PRIME Minister Hun Sen has given Preah Vihear provincial authorities until the end of the week to construct a new market to replace the one near Preah Vihear temple that was destroyed during a clash between Cambodian and Thai soldiers in early April, despite the fact that Thailand has yet to respond to Cambodian demands for compensation.
Hang Soth, general director of the Preah Vihear National Authority (PVNA), said Hun Sen issued the order from France, where he is on a state visit with Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong.
Though he described the one-week deadline as unrealistic, Hang Soth said work on the market had already begun Tuesday afternoon.
"I have sent my officials to the market site this morning to prepare for the construction," he said.
"The new market will be a market for tourists."
During an exchange of gunfire between Cambodian and Thai soldiers on April 3, Thai rocket fire destroyed all 264 stands, leaving roughly 319 families who lived and worked at the market homeless, according to accounts from Cambodian military officials.
The Cambodian government in May demanded US$2.1 million from the Thai government to pay for the damages.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said during a visit to Phnom Penh in late May that Thai authorities would investigate the cause of the damage to the temple before responding to the request.
Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that the government had decided to go ahead with the building of a new market despite having received no response from Thailand regarding compensation.
Officials from the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh and the Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
PM's orders
Hang Soth said the PVNA would be responsible for settling on a location for the new market, though he said vendors would need to pay for the construction of individual market stalls themselves.
He said that vendors who were displaced would "be given priority" for stalls.
"We planned to rebuild about 319 shops, but after studying the site now we think we will build about 150 shops," he said, adding that individual stalls would cost between $3,000 and $7,000, depending on size.
Sar Thavy, a deputy governor of Preah Vihear province, said Tuesday that the location of the new market had been selected and that construction materials had already been taken to the site.
"It's been raining for three days, so it's been difficult to transport the materials up the mountain," he said.
"But they have to obey the premier's order."
Also Tuesday, an RCAF official said that a meeting scheduled for Monday between Thai and Cambodian military officials had been cancelled because the Thai officials had been unable to secure approval from government officials in Bangkok.
Chea Morn, commander of RCAF Military Region 4, said that the meeting had been proposed to reduce tension along the border.
Rebuild Preah Vihear market: PM
Wednesday, July 15, 2009S-21 deputy denies torture
AFORMER deputy chief at Tuol Sleng prison downplayed his role at the notorious detention facility Tuesday, telling Cambodia's war crimes court that he never tortured prisoners, prompting judges to accuse him of having "no fear".
Mam Nai, 76, said he had "no knowledge" at the time of the fate that awaited prisoners at Tuol Sleng, a stance he maintained even after being read grisly testimony from his former boss and shown forced confessions that he had apparently signed.
"I was just a plain and simple interrogating cadre," Mam Nai, wearing fingerless gloves and a krama, told judges.
"I only interrogated prisoners without applying torture. It was my belief that applying torture would lead to untrue confessions," he said.
Mam Nai told the court he had worked with his former boss, prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, at the M-13 detention centre in Kampong Speu, where the ex-jailer first taught him how to interrogate.
He said he had "no knowledge" of Tuol Sleng's organisational structure because he worked in an interrogation house separate from the prison.
His repeated denials prompted judges to question, at various points in his testimony, whether he suffered from memory, vision and hearing problems.
Mam Nai said he had fallen from his house once, which he said had affected his memory.
After reading out an extensive list of Mam Nai's academic achievements, Judge Sylvia Cartwright asked why one of the most intelligent people at Tuol Sleng was not aware of how the prison worked.
"In principle ... I was only mindful about my duties," Mam Nai said. He said he had not known that all Tuol Sleng prisoners were presumed guilty, and he told Judge Jean-Marc Lavergne that his only regret was "that [Cambodia] was invaded" by America and Vietnam.
Lavergne then asked if he knew what the words "no fear" meant in English, and Mam Nai responded that he did not.
"In that case, I have no further questions," Lavergne replied.
Witness receives lawyer
Mam Nai's testimony came amid an ongoing row at the court over self-incrimination.
After Duch's defence lawyers argued Monday that Mam Nai could be prosecuted if a legal doctrine being pushed by the prosecution were applied, lawyer Kong Sam Onn was assigned to act as his legal adviser. But the lawyer admitted Tuesday that he was unclear of his role.
Kong Sam Onn defected to the ruling Cambodian People's Party earlier this month after facing disciplinary action by the Bar Association for his representation of SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua.
Co-counsel Francois Roux again urged the prosecution to question whether it was necessary to push for a legal amendment, known as joint criminal enterprise, that he said would make it more likely for subordinates such as Mam Nai to be prosecuted.
From:
Xing Tai garment workers protest factory conditions
AROUND 350 garment factory workers gathered at the Xing Tai garment factory in Sen Sok district for the second day running Tuesday, protesting poor working conditions at the factory, which they claim include inadequate toilets and hot, windowless workspaces.
Tuesday's protest followed similar demonstrations Monday, which attracted more than 800 workers.
"We have no place to go to the toilet because the drainage system in this factory does not work," Sok Say Eam, 37, said outside the factory Monday.
She added that due to cramped working conditions in the factory, many workers were fainting during their shifts.
Heng Son, 31, who claims she was injured when a fan fell from the ceiling of the factory, said management had been "unaccountable" for the conditions.
She also said the owners had asked staff to work overtime and had fired any worker who refused to work extra hours.
One aim of the protest, she said, was to call for the reinstatement of Va Sophon, the deputy chief of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union.
Va Sophon, whose organisation represents some Xing Tai workers, said Tuesday that Horm Hav, the factory's chief of administration, had fired him late last year in an attempt to silence worker protests.
"He forced me to replace two administrators who had resigned, but I clearly could not do it. I was dismissed three days later," he said.
He added that the Arbitration Council, an independent mediation body, had ruled in February for the company to reinstate him, but that the company did not accept this agreement and threatened to fire any workers who supported him.
Horm Hav denied the charges, saying that Xing Tai had appealed the February ruling, and that Va Sophon was fired for poor performance.
"We dismissed him because he was not accountable in his role - not because of discrimination against union workers," he said, adding that sanitation at the factory had improved since July 9.
In hearings Monday and Tuesday, the Ministry of Labour's Labour Conflict Resolution Bureau heard the complaints of the Xing Tai workers. But Um Visal, a coalition labour dispute resolution officer, said the company rejected workers' demands.
"I don't think that the company was willing to negotiate and solve the problem with us," he said. "We will call on international union workers to contact the buyers and put pressure on the company if they won't find a solution."
Prum Veasna, a labour conflict official at the bureau, said the dispute would be sent to the Arbitration Council.
Total awarded energy concession, says govt
CAMBODIA has awarded French oil giant Total the rights to a contested drilling area in the Gulf of Thailand.
The announcement was contained in a press release dated July 14 - Bastille Day - from Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cabinet during his official visit to France.
The statement was confirmed to the Post by Prak Sokhon, secretary of state for the Council of Ministers, who is in France with Hun Sen.
Both Thailand and Cambodia claim a 27,000 square kilometre swath of the seabed, which is thought to be rich in oil and gas deposits.
The area in the press statement that has been awarded to Total is referred to as Block III.
In the statement, Hun Sen said the decision to award the concession was made after proper overview of bidding documents, adding that he welcomed the presence of any French companies wishing to invest in Cambodia, a former French colony.
The news was a surprise to Total's leading upstream executive in Cambodia, Jean-Pierre Labbe.
Last week he told the Post that Total had been negotiating with Phnom Penh for several years and in 2008 submitted an official request for concessions.
Contacted by phone on Tuesday, Labbe said he had not heard an official response from the government on the bid.
"I don't know. We knew the Cambodian Prime Minister [Hun Sen] is visiting France, but we have no feedback from Paris," he said.
A source at the Council of Ministers, who asked not to be named, said it was likely that Total's bid had come up in discussions in Paris, but was unable to provide detailed information and referred all questions to the prime minister's Cabinet.
Hun Sen is accompanied on his trip by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.
The director general of the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority (CNPA), Te Duong Tara, hung up when called about the issue, saying he was too busy to comment.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner reportedly welcomed the announcement.
Multiple concessions
Stephane Dion, managing director of Total Cambodge, told the Post during an interview last week that the firm was in ongoing discussions with Phnom Penh on offshore and onshore concessions for oil and gas exploration.
"[There are] at two different projects that we are interested in," he said at the time.
Minister Hun Sen left on Thursday for a five-day visit to France at the invitation of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The trip was aimed at boosting ties between the two countries. "This visit is to strengthen cooperation between Cambodia and France," said Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Begging and Sale of Bloc III to Total is on the agenda ... Oui, Monsieur!
The statement said Bernard Kouchner, foreign minister of France during his talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, has vowed to strengthen the two countries' relations by proposing a set up as soon as possible a Cambodia-France Joint Committee so as to consolidate the relations and cooperation.
And in addition to consideration on additional financial assistance to Cambodia, France had also pledged to grant more graduate scholarships to Cambodian students, it added.
Hun Sen was on a five-day official visit to France during which he had held a series of meetings and talks including Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Prime Minister Francois Fillon and President Nicolas Sarkozy.
While meetings with those French leaders, Hun Sen said Cambodia had granted French oil company Total to exploit oil exploration in Block III, one of its potential oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Thailand with which France welcomed it and expressed its satisfaction.
Hun Sen left the country on July 9 for an official visit to France and Britain where he will attend his son's graduation ceremony and he is expected to return home on Sunday.
Incomes fall for urban poor
ROUGHLY three-quarters of urban women in households making less than US$300 per month reported that their household incomes had declined in the last year, leaving their families unable to afford healthy food, according to a survey released this week by Indochina Research.
The survey questioned 200 women aged 25 and older in Phnom Penh. Respondents were stopped outside of four markets and asked about their employment, incomes and expenditures over the last year.
Seventy-four percent of respondents said they had seen their household incomes decline from June 2008 to June 2009.
The survey also found that small businesses in Phnom Penh had been hit hard by the economic crisis. Nearly 80 percent of respondents who had family members with a small business - including informal enterprises such as motorbike repair shops, hair salons and food stalls - said their incomes had decreased.
Kent Helmers, the social research director at Indochina Research, said via email: "While the plight of poorer urban and rural workers laid off from garment factories has been highlighted in the media ... we also need to highlight the struggle under way for poorer urban families depending on small business."
Poor diet
Because of their reduced earnings, many poor urban families are now unable to afford nutritious meals, the survey said.
Eighty-five percent of respondents said chicken - an important source of protein - had become less affordable over the last year, while 73 percent of women said they could not afford enough chicken for their families.
In addition, 17 percent of women said they were unable even to purchase enough rice, according to the survey.
"The concern is that these poorer families may not be able to buy sufficient protein in these hard times," Helmers said.
The 2008 National Anthropometric Nutrition Survey showed an increase in acute malnutrition in children, evidence of the unhealthy coping measures of families run by underemployed women, UN Resident Coordinator Douglas Broderick said via email Tuesday.
"Informal coping measures all have implications for long-term human development- stalling health, nutrition and literacy," Broderick said.
"Deterioration in these areas not only sets back the country today, but also long into the future."
The decline in urban incomes does not just affect urban areas, Broderick said. According to the United Nations, about 1.5 million rural Cambodians depend on remittances from urban migrants, mostly women, as their major source of income.
In contrast to Cambodia, Indochina Research's survey showed that the urban poor in Laos had benefited from continued economic growth despite the economic crisis, with only 25 percent of women saying their household income had decreased, whereas 43 percent said it had increased.
Indochina Research concluded that to buffer the impacts of the global economic crisis, improvements to the small business environment should be made to help the urban poor.
From:
Preah Vihear: Provincial governor on life support
The assistant for Preah Vihear Provincial Governor Preap Tan said Tuesday that the executive's family had decided to keep the 58-year-old on life support despite a bleak prognosis offered by doctors. Preap Tan was taken to a Ho Chi Minh City hospital after suffering a stroke last Wednesday. "We were told by Vietnamese doctors that there is no hope to save his life," said Bun Tharom, the assistant. "It is sad news for all of us. He has worked very hard for years for the nation." Preah Vihear Deputy Governor Long Sovann said Kuoy Bunthan, another deputy governor, was serving as acting provincial governor. He said officials were thinking about a permanent successor but had yet to name one out of respect for Preap Tan. Bun Tharom said officials from the Ministry of Interior had formed a committee to plan a funeral for the governor, to be held at his Phnom Penh residence.
Jail time, fines for KCF head
PHNOM Penh Municipal Court Judge Chhay Kong on Tuesday sentenced the head of the Khmer Civilisation Foundation to two years in prison, fined him 7 million riels (US$1,671) and ordered him to pay an additional 8 million riels in compensation to the Apsara Authority for suggesting in interviews that the heat from lights at Angkor Wat could damage the 11th-century temple.
The judge ordered the Ministry of Interior to arrest and imprison Moeung Sonn, who fled to France in June when he was charged with incitement and spreading false information, if he returns to Cambodian soil.
"We find that the accused damaged the government's reputation and caused anarchy and disorder in society. There are enough elements to convict him," Chhay Kong said.
Moeung Sonn told the Post from France the verdict was unjust, describing it as a blow to free speech in Cambodia.
"I am appealing the conviction and calling on all local NGOs, international communities, observers and the respected King Sihamoni to seek intervention to bring justice to me," he said, adding that his attempts to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is also in France, had been unsuccessful.
Moeung Sonn's defence lawyer, Sam Sokong, said his client had become concerned about the lights only after the public did.
"My client didn't intend to damage or degrade the government's reputation, especially not the Apsara Authority," he said, referring to the body that manages the temple complex.
After the verdict was read, Sam Sokong told the Post that the court had clearly ignored the defence's case.
"The court didn't even consider the evidence and documents that I presented," he said.
Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for the rights group Licadho, called the conviction a "grave injustice" and said there were "not enough pieces of evidence or witnesses to convict him".
But prosecutor Ek Chheng Huot and government lawyer Pal Chan Dara said Moeung Sonn had purposefully undermined the credibility of the government.
"Moeung Sonn really knew what he did, and he kept distributing his disinformation to reporters to print the stories and also to broadcast on local radio. This caused confusion to millions of Cambodian people who love Angkor Wat," Pal Chan Dara said.
Ek Chheng Huot said the case against Moeung Sonn was necessary to avoid a violent outburst from a misinformed public.
"If we didn't stop Moeung Sonn's activities ... there would have been a big demonstration similar to the riots that burned the Thai Embassy in 2003," he said.
Ek Chheng Huot said Moeung Sonn continued to stoke fears about the lights even after officials said in a press conference that they would have no effect on the temple.
Rebuild Preah Vihear market: PM
PRIME Minister Hun Sen has given Preah Vihear provincial authorities until the end of the week to construct a new market to replace the one near Preah Vihear temple that was destroyed during a clash between Cambodian and Thai soldiers in early April, despite the fact that Thailand has yet to respond to Cambodian demands for compensation.
Hang Soth, general director of the Preah Vihear National Authority (PVNA), said Hun Sen issued the order from France, where he is on a state visit with Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong.
Though he described the one-week deadline as unrealistic, Hang Soth said work on the market had already begun Tuesday afternoon.
"I have sent my officials to the market site this morning to prepare for the construction," he said.
"The new market will be a market for tourists."
During an exchange of gunfire between Cambodian and Thai soldiers on April 3, Thai rocket fire destroyed all 264 stands, leaving roughly 319 families who lived and worked at the market homeless, according to accounts from Cambodian military officials.
The Cambodian government in May demanded US$2.1 million from the Thai government to pay for the damages.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said during a visit to Phnom Penh in late May that Thai authorities would investigate the cause of the damage to the temple before responding to the request.
Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday that the government had decided to go ahead with the building of a new market despite having received no response from Thailand regarding compensation.
Officials from the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh and the Thai Foreign Ministry in Bangkok could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
PM's orders
Hang Soth said the PVNA would be responsible for settling on a location for the new market, though he said vendors would need to pay for the construction of individual market stalls themselves.
He said that vendors who were displaced would "be given priority" for stalls.
"We planned to rebuild about 319 shops, but after studying the site now we think we will build about 150 shops," he said, adding that individual stalls would cost between $3,000 and $7,000, depending on size.
Sar Thavy, a deputy governor of Preah Vihear province, said Tuesday that the location of the new market had been selected and that construction materials had already been taken to the site.
"It's been raining for three days, so it's been difficult to transport the materials up the mountain," he said.
"But they have to obey the premier's order."
Also Tuesday, an RCAF official said that a meeting scheduled for Monday between Thai and Cambodian military officials had been cancelled because the Thai officials had been unable to secure approval from government officials in Bangkok.
Chea Morn, commander of RCAF Military Region 4, said that the meeting had been proposed to reduce tension along the border.
Borei Keila families face eviction
TWENTY-four Borei Keila families, all of which have at least one HIV-positive member, are set to be evicted today, a district official told the Post.
"We have got City Hall approval ... and we will help them with transportation," said Sok Ath, the chief of the district's development programme.
These HIV-affected families said they did not live in the green shelters with the HIV community, but were spread throughout Borei Keila.
And unlike the HIV community that was forcibly removed in June, many of these families say they want to be moved to Tuol Sambo, a relocation site more than 20 kilometres away.
"When people don't want to go, they force them, but when they want to go, they delay. I don't really understand the government policy," said Borei Keila resident Sok Srey Paov.
Another resident, Pheak Kdey Neary, said the families want to leave Borei Keila because people have stopped renting apartments to them.
When people don't want to go they force them, but when they want to go, they delay.
According to Sao Vanna, the chief of the HIV community, the 24 families each will receive 100,000 riels (US$24) and some food in addition to 3.5-by-4.8-metre rooms in Tuol Sambo.
But some observers say these families only want to go to Tuol Sambo because they have been left with no other alternatives.
"It is very telling that despite the poor conditions ... some of the people are apparently saying that they actually wish to go there," said Naly Pilorge, director of the rights group Licadho. "This shows how little choice they feel they have, and that they consider anything to be better than ... being thrown in the street with nowhere to go at all."
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun admitted that the Tuol Sambo relocation site, described by Amnesty International as "grossly inadequate", had problems, but he said the site was improving.
"Now, they have a health centre ... because we have provided a room for the [Centre of] Hope, who have helped the people with their health since they lived in Borei Keila," he said, adding, "We are also thinking about installing a clean water system because right now the water can be used to wash clothes but not to cook."
From: