Bid to remove judge Silvia Cartwright Bridget Di Certo

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Defence teams at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday continued their battle to have New Zealand judge Silvia Cartwright removed from the bench hearing the court’s landmark Case 002. Ieng Sary’s defence counsel filed the latest motion, which called for disqualification or an order for her to cease and desist ex parte communications with international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley. “For Judge Cartwright to offer Inter-national Co-Prosecutor Cayley asymmetrical access to her ... shows that she is biased in favour of the OCP, or at a minimum gives rise to an appearance of bias,” Ieng Sary’s defence counsel wrote in an application published by the court yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Boeung Kak villagers protest in chains Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Boeung Kak villagers, bound in chains to symbolise their enduring struggle, marched through the streets of Phnom Penh yesterday in their latest quest to have their land woes resolved.

BOEUNG KAK LAKESIDE RESIDENTS WEAR CHAINS DURING A PROTEST YESTERDAY IN PHNOM PENH. PHOTO

BY MENG KIMLONG

More than 100 protesters walked past the city hall towards the US and Japanese embassies with their chained-up village representatives – depicted as criminals – calling for the 12.44 hectares of land at Boeung Kak the government granted to 794 families last year to be clearly marked. Village representative Tep Vanny told the Post the chains were used as a statement that their right to protect their houses was being denied. “What we are doing is revealing to our compatriots and the international community that we are the land dispute „criminals‟ who have been protecting the 12.44 hectares of land granted by the government,” she said. Village representative Heng Mom said she was among a group of Boeung Kak protesters who had been arrested and detained in police custody in recent times and later charged with objecting to the orders of public officials. “Nowadays, I am a land dispute criminal in a jail without walls,” she said. More than 50 residents from the Borei Keila community also marched to pressure development firm Phan Imex to build the remaining two buildings it had promised in 2004 to construct. The company has built only eight of the 10 it agreed to.

Tep Vanny said the protesters would march with factory workers today as part of International Labour Day demonstrations, and would continue their protest for the rest of this week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.com

Chut Wutty death to be examined by committee

May Titthara and David Boyle

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

A joint investigative committee will be established to re-examine the killing of activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, the head of the armed forces told the Post yesterday, after providing his own version of the incident to radio.

CHHEUY ODOM REAKSMEY (L), THE 19-YEAR-OLD SON OF CHUT WUTTY, WALKS IN A PROCESSION ALONG

WITH HIS FATHER'S COFFIN DURING A FUNERAL YESTERDAY IN KANDAL PROVINCE. PHOTO BY HENG CHIVOAN

Pressure from the families of victims and rights groups for an independent inquiry into Thursday’s dual shooting has mounted following a series of contradictory and questionable official explanations from the military police. On the day of environmentalist Chut Wutty’s burial, General Sao Sokha, national military commander, said Council of Minister’s deputy minister Prak Sokhon had asked him to enlist people to form the committee into the double shooting in Koh Kong province last Thursday. “The government tries to work to provide justice for those two people and also for the nation; what the government did is according to the law,” he said. Sao Sokha said the committee would be formed with officials from the Ministry of Interior, Council of Ministers, the Ministry of National Assembly Senate Relations & Inspection, other government departments and the national military police. He was unclear about the involvement of civil society groups investigating the case, stating that they were not banned but from attending, but also had to know how “law and government work”. While rights groups have welcomed the idea of taking part, they have also raised questions about how the composition of the committee, such as the inclusion of the military police,

could affect its independence. The military police have thus far provided at least three separate accounts of what happened, including claims In Rattana shot Chut Wutty, but was killed when his own AK-47 rounds ricocheted off a car, shot himself in regret or was gunned down by the activist before returning fire. The two men were shot after Chut Wutty was confronted by military police and a military official when he stopped at the side of a road with two journalists in the Cardamom Mountains in Koh Kong province’s Modul Seima district to photographs logs on Thursday. Thong Narong, chief of military police in Koh Kong, conceded many people had said a report from his department released on Friday that claimed In Rattana had taken his own life was not clear, but nevertheless stood by the version of events. “We have to do a new investigation to make it clear for people to understand what the real reason and cause was behind what happened.” Speaking with Radio France Internationale yesterday, Sao Sokha added his own detailed version of events in which he revealed that Chut Wutty was confronted by staff from the company licensed to clear the reservoir of the Russey Chrum hydropower dam. He denied other accounts that claimed military police were working for this company and distanced them from the incident by reiterating that the dispute between In Rattana and Chut Wutty was “personal”. “If you want to shoot, please shoot,” he claimed Chut Wutty had told an inflamed In Rattana, before the latter shot him. Mathieu Pellerin, a monitoring consultant with rights group Licadho, said both the fact that military police had been present at the shooting and that they had subsequently provided such wildly varied accounts should exclude them from investigations “I think the bigger picture is that they must be able to clarify the circumstances of the event leading to the shooting,” he said. “Why were the military police there? These questions are quite controversial so I’m not sure the military police are the best group to have answering these questions.” Independent political analyst Lao Mong Hay suggested the inclusion of a retired judge or prosecutor in the committee would help it become a little less one-sided. “This is a positive move by the government to try to find out the truth about the killing, but I’m still sceptical about the composition of that joint committee, because there are no sort of independent members,” he said. More than 100 schoolchildren yesterday lined the street leading to Chut Wutty’s home at Svay Meash village, Sour commune in Kandal province’s Kandal’s Khsach Kandal district, where a total of about 500 people accompanied his body to a nearby cemetery to be buried.

To contact the reporters on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

Funcinpec chief points finger in land dispute

Meas Sokchea

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

The president of the Funcinpec party has accused the deputy president of the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution of grabbing nearly two hectares of land from 42 families in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district in 2003. In a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen dated last Monday and received by the Post yesterday, Nhek Bun Chhay accuses Khun Haing of faking a title to the 19,575 square metres of disputed land. “Making this land title of ownership has irregularity,” Nhek Bun Chhay says in the letter, explaining that the land title was faxed to Cambodia from France. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld Khun Haing’s title to the land, but it did not properly investigate the title, Nhek Bun Chhay said. Khun Haing failed to appear in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court earlier this month after being summonsed in connection with a complaint filed against him by Sao Bunrath, one of the residents whose land was allegedly grabbed. “I lived on that land between 1995 and 2003,” Sao Bunrath said. “Khun Haing faked a land title to grab my land.” Sao Bunrath claimed the 42 families living on the disputed territory had bought land from a friend of Khun Haing, Meas Savoeun, former deputy governor of Preah Vihear. Soon after Meas Savoeun’s arrest and imprisonment over an unrelated matter, Khun Haing lodged a complaint with the court to take the residents’ land, Sao Bunrath said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meas Sokchea at sokchea.meas@phnompenhpost.com

New KRT judges to be appointed Bridget Di Certo

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

The appointment process for two new international co-investigating judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal was moving forward swiftly, the UN secretary-general’s special expert said yesterday.

DAVID SCHEFFER SPEAKS DURING A PRESS CONFERENCE IN PHNOM PENH EARLIER THIS YEAR. AFP

PHOTO/KHEM SOVANNARA

David Scheffer, who serves as special expert for the tribunal, told the Post the appointment process to re-staff the office investigating two government-opposed, Khmer Rouge-era cases was “well under way”. “I anticipate further developments in early May,” Scheffer, the former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, said via email. Scheffer, who was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December, will arrive in Phnom Penh later this week. International co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk quit the tribunal in October, and his reserve, Swiss national Laurent Kasper-Ansermet steps down on Friday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Pol Pot’s nephew questioned about leaders in government

Bridget Di Certo

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Nuon Chea’s defence counsel yesterday attempted to implicate Finance Minister Keat Chhon and Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong for their alleged roles during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, but the line of questioning they took with Pol Pot’s nephew was repeatedly blocked by the presiding judge. Michiel Pestman quizzed Saloth Ban, who has been on the stand for six days, about Keat Chhon accompanying then-King Norodom Sihanouk on an official visit as figurehead of Democratic Kampuchea to the UN secretary-general in October, 1975. But Saloth Ban, who worked under Case 002 co-accused Ieng Sary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was blocked by trial chamber president Nil Nonn from answering almost any question concerning Keat Chhon or Hor Namhong. “The witness is instructed not to answer this question, it is irrelevant,” was Nil Nonn’s oft-repeated order. Pestman persisted with putting questions to the witness, including asking him whether Hor Namhong was chairman of the Khmer Rouge prison Boeung Trabek. “I only knew that he was at Boeung Trabek; he was sent by Pang to be there,” Saloth Ban said. “I never remember having heard he became the chairman of a place.” Pestman then asked Saloth Ban why Hor Namhong had received preferential treatment by the regime, including being given a villa near the Independence Monument in the capital. He also asked Pol Pot’s nephew whether he was afraid of these men and whether Prime Minister Hun Sen had instructed the two ministers to not give testimony to the court. Court investigators summonsed Keat Chhon, Hor Namhong and other senior government officials as witnesses in 2009, but the summonses were not obeyed. Nil Nonn blocked Saloth Ban from answering this line of questioning. Pestman protested that he was using this line of questioning to investigate political interference in Case 002 and also to challenge the credibility of the witness. Counsel for former foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary and ex-president Khieu Samphan took turns questioning Saloth Ban, who gave confusing testimony.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Toll Royal derails regional projects Don Weinland

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

The unclear future of Cambodia’s national railway, following Toll Royal Railways’ suspension of operations on March 31, has cast doubt not only on the oft-delayed redevelopment project but also on a larger build-out expected to connect much of Asia.

A TOLL ROYAL EMPLOYEE STOPS TRAFFIC AT A RAILWAY CROSSING IN PHNOM PENH'S TUOL KORK DISTRICT

IN 2010. PHOTO BY SOVAN PHILONG

Toll Royal, a joint venture by Australian logistics firm Toll Group and Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group of Companies, had halted operations after continued setbacks in the redevelopment prevented the company generating sufficient revenues, sources familiar with the matter told the Post in March. But the stoppage also will affect the completion of the so-called Singapore-Kunming, China line, which has been under discussion for nearly 20 years and in which Cambodia is expected to be one of three key links. “Obviously, this has implications well beyond the borders of Cambodia. It’s a major setback,” Pierre Chartier, a transportation expert at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia, said from Bangkok yesterday. Slower progress on Cambodia’s rail lines could mean a slowdown for regional connectivity in general. If rehabilitation and operational efforts decelerate on the Cambodian side, efforts to restore connecting tracks in Thailand and Vietnam could also lose momentum, Chartier said. The Cambodian rail model was a unique one, not only in the region but also in the world, Chartier said. While most governments look internally for rail operators, Toll’s concession was a

bellwether for privatisation in the industry, he said. “It was an interesting model for development. This could have created a best-practice example for other countries. The fact that [the Toll concession] is causing a lot of problems is not going to be good for the cause of privatisation.” Domestically, delayed rail progress would mean more traffic on the roads, more pollution and more vehicle accidents, Chartier noted. But more than six weeks after Toll Group notified Cambodian officials of its imminent suspension of rail operations in the Kingdom, neither the government nor the company has issued a statement formally announcing the freeze. The Cambodian government has placed the burden on Toll Group to make clear its intentions and future in the Kingdom. “I don’t think there will be an official comment from the government because Toll did not make an official comment,” Council of Ministers spokesman Ek Tha said yesterday. “It is Toll’s responsibility to make this announcement.” Toll Group spokesman Andrew Ethell said in Melbourne yesterday the company had yet to release an official statement on its Cambodian operations and did not offer a time frame for a potential announcement. Rehabilitation of the railway was “well behind schedule” and did not comply with Toll’s business plans, Paul Power, a consultant at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) said in March. Other inside sources had said that frequent delays in the project had frustrated Toll. The suspension on operations, which reportedly will last a year, has perplexed the government. Cambodia’s integral role in the Singapore-Kunming rail line made Toll’s 30-year concession a keystone for rail lines that were hoped to link all of peninsular Southeast Asia. “I can’t understand why they would pull out. Cambodia is the centre of this rail network,” Ek Tha said. According to a report prepared for the World Bank in July last year, the lack of rail transport could also stymie rice exports. “Indeed, several of the leading exporters express the view that exports could stall at 250,000 tons before rail improvements and port improvements are in place two-plus years hence,” the report states. “The sole reliance on containers will preclude reaching the 1-million-tonne export target for 2015 for both logistics and marketing considerations.”

Transporting Cambodian rice costs US$15 per 100 kilometres, three times higher than in Thailand, Sok Muniroth, an agro-business adviser at Agricultural Development International, said yesterday. Rail development was closely linked to the competitiveness of Cambodia’s milled-rice exports, he said. “This is still a big issue in Cambodia.” Toll Royal sent letters to officials at the MPWT and Asian Development Bank on March 16, the Post reported at the time. The company halted operations on Cambodia’s only functional line – a stretch between Phnom Penh and Touk Meas, near Kampot – on March 31. Half of the company’s Cambodian staff were reportedly laid off the same day, although Toll has so far been mum on the exact number of domestic workers that were let go.

To contact the reporter on this story: Don Weinland at don.weinland@phnompenhpost.com

Will pressure make Chinese aid more transparent?

IRIN

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Critics have long characterised China as a secretive donor in economically poor but resource-rich countries, funding infrastructure construction in an unspoken bid for business deals and access to natural wealth and land. While China disburses aid with a scant paper trail, analysts say strong-arming its government to boost transparency – and aid efficacy – may hurt countries in need.

A WORKER COLLECTS RUBBISH AT THE CHINESE-BUILT KAMCHAY DAM ON THE TOEK CHHOU RIVER IN

KAMPOT PROVINCE. THE DAM IS ONE OF MANY BEING BUILT IN CAMBODIA BY CHINESE COMPANIES. PHOTO BY PHA LINA

Chinese-funded projects have become ubiquitous in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, countries once passed over by traditional donors. In river-rich Laos, a government development plan calls for 55 new dams to generate hydroelectric power, many of them funded by Chinese state-owned companies. Media there reported that China’s government recently signed five agreements pledging more than US$30 million to build government offices. Prime Minister, Hun Sen inaugurated one of the largest Chinese construction projects in the Cambodia in December 2011, a dam in Kampot province. This project comes on top of $1.2 billion the Chinese government pledged to Laos in 2010 - more than any other bilateral or multilateral donor. Officials also welcomed Chinese aid in August 2011, when the World Bank suspended new loans to Cambodia after finding that a Bank-financed land-titling project failed to secure property rights for residents facing eviction.

Cambodian leaders – including the prime minister – have repeatedly stated they are not worried about losing World Bank loans because they prefer “no strings” Chinese aid. Elsewhere in the region, media have reported ongoing talks between the Burmese government and the China Power Investment Corporation to restart construction of the US$3.6 million Myitsone Dam, which Burmese president Thein Sein suspended in September 2011 over concerns about transparency and environmental damage. Despite the chronic tensions between China and Myanmar over drug trafficking, refugee outflows and ethnic conflicts along their shared border, the Chinese government is one of Myanmar’s largest investors. “China’s aid is focused on infrastructure, which is badly needed in developing countries,” said Wang Yong, director of the Centre for International Political Economy at Peking University in Beijing. “By comparison, US aid is more driven by strategic and political objectives.” With almost no information available about China-funded projects in the public domain – including their potential environmental impact – EarthRights relied on company press releases and government statements. Other NGOs in the region have complained that environmental impact assessments are often not open to local communities or there is too little time to comment. Chinese aid is disbursed in line with its policy of staying out of other countries’ governance, as laid out in its April 2011 aid position paper. “It might interfere in other ways, like currying favour and obtaining sweetheart deals for its companies…Their Ministry of Commerce determines the aid, which tells you just what’s driving their considerations,” said Sophal Ear, a California-based political economist specialising in aid and governance. China’s estimated US$3.18 trillion in foreign exchange reserves can be enormously” transformative for poor countries, Ear added.

Pressure pitfalls Aid watchdog NGOs like the London-based Publish What You Fund use publicity to urge China to be more forthcoming with its aid figures, hoping such scrutiny will help money get to the people who need it most. The NGO lists China as “very poor” in aid transparency, ranking it the third least transparent donor out of 58 ranked last year. Its position was determined by 38 indicators, such as the passage of freedom of information laws and participation in the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI), a London-based group of donors and NGOs that have set aid disclosure standards.

“The problem is that China is not systematically releasing its information,” said Karin Christiansen, Publish What You Fund’s director. While transparency is a good route to achieving aid effectiveness, pressure may not work, said Ear. Strong-arming China into transparency will lead to a “backlash” of even less transparency, he added. “They value their sovereignty more than most countries. They see it [as] inviolable.” Still, said Christiansen, the group’s approach is credible because it does not require “changing what they [China] are actually doing, but about becoming more transparent on the approaches they are already taking”.

South-South rules The country is increasing aid transparency at its own pace, say observers. Last December, China publicly declared transparency a principle it upholds when it signed an agreement at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Busan, South Korea. The word “transparency” appears four times in the document, which includes a pledge of “zero tolerance for all corrupt practices”. It also notes that “the nature, modalities and responsibilities that apply to South-South cooperation differ from those that apply to North-South cooperation”, and the complexity of “new actors”, who may still face poverty at home but want to share lessons and experiences along the way. Unfavourable attention may have prompted China to become more public about its aid policy, said Wang. “The Chinese government does care about its international image and the international media.” Even with the will to boost aid transparency, China still faces a “diplomatic dilemma” in enforcing it: to meet compliance both sides must be willing and able, and recipient countries with weak governments often have poor aid oversight. “To carry out this principle [transparency] is not so easy in practice because it is influenced by circumstances of the governance structures of recipient countries and diplomacy, sometimes requiring some form of confidence,” Wang said.

Chut Wutty: In memory of Cambodia's environmental activist

Post Multimedia

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Slain activist Chut Wutty sought justice and transparency in a country that is too often thwarted by corruption and cruelty. A pro-active environmentalist, Chut Wutty was recognised for his work in Prey Lang and for the Natural Resources Protection Group. He was on the forefront of investigating illegal logging in Cambodia: a brutal business destroying the livelihood of local communities, rendering them destitute and distraught. Chut Wutty was gunned down on April 26, 2012.

Civil society: Cambodia’s treatment of NGOs faulted

Bridget Di Certo

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Cambodia is on par with Ethiopia, Algeria and Belarus in terms of repressing non-government organisations, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says. In a statement last week, she directly pointed to Cambodia’s proposed Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations, or LANGO, as having the potential to breach the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is enshrined in the constitution. The latest draft of the LANGO, obtained by the Post last year, would allow the government to close NGOs and associations if their activities were deemed to “harm . . . national unity, culture, customs and traditions of the Cambodian national society”. There would be no appeal available against such a decision. “Civil-society actors help mobilise people to become involved in decisions that affect their lives,” Navi Pillay said. “If their contribution is weak or restrained, the needs of ordinary people are too easily sidelined.” The High Commissioner said she welcomed the Cambodian government’s “commitment to subject the draft to further consultation and review”. Civil-society organisations, however, have been sceptical of how much stakeholder input the government will accept in its redrafting. In late March, as ASEAN chair, Cambodia organised a civil-society forum but excluded or cancelled some workshops on issues such as land rights, evictions and the environment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Nationwide elections to be funded without foreign aid: premier

Vong Sokheng

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Cambodia has rid itself of a culture of dependency and has full resources to run the upcoming nationwide elections, the first to be fully-funded by the Cambodian government, the premier said yesterday. Speaking at the inauguration of the Sihanoukville Port Special Economic Zone, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in or near the seat of power since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, said the Kingdom was well-prepared to run the upcoming June commune elections. “The culture of depending on foreign aid should be reduced because we need to be owned by ourselves in accordance with the sustainable practice of democracy in Cambodia,” Hun Sen said. “If there is foreign assistance, it would be good, but if not we still run the election.” The premier said the government had approved approximately US$19 million to run the commune election in June and roughly the same amount for next year’s national election. In 2003, in the first national elections since UNTAC, the government footed 40 per cent of the election expense bill, while donor countries fronted 60 per cent of the expense. In the second national elections in 2008, Cambodia paid for 60 per cent of the elections and donors contributed 40 per cent of the funds, the premier said. Hun Sen called on all armed forces and local authorities to facilitate the Kingdom’s third national elections and ensure they were free and fair. “[I] will also appeal to [all armed forces and local authorities] to facilitate all political parties to have their election campaign in an environment of neutrality and free in order to ensure a free and fair election so that [the result of election] would be acceptable [among all],” Hun Sen said. He also called for the 10 political parties competing in the upcoming commune elections to respect the elections laws and criticised politicians who were already organising public forums to campaign.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com

PM approves Chut Wutty inquest May Titthara and David Boyle

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday signed off on the creation of a joint committee to immediately begin investigating the shootings of activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, but publicly remained silent about the high-profile case during a speech.

A WOMAN CARRIES A PHOTOGRAPH OF CHUT WUTTY DURING A FUNERAL PROCESSION. PHOTO BY WILL

BAXTER

Mok Chito, head of the central judicial department at the Ministry of Interior, will lead the committee to investigate what really happened after environmentalist Chut Wutty encountered military officials while investigating illegal logging in Koh Kong province on Thursday. “We will do a clear investigation; we do not care about the first reports that were issued by military police,” Mok Chito said yesterday. Thus far, a series of contradictory accounts have been given by the military police, most recently concluding that In Ratanna shot Chut Wutty and then, realising what he had done, turned the weapon on himself. Mok Chito will be joined by Sin Sophany, deputy national military police chief, and Kim Santepheap, deputy general of the Ministry of Justice’s technical department. Tith Sothea, deputy director of the Council of Ministers Press and Quick Reaction Unit, and Som Seban, a deputy department head at the Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspections, have also been included. The composition of the five-man team was criticised by rights groups yesterday who said it was top heavy with politicians, devoid of judicial or investigative experience and light on actual technical ability.

Chan Soveth, senior investigator for rights group Adhoc, asked why the only member with any experience investigating big crimes was Mok Chito, a member of the military police. “I’m wondering why the government allows national military police to join in this committee, because it was their officers that were involved in that case,” he said. Military police officials were present during the shooting at Veal Bei Point in Mondul Seima district near the lower Stung Russey Chrum dam project. Sok Sam Oeun, chairman of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, suggested a committee had been formed because the government did not trust the current legal mechanisms in place. “They are politicians rather than the legally skilled people, so they cannot achieve the good result if they have no support from the technical group,” he said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with rights groups Adhoc, Licadho and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, have all launched their own investigations into the incident. In a statement yesterday, the OHCHR said it had already investigated four cases this year in Cambodia where live ammunition had been used against communities and human rights defenders. “Despite the current lack of clarity about what exactly happened, we are very concerned that the killing of Mr Wutty marks the latest and most lethal in a series of gun attacks on human rights defenders in Cambodia,” the statement read. In a wide-ranging speech delivered by Prime Minister Hun Sen at Sihanoukville Port Special Economic Zone yesterday, he did not mention the killing of Chut Wutty – a continuation of the government’s refusal to issue official public statements about the issue.

To contact the reporters on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

PM urges migrants to return home Vong Sokheng and Kim Yuthana

Wednesday, 02 May 2012

As about 5,000 workers marched through the streets of Phnom Penh yesterday to lobby for better pay and fairer conditions, Prime Minister Hun Sen used International Labour Day to talk up the opportunities arising from a labour shortage fast approaching 30,000 jobs.

DEMONSTRATORS WALK PAST THE ROYAL PALACE DURING A LABOUR DAY MARCH HELD YESTERDAY IN

PHNOM PENH. PHOTO BY HONG MENEA

WORKERS TAKE PART IN A LABOUR DAY MARCH YESTERDAY IN PHNOM PENH. PHOTO BY HONG MENEA

LABOUR DAY DEMONSTRATORS SHOUT DURING A MARCH YESTERDAY. PHOTO BY HONG MENEA

Speaking at an event inside Sihanoukville Port Special Economic Zone, Hun Sen urged Cambodians to resist the lure of illegal work in Thailand, saying shortages in industries such as agriculture and construction meant people could find the jobs they wanted at home. “I would like to appeal to all Cambodian people who are waiting to cross illegally into Thailand to return home,” he said. “Crossing the border illegally to work in Thailand is not the right way, especially because inside our own country we have a labour shortage,” Hun Sen said, referring to figures given to him by Minister of Social Affairs Ith Samheng. Furthermore, the prime minister said, conditions in Cambodia were much better than conditions illegal workers would find in Thailand. “Salaries in Thailand are not much different from Cambodia,” he said. “Yes, there are high salaries in Thailand, but we should not forget these people are illegal migrant workers. They are separated from their family and there are many other problems. Therefore, work in our country is better.” A spokesman for the International Labour Organization, however, said the principal push factor for workers leaving Cambodia for Thailand was the “limited number of decent work opportunities available at home”. “The main pull factor is the wage differential,” he said. “Thailand [has promised to raise] the minimum wage to 300 baht [$10 per day] in seven provinces and by 40 per cent in the other provinces.” The premier also appealed to Cambodian investors who were experiencing labour shortages to provide more information about opportunities in their industry; however, Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, said the government needed to take some responsibility for this. “There‟s a huge shortage [of workers] in garment sectors, too,” he said. “If the government is serious about this, they should be doing a better job to market the openings that exist in

the garment industry.” More than 5,000 people, primarily garment workers, who marched through the capital yesterday, however, don‟t share Hun Sen‟s enthusiastic outlook and want the government to agree to a list of 14 demands to improve their working conditions. The workers, led by 16 unions and civil society organisations, walked from the Council for the Development of Cambodia in Daun Penh district at about 7am yesterday to the National Assembly to make known their demands, which include increasing the minimum wage to $131 per month, ending the use of short-term contracts for workers and cracking down on rights abuses. The marchers also called for the creation of an independent court to punish perpetrators of violent acts such as the February shootings at Kaoway Sports factory, a supplier to PUMA. Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Worker‟s Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said yesterday‟s march sent an important message to the government. “The abuse of workers‟ rights, threat to workers, improper living standards of workers on low salaries, striking and fainting happen frequently, but the government‟s solution is unfair and at odds with the law,” he said. In response to the march, Hun Sen urged workers and employers to compromise. “If there is more profit made, then an employer should give incentives to the workers,” he said. “If workers‟ health is good, the production and the quality of the factory will also be good.” Meanwhile, the International Trade Union Confederation issued a statement on Monday criticising the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia‟s approach to combating violent strikes. “It is simply unacceptable that employers are calling on the authorities to „crack down‟ on legitimate strikes, and worse that they are publicly demonising independent unions who have had the courage to stand up for their members and demand respect on the job,” Sharan Burrow, the ITUC general-secretary, said in the statement. Ken Loo, secretary-general of GMAC, dismissed the comments. “Actually, these strikes are not legitimate,” he said. “Unions are not negotiating in good faith.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com Kim Yuthana at yuthana.kim@phnompenhpost.com

Accused trio fingered by former messenger Bridget Di Certo

Thursday, 03 May 2012

The Khmer Rouge tribunal conducted a closed session for most of yesterday morning to discuss apprehensions that the testimony of the day‟s witness, Ratanakkiri ethnic minority Pean Khean, would lead to self-incrimination of the one-time Khmer Rouge messenger. When Pean Khean took the stand in the afternoon, dwarfed in the dock‟s chair and swimming in an over-sized suit jacket, he identified Case 002 co-accused Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan as “senior leaders” of the Khmer Rouge regime. “In 1976, I stayed at K1, Pol Pot‟s place. K3 was for Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary. That was a place where they came to meet each other, and they were addressed as „om‟ that means that they were the leaders,” Pean Khean, who was accompanied by a duty counsel, testified. The carpenter, who lives in Takeo, recounted entering Phnom Penh by bicycle from Oudong on the evening of April 17, 1975, and passing thousands of residents marching out of the city. “We were life and death enemies,” Pean Khean said of the Khmer Rouge and Lon Nol regimes. “Those people were evacuated from the city because it was easier to cleanse the enemy.” Recruited as a 16-year-old in 1966, Pean Khean, who served as a bodyguard in the revolutionary forces for Koy Thun, alias Touch, told the court he was forbidden from visiting his family and there was severe punishment doled out to anyone who dared step out of line. Earlier in the day, the Nuon Chea defence team slammed New Zealand judge Silva Cartwright for exhibiting her “disdain” for the team non-verbally. “Yesterday, Judge Cartwright visibly shook her head and mouthed the words „blah blah blah‟,” defence counsel Andrew Ianuzzi said. “I tried to look for international jurisprudence on this and found none but found a secondary source, which states: „Some musicians cuss at home but are afraid to express yourself on the microphone,‟ which is [the] Dr Dre [song], Express Yourself,” Ianuzzi said, referring to the hip-hop star. “My application is that Cartwright could express, as Dr Dre advised, her personal and judicial opinions for the record.” Nuon Chea‟s defence team has thrice sought the disqualification of Judge Cartwright from the bench on perceptions of bias.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Bokor resort slated to bolster Kampot tourism

Rann Reuy

Thursday, 03 May 2012

Kampot officials are looking to the Bokor Mountain Resort, a US$1 billion project that opens today, to drive tourism growth in the burgeoning seaside destination. The provincial Tourism Department said the number of domestic visitors to Kampot had risen 120 per cent to 338,000 in the first four months of this year, but the local government expects that figure to increase significantly now the casino complex is operating. “I think that after the official opening, it will be a top tourism attraction,” Kampot Tourism Department director Soy Sinol said yesterday. Kampot governor Khoy Khun Huor echoed those sentiments, claiming the resort’s soft launch in late March had been well received and numbers would continue to rise. “Before [today] we just opened for occasional ceremonies, and there were a considerable numbers of guests,” Khoy Khun Huor said. “So now that we’re open regularly, we expect those numbers will continue to rise.” The resort would also create much-needed jobs in the province, Khoy Khun Huor added. In January, 2008, the government granted the Sokha Hotel Group, owned by Sokimex Investment Group, a 99-year lease for the US$1 billion development, the Post reported in March. As well as the casino, the project will include a 700-room, 18-storey, five-star hotel, along with conference rooms, bars, wedding facilities and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses. Hundreds of houses and villas were expected to dot the mountain by the time the project was completed in about 15 years, the Post reported at the time. Vietnamese-owned BIDC provided financing for the hotel, as well as for Sokha’s Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville projects. Thansur Bokor Highland Resort chief executive Dr Ngin Banal said yesterday that so far, Cambodian tourists had outnumbered foreign visitors to the mountain getaway. He assumed that trend would continue going forward. “For the future market, local guests will lead the numbers compared with international guests,” Ngin Banal said. In March, he told the Post the resort’s primary target was the greater Mekong region,

including Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, with southern China and Korea serving as secondary markets. The number of international visitors to Kampot jumped 29 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of 2012 to 9,000 from 7,000 the year before, statistics show.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rann Reuy at reuy.rann@phnompenhpost.com

Meas Muth, Sou Met among ‘most responsible’: judge

Bridget Di Certo

Thursday, 03 May 2012

Suspects in government-opposed Case 003, former navy commander Meas Muth and air force commander Sou Met, are among those most responsible for the crimes committed during the Democratic Kampuchea regime, the office of the co-investigating judges decided on Tuesday. The decisions were stamped by international reserve Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet alone, without the seal of his Cambodian counterpart. The decisions also symbolize the final judicial acts of Kasper-Ansermet, who steps down from his office tomorrow. He quit the court in March citing egregious dysfunctions within the ECCC. “The judicial investigation conducted by the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges has thus established that Suspect [Redacted] may be considered as one of the persons most responsible for the crimes enumerated in the Co-Prosecutors’ Second Introductory Submission,” Kasper-Ansermet wrote in his decision. In the two decisions Kasper-Ansermet determines that his investigations in Case 003 indicate that Meas Muth and Sou Met, both high-ranking commanders in the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea, are two of those most responsible for Khmer Rouge atrocities. “This does not establish that the Suspect is guilty, nor is it a finding of the commission of the crimes alleged in the Second Introductory Submission, which are matters left to the jurisdiction of the Trial Chamber and have yet to be established,” he wrote. The decision bears only the stamp of Kasper-Ansermet. The Swiss national has attempted to register two disagreements between himself and his Cambodian counterpart, You Bunleng, over cases 003 and 004, which Prime Minister Hun Sen has previously said will not be “allowed”. The decisions are the first coming from the Office of the Co-Investigating Judge that confirm long-speculated and leaked details about the two suspects. However, the names of the two suspects are remain redacted. In his decision, Kasper-Ansermet describes the responsibilities of the two accused. Meas Muth is described as having control of the seaside city of Sihanoukville and the Wat Eng Tea Nhien Security Centre and Stung Hav Rock Quarry forced-labour site there.

Investigators have also found Meas Muth exercised full authority over sending people to S-21, where they were ultimately tortured and killed, this included Thai and Vietnamese fisherman off the coast of Cambodia. New Zealand Olympic rower Rob Hamill is a civil party in Case 003 for the harm he suffered from his brother being captured by Meas Muth’s forces off the coast of Cambodian in 1978. Hamill’s brother’s photograph was later found amongst the meticulous S-21 documentation of prisoners. Meas Muth was also found by investigators to have likely commanded troops to attack Vietnamese territory in 1977 and 1978, resulting in indiscriminate atrocities against the Vietnamese. Air force commander Sou Met, like Meas Muth, was directly involved in the selection, arrest and transfer of people to S-21, the decision states. Sou Met also reigned over detention centre S-22, where prisoners were given only one meal a day, forced to perform hard labour, tortured under interrogation, and died from starvation and disease. As Air Force commander, Sou Met oversaw the construction of the Kampong Chhnang airport – a forced-labour project in which workers died of overwork and exhaustion and committed suicide on a weekly basis, Kasper-Ansermet wrote in his decision. The two public decisions will be widely welcomed by the hundreds of civil party applicants in cases 003 and 004.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bridget Di Certo at bridget.dicerto@phnompenhpost.com

Timbergreen official questioned in Chut Wutty shooting

May Titthara and David Boyle

Thursday, 03 May 2012

Photo by: Mathieu Young

Chut Wutty, an environmental activist who was gunned down in Koh Kong province last month, burns luxury wood felled by illegal loggers in the Prey Lang forest in February.

The “company” that military police have declined to identify but said sent staff to confront activist Chut Wutty shortly before he was shot last Thursday is Timbergreen, a firm the slain activist had attempted to expose for illegal logging.

Documents obtained by the Post yesterday and sources have confirmed Timbergreen is the firm licensed to clear the reservoirs of the Lower Russey Chrum dam project in Koh Kong province’s Mondul Seima district, not far from the site where Chut Wutty was shot.

Armed forces commander-in-chief Sao Sokha and military police officials have said staff from a company licensed to clear that dam site had attempted to stop Chut Wutty from taking photos of timber stockpiles.

A Timbergreen security official, Ran Boroth, has also reportedly been arrested as a suspect in the shooting of military police officer In Rattana – who was also killed during the incident and has widely been accused of gunning down Chut Wutty.

Khieu Sar Sileap, who was registered as the majority shareholder of Timbergreen in August 2010, confirmed yesterday that the firm held the licence to clear the dam reservoirs, but declined to comment further.

“I am sorry about that. I have stopped being involved with Timbergreen,” she said, adding that she had handed over the project to other people more than one year ago.

But she remains listed on the permit to clear the area dated June 1, 2010. That permit, authorised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is set to expire on the same date next month.

During trips to the Cardamom Mountain range, Chut Wutty had attempted to prove that Timbergreen was operating a large-scale illegal logging racket in Koh Kong province and was repeatedly apprehended by military police for doing so.

Last Thursday, he stopped with two journalists at Veal Bei point in Mondul Seima district and began photographing logs.

But the situation turned ugly after men, including military police officials, arrived on the scene and demanded he delete the photographs, shortly before Chut Wutty and In Rattana were fatally shot.

Former Koh Kong forestry administration chief, Hun Ran, said military police had arrested his son – Timbergreen security official Ran Boroth – as a suspect five days ago.

“I have met my son already, but he did not say anything to me, so I have to wait for the result of the committee’s investigation,” Hun Ran said.

Tith Sothea, deputy director of the Council of Ministers Press and Quick Reaction Unit and a member of the joint committee investigating the case, declined to comment about the details of the arrest because he could discuss on an ongoing investigation.

“Related to the one man who was arrested, it is related to court procedure,” he said.

Am Sam Ath, senior investigator for rights group Licadho, said that Ran Boroth, 26, had been arrested and held for questioning in Koh Kong province since the evening of May 1.

Hun Ran said military police should have waited for a joint investigation committee on which Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on Tuesday before arresting anyone and slammed a report into the incident the committee released last Friday as convoluted and unbelievable.

That report suggested In Rattana had committed suicide after shooting Chut Wutty and contradicted several earlier explanations provided by military police officials.

In December, during a trip to the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, Chut Wutty was apprehended by military officials with two journalists from the Post after a photographer repeatedly shone a flashlight on trucks carrying luxury timber at night.

The armed men demanded that Chut Wutty talk to their boss on a mobile phone. After a heated exchange, he identified this person as the chief of security at Timbergreen.

Timbergreen holds the licence to clear the nearly 2,000-hectare reservoir of the Stung Tatai dam, on the Tatai river in Thma Bang district, and Chut Wutty had alleged the company was logging extensively outside this area.

As of August, 2010, Timbergreen’s other investors were Hou Hap (27.5 per cent) and Huy Thera (15 per cent), according to the firm’s Ministry of Commerce registration.

Chut Wutty and In Rattana were gunned down in an area overseen by the conservation organisation Wildlife Alliance in the protected Southern Cardamom Forest.

Wildlife Alliance CEO Suwanna Gauntlett said yesterday the slaying had drawn “extremely damaging” worldwide media coverage that undermined confidence in public security, damaged Cambodia’s reputation and would ultimately hurt an emerging eco-tourism sector.

“Every single thing that happened on this crime scene is in violation of the civilian code. Detaining civilians on a public road is one … keeping the car from leaving the area, stealing the cameras from inside the car, switching off the ignition of the car and then killing,” she

said. “It is also an issue of Cambodia’s economic development, of Cambodia’s reputation, of security, public safety – this is absolutely unconscionable.”

To contact the reporters on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com David Boyle at david.boyle@phnompenhpost.com

Alone to the end, Kasper-Ansermet makes KRT exit

Bridget Di Certo

Friday, 04 May 2012

Upon his arrival, he vowed to keep the public informed, and it is this very act that has caused so much trouble for international reserve co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who departs the Khmer Rouge tribunal today. As one of his final judicial acts in his role – an authority many Cambodian court staff and government officials have refused to acknowledge – Kasper-Ansermet on Tuesday released detailed information about the crimes former military commanders Meas Muth and Sou Met are alleged to have committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. As well as detailing the two Case 003 suspects’ responsibilities, the Swiss judge alludes to the types of crimes that may have been perpetrated by the two. Like all judicial steps Kasper-Ansermet has taken in government-opposed cases 003 and 004, he acted alone in issuing the two decisions this week that will make it harder for the controversial cases to simply go away. In the decisions, he also highlighted Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang’s disagreement to cases 003 and 004. Chea Leang has previously said the court’s mandate will be fulfilled after prosecuting just two cases. Cambodia’s Supreme Council of the Magistracy refused to endorse the UN’s appointment of Kasper-Ansermet due to his use of the social media website Twitter. The UN said the council, which lists Chea Leang and Kasper-Ansermet’s Cambodian counterpart You Bunleng as its members, had failed to fulfill its obligation under the agreement between the two to establish the tribunal. UN Special Expert David Scheffer is in Phnom Penh, and an announcement is expected soon about how the UN will handle the empty international co-investigating judge role.

Boeung Kak rep infighting gets its day in court

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Friday, 04 May 2012

Six Boeung Kak village representatives will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused of threatening to kill their one-time representative Ly Mom, who was spoke on their behalf from 2007 until last year. Although no charges have been laid, Ly Mom is demanding $10,000 from each of the the six villagers, whom she claims distributed leaflets that also defamed and insulted her. Phnom Penh municipal court summonsed Tep Vanny, Heng Mom, Nget Khun and Chheng Leap from Village 22 and Tol Srey Pov and Kong Chantha in Village 24 on April 26 and 27 to be questioned over the accusations. They successfully sought a delay while they found lawyers. Ly Mom said she planned to show the leaflet to the court. “I am upholding my complaint and demanding $10,000 from each of them,” she said. “I request that the court punishes them according to the law because this is a complaint between individual and individual.” Tep Vanny, one of the representatives accused of distributing the leaflet, said she would attend the court with fake US dollar bills and pray to the “ghosts and souls of dead people” she believed were inhabiting Ly Mom’s body and causing her to be angry at fellow Boeung Kak residents. “We think that only by doing this can we evict the ghosts’ souls from Ly Mom’s body,” she said. “We hope the court will find justice for us.” Ly Mom said she did not have such souls in her body, only a threatening leaflet from the group that she could not tolerate. Boeung Kak residents said six protesters were injured on Wednesday when military and anti-strike police attacked them during a strike near Hun Sen’s house in Phnom Penh, claims officials have denied. According to a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, Ho Sethy, director of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet, issued a letter asking Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema to provide a solution for Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers. Kiet Chhe, municipal deputy director of administration, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Decision decried: Crowd calls for end to land fight

Tep Nimol

Friday, 04 May 2012

Decision decried Hundreds of villagers from Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces called on authorities to resolve a long-standing land dispute yesterday at a forum hosted by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. During the forum, held in Battambang province’s Bavel district, the crowd of about 500 villagers criticised a decision by Battambang provincial judge Saoeun Kosalmony in February to grant 638 hectares of land in Bavel district and Beanteay Meanchey province’s Malai district to Song Thorng and his two associates, Tun Buntheoun and Khun Tesy. The three businessmen had originally grabbed the villagers’ land in 2006, excavating the area to make way for a development, villagers said. Later that year, provincial authorities deemed the land state property. San Samneang, village representative from Malai district’s Takong commune, said villagers had lived on the land since 2002. Ham Mony, a member of the provincial council that spoke at the forum, told villagers to keep farming on the land, since the court had yet to implement its February decision. Provincial authorities needed to clarify the situation with the courts, he added. Reached by phone yesterday, judge Saoeun Kosalmony said his decision was “just an initial action” and villagers could appeal. Song Thorng could not be reached for comment.

Farewell to a brave judge Theary Seng

Friday, 04 May 2012

Totday, Cambodia will suffer a great loss with the departure of International Reserve Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet. It is a loss with significant implicat-ions, and not only for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and for cases 003 and 004. The departure of Kasper-Ansermet has far-reaching consequences for Cambodia’s larger, post-genocide society and our struggle to embed justice and combat impunity. We are in shock over the cold-blooded murder of environment-alist Chut Wutty, but we should not be surprised. We tend to think of coarse impun-ity in an ethereal way because of its prevalence in this society. That means we speak about it, and react to it, in a limiting and narrowing manner based on our compartmentalising it into our respective fields of work – be it in rule of law, environmental protection, human rights or politics. As we compartmentalise impunity, we also stratify it among the local authority, the military and the national leadership. There also exists an unspoken stratification between the domestic and international spheres. The international community is considered above the fray, despite it being a main player in shaping the news and the agenda, and in funding NGOs, the government, the ECCC and democracy. But, as we all know, impunity would not be the spreading cancer it is if the international community did not enable it with its billions and its deafening silence in the face of sustained, outrageous acts of injustice. So there is a very short, straight line between what happened to Chut Wutty, Chea Vichea and other victims of military violence in recent days and what is happening at the ECCC. And that short connecting line is impunity. If Meas Muth, Sou Met, Im Chaem, Ta Tith and Ta An can get away with the murder of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, what’s the big deal with doing away with one union leader? Or one activist in the forest? And what is impunity but the persistent, habitual negation of justice, the licence to do harm, the freedom from punishment, the exclusion from responsibility, the exemption from

accountability, the arrogance and the assurance that one can get away with murder? Impunity is the societal norm in Cambodia. And this norm, empowered by countless billions of dollars from the international community, is encouraged by the current leadership and suffered by the common people. What are we to do? Well, we – both Cambodians and the international community – can begin by supporting and encourag-ing more individuals like Laurent Kasper-Ansermet. What are we are doing when we support him? We are saying we stand for decency, honour, character and justice – the virtues and elements missing in this society, and the real weapons against impunity (not all the billions of yen, euros, dollars and yuan). To the contrary, in the words of C. S. Lewis: “In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. “We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings to be fruitful.” What are we to do? We need to be reminded that just-ice is neither impartial nor neutral. Justice sides with the innocent; it gives preferential treatment to the poor and the oppressed, the widows and the orphans, the weak and the vulnerable. As a Jewish proverb puts it: “It is not good to be partial to the wicked, and so deprive the innocent of justice.” What are we to do? We can all practise what the polit-ical theorist Hannah Arendt called “an enlarged way of thinking”. Or what Yale theologian Miroslav Volf calls “double vision”, when we “enlarge our thinking by letting the voices and perspectives of others, especially those with whom we may be in conflict, resonate within ourselves, by allowing them to help us see them, as well as ourselves, from their perspectives. ”Nothing can guarantee in advance that the perspectives will ultimately merge and agreement be reached. We may find that we must reject the perspective of the other. ”Yet we should seek to see things from their perspective, in the hope that competing justices may become converging justices and eventually issue in agreement.” What are we to do?

We must understand that impunity is power gone awry. We must redeem power in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr, who said: “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, you are truly a rare saving grace of the whole “international community” in Cambodia and correctly bear the title “Honourable”. Thank you for your efforts and work here. Your term was brief, but more meaningful than another’s full-term stay, and you leave a legacy of character and decency that we greatly need and desire. Theary Seng is the founding president of CIVICUS, the Centre for Cambodian Civic Education, and the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia.

From orphan to CNN hero Roth Meas

Friday, 04 May 2012

Photo by Nina Loacker/ Phnom Penh Post Children arrive for class at the school near Steung Meanchy dump.

Noun Phymean’s epic journey from orphan to refugee to financial and career success was followed by a sudden decision to give it all up to help those who need it most: children. After decades of struggle, Noun Phymean’s life was quite comfortable by 2002; she’d worked for international NGOs, owned her own house and car, and had a savings account. But comfort can be deceptive, and one afternoon hers crumbled. It happened at lunchtime, while she and colleagues were having a picnic lunch on the grass along the riverside, she explained last weekend in an interview during the 10th anniversary celebration of the NGO she began to assist children who survived off dumps. It was a workday in mid-April, she recalled, when about 10 ragged children approached her group and asked for money or some of the food they were eating: chicken and rice. Her response was to ask them to wait: to return after she and her colleagues had finished their lunch. She said she would give them money then. The children dispersed. “After lunch we threw the scraps of our food, rice and some chicken into trash bin,”

Phymean recalls. “The children appeared from out of nowhere. It was so fast, like they had been hiding and waiting. They darted to the trash bins and grabbed the scraps.” “I felt such empathy for them,” she continues. “What they did would have been normal if they were animals, but they were human beings: children. They should not have been eating from trash bins.” What she did next changed her life, and eventually thousands more. She bought the children food, but instead of leaving she started talking to them, trying to find out why they were there, asking them – for example – about their family lives. They had parents, but their parents could not afford money to feed them so they urged them to walk along streets to ask strangers for money or food. They slept in doorways or alleys or under trees – wherever they ended up. Her questions led her to understand rather than recoil from the children. When Phymean asked the children what they wanted her empathy expanded, sparking a personal connection, when they told her they wanted to go to school. “They reminded me of myself in the 1980s. I had no parents and life was hard, but I struggled for an education. My mother had always told me that education equalled opportunity and that without it I could end up as a servant in a restaurant,” she explains. One week later she sold her house and land for US$30,000 and started an NGO, People Improvement Organisation, to help children who survived by gathering recyclables at dumpsites. Then, she went to see what was happening at the largest one in the country: Steung Meanchey, on the outskirts of the city. “The stench was overwhelming. I saw a truck crash over a child rummaging through the garbage. The children hadn’t bathed in weeks. What I saw was hell in this world,” she recalls. A lifetime of survival Phymean was a child of the Khmer Rouge, born just four years before they took control of the country in 1975. From their hometown of Kampong Cham, her family had fled to a village about 50 kilometres from Phnom Penh, in Kandal province. After the Khmer Rouge were driven to the Thai border, they returned home where her father, who could speak Vietnamese, found work with the new Vietnamese-controlled administration of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Despite the overthrow of Pol Pot, civil conflict continued and men were forcibly conscripted by the government to fight the remnants of the Khmer Rouge, which had regrouped along the Thai border and continued to represent Cambodia at the United Nations. Phymean’s older sister was afraid her husband would be conscripted so they fled to Siem Reap, her husband’s hometown, leaving their infant daughter with Phymean and their mother. “It was not yet safe along the road from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap, so my mother and I asked to keep their baby, but my mother got sick and then died in 1987. I was only 16 at the time and I was caring for a child,” Phymean recalls. During the day she was a government clerk, earning $5 a month, and at night she copied books by hand. “We did not have photocopy machines. If someone wanted a second copy

of a book they would write it out by hand. It took me four or five days to copy a book.” Although she was making ends meet, Phymean wanted more, specifically to learn French and English – the teaching of which was banned at the time. “I learn French and English in secret. Teaching those languages was banned so classes had to be held in secret,” she recalls. Refugee After finishing high school in 1989, Noun Phymean began looking for her sister, and with the assistance of the International Red Cross found that she was in Kao I Dang refugee camp in Thailand. She began writing letters to her and a year later decided to join her. “I also wanted my niece to meet her parents,” she explains. One day after arriving in the refugee camp she got a job as an accountant for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). At first, the refuge seemed like paradise. It offered everything that was banned in Cambodia, including the opportunity to learn English and French, and to become aware of human rights. The conflict she escaped, however, followed her. One month after arriving in the camp gangs of robbers began descending on it to steal from refugees bound for third countries. Gun shot sounds were common, Phymean recalls. “The gangs of thieves usually arrived about midnight and we would race to the UNHCR office to sleep. In Cambodia, life was hard, but in Kao I Dang it was frightening.” After the Paris Peace Accords in 1992, Phymean returned to Cambodia to work for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, or UNTAC: first on the elections and then in the finance department. She also worked for the International Labour Organisation, the Dutch NGO Sawa and the European Union, before setting up her PIO. First lessons About 50 children arrived for the first language and maths class in 2002, but Noun Phymean ran into resistance from their parents because they needed their children to work. Moreover, the children were often hungry, in some cases too hungry to study. Others fell asleep because they had been up late the night before sorting through garbage. The school’s teachers had their own challenges. “Some had to leave the class every five minutes to get a breath of fresh air because of the stench from the children. Some of the kids here had never taken a bath more than once a week,” Phymean recalls. She focused on finding food for the students so they would be able to concentrate on their studies. For two years she wrote proposals and sent them to donor agencies asking for funds. None arrived so she also sold what was left of her property to pay her teachers. Making connections In 2004, she received $10,000 from Just World International: enough to feed the children for one year. Then, the number rose to 300. The next year she was able to give students one meal a day (orphans received three). Later, she received a scholarship to study English in Canada, where she began handing out flyers about PIO to other international students and her teachers, one of who wrote to CNN nominating Phymean to be a CNN hero.

“I had no idea my teacher wrote to CNN to nominate me. When I returned to Cambodia, I saw an email from CNN. I could not believe it, so I asked somebody to read the email with me,” she recalls. After being interviewed by CNN in August 2008, she was told she made the top 10 hero list and would receive $25,000. She admits this made her happy, saying one thing common to the rich and the poor is the pleasure of winning a prize, no matter what its size. The money was used to build a separate school so that the children did not have to sleep, study and eat in one building. Two more children's centres were also established in slum communities: at Borei Keila and Borei Santepheap II. In total, about 1,000 children, including 60 orphans, now receive education from PIO. Children’s dreams Phymean believes that child-like dreams fuel ambition, and that even the most personal ones do come true. She recalls seeing planes as a young girl and wishing she could fly away on one. She’s flown across oceans. She recalls watching a movie in Canada and wishing she could meet one of the actresses: Hollywood star Lucy Liu. When she received her CNN hero award Lucy Liu presented it. When she talked to the children rummaging for scraps of food in a bin along the river, she remembered her own childhood, which was full of dreams, and reached out to theirs. Since then she’s given thousands of children a chance of realising their dreams, and reminded adults of theirs.

Health woes plague elderly KRT witness Bridget Di Certo

Friday, 04 May 2012

Examination of witnesses at the Khmer Rouge tribunal was abruptly cut short yesterday when former Khmer Rouge bodyguard Pean Khean became too ill to testify. Pean Khean was unable to return to the courtroom after the 10:30am break and could not continue being questioned by the prosecution about the structure of the senior leadership of the Khmer Rouge, presiding judge Nil Nonn said. Earlier that morning, Pean Khean, a Ratanakkiri ethnic- minority villager, failed to identify senior leaders of the regime in photographs presented to him by the prosecution, including one of his former boss, with whom he lived for about 10 years. However, Pean Khean, now a carpenter in Takeo province, also app-eared not to be wearing a pair of thick spectacles he had donned in the courtroom on his first day of testimony on Wednesday. He testified that he had lived in Pol Pot’s compound, K1, which he described as a residential complex near the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, for about six months. He was tasked with tracking down vegetables for the cooks in the compound. The prosecution, which requested extra time to question the important witness, has asked the Trial Chamber to prioritise elderly witnesses in the scheduling of Case 002. “It is a practical reality in Cambodia that, with any witness or civil party who is over 70 years of age, the risk of unavailability to test-ify increases significantly with the passage of time,” the prosecution wrote in a motion filed last Monday. “The average life expectancy of Cambodians is 61 years.”

Health woes plague elderly KRT witness Bridget Di Certo

Friday, 04 May 2012

Examination of witnesses at the Khmer Rouge tribunal was abruptly cut short yesterday when former Khmer Rouge bodyguard Pean Khean became too ill to testify. Pean Khean was unable to return to the courtroom after the 10:30am break and could not continue being questioned by the prosecution about the structure of the senior leadership of the Khmer Rouge, presiding judge Nil Nonn said. Earlier that morning, Pean Khean, a Ratanakkiri ethnic- minority villager, failed to identify senior leaders of the regime in photographs presented to him by the prosecution, including one of his former boss, with whom he lived for about 10 years. However, Pean Khean, now a carpenter in Takeo province, also app-eared not to be wearing a pair of thick spectacles he had donned in the courtroom on his first day of testimony on Wednesday. He testified that he had lived in Pol Pot’s compound, K1, which he described as a residential complex near the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, for about six months. He was tasked with tracking down vegetables for the cooks in the compound. The prosecution, which requested extra time to question the important witness, has asked the Trial Chamber to prioritise elderly witnesses in the scheduling of Case 002. “It is a practical reality in Cambodia that, with any witness or civil party who is over 70 years of age, the risk of unavailability to test-ify increases significantly with the passage of time,” the prosecution wrote in a motion filed last Monday. “The average life expectancy of Cambodians is 61 years.”

Remote areas ‘lacking services’ Meas Sokchea

Friday, 04 May 2012

Political parties and their candidates are not delivering on election promises to improve the infrastructure in remote areas of the country, election monitoring group Comfrel said yesterday. In a seminar on the needs of voters in distant communes hosted by Comfrel yesterday, executive director Koul Panha identified 350 “remote” and 100 “most remote” communes where villagers faced a serious shortage of necessary services. The needs of those in remote villagers should always be a priority, not just during election season, he said. “People living in remote communes really need help,” the executive director said. Koul Panha said between 30 and 40 per cent of land in the “most remote” communes was the subject of disputes between villagers and private companies granted the land through economic land concessions. “These remote areas are very difficult to access, but the companies want that area because there is valuable timber,” Koul Panha said. Funcinpec secretary of state Tep Nonnary, a representative of one of the seven political parties at the seminar, criticised the government for granting huge tracts of land to private development companies, which he said made villagers poorer. “Granting land concessions makes villagers the subordinates of business owners,” he said. Funcinpec is part of the coalition government with the Cambodian People’s Party, but it did not support granting land to private companies, he said. Council of Ministers spokesman Ek Tha defended the government’s policy, saying it boosted development and reduced poverty. Comfrel senior coordinator Kim Chhorn said CPP representatives declined to participate, stating that the party had “already done this work”.

UN’s Subedi begins fact-finding visit Bridget Di Certo

Friday, 04 May 2012

The United Nations-appointed special rapporteur to Cambodia will embark on a week-long fact-finding mission in the Kingdom today. Nepalese national Surya Subedi, an expert in internat-ional law from Leeds, England, has announced his mission will focus on economic and other land concessions. “During this mission, I plan to examine the situation of economic and other land concessions and their impact on the human rights of local communities. I will also look into the role and responsibility of business enterprises in benefiting from land concessions,” Subedi said in a UN press release announcing his visit. Subedi’s term as special rapporteur to Cambodia was extended by a landmark two years at a meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva last year. This is Subedi’s second fact-finding mission to Cambodia this year.

Words help KR survivors heal Mom Kunthear and Cassandra Yeap

Friday, 04 May 2012

Photo by Hong Menea/ Phnom Penh Post Genocide survivor Pov Synoun (right) prays at the Choeung Ek killing fields yesterday.

Before yesterday, widow Pov Synoun, 54, was the only person who knew of the horrors she encountered under the Khmer Rouge regime. Dressed in a traditional sampot and white blouse, the Pursat province native was stoic in recounting how the horrors she endured under the reg-ime continue to torment her through sleepless nights and distracted days. “Even till this age, I still could not tell my story to anyone besides myself . . . so every suffering I had I’ve kept in my mind,” she said yesterday at a therapy session organised by the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation, where, for the first time, Pov Synoun’s ordeal was recounted aloud. As part of the unique initiative, TPO works with survivors of the regime to create “testimonies” of the harm inflicted on them. Testimonies are documented and read aloud in a group environment at the conclusion of the short-term therapy. In the cool dimness of the Sambour Meas pagoda, in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey dist-rict,

Pov Synoun’s counsellor read her testimony in front of Khmer Rouge tribunal victims’ support staff, TPO staff and six other women who, like Pov Synoun, are civil parties in the tribunal’s Case 002. Her composure during the public reading belied the ard-uous journey from silence to speaking out that began last Thursday, when she first met her counsellor at TPO. The shock of having to systematically recall and relate her experiences led to strong physical and emotional reactions during the session, TPO technical adviser Mony Soth-ara said. Pov Synoun had been fearful, intermittently crying and shouting, he said. During her second session, he noted improvements. “She was less emotional, but I noticed sometimes her body shook and her heart beat fas-ter. I would stop her from talking and ask her about something that made her happy, or we’d take a break,” he said. During the third session, the last before the public reading, she had progressed to the point of being able to listen to, and approve, a record of her testimony, Mony Sothara said. That record, which was read yesterday, recounts the teenage Pov Synoun’s forced marriage to a man she did not know and the violent threats by a Khmer Rouge soldier for the couple to consummate the union. In her testimony, Pov Synoun describes how she witnessed her father being shot dead, Khmer Rouge soldiers marching her uncle away to kill him, and being told that her mother and brother had died in a bomb explosion. The man she was forced to marry was also killed during the brutal regime. According to TPO project manager Youn Sarath, this form of short-term “testimony Therapy” gives survivors a chance to heal psychologic-ally by transferring their experiences into a written record. “The clients transfer their feelings and stories of the past into the document, and reading it out helps to recall the past experience, focus on their body sensations,” he said. The counsellors, rather than the victims, read the testimonies as a way to empower the victims, Youn Sarath said. “The past experience that the client went through is not just about the client having it and keeping it in their own selves, but that there are other people who care about them and support them,” he said. Almost 100 survivors had undergone short-term test-imony therapy between 2009 and 2010, but this was the first time it had been conducted since then because of limited resources, Youn Sarath said at the testimonial reading.

In Cambodian culture, dealing with the past often meant avoiding talking about it, which deviated from healing from a psychological perspective, he added. But in recent years, more people had been requesting psychological support, Youn Sarath said. “This is one of the steps in breaking the sil-ence about discussing psychological [issues] in Cambodia,” he said. Pov Synoun said she felt she had made crucial steps forward in being able to smile and talk to other people about her experiences, but there would still be a limit to how much she could share. TPO will conduct follow-up sessions with Pov Synoun in the coming weeks to monitor her progress. “I expect that I can be better, but I cannot cure my mind 100 per cent,” she said. “I think I will keep it with me until I pass away.” <div>Please enable JavaScript to post a new comment</div>