KI Media: “Op-Ed by Ven. Hok Savann” plus 24 more

KI Media: “Op-Ed by Ven. Hok Savann” plus 24 more

Op-Ed by Ven. Hok Savann

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 04:02 PM PDT

Op-Ed by Ven. Hok Savann on 21 March 2011

http://www.scribd.com/full/51258058?access_key=key-2cx19hrxnnjf3110ogk2

Tsunami Codolences Letter from COMFREL

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 03:55 PM PDT

Click on the letter to zoom in

(S)election 2013 - Illustration by Orphan Child

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 03:46 PM PDT

SRP MP Mu Sochua's RIGHTS TALK in Hong Kong on 25 March 2011

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 03:42 PM PDT

Imminent defection of former SRP MP Mao Monyvann?

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 03:33 PM PDT

Will Mao Monyvann decide to serve the oppressive regime?
22 March 2011
KI-Media

A source from Phnom Penh informed us that former SRP MP Mao Monyvann, who recently announced his resignation from his position as MP from Kampong Cham province, will soon defect to join the ruling CPP party.

Radio Free Asia reported on 12 March 2011 that Mao Monyvann indicated "that he is not joining any political party and that he will remain with the SRP forever." If indeed, Mao Monyvann were to join the CPP, he would be breaking another promise he made on RFA.

Please stay tune.

Congratulations to Brad Cox: "Who Killed Chea Vichea" won the Special Jury Prize for Investigation and Reporting at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT


Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that on March 15, my movie "Who Killed Chea Vichea?" won the Special Jury Prize for Investigation and Reporting at the International Human Rights Film Festival of Paris.

You guys are doing a great job so please keep up the good work!

Best,
Brad

[Viet] Leader assures Cambodian MPs of friendship [-Thanks, but NO thanks!]

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:55 AM PDT

VNA 18/03/2011 - National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong reiterated Viet Nam's respect for ties with Cambodia while meeting a delegation of the Cambodia-Viet Nam Friendly Parliamentarian Group in Hanoi on March 18.

Trong, who doubles as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV), told the Cambodian guests led by the Group's chief, Men Xom On, that Viet Nam, now as before, has always attached importance to "solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Cambodia, in the interest of the two nations, for peace, stability and development in the region and the world as a whole".

"The Vietnamese Party, State and people have always felt gratitude and highly valued support and assistance from the Party, State and people of Cambodia to the past struggle for national independence and unification as well as national construction at present," emphasised Trong.


For her part, Men Xom On, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Cambodian People's Party Central Committee and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister, expressed admiration at the great achievements recorded by Viet Nam in the renewal process and national development.

She also thanked Viet Nam for its "valuable, sincere and effective" assistance to Cambodia's past struggle for national salvation and revival in the past and during the current national development.

The Cambodian head delegate congratulated CPV for its recent successful Congress and Trong for his new position as CPV General Secretary.

Botched World Bank project leads to evictions

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:49 AM PDT

Mar 22, 2011
By Irwin Loy
Inter Press Services

PHNOM PENH - The World Bank botched the handling of an ambitious multi-million-dollar land-titling project in Cambodia and has done little to protect thousands of people in a lakeside slum from eviction.

That is the finding of the World Bank's inspection panel, the financial institution's main accountability mechanism. Unfortunately the judgement came after local authorities issued final eviction notices to many of the remaining residents of Boeung Kak.

"The claims of the Boeung Kak lake community are serious," Roberto Lenton, the chair of the panel, said in a statement. "The issues raised involve fundamental questions of their land rights and tenure security. the panel found that the evictions took place in violation of the bank policy on involuntary resettlement and resulted in grave harm to the affected families and community."


In a series of reports and statements, the inspection panel ruled that a controversial bank-funded land-titling project failed to protect some 4,000 families living around Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak lake - a low-income community that had grown in the center of the capital following the collapse of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. In doing so, the bank broke many of its own regulations meant to ensure its program would not cause inadvertent harm to local populations.

Many people in this Southeast Asian country still lack basic legal titles to their land, a legacy of the Khmer Rouge, who outlawed private ownership. The bank funded the Land Management and Administration Project, or LMAP, as part of a plan to address Cambodia's lingering land problems.

LMAP has courted controversy by following the government's policy to not issue land titles to some 4,000 families around Boeung Kak lake. The government declared the land to be owned by the state, even though many of residents had lived there for years.

The government later leased the land to a developer. The Chinese-backed developer and local authorities have since told the residents that they must move to make way for a series of office towers and villas on the 133-hectare site.

The World Bank inspection panel ruled that the bank should have followed its safeguards - agreed to by the bank, donor governments and Cambodian authorities at the inception of the project - which would have allowed the residents to argue their cases for land titles. Instead, bank management ignored the residents' claims until it was too late.

"The harm the people have suffered as a result of the evictions and the following displacement. was evident to the panel team," the panel stated in its investigation report. "The panel found no record that bank management raised this issue with the government or project staff until 2009, when the situation had already deteriorated beyond repair."

LMAP managed to issue more than one million land titles to mostly rural residents throughout the country before the government abruptly cancelled the program in 2009, complaining the World Bank had demanded "too many conditions".

But the situation for the families in Boeung Kak shows how the project struggled with its primary goal: to help the government establish an "efficient and transparent" land administration system.

"The Boeung Kak case highlights the failure of LMAP to establish an equitable, transparent and rule-based process for titling decisions," said David Pred, executive director of the advocacy group Bridges Across Borders Cambodia. "In the end, like elsewhere in Cambodia, titling decisions have been made based on the interests and direction of the powerful rather than the rule of law."

In response to the panel report, World Bank management has accepted that LMAP failed to protect the Boeung Kak lake residents, but it says the project itself wasn't responsible for their evictions. For its part, the government has continued to insist that the lake residents are living illegally on state land, and that LMAP should never have covered the community.

It's estimated 1,600 families have already moved from the area, accepting a compensation package totaling $8,500 and which requires giving up any right to the land - far less, critics say, than the land is worth and not enough to start rebuilding their lives.

The remaining residents may soon follow. Earlier this month, authorities issued eviction letters to many of the households that stayed behind.

Along the dusty lanes that trace the edges of the lake, the signs of change are everywhere.

Many of the homes have been torn to the ground, leaving stark patches of floor tiles where buildings once stood.

"I've seen many families taking down their homes and moving," said Simoni Mao, who runs a shop a few lanes back from the eastern shore of the lake.

Mao says he came here in 1992 as his country was beginning to look past two decades of war. He says he bought the land from a local official at the time, long before the government had any major development plans for the area. "If I had known they were going to do this," he said, "I would never have bought land here."

In the meantime, the World Bank has acknowledged that there may be thousands more families facing eviction in areas where LMAP was supposed to be helping. As part of a review of its actions, bank management discovered more than 8,400 other households who could be at risk of eviction.

World Bank predicts 6.5-per-cent growth for Cambodia in 2011

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:44 AM PDT

Mar 21, 2011
DPA

Phnom Penh - Rising exports and a good harvest meant Cambodia enjoyed higher-than-expected growth of 6.7 per cent last year, which was helped along by a weaker dollar and an Asian rebound, the World Bank said Monday.

In its half-yearly economic update for East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank predicted Cambodia's exports would remain strong in 2011 and help the economy grow 6.5 per cent this year to a gross domestic product of 12.7 billion dollars.

The World Bank credited last year's recovery on a good performance from agriculture, which was up 5.3 per cent, and improved garment exports, up nearly a quarter.


Most garments were sent to the United States and European Union. The World Bank said the recovery in the garment and footwear sectors had added more than 55,000 jobs, nearly reversing the numbers lost during the 2008-2009 global economic crisis.

Cambodia's exports were expected to remain strong partly because of preferential tariffs for least-developed countries exporting to the EU, it said.

Cambodia's economy rests on four pillars: agriculture, garment manufacturing, tourism and construction.

The World Bank said higher tourism arrivals, up 16 per cent to 2.5 million tourists last year, had helped boost the economy with receipts of 1.8 billion dollars.

But it warned construction remained sluggish and said the ratio of loans to deposits was static at around 74 per cent, the result of limited lending opportunities.

Foreign investment rose 16 per cent last year, which helped to diversify production and exports. The World Bank singled out a trebling of milled rice exports for particular praise.

Cambodia enjoyed strong annual growth of 6.5 to 13.3 per cent from 2001 to 2008. However, the global economic crisis exposed the country's reliance on its narrow four-pillar economic base.

Cambodia To Establish Electric-Powered Car Plant

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:08 AM PDT

(Photo: AFP)

PHNOM PENH, March 21 (Bernama) -- A local Heng Development Co., and a Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise on Monday signed a joint- venture of US$20 million to build a electric-powered car manufacturing plant branded 'Angkor' in Cambodia, reports Xinhua news agency.

The agreement was inked among Sieng Chan Heng, director general of Heng Development Co., Li Yue Liang, director general of Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise, and a Cambodian innovator Nhean Phaloek, witnessed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam On.

Of the US$20 million joint venture, Heng Development Co., holds 80 percent while Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise holds the rest, said Sieng Chan Heng during the signing ceremony.


"The establishment of the electric-powered plant will be an opportunity for Cambodia to show the world about the works of Cambodia by Cambodian people," she said.

"We hope the Angkor-branded cars will be supported by local customers and in the future, we will expand our sales to overseas markets."

The plant is being built on the land area of 47,000 square meters in Takhmao district of Kandal province, generating 300 jobs. It will be capable to produce between 500 units to 1,000 units a year, with raw materials and spare parts from China, she said, adding that the first production will be available early 2012.

Li Yue Liang, director general of Hong Kong-Chau Leong Enterprise, said that the establishment of the car plant will contribute to the development of Cambodian economy in the long term.

"We hope the government will fully support us in this car production as it will contribute economic growth and reduce poverty," he said.

"The electric-powered car will be environmentally friendly."

Ith Praing, a secretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy, said that the plant will also bring technology transfer from Chinese technicians to local technicians.

"This will be the first car production factory in Cambodia," he said. "The electric-powered cars will help to reduce environmental pollution and reduce reliance on the usage of hiking oil," he said.

The car models and designs will be created by Cambodian innovator Nhean Phaloek.

CCHR supports calls for royal pardon of Sam Rainsy

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 07:51 AM PDT

Cambodian opposition seeks royal pardon for leader

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 07:46 AM PDT

Monday, March 21, 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian opposition lawmakers have asked the king to pardon their exiled leader after he lost a final appeal against a two-year jail sentence, according to a letter seen by AFP on Monday.

Sam Rainsy, who has been living in France, was handed the prison term in his absence last year for inciting racial discrimination and uprooting border markings with neighbouring Vietnam in 2009.

His lawyer said the case was politically motivated, but after exhausting his appeals against the verdict, the outspoken politician was stripped of his parliamentary seat last week.

In a letter dated March 18, Sam Rainsy Party MPs urged King Norodom Sihamoni "to pardon Sam Rainsy... so that he can continue his role as a representative of the Cambodian people and fulfil his duties to serve the nation."


"The absence of Sam Rainsy in the leadership of the second biggest political party in the kingdom of Cambodia will affect the development of a democratic and multi-party system," they wrote.

Sam Rainsy faces a total of 12 years in prison if he returns to Cambodia, after a court late last year also sentenced him to 10 years for publishing a false map of the border with Vietnam in a separate case.

The opposition party and rights groups have in the past said the convictions were an attempt to keep Sam Rainsy from taking part in Cambodia's national election in 2013.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann told AFP the lawmakers were forced to seek "intervention from the king" because their leader had been "unfairly treated" by the judiciary and the parliament.

Sam Rainsy is seen as the main rival to Prime Minister Hun Sen, 59, who has ruled the country since 1985 and has vowed to remain in power until he is 90 years old.

In Cambodia, royal pardons are usually granted following a request from the premier, but Hun Sen said in a speech earlier this year that he would not support a pardon for Sam Rainsy.

KD's Open Letter to PM

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 06:03 AM PDT

Open Letter to Prime Minister

Mr. Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Kingdom of Wonder

Re: Cambodia is an Island of Stability akin to Prince Sihanouk's Island of Peace


Prime Minister,

I wanted to drop a quick note to acknowledge how under your leadership Cambodia is an Island of Stability, similar to Prince Sihanouk's Island of Peace.

In Cambodia, we have stability, yes we do:

- stability of poverty of the body: mass poverty, dirt poverty, grinding poverty is not going anywhere; it's here to stay. Your policy of poverty stability is working grandly. It's really incredible how with the countless BILLIONS of U.S. dollars pouring into tiny Cambodia, it has not changed the status of the poor; you stabilized poverty!

- stability of poverty of the mind: impunity, violence, corruption, deep-seeded vengeance (kum), domestic abuse, prostitution, low expectations, low self-esteem, human trafficking – yes, I acknowledge they are all here to stay for a long time because of your policy conditioning it, encouraging it, entrenching it.

- stability of poverty of the spirit: fear, terrifying fear – it's here to stay. Stabilized. Not going anywhere. Your policy makes sure of that. It must be your Khmer Rouge upbringing, as FEAR IS THE WEAPON OF ALL GENOCIDAL REGIMES. Another page of the Khmer Rouge Handbook that you still use is to desecrate religion; you have successfully POLITICIZED religion. Okay, maybe a bit different than the Khmer Rouge in they just outright banned and killed religion. But you are reformed Khmer Rouge; you let it live but shamefully, desecrating the sacred.

- stability of your friends in Laos, Burma, North Korea: the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless are going nowhere; the policies of stability make sure of that.

- stability akin to Prince Sihanouk's Island of Peace: do you remember how peaceful it was? Remember Samlaut? Remember Prince Sihanouk's fate? Remember March 1970?

But, as the Arabs are reminding and demonstrating to us: the only certainty, the only stability we can be sure of is CHANGE. Brace your turn, Prime Minister.

Yours sincerely,

Khmer Democrat
Phnom Penh
Kingdom of (even greater) Wonder

PM Hun Sen's Political Gambling or Miscalculation?

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 12:41 AM PDT



Monday, March 21, 2011
Op-Ed by Khmer Academy
However, the lack of transparency on the Eastern border demarcation, the ongoing land grabbing and forced eviction, and the mistreatment of the opposition leader are creating excessive bitterness and are putting enormous pressure on the non-partisan liberals to join the hardline nationalists.
The recent sacking of the opposition leader, Mr. Sam Rainsy, from the National Assembly has raised many eyebrows among the so-called non-partisan liberals, who have until now advocated non-violent solutions to resolve the nation political and social issues. The sacking, which is widely seen as unjust and politically motivated, couldn't have come at a worse time when the government of many Arab countries are bracing for widespread people rebellions.

Not so long ago, Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly stated that he wanted the opposition not just weakened but dead. It is unclear how he intends to achieve his wish, and if he even has the means to carry it out. However, one thing we are all clear about is no matter what the government do, the opposition will never die. The Prime Minister is making a grave mistake if he thinks that he can marginalize or silence the opposition by barring Mr. Rainsy from politics.

What PM Hun Sen should worry is not the presence, but rather the absence of Mr. Rainsy from politics. Most political analysts or observers would agree that Mr. Rainsy's leadership and approach over the years have been very pacific, too pacific perhaps. Many nationalists would prefer to see Mr. Rainsy adopt a more aggressive stand toward the government, which includes the establishment of a government in exile or underground movement for armed confrontation.


Barring Mr. Rainsy from politics will have unpredictable and devastating consequences for the government and the country. If and as Mr. Rainsy fades away from his current role, a new generation of young leaders will definitely emerge to replace him. Any young leader at the helm of the opposition is likely more keen to take the risks and pursue a more aggressive path.

PM Hun Sen should also realize that his government has managed to maintain the current level of stability in the country mainly because up to now the so-called non-partisan liberals, predominantly consist of young, educated, intellectual and professional, have not yet given reason to numerous appeals by the hardline nationalists to organize and stage social unrests.

However, the lack of transparency on the Eastern border demarcation, the ongoing land grabbing and forced eviction, and the mistreatment of the opposition leader are creating excessive bitterness and are putting enormous pressure on the non-partisan liberals to join the hardline nationalists.

The current social uprising in the Arab countries definitely creates a favourable condition for the opposition. In the coming weeks and months, the opposition will have several key options to evaluate for its future and the future of the country. As for the government, it would be wise and prudent to revisit their decision, and consider the reinstatement of Mr. Rainsy's parliamentary status and rights while they still can. In the present situation, the Royal Palace is probably the best venue for the government and the opposition to settle their political differences.

SRP asks the king to pardon opposition leader Sam Rainsy

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 12:29 AM PDT

21 March 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

24 SRP MPs signed a joint letter on 18 March 2011, asking King Sihamoni to pardon opposition leader Sam Rainsy so that he may return back to Cambodia. The letter indicated that Sam Rainsy's sentence is unfair because Sam Rainsy's actions are to serve the country and the nation, therefore, he should not receive the sentences issued against him. The letter added that the absence of Sam Rainsy to lead the 2nd largest political party in Cambodia affects the multi-plural democratic system in Cambodia. The letter also indicated the pardon for Sam Rainsy will help him receive his position and his rights as a Member of Parliament back.

Kem Sokha: SRP formulas are to gobble up [the HRP] party

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:39 PM PDT

21 March 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soch

Kem Sokha, HRP President, called the two formulas by the SRP for the merger of the two parties is a goal to gobble up the HRP by the SRP. In a reply letter to the two formulas proposed by opposition leader Sam Rainsy issued yesterday, Kem Sokha wrote: "For the two formulas that Your Excellency proposed in your letter, the HRP believes that these formulas are not wide open integration whereby the national interest primes over the party interest. To the contrary, these formulas only want to gobble up the HRP to make it part of the SRP so that the SRP can distribute positions [to the HRP]." Kem Sokha added: "Therefore, the HRP once again stresses on the common standing to merge the parties, i.e. the goal to merge the parties is to unite the force of the nationalists into a major force first before becoming a major democratic movement to win over the current ruling party."

The Libyan "Iron Fist" is about to keel over: A WARNING to the Cambodian Iron Fist?

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:16 PM PDT

Squaring Off With Libya's Iron Fist

March 18, 2011
By ALAN COWELL
The New York Times

PARIS — Almost from the minute he seized power in 1969 as he and a group of other young officers toppled Libya's monarchy, Muammar el-Qaddafi has displayed an overwhelming urge to secure the world's attention — often as not through maverick support of violent groups committed to overthrowing the existing order.

Over time, in the quest for acknowledgement as a leader not only of his own people but also of much broader constituencies, he has sought the mantle of pan-Arab champion and pan-African redeemer, often as not uninvited. His armies have crossed his neighbors' frontiers, and he has spent part of his country's vast oil wealth on alliances with lands the West calls pariahs and with groups labeled terrorists. In 2003, a dramatic about-face even found him courting the United States and Britain in his quest for recognition as a statesman.

In the last month, though, Colonel Qaddafi's desire for the center stage has been fulfilled in a spectacular fashion that he probably neither coveted nor imagined as his forces sought to roll back an uprising that had once harbored the same dreams of revolution in his own country as those that unseated the elites in Libya's neighbors, Tunisia and Egypt.


Indeed, by some unpredictable law of unintended consequences, Colonel Qaddafi may have made a greater contribution to history than many would have forecast, rewriting the region's playbook in a game-changing way that, after the vote at the United Nations late Thursday authorizing the imposition of a no-flight zone, could draw the West into yet another conflict in the Muslim world and resonate among autocracies from the Mediterranean to the Gulf. (In response, Libya declared a cease-fire, but that produced some skepticism. In the words of a British lawmaker, "this is a regime that needs to be judged by its deeds, not its words.")

And, in some ways, Colonel Qaddafi may already have achieved significant goals, including his own survival. Until revolt began to simmer in Libya in mid-February, the Arab world's young and disaffected protesters seemed sustained by the vision of a future in which, like dominoes, their oppressors would tumble with the same swift dispatch as Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt.

All it took, it seemed, was to marshal forces on the street, shed the fear ingrained by hated autocrats and rely on social networking sites to keep alive the faith that persuaded a generation of young Arabs to confront elders seen to have failed them.

But Libya offered a different model. Regimes, it seems, do not have to fall just because people raise the volume of their demands that they be gone.

Regimes can fight back. They can use real force — warplanes, tanks and artillery. They can meet the clamor for democracy with bullets and armor.

Just this week, Bahrain allowed 2,000 soldiers from its neighbors' armed forces, mainly from Saudi Arabia, to bolster its own security establishment in confronting an uprising against the monarchy, flushing protesters out of Pearl Square — the urban arena that would-be revolutionaries had likened to Tahrir Square in Cairo as the incubator of their revolt.

In Yemen, too, the security forces have seemed increasingly ready to use lethal force.

Each country in the region has a different dynamic, of course, but, compared with the early days of the uprisings, when the Arab world seemed gripped by the perceived inevitability of revolutionary contagion, the impetus for change has eased, as if the barriers erected by Colonel Qaddafi had turned back a broader tide, heartening unelected rulers and giving their adversaries pause.

In Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria and Libya, kings and presidents have survived the stirrings of dissent. Where the militaries of Tunisia and Egypt once seemed to side with the protesters — if only by promising not to shoot them — that promise has been replaced by the recourse to armed might and the fine-tuning of repression in a swath of lands.

Initially, too, Western powers, caught off balance by the protests, sought to remain aloof as the back-to-back upheavals in Tunisia in January and in Egypt a month later dethroned leaders who had served as allies for decades. But the spectacle of Libya's vengeful forces advancing this week across the same desert reaches contested by Rommel and Montgomery in World War II seemed to galvanize a change of heart: Hands-off was no longer an option.

There has been a "sea change in opinion," the U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, said while visiting Cairo, referring primarily to calls for a no-flight zone over Libya, which won the unexpected and unusual support of the Arab League — an unlikely and reluctant advocate of foreign military intervention.

Perhaps, though, her remark was eloquent of a dawning recognition that the failure to contain Colonel Qaddafi would have much broader consequences for the West's stake in oil-rich lands, such as Libya itself, as the region's kaleidoscope turns.

The calculation seemed particularly relevant to the conflict between ruler and ruled in the Gulf, conjuring sectarian ghosts and regional rivalries that seemed absent a few weeks ago.

The involvement of the Saudi military in Bahrain has drawn a clear battle line not just between monarchies and marchers, but also between Sunni Muslim elites and the region's restive Shiites, who form the majority of the population in Bahrain and whose faith allies them with the Shiite leadership in Iran — another land that, like Libya, has shown scant tolerance of dissent.

"Saudi Arabia's dangerous quasi-invasion of Bahrain is a reminder that Libya is very far from being the only place where hopes are being stifled," the columnist Seumas Milne wrote in The Guardian, a British newspaper. "The Saudi regime fears both the influence of Iran and the infection of its own repressed Shia minority — concentrated in the eastern region, center of the largest oil reserves in the world."

Yet, "across the region people insist they have lost their fear," Mr. Milne said, adding: "All the signs are that, sooner or later, the dominoes will fall."

That confident prediction, so widespread a few weeks ago, is precisely what Colonel Qaddafi has set his face — and his armed forces — against.

Allies intensify air assault as Libyan rebels regroup in east

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:06 PM PDT

03/20/2011
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times

TRIPOLI, Libya -- U.S. and European forces intensified their barrage of Moammar Gadhafi's forces by air and sea Sunday, a day after an initial U.S. cruise missile barrage badly damaged Libyan air defenses, military officials said.

In a first assessment from Washington, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the first day of "operations yesterday went very well." Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," he said a no-fly zone over Libya to ground Gadhafi's warplanes -- a prime goal of the attacks -- was "effectively" in place and that a loyalist advance on the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi had been halted.

U.S. warplanes became more involved Sunday, with B-2 stealth bombers, F-16 and F-15 fighter jets and Harrier attack jets flown by the Marine Corps striking at Libyan ground forces, air defenses and airfields, while Navy electronic warplanes, EA-18G Growlers, jammed Libyan radar and communications. British planes flew frequent bombing missions, and French forces remained heavily involved in patrol and airstrike missions near Benghazi, officials said.


Inside Gadhafi's huge Tripoli compound, an administration building was hit and badly damaged late Sunday. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said half of the round, three-story building was knocked down, smoke was rising from it and pieces of a cruise missile were scattered around.

Rebel forces, battered and routed by loyalist fighters just the day before, began to regroup in the east as allied warplanes destroyed dozens of government armored vehicles near the rebel capital, Benghazi, leaving a field of burned wreckage along the coastal road to the city. By nightfall, the rebels had pressed almost 40 miles back west toward the strategic crossroads city of Ajdabiya, witnesses and rebel forces said. They seemed to consolidate control of Benghazi despite heavy fighting there against loyalist forces Saturday.

A day after a summit meeting in Paris set the military operation in motion, some Arab participants in the agreement expressed unhappiness with the way the strikes were unfolding. The former chairman of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, told Egyptian state media that he was calling for an emergency Arab League meeting.

"What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," he said, referring to Libyan government claims that allied bombardment had killed dozens of civilians.

In assessing the results for the military mission so far, Mullen said the allies had made great progress toward their short-term military roles. "We hit a lot of targets, focused on his command and control, focused on his air defense, and actually attacked some of his forces on the ground in the vicinity of Benghazi," Mullen told Fox News.

But it remained unclear just how those short-term military objectives -- establishing a no-fly zone and protecting Libyan civilians, as mandated by U.N. Security Council -- aligned with the political objectives of the Obama administration. Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have said in recent days that Gadhafi must go.

Mullen said the military was focused only on the mission given to it by Obama and the United Nations, protecting Libyan civilians from attack and opening up humanitarian relief, by whatever means necessary. He did not mention ousting Gadhafi or arming the Libyan rebels as an objective.

That left Christiane Amanpour of ABC's "This Week" to ask if it was possible that Gadhafi could end up remaining in office, with the allies operating a no-flight zone over Libya for 12 years, as happened with Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

"I think circumstances will drive where this goes in the future," Mullen said. "I wouldn't speculate in terms of length at this particular point in time."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. expects to turn control of the mission over to a coalition -- probably headed either by the French and British or by NATO -- "in a matter of days."

Late Sunday, however, NATO's top decision-making body failed to agree on a plan to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya, although it did approve a military plan to implement a U.N. arms embargo.

In Libya, Gadhafi delivered a fresh and defiant tirade against the allied military action Sunday, pledging retaliation and saying his forces would fight a long war to victory. He was speaking in a telephone call to state TV. The Libyan leader has not been seen in public since the United States and European countries began their strikes.

"We will fight you if you continue your attacks on us," Gadhafi said. "Those who are on the land will win the battle," he declared, warning without explanation that "oil will not be left to the United States, France and Britain."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cambodia not ready to resume adoptions: UNICEF

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:58 PM PDT

March 21, 2011
ABC Radio Australia

The United States is working to resume the processing of adoption applications of children from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Inter-country adoptions are suspended with thesecountries because of concerns related to fraud and the inhumane buying and selling of children.

The US Special Adviser to the Office of Children's Issues will meet with Cambodian and Vietnamese officials this week to discuss progress made to comply with international obligations.

Presenter: Kate McPherson
Speaker: Dr Diane Kunz, director, Center for Adoption Policy, United States; Richard Bridle, UNICEF Representative to Cambodia

20 "mysterious" joint agricultural projects with Vietnam - Anybody knows what their details?

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:42 PM PDT

Vietnam, Cambodia joint agricultural agreement

Monday, March 21, 2011
Australia Network News

The joint-projects cover the areas of agricultural science and technology, quarantine, forestry and seafood.

Vietnam and Cambodia are planning to collaborate on more than 20 projects worth more than US$17 million.

Vietnamese officials say the joint projects, which will run until 2020, cover the areas of agricultural science and technology, quarantine, forestry and seafood.

There will be strengthened collaboration on controlling disease outbreaks along the countries' shared border as well as forest management and timber trading.

Vietnam has agreed to help fund an aquating breeding development project and to help build a seafood research institute in Kampot province.

Cambodia has agreed to a deal to grow rubber and industrial trees on its land.

Brain Food

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:32 PM PDT

The best index to a person's character is
(a) how s/he treats people who can't do him any good and
(b) how s/he treats people who can't fight back.
- Abigail Van Buren

Burmese Army ‘Demoralized’ and Under ‘Great Strain’

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:31 PM PDT

March 21, 2011
By David Calleja
Foreign Policy Journal

Burma's pro-military parliament has passed a new law paving the way for compulsory service in the Burmese Army for up to five years in the case of a state of emergency.

The Public Service Military Law requires both men and women to serve in the Burmese Army, or Tatmadaw, regardless of ethnicity. Rebel groups have repeatedly refused to sign up to the military's Border Guard Force (BGF) plan, giving the Burmese Army control over all armed groups, in exchange for an end to the numerous conflicts in Burma.

Foreign Policy Journal has obtained an unofficial English translation of the law, signed by Senior-General Than Shwe on November 4, 2010. However, it is unclear whether the regulations are now active.

Dr. Nicholas Farrelly from the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific has told Foreign Policy Journal that the law served as a reminder of the Burmese military's ability to terrorize civilians and extract bribes from families.


Conscription of ethnic minorities, Dr. Farrelly added, could also be "a potential trigger for all-out war."

Human rights activists have criticized the new law as being divisive and say that it will split Burma along ethnic boundaries, as well as cause a mass exodus of young people from the country.

The Burma Campaign United Kingdom's Zoya Phan told Foreign Policy Journal that the new law was a sign that the Burmese Army "are demoralized, worried about their strength and are under greater strain than we realize." She warned, however, that young people would flee to Thailand to avoid being detained.

Ms. Phan also said that Burma Campaign UK was "skeptical" of reports that the Burmese Army currently has 400,000 soldiers. More ethnic groups were refusing to sign up to the Border Force Guard agreement, the latest being the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) 5th Brigade, a splinter group of the Burmese Army operating in Karen State, Ms. Phan said.

Under the new laws, men between 18 and 35 years must serve up to three years mandatory military service and women between 18 and 27 years will be required to serve up to two years. Human Rights Watch reported in 2007 that under the Conscription Act of 1959, "both men and women served a period between six months and two years, but women were not recruited."

The issue of forced child recruitment, however, remains a concern.

In 2009, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers advised the United Nations that Burma's State Peace and Development Council (SDPC) recruited and used "thousands of children" in 2008 and continued to be amongst the most notable offenders of forced child recruitment practices (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2009, pp. 1-2). Burma-based human rights activist and lawyer Aye Myint told Radio Free Asia in 2010 that 121 incidents of forced recruitment had been reported in 2009 (Radio Free Asia, 2010).

Sold to Be Soldiers, an in-depth investigation into the use of children in the Burmese Army and rebel groups throughout Burma, was published by Human Rights Watch in 2007. The report expressed concern over the likelihood of children becoming "vulnerable to forcible recruitment in light of increasing desertions within the Burmese Army and its intensified recruitment drives an in-depth investigation into the forced recruitment of children in the Burmese Army" (Human Rights Watch, 2007, p. 75).

The report contained testimony from former members of the Burmese Army and ex-child soldiers about the recruitment practices and systematic use and abuse of minors in the military, including beatings, denial of food and water, and slavery.

In March 2010, a Burmese Army defector, Maung Shwe (not his real name), told the Burma Campaign UK that he was inducted against his will aged 15 in 2003. He said that he was forced to take "energy pills" which made him "aggressive", resulting in him being forced to destroy villages. He claimed that 30 of the 230 soldiers in his unit were forcibly taken and recruited, and said that child soldier populations in other battalions were around 50 per cent, possibly more.

After a previous unsuccessful attempt to escape, Maung eventually fled the army in February 2010, but fears recapture and a 40 year imprisonment if caught by authorities.
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David Calleja graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science and Master of Social Science from RMIT University in his home city of Melbourne, Australia. He has taught English in China, Thailand, South Korea and Cambodia, where he worked for a local NGO, Sorya, based in Tropang Sdok village. In addition he has also volunteered as a kindergarten English teacher, tutor and a football coach to male orphan students in Loi Tailang, Shan State. He has narrated and produced a video biography of Cambodian students learning English entitled I Like My English Grilled. His video documenting life at Stung Meanchey, Cambodia, A Garbage Life, can be viewed online. Contact him at david_calleja@foreignpolicyjournal.com. Read more articles by David Calleja.

From a victim of the Khmer Rouge to being a crony of a ruthless Khmer Rouge dictator: Kith Meng

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:25 PM PDT

Kith Meng, who as an orphaned child slept with pigs on a farm in Thailand, is now known as a sharp and sometimes ruthless businessman in Cambodia. Source: The Australian
Royal Group's joint venture with ANZ has done well. Source: The Australian

Royal connections

March 21, 2011
Sian Powell
The Australian

BACK then, he was a skinny little kid, looking for his family in a nation devastated by the Khmer Rouge. He had been forcibly separated from his parents in a distant commune years before, later discovering they had starved to death. After the fall of the brutal regime, he and an older brother somehow made it to Phnom Penh. It was 1980. Kith Meng was maybe 11 years old.

Thirty years later, with a decade living, learning and working in Australia under his belt, followed by a meteoric business ascent in Cambodia, Kith Meng is a power to be reckoned with. Chairman and chief executive of the Royal Group, the largest privately owned conglomerate in Cambodia, he has his fingers in many of the nation's growth industries – fast food, television, telecommunications, insurance, rail and banking. The group recently negotiated a $US591 million loan from a Chinese bank to restructure its debt and buy new technology. On paper he is a multi-millionaire, possibly even a billionaire. And he has the ear of Cambodia's famously xenophobic and strong-arm prime minister, Hun Sen.

Slight, and beautifully dressed in a white shirt, navy suit and polished black shoes, Kith Meng is courteous and affable. Yet he has been viciously uprooted not once, but many times. From the day he was born in September 1968, his life was shadowed by war. His father, Kith Peng Ike, was a "class enemy", a well-off businessman, feared, hated and targeted by the Khmer Rouge communists who were fighting to rule Cambodia.


When Kith Meng was a little boy, the Khmer Rouge finally came to power and forced all bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, clerks and educators, officials and technocrats out of offices and into the countryside, with the idea of setting up an agrarian utopia. Arbitrary executions and torture were routine. He remembers being kicked out of his home in Kandal province, near Phnom Penh, in 1975 and, with his mother and father, being made to walk 300 kilometres to a commune where the family was separated. "The parents go with the parents, the children with the children," he says. "We were split up."

After the Khmer Rouge regime, Kith Meng and older brother Kith Thieng (now vice-president of the Royal Group) struck out on their own and eventually made it to Thailand. "They put us in a pig farm at Suan Plu," he says, shaking his head. "We slept with the pigs ... we no longer existed; we had no state, nothing."

In 1980, they were found in a refugee camp and brought to Australia by their elder brother Sophan Kith. Kith Meng went to Melba secondary school in the outer suburbs of Canberra, where life wasn't easy for a Cambodian boy with little English. "In Canberra, it's very cold. You deliver pamphlets to earn your living; you walk. You feel you are very alone. I worked for an Indian restaurant as the dishwasher and I cleaned a fruit market on Sundays. I mowed lawns."

Today he has Australian citizenship, a house in Canberra and relatives who live there. He visits occasionally. Sophan Kith returned to Cambodia and in 1991 his two younger brothers joined him. They began work catering for the UN and their company had a franchise to sell Canon copiers. Still in his 20s, Kith Meng took control of the Royal Group when Sophan Kith died from hepatitis. Now the president of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, he carries the title of "Neak Oknha", granted by royal decree to generous donors. He works long hours and rarely takes a holiday. He is known as a sharp and sometimes ruthless businessman, an early mover, a risk-taker and an operator who takes full advantage of his close connection to Hun Sen.

These days, Cambodia is considered to have significant business potential. Entrepreneurs appreciate Cambodia's ease of doing business, its liberal trading regime and its relative political stability. It is a member of ASEAN and has joined the World Trade Organisation.

Yet there are significant drawbacks. Infrastructure is minimal and Cambodia ranked equal 154th out of 178 countries
in last year's Transparency International corruption perceptions index. Kith Meng says Cambodia has a different culture and that the term "corruption" is difficult to define. "You have to remember that Cambodia is recently developed."

"Before, there were problems with the formation of government. Yet the Australian government isn't really stable [either]," he says, in reference to the independent MPs whose support is so necessary to Julia Gillard's government.

The Royal Group has strong links to Australia. It has a joint venture with Toll Holdings – called Toll Royal – which last year won the concession to run the Cambodian railways, and another joint venture with ANZ bank, named ANZ Royal, which has flourished in Cambodia for five years. The Royal Group is the junior partner in both cases. No one from either firm will talk about Kith Meng.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, has tried to negotiate with Kith Meng and the Royal Group to stop Cambodians being thrown out of their homes on newly purchased land. "He's a cutthroat business operator," he says. "That's the reality. He doesn't entertain any of the suggestions we make. He's willing to do what he has to do to get what he wants. He doesn't hesitate.

"He's quick on his feet, trying to do many things at the same time. He's very aggressive. He's stamped on many people's toes, and probably worse than that. It is fair to say his connection with Hun Sen and the government is not just friendly relations. There are business interests in being close to the government."

Kith Meng says he does often travel with Hun Sen, representing Cambodia's interests abroad, but the suggestion that he sits in on cabinet meetings makes him laugh. He denies having much influence with the PM: "I'm just a businessman. He knows me and I know him. He's the leader of the country. Of course we must know him and respect him."

The suggestion that he, Kith Meng, might one day stand for office also makes him laugh. "No, I like what I'm doing. Leave politics to the politicians."

He is happy to have helped shape booming Cambodia, now a nation with solid economic growth, a thriving business community and a prosperous, harmonious populace. Kith Meng smiles again. "I feel that I have contributed something to the country and to the people. I am very proud of what I have achieved here, to be able to develop a company that gives jobs to the people. If my parents were here, they would be happy."

Celebrating Rights, Dignity, Contribution of Women

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:22 PM PDT

CEDAW

signed by Cambodia in 17 Oct. 1980, acceded to on 15 Oct. 1992

 
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

PART III
Article 10

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training;

(b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and school premises and equipment of the same quality;

(c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programs and the adaptation of teaching methods;

(d) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study grants;

(e) The same opportunities for access to programs of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programs, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between men and women;

(f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programs for girls and women who have left school prematurely;

(g) The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education;

(h) Access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family planning.

Prof. Ieng Mala's comment: Cambodian solidarity around the Preah Vihear event

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:11 PM PDT

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