KI Media: “China leading investments in some fields in Cambodia: official” plus 24 more

PHNOM PENH, Apr. 5, 2011 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China has been leading in the investments in Cambodia's three sectors including hydro-power dams, mineral resources, garment industry, Ith Praing, secretary of state of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said here on Tuesday.

During a meeting with the visiting Vice-Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, Zhang Xiaoqiang, Ith Praing said that five Chinese firms have invested total of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars to construct five hydro-electric dams with the total capacity of 915 megawatts in Cambodia.

There are 23 Chinese firms exploring mineral resources such as metallic minerals, titanium, bauxites, and copper in Cambodia, he said, adding that also hundreds of garment factories in Cambodia are invested by Chinese.

"These sectors, especially the investment in hydropower dams, will be much contributed to the long-term development of Cambodia' s economy,"he said, adding"we have observed that all investments from China are good, all projects are active."

"For hydro-power dams, all the five dams being constructed are expected to complete on schedule,"he said, adding"and for mineral resources, some have finished their exploration process and now are applying for exploitation license."

Meanwhile, Zhang said that his visit to Cambodia is to observe the Chinese firms operating in Cambodia and encourage them to strengthen and expand their investment here in order to help Cambodia in its efforts of national development.

"China always gives attention to assist Cambodia in its process to develop its nation,"he said, adding"we are willing to strengthen our cooperation with Cambodia on these above mentioned sectors and also to diversify to other sectors, especially agriculture."

Zhang also said that China is also impressed with the development of special economic zones in Cambodia and pledged to attract Chinese investors to set up manufacturing factories in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone.

China is the largest investors in Cambodia with the accumulative investment of 8 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2010, according to a report of the Council for the Development of Cambodia.

India, Cambodia, Pakistan are interested in supplying the Philippines with additional rice volume should the Aquino administration need more rice for reasons of food security.

"These are just preliminary discussions. We got assurance that whenever we want to go to market, they are more than willing to provide us the volume we need," National Food Authority (NFA) head Angelito Banayo said in an interview on Tuesday.

NFA representatives met with those of the Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries last week to discuss a possible rice supply deal.

Banayo said he will meet with the ambassador of Cambodia this Wednesday, possibly for another rice negotiation.

Cambodia has 15 million people, and has surplus rice that interested countries could buy, according to the NFA head.

He did not specify the stage of talks with India and Pakistan.

The Philippines has an existing rice supply agreement with Vietnam for up to 1.5 million metric tons (MT) of the staple. A memorandum of agreement, recently renewed by both governments, is on until 2013 when the Philippines expects to be self sufficient in rice.

Apart from Vietnam, the NFA earlier said that a draft memorandum of agreement for a similar rice supply deal with Thailand is up for President Aquino's signature.

Vietnam and Thailand are traditional sources of imported rice for the Philippines. Due to its import volume in recent years, the Philippines has been as the world's top importer the commodity.

The Philippines will import 860,000 MT this year, of which 200,000 MT has already been sourced from Vietnam in a government-to-government agreement under the supply contract between the two countries.

The remaining volume of 660,000 MT shall be brought in by private traders and farmers' groups in two separate tenders — one in March, the other only last Monday.

When Aquino administration took over the reins of government, the Department of Agriculture said it will try to wipe out rice imports and rely on local production by 2013.

Banayo said rice imports this year may go up if palay production from January to June does not meet the projected production increase of 15.3 percent.

"It will be a different story if the Agricultural Statistics Bureau and the Inter-Agency on Rice and Corn tell us to buy more and if the President tells us to shore up the local supply for reasons of food security," he added.

(VOV) - A delegation from the Vietnamese National Assembly (NatAss) Office, led by its head Tran Dinh Dan, concluded a four-day visit to Cambodia on April 5.

The visit was aimed at carrying out a NatAss-funded VND23 billion project to help Cambodia National Assembly to build information technology infrastructure which was approved in 2010. It was also expected to open up opportunities for cooperation between the Vietnamese NA Office and the Cambodian NA Secretariat.

On April 4, the delegation met with Cambodian NA Chairman Heng Samrin who said he was delighted at the development of Cambodia-Vietnam relationships, especially in economics, trade, investment, and tourism.

Mr. Heng Samrin also expressed thanks to the Vietnamese Party, State, and People for helping Cambodia escape from the genocide and develop the country.

He called on the Cambodian and Vietnamese National Assemblies to strengthen ties for their people's interest of their people.

Mr. Dan pledged to promote cooperation with the Cambodian NA Secretariat and assist the Cambodian NA with personnel training.

He also expressed his hope that the Cambodian NA will successfully organize the 32nd ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA 32) in September.

BANGKOK, April 5 (MCOT online news) - Thailand's Supreme Commander Gen Songkitti Jaggabatara on Tuesday said that Thai army officers will not attend the Thai-Cambodian General Border Committee (GBC) meeting taking place in Indonesia and that Indonesian observers will not be allowed to be present at the disputed Thai-Cambodian border.

The supreme commander announced Thailand's stance after meeting commanders of Thailand's three armed services as Indonesia, as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), called for both the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) and GBC meetings to be held on Thursday and Friday in Bogor, Indonesia.

The arrangement was part of an agreement to settle the boundary conflict between the two ASEAN neighbours and included a plan to dispatch Indonesian observers to the disputed area adjacent to the ancient Preah Vihear temple.

Gen Songkitti stated that the Thai army will not attend the upcoming GBC meeting in Indonesia as both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 1995 that the border meeting, chaired by the defence ministers of the two countries, were to be held annually on a bilateral basis and that Thailand and Cambodia would take turns as host.

"The military adheres to the commitment that the two neighbours have made over the bilateral talk basis," said Gen Songkitti. "Besides, the United Nations Security Council resolution and the meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers stated clearly that Thailand and Cambodia should hold talk bilaterally under existing mechanism."

The Thai supreme commander added that the Thai army is ready to attend the GBC meeting in Cambodia when the right time and place comes.

"If the army attends the meeting in Indonesia, this means it does not follow the 1995 MoU and the army cannot do so as it needs parliamentary approval on the matter," said Gen Songkitti.

Gen Songkitti however said Thailand is willing to host the GBC meeting if Cambodia is not ready to hold the meeting.

Gen Songkitti reiterated that the presence of another country's troops means that Thailand's sovereignty is violated.

PHNOM PENH, April 5, 2011 (AFP) - Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court is expected to dismiss two new cases against Khmer Rouge suspects in the face of ongoing political pressure, tribunal observers said Tuesday.

The court, dogged by allegations of political interference and strapped for cash, has yet to announce whether it will go ahead with a third and fourth case against five unnamed members of the brutal 1975-1979 regime.

But court monitors say a decision is expected in the next few weeks.

"Right now, all of the information we have suggests an imminent dropping of the cases against these five suspects," Clair Duffy from the rights group Open Society Justice Initiative told AFP.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen - himself a mid-level Khmer Rouge cadre before turning against the movement - has repeatedly voiced opposition to further trials, saying they could plunge the country back into civil war.

Late last year, the premier even told visiting United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon that new cases were "not allowed".

"Any decision to dismiss these cases will have profound implications for the legacy of this court," said Duffy.

She added the move "may just show to the world that even with UN-backing and international funding, the Cambodian government could still control the court's docket".

Anne Heindel, a legal advisor to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities, said if the cases were dropped, the international community would have to shoulder some of the blame.

"Neither the UN nor state donors have vocally supported the court's judicial independence in the face of bellicose government statements," she told AFP.

In its landmark first case, the court sentenced former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, to 30 years in jail in July for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people.

Both the defence and the prosecution appealed against the punishment last week and a ruling is expected in late June.

The tribunal also indicted four of the regime's most senior surviving leaders, including "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, over the deaths of up to two million people. Their joint trial is due to start later this year.

Cambodian and international co-prosecutors have openly disagreed on whether the court should go after five more suspects.

"The investigation in cases three and four is ongoing and remains confidential," said tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen, who dismissed Duffy's words as "pure speculation and gossip".

A widow who claims her daughter was raped, beaten and deprived of food over a seven-month period by two separate employers in Malaysia yesterday appealed to the Cambodian government to intervene.

Srey Sophal, 66, from Svay Rieng province, requested that government officials tell Phnom Penh-based recruitment agency Champa Manpower Group to allow her daughter to return to Cambodia.

Speaking at a press conference held by opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua, Srey Sophal said her daughter had been sent by the company to work at a house in Malaysia where she was raped twice on March 29 and 30 by her employer's father.

"They threatened that if my daughter told someone about this, they would beat my daughter until she dies," she said.

"I would like to appeal to the government and parliamentarians to please help to liberate my daughter. Champa Manpower Company said that if I want to have my daughter back, I must have US$1,500-$2,000 to redeem to the house owner."

Srey Sophal said her daughter first travelled to Malaysia last September to work at a house where she claimed she was beaten and deprived of food before being sent to a second employer, where the alleged rape took place.

"My daughter called me to say that they mistreated her," said Srey Sophal, adding that her daughter had contacted the Malaysian police.

"They beat my daughter. They locked my daughter in a room, depriving her of rice."

Champa Manpower Group was temporarily banned from recruiting new workers by the Ministry of Labour in July last year following a raid on three villas owned by the firm in the capital's Chroy Changvar commune, in which 232 women were discovered living in squalid conditions.

Sa Ith Nory, a representative from Champa Manpower Group, said yesterday that the woman could not return home until her two-year contract was completed.

"We must talk with my boss," said Sa Ith Nory.

He added that the owner of Champa Manpower had flown to Malaysia to investigate the accusations.

"I am not sure that [the rape] is true or not," he said.

"Sometimes it is created, sometimes it is real." Mu Sochua said yesterday that she had contacted the Malaysian Embassy in Cambodia and would send letters to the Foreign Affairs and Labour ministries.

"We would like the government to withdraw the licence of the company immediately or at least suspend it," said Mu Sochua.

The lawmaker said she was concerned at the lack of government action on the abuse of migrant workers.

"There is an investigation but it takes too long," said Mu Sochua. "But I remain optimistic because the Malaysian embassy has taken action in the past for other cases."

Huy Pichsovann, programme officer at the Community Legal Education Centre, said that government action against abusive practices of labour recruitment firms had been inadequate.

He said that government investigations rarely lead to appropriate punishment.

"They don't care about the social issues – about rape, about violence, about human rights. They care about economics only," he said.

Raja Saiful Ridzuwan, deputy head of mission at the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh, yesterday declined to comment on the allegations. Representatives from the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia could not be reached for comment. Officials from the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong also could not be reached.

Firms training domestic workers bound for Malaysia have in recent weeks come under increasing scrutiny, with allegations of abuse in illegal confinement levied on trainees. One woman who was at the recruitment agency T&P broke both of her legs after trying to escape by jumping from a window last month. Another woman died at T&P from a reported heart attack. Her husband complained that she had been sick but the company would not allow her to leave for treatment.

The Chinese government will encourage Chinese banks to lend to Chinese investors wishing to do business in Cambodia, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday.

Zhang made the remarks during a meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace, the premier's spokesman Eang Sophalleth told reporters after the meeting.

Zhang said that his visit to Cambodia was to strengthen and expand cooperation between the two countries after the leaders of the two governments announced in December to raise the two countries' relations to the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation.

He is to visit Chinese firms operating in Cambodia "in order to encourage them to continue and expand their investment to contribute to the development of Cambodia," Zhang told the premier.

Zhang highlighted that the bilateral trade between China and Cambodia was 1.4 billion U.S. dollars last year and would be more this year.

He also promised to urge Chinese companies to import more goods from Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen asked China to consider importing agricultural products from Cambodia including rice, corn and cassava.

"Cambodia is full of agricultural potentials; this will be a good opportunity for Chinese investors to put their ventures in agricultural processing plants here," he said.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Ly Mom has been driven out of her lifelong home in Cambodia's fast-growing capital. Like thousands of other Cambodians forcibly evicted by the authorities, she is homeless, jobless and angry.

Her grocery store on the banks of Phnom Penh's Boeng Kak Lake is being bulldozed to make way for a luxury housing estate to be built by a Chinese developer and a well-connected Cambodian tycoon.

"People living here have nothing apart from their bare hands," she said. "They have been given no choice."

A total of 2,752 families have already been driven from their homes around Boeng Kak.

Ly Mom's family is one of 1,500 refusing to budge, protesting each day and rejecting the developer's compensation of just $8,500, or relocation to a small flat on the fringes of the sprawling city. Their latest demand is for 64 sq meters of lake land to be left for each family.

But no-one is listening to them. Similar protests are held every week in Cambodia as families with no title deeds are told to pack their bags.

Experts warn that Cambodia's government could one day have a rebellion on its hands.

"The long-range economic costs to a country's development impact ultimately on the welfare of the people," said Donald Weatherbee, an expert on Southeast Asian politics at the University of South Carolina.

The luxury housing project is led by China's Inner Mongolia Erdos Hongjun Investment Corp, which has pledged to spend $3 billion in Cambodia on real estate, metal processing and power generation.

China is Cambodia's biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI). China plans to spend $8 billion in 360 projects in the first seven months of this year -- the same amount it invested in the whole of Southeast Asia in 2008.

Beijing is also Cambodia's largest source of foreign aid, providing about $600 million in 2007 and $260 million in 2008.

But as Chinese, Vietnamese, South Korean and local businesses snap up lucrative concessions and real estate, farmers are being evicted and entire villages shifted to make way for mining, agriculture and hydropower projects.

Rights groups and donor countries are concerned and have threatened to withhold much-needed aid to one of Asia's poorest countries, home to 14 million people and sandwiched between larger neighbors Thailand and Vietnam.

The evictions have risen as Beijing cozies up to its cash-strapped and underdeveloped ally and strengthens a relationship that analysts say has the United States concerned about China's expanding influence in Southeast Asia.

According to Housing Rights Task Force, a Cambodian group monitoring forced evictions, 30,000 people were moved off their land last year, up from 27,000 in 2009. An estimated 150,000 more evictions are expected in the next few years, 70-80,000 in Phnom Penh alone.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick recently said he was "deeply troubled" by the Boeng Kak evictions and offered financing and expert advice to the government.

Cambodia's authoritarian premier, Hun Sen, has not responded. In several speeches he has expressed a clear preference for Chinese investment, because it comes without conditions, unlike Western nations that relentlessly prod his government to carry out democratic reforms and improve its dismal record on human rights and corruption.

"China's investments have few strings attached," said Cambodian political analyst Chea Vannath. "China's push for more power and influence works very well with Cambodia, because it needs a cash injection into its economy and infrastructure."

Most Cambodians who have been forcibly evicted are unable to prove ownership of land and property because legal documents were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge's brutal 1970s "Year Zero" revolution that killed some 1.7 million people.

Weatherbee said the evictions could one day lead to a groundswell of public discontent over what he calls "crony capitalism" between Cambodian elites and Chinese firms.

"For the people, the short term economic gains seem offset by the disruptions of human displacement, environmental disaster, and political oppression," he said.

Growth and development seems to be Cambodia's priority. Trade with China climbed 42.1 percent in 2010 to $1.12 billion. During Hun Sen's visit last year to Beijing, China promised a $300 million loan to build two national roads and an irrigation project. Other deals worth around $293 million, mostly infrastructure related, were also agreed.

Chinese has so far invested just over $1 billion in Cambodia, a figure dwarfed by huge investment pledges over the next five years. Total Chinese FDI in other Southeast Asian economies, up to the end of 2009, included $799 million in Indonesia, $448 million in Thailand and $728 million in Vietnam, official Chinese figures showed.

Analysts say the arrangement with Cambodia has been designed to go beyond business. China will be assured of Cambodia's political support, while Beijing's veto as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council could offer Cambodia some international protection, as it has the military generals that run Myanmar, who are also key allies of China.

Cambodia showed its unwavering support for China in December 2009 by defying international pressure and deporting 20 Muslim Uighurs who sought asylum after fleeing ethnic violence in China. Two days later, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited Phnom Penh and signed 14 trade deals worth $850 million.

Following a recent visit to Beijing, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong made his country's stance clear.

"It's a good thing that China, as the rising superpower, contributes to solve the world's problems," he said.

"Should we rather accept Chinese tourists who spend money in our country, or Chinese refugees?"

Similar patterns of Chinese investment are being seen in Myanmar and Communist Laos as Beijing splashes its cash and boosts its presence in Southeast Asia.

China is planning to pour money into rail and road projects to increase trade, investment and tourism in the region, underscoring strengthening ties with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, with which it has agreed a free trade pact covering an area with a combined population of 1.9 billion people and GDP of nearly $6 trillion.

For people like Ly Mom, China's interest in Cambodia has left a sour taste and protests are increasingly common.

Strict laws were passed in 2009 to restrict demonstrations, which rights groups and experts saw as a pre-emptive strike by Hun Sen's government, aware it could have problems on its hands.

Sia Phearum, the director of Housing Rights Task Force, said that if the rights of ordinary Cambodians were ignored, the result would be instability and eventual upheaval:

While the murder and madness of the Pol Pot era have given rise to a vast bibliography of history and memoirs of Cambodia, the past 20 years of that poor but beautiful country have been largely unexamined. And that is why it is welcome that someone of Joel Brinkley's stature should call our attention to contemporary Cambodia's political and social life.

As a young correspondent, Brinkley witnessed Cambodians at their absolute nadir, sharing a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the 1979 Cambodian refugee crisis in Thailand. For his fifth book, Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land, the former New York Times reporter returns to the region. He finds a nation where the law does not matter, which at its highest levels is governed informally by an oligarchy, and where the citizens, he says in a hyperbolic lapse, are "the most abused people in the world."

(See the legacy of Pol Pot.)

Page after page, however, is run through with careless errors: Pol Pot did not die a "a free man" (he died the prisoner of his own movement in 1998); the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers do not meet "north of Phnom Penh" (the famous confluence is opposite the Royal Palace); the Phnom Penh park that was the scene of a 1997 massacre is not named after Prime Minister Hun Sen (it is named for an adjacent pagoda — Hun Sen Park is elsewhere); Cambodia has no national oil company (merely a regulatory body).

The author is better when reporting on the ground. Brinkley surveys Cambodia's hospitals, universities, courts and police, all of which he unsurprisingly finds derelict, pernicious and corrupt. He travels to Pailin province on the Thai border where he observes police, with few resources and little training or support, examining the scene of a double murder in the woods as a crowd gathers. He chronicles the alleged abuses of power committed by Pursat province prosecutor Tob Chan Sereivuth (jailed in November by Cambodia's anticorruption office) and gives an account of a meeting with a tetchy Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana that feels about right.

But the central question of the book, which troubles many foreigners who live in Cambodia, is one to which Brinkley gives an unsatisfactory answer: When so many other peoples have rebelled for far less, why should a nation that has a history of violent revolution quietly tolerate so much inequality, impunity and abuse?

Brinkley's theory is that the nation is "cursed," an idea that defies analysis and for which he offers little evidence. He admirably describes the gory nightmares and other ills that afflict so much of this traumatized population, and cites psychologists who claim that such stress disorders can be transmitted between generations. But hard evidence that this has determined the current shape of Cambodian politics is missing.

The thesis undervalues the notion, proposed by historian David Chandler, that this largely agrarian society has little history of popular sovereignty. It does not do justice to the political activity that takes place outside the ruling party — in trade unions and pagodas or in the grass-roots organizations that dot the countryside — or to the courage of Cambodia's human-rights workers, networks of whom provide the court reporting and monitoring of land disputes on which Brinkley's narrative relies. There is also little mention of the land-tenure crisis — one of the unforeseen consequences of the Khmer Rouge's abolition of private ownership in 1975 and described by Hun Sen in 2005 as a "battlefield."

Brinkley has chosen an important subject: Cambodia is a country that has consistently confronted the more profound questions posed by history and humanity: Why does a society turn on itself? Is terror the price of today's political order? Is justice a luxury? But his summaries and approximations do not explain the complex institutions that comprise contemporary Cambodia. For that, the field is still wide open. n

While the Arab block is being hit by unrest to unseat a group of dictators who have clung to their power for a very long period of time, Hun Xen, the Cambodian leader who clung to his power for the past 26 years, is also expressing his great concerns over the opposition pressure demanding for a term limit to the country's premiership.

During a school inauguration in Ksach Kandal district in the morning of 04 April, Hun Xen issued a warning to the opposition party, telling them to stop demanding term limit for the position of prime minister. Hun Xen claimed that everything depends on what the people have determined, if the people still support the CPP, then Hun Xen will continue to preserve his premiership candidacy forever.

It should be noted that (1) Cambodia chose to follow democracy on 23 October 1991 as stipulated in the Paris Peace Agreement on Cambodia, this agreement was signed by 4 Cambodian parties – the People's Republic of Kampuchea, the Democratic Kampuchea regime, the KPNLF (Son Sann) and the Funcinpec movements; and (2) leaders among the democratic countries in the world are subject to term limit – from 2 terms or 10 years – but after that there would be a change in leadership. However, on the contrary, Hun Xen choses to declare publicly that he will remain PM for the rest of his life.

The Navy's used submarine shopping plan lacks foresight and will likely lead to higher costs in the future.

The country saw its first submarine deployment in 1938 when four vessels constructed in Japan, including the HTMS Matchanu, took part in coastal battles during the Franco-Siam War and World War II.

The four boats were decommissioned in 1951 due to both a lack of spare parts- because Japan was barred from weapons production - and political reprisal following a Navy-led coup attempt.

And for the past 60 years, the Navy's big dream has been to rebuild its submarine squadron.

In modern ocean warfare, a battle is fought along three dimensions - in the air, on the surface and under water. From a tactical viewpoint, the Navy has a legitimate reason to try to improve its undersea capability.

The Gulf of Thailand covers about 300,000 square kilometres and borders on four coastal states - Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam. About one-third of the area is under continental shelf claims.

Besides the Thai-Malaysian joint development area covering 5,800skm, the conflicting and overlapping areas have yet to be sorted out by the four coastal states.

About three-fifths of the country's total geographical area is territorial waters and exclusive economic zones under the Navy's charge. It is inexplicable that for six decades, the Navy has failed to rally the public behind its planned procurement of submarines.

In the reign of King Vajiravudh, Thais donated Bt3 million, a huge sum in those days, from 1914-1920 so that the Navy could acquire a destroyer, the HTMS Phra Ruang, from England.

Despite the hardships caused by the Great Depression, the public did not want the country's naval defences to be compromised. The Navy should reflect on its current awareness campaign to understand why its public support seems to have waned.

In the last few weeks, the Army has dominated headlines by executing daring rescue missions for flood victims in the South, while the Navy launched a one-off mission by dispatching its flagship helicopter carrier, the HTMS Chakri Narubet, to evacuate some 700 tourists trapped on Koh Tao.

Then the sailors stayed on the sidelines while ground troops carried out relief operations in coastal provinces.

The submarine deployment saga had its beginnings in 1996 when the Navy unveiled its budget plan to buy two patrol submarines from Sweden's Kockums Industry.

Due to suspicion of irregularities in the Banharn Silapa-archa government, the deal was sunk even before the procurement details emerged.

Despite the setback to the Kockums deal, the Navy has come up with a handful of new proposals in recent years ranging from buying to leasing new or second-hand submarines. The proposals were shot down during inter-agency reviews before they could reach the Cabinet.

The Navy has a lot of explaining to do if it wants the public's blessing for the submarine deployment.

When the procurement plan was hatched, the Navy wanted two new submarines. Suddenly the plan changed to buying six decommissioned U-206As from Germany with an operating life of no more than 10 years.

Four will be deployed while the other two will be kept for spare parts.

After decades of waiting, it does not make sense to spend Bt7.7 billion for submarines destined for burial in the Gulf of Thailand.

Many see the rush to secure the U-206A submarines as a stopgap measure until funds are earmarked in the future for a newer submarine squadron.

The country will end up paying twice - Bt7.7 billion now for the scrapped ships and much more later for their replacement.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: George Boden, Global Witness campaigner

BODEN: Ahh I think it would be very difficult to believe that Hun Sen and his family were only living off the wages that he declared to reporters recently. I think that'd be unrealistic and certainly looking at some of his assets and some of the things that he's known to have, he seems to have a lot more wealth than that. I think one of the biggest concerns about the assets that he actually declared in his declaration, they don't include a whole series of different things, so money in foreign bank accounts etc., I don't think would be disclosed in that kind of disclosure. And even if he did disclose it, nobody has access to that asset declaration anyhow, so it would be very difficult to ascertain the information.

COCHRANE: You're talking about bank accounts offshore?

BODEN: Certainly we don't know, it's important to state that as an organisation although we've managed to ascertain some of the business interests of people very close to Hun Sen, we've never found any revelations that was explicitly about him. But my point is more general in that the asset declarations for senior officials and other officials required to declare, doesn't necessarily include all of the ways that people can keep money. So it might include houses and salaries for example, it wouldn't necessarily include all of the bank account information. So it's not a true and accurate picutre of the entire wealth of an individual.

COCHRANE: Has there ever been an estimate as to Hun Sen's wealth or earning capabilities?

BODEN: I have heard informally, a rumour that certainly he's worth if not hundreds of millions, I think I've even heard a billion. But I think he's very, very wealthy and I think it would be very difficult given the way that the people, that that amount of money it's just incredibly difficult to get an idea. But I think it's fair to say that he certainly seems to have a lot more than the one-thousand dollars a month that he claims.

COCHRANE: Keeping in mind that as you pointed out, Global Witness organisation and the media has never made a formal direct link between Hun Sen and corruption, couldn't we see the Prime Minister's actions in declaring his assets as leading by example in tackling corruption in Cambodia?

BODEN: I mean there are huge problems not only with the asset declaration system, but also with the anti-corruption law. The biggest problem really, I've already outlined some of the concerns about asset declaration is that it's not publicly available, nobody checks the amount, it doesn't include all of the ways that people can keep money, and also it doesn't include people's family members. So obviously were somebody to wish to hide or not disclose money then they could keep it in their son's bank account or one of their family members, business interests for example. So it's not an effective system, I think it's one of the crucial problems. But the major, major issue with the whole Anti-Corruption Unit, and this isn't only asset declarations but also for the prosecutions etc., it's presided over by senior members of the CPP, and this anti-corruption unit case is about Aung Yang Chang(?) who is close to Prime Minister Hun Sen and that senior cabal of individuals, and so it seems very unlikely that those people would ever be able to take a prosecution or would investigate any of the senior cabinet officials that we know to be involved in corruption. And there are people that we've shown in our investigations, senior Cambodian senators, who are involved in corruption, they have been involved in wholesale sale-offs of Cambodia's natural resources ranging from forests through to mining, oil and gas; and none of these people have been investigated into this. And I think given how close the control of the anti-corruption bodies is held by Prime Minister Hun Sen and those close to him, and it does seen very unlikely that that kind of high level corruption will ever be investigated.

Article 19

From a thriving industry in southeast Asia, the catch might end up on dinner plates almost anywhere in the world.

But you might be shocked to know how these fish are caught. Sometimes the boats are floating prisons crewed by slaves.

In this video report above, CNN's Dan Rivers explores the story of brothers Pheum Dina and Pheum Bolin, who were lured from Cambodia to work on the fishing boats three years ago. They say they were imprisoned on a Thai trawler for 3 months – with no pay and no chance to escape. They were slaves at sea.

The National Fisheries Association of Thailand, which works closely with the government on fishing-related issues, says it has not received reports of abuse or torture of crew in the past couple of years on Thai boats.

The chairman of the group says most crews are there of their free will. But he acknowledged some recruiters may have made false promises about pay and working conditions to some Burmese or Cambodian workers.

The association's Mana Sripitak also says it educates Thai fishermen about anti-human trafficking laws, warning that there, "could be fine(s) or jail term(s), and their boats could be confiscated if they are found guilty."

Constitution of Cambodia (Sept. 1993)

CHAPTER VII: THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Article 92

Inside: CCHR's findings and Model Courts

The chart, 'Accused at trial in prison uniform in Kandal and Phnom Penh Courts', represents the findings of the CCHR's trial monitoring project in relation to the number of accused appearing before the Kandal and Phnom Penh courts in prison uniform from January 1 to December 31 2010. The chart draws attention to the fact that in almost half of all trials monitored by CCHR, accused appeared before the court in prison uniform...

In 2010, out of 302 trials monitored at the Kandal court, there were only 5 instances where an accused was tried in prison uniform and 25 trials were conducted in absentia.

The ECCC, in the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, has shown that it will uphold the standards of treatment expected for those held in detention under both Cambodian and international law....

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On 30 March 2011, three Cambodian monks who came from Thailand to visit their hometown at Kampong Thom province and other provinces have been arrested and are currently in custody. They are all students of Chulalongkorn University. Their names are Mony, Lok Ty and Lam Pichet. The attached photo is that of Lam Pichet. They have no information about the reason of their arrest.

Bandar Seri Begawan - Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) or 'the brightness of art', a seven-member circus troupe from Cambodia arrived in Brunei Darussalam yesterday for their special performance during the Francophonie Week, which begins from today and runs until April 10.

The comedy-acrobatic-circus troupe will perform a special show called 'Network' on April 10 for the Francophonie Week 'Family Day' at the Main Amphitheatre, Jerudong Park.

The French-speaking circus troupe was greeted upon arrival by the Director of Alliance Francaise (AF) de Brunei, Anais Maro together with officials from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Phare Ponleu Selpak is a Cambodian non-governmental organisation. It aims to support community development through providing social, educative and cultural services to children and their families. Phare Ponleu Selpak implements a global approach aiming to answer children's individual needs to ensure each child is able to access his or her own rights. Each child is unique and requires specific action tailored to their needs.

According to one of the performers, the show will include "balancing on stilts, acrobatic acts as well as jumping through fire". The show is scheduled to start at 2pm on Sunday. The 'Family Day' is open to all and entrance is free.

Family members of jailed Thai Patriots Network coordinator Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary Ratree Pipatanapaiboon have sought the help of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to secure their release from prison in Cambodia.

Veera's mother Wilaiwan and younger brother Preecha and Ratree's niece Warisa Thongngern have submitted a letter to Thaksin through the Puea Thai Party in the hope that he would be able to help the two.

The families believed Thaksin had previously helped arrange the release of Thai air traffic controller Sivarak Chutipong, who was also charged with espionage, after he passed details of Thaksin's flight plans to the Thai embassy in 2009.

Mrs Wilaiwan said her family had waited for four months for the present government to help her son. Mr Preecha, Veera's younger brother, last month submitted a letter through Democrat MP Panich Vikitsreth to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva seeking help, but no progress had been made, she said.

Thaksin's aide in Thailand, Noppadon Pattama, received the letter on behalf of his boss. He said he would send it to Thaksin by email.

He believed Thaksin, who he said was now in a Middle Eastern country, would discuss the matter with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Thaksin was briefly a special adviser to Hun Sen, a controversial appointment.

Veera and Ratree are serving time in Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh. They were sentenced to eight and six years in jail respectively for spying and illegal entry.

Five other Thais who were arrested at the same time on Dec 29 last year for illegal entry were sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. They were freed after the court suspended their remaining eight-month jail terms.

Meanwhile, the Thai Patriots Network yesterday decided to withdraw from Veera and Ratree's case.

Chaiwat Sinsuwong, the leader of the Thai Patriots Network, said the network would leave the case in the hands of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Veera and Ratree have signed a document empowering Karun Saingam, a member of the network's legal team, to represent them.

Mr Chaiwat said Mr Abhisit had tried to drive a wedge between the families of the two and the network.

He said the network would not interfere in the decision of the families to seek help from Thaksin.

"If they believe it will speed up the release, it is fine. The government and the Foreign Ministry aren't sincere in helping either of them," he said.

"I think anyone can help. It is not a slap to the face of the government. We feel sympathetic towards the families of Veera and Ratree who want them to be released as quickly as possible," Mr Abhisit said.