The Supreme Court has ordered the release of Boeung Kak land activist Yorm Bopha – but only on bail – after ruling that her case should be sent back to the Court of Appeal for a retrial. 

Khem Pon, one of five judges presiding over Bopha's appeal, said the appellate body, which heard the case in June, did not address some of the evidence presented.
 
"The Supreme Court moves this criminal complaint back to the Appeal Court for further investigation and a retrial."
 
Hundreds of Bopha's supporters, many from the Boeung Kak community, joined with monks outside the Supreme Court for the hearing.
 
After little more than two hours of testimony and judges' deliberation, Bopha walked from court to an awaiting prison van and the cheers of the ecstatic crowd on the streets outside.
 
Her own feelings, however, were mixed.
 
"Even though the Supreme Court is releasing me, they still consider me guilty. I'm scared they will arrest me again – just like they did with Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun," she said, referring to the two men wrongly imprisoned over the murder of union leader Chea Vichea.
 
"The Supreme Court should have dropped the charges against me."
 
Bopha was arrested in September of last year and accused of ordering her two brothers to beat two motodops at Boeung Kak with an axe and screwdriver. She was sentenced in December to three years in prison. Rights groups say the charges are baseless.
 
Bopha's lawyer, Ham Sunrith, said after the hearing that the Supreme Court had not specified when the case would be reheard.
 
"But she will be released on bail today."
 
Speaking outside the court, Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Cambodia researcher, welcomed Bopha's release.
 
"But we're disappointed this whole saga is continuing," he said. "She should never have been arrested in the first place. She shouldn't have spent any time in prison.… This case is symbolic of a trend where human rights defenders are a target for their legitimate work."
 
But E Sophors, president of motodops group the Cambodia Confederation Development Association, said the court had given the complainants, motodops Vath Thaiseng and Nget Chet, no justice.
 
"The Supreme Court did not order the suspects to pay compensation or uphold [Bopha's] prison sentence," he said. "But when the authorities … arrest Bopha's brothers, everything will become clear. And everybody including local and international NGOs will understand who masterminded the attack."
 
Vath Sarath, the father and uncle of the alleged victims, also said the Supreme Court should have demanded compensation be paid.
 
"The judges have not responded to the victims here. They are the victims of violence."
 
In the courtroom earlier, Sunrith, Bopha's lawyer, said the lower courts had ordered Bopha and her husband, Lous Sakhorn, to pay the motodops $15,000 in compensation.
 
"But I've checked medical bills that the victim gave the court – they totalled about $15," he said."

An evening of slideshows including images from King Father Norodom Sihanouk's funeral and sobering shots of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh opens the ninth Angkor Photo Festival (APF) on Saturday night at FCC Angkor.

The first of eight slideshow evenings taking place throughout the festival, the opening event features 22 different photographers and will be curated by Françoise Callier, starting at 8.30pm.

Anticipated standout images of the evening include the opening slideshow by five Post photographers entitled Funeral of King Father Norodom Sihanouk. There will also be a slideshow by Sheila Zhao, a returning photographer. Based between Beijing and Shanghai, Zhao first participated as a student in the Festival workshops in 2007 and returns every year. She is now a tutor at the Anjali House Children's Workshops.

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Taslima Akhter's Life and Struggle of Garment Workers, Bangladesh is another expected highlight. A Bangladeshi photographer and activist who has campaigned for a decade for labour rights in the garment sector, Akhter's work went global after the disaster which occurred in April this year.

One photo in particular of two corpses embracing among the rubble was shared heavily on social media. In an interview with the Festival's Asia Coordinator Jessica Lim a few days after the accident, Akhter said that she felt compelled to show this picture.

"It was taken on the first day, technically on April 25th," she said."We were going inside to look for survivors, to see if anyone was still alive. I was there till about 4am, moving around with different groups, working and photographing, trying to help.

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"I saw these two people, holding each other. I couldn't show the rest of the bodies that were around these two. I don't know who they are and what their relationship is with each other. Some people ask me, are they husband and wife? It is not so clear whether they are, or if they knew each other. The point is they were trying to save themselves. I don't know. It is still haunting me."

For those who might have difficulty with such a graphic image, Akhter said: "I have to show it. I think I need to share this pain with all, with everyone. We are all liable for this, we all have to carry this load."

APF's first two exhibitions open on Sunday, with British photographer Martin Usborne's Mute: The Silence of Dogs in Cars, and Herbie Yamaguchi's Hatachi No Shokei launching at the McDermott Gallery at 6pm. Complimentary drinks and light bites will be served.

Now in its ninth year, the Angkor Photo Festival (APF) has become a globally recognised photo festival while maintaining its strong connection to the local community. As APF program director since 2007, Françoise Callier has overseen the festival's evolution for seven of its nine years. We spoke with Callier to find out more about the spirit of the festival and where it's headed.

Phnom Penh Post: How did you first become involved in the Angkor Photo Festival?
Françoise Callier: It was actually by accident. In 2006, APF asked if I would agree to show my series of children's books, with Photoshop montages, on Children's Day. I agreed and asked the festival if I could come to help for a month. They said yes, and I came. Seven years later, I'm still here!

What are your respon-sibilities as APF program director?
Callier: I'm in charge of the entire program, which includes the exhibitions and slideshows and the editing of the content. The festival does not have a fixed theme, and this year I went through all the 1,200 submissions we received from 75 countries. Also, I select the two invited guest curators, one from Asia, and one from the West.

How will this year's festival differ from those before it?
Callier: Our program remains the same, with a series of exhibitions and slideshows, but every year there are more and more photographers, editors and journalists coming to join us from all over Asia and the rest of the world.

What are your criteria when selecting photographers for the festival?
Callier: My criteria for selection has always been the same, I choose based upon the quality of photography and how effective the pictures are in telling a story. I look for unknown stories or unknown talents because the role of a photo festival should be to help make new discoveries. I want to show the work of great photographers who may not be well known yet in the region as well as work by the best photo-story tellers I know, to serve as an inspiration for young photographers.

What does the festival aim to achieve through its two workshops?
Callier: The Anjali Workshop aims to foster children's creativity and to provide them a fun-filled avenue for self-expression and building confidence. The Angkor Photo Workshop is aimed at talented and upcoming Asian photographers, and the free workshops provides participants with first-hand training, invaluable exposure and a chance to develop their personal photographic style and vision. Over the years, the workshop has highlighted emerging talent from the region, and many previous participants have gone on to embark on successful photography careers.

How has the festival changed over the years?
Callier: We are adding new activities for photographers like portfolio reviews and talks, as well as more outdoor outreach activities to involve the local community. As part of Blow Up Angkor, BlindBoys.org also now includes a digital projection segment, visiting local schools and public areas to share specially-curated showcases of photography with Cambodian youths.

What is most challenging about putting this festival together?
Callier: Finances are always a challenge. As a non-profit association we need the support and help of external parties to be able to put on a successful festival.

What about your job do you find most rewarding?
Callier: It is nice to be able to see young and previously unknown talented photographers go on to become recognised for their talent and work as a result of being showcased at our festival.

What are your hopes for the festival's future?
Callier: To keep our three main values: discovery, education and sharing. To continue to build our family, as the Angkor Photo Festival is like a family – the team, the photographers, we are all very close to each other. We want the photographers to feel that they don't have to hesitate to ask for our advice or support, and we will help them whenever they ask if we can.

The 9th Angkor Photo Festival (APF) will bring together many talented local and international photographers for a week in Siem Reap. One of the photographers featured in this year's festival, however, blurs the line between "international" and "local".

Based in Cambodia for 13 years, Belgian photojournalist John Vink has taken photos of major events and everyday life in the Kingdom for international media clients. He first visited the Kingdom in 1989 and came back in 1991 to witness the return of King Sihanouk from exile. Vink said he was hooked on Cambodia immediately.

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Before deciding to make the Kingdom his home in 2000, the 65-year-old Vink had worked in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, among other places. His work has generally focused on social and environmental issues in the developing world.

After joining Agence Vu in 1986 he won the Eugene Smith Award for his work Water in the Sahel, a photo essay on the management of water south of the Sahara. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Vink compiled photographs of refugees around the world and published the collection Refugiés in 1994. In 1993 he started working on Peuples d'en Haut, a series of chronicles about communities living in mountainous areas, published in 2004. Vink became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1997. His work Avoir 20 Ans à Phnom Penh was published in 2000. Last year he published Quest for Land, a compilation of 11 years of photography about land issues in Cambodia, for tablet computers.

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This year at APF, Vink's photos documenting controversial plans to dam three rivers in northeastern Cambodia will be shown in a slideshow on Monday, November 25. Vink took photos along the Sekong, Srepok and Sesan rivers in Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng provinces, chronicling the interaction between the people and these vital rivers.

"All 35 of the photos I took explore multiple aspects of the region, including views of the areas that will be dammed, local villages and their residents and daily life among the different ethnic groups living along the rivers," Vink said. The plight of villagers who will be displaced by the dam captured his interest, he added.

Vink's photos from the area (one of which is on the cover of this supplement) also highlight the protests by villagers who do not wish to be forced from their traditional homes. These peoples include Khmer, Lao, Phnong, Karen and Stieng, among others.

In addition to losing their homes, the villagers will also lose their fields and their ancient communities will be destroyed.

"Cambodia certainly needs electricity for the country's development, but it should choose smart development," Vink said. "Relocating people may be a necessity, but compensating them properly and providing comfortable new homes for affected residents is essential."

Average Cambodians are to pay the price for stamping out corruption in the customs department.

Prices for basic goods, such as food and clothing, rose recently after the department was ordered last week to clean up its act and apply the official tax rate, importers told the Post yesterday.

A November 13 directive to the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia was signed by its general director, Pen Simon.

Simon said the department was going to "clean up the weaknesses" and work within the letter of the law.

"All customs and excise officers need to respond to their duty as customs agents to tax all businesses based on rule and regulation," the statement reads.

Since then, more stringent procedures have been applied, causing a slowdown at borders.

Previously, customs officers would often undercut the legal tax rate and pocket a portion for themselves. They are now enforcing the official rate, causing a hike in prices for consumers, according to importers who spoke to the Post yesterday.

Hy Ramy, the managing director of a food importer who did not want his company's name revealed, said food prices passed on to consumers were increasing by 15 to 20 per cent.

"The price of goods is increasing, but it is not because of a higher rate of customs tax, it is due to following the law," he said, adding that the majority of his imports come from Thailand.

Ramy acknowledged that in order to stay competitive he had previously negotiated lower-than-official rates, but welcomed consistent enforcement, which he said would create an even playing field for all.

Traffic had banked up at the Vietnamese border, according to Hok Sovanna, general manager at food importer Mekong Food Group (Cambodia), as importers had to adapt to the new procedures.

"So far people have tried to get some [products imported] unofficially so they can resell them at a reasonable price, but I think if [the law is enforced] like this the price may increase [for consumers] a little," he said, adding that not much had changed for his organisation because it has always worked within the law.

Ka Bang, a sales manager at Dragon Trading who imports food from Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, said he had already seen prices rise.

"We now have strictly 100 per cent full tax, so it means that we have to pay more of the tax bill and it has affected some prices on the market," he said, declining to comment on rates paid before the clampdown.

The Ministry of Planning's National Institute of Statistics, which collects food price data, yesterday said that it could not release any information.

National Bank of Cambodia director general Chea Serey, however, acknowledged there had recently been a price hike and that it was being "closely monitored" by the NBC.

Serey attributed the rise to a slowdown in supply due to border delays and "the fact that now importers will have to pay the full amount of tax on imported products".

"In any reform, there are bound to be unpleasant side effects in the short term, but in the long term, this is good for the economy," she said, referring to increased government revenues allowing spending on infrastructure and state salaries.

But it is not merely importers feeling the pinch.

"Now not many people are buying as the price of goods is higher," said Im Moa, a clothing trader at Kab Kor market in Phnom Penh who imports from Thailand and Vietnam.

The balance between fighting corruption and controlling inflation is "very difficult" to manage, Cambodian Economic Association president Srey Chanty said.

Chanty said the government should decrease import taxes for items that lower-income people depend on, such as oil and sugar, and increase rates for products generally purchased by wealthier people, such as electronics.

"These things impact basic commodities, and the poor will be affected the most," he said.

Cambodia spent about $6.8 billion on imports over the first nine months of this year, an increase of 13 per cent from the $6 billion spent in the same period last year.

Most of Cambodia's food and beverage imports come from Vietnam and Thailand.

Tran Tu, trade attache officer at the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia, said the reforms have not only led to price rises but also delays in retailers receiving their goods.

At the Thai embassy's Office of Commercial Affairs, business support specialist Surachet Maneepong said the official customs duties were now double that of the "traditional" non-official duties.

Thai traders were up in arms, according to Maneepong, as they were not given prior warning of the reforms.

The IMF, which announced last week that inflation would remain stable at 3 to 4 per cent in 2013 and 2014, did not immediately respond to questions yesterday.

The General Department of Customs and Excise could not be reached for comment or confirmation of official rates.

When the Supreme Court hears land-rights activist Yorm Bopha's final appeal this morning, familiar cries for justice will come from Boeung Kak women on the streets outside.

Much has been written about the housewives of Boeung Kak who have risen up against the government and developers to protest mass land evictions – dissent that has led to beatings and imprisonment.

But much less has been documented about the people they have swapped domestic roles with: their husbands.

"When the community began protesting five years ago, the women understood the context of Cambodia," Housing Rights Task Force secretariat director Sia Phearum said yesterday. "People at that time were traumatised and too scared to protest, because people who did were often killed or arrested."

The Boeung Kak community believed putting women on the front line at protests was a way to reduce such violence while still getting their message across, Phearum said. Such a move, they thought, would also allow men to keep working to pay the bills.

As activism has become an almost full-time job for some of the women in the years since, a culture shift has occurred in these households, Phearum added.

"The men have become house husbands."

The streets of Boeung Kak's Village 22 were almost bereft of women on Wednesday afternoon. Tep Vanny, the community's most prominent activist, was in a meeting in the city.

"Our lives have become stressful," said Ou Kongchea, Vanny's husband, who was working at home. "These protests have had a huge effect on my life."

Like other husbands in Boeung Kak, Kongchea has stood in the shadows, lending support as his wife has rapidly become a public figure.

"When my wife joins the protests, I need to do everything in the home," he said. "I take care of our two children and go to the market to buy vegetables to cook."

Being the husband of a well-known dissident also has its professional challenges.

"First, my [boss] began pressuring me," the former military employee said. "Then local authorities from the Daun Penh district filed a complaint to my commander accusing me of using an illegal gun. If that were a real complaint, I would have been arrested."

After taking unpaid leave from his position, Kongchea now works from home making picture frames.

"I've got less money than before and things are much harder," he said.

Vanny is known for getting in the faces of police and security guards. She has been beaten, and spent more than a month in Prey Sar prison last year.

Kongchea said the thought of his wife protesting still makes him stressed. But he sees the importance of it.

"Most Cambodians think women should stay at home to cook the food, support the family and look after the children, not go outside to demonstrate," he said. "But if a man protests, the authorities will use deadly violence. They shoot."

Yorm Bopha's husband, Lous Sakhorn, 57, has spent more than a year raising his nine-year-old son alone.

"When my wife was arrested and imprisoned, my family faced a food shortage," he said. "I was busy looking after my son, doing the housework and visiting my wife in prison – I didn't have enough time to earn money.

"At my age, it's difficult raising a child by myself … but I will keep protesting until my wife is freed."

Bopha, 30, was arrested in September last year and sentenced in December to three years in prison – later reduced to two years on appeal – after she was convicted of ordering an assault on two motodops. Rights groups say the charges are baseless.

Fellow Boeung Kak villager Ly Heap, 40, also saw his wife, Bov Sophea, imprisoned last year. After a three-hour trial, Sophea was one of 13 women, including Vanny, locked in Prey Sar.

The challenge of managing a household in the face of evictions, imprisonment and job loss – Heap worked at the now-bankrupt telephone company Mfone – has taken its toll.

"When I was working at Mfone and my wife protested, I had no time to look after my children," he said. "Sometimes no one would be at home, so they would follow their mother to the protest."

When times are tough at Boeung Kak, though, the men look out for each other, Kongchea said.

"We're good friends, but we haven't formed a network," he said. "We understand each other, but we're not active like the women are."

But they are just as tired.

The release of Bopha, Kongchea said, and the issuing of land titles to dozens of remaining families, would be key steps towards things calming down.

"If this goes on, I think our living conditions will get worse," he said. "We need to stop protests when the case of Yorm Bopha is completely resolved."

But the women, who have branched out to support other human-rights causes in recent years, may have other ideas.

In any case, role reversals are not a bad thing, HRTF's Phearum said.

"If I cook, I might be accused of not being a real man or something … but I think with globalisation and economic development, these things have to change," he said.

An October filing posted to the Khmer Rouge tribunal's website on Wednesday could pave the way for the creation of a second panel of trial chamber judges – a measure that could allow Case 002's next sub-trial to proceed even as the first panel deliberates its verdict in the case's first.

Several questions had previously been raised about the feasibility of such a panel at the often cash-strapped tribunal, including in a September 18 filing from deputy director of the Office of Administration Knut Rosandhaug to the Supreme Court Chamber.

However, the October 31 filing, signed by both Rosandhaug and his national-side superior, office director Tony Kranh, made no mention of these questions, saying the office was prepared to implement any decision regarding the creation of a new panel.

"The Office of Administration has reviewed administrative and financial implications of an establishment of a second panel of judges within the Trial Chamber – and confirms its readiness to support any decision made by the Supreme Court Chamber or the Trial Chamber to duly complete the judicial process in Case 002," the filing reads.

Rosandhaug's September memo questioned whether the agreement that formed the court – which stipulates the number of judges – would have to be amended to allow for a second panel, and whether the current panel would face a conflict of interest hearing Case 002/02 after having decided on 002/01.

It also touched on the expense associated with a new chamber.

"The constitution of a second panel … would, of course, give rise to budgetary implications," Rosandhaug's memo reads. "A question that arises, therefore, is whether the relevant ECCC judicial authorities consider that these budgetary implications would be off-set by the greater speed and efficiency in moving the Case 002 judicial process forward, or not."

Court legal communications officer Lars Olsen said yesterday that if the Supreme Court Chamber had addressed the questions in the September memo, its response "has not been made public".

Olsen also noted that, while the 2014-2015 court budget requested by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon did not contain funds for a second panel, "if there will be an additional second panel, obviously the budget will be revised accordingly".

Long Panhavuth, a program officer with the Cambodian Justice Initiative, said yesterday that he didn't believe the current judges would have a conflict of interest in sitting on Case 002/02, but that the court's decision-making and financial issues should be discussed publicly.

"The donors need to say publicly whether or not they are going to [give] additional funding to the court [for a second panel], so they can manage expectations," he said.

A senate comprising solely of ruling Cambodian People's Party lawmakers yesterday unanimously approved the $3.4 billion draft budget and legislation creating three new government ministries.

The laws passed the National Assembly on November 11 with all 55 opposition party lawmakers absent and now simply needs to be rubber-stamped by the King to come into effect.

Forty CPP senators attended yesterday's vote, which approved the creation of the new Ministry of Public Function and split the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy into the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts.

"A total of 40 senators unanimously approved all the draft laws without any revisions," Senate secretary-general Oum Sarith said in a statement.

Eleven Sam Rainsy Party senators said in a statement issued before yesterday's session that they would boycott the session as it was undemocratic.

About 50 garment workers fainted yesterday at the King First Industrial factory in Kandal province's Ang Snuol district, union representatives said.

Khouth Touch, the Free Trade Union president at the factory, said a number of workers had experienced stomach aches and diarrhoea that morning.

"When the other workers saw their workmates like this, they went into shock and fainted one by one," he said, adding that officials from the Ministry of Labour were investigating the circumstances more thoroughly. Those who fainted were treated at nearby clinics, while the remaining workers had been allowed to go home.

Chea Houth, the company's administrative officers, said ventilation had not been a factor.

"There was no smell in the factory. We suspected it was caused by the workers' breakfast they ate at home, because the problems started when they arrived," he said.

Labour Ministry officials could not be reached for comment.

According to FTU's tally, more than 700 garment workers have fainted at work this year.

A month after a company owned by tycoon Kith Meng was ordered to suspend logging the reservoir area of the controversial Lower Sesan II dam, the government yesterday threatened legal action against it if its orders aren't followed.

In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the Council of Ministers demands that the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries explain whether the logging ban on Ang & Associates Lawyers, a subsidiary of Meng's Royal Group, is being implemented.

In the letter, signed by Ouk Bun Uy, secretary of state at the Council of Ministers, dated November 13, the ministry is told that logging began in the area before a number of procedures relating to the dam's construction were carried out.

"They've logged instead. Why?" the letter reads.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said yesterday that he had not received any response from the ministry.

"But we will take action according to the law," he said, referring to both the ministry and Meng's company.

From April to when the ban was imposed – via an order on October 16 – Ang & Associates was logging parts of the reservoir area at the dam site in Stung Treng province.

As part of the ban, it was also announced that a commission of inquiry would be set up to investigate the operations of Ang & Associates.

Minister of Agriculture Ouk Rabun and Secretary of State Ty Sokun could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Logging has not been occurring inside the reservoir since the ban, said Seak Mekong, Srekor commune chief in Stung Treng's Sesan district.

But representatives of Meng's company had been transporting already-felled luxury timber out of the area, he added.

"Our people are wondering whether they are collecting the luxury wood for money for their investment – because they have done nothing but log in there," he said.

Mekong also alleged that logging was taking place outside the reservoir area in a community forest that villagers rely on for their livelihoods.

"This project does not help people but depletes the natural resources instead," he said.

Hydrolancang International Energy, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Huaneng Group, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Group almost a year ago for an initial two-year cash injection into the 400-megawatt dam that environmental groups say will devastate riverside communities.

Earlier this year, Ang & Associates reportedly inked a joint-venture agreement with local businessman Sok Vanna, the brother of Sokimex founder Sok Kong, to clear the 36,000-hectare site in preparation for the $816 million project.

Meng could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has released a nine-month status report on 2013's illegal timber seizures, saying it had confiscated, among other things, more than 2,000 kilograms of rosewood – a figure that represents only a tiny fraction of seizures reported by the Post this year.

The report, dated November 7 and signed by Agriculture Minister Ouk Rabun, says that in the first nine months of 2013, the MAFF dealt with 1,047 cases of forestry-related crimes, seizing more than 3,400 cubic metres of assorted illegal timber, and a further 106 cubic metres and 2,400 kilograms of rosewood specifically.

"The revenue from the forest is a total of [about $10.9 million], of which the income from selling and renting properties [concessions] and services is [about $8.9 million], and income from fines for forest crimes is [about $2 million]," the report adds.

Despite the seemingly impressive figures, however, previously reported busts dwarf those included in the MAFF's update. One Forestry Administration raid in September, for example, netted some 21 tonnes – itself nearly 10 times the amount recorded in the MAFF's report.

When asked about the discrepancy, Rabun declined to comment. Tim Siphan, a director of the MAFF's Legislation and Law Enforcement Department, also declined to comment, saying he was "busy".

Thorn Sarath, an official with the MAFF's Administration Department, declined to comment on the discrepancy in figures. But he maintained that while his ministry had no compunction about arresting those who committed forest crimes, it had no jurisdiction over concessionaires with legal rights to cull trees from property already considered degraded.

"We crack down regardless of whether it is small- or large-scale, but the companies have legal documents," he said.

Ouch Leng, head of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force, said that the more than 1,000 cases and thousands of cubic metres of luxury timber referenced by the MAFF should have resulted in much more government revenue than the $2 million noted in the report, suggesting that some proceeds from logs had been siphoned off into officials' pockets.

What's more, he added, leaving out concessionaires meant ignoring the lion's share of the problem.

"Deforestation is not carried out by normal business people, but by the economic land concessionaires, so the government should take legal measures against all those companies and not just crack down on the normal business people," he said.

A report from the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force released on Tuesday accuses tycoon Try Pheap of not only holding nearly seven times the legal amount of economic land concessions but also of using his massive holdings to facilitate an enormous cross-border timber smuggling operation.

The MAFF's report comes just under nine months after Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a circular calling on officials to step up their efforts to combat the rosewood trade. Observers at the time said the measure was too little, too late.

Of at least 14 timber busts reported by the Post since the circular, only two have yielded actual arrests. The MAFF report, while noting that arrests had been made, offered no specific figures on how many.

Chhim Savuth, a senior investigator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said yesterday that authorities remained reluctant to come down on major smugglers of rosewood – focusing instead on small-timers – and were happy to let others go in exchange for a cut.

"The fact is, that when they crack down, it's because [smugglers] do not agree to pay the authorities, and it is a cover-up of what is happening," he said.

The Asian Development Bank has pledged $3 million from its Asia Pacific Disaster Response Facility to aid the Kingdom's flood-relief efforts, the regional creditor said yesterday.

The grant will largely go toward rice seeds, "temporary repair of irrigation canals and related facilities" and funding cash-for-work programs to repair damaged rural roads, ADB Cambodia country director Eric Sidgwick said in a statement.

"ADB's support is a direct response to the need for action on quick road repairs to ensure the smooth delivery of relief supplies and the provision of rice seeds to enable replanting before waters recede," Sidgwick said.

Estimates released by the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) put the total cost of property damage from this year's flooding at $1 billion. More than 240,000 hectares of rice and seedlings have been devastated by flood waters in 20 provinces.

Nhim Vanda, first vice president of the NCDM, said that while waters had receded in all provinces, Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Siem Reap had been hit the hardest.

"During the flood, the government distributed one million tonnes of rice to flood victims and 200 tonnes of rice seed," Vanda said yesterday, noting he had yet to receive reports from provincial authorities on how much of the allotted rice and seedlings had made it to the hands of those affected.

I Long, deputy provincial governor of Banteay Meanchey, one of the provinces identified by Vanda as worst hit by the flooding, told the Post yesterday that while local authorities have indeed begun distributing food staples and begun repairing damaged roads, people's need remains great.

"Even though the floodwater has receded, residents still suffer because so much has been lost and damaged, like farms, houses, streets and there is not enough food."

Three Cambodians suspected of illegal logging in Thailand were reportedly shot dead by Thai forestry officials in Sisaket province on Tuesday morning.

The forestry officers were patrolling the wildlife sanctuary near the border with Cambodia in Katharalak district when they came upon the three Cambodians, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday.

A gunfight broke out lasting more than 10 minutes, according to the report. After the clash, the three men's bodies were discovered close to 18 rosewood logs.

If exported, it is estimated that the rosewood could have fetched up to 10 million baht ($315,000). Along with the logs, Thai officials found logging paraphernalia including eight saws, four axes and five head torches.

Touch Ra, border patrol chief at the Choam Sangam border in Oddar Meanchey, said he had contacted the Thai military, but had not confirmed the deaths.

"I'm not sure if it happened.… I will not be sure unless I get a report and the bodies from Thailand," he said.

At a meeting on the border held in May, both countries agreed to create 15 border patrol teams as part of a working group to share information in the hope of containing the increasing number of deaths along the two countries' long border.

But Touch Va said the fruits of this meeting had yet to filter down to the Choam Sangam border, saying he meets with Thai military officials once or twice a month, but had no knowledge of the working group.

"We have informed people not to enter Thai territory, because we are afraid they will be shot. Although they know about it, they say they are poor and they cannot harvest their crops and that's why they have to go," he said.

"It is very difficult [for us], because they go secretly at night and we do not know – but we do when they are shot dead. The Thai side says they shoot for self-defence but we have never seen Cambodian bodies or Cambodians arrested who had guns with them," he added.

District and provincial police in Ratanakkiri are searching for a band of muggers who allegedly robbed a pair of jewellers at gunpoint of more than $46,000 worth of gold and platinum.

After packing their gold and platinum into a jewellery box, the married couple, Sart Vanda, 35, and Keo Sinat, 28, were heading on their motorbike from Bakeo district market, where they sell jewellery for a living, to their home in Laminh commune's Village 1 at 4:15pm on Tuesday when a man stepped onto the road. He pointed a gun at them and ordered them off the bike, Min Ren, Bakeo district police chief, said.

When they got off the bike, on which they carried a box containing about 30 grams of gold and a kilogram of platinum, another man jumped on it and drove away, Ren said. The armed man then jumped onto a second motorbike that pulled up and sped off.

Many people witnessed the robbery, which occurred about 10 metres from Vanda and Sinat's jewellery shop, Ren said. Police found the empty jewellery box in a cashew plantation close to the scene of robbery.

More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers.

Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on Municipal Governor Pa Socheatvong to intervene to resolve the dispute.

"[The governor's] representative accepted our petition, but did not promise to resolve this for us," he said. "We will continue our protest again tomorrow, and we will travel to Hun Sen's house soon if we have to."

More than 400 workers have been on strike for nearly two weeks, demanding the sacking of the four managers, a 2,000-riel lunch allowance and wage uniformity.

Uth Phanha, a manager at the factory, said yesterday that bosses had tried their best to end the strike, but workers did not respect Arbitration Council or municipal court rulings for them to return to work.

"At no point have we prevented them from coming back to work," Phanha said. "I'm not sure what my directors will do if they still won't go back to work as the court has ordered."

A 23-year-old Stung Treng man was hauled in for questioning by police yesterday after he criticised a senior military police official on Facebook

Colonel Ieng Vandy, the Stung Treng military police chief, said he ordered his officers to arrest Cheth Sovichea yesterday morning after spotting what he considered to be defamatory posts about him on Facebook.

"I cracked down on him, because he wrote that I had come to amass money, used vulgar words and despite my high status, I sound like a backwards man from the country," Vandy said.

"He admitted [to doing it]. He posted about me not only once but two or three times already. But when he realised what he had done wrong, I educated him and then released him. I asked him to make a correction, but if he still continues I will complain to the court."

Sovichea could not be reached for comment yesterday.

If management at SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. does not sign on to an agreement, which would end a three-month strike at the factory, the next stop is court.

Ministry of Labour officials are scheduled to sit down with SL management this morning, during which the ministry will try to talk SL into signing on to an agreement with the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said Sat Sakmoth, secretary of state at the labor ministry.

"If they still refuse to accept the agreement, I will send their case to the court," Sakmoth said.

Among other stipulations, the agreement would require SL to rehire 19 fired union leaders and activists and drop a lawsuit SL filed against them, which alleges that these former employees are responsible for profits lost. The Ministry of Labour last Friday ordered SL to rehire the workers.

Joseph Kee Leung Lee, director of SL International Holdings, yesterday said he could not comment on the 19 workers, because of SL's pending lawsuit.

A couple was questioned in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday over the alleged sale of more than 30 Cambodian women for marriage in China and South Korea, police and court officials said.

Top Chhunlong, an assistant prosecutor at the court, said Bo Sina, 37, also known as "Yann", and her husband, Chan Seiha, 37, were questioned at length over the alleged marriage brokering, but had not yet been charged.

An intelligence police officer from the Ministry of Interior, who did not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, told the Post that an investigation had linked Sina to the trafficking of 30 Cambodian women to South Korea since 2010 and seven to China this year.

"[Sina] trafficked many Cambodian girls to bosses at Chinese and Korean companies to be married off to foreign husbands in South Korea and China," he said.

The couple had been arrested in response to complaints made by two of the young women sent to China, he added.

After being sold to massage parlours in China, the two women telephoned their parents in Kampong Cham province, who notified police.

The suspects were arrested in Phnom Penh on Saturday at their home in Por Sen Chey district's Kakab commune, the officer added.

Sina has been accused of violating Article 15 on the Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation law, while Seiha has been accused of being an accomplice to human trafficking.

If the duo is charged and found guilty, they face up to 15 years in prison, the officer said.

The two suspects and their defence lawyers could not be reached for comment.

Two people were seriously injured and five others slightly injured when unexploded ordnance (UXO) detonated in a rice field in Oddar Meanchey province yesterday, police said.

Sou Nov, deputy police in Anlong Veng district, said the group of seven had been enjoying lunch together in Trapaing Prey commune when the UXO exploded.

"A man stepped on it," Nov said, adding that the man and a 16-year-old girl were seriously injured. "It exploded near their eating place in the rice fields, so the others were injured by shrapnel."

The victims were among 10 people working in the fields. The victims, who ranged in age from 16 to 35, were taken to hospital.

According to eight-month figures released by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre in September, UXO deaths have dropped almost 30 per cent this year, down from 26 deaths in the first eight months of last year to 19 deaths over the same period this year. In that time, 64 were injured, down 37 from the same period last year.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance has sought to ease concerns surrounding a huge portion of the 2014 budget that remains unallocated, saying the leftover $1.5 billion would be spent on about a dozen "targets".

Until that time, Prime Minister Hun Sen is the only person who is authorised to control the huge sum, which is equal to about 44 per cent of the total national budget for next year, a senior Cambodian People's Party lawmaker told the Post.

In a statement released yesterday, following concerns raised by transparency groups that the unallocated funds would encourage nepotism and embezzlement, the ministry said almost all of the money would be allocated.

"Actually, a majority of the unallocated portion of the national budget was already in the target," the statement said.

Cheam Yeap, a member of the government's banking and finance committee, said that Hun Sen was in control of the money and its allocation, adding that he would report how it was spent to the National Assembly.

"Only the Prime Minister has the power to control the spending [of the unallocated funds]," he said.

Yesterday's statement outlined several areas where the money would be spent, according to the ministry.

More than $104 million would be spent on infrastructure, for example, including roads, schools and hospitals, with $24.7 million reserved for emergency responses to natural disasters and national security events.

With the deductions taken into account, the actual total of the unallocated funds, the statement continued, amounts to $127.3 million, or about 3.8 per cent of the budget.

Does the government statement make a difference? "Not a single bit," Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said. "The point is there needs to be transparency. This is people's money and it belongs to the nation, to the people.

"There's supposed to be public consultations. Regardless of how much they want to clarify, it doesn't end the lingering questions [over the budget]."

The Draft Budget Law was approved by the National Assembly on November 12 in a unanimous vote of 66 ruling Cambodian People's Party MPs. It is due to be signed into law by King Norodom Sihamoni in December.

"What concerns me most is that the CPP was incredibly strategic leading up to and after the July elections," political analyst Peter Tan Keo said in an email. "Concrete plans were in place, from holding the first National Assembly meeting, swearing in all 68 members of the ruling party, to forming the new CPP-filled government, and now to passing the 2014 national budget, all without the opposition.

"The CPP lacked specificity when it came to funds accounting for nearly half the national budget. That's a bit suspect and definitely raises red flags, especially for a country with a not-so-stellar reputation of corruption," he added.

The Kampong Cham Provincial Court may teach a lesson to a civil servant accused of pocketing at least one month's pension allocated to 10 retired teachers.

Officials from the Anti-Corruption Unit in cooperation with the provincial prosecutor arrested Mang Yusreng, director of Srei Santhor district's Social Affairs office on Saturday, said Kampong Cham Provincial Court deputy prosecutor Plang Sophal.

Yusreng is being held on charges of illegally exploiting others' public benefits as well as creating and using fake public documents, Sophal said.

"The judge decided to detain the suspect temporarily while the case is investigated further," Sophal said yesterday.

The ACU and Kampong Cham authorities arrested Yusreng after a lawsuit was filed by the alleged victims, who say they did not receive their 200,000 riel ($50) pension payments for March of 2012, according to a posting on ACU's website. Allegations were posted on the website a day before authorities arrested Yusreng.

In addition to withholding the teachers' pay, Yusreng also falsified thumbprints on documents, the ACU has alleged.

The ACU is appealing to retired people in Srei Santhor district who have not received pension payments to notify them through their telephone hotlines. The ACU investigation has, so far, found Yusreng appears to have acted alone, without the involvement of anyone in Srei Santhor district's education office, the ACU said.

While Yusreng's arrest was a step in the right direction, Cambodia's Independent Civil Servant Association president Kao Poeun yesterday said that the ACU should continue digging, rather than letting the buck stop at the social affairs office director.

If the government truly wants to curb corruption, Poeun said, it must widen its investigation and look into more senior officials who may have taken part directly or have been aware of Yusreng's alleged scam.

"[Yusreng's] position is not one in which he could commit this offence without his superiors' knowledge. Authorities should look for more accomplices," Poeun said. "Low salaries paid to civil servants lead them toward such corruption."

Dear Editor,

Everyone has his or her own bitter and sweet memories. The ones that are most memorable are those that have scared us the most.

In the hearts of Cambodian people who suffered from the tragic history and lived through the three years, eight months and 20 days, such horrific memory still haunts them to this very day. Each day under the brutal regime they prayed for the day to pass quickly and hoped to see sunlight the next day.

Such bitter memories bring victims to tears and causes them trauma and psychological disorders. Some people are finding ways to forget their past memory under the Khmer Rouge regime, but I doubt that they could ever do so and forgetting the past doesn't mean they can run away from it.

In my perspective, they are less likely to forget the memories from the KR regime. As part of my job at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), one of my many tasks is to document the trial proceedings at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) dating back to 2007.

I have captured trial video footage, photos of the parties in the court and produced video clips of people's reactions to the trials. From people's reactions I can tell they can never forget the past.

The losses of their loved ones and the time they spent together are rooted very deeply in their hearts.

My father, Sa Math, once told me that he cannot forget the memory of his parents who were brutally killed under the KR. Every time my father sees pickled cucumber, it always reminds him of his mother, who always packed his school lunch with a pickled cucumber.

The regime separated people from their families and moved my father from his parents. The regime took at least one life from each Cambodian family, and mine was no exception. The regime took the lives of a number of our immediate and extended family who were accused of participating in a Cham rebellion in late 1975.

In the village where my family resided, almost 100 families were killed. They killed my grandfather and his younger brother by binding their bodies and dropping them into water, drowning them.

My grandmother died because there was no medicine to treat her illness. My father survived because he had to work hard and hide his identity, being a former Lon Nol soldier. One day, he was accused of being a Lon Nol soldier.

He tried to convince the cadres that he was only a farmer who cannot read or write, but five cadres came to his house at night and took him away with some other villagers. They got on a boat and crossed the river to an island.

There, my father thought his identity was discovered and he was going to be killed. While walking, the KR cadres clubbed the head of a villager and he fell down. When my father saw that, he fell down on his knees and, in shock, was unable to move.

The KR cadres told my father to get up and move. My father was so afraid as if his soul was no longer with him. The cadres threatened to kill my father if he told anyone. And he did not tell anyone.

Eight years after the collapse of the KR regime, I was born and grew up unaware of the history of my family and country. Through my work, I began to learn about the atrocities that had befallen the country.

After two years with DC-Cam, I was chosen to do an internship in the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California. I met many Holocaust survivors who came to share their experiences.

Also, I interviewed many Khmer-American survivors who would never return to the country they love, fearing the emotional trauma when facing the memories of lost family and friends. After my return, I was determined to interview my father for his stories, starting on June 30, 2009.

Now it has been four years and I still don't have the whole story. He could not hold back his tears talking about his family under the brutal regime. Now he is sick and hospitalised.

I always keep him up-to-date on the Khmer Rouge tribunal because he is interested. My father told me that the survivors and the accused are getting too old and are dying one after another.

He hopes that the verdict would come before the survivors and the accused all die. A day in prison before the death of the Khmer Rouge leaders would be adequate for him and his loved ones.

Since it is impossible to forget the past, memorialising their memory can give them the strength to move on. I believe that such an act would contribute to preventing brutal acts such as those of the KR regime in the future.

Survivors have been passing their memories on to their children and grandchildren and by doing so it allows young people to be aware of their family's and the country's history.

Younger generations can benefit from the experience of their elders and use these lessons to move to a better future. I believe that memory plays a very important role in uniting people and helping Cambodians to move beyond being victims of this tragic history.

Fatily Sa
Film Archivist,
Cham Identity Project
Documentation Center of Cambodia

Logging tycoon Try Pheap's rapidly expanding land empire, criticised by rights groups for displacing families and encroaching on protected forest areas, has grown to almost 70,000 hectares in size and is helping to facilitate a cross-border illegal logging operation, a report released today alleges.

The Cambodian Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF), a local NGO, claims in the report that through as many as 15 companies operating under his name or that of his wife, Mao Mom, Pheap is in possession of almost seven times the amount of economic land concessions (ELCs) allowed by law – an allegation a representative of the tycoon denied yesterday.

"The reason to focus only on Try Pheap's companies," the report states, "is to urge the government to take action and show the truth behind why our forests are disappearing."

The report – one of a number this year focusing on Pheap's activities – also alleges that as well as being concessionaire to vast areas of land, Pheap also has exclusive rights to collect and buy luxury timber, mainly rosewood, from all government-granted land concessions in 15 provinces.

Areas mentioned include Ream National Park in Preah Sihanouk province, Preah Vihear province's Boeung Pe Wildlife Sanctuary and Virachey National Park in northeastern Cambodia.

Mining concessions are also listed as having been granted in Stung Treng province.

CHRTF's report adds that Pheap's companies – which include his MDS Import Export firm – also clear timber from concession areas in Cambodia's other nine provinces.

According to the report, at least 1,445 families have been evicted from their homes during Pheap's acquisition of about 68,088 hectares since 2010.

If true, this violates Article 59 of the Land Law, which states that individuals or legal entities controlled by the same person cannot hold more than 10,000 hectares of ELCs, even if it is spread over multiple concessions. CHRTF said it compiled information against Pheap's companies using a team of investigators across the country and tracked company officials crossing into Vietnam to sell the timber.

Included in the 52-page report are photos of company vehicles transporting rosewood, and piles of timber stationed at company offices and Pheap's home in Kandal province.

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CHRTF says it has documents from the environment and commerce ministries that detail the concessions.

The report claims Pheap is closely connected with officials from the ministries of interior and agriculture, the military, forestry officials and other concessionaires, such as Choeung Sopheap, who owns the Pheapimex company.

Sopheap is married to ruling Cambodian People's Party senator Lao Meng Khin, whose company Shukaku is licensed to develop the capital's Boeung Kak area.

CHRTF director Ouch Leng, who compiled the report, said Pheap's companies have been granted land concessions to develop rubber and pepper plantations, but has effectively seized people's land in order to export timber to Vietnam.

"The main business and politics of tycoon Try Pheap is to operate a timber business under the cloak of ELCs and … transport wood openly from Cambodia to Vietnam," he said. Transport points included Mondulkiri province, Ratanakkiri province's O'Yadav district and Sihanoukville port.

"The company has fed and sponsored armed forces and civil servants in the concession area by helping build offices, but it does not help improve people's lives," Leng said.

Multiple attempts at reaching Pheap were not successful yesterday, but a company representative in Preah Vihear province denied allegations of illegal activity.

"Our company does not log illegally," he said, adding that Pheap's companies had rights to buy timber in only eight provinces. "We buy wood that has been seized by the authorities," said the employee, who did not want to be named. "The money goes to the state. We do not export it. We process it in Phnom Penh as furniture."

He said allegations made about the companies' practices were spurious, and villagers were given adequate compensation when they were relocated.

Thorn Sarath, director of the administration department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said he was not aware of the way the 15 companies in question were structured and would have to look into the matter further.

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"Previously, companies have followed the [Land Law] on this [a restriction of 10,000 hectares per person]," he said. "But [concessionaires] are always having problems with people, so we need to check more because previous impact studies have been too basic."

Other government officials could not be reached.

The report by CHRTF, an NGO set up in the 1990s by the International Human Rights Law Group and managed locally since 1997, is the latest to call into question concessions and licences granted to the logging tycoon.

Last month, NGO National Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization (NRWPO) said an investigation it had carried out had discovered illegal logging in every protected forest in the country and that licences granted to Pheap, allowing him to collect and buy timber from ELCs, will leave the areas ecologically impoverished.

In February, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries granted Pheap an exclusive licence to collect and buy timber from economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri.

In June, the Post reported that Pheap's MDS Import Export company had been granted a licence to collect and process yellow vine around the Stung Atay hydropower dam in the Cardamom Mountains.

And in a report released in August, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights said it had evidence of rampant illegal logging in Preah Vihear being carried out under orders from Pheap.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said via email yesterday that big land concessions in Cambodia have inevitably resulted in "rights abuses and resource looting going hand in hand".

"Ripping apart local communities to support the greed of a few is only possible where those violating rights know that they have total impunity to do so – which is far too often the common state of affairs in Hun Sen's Cambodia."

Just days before the Supreme Court hears the final appeal of imprisoned land-rights activist Yorm Bopha, a letter obtained yesterday reveals that Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong has met with Bopha's husband and her accusers after both parties requested intervention to "end the case".

According to the letter, Lous Sakhorn, Bopha's husband, asked Socheatvong to intervene and have his wife freed from prison, while her alleged victims, motodops Vat Thaiseng and Nget Chet, "also asked Phnom Penh City Hall to intervene to end this case".

City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said yesterday that Sakhorn and Bopha's father, Yorm Yen, had "reconciled" with the alleged victims during meetings at City Hall last Friday.

"To me, when both sides agree to reconcile with one another, it means the plaintiff has dropped the charges against the defendant," Dimanche said.

But E Sophors, president of motodops group the Cambodia Confederation Development Association, said the intervention the alleged victims sought was more about being paid compensation.

"We need compensation for the treatment of our members. Dropping the charges should be decided by the court," he said.

The letter bears the thumbprints of Socheatvong, Sakhorn, Yen, a City Hall official, a lawyer, both alleged victims and Sophors.

Sakhorn, 57, said yesterday that he was asked to appear at City Hall on Friday by Sok Penhvuth, the deputy chief of Daun Penh district, along with Yen, to negotiate with his wife's two alleged victims.

According to the letter, both parties requested intervention in letters sent earlier this month.

Last December, Bopha was convicted on a charge of intentional violence after the court ruled she had ordered a screwdriver and axe attack on the two motodops at Boeung Kak.

She was sentenced to three years in prison, a sentence that was effectively reduced to two years when she appealed in June.

During her appeal trial, a judge said the testimony of Bopha's accusers contradicted earlier statements they had made, while rights groups say charges against her were motivated by her land activism.

Yesterday, nearly 100 lotus-wielding activists rallied outside the capital's Supreme Court building, calling for Bopha's release ahead of her final appeal hearing on Friday.

The imprisoned woman's 8-year-old son was by his father's side during the protest.

Demonstrators circulated around the Supreme Court building three times to the thrum of a drumbeat, tossing paper copies of the accusations lodged against Bopha into a bowl, which were then lit on fire and left to smoulder.

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Boeung Kak representative Tep Vanny, 32, who was among the supporters, said she was hopeful Bopha would be released.

"This is her last chance, but whatever the Supreme Court's decision, she must see justice – we can't ever lose hope," Vanny said, adding that she had visited Bopha in prison only yesterday.

Amnesty International launched a worldwide campaign yesterday calling for Bopha's release, involving activists in more than 30 different countries.

Rupert Abbott, the organisations's researcher on Cambodia, told the Post yesterday that Bopha's release would be a step forward for human rights in Cambodia.

"Amnesty International considers Yorm Bopha a prisoner of conscience. Thousands of our members around the world are taking action to call for her immediate and unconditional release," he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AMELIA WOODSIDE

An employee of the World Health Organization's Cambodia office shared insider information with a supplier who provided funds for his personal trips abroad, a Global Fund investigation released last week has found.

The investigation, conducted by the Global Fund's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), reveals that in 2009, a WHO Cambodia employee involved with the procurement of long-lasting insecticidal bed nets (LLIN) for the Global Fund had flights to Singapore paid for by Sumitomo Chemical Singapore (SCS), a mosquito net supplier.

The report says that the WHO employee "also appears to have shared information about upcoming LLIN needs in Cambodia with SCS during its efforts to win LLIN contracts".

The WHO told the Post yesterday it has launched its own investigation into the allegations and that the employee is no longer with the organisation.

SCS paid $1,990 to the employee, who is not identified, for a personal trip to Singapore for a medical check-up in December 2009, the investigation report, released on Thursday, found.

Emails attached to the report reveal that SCS also paid for a five-star hotel in Singapore for the WHO employee and his wife for a holiday in late January 2009.

The Global Fund suspended contracts with SCS and Swiss firm Vestergaard Frandsen after the two-and-a-half-year-long investigation found that the mosquito-net suppliers had paid direct "commissions" totalling $410,000 to the director and deputy-director of the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control (CNM) between 2006 and 2011 to secure contracts.

The report reveals that on January 18, 2009, 11 days after SCS confirmed that the Singapore hotel had been booked for the WHO employee's holiday, the employee notified SCS about an upcoming CNM procurement round in March prior to the tender being issued. In the same email – sent via his personal account – he provided the contact details of a WHO supply and administrative officer in Manila.

"Please do not say I provided this information to you, you can said (sic) it was [NAME REDACTED] who told you," the employee wrote.

In a follow-up email after SCS confirmed it could supply the 500,000 nets required, the WHO employee says that SCS should tell the WHO contact in Manila that it received the information from the CNM.

"In case you cannot [supply all of the nets], you should say you can supply 300,000 in March and between April-May for another 200,000," he writes.

"Sharing strategic or future procurement plans with only one bidder could provide that bidder with a competitive advantage over the others, as it enables the preplanning of production planning and availability of stock," the Global Fund report says.

The WHO affiliate office in Manila, "served as a Procurement Agent for several Global Fund contracts", according to the report.

The WHO employee in question was a member of CNM's bid evaluation committee for Global Fund procurements – a committee which played "an integral role in selecting the ultimate entity to win LLIN contracts", it adds.

Despite fingering this single employee, the OIG says elsewhere in its exhaustive report that it found "no evidence that [the] WHO had any knowledge of or participation in the schemes".

WHO Cambodia representative Dr Pieter van Maaren said yesterday that after being notified by the Global Fund that an employee was being investigated, it immediately began its own investigation.

"The investigation is ongoing. Therefore, WHO cannot comment about specifics of the case, except to note that the employee in question no longer works for the Organization," he said in an email.

"The World Health Organization has absolutely no tolerance for fraud or corruption by any of its employees."

Seth Faison, head of communications at the Global Fund, said that the investigation's findings would not affect the fund's relationship with the WHO.

"Our staff work closely with WHO all over the world, and this investigation will not affect the close cooperation, either in Cambodia or anywhere else," he said.

The Global Fund investigation found, in addition to commissions paid to top officials at the CNM, that a senior procurement officer at National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control had regularly manipulated procurements and accepted "facilitation" payments from suppliers.

It also uncovered that MEDiCAM, an umbrella organisation for a number of health NGOs, had improperly charged the Global Fund $20,725 for two staff positions that were not filled and that suppliers had spent more than $20,000 on gifts and other payments to the CNM director, his family members and other CNM officials.

The Global Fund has disbursed US$331 million for programs in Cambodia since 2003.

As Laos pushes toward its goal of becoming the "battery of Asia" through hydropower, its newfound claim that the location for the proposed Don Sahong dam is not on the Mekong River's main stream is provoking incredulity from some observers.

Less than two kilometres north of the Lao-Cambodian border, where the Don Sahong is slated to be built, developers call the Hou Sahong channel a Mekong tributary. Under the 1995 Mekong Agreement, that would require downstream neighbours only be notified – rather than consulted – before construction of a dam.

"But it's not on a tributary, it's on a channel in the middle of the Mekong," said Meach Mean, coordinator of the 3S Rivers Protection Network. "This is the one channel that fish can migrate up year-round to spawn; they cannot swim up the other channels in the dry season."

According to regulations outlined by the Mekong River Commission, if a dam changes mainstream river flow in the dry season, or diverts water from the mainstream in the rainy season, the country building it must consult with other member states prior to construction.

In 2007, the MRC Secretariat requested that the Don Sahong, as a year-round power generator using mainstream flows, file for prior consultation.

In the June MRC meeting, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia Alison Burrows asked on behalf of development partners including the US, European Union, Japan and the World Bank that the project undergo consultation.

Ignoring these requests, on September 30, Laos submitted a notification to the MRC, along with its intention to pursue construction beginning this month.

"The notification from the Lao government specifies that on average the Hou Sahong channel naturally carries 5 per cent of the total flow of the Mekong water in that area. This could imply that Lao PDR considers that water use on this channel would have limited impact on the water quality or flows regime of the Mekong mainstream," said Surasak Glahan, MRC Secretariat communications officer.

Last week, US-based NGO Conservation International called for a moratorium on Mekong hydropower projects.

And on Friday, NGOs in Thailand demanded an immediate halt to the dam's development in a public letter by the Foundation for Ecological Recovery.

"The Don Sahong Dam was registered as one of 12 mainstream dams [in earlier proposals] and all MRC country members were informed of this," reads the letter. "Engaging the 'prior notification' process instead of the 'prior consultation' reveals Laos PDR's action to distort information in order to quicken the construction process."

Officials at the MRC said they have not taken a position.

"What's happening with Don Sahong is showing a weakness in the MRC agreement," said Youk Senglong, from the Fisheries Action Coalition. "There isn't any sort of regional authority to turn to when countries don't follow the agreement."

Dam project managers did not return requests for comment.

A cache of 130 AK-47 rifles, ammunition and two unexploded rockets have been found by a group of children in the Oral mountain range, Kampong Chhnang police officials said yesterday.

Khem Vibol, police chief at Teuk Phos district, where the weapons were reported to the authorities, said yesterday that the weapons and unexploded ordnance (UXO) – B40 and B41 rockets – were found on Dos Kromom mountain on November 10.

The rifles were buried in a shallow hole and police are guarding the area while provincial police and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre decide how to proceed, he said. There are fears there may be unexploded mines in the area.

Penh Savat, the provincial acting director at CMAC, said he would collaborate with police to remove the UXO and rifles after the Water Festival holiday concludes.

He added that the mountain may have been an old Khmer Rouge base but was not easily accessible and would require an overnight march across six other mountains to reach the area.

Though a bit young to be socio-political analysts, Cambodia's children are major believers in the social value of education, are wary of the negative side effects of alcohol on their communities and place a high priority on honest government, a study released yesterday says.

Small Voices, Big Dreams, commissioned by the ChildFund Alliance, is a worldwide survey of the outlook of children aged 10 to 12 in both the developed and developing worlds.

According to the study, 90 per cent of Cambodian children believe that alcohol is the main cause of violence in their communities, while a third believe that the best remedy to violence is improved education. By comparison, only 16 per cent of those surveyed globally chose alcohol as the principle cause of violence, and only 12 per cent saw education as its solution.

"The view that young people have – that alcohol causes violence – is important," ChildFund country director Carol Mortensen said in a statement. "It is the responsibility of everyone to eradicate violence in the home and provide a safe and nurturing environment for all children."

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of Cambodian children surveyed chose "honest and responsive government" as their most important priority from a list of 16 issues including things like healthcare, security and education. Only 44 per cent of their peers worldwide shared their view. However, social and political researcher Kem Ley cautioned against reading too much into Cambodian children's seeming interest in politics, saying that much of it was likely a response to media exposure and older siblings' and parents' views.

"Those children that I observe just follow the older ones. I have four children, but my children tend to follow my way. They can accompany me to observe the political parties campaign, but they know nothing about that," Ley said.

"They like the Gangnam Style of [the opposition's] number 7, and they like the pictures broadcast through the TV of [the ruling party's] number 4, but they don't know anything at all about the politics."

Kandal Provincial Court on Sunday charged a man with fraud for allegedly impersonating a two-star police general and trading on the name of National Police Commissioner Neth Savoeun in order to scam police officials out of fake donations for flood victims, court prosecutor Uk Kimsith said yesterday.

According to Kimsith, the suspect, 44-year-old Diep Raden, was also charged with illegally possessing a weapon. Keo Dara, an officer with the Kandal Provincial Police, said that Raden was only found out when a victim called the commissioner's assistant to ask whether Savoeun had received his donation.

"He presented himself as a senior police official who was close to General Neth Savoeun. He raised money, saying that it was going to General Neth Savoeun for him to use for rescuing flood victims," he said. "But he kept it for his own use."

A man who allegedly threw a wok of hot frying oil at his former wife in Takeo province's Prey Kabbas district on Sunday was charged with intentional violence yesterday, local police officials have said.

Sem Socheat, the director of the provincial crime office, said that the man was arrested hours after the incident.

"The suspect's family tried to negotiate with the victim, but we have to stick to the law. If they want to negotiate with the victim, they should do it at the court,'' he said.

Court officials could not be reached to confirm the charge.

Chum Chheun, Prey Kabbas district police chief, said the suspect, 23-year-old Yeu Da was drunk when he entered the house of his ex-wife, Sak Maly, 18, and attacked her.

Fortunately, Maly only suffered light injuries as she had just changed the oil in the pan, Chheun said.