Written by Georgia Wilkins
Friday, 27 February 2009
In his absence, lawyers argue for his release
DETAINED former Khmer Rouge minister Ieng Sary's bail hearing was postponed to April 2 after he was deemed unfit by doctors to attend the Khmer Rouge tribunal for the scheduled hearing on Thursday.
The 83-year-old was admitted to hospital Monday after doctors found blood in his urine. He was discharged Wednesday.
Lawyers for the accused octogenarian continued to press for his release in his absence on the basis that insufficient medical care was available at the court's detention centre.
"Pre-trial detention is not a form of punishment," co-lawyer Michael Karnavas told the court.
"One cannot discuss the health issue if one does not know what the heath issue is," he added on the issue of getting doctors to provide information as "experts" to the case.
It was also debated whether or not the court could have a hearing in his absence, with civil party lawyers arguing that a video link to the former leader's jail cell could be set up.
This was dismissed by defence lawyers, who claimed it would give a false sense of justice and strip Ieng Sary's right to participate in his trial.
In a press conference after the hearing, Karnavas criticised the pace of decisions at the UN-backed tribunal.
"When it takes 11 months to make a decision, it is unacceptable," he added, calling the chamber a "black hole".
However Cambodian co-prosecutor Tan Senarong said, "We don't intend any delay of the hearing but unfortunately, as you know, Ieng Sary's health is not good."
Ieng Sary ill; hearing postponed
Sunday, March 1, 2009Tribunal graft charges spread
| Written by Cat Barton | |
| Friday, 27 February 2009 | |
| German delegation exposes results of secret UN probe; staff concur  Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN Monks file into the Extraordinary Chambers on the opening day of Duch's trial on February 17. IT became a monthly ritual: Employees on the Cambodian side of the Khmer Rouge tribunal would get paid, and then they would - somewhat grudgingly - hand over some of their salaries to their supervisors. "You get paid in full, but when you [collect] it, you put it in an envelope and give it to the collector," a former employee at the UN-backed court told the Post in an interview late last year, describing how many of those working at the court were forced to hand over a percentage of their paychecks to higher-placed officials. |
These kickback allegations are at the heart of a corruption scandal that has plagued the tribunal since they first came to light in 2006.
Despite denials from Cambodian court officials, the accusations were of enough concern to spark a review by the UN - the results of which have never been made public.
But a report from a German parliamentary delegation, written in November after its members met with the tribunal's deputy director of administration, Knut Rosandhaug, has shed some light on the graft allegations, detailing a bleak assessment of the court's corruption problems.
"A serious problem is the grave corruption which impedes on the work of the hybrid court," the report cites Rosandhaug as saying.
"Cambodian employees are required to pay kickbacks in order to be able to work," the report says, with the authors - members of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid Committee of the German parliament - using the German term schutzgelder, which literally means protection money.
Rosandhaug told the Post Thursday that he had no comment, as the “document referred to is issued by an entity outside the UN and the ECCC.”
“It is now for the Germans to comment,” he added.
The report had been available on the Bundestag website but was unavailable Thursday afternoon with no explanation. Rainer Buescher, the delegation’s press officer, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
The report’s findings, however, support accounts given by tribunal staffers and the concerns of lawyers for Brother No 2, Nuon Chea, who have sought to launch a criminal investigation into the alleged graft.
“It certainly confirms some of our worst suspicions,” Andrew Ianuzzi, a legal consultant for Nuon Chea’s defence team, said Thursday.
One court staffer explained in a series of interviews conducted with the Post how the kickback operation worked.
“For the first four months [of my contract], I paid 70 percent [of my salary in kickbacks], then it went down to 10 percent,” said the employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
“Let’s say you are the supervisor. You have 30 people under you, so the people under you know to give their envelope [containing the kickback] to you, and you hand it to Sean Visoth,” the employee said, referring to Cambodia’s top court administrator who is implicated in the Bundestag report. “In all the sections, it’s the same thing.”
The scheme was deeply unpopular – “Would you like it if you got paid, then your money got taken away?” the employee asked – but was maintained by a climate of fear.
“I’m afraid, if they know I talk to you, they’re not going to take a gun and shoot me in my face, but they will find some way [to fire me] … or they [will hurt] my kids,” the employee said.
“I can tell you until the day you close the door, the corruption will still go on,” the employee added.
“Anyone who speaks, they will be terminated.... They will set up their committee and find a way to get rid of that person who has talked, and that is why up to now” no information has come out.
Included in the Bundestag report are details of last July’s UN probe.
“It is deeply troubling – everyone had been placing blame for corruption on the Cambodian government, but now it seems like someone or some officials with the UN are involved in a potential coverup,” Ianuzzi said.
“It is very damaging for the credibility of the tribunal. Why are international officers protecting corrupt Cambodian officials?” he added.
The report cites Rosandhaug as saying that “the United Nations should withdraw from the tribunal, in case the national government continues to object following up on the corruption allegations”.
“Until today, the government categorically denies the existence of that problem. The United Nations would suffer from a loss of credibility if they’d support a tribunal which is characterised by corruption,” he said, according to the report.
In January, the Nuon Chea defence team filed a complaint to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, claiming unresolved graft allegations threatened the legitimacy of the tribunal and violated their client’s right to a fair trial. The lawyers accused Sean Visoth and the court’s former chief of personnel, Keo Thyvuth, of violating criminal law by “perpetrating, facilitating, aiding and/or abetting an organised regime of institutional corruption at the ECCC during the pending judicial investigation”. They also demanded the results of the UN investigation be released.
The complaint prompted a criminal investigation, but this was abruptly dropped in February.
Sean Visoth has been on sick leave since November, and the head of the court’s public affairs department, Helen Jarvis, said she knew of no date for his planned return to work.
“As far as I know, the UN does not have authority to conduct investigations into Cambodian staffers,” she said Thursday, adding that she knew nothing about the report and could not comment on it.
Sean Visoth could not be reached Thursday, but a woman answering his phone said he was too busy to speak to a reporter.
“It is unclear from the [German] report what exactly the UN found Visoth to be guilty of – did he pay money from his position? Or did he demand money from others? From our perspective ... the latter is more complicated, as it suggests more ECCC officials may be involved,” Ianuzzi said.
“We have some information that the UN has a sectional list” of officials involved in corruption, he added.
The team says this is troubling, as the office of administration is responsible for nine sections of the court, including court management and victim support.
“If everyone in the office of administration is paying kickbacks, everyone is compromised,” Ianuzzi said.
He said the defence team now planned to write a follow-up letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and forward a copy of the delegation’s report to the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal’s prosecutor general in a bid to reopenthe criminal investigation.
In addition, the delegation’s report quotes Rosandhaug as saying the Cambodian government “tries to interfere in the work of the tribunal”.
“The government of Cambodia has already signalled that it will not allow for additional criminal investigations to be opened,” the report says.
The court’s international co-prosecutor, Robert Petit, has sought to try an additional six suspects, but his Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, has voiced opposition.
The key question now, however, is what the response – other than further hushing up of the issue – will come from the UN, Ianuzzi said.
“There is a lot of momentum. Things are moving forward. The Duch hearing last week was a success, [and] many people are emotionally and professionally invested in the tribunal, and they want to see it succeed,” he said.
“But everyone needs to take a long hard look at what are the allegations, [and] I hope Knut makes a comment. What this institution really needs is leadership, and no one is leading the ECCC at the moment.”
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"...what we're seeing here is exclusive development for the super-rich, while the poor get pushed ever deeper into poverty"
Saturday, February 21, 2009
(Photo: Licadho)Land grabs in Cambodia push poor out
Rights groups press government to end forced resettlement as parcels sold off `to highest bidder'
Feb 21, 2009
Bill Schiller
Asia Bureau
Toronto Star (Ontario, Canada)
PHNOM PENH–When military police sealed off the ramshackle, inner-city neighbourhood of Dey Krahorm at 2 a.m. one day last month – preparing to forcibly remove its remaining residents to make way for a plush, new commercial development – Lee Robinson, of Victoria, B.C., was inside.
"We knew there was going to be trouble," says Robinson, who runs a small non-governmental organization here called Licadho Canada.
Robinson and a handful of other Canadians, Americans and Germans had come to show their support for the people of Dey Krahorm, many of whom had been fighting for years to cling to what they believed was their rightful property.
Robinson and her foreign colleagues are part of a small but vocal throng of international youth that has converged on Cambodia, to press international donors and their governments to call Cambodia's government to account over its continued seizure of neighbourhoods populated by the poor and to press for civil rights.
But that day last month, they could do little when the neighbourhood of Dey Krahorm was laid to waste by the developer, with the backing of military police, the riot squad, and a band of about 100 "hired hands" clutching crowbars and clubs.
When the sun finally rose over Phnom Penh, the developer's group pushed its way through barricades of wood, metal and vendors' carts mounted by residents, and cleared a path for a massive steam shovel that swung its arm like a baseball bat, crushing every structure in its path.
Tear gas boomed, fires erupted and people were dragged screaming from their homes. Police endured a rain of rocks in retaliation.
"Everything kind of went into a war zone," Robinson recalls. "It was chaos."
By noon it was over. Dey Krahorm, a neighbourhood that began in the mid-1980s and was once home to musicians, actors, comedians and even a few civil servants, was no more.
The defeated were trucked off to a resettlement site some 20 kilometres outside the city, and once again, the development of Cambodia's capital marched on.
International human rights groups here say this is happening with increasing frequency across one of the world's poorest countries.
As international aid floods into Cambodia – aimed at reducing poverty and helping to build infrastructure – the rich elite are growing ever more powerful, while the poor are getting pushed aside.
"Cambodia is basically up for sale," says David Pred, one of the founders of Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, a spinoff of a U.S.-based human rights organization.
"It's being parcelled up and sold to the highest bidder."
He says it's time the international community called a halt to it. And it's in a position to do so, he adds.
"International donors provide half of this government's national budget," he notes. "It's time they demanded accountability."
Pred and a growing number of non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders say aid to the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen should be made conditional on its respect for law and human rights.
Once counted among the Dey Krahorm community's staunchest defenders was former Canadian ambassador to Phnom Penh, Donica Pottie.
"People here still remember her," says Naly Pilorge, a French, Canadian and Khmer national who heads Cambodia's largest human rights organization, The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights. "She stood up for the people of Dey Krahorm and for the poor."
While here, Pottie worked to free jailed human rights defenders and pressed the government to end forced removals and halt widespread land expropriation.
But Pottie returned to Ottawa in 2007 and Canada's mission here was downgraded from full-fledged embassy status following cutbacks from Ottawa.
This month, British-based environmental watchdog Global Witness issued a stinging report detailing what it alleges is the parcelling out of the nation's oil, gas and mineral reserves mainly to the family, friends and trusted associates of the government of Hun Sen.
Opposition parties here immediately seized on the report to demand an accounting from the government. But following national elections in July last year, in which Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party took 91 of 123 seats – elections that were criticized by the European Union and the United Nation's Special Representative for Human Rights as seriously flawed – the opposition is weak.
The government has promised to look into the matter, but with no stated timetable.
Meanwhile, as Cambodia's rich elite get richer, the nation continues to do without.
Cambodia has no national electricity grid.
Its highways are in a shambles.
And more than 60 per cent of Cambodians have no access to clean water.
The land on which Dey Krahorm once stood – the words mean "Red Soil" – was actually granted to the community by the government as a so-called Social Land Concession in 2003, one of several under a plan announced by Hun Sen himself to provide secure land tenure and on-site upgrading for Phnom Penh's poor.
But, as is so often the case in the developing world, the developer persuaded a tiny band of community leaders to affix their thumbprints to documents, turning over the entire parcel for their own lucrative private gain and a remote relocation outside the city. The deal was done without any consultation with the Dey Krahorm residents.
Some gave in. But a rump group of more than 150 families took a stand. They fired the leaders, elected their own and refused to move. Some 250 small retailers and renters stayed with them.
"In our view it (the land grab) was completely illegal," says German lawyer Manfred Hornung, who works for Pilorge's human rights organization and is now defending the leaders of the remaining residents who have been taken to court by the developers.
He warns, too, that forced removals like Dey Krahorm come with significant social costs, costs that may simmer now – and come to a boil later.
"Resettling people so far outside the city disrupts families, forces people to abandon jobs and takes children out of school."
And it's part of a pattern in recent years, he notes.
The forced removal of other Phnom Penh neighbourhoods like Sambok Chap, Mitheapheap and Russy Keo have all forced the poor from the city. And yet another target is Boeung Kak – a lake in the city's north end that developers plan to backfill and build on, pushing as many as 4,000 families in the surrounding area out of the city.
The plans for Boeung Kak constitute a social and environmental disaster in the making, says Pred of Bridges Across Borders.
"International aid is supposed to be about poverty reduction. But this epidemic of land theft is undermining the international community's best efforts.
"We're absolutely not anti-development," he says.
"But what we're seeing here is exclusive development for the super-rich, while the poor get pushed ever deeper into poverty. It's creating conditions for instability."
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Thailand says sorry for mortar shell landing in Cambodia
Friday, February 20, 2009"I am writing to express to you my sincerest apology for the unfortunate incident that took place on Feb. 17, 2009," said Anupong Paojinda, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, in the letter."The mortar shell that landed in the Kingdom of Cambodia was a result of the miscalculation during one of our training exercises. We have since launched a full investigation into the incident," he said.
"Please be assured that the Royal Thai Army has been strictly following the Kingdom of Thailand's policy to maintain peaceful and cordial relationship with all our neighbors. I would like to reassure you that we will use all means to prevent such an incident from happening again in the future," he added.
According to the press release from the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the letter was addressed to Meas Sophea, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF).
Also on Friday, English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post quoted a RCAF military commander based in the border region as saying that in this week's incident the shells landed two kilometers inside the Cambodian territory.
The 81mm and 106mm shells came down near the Ta Krabey temple and the Bos Thom village, 6 shells exploded in the forest, another2 failed to go off, no one was injured, and no property was damaged, the commander said in condition of anonymity.
Tension between Thailand and Cambodia ratcheted higher in 2008 when troops from both countries clashed at the Preah Vihear temple and soldiers on both sides died in fighting in October, before an uneasy peace was restored.
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Cambodia to lodge a diplomatic complaint after Thai soldiers fired artillery shells into Cambodian territories
Cambodians soldiers patrolling the borders.Koh Santepheap newspaper
19th February, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization
The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said that it will lodge a diplomatic complaint to the shelling of Cambodian territories by Thai troops on 17th February, even if Thailand has apologised.Mr. Koy Kuong, Foreign Ministry’s Secretary of State, said on the 18th February that the Foreign Ministry has sent military personnel to investigate the shelling to find out of where and how many shells were fired into Cambodian territories.
Mr. Koy Kuong said that he does not know the reasons why the Thai troops fired those artillery shells into Cambodia. The Thai commanders based in the areas has apologised to the Khmer commanders, but Mr. Koy Kuong said that diplomatic protest will still be lodged.
Speaking in an interview with Radio Free Asia, Mr. Koy Kuong said: “We will lodge a diplomatic protest with Thailand in the not too distant future. We only need to wait for enough information first.”
On 17th February, 10 artillery shells fired from Kap Cherng district of Sisaket province landed a few kilometres inside Cambodian territories. The shells landed a near Boss Thmor Daun village and Chup Angkanh village of Kork Kposs commune, Banteay Ampil district in Ouddor Meanchey province. Seven shells exploded and 3 shells did not explode.
Cambodian military sources said that the Thai said that they were doing a military exercise in Andet Mut commune of Kap Cherng district in Sisaket province. The Cambodian military sources said that the artillery shells were probably fired from artillery guns mounted on military tanks.
Mr. Var Kim Hong, chairman of Cambodian Border Committee, said that the Thai shelling are in violation of international laws and Cambodian sovereignty. He added that Thailand has every right to stage a military exercise, but to fire artillery shells into Cambodian territories is a violation of Cambodian sovereignty.
Villagers living in the border areas said that up until now they still hear the sounds of artillery fires on the Thai side of the borders which caused the Cambodian villagers to live in fears.
Sources close to the Cambodian government said that the Cambodian side has been very patient in regard to past border violations from Thailand because Cambodia wants a good neighbourly relationship with Thailand. Cambodia has agreed to engage in many bilateral talks with Thailand in good faith, but it seems that the Thai side has not reciprocated in the same manners as it has repeatedly caused problems by violating Cambodian sovereignty again and again.
Mr. Khieu Kanharith, the government spokesman, cannot be contacted to make any comments, but he has said yesterday that a team of military personnel has been sent to the areas to investigate the Thai shelling. He said that Cambodia will send a diplomatic aide-memoire through the Thai embassy.
A Cambodian military source based near Ta Krabey and Ta Moan Thom temples said that on the afternoon of 18th February, Gen. Kun Kim, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF), has led a team of military personnel to investigate the matter on the spots.
A Cambodian military officer said that the shells landed approximately 1-2 kilometres northeast of Ta Krabey temple inside Cambodian territories.
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"Glorious" developement under Hun Sen's regime ... as seen through the lense of AP photographer David Longstreath
Thursday, February 19, 2009Caution: Prolonged exposures to these photos will make you become complacent to poverty in Cambodia. This is most likely the case for all those in the current ruling CPP regime, including those living or working in the modern buildings nearby.
A young Cambodian woman rides a bicycle near slum homes Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Young Cambodian girls play near their slum home Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line while more than 30 percent of the population is under the age of 15. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
A Cambodian bathees near his slum home Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Cambodian children play inside their slum home Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities in an attempt to create an agrarian communist society killing off political opposition, Buddhist monks and the vast majority of the population's educated people. After four years the Khmer Rouge killed or worked to death an estimated 1.7 million people. Today more than 30 percent of the population is under the age of 15. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Cambodian women gather near their slum homes Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government figures less than four percent of Cambodia's 14 million people are over the age of 65. Many blame the low figure on the massacres committed by the Khmer Rouge which left more that 1.5 million Cambodians dead during their reign from 1975 to 1979. Today trials of the former leaders have officially begun. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
An elderly Cambodian man pushes his bicycle near his slum dwelling Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government figures less than four percent of Cambodia's 14 million people are over the age of 65. Many blame the low figure on the massacres committed by the Khmer Rouge which left more that 1.5 million Cambodians dead during their reign from 1975 to 1979. Today trials of the former leaders have officially begun. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Cambodian children play a game of 'marbles' near their slum home Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities in an attempt to create an agrarian communist society killing off political opposition, Buddhist monks and the vast majority of the population's educated people. After four years the Khmer Rouge killed or worked to death an estimated 1.7 million people. Today more than 30 percent of the population is under the age of 15. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)
Young Cambodian boys play near their slum home Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to government sources an estimated 35 percent of Cambodians live under the poverty line. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities in an attempt to create an agrarian communist society killing off political opposition, Buddhist monks and the vast majority of the population's educated people. After four years the Khmer Rouge killed or worked to death an estimated 1.7 million people. Today more than 30 percent of the population is under the age of 15. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)Read more!
Americans Also Buried in Cambodia's Killing Fields
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuol Sleng's victims were shoved into 100 mass graves and skeleton-packed pits on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, which were later marked with signs after the Khmer Rouge were ousted (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
"They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way," Henry Kissinger told Thailand. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
The interior of a narrow make-shift cell in Tuol Sleng S-21 prison. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
The door to a narrow make-shift cell in Tuol Sleng S-21 prison. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A painting by former prisoner Vann Nath, who later documented Tuol Sleng's slitting of throats during interrogation. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A painting by former prisoner Vann Nath, who later documented Tuol Sleng's use of pliers during interrogations. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A painting by former prisoner Vann Nath, who later documented Tuol Sleng's style of water boarding during interrogations. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A painting by former prisoner Vann Nath, who later documented Tuol Sleng's beatings during interrogations. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A Cambodian girl photographed by officials at Tuol Sleng with her arms tied behind her before interrogation. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A Cambodian woman and baby photographed by officials at Tuol Sleng on May 14, 1978 before interrogation. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)
A young Cambodian man photographed by officials at Tuol Sleng during interrogation. (Photo © by Richard S. Ehrlich)Thursday, 19 February 2009
Richard S. Ehrlich
Scoop.co.nz (New Zealand)
Tortured Americans Also Buried in Cambodia's "Killing Fields"
BANGKOK, Thailand -- An estimated 1.7 million corpses are rotting in Cambodia's "killing fields," including two Americans from California and Minneapolis, whose blank-faced alleged torturer appeared in court on Tuesday (February 17) at the start of a U.N.- backed international tribunal.
"One Cambodian government document found in the National Archives of Cambodia revealed that an American, Michael Deeds, was taken to the notorious Tuol Sleng S-21 prison, tortured, and then executed during the last days of the Khmer Rouge government regime in Cambodia in 1979," wrote American investigators connected to the U.S. Defense Department.
"He was then buried behind Tuol Sleng," said the Defense POW/ Missing Personnel Office (DPMO), which searched among dusty files in 2000, unable to find further leads to determine what happened to the Americans.
Mr. Deeds, who went to high school in Long Beach, California, was seized by the Khmer Rouge along with others on a boat near Cambodia's coast.
He was travelling with James William Clark of Minneapolis, who was also interrogated in Tuol Sleng and died.
The burial ground for Tuol Sleng's victims includes 100 mass graves and skeleton-packed pits on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Nearby, the U.N. tribunal began its long-awaited hearings by displaying the elderly former Khmer Rouge torturer and interrogator, Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch (pronounced "Doyk").
Facing judges, lawyers, survivors, investigators and others, Duch stared wide-eyed and mostly expressionless while the court went through dry preparations to hear Duch's testimony, expected in March.
Duch operated Tuol Sleng where victims suffered water boarding, beatings, throat slitting, extraction of body parts with pliers, hanging, and other horrific abuse, according to former prisoner Vann Nath, who later documented the acts in gruesome paintings.
Duch has partially confessed, and his testimony would provide valuable details about what went on when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 1975-79.
The Khmer Rouge's victory came when they toppled Cambodia's U.S.- backed Lon Nol regime in 1975, at the end of Southeast Asia's regional Vietnam War, which America lost in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished under the Khmer Rouge's reign, which crumbled when a newly united Vietnam invaded impoverished Cambodia.
Duch, however, may not be able to offer much help in locating the remains of the Americans, or anyone else, because when Tuol Sleng's 16,000 tortured victims were dragged away, they were shoved by other Khmer Rouge cadres into unmarked graves.
The document about Mr. Deeds was described by the DPMO team as requesting "the disposition of Deeds, while in Tuol Sleng prison in late 1978, before the Pol Pot regime had him executed.
"Deeds was one of four Americans allegedly killed while possibly smuggling marijuana from Thailand, when their ship went off course and ended up in Cambodian waters, where they were boarded by Khmer Rouge and captured," said the U.S. team.
"Michael Scott Deeds, 29 years old, male, spy of Americans," reads a brief identification tag dated November 26, 1978, according to a separate Tuol Sleng Catalogue of Confessions compiled by Cornell University.
Tuol Sleng's interrogators extracted confessions from people who were tortured until they spouted the names of relatives, friends, associates, officials, strangers, and anyone else they could think of.
In agony, victims told whatever incriminating stories they thought would please their tormentors -- apparently hoping to end the pain or escape execution.
To prove their rapid, conveyor belt system of interrogations was efficient, Tuol Sleng's officials presented them as fact.
As a result, other Khmer Rouge believed the confessions, and brought in more and more innocent victims.
They, in turn, incriminated others in an increasingly absurd and vicious spiral which quickly decimated the government and its supporters.
Khmer Rouge loyalists, patriots and enthusiastic cadres soon found themselves scheduled for execution, based on Tuol Sleng's hand- written and typed dossiers.
America was castigated as Cambodia's worst enemy, and frequently appeared in confession statements.
But Washington was secretly covering up, and trying to improve, America's relations with Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime.
"You should also tell the Cambodians that we will be friends with them," U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told Thailand's political and military officials in Washington on November 26, 1975, seven months after Pol Pot seized power.
"They are murderous thugs, but we won't let that stand in our way. We are prepared to improve relations with them," Mr. Kissinger said according to a recently declassified U.S. State Department transcript.
"Tell them the latter part, but don't tell them what I said before," Mr. Kissinger told Thailand's U.S.-backed Foreign Minister Chatichai Choonhavan and his delegation -- three years before the confessions were extracted from Mr. Deeds and Mr. Clark at Tuol Sleng.
In 1989, Mr. Deeds's brother traveled to Tuol Sleng, but was unable to find his remains.
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Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism, and his web page is http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent
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WHO warns of a growing male AIDS crisis
2009/02/19
By Annie Freeda Cruezannie
fc@nst.com.my
New Straits Times (Malaysia)
WHO regional adviser on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection Dr Massimo Ghidinelli said evidence showed that unprotected male-to-male sex was again fuelling the spread of the disease.
"Studies show that at present, the proportion of HIV infections being transmitted among men who have sex with men is larger and more significant than we had originally believed," he said in a statement.
This re-emerging mode of transmission has prompted WHO's Regional Office for the Western Pacific, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, and the Hong Kong Department of Health, to call for swift action to address this growing health crisis.
The organisers have started meeting with HIV/AIDS specialists from Asian governments, regional experts and representatives from non-governmental organisations since yesterday to discuss strategies to deliver better services to MSM communities.
Countries participating in the conference in Hong Kong are Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Dr Ghidinelli said strengthening surveillance and implementing effective interventions for HIV prevention and care among men having sex with men should be prioritised to prevent the further spread of the virus.
A review in December 2007 showed that in Cambodia and Vietnam, men who have sex with men are more likely to contract HIV compared with the general population.
In China , the risk of infection by men who have sex with men is 45 times higher than for men in general. Asia is believed to have the world's largest number of men having sex with men, estimated at 10 million.
Dr Ghidinelli said the lack of better access to HIV/AIDS services can be traced to the stigma and discrimination associated with male-to-male sex, which is frowned upon in some societies, and to breaches of human rights, including the right to better health.
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Thai soldiers shelled Khmer territories near Ta Krabey temple
Khmer soldiers on patrol near Phnom Trop.
By Sav Yuth
17th Feb, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization
Khmer villagers living along the borders in Boss Thom village of Kork Kposs commune in Banteay Ampil district, Ouddor Meanchey province claimed that Thai soldiers based on top of Phnom Thmor Roy (Mount Hundred Rocks) about 2 kilometres east of Ta Krabey temple have shot many artillery rounds into Khmer territories near Ta Krabey temple on the morning of 17th February, 2009.
The villagers said that they heard many rounds of artillery shot by Thai troops based on top of Phnom Thmor Roy at 11 o'clock in the morning.The villagers said that one shell landed inside Khmer territories about 3 kilometres from their village causing panic among the villagers. One village said: "The Thai soldiers based on top of Phnom Thmor Roy fired the artillery... The villagers here all heard the sounds..... they are the sounds of artillery fires. Some shells landed on the mountain and about 10 shells landed on the foot of the mountain causing the people to gather their children in a safe place."
The Thai soldiers cannot be contacted for any comments regarding the allegations.
Khmer military officers from Battalion 42 said that at around 12 midday on Tuesday (17th) they heard many rounds of artillery shelling but they don't know of the reasons why the Thai side shelled the Khmer territories. Now, the Cambodian border troops have been sent to investigate. The same officer said: "Yes, there are shelling..artillery shelling. I cannot tell you in details because I don't know yet. My troops have been sent to investigate the matters."
Brig-Gen. Pov Heng, Deputy Commander of the Northern Region, said through telephone that there were shelling but he did not know of the reasons. He said: "We are sending our troops to investigate the matters."
Until 2 o'clock in the afternoon there is no news of the reasons for the Thai shellings but no one was injured by the shelling.
News from the Preah Vihear frontline said that about 30 Thai soldiers have entered Wat Keo Sekha Kirisvarak pagoda and stayed there many hours. They came to forbid the Cambodian monks residing in the temple not to build a new bathroom and extend the dining hall.
The news said that from 1 pm the same day, all Cambodian soldiers in the areas were ordered to remain in their positions on high alert, after news that the Thai shelled the Cambodian territories.
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Japan to provide $9.5 mln food aid to Philippines
Sunday, January 25, 2009MANILA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan will provide an emergency food aid amounting to 9.5 million U.S. dollars to the thousands of war-displaced persons in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao, its embassy in Manila said on Sunday.
The assistance will cover the distribution of 7,500 metric tons of rice to affected civilians through the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP).
"Japan sincerely hopes that this emergency food aid through the WFP would help mitigating the current humanitarian crisis in Mindanao and strongly expects a cease-fire and the immediate resumption of peace talks between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)," the embassy said in a statement.
The 12,000-strong MILF, which used to be a part of a larger separatist group that signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, had been battling for self-rule in Mindanao since 1978.
After the aborted signing of an expanded Muslim homeland deal with the Philippine government in August 2008, MILF rebels forcibly occupied some Mindanao towns, killed civilians and looted and burned their homes. More than half a million of people have been affected by the conflict since government troops launched a military offensive against the rebels afterwards.
"Earlier in 2006, Japan had provided food aid amounting to 280 million yen or approximately 2.8 million U.S. dollars for the displaced in the conflict-affected areas in Mindanao also through the WFP. This time, the aid will be substantially larger in its scale," the embassy said.
Recently, the Philippine government has announced it is ready to resume talks with the Muslim rebels, but the displaced are still afraid to go back home for fear of the unstable situation in the south.
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