KI Media: “Sam Rainsy On The Campaign Trail Delivering A Typical Campaign Speech” plus 24 more |
- Sam Rainsy On The Campaign Trail Delivering A Typical Campaign Speech
- ‘Quality’ of Justice Needed at Tribunal: Victims
- Opinion by Khmer Virus
- Ceremony To Prepare Ghosts for Khmer Rouge Trial
- CCHR welcomes decision to retract forms 1018 but calls for measures to ensure the exercise of universal franchise
- Groups call for union leader’s release
- Order to release union leader Sous Chantha following his sentence
- Two Cambodians receive the prestigious 2011 Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Grant
- Vietnamese gamble in Cambodian casinos, causing bankruptcy, evil [... not as much as the EVIL that Vietnam brings to Cambodia!]
- Cambodia: Scale of Tatai River Dredging Permit Revealed
- Vietnamese-Americans voice gospel to villagers on Cambodian Lake
- Henry Kissinger's miscalculation may have kept Mao Zedong in power
- Mass graves
- Suspects’ families mull trial
- ECCC Law
- Closing Order of Case 002 against Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith
- Thailand arrest 2 Chinese employees working on border road construction in Phnom Preuk
- Peter Foster: Everything written in the story about ECCC by FPM online connected to my name was a complete fiction
- Cambodian farmers flock to cassava
- Theary Seng and Ly Monysak, KR victims on Hello VOA 23 June 2011
- Cambodia's booming mobile phone market
- Cambodia congratulates Ban Ki-moon for second term in office
- Vietnam-Cambodia Trade Rises Sharply [... with huge trade deficit for Cambodia]
- Is single currency a viable option for ASEAN?
- Viet businesses meet in Phnom Penh
| Sam Rainsy On The Campaign Trail Delivering A Typical Campaign Speech Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:53 PM PDT
25 June 2011 SAM RAINSY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL DELIVERING A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN SPEECH Even though being forced into exile, opposition leader Sam Rainsy is on the campaign trail. With the January 2012 senatorial election looming, he is travelling from one province to another to meet with the 2,660 SRP elected commune councillors who, with some other 10,000 commune councillors from the dominant CPP and two small "royalist" parties, will be the only few privileged citizens allowed to cast their votes to elect Cambodia's 61 senators early next year. By clicking at http://tinyurl.com/6hhr2sw you can hear Sam Rainsy addressing a group of voters in Kampot province in a typical campaign speech. In only 15 minutes, Sam Rainsy concisely elaborated on the main issues facing Cambodia: land grabbing, deforestation, overfishing, depletion of natural resources, poverty, corruption, border delineation, illegal immigration, attempt by the ruling CPP to buy votes and to manipulate some other parties. He called for national unity around the SRP in order to prevent Cambodia from vanishing. Actually, Sam Rainsy is "travelling" and "meeting" with people all over Cambodia only through the Internet, by means of videoconferences. Thanks to modern technologies, physical presence is not as important and cost-effective as virtual presence. In Thailand, where national elections will be held in coming July, opposition leader tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, who has also been forced into exile, has also been using the same modern technologies to address the electorate, on a much larger scale and with a much more sophisticated and expensive equipment. SRP Cabinet  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ‘Quality’ of Justice Needed at Tribunal: Victims Posted: 24 Jun 2011 07:50 PM PDT
Click on the control below to listen to the audio program in Khmer: Friday, 24 June 2011 Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC
With pressure mounting on the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, two civil party representatives said Thursday the court will be judged on the quality of justice it provides to victims of the regime. "When we speak about justice, we want to focus on quality," Seng Theary, a Cambodian-American lawyer who has pushed for more access of victims to court procedures, told "Hello VOA" Thursday. Ly Monysak, who lost 21 family members to the Khmer Rouge, said he was now concerned a trial of four jailed leaders will not be completed in their lifetimes. The first hearing in that trial is scheduled for June 27. But the fate of two more cases remains unknown. Critics have said they worry about political obstruction in those cases, 003 and 004, which together would call for five more indictments at the court. Investigating judges have been criticized for hastily concluded Case 003, without field investigations into some sites and without interviewing the two suspects. The international prosecutor is appealing to have more investigation. Tribunal spokesman Huy Vannak said the case is not fully closed, but a decision will be up to the Pre-Trial Chamber of the court. Seng Theary said the number of indictments in those cases was less important than the information their pursuit might provide. "When there are no investigations into 003 and 004, we don't have additional information about the darkness of the regime," she said. "When we don't receive information, we don't have the truth. When we don't have truth, we don't have justice. And when we don't have justice, we don't have obvious peace in our hearts."  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:22 PM PDT  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Ceremony To Prepare Ghosts for Khmer Rouge Trial Posted: 24 Jun 2011 04:06 PM PDT
Friday, 24 June 2011 Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC Khmer Rouge survivors will hold a religious ceremony on Saturday at the "killing fields" of Cheoung Ek, where thousands of people were executed and buried in mass graves after they were tortured in various prisons under the regime. Chum Mey, who lived through incarceration at the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, said he plans to tell the souls of the dead to be prepared for their killers to go on trial. The first UN-backed tribunal hearing for Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith is June 27, marking the beginning of the court's second trial. The four will be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and other related crimes. "We have to appeal to those who died to remind them, to have them recall they were killed without doing wrong," he told VOA Khmer. "We have to remind their ghosts to help them prop up the court, to try [the suspects] immediately and to find justice for those who died, because the four leaders are important, and no others are more important than them." The ceremony will include prayers and will allow participants to lay wreaths at mass graves that have become a symbol of the regime's brutality and a popular tourist site outside the capital. Chum Mey, who will be joined by other prison survivors and regime victims, said he thought the opening of the trial will begin a healing process for the trauma of the Khmer Rouge. "Our thought is to find the truth as a direction, because in the future we need to have healing and reconciliation, and without justice and trust, it is hard to heal together," he said.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:43 PM PDT CCHR Media Comment – Phnom Penh, 24 June 2011 CCHR welcomes decision to retract forms 1018 but calls for measures to ensure the exercise of universal franchise The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) welcomes the announcement by Tep Nytha, Secretary-General of the National Election Commission (NEC), that the form 1018 will be discontinued but we call on the NEC and the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to take steps to ensure that any system put in place to replace the form 1018 does not replicate the problems that bedeviled the form 1018. The forms 1018 are used by commune authorities to permit people without other forms of ID to register to vote, and to vote. The forms were the subject of widespread criticism by participants and guest speakers at Forums on Elections and Democratic Space which were conducted by CCHR between September and December 2010. The criticisms that were leveled at the form 1018, which are outlined in a forthcoming report that was compiled by CCHR at the conclusion of these forums, included concerns about the absence of serial numbers and a public record of the forms issued which were said to leave the forms open to manipulation. Participants at the forums recalled instances in which they said the forms were manipulated to allow supporters of the ruling party to vote but to preclude opposition supporters from voting. After the previous election in 2008, the European Union Election Observation Monitor stated that fraudulent use of the forms 1018 was "a relatively widespread phenomenon". While we welcome the announcement that the forms 1018 will be discontinued, we urge the NEC and the RGC to move to ensure that an alternative system is put in place that will ensure individuals without other forms of identification are not precluded from voting. Given the fact that Senate and Commune Elections will take place in 2012, the NEC and RGC must work quickly to ensure that individuals without other forms of ID are not disenfranchised as a result of the decision to discontinue the forms 1018. Equally, CCHR calls on the NEC and RGC to ensure that any system put in place to replace the forms 1018 does not replicate the problems associated with the forms 1018. As noted by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL) in today's Cambodia Daily, the problems associated with the forms 1018 were as much to do with safeguards in place regarding the issuance of the forms as opposed to the nature of the forms themselves. In order to quell these fears, CCHR calls on the NEC and RGC to publicly outline the safeguards – including serialization and public records – that they intend to put in place to ensure that any substitute forms facilitate voting by all individuals qualified to vote, regardless of political persuasion. For more information contact Suon Bunthoeun, CCHR Community Trainer, at +855 12 48 35 46 / bunthoeun@cchrcambodia.org or John Coughlan, CCHR Senior Legal Consultant at +855 89 58 35 90 / johncoughlan@cchrcambodia.org Please find this Media Comment attached in PDF. A Khmer version will follow. -- The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-aligned, independent, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect democracy and respect for human rights throughout Cambodia. For more information, please visit www.cchrcambodia.org.   | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groups call for union leader’s release Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:38 PM PDT Friday, 24 June 2011 Chhay Channyda and Mary Kozlovski The Phnom Penh Post Rights groups and union organisations have called on the government for the "immediate and unconditional release" of detained union leader Suos Chantha, who is set to stand trial today on drug trafficking charges in what many believe was a frame-up. In a letter dated Wednesday and sent to Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, six representatives from groups including Amnesty International and International Federation for Human Rights urged the government to "put an end to any further act of harassment against Suos Chantha". "The circumstances surrounding [Suos Chantha's] arrest have raised substantial doubt surrounding these charges, and serious concerns that they may have been brought in retaliation for his union activities," the letter stated. The 29-year-old union leader at the United Garment Factory in Sen Sok district was arrested on November 19 and charged with drug trafficking, after officials allegedly confiscated nine small packets of methamphetamines from his motorbike. At the time, Suos Chantha was in talks to lead a defection of around 1,000 workers from the government-aligned Independent and Democratic Union Federation to the independent Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, prompting claims that he was framed in retaliation for the move. "This case is really related to [Suos Chantha's] union activities," Khun Tharo, programme officer at the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, said yesterday. Rights workers also expressed concerns about "suspicious" circumstances around Suos Chantha's arrest. "The over-hasty initial court hearing and the overall context in which the arrest took place, point to an attempt to not only put an end to Chantha's activities, but to send a warning to other union activists," Jan Beanland, Cambodia campaigner for Amnesty International, said. Ath Thorn, head of CCAWDU, said yesterday that he could not judge whether Suos Chantha was framed, but added: "He neither smokes nor colludes with friends who use drugs or smoke. How could he have drugs in his bike?" Suos Chantha's lawyer Seng Sokkhim declared his client's innocence yesterday. Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Labour Ministry, said yesterday that union leaders had equal rights as citizens before the law.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Order to release union leader Sous Chantha following his sentence Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:33 PM PDT  On 24 June 2011, Judge Din Sivothy issued an order for an immediate release of union leader Sous Chantha who was accused by the government of distributing drug. His sentence was commuted to the more than 7 months time he already spent jail.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Two Cambodians receive the prestigious 2011 Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Grant Posted: 24 Jun 2011 10:34 AM PDT
24 June 2011 By Nuon Borin Voice of Democracy Translated from Khmer by Soy Click here to read the original article in Khmer One advocate for freedom of express and one monk-advocate for the protection of decent living rights for the Cambodian people were awarded the prestigious Hellman/Hammett Grant by Human Rights Watch. In response to the announcement made by Human Rights Watch for the 2011 nomination Hellman/Hammett Grant, Hang Chakra, the editor-in-chief of the Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, indicated that he did receive a letter from Human Rights Watch and he is looking forward to go get his award. Hang Chakra said that he was proud to be chosen to receive the Hellman/Halmmett grant for 2011, but that he will still continue to perform his advocacy work for the freedom of the press in Cambodia: "Even if I don't get this award, I will still continue to perform my advocacy work normally, based on my ability." Hang Chakra was jailed in Prey Sar prison for almost year after he was charged with disinformation and defamation on high-ranking government officials after he published an article about the corruption of a number of officials working at the Cambodian Council of Ministers. Venerable Loun Savath is also a recipient of this award. He said that the award is a dedication to those who love justice: "They gave [this award] to the Cambodian people because I did not do anything to serve any individual or my own interests, but I did it for all the people in general. Therefore, this award was given to me, but in fact, it is an honor for the people." Nevertheless, up to now, Ven. Loun Savath did not dare appear in public because Cambodia's patriarch monk, [Hochimonk] Nuon Nget, issued an order to all pagodas in Phnom Penh to ban Ven. Loun Savath from staying in any of these pagodas. Furthermore, last month, the Daun Penh district authority also issued an arrest warrant against Ven. Loun Savath because he joined a protest organized by Boeung Kak lake residents who opposed their evictions. Chan Savet of the Adhoc human rights group recognized that the award granted to Hang Chakra and Ven. Loun Savath for their actions is a tremendous encouragement to human rights defenders and freedom of the press defenders in Cambodia.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:23 AM PDT
Friday ,Jun 24,2011 Saigon Giai Phong (Vietcong Communist Party) Relevant agencies from the southern province of Kien Giang have reported that around 600 Vietnamese people go to Cambodia every day to gamble via the Ha Tien international border gate of the province. The agencies claimed that most usually go to casinos and cock-fight grounds near Prey Chark border gate in Kampot Province in Cambodia. Most of the 500 or so are residents of Kien Giang. The situation has become alarming as 40 gamblers have gone bankrupt or sold their property to cover gambling losses. Some have even committed suicide because they were so deep in debt after gambling all assets of their families. Many gamblers have turned back to Vietnam, to commit robbery after betting away all their money in Cambodia. There are 5 casinos with cock-fight grounds at Prey Chark border gate. The Ha Tien Vegas Casino is the largest with a 9-floor hotel. A border gate in Long An Province has noticed nearly 500 people going to Cambodian casinos, most being 30-45 year old women. There are 5-6 casinos and 2-7 cock-fight grounds in the Cambodian area bordering the Southwest border post of Vietnam.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cambodia: Scale of Tatai River Dredging Permit Revealed Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:15 AM PDT 
David Boyle and Phak Seangly (phnompenhpost) DredgingToday.com
The scale of a dredging permit given to ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat was revealed yesterday, one day after Koh Kong businesses complained that fish stocks and eco-tourism projects were suffering due to large-scale sand extraction in the Tatai river. A copy of the permit obtained by The Post yesterday shows that a concession given to the senator's LYP Group covers seven separate sites along the Tatai river, totaling 32 square Kilometres. The sites are dotted at roughly equidistant points in a 25-kilometre stretch of river. In 2009, Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed a total ban on marine dredging for export, except where sand gathered and replenished itself naturally or where build-ups were obstructing waterways. Mao Hak, director of rivers at the Ministry of Water Resources, said yesterday that only rivers where sea water flowed into fresh water, replenishing sand naturally, were exempt from the premier's ban. "The law is clear about this. Only the regions where the sand replenishes naturally are allowed to have dredging operations that sell abroad," he said. "It was not only me that made the decisions on such permits, but a committee. Samdech [Hun Sen] also knows about this because our committee asks [about] policy from Samdech." The licence allows LYP Group to dredge the area until August this year and was signed in September 2010 by the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Suy Sem. Representatives of the ministry could not be reached for comment yesterday. Tourism operators and NGOS operating in the area, however, continued yesterday to highlight the damage caused by sand dredging in Tatai river – which sees both salt and fresh water flows. Valentine Pawlik, co-owner of the 4 Rivers resort on the Tatai river, said that the rate of dredging was so extreme that any effects from sand flushed upstream by sea currents would be inconsequential. The banks of the rivers near his resort just outside of Tatai town had begun falling in because of operations that started in May. "They are dredging like hell now, last year it wasn't so bad but now it is just unbelievable," he said. John Maloy, spokesman for Wildlife Alliance, said substantive dredging operations in Koh Kong province had also been initiated by Cambodian companies DDML Construction Co Ltd in Trapeang Rung river and Access Co Ltd in the Piphot river near Chi Phat eco-village in January. He said river banks in Chi Phat had begun collapsing while in Trapeang Rung, a river beach that was set to be marketed as a tourism highlight, had begun to disappear. "The consequences are two fold. Damage being done to the river can have an effect on the aquatic populations and sedimentation. On the other side these are eco-tourism sites and these are places that they are tying to make people to come and sustain the beauty and to use the river to generate income. Anything that makes this more difficult is not something that we can be pleased with," he said.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnamese-Americans voice gospel to villagers on Cambodian Lake Posted: 24 Jun 2011 09:03 AM PDT
June 23, 2011 By Staff International Mission Board KBAL TAOL, Cambodia—For a moment, Josh Nguyen thought he was back in Vietnam. Rubbing the wooden floor of a floating home in this remote village on Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, the 44-year-old physician from Houston remembered the country he left as a refugee in 1975. Nguyen joined a team of nine other medical and dental volunteers working with the Vietnamese living in floating villages on Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. He and three nurses divided into two groups and visited from boat to boat, assessing medical needs and sharing the Gospel. Nguyen, who speaks Vietnamese, also translated for the nurse who assisted him. The trip was revealing to Nguyen, who saw himself not only in the floorboards but also in the faces and experiences of those he met on the lake. "I thought we were back," Nguyen, a member of Second Baptist Church in Houston . "I thought we were boat people again." While the trip spawned memories for the doctor, it was a wake-up call for Gina Nguyen, 30, a pharmacist from Plano, who is no relation to Josh Nguyen. She left Vietnam in 1991 under less difficult circumstances. Although she returned to Southeast Asia two years ago on a trip with her father, this was her first volunteer trip. The member of Plano Vietnamese Baptist Church admitted she reluctantly signed up for the trip, which included medical and dental personnel from seven Baptist churches, four states and four different ethnic groups. She struggled initially with how best to contribute to the team. "I can't diagnose. I'm not trained. I didn't think I knew the Bible well enough. I've never been a translator," she said. "Until this trip, I thought my apartment in Texas was the center of the universe." Once on the lake, she also experienced the full force of the difficulty villagers experience everyday. There was no air conditioning or electric fans. The toilet and shower facilities were rudimentary and sleeping arrangements were uncomfortable, cramped and hot. Python was the main course for dinner. The nearby karaoke bar ran until all hours of the night. Her culture shock was obvious. "We look at these people and ask, 'Why would they swim in this water? Why would they eat and drink in this water?" she said. When she shared these complaints with Josh Nguyen, he said simply, "Gina, this could have been us." Once the team began its work, however, Gina Nguyen, who speaks Vietnamese, realized she could serve not only as translator for the two nurses on her team, but she could also share the gospel with villagers in their heart language. "I was afraid," she said. "What do I do? What do I say? But I knew God was speaking through me. So I kept praying inside, 'God, just tell me what to say.'" By visiting in their homes and sharing the gospel, she came to understand that the physical challenges facing the villagers are nothing compared to the spiritual ones. "They're lost," Gina said. "They worship different kinds of gods. They don't know anything else." She also realized God was giving her a chance to "give back"—using the material blessings she gained in America to share the spiritual blessings of her faith in Christ with the people on the lake. "God chose us," she said, referring to the salvation she and other Vietnamese-Americans found in Jesus Christ while living in America. "He brought us to America and gave us the opportunity to live in nice conditions. This is our chance to spread the Gospel to the Vietnamese." In fact, she hopes to come back to the lake, noting: "I know that the weather and the living conditions have been tough on me, but I see what we're doing here. I know it goes beyond medical needs." In spite of the difficulties, she encourages other Vietnamese-Americans to come as well because of their ethnic credibility with villagers and the Vietnamese language skills they provide to volunteer teams. "We (Vietnamese-Americans) have a great opportunity to reach the Vietnamese in Cambodia," she said. "We can speak the language. We can approach them better than non-Vietnamese speakers. … You don't have to be a doctor or a nurse. You can be the voice."  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Henry Kissinger's miscalculation may have kept Mao Zedong in power Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:52 AM PDT  Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor From: The Australian RICHARD Nixon's visit to China in 1972 is an event that has assumed epic significance. But might it have been extraordinarily mistimed and misconceived, crucially helping the monstrous Mao Zedong and his party stay in power? It is more usually seen as helping decide the outcome of the Cold War by aligning China with the US against the Soviet Union, and also paving the way for the US retreat from Vietnam. It is viewed as the epitome of the way in which people from opposite sides of the political fence can achieve breakthroughs that often frustrate fellow travellers. It inspired an opera, 25 years later, by John Adams, which has just received its Metropolitan Opera premiere in New York. As China continues to rise, it is an event that is starting to replace "Tricky Dicky" and Watergate in many minds as the immediate response to the words "Richard Nixon". It is almost universally perceived as being made possible by the strategic acumen - made manifest in a groundbreaking trip to Beijing 30 years ago next month - of secretary of state Henry Kissinger, midway through the decade-long Cultural Revolution. Now 88, Kissinger has written a book On China - which, ever since, he has viewed as a subject of which he is entitled to a degree of ownership. He has been back more than 50 times since those pioneering visits to meet Mao, the Great Helmsman. Leading writers in English on China - and on modern history more generally - have been commissioned to write reviews, among them Simon Schama, James Mann, Jonathan Spence, Arthur Waldron, Jonathan Mirsky. The most stimulating view so far has come from British writer Jasper Becker, who lives in Beijing, and whose Hungry Ghosts dramatically revealed the extent of the horrors of Mao's Great Leap Forward, which killed more than 30 million people. Becker says Kissinger rightly claims to be the chief architect of the China-US relationship, "one of the pillars of the international order as crucial to understanding world history as Britain and America's decision to make an ally of Stalin in order to defeat Hitler, the result of which was the establishment of a Soviet empire in Europe rather than a German one". At the time, Kissinger says, the Soviet Union seemed more dangerous and expansionist than China - though Becker thinks "there wasn't much to choose between them", with China having sent almost half a million troops to Korea and Vietnam as well as to Burma and Cambodia, and having financed and trained insurgencies in a dozen countries. Becker asks: "What exactly did America ever gain from it? It certainly enabled China's rulers to stay in power despite Mao's catastrophic rule. If Beijing and Moscow had gone to war, surely it would have been to America's great advantage" with Cambodia saved from the Khmer Rouge horrors, the US possibly victorious in Vietnam, and the threats to Taiwan and South Korea quashed. But "even when he meets Mao - senile and dribbling - Kissinger can't help being blown away by his supposed brilliance. Yet Mao was by then recognised even by his followers as a mad monster. "Whoever followed Mao would have had to rescue China from its total isolation and restore the economy. They would have had to go cap in hand to America for help, and Washington could dictate its own terms. Instead, Nixon turned up in Beijing as a supplicant." In return for Mao's blessing, "the Chinese persuaded the Americans to withdraw from Taiwan, and then to support China's murderous proteges, the Khmer Rouge, in Cambodia, forced them to lose the war in Vietnam, and to sacrifice Tibet. "In truth, the Chinese couldn't believe their luck in finding such a naive and biddable partner as Kissinger. He gratefully accepts whatever the Chinese leaders tell him at face value." Arthur Waldron, a considerable Sinologist, says that Kissinger's book "combines the worst of the romanticism and myth-making about China that have characterised writing on that subject for at least 100 years with a clear deference to the account of China's history that is today official in China". Kissinger simply sidesteps not only the period of the Republic of China - when the great universities were founded, the arts flourished, modern medicine was introduced, the economy took off and Shanghai became a great global city - but also the crucial events of June 4, 1989, saying: "This is not the place to examine the events that led to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square." But Waldron says Kissinger "gets one big thing right" - that today's US-China relationship lacks the firm foundation in shared interests that drove the original exchange - "fear of the Soviet Union", as Kissinger put it. The great historian, Jonathan Spence, finds nuggets of nicely constructed summaries in Kissinger's book - for instance, in his description of the contrasting attributes of Mao and his premier, Zhou Enlai: "Mao dominated any gathering; Zhou suffused it. Mao's passion strove to overwhelm opposition; Zhou's intellect would seek to persuade or out-manoeuvre it. Mao was sardonic, Zhou penetrating. Mao thought of himself as a philosopher; Zhou saw his role as an administrator or negotiator. Mao was eager to accelerate history, Zhou to exploit its currents." Schama, describing Kissinger and Zhou as working "counter-intuitively in tandem", is struck by the book's depiction of "a journey towards cultural empathy by two powers that seemed, at the outset, prohibitively ill-equipped to acquire that knowledge". But Mann notes that this China-America edifice is now crumbling, and that Kissinger himself "warns about Chinese triumphalists who believe the US is in decline, and frets about Americans who want to build up military power for what they believe to be an inevitable conflict with China". However flawed Kissinger's understanding of his own - and his country's - encounter with China, his theme remains nothing short of epic.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:35 AM PDT Sat, 25 June 2011 By Robert Carmichael Oman Daily Observer THE mass grave lies just a few kilometres off national road 5, which connects Phnom Penh to Battambang town in western Cambodia. Villagers tell you this was a Khmer Rouge prison and that many thousands died here. There is little to indicate that today. This place, the former Chong Chrouy Prison, is a five-minute walk off a narrow dirt road and is overgrown with bushes. Crumbling concrete fragments are all that remain of its buildings; shallow depressions in the earth mark the burial pits. Villager Puon Kosal, 23, says that when he was a boy, there were too many holes to count and the ground was littered with bones. "Now there aren't many left," he says, pointing out a scrap of clothing sticking out of the ground at a place the villagers call "the prison of ghosts." "The old people say many died," he says. The Documentation Center of Cambodia, a genocide research organisation, estimated in a 1998 survey that 70,000 to 100,000 people are buried here in hundreds of mass graves. It is impossible to know the true figure because Chong Chrouy Prison was not excavated, but villagers say large numbers of people died here during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule. There are similar sites across Cambodia. On Monday, the trial of the four surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who stand accused of responsibility for the deaths of up to 2.2 million people, is to begin in Phnom Penh before a UN-backed tribunal. The four are party ideologue Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two; then-head of state Khieu Samphan; foreign minister Ieng Sary; and his wife, social affairs minister Ieng Thirith. They are accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, murder and an array of other charges. The four deny all the charges. It has taken three decades to try them. Although Monday's hearing is to be procedural rather than evidential, it is a landmark, says the Documentation Centre's director, Youk Chhang, whose organisation has provided documents to the court. He says this trial, the second held by the court, was the "most important for me and I think for most Cambodians," he says. "We all know these four (defendants). They do not accept, they put all the blame to their subordinates, and they blame others."  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 08:30 AM PDT
Friday, 24 June 2011 Thet Sambath The Phnom Penh Post "I was with him at the time [that the Khmer Rouge were in power] – he had the right to welcome guests from overseas and offer them credentials, but had no power to decide anything ... I also want to know who killed Cambodians, but please don't just make accusations against all people in the Khmer Rouge." (sic!) - So Socheat, Khieu Samphan's wife As the Khmer Rouge tribunal gears up for the initial hearing in its historic second case on Monday, the court appears to have made significant inroads with the Cambodian public. A study released by the University of California-Berkeley School of Law's Human Rights Centre earlier this month found that some 75 percent of respondents interviewed this past December reported being at least somewhat aware of the work of the court, compared with 61 percent in 2008. A total of 81 percent said the court "will help promote national reconciliation", a 14 percent increase from 2008. While the so-called "substantive hearings" in the case – involving evidence and witness testimony – will not begin for several more months, the four planned days of hearings next week will be broadcast live across the Kingdom and will draw dozens of international media representatives. Coverage of the hearings will likely be difficult for many in the country to avoid, but a certain group of Cambodians say they hope to do just that. "I do not see this court as being able to find justice for my husband," said Ly Kimseng, 76, the wife of former Khmer Rouge Brother No 2 Nuon Chea. Her husband will be in the dock in Case 002 along with former KR head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, social action minister Ieng Thirith. Ly Kimseng travels from her home in Pailin province once a month to visit Nuon Chea at the tribunal's detention facility in Phnom Penh. But despite her frequent visits to the court compound, she says she has no interest in attending the trial. "I was asked whether I will attend the court's hearings against my husband, and I just told them that I don't need to join it because it is unfair already and what they are doing is a kind of revenge," she said. A guilty verdict, she added, appears already to be a foregone conclusion. "I know they will just try to blame him and figure out how many years they can put him in prison," she said. "What I am concerned about is his health, and to make money to travel to see him and buy food and fruit for him once a month." Nuon Chea's daughter, 49-year-old Nuon Thoeun, says she too is "not interested" in the trial and will keep busy on her farm in Pailin. "They will sentence him to many years in jail because they've wanted to do that for a long time," she said, adding: "If they deeply research Khmer Rouge issues, my father will not be in prison any longer." The Iengs will of course be together in the courtroom, although their daughter, Ieng Vichida, said she was unsure whether she would attend the trial herself. "I am so busy with my work right now," said Ieng Vichida, who works at the Pailin provincial hospital. "I don't know if I have time to attend the court hearings." Her brother-in-law, Seng Rorn, said this week that he too was undecided. "I don't know yet whether I will attend the court's hearings against my father-in-law and mother-in-law – I will decide later," he said, adding that Ieng Sary's 1996 pardon from then-king Norodom Sihanouk could affect the court's attempts to prosecute the former KR foreign minister. In a ruling earlier this year, the court's Pre-Trial Chamber said this pardon related only to Ieng Sary's 1979 conviction in absentia at the People's Revolutionary Tribunal, convened shortly after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and does not bar his prosecution in the present day. However, this ruling is not binding on the court's Trial Chamber, and defence lawyers intend to raise the issue next week. While it is unclear how much, if it all, any of the defendants will speak during the hearings next week, they have for the most part shown little inclination to cooperate with the court. The exception has been Khieu Samphan, who, while declining to address the allegations against him in the indictment, has nonetheless agreed to "contribute to the work of justice by presenting his version of the facts at trial", according to a recent defence filing. Khieu Samphan's wife, 59-year-old So Socheat, said she was prepared to attend the hearings in support of her husband, and that she hoped his claims of innocence would be vindicated at trial. "I was with him at the time [that the Khmer Rouge were in power] – he had the right to welcome guests from overseas and offer them credentials, but had no power to decide anything," she said. "I also want to know who killed Cambodians, but please don't just make accusations against all people in the Khmer Rouge."  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:14 AM PDT Law on the Establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea ("ECCC Law") th inclusion of amendments as promulgated on 27 October 2004 CHAPTER IX OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION Article 31 new The Director of the Office of Administration shall be appointed by the Royal Government of Cambodia for a two-year term and shall be eligible for reappointment. The Director of the Office of Administration shall be responsible for the overall management of the Office of Administration, except in matters that are subject to United Nations rules and procedures. The Director of the Office of Administration shall be appointed from among those with significant experience in court administration and fluency in one of the foreign languages used in the Extraordinary Chambers, and shall be a person of high moral character and integrity. The foreign Deputy Director shall be appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and assigned by the Royal Government of Cambodia, and shall be responsible for the recruitment and administration of all international staff, as required by the foreign components of the Extraordinary Chambers, the Co-Investigating Judges, the Co-Prosecutors' Office, and the Office of Administration. The Deputy Director shall administer the resources provided through the United Nations Trust Fund. The Office of Administration shall be assisted by Cambodian and international staff as necessary. All Cambodian staff of the Office of Administration shall be appointed by the Royal Government of Cambodia at the request of the Director. Foreign staff shall be appointed by the Deputy Director. Cambodian staff shall be selected from Cambodian civil servants and, if necessary, other qualified nationals of Cambodia.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Closing Order of Case 002 against Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith Posted: 24 Jun 2011 05:08 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 A. MOVEMENT OF THE POPULATION Movement of the Population from Phnom Penh (Phase 1)783 Return Most of the people who were moved and survived the DK regime returned to their homes or native villages as soon as they could.1113 Some witnesses found that their old villages were deserted,1114 houses destroyed and that grave pits had been dug.1115 Witnesses state that it was not possible for the population to return to their home villages during the DK regime.1116 Reasons Given to the Population for the Movement 276. A document of the Standing Committee dated August 1975 pertains to the visit of the Standing Committee to the Northwest Zone.1117 The report insists on the need to develop rice production in the whole of the Northwest Zone, with "Angkar" delivering its directions regarding inter alia economic and crop diversification and stating that the North and the Northwest Zones had "good qualities" such as better paddy land and rice to sustain "new people"}1118 A meeting minute of the Standing Committee dated July/August 1976 and containing the CPK 4-year plan1119 insists on the need to focus efforts on rice production. 277. A number of the witnesses who were moved were told that they were being sent to an area where there was more food1120 and fertile land1121 or because there was a shortage of labour.1122 One witness states that people were being told that they had to work for the socialist regime.1123 Upon arrival, people were sent to work in cooperatives1124 on building dams and canals1125 or on rice farming.1126 2 78. A former local CPK cadre explained that "the central policy was to remove the new people from the East when the war broke with Vietnam in late 1975 or early 1976 ... the new people had to be evacuated because the war broke out at the border".1121 Planning 279. Witnesses1128 and documents1129 provide evidence as to how the Centre was involved in these movements of the population. The decision to send people to the North and North West Zones of the country appears to have been made following the visit of the CPK Standing Committee to this area around August 19751130 and a Party document dated September 1975 discusses its implementation.1131 280. Telegram #15 dated November 19751132 describes a high-level decision of the Party regarding movements of population, which, according to numerous and consistent witness testimonies, was subsequently carried out. This telegram was sent by Chhon to Pol Pot and copied to Nuon Chea, Brother Doeun (Secretary of the 870 Political Office) and Brother Yem (Office 870). One witness who translated telegrams for Office K-1 during the DK regime states that the Chairman of the Telegram Unit made the decision to copy this telegram to Nuon Chea, indicating that "this telegram was originally sent to Pol Pot alone, but the person in charge of the telegram knew that this matter must also be sent to the person who was in charge of the people like Nuon Chea in order to find a solution".1133 This witness also refers to the involvement of the Standing Committee in the resolution of the problem.1134 Another witness, former chairman of the Central (Old North) Zone Telegram Unit explains that "[the East Zone] had to send the report from the Zone to Pol Pot of the Centre level first, and then waited for Pol Pot instruction. Ke Pork [Secretary of the Central (Old North) Zone] received this telegram about this matter from the Centre, not directly from the East Zone".1135 281. Telegram #15 specifically refers to a problem raised by the movement of Cham people from the East Zone and reads "more than 100,000 more Islamic people remain in the East Zone ... In principle their removal was to break them up, in accordance with your views in your discussions with us already. But if the North refuses to accept them, we will continue to strive to persevere in grasping the Islamic people". 1136 This happened a few weeks after the rebellion of Cham people in Koh Phal and Svay Kleang.1137 When read in that context, this document suggests that the underlying reason for the movement and planned separation of the Cham people was to address the security concern they represented, illustration of the CPK policy to"break up *** 282. Three hundred and fifty four (354) civil parties were declared admissible in the context of the Movement of the Population from the Central (Old North), Southwest, West and East Zones (Phase 2)1138, since the alleged crimes described in the application were considered as being more likely than not to be true, pursuant to Internal Rule 23 bis (4). These civil parties have provided sufficient elements tending to establish prima facie personal harm as a direct consequence of the crimes committed during the Movement of the Population from the Central (Old North), Southwest, West and East Zones (Phase 2).  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thailand arrest 2 Chinese employees working on border road construction in Phnom Preuk Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:57 AM PDT 23 June 2011 By Suon Sophalmony Radio Free Asia Translated from Khmer by Soch Click here to read the original article in Khmer General Dy Phen, the chairman of the Cambodian-Thai border relation office, said that the Thai authority arrested 2 Chinese nationals who are employed by a road construction firm in Phnom Preuk. The two Chinese traveled to Phnom Preuk district, Battambang province, by the O'Rumduol pass and they illegally crossed into the Kar Bin pass in Thailand at 08:45AM on 23 June 2011. General Dy Pehn added that the 2 Chinese were driving a black Toyota Camry vehicle: "They did not have passport, our police officers told them to be careful because they do not have passport. They said that they used to go back and forth to buy food. All that we can do is to ask what was the reason they were arrested, and all that we can do is to find an arrangement for them. Whether the [Thai] indulge [on this case] or not, it depends on the Thai authority because it's on their land." General Dy Phen added that the 2 Chinese men are: 30-year-old Chia Xubin and 39-year-old Chia Sung Ji. Both work for the Shanghai Construction Group which is involved in the construction of the road in Phnom Preuk district, Battambang province. An official from the Cambodian border relation office indicated that the 2 Chinese use to go back and forth to Thailand to buy food every day. The pair was sent by the Thai authority to Soydav district, Chanthaburi province. Khan Mane, the director of the Battambang province department of public works and transportation, said that the two Chinese who were arrested by Thailand can contact their embassy for help.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:07 AM PDT
សុក្រ 24 មិថុនា 2011 2:51 PM Peter W. Foster, former UNAKRT Pubilc Affairs Officer at Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), reacts to a news story which is written by Pich Bandol of The Free Press Magazine online and published on 22 June titled 'Political pressure at the KRT pushes UN legal officials to walk out.' Peter Foster mentioned a day after the publication that everything written in the story connected to his name was a complete fiction. The article which referred to Foster's comment in 2008 before he ended his contract with ECCC was written that his resignation was because of his unsatisfactory with the KR tribunal. In his email sent to The Free Press Magazine yesterday, Peter Foster wrote, 'I did not resign from UNAKRT due to any unhappiness or concern with my role or the work of the court. My contract came up and I didn't renew primarily due to family obligations in 2008.' 'I do not know Pech Bandol. I have never spoken to him about the current situation in the ECCC, and to the best of my knowledge, I have never spoken to him at all,' wrote Peter Foster by adding that, 'I have never at any time made the comments which have been attributed to me in this story.' Foster stressed in his writing, 'I have not been in Cambodia or spoken to any Cambodian reporters for over 3 years. I have no information about the motives of those court staff reported to have resigned.' He also denied he has never been a Legal Affairs Officer for the UN, and that he has never failed in summoning Ex-King Norodom Sihanouk or other Cambodia top figures involved with the killing of 1.7 million people during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. 'The King Father was not 'unsuccessfully summoned' by me or anyone else during my time at the court,' wrote Foster. In the same email, Foster referred to the article written by Pich Bandol of The Free Press Magazine online, and translated by KI Media with the high-lighted title in red colour, Chea Leang, You Bunleng and Siegfried are NOT seeking justice for the KR victims: Peter Foster. Sek Rady (Aka Pich Bandol), FPM online field editor, acknowledges that he used the wrong position of Peter Foster at ECCC as legal affair officer instead of his real position as public affairs officer at the court. Rady told the he did not interview Peter Foster at the time he wrote the article, but he cited Peter's comment which was publicly known by the Cambodian press after the time Foster left the court in 2008. However, Sek Rady denies he has written about Peter's comment on Chea Leang, You Bunleng and Siegfried. 'I did not write that Chea Leang, You Bunleng and Siegfried are NOT seeking justice for the KR victims as Peter Foster's comment. It was mistranslated,' said Sek Rady, adding that, 'I referred to the statement by Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) which based in the US, and I did not mentioned the names of the co-investigating judges You Bunleng and Siegfried.' Rady mentioned that he actually referred to the statement issued by the US-based organization, not Peter Foster's, which follows up the KRT's action that, 'Chea Leang, the Cambodian co-prosecutor and the Cambodian and International Co-Investigating judges, are following the Cambodian government's wish rather than seeking justice for the victims of the KR regime.' The Free Press Magazine online published the story titled on 22 June, 'Political pressure at the KRT pushes UN legal officials to walk out.' The online magazine writes UN legal officials have decided to walk out one after another after political pressure was exerted on the KR Tribunal (KRT) – an institution which should have been independent and used Peter Foster as one of the sources to back up the story. 'Peter Foster, the former UN legal affairs official – who was formerly the KRT spokesman involved in the unsuccessful summon of Norodom Sihanouk for questioning for his involvement with the KR regime – resigned amid surprise on the issue he raised: It is better off resigning than living in shame. Peter Foster indicated that the UN-supported KRT will face disgrace in Cambodia in the future,' wrote Pich Bandol of The Free Press Magazine. This publication made a quick reaction by Peter Foster. Lem Piseth, FPM online's publisher and editor-in-chief who lives in Norway, apologizes to Peter Foster for his carelessness of reviewing the article before publication. 'I would like to express my apology to Peter Foster, and The Free Press Magazine would publish an update story with Foster's reaction today to pay back to Foster for our big mistake.' Peter acknowledges that there are some more things to be improved at his online newspaper in relation to professionalism. 'I think my staff needed to be trained,' said Lem Piseth on the phone interview. Peter Foster is the Communications Manager at Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) in Bangkok, Thailand. He was former Chief of Public Information at Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), UNAKRT Pubilc Affairs Officer at Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), and Political Affairs Officer at MINURSO. Peter W. Foster left the Khmer Rouge tribunal due to his ended contract with the international court and not renewing it due to his family condition in 2008, according to his comment to FPM online on 23 June.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cambodian farmers flock to cassava Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:49 AM PDT June 24, 2011 Xinhua Cassava farming is quickly expanding in Cambodia, especially in Battambang province as profit margins on the crop continue to rise, local media reported on Friday, citing industry experts and local farmers. Prices for the plant, which is edible and is used in ethanol production, have risen considerably, fetching more than other cash crops such as cotton that are being grown in the province, Yang Saing Koma, president of Center for Study and Development in Agriculture was quoted as saying. "Many people are now investing in cassava, due to the high prices. They also expect to gain more profit from cassava, as yields are more frequent," the Phnom Penh Post quoted Yang as saying. "In 2010, the price was 200 to 300 riel a kilogram for cut and dried cassava, but it is reaching 700 to 800 riel a kilogram, due to increasing demand," farmer Chim Choeb said. The ease of growing cassava relative to labor-intensive crops such as cotton has also likely influenced the increase in the annual crop, Banteay Meancheay province-based cassava broker Malai Trading Company director Som Yen was quoted by the Post as saying. The company expects to export 30,000 tons of cassava to Thailand, at 400 riel a kilogram, compared to last year's 100 to 200 riel a kilogram, Som Yen said, adding that the demand from Thailand and China was driven by ethanol production. Cambodia's exports of cassava by volume increased by 74 percent in the first five months of this year compared with the same period of 2010, reaching 212,000 tons so far in 2011, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Commerce's Camcontrol Division. Revenue also grew, reaching 10.3 million U.S. dollars during that period, up from 4.4 million U.S. dollars in the first five months of 2010. Cassava is planted in March or April and harvested from December to February in Cambodia. The Kingdom produced about 1.3 percent of the world's cassava in 2009, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Theary Seng and Ly Monysak, KR victims on Hello VOA 23 June 2011 Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:43 AM PDT
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| Cambodia's booming mobile phone market Posted: 24 Jun 2011 12:07 AM PDT
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| Cambodia congratulates Ban Ki-moon for second term in office Posted: 23 Jun 2011 11:38 PM PDT  Xinhua Cambodian government said Thursday that it fully supported and congratulated Ban Ki-moon for his second term in office. Koy Kuong, spokesman of Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said the Royal Government of Cambodia expressed its full support and congratulations to Ban Ki- moon, the South Korean born who was reelected by the United Nations members for the second term in office as the Secretary General of the world's body. He said, Ban Ki-moon had done an excellent job during his first term, and under his leadership, Cambodian peacekeepers had been sent abroad under the UN peace keeping operation. "Cambodia and the UN have had good cooperation and even better after his recent visit to Cambodia," he said, referring to Ban's visit in Cambodia late last year. Koy Kuong said the UN, especially the Security Council and International Court of Justice are paying high attention to Cambodia-Thai border conflict with an aim to see peace in the region. Ban, 67, was unanimously approved and reelected by the 192- nation of the UN General Assembly for another five-year term that will begin on Jan. 1, 2012. He is former South Korean foreign minister and was a successor of the former UN body Chief Kofi Annan from January 2007.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam-Cambodia Trade Rises Sharply [... with huge trade deficit for Cambodia] Posted: 23 Jun 2011 11:34 PM PDT PHNOM PENH, June 24 (Bernama) -- Two-way trade between Vietnam and Cambodia in the first five months of this year reached over US$1 billion, representing a year-on-year rise of 41 percent, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. During this period, Vietnam exported US$891 million worth of goods to Cambodia, an increase of 139 percent while Cambodia earned US$124 million, compared to US$120 million from its exports to Vietnam. The Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia said Vietnam's exports to Cambodia rose sharply due to growing investment by Vietnamese companies in Cambodia, especially in the fields of rubber, farm produce processing and health care. According to the Statistics Department under the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, this growth was in line with the two governments' goal of raising bilateral trade to US$2 billion by 2011.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Is single currency a viable option for ASEAN? Posted: 23 Jun 2011 11:14 PM PDT Fri, 06/24/2011 Calvin Michel Sidjaja, Jakarta The Jakarta Post The risk of default has haunted Greece. The country is predicted to be unable to pay its debts after series of bailouts from the European Central Bank and the IMF. There has been rising discussion of whether Greece should leave the Euro zone and use its old currency, returning its monetary policy authority to the Greek Central Bank. As the situation worsens, it is a good opportunity to decide whether a single currency should be adopted by ASEAN in the future, as the region most likely will advance toward the next stage of economic integration. The European Union has been hailed as the most advanced example of regional integration by reaching the economic and monetary union, characterized by member states adopting the single currency. However, there is a price to pay when using the Euro, as the currency is regulated by the European Central Bank. The domestic central banks no longer have power to regulate monetary policy. An integrated monetary policy is not ideal when member countries have different inflation rates due to different economic conditions and must follow the supranational central bank monetary policy. Problems occur if one or two member countries cannot cope with the demands to adjust interest rates because of the differences. Conflicts of interest most likely occur as member states must also tolerate the central bank adjusting interest rates in favor of troubled states or to sustain the stability in the region as a whole. The European debt crisis has shown that an integrated economy is bad for the region if the countries have different capacities and lack prudential fiscal management, as exemplified by Greece. A single currency might no longer be a viable option. The risk would be too high if ASEAN was to force its way forward amid the current economic disparity. ASEAN member states are usually categorized in two different economic power groups. The first are the advanced economies, the ASEAN-6 – Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Second is the group of the least-developed states: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, which known as the CLMV group. In its regional integration, ASEAN is currently in the free trade area stage, having removed tariff and non-tariff barriers among member states. ASEAN must decide whether it will take the next step of economic integration and move to a single currency with a supranational central bank that coordinates member states' monetary policy. While the scene of adopting a single currency is still far away and only limited to academic possibilities, ASEAN cannot ignore the fact that economic and monetary unions should not be an option when inflation rate disparity among member states is still wide. The European debt crisis has taught another bitter lesson of economic unpreparedness. The high level of debt in the PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) fueled anxiety after the economic crisis in 2008 and led to a series of bailouts. During the economic crisis, financial contagion followed, as investors pulled out, causing capital outflows and liquidity to run dry. Liquidity crises usually spread to other regions and trigger domino effects such as dramatic currency depreciation, stock market crashes and government bond defaults, after which the IMF enters the scene. The classic IMF recipe usually causes further disasters, offering solutions that create other problems such as issuing more debt with high yield, privatizing state-owned enterprises, liberalizing markets and selling assets. Governments must end subsidiaries and health plans, triggering a spiral of deflation and low consumption. The European debt crisis has taught the world well the heavy price of currency integration. A single currency may no longer be a viable option, for now or for the future. The writer is a researcher from HD Asia Advisory. The article reflects his personal opinion.  | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Viet businesses meet in Phnom Penh Posted: 23 Jun 2011 11:11 PM PDT June, 24 2011 VNS HA NOI — The Viet Nam Business Association in Cambodia opened its first general meeting in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, almost one year after it was founded on August 15, 2010. [KI-Media Note: How come there is Cambodian Business Association in Vietnam?] A congratulatory letter from Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son was read out at the meeting, which praised the association for helping overseas businesses fulfil their investment and business potential. Son, who also acts as Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, recognised expatriate businesses' assistance to the Vietnamese community in Cambodia and their efforts to promote Vietnamese products. Vietnamese Ambassador Ngo Anh Dung called on Vietnamese businesses to abide by Cambodian law and take care of the Vietnamese-Cambodian community. (sic!) The participants voted on a new agenda to be carried out over the next four years, which focused on increasing membership and prioritised campaigns to promote trade and Vietnamese trademarks in Cambodia. The resolution also emphasised that the association should expand operations and serve as a channel to distribute Vietnamese goods, especially in the Angkor Wat market. Vice President of the Vietnamese-Cambodian Association Nguyen Van Dung was elected as the new chairman of the association.  |
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