KI Media: “Cambodia bans foreign men over 50 marrying local women” plus 24 more

Even those overseas men lucky enough to be under the threshold will have to show they earn more than £1,539 a month – many times the average Cambodian wage – before they can tie the knot with a Khmer woman.

The new crackdown, which came into force at the beginning of the month, seeks to prevent trafficking of women and sham marriages.

South Korean men in particular seek Cambodian "mail-order brides" set up by agencies. The men travel to Cambodia, meet their prospective partners and marry a few days later.

The fear in government circles is that the women may be sent into prostitution in their husband's home country or "used as slaves". Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia's foreign ministry, said human rights groups had detailed many such cases.

But another spokesman suggested the government was just as alarmed by how things looked, saying it was not "fitting" to see young Cambodian women consorting with aged foreign men.

The ruling has provoked a mixed reaction as it does not affect Cambodian men or foreign women. Some even say it is discriminatory against Cambodian women, despite the effort to protect them from exploitation.

"This is discrimination against women because they will not be allowed to marry men who are over 50 ... while Cambodian men can marry any foreign woman they choose," said Kek Galabru, head of the Licadho human rights group.

Even those overseas men lucky enough to be under the threshold will have to show they earn more than £1,539 a month – many times the average Cambodian wage – before they can tie the knot with a Khmer woman.

The new crackdown, which came into force at the beginning of the month, seeks to prevent trafficking of women and sham marriages.

South Korean men in particular seek Cambodian "mail-order brides" set up by agencies. The men travel to Cambodia, meet their prospective partners and marry a few days later.

The fear in government circles is that the women may be sent into prostitution in their husband's home country or "used as slaves". Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia's foreign ministry, said human rights groups had detailed many such cases.

But another spokesman suggested the government was just as alarmed by how things looked, saying it was not "fitting" to see young Cambodian women consorting with aged foreign men.

The ruling has provoked a mixed reaction as it does not affect Cambodian men or foreign women. Some even say it is discriminatory against Cambodian women, despite the effort to protect them from exploitation.

"This is discrimination against women because they will not be allowed to marry men who are over 50 ... while Cambodian men can marry any foreign woman they choose," said Kek Galabru, head of the Licadho human rights group.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha will not attend the 8th General Border Committee meeting with Cambodia.

Referring to the meeting, scheduled for Bogor, Indonesia, on April 7-8, Gen Prawit said: "No, I'm not going. Why should I go for the meeting in a third-party country? [Thailand and Cambodia] know each other well enough and don't want any other party to get involved."

A military source said Gen Prawit had also decided not to attend an earlier GBC meeting in Indonesia proposed by Cambodia and the Asean chair.

Gen Prawit cited the same reason then, saying relations between the Cambodian and Thai armies were good enough for the border dispute to be resolved through bilateral mechanisms, said the source.

According to the source, Gen Prawit said he would seek to have talks with his Cambodian counterpart, Gen Tea Banh, but was concerned the latter would not agree, since Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had made it clear he would not allow any new bilateral discussions with Thailand.

Gen Prayuth also said Cambodia's proposal to set up 15 joint border checkpoints in the disputed 4.6-square-kilometre area near Preah Vihear temple was unnecessary, as he believed the dispute could be solved through military talks.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday that Unesco would push for Thailand and Cambodia to attend a meeting on border issues in May.

He was speaking after a meeting with Unesco director-general Irina Bokova.

The May talks are aimed at improving the understanding between the two countries before Unesco holds its World Heritage Committee (WHC) meeting in Paris a month later.

There, the WHC will discuss Cambodia's management plan for Preah Vihear.

The meeting was scheduled for Bahrain but switched to Paris when political unrest erupted there.

Mr Abhisit also said bilateral talks through the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) remained crucial to deter attempts to turn the border issue into a multilateral matter.

To allow the JBC mechanism to move forward, the parliament's endorsement on the three JBC memos under the 2000 MoU regarding border issues was needed, he said.

Meanwhile, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) said it would petition the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate Mr Abhisit and the other concerned people over allegations they had violated Sections 157, 119 and 120 of the Constitution by not revoking the MoU.

PAD spokesman Parnthep Pourpongpan said the alliance would also petition the Constitution Court to interpret if the MoU was in breach of the charter.

The health of Thai Patriots Network coordinator Veera Somkhwamkid, jailed for eight years in Cambodia after being found guilty of espionage and illegal entry to the country on Dec 29, is said to have vastly improved.

His younger brother, Preecha Somkhwamkid, visited Veera at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh on Monday and reported that his condition was much better after a recent bout of ill health.

Cambodia's opposition leader in exile, Sam Rainsy, says Cambodia is on the brink of revolutionary change.

He says the democratic changes sweeping the Arab world will be felt in Cambodia.

"It is not very different from Gaddafi. It is not very different from Mubarak," he said.

"There are a lot of social injustices in Cambodia - operation, corruption, lack of freedom."

Mr Sam says this is likely to spell the end of almost 30 years in power for Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Opposition parliamentarians in Cambodia have asked King Norodom Sihamoni to pardon Sam Rainsy, who exhausted all appeals against a two-year jail sentence following a trial which his supporters said was politically-driven.

The opposition leader lives in exile in Paris and heads the party named after him.

Re: "Praise for Cambodia's 'old goats' policies', Letters, March 21.

The male half of the Beasley family unit has written a highly entertaining letter concerning the new marriage laws introduced in Cambodia on March 1 which pertain, of course, only to Cambodian territory. Whilst being very funny and touching on many sad truths, what this is, is nothing more than barefaced racism. It would be unthinkable in the West. Indeed all hell would break loose, and rightly so, if any government sought to enact restrictions like this on "foreign men". It would be before the courts in a blink of an eye and cast down.

However, not so it would seem in Cambodia. Marriages between old men and young women are "inappropriate", Mr Koy Kuong, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said, and foreign men who wish to marry nationals must earn a high salary to ensure that "Cambodian women can live a decent life" he continued. Foreigners who earn less than US$2,550 (Bt76,500) per month are also barred from wedding local women. It is interesting that it is a Foreign Ministry spokesman who makes these comments and not some home ministry official, given the policy only applies in Cambodia.

So, according to Mr Kuong, in a country where the International Labour Organisation says the per capita income is $321(Bt9,630) and in the countryside, where most workers come from, the average monthly income, for an entire household, is $40 a month and where the average salary for a Cambodian civil servant is $28 (Bt840) a month, for a Cambodian woman married to a foreign man to have a "decent life" the foreign man must have an annual income of $30,600 (Bt918,000) when the average Cambodian wage is about a tenth of this. Excuse me if I smell a very big xenophobic rat here.

The official line is that this law will crack down on "sham marriages and human trafficking". Well excuse me if I say rot. Since this applies only to Cambodian soil, how can a marriage undertaken in Cambodia be a sham and how does trafficking come in to it if the couple want to live in Cambodia?

This is contrary to Cambodia's undertakings in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW; October 17 1980 signature; October 15 1992 accession) and also international law. This is not a virtuous attempt to protect Cambodian women from exploitation. It is nothing more than a nasty racist policy that has been introduced by Hun Sen's government.

Bangkok

Man lives and man dies. Nations rise, nations fall. Territories expand, and territories contract. The fate of a nation is to some degree leader-dependent. A leader is the product of his or her thoughts, values, beliefs, all of which influence their actions and decision-making.

But great ideas live on. Today, we still discuss ideas of great philosophers and thinkers who lived hundreds of years before Christ.

For their nation's future, young Khmers should start learning Thomas Jefferson's ideas that all men are created equal with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and what Lord Buddha taught 2,500 years ago, to accept and live up to what agrees with reason and for "the good and benefit of one and all."

My "one kilo of brain" concept, which I picked up from a teacher in my primary school days, is an anecdote I have referenced here often. Many have felt a need to comment. I come to believe that the Khmers' future depends on how well the young Khmers of today use that one kilo. Progress will take courage and careful

thought.

I learned much from my father, whose ability to simplify complex ideas still astounds me today. He compared the brain to a stomach that contracts when denied food and grows in size when fed. The brain must be fed with its own food: Learn to read, to write, to think, to reflect, to act. My father pounded into my head: "Use the brain, learn and become."

Now I know that quality thinking can be learned and taught, that it determines not only our future but man's very survival. Our current age of cyberspace and Internet revolution helps make learning more available. The only requirement is that one has to want to learn. As the Chinese say, "A teacher can bring the student to the door, he has to go in himself."

"Blah, blah, blah," a reader comments, perhaps without understanding what I write, nor having any desire to learn. Robert F. Kennedy said: "Many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man."

Kennedy mentioned: the young German monk Martin Luther who, at age 34, led the Protestant Revolt; Asia's Ghengis Khan who, at age 44, founded the Mongol Empire; French peasant girl Jeanne d'Arc who, at age 17, rallied France's flagging troops against the English; Italian Christopher Columbus who, at age 41, landed at the Americas; and Thomas Jefferson who, at age 32, authored the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed "all men are created equal."

It took me months to check out each of the individuals Kennedy mentioned, and I have been inspired by them.

As Eric Harvey and Michelle Sedas wrote: "People committed to a cause, form an idea, which produces the spark, which inspires individuals, which grows to impact others, which in turn inspires even more."

An e-mail from a reader in Phnom Penh referenced my "one kilo of brain" concept and contended, "Even a best-selected rice seed will not produce any good yield if grown in poor soil and bad environment," and "A bad rice seed may produce some good yield, if grown in good soil and good environment." Fair enough.

Many great thinkers have emerged in dictatorships and struggled against oppressors for rights and liberty -- best seeds in poor soil. Thinking critically provides us with a host of alternatives and options from which to choose.

I believe our capacity for knowledge can be cultivated anywhere, in fertile ground or fallow. Oppressors can chain a man, blindfold him, close his ears, shut his mouth, but a man of strong belief will not stop thinking and, maybe, thinking is the only thing that gives him hope and keeps him alive.

Our determination to question, inquire and investigate is what engages us in the world around us and leads us to undertake change, to better what we find wanting. One who asks no question does not know how to proceed: She or he has disengaged -- died in a figurative way.

I find it sad and dangerous to observe among some Cambodian bloggers a mood of anti-intellectualism. Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler might have identified the behavior as evidence of "a feeling of inferiority." I am not a psychiatrist and do not purport to know the genesis of the behavior. But I am discouraged by those who reflexively attack those they identify as philosophical. Having a hard-earned acronym attached to my name, evidence of having spent many years in school, seems to call out anger in some readers.

I -- and many of my countrymen -- have been fortunate to have the opportunity to study. For me, that good fortune means I have an obligation to pay back to the country of my birth. I have given years of my life in the armed conflict to bring good, democratic government to Cambodia, without success. I am older now; I contribute through writing.

The path my life has taken has been easier than some, harder than others. We all have something to contribute to making our world a better place. But that contribution is diminished by knee-jerk name calling or criticism that is focused on the three letters after my signature.

We all can do better than that.

The Thai top brass has decided not to attend the 8th Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) meeting which has been scheduled in Indonesia, insisting that any talks must be purely bilateral.

Army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday that he and other armed forces commanders had resolved not to attend the GBC meeting in Bogor proposed by Indonesia and agreed to by Cambodia.

Indonesia initially proposed that the meeting be held on Mar ch 24 and 25 but later postponed it to April 7 and 8.

"We won't go. We don't want the meeting to be held in a third country.

"Soldiers of the two countries are very close to each other. Talks should be between soldiers of the two countries only, and a third party should not be involved," Gen Prayuth said.

The GBC is co-chaired by the defence ministers of the two countries.

Gen Prayuth also turned down Cambodia's proposal for the setting up of 15 checkpoints manned jointly by Thai and Cambodian soldiers in the 4.6 square kilometre disputed area, to accommodate observers from Indonedia.

He said this matter should be discussed at a meeting between soldiers of the two countries.

The situation along the border near the Preah Vihear temple was still normal and the two sides had been in contact, awaiting talks between military leaders, Gen Prayuth said.

A Defence Ministry source said Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon also decided not to go to the proposed GBC meeting in Indonesia.

Gen Prawit and Cambodian counterpart Gen Tea Banh as well as military leaders of the two countries enjoyed close ties, the source said.

The Thai defence minister planned to contact Gen Tea Banh to set a date for a bilateral meeting. However, he was not sure if Gen Tea Banh would agree, since Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had said he would not back a bilateral meeting, the source said.

According to the source, the meeting, if held, would be for the two sides to discuss the posting of Indonesian observers and deployment of troops in the disputed area.

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - Cambodia will host the 10th taekwondo championships of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on April 7-9, Vath Chamroeun, secretary general of National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC), said Tuesday.

"It will be the first time Cambodia hosts the international taekwondo tournament event," he said. "We hope that it will go smoothly and we will plan to host other international sports events in the future."

There will be around 300 athletes and coaches from seven countries in ASEAN taking part in the event including Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, except Indonesia, Brunei and Myanmar.

The tournament will be held at Olympic Stadium with the support from ASEAN Taekwondo Federation.

The tournaments are classified into two categories-underage athletes and adult athletes.

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) – While Cambodia is working hard to improve the access to safe water, the issue remains its challenge, a statement from UN office in the country said Tuesday.

"Some 85 percent of the population having access to safe water, among which 76 percent in urban areas," the statement said.

However, it said the situation is not as good for those living in urban slums where they have difficult access to state supplied water.

Furthermore, some 90 percent of population in the country have access to sanitation and 81 percent have toilets, according to the UN office in Cambodia.

However, only 30 percent of families in poor settlements have access to indoor toilets and human waste is mostly discharged in open spaces, posting health hazard and contributing to the degradation of local environment.

The statement is released on the day as the world observes World Water Day, which is held on annual basis since 1993 to bring global attention to the importance of water and sanitation.

A self-appointed commander of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a Long Beach-based group formed to seize political control in the southeast Asian country, was sentenced Monday to a concurrent term of 37 months in prison for tax evasion.

Yasith Chhun, a 54-year-old United States citizen, was previously sentenced last June to a life term for conspiring to kill in a foreign country and other federal counts stemming from his 2008 conviction.

The same year, Chhun pleaded guilty to conspiring to file false tax returns and aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns. Chhun admitted operating an accounting service that filed false tax returns for numerous taxpayers, resulting in a loss of more than $400,000, according to court papers.

Before he was sentenced to the life term last summer, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson expressed some sympathy for the defendant, who told the judge he formed the 200-strong Cambodian Freedom Fighters partly to avenge the murder of his father at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

"I don't think Mr. Chhun is an evil human being," the judge said. "I think he's had a tragic life -- and had the misfortune of being born in a place where terrible things were happening."

Chhun, a former Long Beach accountant who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1982, was found guilty in 2010 after a two-week trial of the four charges against him -- conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Jurors were told Chhun planned "Operation Volcano" to overthrow the government of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The failed attempt resulted in the deaths of at least six people, including a 15-year-old boy killed in a grenade attack and a young man who was shot by a stray bullet, Pregerson said.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Chhun as a callous, cowardly, incompetent leader of the CFF, who held group meetings at his Long Beach business, CCC Professional Accounting Services, located in the 2700 block of East 10th Street.

Chhun also met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military at the Cambodia-Thailand border in October 1998 to plan Sen's overthrow, prosecutors said.

The Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Communist organization was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million people through execution, forced labor and starvation in what became known as the country's "killing fields."

After raising money in the United States -- including staging a May 2000 fundraiser at the Queen Mary -- the CFF launched "popcorns," or small-scale guerrilla attacks in Cambodia against gas stations, coffee shops and other targets, according to the U.S. government.

The judge also noted that the CFF "was probably infiltrated, so had no realistic chance of succeeding."

RAINSY: As a matter of principle, we have to go through all the legal channels, which is why we have called upon the King. But as you have pointed out, Mr Hun Sen is determined, to preven the King from giving any amnesty to me. So this is a political problem that requires a political solution. A political solution can come anytime when the political situation in Cambodia changes. As in the past, there has political compromise. When the ruling party and the prime minister Mr Hun Sen is under pressure, then the prime minister will back off. And he would allow the King to pardon his political opponents. i think the political situation will change in the near future. You can see that the whole world is changing. Dictators who have been in place, for ten, thirty years, like Mr Hun Sen must fear now, that the population, their own people want democratic change, want justice. So, after Ben Ali in Tunisia, after Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and soon, after Moamar Gaddafi in Libya, I think there will be pressure on Mr Hun Sen to step down. Then, the political situation in Cambodia will definitely change.

LAM: Do you see signs of that pressure building in Cambodia, do you see signs of a peaceful Jasmine Revolution, if you like, taking place in Cambodia?

RAINSY: Yes! There are many indications, many similarities between the situation in North Africa and the situation in Cambodia. All the ingredients for a change, a deep change, are there in Cambodia. The Cambodian people have lived under oppression for some thirty years. It's a long time, it's not very different from Gaddafi. it's not very different from Mubarak. There are a lot of social injustices in Cambodia, operation, corruption, lack of freedom.

LAM: You say the signs are there, but the prime minister Hun Sen just recently said that he wanted to rule for the next forty years.

RAINSY: I think Mr Mubarak neither, did not want to step down. And Gaddafi now doesn't want to step down. Therefore, it does not depend on the dictator. It depends on the people. Nobody can deprive a member of parliament who has been elected by the people, of his parliamentary seat. I, Sam Rainsy have been elected by the people. Therefore, only the people can dismiss me from parliament, from the National Assembly. The ruling party cannot chase the leader of the opposition from parliament. This is totally undemocratic. This is the sign - the obvious sign of dictatorship that the Cambodian people will get rid of, in the near future.

LAM: What sorts of conditions are you looking for? What factors will prompt you to return to Phnom Penh?

RAINSY: I am looking for the rule of law. The Cambodian government, the ruling party does not even respect our own law, especially our constitution, the Supreme Law of the Nation.

Op-Ed by Khmerization
21st March, 2011

The unification between the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and the Human Rights Party (HRP) is long overdue and it is time for both parties to come to their senses and work for the betterment of the future-merged party rather than engage in a political dogfight over factional interests to gain a political domination prior to the merger. Both parties must ponder about the future of the new party and think about the common interests rather than about demanding for an equal share of representation in the new party. It is disturbing news that, more than two years down the track, the negotiations have gone nowhere and the political bickering about the nonsense of who get what is still being argued around the negotiation table.

In any union, whether it is a civil marriage, a creation of a business or a political entity, common interests and fairness is paramount and prevail over all else. You will get the amount of the dividends for the proportion of the interests and the shares you have put into the new entity.

By the same token, the marriage between the SRP and the HRP fits into the same analogy. The bigger party gets the bigger share of the representation and the smaller party gets its fair share of what it brings into the newly-created party. In fairness, and to make the newly-merged party worked, the HRP must not demand for an equal representation in the newly-formed party. It must only demand for its fair share only. In this case, its fair share in the new party is in proportion to its political supports and votes it received in 2008 in each constituency. The HRP's proposal for an equal representation in the newly-merged party, such as a joint ticket for the senate election, while knowing that it has no councillor to elect the senators, has created hurdles for the unification and posed obstacles for a smooth transition to the operation of a new united party.

If they want the newly-created party to have any chances of survival at all and is strong enough to withstand any continuous external attempts to break it up, both parties have to be sincere and think about the common good, not to try to create factions within the new party that would lead to factional and internal rivalry which is a recipe for the self-destruction of any political parties.

Notwithstanding my harsh assessment of the HRP position vis-a-vis the merger with the SRP, I do recognise that it has put forward some good and not so good proposals for the merger of the two parties. First, the HRP had proposed a brand new name for the new party without using any individual's name. This is a good and fair proposal that can, and should, be accepted by the SRP, but it is a bit risky due to past experience and the current political environment in Cambodia. The SRP was created on 9th November 1995 as the Khmer Nation Party, but the party was forced to change its name to the Sam Rainsy Party after Mr. Hun Sen had engineered its break up in 1998 by using Kong Mony as a front. The Khmer Nation Party was prevented from participating in the 1998 election until it changed its name to the SRP.

Secondly, the HRP proposed that the new internal party structure would be jointly decided by the SRP and HRP. This is also a good proposal, but the demand for an equal representation by the HRP, such as the joint senate ticket, will surely lead to the creation of the SRP-aligned faction and the HRP-aligned faction. This is a recipe for the speedy self-destruction of the new party. The demand for equal representation is a sign that the two parties are highly polarised and are distrustful of each other. This would lead to internal political alliances that will cause the party to be too factionalised and riddled with internal rivalry and jealousy which is a recipe of a political suicide.

Thirdly, the HRP's proposal for term limits for the party presidency is an excellent idea. After all, the SRP has in the past demanded for a prime ministerial term limit. A 5-year two terms limit will ensure that new talents have an equal chance to lead the party but it is also good for the health of democracy in Cambodia.

The HRP has presented itself as a leading partner in merger talks for being proactive in its approach to the merger, however, it must not act to be seen as being too eager to demand too much, or more than its fair share, from the bigger SRP by dictating the terms of the negotiations for the creation of the yet-to-be named new party. Having said that, the SRP must earn the trust of the smaller HRP that it will not absorb or swallow the HRP in whole and constrict it to death and toss it into a political oblivion.

Up to now, both parties seemed to be not too interested or unwilling to merge. In more than two years of negotiations, both parties had emerged as the ally or the coalition of the unwilling because as negotiations progressed, both parties seemed more than ever unwilling to come to any political compromise that would ensure a speedy merger. The longer the negotiations are going on, the more bickering will emerge and the more political damage they may have caused in the eyes of the Cambodian voters.

VILLAGERS from 96 households in Takeo province's Tram Kak district staged a non-violent protest to block a private company from destroying a protected sacred hill on Thursday, a representative of the group said yesterday.

Heng Try, A representative of Thmey village said employees belonging to an unknown businessman were repelled by the villagers when they attempted to clear Tuol Ang Yeay Pov hill using land clearing machinery and trucks.

"They want to destroy it to dig up artifacts [which] the villagers don't want, the villagers want to keep it and build a Buddhist hall for worship," Heng Try said.

Tuol Ang Yeay Pov hill, a 30 by 40 metre ancient site of worship dating back at least 800 years to the reign of king Jayavarman VII, is recognised as a protected site of worship and as state property by Tram Kak district's cultural department, Heng Try said.

Meth Phai, deputy governor of Tram Kak district, confirmed the site was protected state property and said officials from the district culture department had investigated the site on Friday to make sure the businessman's actions had not impacted on the site.

"No one has the right to clear the hill because it is the villagers' collective land [and is] state property," he said.

Srey Saroeun, deputy chief of Thmey village also confirmed the hill was protected state property under the jurisdiction of the district culture department.

Thursday's wasn't the first time a businessman had tried to profit from the sacred hill, Srey Saroeun said.

In March, 2009, the former chief of Thmey village, Ty Chhe, attempted to sell Tuol Ang Yeay Pov hill along with surrounding rice paddies to a private businessman, he said.

"Suddenly, villagers made a complaint, submitting a letter to the district authority [requesting] that they help intervene," he said.

Srey Saroeun added that district authorities reacted by issuing a letter stating that the land was state property.

In 111 B.C., the victorious Han crushed the young Vietnamese state, and save for a few brief but glorious rebellions, it remained a Chinese colony for more than 1,000 years.

Viet-Nam became a Chinese protectorate ruled by a governor and subdivided into military districts. By the beginning of the first century A.D., the country had absorbed along with many Chinese settlers – a great many of them the refugees from the Han dynasty – much of what was worthwhile in the culture of the occupying power: the difficult art of rice planting in artificially irrigated areas, Chinese writing skills, Chinese philosophy, and even Chinese social customs and beliefs. But – and in this the Vietnamese are unique – they succeeded in maintaining their national identity in spite of the fact that everything else about them had become "Chinese." Opposition to the Chinese rule built up as the Chinese presence became more ubiquitous and brutal. Finally, what could be called a routine "occupation incident," the execution of a minor feudal lord, brought about a configuration. In 39 A.D., Trung Trac, the wife of the slain lord, and her sister Trung Nhi raised an army that, in a series of swift sieges, overwhelmed the Chinese garrisons, which had grown careless over the years. In 40 A.D., the Vietnamese, much to their surprise, found themselves free from foreign domination for the first time in 150 years and the Trung sisters were proclaimed queens of the country.

Naturally in so large an empire, Chinese reaction was slow, but when it came, it was effective. Old general Ma Yuan began his counterattack in 43 A.D., and the Vietnamese troops of the two queens made a fatal error: They chose to make a stand in the open field against the experienced Chinese regulars, with their backs against the limestone cliffs at the edge of the river Day – not far from the place where General Vo Nguyen Giap was to pit his green regulars against French Marshal de Lattre's elite troops 1,908 years later.

The result was the same in both cases: The more experienced regulars destroyed the raw Vietnamese levies. The two queens, rather than surrender to the enemy, chose suicide by drowning in the nearby river. "Sinization" now began in earnest, with Chinese administration taking the place of traditional leaders. Two more rebellions took place. One in 248 A.D., also led by woman, Trieu Au, collapsed almost immediately, and like the Trung sisters, Trieu Au committed suicide. The second led by Ly Bon lasted from 544 to 547 and was also crushed. With the rise of the strong Tang dynasty in China after 618, resistance became hopeless: Viet-Nam became the Chinese Protectorate General of the "Pacified South" ("An-Nam" in Chinese). It was under the name "Annam," a symbol of humiliation and defeat that the region was to become best known to the outside world.

With the decline of the Tangs, Viet-Nam's chances for freedom rose again. A rash of rebellions in 938 led to the defeat of the Chinese the following year. By 940, the Vietnamese were in full control of their country from the foothills of Yunnan to the 17th parallel Although they retained formal suzerainty ties with China throughout most of their history until French domination became complete in 1883, their northern neighbor, despite sporadic threats, never quite succeeded in controlling the country again, save for the brief period from 1407 to 1427. Having secured their rear areas, the Vietnamese now could address themselves to their major historical mission - securing Lebensraum for their teeming agricultural population in the relatively empty deltas to the south of their boundary. But to the south lay the Indianized kingdom of Champa.

What happened next was as thorough a job of genocide as any modern totalitarian state could have devised. Founded in 192 AD., the Champa kingdom, whose beautiful capital, Indrapura, was located near present-day Faifo on the Central Viet-Nam coast, prospered for several centuries through its flourishing seaborne trade and its powerful battle fleets, one of which sailed up the Mekong and across the Great Lake (Tonic Sap) of Cambodia to capture and sack Angkor in 1177. Like their near contemporaries in Europe the Norsemen, the Chams were mostly seaborne raiders with all the advantages and drawbacks, of the concomitant social and political organization. They were the scourge of the area as long as they were strong and capable of carrying the war to their neighbors in their swift ships, but having neglected agriculture and the penetration of their own hinterland, they were incapable of resisting the slow but steady gnawing-away process with which the peasant-based Vietnamese state faced them. Thus, after several successful Cham raids into the Red River Delta, the Vietnamese finally beat them off, and the Chams were pushed onto the defensive.

Slowly, Vietnamese rice farmers peacefully occupied the unfilled northern plains of the Champa kingdom, very often with the consent of the Chams, who felt that this process would serve their own enrichment. But as the settlements of the Vietnamese grew so grew the willingness and ability of the neighboring Vietnamese state to protect its own citizens. Slice by slice, delta by delta, the process was repeated. There were a few temporary setbacks in the process but by the end of the eleventh century, all the coastal provinces north of Hue had been conquered. The next important slice, including Hue later Viet-Nam's imperial capital, became Vietnamese in the course of the mid-fifteenth century, thanks to a marriage between he sister of the Vietnamese king and the king of Champa. But in 147l, after renewed bitter warfare, in the course of which the Vietnamese conquered the Chams' second capital, Vijaya-Indrapura having been lost earlier-the once-flourishing Champa kingdom was near collapse. It lost more than 300 miles of shore line and in fact became little more than a beachhead stretching precariously over the small deltas of Khanh-Hoa, Phan-Rang, and Phan-Thiet

One and a half centuries later, the Champa kingdom had simply disappeared. Today, all that is left of it is a series of watchtower ruins at the landward edge of the Central Vietnamese coastal plains and a small group of perhaps 30,000 handsome Indian-featured people eking out livings as fishermen and artisans around the Vietnamese cities of Phan-Rang and Phan-Ri.

In the course of this successful venture into colonialism (for it was nothing else), the Vietnamese state decided to institutionalize the process, and in 1481, the don-dien were created. Like the Roman coloniae 1500 years earlier or the Israeli nakhal settlements 500 years later (or the Austro-German Wehrbauern in the 1700's) the don-dien were agricultural settlements given to farmers who were for the most part army veterans and who, in return for free land, defended the new frontier. The members of the don-dien were a tough hardy lot, not only willing to defend what they already had, but usually not loath to push the border farther west-this time at the expense of the decaying Khmer (Cambodian) state. It was obvious such a situation was fertile in border incidents, which were further exploited to round out the Vietnamese domain. In 1658, all of South Viet-Nam north of Saigon (then that the fishing village of Prey Kor) was in Vietnamese hands; Saigon itself fell in 1672.

The next step in colonial conquest was also typical. A Chinese merchant, Mac-Cuu, had established himself in southwestern Cambodia and, like the well-known European trading companies of the time, had taken physical possession of several provinces stretching from Kampot to Camau. When the Cambodians and their Siamese allies threatened Mac-Cuu's "state within a state," he appealed for help to the neighboring Vietnamese, who were only too happy to oblige. By 1757, Viet-Nam had occupied the rest of the Mekong Delta and the swamp-infested Camau Peninsula. Vietnamese settlers began to pour into the empty provinces, which became a vast "Far West" for the Vietnamese state. To this day, the areas on the western side of the Mekong are known to the Vietnamese as "Mien-Tay" ("the New West"). By the end of the eighteenth century, Viet-Nam had expanded to the full extent of its present shore line.

Vietnamese intervention in Cambodian affairs had begun in 1623 when Chey Chettha II, a king of Cambodia who had married a Vietnamese princess, attempted to shake Siam's overlordship with the help of the Nguyen. In exchange for that help, the Hue government requested Cambodia's authorization to send settlers to Prey Kor, and a Vietnamese general was sent with a security detachment to protect the new settlers. In 1658, a Vietnamese expeditionary force again had to intervene in the endless internecine struggles of the various pretenders to the Cambodian throne, and in 1660, Cambodia began to pay a regular tribute to the Vietnamese court.'

But the Vietnamese yoke on Cambodia was to take a shape far more direct than the highly theoretical suzerainty China still exercised over Viet-Nam. The declining Khmer state was split into three Vietnamese "residences" under the control of a Vietnamese Chief Resident at the Cambodian court at Oudong. The Vietnamese began an acculturation process that, as in the neighboring provinces and in the case of the Chams, amounted to veritable genocide: destruction of the Buddhist temples and shrines, compulsory wearing of Vietnamese clothing and hairdress, Vietnamization of city and provincial names, and, finally, abolition of the royal title of the Cambodian sovereigns. By the early nineteenth century, the queen, Ang Mey (1834-41), held a virtual prisoner in her palace, was officially referred to as merely "chief of the territory of My-Lam."3

From 1841, Cambodia was purely and simply incorporated into Viet-Nam, but after a Cambodian rebellion encouraged by Siam and a brief war in which Siam and Viet-Nam fought each other to a standoff, both countries agreed in 1845 to a condominium that ended only when France's protectorate was established, in June, 1863. A similar condominium policy in northern Laos also had brought the important Tran-Ninh Plateau—now better known as the Plaine des Jarres—under intermittent Vietnamese control beginning in the sixteenth century.

It is interesting to compare the Vietnamese colonization process with the corresponding process of state-building going on in Europe at that time; for too many well-intentioned writers (particularly those in the United States who feel that Europe must continually make amends for her colonial performance) tend to gloss over the non-European colonial processes that were going on simultaneously. In Europe, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed what could be called a national "regroupment" process: Spain left the Low Countries; non-German states lost their influence in Germany; and the Turks, after a high tide that had brought them to the gates of Vienna in 1529 and 1683, returned to the lower reaches of the Balkans. In Europe outside Russia, only Austria-Hungary was to survive as a major multinational state until 1918, and no new state rose to power by ethnic assimilation of alien areas. Viet-Nam was obviously doing exactly the opposite: It carved out its territory through military conquest over states whose level of indigenous culture was at least equal, if not superior, to its own. In other words, it did not invoke the moralistic rationale of "Manifest Destiny," "la Mission Civilisatrice," or "the White Man's Burden"; its action, like the German Drang nach Osten, was simply a manifestation of the vitality of its people. It was simply and purely a process of colonial conquest for material gains, no more, no less. The fact that it took place on contiguous territory does not make it any more respectable than, say, the Russian conquest of Hungary.

But what makes the Vietnamese colonial process unique in Asia is that it took place in competition with that of several European powers—and the Vietnamese beat them to the punch on several occasions! By 1750, nearly all the later European colonial powers had appeared on the scene: the Dutch and Spaniards in the Spice Islands, the French and British in India, and the Portuguese through-out Southeast Asia, even as far inland as Laos. All of them, at one time or another or simultaneously, had trading stations in Viet-Nam. Whether through superciliousness or plain ignorance, none of the "traditional" colonial powers consciously reacted to the Vietnamese colonial process. But it was not without reason that the French consolidated their position in South Viet-Nam first when they set out to conquer the country one century later; after all, it had been Vietnamese for so short a time that its conquest proved easiest, for its inhabitants were the least secure in their social structure and institutions. This assertion appears to be borne out by the fact that the South appeared more "pro-French" (or simply "French") than central and North Viet-Nam and that the French colonial penetration became more difficult as it advanced farther North.

Thus much of what today is the Republic of Viet-Nam south of the 17th parallel has been "Vietnamese" for a shorter span of time than the Eastern seaboard of the United States has been American" This is a reality that cannot be simply talked away, for it affects the very fabric of the nation in times of stress and crisis, as in the 1960's.

Having consolidated their hold on the lowlands, the Vietnamese committed virtually the same error as their Cham predecessors. They failed to give their country sufficient depth, Literally, teeming in their narrow delta, few Vietnamese had any particular desire to face the inhospitable forests and primitive tribes of the highlands, and save for a few government-sponsored settlements in the mountain areas of both zones, 95 per cent of all those who are Vietnamese ethnically rather than by political fiat, live at an altitude of less than 900 feet (300 meters).

In the highlands, the fierce Thai, Muong, or Tho tribes tolerated Vietnamese overlordship with about as much good grace as the latter to tolerated their own submission to the Chinese. Tribute in ivory, precious woods, and spices was exacted by Vietnamese mandarins who otherwise left the tribes to their traditional leaders and Vietnamese annals are full of mountaineer uprisings. In fact, the tribal Thai were left almost entirely to themselves from the middle of the eighteenth century until the arrival of the French in 1893. The primitive southern tribesmen presented a problem of their own. The Vietnamese kings sagely recognized that they constituted a buffer zone against the still dangerous Khmer empire, and simply left them to their own devices, after the tribal chieftains had made their formal submission and paid a symbolical tribute. That direct relationship between Vietnamese-crown and the mountain tribes continued until 1955.

Nevertheless, the failure to integrate the mountain minorities into the Vietnamese national community has remained a serious problem to this day and is unlikely to be resolved satisfactorily in the near future.

The Vietnamese themselves, for all their cultural and social homogeneity suffered politically from their own over rapid growth and their separation from the Tonkinese homeland. With the means of communication then in existence, the government in the Red River plain was simply incapable of exercising effective control over 1,400 miles of deltas. Divisions occurred, with local feudal lords taking matters into their own hands. In the north, the exhausted Le dynasty had been overthrown by the Governor of Hanoi, Mac Dang Dung, who had, in Buttinger's words, "built himself a staircase of lordly and royal corpses right up to the throne," which he reached in 1527. In the south, another feudal lord, Nguyen Kim had set up a Vietnamese government-in-exile in Laos, built around a descend-ant of the Le. When Nguyen Kim died in 1545, murdered by supporters of the Mac clan, the struggle degenerated into a long civil war that, save for some brief spells of unity, lasted almost two centuries—with both sides claiming to represent the interests of the hapless legitimate Vietnamese kings while, in fact, merely watching over their own privileges. In the apt words of one French historian, the Vietnamese kings "were reduced to reigning over all Viet-Nam while being incapable of ruling over even the smallest district."4

In this indecisive struggle, the south remained largely on the defensive. In the 1630's, the Nguyen rulers built two huge walls across the Vietnamese plain of Quang-Tri near its narrow waist at Dong-Hoi— barely a few miles to the north of the present dividing line at the 17th parallel—and for 150 years the country remained divided on that line, just as it now has been since 1954. A de facto truce existed between the north and the south from 1673 to 1774, although the feudal Trinh lords (who, in the north, had succeeded the Mac as protectors" of the Le kings) still demanded the surrender of the southern "rebels," and the Nguyen in the south refused to agree to reunification as long as the Le kings were helpless puppets of the Trinh. It is apparent that the Vietnamese people have had abundant experience in the kind of bitter internal division that was to rend it again 180 years later, after a brief period of independence and unity. There has been much debate over why the Trinh, with four-fifths of Viet-Nam's population in their area, never succeeded in breaking the hold of the Nguyen over the south, especially since the Nguyen not only had to hold the line against their northern foes, but also had to fight several bitter wars on their own southern frontiers with Cambodia, where Vietnamese settlers were advancing into the Mekong Delta. Economic and social reasons have been invoked by some historians who accept the Marxist interpretation of history as the only valid one, but that interpretation does not quite hold here for the economic and social organization of the Nguyen area was a carbon copy of that of the north. Militarily, also, both sides operated along similar lines, and both sides received "foreign aid" (a situation not unknown today). The Dutch backed the northern regime, while the Portuguese backed the Nguyen by providing modern artillery and military advisers. Since neither side was willing to consider a flanking maneuver through the inhospitable jungles to the west of the Wall of Dong-Hoi, a military stand-off resulted, which left the way open to a politico-ideological struggle. It was in the ideological sphere that the Nguyen side had the overwhelming advantage, for in the eyes or their own population, the Trinh lords had lost the mandate of heaven " In an explanation of that important aspect of the attitude of the Vietnamese toward his government, a Vietnamese nationalist wrote in 1948:

"If the sovereign oppressed the people, he no longer deserved to be treated as the sovereign. His person was no longer sacred, and to kill him was no longer a crime. Revolt against such tyranny not only was reasonable but was a meritorious act and conferred upon its author the right to take over the powers of the sovereign."5

In the name of this right to revolution, the Nguyen were eventually victorious over the decadent Le and Trinh; Ho Chi MM. defeated the French- Ngo Dinh Diem overthrew the discredited Nguyen ruler, Bao-Dai; and the National Liberation Front of South Viet-Nam has sought to gather a popular following first against the stagnant Ngo Dinh Diem regime and then against its successors.

But an unforeseen event was to change for a brief moment the course of Vietnamese history. This was the rebellion of the three brothers from Tay-Son, a small village not far from Ankhe on the northeastern edge of the PMS. The uprising began in 1772; by 1777, the Nguyen had been defeated and the last surviving prince of the family Nguyen Anh, had been driven into the inhospitable swamps of the Mekong Delta. The Trinh, who had thought the moment ripe to settle their accounts with the southern regime became the next victims of the victorious Tay-Son. By 1786, most of North Viet-Nam had fallen into the hands of the Tay-Son, who officially abolished the moribund Le dynasty in 1787, although the youngest of the Tay Son brothers, Hue, took care to marry the daughter of the last Le king.

Between1789 and 1792, Vietnam was once more united under a single ruler, but the reunification brought in its wake a bitter civil war waged BV the Nguven, the Tay-Son, and the Trinh, which left Viet-Nam more devastated than had 150 years of division. Present-day Marxist sources like to describe the Tay-Son as "progressive" rulers who lost their "mandate of Heaven" because they failed to solve the "social contradictions" then prevailing in Viet-Nam. The actuality seems to be less poetic: They were simply the first Vietnamese rulers to try to attempt to establish a military dictatorship in a country where the military were regarded with somewhat less than high admiration.

Thus, when Nguyen Anh began his campaigns of re-conquest with the help of a French force of Katanga-type adventurers, the populace, mindful of the relatively efficient administration built up through competitive examinations under the Nguyen, began to flock again to the tatter's banners. The fact that, thanks to his experienced French cadre and its better artillery, he outclassed the Tay-Son, militarily, also had a great deal to do with the renewed enthusiasm for the Nguyen. But the final victory of Nguyen Anh over the Tay-Son was also the beginning of a new era: that of European political and military intervention in Vietnamese affairs.

The opposition-affiliated Khmer Machas Srok newspaper has been relaunched on Monday 21st March after suspending publications for more than 9 months in June 2010 due to financial difficulties, but began to publish online as Khmer Machas Srok Daily.

Mr. Hang Chakra, editor of Khmer Machas Srok who has been jailed nearly a year in 2009 for revealing rampant corruption in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, said the re-launched Khmer Machas Srok will not be affiliated with any political party and will take a neutral stance. He said on Monday that 1,500 issues of the re-lanched Khmer Machas Srok have gone on sales in the capital Phnom Penh at the publication cost of $100 of his personal money.

The 57 year-old Hang Chakra said his newspaper began its publications in 2007 as an independent newspaper and was financed by his personal money, but took a critical stance against human rights abuses and corruption. "They always said that my newspaper is leaning toward the opposition party. But in principle, my newspaper will make the same constructive criticisms (as before), take a neutral position and is unbiased toward any parties", he said.

In June 2009, Mr. Hang Chakra was fined $2,250 and sentenced to 12 months jail term when Deputy Prime Minister Sok An sued him for defamation after he published documents and articles alleging rampant corruption within officials working under Mr. Sok An. Hang Chakra was released on 13th April 2010 by a royal pardon after serving two-thirds of his 12 month sentence.

There were reports emerging last night that one of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's sons had been killed during an air strike on Libyan capital Tripoli.

According to Arab newspapers, the dictator's sixth son, Khamis, was killed when a Libyan suicide pilot deliberately crashed his jet into Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound on Saturday.

The Arabian Business News website claimed Khamis died from his burns later in a Tripoli hospital.

However, the reports have been denied by the Libyan government.

The speculation emerged as MPs in the House of Commons overwhelmingly passed a Commons motion supporting the Government's decision to commit British armed forces to Libya by 557 votes to 13, a majority of 544.

While the vote demonstrated strong cross-party support for the military action, some MPs voiced their criticism of the lack of a planned endgame and concern over the costs of the operation.

As the debate went on late into the night, RAF Typhoon Eurofighters took off to fly their first-ever combat missions while policing the Libyan no-fly zone.

The Chief of Defence Staff's Strategic Communication Officer, Major General John Lorimer, confirmed it was the first time Typhoons have been used in a combat mission.

The Typhoon is mainly deployed as a fighter and could use its air-to-air missile systems to bring down any Libyan aircraft defying the no-fly zone.

Ground forces loyal to Gaddafi were still fighting to gain and hold territory yesterday after two nights of western bombardment.

As Libyan anti-aircraft guns went into action in the capital for the third night, suggesting that the coalition was still some distance from the effective no-fly zone that it is aiming to achieve, Gaddafi's forces launched a fresh onslaught on Misrata, the last rebel stronghold in the western part of the country.

Residents said water supplies had been cut off and government troops had encircled the city.

One resident suggested that the pro-Gaddafi forces were deploying human shields from nearby towns in the city, and claimed that when civilians had gathered in the centre of the town to confront the forces, they "started shooting at them with artillery and guns. The hospital told us that at least nine people were killed."

The RAF backed up the claim that human shields were being deployed throughout Libya, admitting that a 3,000-mile mission to bomb Libya was aborted minutes from the targets on Sunday night because of reports that civilians were in the area.

Maj Gen Lorimer said the decision to call the mission off illustrated the coalition's determination to "take all measures possible to reduce the chance of harming innocent civilians".

It remained unclear whether Gaddafi was actually using civilians as human shields.

Meanwhile, The Ministry of Defence denied reports that Royal Marines from 40 Commando had been put on five days' notice to leave for the Mediterranean.

In Cairo yesterday, Libyans infuriated by the international military intervention blocked the path of the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, after his meeting with the Arab League secretary-general, Amr Moussa, who has been increasingly restive about the western attacks to impose a no-fly zone that his organisation backed 11 days ago.

The Adhoc human rights group asked the Thai government national human rights committee to investigate the case of the shootings and killings of Cambodian loggers by Thai soldiers along the Khmer-Thai border. Chan Sovet, an official for Adhoc, indicated that the Adhoc report to be sent to the Thai human rights committee is not completed yet, but that 52 cases of shooting on Khmer citizens by Thai soldiers were noted, among these 27 were injured, 17 were killed and 12 disappeared. These shootings were recorded during a period spanning between July 2008 and March 2011. Chan Sovet said that this is a positive step to push the Thai soldiers to stop shooting on Cambodian citizens. He hoped that Adhoc will send this request to the Thai national human rights committee this week or next week.

Cambodian political observers say that opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who was removed from the National Assembly last week, will need to look for concessions with the ruling party if he is to return to politics.

Sam Rainsy is facing several criminal sentences related to the uprooting of markers on the Vietnamese borders and the publication of a map on his website alleging Vietnamese encroachment into Cambodian territory.

Kem Sokha, the president of the minority opposition Human Rights Party, said Sam Rainsy must now "apologize" or make other overtures beneficial to the ruling party if he is to return ahead of 2012 and 2013 elections.

"That's what we see so far as political compromises," he said.

Similar concessions were made by Prince Norodom Ranariddh ahead of his return from exile on graft charges ahead of the 2008 national elections, he said.

Such concessions can include a written apology or clarification to Prime Minister Hun Sen, he said.

The National Assembly ousted Sam Rainsy from his seat as representative of Kampong Cham province last week, after the Supreme Court upheld a criminal conviction against him. He still faces a court battle for disinformation after publishing a map on his website lower courts have found were fabricated.

Sam Rainsy has said the maps accurately show Vietnamese encroachment, a politically volatile accusation. Vietnamese officials have denied any encroachment has taken place.

Independent analyst Chea Vannath said political reconciliation is still possible, although she did not specify what that might mean.

Nhiek Bun Chhay, secretary general for the royalist Funcinpec party, said an apology would allow Sam Rainsy to return.

Sam Rainsy told VOA Khmer recently he will not apologize and that he feels justified in his claims that Cambodia is losing land to Vietnam. However, he said he is still looking for national or international solutions.

"I took the lead to defend the national interest, so the national interest is political," he said.

Hun Sen has said Sam Rainsy's case is a legal matter for the courts, not a political matter for the executive branch.

Cambodian People's Party lawmaker Cheam Yiep echoed that position in an interview, saying the charges against Sam Rainsy are legal, not political. And his removal from the Assembly was done on legal grounds, Cheam Yiep said.

He reiterated claims that Sam Rainsy would have to write Hun Sen, who has the power to request a royal pardon for crimes.

Sam Rainsy said in an interview his removal from the National Assembly was a breach of the law, because he was voted in by his constituency. The move will likely bring international condemnation, he said, and ultimately strengthen his party.

Ruling party officials have "openly exposed themselves as people who don't understand the law, who don't understand democratic principles and who are suppressing the constitution," he said.

He said he was similarly removed from the Assembly in 1995, but his party garnered even more support in subsequent elections.

"I believe that in 2013, there will be a change, and the Sam Rainsy Party will be stronger and stronger," he said.

The Sam Rainsy Party currently holds 26 of 123 seats in the National Assembly. His removal from the National Assembly has prompted little international reaction so far.

A group of Cambodian writers were the focus of a four-day literary festival at a US university last week, with some saying that despite what they see as threats to their safety and economic woes, they'll continue their work.

Poets, playwrights, musicians and novelists all had a chance to participate in a number of discussions at Brown University, in Providence, R.I., providing a rare glimpse into Cambodia's oft-ignored literary world.

"If we are born a lotus, we cannot become something else," said Tararith Kho, a 38-year-old Cambodian who is a fellow at Brown's International Writers Project this year. "It is our nature. I think I am not the one who must face the dangers of this profession, for I don't have weapons. I don't commit robberies. I'm just a writer. I write about the social problems I see."

Tararith Kho and other writers spoke as part of the International Freedom-to-Write Literary Festival March 14 through March 17.

Catherine Filloux, a French-American playwright who was written about Cambodia, told a forum that Cambodia's artistic traditions can be seen in its temples, architecture and other expressions.

Modern Cambodian artists continue their traditions, she said, because many believe it is "their mission to carry on the legacy of their teachers."

"I think that fuels them to continue doing their work, despite the extremely difficult situation and despite the economic difficulties," she said.

The Freedom-to-Write program began 20 years ago, after the Chinese government crushed a student revolt at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and has continued since.

The idea of the program is to take writers out of potentially dangerous environments in their home countries, said Robert Coover, a literature professor at Brown and an organizer of the festival.

Coover said the presence of Tararith Kho on campus led to the idea of this year's literary festival, "Khmer Voices Rising," which allowed a look at different Khmer-speaking writers from Cambodia, the US and Vietnam.

The festival approached world issues, the historical connection of the US, Vietnam and Cambodia, and, by the last day, focused solely on Cambodia.

Tararith Kho, who was selected from several hundred international nominees, brought to Brown a better understanding of Cambodia's next generation of writers and artists, Coover said. And not only contribute to a better understanding of Cambodia on campus, but helped bring Cambodian-Americans in to create a better sense of community.

Among the Cambodian-Americans drawn to the festival—he by invitation—was hip hop performer Prach Ly.

"I love it," he said, "because I get to network and see these people as ambitious as I am and trying to make a change and making a statement."

Writing and music can contribute to addressing social issues, he said, often subtly.

"I am not directly, you know, leading them," he said. "I'm not saying we need to do this, we need to do that. I'm saying this is the problem. We need a solution for this problem. I'm not a politician. I'm a musician. I am an artist."

Judith Katan, a psychotherapist who drive in for the festival from Connecticut, said she liked to learn from other people's stories, "including the struggles that are going on in Cambodia for people who are trying to be informed and to produce anything."

"I knew about that from the news, but hearing people who tell about that was really moving and sad," she said.

MANILA, Philippines - Cambodia, the only founding member of the Southeast Asian Games not to have hosted the biennial meet, is on line to take its turn in 2019.

Several member countries actually brought up the issue in its meeting in Bali, Indonesia a couple of weeks ago, giving the Cambodians, one of the first countries to participate in the Games' inaugural staging in 1959, ample time to prepare for their first ever hosting.

"It's about time Cambodia, one of the founding members, hosts the SEA Games," said Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia. "I just don't know if they are ready to host their first SEA Games."

Some of the concerns raised are the availability of playing venues and facilities and trimming of the sports calendar similar to the 1999 Brunei Games where they cut the traditional sports events practically by half.

Indonesia will host this year's SEAG in Palembang while, Myanmar will be the next stop in 2013 followed by Singpore in 2015 and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017.

Among the six SEAG founders, Thailand hosted it six times, Malaysia five, Singapore and Manila thrice each, Myanmar twice and Laos once in Vientianne last year.

Cambodia was supposed to host it in 1963 but it backed off at the last minute due to internal problems.

Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a China-funded 176-kilometer- road in the Northwestern part in order to facilitate travelling and trucking agricultural products to markets.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the road No. 57B was held Monday in Battambang province about 350 kilometers northwest of capital Phnom Penh.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, and top government officials, diplomatic corps, locals and students.

The road will facilitate travelling among former-battlefield provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin, the premier said during the ceremony.

"The construction of the road today was resulted from good close cooperation between Cambodia and China," Hun Sen said. " Through the ambassador Pan Guangxue, I'd like to express my sincere thanks to the government and people of China for financial support for this road."

"The road will provide huge economic benefits to our people to truck their agricultural products to markets and facilitate them in travelling easier and faster," he said. "We have been turning the former fighting zones to be a development area."

The premier also asked the ambassador to help attract Chinese investors to the country's agricultural sector through investing in high technology rice mills and warehouses in order to boost Cambodia's economy and to export to China as the two countries has signed the rice and cassava export agreements already.

Meanwhile, the ambassador said that the road will be vital for rural farmers in trucking their products for markets.

"Through the construction of the road, I believe that farmers will increase their farming as it will be easier to truck their products to markets," he said.

"The road is also reflected the attention of Chinese government on Cambodian development and always ready to provide assistance to Cambodia in social and economic development," he added.

According to the master-plan, the construction of the road will cost 89.9 million U.S. dollars, which is the soft loan from the government of China. It will take 48 months to complete.

Bangkok - A group of 263 non-governmental organizations from 51 countries has called on Laos to cancel its proposed hydropower dam project on the Mekong River in Xayaburi province, representatives of the group said Tuesday.

The coalition of environmentalists and civil rights groups sent a letter to Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong Monday urging him to shelve the Xayaburi Dam project at the upcoming meeting of the Mekong River Commission, scheduled for 25-26 March in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

The commission includes the four governments of the countries on the lower parts of the Mekong River - Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Vietnam has already objected to the project in northern Laos on the grounds that it could adversely impact fisheries and soil in its southern delta where the Mekong empties into the South China Sea.

The coalition of NGOs also urged Thailand to cancel plans to buy electricity from the proposed Xayaburi hydropower plant.

'The Thai government considers dams as a type of project that can be harmful to the environment, so how can the Xayaburi Dam be built without questioning and fully understanding how it will impact millions of people basin-wide?' said Chanida Chanyapate Bamford of the group Focus on the Global South.

Since 2009, tens of thousands of people have submitted petitions and letters to the region's prime ministers and to the Mekong River Commission, calling for the Mekong River to remain free-flowing and for Thailand not to purchase electricity from the dam.

'The Xayaburi Dam will trigger an ecological crisis of tremendous proportions,' said Shalmali Guttal of Focus on the Global South. 'We urge the prime ministers of Laos and Thailand to show leadership by cancelling this project.'

The Xayaburi Dam is one of 11 large dams proposed for the Mekong River's lower mainstream.

China has already built four hydropower dams in Yunnan province on the upper mainstream of the Mekong, the longest-waterway in mainland South-East Asia.

According to past reports by the Mekong River Commission, the Xayaburi Dam threatens the extinction of more than 41 fish species, including the critically endangered Mekong Giant Catfish.