Cambodian opposition leader jailed in absentia

Cambodian opposition party leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced in absentiaWednesday, January 27, 2010AFP
SVAY RIENG, Cambodia — A Cambodian court convicted and sentenced the nation's main opposition leader in absentia to two years in jail Wednesday on charges of uprooting border markings, he and his party said.Sam Rainsy was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in November and charged with inciting racial discrimination and intentionally damaging wooden posts denoting Cambodia's boundary with Vietnam.Two villagers, who were in court, were also convicted with intentionally damaging the border markings during the incident in October and jailed each for a year, said Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann.Sam Rainsy, who is in France, said by telephone that the court had made a "most unjust" ruling, saying the border markers he had uprooted in protest were illegally placed."The conviction of Sam Rainsy is not important at all. But what is important is the loss of territory to a foreign country," he said.Cambodia and Vietnam officially began demarcating their contentious border in September 2006 in a bid to end decades of territorial disputes.That has led to a row that has sparked virulent anti-Vietnamese sentiment in Cambodia, fuelled by resentment of Vietnam's expansion over the centuries and the feeling that Cambodia is losing some of its territory.Rainsy, said to be in France to avoid jail, says he will not return until some territory is returned to Cambodian farmers and the two jailed villagers are freed.The 1,270-kilometre (787-mile) border has remained essentially unmarked and vague since French colonial times.Svay Rieng provincial court began its closed-door trial for the opposition leader and the villagers under tight security.The court ordered the three defendants to jointly pay 12,500 dollars to the government in compensation for the markings, Yim Sovann said. Rainsy was fined an additional 2,000 dollars, the party spokesman added.Court officials could not be reached to confirm the verdict, while Rainsy's lawyer refused to comment.The French-educated former finance minister is the main rival to Prime Minister Hun Sen. He has promised to promote liberal democracy and human rights, raise wages and fight corruption if elected.

Statement by Sam Rainsy

January 27, 2010
STATEMENT
I would like to inform all interested persons that I am exposing tomorrow, at a press conference in Phnom Penh, additional evidence based on thorough historical and geographic research and modern technologies that confirms that Cambodia is victim of border encroachment. I defy anybody, especially competent government officials from both Cambodia and Vietnam, to prove the contrary. I am sure all independent experts all over the world, if asked by any interested institution, would confirm that I am right. The truth on this issue will have far reaching political implications. This is why the Hun Sen government is so nervous about this case as reflected by the way they handled today's sham and speedy trial and their threat to prosecute anybody who would publicise the evidence I am exposing.Sam RainsyMember of Parliament

A thin line between Cambodia and Vietnam

Jan 28, 2010 By Jared Ferrie Asia Times (Hong Kong)
"This is a public secret. Everyone knows that the court is under control of the government ... This issue of the border could have been downplayed. They take any chance to silence the opposition" - Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human RightsPHNOM PENH - The leader of Cambodia's main opposition party, Sam Rainsy, skipped his court date on Wednesday, eluding an arrest warrant issued for allegedly uprooting border markers on the frontier with Vietnam. Rainsy instead remained in France, where he had fled in advance of the hearing because he felt the case was politically motivated.The Svay Rieng province court convicted villagers Meas Srey and Prum Chea to one year in prison and ordered them each to pay 5 million riel (US$1,200) in compensation to district authorities for moving the border posts. Rainsy was convicted in absentia to two years in prison, handed an 8 million riel fine and ordered to pay 5 million riels compensation to district authorities. All three must pay an additional 50 million riel in compensation for destroying the border posts, according to the ruling.The case highlights the ongoing controversy of Vietnamese influence over Prime Minister Hun Sen's government, some 30 years after the government in Hanoi ordered troops to invade Cambodia. The two countries are now in the process of demarcating their 1,270-kilometer long border. They are also negotiating investment agreements that could see Vietnam pouring billions of dollars into Cambodia. On December 26, during a conference in Ho Chi Minh City, officials signed a memorandum of understanding intended to pave the way for more Vietnamese investments in Cambodia. No deals were finalized, but the economic agreements covered projects including electricity generation, fertilizer production and rubber plantations, as well as a proposal to explore for bauxite mining in Mondulkiri province. A Vietnam official in Phnom Penh told the Phnom Penh Post that revenues from bauxite mining alone could amount to US$6 billion.Against the backdrop of a possible $12 billion worth of new Vietnamese investments, Rainsy implied that Cambodian officials were reluctant to criticize their larger neighbor about alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian lands."I am defending Cambodia's independence and territorial integrity regardless of these ongoing investment projects and financial deals," he said in an e-mail from Paris. "Maybe those in the Phnom Penh government take those material interests into consideration in their handling of border issues with Vietnam, but I don't."A spokesman for the Cambodian government, Phay Siphan, said in an interview that increasing economic ties with Vietnam had no bearing at all on the border demarcation process. He said a commission is carefully analyzing data from maps drawn up during the colonial period of French rule in order to determine exactly where the border lies."The job of the border commission between Cambodia and Vietnam is not to lose or gain territory from either side," said Phay. "Sam Rainsy is misrepresenting the work of the border commission."Rainsy, who is a fierce critic of Vietnamese influence in Cambodian affairs, was charged with incitement of racial discrimination and destruction of property for his role in an October 25 incident in Svay Rieng province. Rainsy allegedly joined five villagers in uprooting the wooden poles after hearing complaints that they had been placed in a nearby rice field. Two of those villagers were arrested and sentenced on Wednesday.To back up his case, Rainsy's eponymous political party (SRP) on Monday released what it said was evidence that the uprooted border demarcation posts were placed 300 to 500 meters inside Cambodian territory. The SRP referred to maps drawn up by the French in 1952, which defined the border and which were given to the United Nations by the Cambodian government in 1964. Those were corroborated by maps produced by the United States military in 1966, according to the SRP.Rainsy said he enlisted the help of cartographers, historians, geographers and computer experts who examined the maps and used satellite pictures and GPS coordinates to determine that the uprooted border markers were indeed placed within Cambodian territory. Rainsy refused to name the experts, but he noted that he also received "technical assistance" from a French map engineer at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.Cambodian officials threatened to lay further charges after the release of the information by the SRP. "The government will consider taking legal action to prohibit any illegal publication that affects the security of the social order," Tith Sothea, a government advisor who works at the press office of the Council of Ministers, told the Phnom Penh Post on Monday.In his e-mail, Rainsy said that threat sounded "rather Stalinist". He added: "They are embarrassed and afraid because I am exposing scientific, objective and factual evidence of what I am claiming."Phay, the government spokesman, confirmed that the government is investigating the information made public by Rainsy and the SRP, and that the investigation could lead to further charges if the claims are shown to be false. "We don't want to see any misleading information that will affect law and order and national security," he said.Phay also accused the SRP of releasing the information in order to distract attention from Rainsy's case. "He has the right to freedom of expression, but it can't cover up what has been done." He said that rather than releasing the information to the media, the SRP should have brought it forward for debate in parliament, or even in a separate court case.But Rainsy alleged that the courts are "political tools" used by the ruling Cambodian People's Party to "crack down on opposition". Many rights groups and analysts share that view. Last year, a spate of lawsuits against opposition parliamentarians, journalists and activists prompted a litany of criticism from international rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the United States Embassy in Cambodia."This is a public secret. Everyone knows that the court is under control of the government," said Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. "There is an attempt by the ruling party to consolidate its power." He said the case against Rainsy was an example of that trend. "This issue of the border could have been downplayed. They take any chance to silence the opposition."But Rainsy has so far refused to be silenced, taking up his cause with governments in Europe while participating in radio call-in shows in Cambodia. His party has also vowed to begin investigating other sections of border between the two countries.

Steps Urged to Prevent Snakebites, Improve Treatments

About 5.5 million people a year are bitten. The W.H.O. now recognizes snakebite as a neglected tropical disease. Transcript of radio broadcast: 24 January 2010
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
A western diamondback rattlesnake in Cave Creek, ArizonaSnakes bite an estimated five and a half million people worldwide each year. Experts say tens of thousands of people die from venom poisoning.
An untreated or incorrectly treated bite might require the removal of a bitten foot, for example, or an arm. Each year around four hundred thousand amputations are the result of snakebites.
Last year, for the first time, the World Health Organization added snakebites to its list of "neglected tropical diseases." This recognition aims to bring greater attention to the problem.
Scientists know of about three thousand kinds of snakes. About six hundred of them are venomous. These are most often found in rural areas in tropical climates.
Asia and Africa have the highest number of snakebites -- together about four million a year. Latin America and islands in the South Pacific follow.
The highest number of victims are agricultural workers. Snakebites are also common among fishermen, hunters and children. Many victims live in areas with poor or non-existent health care systems and where antivenom treatments are often not available.
Antivenom is the only cure. But experts say antivenom technologies and their use need to be improved. Problems include a shortage of manufacturers and the high cost of treatment.
Also, there is a widespread lack of knowledge among local health workers about how to use antivenoms. The treatments can cause dangerous and even deadly reactions if not used carefully.
Antivenom contains proteins from animals such as horses or sheep. The animals are injected repeatedly with one or more different snake venoms to produce immunity.The Lancet medical journal recently published a series of reports on snakebite prevention and treatment. David Warrell at the University of Oxford in England co-wrote one of them. He praised efforts by the W.H.O. to establish common practices for the production, regulation and control of antivenom. But he says more must be done.
The authors say community education programs could help prevent snakebites by teaching people how to avoid them. They also suggest actions like providing protective boots to wear while working in fields, and not sleeping on the ground.
Also important is providing information about where dangerous snakes are most likely to live and when they are most active.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. MP3s, transcripts and broadcasts of our reports are available at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Christopher Cruise.

New Museum to Honor Power of a Sit-In Protest

Also: A question from India about what is the favorite winter sport in America. And music by Jason Mraz. Transcript of radio broadcast: 28 January 2010
DOUG JOHNSON:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson.
This week on our program we listen to music from singer/songwriter Jason Mraz.
And answer a question about Americans' favorite winter sports .
But first, a report on the anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in and the opening of a civil rights museum to honor it.
(MUSIC)
Greensboro Sit-In
DOUG JOHNSON:
Monday marks the fiftieth anniversary of a very famous civil rights protest in the United States --- the Greensboro sit-in. On February first, nineteen sixty, four black college students took seats at a restaurant counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. The counter was for white people only.
The young men were refused service but they refused to leave. They returned to the store with other protesters day after day. Their sit-ins brought police and national attention. Now a new museum opens to remember and celebrate the event. Faith Lapidus has our story.
FAITH LAPIDUS:
Their names were Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr. and David Richmond. They were first-year students at North Carolina A&T University. The young men asked for coffee at the F.W. Woolworth store lunch counter. They were asked to leave the store. The young men refused. They remained seated until the store closed.
Lunch counter and stools that the four protesters in Greensboro sat onWhen they returned to the university, the four students called on others to join them the next day at Woolworth's. They returned to the lunch counter with four black women. They sat there for four hours. No one would serve them. Some white customers made angry comments. Newspaper and television reporters appeared. So did the local police.
The next day more than sixty black students took every seat at the lunch counter. Some of the protesters were from a local high school. The protesters demanded that the Woolworth Company permit blacks and whites to eat at its lunch counters.
By the end of March, similar sit-ins were taking place in fifty-five cities in thirteen states.
Sit-ins are a powerful form of non-violent resistance. The Greensboro sit-in was not the first in the United States. But it was the most influential at the time. President Dwight Eisenhower announced his sympathy for the protesters. He said they were acting for the "equality that they are guaranteed by the Constitution."
The sit-ins were successful. Within the next year or two many lunch counters and other public places permitted blacks and whites together in many southern towns. And the protests helped pass the Civil Rights Act of Nineteen Sixty-Four.
On Monday in Greensboro, officials will open the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. The museum is in the former F.W.Woolworth store. The sixteen exhibits include a film recreation of the sit-in story as well as the four counter seats used by the first four protesters.
(MUSIC)
Americans' Favorite Winter Sport
DOUG JOHNSON:
Our listener question this week comes from Kerala state, India. Muhammad wants to know Americans' favorite winter sport.
We are not sure if Muhammad means the favorite sport to watch or to play so we will include both.
Several popular professional sports, including football, are played in winter. The National Football League will hold its championship game on February seventh. The Indianapolis Colts will play the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida.
Members of the New Orleans Saints doing exercises Thursday in LouisianaMost sports experts believe football is the favorite sport to watch in the United States. Since nineteen ninety-four, the sports broadcasting network ESPN has been studying the subject. Their experts ask tens of thousands of Americans what sporting events they like to watch best. This includes attending the event and watching it on television at home. National Football League competition has finished in first place for many years.
However, both professional and college basketball always rates in the top five. Basketball competition starts in autumn and continues throughout the winter into spring.
One of America's favorite spectator sports takes place almost all year long. NASCAR, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, has huge live and television audiences. The races take place mainly in the warm southern states. Probably the most famous NASCAR race is the Daytona Five Hundred. It takes place every February in Daytona Beach, Florida. About two hundred thousand people attend the race. Millions more watch it on television.
The winter sports Americans like to take part in often depend on where they live. Many Americans love to downhill ski, for example. But only people who live near snowy mountainous areas can ski a lot.
Ice skating and the game of ice hockey are also popular winter sports. There are many indoor ice rinks in America. So skaters can be active all year round.
The same is true of many sports normally thought of as warm weather activities. Indoor tennis courts, soccer fields and rock climbing centers permit people to take part in these sports in all seasons.
(MUSIC)
Jason Mraz
DOUG JOHNSON:
Other listeners have asked about American singer and songwriter Jason Mraz. Fritzi Bodenheimer tells about him and plays some of his music.
FRITZI BODENHEIMER:
Jason Mraz grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia. He performed in musical theater in high school. He went on to study musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. But he dropped out one year later after someone gave him a guitar. He learned to play the instrument and began writing songs.
Jason MrazHe is known for writing meaningful songs. His relaxed, easy sound includes influences of pop, folk and hip-hop music. And when he performs he connects with his audience. He sings a strong message of being thankful.
In two thousand two, he released his first album, "Waiting for My Rocket to Come." It included the hit song "Remedy (I Won't Worry.)"
Jason Mraz became very popular following the release of his third studio album in two thousand eight. It is called "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." Two songs on the album received Grammy nominations. Music critics say Jason Mraz sings with a pure and clear tone on the song "Make it Mine."
(MUSIC)
"Lucky" is another hit song from "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." Jason Mraz performs the song with singer Colbie Caillat.
(MUSIC)
Jason Mraz has gained a huge international following with his song "I'm Yours." It has been played millions of times on the Internet. It is a happy song about being open to love and life's possibilities. You may find yourself singing along.
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON:
I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post comments.
Do you have a question about people, places or things in America? Send it to mosaic@voanews.com and we may answer it on this show.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

New Understanding of How Plants Use Water

Discovery may help engineer better plants. Transcript of radio broadcast: 25 January 2010
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Scientists have discovered more details about how plants use water. Their findings could help to engineer plants that grow better and more effectively in conditions with higher levels of carbon dioxide.
Plants naturally take in carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis, the process of changing light energy to chemical energy. The carbon dioxide enters the plants through tiny holes or pores on the surface of leaves.
However, each time a plant takes in one molecule of carbon dioxide gas, it loses hundreds of water molecules.
Scientists say plants lose ninety-five percent of the water they take in through these pores. Some plants' pores can tighten to save water during conditions of high carbon dioxide. Other plants are not able to do this as well. Now, scientists know how these tiny pores tighten in plants.
Julian Schroeder is a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego. Mister Schroeder says that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are much higher now than they were in the past. However, he says, many plants are not closing their pores in order to hold in more water.
He and his team have identified proteins that control the tightening of a plant's pores. The proteins are enzymes called carbonic anhydrases. The findings were published last month in the journal Nature Cell Biology. Mister Schroeder believes the enzymes could be changed in some plants to increase their ability to store water.
The researchers added carbonic anhydrase genes to plants that do not react to higher levels of carbon dioxide. They observed that for every molecule of carbon dioxide taken in by the plants, they lost forty-four percent less water.
The scientists say the photosynthesis process continued normally in these plants. They say this suggests that changing plants to save more water will not affect plant growth. This method might be used to help engineer food crops that are resistant to extremely dry conditions. The discovery could help farmers meet a growing demand for food as water supplies decrease. However, the scientists say more research is needed.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture report, written by Brianna Blake. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports, visit us on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com.

For Youths in US, a Jump in Media Use

A survey finds that children and teens are doing even more multi-tasking, and that heavy users are more likely to do poorly in school. Transcript of radio broadcast: 28 January 2010
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
American children and teenagers have increased their use of entertainment media by more than one hour a day in the last five years. On an average day they now spend seven and a half hours using media.
These are the findings of a new survey. It included devices like TVs, computers, mobile phones and MP3 players, but also media like books and magazines. It did not count media use for school.
Vicky Rideout at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group, wrote the report. She was surprised that kids could fit even more media time into their day.
She found that they spent ten hours and forty-five minutes if you counted each device individually. But children multi-task a lot, and Vicky Rideout says this is not necessarily a good thing.
VICKY RIDEOUT: "People who study the brain will tell you that you can't actually multi-task in that way. You're really switching back and forth sequentially from different tasks, just doing it rapidly, and that you don't really do either task as well as you would do them if you did them one at a time."
The study suggests a link between heavy media use and lower performance in school. About one-fourth of those who used media the least reported that their grades were mostly average or below. But that was true of half the heavy media users.
So where are the parents? Children who had any rule limiting the use of any kind of media were exposed to an average of about three hours less media a day. But only one-third of children had to follow any rules.
Girls spent more time than boys on social networking sites, listening to music and reading. Boys spent more time on video games -- an average of forty-eight minutes more a day than girls.
VICKY RIDEOUT: "It looks like the girls just sort of lose interest in the games and they drop off and start doing other things, whereas the boys' interest remains strong."
Some other findings: Time spent reading books has not dropped in the last five years. But time with newspapers and magazines has, though some reading now takes place online.
Blacks and Hispanics use media over four hours more a day than other groups. And for all children, media use appears to reach its highest point between the ages of eleven and fourteen. Vicky Rideout will try to explain these findings in future research.
The report is based on more than two thousand students ages eight to eighteen. They took a written survey in class through May of last year.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. How much media use do you think is enough for children? Post your comments at voaspecialenglish.com, and you can find transcripts and captioned videos of our reports. I'm Mario Ritter.

Bridging the poverty gap

Monday, 25 January 2010 15:01 Sophan Seng

The Phnom Penh Post

The Paris Peace Accord of 1991 brought Cambodia a measure of economic liberalisation and global connectivity that differed greatly from the cold war era and Pol Pot’s regime.

But actual progress is more elusive. Maskin says that wide poverty gaps eventually lead to social deterioration. As well, Gross has addressed the importance of providing more opportunities to the Kingdom’s youth. The government must provide greater incentives to attract youths to public service.

Dear Editor,

Photo by: Rick Valenzuela

Economist and Nobel laureate Eric S Maskin speaks with the Post at the Hotel Cambodiana last week.

I agree with Professor Eric Maskin, who says that Cambodia has been at risk from a growing gap between rich and poor (“Nobel laureate to push PM on school reform”, January 20).

An unbalanced distribution of the wealth of the nation has worried many scholars besides Maskin, including David Jonathan Gross, who is also a Nobel laureate.

Cambodia can be viewed from two perspectives: progressive by comparison and progressive in actuality. If we compare the Kingdom to the past, we can see that anti-colonialism, the Cold War and globalization have played a significant role in Cambodia’s recent history.

The era of Lon Nol and Pol Pot must be evaluated in light of global cold war politics and the opposition between communism and democracy. Cambodia had no peace during this period, and the intractable conflicts led to mass killings and foreign intervention.

Though the media have focused considerable attention on this part of the Kingdom’s history, qualitative and quantitative progress since that time has sometimes been overlooked.

The Paris Peace Accord of 1991 brought Cambodia a measure of economic liberalisation and global connectivity that differed greatly from the cold war era and Pol Pot’s regime.

But actual progress is more elusive. Maskin says that wide poverty gaps eventually lead to social deterioration. As well, Gross has addressed the importance of providing more opportunities to the Kingdom’s youth. The government must provide greater incentives to attract youths to public service.

Actual progress requires the good will of government leaders to develop genuine economic solutions for sustainability and a more just distribution of wealth; to promote democracy through a free and fair media; to safeguard the Kingdom’s natural resources and use them for the benefit of all Cambodians; to curb the mandate of power for top government leaders; to respect the Kingdom’s diverse ethnic minorities; to improve the quality of education and the opportunities for graduates entering the workforce.

ABOVE NATIONS, HUMANITY: Universal Jurisdiction and International Criminal Justice

First published in October 2007 in The Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns, but first written during my 3rd year of law school after having spent a semester studying and working in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (June-Dec. 1999), a country I love deeply (for its natural beauty and its long-suffering, resilient, forgiving people) and was fortunate to visit again ten years later this past December 2009 as part of a group of experts and practitioners on reconciliation (funded by the Swedish government - in the exquisite wine country of Stellenbosch, staying in the oldest hotel of all of South Africa, in a suite the size of my current apartment - a very difficult life, I know :) !!). Despite the cultural, political and historical differences, we, Cambodians, have much to learn from South Africans and their ubuntu spirit. A good place to star (for us proficient in English) would be the contemplative reading of Nelson Mandela's inspirational Long Walk to Freedom and Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness which I just finished for the first time. For those of us genuinely interested the concept of forgiveness, I have found both of Lewis B. Smedes' books on forgiveness (Forgive & Forget, 1984 and The Art of Forgiving, 1996) incredibly enlightening and helpful in understanding the universal contours of this concept; unfortunately again, not available in Khmer but English.

ABOVE NATIONS, HUMANITY:
Universal Jurisdiction and International Criminal Justice

Beginning with Hitler

The second half of the 20th century has witnessed unprecedented advancement of human rights, from Haiti to the former Yugoslavia to Rwanda to Sierra Leone to East Timor, human values are piercing the veil of the monolithic state and challenging the foundation of its values. Adolph Hitler was the first to give the cause of action for this penetration into stale sovereignty. The atrocities of World War II aroused the ire of the Western world who viewed the mass extermination of Jews as an affront to the collective dignity of mankind. This moral outrage expressed itself in the Nuremburg Trials, which in turn formed the impetus for the founding of the International Human Rights Movement. For the first time in history, a state and individuals were held internationally responsible for crimes committed inside its territory and on a mass systematic scale. Spain's unilateral arrest of Chile's General Augusto Pinochet a few years back highlighted but one example of how content-rich yet ever contentious the human rights culture has become since its inception.

State Values

Despite immense progress in the internationalization of human rights, some as jus cogens - peremptory norms having the character of supreme law which cannot be modified by treaty or by ordinary customary law - all is not well. The transition from a bi-polar to a multi-polar world ended the Cold War but resulted in the proliferation of many "hot spots" around the world. The modern world knows many Hitlers and many killing fields, people and places brought out from their obscurity by national, ethnic, racial and religious "cleansing" that resulted in the eradication of huge sections of the population. However, because states continue to be the constitutive actor of the international system, the perpetrators of these atrocious crimes are more likely than not to roam freely under the protective guise of stale values.

Human Values

Despite the morass, international criminal justice and universal jurisdiction increasingly are championing human values over stale values - humanity over nations - whereby crimes whose commission offend the moral intuition of the international community, specifically that of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being brought to mixed and /or international tribunals.

The gross violations of these crimes are impelling, as a moral imperative, the global community towards increasing criminal sanctions against such actions. Because for us to remain silent and inactive in the presence of such evils strike at who we are as moral beings; these transgressions are a violent assault on human dignity. Thus, the apprehension and trial of these perpetrators lend expression to the moral outrage and revulsion felt by humanity. Only by voicing our disgust and thus publicly repudiating such conduct do we begin to restore the moral order within the system and within ourselves.

Justice demands retribution

Privy to the moral philosophy of punishment is the concept of justice. Justice demands retribution. In apportioning just deserts to the perpetrators, certain desirable values inevitably flow to the respective actors involved.

First, punishment administers accountability and responsibility on the perpetrators. Even if the perpetrators escape arrest the warrant for their arrest stigmatizes them as pariahs. The values of stigmatization and shame, although intangible, should not be underestimated.

Second, the community is restored when justice is meted out.

Third, the issuance of justice redresses the survivors' rights as legal citizens. Personal autonomy presumes every individual a 'legal person', that is, a carrier of formal rights and obligations. Notably, the criminal process lends legal recognition that justice is not a privilege but a right that is redressable for all citizens.

The provision for a civil party to join in the criminal proceeding (of which I am the first, not only for this Extraordinary Chambers but for all mixed tribunals) is only one of the most mind-boggling developments (particularly to someone brought up in the common law tradition) to give further credence to this idea of individuals as "legal person".

Finally, respect is bestowed upon the victims when a concerned community takes concrete steps on their behalf and in their memory. Therefore, a legitimate trial allows for individual and collective closure, the sense of finality that all that could have been done has been done. This closure in turn provides a necessary precondition for meaningful growth and development.

Deterrence: potential killers given notice

Another aspect of justice reasons that punishment contributes to the general deterrence of future crimes. The Preamble to the Rome Statute (establishing the International Criminal Court) succinctly states that the ICC "determine[s] to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus contribute to the prevention of such crimes..." Implicit in the argument is that potential violators are put on notice. Absent notice and punishment, a moral hazard exists, and thus in effect creating a de facto license to kill at will and with impunity.

It would be good if the international community could re-remind General Than Shwe and his Burmese military junta that they are no longer living within the context of 1988 where they could get away with the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators because of weak implementation of universal jurisdiction and non-existence of the ICC. The warlords in Darfur can also use this reminder, as well as other rogues of this world.

In sum, the violent assault on human dignity triggers our moral obligation and sense of justice and impels us into action.

Rule of law

The moral imperative to action, ie court proceeding, is twinned to the legal obligation, opinion juris, which is rooted in history. Hence, the second rationale for international/mixed criminal proceedings finds justification in law and history. Any legal, system albeit domestic or international, rests on the concept of the rule of law. Meaning results when concepts are translated into function. Currently, we have a rich compendium of concepts; however, we are still wanting to actualize them into a functioning reality.

Democratic Governance

Another reason for criminal sanctions against mass crimes is the development and promotion of the human rights culture and democratic governance.

On a pragmatic level, the judgments of these cases would produce a rich, contextual corpus of human rights scholarship, generate discussions, and stimulate public awareness of justice issues. We are more and more seeing this happening now in our Khmer society. Of course, more can be and should be had.

On a philosophical level, the adjudication of mass crimes would build on the achievements of the human rights culture in its fortification of the rule of laws — essentially democratic governance.

A democratic government guarantees the law to be the equalizer in content and application among its citizens. However, when the law punishes the petty and common crimes but allows mass murderers to circulate freely and comfortably among its citizens, democratic peace and stability are undermined and the law is relegated to meaninglessness. Unfortunately, as is the case: "For my friends, whatever they want; for my enemies the law." Garnering support for reform under such a mentality will be next to impossible. A failure to punish is then a clear abdication of democratic authority.

Criminal Responsibility

Here, it should be reminded that a person is criminally responsible when two conditions are met: actus reus (a wrongful act, deed) coupled with mens rea (guilty mind, criminal intention or recklessness). Simply put, you cannot be liable if there's only the wrongful act without any intention; you cannot be liable if you intended for the wrongful act, but did not carry out this act.

St. Augustine helps us to further understand the underlying rationale when he writes: "A fault cannot exist in the Highest Good, but it cannot exist except in some kind of good. Therefore good may exist on its own, but evil cannot... It is just, in that no one is punished for faults of nature but for faults of will; and even the wickedness which has became habitual, and has developed and hardened into 'second nature', had its origin in an act of choice... To try to discover the causes of such defection — deficient, not efficient causes — is like trying to see darkness or to hear silence. Yet we are familiar with darkness and silence, and we can only be aware of them by means of eyes and ears, but this is not by perception but by absence of perception... the failure is voluntary, not necessary " (The City of God, Book Xll, Chapters 3,7and 8).

We, the people, are living in an exciting international legal context that is more and more embracing human values over stale values; we, the Khmer people, are living in one rich example of the excitement and messiness of what all this means. At the end of the day, what we want to say through all these courts — national international or however special, extraordinary or mixed it is — every person must be responsible for his/her action.

"This article is an updated excerpt from a paper I wrote in May 2000 advocating for the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which since has come into existence with Cambodia as one of its first signatories. "

Theary C. SENG, a member of the New York Bar Association, former director of Center for Social Development (March 2006—July 2009), founder and Board of the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (www.cjr-cambodia.org), founding adviser of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims (www.akrvc.org), is currently writing her second book, under a grant, amidst her speaking engagements.

Stop Killings and Bring Perpetrators to Court: Family of 1997 Grenade Attack

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
26 January 2010

It has been nearly 13 years since Ly Neary’s son died without a final word and the person responsible for tearing her family apart remains unknown, but she remains hopeful that one day the person responsible for the grenade attack on the demonstration her son took part in will be prosecuted.

The grenade attack on a peaceful demonstration led by the opposition leader Sam Rainsy on March 30, 1997 in front of the then National Assembly and near the Royal Palace injured more than 100 and killed 16 people, including Ly Neary’s son, Chet Duong Daravuth, a former reporter for Neak Prayuth (the Fighter) newspaper.

No one had foreseen that a peaceful demonstration to demand an independent judicial system would turn out to be such a devastating and bloody event long after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. This tragedy remains deeply resonant for victims and situation monitors.

“It was just like a sea of blood; there was so much blood on the ground because those injured suffered intense bleeding,” recalled Samrith Duonghak, a former reporter who was at the scene and suffered injuries from shrapnel to both his legs.

“Besides this, [I] also witnessed the scene at the hospital—there were [wounding] reporters like /Moan Khmau (Black Chicken), but now he’s dead; he suffered injuries on his arm and was screaming and there were crowds of people running in and out of the emergency room. It took me at least 30 to 40 minutes to get my wound disinfected. It was such a real [vivid] and terrifying event, [making me] greatly tremble,” he said.

Brad Adams, Asia’s director for Human Rights Watch and who arrived at the scene five minutes after the attack, recalled the scene for VOA:

“What I saw was dead bodies on the ground. I saw a woman blown in half, her legs cut off. I saw a journalist who I knew lying dead and I saw the police and the army standing by and doing nothing, actually refusing to help the victims. It was the most sickening things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

No perpetrators behind the attacks have been brought to light by the authorities despite involvement from the US investigating team from the FBI.

Every year, the victims and their families gather at a golden stupa—built just meters from the actual site of the grenade explosion and scene of scattered bodies—to commemorate the struggle and good deeds of those who had lost their lives.

“It’s close to the 30th, close to the 13th anniversary of my son’s death, which I always think about, and whichever makes my heart beat faster,” said Ly Neary. “I keep imagining: oh, my son, were my son still alive, he would comfort and take care of me now that I am old. [His] Father and mother are old now, but because of [his young] death, I feel so sorrowful. I can never forget this.”

For Sam Sun Doeun, a former parliamentarian from the Sam Rainsy Party, who lost two children under his care in the grenade attack, also never forgets to attend the commemoration ceremony even though he has now left the party.

“I am still terrified. I always attend the ceremony on March 30th, when it is held in front of the National Assembly,” he said. “I always attend to commemorate their souls; they were just doing something for the nation—and there’s nothing wrong with that—but instead they suffered terribly and something that would be easy to find is strangely not found. This is what further reinforces impunity in our Cambodian society. So to establish the rule of law in our country, we need to find [those responsible].”

The FBI has recently released some parts of their investigation report, which only hinted to suspicion that forces loyal to the Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen may have been involved in the attacks. It notes that the evidence gathered is inadequate and do not meet US standard for persecution by the time the investigating agent left Cambodia for security reasons.

Because of the release of the FBI report, Ly Neary has called for the non-repetition of a similar 1997-style attack.

“I would like to appeal to the Royal Government to stop such killings, grenade attacks, and assassinations because we all love our lives. Whether a rich person or a beggar, we all have just one live and all love our live because our live cannot be traded on the market. So please stop all this [problems],” she said.

Cambodian authorities have maintained that the case remains open.

Cambodia cracks down on condom sales in capital

26th January 2010
Source: GNA (Ghana)

Cambodian authorities have cracked down on as many as 37 condom sales shops in Phnom Penh over the last three months, a government official said Tuesday.

Sok Sokun, director of Phnom Penh Municipal Health Department said that the Ministry of Health in cooperation with police and local authorities have cracked down on 37 shops since November last year.

He said those shops owners had sold condoms which had expiry date and drugs for sexual-enhancement without being first advised or prescribed by doctors.

However, he said, selling condoms and sexual enhancement drug are not considered illegal, but these kinds of goods are harmful to consumers' health once they are out of date or fake.

The vendors whose shops were raided were re-educated for the health alert.

It is common to see condoms sales of many kinds in many corners in Phnom Penh streets at night besides proper places like pharmacies.

Cambodia is known as one of the Asian countries that are successfully in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDs related diseases.

Vietnam’s irrefutable encroachments

Op-Ed by Khmerization
26th January, 2010

"One more complicated issue is Vietnam's decision to dig a canal along the borders in 1979 that did not respect the real borderlines drawn on the maps. (Now), the local people who live on both sides of the canal must consider the dike and the canal as the real borderline between the two countries", said Mr. Var Kimhong, chairman of the Cambodian Border Commission.”

The explosive evidences of Vietnam’s irrefutable encroachments on Cambodian borders exposed by Mr. Sam Rainsy should be a wake up call to all Khmer politicians, in particular political leaders from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).

The ruling CPP, instead of cracking down on critics and opposition politicians who had exposed border encroachments by Vietnam, should instead be working with them to brainstorm the means and measures to resolve the issues with Vietnam diplomatically and peacefully. Cracking down on critics of the government’s failed border policies is not going to help resolving the issues and does not reflect well on the reputation of the government in the eyes of the international community. On the contrary, it will complicate the issues further and lead to more exposures of the government’s inability or unwillingness to resolve the issues.

Deep down, the government, especially the CPP leaders, knew that the border encroachments by Vietnam are real. Their draconian measures against border critics are designed to silence dissenting voices and to whitewash its failed border policies. Here is the government’s admission made by Mr. Var Kimhong, chairman of the Cambodian Border Commission, in a meeting recently who said that Vietnam's unilateral decision to dig a canal to use as a borderline in 1979 has violated the real locations of the borderlines between the two countries. "One more complicated issue is Vietnam's decision to dig a canal along the borders in 1979 that did not respect the real borderlines drawn on the maps. (Now), the local people who live on both sides of the canal must consider the dike and the canal as the real borderline between the two countries", said Mr. Var Kimhong.

If the government frankly admitted that the border encroachments by Vietnam are facts and not fiction, why then there is a need to crack down on border critics and Mr. Sam Rainsy? The obvious explanations would be that the government is trying to whitewash its failed border protections and it intends to end Mr. Rainsy’s political life. Here is what one of the CPP stalwarts, Mr. Cheam Yiep, said recently in the Phnom Penh Post about a court case against Mr. Rainsy: “If the upcoming trial at the provincial court issues a guilty verdict, he (Rainsy) will have to respect the law … and his political life will end in the country,”. Mr. Cheam Yiep’s comments show that the court case against Mr. Rainsy is not about finding justice and the truth, but about the assassination of Sam Rainsy politically. Here, Mr Cheam Yiep is pre-emptively trying to influence the court’s decision, which will undoubtedly be a guilty verdict.

Some people say that Mr. Rainsy’s case is not a political case, but it is a judicial matter. Many long term observers of the Cambodian legal and judicial affairs, including the UN Human Rights Envoy, Prof. Surya Subedi, doubt the fairness and the independence of the Cambodian court. Here was what he said on 23rd January while visiting Cambodia. “I am coming here to evaluate the independence and justice in the Cambodian judicial system and other issues.” Here, the UN Envoy has put the Cambodian court on notice that it is on trial, at the same as when it is trying Mr. Rainsy and the two villagers.

Mr. Sam Rainsy has now released what he called irrefutable evidences of Vietnam’s encroachments, including pictures and maps drawn by independent cartographical experts. Mr. Rainsy’s evidences, including Cambodian official map deposited at the UN by the Royal Government of Cambodia in 1964, Google Earth map, U.S Army map, French-drawn map and even maps/sketches drawn by the Svay Rieng local authority, have all shown that border markers uprooted by Mr. Sam Rainsy and the villagers are well located inside Cambodian territory.

Critics of the government failed border policies supported Mr. Rainsy’s action in uprooting the borer posts because the posts were planted well within Cambodian territory. They said that evidences show that border violations by Vietnam are real and therefore Mr. Rainsy has not committed any crimes when he uprooted the posts.

Mr. Rainsy’s action of uprooting the border posts had garnered supports from many political circles, including from Cambodian Watchdog Council (CWC) and Democratic Movement for Change. Mr. Rong Chhun’s CWC has released a statement saying "Mr. Sam Rainsy's action in uprooting the border markers was an action for the protection of Cambodian territorial integrity in fulfilling his duty as a member of parliament. Charges levelled against Mr. Sam Rainsy and the arrests and jailing of two villagers was politically-charged and an injustice".

Democratic Movement for Change has also issued a statement saying that "all actions that protect Cambodian territorial integrity, including actions of MP Sam Rainsy in the uprooting of border markers from Border Pillar number 185, were not illegal actions. On the contrary, they were not only actions that protect farmers' lands, but they were actions of the highest patriotism in the defence of Cambodian territorial integrity which is facing encroachments/violations through border demarcations."

The government said Mr. Sam Rainsy's actions were wrong and inappropriate. Mr. Tith Sothea, a government advisor, suggested that Mr. Rainsy should bring the alleged border encroachments to the attention of the parliament, instead of uprooting the posts. He said: "If Mr. Sam Rainsy was not happy with the demarcation posts, he should make a request to the chairman of the National assembly to summon the government to explain the issues", he said.

Parliamentary debates in a fully functional democracy is very effective in bringing the government to account. However, parliamentary debates in Cambodia have never in the past resulted in any concrete steps taken by the government to remedy the opposition’s concerns. Mr. Rainsy, out of frustration perhaps, in a spontaneous response to villagers’ outcry, reacted out of an instinct by uprooting border markers. This resulted in the lifting of his parliamentary immunity that will see the potential end of his political career as predicted by the ruling CPP stalwart Mr Cheam Yiep. Some people called Mr. Rainsy’s action short-sighted and politically immature. However, he has resurrected with a vengeance by presenting irrefutable evidences of Vietnam’s encroachments.

'Cambodia today is a country for sale'

If these accounts represent Cambodia moving in "the right direction," Cambodians have lots more to worry about.

January 27, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

The conflict between Cambodia's proponents of development and of human rights continues, despite the 1991 Paris Peace Accords' stipulation that economic development and respect for human rights must go hand in hand.

Surely a Cambodia in relative peace, with new roads and buildings, is better than the Khmer Rouge's Cambodia of forced labor, destruction and death.

Last month, even U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Carol Rodley, who acknowledged Cambodia's continued problems with democracy and human rights, told a Long Beach audience that today's Cambodia has more roads, more buildings and more businesses; the people are more competent and more optimistic; Cambodia sends troops with U.N. peacekeepers abroad.

The Monivong Boulevard's Kentucky Fried Chicken, the 27-story Canadia Bank Tower with health club and restaurant, among others, are eye-catching. The third of Cambodia's 13 million people who live on 50 cents a day; the poor scavenging the city's dumps, eating rodent meat or who are evicted from their homes and their land to accommodate new development, aren't.

While the Paris Accords' necessary stipulations weren't implemented, Hun Sen, who lost the 1993 U.N.-organized election, was allowed to elbow himself to become "co-premier." His 1997 coup killed many royalists, and sent the elected premier fleeing town. Sen has ruled without meaningful opposition since.

Cambodia's sad story is written with the help of foreign aid donors, who have provided more than 50 percent a year of Sen's national budget.

A 2006 report by the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho), "Human Rights in Cambodia: The Façade of Stability," accused the world community of a failure to "speak out" against Sen's regular human rights breaches. It warned: "Cambodia's current period of relative political calm is no guarantor of meaningful long-term stability, and ongoing, systemic human rights violations will, to the contrary, promote instability."

It detailed illegal land grabs, arrests and threats of arrests of opposition and human rights activists, continued impunity, a corrupt, incompetent and politically biased judiciary. "There can be no genuine stability without human rights and rule of law," the report stated

In June 2007, "Cambodia's Family Trees," by the London-based Global Witness, an anti-graft NGO, detailed Premier Sen's family members, business associates and senior officials, dubbed as a "kleptocratic elite," who were allegedly engaged in illegal logging and stripping of Cambodia's public assets for personal profit.

In February 2009, its report, "Country for Sale," charged the same "corrupt elite has captured the country's emerging oil and mineral sectors while Cambodia's international donors turn a blind eye."

"Cambodia today is a country for sale. ... Over the past 15 years, 45 percent of the country's land has been purchased by private interests" and "millions of dollars ... paid to secure concessions" never showed up in Sen's economy and finance ministry's revenue reports.

In the March-April 2009 Foreign Affairs Magazine's "Cambodia's Curse," Stanford's Joel Brinkley wrote that U.S. embassy-funded studies in Phnom Penh "showed in stunning detail that Cambodian government officials steal between $300 million and $500 million a year (most years, the state's annual budget is about $1 billion)."

Regional peace and stability were put at risk last month, as Sen used his favorite graduation ceremony to blast Thai foreign minister Piromya as "chief of terrorists," declaring the Abhisit government does "not have long to live" and charging, "Thailand, you are invading my country, and Cambodia cannot tolerate your invasion."

To show he's in control and his government's popular support, Sen read the results of a survey by the International Republican Institute, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization: 79 percent of people polled said the Sen government was moving in "the right direction" and 53 percent said they will vote for Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party.

The reliability of a survey, conducted in a general atmosphere of threats, arrests, physical disappearances, repression and fear may be questioned, but new roads, modern bridges and new schools are improvements that are tangible and real to the Cambodian people.

Andrew Marshall's Dec. 12 "Khmer Riche," in the Good Weekend Magazine for the Sydney Morning Herald, asserted: "The Khmer Rouge are dead; the Khmer Riche now rule Cambodia."

Marshall toured Phnom Penh's Tuol Kork precinct -- like "a 'homes of the stars' tour in Beverly Hills, except that Tuol Kork's backstreets are piled with rubbish" -- as his driver "points out giant mansion after mansion, and tells me who lives there."

"Depressingly, the Khmer Riche Kids sometimes seem indistinguishable from the old colonial ruling class," he wrote. "They carry U.S. dollars ... and live in newly built neoclassical mansions so large that the city's old French architecture looks like Lego by comparison."

Such as Meas Sophearith, 21, son of a general, whose family has a "four-mansion compound with lots of razor wire, and a gate guarded by special forces soldiers." Or Ouch Vichet, 28, whose parents gave him "a villa, half a million U.S. dollars, and a 400-hectare rubber plantation," while his parents-in-law gave him "$100,000 in cash and another villa worth $200,000."

These "rich kids can spend $2,000 on drinks in a single night." They are "Cambodia's future," Marshall wrote.

If these accounts represent Cambodia moving in "the right direction," Cambodians have lots more to worry about.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Govt inaction means K Krom still in limbo

Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Cameron Wells and Tharum Bun
The Phnom Penh Post

POLICE in Boeung Tumpun commune have forwarded to their superiors information about a group of ethnic Khmer Krom who say they are fleeing persecution in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region, and a representative of the group said Monday that he was planning to meet today with the commune chief to discuss their plight.

Members of the group – deported on December 5 from Thailand after a failed asylum bid – have been seeking formal recognition of their citizenship since arriving in the Kingdom, but are poor and reportedly running out of food.

The deportees’ status has been uncertain since their arrival, despite repeated requests to the Ministry of Interior and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to formally recognise their citizenship.

Boeung Tumpun commune police officer Tep Bora said the basic identifying information, collected on January 14, was to be sent to Meanchey district police on Monday.

“Last time we got all the information about the group, and now it is being submitted to the police chief to process the legal documents for them,” Tep Bora said.

“We’re doing our work as they requested.”

Five of the original group of 24 have returned to Thailand so far this month in a second bid to gain asylum there, having lost confidence in Cambodia’s ability to help them, group representative Thach Soong said.

Last week, Thach Soong issued a public appeal to Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, asking him for assistance in ensuring they receive formal permission to settle in the Kingdom permanently.

A sub-decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen in December stipulated that the processing of asylum seekers would become the sole responsibility of the government.

Thach Soong said police briefly visited members of the group on January 22, marking the second time the deportees have been met by the authorities this month.

“We were checked in on briefly by commune police [officer] Taing Sopha last Friday, but I don’t know exactly what this visit was about,” Thach Soong said. “He left quickly after seeing us; there was no talk.”

Without identity cards, Thach Soong said, the deportees, who have been receiving aid from a local NGO, will remain unable to rent property, attend school or seek medical care at hospitals.

In advance of today’s meeting with Thach Soong, Boeung Tumpun commune chief Sous Sarin said Monday that only local police had the authority to give the deportees the documents they need to remain in Cambodia legally.

A Human Rights Watch report released last week reiterated concerns about the government’s processing of Khmer Krom who flee Vietnam and seek refuge in Cambodia.

“While the Cambodian government stated that it considers Khmer Krom (ethnic Khmers from southern Vietnam) who move to Cambodia from Vietnam to be Cambodian citizens, authorities routinely failed to provide protection in the form of political asylum, let alone full citizen’s rights, to many Khmer Krom living in Cambodia,” the report said.

Katy Perry Beautiful Photos “Waking Up In Vegas” Party At Haze Nightclub In Las Vegas

“Waking Up In Vegas” party with singer Katy Perry beautiful photos at HAZE Nightclub inside ARIA CityCenter on January 23, 2010.