Dam ready to go online

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:00  
May Kunmakara

China’s leading dam builder Sinohydro Corporation said it will begin feeding electricity from its 10-megawatt (MW) Kamchay Dam in Kampot province to Electricite du Cambodge from December 7. Sinohydro spokesman Kim Sovan said the launch was two months behind schedule, as the company was waiting for government officials to be available for the opening ceremony. It is the first of three dams worth a combined US$280 million that the company plans to operate under a 40-year government concession. The three dams will have 180MW combined generating capacity.

Southern Gold issue to fund local gold hunt

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:00   
Jeremy Mullins

SOUTHERN Gold Ltd announced plans Thursday to raise US$4.6 million through an issue of up to 40 million shares to finance ongoing gold exploration projects in Cambodia and Australia. The Sydney-listed firm plans to roll out the shares in two blocks at $0.115 each in the coming months. A portion of the capital will fund work on four of the company’s seven Cambodian properties as part of its 2009-10 exploration programme announced Monday. Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) finances the other three sites.

S'ville port revenues sag 20pc

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:01  
Nguon Sovan

Deputy director general pegs losses to global slowdown, Cai Mep competition

SIHANOUKVILLE

Photo by: NGUON SOVAN

A crane loads containers at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on Wednesday. Revenues are down 20 percent for the year to date following an 11 percent drop in throughput.

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS), Cambodia’s largest shipping facility, reported a 20 percent decline in revenues for the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period in 2008.

The port has brought in US$19.2 million so far this year. Total revenue in 2008 was $28.8 million, according to statistics released by PAS.

The port’s gross throughput dropped 11 percent, and the number of containers handled declined 23 percent, nearly identical to cargo traffic figures reported by PAS in September.

Though not directly correlated, the 20 percent drop in revenues at PAS closely follows the Ministry of Commerce’s reported 22 percent decline in garment export revenues for the first 10 months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, another sign of the Cambodian export economy’s dependence on the garment sector.

“The drop in revenues can be attributed in part to the global economic crisis, but also to the launch of the Cai Mep deepwater port in southern Vietnam, which has been operating since June,” PAS Deputy Director General Va Sonath said.

Education key to reducing violence: govt

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:03 

Lily Partland

Siem Reap
CAMBODIAN society – young people and men in particular – must modernise attitudes to combat increasing rates of violence against women and children, Minister of Women’s Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi said Thursday.

“There are some concepts that should be reviewed and modernised in order to meet the changing culture of the country. The role of men must change; they should work in the home as well,” she said at the conclusion of a two-day conference in Siem Reap.

LAND DISPUTE:Battambang man to be freed from prison

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:03 
Chhay Channyda

LAND DISPUTE
A Battambang resident arrested in relation to a local land dispute should be released from prison in two months with a five-year suspended sentence, the Appeal Court ruled on Wednesday. The court upheld the one-year prison sentence handed to community representative Chim Keo, but said it had already been fulfilled by a year of pretrial detention. The decision is the latest chapter in a land dispute that has dragged on since the 1990s, when businessman Eang Oeun lodged a complaint against 38 families he said were illegally settled on a 124-hectare plot of farmland he owned in Battambang’s Bavel district. In 2002, authorities evicted the families, and since the eviction there have been five incidents in which former villagers have been arrested for trespassing. Chhim Chan Sathyanon, a lawyer from Legal Aid of Cambodia representing Chim Keo, said his client was detained for nearly one year from November 2006, charged with violating private property. Chim Keo was re-arrested on October 2 after the Appeal Court handed him a one-year sentence in absentia this September.

Kraya villagers fear health crisis

Friday, 27 November 2009 15:04

  May Titthara

Kampong Thom

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Villagers from the beseiged Kraya commune in Kampong Thom province say they have been forced to hide in cassava fields for fear of arrest and now face increasing health risks from a lack of medicine and the threat of malaria from sleeping outdoors. Authorities blockaded the commune following a violent protest last month over their impending eviction, during which equipment belonging to the Vietnamese-owned rubber company Tin Bean was set on fire.

THE ongoing seige at Kraya commune threatens to create a health crisis, villagers warned on Thursday.

“Now we have health problems such as diarrhoea because we don’t have any rice to eat, so we have to resort to dried cassava,” said Lam Leoung, 52.

Medical supplies in the besieged village have also become a problem, villagers said. “We still have some medicines that NGOs have given us, but we need more medicine for treatment. People’s health is worse now because of the cool season,” Lam Leoung said.

Pleas to lift the blockade, which has penned residents in since a clash with military police on November 16, have fallen on deaf ears. The blockade was set up after villagers torched vehicles in protest of their looming eviction by Tin Bean, a Vietnamese rubber firm that was granted the 8,000-hectare plot in 2007. Seven people have been arrested.

Cement factory to be built in Kandal province

Thursday, 26 November 2009 15:00  
Soeun Say

CONSTRUCTION will begin early next month on a US$17 million cement factory in Kandal province following the signing Monday of a joint-venture agreement between three companies, the factory’s landholder said Tuesday. 7NG General Manager Chheang Bora said Flanders Concrete NV Co of the Netherlands, Thu Duc Long An Centrifugal Concrete Joint Stock Co of Vietnam and Cambodia’s Sokchoeun Development Co took out a 99-year lease on the company’s Borey Santepheap II land development in Ksach Kandal district. Construction will be completed in six months, he said.

Kraya eviction pushed back

Thursday, 26 November 2009 15:03   
May Titthara

Kampong Thom

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Villagers in Kampong Thom’s Kraya commune wait among the ruins of excavation equipment burned during a clash last week with authorities.

BESIEGED villagers locked in a bitter land feud were granted an 11th-hour reprieve from their looming eviction on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to reach a peaceful resolution.

Hundreds of families from Kraya commune in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district braced for violence after a brutal clash with military police last week left several vehicles incinerated, two people hospitalised, seven arrested and an entire community cordoned off from the outside world.
Instead, the eviction date was postponed by authorities for seven days in the hope of negotiating a nonviolent conclusion.

“We did not stop the evicion. We postponed it in order to give villagers a chance to organise representatives for negotiating a peaceful resolution,” said Kampong Thom provincial Governor Chhun Chhorn. “We don’t want to use violence to resolve this problem. We need to find a friendly resolution that complies with the law.”

Villagers, however, were sceptical

NGO law is on the horizon

Wednesday, 25 November 2009 15:03  
Sebastian Strangio and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

PRIME Minister Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the government has moved ahead with drafting a law to regulate the activities of NGOs, prompting fresh concerns that the proposed legislation will be used to clamp down on the activities of advocacy groups.

At a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the cooperation between NGOs and the government, Hun Sen said the presence of 3,000 NGOs in Cambodia requires new rules to weed out groups engaged in “opposition” politics.

Charges follow violent land row

Monday, 23 November 2009 15:02  
May Titthara

Photo by: Rann Reuy

A villager from Krayman commune, which has been cordoned off by police since a long-running land dispute erupted into violence last week, dries cassava outside her home.

THREE people have been charged with destruction of private property following an anti-eviction uprising in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district that left two people hospitalised and an entire commune under siege, police said.

Seven people have been arrested so far in the long-running dispute, which erupted into violence on November 16 when villagers torched four vehicles belonging to a Vietnamese rubber company, prompting military police to retaliate. Tin Bien was awarded the 8,000-hectare economic land concession in 2007, but hundreds of families contest the sale, saying they have lived on the land since 2004.

Speaking on Sunday, provincial police Deputy Chief Chou Sam An said: “We have plans to arrest three more of the leaders on our blacklist because now they, too, are trying to flee from the village.” If convicted, they face up to six years in prison, he said.

A total of 20 arrest warrants were issued in the wake of last week’s violence, which prompted police to cordon off Kraya commune – temporarily cutting off food supplies in the process.

Prom Saroth, one of the besieged villagers, said four representatives tried to flee to the capital on Friday, but they stopped for dinner in Kampong Cham province and were promptly arrested by police.

“Now we are really worried about our security, and we’ve decided to stop going out because we are afraid they will arrest more of us,” Prom Saroth said. Although police are now allowing women to enter and leave, men cannot, he said. “We are afraid they will play a trick to arrest us when we go out.”

Let evicted villagers harvest rice: groups

Monday, 23 November 2009 15:02  
May Titthara

A COALITION of NGOs plan to file a joint petition to the provincial governor of Oddar Meanchey on Monday asking that villagers whose homes were destroyed in a violent eviction be allowed to harvest the rice crop on their former land, an NGO representative said on Sunday.

Srey Naren, Adhoc coordinator for Oddar Meanchey, said he has collected thumbprints from representatives of more than 11 NGOs to allow the harvest to go ahead

“Everything is already prepared, and the letter should be sent Monday,” he said.

The harvest controversy is the latest chapter in a dispute over some 1,500 hectares of land claimed by both the residents of Bos village and the Angkor Sugar Company, which is owned by Ly Yongphat, a senator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

In early October, armed police descended on the village, bulldozing property and burning some houses to the ground.

Thon Nol, Samrong district governor, said he had not received the letter, but that villagers were likely to clash if they were allowed to bring in their own harvest.

“Each family claimed to have planted from 5 to 10 hectares, but when they showed us the plots, it turned out they overlapped,” he said.

Huoy Chhuoy, a representative of the village’s 214 displaced families, said he would allow his family to bring in the harvest, but that he would not return for fear of arrest.

KAMPONG Thom villagers go hungry

Friday, 20 November 2009 15:04
May Titthara

Photo by: Rann Reuy

San Siphan, 39, shows the facial injury he suffered during Monday’s clash with armed military police.

KAMPONG Thom villagers involved in a violent land dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company say they have been cut off from food and other supplies after an influx of police officers to the area.

Evictees could face hunger as aid falls off

Friday, 20 November 2009 15:04
Robbie Corey-Boulet and Mom Kunthear

Photo by: Sovan Philong

A man lies on a mat in his makeshift home in Tuol Sambo earlier this year.

THE United Nations and other organisations expressed renewed concern about access to food for the 40 HIV-affected families living at a relocation site in Dangkor district, and some said they fear standard food packages will be cut off after a three-month commitment from the World Food Programme concludes in January.

“In the current absence of secure livelihoods and therefore of income flows, access to more than the minimum food package (rice, salt, oil) is crucial,” reads a UNAIDS summary of a November 9 visit to Tuol Sambo, a copy of which was obtained Thursday.

Villagers call for PM to grant farmland

Friday, 20 November 2009 15:04
May Titthara and Tep Nimol

ABOUT 40 people who have fled to Phnom Penh to avoid arrest after recent land clashes in Oddar Meanchey province travelled to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Takhmao on Thursday to make a formal request for government intervention in their case.

Residents started fleeing to the city after authorities razed 214 homes in Oddar Meanchey’s Kounkriel commune in early October to clear 1,500 hectares of land for the construction of a sugar plantation by the Angkor Sugar Company, owned by CPP Senator Lee Yongphat.

“We sent a letter to the prime minister’s house because we want to ask him to provide us with a social land concession,” said villager Dit Saren, noting that the 30-metre-by-50-metre plots offered as compensation to villagers were too small to support their families.

Lim Leang Se, deputy chief of Hun Sen’s cabinet, said he had received a letter from the villagers and promised to forward it on to the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes, promising that the issue would be investigated.

“We heard that the provincial authorities have settled their problems already, so they should accept compensation,” he said.

But Ton Nhorn, 72, said the 1-hectare plot was not enough to support the 10 members of his family, and that the government should reconsider its offers.

“If they don’t provide us with what we are suggesting, please give us about 3 hectares of farmland,” he said.

He said villagers had denied requests from Hun Sen’s cabinet to return to their home province, saying they fear arrest if they return.

Peaceful community action: Kep Thmey villagers continue to protest

20 sought in K Thom brawl over property

Thursday, 19 November 2009 15:05
May Titthara and Rann Reuy

Kampong Thom Province

Photo by: Rann Reuy

Villagers from Santuk district in Kampong Thom sit on Monday at the scene of a violent clash with military police in an ongoing land dispute. Twenty are wanted for destroying private property (below).

KAMPONG Thom provincial court has prepared 20 arrest warrants for villagers involved in a clash with soldiers and military police officers that led to nine injuries and two hospitalisations on Monday, officials said.

Provincial Governor Chhun Chhorn said he and two other officials had filed a complaint to hold the villagers accountable for burning four vehicles owned by a Vietnamese rubber company that was awarded an 8,000-hectare economic land concession in Santuk district in 2007. Hundreds of families have condemned the move as unfair, saying they have lived on the disputed property since 2004.

“Now these people are under investigation according to the court warrant because it’s a penal case,” Chhun Chhorn said, adding that the villagers had also burned a Military Police car and destroyed 11 motorbikes.

The altercation began Monday morning when some 200 villagers torched the vehicles, prompting Military Police and soldiers who have been stationed at the site since 2008 to turn on them with knives, hatchets and canes, rights workers said.

Pich Sophea, the governor of Santuk district, said local officials had identified the “leaders” of the group that participated in the burnings. “There are about 20 leaders who will be arrested according to the arrest warrant, and now they are preparing to escape from the village,” he said.

“It makes me sad that they encouraged the people to become violent, because we tried to implement the government economic land concession in a peaceful way,” he added.

Residents, however, paint a different picture of life at the site, saying they have been living in near-constant fear of arbitrary beatings and harassment at the hands of the armed officers stationed near their village.

Chan Soveth, a researcher for the human rights group Adhoc, on Wednesday appealed to the authorities to kick the officers off the site.

“Now the villagers are worried about their security, and many are afraid to even go on the road leading out of their village,” he said.

But Ek Mat Moly, the police chief for Santuk district, said the authorities were planning to boost the police presence in response to Monday’s violence.

“Now we are going to spread our police around that village and also on the road because we want to protect this area. And we also want to try to arrest the leaders who burned the company and Military Police property,” he said.

Numbers game
Officials and rights group workers are at odds over how many villagers stand to be evicted from the site. Chheng Sophors, a monitor for the rights group Licadho, said Tuesday that 1,362 families were living there, whereas Chhun Chhorn said there were only 300 families, 200 of which, he said, had already accepted land provided by the government and relocated.

Chan Soveth said Wednesday that the two men who sustained serious injuries remained in hospital. Provincial court officials could not be reached for comment.

Residents, City Hall to meet over airport plan

Thursday, 19 November 2009 15:03
May Titthara

MORE than 100 families living on land west of Phnom Penh International Airport in Dangkor district received a letter Wednesday inviting them to meet with municipal officials on Friday in a bid to resolve a standoff with the city, which wants the land for an airport expansion.

Residents say they received a notice on November 5 giving them until December 11 to voluntarily relocate or face forcible eviction from the site.
Uth Teng Sakhorn, a representative for the 104 families, rejected calls for their eviction unless residents are offered fair compensation.

“In the invitation letter, they mentioned they would hold a meeting about our eviction, but they did not talk about compensation,” he said.

Chea Vuth, another representative, said that during Friday’s meeting, he planned to request a delay of the December 11 deadline.

Officials agreed that they might offer the residents a temporary reprieve, but said increased compensation would not be forthcoming.

“We are thinking about delaying their eviction because we are all Khmer citizens, but they must understand our project,” said Mann Chhoeun, Phnom Penh deputy governor.

“They are living illegally on state public land, so it’s very hard to talk about compensation.”

Land clash wounds 9 in Kampong Thom

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 15:04
May Titthara and Rann Reuy

Kampong Thom Province
TWO men were recovering in hospital Tuesday night after a group of 30 soldiers and military police officers in Kampong Thom province used knives, hatchets and canes to disperse villagers protesting against the takeover of their land by a Vietnamese rubber company, officials and rights workers said.

The Monday morning melee began after some 200 villagers burned four excavator trucks belonging to the company, Tin Bean, on the disputed 8,000-hectare piece of land in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district.

The company was awarded the property in a 2007 economic land concession, though many of the families who first moved there in 2004 have yet to relocate and decry the concession as unfair.

“We burned those excavator trucks down because we wanted to block them from digging up the land,” said Prom Saroth, one of the villagers.

Shortly after, soldiers and military police officers stationed at the site approached the villagers and told them to leave, firing AK-47 assault rifles
into the air. When the villagers did not disperse, the police and soldiers charged them, beating them with canes and in some cases cutting them with knives and hatchets, rights workers said.

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Now we do not dare go out even to buy food because we are afraid....

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Nine men were hurt – two hospitalised – though most of the injuries were minor cuts and bruises.

Prom Saroth, one of the seven men who sustained minor injuries, said one of the hospitalised men received serious bruises on his arms and back, and that the other, Mok Maly, suffered powder burns on his his face from a gunshot.

Kampong Thom Governor Chhun Chhorn said Tuesday that the villagers had provoked the attack by burning the excavator trucks, adding that they had previously burned a military police car and speaker set.

He said the heavy police presence on the site was necessary. “The reason that we allow the soldiers and military police in the area is because we want to protect the company’s property,” he said.

On Tuesday the charred wrecks remained at the site. One truck driver who did not want to be named said he was slightly hurt in the clash.

Chan Soveth, a researcher for the rights group Adhoc who visited the site Tuesday, said the officers were responsible for keeping the peace and deserved the blame for Monday’s violence. “The authorities are to blame because nine innocent villagers got injured,” he said.

Lockdown
Chheng Sophors, a monitor for the rights group Licadho, said the villagers had been living under siege since soldiers and police were first stationed there in 2008.

“The situation is difficult because they have the soldiers about 7 kilometres from the village, and they don’t allow people to go in and out,” he said.

A man who was among those who received minor injuries on Monday said villagers had been living in fear that they would be shot if they left the village.

“Now we do not dare go out even to buy food because we are afraid the soldiers will shoot at us,” said the villager, who declined to be named for fear of retribution.

“And just recently, they blocked off the road nearby and said that if any villagers dared to pass it, they would shoot or arrest us. They said they had orders from their superiors to do this.”

The number of families who stand to be evicted from the site remains a point of contention between rights workers and the government. Chheng Sophors said 1,362 families were living there. but Governor Chhun Chhorn said the families numbered only 300, more than 200 of which had already accepted land provided by the government and relocated.

“I don’t know why they keep saying there are more than 1,000 families,” he said. “In fact, they should not get any compensation because they live on a government land concession, but we had pity on them and tried to give them new 20-metre-by-30-metre plots of land. Also, we asked the company chairman to hire them,” he said.

Several villagers said the plots offered by the government were significantly smaller than the plots on which they currently live.

Officials from Tin Bean rubber company could not be reached Tuesday.

Rik Reay holdouts accept govt offer

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 15:02
May Titthara

THE last nine families from Phnom Penh’s Rik Reay community to hold out for more compensation agreed to the government’s eviction terms on Monday, citing fears of violence and legal penalties.

“We changed our minds to accept because we are afraid the authorities will use administrative measures on us,” said Pen Thai, a Rik Reay community representative, citing concerns about the violent evictions that were the fate of the Group 78 and Dey Krahorm communities earlier this year.

The last nine families agreed to the same package accepted by 24 families earlier this month: US$20,000 from the government and $3,000 from Canadia Bank, which is financing the acquisition of the site by land developer Bassac Garden City.

Bassac commune Chief Khat Narith said the nine families demanded higher compensation only because they had already sold their plots of community-owned land to others.

After a January 30 eviction announcement, all but 54 of Rik Reay’s 219 families agreed to leave in exchange for $10,000 and a home in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111729578/National-news/rik-reay-holdouts-accept-govt-offer.html

Koh Kong families ask for delay of eviction

Friday, 13 November 2009 15:03
May Titthara

MEMBERS of 43 families in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district whose land is at the heart of a dispute involving two feuding businessmen have asked the Supreme Court to postpone their eviction, a representative of the families said Thursday.

“We are worried that the provincial court will come to evict us, so [Wednesday] we went to Phnom Penh to deliver a letter to the Supreme Court asking the judges to issue a verdict to stop them from evicting us,” said representative Tep Hai.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the land belonged to two businessmen, Sok Hong and Heng Huy.

Sre Ambel district officials signalled that the eviction would be carried out on October 27. Instead, police officers escorted provincial court Deputy Judge Meas Vatanea to the site, where he read the June ruling aloud. He also marked how the land would be divided, with most going to Heng Huy, who has said he plans to turn it into a cassava farm.

Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for the rights group Licadho who has been following the case, said at the time that he expected the eviction to be carried out “within a matter of weeks”, though he noted that the authorities had not provided a specific date.

Tep Hai said Thursday that the lack of communication from provincial officials had left the families concerned.

“We are worried because they are quiet,” he said. “We’ve had bad experiences already, and because they are quiet we are worried that they are going to use the Supreme Court verdict to come and evict us soon.”

Meas Vatanea said Thursday that he was aware of no immediate plans to evict the families. Supreme Court President Dith Munty could not be reached for comment Thursday, nor could Sim Thol, chief of the provincial department of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111329533/National-news/koh-kong-families-ask-for-delay-of-eviction.html

Chi Kraeng villagers remain locked up

Monday, 16 November 2009 15:02
Rann Reuy

Siem Reap Province
SEVEN villagers from Chi Kraeng commune who were acquitted last month of robbery and causing injury in an ongoing land dispute remain behind bars awaiting trial on separate charges, lawyers said Sunday.

Defence lawyer Ly Sochetra said additional robbery charges had been filed against the villagers, who were arrested following a March 22 altercation during which 100 armed police opened fire on 80 villagers caught harvesting crops on land that officials have ruled is part of Anlong Samnor commune.

Nine villagers were arrested. During their trial last month, two were found guilty of causing injury, sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay compensation. Provincial court prosecutor Ty Soveinthal, however, said Sunday that those charges stemmed not from the March 22 altercation but from a March 18 fight between villagers from the neighbouring districts. The outstanding charges, he said, were in connection with the March 22 altercation. Deputy prosecutor Toch Pheakdey said he did not know when a trial would be held for the outstanding charges.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111629555/National-news/chi-kraeng-villagers-remain-locked-up.html

Land Dispute: Authorities harvesting evictees’ rice fields

Monday, 16 November 2009 15:01
May Titthara

Land Dispute
Families who fled evictions in Oddar Meanchey province say the same authorities who burned their homes to the ground are now harvesting their vacant rice fields. “Next year, we will die because we will not have rice to feed ourselves,” said Huoy Chhuoy, who represents 214 affected families. About 70 families fled to Phnom Penh after their houses were razed last month. The provincially sanctioned evictions were the result of a long-simmering dispute over some 1,500 hectares of land between the villagers and the Angkor Sugar Company, owned by Ly Yongphat, a senator in the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Police and government officials said they only harvested the rice to help the villagers. “We harvested people’s rice, and we will share it with them,” said Samraong district Governor Thon Nol. However, authorities will sell some of the rice to pay for the cost of renting a machine to harvest the crops, he added. As well, only people who “live on the land” will receive the rice, he said. “We do not have any plan to share the rice with people who run away.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111629549/National-news/land-dispute-authorities-harvesting-evictees-rice-fields.html

3 VN firms seeking to invest meet with PM

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 15:01
Cheang Sokha

REPRESENTATIVES of three Vietnamese firms met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday to obtain permission to invest in Cambodia, Hun Sen’s spokesman Eang Sophalleth said.

He declined to name the companies but said they were in the involved in chemicals, sugar and construction.

Hun Sen told the group he welcomed the proposed investment but referred them to Suy Sem, the minister of industry, mines and energy, and Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, Eang Sophalleth said.

The companies were supported at the meeting by Tran Bac Ha, chairman of the state-owned Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Vietnam’s second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest enterprise. BIDV and its Cambodian subsidiary, the Investment and Development Joint Stock Company of Cambodia (IDCC), which owns the Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC), are behind a number of major investment initiatives from across the border.

In October, the IDCC established a US$8 million joint-venture rice-processing and -export company called Cambodia-Vietnam Foods Company (Cavifoods) with Vina Foods II and Cambodia’s Green Trade Co.

In August, a 60-strong delegation led by Tran Bac Ha inked what is said to be the country’s largest investment package with Cambodian government representatives. The package included eight deals worth $420 million, taking the value of Vietnam-funded projects approved by the CDC to around $540 million at that time.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111729573/Business/3-vn-firms-seeking-to-invest-meet-with-pm.html

Demonstration: Event hails Khmer Krom struggle

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 15:02
Tep Nimol and Vong Sokheng

Demonstration
About 500 Khmer Krom gathered Monday at a pagoda in Meanchey district to mark the 33rd anniversary of their decision to openly resist what they described as a systematic effort by Vietnam to stamp out the minority group. “Today the Khmer Krom communities in Cambodia commemorated the 33rd anniversary of their fight against the Vietnamese government to conserve their regional identity,” said Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Yont Tharo, who is Khmer Krom. He added that the local authorities had approved the peaceful gathering, during which attendees presented food to the monks at Wat Samakirangsey in Stung Meanchey commune as a way of giving thanks to those who have died “in the struggle to preserve Khmer Krom culture”. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said he was confident that the peaceful demonstration would not affect relations with Vietnam. The government in September led a delegation to Vietnam’s Tra Vinh province to showcase good relations among Cambodia, the Khmer Krom and Vietnam.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111729576/National-news/demonstration-event-hails-khmer-krom-struggle.html

Assembly strips Sam Rainsy of parliamentary immunity

Tuesday, 17 November 2009 15:03
Meas Sokchea and Sebastian Strangio

Photo by: Heng Chivoan, Photo Supplied, Sovan Philong

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy and SRP lawmakers Ho Vann and Mu Sochua have all been stripped of their immunity in legal spats with the government this year.

OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity for the second time this year during a closed National Assembly session on Monday, paving the way for his prosecution on charges related to the removal of posts marking the country’s border with Vietnam.

The Assembly’s vote was boycotted by lawmakers from the Sam Rainsy Party and Human Rights Party, who marched through the city holding a large map of Cambodia aloft in protest.

In a statement released after the motion, which was supported by all 87 lawmakers present, the SRP accused the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of caving to pressure from Hanoi.

“This measure has violated the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and it shows that that the Cambodian authorities have merely enforced a Vietnamese government order,” said the statement.

The Assembly’s vote paves the way for Sam Rainsy’s prosecution by Svay Rieng provincial court with regard to an October 26 incident in Svay Rieng’s Chantrea district, where he helped uproot six wooden posts that villagers say were placed illegally by Vietnamese authorities.

His action prompted a storm of protest from Hanoi, which said his “perverse” act had interfered in the two countries’ sensitive border-demarcation process.

Speaking by phone from Paris, Sam Rainsy said the lifting of his immunity was an “alarming sign”, but that his allegations of Vietnamese border incursions were based on facts about threats to Cambodia’s territorial integrity. In other border provinces – especially Kampong Cham – he said villagers have made similar complaints to him about Vietnamese encroachments.

Sam Rainsy said he did not yet know when he would return to Cambodia, but that he is scheduled to meet with the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union and the European Parliament, where he will discuss border encroachments in addition to other political and human rights issues.

“The incident in Svay Rieng is just one example of the totalitarian drift of this country,” he added.

Speaking at the Council of Ministers on Monday evening, Var Kimhong, senior minister in charge of border affairs, said the Assembly had suspended Sam Rainsy’s immunity because he destroyed border markers agreed between the two countries.

He said the border posts were placed on the basis of treaties signed in 1985 and 2005, and that although land had been ceded to Vietnam in some areas, it was compensated by gains elsewhere.

“We did [border demarcation] by bipartisan agreement.... We did not allow Vietnam to take action based on their own decisions,” he said.

Nguon Nhel, first deputy president of the Assembly, dismissed the SRP claim that the government was acting under orders from Vietnam.

“The decision to revoke Sam Rainsy’s immunity does not come at the request of any nation. Cambodia is a sovereign and independent nation ... not a colony of any foreign country.”

Monday’s vote was the fourth time this year that an SRP lawmaker’s constitutional immunity has been revoked. On June 22, the Assembly suspended the immunity of SRP lawmakers Mu Sochua and Ho Vann after senior government officials filed lawsuits against them. Sam Rainsy was also stripped of his immunity in February, forcing him to pay a fine to the National Election Committee.

The action drew widespread criticism from human rights activists, who said it undermined the freedom of representatives to perform their duties.

“Every time [lawmakers] say anything controversial or critical, they’re in danger of having their immunity lifted,” said Sara Colm, a researcher for Human Rights Watch.

She said that during the current diplomatic spat with Thailand, discussion of border issues, particularly with Vietnam, were a particular sore point for the government.

“Most people are reluctant – if not fearful – to press any criticisms of the relationship between the two countries,” she said.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA), repeated SRP claims that the action was intended to “satisfy neighbouring countries”. Others said allegations of Vietnamese encroachments should have been investigated.

“If they were found to be true, we should have debated it as a political issue,” said Chan Soveth, a programme officer at rights group Adhoc.

Kek Pung, president of rights group Licadho, said the suspensions undermined the constitutional role of parliamentarians.

“It’s a kind of protection. If their immunity is lifted so easily, it can affect their work,” she said. “And who at the end will be the victims? The Cambodian people.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111729588/National-news/assembly-strips-sam-rainsy-of-parliamentary-immunity.html

Thaksin departs Kingdom

Monday, 16 November 2009 15:03
Post Staff

Photo by: AFP

Protesters from Thailand’s nationalist People’s Alliance for Democracy demonstrate Sunday in Bangkok over Thaksin’s visit to Cambodia and statements in an interview considered by some to be insulting to the king.

FUGITIVE former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra left Cambodia on Saturday, leaving in his wake a storm of controversy and allegations of espionage that have plunged relations between Cambodia and Thailand to their lowest point in years.

Thaksin, who has travelled on passports from nations including Nicaragua and Montenegro since fleeing Thailand last year to avoid a prison term for corruption, departed from Siem Reap on his private jet after playing a round of golf with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday and meeting with close to 50 members of parliament from his country’s opposition Puea Thai party.

The stakes of the diplomatic row between Cambodia and Thailand, touched off earlier this month with the Cambodian government’s announcement that it had appointed Thaksin an official economics adviser, reached new heights last week with the arrest of 31-year-old Siwarak Chotipong, a Thai national who worked in Phnom Penh for Cambodia Air Traffic Services Co and is accused of espionage following the alleged theft of Thaksin’s flight schedule.

Sok Phal, National Police deputy chief and director of the Ministry of Interior’s Central Security Department, said last Thursday’s expulsion of the first secretary of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh was a direct result of Siwarak’s case. Thailand responded to this move by expelling the first secretary of the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok, after both countries had already withdrawn their respective ambassadors.

“[Siwarak] stole the special flight schedule of Mr Thaksin and handed it to the first secretary of the Thai embassy,” Sok Phal said, accusing the Thai first secretary, Kamrob Palawatwichai, of ordering the theft.

Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said Sunday that the government had received a note from the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh requesting permission to meet with Siwarak in detention and had forwarded the note to the Ministry of Interior. The ministry, Koy Kuong said, is likely to accept the request.

Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to Thailand’s foreign minister, said Thai officials were determined to meet with Siwarak and settle the case.

“We have to see him, whatever happens,” Chavanond said. “Thailand categorically denies all of the spy allegations.”

Koy Kuong said there is “written evidence” implicating Siwarak in the espionage plot, though he declined to elaborate further on the investigation.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Deputy Prosecutor Sok Roeun said Siwarak is now in pretrial detention at Prey Sar prison and is being charged under Article 19 of the 2005 Law on Archives, which covers offences related to matters of national defence, security or public order. If convicted, Sivarak faces a jail term of between seven and 15 years, and a fine of between 5 million and 25 million riels (US$1,198-$5,990).

In a mass protest against Thaksin’s Cambodia trip, members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rallied in Bangkok on Sunday afternoon. Bangkok police estimated that 17,000 protesters gathered for the event on a downtown Bangkok parade ground.

“Our duty is to protect and preserve the country’s honour and dignity and the monarchy. Cambodia violated the extradition treaty and allowed a convicted person to be its adviser,” senior PAD leader Somsak Kosaisuk said.

The nationalist PAD said it was also gathering to express outrage at comments that billionaire Thaksin made in a newspaper interview in which he called for reform of institutions around Thailand’s revered monarchy.

The issue is sensitive because 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej – a major force for stability in the politically divided nation – has been in hospital for the past two months.

National police deputy spokesman Piya Utayo said around 1,500 police officers were deployed for the rally.

Thaksin, who was deposed in a 2006 coup, was thought to be bound for Dubai on Saturday.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111629564/National-news/thaksin-departs-kingdom.html

Thaksin visit backfired, analysts say

Monday, 16 November 2009 15:03
James O'Toole

Photo by: AFP

Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks with former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra before his departure from Siem Reap airport on Saturday.

THAKSIN Shinawatra’s trip to Cambodia last week, though brief, may hold long-term consequences for the fugitive former Thai prime minister’s hopes of a political comeback on his native soil, analysts say.

Though Cambodia called Thaksin’s appointment as government economics adviser an “internal affair”, the deposed premier’s trip was the closest he has come to Thailand since fleeing last year to avoid a jail term for corruption, and was widely seen as a bid to reinject himself into Thai politics and put pressure on the government of current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also joined the offensive against Abhisit, who gained his seat last year through a vote of parliament rather than a general election, telling reporters last week that Abhisit had “stolen” the premiership and challenging his Thai counterpart to call new elections.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, too, offered an implicit but uppercase attack on Abhisit’s legitimacy in justifying its decision not to extradite Thaksin.

“The condemnation of HE Mr Thaksin Shinawatra is logically the consequence of the military coup d’etat in September 2006 ... while he was OVERWHELMINGLY and DEMOCRATICALLY elected by the Thai people,” its statement released last week read.

Now that Thaksin has left, however, political observers are suggesting that his gamble may prove self-defeating, giving Abhisit the opportunity to secure a popular mandate.

“If Thaksin’s not careful, this could be a turn-off among his supporters,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said last week. “It’s one thing to fight among ourselves, as Thais have done for the past four years, but once you have an outside hand intervening, Thais may unite against that outside force.”

This unity may be the legacy of Thaksin’s trip, according to Bertil Lintner, a political journalist and author based in Thailand, who said the ex-premier’s Cambodia visit “has backfired badly at home in Thailand”.

Lintner cited a survey conducted by Bangkok’s Assumption University ABAC poll earlier this month, as the Thaksin controversy was gathering steam, in which Abhisit scored a 68.6 percent approval rating, compared with his performance of 23.6 percent in September.

Abhisit’s biggest gains, Lintner noted, came in northern and northeastern Thailand, traditional Thaksin strongholds. A more recent ABAC poll found 51.9 percent of respondents approved of Abhisit’s handling of the bilateral row, the Bangkok Post reported Sunday.

Abhisit, who is not required to call elections until the end of his current term in 2011, has shown signs he is paying attention to these numbers. “The likelihood is that there will be early elections once the economy is firmly grounded,” he told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, without mentioning a specific date.

Andrew Walker, a Southeast Asia expert from the Australian National University, said Thaksin may not have counted on an upswing of nationalist sentiment in Thailand during the diplomatic dispute, adding that “at least some of [Thaksin’s] supporters may be a bit puzzled as to why he seems to be siding with Cambodia.”

Lintner said there are “many Red Shirts who wish [Thaksin] would leave Cambodia as soon as possible”, though he noted that it is too early to say whether the apparent mood swing of the Thai electorate will be permanent.

Thaksin himself maintained over the course of his time in Cambodia that he was here simply to provide economic advice. Asked about the economic future of Thailand during a lecture he delivered last Thursday at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, however, he could not help but mention his country’s fractious domestic politics.

“The future of the Thai economy depends on reconciliation. If there is no reconciliation, trust and confidence will never come back to Thailand,” he said, adding: “They need the proper people to run the government.”

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009111629562/National-news/thaksin-visit-backfired-analysts-say.html