11-17 June Phnom Penh Post

Boeung Kak women on hunger strike Monday, 11 June 2012 Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Four Boeung Kak women convicted to two-and-a-half years in Prey Sar prison went on a hunger strike yesterday as their husbands and children led a 200-strong rally outside, the husband of imprisoned village representative Tep Vanny told the Post.

Ou Kong Chea said he had received a telephone call from Kong Chantha, one of 15 Boeung Kak villagers in Prey Sar, telling him that his wife and three others began refusing food yesterday morning to protest against their three-hour trial and conviction on March 24.

“She said herself and my wife Tep Vanny, Mrs Chheng Leap and Mrs Song Sreyleap were making a hunger strike in response to us supporting them,” he said.

“However, my family and I are very worried when we heard that. I told them to stop doing that and to take care of their health, because we are trying to find intervention so they can be freed from jail.”

Housing Rights Task Force communications official Long Kim Heang had heard a similar report and said everyone at her organisation was “concerned about their health”.

A crowd of about 200 people, which included husbands and children of the imprisoned villagers, civil society representatives and other supporters gathered outside the prison to call for the prison to release the 15 Boeung Kak activists.

The 13 women were convicted of disputing authority and occupying land awarded to CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s Shukaku company.

Ly Chanary and Sao Sareoun, the group’s only man, were arrested outside the women’s trial and face the same charges.

They too are in Prey Sar. Heng Sreyleak, 13, daughter of the imprisoned Heng Mom, said the municipal court had jailed the villagers unjustly.

“I think my mother and all villagers are completely free of guilt,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.com <div>Please enable JavaScript to post a new comment</div>

Ethnic tribes depict endangered wildlife Monday, 11 June 2012 Roth Meas

A long time ago, indigenous animists living in the dense, isolated forests of northeastern Cambodia did not raise animals. When they were hungry, they just entered the forest nearby and hunted wild animals for food.

Today, some of them still do that. Others kill domestic buffalo, pigs or chickens to feed their families because there is no longer enough wildlife to be caught.

“There was a lot of wildlife,” Hoeur Sao, 50, says of her childhood near the Virachey National Park, in Ratanakkiri province. “When we walked to our crop fields, we used to see tigers, deer and crocodiles in front of us. But now, we rarely see them.”

Hoeur Sao, a member of the Kavet indigenous minority, visited Phnom Penh last week as part of a program run by the biodiversity preservation organisation POH KAO, which facilitates sustainable agriculture and livestock practices.

Twelve indigenous children and several elders from Ratanakkiri were brought to the capital to share their experiences of living in one of Cambodia’s most endangered natural areas,

and to learn about the animals they rarely see with a visit to the Phnom Tamao Zoo. POH KAO program manager Véronique Audibert-Pestel hopes the trip will have helped participants understand what the outside world looks like, and how the increase in population increases the demand for meat, so they will consider how their community’s biodiversity is at risk.

“Ethnic minorities believe in spirits, and they don’t just take whatever they want from the forest.

“They have limitations on what they take from their forest,” Audibert-Pestel says.

Hoeur Sao recalls that people in her area never raised animals in the past – they just hunted one animal and distributed the meat among the whole village.

But she doesn’t blame her people for the near-extinction of some species, because they have also helped to preserve the wildlife. Since the 1980s, they have been domesticating animals.

“Before, we just dug holes with sticks to grow our crops,” she says. “During the Khmer Rouge, they taught us how to plough our soil with buffalo. In the ’80s, people began to own buffalos. Now, 90 per cent of our villagers own animals.”

Their animals are not just for agricultural work but also food, decreasing the impact on local wildlife.

Hoeur Sao says the disappearance of a lot of wildlife in the jungle around her community can be blamed not on locals but on people from outside the community who have come to hunt in the area.

Audibert-Pestel says people from outside who hunt animals for trade are not so easy to control.

POH KAO has worked in Ratanakkiri since 2006 to co-operate with villagers in monitoring the forest so they can alert the protection organisation Wildlife Alliance to arrest hunters if they see them.

POH KAO has also supported locals raising livestock. Audibert-Pestel runs a veterinary practice in Ratanakkiri that can vaccinate the villagers’ animals so people won’t lose them and be forced to return to hunting.

“We have a vet to vaccinate their domestic animals, especially buffalo. Buffalo are so important for their livelihood. If they don’t have buffalo, they will hunt wild animals instead,” she says.

During their trip to Phnom Penh, Audibert-Pestel took the group to the Phnom Tamao Zoo to see animals rescued from poachers.

Following the zoo visit, the children’s artwork, personal reflections of their endangered

environment, went on display last Tuesday at Meta House, where it can be viewed by the public until June 19.

At the exhibition’s opening, Keo Omaliss, an official of the Cambodian Forestry Administration, said he was preparing a proposal to declare the 60,000 hectares where POH KAO works as a national preservation area because it was rich in biodiversity.

“There is a lot of rare wildlife such as tigers, elephants and even giant ibis birds. The money from companies that take tourists there will benefit the community,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Roth Meas at roth.meas@phnompenhpost.com

Farmer unearths 95 grenades Monday, 11 June 2012 Vong Sokheng

Russian-made grenades lined up on a cassava farm in the Svay Chek district of Banteay Meanchey province, where a local villager discovered the unexploded ordnance. Photograph: supplied

A cache of 95 Russian-made grenades left over from the civil war in the early 1990s was discovered last week by a farmer in Banteay Meanchey’s Svay Chek district.

The cache, buried under a tree on the farmer’s land in Khlangpor Thbong village, was found while the farmer was preparing the land for planting with a home-made plough.

“I think it was good luck for the villager, because the grenades are still in good condition [and] therefore they did not explode,” Svay Chek district police chief Roeung Bor said.

He said district officials from the Cambodian Mine Action Centre had collected the grenades and suspected there was more unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the area.

CMAC set up signs warning villagers to exercise the utmost caution.

“Our villagers are worried now when they go down for farming, but they have no choice,” Roeung Bor said.

CMAC director-general Heng Ratana said there had been 81 casualties in the first four months of 2012, 30 from mines and 51 from UXO.

He said he could not recall the exact number of fatalities.

In 2011, he said, there were 107 casualties caused by mines, and 104 caused by UXO. To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com

Fraud charges for ex-journalists Monday, 11 June 2012 Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Kampot provincial court sent two former journalists to jail on Saturday to await trial on charges of fraud for impersonating NGO officials and collecting money under false pretences from the families of disabled villagers.

Police officials said Chea Chanthorn, 55, a former reporter for the Kampuchea Sachak newspaper, and Meach Toy, 49, a former reporter for the Anakut Kuon Khmer newspaper, were arrested on June 7 for allegedly defrauding about 10 residents of Svay village, in Kampot town’s Kraing Ampil commune.

“According to the distributed letters, which were obtained by police, Chea Chanthorn claimed he was the president of the Kampot Provincial Handicap Development Community,” Kong Thy, a police officer in Kampot town, said.

“He claimed he had received many hectares of land concessions from the Cambodian government for disabled people who were resettling in Chhouk district’s Taken Koh Sla commune.”

According to In Chiva, deputy chief of the Kampot provincial police, the two then asked the handicapped villagers for a small fee in exchange for a letter granting them parcels of the fake concession.

Authorities seized 40 copies of the letter, which had not yet been distributed.

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at reaksmeykongkea.buth@phnompenhpost.com

March calls for end to child labour Monday, 11 June 2012 Mom Kunthear

More than 1,000 people marched in Sihanoukville yesterday to raise awareness of the exploitation of child labour, said rights workers.

Kong Socheat, child rights advocacy co-ordinator for Licadho, said the province had been chosen for its high rate of child labour, especially in the fishing sector. The march, which involved the local authorities, families and NGOs, was timed to Tuesday’s World Day Against Child Labour.

“We all, the government and the organisations, have to work together to ... protect the child from working, and especially their parents have to pay attention to sending their children to school over asking them to work,” said Kong Socheat.

The labour law is lacking in child protections, he added.

“It does not cover all working children such as child domestic workers,” he said.

According to a report published last year by the International Trade Union Confederation, about 52 per cent of children in Cambodia aged between 7 and 14 performed work in some form of economic activities.

Yov Khemera, provincial director of the Sihanoukville labour department, could not be reached for comment, but Veng Heang, director of the child labour department at the Labour Ministry, said the labour law had made strides in progress.

“We accept that our law is still lacking in terms of protecting children … but we have prakas for protecting the children,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at kunthear.mom@phnompenhpost.com

Move on from Khmer Rouge court turmoil, say NGOs Monday, 11 June 2012 Bridget Di Certo

The UN and the Cambodian government need to put the turmoil at the Khmer Rouge tribunal behind them and re-commit to strong leadership and the court’s success, a coalition of 22 Cambodian NGOs said on Friday.

The NGOs slammed the “obstructionist trend” at the tribunal, initiated by Cambodian coinvestigating judge You Bunleng’s refusal to acknowledge the judicial acts of his international counterpart, as interfering with the course of justice.

“The tribunal is a crucial milestone for the Cambodian people and any action that slows down the process should be regarded as a gravest obstruction of justice,” the coalition, dubbed the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, wrote, calling on the UN to speed the process of appointing new international co-investigating judges.

CHRAC highlighted the blocked appointment of Case 004 lawyer Richard Rogers, the defence counsel for suspect Ta An, as the latest low point in the obstructionist trend.

Based on You Bunleng’s position that former international reserve co-investigating judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet had no legal authority to act, a contingent of tribunal staffers view Kasper-Ansermet’s investigations into the government-opposed cases 003 and 004 as invalid.

“It seems UN officials at the ECCC have adopted this interpretation, which is contrary to the law, due to budgetary reasons,” CHRAC said. “CHRAC believes this to be a negative reflection on the will of the [UN] and international community to see cases 003 and 004 brought before the court.”

The international side of the tribunal is about US$25 million short of funds for 2012.

The Post asked tribunal legal affairs spokesman Lars Olsen yesterday whether there were funds to pay UN salaries for June.

“I have no new information about the budget. I am not going to speculate about salaries,” he said, directing further questions to UN special expert David Scheffer, who is in Phnom Penh this week to launch his memoirs on his work as a US ambassador for war crimes.

The coalition also urged the Khmer Rouge tribunal to play a broader role than “simply conducting a handful of criminal trials”.

It called for wider discussion about the Khmer Rouge period and other extra-judicial mechanisms to help survivors “come to terms with the past”.

CHRAC chairman Thun Saray said this would be the ideal legacy for the tribunal.

“[But] look at our government: we have a lot of people there who were former Khmer Rouge [and wouldn’t co-operate with extra-judicial mechanisms],” he said.

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

Returning maids, fishermen share familiar tales of abuse Monday, 11 June 2012 Sen David

A domestic migrant worker returns to Cambodia on Friday from Malaysia. A total of four maids and eight fishermen were repatriated after being forced to work in slave-like conditions. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Eight Cambodian fishermen and four Cambodian maids were repatriated from Malaysia on Friday after finding themselves forced to work in slavery-like conditions, despite being promised high-paying jobs there by brokers and recruitment firms.

Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, said in a press release on Friday the Cambodian government had co-operated with Malaysian authorities and the International Organization for Migration to return the trafficked victims to Cambodia.

Sin Sokhoun, 42, a fisherman from Kampong Speu province, said he paid 400,000 riels (US$100) to the brokers.

Once a farmer, he was lured abroad by the promise of high salaries, but after his ordeal, he said, he had told his son not to make the same mistake. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I felt embarrassed when I came back to my homeland, because I was cheated into

working,” he said. “We worked every day until night but we did not get a salary.”

Lim Mony, deputy head of the women’s section of rights group Adhoc, told reporters at Phnom Penh International Airport the victims had been rescued after their families filed complaints to NGOs. “We do not yet have details about what happened to them, especially the maids,” she said.

“We need them to speak to the police. They were acutely mistreated, which is why their families filed complaints.”

The four maids who were repatriated wore scarves to cover their heads, and declined to speak to the press.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sen David at david.sen@phnompenhpost.com

Defence grills witness about PM statements Tuesday, 12 June 2012 Joseph Freeman

Nuon Chea’s defence lawyer, Michiel Pestman, stirred things up at the end of court proceedings yesterday when questioning former child soldier Khoem Ngorn about statements he once made alleging Prime Minister Hun Sen had attended meetings in the 1970s with high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials, including Pol Pot. Former Khmer Rouge ministry of foreign affairs worker Khoem Ngorn, who was nearing the end of a testimony full of “I don’t knows” and habitual giggling, didn’t seem to – or was reluctant to – grasp the question.

The court had also been informed that he was suffering from a cold.

“Because I am illiterate, somebody may have written this for me. I don’t know,” he said.

The statement in question came from a 2004 interview with a representative from the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

“Did you ever witness a meeting that Hun Sen attended?” Pestman continued.

“If you talk about the 1970s, I was this height,” Khoem Ngorn said, indicating that he was a much shorter man. “Are you afraid to testify about Hun Sen’s involvement in meetings that took place in the Khmer Rouge period?”

Judge Nil Nonn had heard enough: “The witness does not have to answer that question.

The witness has already said he does not know.”

After a further back-and-forth between judge and lawyer, it became clear an answer wasn’t forthcoming.

Pestman said to Nil Nonn, “You are preventing us from exercising our client’s right to crossexamine this witness, [to] ask important questions.”

Earlier in the morning, former district secretary Sao Sarun was back on the stand.

He recalled details from a national party meeting in Phnom Penh in September, 1978.

Thousands of people were in attendance, he said, and Case 002 co-accused Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary were called to the stage as part of the central committee.

He said Pol Pot declared that, because victory over all enemies had been achieved, people could start returning to the cities, markets could be reopened, and money printed.

This was only a few months before the Vietnamese stormed across the border and shattered the Khmer Rouge’s grip on power.

He also remembered attending a later meeting in 1978, to which he travelled with his brother-in-law, a military commander named Ta Sophea.

His brother-in-law did not come back and, according to a prisoner log cited by the prosecution, ended up in S-21 prison. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But he disappeared since then; we never saw him again,â&#x20AC;? Sao Sarun said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joseph Freeman at joseph.freeman@phnompenhpost.com

Ethnic minority turn to Jesus as more 'affordable' option Tuesday, 12 June 2012 May Titthara and David Boyle

Ethnic Jarai villagers carry a cow to be butchered in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district last week.

Photograph: David Boyle/Phnom Penh Post

At upwards of US$500, the cost of slaughtering a buffalo to revive a relative condemned to ill-health by the spirits has pushed the Jarai indigenous minority residents of Somkul village in Ratanakkiri to a more affordable religious option: Christianity.

In the village in O’Yadav district’s Som Thom commune, about 80 per cent of the community have given up on spirits and ghosts in favour of Sunday sermons and modern medicine.

Sev Chel, 38, said she made the switch because when she used to get sick, it could cost her hundreds of dollars to appease the gods with a sacrificial package that might include a cow or buffalo, a chicken, bananas, incense and rice wine.

“So if I sold that buffalo and took the money to pay for medicine, it is about 30,000 riel to 40,000 riel [for them to] get better, so we are strong believers in Jesus,” she said. “If I did not believe in Jesus, maybe at this time I would still be poor and not know anything besides my community.”

A small wooden church has emerged in Somkul commune where the word of Jesus Christ, or “Yesu Yang” to the Jarai, is preached instead of the mixture of animism and Theravada Buddhism they have traditionally followed.

Kralan Don, 60, said he and the four other members of his family began attending the church about five years ago because of their poor standard of living.

“We believe in Christianity because we are poor; we don’t have money to buy buffaloes, chickens and pigs to pray for the spirits of the god of land or the god of water when those gods make us get sick,” he said.

Klan Ly, 56, said she had completely abandoned her fears of black magic after making the conversion.

“When my family believed in Christianity, my old Buddha could not use the black magic on us anymore, because Jesus protected us,” she said.

With the money she has saved using Western medicine instead of performing sacrifices, Klan Ly said she had been able to construct a house.

Christianity is not the only external religion that has proselytised in Somkul village.

Walking distance from the church stands a testament to an earlier failed attempt to win the

Jarai’s faith – a mosque that villagers said no one attends anymore.

The erection of the mosque and the church coincide with the rapid and large scale logging of much of Ratanakkiri’s forest, where the dangerous and wild spirits feared by the Jarai were believed to reside.

As Ratanakkiri opens up through the repaved National Road 78, improved telecommunications and the growing influx of lowland non-indigenous Cambodians to the province, groups such as the Jarai are willing to consider different spiritual ways to understand the changes.

In a 2009 paper, Ian Baird, a professor of geography at the University of WisconsinMadison, found that one reason Ratanakkiri’s indigenous Prao minority had been more receptive to Catholic proselytising than the type of evangelical protestant Christianity adopted by the Jarai was because of its lax attitude to drinking and smoking.

Where as evangelical protestant Christian missionaries are relatively new to Cambodia’s northeast, establishing themselves in the 1990s, they have had a presence amongst the Jarai in Vietnam since the 1970s.

“Jarai are converting much more rapidly than other groups. This is largely because most of the Jarai in Vietnam have turned to Christianity, and so relatives have been converting other Jarai in Cambodia from across the border, when they visit relatives, etc,” Ian Baird said by email.

In Somkul village, converts said they were happy that strict Protestant rules had stopped their children from drinking and smoking in favour of going to school, where they were learning Khmer and English.

Chil Braing, 55, cannot remember how many litres of rice wine she used to knock back each day, but is certain of one thing, she has not touched a drop since she converted.

“Now my health is better then before because I do not get drunk early in the morning as I did before,” she said.

Pen Bunna, provincial coordinator of the rights group Adhoc and an expert in the culture of Ratanakkiri’s indigenous minorities, said the village began abandoning their traditional beliefs sometime between 1996 and 1997 after an American missionary arrived in Somkul village.

“Christianity makes them clever and also stops them having a problem with each other,” he said.

Traditionally, the Jarai have hybridised animistic beliefs with aspects of Theravada Buddhism, but their new-found religion is strictly monotheistic, allowing no space for competing notions of god and spirituality.

David Manfred, Cambodia field director of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, said, however, that evangelical Christians were concerned with maintaining useful aspects of

Jarai culture such as the language and music, while encouraging them to abandon others.

“Whether we talk about new roads, or phones, or schools, there are pressures on the culture already to change in different ways,” he said.

The traditional Jarai fear of evil spirits was costly and unhelpful he said, adding that villagers in Somkul had acknowledged Jesus Christ was more powerful.

But not everyone in Somkul has accepted that assertion yet and Chhil Dan, 33, said right now she had given up on all religion, did not care about the loss of Jarai beliefs and was happy just to feel free.

“Recently I don’t believe any religion. I’m just waiting to get old, but some of my relatives already believe in the church. It’s only me that does not go to the church,” she said. “All religions are good.”

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

Flights boost tourism to Cambodia’s seaside Tuesday, 12 June 2012 Rann Reuy

A tourist walks along the seaside in Sihanoukville. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Increased flight connections to Sihanoukville helped boost tourism figures in the seaside province during the first five months of the year, tourism officials said yesterday.

The province saw a 50 per cent year-on-year climb in foreign tourists compared with last year, ministry data showed.

About 22 per cent more domestic tourists visited Sihanoukville during the period.

Regular flights between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap, which launched in late 2011, have helped pull tourists from Cambodia’s No 1 tourist destination to its little-known coast, Hun Chhoeun, director of Preah Sihnoulk province’s international airport, said yesterday.

Angkor Air is the only operator to land at the airport, but other airlines are looking into servicing the province, Hun Chhoeun claimed.

Angkor Air has three flights to Sihanoukville per week.

Seng Kha, director of Preah Sihanouk provincial tourism department, said the Kingdom’s

induction into The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Most Beautiful Bay Club last year has attracted more European tourists.

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

Put an end to child labour Tuesday, 12 June 2012 International Labour Organisation

Young people march through Sihanoukville on Sunday in an effort to raise awareness about the exploitation of child labourers. Photograph: supplied

Chhou Kan, a mother of six, has worked in the salt fields in Kampot province for 20 years.

Famous for its black and red pepper, Kampot is also the only province in Cambodia that produces salt.

To make ends meet after her husband died, Chhou Kan brought her five eldest children to the salt fields to join her.

“When my husband was alive, my children did not work. But when he died, I had to use the children to help me,” Chhou Kan says.

“It is very important for me to get an income. My financial situation is difficult, and I have no rice fields.”

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the World Day Against Child Labour, the situation of Chhou Kan and her family illustrates some of the difficulties people and governments face when it comes to child labour.

For many parents in Cambodia, sending their children to work is a matter of economic necessity.

Chhou Kan’s 13 year-old daughter, Naroun, began working at the age of eight. For four years, her daily schedule consisted of school in the morning, then joining her mother in the salt fields, where she would work until early evening.

Naroun was recently helped to leave the Kampot salt fields through support provided by the International Labour Organisation’s drive to eliminate child labour.

This program was able to give her school clothes, a schoolbag, a bicycle and other support through the gradual process of ending her gruelling daily work. Naroun is now a full-time student in Grade Six. “Working in the salt fields is difficult, but school is not so difficult,” says Naroun, whose favourite subjects are mathematics and Khmer literature.

Naroun says the work for which she earned 10,000 riel ($2.50) a day was very difficult.

“It is heavy work, filling and collecting water. The salt is very hot, and when it dries and becomes sharp, you can cut your feet badly. There were no boots for our feet.

“I was getting sick a lot. I would get headaches and stomach problems after long hours out in the sun.”

Salt-field work involves distilling salt from sea water into smaller pools.

It is an entirely manual process that involves heavy lifting over sharp salt crystals and long hours working under strong sunlight and in intense heat.

The ILO has described the practice of children working in Cambodia’s salt fields as “one of the worst forms of child labour”.

Although finances are still a huge obstacle for the family, Chhou Kan is optimistic about her daughter’s future. “Naroun is a very smart child, and is always reading at home,” she says.

In Cambodia, 80 per cent of the population are poor agricultural workers for whom every day is a struggle to support their families.

For many parents, sending their children to work is an economic necessity, but is nevertheless a decision taken with great difficulty.

The ILO’s most recent estimate was that 215 million children world-wide are involved in child labour. About 1.5 million of those children are in Cambodia.

They should be at school, acquiring skills that prepare them for decent work as adults.

By entering the labour market prematurely, they are deprived of this critical education and training that can help lift them, their families and their communities out of an endless cycle of poverty.

There are at least two reasons why World Day Against Child Labour this year is a day of hope for Cambodian children trapped in child labour and those at risk.

First, there appears to be a growing realisation that Cambodia needs a well-educated young workforce to fuel its economic growth.

Because child labour deprives children of the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge, child labour retards and prevents economic growth.

This realisation has led to many initiatives by the Royal Government of Cambodia to end child labour and get all children into schools.

Policies in labour, education and social protection recently put in place by the government focus on child labour and will help to speed up its elimination.

Second, in 2008 Hun Sen signed the first national plan of action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in this country.

A draft national plan for the period from 2013 to 2017 will soon be finalised.

In 2009, Cambodia was one of the first countries in the region to adopt the ILOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal of ending the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

Since then, the government has taken many steps to realise that goal. Those steps are beginning to show results.

Recent monitoring has shown a significant decline in the use of child labour.

But the job is clearly not done, and time is short.

The future of Cambodiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children, and child labourers, is in our hands.

Report slams Boeung Kak 13 sentencing Tuesday, 12 June 2012 Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Shane Worrell

Boeung Kak lake and Borei Keila residents protest outside the Royal Palace yesterday. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

The 13 Boeung Kak lake women imprisoned after a three-hour trial on May 24 were tried unjustly on charges that had no basis, according to a Cambodian Center for Human Rights report released yesterday.

CCHR argues in the 17-page legal analysis that the women, sentenced from one to two and a half years in prison, were expressing their right to freedom of assembly and expression when arrested at Boeung Kak lake on May 22.

“There do not seem to be any valid and legal reasons why limitations or restrictions should be applied to the defendants’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly,” the report says. “The defendants participated peacefully in a protest, which is protected under domestic and international law.”

CCHR president Ou Virak said the women’s sentencing, which came two days after their arrest and hours after they were charged with disputing authorities and occupying land awarded to developer Shukaku, was a “gross miscarriage of justice”.

“From a careful analysis of the facts and an application of the law, it is clear . . . the entire judicial procedure was a flagrant breach of the women’s fair trial rights,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ou Kong Chea, husband of imprisoned Boeung Kak village representative Tep Vanny, expressed further concern yesterday at four of the women prisoners’ decision to go on a hunger strike that began on Sunday.

“I am extremely worried about the health of my wife because she has suffered from a stomach disease for many months,” he said.

His concerns came as Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers successfully delivered petitions to King Norodom Sihamoni asking for the 15 Boeung Kak prisoners, including Ly Chanary and Sao Saroeun, to be released and for their land disputes to be resolved.

Yaom Bopha, a representative of Boeung Kak villagers, believed the King would intervene.

“Otherwise, many children will be motherless,” she said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.com Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phnompenhpost.com

Women flee from Thai karaoke parlour slavery Tuesday, 12 June 2012 Mom Kunthear

Two Cambodian women escaped Thailand on Friday a week after being trafficked across the border and sold into sex slavery in a Thai karaoke parlour, according to the rights group Adhoc and Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection officials.

Tan Kimrany, an officer for Adhoc’s Women’s Rights program, said yesterday that the two filed complaints last Friday after allegedly being tricked by a married pair of brokers named Nuon and Nang, who had promised them jobs in Phnom Penh.

“They worked from 4pm until 3am, but they did not get a single cent from the karaoke parlour owner,” she said.

“Their boss threatened to beat them until they died if they attempted to escape, and if they wanted to go back home they had to work for one to two years to pay the debt,” she added.

One victim told the Post that she had known the brokers for a long time, and had always had a good relationship with them.

“We had good communication with each other for three years already, and I travelled from my house in Takeo province to visit them in Phnom Penh often, but I do not know why they did that to me,” she said. “They sold me to the karaoke parlour.”

According to the victim, the two fled through the forest for five hours before making it to the Cham Yeam border station, where they recounted their ordeal to authorities and filed formal complaints.

By the time she reached the border, the victim said, she was weak from hunger and severely dehydrated.

You Polivuth, provincial deputy police chief in charge of Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection, said yesterday that the brokers are the same ones accused in a case last month.

“I sent the document to the court already and I am awaiting the arrest warrant from the court,” she said.

According to a complaint letter obtained by the Post, one victim is suing the brokers for 20,000 baht (US$630), in addition to asking that they be punished according to the law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at kunthear.mom@phnompenhpost.com

A fresh perspective on marriage Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Phearon Chey

Everyone has the right to live this life the way they want to. And that’s exactly what Chea Kim Eang does.

A teacher at Bak Tok High School, Eang has decided to go against the traditional Cambodian mould and live her life without a husband. At 60-years-old, she is satisfied with her life and remains financially independent.

“I saw the other people had so many complications after getting married,” she said. “A lot of women didn’t really know their husbands.”

“I’ve lived a happy life and I’m full of pride, even when I hear some nasty comments behind my back.”

Some people, Eang said, blamed her being single on her age or a bad experience with love.

Meanwhile, Eang explained, her choice to be single was merely that: a choice.

China may fund Cambodia-Vietnam rail Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Rann Reuy

A tuk-tuk crosses railway tracks on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last year. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia was in discussions with the Chinese government on funding for a 250-kilometre stretch of rail line between Phnom Penh and Vietnam, in what Cambodian officials yesterday called a move away from a “complicated” Asian Development Bank loan.

Va Sim Sorya, director general at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, said the government could do without the requirements tagged to ADB loans, and fund the project with up to US$600 million in Chinese backing.

“China doesn’t have so many conditions, but Chinese technicians are still well-studied,” he said yesterday at a workshop on infrastructure, although he did not specify which conditions were undesirable.

Interest rates on ADB concessional loans averaged an annual 1.32 per cent after grace periods, according to data compiled by NGO Forum for Cambodia last year.

China’s concessional lending held the highest rates from any institution or country at an average 1.83 per cent per year.

ADB’s social safeguard policy from 2009 listed several requirements for compensating and

restoring income to those affected by its rail project, although some NGOs have claimed that the bank has not followed some of the specifications.

Loans from China did not appear to have any such conditions.

“ADB stands by its very comprehensive and well-developed safeguards. That’s something that comes along with the loans,” Peter Brimble, deputy country head at ADB Cambodia, said yesterday.

Projects implemented by China happened more quickly than those by “other parties”, Tram Iv Teuk, Minister of Public Works and Transportation, added yesterday.

The railway rehabilitation project on the country’s northern and southern lines – of which the majority was funded by ADB – saw substantial setbacks earlier this year when concessional holder Toll Royal quietly suspended its operation, reportedly because the project was taking too long.

Now, a 300-kilometre section of track on the northern line lacks the funding to be completed, ADB said last month.

Finding new sources of funding was the responsibility of the government, the bank noted.

Yesterday’s announcement from the government met with strong opposition from Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay, saying Chinese companies have built low-quality roads and other infrastructure at higher interest rates.

“We don’t oppose the need to get funding to serve the national economy, but it must be done transparently,” he said, adding that no bidding process existed for such projects.

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

Deputy PM calls for kids’ programs Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Mom Kunthear

Children attend the closing ceremony of a music festival that was organised in conjunction with the World Day Against Child Labour yesterday at the Chaktomuk Theatre in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An called on media outlets yesterday to provide more positive programming for children, in order to help combat child labour.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of a music festival organised in conjunction with the World Day Against Child Labour, she said media organisations such as private and state television stations should create programs that focused on education and raising awareness of problems that children face.

“Some television and radio stations produce programs for education and encouraging children to avoid doing bad things like using drugs,” Men Sam An said.

“They also broadcast about avoiding engaging in child labour, for example, showing how some children [falsify] their age in order to find jobs to help their family.”

However, more stations need to follow their example, she added.

According to a statement issued by the International Labour Organization, 1.5 million children are involved in labour worldwide, with about 310,000 involved in the “worst forms”

in Cambodia.

However, recent monitoring in the provinces of Kampot, Kep and Poipet had shown â&#x20AC;&#x153;very significantâ&#x20AC;? declining trends of child labour since 2008, it notes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at kunthear.mom@phnompenhpost.com

EU crisis to hit tourism again Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Don Weinland

Western tourists visit the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Cambodia could see a decrease in European travellers due to volatility in global markets. Photograph: Nina Loacker/Phnom Penh Post

The World Bank yesterday said developing countries should brace for a long period of volatility in global markets, which could impact tourism-reliant nations such as Cambodia.

A “serious deterioration of conditions” remained a possibility in Europe, according to the bank's Global Economic Prospects, although slow improvement was a likely outcome for the bloc.

The turmoil, which has been magnified recently by a Spanish bank bailout and the possibility of Greece's withdrawal from the eurozone, could further tighten the purse strings of European travelers.

Gauging Cambodia's market for European travelers has been difficult since numbers declined significantly during the onset of the global crisis in 2009, said Pierre Jungo, managing director of Diethelm Travel, a regional travel agency that caters largely to Europe.

Incoming tourists from the eurozone did increase during the first few months of the year, Jungo said, but from a very low base.

“We are not back to 2008 [levels] but we did see an increase on last year,” he said.

Cambodian tourism brought in an estimated US$2.5 billion in 2011, making the industry one of the country's biggest generators of gross domestic product, the World Bank report said.

In 2010, the sector accounted for 21.2 per cent of GDP. About 515,600 European tourists visited Cambodia in 2011, a 10 per cent increase on 2010, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.

Cambodia's tourism market has already started a regional swing toward visitors from ASEAN, as well as from Korea, China and Vietnam.

More than 1 million tourists from ASEAN member states entered Cambodia last year. More ASEAN tourists came to Cambodia than from any other region, according to the data.

East Asian tourist numbered about 778,000. At about 19 per cent growth year on year, the region's presence in Cambodian hotels and guesthouses saw the fastest growth.

“The EU and US made big contributions to this industry and the issue [of EU economic crisis] needs to be discussed. But if we look at the numbers, Asian countries are leading,” said Mohan Gunti, an advisor to the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said yesterday.

“These Asian countries are booming and Cambodia is already focussing on the Chinese market.”

Hopes for a increase in Chinese visitors were bolstered in early April when Cambodia and China pledged to double bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2017, a move that would see heavy marketing for Cambodian tourism in China.

As a bulwark against Europe's economic woes, World Bank Cambodia senior economist Enrique Aldaz-Carroll said the Kingdom should strengthen its connectivity with the region.

“The integration will enable Cambodia to benefit more from the growth in ASEAN economies and in the region. This will allow Cambodian firms to be more productive by reaping economies of scale and becoming part of production networks. It will also attract greater investment,” he wrote in an email yesterday.

The World Bank report also noted a possible impact on countries reliant on external remittance.

About 3 per cent of Cambodia's GDP in 2010 was via remittance from abroad, the report showed.

The percentage was low compared to the Philippines, however, where remittance accounted for 10.7 percent of GDP that year.

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

Integration for ASEAN legal eagles discussed Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Vong Sokheng

Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana speaks yesterday during a judicial workshop in Phnom Penh.

Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

More than 70 judges and judicial officials from ASEAN member states attended a USsupported ASEAN workshop in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss legal and judicial cooperation, the protection of investors and the state of the rule of law in the region.

The ASEAN Secretariat and the Cambodian Ministry of Justice arranged the judicial program – with help from the US-funded ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility – hoping to build on last year’s ASEAN Senior Law Officials’ Meeting, which recognised the need for co-operation among practitioners of law in ASEAN member states.

“As ASEAN moves toward integration, we will see an exponential increase in cross-border movement of people, goods, and ideas,” said Cambodian Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana.

“With this closer connectivity, we will discover a new set of cross-border legal challenges and require greater judicial co-operation,” US Ambassador to ASEAN David Carden said all of the body’s collective goals – especially economic ones – will require a strong commitment to the rule of law by member states.

“I don’t think there is a more important issue than the rule of law and corruption elimination, in a way,” Carden told reporters, adding that investors need to be confident in a justice system’s fairness and lack of corruption.

“If investment comes from inside or outside of ASEAN, Cambodia has to protect the investors.”

Carden told reporters that the US welcomed ASEAN’s deliberations on the South China Sea, saying the world’s “peace and prosperity will be enhanced by the Code of Conduct”.

Attendees discussed a number of judicial hurdles the proposed ASEAN Economic Community may face, including prosecuting transnational crime, implementing investment laws and nation-level adherence to international treaties.

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

Khmer Rouge court judges called on to reproach Hun Sen Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Bridget Di Certo

Prime Minister Hun Sen must be publicly and robustly sanctioned for his remarks about the guilt of Brother No 2 Nuon Chea, who is now being tried at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, lawyers for the elderly accused have told the court.

In an immediate appeal filed on Monday to the highest judicial body of the tribunal, the international lawyers for Nuon Chea requested the Supreme Court Chamber overturn the ruling of the Trial Chamber.

In May, the Trial Chamber rejected an application by the Nuon Chea team for summary action against Hun Sen, who was reported by Vietnamese press as referring to Nuon Chea a “killer” and perpetrator of genocide.

“The court can do whatever it wants, but I had the right to condemn Khmer Rouge leaders,” Hun Sen reportedly said at the time.

While they rejected the application, the Trial Chamber judges did recognise that Hun Sen’s remarks were “incompatible with the presumption of innocence to which Nuon Chea is entitled”.

Although the Trial Chamber judges concluded that Hun Sen’s words risked being interpreted as an attempt to improperly influence the judges, the defence still protested, taking the position that a “bland and toothless” recommendation against further comments was insufficient.

“The extremely limited action taken by the bench amounts to neither a practical nor an effective solution to the problem of executive violations of fundamental human-rights guarantees in Cambodia,” the defence wrote in their appeal.

“Indeed, one rightly wonders if Hun Sen was even informed of the Trial Chamber’s hypothetical censure. If so, one can be quite certain that he has lost no sleep over it,” the appeal continues.

The Post has previously reported that Nuon Chea’s defence team has filed multiple motions at the tribunal and in local Cambodian courts seeking a remedy to alleged political interference in Case 002 by high-ranking government officials.

As yet, these motions have been unsuccessful.

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

Khmer Rouge court witness coy on details Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Bridget Di Certo

In a full day of testimony at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, former sector secretary Sao Sarun denied any implementation of Communist Party of Kampuchea policies in his area, despite being read several graphic accounts of starvation, persecution and death by exhaustion.

The 85-year-old appeared unable, or unwilling, to recollect any damning details of the alleged criminal policies of the Khmer Rouge, at one point telling civil-party lawyers: “We did not have the right to force anybody to marry.”

Throughout the day, civil-party and defence lawyers attempted to use other people’s statements to undermine and contradict the less-than-lucid testimony of Sao Sarun.

Sao Sarun flatly denied the veracity of the statements, including scholarly articles read to him by Brother No 2 Nuon Chea’s defence counsel.

“I deny all of this. Those people are exaggerating,” he said.

“Were pregnant women entitled to receive medical treatment because of their fragile condition?” lead civil-party lawyer Elisabeth Simmoneau Fort asked the witness.

“Pregnant women were not allowed to work hard and, after delivering their babies a few months after that, they were allowed to stay home and not to work hard,” he replied.

Simmoneau Fort proceeded to read out a civil-party statement of a woman who lived in the sector in question.

In the account, the woman described being sent back to rice production one week after her child was born, feeling malnourished and regularly collapsing on the rice field embankments.

At the conclusion of her questioning, Simmoneau Fort sharply addressed the witness.

“I regret I have not been able to refresh your memory with civil-party statements from those living in Sector 105,” she said.

Even Trial Chamber judge Jean-Marc Lavergne appeared incredulous at the witness’s lack of candour when Sao Sarun said he knew nothing about the 1979 trial of Pol Pot, even though he was living with the late leader in Anlong Veng district.

In the afternoon, the district secretary and one-time sector secretary told Nuon Chea’s defence counsel that from the late 1960s until 1975, the sky in Mondulkiri was “blackened” with American bomber aircraft.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;People had to flee the province. They had to flee for their lives and run to the countryside to avoid being bombed on,â&#x20AC;? he said.

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

Opposition party refugee was hiding in plain sight Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Meas Sokchea

Meas Mara, the 25-year-old daughter of SRP activist Meas Peng, cries outside Kandal Provincial Court yesterday. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

A Sam Rainsy Party member who escaped from prison last September was re-arrested yesterday in the place where he spent the majority of his time on the run: his home.

Meas Peng, 48, was being held in Kandal provincial prison last night accused of conspiring to use violence against a property owner he had been in a land dispute with – the same charge he claimed led to his arrest without a warrant in September.

The activist, who allegedly escaped prison with the help of his then-lawyer Choung Choungy and SRP politician Chan Cheng, was recently voted first deputy chief of Banteay Dek commune, a step up from the position he held when arrested last year.

SRP figures and Meas Peng’s family condemned the latest arrest, describing it as baseless and politically motivated and questioning its timing.

Kandal province SRP president Senator Eng Chhay Eang said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party had ordered the arrest as part of a post-commune election ploy to weaken his party.

“Before the election, they did not arrest him, because they were afraid of it affecting [popularity]. This is a strategy of the ruling party,” Eng Chhay Eang said. “There is not any reason to arrest Meas Peng now. The government should stop this activity.”

SRP officials said Meas Peng had lived at his home in Kien Svay district’s Samrong Thom commune since his escape in September and had regularly attended meetings at his local SRP headquarters.

However, Judge Lim Sokuntha, the man who ordered Meas Peng’s arrest, refused to comment yesterday on the timing of the arrest.

“This detention is under my order – the same order I made in September. We ordered police to detain him according to the old warrant,” he said.

Meas Peng is accused of having been involved in a land dispute in Prek Treng village in May last year; however, the SRP maintains he had no involvement in any illegal activity.

Meas Peng’s daughter Meas Mara, 25, said her father had been arrested simply for being a member of the SRP. “A lot of land grabbers have not been arrested, but they have arrested my father, who is honest,” she said. “He has done nothing wrong. This arrest is a political issue. My father has not been corrupt.”

Choung Choungy, who was charged with aiding and abetting Meas Peng to escape, will not be representing him in court because he is too busy, Eng Chhay Eang said.

Choung Choungy appeared in court early this year with eight lawyers to defend himself over the incident after shaving his head and committing to a month-long “meditation for justice”.

SRP lawmaker Chan Cheng was also stripped of his parliamentary immunity over the case.

Choung Choungy declined to comment about the latest arrest yesterday, but has previously claimed Lim Sokuntha had Meas Peng arrested without a warrant last year and freely walked out of prison rather than escaped.

Human rights group Adhoc has appointed Meas Peng a lawyer, according to Men Makara, its co-ordinator in Kandal.

Chheng Samphors, senior monitor for rights group Licadho, said Meas Peng had done nothing illegal; he had just visited the disputed land to observe the situation.

“The court should consider whether this is actually justice,” he said.

Council of Ministers’ Press & Quick Reaction Unit spokesman Ek Tha declined to comment yesterday.

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

Is education a turn-off in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cambodia?

Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Vannak Oum

Despite Cambodiaâ&#x20AC;&#x;s evolving gender system, local men would rather pick women with lower education qualifications as their love mates. As a result of this finicky selection, it seems many bright young ladies are left with a diminishing list of suitors.

Not unlike other men his age, Sen Sarat, a 23-year-old student at Royal University of Agriculture, said that the wife of his dreams must be between 20 to 23 years old and cannot be more highly skilled than him, so that they can co-exist without criticism from society.

“I cannot accept if people look down on me as if I were hiding behind my wife‟s skirt,” Sarat said. “It seems impossible for me to choose a highly educated lady as my life partner.”

At the other end of the debate, 29-year-old Khem Vannareth, a community development worker in an international organisation, admits that she has never cared much for marriage even though age is catching up. Nareth stresses that she has high expectations on her future husband, and will not budge until she finds the right man.

A natural beauty with a cute smile, Nareth says that a combination of her busy work schedule and dissatisfaction with the quality of her suitors has led her to turn away many.

“As I have gained a lot of knowledge and international work experience, my life views are broader, so I would prefer an educated husband with higher job status compared to me,” Nareth added.

Although Cambodian society and even her family sometimes pressure her about being an „old spinster„, Nareth is unfazed and constantly reiterates that she is a strong, independent person who earns her own living.

“I prefer to be single for life than marry the wrong person, who may ruin my life in the future,” she said.

No doubt the decision to marry late is at one‟s discretion. However, according to a reproductive health expert, Phim Somaly, women should consider getting married before 30 years old to prevent complications during the first child birth, especially the lack of nutrition to feed their babies.

“The best time for a woman to start their family life is from 23 to 27 years old, for she would be at the right age to handle family planning,” Somaly advised.

Chou Bun Eng, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Women‟s Affairs at the Interior Ministry, says that in Cambodian culture, men are afraid of proposing to women of higher education, worse still if she was past the „marriageable‟ age. Equally disparaging is that women who marry younger men are frowned on. For these reasons, singlehood is the only way for some ladies.

“Cambodia‟s government always encourages women to gain high education to work and help society, but if most of our young ladies get married by 18 or 19 years old, how do this plan can be successful?” says Bun Eng. Her recommendation is that Cambodian men should be more understanding and fair towards women, adding that they could consider marrying older women between 25 to 30 years old because they are “better educated and mature enough to be good wives‟”.

In the country‟s history pages, women were urged to get married as soon as they flowered, from 14 to 16 years old. Hence, most of them could not do anything besides housework.

The world has transformed since. The statement “women cannot do anything besides moving around the kitchen” has long been abolished. As Cambodia progresses, women

have more opportunities for education and to compete with men on equal platforms.

For many, being a housewife is a fading notion and marriage, an unhurried prospect.

Ministry eyes Boeung Kak sentence Wednesday, 13 June 2012 Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Members of the Boeung Kak lake and Borei Keila communities protest in Phnom Penh last week. The demonstrators wore hats decorated with photographs of 15 activists who were jailed last month.

Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

The Ministry of Justice has called on the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to re-examine whether the decision to sentence 13 Boeung Kak women to two and a half years in jail was just, according to a letter obtained by the Post yesterday.

“This case is in the jurisdiction of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, so the ministry has forwarded this [a petition from Boeung Kak villagers] to the court to re-examine and resolve this issue with transparency and justice,” the letter, dated May 31, reads.

The letter was drafted after Boeung Kak villagers sent a petition to the ministry asking for the release of the 13 women and Boeung Kak villagers arrested during a house-building demonstration on May 22 and two others arrested at the trial.

Phnom Penh deputy prosecutor Cheth Khemra said yesterday he was not in charge of the Boeung Kak villagers’ cases and knew nothing about a letter from the ministry.

“I do not have any information concerning this letter,” he said.

The 13 women were charged with disputing authority and trespassing on development firm

Shukaku’s land at Boeung Kak. They were sentenced to between one and two-and-a-half years in Prey Sar prison after a three-hour trial on May 24.

Chiv Keng, president of Phnom Penh Municipal Court, and Yeth Chakrya, the court’s chairman, were not available for comment yesterday, while Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana could not be reached.

Meanwhile, Ou Kong Chea, the husband of imprisoned village representative Tep Vanny, said yesterday that two more women had joined a hunger strike that began on Sunday, taking the number to six.

“I am extremely concerned about them,” he said.

Ou Kong Chea said a doctor from rights group Licadho had been co-operating with medical staff inside the prison and told him the strikers were “weaker” than the other women.

Harm Sunrith, the women’s lawyer, said he will visit them on the weekend.

“I am extremely concerned about the health of my clients, because it can result in death if they remain on a hunger strike,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.com <div>Please enable JavaScript to post a new comment</div>

Boeung Kak 13 case shifts to Appeal Court Thursday, 14 June 2012 Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Boeung Kak lake residents participate in a protest yesterday in Phnom Penh to call for the release of 15 community activists. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post

The case of the 13 imprisoned Boeung Kak women is in the hands of the Appeal Court now, the women’s defence lawyer said yesterday.

Lawyer Harm Sunrith said that Phnom Penh Municipal Court had sent the case to the Appeal Court on Tuesday, adding that he was inquiring into who the presiding judge would be.

“We will send the paper requesting that the 13 clients be freed as soon as we know who the presiding judge is,” he said.

The 13 women were arrested during a demonstration on May 22 and sentenced to between one and two-and-a-half years in Prey Sar prison after a three-hour trial two days later. Two other villagers were also arrested at the trial.

A letter from the Ministry of Justice, dated May 31, had ordered the municipal court to reexamine the sentencing.

Six of the prisoners continued their hunger strike yesterday, which began on Sunday, and were in frail health, said a villager who had visited the group.

Villager representative Bou Chhorvy said prison guards had allowed her to meet with Tep Vanny, Kong Chantha and Phan Chhunreth yesterday.

An 11-year-old girl had also been allowed to meet her mother, Tol Srey Pov, and two other prisoners, she added.

“They are much paler and weaker than before, but they would not stop their hunger strike, even though I tried to beg them to stop,” she said.

Meanwhile, about 50 villagers brought petitions to the US and European Union embassies yesterday asking for their intervention to free the prisoners.

EU Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain personally accepted the petition and promised to appeal to Prime Minister Hun Sen on the matter, Bou Chhorvy said.

Embassy officials confirmed they had received the petition, with EU representatives saying they would forward it to the relevant Cambodian authorities.

US Embassy spokesperson Sean McIntosh said the US was “concerned” by the sentencing.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This trial was marked by serious irregularities, such as the defendants being taken to court without having been charged and being tried in three hours without lawyers or witness testimony,â&#x20AC;? he said by email.

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

Chut Wutty slaying witness questioned Thursday, 14 June 2012 May Titthara

Environmental activist Chut Wutty, who was gunned down in Koh Kong province in April, speaks to the Post last year. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

Another witness to the fatal shootings of environmental activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana was questioned at Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday.

Bou Orn is the third employee of logging company Timbergreen – a firm Chut Wutty was investigating for alleged illegal logging – to be questioned by the court over the shootings, including suspect Ran Borath, who has been charged with the unintentional murder of In Rattana.

Court officials yesterday declined to discuss Bou Orn’s testimony, which was given in a closed session of court, but Neang Boratino, provincial co-ordinator of the rights group Adhoc, questioned why key witness and soldier Bou Chhorn had still not been summonsed.

“We would like to urge the court to issue the summons to villagers and soldiers present at the scene to explain, because they are important persons for this case,” he said.

Bou Chhorn, he said, was a masked soldier who had stopped Chut Wutty’s car from leaving Veal Bei point in Mondul Seima’s Bak Khlang commune shortly before he was shot on April 26, and would have important information for the case.

Ing Kong Chet, a co-ordinator for the rights group Licadho, said Bou Orn lived in a house adjacent to where Chut Wutty was shot.

In May, the court questioned Phorn Bopha, a journalist travelling with Chut Wutty at the time of the shooting, Timbergreen employees Puom Ravin and Kruy Setha, and military police officers So Sopheap, Prum Sokha and Ek Sam Oeun.

Another journalist who witnessed the shooting, Canadian Olesia Plokhii, returned to her home county shortly afterward.

The official account of the shooting from the military police, who first issued several contradictory explanations, was that In Rattana shot Chut Wutty and then was accidentally killed when Ran Borath attempted to disarm him.

Srey Makny, Koh Kong provincial deputy court prosecutor, declined to comment yesterday, but court clerk Chhin Long confirmed Chut Wutty’s possessions had now been returned to his family.

Chut Wutty’s son, Chhey Odom Reaksmey, said those possessions included his 4WD, nine phones, five cameras and other materials such as clothing.

“I want the court to find the real killer who murdered my father,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com

NEC says civil servant did not illegally campaign Thursday, 14 June 2012 Kim Yuthana

The National Election Committee has rejected a complaint filed against Pen Siman, director-general of the General Department of Customs and Excise, for allegedly using state time to campaign for the Cambodian People’s Party before the recent commune elections.

The complaint, by opposition Sam Rainsy Party legislator Chea Poch, alleges Pen Siman went to Tany commune, in Kampot, on May 30 to tout CPP leaders Chea Sim, Heng Samrin and Hun Sen’s record on prosperity and development.

It alleged Pen Siman met with about 200 teachers there to solicit support for the CPP. Election law forbids civil servants campaigning for any political party during work hours or using their official titles to do so.

But NEC general secretary Tep Nytha said yesterday Pen Siman had applied for permission to take the trip.

“We saw all documents. Pen Siman sent documents asking for leave from his ministry from May 28 to 30,” he said. “Thus, the NEC decided to uphold the decision of the province’s NEC and reject the complaint.”

An SRP statement called the ruling an “unacceptable and unjust decision”.

Chea Poch, whose previous complaints were dismissed by the commune election Committee and the provincial election committee last month, may be out of options.

According to the election law, the buck stops at the NEC. Having reached that level, the complaint is now closed.

Tep Nytha said the NEC was sifting through 30 complaints and expected decisions on all of them by June 24.

Koul Pahna, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said yesterday the NEC’s method of resolving complaints was limited in scope and there were no “reliable, firm and clear mechanisms” in place.

He said a separate organisation should be set up with the sole mandate to field all electoral complaints.

“We should amend election law and organise a professional, independent and clear institution in charge of complaints to be transparent and fair,” Koul Panha said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Yuthana at yuthana.kim@phnompenhpost.com

NGOs don’t need to see rights doc draft: official Thursday, 14 June 2012 Chhay Channyda

Voice your concerns, but don’t expect to dictate how the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration will be written, was the message from the Cambodian Human Rights Commission chief yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a press freedom workshop in Phnom Penh, Om Yintieng, who also serves as head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, told reporters that there would be no public circulation of the much-anticipated AHRD prior to its adoption in November. “[ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission for Human Rights] met with NGOs three times already. We listened to them, but they asked us to show a draft,” Om Yintieng said, adding the draft was under “closed seal”.

“NGOs want to write it instead of us, but they don’t know their duties,” he said. “The declaration is for all 800 million ASEAN people, so if those 800 million people want to help, in 800 million years we will not be able to finish it.”

Om Yintieng said that the commission aimed to submit the draft to all 10 ASEAN foreign ministers for review and to seek their input.

“And we hope that in November, we will declare it.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights president Ou Virak said that without a circulation of the draft, rights groups could not properly provide recommendations or feedback.

“And you can’t call that consultation,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chhay Channyda at channyda.chhay@phnompenhpost.com <div>Please enable JavaScript to post a new comment</div>

Press reform looks to self-regulation Thursday, 14 June 2012 Chhay Channyda and Joe Freeman

Om Yentieng, head of the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit, speaks yesterday during a workshop in Phnom Penh on press freedom and media ethics. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

A high-ranking Cambodian official wants to create a press council that would act as a selfregulating body with the power to field complaints as well as sanction reporters and their media organisations.

Senior minister Om Yin Tieng, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, endorsed the idea yesterday at a joint workshop between Cambodia and Sweden on press freedom and ethics. Local reporters and editors from a variety of radio stations and newspapers attended the event.

“We don’t want the court to judge,” Om Yin Tieng said, although he said the court would not be taken completely out of the equation.

The new body would not replace incitement and disinformation laws that have been used to put journalists in prison.

Om Yin Tieng said the council would be along the lines of the Cambodian Medical Association, with its authority limited to withdrawing licences, issuing fines, and ordering corrections and apologies.

Although Om Yin Tieng was unclear when or how this new group would operate, the existing model is Sweden’s Press Council, which was established in 1916 and is the oldest of its kind in the world.

The Press Council’s ombudsman, Ola Sigvardsson, flew in to lead the one-day workshop.

He said about 300 complaints a year came to his office, and he rejected roughly 250 of them. If he wants to uphold a complaint, he sends it to the Press Council for approval.

Newspapers, magazines and their websites then have to publish the decision.

Although he is unfamiliar with laws governing the press in Cambodia, Sigvardsson said a free and unrestrained media environment was necessary for the Press Council to work.

“Self-regulating must not be confused with self-censorship. That’s when you don’t write sensitive stories about people in power,” he said.

Journalists in attendance warmed to the idea of a Press Council in Cambodia.

“Before [going] to court, we want readers, listeners to react to the working group,” Om Chandara, president of the Khmer Journalists Friendship Association, said.

Sek Barisoth, president of the Cambodian Journalists’ Council of Ethics, said it was a good idea but needed to be supported by reporters to work.

To contact the reporters on this story: Vong Sokheng at channyda.chhay@phnompenhpost.com Joseph Freeman at joseph.freeman@phnompenhpost.com

Samphan named as attendee at meeting Thursday, 14 June 2012 Stuart White

Frail and white-haired Oeun Tan, a former messenger and bodyguard of Brother No 1 Pol Pot, named ex-president Khieu Samphan as a frequent participant in upper-level Khmer Rouge meetings in his testimony at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday.

The testimony seems to directly contradict statements by Khieu Samphan and his defence, who have repeatedly tried to downplay the role of the former head of state in the Democratic Kampuchea regime, going so far as to call his office little more than “window dressing”.

Oeun Tan, an illiterate, ethnic minority villager who sometimes travelled with Pol Pot on official business during the regime, told prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal that Khieu Samphan had met with other high-ranking Khmer Rouge cadres on a near-weekly basis even before the official establishment of Democratic Kampuchea.

“I knew Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, but I did not know others,” he said, describing early meetings between the revolutionary leaders.

After the fall of Phnom Penh, said Oeun Tan, Khieu Samphan was privy not only to the regularly scheduled monthly or bi-weekly meetings with zone and sector committees, but also to what he called “special meetings”, smaller ad hoc meetings between the leadership and unknown officials.

In his pre-trial statement, read in court by co-prosecutor Tarik Abdulhak, Oeun Tan, who joined the revolution hoping to remedy his illiteracy, said that the special meetings “took place in cases of necessity to resolve food supplies and put up dams”.

“I was told by [Chhim Sam Aok alias] Pang that today the meeting would be convened as a special one, and that Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea would be the attendees,” Oeun Tan said when asked how he knew about the meetings.

An employee of K-7 – the Khmer Rouge’s communications office – Oeun Tan also testified to the link in communications between upper-level party members, saying that all telegrams received by Pol Pot were then passed along to Nuon Chea.

Oeun Tan was also Office S-71 leader Pang’s direct subordinate.

In his testimony he described his worry when his boss disappeared in 1978, and his own efforts to conceal it.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart White at stuart.white@phnompenhpost.com

Street children at risk Thursday, 14 June 2012 Khoun Leakhana and Xiaoqing Pi

A boy sells kramas along Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh last night. Photograph: Derek Stout/Phnom Penh Post

Street children in Cambodia were in danger of sexual abuse, human trafficking and traffic accidents when they peddled or begged, and their own families were often the perpetrators, NGOs yesterday told a conference aimed at focusing media and public attention to the issue.

“We are extremely sympathetic with the children who are forced to sell things on the streets by their parents,” Licadho’s Om Somath said.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 children work on the streets of Phnom Penh, according to a survey by local NGO Friends in 2001.

These child peddlers and beggars became frequent targets of human trafficking, sexual abuse or gang fights, Yim Sokhary, executive director of the Street Children Assistance and Development Program, a Phnom Penh-based NGO, told the conference.

About 700 children work on the streets of Sihanoukville, according to a survey by M’lop Tapang, a local NGO. This year, the organisation had dealt with five cases of children abused by pedophiles when

they were selling or begging, M’lop Tapang director Eve Sao Sarin said.

The organisation has been working with the police department and tourism organisations to register and protect the children.

It has recruited 23 hotels and dozens of motodops and tuk-tuk drivers around the city to “keep an eye” on these children and report to the organisation if they are in danger.

But these measures do nothing to keep children safe and sound at home.

M’lop Tapang has seen at least 10 families abuse their children by forcing them to go to work in the streets this year.

Some of these children were their families’ sole source of income, Eve Sao Sarin said.

Even when the organisation helped to send the children to public schools, they still had to work at night as a compromise with their families.

A considerable number of children in the Kingdom were forced to drop out of school, stripped of their right of education and hindered in their socialisation, Yim Sokhary said.

“Parents should consider it their obligation to take care of their children and guarantee them an access to education,” Om Somath said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khoun Leakhana and Xiaoqing Pi at newsroom@phnompenhpost.com

UN accused of double standard at tribunal Thursday, 14 June 2012 Bridget Di Certo

The United Nations is at risk of looking two-faced in its dealing with interference at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, Amnesty International said yesterday.

In a press release calling for the tribunal to respect the rights of Case 004 suspect Ta An to defence counsel, the group called for a UN investigation into bad faith interference in Case 004 by UN administrators.

UN administrators at the court have failed to appoint Ta An’s chosen defence counsel Richard Rogers.

“Should the UN fail to investigate this matter, it may leave itself open to a charge of double standards: ready to criticise Cambodian government interference at the ECCC, while not addressing allegations that its own administrators have interfered in the Tribunal’s proceedings by apparently ignoring a judicial order, and thereby compromising a suspect’s fair trial rights,” Amnesty said.

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

Defence grills ‘confused’ KRouge witness Friday, 15 June 2012 Bridget Di Certo

Conrused, forgetful, illiterate, inconsistent and possibly coached by court investigators in 2008: defence teams picked away at the credibility of witness Oeun Tan at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday.

The former Khmer Rouge messenger attempted to consult his support lawyer throughout the morning for answers to questions such as, “Do you remember being interviewed by investigators?”

“How do you explain the discrepancy between your statement before investigators and your statement before this chamber?” ex-president Khieu Samphan‟s lawyer, Arthur Vercken, asked Oeun Tan during his second day of testimony.

“I am illiterate and I do not understand politics. I am confused and I am forgetful,” was Oeun Tan‟s staple reply.

Vercken and later Michael Karnavas, the defence lawyer for Ieng Sary, extracted from Oeun San that in 2008, when investigators interviewed him for a whole day, they had spent the entire previous day off-the-record with him.

“According to [transcripts], reference is made to a conversation on the previous evening – I quote, „I‟ll ask you the question from yesterday‟,” Vercken pointed out in what he called a series of “astonishing” remarks in the transcript.

Karnavas continued on the same line: “Today, you told us that you are illiterate, don‟t understand politics, [and were] confused and forgetful. Were you confused and forgetful when you met with the [investigators] and . . . those questions and answers were not taperecorded?” he asked.

Before the conclusion of proceedings, Nuon Chea‟s Cambodian defence counsel, Son Arun, asked Oeun Tan about the character of his client.

“According to my interaction . . . Nuon Chea is a gentle person, an educated person who would be a good advice-giver. He educated people to be good, and that is what my observation is,” Oeun Tan said.

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

Human trafficking must be stopped Friday, 15 June 2012 Soma Norodom

Stories of physical and sexual abuse, beatings and starvation by employers of Cambodian maids have recently been in the news.

Modern-day slavery is alive and well, and it is happening to our Cambodian people.

Human trafficking, the buying and selling of human beings, is a connection of evil, as traffickers perform all acts of cruelty. The International Labour Organization (ILO) puts the global number of slaves at between 10 and 30 million worldwide. The levels of slavery and people-trafficking today are greater than at any point in history.

Human trafficking can be compared to a criminal enterprise; greed, quick returns on investment and government ineffectiveness.

The United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime reports that human trafficking is the fastestgrowing criminal enterprise in the world (US$15.5 billion), ranking third behind illegal drugs and trafficking in arms.

People in rural and remote regions of Cambodia are often the victims, as they can be easily kidnapped, with next to no chance of the crime ever being properly investigated, as one of the main problems is the issue of identification of victims.

Because of Cambodia’s image as a “cheap labour” country, traffickers go to the provinces and recruit people in the countryside.

Poverty and lack of education are the reasons why many of them are easily influenced and agree to leave Cambodia to work in other countries, after being promised by their recruiters that they will make a lot of money.

Organisations like Licadho, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, are one of the main sources of information on human rights in Cambodia.

Their main responsibilities are to monitor, document and investigate human-rights violations and violations made against women and children, and provide assistance through interventions with local authorities.

In addition, Adhoc, the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, founded by former political prisoners in 1991, provides free legal assistance, empowers people to defend their rights and advocates for human rights.

Halting human trafficking requires the will of governments, and governments around the world.

Last week, the Cambodian government, in co-operation with Malaysian authorities and the International Organisation for Migration, sent four Cambodian maids back to Cambodia. A

representative of Adhoc stated that the families of the victims had filed complaints with NGOs. But there are more trafficked victims, many more, and the government needs to pay much more attention to this issue.

Why don’t we create jobs in Cambodia, instead of exporting our labour overseas? The prime minister has stated this several times, so why isn’t the government following his orders?

Cambodian maids are being treated like animals instead of human beings. The effects and aftermath of the victims are the concerns, as many are physically and psychologically traumatised.

Many organisations are raising awareness and confronting the injustice of human trafficking, but it takes the government to intervene by creating jobs and vocational training programs in which the much-needed skills in hospitality, construction and maintenance industries can be applied.

Many can learn these skills and don’t have to go overseas to work. They can stay in Cambodia and be closer to their families and friends.

It’s time to do more and defend our human rights, as people are our country’s most precious commodity.

The Social Agenda with Soma Norodom The views expressed here within imply solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Post or any affiliated party

Migrant abuse trending up Friday, 15 June 2012 Sen David

Bun Ly (centre), a 36-year-old trafficking victim who was forced to work on a Thai fishing vessel under slave-like conditions, with other trafficking victims at an Adhoc office yesterday. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Human rights group Adhoc released a report on the state of Cambodian migrant workers yesterday, saying that tales of abuse from migrant workers and their families have increased five-fold compared to the same period last year.

Seventy per cent of this year’s 141 complaints concerned domestic workers abroad, Adhoc says, and the government’s moratorium on sending maids to Malaysia may be partially to blame for the spike in incidents.

According to Adhoc president Thun Saray, when recruitment companies closed after the government ban, their former clients were essentially set adrift.

“We noticed [incidents] were increasing, because rights violations against male and female migrant workers in Malaysia have deteriorated even more since the government banned companies from sending workers last year,” he said. "The company is no longer responsible for the workers, so the loss of contact is increasing almost every day.”

Chea Sokha, 27, who was a maid in Malaysia for nearly two years, said she found the job through a recruiter.

She and another maid were overworked, underfed and were beaten or tortured if their work was deemed unsatisfactory.

“My employer took a [bathroom] scale and beat my head,” she said. “I am hurt. They look down on us Khmers as lazy and foolish.”

Chea Sokha was also arrested and detained for nearly seven months after her employer forced her to work in the market, a violation of her visa.

“What could I do?” she asked. “My employer doesn’t seem punished. Anyway right now, I’ve come back to my homeland. It is my new birth.”

Bun Ly, 36, a fisherman from Kampong Speu who was recently repatriated, said he was cheated by a broker in Thailand and sold from place to place before ending up on a Malaysian boat, where he was a virtual slave.

“I escaped from the boat,” he said. “I swam with my two friends, but they died. I was panicking, but I...was saved.”

Lim Mony, deputy head of Adhoc’s women’s section, emphasised the urgency of signing a Memorandum of Understanding between Cambodia and Malaysia that will protect migrant workers’ rights.

San Arun, a secretary of state with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, said that the two governments will discuss the MoU at the end of June or July.

“The [Cambodian] government, via related ministries and the Ministry of Labour, is preparing to defend our residents who suffer abroad,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sen David at david.sen@phnompenhpost.com

US calls for release of Boeung Kak activists Friday, 15 June 2012 Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a visit to Phnom Penh in 2010. Photograph: Sovan Philong/Phnom Penh Post

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the Cambodian government to release 13 Boeung Kak lake women imprisoned after a three-hour trial last month, telling Foreign Minister Hor Namhong at a meeting in Washington that such a move would support freedom of expression.

“The secretary expressed concern over recent protests regarding land-rights issues and urged Cambodia to allow Boeung Kak lake detainees full access to due process, noting that their release would be a sign of support for freedom of expression,” Sean McIntosh, spokesman for the US embassy in Phnom Penh, said yesterday.

The women were arrested during a land eviction protest at Boeung Kak on May 22 and charged two days later with disputing authority and trespassing on land awarded to CPP senator Lao Meng Khin‟s development firm Shukaku. Two others were arrested while protesting at the trial.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court tried and sentenced the women, including a 72-year-old, to between one and two-and-a-half years in Prey Sar prison.

Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua, who in the wake of the trial urged the international community to take action, said Clinton‟s comments were “very positive”.

“There are clearly grounds for her to question the lack of due process,” Mu Sochua said from the US, where she too has been meeting with government officials.

“I am positive progress will be made. Let‟s watch the Appeal Court. I am confident they will be released before Hillary gets to Phnom Penh in July [for the ASEAN Regional Forum].

“I am confident Mr Hor Namhong heard [Clinton‟s] message. It is a win-win situation to end the case at appeal.”

Clinton‟s comments gave some hope to the Boeung Kak lake community, whose protesters took to the streets again yesterday to urge the authorities to intervene.

“I am very happy [she] is concerned with our community,” Ou Kong Chea, the husband of imprisoned activist Tep Vanny, said.

“I hope the Cambodian government will think about her comments and free our 15 friends.”

Seak Heng, whose wife Kong Chantha is also in Prey Sar, said the issue could no longer be ignored.

“News of this dispute is spreading all over the world, so the authority must resolve it,” he said.

Protester Yom Bopha said police blocked and threatened her 100-strong group with arrest as they marched to Prime Minister Hun Sen‟s house with a petition, which they ended up not giving to waiting officials.

“We feared they would put it in the bin,” she said.

Police refused to comment when asked if they had threatened to arrest anyone.

Independent analyst Lao Mong Hay said the government should have the case heard in the Court of Appeal as soon as possible.

“I think the government should implement its „win-win‟ policy to resolve this problem for Boeung Kak villagers,” he said.

Clinton also reportedly praised Cambodia for not proceeding with its proposed NGO law, which has received widespread criticism, and made comments about the importance of a free and fair national election next year.

It was up to Cambodians, however, to decide whether the Sam Rainsy Party‟s self-exiled leader – who faces an 11-year jail sentence on incitement charges – should take part in the ballot, she said, according to the Associated Press.

Mu Sochua said her party would continue to push for his return, adding she was mostly satisfied US government officials had taken her issues seriously when she had met with them.

She will, however, keep pushing for the US to cut military aid to Cambodia when she attends more meetings in Washington next week.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong declined to comment.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shane Worrell at shane.worrell@phonmpenhpost.com Khouth Sophak Chakrya at sophakchakrya.khouth@phnompenhpost.co