KI Media: “Fish product in Pursat province decreases” plus 24 more

KI Media: “Fish product in Pursat province decreases” plus 24 more

Fish product in Pursat province decreases

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:09 PM PDT


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thm87nK_YB0&feature=player_embedded

Ministry of Information shut down The Khmer Post broadcast

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 05:06 PM PDT

07 April 2011
By Kher Sonorng
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Soch
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Thursday 07 April, officials at the audiovisual department of the ministry of Information (MoI) issued an order to Mam Sonando, the chairman of the Beehive FM105 station to stop selling broadcast time to the Khmer Post radio.

In a communiqué issued by the MoI to Mam Sonando on 07 April, it indicated that the department recently noted that Beehive station rented broadcast time to the Khmer Post (AM 9960) during its 10 to 11AM time slot. This is a violation of government edict 550 which consists of the MoI's directives.

San Putheary, the director of the audiovisual department of the MoI, added about the issuing of the letter ordering the shutdown of the Khmer Post broadcast: "The authority's directive indicated that all broadcast time slot sold must receive authorization from the MoI."


Leng Kiri, an administrator for the Beehive station, indicated that his station has not made a decision on this issue yet and that this issue is being discussed. He added: "The MoI threatened Beehive, they told us to shut down the broadcasting of The Khmer Post radio. If Beehive dares broadcasting The Khmer Post again, the MoI will cancel our license, i.e. they will shut us down completely."

Regarding this issue also, Ith Sokha, a representative for the Khmer Post, replied that the MoI's order to shut down the Khmer Post seems to be issued in haste even though he already fulfilled all the legal paperwork. Ith Sokha added: "On the Khmer Post side, we are puzzled as to why this order was issued without prior directive first? If the Khmer Post broadcasted something that needs correction, then it would be done according to democracy, according to the information law. But, if we are shut down without prior information, this is very regrettable."

A source indicated that the Khmer Post was broadcasted on the Internet for almost 2 years already, however, recently, it bought time from the Beehive station and it was operating for almost 1 week now. The Khmer Post program includes: local news, analyses, social issues related to development and human benefits, as well as the destruction of forest.

Cluster bomb claim denied [-Thailand is shooting itself in the foot]

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:12 PM PDT

8/04/2011
Thanida Tansubhapol & Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has rejected claims the army used cluster bombs in breach of an international agreement during border clashes with Cambodia in early February.

Gen Prawit was responding to allegations by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that Thailand had confirmed the findings of its officials on Tuesday. "No cluster bombs here. We have strictly complied with international laws banning their use," Gen Prawit said.

The CMC said Thailand was not among the 107 countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, banning their use.

The CMC claimed the Thai army killed two people with cluster bombs during the border fighting.

The army has consistently denied using cluster bombs during border clashes with Cambodia, though the issue appears to be turning on a question of semantics.

The CMC on Wednesday condemned the Thai use of cluster munitions in Cambodia.

It said the Thai ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva confirmed the Thai use of 155mm Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) cluster munitions at a meeting on Tuesday.


It claimed the ambassador said Thailand used cluster munitions in "self-defence", based on the principles of necessity, proportionality and in compliance with the military code of conduct.

The Thai ambassador to the UN in Geneva Sihasak Phuangketkeow, however, denied he said the Thai army used cluster munitions during the Thai-Cambodian border skirmishes.

Mr Sihasak spoke to the Bangkok Post in a phone interview from Geneva yesterday saying he said the Thai army used Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) which it did not classify as a cluster munition. For other groups, however, DPICM are indeed regarded as cluster munitions.

"This organisation misunderstood [us] and tried to claim that Thailand really used cluster munitions. They want to pressure us to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions," he said.

Mr Sihasak said the Foreign Ministry was encouraging the army to sign the convention so Thailand would receive assistance to destroy these weapons. Cluster bombs are considered a major threat to civilian populations during and after attacks.

They are launched from the ground or dropped from the air, and open before impact to scatter multiple bomblets over a wide area.

The bomblets often lie dormant and undetected for years before exploding, maiming or killing civilians who happen upon them. Children often mistake them for toys.

Why Thai Rice Production May Decline

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 04:02 PM PDT

Facing greater competition, the world's leading rice exporter is determined to pull back on production

April 7, 2011
By Alan Bjerga and Supunnabul Suwannakij
Bloomberg

Many Thais revere Me Posop, the rice goddess who guards humankind and rewards good stewards of her grain. Me Posop has been kind to Thailand in recent decades. While its neighbors Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos struggled through war, Marxist-Leninism, and authoritarian rule, Thailand prospered from its new factories and booming rice exports. The nation surpassed Myanmar as the world's top rice shipper in 1965: Last year 9 million tons of Thai rice were exported around the world. Thailand, like the Saudis in oil, became the key producer, the country that could always moderate global prices with its abundant reserves. This year, while corn and wheat prices have reached new highs, ample stockpiles of Thai rice have driven rice prices down.

Now the Thai government is proposing a major change in strategy for its rice growers, who feel hard pressed by low prices, an assault of pests, and the presence of low-cost competition from emerging rivals. The government seems ready to abandon Thailand's position as the world top rice exporter—a serious decision, considering the mounting anxiety over the size and stability of the global food supply.


Thai farmers are certainly worried about their business. In the rice paddies near Ayutthaya, a former Siamese capital that 17th century emissaries from Louis XIV compared with Paris in its wealth and importance, Payao Ruangpueng must battle an infestation of rice planthoppers that are munching their way through the paddies. That's not all. "We're suffering from a rice price slump, crop damage, and lower-than-expected production," she says, standing on the edge of a rain-soaked paddy. "Production costs are higher than income. We can't afford to continue planting."

In March the Thai government stated its intention to eliminate a third planting this year to improve rice quality and to combat the hopper, which dies if deprived of rice plants for 25 days. The plan may eventually reduce annual exports by 2 million metric tons, or about 20 percent of Thailand's shipments.

Thai officials say they want the industry to focus on fancier grades of rice that fetch higher prices. While Thai rice shipments have increased 33 percent in the past decade, Vietnamese exports are up 70 percent in the same period to 6 million tons, according to the U.S. Agriculture Dept. Cambodia and even Myanmar are also emerging as global rice powers, says Pramote Vanichanont, honorary president of the Thai Rice Mills Assn. and a member of the National Rice Policy Committee. Thailand, following the classic curve of development, has priced itself out of much of its own market, he says. Land prices have shot up, as well as the cost of tractors and the wages of farmhands.

The government also plans to turn the country into the warehouse, finance, and marketing hub of Southeast Asia's rice trade. The Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand, the nation's government-backed rice and rubber bourse, is rolling out a new futures contract on Apr. 29 intended to be a regional benchmark for standard quality rice.

This long-term strategy may not be good for global food needs. The U.N. expects world food demand to rise 70 percent by 2050, and its Food and Agriculture Organization in February urged Thailand and its neighbors to grow more rice. Reductions in Thailand's production may end up hurting poor consumers in Africa and elsewhere while doing little for Thai prices, says Kiattisak Kanlayasirivat, a director at the Thai office of trading company Novel Commodities. "I doubt whether it is a good policy, as cutting the supply may lead to food shortages," says Kanlayasirivat, whose firm trades about $600 million of rice a year.

The Vietnamese may not even have the resources needed to replace major cuts in Thai production. "I personally think that Vietnam doesn't need to become No. 1 in rice exports," says Nguyen Van Bo, president of the Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Science. "To export a lot, Vietnam will have to exploit a lot of land, use a lot of fertilizers. That could cause degradation of natural resources."

The bottom line: While Thailand is the world's top rice exporter, falling prices and rising competition may lead to a strategic decision to abandon that role.

[Thai] PM backs new appeal for 2 Thais

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:54 PM PDT

8/04/2011
Bangkok Post

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says jailed activist Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary Ratree Pipatanapaiboon should be able to seek a royal pardon in Cambodia on humanitarian grounds.

He was speaking after Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said on Wednesday that under Cambodian law a person convicted of a crime must serve two-thirds of their jail term before being considered for a royal pardon. The two Thai activists did not qualify at this stage.

Mr Abhisit said there had been requests in the past for royal pardons in Cambodia on humanitarian grounds and the two should be entitled to that.

The premier said the Thai authorities would try all means possible to help Veera and Ratree.


Veera, the coordinator of the Thai Patriots Network, and Ratree have been sentenced to eight and six years in jail, respectively, by a Cambodian court for espionage and illegally entering the country on Dec 29 last year.

They are being detained at Prey Sar prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday said it was now time to wait for the judicial process to take its course.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said his ministry would continue its efforts to obtain a royal pardon for the two Thais.

Mr Kasit said despite Hor Namhong's remarks it is the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry to continue to negotiate with its Cambodian counterparts.

He said he did not want the Veera-Ratree issue to mar relations between the two countries.

Family members of Veera and Ratree earlier sought the help of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to secure their release from prison in Cambodia.

The families said Thaksin had successfully arranged for 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.

Thaksin is a close friend of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen who previously made him a special economic adviser to the country.

Yesterday, Noppadon Pattama, Thaksin's legal adviser, conceded it was not easy helping with the pardon.

Thaksin will contact Hun Sen to inquire about any help he can offer. But if the Cambodian government stands its ground, there was nothing more the former premier could do.

JBC meetIng off to a 'smooth start'

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:52 PM PDT

April 8, 2011
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation

The Thailand-Cambodia Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) met yesterday in the Indonesian city of Bogor for talks, which went off smoothly.

It was the JBC's first meeting since the border clash at Preah Vihear Temple in February, although the Thai Parliament has not yet approved the minutes of previous meetings.

Despite the meeting being hosted by Indonesia in its role as the current chair of Asean, it was convened on a bilateral basis, without the involvement of any third party, said the Foreign Minister's secretary, Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, who attended the meeting.


"The atmosphere was good. In order to conduct a smooth meeting, we concentrated mostly on the boundary issue, which is the major task of the JBC," he said.

"We had a clear stance at the beginning that no party should raise any issue which could lead to further conflict," Chavanond said in a telephone interview.

JBC co-chairman Asda Jayanama, who took the position last December, led the Thai delegation for the first time while his Cambodian counterpart, co-chairman Var Kimhong, has held the post for a long time.

The Bogor meeting was not expected to produce any developments towards settlement of the boundary conflict. It considered only technical issues such as preparations for a survey of the fifth portion of the disputed area, between pillars 1 and 23, as well as the selection of an agency to produce Orthophoto Maps.

Co-chairman Asda briefed the meeting on the procedures of the Thai Parliament, which has not yet ap-proved the minutes of previous meetings, and the Cambodian side ex-pressed its understanding of the complications of the process, Chava-nond said. "Most of the topics discussed in the meeting were about preparations for the next step in the JBC boundary-demarcation task," he said.

Established in 2000, the JBC is a Thailand-Cambodia bilateral mechanism for land-boundary demarcation. The body has played a crucial role in clarifying the boundary line between the two countries.

Thailand and Cambodia have been at loggerheads over their common border for many years, especially in those areas adjacent to the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear. The unclear boundary line has caused overlapping territorial claims and repeated military clashes.

Indonesia, as the Asean chair, became involved after Phnom Penh took the issue to both the United Nations Security Council and Asean after skirmishes in February.

Indonesia calls Cambodia, Thailand to peace talks

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:49 PM PDT

Fri, 8 Apr 2011
Radio Australia News

Indonesia are trying to broker a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand, at a two-day bilateral meeting in the Indonesian town of Bogor.

Senior officials from Cambodia and Thailand are discussing their border dispute at a meeting being mediated by the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, at the Bogor Presidential Palace.

Indonesia, as the current head of ASEAN, were asked by the United Nations Security Council to help mediate the dispute.


Mr Natalegawa says the main message from the meeting is that diplomacy is back on track, as opposed to military conflict.

The dispute is over rival claims to 4.6 square kilometres of land around Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple on the border.

Since the 900-year-old Khmer temple was registered as a World Heritage Site in 2008, several rounds of border clashes have occurred.

Donors Asked to Withhold Aid Over Proposed Law in Cambodia

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:48 PM PDT

April 7, 2011
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

BANGKOK — A proposed law to control nongovernmental groups in Cambodia threatens to silence some of the last independent voices in an increasingly repressed nation, a group of leading international human rights agencies said Thursday.

Calling the proposal "the most significant threat to the country's civil society in many years," the agencies urged foreign nations and aid groups to oppose the law, which they said would undermine much of the nation-building work the donors have supported at a cost of billions of dollars.

The measure, which is moving toward enactment by Parliament, would for the first time require nongovernmental organizations of all types and sizes to register and to follow complex reporting procedures. The law would give the government new leverage to shut down any group it considers to be opposed to it.

Human rights advocates said the law would cap a long process during which Prime Minister Hun Sen has imposed controls over his political opponents, the security forces and the judiciary, leaving the independent groups and civil society the country's only independent voices.


"Should this law pass as it is currently formulated, the survival of each and every N.G.O. in Cambodia will be at the whim of the government," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, referring to nongovernmental agencies that monitor and act on areas like human rights, legal affairs, the environment, land issues, public health and the role and rights of women.

"Emboldened by the legitimacy that they believe a law gives to abusive behavior, the government is likely to use the N.G.O. law to silence its people and to tighten its control on their daily lives," he said. "The international community needs to act now, or Cambodia will continue in its march away from democracy and toward autocracy."

Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, an independent rights monitoring group, said the proposed law was a test of the commitment of donor nations and international agencies to the future of the civil society they had worked for two decades to foster.

"If the donors stand by while the government adopts this law, they cannot in good conscience claim to be working in the interests of Cambodia's development objectives," he said.

Despite Cambodia's continuing pressures on human rights and its failure to control corruption, illegal logging and an epidemic of sometimes violent land seizures by powerful interests, international financial support for Mr. Hun Sen's government has continued to increase.

At their most recent annual conference last June, donor nations and international agencies pledged $1.1 billion in aid for this year, a record amount, up from $950 million last year, despite widespread criticism that much of the money was misspent or diverted.

The aid is equal to roughly half the country's official budget. In principle, it gives the international community leverage to maintain or strengthen basic freedoms and democratic institutions.

The amount has risen even as Cambodia's economy has steadied itself and begun to grow, and even as China has matched Western donors with its own financial support, which comes unencumbered by the human rights conditions imposed by the West.

In December 2009, China awarded Cambodia $1.2 billion in aid and soft loans. That pledge came immediately after Cambodia deported 20 ethnic Uighur refugees to China over the strong objections of the United States and the United Nations, which called the deportation a violation of human rights.

"It must be remembered that the freedoms of association, expression and assembly in Cambodia are already heavily restricted, particularly at the community level," said one of Cambodia's oldest human rights groups, Licadho, in a separate report last week on the proposed law.

In their statement on Thursday, the international human rights agencies said that the strict financial conditions of the proposed law would disproportionately affect small groups with limited resources operating at the local level, "making them vulnerable to prosecution for carrying out legitimate activities without the proper legal status."

The agencies voiced concern over what they called a lack of safeguards and meaningful judicial review mechanisms and pointed to the vague wording regarding a right of appeal of government sanctions.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, "Cambodia's proposed law could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organizations that serve the public interest."

"Over the past 20 years, the development of civil society has been one of Cambodia's few enduring achievements," he said. "This law threatens to reverse that progress."

In the early 1990s, Cambodia emerged from two decades of civil war and mass killings by the Khmer Rouge, which left the country brutalized, without an educated class or civic institutions.

As part of a $2 billion nation-building effort, the United Nations established democratic forms of government and introduced standards of human rights that soon became a part of political discourse.

The concept and practice of human rights and political freedoms grew hand in hand with the introduction of the nongovernmental organizations that are now under threat.

Opinion: Why I can't shrug off KDWB's hateful slur against Hmong community

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:22 PM PDT

Bee Vang

04/07/2011
By Bee Van
TwinCities.com


Last week a chilling thing happened. I started hearing funny noises. Noises that were almost incomprehensible. But the eerie thing was, I was sure I'd heard them before ...

Here's what they sounded like: "Lighten up." "Quit being so dang sensitive." "Can't you take a joke?"

As a Hmong actor who portrayed Thao Vang Lor in Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," something echoed in me this spring as I listened to the uproar about an impromptu song on the radio station KDWB. During the shooting of the film, I tried to stay true to the script. But as a Hmong person, I also tried to do justice to my own life and to that of others like me.

"Gran Torino," as many know, is the story of an aging Detroit white man who gets involved with a neighboring Hmong family and attempts to intervene in their lives and prevent the teenage boy Thao from getting drawn into a gang. During casting, when I first saw excerpts from Gran Torino, I was puzzled because so many things in it seemed distorted and unrecognizable. One of the lines jumped out at me. In the scene when Thao was getting to know his white neighbor, Walt, the old man had been insulting him with a litany of racial slurs: "chink," "gook," "swamp rat." My character blurted out this reply: "You can call me whatever you want, because you know what? I'll take it."


"I'll take it"? Who says that?

And yet, as the KDWB gang seems to think, this is exactly what Hmong in the Twin Cities should say because, after all, the Hmong are spineless "swamp rats" and won't stand up to the bully pulpit that a radio station is. The equivalent of the "n" word for the Hmong can be put into a song and played on the radio, and we'll just take it. KDWB's defense, in a halfhearted "apology," is that it was just a joke and not intended to hurt.

This is rationalized by the fact that not all Hmong found the song to be offensive; some, moreover, found it hilarious. The Pioneer Press report pointed to KDWB's Facebook page, where the station claimed that everything's fine because "One woman said she is Hmong and thought it was funny..."

In a similar way, after Gran Torino's release, Hmong around the country were furious about its negative stereotypes and cultural distortions. I know this acutely because when I spoke at public events, they came out to confront me. I found myself in the awkward position of explaining my obligation as an actor while also recognizing that, as a Hmong American, I didn't feel I could own the lines I was uttering. I also told them that although many of us on the set had objected to aspects of the script, the producers preferred whichever Hmong "cultural consultant" had the most amenable take on the matter and would lend credence to whatever Hollywood stereotypes the film wanted to convey. I reminded my critics that this was a white production, that our presence as actors did not amount to control of our images.

To be fair, a handful of Hmong at those public forums defended Gran Torino and said they enjoyed the film, just as some did KDWB's song. What's startling about this variety of opinions is not the bare fact that they exist, of course. What troubles me is that, after a Hmong person tells me how she or he enjoyed the film (or the song), there routinely comes the remark that, yes, I know some Hmong who are exactly like those bad Hmong in the movie, or who live in overcrowded houses and get pregnant at age 16. But — and there's always a "but" even if it's just implied — "I'm not like that even though I'm Hmong. And that's why I can laugh at them..."

Those of us who discipline ourselves properly can in turn be made into armor by a society determined to defend colorblindness every time a race skirmish breaks out. But no matter how many Hmong human shields KDWB hoists upon their battlements, the fact remains that "Thirty Hmongs in a House" was racist and harmful. It was aimed at a minority community from which the white creators felt no threat, and hence could condescend to with impunity. Yes, we all have freedom of speech, but some have more than others. If we Hmong avail ourselves of it, we might just be laying the groundwork for more backlash.

All of which harshly reminds us of the Hmong's tenuous status in the Twin Cities and beyond as always outsiders like so many Asian Americans — a status made explicit in 1998 when KQRS aired a white man's rant that asked Hmong to "go back to the caves of Laos" and "assimilate or hit the goddamn road." And speaking of backlash, our ascribed foreignness also forever reminds us of Vincent Chin, the Detroit Chinese American who took the mortal fall for the faltering American economy because he was mistaken for Japanese, associated with Japanese imports, and bludgeoned to death by two white men.

Hmong Americans are tacitly told that some of us are becoming good minorities. The good ones behave: they laugh things off, they are "post-race," they are sure that no other Americans intend to harm us ... They even join in condemning those of us who are less fortunate, or more - well - Hmong. They, in fact, are becoming "model minorities"!

Maybe, they think, if we Hmong point our fingers hard enough at ourselves and laugh hard enough at ourselves, we will go right through our skin and come out the other side as clean, respectable middle-class Americans.

But in my humble perspective — from the poor Minneapolis neighborhood where I grew up to Brown University where I am a student now — what I would want to see happen is that more listeners could hear clearly the racial hatred and revilement of poverty in that song.

After reading all the Internet quips, I toss and turn at night. Shrug it off? I wish that, for just a moment, I could stop hearing those disciplining noises. Like nightmares twisting the cold daylight reality of ongoing racism, they make it impossible for me to sleep ...

Bee Vang played the lead role of Thao Vang Lor in the Hollywood movie "Gran Torino." Formerly of Twin Cities, he is now a first-year student at Brown University in Providence, RI. He's on Facebook.

Khmum Prey (Wild Honey) Signing Agreement Ceremony: CEDAC

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:16 PM PDT

Dear all,

SAHAKREAS CEDAC, in cooperation with the Non-Timber Forest Product Exchange Program (NTFP-EP) for South and Southeast Asia, their network partner, Cambodia NTFP Working Group, community wild honey collector groups from 4 provinces, Mondulkiri, Koh Kong, Kratie and Preah Vihear, and stakeholders, are organizing a wild honey signing agreement ceremony on Friday morning April 08, 2011 at CEDAC's head office, Phnom Penh.


For more details, please find the attached Press Release in Khmer.

Thanks and kind regards

Him Khortieth
--------------------------
Communication Officer
Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC) #119, St 257, Teuk Laak1, Tuol Kork, Phnom Penh
H/P : (855) 16 57 57 13
(855) 97 7340073
Tel : (855) 23 88 09 16
Fax : (855) 23 88 51 46
E-mail : himkhortieth@cedac.org.kh
Website: www.cedac.org.kh

3 Poems by Salen Sy: Kampuchea My Love; Mother; The Local Smien

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 03:05 PM PDT

Sinatoons: The Execution

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:19 PM PDT

Cartoon by V. Sina

Sinatoons: Chop and sell

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:03 PM PDT

Cartoon by V. Sina

NGOs condemn new Cambodia law

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:38 AM PDT

Organisations are calling on the Cambodian government to withdraw the draft law, which threatens to curtail their activities and 'contravenes international human rights laws'

Thursday 7 April 2011
Liz Ford
guardian.co.uk

Cambodian civil society groups and international NGOs have condemned a proposed new law that they claim will seriously curtail their activities.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Forum-Asia, Global Witness, the Federation of Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, VSO and Save the Children, along with Cambodian farmers and indigenous rights groups, are among the organisations calling on the Cambodian government to withdraw the draft law, which will require all civil society groups working in the country to register in order to work, and appears ambiguous over rights to appeal. Local organisations will be required to have a specific number of members, will need to be headed by a Cambodian national, which will exclude refugees from forming an association and send the government annual reports.

The organisations are also calling on international donors to publicly express their opposition to the legislation.


The groups argue that the proposed legislation contravenes national and international human rights laws, will make NGOs subject to the whim of the government, and will undermine years of work to strengthen civil society. They also question the need for new legislation, arguing that existing laws are sufficient to govern civil society groups.

This week, 62 NGOs working in Cambodia wrote to government ministers to highlight their concerns following the publication of the second draft of the bill last month. The first draft was published in December. NGOs claim that their earlier concerns had not been taken on board by the government.

The Cambodian government has said the law will allow it to crack down on illegal activities by civil society groups and NGOs operating as a front for terrorist activities. It is understood ministers want the final draft of the law submitted this month, and for it to be passed by the end of the year.

In a briefing paper published when the law was first mooted, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (Licadho) said the law had "nothing to do with crime, terrorism or transparency, but everything to do with political control".

"The recent experiences of many other countries which – like Cambodia – lack independent judiciaries and other institutions, have shown that NGO laws are regularly used to stifle criticism of the government by civil society, through such means as restrictive registration requirements and even criminal prosecution," it said.

In December, the group said the law "will undermine community development and democratic participation on a broad level, including having a potentially grave impact on the ability of grassroots communities to participate in their own development. There is a high risk that local officials will seek to use the law to suppress 'unwanted' activities by community-based groups or networks and individual community members themselves".

In January, 10 Cambodian civil society groups said the law "puts more burdens on civil society, which has been initiated and established through the commitment and willingness of local people".

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the law "could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organisations that serve the public interest". He added: "Over the past 20 years the development of civil society has been one of Cambodia's few enduring achievements. This law threatens to reverse that progress."

Yap Swee-Seng, executive director of Forum-Asia, said: "When the draft law was first circulated, in December 2010, civil society raised urgent concerns that it would prove vulnerable to abuse by officials at the national, provincial and community level seeking to silence civil society criticism. Far from addressing these fears, the revisions introduced by the government make a bad situation worse."

Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, added: "If donors stand by while the government adopts this law, they cannot in good conscience claim to be working in the interests of Cambodia's development objectives."

The international watchdog Freedom House described the proposed law as "fundamentally flawed". "The draft is also vague in scope and contains ambitious language that could make it easier for the government to arbitrarily shut down civil society groups or deny registration," it said.

In its Freedom in the World 2010 survey, the watchdog scored Cambodia five out of seven for its record on civil liberties – with one being the most free, seven the least free – saying that critics of the Cambodian People's party, which holds power, faced harassment.

In its annual review of human rights practices around the world, published in January, Human Rights Watch said the Cambodian government was making it increasingly difficult for human rights groups, trade unions and land rights activists to operate.

International Groups Decry NGO Law ‘Threat’

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:28 AM PDT

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 07 April 2011
"Cambodia's proposed law could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organizations that serve the public interest."
Eight prominent international organizations issued a statement Thursday urging the Cambodian government to drop a controversial law to regulate NGOs, claiming it would hurt development in the country.

"Cambodia's proposed law could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organizations that serve the public interest," Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.

The statement was signed by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Forum Asia, Global Witness, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, Frontline Defenders, Fidh and OMCT.

They called the new law a "significant threat" to Cambodian civil society groups. On Wednesday, 62 international NGOs working in Cambodia stated their strong opposition to the law, which local groups say will hamper their effectiveness and leaves them vulnerable government interference.


The Ministry of Interior, which is in charge of drafting the law, has said it will not be discussed with groups again before it is passed on to the Council of Ministers for approval and National Assembly debate.

"We cannot throw away the draft law," said Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the ministry. "To throw it away means we throw away the 1993 constitution."

The eight groups said the draft requires "excessive," compulsory registration and provides few legal safeguards for NGOs that are vulnerable to abuse of the law.

Cambodia has an estimated 3,000 associations and organizations operating outside the government. Proponents say the new law, which has 11 chapters and 58 articles, will help regulate the sector.

Cambodia fishermen save tourists off capsized boat

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:25 AM PDT

Thursday, April 07, 2011

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodian police say fishermen rescued 92 foreign tourists whose boat capsized, apparently after drunken passengers started dancing and made the boat unstable.

The tourists hired the boat Thursday afternoon to go to an island near Sihanoukville beach.

Mat Soth, deputy police chief in Preah Sihanouk province, said it overturned soon afterward and four local fishing boats rushed to rescue the passengers and five Cambodian crew members.


He said everyone from the boat was rescued and no one was injured. Most or all of the tourists were Western, but Mat Soth said he had no details on their nationalities.

He said the initial investigation indicated the boat became unstable when a group of drunken passengers started dancing.

Indonesia optimistic over Cambodia-Thailand truce

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:22 AM PDT

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa talks to journalist during Thailand- Cambodia Joint Commission on The Demarcation Land Boundary (JBC) meeting at the State Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, April 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Apr 07, 2011

BOGOR, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia has expressed optimism that diplomacy is back on track for Cambodia and Thailand to resolve a border dispute that has sparked deadly military clashes.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Thursday that a Joint Border Committee meeting had made progress on the issue of observers for disputed border.

He said he has informed his Thai counterpart in Bangkok about the progress.


Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong led his country's delegation to the meeting in the West Java town. Thailand's delegation was led by a foreign ministry adviser.

Indonesia brokered an agreement in February under which military observers will be sent to enforce a cease-fire after clashes over disputed land surrounding an 11th century temple killed at least eight.

Thai Military Not Participating In Thai-Cambodia Peace Talks

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:16 AM PDT

Brian Padden, Voice of America
Jakarta April 07, 2011

Members of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission are meeting Thursday in Indonesia to again address a dispute over land surrounding a Hindu temple built 900 years ago.

Indonesia, in its role as head of the Association of South East Asia Nations, negotiated a cease-fire after clashes in February that killed killed 10 people and displaced thousands. But now the Thai military is rejecting a key element of the agreement calling for Indonesian observers to be placed along the border.

Missing in the peace talks between Thailand and Cambodia, in Indonesia, is the Thai military. Pavin Chachavalpongpun, with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, says that is because of a disagreement between the foreign ministry and military leaders in Thailand about how to deal with the border dispute.

"I think there is a clash between the two state agencies about the control over foreign policy," Chachavalpongpun said. "And I think the military has disapproved of the foreign ministry policy towards Cambodia, which I think the military claim that it is a little bit too soft."


He says the dissension has prevented any further implementation of the cease-fire deal negotiated by Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in his role as head of ASEAN in February.

The two armies clashed over a disputed area next to a Hindu Khmer temple, a historical landmark that both countries consider part of their heritage. The cease-fire called for Indonesian observers to act as monitors in the disputed region. But the Thai military has resisted allowing foreign military observers into the area, saying the matter should be resolved on a bilateral basis without third party intervention.

Chachavalpongpun says, if an agreement can be reached to send in Indonesian observers, there are still a number of logistical and support issues to be worked out. But he does not see any progress happening without the participation of the Thai military.

"I don't know how this can be compromised, sending in observers with the military continuing to reject the role of Indonesia," he said. "Because, at the end of the day, the officers say we have to work hand in hand, not with the foreign ministry, but with the army and especially those soldiers in the area. I still cannot foresee how that will happen."

Still, he says Indonesia's efforts to facilitate and maintain a cease-fire have kept pressure on both sides to keep the peace.

Group Confirms Cluster Bomb Use by Thailand

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 07:12 AM PDT

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 07 April 2011
"It's appalling that any country would resort to using cluster munitions after the international community banned them."
An international anti-cluster bomb group has confirmed the use of the munitions by Thailand during border clashes with Cambodia in February.

The Cluster Munition Coalition said it had investigated sites inside Cambodia where the munitions fell near Preah Vihear temple and found unexploded submunitions and fragments.

At least two people were killed when they handled an unexploded bomblet that detonated and seven others have been injured in explosions, the group said in a statement.

The Coalition called on Cambodia and Thailand to prohibit the use of cluster bombs, which are scattered over a wide area and sometimes fail to detonate, leaving behind dangerous remnants.


Neither Cambodia nor Thailand are party to an international ban on such weapons.

"It's appalling that any country would resort to using cluster munitions after the international community banned them," Laura Cheeseman, director of the CMC, said in a statement. "Thailand has been a leader in the global ban on antipersonnel mines, and it is unconscionable that it used banned weapons that indiscriminately kill and injure civilians in a similar manner."

The CMC said Thailand's ambassador to the UN in Geneva confirmed the use of the cluster munitions in 155-mm artillery shells fired during deadly border fighting in February.

Thani Thongphakdi, a spokesman for the Thai Foreign Ministsry, told VOA Khmer Thursday the Thais had fired in "self defense" after Cambodia attacked with multiple rocket launchers.

"Both sides lost civilian property," he said. "Cambodia's BM21 multiple rocket launchers are very danger to Thai civilians. We had aimed at military targets, but not civilian targets."

However, observers say civilians are now endangered by the munitions.

"There are around 5,000 people living in Sen Chey village that are at risk from these unexploded weapons," Atle Karlsen of Norwegian People's Aid said in CMC statement. "Thailand must supply information to help clear affected areas and make them safe for civilians to return home."

Sao Cheth, who commands 30 Cambodian soldiers at Phnom Trop near the temple and was injured above the eye in February's clashes, said he supported the group's stance against the weapons.

"The condemnation is a right and fair thing, because the world has banned the use of cluster munitions," he said.

Prak Phy, head of Samdech Hun Sen Natural Village, said residents there had suffered damage to their houses, property and rice fields, but no one has so far been injured by ordnance.

"I demand Thailand to be responsible for firing the cluster munitions in Cambodia, and I want Thailand to stop firing cluster munitions in Cambodia," he said.

Authorities have explained to villagers not to touch unexploded munitions in the area, while the Cambodian Mine Action Center has set up warning signs around the dangerous areas, he said.

Thailand admits controversial weapon use

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 06:49 AM PDT

Thursday, April 07, 2011
AFP

BANGKOK — Thailand on Thursday admitted using controversial weapons during a border clash with neighbouring Cambodia in February but insisted it did not classify them as cluster munitions.

Responding to accusations from campaigners, the Thai army said it had used Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) during the recent heavy fighting on the shared border.

Thailand's foreign ministry also confirmed that the country had used the weapons but said they were "deployed on the basis of necessity, proportionality and strict code of conduct".

DPICMs burst into bomblets which are designed for both anti-armour and anti-personnel attack, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a US-based public policy organisation focusing on defence intelligence.

They are defined as cluster munitions by the global campaign group Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), which on Wednesday slammed Thailand's use of the arms.


The group, which campaigns against the bombs, said the Thai-Cambodian conflict was the first confirmed use of cluster munitions anywhere in the world since the Convention on Cluster Munitions became international law.

The convention came into effect in August last year, requiring signatories to stop the use of the weapons, but neither Thailand nor Cambodia have signed the treaty.

CMC said the munitions have "caused large numbers of civilian casualties" when used by the United States in Afghanistan in 2001-2 and Iraq in 2003, as well as by Israel in Lebanon in 2006. Neither Israel or the US are listed as signatories of the convention.

The group detailed its own investigation of Cambodian government claims that the deadly munitions had landed on its territory in four days of unrest between the neighbours in early February.

The Thai ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva had confirmed the use of DPICMs "in self-defence" in a meeting with CMC on Tuesday, CMC said in a statement.

"It's appalling that any country would resort to using cluster munitions after the international community banned them," added CMC director Laura Cheeseman.

CMC said a cluster bomb had killed two Cambodian policemen during the February clashes and warned that thousands of people remained at risk from unexploded bomblets in several villages along the northern border.

Launched from the ground or dropped from the air, cluster bombs split open before impact to scatter multiple bomblets over a wide area. Many fail to explode and can lie hidden for decades.

Beehive radio cease and desist warning from Ministry of Information for selling airtime to the Khmer Post Radio

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:28 AM PDT

On 07 April 2011, the Ministry of Information (MoI) sent a letter of cease and desist to the chairman of Beehive Radio. In the letter, the MoI ordered Beehive radio to stop selling airtime to the Khmer Post Radio for broadcasting in Cambodia.

Cheap Justice for Cambodians at Hundred-Million-Dollar Court

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:19 AM PDT

ECCC/UN to Theary Seng, aka Victim Pretender or Applicant Under Pretext:   Act, dress and look like a victim, will ya?  It's too confusing to pity you and have you be our equal.
By Theary Seng

Dear Editor of VOA Khmer Service:

I write in response to statements made by tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen in the article entitled Complainant Raises Names of More Defendants (VOA, 4 April 2011) which I find highly offensive, extremely misleading, and completely incorrect in his understanding of legal procedure:

"Any names alleged by Theary Seng or anyone else is pure speculation.  And to start speculating on names of a confidential investigation under the pretext of being a civil party applicant is irresponsible and reckless and is contradictory to judicial due process."

Mr. Olsen is responding to the filing of my application to the Office of Co-Investigating Judges via the Victims Support Section as a civil party in Cases 003/004 against former Khmer Rouge military commanders Meas Muth and Sou Met in the Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC). 

First, Mr. Olsen's use of the phrase "the pretext of being a civil party applicant" is not only unfortunate but deeply offensive to any victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, especially coming from the UN spokesman of the Extraordinary Chambers which purports to give victims a greater historic voice as "Civil Parties".

Here, Mr. Olsen assumes the role of an (amateur) psychologist in assigning an ill, hidden motive to my application.  I have been forthright in stating that in addition to the main reason of demanding a greater measure of justice in honorable, loving memory of my parents, my relatives and the lives of 1,700,000 (please do not shorten to 1.7 M but keep in the zeros), I am lodging this complaint publicly in hope to give life to these Cases of 003/004 made dormant by overt political interference and UN lethargy.

For too long, the ECCC Office of Co-Investigating Judges has hidden behind the all-encompassing, impenetrable black veil of confidentiality even with individuals who have the legitimate right to know, e.g. lawyers of victim civil parties sworn to confidentiality by nature of their profession.

In using "pretext", maybe Mr. Olsen misspoke; maybe, he really unconsciously meant to attribute it to his hundred-million-dollar institution, five years later still celebrating the one victory of Case 001, a cakewalk with mounds of evidence and of one non-senior-KR man who confessed and cooperated.

Second, in calling my application which named KR military commanders Meas Muth and Sou Met "irresponsible", Mr. Olsen misleads the public to believe that I and other victims do not have a right to file our application now.  To the contrary, it is this Extraordinary Chambers that gives us victims this right to file as a civil party.  At any point in the criminal proceeding.  Now, as explained in my next third point.

Mr. Olsen has it backward; I would be "irresponsible" if I do not file.

Third, Mr. Olsen is legally incorrect about the ECCC procedural process as to when I can file as a civil party in the ECCC. 

Basically, as part of the agreement between the Royal Government of Cambodia and the UN, this ECCC uses the procedure of the Cambodian national civil law system which says a victim can file to become a civil party at any point during the criminal proceeding.  Oftentimes, it is the victims who initiate the criminal proceeding against the alleged perpetrator(s) who is (are) sometimes unknown to the victims.

The ECCC Internal Rules (IR) supplements on procedural matters unique to the ECCC where the foundational national procedural law is inadequate or silent.  Here, the most updated IR of February 2011 is silent as to when a victim can file to become a civil party and has favorable provisions which suggest that the victims can file during this investigative phase of Cases 003/004.

The Glossary at the end of the Feb. 2011 Internal Rules defines a "Charged Person" as "any person who is subject to prosecution in a particular case, during the period between the Introductory Submission and Indictment or dismissal of the case."

Application and Admission of Civil Parties Rule23bis.2. A Victim who wishes to be joined as a Civil Party shall submit such application in writing no later than fifteen (15) days [a deadline, not when a civil party can file] after the Co-Investigating Judges notify the parties of the conclusion of the judicial investigation pursuant to IR 66(1).

Judicial Investigations Rule 55.10. "At any time during an investigation, the Co-Prosecutors, a Charged Person or a Civil Party may request the Co-Investigating Judges to make such orders or undertake such investigative action as they consider useful for the conduct of the investigation."

The Office of Co-Prosecutors has forwarded the Introductory Submission on Cases 003/004 to the Office of Co-Investigating Judges (after ruling by Pre-Trial Chamber over conflict between national and international co-prosecutors).  The Cases are now under investigation by the OCIJ, but unfortunately only by the UN personnel and even then very tepidly due to political interference and international fatigue.

In filing, I am showing the highest respect for the law, even if it runs contrary to the UN and Cambodian politics of spin.

Through his charged words and tone, is Mr. Olsen telling me and Cambodian victims to settle for cheap justice?  That cheap justice is all the ECCC can provide us and we should be satisfied with the crumbs handed our way in silence and with gratitude as it's better than the Khmer Rouge years?  That there are two types of justice: one for Cambodians and one for the people of the developed world?  That we should accept the fiction being written by this ECCC with regards to Cases 003/004?

In sum, the comments made by UN spokesman Lars Olsen send a deeply chilling message to victims of the 
Khmer Rouge who could and would want to file as civil parties.  The statements are not only offensive, misleading and legally incorrect but attempt to pre-empt my application and those of potential other victims by silencing our voices and to obstruct our pursuit of justice in Cases 003/004.

CITA's Letter to MoEYS to Propose a Review of Prokas No.590 on Forced Transfer of Teachers

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 02:03 AM PDT

CITA's Letter to MoEYS to Propose a Review of Prokas No.590 on Forced Transfer of Teachers
http://www.scribd.com/full/52476946?access_key=key-26hh5wxpad8j4c6x78gk

China says Ai Weiwei is being held for economic crimes [-Life in the Middle Kingdom of Dictatorship]

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:50 AM PDT

Ai Weiwei, shown in this file picture, has not been seen since Sunday when he was en route to Hong Kong.

April 7, 2011
By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Official acknowledges Ai is being "held"
  • He says other countries should respect China's laws
  • China has criticized the West over its condemnation of Ai's apparent arrest
  • Ai Weiwei helped design the 2008 Olympics Bird's Nest stadium but later called for a boycott
China (CNN) -- China's foreign ministry said Thursday that dissident artist Ai Weiwei was being investigated for economic crimes.

"It has nothing to do with human rights or freedom of expression," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters during a regular weekly briefing.

The ministry added that other countries should respect China's laws.

The ministry's comments were China's first acknowledgment that Ai was being held. On Wednesday, a newspaper article alluded to it, but attributed the information to international news reports.


Hong stopped answering questions after journalists repeatedly pressed him to elaborate on the economic crimes charge.

The artist has not been seen since Sunday, when he and an assistant said on Twitter that they had been taken into custody en route to Hong Kong.

On Wednesday, China broke its silence on Ai's absence with a pair of articles in a Communist party newspaper.

One Global Times piece said he had been "detained by police, according to overseas media reports."

The other article, an editorial, said Ai "has been close to the red line of Chinese law... as long as Ai Weiwei continuously marches forward, he will inevitably touch the red line one day."

"He will pay a price for his special choice, which is the same in any society," said the editorial, which called him "an activist," and "a maverick."

Ai, one of the country's best-known artists, helped design the iconic Bird's Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics, but later called for a boycott of the 2008 games because he said China was using them as propaganda.

The artist has also accused the Chinese government of trying to silence dissidents.

The Global Times editorial Wednesday blasted "Western governments and human rights institutions" for calling for his release.

It accused them of "reckless collision against China's basic political framework and ignorance of China's judicial sovereignty to exaggerate a specific case," and failing to find out "the truth."

"The West's behavior aims at disrupting the attention of Chinese society and attempts to modify the value system of the Chinese people," the Global Times said.

The Chinese-language version of the article is harsher, saying criticism from the West is the reason Chinese people "loathe" it.

Ai Weiwei's name has apparently been censored on Chinese online forums, but people are getting around the ban by using nicknames and puns, or by using his father's and wife's names in posts.

Some also refer to him as a baker of sunflower seeds, a reference to his installation at London's Tate Modern art museum of 100 million painted pottery sunflower seeds.

Police surrounded his studio Sunday after authorities reportedly detained him at a Beijing airport.

"They crack down on everybody who has different opinions -- not even different opinions, just different attitudes," he told CNN last year. "Simply to have different opinions can cost (dissidents) their life; they can be put in jail, can be silenced and can disappear."

In the past, Ai has noted that he has paid a price for his own dissent.

In January, the artist said authorities placed him under house arrest to stop him from attending an event he planned after officials announced that his new studio would be demolished.

"Just recently I heard the new studio I built in Shanghai will be demolished, all because of my activities," Ai said at the time.

"So what is my activity? My activity is very simple, asking basic rights for people to freely express themselves and also to find a new structure, a new way of communicating. Because I'm an artist and this is what I do and I believe in that."

In the past several weeks, Chinese authorities have detained and arrested a number of lawyers and human rights activists amid calls for anti-government protests similar to those that have swept the Middle East.

CNN's Eunice Yoon contributed to this report.

United We Rise

Posted: 07 Apr 2011 01:41 AM PDT


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePSqOsMskWQ&feature=player_embedded#at=201

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