KI Media: “A Brief Tour of the Cambodian Sex Industry” plus 24 more

"Is this a good job?"

That had to rank as one of dumbest questions in the history of modern journalism. I'd put it to a young woman who'd just served me a drink at Zanzibar, a hostess bar in Phnom Penh whose "staff of beautiful ladies … are always on hand to serve and satisfy your every desire." Hostesses are paid to be flirty and solicitous, but I had clearly tried this one's patience.

"You know that this is not a good job," she said, with a smirk that revealed her irritation.

But in Cambodia, where the regime of former Communist Hun Sen oversees a particularly vicious form of crony capitalism, economic options are severely limited and 40 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day. For young women, work in the sex industry—which includes hostess bars, karaoke bars, massage parlors, and freelance prostitution—is one of the few alternatives to work in the apparel industry, which produces 90 percent of the country's export earnings. Many women find it a preferable, if distasteful, alternative.

The sex and apparel sectors draw from the same labor pool: young, poorly educated women from the impoverished countryside who send part of their earnings home to support their families. Almost all of the country's 350,000 apparel workers are women. Estimates of sex-industry workers range from about 20,000 to 100,000; the lower number is probably far closer to the truth as the latter comes from the hyperbolic, fundraising-driven claims of anti-trafficking organizations, which seem to assume that almost every sex worker is a "slave." A more likely estimate of the percentage of trafficked prostitutes is 10 percent.

There's a steady flow of workers between the two sectors: A 2009 U.N. Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking report found that in the aftermath of the steep global economic downturn, up to 20 percent of laid-off apparel workers found work in the "entertainment sector."

Apparel factories began sprouting up in Phnom Penh in the mid-1990s after Cambodia signed a bilateral trade deal with the United States that gave it privileged access to American markets if local factories upheld enhanced labor standards. Walmart, Nike, Target, and other major retailers soon began sourcing from Cambodia, and the country gained a reputation, in the words of USA Today, as "the sweatshop-free producer in a fiercely competitive global clothing market."

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof buffed this image, writing in a 2008 piece from Phnom Penh that, "a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty." Earlier, Kristof bought the "freedom" of two prostitutes/"slaves" and sent them home to their villages. One soon returned to her old line of work. In a 2009 column, Kristof called on the Cambodian government to "organize sting operations" against brothels, though in practice such raids have resulted in women being beaten or raped by police and sent to "rehabilitation centers" that Human Rights Watch describes as "squalid jails," including Koh Kor, a former Khmer Rouge detention facility.

The sex industry arrived in Cambodia in the early 1990s, in lockstep with the U.N. peacekeeping mission that oversaw elections after the fall of the Khmer Rouge and decades of civil war. (When asked in 1998 what the U.N. mission's legacy would be, Hun Sen replied, "AIDS. ") It further flourished with the flood of Western NGO workers, expats, and tourists that poured in after that. In his 1998 book Off the Rails in Phnom Penh, Amit Gilboa described Cambodia as "an anarchic festival of cheap prostitutes" where "you are never more than a few minutes away from a place to purchase sex."

Prostitution isn't quite as flagrant these days, but the temporal distance from paid sex is roughly the same. Streetwalkers can be found day and night along the perimeter of Wat Phnom, the Buddhist temple that is one of Phnom Penh's top tourist sites. There are numerous karaoke bars and massage parlors, and freelance prostitutes abound at bars and nightclubs catering to Westerners.

One night, I asked a tuk-tuk driver who spoke little English to leave me at the corner of 104 Street and Sisowath Quay, which runs along the Tonle Sap River. Instead, he dropped me in front of 104, a well-known hostess bar where he assumed I was headed.

Another night, I went to a nightclub on the Quay that was packed with a Cambodian crowd dancing to a band playing Asian pop. As soon as I ordered a beer, the manager, a woman, came over and began shouting to me over the music. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but a moment later, a young woman of about 20, dressed in a short black skirt, took the seat beside me. Now what the manager had been yelling became clear: "Do you want a girl?"

The young woman was quite beautiful, but she offered me a hand so limp and devoid of enthusiasm that it dampened any longing I could possibly have felt. One night, I paid the bar fine so a hostess I'd been talking to could go home early, and I gave her a large tip that she interpreted as a payment for sex. "Do you want to come with me?" she asked halfheartedly. She was clearly relieved when I declined.

Hostess bars, which are heavily clustered just off the riverfront and in a few other spots around the city, are the most visible component of the sex industry. Neon lights flash from the windows, and young women sit at tables out front waving at men walking by, urging them to come in. The soundtrack trends heavily toward 1960s and '70s rock; songs like "Brown Sugar" and "Whiskey Bar" ("Show me the way to the next little girl") are standards. Middle-aged Western men sit at tables talking to each other as hostesses drape themselves over their shoulders or in their laps or massage their shoulders.

There's no hard sell on sex, and not all of the women are available, though drinks are pushed heavily, because the hostesses get a commission (usually $1) on each one sold. Salaries are usually $60 to $70 per month, and with commissions and tips hostesses can make three times that. Those who have sex with customers make quite a bit more. I was offered rates of $10 an hour and $40 for the night. Cambodian clients pay far less, as do long-time expats familiar with local market prices.

One night, I went to 104 with two Cambodian women friends who do advocacy work with sex workers and textile unions. On my behalf, they questioned several hostesses, who were dressed in tight jeans and red tank tops. One 25 year old took the job after her mother died. (Her father had long ago abandoned the family.) She complained about aspects of the work, especially customers who felt entitled to paw her, but she said she was proud that she wasn't unemployed. "These jobs are hard to get," she said. "I'm not beautiful, and I don't speak English well, but the owner liked me and took pity on me."

Freelancers work at low-end joints like Martini, which the Wikitravel guide to Phnom Penh describes as "a place for lonely men and loose ladies," and Walkabout, which is also a guesthouse where rooms are available by the hour. Somewhat more upscale are places like Sharky's, which has pool tables and live music and attracts a more mixed crowd that includes women and couples, along with the usual Disco Stu types.

I went to Sharky's around 9 o'clock on a quiet weekday evening and sat on a balcony overlooking the street with a 24-year-old woman who had streaked blond hair and wore blue jeans and a silk shirt printed with red and pink hearts. She spoke little English, and we didn't get far beyond "What's your name?" and "Where are you from?"

"How long have you lived in Phnom Penh?" and "Who do you live with?" elicited blank stares. (She replied "yes" to the latter.) But one question was instantly recognized: "How much?" The answer: For a massage and "boom boom," $5 for an hour and $20 for the night.

My two Cambodian friends also took me to a karaoke bar whose customers were mostly Chinese and other Asian tourists. More than 100 women, some in short skirts and some in prom dresses with flowers in their hair, sat on couches lined up on both sides of the entryway. We took a room in back and asked for four women to join us. They soon arrived with trays bearing bowls of nuts and snacks; plates of grapefruit, grapes, and mangos; and bottles of warm beer served in glasses with ice. They sang along to videos, mostly Chinese and Cambodian pop.

One of the women, a 19-year-old whose education stopped at the fourth grade, wore a pink prom dress and barrettes in her long hair. She was paid $60 a month and made about the same amount per week in tips. She didn't sleep with customers, but colleagues who did could make $100 a night or even more if the client was "rich." She had an older brother who made $45 per month as a security guard, and an older sister who worked at a textile plant. "My mother doesn't like me working here, so I might have to leave, but I wouldn't work with my sister," she said. "The chemicals smell, her boss is always yelling, and she doesn't make much money."

So how does pay for factory work compare with pay for sex work? Apparel jobs in Cambodia are not an escalator out of poverty, as Kristof would have it; they're a treadmill at best. Textile workers earn about 33 cents per hour, lower than anywhere except Bangladesh. Even with significant overtime, monthly pay rarely tops $80. They commute in, sometimes from villages hours away, or live four and five to a room in shanties outside the factory gates. A study by two International Labor Organization specialists said that apparel workers were rarely able to save any money, and few had "the opportunity to advance their career, either in the garment industry or outside."

Apparel workers are on their feet all day, other than for a short lunch break, and they work such long hours that they see little sunlight. The plants are hot and noisy, with the steady drone of the machines making conversation impossible. They are subject to strict workplace rules (i.e., asking permission to go to the bathroom), are pressured to meet high quotas, and, despite Cambodia's "sweatshop-free" reputation, growing numbers work on short-term contracts that deprive them of basic labor rights.

Hostesses also work long hours—typically late afternoon until 2 a.m.—but they usually eat at least one meal at work, hang out with friends, and watch television when business is slow. Some but by no means all of the hostesses whom I spoke with had sex with customers, and they were free to decline offers (though accepting clearly increases pay).

I'm not touting sex work as an attractive profession. HIV is an obvious risk, and prostitutes are subject to violence by customers, police, and at "rehabilitation centers." Most of the women I met ordered juice when they were with me, but some drink either at their own initiative or the insistence of customers. Sex work is just as much of a dead-end job as apparel work; when women get older, they either find something else to do or move from clubs and bars to the street. Still, 20 percent of Cambodian sex workers interviewed for the 2009 U.N. report said they took their jobs because of good working conditions or relatively high pay. (Fifty-five percent did so due to "difficult family circumstances." About 3.5 percent were lured, cheated, or sold into sex work.)

Are sex workers exploited? Absolutely. But so are textile workers. When I was in Cambodia in 2009 to report on the apparel industry, I obtained the "company profile" of a firm that produced T-shirts, trousers, and skirts for companies like Aeropostale and JCPenney. It said the plant's 1,000 workers produced 7.8 million pieces annually. Taking a rough estimate of $25 per piece retail, each employee generated approximately $195,000 in retail sales annually, for which she received about $750 in pay, factoring in typical overtime rates.

"A lot of women no longer want apparel jobs," Tola Moeun, a labor-rights activist with a group called the Community Legal Education Center, told me. "When prostitution offers a better life, our factory owners need to think about more than their profit margins."

SEATTLE (AP) — King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says two retail theft rings directed armies of shoplifters that cost Seattle, Wash. area stores, including Safeway and Fred Meyer, more than $6 million.

Satterberg told a Thursday morning news conference that the shoplifters — many of them drug addicts — grabbed items such as chicken breasts or razors and were paid pennies on the dollar.

In one case the operators of a small market in the Greenwood neighborhood resold stolen items at their store and online.

The other theft ring is accused of reselling stolen goods to small markets around the region and also packing them into automobile shipments destined for Cambodia.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has agreed to Cambodia's proposal to allow a joint survey team into the disputed Preah Vihear area as a prerequisite to holding a General Border Committee meeting.

Gen Prawit met his Cambodian counterpart Gen Tea Banh on Wednesday during the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen demanded that Thailand sign terms of reference for the presence of Indonesian observers in disputed areas and form a joint survey team to collect data, a source close to the meeting said.

"It was demanded that Thailand form the joint survey team first. Then Cambodia would agree to host the 8th GBC [General Border Committee] meeting," the source said.

"Thailand had to compromise on some points to save face for Hun Sen. Otherwise, a deal would be impossible. Without a GBC meeting, solutions to border problems can never happen."

However, Gen Prawit said the government could not sign the terms of reference now as the House has been dissolved for the general election.

The GBC is expected to urge Thailand and Cambodia to withdraw their soldiers from the 4.6-square-kilometre disputed area next to the Preah Vihear temple in Si Sa Ket province and in other disputed areas near Ta Kwai and Ta Muen temples in Surin province, the source said.

Then the Indonesian Observer Team will enter the disputed areas. Finally, Thailand and Cambodia will remove their soldiers completely to pave the way for demarcation by the bilateral Joint Boundary Commission.

Thai Defence spokesman Col Thanathip Sawangsaeng said from Indonesia the talks between Gen Prawit and Gen Tea Banh went smoothly and would lead to the 8th GBC meeting being hosted by Cambodia.

"The defence ministers of the two countries agreed to solve problems through peaceful means. They do not want to see any more clashes or suffer any more losses which will affect the livelihood of the people living along the border," Col Thanathip said.

Meanwhile, in Surin yesterday, where classes include Thai and Cambodian children, everything went smoothly on the second day of the new school term at 26 schools near the border.

Only Ban Nong Khanna and Ban Ta Miang schools in Phanom Dong Rak district remain closed as they are closer to Ta Muen Thom temple and areas of recent clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 19 (UPI) -- The International Court of Justice said Thursday that hearings were scheduled next week on a request to review a 1962 ruling on the Preah Vihear temple.

Public hearings are set for Monday and Tuesday at the Hague to consider the 1962 case, a dispute between Cambodia and Thailand over sovereignty.

Cambodia called on the ICJ to clarify the meaning of a ruling on the Preah Vihear temple. Cambodia notes that the court ruled that it has sovereignty over the temple as a "direct and automatic consequence of its sovereignty over the territory on which the temple is situated," the court said in a May 3 summary. Furthermore, Thailand is under an obligation to pull its forces out of the area.

"Cambodia asserts that Thailand disagrees with all of these points,'" the summary read.

Conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand are centered on the 11th-century temple listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008. International courts ruled in 1962 that the temple was in Cambodia though parts of the temple grounds are in Thai territory.

Thai and Cambodian forces agreed to a shaky cease-fire in late April following a week of border clashes between the Asian neighbors over the area.

Bangladesh and Cambodia are set to be the fastest growing suppliers to the US clothing import market in 2011.

The 'Trade and trade policy: the US clothing import market' study, published by Textiles Intelligence, found that in the first two months of 2011, Bangladesh was the fastest growing supplier of US clothing imports, which rose in value by 39%. Cambodia was the second fastest, with US buyers increasing their purchases by 31%.

In El Salvador and Honduras exports to the US rose by 23% and 19%, respectively. However, the report found that growth in El Salvador was slower than in 2010 and remained the same in Honduras, said to be a sign that buyers are placing bigger orders with manufacturers in Asia as consumer confidence returns.

Significantly, Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador and Honduras, along with Pakistan, were the cheapest of the USA's leading ten clothing suppliers in 2010. This success reflects buyers' focus on low cost supplies as the recovery in the US economy remained tentative, said Textiles Intelligence.

The report found that all four of these countries increased their prices in the first two months of 2011 due to rising raw material prices, reflecting an increase in the average price of US clothing imports as a whole.

PHNOM PENH — Lightning strikes have killed 56 Cambodians so far this year, twice as many as over the same period last year, an official said Thursday, blaming an early start to the rainy season.

Just 27 people were struck dead by lightning in the first five months of 2010, when 114 were killed over the whole year, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM).

Unusually early rain fall this year had contributed to the rise in fatalities, NCDM spokesman Keo Vy told AFP.

"This may be related to the rain that started in early February this year, compared to April last year," he said. Cambodia's rainy season normally runs from May to October.

"Many people are more scared than ever of lightning strikes because they just happen more often," Keo Vy added.

Lightning deaths happen every year in Cambodia, especially in rural areas.

Many of the victims have been farmers and the government has warned people to stay indoors during storms.

Keo Vy said the government couldn't afford to distribute lightning rods but it had distributed information pamphlets to help communities in areas prone to lightning strikes.

"It's a natural disaster happening in other countries as well, but Cambodia can't afford advanced equipment to (protect against) lightning strikes yet."

Locked in a bitter quarrel with Thailand over an patch of land around the ancient Preah Vihear temple, Cambodia late last month filed the urgent request before the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague.

"The International Court of Justice will hold public hearings in the case," the ICJ said in a statement adding the hearings "will be devoted to the request for the indication of provisional measures filed by Cambodia."

"This means the hearing will focus specifically on Cambodia's urgent request for an order for Thai troop withdrawal," a source close to the court told AFP.

The hearings on May 30 and 31, will be in the form of oral submissions from both countries.

The UN court ruled in 1962 the 11th-century Khmer temple belonged to Cambodia, but both Phnom Penh and Bangkok claim ownership of the 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) surrounding area.

Cambodia last month asked the ICJ to explain that ruling, with the ICJ saying it would rule on a clarification at a later stage.

At least 18 people have been killed and 85,000 have been temporarily displaced in weeks of clashes over the ownership of the small patch of land around the temple.

We, the undersigned members of civil society, are deeply concerned over recent developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in relation to the ongoing prosecution and investigations in Cases 003 and 004. We are concerned that the mandate of the court – to bring to trial senior leaders and those most responsible for Khmer Rouge atrocities – is at risk of not being genuinely carried out.

We urge all stakeholders – victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities, donors, the Cambodian government, and the United Nations – to ensure that justice is done and is seen to be done by the ECCC.

We urge all those concerned to ensure that the goal of the ECCC is carried out and the overall legacy of the ECCC is serving as a model for rule of law development in Cambodia.

All ECCC judges – whether Cambodian or international - are required to be persons of high moral character, to possess a spirit of impartiality and integrity, and to be fully independent in the performance of their functions. They are prohibited from accepting or seeking any instructions from any government or any other source. The ECCC's Co-Prosecutors are subject to the same standards. The recent developments at the ECCC pertaining to Cases 003 and 004 compounds our grave concerns that the impartiality, integrity, and the independence of ECCC judges are being tainted.

Cambodians have a right to know what happened at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Within this "right to know" implies access to the truth about what happened during the Khmer Rouge era. One of the functions being fulfilled by the ECCC is to create an historical record about what happened. It is imperative that this record is as complete and accurate as possible. The ECCC must safeguard against any creation of negationist or revisionist records about what happened. 

Cambodians have a right to justice. This includes the right of victims to meaningful participation in the justice process – at all stages of the proceedings. In order to effectively exercise this right, all Cambodians need access to publicly available information. Ample information can be provided to victims while safeguarding the rights of those alleged to have perpetrated Khmer Rouge atrocities according to the highest international standards. International Co-Prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, provided some basic factual information about Case 003 in his press statement of 9 May 2011. However, this information was not timely enough for civil society to effectively carry out its functions in respect of victim participation. Cambodian civil society urgently requires additional information and time in order to be able to effectively represent the interests of the Cambodian people in Cases 003 and 004. 

We, the undersigned, remain hopeful of the promise the ECCC holds in setting and maintaining standards for rule of law development in Cambodia. The rule of law, democracy, the principle of separation of powers and the independence and impartiality of judges are interconnected. For Cambodians, therefore, it is absolutely imperative that the ECCC – a court within the domestic justice system, and applying both Cambodian and international law – serves as a real role model for the future.

We urge all concerned individuals and groups to take appropriate action to ensure that the Case 003 and 004 investigations are full and genuine; to ensure that an accurate historical record is created by the ECCC; to ensure that Cambodians have access to justice, and to the truth about Khmer Rouge atrocities; and to ensure that the right of victims to meaningful participation in the proceedings is effectively guaranteed.

JUDGES at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have rebuked British co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley for a statement he issued last week that revealed their inaction in the court's controversial third case.

Last week Cayley issued a statement saying that the alleged crimes in Case 003 "have not been fully investigated".

The statement followed an announcement from the co-investigating judges last month that they had concluded investigation in the case.

In listing a series of additional investigative steps he planned to ask that the judges perform in the case, Cayley effectively divulged their lack of action over the last 20 months that the investigation was open.

Still remaining to be done, Cayley said, were investigations of mass grave sites and interrogations of witnesses including the suspects themselves, who have yet to be questioned in the investigation.

In addition to listing these requests, Cayley also named several crime sites in the investigation – the first time such information had been offered publicly – for the benefit of victims wondering whether they may qualify as civil parties in the case.

In an order dated yesterday, co-investigating judges You Bunleng and Siegfried Blunk rebuked Cayley for these disclosures.

"The International Co-Prosecutor lacked legal basis for making the above mentioned information public, and he also violated the Rule of Confidentiality," the judges said in a statement. They therefore ordered Cayley to publicly retract the offending portions of his statement within three working days.

Deputy prosecutor William Smith said yesterday that his office was considering whether to appeal the order to the court's Pre-Trial Chamber.

Regarding the issuance of Cayley's statement last week, "the co-investigating judges and the international co-prosecutor obviously have a difference of opinion in terms of his justification", Smith said. "We're considering our position and what we should do."

A source at the court said last week that the judges were "seriously" considering initiating contempt-of-court proceedings against Cayley in relation to the disclosures, though yesterday's order has apparently taken the place of such action for the moment.

Cayley's statement was notably not joined by Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang, who opposes the Case 003 investigation and toes the government's line that the suspects fall outside the tribunal's mandate to investigate "senior leaders" and those "most responsible" for Khmer Rouge crimes. The suspects in the case remain officially confidential, though court documents reveal them as former KR navy commander Meas Muth and court documents reveal them as former KR navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met.

The judges' handling of the case has prompted allegations that they have deliberately botched their investigation in the face of opposition from government officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has warned that trials beyond the upcoming Case 002 could plunge the Kingdom back into civil war.

"That the co-investigating judges are more concerned with Cayley's statement than they are with progressing Cases 003 and 004 says all you need to know about the prerogatives of that office," Cambodian Centre for Human Rights president Ou Virak said in an email yesterday.

"The actions of Judge Blunk suggest that the international backers of this court have conceded to the demands of the Cambodian government and are acting to ensure that no further cases go ahead."

The deadline for civil parties to apply in Case 003 was yesterday. Cayley had requested that this deadline be extended another six weeks, though Smith said yesterday that a decision on the matter still had not been released.

Just four people had lodged civil party bids for Case 003 as of earlier this week, though that total spiked yesterday thanks to a flood of new applications, with 318 in total having been filed as of yesterday evening, according to Im Sophea, outreach coordinator at the court's Victims Support Section.

At least two of those applications have already been rejected, however – those of local activist Theary Seng and New Zealander Rob Hamill, whose brother was abducted by the Khmer Rouge in the Gulf of Thailand and later executed. Hamill's rejection was particularly dubious, given that Cayley said last week that the "capture of foreign nationals off the coast of Cambodia and their unlawful imprisonment" figured in the Case 003 investigation.

"It appears the decision is based on political convenience rather than a proper application of the law," Hamill said in a statement on Tuesday.

While sleeping with her mother four year old Theary Seng's awakened and her eyes locked on to the eyes of the Khmer Rouge soldiers as they entered the room with wet ropes and then they left. Her mother knew exactly what the wet ropes meant. When she awakened her mother was gone. At first she didn't think that was unusual since the adults left early to go to work. In this case that wasn't the reality

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Theary Seng lived through a nightmare after she was taken away to a prison camp at the age of four with her mother and her four brothers. She recounted the experience to an overflow crowd that came to see the film "Facing Genocide" at the Meta House tonight Wednesday, May 18.

Seng recalled that while she was sleeping with her mother her eyes opened as she saw Khmer Rouge soldiers carrying wet ropes walk into the room where the family was sleeping. Her eyes locked on to the soldiers eyes and they left. Her mother knew exactly what the wet ropes meant. When she awakened her mother was gone. At first she didn't think that was unusual since the adults left early to go to work. In this case that wasn't the reality as Seng later found that the KR murdered her mother as they did her father. She and her brothers were orphans.

The film focuses on the emergence of the Khmer Rouge and one of its top two leaders under Pol Pot Kheiu Samphan. The movie shows archive footage of Samphan as a young man who was perceived as a good man turned bad and though he denies it was largely responsible for the murder of over 1.7 million people.

About two thirds of the 94 minute film is devoted to file footage of the history the KR movement and Samphan's role in the organization that intended to turn Cambodia into a self sufficient Agrarian society. In the process Samphan was the face and voice of the KR as Pol Pot stayed in the background and very few people really knew who he was.

Samphan is interviewed by Swedish filmmakers D. Aronowitsch and S. Lindberg who captured some real life behind the scenes footage of his family life and accompanies him in visits to his homes in Pailin and Phnom Penh. They followed him for two years before his arrest in 2007 in a search of his personality. The film gives an insight into his mindset and his close relationship with Pol Pot. From Samphan's actions and openness he comes off as a, "Charming grandfatherly figure," Seng noted after the screening.

The filmmakers questioned Samphan about 10-year-old KR soldiers killing other children. Samphan denied any knowledge of such actions. Samphan focused on the positive side of the KR ideals and sidestepped the truth.

Seng now a lawyer and human rights activist enters the film as the protagonist in helping victims of the KR revolution through her organization Center for Justice & Reconciliation. One scene shows a victim that claims when she was 8-years-old KR soldiers took her to a rice field and then proceeded to beat and rape her. She wants justice through the KR Tribunal which has been stonewalling victims and the current Cambodian government doesn't want cases 003 and 004 to be tried.

As the film progresses there are photos and video from the Khmer Rouge era as well as still photos of Seng with her family before her mother and father were murdered. Another photo shows an 8-year-old Seng with her brothers in 1979 after they fled to a refugee camp on the Thai border.

On separate occasions Seng later met Samphan and his wife. Both deny that the KR movement killed millions of people or were what the KR reputation depicts. When the meeting with Samphan's wife was proposed by the filmmakers Seng was reluctant at first but later agreed. Samphan's wife took more time to consent to the meeting. She came with her daughter putting Seng into an awkward some moments. Seng pursued some sort of admittance and apology for what the KR did to Cambodia people. The result was denial.

This film is a must see but it is doubtful that the masses will ever be able to view. Currently it's making the rounds at film festivals. There is no current plan to make the film available for purchase to the general public. Seng said she doesn't know anything about the film's future in being made available for public purchase. It's a shame as it is a must see film about the mysterious and still misunderstood events of the Khmer Rouge genocide of its people.

In our NR Top 10 ratings during the first quarter of 2011 show that our report on the film Red Light was popular with our readers. It's an excellent film that reveals the tragic situation in the child sex trade and an insight on why parents ell their children into the business.

This is the best film that we have seen on the subject. The problem is the like "Facing Genocide" it is not being made available for public purchase. When you see CNN banging their drum of how they're going to stamp human slavery and the trafficking of children into the sex trade you would think that these films would be made available for public purchase.

These films get it right and are being kept secret and shown only to select audiences. You would think that with public and private funding they would try to get the word out.

It's more about making films and raising money than doing something about the root cause of the problem to stamp it out. The good news is two of the best films on the sex trafficking subject Red Light and Virginity Trade will be screened at the Meta House this Friday May 20. Red Light screens at 7 PM followed by Virginity Trade at 8:30 PM.

The Meta House is located a Sothearos Boulevard # 37 Sangkat Tonle Bassic, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh.

Meta House is opposite the Phnom Penh Center and Build Bright University. For more information go to: www.meta-house.com

In the early hours of Sunday 15 May 2011 the staff and clientele of the gay-friendly Rainbow Bar on Street 172 in Phnom Penh's Daun Penh district were subjected to a vicious and unprovoked homophobic attack by neighbors, which left several people badly injured and caused significant damage to the bar. The establishment had been hosting a drag queen competition as part of Pride Week 2011 celebrations. More worryingly, according to witnesses, police refused to intervene until they had been paid a bribe of US$500. 

The attack fell during Pride Week 2011, a week designed to promote tolerance of – and to celebrate – sexual and gender diversity. Pride Week 2011 passed off with great success in Cambodia, with more than 1,300 people showing their support and attending a wide range of events in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and other parts of the country. It is clear from the popularity of the festivities that ordinary Cambodians are beginning to embrace lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual ("LGBTI") people.

While the attack itself is a matter of concern, the failure of the police to intervene and discharge their duties to maintain the safety and security of the staff and patrons at the bar is a significantly more serious matter. The failure on the part of the police to intervene and arrest the perpetrators at best suggests negligence on their part and, at worst, tacit approval of the attack and its discriminatory motivations. Such failures on the part of the police are likely only to encourage additional homophobic and transphobic sentiments and attacks. 

For more information, please contact Ou Virak (tel: +855 (0) 12 40 40 51 or e-mail: ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org).

Please find this media comment attached in English. A Khmer version will follow shortly.

Thank you and kind regards

As Cambodia and Thailand remain intractable in their positions on a protracted border dispute, Indonesia's proposal to send unarmed observers to both sides of the area grows dimmer.

Bilateral talks between Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and his Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh were held ahead of the annual Asean Defense Ministers Meeting on Thursday in Jakarta.

Their meeting ended with no resolution.

After the meeting, Tea Banh reaffirmed that Cambodia would not bow to Thailand's demand to withdraw its troops from the border area.

"This is to be clear: that Cambodia cannot withdraw our troops from our own territory. Cambodia never invaded any other country," Tea Banh said after the meeting with Prawit.

Thailand had earlier said that it would move to put into practice the so-called "package solution" initiated by Indonesia.

Under the terms of the solution, Thailand would allow Indonesian observers only if Cambodia withdrew its troops from the disputed area around Preah Vihear temple, which belongs to Cambodia.

Fighting along the contested border area has raged since last month. Clashes around the Preah Vihear temple have prompted displacement of thousands on both sides and resulted in at least 20 deaths.

The plan to involve Indonesia as a mediator in the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia was agreed to at an informal meeting of Asean foreign ministers in February.

The ministers also have agreed to the assignment of Indonesian observer teams to both sides of the border area to ensure that a cease fire there is respected.

Despite the apparent deadlock, Indonesia remains upbeat, with Air Marshal Eris Herryanto, the secretary general of the Ministry of Defense, saying on Wednesday that Cambodia and Thailand have conveyed that "the two sides have opened the door for Indonesia's role."

Eris said that although both countries had voiced support for Indonesia playing a mediating role in the conflict, neither had specifically what that role would be.

"They did not mention Indonesian observer teams but they have given some signals [of agreeing to Indonesia's role]. The specific role will be discussed in another meeting," Eris said.

He denied that Indonesia was failing in mediating the dispute, saying that what was achieved at the meeting counted as progress.

"The leading body in this issue is the [Indonesian] Foreign Ministry, and we will report this progress to them," he said. He added that the foreign ministries of the three countries would be responsible for a resolution.

Here is the official document showing that the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) on April 27, 2011 overturned a previous judicial decision in favor of Mr. Hor Namhong (Cour d'Appel de Paris, May 20, 2010). This is the confirmation that Mr. Hor Namhong finally and definitively lost his defamation lawsuit against Sam Rainsy before the French tribunal.

Judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have rejected a civil party application from former Olympic rower Rob Hamill in the court's third case, fuelling further speculation that its dismissal has been planned in advance.

In a statement released yesterday, Hamill called the rejection "outrageous and unfounded" given his family's clear connection to the investigation.

Hamill's brother Kerry was captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1978 while sailing with friends in the Gulf of Thailand before being taken to S-21 prison in Phnom Penh and executed. Rob Hamill was present to testify about the ordeal in 2009 during the tribunal's first trial, that of former S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

Hamill was admitted as a civil party in both Case 001 and Case 002, which features four senior Khmer Rouge leaders including former KR second-in-command Nuon Chea and is set to head to trial later this year.

The suspects in Case 003 remain officially confidential, though court documents reveal them as former KR navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met.

Hamill says Meas Muth in particular played a "pivotal role" in his brother's capture, and in a statement last week, tribunal co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley confirmed that the "capture of foreign nationals off the coast of Cambodia and their unlawful imprisonment" figures in the Case 003 investigation.

The court's co-investigating judges announced the closure of this investigation last month, though they failed to provide any significant information about the case to prospective civil party applicants during the 20 months the investigation was open and did not even summon Sou Met and Meas Muth for questioning during that time. This has prompted allegations that the judges have bowed to the stiff opposition to Case 003 from Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials and have deliberately failed to investigate the case properly.

"Given the 'confidential' classification of the decision – which in itself is baffling – I can only say that it appears the decision is based on political convenience rather than a proper application of the law," Hamill said in his statement.

"The conduct of Cases 003 and 004 appear[s] to be politically influenced and the actions of the [investigating judges] are an affront to the principles behind the establishment of this Tribunal."

Im Sophea, outreach coordinator for the tribunal's Victims Support Section, said this week that the court had so far received only four Case 003 civil party applications, after nearly 4,000 people applied in Case 002.

At least two of the Case 003 applicants – Hamill and local activist Theary Seng – have been rejected. The deadline to lodge civil party applications in this case is today.

Cayley requested last week that the judges extend this window another six weeks, though United Nations court spokesman Lars Olsen said yesterday that he had no information on whether this request had been granted.

Phnom Penh - Rumours that hundreds of kilograms of Khmer Rouge-era gold had been found in western Cambodia have drawn hundreds of people to the area in recent days, national media reported Thursday.

The governor of Pursat province, Khoy Sokha, told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that the authorities had now taken over the site but had found nothing.

'If the authorities did find buried treasure, it would be kept as state treasure (sic!), and no one would own it,' he said, adding that tensions had seen fights break out among desperate diggers.

Khoy Sokha said he had established a committee to deal with the situation.

'It is an illegal action,' he was quoted as saying. 'They do not have permission from the authorities to dig in this area. Officials had to stop them immediately.'

A human rights worker in the province said people were 'hysterical' but had not struck gold.

'They heard the news from one person to another person, so they gathered and started digging,' said Nget Theavy of the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Organization, or ADHOC. 'Some of them continued to dig without eating rice or drinking water.'

The Khmer Rouge blew up Cambodia's central bank when they captured Phnom Penh in 1975. Rumours about what happened to its gold reserves have circulated ever since with some believing a faction of the movement made off with the gold and destroyed the bank to hide their tracks.

Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro opened the 5th Asean Defense Ministers Meeting in Jakarta on Thursday, aimed at boosting defense cooperation between the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

"Non-traditional security issues — such as terrorism, piracy, illegal migrants, maritime securities, climate change, food, water and energy security as well as scarcity of natural resources — could lead to an intensified involvement of the defense industry in the future," Purnomo said in his opening remarks.

He said that apart from the non-traditional security issues, conflicts occurring in other regions in the world had also become challenges for a stable, secure and peaceful world.

"The Asean defense ministers meeting, as the highest authority for regional defense, is challenged to strengthen defense cooperation for the formation of solid Asean political security in responding to these global challenges that may have implications for regional interests in [maintaining] stability," he said.

During the meeting, the Asean defense ministers are scheduled to discuss their work program for 2011-2013, the establishment of the Asean peacekeeping centers network, and defense industry collaboration.

The ministers were scheduled to issue a joint declaration on Thursday afternoon on the working papers discussed in the forum.

With one chance after another to resolve their current dispute, Thailand and Cambodia have met yet again over the border issue that has ignited repeated skirmishes between the two nations.

Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh met on Wednesday on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM). That meeting inspired hopes that the resolution Indonesia, as the current chair of ASEAN, has brokered will proceed and conclude in peace.

Indonesian Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro held a number of separate talks with his ASEAN counterparts, as Indonesia is trying to build a climate of defense cooperation among countries in the region.

The ADMM will officially open on Thursday and conclude on Friday.

"We were talking in order to find a good way to bring the situation back to normal," Banh told reporters of the bilateral meeting with his Thai counterpart.

"We are moving forward for the best interests of both countries," he said.

But he failed to elaborate what progress had been made between the two countries.

Wongsuwon refused to be interviewed when The Jakarta Post approached him.

Repeated skirmishes have occurred in Thai-Cambodia border areas in the vicinity of three ancient temples — Preah Vihear, Ta Moan and Ta Krabey — claiming at least 23 lives on both sides since early this year.

While Cambodia has exchanged a formal letter on terms of reference for the Indonesian observers dispatched to the disputed area, Thailand refused to sign, demanding Cambodian troops withdraw from the area, which Cambodia refused.

While boasting of the success of the bilateral talks between Cambodia and Thailand, Indonesian Defense Ministry secretary-general Eris Herryanto said Thailand had not signed the package solution and that the talks went "alright".

"There was significant progress during the bilateral talks," he told reporters, without further elaborating.

He also said the conditions for withdrawal of Cambodian troops were not discussed in the bilateral talks.

Earlier in the day, Purnomo met with Vietnam Defense Minister Gen. Phung Quang Thanh on boosting cooperation between the two countries' marine forces.

Later, Purnomo spoke with Myanmar's Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Hla Min in the first meeting between the two ministers.

"All this time, the cooperation in security between the two countries has not been intense enough due to Myanmar's condition. The visit is expected to increase the [cooperation]," Eris said.

Meanwhile, Purnomo and his Malaysian counterpart Ahmad Zahid Hamidi have agreed to promote the creation of the ASEAN Defense Industry Collaboration (ADIC) to tap the huge military spending in the region.

Purnomo said military spending by ASEAN members reached US$25 billion per year.

"Currently there are four ASEAN member countries with established defense industries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. But, the region is still a net importer of weapons and systems."

Three steps in a package solution proposed by Indonesia

• Exchanging formal letters on the terms of reference for the observers;

• Announcing the GBC/JBC meeting.

• Dispatching an initial survey team;

• Holding a meeting of the GBC/JBC.

• Fully assigning the team of observers;

• Following up on the results of the GBC/JBC meeting.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders must be wondering what possessed them, just two years ago, to set an ambitious new target for the establishment of the ASEAN Community and shift their timeframe from 2020 to 2015.

The ASEAN Community is meant to usher in a 'culture of peace' among member states through the formation of a 'political-security community' (one of three pillars, the others being economic and socio-cultural). There's nothing wrong with the aspiration. But as leaders attending the ASEAN summit found in Jakarta last weekend, it's hard to talk seriously about a culture of peace when two of your members are trading artillery fire and massing troops at the border.

As Thailand and Cambodia skirmish and risk going to war over what was originally a low-level dispute about the ownership of a temple, the vision of a united Southeast Asian political-security bloc becomes ever murkier. Thailand in particular has opted out of the community ideal in order to pursue a cynical policy of confrontation towards Cambodia, making ASEAN's culture of peace the latest victim of the country's toxic internal politics. 'Thailand has definitely embarrassed and discredited ASEAN,' says Pavin Chachavalpongpun, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 'Both Thailand and Cambodia have damaged ASEAN's reputation, but especially Thailand by insisting on bilateral talks and rejecting any kind of international approach.'

To its credit, Indonesia, ASEAN's current chair and in many ways its driving force, did its utmost to impose the association's collective will on the warring parties at the Jakarta summit. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's attempts to broker peace by forcing the Thai and Cambodian leaders to sit down together for talks met with predictable failure, but they represented a laudable departure from the old 'ASEAN Way', the organisation's laissez-faire approach to the affairs of individual countries. What Yudhoyono did was to demonstrate that when the behaviour of member states damages ASEAN's credibility, then the association will intervene. 'It was the first time the chair made a significant effort to engage in preventive diplomacy,' says Jurgen Haacke of the London School of Economics. 'For ASEAN that's a step in a positive direction.'

Yet this small victory can't distract from the larger setback, namely that two ASEAN members are engaged in a conflict that could yet intensify at a time when their regional umbrella group is meant to be consigning intra-regional conflict to the history books. Indonesian academic Rizal Sukma has written that the Thai-Cambodian conflict could eventually work in ASEAN's favour, as it will force the association to develop dispute-resolution mechanisms. He's also right to observe that the old ASEAN would once have bent over backwards to avoid openly addressing the problem, and that its refusal to stay silent in Jakarta was a welcome change from its traditional determination to see no evil.

The big question is whether ASEAN can develop dispute-resolution mechanisms with any real teeth. In future, will it have the resolve to force squabbling member states to accept peace-keepers or observers, such as the proposed Indonesian observer teams that Thailand—clinging to the old ASEAN Way—has so far refused to admit? Will it suspend members that fail to live up to the group's principles, as it has consistently failed to do in the case of Burma? Will ASEAN, in other words, break decisively from the ASEAN Way?

Of course, the establishment of a normative framework promoting ASEAN Community values would encourage member states to start respecting those norms. But the character of many Southeast Asian governments is such that they have limited room for adaptation. In ASEAN, democratic leaders are in the minority; more numerous are the heads of one-party states, absolute monarchs, and democrats only in name. The ASEAN Way of leaving your domestic baggage at the door of the regional forum has always suited them very nicely.

Thailand's recent actions are an example of how individual member states with undemocratic natures will, in times of internal difficulty, always be inclined to sacrifice the greater regional good to the interests of domestic expediency. Most analysts agree that the Thai-Cambodian conflict is largely an invention of the government in Bangkok and its royalist-military backers. This is the inverse of the peaceable community that ASEAN envisages in that Thailand has actively sought conflict with a fellow member. 'The (Thai) government has avoided diplomatic means and tried to politicize the issue,' argues Pavin, who thinks that the army wants to take advantage of an external conflict in order to capitalise on the nationalist sentiments that wars tend to stir up.

He also believes that the royalist-military elite may decide to escalate the conflict and spark a much bigger war with Cambodia if elections in July go against its preferred candidate, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Any such an escalation would be a hammer blow to the hopes of forming a political-security community by 2015—especially since Cambodia is due to chair ASEAN next year.

Indonesia, ASEAN's intellectual dynamo, wants the group's political development to keep pace with its own. But Jakarta may have to accept that most of ASEAN's members aren't structurally prepared for that degree of change, no matter what pieces of paper they sign at association summits saying that they are. It's highly questionable whether several member states, not just Thailand, are truly capable of being part of a joined-up security community and of divorcing domestic concerns from regional actions. And as long as that's the case, the ASEAN Way will remain the only way in which ASEAN can function.

Forty people from eight nations attended the first ASEAN People's Caucus from May 3 to 5 in the run-up to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The caucus was part of the 7th ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People's Forum.

The group told their individual governments "that the status quo is not acceptable and that the recognition, promotion and protection of LGBTIQ rights is long overdue," according to a statement.

"In Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Burma, authorities arrest, detain and persecute individuals because of colonial laws that criminalize their sexual orientation or gender identity," the group said.

"In other ASEAN countries, certain laws are abused with impunity to harass or persecute individuals whose sexuality or gender is deemed unacceptable, immoral or unnatural."

The attendees demanded repeal of anti-gay laws, recognition of gay rights as human rights, and depathologisation of LGBT people in psychological circles, among other things.

Activists attended from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore. The caucus was supported by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.