Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
By E.J. Graff
Washington Post (USA)
The orphan manufacturing chain is not limited to infants and toddlers. In 1999, Songkea was 9 or 10 years old. She lived with her brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Her mother had recently died, but close relatives lived nearby. Songkea thrived in school and in her dance lessons and loved playing with her nephew and cousins.
One day, a man approached the girl. He was a child recruiter and later told ABC's "20/20," which investigated Songkea's case in 2005, that he had been paid $300 to recruit her for adoption.
"[A] man stopped me, and told me to go and ask my family if I could live in America. The man told me if they agreed, I should move to the orphanage for two weeks, and they would take me to Phnom Penh after that," Songkea wrote five years later in a victim-impact statement presented in a U.S. court. "Suddenly, they told me I would go to Phnom Penh that day and meet my new mother. I didn't say goodbye to my sister, or anyone else."
Meanwhile, Judith Mosley, who was living in Saipan with her husband and children and awaiting word about a pending adoption, got a call from Lynn Devin at Seattle International Adoptions, which Devin ran with her sister, Lauryn Galindo. Devin told Mosley to go to Phnom Penh to meet Galindo, the adoption facilitator. There, Mosley was told, she would receive her new daughter.
After meeting Songkea, Mosley -- despite Galindo's protests -- insisted on going with the girl to see the Siem Reap orphanage where she had lived. But once at the orphanage, the child gave the taxi driver directions to her family's house. There Mosley learned that Songkea had a family, although she believed that they had knowingly given her up for adoption.
Just before Mosley and Songkea, now to be named Camryn, boarded the plane back to Saipan, Galindo handed Mosley the adoption paperwork. It said that Songkea had been living in the orphanage for four years and had no known family -- which Mosley by then knew to be false. She continued to believe, however, that Camryn's family had chosen to give her and that Galindo had simply mishandled the documentation.
In December 2001, following investigations by a local human rights group and the Phnom Penh Post that exposed baby-buying and abduction through Galindo's adoption operations, as well as others, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service halted adoptions from Cambodia and began its own criminal investigation. The moratorium on adoptions continues today. In 2004, Galindo pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and launder money stemming from her role in arranging the adoption of Cambodian children such as Songkea. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and also ordered to forfeit more than $1.4 million in property in Hawaii.
Devin, who prosecutors say did not know that babies were being bought, pleaded guilty to related charges after providing information to officials about her sister's activities and was sentenced to six months of house arrest. It is not known how many of the more than 700 children whom the operation matched with new families were actually orphans.
In 2004, Mosley took Camryn back to Cambodia to visit her biological family. By then a teenager, Camryn was no longer fluent in Khmer, but she says she was profoundly happy to see the family she loved. Today she is waiting for her college acceptance letters.
E.J. Graff is associate director and senior researcher at Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.
Out of Cambodia
Saturday, January 10, 2009Japan to donate $2.8 million (255 million yens) to Cambodia for a dam project and infectious disease control
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Japan to give 1.46 bil. yen fresh aid to Cambodia, Laos on FM visit
TOKYO, Jan. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan will provide 1.2 billion yen of grant aid to Laos for poverty reduction and up to 255 million yen to Cambodia for a dam project and infectious disease control when Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone visits the two nations on Sunday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Friday. Nakasone is set to sign exchanges of notes for the respective projects with his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong during his trip. He will also attend a ceremony to deliver three Japan-made demining tractors in Cambodia.
The assistance for Laos will be earmarked for purchasing fuel, construction materials and other necessary items for stabilizing the economy, the ministry said.
Japan hopes the aid will help boost the Laotian economy, which is suffering from significant annual fiscal deficits mainly due to heavy dependence on imports of essential goods.
For Cambodia, the grant will be used partly to upgrade two apparatuses for controlling the flow of water along the Prek Thnot River with the hope of securing irrigation water for some 12,000 farmers in the Roleang Chrey area.
The aid will also be allocated to secure measles vaccines as well as necessary storage equipment and is expected to benefit about 2 million children under age five, the ministry said.
Nakasone will visit Cambodia and Laos over the weekend to strengthen Japan's bilateral relations with the two nations as well as coordinate responses amid the global financial crisis. He also hopes to promote cooperation in the Mekong region on the whole.
The foreign minister is scheduled to stop over in Bangkok on Saturday for talks with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to discuss measures to tackle the economic crisis on his way to Cambodia, ministry officials said.
Japan and the Mekong region nations, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, celebrate the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year this year.
PM Abhisit confident Cambodia's Hun Sen will attend ASEAN [-Was Hun Sen lying when he said that he'll not attend the summit?]
Saturday, January 10, 2009
BANGKOK, Jan 10 (TNA) -- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is confident that all the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, including Cambodia, will attend the group's summit to be held in Thailand's Hua Hin resort late next month.
Mr. Abhisit said what his Cambodian counterpart said was probably a suggestion that the ASEAN summit should be held concurrently with the group's dialogue partners, whom the Thai government had already informed of the necessary to hold the summit first as several agreements must be jointly signed by ASEAN leaders.
The Cambodian leader has been contacted and he has confirmed that he will attend the ASEAN summit February 27-March 1 in Hua Hin.
Mr. Abhisit announced on Wednesday that his coalition government had decided to move the summit to Hua Hin, southwest of Bangkok, instead of the capital, to avoid possible disruption by anti-government protesters threatening to interfere with he summit.
Due to complications, ASEAN's meeting with its dialogue partners --China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- is now expected to be held in April with an as yet undetermined venue, Mr. Abhisit said.
Despite confirmation by the Thai government leader that his Cambodian counterpart will attend the summit, Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in Phnom Penh on Friday that Mr. Hun Sen may not attend the ASEAN summit because it would be costly and difficult for him to attend.
Also, the spokesman said talks with China, Japan and South Korea were critical because they are expected to give US$80 billion in regional aid to reduce short-term liquidity problems, in line with the so-called Chiang Mai initiatives agreed following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thailand presently holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, which groups it with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
4 arrested in bomb plot
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Sat, Jan 10, 2009
AFP
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - CAMBODIAN authorities have arrested four men on suspicion of planting three bombs around the capital last week, a senior police officer said on Saturday.
Deputy national police commissioner Sok Phal told reporters that one of the four alleged plotters was 44-year-old Som Ek, a dual Cambodian-Thai national who had previously worked as a Cambodian military policeman.
'He (Som Ek) told the police that his bomb plot was to bring attention to the group inside and outside the country, so he could extort money,' Mr Sok Phal said.
'This is just some kind of business just to rob or extort money,' he added.
He said Som Ek had been arrested on Wednesday and told authorities that his group was backed by people outside Cambodia.
The deputy police commissioner gave no further details on the alleged group or other three suspects.
No one was harmed in the bomb plot in which police found three explosive devices on January 2 planted near the Ministry of National Defence and a television station.
Mine clearance personnel destroyed the bombs later that day.
Cambodia likely to miss Asean summit
Friday, January 9, 2009Saturday, January 10, 2009
10/01/2009
Bangkok Post and AFP
Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen may not attend a regional summit in neighbouring Thailand next month, his spokesman said Friday, after it was rescheduled following months of protests in Bangkok.
Thailand said it would go ahead without him. Asean Affairs Department director-general Vitavas Srivihok said Cambodia's absence would not affect the summit.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said it would be costly and difficult for Hun Sen to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, recently moved from Bangkok to Hua Hin.
The summit was originally set to be held in Bangkok in December but was moved first to northern Chiang Mai, then delayed and moved again to the coast in late February as political turmoil engulfed Thailand.
Hun Sen believes meetings with key regional partners China, Japan and South Korea, which have been pushed back to take place separately in April, are the most important element of talks, the spokesman said.
"If it's only the 10 Asean countries meeting, it would be difficult for Hun Sen to go," he said.
"He says that Thailand should reconsider and wait until the end of the year (to host the summit)."
But Hun Sen has been a prickly critic of Thailand and its term as chairman as Asean, suggesting several times last year it would be better if Thailand gave up the chair because of its internal problems. The true sticking point, however, has been the disputes over Preah Vihear temple and border demarcation.
Hun Sen backed a suggestion from Singapore that the bloc consider staging the summit at the Asean secretariat in Jakarta, the spokesman said.
He said talks with China, Japan and South Korea were most critical because they are expected to give $80 billion in regional aid to reduce short-term liquidity problems, in line with the so-called Chiang Mai initiatives agreed in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thailand currently holds the rotating chairmanship of Asean, which groups it with Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Anybody for palm juice drink (Teuk Thnot Chou)?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
A Cambodian fermented palm wine vendor sits on the roadside as she waits for customers in front of Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. Fermented palm wine is regarded as special wine and remains popular for Cambodian men in the rural areas. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)Read more!
Foreign Investment Expected to Slump
Saturday, January 10, 2009
By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
09 January 2009
Foreign direct investment is expected to drop by $200 million in 2009, from more than $800 million last year, according to a recently published World Bank report.
The drop in foreign investment would cause a fall from a high of 10 percent of GDP in 2007, to 5.2 percent in 2009, “as foreign investors become more cautious about investing in developing countries,” according to the report, “East Asia: Navigating the Perfect Storm.”
Cambodia saw a record $866 million in FDI in 2007, followed by $812.7 million in 2008. But the World Bank report predicts about $596 million in foreign investment to reach the country this year.
“We recognize the downturn of FDI, because of the global economic crisis, but the slowdown in 2009 is better than [the investment] in the early 2000s,” Hang Chhuon Naron, secretary general of the Ministry of Finance, said Friday. “But the government has taken measures to pay its budget for public investment.”
Opposition lawmaker Yim Sovann said he was “very concerned” about the drop in investment.
“It affects the people’s living, and the people will have no job to do,” he said. “It causes the government policy to reduce poverty fail.”
Top Cambodian KRouge trial officials to be investigated for graft [-Will it be a real investigation or just a show-investigation?]
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Sean Visoth, Director of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's Office of AministrationSaturday, January 10, 2009
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A Phnom Penh court will hear a corruption complaint against top officials at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal, a judge told AFP Friday.
Chief judge of Phnom Penh Municipal Court Chev Keng said he would accept the complaint against Sean Visoth, the top government official at the court, and Keo Thyvuth, its former chief of personnel, lodged Thursday by defence lawyers.
The lawyers allege the pair have received kickbacks from court workers, but on Friday the tribunal's Cambodian judges released a statement denying any involvement.
The judges added the complaint "was causing confusion and seriously affecting the honour and dignity of all individual judges and this (Khmer Rouge tribunal) institution as a whole."
Thursday's complaint was lodged by international lawyers for Khmer Rouge "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, one of five former leaders due to stand trial.
They said the failure to address corruption allegations undermined Nuon Chea's right to a fair trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Last year the UN launched an investigation into allegations that Cambodian workers had been forced to pay for their jobs, and withheld at least 300,000 dollars in July funding and court salaries.
The investigation's findings were never made public but Keo Thyvuth was later transferred from the court and Sean Visoth put on leave.
The tribunal opened in 2006 after nearly a decade of wrangling between the United Nations and Cambodia.
It is expected to hear its first case within the next few months, against former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav.
Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork as the communist Khmer Rouge dismantled modern Cambodian society during its 1975-1979 rule in a bid to forge an agrarian utopia.
Read more!
Opposition groups issued statements criticising 7th January Day
Friday, January 09, 2009
Mr. Sourn Serey Ratha.
By Mao Sotheany
8th January, 2009
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization
In a statement released yesterday, Mr. Seng Huot, secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party in Finland, stressed that 7th January is a day that the leadership of the Cambodian People's Party feel very proud with the Vietnamese army which had toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.
It is a day that Vietnam has invaded Cambodia that make Cambodia to lose its independence and democracy.
He added that every Khmer people should celebrate 23rd October (1991) because it is a day that all Khmer warring factions agreed to end the war.
In relation to 7th Jay Day, Mr. Sourn Serey Ratha, chairman of the Cambodian Actions and Committee of Justice and Equality, based in America and Mr. Dy Kareth, vice-chairman of the Cambodian Border Committe based in France, have issued statements separately which described 7th January as a day of the great victory of the Vietnamese colonialism over Cambodia and accused Vietnam of controlling Cambodia candidly and openly for 30 years behind the scene. This is a great danger that has caused the Cambodian nation and to the Khmer people to lose their soverignty, territorial integrity and their national indentity, the statements said.
Mr. Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman and Minister of Information, considers the groups that are opposed to 7th January Day as those who wanted to whitewash their shame for not being part of the liberation of the Cambodian nation.
Read more!
Thai gov't worries about 2,600 Thai workers in Gaza Strip
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 BANGKOK, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Labour Ministry is worried about the well-being of about 2,600 Thai workers now employed in the Gaza Strip as fierce fighting between Israeli troops and the militant group Hamas continues without any sign of ending soon, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Labour Pornchai Yooprayong said Tuesday.
Pornchai said there are about 2,600 Thai workers employed at 27 sites in the area.
The Ministry's Employment Department has been instructed not to dispatch new batches of Thai workers to Gaza for safety reasons, said Pornchai. So far all Thai workers there are safe, he said.
Fighting intensified when Israel sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip after several days of air raids against Hamas. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 100 civilians, according to United Nations figures. Nine Israelis have died since the operation began on Dec. 27.