DOG DINNER DUDE

Dog lovers, get ready to freak out. Last Sunday, Khmer blab-sheet Rasmei Kampuchea Daily ran a story about Pov Nat, who travels with moto and cage, scouring the rural backblocks for dogs to sell to a butcher in Siem Reap. The butcher supplies restaurants catering to tourists from South Korea.

The dog dude said he actually buys dogs rather than indulging in dog-napping, and said the butcher pays him 16,000 riel a kilo for each dog.

"I buy between six and 11 dogs a day and purchases are based on orders from the butcher in Siem Reap. Dogs bought from rural areas have good meat. The clients in Siem Reap like it but say the meat is not as delicious as dog meat raised abroad."

CHILD SEX ABUSER FREED

Siem Reap guesthouse owner Erich Bader, a Swiss national, was freed from prison on Monday August 20, where he had been serving time after being convicted of purchasing child prostitution from two minors, aged 11 and 16.

Bader, the owner of the Prince Mekong Villa guesthouse, was sentenced to two years in prison by the Siem Reap provincial court on April 21 last year.

His time in the nick was backdated to his arrest in August 2010.

He was also ordered to pay compensation of nine million riel (about US$2,250) to his victims, but according to prosecutor Ty Soveinthal this hasn’t been paid because the families haven’t applied for it.

Bader, who previously served a two-year prison term for child sex offences in Switzerland, moved to Siem Reap about seven years ago.

EXPAT’S SAD PHOTO LEGACY

A rare photo unearthed this month of one of 11 westerners killed at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng interrogation centre was a sad reminder of the demise of Siem Reap expat, Frenchman Andres Gaston Courtigne, who was 30 at time of arrest.

According to his S-21 file, he was arrested in Kampong Kdey district in Siem Reap on April 15, 1976

He had worked as a French embassy clerk and typist in Siem Reap, but his S-21 file described his “current role” as “new farmer, rice growing and herding cows.”

The file reveals that he was married to Chhay Rasy, formerly of Kas Kralor province, Battambang. The couple had two children – a daughter and a son.

AUSTIN TEXAS FRIENDSHIP

Siem Reap and Austin, Texas are to be bound together as Friendship Cities, and the establishment of this could eventually lead to sister city status.

An official Friendship City agreement signing will take place on November 5 this year, at Austin City Hall live via Skype. Austin’s mayor Lee Leffingwell will sign on behalf of Austin, and an Austin delegation will travel to Siem Reap to have the local governor sign simultaneously.

The collaboration is being speared by Jamie Amelio, ceo of Caring For Cambodia, and Channy Soeur, ceo of CAS Consulting & Services, a civil, environmental and transportation engineering company.

Jamie C Amelio is the founder of Caring for Cambodia, an NGO that educates children and trains teachers in Siem Reap. The NGO came about after she holidayed in Cambodia in 2003.