'Kasit Piromya' attends Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Cambodiad

3 October 2009

BANGKOK, Oct 3 (TNA) – Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and his diplomatic counterparts from Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, and Vietnam, are meeting Saturday with newly-appointed Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in the northwest Cambodian city of Siem Reap to review progress and set the direction for continued cooperation in regional development.

The Second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is being chaired by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong and is being attended by Mr. Okada along with the foreign ministers of Lao, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand.

On the sidelines of the Mekong meeting, Mr. Hor Namhong will also chair the Second Foreign Ministers’ Meeting regarding Emerald Triangle Cooperation between Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Under the Second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Japan, which has actively assisted the Mekong region countries, is expected to offer continued commitment to regional development with its vision to create an ‘East Asian Community’.

The meeting is aimed at improving regional infrastructure and human resources, as well as reducing poverty, and will pave the way for a leaders’ summit later this year.

In the afternoon, the foreign ministers of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand will meet under the Emerald Triangle Cooperation umbrella in which they are expected to commit to expanded cooperation in tourism, infrastructure and trade.

The Emerald Triangle Cooperation framework consists of the three neighbouring countries joining together to utilise the combined tourism resources of the sub-region for the mutual benefit of the participating countries. The strengths in the tourism industry of each member country will enhance the combined potential in this sector and promote tourism in the sub-region.

It will also help generate growth and reduce income disparity in the three countries and enhance the well being of people at the grassroots level.

In the afternoon Mr Kasit will hold bilateral talks with the newly-appointed Japanese foreign minister over common interests and plans to develop the Mekong Sub-Region. (TNA)

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String of major earthquakes shook the world: The latest one hit Sumatra, Indonesia

In Padang, a man carries an injured person in front of a collapsed university building after an earthquake hit Indonesia's Sumatra. Photograph: Reuters

Desperate hunt for the living as Sumatra quake toll mounts

• Hundreds trapped under rubble
• Rescuers struggle to reach stricken city

Wednesday 30 September 2009
The Guardian (UK)

A major rescue operation was under way after a devastating earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leaving hundreds and possibly thousands of people buried in rubble and a major city cut off from the outside world.

Although disaster relief officials said the number of confirmed deaths was between 100 and 200, they warned that the figure was likely to rise, with the head of the country's crisis centre saying at least 1,000 may have been killed.

Indonesia's government dispatched teams of rescue workers to the stricken region. International aid agencies were preparing to launch a major relief effort as tens of thousands of people spent a night in the open in pouring rain after their homes were damaged.

Health minister Siti Fadilah Supari said: "This is a high-scale disaster," adding that he believed it was more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006, referring to a city on the Indonesian island of Java where 3,000 people died.

Today'smagnitude 7.6 earthquake – which came less than 24 hours after another fatal quake off the South Pacific island of Samoa – struck at 5.16pm. Its centre was reported to be around 30 miles offshore from Padang, a city of 900,000, at a depth of around 53 miles.

There was immediate widespread panic in the city. "The earthquake was very strong," said a woman called Kasmiati, who lives on the coast. "People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged. I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured," she said before her mobile phone went dead.

Fears that a catastrophe might have occurred were raised after Indonesia's vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, told a news conference in Jakarta that homes, hotels, mosques, schools, shops and other buildings had been destroyed in Padang, the largest city in western Sumatra.

Television footage from the city showed scenes of devastation, including the foot of a buried body sticking from rubble.

"We have received a report from the mayor of Padang that the death toll is 75. But many others are trapped in collapsed shops, building and hotels." Kalla added: "It is definitely higher than that. It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout."

Officials with Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, who were attempting to reach the scene last night, said they had also received reports that many homes had been destroyed, with early reports suggesting that between 500 and 1,000 houses had collapsed.

Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, said it had also received eyewitness accounts of destruction in the nearby town of Pariaman, to the north of Padang, as well as in Padang itself. Fears that the death toll could rise rapidly were raised by Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, who said that in addition to known fatalities, thousands more people could be buried in the rubble, though officials later suggested the number still trapped in the city was as low as 100. Two hospitals in Padang were reported to be among the collapsed buildings, said Rustum, adding that a field hospital was being prepared to help survivors. Several hotels were also said to have been seriously damaged, while a shopping mall was badly hit.

The first emergency medical relief – a team of 40 doctors from Jakarta – was expected to reach the area .

Rescue efforts, however, have been hampered by the disruption of electricity and telecommunication lines, which have thrown Padang into darkness. All roads into the city were also reported to have been blocked by landslides.

In a further blow the airport at Padang was described as "inaccessible" by a pilot from the state airline who attempted to reach it and was forced to turn back. According to one report the roof of the airport had caved in.

While most of the early attention has focused on the large, sprawling city of Padang, concern was mounting over the fate of towns and villages in the surrounding countryside. In the town of Maninjau, further inland, a resident, Hafiz, told local media he had watched houses being buried in a landslide when a hill collapsed.

The earthquake in Sumatra came 24 hours after a huge tsunami struck Samoa at dawn on Tuesday – triggered by an earthquake measuring between 8.0 and 8.3 – which also flattened villages and swept cars and people out to sea, killing at least 100 people and leaving dozens missing. Survivors fled the churning water for higher ground on the South Pacific islands.

Shocks from the Sumatran earthquake could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred miles away. It was also felt in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

An eyewitness to the destruction in Sumatra was Malaysian student Fashareena Nazir, who is studying at the Universitas Andalas medical faculty, which was damaged in the earthquake.

"There were rumbles and a loud noise, like a bang," she told Malaysia's Bernama news agency after walking three miles to safety. The 23-year old described seeing neighbours' houses on fire and ground caving in or disappearing before her eyes.

Another severely damaged location was reported to be Padang's Industrial Technic Academy. A lecturer there, Erwinsyah Sipahutar, told local television that hundreds of students evacuated the campus as the quake broke most of the windows.

"We were shaken like matchsticks," Erwinsyah said.

Another resident of Padang, called Adi, later told Metro Television there was devastation all around him. "For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half-destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami," said Adi. "No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely."

In Pariaman – closer to the centre – one resident, Yuliarni, told TV One news: "The shaking was the worst I had ever felt. Houses have collapsed, the lights and electricity were cut off … People were fleeing to higher ground and some were hurt."

Padang lies on one of the world's most active faultlines, where the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plates are colliding, and had been named by geologists in Indonesia as the most likely location to fall victim to a major earthquake or tsunami. It is the same faultline that was responsible for the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people on Boxing Day 2004.

The zone's other segments have already cracked, including a large portion off Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra, which triggered the 2004 tsunami.

"Padang sits right in front of the area with the greatest potential for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake," Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, a geologist at the Indonesian Science Institute, warned in February. "The entire city could drown" in a tsunami triggered by such a quake, he warned then.http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/string-of-major-earthquakes-shook-world.html

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Choreographer Accepts $25,000 Art Award [-Congratulations, Mrs. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro!]

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/choreographer-accepts-25000-art-award.html

Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (R) teaching a dancer

By Im Sothearith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
30 September 2009

Khmer choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro was given an award by the National Endowment for the Arts, after co-founding the Khmer Arts Academy in California.

The National Heritage Fellowship is the highest form of federal recognition for folk and traditional arts. Shapiro and 10 others were awarded this year.

“The reason why I think her award today is so important is that it gives her the ability to continue the art,” Laura Richardson, a Democratic congresswoman from California who joined the Sept. 22 ceremony, told VOA Khmer.

“Art is so powerful because art doesn’t judge men, women, boys, and girls,” she said. “It’s preserving our cultures. By being able to show the art, it teaches young people to respect their elders. It teaches young people something special that they have and that no one has. So, I am hoping by her continuing to teach the art, we can help more kids in learning, rather than being out in the streets doing something negative, and she has been doing it for a long time and we value her and love her in our community.”

Shapiro said she felt honored to be given the award, which includes a grant of $25,000.

“It is important that I use this fellowship to support and continue to teach art at our Khmer Art Academy,” she said.

Shapiro began training in Khmer art form in 1981. Two years after moving to Long Beach in 2002, she co-founded Khmer Arts Academy in the hopes of preventing the loss of the art form in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge.

Barry Bergey, the NEA’s director for Folk and Traditional Arts, told VOA Khmer that in any year, the endowment gets 250 or so nominations. Only 10 or 11 are selected.

“Sophiline, of course, was recognized not only for her artistic skills and choreography, but for the fact that she teaches and makes such a commitment to the art form, and the panel recognized that,” Bergey said. “There’s no requirement in any way in terms of using the money, but we know these artists are committed to their traditions [and] that they are most likely to carry on what they are doing.

“That is what we want them to do, to continue just what they do, make art, teach about the art form and interact with the public,” he said. “Sophiline has done that both in the United States and in Cambodia, and that makes her special.

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Pair of border gates between Vietnam and Cambodia open to traffic

The Ministries of Transport from Vietnam and Cambodia held a ceremony on September 30 to open the border gates between Xa Mat in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province and TrapeangPlong in Cambodia’s KamPongCham province.

The Xa Mat-TrapeangPlong border gates are only the second pair of its kind in Tay Ninh province after the Moc Bai-Ba Vet border gates were opened on September 30, 2006.

The opening of seven pairs of border gates has accelerated both trade, transport and tourism services between the two countries.

The trade turnover of both countries has increased annually by 40 percent on average. Vietnam and Cambodia are striving to raise two-way trade turnover to US$2 billion per year by 2010.

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Typhoon Ketsana hits Teuk Mileang village, in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province,

A Cambodian washes his motorbike in the flood in Ratanak Kiri province. Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331. (AFP)

A Cambodian man saws through a tree which fell over his house following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian boy collects damaged roof titles after Typhoon Ketsana struck, in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles)north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian man carries household items on a muddy road of a village hit by Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian couple clean inside their damaged house after Typhoon Ketsana struck, in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodians walk through a flooded road following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring some 29 others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

A Cambodian man saws through a tree which fell over his house following Typhoon Ketsana in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring over two dozen others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Villagers pass damaged houses after Typhoon Ketsana struck the area in Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring over two dozen others, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian military police officers carry coffins loaded with bodies of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by CAAI News Media)

Cambodian villagers prepare loaded coffins of villagers who died during Typhoon Ketsana at Teuk Mileang village, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles), north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. Typhoon Ketsana swept into central Cambodia and toppled dozens of rickety homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 29, disaster officials said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (Post by Daily News)

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Chinese and Cambodian youths jointly hold art performance in Phnom Penh

http://www.chinaview.cn/
2009-09-30
Editor: An

Political Counselor of Chinese Embassy in Cambodia He Yueping delivers a speech before a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Chinese youths present instrumental ensemble during a performance , Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Representatives from China and Cambodia present gifts to each other during a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Cambodian students present a dance during a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

Cambodian students present a dance during a performance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Sept. 29, 2009. The Hand-in-Hand art troupe of China's Shanghai Youth Center and Cambodian Duan Hua Chinese School jointly held an art performance here on Tuesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. (Xinhua/Lei Bosong)

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Monks' morality important to Cambodia

By Chak Sopheap

Guest Commentary

Published: September 30, 2009

Niigata, Japan — In Cambodia Buddhism is the state religion, guaranteed by the Constitution, and about 95 percent of the people are Buddhists. However, in recent times, a gradual decline in moral standards among Buddhist monks and the political affiliations of some of their leaders have raised serious concerns.

The current Great Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Tep Vong has been accused of favoritism toward the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. Some of his controversial orders include the February 2005 ban on the use of pagodas for public forums hosted by non-governmental organizations, particularly the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Instead of believing that public forums on human rights create chaos, Tep Vong should view them as a platform for people to voice their concerns and appeal to the government to look after their needs. Buddhism supports such a peaceful approach and nonviolent means to highlight problems and seek solutions.

Tep Vong usually makes speeches on political holidays – such as Liberation Day on Jan. 7, the day the former Khmer Rouge regime was toppled – to reaffirm his support to the ruling party. He rarely touches on issues such as moral standards or the role of monks in Cambodian society.

Several reports of monks having sex, watching pornographic materials and other social misconduct have largely gone unnoticed by the supreme patriarch. Recently a chief monk reportedly got drunk and beat some of his followers, who did not file a complaint out of fear for their safety.

Unlike the case of Tim Sakhorn – a monk who was charged with misconduct and defrocked in 2007 for allegedly destabilizing relations between Cambodia and Vietnam – the supreme patriarch has not reacted to the recent issue involving the drunken monk. This shows that the decision to defrock Sakhorn was politically motivated, and that the Buddhist leader is unconcerned about the decline of morality among the monks under his charge.

If such abuses continue, Buddhism will be less respected in the Cambodian community. This will affect other monks who devotedly follow and respect Buddhist principles. Besides, it would create a dangerous society if citizens were to lose faith in their religion, which contributes to people’s behavior and social conduct.

Buddhism has also played a significant role in national reconciliation and peace for survivors of the former dreaded Khmer Rouge regime. Cambodian people are likely to advise their children to apply Buddhist teachings as a way to solve conflicts in a peaceful manner and also to attain inner peace.

Therefore, the supreme patriarch and other monks need to maintain their gracious role and morality so that the religion is respected and valued. Monks should look back on their past roles in developing the community and the country.

Throughout history, pagodas and monks have contributed immensely to Cambodia’s cultural and educational sustainability, despite civil conflicts. However, their roles and contributions are diminishing in present times.

There are many issues like poverty reduction, corruption, social injustice, land disputes and social conflicts that confront Cambodia’s government as well as civil society. Monks should play a greater leadership role by introducing peaceful mechanisms to solve problems. This would go a long way toward helping Cambodians build a better society and future.

--

(Chak Sopheap is a graduate student of peace studies at the International University of Japan. She runs a blog, www.sopheapfocus.com, in which she shares her impressions of both Japan and her homeland, Cambodia. She was previously advocacy officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.)

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Rattan Association Aims To Boost Export

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer

Original report from Phnom Penh

30 September 2009

Opened with cooperation from a wildlife conservation group and an artisan organization, the Rattan Association of Cambodia hopes to fill a gap in international demand for the material.

“If we want to export, we need a large amount of rattan,” said Ou Ratanak, head of the World Wildlife Fund’s rattan project. “So the association can deal with it. Moreover, [members] can share their experiences regarding design and quality.”

The association would take care natural rattan is not destroyed and new rattan is grown for sustainable use. It would also provide knowledge and new experiences in technical assistance, trade, and international market searches.

More than 20 species of rattan grow naturally in Cambodia. The vine has a small leaf and sharp thorns and grows on mountainsides. Much of the country’s natural rattan, however, has been depleted for export to Vietnam and Thailand.

From 1998 to 2006, an estimated 3,000 tons of rattan were illegally exported to Vietnam, and another 12,000 tons to Thailand, according to the WWF.

In 2008, the WWF created a community project to protect rattan in Kampot province, with the project expanding into Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces. Prek Tnorth, in Kampot, is growing rattan on 25 hectares of land.

Rattan is used in the production of furniture popular in Europe, the US and Canada, with production and trade valued at $4 billion a year, Ou Ratanak said. Indonesia is responsible for 80 percent of world export; Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam also export rattan products.

Cambodia has yet to find an international market, and only 800 families in Kampot benefit from planting the vine and producing furniture from it for markets in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. The community harvests more than half a ton of rattan per month, producing around 50 table and chairs.

“The quality is still poor, lacking in design skill, and we always produce the same model,” said Men Sineoun, president of the Artisan Association of Cambodia, which is also supporting the project. “We have no skill in marketing and communication, and we have no skill in exporting.”

Tep Asnarith, a spokesman for the WWF, said rattan furniture producers in Cambodia don’t yet follow an environmental policy required by international buyers. However, it is hoped the new association can help ensure high-quality production and other competitive advantages.

Kun Thorn, president of Kun Bun Lang Furniture, said he believed the association can boost exports, and the WWF hopes to export half the rattan produced in Cambodia to Europe, the US and Japan by 2015.

Lao Sethalphal, deputy director for the legal department of the Ministry of Agriculture’s forestry administration, said the success of rattan on the international market will improve the economies of rural communities and provide a better living to rural people.

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Most Journalists Mentioned the Right to Keep Information Sources Confidential, but the Courts Do Not Accept It – Wednesday, 30.9.2009

Posted on 1 October 2009

The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 632

http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Phnom Penh: Many organizations and associations cooperated to hold a workshop about a network of persons and institutions to provide legal protection for journalists, where also representatives from civil society, government officials, and legal experts attended.

“The director of the Department to Defend the Poor of the Cambodian Defenders Project, Mr. Yong Phanit, said during the workshop in the morning of 28 September 2009 that the freedom of the press in Cambodia is guaranteed by the Constitution, by the press law, and by other relevant laws. Looking at the press law, it provides many kinds of rights for the press, and it speaks also about the responsibility of the press. Those rights include the right to seek information and the right to receive all kinds of information, including information controlled by the Royal Government, except for information affecting national security and public order.

“Mr. Yong Phanit added that these rights are fully guaranteed, by law, for the press. Another right is the right to keep information sources confidential. This is an absolute right of journalists by which they can keep information about sources of information confidential. Also, journalists have the right to publish information without pre-checking. Thus, when they have received information, they can publish it as they want to without checking. He added that journalists have also the right to create organizations or associations.

“He went on to say that at the same time, the law requires the journalists to be responsible for what they publish. If journalists break the law, they have to take responsibility for it. Based on the press law, the courts have the right to fine them, and the courts can also order them to publish corrections later, or to pay compensation to victims. But practically, at present, the [UNTAC time] criminal law is sometimes used to prosecute journalists who have done something which is considered to relate to articles of that law [the UNTAC criminal law], while by law, if somebody is under the control of a special law, they must be treated according to that special law, if they have violated anything under this law. Besides this, they are under the general laws like everybody else.

“Presiding over the workshop, a secretary of state of Ministry of Information, Mr. Nov Sovathero, said that, looking at the whole situation, we see that some journalists who have been jailed or fined are mostly accused of disinformation and defamation, affecting other people’s reputation. When courts requested them to provide information or documents to prove their reporting, journalists always mention the right to keep their sources of information confidential, an argument that the courts cannot accept. This is the root of the problem, and the reason for what is happening with regard to journalists in their profession life at present.

“Mr. Nov Sovathero added that journalists are really free to select the information to be published for their readers – they have to decide carefully whether to publish or not to publish something. They have to consider whom a publication would affect, or whether or not it will affect them in turn, if the information they would publish is not true.

“The aim of the workshop was to identify those who could be involved to take the responsibility for establishing a press freedom network, to promote the support for affected journalists, and to allow everybody to identify areas of problems.”

Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2059, 30.9.2009

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

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Assembly Unable to Watch Over Police: Group

By Pin Sisovann, VOA Khmer

Original report from Washington

30 September 2009

Cambodia needs an independent body to oversee police performance, a Hong Kong-based right group recommends, claiming the National Assembly’s traditional oversight duties are failing because the police and Assembly are stacked with ruling party members.

“In other countries, there are independent committees to oversee police performance,” said Lao Monghay, a researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission. “If police officers abuse citizens, people can file complaints to the body. Right now there is a chance, because Cambodia is drafting a bill for police, in which such an independent body could be included.”

The National Assembly is “politically implicated” and “controlled by the ruling party,” he said, making an independent body more important.

Police have put out suggestion boxes in recent months, but critics say these have not been used. However, Lt. Gen. Keat Chantharith, a spokesman for the national police, said not many police mistakes had been reported because not many police abuse their positions.

After his appointment to national police chief last year, Gen. Neth Savoeun has worked to improve the image of Cambodian police, who are often criticized as corrupt or involved in the crimes they are supposed to fight.

Hotlines and suggestion boxes are fine but people are likely afraid to use the boxes properly, because it is 'only and internal measure', Lao Monghay said.

Nhuon Nhil, first deputy president of the National Assembly, said Cambodia law allows only the Assembly and its commissions to oversee national security and defense, including police.

“The law doesn’t authorize NGOs to do the work instead of the National Assembly commissions,” he said. “People didn’t vote for NGOs to do so.”

The Assembly can also gather ministers and other government leaders to solve complicated matters, he said.

Yim Sovann, a lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said that in order to enforce security and gain the public’s participation, security work needs to be transparent and responsible.

“To get more inputs, transparency, I think human rights groups, NGOs that have watched government performance should be allowed to review these problems,” he said.

“The term ‘the secrecy of interior security, national security’ refers to absolute secrecy for the whole national security, war,” he said. “The term doesn’t refer to social order, abuses by police, human rights worker’s safety. These issues have nothing so confidential that civil society shouldn’t take part.”

He also pointed out that the National Assembly’s nine commissions are all controlled by the Cambodian People’s Party, which controls the executive branch, creating a demand for people to be allowed to oversee government through civil society.

“Experience proves that the commissions didn’t oversee the government of their own party effectively,” he said. They “indentify the problems only to ignore them.”

Nguon Nhil called such criticism “groundless.”

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