Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
By E.J. Graff
Washington Post (USA)
The orphan manufacturing chain is not limited to infants and toddlers. In 1999, Songkea was 9 or 10 years old. She lived with her brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Her mother had recently died, but close relatives lived nearby. Songkea thrived in school and in her dance lessons and loved playing with her nephew and cousins.
One day, a man approached the girl. He was a child recruiter and later told ABC's "20/20," which investigated Songkea's case in 2005, that he had been paid $300 to recruit her for adoption.
"[A] man stopped me, and told me to go and ask my family if I could live in America. The man told me if they agreed, I should move to the orphanage for two weeks, and they would take me to Phnom Penh after that," Songkea wrote five years later in a victim-impact statement presented in a U.S. court. "Suddenly, they told me I would go to Phnom Penh that day and meet my new mother. I didn't say goodbye to my sister, or anyone else."
Meanwhile, Judith Mosley, who was living in Saipan with her husband and children and awaiting word about a pending adoption, got a call from Lynn Devin at Seattle International Adoptions, which Devin ran with her sister, Lauryn Galindo. Devin told Mosley to go to Phnom Penh to meet Galindo, the adoption facilitator. There, Mosley was told, she would receive her new daughter.
After meeting Songkea, Mosley -- despite Galindo's protests -- insisted on going with the girl to see the Siem Reap orphanage where she had lived. But once at the orphanage, the child gave the taxi driver directions to her family's house. There Mosley learned that Songkea had a family, although she believed that they had knowingly given her up for adoption.
Just before Mosley and Songkea, now to be named Camryn, boarded the plane back to Saipan, Galindo handed Mosley the adoption paperwork. It said that Songkea had been living in the orphanage for four years and had no known family -- which Mosley by then knew to be false. She continued to believe, however, that Camryn's family had chosen to give her and that Galindo had simply mishandled the documentation.
In December 2001, following investigations by a local human rights group and the Phnom Penh Post that exposed baby-buying and abduction through Galindo's adoption operations, as well as others, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service halted adoptions from Cambodia and began its own criminal investigation. The moratorium on adoptions continues today. In 2004, Galindo pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and launder money stemming from her role in arranging the adoption of Cambodian children such as Songkea. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison and also ordered to forfeit more than $1.4 million in property in Hawaii.
Devin, who prosecutors say did not know that babies were being bought, pleaded guilty to related charges after providing information to officials about her sister's activities and was sentenced to six months of house arrest. It is not known how many of the more than 700 children whom the operation matched with new families were actually orphans.
In 2004, Mosley took Camryn back to Cambodia to visit her biological family. By then a teenager, Camryn was no longer fluent in Khmer, but she says she was profoundly happy to see the family she loved. Today she is waiting for her college acceptance letters.
E.J. Graff is associate director and senior researcher at Brandeis University's Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Japan to donate $2.8 million (255 million yens) to Cambodia for a dam project and infectious disease control
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Japan to give 1.46 bil. yen fresh aid to Cambodia, Laos on FM visit
TOKYO, Jan. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan will provide 1.2 billion yen of grant aid to Laos for poverty reduction and up to 255 million yen to Cambodia for a dam project and infectious disease control when Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone visits the two nations on Sunday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Friday. Nakasone is set to sign exchanges of notes for the respective projects with his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong during his trip. He will also attend a ceremony to deliver three Japan-made demining tractors in Cambodia.
The assistance for Laos will be earmarked for purchasing fuel, construction materials and other necessary items for stabilizing the economy, the ministry said.
Japan hopes the aid will help boost the Laotian economy, which is suffering from significant annual fiscal deficits mainly due to heavy dependence on imports of essential goods.
For Cambodia, the grant will be used partly to upgrade two apparatuses for controlling the flow of water along the Prek Thnot River with the hope of securing irrigation water for some 12,000 farmers in the Roleang Chrey area.
The aid will also be allocated to secure measles vaccines as well as necessary storage equipment and is expected to benefit about 2 million children under age five, the ministry said.
Nakasone will visit Cambodia and Laos over the weekend to strengthen Japan's bilateral relations with the two nations as well as coordinate responses amid the global financial crisis. He also hopes to promote cooperation in the Mekong region on the whole.
The foreign minister is scheduled to stop over in Bangkok on Saturday for talks with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to discuss measures to tackle the economic crisis on his way to Cambodia, ministry officials said.
Japan and the Mekong region nations, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, celebrate the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year this year.
Japan to give 1.46 bil. yen fresh aid to Cambodia, Laos on FM visit
TOKYO, Jan. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan will provide 1.2 billion yen of grant aid to Laos for poverty reduction and up to 255 million yen to Cambodia for a dam project and infectious disease control when Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone visits the two nations on Sunday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Friday. Nakasone is set to sign exchanges of notes for the respective projects with his Laotian counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith and Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong during his trip. He will also attend a ceremony to deliver three Japan-made demining tractors in Cambodia.
The assistance for Laos will be earmarked for purchasing fuel, construction materials and other necessary items for stabilizing the economy, the ministry said.
Japan hopes the aid will help boost the Laotian economy, which is suffering from significant annual fiscal deficits mainly due to heavy dependence on imports of essential goods.
For Cambodia, the grant will be used partly to upgrade two apparatuses for controlling the flow of water along the Prek Thnot River with the hope of securing irrigation water for some 12,000 farmers in the Roleang Chrey area.
The aid will also be allocated to secure measles vaccines as well as necessary storage equipment and is expected to benefit about 2 million children under age five, the ministry said.
Nakasone will visit Cambodia and Laos over the weekend to strengthen Japan's bilateral relations with the two nations as well as coordinate responses amid the global financial crisis. He also hopes to promote cooperation in the Mekong region on the whole.
The foreign minister is scheduled to stop over in Bangkok on Saturday for talks with Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to discuss measures to tackle the economic crisis on his way to Cambodia, ministry officials said.
Japan and the Mekong region nations, which comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, celebrate the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year this year.
PM Abhisit confident Cambodia's Hun Sen will attend ASEAN [-Was Hun Sen lying when he said that he'll not attend the summit?]
Saturday, January 10, 2009
BANGKOK, Jan 10 (TNA) -- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is confident that all the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, including Cambodia, will attend the group's summit to be held in Thailand's Hua Hin resort late next month.
Mr. Abhisit said what his Cambodian counterpart said was probably a suggestion that the ASEAN summit should be held concurrently with the group's dialogue partners, whom the Thai government had already informed of the necessary to hold the summit first as several agreements must be jointly signed by ASEAN leaders.
The Cambodian leader has been contacted and he has confirmed that he will attend the ASEAN summit February 27-March 1 in Hua Hin.
Mr. Abhisit announced on Wednesday that his coalition government had decided to move the summit to Hua Hin, southwest of Bangkok, instead of the capital, to avoid possible disruption by anti-government protesters threatening to interfere with he summit.
Due to complications, ASEAN's meeting with its dialogue partners --China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- is now expected to be held in April with an as yet undetermined venue, Mr. Abhisit said.
Despite confirmation by the Thai government leader that his Cambodian counterpart will attend the summit, Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in Phnom Penh on Friday that Mr. Hun Sen may not attend the ASEAN summit because it would be costly and difficult for him to attend.
Also, the spokesman said talks with China, Japan and South Korea were critical because they are expected to give US$80 billion in regional aid to reduce short-term liquidity problems, in line with the so-called Chiang Mai initiatives agreed following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thailand presently holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, which groups it with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
BANGKOK, Jan 10 (TNA) -- Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is confident that all the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, including Cambodia, will attend the group's summit to be held in Thailand's Hua Hin resort late next month.
Mr. Abhisit said what his Cambodian counterpart said was probably a suggestion that the ASEAN summit should be held concurrently with the group's dialogue partners, whom the Thai government had already informed of the necessary to hold the summit first as several agreements must be jointly signed by ASEAN leaders.
The Cambodian leader has been contacted and he has confirmed that he will attend the ASEAN summit February 27-March 1 in Hua Hin.
Mr. Abhisit announced on Wednesday that his coalition government had decided to move the summit to Hua Hin, southwest of Bangkok, instead of the capital, to avoid possible disruption by anti-government protesters threatening to interfere with he summit.
Due to complications, ASEAN's meeting with its dialogue partners --China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- is now expected to be held in April with an as yet undetermined venue, Mr. Abhisit said.
Despite confirmation by the Thai government leader that his Cambodian counterpart will attend the summit, Cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said in Phnom Penh on Friday that Mr. Hun Sen may not attend the ASEAN summit because it would be costly and difficult for him to attend.
Also, the spokesman said talks with China, Japan and South Korea were critical because they are expected to give US$80 billion in regional aid to reduce short-term liquidity problems, in line with the so-called Chiang Mai initiatives agreed following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Thailand presently holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, which groups it with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
4 arrested in bomb plot
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Sat, Jan 10, 2009
AFP
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - CAMBODIAN authorities have arrested four men on suspicion of planting three bombs around the capital last week, a senior police officer said on Saturday.
Deputy national police commissioner Sok Phal told reporters that one of the four alleged plotters was 44-year-old Som Ek, a dual Cambodian-Thai national who had previously worked as a Cambodian military policeman.
'He (Som Ek) told the police that his bomb plot was to bring attention to the group inside and outside the country, so he could extort money,' Mr Sok Phal said.
'This is just some kind of business just to rob or extort money,' he added.
He said Som Ek had been arrested on Wednesday and told authorities that his group was backed by people outside Cambodia.
The deputy police commissioner gave no further details on the alleged group or other three suspects.
No one was harmed in the bomb plot in which police found three explosive devices on January 2 planted near the Ministry of National Defence and a television station.
Mine clearance personnel destroyed the bombs later that day.
Sat, Jan 10, 2009
AFP
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - CAMBODIAN authorities have arrested four men on suspicion of planting three bombs around the capital last week, a senior police officer said on Saturday.
Deputy national police commissioner Sok Phal told reporters that one of the four alleged plotters was 44-year-old Som Ek, a dual Cambodian-Thai national who had previously worked as a Cambodian military policeman.
'He (Som Ek) told the police that his bomb plot was to bring attention to the group inside and outside the country, so he could extort money,' Mr Sok Phal said.
'This is just some kind of business just to rob or extort money,' he added.
He said Som Ek had been arrested on Wednesday and told authorities that his group was backed by people outside Cambodia.
The deputy police commissioner gave no further details on the alleged group or other three suspects.
No one was harmed in the bomb plot in which police found three explosive devices on January 2 planted near the Ministry of National Defence and a television station.
Mine clearance personnel destroyed the bombs later that day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)