Development Must Mean Compensation: Expert

Am Sam Ath, an investigator for Adhoc, on 'Hello VOA' Monday.

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh
10 April 2009

Evictions in Cambodia are not resolved at a scale equal to the development of Cambodian, a rights activist said Monday, at a time when yet another community in Phnom Penh is facing eviction.

Residents of Reak Reay say they are will be uprooted from their home in the Tonle Bassac commune of central Phnom Penh.

While “development is good,” authorities must also meet the needs of the people, said Am Sam Ath, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

“Residents wish that authorities will develop [further] by balancing the interest of the villagers with the interest of the company or state,” he said.

“We can see during each eviction people crying, and they don’t want to leave their location,” he said.

Out of 209 Reak Reay families, 150 have agreed to leave the site new construction for Canadia Bank.

Families bought the land from the military after 1999, and Cambodian law stipulates residency of property after possession of five years, he said. But since 2006, the families have been facing pressure to leave. More negotiations with the city are expected after the Khmer New Year.

“Article 44 of the constitution says that the property of someone can be withdrawn for the interest of the public, and the owner must have reasonable compensation,” he said.

Pressuring people to leave constitutes an abuse of human rights, he said. “Authorities must remain in a neutral stance and serve the interests of both residents and investors.”

Phnom Penh’s rapid development has left the outskirts—where many displaced families end up—without infrastructure.

“They cannot find jobs or school for their children,” he said. “They must come to Phnom Penh and rent a house to work a job.”

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Khmer New Year: A message from Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
April 10, 2009

On behalf of the American people, I wish to congratulate the people of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the occasion of Khmer New Year.
This past year has been marked by significant progress in our relations, including humanitarian ship visits by the U.S. military, new agreements to implement assistance programs in economic development and the rule of law, and Peace Corps volunteers in 11 provinces.

I look forward to the year ahead, as our two nations identify even greater opportunities to strengthen our bilateral ties, as well as to work together on mutual areas of interest. We value Cambodia's commitment to further its social, economic and democratic development.

On the occasion of the Khmer New Year, I wish the Cambodian people peace, prosperity, and best wishes.

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It's all smile between Hor 5 Hong and Kasit Piromya, the insulter of Hor 5 Hong's boss

Thailand's Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya (L) talks with Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong (R) during the 3rd ASEAN Coordinating Council as part of the 14th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Pattaya resort April 10, 2009. Leaders from 15 other Asian countries began arriving in Thailand on Friday for a summit focusing on the global financial crisis, as anti-government protesters marched towards the venue. REUTERS/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/Pool

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Protesters break through security at Asian summit

Supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra break through a cordon of anti-riot policemen near the venue of the 14th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits in Pattaya April 10, 2009. Anti-government protesters converged on the Thai beach town of Pattaya on Friday with plans to disrupt an Asian summit as part of efforts to try to force Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to step down. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

Friday, April 10, 2009

PATTAYA, Thailand (AFP) — Thai protesters pushed through security at a summit of Asian leaders, forcing their campaign to topple Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva into the international spotlight.

Thai police vowed to use "all means necessary" to clear the hundreds of protesters away from the beach resort hotel where the leaders of China, Japan, India and 13 other nations were to gather for the three-day summit.

Around 400 protesters faced off outside against at least 200 security forces -- including riot police in full gear and army soldiers -- who stood in formation outside the hotel.

The security breach came after months of assurances from the government that it would not let the kingdom's internal political turmoil, which has been boiling for months, disrupt the meeting.

Protesters launched new mass rallies in Bangkok on Wednesday to push Abhisit to resign, insisting that he came to power undemocratically through a court ruling that toppled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra's allies in December.

"Today we are not coming to stop the summit. We have come to join the summit to represent the Thai people because Abhisit cannot be responsible for our rights," protest leader Arismun Pongreungrong told AFP.

"Abhisit is not the legitimate prime minister. We have to pressure him to resign."

Thai authorities have gone out of their way to avoid clashes with protesters since mass violence broke out at a rally by anti-Thaksin demonstrators in Bangkok last October, leaving two people dead and 500 injured.

The protesters on Friday passed through the last line of unarmed riot police with little resistance, chanting slogans, cheering and clapping their hands.

Some protesters arrived on pick-up trucks and on scooters, moving to within 50 metres (yards) of the front doors of the luxury hotel and waving red posters reading "Abhisit get out" and "Thailand needs change".

British-born Abhisit has repeatedly resisted their calls to go and his government hardened its stance earlier Friday, saying it intended to arrest the leaders of the protests against the government.

Abhisit said late Thursday that he had boosted security in Pattaya for the summit, which groups the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

China earlier this week expressed concerns about security at the summit but said it was confident the Thai government could keep protesters away. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao was due to arrive later Friday.

The protests have marked the biggest challenge to Abhisit since he came to power four months ago. On Thursday around 100 taxi drivers blocked a major intersection in Bangkok, snarling traffic across the capital.

"Certain people must take responsibility for all these incidents," said the Oxford-educated premier.

Thaksin, a billionaire populist who still has a loyal following among the country's poor but is loathed by the Bangkok elite, was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

Living in exile to avoid a two-year prison sentence for corruption, Thaksin has been egging on the protesters with nightly messages to them via videolink.

Abhisit announced a public holiday across Thailand on Friday in a bid to ease tension across the country.

The government has repeatedly said it would ensure the security of the summit -- which was postponed twice and moved to different cities twice in a bid to keep away from the protests.

"We are using international standards of security protection for the 16 leaders," Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, in charge of national security, said on Friday. "They will be safe."

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Thai Premier Stands Firm as Protests Spread, Threaten Summit

By Daniel Ten Kate and Suttinee Yuvejwattana

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the demands of protesters who used taxis to block Bangkok’s streets in a bid to force his ouster before he hosts a summit of Asian leaders that starts today.

Tens of thousands of people remained camped out at the premier’s office and other locations in the capital after bringing traffic in key intersections to a standstill. Abhisit, declaring today a public holiday, said the protesters “broke the law” and vowed not to quit or call an election.
“Dissolving the parliament is not an appropriate option at the moment,” Abhisit, 44, said in a nationally televised address late yesterday. “The right time to consider that is when we have political stability and the expression of people’s rights without a climate of violence.”

The expanding rallies threaten to undermine Abhisit’s four- month-old administration as he welcomes 15 leaders attending the three-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting. Demonstrators, who have surrounded his office since March 26, say his government is illegitimate because he took power after a court disbanded the former ruling party.

“The situation is volatile and could turn violent,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “They have pent-up rage from being insulted, underestimated and dismissed by the establishment.”

Protesters planned to travel to Pattaya, a resort town 150 kilometers (90 miles) south of the capital, where the Asean summit will take place, said protest leader Jatuporn Prompan. Leaders from China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand also plan to attend the meeting.

Disable Government

“Our aim is to make the government unable to function,” protest leader Jatuporn Prompan said by telephone. “Our demand hasn’t been met.”

Abhisit said the government has stepped up security in Pattaya to prevent demonstrators from disrupting the summit. His car was attacked by a group of protesters on April 7 in the resort town as he returned to Bangkok from a cabinet meeting.

The protests escalated on April 8 when crowds besieged the house of Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda, 88. They say Prem, King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s top adviser, and two fellow advisers should step down for allegedly plotting the coup that ousted former Prime MinisterThaksin Shinawatra. Prem has denied any involvement in the 2006 coup.

In targeting Prem, a former army chief and prime minister, the demonstrators face accusations they are criticizing the monarchy, a crime in Thailand that can see offenders jailed for as many as 15 years. Under Thailand’s constitutional monarchy, the king is head of state while the prime minister and parliament govern. The king must still approve all legislation.

Red Shirts

The protesters wear red shirts to distinguish themselves from rivals who sported yellow to show loyalty to King Bhumibol during a 193-day campaign to remove a pro-Thaksin government last year. They came from 35 provinces, mostly in Thaksin’s electoral base in northeast Thailand, to join the April 8 march.

“We love peace, but we need to fight,” Thaksin told a rally late yesterday via videophone. “We have to tell the world this government is no longer legitimate.”

Thaksin, who fled Thailand last year to escape corruption charges, has spoken to his supporters through a video link-up in rallies throughout the country since Abhisit took power. He was sentenced to two years in prison in October for helping his wife buy land from the government while he served as prime minister.

Since the coup, the courts disbanded two pro-Thaksin parties and banned about 140 politicians loyal to him, including former Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat in December. Parties linked to Thaksin have won the past four national elections on heavy support from the northeast, Thailand’s poorest region.

Airport Protest

Abhisit took power in December after protesters who support him shut down the country’s airports for eight days and a court dissolved the ruling party for vote buying. He wooed a faction of lawmakers that previously backed Thaksin to join his coalition, and consolidated his parliamentary majority in a March 21 confidence vote.

Thailand’s consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in more than seven years in March, buffeted by the protests and an economy heading for its first annual contraction in more than a decade. The index dropped to 66 from 67.2 in February, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce said yesterday.

Thailand’s Stock Exchange of Thailand will remain open today along with banks, Patareeya Benjapolchai, its president, said by phone. The benchmark SET Index has risen 1.6 percent since protests began March 26, compared with a 3.7 percent rise in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net; Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net

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Thailand protesters demand Prime Minister Abhisit resign

Supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra also seek the ouster of a top advisor to the king.

April 9, 2009
By Charles McDermid and Jakkapun Kaewsangthong
Los Angeles Time (California, USA)

Reporting from Bangkok, Thailand -- A sea of red-clad anti-government protesters flooded into central Bangkok on Wednesday to demand the resignations of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and a key advisor to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
City officials estimated that 100,000 supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra filled the capital's government district. The protesters from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship are demanding the resignation of Vejjajiva and his 4-month-old administration because they say he gained power undemocratically.

In the afternoon, hundreds of demonstrators broke through police barricades and surrounded the home of Privy Council President Gen. Prem Tinsulanonda, who they say was behind the 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin. Prem, a close advisor to the highly respected king, has denied any involvement in the coup.

Wednesday's rally came after a two-week sit-in outside Abhisit's office by thousands of protesters.

On Tuesday, the so-called red shirts attacked Abhisit's motorcade in the resort town of Pattaya, pelting his vehicle with bottles, smashing the rear window and punching his driver and guards. The brazen attack raised security concerns about a summit of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, scheduled to commence in Pattaya on Friday.

Government officials said Wednesday that the summit would proceed as planned. Abhisit has refused to step down or employ violence to quell the protests.

"If it becomes a riot, the government will have to do something," Abhisit told reporters in Bangkok. "I can assure you there will be no violence starting from the government's side."

Last year, Thaksin fled Thailand before a court convicted him of abuse of power and he was sentenced to a two-year prison term. Using a video linkup Wednesday, he called on more supporters to join the protesters in pursuit of "a true democracy."

Thaksin's supporters point to the former telecommunications magnate's alleged economic prowess as the way out of the global financial crisis.

"He is smart guy. When he was in his power, poor people could make a lot of money. Today when they look at their wallet, it is empty. We want him and his policies back," 45-year-old restaurant owner Nattapon Karaked said.

According to government officials, 10,000 police officers and military troops have been deployed in central Bangkok. Pattaya is also on high alert.

Bus routes were diverted from Bangkok protest areas and visitors have been warned to avoid those sites.

Chanisa Rangtes, a 27-year-old receptionist, said the gathering of protesters in central Bangkok caused worse problems than the usual traffic jams and noise pollution.

"This isn't going to do any good for our society. People will get hurt and it will ruin our reputation, which is already getting bad. In the end we don't get anything," she said. "I'm not sure if it's even really about democracy."

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Making sense of Thailand’s turmoil

(Photo: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Thu, 04/09/2009
By Roberto Herrera-Lim
Foreign Policy

Bangkok's streets are again filled with protesters this week in what will likely prove a boisterous but futile attempt to force the government's resignation. But behind all the noise, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been directing these demonstrations from outside the country, may well have a more subtle, longer-term agenda.

Thaksin and his supporters have been attacking the country's "aristocracy"--and top adviser to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Prem Tinsulanonda, in particular. This suggests that Thaksin's maneuvers are related less to any effort to immediately oust the current government but instead to undermining the power structures centered around the monarchy, particularly the King's privy council, and the succession process that Thailand will face once ailing King Bhumibol passes from the scene.

The protests are generating more noise than usual thanks to warnings from Thaksin that "the time for talks has passed" and the sense that protesters (known as "red shirts") are pushing for a confrontation. The former prime minister, ousted in a 2006 coup, is still able to create tension in the capital by rallying his supporters from Thailand's northeast and among Bangkok's poor. But without support from the military, the monarchy, and Bangkok's middle class, these protests are highly unlikely to divide the country's political elite and threaten the current regime. Even Thaksin's allies know that even if they could force new elections, the elite-controlled institutions could undermine their administration. Thaksin is believed to be in either Dubai or Cambodia, and evidence suggests that the military is trying to block his satellite telephone calls to followers inside Thailand.

The real motive behind Thaksin's use of these protests is probably to weaken Prem, which would then allow him to position himself to eventually take advantage of a government weakened by the economic crisis, to negotiate his return to the country, and to settle his many outstanding legal and financial problems. The big unknown is whether Thaksin's moves reveal that he has inside information on how and when the succession process (and resulting power struggle) will begin to unfold, and whether his rhetoric is an attempt to position himself in the conflict for power that could follow.

To up the ante, Thaksin has warned that he expects to see a "revolution by the people" that is more intense than the civilian unrest that rocked the country in 1973 and 1992. He has also explicitly accused Prem and retired General Surayud Chulanont of having organized the 2006 coup that ousted him from office.

These are bold (and unprecedented) criticisms, because Prem has been considered for the past decade a direct representative of King Bhumibol and therefore beyond this kind of accusation. Protesters have organized demonstrations near Prem's home. By proving that he still commands considerable public support and boldly attacking Prem (and members of the military complicit in the 2006 coup), Thaksin may well be trying to establish himself as a political force to be reckoned with following the King's death-particularly if the succession process fails to produce a strong monarch.

In short, Thailand is in the midst of a power struggle that could reach deeply into its institutions and power structures. It started with a fight between the elites and Thaksin in 2006, and has begun to spill over into the public sphere. The stakes have been magnified by the uncertainty around the royal succession in a country in which the monarchy remains the most powerful political institution. Thailand's history shows that this type of conflict will take time to resolve, with results ranging from the absurd to the tragic.

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