KI Media: “Leaked document casts doubt on impartiality of Khmer Rouge judges” plus 24 more |
- Leaked document casts doubt on impartiality of Khmer Rouge judges
- Chorcha! Chab Choar! - "Negotiation, catch the thief": Poem in Khmer by Kaun Neak Sre
- Support letter for Kem Sokha by Mr. Mom Yin
- Cambodia supports Ban reelection as U.N. chief [... right after Ban met with Bun Rany Hun Xen, how strange?]
- Analysts See Political Maneuver in Hun Sen Speech
- Research Focuses on Muslim Women Under Khmer Rouge
- Cambodian monks help protect rare turtles
- [Thai] Army warns loose talk will hit temple bid
- HRP-SRP merger evaluated
- Closing Order of Case 002 against Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith
- UN to meet on HIV drugs
- Lesson from Cambodia: Why Female Role Models are Key to Women’s Empowerment
- Khmer Rouge tribunal is ‘damaged’ by new case row
- Judges dismiss Case 003 requests
- B.C. man's killers may finally face justice
- Cambodians know little about Khmer Rouge trial [...Do they even know that Hun Xen is also a Khmer Rouge?]
- Center opens to protect rare turtle in Cambodia
- Man jailed over sex tourism in Cambodia
- Press Release: CEDAC extends SRI Dissemination in 2011
- Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Mme KhmerCroix-Rouge
- PRESS RELEASE: The Extraordinary Reunion of Father and Sons 36 Years Later
- Blood-stained Bun Rany Hun Xen received by Ban Ki-moon in New York
- ICJ to wade into bloody border conflict?
- Thailand uses equipments to cover border stream
- Survey: More anti-union repression in Asia
| Leaked document casts doubt on impartiality of Khmer Rouge judges Posted: 08 Jun 2011 09:59 PM PDT
As the UN-backed tribunal prepares to bring more former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial, a confidential document obtained by the Monitor raises questions about the judges' independence. June 8, 2011 By Jared Ferrie, Correspondent Chiang Mai, Thailand The Christian Science Monitor As an international tribunal prepares to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to trial beginning June 27, a confidential document obtained by The Christian Science Monitor raises questions about the UN-backed court's ability to independently prosecute members of the brutal regime. The 2008 court document reveals when tribunal prosecutors laid out their case against two former military commanders, they requested that the investigating judges detain them. The level of detail in the document builds a strong case against the commanders, but the judges ignored the request to detain them and didn't even summon the suspects for questioning during 20 months of investigation. The judges lack of response underscores concerns about their ability to carry out their duties. When they announced April 29 that they had concluded their investigation, many victims and observers were outraged, pointing out that investigators failed to question suspects and witnesses, or even inspect sites that could contain mass graves. "[This] could in no way amount to an investigation in the eyes of any reasonable observer and is nothing short of a slap in the face to the millions of victims of the Khmer Rouge," says Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR). On Tuesday, the coinvestigating judges rejected a request by International Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley to extend the investigation, sparking a new round of criticism from observers and watchdog groups. "If the judges had ever been serious about carrying out their legal obligations, as well as their ethical ones, they would be looking for a way to conduct the investigations with thoroughness and precision," says Clair Duffy of the Open Society Justice Initiative. "Instead they've availed themselves of every opportunity to shut them down." She adds that it was "particularly disturbing" that the judges treated allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity with such "flippancy." Two new suspects About one quarter of Cambodia's population died from starvation, forced labor, disease, or execution during the regime's reign from 1975 until 1979. A Khmer Rouge prison chief was sentenced last year, while four top regime leaders are expected to begin trial in June for allegedly orchestrating policies that killed approximately 2 million people. The 2008 document outlines the case against two additional suspects – Khmer Rouge Air Force Commander Sou Met, and Navy Commander Meas Mut. Prosecutors alleged they share responsibility for crimes including torture, killing, and the forced labor of tens of thousands of people. "In particular, Sou Met and Meas Mut participated in a criminal plan to purge the RAK [Revolutionary Army of Kampuchia] of all undesirable elements, which resulted in at least thousands and quite probably tens of thousands of deaths," the prosecutors alleged. Resistance to proceeding with the trial Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has repeatedly expressed opposition to expanding the scope of prosecution, even telling UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he would not allow more cases to go forward. He has warned that pursuing further cases could spark political violence. Echoing government rhetoric is Chea Leang, the Cambodian prosecutor in the hybrid tribunal, which assigns national and international staff to each role. She issued a statement on May 10 saying the case should be dropped. Critics have accused Ms. Chea and the investigating judges, German Siegfried Blunk and Cambodian You Bunleng, of bowing to political pressure. "Any appearance of independence at this institution is long since gone," says Ou of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. The judges strongly denied such claims in a May 26 statement, saying they "have worked independently from outside interference, and will continue to resist all such attempts and are resolved to defend their independence against outside interference, wherever it may come from." Close observers of the court, however, have noted difficulties prosecutors have faced in bringing more than five Khmer Rouge leaders to trial. "The Cambodian government doesn't want the cases to move forward, the Cambodian prosecutor is under pressure from that side, and the international community doesn't want to pay for it," said Ann Heindel, a legal advisor with the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge history. Despite such resistance, prosecutors built cases against a further handful of suspects, including Sou and Meas, who are the only suspects named in the document. The case that was built In addition to their military roles, the court submission claims they were influential figures in the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), as the regime's political entity was known, with Sou obtaining "one of the highest ranks within the CPK." Both attended meetings where planned purges of the armed forces were discussed, prosecutors claimed. "Sou Met and Meas Mut were often present at these meetings and described their success in implementing the purge," according to the document. As navy commander, Meas also controlled Cambodia's coast, where prosecutors allege that his sailors captured and killed Thai and Vietnamese fishermen, and abducted nationals of other countries including "at least four Westerners." Also according to the document, a commander who reported directly to Sou was responsible for overseeing the construction of a military airport that also functioned as a "re-education or tempering site" for soldiers suspected of harboring disloyalty toward the regime. Witnesses interviewed by the prosecution described horrific conditions at the construction site, where starving workers perished daily as a result of "strenuous and unrelenting labor." "Those who did not work to the satisfaction of the guards were often executed in the forest just west of the airfield site," according to witness accounts. The document details similar atrocities carried out at other sites. These included a Buddhist temple used as a detention center, and a rock quarry where prisoners included fishermen, navy sailors, and "people whose relatives had been members of the previous regime." Cayley has the option to seek permission from the court to appeal to the pretrial chamber, which has the power to order the investigating judges to reopen their investigation.  | ||
| Chorcha! Chab Choar! - "Negotiation, catch the thief": Poem in Khmer by Kaun Neak Sre Posted: 08 Jun 2011 04:46 PM PDT   | ||
| Support letter for Kem Sokha by Mr. Mom Yin Posted: 08 Jun 2011 04:38 PM PDT http://www.box.net/shared/rboa3sulx6  | ||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2011 04:36 PM PDT
PHNOM PENH, June 8 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The Cambodian government expressed "full support" Wednesday for the reelection of Ban Ki Moon as U.N. secretary general. Ban has told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York that he has sent a letter to the members of the General Assembly and Security Council seeking a second term.  | ||
| Analysts See Political Maneuver in Hun Sen Speech Posted: 08 Jun 2011 01:02 PM PDT  Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer Phnom Penh Wednesday, 08 June 2011 "For political power, politicians have always used such a policy." Analysts say Prime Minister Hun Sen has gone on the offensive to discredit his political opponents ahead of elections, after a speech on Monday in which he took credit for helping both the Human Rights Party and the Sam Rainsy Party in previous years. Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Royal School of Administration, Hun Sen said he advised HRP president Kem Sokha in the 2007 formation of his party and had advised Sam Rainsy over a constitutional amendment that lowered the number of seats necessary to form a majority government—from a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly to a 51 percent majority. Analysts said the speech was likely an attack on the credibility of the opposition aimed at boosting support for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, with local elections set for 2012 and national elections the following year. Lao Monghay, an independent analyst, said the strategy could test the loyalty of opposition and ruling party supporters alike. It could also "make confusion or a loss of confidence" among the opposition's base, he said. Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections, said Hun Sen's statements on Monday could sew doubt in the minds of voters who cast ballots for the opposition in 2008 elections. "This strategy is under the theory of divide and conquer," said Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace. "For political power, politicians have always used such a policy." Pol Ham, a spokesman for the Human Rights Party, said Hun Sen was using "old tricks" to discredit the image of the party. Recorded telephone conversations purportedly between the premier and Kem Sokha were leaked to the press last week, though HRP officials have denied the calls prove any kind of collusion between the two parties. Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, said that his party leader and Hun Sen often discussed politics in 2006, with Sam Rainsy meeting the prime minister at his home on occasion.  | ||
| Research Focuses on Muslim Women Under Khmer Rouge Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:32 PM PDT
Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer Washington, DC Wednesday, 08 June 2011
Cambodia's women Muslims are increasingly embracing their own identities, as the minority group as a whole struggles with the impacts of the Khmer Rouge, according to new research. "Cham Muslim women were cut off from the traditional roles of taking care of their households and children," Farina So, a researcher at the Documentation Center of Cambodia, told "Hello VOA" on Monday. So has now completed four years of research and compiled a book, "The Hijab of Cambodia: Memory of Cham Muslim Women after the Khmer Rouge," soon to be released. "When they were deprived of these roles, it affected them not just socially, but religiously and racially as well," she said. "Because their religion states that as mothers and wives, their role is to bring happiness to the family and then they will be blessed." Under the Khmer Rouge, Muslims were forced to break major tenets of their religion, including eating pork and frequent prayer. Some complied, but others practiced their religion in secret. So, who began interviewing Muslim women in 2007, said she had encouraged women to describe the woes of the past. "Speaking out about one's bitter experiences, or sorrow, is difficult, but it provides one with long term healing," So said. So said she had learned through her research the Khmer Rouge had made obvious attempts to eliminate minority groups like the Muslims, the majority of whom are of the Cham ethnic background. Up to 400,000 Chams died under the regime. However, Cambodia's Muslims are now healing over time. They are getting over what they see as a "nightmare," So said, and are working to rebuild their communities. "We have seen that Cham Muslims tend to embrace their religious identities, rather than their racial one," she said.  | ||
| Cambodian monks help protect rare turtles Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:28 PM PDT
AFP KRATIE, Cambodia — Cambodian monks and environmentalists launched a new conservation project on Wednesday to help save one of the world's rarest and largest freshwater turtles from extinction. A centre for the endangered Cantor's giant soft-shell turtle has been set up on the grounds of a temple near the central town of Kratie on the Mekong river, with support from wildlife group Conservation International. "The turtle faces serious threats in its natural habitat," said Conservation International's Sun Yoeung, explaining that the centre would look after baby turtles. "We hope they will have a better chance at survival when they are bigger and can protect themselves," he said. The turtle, capable of growing up to 50 kg (110 pounds), was thought to be nearly extinct until it was rediscovered on an isolated stretch of the river in 2007. At the opening ceremony for the centre, an orange-clad monk blessed a female Cantor's turtle weighing 18 kg (40 pounds) and released her into a large pond inside the temple complex, a popular tourist attraction in the area. Staff at the facility hope to find her a mate soon to kick-start a breeding programme. The centre is also home to nearly 100 baby turtles who were moved from their nests for their own protection. "In one or two years we will release them back into the river," Sun Yoeung told AFP. "Now they are too small and they can be eaten by birds or fish." The Cantor's turtle is also under threat from hunters and from the destruction of its habitat. The animal spends 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud and is listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the same status given to tigers and pandas. It was discovered in an area closed off to scientists until the late 1990s because of decades of civil conflict in the country. It is not known exactly how many of the creatures are left but since 2007, CI has protected 51 nests on the Mekong river and watched more than 1,000 turtles hatch successfully.  | ||
| [Thai] Army warns loose talk will hit temple bid Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:25 PM PDT
9/06/2011 Wassana Nanuam Bangkok Post Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has called on all sides to stop giving their opinions on the Preah Vihear temple issue as it might put the country at a disadvantage. Gen Prayuth said it was risky to talk about the issue at the moment as the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) proceedings should be allowed to take their course. "Whatever the outcome, the Foreign Ministry and the government have measures to deal with it. But if we rush to act or say anything, we could be at a disadvantage," he said. However, Gen Prayuth gave assurances that the army, the Defence Ministry and other security agencies would continue to do the best they could to protect the country's sovereignty. He said there were political, diplomatic and military measures to solve the problem if the ICJ decided to grant an injunction to Cambodia and order Thai troops to withdraw from the 4.6 square kilometre disputed area surrounding Preah Vihear. Gen Prayuth said the military measure, or the use of force, would be the last resort as Thailand and Cambodia were still neighbours. However, he said Thai troops would not tolerate any violation of the country's sovereignty. Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon denied saying the ICJ had no authority to order Thai troops to withdraw from the disputed area surrounding the ancient Hindu temple. Gen Prawit said Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong had filed a complaint with the ICJ accusing Thailand of not accepting the court's authority by refusing to withdraw troops from the disputed area. "I never said that the ICJ has no authority to order Thai troops to withdraw. I did not say that I did not accept the ICJ's authority. This was an interpretation by reporters," Gen Prawit said. "But I said that if the ICJ orders us to withdraw, I still could not do so, because the area also belongs to Thailand. If it wants us to withdraw, Cambodia has to withdraw too. "The Thai army's position is that we have to maintain military forces in the area that belongs to us. That's all I can say," Gen Prawit said. He said he had been trying to contact Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh to discuss arrangements for the General Border Committee meeting after Cambodian Deputy Defence Minister Neang Phat said the GBC meeting would take place only after Thailand signed a terms of reference. Gen Prawit said he had left it to Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to consider whether or not to sign the terms of reference. "But for the military's part, our survey team is ready," he said. "I don't know what is happening with Cambodia. We have already talked about this matter in Indonesia, however now they [Cambodia] have changed," Gen Prawit added.  | ||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:12 PM PDT Wednesday, 08 June 2011 Meas Sokchea The Phnom Penh Post The Kingdom's two main opposition parties yesterday expressed willingness to continue merger talks following claims by Prime Minister Hun Sen that he has possession of additional secret documents that could further split the parties apart. Hun Sen suggested on Monday that he was willing to disclose documentation of secret meetings with opposition leader Sam Rainsy. The premier's comments came after the Sam Rainsy Party appeared to call off all chances of an opposition merger after a 2007 conversation between Hun Sen and Kem Sokha, president of the Human Rights Party, was leaked. Kem Sokha can be heard in the taped 2007 conversation asking for Hun Sen's assistance in securing Olympic Stadium as a site for a party meeting. Hun Sen apparently suggested that Kem Sokha should "grab" some SRP members. Pol Ham, spokesman for the HRP, said yesterday that Hun Sen's warning that additional leaks could be on the way was merely part of a strategy designed to avert any possible competition from a merged opposition. On whether the HRP favoured a merger, however, he said: "Under the shoulder of the SRP, under the structure of the SRP, we cannot accept. "We want to create a big democratic movement that everyone can come to join in a large house," he said. "We cannot dissolve our party to live with the SRP." Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, said his party "welcomes the principle of a merger", despite comments to the contrary last week, as long as it was under the banner of the SRP. "The principle is that we keep the same name but we divide the work to do from the national level to the grassroots," he said. "We cannot pull down a brick house to live in a hut." Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said yesterday that the two parties could pose a formidable challenge to the ruling CPP, and even win, if they were not impeded by their immaturity. "I regret that Khmer politicians do not have maturity," he said. "As I see it, SRP does not seem to want to merge."  | ||
| Closing Order of Case 002 against Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith Posted: 08 Jun 2011 08:35 AM PDT In preparation for the start of trial hearings beginning on 27 June 2011 of Case 002 against the surviving Khmer Rouge senior leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, KI Media is starting a new series in posting installations of the public document of the Closing Order of Case 002. The Closing Order of the Co-Investigating Judges forms the basic document from which all the parties (Co-Prosecutors, Co-Lead Lawyers for all civil parties, Defense Lawyers) will be making their arguments before the Trial Chamber judges (one Cambodian President, 2 Cambodian Judges, 2 UN judges). Up until now, the hearings involving these four surviving senior Khmer Rouge leaders have been in the Pre-Trial Chamber over issues of pre-trial detention and jurisdictional issues. Beginning in June 2011, the Trial Chamber will hear the substantive arguments over the criminal charges (e.g. genocide, crimes against humanity, penal code of 1956). Available in Khmer and French. Contact the ECCC for a free copy. CLOSING ORDER of Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Marcel Lemonde, 15 September 2010 C. SECURITY CENTRES AND EXECUTION SITES 178. One of these five policies was to implement and defend the CPK socialist revolution through the reeducation of "bad-elements" and the killing of "enemies", both inside and outside the Party ranks, by whatever means necessary.568 As it took power, the CPK destroyed the existing legal and judicial structures.569 By 17 April 1975, the CPK had replaced these structures with a network of security centres and execution sites in the areas over which it had taken control, in order to detain and reeducate or kill those who were suspected of engaging in activities against the State.570 By the end of the CPK regime, approximately 200 security centres and countless execution sites had been established, located in every Zone throughout Cambodia and at all levels of the CPK administration structure, including at the Party Centre.571 Of these, the Co-Investigating Judges were seized of eleven security centres (S-21 security centre, Au Kanseng security centre, Koh Kyang security centre, Kok Kduoch security centre, Kraing Ta Chan security centre, North Zone security centre, Prey Damrei Srot security centre, Phnom Kraol security centre, Sang security centre, Wat Kirirum security centre, Wat Tlork security centre) and three execution sites, in addition to Choeung Ek, related to S-21: (Execution Sites in District 12, Steung Tauch and Tuol Po Chrey execution sites). 179. The two key objectives of security centres and execution sites were to reeducate bad-elements and "smash" enemies. In its common usage, to "smash" meant to "kill".572 However, in the context of a security centre, it meant to secretly arrest, interrogate, torture, and execute.573 Similarly, "sweep" was a term used to describe arrests,574 usually followed by executions.575 Chapter VII of the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea entitled "Justice" illustrates the CPK's concern to protect the State from subversion.576 Article 10 of this chapter refers to two forms of activity that posed a threat to the State and their corresponding penalties: "[d]angerous activities in opposition to the people's State must be condemned to the highest degree", whereas "[o]ther cases are subject to constructive reeducation in the framework of the State's or people's organizations".577 A person suspected of the former category of activity was deemed to be an "enemy" who had to be "smashed",578 whereas a person falling within the latter category was considered a "bad-element" who would be reeducated as prescribed by the Constitution.579 Security centres detained both "enemies" and "bad-elements" and usually labelled them "serious" and "light" prisoners respectively.580 180. The CPK used several methods to identify those who had carried out "activities against the State", including requiring people to write biographies and attend self-criticism meetings. Persons arrested and interrogated at a security centre were required to name other members of their alleged "network", routinely under torture, which was practiced in security centres nationwide, even prior to 17 April 1975.581 The methods of interrogation were given different labels ranging from "cold", "chewing" to "hot".582 These methods appear to have been taught to security centre cadres by the sector and district cadres and were commonly understood terms.583 Further, interrogators routinely asked detainees the same questions at different security centres, such as whether they were agents of the CIA. The order to interrogate along these lines originated from the Centre and Zone levels584 and reflected the Party Centre's fear that the CIA was conspiring with the Vietnamese to overthrow the CPK regime.585 The establishment of security centres and execution sites was therefore a key means by which the CPK did "whatever it [took] to cause the oppressed classes to be victorious over the oppressor classes".586 181. As set out below, the list of those whom the Party suspected of engaging in activities against the State broadened and evolved over time as a result of domestic developments and the international armed conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam. The CPK considered itself under constant threat of invasion and annexation by Vietnamese forces and entered into the international armed conflict with Vietnam in pursuance of its policy to defend itself from external enemies.  | ||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2011 08:31 AM PDT Wednesday, 08 June 2011 Tan Yew Guan The Phnom Penh Post A Cambodian delegation headed by Bun Rany, the wife of the prime minister, will arrive at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today to negotiate a draft declaration on HIV/AIDS policy that has drawn sharp criticisms from NGOs in Cambodia. NGOs fear the European Union will use the high-level UN meeting to advocate stronger intellectual property controls on the manufacture of generic copies of patented antiretroviral drugs, both through the UN's 'draft zero' declaration and the its Free Trade Agreement negotiations with India. The generic copies, 90 percent of which are estimated by experts to be manufactured in India, cost significantly less than the near identical branded originals, allowing some 40,000 people in the Kingdom living with HIV to access cheap, safe treatment. Such treatment is subsidised by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis – a scheme which NGOs have said the EU, the United States, Japan and Switzerland are tying to avoid financing past 2012 by deleting a provision of the draft zero declaration. Heng Phin, an evaluation manager at Cambodian People Living with HIV/AIDS Network, said yesterday that a letter circulated by 10 Cambodian NGOs to the Ambassador for the EU and dozens of embassies last week over the issues had received little response at first. "I tried anyway to go to the office of United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to see [Surya] Subedi and also the secretariat of the German embassy and also Raphael [Dochao Moreno], the representative of the EU delegation," he said. Moreno, who yesterday said he was too busy to comment, agreed to raise concerns expressed in the letter at the UN General Assembly, Heng Phin said, as had Subedi. Pen Mony, national coordinator of the Cambodian Community of Women Living with HIV, said yesterday she had also raised concerns about the EU's negotiations with India with Bun Rany through Cambodia's National Aids Authority. "We just do our best to make sure India does not sign the agreement with the EU," she said. Last week's letter also attacked Japan, the US and Switzerland for allegedly pushing for weakened protections for generic ARVs. Mark Wenig, public affairs officer of the US embassy in Phnom Penh, said last week the US would negotiate at the UN meeting to "ensure we save as many lives as possible".  | ||
| Lesson from Cambodia: Why Female Role Models are Key to Women’s Empowerment Posted: 08 Jun 2011 08:26 AM PDT June 8th, 2011 By Victoria L. Petitjean By 3p Guest Author The case for sex and gender equality has been widely made, and maybe more than ever in recent years with people focusing particularly on women still lacking in important decision-making roles. One important point that has been made is that we, individuals, societies and even businesses need to understand even more fully this matter as a fundamental of socio-economic sustainability. Maybe even more crucially and as a priority, women must believe in themselves. In a recent TedX speech, Sheryl Sandberg, mother and Facebook COO, talked about how we have indeed made progress in terms of women's rights (including access to education, work, healthcare and respect). Yet, recurring daily examples from all over the world reveal that not only can we not become complacent of our relative progress in these matters but women themselves must also focus more fundamentally on one core aspect: the need to believe in their own dreams and capacities. As a First Lady and as the only woman leading the team responsible for the drafting of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her biography: This statement underlines what is at the very heart of what social scientists, including feminists, have long recognized about human power and social change – that empowerment is about women realizing the "power within" themselves and acting individually and with others to exercise "power from and with" each other, thereby gaining "power to" act as agents and fundamentally change the way conservative masculine-oriented societies function. How do we, women, do this? Many women are aware of this challenge and want to put it into practice. Becoming aware of our own incredible capacities is the first step, and from there it's a long leap to putting them into practice. Perhaps we have been so influenced by deeply engrained gender inequalities that we actually perpetuate inequalities through our words and behavior. How do we shed this? The importance of (female) role models for women. Last year, I was working for 9 months in Cambodia, for a local NGO focusing on women's rights. Living and working abroad has made me realize how much in Cambodia, as in the majority of countries around the world, discrimination inflicted on women remains expressed in both obvious and more subtle fashion (from great physical violence against women to more emotional, silenced aggression) and is either directly or indirectly accepted and perpetuated by women themselves. During my time in South East Asia, one core project I worked on was the microfinance of locally produced handicraft and food, by Cambodian women. In just a few months, I saw how women, coming from the countryside where they had no professional activity, changed radically and built their confidence exponentially. The provision of small loans to set up their small businesses in the capital, Phnom Penh, changed their perception of themselves as well as by their families and communities. Getting in the morning to take care of their small business, being in contact with customers and general population, and discovering the capital city opened them up radically and made them that much stronger for leading the lives they realized they wanted. They put money aside to buy a house for their family, they sent their children to school, some who had suffered from alcoholism made the firm decision to stop, they sent money back home to their parents, they bought themselves nice clothes and other items, they bought more and better food for their family, they pushed their husbands to earn themselves more money for their families to afford an even more comfortable lifestyle, their furthered their loan to make their business grow etc. This was all made possible by the organization and most crucially our Franco-Cambodian business manager who, by her daily support and training, came to understand these women and made them believe in and act upon their dreams and abilities. These women came to Phnom Penh, set up and developed their businesses because they wanted it but also because they were supported in this process, made to believe daily, repeatedly for several months that they could do it by themselves, even if they would have support at the beginning. But maybe they also started believing in themselves as women, wives, mothers and professionals because they finally had amongst them a strong woman (our business manager). She was herself educated in the West (France) where, despite our remaining needs for improving gender equality, we grow up in societies which are starting to recognize how much we have to bring to them. Lets make sure we keep this improving and that every woman around the world benefits at the same time.  | ||
| Khmer Rouge tribunal is ‘damaged’ by new case row Posted: 08 Jun 2011 08:17 AM PDT Khmer Rouge tribunal is 'damaged' by new case rowTaipei Times (AFP, Phnom Penh)May 23, 2011 Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal has come under fire from observers and Khmer Rouge victims as it weighs a controversial new case that is strongly opposed by the government. The court's third case — which targets two unnamed individuals — has proved so contentious that Cambodian and international prosecutors openly argued about whether to pursue it this month. "There is definitely already damage to the court because of the controversy," said tribunal monitor Clair Duffy from the rights group Open Society Justice Initiative. So far only one member of the murderous 1975-1979 regime, former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, has been successfully prosecuted. He was sentenced last July to 30 years in jail for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The case is now under appeal. A second trial involving the regime's four most senior surviving leaders is due to start next month. However, the government wants the court's activities to end there, arguing that going after more suspects further down the chain of command could plunge the country back into civil war. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen — himself a mid-level cadre before turning against the movement — last year said the third case was "not allowed." Little information has been made public about case three, but the suspects are believed to be former Khmer Rouge navy and air force commanders. A possible fourth case, thought to involve three mid-level cadres, is still under investigation, but is also facing political pressure. Observers fear both new cases will be dismissed — raising the very real possibility that the court, which has cost foreign donors nearly US$150 million, will try just five people for the deaths of nearly a quarter of the population. "We know there is no magical figure as to how many should be tried or indicted," said outspoken Khmer Rouge survivor Theary Seng, who lost her parents under the regime. "However, the current five is not enough and to push for another five is not unreasonable." The tribunal was set up to try senior Khmer Rouge leaders and those most responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million people from starvation, overwork and execution in the regime's bid to forge a communist utopia. Divisions within the court about how to handle the politically sensitive third and fourth cases were laid bare when judges announced late last month they had concluded their investigations into case three — without questioning the suspects. International co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley promptly called for their alleged crimes to be examined more thoroughly and for the suspects to be summoned. His comments pitted him directly against his national counterpart, who said the suspects fell outside the court's jurisdiction. Cayley was subsequently rebuked by the investigating judges for revealing too much information about case three, to the dismay of observers who have long decried the secrecy surrounding the suspects. "Cayley's statement let the public know there were major gaps in this investigation," Duffy said. The unusually frank exchanges at the court highlighted deep splits along national and international lines. Theary Seng said many of the court's Cambodian employees were toeing the government line. "But what is totally unacceptable and sickening is the United Nations succumbing to the same domestic politics," she said. Khmer Rouge survivors are refusing to let the new cases die down without a fuss.  | ||
| Judges dismiss Case 003 requests Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:46 AM PDT
James O'Toole The Phnom Penh Post
Judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have rejected calls for further investigation in the court's controversial third case, bringing it one step closer to what critics say is its long-planned dismissal. In a decision dated yesterday, co-investigating judges Siegfried Blunk and You Bunleng dismissed the requests from British co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley on a technicality. The judges announced the conclusion of their Case 003 investigation in April, though during the 20 months that the investigation was open, they failed to examine a number of alleged crime sites or even to question the suspects in the case. Lacking support from Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang, who has toed the government's line in opposing the court's third and fourth cases, Cayley therefore submitted a series of additional investigative requests last month, as he is permitted to do under court rules. In their ruling yesterday, however, the judges said these requests were invalid because Cayley had not formally registered a disagreement on the issue with Chea Leang ahead of his submission, nor had she formally delegated the task to him to undertake on his own. "As both the National and the International Co-Prosecutor have confirmed that neither a delegation of power had taken place nor a disagreement had been recorded, the Co-Investigating Judges consequently rejected the requests from the International Co-Prosecutor," the judges said in a statement yesterday. Observers have alleged over the past few months that the judges have deliberately botched their Case 003 investigation in the face of opposition to the case from Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials. Cayley declined to comment on these allegations yesterday, though he affirmed that he would appeal the judges' decision. "I think people are entitled to interpret the actions of the judges. They're entitled to make their own conclusions from the actions of the judges, but they can rest assured that I will fight on in this process," he said. "I have a very firm view on it. We will appeal all of this." Yesterday's ruling marks the latest turn in the battle between Cayley and the investigating judges over the fate of Case 003. The suspects in the case remain officially confidential, though court documents reveal them as former KR navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met. In lodging his requests to the judges last month, Cayley said Case 003 had "not been fully investigated". The judges responded by ordering Cayley to retract his statement, accusing him of breaching the court's confidentiality rules in what was effectively an attempt to censure him publicly. Cayley has appealed this retraction order, calling it "an abuse of discretion" and "virtually unprecedented in the jurisprudence of courts dealing with cases of mass crime". Anne Heindel, a legal adviser at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said that with yesterday's decision, the judges were "trying to kill [Case 003] on a technicality that they've invented for this purpose". In arguing that the prosecutors are obliged to formally register disagreements when they differ over a legal action, the judges relied on Rule 71(1) in the court's internal rules, which reads in part: "In the event of disagreement between the Co-Prosecutors, either or both of them may record the exact nature of their disagreement in a signed, dated document". In the absence of such a registered disagreement, or of a decision by one prosecutor to delegate a legal action to the other, there is "no room for a solitary action by one Co-Prosecutor", the judges said. However, Heindel noted, parallel wording exists in Rule 71(2), which states that in the event of such a disagreement, prosecutors "may bring the disagreement before the Pre-Trial Chamber". Despite the same use of the word 'may' as in Rule 71(1), the judges said there is "no obligation" for the prosecutors to bring disputes to the Pre-Trial Chamber. "They're trying to change the subject by being technical," Heindel said. "I don't think the legal reasoning is convincing." In addition to the investigative requests he made last month, Cayley also asked that the judges extend the deadline for victims to apply as civil parties in Case 003, particularly in view of the fact that the judges had provided almost no information to the public on the case during their investigation. Although they rejected Cayley's requests, the judges said in a statement late yesterday afternoon that they had decided "on their own motion" to recognise any civil party application submitted within three weeks of the original deadline on May 18. This new deadline falls today, however, giving prospective applicants little notice. "The whole thing with the deadline and the secrecy of the cases – the whole thing is a mess," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. "It indicates that they're not paying attention to what's at stake, and that's justice for the victims."  | ||
| B.C. man's killers may finally face justice Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:32 AM PDT
Four top leaders of Khmer Rouge regime to face UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh on June 27 June 8, 2011 By David Kattenburg Special To The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia, Canada) It's unclear why Richmond native Stuart Robert Glass was sailing off the coast of Cambodia, back in August 1978, on a little yacht named Foxy Lady, when a patrol boat of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime appeared out of the haze. He might have been on his way to Bangkok to pick up a load of Thai marijuana. Perhaps he was just there for fun and adventure. Whatever the reason, Stuart Glass, who was only 27, was gunned down in a hail of bullets -the only Canadian to die, along with two million Cambodians, in one of the 20th-century's largest mass murders. The fate of Glass's pals, a New Zealander and an Englishman, would be far worse. Now, 33 years later, four top leaders of Democratic Kampuchea -as the xenophobic Khmer Rouge called their regime -will face a United Nations-backed tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Their trial begins June 27. In July 2010, the tribunal sentenced Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch -the commandant of Democratic Kampuchea's preeminent death house -to 30 years in prison. In retrospect, Stuart Glass's family and friends aren't surprised the young Richmond man died the way he did. "If we did anything adventurous, we really were worried," recalls Stuart's cousin, Alec Dutt. "But Stuart was different. He would take on an adventure as if it meant something different." "I distinctly remember him telling me 'I've got a feeling that I'm gonna die young'," says Stu's old pal, Roy Delong. "And I'd say, 'Sure, right.' You kind of blow it off." Glass was born in London, England, moving to B.C. with his family when he was five. In 1972, he returned to London to live, work and pursue risky ventures. In the summer of 1973, as he re-entered Britain from a trip to Morocco, customs officers discovered 176 pounds of plastic-wrapped hashish stuffed inside a false gas tank in his blue Vauxhall. Six months in jail didn't reform Stu. He travelled the Hippie Trail to India, and from there down to Australia, ending up in northern Darwin. There, he and a Kiwi friend named Kerry Hamill bought a traditional Malaysian yacht named Foxy Lady. Other contacts were forged. A local heroin addict named "Peter" (not his real name) claims to have hatched a plan with Stu to smuggle marijuana from Bangkok to New Zealand. The claim cannot be corroborated. What is known is that Foxy Lady sailed from Darwin to Singapore, and then up the Strait of Malacca to lovely Phuket. A few months later, on the other side of the Malaysian peninsula, Stu and Kerry met a young British wanderer named John Dewhirst. "Don't forget to come back," Christine Rohani-Longuet, now in her 70s, recalls calling out as the boys glided out to sea on the afternoon of Aug. 7, 1978. She would be the last friend to see them alive. Five days later, near a speck of sand and forest named Koh Tang, Foxy Lady was seized by a patrol vessel of the Democratic Kampuchean navy. Glass and Kerry should have avoided the area. For years, the Khmer Rouge had been waging a vicious war against their arch-nemesis, neighbouring Communist Vietnam. Hundreds of boats had been captured and their crews "smashed." Just three months earlier, a pair of American yachtsmen had been arrested. Stu -spared the worst -was shot and killed in a hail of machine gunfire. Kerry and John were trucked off to Comrade Duch's S-21 death house for months of torture. In mid-October 1978, in front of a former evangelical church, their throats were cut and their bodies burned to bone and ash. Four more yachtsmen -two Americans and two Australians -would suffer the same fate in the regime's closing days. It would take Stuart's mom 17 months to find all this out, in the Jan. 4, 1980, edition of The Vancouver Sun. "Canadian believed among victims: 12 'spies' executed in Cambodia," the headline read. Stuart's family never spoke publicly about his death. Having refused to recognize Cambodia's new Vietnameseinstalled regime, Ottawa was unable to investigate. Over the next 30 years, Glass would come to be known solely by his name and nationality. Duch's 2009 trial briefly retrieved the nine murdered yachtsmen's horrific stories from oblivion. The tribunal's second trial, due to start on June 27, may reveal more. One of the four aging defendants, Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary, would have known about the young mariners. Pol Pot's right-hand man, Nuon Chea, was the one who ordered them killed and their bodies burned to ashes, Duch testified at his trial. The yachtsmen's families are glad to see justice finally served, but dismayed by the threatened dismissal of a third case involving the chief of the Khmer Rouge navy. Meas Mut, a self-professed Buddhist, says he knows nothing. However, Mut "lies about virtually everything, as far as I can determine," an informed tribunal observer quips. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen -a former Khmer Rouge officer himself -has stated that people of Mut's rank should not go on trial. Although the Canadian government has contributed $2.5 million US to the tribunal, it won't even confirm that a Canadian was killed by the Khmer Rouge. "We have no comment on this case," an External Affairs spokesman says. "As the full details of the investigation remain confidential, we cannot comment on whether a Canadian citizen has been identified as a victim." Meanwhile, Glass's family and friends are philosophical about the unfolding trial of aging Khmer Rouge chiefs. "They're going to die and face their maker," says one cousin. Roy Delong, who chummed with Stuart in the early 1970s, is less philosophical. "[Meas Mut] isn't someone we'd pursue to Pakistan and kill," says Delong. "If you don't pursue him, we might as well shut up. We sit here and talk high and mighty, preaching to others about human rights. Hey, one of our own citizens was killed. Let's put the guy on trial." Whoever ends up being tried for these 30-year-old crimes, some questions about Foxy Lady's last voyage may never be resolved. Were Stu and his pals travelling to Bangkok to pick up a load of "Buddha sticks"? What became of his body and personal effects? Questions like these hang like humidity over the warm waters of the northern Gulf of Thailand. Dave Kattenburg is the author of Foxy Lady: Truth, Memory and the Death of Western Yachtsmen in Democratic Kampuchea - the first full account of Stuart Glass's life and death.  | ||
| Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:01 AM PDT
AFP PHNOM PENH - NINE out of 10 Cambodians are unable to name the Khmer Rouge suspects held by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, a survey showed on Wednesday, just weeks before the start of a major genocide trial. The study by American academics found that only 11 per cent of respondents could correctly say how many regime members had been arrested and were awaiting trial for atrocities committed during the movement's brutal 1975-79 rule. And just one in 10 (or 11 per cent) could correctly name the detainees, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who questioned 1,000 Cambodians about their knowledge of the court. Five ex-Khmer Rouge members are currently in detention, one of whom has already been sentenced in the tribunal's landmark first trial. A second trial is to start on June 27 and involves the regime's four most senior surviving leaders - including 'Brother Number Two' Nuon Chea - who face a string of charges for the deaths of up to two million people. A quarter of respondents reported knowing nothing at all about the tribunal, researchers said, down from 39 per cent in 2008 when the first survey was carried out, thanks largely to media coverage of the first case.  | ||
| Center opens to protect rare turtle in Cambodia Posted: 08 Jun 2011 06:55 AM PDT
June 8, 2011 AP SAMBOUR, Cambodia—An extremely rare soft-shell turtle species has a new, protected home in Cambodia. The critically endangered Cantor's giant soft-shell turtle is one of the rarest freshwater turtles in the world. Scientists last saw one in the Cambodian wild in 2003, and small numbers have been seen in neighboring Laos, while it appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand. U.S.-based Conservation International said it opened the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center on Wednesday in Kratie province, 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Phnom Penh. A 40-pound (18-kilogram) female turtle and six babies were released into the conservation pond at a Buddhist pagoda on the Mekong River at the center's launch. The ceremony was attended by six Buddhist monks -- who blessed the female turtle by painting scared markings on her body -- and more than 100 villagers. "Our goal is to conserve Cantor's turtle populations in their natural habitat, the Mekong River, through the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center and the community-led nest protection scheme," Conservation International said in a statement. Local fishermen currently collect both eggs and adult turtles for their own consumption and sale to restaurants, Conservation International said. Soft-shelled turtles are considered a delicacy in many Asian diets, and rarity only adds to their value on menus or as traditional medicines. The species can grow up to 6 feet (2 meters) in length and weigh more than 110 pounds (50 kilograms). Conservation International said planned dams and dredging schemes on the river pose another serious threat to the species.  | ||
| Man jailed over sex tourism in Cambodia Posted: 08 Jun 2011 06:53 AM PDT Wed Jun 8 2011 9News (Australia) A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced a Danish man to eight years in prison for providing his young male guesthouse staff for sex with tourists, a judge said. Svend Erick Jonasson, 65, was arrested in the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap last August for letting his guests have sex with four male Cambodian workers aged between 15 and 19. The guests would allegedly pay them between $15 and $50 for sex, with Jonasson taking a cut. Siem Reap provincial court convicted Jonasson for procuring prostitution, judge Hok Pov told AFP by telephone. A 21-year-old Cambodian man was also sentenced to five years jail for acting as his accomplice, he said. Both were ordered to pay five million riel ($1,250) in compensation to each victim, according to the judge. Dozens of foreigners have been jailed for child-sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries since Cambodia launched an anti-paedophilia push in 2003 to try to shake off its reputation as a haven for sex predators.  | ||
| Press Release: CEDAC extends SRI Dissemination in 2011 Posted: 08 Jun 2011 06:48 AM PDT Dear All, In this 2011 rainy season, CEDAC has been doing the dissemination campaign to promote the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) applying/practicing amongst Cambodian rice farmers throughout the country. For more details, please find the attached Press Release in Khmer. Thanks and kind regards, Him Khortieth ............................................................. Communication Officer Centre d' Etude et de Développement Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC) No. 119, Street 257, Sangkat Toek Laak 1, Khan Toul Kork B.P. 1118 Phnom Penh H/P: 855-16-57-57-13 Tel : 855- 23-880-916 Fax : 855-23-885-146 E-mail: himkhortieth@cedac.org.kh www.cedac.org.kh   | ||
| Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Mme KhmerCroix-Rouge Posted: 08 Jun 2011 06:39 AM PDT
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| PRESS RELEASE: The Extraordinary Reunion of Father and Sons 36 Years Later Posted: 08 Jun 2011 04:28 AM PDT  The Extraordinary Reunion of Father and Sons 36 Years Later Dr. Sorpong Peou, KR Survivor and Chair of the Politics Department of University of Winnipeg, Enterpreneur Phyrun Peou, and Family are Miraculously Reunited with their Father Nam Peou, an Official of the Khmer Republic, Who Climbed Out of a Mass Grave after the KR Killed Him in 1975 ___________________________ PRESS RELEASE ___________________________ PHNOM PENH, 8 June 2011: On 1 June 2011, Dr. Sorpong PEOU and other family members were reunited with their 86-year-old father for the first time in 36 years, since that fateful day in April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge came for their father, Mr. PEOU Nam, an official in the Ministry of Interior of the Lon Nol's Khmer Republic, while the family of nine (parents and seven children) was celebrating Khmer New Year away from their Battambang home in border-crossing town of Poipet in Banteay Meanchey Province.  Bound and blindfolded, Mr. Peou was whacked behind the neck and pushed into a mass grave. Mr. Phyrun Peou recounts his father's story: "The Khmer Rouge soldiers tied him up and led him to the jungle where he was executed, not once but twice. They hit the back of his head with a hoe and threw his body into a big hole and then other bodies on top of him. The next day, he gained consciousness and crawled out from below the dead bodies and escaped to the bushes nearby. The way the Khmer Rouge tortured him was worse than what they did to animals, and they beat him - with his hands and feet tied in a small cell - until he became unconscious, for at least 10 times. He also lost his nails because of the torture. One time, they bound him under a tree and let ants bite him. He was also forced to watch Khmer Rouge executioners beat other prisoners to death." The Khmer Rouge took him for dead, so did his family: his wife Chea Vath, the oldest son Sorpong and his siblings Phyrun, Ratana, Sorpech, Chola, Sambath, and Sambo who all survived the KR regime and moved to Ottawa in September 1982 as refugees and prospered there in their new life as Canadians. Mr. PEOU Nam, however, gained consciousness in the grave and managed to push aside the dead bodies stacked on top of him and climb out. He survived the Khmer Rouge years and began searching for his family members. After years of wandering alone, half-crazed with amnesia and begging for a living, Mr. Nam Peou was taken in by a compassionate family in Kampot. He gave up any hope of finding his family and agreed to the new family's offer of their daughter in marriage and subsequently became the father to an additional six children. Meanwhile, the newly-minted Canadian Peou family prospered in their new country. Sorpong Peou obtained his Ph.D and moved to Singapore in January 1995 until March 1999 when he was offered first an Associate followed by a Full Professorship at Sophia University in Japan where his own family stayed for another 11 years, before returning to Canada in August 2010 to become the Chair of the Politics Department of the University of Winnipeg.  On Christmas Day 2009, Dr. Sorpong Peou dreamt he was alongside and conversing with his father as if he was alive. Independently, Dr. Sorpong Peou's younger brother entrepreneur Phyrun Peou had his own premonitions of his father's current whereabouts. After many intense, animated family conversations and piecing together their personal supernatural experiences, Phyrun decided personally to canvass the Thai-Cambodian border with thousands of posters of the one photo the family has of Mr. Nam Peou before 1975. Mr. Phyrun Peou found his father through a miraculous incident in November 2010 in Poipet at the same location where the KR forcefully separated the father from the family in 1975. Mr. Phyrun Peou recalls: "One day I came to a small town near Thai border, called Poipet, where he used to work before in 1975. In this town, I handed out 1500 flyers. Many people told me that they saw an old man, a beggar, who resembled the man in the only old photo of my family has with us all these years and also resembled me. Finally, I met an old man who was a beggar in a market - not too far from my hotel." After repeated denials due to loss of memory, incredulity and many tests from the family in Canada, Mr. PEOU Nam finally was convinced he is the father to Sorpong, Phyrun, Ratana, Sorpech, Chola, Sambath and Sambo. Mr. Phyrun Peou reflects further: "My father kept insisting 'You are not my son. My children were all dead, a long time ago'. He told me that his wife and children had died and that he even forgot their names. Having denied that he was my father, the old man left me to go back to his home - about 525 km from where I met him. He only told me that something had caused him to come to the border for the first time, to where he used to live and work, given that he had been sick for almost ten years and hardly could walk, and that no one could stop him from going there. After 3 minutes of our meeting, he started crying so bitterly, with deep pain, but he didn't know why. He said 'when I saw you, it reminded me of something about the past...something that reconnected the two of us, perhaps from the previous life. I met hundreds of people every day, but I never cried; and it didn't give me any pain or remind me about the past. But only you, why? why?'"  Mr. Phyrun Peou continues: "After talking with him for about an hour, we said good bye. The next day I went out searching for my father, as usual, with the hopes that I would see another old man - not the last old man I met the day before – the man who would look more like my father 35 years ago. For some strange reason, I met the same old man again, unexpectedly, in a local market where people were giving him some money. So I gave him some money too, and I invited him for a drink at a place nearby. As soon as he sat down and looked at me in the face, he started to weep again, for about half hour before he could talk to me. The atmosphere was covered with sadness and quietness with wondering, which made me and other surrounding people had tears, for seeing him in such an emotional deep pain. He said the same thing to me, 'When I saw you, I was reminded of something about the past... something that connected you and me, perhaps from the past life or this life. I met hundreds of people every day, but never cried; it didn't cause me any pain or remind me of my past. But only you, why? Why?'" AKRVC is honored to have such distinguished members as Dr. Sorpong Peou and Mr. Phyrun Peou joining our Victims Association in addition to the distinguished four who joined us earlier this week from the local community: Ms. OM Chantha, Mr. CHEA Mab, Ms. NUON Sarum, and Mr. HEM Sovannarith. Dr. Sorpong Peou is in Cambodia until June 10. His younger brother Mr. Phyrun Peou who found their father is here in Cambodia through September. . . . . . For more information, please contact: - Dr. Sorpong Peou, Chair of Political Science Department, University of Winnipeg: +855.788.97.300 or s.peou@uwinnipeg.ca _________________________________________ The Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia—the first association based in Cambodia to be registered with the Ministry of Interior and the first to be recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and independent of any political or religious affiliation—is a network of survivors of the 1975-79 killing fields who are joined in the fellowship of suffering, in the demand for justice, and in the work for a just peace. The members of the Victims Association are from overseas and spread across the provinces and capital of Cambodia, coming together as a result of the public forums conducted by its Founder, and now its president Ms. Theary C. SENG and Victims Outreach Manager Mr. SOK Leang since 2007. They include widows and orphans; former child soldiers and former prisoners; hard-working farmers and middle-class city-dwellers; well-known actresses playwrights, authors and journalists; as well as teachers, translators, security guards, taxi drivers, inter alia. Among the other members of the Victims Association is the Civil Parties of Orphans Class, a special grouping pre-dating the AKRVC founding when introduced officially in the Pre-Trial Chamber hearing of Nuon Chea in Feb. 2008, and since officially recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and a party to the Extraordinary Chambers Case File No. 002 against the senior Khmer Rouge leaders.  | ||
| Blood-stained Bun Rany Hun Xen received by Ban Ki-moon in New York Posted: 08 Jun 2011 02:05 AM PDT     | ||
| ICJ to wade into bloody border conflict? Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:58 AM PDT Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are deliberating whether to wade into a bloody border conflict, after Cambodia asked that it order Thailand to withdraw troops from positions near an 11th century Hindu temple. 8 June 2011 By Jared Ferrie International Justice Desk (RNW) Public hearings were conducted May 30 and 31 in response to a request from Cambodia that the Court interpret a 1962 judgment that placed the Preah Vihear temple inside Cambodian territory. Although the judgment also supported a map demarcating the border, Thailand argues that the ICJ did not have jurisdiction to rule on the border. A disputed 4.6 square kilometer section of land at the foot of the temple has become a flashpoint for military clashes, including those that claimed at least 10 lives in February. Cambodia hopes an ICJ clarification will effectively demarcate the border. Thailand wants the Court to dismiss Cambodia's application, arguing that it has complied with the 1962 ruling, which required it to withdraw its forces from the temple and Cambodian territory in the vicinity. "The point is that it's unreasonable that the ICJ should grant an injunction as requested by Cambodia when Thailand had abided by the court's ruling issued in 1962," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told the Bangkok Post the day before hearings began. Thai officials have made that argument repeatedly, in public statements and in a February 5 letter to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The letter of 1966 But in its own letters to the UNSC, including one dating back to 1966, Cambodia has claimed that Thailand repeatedly violated the ruling, not only stationing troops nearby, but on one occasion invading the temple complex itself. The April 23 1966 letter, which was provided to the International Justice Tribune by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, describes an alleged sequence of clashes in and around the temple. "On 3 April 1966 at about 7:30 p.m., a unit of Thai Armed Forces about 100 strong attacked and burned the Cambodian post held by nine guards appointed to watch over the temple of Preah Vihear," wrote Norodom Kantol, who was Cambodia's foreign minister. "The aggressors captured five of these guards and occupied the temple." The letter goes on to claim that Cambodian troops took back the temple from the Thais who allegedly executed the five prisoners as they were withdrawing. It also claims that the Thai military used the confrontation to expand into Cambodian territory. Quoting a statement made by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia's head of state at the time, the letter claims: "They have drawn a new frontier line, to our disadvantage, in the neighbourhood of Preah Vihear itself. In particular, they have laid barbed wire and set up military or police posts which in certain places encroach to a considerable depth on our territory, thus scorning the judgment of the International Court of Justice." Thailand has maintained that it accepted the section of the 1962 judgment that placed Preah Vihear within Cambodia. But both the section referring to the borderline, and Thailand's interpretation of it, is less clear. The ICJ's summary of 1962 In its summary of the 1962 judgment, the Court explained that various maps had been produced that demarcated the border according to the different designations of the watershed line at the foot of the hill upon which Preah Vihear stands. However, the Court found evidence that Thailand accepted a map it referred to as Annex I. "The Court therefore felt bound to pronounce in favour of the frontier indicated on the Annex I map in the disputed area and it became unnecessary to consider whether the line as mapped did in fact correspond to the true watershed line," said the summary. Thus, the Court appears to have ruled already on the border demarcation issue. But the 1962 judgment also admits that the Thai government never officially endorsed the Annex I map. And over decades the issue has only become more opaque. Cambodia says it wants a speedy decision by the ICJ in hopes that it will help resolve the border crisis. Authorities have warned of the potential for further clashes, as both countries continue to maintain a heavy military presence in the area. The ICJ has not determined when it will decide whether or not to examine and interpret the 1962 judgment, saying only that the date "will be determined in due course."  | ||
| Thailand uses equipments to cover border stream Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:29 AM PDT 08 June 2011 Everyday.com.kh Translated from Khmer by Soch Thailand used equipments to dump soil and cover a border stream along the Cambodian-Thai border in an attempt of ill will, however frontline Cambodian troops pushed them back and forced them to remove the mechanical equipments out. The incident took place in 02 June 2011 at Banteay Ti Muoy village in Tuol Pongro commune, Malay district, Banteay Meanchey province. The location is next to Sen Spk village, Khnorng Namsai commune, Aranyaprathet district, Sakaew province in Thailand. Report indicated that the covering of the border stream operation was undertaken by Thai civilians in order to build trenches for Thai frontline soldiers. The same source indicated that negotiations between Thai black-clad soldiers and Cambodian frontline troops led to the Thai agreement to remove the equipment out of the area in the afternoon of that same day.  | ||
| Survey: More anti-union repression in Asia Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:08 PM PDT 8/06/2011 Achara Ashayagachat Bangkok Post Anti-union repression often results in the dismissal of workers who were active in the defence of their rights. In Cambodia, 817 workers from the clothing sector were fired or suspended following a national strike in September. A global survey revealed the increasing trend of anti-union repression in Asia-Pacific, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The 2011 annual survey of violations of trade union rights in the world has shown anti-union repression increases in Asia-Pacific. Thailand was also mentioned in the survey that "Employers display an openly anti-union attitude while the government goes as far as providing training on trade union surveillance," according to the survey released this morning worldwide. On Thailand scenario, the survey concluded that "the legal framework is not conducive to trade union activities. Union members suffered discrimination due to their union activities, and there were overt indications that the government would support employers over workers in labour disputes. Employers remained fiercely anti-union. Government attacks on migrant workers continued." The ITUC survey revealed that throughout 2010, employers and leaders in the Asia-Pacific region have chosen violence and the repression of trade union demands for social dialogue. More than 1,000 Asian trade unionists were injured and almost as many were arrested. There was an increase over 2009 in the number of labour activists murdered (12 in 2010, as opposed to 10 in 2009) as well as in the number of death threats directed against trade unionists. Last year was a particularly harsh year in Bangladesh as six workers' rights activists were killed at the hands of the police and of company thugs and scores were injured when the police broke the strikes. As in previous years, the Philippines was one of the countries where the violence was most deadly. Three Filipino trade union leaders were murdered in 2010. In India, the police killed two workers as they demonstrated against the death of a colleague. In Pakistan, a trade union leader from the garment sector and another trade union activist were murdered in the trade union premises immediately before the beginning of strike action. In the majority of Asian countries, unionists and workers' rights activists were arrested, often for taking part in protests and strikes. Of the approximately 900 arrests in the region in 2010, India accounted for more than half. In Vietnam three labour activists were arrested for distributing anti-government leaflets and organising strikes and were sentenced to between seven and nine years in prison. Many arrests also took place in Bangladesh, South Korea and Pakistan. The ITUC Annual Survey also denounced employers and authorities use of thugs to attack trade union leaders or activists. In addition to Bangladesh and China, this was notably the case in India and the Philippines. Anti-union repression often results in the dismissal of workers who were active in the defence of their rights. In Cambodia, 817 workers from the clothing sector were fired or suspended following a national strike in September. In Thailand, the ITUC cited certain dispute cases between employers and union members including Auto Alliance (Thailand), Michelin, Tycoons, and Hicom Automotive Plastics. The survey also referred to the government's negligence over labour committee recommendations, particularly Transport Minister Sohpon Zarum's rejection against the State Enterprise Labour Relations Committee's (SELRC) order to reinstate six former State Railway of Thailand (SRT) employees, saying the SRT should better appeal to Labour Court. The survey also mentioned a month-long detention last year of former International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) leader and human rights activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk. Another widespread tendency in the Asia-Pacific region was the increasing use of temporary contracts, e.g. in Cambodia, South Korea or New Zealand. The ITUC survey decried many cases of harassment, threats and discrimination against workers who were members of independent trade unions such as in South Korea and Thailand. The Survey also showed that the setting up of "yellow trade unions" was one of the techniques most frequently employed in Asia to weaken independent trade unions. This is particularly the case in Cambodia, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines. Certain Asian countries like North Korea and Burma continued to ban in practice all independent trade union activity. In China, Laos and Vietnam, the law provided for a single trade union system. The ITUC survey also revealed that despite prison sentences for any attempt to form an independent trade union, more and more trade unions were being set up at company level in China. The number of strikes also continued to increase in China in 2010, particularly in private companies, despite brutal police repression or the use of "hired muscle".  |
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