National news

KRT spotlight returns to current leadership

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:03:20 +0100

The defence team of Brother No 2 Nuon Chea continued in its attempts to link National Assembly president Heng Samrin to its client, and, by extension, the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime, during yesterday’s Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Despite a brief showdown between Trial Chamber president Nil Nonn and defence counsel Michiel Pestman, when Pestman refused to be seated as ordered, Nil Nonn granted the lawyer 30 minutes to interview his client. That right was taken away from Pestman on Wednesday after the chamber president ruled that Pestman had disrespected the bench.

The defence lawyer used his re-allotted time to ask questions about Nuon Chea’s relationship with the future CPP chairman.

The defendant said he had first met Heng Samrin some time in 1959 when he was tasked with serving as Nuon Chea’s escort to Vietnam. “He was close to me and he was rather courageous. He provided me with protection,” Nuon Chea said, adding that such trips, “sometimes once every two months”, up until the country was “liberated” in 1975.

Pestman was rebuffed, however, in his attempt to ask Nuon Chea about the role played by the senior CPP lawmaker in the liberation of Phnom Penh.

“Is it correct that Heng Samrin was a division commander in April 1975 and that he participated in the liberation of Phnom Penh?” Pestman asked.

“Nuon Chea, you may not respond to the question since it is ruled irrelevant,” chamber president Nil Nonn interjected.

Yesterday’s attempt was the second time this week that Nuon Chea’s defence team has tried to link its client to senior CPP lawmakers. On Monday, defence counsel Jasper Pauw produced an academic article, which stated that “various evidence implicates Heng Samrin in war crimes” and that “Chea Sim has been accused of being responsible for the murders of people in the district in which he was secretary”.

Also during yesterday’s proceedings, co-prosecutors attempted to disprove Nuon Chea’s consistent assertions that he never held the position of acting prime minister of Democratic Kampuchea.

Co-prosecutors produced a speech made on the 9th anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea that two international media outlets attributed to “acting premier” Nuon Chea.

Prosecutors said that, next week, they will introduce “numerous documents” showing “congratulatory messages” to Nuon Chea on his ascent to the premiership, as well as documents he signed as “acting premier”.

State’s buildings must be preserved: premier

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:03:00 +0100

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday threatened to fire two government ministers unless they dumped the idea of exchanging the state’s ageing public buildings, which he said should be preserved.

In a very public berating, delivered at the inauguration of a new government building at the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, the Prime Minister made examples of Information Minister Khieu Kanharith and Culture and Fine Arts Minister Him Chhem.

According to Hun Sen, Khieu Kanharith had asked the government to exchange the Khmer Press Agency building, while Him Chhem had suggested a similar fate for the national library building.

“If Khieu Kanharith still wants to exchange the Khmer Press Agency building, I think he should withdraw from his position; otherwise, I will remove him” Hun Sen said.

The prime minister had similar words for Him Chhem, adding that the national library building was an old building that “must be preserved”.

The government has been criticised in the past for trading its ageing buildings on the outskirts of the city for more convenient locations close to the centre of Phnom Penh.

Civil society organisations welcomed the prime minister’s stance on the state’s older buildings yesterday.

Ni Chakrya, monitoring director of Adhoc, said that although the head of government had prohibited ministry officials from exchanging government buildings and institutions in the past, many had still been swapped, including the Royal University of Fine Arts, which had been situated on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

“I think that this warning is a bit late, but it constitutes a good sign in deterring the exchange of the state’s cultural buildings, which are the national heritage for our governmental institutions,” he said.

“However, we will keep examining how effective the premier’s warning is.”

Khieu Kanharith and Him Chhem were not available for comment yesterday.

Judge wants to restart Case 003

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:02:50 +0100

Investigations in the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Case 003 are being resumed on the orders of UN-nominated International Co-Investigating Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who has also applied for the disqualification of Pre-Trial Chamber president Prak Kimsan, the judge said in a statement yesterday.

Swiss national Kasper-Ansermet said he is under a “legal obligation to investigate” cases 003 and 004 – both opposed by the government – according to the agreement between the UN and the Royal Government of Cambodia and the laws governing the Khmer Rouge tribunal. “The International Reserve Co-Investigating Judge therefore enjoys full legal authority to undertake his functions regardless of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy’s rejection of his appointment as standing co-investigating judge,” Kasper-Ansermet wrote in his statement.

The UN supports this position, and UN Special Expert David Scheffer has said Kasper-Ansermet has “clear authority to fulfill” his duties as international co-investigating judge.

On this basis, the judge issued an order to resume the judicial investigation in Case 003, which was closed in April 2011 amid much public outcry of political interference and inadequate investigations by the two investigating judges.

The then-international co-investigating judge Siegfried Blunk resigned six months later, citing perceptions of political interference.

Kasper-Ansermet has been at loggerheads with his Cambodian counterpart, Judge You Bunleng, since Blunk’s resignation in October, and the Cambodian Supreme Council of the Magistracy has refused to accept Kasper-Ansermet as Blunk’s replacement.

Yesterday’s explosive statement from the Swiss judge is the latest in a series of combative public statements from the two investigating judges.

Contacted by the Post last night, You Bunleng said he would not comment on his colleague’s statement in detail.

“But, even until now, [Kasper-Ansermet] has no duty to do anything, as he has not been officially appointed to do his job,” You Bunleng said. “He has no right to do anything. I will check it [the statement] and decide how to respond to that.”

Sources close to the matter told the Post that You Bunleng had already began drafting a retaliatory response last night.

Kasper-Ansermet’s order to resume investigative action in government-opposed Case 003 was in line with requests made by international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley in May 2011.

Kasper-Ansermet’s statement also said he had submitted to the Pre-Trial Chamber two records of disagreement between himself and You Bunleng over the conduct of investigation into cases 003 and 004, but that the disagreements were seemingly dismissed in an unreasoned memorandum by the Chamber, which was apparently of the view Kasper-Ansermet did not have any legal authority to act.

Kasper-Ansermet said this raised “serious concerns about the lack of impartiality of Mr Prak Kimsan, President of the Pre-Trial Chamber”. “On these grounds, an application for his disqualification was submitted to the Pre-Trial Chamber, calling upon Mr Prak Kimsan to step down voluntarily from any proceedings related to CF003 and CF004,” Kasper-Ansermet said.

Prak Kimsan, could not be reached for comment last night as his phone was switched off.

Documentation Center of Cambodia legal adviser Anne Heindel said the issue of Kasper-Ansermet’s authority to act was more of a political issue than a judicial one. “[UN Special Expert] David Scheffer’s view is that Kasper-Ansermet should be able to act, and he has the authority to continue investigations, which he has the right to continue to do unless the Pre-Trial Chamber agrees by supermajority that he should stop,” Heindel said.

Open Society Justice Initiative’s Clair Duffy told the Post that Kasper-Ansermet’s decision to resume investigations in Case 003 was the first decision in a “long time” to come from the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges that had any “integrity”. “His order outlines the absurdity of the rejection of Cayley’s investigative requests,” Duffy said.

PM ridicules SRP defections

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:02:40 +0100

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday mocked the recent defections and resignations of opposition Sam Rainsy Party members and called it proof it was impossible for the SRP to ever rule the Kingdom.

Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen cuts a ribbon during the opening of a new building for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction yesterday in Phnom Penh.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning & Construction building in Phnom Penh yesterday, the premier warned that any change of government would necessarily entail loss of citizens’ lives.

“Now wait to see Egypt, [you] suppose it is finished, people die more than before. Libya, [you] suppose it is finished…[It has changed] but not according to the goal,” Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen also called the November resignation of three SRP parliamentarians – an apparent attempt to hamstring the constitutionality of National Assembly decisions – a “wrong strategy of the party”.

The premier also called out SRP deputy president Kong Korm, a former member of Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, as forgetting all the favours the ruling regime once afforded him, including pulling him from rags in Kampong Cham province to riches as the ambassador in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi. “Don’t say that you [Kong Korm] oppose this or oppose that.... If I had a tape recorder from that time…”, Hun Sen said. On Tuesday, 10 opposition

Human Rights Party officials who had defected from the SRP five months earlier swore their allegiance to the CPP.

Former SRP senator Van Sivoeun, who led the defecting group from the SRP to the HRP and then the CPP, said that opposition parties were too embroiled in accusations to be of interest. “I go to the CPP to share in the development of the nation, correct bad to good, correct from poor to rich,” Van Sivoeun said.

Kampong Speu lake row pitting tycoon versus villagers

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:02:10 +0100

House and crops in Kampong Speu province’s Chbar Mon town will be flooded during heavy rain if a private company owned by tycoon Chhoun Kim San continues to fill Boeung Chhouk Lake, concerned families in the area have said.

In a January 31 letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen obtained by the Post yesterday, 218 families who rely on the lake for food accuse the tycoon of paying the local authorities for permission to convert the lake into land on which to build a bus station.

They allege that Chhoun Kim San colluded with Leang Mach, the wife of provincial councillor Yem Sokhum, to secure development rights; however, it is not clear which of the tycoon’s many companies is supposed to be managing the project.

Residents in the area told the Post that they had been scared to voice their fears about the lake being filled, but decided to do so recently before it was too late.

They believe they will lose their livelihoods if the lake is filled and fear torrential downpours that would usually run into the lake will flood their rice fields and houses.

Yem Kimsan, a representative of the residents, said the families were waiting for a resolution after sending the letter.

“More workers have been gathering by the day to help fill Boeung Chhouk Lake, which is at the heart of Chbar Mon town because it helps many residents make a living,” he said.

Workers began filling the lake, which covers about four hectares, in 2010, and only about 40 per cent of its water remained, he said.

“If the lake is completely filled, Chbar Mon town will have a big flood.”

Resident Seng Toch said many people earned money from the lake.

“The residents depend on the lake for their livelihood. They use it for fishing and to earn money from selling vegetables on the water such as water lilies.”

Neither tycoon Chhoun Kim San nor Leang Mach could be reached for comment yesterday.

Orphanage tag lost, but group still offering help

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:02:00 +0100

The vice-president of a Christian organisation that Social Affairs Minister Ith Sam Heng said on Wednesday would have to “cut” 70 of its 93 orphanages and turn them into community centres, yesterday denied the homes were being closed.

Sou Mountha, vice-president of the Foursquare Children of Promise, an organisation that runs church-based religious homes and is sometimes referred to as Good News, told the Post the 70 centres that were formerly orphanages had changed status but would continue to provide services to those in need.

“We are not going to close the homes down. The homes will be open and will be like a pagoda. We will welcome anyone who needs to be there – who needs food, shelter. And we pay for them to go to school,” she said.

FCOP has begun moving children out of residency from within the 70 centres in 22 provinces, though some cannot simply be relocated until her organisation was “very sure” a safe place could be found for them to live. The centres had been reclassified into alternative care facilities because they could not meet strict government criteria for orphanages – including that all residing children were actually orphans – which did not account for realities in the impoverished areas where FCOP worked, she said.

At Wednesday’s launch of a study titled With the Best Intentions, Ith Sam Heng pointed out that only 23 per cent of those in orphanages had actually lost both parents and called on NGOs to stop using children to attract foreign donations.

Seventy orphanages run by Good News (FCOP) would be “cut”, changed into community-based centres and made to stop providing residential care to children, Ith Sam Heng said.

Yesterday, Prak Chanthoeun, director-general at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, said FCOP’s 70 orphanages would not be “completely closed” but rather changed into community-based child-care centres.

Ros Yeng, national facilitator at Chab Dai, a coalition of Christian organisations, said many of the children in FCOP’s orphanages were not actual orphans, though this was not necessarily a bad thing. “The good thing is they [children] can come and are provided a living and education, and the negative is the children live in the shelter for a long, long time, and it’s very hard when we take them back to their families,” he said.

Sou Mountha said FCOP sought to eventually reintegrate children with their families and did not attempt to religiously indoctrinate them. “We’re not going to make anyone do that ...We love the Buddhist people and we have no problem with them at all,” she said.

A copy of FCOP’s project agreement with MOSVY shows the organisation will spend US$3,058,968 running the 70 community centres over the next three years.

Couple has new day in court

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:50 +0100

A defence lawyer yesterday said he had evidence that would clear the names of Hen Chheang and his wife Tep Kolap after the imprisoned couple were told their criminal appeal would be heard in court on March 1.

Mai Vireak/Phnom Penh Post

Heang Chheang is embraced by his son as he leaves the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh after being denied bail in October.

Plang Samnang, a judge for Phnom Penh’s court of appeal, said the couple, who were convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison in November for breach of trust, after tens of millions of dollars were embezzled from the company Anco Brothers, had been granted a three-day appeal hearing.

The company is owned by tycoon senator Kok An’s wife.

Ourn Hing, a defence lawyer for Heng Chheang and Tep Kolap, said he had already submitted new evidence and documents to the court that would prove his clients’ innocence.

This included payment slips from the company, loan documents from banks for the construction of Phnom Penh International University, documents detailing money transactions, letters from the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s National Accounting Council and a written document from Trak Sophath, Kok An’s internal auditor.

More “proof” would be submitted to the court next week, he said.

Long Dara, a lawyer for Kok An, said he had not yet been told about the appeal hearing.

Korean-Australian man faces child sex charges

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:30 +0100

A 38-year-old Korean-Aust-ralian was arrested on Wednesday night for allegedly sexually assaulting two girls aged six and 10 and producing child porn-ography, Banteay Meanchey provincial police said yesterday.

Provincial anti-human traff-icking and juvenile protect-ion police chief Sith Los said Charles Sohn had been arrested at his rented house in Poipet town’s Kbal Koh village.

He said the victims’ mothers had filed complaints with the police, who later confiscated child pornography from the suspect’s house.

Khoem Vando, information officer at the NGO Action Pour Les Enfants, said it had monitored Sohn since December.

According to the girls, he had lured them into his house, performed sexual acts on them and taken photographs of them naked.

An APLE press release says a neighbour heard a girl crying in the suspect’s house, opened the door and saw him taking off his pants, while the six year-old girl was naked on the bed.

APLE rescued her as the man was arrested, it says.

Kampong Speu protesters face guns

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:30 +0100

Protesting villagers from two districts of Kampong Speu province have claimed police, military police and soldiers threatened them with assault rifles as they gathered outside the provincial court yesterday.

About 300 villagers involved in two separate land disputes had assembled to ask for the release of two detained villagers and to urge the court not to delay questioning another villager who had been summonsed.

Villagers said that at 11:25am, police, military police and soldiers carrying guns threatened to arrest anyone who tried to prevent court officials driving out of the office.

Villagers from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune had walked about a kilometre from the Marum pagoda to the provincial court about 8:30am to wait for Hak Haing, who had been summonsed to respond to accusations that he lied about owning land linked to a dispute involving the Phnom Penh Sugar Company.

Hak Haing was told his questioning had been delayed because the court was busy.

“They asked me why I bring a lot of people to court and how much money I pay the villagers per day, but I said I do not pay any money because we are victims together,” he said.

“The reason that the court has delayed questioning me is because it is afraid of a lot of people outside.”

Phal Vannak, a village representative, said his group also wanted 49-year-old mother Chum Srey Noun, who was detained on December 15, to be released and for the court to cease summonsing villagers.

Villagers had tried to protest outside the court, but the local authorities had brought in police, soldiers and military police to threaten them, he said.

Chum Srey Noun’s son, Yorn Sothear, 29, said his mother’s arrest was an injustice.

“Police did not have a warrant to arrest my mother; they just follow the powerful people,” he said.

Villagers from Kong Pisei district’s Preah Nipean commune asked the provincial authority to release a villager arrested in September. The groups said they would protest again today.

Men Siborn, military police chief of Kampong Speu province and Keo Pisey, chief of police, could not be reached for comment.

Temple ‘encroachment’

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:20 +0100

The Cambodian Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic note to the Thai government alleging Thai military encroachment in the Provisional Demilitarised Zone around the Preah Vihear temple, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Koung said yesterday.

“We sent the diplomatic note via the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh on February 8,” Koy Kuong said.

The Thai military had transported construction materials into the zone around the area of Phnom Trop on January 24 and 25, he added.

Men Sophea, a soldier based at Phnom Trop, said Thai troops had transported construction material for building a bunker and placed a Buddhist statue in front of Phnom Trop.

Training urged for poor youths

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:10 +0100

Phnom Penh Munici-pal Hall had issued an appeal to community leaders in the city’s nine districts to recruit young, unemployed and unskilled men to attend technical training with the NGO Caritas, an announcement posted on the city hall website yesterday said.

The announcement, signed by governor Kep Chuktema and dated February 6, called on community leaders to conduct the recruitment drive.

“Select the poor youth who are children living in the poor communities in Phnom Penh city,” Kep Chuktema said in the announcement.

“By co-operating with the Caritas Cambodia organisat-ion, these poor youths will get the training and skills they need to find work and improve their family’s living standard.”

Caritas Cambodia executive director Kim Ratana said yesterday the training course would begin early next month at the training centre in Kandal province’s Takmao town.

“We can accommodate 200 trainees a year and have 14 different skills to teach,” Kim Ratana said, adding that the skills were mechanics, accounting, painting, restaurant management and beauty services.
He said the group had a 90 to 95 per cent employment success rate for those who finished its training courses.

Sam Vanna, 50, an evicted villager from Beoung Kak lake who has been relocated to live in Borey Santepheap II, will be selecting eligible youths from her relocated community to send to Caritas for training.

“It is good that the city hall pays attention to the poor in the community to give them lifelong knowledge and skills,” Sam Vanna said, adding that most young people in her community did not have a job.

Massage parlour owner denies brothel charge

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0100

More than three months after his arrest by anti-human trafficking and juvenile police, 44-year-old Phuong Vanna stood trial yesterday over the alleged provision of sexual services in his massage shop.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Oeurng Seang said Phuong Vanna, owner of the Srey Mom Massage Shop, was charged with operating an illegal brothel.

He said that during the October 28 raid in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, police had rescued 10 women who were working as masseuses and confiscated two used condoms, along with unused condoms and empty condom packages.

Defence lawyer Dun Vibol said there was no proof the condoms found and seized in the shop had been used by customers and, in fact, could have been planted by police to arrest his client.

He said police sometimes presented themselves as customers to gain evidence against the shop’s owner.

Phuong Vanna denied all charges during his trial yesterday. The verdict will be handed down on February 23.

Foreign minister heads to India-ASEAN meet

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0100

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong will depart this weekend for India to attend the two day India-ASEAN meeting, which begins on Monday.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the foreign ministers are set to participate in the inaugural session of the Delhi dialogue, which is centered on peace, progress and stability.

He will also deliver a keynote address, as well as meeting with the Indian Minister of External Affairs.

Ministry tells girls to keep their knickers on

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0100

The Ministry of Women Affairs will release a 30- minute video on February 14 urging girls to resist pressure to have sex, Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs Sivann Botum said yesterday.

The video is part of a campaign to buck the recent trend of young girls looking to consummate their relationships on Valentine’s Day.

“One bunch of flowers does not mean we have to have sex with our boyfriends,” said Sivann Botum. “I beg women to please maintain our Khmer traditions because virginity is very important,” she said, adding that girls should focus on their studies when young.

Fire scare near Angkor Wat temple complex

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:01:00 +0100

More than 10 hectares of forest near the Angkor Wat temple complex burned yesterday during a blaze in Siem Reap’s Norkor Thom commune.

Deputy director of the Authority of the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Angkor, Sok Leakhena, said the fire spread to within seven kilometers of the Angkor Wat temples.

“It didn’t harm any of the villagers because we controlled the fire, however, it damaged some of their crops,” he said, adding that it took three hours and eight fire trucks to extinguish the blaze.

Police Blotter: 10 Feb 2012

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:00:50 +0100

Husband attacks breast-feeding wife
A 36-year-old woman suff-ered head injuries when her husband hacked her on Wednesday in Svay Rieng province’s Svay Tiep district. The woman said her husband had returned from Phnom Penh, where he worked as a construction worker, to visit their sick child and went drinking with villagers. His wife was breast-feeding their sick two-year-old when he got home, and he grabbed a cleaver, hacking her once on the head. The husband said he was angry that his wife had not prepared dinner for him. Police educated the man on moral behaviour and let him go. Koh Santepheap

Mutual complaints filed after dispute
Two women were injured when one of them attacked the other in Svay Rieng province’s Svay Chrum district. The victim, 32, said the suspect, 47, had previously accused her of having an affair with her husband, but she had denied it. The suspect and one of her relatives then came to her home, swore at her and attacked her with a wooden stick. The victim managed to wrestle the stick away and hit her back. Police are investigating the case after both women filed complaints against each other. Koh Santepheap

Angry parent attacks daughter’s teacher
A female primary-school teacher in Pailin town was injured after the mother of a student attacked her last Friday. The teacher, 21, claimed the woman, 42, had hit her in the head with the handle of a cleaver. She said the woman was angry because there was no porridge left when her daughter returned to school, despite her having gone home at the time of the distribution. The teacher was sent to hospital. Koh Santepheap

Back-to-back assaults lead to an arrest
A 25-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly injuring two men. Police said the suspect had argued with an elderly man, hacked him once in the head with an axe, then escaped. He returned a day later, injured another villager with a wooden stick and again fled. Police held a manhunt in the village, where the suspect was surrounded and arrested. Kampuchea Thmey

Woman hospitalised after being shot
A 48-year-old farmer was arrested on Monday for allegedly injuring a woman in Kep town. Police said the suspect had argued with the woman, 58, and fired at her once with his AK rifle. She was seriously wounded in her left thigh and hospitalised. Police said the reason for the quarrel was not known. Kampuchea Thmey

Security Council bid pursued

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:03:35 +0100

The European Union and British ambassadors pledged yesterday to take Cambodia’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council to their respective governing bodies, officials said after meetings with Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong.

Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

European Union Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain (left) speaks with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong during a meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Koung said the deputy prime minister had, in separate meetings, requested that newly appointed British Ambassador Mark Gooding and European Union Ambassador Jean-Francois Cautain lobby other nations to support Cambodia, as the Kingdom seeks votes in an election later this year for one of 10 non-permanent spots on UNSC in 2013 and 2014.

“Mark Gooding has pledged that he will take Cambodia’s request to the British leaders, and he also requested Cambodia’s support as Britain seeks membership of the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation in the Southeast Asia,” said Koy Koung.

Hor Namhong held talks with Kurt Campbell, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, last week.

A press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs afterward said the US had also pledged to support Cambodia’s UNSC bid.

Cheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said that increasing Cambodia’s international involvement in UN peacekeeping duties and its role as the chair of ASEAN would help Cambodia to successfully campaign for a seat on the UNSC.

“Cambodia has played a leading role sending approximately 1,000 peacekeeping troops to the UN therefore…the image of Cambodia at the UNSC will build confidence for an international investment in Cambodia,” he said.

Orphanages set for closure

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:03:30 +0100

Children belong, first and foremost, with their families, not in institutions – that was the central message delivered by Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng yesterday as he announced that 70 orphanages would be closed.

Presenting the findings of With the Best Intentions, a study into attitudes to residential care, primarily focusing on orphanages, Ith Sam Heng announced a new progressive policy on alternative care aimed at keeping children out of institutions.

“Family care is the best option; no one loves children like their families,” he said, stressing that residential care for at-risk children would now be considered only as a last resort.

Only 23 per cent of children found inside Cambodian orphanages had actually lost both parents, the minister said, citing the report.

The majority of parents who sent their children to orphanages did so because they were poor and held the misguided assumption that an institution could provide better care, he said, urging orphanages not to exploit these misperceptions.

“Before you think about gathering children for the centre, please think first about keeping them in their families. And forget that a source of funding is pretending to support the children; this is a kind of exploitation.”

Stressing the need for orphanages to more stringently abide by minimum standards of care, Ith Sam Heng said 70 of the 93 such facilities run by an organisation called Good News would be turned into community centres, but did not specify when. Contact details for Good News could not be found.

Richard Bridle, country representative of the UN Children’s Fund in Cambodia, which provided technical support for the study, said the new policy amounted to three key points.

Proper standards needed to be implemented, child-care institutions held to account and funds redirected from residential care institutions to families to make sure they had the capacity to care for their children.

“What the minister has outlined today are a series of measures with which we fully agree – first, that we should be prioritising keeping children in their families,” Bridle said.

“I have small children, I want them to stay with me. And if I were poor, I would want someone to help me, not take them away, and certainly would not like to have an organisation that is pressuring me to give up my children to go into an institution.”

While Cambodia’s adult death rate dropped between 2005 and 2010, the number of children in orphanages more than doubled – to about 12,000 – during the same period, he added.

The study found that more than 60 per cent of surveyed villagers felt a poor family should send their children to residential care if they could not pay for education, but that young people inside those orphanages felt they lacked love, freedom and opportunities.

In September, the Siem Reap province-based Cambodia Orphan Fund was shut down amid allegations from the Ministry of Interior that staff members had molested children and the revelation that its director, Nicholas Griffin, had been convicted of raping a child in 2007.

That followed the revelation in August that 30 children were unaccounted for at the Australian-funded Hope for Cambodian Children orphanage, which had failed to meet the Minimum Standards on Alternative Care for Children set by the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation.

In October, Friends International, Childsafe and UNICEF launched the “Children are not tourist attractions” campaign, urging visitors to Cambodia to think twice before visiting an orphanage.

Sarah Chhin, a program manager at the social welfare group International Cooperation Cambodia, said tourists need to think about what sort of conduct would be acceptable at orphanages in their own countries.

“Having people coming and going constantly doesn’t help them, and actually does more harm than good,” she said.

“Actually, the children within orphanages already have attachment issues, they have rejection issues, they have all sorts of other issues. They have all sorts of other issues that come with the trauma they have experienced.”

Hengchhea Chheav, founder and president of the Siem Reap town orphanage Assisting Cambodian Orphans and the Disabled Organisation, said his orphanage was trying to move away from foreign donations-based funding but was not finding it easy.

“I think from the beginning of when I created ACODO orphanage, I found that the problem was the income, I couldn’t find the income that I would say was sustainable for supporting the children,” he said.

“Some of the local organisations in Cambodia, they couldn’t help themselves, and then they opened to make like a business or something.”

Living wage a ‘human right’

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:03:20 +0100

Panellists at the first “Permanent People’s Tribunal” on wages and conditions for Cambodian garment workers yesterday released their findings, declaring that a living wage for workers should be considered a “human right”.

The hearing included two days of testimony by workers, labour experts and brand-name buyers.

Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Gianni Tognoni speaks yesterday at the conclusion of the three-day Permanent People’s Tribunal.

While panellists did not specify what a living wage was, they called on the government to develop “standards and methods” for calculating one and found that the “minimum living wage should clearly identify food costs to be no more than 50 per cent of the overall wage package”.

A representative from the Asia Floor Wage Campaign, which organised the hearing, took it a step further, telling the Post that the monthly minimum wage for garment workers in Cambodia should be US$281.

That figure represents more than four times the current monthly minimum wage for garment workers of $66, which includes a $5 health bonus added last month.

AFW coordinator Anannya Bhattacharjee said the $281 calculation was based on a worker’s monthly nutritional needs according to figures obtained from governments and international institutions.

She added that such an increase would rely to some extent on clothing brands and retailers paying more for the finished product.

“There is enough money in the global supply chain for brands to pay Cambodian manufacturers enough so that garment workers can earn that,” she said.

Panel member Gianni Tognoni yesterday said that a wage is one way for workers to enjoy their basic human rights. “Wage is not simply part of a contract,” he said.

Tognini said that while there were legal principles in place to govern the sector, there was “vast evidence of impunity”.

“Everything is well known, everything is well legislated and nothing happens,” he said, citing an “absence of investigation” of mass fainting episodes in factories.

Another panel member, former professor Gill H Boehringer, said that buyers were “violating the norms of your country and international norms which are universally recognised”.

The panel concluded with recommendations for the government, trade unions and consumers.

“Consumers should support the global efforts of trade unions and other labour organisations and NGOs … to pressure Multinational Corporations and (‘Brands’) to adopt…the living wage in their supply chain,” the findings read.

It called multinational corporations to move “beyond good intentions” and commit to “a mandatory living wage at all levels and sectors of the supply chain”, and recommended that unions adopt the “living wage concept” as part of their bargaining strategy.

Dave Welsh, country director for the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, said that while the AFW’s $281 figure would be a “great wage”, it was “probably not realistic overnight”, adding that there was “definitely room for brands to negotiate”.

“It shouldn’t be on [the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia] necessarily,” he said. “It’s also really in the brands’ corner, where they’re benefiting hugely from being in Cambodia, not only financially, but also from a PR vantage point.”

While GMAC did not attend the tribunal, the group’s secretary-general, Ken Loo, told the Post last week that there were “numerous calculations” for determining a living wage.

NGO hot seat: DARPO duo questioned over abuses

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:03:10 +0100

Two former staff members of the much-maligned and now defunct NGO Drugs and AIDS Research and Prevention Organisation (DARPO) appeared before the Preah Vihear provincial court yesterday for questioning in connection with several human-rights abuses, including rape.

Last month, four former employees of the NGO were summonsed to appear before the court after 54-year-old Khin Khun of Choam Ksan district alleged they had beaten her, causing serious injury, and raped her 13-year-old daughter in July, 2010.

Provincial court judge Saso Savuth said yesterday only two of the four men summonsed to the court had shown up for questioning, but failed to provide any further details about the court proceedings or if the remaining two men would ever be forced to appear before the court.

“Only two of them appeared in court, but please don’t worry about this case; we are working on it,” the judge said.

Lor Chann, provincial co-ordinator for the rights group Adhoc, identified the two men who appeared at the court for questioning as Yeng Vanny and Thi Thuon, adding that they had been released after questioning.

“They claimed they knew nothing about the accusations,” Lor Chann said.

DARPO was granted more than 500 hectares of land in 2007, with instructions to distribute it to families in need.

Adhoc claims that the NGO instead charged villagers for plots of land, leading it to eventually file for bankruptcy and disband.