The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Week facing guns” plus 9 more

I don't think workers … find it an ideal way to spend a week facing guns and abuse by security forces. I am sure they would much like the labour law to be applied.

Dear Editor,

Looking into the issue deeper, we should have asked a very mainstream yet important question: whether increasing the wage of factory workers can really solve the problem that both the government and the workers are facing?

The tension and demands for higher wages started to become more critical when there were mass faintings reported at different factories.

With the increase in taxes and the price of food reported last month, will the wage raise really be the solution to the unrest? We can see that the price of food has become higher due to the increases in tax on food. The increase in tax has become an alarming factor for business people who have had to raise the prices of products.

Likewise, I believe an increase in wages will again signal the green light for business people to increase the price of products as increasing the wage will also increase demand. Increasing demand will eventually be a reason for business people to raise prices since there is no concrete body or regulator to limit and monitor the prices of products in Cambodia yet.

For this reason, the best solution for the government to tackle the problem is to find solutions to reduce market prices. The prices of products are high in Cambodia since Cambodia is a net importing country, according to the United Nations.

Cambodia even imports rice, the staple food, from neighbouring Vietnam and Thailand, even if Cambodia herself can produce surplus rice each year as there is a lack of production units to process the product.

The protests for wage rises will keep going if the prices of food and other products keep increasing. I would like to suggest that the government find solutions to decrease the market prices and to work on monitoring the market prices effectively.

Im Chanboracheat
Phnom Penh.

Dear Editor,

Today, Cambodia marks the 35th anniversary of the victory over the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime, which put to death nearly two million Cambodians between April 1975 and January 1979.

Although the anniversary has been politically controversial, educating the young generations of Cambodians about the KR period is critical to prevent the recurrence of the genocide, the spectre of which continues to haunt Cambodia today.

In the face of the political deadlock over the controversial national election of July 2013, violence and social upheaval once again threatens peace and national reconciliation.

One of the key avenues to addressing these issues is education, and a key question is: What have we done in the past 35 years in educating our children about the KR genocide?

The efforts in teaching genocide in Cambodia have gone through three important stages of development since they started in 1979.

In the 1980s, genocide education was largely ideological and state-sponsored, and was strictly implemented along the lines of the pro-Vietnamese communist models.

It effectively became a tool for state political propaganda and was part of the competing power struggles both inside and outside of Cambodia.

In the 1990s, when Cambodia transitioned from communism to multi-party democracy, the KR account was ironically completely deleted from the school curriculum, and teachers were reluctant to discuss any questions that touched upon KR issues in their classrooms.

The government policy might be likened to "dig a hole and bury the past". Although content on KR history was integrated back into the school curriculum in 2001, it was extremely brief – indeed, only two sentences appeared in a chapter on modern Cambodian history in national textbooks.

In 2004, the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) took the initiative to engage the public and the Ministry of Education to digest public opinion and to institutionalise genocide education respectively through its Genocide Education Project.

Within this project framework, DC-Cam augmented the history of the Cambodian genocide from these two sentences to its current position, in which it comprises an entire chapter of its own. Despite the long and concerted efforts in this endeavour, genocide education in Cambodia remains largely limited to the teaching of KR history, while many other important aspects – causes of genocide, genocide and human behaviour, the role of bystanders, genocide and the question of social morality, the impact of colonialism on genocide, genocide prevention, comparative genocide study, genocide in international law and the denial of genocide – have not been adequately addressed.

Given the recent violence, killings, incitement of discrimination and polarisation in Cambodian society, there is an urgent need to pay greater attention to and expand genocide education to allow the young generations to draw upon our nation's past experiences as lessons that can help shape their individual attitudes and overall social morality.

A comprehensive understanding of the KR genocide and the history of the Cambodian conflicts will mold the young generations to be excellent catalysts for change and produce informed citizens who will contribute to civil society engagement and democratic practices and who will build a just, equitable and peaceful society.

Khamboly Dy
Author, A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979)
Documentation Center of Cambodia

The Cambodia National Rescue Party is preparing to file a complaint to the International Criminal Court against Prime Minister Hun Sen over the deadly violence against striking factory workers last week.

CNRP deputy president Kem Sokha told reporters yesterday that the party was working with the families of those killed when riot police on Friday opened fire on workers gathered at Veng Streng Boulevard in the capital's Meanchey district.

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"We are preparing the procedure, and we have enough international lawyers to do this work," Kem Sokha said, without elaborating.

He added he believed enough evidence had been amassed to sue Hun Sen at the court.

"[The crackdown] is enough for the national [and] international communities to see the mistake of the government, and I believe that … the international community would put pressure on the government to give back freedom to our people."

Heang Rithy, president of the Cambodian National Research Organization, and Ny Chakrya, chief investigator at rights group Adhoc, argued that the violence was a systematic, disproportional use of force and not a response to clashes.

"Why can't [we] file a complaint? There is adequate evidence now [to take the government to the ICC]," Rithy said. "This was not clashes, this was murder."

Chakrya of Adhoc agreed.

"What took place at Veng Sreng Boulevard was arranged … to shoot on the crowd of people without targeting anyone specifically," he said. "It was systematic. It was not a chance clash between workers and police."

But Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan dismissed the move, saying it was unlikely to harm the government. "Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha and some allies are always thinking of the ICC to indict [members of the government]. A number of times, the ICC did not consider [such requests]," he said.

"My prime minister is a man of law, [trying to] make peace for the factory workers and bring back law and order. A number of countries do the same thing, because the majority needs peace, not mob violence."

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DANIEL PYE

More than 10,000 ruling party members will gather today on Koh Pich to celebrate January 7 "Victory Day" and mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Divisive under ordinary circumstances, the holiday this year comes only days after brutal police crackdowns on opposition demonstrators and striking garment workers – raising concerns of possible clashes.

And though authorities have been swift in their response to anyone seeking to demonstrate, or even gather in small groups, following a Saturday ban on public protest; it appears that today's annual celebration held by the CPP will continue unhindered.

The public holiday marks the January 7, 1979, overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime by Vietnamese forces and Cambodian communist defectors, which has long been touted by CPP leaders as their crowning achievement and source of legitimacy.

Many, however – including the Cambodia National Rescue Party – see the date as the beginning of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, which they believe, despite official withdrawal in 1989, continues today in the form of political influence from Hanoi.

The opposition's strong rhetoric against illegal Vietnamese immigration strongly appealed to voters in the lead-up to July's election and anti-Vietnamese sentiments appear to have increased in the post-election period.

On Friday, several ethnic Vietnamese-owned shops were attacked and looted by demonstrators, according to local authorities and the Vietnamese embassy.

Protesters and bystanders during recent police crackdowns have also said they believe the authorities are using Vietnamese officers to commit violence.

The ruling party appears to be acutely aware of the tensions today's event will generate.

"The recent crackdown on demonstrations is one of the measures taken to prevent anarchic protesters, who may use this opportunity to protest against our event and the Vietnamese," senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said yesterday, adding that celebrations would take place across the country.

Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak, who has emerged as a lone voice among local human rights groups against the opposition's anti-Vietnamese rhetoric, said he was worried that further incidents of anti-Vietnamese violence could occur today.

He added that the threat of more government crackdowns was also a concern.

"It could go both ways, and the CPP might try to find any excuse to crack down on legitimate debate on the day," he said.

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy said yesterday that he believed the violent clearing of Freedom Park and orders to halt all demonstrations were partly designed to ensure anti-government protests would not overshadow the ruling party's celebrations.

"Definitely there are relations between the two events. The fact that until recently there were massive demonstrations with a very strong show of support for the opposition [is] a humiliation … so when the CPP celebrates January 7, they definitely could not allow [that] to continue," he said.

Party spokesman Yim Sovann said the opposition had called on its supporters to remain calm and condemned attacks on Vietnamese businesses.

"We condemn any attacks of violence and we appeal to all people to respect strictly the principle of non-violence," he said.

The Vietnamese embassy had received word that some "extremist nationalist" protesters had attacked some ethnic Vietnamese-owned shops after being "incited", said spokesman Tran Van Thong.

But, he added, "we are not worried about the anti-Vietnamese feelings of the protesters, because the Cambodian government controls the country in accordance with the laws, and the majority of Cambodian people are kind to Vietnamese people".

But Son Soubert, Human Rights Party president and high privy councilor to King Norodom Sihamoni, said he did not believe all demonstrators could be controlled by the party.

"You cannot control them. [So] if they want to express their feelings, they may go alone."

Two men and two teenagers were arrested on Friday and sent to court yesterday for attempting to smuggle more than one cubic metre of luxury timber in Stung Treng, a forestry administrator said.

Su Phet, Thala Barivat district forestry administration director, told the Post yesterday that his unit worked in conjunction with the local military police to arrest the four, who hauled the timber on three homemade tractors.

"They were transporting one-and-a-half cubic metres of luxury timber, and they have told us that they were hired by another person who offered to pay them $200 for each cubic metre they transported," he said.

The four suspects, who all reside in Thala Barivat's Anlong Phe commune, are Thong Kong, 31, Vorn Noeurn, 20, Prim Buncheut, 15, and Thei Sobin, 14.

Ho Sam Ol, a coordinator at rights group Adhoc in Stung Treng, said logging continued unabated in the area because police went after only those at the bottom of the chain, rather than the real culprits.

"Generally, the authorities arrest only the employees, while the middle-men or timber owners are rarely arrested," he said.

"We believe that the authorities know who these men are who are responsible for the timber crime, but they do not investigate them or look for them."

Up to 200 villagers in Takeo's Angkor Borei district protested outside the district hall for the second time in a month yesterday, demanding the prices of electricity and water be lowered.

Villagers from Angkor Borei and Prek Phtorl communes had protested in December over the same issue, and said they did so again yesterday because there has been no resolution.

A village representative, Um Keav, told the Post yesterday that the villagers are demanding that the authorities lower the electricity rate from 1,200 riel ($0.30) per kilowatt-hour to 800 riel ($0.20) per kilowatt-hour, and lower the water rate from 2,300 riel ($0.57) to 1,600 riel ($0.40) per cubic metre of water, as the electricity and water companies had promised.

"The electricity and clean-water price is so high at the moment and the villagers cannot afford it," Keav said. He added that the electricity company, Nou Kruy, used to supply electricity to the area from a generator, but for the last three years had been sourcing cheaper electricity from Vietnam through local authorities without lowering prices for residents.

Angkor Borei district deputy governor Puy Rotha said yesterday that the authorities do not set the price for electricity and water. They had, however, contacted the electricity company to ask for an explanation on behalf of the residents, he said.

Rotha also insisted that the water company is unable to lower its rate to the level asked by residents because it would lose money.

"The clean water company has explained to the people and showed them the calculations that show that if they lower their prices, they will go bankrupt," he said.

"The price is the same in other areas."

Two young men were charged on Sunday with smuggling drugs into Kandal provincial prison, where they sold them to prisoners, according to police and a prison guard.

Dina Samedy, 17, and Math Sokry, 18, both from Kandal, were arrested on Friday inside the prison by guards while trying to distribute nine small packages of methamphetamine to prisoners, a guard unauthorised to speak to the press said yesterday.

According to the guard, Samedy and Sokry were attempting to deliver the drugs to two prisoners identified as Chea Mariya, 21, and Sroh Sorphoan, 22. Mariya was convicted for attempted murder and is serving an eight-year prison sentence while Sorphoan was sentenced to four years in prison for drug trafficking.

Both Samedy and Sokry were charged with drug trafficking and are now in Kandal provincial prison, according to Brigadier General Eav Chamreoun, chief of provincial police.

With only two public wards specialising in cancer care for both sexes, a cancer diagnosis for some living in the Kingdom can be tantamount to a death sentence.

Out of a population of 15 million plus, just 14,000 new cancer patients are being diagnosed each year, a figure that would likely be higher if proper diagnostics were within reach of the average citizen, according to Dr Eav Sokha, head of oncology at Calmette Hospital.

"My dream is to develop a national cancer treatment centre in Cambodia with high quality of care and diagnosis before I retire," Sokha said.

That dream could be arriving faster than expected. On January 13, a groundbreaking ceremony will mark the start of construction on the Kingdom's first National Cancer Centre.

"What makes this new National Cancer Centre special is the difference in the level of technology available; everything will be new and on par with equipment used in developed Western countries," Sokha explained.

The new centre – set to eventually replace Calmette's current Oncology Services building – will feature four state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines, a PET-CT scanner capable of creating images of cell activity, and a Spectre Gamma Camera, all slated to be installed in 2016.

Medical technology capable of diagnosing cancer, let alone treating it, is in scant supply in the Kingdom, professor Kouy Samnang, chief of oncology services at Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, said.

"We used to have two radiology machines but one broke in 2012 and the other is need of an upgrade. The operational one is used on 40-50 patients a day," Samnang said, adding that in the first six months of 2013, the hospital diagnosed 637 patients with cancer. While Calmette has operating radiology machines and scanning technology capable of spotting a tumour, everything is in desperate need of an upgrade, according to Sokha.

Calmette's current cancer ward and Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital are the two primary national hospitals operating with established oncology services, said Dr Khim Sam Ath, a technical officer specialising in non-communicable diseases for the World Health Organization's Cambodia offices.

However, any numbers on how many Cambodians are afflicted with cancer are sparse. According to Sam Ath, the most up-to-date data on cancer in the Kingdom was last collected in 2008, despite non-communicable diseases being ranked among the Kingdom's top four health priorities in the health strategic plan for 2008 to 2012.

In the 2008, there were 12,900 new cases of cancer in Cambodia, according to a report conducted by the government and the WHO. With so many patients and so few opportunities for quality treatment, it is unsurprising that those diagnosed often believe the disease to be untreatable.

Van Saroeun, 53, a cancer patient receiving care in Phnom Penh, was told that the pain spreading through her lungs would end after six treatments.

But, she said, she had little hope for recovery.

"I was panicked when they told me I had cancer. I know now that my life will not be long with this illness."

A Battambang man murdered his wife on Sunday by first striking her with an axe, then burning their home down with her inside it, before killing himself, police said yesterday.

Deputy provincial police chief Chet Vanny said yesterday that Hear Im, 36, a resident of Battambang province's Samlot district, murdered his wife, Dok Ly, 50, in a drunken rage, then struck himself in the head with his axe and slit his own throat with a knife.

"The experts claimed that the suspect's body did not have any drugs [in it], but before the event, he was very drunk, and that's why he attacked his wife."

According to Vanny, Im flew into a rage after arriving home drunk and being criticised by Ly for drinking before lunch. It was unclear whether Ly was still alive when the building burned down.

Ly Buoy, Samlot district police chief, said Ly had had five children – two of whom were home, but managed to escape – before settling down with Im, and the couple often fought and filed complaints against each other with authorities.

Local villagers called the police, Buoy added, but none dared to help the victim as the suspect was wielding a knife and an axe.