Borei Keila villagers set to sue Chhay Channyda and Shane Worrell Monday, 23 January 2012
Women from Borei Keila who escaped Prey Speu social affairs centre last Wednesday made another impassioned plea for housing and compensation at rights group Licadho’s Phnom Penh headquarters on Friday.
Shane Worrell/Phnom Penh Post
Former Borei Keila resident Ngin Sarith (left), who was evicted from her home earlier this month and then detained at Prey Speu social affairs centre, is comforted at the office of Licadho on Friday. Armed with copies of a Borei Keila construction agreement from 2004 and in tears, they spoke of their detainment and called on Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian Red Cross for help. They also announced an intention to file civil and criminal complaints against Phan Imex. Eighteen women and two children escaped from the centre on Wednesday after being held for a week without charge. They were detained on January 11 for protesting against the January 3 demolition of more than 200 houses in Borei Keila. Phan Imex originally agreed to construct 10 buildings to house 1,776 families, in exchange for development rights to 2.6 hectares, but has constructed only eight buildings. Villagers including Ngin Sarith appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen for a solution and Cambodian Red Cross president Bun Rany for food. “Please, Hun Sen, give us money because our houses and property were destroyed in the
eviction,” she said. “Phan Imex must construct the two buildings for us and release eight villagers from Prey Sar prison. “Please, Bun Rany, give us food because you are a humanitarian institution.” Neup Ly, community empowerment officer at the Housing Rights Task Force, said the villagers were planning two complaints against Phan Imex. “One is a criminal case for destruction of property and the other is a civil complaint asking the company to construct two buildings for them.” Only about 100 families refused compensation offers from Phan Imex, he said. “After the January 3 eviction, about 300 families left. Many were forced to accept land at relocation sites Tuol Sambo or Phnom Bat.” The Cambodian Red Cross said the Borei Keila dispute did not fall under its umbrella of causes.
Judge rejection ‘a breach’ Bridget Di Certo and Vong Sokheng Monday, 23 January 2012
Cambodia has breached its agreement with the United Nations by refusing to appoint the UNnominated investigating judge at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon’s spokesman said over the weekend.
Eccc
Khmer Rouge tribunal reserve co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet in a photo taken last year. The UN voiced “serious concern” in a statement released in New York on Friday over Cambodia’s “unfounded” rejection of Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet. “The Royal Government of Cambodia raised ethical concerns in relation to Judge Kasper-Ansermet in November 2011,” spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement. “The United Nations thoroughly reviewed the concerns, determined that they were unfounded, and requested that the Supreme Council of the Magistracy proceed with his appointment,” Nesirky said. “Cambodia should take immediate steps to appoint [Kasper-Ansermet] as International Co-Investigating Judge.”
Tomorrow, the UN’s newly appointed Special Expert at the tribunal, David Scheffer, will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who chairs the Royal Government’s taskforce on the ECCC. “Deputy Prime Minister Sok An is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with the newly appointed Special Expert at the ECCC, David Scheffer,” Press and Quick Reaction Unit vice-president Keo Remy told the Post. “I regret the comments made by [Nesirky] … as he did not look at all corners [of the agreement between Cambodia and the UN],” Keo Remy said. “Especially, his comments should not have been made before the meeting between David Scheffer and Deputy Prime Minister Sok An – from the Cambodian side, we respect the agreement and have not made any comments before this high-level meeting.” Court spokesman Lars Olsen told the Post that Scheffer was meeting with several government and ECCC officials during his visit, the first in his new role. When asked about the purpose of these meetings, Olsen referred to the UN’s weekend statement. The Cambodian Supreme Council of the Magistracy met on January 13 and, despite an obligation to rubber-stamp the UN’s nominee under the 2003 agreement that created the tribunal, refused to appoint him. The council delivered their decision last Wednesday to Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, who chairs the government’s task force on the tribunal, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana told the Post last week. The government’s “ethical” concerns relating to Kasper-Ansermet reportedly include his use of social-media site Twitter, which the Swiss national has used to evince his determination to investigate controversial cases 003 and 004, which are opposed by the government. On Thursday, Human Rights Watch’s Phil Roberston told the Post that concerns about KasperAnsermet’s use of Twitter were “not legitimate”. Supreme Council of the Magistracy members could not be contacted for comment about the rejection of Kasper-Ansermet yesterday. Open Society Justice Initiative’s Clair Duffy told the Post yesterday that the government’s “ethical” concern with the appointment of Kasper-Ansermet is “just another chapter in the Case 003/004 saga that’s engulfed this court for years now”. “I think the Cambodian government vetoing a UN judicial appointee is a seriously low point in the Case 003/004 saga,” Duffy said by email yesterday. “I would urge the UN and donors to demand that the government unequivocally cooperate on Cases 003/004. The future of this court depends upon good faith cooperation of the government in respect of all cases.” Council members include the tribunal’s Cambodian co-prosecutor Chea Leang, who has voiced her opposition to cases 003 and 004 because she believes the suspects fall outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction and the Cambodian/UN agreement envisaged the prosecution of a “limited number of people”.
Cambodian co-investigating judge You Bunleng also sits on the Council. The failure of Bunleng, and his former co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk, to conduct proper investigations into cases 003 and 004, was the subject of a letter from staff who had quit in protest to the UN in May last year. Blunk and Bunleng abruptly closed investigations into Case 003 in April. Blunk later resigned in October. Kasper-Ansermet told the Post last week that he had reached several important decisions on cases 003 and 004, but was effectively “walking in shackles�.
Court balks at Borei Keila request Khouth Sophakchakrya Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Borei Keila residents’ attempts to have seven villagers freed from prison hit a hurdle yesterday when a Phnom Penh Municipal Court clerk told them that their written request could not be accepted because it wasn’t formal enough, they said.
Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post
Former Borei Keila residents sit outside Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Pich Limkhoun, a representative of 37 Borei Keila residents who gathered in front of city hall to lodge the request, said they were shocked to have their thumbprinted letter handed back because it was not formally addressed to the court. “The court clerk, whose name I don’t know, told us that he could not accept our request because it did not comply with court procedure,” he said. The letter, obtained by the Post, asks the government and the municipal court to intervene to release seven villagers detained in Prey Sar prison since violent clashes in Borei Keila on January 3 and to make development firm Phan Imex build the final two buildings it agreed in 2003 to construct. The letter also asks Phan Imex to compensate villagers whose houses were destroyed on January 3 and 4 and protesters who were detained in Prey Speu social affairs centre from January 11 to 18. The court clerk could not be reached for comment. Eight villagers were charged with using violence against public officials on January 3 and seven remain in Prey Sar prison. Their defence lawyer, Chin Lyda, said the municipal court had released one of his clients, Mom Vuthdy, on January 17. Mom Vuthdy’s husband Brak Sophal told the Post that Phan Imex owner Suy Sophan and the
authority had since given them a flat. “We are happy to live in a flat in Borei Keila,” he said. About 50 people from families who were evicted and resettled in Kandal province have returned to Borei Keila, despite having no houses to live in. One of them, Hang Moeuth, 29, said he and others had been unable to find work close to their relocation site and returned to Phnom Penh because they were desperate for money. “I came to Phnom Penh to earn money for food, because we are poor,” he said. “We will die of starvation if we cannot find a job in Phnom Penh.” The plots that Phan Imex had given them in Kandal province were 4.75 metres by 12 metres, which were smaller than they were promised, he added.
Document centre takes stand at KRT Mary Kozlovski Tuesday, 24 January 2012
A senior representative from the Documentation Centre of Cambodia testified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday about the organis-ation’s gathering of documents related to the Democratic Kampuchea regime, thousands of which have been provided to parties for use in the court’s second case. Under questioning from Trial Chamber Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne, DC-Cam deputy director Vanthan Dara Poeu said the organisation had received requests for documents from the Office of the Co-Prosecutors, Office of the Co-Investigating Judges, Defence Support Section and civilparty lawyers. “If necessary, I can also tell the court the exact number of documents DC-Cam has provided to the Defence Support Section,” he said. “We are open to all parties concerned; in particular, we [are] open to the DSS.” Senior assistant co-prosecutor Tarik Abdulhak later asked the witness to respond to allegat-ions of bias in DC-Cam’s work levelled by defence teams in court last week. “The important point for DC-Cam is that we do not analyse the documents we have collected,” Vanthan Dara Poeu said. “We keep the documents as they are, and it is up to those who would use the documents to analyse and to evaluate [them].” Judge Lavergne also asked the witness to view a scan of a confession from S-21 prison, which Vanthan Dara Poeu said DC-Cam had the original version of, and which had been at the Defence Ministry of the Democratic Kampuchea regime. Vanthan Dara Poeu read annotations in Khmer language inscribed in red ink on the document that he said were written by former regime defence minister Son Sen. Judge Lavergne questioned Vanthan Dara Poeu about whether DC-Cam had received documentation from official sources, including the archives of the Cambodian People’s Party, to which the witness responded that DC-Cam had official permission to conduct research “with all institutions in Cambodia”. Vanthan Dara Poeu also stated in court that the organisation had received documents directly from government officials. According to DC-Cam, the organisation has provided about 500,000 documents to parties at the ECCC. Defence teams requested last week that DC-Cam director Youk Chhang testify in court.
Land to be returned May Titthara Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Wary villagers in Kratie province’s Snuol district – where four of their own were shot last week by guards working for agro-development firm TTY – saw the first concrete step toward the promised return of their land yesterday.
Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
A man stands near construction equipment on cleared land last week in Kratie province’s Snuol district, where security guards hired by TTY Co Ltd shot four villagers during a protest. In a meeting with villagers, Environment Minister Mok Mareth delivered the news that land in Pi Thnou commune’s Veal Bei village – seized in an economic land concession – would be returned to families who had previously harvested cassava on it. “All villagers have to be honest and cooperate with the joint committee to provide their true land size,” he said. Those who lay claim to between one and five hectares will have their land returned first, he added. The Ministry of Interior issued a statement last week promising to return land to about 380 families in Kratie province, many of whom had blocked national road 76a after Wednesday’s shootings. The TTY company received an economic land concession in 2008 covering more than 9,000 hectares of land in Snuol district. Villager No Sos said the minister had given Hun Sen’s word yesterday that their land would be given back. “At first, I didn’t think they would find a resolution as promised,” No Sos said. “I thought they had just cheated villagers to open the road – now I believe the promise.”
Land with houses on it will be measured first, followed by farmland, he said. Sar Cham Rong, deputy governor of Kratie, said his joint committee will begin measuring land tomorrow. “We will provide the land to people who lived and planted there, but we will not provide the land to villagers who just say the land belongs to them, but who do nothing on that land,” he said. Sar Cham Rong said that villagers who had lived in the area’s wildlife sanctuary had never possessed official documents, but the government would return their land and issue land titles. Yon Phorn, the uncle of 22-year-old Mong Toch, who was taken to Vietnam for medical treatment after security guards armed with AK-47s shot him, said a joint committee that included the provincial governor, a police representative, a land management official and an environment ministry official would begin preparing land titles from February 4. “Mok Makreth said that after his joint committee finished working, he would give the land title to all villagers; it is a just resolution that villagers can accept,” he said. “Now we have confidence in the government’s policy. We think they will honour their promise.” Mong Toch was scheduled to marry on February 2, but his wedding has been delayed because he condition remained critical, Yon Phorn said. Two other villagers seriously injured when security guards opened fire last Wednesday were treated at Kampong Cham referral hospital and one was taken to Snuol district hospital. Villagers say a fifth person remains missing after the protest, but is not clear whether he was shot. Mok Mareth, who emphasized that the government had no involvement with the security guards decision to shoot, pledged 2 million riel of his own money to Mong Toch and 1 million riel to the other victims yesterday, while the provincial governor pledged 2 million riel to each victim. “Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered me and Minister Sar Kheng, the interior minister, to arrest the perpetrators who shot the villagers and those who provided the guns,” he said. “It is the company’s fault that security guards shot the villagers.” Heng Sarath, deputy general of TTY, said his company expects to receive a sub-decree outlining how many hectares it will lose. “We planned to cut about 700 hectares of land for villagers, but now maybe we cut about 800 hectares.” He was still looking for the security guards, he said. “They did not shoot villagers – they shot the ground and the bullets ricocheted up and hit villagers. If they had aimed for the villagers, a lot of people would have died.” Police have yet to arrest anyone over the shootings.
Opinion: An abhorrent trail of abuse Matthew Rullo Tuesday, 24 January 2012
At least nine Cambodian women died last year while performing domestic work in Malaysia. And the grim reality is that, without strong action by the Cambodian and Malaysian governments to rein in exploitative recruitment and employment practices, more lives will be lost in 2012.
Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post
Domestic migrant workers, some of them suspected of being under age, at the Anti-Human Trafficking & Juvenile Protection office in Phnom Penh after being freed from an SKMM Investment Group office during a police raid last October. These women did not die solely because of the way they were treated by their Malaysian employers. Their deaths are also linked to government failures: weak regulations, corrupt officials and short-sighted migration policies. For two years, I called a village in Kampot province my home. There, I saw at first hand the challenges that pressure Cambodian women and girls to work abroad. Extreme poverty and few local jobs are among the factors that make these women—most of whom have never even travelled to Phnom Penh—take on the risks of migration. Living with a Cambodian host family helped me understand the binding filial devotion that would convince a young woman to migrate to support her loved ones—risking her life far from home to send her daughter to school, or to pay for her grandfather’s medical expenses. Last year, Nhon Yanna, a 16-year-old girl in Pursat province, told my colleagues at Human Rights Watch: “My mother is sick and can’t work. I wanted to go to Malaysia and earn money to repay my mother’s debt and build a house for my family.”
Although Cambodian women like my host mother are woven tightly into the fabric of their communities, tens of thousands of women and girls like Nhon Yanna have left their villages behind to become domestic workers in Malaysia, at great personal risk. A Human Rights Watch report, They Deceived Us at Every Step, documents how these women are often betrayed from the very beginning of the recruitment process. Labour agents enter their villages painting rosy pictures of easy work abroad. These recruiters offer illegal, up-front cash incentives to prospective workers that indebt these women and their families to ensure they do not back out of their contracts. Recruiters fail to mention the risk of abuse by Malaysian employers, including unpaid wages, no rest days, physical brutality and, sometimes, starvation and rape. Facing abuse even before they are sent to Malaysia, recruited workers are typically confined in Phnom Penh training centres for months without adequate food and medical care. A prospective domestic worker, Ngoun Re, told Human Rights Watch: “The food [in the training centre] wasn’t enough . . . many people fell sick. Women were so weak that they couldn’t even walk.” Some Cambodian government officials are complicit in this abuse by colluding with recruitment agencies. They look the other way as the agencies profit from the exploitation and suffering of Cambodian women. Such abuse went largely unchecked until last August, when Prime Minister Hun Sen imposed a ban on domestic workers migrating to Malaysia. But the Cambodian government’s vague and temporary halt to migrat-ion looks increasingly like a public-relations stunt – an appearance of concern about the treatment of the country’s women abroad, rather than a concrete step toward a comprehensive framework that would ensure safe, voluntary migration for jobs. Hun Sen doesn’t have to look far to see how such bans have achieved mixed results for migrants across Southeast Asia. In 2009, Indonesia imposed a ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia, citing similar concerns about abuse. Malaysia relied heavily on almost 300,000 Indonesian domestic workers, and the Indonesian ban caused a shortage of household labour. After the ban was imposed, Malaysian labour agencies simply shifted their focus to recruitment from Cambodia, leaving Indonesia with little bargaining power to demand signif-icantly improved protection. Around the time Cambodia init-iated its ban last year, Indonesia finally agreed to send workers again after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia that guaranteed domestic workers a weekly day of rest, the ability to keep their passports and the right to communicate with their families. Although the MoU brings improvements for Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia, they fall
far short of the protections for other workers under Malaysian labour law. The very week the MoU was finalised, an Indonesian domestic worker died of alleged abuse in Malaysia. Cambodia is considering its own MoU with Malaysia. In the meantime, some unscrupulous recruitment agencies in Cambodia continue to flout the migration ban and put lives at risk. Far more comprehensive protections are needed in Malaysia to prevent, and respond to, the abuse of domestic workers, whether Indonesian or Cambodian. Instead of falling back on bilateral negotiations, Indonesia, Cambodia and other countries supplying labour should co-operate regionally to apply strong pressure on Malaysia so it includes all domestic workers in its Employment Act, caps recruitment fees and monitors the system for abuse. The Cambodian government should do more than merely imitate Indonesia’s haphazard policies to ensure its citizens can safely and voluntarily migrate for work. It can begin by improving the regulation and monitoring of its own recruitment agencies and training centres. Cambodia should also ratify and implement the recently adopted International Labour Organisation Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. This ground-breaking treaty extends key human-rights and labour protections to domestic workers around the globe. Hun Sen’s government needs to stand up for the rights of the Kingdom’s migrant workers, learn from the short-sightedness of neighbouring countries and pursue comprehensive reforms that will provide long-overdue protection for the women and girls of Cambodia
Transport aid gets on road Mom Kunthear with additional reporting by Cassandra Yeap Tuesday, 24 January 2012
In the first scheme of its kind in the provinces, a low-cost transport system will be provided for villagers in Kratie province. Partners For Development had begun operations for the Providing Rural Communities Equal Care Through Transport (PROTECT) project on January 19, malaria community program officer Son Seng Ean said yesterday. Remorks – vehicles used in rural areas that can carry as many as 25 people – ply set routes six times a day, taking villagers to places such as markets, schools and hospitals. Villagers pay 4,000 riels (US$1) a month for the service. Pregnant women and children could use it for free and could call on it during an emergency, Son Seng Ean said. The project is piloting in Prek Prasap commune and will be extended to three others during February and March. PROTECT was one of 19 projects nominated for funding by the Saving Lives at Birth Challenge. US$250,000 would be provided over two years by the challenge’s partners, co-ordinator Chin Polo said. Research by PFD showed that women in Kratie province faced severe problems in accessing health services and public health facilities, he said. “Transport was very expensive. It was also difficult to find transport because of the remote locations, and transport was not available at night.” Another goal is to reduce poverty in the area by providing low-cost transportation. Prek Prasab commune chief Thou Seng Ngan said this was the first transportation project for the commune. “(PROTECT) helps my villagers to spend less for transportation and with their difficulties, especially the pregnant women and children,” he said. About half the people in his commune had their own transport, Thou Seng Ngan said. A similar project for pregnant women and children needing emergency care was being run by USAID-RACHA in five provinces, RACHA executive director Chan Theary said
‘Differing views’ on judge Mary Kozlovski and Vong Sokheng Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and recently appointed United Nations Special Expert to the Khmer Rouge tribunal David Scheffer have “differing views” on the interpretation of the 2003 agreement that established the court, according to a statement released late yesterday. “Although the Deputy Prime Minister and the Special Expert have differing views on the interpretation of the ECCC Agreement, they intend to continue their close discussions … and both remain optimistic that the court can achieve its mandate,” read the statement, which was released following a meeting between Scheffer and Sok An. The interpretation of that mandate, however, which broadly states that the ECCC is to try “senior leaders of Democratic Kampuchea” and “those who were most responsible” for the crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule, has been a point of contention since negotiations dating back to 1997. In a 2009 opinion piece in the Post, Scheffer addressed the issue of which, and how many, suspects the court would prosecute, stating there had been “no serious negotiation” embracing the view of some Cambodian officials that a small pool of suspects be brought to trial, as it would have been “intolerable” for non-Cambodian negotiators and also “fatally undermined the integrity of the court”. Scheffer also said in the piece that a compromise should be reached for “not too few defendants and not too many”, taking into account resources and a “reasoned application” of the ECCC’s mandate. In an article published on the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor website this past May, Scheffer expressed dismay that “vast confusion” over this issue was “even crippling the investigation of four or five additional suspects”. In the past, Cambodian officials have publicly indicated that they oppose prosecutions beyond Case 002, in which only four suspects were initially charged. Last week, the UN announced that it had appointed Scheffer to the position of UN Special Expert advising on the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials. Scheffer served as the US’ first Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues and has been a long-time observer of the ECCC. The announcement came in the midst of uncertainty over the stalled appointment of reserve international co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper Ansermet. Kasper-Ansermet was nominated for the position of international co-investigating judge by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shortly after the abrupt resignation of international co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk in October. In a statement released on Friday, Martin Nesirky, spokesperson for the UN Office of the Secretary-General, said that the UN had been informed by the government on Thursday that the Supreme Council of Magistracy had refused to appoint Kasper-Ansermet and declared that the decision breached the 2003 agreement.
Article 5 of the agreement states that when there is a vacancy in the post of international coinvestigating judge, the person appointed “must be the reserve co-investigating judge”. Kasper-Ansermet has sparred publicly with national co-investigating Judge You Bunleng in recent weeks, over issues including the public release of information regarding the court’s third and fourth cases. Martin Nesirky yesterday referred questions to the UN’s Friday statement. ECCC legal affairs spokesman Lars Olsen said he had “nothing to add” to the statement. Representatives from the Council of Ministers declined to comment. Clair Duffy, a tribunal monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said that while she was encouraged by Scheffer’s engagement with the government, more information was needed. “I think what’s going to be needed very quickly to restore the public’s confidence in this institution are some answers about how this is going to be resolved and where the court is going from here,” she said
Evictees unite for anniversary May Titthara and Shane Worrell Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Three years after their houses were demolished in a midnight eviction, former Dey Krahorm residents say they have no food and are living in tents in their relocation village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
PEOPLE EVICTED FROM SEVEN PHNOM PENH COMMUNITIES INCLUDING DEY KRAHORM, BOEUNG KAK LAKE AND BOREI KEILA USE SHOES TO SPELL THE WORD ‘DEVELOPMENT’ IN KHMER DURING A DEMONSTRATION YESTERDAY OUTSIDE THE FORMER DEY KRAHORM COMMUNITY, WHICH WAS THE SITE OF A VIOLENT EVICTION THREE YEARS AGO. HONG MENEA
RESIDENTS EVICTED FROM SEVEN COMMUNITIES AROUND PHNOM PENH INCLUDING DEY KRAHORM, BOEUNG KAK LAKE, BOREI KEILA AND GROUP 78, DEMONSTRATE YESTERDAY TO CALL FOR AN END TO EVICTIONS IN THE CAPITAL. HENG CHIVOAN
In a show of solidarity, Borei Keila and Boeung Kak evictees joined about 300 former Dey Krahorm residents yesterday to mark the anniversary of the eviction at the site where their houses once stood. Evictees took off their shoes and placed them together to spell “development”, before marching a 50-metre long protest banner to the National Assembly. As emotional pleas streamed from megaphones and portable speakers, the group lodged a petition urging the government to stop all evictions and protect the rights of its citizens. About 800 families were forced from the 3.7-hectare Dey Krahorm site, in Chamkarmon district’s Tonle Bassac commune, in 2009. “We live under broken blue tents, we don’t have food, and we don’t have medicine when we are sick,” a media release from the evictees issued yesterday reads.“Our children cannot go to school – they have become scavengers of plastic and collect remnant rice from the fields.” Evictees say the government approved a social land concession in 2003 that was to involve them giving up part of their land in exchange for new houses, but had later decided to give real estate company 7NG all of the land and relocate the residents to Damnak Trayoeng village about 20 kilometres away. Former resident Chan Vichet said life in the new village was causing problems for many evictees.“Every year on this day, we are crying when we remember how we were evicted,” he said. “The major problems are food and career – many of us lost our livelihood when we were moved from here.” An evictee who did not want to be named said the former Dey Krahorm residents appreciated the support of evictees from Borei Keila and Boeung Kak. “You can see that many people from different villages are here. People are learning that eviction is not the individual’s problem, it is everyone’s. That’s why we say, ‘today it’s their house, tomorrow it could be mine’.” Sia Phearum, Director of Cambodian Housing Rights Task Force, said his research showed that about 18 per cent of Dey Krahorm residents had been unemployed before the eviction and the figure had since risen to about 35 per cent. Five NGOS – Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Witness, FIDH and Forum-Asia – sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday condemning the treatment of Borei Keila residents, especially those detained in Prey Spey social affairs centre earlier this month. “It’s clear that one of the most dangerous places for an ordinary Cambodian to be is living on a piece of land that a rich man and his government cronies want,” Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said yesterday. Ek Tha, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said the government had tried to help villagers by making Cambodia attractive to investors. “The government has no policy to make villagers poor, but they make a policy to make villagers get richer,” he said
Khmer Rouge nurses reflect Mom Kunthear Wednesday, 25 January 2012
A woman who was forced to work as a nurse under Khmer Rouge rule – despite having worked only in a rice field before – believes the order came because soldiers knew she had pretended to be a nurse as a little girl.
Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post
Ham Thy, 50, who was assigned to work as a nurse for the Khmer Rouge in Pursat province, speaks to the Post yesterday at the ECCC. Speaking to the Post after watching Case 002 proceedings yesterday, Ham Thy, now 50, from Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, said that during her time in hospitals from 1975 to 1979, many patients died because of shortages of Western medicine and blood. Compounding these problems, hospitals were riddled with inexperienced and under-qualified medical staff who were being trained as they worked and did not have the skills and medical knowledge to save sick patients, she said. After years of working in rice fields, Ham Thy was ordered to become a nurse when the Khmer Rouge swept to power, and was soon learning how to administer injections to seriously ill patients at Kampong Preah hospital. In all, she had less than one year of training. “I never thought I would be asked to work as a nurse, but I think maybe they [Khmer Rouge soldiers] had seen that I liked playing a nurse when I was a child, because I always took a toy syringe to inject a banana tree, which I used as my patient,” she said. “I was trained in the general disease section, and most of the patients had malaria, dengue fever, tuberculosis and swollen stomachs.” Hospitals relied on locally produced medicine made from leaves and tree roots, but sometimes mixed coconut water with Western medicine, Ham Thy said. “Some patients recovered when they swallowed our medicines because their disease was not serious. I think we can just say that they were the lucky ones,” she said.
A tearful Ham Thy, who lost her left leg after stepping on a landmine in 1988, said she had wanted to help every patient she had seen, but did not have the knowledge and skills to do so. “We didn’t want them to die, but we did not have good medicine or enough blood,” she said. Yin Yeoun, 56, from Kampot province’s Chhuk district, was also a nurse during the Khmer Rouge period. She was given just a few weeks of training and assigned to work in what is now the CambodianRussian Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh in 1978. “I did not understand any of the training because I could not read,” she said. “I forced myself to inject patients, because if I did not do this, I would be killed or tortured because all the patients were Khmer Rouge soldiers. Luckily, all patients that I gave medicine and injections to survived. “I wanted to work as a nurse, but I could not read the name of the medicine because most of the medicine was brought from China to treat Khmer Rouge soldiers,” she said, adding that civilians were given only traditional medicine. She worked as a nurse for five months before her hospital chief agreed to let her deliver food to patients instead. “I still feel scared about what happened [during the Khmer Rouge era], but I hope the court will find justice for victims.”
Pardoned pedophiles still roam free despite petition Vincent MacIsaac Wednesday, 25 January 2012
The child-protection groups that petitioned Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng last month to have convicted pedophile Alexander Trofimov deported following his controversial release from prison are still waiting for a decision, the director of one of the 14 national and international NGOs that signed the petition said yesterday.
Photo Supplied
Dutch pedophile Rene Paul Martin Aubel during his arrest in a rented room in Phnom Penh in June 2004. Samleang Seila, director of Action Pour les Enfants, said he believed that the deputy premier will eventually deport the Russian national, whose release from Preah Sihanouk provincial prison via a royal pardon on December 20 sparked outrage. “I believe the government will deport Trofimov into police custody in Russia, although the process is quite slow,” he told the Post. The petition was sent to the deputy premier’s office on December 30 and about one week later it was forwarded to the Cambodian National Police for advice, Samleang Seila said, adding that the police had returned it to Sar Kheng last week with their advice. Samleang Seila did not know, however, what advice the police provided on the petition, which noted that “Alexander Trofimov seems to have been granted special favours, ranging from consolidation of his sentence, being kept in a special comfortable prison room, frequently allowed to go out of prison, reduction of sentence granted once per year and royal pardon”. Also known as Stanislav Molodyakov in Russia, where he reportedly raped six girls aged nine and 10, Trofimov is believed to be in Phnom Penh, child protection officers said. They cited
information gathered from neighbours of a villa owned by a government official that he had been staying at in Sihanoukville last month. Two other pedophiles released from prison by royal pardon also remain in the Kingdom, child protection officers monitoring them said. German pedophile Alexander Wartin, who was released on the same day as Trofimov, and Dutch pedophile Rene Paul Martin Aubel, who was released three days later, are in Sihanoukville, they said. Aubel was imprisoned for sex crimes against six boys and Wartin for sex crimes against four. Earlier this month, both men had eluded the child-protection officers monitoring them, but Aubel has been relocated, Samleang Seila said. Aubel shifted between three guesthouses in Phnom Penh before traveling to Sihanoukville last Friday, those monitoring him said. “We are very worried that he will molest children in Sihanoukville,� Samleang Seila said. Watrin, who was released in Sihanoukville, traveled to Phnom Penh earlier this month, departing the bus on the outskirts of the city. He is believed to have returned to the coastal resort, but those who had been monitoring him say they have not identified his location
DC-Cam defends methods Mary Kozlovski Thursday, 26 January 2012
During a third straight day of questioning at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, a representative of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia again deflected suggestions by defence teams that the organisation’s research was biased against the defendants in Case 002. Under questioning from Michael Karnavas, co-defence counsel for former Khmer Rouge foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary, DC-Cam deputy director Vanthan Dara Poeu said the organisation did not conduct analysis of the documents it compiled, nor did it keep “files” on the accused. “As for the authentication of the document[s], we did not conduct any analysis on such document[s],” he said. The witness later said DC-Cam had conducted some analysis of the documents’ “reliability”, before clarifying that he meant their “authenticity” was being assessed. Karnavas later repeated a question posed by the defence for former Khmer Rouge Brother No. 2 Nuon Chea on Tuesday, about whether DC-Cam kept “files” on the accused, which the witness had denied. When Karnavas presented Vanthan Dara Poeu with a document that included the sub-heading “files: Ieng Sary”, Vanthan Dara Poeu said it was a “folder” he had created “for the purpose of research and study” and it had been given to the Defence Support Section. “Had the Nuon Chea team yesterday asked you whether there were ‘folders’ dedicated to Nuon Chea, the answer would have been ‘yes’, but because they said ‘file’ the answer was ‘no’?” Karnavas queried. The witness said “Such folders exist” and were created “long ago”. Karnavas interjected several times to urge Vanthan Dara Poeu to respond directly to questions. In court on Tuesday, Karnavas had suggested that the witness was being “less than honest”. Kong Sam Onn, co-defence counsel for Khieu Samphan, asked whether DC-Cam had conducted “investigations” concerning crimes committed under Khmer Rouge rule, to which Vanthan Dara Poeu responded that the term “investigation” had never been used by DC-Cam in its mission. Prosecutors at the tribunal have rebutted allegations of bias levelled at the organisation by defence teams, who have requested that DC-Cam director Youk Chhang testify regarding documentation provided by the organisation. Meanwhile, in a statement distributed by DC-Cam yesterday, scholar Peter Maguire – who authored the book Facing Death in Cambodia – said the defence had questioned “the validity and origins of interview transcripts” he had donated to DC-Cam, from whom he had “never received payment or direction”. “I have never pretended to be an objective observer and have always wanted the Khmer Rouge
leaders to be held accountable. I held these views long before DC-Cam came into existence,� Maguire said.
Judge to query former NGO staff over abuses Phak Seangly Thursday, 26 January 2012
Preah Vihear provincial court plans to summon a further 10 former employees of an NGO for questioning in connection with numerous alleged human rights abuses, including rape, officials said yesterday. Last week, two former staff members of the NGO Drugs and AIDS Research and Prevention Organisation (DARPO), Kong Tola and Phearom, were issued summonses ordering them to appear in court for questioning in February. Provincial court clerk Hem Pheakdey said he planned to issue the summonses today. “The 10 [former staff members] are accused of intentionally causing injuries, including rape,” Hem Pheakdey said. “They are ordered to appear in court for questioning on February 8 and 9. If they do not appear, the court will issue arrest warrants for them.” A villager in the province’s Choam Ksan district, 54-year-old Khin Khun, alleged yesterday that one of the men being summonsed had raped her 13-year-old daughter in July 2010 and that, 10 days later, some of the men being summonsed beat her until she was permanently disabled. “They kicked and beat and badgered me. I am a disabled person now, and my family is miserable,” she said. Khin Khun said that she had filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc last year and has since been seeking intervention from the provincial court. Adhoc provincial coordinator Lor Chann told the Post last week that in 2007, DARPO was granted a 556-hectare land concession in the province with instructions from the government to distribute it to families in need. Lor Chann claimed that the NGO instead charged villagers for plots of land. Since DARPO was granted the concession, Adhoc had received complaints that NGO representatives had subjected local villagers to “threats, rape and torture”, Lor Chann said last week. DARPO has since filed for bankruptcy and the NGO has disbanded. “I urged the court again and again to take action on this case and, as a result, the investigative judges have issued the summonses,” Lor Chann said yesterday.
Paying a steep price for love Kristin Lynch and Sen David with additional reporting by Cassandra Yeap and Vincent Macisaac Thursday, 26 January 2012
Phlong Srey Rann, 20, shuffled across the dusty prison grounds in her blue and white prison garb early yesterday morning as though she had resigned herself to spending the next four and a half years behind bars for having sex with her girlfriend.
Photo Supplied/Phnom Penh Post
Female inmates in 2009 behind a fence at the women’s correctional facility at Prey Sar prison, where Phlong Srey Rann is being held. She slouched in the wooden chair provided for her and displayed little emotion as she discussed the events that led to her imprisonment. During a visit on December 28, she had appeared hopeful that her ordeal was nearing an end. Yesterday, however, the former factory worker expressed little hope that she would be released, although she continued to assert her innocence, insisting that the case against her had been concocted by her girlfriend’s family, who would not tolerate their daughter’s same-sex relationship. “On August 10, 2011, [her girlfriend’s] brother filed a complaint that I was illegally detaining her. The police then arrested me and accused me of illegal detention and human trafficking,” Phlong Srey Rann explained. In November, a judge convicted her of having sexual intercourse with a minor and sentenced her to five years in prison. The “minor” involved was a co-worker she had met at a shoe factory in Kandal province. They had been together for more than a year. “I told police that I was not [involved in] human trafficking and that we loved each other. I don’t understand why her brother filed a lawsuit against me,” Phlong Srey Rann said.
Letters between the two support these claims. One from her girlfriend identifies an older brother as the source of the problem. “My brother is forcing me to stop having a relationship with you, but I have to overcome it . . . you are the person whom I love so much,” the hand-written letter reads. Phlong Srey Rann said it was news to her that her girlfriend was under age. Her girlfriend’s family had provided falsified documents to the court identifying their daughter as only 14 years old, she said. Those documents had led to her conviction. “My girlfriend’s family lied to the court when they said she was only 14 years old,” Phlong Srey Rann said. Cambodian labour law stipulates that factory workers must be 18 or older, which would mean that her girlfriend had been working in the factory since she was 13. Ying Dong Shoes, a member of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia, insisted, however, that it strictly adhered to labour laws. Lei Shi Ken, an administration official at the factory, told the Post yesterday the factory “only hires girls that are 18 and above” and a birth certificate and identification card was required for each employee. Labour ministry officials frequently monitored the factory and had never made complaints, he said. Copies of Phlong Srey Rann’s girlfriend’s birth certificate and family book submitted to the factory and obtained by the Post state that she was born on March 9, 1992, which would make her 19 at the time of Phlong Srey Rann’s arrest. Rights workers and members of Cambodia’s nascent gay community say the case is simply an example of homophobia. Moreover, they say, the country’s weak judicial system has been used by an angry family to break apart a relationship between two young women. Sokly Hem, the sexual orientation and gender identity project co-ordinator at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, yesterday called on the court “to bring justice” to Phlong Srey Rann. “She should not be punished for having a same-sex relationship,” he said, urging officials to “conduct a full and proper investigation”. Phlong Srey Rann plans to appeal the court’s decision, but at this point has no lawyer. She said she worried most about her family, who depended on her monthly wage of US$61. “I have to look after and support my family. I am the sole supporter . . . we are so poor,” she said. Srey Rann’s father, a former soldier, echoed these concerns. “Every day we depend on this daughter to support our family because she works in the factory,” Phlong Sokha said outside the prison in late December. His wife said she worried more about her daughter. “She is so sad in prison. I pity her so much,” she said.
Both parents appeared distraught, bewildered, frightened and unsure of what to do. Lim Matharon, the presiding judge in the case, could not be reached for comment. Chan Reasey Pheak, Phlong Srey Rann’s court-appointed lawyer, said she was no longer involved in the case and refused to comment. Phlong Srey Rann’s girlfriend had been taken back to her village in Kampot by her family, people familiar with the case said. She was confined to her parents’ home and her mobile phone has been taken from her, they said. Still, a letter slipped through. “I love only you. I will never love other. If my family does not love you, I will still love you forever.”
UN holds firm on judge David Boyle with additional reporting by Vong Sokheng Thursday, 26 January 2012
Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet “has clear authority to fulfill” his role as a co-investigating judge at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, regardless of the refusal by Cambodia’s Supreme Council of Magistracy to appoint him, a United Nations expert said yesterday.
Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post
David Scheffer, the United Nations Special Expert to the Khmer Rouge tribunal, speaks about disagreements between the UN and the Cambodian government over the appointment of reserve co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet during a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. UN Special Expert to the Khmer Rouge tribunal David Scheffer told a press conference that under the 2003 treaty establishing the court, the decision to appoint the judge was strictly up to the discretion of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, not Cambodia’s SCM. Scheffer said he had made this position very clear during talks with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Tuesday night – which followed strong condemnation from Ban’s office of last week’s revelation that the SCM had refused to appoint Kasper-Ansermet. “So I made that very clear, that our view is that this particular individual, Judge KasperAnsermet, has clear authority to fulfill his duties in this country and we look forward to him doing so,” he told reporters, adding their position had not changed on the SCM’s refusal to appoint. “We object very strongly with that rejection, and we state that regardless of it, he had the authority under the treaty,” he said. During talks, the deputy prime minister did not object to his position but “was not affirmatively accepting my point of view”, Scheffer said. Scheffer also said that Kasper-Ansermet, who has had a rocky relationship with national CoInvestigating Judge You Bunleng “does not need You Bunleng with him to undertake these
investigations”. The SCM’s refusal to appoint Kasper-Ansermet was reportedly based on ethical concerns about the Swiss judge’s use of the social-media site Twitter, on which he has indicated his determination to investigate the court’s controversial cases 003 and 004. Scheffer said his expectation was that Kasper-Ansermet’s duty to investigate the court’s cases 003 and 004 – which are opposed by the Cambodian government – would be respected. Judge Kasper-Ansermet, who could not be reached for comment, told the Post last week he had made several important decisions on cases 003 and 004, but had been effectively “walking in shackles”. Since arriving as the UN-selected replacement for former co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk, who resigned in October citing perceptions of political interference in cases 003 and 004, Kasper-Ansermet has publicly sparred with You Bunleng. You Bunleng has refused to allow his reserve counterpart to publicly release information related to cases 003 and 004 and has claimed that procedural actions taken by Kasper-Ansermet are legally invalid until he is appointed by the SCM. You Bunleng could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Ek Tha, a spokesman at the Council of Ministers Press and Quick Reaction Unit, said the name of the tribunal – the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – made it clear the SCM’s authority to appoint judges had to be respected. “If someone wants to work as international co-investigating judge at the ECCC without legal appointment by the Supreme Council of Magistracy, that does not make sense in terms of the legal authority of the Supreme Council of Magistracy,” he said. Should Kasper-Ansermet proceed with investigations unlawfully, it would be up to the ECCC to decide what action to take, Ek Tha said. ECCC spokesman Neth Pheaktra referred questions to his counterpart Lars Olsen, who could not be reached for comment. Anne Heindel, a legal adviser at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said the 2003 treaty made it clear the function of reserve judges was to immediately fill the shoes of their predecessors, without the need for reappointment. “If, under Cambodian national law, it’s required that the SCM re-appoints [the judge] . . . that’s fine, but the UN made sure the agreement with Cambodia would be a binding treaty and they can’t use provisions of national law to subvert a treaty,” she said. More importantly, without Cambodian co-operation, Kasper-Ansermet’s investigations would be incapacitated by a lack of local expertise and support, as well as the necessity for both judges to sign off on certain actions, including the making of arrests or the issuing of indictments, Heindel said. “Whether he has You Bunleng’s approval or not, there is nothing he can do in that position until he has the support of the Cambodian side, and this is why the issue goes much deeper than his mere appointment,” she said
Vulnerable evictees speak out Khouth Sophakchakrya Thursday, 26 January 2012
An 11-year-old HIV-positive girl evicted from Borei Keila moved back to Phnom Penh to live with her aunt because she had no access to medication at her relocation site in Kandal province, she said yesterday.
Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Theng Sovannary, 11, who is HIV-positive, says she no longer had access to anti-retroviral drugs after being relocated with her family to a site in Kandal provice, following the Borei Keila eviction this month. During another day of protests outside the National Assembly, schoolgirl Theng Sovannary, whose parents died of AIDS, spoke of being sent to Ponhea Leu district on January 4, the day after more than 200 homes were demolished at Borei Keila. Theng Sovannary had been living with her sister and grandmother before being relocated, but moved back to Phnom Penh a week ago to live with her aunt because her condition had deteriorated without medication. “I feel exhausted, itchy and have diarrhea because I did not have HIV medicines and food,” she said. Her sister Theng Sovan Vorleak, 16, said they had been living at the relocation site in an open tent with no access to a toilet, clean water or food. “I hope that the government will help us,” she said. The girls’ aunt, Khorn Malin, 46, also cares for two orphaned nephews afflicted with HIV and blood cancer. The sisters’ story was one of many shared yesterday by evicted residents of Borei Keila battling disease or disability.
Hov Kok Han, a former soldier who lost his legs during the Khmer Rouge regime, said he simply wanted a proper house. “I am 60 years old now and have never protested or caused trouble for the government. I ask the government not to abandon my family and me,� he said. SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua, who joined the evicted residents yesterday, said she sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday requesting he provide houses in Borei Keila for residents who had HIV/AIDS or a disability. She had also called for an independent committee to establish why development firm Phan Imex had not honoured its contract, she said. In 2003, Phan Imex agreed to construct 10 buildings on two hectares of land at Borei Keila to house 1,776 families, in exchange for development rights to a remaining 2.6 hectares. The firm has constructed only eight buildings.
Farmland fight :Villagers make plea to company Tep Nimol Friday, 27 January 2012
Farmland fight More than 200 villagers from four villages in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district gathered yesterday to ask Samrong Rubber Industries to stop bulldozing their farmland. Meach Leav, 44, the villagers’ representative, said that more than 200 villagers from as many families in Lum Tong commune gathered to negotiate with the company, under the watch of commune and district authorities. The company had been using seven excavators to bulldoze the villagers’ peanut and cassava farmland since Monday, which they had reacted to with violence, he said. Commune and district authorities had since asked the villagers to negotiate with the company to find a resolution to the dispute. Samrong Rubber was granted a 70-year lease on the land in 2006. Nhem En, deputy governor of Anlong Veng district, said the company had promised to give 400,000 riels [US$100] to each family, but the villagers had refused the offer. Ouk Savuth, a Samrong Rubber representative, could not be reached for comment.
Fears judge row could slow KRT Cheang Sokha with additional reporting by Mary Kozlovski Friday, 27 January 2012
A day after the United Nations held firm on its appointment of the reserve co-investigating judge rejected last week by Cambodian authorities, a lawyer expressed concern about the potential impact of the controversy on civil party applicants in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s cases 003 and 004. Civil party lawyer Hong Kim Suon, who is representing applicants in both cases, said that controversy in the office of the co-investigating judges might delay progress in the cases. “Of course it will affect the victims who filed complaints as civil parties,” he said. At a press briefing on Wednesday, David Scheffer, the special expert advising on the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge trials, said that reserve international Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet had “clear authority to fulfill” his role as international co-investigating judge at the tribunal. In the past, Cambodian officials have publicly indicated their opposition to prosecutions beyond Case 002. International co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley said yesterday that with a couple of exceptions, “the international co-investigating judge can move both of these investigations [into cases 003 and 004] forward”. But Anne Heindel, a legal adviser at the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said that it could be difficult for Judge Kasper-Ansermet to conduct effective investigations. “There’s legal limitations on what he can do alone, and there’s practical limitations on what he can do without the support of the Cambodian side of the office,” she said. Court spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that 318 people have applied to be civil parties in cases 003 and 004, some of whom have been accepted as civil parties in case 002. Government spokesman Ek Tha said this week that should Kasper-Ansermet proceed with investigations unlawfully, the ECCC would decide what action to take
Flood challenges still loom Mom Kunthear and Cassandra Yeap Friday, 27 January 2012
The floodwaters may have receded, but their effects are far from over, with the government, NGOs and international donors saying yesterday they are still assessing the damage as they shift to long-term rehabilitation.
Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
A man wades through waist-deep floodwaters in Prek Takov commune, in Kandal province’s Khsach Kandal district, during nationwide flooding in October last year. Last November, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said the government would spend about US$200 million to repair infrastructure – including schools, hospitals and roads – damaged by the worst floods in more than a decade, which directly affected 1.6 million people in 20 provinces. National Committee for Disaster Management chief Keo Vy told the Post “relevant ministries and local authorities are still working on recovery step-by-step”. Song Yen, director of the education ministry’s construction department, estimated it would cost more than $9 million to repair the 303 schools that were damaged and rebuild the 173 destroyed. International donors and NGOs said they were still assessing the scope of the damage. Peter Brimble, deputy country director of the Asian Development Bank, said the ADB had conducted an assessment of the damage last month for an emergency reconstruction project “in response to a high-level request from the government”. “The proposed scope of the project will be mainly on roads [national, provincial, rural], including bridges and culverts, and irrigation facilities,” he said, adding that the $55 million project would be submitted to the bank’s board of directors in late March.
A feasibility study is being drafted over the next month, for distribution of the 8 million euros ($10 million) pledged last week by Germany, said Simon Rowedder, an official with the embassy. Save The Children country director Andrew Moore said the organisation is working with other NGOs to survey villagers on the effects of the flooding, with the results due next week. World Vision senior program manger Leng Viraak said damaged village infrastructure, including wells, and irrigation and sanitation facilities, will be rebuilt with community participation through cash for work schemes in five provinces. Save the Children and Caritas are introducing similar projects and said they were coordinating their work with provincial departments of rural development as well as commune and village authorities. “People lost out on earning opportunities during the floods. This is a two-pronged approach – infrastructure is rebuilt, while giving them cash,” said Moore. Other components of rebuilding efforts include providing emergency cash, giving seeds and assistance for replanting efforts, rebuilding houses and supporting villagers’ mental and emotional health. The major challenge will be to build up people’s coping mechanisms, said Moore. “People are extremely vulnerable. We have to prepare them to deal with the possibility of another shock,” he said.
Free mother, protesters urge May Titthara Friday, 27 January 2012
More than 300 villagers from two districts in Kampong Speu province joined forces yesterday to protest in front of the provincial court over two land disputes, vowing to continue until authorities resolved them and released a mother of seven jailed last month after she had been summonsed to the court over one of the disputes.
Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Nhem Khim (centre), 52, from Phnom Sruoch district in Kampong Speu province, speaks to reporters yesterday outside the provincial court, where about 300 villagers gathered to protest. Protesters said the imprisonment of Chum Srey Noun, 49, on December 15 had convinced them to accompany community representatives summonsed to the provincial court yesterday and today to ensure the summonses were not used as a pretext for jailing them. The questioning was, however, postponed after more than 300 villagers showed up. Many expressed anger that they had not been informed in advance about the postponement, and said they would protest until the disputes were resolved and Chum Srey Noun was freed. “We came because of a court order, but they postponed without even informing us,” said 52year-old Nhem Khim. She was among about 150 villagers from Phnom Sruoch district’s Treng Trayoeng commune who had accompanied five representatives summonsed to answer questions yesterday. “If we did not come they would have issued arrest warrants,” she said. Their dispute originated in 2006 when 160 hectares of land was granted to a then little- known NGO called the Farmers’ Association. Villagers said it tried to take land in a different location from the area it had been granted the land. Duong Sibunthol said farmers in the commune were afraid their crops could be destroyed at any time. About 200 villagers from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune accompanied one
representative summonsed to answer questions yesterday over a dispute with a private company, and to demand the release of Chum Srey Noun. They said no arrest warrant had been issued for her, just a summons to answer a complaint filed by the owner of the company claiming land villagers say is theirs. Omlaing commune resident Phal Vannak said they would continue to protest until Chum Srey Noun was freed. “We brought rice pots and rice to cook,� he said. Provincial prosecutor Keo Sophea, who signed the court summons, said he could not question the village representatives yesterday because he had ordered them to appear at the court last week. He said he would ask the investigative judge about the request to free Chum Srey Noun. Klot Pich, director of provincial court, said he was unaware that villagers had requested her release. Deputy provincial governor Pen Sambo declined to comment. Ouch Leng, head of the land program at Adhoc, said people had lost hope in the government to resolve land disputes.
KRT hears of Kampot exodus Mary Kozlovski Friday, 27 January 2012
A former district secretary during the Democratic Kampuchea regime test-ified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday that she had observed people being evacuated from Kampot town but did not know who had made the decision to evacuate them. Under questioning from the prosecution about her activities in the 1970s after she “joined the revolution”, 67-year-old witness Prak Yut, originally from Takeo province, said she had seen people “filling the road” but felt it was “none of her business”. “I saw them being evacuated from Kampot city, but I just did not know who made the decision for such evacuat-ion,” she later testified. Prak Yut, who also testified that she became a district secretary in Kampong Cham province in 1977 after being a member of a sector committee in Kampot province since 1973, said she did not know if the evacuation was discussed in the regime’s “upper echelons”. Asked by prosecutors about the evacuees’ condition, Prak Yut said they endured “some difficulties and hardships”. “People who were walking with children in the sun, I think it was difficult,” she said. Prak Yut appeared to have difficulty recollecting dates and events during her testimony, including her age at the time she “joined the revolution”, and was repeatedly prompted with statements she gave to court investigators in 2009. The first “mini-trial” of Case 002, involving the most senior surviving leaders of the regime, is focusing on charges relating to the forced movement of the population from urban cent-res, including Phnom Penh. Meanwhile, Trial Chamber president Nil Nonn said yesterday Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, would testify during the next two weeks, following this week’s testimony by DC-Cam deputy director Vanthan Dara Poeu. Defence teams have repeatedly requested that Youk Chhang testify in relation to documentation provided by the organisation to parties at the ECCC
Maid returns after mother’s pleas Sen David Friday, 27 January 2012
A maid who says she was beaten and tortured while working in Malaysia was welcomed home by her mother yesterday – and scolded by neighbours for having trusted the recruitment company that sent her abroad. After spending more than two weeks under the care of the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Sanh Makara, 33, from Pursat province, arrived home this week on a flight paid for by employment agency Champa Manpower. “I was so happy that I could come back. I feared that if I had stayed in Malaysia for another month, I would have died,” she said. Her 58-year-old mother, Chea Si Yan, from Pursat province’s Kandieng district, had made numerous pleas for Champa Manpower to release her daughter and her goddaughter, Moa Chamroune, 30, from their two-year contracts, which began last March. Sanh Makara said she was relieved to be home – despite neighbours speaking badly to her for having believed she would be treated well while working overseas. She called on NGOs to help Moa Chamroune, whom she had lost contact with, and other maids being mistreated overseas. In October, the Cambodian government temporarily banned labour recruitment firms from sending domestic workers to Malaysia, amid allegations of abuse.
Monk accused of rape and sexual assault Mom Kunthear Friday, 27 January 2012
A buddist monk was charged yesterday with raping two girls and sexually assaulting two others he had hired to clear grass from outside his temporary home in Oddar Meanchey province. Police arrested Saing Chork, 39, in Samrong town’s Kounkriel commune last Friday after complaints from the families of four girls aged between eight and 11. Samrong town police chief Noun Eth said Saing Chork was a monk from Banteay Meanchey province’s Phnom Srok district who had moved to stay in a pagoda in Kounkriel commune before relocating to short-term accommodation nearby. Saing Chork had raped two of the four victims and sexually assaulted the other two, Noun Eth said. “The victims told police that the defrocked monk had raped them [this month], but they did not know the exact date,” he said. Police said the suspect had lured one of the girls into the forest by telling her that was where he would pay her. “He raped two victims on different days and threatened to kill the girls if they shouted for help,” Noun Eth said.
Time is ripe for UN to disengage from the Khmer Rouge tribunal Theary C. Seng, Friday, 27 January 2012
Dear Editor,
In March, 2007, I wrote a column published in The Phnom Post stating that the United Nations either had no “tipping point” for withdrawal from the Khmer Rouge tribunal or that it had “such an extremely high threshold that it is practically non-existent”.
Will Baxter /Phnom Penh Post
Khmer Rouge victims’ advocate Theary Seng at her home in Phnom Penh. This was mainly because “the UN will never be afforded that ‘magic moment’ of having all the varying interests of the ‘United Nations’ reach a critical mass, when all the ideas and sentiments of the varied and dispar-ate actors fuse to cross the threshold at the same time, tip and lead to a UN withdrawal.” I had argued that the UN would not invoke its right to withdraw, enshrined in Article 28, for these reasons: (i) the Cambodian government has a monolithic, consolidated voice, whereas the “United Nations” comprises myriad voices, actors and interests, contradictory and multidimensional; (ii) UN judges, prosecutors and officials are not political strategists; (iii) the government has become more confident and sophisticated; and (iv) the KRT is foremost a court of public opinion, and the UN has time and again lost the public-relations game against the government, after having invested so much time, energy and money in the KRT process. I continue to hold the above to be true, but the force of these arguments has been greatly weakened by the passage of six years of KRT operation, by the accumulation of searing experience of this government blatantly, consistently not conforming with the terms of the agreement, by the growing, shared discontent of public voices drawing global attention, by Cambodia’s political interests of 2012, by the poignant illustration of Cases 003/004, and by the personalities of Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet and UN envoy David Scheffer. The time is ripe for the UN to invoke Article 28 and withdraw, for the following reasons.
First, it is the right thing to do, backed by six years of hard evidence of “political interference” and “breach” of the agreement, and everyone knows it. That is to say, the UN has political and public cover. Second, the political climate works in favour of a UN withdrawal. The Cambodian government is extra-sensitive about its international image – especially this year, when it chairs ASEAN. With Burma reforming, Cambodia can no longer hide behind its neighbour as the region’s whipping boy for human-rights abuses and violations of international norms, even though it domestically continues to use the Khmer Rouge era as its measuring stick 35 years later. Cambodia is also seeking the non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and it’s an election year and the government is already under fire for having no opposition figure. Third, there’s a strong, unified, indignant public stance against the government regarding cases 003 and 004. Fourth, the UN has a few strong, influential personalities in key pos-itions to act as the catalyst for an honourable withdrawal. Judge Kasper-Ansermet is strong and has shown his courage by doggedly pursuing these cases under difficult circumstances. New UN envoy David Scheffer is a principled, veteran negotiator who knows this government and key off-icials assigned to the KRT, meaning he will be less susceptible to falling for the political ruse of this government, which is crafty in pushing its limits and conceding just enough to appease the international commun-ity before it pushes the limits again. With Kasper-Ansermet and Scheffer leading the pack, I believe the likes of Judge Silvia Cartwright, Judge Rowan Downing, Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne and Co-Prosecutor Andrew Cayley can be persuaded to a convergence on withdrawal as a strategy. I believe their convergence will force the hand of UN headquarters to the tipping point of withdrawal. In practice, the withdrawal strategy would look something like this: the UN sets three basic conditions that are easily verifiable, and communicates them publicly. Let’s say one of the conditions is the immediate appointment of Judge Kasper-Ansermet and the legitimate investigations into cases 003 and 004 beginning immediately upon the judge’s appointment. (The other two conditions could be related to political interference and the integrity of Case 002.) Upon the breach of any of those three conditions (which is highly likely to happen), the UN unequivocally withdraws from the KRT in a very public manner, with no “ifs” or “buts”. In doing so, it would set an honourable precedent and, in the process, reform its global image as an institution with a backbone of courage, principle and integrity. Closer to home, UN withdrawal would salvage the loss of confidence and trust among Cambodians – a priceless commodity among a people who for so long have lost so much faith in
anyone and anything. All in all, the UN has a unique window of opportunity right now to render a measure of justice to the victims and to salvage its integrity — by withdrawing. To stay and prolong the political farce is to embed all the dark mentalities (of impunity, of cynicism, of low expectations, of fear, of inferiority) we want to change in this society. To withdraw is to be unprecedented in showing its leadership for victims and the world, and to salvage any measure of justice that can still be had from this political theatre. In March, 2007, I prayed to be wrong regarding the UN’s with drawal. Now I have a greater chance of being wrong. More than ever, let me be wrong. Theary C. Seng, Founding president Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia