Cambodia: Details are Sketchy

Kong Nai, the Cambodian Ray Charles, sings the Mekong Delta Blues, say the marketing people, even though Ray Charles played the piano and the Mekong delta is in a different country [The Guardian]

Some old guy visits Cambodia to play soccer and star in his very own crappy British tabloid story [Times Online]

Cambodia’s famously agreeable judiciary just says no to coke [Earthtimes]

The Beeb hires a backpacker to uncover Cambodia’s brothels [The Beeb]

KR prison boss charged with crimes against humanity [The Guardian]

Cambodia, Myanmar lead crowded pack in race for Southeast Asia’s worst human rights record [Philippine Star]

The ECCC has taken custody of Toul Sleng executioner Kang Kek Ieu, better know as Duch. He appeared in court this morning, although little has been reported of what transpired.

The latest Phnom Penh Post takes a look at the current state of Buddhism in Cambodia. It is not flattering.

Magic monk Bin Sovann is having a typically busy day.

It’s before lunch at Wat Komsan some 5 km outside Phnom Penh and Sovann has already cured the sick, blessed a family’s bed sheets and anointed a 1993 Toyota Celica with sacred water sprinkled from a silver bowl. [...]

A group of four young women kick off high heels to enter and have their jewelry, phones and makeup blessed: stacking a pile of lipstick, mascara and rouge onto plastic offering plates they kneel before Sovann as he chants incantations over the cosmetics.

“I bring all my personal, daily makeup and hand it over to the monk so he can put magic in it. I believe the monk, because when I use the makeup and go to work, it makes me charming and I make a lot of tips from clients,” said Ly Srey Pov, 25, who said she works in the Phnom Penh “gambling industry.”

But read the whole thing. There are some serious parts, too.

Three homemade bombs were defused at the foot of the Cambodian-Vietnamese friendship monument.

Explosives experts prevented homemade bombs from going off on Sunday at a controversial monument in the heart of the Cambodian capital, officials said.

The bombs, a mixture of TNT and fertilizer packed in three buckets, were planted at a monument dedicated to Vietnamese soldiers who invaded Cambodia to topple the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

The monument is located in a park about 500 meters (yards) from the southern wall of the Royal Palace, where King Norodom Sihamoni and his parents live.

“If we had not succeeded in destroying the bombs, that monument would have collapsed,” Hok Lundy, Cambodia’s national police chief, told reporters.

A cynic might suggest that the only possible suspects are foreign Muslims or Sam Rainsy. But since neither of those really seem likely, perhaps this latest act of terror is evidence of a new, emerging threat in Cambodia. The coming thorough police investigation will no doubt reveal all.

Speaking at what the AP calls a “Heritage Foundation think tank,” an assistant U.S. deputy secretary of state gave some friendly advice to Southeast Asia and its leaders who would cozy up to Communist China.

A senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday that China’s growing influence in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos has often been unhelpful and has contributed to flourishing corruption.

China has worked to increase its economic and political presence throughout Southeast Asia, analysts say, and has pumped in large amounts of money meant to help build roads and other infrastructure to encourage Chinese trade and businesses in the region.

But Eric John, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said that China does not do enough to link its aid with pressure for the countries to improve human rights, corruption and other issues of worry. [...]

“That leads to political influence and it makes it a tough country to crack for other countries to be able to positively influence them,” he said.

It hardly needs pointing out that the Heritage Foundation is staffed and supported by some of the world’s most crazed and dangerous wingnuts. Unfortunately, under the current U.S. regime, these nuts have massive amounts of influence inside the U.S. government. What they fear, of course, is China’s growing influence in the region. In Cambodia specifically, the U.S. is quite displeased with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s keen ability to play the U.S. against the Chinese, and vice versa.

The recent improvement in U.S.-Cambodia relations can all be viewed through this lens, and are all part of a larger unfolding of age-old cold-war politics. Enhanced military ties, Hok Lundy’s recent trip to Las Vegas, the recent opening of a D.E.A office, etc. are all aimed at prying Cambodia loose from China’s no-strings-attached millions. And China’s no-string-attached millions are at least partly aimed at seducing Cambodia away from the United State’s penchant for the high and mighty. Where the people of Cambodia factor in to all this, unfortunately, is rather obvious.

Italian artist Filippo Minelli recently visited Cambodia, doing what is these days known as “street art” or “gorilla art.” As Minelli says on his web site, his work is dedicated to “communication and perturbating-actions.” He has titled his quartet of Phnom Penh works “Four contraddictions.” And that they most certainly are.

Minelli’s work consists solely of spray-painting the names of popular Internet services onto the sides of Phnom Penh homes and buildings.

What exactly is communicated by “YOUTUBE” painted in 3-foot-high letters across the side of someone’s house isn’t immediately obvious. Anyone likely to see Minelli’s art is unlikely to be in tune with the latest online video-sharing service to take the world by tempest. Home to the glorious 12th-century temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia is also the proud owner of an Internet system of similar antiquity.

The other three contradictions — MySpace, Flickr and Second Life — may have more traction. But only just. Internet penetration in Cambodia is among the lowest in the world, and Minelli’s installation seems just as likely to encourage the art of graffiti as it is to communicate or perturb.

Without the slightest hint of irony, persecution.org passes on the latest news about the proselytizing ban.

Minister of Religions and Cults Khun Haing has met local Christian leaders to explain a recent government directive that bans house-to-house proselytizing and material inducements for conversion.

Eighteen representatives of six Churches in Cambodia met Haing on July 19 at the minister’s office. Three Catholics, including a priest, took part. [...]

Catholic Church leaders and workers have told UCA News the recent directive does not affect their Church and they largely agree with the directive.

So as long as the ban only affects the Mormons, then, hey, that’s cool. Door-knocking Jesus freaks are a nuisance to all faiths.

Ok. I demand better food safety in Cambodia. But not because it might increase Cambodia’s life expectancy — because that seems like an awfully dubious proposition — but because being food poisoned is a terribly unhappy way to spend the waking hours.

Phil’s got his own strategies for gastronomic security, which include recommending the Alley Cat for food genre “Tex-mex.” Phil is not the first person to say such a thing.

Vireak invites you to dinner. Kinda. And, not at all surprising, the Java Cafe empire continues to expand. Bon appetite.

As they say, old habits are hard to break.

Tamil Tiger rebels are still getting weapons smuggled from Cambodia, which are fuelling spiraling unrest in Sri Lanka, a security journal reported.

“Cambodia is one of the most significant single sources of weapons for the insurgent group,” Jane’s Intelligence Review said in a report published online last week, without naming any sources.

Along with the country’s other primary sources of unofficial income — illegal logging, drug smuggling and human trafficking — gun running seems an unlikely side job for anyone except the well-connected, no matter how hard the Ministry of Interior might try to say otherwise.

Interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak acknowledged Monday that some weapons might still be getting to the Tigers, but said any smuggling would be small-scale.

“There could be some bad people involved…. We would like information to lead us to the offenders,” he told AFP.

“We are victims of weapons, so we don’t want people in other countries to suffer the same crisis,” he said.

According to Khmer Intelligence, or Rasmey Kampuchea, or Reuters — it’s really not quite clear — the five people getting pinched for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge are these:

1. Nuon Chea
2. Khieu Samphan
3. Ieng Sary
4. Ieng Thirith
5. Duch

How Khmer Intelligence, or Rasmey Kampuchea, or Reuters came to this conclusion is even less obvious. The assumption would be that somebody inside the court sold out. But that’s probably wrong. More likely is that Rasmey Kampuchea is guessing. Guessing correctly, perhaps, but still guessing.

From Happy Keg:

In central Cambodia, according to an AP report, two Buddhist monks fell in love with two teenage girls who sold beer across from their temple. The monks, both 19, apparently abandoned their vows and pursued the beer girls. Cambodia, with a population of 13 million people, has 60,000 monks who live in more than 4,000 pagodas across the country. Ninety percent of the population is Buddhist.

From Khmer News:

July 18, 2007: A man died instantly at crash scene and another die after sending to Preah Ketomealea hospital. The crashing caused of two men riding a red Smash motorbike and an unidentified truck traveling in contrast direction …

And also from Khmer News:

North Korea ambassador in Cambodia said that North Korea would halp Cambodia’s agruculture by sending experts to Cambodia as it did 40 years ago.

More from Razzbuffnik.

On one occasion I was invited to a barbecue at the consulate for Australia Day (26th of January) in 1975 . On the invitation, it said come dressed casually. In my minds eye, I had envisaged a bunch of the egalitarian Australians standing around a fire with steaks on the end of sticks, barbecuing their own meat with a beer in the other hand, dressed in T-shirt, shorts and thongs (also known as flip-flops or jandles). Just like back home.

It came as quite a surprise to me as I turned up at the consulate dressed in a tattered old T-shirt and frayed jeans to be sat at a long, linen covered table, set with heavy silverware, next to the uniformed militarily attaché. There were about 40 of us seated at the table, which was outside next to a large swimming pool. When the food was served it was brought to us by uniformed staff, who dished out the French style food with silver service. All the other men who were at the “barbecue”, with the exception of the military attaché, were dressed in polyester safari suits. I guess in diplomatic circles, safari suits are considered casual, and barbecue was code for alfresco dining. Opposite me at the table were my friend Mr Dixon and his secretary. I was later told that Mr Dixon had made sure I was sitting next to the military attaché because he knew I would provide some entertainment, as I drove him crazy with anti-Vietnam-war talk. As a matter of fact, the military attaché was quite annoyed that I’d managed to dodge conscription by being out of the country traveling. He also opined that it would probably do somebody like me a bit of good to be under some military discipline for a couple of years. I was definitely the youngest, scruffiest, noisiest thing at the table, and I’m sure the military attaché would have liked to punch my empty head in.

Times sure have changed, huh? Because going by Razz’s portrait, he looks a lot cleaner cut than Australia’s current naval attaché, who could easily be a stand-in for the boys in ZZ Top.

VIA Khmer Intelligence: A group of concerned citizens is using the Internet and technology to keep track of the country’s growing number of mineral and agricultural concessions. Similar projects, including a map of land evictions — is also reportedly in the works.

The day many said would never come has come.

Prosecutors for the international tribunal examining the 1970s Cambodian genocide submitted a list Wednesday of Khmer Rouge leaders they recommend stand trial.

A statement from the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia said there were five suspects, but did not name them. Judges will evaluate the evidence and decide on indictments. [...]

All five suspects were senior leaders, it said. [...]

Other senior leaders live freely in Cambodia but are in declining health: Nuon Chea, the movement’s chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, the former foreign minister; and Khieu Samphan, the former head of state.

Kaing Khek Iev, who headed the former Khmer Rouge S-21 torture center, is the only top figure in government custody, but not under the law guiding the tribunal.

The story gives no indication on how long a decision might take. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The statement from the UNAKRT (available here) explains the charges:

The factual allegations in this Introductory Submission constitute crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, homicide, torture and religious persecution. The Co-Prosecutors, therefore, have requested the Co-Investigating Judges to charge those responsible for these crimes.

LATER UPDATE: Nuon Chea remains defiant.

“I will go to the court and don’t care if people believe me [or] not,” Nuon Chea said. “It happened 30 years ago and it’s very difficult to remember. Some of them (tribunal members) never experienced that. They weren’t there, how could they know what was going on.”

No doubt enjoying Internets that don’t suck, Victoria in Kyoto shows off a few YouTube videos made in Cambodia in 1965. Those were the halcyon days of Cambodia, or so they are often remembered, and the videos echo that glory.

In related YouTube linkness, user AhmekKhmer is building a growing and rather comprehensive library of Cambodian-related video, 146 clips so far. There’s an interview with Lon Nol (in French), a few clips about saving the Cambodian Siamese crocodile, and tons of KR related stuff in various languages. If not for the ugly overtones of racism, it might be considered a serious collection.

Contrary to the assertions of legendary Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann, heritage can be sold.

Those who survived the apocalypse unleashed by the Khmer Rouge, which was particularly brutal in pursuing of Cambodia’s artists, trickled back into the city and began trying to rebuild their lives.

The theatre became the soul of this battered community, a bright spot in an otherwise dead world that evoked a cultural richness which would never be fully revived.

Nearly three decades on that bright spot is dimming as the site on which Cambodia’s national theatre sits has been leased to a private developer and the building doomed to be razed.

Its artists, who have soldiered on against darkness, wet and neglect since a fire gutted the auditorium and stage area in 1994, were offered 300 dollars each and told last month to leave.

By most people’s estimations, it was only a matter of time before the aging and decrepit Bassac Theatre had to go. That it went in a completely nontransparent sweetheart deal to one of Cambodia’s richest businessmen really should come as no surprise.

The Ministry of Cults and Religions has issued a “disciplinary order” banning Christian proselytizing.

A translation of the directive begins by stating its intention of preventing religious conflict. Then farther down: “All public proselytizing activities are prohibited. Christians are not allowed to proselytize citizens’ houses by knocking on doors or waiting for them, saying “the Lord is coming” which is an interruption to daily life or may intrude on privacy in the community.”

And then: “Teachings of religions must respect other religions and avoid insulting and degrading each other, especially Buddhism, the state religion.”

Minister of Cults and Religion Chea Savoeun said last week that the new directive is a prudent move. “People have complained a lot to the Ministry of Cults and Religion over this issue,” he said, adding that some Christian groups have been accused of “looking down” on other religions and disturbing people in their homes.

Such news should give reason to rejoice. But the Ministry of Cults and Religions issued this order in March 2003. And four and a half years later, those freaky boy Mormons are still going door to door trying to convert the heathens. Surely the big bicycle rider in the sky would frown upon such enthusiastic law breaking?

UPDATE: The Ministry of Cults and Religions bans Christian proselytizing, again.

Cambodia on Monday announced the country’s first major international golf tournament, which gave newly appointed Minister of Tourism — and old-school communist party goombah — Thong Khon his first real chance to show the world that old-school commies know nothing about tourism.

Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon, present at Monday’s ceremony in Siem Reap announcing the tournament, said it would boost tourism.

“When we have a golf tournament like this, we can show the world and all the tourists that we have something new for them at the Angkor Wat site,” he said. “Before, if golfers wanted to visit Angkor Wat, they were hesitant to come, but now they are happy to come to see the temples because they can see the temples and can play golf too.”

So for all those years Cambodia’s nascent tourism industry struggled not because of tourists’ concerns for safety — or crap roads, corrupt officials, crime, war, land mines, Khmer Rouge bandits or a litany of other woes — but because without a golf tournament to sex it up, well, who wants to see a pile of old rocks anyway?

VIA Open and Shut: Rick Snell, a lecturer of law from the University of Tanzania, is currently four weeks into a seven week consultancy to help draft a policy paper on what surely must be the single-most loathed piece of legislation after the anti-corruption law — a freedom of information act.

But it’s not all bad.

I think the prospect, eventually, of a FOI or access to information act for Cambodia took a couple of small steps forward this week. Workshop with NGOs advanced awareness and the consultations with key Ministries has at least put the topic on the agenda. Late on Friday afternoon a draft policy paper was doing the rounds of Ministry corridors (probably not read until Tuesday or Wednesday next week). The first few days of next week will allow us to catch up with notes and preparation for national workshop on 25th July. The first government sponsored FOI workshop in Cambodia.

And as soon as the government figures out what “Freedom of Information” really means, almost certainly the last, as this previous passage most humorously alludes.

Monday afternoon we go to the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Interior … An almost surreal experience … They had little idea why we were there and highly suspicious. All of them had their pocket Cambodian constitutions that they flicked through after reading my briefing notes (translated into Khmer) about how Sections 31,35 and 41 can be read together to establish a constitutional basis to the right to access information …
[Ministry of Defense] made it clear that they had lots of information they needed to protect – including actual number of soldiers (controversial issue at moment – army is meant to be demobilising) … At end of meeting we asked for a copy of the legislation they had kept referring to and they told us - they couldn’t give to us.

Dick Cheney would be proud.

Yahoo has the scoop on the latest Angkor Wat-related feature film, “Last Seen at Angkor Wat,” scheduled for release tomorrow, July 17.

 A private detective takes a man on a grim ride through Cambodia’s human trafficking trade in the harrowing feature film LAST SEEN AT ANGKOR. The man is looking for his wife, who disappeared four years ago, and as the investigation unravels some shocking revelations occur.

Sounds riveting, no? Luckily, Yahoo had the decency to also post this “most helpful” review.

oh man what a crappy film you know this movie could be the worst movie ever made great i wasted one hour for nothing trust me save your time it sucks

Except for these two posts from Quiet Lounge last year, there doesn’t seem to be much information available on Red Hot Wok. Described as a “Chinese Electro act” by QL, that description seems as apt as any, or not at all — high-grade techno with a subtle yet unmistakable Khmer-music influence, especially track 1 from the “Phnom Penh Pimps” album, Khmer Groove (more RHW downloads are available from Quiet Lounge.)

As sharp-eyed Borin discovers that Google too is in on the fix, surreptitiously trying to screw the motherland of her rightful land and borders. The question is, what is Keo Remy going to do about it?

The Los Angeles Times finds Michael Richards, better known as Cosmo Kramer from the hit television sit-com “Seinfeld,” kicking it with Swami G and searching for spiritual enlightenment in Siem Reap.

Richards, 57, and actress Beth Skipp traveled to remote temples before visiting Angkor Wat on a tour sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Nithyananda Foundation. The sect adheres to the teachings of 29-year-old Hindu monk Nithyananda — an avowed “enlightened Master and modern mystic” who’s referred to by his followers as “Swami G.” [...]

Richards and Skipp, who appeared in the 2006 L.A. production of “Me, My Guitar &Don Henley,” checked into a $380 per-night deluxe spa suite at Siem Reap’s Hotel De La Paix on June 29. They joined the Nithyananda tour after several days of sightseeing independently at ancient sites including Preah Vihear, a famously difficult-to-reach mountaintop temple overlooking the Thai border.

“We went way out into the country. Preah Vihear was unbelievable. And the way we got there: We went up this crazy road in a funky pickup and when we got to the top there’s this magnificent temple,” Richards said. “We did it all old-school.”

Once the spiritual center of the mighty Angkorean empire, Angkor Wat is now a refuge for down-and-out Hollywood misfits. Take that, seven wonders!

Writing for Global Politician, Richard Ehrlich investigates the legal intricacies involved in prosecuting the men most responsible for Khmer Rouge atrocities.

“One of the big questions will be whether, what happened in Cambodia, was genocide or not,” [U.N. Principal Defender] Mr. Skilbeck said in an interview. “There is a very strong legal argument to say that genocide is when you kill people because of their ethnicity, whereas the vast majority of the [Khmer Rouge] purges were not for ethnic reasons, but were for political reasons. So genocide may not be possible” as a successful prosecution charge. [...]

The surviving Khmer Rouge leaders, who reside in Cambodia, could defend themselves in various ways, Mr. Skilbeck said. “There has to be a discussion about whether there was an international armed conflict or not,” he said, because the Geneva Conventions are rules for armed conflict, which can differ for acts during peace or domestic unrest. [...]

Mr. Skilbeck said there is “no smoking gun,” or single piece of evidence to convict the Khmer Rouge. “There is no instance [on record] where the decision was made to make killings. There are no documents directly ordering large-scale atrocities to occur. “So the prosecution, as often happens, will have to…piece together their case from lots of different people’s evidence,” the head of the ECCC Defense Support Section said.

The “genocide” debate is one that has been visited many times. As Skilbeck points out, the charge of genocide is traditionally viewed as the murder of a group of people because of their race. While that case could surely be made for the large-scale killings of Vietnamese and Cham people, making it is about as politically likely as the devil himself (Henry Kissinger) testifying on Pol Pot’s behalf. Because as everybody surely knows, Pol Pol, at the friendly request of Vietnam, politely asked Vietnamese people living in Cambodia to leave. Those who didn’t leave fast enough were KGB agents, obviously.

Or at least talk about uniting. Kinda sorta.

Major figures of Cambodia’s royalist parties on Wednesday voiced a higher tone for merging their forces in a bid to secure a niche in the next general election in 2008.

Prince Sisowath Thomico said that he decided to leave the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP) to officially join the co-ruling Funcinpec Party in an attempt to help collect the royalist forces to participate in the general election. [...]

The future of the royalist parties depends on Prince Norodom Ranariddh, for he is the key for reconciliation of the royalist parties, said Thomico, adding that all the important royal politicians are now in Funcinpec except Ranariddh.

So where’s Ranariddh? Hmmm. Oh, that’s right. Remember? He’s currently a fugitive from justice, on the run from a conviction for stealing millions from the aforementioned Funcinpec party, a party he ruled until just four months ago, when it ousted him as party president and accused him of stealing millions from party coffers.

But that’s not even the saddest part. The saddest part is this: Ranariddh would love nothing more than to return to the embrace of the party that just four months ago gleefully sent him up the river. Such is the allure of power, or so it seems.

In places like San Francisco, such sexually flamboyant conferences are not just tolerated but openly celebrated.

“We, Asian Sex Workers” is a group show featuring the visual and performance art of contemporary artists from around the world. “We, Asian Sex Workers” portrays our own personal story of being an Asian sex worker from the U.S or abroad. We hope this show will help to educate San Francisco and beyond about some of the misconceptions too often presented about our lives. The focus of the Show is to highlight and honor the strength, survival, beauty and determination necessary to be an Asian Sex Worker within and against the world of laws like the Trafficking Victim Protection Act and US Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath, and the criminalization of prostitution in cities all over the US. Fed up with the current laws that criminalize our work and our bodies, restrict our movement and keep us from rising up, we hope to explore the boundaries between criminal acts, resistance, and art. There will be an “oriental massage parlor” style red neon window signage displaying the words “BUY ART” towards Folsom Street during night gallery hours. The window is located in an industrial South of Market Street area in San Francisco which has steady vehicle traffic.

The exhibit takes aim at recent U.S policy initiatives that force organizations that receive American funds to officially renounce prostitution. As this video explains, such policies have real consequences. In places such as Cambodia, NGOs fear running afoul of the U.S initiative and losing critical U.S. funding. As a direct result, many NGOs now shun groups that work with prostitutes, or have abandoned them all together, which only further marginalizes and already massively marginalized community.

As The Cambodia Daily this morning reports, the Kampuchea Krom situation continues to deteriorate.

The UN’s human rights office in Phnom Penh said Friday that it was “gravely concerned” for the safety of Tim Sakhorn, a Khmer Krom monk who was defrocked and taken to Vietnam late last month.

Officials announced on July2 that Tim Sakhorn, chief of Phnom Den pagoda in Takeo province’s Kiri Vong district, had been defrocked on June 30 for damaging diplomatic relations with Hanoi, and that he had consented to being taken to Vietnam that day.

However, local rights group Adhoc on July 3 accused Cambodian authorities of abducting and forcibly deporting Tim Sakhorn, and expressed concern about his safety in Vietnam.

The Cambodian Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said Friday it too had obtained information to indicate that Tim Sakhorn had not departed willingly.

If the reports are true, and so far there is nothing to suggest otherwise, the disappearance of Tim Sakhorn is nothing less that state-sanctioned kidnapping and probably worse. Even now, Tim Sakhorn’s whereabouts are unknown, and the U.N. has concerns for his safety. That the government freely admits he was delivered into the hands of the communists gives very little reason for comfort.

For as long as dope-smoking college kids on gap-year adventures have been coming to Cambodia, the myth about shooting a cow with a rocket launcher has persisted. No one, it seems, has ever witnessed such a thing, but many claim to know someone who did. Because really, who in their right mind would let a couple of stoned-out-of-their-mind colleges kids play with a rocket launcher? (May not be work safe.)

The BBC this weekend takes more than a cursory look at Thailand’s child-trafficking industry. Sadly, and perhaps inevitably, what starts off as a story in Pattaya winds up on the streets of Phnom Penh. But not before, you know, hitting on the ladyboys.

 ”I came with my aunt from the countryside to work in the seaside resort of Pattaya,” Keng says. She pauses.

“I worked as a waiter in a bar near here. At first I didn’t realise it was even possible for men to have sex with men, or boys, and at that time I still looked like a boy. I was only 16 and my family had various problems, so I was just working everything out.”

Keng is 22, very slim, and now an incredibly beautiful woman.

The operation to change from a man to a woman took place last year. It cost her several thousand dollars, which she earned as a prostitute on the streets.

There is nothing about her that suggests she was ever male - her voice is soft and she is dainty and feminine. I find myself really liking her quiet dignity and gentle manner.

Gentle manner? For a Thai ladyboy pimp-child-trafficker, you mean? Because as the very next sentence makes abundantly clear, Ladyboy Keng is most certainly not made of sugar and spice.

“I do other work,” she says. “I go to Bangkok, to the Grand Plaza or to the station, and collect boys between the ages of 11 and 13. I bring them back here to the bar. I usually try and get 10 boys or so, but if there have been police raids in Bangkok it can be harder to find boys.

“When I approach them I have to be very careful. For the first few days they obey me - some of them haven’t eaten properly for weeks - but we still lock them in the attic at the bar, partly so they won’t escape, partly so that the police or rescue agencies can’t find them.”

A group of 40 RCAF soldiers are headed to Mongolia on a “humanitarian” mission. Details are still sketchy.

Cambodia will soon send over 40 soldiers from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) and the military police to join “humanitarian” mission in Mongolia, officials said in Phnom Penh on Thursday. [...]

Both officials declined to provide details of the mission and it remains unclear whether it is led by the United Nations.

Local media reported on Thursday that the mission is military exercise in essence.

These kinds of military exercises should probably be applauded, not chastised. The more interaction RCAF soldiers have with professional forces from abroad, the better Cambodia’s military, and Cambodia, will be for it.