asianews: 09/30/09

Guest Commentary

Published: September 30, 2009

The current Great Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Tep Vong has been accused of favoritism toward the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Some of his controversial orders include the February 2005 ban on the use of pagodas for public forums hosted by non-governmental organizations, particularly the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Instead of believing that public forums on human rights create chaos, Tep Vong should view them as a platform for people to voice their concerns and appeal to the government to look after their needs. Buddhism supports such a peaceful approach and nonviolent means to highlight problems and seek solutions.

Tep Vong usually makes speeches on political holidays – such as Liberation Day on Jan. 7, the day the former Khmer Rouge regime was toppled – to reaffirm his support to the ruling party. He rarely touches on issues such as moral standards or the role of monks in Cambodian society.

Several reports of monks having sex, watching pornographic materials and other social misconduct have largely gone unnoticed by the supreme patriarch. Recently a chief monk reportedly got drunk and beat some of his followers, who did not file a complaint out of fear for their safety.

Unlike the case of Tim Sakhorn – a monk who was charged with misconduct and defrocked in 2007 for allegedly destabilizing relations between Cambodia and Vietnam – the supreme patriarch has not reacted to the recent issue involving the drunken monk. This shows that the decision to defrock Sakhorn was politically motivated, and that the Buddhist leader is unconcerned about the decline of morality among the monks under his charge.

If such abuses continue, Buddhism will be less respected in the Cambodian community. This will affect other monks who devotedly follow and respect Buddhist principles. Besides, it would create a dangerous society if citizens were to lose faith in their religion, which contributes to people’s behavior and social conduct.

Buddhism has also played a significant role in national reconciliation and peace for survivors of the former dreaded Khmer Rouge regime. Cambodian people are likely to advise their children to apply Buddhist teachings as a way to solve conflicts in a peaceful manner and also to attain inner peace.

Therefore, the supreme patriarch and other monks need to maintain their gracious role and morality so that the religion is respected and valued. Monks should look back on their past roles in developing the community and the country.

Throughout history, pagodas and monks have contributed immensely to Cambodia’s cultural and educational sustainability, despite civil conflicts. However, their roles and contributions are diminishing in present times.

There are many issues like poverty reduction, corruption, social injustice, land disputes and social conflicts that confront Cambodia’s government as well as civil society. Monks should play a greater leadership role by introducing peaceful mechanisms to solve problems. This would go a long way toward helping Cambodians build a better society and future.

(Chak Sopheap is a graduate student of peace studies at the International University of Japan. She runs a blog, www.sopheapfocus.com, in which she shares her impressions of both Japan and her homeland, Cambodia. She was previously advocacy officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.)

Chinese and Cambodian youths jointly hold art performance in Phnom Penh

Political Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Cambodia He Yueping delivers a speech before a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Chinese youths present instrumental ensemble during a performance , Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Representatives from China and Cambodia present gifts to each other during a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Cambodian students present a dance during a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

AAI: Typhoon Ketsana hits Teuk Mileang village, in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province,

A Cambodian washes his motorbike in the flood in Ratanak Kiri province. Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331. (AFP) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian man saws through a tree which fell over his house following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian boy collects damaged roof titles after Typhoon Ketsana struck, in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles)north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian man carries household items on a muddy road of a village hit by Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian couple clean inside their damaged house after Typhoon Ketsana struck, in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodians walk through a flooded road following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian man saws through a tree which fell over his house following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring over two dozen others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Villagers pass damaged houses after Typhoon Ketsana struck the area in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring over two dozen others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian military police officers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers prepare loaded coffins of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

String of major earthquakes shook the world: The latest one hit Sumatra, Indonesia

In Padang, a man carries an injured person in front of a collapsed university building after an earthquake hit Indonesia's Sumatra. Photograph: Reuters

Desperate hunt for the living as Sumatra quake toll mounts

Hundreds trapped under rubble
Rescuers struggle to reach stricken city

The Guardian (UK)

A major rescue operation was under way after a devastating earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leaving hundreds and possibly thousands of people buried in rubble and a major city cut off from the outside world.

Although disaster relief officials said the number of confirmed deaths was between 100 and 200, they warned that the figure was likely to rise, with the head of the country's crisis centre saying at least 1,000 may have been killed.

Indonesia's government dispatched teams of rescue workers to the stricken region. International aid agencies were preparing to launch a major relief effort as tens of thousands of people spent a night in the open in pouring rain after their homes were damaged.

Health minister Siti Fadilah Supari said: "This is a high-scale disaster," adding that he believed it was more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006, referring to a city on the Indonesian island of Java where 3,000 people died.

Today'smagnitude 7.6 earthquake – which came less than 24 hours after another fatal quake off the South Pacific island of Samoa – struck at 5.16pm. Its centre was reported to be around 30 miles offshore from Padang, a city of 900,000, at a depth of around 53 miles.

There was immediate widespread panic in the city. "The earthquake was very strong," said a woman called Kasmiati, who lives on the coast. "People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged. I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured," she said before her mobile phone went dead.

Fears that a catastrophe might have occurred were raised after Indonesia's vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, told a news conference in Jakarta that homes, hotels, mosques, schools, shops and other buildings had been destroyed in Padang, the largest city in western Sumatra.

Television footage from the city showed scenes of devastation, including the foot of a buried body sticking from rubble.

"We have received a report from the mayor of Padang that the death toll is 75. But many others are trapped in collapsed shops, building and hotels." Kalla added: "It is definitely higher than that. It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout."

Officials with Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, who were attempting to reach the scene last night, said they had also received reports that many homes had been destroyed, with early reports suggesting that between 500 and 1,000 houses had collapsed.

Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, said it had also received eyewitness accounts of destruction in the nearby town of Pariaman, to the north of Padang, as well as in Padang itself. Fears that the death toll could rise rapidly were raised by Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, who said that in addition to known fatalities, thousands more people could be buried in the rubble, though officials later suggested the number still trapped in the city was as low as 100. Two hospitals in Padang were reported to be among the collapsed buildings, said Rustum, adding that a field hospital was being prepared to help survivors. Several hotels were also said to have been seriously damaged, while a shopping mall was badly hit.

The first emergency medical relief – a team of 40 doctors from Jakarta – was expected to reach the area .

Rescue efforts, however, have been hampered by the disruption of electricity and telecommunication lines, which have thrown Padang into darkness. All roads into the city were also reported to have been blocked by landslides.

In a further blow the airport at Padang was described as "inaccessible" by a pilot from the state airline who attempted to reach it and was forced to turn back. According to one report the roof of the airport had caved in.

While most of the early attention has focused on the large, sprawling city of Padang, concern was mounting over the fate of towns and villages in the surrounding countryside. In the town of Maninjau, further inland, a resident, Hafiz, told local media he had watched houses being buried in a landslide when a hill collapsed.

The earthquake in Sumatra came 24 hours after a huge tsunami struck Samoa at dawn on Tuesday – triggered by an earthquake measuring between 8.0 and 8.3 – which also flattened villages and swept cars and people out to sea, killing at least 100 people and leaving dozens missing. Survivors fled the churning water for higher ground on the South Pacific islands.

Shocks from the Sumatran earthquake could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred miles away. It was also felt in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

An eyewitness to the destruction in Sumatra was Malaysian student Fashareena Nazir, who is studying at the Universitas Andalas medical faculty, which was damaged in the earthquake.

"There were rumbles and a loud noise, like a bang," she told Malaysia's Bernama news agency after walking three miles to safety. The 23-year old described seeing neighbours' houses on fire and ground caving in or disappearing before her eyes.

Another severely damaged location was reported to be Padang's Industrial Technic Academy. A lecturer there, Erwinsyah Sipahutar, told local television that hundreds of students evacuated the campus as the quake broke most of the windows.

"We were shaken like matchsticks," Erwinsyah said.

Another resident of Padang, called Adi, later told Metro Television there was devastation all around him. "For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half-destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami," said Adi. "No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely."

In Pariaman – closer to the centre – one resident, Yuliarni, told TV One news: "The shaking was the worst I had ever felt. Houses have collapsed, the lights and electricity were cut off … People were fleeing to higher ground and some were hurt."

Padang lies on one of the world's most active faultlines, where the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates are colliding, and had been named by geologists in Indonesia as the most likely location to fall victim to a major earthquake or tsunami. It is the same faultline that was responsible for the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people on Boxing Day 2004.

The zone's other segments have already cracked, including a large portion off Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, which triggered the 2004 tsunami.

"Padang sits right in front of the area with the greatest potential for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake," Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, a geologist at the Indonesian Science Institute, warned in February. "The entire city could drown" in a tsunami triggered by such a quake, he warned then.

Choreographer Accepts $25,000 Art Award [-Congratulations, Mrs. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro!]

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (R) teaching a dancer

By Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
30 September 2009

Khmer choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro was given an award by the National Endowment for the Arts, after co-founding the Khmer Arts Academy in California.

The National Heritage Fellowship is the highest form of federal recognition for folk and traditional arts. Shapiro and 10 others were awarded this year.

“The reason why I think her award today is so important is that it gives her the ability to continue the art,” Laura Richardson, a Democratic congresswoman from California who joined the Sept. 22 ceremony, told VOA Khmer.

“Art is so powerful because art doesn’t judge men, women, boys, and girls,” she said. “It’s preserving our cultures. By being able to show the art, it teaches young people to respect their elders. It teaches young people something special that they have and that no one has. So, I am hoping by her continuing to teach the art, we can help more kids in learning, rather than being out in the streets doing something negative, and she has been doing it for a long time and we value her and love her in our community.”

Shapiro said she felt honored to be given the award, which includes a grant of $25,000.

“It is important that I use this fellowship to support and continue to teach art at our Khmer Art Academy,” she said.

Shapiro began training in Khmer art form in 1981. Two years after moving to Long Beach in 2002, she co-founded Khmer Arts Academy in the hopes of preventing the loss of the art form in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge.

Barry Bergey, the NEA’s director for Folk and Traditional Arts, told VOA Khmer that in any year, the endowment gets 250 or so nominations. Only 10 or 11 are selected.

“Sophiline, of course, was recognized not only for her artistic skills and choreography, but for the fact that she teaches and makes such a commitment to the art form, and the panel recognized that,” Bergey said. “There’s no requirement in any way in terms of using the money, but we know these artists are committed to their traditions [and] that they are most likely to carry on what they are doing.

“That is what we want them to do, to continue just what they do, make art, teach about the art form and interact with the public,” he said. “Sophiline has done that both in the United States and in Cambodia, and that makes her special.

Sam Rainsy travels to France for appeal

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

OPPOSITION leader Sam Rainsy flew to France Tuesday in advance of an October 8 appeal court hearing during which he will ask judges to overturn a defamation and disinformation verdict handed down early this year.

The Tribunal Correctionnel in Paris on January 27 ordered the president of the Sam Rainsy Party to pay a symbolic 1 euro (US$1.43) fine to Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong, who filed his lawsuit following the May 2008 publication of Sam Rainsy’s autobiography, Rooted in Stone.

Hor Namhong said the book accused him of heading the Boeung Trabek “re-education camp”, where diplomats and government officials from the Lon Nol and Norodom Sihanouk regimes were incarcerated by the Khmer Rouge. He asked for damages of 100,000 euros.

During a press conference held Tuesday before he left the country, Sam Rainsy acknowledged having levelled the Boeung Trabek accusation in interviews, but said it was less direct in the book.

“I had not referred to Mr Hor Namhong by name,” he said. “I just said some leaders after the Khmer Rouge, but Hor Namhong got angry.”

He said he expected to have the verdict overturned for that reason, adding that the appeal court was unlikely to take into account the verbal accusations.

He added that only three lines in his 302-page book had anything to do with Boeung Trabek.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said he did not know whether Hor Namhong would also appear for the October 8 hearing.

He was drunk, violent ... now Monk Kiet Chan Thouch lies also?

Kiet Chan Thouch, the ‘biting monk’ from Wat Leu in Preah Sihanouk province. (Photo by: Deum Ampil)

‘Biting monk’ finally speaks

The Phnom Penh Post

IN his first interview with the media since being accused of attacking and biting his fellow monks and nuns, the chief monk of Preah Sihanouk province’s Wat Leu and adviser to Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong told the Post on Tuesday that the allegations against him were totally baseless.

“I am a monk. I have been ordained for 20 years already. How could I drink wine? If I drank wine, I would have defrocked myself, but I haven’t done this,” Kiet Chan Thouch said, accusing his colleagues of acting on personal agendas. “There are some monks and nuns who are accusing me of things for their own profit, getting local newspapers to write bad things about me. All I asked them to do was to clean the pagoda on Phchum Ben day. I’m the leader. It’s up to me to order them to work, but they said I mistreated them. I am a monk, so how can I have a gun?

“If I was supposedly fighting with them, why didn’t they stay at the pagoda and talk with me instead of running to talk with the newspapers? This is a part of Buddhist Lenten practice, that a monk cannot stay away from the pagoda. I’m a monk, but I still know about penal law. If I fight with people, the police will come to arrest me. They wouldn’t allow me to stay in the pagoda, as they are today.”

Despite his protestations of innocence, one of the monk’s colleagues insisted the original claims were true. The Venerable Koa Suon told reporters Kiet Chan Thouch bit him in the incident, which took place earlier this month. “This wasn’t the first time he’d drunk wine or threatened to fight other monks,” the 76-year-old said. “He would always threaten violence against all the monks and nuns in the pagoda, but nobody dared to say anything because they were scared of his power.”

A resolution seems unlikely, with various authorities reluctant to intervene. Kang Dinath, Preah Sihanouk province chief for the Department of Cults and Religions, said: “This case lies outside of my jurisdiction because it’s a matter among the monks,” he said. “I’ve reported my findings to the provincial chief monk already, so what happens now is up to them.”

Provincial chief monk Muo Rorn, however, also denied responsibility. “This case is outside of my duties,” he said. “I have no right to make a decision on this case, so I have reported it to the provincial governor, and now I have sent it to Phnom Penh. I dare not say what will happen. It’s up to the chief monk in Phnom Penh.” Non Nget, chief monk of Cambodia, could not be reached for comment.

Monks' morality important to Cambodia

Kiet Chan Thouch, the ‘biting, drunk and now lying monk’ from Wat Leu in Preah Sihanouk province and also an advisor of Hochimonk Tep Vong (Photo by: Deum Ampil)

Hochimonk Tep Vong

Guest Commentary
UPI Asia

Niigata, Japan — In Cambodia Buddhism is the state religion, guaranteed by the Constitution, and about 95 percent of the people are Buddhists. However, in recent times, a gradual decline in moral standards among Buddhist monks and the political affiliations of some of their leaders have raised serious concerns.

The current Great Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Tep Vong has been accused of favoritism toward the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Some of his controversial orders include the February 2005 ban on the use of pagodas for public forums hosted by non-governmental organizations, particularly the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Instead of believing that public forums on human rights create chaos, Tep Vong should view them as a platform for people to voice their concerns and appeal to the government to look after their needs. Buddhism supports such a peaceful approach and nonviolent means to highlight problems and seek solutions.

Tep Vong usually makes speeches on political holidays – such as Liberation Day on Jan. 7, the day the former Khmer Rouge regime was toppled – to reaffirm his support to the ruling party. He rarely touches on issues such as moral standards or the role of monks in Cambodian society.

Several reports of monks having sex, watching pornographic materials and other social misconduct have largely gone unnoticed by the supreme patriarch. Recently a chief monk reportedly got drunk and beat some of his followers, who did not file a complaint out of fear for their safety.

Unlike the case of Tim Sakhorn – a monk who was charged with misconduct and defrocked in 2007 for allegedly destabilizing relations between Cambodia and Vietnam – the supreme patriarch has not reacted to the recent issue involving the drunken monk. This shows that the decision to defrock Sakhorn was politically motivated, and that the Buddhist leader is unconcerned about the decline of morality among the monks under his charge.

If such abuses continue, Buddhism will be less respected in the Cambodian community. This will affect other monks who devotedly follow and respect Buddhist principles. Besides, it would create a dangerous society if citizens were to lose faith in their religion, which contributes to people’s behavior and social conduct.

Buddhism has also played a significant role in national reconciliation and peace for survivors of the former dreaded Khmer Rouge regime. Cambodian people are likely to advise their children to apply Buddhist teachings as a way to solve conflicts in a peaceful manner and also to attain inner peace.

Therefore, the supreme patriarch and other monks need to maintain their gracious role and morality so that the religion is respected and valued. Monks should look back on their past roles in developing the community and the country.

Throughout history, pagodas and monks have contributed immensely to Cambodia’s cultural and educational sustainability, despite civil conflicts. However, their roles and contributions are diminishing in present times.

There are many issues like poverty reduction, corruption, social injustice, land disputes and social conflicts that confront Cambodia’s government as well as civil society. Monks should play a greater leadership role by introducing peaceful mechanisms to solve problems. This would go a long way toward helping Cambodians build a better society and future.
--
(Chak Sopheap is a graduate student of peace studies at the International University of Japan. She runs a blog, www.sopheapfocus.com, in which she shares her impressions of both Japan and her homeland, Cambodia. She was previously advocacy officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.)

Carving a market from a traditional snack

Photo by: Soeun Say

A vendor sells the traditional snack nem at a small shop on the outskirts of Battambang town last week.

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 15:01 Soeun Say

BATTAMBANG

KIM Houy, 27, learned how to make a traditional Khmer food called nem from her parents when she was 15 years old.

The trade is something of a village tradition, she said. But though she faces strong competition for sales in Prek Kpob commune, in Battambang province’s Ek Phnom district, an extensive distribution system ensures her products are bought far and wide throughout Cambodia.

The network reaches all the way to south coast in Kampong Som province, but clubs, shops, restaurants and local markets in Phnom Penh are her most lucrative sales points.

In all, the business, which she set up in 2004 with US$3,500 of her own money, brings in between $400 and $500 in profits every month, Kim Houy said.

The traditional Cambodian food, which is a signature dish from Battambang province, is made from hashed fish meat wrapped in banana leaves.

It also contains toasted rice, ginger, star gooseberry leaves, chilies, sugar, salt and seasoning. They tend to be bought in bulk, with 100 nems

going for around 10,000 riels ($2.50).

Nem from Battambang province is perhaps the best known in the country, though it is also a popular product of Kratie province, Kim Houy said.

“Many Cambodian people love to eat nem, and foreigners too,” she said. “If they come to Battambang province they never forget to buy nem to send to their family and friends.”

Public and religious holidays often lead to a bump in sales of nem, like other traditional Khmer products. During these periods, staff are worked off their feet to boost production from between 10,000 and 15,000 nems per day to as many as 25,000 nems a day. “If they [Cambodian people] think about Battambang province, they also think nem because its good taste,” Houy said.

When she launched the business, she had enough funds to employ three workers, but the team has expanded to seven as demand has grown.

These include three employees to package the finished products and dispatch to customers, two business-development managers who scour the country for new markets, a machine operator and a dedicated fish buyer, who buys fresh fish daily from the Tonle Sap river.

He needs to buy somewhere between 80kg and 100kg of raw fish daily to meet demand.

Staffers earn between 140,000 riels and 180,000 riels per month ($35 to $45) depending on experience, but also receive free food every day they work.

Kim Houy has big expansion plans for the business, but recognises it is a tough market. One of the key limitations to expansion is the shelf life of the product, which tends to perish after one week in the open, forcing the company to wait for orders to come in before it churns out a batch.

She is now looking to introduce refrigeration to extend the shelf life to one month and enable the company to smooth over peaks and troughs in production, maintaining a constant output. She is also looking at techniques used in Thailand to keep traditional foodstuffs fresher for longer. With stock on hand, she reckons it’ll be easier to win new customers.

However, her immediate goal is simply to boost orders enough to increase her income and employ three new staffers.

“I will expand my business as soon as I get enough money to do so,” she said. “But if we want to beat our competitor we must ensure quality and taste first.”

Energy remains in short supply

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

A pump attendant fills a car with fuel at a Tela petrol station in Phnom Penh this month. Energy multinationals remain locked in talks with the government over oil and gas concessions in the Kingdom.

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We’re on the way to finishing the negotiations, it is going smoothly.
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Wednesday, 30 September 2009 15:01 administrator

CAMBODIA remains years away from realising its energy reserves and is still one of the least-connected in terms of energy supplies in the region, government officials and energy company executives said Tuesday.

During the first day of a conference on energy in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) organised by the US embassy in Phnom Penh, participants said that the Kingdom continues to suffer from inadequate energy resources and emphasised the need to improve supplies in order to boost economic growth.

“Energy prices here are among the highest in the region, and connectivity among the lowest,” US Ambassador Carol Rodley said in an opening address.

The sub-region as a whole – which includes Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and the Chinese provinces Guangxi and Yunnan – would require “billions of dollars of investment” in energy to meet demand in the near future, she added.

The Asian Development Bank’s Dr Yongping Zhai, a lead professional in energy for the Southeast Asia Department, said the GMS region would see demand for energy increase between 9 and 20 percent in the coming years, with Vietnam the most power-hungry member of the Mekong region.

In Cambodia’s case, experts said that energy production remained minimal, with littleto suggest the situation would be rectified soon without relying on imports.

“Cambodia has diverse resources, including hydropower and natural gas, but [it has] yet to fully develop,” Yongping said in his presentation to delegates, which included US energy giants Chevron, General Electric and ConocoPhillips.

Once Cambodia develops its resources, it will have “much greater scope” for interconnection with other GMS members such as Thailand, he said. The spread of energy resources within the GMS region was one of the main themes of the conference, which ends today.

In highlighting Cambodia’s energy deficiency, Phalla Phan, deputy secretary general of the Supreme National Economic Council, reiterated that “the electricity price is very high” in Cambodia compared to that in Vietnam and Laos.

Last year, Cambodia imported 57 megawatts, he said – 73 percent of which was from Thailand, with the remainder from Vietnam – and plans to increase imports in the coming years as demand increases. Cambodia also plans to import electricity from northern neighbour Laos in the longer term, he added.

Cambodia suffers from a fragmented power grid, with most resources concentrated in Phnom Penh, said Phalla Phan. Outlying areas suffer from low connectivity rates or rely largely on imported fuel to fire generators to produce electricity, he added.

The result is a costly supply. The average price of Cambodian electricity is $0.16 per kilowatt/hour but that can rise as high as $0.90 per kilowatt-hour in remote rural areas, said Phalla Phan, resulting in among the highest electricity bills in the Mekong basin.

Vietnam in May agreed not to raise the price of its electricity exports to Cambodia before 2011, but fuel prices continue to soar on the back of a rebound in global crude prices.

Petrol prices are up 33.9 percent in Cambodia this year, according to Ministry of Commerce figures obtained by the Post Tuesday, while diesel is up 21 percent over the same period. Both products are imported, mostly from Singapore and Thailand.

Analysts agree that there is little prospect of Cambodia realising its fossil-fuel deposits in the short term, as major energy companies remained locked in negotiations with the government over concessions that remain years from production.

US-based Chevron, which says it has spent US$125 million on seismic data in the Gulf of Thailand and has drilled 15 exploratory wells in offshore Block A, indicated Tuesday there was still no sign of an end to its negotiations with the government for a contract extension.

“Our position is unchanged. We’re still in discussions,” said the company’s regional spokesman, Gareth Johnstone, declining to disclose more information because of the commercially sensitive nature of the ongoing talks in Phnom Penh.

In its promotional material at Tuesday’s event, Chevron said it expected to drill more exploratory wells in the future.

French oil and gas company Total said Tuesday it was also still locked in slow negotiations with the government.

Total to sign soon

Jean-Pierre Labbe, the firm’s head of upstream operations in Cambodia, said, however, that the end was in sight regarding talks to sign over offshore Area III and Block 26, which occupies an area in the southeast of the Kingdom.

“We’re on the way to finishing the negotiations; it is going smoothly,” he said. “It is a problem of technical delays and the date [on which to sign the deals].”

He added that Area III, which lies in a disputed area with Thailand, would be signed first followed by Block 26.

With no news of a settlement between Phnom Penh and Bangkok over the overlapping area, Cambodia still potentially has 27,000 square-kilometres of offshore concessions that cannot be explored.

Although Cambodia first began exploration for oil and gas in the 1950s and first drilled wells between 1972 and 1974 courtesy of French company Elf, it has never produced its own supply.

The latest estimate by the government suggests the first reserves – almost certainly from Block A – are unlikely to start production until 2013 at the earliest.

Famlies ask land case be sent to K Chhnang

(Post by CAAI News Media)

ABOUT 50 villagers representing 64 families from Kampong Chhnang province came to Phnom Penh on Tuesday to deliver a letter to the Ministry of Justice seeking intervention in a land dispute.

The families travelled from Kampong Chhnang’s Lor Peang village, Ta Cheist commune, Kampong Tralach district, in an effort to have their legal dispute with KDC, a private company, transferred from Phnom Penh Municipal Court to Kampong Chhnang provincial court.

Um Sophy, a village representative, said the families were seeking the change of venue because they could not afford to make frequent trips to Phnom Penh to monitor legal proceedings there.

The villagers’ thumb-printed letter also requested that Kampong Chhnang provincial court shelve incitement charges that were brought against three Lor Peang residents last year in connection with the dispute and focus instead on the civil case with KDC.

Ministry of Justice spokesman Bunyai Narith said he was not sure whether the ministry’s Department of Administration had received the letter, but that if it was submitted properly, the department would forward it to the minister of justice for evaluation.

Villagers said, however, that their letter had been rejected by the Ministry of Justice because it lacked the proper documentation.

Som Sokong, the villagers’ lawyer, said he had already sent a letter to Phnom Penh Municipal Court requesting a change of venue to Kampong Chhnang, but was still waiting for an official reply.

K Cham girl becomes latest victim in area’s gang rape epidemi

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(Post by CAAI News Media)

Kampong Cham has seen alarming increase in violent sex acts, local human rights workers say.

A SUSPECT in the rape and killing of a Khmer Muslim woman in Kampong Cham province remains in custody while police gather evidence for his trial.

Provincial police Chief Nuon Samin said Tuesday that a 36-year-old Cambodian man was arrested Sunday for allegedly raping and killing a 22-year-old woman last Saturday after finding her alone on a coffee farm in Tonloung commune.

“The suspect is being detained by the police, and we are now collecting more evidence to bring against him in court.”

Nuon Samin said that on Saturday morning the victim left home for a farm a kilometre away, where she is believed to have been attacked by the suspect sometime between 7am and 8am.

The victim’s parents became worried when she did not return home later that day.

“When her parents came to the farm that evening, they found her body stripped naked, with wounds around her neck,” Nuon Samin said.

“This was the second rape-murder in the province this month, after the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl,” he added.

Thov Chinda, provincial investigator for human rights group Adhoc, said Monday that in the first nine months of 2009, Adhoc recorded 20 rape cases in Kampong Cham, and that prior to this case, all of them were committed against girls under the age of 18.

“Rape is a very serious danger for girls in rural areas,” Thov Chinda said, adding that drugs and pornographic videos contributed to the perpetrators’ outbursts of sexual violence.

Nuon Samin said police in Kampong Cham handled six rape cases in September and agreed that incidents of rape were on the rise.

Just one week before the rape and murder of the most recent victim, an 11-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed by what is now believed to have been as many as 10 men. The alleged leader of the gang was a man who said he had fallen in love with the victim but thought himself too poor to marry her.

Both crimes occurred in rural areas of Kampong Cham and were committed in isolated locations close to the victims’ homes. In each case, the body of the victim was found by her family.

Help sought in war on drugs

Photo by: Christopher Shay

A man smokes heroin in Boeung Trabek commune in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district late last year.

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Traffickers have been using new routes to smuggle their drugs into cambodia.

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(Post by CAAI News Media)

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 15:02 Khouth Sophakchakrya

Ke Kim Yan tells ASEAN officials at a meeting in Phnom Penh that the Kingdom needs support to meet the regional body’s goal of complete eradication by 2015.

DESPITE recent progress in the fight against illegal drugs, Cambodia needs help from the international community if it is to meet the regional goal of eradicating illegal drugs by 2015, the Kingdom’s drug tsar said Tuesday.

Speaking at a conference of ASEAN Senior Officials on Drug Matters (ASOD) Tuesday in Phnom Penh, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Ke Kim Yan said Cambodia suffers from its position as a transition point for the international drug trade.

“Cambodia is currently facing attempts to use the country to manufacture drugs for exporting to outside markets,” said Ke Kim Yan, who chairs the country’s National Authority for Combating Drugs.

Recent trends have seen the Kingdom used as a site for large- and medium-scale narcotic production, Ke Kim Yan said, pointing to crackdowns on three major production and storage sites, including two in Phnom Penh, earlier this year.

“We would have fallen into grave danger if our law enforcement had not suppressed these manufacturing locations in time,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of people inside and outside of Cambodia could have suffered.”

The government believes it still faces threats from drugs seeping in through northeastern borders, according to Cambodia’s report on its internal drug situation given to ASEAN members at this week’s ASOD conference.

Although heroin and methamphetamine are seen as the main drugs circulating in Cambodia, the country is also increasingly worried about a surging cocaine trade.

“The drug traffickers have been using new routes to smuggle their drugs into Cambodia and to export internationally,” Ke Kim Yan said.

Recent statistics, Ke Kim Yan said, suggest overall drug use has been on the downswing since 2005. Drug treatment in the Kingdom’s 14 private or state-owned treatment centres, he acknowledged, is another matter.

“The centres only isolate the addicts from drugs,” he said. “There is no model or standard guideline for treatment.”

Ke Kim Yan warned that Cambodia will need help if it is to become drug-free by 2015, a goal previously set by ASEAN member nations.

“Cambodia is in great need of technical experience and material assistance and support from … the international community,” he said.

Some observers, however, are sceptical that the government will reach its objectives. Previous crackdowns, said Him Yun, vice president of the Khmer Youth Association, have not produced sustained results, as youth drug use remains widespread.

In 2001, the United States dropped Cambodia from its annual list of “major illicit drug-producing or major drug-transit countries”, upgrading the Kingdom to a “country of concern

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Chinese and Cambodian youths jointly hold art performance in Phnom Penh

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