The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “11 more arrested” plus 9 more

Eleven rights activists were detained by Phnom Penh Municipal security forces this morning then released hours later after they marched to the US Embassy to deliver a petition calling for the release of 23 people jailed during the brutal crackdown earlier this month.

The arrested activists, including Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, and Boeung Kak lake activists Tep Vanny and Yorm Bopha, were detained by district security forces wearing black helmets after delivering the petition.

Six people were detained outside the US Embassy and five more, including Chhun, were taken away about 10 minutes later in a police van on their way to the French Embassy.

Chhun, who spoke to the Post following his release, said that he and the other 10 detainees were made to thumbprint contracts in which they agreed to not take part in future protests, a condition of yesterday's release of Sok Chhun Oeung of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association.

"We thumbprinted the contract letter that warned us not to incite protesters to illegally protest," Chhun said. "[Phnom Penh city governor] Pa Socheatvong does not respect the law. He ordered the security guards that are informal security to arrest us without arrest warrants ... it is illegal. The authorities do not respect the law. So how can we believe that they practice [proper] law enforcement?"

As the morning's drama unspooled earlier, several activists from the Boeung Kak community took shelter near the US Embassy gate, with embassy staff negotiating with the security forces so they could leave without arrest. However, the security guards formed a roadblock near Calmette Hospital on Monivong Boulevard, forcing some of the women into a waiting police truck.

The protesters then proceeded to the French and British embassies and the country headquarters of Unicef.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, said the continued use of untrained security forces to enforce the ban on public gatherings was a worrying sign.

"This comes from this notion that they need to establish control of the streets and remove constitutional rights to free expression. Only in a state of emergency this happens," he said.

"They must be learning from China and Vietnam. This is what they do. These are basically hired thugs; it's a lot easier to hire thugs."

Others temporarily detained today include Boeung Kak activists Song Sreyleap, Pan Chunreth, Bov Sorphea, Erm Sreytouch and Ngoun Kimlang as well as Choung Sopheap from the Thmor Kaul airport-area community, Long Kim Heang of the Housing Rights Task Force and Cheang Thida, an activist with the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions.

Rights group Licadho, in a statement released after the 11 were arrested, said that 22 of the 23 arrested after the crackdown on garment workers and opposition supporters earlier this month had been refused bail.

The Phnom Penh Appeal Court has yet to rule on whether Vorn Pov, president of Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association, should be granted bail.

We invited him so he could learn about how to follow the law.

Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called on all embassies and consulates to accelerate visa application procedures and cease charging "unofficial" fees, in an apparent bid to stamp out corruption abroad.

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong issued the directive last week.

The standard, 30-day single-entry visa to Cambodia should cost $20, which includes a $5 processing charge if completed online before arrival, according to the ministry's website.

Koy Kuong, spokesman for the ministry, said the directive was intended to allow speedier entry for tourists and potential investors, who can also spend $25 to apply for a one-month, extendable business visa either from abroad or on arrival.

He did not say how endemic the illegal practice of charging extra is, or offer details about the sums being levied on visa applicants. Allegations of travel-related graft typically stem from border crossings, not from embassies abroad.

"It was issued to remind embassies to process visas as quickly as possible and not to charge fees for 'faster processing' of visas," he said, stressing that "there is no official fee for speeding up your visa processing."

The Flying Tigers touched off Kew Park Rangers 5-4 in the Boys U14 Premier section of the ISF Barclays Youth Football League on Sunday.

With the exception of this tight finish, three other games in the category were one-sided. Sunshine proved too strong for Appleton Wild Cats 2's 3-0 while Tonle Sap Teddy Bears hunted down Hagar BRP 6-1.

The Blue Flag (A New Day Cambodia) recorded a runaway 15-1 win over Juice Master United.

Nicolaus Mesterharm first met the late Svay Ken in a professional context: the artist was an interview subject for one of his films. But it didn't take long before Mesterharm and the man he described as "the father of modern art in Cambodia" established a friendship which grew alongside the cultural centre he founded, Meta House.

"He was one of the first artists that I met," Mesterharm recalled in an interview at his office last week. "Although my Khmer is limited, and his English was very limited, we developed a kind of friendship, and I visited him from time to time, and was also there in his last days and went to the funeral."

Tonight, Mesterharm will have the opportunity to pay tribute to his old friend once more, at the opening of Meta House's new exhibition Phnom Penh Painter. The exhibition, which is part of the arts and culture celebration Our City Festival, coincides with Meta House's seventh birthday and comes shortly after the fifth anniversary of Ken's death in December 2008. The paintings will feature a range of his works, including depictions of iconic Phnom Penh landmarks as well as more intimate family portraits.

Ken's bright colours and bold figures and objects are reminiscent of 20th-century European styles, Expressionism in particular. The first Cambodian artist to be exhibited internationally post-Khmer Rouge, he was, for Mesterharm, "considered the father of modern art in Cambodia". Remarkably, however, he was never formally trained and belonged to no established school of artistic thought. He took up his brush in 1993 at the age of 60, having worked as a waiter at Hotel Le Royal since the 1950s, a career that was interrupted only by the Khmer Rouge regime and a brief stint as a monk. He was subsequently discovered by the American curator Ingrid Muan.

Mesterharm said: "He had no influences, because when he started to paint it was during the 1990s – the UNTAC years. There was no internet, he couldn't travel, there were no books, he never went to university, he was a waiter – the main influence was the way he saw the world around him."

Ironically, however, it was this job that would provide a window on landmark historical events throughout 20th-century Phnom Penh, which Ken would use as the subject of his work. Included in the exhibition, for example, is a depiction of a grenade attack at Kandal Market when the Japanese were leaving Cambodia in 1945. Ken wasn't witness to this event, but his portrayal is based on what his uncle told him at the time.

"A lot of his ouevre is centred around Cambodian history, from the invasion of the Japanese in the Second World War all through the Khmer Rouge and modern times," Mesterharm said.

"It's a huge body of work with the Cambodian history, but he also painted the life of a Cambodian family. If you look at his paintings, even though you might not like the style, people must acknowledge the value that it has in documenting how Cambodian people live. That's all in the paintings: politics, the Khmer Rouge, food, weddings – everything has been discussed; it's all been documented."

Svay Pisith, Ken's youngest of five children – the artist's wife died in 2000 – said that he felt honoured that his father's works would once again go on display. "It is a great time for my family, and we're very happy. I feel the deepest emotions when I show his paintings, because I feel that he's here with all of us," he said.

Phnom Penh Painter opens at 6pm tonight at Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard.

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling on the bloc's executive body to urgently act on an EU preferential trade scheme found to have carried high risks of human rights violations in Cambodia through land evictions for industrial sugar development.

In a January 16 resolution, EU parliamentarians called on the European Commission "to act, as a matter of urgency, on the findings of the recent human rights impact assessment of the functioning of the EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) initiative in Cambodia".

It also asks the commission to consider obligating exporters seeking to take advantage of EBA privileges "to testify that they have not evicted people from their land and homes without adequate compensation".

The resolution is the latest missive from the EU parliament on the long-standing issue, following a similar resolution in October 2012 that called on the commission to investigate human rights abuses by EU-exporting sugar companies and withdraw trade preferences if abuses were found. In May last year, top EU officials said the situation was under "close review" but did not agree to an investigation or to withdraw preferences until certain legal conditions were met.

In response, Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International (IDI), two NGOs that have long lobbied the EU on the issue, produced their own human rights impact assessment of the scheme, which found that the EBA carried "risks of devastating human rights impacts".

David Pred, managing associate at IDI, said yesterday that the resolution was a "clear call to action" by the only democratically elected EU body.

"We are hopeful that it will not be dismissed once again by the bureaucrats in Brussels," he said.

EU Ambassador Jean-François Cautain said yesterday that the parliamentary resolution was "yet another strong signal that the topic is high in EU institutions", adding that the EU had taken note of the human rights impact assessment and was considering possible responses.

Migrant workers and students who have won scholarships abroad will now pay only a small tax fee for passports, according to a government sub-decree enacted this month that seeks to reprise a similar effort from 2008 widely perceived to have been ineffective.

The latest sub-decree, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen late last month, says that for workers and students, the government will deliver standard Cambodian passports no fewer than 20 days after receiving the application, and will shoulder $100 of the usually $120 fee, leaving applicants to pay just $24 – $20 for a tax stamp and $4 for a photo.

"[Payment for] the … passports given to Cambodian workers and students … is the responsibility of the government," reads a copy of the sub-decree in last month's Royal Book. "All ministers and directors of the institutions concerned have to implement this sub-decree from January 1, 2014."

Hun Sen signed an almost identical sub-decree in November 2008, telling a meeting of business leaders at the time that the cost for a "photo is $4, and the $20 for stamps is the responsibility of the applicants".

The measure, however, was derided as largely ignored, and rights groups regularly reported workers paying officials much more than even the standard $120 fee.

Passport police official Pheng Sunheng yesterday denied that passport officials accepted more than the $24 fee, and attributed the phenomenon to third-party passport brokers.

"Regarding workers' complaints [about paying] $270 or $300, that is the way they apply through the companies, not through our agents," he said.

But an official at the Passport Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that there was a sliding scale of fees: $130 to $135 to receive a passport in about a month and a half; $200 to $250 to wait just a week; and $270 to $300 to wait even less.

"In fact, they can do it in one day, but if they work late, you have to spend more for officers and their cronies," he said.

Moeun Tola of the Community Legal Education Center said that he was unsurprised by the new sub-decree, given that the government had consistently failed to implement the last one for five years. The current cost, he added, had priced most workers out of legal emigration.

"All of this [pricing] is just on the paper. Even the recruitment agencies say to me, 'If we can get passports anywhere for $25, please help us do it,'" he said. "Due to current passport problems, workers are forced to [emigrate] and work illegally."

Nonetheless, demand for Cambodian passports has gone up, from 160,000 applicants in 2012 to 210,000 in the first nine months of 2013 alone, according to passport police.

Upcoming elections for district, city and provincial councillors will follow a period of "education", the National Election Committee has announced, despite observers' view that the results are all but preordained.

And though the May 18 vote is only open to sitting commune councillors, NEC secretary-general Tep Nytha said yesterday that the election body would also be updating the list of eligible voters ahead of the poll.

However, Koul Panha, executive director of election monitor Comfrel, said the results of the vote could "absolutely" be predicted accurately today.

"It's an undemocratic election, because they use indirect elections with a proportional system, allowing [only] the commune councillors to vote. They're able to determine the result [beforehand]," he said.

Thida Khus, director of local poll monitor Silaka, said: "We support this council election as it is very important for the decentralisation policy, even though we know it is under the influence of the party leadership."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DANIEL PYE

Police yesterday morning released a union leader arrested on Sunday for leading a demonstration, as watchdogs questioned the legality of the protest ban that led to the arrest.

Sok Chhun Oeung, acting president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA) walked out of Phnom Penh Municipal Police Department at about 10am after signing a contract agreeing not to lead or participate in future demonstrations and notify police of any illegal activity of which he becomes aware, Oeung told the <>Post shortly after his release.

"The authorities who arrested me violated the constitutional law of Cambodia," he said. "This action is a violation of human rights as well."

But according to Phnom Penh City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, authorities did not arrest Oeung – they invited him to the police station.

"We invited him so he could learn about how to follow the law," said Dimanche, who noted that Oeung did not have authorisation to hold his planned vigil. Authorities released him, Dimanche said, because his offence was not very severe.

Public gatherings were banned in the wake of demonstrations on January 2 and 3 supporting a garment workers' strike that turned violent, culminating with soldiers opening fire into a crowd of demonstrators and killing at least four.

Oeung was arrested on Sunday, after he led fellow IDEA members to Phnom Penh's Riverside across from the Royal Palace, and attempted to hold a vigil honouring the 23 men arrested during the demonstrations earlier this month. The 23 detainees – including IDEA president Vorn Pov, for whom Oeung is standing in – remain at Correctional Centre 3 (CC3) in Kampong Cham.

"The arrest shows the government is going to be very, very strict in enforcing the ban on public demonstration," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. "The problem is the ban in unconstitutional.… You can't just ban public demonstrations without first declaring a state of emergency."

A statement released by UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia Surya Subedi last week says such a ban is only legal under international standards if a state of public emergency that "threaten the life of a nation" is declared.

As Oeung left the police station – where he was detained in an office, not a cell – 14 IDEA members were in Kampong Cham, where authorities at CC3 allowed them to see Pov and the 22 other detainees.

After visiting Pov, Long Vuthy, who noted the beating Pov received during and after his arrest exacerbated a kidney problem, said the IDEA president seemed in rough shape.

"Pov's health is still weak and his face was pale," Vuthy said. "It seems likes he is suffering from his kidney wound."

Almost 50 livestock slaughterers in Preah Vihear town yesterday protested a rise in taxes and fees they must to pay on their products.

According to rights group Adhoc's provincial coordinator Lor Chan, those who slaughter pigs and cows were required, until recently, to pay 10,000 riel, about $2.50, per cow and 8,000 riel per pig to the abattoir, 3,000 riel per cow and 1,500 riel per pig in taxes, and 2,000 riel per cow and 1,500 riel per pig to the local animal health office.

However, a January 16 order from Preah Vihear town Governor Nuth Sophorn to vendors at the local Kampong Pranak market raised all three fees across the board by 2,000 riel for cows, and 1,000 riel for pigs, squeezing local vendors, Chan said yesterday.

Vendor Muy Manet, 42, said that he was one of those feeling the pressure.

"Since the price is increasing, and we have to pay so many steps for services and tax, we can't sell for profit," he said.

Pin Raksmey, chief of the committee at Kampong Pranak market, said that the problem was out of his hands.

"The market isn't the person who set the price; it is for the authority to set the price for us," he said.