Sichan Siv Will Visit the Long Beach Public Library on May 19th

Cambodian "Killing Fields" Survivor, Ambassador Sichan Siv, Bestselling Author of Golden Bones, Will Visit the Long Beach Public Library May 19th

The Long Beach Public Library Foundation will present "killing fields" survivor's story of success at the Main Library in Long Beach, CA on Tuesday May 19th from 5:30.-7:30p.m. Ambassador Sichan Siv will tell his tale of endurance and triumph rising from Pol Pot prisoner to U.S. Ambassadorship to achieve the American Dream.
Long Beach, CA (PRWEB) May 14, 2009 -- Daring escapes from war horrors coupled with meteoric rises from tragedy's ashes are often thought to be only the stuff of Hollywood films. But the dramatic and courageous life of The Honorable Sichan Siv - a refugee from the Cambodian "killing fields" and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - is a true story.

The Long Beach Public Library Foundation is pleased to present Ambassador Siv on Tuesday, May 19, to tell his amazing and inspiring story from his best-selling book, Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America. This will be the Ambassador's first appearance in Southern California.

While war raged throughout Southeast Asia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ambassador Siv was a young intellectual and graduate student in Cambodia. He was part of the target demographic that dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge sought to eradicate, resulting in the infamous "killing fields" or rice paddies dotted with millions of skulls.

Siv was captured and placed in a slave labor camp, but made a daring escape though the jungle to Thailand. After months in a refuge camp, he entered the United States. Once here, through diligence and hard work, he rose to the heights of the U.S. government.

Tuesday, May 19 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Main Auditorium, Long Beach Public Library
101 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach

Tickets are available for $30 by calling (562) 628-2441 or purchasing online at www.lbplfoundation.org. The event will include a live reading by Ambassador Siv, book signing and refreshments. Books will be available to purchase.

The non-profit Long Beach Public Library Foundation supplements and supports the Long Beach Public Library. The Foundation's programs include Family Learning Centers at each of the city's 12 libraries, as well as the Raising A Reader program, which has graduated more than 5,700 parents and pre-schoolers from its reading readiness course. Among the Foundation's most prominent programs is the annual Long Beach Reads One Book, when the entire city spends a week celebrating a selected book and its author. Funds from Ambassador Siv's appearance will support these programs.

Long Beach Public Library Foundation
101 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach, CA
562/628-2441 - lbpl.foundation@charter.net
Contact: Sara Pillet

Memorial ceremony for slain matriarch offers little solace to Cambodian family

From left, Valerie Tubaces, Chad Sovanasy and Samantha Bunma hold a photo of their mother and family matriarch Leam Sovanasy, 76, who was was found brutally stabbed to death in her Long Beach home January 31, 2009. (Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer)
A photo of family matriarch Leam Sovanasy, 76, placed in a Buddhist shrine inside the family home in Long Beach. (Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer)

05/13/2009
By Kelly Puente, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (California, USA)

LONG BEACH - Mother's Day had always been a crowded and festive occasion for the Sovanasy family.

Each year, dozens of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren would flock to the small home on Peterson Avenue to pay their respects to 76-year-old Leam Sovanasy, a mother of 10 and Cambodian family matriarch.

But on Sunday, the family was instead mourning a tragic loss.

"Mother's Day was the worst day of our lives," said Sovanasy's daughter, Samantha Bunma.

Leam Sovanasy was found brutally stabbed to death in her home on the morning of Jan. 31, and the family say they are no closer to finding the killer.

Bunma said the family believes the murder could have been the result of a home-invasion robbery, but for now, no one but the killer knows what happened.

Family members now fear for their own lives.

"We're always looking behind our backs," Bunma said. "We're afraid to sleep. Each day we live in fear."

In keeping with Buddhist tradition, the family on Monday held a special prayer ceremony to mark the 100th day of Sovanasy's death. While the ceremony is meant as a final prayer to say goodbye, many are having a hard time letting go, Bunma said.

"Who could do this to a 76-year-old woman?" she asked. "She didn't have the energy to fight anyone."

Sovanasy was rarely alone in the home she had lived in since 1980, but on that Saturday morning at about 10:30 a.m., it seemed as if everyone was busy, her daughter said.

Sovanasy's husband, Lek Lot, and a son-in-law, had gone to fix a broken water heater at their Buddhist temple on Hill Street. Bunma, whose family also shares the home, was away at work while her two teenagers slept.

Son Chad Sovanasy, who lives in the back house, didn't hear anything unusual, the family said. But when he came out to wash his car and check on his mother at about 11 a.m., he discovered a horrific scene.

Sitting in the home where their mother was murdered, Bunma, 42, and youngest daughter Valerie Tubaces, 37, showed pictures of Sovanasy and talked about her life in Cambodia and struggles to keep the family together.

They said her death was a sad ending for a woman who survived the Cambodian Killing Fields and the loss of her first husband and three children.

As the bloody Khmer Rouge regime took power, Sovanasy fled Cambodia with her remaining seven children and spent three years at a refugee camp in Thailand before immigrating to Long Beach in 1980.

"She would always say, `things will be better when we go to live in the U.S.,"' Bunma recalled.

A devout Buddhist, Sovanasy maintained many of her Cambodian traditions, but also embraced American culture. The great-grandmother was a huge Lakers fan, her daughters said.

She married Lek Lot in 1980 after the two, both widowed and alone, connected at a Thai refugee camp. The daughters said Lot is now in the hospital suffering from kidney failure and depression.

"He's having a very hard time," Tubaces said. "He feels like he should have been there."

They said each family member has a way of remembering Sovanasy.

Bunma says she sleeps in her mother's bed to keep her spirit company. Tubaces wears a crystal heart necklace with her mother's picture.

"We're still going to be in mourning until we find an answer," Tubaces said. "The big question is why."

The investigation in ongoing, and police are asking for the public's help. Anyone with information is urged to call LBPD Homicide Detectives Russ Moss or Teri Hubert at 562-570-7244.

kelly.puente@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1305

Thai soldiers arrested 135 Cambodians at the border areas

Top and Bottom: Pictures of Cambodian workers being checked and deported to back to Cambodia.

Reported by Khmerization

135 Cambodians had been arrested by 30 Thai soldiers on the Banteay Meanchey-Sakeo border areas, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.

Deum Ampil quoted Thai Asean News Network as saying that the 56 men, 50 women, 12 boys and 12 girls had been arrested on 12th May in an area on the Banteay Meanchey-Sakeo borders.

The arrests took place when the Thai villagers reported to the Thai authority that those Cambodians had illegally entered Thailand and had damaged their rice and potato crops.

The arrested Cambodians said that because of poverty, they had entered Thailand to work in the Thai rice-fields and potato farms to earn a living, says Deum Ampil.

Deum Ampil reported that, after the arrests, the Thai authority contacted the Cambodian authority to take back those illegal workers through mutual agreements between the two countries.

Alleged ingenious Cambodian fortuneteller took 3 Thai bar women for a ride

Three Pattaya Bar Girls Victims Of Cambodian Fortune Teller Scam

May 14, 2009
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

On 12th May 2009 three Thai ladies claimed they had been poisoned and robbed by a female fortune teller whom they had invited back to their Pattaya apartment, in a similar fashion to a previous case reported by PDN on 9th February 2009.

As soon as Police Lieutenant Colonel Was received a report of the incident at 9.00 pm a police and rescue team rushed to room no. 11, on the third floor of Wanpen Apartment, located in Soi Gor Pai, Moo. 10, Nongprue, Banglamung.

There, the police found two ladies lying on the bed and one in the toilet. Miss Junsri Rakmitr [23] from Surin, the room owner, together with Miss Oil and Miss Porn [alias], all employees of a bar in Soi 7, Central Pattaya, were all unconscious. Two of them had been hit on the forehead with a hard object.

Police found paraphernalia connected with a religious ritual including a tray with incense, candles, flowers and a small amount of money, placed on the bed headboard. On the Buddha shelf, there was a golden baby image and three cups of a beverage which had been consumed. The room was in disarray as if someone had carried out a search.

Initially, the rescue team gave the three ladies first aid. When Miss Junsri, the room owner, woke up in a confused state, she told police that at 4.00 am, on the same day, she and her two friends were on their way home when they met a woman aged around 45 – 50, who claimed to be a Cambodian fortune teller. As the woman began to tell their fortune, they started to show interest and the woman said, if they wanted to have good luck, they would have to carry out a ritual with her in their room.

Their interest became stronger when the woman promised if they decided to go through the ritual, they would be able to find foreign husbands like many other ladies she had helped before.

Back at their room, as part of the ritual, they had to drink a cup of dark coffee each and not too long after that they felt very sleepy. They woke up again on the next day and found out that they had been robbed. The Cambodian fortune teller had made off with their property consisting of 3 mobile phones and 3 wallets containing tens of thousands of baht.

They asked for help from neighbours to report the incident to the police. They had never seen the robber before and had no idea what her name was.

The police took them to Banglamung hospital and viewed CCTV footage from the apartment which showed that the robber had spent more than one hour to carry out her crime. She took two big bags out of the victims’ room and rushed to a motor bike taxi and sped away.

Police believe that this female thief has carried out this kind of crime several times before due to the preparations and precautions she had made, such as the wearing of a face cover. However, they will continue their investigations once the three victims have recovered from their ordeal.

Whether the victims will eventually be fortunate to find the foreign husbands of their dreams remains to be seen.

CPP-controlled court sides with the powerful land thief

Provincial Court Rejects Land-Theft Complaint

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
13 May 2009

Sixty-one families from Kampong Chhnang province denounced the denial of a land-grab complaint by the provincial court on Wednesday, saying a clerk of court refused to receive it.

The families say they tried to file a suit against a private company, KDC International, for the theft of 80 hectares of rice fields and homes.

The families say they have filed suit multiple times since 2006, but the court has failed to take action.

Nhim Nhoeun, a representative of Lor Peang village, in Kampong Tralach district, said court clerk Heng Saman rejected the complaint.

Heng Saman declined comment, and KDC representatives could not be reached for comment. KDC has accused villagers in the past of stealing its land.

In January 2008, KDC bulldozed villagers’ houses on one plot of land, and more than one month later Kampong Chhnang provincial court sentenced two representatives of Lor Peang to prison following a suit filed by KDC.

One of the two villagers was sentenced to prison for up to 10 years on several charges stemming from the suit.

Toth Kimsroy, coordinator for the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee in Kampong Chhnang, who helped prepare the villagers’ suit, said he planned to help villagers forward a complaint to the Ministry of Justice early next week.

Opposition Pushes for Hearing on Vote-Buying [by the CPP]

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
13 May 2009

The opposition Sam Rainsy Party on Wednesday rejected an offer by the Phnom Penh Election Committee to reconcile its vote-buying complaint against the ruling party without a public hearing.

Commune council members nationwide will vote on May 17 in provincial- and district-level elections that are an attempt to decentralize government.
The Sam Rainsy Party claims that two Cambodian People’s Party members offered its council members Var Sam and Bun Keth between $800 and $1,000 each to vote for the ruling party in upcoming elections.

“I will still continue with the complaint process and request the Phnom Penh Election Committee to open a public hearing for punishing the wrongdoers,” SRP representative Ly Sovichea told VOA Khmer on Wednesday. “We want the Phnom Penh Election Committee to follow the law.”

The CPP members, Ly Raman and Leng Phaly, have denied the allegations, and said they would attend a public hearing if necessary.

Ly Raman, who is an adviser for the Ministry of Cults and Religion, said he would “prepare legal action” if the opposition continued with its complaint.

Leng Phaly, undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Planning, said the complainants had “no evidence” and that he had a “right to lobby all commune council members to vote for the CPP during the campaign.”

SRP officials say they have enough evidence of vote-buying to have a public hearing, and the Phnom Penh Election Committee said it would go forward with a hearing if the sides could not reconcile.

Bun Kheth, second deputy chief of Toek Thla commune, in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district said the complaint did not need to be reconciled, but a hearing should be held for “respect of the law and the rights of others.”

Var Sam, commune council member for Phnom Penh Thmei commune, said reconciliation would encourage impunity, and cause “wrongdoers” to “continue to violate the law without worry.”

More than 10,000 commune council members from the Cambodian People’s, Sam Rainsy and Norodom Ranariddh parties will vote for 3,260 seats on May 17.

The Nation calls Cambodia's demand for compensation "ABSURD

Absurd demand prolongs border dispute

May 13, 2009
The Nation

Cambodia's compensation claim for conflict damages is another step backward for peace at historic temple site

It goes without saying that both Thai and Cambodian policy-makers should take to heart the old saying - you reap what you sow. It was revealed yesterday that Cambodia has demanded Thailand pay more than US$2 million(Bt69million) in compensation for damages caused by the Thai Army during clashes along the common border.
In a diplomatic note to the Thai Foreign Ministry, Phnom Penh said the April 3 clashes destroyed 264 stands at a market in front of the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple and that the destruction has created great hardship for 319 families who lost their livelihoods as a consequence.

In April, Cambodian and Thai troops deployed to this contested area exchanged artillery, mortar and automatic weapons fire. However, this latest wave of tension began last year when the then government of Samak Sundaravej endorsed Cambodia's bid to have Preah Vihear listed as a World Heritage site, providing the then anti-government yellow-shirt movement with ammunition to attack the government and the then foreign minister, Noppadon Pattama.

To make matters worse, Unesco, the UN cultural agency that oversees such heritage listings, ignored an injunction from a Thai court and went ahead and approved Cambodia's bid for the temple to receive the much-desired status. The Thai court had ruled that the then government did not have the approval of Parliament to accede to Cambodia's wishes.

Since then, the disputed border area has witnessed several gun battles. A number of soldiers from both sides have been killed or injured. Both sides have refused to back away from their positions, even after rounds of negotiation and golf games at the expense of the taxpayer.

Tension between Thailand and its neighbours is nothing new, and problems flare up every now and then. Sometimes these incidents come out of nowhere. Sometimes they are accompanied by a good dose of politics, designed for the self-serving gain of certain figures or political cliques. Sometimes they are the result of simple bad judgement by policy-makers.

It is obvious that the current spate of tension between Thailand and Cambodia is tainted by gutter politics - stemming from the Samak government's go-it-alone endorsement without the approval of the Parliament here. To compound the issue, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen issued an ultimatum for the withdrawal of Thai troops from the border area. He did not spell out the consequences if this did not happen, but the war drum was heard loud and clear in Bangkok. Then the former yellow-shirt activist, Kasit Piromya, the current foreign minister of Thailand, stepped in and called Hun Sen a "thug".

In spite of the handshakes and shuttle visits by political bigwigs, the dust has yet to settle. The issue simmers on, as demonstrated by this latest absurd demand from Phnom Penh. It comes at a time when the two sides should be talking about demilitarising the area and coming up with ways to reconcile differences and move on.

Such demands make us feel that Cambodia is not sincere about reconciliation and sees tension as a zero-sum game. But in fact it is the self-serving gutter politics of both countries that are at fault.

It has been consistently pointed out that landmines along the overlapping border have been freshly laid. Knowing that Thai troops patrol these paths year after year, one has to wonder why Cambodian troops would take such action? Moreover, the fact that a growing number of Cambodian villagers are being moved out of the area and replaced by Cambodian troops suggests to the world that Phnom Penh is on the warpath. So much for reconciliation; so much for Asean and its half-baked slogan of "one family".

Perhaps policymakers from both countries should come up with their own money to pay for the damages suffered by people on both sides of the disputed border. Policymakers are notorious for being corrupt. Perhaps they should use some of their ill-gotten gains as compensation for the communities along the border.