First Thailand said it did not kill a Cambodian teenager, now they insist that they burnt him only after the teen was dead, can Thailand be trusted?

Thais say soldiers burned teen post-mortem

Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Thet Sambath
The Phnom Penh Post

Thai military officers have acknowledged their soldiers burned the body of a 16-year-old Cambodian boy suspected of illegal logging, but insist they only did so after he was dead, the deputy chief of the Thailand-Cambodia relations office at the Poipet border crossing said Monday.

Leu Chandara said the officers made the admission during a meeting last week, but Cambodian officials are not buying Thailand’s version of events. “We don’t believe them and we are going to conduct our own investigation,” he said. If the story were true, he added, it would raise questions about the soldiers’ motives for disposing of the body without first consulting the Cambodian government.

“They said they did not burn the teenager alive, but why did they dare to burn his body without informing Cambodian authorities?” he said. “What they are doing is trying to hide their bad actions.”

Officials in Oddar Meanchey province accused Thai officials of shooting Yon Rith and burning him alive on September 11, shortly after he was arrested and accused of illegally felling trees in Thai territory. Relatives claim he was lashed to an ox cart before soldiers set him alight. Marks on the cart prove he was alive at the time, they said.

Another Cambodian teenager, 18-year-old Mao Kleung, was also shot and severely wounded by Thai soldiers, but villagers managed to carry him to safety on Cambodian territory.

Like Leu Chandara, Yon Rith’s parents said the account from Thai military officials was dubious. “They are clearly just trying to hide the fact that their armed forces did a cruel thing,” said Nin Khom, Yon Rith’s mother.

Saing Yon, the father of the dead teenager, said: “I would request that the Cambodian government and international organisations find justice for my son and stop the Thai armed forces from committing cruel crimes against human beings in the future.”

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said he had instructed the Cambodian consulate in Thailand’s Sa Kaew province to investigate the case, but consulate officials were also busy with the case of 16 Cambodians accused of illegal logging along a disputed border area.

The group has been found guilty by a Thai court of illegal entry and destruction of forestry and has been sentenced to up to nine years in prison.

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry said last week it planned to appeal against the sentence.

Officials at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment Monday.

Cambodian boy killed by hornets

Sep 29, 2009
AFP

PHNOM PENH - A YOUNG Cambodian boy was stung to death by hornets after a strong wind blew the insects' nest from a palm tree, local authorities said Tuesday.

The nine-year-old boy died on Sunday after being stung more than 30 times last week in Cambodia's quiet coastal province of Kampot, said commune chief Hay Seng.

'He was walking with his mother under a palm tree and unfortunately, a strong wind blew off a branch holding the hornets' nest, triggering the attack,' Hay Seng told AFP by telephone.

The mother was also stung a few times, he added.

The last deadly hornet attack in the country was reported in 2007, when two Cambodian children and their mother were stung to death after disturbing a nest while cutting firewood.

Hun Xen gloats on positive economic figures, but dismisses negative figures as "just a figure"

(Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

PM again dismisses 2009 GDP forecasts

Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Nguon Sovan
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Monday dismissed recent GDP growth forecasts by international organisations, urging the population to concentrate on work rather than predictions on the Kingdom’s economic output for 2009.

Speaking Monday at an inauguration ceremony for a new Ministry of Tourism building in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen again predicted that the agricultural sector would flourish this year.

“Whatever the forecast is – positive or negative – it is not important because it is just a figure,” he said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) last week projected that the agricultural sector would be one of the few bright spots for the Kingdom’s economy, forecasting 5 percent year-on-year growth for 2009.

But ADB and the International Monetary Fund both lowered their predictions last week for Cambodian growth in 2009, to 1.5 percent and 2.75 percent contractions respectively.

In contrast, the London-based Economic Intelligence Unit, which has traditionally pitched its forecasts below the ADB in particular, this month revised upwards its prediction for the economy from -3 percent to -1.5 percent for this year. It cited signs of a global recovery for the improved forecast.

Nevertheless, Hun Sen said, such predictions remain meaningless to most of the population.

“The most important issue is the people’s living conditions.... If they have enough water and food, if there are people that are dying from starvation or not,” said Hun Sen, adding that most Cambodians had not shown any interest in GDP forecasts previously, even when the Kingdom experienced double-digit growth in recent years.

Earlier this year the government predicted GDP growth of about 6 percent for 2009, although some officials have since said that the economy would likely expand at around half this level.

Cambodia to end Bangkok Airways domestic flights

By THE NATION
Published on September 26, 2009


Bangkok Airways will discontinue its Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route when its aviation agreement expires on October 25, a company official said.

The official said it had been known for some time that the agreement would not be extended after it expired. Cambodia in July established its own airline, Cambodia Angkor Air, which has been servicing that route since its maiden flight on July 28.

Bangkok Airways had earlier set high hopes on establishing a presence in Cambodia.

Mao Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), was quoted by The Phnom Penh Post as saying a decision was made to give a boost to the new national carrier.

"Now that we have our own domestic airline, Bangkok Airways will not be allowed to continue flights when the agreement finishes on October 25," he said.

Bangkok Airways has been |flying four flights daily between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat, since taking over the route last November, when its Siem Reap Airways subsidiary was grounded by the SSCA.

China's Xinhua News Agency quoted SSCA Cabinet Chief Long Chheng as saying on Thursday that a letter had been sent to Bangkok Airways last week informing it of the decision.

Tourism is one of the only sources of foreign exchange for impoverished Cambodia, which is recovering from nearly three decades of conflict, which ended in 1998.

The kingdom wants to receive 3 million tourists annually by next year.

Bangkok Airways public-relations director ML Nantika Worawan, insists the move will not affect the airline's revenue, because only a half-hour flight is involved. The company will remain focused on the Cambodian market, with four daily round-trip flights from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and five to six a day from Bangkok to Siem Reap.

Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways are among several other foreign airlines also operating direct flights to Cambodia.

100,000 hectares of land concession to the Viets ... 10 times more than the Cambodian Constitution allows: Hun Xen pays Hanoi his debt of gratitude?

Hun Xen is all smile during his meeting with Cao Duc Phat (L) (Photo: DAP News)

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/09/100000-hectares-of-land-concession-to.html
Cambodia, Vietnam sign MOU of rubber investment cooperation

September 23, 2009
Xinhua

Cambodia and Vietnam on Tuesday signed a MOU of rubber investment cooperation to expand area of rubber plantation of Vietnamese companies in Cambodia.

The agreement was signed in Phnom Penh by Chan Sarun, Cambodian minister of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and Cao Duc Phat, visiting Vietnamese minister of rural development and agriculture.

According to this bilateral agreement, Vietnamese companies will plant rubber crops in 100,000 hectares of land in Cambodia, Chan Sarun told reporters after the signing ceremony.

The Vietnamese companies have already invested in rubber plantations in Cambodia, but through the agreement, they will be able to plant more rubber crops, he said.

According to the agreement, the Vietnamese side will also build a refinery factory of rubber products in Cambodia, he said.

"The agreement will also provide opportunity for local people to sell their rubber products to Vietnamese companies and it will offer more jobs for local poor people," he added.

"So far, our local people and local private companies have planted rubber crops on 100,000 hectares of land," he said, adding that Vietnamese companies already got the economic concession land for planting the rubber crops.

"Through the MOU we will also strengthen the bilateral cooperation on other fields like fighting against communicable diseases and other things including bird flu and swine flu, and encourage investing more on other agro-industrial crops."

This investment will help to push economic development and social affairs in the country, he said, adding that Vietnamese side also will help train human resources for Cambodia.

Belgian paedophile [Philippe Dessart] expelled from Cambodia

Wed, 23 Sep 2009
By Jean Gerrard
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Belgian man convicted twice for child sex offences was expelled from Cambodia seven weeks after a coalition of child protection organizations petitioned authorities to expel him, a media report said Wednesday. Philippe Dessart, 49, was put on a plane to Thailand last week, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported.

"We had enough legal grounds," the national police spokesman told the newspaper. "We didn't decide to deport him to Belgium; we just decided that he should be out of our country. Wherever he went to, it was his right."

Dessart was released from a Cambodian jail in April having spent three years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. On his release, he sparked outrage from child protection organizations by marrying the boy's mother after moving into her home in western Cambodia.

Dessart was previously convicted of child sex offences in his native Belgium, serving time there in the 1990s for child rape and torture.

Dessart's lawyer said his client's deportation was an abuse of his rights.

"He was with his wife; police came to invite him to a commune police station telling him that the national commissioner orders you to be expelled," Dun Vibol told the newspaper. "[On arrival in Thailand Dessart] called me saying he's got nothing with him and said they don't respect the law in Cambodia."

Telecom service in Cambodia cannibalized by the Vietcong army

Viettel becomes largest telecom service provider in Cambodia

09/23/2009
VOV News

Vietnam’s Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) has become the largest telecommunication service provider in Cambodia after launching the Metfone mobile service network in the Kingdom six months ago.

Metfone currently accounts for 60 percent of the ADSL service and 50 percent of fixed phone markets. It has two million mobile subscribers, ranking second among nine mobile service providers in Cambodia.

To facilitate the Cambodian people’s access to fundamental telecommunication services, Metfone has reduced its mobile service charge from 11 cent per minute to 9 cent per minute and expects to adjust it down in the near future.

Additionally, Metfone is the sole provider of all telecommunication services in Cambodia with its product distribution network covering even remote and isolated communes. It is also the sole provider of wireless fixed phone service with nearly 20,000 subscribers in the country.

Along with business development in Cambodia, Viettel has invested US$5 million in carrying out a three-year programme to introduce the internet in schools, subsidized 50 percent of wireless fixed and mobile phone charges for poor people and sponsored an online television system, connecting the government management to localities.

Metfone is expected to earn a revenue of US$50 million this year and provide 3G services in Cambodia early next year.

Metfone is also expected to have 2.55 million mobile subscribers, 3,000 transceiver stations covering all 24 provinces and cities of Cambodia, and provide affordable, high-quality services for customers by 2010.

We can help build a better world

September 23, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Across national boundaries and cultures, humans appear nowadays to be entrenched on a destructive course of intolerance, characterized by a lack of civility. People of strong viewpoints, particularly political/ideological ones, come into conflict. The level of insult and the tendency to demonize opponents has increased.

Three years ago I wrote in this space about Emory University researchers, who found political discourse to be nasty because, during such debates, the unconscious emotional part of the brain takes over the rational part. In other words, a discussion deteriorates from hearing and understanding this "other guy" to personal attacks as the rational brain shuts down and the non-thinking part takes over.

Humility -- to be considerate and respectful of others and their viewpoints, their dignity and their worth -- a virtue preached by the world's major religions, is lacking in many individual persons.

Some 2,500 years ago, Chinese thinker K'ung-fu-tzu (Confucius), whose teachings have influenced the thought and the life of Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and many others, advised: "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; To put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; And to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."

World peace and world order begin with individual persons. Religious teachings, high values and strong beliefs are meaningless unless humans practice them in their life journeys. It's worth reminding, ad infinitum, that humans are capable of learning (Lord Buddha's teachings), unlearning (the harmful), and relearning (channeling the energy of hope in the building of a better future), and that what stands in their way is a lack of belief that they can, and a lack of will to take the first step.

Some people know a lot but have no will to apply their knowledge -- creatures of habit, they talk rather than walk the talk, and they imprison themselves in patterns and blame karma.

Psychology professor Jonathan Haidt, acclaimed as "one of the world's foremost authorities" on positive psychology and moral psychology, says in his book, "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom," that each of us must find "ways to overcome our natural self-righteousness." The chapter begins with two quotes from Jesus and Buddha about human eyes that see failings in others when looking outward, but see not the same when looking inward.

Matthew 7:3-5: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye."

Buddha: "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice."

And Haidt quoted a Japanese proverb: "Though you see the seven defects of others, we do not see our own 10 defects."

Thus, in 2007, Haidt organized an interdisciplinary workshop, sponsored by the Princeton University Center for Human Values. As a summary of "goals" of the workshop, Haidt referenced the eighth-century Zen master Sent-Ts'an's poem: "The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. ... The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease."

As Haidt sees the poem, humans in all cultures possess this "excessive and self-righteous tendency to see the world in terms of good versus evil," or "moralism," which "blinds people to the truth," making agreement and compromise difficult.

On his own home page, Haidt says his research focuses on "the moral foundations of politics, and on ways to transcend the 'culture wars' by using recent discoveries in moral psychology to foster more civil forms of politics." Advances in moral psychology and other fields, says Haidt," provide "new hope for understanding moralism and for finding ways to overcome it."

"We must respect and even learn from those whose morality differs from our own," says Haidt who, on his Web site CivilPolitics.org, writes how political leaders, political parties and media outlets have become, over the last 20 years, "more polarized, strident and moralistic (i.e., excessively concerned with morality, and certain about their own virtue)."

"When political opponents are demonized rather than debated, compromise and cooperation become moral failings and people begin to believe that their righteous ends justify the use of any means," the Web site reads. Haidt says the "goal is to promote 'civil politics,' by which we mean politics in which power and ideas are hotly contested but opponents are respected as fellow citizens who are assumed to be sincere in their beliefs."

Haidt's efforts are the more admirable in today's world in which, among many things, recent polls say, people are generally ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago, and one poll says nearly one in five speaks "rudely to someone" if he or she wasn't served effectively; and a study shows "road rage" by "angry, horn-blasting tailgaters" to be evidence of what doctors called "intermittent explosive disorder," or IED, which affects up to 16 million drivers in the United States.

Confucius's advice "to cultivate our personal life, ... set our hearts right" needs to be followed so we can build a better world.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Preah Vihear case [in Thailand] to run till Tuesday: Klanarong

Klanarong

September 23, 2009
The Nation

The National Anti Corruption Commission is expected to complete its deliberation on the Preah Vihear impeachment case involving the Samak Sundaravej government by next Tuesday, NACC member Klanarong Chintik said yesterday.

The NACC had already started hearing the case but it would take a week to complete since the proceedings had to cover the individual involvement of each accused, Klanarong said.

"Today's deliberation has covered 12 of 44 accused ministers and officials and the NACC should be able to rule on the case by September 29," he said.

At the heart of the legal wrangling is whether the then prime minister Samak and his ministers intentionally bypassed Parliament when drafting the Cambodian-Thai memorandum of understanding related to Preah Vihear Temple dispute.

Under Article 190 of the Constitution, the government is obligated to seek approval from parliament on the framework to negotiate an international agreement when it has ramifications in regard to borders.

Based on the Constitution Court ruling last year, the government failed to comply with Article 190.

Klanarong said the NACC had to determine the involvement of each accused in order to apportion the wrongdoing involved by each of the accused.

After reviewing the wrongdoing committed by each, the next step was for the NACC to name those targetted for impeachment and those who will face criminal prosecution.

He denied speculation that the NACC might target former foreign minister Noppadon Patama to shoulder the blame alone, saying the deliberation had not even reach halfway to form any conclusion.

Vietnam's subtle colonization of Cambodia: 400 Viet companies, 100,000 hectares of Viet rubber plantations in 5 provinces ... more are still coming!

Did these Viet Bo Dois really leave Cambodia in 1989? (Click here to read Sopheak's comment in Khmer on this issue)

Hun Xen shaking hands with Cao Duc Phat (Photo: DAP news)

Vietnam To Plant 100,000 Hectares of Rubber

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 September 2009

The governments of Cambodian and Vietnam signed an agreement Tuesday allowing the development of 100,000 hectares of rubber plantations in five provinces, which will add to the 400 Vietnamese companies already operating here.

The new concessions would come into effect by 2015, according to the agreement, signed Tuesday between Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun and his counterpart, Cao Duc Phat.

“This [agreement] will create more jobs for local people and thus alleviate poverty,” Chan Sarun told reporters following a signing ceremony in Phnom Penh. “Our [Cambodian] people in remote areas, who used to depend on forests, will become rubber processors.”

Cao said the agreement would serve as a basis for other rubber companies to follow in the future. Vietnamese companies planted 10,000 hectares in Cambodia this year and are preparing to plant another 20,000 in 2010; 30,000 the year after; and 40,000 the year after that.

Seven Vietnamese companies are operating in five Cambodian provinces: Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri, Kratie, Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear.

“We will have leased all 100,000 hectares of land to Vietnamese companies by 2012, three years before our plan,” Chan Sarun said, explaining that Vietnam plans to send more rubber companies to Cambodia.

The two ministers also said a rubber processing factory would be set up in Cambodia by 2012. Rubber and timber are Cambodia’s biggest exports to Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

new update khmer pictures

A file picture taken on April 5, 2009 shows Cambodian soldiers standing guard near by the Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, around 540 kilometers north of Phnom Penh. Cambodia on June 20, 2009 rebuked Thailand for reopening a debate over an ancient temple on their disputed border that has led to seven soldiers being killed in recent months. AFP/Getty Images

A file picture taken on April 5, 2009 shows Cambodian soldiers standing guard near by the Preah Vihear temple in Preah Vihear province, around 540 kilometers north of Phnom Penh. Cambodia on June 20, 2009 rebuked Thailand for reopening a debate over an ancient temple on their disputed border that has led to seven soldiers being killed in recent months. AFP/Getty Images

Cambodian buddhist monks pray and hold a picture of the Preah Vihear temple at a pagoda in Phnom Penh, to mark the 1st Anniversary of the northern temples world heritage listing. Cambodia on July 7, happily and noisily marked the one-year anniversary of the UNESCO listing of the ancient 11th-century Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site as a border dispute with neighbouring Thailand remained tense. AFP/Getty Images

Cambodian dancers perform in Phnom Penh, during an event to mark the 1st Anniversary of the northern Preah Vihear temples world heritage listing. Cambodia on July 7, happily and noisily marked the one-year anniversary of the UNESCO listing of the ancient 11th-century Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site as a border dispute with neighbouring Thailand remained tense. AFP/Getty Images

A Cambodian dancer waits before a performance in Phnom Penh, at an event to mark the 1st Anniversary of the northern Preah Vihear temples world heritage listing. Cambodia on July 7, happily and noisily marked the one-year anniversary of the UNESCO listing of the ancient 11th-century Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site as a border dispute with neighbouring Thailand remained tense. AFP/Getty Images

A Thai soldier (in black) talks to Cambodian soldiers at Sekha Krisvarak pagoda in Preah Vihear, north of Phnom Penh. Cambodia celebrated the one year anniversary of the ancient Preah Vihear Hindu temple s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a long-running source of Thai-Cambodian tension

Cambodian soldiers stand guard at the Sekha Krisvarak pagoda in Preah Vihear province, 543 km (337 miles) north of Phnom Penh. Cambodia celebrated the one year anniversary of the ancient Preah Vihear Hindu temple s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a long-running source of Thai-Cambodian tension

Tribunal’s Civil Parties File for Compensation

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 September 2009

Four civil parties to the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal filed for reparation Wednesday, requesting free medical care, the erection of a memorial and the dissemination of an apology from the regime’s former prison chief, Duch.

“The joint filling from all four civil party groups also requested the final judgment from the Trail Chamber specific to reparation to victims” said Hong Kimsoun, a civil party lawyer for two groups. Reparation could include “a memorial, or to build a school or hospital,” he said.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Kek Iev, is coming to the end of his trial, the tribunal’s first, on atrocity charges related to the death and torture of 12,380 people.

Chhum Mei, 79, who survived Duch’s Tuol Sleng prison, said he wanted to see a memorial built benefitting people like him. He also needs money to hold a ceremony for his wife and relatives, he said.

Tribunal spokesman Dim Sovannarom said it remains unclear where money for such reparations could come from.

Tribunal judges have already determined that individual financial compensation will not be allowed, though collective and moral reparations are possible.

The courts can order reparations for a group of victims, for example, or they can order the publication of a judgment in the mass media at the expense of a convicted person. The court can also order a memorial built or the establishment of mental health clinics for victims.

Meanwhile, defense lawyers for Duch on Thursday rejected a request to submit more documents to civil parties, claiming the deadline had passed.

Multi-Faceted Problems Stymie Resource Development

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

[Editor’s note: VOA Khmer recently spoke with specialists in the field of natural resource management in developing countries and learned that Cambodia is not alone in struggling to use natural resources to benefit its citizens. The resource curse, where natural riches fail to help the poor, is a worldwide scourge, the global experts told VOA Khmer in numerous interviews. Below is the second part of a weekly series.]

Myriad factors lead to the abuse of natural resources, keeping their value out of the hands of everyday citizens, experts say. The absence of political will, of transparent management, of laws and regulations, and of capacity, and the existence of patronage systems, corruption, bureaucratic politics, abuse of power, and others, all add up to create problems.

The lack of transparent management of the resources in developing countries is not surprising, said Glen Matlack, an environmental professor at Ohio University. Governments sell concessions in the extractive industries, but the fees don’t serve the public good, and often these deals are made out of the public’s eye.

“Fairy typical of South American and Southeast Asian governments is that a concession is sold by the government to a working company or resource extraction company and the fees go to the government,” Matlack said. “It is often the problem because the receipt of the fees is controlled by the government. It has nothing to do with the region in which the resources are extracted. Rarely does the fee filter back to the people in the region, and it’s vulnerable to corruption.”

Paul Collier, an Oxford University economist and author of “The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It,” told VOA Khmer by phone that revenue generated from concessions must be funneled into government coffers, not to private businessmen.

It is the citizens who own the resources, he said, and the resources won’t last forever.

“The revenues get badly spent,” he said. “So instead of revenues being well spent on good investment, they are used for public consumption, and they become a battleground between politicians. I think in Bolivia, it exactly happens. It’s been a battleground, and the money is spent on public consumption instead of on investment.”

William Ascher, a professor of government and economics at Claremont Mckenna College, in California, and author of “Why Governments Waste Natural Resources: Policy Failures in Developing Countries,” said the common cause of the problem is a lack of clear jurisdiction or responsibility.

Rivalries grow within government agencies, which leads to greater exploitation of natural resources. Some governments create inter-ministerial groups, but members then fight for power and their own interests, he said.

“Each ministry, in order to do the job, typically would want to have more power, more jurisdiction, more resources,” Ascher told VOA Khmer by phone. “So there’s a built-in rivalry among ministries within the government, even though they’re all from the same party. Sometimes this can lead to bad policy if it is not clear who has jurisdiction over what aspect.”

Somit Varma, director of the World Bank’s oil, gas, mining, and chemicals department told VOA Khmer in an interview at his office in Washington that, among the many challenges facing developing countries, a lack of the capacity or skilled human resources is crucial. Many developing countries lack experienced, professional managers and the skilled human resources to actually do the job.

“One of the areas which is challenging is the capacity in the country to actually implement it,” Varma said. “And building capacity, we all in development business, we know this is very difficult. It takes years to build capacity. It’s not easy, but you need dedicated government on the other side.”

In many developing countries political patronage is practiced, in which national resources are used to reward individuals, groups, families or ethnicities for electoral support, as politicians use illegal gifts, fraudulently awarded appointments or government contracts.

This is also one of the major causes of natural resource mismanagement.

Some governments of developing countries acknowledge these problems, but some either do not realize them or ignore them, the experts said. Many are reluctant or do not have the political will to fix them, because the system for inequality of wealth distribution benefits a handful of decision-makers, family members and business associates.

LEADER INKS POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT & IMPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT IN CAMBODIA

Bernama - Friday, September 18

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 (Bernama) -- Leader Universal Holdings Bhd has entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), a wholly state-owned limited liability enterprise incorporated by Royal Decree of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, the company said under the PPA, the EDC undertakes to purchase from Leader on a minimum take basis of 86 per cent of dependable capacity per annum and other terms and conditions as set out in the PPA.

On June 11, Leader signed a joint venture and shareholders agreement with Cambodia International Investment Development Group Co Ltd (CIIDG) to build, own and operate the 100 Megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville via Cambodia Energy Ltd, a joint-venture company between Leader and CIIDG, with a percentage shareholdings of 80 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.

Leader has also entered into an Implementation Agreement with the Cambodian government to implement power projects. -- BERNAMA

PJR TOM

Police: Terrorism mastermind Noordin Top dead

FILE - In this combination file photo released by the Indonesian National police, Malaysian terror suspect Noordin Mohammad Top is seen, more recently in photo at right. An Indonesian police chief said Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009, that Top, a regional terrorism mastermind who eluded capture for nine years and is blamed for a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia, was killed in a police raid on a terrorist hideout in Central Java.(AP Photo/Indonesian National Police, File)

By IMRON ROSYID and ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writers Imron Rosyid And Anthony Deutsch, Associated Press Writers – Thu Sep 17, 10:06 am ET
SOLO, Indonesia – Noordin Muhammed Top, a militant mastermind who eluded capture for seven years and terrorized Indonesia with a string of deadly al-Qaida-funded bombings, was killed during a raid Thursday, the Indonesian police chief said.

Police hunting for suspects in bombings of two luxury Jakarta hotels raided a hide-out in central Indonesia, sparking an hours-long gunfight that ended at dawn with an explosion. Four suspected militants died, including Noordin, national police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. Three suspects also were captured.

The operation left behind a charred house with no roof and blown-out walls. Noordin's remains were found inside the house on the outskirts of the town of Solo in central Java, the main Indonesian island, Danuri said.

Fingerprints of Noordin's obtained from authorities in his native Malaysia and stored on a police database matched those of the body, Danuri said. DNA tests have not yet been conducted. The bodies were flown to Jakarta for autopsies.

"It is Noordin M. Top," Danuri told a nationally televised news conference to loud cheers from the audience of reporters, photographers and TV crews. Documents and laptop computers confiscated from the house prove that Noordin "is the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast Asia," he said.

Hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives, M-16 assault rifles, grenades and bombs were removed from the house as ambulances shuttled away the dead and injured.

"We asked Noordin M. Top to surrender, but they kept firing," Danuri said. "That is how he died. ... He even had bullets in his pockets."

Noordin fled to Indonesia in 2002 amid a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Malaysia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He is accused of heading a splinter group of the al-Qaida-funded regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and has been implicated in every major attack in Indonesia since 2002, including two separate bombings on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners.

He has also been blamed for a pair of suicide bombings at Jakarta's J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in July, an earlier attack on the Marriott in 2003 and a bombing at the Australian Embassy in 2004.

"The most dangerous terrorist in Southeast Asia has been put out of commission," said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank.

"It would have been better if police had managed to arrest him alive, but it appears that this was not an option," he said. "Unfortunately, Noordin's death does not mean an end to terrorism in Indonesia, though it has been dealt a significant blow."

In the Philippines, where authorities are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the south, Noordin's death was welcomed by authorities as a sign that terrorists cannot hide from the law forever.

"It's a major accomplishment, it's a big blow to their leadership, to their capability to train new bombers," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, who leads assaults against al-Qaida-linked militants. "There are gains being made in the anti-terrrorism campaign in the region."

A spokesman for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was aware of reports of Noordin's death. "We are awaiting official confirmation from the Indonesian government," he said. Dozens of Australians were killed in the 2002 bombing of Bali nightclubs.

An Indonesian counterterrorism official said the militants killed Thursday included alleged bomb-maker Bagus Budi Pranato. The captured militants included a pregnant woman who is being treated at a hospital, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said. She was in stable condition.

___

Deutsch reported from Jakarta. Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed from Manila.

Children cross borders, rivers to get an education

Vietnamese children living in Cambodia cross a river to return home from school.

Nguyen Thi Diem has to row a boat across Cambodia border twice a day to get her children to school and and back.

Many Vietnamese families moved to Koh Thum District in Kandal Province of the neighboring country many years ago as they found it easier to subsist on fishing and farming there.

However, the children do not know the local language, so more than 500 of them travel back to Vietnam every day, crossing many rivers to attend classes in An Giang Province.

Diem said she feels weary and sad and every time she sees such scenes.

Diep Hoang Nang, an eighth-grader at the Khanh An Junior High in An Giang, said there’s a school near his house in Cambodia but it only teaches subjects in the Khmer language.

Nguyen Van Tien, whose children also cross the border to school every day, said “The children only need to learn to read and write. That would be an achievement already.”

Many children do quit school right after learning to read and write to help their parents make a living, said Hinh Quoc Khinh, president of the B Primary School in An Giang.

But some children have left entered college and done well, Nang said, adding they are the examples for others to follow. From them, “we learn to escape poverty.”

By sending her daughter to school back home, Huynh Thi My Huong only hoped to get her literate, but Le My Duyen has performed so well that her parents have agreed to keep her on.

The ninth-grader at Khanh Ha Junior High said she would try to win admission to college.

Le Van Tam, vice president of the school, said half of the students getting good grades are the Vietnamese children living in Cambodia.

Tam said poverty and the traveling problems have made many children quit school, but “once they’ve managed to overcome the problems, they study very hard.”

Local authorities in Khanh An Province have arranged with pier operators on both sides to carry the children for free.

Yet Tam expressed concern that the journeys on boat are not very safe for the children.

Reported by Tien Trinh

Q&A: A humble rice farmer from Cambodia teaches reconciliation

New Zealand film-maker Stanley Harper with Yan Chheing, star of Cambodia Dreams, a documentary chronicling her life as a refugee and returnee to Cambodia over 18 years.

17 Sep 2009
Source: UNHCR

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

BANGKOK, Thailand, September 17 (UNHCR) – New Zealand film-maker Stanley Harper has worked with artists such as Roman Polanski and the late Sir John Gielgud. But no one has captivated him quite as much as a Cambodian grandmother called Yan Chheing, a refugee who became the star of a documentary Harper worked on for 18 years, chronicling the parallel lives of her extended family, half of whom went to a refugee camp in Thailand while half remained in their village in Cambodia. The resulting film, "Cambodia Dreams," was praised by India's The Hindu newspaper as a work that "connected a family, reconciled a community, rebuilt hope in a ravaged country." Harper, who now lives in Cambodia, sat down recently in Bangkok to talk with Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR Senior Regional Public Information Officer for Asia.

You originally wanted to finish the film in 1992 before the repatriation that year of some 350,000 Cambodian refugees in Thailand. What happened?

Most of our funding came from a very wealthy Thai businessman. We had taken the [refugee] family home early and finished filming in April 1992, but in May 1992 there was a coup in Thailand and his company barred him from putting any more money into our project. So it crashed. That was the end of it. I tried again many times, in '93, '95 and '97 to raise funding to get the film finished.

Over the years you have actually made three films about this family. What drew you back to them?

I made my first film for the BBC Global Reports Special for the UN Year of Peace 1986 and that's where I met my family, as some of those forgotten by peace. I thought this grandmother, this former rice farmer, was so special. She had been living in refugee camps since 1980 and she had a memory of what Cambodia was in times of peace and prosperity, but her grandchildren had all been born in refugee camps and knew nothing except handouts and living behind fences.

The first time I went back to see my family in their village [in 1997], I hadn't been back since 1991. I remember being a bit depressed about them because it didn't seem like they had made leaps and jumps. That night when I was back at the hotel it hit me that I had seen a miracle and I had almost missed it. The mother and the daughter were still together. It was reconciliation and it was lasting. They had come together and they had stayed together. I realized the film was even more important. It is a real story about why it is positive to help people in need. It does work.

In the film, one member of the family who stayed in Cambodia envies the ones who are refugees in Thailand. Did that surprise you?

No, not at all. Cambodia had just come through the Khmer Rouge and, before that, roughly five years of civil war. It was just devastated. The granny was the leader of the refugees, the spokesperson for the camp: "We want to live and work for ourselves. We want to go home. We don't want to be behind a fence. We don't want to live on charity." And she remembers her dream of Cambodia as it was, everything was perfect.

And then there's Tha, her daughter, who's the spokesperson for the villagers who stayed behind. Tha's daughter died because she couldn't get medicine, but the refugees have free medical care. Those inside Cambodia had nothing and no help and those in the border camps had everything – Western medicine, food, shelter, water, they didn't even have to work. They could just sit around and have a good time. That was the feeling – paradise, what more do you want?

For me this film shows one good thing: the real model for dealing with a refugee problem. It was locally contained, regionally resolved, and the people went home. That's amazing.

Cambodia Dreams is set in Thailand and Cambodia, but does it have meaning to people in other parts of the world?

I think it's timeless and universal. It could be anywhere in the world. What is it about? It is about belonging. It's largely about tenacity, the resilience of humanity to overcome, to hold fast to a dream, not lose sight of it and achieve it. It's a really beautiful, pure, wonderful story about generosity, humanity, love, forgiveness, reconciliation. There is not one word of politics in that film. No one is right and no one is wrong.

You got a lot of support from UN agencies to make your film, but there isn't one word of propaganda for the United Nations in the film. At the same time, what do you think the film implicitly says about the UN?

The film is very much the essence of what the whole UN was set up for. It's the spirit, the heart and the soul of the UN. The essence of the UN is inherent in the film: helping people in any mess is positive.

The film was shown in Cambodia last year. What was the reaction?

I showed the film to the King [Norodom Sihamoni], who loved it, and then the Prime Minister [Hun Sen]. He loved the film; it brought tears to his eyes and he [sponsored] an official screening in Cambodia. Then it went out on all seven Cambodian networks at the same time. What was amazing was that all political parties love the film.

What are your future plans for Cambodia Dreams?

It will be shown in Tokyo at the Refugee Film Festival on the 2nd and 3rd of October and at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Hong Kong on the 7th of October. The real challenge with a film like this is getting worldwide distribution, but I really don't have any means myself. I have an unrealistic dream. I would just love the film to go out in places like Palestine and Israel, North and South Korea, Taiwan and China, in Burma. That would be my dream.

UNHCR news

Thailand 'lying' over boy's death, says Cambodia

By The Nation
Published on September 18, 2009

Cambodia yesterday accused Thailand of lying when it denied involvement in the death of a Cambodian teenager near the border of Thailand's northeastern Surin province.

The young Cambodian was reportedly shot and burned alive as he and other Cambodian loggers tried to escape from the Thai military into Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province.

The Second Army Region Commander Lt. General Wiboonsak Neeparn said he had checked records of all agencies under his command and found no evidence of any shooting.

"There was no such incident in the area. I wonder why Cambodia made such a report?" the commander said.

The Thai Foreign Ministry has maintained the same stance, saying the brutal incident never happened.

Ministry spokesperson Wimon Kidchob said earlier Thai soldiers fired bullets into the air after finding eight Cambodians sneaking into Thailand to cut down trees.

The denial has angered authorities in Cambodia, both in Oddar Meanchey and in Phnom Penh.

Oddar Meanchey Governor Pich Sokhin called the Thai assertion a lie. "How could our people have been injured and killed if their soldiers shot into the air?" the governor was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post.

"Their interpretation is a lie to avoid responsibility and to hide their cruelty from the public. Our people are injured and dead. How can they say they are not responsible?"

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry has sent a diplomatic note to Bangkok asking for an explanation and is still awaiting an official reply.

Phnom Penh has urged Thailand to conduct an investigation into the case and find and punish those responsible.

Unsettled peace in Cambodia

By Chak Sopheap
Guest Commentary
Published: September 17, 2009

Niigata, Japan — The world will soon once again celebrate the United Nations International Day of Peace, marked every year on Sept. 21. Yet the world is far from peace as civil wars, religious conflicts, growing insurgencies and the economic downturn bring more hardship than joy and smiles to people. Cambodia is no exception.

Cambodia claims to be a peaceful state, having recovered from a series of civil wars that included horrendous acts of genocide. However, there must be a clear consensus on how the country defines peace.

Peace should not be described as merely the absence of war or violence, which is “negative peace.” It should also include communal harmony, socioeconomic cooperation and equal political representation in government for all citizens. These, along with good governance, which respects the rights of the people, constitute the positive side of peace, or rather peace building.

Even when we say “absence of violence,” we must first examine what violence is. While war is direct visible violence, there is also a kind of “structural violence,” the result of bad and harmful state policies that have long-term negative effects on people, such as hunger and poverty, which harm and put peoples’ lives at risk.

If we look at the current trend in Cambodia, negative peace has been obtained but is jeopardizing positive peace. While parts of the economy are making considerable progress, more than 30 percent of the population is still living in extreme poverty. In addition, with corruption and continuous human rights violations – especially forced evictions and land grabbing under so-called development claims – there is little hope that Cambodia can move out of poverty.

In its current pursuit of development, the government of Cambodia has abused and violated people’s rights to housing and development. The judicial system is corrupt and the state is the main violator of the law. This state of affairs has rendered poor communities voiceless and powerless.

At the same time, freedom of expression – a fundamental right – has also been abused by the government, which applies various ill-defined laws with the help of the judiciary it controls as a political tool to silence critics. It is not surprising that the government recently filed many lawsuits against political activists, journalists and human rights defenders.

Systematic structural violence has not yet affected peace in Cambodia, but it will soon if the government does not undertake and implement reforms immediately. For example, there is fear that the ongoing land grabbing and evictions by the government could lead to a peasant revolution. This would then revive the cycle of bitter agrarian revolution that brought past political regimes, like Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, to power.

The government therefore must commit to not only maintaining negative peace, but also to building positive peace in order to attain social harmony.

--

(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.)

daily pictures from Cambodia

Former Khmer Rouge prison chief S-21, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as "Duch", is pictured in court in 2008. Duch gave his final testimony to Cambodia's war crimes tribunal Wednesday with an unexpected invitation to victims of the regime to visit him in prison.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)

In this photo taken on July 19, 2009, a Cambodian woman points to a painting depicting torture as she tours the former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison, known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. On Monday, Sept. 14, 2009, the museum, formerly a prison and torture center operated by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, has been declared by the U.N. to be an archive of worldwide significance for its historical documents.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Tourists look at portraits of victims displayed inside the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, where thousands of Cambodian died during the brutal 1975-79 regime. Cambodia's Khmer Rouge court has finished hearing evidence against the regime's prison chief, ending six months of gruelling testimony about atrocities in the jail where 15,000 people died. (AFP/File/Nicolas Asfouri)

Cambodians, along with their belongings, pile up on a pickup truck in the capital Phnom Penh's outskirts in Cambodia, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009. Thousands of Cambodians head homes in the countryside to celebrate the traditional Pchum Ben festival for the dead. The celebrations run from Sept. 18 to 20. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian people drive motorbikes on a busy street in the capital Phnom Penh's outskirts in Cambodia, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009. Thousands of Cambodians head homes in the countryside to celebrate the traditional Pchum Ben festival for the dead. The celebrations run from Sept. 18 to 20.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodians, along with their belongings, pile up on a pickup truck driven in the capital Phnom Penh's outskirts, Cambodia, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009. Thousands of Cambodians head homes in the countryside to celebrate the traditional Pchum Ben festival for the dead. The celebrations run from Sept. 18 to 20. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

In this photo taken March 13, 2009, Cambodia's famed Preah Vihear temple is seen on the Cambodian-Thai- border in Preah Vihear province, about 245 kilometers (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodia and Thailand have dispatched riot police to backup soldiers at a disputed border area ahead of a weekend rally by Thai protesters that risks reviving a long-standing feud between the neighbors, officials said Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009.(AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

In this photo taken March 13, 2009, a Cambodian soldier looks at the Thai border through binoculars from an entrance of Cambodia's Preah Vihear temple near the Cambodian-Thai border, about 245 kilometers (152 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodia and Thailand have dispatched riot police to backup soldiers at a disputed border area ahead of a weekend rally by Thai protesters that risks reviving a long-standing feud between the neighbors, officials said Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Army denies Cambodian teenager killed by Thai military

http://enews.mcot.net

BANGKOK, Sept 17 (TNA) - A senior Thai Army officer denied a report in a Cambodian newspaper that Thai soldiers shot a Cambodian teenager and burned him alive, saying that the military units along the Thai-Cambodian border denied that such an incident happened.

Lt-Gen Wiboonsak Neephan, commander of the Second Army Region responsible for security affairs along the northeastern border told Thai News Agency that he had inquired every units along Thai-Cambodian border and the officials confirmed that nothing similar to the news report ever occurred and that he did not know why there was such a report in the media.

He affirmed that Thai soldiers would not do such a barbaric act as reported in the Cambodian newspaper and stated he thought that the information could be incorrect.

Gen Wiboonsak affirmed that the Thai-Cambodian Border Peacekeeping Committee is working closely to avoid border disputes and to offer certainty that actions are within the legal framework and agreements.

He added that Thailand and Cambodia had agreement to solve border disputes and the incident should not have happened.

The English-language Phnom Penh Post on Monday quoted Thon Nol, governor of Samrong district in Oddar Meanchey province as saying that a Cambodian teenager named Yon Rith, 16, was arrested and burned alive after Thai armed forces accused him of illegally felling trees.

Another teenager from the same village in Kon Kreal commune, 18-year-old Mao Kleung, was also shot and seriously wounded, he said, but villagers managed to carry him to Cambodian territory, and he is now in an Oddar Meanchey hospital.

Meanwhile, foreign media quoted Cambodian Deputy Foreign Minister Ouch Borith as saying that he had seen evidence proving the incident took place and urged Thailand to investigate what he said was a "brutal and inhumane" act.

Mr Borith said he had seen photographs of the charred body of a boy. He did not provide any evidence Thai soldiers were responsible.

As for the planned rally of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) near the Preah Vihear temple, Gen Wiboonsak said the contested area was dangerous zone and had few accommodations to facilitate the demonstrators.

The PAD “Yellow Shirts” plan to rally at the border province of Si Sa Ket on Saturday to protest against the Cambodian government, urging the Cambodians to withdraw their military and civilians from occupying the 4.6 square kilometre contested zone surrounding the 11th-century temple.

He said the Thai military had provided an area for the protesters to gather and urged the people who joined the rally to demonstrate under the legal framework and to bear in mind safety concerns.

Gen Wiboonsak said he believed the public know about the Thai-Cambodian border disputes and it would depend on cooperation from the public to ease the problems. He added that the public should realise (the importance) oft bilateral relations between Thailand and Cambodia and admitted that the protest may cause difficulty for the border talks.

Meanwhile, a reporter in Si Sa Ket reported that police had set up barricades at Phoomsarol temple in Kantharalak district to block the road to Khao Phra Wihan National Park to inspect vehicles and people who pass the entrance to the park.

The reporter said paramilitary rangers and military personnel from the Suranaree Task Force had also set up barricades with barbed-wire and other obstacles at the Forest Fire Control Unit Office about100 metres from the national park checkpoint and did not allow anyone to enter the park, including media.

Khao Phra Viharn National Park is the Thai gateway to the ancient Preah Vihear Temple.

Twenty PAD members reportedly occupied the border cooperation office near the park checkpoint and security personnel detained them at the office.

In related developments, French news agency Agence France Presse quoted the Cambodian Defence Ministry as saying that Cambodia deployed riot police Thursday at an ancient temple on the disputed border with Thailand where Thai protesters are due to hold a protest at the weekend.

Cambodian defence ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat was quoted saying that 50 police with dogs, batons, and tear gas were deployed at Preah Vihear temple in case the Thai protesters illegally crossed the border to cause problems. (TNA)

Cambodia accuses troops of burning boy alive

Reuters

TVNZ
http://tvnz.co.nz/

Thursday September 17, 2009
Source: Reuters

Cambodia accused soldiers from neighbouring Thailand of burning a boy alive after shooting at villagers in a disputed border region, a claim Bangkok said was baseless.

The accusation comes amid simmering tensions between the historic foes over jurisdiction of the land around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, which straddles their common border. Seven soldiers have been killed in the last year in skirmishes near the site.

Cambodian Deputy Foreign Minister Ouch Borith said he had seen evidence proving the incident took place and urged Thailand to investigate what he said was a "brutal and inhumane" act.

Borith said he had seen photographs of the charred body of a boy. He did not provide any evidence Thai soldiers were responsible.

"This is true. We have pictures of the late boy whose hands were tied, along with his remains and ashes," he told reporters.

Cambodian authorities said a 16-year-old boy was arrested by troops on September 11 for cutting down trees on Thai territory. Soldiers shot and seriously wounded another boy as he fled, the reports said.

Cambodia's Foreign Ministry sent a statement to its Thai counterpart complaining that the boy's death was a "serious breach of internationally accepted humanitarian principals".

The Thai ministry responded on Thursday, saying it had been informed by the army that the teenagers had trespassed on Thai territory and were given a warning by border troops.

"There was no arrest. They just warned them and pushed back into Cambodia without detention or any clashes," spokeswoman Wimon Kidchob told reporters. "This matter, I am certain, will not harm our good relations."

Thailand's extra-parliamentary People's Alliance for Democracy movement used the simmering temple dispute to attack the previous government. It plans to protest near the ruins this weekend to demand Preah Vihear is "returned" to Thailand.

Both sides have repeatedly pledged to exercise military restraint and work to resolve the issue, which critics say has been used by governments on both sides to stoke nationalist fervour.

daily news

M&C
http://www.monstersandcritics.com

Asia-Pacific News
Sep 16, 2009

Phnom Penh - Comrade Duch, the feared former head of the Khmer Rouge's main execution centre, told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court Wednesday that the numerous crimes committed under the regime were too big to hide.

'The elephant cannot be covered by a rice basket,' Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, said on the final day of testimony.

Around 2 million people are thought to have died from execution, overwork and starvation under the Khmer Rouge regime, known as Democratic Kampuchea, which ruled Cambodia during 1975-79.

Duch, the former head of the Khmer Rouge's execution centre S-21, is being tried for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. At least 15,000 people were tortured and executed at S-21 in the 1970s. Just a handful survived the prison.

The final day of testimony saw Duch answer character questions from the prosecution and his defence lawyers. His defence has sought to portray him as a man following orders, yet willing to take responsibility for those actions.

William Smith, the interim international co-prosecutor, suggested to Duch that he had remained with the Khmer Rouge movement after 1979 because he still believed in it. He said psychologists who had assessed Duch had felt he was still committed to the revolution.

'The experts' analysis took me by surprise, and I don't agree with it,' said Duch, who was arrested in 1999.

Duch told the court the Cambodian Communist party was responsible for the ruin of the nation in the 1970s. As a member of that party, he said, he took full responsibility and sought forgiveness.

'The only way to survive was to fulfil the duties assigned to us ... so I tried to survive on a daily basis,' he told the court of his actions as S-21 chief when he passed confessions up to his superiors before awaiting their orders to 'smash,' or kill, those who had confessed. 'Yes, you can say I am a coward.'

Duch again stressed that he did not personally arrest anyone, and said the ideology of the time meant that people arrested and sent to S-21 'must be seen as enemies and smashed because they were enemies of the party.'

The 72 days of proceedings in Duch's trial have heard horrific testimony from victims and former staff of S-21, as well as harrowing stories from surviving family members of people who were executed under Duch's command.

In a question framed deliberately to echo the prosecution's outline made earlier this year, Duch's foreign defence lawyer, Francois Roux, asked him: 'So, do you admit that in reality you were the man who, enjoying the trust of his superiors, implemented in a devoted and merciless way, the persecution of the Cambodian people?'

'Yes, I completely admit [that],' Duch replied.

Responding to a question from Roux, Duch later said that any of the victims - some of whom are not convinced his expressed remorse is genuine - were welcome to visit him in jail.

'I open the door to them emotionally, and most importantly I would like to express my inner emotion of my guilty admission so they can see my true self,' Duch replied.

Duch told the court that by late 1978, shortly before the Vietnamese-backed invasion that overthrew the regime, he was sure the revolution to which he had dedicated his life would fail.

'I joined the revolution to liberate my people and show gratitude to my parents and nation,' he said. 'By the end the country had fallen into complete tragedy, and more than 1.7 million perished.'

In a final flourish, Roux showed the court a video of Duch on a judicial visit to S-21 in February last year. Roux said it was the first time in the history of international criminal justice that an accused person had returned to the scene of their crimes.

In the video Duch can be seen fighting back tears and apologizing to two of the survivors of S-21 as he read out a prepared statement.

Duch, who converted to Christianity in 1996, said: 'I was determined to go in order to kneel down and seek forgiveness of those dead souls - as a Christian I had to do it.'

Sentencing is expected to be handed down next year. Cambodia does not have the death penalty, so Duch, 67, faces a maximum term of life in prison.

Four former Khmer Rouge leaders are in detention awaiting trial once Duch's trial concludes. Judges are investigating a further two.

Tracking Suspected American Pedophiles in Cambodia

Courtesy of APLE

Reporter Goes Inside 'Operation Twisted Traveler': Coordinated International Crackdown on Alleged Sex Predators

Thursday, September 17, 2009
By DAN HARRIS, ALMIN KARAMHMEDOVIC and AUDE SOICHET
ABC News Nightline (USA)

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA, Sept. 16, 2009 — Snaking through the streets of Cambodia's capital city, we're on the tail of suspected American pedophile Harvey Johnson. The 57-year-old failed real estate developer from Arizona has been teaching English out of his house in Phnom Penh for two years. His position has given him ample opportunity to get close to children, authorities say.

Cambodia has long been a top destination for pedophiles from the United States and all over the world, according to law enforcement officials and humanitarian groups.

Unbeknown to Johnson, he has been under surveillance by a local nonprofit group called APLE, which has made it its mission to identify suspected foreign pedophiles and to help gather enough evidence for the police to make an arrest.

Watch "World News" at 6:30 p.m. ET and "Nightline" TONIGHT at 11:35 p.m. ET for the full report

Johnson is accused of using his position as an English teacher to molest several underage girls. APLE investigators tell ABC News they first noticed Johnson in October 2007 when they claim he was behaving suspiciously with children in public.

"He was seen touching; he was seen caressing those children. That's why we opened a case against him," APLE agent Samleang Seila tells us.

APLE used an undercover "spy agent" to befriend Johnson. Its hidden cameras caught Johnson allegedly selling child pornography to the agent. The agent recorded hours of conversations in which APLE claimed Johnson talked freely about molesting young girls.


"Slipped my little finger right up her," he told the APLE agent in a hidden audio recording. "But it was snug. She's very small."

After nearly two years of building its case, APLE agents told us that they believed they'd finally provided the police with enough evidence to get an arrest warrant.

In the final days of its investigation, it agreed to give ABC News extraordinary, behind-the-scenes access.

Day One: Staking Out Alleged Pedophile

APLE officials took us to Johnson's home, where agent Rattana Rong told us that four female students had allegedly entered Johnson's home.

Investigators, who told us they had been following Johnson night and day, seemed to have surveillance down to a science. There were agents staked out in strategic locations -- some posing as motor bike taxi drivers, another as a vendor of cold drinks -- and two more agents are planted in Johnson's neighbor's house.

To our surprise, we spotted Johnson himself, sitting at an outdoor restaurant, and he struck up a conversation with us.

"How long are you in town?" he asked.

"Just a couple of weeks," I replied.

"Oh, a couple of weeks?"

"Yeah."

"You're just enjoying all the sights ... and diversions."

"Exactly."

He gives us pointers on where to stay and what to see, mentioning Martinis -- a bar in the city we are told is notorious for being a place where visitors can solicit prostitutes. Johnson gave us his phone number, and we left before he got suspicious.

APLE is now part of a coordinated international crackdown, involving the Cambodian and American police, the FBI and ICE international law enforcement, called "Operation Twisted Traveler."

One of the suspected pedophiles APLE recently helped to bust was Michael Dodd, a registered sex offender in Florida. Dodd was accused of attempting to arrange his marriage with a 14-year-old girl. We found him awaiting trial, along with the girl's mother.

Dodd was caught on undercover video by APLE's spy agent, complaining to his victim's mother that the girl was being insufficiently affectionate with him, despite the amount of money he had given the family.

"I want to ask her a question directly. Nan, do you love me?" Dodd said on camera.

"Is there a word for mannequin? When I kiss her I feel like I'm kissing a statue. There's no reciprocity. She's just like a limp pillow," he said.

After the trial, as Dodd was taken back to prison to await his verdict, he spoke to us.

"So the allegation against you is that you essentially took advantage of a vulnerable family, paying them off to have access to their very young daughter," I said.

"Yeah, that's what they're accusing me of, sure," he replied.

"And you're saying there's nothing to it?"

Dan Harris speaks with Michael Dodd.

"No because there's love. I love her. I'm crazy about her."

"How you can be in love with her? You're roughly 60 years old. She doesn't speak your language. She's very young," I said.

"Well, look at this, you know, our previous generations, before we were born, before they made the age limits, there wasn't such a -- I'm sorry," he said, before he's taken away by cops.

Outside the courthouse, we meet Dodd's alleged victim.

"Do you think Michael Dodd behaved inappropriately with you?" I asked her. "Did he sexually abuse you?"

"Yes," the translator said as the little girl nodded.

We watch as the girl is completely shunned by members of her own family, who blamed her for getting her mother in trouble. She was allowed to hug her younger brother.

Meeting Accused Pedophile

We were some of the first journalists the Cambodian government had ever allowed inside Preysar prison -- the largest in Cambodia. We talk to other alleged American sex offenders who've been busted by APLE and other organizations.

Dan Harris talks to Erik Peters.

We approached Erik Peters, a convicted sex offender back in California, who's accused of abusing several young boys here in Cambodia. They testified that Peters allegedly touched them inappropriately, sodomized them and took pictures of the acts.

"We just want to ask you about the charges against you," I said.

"Sorry, I can't speak," he told me.

"You can't speak about it at all?"

"No, if you want to talk about human rights abuses or something ..." he said.

"Are there human rights abuses?" I asked.

"Well, that would have to be interviewed at a safer location. I can't speak about it right now."

We ask Peters about the charges against he, which he denied.

"Absolutely untrue," he told us.

Peters and many other American pedophiles are accused of using a similar technique -- called "grooming" -- where they pay families in order to abuse their children. Johnson had allegedly been using the "grooming" technique as well. He's accused of talking about it openly with APLE's spy agent with his young students in the room.

"Frankly, I'm playing this for the long haul. All of these are gonna be 15 within two years, except the little one," APLE claimed Johnson said on its hidden audio recording.

Confronting an Alleged Pedophile

Day seven in Cambodia and we're called to Johnson's neighbor's house, where agents from APLE and ICE have gathered to wait. We're told the arrest is imminent.

Cambodian police approach Johnson.

But Johnson is having breakfast at a restaurant down the street, which is the same place we saw him a couple of days ago, when undercover police roll up and surround Johnson.

Suddenly, officers rush in and make their arrest. Johnson looks surprised, but stays surprisingly calm as he's asked to come down to the station.

At the station, we confront him.

"Harvey, I'm Dan Harris from ABC News. The police said you've been abusing girls here in Cambodia for the past couple of years."

"I've only been here two years. I have no idea what they're talking about," he replied.

"Yeah, they've been following you for two years. A group called APLE, which is an NGO that investigates sex tourists," I explained. "They've been following you for two years, and they said that you've been abusing girls and that they have proof of that."

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said.

Johnson claimed that there's no truth to that accusation. He denied having abused any girls in Cambodia, saying that as a teacher, young girls frequently visited his home.

"They also have you on an audio tape, you saying that you had inserted your finger into one of the girls," I told him.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said.

"But it's your voice."

"I don't know what they're talking about."

After presenting Johnson with a warrant from anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection, the police walked him down the street to their vehicles as a crowd gathered.

Johnson told us he had no idea that APLE had been following him for the past two years.

"They've been on you pretty much every minute for two years," I said.

"I don't know what they're talking about," he said.

"You didn't know, though, I mean they had agents in the house next door to yours. They've been following you everywhere you go. You had no idea?"

"No."

"Does it surprise you?"

"Shocked. Yeah. I know a lot of people. I teach. I teach older people, I teach children. I have &"

"So you're confident this will turn into nothing?"

"Sure," he said, "sure."

They took Johnson to the police station where's he was questioned and placed in a jail cell. The next morning, police returned with Johnson to search his home, where they found stacks of porn, lubricant, Viagra and children's toys. They found cameras in his bedroom and confiscated several computers and hard drives.

When we asked him about the porn and video cameras in his bedroom, Johnson said they didn't belong to him.

"No, they're the man who owns the house," he said. "There were a lot of cameras."

He was now armed with a defense: that the girls who are accusing him of molestation are doing so to cover up for stealing his camera weeks before.

"I think she's making it all up. I think frankly, I think it was a set up," he said. "There were a lot of bad things that came down about that camera. About the telephone that was stolen. I had to make threats that I was gonna bring in the police."

Back at the police station, Johnson's alleged victims -- many in ponytails and pajamas -- had been called in to give statements. Even the APLE agents, hardened by years of investigating alleged pedophiles, seem genuinely shaken by the testimony of one of the girls, who said Johnson threatened her into engaging in sex acts.

"I have young daughter, and I am very emotionally touched and I am really sad when I hear any girl talking about sexual abuse," said APLE agent Samlean Seila. "I'm really concerned about my daughter, and I don't want my daughter to be sexually abused like that so it's really touching me."

The girl's mother said she was totally unaware of the alleged abuse -- until now.

"When I found out, I wanted to die," she said. "I only allowed my daughter to study with Harvey because we thought he was a good person, and my family is poor." And Johnson's alleged victims are just some of the thousands of Cambodian children believed to have had their innocence stolen.

Negotiating for a Young Girl
We learned it could be astonishingly easy to essentially buy a young girl from her family in Cambodia. We meet a 15-year-old girl selling water on the street. She introduced us to her mother. In broad daylight, she said, she's willing to make a deal.

They are speaking in Khmer. APLE investigators translated for us.

"So are you saying that if I wanted to marry your daughter that would be OK?" I asked.

"It's OK, it's OK," she said.

When we come back later, we put the final touches on the negotiation.

"Can I get a sense of how much that would be? Are we talking two to three hundred dollars a month?" I asked.

"It's up to you," she told us.

"Has your daughter been with a man before? Has her daughter been with any men before me?"

"No, no, no. If you don't trust, you can take her to the hospital ... for medical examination," the mother said.

Breaking the Cycle of Sexual Exploitation
How could a mother so casually agree to sell her child into sexual servitude? Poverty is part of the answer. However, evangelicals we spoke to believe there's something more at work in Cambodia: the ghosts of history.

In the 1970s, this country saw the largest genocide since the Holocaust. Under the rule of Pol Pot, Cambodia's educated, wealthy and religious communities were all wiped out. Children were forced to spy on and even execute their parents. Nearly 3 million people died.

American Pastor Don Brewster pointed out that those children were now today's parents. He said Cambodia now suffers from a "moral vacuum."

"It's materialism and greed," Brewster told us. "In a country that's so poor that has hardly any television anyways, these families will take a loan to buy a TV, which they know they can never pay. They can't feed themselves, never mind buy a TV, but they know, 'Hey I've got my ace in the hole, I can sell my daughter.'"

Brewster left his congregation in California to move to Cambodia four years ago, where he fights child sex trafficking full-time. His group, Agape Restoration Center, has opened a community center in the place of a former brothel.

"You look at those kids in there, those young girls," he said, "probably 90 percent of them are gonna be trafficked tonight ... and every night."

Brewster also runs a shelter for former child prostitutes like Bella, who told us she was forced to have sex every day.

A group called the International Justice Mission rescued Bella and brought her to the shelter, where she can attempt to regain a piece of her childhood.

"I can study and I can get love and I can have ...," she said, before breaking down in tears.

CLICK HERE to learn more about what you can do to help prevent sexual exploitation.