The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Long Kimheang on Yorm Bopha” plus 9 more

In the fifth episode of this ongoing series Housing Rights Task Force senior communications officer Long Kimheang looks at why Borei Keila and Boeung Kak have gotten so out of hand

We had to detain him. But because he has [mental health issues], he won't have a problem. If he didn't, he'd have a problem.

For the first time in the history of Cambodian rugby, the Koupreys will storm the international sevens scene when the national team makes it to the 2013 HSBC Asian Rugby Sevens Series in Bangkok on September 21 and 22.

Entertainment and gaming sector giant NagaWorld will sponsor the team in an event involving 16 sides crammed with some of the region's best in this truncated form of rugby.

"We are proud to support the national team in its epoch-making foray into sevens competition. It strengthens our firm belief that sports is among the most influential mediums in nation building," NagaWorld marketing manager Yeo Wee Han told a media conference at the 3G Sports Centre yesterday.

"To the Koupreys and the Cambodian Federation of Rugby, I have this to say: We are with you and let us turn this opportunity into a lasting achievement."

The 12-member Cambodian squad led by Vannak Vireak later received their official playing jerseys, which was unveiled by National Olympic Committee of Cambodia Secretary General Vath Chamroeun.

Addressing the media, Vath Chamroeun characterised the national team's trip to Thailand as a "huge step forward for Cambodian rugby".

Welcoming NagaWorld's staunch support for the federation since 2010, CFR secretary James Sterling, who will accompany the team as manager, said the Thailand Sevens experience will give the team a fantastic insight into the international scene.

Dan Wetherall has been named as the head coach with Jerome Alfonsi travelling with the team as a medic.

"Sevens is totally different from the regular 15s. Agility and pace are the most crucial elements. We have been training hard and I am confident the team will put up a good show," Wetherall told the Post.

"We will play five matches in all over two days and that's really tough, but we have pushed ourselves through pain barriers to be absolutely fit and eager to go."

The squad composition is predominantly Cambodian with Ritchie Munro of Scotland being the only ex-pat in the line-up.

"Our key players are Vannak Vireak, Vannak Vong and Nheb Rotha," added Wetherall.

The Koupreys will start the tournament in Division 2, playing against Uzbekistan, Laos and India. On the second day, they play off for final placings against two from the Elite group made up of Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, China, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore.

New junior rugby team launched
With the rapid growth of rugby in the Kingdom, a new club has emerged in Phnom Penh – the qb Leopards.

Comprising members of the CFR's highly successful grassroots training program, which coaches kids from local NGO The Cambodian Children's Fund, the Leopards will join the National Junior Rugby Championship later this year.

Jarai ethnic minority villagers in Ratanakkiri's O'Yadav district are demanding compensation from a villager they claim illegally cleared a sizeable portion of their community forest this year.

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The villagers seized two carts transporting rosewood – and the four buffaloes pulling them – out of the forest on Monday and are holding the load hostage until the logger agrees to pay a $1,300 fine.

The owner of the carts, Uk Kheng, 48, fled the village, according to the commune police chief. "[Uk Kheng] logged the forest four times already without any permission," commune police chief Pouy Chroch said.

Provincial authorities have recognised the 481-hectare Jarai forest as belonging to the community since 2010, though villagers since then have been engaged in numerous land disputes.

"Up to four hectares of forest has been cut down by Kheng this year," village chief Klan Chib said.

Kheng claims, however, that the logs, which he makes a business of selling, came from land near his plantation and not from the community forest.

"I run this business just to support my family's basic needs. I get the timber only when the people order it to build small houses," Kheng said.

He added that he cannot afford to pay the villagers' $1,300 fee, which he sees as extortion.

"Police and the community took my logs because I never paid them any money," Kheng said.

Villagers are threatening to eat Kheng's buffaloes if he does not pay their fine.

Chhay Thy, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said loggers caught cutting the forest could face between five and 10 years' jail time.

"Usually, those responsible for crime are never captured," he said.

A tycoon charged with firing his gun in the air during an altercation between opposition supporters and party guests during the lead-up to July's national election was released on bail last week by the Appeal Court, a court official said.

According to Hean Rith, vice prosecutor of the Appeal Court, Khy Kimlon – who is also a colonel with the National Military Police – was released on September 6 after a closed-door hearing at the court on August 22 presided over by the court's vice president, Seng Sivutha.

"He was allowed by the council of judges of the Appeal Court to stay outside of detention because his case is a misdemeanour," Rith said, noting that Kimlon was now staying with family in Phnom Penh.

During the hearing, he added, Kimlon agreed to certain conditions, such as promising to appear when summonsed, and to notify the court of any change in address.

"Anyway, he has already served over a month's detention in prison," Rith said, before declining to comment further.

Colonel Pou Davy, the deputy commander of the municipal military police who arrested the tycoon, said Kimlon was arrested with three others – among them his nephew and fellow military police officer Ung Chanthan – on the night of July 5 at Kimlon's residence in Phnom Penh's Chamkarmon district.

The arrest took place after an altercation between a passing group of Cambodia National Rescue Party campaigners and a group of pro-Cambodian People's Party guests attending a gathering at Kimlon's villa.

A shouting match between the two sides escalated until a fight broke out, and each side began lobbing rocks and household objects at each other over Kimlon's wall.

It was then that Kimlon allegedly fired his gun in the air several times in an attempt, he said, to quell the uproar. His nephew Chanthan had initially claimed that it was he who had fired the gun, but was later released.

Neither Sivutha nor Kimlon, nor his attorney, could be reached for comment.

India-based Tata International Ltd announced yesterday that it would import and distribute its Farmtrac Tractors in Cambodia to profit from the country's growing agricultural sector.

Speaking at the launching ceremony at the Koh Pich exhibition centre, Jitendra Manghinani, country manager of Tata South East Asia (Cambodia), said Cambodia is looking at a large agricultural machinery market in the next four or five years, which shaped his decision to set up operations in the sector.

"It is the best opportunity to bring [tractors] to Cambodia," Manghinani said. "What we are trying to do is to become the most considered brand in Cambodia in the next three or four years."

Tata International is the global trading and distribution company of Tata Group, a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai.

Local arm Tata South East Asia (Cambodia) will have a showroom to display and distribute Farmtrac tractors on National Road 6A, about three kilometres from the Cambodia-Japanese Friendship Bridge.

Four kinds of tractors will go on the market, ranging from 50 to 80 horsepower. Prices start at $22,300 and go as high as $32,600.

The need for agricultural machinery largely coincides with the amount of land for cassava, paddy and corn cultivation because the crops are often grown on large fields where tractors are widely used.

According to the statistics department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the total cultivated area of paddy fields was 2.9 million hectares last year, a slight increase from 2.8 million hectares in 2011. In 2012, the total land for corn cultivation reached 215,000 hectares, while cassava was planted on 337,000 hectares.

Cambodia imported some 40,000 units of tractors in 2010, according to the most recent government data. A year later, 44,000 units arrived, while the number decreased slightly to around 36,300 in 2012.

Teng Lao, secretary of state of the Ministry of Agriculture, welcomed the new importer, saying that he hopes it will contribute to increased agricultural production in Cambodia, especially at a time of rising migration to cities.

"Modernisation in the agricultural sector is playing a very important role these days as it helps to substitute the shortage of labour in the agricultural sector in rural areas," Lao said.

Agricultural machinery brands from the US, Japan and Belarus operate in Cambodia.

Heng Than, sales manager for American brand John Deere, said he wasn't threatened by the arrival of a new player.

"We don't think it will seriously impact our business," he said.

Renaissance Minerals has negotiated a deferment of a A$10 million (US$9.29 million) payment to OZ Minerals that was part of a deal for OZ's gold deposit exploratory rights in Mondulkiri province.

Renaissance took ownership of OZ's exploration licences in May 2012 in a deal that included a payment of $10 million if the reserve at the Okvau gold deposit grew to 1.25 million ounces of gold. In March, Renaissance announced the reserve was near the threshold.

Although Renaissance claims to be "well funded with cash of approximately $5 million", the deferment would in theory allow it to put the money in the project.

"The gold price has had a bit of a downturn over that period of time [since the project began in May 2012] and also investors' confidence in gold companies has seen a fairly significant deterioration over that 12 months," Justin Tremain, Renaissance managing director, said, referring to project challenges.

In exchange for the deferment, OZ, the largest shareholder in Renaissance, will get 15.3 million extra shares. At close yesterday, Renaissance shares fell slightly to A$0.68.

OZ sold rights after years of exploration failed to yield strong results and saw allegations of corruption. In May 2011, OZ was accused of paying $1.1 million to family members of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy.

OZ and local authorities have denied the allegations, but Australian police reportedly re-opened investigations in January.

The World Martial Arts Union (WoMAU) held its third General Assembly at its headquarters in Seoul last week with the ancient Cambodian discipline of bokator proposed as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage status by WoMAU President Soh Byung-yong.

"Soh gave a good presentation on bokator, stating its exact origin and giving enough evidence that it belongs to Cambodia," National Olympic Committee of Cambodia general secretary Vath Chamroeun told the Post after returning from the meet in South Korea.

"Now UNESCO is thinking about our case. [We believe] bokator will be listed as World Heritage soon."

One FC announced yesterday that Andrew Leone of the US had been forced to pull out of his scheduled headlining bout against Japanese bantamweight Shinichi Kojima on the Champions & Warriors fight card in Jakarta on Friday due to injury.

The co-main event between lightweights Kotetsu Boku of Japan and South Africa's Vuyisile Colossa will now close the night's action.

Comment
There was the Thrilla in Manila, the Rumble in the Jungle and, on Tuesday night in the Ukraine, England have given us the Chicken in Kiev. I have seen more footballing shape in a dancing dodecahedron at a disco.

A dodecahedron is of course any polyhedron with twelve flat faces, so assuming Roy Hodgson is the polyhedron, then … well you get the point.

The England boss at least got the point he needed with the goalless draw in the Ukrainian capital, which places them in control of their World Cup qualification group with two home games to go.

However, to put this into perspective with regard to the World Cup proper in Brazil next summer, let us assume that the top footballing nations in the world were all an item of fruit in a bowl.

Brazil would be the mango, delighting us with their juicy and bright football. Germany would be the apple, nothing fancy but always reliable. Current world champions Spain would be the cherry on top of all the fruits – and England would be the lemon.

As a die-hard England fan that was in the stands of Japan in 2002 and France in 1998, I personally find this distressing as England do have enough players of quality.

However, as Eric Morecambe put it after being told by Andre Previn that he was playing "all the wrong notes", he quipped: "I'm playing all the right notes – but not necessarily in the right order."

England have all the right notes with Jack Wilshere's vision and touch, Theo Walcott's devastating pace, Steven Gerrard's brilliant range of passing, Daniel Sturridge's skill and deadly finishing, and Wayne Rooney's footballing brain and exquisite technique, and it is fair to say that those last two aforementioned were missing through injury on Tuesday night.

However, if Wilshere is to work with Gerrard in the heart of a creative midfield (which is the right choice), then they should have the right cover in behind.

Frank Lampard is one player that I have a tremendous admiration for. He is an outstanding professional, but he is not and never has been the natural holding midfielder that England need at the highest level.

To play as a protector of a back four, the holding midfielder must have a high percentage rate of successful tackles and read any potential piercing pass delivered by the opposition a split second before it is made and then make a timely interception.

There is no better at this in the English game than Scott Parker. Parker is now at Fulham, but there is no one English that plays in his role at any of the bigger clubs.

A holding midfielder is essential. When Chelsea won the Champions League final in 2012 they had John Obi Mikel protecting the back line. Barcelona and Spain have Sergio Busquets, and that should be reason enough to appreciate the value of such a role.

Hodgson insists on a variant of a 4-4-2. Gary Lineker described this "as a step back to the dark ages of two lines of four".

The other problem is James Milner. A sound enough player in his own right, and reliable as a work-horse. However, that is not what you want from a wide man.

Furthermore, the opposition know Milner's weakness: he cannot run fast. Any opposition also know that, on an attempted attack from a break away, any ball over the top or diagonally passed behind the defence is going to be aimed solely at Walcott, so Theo is thus doubled up on by defenders as there is no left-sided threat of velocity.

The requirement is simple. To complement Walcott's pace on the right, there has to be someone of pace on the left, and for that England must use Daniel Sturridge, who is additionally blessed with a natural left foot, something that England have always lacked in this department.

Sturridge just happens to be pretty good with the right leg too. He can play as a left-sided winger that comes inside, or as an out-and-out striker, and can alternate in this role or even play alongside Wayne Rooney depending on the nature of the opposition.

My England team for the World Cup would be as follows: Hart, Walker, Jagielka, Cahill, Cole, Parker, Wilshere, Gerrard, Walcott, Sturridge, Rooney. That is 4-1-4-1, which can even operate as a 4-1-3-2.

The problem is in the mind of the Hodgson-hedron – there will be no specialist back four protector and only one-and-a-half wingers with pace.

There is, of course, another option: Hodgson can play 4-4-4-4 and hope that the other team doesn't notice. If England play with the same faceless shape that they did against Ukraine, no one would care how many players they have on the pitch.

Bob Morton has a first-class degree in Media and is the only person in history to win the Daily Mirror's 'You The Manager' World Cup and Premier League Manager of the Month prizes back to back in July and August of 2010.