievements as well as the fine outcomes of Vietnam-Cambodia friendship in the past year. He spoke highly of overseas Vietnamese’s endeavour to integrate into the Cambodian society and wished them a happy and prosperous new year.

Attendants had chance to enjoy various Vietnamese traditional foods and diversified music performances.

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Saving Cambodian child from prostitution [-It's a TRAGEDY!]

Click here to watch this video preview

28 January 2011
BBC News

As part of an initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas, special US agents operating in Cambodia work with national police to track suspected paedophiles and pimps.

In a case in Phnom Penh police arrested a gang suspected of pimping children to foreigners. They interviewed one of the victims, a 10-year-old.

This World: The Paedophile Hunters will be broadcast on BBC Two at 2200 GMT on Sunday 30 January, or catch up on BBC iPlayer.

Read More

Cambodia 'tears up freedom to muffle dissent'

DICTATOR Hun Xen and his henchmen

Sunday, January 30, 2011
By Michelle Fitzpatrick (AFP)

PHNOM PENH — The Cambodian government is choking freedoms and locking up detractors in an increasingly bold effort to silence critics as elections loom, observers say.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, 59, who has vowed to remain in power until he is 90, recently said on national radio that his aim was "not just to weaken the opposition, but to make it die".

The comment was the latest in a string of outbursts against critics, prompting fears that freedoms are under threat as the government looks ahead to local polls next year and a general election in 2013.

"The space for dissent has shrunk to the point where people are gasping for air," said Mathieu Pellerin of local rights group Licadho.

"Vast areas of political debate have been effectively declared off-limits. The most minor venture into these fenced-off topics can bring the authorities' wrath, whether you are a prominent politician or an anonymous village farmer."

Outspoken opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile, has been sentenced in absentia to 12 years in jail over two cases related to border issues with Vietnam.

If the sentences are upheld, he will be unable to challenge Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in the 2013 poll.

"The CPP is preparing for the next election, that much is clear," said a Cambodia-based Western expert, on the condition of anonymity.

"To do that, they want to reduce as much as possible any public criticism that would cost them ballots."

Dismissing concerns about a crackdown on freedoms, government spokesman Tith Sothea said the government was "working to protect human rights and carry out reforms in order to ensure political stability".

Mark Turner, a Cambodia expert at the University of Canberra, said the legacy of the country's recent bloody history has allowed the ruling party to tighten its grip on power.

"One of the leading themes of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia has been the search for stability," he said. "If incomes are rising, education improving, health facilities more accessible, then people may accept a certain curtailment of freedoms."

Cambodia remains haunted by its past, after decades of civil war and the brutal 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime that left up to two million dead in its bid to forge a communist utopia.

Cambodian independent analyst Chea Vannath said it was important to recognise how far the nation had come considering its "terrible past".

Hun Sen, who has ruled since 1985, has been credited with the country's long spell of peace and stability, while also improving infrastructure and opening up the country's markets.

But he also has a history of riding roughshod over his rivals, and analysts say the CPP -- bolstered by a 2008 election landslide -- has exerted executive power without limits.

It is now a crime to criticise judges or public officials under a new penal code that activists say could be used as a government tool to muzzle freedom of expression.

"Impunity is deepening for government power-holders and their cronies to abuse rights," said Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

"At the core of all of this is the continued lack of independence of the Cambodian judiciary, which suffers endemic political interference from the CPP and other governing elites."

One of the first to be arrested under the new code was a World Food Programme worker, sentenced to six months in prison for incitement after he printed an article from an anti-government website.

The government has mounted what Robertson terms a "campaign of intimidation" against the UN in Cambodia, threatening to expel the organisation's resident coordinator Douglas Broderick after he called for more transparency in the debate about a new anti-corruption law.

The government also used a high-profile visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to demand the removal of local human rights director Christophe Peschoux.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Peschoux had acted as "the spokesman for the opposition", after the Frenchman spoke out on issues such as land-grabbing and crackdowns on government critics.

Despite steady economic growth Cambodia remains one of the region's poorest nations, presenting foreign donors with an opportunity to defend those that have come under attack, activists said.

Outside aid contributed around one billion dollars, or about nine percent of Cambodia's economic output in 2010.

"Donors need to wake up and recognise the human rights situation in Cambodia is rapidly deteriorating," said Robertson.

Read More

"Prum Daen Khang Lech" a Poem in Khmer by Ung Thavary

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The dark side of Internet for Egyptian and Tunisian protesters

Friday, Jan. 28, 2011
EVGENY MOROZOV
WASHINGTON— From Saturday's Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

there is a symbiotic relationship between revolutionary movements and the latest communications technologies

Thus, the Internet is an excellent platform for inciting revolutionary sentiment – and tracking down wannabe revolutionaries; it is a handy vehicle for spreading propaganda – and revealing government lies; it provides a platform that facilitates government surveillance – and helps people evade it.

As the pundits were busy celebrating the contribution of Twitter and Facebook to protests in Tunisia and Egypt, most of them ignored the terrifying news from Iran, where on Monday two activists were hanged for distributing video footage on the Internet from the country's 2009 “Twitter Revolution.”

The contrast between Tunisia and Iran couldn't be starker: The former has just installed a dissident blogger as a government minister while the latter is still persecuting those who dared to challenge the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 18 months after the elections. Fortunately for Tunisian dissident bloggers, their army refused to shoot the protesters, the country's much-hated ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and the new government has shown no intention of going after the protesters, many of whom are now celebrated as heroes. However, had the events in Tunisia turned otherwise – with Mr. Ben Ali staying in office after a bloody crackdown – it is likely that his secret police would now be acting very much like Iran's, turning to social-networking sites to identify his opponents.

As protests spread in the Arab world, much has been said about the democratizing power of the Internet, however, it is important to note that in the hands of an authoritarian regime it can become a tool of repression. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been used to publicize protests and share videos of police brutality, but they can also be used to track down dissidents after protests subside.

Egypt is one case where it is still hard to predict which side – President Hosni Mubarak's brutal police force or the predominantly peaceful protesters – will prevail in the long term. A 26-page leaflet with protest tips that has been distributed in Cairo explicitly warns its recipients to distribute it with the help of photocopiers and e-mail rather than social media, as the security police could be watching the latter. These concerns became less of an issue on Thursday, as the Mubarak regime pulled the plug on most of the country's communication systems, including the Internet and mobile networks.

That Iranians, Tunisians and Egyptians would be using the Internet to communicate is of little surprise; there is a symbiotic relationship between revolutionary movements and the latest communications technologies. Lenin lauded the power of the telegraph and the postal service while the Iranian Revolution of 1979 owes a great debt to the tape recorder, which allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to record his sermons in Paris and have them smuggled back to the Shah's Iran.

So it is only natural that the new protest movements in the Middle East turn to Facebook and Twitter: These platforms are cheap and provide almost instantaneous visibility to their causes. And those causes do not need to be widely admired in the West. As both Lenin and Khomeini discovered, one doesn't have to be a proponent of liberal democracy to make effective use of new communication tools. Were a revolution to break out in modern Russia, for example, it is likely to be led by anti-Western nationalists, who have made a far more effective use of new media than the Kremlin's liberal opponents.

The lesson for tyrants here is simple: The only way to minimize their exposure to digitally enabled protests is to establish full control over all telecommunications infrastructure in the country. A “kill-switch” button to turn off all digital networks in times of a crisis is a must. This explains why just a few months after the contested elections of 2009, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard acquired a controlling stake in Telecommunication Company of Iran, giving the group that is traditionally loyal to Mr. Ahmadinejad control over the country's telephone, mobile and Internet communications. It is likely that other dictators will heed the Iranian experience as they watch Tunisia and Egypt.

The events in these two countries provide grounds for optimism about the power of the Internet, but the biggest problem with studying the impact of the Internet on authoritarianism is that most often it benefits both the oppressor and the oppressed (albeit to different degrees). Thus, the Internet is an excellent platform for inciting revolutionary sentiment – and tracking down wannabe revolutionaries; it is a handy vehicle for spreading propaganda – and revealing government lies; it provides a platform that facilitates government surveillance – and helps people evade it.

When the dictators of yesteryear cut telephone lines to contain protests, they didn't always shut down the radio – if only to preserve the ability to spread pacifying propaganda. The Internet, however, plays the role of both the telephone and the radio; it has many uses, some of them more salient than others at particular points in the political cycle. Thus, there is nothing logically incoherent in dictators' desire to shut down this platform in periods of protest – and exploit it to their benefit in periods of relative stability. Those who think that there is nothing for dictators to gain from the Web because they shut it down during protests have a naive view of modern authoritarianism.

It is plausible that certain features of the Internet-mediated politics in oppressive societies will make periods of relative stability longer and more frequent. The secret police can now learn more about those opposing the state by looking up their profiles – and their friends' profiles – on social-media sites. The state ideologues can now bolster the legitimacy of the regime by creating suave new media propaganda and claim that it represents “the voice of the people.” Young people can be distracted away from politics by the new i-opium of the masses that is never in short supply online.

None of this boosts the odds of a revolution in any given regime – but then there are plenty of non-digital factors that could make a revolution more likely. It would be absurd to suggest that Internet control could make problems such as unemployment or corruption simply go away. However, energy-rich regimes that keep on growing while publicizing their fake wars on corruption do have a good shot at survival – and they will find the means to use the Internet to their own advantage. To lose sight of this crucial fact is to let those who help to prolong their survival – above all, Western companies that supply them with censorship and surveillance technology – off the hook far too easily.

Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom.

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Sinatoons No. 9: The Evil Bull

Cartoon by V. Sina

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Frenemies in the streets

Sat, Jan 29, 2011
The Nation/Asia News Network

Chaiwat Sinsuwong appears to be a lonely man lately, though his ambition is to bring together a million people - both yellow and red - to bring Abhisit Vejjajiva down.

Leading a splinter group of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), Chaiwat approached some of the red-shirt leaders in jail to sound them out on the idea of a yellow-red merger against the prime minister.

"Their response was positive," said Chaiwat, who was granted bail on Thursday after being detained in connection to the infamous 2008 Suvarnabhumi Airport seizure by the yellow shirts.

"We need an uprising of a million people of both colours, making it the biggest political rally in Thai history, which will put Abhisit away," he said.

Lack of immediate response from mainstream yellow-shirt leaders, namely Sondhi Limthongkul and Chamlong Srimuang, might make a mockery of Chaiwat's grand plan. But in Thai politics, if he manages to get some momentum, anything can happen. After all, Abhisit has become the arch-enemy of both "colours", although the mainstream yellow shirts have been considerably less belligerent towards him than Chaiwat's Thai Patriots Network.

Merging both movements is easier said than done, though. The red shirts were born out of proclaimed resentment against the use of "undemocratic means" to force political change, the ousting of Thaksin Shinawatra. The yellow shirts favoured these very "undemocratic means" and yet would not mind if Abhisit were removed from office in the same way.

Analysts say a "tactical" tag team is always a possible scenario for the red and yellow shirts. The reds, who have blamed Abhisit for the bloody crackdown on protesters last year, could focus their anti-government campaign on that. The latter, upset with the way the government has handled territorial conflicts with Cambodia, can concentrate on the border issue. If events evolve into a political hurricane that results in an "undemocratic" removal of Abhisit, the reds would just turn a blind eye the outcome.

Chaiwat is no stranger to some of the key red-shirt leaders. In fact, he fought alongside many during the 1992 uprising against the military. Chamlong was a key leader of that battle, which, ironically, ended military intervention in politics and brought the Democrat Party to power.

Lately, Chaiwat and Chamlong have been drifting farther and farther away from each other. Their estrangement was one of the main reasons the Thai Patriots Network was born, with the unorthodox Buddhist sect Santi Asoke, once Chamlong's political base, serving as its backbone.

Chaiwat yesterday insisted that it was not a travesty for the red and yellow shirts to join hands. Such realignment or re-alliance was common in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", he pointed out. Enemies can work together to fight the more powerful common enemy first and take care of their own scores later.

"The people can't be divided. They need to join hands," said Chaiwat. "The Thaksin government only cheated the nation, but this Abhisit administration has sold out the nation."

Harsh or drastic as it may sound, this very same criticism against Abhisit has been blaring out from the mainstream rally stage of the yellow shirts. Chamlong, remarkably, has refused to rule out PAD protesters abandoning their peaceful means and resorting to something more aggressive.

"We won't do anything yet in the next few days," Chamlong said. "We just want the government to respond to our demands."

Those demands have been rejected by the government, which leaves the question what the mainstream PAD is prepared to do next. The answer may disappoint Chaiwat, or it may boost his much-taunted idea to unite the two political "colours".

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Kasit's remarks on border unconvincing

via CAAI

Published on January 30, 2011

Dear Sir:

Regarding "PAD acting like a cry baby: Kasit" (January 27, 2011) Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya criticises his former allies the PAD yellow shirts for their calling for a tougher line by the government on the Preah Vihear border dispute with Cambodia and claims that he hasn't changed his position since the time before he became a minister. He also says it is "inappropriate to invoke international relations as a bargaining leverage to advance a domestic political agenda". He also calls for common development of "rich resources in the sea," presumably referring to oil and gas deals.

Actually, your story is an example of the reason why the PAD

has been criticising Mr Kasit

and the Abhisit government.

Mr Kasit says that he has not changed and that "The Abhisit Vejjajiva government is not prone to use force nor to insult the neighbouring country" but in 2009, he himself was quoted as calling Hun Sen "a nakleng." In 2008, he was quoted as calling him a "thug" on the rally stage of the PAD.

The PAD has a legitimate criticism of the way the border issue has been handled by the government since a previous foreign minister signed the notorious UNESCO MOU which led to that person's resignation. In 2008, a Thai court ruled that the bid to support Cambodia's application to have the 11th century temple listed as a World Heritage site was unconstitutional. So, the PAD has been right about this issue all along.

Also, regarding Mr Kasit's reference to "rich resources in the sea," this is what the PAD has been criticising the government for as trading off the Preah Vihear temple and border case due to interest in oil and gas deals.

In your article, Mr Kasit is quoted as saying "Integrity hinges on prudence and maturity; don't act like a baby and allow feelings to cloud judgement," however his own comments about the PAD lacking maturity, being "petulant" and a "cry baby" are not exactly mature.

Khun Sondhi and his followers are citizens of this country and have the right to question the government's leadership and policies. Khun Sondhi always speaks by producing facts, maps, quotes, and information. Mr Kasit offers no proof that the PAD's protests are due to pursuit of "a domestic political agenda."

Mr Kasit should ask himself whether he is applying the same standards to the PAD's protests against his government as to those against the Thaksin Shinawatra government in which he participated.

M Johnson

Bangkok

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The Government of The Kingdom of Cambodia Refuses To Lower Flag from Contentious Pagoda

“Cambodia reserves its legitimate rights to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Click on image to zoom in

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Wat Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak flying a Cambodian flag on Cambodia Territory (Photo: Koh Santepheap)

" We're still on high alert to defend our territorial integrity "

Royal Cambodian Armed Forces send troops to defend the border

Photos by Tbeng Meanchey (Koh Santepheap Daily News)

Anonymous said...

Much less of removing the flag, even lowering it is not an option for Cambodia. We have to stand up to what is ours and don't let thailand, a bully nation, push us around. This has been going on long enough. Enough is Enough!

what is your comment on this issue? Your idea would be appreciate

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"Veasna Chun Kbot Kamnott Min You" a Poem by Hin Sithan

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"Kdab Srok You Pek Vea Dos Snem" a Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea

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Cambodia’s new foreign ownership laws giving condo sales a lift

The Camko City development outside Phnom Penh has reported an uptick in sales.

via CAAI

Byron Perry

Jan 28, 2011

New foreign-ownership laws in Cambodia have boosted condo sales at several developments in the capital Phnom Penh.

The new law, which was rubber-stamped by King Norodom Sihamoni in May of 2010, allows foreigners to own property above the ground floor of a building that is not within 30km of a border.

Kheng Ser, Assistant to the Project Management Team of World City, a South Korean developer behind the US$2 billion satellite city as known as the Camko City development project, told the Phnom Penh Post that sales to foreigners were increasing every month.

“Until now, we had sold 45 units to foreigners, who come from South Korea, Australia, Singapore and China,” he said. “We have sold better since the National Assembly approved the foreign ownership law, and we strongly hope that we will get more and more foreigners to buy our condos this year. I think it’s a good idea to allow up to 70 percent of units to be owned by foreigners.”

The Camko City project started in December 2005 and is expected to be finished in 2018. The development lies on 119 hectares of land in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district that was reclaimed from Pong Peay Lake.

Un Mouy, sales and marketing manager for Taiwanese developer Two Town Co, said that she’s seen a jump in demand from foreigners for their Bal Resort development since the law was passed. 

“We have already sold 80 percent of the project and 60 percent is foreign-owned. Thanks to the new law my project sales [condos] are better and better,” she said. “It was the right time and a good time to invest in housing development. Now we are going ahead with the second lot of apartments.”

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