Former Untac governor tours old haunts of Siem Reap's dark past

Written by Peter Olszewski

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Photo by: Peter Olszewlsi Benny Widyono at his former Siem Reap residence. WELCOME to the governor's residence, says Professor Benny Widyono, pointing to a humble wooden house on the airport side of National Road 6, one of the few such houses that haven't been chewed up in the thirst for land in what is now mostly a row of high-priced hotels. Widyono was the former Untac Siem Reap shadow governor in the early 1990s, and when he took up his station here in 1992, he eschewed gubernatorial grandeur, choosing not to live in a mansion like many of his peers, but instead opting for humble digs so that he could not be compromised. The quaint little house is now an office for a security company, but his former landlady, Lom Ang Sim, still lives in an adjoining little house. And when she saw him inspecting his former home, an emotional welcome mat was put out, and bemused security company officials allowed the entourage to inspect the building's dim interior.

Checking out the house was part of a guided tour of old haunts that Widyono conducted for the Post during his brief stay in Siem Reap for the Centre for Khmer Studies annual board meeting.

But there wasn't all that much for Widyono to show because hardly anything is left that was standing in Siem Reap when he was the main man.

The only other still-standing building he could find was Martini's girlie bar near the Old Market and, apart from a few garish nightclub refurbishments, he said the building is the same as when he was governor and visited frequently because two Khmer Rouge generals operated out of the premises.

There's an irony that the KR generals' former lair is now a girlie bar because Widyono points out two sites in town that were attacked by the Khmer Rouge on morality grounds alone, in anger over the practice of Untac soldiers to corrupt local women.

At one site near the Grand Hotel, the Khmer Rouge killed two nurses while they were sleeping in their tents because they slept with Untac staff.

Widyono shakes his head and winds up his brief tour saying that dealing with the Khmer Rouge back then was like dealing with "mental patients on early release".

Read more!

African dancer teaches new moves

Written by Nora Lindstrom

Monday, 19 January 2009

Senegalese dancer and artist Germaine Acogny shakes up Phnom Penh. Photo by: Photo Supplied One of Germaine Acogny's African dance classes. Germaine Acogny, described by some as the "mother of African dance", is this week taking a residency at Phnom Penh's Reyum Institute as part of the networking activities of the Amsterdam-based Prince Claus Fund.

The renowned Senegalese performer is in Phnom Penh to share her technique of modern African dance with local dancers in daily workshops and will also host a public lecture, a drumming workshop and finally a public performance featuring workshop participants.

Around 30 Cambodians, selected from various local art associations, are expected to take part in the program.

"We have tried to provide the opportunity to a variety of local institutions and involve people from different horizons," said Ly Daravuth, who organised the event at the Reyum Institute. "About half of the participants are classical dancers," he continued, adding that other dancers taking part have varied backgrounds in hip- hop, theatre and even the circus.

"It's a short visit, so it is difficult to develop anything [in depth], but maybe in the future we can do something more," Ly Daravuth said.

Starting a dialogue
It is only the beginning of a dialogue, Germaine Acogny agreed. "While teaching, I will encourage participants to use their own background, too, and well, we'll see what happens," she said.

"Sometimes, classical dancers seem almost handicapped; they are not used to moving their body so much. But after a while they usually come around, as they already possess the fundamental techniques [of dancing]," she added.

The residency is not only about teaching. It is also an opportunity for Germaine Acogny to explore something new.

"When I go somewhere, I try to learn the traditional dance and transform it into my own technique," she said. "I am curious about classical Khmer dance. Like in classical European dance, the bust does not move and it seems rigid, but I don't know at the moment, I have to try it first."

From Africa to the world
Germaine Acogny, who runs the Senegal-based International Centre of Traditional and Contemporary Dances, describes African dance as emanating a special energy through its rootedness in the ground and its connection with nature.

In fact, she believes all forms of dance share the same African heritage; only, they have been transformed over the centuries in different parts of the world.

if I was a president of a country, I woud make everyone dance.


Regardless of technique, however, she considers dancing in general to have a positive effect on society.

"I think dance is communication, education - it awakens something in people and relieves frustrations .... It's my dream that everyone would dance. Dancing has a sociological, psychological and educational effect on people and society. If I was a president of a country, I would make everyone dance. That's how the country would develop," she said.

A royal dance
While in Cambodia, Germaine Acogny also has a small request: She would like to meet King Norodom Sihamoni.

"I've read he is a former ballet dancer, and so I would like to dance for him, or perhaps we could dance together," she said.

Germaine Acogny's lecture on African dance will be held at 6pm on Wednesday at the Reyum Institute. The final performance involving all workshop participants will take place at 7pm on Friday at Gasolina.

Read more!

Tuning music and the body

Written by Anne-Laure Poree

Friday, 16 January 2009

Combining jazz with traditional Khmer music and dance, French musician Louis Sclavis, Phare Ponleu Selpak and Belle improvise an unusual treat. Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG Louis Sclavis, Belle and Phare Ponleu Selpak during rehearsal at the French Cultural Centre on Tuesday. Dance and music are on the program when the French Cultural Centre opens its garden to an unusual trio this Saturday: Belle, a Khmer dancer who graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts last year, 10 musicians from the traditional Khmer band Phare Ponleu Selpak and Louis Sclavis, a French jazz giant and a passionate fan of improvisation. Sclavis, 55, is visiting Cambodia for the first time, and he has much more experience in improvisation than his young Cambodian partners. At rehearsals prior to the big event, the trio learns to work and create together, and to discover that in the tradition of improvisation, things are not strictly fixed.

Getting in sync
When Sclavis starts playing, Belle starts dancing. He plunges into the music - he becomes the music - and Belle choreographs her emotions.

Her arms and hands twist like lotus petals swept up by the wind. Her body performs the slow and graceful movements of the Apsaras. Suddenly, she breaks the ancestral rules. She wiggles her shoulders, her chest vibrates discreetly, she moves fast, she introduces a contemporary repertoire.

Sclavis follows her with his eyes; sometimes he changes his rhythm in order to accompany her movements. Sometimes, he moves away from her. She feels it, then she stops dancing and marks her movements with a gesture, concentrating on what she wants to express.

She tries to find her way and to simultaneously respect the freedom of the musician.

The art of improv
The rehearsal tunes the dancer - the body - with the musician - the instrument.

"If you have your rhythm, which is not mine, it is not a problem. We do not have to be always the same. I use my own vocabulary, and so do you," Sclavis tells Belle at the end of the piece.

"Improvisation is the capacity to invent the music immediately and in the moment," Sclavis added after the rehearsal.

Improvisation is the capacity to invent the music immediately.


"I try to make Belle move out of her traditional universe. And I make the musicians hear another way to play. I perform, I let it go, I put some speed, I slow down. This is like writing. The aim is to get a good composition."
Belle understands the principles.

When she first met Sclavis, he made her listen to different styles of music. They agreed on a panel of styles, but Belle is unaware in what order the music will be played. She prepares herself and is ready for when the different styles of music come. And she seems to enjoy this challenge because she says she is eager to discover new ways of thinking, feeling and moving - to discover what she calls "the spirit inside the body".

Sclavis leads the Phare Ponleu Selpak band the same way and with the same success.

He gives the tempo and plays an entrancing and sensual melody that will be the first theme of the performance. He organizes the sounds of the xylophones, the drums, the flute, and gives marks to the musicians. He is the conductor and the score at the same time.

"There are two parts in this piece. In the first one, I play the melody. I improvise a little and when I make a sign to you, we start the second part of the piece," Sclavis advises the musicians before inviting them to improvise.

The result is that the music carries the public into another world, the world of its own imagination.
The cafe-concert improvisation will take place Saturday at the French Cultural Centre at 6:30pm. fromm...http://www.phnompenhpost.com

Read more!

ACLEDA to up ATM service

Written by May Kunmakara

Monday, 19 January 2009

A plan to implement 42 new teller machines in rural areas will nearly double the number nationwide as the bank aims to boost service in the provinces. Photo by: Tracey Shelton A new ACLEDA bank under construction in Krang Ampel commune. Rural expansion and improved services are a main priority, says CEO In Channy . Amid growing concern over the local effects of the global credit crunch, ACLEDA Bank is pressing ahead with plans to open 42 new automated teller machines in rural areas, bank CEO In Channy told the Post Sunday. The plan will nearly double the existing total of 60 ATMs nationwide and allow rural patrons faster access to cash, In Channy said. "The additional ATMs will make our bank a leader in providing easier access to cash," In Channy said, adding that the number of new clients using ATM services is growing.

"We are issuing as many as 500 new ATM cards each day for new clients," he said.

In Channy said the bank expects to begin installing the new machines in May, at an estimated cost of US$700,000, though he could not provide any details about where they will be located.

Some prospective areas could be affected by a lack of reliable electricity supply, he added.

The expansion of automated services follows a growing trust among Cambodians in the country's banking sector, In Channy said.

More people are choosing to apply for an ATM card for use as an optional form of identification, In Channy said-a process, he added, that requires only an initial deposit of $10.

"ACLEDA has 180,000 ATM cardholders at present," he said. "And they are not charged anything for using our 24-hour automated services."

The bank's expansion of automated services is part of a national strategy to modernise the banking sector, including credit card and mobile banking services, said Tal Nay Im, director general of the National Bank of Cambodia.

WE ARE ISSUING AS MANY AS 500 NEW ATM CARDS EACH DAY FOR NEW CLIENTS.


"Clients are being offered a growing number of new products and services at Cambodia's commercial banks to bring the sector in line with what is happening internationally. Though we might be behind our regional neighbours, we have to aim for an international standard," Tal Nay Im said.

"Many Cambodians don't have experience with some of the new services that are regularly available abroad, but commercial banks can play an important role in promoting these new services to new customers," she added.

Economist Chap Sotharith, head of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said the expansion of ATM services, specifically in rural areas, could help ACLEDA appeal to larger numbers of potential customers that have yet to feel confident about using banks on a regular basis.

"If the bank can increase its presence in the rural provinces, they will likely attract greater deposits and help spur on economic growth nationally," Chap Sotharith said.

He added Cambodia's banks have begun to feel the strain of the global credit crunch, though largely indirectly.

"Cambodia's banking sector has suffered a bit, but mainly because of the impact the crisis has had on developed countries," he said.

Cambodia currently has 231 teller machines nationwide, according to a report by NBC in the first quarter of last year.

Read more!

Graveyard moves upscale

Written by NGUON SOVAN AND HOR HAB

Friday, 16 January 2009

A former Funcinpec legislator says he hopes to be the country's first high-end cemetary operator with room for about 30,000 corpses Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON Children praying in one of the country’s decaying cemeteries. A new project aims to tap into the high-end market. ALOCAL entrepreneur is planning to build Cambodia's first boutique graveyard in Kampong Speu province. Lu Laysreng, 73, a former Funcipec lawmaker, says his project will be the country's first modern graveyard and burial business. "Vimean Sour Graveyard is Cambodia's largest graveyard investment," said the former rural development minister.

"It will be like a park with a crematorium, a morgue, a ceremony hall, space for gardens and walking areas," he said.
"The graveyard will be capable of housing around 30,000 corpses."

He said he invested in the site because he is very old and wants to distance himself from politics.
He said that the lack of modern grounds in the country has created a market for high-end burial spaces.

"Phnom Penh is very crowded. There is no place left for a graveyard," Lu Laysreng told the Post on Thursday.
Lu Laysreng said the business will target the Cambodian middle class in Phnom Penh.

"Pagodas are places where Buddhists pray and celebrate religious ceremonies, but now pagodas are also crowded with stupas, so the pagoda campuses are narrower - there is no space for people to celebrate rituals, so my graveyard will help to ease that."

He said that the 60-hectare graveyard is located at the foot of Srang Mountain in Srang commune, Kong Pisey district of Kampong Speu province - 54 kilometres from Phnom Penh.

He said the infrastructure at the ground has been built, and the site is ready for its first corpses.

Prices range from $300 for a small space to $6,000 for a four-meter-by-four-meter plot.

He said part of the revenues from sales of burial plots will be contributed to social development, especially to improve health care for the poor.

Pennies from heaven
"If they have no money to pay instantly, they can pay in instalments," he said.
"I want to contribute to society. I am too old to be rich, the money will go mainly towards improving health care for the poor," said Lu Lay Sreng.

He said that the development of the graveyard will benefit the approximately 4,000 locals through jobs and micro-businesses such as selling flowers and amulets.

But Chum Vong, governor of Kong Pisey district, said he was not interested in the project and that Srang Mountain is believed to be a holy place.

"I think the place should be developed as an ecotourism attraction, rather than a graveyard.
"We are not really interested in this development and we don't expect local people will benefit from it," Chum Vong told the Post on Thursday.

Read more!

Cambodia and Kuwait: the start of a great cooperation?

Phnom Penh (Cambodia). 16/01/2009. Hun Sen returning from Kuwait, his first visit in the Middle East. (Photo: Vandy Rattana)

16-01-2009
By Ros Dina
Ka-set in English
Click here to read the article in French
Click here to read the article in Khmer

On Friday January 16th , Cambodian prime Minister Hun Sen and his delegation returned to Phnom Penh in the same way as they left, with a direct flight especially chartered by Kuwait. The prime Minister's first ever and “very friendly” visit in Kuwait lasted four days in all, during which the head of government and some of his Ministers signed several agreements with the Arab emirate, their new partner. Hun Sen expressed his wish for the opening “soon” of an embassy of Kuwait in Cambodia. The new cooperation seems to be going all smoothly.
Upon their arrival at Pochentong airport, Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong indicated to the press that the two countries had reached an agreement on direct flights between Cambodia and Kuwait and intended to promote tourism between both countries. They also signed two Memoranda of Understanding, one concerning the sending of Cambodian labour to Kuwait and the other about the setting-up of irrigation infrastructures in the province of Kampong Thom, a project worth $USD350 million which would apply to 130,000ha of ricefields. Among other things, Kuwait promised to finance the renovation of two road sections in the Northeast of Cambodia, namely the Thmor Kol-Sampov Loun section and the Kôn Domrei-Pailin section. These projects, according to Hor Namhong, will not be launched without the final assent of Kuwait's direction committee.

In August 2008, a delegation from Kuwait visited Cambodia and since then, Hun Sen has invited the country to send more delegations. He also sought the help of the Kuwaiti Fund for Development, this time for support to small irrigation networks in the country “to help farmers and reduce poverty”. The prime Minister suggested that the money might either be transferred to private micro-finance structures or to the Rural Development Bank, which belongs to the state.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs reported that Hun Sen encouraged Kuwaiti investors to take an interest in Cambodia, a land admittedly agricultural, but full of resources, he claimed. He offered them, as they have started doing, to buy rice to feed their country, but also to establish stocks with a view to sell them in turn to other countries in the Near East, forced to import, like Kuwait, the majority of their agricultural and farming products. A Working group should soon be set up to tackle investment questions raised by both countries.

As for tourism, Cambodia expects a lot from Kuwait. The Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, who was also accompanying the prime Minister, is in charge of creating a programme of cultural events including exhibitions and fairs promoting key-products in Cambodia, which would then be organised in Kuwait. Together with the Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce, Industry and Parliamentary relations, he signed a 5-year convention which will require, as a condition, the launching of projects within the first six months of its implementation.

The Minister of Tourism insisted on the interest there was in attracting to Cambodia tourists from a small country but where the GDP per capita amounts to USD50,000... (GDP per capita in Cambodia: USD1,800). “In 2008, we only welcomed some 700 Kuwaiti tourists in Cambodia. But if we could welcome 50,000, that would be good!”

Read more!

First Khmer Rouge trial date set

Monday, 19 January 2009
BBC News

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has set 17 February as the start date for the long-awaited first trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Comrade Duch - will be the first in the dock, facing charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
He ran Tuol Sleng prison, where detainees were tortured and executed.

As many as two million people are thought to have died during the Khmer Rouge government in the late 1970s.

The process of bringing the regime's leaders to court has suffered years of procedural delays, and no major figures have yet stood trial.

Brutal Khmer Rouge regime

Duch was in charge of the notorious facility known as S-21 or Tuol Sleng, where about 15,000 prisoners were systematically tortured.

Those who survived the ordeal were sent for execution in the so-called "killing fields".

Officials have indicated that Duch cooperated with the investigating judges and is willing to testify in court, so correspondents say the trial should be a chance for survivors of the Khmer Rouge era to hear directly at last from one of the organisation's key figures.

Read more!

Cambodia's Funcinpec, NRP agree to alliance for may election [A case of "1+1=0"?]

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's two main royalist political parties, the Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP), have decided to combine forces for May's district and provincial council elections, national media reported Monday.


Officials from the two parties met on Thursday to hold talks and agreed to assist each other in the upcoming election, in which commune councilors will vote to choose the first-ever district, provincial and municipal councils, Funcinpec Secretary-General Nhiek Bun Chhay was quoted by the Cambodia Daily newspaper as saying.

"We have agreed to unite with each other during the council election on May 17," he told the newspaper.

He added that the two parties uniting to form a single party would make sense because the NRP was originally born out of Funcinpec.

NRP spokesman Suth Dina confirmed that the discussions between the two parties were held and the two parties would cooperate for the May election.

In late 2006, Prince Norodom Ranariddh formed the NRP shortly after being ousted from the presidency of Funcinpec, effectively splitting the royalist vote.

Read more!

Israeli investors are eyeing Cambodia

16 Jan 2009
By Leang Delux
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

Tzahi Selzer, first secretary and economic attaché of Israel embassy in Cambodia (residing in Bangkok, Thailand), paid an official visit to Cambodia on 15 January. His undertaking coincides with Israel’s wish to invest in Cambodia.
The Israeli representative gave an interview to the Deum Ampil (Tamarind tree) newspaper in which he indicated that his country is interested to invest in Cambodia in the agricultural sector and in communication.

“In May, we will organize an international exposition on agriculture in Tel Aviv. We invited the Cambodian minister of Agriculture to participate in it, as well as all his counterparts from all over the world,” Tzahi Selzer indicated. He also added that between 15 and 16 March, a meeting between Israeli and Cambodian businessmen and technicians would be organized in Phnom Penh. In fact, he indicated that Israel wishes to establish a commercial cooperation between the two countries.

“Some Israel investors are already in Cambodia. Most of them are in Sihanoukville. They work on bio-diesel and in the real estate sector. Other investors from Israel who have established in neighboring countries, would like to establish themselves here,” he said while recalling that the amount of Israeli investments in Cambodia is still very low.

Read more!

KRT defence supports probe

Monday, 19 January 2009
Written by Georgia Wilkins
The Phnom Penh Post

The head of defence at the Khmer Rouge tribunal has warned that if nothing is done to resolve the issue of corruption, it will hang over the court's head forever.

THE head of the defence section of the Khmer Rouge tribunal has thrown his support behind a criminal investigation into corruption at the court, warning that a litigious attempt by Cambodian judges to block the probe smacks of intimidation and threatens to tarnish the process.
"This could look like an attempt to intimidate defence lawyers into not providing rigorous defence or ensuring a fair trial for their client," Richard Rogers, interim chief of the defence support section, told the Post Friday.

"The only way to resolve the issue of corruption is through a full, proper and transparent investigation," he said, adding that he supports an investigation by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court into such allegations, which began after a defence team at the court made a complaint against the Extraordinary Chamber's administrators.

"It's clear the Cambodian government doesn't want to investigate [allegations], so there are few other choices left," he said.

Speaking in response to a statement on January 9 in which Cambodian judges at the internationally backed tribunal threatened the lawyers who made the civil complaint with "legal recourse", Rogers said he was concerned that such dialogue created an environment of intimidation that could impact the willingness of witnesses to come forward.

"If [witnesses] see judges publicly threatening lawyers, they might be less likely to come forward. It is important for judges to create an environment in which witnesses feel comfortable to come forward and help find the truth," he added Sunday.

Trial date still looms

On Friday, the tribunal concluded a two-day preparatory meeting for its first trial, that of Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, charged for his role as head of Tuol Sleng prison.

The meeting likely set a date for the trial, expected in March, but details are not expected until later this week.

Rogers said it was to everyone's benefit, including victims of the regime, for the issue of corruption to finally be put to bed.

"Unless [the issue of corruption] is resolved, the court will forever have it hanging over its head, [and] it will remain a major criticism of the court."

Read more!