KI Media: “Cambodians should push for the KR trials to be held outside of Cambodia! - Op-Ed by Uon Sim” plus 24 more

As a casual observer and not being anti-American in anyway, the news that the US Ambassador to Cambodia (Carol Rodley) is about to vacate her eminent diplomatic post in the country fails to engender in me any sentiment worthy of description that otherwise comes with political or career obituary for one as humble as this writer to pen in her honour, except, perhaps, a feeling of ambivalence or 'indifference' that her government has over the years been responsible for inspiring. Of this latter sentiment I can, perhaps, write about in a few words. Not that I know a great deal about what she practices or has done during her sojourn in Cambodia. Of this fact, I also profess ignorance.

Judging by her public and confidential utterances, Ms Rodley is well informed and personally conscientious about the tasks before her as far as the Cambodian situation is concerned. At times she had been outspoken against governmental corruption, for example, which even today constitutes one of the most entrenched and formidable barricades to social progress. Yet whilst it is generally accepted that such defects as official corruption and civil rights violation may take some time to ameliorate or eradicate through piece-meal reforms, it is less hopeful and apparent when one asks where or how such reforms will ultimately come about when most (if not all) conceivable mechanisms or channels that could transmute social ideas into concrete progress or improvement in pursuit of pubic betterment are being consistently obstructed or blocked off altogether. Take the reported International Peace Day March planned to take place along some of the main streets of the capital recently. In theory, organisers can apply for municipal authorisation to stage such an event, and there is nothing written down in the national Constitution that limits or questions it as civil right or democratic prerogative. Like opposition parliamentarians' previous organised trips to visit the controversial posts along the border with Vietnam, the peace marchers would be told on the day why their planned activities would need to be halted; in this case traffic chaos and congestion had been cited as the pretext for forcing the marchers to stage their marching within the vicinity of Wat Phnom! And how many times have we seen the capital's main boulevards cordoned off without warning to lend pomp and ceremony to foreign and self-important domestic dignitaries alike, so that they can survey the scenery through their limousines' tinted windows unobstructed by the pitiful sight of the down-trodden masses?

US embassy compound in Phnom Penh (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wat Phnom is, of course, literally a stone's throw away from the US Embassy, and so is Boeung Kak Lake, which is a short stroll to the west of the Embassy's compound and currently being turned into a grave yard for civil and human rights in Cambodia. The lake's residents had been told to take their arbitrarily offered financial compensation and leave. Many, under duress and or threat of being evicted without the token compensation had little choice but to leave despite having settled in the area in excess of the qualifying residency period (about five years or more); some residents had been born there to parents who had lived by or on the lake since 1979; about the same time that Messieurs Hun Sen, Heng Samrin, Chea Sim et al came to squat on the political throne with the blessing of Hanoi. Not meaning to be cruel in any way, because the real cruelty is mostly being done to the Khmer people by these gentlemen consciously or unconsciously, who otherwise claim to have risked and devoted their lives to the salvation of the Khmer nation, 1979 was also probably the first time in their lives that they could afford to overlook the indignity of having to seek out temporary shelter from an abbot at one of the capital's pagodas.

Whilst Ms Rodley dines and wines and gets feted by the Cambodian regime, or occasionally lends her ears to opposition figures pleading for intervention in their favour, or mulls over intricate issues facing her tenure, a young school girl was seen weeping over her home being fed to the excavators; her thoughts being fixed on matters of a far more mundane nature. Still thinking (heart-breaking to witness) of her future, she pleaded tearfully: "They are taking away my home . . . how can I attend school now?"

Too bad for this young lady, along with millions of her compatriots, whose only crime is that she falls outside of the country's ruling political economic strata. Had she been instead an offspring of this obnoxious elite she would have been inducted into one of America's re-known educational institutions without too much of a fuss; she could even have pursued her study in national defence at generous expense of America's hard-earned public tax money! The thing is she simply lacks the right sort of connections that the US State Department, with the recommendation of the US embassy in Phnom Penh, has in mind. After all, with her non-ruling CPP backgrounds, any chance she will have of breaking into the strictly nepotism-oriented leadership ranks of these elites is extremely remote indeed.

On the other hand, by recruiting and nurturing the next generation of Cambodia's ruling class from its existing stock, the US government clearly views political change in the country as something that could only be mediated by way of dynastic succession rather than through electoral outcomes, which can easily be engineered anyway; an acknowledgement, perhaps, of an inevitable fait accompli that the Khmer people themselves are powerless to affect or, a washing-of-hands realism that allows the US to achieve its geo-political agenda unhindered by its professed commitment to human rights and political freedom? At any rate, the US has ensured that future American diplomats could walk into a meeting room knowing that they will likely be speaking to someone whose outlook and response will be patterned by a common, shared American accent.

As sad or cynical as this may sound it is no worse than the US government's overall position on Cambodia since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991. The Accords, like the Cambodian Constitution, have not been permitted to fashion or influence realities being experienced by, or affecting the lives of, several millions; the like of which, we are witnessing daily in the country. The much hyped democratic 'experiment' the country had briefly been allowed to flirt with had not been carefully thought through or given necessary fuel to go anywhere beyond its experimental stage. Not only the Accords' major players or signatories had failed to hold the ruling party to account for its violent rejection of democratic will through the bloody 1997 coup, they have directly or indirectly themselves dismissed the relevance of democracy and validated its irrelevance by positioning themselves in their cop-out rationalisation that: "In Cambodia, there are no black and white; just shades of grey"! Try telling that to Boeung Kak Lake's residents!

Whilst the US government sees strategic wisdom in forging political-military alliance with Vietnam in an effort to contain China's threat, it could be forgiven for committing political adultery with those seedy fellows most liberal America would otherwise regard as enemies of freedom and democracy, and hence, the adultery committed in her name is clearly 'un-American'.

So to the Cambodian people, the US, through its blatant complicity with this repressive, unscrupulous regime, and being no stranger to sleeping with political mistresses it chooses to keep itself amused overseas (in a manner morally noted in a recent Wiki leak embassy cable that 'adultery' is rife among Cambodia's CPP elite) is simply saying: 'We have done all we could for you. We even spent a vast sum of money to enable the UN to oversee the election in 1993. So take the annual aid money and move on!'

And how familiar this line of reasoning must sound to Shukaku Inc.'s victims, and to all victims of land 'concessions' and forced evictions throughout the Kingdom of Injustice and unceasing human suffering . . .

Otherwise, enjoy the weekend!

Almost exactly one year to the day, on 19 September 2010, we posted an announcement to mark the 10th million hits KI-Media received over our five years of existence on the web.

Today, almost exactly one year after that announcement, we have now reached the 14 million hits mark. It was not without much difficulties and sacrifice from our team members that we reach this new benchmark. Along the way with you, we shed our tears when we saw our Compatriots being pushed out from their land, sometime at gunpoint. Throughout this year, we learned and shared the injustice suffered by our Compatriots, the cronyism of the current regime, the oppression on activist Buddhist monks, the encroachments by our neighbors under the blind eyes of the ruling party, and last but not least, the censorship in Cambodia. We also witnessed the scorns, the resentment and the wrath from supporters of the oppressing regime. But, just like all our contributors, we will not flinch.

We started our march with a brand new pair of flip flops, along the way, our shoes wore out, they were taken away from us in order to keep us stranded on the side of the road along our journey. We kept on marching along with blisters on our feet. The blisters are now replaced by calluses, but more than ever, we are determined to keep moving on. It is with that spirit with in mind that we would like to thank you all our Readers from all over the world for sharing your opinion and thoughts and for learning about the plight of our people - whether in Cambodia per se or in Kampuchea Krom or in Thailand. We would like to thank all our contributors, anonymous and otherwise, who have contributed significantly to the content of KI-Media. Without you, the contributors, KI-Media would have been a boring place. We also would like to thank all our team members from all over the world for their effort and contribution to KI-Media. Without you, KI-Media would have been a silent desert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfxNCwSjHU

Unusually severe flooding in Cambodia has left at least 58 people dead, including 31 children, a disaster official said Friday.

Heavy rains since August and overflow from the Mekong river have left large areas waterlogged, affecting thousands of hectares of rice paddies, Keo Vy of the National Committee for Disaster Management told AFP.

"Flooding this year has caused more serious damage than in previous years," he said, adding that at least 5,633 families have been evacuated from their homes to higher ground.

Nearly 200 tourists, including foreigners, were airlifted from Cambodia's famed Angkor temple complex on Thursday after a road to one of the ruins was cut off by flash floods.

In neighbouring Thailand, almost two months of severe flooding have left at least 140 people dead.

The book is about the idea that human rights violations, armed conflict and war cause psychological and psychiatric outcomes. Many Cambodian survivors were affected by the war and the trauma in terms of their psychological outcome. The book is really meant to be more an advocacy piece, not just to highlight statistics about how trauma has affected Cambodians but to start a dialogue on how psychology affects the [UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal] process and affects the victims as they go through the court's process. The last part of the book looks at what measures have been done, and what measures can be done, to provide more resources for people who were affected psychologically by the war.

I actually work in California with refugees, survivors of human rights violations, from all over the world. Specifically, I work with the Cambodian population in the [San Francisco, Calif.] Bay area. And that population really has increased incidents in mental health disorders as compared with some of the other refugee population overseas. Their symptoms are profound, even though the trauma was years and years ago.

The first part of the book is really devoted to answering that question. On the individual basis, every person is different, and everybody's experience is different, but there tends to be characteristic outcomes for everybody that has been exposed to terrible violence. What we see in Cambodia are very high statistics of people with distress after Pol Pot.

The other chapter of the book looks at the multi-generational affect. Cambodia has a very high percentage of people exposed to extreme violence, and people who have negative psychological outcomes because of that. We could imagine that those psychological outcomes cause areas of dysfunction, like problems with their family, problems with employment, problems with their personal lives, and you can imagine the ripple effect by having so many people exposed. It's not just the individual who is having a hard time functioning, it's more a community of people who are having a hard time functioning together.

When you have been exposed to trauma, and now you have some mental health issues, the parenting style may be different for people who are survivors as compared with people who are not. One of the chapters examines the concept of how the generations that have come after Pol Pot have been affected by their parents and are having different behaviors. In other words, they have different parenting strategies because of their experience and that translates into the next generation.

The book is a little bit unspecific on that point. When we are treating PTSD in mental health in the West, there are some evidence-based practices that we understand, and we use medication and psychotherapy. The specific concept that is used in mental health in the United States may not always be 100 percent applicable in Cambodia.

In Cambodia, it is not necessarily just a mental health issue; it's beyond mental health. Many people who are affected by trauma would never think to go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but in fact they would go to a "kru" or go to a monk. There really needs to be a hybridized approach to address this problem in Cambodia, because if you just put money into the mental health system and just expect people to show up at the office of a psychiatrist, we are not necessarily going to see that. But there really needs to be some dialogue between disciplines.

I think both are true. First of all, there is a large stigma around mental health in Cambodia—and also other places. They don't know that they have a disease that would be something that could be treated by a psychiatrist or psychologist, but in fact, very often they are going to religion or to folk medicine or even the primary care doctors.

The other issue is access. If somebody who lives in the countryside in Cambodia did recognize their symptoms as a mental health disorder, and they wanted to get treatment in mental health, really there is no access to it. The people would not understand that mental health disorder, because there is not a very good public advocacy campaign to explain what mental health is.

One of the things that the prosecutors did in the opening day of the trial was to talk about the potential reparations that may come out of the court, and one of the reparations that was suggested was the improvement in the resources for mental health. And as far as I know, this has not been suggested as a reparation in other courts like this one. I don't think the court is going to create a mental health clinic, but the court could be an advocacy piece.

If the court finds at the end that reparations are important and that mental health should be considered, reparation could be directed at the government to make changes or improve the status of mental health delivery, or to the international community, to say, Cambodia has been struggling with this issue and the court has recognized this and recommends that international donors consider more funding toward this issue of trauma mental health, which is really behind many social problems that are happening in contemporary Cambodia.

The book will be distributed in Cambodia. There are specific targets where we are trying to make the book available for free, but for other people, they'll have to buy it through the Documentation Center of Cambodia. In order to have powerful advocacy, you have to make your information available. Some specific parts of the book are being translated into Khmer. Some of the concepts and recommendations that we made will definitely be translated into Khmer.

When Yingluck Shinawatra was elected prime minister of Thailand in July, I argued this development was likely to ameliorate tensions that had developed over the years between Thailand and Cambodia. Between allegations of espionage levelled by Phnom Penh against the government of former Thai Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and the recurrent violent military clashes over the ancient temple ruins of Preah Vihear, relations between the two countries seemed earlier this year to be at their lowest ebb in some time.

But Yingluck's selection may have changed things. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was quick to announce that the election results in Thailand signalled a 'new era of cooperation' between the two countries. Relations between Phnom Penh and Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra were quite warm, and remained so even after Thaksin's overthrow, when he briefly served as an economic consultant for Hun Sen.

Yingluck's visit to Phnom Penh this month reflects the potential of this new era. The two heads of state held what has been described by Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith as a 'fruitful' meeting, one in which both parties agreed to a host of bilateral discussions and negotiations on issues ranging from trade and investment, to the border dispute and the fate of two Thai nationals held in a Cambodian prison on allegations of spying.

Still, back in Thailand, the fighting talk from the opposition camp of the Democrat Party is evidence that there are still segments of Thailand's domestic political system that begrudge Hun Sen's perceived favouritism. 'The Cambodian premier is violating the ASEAN charter by intervening in Thailand's internal affairs,' said Democrat MP and former Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. Hun Sen 'held a reception for a fugitive instead of cooperating with Thai authorities by bringing that person back to face justice in his own country,' Piromya added. The 'fugitive' whom the MP is referring to is, of course, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was convicted of graft in absentia in 2008.

But if the Democrats decide to make Yingluck's foreign policy an issue – especially vis-à-vis Cambodia – they will likely find themselves clutching at straws. The election during the summer was effectively a repudiation of failed neoliberal economic policies favoured by the Bangkok elite. But Abhisit's foreign policy wasn't particularly effective either; his botched handling of the Preah Vihear dispute was augmented by a ruling by the International Court of Justice that upheld an earlier adjudication that the temple ruins do indeed fall under Cambodian sovereignty.

Trounced in an election where the poor, rural majority executed their game plan of class warfare against the ruling elite, the Democrats are now trying to make foreign policy a major issue. But if Yingluck's early success in Cambodia is any indication, this may be an imprudent strategy as well.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy recently visited New York, where he is trying to bring Prime Minsiter Hun Sen to court for atrocity crimes.

"My trip to America this time is for a short period, to meet my lawyer in filing complaints against Mr. Hun Sen before the US courts, in New York, and independent courts in some democratic countries," he said in a recent interview in Washington.

Sam Rainsy is alleging that Hun Sen was involved in the deaths of many people along the Thai border who were sent there to clear forest during the civil war. Many died of sickness or by stepping on land mines, which Sam Rainsy called a crime against humanity.

He is also implicating Hun Sen in killings of demonstrations against the 1998 national elections that put him firmly in power and in the 1997 grenade attack on a Sam Rainsy-led rally, where at least 16 people died.

Sam Rainsy said last week the complaints were not part of political brokering for his return to Cambodia, where he faces years of imprisonment on criminal charges he says are politically motivated. Local elections are set for next year and national elections for the year after.

"These complaints are to seek justice for victims," he said. "Hundreds of thousands of victims, even though they died 20 years ago, we must not forget the mistreatment and killing of Cambodian people, which are crimes against humanity."

"If we don't end the impunity, there will be consistent violence, nonstop killings of each other," he said. "So I think if we manage to stop the impunity, and even bring to account perpetrators, criminals, even if they are in power or of higher rank, then we will Cambodia stop violence, especially political violence."

Foreign courts have potential jurisdiction in such matters, he said, citing as an example the case against Chile's former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who was charged with myriad atrocity crimes after he left power there.

"Such courts, they have competency to investigate criminals, particularly in the killing of people, no matter the nationalities," he said. Neither the number of years nor the position of the alleged perpetrators matter, he said.

Sam Rainsy said that Cambodia was moving toward the global trend of freedom and uprisings for the toppling of dictators.

"Tyrannical power, even though has been used to mistreat people for many years, in the end are toppled by people," he said. "I believe that in Cambodia, it is going to happen."

A new US commitment to oil and mining transparency may push the Kingdom closer to a similar agreement, Cambodian experts have said.

US President Barak Obama announced earlier this week that the US would join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as an implementing country, according to a White House statement. The pledge, the first from a G8 country, commits the United States to public disclosure of revenues from oil, gas and mining assets.

Cambodia considered EITI membership in 2007 but has since declined to sign on.

The signatory status of the world's biggest oil consumer, however, could result in more pressure on the Kingdom to do the same, Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) chairman Mam Sambath said yesterday.

"The US decision to join the EITI is a powerful endorsement of EITI and its guiding principles, not just within Cambodia but worldwide," Mam Sambath said.

"As one of the world's most powerful countries and most vibrant economies, the US has tremendous credibility in the global marketplace."

EITI hopes other countries will follow in the United States' footsteps, EITI spokesman Anders Tunold Krakenes said yesterday.

To date, Cambodia has not published any payments from oil or mining in EITI reports, he added.

While officials at the Cambodia National Petroleum Authority did not return requests for comment, Mam Sambath said the government declined to join the initiative because it claimed to already follow government-decreed transparency and accountability principles.

But he claimed EITI membership boosts investor confidence in ways that Cambodia's own transparency standards do not.

"In short, it's good business to be part of EITI."

"CRRT still sees tremendous merit in joining the EITI as tangible evidence that Cambodia embraces the standards of principles set by the global community as those which best suit the needs of all involved stakeholders."

Cambodia is not alone in abstaining from membership. The UK declined EITI membership this week, saying it would be inappropriate to reveal domestic financial dealings with extractive companies, the Guardian reported.

Officials at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment.

Thailand is reportedly preparing to re-enter negotiations with Cambodia on the Overlapping Claims Area after officials from the two countries talked this week at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum in Brunei.

Thai Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said yesterday that he met informally with Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy secretary of state Ith Praing at the forum and both agreed "the development of the OCA is highly likely".

However, he noted that previous agreements to share petroleum resources with neighbouring countries took more than a decade to materialise. Therefore no deadline had been set for the OCA's development.

"This doesn't necessarily mean we will drill for oil, as a lot preparation and negotiation are required," Pichai Naripthaphan said in Brunei.

The OCA is believed to be rich in oil and gas. Both countries have laid claim to the area for decades, and negotiations have been unsuccessful throughout that time. A joint working group negotiated the issue between 2001 and 2007 after the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding in regards to the OCA in 2001.

Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government subsequently cancelled the MoU in November 2009, after Cambodia appointed fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra as an economic adviser to the Kingdom.

Still, Thai and Cambodian officials held secret meetings regarding the oil claims during Abhisit Vejjajiva administration, the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority revealed late last month. Thai officials have since claimed Cambodia had initiated the talks, and that they were in fact not secret.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visited Cambodia last week to discuss with Prime Minister Hun Sen, among other things, the Overlapping Claims Area.

The two heads of state "agreed in principle to continue discussions in pursuit of the mutual interests of both countries," Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday, adding that transparency in those discussions and an equitable solution was most important. Phay Siphan was, however, unaware of discussion between the energy officials on Wednesday.

This week's meeting in Brunei was far from the necessary formal negotiations that must take place before real progress can be made on the dispute, said Michael McWalter, an oil and gas expert at the Asian Development Bank, yesterday.

"It's probably pretty normal for ministers to talk like this," McWalter said. "It may have just been happenstance that they sat down together."

Click the control below to listen to the interview in Khmer:

Almost 200 tourists had to be rescued by helicopters and boats yesterday after rapidly rising flood waters trapped them inside the historic Banteay Srei temple, which lies near Siem Reap city.

Banteay Srei district chief Mong Vuthy said 183 tourists from the United States, Germany, England, China, Korea and Japan were rescued from the temple, a popular tourist site that lies around 20 kilometres northeast of the Angkor Wat complex.

Sayon Sokha, a tuk-tuk driver who was trapped with the group, said: "When I was driving my guests to the temple, the water levels were normal, however, only three hours later water levels increased rapidly."

Residents in the surrounding area were forced to climb onto rooftops and scale trees as the Siem Reap River inundated the area with water, which was at points 1.5-metres high, Mong Vuthy said. "We tried to save villagers who climbed up onto the roof of their houses.

"We also received emergency intervention from Siem Reap Governor Sou Phirin and member of parliament Seang Nam to use helicopters to save the lives of villagers who were trapped in high places," he said.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology Chan Yutha said that one man had drowned and two others were missing in the area yesterday after they were seen attempting to cross a flooded road on their motorbike.

Noun Krissna, chairman of the provincial department of water resources, said that Banteay Srei district received 200 millimetres of rain causing the Siem Reap River to overflow.

"We are waiting until tomorrow to see if the water level of the river continues to rise," the chairman said.

In that case, he said authorities would begin to use heavy machinery, such as bulldozers and excavators, to create relief trenches along the river in an attempt to ease flooding.

A report released yesterday by the Ministry of Water Resource and Meteorology predicted more rain until at least Monday, as a low pressure system moves into the northern regions of Cambodia today.

"Authorities in the provinces should warn the people, particularly those near bodies of water, to be highly careful to avoid accidents," the report said.

As other areas around the Kingdom continue to be ravaged by flooding, Minister of Water Resource and Meteorology Lim Kean Hor added that he was sending officials to the most affected regions to examine the damage.

He said approximately 56,000 hectares of rice paddies across the Kingdom were now in danger of being ruined due to the rising flood waters.

"Kampong Thom is the most affected province," said the minister.

Ra Depoun, a village chief in Kampong Thom province's Prasat Sambor district, said yesterday that 97 percent of the rice paddies surrounding his village would be destroyed if the water did not quickly subside.

Conditions for evacuees in the province have been highlighted as a concern.

On Wednesday, officials said some who had left their homes were suffering diarrhoea and colds. The Red Cross, Caritas and World Vision are providing aid.

AT least 22 families living in the capital's Chamkarmon district say they are being forced to sell their land at below market value to Thailand's Bun Roong Company in order to make way for a housing development.

Village representative Chhim Veasna said on Wednesday that the families, living on a parcel of land in Tonle Bassac commune known as T85, had received a notice from the Council of Ministers mandating that they sell their land for US$400 per square metre.

The villagers say their land is worth between $2,000 and $2,500 per square metre.

"We are very concerned about our houses and living situation because we are being forced to move by the Thai Bun Roong Company," Chhim Veasna said.

"They want to expel us from our places by forcing us to sell our houses to them at the lowest prices."

A Council of Ministers notice dated September 8 and signed by Secretary of State Prak Sokhonn, orders villagers to decide between selling their land for $400 per square metre or relocating to 4.3 metre by 16 metre lots in Dangkor district's Choam Chao commune.

But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that he had not heard of this specific complaint, but promised to look into the issue on Friday.

He said that the Council of Ministers document that the villagers were referring to might be fake, because the government does not set land-sale prices in negotiations between companies and villagers.

A representative of Bun Roong Company could not be reached for comment by the Post yesterday.

More than 1,000 red-shirt supporters queued up at an immigration checkpoint in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district to enter Cambodia on Friday, reports said.

The atmosphere at the checkpoint was lively, with a large group of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship supporters singing and dancing.

Many of them were carrying images of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. 

There were signs saying "Thaksin, We Miss You", "We Love Hun Sen" and "We Love Cambodia".

Reports said the UDD supporters were travelling by public and private buses and personal vehicles.

In Cambodia's Poipet, opposite of Sa Kaeo, Prime Minister Hun Sen had sent more than 50 air-conditioned buses to pick up the red-shirts, a Cambodian official who refused to give his name said.

He said the Cambodian premier had ordered Poipet officials to look after the red-shirts and not to let them lose a single drop of blood while they are in the country.

The red-shirts were believed planning to attend tomorrow's friendly football match between Cambodian government officials and Pheu Thai Party MPs and red-shirt leaders aimed at improving Thai-Cambodian relations and cooperation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmRoLLBg9w

A garment factory hit by two mass fainting incidents last month has been accused of trying to get rid of workers who subsequently joined the Free Trade Union to push for better working conditions at the facility in Kampong Chhnang province.

FTU president Chea Mony wrote to the Ministry of Labour on Wednesday alleging that 20 employees at the factory who had joined the union were told on Monday that their contracts were expiring at the end of this month. They had joined the union after managers failed to improve working conditions following the fainting incidents, he said.

"The company is firing the workers by claiming they had reached the end of their contracts, but they have actually worked at the company for more than three years so they cannot be considered fixed-contract employees," Chea Mony said.

"The company had no right to fire the workers. According to labour laws, they completed their fixed contracts and have become staff with unfixed contracts," he added.

M&V human resource manager In Mun denied the company had fired any workers. "I did not receive any report that the factory dismissed workers," he said. Toem Silan, president of Free Trade Union at the factory, said management on Monday began telling workers who had joined FTU to thumbprint a letter saying their fixed-contracts would expire on October 1.

Mean Sokhen said she was among those who would be dismissed from the factory.

"The company discriminates against unions and fires workers contrary to the law. The workers did not want to provoke a dispute with the company. We want the company to let workers return to work," she said.

"Workers want the new union to help protect their benefits and demand the company abide by the law," she said.

Som Sinat, deputy director of Kampong Chhnang's department of labour, said he was unaware of the case. "I will investigate to find out if any workers were fired illegally," he said.

Global brand H&M, which buys apparel from the factory, said it was investigating working conditions at the factory earlier this month, following the mass fainting incidents in August.

Sam Rainsy's lawyer yesterday asked the Appeal Court to overturn a defamation and disinformation conviction against the opposition leader for his allegation that Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had run a Khmer Rouge prison.

"The penal procedure code states clearly that whoever files the complaint must be present at the hearing, and Sam Rainsy was not present," Kar Savuth said.

"If the culprit [Rainsy] was not present, the opposition's complaint must perish uselessly and the court must keep the old verdict.

"Therefore, I believe the court dares not to change the old verdict."

Rainsy was convicted of making the allegations, which he has repeated in his autobiography, Rooted in Stone, during a memorial at the Choueng Ek Killing Fields in 2008.

He was fined US$2,000 in addition to his jail sentence.

But Choung Choungy, the attorney representing the SRP leader, who lives in France, told the court that Rainsy had never mentioned any specific names when he made the allegations in 2008, accusing a government off-icial of having run a prison for the Khmer Rouge.

"Excellency Hor Namhong and Excellency Sam Rainsy are public individuals who cannot avoid criticism. If he [Namhong] wants to avoid criticism, he does not need to hold a public position," Choung Choungy said.

Seng Neang said the court's verdict would be announced on October 5.

We have more than enough evidence ... it was meant to totally silence him. It was meant to kill him.

Sam Rainsy Party youth wing leader Suong Sophoan filed a criminal complaint yesterday accusing local police, riot police and security guards acting for Boeung Kak lake developer Shukaku of attempted murder, after he was beaten unconscious last Friday.

Accompanied by SRP parliamentarian Mu Sochua and wearing a cowboy hat and low-slung jeans, Suong Sophoan filed the complaint at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday afternoon.

Under his hat, parts of his hair were shorn away and bandages covered wounds received during the attack – which was filmed at Phnom Penh's lakeside and later posted online.

"I want the court to find justice for me and justice for Boeung Kak residents against this gang of armed forces," Suong Sophoan said.

"The authorities took a big stone to hit my head in order to kill me, but I used my hand to protect myself."

The complaint was filed with a list of more than 80 witnesses and the video footage of the alleged attempted murder.

"We have more than enough evidence that the violence was not meant to just shove him off the scene," said Mu Sochua.

"It was meant to totally silence him. It was meant to kill him."

The number of police outside the court more than tripled shortly after Soung Sophoan arrived to file his complaint.

But the youth leader said he was no stranger to the attention of police. Nor was he a stranger to their brutality.

"You all know that I was abused and threatened with arrest many times," he said. "But I keep my ambition to protect the [Boeung Kak] villagers until I die."

"You would think this would create an atmosphere of fear," said Mu Sochua, speaking outside the courthouse. "But to the contrary the message is counterproductive."

"This is a moral message – Soung Sophorn is full of energy, passion and courage. Don't forget the power of social media to put the face of injustice in the public."

Mu Sochua said a video of Soung Sophorn's beating had received more than 10,000 views since being posted online last weekend.

"This is how we bring about change," she said yesterday. "It is time for the state to face reality."

In his complaint, Soung Sophoan requested US$10,000 in compensation and sentencing of all the perpetrators.

Hy Pro, deputy police commissioner of Phnom Penh, said that it was Soung Sorphoan's right to file a complaint.

"I was not at the scene on that day, so I have no knowledge, but let the court do their work on this case," he said.

Shukaku representatives were unavailable for comment last night.

The Asian Development Bank has still not been able to "definitively confirm" the authenticity of a letter claiming that consultants working for it urged the government to crack down on NGOs critical of a project it is funding, although the letter is allegedly signed by a member of its own board of governors.

"Despite ADB's best efforts, it has not been able to definitively confirm the letter's authenticity," it told the Post yesterday in response to questions about the content of discussions it said it had with "the highest levels of government" about the letter.

The letter, allegedly from Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen, was leaked to news outlets earlier this week. It contains complaints from unnamed ADB consultants about NGOs critical of the resettlement impacts of the US$141 million railway rehabilitation project the ADB and AusAID are funding.

Keat Chhon, who is also the minister of economy and finance, is a member of the ADB's board of governors. His ministry also oversees the ADB's activities in Cambodia.

The ADB said its investigation into allegations of staff misconduct found no wrongdoing. Since the investigation was completed earlier this month "no additional evidence of possible consultant misconduct, beyond a photo image of the letter, has ever been provided by any party", the ADB said yesterday.

A photocopy of photographs of the letter and an accompanying translation were received by the Post on Monday. The translation accuses "ignorant foreign NGOs" of inciting people affected by the railway project "to file complaints", and claims ADB consultants urged government officials to clamp down on the NGOs.

The letter was sent on June 17 and two days later Hun Sen allegedly approved its recommendations to take action against the NGOs, as well as speed up the review and implementation of the draft law on associations and NGOs.

In early August, land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut was suspended for five months, while Bridges Across Borders Cambodia and NGO Forum received warnings from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

All three had signed an October 2010 letter to ADB's president calling for a suspension of loans for the railway project until resettlement issues were dealt with. Government officials have repeatedly declined to comment on the letter.

The case against the Khmer Rouge regime's four most senior remaining leaders was yesterday split into separate trials, a move observers welcomed as expediating justice – albeit in a perhaps compromised form – before the accused die.

The decision from the Khmer Rouge tribunal's Pre Trial Chamber, made public at 5.30pm just before the Pchum Ben holiday, severs Case 002 into discrete trials addressing different aspects of the Khmer Rouge regime that will be tried in chronological order.

"Separation of proceedings will enable the chamber to issue a verdict following a shortened trial, safeguarding the fundamental interest of victims in achieving meaningful and timely justice, and the right of all accused in Case 002 to an expeditious trial," the decision read.

The Khmer Rouge's "Brother No 2" Nuon Chea, Defence Minister Ieng Sary, nominal head of state Khieu Samphan and Social Action Minister Ieng Thirith all stand accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva convention and crimes under the 1956 Penal Code.

Yesterday's decision did not detail which criminal acts would be the subject of the separate Case 002 trials, nor the number of trials it would be split into.

However, the Trial Chamber could choose to follow the 2010 indictment of the Co-Investigating Judges on the key allegations against the four accused. This would mean there would be five trials in Case 002, covering the Khmer Rouge's reign from April 1975 to January 1979.

Forced movement during the evacuation of Phnom Penh, abuses and starvation at worksites and cooperatives, torture and executions at security centres, genocide against Cham muslims and Vietnamese and the final forced movement of the population during the regime's imminent decline would likely constitute the five trials.

Public concern that the four defendants could die before the survivors of their brutal regime receive justice for any of these crimes was stoked last month when health expert John Campbell told a court hearing Ieng Thirith was no longer mentally fit for trial.

Clair Duffy, a trial monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said breaking the charges up to speed up the process would lead to a greater chance that the accused would face some kind of justice, even if they died later on in the trial.

"I guess it's an exercise of weighing competing interests. The question is, is it better to see some form of justice in a shorter period of time that only involves some allegat-ions? I think the answer to that has to be yes," she said.

Managing the expectat-ions of civil-party groups, in particular Cham Muslims and the Vietnamese, would be important because they might be dismayed that their cases would now not be tried until later, Duffy said.

"I think the most important thing to think about now is that the impact of this decis-ion is properly transmitted to the people in this case – and that's Cambodians in general, the Cambodian public, but also the civil parties that have a direct stake in this."

Randle DeFalco, a legal adviser at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said the case of Slobodan Miloševic, who died in his cell in 2006 while being tried for similar crimes in the former Yugo-slavia, had probably served as a lesson to the court.

"I think Ieng Thirith sounded the alarm bells, but it's different when one of them falls off the cliff [dies],'' De Falco said.

"If this case takes another two years, you can easily imagine one of them dying. They had the same problem in Yugoslavia."

International deputy co-prosecutor William Smith said he could not comment on the decision yesterday, as it had been released late and the prosecution team had not had time to read it.

Nisha Valabhji, officer in charge of the Defence Supp-ort Section at the court, also said her team had not had adequate time to analyse the decision.

Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said yesterday severing Case 002 could not be appealed against under the tribunal's internal rules.

"We have agreed each other to comply with the ICJ's order on troop pullout at the area near Preah Vihear temple and to allow Indonesian observers to monitor ceasefire at the area," Cambodian Defense Minister Tea Banh told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with visiting Thai Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha at the Ministry of Defense.

However, he said there was no exact date for the troop withdrawal as both sides would discuss further in the General Border Commission in the future.

On July 18, the ICJ ordered Cambodia and Thailand to immediately withdraw their military personnel from the provisional demilitarized zone on the disputed border near the Preah Vihear temple and allow ASEAN observers access to the provisional demilitarized zone to monitor ceasefire.

"We will comply with the order of the ICJ," Yuthasak Sasiprapha told reporters, adding "no more tension between Cambodian and Thai troops now."

Yuthasak said that for the GBC meeting, the Thai Defense Ministry was ready to hold it with Cambodia in order to bring better situation to the border.

"When I return from Cambodia, I will propose the Thai cabinet ministers in order to allow the Thai Defense Ministry to hold the GBC meeting with Cambodia," he said.

Cambodia and Thailand have had sporadic border conflict over territorial dispute near Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple since the UNESCO listed the temple as a World Heritage Site on July 7, 2008 and witnessed fierce border fighting in February and April during the Thai's Democrat-led administration.

However, the military tension has eased since the former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in the general elections on July 3.

Yuthasak arrived here on Friday morning for a two-day visit. During the stay, he will also pay a courtesy call on the Prime Minister Hun Sen.