Companies Sign Up To Protect Human Rights

Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 18 June 2010

“There are consistent human rights abuses perpetrated by some business people because, firstly, they want to make more profit to enlarge their business and, secondly, because of a biased court and corruption in society, which forces them into taking part in the violation of human rights.”

At least 25 businesses last week signed an agreement of principle to ensure that their companies don’t violate the rights of workers or the public.

The agreement was signed during the first-ever meeting between the private sector, civil society, diplomats and government officials that was aimed at promoting human rights in business.

The agreement contained principles prepared by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and urges signatories to promote rights and an adequate standard of living for workers and to eliminate discrimination. It encourages employees to form and join unions and exercise rights of collective bargaining.

Ou Virak, president of the Center for Human Rights, said abuses occur across Cambodia’s industries, from commercial enterprises to real estate, construction, garments and tourism.

Companies withhold salaries, force long hours or illegally fire workers, he said. In some cases, companies use state security forces to push people from land to be used by their businesses.

“There are consistent human rights abuses perpetrated by some business people because, firstly, they want to make more profit to enlarge their business and, secondly, because of a biased court and corruption in society, which forces them into taking part in the violation of human rights,” he said.

Companies willing to sign the rights agreement included business associations, construction and transportation companies, tourism agencies and private schools.

“If our staff is happy to work for us, they will take good care of their responsibilities, so it benefits both sides,” said Quach Mengly, president of the American Intercon Institution, who was among the signatories. “If we respect their rights, it will motivate them to provide a good service, but if we don’t, we won’t get any result.”

Some companies said they were considering the measure, while others said they did not need to sign an agreement in order to respect the rights of workers.

In Channy, president of Acleda Bank, said he didn’t sign the agreement because his bank has maintained principles of human rights for many years. However, he said he did support the initiative.

Absent from last week’s signing were representatives from major garment factories or real estate companies—those who typically face protests from workers or residents.

In principle, Cambodia’s labor law incorporates principles of human rights, including eight-hour workdays, proper salary, a healthy working environment and respect for contracts.

In reality, rights groups have documented work environments that stifle worker rights to assembly and land rights for residents facing evictions under developments.

“The government must act as an arbitrator,” said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc. “But the arbitrators in our society usually stand by the companies in order to receive some benefits. As a result, companies don’t care much about worker salaries and working conditions, like in other countries. Other countries will punish those companies, or shut those companies down, but that never happens in our country.”

Britain Ambassador Andrew Mace, who attended last week’s signing, said it was timely to discuss human rights and business as beneficial to all.

“A democratic society in which the rights of the community and individual are respected helps to grow markets,” he said. “The stability of the rights respected creates in businesses confidence to invest. The free exchange of ideas in society creates intellectual capital on which businesses can draw to innovate and improve their competitiveness. Lack of respect for rights, on the other hand, creates conflict that can seriously impact the profitability and sustainability of the businesses.”

Mace said to promote human rights, the country needs to eliminate corruption in state institutions and increase confidence in the courts.

Government officials, meanwhile, say they are working to improve human rights.

Por Pheak, director of the Ministry of Interior’s international relations department, said the ministry has a good governance project that began in 2009 and will run through 2013 in an attempt to strengthen transparency and reduce corruption in the private sector.

‘Sight Lines’ Displays Two Different Artistic Visions

Drawing by Saphan
(Photos: http://www.noel-bazafineart.com/Noel-Baza_Fine_Art___India_Street_Gallery/SIGHT_LINES.html)Drawing by Tevy

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Friday, 18 June 2010

“I draw portraits of today’s Cambodian girls torn between tradition and modernity, of what their hearts desire against what society demands of them.”

The Nobel-Baza Fine Art Gallery in San Diego is hosting this month two Cambodian artists. The gallery represents international artists who are making an impact on the contemporary art scene.

The show is called “Sight Lines,” and it runs from June 3 to July 3.

Pierrette Van Cleve, the founder and president of the Art Cellar Exchange, told VOA Khmer that ‘Sight Lines’ focuses on Linda Saphan, who was airlifted out of Cambodia as a small child, and Oeur Sokuntevy who grew up in Battambang and has lived in Cambodia her whole life.

The show explores the difference in vision between the two artists.

“Linda Saphan looks back into Cambodia at the women who were there, and sees herself in every woman she sees on the street, because she grew up in the West with all these advantages,” Van Cleve said. “Whereas Tevy sees herself looking forward into this new world and into new ideas of the new role of the women and the new role of the artist.”

Saphan was born in Phnom Penh in 1975 and lived in Canada and France. She traveled to Cambodia in 2006 and saw women aged similar to her still in traditional clothing, cleaning the streets, working in markets, working in shops.

She photographed them and then copied the photos in ballpoint pen. The women in the images have kramas on their faces. The works are called “Incognito.”

“I felt like these women wore incognito in their lives, just going to their lives working traditionally in small jobs and small shops without the education and opportunity that I had,” Saphan said.

Oeur Sokuntevy, meanwhile, studied painting at the Phare Ponleu Selapak in Battambang province and moved to Phnom Penh in 2007 to pursue art. She has had much interest in her work as one of the very few female contemporary artists currently showing in Cambodia.

“Sokuntevy’s work is also on homemade paper made from fiber and a very rough homemade paper,” Van Cleve said “And she painted in bright color in a folk art tradition about things and stories happening in Cambodia and her life right now, a woman’s role in the family, a woman’s role in relationships, a woman’s role in the world and how they’re changing dramatically from the traditional role of women that took place not more than a few years ago.”

Oeur Sokuntevy said Cambodian women today face high pressure “to be at the same time modern among their friends and traditional for their relatives.”

“My artwork presents myself as an artist who is not distanced from contemporary society,” she said. “I draw portraits of today’s Cambodian girls torn between tradition and modernity, of what their hearts desire against what society demands of them.”

Van Cleve said collectors and curators have come to the show and are fascinated by the comparisons of the two women—who are nearly the same age but have very different experiences.

“I have spent hours explaining how Cambodia is now moving forward very quickly into the 21st Century, and it is growing and is embracing contemporary changing modern thing at a tremendous way,” Van Cleve said.

“Most of the people are extremely interested in both,” she added. “We have sold pieces from both Tevy’s work and Linda’s work to two different kinds of people. People either react to Tevy’s color and her subject matter or they react to the quiet refinement of Linda’s work.”

In February 2011, “Sight Lines” will be part of a large collaboration with the US Embassy, the Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington—which is currently hosting a display of ancient bronze work from Cambodia’s National Museum.

“At that time, we are going to have a huge season of Cambodia and will present a dance festival, an art festival, a photography festival, a film festival, in conjunction all of Cambodian arts and films,” Van Cleve said. “I have decided to spend a good part portion every year in Cambodia promoting Cambodian artists and art works along with Dana Langois of Java Art Gallery.”

Artwork for “Sight Lines” can be found at www.noel-bazafineart.com or www.vcfineart.com.

Sokuntevy’s most recent solo exhibitions include ‘I Curl In Memory’s Belly’ at Java Gallery in 2010, ‘Family Ties’ at Java Gallery in 2009, and ‘Star Signs’ at Hotel De La Paix (Cambodia) in 2008.

This year Sokuntevy has been selected as the artist-in-residence for March at the New Zero Art Space (Mayanmar). In October, she will have a solo exhibition at the French Cultural Centre in Phnom Penh

King's visit to Vietnam will prevail negative to Cambodia

Pay a visit to a state stages on two different perspectives: a tribute and a bilateral talk. But how King and other Cambodian leaders can pursue a bilateral talk if Cambodian counterpart has no collateral such as business investors or other essential contingents in Vietnam. If Cambodia cannot pursue that perspective like Vietnam has retained in Cambodia, all Cambodian's leader visits to Vietnam is just a tribute to supplement the prowess of Vietnam's hegemony over Cambodia as well as to totalizing an absolute installed government.

Op-Ed: Khmer Young

King's visit to Viet shows two magnificent things: the prowess that King can use to confront the Viet, and the prostration and gratitude the King will tribute to the Viet.

Each of them has its cause and effect.

But in accordance to the letter from the so-called Office of the Monarchy as well as the leaning down towards Viet of Hun Sen government on behalf of the propaganda of maintaining friendship, comprehensive development, mutual understanding and lasting cooperation; the King will ultimately pay homage and gratitude to Viet leaders like recent visit of Leng Peng Long of Khmer NA as well as many other government leaders and dignitaries.

So, you wish to hear the good result after the King's visit? I am disappointed since the preparation of this visit. It is just a visit to a dominate state which all incumbent Khmer leaders have to maintain this tradition. You can count all those leaders numbering from Prime Minister Hun Sen, to Mam Som Orn of ministers cabinet, ministers of each ministries, assembly representatives, and many other incumbent dignitaries etc are aimed to bow down Viet's leaders in the prospect of tightening cooperation propaganda. After the current King Sihamuni's visit, former King Norodom Sihanouk will fully help this cooperation propaganda achievable.

The author of this article elegantly and wisely elaborated all aspects of the Monarchy's failure under the King Sihanouk enthronement. Reflecting from the bas-relief of Bayon and Angkor Wat to the present appearance of the King, we can perceive the gradual fading away of the Khmer Monarchy, its fame and institute.

Who has eliminated the Khmer monarchy? No one, but the King themselves; and King Sihanouk has to take accountable to this frailty.

How about the possible prowess that King Sihanouk should utilize to bargain with the Viet's leaders during his visit?

- First, Min Triet is the Viet's leader from the south, it is possible that the South and the King as well as the South and the US, still have common sympathy to each other. Recent reports have frequently affirmed the differences of the South and the North in handling with the influence of China. It confirmed about the possible strife of these two brothers. So how King Sihanouk can see the differences and utilize it wisely?

- King Sihanouk is a good friend of China's leaders. Will the King be able to utilize this prowess to bargain with the Viet's leaders? The King has to grasp his potential power to sit face to face with the Viet's leaders, not to act as an installed government messenger.

All these two are important for the King visit.

But if the King visit to Vietnam this coming week just an informal and personal visit like claimed, it is a frail of the King and the Monarchy Institute that have never realized the bad intention of the Viet's leaders hidden behind the word "friend", "cooperation" or "comprehensive development" etc.

Pay a visit to a state stages on two different perspectives: a tribute and a bilateral talk. But how King and other Cambodian leaders can pursue a bilateral talk if Cambodian counterpart has no collateral such as business investors or other essential contingents in Vietnam. If Cambodia cannot pursue that perspective like Vietnam has retained in Cambodia, all Cambodian's leader visits to Vietnam is just a tribute to supplement the prowess of Vietnam's hegemony over Cambodia as well as to totalizing an absolute installed government.

I am appreciate with Neary Krud for her open-minded and scholarly essay.

Regards,

KY

Thanks, but no thanks to OzMinerals for the potential burning of homes belonging to 100 families!

Another forced evictions where the resident's homes were burnt down by the government

Cambodia may burn homes for Australian mine

Saturday, June 19, 2010
By South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel ABC Radio Australia

The Cambodian government is threatening to burn the homes of almost 100 families who are living at the site of a gold deposit recently discovered by an Australian mining company.

The gold deposit that both exploration company OzMinerals and the Cambodian government are excited about lies in the remote Mondulkiri province, 500 kilometres from Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh.

After 17 years of exploration the government believes this could be the biggest find so far in Cambodia, yielding at least 600,000 ounces of gold.

But even in sparsely populated Mondulkiri, people are in the way.

"We've been told to move out immediately and return to where we came from", says Sear Kim Yean, a resident and representative of 95 families who are living on and around the exploration site.

The project is in its infancy and will not be viable as a mine unless OzMinerals can do more small scale drilling and sampling to see if it can yield more than two million ounces of gold.

The company says the local people do not have to move for the continuing exploration to take place, but as part of a larger government plan to clean up illegal mining, logging and poaching they have been told to go.

"We have no idea where to go," said Sear Kim Yean. "We have no money. They threatened to burn our homes down if we don't move, but so far nothing like that has happened. They offered us no compensation."

But the government says most of those living in the area do not deserve help because they are opportunists who have moved into the area to mine illegally and they are not locals.

"It is true that the authority has requested people who live there to move out. There are 95 families that need to be relocated; only five people are Mondulkiri people with proper documents. The rest have migrated from other provinces," said district chief Len Vanna.

The government says the residents have deliberately built their homes on land owned by OzMinerals and will not be compensated, and if they do not move the government will burn their homes or bulldoze them.

"If they are not moving, we will have to use legal procedure to move them," Mr Vanna said.

The Cambodian government is notorious for forcibly evicting residents to make way for development.

The United Nations has repeatedly raised concerns about tens of thousands of people who have been evicted in recent years with lack of due process, inadequate compensation and the excessive use of force.

Melbourne based OzMinerals says it has urged local authorities to treat the residents with respect and dignity

40 Years Later, Combing Cambodia for Missing Friends

Tim Page, a photographer, during the latest of many fruitless trips to find the remains of his friend Sean Flynn, who disappeared during the Vietnam War. (Photo: Seth Mydans)

June 18, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

PKHAR DOUNG, Cambodia — “Let’s rock and roll,” said Tim Page, once one of the wild and daring young photographers of the Vietnam War, strapping himself into the front seat of a four wheel drive van.

“Like Flynn and Stone, three intrepid journalists left Phnom Penh on a hot morning headed for Kampong Cham,” he said, narrating his departure recently with two colleagues.

He settled back for the long ride, past the town of Skun, known for its fried spiders, past hypnotic rows of rubber trees, out to this dusty village near the Mekong River where he believed the bones of two missing war photographers, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, were buried.

It was not an unusual journey for Mr. Page. Now 66, he has been on this hunt for years, determined to find answers and to come to terms with the war that has dominated his life.

Just 40 years ago, the missing men had headed down an empty road with their cameras in search of Khmer Rouge guerrillas. They were never heard from again.

Their fate has become one of the enduring mysteries of the war, two young journalists — like movie adventurers — riding their motorbikes into no-man’s-land and losing a bet against fate.

Mr. Flynn, the dashing and glamorous son of the film star Errol Flynn, had in fact briefly been an actor, and he brought an aura with him to Vietnam that gave his disappearance at the age of 28 a mythic quality.

“Sean Flynn could look more incredibly beautiful than even his father, Errol, had 30 years before as Captain Blood,” wrote Michael Herr in his classic book about the war, “Dispatches.”

“But sometimes he looked more like Artaud coming out of some heavy heart-of-darkness trip, overloaded on the information, the input!”

Mr. Page had shared some of those journeys into darkness, and his visit to Pkhar Doung was the latest of many forays in what he calls “a 25-year madness” in search of the bones of the man he calls his brother.

Weeks earlier two bounty hunters had made a false claim to have found them, reviving interest in the disappearance and spurring American investigators to step up the search for the missing journalists.

“I don’t like the idea of his spirit out there tormented,” Mr. Page said, a wandering ghost that could only find rest, as many in Asia believe, after proper funeral rites. “There’s something spooky about being M.I.A.”

Mr. Page is also seeking a measure of peace for his own soul, scarred like his body from the traumas of combat, from nearly fatal wounds and the loss of friends, trying to put together what he calls “an enormous jigsaw puzzle, bits of sky, bits of earth.”

“I don’t think anybody who goes through anything like war ever comes out intact,” he said. “I suppose the closure of Sean’s fate also has to do with closure of the whole war experience.”

Theirs was an intimacy forged by shared danger and by what Mr. Page calls the magnetic pull of two only sons searching for a bond.

“We could have been brothers, and felt as though we were,” Mr. Page wrote in a memoir, “Derailed in Uncle Ho’s Victory Garden.” “We would sit for hours in the same room, hardly speaking yet in total communication, a vibration as intimate as between lovers.”

For Mr. Page a lonely intimacy has continued, and he hears what seems to be the voice of his friend from time to time, the voice of a tormented spirit.

“We have conversations in strange moments, and often enough to remind me of the presence of his spirit,” Mr. Page said on his recent drive to Pkhar Doung. “It’s there but not there, and you’re aware that there’s something somehow lurking, just out of reach.”

He said that as he drives past the rubber trees, whose rapid regular repeated rows create the illusion of some ghostly shifting world in the distance, he often hears his friend’s voice, “What are you doing, man? What are you doing, boy? What are you doing, mate?”

Mr. Flynn’s lost bones and wandering soul are not alone in Cambodia, where as many as a quarter of the population died in the late 1970s during the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge. Many of their remains, like those of Mr. Flynn, are still unidentified in killing fields around the country.

Cambodia was a particularly dangerous place for foreign journalists during five years of war before the Khmer Rouge victory in 1975. At least 37 died or disappeared, including 15, along with Mr. Flynn, in a six-week period in April 1970.

After pursuing various theories and false trails, Mr. Page said he now believes that Mr. Flynn survived for a year after his disappearance and may have been killed by lethal injection at a field hospital here. On a visit last year, Mr. Page recovered some medical vials and turned them over for analysis to the American military office in Hawaii that seeks to recover the remains of missing soldiers.

This new visit to Pkhar Doung did little to solve the mystery. Since the bounty hunters had ravaged the site with a backhoe, the American military office, known by its acronym as JPAC, had sealed it off. Mr. Page was turned away by the local police.

In the future, he said, he planned to talk with nearby villagers who might have some memory of captive foreigners long ago and what became of them.

Even if he never does succeed, Mr. Page said his search had helped him honor both Mr. Flynn and other journalists who died or disappeared in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

His pursuit has inspired a documentary, a new memorial to dead and missing journalists in Phnom Penh, journalism courses for local reporters and most significantly a book called “Requiem,” which includes the work of 135 photographers from all sides who died covering Indochina’s decades of war.

Mr. Page, who grew up in Britain, taught himself photography and covered the war as a freelancer from 1965 to 1969, sending pictures to major American and French publications including Time and Life, Look and Paris-Match.

He became known for his vivid combat pictures and also for the risks he took and the wounds he survived. At the time Mr. Flynn disappeared Mr. Page had suffered his most severe injuries, from a mine explosion that sent shrapnel into his brain and body.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, he said, but surgeons revived him for a long and painful recovery. The thin borderline between life and death still seems to draw him.

“At the end of the day, the mysticism of it — living, not living — becomes a mystery,” he said, “and I don’t think we are ever privileged except on death’s doorstep to actually understand it.”

He hovers close, though, pouring his energies into his search for the unmarked grave of his friend, then sometimes finding comfort in the quiet of a cemetery.

“It’s always peaceful in a cemetery,” he said. “Everyone there has found rest. All the tribulations of life are over, and you return to the peace of nothingness.”

Cabinet calls to ban statues of politicians

A statue of Saddam Hussein built during his dictatorship was toppled after his downfall

Friday, 18 June 2010
Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet has called for a ban on statues depicting living political leaders, after it was discovered this week that a statue erected inside the Anticorruption Institution was a likeness of the premier.

In a statement issued Thursday, Ho Sothy, director of the cabinet, called on government departments and members of the public to refrain from making statues of leaders who are still alive, saying such works are not compatible with Cambodian culture.

“Making or carving the statues of the living people, especially the government leadership, is against the national culture and custom,” the statement said.

Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Hun Sen and chairman of the Anticorruption Unit, said he had commissioned the 3-metre-high statue.

“I certainly made a statue of the prime minister without asking his permission, but I did so in good will,” he said.

He added that he planned to write a public letter apologising to Hun Sen, and that he will have the statue removed if he is ordered to do so.

“I will write the official letter of apology to him in public this evening,” he said Thursday afternoon.

Khim Sarith, secretary of state at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said statues of living people were in conflict with Buddhist tradition, and could also have negative consequences for those who erected them.

“It is not good. Our people have a belief that anyone who does that will meet their misery,” he said.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said Om Yentieng’s decision to erect the statue had been a mistake, but pointed to political – rather than religious – reasons.

“If he put the statue in front of the anticorruption body when there is still a lot of corruption in the government, it would represent the corruption of the government, so I welcome this decision by the prime minister to remove the statue,” he said.

Miech Ponn, an adviser to the Mores and Customs Commission at Cambodia’s Buddhist Institute, said it was not unheard of for statues of living leaders to be erected.

“However, I do not know whether it is correct for people to make these statues from stone, metal, wood or clay for exhibition, because there aren’t any documents related to this issue,” he said

A study of contrast ... well, Happy Birthday Your Majesty Queen Mother!

Opulent offerings to dead spirits ...

... when the livings are poor and hungry?

Please note: This is no joke, it is a serious and sad matter that needs to be redressed urgently!

"The Suffering of My People is My Suffering" - Quote attributed to King Jayavarman VII

Cambodia's anticorruption chief apologizes for Hun Sen statue plan

Om Yentieng (Photo: Free Press Magazine Online)

PHNOM PENH, Jun. 18, 2010 (Kyodo News International) -- The chief of Cambodia's anticorruption commission has apologized for planning to unveil a massive statue of Prime Minister Hun Sen at his commission's headquarters, a letter seen Friday showed.

Om Yin Tieng, one of Hun Sen's personal advisors as well as anticorruption chief, sought ''forgiveness'' in the letter dated Thursday for having a 5-meter statue of the prime minister made and planning to install it at the anticorruption headquarters.

Hun Sen has reportedly banned making statues of himself and other living Cambodians and installing them on public property because it ''goes against Cambodian culture'' and, according to some, because it is attracting strong public criticism of those being ''honored'' for thinking far too highly of themselves.

Om Yin Tieng said in the letter he had planned the statue to honor Hun Sen on his own.

But some Cambodians argue Hun Sen, who has been premier since 1985, was the real power behind the plan

Advisor to Cambodia's PM apologizes for making statue

Mea Culpa: Om Yentieng (Photo: John Vink/Magnum)

June 18, 2010
Xinhua

An advisor to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has apologized for making a statue without permission.

In a letter made available to the media on Friday, Om Yintieng, advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen said he had made a statue of the Prime Minister in a way to express his respect and gratitude, but without knowledge or consent from him.

He thus made a public apology and asked for forgiveness from the premier.

Om Yintien made the apology soon after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a statement on Thursday saying a number of places have been displayed with statues of the country's leaders or certain artists make sculpture or reproduction in objects of the leaders for decoration at homes or as souvenirs.

The statement said the gesture has affected the country's tradition and culture which does not allow any statue or sculpture of the leaders be displayed while they are still alive.

In the letter of apology, Om Yintieng did not mention the details of Hun Sen's statue that he had built and where exactly it will be displayed, but local media has reported Friday saying the premier's statue was designed for display inside the premise of government's anti-corruption unit, where is chaired by Om Yintieng.

The statue which was seen Thursday by reporters under the wraps was already removed from the site on Friday

boy boy

Stop Suppression of Speech in Cambodia: Online Petition for President Obama

Petition for Mrs. Mu Sochua among the top 25 most popular petitions

2,000 signatures reached!

But, please keep on signing anyway!

To: President Obama

We, the undersigned, urge you to condemn the recent Cambodian Supreme Court decision against former Nobel Peace Prize nominee, long-time women’s rights activist, and Cambodian parliamentary member, Her Excellency Mu Sochua, in the alleged defamation case of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Cambodian Supreme Court’s ruling on June 2, 2010 exemplifies politically-motivated targeting of opposition leaders by Prime Minister Hun Sen, lack of judicial accountability and fairness in the proceedings, and a denial of Cambodian citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and holding of their public officials accountable in the event of perceived breach of the law.

Earlier this year, the Cambodian government also initiated a politically-motivated lawsuit against Cambodian opposition leader, His Excellency Sam Rainsy, on the charges of falsifying public documents and distributing false information. H.E. Sam Rainsy could face up to 18 years in prison if found guilty.

As a result of H.E. Mu Sochua's and Sam Rainsy's cases, local human rights groups have decried freedom of expression in Cambodia to be in a "perilous state."

We are deeply concerned by the silencing of long-time, well-respected, and democratically-elected leaders who could be prevented from running in the next parliamentary elections. This would be a deep blow to democracy in Cambodia.

With more than US $60 million in assistance given to Cambodia in 2009, including in the areas of democratic reform and governance, the United States Government has the responsibility to denounce the Court’s decision as a threat to freedoms of speech and expression and the rights to fair judicial process, transparency, and legal representation.

By failing to speak out against these rulings, the United States would undermine its long-cherished values of freedoms of speech and expression and the rights to an independent and impartial judicial process, equality before the law, and legal representation.

We urge you, Mr. President, to make a strong statement against the recent Cambodian Court’s ruling in defense of our democratic values that serve to empower so many around the world.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Click here to sign the petition online

Philadelphia premiere of "WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA?"

Loud Mouth Films is proud to present the first Philadelphia screenings of WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA?, as an official selection in the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival.

Saturday, June 26 - 2:45pm
Preview screening - Media Bureau, 725 N 4th St

Sunday, June 27 - 12:30pm
Main screening - RUBA Hall, 414 Green St

Sunday, June 27 - 4:00pm
Final screening - Random Tea Room, 713 N 4th St

To reserve tickets in advance (recommended), call 215-592-1242 or go to
http://www.philadelphiaindependentfilmfestival.com

WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA? is a one-hour documentary thriller about the assassination of Cambodia's top labor leader and the plot to cover the tracks of the killers by framing two men. Named one of Amnesty International's top ten Movies That Matter, it is a co-production with Independent Television Services, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Though filmed mostly in Cambodia, WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA? has a strong Philadelphia connection through its producer, longtime Philadelphia resident Rich Garella. Garella moved to the city in 1983 and has lived here since then, aside from four years living in Cambodia and five in New York. He now lives in South Philadelphia, where Loud Mouth Films is based.

During Cambodia's bloody 1998 election, Garella was working as the press secretary for the opposition party. It was then that he met and worked with Chea Vichea. On a return trip to Cambodia in 2003 he met Bradley Cox, who later filmed the murder scene and went on to direct WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA?

Garella will attend all the PIFF screenings and the Q&A sessions following them.

"Vichea and Brad are both strong-willed individuals who believe in justice above all else," Garella said. "I think that's why Brad spent six years working on this film at huge personal risk and expense.

WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA? has already been banned in Cambodia. On May 1, International Labor Day, riot police pulled down the screens during an attempted public screening in Phnom Penh. Officials announced that the film was an "illegal import" and that any screenings could be prevented "wherever they are held." (sample coverage)

"Vichea's life was taken because he fought for justice," Garella said. "He wouldn't back down and we won't either."

Rather than focusing on the Khmer Rouge "killing fields" of the 1970s, WHO KILLED CHEA VICHEA? takes a hard look at Cambodia today, asking how much has changed after an influx of billions in international aid and expertise. Along the way Cox's camera captures a side of Cambodian life that is largely unseen by tourists from the western world.

Festival web site (for tickets):
http://www.philadelphiaindependentfilmfestival.com

Film web site and contact list:
http://www.whokilledcheavichea.com

Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76083065273

Bon Phka to help Khmer School in Surin, Thailand

Khmer school in Surin

Where:
Wat Buddharaingsey
124 Route Nationale
69330 Pusignan
France

When:
Sunday 27 June 2010

Contact:
04 72 39 29 58
09 53 09 13 90
04 76 21 16 20

Additional information:
Mr. Cheymongkol (khmersurin@gmail.com)

New Eviction Policy Worries Rights Groups

Forced evictions in Cambodia (Photo: Licadho)

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 17 June 2010

Officials announced a new regulation Thursday aimed at settling evictions, but development groups and the opposition have said it will not justly settle the problems of squatters.

The regulation, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen May 31, calls on authorities to make lists of squatter communities, to determine relocation sites and to settle relocation reasonably.

The regulation comes as authorities struggle with some squatter communities scheduled to be removed amid development plans, especially in urban areas, and as rights groups say land disputes have increased over the past five months.

Chan Saveth, a senior investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said authorities remain indifferent to the needs of squatters when considering development plans, while onstruction of relocation sites remains slow.

The new regulation is unlikely to resolve these issues, he said.

Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said that other regulations and policies have not been properly applied, so he held little hope for the new one.

UN Envoy Fingers Courts as Political Tools

U.N. special rapporteur Surya Subedi walks through a Cambodian national flag upon his arrival at the U.N. headquarter in Phnom Penh. (Photo: AP)

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 17 June 2010

“I am troubled by the impact of land disputes, land concessions and resettlements on the lives of ordinary people, both in rural and urban areas, miscarriages of justice, and the narrowing of political space for critical debate in society,” Subedi said.

The UN envoy for human rights, Surya Subedi, concluded a 10-day trip to Cambodia with a pointed criticism of the courts, which he said are “facing tremendous challenges in delivering justice for the people of the country, especially the poor and marginalized.”

“A combination of a lack of adequate resources, organizational and institutional shortcomings, a lack of full awareness of the relevant human rights standards, and external interference, financial or otherwise, in the work of the judiciary, has resulted in an institution that does not command the confidence of people from many walks of life,” he said in a statement.

Subedi noted “an alarmingly high number of people in detention due to various shortcomings in the criminal justice system.”

“The instances of miscarriage of justice are far too numerous,” he said. “The constraints on the judiciary’s ability to act according to its mandated role in the constitutional order of Cambodia are manifold. While some are related to gaps in their capacity to deliver justice (including funding, infrastructure and training), other constraints are linked to gaps in their knowledge of human rights law.”

Many judges are committed to justice according to the law, he noted, “but for many this commitment is compromised by external interference. And for others the commitment is just not there.”

Subedi said he “raised specific concerns relating to the judiciary’s role in protecting freedom of expression. And in cases involving land-related rights.”

“I am troubled by the impact of land disputes, land concessions and resettlements on the lives of ordinary people, both in rural and urban areas, miscarriages of justice, and the narrowing of political space for critical debate in society,” Subedi said.

“I call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to introduce appropriate measures to enhance the independence and capacity of the judiciary to enable it to function as an institution capable of providing justice to all in Cambodia,” he said. “If you are poor, weak and dispossessed of your land, you seem to have limited chance to obtain redress either through existing administrative land management systems or through the courts.”

Subedi called on the government to devise a strict timetable to follow his recommendations and encouraged the government to work with civil society organizations.

Subedi, who met with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and senior government adviser Om Yentieng on his visit, will submit detailed recommendations to the UN’s Human Rights Council in September.

Ek Tha, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government “would like completely to deny his speech.”

The government has worked to reform the judiciary, including establishing a school for magistracy, registrars and notaries, he said, and the country produces 55 new judges per year.

“We have laid down a good foundation for our judiciary to work properly in the future,” he said. “We cannot achieve that overnight, given that our country has emerged from more than three decades of civil war and our judges were killed by the Khmer Rouge.”

US Brings Back Seven Major Artifacts

The sculpted sandstones artifacts are on display after they were returned back at the Cambodian National Museum in Phnom Penh. (Photo: AP)

Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Thursday, 17 June 2010

“They were confiscated based on [an agreement] we signed with the Ministry of Culture, which bans the import of antiquities of that era into the United States.”

The US returned seven Angkorian artifacts to Cambodia Thursday in a ceremony in the seaport of Preah Sihanouk province.

The seven artifacts consist of two heads of Buddha sculptures and other religious items weighing about 500 kilograms.

They were confiscated by US customs in Los Angeles, where they remained for up to three years, US Embassy spokesman John Johnson said.

“They were confiscated based on [an agreement] we signed with the Ministry of Culture, which bans the import of antiquities of that era into the United States,” he said.

Ork Sophon, director general for the Ministry of Culture, said smuggling activities had been greatly curbed since the agreement.

The organization Heritage Watch estimates that around $20 million in Khmer antiquities have been traded since 1988, with 90 percent of them acquired illegally, through the main gateways of Thailand and Singapore.

Cambodia Behind in Investment Improvement [-Too much corruption and red tapes under Hun Xen's regime?]

“Cambodia is not progressing enough to compete with other countries,” the report said. “The most critical shortcoming is the infrastructure,” including poor port facilities, poor roads and poor customs.

Cambodia has made less improvement in its trade environment than other countries that are competing for investors in the global marketplace, a new report has found.

The World Economic Forum’s 2010 trade index report found that Cambodia slipped to No. 102 of 126 countries, down nine places from the year before.

The index measures overseas ease of doing business, including market access, border administration, transport and telecommunications and the general business environment.

The World Economic Forum, based in Switzerland, did find that Cambodia had made improvements in market access, but it said the country faces major challenges in other aspects, including corruption in border administration—one of the highest rates in the world—and poor infrastructure and transportation.

These caused longer export times at higher costs, making Cambodia less desirable to investors.

Adding to the nation’s woes is a climate that is not friendly to trade. There are low levels of domestic competition, weak property rights and limited openness to multilateral trade rules, the report said.

Poor physical security is another problem, where police service is unreliable and levels of crime and violence are rising, the report said.

“Cambodia is not progressing enough to compete with other countries,” the report said. “The most critical shortcoming is the infrastructure,” including poor port facilities, poor roads and poor customs.

“So when clearing customs, there is room for irregular payment, some sort of bribery, and it creates very low transparency and it creates huge delays and is very costly,” Thierry Geiger, an economist for the World Economic Forum, said in a phone interview.

Immediate, tough measures in combating corruption and improving infrastructure would improve the country’s trade environment in the next five or ten years, he added.

Cambodia is one of the world’s most corrupt countries, according to Transparency International, and loses an estimated $500 million a year to graft. Meanwhile, trade facilitation could help export competitiveness, attract foreign direct investment and boost economic growth.

Good trade facilitation has helped Singapore’s economy rank among the highest for years. Its border administration is one of the least corrupt in the world, and public servants provide fast, effective service, according to the report.

Vietnam has significantly improved its trade facilitation, while Thailand has become the best country in the region in implementing a Asean “single window” initiative, which supports free trade within the bloc.

Ros Khemara, an economist for the Cambodia Economic Association, said Cambodia can hardly operate the single window initiative.

“Operation within the administration in Cambodia always consist of informal fees, which occur at every [trading] process, especially regarding export and import,” he said. “If we want to reform to be better and faster, we have to eliminate some of the processes that will also reduce the chance for people who are used to receiving the informal fee. So it is hard to reform on this.”

In recent years, Cambodia has put many policies in place to help reduce the complexities of trade here, including improved registration and border administration. But the implementation of those policies is lagging.

“The policy framework and the legal framework in Cambodia is very strong to help encourage the development of the private sector,” said Joshua Morris, an emerging markets consultant. “Typically, what you find is enforcement and the implementation of those policies sometimes are not as well maintained as you would like with respect to the judicial and legal environments for business, key of business registration, transparency, taxation across all organizations, to further improvement in the processes in timing for import and export.”

Mao Thura, secretary of state with the Ministry of Commerce, said weak enforcement comes from a lack of tough measures to control implementation. But he said his ministry and the Ministry of Economy and Finance are organizing a workshop to find measures to bring the policies into practice.

Meanwhile, the International Financial Corporation will organize a workshop to train a group of arbitrators for the National Center for Commercial Arbitration. The independent center will be the country’s first dispute resolution mechanism and could attract more investors.

cilp sx

black sex x

Stop Suppression of Speech in Cambodia: Online Petition for President Obama

Petition for Mrs. Mu Sochua among the top 25 most popular petitions

2,000 signatures reached!

But, please keep on signing anyway!

To: President Obama

We, the undersigned, urge you to condemn the recent Cambodian Supreme Court decision against former Nobel Peace Prize nominee, long-time women’s rights activist, and Cambodian parliamentary member, Her Excellency Mu Sochua, in the alleged defamation case of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Cambodian Supreme Court’s ruling on June 2, 2010 exemplifies politically-motivated targeting of opposition leaders by Prime Minister Hun Sen, lack of judicial accountability and fairness in the proceedings, and a denial of Cambodian citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and holding of their public officials accountable in the event of perceived breach of the law.

Earlier this year, the Cambodian government also initiated a politically-motivated lawsuit against Cambodian opposition leader, His Excellency Sam Rainsy, on the charges of falsifying public documents and distributing false information. H.E. Sam Rainsy could face up to 18 years in prison if found guilty.

As a result of H.E. Mu Sochua's and Sam Rainsy's cases, local human rights groups have decried freedom of expression in Cambodia to be in a "perilous state."

We are deeply concerned by the silencing of long-time, well-respected, and democratically-elected leaders who could be prevented from running in the next parliamentary elections. This would be a deep blow to democracy in Cambodia.

With more than US $60 million in assistance given to Cambodia in 2009, including in the areas of democratic reform and governance, the United States Government has the responsibility to denounce the Court’s decision as a threat to freedoms of speech and expression and the rights to fair judicial process, transparency, and legal representation.

By failing to speak out against these rulings, the United States would undermine its long-cherished values of freedoms of speech and expression and the rights to an independent and impartial judicial process, equality before the law, and legal representation.

We urge you, Mr. President, to make a strong statement against the recent Cambodian Court’s ruling in defense of our democratic values that serve to empower so many around the world.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Click here to sign the petition online

Please help Mr. Kong Kea

Dear All,

My name is Cheymongkol and I am a Khmer Sren (Surin). I would like you to help Mr.Khut Kongkea, a Khmer national age 53 years old. He was in a critical condition at PraNungkhalo Hospital in Nonthaburin province. He fall a victim of ALS which is an incurable disease. Kong Kea has left Cambodia 6 years ago as he told me together with his entire family members to live illegally in Bangkok. He and his entire family collect garbage for sale to survive. His families have no education, and they have to work for cheap just to get money to support the family.

He need a good medication in order to extend his life. He has been admitted without any identification since he is illegal migrant in Thailand. I have also asked him why he has to live in a desperation in Bangkok, he told me that because he was threatened with persecution and therefore he has to fled to Bangkok. Nobody would like to live like a rat for sure.

As a Khmer like him I have support him with cash and rice whenever I am in Bangkok and sometimes in Sren (Surin) when he wants to get a feeling of Cambodia. What else can we do to help him?

I have the picture of his ID of Khmer Nation Party, and his photos when he is now in bed in a Thai hospital. Please find way to help him to get a good medication treatment. Khmers always help Khmer and love Khmer as we always do.

Please contact his son, Mr.Boran at his mobile phone 0873516071. Thank you for your time reading my email. Please also forward this email to your friends and people that you know that may want to help him out of this desperation.

Thank you.

Hun Xen afraid of meeting the same fate as Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein?

Dictator Pol Pot used slave prisoners to build his statue (L) during his tenure
A statue of Saddam Hussein built during his dictatorship was toppled after his downfall

Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Office of Prime Minister Hun Xen

Communiqué

The office of the prime minister of Cambodia is informing to all state institutions and the public in the country that, in the past, a number of place put on display the statue of our country’s leaders, and there were artists who sculpt or reproduce the statue of the [country’s] leaders as indicated above in order to sell for house decoration or for souvenir objects.

Such action violates our country’s tradition which prohibits the making of statue or the sculpting of people who are still alive.

As indicated above, the office of the prime minister of Cambodia called on all state institutions and the public to stop putting on display or on sale these statues and they should end the sculpting or the reproduction of statues of high-ranking leaders of our country from now on.

The office of Hun Xen hopes that we will receive good and efficient cooperation on this issue.

Phnom Penh 17 June 2010

Ho Sithik
Chief of Cabinet

Union to use 80,000 workers to campaign for minimum wage raise

Chea Mony

17 June 2010
By S. Botum
Free Press Magazine Online
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Negotiations for $70 minimum monthly wage for workers reached an impasse, this is the reason why the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) – the largest union in Cambodia – warned that it will hold a strike in mid-July in order to demand for their target wage increase.

Chea Mony, FTUWKC President, declared in a recent letter that representatives for about 80,000 workers have voted on 23 May to hold a strike if the Labor Council commission does not agree to increase the workers’ wage by 20% over this year’s minimum wage.

Chea Mony warned on Wednesday also that in order to avoid the strike to be held between 13 and 15 July, the Labor Council commission – which includes representatives from the ministry of Labor, the Garment Manufacturer Association of Cambodia (GMAC), and labor unions close to the CPP – must increase the minimum wage from $50 to $70, i.e. the promise made to workers for the end of this year.

Strike warning raises concerns with the GMAC in the past week because it could affect their textile manufacturing and the industry cannot respond to orders from buyers. GMAC asked the ministry of Labor to make an arrangement in this case.

Vong Sot, the minister of Labor, issued a public letter telling the union to rethink about its plan. But, Vong Sot could not comment on the response from the union.

Khieu Sopheak, mouthpiece of the ministry of Interior, issued a threat yesterday against the call for a strike. Khieu Sopheak said that unions should look at the demonstration law. Under this law, strikes are forbidden inside a factory.

Nevertheless, Chea Mony said that the strike will be held as planned if the Labor Council refused to agree to the minimum wage rise to $70 for workers.

The demise of Cambodia's cyclo drivers

Ten years ago nine thousand cyclo drivers made a living pedalling people and their possessions around the streets of Phnom Penh. It was the Cambodian capital's long standing foot powered taxi. But today there are just thirteen hundred cyclo drivers left.

Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Im Sambath, Head, Cyclo Conservation and Career Association; Oum Sok, cyclo driver; Margie Edmonds, Australian tourist

And that's just the kind of endorsement Im Sambath hopes will guarantee the cyclo's survival in Phnom Penh for another 70 years.
THIS IS ROBERT CARMICHAEL IN PHNOM PENH

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Over the past 70 years the three-wheeled bicycle taxi known as the cyclo has been a classic Phnom Penh sight, with its bucket seat between the two front wheels for the passengers, and the driver perched high up behind them above the rear wheel, pedalling away.

The cyclo was brought here by the French from neighbouring Vietnam back when the nations were, along with Laos, known as French Indochine.

Travelling by cyclo has long echoed the Mekong river that slips past Phnom Penh. This is an unhurried way to get around what was once a sleepy capital city.

But Phnom Penh is no longer sleepy. And as the roads get busier with motorbikes and four-wheel drive vehicles, there is less room for cyclos. There is also less demand for them from the city's residents.

So says Im Sambath, the head of the Cyclo Conservation and Career Association, a non-governmental membership body for the capital's dwindling stock of cyclo drivers.

Im Sambath says cyclo numbers have dropped precipitously - from 9,000 a decade ago to 1,300 now. Within five years he predicts just 500 will be left.

Why is that? Firstly, getting spare parts is a problem. But he says the biggest problem is that local people prefer faster ways of getting around - such as motorbike taxis or auto-rickshaws known as tuktuks.

The solution is to turn away from the shrinking local market and tap into the growing tourism market.

IM SAMBATH: The tourists like what is the new thing, the strange thing. Like cyclo - the foreign countries they don't have the cyclo. So when they visit Cambodia they want to see what's strange, what's new. So that they can see the cyclo - oh, very strange for them. Sometimes they say relaxing on the cyclo along the riverside. So it is a good thing for them, yes.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: For ten dollars a head, the association's members pedal tourists on a day-trip around the capital.

Phnom Penh is a flat city, which helps. And since the tourist sites are located within a three-mile radius, the fact that this is a slow way of getting around is hardly a problem.

Seventy-five year old Oum Sok has pedalled these flat streets since he was just 18. As the oldest member of the cyclo association, he now ferries tourists. Waiting for his fare outside the city's National Museum, Oum Sok says that in the old days there were few tourists but plenty of local demand.

So what else has changed?

OUM SOK: When I was young I could earn a lot, but now everything is expensive. Another thing is that the customers don't want to take a cyclo with an old man like me driving.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: The two dozen other men who are pedalling tourists around the capital today are all younger than Oum Sok.

Like him, most are from the rural provinces of Cambodia where work opportunities are few.

In Phnom Penh their living costs are low - at night they congregate on the pavements with their cyclos and sleep in the bucket seats. That way they can send more money home to their families in the provinces.

Im Sambath says that for a day's work they will earn around ten dollars for taking visitors to the key tourist sites.

IM SAMBATH: The place that you are going to see? You would like to see the landmarks of the city, like Wat Phnom, Royal Palace, National Museum, Independence Museum. If they have the time, the Central Market or the railway station.

ROBERT CARMICHAEL: The cyclo crocodile is becoming a more common sight here. And the tourists seem to like the unhurried way of seeing the city.

Margie Edmonds is an Australian tourist from Melbourne. Her group of 52 stopped off in Phnom Penh on their way by luxury slow boat from Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam to the temples of Angkor Wat in northwest Cambodia.

She says the cyclo journey ranks among the best experiences she has had in Asia.

MARGIE EDMONDS:
CARMICHAEL: You'd recommend it?
EDMONDS: Absolutely. It's the only way to go. Been right around the city - I'd get on another one in a minute, but I've got to get back to the boat.

Caritas marks 20 years of service in Cambodia

A Caritas worker in Cambodia distributing food aid. Caritas is currently celebrating its 20th year in Cambodia.

June 17, 2010
Source: Ucanews.com

Caritas Cambodia will spend US$16 million over the next five years to help develop communities in the country, its executive director said yesterday while celebrating the agency’s 20th anniversary.

The Catholic Church’s social service arm will continue its work in the community and in disaster relief programs as well as rights-based approaches to gender equality and justice that it has launched over the past two decades, said Kim Ratana.

Ratana addressed 500 people including government officials, Caritas staff and villagers at the June 15 ceremony. Participants, Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An, guest of honor at the event, praised Caritas for its work.

The government is grateful to Caritas for its efforts to reduce poverty in the country, with its projects to develop agriculture, education and health care, said An.

Nheuk Savon, a 49-year-old farmer from Siem Reap province, said Caritas has been present in his village since 2002. “We received support to plant rice, rear chickens and grow vegetables. Our living standard has improved,” he said.

“Caritas created … community empowerment programs to encourage poor people to earn a living,” said Monsignor Enrique Figaredo, chairperson of Caritas Cambodia.

“As a result, they have the ability to develop themselves by making products,” said the Jesuit priest who is also apostolic prefect of Battambang.

In 1972, the Catholic Church in Cambodia launched an aid commission to help war victims. This commission took on the name of Caritas Cambodia.

It stopped functioning in April 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took control of the country.

On March 22, 1990, Bishop Emile Destombes, apostolic vicar of Phnom Penh , re-established Caritas Cambodia with the help of Caritas Internationalis and Caritas France and in cooperation with the Cambodian government.