Cambodia: Details are Sketchy

A delegation from the Ministry of Justice recently visited Vietnam for a round of glad-handing and other ceremonial pursuits.

[Vietnamese] PM Dung commended the outcomes of the talks, which were aimed at boosting cooperation between the two ministries in matters related to citizenship, legal representation, delegation exchanges, expertise, legal documents and training. … While in Viet Nam , the Cambodian delegation met leaders of the People’s Supreme Court and the People’s Supreme Procuracy in a move to foster law and judicial co-operation between the two countries.

This is pretty terrible news. While Vietnam probably has things to teach Cambodia, and Cambodia probably has  things to learn from Vietnam, the effective administration of justice is surely not one of them. As the U.S. State Department puts it:

The [Vietnamese] Constitution provides for the independence of judges and jurors; however, in practice the [Communist] Party controls the courts closely at all levels, selecting judges primarily for their political reliability. Constitutional safeguards are significantly lacking. Credible reports indicate that party officials, including top leaders, instruct courts how to rule on politically important cases. CPV and government officials may exert influence over court decisions by pressuring both the lay assessors and the judges who sit on a panel together to decide cases. The CPV has strong influence over high-profile cases, or in cases where a person is charged with challenging or harming the CPV or the State. … The system of appointing judges and lay assessors also reflects the lack of judicial independence.

There’s another 1,000 words where that came from, none of it good.

Socheata Poeuv, producer and director of the award-winning movie New Year Baby, writes about her newest project.

My parents never talked about their story of survival until one Christmas day five years ago when they made a confession to me. They told me that even though they had raised me, my brother and sisters as one nuclear family, we were not nuclear at all. In fact, we are a patchwork quilt of survivors. In effect, my family was formed during the Cambodian genocide.

I decided to make a documentary film about their story, called New Year Baby. I also wanted to create a forum so that stories of the Cambodian genocide could be passed from one generation to the next.

I’m starting a new organization called Khmer Legacies. The mission of Khmer Legacies is to document the Cambodian genocide through personal videotaped testimonies. The idea is to have the younger generation interview their parents about their story of survival. These videotapes will be used as an educational tool - an opportunity to tell the larger story of the Cambodian genocide.

For now the project is focused on 50 stories in the Bronx, New York, with plans to expand to Lowell, Massachusetts. The interviews will become the centerpiece of a public exhibition and education campaign. The goal is to contribute to the nation’s healing and to help bridge the enormous generational gap between those who survived the holocaust and their children, who grew up in relative peace. The younger generation still knows very little about what happened to their country and their parents.

It’s an ambitious project, with long-term plans of interviewing thousands. Ms Poeuv admits it won’t be easy. Most Cambodians would prefer to forget the past, not relive it with their children. Yet it cannot be understated how badly those stories need telling. As the Khmer Legacies web site says, “some in the younger generation grow up believing that the genocide did not happen at all.”

It’s time the parents tell the children the truth.

Thailand continues to act like a petulant teenager over Preah Vihear.

Thailand may ask Unesco to again postpone its decision on the registration of the ancient ruins at Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site this year if it is unable to convince Cambodia to settle the land dispute through joint management, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday.

[...]

Cambodian Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh criticised the move by Thailand to link the Preah Vihear issue to the overlapping areas for offshore oil exploration.

”If we solve the Preah Vihear case, then we also solve the overlapping zone offshore. They’re completely different things, the minister told the Cambodia Daily newspaper.

There’s really no other way to put it: linking Preah Vihear negotiations to overlapping oilfield claims is blackmail. That Unesco is playing along in such pedantic Thai games is shameful. Preah Vihear temple belongs unquestionably to Cambodia. The listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site, too, belongs unquestionably to Cambodia. Thailand has zero to do with it.

But Cambodia need not wait at the mercy of an irrational and arrogant Thailand. If there’s anything that Hun Sen’s CPP-lead government does well, it’s play the game of global politics like an Ouk Chaktrung board: the Japanese and their bloodlust for killing whales, the Americans and their murderous War on Terror, the Chinese and their One China policy, those insane monsters in Myanmar — Cambodia unflinchingly supported them all.

It’s time to call in the markers. With an A-list of heavy political hitters behind it, Cambodia should easily be able to quash Thai opposition to the listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site. Without the listing, Preah Vihear is likely to remain an obscure destination. With it, Preah Vihear would skyrocket in importance as a tourist destination, rivaling Angkor Wat virtually overnight.

That’s why Thailand wants so badly to be at the table. There’s a ton of money at stake, and the odds that Thailand will see a dime of it grow slimmer every day. Their continued interference in Cambodia’s Unesco request all but guarantees it.

Thailand is going to love this.

The recently-established Preah Vihear National Authority (PVNA) has announced plans to deploy 22 uniformed guards to protect Preah Vihear temple from looters, local media reported Tuesday.

“The guards will consist of 11 men and 11 women. They will be assigned to the temple next month to prevent the theft of temple stones,” PVNA General Director Hang Soth was quoted by the Mekong Times, a local newspaper, as saying.

Kong Sophearak, director of the Tourism Ministry’s Statistics and Information Department, expressed support for the PVNA’s plan, claiming that the guards will not only protect the temples, but also give tourists more confidence to visit the remote site.

You know how it is when your priest tries to hook you up with corrupt government officials from his congregation? It’s weird, right?

The pastor at SLM here brought two friends from Phnom Penh to here (Sihanoukville) to meet Brianna and I - and let me tell you he had a not so hidden agenda of a potential hook up. It was ackward. For Cambodia, these men are incredibly rich. Like, we all climbed into a Lexus SUV rich. Like, work for the government rich. They are also 30 something years old (insert big collar tug here). We ate lunch with them, and then the pastor left with our friend and got us and our brother here to hang out with these men.

Note to Mr. Pastor, you’ve been here too long.

It’s probably not, you know, very mature or anything linking to YouTube video of Cambodian high-school kids practicing their kick boxing on each other’s heads, but there you go — that it’s Cambodian high-school girls fighting makes it all the more terrible, no doubt. Please resist temptation.

Sometimes you can’t help but think that Cambodia-based airlines are cursed.

Cambodia-based Angkor Airways will suspend its flights between Taipei and the Southeast Asian country today, as it has run into financial difficulties after the detention of a top company executive on criminal charges in Taiwan, the airline’s branch office in Taiwan announced yesterday.

Alex Lou, executive director of the Taiwan branch office, has been solely in charge of sourcing funding for operations, and his detention has plunged the company into financial woes, the office said. [...]

Lou has been detained following questioning by prosecutors in Taipei on May 1 as part of their investigation into an embezzlement scandal hitting the debt-ridden Fast Eastern Air Transport. [...]

Taipei prosecutors suspect that top-ranking managers at FAT pocketed company funds and purposely let Angkor Airways delay paying FAT the NT$700 million owed for leasing aircraft from the Taiwanese carrier.

VIA KI: Almost as a side note to yet another acid-attack story, Everyday says that In Soklyda, Cambodia’s 2003 Ms Tourism International contestant, has been missing since May 3. In Soklyda’s aunt, Ya Soknim, was presumably involved.

The aunt of former tourism beauty pageant In Soklyda was the victim of an acid attack which burnt half of her body at 10:00 AM on 08 May 2008, in front of the RAC organization medical clinic, located along Street No. 432, Tuol Tompoung commune, Chamcar Mon district, Phnom Penh city. Local news media reported that the acid attack took place after the 24-year-old In Soklyda disappeared. In Soklyda was the 5th runner up for the tourism beauty pageant, among 32 candidates from countries participating in this past competition.

Behind every murdered and/or disfigured pop starlet typically lies a powerful government official. So the question is, whose girlfriend was she?

UPDATE: In the weekend edition The Cambodia Daily helps clarify some of the confusion. While details are still sketchy, the aunt, Ya Soknim, is not believed to be involved in the disappearance of In Soklyda. Instead, Ya Soknim has apparently been blamed for breaking up In Soklyda and her powerful government official boyfriend. Ya Soknim has been acid attacked as retribution. As for In Soklyda, the Daily gives the impression that she is in hiding from an ex-boyfriend who threatened to slaughter her whole family should she spurn his affections.

Perhaps In Soklyda has been saved in this instance. At least for now. Against such a horrifying backdrop, the monogamy law doesn’t seem so draconian. In most cases in the past it’s been the jealous wives behind such horrendous attacks. This time it’s the spurned boyfriend. The name of the official in question is still hush-hush. But these things seldom remain secrets for long. He should be made an example of.

This is one of the most serious cases of violence against a journalist in some time.

According to the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), Meas Asi, a reporter for Panhavorn Khmer (Khmer Intellectual), based in Koh Kong province, was allegedly stopped by police and beaten unconscious before being taken to Koh Kong prison.

Asi was on his way to cover a protest by members of Chhouk village to draw Prime Minister Hun Sen’s attention to land ownership issues when the incident occurred.

CAPJ reported that the incident may be related to Asi’s investigation into a land dispute between 75 families in Chhouk and a wealthy land owner.

Sadly, there’s almost no reason to believe that this kind of abuse will stop anytime soon. To the contrary. As the number of Cambodians with nothing left to lose continues to multiply, so to will the brutality with which the government uses to silence them.

VIA KI: Students at Stanford University are turning the story of Tat Marina into a comic book, er, graphic novel. Tat Marina, you may recall, was the 16-year-old karaoke singer beaten unconscious and then drenched with nitric acid outside the Olympic Market in 1999.

Tat Marina, known as “Rina” in the karaoke video business, was attacked while eating rice soup with her 3-year-old niece near the Olympic Market in Phnom Penh.

According to police, witnesses and family members, Tat Marina was yanked to the ground, kicked and kneed in the chest repeatedly until she passed out. She was then doused with more than a liter of nitric acid.

Soon after the attack, the district police chief identified the prime suspects as Khoun Sophal the wife of Council of Ministers Undersecretary of State Svay Sitha, and two bodyguards. In late December a municipal court judge issued an arrest warrant for Khoun Sophal.

But today Khoun Sophal remains at large and the two bodyguards who allegedly accompanied her remain unidentified with no warrants for their arrest.

Lek Vannak, the municipality’s judiciary police chief, said Thursday in Phnom Penh that he believes Khoun Sophal is in the capital under someone’s protection.

The Stanford book is called “Shake Girl“, and it’s available online. Although in the parlance of Northern California, the image-heavy site is hella-slow. As for Khoun Sophal, if there is any justice in the world, she is slowly, painfully rotting in a forgotten dungeon in hell.

This being Cambodia, however, she’s probably getting a pedicure by the poolside at her palatial government estate.

The Business Standard gives short shrift to Thailand’s rice-cartel idea.

The recent bid by Thailand and Cambodia to revive the long-dormant proposal for creating an Opec-like cartel of five rice-exporting countries of South-east Asia is both ill-timed and ill-advised; indeed, prima facie, the idea is unworkable.

[...]

Going beyond the immediate interests of rice-exporters and -importers, the truth is that a successful rice cartel is almost impossible to visualise. Even if the alliance partners agree on a price band, it will be difficult for them to control production/supply — which is a key requirement for a successful cartel. This is especially so because some of these countries grow three or four crops of paddy in a year and, unlike oil wells, which can be switched on and off, a paddy harvest cannot be so regulated.

It’s probably worth pointing out that the cartel idea was initiated at the behest of Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. As seems typical with Thai politicians these days, the less smart ones appear keen to make the headlines with half-baked policy ideas, sending the educated ones scurrying into damage control mode.

The cartel idea has been roundly denounced by many. And in the wake of global scorn for the idea Thailand quickly retreated.

But not before revealing itself as a greedy, cynical pimp in the global hunger game. Collusion and price-fixing are not business practices generally accepted as consumer-friendly. That Thailand thought nobody would notice this reveals an appalling level of disdain for the very people the country says it is trying to help. To bad then that Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared only too willing to get in on the action.

After years of searching authorities have located and arrested Sin Dorn in connection with the murder of British deminer Christopher Howes, reports Reuters.

Cambodia has arrested and charged a former Khmer Rouge soldier in connection with the murder of a British de-miner more than a decade ago, a judge said on Wednesday.

Sin Dorn, 52, was formally charged on Tuesday with the abduction and premeditated murder of Christopher Howes of UK-based charity Mines Advisory Group in the northern province of Siem Reap in 1996. His Cambodian translator was also killed.

“The authorities were searching for him for several years, but couldn’t find him. We finally arrested him and have thrown him in jail,” investigating Judge Ke Sakhan told Reuters.

Authorities couldn’t have been looking too hard. Sin Dorn was found near Anlong Veng, not far from where Christopher Howes was murdered. The BBC has more.

Hong Kong venture capitalists are making a move on Cambodia.

A Hong Kong-based private equity firm is raising a fund to invest in a country infamous for its genocidal Communist regime but now looking forward to the opening of its first stock exchange next year.

Leopard Capital has completed an initial closing of the Leopard Cambodia Fund, which has a target size of US$100 million and an expected lifespan of 10 years. The fund has won commitments from investors in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

Leopard will invest in companies and real estate positioned to benefit from Cambodia’s rapid economic growth and integration into the global economy, according to the firm. It will focus on venture, expansion, and buy-out opportunities, primarily in the financial services, retailing, construction materials, agribusiness, tourism and property development sectors.

They call him “Peaceman,” apparently, because he is so violent.

Cambodian police arrived in the nick of time to save a British man from a lynch mob after he allegedly savagely beat his girlfriend on the street, an officer said Monday.

David Finch, 42, of Birmingham, had allegedly been punching and kicking his 20-year-old Cambodian girlfriend on the footpath when his neighbours decided they could take no more, said Chhit Vuthy, deputy police chief of Psar Kandal 1 in the capital, the dpa reported.

“They formed a mob and managed to hit him hard in the head but we arrived just in time and then they had to let him go,” Vuthy said. “He has no respect for Cambodians, and they were angry.”

Sam Rainsy, who is traditionally on the receiving end of half-baked, politically fueled lawsuits, is apparently trying to prove to the nation that he too has what it takes to be the dictator-in-chief.

Mr. Sam Rainsy also said that he will lodge a law suit against Hor Namhong in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in relation to the deaths of millions people during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Trumped-up, fact-free lawsuits are the norm around here, of course. But Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s lonely warrior in the fight for freedom and justice, used to denounce such things, not spearhead them. It must be an election year.

Something called the “KR Tribunal Blog” emerged at the Phnom Penh Post web site over the weekend. Written by Elena Lesley, a Fullbright Fellow, the blog is likely to emerge as mandatory reading for anyone following events at the ECCC.

DPA reports that Bart ‘Lucky’ Lauwaert has been found dead in his Siem Reap jail cell.

An Australian national has been found dead in his Cambodian jail cell, officials and family said.

Bart “Lucky” Lauwaert, a former teacher, had been serving a 20-year sentence for child sex offences in a case which was spearheaded by local rights group, the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Centre (CWCC).

In a phone interview from Siem Reap prison, 400 kilometres north of the capital, after his last avenue of appeal was closed last month, Lauwaert again alleged he had been “set up” by people trying to garner donor aid from high profile arrests and threatened suicide.

A prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lauwaert had not been on suicide watch and no formal cause of death had been established, although heart failure had not been ruled out.