Duch refutes waterboarding charge

Duch says he never waterboarded anyone.

The former Khmer Rouge prison chief on Wednesday denied he waterboarded or suffocated detainees as he detailed his torture techniques to Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes trial.

… [H]e said he had not used the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding, and had not put plastic bags over prisoners’ heads because of the danger they could suffocate to death.

“The kind of waterboarding technique was not employed and the plastic bag was also not a kind of technique,” Duch said.

… “There were two techniques. The normal beating technique and the electrocution technique with use of a telephone (line)… which was connected to an electric current to electrocute prisoners. That was true,” Duch said.

If Duch never used a waterboard, then where did the paintings at Tuol Sleng come from? Someone should ask Vann Nath.

Cosmopolitan killers

The Times reprints a story from October 12, 1975. William Shawcross talks to Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

He still speaks, as when he was what he now calls “a playboy prince”, with wit, charm and enthusiasm that is often passion. Through his revolutionary ardour, loyally learnt in five courageous years in exile, the old jazz-playing film buff Sihanouk sometimes glitters a little sadly. Infuriated by a question about the fate of Lon Nol’s former cabinet ministers, he shouts again: “Why do you worry about these scum when so many good Cambodians have died? It’s not as if they were Marilyn Monroe or Rock Hudson.”

Health-care revolution

Hospitals go private — Ka-Set has the details.

A small revolution is on its way in the Cambodian public health system. Indeed, by the end of this year, no less than four public hospitals in Phnom Penh will become autonomous. The law, which has already been adopted and enforced for several years at Calmette hospital will progressively be extended by the Ministry of Health to the National Paediatric Hospital, the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, Kossamak Hospital and the National Maternal and Child Health Centre. Consequences for those institutions are that they will be able to manage their budget themselves in a much more flexible and reactive way, but they will also be in charge of more responsibilities.

[...]

As they will remain public institutions, those autonomous hospitals will charge themselves healthcare brought to patients. But according to Say Seng Ly, this will change nothing for the poorest ones, who cannot afford to pay for hospital bills. The only difference, he claims, is that from then on, they benefit – on top of theoretical gratuity of care – from quality services. “Making a public institution autonomous is not meant to kill the poor, but on the contrary to help them. When the hospital generates money, the poor will also benefit from quality services, wards will be clean… Because we will take money from the wealthy ones to give it to the poor”, Say Seng Ly says, convinced.

While public health care is problematic everywhere, this at least sounds like a step in the right direction. These four hospitals will have more influence over how their money is spent and at the same time still be responsible for some degree of public care. The reality of it, however, appears deadly frightening. This new found autonomy will likely take what are now four public hospitals and turn them into Calmettes, where stories of patients dying for lack of money are, at least anecdotally, a lot more common than stories of indigent patients getting free care.

Bailing out farmers

Economic losses approach $800 million, says ILO. Government will spend $25 million to help.

A report released by the International Labor Organization released Monday shows losses of $280 million in garments, $260 million in tourism, $180 million in agriculture and $45 million in construction.

[...]

The government announced Tuesday it will release $25 million to the agriculture and garment sectors, in an effort to mitigate the effects of the global downturn.

The money—$18 million to agriculture and $7 million to garments—will be used to increase farm production and help train people who have lost their jobs thanks to the slowdown.

It will be more than interesting to watch how the money is actually spent. Let’s hope the media is paying attention.

KRT latest

Stan has it.

Mu Sochua v Hun Sen, part ii

Mu Sochua refuses to be bullied by The Strongman.

GOVERNMENT officials have warned that Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Mu Sochua could face legal action and a possible suspension of her parliamentary immunity following last week’s announcement she would sue Prime Minister Hun Sen for defamation.

Om Yentieng, one of Hun Sen’s advisers and president of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee, told Cambodian  media Friday that government lawyers would countersue Mu Sochua and that ruling party MPs would meet to suspend her immunity if the court found she was at fault.

[...]

“I am not scared about Hun Sen countersuing me, but I would like the courts to remain independent in this case. I have enough proof about what Hun Sen said about me,” she said.

Wouldn’t it be something to see Mu Sochua stand with the courage of her convictions and go to jail before the fleet-footed leader of her party? It’s the kind of thing from which movements are born.

The measure of success

Without the slightest hint of irony, The Post reports today that Cambodia is on track to reach 60 percent forest coverage — as if that’s an accomplishment.

CAMBODIA is nearing its Millennium Development Goal of maintaining 60 percent of its forest coverage by 2010, the Forestry Administration said.

Despite its apparent success, the Forestry Administration says it will ramp up both its planting and conservation efforts to help save Cambodia’s forests.

From 2004 to 2008, Cambodians planted more than 6 million trees, according  to the Ministry of Agriculture’s annual report released earlier this month, but in the future, the Forestry Administration hopes the number will be much higher.

This kind of reporting must send global Witness into conniptions. According to the little box that accompanies The Post article, Cambodia’s total forest cover in 1990 counted 12.9 million hectares. By 2005 that number had dropped to 10.4 million. And that’s total forest coverage. The numbers for primary forest coverage are worse by magnitudes. But the article is written as if those facts simply did not exist.

Missionaries supplant perverts

The latest from Svay Pak.

We were in Svay Pak today – I think we watched a Dateline special together where they went with Haugen and IJM to bust up brothels in this village. Check it out on YouTube, you’ll see exactly where I was.

We went into the worst brothel there, though it’s now been turned into a community center and missionaries and local pastors are running it. There is some really cool stuff happening.

Good news. Indeed.

‘The Red Sense’

Tim Pek’s “The Red Sense” will be screened tonight at MetaHouse. Andy talks to one of the films co-stars, Rithy Dourng.

Cambodians of Facebook

How many Cambodians are on Facebook? Piseth says the Facebook Cambodian Network has 5,000 members. He estimates that perhaps as many as 50,0000 Cambodians belong to Facebook, rivaling Long Beach in terms of Khmer communities. That’s just a guess, though, 50,000. Is there any way to check? Any Cambodian Facebook gurus out there with answers?

POSTSCRIPT: The “I am Cambodian” group lists 2,306 members.

Bad medicine

KK finds the sub-$300 nose job.

A nose job usually takes less than half an hour at Ariya’s clinic and costs US$280 to US$600 (RM1,000 to RM2,160), depending on the quality of materials used in the operation.

… But even as operations become popular among the emerging middle class, Cambodia remains a country where laws are loosely enforced and many people calling themselves doctors have little training.

… Veasna, 40, regrets the face-lift she had at a cheap clinic. Her face is swollen and red, especially around the eyes.

“I’ve been in terrible pain,” she said, visibly upset and awaiting corrective surgery. “But I want to look young and beautiful. Otherwise my husband will run away with other girls.”

Does the phrase, “You get what you pay for” mean anything to you? As for the husband, DTMFA.

Electrocuted by The Man

Cambodia and Vietnam have finished building power lines that connect Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese power grid.

Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh, will receive additional electricity from Vietnam later this month or by early May, helping to ease the city’s shortage of power for both industrial and domestic use, said Deputy Director of the Electricity of Cambodia (EdC) Chan Sodavath.

According to him, work on a transmission line connecting Vietnam’s An Giang Province via Takeo Province to Phnom Penh has been completed and once it becomes operational in late April or by early next month, the new line is expected to double the amount of electricity that Phnom Penh can now access.

The additional lines will nearly double the capital’s capacity, from 190MW to 390MW. When the deal was first announced in 2008, the government said it would resell this electricity for seven or eight cents per kilowatt, or a fraction of current costs. But that was then. The Daily reported yesterday that Chan Sodavath did not know if the new lines would result in lower electricity prices. Phnom Penh Deputy Municipal Governor Mann Chhoeun was more certain. He said no, he didn’t expect prices to drop.

The government is likely paying about 250 riel per kilowatt for electricity from Vietnam. It could, if it wanted, pass along those savings to businesses and consumers. While the impact of such a move is hard to estimate, it’s safe to say that every dollar not spent on outrageously expensive electricity could be allocated elsewhere.

For those lowest on the economic ladder, that means things like meat and fish. Improved nutrition translates to a healthier population, which in turn boosts productivity and reduces the state’s health care burden. For those in the middle it means more money to spend every month, to buy things like food, clothes, consumer goods. At the top cheaper electricity would likely be a boom to commercial expansion. That would create jobs and pump yet more money into the country’s moribund economy. More buying, selling and building means more tax revenues for the state. At a time when the overall economy could desperately use a windfall of easy money, the government has received a gift heaven-sent.

Except, it appears, that none of that is going to happen. Instead some villain in a Lexus is going to build a new karaoke palace.

Maltese moto victim on the mend

Maltese lady who broke her femur in a moto accident is ready for the journey home.

Lisa Gatt, the 25-year-old seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in Cambodia, should start her journey back to Malta today, The Times has learnt.

Eating a packet of Twistees, delivered by a paramedic team from the Malta Red Cross, the young woman was in good spirits yesterday, Natal Falzon, a member of the organisation said.

“If all goes well, we will start the journey to Bangkok where the Thai Red Cross will assist us before getting on a plane back to Malta,” he said, adding the next hurdle was trying to determine the logistics of getting Ms Gatt on the plane.

Drive to Bangkok? That doesn’t make sense. Surely they are not trying to save $150.

Great White North goes south

The Canadian “Embassy” says it will close May 31.

The government has quietly decided to shutter Canada’s embassies in Cambodia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, signalling an end to almost 20 years of intense engagement in both countries that included major contributions in peacekeeping and development.

While the government has cited financial reasons, the move has come as a shock to diplomats and reinforced criticism that the government is gutting Canada’s foreign service and rendering the country irrelevant on the world stage.

[...]

DFAIT’s website says the embassy in Phnom Penh will close next month, while a CIDA bilateral project “will continue to operate in Phnom Penh to provide project and logistical support to Canada’s development assistance projects in Cambodia.” Bilateral aid to the country totalled $6.89 million last year, but in February it was revealed Cambodia has been stricken from CIDA’s list of development partners.

Consular services will be handled by the Australian Embassy.

Irrelevant on the world stage? Canada? Never.

Too much other people’s money

The latest word on Cambodia’s new breed of venture capitalist:

Leopard Capital has raised $27 million for its initial private equity offering focusing on Cambodia.

The Leopard Cambodia Fund invests in both companies and real estate in Cambodia focusing on venture, expansion and buy-out opportunities in the financial services, agriculture, food and beverage production, building materials, tourism and property development sectors.

“Cambodia is feeling the chill of the global depression through its garment and tourism sectors, and surely faces a couple tough years ahead,” said Douglas Clayton, managing partner. “This slowdown puts us in a favorable position to negotiate investments, as we can put cash on the table when few others are willing or able to. And land prices are correcting nicely from last year’s peaks, and bargains are finally starting to appear.”

The Daily frames it a little differently.

After launching a year ago with the goal of raising $100 million to invest in Cambodia, the private equity firm fund Leopard Capital said Monday it has collected rather less: about $27.2 million.

While $27 million is not as real as $100 million, it’s still pretty real. And apparently, it’s still more than Leopard knows what to do with. The fact is, there remains a dearth of  good, transparent investment opportunities out there, and word in investment banking circles is that Leopard has struggled to find worthy ventures to fund.

But that’s not so surprising. More prescient, perhaps, is the phrase “buy-out opportunities in the financial services.”

That doesn’t sound like a good thing.

Mu Sochua vs. Hun Sen

The Indypendent catches up with Mu Sochua, who was recently in the U.S. to meet Secretary of State Clinton.

Last week Sochua announced that she is considering legal action in Cambodia’s courts against the Prime Minister for allegedly using derogatory and threatening language against her in a speech he made last month during a visit to Kampot province in SW Cambodia, the parliamentary district represented by Mu Sochua. The speech, which was widely reported on Cambodian TV and other media, warned villagers not to seek help from members of the opposition party but to approach the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, and allegedly referred to Ms. Sochua using a khmer term ‘cheung kland,’ meaning approximately a gangster or unruly person and considered especially insulting by Cambodians when applied to a woman. Says Ms Sochua “This is very defamatory and I need to clear my case or I will not be able to properly serve or serve with dignity my function as MP in Kampot. This is inviting other men to abuse women whenever they want”.

This is the latest episode in a series of public disagreements in which Ms. Sochua, a former Minister for Women’s Affairs, has accused the Prime Minister of not doing enough to prevent people in her district from suffering loss of property and livelihoods at the hands of powerful investors, often with the backing of local authorities and the military.

Sue the prime minister for defamation? Considering that Prime Minister Hun Sen owns the courts, that course of action seems unlikely. But good luck. It would make for an interesting two seconds — about how long the court is likely to take before it throws the case out.

Hillary says ‘Happy Cambodian New Year’

Xinhua reports:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday issued a letter to wish the Cambodian people a happy Khmer New Year, which falls from April 14 to 16, according to the U.S. Embassy.

“On the occasion of the Khmer New Year, I wish the Cambodian people peace, prosperity, and best wishes,” she said in the letter made available to the press by the embassy.

“I look forward to the year ahead as our two nations identify even greater opportunities to strengthen our bilateral ties, as well as to work together on mutual areas of interest,” she said.

“This past year has been marked by significant progress in our relations, including U.S. military humanitarian ship visits, new agreements to implement assistance programs in economic development and the rule of law, and Peace Corps volunteers in 11 provinces,” she added.

“Military humanitarian” visits? Now there’s an interesting turn of phrase.

Happy Khmer New Year

Have a great time! Barring anything earth-shattering, blogging will return on the 20th.

Film goers embrace lesbian romance

AFP reports:

Cambodia’s first-ever movie featuring a taboo lesbian love story has been a surprising hit during its first week in theatres, the film’s writer said Thursday.

Phoan Phuong Bopha said the two-hour “Who Am I?” about a Cambodian-American woman infatuated with a famous Cambodian actress has so far attracted some 4,000 viewers — a blockbuster for the country’s tiny movie industry.

“This film have been successful beyond our expectations while the film industry has declined. This film draws great attention,” Phoan Phuong Bopha said.

See what happens to you in the US?

Quote of the day

From professor John Hall, talking to Seth Mydans of the New York Times:

“My greatest fear is that the tribunal will simply fade away from lack of funding — with the donors reluctant to fund a tribunal unable or unwilling to address the allegations,” said John A. Hall, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California, who has been monitoring the trials.

“In terms of what is happening inside the courtroom, this is an amazingly exciting time,” he said. But he added: “We shouldn’t pretend that progress can continue unless the corruption issue is dealt with.”

Prime Minister Hun Sen recently stated publicly what he has been saying privately for weeks: he would prefer to see the tribunal fail. Professor Hall’s comment may be more prescient than it first appears.

Background: Duch

Ka-set peers into Duch’s past.

Duch’s interest in the Marxist-Leninist revolution dates back to 1964, he explained, i.e. when he was a student at the National Institute of Pedagogy, where two of his teachers aroused his interest in politics. “My commitment was whole-hearted. I sacrifice everything”: a great part of his salary and even regular visits to his parents… Late 1967, after attending a training course provided by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), he was made to swear allegiance to the party, in order “to serve the party and the people in the best way, all his life, and to sacrifice everything” for the revolutionary cause. A few weeks later, he was arrested by Prince Sihanouk’s judicial police for “having endangered the security of the state”, with the collaboration of a foreign power. He was sentenced to 20 years of hard labour and was released on April 3rd 1970 thanks to General Lon Nol’s coup, which resulted in the release of all political prisoners.

The whole thing is worth reading.

Corks popped on border deal

The Daily gets the scoop.

Demarcation of the Thai-Cambodian border around the Preah Vihear temple will begin in July, the Joint Border Commission agreed Tuesday.

The two-day session of the commission, tasked with drawing the boundary line, ended with champagne and the signature of three draft documents that had so far been contentious. The popping of corks came just four days after a bloody border clash between the two countries near Preah Vihear temple.

“It was successful because both sides have agreed to set demarcation posts in May in Odday Meanchey province [around Anlong Veng] and in the Preah Vihear temple area in July,” Var Kim Hong, the Cambodian co-chairman of the JBC, said at a joint news conference.

The agreement still needs approval from the Thai minister of foreign affairs and the Thai legislature. Neither are a certainty given the turmoil currently unfolding in Bangkok. Still, it’s the most promising agreement between the two countries since 1907, and officials deemed its signature worthy of champagne celebrations. That says a lot.

Duch’s apology

Stan has the translation.

Milton Osborne on Preah Vihear

Cambodia scholar Milton Osbourne weighs in on Cambodia-Thai relations and the Preah Vihear issue. It’s a complex relationship that defies easy summary. In addition to dense international law and fickle domestic politics, a troubled history between the two countries makes trust an uneasy gamble.

However, it is fair to say that legal considerations are not always at the heart of Thai thinking on relations with Cambodia. From the time of Cambodia’s gaining independence in 1953 until the onset of the Cambodian civil war in 1970, relations between Thailand and Cambodia were marked by almost continuous difficulty. While there were brief periods when relations were “correct”, in others diplomatic relations were suspended. Throughout these years Thai security services worked to undermine the government in Phnom Penh.

[...]

Nevertheless, discussion of the issue of Preah Vihear within Thailand does represent yet another instance of a readiness of some Thais, whether politicians or ordinary citizens, to adopt and advance positions that seek to undermine what they see as irrelevant and irksome Cambodian interests. The readiness of some observers to resort to describing the situation as an expression of big brother-little brother rivalry is too simple, but it would be equally wrong to dismiss this aspect of Thai and Cambodian thinking about the relationship between the two countries.

Read the whole thing.

Beyond the Khmer Rouge

A History of the Cambodian Non-Communist Resistance 1975-1983. Pineapple has it, and other worthwhile collections.

Casualties reported in border clash

CNN reports that two Thai soldiers are dead after a second clash on the Cambodia-Thai border.

Air pollution

Page One of The Cambodia Daily (no web site) today carries an unsettling report about Phnom Penh air quality. The story is based on a 2006 study by Kanazawa University of Japan. Researchers found that in Phnom Penh the “airborne concentration of PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, was six times higher than that of Bangkok, a city once notorious for its smog.”

The story goes on to detail measures taken by Bangkok authorities compared to those of PhnomPenh.

Authorities in Bangkok cited human health as the driving force behind the push to improve their city’s air quality, but it’s difficult to discern what Cambodia’s government is doing to improve the quality of the air in Phnom Penh.

No, it’s not. The Cambodian government is doing nothing. That’s not hard to discern at all.

In related news, a recent letter to the editor in the Bangkok Post hints at what the future holds for cities that mismanage their air quality.

Chiang Mai has no organised mass transit bus system. No government has ever tried to set up an alternative to the use of private cars by massively funding a transportation agency and ensuring it has the powers to cut through the morass of different agencies and areas of administration within the city and the surrounding districts. Thus, attempts to reduce traffic flow into the city and consequentially toxic emissions, have been almost non-existent, and the City Planning Department officials can only propose more road widening.

Micro-particles (particles of less than 10 microns) thought to seriously affect respiratory health, are increasingly reaching levels over 4 times the European safety standard of 50 microgrammes (per cubic metre/24 hours; the Thai standard is 120mg) during the dry and hot seasons.

With tens of thousands confirmed sick with respiratory problems and the numbers thought to be suffering from breathing ailments in excess of 100,000 people, and with lung cancer running at rates more than twice that of Bangkok and increasing, the medical facts speak for themselves.

In the future, maybe the CPP will start building cancer wards like it builds primary schools. Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen Lung Cancer Center does have a nice ring to it, doesnt it?

More border clashes

Say hello to my little friend.

Thai and Cambodian soldiers exchanged rifle and rocket fire on their disputed border near an ancient Hindu temple on Friday, but there were no reports of casualties, officials from both countries said.

“The armed clash began when Thai soldiers entered Cambodian territory. We fired rockets at the Thai soldiers,” Cambodia’s government spokesman Phay Siphan told Reuters.

Bangkok says “It was a misunderstanding.” Well, yeah.

KRT corruption: The Economist names names

In the most direct language to appear in the press yet, The Economist names officials accused of taking kickbacks at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

Three of the court’s staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accuse Sean Visoth, the court’s chief of administration, of collecting money from every Cambodian in his department, including court employees and Cambodian legal assistants in the office of the co-investigating judges and co-prosecutors (the court has dual officials because it is was set up under Cambodian and United Nations auspices and is run under national and UN rules). Some of the cash, they were told, was intended for Sok An, a deputy prime minister.

There is no indication that the minister took the money and neither man has commented on the accusations, which are unproven. But in November Sean Visoth went on sick leave because, according to the government’s spokesman Khieu Kanharith, a UN corruption review had named him and requested his removal. “Sick leave is a political excuse,” he says

It’s a bit of a pickle for the U.N.

Lawyers for the defence are demanding a full investigation. On March 27th the defence team for Nuon Chea, another of the accused, backed by two other defence teams, asked to see the confidential UN review. “At some point,” says Richard Rogers, the co-ordinator for the defence lawyers, the UN “is going to have to choose between either looking like it’s complicit in a cover-up or hand over the documents to the defence teams so they can help ensure international standards.”

Rather than deal with the situation like an adult, the government continues to respond with callow dismissals.

“Why don’t all the lawyers pull out?” asks its spokesman. “If you say that the court is corrupt, get out. At least we can save some money.”

It’s like working with drunk teenagers.

The Cambodian of Greenwhich Village

Cambodian sandwich shop opens in downtown NYC.

Num Pang is the brainchild of Ratha Chau and Ben Daitz, the owner of the city’s only other Cambodian restaurant, Kampuchea, a more traditional restaurant located in the Lower East Side. The sandwiches are inspired by the cooking of Chau’s mother, and the name comes from the Cambodian term for bread or sandwich. Having been open for just under two weeks, the place is already a hit, with lunch lines 20 people deep stretching down the street.

Sounds yummy! Maybe Mr. Ratha could open a Phnom Penh location?