KI Media: “៣០ មីនា ១៩៩៧ ដោយ ឆាំ ឆានី 30 March 1997 by Chham Chhany” plus 24 more |
- ៣០ មីនា ១៩៩៧ ដោយ ឆាំ ឆានី 30 March 1997 by Chham Chhany
- Thailand’s First Female PM Prepares to Take Office
- Analysis: Thai elite can no longer dismiss rural majority, or Thaksin's continuing influence
- Woman flees labour firm
- Govt centre under fire
- UN court decision on Thailand, Cambodia due July 18
- Indonesian Embassy officials visit Kantharalak District, Sri Sa Ket Province
- ADB launches $613m aid plan for Cambodia
- ADB, Cambodia Announce $500 Million Three-Year Partnership Strategy [-More money into the corrupt Hun Xen regime?]
- Post-election Thailand: Reform or Revolution?
- Pesticide poisons scores
- NESDB: [Thailand's] Ties with Cambodia to improve
- History Hard to Teach in Former Strongholds: Researcher
- The danger of a Thai civil war
- Phare Ponleu Selpak Newsletter July (in English and French)
- Can Yingluck End Thailand's Chaos?
- Condolences to those who lost their life in the July 1997 coup d'état in Cambodia
- Stronger civil society means more power for the weak
- Cambodian refugee's new mushrooming career
- Two [DAMNED] China-invested hydropower dams to supply electricity later this year: Cambodian PM
- Closing Order of Case 002 against Senior KR Leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith
- "I'm Also a Victim! ខ្ញុំក៏រងគ្រោះដែរ!" a Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea
- Businessman's son arrested in dispute over 25-cent road toll
- Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Thailand Curse
- ហ៊ុន សែន ជាឃាតក Hun Xen the Killer by Chham Chhany
| ៣០ មីនា ១៩៩៧ ដោយ ឆាំ ឆានី 30 March 1997 by Chham Chhany Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:04 PM PDT   | ||||
| Thailand’s First Female PM Prepares to Take Office Posted: 07 Jul 2011 10:01 AM PDT
July 07, 2011 Daniel Schearf | Bangkok Voice of America
Thailand is set to have its first female prime minister in Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Her victory as leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party has raised hopes that women can play a larger role in the country's male-dominated politics. But many question if she can emerge from her brother's shadow, let alone challenge Thai society's cultural and social barriers for women. Yingluck Shinawatra emerged victorious in one of the most high-stakes elections in Thailand's recent history. Her Pheu Thai party won a comfortable majority in a rebuke to Thailand's traditional elite, who backed the ruling Democrat party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The 44-year-old businesswoman is now preparing to hold her first political office as Thailand's first female prime minister. She says Thailand, after years of political turmoil and sporadic street violence, can benefit from having a woman in charge. "I think I can use as the female to talk with everyone to make the country… move forward by the peaceful strategy," she said. But Yingluck's critics say she is just a proxy for her older brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive leader who was in 2006 ousted by the military. The coup led to a years-long power struggle between Bangkok's traditional rulers and Thaksin's supporters, whose protests virtually shut-down central Bangkok, last year. Armed elements among the protesters fought street battles with soldiers sent to end their demonstration. More than 90 people were killed, most of them civilians. In response to the violence, more than 60 women's organizations teamed up to form the Women Network Reshaping Thailand to push for more involvement by women in politics. In recent years women have comprised just about 15 percent of the country's elected leaders. Coordinator Sutada Mekrungruengkul compares Thailand's current divisions to two boys fighting in a schoolyard. "Our feeling, our solution, our suggestion is to talk or to sit down and talk. Maybe we don't need to fight. We don't need to grab the authority and get rid of another person," said Sutada. Thai businesses are already a world leader in hiring women executives. A recent survey reported about 30 percent of companies are led by female CEOs. But women still lag in politics. Despite Yingluck's high-profile candidacy, all major parties in the election, including her own, largely ignored constitutional guidelines calling for proportional representation of female candidates. Women made up 16 percent of Pheu Thai's nominated candidates while the ruling Democrats included 11 percent, with most at the bottom of the list. At a pre-election conference for female top party list candidates, only a few women were represented and none seemed interested in discussing the lack of support for women in politics. Sutada says too many women candidates quickly learn political rhetoric just to get elected and have little interest in pushing parties to put forward more female candidates. "This is from the culture I think. By law you have to comply but by nature or by culture you ignore. Automatically ignore," said Sutada. Sutada says it is too early to tell what Yingluck's rise will mean for women's role in politics or the effort to reconcile Thailand's bitter political divisions. The Pheu Thai party is contemplating granting amnesty for political activists and banned politicians. Yingluck is also considering pardoning her brother, who has lived in exile since 2008 to avoid a jail term for corruption. Thaksin Shinawatra's return could spark another round of unrest in Thailand, but Yingluck says his return is not a priority right now. "I would like to say that amnesty just only like the technique, one technique, of the reconciliation process," she said. "But, we don't aim for the amnesty at this time. We aim that how we can move Thailand, how we can make Thailand move forward, how we can help Thailand to be the unity as one." As Yingluck prepares to take office in the coming weeks, all of Thailand will be waiting to see whether her untested political skills can overcome the country's deep divisions - or if she can change broader political attitudes among both men and women.  | ||||
| Analysis: Thai elite can no longer dismiss rural majority, or Thaksin's continuing influence Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:58 AM PDT
Analysis: Thai rural majority can't be ignored Thursday, July 07, 2011 By GRANT PECK | Associated Press Thailand's landslide election result underlines the enduring influence of fugitive, populist ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, but also confirms that the rural majority he awakened can never again be dismissed. As his allies prepare to take power, with a strong mandate from Thailand's countryside and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister-elect, they must tread lightly to restore equilibrium to a polarized nation and avoid any turbulent backlash from the military-backed elite in Bangkok that they have challenged. "Winning an election in Thailand ... is very different from actually governing a divided society in which powerful interests are loath to give up their privileges," said anthropologist Charles Keyes of the University of Washington. Much will depend on Thaksin himself, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a two-year prison term for conflict of interest. The billionaire businessman wants to return _ and perhaps get back some of the $1.53 billion of his assets seized by the government. Yingluck could ease the way, but the merest hint of rehabilitating the former leader sends his opponents into a rage. Yingluck, 44, who jumped into politics this year from her brother's business empire, has so far ducked talking about specific plans for Thaksin's return, and has said her priority will be "how to lead the country to unity and reconciliation." Thaksin's ouster, by a military that accused him of corruption and disrespect for the monarchy, sparked several years of sometimes-violent struggle between supporters seeking to restore his political legacy, and opponents contending he was a corrupt scoundrel intent on autocratic rule. His loyalists won a 2007 election, but the Bangkok elite dismissed the outcome as bogus democracy, saying Thaksin's political machinery won by purchasing votes or duping uninformed farmers in the provinces. But rural and poor Thais have continued to embrace Thaksin as the first leader to take their interests to heart, with programs such as subsidized housing and health care after he first won office in 2001. The pro-Thaksin forces, this time under the banner of the Pheu Thai Party, came back even stronger for the second election held since he was deposed. In Sunday's vote, they won 265 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament, as compared with their nearest rival, the ruling Democrats, who won just 159. "The lesson is that the persons who believe they make the best decisions for Thailand _ the unelected at the head of the military and in other institutions that have long had a hand in political decision-making _ are not with most voting Thais," said Kevin Hewison, a Thai scholar at the University of North Carolina. "Even with a third-string team, the people have chosen (Pheu Thai) in what for Thailand is a landslide. That's an emphatic statement about the wrongs that have been done since the 2006 coup. It remains to be seen if the 'unelected bosses' are listening." The military, which has launched 18 successful or attempted military coups since the 1930s, has insisted it will not intervene this time. The huge electoral mandate handed to Pheu Thai would make that awkward _ but not impossible _ and the messy aftermath of the last coup already has left it discredited among many Thais. Coups in Thailand used to be cut-and-dried affairs, with the losers skulking off to quiet retirement. Thaksin, with a surfeit of pride and money, broke with tradition by challenging his ouster, even though he was demonized by his usurpers, banned from politics for five years along with key lieutenants and forced to fight from abroad. Against those odds, his loyalists won the 2007 election, only to be unseated a year later by a combination of judicial rulings, military pressure and parliamentary maneuvering that brought the Democrats to power. Thaksin's supporters blamed it all on a conspiracy by Thailand's traditional ruling elite _ the military and royalists _ determined not to lose privilege and power to an uppity businessman. Thaksin's foes castigated rural voters as uneducated fools for backing Thaksin and his allies and weren't shy about doing so, some suggesting Thailand should reject the concept of "one man, one vote." Even former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, an influential elder statesman close to the palace and big business circles and who generally holds progressive views, could not contain his frustration. "Thai voters who had elected the (pro-Thaksin) PPP government were 'gullible' and 'damn stupid,' Anand despaired," according to then-U.S. Ambassador Eric John's account of a Feb. 12, 2008 conversation with Anand. It was among the American diplomatic cables leaked to the WikiLeaks organization and subsequently obtained by The Associated Press. Dismissive attitudes like Anand's effectively turned a grudge match between the Thai establishment and Thaksin into something akin to a class war. Thaksin's supporters coalesced into the "Red Shirt" movement, staging protests last year in Bangkok that were crushed by the military and ended with more than 90 dead and 1,800 wounded. Thaksin's supporters were outgunned in the streets, but prevailed by force of numbers in the polling booths last weekend. The Shinawatra brand still shines in much of the country, burnished by campaign promises _ A credit card for every farmer! A tablet computer for every schoolchild! Some question whether a Pheu Thai government can afford to keep its promises. "In our view, there is downside risk on the government's fiscal position" if it implements many of its announced policies, the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said this week. "In all likelihood, the immediate aftermath of the election is going to be more about Thaksin," said Hewison. "The group who designate themselves 'the people who hate Thaksin' are going to be hard at work. "For Pheu Thai, much now depends on Thaksin being less aggressive and headstrong than he has been in the past. Has he learned to be more patient?"  | ||||
| Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:50 AM PDT Thursday, 07 July 2011 Mom Kunthear and David Boyle The Phnom Penh Post A DOMESTIC worker seeking refuge in the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia has alleged she was forcibly detained by a labour agency and mistreated by her employer, her husband said yesterday. Va Sokhoeun, 38, reportedly told her husband that T&P labour firm had forcibly detained her since she fled to their offices from her employer's house on May 26. She alleged that her employer had withheld her pay for seven months and that she had been subjected to a sexual assault. Her husband, who would only give his name as Dara because he works for the government and fears for his job, has made a desperate plea for authorities to help repatriate his wife. "My wife ran out the room and went to the Cambodian Embassy for help, but she told me that the agency staff will come to take her back from the embassy. I'm really worried about her security," he said. "The agency staff detained her in the room without giving her rice to eat," he said, adding she'd been forced to live on discarded vegetables and was currently sick. T&P staff had also demanded US$650 to recuperate costs spent on her training and the cost of her flight home in order to repatriate her, he said. Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday Va Sokhoeun had filed a sexual harassment complaint with Malaysian police against her former boss's father. "She may still stay there [in Malaysia] for the investigation of her complaint and the embassy will try to coordinate for her return home very soon if the investigation is completed." But Ung Vantha, an official at the Cambodian embassy in Malaysia, said negotiations had to take place with T&P first to establish exactly what happened. Late yesterday, Dara added that an embassy driver in Malaysia had told him that his wife had been returned to T&P. The claim could not be verified by The Post last night. Moeun Tola, head of the labour programme at the Community Legal Education Centre, said yesterday he had offered to pay the cost of her return ticket as Va Sokhoeun required medical treatment. T&P, he claimed, had repeatedly been involved in scandals involving domestic workers that either disappeared in Malaysia or were abused. Representatives of T&P could not be reached for comment yesterday.  | ||||
| Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:46 AM PDT
Thursday, 07 July 2011 James O'Toole and Vong Sokheng
VORN Kandop, 43, was arrested on Monday while begging in the capital's O'Russei market. Along with his wife and five-year-old son, he was taken one day later to the Prey Speu social affairs centre. Most detainees are held at the notorious Dangkor district facility for at least three months. Vorn Kandop and his family were able to leave the centre yesterday with the help of local rights groups, and afterwards, he recognised their good fortune. "We were told that we would be beaten if we tried to escape from the centre, and we saw people being beaten," he said. Until yesterday, Vorn Kandop's son was just one of roughly 20 children housed at Prey Speu, a government-run facility established in 2003 that has come under renewed criticism following a report from the United Nations committee on child rights made public last week. That report calls for the release of all children in the Kingdom being held in "arbitrary detention", yet activists fear that the entrenched patterns of abuse at Prey Speu show no sign of fading any time soon. "For almost a decade, the government has 'swept' the streets and held homeless people, street kids, drug users, sex workers and the mentally ill against their will in Prey Speu. They are held without charge or trial, and subject to physical and sexual abuse," Joe Amon, director of the health and human rights division at Human Rights Watch, said in an email. "Without judicial oversight, without accountability, with absolute impunity, it is almost certain that people will continue to be abused and even tortured at Prey Speu." The centre, run by the municipal social affairs office, is a walled compound that sits amid rice fields a few hundred metres off a road on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. It is nominally voluntary, and government officials say it provides valuable services for beggars and other vulnerable Cambodians. "Those beggars choose to live in the centre freely," said Sorn Sophal, director of the municipal department of social affairs. "There is no harassment of those beggars and their children, and we have an informal school for the children." A number of people at the centre are indeed there voluntarily, taking advantage of the free food and vocational training on offer. Roughly 75 are now being held involuntarily, however, according to local rights group Licadho, and scratch marks can be seen on the walls of the dormitory where some detainees are counting down their days in confinement. Standing outside the Prey Speu gates earlier this week, a 13-year-old girl from the facility said she and her father had come there voluntarily about a year ago. She said she appreciated the food and schooling available, but acknowledged witnessing violence at the hands of staff on a regular basis. "People are beaten with sticks when they try to escape," she said. "It happens often – once a week or once every few days." Between 2006 and 2008, allegations of grave abuses surfaced at Prey Speu, including "torture, rape, beatings, reported incidences of suicide, and even reported killings committed by social affairs guards against detainees", according to the UN Committee Against Torture. More recently, a 2010 report from Human Rights Watch carried accounts of vicious beatings and gang rapes performed by Prey Speu staff. Rather than providing services, Licadho director Naly Pilorge said Prey Speu and other social affairs centres throughout the Kingdom exist to round up individuals considered "undesirables": drug users, sex workers, beggars and street children who live alongside one another at the facility. Pilorge noted that reports of abuse have declined in recent years, but that the conditions leading to such abuses "haven't changed much". "Individuals linked to credible allegations of beatings and rape are still among the staff employed at the centre, while Prey Speu continues to unlawfully detain some of Cambodia's most vulnerable people, including children," she said. UNICEF spokesman Marc Vergara said Prey Speu "is not equipped to accommodate children", and that UNICEF "has advocated for the release of children in the centre and has offered to support the government with a plan for their reintegration". While the organisation is not directly funding Prey Speu, Vergara said UNICEF does provide support to the Social Affairs Ministry "to strengthen standards and systems in child protection". Pilorge called on donors to apply further pressure on the issue, saying the closure of Prey Speu and similar centres "should be made conditional to aid given to the Ministry of Social Affairs". For Vorn Kandop's and other families, this would be a welcome reform. "We were only at the centre for one day, but we found out that it is not a good place to live," he said.  | ||||
| UN court decision on Thailand, Cambodia due July 18 Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:32 AM PDT 7/7/2011 By Agence France-Presse The UN's highest court is to rule July 18 on a request by Cambodia for Thailand to immediately withdraw its troops from an area around an ancient temple where clashes have taken place, the court said Thursday. "On Monday 18 July 2011, the International Court of Justice... will deliver its order on the request for the indication of provisional measures submitted by Cambodia," the court said in a statement published on its website. Cambodia in late April launched a bitter legal battle before the ICJ, in which it requested an interpretation of a 1962 court ruling around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple. It also asked the court to approve provisional measures while the court pondered its decision, including an immediate Thai troop withdrawal from the area and a ban on military activity there. Although Thailand did not dispute Cambodia's ownership of the temple, secured by the 1962 ruling, both Phnom Penh and Bangkok claimed the 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) area surrounding the Khmer complex. Thailand has asked for the case to be scrapped in its submission, but said in June it would respect the ICJ's ruling. In February the United Nations appealed for a permanent ceasefire after 10 people were killed in fighting near the Preah Vihear temple. However fresh clashes broke out in April further west, leaving 18 dead and prompting 85,000 civilians to flee. Cambodia said though there had been clashes in the past, Thai aggression substantially increased after July 2008, when the UN's cultural body UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage site.  | ||||
| Indonesian Embassy officials visit Kantharalak District, Sri Sa Ket Province Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:29 AM PDT July 7, 2011 Source: http://www.mfa.go.th/web/35.php?id=27724 On 7 July 2011, Mr. Thani Thongphakdi, Director-General of the Department of Information and the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, responding to the media enquiries about the visit to the Thai-Cambodian border by Indonesian officials on 6-7 July 2011, said that following coordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defence, and the Royal Thai Army, three diplomatic officers from the Embassy of Indonesia in Thailand visited Kantharalak District, Sri Sa Ket Province, accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies concerned. The Indonesian officers were briefed by the Suranaree Task Force, Second Army Region on the current situation along the Thai-Cambodian border. The Indonesian officers also visited the area prepared for the Indonesian representatives when they are sent in the future as well as other areas along the border. This border visit was arranged along the same line as the one undertaken by the Embassy of Indonesia in Cambodia on the Cambodian side of the border in February 2011. The Foreign Ministry Spokesperson further stated that this border visit of the Indonesian diplomatic officers went well. The Indonesian officers expressed good understanding about the situation as well as Thailand's commitment and sincerity to resolve the border dispute with Cambodia peacefully and amicably within the ASEAN family.  | ||||
| ADB launches $613m aid plan for Cambodia Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:25 AM PDT Jul 7, 2011 AFP PHNOM PENH - THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Thursday it will invest around US$500 million (S$613 million) in Cambodia over the next three years to reduce poverty, mainly through infrastructure and agriculture projects. The soft loan forms part of a new 'country partnership strategy' for 2011 to 2013 between the government and the bank, said Peter Brimble, senior country economist for ADB in Cambodia. Under the new plan, the ADB aims 'to reach out to Cambodia's poor' with a focus on agribusiness enterprises and rural-to-urban transport links, Mr Brimble told reporters at a press conference in the capital Phnom Penh. The strategy will also include investments to expand rural water supply and sanitation and to improve access to secondary education and vocational skills training. Cambodia's economy is expected to grow by more than six per cent this year, according to the government. Written off as a failed state after the devastating 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime and several decades of civil war, the South-east Asian nation has used garment exports and tourism to help improve its economy.  | ||||
| Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:22 AM PDT 07/07/2011 The FINANCIAL MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Cambodia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have forged a new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for 2011-2013 which defines ADB's strategic approach in Cambodia, in line with Government priorities. The CPS outlines an ADB resource investment plan of around $500 million. ADB will contribute to reducing poverty through a dual focus on inclusive economic growth and social development and equity. "The Country Partnership Strategy sets out an ambitious roadmap to reach out to Cambodia's poor with an integrated approach to rural development," said Peter Brimble, Senior Country Economist of ADB's Cambodia Resident Mission. With nearly 75% of the population engaged in agriculture, a focus on competitive farms and agribusiness enterprises, and related rural infrastructure, will create jobs and raise incomes, and improve food security. ADB will continue improving irrigation systems to promote agricultural productivity in support of the Government's Rice Production and Export Promotion Policy. Strengthening urban–rural linkages, including transport links both within the country and with neighboring countries, will expand business opportunities. Investments in the finance sector, in trade facilitation, and in industry-relevant technical and vocational skills training will improve the business environment. Human capital will be developed through measures to achieve gender equity, expand rural water supply and sanitation, and widen access to quality secondary education. ADB will mainstream climate resilience activities into ongoing and new projects using recently approved funding from the global Pilot Program for Climate Resilience. Underpinning all activities of the CPS is a strong focus on public sector management, including public financial management, decentralization and deconcentration (D&D), and public sector capacity development. Recognizing good governance (anti-corruption, public financial management, and procurement) as a key issue in Cambodia, a comprehensive Country Governance Risk Assessment and Risk Management Plan was prepared to guide the preparation of sector and project level governance risk assessment and management plans during the CPS period. "The new strategy will help the country to develop a vibrant private sector, to diversify the economy, and to integrate Cambodia into regional markets," Mr. Brimble added. "We will work to leverage additional private sector finance into key projects through public-private partnerships." In addition, ADB will improve cross border transport and trade facilitation along the Southern Economic Corridor linking Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City through Phnom Penh to promote market connectivity, competitiveness, trade and tourism activities within the Greater Mekong Subregion.  | ||||
| Post-election Thailand: Reform or Revolution? Posted: 07 Jul 2011 09:18 AM PDT
Op-Ed by MP Observers of Cambodia's UN supervised election of 1993 were stating the same truth about the defeated party being more powerful than the victorious one. And we learned what the outcome of that was in 1997, didn't we? I'm sure the conservative elements in Thailand, backed by their military will wait for the euphoria of this election to die down before muscling their way into power once more, just as they had always done in the past. Once again, the election is a slap in the face for those elements, including the Royal House. To keep their peace with them, the Pheu Thai-Thaksin camp will be expected to cede some ground. Whether that will be enough, remains to be seen. Thaksin will be anxious to deliver on his/her promises to carry on improving rural services in tangible terms, which inevitably means transferring much economic/financial resources from the middle classes (Yellow) to rural areas. If the reforms are successful, these areas (Red) will then strengthen the Thaksin camp, leading to a sense of fear and unease among traditional power segments that a new economic and electoral base is opening up outside of their sphere of influence and reach; a shift in the balance in power relations that they will likely be ill-prepared to accept. Thaksin (Shinawatra) is a close friend of Hun Sen, and whilst having been appointed economic advisor to the Phnom Penh regime suggests he is experienced in economic matters, he is nonetheless a pupil to his friend on how to cling on to political office. Not that Thaksin is averse to physical violence as a means to an end. His last political reign also saw the Thai military committing atrocities against civilians on a large scale in the Southern tip of the country where Muslims are predominant. Thaksin, like Abhisit after him, could have privately claimed that he had been powerless to prevent the generals from exercising their power anyway. Yet, the sentiment among many is that he had deliberately sung to the tune of the army rather than risking their wrath. One suspects that Yingluck Shinawatra (I pronounce it 'Yin- Gluck', which sounds irresistibly endearing to my ears, keeping in mind that she is a female politician and much prettier than her better known brother!) will be advised to project her own individual style and persona to the Thai public, just as Thaksin will be anxious to save his sister's good name from being sullied (as his was) by being seen to connive to an excessive extent with the strongmen in the army barracks. The Thai people, like the Khmers, are generally resigned to the reality of corruption. What they expect from their rulers are signs of visible change for the better in their immediate social spheres. However, such changes or reforms are not by themselves automatic transmitters of projected social-political stability to come. Material change or improvement is often accompanied by psychological change or awareness, and this in turn is accompanied by a revolution in expectations and attitudes in people and culture. For social reforms to prove meaningful they will need to be far-reaching in outcomes and effects. I happened to have travelled widely in most regions of Thailand, and what struck me most was the grinding poverty and dispossession in rural areas like the North-East and Central where decades of national economic growth appeared to have little trickle-down effect. Academic research also reveals entrenched exploitative economic relations in rural regions whereby farmers' productive potential is firmly determined by inequitable exchange practices that allow merchants and middlemen to dictate the market value of their labour and products. This has meant that rural labour market, in retaining its anachronistic relations, perpetuates a traditional system of economic dependence that continues to distort an otherwise ineluctable national growth and performance. Of course, not all farmers share the same economic status. So we have seen in Thailand as well as in most developing economies, the unstoppable pattern in migration of people from rural regions into urban cities where their adopted make-shift urban squalours or environments further distort and complicate economic and political landscape. We are right then to suggest that there are shades of Yellow in the provinces as well as Red in Bangkok and other cities. The hope is that Ms 'Yin-Gluck' will come up with a magic wand that can bridge this social divide, and before the aged Monarch calls it a day (no disrespect intended). If she could persuade 'her' generals in the armed forces to take fast-track courses in economics or anthropology, she could be half-way there already! But, the worst thing she could do - and should try in her grace and power to avoid - is to take a leaf from Mr Hun Sen's book on how to remain in office regardless of democratic will.  | ||||
| Posted: 07 Jul 2011 01:29 AM PDT Thursday, 07 July 2011 Mom Kunthear The Phnom Penh Post ALMOST 90 villagers were poisoned after they drank water from a stream that was polluted with pesticides in Kampot province, a doctor said yesterday. The villagers from Trapaing Phlaing commune, including 36 children, were admitted to Chhouk district referral hospital on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Nob Neb, chief of the disease and emergency building, said yesterday. "They were not seriously harmed as they only suffered from vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness, after they drank water from the stream that had poisonous run off from the nearby farm land of the So Ngoun Company," he said. Villagers had been given injections of medicine, were recovering well and would be let out today or on Friday after final check-ups, he said. The pesticide, which had yet to be identified, was sprayed to kill off bamboo and long grasses he added. Chhouk district deputy police chief Nub Synoun said yesterday that it had rained shortly after the So Ngoun company sprayed the pesticide. "The poisonous liquid flowed with the rain into the creek nearby that the villagers use ever day," he said. Relevant officials had inspected the site but had been unable to contact the So Ngoun company because it was too far away from the district police station, he said. So Ngoun Company could not be reached.  | ||||
| NESDB: [Thailand's] Ties with Cambodia to improve Posted: 07 Jul 2011 01:26 AM PDT 7/07/2011 Bangkok Post The relationship between Thailand and Cambodia is likely to improve once the incoming Pheu Thai-led government takes power, a member of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said Thursday. Narongchai Akraseranee was speaking at a seminar on "Moving Forward to Investment in the Asean Economic Community (AEC)" held by the NESDB office this morning. Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations now have less concern about political problem in Thailand as the July 3 general election passed through without any situation., said Mr Narongchai. They also believed the PheuThai-led administration would be able to improve ties with the neighbour that has turned sour for two years, he added. The improved relationship between Thailand and Cambodia would allow Asean to move smoothly ahead with its plan to establish the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, he said. Mr Narongchai said Thai manufacturers must prepare for being part of the AEC in the fields of logistic management, foreign languages and the investment-related laws of other countries. Public and private agencies must help provide information about the AEC and assist manufacturers that want to make overseas investments,. Overseas investment promotion is a policy set down in the 11th National Economic and Social Development plan to be unveiled today, Mr Narongchai said. Under the 11th plan, the government will support private firms to invest in foreign countries after the large industrial projects in Thailand faced problems of environmental impact and opposition by local people, he added. He said he could not tell at the moment how the 300 baht daily minimum wage policy promised by the Pheu Thai Party would affect the industry sector and have to wait and see. On the concern that this policy would weaken trade competitiveness of Thai manufacturers, the business sector would make its own judgment. "If labour cost is increased but workers are skilled labourers, it would be acceptable. Otherwise there would be problems," said Mr Narongchai.  | ||||
| History Hard to Teach in Former Strongholds: Researcher Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:59 AM PDT
Wednesday, 06 July 2011 Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC
Cambodia has made some efforts to better teach the younger generation about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge, but a history book author says it's hard to teach in areas where many parents were former soldiers of the regime. Schools across the country have begun instruction using "A History of Democratic Kampuchea," but the book's author, Dy Khamboly, told "Hello VOA" on Monday it was not taking off in all areas, especially in the northwest. "What we want is to help Cambodia's younger generations understand what really took place during Democratic Kampuchea," he said, referring to the Khmer Rouge by its official name. "Subsequently, these younger generations would act as a bridge for their parents, who were mainly the victims, and some of whom were perpetrators, to reconcile." Teaching methods now being used in Cambodia include projects for students to interview parents who lived through the Khmer Rouge and to visit genocide sites. The Documentation Center of Cambodia, which published the history book, has distributed more than 400,000 copies to high schools across the country and has provided training for some 2,000 teachers from almost every province. Student interest varies by region, Dy Khamboly said, but there is high interest among most of them. Most resistance comes from the former strongholds in the northwest, where the Khmer Rouge remained a fighting force until 1998. Im Sophea, an outreach coordinator for the UN-backed tribunal, said youths in these areas often "don't believe that their parents or former leaders committed such atrocities."  | ||||
| The danger of a Thai civil war Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:35 AM PDT
5 July 2011 By Graeme Dobell The Interpreter (Lowry Institute for International Policy) The depressing reality is that a clear-cut election victory in Thailand may not settle anything. The people have voted decisively but the popular voice is far from decisive. Politicians still tear at each other, the King totters slowly towards his grave, the military and the elite agonise, and Thailand still confronts the danger of a civil war. After five years of commotion and sometimes bloody contest, Thailand's nightmare is that the election result merely hits the reset button to restart the same cycle of conflict. The previous two parties expressing Thaksin Shinawatra's political mastery have been outlawed. Will this third manifestation, led by his sister, be able to avoid the same fate? This is the great curse of Thailand's distorted democratic deadlock: 'The election winners can't rule and the rulers can't win elections.' That elegant judgement is offered by Thitinan Pongsudhirak, of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, who says the true meaning of the election will be decided by what happens next in Bangkok and the temper of the red and yellow forces: 'If the two sides continue to treat politics as a win-at-all-costs, winner-takes-all game, recent history will repeat itself. But if they reach a compromise and establish some norms that both abide by, there is a chance for progress.' After such a clear election result, why should the spectre of civil war even be mentioned? The answer, so often demonstrated since Thaksin was overthrown in 2006, is that the conflict is more than just a struggle between the Bangkok elite and the country; the Shakespearean element is the conflict surrounding the monarchy. Thailand is afflicted by a dysfunctional royal family as much as a poisonous political culture. The vigorous use of the lèse majesté law means this is still a dangerous discussion inside Thailand, but understanding the tumult requires tackling one of the great media taboos of Asia: what King Bhumibol's 65-year rule has really done to Thailand. Our understanding of the King Lear element in the Thai agony has been vastly illuminated by the WikiLeaks masterwork being produced by the former Reuters journalist Andrew MacGregor Marshall. Marshall describes his distillation of 3000 US diplomatic cables on Thailand as 'lèse majesté on an epic scale'. This is a statement of plain truth, not bravado. To publish as he has, Marshall had to sacrifice his 17-year career with Reuters. Marshall's series — entitled 'Thailand's Moment of Truth' — is being published in instalments here, based on cables on Thailand, filed between 2004 and 2010. The result is journalism of the highest order. Joshua Kurlanzick makes a fair call in describing it as 'the biggest bombshell of reportage on Thailand in decades... Marshall's account is the most thorough, and in many ways damning, assessment of the royal family's influence over politics in history'. Marshall uses the cables to construct a sophisticated history, illustrating the 'absolutely pivotal role' of the monarchy in Thai politics: 'Explaining Thai politics without reference to the role of the palace is like trying to tell the story of the Titanic without making any mention of the ship.' Combining his own understanding of Thailand with the US cables, Marshall details the banned topics that fuel Thai gossip but which can never be openly discussed:
The election of Thaksin's sister ('my clone') breaths a huge gust of life into that nightmare scenario. The moment of truth for Thailand's monarchy is approaching but the uncertainties abound. Marshall offers this judgement (Page 33/ Part 2) :
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| Phare Ponleu Selpak Newsletter July (in English and French) Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:21 AM PDT | ||||
| Can Yingluck End Thailand's Chaos? Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:16 AM PDT 5 Jul 11 Written by A. Lin Neumann Asia Sentinel, Hong Kong Had the elites been paying attention, a lot of this mess could have been avoided If the reactions to Sunday's stunning electoral win by Yingluck Shinawatra in Thailand's general elections hold, perhaps the nation has finally found a way out of the mess created by the 2006 military coup that ousted her older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. All sides, it seems so far, are willing to accept the Puea Thai party's majority win. "I can assure that the military has no desire to stray out of its assigned roles," General Prawit Wongsuwan, a former army chief close to the leaders involved in the 2006 coup, told Reuters. "The army accepts the election results." This is a very good thing. Regardless of what one thinks of Thaksin, the one-time populist strongman pulling the Puea Thai strings from his exile perch in Dubai, even the Thai army and the royalist insiders who orchestrated the coup must see the futility of trying to battle the popular tide by now. A tycoon with a dismal human rights record and little regard for the niceties of independent media, courts or regulatory bodies, Thaksin redrew the map of Thai politics with his direct populist appeal to a rural population that had long been taken for granted by the establishment in Bangkok. Having learned his craft building a virtual mobile phone monopoly that saw nearly every Thai chipping a few baht a day into his corporate coffers, Thaksin knew something about marketing. With his background as a police officer and a strong regional business family from the northern city of Chiang Mai, he also knew something about raw power, which he wielded with a heavy hand in shooting drug dealers and sending the army into the restive southern Muslim provinces to enforce a get-tough policy that backfired. However, his strong-arming, coupled with pro-poor policies, was — and is — popular. Just how popular the past five years have shown as the state and the Bangkok royalist elite have failed miserably to put together a government that could win a victory at the polls, instead using the courts and the army to get their way. Now, finally, it appears that everybody has decided to calm down and accept the Thaksin reality after five years of pointless chaos. If the Thais had simply gazed south at Indonesia, they might have arrived at this conclusion before they sent the tanks into the streets on Sept. 19, 2006. Indonesia is a country where ethnic, religious and geographic divisions are taken seriously and have frequently threatened to upend the fragile ties that bind the nation together. There were fierce battles to hold the country together after independence in 1949 and the anti-communist bloodletting that followed the failed — and still murky — coup against Sukarno in 1965 proved how hideously wrong things could go when the guns are unleashed. In the aftermath of the ouster of former dictator Suharto in 1998, the country quickly frayed at the edges. It seemed that whole regions might break away or the army might step in or Islamic terrorism might run out of control. The Indonesians held it together, though. They quickly instituted broad political reforms, held a series of successful elections that kept the military at bay and gradually became accepted as an island of stability in the region. The country is now the most successful democracy in Southeast Asia while Thailand's political reputation has plummeted. By contrast, the Philippines — having had a successful and understandable extra-legal ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 — opted for no particularly good reason other than the anger of the Catholic church and the Makati elites to stage a de facto coup against Joseph Estrada in 2001. An inept, crooked and embarrassing drunk, Estrada was replaced for a decade by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose government was accused of much more efficient corruption and massive human rights abuses. By contrast, Estrada would have been gone for good in 2004 had the elites kept their powder dry. That Thailand's elites chose to follow the Philippine model and rid themselves of a presumed curse without the benefit of legal procedures sent the country into a tailspin that accomplished nothing. Now there are reports that the same people who organized the ouster of Thaksin are negotiating a way out of the dilemma and are willing to accept having his baby sister run the country. It seems possible Thaksin will be granted an amnesty from the corruption conviction that forced him to flee the country, and in exchange he and his allies will promise not to go after the Democrat Party and the army over the bloody crackdown on so-called Red Shirt protesters last year. This is an outcome much to be wished for, despite the bitter irony. The NGOs, liberals and small "d" democrats who supported the overthrow of Thaksin in 2006 have to accept that they cannot simply engineer a democracy that runs in their favor. The shadowy Bangkok royalists who apparently feared that Thaksin's power could undermine the monarchy have to accept that he — or at least his proxies — will not go away. If anything, their actions — censorship, coups, crackdowns — have undermined the royal institution more than Thaksin ever did. One hopes, for Thailand's sake, that all those who must be terribly humbled by this five-year failed experiment in government by coup and fiat will follow the lead of defeated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose quick concession on Sunday was both classy and calming. On the other side, Yingluck and her big brother would be wise to follow through on promises of national reconciliation and avoid a return to past bad practices. Gloating would be a bad idea. Perhaps Thailand has finally learned what Indonesia knows only too well — tearing up the rule book is messy and destructive. The country is lucky to have a chance to make things right. (A. Lin Neumann is a senior adviser to the Jakarta Globe. He is also a co-founder of Asia Sentinel. Reprinted from the Jakarta Globe.)  | ||||
| Condolences to those who lost their life in the July 1997 coup d'état in Cambodia Posted: 07 Jul 2011 12:05 AM PDT Condolences to those who lost their life in the July 1997 coup d'état in Cambodia. KI-Media Team  Another CPP Misdeed: On March 30, 1997, the opposition and its supporters gathered in a park across the street from the National Assembly in Phnom Penh to denounce the judiciary's lack of independence and judicial corruption. Four grenades were thrown into the crowd, killing protesters and bystanders, including children, and street vendors.   | ||||
| Stronger civil society means more power for the weak Posted: 06 Jul 2011 11:55 PM PDT
A new fund set up by a coalition of NGOs recognises that civil society activists need back-up to help others fight for their rights Thursday 7 July 2011 Jonathan Glennie guardian.co.uk There are a few truths in development that I hold to be self-evident and this is one of them: no matter what the problem, stronger civil society is always part of the answer. Unfortunately, as my colleague David Booth has pointed out to me, I don't have much evidence for this assertion, and on the face of it, it appears weak (don't you hate it when people insist on evidence?). If we define development as rapidly rising living standards, some of the fastest growing countries in recent decades (such as China and the East Asian tigers) have been authoritarian regimes with little independent civil society. If we define development as the provision of public goods, like health and education, then a country like Cuba does very well, despite clamping down on dissent. However, while growth in the last decade has been fairly spectacular in many parts of the world, the fruits of that growth have been shared very unevenly, with inequality generally growing. Strengthening civil society, in my view, will lend political power to those parts of society that need to argue for their needs and rights. Furthermore, if we allow a broader definition of development, one that covers political and civil rights, not just "MDG-style" improvements in health, education and income, then one of the central aims of development is to enable ("empower") poor people to hold the powerful accountable. That, surely, is what civil society does at its best. So it is good to see that a new coalition of international NGOs including Frontline Defenders (with whom I have collaborated in the past), Civicus, Freedom House and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, has set up what they are calling the Embattled NGO Assistance Fund. The aim of this fund is to "help civil society activists withstand crackdowns and pressure, enabling them to continue their work to defend citizens' rights and freedoms". Many people now agree that gradually direct aid to governments needs to be replaced by support to non-governmental activities, including the strengthening of those necessary parts of an effective and democratic state that are not centralised in the government. There is, however, one major problem – the same one as ever. Aid is a form of soft power used by rich countries to gain influence abroad. Andrew Mitchell, the British development minister, made this memorably clear recently by calling for Britain to be an "aid superpower". That influence has often been used benignly, but equally often it has been used to shore up the interests of those powerful countries. This is a complex paradox at the heart of the development agenda, and it is often most apparent in work on political freedoms. One of the founding members of the coalition is Freedom House, a US NGO set up 70 years ago to work at home and abroad on embedding political and civil rights. The work it does is commendable, and its ranking of countries as "free", "partially free", "unfree" is used widely. Nevertheless, concerns have been expressed about its strong alignment to US foreign policy interests. You would have to be slightly naive not to notice that 80% of the organisation's funding comes from the US government, and it is hard to understand how such arch-enemies of human rights as Otto Reich, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz have made it onto the board in the past. This is not to say Freedom House doesn't do important work, but it does bring out the tension inherent in foreign governments supporting political rights (and any kind of development) in countries where they also have strategic interests. Which NGOs will receive funding, and which will be ignored? Those decisions matter if large amounts of money are involved. Passing money through NGO consortia, as is the case with this new fund, rather than spending it as direct government aid, is generally a good way of reducing the political baggage that comes with it. When I worked at an NGO, I managed a lot of government money and we were given plenty of space to spend it as we saw fit. But the essential conundrum remains: it is hard to separate this kind of funding from the ideology and interests of the giver. Can foreign countries be trusted to support the interests of the poor and voiceless rather than putting their own interests first? The answer, in short, is no. But there is no better option. The grave situation of human rights defenders in many countries requires concerted action, even if motives turn murky. Examples in the press release for the new fund include "a draft law in Cambodia to increase government control over NGOs, government freezes on NGO bank accounts in Ethiopia, the detention and torture of human rights defenders in Bahrain, coordinated attacks against and restrictions on the movement of opposition members in Iran, and the violent dispersal of demonstrations in Belarus". Aid is certainly a tool in the armoury of some foreign policy apparatchiks to achieve their self-interested aims (think Otto Reich, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz), but there are others with more holistic aims than simply the national interest. They exist in governments all over the world, and are especially common in aid ministries, and they need to get their hands on as much money as possible to plough into relatively more progressive endeavours. Because you can be sure the other side is doing the same. I would be surprised if this new fund wasn't broadly a force for good in the world, particularly as the NGOs involved have demonstrated their independence and deep concern for human rights regardless of politics. And I am going to stick to my belief, evidenced or not. Whatever the assessment an external actor makes of a country's situation, one of the best things it can do is support the growth and development of independent community organisations, NGOs and the media.  | ||||
| Cambodian refugee's new mushrooming career Posted: 06 Jul 2011 11:41 PM PDT
Thursday, 07/07/2011 By Sarina Locke from Murrumbateman 2582 ABC Rural (Australia) "I survived through the war by eating caterpillars, I survived through the war by eating cockroaches." "We were forced to come out (to Australia), if not we get raped or killed. " Helen Chu is not angry or bitter, but she does carry the mental scars of seeing Khmer Rouge soldiers torture and murder friends and family. She was lucky enough to arrive in Australia as a child and to benefit from a good education, despite her experience of racism in Cabramatta, Sydney. She attended University, became a teacher and then five years ago, bought land at Murrumbateman to establish a sophisticated mushroom farm, selling to Canberra consumers. Helen Chu was born Heang Pao, but she doesn't know her exact date of birth, as the documents were destroyed before she arrived in Australia in 1982. As a little girl of just four or five years of age, she witnessed appalling atrocities by Khmer Rouge soldiers, under Pol Pot in 1978. "Women got caught by Khmer Rouge soldiers, and five of them tied a lady to a tree. "I witnessed them ripping off her clothes and cutting her breasts up, and as a child we were hiding behind bushes." It was the Vietnamese soldiers who helped them escape to a Thai refugee camp in 1979. "Anybody who could speak another language would get killed. Dad was a teacher, if you're well educated you get killed. Dad lied and said he was a bus driver. "Our surname was Heang, of Chinese descent, and we changed our name, and I don't look Cambodian so we rubbed dirt in our faces to look darker in order to survive. "When the Vietnamese soldiers came in my mother spoke Vietnamese and everyone was quite shocked. Some of the Khmer Rouge, some were oriented into society were disappointed they didn't kill mum and the whole family. "Mum helped with the translation and sewing, and they helped us escape from one province to the next. The only way to leave Cambodia was by foot to the Thai border. "We had to split up, even the children so it didn't look too obvious. There were bombs that went off, body parts that blown off. "You had to walk on the path, if you stepped off the path you'd get blown up by mines." Three of Helen's siblings died in the war. Her family - including the six remaining children waited in the Thai refugee camp for for three years for Australia to accept them. They arrived in winter, in what they stood up in. "When we came we stayed in a refugee hostel for a week, then my auntie found us a place for us to rent, and my mum started sewing, that was the skill she had. "She can't speak English and just worked, making 10 cent profit, She had six kids to raise and that's how she started." Helen and Ian Chu's mushroom farm is now a rapidly expanding operation, at Murrumbateman, from 2.5 tonnes a week, today, to 20 tonnes a week very soon. She's also bringing up five children. "I'm raising five kids, my sister's kids and my own. I'm a mum, auntie and businesswoman." She says her experiences early in life have given her the motivation to succeed. "Definitely it motivates me, I don't know about growing food in particular but it motivates me to do well, to make the most of this country, the freedom, the peacefulness that Australia offers refugees." She worries about some attitudes to to refugees. "People say 'go back to your own country!' But we didn't have a choice everything was taken away from us."  | ||||
| Two [DAMNED] China-invested hydropower dams to supply electricity later this year: Cambodian PM Posted: 06 Jul 2011 11:15 PM PDT Thursday, July 7th, 2011 People's Daily Online Two out of five hydroelectric dams being constructed in Cambodia by Chinese investors will begin to supply electricity from the end of this year onward, said Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday. The two dams are the 193 megawatt Kamchay hydroelectric dam in Kampot province, some 150 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh and the Kirirom III hydropower dam with the capacity of 18 megawatts, the premier said during a ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a China-funded Takhmao Bridge across Tonle Bassac river in Kandal province. "The two dams will be put into operations by the end of this year," he said, adding that they are invested by Chinese investors with the support from the government of China. "When they come online, there will be no concern of electricity shortage in Phnom Penh," he said. Cambodia's economy has rapidly developed since 2005 and the shortage of electricity has been posing a concern for investors. With the operations of the two dams by the end of this year, it is expected that the cost of power in this country will be lower. According to the report from the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy, five hydroelectric dams with a total capacity of 915 megawatts have been constructing in Cambodia by Chinese investors with the total investments of 1.6 billion U.S. dollars. The other three dams being constructed are Tatay river hydropower dam with the capacity of 246 megawatts, Atay hydropower dam of 120 megawatts and Russei Chrum Krom with the capacity of 338 megawatts.  | ||||
| Posted: 06 Jul 2011 10:57 PM 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 Working and Living Conditions 310. Cooperative members were not free to travel without permission.1267 One witness states that he was only allowed to meet his family every ten days.1268 Another witness states that he was permitted to see his family once every 20 days.1269 Children who worked in the Pen Meas cooperative, Samrong subdistrict, were rarely permitted to see their parents and siblings.1270 People were unable to speak freely to each other.1271 Further, CPK cadre sometimes moved base people and new people out of their houses to live in different areas within the same district. 311. Witnesses performed a variety of labour depending on the sub-units in which they were placed. Working hours generally appear to have been approximately 7am to midday and 1pm to 5pm, except during harvest when people worked longer hours. However, at least three witnesses from Trapeang Thom Tboung, Samrong, and Nheng Nhang subdistricts recall working a third shift from 6pm until 10pm at night.1273 Pregnant women were also made to work.1274 Those working in rice paddy fields were given a certain number of hectares to complete. If they did not finish on time they would be lectured and accused of being enemies.1275 Those who were not able to work were accused of pretending to be sick and sent for reeducation.1276 Others who resisted were arrested and disappeared.1277 One witness recalls "we were forced to work every day. We dared not refuse to work because we were afraid of getting killed".1278 312. The rice harvested by the cooperatives was not automatically distributed to members of the subdistricts. Rather, each subdistrict reported to the district on rice yield. The district would then decide how much rice was to be collected from each subdistrict.1279 It appears that some of this rice would then be sent for milling.1280 Some subdistricts would under-report yields and stored the surplus rice to secretly distribute amongst its members.1281 Nearly all witnesses describe a lack of food in the cooperatives.1282 Some witnesses recall people dying of starvation,1283 while others either did not see or deny that people died of starvation.1284 Several witnesses attest that people were afraid to complain about the lack of food because they could have been punished or killed.1285 Several District 105 documents also record the arrest of people who had complained about work and living conditions in the cooperatives.1286 313. Many people living in the cooperatives had health problems, particularly the "new people" who were not used to living in rural areas.1287 Those who were sick were treated by subdistrict medics. However, treatment was rudimentary and the medicine used was locally produced. Patients were given intravenous medicine prepared from tree roots and herbal medicine.1288 Patients were also injected with coconut juice mixed with penicillin.1289 The medics were female CPK cadre who had not received any formal training.1290 Many of them were only twelve to thirteen years old.1291 When people died they were buried without the family being informed.1292 314. Group weddings were carried out in the subdistricts with as many as ten to twenty couples.1293 Some of the couples knew each other, while others did not.1294 Only people of the same political category (full-right, candidate or depositee members) could marry, with the consent of the unit chief. Weddings were held at night with the participation of the subdistrict committee and the chairmen of the cooperatives and units.1295 One witness, [REDACTED], describes how another witness, [REDACTED], chairperson of the women's unit and marriage coordinator at Nheng Nhang Subdistrict, arranged for her to marry a man whom she hated. She states that [REDACTED] told her that she had to marry, and consequently she felt she did not have a choice. On her wedding night she had sexual intercourse with her husband despite not consenting. She recalls that there were militia men under the house eavesdropping at the time.1296 Another witness recalls the presence of militia men eavesdropping on a couple's wedding night to check if they "got on well or not".1291 Conversely, two other witnesses, including [REDACTED], deny this ever occurred.1298 Other witnesses recall that if a woman was not happy with her marriage she would be reeducated or counselled that it "was normal for a man to marry a woman and vice versa".1299 [REDACTED] denies that anyone was coerced into marriage while she was marriage coordinator.1300 In addition, women from Tram Kok District were sent to Kampong Som to marry "handicapped" soldiers at the army's request.1301  | ||||
| "I'm Also a Victim! ខ្ញុំក៏រងគ្រោះដែរ!" a Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea Posted: 06 Jul 2011 10:07 PM PDT   | ||||
| Businessman's son arrested in dispute over 25-cent road toll Posted: 06 Jul 2011 09:53 PM PDT Jul 7, 2011 DPA Phnom Penh - The son of a prominent Cambodian businessman was arrested on suspicion of beating a toll booth operator who demanded a standard 25-cent fee, a news report said Thursday. Pao David, the son of tycoon Khy Pao, was arrested Tuesday after the beating at a toll road in the Cambodian capital, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported. The reported victim, Pin Ratana, said the incident occurred after the 23-year-old drove through a toll gate. After he asked the man to return to pay the fee, Pin Ratana said he was attacked. 'He stopped his car and then used a big tube and the wrench from his car to hit me several times on my right shoulder, my right hand and my thumb,' he said, adding that Pao David hurled the wrench at him as he fled. 'He threatened that he would use the gun from his car to shoot me,' Pin Ratana was quoted as saying. Rights activists regularly complain that Cambodia's rich enjoy virtual impunity from prosecution.  | ||||
| Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Thailand Curse Posted: 06 Jul 2011 09:43 PM PDT
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| ហ៊ុន សែន ជាឃាតក Hun Xen the Killer by Chham Chhany Posted: 06 Jul 2011 07:33 PM PDT   |
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