asianews: 10/15/09

Cambodia in Pictures

A Cambodia fisherman throws a fishing net to catch fish at the flooded village of Kampong Roteh, Kampong Thom province, about 168 kilometers (104 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A Cambodia fisherman uses a wooden boat to catch fish at the flooded village of Kampong Roteh, Kampong Thom province, about 168 kilometers (104 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian Charcoal Market Is Booming

Simon Marks/IHT

A merchant in Phnom Penh sifts through his trailer filled with charcoal.

According to a 2008 study conducted jointly by Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, the United Nations Development Program and the environmental group Geres, the number of households projected to use charcoal as an energy source in Cambodia will rise from about 500,000 currently to more than one million in 2015.

That projected increase has raised concerns among environmentalists, who note that charcoal production entails the removal of vast quantities of woodland, often in naturally growing forests, as well as high levels of “black carbon” or soot — which scientists say plays a significant role in global warming.

The report values the current annual market for charcoal in the capital, Phnom Penh, at $25 million — a number that is expected to more than double in size during the next five years based on current trends.

And while the authors note a shift towards modern energy sources, “the demand for firewood, charcoal, kerosene and batteries will remain high over the next decades,” the report said.

Wood burners for cooking, which are used extensively in Asia and Africa, produce large quantities of soot particles, which scientists say is responsible for as much as 18 percent of global warming.

David Beritault, an energy expert at Geres, said that much of the charcoal made in Cambodia has not been sufficiently burned to complete its transformation from wood, a phenomenon that leads to higher levels of black carbon in the atmosphere.

Black carbon can travel long distances, warming the air and melting ice by absorbing the sun’s heat.

But charcoal, if produced correctly, can burn almost smokeless, and is less polluting than wood — although it does emit greenhouse gases during its production. Geres is currently involved in a so-called “green charcoal” project that aims to make charcoal with more energy-efficient wood.

“If we can control the process we can produce the same amount of charcoal but with less wood,” said Mr Beritault.

Environmentalists also say that water filters, which cost about $7.50, could be used instead of having to boil water to make it potable. Moreover, Biodigesters, which provide a cheap source of fuel by converting organic waste into biogas, is another option that could improve health conditions inside households that cook with wood and charcoal.

Still, 27 percent of residents in Phnom Penh are currently using charcoal as their main energy source, according to the Ministry of Industry, and urban demand for charcoal is expected to nearly triple over the next two decades.

Khiev Thim, a charcoal merchant in the Phnom Penh who, on a recent morning, sold roughly 1,300 lbs. of charcoal to a avariety of households and small businesses, said that demand in the city was fierce.

“We sell it everywhere in the city,” he said, “except along the main roads.”

Pakistan rocked by fresh attacks

A series of attacks on security forces in Pakistan has killed at least 38 people, officials say.

In Lahore, militants attacked offices of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), as well as two police training centres. At least 26 people died.

In the northern town of Kohat, 11 were killed in a car bomb attack on police.

Then a bomb in the city of Peshawar in the north-west killed a child. Suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past two weeks have killed more than 250 people.

The Peshawar car bomb went off outside a housing complex for government employees. A number of people were wounded.

Thursday's violence began in Lahore - Pakistan's second-largest city. It was long spared the brunt of Pakistan's unrest but has seen a number of attacks since the start of the year.

Four gunmen attacked the FIA building in the city, officials say.

At least seven people - including police and the attackers - were killed in the battle, officials said.

A police spokesman said: "We found grenades and a suicide jacket near one dead person. Two dead bodies have been found near the front gate. The building has been cleared and the employees are safe."

In March 2008, more than 20 people died in a suicide attack on an FIA building nearby.

Police and militants were also among the dead in Thursday's assaults on the other security facilities in Lahore.

One was the Manawan police training academy, where three of the attackers are said to have blown themselves up. Eight others died.

The academy had been targeted in March this year, in an attack that killed nearly 20 people.

'Guerrilla war'

The other training centre attacked on Thursday was the Bedian academy for commando troops.

Police say the situation is now under control at all three facilities.

Thursday's attack in Kohat saw a suicide bomber ram his car into the wall of the police station compound, police said, causing part of the building to collapse.

Eyewitnesses say that both civilians and policemen are among the dead.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said: "The enemy has started a guerrilla war," reports AP news agency.

"The whole nation should be united against these handful of terrorists, and God willing we will defeat them."

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that although no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks the finger of blame will point towards the Taliban.

Just a couple of weeks ago they threatened a wave of attacks against security forces unless the army's operations against them came to an end.

Nadal & Djokovic reach last eight

Nadal is trying to win his fourth Masters 1000 title of the year

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic made swift progress into the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters as the event lost another two players to injury.

Top seed Nadal swept past Tommy Robredo 6-1 6-4 in the final match of the day, after world number four Djokovic had beaten Rainer Schuettler 6-4 6-2.

Nadal will next face Ivan Ljubicic, who led 11th seed Gael Monfils 6-2 3-0 when the Frenchman quit with a back injury.

Stanislas Wawrinka was 3-6 7-6 4-2 down to Radek Stepanek when he withdrew.

The Swiss was suffering with abdominal pains and joins Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick and Tommy Haas as withdrawals during the week, while world number one Roger Federer (fatigue) and Britain's Andy Murray (wrist injury) had already skipped the tournament.

In Thursday's other matches, ninth seed Robin Soderling had a surprisingly comfortable

6-3 6-3 win over fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and will next meet Feliciano Lopez, who defeated Jurgen Melzer 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.

Soderling is among a handful of players still in with a chance of claiming one of three remaining spots up for grabs at the ATP season-ending World Tour Finals in London next month.

"I know that if I play well, I have a chance, but this tournament won't decide who's going to play in London," said the Swede. "There's still a lot of tennis to be played."

Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko beat 10th seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 7-5 to set up a clash with Stepanek.

Djokovic goes on to play eighth seed Gilles Simon, who beat Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-4.

"I've been working on physical strength and fitness a lot in last couple of months, and it's been paying off," said Djokovic.

"It's playing one of the key roles in the situations like this. When you are playing week after week, it's important to be physically strong, and that gives you advantage over your opponents."

Nadal was rarely troubled despite falling 2-0 behind in the second set against compatriot Robredo.

"I am playing well," said the Spaniard. "But I played two terrible games at the start of the second set so I have to improve in situations like this if I want to beat the top players."

Ketsana keeps schools shut

Photo by: Oxfam

Children play in a flooded schoolyard in Kampong Thom after Typhoon Ketsana shut down schools around the kingdom earlier this month.

FLOODING caused by Typhoon Ketsana has put the studies of thousands of students on hold as schools throughout the Kingdom struggle to reopen, officials said Wednesday.

Chroeng Limsry, director of the Secondary Education Department at the Ministry of Education, said teachers were preparing to make up for lost time.

“We’re going to give our students extra class hours, but we’re still waiting for the water to subside before anyone can come back to school,” he said.

Kompong Cham province’s education department director Svay Phalla said the Mekong River flood following the typhoon initially closed 114 schools, but that the number was changing all the time. “I see some schools opening, but others continue to close,” he said.

Chea Cheat, Phnom Penh Education Department director, said 10 primary schools and three high schools in Phnom Penh remain closed, affecting 10,000 students.

Chea Sum Sothea, secretary of Trapaing Veng primary school in Stung Sen district, Kampong Thom province, said the water there was still knee-deep.

“Students are bored with the delay, and teachers are worried they cannot complete the year’s curriculum”, he said. Teachers are due to discuss ways to make the curriculum fit within the shortened term.

Keo Vy, communication officer at the National Committee for Disaster Management estimated that Typhoon Ketsana had cost Cambodia at least $29.3 million in damages and killed about 40 people, mostly in flooding caused by heavy rains. He said the committee would present its final evaluation of the typhoon’s impact at a meeting on Friday.

“We still need a clearer picture of the total damage caused by Ketsana. This assessment will help us set priorities for the ongoing relief effort,” Keo Vy said.

After tearing through the Philippines and Vietnam, Ketsana slammed into Cambodia on the night of September 29, pummeling the country with 185km/h winds and rain.

Vendors protest City Mall rents

Photo by: Tracey Shelton
Vendors from City Mall confront owners Wednesday in a bid to get the mall to lower its rents.

MORE than 100 vendors protested outside the City Mall Shopping Centre in Prampi Makara district on Wednesday to demand that the owner, Taiwan’s Fu Yang Investment Co, lower the rents on its retail space.

Clothing vendor Rin Manith said shopkeepers could not afford to pay the monthly rate charged by the owners of the four-storey building.

“If we compare the rent on a store here with those of other shopping centres, City Mall is the most expensive,” he said, adding that City Mall charged between US$40 and $65 per square metre each month, whereas other malls charged as little as $28.

Rin Manith said that tough economic times made it especially important for vendors in the newly opened mall to save money.

“If the rent is $1,500, we lose $1,000 every month. How can we continue our business?” he said.

City Mall’s director Lee Hsieh Yu could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

FM pushes border talks

Photo by: AFP

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Wednesday that Prime Minister Hun Sen could raise the border issue at an upcoming ASEAN summit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have been very patient about resolving the border issue with thailand...

CAMBODIA may raise the issue of its ongoing border dispute with Thailand during the upcoming ASEAN summit in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Wednesday.

Last week, the Bangkok Post newspaper published an article quoting Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya as saying that he planned to propose the establishment of a “neutral organisation” to resolve disputes between ASEAN countries at the regional body’s next summit, to be held October 23 to 25.

In a letter to Kasit dated Monday, Hor Namhong cited the Bangkok Post article in proposing that ASEAN include the two countries’ border dispute in the agenda for Hua Hin. On Tuesday, however, the Thai Foreign Ministry said that the Bangkok Post had misquoted Kasit, adding that Thailand remains committed to bilateral negotiations under the auspices of the Joint Border Commission rather than international ones.

Hor Namhong said Wednesday that he had yet to receive an official response to his letter from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but that in the absence of such a response, Cambodia may raise the issue at the ASEAN summit.

“If there is no official reply from the Thai foreign minister, Prime Minister Hun Sen may raise the border issue directly with his Thai counterpart, Abhisit, who is the chairman of ASEAN, in order to resolve the dispute,” Hor Namhong said, referring to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Hor Namhong also complained that Thai politicians have been delaying the resolution of the conflict, warning that Cambodia might eventually bring the issue to the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice for arbitration.

“We have been very patient about resolving the border issue with Thailand through bilateral talks in order to avoid war, but the Thai parliament has again and again delayed approval of the agreements reached by the Joint Border Commission, so some day we may bring the border dispute with Thailand to the international floor,” he said.

Thani Thongphakdi, deputy spokesman for the Thai ministry of foreign affairs, said Wednesday that Thailand had already sent a letter to Cambodia to explain that Kasit had been misquoted. Efforts to negotiate the disagreement in an international venue, he said, “might complicate the issue”, adding that ASEAN nations have previously agreed the issue is best handled bilaterally.

Chris Roberts, a lecturer at the University of Canberra and the author of an upcoming book on ASEAN, said that debate at the ASEAN level might be the most productive way for the quarreling nations to end their disagreement. He added, however, that Thailand likely prefers bilateral debate because it feels it is the “more dominant state” in this forum.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, said Bangkok “will certainly not allow the border dispute to be solved in any forum other than a bilateral one”, adding that Hor Namhong has “put pressure” on Thailand by pushing for ASEAN intervention.

Roberts agreed, saying that this crisis presents the opportunity “for Thailand, Cambodia and ASEAN more generally to move to a higher plane where they [can] engage in conflict resolution.”

No homes and no votes for evictees

Photo by: Sovan Philong

Villagers whose homes were burned in a forced eviction in Oddar Meanchey last week might be unable to vote because their identity documents were destroyed.

Thursday, 15 October 2009 15:04 Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Vong Sokheng

Thousands face exclusion because of lost personal documents, groups warn.

THE National Election Committee (NEC) is shirking its responsibilities to victims of land evictions, critics charged Wednesday, as the fallout continued over suggestions that thousands of evictees may have been erased from official voter rolls.

A day after announcing that the names of 33,144 people had been removed from voter rolls, NEC officials admitted Wednesday that authorities have refused to register some evictees because they lack proper government identification.

“Some individual evictees were not legally living in their relocation commune,” said Tep Nytha, a secretary general at the NEC, who called the issue a “headache”.

If evictees truly want to register for future elections, he said, they should go to their commune councillors and obtain new identification.

The suggestion sparked criticism from rights groups, who accused the NEC of abdicating its responsibilities to ensure proper elections throughout the Kingdom.

“The upcoming commune elections in 2012 will not be fair if evictees are unable to vote,” said Koul Panha, executive director of the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel), a local elections watchdog.

He urged the NEC to pressure the government to issue proper identification to the evictees, many of whose ID cards were destroyed or lost during the turmoil of their evictions.

It is not clear how many evictees may have been erased from the voter registry, but conservative estimates suggest they could number in the thousands, Koul Panha said.

He added that Comfrel survey of just three Phnom Penh communes – Trapaing Krasang, Prey Veng and Choam Chao – found at least 3,600 evictees who have been refused registration.

“We think that there are many other evictees who have lost their rights to vote,” he said.

In Oddar Meanchey province, where authorities burned homes to the ground this weekend in an ongoing land dispute, more than 200 evictees may have lost their papers, according to former Bos village Chief Huoy Chhuoy.

In Phnom Penh, 61-year-old Hem Sareoun said he and his wife, Som Ny, were refused registration because they had no ID cards nor a family book. The documents had been lost when the pair were rooted out of the Dey Krahorm community in 2008.

“The commune elections officers refused to register my name and my wife’s name,” he said. The Ministry of Interior oversees the management of government-issued identification. Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak declined to comment when contacted by the Post Wednesday.

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