By MICHELLE LOTTER - North Shore Times
30/10/2009
A Takapuna resident is volunteering her skills in language for a three- month Cambodia trip.
Fiona Whyte, a foreign exchange specialist, is looking forward to working with young Cambodian students through the Global Volunteer Network from November.
"To live and work in Cambodia, to be able to offer my knowledge and skills, that’s the really exciting
aspect of this opportunity."
She is paying for her own food and accommodation as she works with nine teachers from throughout the world as a language teacher in Phnom Penh on a project that provides affordable classes.
The aim is to raise money for the local non- government organisation Cambodian Rural Development Trust who works to improve livelihoods in rural Cambodian communities,
Ms Whyte says.
"Students pay a small fee to attend the classes and funds raised are used to improve the community in areas such as water, sanitation, livestock and agriculture production, and environmental awareness.
"Essentially I’ll be helping students improve their English skills while also assisting in the development of the community."
She travelled to Cambodia last year on a World Vision Cycle Charity Challenge that raised $63,000 and assisted 17,000 people in accessing clean water through the charity’s Cambodian projects.
"It was a wonderful experience made particularly special when World Vision was able to arrange for me to meet the two girls I sponsor.
"Even though we didn’t share the same language, we were able to connect. These people are warm, friendly and amazingly resilient."
She says she is looking forward to seeing the education, health and housing rights projects supported by the trust.
She will help facilitate fair trade with World Vision’s microfinance schemes to distribute goods which are sold in New Zealand.
Helping out in Cambodia
Thursday, October 29, 2009Thailand to strip Thaksin of awards, police rank
Wednesday, October 28, 20092009-10-28
BANGKOK, Oct 28 (AFP) - Thailand said Wednesday that it would strip fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra of his royal awards and his police rank as the government presses on with a campaign against its arch-foe.
The announcement came amid tensions over an offer of shelter from neighbouring Cambodia for Thaksin, who was toppled in a coup in 2006 and is living in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for corruption.
The billionaire remains an influential figure on Thailand's turbulent political scene, stirring up mass protests from abroad against the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Abhisit said the government's legal advisory body, the Council of State, had recommended that the National Police Office should revoke Thaksin's rank of lieutenant colonel from his days in the police force from 1973 to 1987.
It should also confiscate the two highest royal awards given to Thaksin -- the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant and the Most Illustrious Order of King Chula Chonklao, Abhisit said.
"The National Police Office had sought the recommendation from the Council of State and the recommendation has come out, so it must act to comply with the ruling," he told reporters.
Abhisit denied that the government was trying to tarnish Thaksin's image after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen angered the Thai government last week by offering Thaksin refuge in Cambodia and a job as his economic advisor.
Thai and Cambodian forces have fought several deadly battles in the past year and a half in a row over disputed land around an ancient temple on their border.
Twice-elected Thaksin fled Thailand last year before he was sentenced to two years in jail in a corruption case. His allies were driven from government in December after anti-Thaksin protesters occupied Bangkok's airports.
Abhisit has said Thaksin, who has several passports and divides his time between a number of countries, must return to Thailand to face justice. (AFP)
MySinchew 2009.10.28
Cambodia, UN mark 64th anniversary of UN Day
http://www.chinaview.cn/
2009-10-28
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian government and the United Nations country team on Tuesday jointly marked the 64th anniversary of UN Day, focusing on reviewing common priorities, said a press released from UN Resident Coordinator in Cambodia on Wednesday.
The discussion with Prime Minister Hun Sen and 11 UN Representatives focused on the excellent working relationship between Cambodia and the UN.
"The United Nations brings around 100 million U.S. dollars of development assistance to Cambodia each year but our support stretches beyond the dollar value of this contribution. We have a long-standing history of promoting peace and human development in Cambodia and we are extremely proud to serve the Cambodian people" expressed UN Resident Coordinator to Cambodia, Douglas Broderick.
Topics raised during the meeting included climate change, the global economic crisis, drug awareness, disaster management and Cambodia's support to international peacekeeping.
Among the highest priorities for the UN Country Team is helping Cambodia to achieve its Millennium Development Goals including improving maternal health, the goal currently requiring the most attention.
"The United Nations believes that no Cambodian woman should die giving life. We are committed to assisting the government to scale-up the quantity and quality of midwives and to improve access to emergency obstetrics care and reproductive health services as part of our joint effort to advance maternal health" Broderick assured the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister shared UN concern that the Millennium Development Goals could be endangered by the combined impacts of the global economic crisis and climate change but was grateful to the UN system for its assistance in helping compile information on the goals' progress at sub-national level.
Regarding the global economic crisis and its impact on the local economy, both sides recognized the importance of coordinating closely to maintain focus on the most vulnerable groups.
"We have been pleased by Cambodia's active response to the global economic crisis especially the attention given to social protection and the progress made towards an integrated Social Safety Net strategy. The UN will work with the government to maintain efforts in this area of social protection to ensure that as the world moves out of this crisis, the poorest people are protected from current and future economic shocks"
In closing the meeting, the Prime Minister congratulated the UN on its 64th anniversary and vowed to continue the UN Day meeting tradition.
United Nations Day (October 24) marks the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945. Cambodia joined the United Nations on 14 December 1955.
The United Nations Country Team in Cambodia consists of 23 agencies, fund and programmes operating in the country.
Editor: Lin Zhi
Cambodian court upholds politician's sentence for defaming premier
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
Asia-Pacific News
Oct 28, 2009
(Posted by CAAI News Media)
Phnom Penh - Cambodia's Appeal Court on Wednesday upheld the fine levied by a lower court on opposition parliamentarian Mu Sochua in her legal wrangle with Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Mu Sochua, a prominent member of the Sam Rainsy Party and a former minister of women's affairs, lost a defamation case brought by Hun Sun earlier this year.
She had originally sued Hun Sen for defamation after comments made by him in 2008 that she said referred to her. The courts threw out her case but allowed the prime minister to countersue on the basis that her lawsuit had defamed him.
Hun Sen won his case in early August with the lower court fining Mu Sochua around 4,100 US dollars.
Mu Sochua told the German Press Agency dpa that she was disappointed by Wednesday's verdict.
'The Appeal Court did not take this opportunity to prove to the people of Cambodia as well as to the world that they had the chance, but did not take the chance, to fix the irregular and bad image that the judicial system has in the eyes of the public,' she said.
Mu Sochua, who was present in court, said proper procedure was followed, but insisted that she was disadvantaged because she could not find a lawyer to represent her.
Her attorney in the original case quit and joined Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party after he came under intense political pressure and was threatened with disbarment for representing her.
'I will file to the Supreme Court to have today's decision rejected,' she said. 'I am not guilty of any crime. I will not pay the fine and no one else will pay the fine.'
The case against the opposition legislator was one of several brought this year by the Cambodian government as it moved controversially against its perceived critics in politics, media and civil society.
Appeal Court Ruling [in Mu Sochua's case] a Mockery of Justice: SRP MPs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 012 788 999
October 28, 2009
“[The IPU] observes with deep concern that the decisions such as those in question may have a dampening effect on the ability of members of parliament and, even more so, of citizens to criticize the conduct of government officials and hence may detract from democratic debate…” - Resolution adopted by consensus by the IPU Governing Council at its 185th session (Geneva, 21 October 2009)
We, Members of Parliament of the Sam Rainsy Party strongly denounce the ruling of the Appeal Court today, which upheld the defamation conviction of MP, Mu Sochua. The Court’s decision confirms that there is no rule of law in Cambodia when a person dares to challenge the government.
The Appeal Court, ignoring principles of fair trial, blindly affirmed the decision of the municipal court: the accused was denied her rights to be represented by a lawyer of her choice, and to be judged by an independent and impartial tribunal.
Last week, the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) adopted a resolution on this case, finding that “the threat of disbarment of [Mu Sochua’s] lawyer, which forced him to withdraw from the case, violated her right to counsel of her choice…whatever may have been the reasons for [his] withdrawal….” The IPU further concluded that “it is difficult to accept the argument of the authorities that no link exists between the risk of his being disbarred from the Bar Association and his having taken on Mu Sochua’s defence…”
The lack of reforms of the judiciary in Cambodia and the direct manipulation of the justice system by the executive branch must be condemned and immediate steps must be taken to allow judges and lawyers to exercise their roles and functions according to the rule of law and the principle of independence of judges and lawyers.
We acknowledge and highly value the presence of all local and international human rights organizations during the hearing today, and we call on civil society and the international community to continue their vigilance of the current surge of defamation cases against dissenting voices, and partisan political pressure on the judiciary.
The government must be held accountable to deliver clear results in the reforms of the judiciary and its commitment to democratic principles. Such manipulation of the judiciary to silence critics is a serious attack of people’s rights under the Constitution and international law, and can not be tolerated in a free society.
The full version of the IPU Resolution can be found at http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/10/ipu-resolution-regarding-mrs-mu-sochuas.html.
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Mu Sochua and her supporters lighted candles in front of Appeal Court to call for Justice
SRP Mu Sochua and supporters light candles today in front of Appeal Court to call for Justice before the Appeal Court announced verdict today.
(All Photos: SRP)
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Asia's intra-regional marriage migration on rise
Wed, 28 Oct 2009
DPA
Bangkok/Phnom Penh - When it comes to attracting a potential spouse, South Korean soap operas seem to be the best way to a South-East Asian bride's heart. Over the last decade, thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian women have left their homes to marry South Korean husbands, lured into dubious unions by dreams of financial security and glitzy, city lifestyles in a modern Asian nation.
Cambodia, alarmed by a report that 1,760 Cambodian women had left the country in 2007 for brokered marriages in South Korea, slapped a ban on all marriages to foreigners in April 2008, lifting it only in December after putting in place restrictions on the nuptials trade.
"Korean men have demographic problems in their own country, particularly in finding wives for rural men who are mainly from the lower-income groups," said John McGeoghan, a human-trafficking expert for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Cambodia.
"In the marketing of this exercise, the Cambodian women are looking at Korean soap operas and thinking they are going to a glamorous life."
It was an IOM report on the exodus of Cambodian brides that sparked Phnom Penh's eight-month foreign marriage ban.
There might be nothing wrong in principle with impoverished women from rural Cambodia or Vietnam choosing to migrate through marriage to South Korea, an industrialized, high-tech country with a rapidly greying population and a lack of womenfolk on the farms.
But the Asian foreign brides business has been a source of disillusionment and outright abuses.
"Part of the reason this is an issue is because it's broker arranged, so they come in and two guys might see 100 Vietnamese girls, and they chose the one they like and are encouraged to sleep with the woman that night," said Andrew Bruce, IOM's Bangkok-based regional representative for South-East Asia.
IOM estimates that some 100,000 Vietnamese women have been brokered to Taiwanese husbands over the last decade. There are some 170,000 brides from mainland China in Taiwan, according to government figures, though the real figure may be closer to 270,000, according to non-government estimates.
South Korea, where brokers formerly recruited wives from rural north-east China, has switched to Vietnamese brides, with about 12,000 arriving every year.
It is big business. A broker charges each would-be husband 5,000- 20,000 dollars for a foreign bride, arranging the introductions, marriages, and processing the visa and passport for the newlywed.
"There was a Vietnamese woman who wanted to get out of it, once the husband had left, and she was told she had to pay all the fees, amounting to 6,000 dollars, and of course she had no money," IOM's Bruce said.
In Taiwan, there are stories of Vietnamese "brides" being used as maids by their new mothers-in-law or shared among several brothers as common chattel.
Alarmed by the horror stories, the Taiwan government has tightened up on immigration controls on Vietnamese women, making it more difficult for them to acquire citizenship.
In South Korea, where four in every 10 marriages in rural areas are cross-cultural, the government has commissioned the Women Migrants Human Rights Centre to run 24-hour emergency help lines for foreign brides in six languages.
Divorces among cross-cultural couples in South Korea have increased from 4,171 in 2003 to 11,225 in 2008, one indication that the soap operas might not be painting an accurate picture of rural lifestyles.
In Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh, the IOM has set up orientation programmes for foreign brides awaiting their visas, informing them of their legal rights and providing them with a smattering of cultural and linguistic preparation for their future marriages.
"These women need information about Korea," IOM's McGeoghan said. "They need to know they are not going to be leading glamorous lives, that sometimes in Korean culture they won't be allowed out of the home or get pocket money."
But IOM regional representative Bruce acknowledged that the programme is more damage control than a solution for the abuses inherit in the marriage trade, which is likely to continue as long as poverty is rampant in the countrysides of Cambodia and Vietnam.
As in all marriages, there is both good and bad.
"On the one hand, these women are open to abuse, and they are almost being bought and sold," Bruce said. "But, on the other hand, the women also earn power, because they have an opportunity then to send money home and become far more important in their own families."
SRP pursues King's help to free editor
Hang Chakra (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
PARLIAMENTARIANS from the opposition Sam Rainsy Party met with King Norodom Sihamoni on Tuesday to request that he grant amnesty to jailed newspaper publisher and edi tor in chief Hang Chakra.
Hang Chakra, who runs the opposition paper Khmer Ma chas Srok, was convicted in June of defamation and pub lishing false information in a series of articles that appeared in his newspaper accusing officials working for Deputy Prime Minister Sok An of cor ruption.
The publisher was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 9 million riels (US$2,187). The Court of Appeal rejected his case on August 11.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay said that an 18-member del egation met with the King on Tuesday to report on the leg islature's recent activities and to request amnesty for Hang Chakra.
The King did not offer a de finitive statement on the case, Son Chhay said, though the monarch has already written a letter to Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana asking that the Supreme Council of the Mag istracy examine Hang Chakra's situation.
"The King is waiting for the government's response. He promised that he will do what he can," Son Chhay said, ac knowledging that he was un sure of whether the King's at tention would be enough to free Hang Chakra.
Council of Ministers spokes man Phay Siphan said the government has no power to intervene in this case, par ticularly because it was the original plaintiff against Hang Chakra.
"The government cannot play both plaintiff and judge," Phay Siphan said. "The court has given Hang Chakra a verdict – it is the court's case."
The government's duty, Phay Siphan said, is to enforce the law rather than to interpret it, and as such, he was unsure that any government body would have the power to grant amnesty to Hang Chakra.
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Foreign brides rejuvenate South Korea's aging society
Wed, 28 Oct 2009
DPA
Seoul - Foreign brides are replacing local women as a major source of vitality in South Korea's greying rural communities, helping to rebuild rural family bonds by providing babies and farm labour and participating in community activities. Lured by the prospect of a higher standard of living, brides recruited from other Asian countries are becoming commonplace in the South Korean countryside.
In rural communities, which once prided themselves on their homogeneity, four in every 10 women married in 2008 were foreign-born, according to data from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.
In small towns with average ages in the 50s or above, many old farm houses are abandoned or under-utilized by elderly residents after their adult children have left for jobs in the cities.
The farm house of Han Jun-Hee, 44, is a good example. Han said the house used to be a place of "sighs and silence" before his Thai bride arrived in 2002.
Now, the couple's three daughters play in the garden, and wife Onnoi, 36, helps work the family rice paddy. She even takes care of Han's aging parents and works as an English interpreter at a local community centre.
"I cannot imagine our family without her," Han said. "She gave us a new family. She helps me with the rice harvest. She is a good mother. She is a good daughter-in-law."
Onnoi had to work hard to fit in.
"You have no idea how lonely and hard it was when I first started my life here," she said. "I didn't understand what the other family members were saying. I was scared about everything that is different here."
Cultural differences often deepen the homesickness felt by the foreign brides.
"I weep secretly when I think of my parents at home and miss them," said a 25-year-old Vietnamese bride who married a South Korean farmer last year.
The passage of time may ease the homesickness as the young women adapt to their roles as wife and mother.
But some of the marriages, especially those undertaken out of necessity rather of romance, can end with runaway brides after the women discover a huge gap between their fantasies and the reality of life on South Korean farms.
A 2008 survey by the Korea Institute of Health and Society showed that 28 per cent of foreign brides experience verbal abuse from their Korean spouses. Twenty-five per cent feel physically threatened by spouses.
Some foreign brides have even been locked into their houses to keep them from running away. Suicides among foreign brides have been reported.
Divorces among these mixed-marriage couples increased from 4,171 in 2003 to 11,225 in 2008. In 2008 there were 36,204 marriages registered between South Koreans and foreign-born spouses, according to South Korea's Statistics Office.
The offspring of mixed marriages often suffer for being different. Many of these children have a harder time with the Korean language and are subjected to teasing or bullying by peers.
As of the end of 2008, there were 167,090 marriages between South Korean and foreign-born spouses, and those unions have produced more than 100,000 babies over the years, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. At least 25,000 of those children have reached school age.
Foreign wives are emerging from the pain of loneliness and prejudice by forging networks among themselves. Across the country are dozens of inter-cultural family centres, where foreign brides get counseling on family welfare, learn about Korean culture and take part in community services.
At the centres, the foreign brides work as interpreters to help recent arrivals adapt to their own new lives.
Some of the foreign mothers are preparing to teach English at community centres or schools.
A 35-year-old Philippine-born woman, mother of a 10-year-old son, is one of 13 foreign brides attending classes to become English teachers at primary school in the Korea Arts and Culture Education Service.
"I want to teach English at primary school, where my son is learning," said the woman, who asked not to be named. "I'd like my son to be proud of his mom when I teach his class."
The state-run Korean National Tourism Organization provides a medical tourism class for 18 brides from China, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines so they can work for local government or medical clinics or travel agents.
"If we have more Asian brides, we may have more of an international mix, or third culture, that is partly Korean and partly Thai or Vietnam or Philippine," said Park Dae-Sik, a researcher for the Korea Rural Economic Institute.
Dong Thap boosts trade cooperation with Cambodia
10/28/2009
VNA/VOVNews
At a workshop on trade and investment promotion held in Phnom Penh on October 27, participants introduced each other to areas of potential and opportunity for cooperation, and ask questions on legal issues, customs, finance and banking.
Sharing a common borderline with Cambodia, Dong Thap province is ideally suited to boost trade promotion, expand into the market and consume products in Cambodia, said the Chairman of the Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee, Truong Ngoc Han, at the workshop, which was held by the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce and the Dong Thap Provincial Trade and Investment Promotion Centre.
A memorandum of understanding on enhancement of investment and trade was signed right after the workshop by senior officials of Dong Thap province and the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce.
Additionally, companies from both sides agreed trade contracts worth US$1 million at the workshop.
Earlier, at a meeting with Cambodian Vice Prime Minster Men Sam On, Chairman of the Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee Truong Ngoc Han pledged to push up activities at gates along the borderline between Dong Thap province and Cambodia’s Prey Veng province.
Dong Thap province has helped build infrastructure for provincial road 102 in Cambodia, linking from the Dinh Ba-Bontea Chak Krey border gate to the trans-Asia highway.
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