Cambodia Still Keeps Using its Own Resources with A/H1N1 Curbing

http://www.dap-news.com

Written by DAP NEWS
Friday, 04 September 2009

Cambodian Health Ministry officials on Thursday confirmed that the Cambodian Government is still using its own and other related agencies’ resources. The confirmation comes after rumors that the Camb-odian Government has officially requested US$2 million from the World Bank (WB) to buy vaccine to help curb the spread of A/H1N1 in Cambodia.

“So far, we have not had an official request to any agency to add more resources in order to curb A/H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, spreading in Cambodia,” Morm Bun Heng told DAP News Cambodia on Thursday.

“We still use our existing resources from our government and some other related agencies,” he added.

Sok Touch, director of the Health Ministry’s Department of Disease and Communicable Control, also confirmed that the ministry is still using only its existing resources.

“We have not had a request to ask to add more resource to buy vaccine at all … we only focus on A/H1N1 protection,” he said.

The official confirmed that the ministry is currently implementing protection measures to avoid the spread of A/H1N1. The Singaporean Government on Tuesday donated a third scanner to Cambodia’s Health Ministry in order to curb the spread of A/H1N1, commonly called swine flu.

This is the third scanner that the Singaporean Government has provided to the Cambodian Health Ministry, Sok Touch told DAP News Cambodia on Monday.

According to the official, the number of A/H1N1 infections currently stands at 31 cases.

Cambodia began scanning passengers for fever at its two international airports on April 28, 2009 to stem the spread of swine flu. Staff at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports began screening passengers with thermal-imaging equipment then.

The onset of Cambodia’s cool season, rather optimistically termed a ‘winter’ by many locals, has prompted the Health Ministry to ramp up measures to prevent the spread of A/H1N1, a Health Ministry official told DAP News Cambodia on Friday.

Cambodia’s Health Ministry and the World Health Organization issued a statement on June 24, 2009 to document the kingdom’s first case.

The first infected person was a 16-year-old US citizen visiting Cambodia as part of a student group, arrived in Phnom Penh on June 19. She developed symptoms the following days.

The Cambodian Ministry of Health, in cooperation with World Health Organization (WHO), is striving to control the A/H1N1 situation, working to curb the spread of the virus and keeping the public well informed with updates.

Cambodia is the latest nation to be hit by A/H1N1 virus epidemic, after neighboring Thailand, Vietnam and Laos all confirmed cases.

The ministry again called on the public to practice good personal hygiene at all times to prevent the spread of Influenza A/H1N1.

Koh Pich Island Gets the Go Ahead

Koh Pich´s skyscrapers are soon to be completed

http://www.dap-news.com

Written by DAP NEWS
Friday, 04 September 2009

Phnom Penh’s development is continuing apace with investments in local and international companies, in high rises and other developments. Koh Pich (diamond island) is the latest.

The island originally appeared in the river near NagaWorld in 1984 and has become bigger and bigger since.

Formerly covered only with grass and anarchic ramshackle dwellings, the island is will see a major investment after the Cambodian Governm- ent’s sub degree approval to OCIC of Pung Kheav Se to make develop it into a new suburb.

Kep Chutema, Phnom Penh governor, told reporters that the island, formerly a den of iniquity and crime, now will be developed by the OCIC company.

“This island investment is author- ized properly by the Cambodian Government and this is to become a new city in Phnom Penh of which we are so proud as it is helping promote Cambodian livelihood in the near future,” said Kep Chutema.

Some questions have been raised over residents of the areas who have been evicted, environment concerns, especially the water flow which has changed.

The Environment Impact Assess- ment (EIA) was apparently deemed to be very important.

Ministry of Water Resource and Meteorology officials accompanied Phnom Penh authorities along with Investment company directors on Thursday had a tour for checking and following the process of developing the island.

Following investigations, Lim Kean Hor, Lake, River Limitation Committee head and Cambodian Mekong River Committee head, confirmed that “This company has not developed and invested in abuses of the Cambodian Government’s authority.”

However, the minister asked the company president to build bank protections to avoid erosion that could affect other local residents.

“Two years ago, my investment faced some problems with the citizens who lived along the river bank as we had to need their some part of land size to build bank protection so that all of them were unhappy,” Pung Kheav Se told reporters. “We have to keep wide face of water flow and if some part of land is occurring, we have to cut it off in order to avoid flood which leads to river bank collapse.”

“This bank protection is to be built for 3 km soon,” Lim Kean Hor said. “The water flow from Mekong through Bassac River is very narrow so that some part of land has to be taken off.”

The investment company head also confirmed that his companies has so far spent around US$55 million on the island, though progress has slowed due to the impact of the global economic crisis.

“Some expert officials working in Environment Impact Assessment from China and Vietnam showed their similar result of EIA with Cambodian expert officials.”

Cambodian expert officials must now be careful to follow the assessment of this island investment as it could have major implications for the Mekong River.

The child sex trade in Cambodia

http://children.foreignpolicyblogs.com

By Cassandra Clifford
Wednesday, September 2

Children around the world are forced into the sex trade, very often by their own families, mislead by promises of economic opportunity or pushed by desperation. The commercial sex industry is fueled by poverty, but driven by demand and while the issue of poverty must be addressed, so must the those who prey on women and children such as through the sex tourism industry.

One of the many countries ravished by sex trafficking is Cambodia. Organizations such , as UNICEF, ECPAT and Save the Children, estimate that there are anywhere from from 50,000 to 100,000 women and girls in the sex trade in Cambodia. Of those in the commercial sex industry in the country many are children, some as young as only a few years old. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) “the majority (52.2%) of female sex trafficking survivors identified were under the age of 17 at the time of trafficking”.

As the global recession continues, children are increasingly vulnerable to sex trafficking. In Phnom Penh, which has about a quarter of the countries sex industry, children who are begging and peddling are increasingly at risk. Many children roam around the city’s Riverside were pedophiles and human traffickers are also known to prey on their innocence.

Little girls who should be giggling and playing with dolls are offering sex in child like terms with happy smiles, “yum-yum, boom-boom”. The normality of it all what is more shocking as children, some as young as four or six, who know nothing other than a life of sex and exploitation. A child who knows more about sex than toys, who think that grown men everywhere desire little girls as their play things…this is the sad reality that is life for many children in Cambodia and across the globe.

In February 2008 the Cambodian government enacted a “Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation”, which was done mostly after years of pressure from the United States. One such form of pressure coming from the US was the country’s low ratings on the State Departments notorious TIP Report, the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, placed Cambodia on the Tier 2 Watch List. Following the country’s first step to use legal means to impact and deter trafficking, they imposed ban on foreign marriages, in March 2008. The ban was enacted largely in response to a sharp increase in marriages between South Korean men and poor Cambodian women, many who were not destined to newly wedded bliss, but a life forced into sexual slavery. Since the law was enacted Cambodian authorities have conducted numerous raids and cracked down on street prostitution, however the crack down according to many non-profits, has done little to help the actual situation, let alone the victims.

For more eye opening incite into the Cambodian sex trade and those whom it takes as its victims in its unrelenting path, see the following video:



Women and girls are not the only victims of trafficking and slavery in Cambodia, nor is the sex industry the only exploitative industry the country has to a great deal of work to do in order to combat. One such area is labor, such as seen in the recent SIREN case analysis: Cambodian men and boys exploited on long-haul fishing boats, English PDF