Preah Vihear damage significant

Heritage Police Chief Om Phirum examines damage to part of Preah Vihear temple he says was caused by last week's fighting. (Photo by: Thet Sambath)

Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Written by Thet Sambath
The Phnom Penh Post

Preah Vihear

Machine-gun fire left deep holes and chips in World Heritage site; complaint lodged with UNESCO.

AN INVESTIGATION by Heritage Police at Preah Vihear temple suggests that the damage sustained during Friday's fighting was more serious but less widespread, than that resulting from an outbreak of violence last October.
"We have found 66 stones at the temple that were damaged by the Thai soldiers' shooting," said Colonel Om Phirum, the chief of the Heritage Police, in an interview with the Post Monday. "They were damaged by the bullets of machine guns."

During fighting last October, debris from M79 grenades damaged the temple in 120 places, Om Phirum said, though he noted that the bullets from machine guns during the most recent clashes inflicted damage that was more severe, creating holes that were between 1 and 10 centimetres wide and 1 or 2 centimetres deep.

Om Phirum criticised Thai soldiers for shooting the temple, saying, "They do not respect world heritage, and they disdain the world."

The investigation was conducted on Sunday and Monday. Om Phirum said the Heritage Police submitted a report on damage to the temple to the Council of Ministers and a complaint to the UN cultural agency, which listed the temple as a World Heritage site last July. He said the Heritage Police sent a similar complaint to UNESCO following the outbreak of violence last October, which he said prompted the body to launch its own investigation into the damage.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An sent a letter Friday to UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura asking him to intervene. Calls and emails to UNESCO officials in Phnom Penh and Bangkok went unanswered Tuesday.

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Preah Vihear: two days of Cambodian-Thai talks, but no agreement over name

Preah Vihear or Phra Viharn? After a two-day meeting of the Joint Border Committee of Cambodia and Thailand (JBC) on April 6th and 7th, Cambodians and Thais did not manage to reach an agreement over that question, which, according to diplomats from both Kingdoms, is but the last stumbling block between Cambodia and Thailand with a view to solve peacefully a conflict which was revived due to an exchange of gunfire along the border they share.At the end of the second day of talks which finished at 7pm at the newly-inaugurated Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh, Var Kim Hong, the co-chairman of the Cambodian side of the Committee and his Thai counterpart Vasin Teeravechyan presented the result of the last three rounds of talks meant to put an end to the border dispute which started dividing both countries in July 2008 and went through a violent twist on Friday April 3rd as Thai and Cambodian soldiers faced each other near the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear.

Above all, these two days of negotiations allowed the validation of documents prepared during the first meeting: thus, the agreement reached in November 2008 at the special meeting in Siem Reap and the agreement obtained in Bangkok in February 2009 were revised and signed together with texts about the process of border delimitation, defined at the beginning of this week.

“This will allow us to start working”, particularly on the installation of border markers, Var Kim Hong declared at the end of the second day of the meeting. While Vasin Teeravechyan has not agreed to put forward any dates for the launching of those operations as he preferred talking about a “step by step” process, the Cambodian co-chairman declared for his part that a first group in charge of delimitations would be operational as from the month of May onwards and would be planting “posts at the gate of Chorm Sragnam (Oddar Meanchey), i.e. post number 1, all the way to the Ta Moane temple, i.e. post number 23”. In Zone number 6, where the Preah Vihear temple is located, “technical aspects still have to be solved”, the Cambodian co-chairman estimated. According to him, works for measurements and demining will start next July “at the latest”.

The content of these agreements, however, was not made public and one question is still unanswered and might continue to block progress in the delimitation works: that of the name of the temple, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since July 7th and which both parties are fighting over: Preah Vihear for Cambodians or Phra Viharn for Thais. “We suggested that the official name of Preah Vihear appear in bilateral documents, with a mention between brackets ‘Phra Viharn in Thai’. But the proposition has not yet been accepted by Thailand”, Var Kim Hong explained. He pointed out the fact that once an agreement is reached on that matter, all obstacles to a peaceful settlement will be gone.

For the Thai side, the fact that the Khmer name of Preah Vihear was the one chosen by UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee, which listed the temple, is not a good enough reason for Thailand to say no to the name of Phra Viharn. “This is just about the UNESCO and not about the Border Committee”, Vasin Teeravechyan declared briefly.

Questioned about the recent deployment of military forces along the border with Cambodia, the Thai co-chairman said he was “not aware” of it. On the Cambodian side, once again, there seemed to be more will to talk about the topic. Preap Tann, the governor for the Preah Vihear province and member of the Joint Border Committee of Cambodia and Thailand asserted that Thai military forces were currently deployed “about a kilometre away from the border”, thus confirming the deployment of additional military Thai troops and particularly, “of rocket launchers in front of the Preah Vihear temple”.

For Preah Vihear governor Preap Tann, there is nothing abnormal concerning the deployment of armed forces on both sides, even though negotiations are ongoing: “We have a two-sided situation here: on the one hand, Cambodia uses diplomacy, and on the other hand, we have to protect our territory”.

Cambodian spokesperson Phay Siphan also announced that a report was sent to the UNESCO to inform the organisation of the damage caused by Thai gunfire on the temple on April 3rd. “We are members of the UNESCO and our duty is to protect and preserve world heritage”, he said, hoping that a meeting would soon be called up by the UN organisation to mention those problems.

UNESCO director-general Koïchiro Matsuura has for that matter expressed his “deep concern” upon hearing about the revival of tensions between Thai and Cambodian soldiers near the Preah Vihear temple, “a masterpiece in Khmer architecture”, and “the exceptional and universal worth of which [...] transcends national borders”.

On Tuesday April 7th, Moeung Sonn, the president of the Khmer Civilisation Foundation (KCF) requested that Thailand pay compensation to the Cambodian victims of the April 3rd military coup which caused important damage on the Cambodian market of Prasat where about a hundred sheds went up in smoke. For Phay Siphan, the government “could think about” the request but he added that it would depend on the UNESCO to mention that point, since it concerns a protected area.

The date for the next meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Thailand and Cambodia, which will mark the next step in the negotiation process, has not been set yet.

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Demarcation of border set for May: govt

Wednesday, 08 April 2009
Written by Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

AFTER two days of talks, the Thai-Cambodian Joint Border Commission (JBC) announced a new agreement to plant markers along the 805-km shared border in May in a move they say is independent of a recent eruption of fighting in Preah Vihear.

"Talking is talking, and fighting is fighting. It is separate," Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, told reporters during the talks.

He added, however, that following Friday's firefight, officials believed Thailand was moblising troops along the border, including tanks.

Cambodia's top border negotiator, Var Kimhong, said after the border talks finished late Tuesday that the technical work of the border commission would start in May, with the commission aiming to demarcate and post markers from Choam Srangam to Ta Moan temple, both of which are located in Oddar Meanchey province.

"We will not drag this out, and we have arranged for a demining operation to clear the area before the [demarcation] teams move through,"
Var Kimhong said in a press conference after the talks wrapped up.

He added that a new working group would be posting markers in "priority areas" around the Preah Vihear temple, beginning in July.

The two-day meeting, which began Monday in Phnom Penh, was part of a process launched after an earlier clash in October in which four soldiers were killed. The last meeting of the Joint Commission, in Thailand, ended in February with the two neighbours failing to reach agreement on any of the key points.

"The meeting for these two days has been a success," said Vasin Teeravechyan, Thailand's co-chairman of the JBC. "We have started posting the markers, but more work needs to be done." He added that the Thai parliament will debate the issue soon and that foreign ministers from the two countries would meet to hammer out an agreement to allow solders currently stationed at Keo Sekha Kirisvara Pagoda in Preah Vihear to be withdrawn.

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Thai and Cambodia JBC has progress on border disputes [... but no agreements were made]

April 8, 2009
The Nation

The Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC) made a significant progress in the latest meeting on boundary settlement after border skirmish last week.
The meeting between April 6-7 in Phnom Penh was jointly chaired by Vasin Teeravechyan, advisor to the Foreign Ministry and his Cambodian counterpart Var Kim Hong.

An official said the meeting was able to settle the difference on the title of security unit in the disputed area which was adjacent to Preah Vihear temple.

They agreed to name it as "Temporary Military Monitoring Groups", an official said.

However, it remained no solution on the appellation of the Hindu temple on the cliff at the border of the two countries whether to call it Preah Vihear or Phra Viharn.

Despite of that, the JBC managed to sign three agreed minutes pending since the first special meeting in November in Siem Reap.

The agreed minutes of the JBC meeting in November, February and the latest meeting in April are important diplomatic documents required by internal legal procedure before the boundary demarcation to get started.

The Thai parliament needed to approve the documents before allocating budget for the demarcation and provisional arrangement at the area.

Border dispute at the area near Preah Vihear temple since last year sparked two clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops in October and last week which killed combined eight soldiers and injured nearly two dozens others.

The border conflict has barred tourists from visiting the site which was listed as a world heritage since July last year.

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Rescue Mission

RAISING AWARENESS – Trudy Albert of Scappoose works with a group of young Cambodian girls during a recent mission trip to Southeast Asia. While there, Albert heard horror stories of human slave trafficking. Now home, Albert wants to help raise awareness of this global crime. (Photo courtesy of Trudy Albert / The South County Spotlight)

A Scappoose woman’s mission trip to Cambodia opens her eyes to the international human trafficking of young girls

Apr 8, 2009
By Darryl Swan
The South County Spotlight (Oregon, USA)

Trudy Albert wasn’t sure what God wanted her to see when she undertook a mission trip to Cambodia in November.
Mounds of trash choked the scenery in the capital city of Phnom Penh. Extreme traffic congestion in the city of more than one million residents overwhelmed Albert, who stared dazed at the frantic, disorganized rush of buses, vans, mopeds and bicycles.

Poverty was everywhere, both within the city that is known for its population of rooftop slums and in the outlying villages still defined by hunting-gathering societies. Many of roads to reach the villages were washed out or still under floodwater.

“I kept thinking, ‘Why am I here?’” she recalls. “What is it I’m supposed to see here, Lord?”

It was between the waves of culture shock and jet lag that she found her answer: the people.

“They just absolutely stole my heart,” Albert says.

It was the first mission trip for Albert, a native of St. Louis, Mo., who moved to Scappoose 12 years ago. “I have always wanted to do a mission trip,” Albert says. “I knew that it was a third-world country, but I was not prepared for everything I saw.”

She discovered Cambodians to be humble, quiet and quick to light up when something tickled their fancy. Their courtesies to a stranger were boundless.

But through her work with World Hope International, the faith-based mission that sponsored the trip, she also saw the toll chronic poverty and social inequality have extracted from the country’s humanity.

Today, months later, she still wrestles her emotions when she recalls the plight of a 19-year-old woman in a village outside Phnom Penh who had recently escaped the forced sex trade industry.

“One of the girls, she looked at me and said, ‘I cry every night for my mom,’” Albert recalls, motioning her hands down over her face to mimic the effect of falling tears, a gesture not unlike the rain in the fairy tale “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

“I’m sure they all cry for their mothers,” Albert adds.

Through an interpreter, Albert heard story upon story of the victims of human slave trafficking, a crime globally on the rise and with a strong foothold in South Asia.

Cambodia, which borders Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, has emerged as a dominant feedstock for the illicit sex industry.

The International Labor Organization estimates at least 12.3 million people worldwide are held in forced labor, including prostitution. Other agencies estimate that figure is higher, closer to 27 million.

Many of the victims range in age from five to 26 years old. Most are vulnerable women and children who are impoverished and illiterate. Some have been sold to brothels or organized crime outfits by their own family members.

It’s a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, and to find examples of its reach requires a journey little farther than our own doorstep.

In February, a multi-agency task force of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies rescued seven juvenile girls found to be working in forced prostitution throughout the Portland metropolitan area, the youngest only 12 years old.

“Four of those girls are already back with the traffickers because there were no services for them,” says James Pond, executive director of Transitions Global, a Hillsboro-based nonprofit that operates a healing center in Cambodia, called the Transitional Living Center, that provides job training and other resources to victims of human trafficking.

Transitions Global is now fundraising for a $1.2 million center in Multnomah County where domestic victims of human trafficking can rebuild their lives.

Pond says there are three to five cases of juvenile prostitution in the Portland metro area daily, and that most of the trafficking occurs over popular trading and networking Web sites, such as Craigslist. The Federal Bureau of Investigations estimates there are 300,000 American girls being trafficked for commercial sex.

Albert, while stressing that the mission’s purpose does not solely focus on the sex trade and instead aims to bring relief wherever it is needed, points to the work of World Hope International and other missionaries in Cambodia as a stepping-stone toward reducing the proliferation of human trafficking in the global sex trade.

Albert says she worked with one group of rescued women in the village of Svay Pak, several miles outside of Phnom Penh, that taught the younger children how to brush their teeth.

“They’re like any other kids. They’re like the kids here in America,” Albert says of the experience. “It was wonderful to watch.”

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Ministry of Interior: Tim Sakhorn can live in Cambodia

Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of Phnom Den North pagoda (Photo: Mundulkeo, RFA)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009
By Ouk Sav Borey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata


On Tuesday 07 April 2009, the Cambodian ministry of Interior (MoI) indicated that Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, can live in Cambodia if he wanted to.
Khieu Sopheak, MoI spokesman, told RFA that the Cambodian Constitution stipulates that Khmer Kampuchea Krom are Cambodian citizen, therefore, citizen Tim Sakhorn has the right to live in Cambodia.

Khieu Sopheak confirmed that: “If he lives within the kingdom of Cambodia, under the Cambodian Constitution, he is a Cambodian citizen.”

Khieu’s Sopheak made this claim after Tim Sakhorn was released from the Viet jail, and he was allowed by the Vietnamese to attend a Cambodian ceremony in Ta Loeung village, Phnom Den commune, Kiriving district, Takeo province, with his father and relatives to commemorate his mother’s death during the Cambodian New Year.

On Tuesday, Tim Sakhorn could not be reached to find out whether he wants to live in Cambodia or in Vietnam. Tim Ban, Tim Sakhorn’s younger brother, indicated that Tim Sakhorn went to visit relatives and he has not returned home yet.

However, in a recent interview with RFA, Tim Sakhorn said: “I am very scared when I came to Cambodia. I am more scared than when I was in Vietnam, I am scared about my personal safety.”

Tim Theang, Tim Sakhorn’s father who now lives In Ta Loeung village, claimed that he wants Tim Sakhorn, his son, to come and live with him in Cambodia.

Tim Theang said: “He (Tim Sakhorn) wants (to live in Cambodia) also. I asked all organizations, all levels of the government, the UN etc… to help resolve this issue. If my son can come back (to live in Cambodia), I would be very happy because I am old now.”

Regarding Tim Sakhorn’s issue, Chan Saveth, an official for the Adhoc human rights organization, said: “Based on the information (received), we think that Tim Sakhorn seems to be very concerned about his personal safety.”

Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of Phnom Den North pagoda, was hastily defrocked by force by the Cambodian authority. He was then sent over to be jailed in Vietnam for a 1-year duration. He was accused of fomenting the breakup of the solidarity between Cambodia and Vietnam in 2007.

During his stay in jail in Vietnam, he was visited by Cambodian parliamentarians and following the intense criticism from the UN Human Rights commission, Tim Sakhorn was subsequently released. However, one human rights official claimed that he was still under close surveillance by the Vietnamese.

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