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Phnom Penh Noir

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:38:14 +0100

First there was Bangkok Noir, a collection of stories released last year, and by this autumn Phnom Penh Noir will join the bookshelf. Readers who relish a journey into the dark side discovered noir long ago. We are just starting that journey in Southeast Asia.

In Phnom Penh noir writers and artists – including Roland Joffe, John Burdett, Suong Mak, Bopha Phom, Kosal Kheiv – and the band Krom are the midwives delivering Phnom Penh into the world of noir.

These artists bring to life influential figures, gangsters, fraudsters, shady foreigners, crooked NGOs and corrupt officials.

It is said there is a noir movement taking root in Southeast Asia. Phnom Penh Noir offers evidence of this.

Noir has no one definition. It is used to describe the moody atmosphere of films, fiction, paintings, photographs and music. What is that mood? As an artistic expression, the unifying theme revolves around those suffering injustice and unfairness; ordinary people driven into a corner as they watch their hopes, dreams and lives evaporate without a trace.

In the soon-to-be-released album Krom: Songs from the Noir, the Khmer and English lyrics in songs like Ying, Phnom Penh and Tango Traffic are pure cries from the heart. Christopher Minko and the other members of Krom are part of a long ancient tradition of ballad singers, who went from village to village with their songs. These are folk tales as black as night. Sophea Chamroeun’s voice rings clean, liquid and clear like a troubadour, and Minko’s voice brings a haunting, elegant and soulful depth. Their interpretation of the lyrics transport you straight into the heartland of noir. She’s singing from the noir hymnbook: there is no way out. No escape. No hero who rides to the rescue.

The voices. The lyrics. They linger long after the song ends. Leaving you in the world of lost souls with personal struggle for freedom and dignity.

Warning: Krom’s music offers you a ride down a dark road. A door is open. It is up to you whether to get in and take the ride. It will be an experience you won’t forget. Krom makes you realise we are all on the same road, same journey, same end and we share common dreams that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Noir wakes us up from the mass delusion of mass culture, from the greed, brutality, and cruelty. By looking at the underbelly of society you start to understand society has become all underbelly. Thugs, con men, fast talkers, smiling hit men, people on the make, shills and prisoners are in the back of the car you just got in.

The driver?
You be the judge.
Krom offers you passport. The visa is stamped inside. Of course you understand once you hear this music, you’ve entered a place that you can never quite leave.

Songs from the dark

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:34:14 +0100

In a non-descript recording studio at the end of a twisting alley off Street 246, three musicians have been spending the last year and a half recording a collection of 14 original songs that rely solely on a guitar and two voices: one from a man who is well aware of vocal limits, and another from a young Khmer woman who may have none.

Their album, Krom: Songs from the Noir, will be released on iTunes at the end of this month, but early versions have already caught the ear of the noir writers and artists based in Bangkok, and reached as far as Hollywood where Roland Jóffe, director of The Killing Fields, has been providing feedback and encouragement to the trio. Videos of two of the Khmer-language tracks – “Bangkok Tattoo” and “Don’t Go Away” – are already on the regular play lists of Cambodian TV stations, and Krom’s 22-year-old lead singer Sophea Chamroeun – a classically trained vocalist who also flits back and forth between Aspara and folk dance – is quickly getting accustomed to being recognised in public.

“I like it,” she says.
A second acoustic album is also in the works: the lyrics have been already written by long-term expat Chris Minko, who initiated the project. His is the voice that like, say, Leonard Cohen’s, was not intended for singing, but still manages to tap the psyche with scathing authority:

So welcome to our daughters
We breed them on our farms
Open up and take them
In your ageing sagging arms
Yeah, welcome to our daughters
We breed them on our farms

Minko also brings the Mekong Delta Blues to the disillusioned mood the music is steeped in: he’s a musician who needs to abandon himself in tunes. Krom’s passion-driven aesthetic connects with the upsurge in noir writing and art in the region over the past decade, as well as Khmer music. “This is a genuine attempt to fuse Southeast Asian music with Mississippi Delta Blues,” says Minko.

Notes on noir
Noir, as a genre, flourished in American crime movies during the 1940s and '50s. Often a jaded detective began investigating a sex crime and ended up unraveling a web of deeply ingrained, widespread corruption that led to powerful and influential figures: tycoons and politicians. At its most insightful, the noir protagonist not only realised there was no escape, he (they are always men) discovered he was an almost necessary part of the web. This genre has been revived in English-language novels in Southeast Asia by writers like Christopher G Moore and John Burdet, both of whom have achieved literary acclaim and bestseller sales. It has also inspired painters like Chris Coles and numerous photographers, especially those who shoot in black and white.

One source of their disillusionment – the exploitation of Southeast Asia, primarily its women, by western men – permeates Krom, and it is a safe bet to say that the atmospheric tunes from the upcoming album, especially the seven-minute long Ying, will make it onto at least one soundtrack of the movies that will inevitably follow the novels.

The sound
Krom’s pared-down melodies are more complex than they sound at first, inviting a closer listen that first intrigues and eventually reawakens the intuitive (and difficult to articulate) sense that there is something disturbingly wrong with the way things are. “These are the songs of a 56-year-old man whose voice has been damaged by two many cigarettes and too much whiskey,” says Minko, who no longer drinks. “I don’t get involved in all the hype and the bullshit [of the music business]. The lyrics are based on 16 years of observation here [primarily Thailand and Cambodia].”

“I want to expose the delusion Western men have that Asian women 30 years younger than them are in love with them,” says Minko, who is a fan of music from Issan, the impoverished Northeast region of Thailand where most of Bangkok’s sex workers are from. “It’s nothing but social and economic exploitation. It’s all about the power dynamic.”

The lyrics are accompanied by skilled musicianship, and it is this that the musicians want to be judged on, they say. Minko practices guitar three hours a day to keep his fingers agile. He’s also teamed up with sound technician Sarin Chhuon after a failed attempt to work with an expat producer, and says Sarin had an intuitive sense of the exact sound he was after.

Sarin also makes the videos and he’s opted for realism: Sophea wandering through cluttered markets and alleys, or climbing stairwells in The Building, where she was born.

“Most Khmer videos focus on wealthy people, but we shoot basic scenes: markets, alleyways. We want to show a message, to get people to look at what’s around them,” Sarin explains. “There are enough videos with Lexus’s in them that Cambodia doesn’t need another.”

Enter Sophea
Sarin also introduced Minko to Sophea after a Philippine singer backed out of the project once she read the lyrics. “She was Christian,” Minko says, explaining that she felt uncomfortable singing about sex workers. Sophea didn’t understand the English lyrics at first, but Minko was impressed by how quickly she learned to weave her voice around his, eventually overshadowing him with subtle lightness and gently pushing him to the background.

“His voice is very strange,” Sophea said at the recording studio earlier this week. She also found the blues guitar playing unfamiliar – “we don’t have this style here” – and found it a challenge to adapt her vocal technique to it. “I had to think a lot about it,” she says. “It sounds very simple, but it is very hard to sing to.”

Sophea is tiny, but at 22 she’s already a dynamo draped in Khmer feminine politeness: there are flashes of toughness in her eyes, determination and a growing awareness of the power of her voice. She also writes the lyrics for the Khmer songs, taking about a week, she says, to write each one.

“We’ve only just started with Sophea’s potential,” Minko says. For the country-tinged songs on the album he encouraged her to listen to Patsy Cline. She’s familiar with pop ballads and various genres but not enough to name them.

She’s at the stage now where Minko can hum a tune and she can return with her lyrics that match it. She’s also learned the meaning of the lyrics of the song Ying, which made her predecessor race from the studio.

No like but she do,
No eat, no money
Love you like monkey
I not lie you, I talk true

When she sings this chorus for the final time in the song she ends it with a wail, like Billie Holiday does at the end of Strange Fruit, a song about the lynching of black men in the South. It’s not an identical wail, nor nearly as disturbing, but it shows Sophea can move in a similar direction.

For the next album, Minko sees himself shifting into the background. Sophea’s voice will dominate. She may be tiny, but her voice goes beyond Krom, it's more optimistic than noir: it carries the rhythm of Mekong jazz, in both seasons.

Seeing stars at Sofitel

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:30:49 +0100

Say what you will about the Michelin-rating system, but getting a star creates buzz, especially when its earned in Lyon, which ranks among the highest stars per capita in the world: 20 in a population of 480,000 according to one estimate. It was thus easy to understand the excitement generated by the visit of Jerome Laurent, who earned a star for his Arles (close enough to Lyon) restaurant, Le Cilantro, in 2007.

Laurent was brought in by Sofitel and cooked a five course set menu with wine pairings on the first evening and was in the kitchen of Do Forni offering a slightly altered menu the rest of last week. US$60 is a lot to spend on a dinner in Cambodia, but considering that the four-course menu with wine for the rest of the week was $95 and his tasting menu in Arles is 95 euros without wine it seemed as good an attempt as any to see how these dinners actually shape up.

Laurent titles his current tasting menu at Le Cilantro “Voyage”, his inspiration is a seafood-heavy Mediterranean meets Asian, but he also likes to throw in hearty cuts of meat for good measure. The dinner at Sofitel took a similar course: overall the food was good, very good, but not quite transporting. If anything it was overshadowed by the wines, a stunning selection of pairings compiled by Darren Gall of AK Wines.

The evening started with pleasant but forgettable canapés in the lobby, accompanied by seemingly bottomless glasses of a less forgettable Champagne de Saint Gall Premier Cru. Three to four in before having been seated we were optimistic about what would follow.

With 64 people seated, the normally cavernous Do Forni felt downright cozy: a much more convivial dining room.

The first course, a crab royale (think deconstructed crab cake) sat atop a briny green-pea mousse and gelée; it looked and tasted like the ocean and was finely complemented by a full and floral Fournier “l’Ancienne Vigne” Sancerre. Next, squid came in two ways: with the flavour and texture sautéed out of it and in a stunningly citrusy and creamy croquette. A Paul Blanck Schlossberg, an Alsatian Riesling, cut through it perfectly. The French wine was rich but acidic enough to overcome the unchecked sweetness that plagues its German cousins.

Juicy scallops sitting in a subtle kaffir-lime broth were so plump they had some people questioning how local they were. Paired with a steely Cote de Lechet Chablis the course was a fresh intermezzo for what followed.

The beef, a hunk of Australian sirloin that felt a bit generic, was well cooked and Laurent coated it in a walnut crust, but I can’t remember a banquet meal at a large hotel here that didn’t end in steak and this felt no different. An oxtail hash, which tastes like some ethereally rich slow cooked brisket, accompanied it. I would have happily traded my steak for another portion. A bold, complex Ripa Sinistra Syrah from Domaine Cuilleron brought out more flavours.

After the meat onslaught dessert was a write-off: deconstructed apple pie complete with nutmeg foam felt a bit outdated and meh. Roussilliere, a dessert wine also from Domaine Cuilleron, rounded things out nicely though. Some mignardises or petits fours would have been nice given the chocolate shop you are paraded past on the way in: they were requested and promised but never materialised.

Still, at the end of the night we are in for about $70 in total and immensely satisfied. Sofitel has a slew of similar offerings lined up and while there is no guarantee what the chef will bring to the table the pieces are in place. Go thirsty. If one thing is certain it’s that vineyards are taking the Asian market seriously and happy to send over some of their best offerings. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Guest chef Jerome Laurent at Do Forni, Sofitel, five-course set menu with wine pairings $70 with tax and service.

Pura Vida, Koh Rong

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:10:05 +0100

From behind her check-in desk at Rome international airport and between gritted teeth, Beatrice Falchini would resentfully wish happy holidaymakers a wonderful journey as they headed to departures.

Processing hundreds of passengers and their baggage every day, she daydreamed about escaping the rat race and enjoying a simpler life.

Four years ago, she and her boyfriend, Fabrizio Polici, accidentally discovered the unspoilt island paradise of Koh Rong. While travelling in Laos, Beatrice was craving the sea and opening Google maps, she digitally swooped over the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, hunting via satellite for crystalline waters and white sand. Off the coast of Sihanoukville, she spotted Koh Rong “shaped like a butterfly” and the couple set out to find this beautiful island gem.

Beatrice and Fabrizio fell in love with Koh Rong and last March they abandoned Italy and moved to the island.

In January, they opened Pura Vida Resort on Long Set beach. So far, they have only their restaurant and bar and two wooden beachside bungalows: construction has started on a third.

Their focus is on simplicity and comfort and, indeed, the accommodation is basic, but clean and very comfortable. Quality mattresses have been carefully selected, a big bathroom includes all the necessities and a decent mosquito net ensures that your sleep won’t be disrupted by any irritating insects. They don’t plan to expand very much; they value the tranquillity of the beach and the attention they can afford to only a small handful of guests.

Aside from Pura Vida’s three-and-a-half buildings, the beach is an entirely unpopulated four-kilometre stretch of luminous fine sand, lapped by crystal clear sea which shades from bright turquoise to navy blue. Behind the beach, lush green jungle reaches up into the hills. There are no sounds other than the waves, the wildlife and the rush of cool sea breeze through the foliage.

At night, the stars are radiant, almost matched by the sparking phosphorescence in the sea.

There is little or no mobile reception or internet connection on the island, which is a two to three hour boat trip from the mainland, leaving nothing at all to distract from total relaxation. The warm water is perfect for swimming and there are decent opportunities for snorkelling and diving around the island.

The surroundings are sublime, but it is the fine Italian cooking which makes Pura Vida truly spectacular. Both passionate (and excellent) cooks, Beatrice and Fabrizio proudly prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for their guests. Theirs is the best Italian food I have found in Cambodia, probably in no small part thanks to the care and dedication invested in their kitchen.

They painstakingly source or import Italian pasta, quality extra-virgin olive oil, parmesan and balsamic vinegar as well as perfectly soft Italian flour for baking mango cakes. I ate one for breakfast every morning of our stay, sprinkled indulgently with chocolate chips. They use only the freshest ingredients and meals are prepared to order, depending on what produce arrived on that morning’s boat.

There is no menu at Pura Vida. Beatrice will describe the contents of her larder to diners and suggest potential combinations, all of which will make the mouth water. Her squid with fresh tomato was cooked to perfection and spaghetti with bacon was delicious. Chicken escalope in white wine sauce was incredible and accompanied by a huge mixed salad and crispy potatoes seasoned with rosemary. Pura Vida has a good selection of wines and plenty of cold, local Klang beers. Priced around US$7 per main course, the cost is a bit higher than other restaurants on the island, but the quality more than justifies a couple of extra dollars.
At $50 a night, Pura Vida’s bungalows are also significantly more expensive than other options on the island, but the pristine seclusion and wonderful service makes it worthwhile for those not counting the pennies on a backpacker budget.
There are major plans under way for developing Koh Rong: a ring road, golf course and casino have all been mooted. Go now; it still remains a paradise with near perfect espresso.

Behind the scenes at the Bophana Centre

Fri, 25 May 2012 09:07:03 +0100

An archivist at the Bophana Centre shows a part of the film collection the centre has gathered over the past seven years. Photograph: Joseph Pocs/Phnom Penh Post

In the last 12 months, the Legend and Sabay Cineplex theatres have opened their doors, a committee has been established to formally submit local films for consideration at the Academy Awards, and Lost Loves, Chhay Bora’s feature about a family’s life under the Khmer Rouge, has won acclaim both in Cambodia and across the region.

As a new generation of aspiring auteurs cut their teeth and look confidently to the future, the Bophana Centre has spent the last seven years working tirelessly to preserve the country’s rich cinematic heritage.

The state of the local industry today is a far cry from what Rithy Panh found when he began piecing together documentaries in the country 20 years ago. The acclaimed director of S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine was shocked to find that reels of long-forgotten Cambodian films were being left to decay.

At the time, the Ministry of Culture had no means of providing storage for film reels, which require low temperatures and dry air for preservation. “Materials were disappearing very fast,” says the centre’s communications manager, Stanislas Touzet. “There was no existing archive centre run by the government. Only private organisations had the capacity to preserve reels and tape about Cambodia’s film history.”

Fearing that without action Cambodia’s pre-1970s film history would be lost to the world, Rithy Panh founded the centre in 2005 alongside Ieu Pannakar, who was responsible for the cinematic division of the Culture Ministry. Since then, the centre has eagerly sought film material from institutions and private collections across the world to digitise and preserve for future generations.

The breadth of the centre’s digital archives is remarkable. Its oldest cinematic content dates back to 1899, when the Association Frères Lumière shot grainy footage of a mounted Royal procession along what is now Sothearos Boulevard. The centre also boasts a collection of films directed by a young King Sihanouk, when the film industry benefitted from his patronage and indulgence at its height in the 1960s.

The centre’s outlook is very much anchored in the desire of its founders to provide educational and historical materials for Cambodians. In addition to the work of the digital archivist, a dubbing team translates all foreign-language material into Khmer. Accessibility is key: regular Khmer-language films are screened for visiting school groups and computers with access to the archives are available for free to the public.

As the centre’s archives have grown, its projects have become more ambitious in promoting its acquisitions. A travelling road show organised by the centre last year toured all 23 provinces, attracting a viewership of 53,000 people.

With a priority given to educating the young, Touzet says that the centre is a vital tool in igniting students’ passions for the history and culture in which they find themselves.

“Cambodian people are very interested in cinema, and this is an invaluable resource for them,” says Touzet.

The Bophana Centre is located at #64 St 200.

7 pythons

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:58:50 +0100

A python guards her eggs in a hollow beneath a wall of Phum Thmei Pagoda, where seven pythons share the comppound with monks and pagado boys. Photograph: Roth Meas/Phnom Penh Post

Although it’s possible to domesticate some deadly wild animals, most people would prefer to see the deadlier members of the animal kingdom kept in cages, but at a pagoda about eight kilometres past the airport on Highway No 4 seven pythons have free rein.

The pythons have lived at Phum Thmei Pagoda as pets and so far there have been no nasty incidents with the monks they share the compound with, or the visitors who gather for prayer.

“We didn’t catch them,” said Venerable Sor Chamroeun, the head monk at the pagoda. “All of them came to live here on their own. They show themselves to us quite often by hanging themselves off the buildings or crawling along the ground. One of the smaller pythons even hid inside my bag once.”

Four of the pythons are quite large, and Sor Chamroeun believes that these are all female. The biggest is about 70 kilos. The three smaller pythons are believed to be male. Sometimes they play with the pagoda boys or the monks, but now is their breeding season and three of the pythons are coiled over their eggs.

“They are gentle. We can touch them like dogs or cats. But right now they don’t want us to get close to their nests because they are protecting their eggs,” the monk says. “They always make a warning sound when we get too close.”

The eggs will hatch over the next two months and Sor Chamroeun intends to let the offspring roam freely, saying he does not believe they will cause a problem.

He is well aware that pythons are dangerous and can swallow other animals whole, even those that exceed their width.

“Yes, it’s dangerous! As I was told by my predecessors, they can swallow our bodies if their track size is the same as our footprint. But one or two of the pythons here are bigger than our footprints, so they can even swallow a cow,” Sor Chamroeun says

He is not worried, however: the pythons have ample prey besides the people who reside in or visit the pagoda.

Mao Koemly, the pagoda’s caretaker, says that he feeds the monkeys, dogs, cats and turtles kept at the pagoda, but the pythons are able to find food freely.

“I have never fed the pythons because they can catch food by themselves. Our pythons eat only rats, and there are a lot of rats here, so they don’t even need to go outside of the pagoda compound,” he explains.

“People who live around here know that the pythons belong to our pagoda, so they don’t kill them when they occasionally see them inside their house.”

Despite their relaxed attitude to their reptilian neighbours, all of the caretakers and monks in the pagoda are equipped with walkie-talkies so that they can alert each other to anything out of the ordinary.

Monsoon makeup

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:47:44 +0100

As any woman in Cambodia at this time of year knows, looking good in tropical heat is no easy task. The challenges are manifold: within an hour of application, any make-up is sluiced from my face by the sweat produced by simple exertions such as sipping a glass of water; the dust and pollution in the city’s air often causes unsightly skin blemishes; the jet engine wind blowing through the streets turns my tresses into a bird’s nest of tangles within a short moto ride.

Luckily, as the full force of the rainy season approaches, Brooke Scobie from the Dollhouse salon on Street 322, was on hand this week with a bulging box of brushes and plenty of tips for all of us on looking cool in hot and humid Cambodia. As she gave me my monsoon make-over I kept careful notes.

SKIN CARE

DO wash you face as much as possible with cold water. As your pores open up to help you cool down, dust and dirt has plenty of opportunity to clog them up and cause spots and blemishes.
DON’T use soap to wash your face more than twice a day, too much can cause irritation

THE BASE

DON’T use a heavy foundation. It won’t stay in place and will actually block your pores and make you sweat more.
DO use a tinted moisturiser or mix your regular foundation with normal moisturiser for light coverage. Use some concealer to disguise any blemishes.
DO use a powder to seal your foundation in place.
DON’T repeatedly apply powder throughout the day; it will become caked and very visible.
DO use blotting papers to remove excess sweat and sebum. If you don’t have any in your handbag, separate the two sheets of a tissue and use one to dab your t-zone.

EYES

DO pay attention to your eyebrows. In humid climates, when you can’t wear much eye make-up, framing your face with a well defined brow is essential. Use a waxy eyebrow pencil and an eyebrow brush to shape yours.
DON’T moisturise your eyelids. They’re one of the oiliest parts of your body and if they’re too greasy, make-up won’t stay put.
DO prime your eyelids with a neutral, matt eye shadow.
DO seal your eyeliner with black eye shadow to avoid panda eyes.

BRONZER

DO use a little bronzer to contour your face.
DON’T overdo it! Too much bronzer as well as a natural tropical sheen can be too much.

LIPS

DO use a lip balm with protective SPF.
DON’T use too much lip gloss. It can melt on to your chin and risks leaving you looking like you’re dribbling.

EXTRA TIPS

DO use a light spritz of hairspray to fix your finished make-up in place, particularly if you’re heading for a big night out and plenty of dancing.
DO stick to neutral shades. As brights fade, they can end up looking blotchy on your skin, natural tones blend more easily.
DON’T use waterproof mascara unless you really need too. It’s difficult to remove and can damage your eyelashes.
DON’T dip your brushes in your make-up pots. Lots of bugs thrive in hot, wet places. Use the end of your brush to scoop up enough product and use the back of your hand as a palate before you apply.

Local spices key to race for culinary crown

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:38:02 +0100

Topaz chef Sopheak Pov will be testing his skills against the best in world this week. Photograph: Calvin Yang/Phnom Penh Post

When Sopheak Pov was sent to France to work with Michelin-starred chef Alain Dutournier two years ago, it was meant to be much more than a learning stint with the one of the top chefs in French contemporary cuisine.

He was tipped to succeed Alain Darc, a veteran French chef and former executive chef of Topaz Restaurant. The then 61-year-old, better known to his staff as “Papa”, was retiring after two years at the helm of the award-winning restaurant’s kitchen, famed for its culinary innovations.

“It is not an easy job. I am responsible for every single decision that goes around the kitchen,” said executive chef Sopheak, who assumed the position in 2010. “It was difficult because I had to learn everything in a short amount of time.”

Two years and many satisfied customers later, the 36-year-old has gone on to become one of the most promising chefs in the country. He is one of a quartet of chefs who will be representing Cambodia in the global finals of the MLA Black Box Culinary Challenge in Tasmania, Australia.

The team, comprising Sopheak, Sun Chanrotana, Sek Sivanthonn and Hem Phyra, made history last year when they captured the gold medal at the national stage of the Black Box challenge held in Phnom Penh.

The victory granted the quartet from Topaz Restaurant a ticket to compete at the biennial competition, which will be held this week.

“It is an honour to be able to represent the country against world-class chefs from around the world,” the former Comme á la Maison and River House Restaurant chef said. “It is a very heavy responsibility. But I believe we can pull it off.” After taking over the reins, Sopheak, who has been with Topaz Restaurant for the past 10 years, has devised a fusion of European and Asian flavours in his dishes.

To date, he has come up with six to seven new dishes created to popular acclaim, such as the lobster ravioli in Kampot green peppercorn and poached Asian silver seabass with spring vegetables and an infusion of ginger and chocolate fondant.

“The experiences that I have received so far have given me new insights into different styles of cooking,” Sopheak said. “My aim is to bring some local flavour to the dishes from around the world.”

Despite his recent successes, the ever humble Sopheak insists that he would not be where he is today if not for the strong team of sous chefs and assistants that run the kitchen together with him day in day out.

“We face different challenges every day. Some are big, some are small. The important thing is that we have to work as a team,” Sopheak added. “Only then can we achieve greater things.”.

7 Questions: Nicolaus Mesterharm

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:18:31 +0100

Meta House founder Nicolaus Mesterharm chats with 7Days about documenting transitions in Cambodia and the role artists can play in changing perceptions about the Kingdom.

One change over the last decade is that in the evening city parks are now full of people doing aerobics and playing badminton. What other signs of transition strike you since you arrived here a decade ago?
Cambodians nowadays are more fashionable. What is also striking are all these youngsters with iPads and iPhones. There’s a car dealer selling Ferraris opposite Meta House where there once was a big inner-city slum community (Dey Krahom).

There’s also a generational divide that some say could spark rapid change. Do you get a sense of this from your work with young filmmakers?
Most of the young filmmakers we work with come from the urban middle class. They don’t live anymore “like frogs in a well” (Cambodian proverb). They understand how things work in neighbouring countries and the outside world. They are (mostly) more curious then their parents.

Meta House screens a lot of films from students, but there are few other outlets for them. What can be done to change this?
For the most part, Cambodian audiences don’t like docus. They think they’re boring. TV stations want to sell ad time. This is why – like in the West – entertainment formats are preferred. Young filmmakers must learn to produce content-based films, which are also entertaining to change viewers’ perception.

Cambodian visual art is getting plenty of attention lately; do you expect this to increase?
International art dealers and collectors are always looking for something new and exotic. For the first time a Cambodian artist (Pich Sopheap) is going to exhibit at DOCUMENTA in Germany this year. This might trigger even more interest., but only the quality of Cambodian contemporary artworks will determine if this interest is sustainable.

What shifts have you noticed in visual arts in terms of technique, subject and confidence?
Professional Cambodian artists were always good in terms of technique. They were weak in terms of concepts and messages when we started Meta in 2007. Members of the new generation are starting to express their feelings, thoughts and perceptions of sometimes pressing issues. However, self-censorship is an issue that most of them must learn to overcome.

The narrative about Cambodia in industrialised nations seems to lag reality more than it does for many other developing countries. What role can artists play in updating Cambodia’s narrative?
The outside world perceives Cambodia still as a war-torn country, landmine-infested, unsafe, poor. This is due to negative media reports, mostly focusing on Khmer Rouge, trafficking etc. We encourage young colleagues to update the (foreign) audience about the country’s recent development.

Are you noticing a shift in subject and technique in Cambodian documentaries? If so, where is it leading?
When we started Meta there were almost no Cambodian documentaries, done by Cambodians (except Rithy Panh). Most films were shot by foreigners (such as me!). The last few years have seen the emergence of small docu scene (partly under the Meta House umbrella). Nowadays young filmmakers must find their own styles. They must find subjects, which are not NGO-related (coz this is the sector, which produces most of the local docus). They must learn that docus don’t always need to deal with big issues such as climate change or safe access to water. Sometimes small daily life stories from the neighborhood also make a great film and will tell the audience about the realities in this country today.

'Welcome home husband!'

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:12:45 +0100

Photograph: Photo Supplied

Moepara is the vision of friends Yamamoto, Katsuyama and Rin, who share a mutual obsession for Japanese Manga cartoons. After seeing the mushrooming industry of maid cafes in Japan, the trio decided to bring the first Moe (pronounced Moe-eh) maid bar to Phnom Penh.

Moe is a Japanese slang word with multiple suggestive meanings. It’s the ability of a doe eyed ‘cute’ character to instill in an audience an irrational desire to adore them, comfort them or to evoke a familial protective instinct. It’s also a pun that literally means “budding”, as in a plant that’s about to flower; consequently it’s often used to describe the potential of a young girl’s developing beauty. The Moe personality typically reflects an “innocent” outlook on something vital, such as romance.

It’s with this in mind that the Moepara team have opened the first role-play Moe maid bar in Cambodia. “We basically want you to leave the stresses of the world behind you when you enter this place so that you can become yourself. It’s a big game where you can come and be who you want, before going back to your real life,” says Yamamoto.

Before entering the bar, the concept is explained to the customers outside before they come in. Sex tourists are expressly not welcome; this is not a girly bar. A maid then appears with the greeting “Welcome home husband/mistress!” and shows you into your new home.

Rin explains to me how she feels in her maid outfit. “I want to make people happy as friends. The minute someone comes through the door, they’re instantly close as friends. Everybody should be getting on and having a great time together. I want to create fun here like a family. I know when I dress like this it makes everyone feel better. I feel strong with their attention.”

As with most Moe bars, Moepara have their own unique gimmick. There are a variety of different role-play personas for you to interact with in this bar that you can select from a menu.

Along with the maids there are also cheerleaders, policewomen, tartan kilted schoolgirls and, bizarrely, a human polyester Budweiser can. You may even bring your own costume and character into the bar if he or she interacts respectfully with the other characters.

Interestingly, as well as the usual fare of a well stocked bar, Moepara also offers snowcones and hot dogs as bar snacks, while electronic dartboards and board games are available to play with your maid. There’s a constant visually imaginative screening of action dominated Manga animated cartoons silently projected onto the far wall. Japanese electro pop music plays unobtrusively and whenever the gong is donged all the maids get a free drink to great excitable clatter. Performances from the maids will also be a regular feature on their stage.

“It was our dream to bring a taste of Moe to Southeast Asia,” says Lin. “We found Vietnam too prohibitive and naturally gravitated towards Cambodia with its more libertine attitudes. We want to inspire people to desire and experience the differences in Japanese culture. It was an idea that has always been alive in my head.”

Moepara (Opens June 1st)
When: Daily 5pm-2am
Where: #40 St 130

Thanks to Kameron Lightly for kindly providing Japanese translation.

No going back for retreat centre

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:08:28 +0100

Joel’s retreat is evolving into a self sufficient utopia. Photograph: Claire Byrne/Phnom Penh Post

Hariharalaya is growing. In more ways than one. The popular retreat centre is evolving into something of an eco-village and spurring it on is its ever-fascinating and permanently chilled out founder, Joel Altman.

Sitting down for (vegan, of course) breakfast with Joel is something of an enlightening experience. A linguist by trade, he speaks eight languages, and can read fourteen. Sign language is his next endeavour; he likes silence, he once spent six months immersed in it. “You must have gone crazy?” I question. “That’s the point,” he retorts.

Joel never set out with lofty plans for Hariharalaya, the centre by the Bakong temple opened less than two years ago. For him its success and growth is all part of a greater plan than his own. “I find that things move by themselves. If we’re not open then it becomes stagnant. It’s been this continual manifestation and growth since the first day,” he explains. “It’s not this pre-pro grammed commercial style retreat or anything, every day is fresh, new andunexpected.”

Most unexpected for Joel was the retreat’s recent growth spurt. Content with the house and its small garden, four months ago the centre was given a plot of land next door. Since then, new dorms have been constructed, eco bath-rooms created, and last week’s first ever perma-blitz saw the plans for creating what Joel refers to as an Eden get fully underway. “We’re going to really do biodiversity, we’re not just men, this isn’t just a human trip, a human planet. There are infinite species from the insects to the trees from all the kingdoms that can teach us so much about ourselves and life.”

With over 80 trees brought in just last week alone, he now wants to demonstrate how land here can be used for more than just rice production. “This was all natural forest up to 15 or 18 years ago and it was cut down. We want to bring nature back into the rice fields. So people can do more planting, get a bit more out of the land. There’s a lot of water, but we can really use water to our advantage if we direct it where to go. Then it’s not a problem, it’s a resource. Everything is a resource, even what we consider waste,” he explains, “That’s what the new aspect of permaculture and deep ecology is about, integrating all aspects of life.” Over the next six weeks, Joel will be welcoming guests to permaculture workshops working with resident expert volunteers to learn more about the concept.

Along with permaculture planting, Joel hopes to bring animals into the mix and has also begun digging a lotus pond for meditation and a bamboo forest. In keeping with Hariharalaya’s holistic approach, which already includes reiki, massage, art and music, a volleyball court and archery area will also be set up.

Cooking, along with yoga and meditation has been at the centre’s core since the start, and the retreat owes a lot of its popularity to Joel’s fare. For this reason a cookery book was another natural pro-gression. “Everybody always asks for the cookbook.” he explains. “It’s so important that we prepare our own food, because it’s our vibration, our love, our feeling. The idea is that we can create very simple and beautiful foods that will nourish us through the cooking and through the eating.”

Joel describes the food at Hariharilaya as local simple food, easy to digest and colourful. “It’s all prepared fresh, it’s prepared with love too,” he says. And he’s not wrong. Breakfast is a tasty miso soup, along with a peanut and banana smoothie. There’s delicious bread I didn’t know was possible to bake without dairy, plus purple potato chips, bright red tomatoes and lush greens.

The cookbook, available in July, will include 60 dishes from Joel’s many themed courses around food consciousness, sustainability and digestive health. Joel says highlights include scrambled tofu, garlic sweet potato chips, caramelised pumpkin and palm sugar, Mexican bean chilli and African peanut stew. “We work with a variety of dishes from different cultures and we serve it buffet style, family style.

Everybody eats together so we’re all coming together. Sometimes we’ll spend an hour and a half just all talking, some people will pick up an instrument, it’s a very dynamic context.”

Not content with just one book this summer, Joel will also release a collection of poetry. It seems Hariharalaya is something of a creative retreat as well as one for yoga and meditation. As Joel steadily evolves his place into a self-sufficient utopia, I ask him if he ever misses the real world. “I don’t want a part of that one, I know the real world, this is the real world.”

Looking around at the trees, insects, and chilled out volunteers high on life after a week immersed at Hari-haralaya away from the daily grind, I realise he might just be on to something.

“We’re really infused with that spirit of spontaneous beauty and joy, this Eden consciousness, this is what I’m calling it,” says Joel.

“It’s here right now, it always has been, it’s a choice that we make, every moment.”

Explosive action guaranteed at the Minefield Bar

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:02:15 +0100

Incarceration prompted gun-toting Cleghorn to assume a new personae. Photograph: Photo Supplied

The wildest bar in Siem Reap’s history was the Minefield Bar run by the equally wild and notorious bar owner, New Zealander Graham Cleghorn.

The Welcome Drifter website posted a screed written by Jeff Huch in 1993 which described Cleghorn as, “At first glance, Graham seems like a cross between Lee Marvin and Mike Nomad, but whether it’s the 9mm pistol in the shoulder holster under his left arm, the stories he tells, or just his general demeanor, it doesn’t take long to realise that he’s no actor or cartoon – he’s for real.”

As for the stories told by Cleghorn, Huch recollects, ‘Graham is showing me some mines that had recently been dug up on the grounds of the schoolyard down the road. ‘Now this is Willy Peter,’ he says, holding up a white phosporous bomb. ‘I recollect this captain once tossin’ one of these down a hole to kill a rat, he put his foot on top of the hole and it burned right through his boot and about halfway up his body. We held him underwater but he kept jumpin’ up and as soon as he hit the bloody air he’d re-ignite. He was screamin’ and cryin’ ‘I’m on fire! I’m on fire!’ Poor bastard.”

As for the bar itself, Huch wrote, “Since opening in July, 1992 the Minefield has been the main Untac watering hole in the area. They keep a large supply of beer on ice in a huge metal cooler and also offer shots of whiskey, tequila, vodka, rum or cognac. Two glass cases display berets, medals, ribbons and insignia from past and present Untac units.

“The interior of the large open room is white-washed but all available wall space has been filled with mines of all types, rifles, military stickers from about twenty countries, and obscene graffiti in as many languages.

“Two large wooden slabs make up the bar, which forms a right angle around the small enclosed room used as the kitchen. A hand-lettered piece of cardboard lists the menu: hamburger, cheeseburger, steak and chips.

Huch wrote that the Minefield Bar has the air of “an old pavilion in a forgotten park taken over for a season by a gang of toughs who spend every day there then eventually move on.”

But part of the bar’s wildness can be explained by the wildness of the political scene that was playing out at the time, with the area being a stronghold of the left overs of the Pol Pot regime, operating under the name of the NADK, or National Army of Democratic Kampuchea.

In 1993 Huch recalled that, “The DK routinely mine the major roadways, maiming and killing the civilian population, and have attacked several villages populated by ethnic Vietnamese, murdering over a hundred people in March alone.

“In February ‘50 suspected DK guerrillas’ rode through the town of Siem Reap, firing rocket launchers and AK-47’s, killing three people and wounding eight more before stealing several thousand dollars worth of artefacts from a warehouse where they had been placed for safekeeping after being taken from the nearby ruins.”

As for Siem Reap itself, Huch recalls in 1993 that, “The streets of Siem Reap are completely deserted and there isn’t an electric light in sight. The sugar palms that line the road are riddled with bullet holes.”

Former UN career diplomat Benny Widyono was the shadow governor of Siem Reap at the time, and in his book Dancing in Shadows, he describes the bar.

He wrote, “Just to the right of the Grand Hotel was the Minefield Bar, run by an adventurous and enterprising New Zealander, Graham Robert Cleghorn. He was a burly and ruthless fellow, afraid of nobody, not even the Khmer Rouge, whom he befriended. Every evening his bar was packed with Untac military and police types along with civilians, downing those one-dollar cans of cold beer. He boasted that because of his contacts with the Khmer Rouge, they spared his bar when they attacked Siem Reap one night. After Untac’s departure, Cleghorn closed his bar for lack of customers and instead became a guide for tourists.”

In 1993 Huch also touched on Cleghorn’s relationship with the ‘NADK.’ He recalls a female journalist visiting the bar, discussing the Khmer Rouge, and asking Cleghorn, ““So are you still in contact with any of them? Is this bar safe?”

Huch reported, “I would think not,” replies Graham, smiling. “I didn’t make any long-lasting friendships in the DK. You talk to these bastards who might seem nice, but you can’t help but think that they’ve got a lot of blood on their hands or they wouldn’t be where they are.”

As for Cleghorn, his post-Minefield Bar history has been far from illustrious.

He was found guilty in 2004 of raping five teenagers, and his victims, aged 14 to 19, worked for Cleghorn at the time.

He was given a 20-year prison sentence for this and possessing illegal weapons in Siem Reap. All convictions were upheld in a 2007 Cambodian Court of Appeal ruling despite Cleghorn’s
continual protestations of innocence and the claim that he was framed by non-government organisation the Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center which embroiled him in defamation charges in November 2010.

He’s still in prison in Phnom Penh.

Blaze on a hot tin roof

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:59:18 +0100

With reports buzzing around town on Monday that the iconic X Bar was on fire, crowds of onlookers rushed to the scene and created some anarchy in the street, with the horde of motos at one point hampering the access of fire fighting vehicles.

But X Bar was not ablaze: the fire was on the roof of the Heart of Angkor Guesthouse behind the bar on Sivutha Boulevard, opposite Pub Street.

According to Siem Reap deputy governor, Nou Phalla, the fire was caused by blacksmith repairs.

“The fire started while the blacksmith was repairing the steel roof,” the deputy governor said. “Sparks were dropped on papers and other dry things such as wood.”

He added that luckily no one was injured, and firemen, using four fire trucks, battled the blaze for about twenty minutes.

A staffer from the adjoining X Bar told Siem Reap Insider, “It was Lucky for X Bar. While I was working on the new bar, Bar 2, there was at first the smell of smoke and then smoke poured from the roof next to us.

“I got wet pouring water onto the X-Bar roof to save it from catching on fire.”

The owner of Heart of Angkor Guesthouse could not be reached for the comment. But according to an eye witness, the fire only damaged steel and zinc on the guesthouse roof.

Restoration work on island temple set to begin

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:55:55 +0100

The retained east wall of West Mebon was close to collapse. Photograph: Nicky Sullivan /Phnom Penh Post

The Apsara Authority and the Ecole Français d’Extrême Orient (EFEO) will start the diagnostic phase in June for the restoration of the island temple of West Mebon temple in the middle of the West Baray, six kilometres west of Siem Reap. Based on that, is anticipated that the restoration work will then be able to go ahead in September this year.

The vast West Baray is 8,000 metres long by 2,100 metres wide and bigger than 2,000 football pitches combined. The waters here rise and fall with the seasons, creating a unique set of working conditions and constraints for the team.

The euro 3 million (US$3.8 million) project is jointly funded by the Apsara Authority and the EFEO, and work started in mid-April for construction of a four-metre-high dyke 30 metres beyond the temple boundaries. The dyke will enable the resto-ration work to continue unimpaired by the rise and fall of the lake waters in the baray throughout the four year project.

The team is also conducting a diagnostic survey of the temple’s conditions, its stabi-lity and the ground conditions. This will determine how the next phases of the temples restoration will be conducted.

Pascal Royère, the project coordinator, is returning to Siem Reap next week to oversee the work in a fitting move given his recent successful restoration of Baphuon temple.

West Mebon is one of the few temples in Cambodia completed in the Baphuon style, noted for its elegant ornamentation and fluidity. The style is also known for carving on every available area, which helped Royère piece together what had become known as the “world’s largest jigsaw puzzle” at his last work-site.

In the absence of other inscriptions relating to the West Mebon, this ornamen-tation has also helped to identify a probable construc-tion period for the temple as eleventh century.

At West Mebon, the work will be a little bit different though. Instead of a huge pyramid temple, West Mebon is a square enclosure of about 90 metres on each side, with carvings and three gopura (gates) on each wall.

The walls enclosed a pond, in the middle of which was an island accessed by a causeway which was home to a bronze statue known as The Reclining Vishnu, the largest known bronze work in Khmer art which now sits in the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

But that structure is now largely collapsed says Royère, adding, “In the current condition the west wall is only partially remaining, with two pavilions and about one quarter of the wall. The others have all collapsed. It’s in very poor condition, and we will need to dismantle it so that we can consolidate the building’s strength and then rebuild it again.”

This is similar to the process that was employed at Baphuon, known as anastolysis, though Royère notes that there will be significant differences. “We can use a different conso-lidation technique because we’re not under the same pressures as at Baphuon. It is not a rising structure, but the water levels are an issue as they relate directly to the stability of the ground.”

The main restoration work is scheduled to begin in September. Royère is pleased that many of the 130-strong team will come from the project at Baphuon because, “They are all Cambodian and very experienced in the work.” Indeed some team members were even involved in work carried out at Baphuon during the 1960s and 1970s.

Tresses tended tenderly at hair salon

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:46:54 +0100

French hairstylist Melanie Montembault has set up shop at Prince d’Angkor. Photograph: Claire Byrne /Phnom Penh Post

A trip to the hair salon is a ritual most western women relish. But for foreigners in Siem Reap, traditional salons are slim on the ground. So with just a couple of counterparts, Siem Reap’s latest hairdressing salon opening prompted much jubilation earlier this year.

The new western-style venue, L’Atelier Coiffure, is at the Prince d’Angkor Hotel & Spa, and the woman behind the haircuts is Melanie Montembault, a French hairstylist with ten years’ experience in salons around the world.

Walking into her salon feels like stepping into a big city shop, with a pair of professional sinks, walls of mirrors and dozens of luxury products lined-up in a row.

“The idea of the hotel is that we want to always improve,” says Laura Dávila, PR executive for Prince d’Angkor. “We are nominated again for the World Travel Awards. Last year we won for the Leading Hotel in Cambodia, so we are always looking for different things to do and ways to get noticed.”

Laura says that Melanie was the obvious choice to run the salon due to her experience both in Cambodia and abroad and her connections with brands like L’Oreal and Furterer.

While the salon has been popular with hotel guests, locals have also flocked to Melanie to have their tresses tended. Melanie says that the keratin straightening treatment is particularly popular with westerners in the humid Cambodian climate.

While other salons offer cuts, colours and blow-drys, the real selling points of L’Atelier Coiffure are its tailor-made treatments.

“People don’t realise that you need to treat the scalp first. If you have a healthy scalp you will have beautiful hair,” explains Melanie. “We can do a special massage and it can open the pores and prepare your scalp to receive the treatments.”

Melanie says that the products used for the treatments, (which smell incredible) contain lots of natural ingredients.

After the scalp massage and treatment, a mask is applied to condition the hair. A full hair-health diagnosis is given and Melanie can recommend products to use at home. “Everybody has their own prescription. For example, for oily hair we apply a mask that absorbs any excess sebum and we use a shampoo that’s adapted to it. If you have itching or redness, or you’re sensitive, we have products that aren’t so strong.”

Along with the treatments, Melanie also provides a more thorough scalp analysis using a special machine.

“Every few months we get this machine in and we can check your hair and scalp. It’s very interesting to know how it works. Even in France only a few salons offer this,” she explains.

So whether you’re after an in-depth scalp check or just a wash and blow-dry, sit back, relax and wash your hair worries away in comfort.

Man About Town: 25 May 2012

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:45:21 +0100

HOTEL DE LA PAIX UPDATE
Following Manabout’s com-ments last week that many service or line staff at Hotel de la Paix are happy with generous terms of reemployment under the new Hyatt management, comes feedbacks that there have been some casualties.

There were a few contractors who were not informed early enough and now cannot find work in the low season.

One source added, “If there is any angst its probably because David our e-commerce manager (acting director of sales), who was with HDLP since pre-opening and turning 60 next year has been told he’s not needed anymore.

David Wilkinson joined Hotel de la Paix as e-commerce manager In 2005. He is originally from the UK and has a background as an information technology pro-fessional.

To give an example of his loyalty to the brand (as they say these days,) in 2009 in The Concierge Questionnaire he was asked, “If Heaven were Siem Reap, what would God say to a visitor when they arrive at the Pearly Gates?”

Wilkinson replied that God would say, “‘You want tuk-tuk?’ Or lately, ‘You want tuk-tuk, sir?...’ But seriously, God would say ‘Righteous, go to Hotel de la Paix, sinners down the road!’ I’m in marketing. What do you expect?”

BIRTHDAY BASH GONE WRONG
Long tall Texan expat Kevin Weiser, well known musician and Dr Pool Company dude, had an unpleasant birthday surprise in the early hours of Tuesday.

On a late stroll home after birthday celebrations he was set upon by three Khmer guys and bashed.

When he got home, he posted this note on his Facebook page: “It's 03:30 in the morning here. I have been blessed by greetings from all of my friends around the world and I was also just blessed with the worse ass kicking I've had in years! Some local fellows apparently didn't like the looks of me walking home from the local pub and used flashlights to blind me and kick my skinny ole ass! I absolutely couldn't believe it! It's certainly not the 1st time but it's the 1st time in a long time and it ain't much fun goin' 3 on 1 at 57 years young....luckily I have an emergency supply of chocolate in the fridge! If it hurts now I can't wait for tomorrow! Nothin like an ass kickin' to make you feel alive! Especially on yer birfday...IRONY!”

PHOTO FEST DEADLINES
Deadline for submissions to the eighth Angkor Photo Festival is looming: in fact submissions must be lodged by May 31, which is next Thursday.

Meanwhile, applications for the eighth Angkor Photo Workshops can now be lodged with the deadline being July 15.

Information is posted on the festival’s website and Facebook, and the workshop blog (apws.wordpress.com) has been revamped to provide clearer and easy-to-access information.

Boeung Kak women jailed after three-hour trial

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:02:20 +0100

Women from the Boeung Kak community, who were each sentenced yesterday to as long as two and a half years in prison, scream to friends and relatives from inside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh Post

Thirteen women protesters from Boeung Kak lake were yesterday sentenced to two and a half years in prison after a three-hour trial that was widely condemned as illegal – and which prompted SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua to urge the international community to suspend aid to Cambodia.

The women, who were arrested as a family tried to rebuild its home during a demonstration at Boeung Kak on Tuesday, stood trial at 2pm – without a lawyer – after court prosecutors spent the morning interviewing them.

The women spent two nights at Phnom Penh municipal police headquarters and had not been charged until yesterday, when the court tried them for cursing public authority and encroaching upon the land of a public figure – Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin, the head of Shukaku.

Little more than three hours after their trial began, the women were being transported to overcrowded Prey Sar prison.

Phou Povsun, a Phnom Penh municipal court judge, confirmed the 13 women had been sentenced, but said some of those sentences had been partly suspended.

“Six women were convicted to two years and six months each in jail. Another six will spend two years each in jail,” he said. “The oldest woman will spend one year in jail,” he said, referring to 72-year-old Nget Khun.

Am Sam Ath, senior technical officer at Licadho, said well-known village representative Tep Vanny was among those who had received the full sentence, along with Heng Mom, Chheng Leap, Bouv Saleap, Kong Chantha, Phann Chhunreth and Tol Srey Pao.

“Convicting these people does not end this land dispute,” he said.

Ham Sunrith, the women’s lawyer, said he walked out of the courtroom in the morning after judges refused his proposal to have the case heard later with witnesses – two of whom were arrested outside the court as a crowd of more than 60 protested.

“We will lodge an appeal if [the women] agree,” he said.

SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua said the trial was proof Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government was terrorising its people.

“I am so shocked. This must be condemned. This is total manipulation of the court,” she said.

Mu Sochua called on the international community to suspend aid that went directly to Cambodia’s government, singling out the US – as Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs at the US State Department, arrived in Cambodia yesterday.

“I’m calling on the internat-ional community to suspend aid,” she said, adding that financial contributions from overseas should henceforth enter Cambodia through NGOs.

“I call on women’s networks across the world to take action. I call on [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton to take action.

“If aid continues to flow into the hands of the leaders who totally violate human rights, especially women’s rights, the government will remain totally unaccountable to its people – it will have no legitimacy.”
Sok Sam Oeun, former director of the Cambodian Defenders’ Project, said the trial had not followed national law.

“In pre-trial detention, according to the law, we have . . . a summary trial, which means the prosecutor can send the people to trial without pressing any investigation charge, but the law says that if they are arrested, the trial must be within the same day they are arrested,” he said.

Cambodian Centre for Human Rights president Ou Virak said such a violation left the Kingdom’s justice system at the crossroads.

“It appears the trial was a show. It was predetermined. City hall was being the judge. The judiciary was not independent,” he said.

Ou Virak said the court system’s inability to bring anyone to justice over the shooting of three women at the Kaoway Sports factory in Bavet – which deposed Bavet governor Chhouk Bandith is accused of – proved yesterday’s trial could not have been fair.

“If the court cannot even detain him in so many months, how can they sentence 13 people in one day?”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said yesterday’s trial was the death knell for justice in Cambodia. “This case is an all-new low that says succinctly, ‘Cambodian justice: RIP’.

“The tycoons and government cronies behind the Boeung Kak project, and their supporters at the highest levels of government, should be ashamed that their greed has suddenly torn mothers and grandmothers away from their children.”

The actions of the court and the government were outrag-eous and unjust, he said.

“Charging and convicting women for exercising their rights to express their views and peacefully assemble, then denying them time to prepare their case, and refusing to allow defence witnesses – these are the actions of a kangaroo court jumping to the tune sung by its political masters in the CPP and the government.”

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan, however, said the trial had nothing to do with the government.

“We have no comment,” he said, referring the Post to the Ministry of Justice, which, along with the Phnom Penh municipal authority, could not be reached for comment.

Activist monk detained at Wat Botum

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:02:10 +0100

The Venerable Loun Savath (centre), a prominent rights activist, was detained by police, monks and unidentified plain-clothed men yesterday in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

Senor members of the monastic community yesterday detained Buddhist monk Loun Savath, an award-winning human rights activist, after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court.

Monks, police and unidentified men in plain clothes violently forced Loun Savath into a Land Cruiser outside the courthouse and whisked him away from the scene as more than 60 protesters, flanked by about 100 police armed with guns, batons and shields, called for the release of 13 Boeung Kak women who were being questioned inside.

Venerable Loun Savath was driven to Wat Botum to meet Supreme Patriarch Nun Nget.

Police and officials from the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Cults and Religion barricaded him inside, sealing off entries to the complex, barring entrance to all journalists and preventing even pagoda boys from entering without showing their ID cards.

He remained detained there as of press time last night.

According to students living in the pagoda, Loun Savath was put in monk house number 17 in the complex, which s where a number of Khmer Kampuchea Krom monks live.

At 1pm, Loun Savath was bought to a meeting with Supreme Patriarch Nun Nget and about 20 other senior chief monks including Khim Sorn, the Phnom Penh municipal director of monks.
Nun Nget, however, retired from this meeting about 2pm to nap in his room.

A Post reporter who gained entry to the complex approached the Supreme Patriarch, but he refused to answer questions.

About 7:30 pm, the meeting with the senior monks ended and Loun Savath made a brief appearance near the entrance.

“I am not defrocked,” he told reporters. “But they have asked me to stay at a pagoda in my homeland in Siem Reap.”

The “multimedia monk”, originally from Chi Kraeng district in Siem Reap, began his activist career supporting villagers in a long-running land dispute there.

Loun Savath declined to elaborate on details of the meeting. When asked what prompted the meeting, and what conditions had been placed on him, he replied that the situation was “serious”.

Loun Savath fled the capital in March last year, fearing he would be arrested for his activism. He returned two months later to attend a Prey Lang vill-ager rally. There, he was also forced to flee the scene with the assistance of rights groups when it appeared local authorities were planning his arrest.

He recently attended the funeral of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty.

After briefly talking with reporters last night, Loun Savath returned to the pagoda for a one-on-one meeting with the Supreme Patriarch.

Chief monks who attended the meeting could not be reached for comment.

Phan Davy, director of Phnom Penh’s Cults and Religion office, declined to comment because he was “too busy”. Officials from the Ministry of Cults and Religion could not be reached.

Am Sam Ath, senior technical officer at Licadho, said Loun Savath had the right to defend weaker people.

“Even though he is a monk, he still has the right to defend human rights, but in contrast he is arrested,” he said.

Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson condemned the treatment of Loun Savath. “Defrocking a monk for standing up for the poor would be a sign of Hun Sen’s desperation,” he said.

Funcinpec, NRP set to merge

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:02:00 +0100

Prince Norodom Ranariddh (left), head of the Norodom Ranariddh Party, shares a toast with Funcinpec party President Nhek Bun Chhay (right) after signing an agreement to merge the two parties yesterday. Photograph: Stringer/Phnom Penh Post

The on-again, off-again dance between Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party finally concluded yesterday, with the two opposition royalist parties agreeing to merge following the June 3 commune elections.

Prime Minister Hun Sen of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party met with the leaders of the parties yesterday morning to encourage them to agree to the merger, officials said.

Shortly after the meeting, Funcinpec secretary-general Nhek Bun Chhay and Prince Norodom Ranariddh signed an agreement to join forces under the auspices of the Funcinpec party to run in the national elections in July next year.

The agreement was signed at the cabinet of the premier in the Peace Palace, and the parties said it marked the end to a six-year rift between the royalist groups sparked when Prince Norodom Ranariddh was ousted as president of Funcinpec.

In late 2010, the parties began discussing the possibility of a merger, but it failed to materialise amid disagreements on a number of issues, including the name.

Norodom Ranariddh will assume presidency of the united Funcinpec party, and current Funcinpec president Bun Chhay will be appointed vice president.

“The merger is to mobilise royalists, Sihanoukists and to be a real national force to work with the national force [of the ruling CPP and Prime Minister Hun Sen] in order to serve the nation,” Norodom Ranariddh told reporters after the signing.

“Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen has strongly expressed his concern over the split of the monarchy political parties, and this shows that the premier is also the monarchy,” the prince said.

“I have expressed my gratefulness and loyalty to the premier, and from the moment of this merging today, we will stop discussing who was wrong and who was right – our destination is for reconciliation,” he said.

Factional infighting over power and money within and between the two royalist groups has plagued the parties. Norodom Ranariddh’s 2006 ouster was accompanied by allegations that he embezzled funds from the sale of the party’s headquarters.

The two parties won two seats each of the total 123 seats in the National Assembly in the national election in 2008.

Asian Human Rights Commission senior researcher Lao Mong Hay said it was unusual that the parties met with the premier before their merger.

“It will be very difficult for the parties here to show credibility vis-à-vis the electorate. Both have had experience working with the CPP, and we have seen that association with the CPP has not been doing any good to them,” Lao Mong Hay said.

Infighting over the past few years has also caused serious damage to the parties, Lao Mong Hay said.

“It might be a bit difficult to mend that lack of reputation or bad reputation,” he said, pointing out that both sides had been marginalised by defeats.

Still, the new Funcinpec’s allegiance to Prime Minister Hun Sen shouldn’t come as a shock, Lao Mong Hay said.

“It’s not surprising at all. Perhaps both sides [NRP and Funcinpec] have departed from each other before for many years, and now that they have realised there is no future in that, they must be allied,” he said.

Suspected suicide: HRP reserve candidate found dead

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:01:50 +0100

Suspected suicide
A reserve candidate for the Human Rights Party apparently hanged himself on Wednesday night in Chirou II commune in Kampong Cham province’s Tbong Khmum district, police said yesterday.

Kong Sihong, Chirou II commune police chief, said the body of Pov Kirivong, 56, was found hanging from a mango tree near his house by villagers yesterday morning, who then notified the police.

Pov Kirivong had likely killed himself due to depression over a long-term illness, he said.

“Based on the answers of the victim’s family and the examination, the reason for his hanging is due to long-lasting haemorrhoid disease.”

Seng Seangly, HRP director of operations in Kampong Cham province, said he was unsure whether the suicide of Pov Kirivong was a political or personal affair. The deceased had argued with a military police officer while campaigning with his party members two days prior, he said.

“I will ask the human rights groups to investigate this case,” added Seng Seangly.