The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Khieu Samphan defence makes its case” plus 9 more

The Khieu Samphan defence team let loose with both barrels as it began its closing statements today at the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

International co-lawyer Arthur Vercken blasted what he characterized as the prosecution's shoddily made case, as fellow international co-defender Anta Guisse took the prosecution to task on the issue of criminal intent – an element she asserted their allegations sorely lacked.

National defence attorney Kong Sam Onn closed the day defending the character of his client, a man he said "has been painted as a devil".

Vercken's fiery opening, which earned him warnings from the bench for condemning other parties, accused the prosecution of "changing their case" with their evolving description of the defendants' alleged joint criminal enterprise, and slammed them for resorting to events that lay outside of the scope of the trial to make their case.

At one point, while questioning the quality of the prosecution's arguments, Vercken even wondered aloud whether the Office of the Co-Prosecutor was staffed by "backpackers from riverside who donned purple robes".

Guisse took a cooler-headed, though at times incredulous, approach to her dissection of Khieu Samphan's criminal intent – or, in her estimation, the lack thereof.

The picture she painted of Cambodia just before the Khmer Rouge took power was one of starvation, economic depression and rampant destruction caused by widespread American bombing campaigns in the country's east. It was a country in need of drastic measures to ensure its own survival, she argued.

"Seventy-five per cent of the livestock had been destroyed by the war. People had to plough the fields on their own, people who were undernourished," she said, alluding to massive swaths of rice fields that were no long producing after the intense bombing. "That is the reality in Cambodia in 1975. Not the reality created by the Khmer Rouge, but the reality that existed when they took power."

"In the closing order, the investigators are not afraid to say that the food penury was caused by self-imposed conditions. Seriously? In these conditions, of course, the Khmer Rouge took the methods that seemed to them the most obvious, given the situation, in order to feed the population," Guisse continued. "And yes, indeed, emphasis had to be put on agriculture on the 80 per cent of land that was no longer harvested."

Even if the methods proved to be unsuccessful, she argued, the intent was never to punish urbanites and elites, as the prosecution has long maintained.

"When we focus on the intent, whether they were successful or not, the aim was not to punish the new people. The aim was not to punish the city dwellers," she said. "The aim at that time was to try to find a solution to the disastrous situation, the poisonous situation that they had inherited."

Guisse also took aim at what she characterized as the myth of the Communist Party of Kampuchea's monolithic leadership, saying that zone commanders enjoyed a huge amount of autonomy, and were not firmly under the control of the party's central leaders.

Sam Onn, for his part, closed the day with an examination of Samphan's character and personal background, noting that in the 1960s, the former National Assemblyman enjoyed a sterling personal reputation among the public, as evidenced by his nickname, "Mr Clean".

According to Sam Onn, Samphan had never hidden his communist leanings – beliefs he held in hopes of "find[ing] development and improvement for the livelihood of the people, and economic and social equality" – and even referenced a quote by Samphan himself defending his involvement in leftist politics.

"'It's true I was interested in communist doctrine. I studied communist doctrine,'" Sam Onn read. "'Today you make a joke of it, but at that time, communism was a doctrine that gave hope to millions of youths across the world.'"

TENS of thousands of cheering opposition demonstrators marched through Phnom Penh today in the biggest outpouring yet of popular support for the opposition since the start of the three-day mass rally on Wednesday.

An estimated 20,000 people led by Cambodia National Rescue Party leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha flouted City Hall's limit of 1,000 marchers, delivering boxes loaded with petitions to the embassies of Australia, Japan, Russia, Indonesia and China.

The petitions were signed by more than 2 million Cambodians who are calling for electoral reform and an investigation into July's disputed poll. Protesters delivered petitions to the embassies of France, the United Kingdom and the United States yesterday and to the local UN rights office on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Rainsy told the throngs at Freedom Park he felt the three-day rally had been a success - a feeling echoed by protesters speaking to the Post - adding that the CNRP would continue to push for reforms.

"I want to praise all of the demonstrators who have struggled to come to Phnom Penh for three days, especially the residents who came from far away provinces," he said before the march began.

"They have proven they are willing to save our country. So I, Sam Rainsy, and Kem Sokha will continue to save our country, defend our territory and try to raise our residents' living standards," he added.

Official election results gave Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party 68 seats in the National Assembly and 55 to the CNRP. The opposition says widespread irregularities and a failure to implement the recommendations of UN human rights rapporteur Surya Subedi before the election made the vote unfair.

The subsequent formation of the National Assembly despite the absence of boycotting CNRP lawmakers, they add, is in violation of the constitution.

But foreign powers have begun to recognize the official results, with the governments of France, Australia and Japan, amongst others, offering their congratulations to Hun Sen last week.

After delivering the petition to the Australian Embassy at 9:45am, however, Rainsy told reporters that despite those congratulations, Australia had not recognised the election results.

"The Australian Embassy received our petition and they did not recognise the election in Cambodia," he said.

"Australia was in the Paris [Peace] Agreement; they have principles to obey human rights. They did not abandon those principles," Kem Sokha added.

Australian Ambassador Alison Burrows urged both sides to continue their dialogue when she met with the delegation yesterday morning, according to a statement released by the Australian Embassy.

"We continue to promote and encourage respect for & observance of human rights & fundamental freedoms in Cambodia and will continue to work in partnership with our Cambodian friends to further Cambodia's rehabilitation & development," the statement reads.

Outside the Chinese Embassy shortly after 11am, demonstrators' chants for a change of government could be heard whilst opposition leaders went inside to deliver the petition.

The protesters then made their way back towards Freedom Park, where about 5,000 people remained, finding whatever shade was available to shelter from the sweltering heat.

As the rally wound down, Ros Satha, 45, from Kampong Cham province, said that as this demonstration had concluded with no serious violence and achieved its aims, he would attend future protests if they are called by the CNRP.

"The demonstrators hope that our rally with such a big crowd will get results, because all embassies received our petitions. If the CNRP calls us to rally again, we still come."

When the extent of flood damage becomes clear, the Asian Development Bank may lower its economic growth forecast for Cambodia to reflect the severity of the aftermath, a senior official with the agency's local office said yesterday.

"It is possible that we will have to revise downward once we get more information," ADB country director for Cambodia Eric Sidgwick said, cautioning that though it was still too early to understand the scope of the problem, "we are closely monitoring this".

On October 2, the ADB kept the rate steady at 7.2 per cent. It also said that in 2014, growth is expected to pick up to 7.5 per cent as recovery catches on in European and US markets.

Speaking at the Dara Airport Hotel for the launch of a semi-annual report on Asian economic integration, Sidgwick said that new figures would depend on the degree to which rising waters affect infrastructure.

"We will have to see which roads have been damaged and where, what is their impact on trade and what is that impact on growth," he said.

The ADB estimated that the cost of damage caused by mass floods in 2011 was $624 million. More than half of that was to roads and bridges.

Sidgwick allayed concerns over long-lasting damage to the economy this year by comparing the situation to 2011, when flooding and resulting financial costs did not ultimately make a huge dent in growth. He pointed out that the rebuilding process may have actually triggered a boost in infrastructure.

"So even though there may be a dip, any dip would probably be temporary and the spill-over effects might actually be positive," he said.

But initial estimates aren't. The National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) on Wednesday put the total cost of property damage from this year's floods at $1 billion.

The figure takes into account destruction inflicted on dams, water reservoirs, irrigation systems, national roads and other infrastructure.

Nhim Vanda, first vice president of the NCDM, said that the financial harm was "serious" and, that the costs and the geographical breadth of the problem far exceeded 2011.

"After the flood recedes, our job is restoration," he said.

The NCDM's latest report shows that 168 people have died and hundreds of thousands of rice fields have been affected.

Some 241,900 kilometres of national road were damaged in addition to about 142,900 kilometres of streets and pathways.

With the eight play-off teams already known, the penultimate gameweek in the Cambodian Basketball League, sponsored by Western Union and Coca Cola, will be about jostling for better positions for advantageous quarter-final match-ups.

Of the three contests fixed for tomorrow at Beeline Arena, the one involving the unbeaten Alaxan FR Patriots is garnering the most attention, with fans eager to see if the CCPL Heat can topple the leaders' applecart, something other teams have tried mighty hard but failed to do.

The Heat will take the court without their centre and tallest player Salva Butsaman, who has returned home to Spain, thus shifting the scoring burden on the consistent Panha Sovann. The well-organised Patriots have no shortage of tall players who can dominate the rebounds.

After a somewhat sloppy start to the season, Pate 310 have grown in confidence following a string of victories, including one against second ranked IRB The Lord.

Pate will clash with the all-Cambodian Sela Meas, who got closer to the mighty Patriots than any other side with a 66-63 defeat, only their third this season.

The Cellcard Eagles are breathing a lot easier after clinching the final play-off spot last week.

They take on the Phnom Penh Dragons, whose five-match winning streak was smashed by the Patriots. The Eagles will make size count again, just as they did last week against NSK Dream.

Dragons coach Michael Dibbern says his players will be wary of their opposition's offence. "In defence, it will be key for us to box them out and guard them tight when they overload," he told the Post.

Saturday's Fixtures
Pate 310 v Sela Meas – 2pm
PP Dragons v Cellcard Eagles – 4pm
Alaxan FR Patriots v CCPL Heat – 6pm

Sushi chef Shinichi Maeda, 35, loves surfing on Queensland's Sunshine Coast when he isn't cutting fish. A native of Hokkaido, he is now head chef of Sake Restaurant in Brisbane. While spending a week as a special guest chef at Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra, he discussed sushi, knives and punk music with Bennett Murray.

How did you get your start in sushi?
My grandmother had been a sushi chef for a long time, and she taught me the basics. I really enjoyed it. But I also wanted to be a musician. I started with punk, but then changed to more hard rock.

I thought when I moved to Tokyo when I was 20 I could do both. But immediately I found that a musician will never make money. There's only a very small chance. To be a great chef is also a small chance, but it doesn't matter if you're famous or not, you can still make money if you work.

[img]

How did you go about becoming a chef?
I went to Ginza, the super expensive, high-end area of Tokyo. If I was going to spend years apprenticing, I wanted to have real high-end skills. I didn't want to waste time. So I chose one of the hardest areas in Japan. I knocked on the door on a few restaurants and said: "This is my resume, this is my knife and I want to work here. I don't need any time off, just give me the job, but I want to work on hand, not just watch." A few restaurants said: "Who do you think you are? Get out." But one thought: "Oh, not many young people want to do this anymore. So if you want to work hard, come here tomorrow and start with us."

What were your duties?
When I started, I'd pick up fish and vegetables from the market every morning. I'd come back, clean, set up, wash all the vegetables and rice, and normally I'd help with the garnishes. I always got up much earlier than I would have to. By the time I was supposed to start, I had already done my job, so then I could help the chefs. Then they'd be happy for me to do their job, so they could go out and have a coffee or cigarette or go to a horserace. I did it in a little tricky way, but that was my plan.

When did your apprenticeship end?
When I turned 24, I finished my apprenticeship and started working as a chef. I was lucky; it only took me three and a half years. People may take five or six years, even 10 years, and if you're not good enough you will still be washing the vegetables and rice.

Could you tell us about your knives?
I have had my fish knife for 15 years, since I started with my grandmother. This is to chop the head off and for filleting. It is pure carbon, it gets rust straight away. It doesn't like salt, it doesn't like vinegar. It's still fine – if you look after it, it can last for 30 years. But it is shorter now. The other main knives are for sashimi and vegetables.

Have your knives ever caused problems at borders?
The first time I came to Australia in 2003, I had a whole set of knives, and customs asked me: "What are you doing?" Because I didn't have any English, I just said "I cook" five times while they explained to me that I only had a working holiday visa.

They finally said it was fine.

How did you end up in Australia?
When I was a child, six or seven years old, I wanted to go overseas and I wanted to be able to speak English. I realised without English, you can't have really have communication.

I finally moved to Australia in 2003 and lived on the Sunshine Coast in a very small town. I'd wake up, pick up fish from the market, and jump up in the water and surf, go to lunch, then after lunch I'd jump into the water again. On holidays it was packed, but if it wasn't a holiday it'd be quiet. That was for about seven years. Then I got an offer to open a restaurant in Brisbane. I thought it was a good chance to do something bigger with more challenge.

Maeda will provide a five course dinner at 6pm Friday and Saturday night at Sofitel. He will also provide a Japanese cooking class Saturday morning at 10:30am, and a brunch on Sunday at 11:30am.

Chath Pier Sath's elongated figures cling together, spanning the height of the frame, as if they'd just walked out of a Gustav Klimt painting. But rather than being surrounded by lavish gold, jewels and colours, they are grey or brown, with smudged features and haunted expressions.

These are the characters that dominate Distant Geography, Pier Sath's latest exhibition at Java Gallery. The collection uses the collaboration of written word and visual art in collages that examine political and personal stories.

[img]

Pier Sath, a community social psychologist by training, realised when listening to stories of people's suffering during the Khmer Rouge how art can be a powerful medium for healing. He said: "I started to create art myself. I was working full time, so I'd just paint for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening before I went to bed. I had a lot of paintings by the end of 2000. I'd paint on scrap woods, fabric, papers – anything I could find. I found that painting gave me peace and I was able to sleep better. Since then, I became an artist, and art has taken me to a lot of places: Thailand, China, France and always back to Cambodia. The median I used when I started to paint was oil and acrylic mainly. Now, I do more collage, mixing with words and layering over my old journals."

He continued: "Individual narratives and experiences are part of history. Understanding your own history and your role within it gives you control over your own destiny. I explore this aspect of myself because I want to remember certain experiences and certain events in my life or I want to reflect upon them so I can learn from those experiences."

Here, Pier Sath talks about some of his work:

Refugee Camp Transit

After my brother died, I inherited some of his documents in the refugee camp. I spotted a photograph of his family, each identified by a number. They all went to the US as refugees, but my brother couldn't go because he had AIDS. In the photograph, his face was rubbed out.

I decided to draw my own version of this photograph, but I made the numbers bigger. I cut and pasted phrases onto the picture: "Number four the second child", "Number six the last child" and so on. At the top I wrote "US Identity CBO19277" which is a case number they were given as a temporary identity when in the US.

[img]

International Tribunal

There's no justice at the tribunal. Money is wasted, everything is for show. It's all so futile and we become more and more frightened, as the dark thunder of tyranny and oppression continue, like the sounds of familiar hoofs stumping over our miserable lives again and again.

The collage is made from cut-outs from the New Yorker Magazine. The floating swastika signs are not intentional, but through the process, I realised that they look like shattering swastika signs floating, and all their debris remain in the universe, like karma.

Breaking Up

Breaking Up is about how foolish we are when it comes to love, how naive and inconsistent our words and actions, the chase of anger and heartbreaks, the journey of love from dawn to dusk and growing old and foul.

This piece is full of random words from memory, like "we agree", "classical music", "movies", all cut out from the New Yorker Magazine; these words are qualifiers for a past relationship, describing events and places leading to the ending. These words may be random, but when I look at them, the full event come into focus. It's like listening to a song when you're travelling in another country. When you are no longer in that country, and you're listening to that same song, you're able to remember everything you did there.

The life of a pet can be lonely. Your owners leave you at home all day to go to work to play with other, bigger companions. Even when they're around, their behaviour can bewilder and upset, and you pine for a companion your own size. But the grossest sin of all is when they go out to enjoy a big lunch and a latte and never take you with them.

This is what South Korean entrepreneur Yong Seung Lee cottoned onto after moving to Phnom Penh. Back home, Lee's mother owns more than 100 dogs; it seemed unfair that they could play together while other pets had to stay home alone. In early September, along with the help of his girlfriend, store manager Joy Jung, he set up Ebada Pet Cafe, a playground for pets, owners and animal lovers alike.

[img]

The concept isn't new, though Lee and Jung put their own spin on it. The world's first cat cafe opened in Taiwan in 1998, and the phenomenon has spread across East Asia, with Tokyo now home to at least 39 – as well as a "goat cafe". In September, Paris said bonjour to its first cat cafe, and proposals in London for the capital's very own version were given the go ahead in the same month.

Phnom Penh's own "pet cafe", at Number 35 of Boeung Keng Kang's Street 306, is a comforting experience. Walk in the gate and the inhabitants bound up to greet you, with yaps and jumps indicating their glee to see a potential playmate.

On an afternoon earlier this week, Jung outlined the concept. "We thought if we opened a pet cafe, it would be good for pet owners because usually people can't take pets into cafes. We thought we would make it free for dog owners to come and bring pets that can play and chill with the others," she said.

She added: "Usually the pets just stay at home, so they don't know how to get along with others. They need a social life just as much as humans!"

For Jung, this is standard thinking. South Korea responded to the trend with dog cafes, which are now part of the furniture in major cities such as Seoul and Busan. Jung said: "In Korea, kids want to have dogs but their parents say no, so a lot of them come to pet cafes and really like it."

As opposed to the single "dog" or "cat" cafe, Ebada proposes the "pet" cafe. Dogs, all pure breeds imported from South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, dominate the main cafe, but there are also two cats. Originally, the two cats and six dogs lived together. It didn't work out. "The cats get stressed," said Jung.

[img]

For now, a white ball of fluff lies atop a wooden structure in the centre of the cafe's garden. It's a tiny, two-month-old kitten and it lies motionless. Two miniature pinschers – brother and sister, but also, Jung said, "husband and wife" – bound up and down the steps of the structure, seemingly trying to assess whether the kitten is dead or alive. It's an awkward situation. Thankfully, plans are under way to create a separate cat cafe upstairs, according to Jung.

The food and drink is pricey, to make up for the lack of cover charge usually in place at such establishments: coffees are around the $4 mark. The food is mostly Korean sandwiches and snacks. But watch your plate – the dogs' energy knows no bounds.

They come in various shades of green, blue, grey, khaki, black and white. Sometimes with gold trimming and white gloves, or accompanied by body armour. On a typical daily commute a Phnom Penh resident can expect to spot half a dozen or more different uniforms. Even the private security companies and parking attendants all have their own military-style uniforms. And with a three-day CNRP protest under way this week, the troops on the street have been even more numerous than usual.

Don't worry if you're confused about who they all are. Cambodia's security apparatus is just as Byzantine as it seems.

[img]

On the one hand you have the civilian police, who fall under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry and have separate public order, judicial, immigration, transport, trafficking and administrative divisions. These are further divided into national, provincial, municipal and commune jurisdictions.

It's from the police ranks that the government draws its specially trained and heavily armoured "riot squad".

Then you have the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces which falls under the Ministry of Defence and includes the army, navy, air force and special forces divisions such as the elite Bodyguard Unit and Royal Gendarmerie.

Most commonly seen around Phnom Penh are members of the Royal Gendarmerie – more commonly known as the Military Police – whose powers and responsibilities mirror those of the civilian police and who are sometimes equipped with heavy body armour and used to suppress protests, along with the riot police.

[img]

Cambodia's gendarmerie dates back to 1954 when it was created in the image of the French military police, according to political commentator Lao Mong Hay. It was abolished when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 and not reinstated until 1993.

These days the Royal Gendarmerie, better known as the Military Police, is deployed nationally, reports directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen and is reputed to be more loyal than general police and army units.

"It is known that the commander of the military police is our Prime Minister Hun Sen's man, General Sao Sokha," Mong Hay said. General Sokha is a former bodyguard and advisor to Hun Sen.

[img]

The Royal Gendarmerie's areas of responsibility are the same as those of the civilian police and include dealing with serious cases of theft, robbery, drug trafficking and terrorism. However, it also has the authority to arrest members of the military and it tends to be better trained and armed than its civilian counterparts. It's not uncommon for a responsibility between police and military units to overlap, Cambodia-based Global Security Solutions' managing director John Muller said.

"The best example is the US," Muller said via email. "After 9/11 police, military, CIA, FBI, etc., finally decided to work together.

[img]

"The Cambodian government has extremely limited budgets and figured this out years ago. Unlike Cambodia's police units which act somewhat independently in each province, military units can take action throughout the nation: anytime, any place.

This is actually a good thing as municipal police have difficulty governing some precincts in upcountry locations. The military helps keep check on these precinct activities doing their best to prevent rogue elements, and unlawful activities."

However, the military police has been criticised for its at times heavy-handed response to civil protest movements and its presence in the streets labelled "intimidation".

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said that the military police would be more useful defending the country's borders than cracking down on protesting citizens.

[img]

He said the presence of so many military police on Phnom Penh's streets "suppressed the people" and made them fear for their security and safety. He added it showed the country was not truly peaceful and democratic.

"What we have to do is to eliminate corruption, to have respect for people's rights and also improve the living standards of the people like increase the salary of the workers and also the civil salaries," he said.

"Not to show the military police standing along the way and threaten the people, I don't think it's a good idea at all."

Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak called for reform of the military police, saying its involvement in civilian issues created as many problems as it solved.

"You have a government that still has a security sector that looks like it was in the civil war period," Virak said earlier this week.

[img]

"It was normal back then [to have the military involved in civil affairs] but they haven't changed since then and to keep it as if it was a state of war is just irresponsible but also it's creating a lot more problems for the security sector."

Virak suggests the government should remove the military's responsibility for civilian security issues.

He said: "Proper responsibility, equipment and training should be given to the police and [the government should] move to the military to the borders and their bases."

[img]

Military Police spokesman and Brigadier General Kheng Tito said this week that the troops dealing with the CNRP's rally were instructed to "maintain peace and stability" and that fewer roadblocks would be erected.

Tito added that the law clearly stated that it was necessary that the military police joined with the civilian police in order to maintain security and social order.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in Cambodia. Curable by a simple surgery that is unaffordable to most in the Kingdom, Cambodia Vision volunteers spent a week in Kampong Speu performing the operation for free.

Hours earlier, Hang Pheng, a 77-year-old farmer from Phnom Penh's Por Sen Chey district, had been blind. He and his wife were two among hundreds of patients who went under the knife this week at Kampong Speu Referral Hospital to have their cataracts removed by an Australian surgical team.

"The outside of my eyes looked OK, but on the inside, I could not see," he said, chuckling as he sat in the recovery room on Tuesday morning wearing thick black sunglasses to protect his sensitive, post-surgery eyes.

With his sight restored, Pheng hopes to be able to take better care of himself in his old age, adding that his loss of sight had caused him to neglect his health in general.

The restoration work was done by Cambodia Vision, an Australian NGO founded in 2006 to tackle blindness and other visual problems in rural Cambodia. For the past six years, it has annually sent medical teams to the countryside for one week to perform cataract surgeries. Past clinics have taken place in Kampong Speu, Kampot and Kampong Thom. This year, 48 Australian volunteers and 10 Cambodians came to help.

In 2012, Cambodia Vision assessed 2,800 patients from 18 provinces and provided 371 cataract operations. The team hoped to provide 400 operations this year. Surgical patients also received two free meals at the hospital, $5 for travel expenses and post-operation treatment.

[img]

"The idea is that in the end, if the outcome is good, these people can see and go back to become functioning humans," said William Robinson, an optical technician whose job it was to take the measurements of the eye ahead of an operation.

Although preventable and easily treatable with relatively minor surgery, cataracts are the single most common cause of blindness worldwide. The problem is particularly acute in Cambodia, where cataracts caused 75 per cent of blindness in people more than 50 years old, according to a 2012 AusAID report. High exposure to sunlight without sunglasses is largely to blame, said Cambodia Vision communications officer Thida Yang. The condition primarily affects the elderly, but infants have also been through the centre.

In a country with a shortage of optometrists, cataracts tend to accumulate for years before they are discovered. Ophthalmologist Chris Brown said that the cataracts in Cambodia are far denser than those he deals with in Australia.

"These people have been going years and years, and a lot of them are blinded by cataracts," Brown said, adding that cataracts are usually discovered quickly in developed countries. As a result, Brown said that he typically spends at least 45 minutes on a procedure that would take just 20 minutes at his practice in Sydney. All the equipment is shipped from Australia and is up to par with modern standards.

Before surgery, patients were given routine ocular examinations. Yang said that most visitors did not have cataracts, with many visiting only to have their eyes checked. If a cataract was not discovered, the patient may have been prescribed antibiotics to treat infections or eyeglasses for imperfect sight.

"They will often say something like, 'I look at the sun and my eyes hurt,' so we give them sunglasses and educate them about UV protection," head optometrist Susan Ang said. This year, the team brought 1,500 pairs of eyeglasses and 4,000 pairs of sunglasses to distribute among Cambodians.

Tin Sophan, a 28-year-old farmer from Kampong Speu visiting the clinic, said he had no cataract symptoms but nonetheless wanted an eye checkup.

[img]

"I don't need an operation, but I do have eye pain," Sophan said, adding that his entire family came for examinations that day. He was far from alone that morning, with 900 visitors in the queue before midday.

In some cases, cataracts were discovered in patients who came with other complaints. Sim Lon, a 66-year-old patient from Kampong Cham, visited the clinic in hopes of getting help for chronic twitching in her left eye that resulted from a venomous snake bite in 1979. Although the doctors were unable to stop the twitching, a cataract was discovered and removed.

Despite the team's capabilities, Yang said not all patients could be helped. In cases where patients suffer from retinal damage, pterygiums ("surfer's eye") which can be caused by long-term sun-exposure from working outside, and other serious eye problems, the doctors could only prescribe simple treatments for the symptoms and provide education. With the team only in town for a week, the surgeons were limited to around 400 operations. In some cases, patients with untreated pre-existing conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, were at too high risk for cataract removal. If possible, the doctors prescribed medication to temporarily stabilise patients' conditions to make them safe for surgery. Others were turned away because their cataracts were deemed inoperable. But for the lucky ones, the surgery seemed nothing short of a miracle.

"I cannot describe how happy I feel," an emotional May Sophat, a 75-year-old patient from Kandal, said in the recovery room.

"If it wasn't for that team, I wouldn't be able to see."

At $1.50 for 12 morsels of pure delight, the fried pork dumplings at budget Chinese restaurant Jiang Su Ren Jia might just be the best value in Phnom Penh. The skins are thin and delicate while the filling is substantial and packs a punch of ginger. Crispy fried on only one side, they boast that winning combination of crunch and squish.

Delicious as they are, if all you sampled at the Monivong Boulevard eatery was dumplings then you would be doing your tastebuds a massive disservice. The menu at Jiang Su Ren Jia is extensive and pretty much every dish is good or, more often, great.

I headed there on the recommendation of a Chinese friend. We were chowing down on some dumplings and noodle soup at a better-known cheap Chinese restaurant last week when she and a couple of other friends mentioned a nearby place where the food was much better and around the same price.

I've visited Jiang Su Ren Jia three times since, with different sets of friends on each occasion, and so far everyone's been a fan.

Even the décor is less grimy than at most budget eateries. Red lanterns hang from the roof while fans and bold red menu items written in Chinese adorn the walls along with photographs of some of the food. Waitresses are both numerous and attentive.

The tables have photos of the some of the restaurant's most popular dishes, so you don't even need to look at the extensive menu. Just point to what you want and within a couple of minutes the real thing is delivered.

It's best to go with a group, so you can sample as much as possible. On my last visit we were seven. We started with mildly spicy Sichuan-style pork and vegetable stir fry, scrambled eggs with garlic shoots and mushy eggplant. Next was silky soft tofu and veggies served in a sizzling iron pan. Then out came potato slithers with capscicum, a viscous and delicious hot and sour soup and, of course, several plates of steamed and fried dumplings.

And those were just the orders listed on the menu. One of the highlights was the secret special, reserved for those in the know: fried pumpkin cakes, crispy on the outside and almost gooey in the middle, with just a touch of sweetness.

Dessert was a plate of ice cold sliced watermelon, which was sweet and refreshing.

After dinner owner and head chef Liang Chun – who first came to Cambodia in 2003 while working for the Chinese government as an aid mission chef and decided to stay on – said that after taking over and renaming the restaurant nearly three years ago he focused on providing affordable prices, high quality food and good service. He has succeeded: the total damage for our meal was under $5 a person.

Come to Jiang Su Ren Jia for the dumplings. Come again and again and again for everything else. ​​​

Jiang Su Ren Jia is located at 246E0 Monivong Boulevard.