Read more!
Cambodian-Americans call for speed up in the trial of former KR leaders
19 April 2009
By Khim Sarang
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
Tung Yap, President of the Cambodian-Americans for Human Rights in Democracy (CAHRAD) organization, said that, besides the commemorations for the victims, his organization also appeals to the KR Tribunal to speed up the trial process for the former KR leaders, and to provide justice.
Tung Yap said: “Today, we are all gathering to light candles to commemorate all our compatriots who died during the Pol Pot genocidal regime. We pray that the spirits of these victims will push the KR Tribunal to speed up the trials prior to the death of the KR leaders, and that justice will be provided.”
Read more!
KRouge prison chief killed and tortured: witness
20 April 2009
AFP
Chan Veoun, 56, said he saw the jailer, known as Duch, kill his uncle while he himself was collecting food at the prison camp, M-13, in the early 1970s.
“He was my uncle. He was shot by Duch. He killed him in front of my eyes,” Chan Veoun said, weeping. He did not give a reason for the slaying.
Duch—whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav—charged in response that the testimony was fabricated.
Last month Duch apologised at the start of his trial, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime’s main prison, Tuol Sleng.
He has maintained however that he never personally executed anyone and has only admitted to abusing two people.
Chan Veoun told the court Duch regularly beat prisoners and once stripped a woman to her waist to burn her breasts with a torch soaked in gasoline.
Once, he added, prisoners kept shackled in pits were once left to drown in rainy season floods.
Duch denied his accounts, saying he recognised Chan Veoun but the witness had never worked under him.
“This is a complete fabrication—probably of what he heard and (he) added something on top,” Duch told the court.
“About the crimes committed at (M-13) I cannot forget it. It is a serious matter that affects me psychologically.”
The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against then then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng’s organising structure.
The Khmer Rouge were in power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when Duch is accused of supervising Tuol Sleng prison and sending thousands of people to their deaths in the so-called “Killing Fields.”
The former mathematics teacher has denied assertions by prosecutors that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge’s iron-fisted rule.
He faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.
Read more!
Pol Pot's shoes up for sale [-Nhem En tries to cash in on Khmer tragedy?]
Nhem EnAFP
PHNOM PENH - A PHOTOGRAPHER for the Khmer Rouge said on Monday he is putting leader Pol Pot's sandals up for auction along with a pair of cameras used to picture life under his brutal regime.
Nhem En, who photographed inmates at the notorious S-21 torture centre and also snapped pictures at official ceremonies for the Cambodian regime, told AFP bidding for the items would open at US$500,000 (S$750,000)
'Now I offer for auction a pair of Pol Pot's sandals and my two cameras that I used to shoot Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders, as well as those who died and were victimised at S-21,' Nhem En said.
The sandals belonging to Pol Pot, who died in 1998, were made of car tyre, while the two cameras were manufactured in Germany and Japan, he added.
Nhem En, now a deputy governor of northwest Anlong Veng district, said he hoped to use the money to construct a museum to showcase photographs and items from the Khmer Rouge period, including Pol Pot's old toilet.
'I call for an auction of the items because I need the money to build a big museum in Anlong Veng,' he said.
Up to two million people died of starvation, execution, overwork or torture as the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, dismantled society in a bid to forge a communist utopia.
The former chief of S-21 prison, Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - is currently on trial for crimes committed during the regime. Cambodia's UN-backed court also plans to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Read more!
KR victims in the US let their voice heard
Houng Poeuv, center, and Nin Poeuv, right, survivors of Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia, join other activists in a call for President Obama's attention in saving victims of genocide in Darfur at a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 19, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Read more!
Human Rigts group helps Tim Skahorn seek refugee status in Thailand
18 April 2009
By Mondulkeo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
On 18 April, Ang Chanrith, the executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organization (KKHRO), claimed that his group is legally providing help so that Ven. Tim Sokhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, receives his temporary refugee status in Thailand.
Ang Chanrith said: “We who are living in Cambodia, we will not stop it, i.e. we continue to push so that he (Tim Sakhorn) receives the refugee status by the UNHCR in Bangkok. We are working with other human rights organizations, such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia, and we are also working with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to have them help push this issue with the UNHCR in Bangkok so that he (Tom Sakhorn) can receive the refugee status.”
Following his one-year jailing in Vietnam, on 04 April 2009, the Viet authority allowed Ven. Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, to return to Cambodia to commemorate for his departed mother. However, the Viet authority set 17 April 2009 as his return date to Vietnam.
After he arrived in Cambodia, this former monk was re-ordained again, and he fled Cambodia to seek refugee status in Thailand.
Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, said that Ven. Tim Sakhorn has all the necessary rights like all other Cambodian citizens, so there is no need for him to fear anything. Khieu Sopheak added: “He has other goal, so he takes this opportunity to ask for refugee status. This is not a new affair, there are several others who are like him.”
Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Cambodia, said that he does not pay attention to this issue. He added that Mr. Tim Sakhorn is merely a simple citizen. Trinh Ba Cam said: “We are not preventing him from going anywhere, he asked for the legal authorization, then it is legal, but when he fled, that is illegal.”
Ven. Tim Sakhorn fled to Thailand on 11 April because he fears for his personal safety. He is currently asking for refugee status from the UNHCR in Thailand
Read more!
Mobile phone rivals fight for Cambodia
Cambodian mobile phone companies will extend their reach into rural areas. [ABC]Sunday, April 19, 2009
Robert Carmichael, Phnom Penh
ABC Radio Australia
Cambodia has just 15 million people and is one of the poorest countries in the region - and yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
Five have launched in the last 15 months, and two more are preparing to open.
More than half the world's population has a mobile phone - there are 3.3 billion of the instruments according to latest figures.
But in Cambodia, says Thomas Hundt - chief executive of Smart, the latest entrant - market penetration is low, at 25 percent.
In other words, no more than one Cambodian in four owns a mobile phone and that makes telecommunication phone companies very excited.
Liberalisation
So Khun, Minister for Posts and Telecommunications since 1992, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the most important change in telecoms in his time is liberalisation, allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market.
All the competitors agree on one thing, however: the market cannot sustain so many companies.
Syed Azmeer, chief marketing officer of Hello, says: "Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more.
"Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale."
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market,and its parent company last month signed a loan for $US 100 million, which will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas.
Base stations
The company's chief operating officer, Kay Lot, thinks there is more urban growth to come, "but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas."
To that end, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations each year.
Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves into the green Cambodian countryside.
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)