Cambodian gov't urged to invest more in agricultural sector [-Hun Sen rather sells agricultural lands to Gulf countries instead?]

Cambodian gov't urged to invest more in agricultural sector [-Hun Sen rather sells agricultural lands to Gulf countries instead?]

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A well-known expert has called on the Cambodian government to devote more resources to the rural sector in efforts to mitigate the effects of the global economic crisis, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Friday.

While the tourism and garment sectors continue to struggle for access to international markets during the slowdown, Cambodia's agricultural sector holds the best hope of weathering the crisis, Kang Chandararot, president of the Cambodian Institute for Development Study, was quoted by the English-language daily newspaper as saying.

"We face a difficult situation, but the government should use most of the (nearly) 1 billion U.S. dollars of donor aid to develop our rural areas as a top priority," he said.

Greater improvements in rural development would cut poverty and reduce dependence on loans from banks or microfinance institutions, he said.

"While direct loans from banks and microfinance institutions provide necessary support, aid through the rural development and agriculture ministries should be used to modernize our agricultural methods," he said.

Such aid should be used to renovate Cambodia's aging water systems, find new seedlings and fertilizers, and improve rural markets, he said.

Cambodia used to be the major rice and some other rural products exporter in the region but years of war has made it lag behind Thailand and Vietnam in the past decades.

Currently, garment, tourism and infrastructure are the pillar industries of the kingdom.

Police find explosive devices near Cambodian defense ministry

Police find explosive devices near Cambodian defense ministry

January 2, 2009 by phalla (Edit)
Filed under Khmer News Today

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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — Police on Friday found explosive devices at two locations in front of the National Defense Ministry and another one near the headquarters of TV3 in downtown Phnom Penh.

Mine clearance group disassembled these materials, without causing any damage and casualty.

“We found them at 0300 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) and have been investigating the case to catch the perpetrators,” said Sao Sokha, chief of the National Military Police.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the deadly placements yet.

The explosive substances were placed in cans of mosquito-killing spray when the police found them in the public garden before the ministry and on the sidewalk beside the TV headquarters, according to the police.

January 7, 1979, is Frankenstein Of April 17, 1975: Sam Rainsy

Friday, January 02, 2009

Sam Rainsy's letter published in
The Cambodia Daily, January 1, 2009

JANUARY 7, 1979, IS FRANKENSTEIN OF APRIL 17, 1975

On January 7, 1979, I was living in France and publishing a monthly anti-Khmer Rouge bulletin named Sereika (meaning Liberation).

When the Vietnamese communist army invaded Cambodia to "free" us from the Khmer Rouge, we quickly realized that we were caught between Scylla and Charybdis.

We remembered what happened to most Eastern and Central European countries after Staline's Red Army had invaded them to "free" them from the Nazis.

According to the Vietnamese-installed regime's propaganda, without January 7, 1979 we would not have been able to achieve anything that we have achieved since. Or, in other words, nothing would have grown around us without our salvation by Vietnam and its (mainly symbolic) auxiliary forces led by the CPP's current leaders.

But it is worth realizing that without April 17, 1975 (the date of the Khmer Rouge takeover and the beginning of the Cambodian genocide), there would be no need for January 7, 1979. And without the Vietnamese and Chinese communist massive intervention in the early 1970s to help the Khmer Rouge, the latter would not have been able to seize power and there would be no April 17, 1975.

Therefore April 17 and January 7 are inextricably associated: both of them are communist Frankensteins. Celebrating January 7 without having in mind a broader historical perspective, is playing into the hands of the current Phnom Penh regime whose only raison d'être was to "free" the Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge with communist Vietnam's decisive but not unselfish help.

It is sad to see most former leaders of the anti-Vietnamese Resistance in the 1980s, especially from Funcinpec, give up their ideal to fight for a free, democratic and independent Cambodia.

It is heartbreaking to see them sell out to the CPP, thus forgetting the memories of all those who have died for this ideal.

Sam Rainsy
SRP President

Vietnam Outlaws News Blogs, Claims Foreign Servers Will Help, UN Security Council Review

In the global blogosphere, who's watching whom?

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: New Media Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, January 1 -- Vietnam in late 2008 moved to regulate the blogosphere, dictating that blogs remain entirely "personal" and not purport to report any news, much less state secrets. The Vietnam government stated that services such as Google and Yahoo will help them enforce these "no news on blogs" rules. While Yahoo did turn in a Chinese dissident blogger to the government in Beijing, and Google has a history of "disappearing" content apparently at its powerful partners' request, Vietnam's claims seem anachronistic.

On December 31, Inner City Press was asked by Vietnam's mission to the United Nations to appear on Vietnam TV to review the country's year on the Security Council, judged to be one of the "Top Ten Vietnam News Stories of 2008." While Vietnam has sought to keep human rights violations from Myanmar to Zimbabwe off the Security Council's agenda, its diplomats have not been unwilling to answer the Press' questions. During Vietnam's presidency of the Council in July, its Ambassador memorably told Inner City Press, when asked about a request for Council action by Cambodia in its UNESCO-enabled border dispute with Thailand, that "meeting postpone, issue disappears."

But in Vietnam itself, the goal seems to be to have news and social critique disappear from the Internet. In November, Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Information and Communications (MoIC) Do Quy Doan argued that "as blogs are personal sites, bloggers are not allowed to use blogs to promote anti-state activities, war and obscenity, or to offend the honor or prestige of organizations and individuals or to release secret state documents."

Doan subsequently signed into law circular 07/2008/TB-BTTT which provides that blogs shall not even "post links which go to information that violate Article 6 of Decree 97/2008, banning anyone who takes advantage of the Internet to deliver distorted information [or] reveal state secrets."

One step down the bureaucratic ladder, the Chief of the MoIC’s Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information Control Agency, Luu Vu Hai argued that "when we use the press freedom right we have to obey the Press Law and we couldn't use the press freedom right in a non-press environment."

At a press conference about the circular, Doan was asked how the government would "prevent 'black' blogs, blogs that are contrary to Vietnamese customs and habits?" He answered that "most bloggers in Vietnam are using services supplied by foreign service providers... After the circular takes effect in 2009, the two sides will exchange information and cooperate with each other. I think service providers also wish to have a clean Internet environment. I think if state agencies of Vietnam ask for cooperation, Google or Yahoo will be willing too."

Again, we hope this is unlikely, even though Yahoo did turn in a Chinese dissident blogger to the government in Beijing, and Google has a history of "disappearing" content apparently at its powerful partners' request, click here for that.

Deputy Minister Doan went on to note that "some say that blogs are personal diaries. If they are personal diaries, they should be kept for their authors, or their friends or relatives. If they are opened for the public, they are not personal diaries anymore, but become electronic information pages... Blogs don't represent any organization or release orthodox information."

But corporations now promote themselves with blogs. The UN in December invited Inner City Press to make a presentation at an event promoting the use of blogs, click here for the UN's summary of the session. The UN, not only an organization but calling itself "The Organization," brags about its own blogs. Would they be illegal in Vietnam? Will the UN, though its compromised UNESCO or otherwise, say anything about this? organization but calling itself "

Retrospective on the news in Cambodia for 2008 (Part I)

01-01-2009
By Ka-set in English
Click here to read the article in French
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Kambol, Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 4/02/2008. Nuon Chea, former Brother Nr 2 during the Khmer Rouge Regime, at his first appearance at the pre-trial chambers of the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers at the Courts of Cambodia) (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

Legislative elections, listing of the Preah Vihear temple followed by an open conflict opposing Cambodia and Thailand, new decisive steps at the tribunal in charge of trying former Khmer Rouge leaders and criminals, food crisis, world financial meltdown... The year 2008 was for sure an eventful one, considering the size of the little Kingdom of Cambodia. Ka-set journalists applied themselves to report and analyse the richness of the news that happened from the beginning of the year 2008 and more particularly from March 27th, date of the public launching of the independent news website cambodia.ka-set.info about Cambodia and Cambodians abroad and available in Khmer, French and English, www.ka-set.info. On the occasion of the new year 2009, the independent media editorial team offers its readers the opportunity to go back, with a two-part publication, over the main facts of the year that passed.

JANUARY: The dengue fever, Mia Farrow and the FBI

4th : The dengue control Department at the Ministry of Health announces 407 dead following the epidemic outburst of dengue fever in 2007. The epidemic of haemorrhagic dengue fever was the deadliest in the country since 1998.

20th : The American actress Mia Farrow is denied the right by Cambodian authorities to organise a ceremony on behalf of the “Dream for Darfur” organisation, at the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide in Phnom Penh. The goal was to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis which has befallen that area of Sudan, and in the meantime condemn China, one of the main trade partners dealing with the African state. The Cambodian government refuses to see its Chinese ally targeted on the Cambodian territory.

22nd : Exactly four years before, popular trade union leader Chea Vichea was assassinated by strangers in broad daylight, in front of a news stand in the middle of Phnom Penh. One hundred or so union activists, Human rights defenders and representatives of the opposition gather on the anniversary day on the crime scene to pay homage to the key-figure of the union movement and urge once more the government for a re-opening of the investigation, for the liberation of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, sentenced to 20 years in jail for the murder of the union leader after a much criticised trial, and for Chea Vichea's true murderers to be arrested.

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 22/01/2008. Sam Rainsy, head of the opposition Sam Rainsy party, during the 4th commemoration of the assassination of union leader Chea Vichea (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

31st : The United States open a FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) office in Phnom Penh. The office is inaugurated by Robert Mueller, FBI director. The bureau is set to collaborate with the Cambodian authorities in the fight against terrorism and cross-border crime.

FEBRUARY: Khmers rouges and evictions

7th : The second Public Hearing of the tribunal (the ECCC) established to try former Khmer Rouge leaders sees civil parties taking part for the first time in the judicial proceedings, a real step forward in the history of international penal law.

15th : Sam Bith, former Khmer Rouge guerilla commander, dies at the age of 76. In December 2002, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the July 26th 1994 attack of a train linking Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh. The attack had claimed the lives of 16 passengers and had ended with the abduction and murder of three Western backpackers.

22nd : International and local organisations for the Defence of Human rights expressed their indignation facing new violence upsurges concerning land conflicts. In front of an escalation of repressive methods used against inhabitants, they called for an immediate moratorium on evictions until legal dispositions are finally adopted to protect victims of forced displacements. According to an astounding report published by Amnesty International on February 11th, more than 150,000 Cambodians throughout the country are exposed to the risk of losing their home.

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 22/12/2007. Dey Krohom inhabitants resisting eviction by 7NG company employees Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 22/01/2008. (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

26th-27th : During two days, the ECCC held on-site investigations at Choeung Ek, site of the mass graves and now a memorial, and at the former S-21 torture centre, now the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. Duch, the former director of Tuol Sleng, where more than 14,000 people suffered torture before being executed at Choeung Ek, was present for a reconstruction of events. The sessions were also attended by surviving prisoners.

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 27/02/2008. Policeman, outside S-21 torture centre, during a reconstruction with its former director, Duch (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

MARCH: The Killing Fields

30th : Death of Dith Pran. His friendship story with an American journalist in Cambodia in the 1970s and his ordeal through the Khmer Rouge regime were adapted into a film production in 1984 by Roland Joffé in The Killing Fields. Dith Pran died of cancer at the age of 65 in New Jersey (United States).

APRIL: Marriage, police and fried chicken

4th : The issuing of marriage certificates involving foreigners and Cambodian women is temporarily suspended by Cambodian authorities. The measure was taken with a view to fight human trafficking, the authorities explained. Since the beginning of the year, three south-Korean agencies in charge of organising marriages between Cambodian women and their would-be husbands have been shut down by the Ministry. The ban was lifted on November 17th.

22nd : Heng Pov, former Phnom Penh city police commissioner, is sentenced for the sixth time on Tuesday April 22nd, this time to 18 years of imprisonment. If one added up all of Heng Pov's sentences up to that day, the former commissioner would spend 58 years and 6 months in jail.

28th : Inauguration and opening with great pomp of the first KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in Cambodia, located in Phnom Penh, on Monivong Boulevard.

MAY: Rice and corruption

5th : The creation of a community of rice-exporting countries fuels debates. Prime Minister Hun Sen sends a reassuring message to the Philippines, who takes a dim view of the establishment of an Organisation of Rice Exporting Countries (OREC) which would gather Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar together. The initiative appeared in a context of global inflation in rice prices.

Prey Nup, Kompong Som (Cambodia), 25/06/2004. Ploughing the rice fields in polder 1 (Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

16th : The Civil Society League, fighting corruption, organises a march towards the Cambodian National Assembly to hand in a report concerning the campaign they led in the country. The coalition, gathering about 40 local NGOs, collected between December and April more than a million fingerprints among citizens who were ready to denounce corruption. The anti-corruption law, demanded by donors, has been ready for ten years but left aside.




Phnom Penh (Cambodia), 16/05/2008. More than a million fingerprints against corruption...(Photo: John Vink / Magnum)

26th : Prime Minister Hun Sen lifts the ban on the exportations of Cambodian rice. The embargo had been decided two months earlier to curb the inflation of rice prices.

JUNE: Media and prostitutes

4th : About a hundred representatives of prostitutes denounce the new law against human trafficking in Cambodia, adopted in march 2008. According to them, it led to the shutting down of brothels and the often violent arrests of independent prostitutes by the police. The prostitutes were then sent to a so-called rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital.

11th : The organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces the arrest of Dam Sith, editorial director for the daily newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience) affiliated to the Sam Rainsy Party and calls for his liberation. His arrest came “a few weeks only before the legislative elections.” The journalist, jailed after a complaint for defamation and relaying of false information was lodged against him by Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong, was freed on June 15th after an intervention on the part of the head of government.

The second part of the retrospective on the news in Cambodia, from July to December 2008, as seen by the editorial team of Ka-set, will be published on Friday January 2nd.

Suicide family [from Cambodia] coaxed from bridge

Friday, January 02, 2009


January 02, 2009
By Gemma Jones
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)

THE wife and children of a man who jumped to his death off a bridge on the F3 had to be coaxed by police off the outer railing after he leaped.

Police officers following the Cabramatta family's car on the Brooklyn Bridge probably prevented a murder-suicide on New Year's Eve by talking the woman and two children down from the bridge's edge.

Officers were too late to save their husband and father, whose body has still not been found.

It was unclear if the children had been coerced by their father to follow him over the 20m drop to almost certain death about 9.30am on Wednesday.

Police are investigating whether the children may have been drugged before their father drove them - extremely slowly - north along the F3 to the bridge.

"Two officers acted quickly to grab a 39-year-old woman as she also climbed to the outside railing and drag her back to safety,'' a police spokeswoman said yesterday.

"Police also intercepted a girl aged 9 and boy aged 7 as they too climbed the bridge railing.''

Superintendent Peter Marcon praised the officers for preventing a bigger tragedy and for their quick thinking in securing a boat to begin a search for the man.

"The officers acted quickly to avert a far more serious situation on the bridge, then were in a boat searching for the missing man only minutes after he jumped,'' he said.

"The officers involved will be commended for their actions.''

The mother and children, who are believed to be from Cambodia, were treated at Hornsby Hospital.

Police needed interpreters to speak with the mother.

Authorities will resume a search of the Hawkesbury River today.

An underwater search was called off at 10.30am yesterday because of strong currents, while Polair and State Emergency Service personnel continued searching for an hour.

"We do not hold out much chance for his survival,'' Inspector Steve Martlew said.

Murder-suicide jump suspicion

Murder-suicide suspicion ... police are still investigating the incident were a man jumped from the Hawkesbury River Bridge yesterday. (Photograph: Gary Graham)

January 01, 2009
By Kara Lawrence and Brooke Newstead
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)

A DRIVER who leapt from the Hawkesbury River Bridge in front of a woman passenger and two children yesterday may have been planning a murder-suicide.

Police are investigating whether the children may have been drugged when the man ran from his car and jumped after he spotted police.

A woman passenger in the car also climbed the railing but was rescued by police. There is no suggestion the woman was involved in any plot to kill the children.

Police driving along the F3 became stuck in a line of traffic caused by the car as it was driven slowly towards the bridge about 9.30am.

As they followed, the car slowed to a stop and the male Asian driver, 40, from Cabramatta, left the car and jumped off the bridge.

His 43-year-old female Asian passenger also climbed the railing and there were fears she too would jump. She was taken to be interviewed by police, along with the boy and girl, aged between 10 and 12, who had remained in the back seat of the car when the man jumped.

A critical incident investigation team will be set up to decide whether officers averted a potential murder-suicide. A search failed to find the man's body yesterday. Superintendent Shane White said the man was last seen floating west.

"We have an interpreter assisting us with our conversations with the woman,'' Superintendent White said.

She and the two children were taken by police to Hornsby police station, where they remained until about 3pm. They emerged looking distressed, the two children clutching teddy bears, as all three were led by a paramedic to a waiting ambulance.

The three were taken to Hornsby Hospital for treatment. An RTA Traffic Emergency Patrol officer drove the man's car to a nearby boat-ramp car park.

The car, containing rubbish and bags of clothing in the boot, was then towed to a holding yard in Hornsby for forensic investigation. Police and emergency services launched a search for the man, but failed to find him.

"The search has been by foot, by water and by air,'' Supt White said.

Police were aided by a NSW Ambulance helicopter and boat, Coastal Patrol boats, and State Emergency Services boats.

"The matter is subject to a police investigation. Whether it is a matter for the coroner is yet to be confirmed,'' Supt White said.

The search for the man will resume at 6.30am today. Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen the car as it travelled north on the bridge or who have relevant information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.