Government to lodge a lawsuit against Sam Rainsy by today

(Photo: AFP)

Friday, 26 February 2010
By Khmerization
Sources: Kampuchea Thmey and RFI

The Cambodian government said it has completed preparing lawsuit documents against opposition Sam Rainsy and will lodge them with the Phnom Penh Court by today, Friday 26th, report Kampuchea Thmey newspaper and Radio France Internationale.

Mr. Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman and Minister of Information, said Mr. Sam rainsy will be sued for disinformation and faking of public documents. Both charges are criminal offences which carry a jail. However, Mr. Sam Rainsy had been convicted earlier for sabotage and destruction of public property and sentenced in absebtia to 2 years jail when he uprooted 6 border stakes on 25th October 2009.

Mr. Tith Sothea, member of government's Quick Press Reaction Unit, said Mr. Sam Rainsy had faked documents about border encroachments by Vietnam and try confuse and mislead the public, so only the court can decide whether the government or Mr. Sam Rainsy is right.

Radio France Internationale reported that, according to government sources, lawsuit documents against Mr. Sam Rainsy will reach the Phnom Penh Court today. The sources said that Mr. Sam Rainsy is being sued for disinformation and faking public documents under article 49 of UNTAC's Criminal Code which carries penalty of 5 to 15 years jail term if proven.

Mr. Sam Rainsy, who is living in exile in Paris, has said that he is not concerned with the new lawsuits. Mr. Kimsour Phirith, acting spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said the new lawsuits against Mr. Sam Rainsy is a political oppression carried out to contain the influence of the opposition parties.

In Journalists Acquittal, Lessons All Around

RFA Reporter Sok Serey
Khmer Machas Srok Editor Hang Chakra

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
25 February 2010

Last week’s acquittal of a Radio Free Asia reporter accused of disinformation has been welcomed by advocacy groups as well as the UN, but observers warn that a number of journalists remain in jail for doing their jobs.

Immediately following the decision of Takeo provincial court, which had tried radio journalist Sok Serey after a story on local corruption, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights touted the decision as “encouraging development for freedom of expression.”

Ou Virak, president of the organization, told VOA Khmer on Tuesday that all courts should consider the possibility of malicious intent when charges are brought against journalists.

In Sok Serey’s case, it was a local official accused of corruption who brought the suit, which carries a criminal charge under Cambodian law. Takeo court officials cited a lack of evidence and malicious intent as the reasons behind the acquittal.

“Judgments in past cases did not take into account that intent,” Ou Virak said. “Only the court in Takeo did.”

The UN’s office for human rights in Phnom Penh called the decision “a significant step towards the protection of the right of human rights defenders and journalists to freely and peacefully express themselves on matters of public interest, without fear of reprisals”.

Sok Serey, two members of the Cambodia-Muslim community and two local rights activists were charged with disinformation following their interviews alleging that the local Muslim imam, Riem Math, and two other members of the committee were involved in corruption.

Ny San, a community member, was subsequently jailed as a result of the case. He will serve five months in jail and was fined $250.

While the decision itself received praise, Reporters Without Borders called for the release of Hang Chakra, the editor of Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, who remains in jail after publishing a story alleging corruption within the powerful Council of Ministers, which is led by Cabinet Minister Sok An.

Reporters Without Borders also called on a re-investigation into the murder of journalist Khim Sambor, who was gunned down along with his son in Phnom Penh ahead of 2008’s July elections.

For Pen Samithy, president of the Club of Cambodian Journalists, Sok Serey’s case served as a reminder that journalists much maintain professionalism and care.

“Long-working journalists will know what to be cautious about,” he said. “This includes keeping their records and finding a balance [in reporting], and the only way to protect themselves is to increase their adherence to facts.”

THAKSIN'S D-DAY: Where are Shinawatra kids today?

The three children of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his ex-wife Khunying Pojaman na Pombejra are not attending the much-awaited reading of the verdict today on their Bt76-billion frozen assets.

February 26, 2010
The Nation

None of them is travelling overseas or making any statements after the Supreme Court's verdict has been read out, their publicists say, adding: "They are at a safe house in Bangkok."

The reading of the verdict is expected to begin at 2pm today, once the judges convene at 1.30pm.

Meanwhile, Thaksin will be addressing MPs and Pheu Thai Party members via a phone-link at the party headquarters. Leading figures expected to be there include former premiers Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Somchai Wongsawat - Thaksin's brother-in-law - along with his wife Yaowapa, Thaksin's brother Payap and sister Yingluck.

Thakin's live messages will also be broadcast from 9am on a satellite channel and the website run by his two children.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's whereabouts are being kept confidential due to security concerns.

A war room has been set up at the Democrat Party's headquarters, where the situation will be monitored all day and daily meetings will continue "until the situation is eased". Most Democrats and party MPs are advised not to go to the courtroom, except for former leader Banyat Banthadthan, who is a lawyer. The war room's operations and the Democrat Party's daily meetings will be coordinated with a situation-monitoring committee set up by the government.

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda is on standby at the Army Headquarters, as are commanders of the Navy and the Air Force.

The three core red-shirt leaders - Veera Musigapong, Nattawut Saikua and Jatuporn Promphan - are at the People Channel TV station at a shopping mall on Lat Phrao Road and are expected to make statements after the verdict is read out.

Political chaos looms, adding to uncertainty

Thaksin speaks to a red-shirt meeting from Dubai - So connected, so alone

Tensions may even escalate, say pundits

26/02/2010
Parista Yuthamanop
Bangkok Post

While today's landmark court case regarding ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra will have profound implications for his family's wealth, few, if any, pundits expect the ruling to mark the end of the political and social conflicts that have split the country.

Indeed, political tensions within the fragile coalition government of Abhisit Vejjajiva may well escalate, judging from the signs of growing disgruntlement among the partners.

The fear for the business community is that the Year of the Tiger will continue to be one of uncertainty and risk. Mr Abhisit's first year in office focused primarily on short-term stimulus programmes aimed at easing the country out of the recession. Political reconciliation largely took a back seat to economic survival.

Supavud Saicheua, a managing director of Phatra Securities, noted that during the Surayud Chulanont government, investor confidence was shaken by initiatives to tighten enforcement of the Foreign Business Act and the use of nominee shareholding structures. Authorities later backed away from such changes in the face of investor opposition.

"In the eyes of investors, the rules of the game change when politics change," he said.

Thailand's political instability has cast a negative light on the country's image, and complicated efforts to develop long-term development strategies for the country. Successive governments, for instance, have recognised the need to reduce Thailand's dependence on exports for growth - but the country depends on exports as much as ever, a danger for the medium term considering the tenuous state of the global economic recovery. Private investment meanwhile has plummeted since the 2006 military coup.

Sethaput Suthiwart-narueput, the chief economist at Siam Commercial Bank, says Thailand today relies on exports and consumption more than ever.

While most Asian economies have seen private investment rebound to match that prior to the 1997 Asian economic crisis, in Thailand, investment is at just 70% of pre-crisis levels.

"One change after the 1997 economic crisis was that the investors became more cautious. But the government has not invested," Mr Sethaput said.

Earlier this week, a survey by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) showed Thailand as the fourth most attractive regional investment destination for Japanese firms, after China, India and Vietnam. In recent years, Vietnam has surged past Thailand in attracting foreign investment.

Inadequate logistics networks, particularly rail networks, has resulted in Thailand being one of the most dependent and inefficient users of oil in the region relative to economic output.

The government hopes that the Thai Khem Khaeng project, committing 1.43 trillion baht over the next three years, will help address the problems in national infrastructure and pave the way for a more efficient, productive economy in the future.

Festival Hopes To Promote Dramatic Heritage

By Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Washington
25 February 2010

The Ministry of Culture has organized a large drama festival for the first time. The National Lakhaon Festival is running Feb. 18 through Feb. 28, and Ieng Sithul, a music professor at the University of Fine Arts, says the main purpose is to pit rival forms of Cambodian theater against each other.

“Our purpose is to revive Cambodian’s performing arts heritage in its highest form and to encourage the artists to create more stage performances for the sake of sustainability,” said Ieng Sithul, as a guest on “Hello VOA” Monday. “Due to the influence of modern cultures these forms of Cambodian theatre are on the brink of collapse.”

Traditional Cambodian performance is wide and varied, consisting of more than 20 different forms, said Ieng Sithul, who also works for Cambodian Living Arts. Their histories are known from depictions on the temple walls of Angkor Wat and others, he said, and they have passed on from generation to generation.

Khaol drama is among the oldest and most sacred and demonstrates social and religious links between dramatic art forms and Cambodia’s Theravada Buddhism.

Pleng Kar is performed in accompaniment of traditional wedding music and is believed to have appeared as early as the 1st Century, in ceremonies of royalty.

Yike was a popular form of musical theater that appeared in the late 8th Century, during the reign of King Jayavarman II.

Mahori is newer. This dramatic form emerged in the post-Angkorian period, with popular forms of music and themes apart from older forms.

One of the oldest is Sbeak Thom, shadow puppetry, used exclusively to perform epics of the Reamker, or Ramayana.

And there are others. Like Sbeak Por, created between 1859 and 1904.

Or Bassac, strongly influenced by Chinese and Vietnamese opera, from the former Bassac district in the Mekong Delta, an area once known as Kampuchea Krom, or Lower Cambodia. Bassac appeared at the beginning of the 20th Century and showcases stories from Buddha’s life.

EU To Help ‘Bridge Gap’ in Food Security

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 February 2010

The European Union announced Thursday it will provide $25 million for five projects to help Cambodia deal with climate change and rising food prices.

“The EU has decided to implement a very big program of food security that will help the poor people in rural areas of Cambodia to go to overcome this food price,” Ajay Markanday, Cambodia’s Food and Agricultural Organization representative, told reporters Thursday.

The projects are designed to “bridge the gap” between emergency food aid and longer-term development, by improving agricultural production, the EU said in a statement.

“This aid project is very important for Cambodia,” Srun Sakhum, deputy secretary-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, told reporters. “The project will provide rice seedlings and fertilizer and training to the poor farmers to promote agriculture products to avoid food insecurity as Cambodia faces high prices and climate change.”

He also said the projects will promote the growing of produce, the development of fish farms and irrigation improvement. This will improve overall nutrition, he said, and help the country prepare against possible adverse affects of climate change.

Separately on Thursday, the Ministry of Environment joined the EU, UNDP and the Swedish and Dutch development agencies in launching the Cambodian Climate Change Alliance, an effort to join developing countries together in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Violent abuse in drug treatment centers continues in Cambodia

Glue sniffing is the preferred substance of abuse for children in Cambodia (Photo credit: Creative Commons)

By Rachel Pollock

25 February 2010 [MediaGlobal]: In response to a recent Human Rights Watch report on violent abuse in drug treatment centers in Cambodia, human rights activists are urging United Nations agencies to speak out on the issue. On 16 February 2010, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Phnom Penh issued a report stating that the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has requested that UN Country Team in Cambodia support a provision that would limit the number of compulsory treatment centers in Cambodia by 2015. The RGC is currently working on a proposal to provide community-based drug treatment centers in the Cambodian communities. While progress is encouraging, several UN organizations are still denying these claims of violent abuse and continue to provide monetary support for these drug treatment centers.

Last month Human Rights Watch issued a 93-page report on the atrocities being committed in drug detention centers in Cambodia. The report outlined torture in the form of beatings, whippings and electric shock in 11 drug treatment centers in Cambodia. Drug dependence in Cambodia has seen a dramatic increase over the last decade with the escalating rates of methamphetamine use and the increasing number of children addicted to drugs. Exact figures for drug prevalence in Cambodia differ greatly among UN agencies and government organizations, but the UNODC estimates that 4 percent of the entire population suffers from drug addiction, which is approximately 500,000 people.

David Harding, who is the drug specialist for the NGO Friends International, told MediaGlobal, “The impact on individuals using illicit drugs, most especially [on] socio-economic and health [factors] (including HIV) has been compounded by the slow response in providing services in prevention and risk reduction.” The National Authority for Combating Drugs in Cambodia has reported that children under the age of 18 accounted for 24 percent of drug prevalence. Furthermore, 2,382 people were detained in 2008, which is a 40 percent increase from the year before. Of this population, only 1 percent checked into health facilities voluntarily.

Drug detention centers in Cambodia are run by military police and often detain not only drug users, but also the mentally ill, street kids, homeless people, and even gamblers. Joe Amon, who is the director of the Health and Human Rights Division of the HRW told MediaGlobal, “There is a simplistic understanding of drug dependence in Cambodia: drug dependence is equated with moral weakness. Hence ‘treatment’ requires locking people up, forcing them to sweat to remove drugs from their system and beating them to strengthen their resolve to stay off drugs.” The Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak told the press that drug abusers “need to do labor and hard work and sweating – that is one of the main ways to make drug-addicted people become normal people.”

While the societal perception of drug addiction in Cambodia is quite different than in other parts of the world, many of the people that enter drug rehabilitation centers have no clinical need for drug abuse treatment. Amon told MediaGlobal, “In practice, the government drug detention centers also function as a convenient means of removing people with apparent mental illnesses from the general community. As with the detention of street children and homeless people, the detention of the mentally ill appears driven by the government’s desire to keep the streets clean. This illegal detention is an abuse of their rights in and of itself, but it also exposes such people to acts of cruelty by center staff.”

Since the media attention brought about by the HRW report, several United Nations agencies are taking the issue of mental rehabilitation in Cambodia very seriously. Organizations like UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) have spoken out publicly on the matter. However, organizations that work closely with the Cambodian government such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UNODC have been reluctant to take any drastic measures in preventing the abuse.

Claims UN ignored Uighur deportation warnings

Friday, February 26, 2010
By Conor Duffy - exclusive
ABC News Australia

There are claims the United Nations' refugee agency (UNHCR) ignored repeated warnings about the imminent forced deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers from Cambodia to China last year.

The Cambodian government was condemned around the world when it deported the asylum seekers at gunpoint in December.

Two Australian women - joint Nobel Peace Prize winner Sister Denise Coghlan and Taya Hunt, a legal officer with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) - represented the Uighurs for six months prior to their deportation.

The pair have spoken exclusively to AM.

Ms Hunt provided legal and humanitarian support to the Uighurs and is one of the few people to have close contact with them.

"[They were] very grateful for the assistance we were providing them and generally just a nice, calm group of people," she said.

"There was a pregnant woman in the group and her beautiful two children."

Ms Hunt says the first Uighur arrived in Cambodia in June and the rest in October.

She says the Uighurs began to feel unsafe and concerned they would be returned to China.

Under arrangements in Cambodia at the time, refugee status determinations were handled jointly by the UNHCR and the Cambodian government.

Ms Hunt says repeated warnings were given to the UNHCR that the Uighurs felt uneasy about their applications being processed by Cambodia.

"We were becoming increasingly concerned, as the Uighurs themselves were becoming increasingly concerned, and expressed that concern on almost a daily basis to the UNHCR," she said.

AM has information that the JRS communicated at least five warnings to the UNHCR.

An excerpt of a letter sent to the UNHCR from JRS on December 10 reads: "JRS's principal concern is that one or more of these applicants may be forcibly removed from Cambodia to China with an outstanding application for refugee status.

"Informing this concern is, firstly, the fact that Cambodia has historically provided uneven protection for registered asylum seekers; secondly, incidents this year which indicate that the Cambodian Government Refugee Office may not be able to objectively consider cases from China; and thirdly, Chinese-Cambodian political relations."

Ms Hunt says the warnings were ignored, and on December 17 the Uighur asylum seekers were moved to a jointly run UNHCR/Cambodian government safe house.

On December 19 the asylum seekers were moved at gunpoint, and a day later they were flown to China.

Ms Hunt says the JRS advised the UNHCR against moving the men to the safe house.

"Given that the vice-president was scheduled to visit Cambodia the weekend of the deportation or the weekend they were moved to the safe house, I think given the context and also that we had been advising the UN that the Uighurs felt unsafe, that they felt they were being watched, it was a serious error of judgment on the part of UNHCR," she said.

'Lambs to slaughter'

Sister Coghlan, who heads the JRS in Cambodia, says she was also against the move to the safe house.

"Because both the UNHCR and the government had told the people it was a safe house or had guaranteed it would be safe for them, it was like leading lambs to the slaughter," she said.

UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey says the refugee agency believed the Cambodian government was acting in good faith.

"We were doing everything we could to support Cambodia," she said.

"But the essence is that it's the responsibility of states to provide protection, and we don't start with an assumption that countries can't fairly handle cases from one country or another."

Ms McKinsey declined to comment on whether the warnings from the JRS were taken seriously.

"It was Cambodia's responsibility to protect these people, but during this transitional phase we were working with Cambodia to help them and the point is that Cambodia did not complete the process," she said.

Ms Hunt, though, is also critical of the time it took for the asylum seekers to have their claims processed.

"We submitted in October that the applicant was at risk and accordingly that the UNHCR should hand down a decision on his case as quickly as possible," she said.

"It is very, very unfortunate that the UNHCR delayed handing down a decision on his case."

Full control

Ms McKinsey is adamant the blame for the deportations lies with Cambodia.

She says Cambodia had been gradually taking control of asylum applications and took full control two days before the deportations.

"We tried very hard to stop the deportation to China because we knew the dangers they could face," she said.

"We even had staff at Phnom Penh airport to physically try and stop the deportation, but unfortunately they left through the military airport which we didn't have access to."

Sister Coghlan believes there should be a thorough review of the way the claims were handled.

"These people were taken at gunpoint from the safe house and taken to a place belonging to the ministry of interior," she said.

"The next night they were deported to China on a VIP jet. One would have to say the joint processing of the Uighur cases was a complete catastrophe and a tragedy."

Cambodia now has complete responsibility for processing asylum claims and the JRS believes asylum seekers arriving from countries such as Burma, which has friendly ties with Cambodia, are also at risk.

Drug-resistant malaria 'growing' in Cambodia

Thursday, 25 February 2010
By Guy DeLauney
BBC News, Phnom Penh

Parasites are developing resistance to one of the most important anti-malaria drugs, according to experts.

Artimisinin has been highly effective, particularly in places where resistance to other drugs has developed.

But now some patients along Cambodia's border with Thailand are taking longer to respond to the treatment.

Experts on the disease are meeting village health workers in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, to discuss ways to stop drug-resistant malaria spreading.

Malaria Consortium technical director Dr Sylvia Meek says it must be eliminated before it spreads.

"There is a lot of population movement - people coming for instance from Nigeria to Asia - and it's growing and growing," she said.

"It would only take a few people carrying the resistant parasites travelling one way or the other to actually get the parasites in.

"And once they're in they're likely to spread quite fast."

Mekong River Runs Dry; Cargo Ships Grounded For 10 Days

CHIANG RAI, Feb 25 (Bernama) -- Thailand's exports via Chiang Sean district in this northernmost province have been affected by a severe drought affecting the Mekong River, the 12th-longest river in the world and the 7th-longest in Asia, according to Thai News agency on Thursday.

According to Winai Chintongprasert, head of the Chiang Saen customhouse, the river, which forms the border of Thailand with Laos and Cambodia, and Laos with China, has run completely dry, with a very long line of sand dune islands in the middle of the river.

With such conditions, it forced freighters from Thailand's Chiang Saen Port to China's Guanlei Port in Yunnan province and vice versa to have halted their runs for over 10 days.

Thai cargoes valued at more than Bt150 million are stranded aboard ships. The cargoes included palm oil, energy drinks and dehydrated longan.

The water level in Mekong River has fallen since the end of December and continued to decrease dramatically during February.

Cambodia court warns lawyers for KRouge leader

Former Khmer Rouge deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Ieng Sary sits in the courtroom during a public hearing at the Extraodinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia (ECCC) in Phnom Penh on February 11. Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court on Thursday warned lawyers for Sary to follow court rules or face possible sanctions for misconduct.
26/02/2010
AFP

Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court on Thursday warned lawyers for the former foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge regime to follow court rules or face possible sanctions for misconduct.

Ieng Sary's defence team, which includes US lawyer Michael Karnavas and Cambodian lawyer Ang Udom, received the warning after they filed three documents on matters already addressed by the tribunal.

Ieng Sary, 84, is one of five top regime figures detained in connection with the Khmer Rouge's bloody rule over Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when up to two million people died from starvation, overwork or execution.

His team has raised several issues concerning their request to conduct their own investigations, access to the entire trial dossier and their alleged "lack of confidence" in the co-investigating judges and their staff.

But court documents released Thursday said communications from them showed disregard for the rules for the filing of documents, for judicial investigations procedures and warned against "duplicitous filings".

It said that breaches of the court's warnings "will result in the application of sanctions against them."

The judges warned Ieng Sary's lawyers that "they are prohibited from submitting duplicitous filings or filing made against matters already addressed on appeal..."

They also warned the lawyers that "they are prohibited from conducting their own investigations."

Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Final arguments in the court's first trial, of former prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, ended in November and a verdict is expected after April this year.

Besides Ieng Sary and his wife, former social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, the other ex-leaders in jail awaiting trial for genocide are "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former head of state Khieu Samphan.

Vietnam can export many kinds of farm products, especially vegetables, to Cambodia ... That says it all!!!

An Giang expands agricultural cooperation with Cambodia

02/25/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)

Many businesses in the southern province of An Giang provide aquatic varieties and technical assistance to help Cambodian farmers reap higher profits.

Under an agricultural cooperation programme between An Giang and neighbouring provinces in Cambodia, Vietnam can export many kinds of farm products, especially vegetables, to Cambodia, Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reported on February 24.

Cambodia is calling for the cooperation of Vietnamese farmers boosting in farm production on its 6,000-7,000 ha of land, according to the newspaper.

Cambodia pushes out the poor

February 25, 2010
By Joel Elliott
Special to GlobalPost

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Rumbling bulldozers at 2 a.m. sent residents of the Dey Krahorm community scrambling from their beds. The time for eviction had come — not of an individual, or of a family, but as the final stage in the demolition of a 1,400-family neighborhood.

Neighbors and family members tried to stop the bulldozers and excavators from tearing down their homes by linking arms and forming a human wall around their neighborhood. But they could not withstand the tear gas. They broke ranks, choking and coughing. Besides tear gas, police beat residents with electric batons and fired rubber bullets into crowds.

The January 2009 incident was caught on videotape and set the tone for a year that brought the largest number of mass evictions in Phnom Penh since 1975, when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge evacuated the entire city in the process of killing more than 2 million Cambodians.

Over the past year, according to the Cambodia Housing Rights Task Force, a NGO dedicated to the issue, the Phnom Penh government has evicted and relocated an estimated 20,000 people, part of an increasing trend over the past decade in which poor people are being forcibly moved out of the city, and rich and powerful private companies take the land.

About 133,000 people have been evicted since 1990 from Phnom Penh alone, according to Licadho, a human rights organization, and an estimated 250,000 more have been displaced in the provinces since 2003.

“My neighbor, when he saw the truck breaking his house, he tried to jump in front of the truck and die, but another neighbor stopped him,” a 19-year-old former resident, who gave only her first name, Lina, said. “The people were crying. They did not have time to take their possessions out of their homes before the men broke them down.”

Lina told her story as we stood atop a nearby building, looking down on the site, now a dusty lot filled with rubble.

While those evicted in Phnom Penh are the most visible victims, land-grabbing and forced displacement is happening all over the country at an unprecedented rate, said David Pred, director of Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, an organization that promotes human rights in the region.

“This is the most serious human rights problem in Cambodia today,” Pred said of the land-grabbing. “It is not getting nearly the attention it deserves.”

Pred said that more than one quarter of Cambodia’s arable land has been granted to private corporations in the form of economic land concessions, displacing people from their farm lands and forests that they depend upon for their subsistence. If they have paperwork proving ownership, they might receive some sort of compensation, but most do not, according to Phearum Sia, director of the Housing Rights Task Force, another advocacy group in Phnom Penh. Renters are not compensated.

In Phnom Penh, the government usually loads those it evicts onto buses and transports them to a distant point and drops them off. The government sometimes ensures adequate housing; other times, the former residents find themselves in an empty field with nothing.

At some relocation sites, residents who worked in the city said they sometimes paid more per day in fuel costs traveling to Phnom Penh and back than they earned in a day.

Community members have occasionally protested, but these efforts sometimes backfire. A 2008 land dispute in Siem Reap between poor rice farmers and the government ended in multiple arrests and the police opening fire on a crowd of about 200 people, injuring four. Other protests fizzle before confrontation. Ghosts of the Khmer Rouge terror linger in the national psyche, Sia said.

“We work to empower the people, but the people are poor, and weak in their solidarity,” Sia said. “Our communities are still affected by the Pol Pot regime. He killed without law and without justice.”

Mann Chhoen, deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said he is responsible for land rights issues, but twice declined comment for this article.

Phnom Penh city police guard the sites of impending evictions and attempt to keep out NGO workers and journalists. At one site on Boeung Kak Lake, where a Cambodian development company known as Shukaku seized 3.6 hectares of land and began using the city’s police force to evict the occupants, police on three occasions barred our way and threatened us with arrest for even approaching the site where several evictions were in progress.

At Dey Krahorm, 200 former residents observed the one-year anniversary of their eviction, Jan. 24, with a procession to the edge of the wall surrounding their former neighborhood. Police officers in plain clothes, their walkie-talkies peeking from beneath their polo shirts, monitored the gathering and photographed the faces of those present, but didn’t try to break up the gathering.

There was no point.

The government had already destroyed their homes.

Vietnamese Gamblers Make Beeline For Cambodia

Feb 23rd, 2010
NAM NEWS NETWORK

PHNOM PENH, Feb 23 (NNN-CIC) — Vietnamese gamblers, who are prohibited from entering local casinos in their country, are flocking to casinos and other gambling venues in neighboring Cambodia, with the influx peaking during the Lunar New Year this month.

Vietnamese casinos are open only to foreigners and overseas Vietnamese and it is a tradition during Tet for Vietnamese to gamble. Winning is great and brings luck during the rest of the year but the popular belief is that losing just means they will be lucky at other things like love.

Cambodia, Thailand, and Macau have become beneficiaries as Vietnamese go in droves to these places to gamble.

Cambodia has nine large casinos along the Vietnam border.

The casinos operate legally and attract the moneyed lot who are willing to splurge hundreds of thousands of dollars to test their luck while enjoying luxurious service.

B., a frequent visitor to the Chrey Thum Casino — which is only a few hundred meters from the Khanh Binh border gate in An Giang Province — told Tuoi Tre that more than 100 Vietnamese go there every day.

Each brings tens of millions of dong to bet on cockfights or play Chinese dice games, he said.

The venue also has a cockfighting ring and hotel and is blanketed with cameras while a team of armed guards keep an eye on the gamblers.

Regulars to the casinos get free pickups and VIP cards that come with free meals and accommodation when they run out of money.

The Garden Stones Casino in Takeo Province attracts Vietnamese punters interested in playing poker and blackjack.

But the casinos are not the only venues attracting Vietnamese gamblers.

?If you don?t want to reveal your identity by playing at fancy casinos,? Th. a veteran gambler from Tinh Bien District, An Giang, said, ?just cross over from Tri Ton District into Cambodia and you will find a casino in a field where every type of game is available.?

Rich people from rural areas often go there to play, he said. ?There are security guards, so you don?t have to worry about anything.?

The so-called casino is an ordinary-looking house in the middle of a rice field surrounded by a metal net.

Its parking lot is packed with motorbikes with license plates from Vietnamese provinces like An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Hau Giang, and Can Tho.

?When police in southwestern Vietnamese provinces tightened control over the operation of local casinos, a gangster named S. in An Giang teamed up with Cambodians to open this casino,? Th. said.

?More and more border residents are flocking to this place. On the first few days of the New Year, there were 400 to 500 people daily.?

The main language used at the gambling places is Vietnamese because of the high concentration of Vietnamese.

Th. said some well-heeled gamblers like U. and L. from Can Tho city often bet VND5 million ($267) to VND10 million on a single game.

?L. lost VND200 million in three days and so has come back today, hoping to win back some of the money.?

A number of people lost billions of dong, he added.

The illegal casinos charge each gambler an entry fee of VND10,000 and have security guards who keep a watchful eye.

They also have some rules: gamblers cannot play without money in their pockets, cheat, or take photos.

It is estimated that each of these illegal casino earn VND100 million ($5,333) a day while most of its Vietnamese patrons go home empty-handed.

Casinos made a considerable contribution to Cambodia?s tourism industry, the country?s second-biggest earner after agriculture.

Cambodia generated revenues of $19 million from its 29 casinos in 2008, according to its Finance Ministry.

It fell to $17 million last year, with the decline attributed to a fall in tourist arrivals and rising border tensions with neighboring Thailand, according to Reuters.

A 10th casino on the Vietnamese border is expected to open its doors on February 26.

The Titan King Casino is just a kilometer from the Moc Bai border gate, and Kith Thieng, the owner of the $100 million casino, said Vietnamese gamblers are the prime targets.

Migrants face abuse, extortion in Thailand

http://www.rnw.n/

via CAAI News Media

Published on : 23 February 2010

By International Justice Desk (wikimedia commons)

Migrant workers in Thailand face extortion, arbitrary detention, forced labour and physical abuse, sometimes at the hands of officials in a climate of impunity, a rights group said on Tuesday.

"Migrants in Thailand have been subjected to various forms of abuses, ranging from extrajudicial killings, torture to arbitrary arrests and sexual violence," said the group's representative in Thailand, Sunai Phasuk.

He was speaking at the launch of a report based on 82 interviews with people from neighbouring Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, who make up a large part of the estimated 1.8 million to 3 million migrants in Thailand.

Migrant workers are a key source of manual labour in the $264 billion economy, Southeast Asia's second biggest, employed widely in the construction, tourism and manufacturing sectors.

"Migrant workers make huge contributions to Thailand's economy, but receive little protection," said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.

Abuse and arrests

Migrants "suffer horribly at the hands of corrupt civil servants and police, unscrupulous employers and violent thugs, who all realise they can abuse migrants with little fear of consequences", he added.

HRW said many migrants were treated like "walking ATMs", or cash machines, and faced arbitrary arrest and extortio

In one case in 2007, a migrant from Myanmar, Su Su, said she saw two policemen in south western Ranong province kick a young Burmese man to death because he did not respond to their inquiries, made in Thai.

The report accused law enforcement authorities of failing to investigate ordinary crimes against migrants, including those perpetrated by employers that police are sometimes complicit in.

In another case, two assailants killed a Burmese man working at a rubber plantation before raping his wife. Although semen was collected and a suspect named in a police report, investigators suspended the case after a year, saying more evidence was needed.

Government against abuse

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva insisted the government did not condone abuse by officials. "If there are cases of violation [of human rights], we will not ignore them," he told reporters.

The report warned that enforcement of the government's 28 February deadline for nationality verification could lead to mass deportations, which would increase the risk of abuse.

The process is complicated, prohibitively expensive and unrealistic, HRW said, particularly for migrants from military-ruled Myanmar, many of whom entered Thailand illegally after suffering political and economic repression at home.

Abhisit said there were no plans for mass deportations and workers had two years to complete the process.

Source: Reuters

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also raised concern about the 28 February deadline for more than a million migrant workers to start a process to verify their nationality, or face immediate deportation from Thailand.