Samphan's 'integrity' illuminated at Khmer Rouge court

 

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Bridget Di Certo

 

Cambodian history scholar David Chandler yesterday echoed what has become a serial sentiment during testimony at the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

“[Khieu Samphan] was well known as a man of extreme and rather bewildering integrity,” Chandler testified in response to questions by the Case 002 co-acccused’s lawyers.

Chandler described Khieu Samphan as a shockingly incorruptible parliamentarian in the 1960s under then-King Norodom Sihanouk’s rule, a factor that inspired fear and anxiety in the monarch.

“He was just the kind of person Sihanouk didn’t know how to deal with,” Chandler said. “He [Sihanouk] had no experience with people that he couldn’t dominate, manipulate, purchase, rent.”

Amongst Sihanouk’s “crony circle”, Khieu Samphan’s honesty was “very rare indeed”, Chandler added.

Sihanouk was becoming anxious about Khieu Samphan, who, besides a possessing strong moral code, was known for his leftist ideals, Chandler said.

And “when Sihanouk got nervous, he got aggressive”, prompting Khieu Samphan to leave Phnom Penh in the ’60s and seek refuge in the countryside, where he later became a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.

Chandler – who served as a US diplomat in the embassy in Phnom Penh during that era – conceded that Khieu Samphan’s leftist ideals had put him onto the radar for the Americans as well.

Frustration mounted between Chandler and Khieu Samphan’s Cambodian lawyer Kong Sam Onn in the afternoon during a confused exchange marred by translation difficulties and oral slip-ups.

Tension between Chandler and co-accused Ieng Sary’s lawyer Michael Karnavas similarly dominated the morning.

The two swayed between stern tones and limping apologies as Karnavas quizzed Chandler on his research methodology and the articulateness – or inarticulateness – of Chandler’s testimony over the four previous hearing days.

This included a laboured dissection of such Chandler turns of phrase as “I think”, “I feel” and “might be”, among others.

In an illustrative exchange touching on the gaps left by missing documentation from the Democratic Kampuchea period, Karnavas quizzed the historian on statements he had made as to how many documents may have existed during the regime.

“Your conclusion is a guess it is not?” Karnavas demanded.

“I am not going to say ‘my wobbly conviction is’… I corrected myself as I was talking. I could see ‘guess’ was too loose, so I changed it to ‘conclusion’,” Chandler shot back.

Chandler concludes his testimony today.

Chandler testimony wraps at Khmer Rouge court

Thursday, 26 July 2012

Joseph Freeman

 

Prominent Cambodia historian David Chandler wrapped up his testimony yesterday at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, bringing to a close five and a half days in which the professor brought his decades of research on the subject of Democratic Kampuchea to bear on the proceedings of Case 002.

It was a sometimes testy, sometimes enlightening ap­pearance.

“Although it may not have seemed like it, I have enjoyed it,” Chandler said at the end of his testimony. “Or seemed like it at times,” he clarified.

But his last morning was far tamer. Chandler, prompted by questions from the defence for Khieu Samphan, dug deeper into the late 1960s fallout between the former Khmer Rouge head of state and then-King Norodom Sihanouk.

“Sihanouk had actually accused Khieu Samphan to his face of fomenting the Samlaut rebellion,” he said, referring to the violently suppressed peasant uprising in 1967 that was credited with giving the Khmer Rouge momentum.

Soon after this encounter, Khieu Samphan fled into the jungle, and later became a member of the Communist Party of Kampuchea’s central committee.

“That accusation compelled Khieu Samphan unwillingly … into the jungle.”

The former Khmer Rouge state presidium president’s flight may have been taken “unwillingly” but it wasn’t necessarily unwitting, Chandler elaborated. Upon fleeing into the countryside, “Oh! just by coincidence, he meets Ta Mok,” Chandler pointed out.

“He didn’t flee into a part of the forest that he had no connections with.”

Chandler said a French official he spoke with recounted meeting with Khieu Samphan just before he left.

“He told the person I interviewed, ‘I have to get out of town, I’m sorry, this is au revoir,’ he was speaking French,” Chandler said, adding that Sihanouk also resented that people admired Khieu Samphan.

“Sihanouk did not like this popularity one bit,” Chandler said.

After the morning session ended, a new witness who lived through much of the history that Chandler wrote about in his books gave testimony.

Rochoem Tun aligned himself with the movement that became known as the Khmer Rouge in 1963. A member of the ethnic Jarai group, Tun said his brothers told him that as minorities, they should take the opportunity join the revolution.

He became a member of the youth league in 1968. Around that time, he was in the jungles of Rattanakiri, where the movement had holed up. He said he served as a messenger between Brother No 1 Pol Pot and Ieng Sary, who became the Khmer Rouge Deputy Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Pol Pot, he said, taught him in “study sessions”.

Letter to the editor: Boun Sovicheth

Is “studying a foreign language” a mere culprit of Cambodian youth’s socially and culturally inapt behaviors?

I am writing in response to an article, “Modern youth almost forget their own language” written by Tong Soprach and published on July 18, 2012. I am very much impressed by Mr. Soprach’s concerns about the impacts of foreign languages (i.e., English) on the use of Khmer (Cambodia’s national language) among Cambodian youth.

Through my personal and professional experiences, I strongly echo the fact that certain aspects of behaviors and language use among Cambodian youth are matters of grave concern. Mr. Soprach’s observation of the culturally incongruous use of the term of address by some Cambodian youth is greatly laudable.

While the generic phrase, “Sour Sday Neak Teang Ars Knear,” literally translated as “Hello everybody!” may be socially and culturally appropriate in most Western contexts, it may not be so in most Cambodian contexts. “With the presence of older people” in formal situations such as “a national or international meeting”, this “informal salute” can manifest a lack of cultural sensitivity and awareness on the part of the speaker (i.e. youth) and can thus be considered “disrespectful.”

That said, attributing these unbefitting behaviors to studying a foreign language alone may not do justice to the latter. Thus, such a question as “why studying a foreign language changes so many young Khmers in the way they speak and behave?” may need qualifying. Is studying a foreign language a mere culprit of such behaviors? Does learning a foreign language do as much or more harm than good?

Is speaking Khmer with “softened voices and slurred pronunciation” necessarily a way of showing off and a sign of fluent use of a foreign language?

For all intents and purposes, I am by no means trying to argue against Mr. Soprach’s concerns about youth’s behaviors, all of which I find justifiably legitimate. However, identifying the causes of such behaviors should perhaps go beyond the wall of foreign language classrooms. For one, youth is the time of intense identity formation or, worse yet, crisis. Is it possible that the ascription to such behaviors bespeaks a sign or struggle of trying to fit in socially or linguistically, and should thereof be interpreted accordingly?

On another note, social media and online networking have in recent years gathered significant momentum in Cambodia, making exposures to western cultures by Cambodian youth unprecedentedly easy. More or less, this phenomenon can have significant social and cultural (and perhaps linguistic) impacts on Cambodians, and thus its constitutive roles in the changing behaviors among Cambodian youth—however (in)appropriate they may be— should not be taken for granted.

Until empirically proven, whether studying a foreign language leads to such socially and culturally inapt behaviors remain arguably debatable and untenable.

---

Boun Sovicheth
Language Educator
bounsovicheth@gmail.com
Currently doing a doctoral study in Culture, Literacy and Language in the United States

Cambodian scoops Asia's Nobel Prize

Friday, 27 July 2012

Justine Drennan

 

 Agronomist Yang Saing Koma is one of six individuals, and the only Cambodian, to receive this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Koma will receive the award, often called Asia’s Nobel Prize, for his work empowering farmers as founder of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC).

The foundation acknowledged Koma’s “creative fusion of practical science and collective will”.

After observing Cambodia’s dependence on foreign NGOs, Koma founded CEDAC in 1997 to help Cambodians take development into their own hands.

“We put a lot of emphasis on building the capacity of the people, building their self-confidence, building their networks, giving them more and more leadership,” Koma told the Post yesterday. “I learn a lot from the farmers, and the farmers learn a lot from us.”

What began as “a small group of farmers” in Kandal is now Cambodia’s largest agriculture and rural development NGO, with initiatives in 21 provinces.

CEDAC is now working to reduce reliance on donors and expand small growers’ involvement in commerce and investment.

Koma is the fifth Cambodian to receive the award. Election expert Koul Panha won the award in 2011.

Traffic accidents and laws

Friday, 27 July 2012

Soma Norodom

 

Riding around the city of Phnom Penh can sometimes be challenging. Whether your mode of transportation is a car, tuk tuk, motorbike or a bicycle, the traffic is horrendous, and sharing the road with all types of transportation can be dangerous.

Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of death in Cambodia. Speeding and drunk driving are the main causes, and motorbikes are the most common vehicle involved in traffic accidents.

The traffic laws in Cambodia are not regularly enforced. There are police officers on most busy street corners, but the only time you see police officers working are when they stop drivers and fine them for petty traffic violations. Due to the police officers’ low monthly salaries, often the money (fines) is pocketed, and they also charge foreigners more than locals.

Why do the law enforcers target foreigners? It’s because the foreigners do not want to hassle with this and will pay whatever the police officers ask.

For the locals, they will stay and bargain with the law enforcers until the police officers are frustrated and let the locals pay for what they asked, just to get them out of their hair, so they can focus on collecting more fines.

Try to bargain first, and ask for a receipt after you pay the fine. Yes, corruption in the police system exists in Cambodia. In other developing countries, the corruption is hidden.

Getting into a traffic accident can be a traumatic experience, both physical and emotional.

Major fatalities are from road accidents which involves tour buses travelling throughout the country and getting hit by drunk drivers, especially at night. Some are driven by 17- and 18-year-olds, without a driver’s licence, and driving under the influence of alcohol.

As a result, many insurance companies have stopped selling insurance to the bus companies, and the government is not doing anything about it.

This issue is not on the government’s priority list, despite the fact that traffic accidents claimed more than 2,000 lives in 2010, according to the World Health Organisation.

Road safety programs have been implemented by several organisations to bring awareness and education to this growing issue.

It is very important to wear a helmet when riding a motorbike. Handicap International stated that more than 80 per cent of fatalities are due to head injuries. The road safety public awareness campaign for helmet safety has been effective, and the number of riders wearing helmets has doubled this year.

Another road traffic law being enforced is wearing a seat belt. This is common practice in Western countries, and many do follow this law in Cambodia. But what if the car you are in does not have seat belts?

Most of the vehicles are second-hand cars and many would not pass safety standards, or they are vehicles that were in major crashes and only the exterior of the car was fixed before being imported from other countries.

The government needs to intervene in traffic regulations and the traffic laws which include major violations like drunk driving and speeding, which need to be strictly enforced.

I remember what my former driver education teacher taught me when I was learning how to drive a car in the US – be proactive and not reactive.

Anti-corruption chief is guest speaker

 

CAMFEBA Executive Director Som Chamnan. Photograph: Stuart Alan Becker/Phnom Penh Post

Friday, 27 July 2012

Stuart Alan Becker

 The president of Cambodia’s Anti-Corruption Unit, Om Yentieng, will give a speech this Monday at 6 pm at Sunway Hotel. Organiser CAMFEBA is asking for a US$25 payment for a buffet dinner during the event.

According to CAMFEBA Executive Director Som Chamnon, the idea for the dinner was initiated by Chairman Van Sou Ieng and CAMFEBA’s board members because they believed business people in Cambodia should be aware of the enforcement of the anti-corruption law.

“One reason to join the event is to meet business people, and another reason is for people to learn how the government has enforced the Anti-Corruption Law,” Chamnon said.

The event is described as a “business networking and seminar on the contribution from the private sector in eliminating corruption in Cambodia”.

“Business people can find a way to contribute to the enforcement of the law, and to open the floor for the business people to meet directly with the leadership of the anti-corruption unit so they can potentially raise the challenging issue to leadership of the Anti-Corruption Unit and get some way to get at the problems they are facing,” Chamnon said in an interview.

CAMFEBA, or the Cambodian Federation of Employers and Business Associations, was established in June 2000 and is chaired by Van Sou Ieng, who also chairs the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) and owns the Cambodian Country Club (CCC).

CAMFEBA describes itself as an independent federation of employers and business associations recognised and registered with Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and the sole organisation “representing, promoting and safeguarding the rights and interests of employers in Cambodia”.

CAMFEBA represents more than 1,000 employers both union and non-union, with six business associations as members, 155 individual companies and 14 non-profits.

Chamnon says he thinks Cambodia’s corruption situation will improve in the future.

“The government is trying to reduce the unhappy feeling from the investors as well. We have seen some good examples of how this Anti-Corruption Law was imposed and it sent a strong message for people involved in corruption activity to be more careful.

“At least they are more careful about doing this kind of activity. We should be hopeful on this positive development. It will take time to do it.

“Our mission is to support the employer to achieve the excellence in their business and management practice. We have a lawyer on staff for labour-related issues, and we keep members updated and advise them on how laws impact their business.”

Chamnon says one of CAMFEBA’s functions is to lobby on behalf of the private sector for a good business environment for all.

“The private sector can benefit from us because we have a more powerful, stronger voice to talk to the government. Business can also benefit from it and the general public can also benefit from it. If CAMFEBA does not lobby for business, government might put in some policy the business whereby cannot grow and job creation cannot happen. We lobby not only for business but also for the public,” he said.

To reserve a place for the event, people may contact Tep Sophoan on 012 634 055 or email marketing@camfeba.com. Accredited members of the media may attend without dinner free of charge if they present their credentials.

Cambodian town with gruesome past lures tourists

AFP July 27, 2012, 3:42 pm

 

ANLONG VENG, Cambodia (AFP) - Want to see Pol Pot's grave or his broken toilet seat? How about a visit to the house of a feared Khmer Rouge commander known as "The Butcher"?

Welcome to the town of Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold which hopes to become the next must-see destination on Cambodia's dark tourism trail, but which faces calls not to glorify its role in the country's bloody past.

A rectangular mound of earth lined with half-buried glass bottles and protected by a corrugated iron roof marks the spot where Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was hastily cremated in 1998.

Aside from a sign asking visitors to "please help to preserve this historical site" there is no information on offer, leaving Cambodian tourist Pov Dara, 27, to ponder the significance of the low-key grave.

"I feel sad for the people but not for him," she decides, after snapping a photo of her relatives flashing the peace sign.

Up to two million people died from overwork, starvation or execution when the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, attempted to create a communist utopia in the late 1970s.

His cremation site, which attracts some 10 visitors a day, is one of 14 tourist spots the government intends to "preserve and develop" in northern Cambodia's Anlong Veng.

Other places of interest include leaders' old homes and a rusty radio truck used to broadcast Khmer Rouge propaganda.

Impoverished Cambodia is no stranger to genocide tourism, with the Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh and the nearby Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, where thousands died, among the nation's most popular attractions.

But while the focus at those sites is on victims of the 1975-1979 regime, Anlong Veng is populated by one-time loyal Khmer Rouge followers, giving it the feel of a town that has found itself on the wrong side of history.

As locals relish the lucrative prospect of welcoming more tourists to the once isolated area, observers stress the need to educate guests about Cambodia's history -- and avoid turning the destination into a Khmer Rouge nostalgia tour.

To that end, the tourism ministry has teamed up with the esteemed Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge atrocities.

The centre is preparing to publish a guidebook based on the stories of long-time residents and it is training tour guides to provide meaningful information about "what happened and why during the Khmer Rouge regime's final days", said the group's director Youk Chhang. A museum is also planned.

But it is important not to exploit the country's tragic past, he told AFP.

Cambodia's memories are "not for sale", he said.

"We have the responsibility to ensure that Anlong Veng is a historical and responsible site to educate the public."

The Khmer Rouge was ousted by Vietnamese forces in 1979, though regime leaders and supporters continued to wage a low-level guerrilla war against the government.

Anlong Veng, near the Thai border, was the Khmer Rouge's last rebel centre before the movement disintegrated in the late 1990s.

One of the best-preserved visitor sites in town is the lakeside home of late military commander Ta Mok, known as "The Butcher" for allegedly orchestrating brutal massacres that killed thousands, although locals remember him as a generous leader who gave the town a road, a bridge, a hospital and a school.

Ta Mok, who briefly led the Khmer Rouge in its final days, was the only rebel who refused to surrender or strike a deal with the government after Pol Pot's death. He was arrested a year later and died in prison in 2006 awaiting trial.

His airy house is little more than a shell today, its furniture looted long ago. But several walls are still adorned with colourful yet amateurish murals of temples and a map of Cambodia -- symbols of Ta Mok's patriotism, according to the site's caretaker San Roeung, himself an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier.

"A lot of people here liked Ta Mok. When the enemy came, he took people to safety," said the 60-year-old, who helped build the house as well as the two cages outside used to hold Ta Mok's enemies.

He added that he hoped an influx of visitors would improve living standards for locals, who could "grow mangoes or jackfruit to sell to tourists".

Few are more excited about the town's tourism potential than Anlong Veng district deputy governor Nhem En -- who was the chief photographer at Tuol Sleng, where he endlessly captured images of inmates awaiting certain death.

A Khmer Rouge insider until he defected in the mid-1990s, Nhem En has built up a huge archive of photos, as well as a bizarre collection of keepsakes such as Pol Pot's sandals, his uniform and his shattered toilet seat.

Now he is looking for a partner to help set up a private museum to display his treasures, he said, having apparently given up on the idea of selling key items in the hope of earning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"These items might not be worth much financially but, in historical terms, they're invaluable," he told AFP at his home, after showing some of his favourite possessions.

"This camera, if I put it in a museum, I would call it the killing camera," he said, as he held up a vintage Rolleicord, "because all of the people in Tuol Sleng who came before it died."

Nhem En insists he was not in a position to help any prisoners, all he could do was "follow orders" and "mind his own business".

Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch was in February sentenced to life in jail by Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, the first person to face justice for horrors committed under the regime.

The court is now trying the three most senior surviving Khmer Rouge members, but Nhem En has little interest in the proceedings, preferring to muse about Anlong Veng's nascent tourism industry.

The ancient temples of Angkor, which attract more than a million visitors a year, are a mere two-hour drive away, and Nhem En believes that if a fraction of those visitors added Anlong Veng to their itinerary, his town, with its plentiful guesthouses and restaurants, would benefit considerably.

"Anlong Veng will not go backwards," he said, though he emphasised that his own collection of memorabilia is about more than just profiting from his time with the Khmer Rouge.

"I'm doing this to make the world understand more about the Khmer Rouge regime," he said. 

Vietnam invests over VND110 billion in sugar planting in Cambodia

VNS | Jul 26, 2012 15:59 pm

Sugar factories from Tay Ninh province have spent over VND110 billion ($5 million) to plant sugar cane in Cambodia's Svay Rieng province for the 2012-2013 crop, said the Tay Ninh People's Committee.

The Bien Hoa- Tay Ninh and Bourbon-Tay Ninh sugar factories are in a joint venture with their Cambodian partners to plant 3,500 hectares of sugar cane on plantations that will provide materials for these Vietnamese sugar factories. Vietnamese sugar producers have planted the crops in Cambodia as sugar cane in Vietnam has faced stiff competition for farmland from other crops such as cassava and rubber.

However, Vietnamese investors said poor infrastructure has made it difficult to transport sugar cane to Vietnam. Provincial authorities met last week to discuss measures to tackle these difficulties in a bid to promote trade and business ties between the two provinces in the time to come.

The sugar cane sector is a part of a co-operation agreement signed between the two provinces last September to create jobs and boost incomes for local people.

According to Vietnam's customs department, bilateral trade between the two countries reached nearly $1.5 billion in the first five months of this year, an increase of 30 per cent against the same period last year.

Vietnamese businesses have more than 110 investment projects totaling more than $2.4 billion in registered capital in Cambodia. Of this capital, 40.7 per cent was in agriculture and forestry, 34 per cent in electricity production and 11 per cent in the finance and banking sector. Cambodia has become the second biggest receiver of investment from Vietnamese businesses.