Changes to property laws that will give non-citizens ownership rights appear imminent.

And while the proposed law is focused on the property market, experts agree it also would be a general boost for the country, which has been struggling through its own version of the global economic downturn.

“The law, in essence, will not help the whole economy recover. But it’s part of a wider picture,” said Daniel Parkes, country manager for the CB Richard Ellis real estate company. “What it is doing is making investment in Cambodia more transparent and easier.”

The law, which is expected to go to the National Assembly for a vote in the coming months, would allow foreigners to own apartments and condominiums on buildings’ upper floors. Now they are limited to 99-year leaseholds on any property.

Ground-level residences, which include ownership of the land that the units stand on, would continue to be reserved for Cambodians.

The assumption seems to be that there is a pent up demand of foreigners out there waiting to buy overpriced boxes of air in regulation-weak third-world countries. And once Cambodia can change her property laws, cashed-up foreigners will come rafting in on river of greenbacks.

That seems a tad optimistic, really. But if you’re sitting on a hundred million dollars worth of property that the locals have shown virtually zero interest in owning, what else are you going to believe?

The truth is, a half-million dollars will buy you a 3-bedroom high-rise condo in the city. But drive 20 minutes in any direction, and that same money will buy you a palace, if not two. Local people know that, of course. Hence the new law.

Cambodia video footage circa 1960.

UPDATE: Consensus agrees that the video is not of Cambodia.

In the pursuit of truth, no detail is beyond scrutiny.

Inner City Press ventured down to another UN Dispute Tribunal hearing on November 20, to find a official of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials explaining by video conference that a staffer working on audio visual production for UNAKRT had been underperforming. Or was it that the equipment bought by UNAKRT — already embroiled in corruption allegations — was of the wrong kind?

Somewhere, deep in the halls of the Extraordinary Chambers, under the weight of 2 million dead souls and twice as many living, the bureaucrats are debating with profound gravitas the moral implications of NTSC v PAL.

Forty percent of Thais polled recently say Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva should have taken “harsher measures” against Cambodia for its overtures toward Thaksin. A majority 52 percent said Abhisit’s response was “appropriate.”

The BBC reports.

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief Kaing Guek Eav should be jailed for 40 years, a prosecutor has told Cambodia’s UN-backed war crimes court.

Kaing, known as Comrade Duch, has admitted responsibility and apologised for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people at Tuol Sleng prison.

To anyone with an American-frontier sense of justice, 40 years sounds like the kind of sentence someone gets for nicking a candy bar from the local Quick-E Mart.

Dudley Wayne Kyzer, for example, was sentenced by an Alabama court to 10,000 years in prison for killing his wife and two others. Oklahoma rapist Darron Bennalford Anderson was handed 2,200 years, and upon retrial dealt another 90 centuries, “including 4000 years each for rape and sodomy, 1,750 years for kidnaping, 1,000 years for burglary and robbery, and 500 years for grand larceny.”

Duch methodically orchestrated the torture and execution of more than 15,000 people. Forty life sentences would be a relative slap on the wrist. Forty years is practically an admission of innocence.

VIA Alison: Sin Son, the mahout of Wat Phnom’s world-famous elephant Sambo, tells their story to Al Jazeera.

Available at fine book stores everywhere.

Just as many news outlets are reporting that ties between Thailand and Cambodia are returning to normal, Marwaan Macan-Markar at UPI says that Thailand is building bomb shelters at a school near Preah Vihear and shuttering border crossings.

Children at the largest school in this village close to the Thai-Cambodian border have a new regimen to follow besides books and sports. They have drills, practising evacuation, in case their school comes under an artillery attack.

The destination of such flight is visible across Pom-Sa-Ron Widhaya. Spread around the corners of the school’s playing field and behind the only building where 600 students study are 14 bunkers. Each is built with cement, fortified with sandbags and earth and can hold 30 students comfortably.

The bunkers at the school are among the clearest signs of unease that has swept across this area as relations between Thailand and its eastern neighbour Cambodia worsen. Thai authorities have built 340 bunkers in two schools and several villages in three sub-districts in Sri Saket, the province where Baan Pom-Sa-Ron sits. The bunkers, which have been built over the past three months, cost 40 million baht (1.2 million U.S. dollars).

This almost certainly has more to do with corruption in the Thai military than any perceived threat from Thailand’s neighbor. The idea that Cambodia would launch missiles at school children is absurd. Really, really absurd.

Tribunal watch dog OSJI offers mixed praise for the Extraordinary Chambers. From today’s Cambodia Daily:

In a periodic report on the court’s activities that was due to be released in New York yesterday evening, the Open Society Justice Initiative also said UN and the Cambodian government had made no progress to enforce a new anticorruption program that both sides at the court agreed to in August.

… In the report, OSJI described the concluding trial of crimes against humanity suspect Kaing Guek Eav as a “major achievement,” which though imperfect, proved that the tribunal is technically and physically able to conduct a complex procedure meeting international fair trial standards.

Still, OSJI reasserts its stance that the court is not independent. Citing public speeches of the prime minister, OSJI says that Hun Sen continues to cast his influence over the court. Citing confidential sources, the group says the government refuses to allow investigation of additional suspects.

According to insiders, however, the white elephant in the room is the tribunal’s empty 2010 calendar. The court’s next trial is not expected to began until 2011, at the earliest. No one at the chambers can give a reasonable explanation for this laggardly approach,  and cynics darkly suggest that the court and the government are stalling in hopes that the four remaining defendants all drop dead.

If Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan all died in the next year, that not only would be incredibly unfortunate, it also would be incredibly suspicious. Surely there’s a less murderous explanation for the delay. So why isn’t anyone making it?

The post-Thaksin recovery appears well-underway.

Air traffic between Thailand and Cambodia has returned to near-normal levels after plummeting at the height of the diplomatic spat earlier this month.

Bangkok-based carriers such as Thai Airways International (THAI) and Bangkok Airways saw bookings start to rebound last week.

… Bangkok Airways, which has the largest capacity between the two countries, saw Thais cancel flights to Siem Reap during the dispute. But there was a steady flow of foreign passengers, especially Europeans, said executives at the airline

… THAI, which has 14 flights a week between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, saw about 40% of reservations cancelled in the week after Thaksin’s visit

… But Thai AirAsia, which operates daily flights between the two capitals, said it was entirely unaffected by the souring of diplomatic ties.

Business with Thailand dropped significantly as a result of  Thaksin Shinawatra’s visit. Most notably, air and overland arrivals plummeted. The decrease hit Poipet casinos hard. Yet as soon as Thaksin left, cross-border trade began recovering. And while traders still fear a border closure, cross-border trade today is business-as-usual. If the tourist are coming back, Thai punters cannot be far behind.

All of which suggests that Thaksin’s visit will go down in history as a barely remembered footnote to November 2009. The long-term cross-country implications nil, the political significance even less. Contrary to the suggestions of hyper-inflated egos on the Thai side, there is just not that much that Thailand can do to punish Cambodia for its lack of fealty.