Posted: 22 Jan 2011 05:19 PM PST
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FIGHTING WORDS: A stone tablet with a message in Khmer branding Thai troops 'invaders' at Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara Keo Sekha Kiri Svarak. |
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| HOME AT LAST: Democrat MP Panich Vikitsreth (centre) and Samdin Lertbutr (left) arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday. They, with Narumol Chitwaratana, Tainae Mungmajon and Kojpollathorn Chusanasevi, returned to Thailand after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court gave them a suspended jail term for trespassing on Cambodian territory and illegal entry into a military area. |
Invaders' jibe as Thais come home
SECOND ARMY CHIEF ANGERED AS TEMPLE SIGN ANTAGONISES TROOPS IN DISPUTED AREA
23/01/2011 Wassana Nanuam Bangkok Post
The 2nd Army chief has demanded Cambodian troops remove a stone tablet in the disputed border area bearing a message lambasting Thai troops as "invaders".
The latest controversy in the Thai-Cambodian territorial dispute came as Bangkok yesterday welcomed back the five Thais allowed home by a Phnom Penh court after being found guilty of charges related to illegally crossing the border.
Lt Gen Thawatchai Samutsakhon said he had contacted Cambodian troops to remove the stone tablet, bearing the message "Thai troops _ the Invaders" written in Khmer, erected in front of Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara.
The temple, situated 300m away from Preah Vihear, is in the disputed 4.6-square-kilometre area claimed by both countries.
Lt Gen Thawatchai said the two countries have agreed not to build or erect anything that is indicative of ownership of the land.
"This stone tablet will have significant implications if it is used as evidence in cases involving territorial disputes in the International Court of Justice," Lt Gen Thawatchai said.
"We cannot accept this. I have told them to take it down.
"If they don't take it down, I may have a sign with a similar message erected."
Cambodia put the stone tablet up after Thai troops withdrew from Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara on Dec 1.
Army specialist Kanok Nettarakawesana is named on the tablet as one of the "invaders".
At the time, Lt Gen Kanok was commander of the Suranaree task force and led about 200 Thai soldiers to enter the wat to hold talks with Cambodian authorities regarding the release of three Thais detained in the disputed area on July 15, 2008.
The three were members of the ultra-nationalist Dharmayatra group, which camped out on the Thai border in Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak district to protest Thailand's support of Phnom Penh's listing of the temple as a Unesco World Heritage site. They were freed after four hours of negotiations.
Lt Gen Kanok said he decided to lead the soldiers into Wat Kaew Sikha Khiri Sawara to stop Cambodian soldiers from taking the three Thais to Ban Komui on the Cambodian side.
Lt Gen Kanok insisted that the wat is located in the overlapping area and Thai soldiers have the authority to enter the temple.
"It was the first time that we had reached there. In the past, Thai soldiers never entered the area but I stood by our 1:50000 map which indicates the area is ours," he said.
Lt Gen Kanok shrugged off the name-calling by Cambodian soldiers.
He said he led the troops to enter the temple to assert the country's sovereignty over the disputed area.
He declined to comment on whether Thailand was at a disadvantage after the country withdrew its troops from the temple.
"You need to ask the people responsible for the issue," he said.
Meanwhile, the five Thais released from Phnom Penh arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday evening. They appeared exhausted and declined to comment.
On Friday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found each of the five Thais - Panich Vikitsreth, Narumol Chitwaratana, Samdin Lertbutr, Tainae Mungmajon, and Kojpollathorn Chusanasevi - guilty of two counts of trespassing onto Cambodian territory and illegal entry into a military area.
The judges sentenced each of them to nine months in jail and a fine of 1 million riel (7,520 baht), but suspended the terms.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday called an urgent meeting of relevant authorities to discuss what action should be taken in the wake of the guilty verdicts.
He said the government has asked the Cambodian government to translate the verdict into Thai so it can determine whether the ruling has any impact on Thailand's territorial integrity.
He said he would explain all relevant issues to the public today.
The five Thais were among a group of seven arrested by Cambodian authorities on Dec 27.
The remaining two are Veera Somkwamkid, a Thai Patriots Network coordinator, and his secretary, Ratree Pipatanapaiboon, who both face additional charges of espionage.
The Phnom Penh court is scheduled to hand down its ruling on the two on Tuesday.  |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 03:34 PM PST International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Ratified, acceded by UN General Assembly in December 1966, entry into force March 1976. Cambodia ratified the ICCPR (thus, a part of Cambodia's body of laws) and is obligated to submit regular reports to the United Nations.
Part III Article 19 1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. 3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.
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Posted: 22 Jan 2011 03:29 PM PST Constitution of Cambodia (Sept. 1993)
Chapter III
Rights and Responsibilities of Khmer Citizens
Article 43 Khmer citizens of either sex shall have the right to freedom of belief. Freedom of religious belief and worship shall be guaranteed by the State on the condition that such freedom does not affect other religious beliefs or violate public order and security. Buddhism shall be the religion of the State.
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Posted: 22 Jan 2011 03:25 PM PST |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:11 PM PST January 22, 2011
PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - The 30th Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tourism Forum concluded on Friday evening with a closer cooperation among ASEAN countries and its dialogue partners, said Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon at the closing ceremony.
"Our great achievement made in the forum this year is the adoption of the ASEAN tourism strategic plan 2011-2015 aimed to turn the ASEAN into a world class tourist destination by 2015," he told about 400 participants.
"Besides this, I hope that buyers and sellers have met their business partners for future cooperation," he said, adding that the forum also created a closer environment of cooperation among ASEAN countries and ASEAN with dialogue partners including China, Japan, South Korea, India and Russia.
The 30th ASEAN Tourism Forum kicked off on Jan. 15.
During the event, there had been a series of meetings of ASEAN tourism ministers, ASEAN tourism ministers+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) and ASEAN tourism ministers+ India and Russia.
Also, there was the ASEAN Travel Exchange with the participation of up to 1,500 sellers with 512 booths from hotels, airline companies, tour operators and travel agencies in ASEAN countries and 466 buyers from the ASEAN, Asia, Europe and the United States of America.
The 31st ATF will be held in Indonesia in 2012.
The ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.  |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:08 PM PST Dhaka, Sunday January 23 2011
Nazmul Ahsan
Financial Express-Bangladesh
Bangladesh will take Cambodian lands on lease to produce rice over there and import it to meet the local demands for the same.
Besides, Bangladeshi businessmen will establish rice husking mills in different cities of Cambodia.
A recent inter-ministerial meeting, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), took the decision. Foreign Secretary Mijarul Kayes presided over the meeting, sources said.
Representatives from ministries of agriculture, commerce, food and foreign affairs attended the meeting.
The decision came following the visit of foreign minister Dipu Moni, to Cambodia in late December, 2010, a high official in the foreign ministry said.
The meeting decided to form an expert team comprising representatives from different ministries concerned and private sector. The proposed team, likely to be headed by foreign secretary, will shortly visit Cambodia to complete necessary formalities with Cambodian government, sources said.
"The team to visit Cambodia will explore all potentials in taking lease of their lands to produce food grains, particularly rice and import the same to Bangladesh," a top official in the foreign ministry said.
"A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bangladesh and Cambodia will be signed following the visit," he added.
The foreign ministry officials said the government of Cambodia responded positively to a request for leasing out their lands to Bangladesh for agricultural purpose during the visit of Dipu Moni.
The terms of condition, particularly the lease-period and annual fees for the leased land, will be finalised by expert teams of contracting countries, sources said.
Asked, a high official in the foreign ministry, however, said no government ministry or agency conducted any feasibility study on the issue so far.
Bangladesh annually imports 3.0-3.2 million tonnes of food grains to meet the local demand.  |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:02 PM PST
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| A Cambodian gambler talks on several mobile phones during a boxing match at a television station in Phnom Penh, May 15, 2010. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images) |
The sight of someone talking on two phones at the same time isn't uncommon.
January 22, 2011
Global Post
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Lim Sivhuy owns four mobile phones and has five different phone numbers but it's nearly impossible to get her on the line.
Meanwhile, an entire day can go by trying. Upon first attempt, you're told Lim's number is busy. A different number you're told doesn't exist. Later, when you try again with yet a different number, you only get ringing. Then an automated voice encourages you to try again — but you don't.
In this small Southeast Asian country wedged between Thailand and Vietnam, the experience calling 20-year-old Lim in western Cambodia's Pursat town is not in any way unusual.
Urban Cambodia is so over-saturated with mobiles and telephone numbers that it's often impossible to get anyone, anywhere on the line.
Rice farmers own two mobile phones for no apparent reason. Markets teem with dozens of mobile phone shops all hawking the same ware.
There are way too many service providers. In 2006, Cambodia was host to three mobile-phone service providers, but by the end of 2010, there were nine — a shocking occurrence given that Cambodia has a population of 15 million people and many countries with far more people manage with fewer providers. Thailand, for instance, with a population of 61 million, has four providers, and Vietnam's 90 million citizens are serviced by seven.
Recognizing that competition had become too crowded, two mobile phone service providers — Smart Mobile and Star-Cell — announced a merger in early January, a move that may spark additional consolidations, some analysts contend.
"It's one of the most competitive environments in the world," said Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt. "To have eight cell phone providers for a country of 15 million people, I don't know of another country where the ratio is like Cambodia's."
The spoils of competitive mobile-phone provider warfare have been good to the kingdom. Deals abound as providers pivot for more customers, and mobiles are always on the cheap, some going for only $5.
Between 2009 and 2010, the number of mobile-phone connections in Cambodia more than doubled, leaping from 4.2 million telephone numbers to 8.5 million, according to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. Six years ago, when far fewer network providers did business, there were only 690,000 numbers.
Things, as a result, have gotten a little silly. The sight of someone talking on two phones at the same time isn't uncommon.
People pester business card designer Souk Srey Mom into cramming all five or six of their telephone numbers onto a single card, despite her admonishments that "it won't be beautiful — a mess!"
Others vie for "lucky" telephone numbers, designated as such based on complicated calculations or seemingly arbitrary distinctions. The estimated price of the number "017999999"? Three grand.
"Yes, I have a lot of cell phones," related Lim Sihvuy, remarkably enough, over the phone. "This is so because it is very easy and very convenient with so many phones and they are so modern and so beautiful."
That's just the thing, said a spokesman at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, who asked to remain nameless. They're easy. They're convenient. They're modern. In a country rushing to develop, the mere act of owning mobile phones says more about your stature than whether you have money left over to actually pay for service. Thus a country of inoperative telephone numbers and unreturned calls. Too many mobiles; not enough money to use them. Countless numbers hang in ether.
Statistics are vague at best. No one knows the exact percentage of Cambodians using mobile phones, though governmental estimates usually hover around 50 percent. Yet, every available statistic and anecdote suggests there will soon be more mobile-phone shops, more telephone numbers, more confusion.
In rural Kampong Thom province, Lim Vuthy, a slight monk who smokes thin cigars, owns eight — count 'em — eight mobile phones.
On a recent Monday afternoon at his pagoda he reclined on wooden furniture, his full arsenal before him. Virtually every mobile brand and service provider present and accounted for.
Each telephone is absolutely necessary, he said, referring to situations when he receives three urgent calls at the same time and conducts the conversations simultaneously. Ah, the social responsibilities of today's monkhood.
"It's difficult to talk on three cell phones at the same time," Lim began to explain, before he was interrupted by a phone call. Looking abashed, Lim answered, telling the caller he couldn't talk, and placed the phone back among the collection.
"Having so many cell phones is complicated and it becomes more complicated," Lim continued and then paused for a moment. "I don't know if I'll have more cell phones later. There's nothing difficult about having so many cell phones."  |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 11:52 AM PST Perspective
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| By: MEERKAT, the Barn Raider |
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." ― George Orwell Democracy Square: The physical anchor point for political dramatization and communication
On March 30, 1997, supporters of Sam Rainsy coming mainly from impoverished countryside and garment factory worker communities surrounding the Capital City of Phnom Penh, converged on the northwest corner of Wat Botum Wadei Park south of Sothearos Boulevard, east of the Royal Palace and across the street from the old National Assembly Building, to voice their discontent over the heavily-tainted Hun Sen government's judicial system. Shortly after the crowd began to gather to hear the speech four fragment grenades were tossed into the peaceful demonstrators killing 16 citizens and maimed at least 150 of them including an American political observer. Mr. Rainsy himself narrowly escaped this murder and mayhem.
Covert political violence during the 1993 election aside, this act of savagery reaffirms Cambodia's long-established "political culture" of the past such as that of Sihanouk's and Lon Nol's, which subscribes to the notion that government power is a zero-sum (all or nothing) game. Hun Sen and the CPP understand power only in absolutist terms ― power is not shared, it is accumulated and protected. In addition, his approach to government was more reflective of the political culture of the communist single-party state which was forged into his psyche in his earlier career with the Khmer Rouge and later under the tutelage of Hanoi, which subscribes to the radical view that the power of a government is derived not from political transformation but secured by a revolution or a coup, any sign of challenge, no matter how insignificant is always seen as reactionary, and must be stamped out at the earliest opportune.
Hun Sen and the CPP was first installed and later institutionalized to power through crafty electoral and political maneuvering masterminded by a legion of shadowy communist Vietnamese apparatchik accompanied by a robust paramilitary security arm that are responsible for the planning and execution of a well established modus operandi down to the letter. Together they have successfully utilized the legal framework of the new constitution to align the distribution of government power with the de facto distribution of their bureaucratic and military power. Not a single branch or agency of this proxy government has been able to operate outside of the grip of the Hun Sen/Heng Samrin/Chea Sim triumvirate party-line and Hanoi's political hegemony.
Cambodia under Hun Sen and the CPP is a hollow polity. The National Assembly is nothing more than a rubber stamp which is being used to ratify the government's decisions. The judiciary is derivative of the administration rather than being independent. Khmer citizens know that they cannot rely on the court system for redress or remedy, especially against the willful abuse of the well-connected, local corrupted authority and police. The bureaucracy has never been capable of establishing its sense of professional responsibility and it only helps to oppress citizens. Most political observers and a number of foreign diplomats have concluded that in order for Cambodia to prosper its "political culture" would have to change.
The principal goal and the mission of SRP have never changed from the early days of Khmer National Party to the present Sam Rainsy Party ― to mobilize Cambodian society to participate in the political process in order to bring about orderly and progressive change to our archaic and brutal political culture, and to help free our nation from the influence and encroachment of Hanoi.
However in the chaos and cloud of dust resulting from our resistance against "violent assaults from above" and the party's apparent lacking in interplay, SRP mission priorities have not always been clearly communicated throughout its constituency. SRP has periodically been alleged by skeptics and opponents of waging subversive counterculture campaign to implant foreign values and ideas, and to undermine Hun Sen's and CPP efforts in establishing order and stability mandated by donor countries and investors to keep the much needed aids flowing. Sam Rainsy himself has been frequently unfairly labeled by critics as a royalist, communist, and an imperialist agent simultaneously. The party has never been prompt or vigorous in counteracting the opponents' mudslinging.
The task of introducing democratic change to a nation which has never seen or experienced genuine freedom and democracy, is indeed a tall order and an impossible dream. However, as autocracy begins to ratchet up, people will naturally long for the alternatives to life under tyranny. This is when SRP can begin to fully deploy its unlimited intellectual capacity, and its liberal democratic ideals against the outdated "politics as usual" that has been riddled with familism, cupidity, narrow horizon, and reluctance to tolerate opposing points of view, prevalent in the Sihanouk and Lon Nol's periods.
As for containing and mitigating the encroachment and intervention of Hanoi in our national affairs, oversea-based SRP has dedicated the highest level of efforts and resources it could afford lobbying peace and freedom advocates around the world to influence Vietnam to abandon her futile efforts in forcing Cambodia into the de facto Indochina communist orbit. However to achieve success outside of our borders, our nation will have to gain a very substantial ground at home in establishing a strong foundation necessary for a democratic system of government to take hold. In other words the domestic front will have to reach critical mass before the international front begins to yield. At some point in the near future, Vietnam, like her old patron the USSR will inevitably be facing the menace of globalization, regional geopolitics, global warming and climate change, environmental degradation, and last but not least the growing social unrest (citizens' demand for changes) which will eventually alter the geopolitical landscape in favor of Cambodia.
The March 30, 1997 grenade attack did not permanently cripple the will of the ordinary Khmer to come out to the street and protest in one form or another. In fact many more mass rallies and demonstrations were organized by SRP and other opposition parties during the 1998 elections ballot count. The attempt to restrict access and denial of public space using the threat of violence, and arrest can only foster deeper resentment and help galvanize citizens' determination to hold the ground and fight back.
In the subsequent years following the grenade attack, Hun Sen's "praetorian guard" has wasted no time in devising new strategies to prevent, disrupt and neutralize citizen's protests. The National Assembly building has now been relocated further east, to where there is no available public space for any sizeable crowd to rally and have a meaningful demonstration. The so-called Freedom Park has been constructed at the west end of the City, miles away from principal governmental seats as to enable the accountable office of the public representatives/officials to extricate themselves out of their relevant duty and claim ignorance of the people's demands, and to conveniently dismiss any responsibility in any eventual heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators by security police in case a violent confrontation breaks out. The regulations concerning the use of the new Freedom Park as a rallying point, is ANYTHING but FREE.
The rights of citizens to enter the city and subsequently to congregate in the public squares have just been curtailed to almost nothing. With neither debate nor protest allowed, the rights of the people to representations have been unceremoniously pulled right out from underneath them. Why should the National Assembly where elective representatives of the people conduct business on behalf of the constituents be tucked away out of view from a public square, and sealed off by iron fence and gates like a fortress? Why the so-called Freedom Park is located so far apart from where citizens are supposed to be congregating and effectively exercising their rights to complaint within view and earshot of their elective representatives? And why the park rules and regulations are heavily loaded with restrictions that turn a public forum park into a virtual FORBIDEN PARK instead? The answer should be very obvious to anyone ― Hun Sen and CPP's bastion of dictatorship in Cambodia is being fast and furiously erected as the world watch.
The Hun Sen and CPP's autocratic engine has been racing ahead of the Khmer civil society to find more ways to block access to democracy, while Sam Rainsy and SRP are making a sustained effort to gear up, mobilize, and lead the grassroots political movement to reclaim "the rights to the City and the rights to stand in Democracy Square". At the present there is no physical public space in the City of Phnom Penh where our citizens can call theirs. Physical and virtual barriers to a free, safe and secure public forum have just been erected around all potential gathering spaces. The critical and urgent task for SRP is to prepare to lead the efforts in the struggle to gradually dismantle all barriers until Khmer citizens gain full access to the middle of the ideal and symbolic square. While attempting to control the voice of dissent, the enemies of democracy are fully aware of the risk they will have to face. Each collective foothold the grassroots gain toward the imaginary square, the balance of power is tilting the way of democracy. Each aggression on the part of the government (which is most likely to occur in every confrontation) will cost them their hard-to-come-by credibility and legitimacy needed for securing international support of their policies and actions. The government has more reasons to be worried each time a clash with demonstrators takes place.
The advance or the setback resulting from the battle for democracy square is neither instantaneous nor obvious, but very likely to be subtle and gradual. Consider the first memorial monument erected soon after the grenade attack, almost immediately after it went up, it was taken down, then dumped into the sewage effluent at the river's edge one block away, while no authority bothered to address this sacrilegious act. The concrete replacement monument, a chedei, larger and heavier than the previous, went up in the presence of various diplomatic corps and members of the media. It is still standing as a testimony to the incremental victory of the people. In some small measures it is also a token victory for Sam Rainsy and the SRP to be cherished. Like the Chinese students' demonstration in Tiananmen Square in 1989, those who gave their life in the quest for liberty shall forever live in the conscience of those who are still alive, and that the ground where their blood was shed should be sacred and belong to the living, and should stand as a reminder that "freedom is not free".
The latest and most dramatic act of defiance came on 25 October 2009, during a Buddhist Kathen celebration in Svay Rieng province, when Sam Rainsy led local villagers and officials from SRP in uprooting six wooden temporary posts (border post # 185) marking the country's border with Vietnam, which has been in a demarcation process for some time; villagers said that the Vietnamese had illegally shifted the posts onto Cambodian soil in their rice fields and that their complaints to the local authorities in this respect had remained unavailing. The incident and the setting fit the concept of the "Democracy Square" as a place where people assemble to dramatize and communicate their disagreement with the government. It did well to expose Hun Sen's government and his patron/accomplice in Hanoi, nonetheless the ultimate windfall effect of this symbolic display of will was primarily intended to fall squarely on the collective conscience of the Khmer nation at home and elsewhere, which it did.
Cambodians have displayed their unmitigated resilience, and are not hesitant to take to the street whenever they felt that their collective voice needs to be heard. Wherever they make a stand such ground is their "Democracy Square". SRP representatives have always availed themselves to be present and to lead marches and demonstrations when and where they are needed.
Going forward SRP friends and foes should have no misgiving about where, when and how Sam Rainsy and his SRP grassroots movement will wage the campaign to build the foundation of democracy and freedom, and for our nation's rights to self-determination. Hun Sen and the CPP may step up their efforts in erecting more physical barriers to keep us out of democracy squares, but they will never be able to prevent us from constructing democracy squares in our minds.  |
Posted: 22 Jan 2011 11:34 AM PST
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| Dedication by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com) |
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Posted: 21 Jan 2011 11:28 PM PST |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:49 PM PST Congratulations to Vietnam's new Party leader
01/22/2011
VOV News/VNA
Lao Party General Secretary and State President Choummaly Sayasone has sent a congratulatory message to newly elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.
On the occasion, Chinese Party General Secretary and President Hu Jintao extended greetings to the new Vietnamese Party leader.
The Vietnamese Party chief also received congratulations from Cambodian King Samdech Preah Baromneath Norodom Sihamoni, President of the Cambodia People's Party Samdech Chea Seam, Russian President D. A. Medvedev, General Secretary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Workers' Party Kim Jung Il, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, President of the Russian Communist Party G. Zyuganov, the Hungary Communist Workers' Party Central Committee, President of the Bangladesh Communist Party M.A. Khan and General Secretary of the Cambodia FUNCINPEC Party Nhiek Bun Chay.  |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:32 PM PST January 21, 2011
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times
BANGKOK — It is the most vilified army in Southeast Asia, known for crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar and for its brutal suppression of ethnic groups seeking self-rule in the region's longest-running civil war.
The 400,000-strong army in the former Burma is remarkable for its cohesion, cemented by a system of rewards and punishments, and military analysts have found little sign of dissent in its ranks.
But in its lower levels, at least, it is made up of men who come from a society that widely fears and distrusts the military and who join for the steady employment and status it offers, according to Myo Myint, 48, a former soldier who joined the democratic opposition led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr. Myo Myint is the central figure in a new documentary called "Burma Soldier," a film that traces his life from the battlefield, where he lost a leg and an arm, to his 15 years in prison after joining the opposition and then his departure through a Thai refugee camp to the United States in 2008.
"While the top ranks control and repress people, most soldiers are like me. They join the military because they need to earn money for their daily survival," he said in a telephone interview from Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lives now.
In addition, he said, "There are so many soldiers serving in the military who secretly support the opposition but cannot expose their feelings. They will be sent to prison and a very heavy imprisonment."
He added: "I hope that after watching the film, some soldiers will think about their actions and their treatment of civilians, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong, just or unjust."
In quiet and measured tones in the film, broken at one point by tears, Mr. Myo Myint describes his journey, with interviews in the refugee camp interspersed with rare and sometimes horrifying footage of military maneuvers and attacks on ethnic minority villages. The film's director, Nic Dunlop, an Irish writer and photographer, said the extraordinary images were taken at great risk by dissident groups.
Mr. Dunlop said he was attempting to deliver this message through what he called "reverse pirating."
The film will be released next year on HBO, he said, but he and his producers have already made a Burmese-language version of the film and have begun smuggling it into Myanmar on DVDs and on the Internet.
"We are encouraging Burmese to make as many copies as they can and give people inside a chance to hear an alternative history, and hear it from a man who was part of the military," Mr. Dunlop said.
"There's an irony in this," he said, referring to an earlier documentary, "Burma VJ." "They were struggling to get information and images out, with a great deal of difficulty and an enormous amount of risk."
That documentary, by Anders Ostergaard, told the story of the Buddhist monk-led uprising in September 2007 and the military's harsh response, in part through the work of video journalists on the scene.
"What we are doing is the absolute reverse," Mr. Dunlop said. "We are trying to get the film into the country illegally by pirating our own film in Burmese."
Mr. Dunlop is sending a message, to audiences both inside and outside Myanmar, that was also at the heart of his book "The Lost Executioner" (Bloomsbury 2005), about the Khmer Rouge prison chief in Cambodia, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.
Mr. Dunlop was working as a photographer in 1999, when he discovered Duch in a remote area of Cambodia, a discovery that led to the first of the Khmer Rouge trials and the conviction of Duch last year. Duch was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Four other defendants are facing trial this year.
"I wanted to know what it was that had turned a seemingly ordinary man from one of the poorer parts of Cambodia into one of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century," Mr. Dunlop wrote in the prologue to his book.
Myanmar presents a similar challenge, he said.
"One of the problems of Burma is that it reads better as a story when you have forces of evil pitted against the forces of good, symbolized by Aung San Suu Kyi," Mr. Dunlop said.
"I think it's not enough to condemn people or regimes but we have to look past that," he said. "The world is not divided into good and evil, with us or against us, black and white, but is much more nuanced. If we stop looking at the world in this polarized way, we stand a greater chance of trying to prevent these crimes."
In the cases of both the Khmer Rouge, who ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s, and the army of Myanmar, he said, "It's crucial to look at the world of the perpetrators, to contextualize the evidence and the people rather than seeing them as monsters, but see them as human beings, and that we are all capable of doing these kinds of things in given circumstances."
For example, as Mr. Myo Myint said in the interview, the soldiers who shot down civilians in pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and 2007 in Myanmar were drawn from distant battlefields where they had been fighting separatist ethnic armies.
"The soldiers are uneducated and don't understand politics," he said. "They are told that everyone who supports the demonstrations and opposes the government are enemies of the people and we have the right to kill these people."
For them, the killings are not only justified but necessary, he said. "It is our duty."  |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:17 PM PST
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| Chea Mony, Chea Vichea's brother and FTUWKC President, addressed the attendants (Photo: CEN) |
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| Procession (Photo: CEN) |
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| Procession (Photo: CEN) |
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People carry wreaths and a portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, as they mark the seventh anniversary of his death in Phnom Penh January 22, 2011. Chea Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Samrang Pring |
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| Procession (Photo: CEN) |
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A man burns incense in front of a portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, as the seventh anniversary of his death is marked in Phnom Penh January 22, 2011. Chea Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Samrang Pring |
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A portrait of Chea Vichea, former president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of Cambodia, is placed on the chair as the seventh anniversary of his death is marked in Phnom Penh January 22, 2011. Chea Vichea was shot dead at a news stand in central Phnom Penh in January 2004. REUTERS/Samrang Pring |
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| Praying for Chea Vichea (Photo: CEN) |
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| Praying for Chea Vichea (Photo: CEN) |
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Posted: 21 Jan 2011 09:02 PM PST 22/01/2011
Bangkok Post
Yellow-shirt supporters of the Thai Patriots Network insisted on Saturday that they would continue rallying at Government House even though the five Thais were freed by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday, reports said.
"We will keep on protesting until the remaining two Thais are released", a network core leader said on the rally stage.
The court on Friday afternoon gave each of the five Thais, including Democrat MP Panich Vikitsreth, a suspended jail term as they were found guilty on two counts of trespassing on Cambodia territory and illegal entry into military area.
The verdict has not yet been passes on the cases of Veera Somkwamkid, a coordinator of the network, and his secretary Ratree Pipatanapaibul.
They both face allegations that they spied on Cambodian military affairs and have been charged with espionage.
Mr Veera has been denied bail and remains at Prey Sar prison.
Ms Ratree was granted a bail and is staying at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh.
Army of reporters are now waiting at Suvarnabhumi airport to report the return of the five Thais after they were jailed in the neighbouring country's prison alomost one month.  |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 08:48 PM PST |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 08:44 PM PST
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| Former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier retreated to a private residence north of Port-au-Prince after missing a flight out of the country on Thursday morning. (Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press) |
Haitian Montrealers urged to file complaints
Friday, January 21, 2011
CBC News (Canada)
Haitian authorities will investigate former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier for crimes against humanity allegedly committed under his 16-year rule, the country's top prosecutor said Friday.
Chief Magistrate Harycidas Auguste told CBC News Duvalier will face charges related to torture, imprisonment for political reasons and refusing freedom of expression. All of the crimes are alleged to have occurred during Duvalier's presidency from 1971 to 1986.
Amnesty International's researcher for Haiti, Gerardo Ducos, met Thursday with top Haitian justice officials, including Auguste and Justice Minister Paul Denis.
In a statement, Amnesty International said Ducos handed more than 100 documents "detailing dozens of cases of detention without trial, systematic torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions."
Duvalier, 59, already faces charges of embezzlement, misappropriation of funds and theft amid accusations he siphoned up to $300 million from federal coffers into his personal bank accounts.
On Thursday, he met with Auguste and Judge Carves Jean, the investigating judge in his case.
Haitian Montrealers urged to come forward Haitian human rights lawyer Mario Joseph said Friday the only way to make the charges against Duvalier stick is for members of the Haitian diaspora to file complaints against him.
"We need people to mobilize, not only the Canadian diaspora but ... progressive Canadian people to mobilize to judge Duvalier," Joseph said.
Joseph has been gathering stories from Haitians who say they were tortured and abused by the Tontons Macoutes, the secret police force established by Duvalier's father and predecessor, François Duvalier, and used by both.
"It's a chance for the victims," Joseph said a day earlier. "It's … time for Jean-Claude Duvalier to be judged."
Haitian-born Franz Voltaire told CBC News he was arrested and jailed by the Tontons Macoutes before being expelled to Montreal.
"They don't give you a specific reason, just tell me ... I had too many contacts with the opposition," Voltaire said.
Reasons for staying unclear Duvalier had been booked on a flight to leave the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Thursday morning, but missed it. Instead, he slipped out the back of his hotel and was driven to a private home on a mountain above Port-au-Prince.
The reasons for his prolonged stay remain as murky as his motivation for coming back in the first place, but advisers and confidants cite two primary motivations: the lack of a valid passport and the ongoing court investigation against him on allegations of corruption and human rights abuses during his reign.
As his scheduled flight took off he was still in the international-style hotel in Petionville, where he had stayed in a standard room. After a group lunch on its covered patio restaurant his girlfriend, Veronique Roy, walked to a waiting car at the hotel's main door to draw off most of the press while he was shepherded to a separate car behind the compound on a concrete loading dock.
Defence attorney Reynold Georges told reporters earlier in the day that he couldn't speculate how long the ex-dictator would stay in Haiti, but that it would take at least two weeks to resolve the legal cases filed against him.
"He will have to answer that question himself but for now, we're here," Georges said.
Asked if Duvalier had been invited to Haiti by anyone in the government, the attorney said not to his knowledge. "It's his country. He doesn't need an invitation."
Duvalier flew into Port-au-Prince on Sunday after 25 years in exile; he left Haiti in 1986 during a popular rebellion.
With files from The Associated Press  |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 08:25 PM PST |
Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:36 PM PST Constitution of Cambodia (Sept. 1993)
Chapter III
Rights and Responsibilities of Khmer Citizens
Article 42 Khmer Citizens shall have the right to establish associations and political parties. These rights shall be determined by law. Khmer citizens may take part in mass organizations for mutual benefit to protect national achievement and social order.
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Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:32 PM PST International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Ratified, acceded by UN General Assembly in December 1966, entry into force March 1976. Cambodia ratified the ICCPR (thus, a part of Cambodia's body of laws) and is obligated to submit regular reports to the United Nations.
Part III
Article 18 1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching. 2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. 3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. 4. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.
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