Cambodia Confirms Location for Multilateral Peacekeeping Exercises

2009-04-08
Xinhua

Kompong Speu province will be the main location for Cambodia to host multilateral peacekeeping exercises in March 2010, national media said on Wednesday.

"The three weeks of exercises will see 2,000 troops from 13 countries participate," Chinese-language daily newspaper the Commercial News quoted Prak Sokhon, secretary of state for the Council Ministers, as telling a press conference at the Institute for Peacekeeping Forces, Mine and ERW (Explosive Remnant of War) Clearance in the province.
Meanwhile, the paper quoted the secretary of state as saying that the event will be conducted in the framework of the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI).

GPOI once held such exercises in Bangladesh in 2008, Mongolia in 2007 and Indonesia in 2009, he added.

In early March, Pol Saroeurn, Commander-in-Chief of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), told reporters that Cambodia will host a large-scale ASEAN-U.S. military exercise in 2010.

The event will provide training such as "field tactical and command post operations," but the formal planning and preparation for the exercise will not begin until late this year, he added.

According to official files, 40 Cambodian soldiers participated in a three-week multi-national peace-keeping exercise in Bangladesh in April 2008.

In July 2007, 43 Cambodian soldiers took part in a military exercise for UN peacekeeping mission in Mongolia.

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Thai, Cambodian leaders to meet after new battles

April 8, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

Cambodian and Thai negotiators have wrapped up two days of talks aimed at resolving a border dispute which last week flared into deadly gunbattles. They say they have made progress but there appears to be little substantive agreement between the two sides.

Three Thai troops were killed following clashes on Friday over disputed land around the ancient Preah Vihear temple - the deadliest fighting for six months. The World Court gave ownership of the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but tensions flared last July when it was awarded UN World Heritage status.

The latest skirmish comes just days before the countries' leaders meet face to face at the ASEAN summit in Thailand.

Presenter: Joanna McCarthy
Speaker: Professor David Chandler, research fellow in Cambodian history, Monash Asia Institute

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

McCARTHY: Professor Chandler, is it any surprise to you that this dispute has flared into violence once again?

CHANDLER: Oh not really, because there are a lot of trigger happy soldiers on both sides who feel that they are protecting their national heritage. The Thais feel this temple really belongs to them and the Cambodians think the temple belongs to them and they are not being restrained by their governments to any great extent, I don't think. And also as Ms Percy was saying earlier, that Thailand is a period of considerable instability at the moment. That means that probably people are not paying as much attention to this as they should at the central level.

McCARTHY: Well, these latest talks of course are part of the process that was started after last October's clashes, to try and demarcate the border once and for all, but is there the political will on both sides to resolve this issue?

CHANDLER: It doesn't seem like it, I mean it seems to me if you have political will on both sides, you could resolve it quite quickly. It's not that crucial an issue. But of course matters of national pride are very hard to pin, to keep under control, and this is a matter of national pride on both sides.

McCARTHY: There are key issues that remain unresolved here. Even the official spelling of the temple's name is in dispute. In your view, what are the major obstacles to an agreement?

CHANDLER: Well, I think the major obstacles are the fact that the Thais really don't accept the 1962 ruling that put the temple in Cambodian hands and if the temple is in Cambodian hands, then this World Heritage site thing is another sort of slap in the face for the Thais, who feel that this temple and this whole area belongs to them and would be a prosperous tourist site. I have visited the temple myself, it is very beautiful and there is a tension there between the two countries. I don't see that this is really very soluble, frankly.

McCARTHY: Well, this latest skirmish comes just days before the countries' two leaders are due to meet face-to-face at the ASEAN summit in Thailand. In the longer term, what's it going to mean for the relationship between the two countries?

CHANDLER: I have a feeling the two leaders might be able to iron something out, because they don't want to have this thing go on forever, either of them. Both of them are quite sensible in many ways on issues like this. So it is not in their interest for this thing to drag on, but again I am not sure whose going to have to blink first, if you like. I don't think they are going to go to the meeting blaming each other, but let's just see what happens.

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Fire destroy 5 garment factory buildings in Phnom Penh

(Photo: Deum Ampil news)

PHNOM PENH, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A fire here Tuesday night destroyed at least half of one of the largest garment factories in Cambodia, national media on Wednesday quoted fire department and factory officials as saying.
By 08:30 pm (GMT 1330) on Tuesday, the fire had demolished five of nine buildings at the Suntex factory complex, said Chinese-language daily newspaper the Commercial News.

"We used all the fire trucks in Phnom Penh," Sok Vannara, first deputy fire chief of the municipal fire brigade, was quoted as saying.

The fire began in a product warehouse at the complex sometime after 05:00 pm and soon spread to the factory itself, he added.

The reason of the fire and the amount of loss were unclear yet.

Ocean Sky, a Singaporean firm, owns Suntex and the nearby Bright Sky factory. The two factories respectively have 5,000 and 4,000 workers.

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Phsar Krom market to be rebuilt … only because it is an order from Hun Sen

257 Cambodian homes and market stalls were burnt down to the ground from indiscriminate Thai rocket shelling (Photo: Samnang, Koh Santepheap)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy

A report indicates that Prime minister Hun Sen has ordered the reconstruction of the market stalls located near the staircase leading to Preah Vihear temple that were destroyed by fire during the 03 April clash between Cambodian and Siam soldiers. According toTuesday’s edition of The Cambodia Daily, Suos Yara, the under-secretary of state of the Council of Ministers, led a government delegation to visit the stalls and the villagers’ homes that were burnt down, and also to evaluate the damage resulting from the fight. Suos Yara said: “The order from Samdach prime minister Hun Sen is that it is necessary that this market be rebuilt.” He added: “Samdach’s goal is that, between the heritage and life, he would choose life before the heritage. Therefore, protecting the interest of the people is a sure necessity.”

Hang Soth, the secretary of the Preah Vihear National Authority, indicated that the fire destroyed about 257 stalls in the market. The market was developed at the foothill of Preah Vihear temple during the past 10 years. Preab Tan, the Preah Vihear provincial governor, said that the new market will be rebuilt with wood, and the stalls will be styled according to traditional Cambodian architecture with tile roof. Keo Neang, one of the market stall owners whose stall was destroyed by fire, said that she now has some hope left after hearing this announcement.

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For a more attractive city: No more clotheslines

Street scene in Phnom Penh (Photo: Alain Ney, Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

07 April 2009
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

Kep Chuktema, the Phnom Penh city governor, launched an appeal to residents of the capital to not disfigure the sidewalks and building façades by drying clothes and other clotheslines. Legal measures will be taken later.
In a communiqué addressed to the public on Monday 06 April, Kep Chuktema explained that hanging clothes to dry along sidewalks and house balconies must end. City residents living along major streets are mainly targeted by this communiqué.

According to Kep Chuktema, Phnom Penh is a political, economic, touristic and diplomatic center. The city received various awards, such as the one given out by London to city leaders, by Melbourne for the environmental policy, and the city also received the honor to participate in an expo in China titled: “Phnom Penh, a comfortable city in Cambodia.”

According to Kep chuktema, “the Phnom Penh municipality will take legal measures against residents who do not obey this order.”

However, this habit is well ingrained among numerous residents. The lack of education, as well as the poverty suffered by numerous families, will probably hamper this desire to embellish the city.

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Cambodian embassy in Malaysia pointed out for not helping Cambodians victims of human trafficking

The website of the Cambodian embassy indicated that Princess Arunrasmy (above), the youngest daughter of King-Father and wife of Funcinpec president, is the current Cambodian ambassador in Malaysia

07 April 2009
By Ung Chansophea
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

Victims of human trafficking are pointing at the Cambodian embassy office in Malaysia which refused to come to their help.
Six Cambodian citizens, all from the same family, who were victims of revolting working conditions in Malaysia, have accused the Cambodian embassy office in Kuala Lumpur of not coming to their help. The accusation was made during a press conference organized by the Caram Cambodia NGO on Tuesday 07 April in Phnom Penh.

“We were enticed to go to work in Malaysia in November 2007 through a Cambodian middleman. He proposed to me a working position at 4 hours away from Kuala Lumpur, in a coffee factory. We were supposed to earn $167 per month each, i.e. 600 Malaysian ringgits,” 42-year-old Sarath from Kampong Cham province said.

“In reality, on our 600 ringgits salary, 50 were deducted for rent and 200 for the visa fee. Our employer confiscated our passport at our arrival, and they made us work 12 hours nonstop [each day], from 6:30PM to 7AM. On some months, we were only able to work 10 to 20 days, they did not pay us on holidays,” Sarath added.

“When we wanted our passports back, we found out that the factory owner never renewed our visa. We went to the Cambodian embassy in Kuala Lumpur. We met an official by the name of Vantha who refused to help us, claiming that he had no right to protect illegal workers,” Sarath said.

“Vantha advised us to return back to meet our boss to ask for a compensation, or else turn us to the immigration police. He refused to let us stay at the embassy for more than one day. We begged him, we cried, but nothing would budge him,” Sarath recalled.

Finally, the family turned to Cambodian citizens living in Kuala Lumpur who told them about the Caram NGO which is involved in the defense of expatriated workers. The NGO then took charge of their return to Cambodia.

“The claim made by the embassy has no legal basis,” Ya Navuth, the executive director of Caram Cambodia, indicated. “The embassy should intervene, regardless of the personal opinion provided by Mr. Vantha who did not want to get hassled by this issue. If the Cambodian embassy is indifferent to the fate of Cambodian citizens, then several of them could become victims.”

On Tuesday, the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia could not be reached by “Cambodge Soir Hebdo.”

In 2009, Caram came to the help of 19 Cambodians, 13 of whom were in Taiwan. In 2008, Caram was also involved with 15 other Cambodia.

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Cambodia, Thailand say progress made in border talks [... no concrete results though]

Cambodian senior minister in charge of border affairs Var Kim Hong (R) shakes hands with Thai advisor to minister of Foreign Affairs and co-chairman of Thai Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary Vasin Teeravechayan (L) as they exchange documents during the special session of Cambodian-Thai Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary at Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodian and Thai negotiators said Tuesday they had made progress in efforts to resolve a border stand-off near an ancient temple which last week flared into deadly gunbattles.
Three Thai troops were killed following clashes on Friday between the neighbouring countries over disputed land around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple, the deadliest fighting for six months in a long-running feud.

Border officials from Thailand and Cambodia on Monday began meetings aimed at resolving their competing territorial claims, part of a process launched after an earlier clash in October killed four soldiers.

"We have made a good success," Vasin Teeravechyan, chief Thai negotiator, told reporters at the conclusion of the two-day talks.

Negotiators said they would be able to make progress on demarcating the border near the temple when they had finished some technical work.

"We have signed on three documents which are basic documents that allow us to continue working on border demarcation," said Var Kimhong, the chairman of Cambodia's border committee.

But the two countries failed to reach agreement on the spelling of the temple in official documents.

The World Court gave ownership of the temple -- which Thailand calls Phra Viharn -- to Cambodia in 1962, but tensions flared last July when the cliff-top building was awarded United Nations World Heritage status.

The current dispute centres on five square kilometres of land around the temple which has yet to be officially demarcated. The most accessible entrance to the ruins is in Thailand.

The Cambodia-Thailand border has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of civil war in Cambodia.

Cambodian and Thai military officials have also met several times over the past few days to prevent fresh fighting.

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Thailand analysis: 'land of smiles' becomes land of lies

Thailand, sad to say, is in a terrible mess. With the very future of the monarchy at risk the stakes could not be higher. The country is deeply polarised with goodwill, moral authority and the truth itself in desperately short supply. Thailand could be heading for a very hard landing.

05 Apr 2009
By Thomas Bell in Bangkok
The Telegraph (UK)

One side is led by Thaksin Shinawatra. The former telecoms billionaire and deposed prime minister is a dubious champion of democracy. During his six years in power Mr Thaksin launched a "war on drugs" in which up to 2,000 alleged dealers were summarily executed by the police.
In government he was dogged by corruption allegations, apparently unable to distinguish his own business interests from those of the country. He was no friend of the free media, although censorship is worse now than it was in Thaksin's day.

On the other side is... who? Mr Thaksin has many vehement enemies among the middle and upper classes. It is difficult to tell how many because in Thailand opinion pollsters never ask the only question that really counts – who would you vote for?

They particularly object to Thaksin's alleged corruption and his government's challenge to Thailand's rigid social hierarchy. Qualms over the deadly "war on drugs", on the other hand, are mostly limited to hand-wringing foreign liberals.

These well-healed opponents control most major institutions. They also claim they are acting to "protect the king", and this is where it gets difficult.

Strict laws make any criticism of the monarchy punishable with up to 12 years in jail – in practice almost any discussion of the monarchy is prohibited. Last week a man, the breadwinner for his family, was jailed for 10 years for posting "insulting" pictures of the royal family online.

King Bhumibol, 81, is "above politics" and he is widely and sincerely loved. Many Thais credit him with steering their country's modern development and intervening to solve periodic crises. The country's official doctrine of "sufficiency economics" is the king's own invention.

When politicians claim to act in the king's name they often accuse their opponents of disloyalty, potentially punishable by 12 years in jail. That can make politics very hard to talk about. Bhumibol, for his part, has been mostly silent.

In 2006 Mr Thaksin was accused of disloyalty to the king and overthrown by a military coup. Nevertheless, with Thaksin in exile, voters returned his supporters to power in elections at the end of 2007.

Mr Thaksin's one great virtue as a democrat is that he and his supporters have won each of three elections so far this decade. He is popular because for the first time in Thai history he campaigned on policies aimed at the rural majority – and then delivered. He earned massive admiration for schemes such as affordable health care.

The pro-Thaksin government elected after the coup lasted less than a year. Protesters, some of them armed with golf clubs, bombs and guns, overran first Government House and then both Bangkok's airports, costing the economy untold millions. They wore the royal colour, yellow, and claimed they were acting to protect the king from Thaksin's alleged republicanism. The movement received the public endorsement of the queen.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, as the movement is misleadingly called, argued that democracy does not work in Thailand because the peasantry are too simple to vote. They want a "new politics" in which 70 per cent of parliament is appointed.

Last year's protests found widespread support among the conservative media which, in its rush to finish the Thaksinites for ever, abandoned factual reporting.

Thaksin denies that he is a republican, although some of his supporters undoubtedly are – or they are now.

At the end of last year a court dissolved the elected government and the army brass summoned political bosses to hoist a new prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to power. The leaders of the airport protests were never punished – one even became foreign minister.

Now Thaksin has dropped his bomb. In live video addresses to rallies around the country he identified two retired generals who are close advisers to the king and a small group of top judges as the conspirators who plotted his 2006 ousting and have allegedly been invisibly pulling Thailand's strings ever since.

The government is in a funk, panicking about how to block the transmissions. The army is said to be furious: Thaksin has broken the omerta and the government could not stop him. Commentators say he has gone too far and newspapers are openly demanding censorship to stop the revelations being heard.

Yet although the people Thaksin named have offered desultory denials, no one is seriously disputing the truth of his revelations. Apparently that it is not the point – in Thai politics the truth is not meant for public consumption.

Thailand aspires to be a serious country, a Western ally and a destination for tourists and investment, yet in the past few years the "land of smiles" has been more like the land of lies. A light cast on what takes place in the comfortable sitting rooms of power is long overdue.

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Khmer Rouge confessions 'rarely true' admits Duch

April 7, 2009
Anne Barrowclough
Times Online (UK)

Confessions extracted under torture in the Khmer Rouge's brutal prisons were rarely true, the regime's prisons chief admitted today.

Kaing Guek Eav, or 'Duch' the director of the Khmer Rouge's most infamous prison S-21, told a Cambodia war crimes tribunal he took part in torture sessions and ordered his subordinates to beat prisoners who were to be 'smashed' to death with an iron bar.
Duch was renowned for reading every confession brought to him from the interrogation sessions, often correcting them in red pen. However, he said today, he rarely believed them.

"I never believed the confessions I received told the truth. At most, they were about 40 percent true," he told the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.

The 66-year-old former school-master is in the second week of a hearing at the UN-backed tribunal, charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and homicide.

He has already accepted responsiblity for the atrocities committed at S-21 under his command, and apologised to his victims but he maintains that he was a scapegoat of Pol Pot's genocidal regime which presided over the death of 1.7 million Cambodians during its 1975 - 1979 rule.

The former school-master is answering questions about M-13, a secret security centre in the jungle he ran from 1971-1975 during the Khmer Rouge insurgency against the US-backed military government.

He was posted to S-21 after impressing his superiors with his fanatical devotion to the communist cause, and his brutally meticulous directorship of M-13.

He told the court M-13 was surrounded by a bamboo fence and shackled prisoners were often held in two-metre deep pits, both to prevent escape and to protect them from US warplanes carpet-bombing the area

He claimed he personally tortured only two people but admitted: "The burden is still on me - it's my responsibility. I would like to apologise to the souls of those who died," he said.

The ECCC is questioning him over M-13 to get a better understanding of the structure of S-21.

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Photos from Preah Vihear border: Damage to Preah Vihear and Cambodian village

Pockmarked holes on the temple rocks resulting from Thai troops shooting (All photos: Samnang, Koh Santepheap news)
257 Cambodian homes were burnt down to the ground from indiscriminate Thai rocket shelling


Evacuated villagers
Villagers evacuated to safety zone

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Evacuated villagers from Preah Vihear region face shortage

Refugees evacuated from the fighting zone are asking for help because their homes were all destroyed from the clash (Photo: Uy Sophea, RFA)

06 April 2009
By Savyouth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

The short clash between Cambodian and Thai soldiers on 03 April led to more than 300 Cambodian war refugee families.

More than 300 Cambodian families living in the village at the foothill of Preah Vihear temple and who are now war refugees from the fighting zone, were temporarily evacuated to Sra’Em village, Kantuot commune, Choam Ksan district, Preah Vihear province. These families now face shortage of food, housing, clothing, and household cooking utensils because more than 250 of their homes were burnt down during the clash between Cambodian and Thai troops.

On Monday 06 April, a group of villagers who are now living in makeshift tents and in a market building said that their belongings and household utensils were all burnt down because of Thai troops rocket shelling.

Siv On, an elder man sitting underneath a tarp sheet, said that his home was burnt down, and his loss amounts to more than $10,000. “I lost my house and my belongings. The loss amounts to more than $10,000. We could not get anything out, we could only save ourselves and we thought that nothing will happen to our homes.”

Another villager said with tears streaking down her cheeks that her house was completely destroyed by the fire, and when she escaped from the fighting zone, she couldn’t get anything out at all, she was only able to escape with her children and the clothes on their back only: “I lost everything, I don’t even have a short for my children. I came to live here 10 years ago with my husband. They [Thai soldiers] fired [rockets] into houses in the market. I was lucky, if I did not run the trench on time, I would be filled with holes [from rocket shrapnels]. I am very hurt by the Siems [Thais], I don’t know who to tell this to, I can only beg Samdach Dekcho to help the villagers so they can continue their businesses.”

According to local authority, thousands of refugee people are facing difficulties, such as shortage of food, household utensils, clothes, lodging and they are also facing health problems.

On Monday morning, Sor Thavary, the deputy provincial governor for Preah Vihear, said the evacuated villagers lack everything, and he is calling on all humanitarian organizations to help provide for the villagers.

Sor Thavary said: “They lost everything in the fire. Any donations are very appreciated by them, if they can get tents that would be best.”

The authority indicated that the department of social affairs and the Preah Vihear Red Cross have distributed food, mosquito nets and plastic tents in an emergency, but the supplies cannot meet the needs of these war refugees yet.

These war refugees were evacuated by Cambodian troops to safer zones in the evening of 03 April, following the clash between Cambodian and Thai troops near Veal Entry, located close to the Preah Vihear temple.

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