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.