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Cambodia Home Heart & Soul


Sacravatoons no 2019 : " Kampuchea Krom "

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:30 PM PDT

KI Media: “Sin Sisamouth - Prek Eng” plus 22 more

KI Media: “Sin Sisamouth - Prek Eng” plus 22 more


Sin Sisamouth - Prek Eng

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 05:37 PM PDT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aohTc1Ysx2Y

Not too sure who put this video together, it could be Mr. Kenneth So. My apologies for that. Thank you to the author! Shared by Mrs. P. Ung

Wounded 33-year dictator Saleh left Yemen - Saleh is extensive burnt

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 05:35 PM PDT


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUZw6BIJKik

[Wounded] Yemen president arrives in Saudi Arabia [-Another dictator fleeing his country, Hint! Hint!]

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 05:22 PM PDT

Anti-government protestors attend a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, June 3, 2011. (Hani Mohammed / AP)
Yemeni citizens fled the capital Sanaa on Saturday after an attack on the presidential palace that left President Ali Abdullah Saleh, above, slightly injured. (Hani Mohammed / AP)


Saudi monarch intervenes in attempt to contain raging military conflict that has swept the capital

2011-06-04
msnbc.com news services

SANAA, Yemen — Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh for treatment for wounds, the Saudi royal court said on Sunday.

"The Yemeni president has arrived along with officials and citizens who had received different injuries for treatment in Saudi Arabia," the royal court said.

The announcement followed a flurry of conflicting reports about the Yemeni president's whereabouts after Saudi King Abdullah announced that he had mediated a cease-fire to end deadly street battles.

Saleh was was wounded during an attack on the presidential palace Friday.

In latest developments, Saleh's Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had taken over as acting president and supreme commander of the armed forces, Al Jazeera reported Saturday, citing unspecified sources.

For months, Saleh has defied intense pressure from his powerful Gulf neighbors and longtime ally Washington to step down. He agreed to transfer power several times, only to step back at the last moment. Should he leave the country now, he might never return, given that large segments of the population and a powerful tribal alliance could engineer his ouster while he's gone.

The extent of Saleh's injuries has been a matter of intense speculation. When the rocket struck the mosque in his presidential compound and splintered the pulpit, he was surrounded by top government officials and bodyguards. Eleven guards died, and five officials standing nearby were seriously wounded and taken to Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni ruling party officials and rebel tribesmen say Abdullah mediated a one-week cease-fire between the warring forces of Saleh and the anti-government opposition. The Saudi monarch intervened in an attempt to contain a raging military conflict that has swept the capital over the past week.

Abdullah stepped in shortly after Saleh's presidential palace compound was hit by a rebel rocket attack on Friday. Saleh was slightly injured, and 11 security guards were killed. Five other top officials were sent to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

Brink of civil war

Meanwhile, thousands fled Sanaa on Saturday in fighting which has brought Yemen closer to civil war.

Saleh's forces retaliated by shelling the homes of the leaders of a powerful tribal federation fighting an urban battle to oust Saleh.

The clashes have killed nearly 200 people over the last two weeks and turned areas of Sanaa into ghost towns after residents fled for safety.

Global powers are worried that Yemen, home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and bordering the world's biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, could become a failed state, raising risks for regional security and Gulf oil shipments.

Saleh, a tenacious political survivor who has clung to power for nearly 33 years, said in an audio address late on Friday that an "outlaw gang" was behind the attack, which he blamed on the Hashed tribe led by Sadeq al-Ahmar. A tribal spokesman denied responsibility.

"I salute our armed forces and the security forces for standing up firmly to confront this challenge by an outlaw gang that has nothing to do with the so-called youth revolution," Saleh said. "Seven officers were martyred."

'Bullets everywhere'

Tribal and medical officials said Saturday that 10 tribesmen were killed and 35 injured in overnight fighting in Sanaa's Hassaba neighborhood, headquarters of opposition Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar. A tribal leader said street fighting lasted until dawn. Many of the compound's buildings and surrounding houses have already been heavily damaged by days of bombardment.

Government and rebel forces exchanged rocket fire, damaging a contested police station. The rockets rained down on streets housing government buildings that had been taken over by tribesmen.

Intermittent blasts and sporadic fire fights with automatic weapons punctuated the predawn hours and roads were clogged when the sun rose by civilians trying to flee the fighting that has engulfed more parts of the city.

"Bullets are everywhere, explosions terrified us. There's no chance to stay anymore," said Sanaa resident Ali Ahmed.

Nearly 400 people have been killed since a popular uprising against Saleh began in January, inspired by the movements in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled their long-standing leaders.

The battles are being fought on several fronts, with popular protests in several cities and military units breaking away from Saleh to protect the protesters.

There has also been a nearly week-long campaign in Zinjibar by locals and Saleh's soldiers to oust Islamist and al-Qaida militants who seized the southern coastal city near a shipping lane where about 3 million barrels of oil pass daily.

Defying world pressure, Saleh has thrice reneged on a deal brokered by Gulf states for him to quit in return for immunity from prosecution, even as he loses support at home.

Thailand set to defy International Law

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 02:58 PM PDT

Thailand set to defy any border order

MINISTER SAYS ICJ HAS NO AUTHORITY TO RULE

5/06/2011
Wassana Nanuam
Bangkok Post

SINGAPORE : Thailand is set to defy any order by the International Court of Justice to withdraw troops from the border area disputed with Cambodia.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said yesterday that the ICJ had "no authority" to issue such an order and Thailand would not comply should one be issued.

The minister's comments come as the ICJ deliberates Cambodia's requests for a reinterpretation of the court's 1962 ruling which favoured Cambodia, and to order Thailand to withdraw troops and cease all military activity near Preah Vihear temple, situated inside the 4.6 square kilometre disputed area.

The UN's highest court is expected to rule on troop withdrawal early next month.

"Thailand will respect the ICJ's decision, but the body has no authority to order Thai troops to retreat. Thai soldiers won't step back from our territory," Gen Prawit said on the sidelines of the three-day Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore.


The dialogue is an inter-governmental security forum held every year by London's International Institute for Strategic Studies and assisted by the Singaporean Defence Ministry. It is considered the most important security forum in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gen Prawit said Thailand would only withdraw forces from the disputed area if the ICJ orders Cambodia to do likewise.

The defence minister's stance was backed by acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, who also attended the security forum.

"The ICJ has no authority to force Thailand to withdraw troops," Mr Panitan said.

If the court demands Thai troops leave the area and Thailand refuses to comply, Mr Panitan said he believes Cambodia would take the case to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The UNSC is responsible for enforcing ICJ orders when a subject country refuses to comply with them.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said upon returning on Thursday from a two-day ICJ oral hearing in the Hague that the court has no enforcement power, but as a good UN member country, Thailand would comply with its decision.

Mr Kasit also said earlier that if the ICJ ordered Thailand to withdraw troops, it should order Cambodia to do the same.

The Thai-Cambodian border row has been raised at the high-profile Asian defence forum, attended by top security officials from almost 30 nations, including the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and China.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in his keynote address on Friday that the region had high hopes for an imminent resolution.

"With Thailand and Cambodia currently at the Hague, our region knows only too well how deadly such clashes can be," Mr Najib said.

"Of course, difficulties between neighbours will flare up from time to time but, in our region, significant progress has in fact been made in settling some of these disputes over the years."

Mr Najib said he hoped that all border disputes could be resolved in the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation.

Indonesian Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told the Bangkok Post that domestic political problems in Thailand and Cambodia were partly to blame for the slow progress in resolving the conflict.

Gen Prawit said the General Border Committee (GBC) meeting was the best mechanism to resolve the spat.

However, prospects of a GBC meeting, originally scheduled for this month, look rather dim as Thailand and Cambodia failed to agree on the deployment of an Indonesian observation team.

The two sides agreed at the Asean foreign ministers' meeting in Jakarta to accept Indonesian observers to monitor the ceasefire at the border on Feb 22, but the deployment was delayed because Thailand demanded Cambodian soldiers and residents be withdrawn from the disputed area first.

"Preah Vihear Belongs to Khmer!" a Poem in Khmer by Sam Vichea

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 02:37 PM PDT

Who does the Preah Vihear temple belong to?

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 06:56 AM PDT

When the Preah Vihear Temple was granted World Heritage status in 2008, Thailand's citizens were angered by Cambodia's claim to the ancient site [GALLO/GETTY]

Thailand-Cambodia conflict over ancient temple site sparks debate over borders and historic rights.

04 Jun 2011
Tom Fawthrop
Al Jazeera

The magnificent ruins of this ancient Hindu temple, a World Heritage site since 2008, have become a bitter cause of serious border skirmishes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers. The skirmishes come amid conflicting claims over sovereignty and age-old historic rivalry.

This Hindu-inspired 11th century temple, spectacularly perched atop a mountain escarpment, hugs the border between Cambodia and Thailand.

According to Sanskrit inscriptions, the temple was once called Sri Sikharisvara, meaning "Glorious Lord of the Mountain", a dedication to the Hindu god Shiva.

Tanks and artillery have been mobilised only a few kilometres from these archaeological treasures. During an outbreak of hostilities twice this year, heavy shelling resulted in 17 dead and more than 50,000 people forced to flee on both sides of the militarised border.


When Preah Vihear temple was granted World Heritage status in 2008, Cambodia celebrated. People danced with joy in the streets of Phnom Penh. But in neighbouring Thailand, it triggered a series of angry xenophobic protests.

The Thai Patriots Network and the PAD People Alliance for Democracy (the Royalist Movement) have recently cranked up the pressure on Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, pushing him towards a more hard-line stance over this festering border conflict with Cambodia in the months prior to the general election set for July 3.

A complex issue

Deputy leader of the Democrat Party Kraisak Choonhavan is alarmed by the impact of ultra-nationalism on his own government. "The PAD has been critical of the Thai government for the past two years. Now they have become jingoistic, which is very dangerous," he said.

Recent fighting between Thai troops and the Cambodian army in the disputed border area adjoining the temple inflicted minor damage and defaced part of the stone walls in early February 2011. Even the UNESCO flag of protection for ancient monuments suffered bullet holes.

Responding to rolling street protests by his former PAD allies in the capital Bangkok earlier this year, the Thai prime minister assured the public that the border clash "shows that we never fail to protect our sovereignty" and even called upon UNESCO to revoke the World Heritage listing of the Preah Vihear temple.

Dr Paul Chambers, a Thai politics specialist at Payap University in Chiangmai, told Al Jazeera, "the Yellow Shirts and the Thai Patriots' Network have succeeded in building up an ever-growing Thai nationalist frenzy in Bangkok".

With the ruling Democrat Party led by prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva still playing the "Cambodia card", there appears to be zero chance of resolving the border dispute before the election.

Thai academic Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, based at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, told Al Jazeera that "the current conflict is not really about Thai-Cambodian conflict, it is more about Thailand's own conflict".

The background to the conflict dates back to the period of the great Angkorian Empire, when the territory of Cambodia stretched across most of South East Asia, preceding the emergence of Siam as a nation-state now known as Thailand. The 11th century temple of Preah Vihear preceded the completion of legendary Angkor Wat and Bayon temples, also renowned World Heritage sites.

When the Khmer Empire declined, a Siamese army invaded Angkor in 1431. And, in the 16th century, Cambodia again lost further chunks of territory to the invading Siamese army.

The process of losing territory to their more powerful neighbours was only arrested by the arrival of the French army that incorporated Cambodia as part of their Indochinese colonial empire in 1863.

After Cambodia regained its independence from the French in 1953, the Thai military regime occupied the temple, prompting the Cambodian head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, to refer the dispute to the International Court in The Hague.

Does the court decide?

The 1962 International Court of Justice ruling between the two countries declared the temple to be a part of Cambodia. The verdict was grudgingly accepted by the Thai side and their soldiers were ordered to withdraw.

No serious challenge to Cambodian sovereignty over the temple was made for the past 46 years - until the bid by Phnom Penh to secure this temple as a new World Heritage site.

But Thailand has still staked claim to 4.6 sq km of adjoining territory surrounding much of the temple's site, which was not part of the ruling in The Hague Court.

Cambodia has appealed to the UN Security Council and the regional body of South East Asian countries ASEAN for mediation on the issue, but Thailand stubbornly insists on bi-lateral negotiations.

The issue has now been referred back to the World Court at The Hague by the Cambodian side, to rule on the disputed area.

Ultra-nationalists in Thailand hark back to the days of Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat's military dictatorship which had occupied the Khmer temple of Preah Vihear in the late 1950s. Many in right-wing nationalist circles in Thailand never fully accepted either the World Court verdict or Cambodian sovereignty over the temple.

Thongchai Winichakul, Thai Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin in the US, commented that the temple furore demonstrated that "the dark side of nationalism is dangerous as ever". The author of Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo Body of a Nation, he wrote in his book: "The Preah Vihear World Heritage case has gone beyond technicalities. It is abused to arouse the delusion that the temple belongs to Thailand, and a desire to revive the claim".

In December 2010, the Thai Patriots' Network, an extremist faction of the Yellow-Shirt Movement headed by Veera Somkhwamkid, deliberately provoked a border incident by leading a team into Cambodian territory resulting in their arrest.

The Cambodian court convicted five out of the team, and they were detained in Cambodia for immigration violations; they had entered the country illegally. They were promptly set free after the court verdict, however, Mr Veera was charged with espionage and jailed for eight years.

The jailing of Veera triggered angry anti-Cambodian protests in Bangkok. However, most Thai people living in the border areas were far more interested in trade with neighbouring people, and increased efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict.

Dr Charnvit Ketseri, historian and former rector of Thammasat University in Bangkok, told Al Jazeera that Thai extremism and anti-Khmer sentiment was based on ignorance - even among the educated. "Most educated Thai are badly informed by history textbooks of the Ministry of Education, by politicians, and by main-stream mass-media," he said.

The temple - a hostage to Thai domestic politics

Regional bloc ASEAN has noted the growing hostilities between two of its members, and Indonesia, the current chair of the 12-nation group, has made repeated offers to send observers to prevent further clashes.

Thailand had agreed with Cambodia several months ago to accept a limited role for Indonesia observers to monitor the two armies camped near Preach Vihear temple. This accord permitted Indonesian observers to be "embedded" with Thai soldiers and the Cambodian army on either side of the much-coveted temple.

More than three months after the agreement, there are still no observers deployed at the border.

However, the powerful Thai military had other ideas. Thai army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha declared on March 23 that "regardless of where the observers are from, we don't want them [...] in the disputed area because it's dangerous and will complicate the problem".

He reported that the Thai defence ministry, armed forces, and military commanders were opposed to international observers on Thai territory, thus rendering the ASEAN peace plan dead. Futhermore, Abhisit's civilian government was unable to prevent the army from calling the shots over how to handle the Cambodian conflict.

"Fighting has allowed the military to increase its influence in the name of protecting national interests. This is a crucial point at a time when Thai politics is so unstable," asserts Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun.

"I think Thailand's memory of an international organisation giving legal control of Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia in 1962, will make it unwilling to allow any other intervention by outsiders, such as UNESCO or ASEAN," he added.

The Preah Vihear temple is likely to continue to be held hostage to Thailand's polarised politics long beyond Thailand's election.

At the 35th annual conference of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Paris in June, Cambodia's management plan for the temple was supposed to be on the agenda. Thailand had asked for it to be delayed until this year. Now Bangkok again insists on a further delay - until there is a settlement on the issue.

Aggressive nationalism, a politicised Thai army asserting a stronger role in politics, the current election campaign, and the country's chronic instability, have effectively derailed plans by Cambodia and UNESCO to move forward with heritage conservation to restore the temple.

Theary Seng's Response to Khmer Guradian

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 06:43 AM PDT


My brief response to Khmer Guardian's posting of 2 June 2011:

The history of the world is the world's court of justice.

- Friedrich Schiller

I appreciate this quote posted by KI-Media for its summary of what we, the larger public, are trying to do in using the Khmer Rouge Tribunal as a vehicle to produce a fuller and more accurate historical record.  It also serves as a reminder that the legal process is necessary but not sufficient (as Khmer Guardian rightly pointed out) and moreover, it's deficient. 

(As I have stated elsewhere, any legal process is limited, even more so when involving mass crimes.  May I refer Khmer Guardian to my presentations for TEDxPhnomPenh and MLK, Jr. Anniversary celebration earlier this year?)


Related, we need to also keep in mind that there are more than one form of punishment or judgment which is the legal process and prison terms.  Legal justice is very narrow and limiting, especially as it relates to power politics (and all international and internationalized courts are political products).  Unless Cambodia becomes a country of political and economic significance with bargaining power vis-à-vis the United States or any other powerful country soon, then we can only dream in frustration our ability to demand high quality justice; realpolitik will continue to dictate the terms.

Regarding the wealth of the ten individuals in Cases 001, 002, 003 and 004, let me give you an example of DK military commander's Meas Muth's financial health: Meas Muth who is believed to a 2-star general in RCAF and "advisor" to the Ministry of Defense since his defection in 1999 owns a house, at least 6 hectares of farmland, a villa in Tuol Kork, and an SUV.  He contributed most of $100,000 toward the building of Ta Saing Chas pagoda near his house.


Take heart as legal justice is not all there is; other forms of justice take place in the public sphere, less susceptible to realpolitik.  Let me give you a sampling:

Books

1.  Excerpts from The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79 (Ben Kiernan, 1996 Yale University). 

U.S. Intervention

(Introduction, p. 16-24)

Although it was indigenous, Pol Pot's revolution would not have won power without U.S. economic and military destabilization of Cambodia which began in 1966 after the American escalation in next-door Vietnam and peaked in 1969-73 with the carpet bombing of Cambodia's countryside by American B-52s.  The was probably the most important single factor in Pol Pot's rise. […]

Since the early 1960s, U.S. Special Forces teams, too, had been making secret reconnaissance and mine-laying incursions into Cambodia territory.  In 1967 and 1968, in Operation Salem House, about eight hundred such missions were mounted, usually by several American personnel and up to ten local mercenaries, in most cases dressed as Viet Cong.  One Green Beret team "inadvertently blew up a Cambodian civilian bus, causing heavy casualties"…and from early 1969, the number of these secret missions doubled… In a total of 1,835 missions…

Starting exactly a year before the coup (on 18 March 1969), over thirty-six hundred secret B-52 raids were also conducted over Cambodian territory…codenamed Menu…
By 1971, 60 percent of refugees surveyed in Cambodia's towns gave U.S. bombing as the main cause of their displacement.  The U.S. bombardment of the Cambodian countryside continued until 1973, when Congress imposed a halt.  Nearly half of the 540,000 tons of bombs were dropped in the last six months […]

In March 1973, the bombardment spread west to envelop the whole country.  Around Phnom Penh, three thousand civilians were killed in three weeks… Days later, U.S. bombardment intensified reaching a level of thirty-six hundred tons per day.  As William Shawcross reported in Sideshow, the "wholesale carnage" shocked the chief of the political section in the U.S. embassy William Harben.  One night, Harben said, "a mass of peasants" went out on a funeral procession and "walked straight into" a bombing raid.  "Hundreds were slaughtered." […]

… eighty people died when B-52s hit the village and its pagoda.  Nearby Wat Angrun village was annihilated; a single family survived.  Peasants claimed that 120 houses were destroyed in the air raid […]

Chhit Do was a CPK cadre near Angkor Wat in northern Cambodia.  In 1979, he fled the country.  Journalist Bruce Palling asked him if the Khmer Rouge had made use of the bombing for anti-U.S. propaganda:

Chhit Do:  Oh yes, they did.  Every time after there been bombing, they would take the people to see the craters, to see how big and deep the craters were, to see how the earth had been gouged and scorched… The ordinary people…sometimes literally shit in their pants when the big bombs and shells came… Their minds just froze and they would wander around mute for three or four days.  Terrified and half-crazy, the people were ready to believe what they were told… That was what made it so easy for the Khmer Rouge to win the people over… It was because of their dissatisfaction with the bombing that they kept on cooperating with the Khmer Rouge… the bombs fell and hit little children and their fathers would be all for the Khmer Rouge […]

Another report to the U.S. army in July 1973 stated that "the civilian population fears U.S. air attacks far more than they do Communist rocket attacks or scorched-earth tactics." Up to 150,000 civilian deaths resulted from the U.S. bombing campaigns in Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.

The China Connection (p. 125)

Aid from China (p. 128)

[Ieng Sary] also negotiated a Chinese military aid package for Cambodia of 13,300 tons of weapons… China was prepared to extend to Cambodia a total of U.S. $1 billion in interest-free economic and military aid, including an immediate $20 million gift… In all, China's aid to Cambodia during 1975 included 61,000 tons of rice, 30,000 tons of fuel, 3,000 tons of kerosene, 200 tons of machine oil, 250 tons of pesticides, 3,300 tons of cloth, 60 tons of medicines, 1.8 million hoes, 200,000 shovels, 5,000 pesticide sprays, and 20,000 bicycles.

[Note:  Nayan Chanda's book Brother Enemy detailed a very nuanced, more complex and more extensive relationship between China and Democratic Kampuchea.  Below at no. 3 is an excerpt.]

2.  The seminal book on the U.S. bombings of Cambodia is Sideshow:  Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (William Shawcross, 1979)  this webpage has excerpts:  http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/Sideshow.html

3. Brother Enemy: The War After the War – A History of Indochina Since the Fall of Saigon by Nayan Chanda, 1986. 

Excerpt from the chapter The Peking Debut: Mystery Man in Peking
(p. 98-102)

On September 28, 1977, there was an air of expectancy in Peking.  It had been a long time since the city had seen such festivities… But few had guessed that it would be the world premiere for a faceless Cambodian leader and a ceremony for anointing the Sino-Khmer alliance.  The Gate of Heavenly Peace—an imposing pagodalike building with a wide balcony with carved marble railings that commands the entrance to the imperial palace and the vast square in front was decked with flags.  That the decorations were not only for China's national day was obvious from the yellow-and-red flags of Democratic Kampuchea that fluttered on the balcony alongside Chinese standards… Hundreds of schoolchildren, holding colored cards, packed the viewing gallery on both sides of the gate.  On cue they would hold up the cards over their heads to produce a jigsaw pattern that said welcome in Chinese and Khmer. A hundred thousand Peking residents were brought to line the area outside the airport and Changan Avenue to greet the exceptional Cambodian guests… Pol Pot… The mystery man had finally appeared in flesh and blood under the glare of worldwide publicity… Eight top leaders, nearly a third of the Chinese party's powerful Politburo, including freshly rehabilitated Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping, gathered at the airport to underline the closeness of China's friendship with Democratic Kampuchea […]

With the exception of his Chinese and North Korean friends and a handful of foreign specialists, few realized that Pol Pot had emerged from the shadows only after conducting a year of bloody purges against his real and suspected opponents in the party.

4.  When the War is Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (Elizabeth Becker, 1986.

5.  Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare by Philip Short.

6.  Brother Number One: A Political Biographer of Pol Pot and other books by David Chandler

7. Etc.

Films

1.  Facing Genocide (Story Production, Sweden)

2.  3 Years, 8 Months and 20 Days (Irish production)

3. etc.

News Articles and Film Clips, etc.

 

Peace from Phnom Penh,

Theary C. Seng

Methods we learn WISDOM

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 04:37 AM PDT

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.


- Confucius

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - in celebration of International Children's Day

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 04:35 AM PDT

Convention on the Rights of the Child
Ratified by UNGA in Nov. 1989, entered into force 1990

Cambodia ratified this Convention on October 15, 1992
PART I
Article 1
For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.


Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers - AWESOME!

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 04:29 AM PDT

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Power to Imagination Series

Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It's not a "self-driving" car, he's careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route -- and drive independently.




As director of a groundbreaking robotics lab, Dennis Hong guides his team of students through projects on robot locomotion and mechanism design, creating award-winning humanoid robots like DARwIn (Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence). His team is known as RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) and operates at Virginia Tech.

Hong has also pioneered various innovations in soft-body robots, using a "whole-skin locomotion" as inspired by amoebae. Marrying robotics with biochemistry, he has been able to generate new types of motion with these ingenious forms. For his contributions to the field, Hong was selected as a NASA Summer Faculty Fellow in 2005, given the CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 2007 and in 2009, named as one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10. He is also a gourmet chef and a magician, performing shows for charity and lecturing on the science of magic.



My Rights, My Responsibility (Constitution) Series

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 04:21 AM PDT

Cambodian Constitution (Sept. 1993)

CHAPTER XV: EFFECTS, REVISIONS AND AMENDMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION

Article 152- New (Previously Article 133):

Revisions or amendments shall be prohibited when the country is in a state of emergency, as outlined in Article 86.



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

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 02:47 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
VI. ARMED CONFLICT
            Almost immediately following the entry into Phnom Penh of the Cambodian People's National Liberation Armed Forces (CPNLAF) on 17 April 1975, a state of international armed conflict came into existence between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea. Protracted armed hostilities continued until the capture of Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979 by Vietnamese forces and beyond.
            Although the existence of the international armed conflict between Democratic Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was not officially recognised until 31 December 1977 with a statement by the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs severing diplomatic ties between the two States,457 it may be concluded that from mid-April 1975 there were ongoing, frequent and escalating armed hostilities between the two States at all times leading up to the fall of the CPK.
            In fact, there is clear evidence demonstrating that Democratic Kampuchea and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam were engaging in armed hostilities in 1975,458 1976,459 1977460 and 1978-January 1979.461 Despite there being a number of lulls in the fighting (particularly prior to 1977) at no point had a general conclusion of peace been reached between the two States, such that the international armed conflict would cease to exist.
            The CPNLAF, later renamed the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea (RAK), engaged in armed hostilities with the Vietnam People's Army during various Vietnamese attacks and incursions into Democratic Kampuchea territory462 as well by the RAK into the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.463 Furthermore, invasions and fighting took place on various islands in the Gulf of Thailand disputed by the two States.464
            The scope and intensity of the international armed conflict increased steadily and eventually resulted in two large-scale incursions of Democratic Kampuchea by Vietnamese forces in December 1977 and December 1978. The later invasion lead Democratic Kampuchea to seize the United Nations Security Council of the matter on 31 December 1978.465 By 7 January 1979, the RAK had been forced to flee Phnom Penh and, from that point forward, the CPK regime rapidly lost effective control of the greater part of Cambodian territory.
            In its 26 July 2010 Judgement in the Duch case, the Trial Chamber confirmed that at all times from April 1975 to 7 January 1979, there existed an international armed conflict between the two States that was subject to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions 1949.466


COMFREL Release the Result of Workshop on Voter's Voice in Doung, Prasat Palang, Kampong Thom

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:42 PM PDT

ICJ Cambodia's Legal Team 2011

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:39 PM PDT

Angkor and Its Global Connection​s: An Internatio​nal Conference of 10-11 June 2011

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:34 PM PDT


For more details, please visit http://nsc.iseas.edu.sg/upcoming_events.htm#conferences.
_________________________________
The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Pasir Panjang, Singapore 119614

Telephone: 6870 4549
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"Koh Tral" a Poem in Khmer and English by Kho Tararith

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:30 PM PDT

04 June 1949 - 04 June 2011: 62 years of Vietnamese colonization of Kampuchea Krom

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:24 PM PDT

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Kampuchea Krom

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:21 PM PDT

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

Khmer Krom at UNPFII 2011

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:15 PM PDT

Dear all,

I would like to share the activities at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2011. The link below is a broadcast of World Khmer Radio regarding our KKF and KKFYC at the UN in New York City, New York. I know some of you who listen to WRK daily already listen to the broadcast on 5/27/2011 but the youtube link shows interesting pictures before, during and after the UNPFII.


Cheers,

Samon

"Kroy Pleang Mek Sralas" a Poem in Khmer by Son Samrach

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 10:10 PM PDT

"Dei Khmer Krom, 4 Mithona Chenda Chorng Cham" a Poem in Khmer by Ung Thavary

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:54 PM PDT

Soy Sopheap detailing the Kem Sokha affair

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:49 PM PDT



Dear Readers,

To watch Soy Sopheap detailing the Kem Sokha affair, click on the link below:

http://www.khmerlive.tv/archive/20110530_Mr_Soy_Sopheap_and_Mr_Chum_Kosal_Analysis_on_BayonTV.php

Vietnamese group plants 100,000ha of rubber [... this is in contradiction to Cambodia's Constitution]

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 09:15 PM PDT

June, 04 2011
Viet Nam News (Hanoi)

PHNOM PENH — The Viet Nam Rubber Group (VRG) 's four subsidiaries yesterday kicked off a project to plant 100,000ha of rubber trees in Cambodia's Kratie Province under an agreement between the two countries.

The subsidiaries are the Dong Nai Kratie, Dong Phu Kratie, Phu Rieng Kratie and Loc Ninh Kratie companies.

Addressing the ceremony, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly said foreign investors, including the VRG, had played a major role in Cambodia's socio-economic achievements in recent years.


The VRG has planted rubber trees in Cambodia since 2007. Its 11 subsidiary companies were allocated more than 95,000ha of land of which 26,000ha were already planted, according to Tran Ngoc Thuan, its general director.

It plans to plant 50,000ha of rubber trees in Cambodia this year. The entire project is set for completion by the end of next year, with a total investment of US$200 million.