Thai FM to clarify Thai-Cambodian border negotiation framework

http://enews.mcot.net/

BANGKOK, Sept 6 (TNA) -- Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya is expected to inform the Thai public regarding the Thai-Cambodian negotiation framework, especially regarding the disputed ancient Preah Vihear temple, on state television Monday, said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

During his weekly radio and television broadcast, Mr Abhisit said that details of international negotiation frameworks approved by both houses of Parliament last Wednesday were numerous and that the foreign affairs minister needed to explain them on television.

Thailand’s stance in relation to the disputed temple after it was awarded UN World Heritage status remains unchanged, Mr Abhisit said, and the government would put every efforts into preventing such a problem from occurring again.

Troops of both countries remain deployed near the temple. Thailand is finding ways to negotiate to meet the agreement made in 2000, said Mr Abhisit.

Tensions between the two neighbouring countries flared in July 2008 when the temple was awarded UN World Heritage status. Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance is in Thailand’s northeastern Si Sa Ket province.

Cambodia uses a French colonial map to demarcate the border, which Thailand says favours Cambodia. Thailand relies on a map drawn up later with American technical assistance.

Mr Abhisit said the 2000 agreement calls for a negotiation process and that both countries must refrain from changing the environment of the disputed area in way which could affect the other party’s rights.

The government is not remaining idle as it could affect the country’s sovereignty, the prime minister added. (TNA)

Thailand PM proposes debate on Charter amendments

BANGKOK, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister said Sunday he will ask the Cabinet to discuss whether to approve a parliamentary debate on proposed constitutional amendments aimed at national reconciliation, while the opposition party opposed the debate idea, Thai News Agency reported.

Speaking in his weekly television and radio address, Abhisit Vejjajiva said he believed the debate, if held by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, could help improve and bring normalcy to Thai politics.

He said that MPs had not had a chance to express their response to reports submitted by the parliamentary committee recommending revisions to the charter amendment.

Citing that the Constitution rules only a certain, important subjects could be debated during the current extraordinary session of Parliament, Abhisit said it is necessary, therefore, for the Cabinet to have discussions on Tuesday's meeting and to approve the planned debate in advance.

Meanwhile, Plodprasob Suraswadi, deputy leader of the opposition Puea Thai Party, said his party opposed a planned joint debate, considering that both the prime minister and his ruling Democrat Party were only "buying time and not sincere on amending the constitution."

Plodprasob said his party expects support from about 170 senators on the charter amendment and it would be "better if the entire Constitution is amended."

The Puea Thai Party believes that the current 2007 Constitution is "not democratic, is the root cause of divisiveness and is a product of the coup," said Plodprasob, adding that the time has come for the amendment.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban said Friday that the coalition parties will meet for a second time in the next few days to push for charter rewrite, dismissing the allegation about the government's indifference on the matter, seen as a first step to foster reconciliation.

A House panel on political reform and charter amendment on July16 submitted a report to Abhisit, proposing changes to six areas of the 2007 constitution, including repealing the five-year ban on certain politicians.

The panel suggested the return of rights to politicians affected by laws introduced under the 2007 constitution, such as the former executives of dissolved political parties who have been banned from politics for five years.

Thailand has undergone political unrest since September 2006, when the then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a coup. Later Thai Constitutional Court banned him, his party and political allies from office for five years.

10 militants surrender to security forces in NW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Ten militants voluntarily surrendered themselves to security forces in Pakistan's northwest in the last 24 hours, according to a military press release Sunday.

It said that search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and Malakand in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Those surrendered include a boy of 10 years old, who got training from the militants, it said.

Security forces conducted cordon and search operation in Liluani near Alpura on a tip-off, according to the military.

During exchange of fire, three militants were killed and two others were apprehended.

On relief activities, it said, 288,525 cash cards have been distributed amongst the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Malakand.

Pakistani security forces launched the military operation against Taliban militants late April after militants early that month entered the Buner district from the neighboring Swat district and refused to vacate the area despite their pledge to do so.

Cambodia in Pictures - The Urban's life

The CAAI News Media is welcome to everyone to download thse pictures. For those who want to have these pictures for their blogs or website, please send a request email to us or provide link back to CAAI News Media; Doing so is show kind of respect to each other and respect to the person who has committed their time for all of those pictures. Many thanks for your understanding

Day 1 of Kan Bendah Festival Ceremony at Wat Odom Sakum Khmer (CAAI's Temple)

We are member of the Auckland Cambodian Community have gathered and organised to host the first Kan Bindah even at Wat Odom Samakum Khmer Temple and of The Cambodian Association (Auckland) Inc. for the offering to the Monks in order to dedicate, and pass the good deed to our diseased ancestors.

Name of the organisers

Mrs. Houng Eng Ly - Mrs. Ngov Kim Lang Ly - Mr & Mrs. Han Leang Ly - Mr & Mrs Ngov Ing Jung - Mr & Mrs. Hoc Thong Tieu - Mr & Mrs Khy Ung - Mr & Mrs Sam On Kim - Mrs. Guech Huoy Chea - Mr & Mrs Han Veng Ly - Mr & Mrs Sou Hoeung Ly - Mr & Mrs. Song Cao Lam - Mr & Mrs Meng Kaing Taing - Mr & Mrs. Meng Ly - Mr & Mrs. Leang Ly

The pig was born Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, with no nose in Svay Chrum village, Kandal province

A Cambodian woman holds a baby pig as it was born Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, with no nose in Svay Chrum village, Kandal province, some 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Cambodian boys, left, look at a baby pig as it was born Saturday, Sept. 5,2009, with no nose in Svay Chrum village, Kandal province, some 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A Cambodian man shows two baby pigs to compare the right one that was born Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009, with no nose in Svay Chrum village, Kandal province, some 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Southern Thailand’s Turmoil Grows

A Thai detainee (left) kisses his child as a relative looks on following a gathering in the yard of Narathiwat jail. There are several hundred suspects imprisoned in Thailand's troubled southern provinces, says rights group the Cross Cultural Foundation, and their jail terms often have a devastating effect on their families with many remaining out of contact for long periods of time. (AFP/File/Madaree Tohlala)

A Thai detainee (left) is hugged by his wife following a gathering in the yard of the Narathiwat jail. There are several hundred suspects imprisoned in Thailand's troubled southern provinces, says rights group the Cross Cultural Foundation, where they face security-related charges. (AFP/File/Madaree Tohlala)

A Thai detainee (left) eats lunch with members of his family during a gathering in the yard of Narathiwat jail. There are several hundred suspects imprisoned in Thailand's troubled southern provinces, says rights group the Cross Cultural Foundation, with many remaining out of contact with their families for long periods of time. (AFP/File/Madaree Tohlala)


A soldier stands guard as students leave their school for home in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok September 2, 2009. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Rescue workers carry the body of an injured policeman after a car bomb attack, to a hospital in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok. A bomb in a pick-up truck exploded in Thailand's southern Yala province on Friday, killing a policeman and wounding 10 villagers, police said, the latest deadly blast in a region plagued by insurgent violence. The bomb, hidden in a truck parked near an intersection, exploded as a police officer drove past in his car, a police spokesman said. "His body was trapped and burned," he said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

A view of the scene of a car bomb attack in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok . A bomb in a pick-up truck exploded in Thailand's southern Yala province on Friday, killing a policeman and wounding 10 villagers, police said, the latest deadly blast in a region plagued by insurgent violence. The bomb, hidden in a truck parked near an intersection, exploded as a police officer drove past in his car, a police spokesman said. "His body was trapped and burned," he said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Policemen inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok . A bomb in a pick-up truck exploded in Thailand's southern Yala province on Friday, killing a policeman and wounding 10 villagers, police said, the latest deadly blast in a region plagued by insurgent violence. The bomb, hidden in a truck parked near an intersection, exploded as a police officer drove past in his car, a police spokesman said. "His body was trapped and burned," he said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Firefighters extinguish a fire on a pick-up truck after a bomb attack in Thailand's Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok . A bomb in a pick-up truck exploded in Thailand's southern Yala province on Friday, killing a policeman and wounding 10 villagers, police said, the latest deadly blast in a region plagued by insurgent violence. The bomb, hidden in a truck parked near an intersection, exploded as a police officer drove past in his car, a police spokesman said. "His body was trapped and burned," he said. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Military doctors assist poor Cambodians

VOV news
http://english.vovnews.vn/

Doctors from Company No. 12 under the Ministry of Defence on September 4 presented gifts to 150 poor patients who are being treated at a hospital in Cambodia’s Santouk district.

The Vietnamese doctors also joined their Cambodian colleagues from Hospital 79 to provide free medical check-ups and medicine to 200 patients at the Santouk hospital.

The same day, representatives from the Ministry of Defence’s Economics Department handed over 10 sets of computers and more than 4,000 notebooks to the Bantok secondary school in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

The military officers, who are hosting the Vietnam Trade Fair 2009 in the neighbouring country from September 2-6, also donated an additional six sets of computers, over 4,000 notebooks and a number of teaching aids to a local school which has been set up by the Vietnamese community in Cambodia.

International call to learn to love vultures - or lose them

http://www.afrol.com
afrol News, 4 September - BirdLife Partners in Africa and elsewhere have joined with raptor conservation and research organisations around the world to call for an “image makeover” for vultures. They will be celebrating International Vulture Awareness Day on 5 September 2009.

This comes against a backdrop of recent reports of problems facing vultures in Africa and the ongoing ones in Asia.

There have been mass vulture deaths in East Africa associated with misuse of chemicals, huge population declines in West Africa due to habitat loss, and the disappearance of vultures from large areas of their formers ranges in South Africa because of the continued use of vulture parts in traditional medicine and sorcery, the partnership noted.

Other threats identified include power line collisions and electrocutions, disturbance at breeding sites, drowning in farm reservoirs, direct persecution and declining food availability.

Vultures are said to fulfill an extremely important ecological role. They keep the environment free of carcasses and waste, restrict the spread of diseases such as anthrax and botulism, and help control numbers of pests such as rats and feral dogs by reducing the food available to them. They are of cultural value to communities in Africa and Asia, and have important eco-tourism value.

"Indeed vultures provide a perfect example of the link between birds and people. Loss of vultures would mean loss of important natural services to people, for example the cleaning of the environment of animal carcasses and waste at no charge”, said Dr Hazell Shokellu Thompson, BirdLife's Regional Director for Africa.

"One major challenge to detecting and countering these threats is that there are very few people out there watching vultures, let alone counting them. Thus it is difficult to determine population trends and to detect declining populations", said Paul Kariuki Ndang'ang'a, BirdLife's Species Programme Manager for Africa. "The Asian Vulture Crisis has shown that without proper monitoring, a population crash can take place virtually undetected."

The BirdLife Africa Partnership is therefore urging people to notice the important roles that vultures play, and the crisis they are currently facing. Organisations and individuals that have the capacity are encouraged to take action for vultures where feasible.

Some of the main conservation actions that have been identified for vultures in Africa include: establishing a monitoring network for African vultures, establishing legal protection for the species in range states, eliminating the veterinary use of diclofenac and other toxic drugs in Africa, and carrying out education and awareness programmes, particularly targeted at farmers, to reduce persecution, unintentional poisoning and hunting for cultural reasons.

By staff writer

Khmer Rouge timeline

Commarade Duch (The Murderer)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Globe and Mail Update
Last updated on Friday, Sep. 04, 2009

1942. November 17. Birth of Kaing Guek Eav.

1960 - Sept. 30. Creation of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

1963 - Saloth Sar, alias Pol Pot, becomes CPK secretary.

1964 - Kaing Guek Eav joins CPK, takes revolutionary alias Duch.

1965 - Duch becomes math teacher.

1966 - Duch goes underground with the Khmer Rouge.

1968 - Duch is arrested by King Sihanouk's police and sentenced to 20 years.

1970 - March. King Sihanouk deposed in a coup by Lon Nol, who grants amnesty to political prisoners, including Duch, who leaves for a zone controlled by the Khmer Rouge.

1971 - July. Duch put in charge of the M-13 jail until January 1975.

1975 - April 17. Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh and force millions of city residents to collective farms.

1975 - End April. Border clashes between Cambodia and Vietnam.

1975 - August 15. The S-21 jail is established in Phnom Penh and Duch named deputy commander.

1975 - October. S-21 becomes fully operational.

1975 - November. Duch marries.

1976 - March. Duch becomes the chairman of S-21.

1977 - Vietnamese troops raid Cambodia's Svay Rieng province. In August, the Khmer Rouge attack Vietnam's Tay Ninh province.

1978 - December. After years of border skirmishes, Vietnam invades Cambodia.

1979 - January 2-3. The last mass execution of S-21 prisoners takes place: 200 Cambodian and Vietnamese victims are killed.

1979 - January 7. Khmer Rouge regime overthrown. Vietnamese troops enter Phnom Penh, discover S-21 where the remaining prisoners had been killed hours before. Duch flees with the Khmer Rouge to their border sanctuaries.

Early 1990s. Duch distances himself from Khmer Rouge, returns to teaching.

1992 - After his wife's murder in a burglary, Duch attends Christian seminars.

1996 - Jan. 5. Under the pseudonym Hang Pin, Duch is baptized after converting to evangelical Christianity.

1999 - May. Duch is arrested after being retraced by Irish photographer Nic Dunlop.

2008 - August. Duch indicted for crimes against humanity.

2009 - March. Beginning of trial hearings against Duch.

Happy International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD09)!

A white-rumped vulture in Cambodia's Northern Plains. Credit © Allan Michaud

http://www.treehugger.com

Vulture populations have declined more than 95% in South Asia due to diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used on cattle which acts as a poison to vultures. Just in time for International Vulture Awareness Day (today, September 5, 2009) the Wildlife Conservation Society has announced that populations have been on the rise in Cambodia, a new population of white-rumped vultures (pictured above) has been in located in the country's Northern Plains, and eighteen new vulture fledglings took flight this year, oh happy day!

International Vulture Awareness Day will focus on promoting the conservation and awareness of vultures with events around the world -- from birth watching to visiting zoos and wildlife reserves -- and online with bloggers sharing photos, videos, and posts in the IVAD09 blog festival. Visit International Vulture Awareness Day to take part in the day's virtual event.

The Wildlife Conservation Society works to save vulture populations in Cambodia with community-supported projects such as a bird nest protection program and "restaurants" which provide reliable food sources. They work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of the Environment, WWF, BirdLife International, the Angkor Centre for Conservation of Biodiversity (ACCB), and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Support is provided by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).

More on the Wildlife Conservation Society

The Wildlife Conservation Society Welcomes Two Hyenas to the Bronx ZooCancers Threaten Wild Animal Populations15 Baby Chinese Alligators Born in the Wild: New Hope for the Most Threatened of All Crocodilians

‘This country has a long way to go.'

Canadian co-prosecutor Robert Petit. In his opening statement, he told the tribunal that hearing the facts would give back to the victims of the Khmer Rouge the dignity that was denied to them in their last moments. After three years in Cambodia, Mr. Petit resigned, effective this week, citing personal reasons, and will resume his work for the federal Justice Department in Ottawa. “It’s obvious that some people in the government, from the prime minister downward, think they have a right to tell the courts what to do here,” he said in an interview, addressing the issue of political interference in Cambodian courts. “It’s not their job to take that on. It’s mine. It’s the court’s.” Jared Ferrie

http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Last updated on Saturday, Sep. 05, 2009

PHNOM PENH -- This week Canadian lawyer Robert Petit's three-year stint as co-prosecutor for Cambodia's war-crimes tribunal officially came to an end. He cited “personal and family reasons” for his departure, but it's widely believed that political pressure is really to blame.

Co-sponsored by the United Nations and Cambodia, the tribunal has cost $150-million but so far just five aging Khmer Rouge leaders have been charged, with only one brought to trial.

Mr. Petit, a 48-year-old veteran of conflict remediation in Rwanda, Bosnia, East Timor and Sierra Leone, says he has solid cases against another six veterans of the regime.

Cambodia's prime minister, himself a former Khmer Rouge officer as are many of his political allies, has said he'd rather see the court fail than expand its caseload because another civil war could result. But on Wednesday, a day after Mr. Petit's resignation took effect, the tribunal's Cambodian judges failed to persuade their international counterparts to block any new investigations.

Just before he left Cambodia, the usually tight-lipped Mr. Petit spoke candidly with Jared Ferrie, a Canadian writer based in Phnom Penh, about the challenges he faced.

On political interference

“It's obvious that some people in the government from the Prime Minister downward think they have a right to tell the courts what to do here. … It certainly speaks volumes about the work that remains to be done in this country …”

During a public meeting, “one older gentleman got up and asked me, ‘How is it possible that you want some more suspects when the government said there shouldn't be?' He was genuinely puzzled. As long as people believe this is a fair question, this country has a long way to go.”

What about fears that too many trials will rekindle the civil war?

“I think that's hogwash. Cambodians have paid such a high price for their peace and current stability that nobody's going to take to the bush for a few old geriatric mass murderers. It's not going to happen … To a certain extent, people who oppose that are probably still profiting one way or another from it, from impunity.

“It's always the red herring that's raised by politicians whenever accountability threatens the status quo. I think it's been proven time and time again – at least in terms of accountability for mass crimes – that on the contrary, accountability is one of the essential steps toward reconciliation and stability.

Does it matter if suspects die before their trials?

“That's one of the things that keeps me awake at night … Without these people, these events would not have happened. Their story holds the key for the Cambodian people to understand why it happened and hopefully learn from that. So I think it's fundamental that these remaining individuals face trial.”

Will other cases be like Duch's?

“It's going to be much different because, as far as I know, none of the other accused have admitted any kind of responsibility. …

“As far as I'm aware, only people kill people. A system itself is nothing without people that either create it, run it, or implement it.”

What motivates him

“One of the greatest things we have living in Canada is to be able to count on the rule of law … I've never wanted to be anything but a prosecutor. And being able to prosecute these types of individuals for these types of crimes and bringing some justice to the victims of the worst possible violations – I think there's no better deal.”

But there are limitations“My neighbour in Ottawa was a Cambodian family. Both were refugees, both made it through the Khmer Rouge, both lost members of their family. The lady was supportive, saying, ‘You're going to do your best; whatever happens it will be at least that.'

“The husband was furious with me for even taking the job: ‘Where were you and where was the UN when my family was getting killed? Where are you now with all the millions you're going to spend when my current family members are eating grass?'

“And both of these opinions are legitimate. Both of these feelings you have to respect. … A lot of people come to the court and go away disappointed. These courts generally speaking will prosecute people who never got their hands dirty, the architects or the high-level commanders, which is one of the things that I'm trying to achieve with these additional prosecutions. You can always find killers.”

On leaving Cambodia

“Of all the places I've dragged my family to, this has certainly been the best, and it's with great reluctance and great sadness that we are leaving.

“It's been a wonderful personal experience living here. My wife and kids have been very happy living here and unfortunately it has to end at this point.”

Khmer Language Teaching Is Included in a Thai Government Approved Curriculum – Saturday, 5.9.2009

Posted on 6 September 2009
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 628
http://cambodiamirror.wordpress.com/

“Though there have been some hostilities regarding border disputes, the Thai government has included Khmer language teaching into the state curriculum at many schools, following a request by the Khmer Language and Culture Association of Surin Province (LCASP).

“According to information received, the provincial Department of Education of the Province of Surin of Thailand has recently agreed to include Khmer language teaching into the curriculum at schools under the control of the Royal Government of Thailand, but the information does not specify at which levels Khmer language will be included.

“Based on that source, the agreement to include Khmer language into the curriculum was announced on 5 August 2009 in a press conference, where representatives of 30 to 40 primary and secondary schools from different districts of the province discussed the program to teach the Khmer language.

“According to that source, based on the official plan, Khmer language teaching at some state schools will be taught in two sessions per week, from primary school to secondary school, starting from Grade 1 to Grade 12, and this program will start beginning in the Svay District of Surin.

“Regarding the inclusion of Khmer language teaching into the curriculum, approved by the Thai government, a secretary of state of the [Cambodian] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr. Koy Kuong, said on 4 September 2009 that he did not know about this, while the secretaries of states of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Chea Oueng and Mr. Chey Chab, could not be reached for comment, because they were busy in meetings.

“The vice-president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia [and professor of history], Dr. Ruos Chantraboth, said that the inclusion of Khmer language teaching by Thai government agencies into a state approved curriculum is good, if it is applied from primary to secondary education, because if they apply it only at universities, it is nothing new, as there have been Khmer language programs [at universities] since long ago. That is why some scholars in Thailand can use the Khmer language.

“He added that in Surin, there is an association of Mr. Chey Mongkol [who calls himself with his Thai name Chaimongkol Chalermsukjitsri on his own website], who is trying to teach the Khmer language to Khmer people there.

“Mr. Ruos Chantraboth talked about the history related to Thailand and Cambodia, saying that he did not remember the time when some provinces of Cambodia fell under the control of Thailand, but he said that there were many provinces that had been controlled by Thailand [see Historical Note on Cambodian-Thai relations in The Mirror of 20.8.2009].

“Mr. Ruos Chantraboth went on to say that the inclusion of Khmer language teaching into a state approved curriculum might be their politics to persuade Khmer people there to set themselves apart from the central Khmers [that is: from Cambodia], because if the [Thai] government would restrict its citizens, they might stand up to protest. Thus, this curriculum might show some Thai intentions; the inclusion of the Khmer language in a curriculum is not because they appreciate that Khmer is beautiful or friendly, or they want to strengthen the ties between both countries, but it is just a strategy.

“It should be noted that the Khmer Language and Culture Association of Surin Province, created by Mr. Chey Mongkol, aims to teach Khmer children there to know their own language.

“In the meantime, he had made efforts to expand his teaching and had requested the Thai government to include Khmer language teaching into the curriculum of the state, and now a source said that the Department of Education of Thailand has already agreed with this request.” Kampuchea Thmey, Vol.8, #2041, 5.9.2009

Newspapers Appearing on the Newsstand:
Saturday, 5 September 2009

Watch this video in a new windowEarly study on H1N1 deaths

kxan

The Centers for Disease Control just released an early study on H1N1, also known as swine flu, deaths. It said 36 children died from the virus in the United States - seven of those were under 5 years old.

Top official in China's volatile Urumqi sacked

Chinese paramilitary police form a line as they disperse the crowds after the unconfirmed report of a needle attack on a boy outside the People's Square in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, China, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. Thousands of troops, backed by tanks and metal barricades, patrolled the western city of Urumqi on Saturday after five people died in protests over a series of bizarre needle attacks that China's police chief has blamed on Muslim separatists.(AP Photo/Andy Wong)

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer

URUMQI, China – Chinese leaders bowed to public demands and sacked the head of a western city wracked by communal violence and a bizarre string of needle attacks, hoping to calm uneasy mobs and end protests that percolated for a third day Saturday.

The removal of Urumqi's Communist Party Secretary Li Zhi came amid reports of police again dispersing crowds outside Urumqi's government offices using tear gas, and more unconfirmed reports of needle attacks, including one on an 11-year-old boy in a downtown square.

The city's chief prosecutor announced further details about four people arrested over the attacks, but offered little to back up the government's claims that they were an organized campaign to spread terror.

Protesters marched by the thousands Thursday and Friday demanding the resignation of Li and his boss, Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan, for failing to provide adequate public safety in the city. Also sacked was the police chief of Xinjiang, China's westernmost region that abuts Central Asia and whose capital is Urumqi.

An Urumqi government spokeswoman and the official Xinhua News Agency gave no reasons in announcing the changes. But July's riot was the worst communal violence in more than a decade in Xinjiang — where Uighur separatists have waged a sporadically violent campaign for a homeland. The renewed protests this week underscored the difficulties authorities were having in reasserting control.

The firing may also help quash calls to dismiss Wang — a member of the country's ruling Politburo and an ally of President Hu Jintao.

"I would say that this is the sacrificial lamb," Russell Leigh Moses, an analyst of Chinese politics based in Beijing. "But it will be interesting to see what the reaction in the streets is and whether this satisfies people's anger or not."

Li, a 58-year-old career official in Xinjiang, played a visible role during the July violence and recent protests. In July he climbed atop a car with a megaphone and urged an angry crowd of Han Chinese to show their patriotism by fighting separatists but not ordinary Uighurs.

On Thursday, when more than 10,000 people protested through the city, Li and Wang separately waded into crowds to meet with protesters to defuse tensions, only to be greeted with shouts to "step down."

"Do I not know that I should protect my brothers and sisters?" Li told them, according to footage aired on Urumqi's TV station and recounted by a local newspaper editor.

It wasn't clear whether protesters would be assuaged and two key demands — an end to the syringe attacks and the swift punishment of those responsible for the July rioting — have yet to be met.

Urumqi's prosecutor said among the 21 suspects in custody, all of them Uighurs, two jabbed a taxi driver with a heroin-filled syringe to steal 710 yuan ($105) to buy drugs.

Overall, a show of force by thousands of troops on patrols restored calm to much of the city. Paramilitary police manned checkpoints around government and party offices and put up barricades backed by tanks at entrances to a heavily Uighur neighborhood — a sign that officials were worried the mainly Han protesters might try to storm in.

More than 500 people have sought treatment for stabbings, though only about 100 showed signs of having been pricked, according to state media reports. Members of a visiting People's Liberation Army medical team said they conducted checks on 22 patients who showed clear signs of having been stabbed and found no indication that radioactive or biochemical substances had been used in any of the attacks.

Tests were still being conducted for HIV, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted diseases, and the results would be made public at a time to be determined by the Xinjiang government, said Qian Jun, one of the team's leaders.

Urumqi Prosecutor Udgar Abdulrahman said four of the detained suspects — three men aged 19, 34 and 47, and one woman, 22 — were charged with endangering public security. Aside from the two who stabbed the taxi driver for drug money, Abdulrahman said the others acted separately. One jabbed a fruit seller and the other a police officer. No motive was given for the other attacks.

Abdulrahman did not cite an obvious political link to the stabbings, but said he believed there was a degree of coordination. "At this point, we think there is a plot and it is organized," he said.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said Friday the same Muslim separatists that Beijing blames for the July 5 ethnic rioting also orchestrated the syringe attacks.

The government has not provided an ethnic breakdown of the five killed in Thursday's protests. A report in Urumqi's Morning Post on Saturday said a "small number of people became overexcited and lost control of themselves" during the demonstrations. It said casualties included police, paramilitary troops and innocent civilians, but gave no specifics.

By most accounts, the July 5 riot started after police confronted peaceful Uighur protesters, who then attacked Han Chinese. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.

Southern Thailand’s Turmoil Grows

A vehicle burned after a bomb attack in Thailand's Yala province, south of Bangkok, on Friday.

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/

Published: September 4, 2009

PAKA LUE SONG, Thailand — The soldiers patrolling this hamlet racked by insurgent violence measure their progress modestly: two years ago, when villagers saw them coming, they closed their shutters. Now, they say, most residents peer out of their wood-frame houses and offer strained smiles.

“The local people have started to open their hearts,” said Capt. Niran Chaisalih, the leader of a government paramilitary force garrisoned at the village school.

Paka Lue Song, only a 15-minute drive from the provincial capital, Pattani, is a starting point for Thailand’s influx of troops into the country’s troubled southern provinces, where ethnic Malay Muslims are battling for autonomy from Thailand’s Buddhist majority.

The number of people in security forces, including the army, the police and militias, in the region has doubled over the past two years to about 60,000, said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a leading expert on the insurgency and the associate dean at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani.

The huge increase in security forces initially helped reduce the violence as well as the death toll, which fell by 40 percent last year. But the number of killings has risen in recent months. More than 330 people have been killed so far this year, compared with 285 in the same period last year. Among the dead are civilians — including many Malays — soldiers and insurgents.

There have been so many killings in the three southern provinces — about 3,500 since 2004 — that the government began distributing a glossy brochure last year guiding victims’ families through the process of applying for government compensation.

Although the insurgency has been active for decades in the south, the current phase is considered particularly dangerous because the militants appear to have more of an Islamist agenda and because apparently sectarian attacks have strained the mutual tolerance between Buddhists and Muslims. It also comes at a time of deep political turmoil and social unease in Thailand that has hobbled several governments in the last three years and last year drove away many of the tourists who help sustain the country’s economy.

The surge in troops is palpable across the three southern provinces, only a few hours’ drive from Thailand’s main tourist beaches. There is now the equivalent of one soldier or police officer for every seven households. Soldiers in Humvees patrol the main roads, and police and military checkpoints screen motorists every few miles.

Sa-nguan Indrarak, the president of a federation of schoolteachers in the south, questions whether the army’s presence has been worth the $3.2 billion that the government has spent in the south over the past five years. (Teachers, obvious symbols of the Thai state, have been prime targets in the insurgency, with 95 killed since 2004.) Troops should leave and the government should train local security forces, who have a better understanding of the terrain, Mr. Sa-nguan argues.

Soldiers are resented in part because they behave inappropriately around both mosques and Buddhist temples, drinking, dancing and flirting, he said. But there have also been reports of human rights abuses; in January, Amnesty International published a report saying security forces “systemically engage in torture” — including using electric shocks — in their attempts to gather information and to force communities into withholding or withdrawing support for the rebels.

The insurgency has been distinct from other rebel movements in the region because the perpetrators remain shadowy, ill-defined groups that do not claim responsibility for the violence. Experts say they believe that the aims of the groups, among them the Pattani Islamic Mujahedeen Movement and the National Revolution Front-Coordinate, are to drive Buddhists from the area, discredit the government and put into place strict Islamic laws.

Although they say they believe that some financing for the groups comes from abroad, several counterterrorism experts in Thailand and elsewhere discount significant connections with other militant movements, like Al Qaeda and the Indonesian group Jemaah Islamiyah. The movement here, they say, appears to involve a localized struggle over territory and control overlaid with historical resentment over the domination of the Thai state.

Malay Muslims make up about 80 percent of the 1.7 million people living in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala Provinces.

The ouster of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a military coup in 2006 raised hopes that the generals who took over, including several senior Muslim officials, would be more conciliatory than Mr. Thaksin, who had blamed bandits for the violence and oversaw a hard-line policy toward the area. But despite an unprecedented apology for Mr. Thaksin’s iron-fisted policies by a military-installed prime minister, the insurgency has ground on.

In Paka Lue Song, a village considered dangerous enough that local journalists refuse to enter it, army medics are trying to win over villagers by giving them free medical treatment. As soldiers prepared to walk through the village on a recent day, one raised the antenna of a radio to hear a dispatcher issue a bulletin: a police officer had been ambushed in Yala Province.

Sumeth Pranphet/Associated Press
Soldiers aided victims of a bombing on Thursday in Pattani Province, southern Thailand, where ethnic Malay Muslims seek autonomy from the Buddhist majority.

The soldiers proceeded on their mission, handing out vitamin C to children.

Second Lt. Pongpayap Petwisai, a 27-year-old army doctor, walked through the village prescribing medication for eye infections, dispensing balms for aching muscles and monitoring blood pressure.

“What we are trying to do is get people on our side,” said Dr. Pongpayap, who was partly inspired to become a doctor by the 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan.”

More recently, the government has also stepped up its program of providing weapons to local militias and “village guards,” especially in Buddhist enclaves. These volunteers now number about 71,000, according to Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, who monitors the insurgency for the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent deadly conflicts.

She said she feared that the program could backfire, leading to vigilante killings if the weapons fell into the wrong hands.

Those who cooperate with the military are already at risk of being attacked by insurgents.

In Paka Lue Song, Dr. Pongpayap examined the injured hand of Gade Yusoh, a 57-year-old rubber tapper who soldiers said had been helpful to them.

Gunmen suspected of being insurgents fired into Mr. Gade’s house one evening three months ago while he was watching television. “I’m not afraid,” he said. His nervous laugh suggested otherwise.

It remains unclear if the programs aimed at winning the hearts and minds of villagers — a standard counterinsurgency practice — are working. When this reporter toured a neighboring village without the army medical team, local officials heaped scorn on the government initiative.

“They just want a photo opportunity,” said one local government official, who asked for anonymity for fear of retribution by the army. Other criticism has been more public. Outside a village Dr. Pongpayap visited, graffiti appeared the day after.

“Don’t come back here,” it said. “If you shoot one of us, we will shoot two of you.”

Swine flu: Death toll rises to 119 in India

http://www.newkerala.com/
New Delhi, Sept 5 : With two women in Hyderabad and a man in Pune dying of the deadly H1N1 virus, the death toll in swine flu in India rose to 119 Saturday.

Thirty-eight-year-old resident of Bholakpur area in Hyderabad, Rupa Devi, who was admitted to government-run Chest Hospital in Hyderabad last week, died Saturday, said health officials. The second death reported is that of Kadapa town resident Lakshmi Devi.

At present 126 swine flu cases have been reported in Hyderabad, said health department records.

The same day (Saturday), a man died of the deadly viral disease in Pune, taking the toll to 34 in the city.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday said swine flu has claimed at least 2,840 lives across the world and over 2.5 lakh of confirmed cases of the virus have been reported.

'At least 254,000 laboratory confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has been reported from all over the world, which means that actual number could be much more,' WHO's Gregory Hartl said at a news conference in Geneva.

'With the virus circulating so widely around the world, it is unfortunately to be expected that there will be deaths as the volume of cases and deaths is increasing,' he said.

According to the latest update issued by WHO, tropical regions of South and South-East Asia continue to experience geographically regional or widespread influenza activity in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Many countries in the region are reporting increasing or sustained high levels of respiratory disease, and a few, including Thailand and Brunei Darussalam, have begun to report a declining trend in the level of respiratory diseases, reported Times Now.

--IBNS

US, SKorea envoys discuss NKorean nuclear claim

South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, right, shakes hands with the U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth during their meeting at the South-North Dialogue Secretariat building in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2009. Washington's special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is in the region for discussions with China, South Korea and Japan over how to bring Pyongyang back to six-nation talks that the North has boycotted since earlier this year. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – Top nuclear envoys from South Korea and the United States held talks Saturday on a strategy to bring North Korea back to disarmament talks, a day after the North claimed it is in the final stages of enriching uranium.

U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and South Korean envoy Wi Sung-lac made no comments after their meeting. Bosworth later met with South Korea's minister in charge of relations with North Korea, and the Unification Ministry said the two agreed to closely cooperate in resolving the nuclear dispute.

Bosworth said in Beijing on Friday that any nuclear development in North Korea was a matter of concern.

"We confirm the necessity to maintain a coordinated position and the need for a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he said.

Bosworth is to leave for Tokyo on Sunday for similar consultations with Japanese officials. Chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, Sung Kim, plans to return to Seoul on Tuesday to meet with Russian nuclear envoy Grigory Logvinov.

North Korea also announced it is continuing to weaponize plutonium. Uranium offers an easier way to make nuclear weapons, and uranium-based bombs may work without requiring test explosions.

Washington shows no signs of easing pressure on North Korea through new U.N. sanctions, despite a series of conciliatory gestures by the North, including the release of two detained American journalists and a reported invitation to top U.S. envoys, including Bosworth, to visit Pyongyang.

"We are prepared for both dialogue and sanctions," the North said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council carried Friday by its official Korean Central News Agency. If some members of the council put "sanctions first before dialogue, we would respond with bolstering our nuclear deterrence first before we meet them in a dialogue," it said.

The North warned it would be left with no choice but to take "yet another strong self-defensive countermeasure" if the standoff continues. It did not elaborate.

A pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan urged the U.S. to hold talks with the North to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free. The Choson Sinbo newspaper, widely seen as a mouthpiece for North Korea, said time is not "limitless" for the U.S. to decide whether to hold talks or continue to pursue sanctions.

The U.S. has pressed for North Korea to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program with the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan.

North Korea has said it will only talk one-on-one with the Obama administration.

Bosworth said Friday the U.S. is willing to have direct talks, but only within the framework of the six-nation talks.

Analysts said the North appears to be trying to add urgency to the standoff.

"The North is saying that the more delayed U.S.-North Korea talks are, the greater its nuclear capabilities will become," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

Meanwhile, a report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said there is no sign of reconstruction at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which was partially disabled under an agreement reached in the six-nation talks. It cited commercial satellite imagery taken Aug. 10 by DigitalGlobe.

Separately, North Korea also said it will continue to seek self-defensive measures in response to an alleged U.S. move to develop a new bunker-buster bomb, KCNA reported. It claimed the U.S. is accelerating production of the bomb to destroy "underground nuclear facilities" in North Korea and Iran.

___

Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang and Wanjin Park in Seoul, Chi-Chi Zhang in Beijing and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Life in focus

Locals call it Smoky Mountain. Stung Meanchey Municipal Waste Dump is a 40-hectare tip on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, where thousands come to escape the crippling poverty of rural Cambodia. Here, amid the haze of toxic smoke from the smouldering garbage, they scavenge their living. Sonang, 13 (above), is one of the many children whose families live and work here. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

http://www.theage.com.au

CLAIRE HALLIDAY
September 6, 2009

WHEN Age photographer Simon O'Dwyer first visited Cambodia in 1997 to photograph the landmine clearing work being done by AusAID and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, he found a country devastated by war and death.

Under the command of Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated 2 million Cambodians, almost a quarter of the country's population.

The victims' ''crimes'' ranged from having an education or speaking a foreign language to being a soldier or government official from the previous regime. Entire families were imprisoned and murdered and, even today, the country remains forever changed, with generations lost to the Killing Fields.

Back in 1997, despite Cambodia's continuing struggles with poverty and disease and the pain still so visible on the scarred bodies of so many people, O'Dwyer also saw a resilience and hopeful dignity.

It was a resilience and hope that he explored further on a recent trip back - photographing the displaced people of Andong Village, the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and the historic temples of Angkor.

"For me, returning so many years later, the growth of tourism has taken a small part of that initial charm, but the spirit of the people and their hopes for a happier future remain," O'Dwyer says.

With more than 42 per cent of the country's population under the age of 15, Cambodia is a young country that is trying to move forward; taking what it can from a growing tourist market that draws international visitors to both the memorials of its grisly past and a raw beauty that decades of killing and conflict have not been able to destroy.

Next weekend, as part of the third Ballarat International Foto Biennale, a collection of photographs from O'Dwyer's two Cambodian journeys will be on display. It is just one of the exhibitions being staged at venues in and around the Ballarat Heritage and Arts precinct featuring at least 2000 images from up to 500 photographers.

For festival director Jeff Moorfoot, the decision to include O'Dwyer's work was based on his belief in the photographer's "humanist approach" to the subjects he photographs.

"There is a real empathy with his subjects, rather than sensationalism," Moorfoot says.

For more information, see ballaratfoto.org.

Beeline Launches New Tariff

http://www.dap-news.com/

Written by dap-news
Saturday, 05 September 2009

Beeline, a mobile telecommunication company, on Friday launched a new tariff plan for Cambodian consumers, the company said.

Benoit Janin, commercial director of Beeline in Cambodia, said that “Our new proposal is addressed to the consumers who want to save their money and enjoy the quality of international services with a reasonable price.” The offer is valid until December 31, 2009.

“We are happy to inform them about, the possibilities of Super Zero. It brings a lot of positive opportunities to all consumers,” he added.

The major of new tariff plans are: affordable price for voice traffic within network (0 cents after the first minute for calls within network, for 6 cents a minute to calls local destinations, and reasonable price of international calls as 5 cents a minute for calls like US and for 15 cents a minute for the most popular destination as well, Beeline added.

The new Beeline product is available in 1722 specialized sim-card sales outlets and 5 own sales offices.

Moreover, Beeline ranks among the top 10 international telecom brands and brings the best international quality standards to the Cambodian telecom industry, the company said.

The Beeline Company stressed that they currently serve 18 cities and provinces: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk, Battambang, Kandal, Kampong Cham, Takeo, Kep, Svay Rieng, Kampong Chhnang, Kratie, Koh Kong, Prey Veng, Kampong Speu, Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Thom, and Pursat.