KI Media: “Kerry Kennedy arrives today in Phnom Penh to launch Speak Truth To Power” plus 22 more |
- Kerry Kennedy arrives today in Phnom Penh to launch Speak Truth To Power
- High court hears Rainsy case
- Michael Hayes’ damaging misapprehension
- Community Resistance to Forced Evictions in Cambodia
- Cambodian, U.S naval forces to conduct joint drill this weekend
- Cambodians in US Set To Meet Over Tribunal Case
- More cooperative ties with the oppressive communist regime in Hanoi
- Cambodian mother, son die of bird flu
- Mad dog of the Middle East
- Khmer opinion
- HRP's Press Release on the meeting between Kem Sokha and Surya Subedi
- Sinatoons No. 19: Xmer First Lady
- In Cambodia, ADRA delivers water to refugees following border skirmish
- Interview with Surya Subedi
- Nothing 'bilateral' about border negotiations
- Statement by the Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) following the Informal Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN
- ASEAN, RI have a role in Preah Vhear dispute: Thai minister
- Cambodia accused of net censorship
- Analysts See Role for International Court in Border Row
- Courts Lambasted Ahead of Sam Rainsy Hearing
- Observers to Enter Temple Fray
- UNESCO envoy to mediate on Preah Vihear temple in February
- Indonesia to Monitor Tensions On Thai-Cambodia Borders
| Kerry Kennedy arrives today in Phnom Penh to launch Speak Truth To Power Posted: 23 Feb 2011 06:03 PM PST
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| Posted: 23 Feb 2011 01:14 PM PST
Meas Sokchea The Phnom Penh Post Chan Sok Yeang [Hun Xen's gov't lawyer] also said that until the demarcation process was complete, land titles could not be granted to local residents. The Supreme Court today heard an appeal in the case against opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two Svay Rieng villagers, convicted last year of uprooting demarcation posts on the border with Vietnam. The charges stemmed from an October 2009 incident in which the Sam Rainsy Party president led villagers in uprooting six wooden stakes that were being used to demarcate the border between Vietnam and Chantrea district in Svay Rieng province. In January last year, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Sam Rainsy to two years' jail in connection with the case, while the villagers were jailed for one year each, before being released in October. During the three-hour-long hearing, a court clerk read out a statement from Sam Rainsy, who defended his decision to uproot the posts. "The border issue is a political issue, it is not a penal issue," his statement said, adding that the authorities had proven unresponsive to local concerns about the loss of land to Vietnam. "As a people's representative, I have the right to help people to resolve national problems," he added. "I would like to request the Supreme Court to judge justly, so that I can be acquitted." The two villagers – Prum Chea and Meas Srey – also demanded that judges erase their initial conviction, arguing that they could not afford to pay the court-ordered fines handed down in 2010. The three accused were ordered to pay a combined total of 55 million riels (US$13,253) in compensation for the removal of the border markers. Chan Sok Yeang, a lawyer representing the government, dismissed the claims of Sam Rainsy that the case was motivated by politics. "The accused Sam Rainsy is a politician; he attached this issue to the political issue," he said. "The government is engaged with the Thais on the Preah Vihear temple issue but he raised about the east border, saying that [Vietnam] has taken all the land. He said it in a crowd of people. Isn't it incitement?" Chan Sok Yeang also said that until the demarcation process was complete, land titles could not be granted to local residents. Speaking outside the court, Sam Rainsy's lawyer Choung Choungy claimed judges did not allow him a chance to rebut the claims of the government lawyer. He said his client was motivated purely by a desire to solve problems that local officials had been unwilling or unable to solve themselves. "Saying that the government thinks of the western border but does not think of the eastern border does not mean that it is incitement," he told reporters. "It is not incitement, but it is just a reminder to defend out territory." Sam Rainsy, who is living in self-exile abroad, was also convicted in a separate case of disinformation and falsifying maps in his campaign to expose alleged Vietnamese border encroachments and sentenced to 10 years jail. Choung Choungy said the Supreme Court will hand down its verdict on Tuesday.  | ||||
| Michael Hayes’ damaging misapprehension Posted: 23 Feb 2011 01:04 PM PST Tuesday, 22 February 2011 Professor Pen Ngoeun Letter to the Phnom Penh Post Michael Hayes, in an article published on 17 February 2011 by The Phnom Penh Post under the title: "The view from Cambodia," is not "a spin doctor for the government of Cambodia" as he mentioned about himself, but he is certainly a spin doctor for Thailand, when he suggested that: "As for the disputed 4.6 square kilometres just north of the temple, why not consider this: Turn the area into the Cambodian-Thai International Friendship Park and set it up as a jointly managed enterprise by both countries' Ministries of Tourism. Invite in hawkers, entrepreneurs, whatever, from both sides of the border to set up businesses to cater to the millions of tourists who will want to visit the site in the coming decades and beyond. Tax revenues could be shared by both nations equally. Everybody wins." No, not everybody wins. Michael Hayes loves to see Thailand win and Cambodia lose. Instead, Michael Hayes should suggest that Thailand must respect international treaties, of which Thailand (or Siam) was, is and will be the party to the treaties. Siam (now Thailand) signed the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 13 February 1904 setting up a Mixed Commission composed of French Commission and Siamese Commission to delimit the frontier line between Cambodia (that was part of French Indochina) and Siam. In the area of the Temple of Preah Vihear, a map of the Dangrek sector known as "The Dangrek Map" among a set of 11 maps published under this treaty recognised and accepted by Siam, is the insoluble evidence that an international frontier line, stable and final, existed almost a century ago and continues to exist between Cambodia and Thailand. Being former publisher and editor-in-chief of The Phnom Penh Post, and under this circumstance writing and publishing on Cambodian affairs where all eyes may yet see Michael Hayes as an expert in the matter, I found it to be a shocking disappointment, despite a certain number of things interesting, good and fair that are actually presented in the article. The International Court of Justice's Judgment of 15 June 1962 is the reaffirmation that there is an international frontier line, stable and final between Cambodia and Thailand as evidenced by the Dangrek map known to be ANNEX I to Memorial of Cambodia or ANNEX I map. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary, actually known as MOU 2000, requires that the survey and demarcation shall be jointly conducted in accordance with:
Based on the above international and legal documents, the "4.6 sq kms" exists only in the imagination and fabrication of Thailand, and the suggestion of Michael Hayes, as I quoted here above, is feeding quite well into the campaign of intoxication of the international public opinion conducted consistently and shamelessly by Thailand for the "joint management" of a Cambodian piece of property against Cambodian will. Naturally, Cambodia will develop the area of the Temple of Preah Vihear in conformity with UNESCO and the World Heritage standards. It is a slanderous suggestion aimed to spoil and to hurt the intelligence, kindness and good nature of the Cambodian people made by Michael Hayes, who thinks that "tax revenues" will blind the Cambodian leaders seeking to enrich themselves with Thailand investments. As the matter of fact, Michael Hayes' article was picked up in its entirety by the Bangkok Post Online News on 20 February 2011 under the title: "The view from across the border". Without getting into unfair accusations, it is fair to think that Michael Hayes has not yet cleansed himself of the grudges he had against Cambodia and the former Second Prime Minister, Samdech Techo Hun Sen. The point I wish to make here is that Michael Hayes, or anyone else, or anyone of the stature of former President of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew or former President Jimmy Carter of the United States of America, as suggested by Pinn Siraprapasiri in "Thailand and Cambodia need a 'Jimmy Carter' mediator", published in The Nation on 18 February 2011, to be successful his or her job would be to convince Thailand to respect and to abide by the treaties of which Thailand is the party to those treaties. At Jakarta, on 22 February 2011, the business is very specific. The members of the United Nations Will we have a permanent ceasefire? Why not? Will the ceasefire be implemented fully? Why not? I bet on ASEAN's astuteness, despite the fact that Thailand has a reputation of "a difficult child". Confusion and misapprehension will benefit Thailand to the detriment of Cambodia. Clarity will bring justice and equity to Cambodia. I intended that Michael Hayes be clear about the Cambodian affairs in relation to Thailand's war of aggression in the following sequences: (i) establishment of a permanent ceasefire under UNSC's recommendation, (ii) full implementation of the ceasefire under the UNSC's recommendation, (iii) demarcation of the land boundary under MOU 2000. Professor Pen Ngoeun,
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| Community Resistance to Forced Evictions in Cambodia Posted: 23 Feb 2011 12:55 PM PST http://www.blip.tv/file/4728782  | ||||
| Cambodian, U.S naval forces to conduct joint drill this weekend Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:27 AM PST February 23, 2011 Xinhua A Cambodian and the U.S. maritime exercise will be held in Cambodia from Feb. 27 to March 2 to exchange experience between the two countries' military forces in peacekeeping, said Chhum Socheat, spokesman for Cambodian Ministry of Defense, on Wednesday. The drill will be conducted at three locations; one is at the naval base in Preah Sihanouk province, another at the tank commanding headquarters in Kampong Speu and the other at Pich Nil military base, he told reporters. "It is to exchange experiences between the U.S. forces and our Cambodian forces, especially the process of peacekeeping,"he said, adding "some 500 Cambodian military forces and U.S. naval forces will be joined the drill." It will be focusing on how to rescue victims of wars, how doctors help the injured and how to truck emergency food, and so on, he said, adding that he does not know the number of marines will be used in the drill.  | ||||
| Cambodians in US Set To Meet Over Tribunal Case Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:24 AM PST
Washington, DC Wednesday, 23 February 2011 "I have filed the complaint to find justice for the souls of my dead children." A group of Cambodian-Americans is meeting in California later this week to discuss their legal options for reparations under the Khmer Rouge tribunal as a case for four leaders of the regime moves ahead. The group will meet with a legal team for the first time since filing complaints with the tribunal as civil parties, as part of the reconciliation aspect of the UN-backed court. Reparation suggestions may include the construction of a library or monument or the establishment of community service to help victims of the Khmer Rouge come to grips with the trauma from the past, legal experts say. "Our reparations request is going to be on behalf of the Cambodian-Americans," said Nushin Sarkarati, a lawyer at the Center for Justice and Accountability who represents many of the American group. "The majority of our civil parties still want the reparations or services that happen to take place in Cambodia. They think it would be more meaningful for a monument, for example, to be built in Cambodia than to be built in the United States." The meeting will be held at the Wat Khemara Rangsy pagoda in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday. Participants have been encouraged to bring mementos or photographs and to share their stories of survival. Nou Leakhena, executive director of the Applied Social Research Institute of Cambodia, who is helping organize the civil parties in the US, said the legal team will continue to update the Cambodian-American community on the tribunal from different cities as the court moves toward a trial later this year. Four defendants will stand trial for atrocity crimes, including genocide, in only the second case to be heard by the tribunal. "We do not just fight for justice at the court, to make sure that Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith are behind bars and stop right there, but we want to use this momentum to help strengthen our society," Nou Leakhena told VOA Khmer. "We want to mend our broken society and promote solidarity and help people feel proud to be Khmer." There are 170 Cambodian-Americans filing with the help of the institute as both complainants and civil parties. "I have filed the complaint to find justice for the souls of my dead children," said Bay Sophany, who lost three children, her parents and all of her relatives to the Khmer Rouge. "I cannot be at peace if I cannot find justice for my children."  | ||||
| More cooperative ties with the oppressive communist regime in Hanoi Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:16 AM PST Vietnam-Cambodia foster cooperative ties 23/02/2011 (VOV) - Vietnam wants to further foster ties with Cambodia in all fields, especially in trade, education and training, security and defence, politics and diplomacy, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has said. During a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Planning, Chhay Than in Hanoi on February 23, PM Dung praised results of talks between Mr Than and the Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment, Vo Hong Phuc. He said the visit will contribute to strengthening co-operative ties between the two countries. "Vietnam will do its utmost to further develop friendly and cooperative ties with Cambodia, bringing practical benefits for both sides," he said. PM Dung affirmed the Government is willing to support the two ministries to implement cooperative projects. Vietnam currently has about 90 projects in Cambodia, with a combined capital of more than US$2 billion. Cooperation in aviation, telecommunications, industry and rubber plantation and processing made significant progress in recent years. An investment promotion forum presided over by the two Prime Ministers will be held in Cambodia in April. Minister Chhay Than congratulated Vietnamese leaders on the success of the 11th National Party Congress and said Cambodian leaders praised Vietnam's achievements in recent times. He added thanks for Vietnam's assistance, as Cambodia has achieved peace, stability and development, local people's living conditions have improved and the poverty rate reduced to 25.4 percent in 2010. Minister Than said two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Cambodia in 2010 reached US$1 billion. More than 30 Vietnamese businesses invested in Cambodia in 2010 with total registered capital of nearly US$700 million.  | ||||
| Cambodian mother, son die of bird flu Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:11 AM PST 23/02/2011 AFP Bird flu has claimed three lives in Cambodia this month, with a mother and her 11-month-old son becoming the latest victims of the virus, officials said Wednesday. The 19-year-old woman died on February 12 while her baby died five days later, the Cambodian health ministry and the World Health Organization said in a joint statement. Tests confirmed both had contracted H5N1 avian influenza. Earlier this month Cambodia reported its first bird flu fatality in nearly a year when a five-year-old girl in the capital died from the virus. The new victims, from northwestern Banteay Meanchey province, were admitted to hospital with high fever and coughing days after "eating sick poultry'' while visiting relatives in southeastern Prey Veng province, the statement said. It said the H5N1 avian influenza strain has killed more than 300 people worldwide since 2003. In Cambodia, the disease has claimed 11 lives.  | ||||
| Posted: 23 Feb 2011 12:53 AM PST
February 23, 2011 Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor The Australian COLONEL Muammar Gaddafi is the most flamboyantly weird dictator in the modern world, not as ruthlessly sadistic as North Korea's Kim Jong-il, not quite as nuttily paranoid as Burma's Than Shwe, nor indeed as dedicated a mass murderer as was Iraq's Saddam Hussein, but beyond measure the fruitiest nut case on top of any national government anywhere. It is perhaps wrong to joke about Gaddafi when the convulsive death throes of his regime are resulting in hundreds of lives lost. And in his long, tumultuous and at times terrible rule Gaddafi has confronted Western policy-makers with dilemmas over the most deadly serious of issues: nuclear proliferation, state-sponsored global terrorism, the widespread suppression of human rights, the diplomacy and raw power of oil. Yet the man is a buffoon, a preening, ludicrous, Evelyn Waugh caricature of an African dictator, not only a scourge but an embarrassment to all Libyans and to the wider Arab culture. Finally, it seems, his countrymen are fed up. The dictator can no longer keep them isolated from the currents flowing through the outside world. They know it doesn't have to be like this. It is not as if Gaddafi has become more eccentric as he has grown older. He seems to have sprung fully formed from the womb as a narcissistic dictator, with a heavy dash of Walter Mitty dreamer. The son of a modestly affluent Bedouin family, Gaddafi was by all accounts a talented young military officer, sent for training in Greece. He always had the will to power and began plotting coups while still studying. He was 27 in 1969 when Libya's King Idris made the mistake of going overseas. Gaddafi, a mere captain at the time, led a bloodless coup. For a time he called himself prime minister. But right from the start his rule was personal, capricious and often deadly. He was popular early because he deployed the rhetoric of anti-colonialism. Libya is a classically artificial state born of colonialism and decolonisation. Much of it was under Ottoman rule from the 16th century. Then it suffered Italian colonial rule. But it was never really a nation; rather a collection of fractious tribes and clans. As in much of the Middle East, the clan is more important in Libya than the nation. But Libyans were united in their resentment of Italian rule. Gaddafi expelled Italians living in Libya in 1970. Power went to Gaddafi's head quickly. Libya is a small country; even today its population is little over six million. But it has the largest oil and gas reserves in North Africa. It was a deadly combination: an immature, impetuous, ego-maniacal and slightly mad dictator and lots and lots and lots of money. In 1972 Gaddafi gave up the title of prime minister and instead adopted, Idi Amin-like, a bewildering array of honorifics and ceremonial titles, chief among them the Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution. He was drawn both to socialism and pan-Arab nationalism. He styled himself the new Che Guevara. Throughout the 1970s and 80s Gaddafi tried to have a global geo-strategic impact. His weapons were money, terrorism and ideology. Though claiming to be a socialist, Gaddafi was not a Marxist. At times he talked of Islamic socialism. Like so many other ego-driven revolutionary leaders, he authored his own manifesto, the incoherent Green Book. He subsidised extreme left-wing, mainly Trotskyite, grouplets in the West, including Australia, in exchange for their paying homage to the Green Book and his ideas. He styled himself a revolutionary. The normal mechanisms of a modern state were suspended in Libya, which under Gaddafi claimed to have implemented a direct people's rule. This was given life through various local people's committees. Though Libya was under Gaddafi's absolute rule, and these committees were chosen and shaped by him, they nonetheless provided a method of consulting and co-opting the tribal and clan leaders who remained important figures in Libyan life. Gaddafi tried to export this farrago of fraudulent direct participation into Libya's international dealings. For a time Libya's embassies were re-styled as People's Bureaus. There was a touch of Mao's Cultural Revolution in Gaddafi's approach and a touch, too, of the ideas of permanent revolution. But it was all really a sham, a pretext for Gaddafi's assumption of absolute power and a stage set for the endless psycho-drama of his outsize ego. In the past 10 years it has been the buffoon aspect of Gaddafi that has claimed most attention. Any dictator who assembles a personal bodyguard of 40 female virgins, some of them from Ethiopia, chosen personally by Gaddafi, is going to attract attention. In 2009 he paid a reconciliation visit to Rome and assembled 500 Italian prostitutes, all of them above a minimum height, so he could give them a lecture and personally distribute to them copies of the Koran. He had a love of his luxury Bedouin tent and took it with him to Europe and asked to take it to the US. Then there were the outfits. Good grief, those outfits. As a dictator Gaddafi had the dress sense of Lady Gaga under the influence of Michael Jackson. He favoured powder blue and flowing robes, but occasionally went for earth colours. Looking back at Gaddafi's photo file is to see the decline that besets all dictators. The young Gaddafi is slim and manly and looks like the army officer he was, the old Gaddafi is puffy and dissolute, overly made up and spilling out of control. But Gaddafi is not just a figure of the grotesque and the bizarre. In the 70s, 80s and 90s he was a serious geo-strategic problem. And in his support of global terrorism, his hatred of Israel and the West, and his quest always for a transnational ideology, he pre-figured much of al-Qa'ida and the later jihadist movement. Gaddafi set Libya up as the land of revolution, where all groups that could stitch their violent psycho-pathologies into a narrative of anti-colonialism were given succour. He supported revolutionaries in Colombia, as he supported Carlos the Jackal in Venezuela. He sent arms to the IRA and hosted training camps for them. He invested heavily in Palestinian terrorism; his preferred terrorist was Abu Nidal. He also interfered in Lebanese politics. But he most enraged the West with the acts of terrorism his own agents or troops carried out. In 1984, Libyan diplomats firing from within the Libyan embassy in London killed an English policewoman, Constable Yvonne Fletcher, who was helping to police a demonstration at the embassy. This led to the breaking of diplomatic relations between Britain and Libya, but the British government at the time was criticised for accepting that the diplomats who committed the murder were protected by diplomatic immunity. They went home and were never charged. In 1986 a disco was bombed in Berlin. The disco was known to be popular with American soldiers, two of whom were killed in the bombing, as well as a civilian. The Americans discovered Gaddafi was behind it. But he had picked the wrong American president to trifle with. Ronald Reagan labelled Gaddafi "the mad dog of the Middle East". The normally urbane and unflappable US secretary of state George Schultz declared: "You've had it, pal." Reagan bombed Tripoli and Gaddafi's tent. Gaddafi went quiet for a while, as he was always inclined to when he thought the Americans were seriously annoyed with him. But 1988 saw Gaddafi's single worst terrorist outrage. Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie. All 259 people on board were killed and 11 died on the ground. It transpired this act of terrorism had been ordered by Gaddafi and for much of the 90s his economy, though insanely rich with oil, was crippled by Western sanctions. Eventually Gaddafi decided he wanted an end to these sanctions. Influenced a little perhaps by the relatively reformist tendencies of his second son, Sief Gaddafi, he understood it was better to get back into some kind of working relationship with the West. Gaddafi's government finally admitted liability for the Lockerbie tragedy and paid $US3 billion in compensation for the victims' families. It also allowed a Libyan agent, Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, to stand trial and go to prison for the bombing. Like most Arab leaders, Gaddafi was scared of the Americans when they invaded Iraq in 2003. He was also scared of al-Qa'ida. Although Gaddafi's dreams of worldwide revolution, and his tactic of international terrorism, prefigured al-Qa'ida, he knew Islamism would threaten his regime. His political narrative, such as it was, was based in anti-imperialism. This rhetoric had become anachronistic by the 1990s; by the 2000s it was positively antique. And it was no longer resonating with anybody. Radicalism in the Middle East now found expression in Islamism, which rejected national dictators such as Gaddafi, and saw in the decadence of his lifestyle and family only a repugnant echo of the worst features of the West. Though Gaddafi had championed his own version of Islamic socialism and pan-Arabism, the harsh, strict disciplines of al-Qa'ida and Wahabi Islam, as understood by genuine fanatics and zealots, had no place for the likes of him. He decided to pivot strategically and sent envoys to quietly ask the Americans what would be necessary to get him restored to respectability. The most dramatic move came when Gaddafi announced Libya had indeed had a nuclear weapons program, and other weapons of mass destruction programs as well, but was giving them up and opening the country's facilities to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Bush administration removed Gaddafi from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and removed the sanctions from him. But he was still more than capable of playing with the heads of Western leaders. He cajoled and blackmailed the British government into releasing the Lockerbie bomber, allegedly on medical grounds, who returned to a hero's welcome in Libya. The new British government of David Cameron has denounced this as an immoral and seedy deal. As with many dictators, the nearest thing to politics in Libya was a dispute between some of Gaddafi's seven sons. Seif was held up as the moderniser and liberaliser of Libya, though this week it was Seif who went on state television threatening carnage and destruction if the demonstrators did not desist. Gaddafi was indulgent of his wayward sons, threatening all kinds of retribution against Switzerland because it briefly imprisoned another son, Hannibal, for beating up servants. The breadth and depth of Libyan opposition to Gaddafi have been breathtaking these past few days. It may be, as so often has happened before, that the West overestimated the shrewdness of this dictator. The return of the Lockerbie bomber was said to have boosted Gaddafi's prestige among his own people. It seems it didn't boost it too much. The Libyans, like so many who labour under dictatorship, knew all too well the foolishness and grief their demagogic leader caused them. In the end, deadly, vicious and unpredictable as Gaddafi was, his flamboyant theatricality, it seems, fooled no one but himself. He must be a salutary sight for dictators everywhere. * * * LIBYA TIMELINE September 1969: Muammar Gaddafi, a 27-year-old army captain from a Bedouin family, leads a coup to overthrow the monarchy. 1970s: Gaddafi shuts down British and US military bases in Libya, establishes a socialist system and nationalises businesses, including foreign oil companies. His 1976 Green Book rejects Marxism and capitalism. 1980s: Gaddafi increasingly supports groups considered terrorist in the West. 1986: After Libya is found to be responsible for a bomb blast at a Berlin disco frequented by US troops, US president Ronald Reagan launches air strikes that kill 44 people, including Gaddafi's adopted baby daughter. 1988: Libyan agents blow up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people. 1999: In an effort to repair his image, Gaddafi hands over two Libyans charged in the Lockerbie bombing. 2001: A Scottish court convicts one of the alleged Lockerbie bombers, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, and sentences him to life imprisonment. The other is acquitted. 2003: Libya agrees to pay up to $US10 million to the relatives of each of the 270 victims and declares it will dismantle all weapons of mass destruction. 2004: British prime minister Tony Blair visits Libya as energy company Shell signs a deal to explore for gas off the Libyan coast. 2005: US oil companies resume operations after 20 years. 2006: US and Libya resume full diplomatic ties. 2009: Libya holds celebrations marking Gaddafi's 40 years in power. Megrahi is released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds because he has prostate cancer. February 16, 2011: Riot police clash with protesters in Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, triggering days of protest and bloodshed across the country.  | ||||
| Posted: 23 Feb 2011 12:25 AM PST | ||||
| HRP's Press Release on the meeting between Kem Sokha and Surya Subedi Posted: 23 Feb 2011 12:01 AM PST   | ||||
| Sinatoons No. 19: Xmer First Lady Posted: 22 Feb 2011 11:58 PM PST   | ||||
| In Cambodia, ADRA delivers water to refugees following border skirmish Posted: 22 Feb 2011 11:55 PM PST
Agency follows immediate response with well drilling, water filter distribution 22 Feb 2011, Phnom Penh, Cambodia ADRA Cambodia/ANN staff The humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church drilled wells and distributed more than 1,000 water filters to aid some 2,500 families displaced by recent border skirmishes between Cambodia and Thailand. An estimated 30,000 people fled the region after clashes erupted earlier this month over a disputed 11th Century temple, killing at least 10 and wounding 89. The situation remains tense, but a truce brokered by the United Nations last week led local officials to speculate most refugees will return home shortly. Both southeast Asian nations agreed today to allow Indonesian observers into the disputed area to avoid further violence, reports indicate. From its regional headquarters about 60 miles from the disputed area, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Cambodia followed its initial distribution of bottled water by addressing longterm needs. ADRA Cambodia drilled three wells near the Tmei Commune for refugees from the Preah Vihear province in northern Cambodia. The wells provided sufficient water for the health and hygiene needs of the entire camp, local ADRA officials said. The effort also included the distribution of thousands of water filters refugees can take with them when they return to their communities. Since 2002, ADRA Cambodia has overseen a water, sanitation and agriculture project in the country. ADRA Cambodia coordinated with the Preah Vihear governor's office, non-governmental agencies, ADRA International and ADRA Asia in the effort. Cambodian Adventist Church members volunteered to assist ADRA staff in the distribution, ADRA Cambodia said.  | ||||
| Posted: 22 Feb 2011 10:56 PM PST http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPnMlZCA7GI  | ||||
| Nothing 'bilateral' about border negotiations Posted: 22 Feb 2011 10:35 PM PST 23/02/2011 Piyaporn Wongruang Bangkok Post If security analyst Surachart Bamrungsuk is correct, bilateral talks between Thailand and Cambodia to resolve the border dispute are already over. The game has changed gradually since Cambodia nominated Preah Vihear Temple on the disputed Thai-Cambodian border in the Dangrek Range as a World Heritage site in 2008. Cambodia won approval from the World Heritage Committee, but it did not manage to take the adjacent area of 4.6 square kilometres as part of the World Heritage site, following strong opposition from Thailand. Cambodia has since developed the management plan for completing conservation work on Preah Vihear, despite Thailand's fear that the Khmer plans include the overlapping area under dispute. Tensions regarding the border issue have simmered and occasionally spilled over into actual clashes. Instead of getting back on the bilateral platform they have under the Memorandum of Understanding on the Survey and Demarcation of Land Boundary, signed in 2000, Cambodia has chosen to get a third party involved. Phnom Penh first approached the United Nations Security Council in the matter following military clashes shortly after the temple's listing. And that was the first time that parties outside the bilateral framework got involved in the border dispute. Although that event failed to get the Security Council to intervene in the matter, it has marked the beginning of third-party involvement. Cambodia has not stopped bringing the case to a third party up until now. Phnom Penh wrote to the UNSC for the second time early this month, and there has been some progress in the UNSC's involvement. Although it did not come up with a formal resolution, it did release a statement expressing grave concern over the latest military clashes and appreciation of efforts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to help resolve the problem. This has paved the way for another third party, Asean, to get involved in the case - via a meeting in Jakarta yesterday. According to Mr Surachart, head of the Security Studies Project supported by the state-run Thailand Research Fund, the "bilateral" talks that Thailand has insisted on, more or less, will have a third party, particularly Asean, involved following the UNSC's latest statement. This means there will be a certain extent of commitment that Thailand will have in the future, he said. "The Thai government wants to have bilateral negotiations. But if we look at the UNSC's statement, we will see that there is a very slim chance of bilateral negotiation," said Mr Surachart, who also is a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University "Or like I said, it's over. It's not a reality any more. It's not the future that we are heading to." Mr Surachart urged the government to take this seriously as it concerns the country's commitments in the future. He said the country needs to review and re-address its stance regarding border issues, including that near Preah Vihear. Despite the fact that the two countries have been trying to solve the border dispute through whatever means, the dispute will never be easily resolved. During the last 100 years or so, there has hardly been any changes to the borders among countries. The current dispute has something to do with the political relations between the two capitals. If Thailand had good relations with Cambodia, it would not have faced such a fierce confrontation as this. To defuse the crisis, ties between two countries should be revived and that would be the first step to find a way out of the land border dispute and benefit people living along both sides of the border, including the tourism industry which could link Preah Vihear with other heritage sites in Cambodia and southern Laos. In the next four years, Asean countries are to become a single economic bloc, with the idea that borders will become less significant. Thus there is no point in waging a war, according to Mr Surachart. The borderline has sovereignty implications but "whether it would really matter to people's lives especially when countries will become one Asean community?" Mr Surachart wondered. Thongchai Winijakul, author of Siam Mapped, agrees with Mr Surachart that the border dispute stems from Thailand's relations with Cambodia in the modern era, when the borderline is used to separate one country from another. The creation of borderlines in the modern day contributes to the problem and these lines do not fit in with the relations of people and ancient states that are based on their cultures. For instance, many people in this region live by the river and both sides of the river are the same community. However, the modern boundary line drawn by Western countries uses the middle of the river and thus cuts through the community. The conflict is also fuelled by the pride of Thais who still feel that Thailand once was a dominant state in the region, whose land was colonised and taken away by the British and French in the old days. According to Mr Thongchai, that is a false perception which arouses sentiments of nationalism. Once the country's status is threatened, as in the case of this dispute with Cambodia, the Thai people feel that their pride has been challenged, Mr Thongchai said. "The sense of loss of our land has played a major role in building up Thailand. But it is a false sense which is not based on historical facts," said Mr Thongchai, who is a research fellow at the National University of Singapore. "The border conflict is a problem of modern times, but we tend to apply our sense of the past to this modern problem. If we think like this, we will have a problem around Thailand. And if we want to fight, we will have to fight everywhere. But if we don't want to fight, then let the facts prevail and allow good relations to take their course," he added. Piyaporn Wongruang reports for Bangkok Post Sunday.  | ||||
| Posted: 22 Feb 2011 10:20 PM PST Source: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Jakarta, 22 February 2011 At the invitation of the Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and their representatives met in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 22 February 2011. The Secretary-General of ASEAN also participated in the meeting. The meeting discussed recent regional and international development, including the recent border incidents between Cambodia and Thailand. In this connection, pursuant to the earlier written communications, Indonesia, Chair of ASEAN, further briefed the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and their representatives on the result of the visits by the Foreign Minister of Indonesia to Phnom Penh and Bangkok on 7-8 February 2011, as well as on the meeting of the Security Council on 14 February 2011. The Foreign Ministers of Cambodia and Thailand further briefed the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on the issue. Following extensive discussions among them, the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN and their representatives: "Welcome and support the reiteration by both Cambodia and Thailand, of their strong commitment to the principles contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and the ASEAN Charter, including "settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful means" and "renunciation of the threat or use of force", as well as the principles contained in the Charter of the United Nations; Welcome further the engagement of Cambodia and Thailand with Indonesia, Chair of ASEAN, in the latter's efforts on behalf of ASEAN; Recall the support extended by the United Nations Security Council to ASEAN's efforts Support Cambodia's and Thailand's commitment, henceforth, to avoid further armed clashes as reflected in the initial high level talks between the military representatives of Cambodia and of Thailand, the most recent of which was on 19 February 2011; Welcome in this regard, the invitation by both Cambodia and Thailand for observers from Indonesia, current Chair of ASEAN, to respective side of the affected areas of the Cambodia-Thailand border, to observe the commitment by both sides to avoid further armed clashes between them, with the following basic mandate: "to assist and support the parties in respecting their commitment to avoid further armed clashes between them, by observing and reporting accurately, as well as impartially on complaints of violations and submitting its findings to each party through Indonesia, current Chair of ASEAN"; Call on Cambodia and Thailand to resume their bilateral negotiations, including through existing mechanisms, at the earliest possible opportunity, with appropriate engagement of Indonesia, current Chair of ASEAN, to support the two countries' efforts to resolve the situation amicably; Welcome in this regard the future meetings respectively of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on the Demarcation for Land Boundary and the General Border Committee at a date to be further determined; Request Indonesia, Chair of ASEAN, to continue ASEAN's efforts in this regard". Ministers also exchanged views on other regional and international issues, as well as issues related to ASEAN Community-building and ASEAN's role in the region's architecture building, including the forthcoming ASEAN Foreign Ministers retreat on East Asia Summit to be convened in Thailand in March 2011.  | ||||
| ASEAN, RI have a role in Preah Vhear dispute: Thai minister Posted: 22 Feb 2011 10:15 PM PST Wed, 02/23/2011 The Jakarta Post Indonesia, as the holder of ASEAN's current chair, recently hosted a brief foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta to help Cambodia and Thailand settle their heated border dispute over the Preah Vhear temple. Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya spoke to The Jakarta Post's Mustaqim Adamrah about how ASEAN is managing its new bilateral dispute mechanism. Below are excerpts from the interview: Question: Why did Thailand accept a proposal to send Indonesian soldiers to the disputed border? Answer: I think if there are no third parties [at Preah Vhear], then you could say that you shot first, or I shot first, and so on. We have the experience of Thai military observers who were in Aceh and Timor Leste at the request of the Indonesian government. There's nothing new here. We agreed to have Indonesian Military observers, 15 members on each side of the border, to observe. The other point is to help...the joint border committee [and the] ministers of defense of Thailand and Cambodia to meet. I think Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to the resumption of bilateral negotiations. I think it's a recognition of the role and the ability of the ASEAN Community to settle disputes between countries. It means that…we will not have to burden the United Nations and the Security Council of the United Nations. Thailand previously wanted to solve the dispute bilaterally without third party involvement. Do recent developments signal a change in Thai policy? This is a bilateral solution. But I think it's just like when you play tennis with two. You know you can have a referee, or have a doubles partner. If we could go on bilaterally without having to trouble Indonesia, we would. But since at the moment we need the presence of Indonesia as facilitator, why not? I don't think [Thai policy] has changed. We even proposed bilateral negotiations, especially [for] the joint boundary committee. I think it was sometimes accepted, sometimes refused, by the Cambodian side. In order to make it compatible with Cambodia, Indonesia will come to facilitate. How will Thailand maintain the ceasefire? There is no problem because I think from the very beginning we did not shoot first. And we don't see any point to armed conflict. It's nothing. At the end of the day, you have to come back to the negotiating table. We are major exporter to Cambodia. We want to trade. We are becoming a more and more important investor. I think we have an obligation to ASEAN connectivity. [The dispute] doesn't make sense and at the same time we are providing a lot of assistance to Cambodia. We are a provider of development [support]. What's the point of the conflict? We don't dispute [ownership of]the temple, but the land around the temple. What's the best solution to the dispute? I think it has to be negotiations. I think we have a memorandum of understanding [MoU] between Thailand and Cambodia from the year 2000. In the memorandum of understanding it says which documents should be used as a basis for negotiations. Take for example the treaties between Siam — the old name of Thailand — and the French colonial power in Thai-Indochina a hundred years ago, 1904-1907. Some of the agreed minutes of the joint commission endorsed some of the maps made by the French. All of these are documents that could provide a basis for further negotiations. In fact we have been negotiating for a couple of years — six, seven, eight years already — and have made progress under the MoU. For example, there were 73 border posts a hundred years ago. Now we have discovered 48 of them. You have to find the [remaining] 25. Among the 48, we have verified half of them, the rest have yet to be verified. So there's progress and they are being suspended. What we need now is for the joint border committee to resume. Then they [can] instruct the technicians to walk on the ground and go and find out where the [remaining] border posts are.  | ||||
| Cambodia accused of net censorship Posted: 22 Feb 2011 09:21 PM PST  ABC Radio Australia A human rights group has accused the Cambodian government of suggesting internet service providers should block access to anti-government websites. Cambodia's government and the ISPs have denied the reports, but the leaked minutes from a meeting with the minister of post and telecommunications appear to tell another story. According to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper, which obtained the minutes, the minister has asked ten service providers to help block several internet sites. Reporter: Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh Speaker: Mathieu Pellerin, consultant, LICADHO (rights group)  | ||||
| Analysts See Role for International Court in Border Row Posted: 22 Feb 2011 09:16 PM PST
Washington, DC Tuesday, 22 February 2011 "Only the court can define whose land it is." With Thai and Cambodian foreign ministers meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday, Cambodian analysts say the best way to resolve an ongoing border dispute is to call on the International Court of Justice to clarify a decision it made in 1962. That decision, which handed Preah Vihear temple to the Cambodians, who had filed for it, could also clarify a disputed area of 4.6 square kilometers of land near the temple, analysts said this week. Cambodia is hoping that meetings among Asean ministers in Jakarta will bring about a resolution to the violence stemming from the dispute, including deadly clashes earlier this month. However, proponents of the court clarification told VOA Khmer that the UN Security Council and Asean, both of which have weighed in on the conflict, are political bodies that can perhaps bring about an end to fighting but cannot fix the underlying issue of the land dispute itself. "Whose land is the 4.6 square [kilometers]?" asked Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the head of a self-named royalist party, in an interview with VOA Khmer. "Without such a question, the Cambodian-Thai issue cannot be solved." Only the international court can decide, said Chheang Vannarith, head of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and peace. "Only the court can define whose land it is," he said. "Because the UN and Asean mechanisms are only political mechanisms, just to stabilize and bring peace and security along the border, they cannot find a solution as to which part belongs to the Thais and which part belongs to Cambodians." Cambodian officials have said that in fighting between Feb. 4 and Feb. 7, Thailand crossed into Cambodian territory, a claim the Thais have denied. The fighting forced thousands from their homes and killed at least seven Cambodians, including two civilians. Ahead of Tuesday's Asean talks, Cambodia said it was optimistic a lasting ceasefire can be achieved, but the question of the disputed borders remains unanswered. A number of Cambodian analysts don't believe Asean will be able to solve the problem for the long term, pointing instead to the international court. Thai officials have maintained they want to solve the issue bilaterally, but in the wake of February's fighting Cambodia's leaders dismissed the effectiveness of two-way talks and are seeking Asean's help as a monitor to later talks. A court official told VOA Khmer that the Preah Vihear temple case has already been decided and any clarification or re-interpretation of the decision would require an official request by both parties. As it stands, the official said, neither side has made a request.  | ||||
| Courts Lambasted Ahead of Sam Rainsy Hearing Posted: 22 Feb 2011 08:49 PM PST
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 22 February 2011 "... because if judges make decisions by their own will, they are punished by the government and removed from their positions." On the eve of a Supreme Court decision in a criminal case against the country's main opposition leader, officials for human rights and legal organizations said the judiciary has not emerged as an independent branch of government. The Supreme Court is scheduled to issue a decision in criminal charges against Sam Rainsy for uprooting markers on the Vietnamese border, for which he received a two-year jail sentence in absentia for the destruction of property and racial incitement. He is facing another 10-year sentence for publishing a map on his website that purported to show Vietnamese encroachment, which the courts determined was fake and constituted disinformation. The Cambodian Center for Human Rights on Tuesday said Sam Rainsy had his immunity stripped from parliament and was convicted of criminal charges with little evidence and to the benefit of the ruling Cambodian People's Party. "This is a showcase of the absence of any separation of powers of government in Cambodia," Ou Virak, the head of the center, said in a statement. "What is most concerning is that the legislature, in removing his immunity, and the judiciary, in convicting him with little or no bases, have been the means through which this political end of the executive has been achieved." The convictions could leave Cambodia without its main opposition leader as the country approaches local elections in 2012 and a general parliamentary election in 2013, he said. Wednesday's hearing coincides with the visit of the UN's envoy for human rights, Surya Subedi, who is in part looking at the role of the judiciary in human rights abuses. Run Saray, executive director of the Legal Aid of Cambodia, said Tuesday the roles of the three branches of government are not clearly separate. "I think the courts in Cambodia are not independent," he said, "because if judges make decisions by their own will, they are punished by the government and removed from their positions." Representatives from several rights groups and legal defense organizations declined to comment on the upcoming case, saying they were hesitant to speak out about the courts for fear of reprisals.  | ||||
| Observers to Enter Temple Fray Posted: 22 Feb 2011 07:13 PM PST
Radio Free Asia Thailand and Cambodia agree to allow an ASEAN team observe adherence to a ceasefire agreement. Thailand and Cambodia will allow civilian and unarmed Indonesian military observers to be stationed along their common border in order to diffuse tensions following a bloody battle over a disputed area, according to officials. An agreement that will see as many as 40 Indonesian observers to the area was agreed to by the two neighboring nations and brokered by the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during an emergency meeting in Jakarta. Indonesia currently holds the rotating chair of ASEAN, which also comprises Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the decision, calling it a temporary stop-gap measure and saying that the conflict would require further mediation through the International Court of Justice. "This [action] is for reducing tension while waiting for a final solution on the border conflict," he said. "And this is a difficult solution because one party uses a map that was recognized by the International Court at The Hague, a map that was factually written according to the verdict of the court, while the other party uses a map that was [created] unilaterally." Tentative ceasefire The site was awarded to Cambodia by the World Court nearly 50 years ago, but ownership of the surrounding 4.6-square-kilometers (1.8-square-miles) of land was never fully addressed. At least eight people have died and thousands have been displaced in the border conflict which erupted almost a month ago near Preah Vihear temple despite a tentative ceasefire agreement agreed to on Feb. 5. The border has been quiet in recent days, but troops remain cautious. Clashes had not led to a fatality since January 2010, when a Thai soldier was shot dead following a skirmish in the area. To maintain the ceasefire, two Indonesian teams of 20 will be stationed with the militaries of both nations on either side of the border and will report any violations to ASEAN and the UN Security Council. Other details of the deployment, including when the observers would arrive and where they would be embedded along the border, were not immediately available. The UN Security Council had indicated its support for the ASEAN-led effort at reconciliation and called for a permanent ceasefire. Cambodia had long called for third-party mediation in the dispute, but Thailand opposed the idea in favor of a bilateral solution. The agreement to accept the observers suggests Thailand will allow Indonesia as ASEAN chair to work towards enforcing the truce. 'Waging peace' ASEAN rarely intervenes in the internal affairs of its member states. The decision to send the 40 Indonesians marks the first time the body has sent observers to a dispute site since 2005, when it helped to end hostilities between rebels and government troops in western Indonesia. AFP quoted Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa as calling the move a "unique arrangement" for the Southeast Asian bloc. He added that both Thailand and Cambodia had requested "engagement" from Indonesia in future negotiations between the two nations, which will take place in Jakarta on an unspecified date. "I would like to make it absolutely clear that ... the option of conflict, the option of use of force, is not meant to be on the table … We are 'waging peace' so that no more guns and artilleries make a sound in our region." "This outcome is very important, not just on conflict resolution between Thailand and Cambodia but in capacity building by ASEAN," he said. The border conflict has lent leverage to Thailand's yellow shirt movement, which has been calling on Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to take a tougher stance on relations with Cambodia. It also followed a verdict from a Cambodian court which sentenced two Thai nationalists to jail terms of six and eight years for trespassing and spying in the border region. Reported by RFA's Khmer service. Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.  | ||||
| UNESCO envoy to mediate on Preah Vihear temple in February Posted: 22 Feb 2011 07:05 PM PST February 23, 2011 Xinhua Koichiro Matsuura, the special envoy on the Preah Vihear Temple for the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), will travel to Bangkok and Phnom Penh between Feb. 25 and March 1 to talk on the temple's protection, the UN cultural arm said on Tuesday. Matsuura, a former director-general of UNESCO (1999-2009), will discuss the safeguarding of the World Heritage site with the Thai and Cambodian prime ministers and seek ways to mitigate tension over the sovereignty of the temple, according to a statement issued by the Paris-based organization. Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, named Koichiro Matsuura on Feb. 11 as the special envoy to mediate the issue of Preah Vihear. Preah Vihear Temple was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2008 but sparked disputes between Thailand and Cambodia, both of which claim sovereignty over the 11th century temple.  | ||||
| Indonesia to Monitor Tensions On Thai-Cambodia Borders Posted: 22 Feb 2011 07:03 PM PST February 23, 2011 Ismira Lutfia The Jakarta Globe Indonesia will send observers to both sides of the disputed Thai-Cambodian border to ensure that a cease-fire agreed by the two countries is respected, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Tuesday. Marty said that the decision was made during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat in Jakarta. Foreign ministers from Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore and Laos attended the meeting, while the other four member states — Burma, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — were represented by senior officials. "It is significant that for the first time both countries have agreed to invite a third party as observers," Marty said after the meeting. As observers, he added, Indonesian representatives would not be stationed in the buffer zone of the disputed area, rather they would be placed on both sides of the border. "This decision reflects Asean's and both countries' confidence in Indonesia," Marty said. "It is a mandate that we have to carry out responsibly." He added that as an observer, however, Indonesia would have no enforcement capacity to ensure that the cease-fire was not breached. "We have our mandate as an observer but it is not our responsibility to ensure that the cease-fire is upheld, that is Thailand and Cambodia's job," he said. Although the exact mechanism of the observers' operations in the region has yet to be specified, Indonesia will soon deploy an advance team to determine what preparations are needed on site. The team will comprise military officers and representatives of the Foreign Ministry, Marty said. The observers will report any violations of the peace to Asean, which would then question both countries' commitment to a peaceful resolution. Both Cambodia and Thailand are set to agree on Asean chair Indonesia's engagement in their next bilateral talks, which are expected to be held in Indonesia. "This is a unique arrangement that we have to be content with," Marty said, adding that Asean had a role in creating an environment "conducive for negotiations." Marty said that the conclusion of the meeting showed that despite existing cynicism, Indonesia could play a role in mediating conflict between Asean member states. Reading out a joint statement issued by the meeting, Marty said the regional group "welcomes and supports Cambodia and Thailand's reiteration of their strong commitment to the principles contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and the Asean Charter." Fighting on both sides of the border near the disputed 11th-century Preah Vihear Hindu temple erupted on Feb. 4. Clashes have killed 11 people and wounded dozens more. Each side has accused the other of firing first, prompting calls for a third-party observer.  |
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