Grounds for divorce

DPA reads the Cambodia Daily.

A Cambodian man accidentally killed his father while trying to poison his wife’s lover with a tainted bottle of alcohol, national media reported Thursday.

Police said Chhouy Chhim gave the poisoned alcohol as a gift to Chan Sarith, who he accused of having an affair with his wife, the Cambodia Daily reported.

But Chan Sarith shared the bottle with Chhouy Chhim’s father, who later died in hospital.

[...]

Police said Chhouy Chhim was being held for questioning and his wife planned to file for divorce.

Karma.

Cambodian dancing

The Northwest Asian Weekly tells the story of 24-year-old Sy Sar, once a kid dancing around Wat Bo, now a ballet star in the U.S.

While visiting Cambodia in 2000, American arts patron Anne H. Bass witnessed a rising star. Then 15 years old, Sokvannara “Sy” Sar performed a dance at Cambodia’s famous Preah Kahn temple and caught Bass’ eye.

Nine years later, Sar is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Company, and Bass has documented his journey every step of the way. On May 25, Sar’s story, in a film titled “Dancing Across Borders,” produced and directed by Bass, was showcased at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Sar’s journey began on the streets of Cambodia.

Among the greatest difficulties faced by Sy Sar in the great Promised Land?

“He didn’t like anything from the standpoint of food,” Bass said. “We tried everything. He just really missed his mother’s cooking.”

Why does the Internet hate Cambodia?

The Internet is suck a lot now. Posting will be sporadic.

Phnom Penh sky bridge

AFP reports that Phnom Penh will soon have an overpass.

CAMBODIA broke ground at its capital’s busiest intersection on Wednesday for what will be the country’s first road overpass.

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the start of the project, intended to reduce Phnom Penh’s increasing traffic problems, at a ceremony opening another new bridge at the intersection.

‘It is will be the first overpass bridge of Cambodia,’ he said at the ceremony.

Officials said construction of the 308-metre overpass would cost more than US$6 million (S$8.7 million) and would be finished within one year.

Is the roundabout at the Monivong bridge really the busiest intersection in the capital? That doesn’t sound right. But maybe. AFP does a pretty lousy job of explaining the details.

Those hopeless Cambodian heathens

They sure are lucky the white people are here to save them.

“After 24 hours of travel – starting in Rocklin and ending in Battambang, Cambodia – not counting layovers, our team has settled into life and ministry in Cambodia. Even though our afternoon activities were rained out today we have already visited two local churches in the Battambang area where we shared testimonies, sang, prayed, made some crafts, and just had fun and fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. Their stories are inspiring to us and we hope we have been an encouragement to them.

After church on Sunday we climbed 358 steps to visit the ruins of a Buddhist temple on top of a local mountain. We were glad to learn more about the beliefs of the Cambodian people but we were also reminded of the hopeless situation of those many people who have yet to put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Poor little suckers, all brown and poor and heathened.

No money for the children

Somaly Mam’s kids have no rice to eat.

One of the most pressing concerns Mam, who crusades against forced prostitution, is facing is scarce funding for the shelter she helped start for women and girls who are abused and coerced into the sex trade in Cambodia and neighbouring countries.

The current credit crunch also has had an effect on the number of women and children turning to prostitution to survive and the ability of Mam to care for her more than 200 charges in shelters.

“Since we opened the shelter, I always face this problem. Like the last five months, no rice, we cannot feed the children,” Mam, of Agir pour les Femmes En Situation Precaire (AFESIP or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), told Reuters.

Cambodia’s NGO and donor communities should hang their heads in shame.

Let there be light

Power from Vietnam comes surging down the line.

Cambodia has now received around 400,000 kWh of electricity from Vietnam a day since a 220kV power line linking Chau Doc district in An Giang province to Phnom Penh via Cambodia’s Takeo province was put into operation on May 8.

The Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Do Huu Hao, announced this in Hanoi on May 26 at the signing ceremony of a contract for the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) to sell power to the Electricity of Cambodia (EDC).

This is awesome news for the country’s minuscule ruling elite, who will now be able to fatten their Singapore bank accounts with additional  millions every year by overcharging the country’s desperately poor for their electricity.

Nayan Chanda testifies at KRT

From Ka-set.

Nayan Chanda, author of Brother Enemy: The War After the War (1986) and long-time Indochina correspondent for the prestigious Far Eastern Economic Review, started his testimony on Monday May 25th at Duch’s trial to discuss the armed conflict pitting Democratic Kampuchea against Vietnam. The journalist, currently director of publications at a research institute of U.S. university Yale, had access to officials of the Indochina peninsula, although he was unable to go to Democratic Kampuchea, and was able to understand the political, diplomatic and military issues for the enemy brothers. His testimony, based upon his book Brother Enemy, shed new light on the argument often used by former Khmer Rouge officials to justify their past actions, that is the existence of real expansionist intentions from the Vietnamese neighbour.

POSTSCRIPT: Duch responds.

Angkor by night

APSARA is considering extending visiting hours.

Cambodia is considering opening the famed Angkor Wat temples at night to draw more tourists to the impoverished country, an official at the archaeological site said Tuesday.

Similar night tourism efforts have been introduced at other sites in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia already has installed some lights at the network of centuries-old temples, said Bun Narith, who leads the agency responsible for managing the Angkor park.

Without a little controversy, the Sou Ching company says it has spent $12 million since 2006 lighting up Angkor Wat. That’s roughly a quarter million dollars per month on lighting. For a place that is closed at night, that seems a tad excessive, no?

Cambodia: Headline News

Cambodian workforce needs overhaul [Straits Times]

UN study advises caution over dams [Guardian]

Mine blast kills soldier [Straits Times]

1st textbook on KRouge [Straits Times]

Cambodia quarantines Japanese couple suspected of having swine flu [Earth Times]

Department of wishful thinking

Gavin Hayman, a campaigner with Global Witness, sounds off over Chevron and the Cambodian National Petroleum Agency.

Centralisation and politicisation of power within the CNPA has created a dysfunctional organisation over which the Cambodian parliament has no oversight. A setup like this leaves the industry wide open to corruption and exploitation.

Companies such as Chevron have a role to play in improving the governance of the country’s extractive industries to help reduce poverty. As a key member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Chevron should lead by example. To start, it should disclose any payments it makes to the Cambodian government.

Unlikely. But it’s still nice to hear someone ask.

Spambodia

The latest pitch from spammers.

Sir, It is my honor and with a heart deep of humiliation and seeking good consolation that I seek to write to you. My name is Miss.Anusa Hirunpatravong From Thailand now exile in Cambodia, My Late Father was personal Aid to Mr.Thaksin Shinawatra on home affairs, the former Prime Minister of Thailand . Mr. Thaksin Shinwatra during his tenure as the Prime Minister of Thailand before he was ousted by the military junta through a military coupe de tat in 2006. …

Along with the spam-happy local recruitment firm and that annoying bus company — you know who you are — may you all drive off a cliff.

Pandemic alert

According to unconfirmed reports, two Koreans are in Calmette with the swine flu.

UPDATE: In the Post on Friday, Dr Sok Touch, director of the Communicable Disease Control Department at the Ministry of Health, says no confirmed cases of the disease have been reported.

“I want to stress that there is no confirmation of the disease here — we are simply following up,” he said.

Moody’s reviewing Acleda

Local bank under scrutiny.

Moody’s Investors Service has placed ACLEDA Bank Plc’s (ACLEDA Bank) local currency long-term deposit and issuer ratings of Ba1 on review for possible downgrade. The bank’s other ratings are unaffected and carry a stable outlook: its bank financial strength rating of D; foreign currency long-term deposit rating of B3; foreign currency long-term issuer rating of B1; and local currency and foreign currency short-term issuer and deposit ratings of non- prime.

Acleda is purportedly one of the country’s strongest banks. What of the others? Meanwhile, garment sales, tourism numbers, and office rents are all down. Welcome to the new economy.

POSTSCRIPT: Moody’s also downgrades Kookmin.

Pot Pot’s crapper for sale

VIA Snookyville: Nhem En has lost his mind.

A former Khmer Rouge official photographer has put on sale for 1.5 million dollars what he claims to be Pol Pot’s clothes, sandals and toilet, along with thousands of photographs and other artifacts he collected during the genocidal regime’s 1975-79 rule.

“I will sell Pol Pot’s sandals, toilet, his uniform and cap, thousands of photographs and the two cameras I used during the Khmer Rouge period,” said Nhem En, who was recruited to take photographs of detainees when they arrived at Tuol Sleng torture prison in Phnom Penh.

“I am asking for 1.5 million dollars, but the price is negotiable,” he added.

$1.5 million for the toilet where Brother Number 1 went number 2? Somebody has been putting too much gasoline in the rice wine up in Anglong Veng.

Admissions of guilt

VIA Elena: Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan comments on allegations of corrpution at the ECCC.

Phay Siphan described the most recent corruption allegations – in which workers on the Cambodian side of the court were allegedly forced to hand over a portion of their salaries – as “a foreign concept”, saying, “Cambodian people give small payments at temples all the time.”

That sounds a lot like an admission of guilt.

Council vote

Same as all the others.

Dancing for Cambodia

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro continues to stun the world.

A Cambodian dancer and choreographer from Long Beach and two other California artists are among the 11 winners announced today of the 2009 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro is a critically acclaimed dancer and the only U.S.-based choreographer of Cambodian dance who also tours internationally. Since moving to the U.S. in 1991, she has created training workshops in classical dance and music for Southern California’s Cambodian refugee population.

Her recent commissions include works for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process Series.

Her dance for “Spiral XII” was performed in November at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Beans and corn

Royal cows go Tex-mex.

Cambodia’s royal oxen performed an ancient ceremony to predict the country’s agriculture fortunes — and raised fears of a low rice harvest by refusing to eat any of the grain.

[...]

They were seen eating only beans and corn, allowing the palace’s chief astrologer Kang Ken to declare that this year “beans and corn harvests will be bountiful.”

The astrologer did not spell out to the crowd what it meant for the rice harvest — but he later told reporters that it would be only about 30 percent of the expected amount.

“I am extremely worried. As the oxen did not eat the rice, I fear that I cannot have (a) good harvest of rice,” said farmer Vong Sak, 53, after the ceremony, which marks the start of Cambodia’s planting season.

AFP did not elaborate on the kind of bean.

Facing the truth on human rights

From the department of completely unsurprising.

LOCAL rights activists say the government has shown little commitment to its international human rights obligations, declining to send a special delegation to Geneva for an upcoming UN rights review.

Cambodia comes before the UN Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights for the first time Monday, following the submission of its initial report to the committee in early January.

The report, summarising Cambodia’s compliance with the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, was originally due in 1994 – two years after its ratification of the covenant.

Mu Sochua v Hun Sen, part iii

Lawyers for both sides appeared in court Thursday.

Mu Sochua said Thursday evening that her lawyer, Kong Sam Onn, presented prosecutor Hing Bun Chea with evidence detailing every aspect of her case, which she argues stems from an April 4 speech in Kampot during which Hun Sen called her a cheung klang, or “strong leg”, a term viewed by some as particularly offensive to women.

She said the evidence included a transcript of the speech, as well as all documents pertaining to an altercation that occurred during last year’s election in which she claimed an army general tore a button from her blouse and exposed her bra.

During the speech, Hun Sen referred to a “strong female MP from the opposition party in Kampot” who lost a button on her shirt while running around embracing people. He did not name Mu Sochua.

Hun Sen has repeatedly denied that the April 4 comments referred to Mu Sochua.

What a man.

Knowing your enemy

Khmerization contemplates the Kingdom’s latest political dogfight.

Mr Hun Sen’s legal action and his threat of lifting of Mrs. Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity, if anything at all, is a case of political intimidation and political oppression but worst, a political terrorism, as his pre-emptive lawsuit and the threat of the lifting of parliamentary immunity was aimed at terrorising his political critics, in this case Mrs. Mu Sochua, into submission and silence.

[...]

I do not wish to pre-judge the Phnom Penh Court here as the case is still hanging in the balance.

Um, yeah, not to pre-judge or anything.

Gin and journos

British comedian Dom Joly is in Cambodia.

I looked into the eyes of evil twice last week. Wandering aimlessly around Cambodia I pretty much fell into a narrative for my book. I was having a drink at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Siem Reap when a man sidled up to me and inquired as to whether I was a journalist? I said yes. He then asked me whether I wanted to meet a man who was selling Pol Pot’s shoes.

[...]

Four days later I was in Tuol Sleng itself, staring at the heartbreaking photographs that Nhem En had taken. …

One certainty is the guilt of “Comrade Duch”, the former commander of Tuol Sleng. He is currently on trial just outside Phnom Penh in a hugely expensive joint UN-Cambodian tribunal.

I found a man who claimed he could get me into the trial. This time we met at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club overlooking the river in Phnom Penh. I started to wonder whether all foreign correspondents had it this easy, sitting around drinking gin in their club until a story turned up and tapped them on the shoulder?

Only ones with expense accounts. The $5.50 cocktails are the real evil.

Hunting for Thaksin Shinawatra in Koh Kong

Writing for the Asia Times, Stephen Kurczy goes snooping around Koh Kong for fugitive Thai politician Thaksin Shinawatra. His questions spark laughs and obscenities, but no bounty.

Thai intelligence surfaced in late April that the former telecom tycoon’s private jet flew into the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh and then into Koh Kong, located on the nation’s southwestern corner along its border with Thailand. Senior Cambodian officials have strongly denied that Thaksin visited, but many in Bangkok believe Thaksin leveraged his known personal ties and business links with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to secure special landing rights.

[...]

A source at Societe Concessionnaire d’Aeroport, the French company that manages Cambodia’s airports, said that no private jets flew into Phnom Penh during the period when Thaksin allegedly visited. Meanwhile Bou Phou, the deputy director of Koh Kong’s Airport, said the last time a plane landed on Koh Kong’s gravel airstrip was eight years ago.

He said the dilapidated airstrip could land a small aircraft like a Cessna or Antonov 24, but not Thaksin’s private jet. …

Sam, the owner of Fat Sam’s bar and restaurant, said his well-informed Lexus-driving neighbor is positive Thaksin was not in Koh Kong. Otto, owner of the nearby Otto’s Restaurant and Guest House, said the rumors are simply “bullshit”.

And, hey, if a stoned guesthouse owner said it, it must be true.

Sean ‘The Bagman’ Visoth

VIA Elena: CNN investigates allegations of corruption at the E-triple-C.

Thirty years on, five Khmer Rouge leaders are in court facing the most serious charges imaginable, but both defence and prosecution lawyers tell Rivers that the credibility of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal is being jeopardized by the corruption allegations.

While there are no suggestions the judges or lawyers are involved, employees of the court’s Office of Administration described pressure to to provide kickbacks to supervisors to keep their jobs. The employees say the combined amounts of the kickbacks were large: “Thousand dollars. 30 or 40 thousand US dollars a month.”

The Chief of Defence Section of the trial, Richard Rogers, adds: “It (the trial collapsing) is becoming a real possibility…the victims who’ve been waiting for 30 years for these trials deserve justice…peace…closure.” The UN’s internal affairs body confirmed to CNN it has investigated the alleged corruption in the court administration, but would not share the results of the investigation.  The Cambodian government also confirmed an investigation, but says no evidence of corruption was found.

So, $30,000 to $40,000 per month went to Sean Visoth. That’s not a bad little monthly stipend. Of course, the chances he got to keep that money are quite small. Most of that it went straight up the power chain. It always does. The thing is, Sean Visoth is the highest ranking Cambodian administrator at the court, which makes the list of names above him singularly brief: Sok An.

And it’s not as if Sok An needs the money. He’s already wealthy beyond the imagination of most Cambodians. It’s like Warren Buffet filching nickels from the homeless.

Street crime

British royalty mugged on the streets of Phnom Penh.

The Queen’s granddaughter, 19, who is holidaying in the country as part of her gap year, was rescued by two bodyguards who tackled a gang of bandits.

The incident happened as the Duchess of York’s daughter and two gap-year friends were walking at night in Phnom Penh.

[...]

It is the first time in 10 years that SO14 officers have stopped a direct threat to a Royal.

The bad guys are still at large.

UPDATE: Princess Eugenie soldiers on.

Beware the publisher

The humanitarian efforts of Cambodia Daily publisher Bernard Krisher are well-known. Mr Krisher builds schools, provides mosquito nets to the needy, and helps connect remote Cambodian villages to the World Wide Web, among many other laudable acts.

But for all his public kindness, Mr Krisher is also known for being petty and vindictive, and privately, many fear incurring his wrath. Such spitefulness is evident in a recent exchange (see below) between the publisher and a person (who shall remain anonymous out of respect for the person’s privacy) who once had the temerity to write a letter to the editor disagreeing with Mr Krisher.

Mr Krisher does not easily forget those who disagree with him, and almost a year later, The Cambodia Daily publisher is still harassing the author of that letter.

* * * * *

I received an email from a group of my friends that I set up a [...] organisation with about 8 years ago. Bernie had googled my name and it had taken him to the contact page of that little NGO and he emailed my friends asking them if I still work for UNDP. They were all confused and forwarded the emails to me asking if he was some sort of stalker. I replied to Bernie’s email saying:

Dear Bernie, May I ask why you are inquiring about my whereabouts?

Regards,
—-

He replied with the following (cc’ing [Cambodia Daily Editor] Kevin Doyle):

Dear —-,

I inquired about you because an e-mail I sent you bounced back saying that you do not have an e-mail account at UNDP. I wanted to check whether you had been fired or resigned on your own after maligning and libeling and your superiors at the UNDP in New York apologized and informed me that you should not have used your UNDP e-mail address to disparage people as you did. In turn, you may wish to know that I have instructed The Cambodia Daily to ignore any press releases from the UNDP and not to consider running any wire stories about the UNDP if they are favorable in tone.

Best regards,
Bernie

I sent him the following reply (also cc’ing Kevin Doyle):

Dear Bernie,

I am truly amazed – you certainly live up to your reputation of holding an extraneous grudge. It is simply unfathomable that you would send emails to my friends asking about my whereabouts nearly a year after our disagreement about Radio Free Asia. I think it is possible that you have a problem dealing with people who disagree with you. That said, I’m glad to see that the title of your op ed on your website is “Is RFA relevant?” rather than “RFA is Irrelevant” as it was published in print.

In reference to our disagreement, my wrong-doing was to have sent my emails from my UNDP email address, it was certainly not the content of my emails. The only reason I sent them from my UNDP address was because I was assured by the Daily’s editor prior to my sending the emails that they would be read as being written by me in my personal capacity and not my professional capacity. I later realised that you are more than happy to knowingly undermine the word of your own editor and therefore I was naive to have believed him. It is simply preposterous of you to imply that my emails were at all related to your previous encounters with the UNDP in Cambodia but I’m glad that you received the apology from the UNDP that you think you deserve.

I am surprised to hear that you have allowed your previous dealings with me and the UNDP in Cambodia to bias the future reporting of your paper. I had always assumed that the Daily would provide an unbiased report of incidents as they occurred (be they favourable or unfavourable toward the UNDP) and I’m disappointed to hear that this is not the case.

Lastly, to fulfil your perverse interest in my career, I was not fired from the UNDP and I did not resign for any matters related to you.

Regards,
—-

I then found out that he had forwarded a different version of his above email to my friends that currently work for the small NGO that we set up. It appeared as though it was the same version he had sent to me and [Cambodia Daily Editor] Kevin (it looks as though it is a simple forward) but it actually is slightly different and, most importantly, it adds an extra sentence that threatens the small NGO that my friends run (and that Bernie thinks I’m still associated with). The email he forwarded them is below (the extra sentence is highlighted[bold]):

Dear —-,

I inquired about you because an e-mail I sent  you bounced back saying that you do not have an e-mail account at UNDP.  I wanted to check whether you had been fired or resigned on your own after maligning and libeling me,and your superiors at the UNDP in New York apologized and informed me that you should not have used your UNDP e-mail address to disparage people as you did.  In turn, you may wish to know that I have instructed The Cambodia Daily to ignore any press releases from the UNDP and not to consider running any wire stories about the UNDP if they are favorable in tone.i understand you are working for ther organization in australia and as soon as i can confirm what they do we will follow the rain and treat these organizations equally.

besrregards,

bernie

* * * * *

See also The Cambodia Daily vs. Radio Free Asia and The Daily vs. RFA, act III.

Culinary Cambodia

Phnomenon is back.