The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Land activists pan UN speech” plus 9 more

Land rights activists gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to protest against comments made by Cambodia's representative to the UN Human Rights Council Mak Sambath during last week's review of the country's human rights record in Geneva.

More than 100 representatives of communities in Boeung Kak, Borei Keila, Thmor Kol and other areas where there have been disputes with authorities, gathered yesterday morning at the home of prominent Boeung Kak activist Tep Vanny.

Protesters waved flags and lit incense as they prepared an altar to burn with a sign that read "Thank you, Mak Sambath."

Vanny kicked off the protest by playing a recording of Sambath's speech to the UN Human Rights Council from January 28, when Cambodia underwent its Universal Periodic Review.

In the speech, Sambath claimed that if displaced people had lived on state-owned land they would be provided with fair compensation and a relocation site close to their original homes.

"The state offers them lands in different places, money, and prepares the infrastructure for them," Sambath said in the speech. He went on to claim that in the case of Boeung Kak, about 1,000 people were falsely trying to claim recompense.

"It is a difficult task. Originally, there were only 500 people [at the site], but when the measurement [of land for compensation] took place, the number increased … up to 1,500 people, and we did not know why the number increased so quickly," he said. "We need the real data … who are the real people and who are pretending?"

In a statement read at the protest, the activists questioned Sambath's account of the compensation process.

"This shows the corruption, weakness and inability of the authorities … the government just pays lip service in solving the disputes," the statement said.

Sar Sorn, 57, from the Borei Keila community, said yesterday that Sambath's address was "a lie to the UN".

"Please, Sambath, will you visit the displaced families at Phnom Bath whether we have roads, water, electricity, health centres and schools like you said? We are discarded there," she said.

Sambath declined to comment on the issue yesterday, adding only that "It's their right to speak."

Several teams recorded flattering victory margins as the Barclays ISF Youth Football League completed its ninth week of competition at the National Institute of Physical Education and Sports on Sunday.

The Boys U14 and U10 sections were virtually overflowing with goals, with the winners and losers accounting for close to 170 goals.

The Blue Flag set the trend with a 20-3 thrashing of Appleton Wildcats 2's in the Boys U14 Premier category. There was no dearth of goals in the other four matches as well.

The Wildcats first unit, however, struck a winning note, beating Hagar 5-3. The Flying Tigers were all over Tonle Sap Teddybears in their 17-6 win while Flying Dragons put out Sunshine 8-4 and Scherinin demolished Pun Phnom School 14-1In the U10 section, The Seasiders' plight was somewhat similar to the Wildcats'. ASPECA were merciless in their 20-2 drubbing of The Seasiders 2's, even as the Seasiders 1's left the ground with smiles on their faces after prevailing 9-6 over Sunrise.

In other matches, Hagar beat MJB 10-7 and The Cavalry charged home to a 17-1 win over Flying Tigers. It was bitter-sweet for Robas Rangers. While the Rangers first team beat Blue Eagles 10-7, Rangers second string went down, ironically, 10-7 to Covehead Gunners.

Girls U14 Group A results saw Chak Kropop Po Mongkol beat FABBA's Tigers 9-2 and GXD Larrikins edge Super Sonics 3-2.

Meanwhile in Group B, Taylormade overcame Ruby Murray's Ladies 6-3, while Blue Dragons routed Northbridge Nomads 8-2.

In Girls U18 games, ASPECA bested The Blue Eagles 1-0, and A New Day Cambodia won 4-1 over Flying Tigers.

It started unexpectedly. Craving homemade food during her pregnancy, a Cambodian woman who was living in London and had never cooked before embarked on a journey that would turn her into a chef and the author of globally recognised cookbooks.

Ambarella, Cambodian Cuisine, by Kanika Linden and her mother Sorey Long, has won the Best Asian Cuisine Cookbook category in the 2013 international Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. With the award now under their belt, the pair will compete for the Best in the World title, the result of which will be announced at the annual awards ceremony in May.

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Available in Europe and the US, Ambarella, Cambodian Cuisine showcases more than 100 authentic Cambodian recipes, and is the second book from the mother-daughter duo who published Authentic Cambodian Recipes, from Mother to Daughter, in 2010. That book was originally published in French under the title Au Pays de la Pomme Cythere, de Mere en Fille, Authentiques Recettes Khmer.

Linden's family settled in France after fleeing Cambodia in 1975, when she was five years old. As her father was part of the government, the family was evacuated by helicopter from the US embassy and later landed in a refugee camp in San Diego. Linden's father chose to live in France, where his daughter went to school. After graduating from French business school ESSEC, she moved to London and has lived there for the past 15 years.

It was there that idea for the books came to her, when she was pregnant with her first child. She now has three.

"I was craving for my mum's Cambodian food. I had not learned to cook as my mother felt it as her duty to cook and feed her children. Very few Cambodian cookbooks were available. My mother had penned down her recipes over 10 years and the idea to gather them in a cookbook became compelling."

The pair began to talk about family recipes and history, Linden said.

"As my mother's life unfolded, I learned about her family and her budding passion for food. For both of us, it was a journey of reconnection," she said.

Her husband encouraged the pair to turn the project into a reality and it finally happened when Linden travelled to Cambodia to visit her parents in 2008. Here she began using photography skills developed in picture-taking classes and a brief period of work for a photography charity to document Khmer ingredients, including the sour ambarella fruits, or m'kak in Khmer.

"I spent many days on measuring quantities and cooking times as in the traditional cooking, kitchen scales and timers were not used. I created conversion charts between imperial, metric and American measurement so that the book could be easily used by all."

Linden also created an exhaustive glossary containing pictures, Latin names, descriptions of the ingredients as well as possible substitutes for those living in countries where Cambodian ingredients are scarce.

As she was self-publishing, Linden and some friends took charge of each step of the process, from photography and translation to design, editing, publishing and distribution.

Linden received the first copies of the French edition on April 17, 2009 – 24 years to the day after the fall of Phnom Penh.

"For me this was more than a pure coincidence. It was as if the book had a life of its own and was telling us, 'instead of focusing on tragedy, we can choose to see the beauty of Cambodia through its culinary tradition'."

Despite a year of record labour strikes, a larger manufacturing presence has helped Cambodia's garment sector continue its upward trend in 2013.

According to Ministry of Commerce figures published by China's state-run news agency Xinhua, exports were valued at $5.5 billion last year, a 20 per cent hike from $4.6 billion in 2012.

Ken Ratha, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, told Xinhua that growth could be attributed to more orders and greater investment.

But year-on-year figures alone do not provide the entire picture, said Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC). Loo pointed out that growth should be greater than 20 per cent, as GMAC saw a 30 per cent membership increase in 2013.

"If it is grown proportionally, then at least that is acceptable," Loo said.

The rise occurred amid daunting strike action throughout 2013, capped off by a boycott over minimum wages towards the end of the year and into January that cost factories millions of dollars.

Year-end strike data has yet to be completed, but as of November of last year, the count of 131 strikes had already surpassed the previous 2012 total of 121, according to GMAC, which has been keeping track since 2003. This equates to more than 825,000 lost shifts, GMAC calculates.

Strikes took an ugly turn on January 3, when wage-related protests resulted in the shooting deaths of at least four workers in Phnom Penh.

Amid falling local production in Italy, officials there are calling on the European Union to scrap a preferential trade agreement that gives Cambodia's rice exports duty-free advantages in the global market.

According to a January 31 report from rice industry publication Oryza, members of the Italian government and the country's rice sector met to discuss a proposal for changing or discontinuing the Everything But Arms agreement, which grants developing nations like Cambodia duty-free and quota-free shipping on their exports, excluding weapons, to European countries.

The proposal comes amid claims that Cambodian rice shipments are deeply affecting the European agricultural sector, though the decrease in Italy is not sizable, according to Oryza, and Cambodian government data shows that Italy's portion of total rice imports is on the small side.

Oryza's report says that Italian paddy rice production has fallen 5.6 per cent, from 1.5 million tons in 2011 to 1.47 million tons in 2013. Although Cambodia's rice exports last year skyrocketed 85 per cent from 2012, and the EU accounted for about 60 per cent of the 379,000 tons, Italy received a mere 9,874 of the whole, placing it 11th overall among 66 countries.

While it is unlikely that the EU will immediately revoke Cambodia's EBA status, Mey Kalyan, a co-writer of Cambodia's rice export policy and senior adviser to the Supreme National Economic Council, said producers and exporters must understand it will not last forever: "It is like an early warning sign for us to stay ready and competitive, and think beyond the Everything but Arms initiative," Kalyan said.

The Italian government's bid to reduce foreign imports and increase domestic rice production is the second time Cambodia's EBA status has been threatened in as many months.

In late December, allegations that Cambodian rice farmers had intentionally mixed their product with Vietnamese rice prompted a swift warning from EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht that local exporters must ensure cross-border contamination does not occur.

While rice industry insiders dismissed the allegations, they vowed to establish a code of conduct to reassure the EU that rice from Cambodia was indeed from Cambodia.

David Van, deputy-secretary general for the Alliance of Rice Producers and Exporters of Cambodia, said in an email yesterday that it was hypocritical of the Italian government to claim developing countries were receiving unfair subsidies, as European countries have long benefited from similar EU deals.

"Cambodian farmers get absolutely ZERO subsidies from their government. So we can easily argue on the 'unbalanced' level playing field between Cambodian farmers and EU farmers," he said.

Kim Savuth, president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters, pleaded with the EU to continue to honour the EBA trade agreement.

"If the EU decides to tax Cambodian rice exports, Cambodian rice farmers and exporters will certainly be hurt," he said.

A woman, 44, appeared in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday, charged with selling a 13-year-old orphan into prostitution.

Kim Dany, the presiding judge, said Em Sophea was accused of kidnapping the girl – who was born HIV-positive – from New Hope for Cambodian Children (NHCC), an orphanage in Kandal's Takhmao town, and selling her to have sex with her gambling partner at a brothel in the capital's Chamkarmon district last June.

"She brought the girl to visit her family, and finally sold her to have sex with a man," Dany said.

According to Sok Phalla, executive director of NHCC, the girl had disappeared from the orphanage before returning on her own three days later.

"I have noticed she was pale, and looked very tired. And there were many injuries on both her arms and legs. She soon told us that she was abducted by this accused woman, and detained inside her house," Phalla said.

A medical examination revealed serious injuries to the girl's genital area, likely as a result of being raped, he added.

The orphanage filed a complaint, demanding about $5,000 in compensation, and an arrest was made.

Sophea denied the accusations at yesterday's hearing, asking the court to drop the charges against her.

After four hours, Dany postponed the session to an unspecified date.

If found guilty, Sophea faces up to 20 years in prison.

A youth activist has filed a complaint against Prime Minister Hun Sen at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, accusing him of illegally ceding Koh Tral and Koh Krachak Ses islands, now known as Phu Quoc and Tho Chu, respectively, to Vietnam.

Neang Sokhun, 25, president of Khmer Youth Federation of Patriots, said he had enough evidence to sue Hun Sen.

"I have adequate evidence to … accuse Mr Prime Minister Hun Sen. I have some documents that [Hun Sen] signed with the yuon [Vietnamese] prime minister in 1982," Sokhun said. "I am not scared of [filing a complaint against Hun Sen], because I am the Khmer youth."

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan yesterday dismissed the complaint.

"The Royal government has done everything according to … international law and international treaties," he said.

Past attempts to sue Hun Sen at the municipal court have gone nowhere, with two cases – one in 2012 and one last year – thrown out by the court.

As well as needing to lift a ban on public demonstrations and to release 23 detained activists and workers, the government must act to stop garment factories from discriminating against unions and those trying to join them, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The NGO said that workers from 35 of 55 factories it surveyed last year reported discrimination against unions since 2012, as well as retaliatory action against their members.

"While many workers have joined unions, others said they wanted to set up or join independent unions but feared they would lose their jobs if they did so," HRW said in a statement.

The results of the survey of about 200 garment workers come after a month of unrest that included security forces shooting dead four people on January 3 and declaring a ban on public gatherings.

Furthermore, more than 100 union representatives have been fired for demonstrating, and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) last week claimed workers had no fundamental right to strike – a position later rejected by the International Labour Organization.

"The Cambodian government should ensure that garment factories stop deploying union-busting strategies and respect workers' rights," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, adding that GMAC itself and brands also have major parts to play.

"Global apparel brands need to make sure their suppliers allow workers to form independent unions without interference, and that union representatives can be in factories without threats and retaliation," he said.

Central to the anti-union activity, HRW said, is factories' use of fixed-duration contracts, which employers often threaten not to renew if workers join independent unions.

Dave Welsh, country manager for labour rights group Solidarity Center, said that HRW's observations showed a "broad assault" on union rights was increasing.

"With threats against unions, imprisonment of union leaders and hundreds of sackings … it's incredibly hostile and aggressive," he said.

Although not an evocative issue, the use of fixed-duration contracts was causing widespread problems, he added.

"It's happening with the full acquiescence of the brands … and is completely illegal. It touches on every aspect of workers' rights. Any time a worker works for more than two years, they should be given an unlimited-duration contract."

Ken Loo, GMAC secretary-general, said he could not deny that "some incidents" of discrimination against unions were happening.

"But GMAC does not support it and our doors are open to the unions to bring them to our attention and we will investigate," he said.

However, Loo said member factories did comply with the law – which he claimed does not specify that the use of fixed-duration contracts must be restricted to two years per worker.

Vong Sovann, from the Ministry of Social Affairs' strike resolution committee, said the banning of public demonstrations was not intended to target unions, while a Ministry of Labour spokesman could not be reached.

The government reforested 80,693 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012 as part of its efforts to combat deforestation, a recent agriculture ministry report says, but these seemingly impressive statistics were reached by counting rubber trees and other agricultural crops as adequate replacements for forests.

The replanting also coincided with the most accelerated period of deforestation in the past four decades. Between 2009 and 2013, total forest cover decreased from 60.18 per cent to 46.33 per cent, according to satellite maps released in December by Open Development Cambodia (ODC) that were subsequently repudiated by the ministry.

Dense, or evergreen, forest cover in the Kingdom decreased by 52 per cent over the same period, the maps showed, while mixed forest cover – which includes tree crops – dropped by just two per cent in comparison, perhaps showing where the government's efforts are making an impact.

According to the report released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries late last month, reforestation in 70,095 hectares of the total area over the five-year period was by private firms granted economic land concessions, with the rest done by the forestry administration, the army and citizens on the annual "forestry day".

Organisations such as ODC that have presented data showing monumental forest loss in Cambodia have failed to mention the increase in agricultural crops on deforested land, making their reports one-sided, said Thorn Sarath, a director at the Agriculture Ministry's Forestry Administration department.

"The reason that in the year 2013 we received [almost] $16 million in revenue, more than [the total] in [the previous] five years, is because reforestation has increased on the orders of the government," he said.

But conservationists like Marcus Hardtke, program coordinator for German conservation group ARA, said that agricultural crops cannot possibly be deemed as having replaced evergreen forest.

"They basically turned forest ecosystems into agricultural land, and that is pretty irrelevant. A rubber farm, oil palm, even a rice field: agriculture of a monoculture crop has nothing to do with forest," he said.

"It doesn't mean at all that they are serious about reforestation or re-creating real forest habitats."

Ouch Leng, director of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force, added that the government's reforestation efforts were merely a facade.

"They have destroyed luxury forests and replaced [them] with Acacia trees. Destroying so many trees year after year and then reforesting 80,000 hectares in five years is not equal," he said.

Despite placing a ban on new economic land concessions in 2012, the government came under fire last year for allowing companies such as those owned by tycoon Try Pheap to continue to rampantly log in and around their existing concessions – which are often far greater in total than the legal limit of 10,000 hectares – with the complicity of local authorities.

In October, the National Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organisation said it had found illegal logging in every protected forest in the country.

In November, a University of Maryland study found that about seven per cent of Cambodia's forests had been logged in the past 12 years. Another investigation carried out by the Regional Community Forestry Training Center showed that Cambodia had lost 420,000 hectares of forest between 2002 and 2012.

While not taking the same view as conservationists on the replanting of forest with rubber trees or concurring on the scale of deforestation alleged in those studies, the ministry's report frankly notes that the forestry administration is far from perfect.

"At the same time as the developments that the Forestry Administration has achieved, there have also been difficulties and problems," it says.

"Some government staff are lacking competence and still have no discipline or commitment to fulfill their tasks. Cooperation and participation with local authorities are still limited, especially in controlling forest crime. The perpetrators are always changing their tactics."

The report does, however, note that 51 forest communities were established on 13,895 hectares of land between 2008 and 2012, with 1,760 cases of illegal logging cracked down on, saving 15,927 hectares and resulting in 337 machine saws seized.

Separately, a statement issued by forestry administration chief Chheng Kim Son and posted on the agriculture ministry's website rejects the damning satellite images and data from ODC showing forest cover decreasing to 46.33 per cent in 2013 as "biased" and technically unclear.

"The change in forest cover by ODC from 2009 to 2013 is largely biased because of the technique [used]," he said, adding that the satellite images used were not reliable and that images from 2013 could not be analysed due to clouds obscuring more than 20 per cent the land mass.

The statement also says that differing definitions of what constitutes a forest make any such analysis problematic, with the ODC hence overstating the scale of deforestation in the Kingdom.

But ODC's director, Thy Try, yesterday said that while cloud cover in satellite images made analysis challenging, all images used aside from 2013 contained less than 1 per cent cloud cover, with the 2013 image containing 6.47 per cent.

"We would like to emphasise that these kinds of maps are meant to show trends; the limitations of the satellite images themselves will always lead to some variation in interpretation … that said, the most important overall trend, which is the loss of dense/old growth forest, is clear from the satellite images," he wrote in an email.

Hardtke agreed that while using satellite imagery to estimate forest cover and percentages lost to deforestation could be highly problematic for a number of reasons, it was a useful tool for observing long-term trends.

In 2010, the government said Cambodia's forest cover had decreased to 57 per cent. Although an updated figure is yet to be officially released, the government has frequently stated that it will reach the millennium development goal of 60 per cent forest cover by 2015.

More than 1,000 sanitation workers employed by the garbage collection company Cintri were on strike yesterday, demanding their bosses increase their wage to $150 per month, representatives said.

Cintri, a subsidiary of the Canadian Firm Cintec, signed a 50-year contract in 2002 that made it solely responsible for collecting and disposing of Phnom Penh's waste.

But about 1,200 of its 1,400 employees – which include waste collectors, equipment repairmen and street cleaners – began striking on Sunday night, demanding a pay increase, a health bonus, overtime for working on Sundays and national holidays off.

After gathering outside Cintri's main garage in Meanchey district in protest on Sunday, negotiations came to a standstill yesterday morning, Prack Sokha, a representative for the strikers said.

"This morning we negotiated with the company director, City Hall and district officials about our demands, but we did not get any results," Sokha said, adding that Cintri had offered workers a $15 pay raise that was subsequently rejected.

Street cleaners make a base salary of $65, garbage collectors $77, and repairmen and drivers are paid $110, according to Cintri employees.

If demands continue to be denied, strikers would be willing to compromise, Sokha said.

"We will accept if the company increases street cleaners' pay to $100, garbage collectors' to $120 and $130 for drivers and repairman," he added.

But according to Cintri director Seng Savy, employees are simply asking for too much.

"We can only increase their wages by $15," Savy said. "What they are demanding is too much, and what we get from citizens is too little."

Ith Sopheak, a garbage collector in Russey Keo district, said yesterday that a health bonus was reasonable considering that he worked with trash for a living.

"We will continue striking until our demands are all met," he said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AMELIA WOODSIDE