Thursday, February 17, 2011

KI Media

Posted by sam auto blog tune up at 5:22 PM

KI Media

[Thai] PM ready to clarify with PAD on border issues [-Just kill each other off and leave Cambodia alone!]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 05:10 PM PST

17/2/2011
Source: http://media.thaigov.go.th/pageconfig/viewcontent/viewcontent1e.asp?pageid=472&directory=1944&contents=54807

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva gave an interview on the proposal of the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association to be an intermediary between the Government and the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Thailand - Cambodia border issues. The Prime Minister said that he had no problem with that proposal and would be willing to provide information, as all parties want to solve the problem and maintain territorial integrity and peace.

The Government had been committed to bilateral resolution of the problem, like what the PAD requested. So far, we had been able to do so because we adhered to the MoU 2000. The Prime Minister was ready to explain, as information had not changed. However, he said that we should talk about facts and be responsible to what we said. Working on this matter had to be very careful, because not all issues should be publicized and might affect the government's efforts in the international community. The Prime Minister said that the Government was trying to seek a common ground by, for example, joining a confidential meeting with the Senate to exchange information. However, there was an attempt to change the format of the assembly into allegation that the Government was seeking benefits in the sea area. The Prime Minister said that it was only the differences on how we should resolve the problem.


On how the Government could bring back the commitment to the MoU as the situation had escalated, the Prime Minister said that if we did not pull back to the MoU, the situation would become more serious. However, engaging a third country without any guarantee could bring about problems. Indonesia and ASEAN had confirmed that the issue should be dealt bilaterally, but both sides still lacked trust in each other so Indonesia wanted to help facilitate a talk. However, the Prime Minister said that the meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers on 22 February 2011 would have the same spirit. The role of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, as Chairman of ASEAN, in this framework did not bother Thailand.

The Prime Minister expected that the outcome of the meeting with the UNSC would be negotiations among the two countries and ASEAN could help to coordinate and facilitate the talk. However, the process of ASEAN had not reached the stage of applying the ASEAN Charter. The process now was to coordinate and facilitate both countries to continue bilateral negotiations.

The Prime Minister said about the latest positions of Cambodia that, Cambodia had to try to demonstrate that bilateral talks did not work, to lead to international involvement. However, if we explained the facts and adhered to ASEAN's position, Cambodia should agree to accept it as other parties also supported bilateral negotiations. Nevertheless, we also had prepared to cope with different situations. On the issue that Cambodia had been supported by other countries, the Prime Minister said that we should not see it in that way as positions of different countries depended on information that they received.

The Prime Minister said that we also had to be careful of provocation in the border area as aggressive actions would contribute to multilateral involvement.

Thai invaders accuse Cambodia of violating Thailand’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (sic!)

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 05:07 PM PST

Press Release
- Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand concerning the continuing violation of Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity by Cambodia

February 16, 2011

With regard to the recent unprovoked armed attack on 15 - 16 February 2011 by Cambodian troops on Thai soldiers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand wishes to state the following facts:

1. From 20.00 hours of 15 February 2011 to 03.00 hours of 16 February 2011, Cambodian troops launched hand grenades and opened fire, without any provocation, at Thai troops stationed on Phu Makua in Thai territory using rifles and rocket propelled grenades which resulted in the serious injury of one Thai soldier.

2. In addition to violating Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the aforementioned armed attack by Cambodian troops illustrated Cambodia's intention to defy the suggestion of the United Nations Security Council, which contained in the Press Statement dated 14 February 2011, urging the two countries "to display maximum restraint and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation…and to establish a permanent ceasefire".

3. Thailand reaffirms its position that, in all these incidents, the Thai side has never opened fire first and has always exercised maximum restraint.

4. Despite the unprovoked armed attack by Cambodia, Thailand reaffirms its commitment to resolve any pending boundary issues peacefully through existing bilateral mechanisms and awaits Cambodia's acceptance to Thailand's proposal to host the next meeting of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary (JBC) at the earliest opportunity.

5. In addition, Thailand appreciates the support and encouragement from the ASEAN family for any bilateral process, and looks forward to the success of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Informal Meeting on 22 February 2011.

Opposition sites blocked in Cambodia

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:57 PM PST

Internet CENSOR Sieng Sithy:
Only his UGLY FACE can be seen on computers in Cambodia?
Paul Blanche-Horan, EZECOM  CEO, is lying through his teeth?

17.02.2011
Author: Robert Carmichael
Editor: Sarah Berning
Deutsche Welle (Germany)

Though many opposition sites are blocked in Cambodia, the government has dismissed rumours that it ordered internet service providers, or ISPs, to block access to those sites. But the truth may finally have come out.

Going online is still a relatively new experience in Cambodia, but one that is growing much more common, particularly in urban areas.

But for weeks now, users of EZECOM, one of the growing service providers, have complained that they are unable to access a number of sites, including one called KI-Media, a pro-opposition party website that is highly critical of the government.

Though EZECOM has denied blocking access to any websites or receiving any orders from the government to do so, an email was leaked this week from a senior official at the telecommunications ministry.

Leaked evidence

The email, which ran in the Phnom Penh Post newspaper on Thursday, puts paid to those denials, since it congratulates ten ISPs, including EZECOM, for blocking access to a list of websites, including KI-Media.

Human rights group LICADHO, which releases an annual report on the state of Cambodia's media, says news of covert censorship is worrying. Mathieu Pellerin of LICADHO told Deutsche Welle, "what we've confirmed this week is basically one of the last unregulated spaces for people to express themselves on a variety of subjects, political or otherwise, has been officially now censored by the government, which is a huge unfortunate milestone in terms of freedom of expression in Cambodia and further shrinks the space that Cambodians have to express themselves."


But not all websites are blocked, so the question is, how significant is this?

Too much state control

Pellerin said every television station in Cambodia and most radio outlets are aligned with the ruling party. That increases the importance of the internet all the more, despite the fact that Cambodia's internet community is small. Pellerin added, "you don't have as many sites as you would have in other countries, as there are very few sites, actually. But in a smaller pool of sites, that affects quite a lot of viewers and these sites that have been censored were quite popular with the Cambodian community."

For its part, the government still continues to deny there is any policy to block access to websites.

Despite the fact that the email was leaked, along with minutes of a meeting in which the order was given to block certain sites, So Khun, Minister for Posts and Telecommunications reiterated again on Thursday that there is nothing to the claims.

"No policy of blocking sites"

EZECOM has not commented and has also denied Deutsche Welle's requests for an interview.

The issue of governments controlling internet access is nothing new, and came to the fore again in recent weeks after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Freedom of expression in traditional media and online were recently emphasized in a speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She said the US supports that freedom for people everywhere, and has called on other nations to do the same.

For now that call seems to have fallen on deaf ears in Cambodia.

Companies Asked ‘To Curb’ Critical Websites [KI-Media]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:44 PM PST

Internet CENSOR Sieng Sithy
GOOFING OFF overseas

Cambodians surf the Internet at a coffee shop in Phnom Penh. (Photo: AFP)
Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Thursday, 17 February 2011
"Although it contains some anti-government opinions, the site is a source of a great deal of Cambodia-related information."
Internet service providers have received an e-mail from an official at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications reminding them to "take action" against several anti-government websites.

The e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by VOA Khmer on Thursday, is a follow-up to a Feb. 10 meeting between the ministry and service provider representatives.

According to meeting minutes posted on the ministry website, Telecom Minister So Khun told the representatives that while the government does not have a policy requiring that websites be blocked, he "asked all operators to help curb some websites affecting Khmer morality and tradition and the government through the Internet."

The e-mail, which was electronically signed by Sieng Sithy, deputy director of the ministry's policy regulation, addresses service providers WiCam, Telesurf and Hello.

"We found that you are not yet taken an action, so please kindly take immediate action," he wrote, referencing the Feb. 10 meeting. "Here below [are the] websites."


The e-mail then lists eight separate websites, belonging to the anti-government group KI Media, its mirror sites, and other websites traditionally critical of the current government. The e-mail also contains an attached document that lists the ISP providers in the country that have "blocked" or "unblocked" the requested sites.

"Again and again [sic], In case of not well cooperation is your own responsibility," Sieng Sithy wrote.

Sieng Sithy also offers other service providers "my appreciation to you for your cooperation with MPTC."

Contacted Thursday, Sieng Sithy declined to comment on the e-mail.

The minister, So Khun, told VOA Khmer his ministry has issued no orders to block sites.

"Maybe our technical staff who saw inappropriate content on those websites wrote to the ISPs themselves," he said. "It's a matter for the technical staff. Who knows?"

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith could not be reached for comment. However, he told the Phnom Penh Post on Thursday that an e-mail did not represent official government policy and he asked that the Telecom Ministry clarify the e-mail.

Cambodian Internet users have been complaining for weeks that they have been unable to access KI Media and other blogs, sometimes their own.

The government has strongly denied any policy or order to service providers requiring them to block any sites. In recent media statements, many service providers have likewise denied blocking websites.

Sok Channda, chief executive of the company that operates Angkornet and Mekongnet, told the Phnom Penh Post on Wednesday she had received the email from the ministry but not an official letter.

Nevertheless, Internet users trying to connect via various providers to KI Media and other sites have either found failure messages or been re-directed to other sites. Officials have blamed this on technical problems.

Critics say that the ruling Cambodian People's Party controls much of the broadcast and print media in the country. Opposition editors and journalists have in recent years been jailed under defamation laws and many opposition-leaning newspapers have closed.

In December, the Phnom Penh court sentenced World Food Program staffer Seng Kunnaka to six months in jail on incitement charges, after he distributed a small number of copies of a print out from the KI Media website.

For the most part, though, the government has allowed free rein for Internet users. The number of Cambodians online has meanwhile begun to climb. An estimated 200,000 Cambodians are now online.

Heng Sokunthy, an Internet user and regular visitor to the KI Media site, said she was "strongly" affected by its recent failure to load.

"Although it contains some anti-government opinions, the site is a source of a great deal of Cambodia-related information," she said.

The Telecom Ministry e-mail also comes as rights groups have begun to notice a decline in Internet freedoms in the country.

On Wednesday, Licadho issued a statement calling government censorship of websites "a significant milestone in the march toward a more oppressive media environment."

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said Cambodia's freedom of expression is "in crisis" and called on the government to stop attempting to block websites.

"The blockage will make people more stressful and tense and unhappy with the government, as it does not understand their will," CCHR President Ou Virak told VOA Khmer Thursday, citing recent events in Tunisia and Egypt as examples. "I see it as a danger to the government in the future."

Khmer Unity for Cambodia (KUC) invitation to Bon Phka Prak Sammaki: Wat Chas Tacoma - Saturday Feb 26th, 2011

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:32 PM PST

Dear All: 

Attached below is an invitation letter to the Bon Phka Prak Sammaki to be held on:

Date/Time: Saturday February 26th, 2011 from 5:00 PM - 9: 00 PM
Address: Wat Sammaki Ratanaram (Wat Chas Tacoma).
8208 McKinley Avenue E, Tacoma WA 98404. Tel: 253-474-5972 

Please help distribute this invitation to friends and neighbors, as many as you can, whom you think they are interested in helping for a betterment of Cambodia.

Khmer Unity for Cambodia (KUC) sponsors this Bon Phka and we hope to raise enough fund to cover expenses that may incur on researching and collecting historical documents and factual information that are pertinent to current situation in Cambodia. Information and historical documents collected will be used to appeal to the UN to reconvene the 1991 Paris Peace Accord on Cambodia. 

If you want to know more about KUC and our strategic plan, please join us at the ceremonial services from 5:00 - 9:00 pm.

Note: Religious ceremonial services will be performed during evening only. Cambodian Rice Soup will be served after services. Hope to see you all.

Should you have any questions, please contact the following persons:
Mr. Tithia Sum: 360 438 9034
Mr. Robert Son - 206 455 5064                    
Mr. Hoeurn Mon: 253 377 6754
Mr. Sophon Son: 253 678 1676

Best Regards,

Khmer Unity for Cambodia (KUC)
Email: Khmerforumwa@gmail.com

Support Letter for Protest Against Thai Invasion by Cambodian Community in Ottawa, Canada

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:26 PM PST

Dear Team,

On behalf of Cambodian-American Communities in State of Washington, I have sent a Support Letter to Khmer Community in Ottawa, Canada for their protest which will be held on February 18, 2011 against Thai Invasion into Cambodian sovereignty.

Please see the attached file for detail.

Please help spread your words and send them your strong support.

Bravo! Khmer Community in Ottawa, Canada.

We are so proud of you! We strongly support you!

Best regards,
--
Hang, Sokmakara

REVOLUTION U

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:00 PM PST

16 Feb 2011
BY TINA ROSENBERG
Source: FP Foreign Policy

Early in 2008, workers at a government-owned textile factory in the Egyptian mill town of El-Mahalla el-Kubra announced that they were going on strike on the first Sunday in April to protest high food prices and low wages. They caught the attention of a group of tech-savvy young people an hour's drive to the south in the capital city of Cairo, who started a Facebook group to organize protests and strikes on April 6 throughout Egypt in solidarity with the mill workers. To their shock, the page quickly acquired some 70,000 followers.

But what worked so smoothly online proved much more difficult on the street. Policeoccupied the factory in Mahalla and headed off the strike. The demonstrations there turned violent: Protesters set fire to buildings, and police started shooting, killing at least two people. The solidarity protests around Egypt, meanwhile, fizzled out, in most places blocked by police. The Facebook organizers had never agreed on tactics, whether Egyptians should stay home or fill the streets in protest. People knew they wanted to do something. But no one had a clear idea of what that something was.

The botched April 6 protests, the leaders realized in their aftermath, had been an object lesson in the limits of social networking as a tool of democratic revolution. Facebook could bring together tens of thousands of sympathizers online, but it couldn't organize them once they logged off. It was a useful communication tool to call people to — well, to what? The April 6 leaders did not know the answer to this question. So they decided to learn from others who did. In the summer of 2009, Mohamed Adel, a 20-year-old blogger and April 6 activist, went to Belgrade, Serbia.

The Serbian capital is home to the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, orCANVAS, an organization run by young Serbs who had cut their teeth in the late 1990s student uprising against Slobodan Milosevic. After ousting him, they embarked on the ambitious project of figuring out how to translate their success to other countries. To the world's autocrats, they are sworn enemies — both Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Belarus's Aleksandr Lukashenko have condemned them by name. ("They think we are bringing a revolution in our suitcase," one of CANVAS's leaders told me.) But to a young generation of democracy activists from Harare to Rangoon to Minsk to Tehran, the young Serbs are heroes. They have worked with democracy advocates from more than 50 countries. They have advised groups of young people on how to take on some of the worst governments in the world — and in Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, the Maldives, and now Egypt, those young people won.

In Belgrade, Adel took a week-long course in the strategies of nonviolent revolution. He learned how to organize people — not on a computer, but in the streets. And most importantly, he learned how to train others. He went back to Egypt and began to teach. The April 6 Youth Movement, along with a similar group called Kefaya, became the most important organizers of the 18-day peaceful uprising that culminated in President Hosni Mubarak's departure on Feb. 11. "The April 6 Movement and Kifaya are the groups that have led the charge in actually getting protesters organized and onto the streets," a Feb. 3report from the geopolitical analysis group Stratfor said. The tactics were straight out ofCANVAS's training curriculum. "I got trained in how to conduct peaceful demonstrations, how to avoid violence, and how to face violence from the security forces … and also how to organize to get people on the streets," Adel said of his experience with the Serbs, in an interview with Al Jazeera English on Feb. 9. "We were quite amazed they did so much with so little," Srdja Popovic, one of CANVAS's leaders, told me.

As nonviolent revolutions have swept long-ruling regimes from power in Tunisia and Egypt and threaten the rulers of nearby Algeria, Bahrain, and Yemen, the world's attention has been drawn to the causes — generations of repressive rule — and tools — social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter — animating the wave of revolt. But as the members of the April 6 movement learned, these elements alone do not a revolution make. What does? In the past, the discontented availed themselves of the sweeping forces of geopolitics: the fall of regimes in Latin America and the former Soviet bloc was largely a product of the withdrawal of superpower support for dictatorships and the consolidation of liberal democracy as a global ideal. But the global clash of ideologies is over, and plenty of dictators remain — so what do we do?

The answer, for democratic activists in an ever-growing list of countries, is to turn toCANVAS. Better than other democracy groups, CANVAS has built a durable blueprint for nonviolent revolution: what to do to grow from a vanload of people into a mass movement and then use those masses to topple a dictator. CANVAS has figured out how to turn a cynical, passive, and fearful public into activists. It stresses unity, discipline, and planning — tactics that are basic to any military campaign, but are usually ignored by nonviolent revolutionaries. There will be many moments during a dictatorship that galvanize public anger: a hike in the price of oil, the assassination of an opposition leader, corrupt indifference to a natural disaster, or simply the confiscation by the policeof a produce cart. In most cases, anger is not enough — it simply flares out. Only a prepared opponent will be able to use such moments to bring down a government.

"Revolutions are often seen as spontaneous," Ivan Marovic, a former CANVAS trainer, told me in Washington a few years ago. "It looks like people just went into the street. But it's the result of months or years of preparation. It is very boring until you reach a certain point, where you can organize mass demonstrations or strikes. If it is carefully planned, by the time they start, everything is over in a matter of weeks."

CANVAS is hardly the first organization to teach people living under dictatorship the skills they can use to overthrow it; the U.S. government and its allies have funded democracy-promotion organizations around the world since the early years of the Cold War. Living under two dictatorships — Chile under Augusto Pinochet and Nicaragua under the Sandinistas — and visiting perhaps a dozen others, I had seen armies of them at work and served as an election monitor myself. But I had never seen anything like CANVAS.

Traditional democracy-promotion groups like to collaborate with well-credentialed opposition parties and civil society groups; CANVAS prefers to work with rookies. The theory is that established parties and organizations under a dictator are usually too tired and tainted to be able to topple him, and that hope rests instead with idealistic outsiders, often students. The Serbs are not the usual highly paid consultants in suits from wealthy countries; they look more like, well, cocky students. They bring a cowboy swagger. They radiate success. Everyone they teach wants to do what the Serbs did.

If CANVAS has torn up the old democracy-promotion playbook, it's because the group's leaders have drawn up a new one, taken from their own firsthand experience. The grouptraces its roots to an October 1998 meeting in a cafe in Belgrade, where Popovic, a tall, sharp-featured man, then 25 and a student of marine biology at Belgrade University, had called several of his fellow students together. At the time, Milosevic had been in office for nine years and was firmly entrenched in power. He had started and lost three wars and was in the process of launching a fourth, in Kosovo. Popovic and his friends had been active in student protests for years. They had marched for 100 days in a row, but their efforts had yielded next to nothing. "It was a meeting of desperate friends," Popovic says. "We were at the bottom of a depression."

The students christened themselves Otpor! — "Resistance!" in Serbian — and began rethinking revolution. The first and most daunting obstacle was the attitude of their countrymen. Surveys taken by the opposition showed that most Serbs wanted Milosevic to go. But they believed his ouster was simply impossible, or at least too dangerous to try. And Serbia's extant political opposition was hardly inspiring: Even the anti-Milosevic parties were largely vehicles for their leaders' personal ambitions.

But Otpor's founders realized that young people would participate in politics — if it made them feel heroic and cool, part of something big. It was postmodern revolution. "Our product is a lifestyle," Marovic explained to me. "The movement isn't about the issues. It's about my identity. We're trying to make politics sexy." Traditional politicians saw their job as making speeches and their followers' job as listening to them; Otpor chose to have collective leadership, and no speeches at all. And if the organization took inspiration from Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., it also took cues from Coca-Cola, with its simple, powerful message and strong brand. Otpor's own logo was a stylized clenched fist — an ironic, mocking expropriation of the symbol of the Serb Partisans in World War II, and of communist movements everywhere.

Otpor steered clear of the traditional opposition tactics of marches and rallies — partly out of necessity, because the group didn't have enough people to pull them off. Instead of political parties' gravity and bombast, Otpor adopted the sensibility of a TV show its leaders had grown up watching:Monty Python's Flying Circus. Its daily work consisted of street theater and pranks that made the government look silly and won coverage from opposition media. Wit was perhaps not always achieved, but it was always the aim.

The most famous stunt involved an oil barrel painted with Milosevic's picture. Otpor rolled it down a busy street, asking people to insert a coin in a slot for the privilege of whacking Milosevic with a bat. This was Otpor's favorite kind of prank, a dilemma action: It left the regime damned either way. If the government had let the barrel roll, it would have looked weak. But when the police stepped in, the optics were no better: The Otpor members fled, and the opposition TV the next day showed pictures of the police "arresting" a barrel and loading it into the police van. The country sniggered at these pranks — and signed up for Otpor.

Rather than trying to avoid arrests, Otpor decided to provoke them and use them to the movement's advantage. After a few months it became evident that while police would rough up Otpor members, torture was rare and few of them would even be kept overnight. When any Otpor member was arrested, the organization sent a noisy crowd to hang out on the street outside the police station. Detainees would emerge from the police station to find a pack of opposition journalists and a cheering crowd of friends. Young men competed to rack up the most arrests. If wearing Otpor's signature fist-emblazoned black T-shirt made you an insider in the revolution, getting arrested made you a rock star. People who once thought of themselves as victims learned to think of themselves as heroes.

Two years after its founding, Otpor's 11 members had become more than 70,000. "The signal thing they did that should never be lost is that they made it OK for Serbs to say publicly that the regime was not invincible, that many Serbs shared a sense that change could come," said James O'Brien, the Clinton administration's special envoy to the Balkans. By the time Milosevic ran for reelection as president of Yugoslavia in September 2000, Otpor's prolonged protest campaign — and Milosevic's attempts to suppress it — had eroded the president's popularity and emboldened and helped to unify the opposition. When Milosevic refused to concede defeat to opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica, Otpor's example of disciplined nonviolence, along with its masses of activists, were crucial in convincing Serbia's security forces to defy Milosevic's orders to shoot at the protesters. On Oct. 6, the embattled president resigned.

The unthinkable had happened. For the young Serbs, the next step was figuring out how to export it.

Within a few months of Milosevic's ouster, Otpor's leaders began to get calls from democracy activists in other countries eager to copy the movement's success. Slobodan Djinovic, one of Otpor's original organizers, began traveling to Belarus, meeting clandestinely with a student movement there. It was soon infiltrated, however, and eventually collapsed.

Djinovic had more success in Georgia, where a group of young people had founded a movement called Kmara! ("Enough!"). In 2002, Djinovic and other Otpor leaders began visiting, and hosting Kmara students in Serbia. After Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet functionary who had served as Georgia's president since 1995, stole the country's November 2003 elections, a movement led by Kmara forced him out in what became known as the Rose Revolution. It was followed by the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where former Otpor activists spent months advising the Pora ("It's Time") youth movement.

On a trip to South Africa to train Zimbabweans in 2003, Djinovic and Popovic decided to establish CANVAS. At the time, Popovic was a member of parliament, but he stepped down in 2004, preferring a career as an organizer and a revolutionary. Djinovic had founded Serbia's first wireless Internet service provider in 2000 and was well on his way to becoming a mogul. Today he is head of Serbia's largest private internet and phone company and funds about half of CANVAS's operating expenses and the costs for half the training workshops out of his own pocket. (CANVAS has four and a half staff employees. The trainers are veterans of successful democracy movements in five countries and are paid as contractors. CANVAS participates in some workshops financed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations Development Program, an international NGO called Humanity in Action, and Freedom House, an American group which gets its money from the U.S. government. But CANVAS prefers to give Washington a wide berth, in part due to Otpor's experience. Like the entire opposition to Milosevic, Otpor took money from the U.S. government, and lied about it. When the real story came out after Milosevic fell, many Otpor members quit, feeling betrayed.)

Most of CANVAS's work is with democracy activists from the middlingly repressive countries that make up the majority of the world's dictatorships. All its successes have been; the Serbs have helped overthrow the low-hanging fruit of autocracy. Whatever one might say about Shevardnadze's Georgia, it wasn't North Korea. So last year I decided to watch Popovic and Djinovic work with activists from a country that would put their ideas to the severest test yet: Burma.

In 1962, a military coup led by Gen. Ne Win put an end to the democratic government that had ruled Burma since its independence 14 years earlier. In the intervening half-century there have only been a few brief moments when it was reasonable for the Burmese to hope for something better. Anti-government demonstrations erupted for months in 1988, but ended after soldiers killed thousands of protesters. Two years later, Burma held the first free elections since the coup. But when Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won an overwhelming victory, the regime nullified the results.

Mass protest did not return until September 2007, when the government removed oil subsidies without warning and the price of some fuels rose by 500 percent. Buddhist monks protested the price hikes, only to be beaten by security forces. A monk in Rangoon named Ashin Kovida, a small, soft-spoken man of 24, was outraged. He sold his robes and used the money to make and photocopy a leaflet inviting the monks in Rangoon's monasteries to march. On Sept. 19, about 400 monks did, joined by students in what became known — after one of the colors of the monks' robes — as the Saffron Revolution.

Kovida, who now lives in exile in California, told me he was inspired by Bringing Down a Dictator, a documentary about the fall of Milosevic that had been subtitled in Burmese and circulated clandestinely in the country. He thought the government would not dare to shoot monks. He was wrong. Dozens of people were killed, and thousands of monks and nuns were arrested; some of them were handed sentences of more than 60 years. Burma's opposition fell silent again; elections were held in November, 2010, but brought the country only token change.

There are still Burmese, however, willing to take risks for real democracy. Last year, 14 of them, most of them very young, gathered in a hotel conference room outside of Burma for a CANVAS workshop. They had been brought together by a veteran opposition activist who asked to be identified only by his nickname, K2. (The presence of a reporter and photographer was carefully negotiated to protect the participants' safety: I could not identify the Burmese or mention the date or location of the workshop.)

This was new ground for the Serbs — CANVAS had worked with Burmese exiles, but these were people who lived inside the country. The Serbs worried about the fact that the students did not know each other. Mistrust could be fatal. Popovic once taught a group that included both opposition party youth and nongovernmental groups from Zimbabwe. They were all against the dictator, Robert Mugabe — but they also hated each other. "Endless war," was how he characterized it. In a country like Burma, people feared those they did not know. The Serbs thought that this could be trouble.

And of course, Burma was not Ukraine. The less developed the democracy movement, the longer it takes for the gears to start turning. The countries whose activists had caught on the quickest, the Serbs said, were Georgia and Vietnam. The Burmese were more likely to respond like others from totalitarian countries had. "Belarus," said Djinovic, shaking his head. "They were extremely tough to motivate — extremely passive. I couldn't find the spark in their eyes." And then there were the North Koreans: "They were great young students in a big hotel in Seoul," Popovic told me. "We worked for two days and had no idea how the hell we were doing. People didn't change the expression on their faces. They sat like monuments. It was awful."

With Africans, Latin Americans, and Georgians, the CANVAS trainers were loose and lively — "Serb style," Popovic called it. With people from Asia, the Middle East and most of Eastern Europe, they tried to be more formal. But while the style needed adaptation, the curriculum stayed the same. It was developed for the first two ongoing conflicts where they had worked, Zimbabwe and Belarus — places that differed in every possible way. Middle Eastern students, Djinovic said, sometimes argued that the strategies wouldn't work in the Islamic world. But CANVAS's only successes outside the former Soviet Union had come in Lebanon and the Maldives, both predominantly Muslim countries.

When Popovic asked the Burmese what they hoped to learn from the week, their answers focused on two issues: mobilizing people and overcoming fear. "We are afraid of what we are doing," said a tall man. "We have the 'there is nothing we can do' syndrome. We have never tasted freedom." One young woman pointed out that the government considers any meeting of more than five people to be illegal. "Nonviolent struggle is very risky," she said.

The Burmese were exhibiting the most formidable challenge facing CANVAS in countries without a history of effective opposition: the passivity, fatalism, and fear of their citizens. CANVAS's most useful lesson is how to dismantle this barrier. "At each workshop, someone comes to me and says, 'Our case is totally different,'" Djinovic told the Burmese. There was nervous laughter. But the Burmese had a point: Anyone demented enough to roll a barrel with Than Shwe's picture on it for the citizens of Rangoon to whack would be risking not a few hours in jail, but dozens of years. What could the Serbs possibly talk about?

A lot, it turned out. Some of the students said they had thought nonviolence meant passivity — morally superior, perhaps, but naive. Popovic framed the task in terms of Sun Tzu: "I want you to see nonviolent conflict as a form of warfare — the only difference is you don't use arms," he told them. This was new. He argued that whether nonviolence was moral or not was irrelevant: It was strategically necessary. Violence, of course, is every dictator's home court. The Otpor founders also knew they could never win wide support with violence — every democracy struggle eventually needs to capture the middle class and at least neutralize the security forces.

Over and over again, Djinovic and Popovic hammered at another myth: that nonviolent struggle is synonymous with amassing large concentrations of people. The Serbs cautioned that marches and demonstrations should be saved for when you finally have majority support. Marches are risky — if your turnout is poor, the movement's credibility is destroyed. And at marches, people get arrested, beaten, and shot. The authorities will try to provoke violence. One bad march can destroy a movement. Here was a point that had people nodding. "Any gathering in Rangoon is lunacy," Djinovic said.

But if not marches, then what? The Serbs showed the participants excerpts from A Force More Powerful, a documentary series about nonviolent struggles: Gandhi's Salt March, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the lunch-counter sit-ins and bus boycotts of the American civil rights movement. Popovic pointed out the planning involved in these actions, and made the group list the tactics they saw: leaflets, banners, sit-ins, boycotts, picketing, music. "South Africa and Burma have a similarity: zero free media," he said. "So how do you spread the message?"

"Songs," said a man with a mustache. "Prayers and funerals," said a middle-aged woman, the oldest in the group, a stern woman the others took to calling Auntie. Popovic pounced. "So what's interesting about using funerals?" "It's the only place people can meet," a young man said.

"Funerals are a dilemma for your opponent," said Popovic. In Zimbabwe, a gathering of five people was banned, but what if I have 5,000 people at a funeral? Whenever anyone related to the movement dies, they will gather and sing songs — and the police will not interfere! It's a real problem to tear-gas a funeral."

The next idea was one the Serbs had learned from the American academic Gene Sharp, the author ofFrom Dictatorship to Democracy (a book originally published in 1993 in Thailand for Burmese dissidents), who has been called the Clausewitz of nonviolence. Popovic was first introduced to Sharp's ideas in the spring of 2000 by Robert Helvey, a former U.S. Army colonel who had served as defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Burma in the 1980s before becoming disillusioned with armed struggle. When the Otpor members met Helvey, the movement already had 20,000 active members and a formidable reputation. But the group had hit a wall — the movement was growing, but its leaders couldn't see how Otpor could turn that growth into the fall of Milosevic.

Helvey showed them how. He explained Sharp's idea that a regime stays in power through the obedience of the people it governs. The goal of a democracy movement should be to persuade people to withdraw their obedience. A government is like a building held up by pillars, Sharp explained. Otpor needed to pull Milosevic's pillars into the opposition camp.

In fact, Otpor was already doing well with two important Milosevic pillars. One was old people: They had always been Milosevic's base of support, but the constant arrests of Otpor's 16-year-olds — and the government's hysterical accusations that the students were terrorists — were getting grandma angry. The other pillar was the police. From the beginning, Otpor had treated the police as allies-in-waiting. Otpor members delivered cookies and flowers to police stations (sometimes with a TV camera in tow). Instead of howling at police during confrontations, Otpor members would cheer them.

The Serbs recounted this to the Burmese, and added another step: the power graph, a Djinovic invention. He asked the students to list various groups with influence in society, and then chart each group's level of loyalty to the regime over time. The idea was to see which groups had fluctuated — and what events in Burma's recent history provoked the change. From that they could glean clues about whom it was most profitable to woo.

The students put themselves in the shoes of Burma's police, workers, women, and other groups –what did they all want? The lists they compiled were predictable in their self-interest: Students wanted private schools, businesspeople wanted a reliable banking system, farmers wanted crop subsidies. What was interesting was what the lists didn'tinclude. "Where is democracy? Human rights?" Popovic said, pointing to the lists tacked to the wall. "People don't give a shit about these things. Normally your politicians talk about things that don't matter to people. Remember Gandhi's Salt March? The issue was not 'You Brits get out!' — not officially. The issue was: 'We want to make salt.'"

Approaching midweek, the Serbs were worried. "They don't trust each other," Djinovic told me over lunch. The Burmese held a meeting on Tuesday night in K2′s hotel room to air it all. They introduced themselves to each other, and set rules for the group. They figured out a common cover story to tell Burmese authorities. They ended up playing songs like "Dust in the Wind" on the guitar and singing until 3 a.m.

Things started to change the next day. Wednesday's lesson was about replacing tactics of concentration — rallies, demonstrations, marches — with tactics of dispersal, which are lower cost, lower pressure, and less dangerous. The Serbs talked about Chile'scacerolazos, or pot-banging sessions, which served to let people know that their neighbors, too, were against Pinochet. They explained the concept of dilemma actions, such as Otpor's stunt with the oil barrel. "Do a small thing and if it is successful, you have the confidence to do another one and another one," Popovic said. "You recruit people, train them, and keep them constantly active. You hit, proclaim victory — and get the hell out. If it is successful, people will come to you. Participating in small successes, you build self-confidence. Nonviolent struggle changes the way people think of themselves."

The Burmese did not seem persuaded. "So we are all putting candles in our windows at a certain time," said a young man with glasses. "They might not be able to arrest 10,000 people, but they will pick one poor guy and arrest his whole family — even his children."

Popovic agreed. "Yes, you guys have problems even if the tactic is low-risk — if it is political," he said. "But what if the issue is the government is incapable of supplying people with electrical power?"

When the Burmese divided into small groups to invent their own dilemma actions, the first group took this advice to heart. It had decided to tackle the issue of garbage, which the Rangoon government had stopped collecting. The members proposed starting with a group of 20 young people to do the work, providing gloves and masks, and trying to recruit others to join in. Then they would go to the city government, submit a petition signed by influential people, and tell them: It's your problem.

"OK, good. You're developing parallel institutions," said Popovic. This was Adam Michnik's strategy for Solidarity in Poland: Don't tear down institutions — build your own. "You did this to remove bodies after Cyclone Nargis" — the 2008 disaster that killed more than 138,000 people in Burma — "when the government would not. Now, what if the municipality doesn't care?"

"We'll dump the garbage in front of the mayor," said a tall man. Popovic laughed. "Or you could choose a lower-risk strategy — take pictures of the garbage and present them to authorities," he said.

When the next group came to the front of the room, its members were smiling and, oddly, taking off their shoes. Their spokeswoman, a young woman in a pink shirt who was wriggling with excitement, proposed a "Barefoot Campaign," to commemorate the monks of the Saffron Revolution, who do not wear shoes. The idea was to start with 100 young people, contacted by email and social networks. They would do something simple: go barefoot in public spaces. "We can start with the pagodas," said Pink Shirt — no one wears shoes in a pagoda anyway. And people could walk through paint, Pink Shirt said. "We can easily measure success — if we see barefoot people and footprints everywhere."

"When the authorities respond with arrests, how will you respond?" Auntie asked. The group had thought through this. "For safety, people can carry a pair of broken sandals in their pocket to show the police," said a cherubic-faced young man. "Or you can say, 'I'm getting ready to go running.'"

The tall man halted their excitement. "If the authorities see you leaving footprints, they will know and arrest you."

"They won't know who it was if we do it at night," said the Cherub. "Let's do it!" He pumped his fist in the air. Everyone laughed.

But the footprints were a problem — they could quite literally lead the police to their prey. Then a soft-spoken young woman in a gauze shirt spoke up. "There are lots of stray dogs and cats," she said. "We can put a dish of paint in front of where they live so they will walk through it." Cats and dogs as the foot soldiers of democracy! They looked at each other, awed by their own brilliance, and slapped hands all around.

Near the end of the week the group watched Burma VJ, a 2008 documentary by Danish director Anders Ostergaard about a group of clandestine Burmese video journalists, whose footage, smuggled out of the country, is often the only way the outside world knows what is happening in Burma. The film takes place during the Saffron Revolution; it is precious contraband in Burma, and most of the participants had seen it before. It is a document of hope and valor, a record of a few weeks many Burmese consider the high point of their lives. But after a week of CANVAS training, the Burmese were watching it with fresh eyes.

When the film ended, Djinovic walked to the front of the room. "So what did you think?" he said. The Cherub was wide-eyed. "This was not organized!" he said. Suddenly the Saffron Revolution looked very different. It was so brave, so inspiring — and so improvised, foolish, and irresponsible. "People were going into the streets spontaneously, asking for something that is not achievable," Djinovic told them, perhaps not gentle enough as he razed their heroes. "Our advice," he said slowly, "is that you think about nonviolent struggle totally differently than you have seen in this movie."

Silence fell over the group.

"Then you know what you have to do," he said.

CANVAS has worked with activists from 50 countries. It cannot point to 50 revolutions.

The most prosaic reason is that often the people it trains aren't the ones in charge of a movement. Some groups, like Georgia's and Ukraine's dissidents, choose to model themselves on Otpor. In Iran, by contrast, though small groups of CANVAS trainees held successful actions, the leaders of the Green Revolution have not adopted Otpor's tactics.

The more profound reason, however, is that context matters. A very closed society, the kind that most desperately needs a strong democracy movement, is the place least able to grow one. By the end of the Burma workshop, Popovic and Djinovic were content; the students had understood the lessons. But what they could do with them was not clear. On the workshop's last day, I asked the members of the Barefoot Campaign group whether they would try to start one in Burma. The strategies were wonderful, valuable, fresh, they said — but better for someone else. "I am not sure it's practical for me," Pink Shirt said.

The Serbs argue that a country's level of repression is not dispositive. Popovic told the Burmese that far more important than the government's brutality is their own level of skill and commitment; a well-organized and committed democracy movement can gradually win enough freedom to work. "Political space is never granted. It is always conquered," he said. It was easier to work in Serbia in 2000 than it had been in 1991 because the opposition had won important concessions over that time. "Serbia built those advantages," he said. For example, it forced Milosevic to respect local election results in 1996 that left municipal television stations in opposition hands. But could this apply to Burma? Winning political space there could take decades and there was no guarantee that the country would even move in the right direction.

Burma, however, is the extreme. Most authoritarian countries are closer to Milosevic's Serbia, or Mubarak's Egypt: autocratic governments that do permit some opposition media and political activity. Algeria, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela, to name a few, follow this model. And though the Serbs cannot carry revolution in their suitcases, their strategies can greatly increase the chance that when there is a moment that shakes a dictatorship, the opposition will be able to take advantage of it.

The Egyptian example shows how. The April 6 movement knew about Otpor and adopted the fist as its logo even before Mohamed Adel went to Belgrade. The course he took there was the same one the Burmese took. Last April, Serbian newspapers carried a front page photo of a protest in Egypt, with demonstrators waving the April 6 flag, complete with a familiar fist logo. "The Otpor fist threatening Mubarak?" the headline read. As images of demonstrators in Tahrir Square hoisting their children onto Egyptian Army tanks filtered out to the rest of the world last week, Popovic recalled that on Adel's power graph, the military loomed particularly large; it was crucial, he had realized, to pull out that pillar.

The Serbs never met Adel again, but their young Egyptian student kept emailing, occasionally pointing out mistakes in Arabic translations of CANVAS materials. He had gone home with copies ofBringing Down a Dictator subtitled in Arabic and continued to download books. He conducted miniature versions of the CANVAS workshop in Egypt, stressing unity, nonviolent discipline, the importance of clear goals, and keeping members engaged.

Just after the Jan. 25 protests began a 26-page pamphlet called "How to Protest Intelligently" — authored anonymously, but widely attributed to the April 6 group — began circulating in Cairo. It laid out the goals of the protests: taking over government buildings, winning over the police and Army, and protecting fellow protesters. It instructed people to carry roses, chant positive slogans, gather in their own neighborhoods, and persuade policemen to change sides by reminding them their own families could be among the protesters. It also gave practical advice on what demonstrators should wear and carry to protect themselves from tear gas and police batons. It suggested that they carry signs reading "Police and People Together Against the Regime."

The protests were a model of unity, tolerance, and nonviolent discipline. The different groups put aside their individual flags and symbols to show only the Egyptian flag and to speak, as much as possible, with one voice. Protesters swept the square clean and protected shops, detaining looters and making them give back the stolen goods. Coptic Christians in Tahrir Square formed ranks to protect the Muslims while they prayed; when the Christians celebrated Mass, the Muslims formed a ring around them. Together they embraced soldiers and faced the police with roses. They sang songs and wore silly hats. It had an authenticity that was uniquely Egyptian, but it was also textbook CANVAS.

CANVAS has worked with dissidents from almost every country in the Middle East; the region contains one of CANVAS's biggest successes, Lebanon, and one of its most disappointing failures, Iran. Popovic wonders whether Iran could turn out differently next time: What would happen if the Green Movement were to organize not around election fraud, but staged a Salt March instead, focusing on unemployment, low wages, and corruption? Iran is like Tunisia and Egypt were: a young, relatively well-educated population and a corrupt authoritarian government dependent on fear to keep people in line. "Governments that rely for decades on fear become very inflexible," said Popovic. "The pillars of the regime support it out of fear. The moment the fear factor disappears and people are fearless with the police and hugging the military, you have lost your main pillars." Hosni Mubarak no doubt would have ruefully observed the same thing.

In Burma, it is hard to imagine what can vanquish that fear — what can turn people from passive victims into daring heroes — unless people like Pink Shirt do it themselves. In the Middle East, however, the fear is already crumbling, and the heroism is infecting country after country. This is a huge advantage. But for dictatorship to fall throughout the region, the protesters must catch more from Egypt than audacity.

Rumours in Tunisia of Ben Ali 'stroke' [-A warning to the Cambodian dictator!]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:16 AM PST

Ben Ali (L) and Hun Xen (R)
Tunis, Feb 17 (DPA) - Rumours were swirling in Tunisia Thursday that ousted ex-leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had been rushed to hospital in Saudi Arabia after suffering a malaise.

The rumours were first reported by French journalist Nicolas Beau, who has written several books about the autocratic president of 23 years.

On his blog, Beau quoted unnamed sources in Tunisia close to the Ben Ali family as saying the 74-year-old ex-president had suffered a stroke and was in a coma in a hospital in Jeddah.

Ben Ali went into exile in Saudi Arabia Jan 14, following a month of street protests over his corrupt, repressive rule.

The unity government in charge of overseeing the country's transition to democracy refused to comment on the reports, saying it did not comment on 'rumours'.

Internet Freedom is essential for the development of Democracy: US Ambassador Carol Rodley

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:49 AM PST

Hillary Clinton and Carol Rodley in front of the Royal Palace (Photo:  AP)

Click on the DAP-news article to zoom in

Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices & Challenges in a Networked World

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:30 AM PST

Remarks by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
George Washington University

Washington, DC
February 15, 2011

The face of poverty in Cambodia: 81-yr-old and still trying to earn a survival pittance in Hun Xen's Cambodia

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:25 AM PST

Thursday, February 17, 2011
By O.V.

At 81 years of age, Lok Ta (Grandpa) Ou Chamroeun, a native of Prey Veng province, was photoed riding his cyclo along the Monivong Blvd. This is no retirement and he is earning less and less as the preferred modes of transportation are now tuk tuk, moto doup or taxi. While sons of the riches are boasting the extravagance life style of riding the $100,000 Lexus and $2000 per night spending on night club and Blue Label Johnny Walker scotch whisky, Cambodian poor are struggling to earn enough to buy enough calories to replenish a hard day of work. Ta Chamroeun is sleeping in his cyclo at night at the roundabout next to the Monivong bridge. Shower is done by paying a caring and willing homeowner a small fee.

Kerry KENNEDY in Cambodia to launch RFK Center's Speak Truth To Power

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:17 AM PST

Border Dispute Seen Unifying Myriad Groups

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:09 AM PST

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Thursday, 17 February 2011
"It is apparent that the voice of nationalism is very strong, because it comes from the heart of the people, and it is the policy of the government."
Analysts say the northern border dispute has unified Cambodians under a potentially dangerous banner of nationalism, following recent clashes with Thailand.

Fighting earlier this month has drawn condemnation from ruling party members, the opposition, rights groups and others, who believe Thai forces crossed into Cambodia during fighting earlier this month.

"The language of the government has been parallel to the language of the people and the public," Chea Vannath, an independent political analyst told VOA Khmer. "It is apparent that the voice of nationalism is very strong, because it comes from the heart of the people, and it is the policy of the government."

Unity among the different groups has meant Cambodia has been able to protest Thailand's actions, she said.

Cambodians have been gripped by the "sovereignty issue," said Lao Monghay, a researcher for the Asian Human Righs Commission, especially because in recent history Cambodia has lost must of its land to both its western and eastern neighbors.


While the issue allows people to stand together, in can be dangerous in extremity, he said, pointing to the successful exploitation of similar sentiments by the Khmer Rouge as it rose to power in the 1970s.

"Under the Khmer Rouge regime, very strong nationalism was too much, and that was not good," he said. "One can find ways to resolve [the issue] peacefully and avoid stirring up too much nationalism."

Cambodia's leaders have made sovereignty a more important issue than any other, dampening other issues and political conflicts by declaring a Thai "invasion." Thai officials have denied crossing into Cambodian territory and have blamed the shooting on instigation from the Cambodian side.

Even the Sam Rainsy Party, whose leader is in exile to avoid a criminal sentence over criticism of Cambodia's border with Vietnam, has issued statements echoing ruling government condemnation of Thailand.

Much of the national unity has solidified in recent weeks, following heavy border fighting with Thailand between Feb. 4 and Feb. 7, which killed five Cambodian soldiers and two civilians and drove thousands from their border homes.

"Generally, when our country faces danger from the outside, we always unite to protest against foreign invasion," Sam Rainsy told VOA Khmer from France. "For internal affairs between Khmer and Khmer, we should leave these aside in an emergency."

Kem Sokha, who heads the minority opposition Human Rights Party, also said party politics should be put aside "when Thailand invades Cambodia."

"All must show national integrity in order not to let foreigners look down on us," he said. "When we split, the foreigners looking down on us can easily control us."

"Khmers united survive, while Khmers divided die," Cheam Yiep, a ruling Cambodian People's Party lawmaker said, quoting a Cambodian maxim. "Don't trust foreigners, don't trust the sky, and don't trust the stars."

‘No Mission’ Yet to Preah Vihear Temple: Unesco [-UNESCO falls into Thailand's threat?]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:06 AM PST

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Thursday, 17 February 2011

"And obviously no mission could take place to the site until hostility has ceased between the two parties."
Unesco has no plans to visit the site of Preah Vihear temple until military tension along the border abates, a representative for the organization said.

Cambodia requested a Unesco team investigate alleged damage to the temple from Thai artillery fire in clashes earlier this month. And while Unesco has agreed to send a team in principle, it is waiting for more calm.

"There is no mission foreseen to the temple site at this point," said Sue Williams, a spokeswoman for Unesco. "And obviously no mission could take place to the site until hostility has ceased between the two parties."

Thailand has said it objects to the Unesco mission while military tensions remain.

Williams told VOA Khmer that any visit would have to be done with "full collaboration" from both countries.

Unesco Secretary-General Irina Bokova said in a statement this week she would send an envoy for talks with both Cambodia and Thailand.

Preah Vihear temple's listing as a Unesco World Heritage site in July 2008 is at the heart of the current military build-up along the border. The listing sparked celebrations in Cambodia and protests in Thailand and remains.

Cambodia urges long-term deal, Thai

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:04 AM PST

Hard line: Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said that his country will ask Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire agreement on a border dispute. Picture: Heng Sinith, AP
February 18, 2011
AFP

Cambodia said it would press Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire at a regional gathering next week.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would urge its neighbour to agree a peace deal during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the idea of ASEAN involvement in resolving the dispute, which erupted into armed clashes between the countries earlier this month.

Four days of heavy fighting near a 900-year-old border temple left at least 10 people dead and displaced thousands of families on both sides of the frontier.

"During the upcoming ASEAN meeting, Cambodia will request that a ceasefire agreement be signed between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers under the witness of ASEAN or the ASEAN chair," Hun Sen said at a press conference in the Cambodian capital.


He also confirmed that his country will call for ASEAN observers to come to the border area to help ensure a ceasefire holds.

The two sides are at odds over an area near the Preah Vihear temple, an 11th-century clifftop ruin that belongs to Cambodia but whose designation as a World Heritage site sparked the ire of Thai nationalists.

Both countries blame each other for the crisis.

Thailand has repeatedly said it wants to resolve the row bilaterally, rejecting Cambodian requests for third-party mediation.

"I do not think we have to talk about this during the ASEAN meeting because we are not the ones that started the fight," Abhisit said on Thursday when asked about a ceasefire deal.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday urged the two nations to establish a "permanent ceasefire" but did not endorse a Cambodian request to deploy UN peacekeepers in the contested area.

It did, however, express support for mediation efforts by Indonesia, the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN group.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre surrounding area.

Hun Sen told reporters legal officials were currently preparing documents to bring the case back to the World Court to ask for a clarification concerning the disputed plot of land.

"We will return to the Court to have it resolved," Hun Sen said.

Degar- Montagnards: Refugees Repatriated to Vietnam

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:58 AM PST

February 17, 2011

Vietnamese asylum-seekers in Cambodia will likely be subject to persecution upon their return.

Below is an article published by Radio Free Asia:

A group of Vietnamese refugees, most of whom fled their home country because of religious persecution, are facing repatriation after the Cambodian government on Tuesday closed a center operated by the United Nations' refugee agency in Phnom Penh.

Several members of the Montagnard ethnic group said they were unsure of what reprisals they would face upon their return to Vietnam's Central Highlands, where they say they have endured land confiscation and repression at the hands of the single-party communist government.

Spokesman for Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Koy Kuong said that Montagnard refugees who had not been given refugee status and accepted by a third country for resettlement would be required to return home.

"Today is the last day, the day that the site has to be completely shut down," he said, adding that no new center would be allowed to open in the future.


Fifty of the 75 asylum-seekers at the center were sent to Canada last week for resettlement and five others will be sent to the U.S., according to Andrej Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Ten of the remaining 20 will be housed in Phnom Penh until a third country agrees to accept them for resettlement, but the last ten did not qualify for refugee status and will return to Vietnam, Mahhecic said.

Last year the Cambodian government announced plans to close the center on Jan. 1, saying it drew would-be refugees from around the region, but extended the deadline to Feb. 15.

The government also contends that Vietnam has developed economically and that the Montagnards no longer face the repression they did when they left the country by the thousands in 2001, making it safe for their return.

"It is time for us to close the refugee center because Vietnam has no war or armed conflict, and it is not necessary to have the refugee centre in our country," Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters in December.

But one Montagnard refugee, who requested anonymity, said group members continue to fear government retribution upon their return.

"Tomorrow we are going to leave for Vietnam at 5 a.m. I'm worried. We don't want to go back, but the UNHCR said we have to return with those of us who have signed their names and agreed to go," the group member said.

And another Montagnard named Rolan Ton, who also had refused to sign an agreement to return, said he had faced harassment little more than a year earlier.

"I was arrested in November and December of 2009. That's why I don't want to go back," he said.



Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said there is ample evidence to suggest the Montagnards are still facing persecution in Vietnam.

"The Montagnards are being ill-treated by the Vietnamese government. They were arrested and tortured in 2010. Family churches were harassed and the government monitored churches extremely closely," he said.

Human Rights Watch says Vietnam imprisoned more than 300 Montagnards since 2001 for the "peaceful expression of their religious or political views, or for trying to seek asylum in Cambodia."

Robertson said Cambodia must provide safe asylum for Montagnards fleeing Vietnam even after it closes the United Nation's refugee center.

"I am talking about the future Montagnards seeking refugee status. The Vietnamese government is continuing to persecute the group, so they will keep coming."

In a press statement, Human Rights Watch said it is "imperative for Cambodia not to deny Montagnards their basic right to seek safe asylum," adding that the country is obligated to do so as a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

"Cambodia has a clear obligation to ensure that future Montagnard asylum seekers are permitted to enter a refugee screening process that is fair and based on international standards," said Robertson. "Closing the Montagnard refugee center doesn't change those obligations."

"Foreign Minister Hor Namhong's ordering the closure of the center shows he doesn't understand what actions to take according to Cambodia's commitment to the refugee convention"

Most of the Montagnards who fled to Cambodia and were recognized as refugees have resettled in the U.S., Sweden, Finland, and Canada.

In 2005, the UNHCR and the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments agreed that the UN refugee agency would oversee the protection and refugee screening process for the Montagnard asylum seekers.

However, in December 2009, the Cambodian government passed a sub-decree allowing its Interior Ministry to make the final decision about a refugee's status, a move rights groups say ignores the country's obligations to the UN Refugee Convention.

Just days after the sub-decree was passed, Cambodian authorities deported to China 20 Uyghur asylum seekers at risk of torture and imprisonment for their alleged roles in earlier ethnic riots.

Human Rights Watch said the Cambodian government has a "dismal track record" of deporting refugees granted asylum status by the UNHCR, particularly those from neighboring countries such as China and Vietnam.

"The U.N. and concerned governments should press Cambodia to make sure the Montagnards don't suffer the same fate as the Uyghurs and others who have been unlawfully deported."

Cambodia, Thailand To Attend Asean Meeting

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:55 AM PST

JAKARTA, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- Cambodia and Thailand have agreed to attend a meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Jakarta on Feb 22 to discuss ways of solving the border issue between the two Southeast Asian neighbours, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported, citing a top Indonesian diplomat.

Most of the other Asean countries have approved the foreign ministers' meeting, although some may be absent due to previous arrangements, said Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa,.

The main objective of the meeting in Jakarta is to encourage the two countries to continue to commit to a peaceful settlement of the dispute and to renounce the use of force and the threat of the use of force, as stated in Asean's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and also included in its Charter, the Jakarta Post quoted Natalegawa as saying.


He also said the other objective of the Jakarta meeting was to ensure a climate conducive to resuming negotiations between the two countries.

At a closed-door meeting on Feb 14, the UN Security Council expressed its "grave concern" over the recent clashes, calling on both countries to exert maximum restraint, avoid any actions that may aggravate the situation and establish a permanent ceasefire agreement.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Natalegawa, who in his capacity as chair of Asean at the UNSC meeting, stressed on the need to solve the conflict peacefully through dialogue and negotiations, with help from Asean.

He expressed his optimism about a settlement being reached between Cambodian and Thailand.

Cambodia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong, said on Wednesday that his country will ask Asean to send observers to the disputed border area with Thailand near the Preah Vihear temple to ensure a permanent ceasefire.

Cambodia will also raise the request at the forthcoming Asean meeting and ask the Asean chair or a representative to attend every meeting held between Cambodia and Thailand including meetings between the Cambodian-Thai Border Commission.

Also on the same day, the Thai Foreign Minister's Secretary, Chavanond Intarakomalayasut, said the two countries' defence ministers will also discuss a ceasefire in the disputed area.

Appeal to Boycott Thai Trade Exhibition in Koh Pich

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:53 AM PST

Appeal from Khmer Borann

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I will tell my children, my wife my relatives not to visit Thai Trade Exhibition in Koh Pich. There is reason for the boycott. Thailand invaded Cambodia and wants to steal Khmer Preah Vihear Temple, so why we have to appriciate the Thai goods? Hun Sen said that trade is trade and nothing relates with the border conflict. But as a Khmer I think we should do something to protest the Thai aggression of Cambodia because trade and politics links together. If the Thai sell goods to Cambodia it means they can use the money to buy guns and artillery to kill Khmer solders and Khmer civilians and to destroy Prasat Preah Vihear.

If you love Cambodia, if you love Khmer and Prasat Preah Vihear, please do not go to see Thai Trade Exhibition which will take place in Feb. 17, 2011. Insted on that day you should go to do shoping at Khmer supermarkets or eating in Khmer restaurants in Phnom Penh. Going to see Thai Trade Exhibition means to help Thailand to invade Cambodia and steal Khmer Prasat Preah Vihear!

From Khmer Borann
Phnom Penh

MOST UGLY Award - A special gift for Sieng Sithy

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:52 AM PST

The Most Ugly Face
and
Most Ugly Personality this week goes to:

Censorship Ugly Face Sieng Sithy
!!!!!!!!!


He is genetically mutated from his boss,

Mr. Monkey Censorship Man

Thai trade expo kicks off in Phnom Penh amid border row

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:51 AM PST

February 17, 2011
Xinhua

Thai Trade Exhibition kicked off here on Thursday afternoon amid military confrontation at the border disputed area near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple between the two countries'troops

The opening ceremony was presided over by Thai Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri and Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, with around 300 participants, who are both Thai and Cambodian businesspeople.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Trairong Suwankiri said that the annual event was to promote Thai products and services in Cambodia as well as to strengthen bilateral trades between the two nations.

Bilateral trades between Cambodia and Thailand mounted to 2.54 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, up 54 percent from 1.65 billion dollars in a year earlier, he said.


"The year 2010 was the highest-ever recorded trade figure between the two countries," he said. "The government of Thailand is committed to boost more trade relations with Cambodia."

The expo from Feb. 17-20 is being held at the Diamond Island's Exhibition Center in Phnom Penh.

There are 178 booths (153 Thai booths and 25 Cambodian booths) with the participation of 78 companies, displaying a variety of products ranging from consumer goods, foodstuffs, drinks, construction materials, household utensils, leather-made products, school stationeries and cosmetics, said Cham Prasidh.

"I hope that the Cambodia and Thai trade relations will be well preserved with the complete and active participation from the private sectors and the governments of the two countries," he said.

"Cambodia has identified a long-standing goodwill and trade strategies in broadening and strengthening in the relations of trade, investment and economic cooperation with Thailand in the framework of a good neighborly country and as an ASEAN member."

The event was held as the border conflict between the two countries is still tense and armed clashes can be happened anytime as both sides' troops are confronting at the border disputed areas near Preah Vihear temple.

The ASEAN foreign ministers will hold a meeting on Feb. 22 in Jakarta, Indonesia to mediate the conflict.

ASEAN countries consist of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Thai PM: Too soon to hold talks on ceasefire agreement with Cambodia

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:50 AM PST

BANGKOK, Feb 17 (MCOT online news) - As Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said he would ask Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire agreement in the upcoming regional foreign ministers meeting, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday said it is too soon to talk about it as Thailand was not the party which opened fire.

The Thai premier made the statement after his Cambodian counterpart said earlier in Phnom Penh that he would request the signing of a permanent ceasefire agreement with Thailand with ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) or the ASEAN chair, witnessing the signing.

The ASEAN foreign ministers meeting is scheduled to be held in Jakarta, Indonesia on Feb 22.


Mr Abhisit said Cambodia's proposed ceasefire agreement is still unclear and Thailand did not begin the fighting, but only retaliated appropriately when Thai troops were attacked by its neighbour's armed forces.

In response to Mr Hun Sen's statement that he adhered to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) regarding the ceasefire and bilateral talks with ASEAN observers, the Thai premier said the proposal is not different from that of ASEAN which earlier said the dialogue is a matter of the two sides but the regional grouping is ready to play a supporting role for the talk without getting involved in the details of the discussions.

"What Mr Hun Sen said today means that he accepts the fact that both countries should return to the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) which is the mechanism for bilateral talks," stated the Thai premier.

For the proposed permanent ceasefire agreement, now it is too soon for the signing as Thailand has reiterated from the beginning that we were not the one who began the shooting, Mr Abhisit said.

"Whenever we are invaded, we have to fire back and we have the right to protect our sovereignty," the Thai prime minister stated.

Mr Abhisit added that army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has analysed the situation along the border and the continued shooting of Cambodian troops for him, but details cannot be disclosed to avoid possible impacts.

The premier said Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti also reported to him about his meeting with UNESCO executives and World Heritage Committee in Paris that they have better understanding over the Thai-Cambodian border conflict after the Thai delegation's clarification.

Mr Abhisit said UNESCO is better aware that current dispute was related to the UN cultural agency's request for a Preah Vihear management plan after the ancient temple was listed as a World Heritage Site.

Regarding UNESCO's plan to send an envoy to inspect Preah Vihear temple, the Thai prime minister said it was yet clear about the UNESCO mission but Thailand, has made it clear to the UN cultural agency that any move which will complicate the sensitive situation in the area is not welcome. However, he said, it would be no problem if the visit is aimed at hearing information from both Thailand and Cambodia.

Border clash sets back Mekong aid work

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:39 AM PST

Cambodian villagers displaced by the fighting (Photo courtesy of Caritas Cambodia)

Territorial dispute is disrupting development and endangering migrants, rights network warns

February 17, 2011
UCAnews.com reporter
Bangkok, Thailand

Recent border clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops have set back gains made in recent years in developing the local people and the region, say civil organizations.

"We believed and hoped that our region was moving forwards, was moving away from conflicts and sorrows. But the situation today between Cambodia and Thailand is moving us back not forwards," the Mekong Migration Network said today in a statement.

The current conflict between Thailand and Cambodia has already claimed nine lives and displaced over 25,000 villagers. The network is deeply concerned for the well-being of thousands of displaced Cambodians and Thais whose lives have been severely disrupted by the clashes, it said.


It also expressed concern that action and words by the Thai and Cambodian governments have given "opportunities to those who would like to incite hatred" between the peoples of the two countries. This is a "dangerous and sad situation" especially for migrant workers from Cambodia working and living in Thailand who may bear the brunt of any "xenophobic rage".

Mekong Migration Network members are committed to promoting their cultural diversity and benefiting from the sharing of knowledge.

Members called on Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen to immediately halt all military offensives and to take all peaceful measures necessary to resolve the current dispute, to ensure the security and safety of all displaced persons on the border.

They urged the two leaders to fulfill their commitment to Cambodian migrants in Thailand – for the Thai government to ensure that they are not victims of hate crimes, and that they are not deported purely for being Cambodian.

The network has 37 members, eight of which are from Cambodia and 18 from Thailand. It includes the National Catholic Commission on Migration that works with Caritas Thailand, the coordinating organization on social work of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Thailand. This commission was set up to serve the pastoral needs of the growing number of migrants in Thailand, especially those coming from the troubled neighboring countries of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

Ugly face of CENSORSHIP in Cambodia has a name: SIENG SITHY and SO KHUN

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:32 AM PST

Sieng Sithy's drunk photo shown on Flickr
Sieng Sithy's (center) goofy photo shown on Flickr
CPP So Khun

KI-Media ban confusion

Thursday, 17 February 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications should clarify its request that 10 internet service providers block access to several anti-government websites, because the government has no such policy, Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said today.

Khieu Kanharith said he had not been aware of the request – an email sent to 10 ISPs from an official at MPTC, obtained by The Post – but that it did not represent government policy.

"An email is not an official letter," he said, adding that he could still access KI-Media, which he views "every two or three hours".

"It surprised me that some ISP organisers accepted the email as an official letter," Khieu Kanharith said.

Sieng Sithy, deputy director of the Directorate of Telecommunications Policy Regulation at the MPTC, wrote an email to Ezecom, Metfone, Citylink, Digi, AngkorNet, WiCam, TC, Camnet, Online and Camintel thanking them for "cooperation" in blocking access to several websites, including KI-Media, Khmerization and a site featuring the art of political cartoonist Sacrava.


Sieng Sithy referenced a meeting on February 10 with Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun, during which So Khun asked for "cooperation" in curbing access to several unnamed sites that affect "Khmer morality and tradition and the government", according to official minutes obtained by The Post.

Khieu Kanharith said MPTC should clarify the issue.

"If So Khun signed, then it is the position of the Ministry of Posts, but not the government, because the Ministry of Information … we have not asked any ISPs to block any website," he said.

Khieu Kanharith said MPTC should "at least give the reason why they asked or ordered the ISPs to block [the sites]".

So Khun stated on Wednesday that MPTC had no policy of blocking access to the websites, but could not be reached for comment today.

Internet users have reported in the past several days that they could not access KI-Media through ISPs Ezecom, Metfone, Online and WiCam.

On Monday, WiCam users attempting to access KI-Media said they saw an error message, signed by "WiCam Tech Support", saying the site had been "blocked as ordered" by MPTC.

Kim Saroeun, operations manager for Online, said today his company was not blocking the sites in question.

"There is no order from my top management to block access to any websites you mentioned below. [W]e will continue to investigate and if there is anything [that] come[s] up [I] will gladly let you know," he said by email.

Ezecom CEO Paul Blanche-Horgan has said he has received "no directive from the government to do anything" and that it was merely a "technical problem".

Sok Channda, CEO of Cambodia Data Communications, which operates MekongNet and AngkorNet, said on Wednesday she had received the email but did not block any sites because it was not an official letter.

Users of MekongNet have confirmed they could access the sites in question.

Hun Sen seeks ceasefire

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:22 AM PST

Thursday, 17 February 2011
Cheang Sokha
The Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen said today that Cambodia would call on Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire under the auspices of ASEAN when the bloc's foreign ministers gather in Jakarta for a meeting next week.

Speaking at a rare press conference at the Peace Palace, the premier said Cambodia would make four requests at the meeting, including an additional demand that ASEAN observers be deployed to monitor the ceasefire.

"These are the points that Cambodia [will] propose, and [we are] drafting this proposal before sending it to the chairman of ASEAN," Hun Sen said.

"This time, it will clearly show who dares to sign and who dares not to sign."


The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, follows skirmishes between Cambodia and Thailand in areas close to Preah Vihear temple, which left at least 10 dead and dozens injured on both sides.

Phnom Penh and Bangkok have accused each other of triggering the clashes, just the latest in a sporadic series of fire fights that have occurred on the border since July 2008, when UNESCO inscribed Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.

Hun Sen said the Jakarta meeting would show whether Thailand, which steadfastly opposes multilateral talks to resolve the issue, was truly willing to bring an end to the simmering border dispute.

"I predict in advance that Thai party will not accept the fourth point," he said, referring to the proposal for the deployment of ASEAN observers in the disputed area.

"However, I would like to say in advance that if Thailand disagrees to have observers at the site, then Cambodia will welcome forces from ASEAN into Cambodian territory to monitor the Cambodian forces."

He said the country would welcome military, police or civilian authorities from any of ASEAN's member states.

On Monday, the United Nations Security Council called on the two sides to "display maximum restraint" and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation, urging them to pursue a resolution at the bilateral or regional level.

The council rejected a Cambodian request for UN peacekeepers to be sent to monitor the ceasefire.

Hun Sen said today that Cambodia was also preparing to write to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, requesting that it explain a 1962 verdict that handed Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia.

Still in custody

The prime minister also dismissed suggestions that two jailed Yellow Shirt activists from Thailand – including high-profile nationalist figure Veera Somkwamkid – might be eligible for royal pardons.

The pair were part of a group of seven Thais arrested in Banteay Meanchey province in December after venturing into a border area to "investigate" the demarcation process.

Though the other five were released on suspended sentences, the case stoked nationalist sentiment in Thailand ahead of this month's clashes.

The Bangkok Post reported today that the Thailand Patriots Network, an offshoot of the nationalist Yellow Shirt movement, was lobbying the government to request a pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni.

Hun Sen said Veera, who has been handed an eight-year jail term on February 1, cannot be forgiven and must serve his full sentence at Prey Sar prison.

His secretary has also been sentenced to six years prison.

"Don't come to persuade me to ask for a royal pardon, I will not do that and [the case] will be enforced under the law this time," Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen clings to Asean option

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:18 AM PST

Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakhiri (left) shakes hand with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh on Feb 17, 2011. (AFP)

17/02/2011
Bangkok Post

Cambodia wants foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or the Asean chairman, to sit in on bilateral talks with Thailand, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday.

Hun Sen said this during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwannakhiri and Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Polabutr, who called on him in Phnom Penh, news reports said.

Mr Trairong and Mr Alongkorn were in the Cambodian capital for the opening of the Thai trade fair.

They discussed trade and border issues with the Cambodian leader.


Hun Sen said he did not want the Thai-Cambodian border conflict to escalate and wanted both sides to jointly establish demarcation posts and comply with the United Nations Security Council's call for a permanent ceasefire agreement through bilateral talks.

The Cambodian prime minister proposed that each bilaterial talk be witnessed by representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or the Asean chairman.

He asked Mr Trairong to convey the message to Prime Minister Abhisit that he did not want the two countries to engage in a war of words.

Mr Trairong said the Thai government had been careful about what it said, but could not stop some groups from speaking their minds.

The two sides agreed to promote trade and investment cooperation and agreed that the problems between them had affected trade and tourism.

At a separate press conference, Hun Sen confirmed Cambodia would propose that foreign ministers of Asean, or the Asean chairman, witness the signing of a permanent ceasefire agreement with Thailand, expected to be reached in Jakarta on Feb 22.

He said it would be much better if the Asean chairman, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, could co-sign the agreement.

However, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said, it is still too soon to talk about signing a ceasefire agreement with Cambodia.

Mr Abhisit was responding to the Cambodian premier's proposal for both countries to sign a permanent ceasefire agreement witnessed by other members of the Asean, or the Asean chairman, when Asean foreign ministers meet next week.

"We were not the one that started the fight. It is still too soon to talk about signing any agreement," he said.

"Thailand said from the beginning that we were not first to open fire. We did what other countries would do. That is, when we are fired at or attacked first, we fire back. We have the right to protect our sovereignty."

Mr Abhisit reiterated that the two countries in conflict must hold talks, but said Asean can act as a facilitator.

Asean is not in the position to get involved in the matters to be talked over between the two countries, he said, adding that Hun Sen's proposal is still not clear.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday called for a permanent ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia, and that they negotiate an end to their dispute.

Thai Patriots Network lawyer Nathaporn Toprayoon said families of both TPN coordinator Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary Ratree Pipatanapaiboon have decided not to appeal against the Cambodian court's decision to imprison the two activists, and now plan to seek a royal pardon from the Cambodian king.

Mr Veera and Ms Ratree were convicted and given sentences of eight and six years, respectively, by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court for illegal entry and spying.

Mr Nathaporn said the families of the two had encountered many problems in trying to help them through legal means. Moreover, Mr Veera's and Ms Ratree's mothers were both in poor health.

Therefore, the families will instruct the Cambodian defence lawyers to inform the court that their clients will not file an appeal against the verdict and sentences.

The families, with consent from Mr Veera and Ms Ratree, will send a letter through the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh seeking a royal pardon, Mr Nathaporn said.

People's Alliance for Democracy spokesman Panthep Puapongpan said the decision not to appeal was understandable.

The government had failed in its efforts to help the two although Prime Minister Abhisit had promised to do so, and Mr Veera had been kept in isolation and put under pressure, Mr Panthep said.

Mr Veera and Ms Ratree were among the seven Thais, including Democrat MP Panich Vikitsreth, arrested by Cambodian soldiers on Dec 29 for illegal entry and trespassing on a military zone. Two of them, Mr Veera and Ms Ratree, were later additionally charged with spying.

Mr Panich and four other Thais were sentenced to nine months in jail. They were set free and returned to Thailand after the Phnom Penh Municipal Court suspended their remaining jail term.

The court later sentenced Mr Veera to eight years and Ms Ratree to six years imprisonment after finding them guilty of espionage.

Their lawyers initially planned to file an appeal and seek their release on bail.

 

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