A YEAR-OLD girl was killed and her parents severely injured in an explosion over the weekend in Preah Vihear province that police have described as a premeditated attack.
Hun Saravuth, deputy commander of the provincial military police, said the bomb, which exploded at about midnight on Friday, had been placed under the Cham Muslim family's elevated house in Preah Vihear's Kulen district and detonated by remote control.
The parents, whom he identified as Him Les, 42, and Lesro Pihas, 38, had returned home at about 11pm after watching television at a neighbour's house.
The year-old girl, identified only as Liza, died in the explosion, Hun Saravuth said.
The two parents are receiving medical treatment in Phnom Penh, though Hun Saravuth declined to name the hospital in which they were staying.
Motive unknown
"We are investigating the case right now, and we cannot speculate whether this attack was the result of a business deal or of personal revenge," Hun Saravuth said.
Keo Chamroeun, deputy police chief of Preah Vihear province, said Sunday that the victims were not originally from Preah Vihear and were sometimes viewed as "outsiders", but declined to elaborate.
Infant girl killed in P Vihear bombing
Monday, August 24, 2009Kingdom's bats could be at risk, report says
THE effects of agricultural encroachment and infrastructure development on the domestic bat population remain understudied, and even basic knowledge about the various species of the flying mammal in Cambodia is lacking, according to a study presented at a seminar Friday.
The study featured the research of recent graduates of the Royal University of Phnom Penh's master's in biodiversity conservation programme.
Va Vuthy's report on bats identified three new species, bringing the national total up to 53.
He was among seven recent graduates to present research findings, which touched on topics from gibbons to crocodiles. One objective of the seminar, according to an RUPP press release, was to "promote collaboration among NGOs and public and private sectors for research in biodiversity conservation".
New homes for dump families
Ex-scavengers hope to start tourism businesses at Oudong Mountain.
Photo by: Heng Chivoan
Former scavenger families from the Stung Meanchey dump site draw numbers Saturday for new plots of land near Oudong Mountain in Kandal province.ONE month after City Hall closed Stung Meanchey dump, members of the more than 500 families who formerly earned their living as scavengers there on Saturday received plot numbers for new land located near Oudong Mountain in Kandal province.
The families contributed 277,000,000 riels (US$67,282) towards the purchase of the land, whereas the municipality's Urban Poor Development Fund (UPFD) contributed 625,000,000 riels, said Pen Van Doeun, the chief of Damnak Thom Samakei commune.
The families will be required to pay back the UPDF loan at a rate of 1,200 riels per day.
Each plot of land measures 4.5 metres by 12 metres, Pen Van Doeun said, adding that the families can move there whenever they want.
Several of the Stung Meanchey scavengers, most of whom had been renting property near the dump site, said they were eager to start new businesses that they said would cater to tourists.
"Even though we lost our jobs at the old dump, we are excited to move to a tourism site," said Toch At, a former scavenger.
Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said he was "really proud" of the 535 families.
"They are garbage collectors, but they had a good idea to save money together and to buy their own land," he said. "Who believed they could do that?" Read more!
Frenchmen accused in paedophilia cases
One of the two stayed in Cambodia three years, recording his deviant sexual exploits, police say.
Photo by: Photo Supplied
Claude Demeret (left) and Michel Charlot (second from right) Friday at the municipal Anti-Trafficking Police department.TWO French nationals were charged in paedophilia cases on Sunday in Phnom Penh Municipal Court with soliciting child prostitution and possessing child pornography.
Sixty-three-year-old Michel Jean Raymond Charlot was charged under Article 34 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation with soliciting child prostitution, and another Frenchman, 60-year-old Claude Jean-Pierre Demeret, was charged under Article 34 and Article 39 with soliciting child prostitution and possession of child pornography, Phnom Penh Municipal court deputy prosecutor Kry Sok Y said Sunday. The two were to begin serving pretrial detention today.
Charlot was arrested on Thursday at a guesthouse in the Boeung Kak area after he solicited a 16-year-old girl near Wat Phnom and brought her back to his room, according to Municipal Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Bureau police chief Keo Thea. The girl then implicated Demeret, who was arrested at a guesthouse in Chamkarmon distict.
Samleang Seila, Cambodian director for Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), a child rights group, said Sunday that his organisation tipped off police to suspicion surrounding Charlot, who had been in Cambodia just one week.
"We warmly welcome the fast intervention by police in this case," Samleang Seila said.
After Charlot's arrest, police said, they raided Demeret's guesthouse and confiscated a cache of sex toys and child pornography. Demeret had created dozens of pornographic videos and photos of his deeds, police said, all of which were seized as evidence. Samleang Seila said that Demeret had been living in Cambodia for three years, during which he filmed himself committing a variety of immoral acts.
"Both men claimed at the police station that they filmed and photographed themselves for their own entertainment and not to sell for a profit, but that doesn't make them any less guilty," Samleang Seila said. "We would like to let sex tourists know that Cambodia is not a place where they can commit acts of paedophilia without facing the consequences." Read more!
Pursat's 'holy cow' laid to rest
Damnak Sangke commune residents believe the body of the calf, born with crocodile-like skin despite having died last week, holds magical properties.
Photo by: Reuters/Chor Sokunthear
People gather Friday to give money, offer incense and collect "holy water" from a dead calf that is rumoured to hold powers of healing after it was born with snakelike skin in Pursat.Hundreds of Cambodians staged a ceremony after the death of a "holy cow" whose spit could supposedly cure several illnesses, local officials said.
The mystical calf, which reportedly had unusual skin that looked like crocodile hide, was born last week but died just two days later in northern Pursat province's Damnak Sangke, village chief Sok Mim said.
He said about 100 villagers gathered at the house of the cow's owner, Outh Kdep, for a three-day memorial ceremony. Despite living on the poverty line, many of them dug into their pockets to help finance the elaborate funeral.
"A lot of people have flocked to the ceremony. They offered money and lit incense sticks before the cow to pray for it to be reborn and live a longer life," Sok Mim told reporters.
SOME PEOPLE USED THE SPIT FROM THE COW'S MOUTH TO CURE THEIR TOOTHACHE AND OTHER ILLNESS.
"The cow looked strange. Its legs have signs like carved arts and its skin is like a crocodile's skin. Old people believe that the cow is holy. Some people used the spit from the cow's mouth to cure their toothache and other illness. They said they recovered from aches afterwards," Sok Mim said.
The female calf was born last Tuesday but died Thursday in Damnak Sangke.
A local police official said villagers believed the cow had mystical powers because there had been a lot of rain in the drought-hit village the day after the calf was born.
Yim Rith, 60, a community leader, said Cambodians have for centuries worshipped a cow god believed to bring peace and prosperity, the Associated Press reported. The deity disappeared from their land long ago, but the calf may have been a sign it was returning to help them, the AP quoted him as saying.
The calf's birth drew hundreds of villagers to the remote outpost. There, they lit incense to pray for its well-being and collected its saliva for cures.
The sudden influx of visitors is believed to have panicked the cow's mother. Unable to produce enough milk to feed it, her calf died. Its corpse was placed on a plastic sheet, and people washed water over it in the hope of making the liquid holy.
Srey Nak, 72, said that when some was applied to her joints and teeth, old pains and aches went away, according to the AP.
"But I am very upset that the cow god came to live with us for just three days and has now died," the AP quoted her as saying. "If she stayed longer, then many sick people could have been treated."
Un Dary, general director of religious affairs for Cambodia's Ministry of Cults and Religions, told reporters he did not know about the case, but that many Cambodians subscribe to animism - a belief that spirits can inhabit all sorts of living and inanimate objects.
Whenever an odd animal makes an appearance, he said, it is cause for the superstitious to celebrate.
He speculated that the freak appearance of the calf may have been due to a vitamin deficiency or virus.
Outh Kdeb, 40, told reporters that, had the cow lived, "my family and the people in this area as well as the whole entire Cambodian nation would have achieved more peace and prosperity".
The calf was buried in a rice field near Outh Kdeb's house. Villagers contributed 150,000 riels (US$36.27) and she contributed 200,000 riel for a ceremony with six Buddhist monks to give thanks and wishes for its soul, praying for it to be reborn as soon as possible. AFP Read more!
King Father compares CPP to his own rule
Former monarch says the ruling party is the "younger sibling" to his own Sangkum Reastr Niyum party of the 1950s
Photo by: AFP
King Father Norodom Sihanouk arrives at Phnom Penh International Airport in this file photo.KING Father Norodom Sihanouk on Thursday compared the modern-day Cambodian People's Party to his own Sangkum Reastr Niyum party, founded in 1955, framing both groups as capable stewards of national sovereignty and national progress.
"Now, under the smart leadership of Samdech Hun Sen, Chea Sim, Samdech Heng Samrin ... [the] Cambodian People's Party is following from the legacy of Sangkum Reastr Niyum, during the time that I was president," the King Father said during a meeting with nuns and laymen at his royal residence in Siem Reap province. The event was televised on TVK on Friday and Saturday.
"I have announced publicly to the people that the Cambodian People's Party is the younger sibling of Sangkum Reastr Niyum, especially in its guidance of the people and the nation to happiness and progress in all fields, and in its successful preservation of our sovereignty and independence for generations to come," he said.
In addition to praising the CPP, the monarch also recounted his own political achievements, noting the central role he played in securing independence from France.
"In history, from 1951 to 1953, I was honoured to work towards demanding independence [from France] and completed the pursuit of independence in November 1953," he said.
Cheam Yeap, a CPP lawmaker, said Sunday that he wanted to express gratitude to the King Father for his remarks on behalf of all CPP members. He said that the King Father considered the CPP as the "younger sibling" of Sangkum Reastr Niyum because he recognised the successful polices implemented by the CPP.
King Father Norodom Sihanouk, 87, returned to Cambodia on July 9 after receiving medical treatment in China. He is scheduled to go back to China on September 3 for further medical attention.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009082427929/National-news/king-father-compares-cpp-to-his-own-rule.html Read more!
Afghan Diary
Photo by: Michael Hayes
Secret ballot: Afghan women display their ink-stained fingers after voting at the Sultan Raiza High School for Girls in Mazar-i-Sharif on Thursday.It seemed like a good idea to get out of the capital and avoid the almost 300-strong international press pack that would be racing around the dusty city following President Karzai and his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.
Since domestic air travel is all too often a hit-or-miss endeavor, with flights delayed, cancelled or just never showing up, we took the road to Mazar - one of the few relatively safe highways in the whole country. Only complete fools or those with a death wish take the road to Kandahar. The road to Jalalabad in the east is an equally risky proposition.
As well, all reports indicated that the polling in Mazar would go off relatively smoothly. I had no desire to get attacked with rockets or, even worse, have my throat slit by the Taliban.
I hooked up with two American photographers, and we left Kabul at 6am on election eve, taking the 428-kilometre paved road north. Just outside the city our fixer handed me an Afghan shawl. "Here, put this on," he said. Apparently, I looked too American. What a surprise.
The road up to and through the 3-kilometre-long Salang tunnel, sitting at 3,360 metres, is one of the most majestic in the world. If peace ever breaks out, tourists will no doubt flock here for the views. After a nine-hour haul we arrived in Mazar without incident.
On voting day - the first time in the country's ancient history the government has organised national elections on their own - we showed up at Wazir Akhbar Khan High School promptly at 7am when the polls opened.
Election officials, smartly dressed with finely wrapped turbans and well-groomed beards, sat out front of the school's mud walls exuding a seriousness fit for the occasion. They checked our Election Commission passes and welcomed us into the yard. Male and burqa-clad female voters started to enter the compound in a trickle that soon turned into a steady stream.
Inside the school building, voters - men through one end of the building and women through the other - followed a simple set of procedures: IDs checked, fingers dipped in purple ink, ballots issued, candidates ticked behind basic cardboard stands, and then ballots deposited in boxes. All smooth as Mazari silk.
Leaving the polling station, voters seemed proud to hold up their ink-stained fingers and pose for us photographers. Surprisingly, we were even allowed to go to the women's side to do the same. The men really didn't like it, but the women did not hesitate to display from behind their sparkling white burqas the purple digit.
Those of us from the West have the luxury of being cynical about democracy, but there is something rather moving about seeing a war-weary people participate in a process that they hope may lead to a better, less violent, more equitable future. Needless to say, they deserve it.
We moved on to Balkh University, where voter turnout was larger. Mr Hafiz, one of the school's administrators, was happy to exclaim: "See, no problem. Anyone can vote for anybody they want. No problem. I didn't even tell my children who to vote for."
A young student clung by my side as I strolled through the halls, happy to practise his English. "The election is very peaceful here," he said. "Only problems in the south, not in Mazar."
I asked him how old he was, and when he said 17, I asked how he could vote, thinking that the age requirement for voting was 18.
Mr Hafiz explained. "No, no, he says 17 but actually he's 20. He wants to avoid the military." I told him we were quite familiar in Cambodia with flexible birth dates to avoid conscription. He smiled.
At the Sultan Raiza High School for Girls, the women came out in droves. Once inside the main gate, burqas were pulled back, revealing made-up, excited faces rarely seen by foreign men - or locals, for that matter. An almost festive atmosphere reigned, as if this was one of the few times women could crowd together and chat up a storm in a semi-public environment.
At 5pm we went back to Wazir Akhbar Khan High School to watch the vote-counting. Election observers and party officials remained attentive as each ballot was called out.
After an hour the count was 480 for Abdullah, 56 for Karzai, with single votes for two other candidates - a veritable small sweep for the former Northern Alliance foreign minister who railed against corruption in the Karzai administration during the campaign.
So polling went smoothly in Afghanistan's major northern city. The only low point was when an Associated Press reporter asked me if I'd heard of any violence. When I said no, she replied: "Oh, that stinks. Now I don't have a story." Leave it to the Western press to wish more suffering on the Afghan people.
Initial results won't be announced until September 3. The government says there were 267 attacks by the Taliban throughout the country, and 26 people were killed. Two voters in Kandahar had their ink-stained fingers cut off.
Cries of foul play are widespread, registration cards were readily for sale, and allegations of ballot box stuffing are ubiquitous.
What's that old saw? Democracy is a terrible form of government. But everything else is worse.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009082427942/World-news/afghan-diary.html Read more!
Proposed credit bureau to regulate lending
National Bank of Cambodia aims to have the bureau – which it says will manage the Kingdom’s microfinance institutions and establish a national financial database – up and running by 2011
Cambodia's central bank will establish a credit bureau to manage microfinance lending and avoid loan duplication by 2011, a senior official said last week.
National Bank of Cambodia Director General Tal Nay Im said the bureau would allow the country's microfinance institutions (MFIs) to submit lending details into a national financial database accessible across the sector.
It would prevent clients' using one piece of collateral, usually soft title on property, to apply for loans at more than one lender, a practice which has been linked to a rising incidence of non-performing loans in the sector.
Many rural borrowers do not have [hard] land titles, so they use papers recognising their possession of land as collateral to borrow money from a financial institution," she said. "Later, they ask the local authority to issue two or three more papers for the same land or house and use them to borrow from other microfinance institutions."
Credit agents do not ask me what i will use the loan for, but … if i have collateral.
The credit bureau would stamp out the practice, she said.
Figures released earlier this month by the Cambodian Microfinance Association show non-performing loans rising from 1.75 percent at the end of the first quarter to 3.39 percent at the end of the second quarter.
Borrowers spoken to by the Post Friday confirmed the practice.
Pen Huch, 35, from Sdech Kong Khang Cheong commune in Kampot province's Banteay Meas district, said she had borrowed a total of $5,000 from three institutions - ACLEDA bank, MFI Amret and CHC Limited - with the intention of lending the money on at a higher rate of interest.
"Credit agents do not ask me what I will use the loan for, but they asked me if I have collateral," Pen Huch said.
A certificate recognising ownership of land could be bought from local authorities for 5,000 riels ($1.21), she said.
However, Pen Huch said she was cheated by the villagers she lent to and was now unable to repay the loan.
"Now I am completely in debt. I have sold my rice field to repay the debts, but it is still not enough."
She said she still owed $1,000 and alleged that the lenders were forcing her to sell her house to repay the debts or face court action.
Uk Chaim, 50, from the same commune, said she received six land ownership papers from the local authorities for her single piece of land and used them to borrow $4,000 from six creditors last year.
"I have sold my rice field to repay the debts, but now I still owe them about $1,000 and they are forcing me to sell my last property - the land where my house is - to repay the debts," she said.
"The future credit bureau will be definitely significant to prevent rates of NPL from going up," said Peter Sheerin, a credit bureau and risk management adviser at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector financing arm of the World Bank.
The IFC has been providing technical support for 18 months but hopes the bureau could be established before 2011, he said. "Now, the major challenge is around having to change the law to provide a legislative framework to allow for the establishment of the credit bureau," Sheerin said, adding it would cost between $2 million and $3 million.
A priority on the legislative front is the creation of laws around handling confidential information, which Tal Nay Im said was critical to allow the bureau to keep track of the credit histories of borrowers. Read more!
Annual bank report states bad loans minimal in 2008
Central Bank notes, however, that NPLs increased at a number of major lenders, including Canadia Bank, ANZ Royal and FTB
Photo by: SOVAN PHILONG
A banking customer withdraws money at an ATM in Phnom Penh this month. Most of the Kingdom’s banks recorded an increase in non-performing loans in 2008, the National Bank of Cambodia said in a report.Bad loans Rising
- ANZ Royal saw NPLs increase from 0.4pc in 2007 to 2.6pc last year
- FTB also experienced a rise in NPLs over the same period – from 30.7pc to 32pc
- Canadia Bank saw NPLs climb from 6.8pc to 11.1pc
The National Bank of Cambodia's (NBC) 2008 annual banking supervision report, published on its Web site, showed that non-performing loans rose from 3.4 percent of total loans at the end of 2007 to 3.7 percent as of the end of last year. The absolute value of NPLs climbed from US$52.95 million to $87.44 million over the period as the total value of loans soared 54.7 percent from $1.51 billion to $2.35 billion.
In the report, the NBC described the level as "considerably low" given that the banking system "experienced rapid credit growth" in 2008.
NBC Director General Tal Nay Im said the rise in NPLs was concentrated among a few banks - the report shows these are Canadia Bank, the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB) and ANZ Royal - but said the sector performed strongly.
"It's customary for NPLs to rise when the economy slows down," she said. "[But] it is not serious. The repayments were just late, it does not mean they are in default."
Around 32 percent of the FTB's $86.1 million loan book was non-performing at the end of last year, slightly up from 30.7 percent a year earlier when it had $64.1 million in outstanding loans, according to the report.
Canadia Bank, which owns 46 percent of FTB, reported 11.1 percent of its $409.5 million in loans as non-performing, up from 6.8 percent of a $338.1 million loan book at the end of 2007.
Advanced Bank of Asia was the other poor performer in terms of NPLs, but its NPL ratio of 12.8 percent was an improvement on the 26 percent recorded a year earlier as its loan book doubled to $24.45 million.
Bad loans at Singapore Banking Corp dropped from 12.3 percent to 3.9 percent.
ANZ Royal also suffered, with NPLs rising from 0.4 percent to 2.6 percent over the course of 2008.
FTB General Manager Gui Anvanith said the NBC based its report on unaudited figures. The bank's 2008 financial statement, which he said was audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, put the bank's NPLs at 28 percent, up from 13 percent a year earlier, he said.
Anvanith said the increase in NPLs was mostly attributable to six large companies that were each three months in arrears on loan repayments. He refused to name the customers but said they were in the agricultural, construction, hotel and power sectors.
"We are not concerned that we will lose money because all the loans we offered have been secured by collateral, and the collateral value is always 100 percent higher than the amount of the loan."
He said NPLs had dropped to about 17 percent by July and anticipated the level to fall further to between 7 percent and 10 percent by the end of the year.
ANZ Royal CEO Stephen Higgins said it was natural NPLs would rise as a result of the financial crisis, as they have in almost every country.
"In that context, a 2.6 percent NPL ratio is fairly modest, and as much as anything, reflects ANZ's conservative approach to provisioning," he wrote in an email Friday. "For these NPLs, we don't actually expect to lose any money on them."
He said they involved a small number of loans written several years ago with a high level of security. A common characteristic was that they were property-related clients experiencing cash-flow issues, he said.
Canadia Bank financial controller Ou Sophanarith said Friday that he expected that NPLs would drop to 7 or 8 percent this year.
"We are quite stable and have no concern because all loans have been secured by collateral," he added.
The report said most credit was channelled to the wholesale and retail trading sectors, followed by the services sector - mainly hotels and restaurants - telecoms and media, and other non-financial services.
Manufacturing also obtained significant bank financing, as did the commercial real estate, residential real estate and construction sectors.
However, while growing credit to the real estate sector was seen as a "major concern for supervisors" as the bursting of the real estate bubble presented a "genuine risk" to the banking system, the annual report added that central bank guidelines limiting bank lending to the real estate sector to 15 percent of lending portfolios, and the doubling of reserve requirements last year to 16 percent, had limited the sector's exposure.
Tal Nay Im said the bad loans were due to producers and manufacturers struggling with cash flow as a result of decreased trading activity, and said the real estate sector was not a major problem.
Despite the rise in NPLs, the report showed 2008 was still a profitable year for the sector. Net profits at Canadia were $34.5 million, making it the country's most profitable bank ahead of Cambodian Public Bank.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009082427936/Business/annual-bank-report-states-bad-loans-minimal-in-2008.html Read more!
Border troops reduction following Hun Xen’s order
Sunday, August 23, 2009Monday, August 24, 2009
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
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