KI Media: “Raw facts from Wikileaks” plus 24 more

KI Media: “Raw facts from Wikileaks” plus 24 more


Raw facts from Wikileaks

Posted: 13 Jul 2011 09:29 AM PDT


Dear Readers,

To read the raw fact from Wikileaks Cables on Cambodia, please access them at the following link:

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Wikileaks

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 05:36 PM PDT

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Sok An Connection III: Khmer Guardian's Opinion

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 05:33 PM PDT


http://www.box.net/shared/bg8hakim7vm6mftxj2h1

Wikileaks: Kem Sokha's target is Sam Rainsy, not the CPP?

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 04:57 PM PDT

Reference ID: 06PHNOMPENH586
Created: 2006-03-27 11:30
Released: 2011-07-11 00:00
Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
Origin: Embassy Phnom Penh

VZCZCXRO2593
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0586/01 0861130
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 271130Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6359
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1365C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000586

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/24/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM CB
SUBJECT: TENSIONS AMONG PRO-DEMOCRACY ADVOCATES ON THE RISE


Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Margaret McKean; Reason: 1.4 (b) and (d)

¶1. (C) Summary. Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)
leader Kem Sokha and opposition party leader Sam Rainsy are
undergoing a period of tension that has the potential to
undermine Cambodian democratic consolidation. Kem Sokha
claims that Sam Rainsy is unnecessarily worried over Kem
Sokha's political aspirations and is seeking to damage CCHR's
work. Rainsy's party has withdrawn from future participation
in CCHR's public fora and has reportedly urged SRP followers
throughout the country to end support for Kem Sokha. The
bickering between potential rivals must be music to PM Hun
Sen's ears. End Summary.

Kem Sokha-Sam Rainsy Falling Out
--------------------------------


¶2. (SBU) On March 23, CCHR leader Kem Sokha visited the
Embassy to discuss continued speculation regarding his
political aspirations, as well as the Sam Rainsy Party's
(SRP) decision to withdraw participation from CCHR public
fora. Kem Sokha said that senior SRP official Son Chhay had
contacted him regarding a letter that party leader Sam Rainsy
had asked him to send to the CCHR leader. The letter
contained two points; first, SRP claimed that CCHR was not
behaving as a real NGO but was criticizing all the political
parties, including the SRP; and second, that the public fora
do not provide adequate time to SRP representatives. Kem
Sokha asked that Son Chhay not send the letter, and that he
(Kem Sokha) and Sam Rainsy should meet and discuss these
issues before a formal letter of complaint is sent.
Unfortunately, the CCHR continued, Son Chhay said that Rainsy
wanted the letter to go out, which was copied to IRI and
USAID. SRP members in the provinces reportedly were also
receiving it, added Kem Sokha. The CCHR leader noted that in
the past, this was the sort of criticism they would receive
from the CPP -- but not the SRP.

¶3. (SBU) Kem Sokha defended his public fora and said he
treated all parties fairly. The ten-minute limit for
speakers is to ensure that everyone gets a chance; otherwise,
people use their time to campaign on their party's behalf.
He noted that even he is subject to the ten-minute rule. On
the issue of establishing a political party, Kem Sokha said
that he had no intention of returning to politics before
2008, but did not rule out the possibility following the 2008
elections. He suspects that Rainsy is unhappy with him
because CCHR refused to participate in the Rainsy-proposed
Land Authority to resolve land disputes, in which Rainsy
wanted NGO representation. Kem Sokha said that the NGOs
should be independent of the body and have agreed to form a
working group and make recommendations. DCM advised Kem
Sokha not to engage in tit-for-tat struggles with the
opposition leader who has his own reasons for wanting to make
the Land Authority a success.

¶4. (U) The press on March 27 announced the differences
between the two pro-democracy leaders and the SRP's decision
to withdraw from the public fora. One paper quoted acting
SRP Secretary General Meng Rita accusing Kem Sokha of
hoarding funds in order to launch a political party, and of
using the organization's public forums to create a
personality cult. CCHR spokesperson Ou Virak considered the
accusations as groundless, noting that everyone is subject to
the ten minute limit at the public fora.

Comment
-------

¶5. (C) Kem Sokha used the first 40 minutes of the meeting
to try and convince us that he did not want to start of
political party, and the second 40 minutes explaining how he
was the best person to lead Cambodia in the future,
criticizing Rainsy as too confrontational and controversial a
figure. But it is unlikely Kem Sokha will try to form a
political party before 2008. There is inadequate time to
develop a party structure and the CCHR leader recognizes that
he would splinter the democratic vote, rather than act as a
unifying factor. But it's also clear that he and Rainsy are
seeing one another as competitors and are not eager to help
one another. Kem Sokha appears to be banking on Rainsy
failing to deliver on the issues (land grabbing, corruption,
institution-building) most germane to the pro-democracy
reform agenda, which could open the door to Kem Sokha's
re-entry into politics post-2008. Either way, the bickering
between the two prominent former critics of the government
must be music to PM Hun Sen's ears. We will continue to urge
Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy to avoid undermining one another and
focus instead on supporting the democratic process. End

PHNOM PENH 00000586 002 OF 002


Comment.
Mussomeli

Sam Rainsy's Strategy: Push Hun Sen, then beat him at the polls

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 04:48 PM PDT

Reference ID: 06PHNOMPENH327
Created: 2006-02-17 09:20
Released: 2011-07-11 00:00
Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
Origin: Embassy Phnom Penh

VZCZCXRO0714
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHPF #0327/01 0480920
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 170920Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6041
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2351
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 2196
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0372
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0506
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0524
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3050
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 1318C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PHNOM PENH 000327

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/17/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PHUM CB
SUBJECT: SAM RAINSY'S POLITICAL STRATEGY: PUSH HUN SEN,
THEN BEAT HIM AT THE POLLS

Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Margaret McKean, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d)

¶1. (C) Summary. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy says that
reconciliation with Hun Sen was the only way to improve his
party's position in upcoming national elections and provide
hope for the democratic future of Cambodia. Rainsy hopes
that his continued ability to move the government towards
desired reforms within important national institutions will
solidify democracy in Cambodia -- and his detractors (both
here and abroad) will recognize the wisdom of his actions.
Rainsy said that Hun Sen is a fact of life and his only hope
of helping democracy is to work with the PM to make changes
that will benefit Cambodians in the long run. The political
landscape is shifting, says Rainsy, and it is unclear which
parties will be standing for election in 2008; FUNCINPEC may
disappear, CPP could split, and there could be other
opposition parties that form between now and elections. The
Sam Rainsy Party, however, will continue to work on the side
of democracy and the Cambodian people and seek to eventually
become the ruling party in the future. End Summary.

Sam Rainsy Explains Himself
---------------------------



¶2. (C) On February 17, opposition leader Sam Rainsy,
accompanied by SRP Standing Committee member Mu Sochua, met
with the Ambassador, DCM, and Pol/Econ Chief to outline his
political thinking that led to the rapprochement with Prime
Minister Hun Sen. Rainsy said that he has undertaken a
political reconciliation with Hun Sen, and described the
process as just beginning and therefore very fragile -- and
one that could be reversed. At the moment, the continuation
of the process depends on the mood of the PM and not on
existing democratic institutions. Hun Sen decides everything
in Cambodia, and the government institutions, e.g., the
courts, the parliament, are just a "facade," complained
Rainsy. If Cambodia is ruled by one man, then in order to
get anything done, one must begin by talking to that man,
said the opposition leader, who added it had been a difficult
choice. He noted that he risked the support of many friends
inside and outside Cambodia to put some trust into a dialogue
with Hun Sen, but hopes that dialogue will yield positive
results for Cambodia.

¶3. (C) Rainsy credited the international community's
interest and support over the past year, as well as the U.S.
Embassy's work on his behalf, as critical to arriving at the
situation in Cambodia today. In public, Rainsy said that he
uses the Prime Minister's rhetoric of the reconciliation
being a Khmer-Khmer solution, but in reality he knows that
Hun Sen never would have reached this stage without outside
pressure. He acknowledged that he has been criticized by
colleagues and friends for having given in, but Rainsy
insisted that he made the right choice for the right reasons.
In order to reach a democratic state in Cambodia, much needs
to happen but it all comes down to building democratic
institutions. That can only happen through a more
independent and transparent political process and elections
where average citizens are free to exercise their right to
vote without intimidation.

¶4. (C) Rainsy explained that Cambodians were afraid to be
associated with the Sam Rainsy Party because the CPP had told
them that Sam Rainsy is an enemy who cannot be allowed into
power without civil war breaking out. This strategy of
manipulating poor, uneducated peasants who value stability
after the 25 years of genocide and civil war hurt the SRP, he
stated. If Rainsy is seen to be working with the government
in a constructive way and the PM no longer characterizes
Rainsy as an enemy, people will be more willing to vote in
accordance with their beliefs. From Hun Sen's perspective,
if can he can work with the democrats like Rainsy and human
rights leader Kem Sokha, it will be politically advantageous
for him as well. Rainsy said Hun Sen wants better relations
with the West, particularly the United States, and recognizes
Rainsy can help him on that front.

¶5. (C) Rainsy allowed that his year in exile showed that he
cannot reform Cambodia's political institutions from the
outside as his party would only become more marginalized.
The PM has agreed to SRP representation in the Constitutional

PHNOM PENH 00000327 002 OF 002


Council and the National Election Commission; two crucial
institutions for delivering free and fair elections in 2008,
he noted. By being part of those institutions, the SRP will
be in a stronger position to stand for upcoming elections,
claimed Rainsy. Rainsy said that it has been helpful to his
political future for the Prime Minister to suggest that the
CPP would invite the SRP to join a coalition government with
them in 2008. Rainsy said he would also invite the CPP to
join him if the SRP wins. In either event, it shows the
populace that the parties are not enemies but constructive
partners for the betterment of Cambodia's future. If the SRP
can also show results to the population, that will also help
their chances, he said. Hun Sen has complained to Rainsy
about the poor governors, ministers and other public
officials within the system and asked that Rainsy help him
with necessary reforms. Already, the PM is taking my advice,
said Rainsy, referring to the PM's instructions to one of his
advisors to resolve a dispute between businessmen in Kampong
Thom and provincial authorities. Rainsy appealed to the PM
to assist in this matter as an advocate for the businessmen,
and the PM agreed. These results help the PM take credit but
Rainsy said that people will also see him as the catalyst for
change and credit him as well.

Future of the Political Parties
-------------------------------

¶6. (C) Rainsy described the political landscape in Cambodia
as shifting and one that could change dramatically before
¶2008. FUNCINPEC has been a poor partner to the CPP in
government, and Rainsy said that his political reconciliation
with Hun Sen has given the PM the opportunity to get rid of
FUNCINPEC. Rainsy noted that the Prime Minister is unhappy
with members of his own party -- the old guard whose
interests lean towards Vietnam and others whom Rainsy
characterized as the "mafia" types within the party. Rainsy
would not be surprised if Hun Sen split the CPP and created
his own party to rid himself of those people. Another factor
is the political future of Hun Sen's son, Hun Manet. Rainsy
noted that Hun Sen has political ambitions for his son, but
it remains to be seen if those are shared by others in the
CPP. Rainsy also does not believe FUNCINPEC will survive; he
speculated that FUNCINPEC supporters will move either towards
the CPP or the SRP. Any party that depends on handouts from
the CPP but has no interest in governing cannot survive,
summed up Rainsy; the SRP envisions itself as the governing
party someday -- if not 2008 then in the future.

¶7. (C) As far as the creation of other opposition parties,
Rainsy acknowledged that human rights leader and director of
the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), Kem Sokha, was
a factor and potential party leader in his own right. If the
Sam Rainsy Party falters, suggested Rainsy, Kem Sokha would
see an opportunity and likely form a party to assume the
mantle of the political opposition. However, if the SRP is
strong, Kem Sokha will not come forward, predicted Rainsy.


Comment
-------

¶8. (C) Rainsy has a clear strategy for his party's
political future and hopes to capitalize on his credibility
as a democrat to move the Prime Minister along the path of
democratic reform to the SRP's electoral advantage in 2008.
He also appears to have been influenced by the yawning
leadership void in the life of the political opposition in
Cambodia during his year in exile, and Kem Sokha's
aspirations to fill that void if Rainsy did not return. It
is still too soon to know if Kem Sokha (or others in the
political opposition) will remain on the political sidelines
or decide to start a new party. While it is possible that
FUNCINPEC will wither and splinter as a political party, not
so for the CPP, whose members recognize that one of the CPP's
biggest advantages is holding together as a unified party.
If the SRP does begin to gain more strength in the
countryside, the CPP will likely remain more unified, not
less so. But Rainsy is correct that the political landscape
in Cambodia has shifted dramatically in a short period of
time -- and may continue to do so between now and 2008.

Mussomeli

Importance of EDUCATION

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 04:06 PM PDT

There's no greater gift than

Education
Education
Education
 - former Prime Minister Tony Blair
 

Yale University - Faith and Globalization

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 03:41 PM PDT

Faith and Globalization

The impact of religious faith is profound in a world where political, economic, and social spheres are increasingly interconnected. Intentional and sustained reflection on the crucial issues of faith and globalization can lead to the kind of reconciliation and peaceful coexistence that life in the 21st century demands.

 

From: YaleUniversity  | Sep 19, 2008  | 34,834 views
The former British Prime Minister and Howland Distinguished Professor, Tony Blair, sits down to talk with Richard Levin, Yale University President, Paul Kennedy, J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History, and Lita Tandon, Yale College Class of 2010, at a "Fireside Chat" in Woolsey Hall on September 19, 2008.
 

Hor Namhong and his wife collaborated in the killing of many prisoners: Wikileaks cable

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 01:40 PM PDT

Would the US Founding Fathers turn in their graves if they learn that the US Ambassador is toasting with killers?
Reference ID: 02PHNOMPENH1361
Created: 2002-06-06 02:43
Released: 2011-07-11 00:00
Classification: SECRET
Origin: Embassy Phnom Penh

R 060243Z JUN 02
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8519S E C R E T PHNOM PENH 001361

FOR INR/B

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2012
TAGS: CB PINR
SUBJECT: BIO: ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION FOR HOR
NAMHONG, CAMBODIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

REF: PHNOM PENH 01099

CLASSIFIED BY: CHARGE ALEXANDER A. ARVIZU. REASON 1.5(B)

THIS IS AN ADDENDUM TO BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION PROVIDED REFTEL.

¶1. (S) INR/B BIO FROM 1998 REPORTS THAT HOR NAMHONG'S
COLLEAGUES RESENT HIM FOR APPOINTING HIS RELATIVES TO KEY
MINISTRY POSITIONS. IN 1992, INR/B DESCRIBED HIM AS AN
OPPORTUNIST WHO LACKED HIS OWN POWER BASES, BUT GAINED
POSITIONS BY SEEKING ALLIANCES AND DOING FAVORS FOR POWERFUL
SOC LEADERS.

¶2. (S) AN UNDATED, UNATTRIBUTED REPORT ON FILE AT THE EMBASSY
CLAIMS THAT: HOR NAMHONG CAME BACK TO CAMBODIA AFTER THE
KHMER ROUGE TOOK OVER, BUT WAS NOT KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS A
SCHOOLMATE OF IENG SARY. HE BECAME HEAD OF THE BENG TRABEK
CAMP AND HE AND HIS WIFE COLLABORATED IN THE KILLING OF MANY
PRISONERS. AMONG THE VICTIMS WERE THE QUEEN'S SISTER NANETTE
AND HER HUSBAND METEVI (A RELATIVE OF SIRIK MATAK). HOR
NAMHONG ALMOST KILLED CHEM SNGUON AND HIS FAMILY (INCLUDING
CHEM WIDHYA WHO WAS WITH HIS FATHER IN THE CAMP) BECAUSE
SOMEONE HEARD WIDHYA LISTENING TO A FRENCH RADIO BROADCAST.
THE VIETNAMESE INVADED JUST BEFORE THE CHEM FAMILY WAS TO BE
KILLED. HOR NAMHONG'S WIFE ASKED IENG SAR TO HELP THEIR
DAUGHTER WORK WITH THE KHMER ROUGE REGIME. SHE POINTED OUT
THAT SHE HELPED IENG SARY BRING BACK A LOT OF PEOPLE TO BE
KILLED. THE DAUGHTER CAME BACK. LATER, HOR NAMHONG'S WIFE
SAW HER DAUGHTER'S PICTURE ON THE WALL AT TUOL SLENG AND
FAINTED.


ARVIZU

Hun Xen's Paranoia: Wikileaks cable

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 01:20 PM PDT

Reference ID: 95PHNOMPENH3751
Created: 1995-11-14 10:28
Released: 2011-07-11 00:00
Classification: SECRET
Origin: Embassy Phnom Penh

R 141028Z NOV 95
FM AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1834
INFO USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI
AMEMBASSY BANGKOKS E C R E T PHNOM PENH 003751

E.O. 12598: DECL: 11/14/2025
TAGS: PGOV PINR CB
SUBJECT: FURTHER EVIDENCE OF HUN SEN'S MENTAL
STATE

REF: PHNOM PENH 3720

¶1. (S) SUMMARY. SECOND PRIME MINISTER HUN SEN
HAS CALLED FOR A FORMAL RCG INVESTIGATION INTO A
REPORT, PUBLISHED BY A LOCAL NEWSPAPER, OF A PLOT
TO ASSASSINATE HIM. THE REPORT, SOURCED TO
FUNCINPEC SECRETARY-GENERAL SIRIVUDH, IS MOST
LIKELY LITTLE MORE THAN UNFOUNDED RUMOR, POSSIBLY
FLOATED BY THE SOMETIMES MISCHIEVOUS SIRIVUDH TO
PROVOKE A REACTION FROM HUN SEN, WHO CONTINUES TO
SHOW A NEAR-OBSESSION WITH HIS PERSONAL SECURITY
(REFTEL). END SUMMARY.

¶2. (U) THE NOVEMBER 11 ISSUE OF "NEW ANGKOR"
NEWSPAPER CONTAINED A STORY ABOUT A POSSIBLE PLOT
BY UNNAMED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO ASSASSINATE
SECOND PRIME MINISTER HUN SEN AS HE TRAVELED TO
THE NEARBY HUN SEN DEVELOPMENT ZONE OR VISITED THE
ROYAL PALACE (WHERE HIS BODYGUARDS USUALLY REMAIN
OUTSIDE). FUNCINPEC PARTY SECRETARY GENERAL AND
FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER PRINCE NORODOM SIRIVUDH,
WHO, THE ARTICLE SAID, REVEALED THE PLOT TO THE
PAPER, SUBSEQUENTLY DENIED THAT HE KNEW ANYTHING
ABOUT IT. THREE DAYS LATER, HUN SEN DESCRIBED THE
ALLEGED PLAN IN A SPEECH AT A MILITARY TRAINING
CENTER NEAR PHNOM PENH, NOTING THAT THE ATTEMPT
WOULD OCCUR IN APRIL, 1996. HE DID NOT SPECULATE
WHO WAS BEHIND THE PLOT.


¶3. (S) CO-INTERIOR MINISTER YOU HOCKRY TOLD THE
AMBASSADOR DURING A NOVEMBER 14 FAREWELL LUNCH
THAT HUN SEN WAS CONCERNED ABOUT THE REPORT AND
HAD, WITH FIRST PRIME MINISTER RANARIDDH'S
CONSENT, REQUESTED A FORMAL RCG INVESTIGATION. HE
SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED THAT HOCKRY, RATHER THAN
HIS CPP COLLEAGUE AND SOMETIMES PERCEIVED RIVAL,
CO-INTERIOR MINISTER SAR KHENG, HEAD THE
GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE.

¶4. (S) HOCKRY ALSO OBSERVED THAT EVEN BEFORE THE
ASSASSINATION RUMOR HUN SEN HAD BEEN ACTING MORE
CONCERNED ABOUT HIS SECURITY. WHEN, FOR EXAMPLE,
HE TRAVELS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, HE TAKES ABOUT 60
BODYGUARDS WITH HIM--MORE THAN ANY OTHER OFFICIAL.
(BY WAY OF COMPARISON, HOCKRY SAID HE TAKES SIX
PERSONS AND SAR KHENG UP TO FORTY.) AFTER "NEW
ANGKOR" PUBLISHED THE ASSASSINATION STORY, HUN SEN
CUT SHORT HIS VISIT TO SIEM REAP AND FLEW BACK TO
PHNOM PENH; IN A DEPARTURE FROM HIS NORMAL
ROUTINE, HE ASKED THAT HIS HELICOPTER PICK HIM UP
DIRECTLY FROM HIS HOTEL, ACCORDING TO HOCKRY.

¶5. (S) IN A POSSIBLY RELATED MATTER, FOREIGN
MINISTER UNG HUOT ASKED THE AMBASSADOR AT A
FAREWELL DINNER ON NOVEMBER 13 WHETHER THE USG HAD
ANY INFORMATION ABOUT A POSSIBLE ATTEMPT TO
OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT IN THE NEXT MONTH OR TWO.
HE CLAIMED THAT THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT WAS
"AWARE" OF THE INFORMATION. THE AMBASSADOR
INFORMED HUOT THAT HE KNEW NOTHING OF THE REPORT.

¶6. (S) COMMENT: SIRIVUDH ONCE TOLD THE
AMBASSADOR THAT HE DELIBERATELY MADE PROVOCATIVE
STATEMENTS TO THE PRESS IN ORDER TO ELICIT
REACTIONS FROM PEOPLE AND THEN ASSESS WHERE THEY
TRULY STAND ON ISSUES. HE DENIED INFORMING THE
LOCAL PAPER OF THE ALLEGED ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT,
BUT WE WOULD NOT PUT IT PAST HIM SINCE HE HAS DONE
SIMILAR THINGS IN THE PAST. IN ANY EVENT, HUN SEN
HAS BEEN PROVOKED INTO REACTING, AND HIS REACTION
IS IN KEEPING WITH HIS INCREASED CONCERN, SOME
HERE CALL IT PARANOIA, ABOUT HIS PERSONAL SECURITY
(REFTEL). IN OUR VIEW, RUMORS SUCH AS THIS ARE
NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY HERE, AND THE STORY
PROBABLY HAS LITTLE OR NO BASIS IN FACT.


TWINING

Hun Xen is willing to "divvied up" sea territory with Thailand?

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 01:12 PM PDT

Cable said Hun Sen had no claims to any Thai land

13/07/2011
Bangkok Post

A WikiLeaks cable has quoted Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as saying his country has no overlapping land areas with Thailand.

In the 95PHNOMPENH152 cable, issued by the US embassy in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen is quoted as saying the only overlapping territory between the two countries is "in the sea", and that it should be divvied up in a grid pattern.

The cable described a meeting between Hun Sen and a group of US corporate leaders led by US-Asean Business Council president Matt Daley on May 1-3, 2008.

Hun Sen's comment was in response to Mr Daley's message that then-Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama did not oppose the inscription of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site by Unesco, but wanted Thailand and Cambodia to adopt a joint management plan for an "overlapping claims area".

Hun Sen was also quoted as saying that he wanted the overlapping claims area in the Gulf of Thailand to be considered separately from the Preah Vihear question - "an approach that Thailand accepted years ago", he said.


The Cambodian premier was also quoted as saying Thailand wanted to divide the maritime overlapping claim area into strips running north to south with both countries sharing percentages of petroleum revenues in each strip.

In the cable, Hun Sen suggested instead the area be divided into a checkerboard pattern with each country having sole control of its assigned blocks.

In its comment, the embassy noted that despite the Thai and Cambodian statements, the inscription of the Preah Vihear temple was linked to resolving the maritime claims dispute, "at least in the minds of senior Thai and Cambodian government leaders".

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai has vowed to help Thai Patriots Network coordinator Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary Ratree Pipattanapaiboon secure their release from jail in Phnom Penh, where they are being held on spying charges.

Torpong Chaiyasarn, a Pheu Thai party-list MP-elect who is among those regarded as being on the shortlist for deputy foreign minister, said once Pheu Thai becomes the ruling party, the government would try to assist Veera and Ratree as well as other Thais facing similar charges in Cambodia.

Veera and Ratree were jailed for illegally entering Cambodia, trespassing into a restricted military area without permission and espionage.

"This case will not be among the government's urgent policies, but it will be one of the tasks that the government must address" Mr Torpong said.

"We must make sure the public understands our and Cambodia's approaches. More importantly, we must respect the ruling of the Cambodian court as well."

He said apart from Veera and Ratree, there were other Thais convicted of similar charges, although the public has never been informed of their cases.

Pheu Thai's plan to deal with the Thai-Cambodian border row includes enforcing the decree that Cambodians living in the disputed area must move out in accordance with the existing memorandum of understanding.

ចុតហ្មាយមរណៈ ដោយ ឆាំឆានី (Chot may moronak by Chham Chhany)

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 11:01 AM PDT

Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 10:07 AM PDT

07/13/2011
International Business Times

Scientists have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease -- called H041 -- cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.

Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, who discovered the strain with colleagues from Japan in samples from Kyoto, described it as both "alarming" and "predictable."


"Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it," he said.

In a telephone interview Unemo, who will present details of the finding at a conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research (ISSTDR) in Quebec, Canada on Monday, said the fact that the strain had been found first in Japan also followed an alarming pattern.

"Japan has historically been the place for the first emergence and subsequent global spread of different types of resistance in gonorrhea," he said.

The team's analysis of the strain found it was extremely resistant to all cephalosporin-class antibiotics -- the last remaining drugs still effective in treating gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.

It is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world and is most prevalent in south and southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of cases is estimated at around 700,000 a year.

British scientists said last year that there was a real risk of gonorrhea becoming a superbug -- a bacteria that has mutated and become resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics -- after increasing reports of gonorrhea drug resistance emerged in Hong Kong, China, Australia and other parts of Asia.

Experts say the best way to reduce the risk of even greater resistance developing -- beyond the urgent need to develop effective new drugs -- is to treat gonorrhea with combinations of two or more types of antibiotic at the same time.

This technique is used in the treatment of some other diseases like tuberculosis in an attempt to make it more difficult for the bacteria to learn how to conquer the drugs.

Unemo said however that experience from previous degrees of resistance acquired by gonorrhea suggested this new multi-drug resistant strain could spread around the world within decades.

"Based on the historical data ... resistance has emerged and spread internationally within 10 to 20 years," he said.

Asked whether a class of drugs called carbapenems -- known as the most powerful antibiotics yet devised -- might be a last ditch option for treating this new gonorrhea strain, Unemo said there would first need to be trials to assess their potential.

"Carbapenems have never been used for the treatment of gonorrhea so we cannot interpret the data in any reliable or quality-assured way at the moment," he said.

The World Health Organization estimates there are at least 340 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections -- including syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis -- every year among people aged 15 to 49.

Telecom Cambodia hopes to list on bourse by year-end

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 10:03 AM PDT

12 Jul 2011
Telegeography

Cambodia's state-owned incumbent fixed line operator Telecom Cambodia (TC) is set to become one of the first companies to list on the country's newly launched stock exchange later this year. The Phnom Penh Post reports that while the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX) officially launched yesterday, stock trading will not actually take place until the end of the year at the earliest. Alongside TC, two other state-owned companies – Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority and Sihanoukville Autonomous Port – will also issue shares on the CSX when trading eventually begins. The bourse is a 55/45 joint venture between the Cambodian government and the Korea Exchange, and has been in development since 2007. It was originally planned to open on 9 September 2009, but a date for a soft launch was pushed back to the first quarter of 2010 and again to July 2011, due to delays in passing necessary legislation.


According to TeleGeography's GlobalComms Database, TC was formed in the first half of 2006, when the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) was split to form an operator (TC) and a market regulator (MPTC). TC was established to operate the PSTN and international gateway (previously operated by the MPTC) so that the regulator was not also a commercial participant in the market. The telco still operates under the administrative supervision of the MPTC and the financial supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Vietnam Rubber Group helps Cambodian workers ... by ROBBING their jobs and their lands

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Is this a pagoda model suggested by VRG?
CPP Comrade Nguon Nhel

12/07/2011

(VOV) - The Vietnam Rubber Group's (VRG) investment projects in Cambodia have helped improve living condition for local people, said Nguon Nhel, First Vice-President of the Cambodian National Assembly (NA).

Mr. Nhel said this while receiving VRG General Director Tran Ngoc Thuan on July 12. He emphasized that Cambodia will create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese group to implement its projects in the country in the spirit of friendship and for the benefit of both peoples.

General Director Thuan said VRG will help Cambodia to build two pagodas and asked authorities to decide on their models and locations. [KI-Media Note: Will it be a Vietnamese-style pagoda?]


Since starting its investment in Cambodia, VRG has opened 11 branches in the country. It has been granted more than 95,000 ha of land 26,000 ha of which has been planted with rubber trees. The group will plant 50,000 more ha of rubber trees in 2011 and complete a project to plant 100,000 ha by 2012.

VRG has generated jobs for 7,000 people paying an average of more than US$100 per month. It has also built 1,500 houses for workers, as well as medical clinics and schools for labourers and their children.

Harvard University's JUSTICE with Michael Sandel - Episode 12

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 10:00 AM PDT

 

Episode 12

Part 1 – DEBATING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

If principles of justice depend on the moral or intrinsic worth of the ends that rights serve, how should we deal with the fact that people hold different ideas and conceptions of what is good? Students address this question in a heated debate about whether same-sex marriage should be legal. Can we settle the matter without discussing the moral permissibility of homosexuality or the purpose of marriage?

Part 2 – THE GOOD LIFE

Sandel believes government can't be neutral on difficult moral questions, such as same-sex marriage and abortion, and asks why we shouldn't deliberate all issues—including economic and civic concerns—with that same moral and spiritual aspiration.  In his final lecture, Professor Michael Sandel eloquently makes the case for a new politics of the common good.  Engaging, rather than avoiding, the moral convictions of our fellow citizens may be the best way of seeking a just society.



Festival Cambodgien à Montréal le 16 Juillet 2011 - Cambodian Festival in Montreal on 16 July 2011

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:59 AM PDT

Closing Order of Case 002 against Senior KR Leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:56 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
 
 
Trapeang Thma Dam Worksite1331 
Location and Establishment of Trapeang Thma Dam
323. The Trapeang Thma Dam worksite was located at Trapeang Thma Kandal Village and Paoy Char Village, Paoy Char Subdistrict,1332 Phnom Srok District1333 in the current Banteay Meanchey Province (formerly part of Battambang Province).1334 Using the CPK's system of identifying administrative boundaries, Trapeang Thma was located in Sector 5 of the Northwest Zone.1335 The main part of the dam was located approximately 50 kilometres north east of the town of Sisophon.1336

324.            It is not clear as to the precise date that construction commenced. Witness testimony varies, some stating that construction commenced in early 1976,1337 others that it commenced between late 1976 and early 1977,1338 whilst other witnesses state that the dam was constructed entirely in 1977.1339 Nevertheless, almost all evidence supports that the completion of the dam had largely taken place by the end of 1977,1340 or at the latest by May 1978.1341 It was officially described by the CPK in October 1977 as the result of a nation-wide labour offensive to fulfill the CPK's 1977 economic plan, pursuant to a policy according to which the workers had "sacrificed everything for maximum rice production".1342
325.           An inauguration ceremony was held at the dam in December 1977 which was attended by various senior level CPK cadres. It was presided over by Pol Pot accompanied by a Chinese delegation as reported in the Chinese press.1343 Heng Rin alias Mei alias Neou Rin, Sector Secretary, and Cheal from the Sector Committee,1344 were the other CPK cadres from the Sector 5 Committee attending this ceremony.
326.            Upon completion, the size of the dam was approximately 10 metres wide at the top, 18 metres wide at the base and between three to five metres high.1345 The water contained by the dam extended approximately 10km in length by seven km in width.1346

KOCE (Los Angeles) to air "Enemies of the People" on Tuesday 12 July 2011 at 10PM

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:45 AM PDT



Nuon-Chea, left, a former leader of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, talks with reporter Thet Sambath in a new documentary on "POV," 10 p.m. on KOCE (Channel 50).

Documentary lays bare the banality of Khmer Rouge evil

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:40 AM PDT

"POV: Enemies of the People." 11 p.m. -12:30 a.m. Tuesday. WPBT-PBS 2.

By Glenn Garvin
ggarvin@MiamiHerald.com
Miami Herald (Florida, USA)

Writing about Adolf Eichmann, the bureaucrat-in-chief of Nazi genocide, the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil." Her point was that humanity's most monstrous crimes have been carried out not by fanatics or sociopaths but by ordinary people who accepted the ideology of their government and regarded the slaughter of their victims as just another job.

I don't know if I fully comprehended Arendt's theory until I watched Enemies of the People, a documentary on Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge government that airs Tuesday as part of the PBS documentary series POV. It is a singular experience to listen as former Khmer Rouge executioners reminisce about sucking on gall bladders torn from the bodies of their victims in order to cool off from all that clubbing and stabbing and shooting out in the jungle.

Enemies of the People speaks softly but carries a big stick. It does not use a lot of facts and figures to describe the reign of communist terror by the Khmer Rouge, who killed millions of their countrymen — perhaps a third of Cambodia's 7.5 million population — in just four years. Nor is there much use of gory atrocity footage, the vast mounds of skulls and bones the Khmer Rouge left behind when they were finally driven from power in 1979.


The documentary's power derives almost entirely from casual moments: A chance encounter with an old woman walking a country road who mentions that the nearby river used to bubble and hiss with the gas escaping from all the corpses rotting on its bottom. A former executioner recalling that a rural meadow was once cross-hatched with ditches because "I didn't want to bury too many bodies in one ditch." Another complaining how difficult it was to relax with a good dinner after day of slashing throats because no matter how hard he scrubbed, he just couldn't get the smell of blood off his hands.

Enemies of the People is actually a film within a film. Co-directed by Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath and veteran British filmmaker Rob Lemkin, it is an account of Sambath's low-key but relentless effort to produce a documentary on Khmer Rouge crimes. Sambath spent 10 years gently coaxing former Khmer Rouge to talk about the hows and whys of the country's killing fields.

The task was seemingly impossible. Unlike Germany, which has endlessly picked at the scabs left by Nazi rule, or Russia, where an impressive array of scholarship on the crimes of communism has been produced, Cambodians rarely discuss what happened in their country between 1975 and 1979. Sambath's friends and even the surviving remnants of his family (his mother, father and brother all died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge) couldn't understand why he didn't move on. "I just wonder why he's so different than other people," says Sambath's wife, wistfully.

Watching Sambath gingerly employ misdirection and understatement to wheedle confessions from the former Khmer Rouge is a fascinating lesson in the craft of reporting.

"You did not kill many," he says, urging on a recalcitrant former executioner. "Just a few toward the end." The man obdurately claims to remember nothing, then admits: "I only killed one. That's the truth."

Another only responds when Sambath playfully volunteers a friend for a throat-slitting demonstration. "You hold them like this so they cannot scream," the retired killer says, the fingers of one hand splayed across the forehead of the "prisoner" as he swipes a toy plastic knife across the throat. "After I'd slit so many throats like this, my hand hurt. So I switched to stabbing the neck."

Sambath's most dogged efforts were concentrated on Nuon Chea, the notorious second-in-command of the Khmer Rouge and their senior surviving member. It took three solid years of interviewing Chea before he admitted knowing that Cambodia was an orgy of murder during his rule, even then insisting the orders were given by someone else.

Finally Chea admits he and other senior officials ordered the killings to prevent ideological deviation from the Khmer Rouge program, which abolished not only property but the very concept of ownership. "We had to solve the traitor problem in the way we did so it didn't get out of our control and infect the innocent people lower down," he says.

Chea is no more emotional in confessing to the killings than he is to denying them. One of the few times he displays any passion is when he views a newscast on the execution of Saddam Hussein.

"This was the end of a patriot in an unfair society!" declares the agitated Chea: A civics lesson from Hell.

Is Cambodia Slipping Back To Rogue State Status?

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:32 AM PDT

Rural residents in Siem Raep Province, Cambodia (Photo: Amber de Bruin)

A new law designed to crack down on NGOs is one of several signs that Cambodia is edging back toward authoritarianism nearly two decades after the UN stepped in following brutal civil wars. The international community, by turning a blind eye to government abuses, is partly to blame.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011
By Angélique Mounier-Kuhn
LE TEMPS/Worldcrunch

Is Cambodia about to become an autocratic and corrupted state like the Arab regimes whose governments have recently faced popular uprisings? The question is suddenly very real in the face of increasing concerns about Cambodia's human rights record.

"The UN's goal was to bring democracy, but the country is now about to become a totalitarian state," says an anonymous representative for a human rights NGO. When the UN organized elections in Cambodia in 1993 after a long and cruel civil war, the experience was described as a historical success. Democracy returned to a country long subjected to a series of dictatorships. A vibrant civilian society was developing in a country that suddenly had a younger look and feel.

Cambodia seemed to be heading in a positive direction, even as its two-headed government – led by Prince Ranariddh, who won the election, and the "second Prime Minister," Mr. Hun Sen – showed signs that the old authoritarian habits were holding on. Almost 20 years later, the official report is disappointing. The country has been progressively destroyed, and the democratic progress erased.

A very rich and arrogant elite has emerged, crowded around Hun Sen and his family. Hun Sen ousted Ranariddh from power after a takeover in 1997. Then, he won the 1998, 2003 and 2008 elections. The elite lives off its privileges and its lofty titles. "It can be described as a rogue state, but you can't say it out loud," says another local observer.


The cornerstone of this autocratic system is a judiciary system that is totally controlled by the government. "The courts are so pathetic they don't even deserve to be called a judiciary system. They belong to the Cambodian People's Party (Prime Minister Hu Sen's party). It is almost impossible to win a trial if you don't have the Party on your side," says Philip Robertson, who covers Cambodia for Human Rights Watch, an international human's rights organisation.

The issue of forced expropriations of peasant farms is the best example of inequality before the law. After the era of the Khmer rouge (the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979), lands were controlled depending on varying circumstances. In 2001, a law gave ownership rights to people – often peasants – who actively used a given plot for agricultural purposes. But this law has not prevented private firms from using the army to chase peasants away from their lands to develop rubber or sugar cane plantations.

Staggering conflicts

"When the victims lay charges against a powerful person, judges don't pay attention. But when private firms complain, judges and prosecutors are quick to react," says a Cambodian activist.

Conflicts of interests can sometimes be staggering. For instance, one senator who is a prime minister's close friend wins a plot of land thanks to the army's support, then takes advantage of a law voted by the Lower House of Parliament that guarantees financial help to the project.

Last May, Christophe Peschoux, a representative in Cambodia for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, had to flee Cambodia after the prime minister asked governmental organizations not to cooperate with him. What mistake did he make?

"He understood the situation very well. Like his predecessors, he was criticized and insulted by Hu Jen because he spoke out about what was really going on," said Son Soubert, a former member of the Constitutional Council.

A new government law about supervision of local and international NGOs will allow the government to strictly control their activities. Under the law, authorities can check NGO accounts and even refuse them operating licences.

Many Cambodian human rights activists think the international community is to blame for the breakdown of the legally constituted state. Half the Cambodian budget comes from donations and loans from foreign countries, they point out. The European Union, furthermore, imports sugar cane produced on plantations that in some cases were expropriated from peasants under questionable circumstances.

"These donations may reinforce the status quo," says Ou Virak, director of a group called the Cambodian Coordination for Human Rights. "The donating countries shouldn't keep financing the state's missions just because Cambodia is said to be a failed state."

Cambodia's ancient wonders suffer modern ills

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:20 AM PDT

07.12.11
By DENIS D. GRAY
Associated Press

EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press reporter Denis Gray has covered Southeast Asia for more than 30 years and first visited Angkor in 1980.

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- The blistering heat at Cambodia's Angkor temples eases, and the sun's last soft shimmer will soon brush some of the most wondrous monuments ever created by man. A moment for peaceful reverence? Hardly.

A traffic jam of up to 3,000 tourists surges up a steep hillside, trampling over vulnerable stonework and quaffing beer at a sacred hilltop that provides spectacular sunset views of the massive beehive-like towers rising from the main temple in this ancient city: Angkor Wat.

Below, guides describe its wonders through blaring loudspeakers in a host of tongues as buses circle what is said to be the world's largest religious edifice, one of hundreds erected by Angkor's kings between the 9th and 14th centuries.

"Nobody should be allowed to walk on 1,000-year-old stones," says Jeff Morgan, executive director of the U.S.-based Global Heritage Fund.


He says limits on tourists at the temples are decades overdue.

The influx hastens the deterioration of edifices already buffeted by invasive tropical vegetation and monsoon rains. The relentless tread of feet and the fumes from heavy traffic wear away the soft sandstone. Oily fingers harm the magnificent bas reliefs. Noisy crowds rob visitors of near-mystical moments of quiet contemplation or the chance to imagine they are jungle explorers discovering a lost city.

Too many tourists are not Angkor's only woe.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site and its gateway town of Siem Reap are also beset by crass development, alleged corruption and endlessly delayed plans on how best to preserve the temples.

Once abandoned and overgrown by the jungle, and isolated by wars, these stone buildings have emerged as one of Asia's top tourist draws and a vital money spinner for one of the world's poorest nations. Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon says some 6 million visitors per year are projected by 2020.

The growth curve has been spectacular.

On one day in 1980, shortly after the overthrow of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, this correspondent was the sole tourist in the entire complex. The inauguration of direct international flights to Siem Reap in 1998 was pivotal, and the filming at the temples of Angelina Jolie's 2001 Hollywood hit "Tomb Raider" also helped put Angkor on the map.

Tourist arrivals quadrupled from 60,000 in 1999, to 250,000 in 2001. This year's expected total is 2.5 million.

"Mass tourism is the major challenge. There will be an accelerated use of temples that were not constructed for that purpose," says Anne Lemaistre, who heads UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural and educational body, in Cambodia. "It's not time to talk about it anymore. We need to act."

There has never been a lasting master plan to preserve and regulate the 160-square-mile (400-square-kilometer) site, although an Australian-devised Heritage Management Framework enacted this year should help, she says.

"It's just the beginning. I am not going to say if it is going to be successful or not but we will try," Lemaistre says.

Previous plans over the past two decades have been violated or became outdated.

In 1994, zoning rules to keep approaches to the temples development-free were openly flouted. Today, the once-grand avenue flanked only by towering trees leading to Angkor Wat is a congested line of top-end hotels mingling with cheap, ugly shophouses.

Vann Mollyvann, an architect who headed an independent Cambodian agency to manage Angkor, fought for the zoning and other measures to prevent what he called an "Angkor Disneyland." He eventually was fired for being obstructive, and the agency, Apsara, was put under the direct control of Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

A company owned by Sok An's son was later awarded a contract to light up the temples. It was revoked after widespread criticism that the installations were damaging the monuments. Still, a high-profile critic of the project was sentenced to prison in 2009, accused of spreading disinformation.

The way entrance fees are collected also has drawn criticism.

In a hushed deal with no bidding, Sok Kong, a tycoon close to Prime Minister Hun Sen, was granted a concession to collect the fees. Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay and others allege some of that money flows into the dealmakers' private pockets rather than government coffers and Angkor's restoration.

Morgan says Sok Kong's company "is just milking the site."

"Everyone knows it. It's a great deal. You are getting lots of money without putting in any investment," he says.

The government denies any wrongdoing, and the tourism minister said it's "a good mechanism. We can get a lot of money."

Critics say such deals at Angkor merely mirror today's Cambodia, dominated by Hun Sen and the powerful politicians and tycoons around him.

"They control Siem Reap and Angkor like everywhere. They could do whatever they please no matter what the law says," Son Chhay says.

The population of Siem Reap is projected to double to a quarter million by 2020. Unrestricted pumping of underground water has sparked fears that the earth under Angkor's temples might sink and collapse.

The once-charming town now has 320 hotels and guesthouses. More will soon rise after the construction of a new airport that can handle long-haul jets. The current airport now takes smaller planes from regional points.

Many protectors of Angkor say the time has come to strictly limit the number of tourists per day, as is done at Spain's Alhambra palace and Peru's Inca citadel Machu Picchu, or to require slippers and severely curtail where visitors can walk.

Starting this past year, only 100 people have been allowed entry into the uppermost section of Angkor Wat at any one time, and they can stay for no longer than 30 minutes. Some wooden walkways have been installed at the most popular temples.

But much of the temples remain free-for-all zones.

"Tourist management at Angkor sucks and they've had 20 years to work on it," Morgan says.

Lemaistre agrees that Angkor's romantic charm has faded - standing alone on the glorious causeway of Angkor Wat is no longer possible - but that all is not yet lost.

"It's very complicated to maintain Angkor's great quality but it must be maintained," she says. "It cannot become a tourist factory. That would be a nightmare."

Lakeside construction begins [-When the thieves accuse the landowners of robbery...]

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 09:06 AM PDT

Tyres burn near an excavator operated by an employee of Shukaku Inc during a protest yesterday at Boeung Kak lake in central Phnom Penh. (Photo by: Mary Kozlovski)

Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post
The prospects are not good for the residents unless international organisations ... intervene
CONSTRUCTION on the controversial Boeung Kak lake development officially began yesterday, as residents facing eviction from their lakeside homes held a rally to renew their calls for adequate compensation.

At a ground-breaking cere-mony at the Daun Penh district site yesterday, municipal governor Kep Chuktema acknowledged criticisms of the much-maligned project, but said city officials had done nothing wrong.

"I and my civil servants have not done anything contrary to government policy, and if I did wrong, I would not have an opportunity to stand here today," (sic!) he said, adding that the project would make Phnom Penh a "pearl city" and the most beautiful in the region.

In 2007, Kep Chuktema granted local developer Shukaku Inc, run by ruling-party senator Lao Meng Khin, a 99-year lease to develop 133 hectares in the Boeung Kak lake area, which is in the process of being filled in.


Shukaku has since set up a joint venture in co-operation with China's Inner Mongolia Erdos Hung Jun Investment Co.

Thousands of villagers have been forcibly evicted over the past few years to make way for the project, which rights groups say will ultimately displace about 4,000 families.

Some residents have accepted compensation offers from the company and municipal authorities, but more than 1,000 families continue to seek on-site relocation housing.

Yesterday, company staff fired up construction equipment, as officials and company representatives unveiled plans for skyscrapers and housing at the proposed development.

Villagers were absent from yesterday's ceremony, which was flanked by police and security guards employed by Shukaku. Instead, about 60 residents gathered across what remains of the lake, burning tyres and staging a rally to demand on-site relocation housing.

Last week, City Hall rejected their relocation housing proposal of 4 x 16-metre ground-floor homes for families with "small" plots of land, and two or more such houses for those with "large" plots of land.

Tep Vanny, a lakeside representative and one of two residents arrested last week after a scuffle with police, said yesterday villagers would continue to seek a resolution to the dispute.

"[The] authorities make excuses, accusing foreigners of stirring up my villagers to hide their weakness in settling the issue," she said.

Lao Vann, deputy director-general of Shukaku and son of Lao Meng Khin, claimed at yesterday's ceremony that residents had "grabbed" the land they occupy around the lake.

Observers say the problems at the lakeside are symptomatic of a government approach to development that excludes the vast majority of the Cambodian population.

"Cambodian society is becoming … increasingly feudal, with a group of people owning vast tracts of land and a bigger group of people who become landless," Lao Mong Hay, a political analyst and former researcher with the Asian Human Rights Comm-ission, said yesterday.

"The prospects are not good for the [Boeung Kak] residents unless international organisations, some foreign countries and governments intervene."

Later yesterday, Kep Chuktema met with representatives from the World Bank at City Hall to discuss resettlement arrangements for the remaining families at the lakeside.

Politiktoons No. 168: The Rescuer

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 08:44 AM PDT

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

LONDON (AP) — Rupert Murdoch's media empire was besieged Monday by accusations that two more of his British newspapers engaged in hacking, deception and privacy violations that included accessing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bank account information and stealing the medical records of his seriously ill baby son.

His reporters were also accused of paying Queen Elizabeth II's bodyguards for secret information about the monarch, potentially jeopardizing her safety.If proven, the charges by rival newspapers would dramatically increase the pressure on top Murdoch executives so far largely insulated from the scandal.

A message from an anonymous fan of SRP MP Mu Sochua

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 08:37 AM PDT

"I stand for my home": Evicted Boeung Kak Lake boy

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 01:45 AM PDT

(Photo: Mary, The Phnom Penh Post)

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