AFP
7 October 2009
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge war crimes court has summoned six top government and legislative officials as witnesses against leaders of the late 1970s regime, said documents released Wednesday.
In a move opposed by the Cambodian government, letters signed by the French investigating judge called on the officials to testify in the second case against former Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Current senate president Chea Sim, national assembly president Heng Samrin, foreign minister Hor Namhong, finance minister Keat Chhon and senators Sim Ka and Ouk Bunchhoeun were each "asked for a hearing as a witness," said the letters.
They will have to give testimony to an investigating judge of the tribunal, which was created in 2006 to try leading members of the regime.
"Except for individuals who volunteer to go, the government's position is no to this even if they are called as witnesses," government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told AFP Wednesday.
He said that foreign officials involved in the tribunal "can pack their clothes and return home" if they are not satisfied.
However Heather Ryan, court monitor for the Open Society Justice Initiative, said the move to release the court documents was an "important step" which might make members of government feel obliged to cooperate with the tribunal.
"The fact that the letters are public hopefully increases the chances they will comply with the summonses," Ryan said.
Critics of Cambodia's administration have previously alleged that it has interfered in the tribunal to protect former regime members now in government.
The court's second case is expected to try detained former Khmer Rouge ideologue Nuon Chea, head of state Khieu Samphan, foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, minister of social affairs Ieng Thirith.
As the court has sought to investigate other suspects, Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned further prosecutions could plunge Cambodia back into civil war. But critics say there is no risk of more fighting after over a decade of peace.
Final arguments in the court's first trial of prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by the alias Duch, are scheduled for late next month.
He has used the proceedings to accept responsibility and apologise for overseeing the execution of more than 15,000 people at the main Khmer Rouge jail, known as Tuol Sleng.
Led by Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the Khmer Rouge emptied Cambodia's cities in a bid to forge a communist utopia, resulting in the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork and torture.
****************
Source: AFP Google News Alert
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Typhoon Ketsana
Brief description of the Emergency:
Since 8 September 2009 heavy rains and flood waters have inundated 39 communes in 6 districts of Kompong Thom Province. On 29 September at 1:00 am local time or 08:00 GMT, Typhoon Ketsana, making its way from the Philippines to Vietnam, lashed the central and northern provinces of Cambodia.
In addition to the existing flooding, Typhoon Ketsana brought more flood water and havoc to at least three provinces. According to the Cambodian National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), as at 1 October 2009 the death toll due to the floods stood at 14 (nine deaths in Kompong Thom, three in Siem Reap province and two deaths confirmed in Rattanakiri).
In Kompong Thom – ACT member Church World Service (CWS) Cambodia operational area - the following casualties and damages have been reported following the flooding and further rains dropped by Typhoon Ketsana.
- 10,684 seriously affected families in 254 villages in 43 communes
- 9 deaths (5 women and 3 children)
- 14,862 ha of paddy rice were completely destroyed
- 34,078 meters of roads cut off
- 47 people were reported injured with 18 having serious injuries
- At least 98 houses and public buildings were completely destroyed
- At least 430 houses and public buildings were destroyed (more than 60%)
As at 5 October the flood waters have not subsided and the waters remain 1 – 2 metres deep in most part of the affected areas including Kompong Thom town. There are reports that the water levels are rising in some of the lower areas.
Impact:
The flooding and heavy rains brought by Typhoon Ketsana has resulted in more than 500 families being rendered homeless or having insufficient shelter (according to data from the Provincial Governor). Food items, access to clean water, health and sanitation are the primarily needs of the affected population of 10,684 families. In addition, livelihood, infrastructures and education of children are the major longer term concerns.
National and local coordination:
From 26 to 28 September 2009, Church World Service Cambodia was part of an assessment team comprising the NCDM, the Provincial Red Cross Branch, OXFAM, World Vision, Caritas, Muslim Aid and CARE who jointly assessed the flood damages. However, typhoon Ketsana hit on 29 September, and NCDM, CWS, OXFAM and Caritas again got together to assess the most affected area in Sandan district on 30 September 2009.
Some limited emergency responses have been carried out by World Vision, OXFAM and Caritas as well as the local authorities in their respective target areas to reduce hunger and suffering of the affected population. The Cambodian Red Cross has also provided some small relief packages 800 families severely affected by Ketsana.
However, this assistance is not expected to last longer than 1 – 2 weeks and food and non-food items are scarce and insufficient to cover the needs of the coming months.
Planned Activities:
CWS will conduct a further joint rapid needs assessment with ACT member DanChurchAid (DCA), the Provincial Red Cross and the NCDM in selected communes. Based on the capacity of CWS and the presence of existing INGO in the areas, CWS Cambodia will prioritize three or more of the most affected communes including Sandan and Dang Kambet in Sandan district and Sraeung commune in Prasat Sambou district in Kompong Thom province.
CWS plans to provide emergency assistance from mid of October to June 2010 (about 7 months). Priority will be given to food items (white rice, canned fish, vegetable oil, fish and soya source and iodine salt) and non food items (plastic sheeting, water containers and filters, mosquito nets, hygienic materials, blankets, etc).
Restoration of livelihood and food security (seeds, livestock, agricultural techniques promotion), water and sanitation (rehabilitation of wells, water filter distribution, hygiene promotion), repair and upgrading of shelter and school buildings will be improved when the flood water is gone. However, a consultative and participatory approach with victims and local authorities is needed to fully identify the needs and to ensure coordination with key stakeholders.
CWS and DCA are keeping the ACT CO updated on the situation and intend to send an appeal proposal to the ACT CO. According to latest information from ACT member Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the flooding in their normal operational areas is not as serious as in other areas. However, the Coordinating Office is awaiting further information from LWF Cambodia.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to Jesssie Kgoroeadira, ACT Finance Officer (jkg@act-intl.org).
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.
**************
Source: ACT International
Since 8 September 2009 heavy rains and flood waters have inundated 39 communes in 6 districts of Kompong Thom Province. On 29 September at 1:00 am local time or 08:00 GMT, Typhoon Ketsana, making its way from the Philippines to Vietnam, lashed the central and northern provinces of Cambodia.
In addition to the existing flooding, Typhoon Ketsana brought more flood water and havoc to at least three provinces. According to the Cambodian National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), as at 1 October 2009 the death toll due to the floods stood at 14 (nine deaths in Kompong Thom, three in Siem Reap province and two deaths confirmed in Rattanakiri).
In Kompong Thom – ACT member Church World Service (CWS) Cambodia operational area - the following casualties and damages have been reported following the flooding and further rains dropped by Typhoon Ketsana.
- 10,684 seriously affected families in 254 villages in 43 communes
- 9 deaths (5 women and 3 children)
- 14,862 ha of paddy rice were completely destroyed
- 34,078 meters of roads cut off
- 47 people were reported injured with 18 having serious injuries
- At least 98 houses and public buildings were completely destroyed
- At least 430 houses and public buildings were destroyed (more than 60%)
As at 5 October the flood waters have not subsided and the waters remain 1 – 2 metres deep in most part of the affected areas including Kompong Thom town. There are reports that the water levels are rising in some of the lower areas.
Impact:
The flooding and heavy rains brought by Typhoon Ketsana has resulted in more than 500 families being rendered homeless or having insufficient shelter (according to data from the Provincial Governor). Food items, access to clean water, health and sanitation are the primarily needs of the affected population of 10,684 families. In addition, livelihood, infrastructures and education of children are the major longer term concerns.
National and local coordination:
From 26 to 28 September 2009, Church World Service Cambodia was part of an assessment team comprising the NCDM, the Provincial Red Cross Branch, OXFAM, World Vision, Caritas, Muslim Aid and CARE who jointly assessed the flood damages. However, typhoon Ketsana hit on 29 September, and NCDM, CWS, OXFAM and Caritas again got together to assess the most affected area in Sandan district on 30 September 2009.
Some limited emergency responses have been carried out by World Vision, OXFAM and Caritas as well as the local authorities in their respective target areas to reduce hunger and suffering of the affected population. The Cambodian Red Cross has also provided some small relief packages 800 families severely affected by Ketsana.
However, this assistance is not expected to last longer than 1 – 2 weeks and food and non-food items are scarce and insufficient to cover the needs of the coming months.
Planned Activities:
CWS will conduct a further joint rapid needs assessment with ACT member DanChurchAid (DCA), the Provincial Red Cross and the NCDM in selected communes. Based on the capacity of CWS and the presence of existing INGO in the areas, CWS Cambodia will prioritize three or more of the most affected communes including Sandan and Dang Kambet in Sandan district and Sraeung commune in Prasat Sambou district in Kompong Thom province.
CWS plans to provide emergency assistance from mid of October to June 2010 (about 7 months). Priority will be given to food items (white rice, canned fish, vegetable oil, fish and soya source and iodine salt) and non food items (plastic sheeting, water containers and filters, mosquito nets, hygienic materials, blankets, etc).
Restoration of livelihood and food security (seeds, livestock, agricultural techniques promotion), water and sanitation (rehabilitation of wells, water filter distribution, hygiene promotion), repair and upgrading of shelter and school buildings will be improved when the flood water is gone. However, a consultative and participatory approach with victims and local authorities is needed to fully identify the needs and to ensure coordination with key stakeholders.
CWS and DCA are keeping the ACT CO updated on the situation and intend to send an appeal proposal to the ACT CO. According to latest information from ACT member Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the flooding in their normal operational areas is not as serious as in other areas. However, the Coordinating Office is awaiting further information from LWF Cambodia.
Any funding indication or pledge should be communicated to Jesssie Kgoroeadira, ACT Finance Officer (jkg@act-intl.org).
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International is a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.
**************
Source: ACT International
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Pregnant woman dies of swine flu in Cambodia
Associated Press
2009-10-06 05:03 PM
Cambodia's health minister says a pregnant woman died from swine flu, the country's third reported fatality from the illness.
Health Minister Mam Bunheng says the 25-year-old woman, who was nine months pregnant, went to a Phnom Penh hospital several days ago with flu-like symptoms and tested positive for swine flu.
He said doctors performed a cesarean section and the baby was born healthy, but the woman died Tuesday.
Cambodia's second swine-flu related death, a 47-year-old man, occurred Monday at the same hospital, the minister said.
The World Health Organization reports more than 340,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide, and more than 4,100 deaths. Many countries have stopped counting individual cases.
**************
Source: Associated Press article posted in Taiwan News
2009-10-06 05:03 PM
Cambodia's health minister says a pregnant woman died from swine flu, the country's third reported fatality from the illness.
Health Minister Mam Bunheng says the 25-year-old woman, who was nine months pregnant, went to a Phnom Penh hospital several days ago with flu-like symptoms and tested positive for swine flu.
He said doctors performed a cesarean section and the baby was born healthy, but the woman died Tuesday.
Cambodia's second swine-flu related death, a 47-year-old man, occurred Monday at the same hospital, the minister said.
The World Health Organization reports more than 340,000 confirmed cases of H1N1 worldwide, and more than 4,100 deaths. Many countries have stopped counting individual cases.
**************
Source: Associated Press article posted in Taiwan News
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Over 5,000 Families Need Immediate Help In Cambodia :Oxfam
PHNOM PENH, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- Cambodia is still in emergency relief mode though flood waters in some areas are beginning to stabilize, the international humanitarian agency Oxfam said Tuesday in its press release.
Affected populations are in need of food, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water filters and water containers among other non- food item needs, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
Livelihoods have greatly been threatened especially with loss of the current rice crop. Wage labour opportunities are no longer available to those who rely on agriculture labour for income, the release said.
According to Oxfam, 5,000 families or about 20,000 people need immediate assistance in four provinces.
This figure may grow bigger as more information is received and more areas accessed. Oxfam's staff reported that flood victims in Kampong Thom, Stueng Treng, Kratie, and Preah Vihear remain among the most vulnerable.
"We can't underestimate the situation" said Francis Perez, Country Lead of Oxfam International in Cambodia.
"We are still in an emergency situation. Public health concerns and people's livelihoods are our priorities. We must keep strong coordination with other humanitarian agencies."
It is now estimated that 60,000 people are affected with at least 17 deaths including one pregnant woman, 65 injured with 18 serious cases and 30,000 hectares of rice fields and plantation destroyed by flood waters.
Oxfam's field reports show that 1,519 houses, 55 public buildings, 40 km of rural roads, 160 irrigation systems, channels, dams, embankments, and three bridges were damaged, causing major disruption to people's livelihoods. Relief works are hampered by transportation problem as roads and bridges have been damaged.
The traditionally dispersed settlements of Cambodian people also make some of the forested villages inaccessible for need assessment and aid distribution, whilst public health concerns are mounting among unaccounted population in remote and forested villages.
Oxfam's health experts warn that people must be careful about drinking water, as flood waters are highly contaminated.
-- BERNAMA
****************
Source: BERNAMA.COM
Affected populations are in need of food, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water filters and water containers among other non- food item needs, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
Livelihoods have greatly been threatened especially with loss of the current rice crop. Wage labour opportunities are no longer available to those who rely on agriculture labour for income, the release said.
According to Oxfam, 5,000 families or about 20,000 people need immediate assistance in four provinces.
This figure may grow bigger as more information is received and more areas accessed. Oxfam's staff reported that flood victims in Kampong Thom, Stueng Treng, Kratie, and Preah Vihear remain among the most vulnerable.
"We can't underestimate the situation" said Francis Perez, Country Lead of Oxfam International in Cambodia.
"We are still in an emergency situation. Public health concerns and people's livelihoods are our priorities. We must keep strong coordination with other humanitarian agencies."
It is now estimated that 60,000 people are affected with at least 17 deaths including one pregnant woman, 65 injured with 18 serious cases and 30,000 hectares of rice fields and plantation destroyed by flood waters.
Oxfam's field reports show that 1,519 houses, 55 public buildings, 40 km of rural roads, 160 irrigation systems, channels, dams, embankments, and three bridges were damaged, causing major disruption to people's livelihoods. Relief works are hampered by transportation problem as roads and bridges have been damaged.
The traditionally dispersed settlements of Cambodian people also make some of the forested villages inaccessible for need assessment and aid distribution, whilst public health concerns are mounting among unaccounted population in remote and forested villages.
Oxfam's health experts warn that people must be careful about drinking water, as flood waters are highly contaminated.
-- BERNAMA
****************
Source: BERNAMA.COM
ASEAN must help rebuild disaster-hit countries
October 5th, 2009
Ketsana is a Lao term for agarwood, the resinous heartwood from large evergreens that are native to Southeast Asia. But from now on, many people will forever remember Ketsana as the name of the typhoon that caused massive destruction in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos last week.
Ketsana was not the first great typhoon of the year in the Asia-Pacific region. Early this year, a series of flooding disasters struck Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. A minor flooding calamity also hit Brunei. But the flooding disasters did not force the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries in the Asia-Pacific to meet as one body to coordinate relief and rescue efforts.
So how strong was Typhoon Ketsana? It dumped more rain than Hurricane Katrina. In about six hours it unleashed a whole month’s worth of rain in the Philippines, which triggered the worst flooding in Metro Manila in 40 years. It claimed almost 300 lives. More than 10,000 houses, including 260 schools, were damaged.
Half a million people are now living in overcrowded evacuation centers. More than 200 schools have been converted into refugee centers, which could affect the schooling of many children. As of Oct. 2, typhoon Ketsana had affected 3 million people in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
After wreaking havoc in the Philippines, Ketsana unleashed its fury in Indochina. It forced the evacuation of 350,000 people in central Vietnam and destroyed more than 300,000 homes, schools and other vital infrastructure in the country. It killed at least 92 people, left 19 missing, and injured 199 according to a government report. Ketsana also destroyed millions of dollars worth of agricultural crops in six provinces, which will affect the country’s food security.
Residents described Ketsana as the most serious and ferocious typhoon to hit Vietnam in the last five years. They also compared the floods caused by it to the deadly 1964 floods.
Ketsana also battered Cambodia and Laos. The casualties in these countries are lower compared to the Philippines and Vietnam but they also experienced unprecedented flooding.
An expat in Cambodia said that it was the first time floods have been so bad in Siem Reap. Another expat wrote that the level of water in the moat surrounding Angkor Wat had reached its peak. A civil society group reported that in one province alone, almost 15,000 homes were flooded.
Ketsana also damaged the southern part of Laos and caused widespread flooding in Xekong and Attapeu provinces. Authorities are also worried that 50 hectares of agricultural land is flooded.
Last August, Typhoon Morakot became the worst calamity to hit Taiwan in the past 200 years. Again, Asia-Pacific nations failed to call an emergency caucus to discuss collective efforts on ways to minimize the negative economic, social and environmental impact of natural disasters in the future.
Today there is a need for ASEAN unity and cooperation to help rebuild the flooded communities in four Southeast Asian countries. The least ASEAN should do is to share resources and volunteers to aid flood victims. ASEAN should lead the international campaign in seeking more economic relief for the calamity-stricken areas in the region.
ASEAN should have a regional disaster-preparedness program. It should identify the environmental high-risk areas in the region and establish a common fund to modernize the weather monitoring facilities of member countries.
It should implement an innovative system to quickly respond to natural calamities. It should have green soldiers, medical teams and volunteers who can be swiftly deployed to any part of the region that needs assistance.
If Typhoon Ketsana were a terrorist group, ASEAN members would have met by now to denounce it and plan measures to prevent another terrorist group from destroying more lives and properties in the future. ASEAN governments should refocus their priorities. Climate change and not terrorism is the number one threat to stability in the region.
There would be many advantages if ASEAN’s efforts in combating the negative effects of climate change were synergized. This would facilitate a productive exchange of new ideas, efficient programs and modern approaches in dealing with climate change. It could foster economic progress based on the principle of environmental sustainability and generate a sense of solidarity among the people in the region. It would also guarantee immediate relief to disaster-hit countries.
This year, as in past years, ASEAN has failed to demonstrate unity although its member countries were ravaged by various natural calamities. Can Typhoon Ketsana finally force a change in attitude among ASEAN leaders?
**************
Source: MONG PALATINO, filipino activist, blogger, and parliamentarian
Ketsana is a Lao term for agarwood, the resinous heartwood from large evergreens that are native to Southeast Asia. But from now on, many people will forever remember Ketsana as the name of the typhoon that caused massive destruction in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos last week.
Ketsana was not the first great typhoon of the year in the Asia-Pacific region. Early this year, a series of flooding disasters struck Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. A minor flooding calamity also hit Brunei. But the flooding disasters did not force the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other countries in the Asia-Pacific to meet as one body to coordinate relief and rescue efforts.
So how strong was Typhoon Ketsana? It dumped more rain than Hurricane Katrina. In about six hours it unleashed a whole month’s worth of rain in the Philippines, which triggered the worst flooding in Metro Manila in 40 years. It claimed almost 300 lives. More than 10,000 houses, including 260 schools, were damaged.
Half a million people are now living in overcrowded evacuation centers. More than 200 schools have been converted into refugee centers, which could affect the schooling of many children. As of Oct. 2, typhoon Ketsana had affected 3 million people in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
After wreaking havoc in the Philippines, Ketsana unleashed its fury in Indochina. It forced the evacuation of 350,000 people in central Vietnam and destroyed more than 300,000 homes, schools and other vital infrastructure in the country. It killed at least 92 people, left 19 missing, and injured 199 according to a government report. Ketsana also destroyed millions of dollars worth of agricultural crops in six provinces, which will affect the country’s food security.
Residents described Ketsana as the most serious and ferocious typhoon to hit Vietnam in the last five years. They also compared the floods caused by it to the deadly 1964 floods.
Ketsana also battered Cambodia and Laos. The casualties in these countries are lower compared to the Philippines and Vietnam but they also experienced unprecedented flooding.
An expat in Cambodia said that it was the first time floods have been so bad in Siem Reap. Another expat wrote that the level of water in the moat surrounding Angkor Wat had reached its peak. A civil society group reported that in one province alone, almost 15,000 homes were flooded.
Ketsana also damaged the southern part of Laos and caused widespread flooding in Xekong and Attapeu provinces. Authorities are also worried that 50 hectares of agricultural land is flooded.
Last August, Typhoon Morakot became the worst calamity to hit Taiwan in the past 200 years. Again, Asia-Pacific nations failed to call an emergency caucus to discuss collective efforts on ways to minimize the negative economic, social and environmental impact of natural disasters in the future.
Today there is a need for ASEAN unity and cooperation to help rebuild the flooded communities in four Southeast Asian countries. The least ASEAN should do is to share resources and volunteers to aid flood victims. ASEAN should lead the international campaign in seeking more economic relief for the calamity-stricken areas in the region.
ASEAN should have a regional disaster-preparedness program. It should identify the environmental high-risk areas in the region and establish a common fund to modernize the weather monitoring facilities of member countries.
It should implement an innovative system to quickly respond to natural calamities. It should have green soldiers, medical teams and volunteers who can be swiftly deployed to any part of the region that needs assistance.
If Typhoon Ketsana were a terrorist group, ASEAN members would have met by now to denounce it and plan measures to prevent another terrorist group from destroying more lives and properties in the future. ASEAN governments should refocus their priorities. Climate change and not terrorism is the number one threat to stability in the region.
There would be many advantages if ASEAN’s efforts in combating the negative effects of climate change were synergized. This would facilitate a productive exchange of new ideas, efficient programs and modern approaches in dealing with climate change. It could foster economic progress based on the principle of environmental sustainability and generate a sense of solidarity among the people in the region. It would also guarantee immediate relief to disaster-hit countries.
This year, as in past years, ASEAN has failed to demonstrate unity although its member countries were ravaged by various natural calamities. Can Typhoon Ketsana finally force a change in attitude among ASEAN leaders?
**************
Source: MONG PALATINO, filipino activist, blogger, and parliamentarian
20,000 garment workers lose jobs in Cambodia
5 October 2009
PHNOM PENH — The global economic downturn has forced at least 20,000 workers to lose their jobs in Cambodia's garment industry this year, a labour ministry report showed Monday.
Between January and September, 77 factories were closed across the country resulting in the loss of 30,617 jobs, according to the report obtained by AFP.
Although 40 new factories opened in same the period and created more employment, more than 20,000 job losses remained, it showed.
Another 53 factories also suspended operations during the period but about half have reopened.
"The closure of the factories is due to fewer purchase orders," Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, told AFP.
"We can assume that this has been caused by the global financial crisis because the consumption in big countries has declined and this made some factories receive no purchase orders," he said.
In the face of shrinking demand from the US, the largest importer of Cambodian-made garments, the government is seeking new markets for textiles in Asia and Europe, Oum Mean added.
Cambodia's garment industry is the impoverished country's largest source of income, providing 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings and employing an estimated 350,000 people last year.
The International Monetary Fund said last month that Cambodia's economy will contract 2.75 percent this year as the global economic crisis takes its toll.
****************
Source: AFP
PHNOM PENH — The global economic downturn has forced at least 20,000 workers to lose their jobs in Cambodia's garment industry this year, a labour ministry report showed Monday.
Between January and September, 77 factories were closed across the country resulting in the loss of 30,617 jobs, according to the report obtained by AFP.
Although 40 new factories opened in same the period and created more employment, more than 20,000 job losses remained, it showed.
Another 53 factories also suspended operations during the period but about half have reopened.
"The closure of the factories is due to fewer purchase orders," Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, told AFP.
"We can assume that this has been caused by the global financial crisis because the consumption in big countries has declined and this made some factories receive no purchase orders," he said.
In the face of shrinking demand from the US, the largest importer of Cambodian-made garments, the government is seeking new markets for textiles in Asia and Europe, Oum Mean added.
Cambodia's garment industry is the impoverished country's largest source of income, providing 80 percent of its foreign exchange earnings and employing an estimated 350,000 people last year.
The International Monetary Fund said last month that Cambodia's economy will contract 2.75 percent this year as the global economic crisis takes its toll.
****************
Source: AFP
Storm leaves Kingdom on verge of crisis
MONDAY, 05 OCTOBER 2009 15:03 MAY TITTHARA AND IRWIN LOY
Aid agencies say remote settlements are difficult to reach; death toll rises.
Photo by: AFP
A woman cradles her child as she waits for aid from the Cambodian Red Cross in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana in Kampong Thom province.
A HUMANITARIAN crisis loomed across the Kingdom on Sunday as aid agencies struggled to reach people in remote parts of the country caught in the path of Typhoon Ketsana when it struck Cambodia with devastating force last week.
At least 10,000 people are still in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, according to Oxfam, although there are fears the true figure could be much higher. More than eight provinces were severely affected by the storm, creating a “staggering demand” for aid, the group said.
Relief workers stationed across the country reported serious difficulties transporting much-needed supplies to the worst-hit provinces, as still-rising floodwaters left vast stretches of the country’s rugged terrain almost completely cut off.
While survivors of the flash floods and 185mph winds began the daunting task of rebuilding their shattered lives, experts warned on Sunday that the damage wrought on the Kingdom’s food supplies could trigger serious long-term shortages.
“The concern in Cambodia is huge,” said Francis Perez, country director for Oxfam International in Cambodia. “We’re talking about thousands of people in need of emergency assistance just in Kampong Thom province alone. I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination we could assume that more than half of the affected people have been reached by emergency relief.”
The typhoon destroyed large swathes of Cambodia’s rice crops and left a trail of dead livestock in its wake, just weeks before the November harvest was due to start. Oxfam’s initial estimates of the damage have since doubled: As many as 50,000 hectares of rice paddies may have been destroyed, it said in a statement Saturday.
“In areas where we have been conducting assessments, damages to crops are as much as 90 percent,” said Perez. “That will have a longer-term impact on people’s lives. In most of the fields where there have been floods, particularly in Kampong Thom province, crops have been submerged for more than two weeks. The farmers say that will ensure the crops will not survive.”
As the country struggled to calculate the long-term cost of the storm, the immediate human cost continued to climb. The official death toll from the National Committee for Disaster Management rose to 15 over the weekend: nine people in Kampong Thom province, three in Ratanakkiri and three in Battambang. Additional reports of fatalities, including a report of 17-year-old boy believed to have drowned while in Siem Reap’s swollen river, had not been confirmed.
Efforts to get aid to the people most in need have been “severely hampered” by widespread flooding, said Uy Sam Ath, director of disaster management for the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC). In Preah Vihear, where it normally takes the CRC 45 minutes to distribute basic food aid to 1,000 families, dangerously high water levels in the wake of the storm meant the process took an arduous four days to complete.
At the same time, parts of Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces have proved completely impassable, leading CRC to appeal to its Vietnamese counterparts for help in what Uy Sam Ath described as the largest domestic rescue effort he has seen since catastrophic flooding in 2000 destroyed more than 300,000 homes.
Provincial officials reported continued flooding Sunday night, and several attempted to evacuate people to higher ground.
Chhun Chhorn, Kompong Thom provincial governor, said: “The water levels are getting higher and higher. We are moving people to safety now.”
People living along the Stung Sen River in Sandan, Prasat Balang and Prasat Sambor districts have been warned to make emergency plans, he said.
In Stung Treng province, Governor Loy Sophat said floodwaters had risen higher than expected, and authorities put the entire province on alert. “The flood has destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of rice paddies, affecting every district in the province,” he said.
In Ratanakkiri, where three people were confirmed killed, emergency food aid was being delivered by helicopter, said Governor Pao Ham Phan.
Two of the victims were crushed by falling trees; the third drowned when the boat in which he was fishing capsized. Despite the deaths, the governor said most people in the province had been well-prepared. “Because we knew about the storm first, we could save our people on time,” he said.
Kham Phoeun, governor of Kratie province, said most people had been evacuated from the rising floodwaters, but that about 180 hectares of rice had been destroyed.
Near Preah Vihear, military personnel had to clear the road after a landslide blocked it in two places following heavy rain Friday night. “Our soldiers are used to it, so they are not affected by it,” Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 8, said Sunday.
Polling stations in several provinces were also closed due to flooding, preventing voters from checking their details on the electoral register, according to officials. Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Committee, said: “People only have until October 20 to check their names on voter lists, but now our country is facing a natural disaster. It has really interrupted our work.” People in the affected provinces of Kampong Thom, Pursat, Ratanakkiri and Preah Vihear would be given an extended deadline, he said.
As the waters begin to recede, aid agencies are bracing themselves for the next phase: recovery. The CRC will provide water-purification systems, health education and seeds in what it insists will be a modest cleanup operation compared with neighbouring countries where Ketsana first struck, leaving hundreds dead.
“We cannot compare the impact [in Cambodia] to Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam,” Uy Sam Ath said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEAR AND THET SAMBATH
***********
Source: THE PHNOM PENH POST
Aid agencies say remote settlements are difficult to reach; death toll rises.
Photo by: AFP
A woman cradles her child as she waits for aid from the Cambodian Red Cross in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana in Kampong Thom province.
A HUMANITARIAN crisis loomed across the Kingdom on Sunday as aid agencies struggled to reach people in remote parts of the country caught in the path of Typhoon Ketsana when it struck Cambodia with devastating force last week.
At least 10,000 people are still in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, according to Oxfam, although there are fears the true figure could be much higher. More than eight provinces were severely affected by the storm, creating a “staggering demand” for aid, the group said.
Relief workers stationed across the country reported serious difficulties transporting much-needed supplies to the worst-hit provinces, as still-rising floodwaters left vast stretches of the country’s rugged terrain almost completely cut off.
While survivors of the flash floods and 185mph winds began the daunting task of rebuilding their shattered lives, experts warned on Sunday that the damage wrought on the Kingdom’s food supplies could trigger serious long-term shortages.
“The concern in Cambodia is huge,” said Francis Perez, country director for Oxfam International in Cambodia. “We’re talking about thousands of people in need of emergency assistance just in Kampong Thom province alone. I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination we could assume that more than half of the affected people have been reached by emergency relief.”
The typhoon destroyed large swathes of Cambodia’s rice crops and left a trail of dead livestock in its wake, just weeks before the November harvest was due to start. Oxfam’s initial estimates of the damage have since doubled: As many as 50,000 hectares of rice paddies may have been destroyed, it said in a statement Saturday.
“In areas where we have been conducting assessments, damages to crops are as much as 90 percent,” said Perez. “That will have a longer-term impact on people’s lives. In most of the fields where there have been floods, particularly in Kampong Thom province, crops have been submerged for more than two weeks. The farmers say that will ensure the crops will not survive.”
As the country struggled to calculate the long-term cost of the storm, the immediate human cost continued to climb. The official death toll from the National Committee for Disaster Management rose to 15 over the weekend: nine people in Kampong Thom province, three in Ratanakkiri and three in Battambang. Additional reports of fatalities, including a report of 17-year-old boy believed to have drowned while in Siem Reap’s swollen river, had not been confirmed.
Efforts to get aid to the people most in need have been “severely hampered” by widespread flooding, said Uy Sam Ath, director of disaster management for the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC). In Preah Vihear, where it normally takes the CRC 45 minutes to distribute basic food aid to 1,000 families, dangerously high water levels in the wake of the storm meant the process took an arduous four days to complete.
At the same time, parts of Ratanakkiri and Mondulkiri provinces have proved completely impassable, leading CRC to appeal to its Vietnamese counterparts for help in what Uy Sam Ath described as the largest domestic rescue effort he has seen since catastrophic flooding in 2000 destroyed more than 300,000 homes.
Provincial officials reported continued flooding Sunday night, and several attempted to evacuate people to higher ground.
Chhun Chhorn, Kompong Thom provincial governor, said: “The water levels are getting higher and higher. We are moving people to safety now.”
People living along the Stung Sen River in Sandan, Prasat Balang and Prasat Sambor districts have been warned to make emergency plans, he said.
In Stung Treng province, Governor Loy Sophat said floodwaters had risen higher than expected, and authorities put the entire province on alert. “The flood has destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of rice paddies, affecting every district in the province,” he said.
In Ratanakkiri, where three people were confirmed killed, emergency food aid was being delivered by helicopter, said Governor Pao Ham Phan.
Two of the victims were crushed by falling trees; the third drowned when the boat in which he was fishing capsized. Despite the deaths, the governor said most people in the province had been well-prepared. “Because we knew about the storm first, we could save our people on time,” he said.
Kham Phoeun, governor of Kratie province, said most people had been evacuated from the rising floodwaters, but that about 180 hectares of rice had been destroyed.
Near Preah Vihear, military personnel had to clear the road after a landslide blocked it in two places following heavy rain Friday night. “Our soldiers are used to it, so they are not affected by it,” Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 8, said Sunday.
Polling stations in several provinces were also closed due to flooding, preventing voters from checking their details on the electoral register, according to officials. Tep Nytha, secretary general of the National Election Committee, said: “People only have until October 20 to check their names on voter lists, but now our country is facing a natural disaster. It has really interrupted our work.” People in the affected provinces of Kampong Thom, Pursat, Ratanakkiri and Preah Vihear would be given an extended deadline, he said.
As the waters begin to recede, aid agencies are bracing themselves for the next phase: recovery. The CRC will provide water-purification systems, health education and seeds in what it insists will be a modest cleanup operation compared with neighbouring countries where Ketsana first struck, leaving hundreds dead.
“We cannot compare the impact [in Cambodia] to Indonesia, the Philippines or Vietnam,” Uy Sam Ath said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MOM KUNTHEAR AND THET SAMBATH
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Source: THE PHNOM PENH POST
Cambodia, South Korea to sign oil, energy agreement
2009-10-05 14:38:32
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and South Korean governments will sign an agreement of oil and energy cooperation during the two-day official visiting by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak later this month, an official said here on Monday.
"Both sides will sign the agreement on seeking mines, oil, gas, and energy cooperation to push the economic development in the country," Eang Sophalleth, spokesman for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters after the meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting Shin Jae Hyun, ambassador in charge of cooperation, natural resources and energy affairs to the South Korean President.
Shin's visit is to pave the way for President Lee Myung-bok's visit in Cambodia on October 22-23.
The bilateral cooperation will serve the mutual benefits, Eang said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed his hope that it will help speed up the country's economic development.
Shin also expressed his sympathy and condolences to Cambodian victims who suffered from Ketsana storm last week and hoped the Ketsana-hit regions would be restored soon under the Cambodian government's leadership.
South Korea has contributed to building rural infrastructure, irrigation systems, and road restorations in Cambodia and has helped e-government, information technology in Cambodia. Moreover, South Korea also joined to invest in a stock exchange which plans to open next year in Cambodia.
Editor: Fang Yang
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Source: CHINA VIEW
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and South Korean governments will sign an agreement of oil and energy cooperation during the two-day official visiting by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak later this month, an official said here on Monday.
"Both sides will sign the agreement on seeking mines, oil, gas, and energy cooperation to push the economic development in the country," Eang Sophalleth, spokesman for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told reporters after the meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting Shin Jae Hyun, ambassador in charge of cooperation, natural resources and energy affairs to the South Korean President.
Shin's visit is to pave the way for President Lee Myung-bok's visit in Cambodia on October 22-23.
The bilateral cooperation will serve the mutual benefits, Eang said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed his hope that it will help speed up the country's economic development.
Shin also expressed his sympathy and condolences to Cambodian victims who suffered from Ketsana storm last week and hoped the Ketsana-hit regions would be restored soon under the Cambodian government's leadership.
South Korea has contributed to building rural infrastructure, irrigation systems, and road restorations in Cambodia and has helped e-government, information technology in Cambodia. Moreover, South Korea also joined to invest in a stock exchange which plans to open next year in Cambodia.
Editor: Fang Yang
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Source: CHINA VIEW
Cambodia sees drop in tourists to Preah Vihear Temple
2009-10-05 12:15:54
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of visitors to the Preah Vihear Temple complex dropped by a-third in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, according to a local media report on Monday.
The decrease was a reaction to the ongoing dispute with Thailand over ownership of the land surrounding the World Heritage site, Kong Vibol, director of Preah Vihear province's tourism department, told the Phnom Penh Post.
The official also blamed a general downturn in tourism arrivals, bad weather and lingering fears of influenza A/H1N1.
Only 12,214 people visited the temple complex in last quarter, down 33.93 percent from 18,487 visitors over the same period a year earlier, he was quoted by the report as saying.
The number of foreign visitors dropped 44.6 percent to 426, and the number of domestic tourists went down 34.04 percent to 11,788, Tourism Department figures showed.
Over the period, 47,682 people visited the province, including 40,857 from other parts of Cambodia, down 32.78 percent year-on-year, and 6,825 foreign visitors, down 89.17 percent, the Post reported.
Kong Vibol said he expected a recovery in the last quarter as the peak season begins and the global economy continues to show signs of recovery. Dissipating border tensions would also help, he added.
The Post said that Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in early September that Cambodian troops at the temple would be withdrawn following a bilateral agreement that effectively ended the 13-month standoff over the temple.
Om Phirom, chief of the temple's Heritage Police, said at the time the drawdown in troops led to a surge in tourist numbers, with around 200 Cambodian and 50 foreign tourists daily.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
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Source: CHINA VIEW
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The number of visitors to the Preah Vihear Temple complex dropped by a-third in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, according to a local media report on Monday.
The decrease was a reaction to the ongoing dispute with Thailand over ownership of the land surrounding the World Heritage site, Kong Vibol, director of Preah Vihear province's tourism department, told the Phnom Penh Post.
The official also blamed a general downturn in tourism arrivals, bad weather and lingering fears of influenza A/H1N1.
Only 12,214 people visited the temple complex in last quarter, down 33.93 percent from 18,487 visitors over the same period a year earlier, he was quoted by the report as saying.
The number of foreign visitors dropped 44.6 percent to 426, and the number of domestic tourists went down 34.04 percent to 11,788, Tourism Department figures showed.
Over the period, 47,682 people visited the province, including 40,857 from other parts of Cambodia, down 32.78 percent year-on-year, and 6,825 foreign visitors, down 89.17 percent, the Post reported.
Kong Vibol said he expected a recovery in the last quarter as the peak season begins and the global economy continues to show signs of recovery. Dissipating border tensions would also help, he added.
The Post said that Prime Minister Hun Sen announced in early September that Cambodian troops at the temple would be withdrawn following a bilateral agreement that effectively ended the 13-month standoff over the temple.
Om Phirom, chief of the temple's Heritage Police, said at the time the drawdown in troops led to a surge in tourist numbers, with around 200 Cambodian and 50 foreign tourists daily.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
*************
Source: CHINA VIEW
After delays, Cambodia rekindles stock market dream
5 October 2009
By Jason Szep
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Construction cranes and unfinished high-rise buildings surround the silty marshland where a year from now Cambodia hopes to turn the page on decades of upheaval by opening a stock exchange.
The idea of a Cambodian stockmarket has been floated since the 1990s but has struggled for traction in a country known for a culture of political impunity, chronic poverty and a history of violence, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields."
But authorities argue those days are over and plan to sign a deal this month with World City Co Ltd, a South Korean-backed developer, to start building a $6 million, four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district.
"We want to do it next year," Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, said in an interview. "It'll be good timing for us with the economic recovery."
It was supposed to open in September, a target set last year when South Korea's stock exchange operator agreed with the Cambodian government to set up and run a joint stock exchange.
But the global financial crisis intervened, ending an unprecedented boom which saw Cambodia's economy expand 10 percent annually in the five years up to 2008. Foreign investment collapsed, tourist arrivals fell by double digits and garment exports, a mainstay of the economy, shrank by 15 percent.
In recent weeks, Cambodian officials have cautioned against moving too fast, in some cases questioning whether a country whose education system was decimated during Pol Pot's 1975-79 reign of terror is ready to invest in stocks.
"We've been waiting for a green light," said Intyo Lee, project director for Korea Exchange, Asia's fourth-largest bourse operator which will own 49 percent of the exchange and is recruiting and training workers for it. Cambodian will own the rest.
"We're pretty much ready," he added, "but many people say it's too early. The government is trying to build consensus."
STARTING SMALL
The exchange expects to start small with just four or five companies issuing about $10 million worth of shares each, said Lee. That's comparable to neighboring Vietnam's first stock market launched in 2000 with its initial market capitalization of $43 million. Today, Vietnam's market is worth $27 billion.
Yet there are risks to Cambodian investors. In Vietnam, most of the investors were local, often unaware of the risks, and many were burned as the market steered a rollercoaster course. Meanwhile, foreign investors largely sought to dip into the potential high returns of an emerging frontier market while hedging their bets with a highly diversified portfolio.
Like its communist neighbor, Cambodia is giving privatizing state companies priority with a place to sell stock. The Finance Ministry has asked three state-owned companies to list shares: Telecom Cambodia, port operator Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
Some of those companies have a simple question: why do it?
"We don't have any financial constraints. I don't understand the reasons we are going to be listed," said Ek Sonn Chan, who runs the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, which employs about 600 people, has about $200 million in assets and generates about $25 million in annual revenue. He said the company is profitable.
"If we become a public company, maybe we are more responsible, more transparent and maybe we can help the government allocate financial support to our company. But in the meantime, we don't know much about how it happens. It's very new to Cambodia, very new to me," he said.
Others say the timing may not be right for some time. Foreign direct investment nearly halved to an estimated $490 million from $815 million in 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund, which expects Cambodia's economy to shrink nearly 3 percent this year before growing about 4 percent next year.
Most of the disappearing capital had flowed into construction projects, including a $2 billion satellite city on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh where the exchange will be built.
Developed by South Korean-backed World City, the two-year-old project known as Camko City aims to create a new financial district by 2018 spread over 125 hectares, complete with glass-walled office towers for stockbrokers, upmarket apartments, securities regulator offices and sleek retail spaces.
But construction has slowed, said Kim Duk-kon, a vice president at World City. Although the first phase is nearly complete with many of the residential villas built and sold, subsequent phases are on hold after capital dried up.
FLOODED SWAMPLAND
The area where the stock exchange will be built is flooded swampland on the edge of Boeung Kak Lake in the heart of the city. The Finance Ministry said the end of the rainy season this month will allow workers to begin building the exchange on the corner of what developers are calling Phnom Penh Boulevard.
Cambodian officials rejected an initial design, saying the exchange's exterior was too modern and not Cambodian enough. It has since been redesigned using traditional Khmer accents.
Vann at the Finance Ministry and Kim said a news conference this month will announce construction of the exchange. A new Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, he added, is drafting market regulations that will be issued soon.
"We have a very good team at the Securities and Exchange Commission. They graduated from overseas. They are new blood in terms of enforcement of the law," he said. "Our law is very strict in terms of speculation."
Some observers are unconvinced and say authorities need to demonstrate how investors will be protected in a country with a reputation for corruption at nearly every level of the bureaucracy. Some fear speculative gambling by public employees.
David Cowen, deputy division chief for the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific Department, met recently with the new securities regulator and urged its officials to work closely with the central National Bank of Cambodia.
He said the Commission would soon issue operational guidelines on securities firms. The IMF wants to see if those rules are consistent with banking laws and recognize the central National Bank of Cambodia's role as the nation's chief regulator.
(Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Megan Goldin)
**************
Source: REUTERS
By Jason Szep
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Construction cranes and unfinished high-rise buildings surround the silty marshland where a year from now Cambodia hopes to turn the page on decades of upheaval by opening a stock exchange.
The idea of a Cambodian stockmarket has been floated since the 1990s but has struggled for traction in a country known for a culture of political impunity, chronic poverty and a history of violence, including the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields."
But authorities argue those days are over and plan to sign a deal this month with World City Co Ltd, a South Korean-backed developer, to start building a $6 million, four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district.
"We want to do it next year," Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, said in an interview. "It'll be good timing for us with the economic recovery."
It was supposed to open in September, a target set last year when South Korea's stock exchange operator agreed with the Cambodian government to set up and run a joint stock exchange.
But the global financial crisis intervened, ending an unprecedented boom which saw Cambodia's economy expand 10 percent annually in the five years up to 2008. Foreign investment collapsed, tourist arrivals fell by double digits and garment exports, a mainstay of the economy, shrank by 15 percent.
In recent weeks, Cambodian officials have cautioned against moving too fast, in some cases questioning whether a country whose education system was decimated during Pol Pot's 1975-79 reign of terror is ready to invest in stocks.
"We've been waiting for a green light," said Intyo Lee, project director for Korea Exchange, Asia's fourth-largest bourse operator which will own 49 percent of the exchange and is recruiting and training workers for it. Cambodian will own the rest.
"We're pretty much ready," he added, "but many people say it's too early. The government is trying to build consensus."
STARTING SMALL
The exchange expects to start small with just four or five companies issuing about $10 million worth of shares each, said Lee. That's comparable to neighboring Vietnam's first stock market launched in 2000 with its initial market capitalization of $43 million. Today, Vietnam's market is worth $27 billion.
Yet there are risks to Cambodian investors. In Vietnam, most of the investors were local, often unaware of the risks, and many were burned as the market steered a rollercoaster course. Meanwhile, foreign investors largely sought to dip into the potential high returns of an emerging frontier market while hedging their bets with a highly diversified portfolio.
Like its communist neighbor, Cambodia is giving privatizing state companies priority with a place to sell stock. The Finance Ministry has asked three state-owned companies to list shares: Telecom Cambodia, port operator Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.
Some of those companies have a simple question: why do it?
"We don't have any financial constraints. I don't understand the reasons we are going to be listed," said Ek Sonn Chan, who runs the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, which employs about 600 people, has about $200 million in assets and generates about $25 million in annual revenue. He said the company is profitable.
"If we become a public company, maybe we are more responsible, more transparent and maybe we can help the government allocate financial support to our company. But in the meantime, we don't know much about how it happens. It's very new to Cambodia, very new to me," he said.
Others say the timing may not be right for some time. Foreign direct investment nearly halved to an estimated $490 million from $815 million in 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund, which expects Cambodia's economy to shrink nearly 3 percent this year before growing about 4 percent next year.
Most of the disappearing capital had flowed into construction projects, including a $2 billion satellite city on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh where the exchange will be built.
Developed by South Korean-backed World City, the two-year-old project known as Camko City aims to create a new financial district by 2018 spread over 125 hectares, complete with glass-walled office towers for stockbrokers, upmarket apartments, securities regulator offices and sleek retail spaces.
But construction has slowed, said Kim Duk-kon, a vice president at World City. Although the first phase is nearly complete with many of the residential villas built and sold, subsequent phases are on hold after capital dried up.
FLOODED SWAMPLAND
The area where the stock exchange will be built is flooded swampland on the edge of Boeung Kak Lake in the heart of the city. The Finance Ministry said the end of the rainy season this month will allow workers to begin building the exchange on the corner of what developers are calling Phnom Penh Boulevard.
Cambodian officials rejected an initial design, saying the exchange's exterior was too modern and not Cambodian enough. It has since been redesigned using traditional Khmer accents.
Vann at the Finance Ministry and Kim said a news conference this month will announce construction of the exchange. A new Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia, he added, is drafting market regulations that will be issued soon.
"We have a very good team at the Securities and Exchange Commission. They graduated from overseas. They are new blood in terms of enforcement of the law," he said. "Our law is very strict in terms of speculation."
Some observers are unconvinced and say authorities need to demonstrate how investors will be protected in a country with a reputation for corruption at nearly every level of the bureaucracy. Some fear speculative gambling by public employees.
David Cowen, deputy division chief for the International Monetary Fund's Asia and Pacific Department, met recently with the new securities regulator and urged its officials to work closely with the central National Bank of Cambodia.
He said the Commission would soon issue operational guidelines on securities firms. The IMF wants to see if those rules are consistent with banking laws and recognize the central National Bank of Cambodia's role as the nation's chief regulator.
(Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Megan Goldin)
**************
Source: REUTERS
Typhoon Ketsana does damage in Laos
October 5, 2009 12:12:10
Typhoon Ketsana has torn across the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of people.
In Laos, the storm killed at least 24 people. The floods meant that until two days ago, the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by helicopter and boat. The United Nations World Food Programme says canned fish and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.
MAKIN: The World Food Programme has an office in Attapeu which is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia down in the south, right in the south of Laos.
LAM: Yes and what's the devastation there like, how are the people coping?
MAKIN: Many people lost everything, two districts already suffered some floods in late July and we were going in to offer assistance for this flood and when they were struck again. Phouvong is already... and Sanxay - two of our poorest districts in all of Laos and these were affected. People lost about, we think 90 per cent of their crops, and it's coming up to harvest season. So in the next few months we're going to face real problems, real food shortages. Two districts are still accessible only by helicopter and we're not able to get out to all of the villages here. So we're simply working with the government, the Lao government and the army to helicopter food into the driest place and we'll coordinate villages to come and collect food from there. In the other districts we're getting trucks and boats, and the army are really helping coordinate a big effort here.
LAM: And Cait before the disaster hit what sort of a town or area was Attapeu? Was it a largely agricultural rural area?
MAKIN: It's quite rural; it's not as densely populated as other provinces in Laos. But I'm speaking to you from Samakkhixay, which is the capital, but we were all affected. But it is mainly rural and subsistence farming. There is a Vietnamese community, a large Vietnamese community which many small businesses were damaged and completely destroyed.
LAM: And as you look around you are large parts of the region still submerged, under water?
MAKIN: It's hard for us to tell. Yesterday I travelled by helicopter to Sanamxay and certainly there are parts [flooded]. It's very hard to get information. Helicopters are going to the worst areas and landing in the dry places and then we're relying on the government there to go to the more difficult places. So there are probably parts that are submerged. We had a little bit more strong rain last night which may have had some impact. For Samakkhixay where we are the water has receded and so we have about three districts that we can access.
LAM: What news have you of the capital Vientiane? Was Vientiane hit at all?
MAKIN: No as far as I'm aware it's been concentrated in the south. It came through Vietnam. We expected it to go up to the central regions in Khammouan and Savannakhet. There is someone in Savannakhet making assessment, but for now Attapeu is the worst hit with still quite serious in Xekong and Salavan also, which are the neighbouring districts, provinces to Attapeu.
*****************
Source: ABC Radio Australia
Typhoon Ketsana has torn across the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, killing hundreds of people.
In Laos, the storm killed at least 24 people. The floods meant that until two days ago, the worst-hit Attapeu region could only be reached by helicopter and boat. The United Nations World Food Programme says canned fish and rice have now been delivered to storm survivors.
MAKIN: The World Food Programme has an office in Attapeu which is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia down in the south, right in the south of Laos.
LAM: Yes and what's the devastation there like, how are the people coping?
MAKIN: Many people lost everything, two districts already suffered some floods in late July and we were going in to offer assistance for this flood and when they were struck again. Phouvong is already... and Sanxay - two of our poorest districts in all of Laos and these were affected. People lost about, we think 90 per cent of their crops, and it's coming up to harvest season. So in the next few months we're going to face real problems, real food shortages. Two districts are still accessible only by helicopter and we're not able to get out to all of the villages here. So we're simply working with the government, the Lao government and the army to helicopter food into the driest place and we'll coordinate villages to come and collect food from there. In the other districts we're getting trucks and boats, and the army are really helping coordinate a big effort here.
LAM: And Cait before the disaster hit what sort of a town or area was Attapeu? Was it a largely agricultural rural area?
MAKIN: It's quite rural; it's not as densely populated as other provinces in Laos. But I'm speaking to you from Samakkhixay, which is the capital, but we were all affected. But it is mainly rural and subsistence farming. There is a Vietnamese community, a large Vietnamese community which many small businesses were damaged and completely destroyed.
LAM: And as you look around you are large parts of the region still submerged, under water?
MAKIN: It's hard for us to tell. Yesterday I travelled by helicopter to Sanamxay and certainly there are parts [flooded]. It's very hard to get information. Helicopters are going to the worst areas and landing in the dry places and then we're relying on the government there to go to the more difficult places. So there are probably parts that are submerged. We had a little bit more strong rain last night which may have had some impact. For Samakkhixay where we are the water has receded and so we have about three districts that we can access.
LAM: What news have you of the capital Vientiane? Was Vientiane hit at all?
MAKIN: No as far as I'm aware it's been concentrated in the south. It came through Vietnam. We expected it to go up to the central regions in Khammouan and Savannakhet. There is someone in Savannakhet making assessment, but for now Attapeu is the worst hit with still quite serious in Xekong and Salavan also, which are the neighbouring districts, provinces to Attapeu.
*****************
Source: ABC Radio Australia
Laos gets more emergency aid
4 October 2009
HANOI - MORE emergency aid reached southern Laos on Sunday, aid workers said after Tropical Storm Ketsana left at least 24 people dead last week in one of Asia's poorest nations.
'They've already started going out and helping people, giving out water and food,' said Sally Sakulku, of British-based Health Unlimited, referring to her staff in hardest-hit Attapeu province. 'It's accessible now.'
After Ketsana hit on Wednesday, floodwaters left the rugged region reachable only by helicopter and boat until limited road access opened on Saturday.
Ms Sakulku said her teams expected to reach about 1,000 families on Sunday in Attapeu, which borders Cambodia. Some were still sheltering in schools but others have returned home, she said.
In adjacent Sekong province, also hard-hit, the relief agency CARE said it was delivering kettles to help people boil water, and was mobilising other resources.
'We are supplying medicines to the provincial government so that they are prepared, for example, if it comes to an outbreak of diarrhoea,' said Henry Braun, CARE's director for Laos.
He said more than 15,000 people in the province have been affected and 200 houses confirmed destroyed.
'However, there is still a lot of unknowns surrounding the situation, especially in the remote areas,' he said.
Canned fish and rice from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has also been delivered to southern Laos by the government, WFP said.
Ketsana has brought devastation across Southeast Asia, first killing at least 293 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam, where 162 died, and Cambodia where it claimed 17 lives. -- AFP
*************
Source: THE STRAITS TIME
HANOI - MORE emergency aid reached southern Laos on Sunday, aid workers said after Tropical Storm Ketsana left at least 24 people dead last week in one of Asia's poorest nations.
'They've already started going out and helping people, giving out water and food,' said Sally Sakulku, of British-based Health Unlimited, referring to her staff in hardest-hit Attapeu province. 'It's accessible now.'
After Ketsana hit on Wednesday, floodwaters left the rugged region reachable only by helicopter and boat until limited road access opened on Saturday.
Ms Sakulku said her teams expected to reach about 1,000 families on Sunday in Attapeu, which borders Cambodia. Some were still sheltering in schools but others have returned home, she said.
In adjacent Sekong province, also hard-hit, the relief agency CARE said it was delivering kettles to help people boil water, and was mobilising other resources.
'We are supplying medicines to the provincial government so that they are prepared, for example, if it comes to an outbreak of diarrhoea,' said Henry Braun, CARE's director for Laos.
He said more than 15,000 people in the province have been affected and 200 houses confirmed destroyed.
'However, there is still a lot of unknowns surrounding the situation, especially in the remote areas,' he said.
Canned fish and rice from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has also been delivered to southern Laos by the government, WFP said.
Ketsana has brought devastation across Southeast Asia, first killing at least 293 people in the Philippines before striking Vietnam, where 162 died, and Cambodia where it claimed 17 lives. -- AFP
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Source: THE STRAITS TIME
Earthweek: Environmental news from around the globe
October 04, 2009 8:00 AM
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Tropical cyclones
A tropical storm that later became Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 288 people and damaged the homes of 3 million as it triggered the worst flooding the northern Philippines has experienced in 40 years.
After devastating parts of Manila, Ketsana went on to hit other Southeast Asian countries, killing 99 in Vietnam, 14 in Cambodia and 16 in Laos.
• Typhoon Parma cut a path across the Philippines’ northern edge on Saturday, killing four people but sparing the capital, Manila, from a second flood disaster as the storm churned toward Taiwan.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos had evacuated their homes as the storm bore down on the main island of Luzon just eight days after an earlier tempest left Manila awash in floods that killed almost 300 people.
• Another typhoon, Melor, was churning in the Philippine Sea, 1,600 miles to the east, threatening the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Penguin rebound
A species of penguin virtually wiped out on Macquarie Island more than 100 years ago has rebounded, to the delight of Australian wildlife experts.
The island, located between New Zealand and Antarctica, was teeming with king penguins when it was discovered in 1810.
But the birds were slaughtered for blubber oil over the next century to the point that only a small colony survived. The Australian Antarctic Survey says that hundreds of the birds now live in the area around Lusitania Bay.
It appears the population has grown to the point that the penguins have begun to look for new parts of the island to recolonize.
Pushing Earth’s limits
A team of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists published a warning that human activity has already pushed three of Earth’s nine biophysical boundaries to beyond the planet’s ability to self-regulate.
Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers attempt to set “acceptable” upper limits on man’s influence on such environmental conditions as climate, biodiversity, stratospheric ozone and chemical cycles like that of nitrogen.
They suggest that for some of those conditions, like the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and loading of atmospheric carbon dioxide, humankind may have already stepped outside the safety zone.
It’s feared we may have to backpedal quickly to avoid catastrophe. Human activities, most notably the growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture, have become so pervasive that they may trigger irreversible and abrupt environmental change by damaging the regulatory capacity of the planet, the group warned.
African famine looms
The severe drought that has parched much of East Africa this year continues to worsen while taking the lives of people, wildlife and livestock.
The charity Oxfam International has appealed for $15 million in emergency donations so it can provide 750,000 people with food assistance.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa director, said that while the drought stretches from the Horn of Africa to Uganda, about 3.8 million Kenyans, a tenth of the population, now need emergency aid.
Climate change has caused the frequency of drought to increase from about once per decade to once every two or three years.
Indian drought
Indian weather officials said that a weak summer monsoon has created the country’s worst drought since 1972.
Scant precipitation has caused extensive damage to rice, sugar cane and groundnut crops, according to the Meteorological Department.
It added that depleted reservoirs behind hydropower stations threaten both electricity and irrigation shortages this winter.
Acorn hazard
Many New Englanders are being forced to dodge a bumper crop of acorns raining down across the region this autumn.
The nuts were unusually scarce last year, but millions of the hard-shelled bombs are now bopping joggers on the head, whacking gardeners’ backsides and cracking vehicle windshields.
“It hurt,” University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor Wesley Autio told the The Boston Globe. “You stand outside and you can hear acorns hitting everything — cars, metal roofs, and it makes a tremendous sound.”
But the region’s largest acorn crop in memory is also allowing squirrels and other nut hoarders to fatten up for what some believe will be a brutal winter.
A cool summer along with record snowfalls and rain earlier this year have helped the acorns bloom larger and in greater numbers this fall.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
*****************
Source: gazette.com
Myanmar minister promises 'free and fair' elections
3 October 2009
Siem Reap (Cambodia): Myanmar's foreign minister promised on Saturday his country would hold "free and fair" elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham. The minister made the remarks after meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for talks intended to foster development within the Mekong region.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to acknowledge the landslide win of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the last elections in 1990.
Bureau Report
**********
Source: Zeenews.com
Siem Reap (Cambodia): Myanmar's foreign minister promised on Saturday his country would hold "free and fair" elections next year, despite the detention of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"In my country free and fair elections will be held. We have already announced it," Myanmar foreign minister Nyan Win told reporters after a meeting with counterparts in Cambodia's northwestern tourist hub.
"(Whether) the elections are free and fair or not, so far no one can judge it. After the elections will be held, you can judge whether the elections are free and fair or not."
A Myanmar court Friday rejected an appeal by Suu Kyi against her conviction over an incident in which a US man swam uninvited to her home in May, earning her an extra 18 months' detention.
The sentence sidelines her from the elections promised for 2010, leading critics to say the polls are a sham. The minister made the remarks after meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam for talks intended to foster development within the Mekong region.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the junta refused to acknowledge the landslide win of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in the last elections in 1990.
Bureau Report
**********
Source: Zeenews.com
Cambodia’s Displaced: Can Canada Make a Difference?
3 October 2009
As farmers and city dwellers are uprooted by developments, advocates call on CIDA to rise to their defence.
By Jared Ferrie, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca
(Post by CAAI News Media)
As far back as their history goes, the Bunong lived semi-nomadic lives, cultivating small plots of land for a couple years at a time before moving on to allow the soil to regenerate. That came to an end when the United States began carrying out its secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969.
"We fled to Vietnam and we lived in camps there," recalled Prap Tuch, an elderly member of the Bunong ethnic minority.
His people stayed and escaped the horror that was to follow -- the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed as many as two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. The Bunong finally returned to their mountainous homeland in 1986.
But they now face a new threat to their way of life.
Cambodia's government has been granting concessions to companies eager to extract the country's natural resources. Land occupied by the Bunong is being cleared to make way for rubber plantations run by Socfin, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Bollore Group, in partnership with a Cambodian company, KCD.
Prap is just one of an estimated 150,000 Cambodians threatened with forced eviction throughout the country, according to Amnesty International. A real estate boom in the capital, Phnom Penh, has seen thousands displaced -- illegally, say land law experts -- to make way for property developments. The government recently pulled out of a World Bank financed program that aimed to halt forced evictions by sorting out land title in rural areas.
Advocates for the Bunong and other displaced groups say Canada could be an influential voice on their behalf because the Canadian International Development Agency is donor and technical advisor to the Cambodian government's land reform program.
But as more and more Cambodians are forced from their homes, Canada's response so far has been official silence.
'Three unacceptable options'
The Bunong have been offered three options: compensation, relocation or the opportunity to produce rubber on small, family-run plantations.
Prap said none of them were particularly attractive. He would prefer to produce some rubber to sell to the company while still maintaining land that would allow him to farm his traditional crops of rice, fruits and vegetables.
"I don't refuse development. We need to live as other people," he said. "But if we lose the fields, we lose our culture."
Furthermore, he said, his land has not been measured in order to assess compensation, even though he has been forced out to make way for a rubber plantation.
"Allowing people to choose between three unacceptable options for compensation is not meaningful consultation," said David Pred, country director of Bridges Across Borders, which advocates on land rights issues. "The company should start by listening to the affected communities and understanding what their needs and development aspirations are."
Phillip Monnin, who heads Socfin's operations here, did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
'Maybe... some errors'
Eric Beugnot, Cambodia director of the French Development Agency (AFD), said Socfin has launched a study to determine the social and environmental impacts of the plantation.
"They recognized maybe they have made some errors, some mistakes," he said. "They included in the study what has been done and eventually corrective action."
AFD is evaluating a $2.5 million plan to help "smallholders." The project would encourage the company to integrate more family-run rubber plantations into its overall operation.
"That could serve as a model for economic concessions," said Beugnot, adding that the company has no obligation to pursue such a model; it could just as easily develop its concession as a private rubber plantation.
'Laws ignored'
Daniel King, a lawyer with the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), said the Socfin-KCD deal is murky, and information provided to the community is often conflicting.
"The actual clearing of land by Socfin-KCD has not always corresponded to this information," he said.
In fact, he said, the deal may be illegal under Cambodian law, which requires an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment prior to granting an economic land concession (ELC). Copies of those assessments have been requested from the relevant ministries, but have not been provided.
"They may not have been conducted prior to the granting of the ELC or the clearing of land," he said.
King was also skeptical of the French Development Agency's role, suggesting the danger of French taxpayer dollars being used to fund the "social aspects" of an illegal land deal.
"Its partnership with Socfin-KCD in that endeavour could be seen as supporting an ELC that is likely to be illegal under national and international human rights law," he said.
Beugnot said the feasibility study, which AFD requires if it is to provide funding to Socfin-KCD, began weeks ago and will take three months to complete.
In the meantime, those affected by the land concession have few options. On June 19, members of the Bunong held traditional ceremonies to appease ancestral spirits for the loss of forest they consider sacred, and to curse the rubber companies.
Recently, out of desperation, Prap travelled to Phnom Penh with other members of his community to raise awareness of their plight.
"I don't know how to get the land back. Now I just stay and wait and maybe my family will starve," he said.
Decades of displacement
Cambodia has seen years of massive displacement beginning with Richard Nixon's bombing campaign, which he authorized in secret without consent of Congress. In an attempt to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines along the border with Vietnam, the U.S. dropped an estimated 540,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia in four years, which strengthened support for Khmer Rouge rebels. The bombs killed as many as 500,000 people and displaced about 30 per cent of the population.
Millions more fled the countryside in the following years as a civil war raged between U.S.-backed government troops and the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, they emptied Phnom Penh of almost all of its inhabitants, forcing them and millions of others throughout the country into labour camps. After Vietnamese and Cambodian forces ousted the regime in 1979, refugees flooded back into the capital seeking shelter wherever they could find it.
Still more Cambodians languished in camps in Thailand as Cambodian and Vietnamese troops battled the remnants of the Khmer Rouge and other armed groups. The remaining Khmer Rouge were finally defeated in 1998 and refugees returned.
New era, same problem
Decades of forced migration have resulted in a tangled web of land ownership claims. In an attempt to address the issue, the government passed a law in 2001 stating that those who had occupied a piece of land continuously for at least five years could claim legal title. But Cambodian courts, which critics say are notoriously corrupt, have rarely enforced that law.
Instead of bombs, bullets and landmines, Cambodians are now forced from their homes by powerful economic interests.
In Phnom Penh, property prices shot up 100 per cent in 2007, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund. Government officials and other elites have cashed in on the boom, along with international investors, pushing people from their homes in order to develop the land. A local organization, STT, estimates that 11 per cent of the capital's population has been forcibly relocated since 1991, with major evictions still planned. In rural areas, corrupt officials also partner with international investors to exploit natural resources, often forcing people off land that they have a strong legal claim to.
Land reform program scrapped
On Sept. 4, the Cambodian government terminated World Bank financing for the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has issued 1.1 million land titles in rural areas since 2002.
During a speech on Sept. 7, Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, said cooperating with the World Bank on the program "was difficult because it was complicated and had too many conditions."
The move came after the World Bank, under pressure from advocacy groups, issued critical statements about LMAP and forced evictions.
A July 13 World Bank review of LMAP stated: "procedures for state land classification... were only partly implemented." The bank also noted "a particular disconnect between institutional, legal and policy achievements and insecurity of land tenure for the poor, especially in urban areas, and indigenous peoples."
In plain language, the bank meant that working with government officials to devise elaborate systems for assigning land ownership has not prevented land grabbing, despite whatever laws or regulations are put in place.
Or as Pred, of Bridges Across Borders, put it: "Donors to Cambodia's land sector have tried to provide technical solutions to political problems... powerful people are able to grab the land of the poor and vulnerable majority with total impunity"
Yet, a World Bank spokesman in Phnom Penh downplayed the government's decision, noting its promise to continue the process on its own.
"The World Bank welcomes the government's commitments to continue its reforms of the land sector," said Bou Saroeun.
Pred expressed no confidence in the government's promises.
"State land has been totally mismanaged by the Cambodian government even with World Bank and other donor involvement," he said.
Canada's role
Along with the World Bank, LMAP was supported by Canada, Finland and Germany. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is also co-facilitator, along with the Cambodian government, on the Technical Working Group on Land and it holds a seat in the Ministry of Lands.
Critics have been urging Canada to use its leverage as a donor country to do more to stop the illegal expropriation of land.
"CIDA has so far been unwilling to challenge the status quo in order to address the real problems with land in Cambodia," said Pred. "Unless they do so, in a coordinated manner with other donors, there will be little return from the investments of its aid dollars."
Ironically, Pred noted, when donors refuse to stand up to governments that break their own laws, "the aid runs the risk of legitimizing the system."
CIDA's representative in Cambodia said she was not authorized to speak to reporters and directed questions to CIDA's media department in Canada, which did not respond to e-mailed questions.
On July 2, a group of 11 donors and aid agencies issued a statement calling on the government to halt forced evictions "until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place."
The signatories included the World Bank and the United Nations, along with embassies including those of Britain, the U.S. and Australia.
"The Canadian International Development Agency, which has a seat in the Ministry of Lands, was conspicuously absent from that statement," said Daniel King the CLEC lawyer, "If I was a Canadian I'd be asking questions.
****************
Source: Khmer Love Khmer
As farmers and city dwellers are uprooted by developments, advocates call on CIDA to rise to their defence.
By Jared Ferrie, Yesterday, TheTyee.ca
(Post by CAAI News Media)
As far back as their history goes, the Bunong lived semi-nomadic lives, cultivating small plots of land for a couple years at a time before moving on to allow the soil to regenerate. That came to an end when the United States began carrying out its secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969.
"We fled to Vietnam and we lived in camps there," recalled Prap Tuch, an elderly member of the Bunong ethnic minority.
His people stayed and escaped the horror that was to follow -- the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed as many as two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. The Bunong finally returned to their mountainous homeland in 1986.
But they now face a new threat to their way of life.
Cambodia's government has been granting concessions to companies eager to extract the country's natural resources. Land occupied by the Bunong is being cleared to make way for rubber plantations run by Socfin, a subsidiary of the French conglomerate Bollore Group, in partnership with a Cambodian company, KCD.
Prap is just one of an estimated 150,000 Cambodians threatened with forced eviction throughout the country, according to Amnesty International. A real estate boom in the capital, Phnom Penh, has seen thousands displaced -- illegally, say land law experts -- to make way for property developments. The government recently pulled out of a World Bank financed program that aimed to halt forced evictions by sorting out land title in rural areas.
Advocates for the Bunong and other displaced groups say Canada could be an influential voice on their behalf because the Canadian International Development Agency is donor and technical advisor to the Cambodian government's land reform program.
But as more and more Cambodians are forced from their homes, Canada's response so far has been official silence.
'Three unacceptable options'
The Bunong have been offered three options: compensation, relocation or the opportunity to produce rubber on small, family-run plantations.
Prap said none of them were particularly attractive. He would prefer to produce some rubber to sell to the company while still maintaining land that would allow him to farm his traditional crops of rice, fruits and vegetables.
"I don't refuse development. We need to live as other people," he said. "But if we lose the fields, we lose our culture."
Furthermore, he said, his land has not been measured in order to assess compensation, even though he has been forced out to make way for a rubber plantation.
"Allowing people to choose between three unacceptable options for compensation is not meaningful consultation," said David Pred, country director of Bridges Across Borders, which advocates on land rights issues. "The company should start by listening to the affected communities and understanding what their needs and development aspirations are."
Phillip Monnin, who heads Socfin's operations here, did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
'Maybe... some errors'
Eric Beugnot, Cambodia director of the French Development Agency (AFD), said Socfin has launched a study to determine the social and environmental impacts of the plantation.
"They recognized maybe they have made some errors, some mistakes," he said. "They included in the study what has been done and eventually corrective action."
AFD is evaluating a $2.5 million plan to help "smallholders." The project would encourage the company to integrate more family-run rubber plantations into its overall operation.
"That could serve as a model for economic concessions," said Beugnot, adding that the company has no obligation to pursue such a model; it could just as easily develop its concession as a private rubber plantation.
'Laws ignored'
Daniel King, a lawyer with the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), said the Socfin-KCD deal is murky, and information provided to the community is often conflicting.
"The actual clearing of land by Socfin-KCD has not always corresponded to this information," he said.
In fact, he said, the deal may be illegal under Cambodian law, which requires an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment prior to granting an economic land concession (ELC). Copies of those assessments have been requested from the relevant ministries, but have not been provided.
"They may not have been conducted prior to the granting of the ELC or the clearing of land," he said.
King was also skeptical of the French Development Agency's role, suggesting the danger of French taxpayer dollars being used to fund the "social aspects" of an illegal land deal.
"Its partnership with Socfin-KCD in that endeavour could be seen as supporting an ELC that is likely to be illegal under national and international human rights law," he said.
Beugnot said the feasibility study, which AFD requires if it is to provide funding to Socfin-KCD, began weeks ago and will take three months to complete.
In the meantime, those affected by the land concession have few options. On June 19, members of the Bunong held traditional ceremonies to appease ancestral spirits for the loss of forest they consider sacred, and to curse the rubber companies.
Recently, out of desperation, Prap travelled to Phnom Penh with other members of his community to raise awareness of their plight.
"I don't know how to get the land back. Now I just stay and wait and maybe my family will starve," he said.
Decades of displacement
Cambodia has seen years of massive displacement beginning with Richard Nixon's bombing campaign, which he authorized in secret without consent of Congress. In an attempt to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines along the border with Vietnam, the U.S. dropped an estimated 540,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia in four years, which strengthened support for Khmer Rouge rebels. The bombs killed as many as 500,000 people and displaced about 30 per cent of the population.
Millions more fled the countryside in the following years as a civil war raged between U.S.-backed government troops and the Khmer Rouge. When the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, they emptied Phnom Penh of almost all of its inhabitants, forcing them and millions of others throughout the country into labour camps. After Vietnamese and Cambodian forces ousted the regime in 1979, refugees flooded back into the capital seeking shelter wherever they could find it.
Still more Cambodians languished in camps in Thailand as Cambodian and Vietnamese troops battled the remnants of the Khmer Rouge and other armed groups. The remaining Khmer Rouge were finally defeated in 1998 and refugees returned.
New era, same problem
Decades of forced migration have resulted in a tangled web of land ownership claims. In an attempt to address the issue, the government passed a law in 2001 stating that those who had occupied a piece of land continuously for at least five years could claim legal title. But Cambodian courts, which critics say are notoriously corrupt, have rarely enforced that law.
Instead of bombs, bullets and landmines, Cambodians are now forced from their homes by powerful economic interests.
In Phnom Penh, property prices shot up 100 per cent in 2007, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund. Government officials and other elites have cashed in on the boom, along with international investors, pushing people from their homes in order to develop the land. A local organization, STT, estimates that 11 per cent of the capital's population has been forcibly relocated since 1991, with major evictions still planned. In rural areas, corrupt officials also partner with international investors to exploit natural resources, often forcing people off land that they have a strong legal claim to.
Land reform program scrapped
On Sept. 4, the Cambodian government terminated World Bank financing for the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has issued 1.1 million land titles in rural areas since 2002.
During a speech on Sept. 7, Cambodia's prime minister, Hun Sen, said cooperating with the World Bank on the program "was difficult because it was complicated and had too many conditions."
The move came after the World Bank, under pressure from advocacy groups, issued critical statements about LMAP and forced evictions.
A July 13 World Bank review of LMAP stated: "procedures for state land classification... were only partly implemented." The bank also noted "a particular disconnect between institutional, legal and policy achievements and insecurity of land tenure for the poor, especially in urban areas, and indigenous peoples."
In plain language, the bank meant that working with government officials to devise elaborate systems for assigning land ownership has not prevented land grabbing, despite whatever laws or regulations are put in place.
Or as Pred, of Bridges Across Borders, put it: "Donors to Cambodia's land sector have tried to provide technical solutions to political problems... powerful people are able to grab the land of the poor and vulnerable majority with total impunity"
Yet, a World Bank spokesman in Phnom Penh downplayed the government's decision, noting its promise to continue the process on its own.
"The World Bank welcomes the government's commitments to continue its reforms of the land sector," said Bou Saroeun.
Pred expressed no confidence in the government's promises.
"State land has been totally mismanaged by the Cambodian government even with World Bank and other donor involvement," he said.
Canada's role
Along with the World Bank, LMAP was supported by Canada, Finland and Germany. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is also co-facilitator, along with the Cambodian government, on the Technical Working Group on Land and it holds a seat in the Ministry of Lands.
Critics have been urging Canada to use its leverage as a donor country to do more to stop the illegal expropriation of land.
"CIDA has so far been unwilling to challenge the status quo in order to address the real problems with land in Cambodia," said Pred. "Unless they do so, in a coordinated manner with other donors, there will be little return from the investments of its aid dollars."
Ironically, Pred noted, when donors refuse to stand up to governments that break their own laws, "the aid runs the risk of legitimizing the system."
CIDA's representative in Cambodia said she was not authorized to speak to reporters and directed questions to CIDA's media department in Canada, which did not respond to e-mailed questions.
On July 2, a group of 11 donors and aid agencies issued a statement calling on the government to halt forced evictions "until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place."
The signatories included the World Bank and the United Nations, along with embassies including those of Britain, the U.S. and Australia.
"The Canadian International Development Agency, which has a seat in the Ministry of Lands, was conspicuously absent from that statement," said Daniel King the CLEC lawyer, "If I was a Canadian I'd be asking questions.
****************
Source: Khmer Love Khmer
Cambodian FM calls on strengthening partnership for development of Mekong basin
2009-10-03 12:53:49
SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The second foreign ministerial meeting among five Mekong countries and Japan kicked off Saturday in Siem Reap province, northern part of Cambodia, aimed to boost joint development effort in the area.
As the meeting started, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong, who chaired the one-day meeting session said "Our gathering here today constitutes a step further in the realization of our partnership for the development of the Mekong basin, which would certainly yield great benefit for the peoples living along the Mekong River and Japan as well."
The agenda for the second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting is to review progress made since the first meeting in Tokyo, Japan in January 2008.
Hor Namhong also said that "The cooperation between the Mekong region and Japan is bound to have major implications for the future development of the Mekong basin." He highly appreciates Japan's commitment to provide more Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Asia, saying that this initiative "would not only strengthen Asia's growth potential, but also contribute to ASEAN integration."
The meeting attended by foreign ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Japan, Vietnam was represented by a deputy foreign minister attended the meeting.
Mekong-Japan Partnership Program was launched in 2007 for the sake of peace, development and prosperity in the Mekong sub-region.
According to the program of discussion, the foreign ministers will not only discuss the development programs, but also to exchange views on regional and global issues of common concern.
*************
Source: China View
SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The second foreign ministerial meeting among five Mekong countries and Japan kicked off Saturday in Siem Reap province, northern part of Cambodia, aimed to boost joint development effort in the area.
As the meeting started, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong, who chaired the one-day meeting session said "Our gathering here today constitutes a step further in the realization of our partnership for the development of the Mekong basin, which would certainly yield great benefit for the peoples living along the Mekong River and Japan as well."
The agenda for the second Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting is to review progress made since the first meeting in Tokyo, Japan in January 2008.
Hor Namhong also said that "The cooperation between the Mekong region and Japan is bound to have major implications for the future development of the Mekong basin." He highly appreciates Japan's commitment to provide more Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Asia, saying that this initiative "would not only strengthen Asia's growth potential, but also contribute to ASEAN integration."
The meeting attended by foreign ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Japan, Vietnam was represented by a deputy foreign minister attended the meeting.
Mekong-Japan Partnership Program was launched in 2007 for the sake of peace, development and prosperity in the Mekong sub-region.
According to the program of discussion, the foreign ministers will not only discuss the development programs, but also to exchange views on regional and global issues of common concern.
*************
Source: China View
Asia death toll rises as Ketsana floods recede
By Tran Thi Minh Ha (AFP) – 2 October 2009
THUA THIEN-HUE, Vietnam — Asian nations were left counting the cost of Typhoon Ketsana Friday, with the death tolls rising in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, according to Red Cross reports.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
In Cambodia the number of deaths rose to at least 17, while 16 people were killed and 135 left missing in Laos, the Red Cross said on Friday.
With flood waters receding in much of typhoon-struck Vietnam on Friday, residents hung clothes out to dry, cleared fallen trees and cleaned the muck left by one of the country's worst disasters in recent years.
In the poor fishing village of Rong in Hue city, wet clothes hung on fences and trees while women moved furniture outside late Thursday to dry, or cleaned the muddy floors of their metal-roofed houses.
"We are still cleaning up but things will be OK," said Nguyen Van Tam, 48.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
The heaviest toll came in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, in the area where Ketsana made landfall on Tuesday with winds that state media said reached up to 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour.
Quang Ngai recorded 27 deaths and there were 21 in Kon Tum, a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes, the official said.
Officials are now concentrating on returning the evacuees to their homes "and cleaning the environment which was very polluted after the passage of the typhoon", an official from the flood and storm committee in Quang Ngai said late Thursday.
Some homes shown on state television looked like they had been hit by an earthquake.
Downed trees are being cut through with saws and people are sweeping debris off roads, television pictures showed. Soldiers are assisting in the effort.
"It was dirty but... we helped each other so it was a lot of fun," said Nguyen Van Ngoc, a sailor in Rung village.
He was among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes because of the storm and said he only returned on Wednesday after the floodwaters, which had reached halfway up the wall of his metal-roofed house, had drained away.
"When the water receded there was mud in the house," said Tran Phuc, a father-of-six in Tong Chanh village south of Hue.
He said the family spent a day cleaning the floor and the furniture.
The typhoon caused damage initially estimated at 120 million dollars to Vietnam, the government said on Thursday in a detailed report obtained by AFP.
It said more than 170,000 homes were flooded while a similar number had damaged roofs, and more than 6,300 other houses collapsed, mostly in Quang Nam province.
Thousands of farm animals died and almost 50,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the country which is the world's second-largest rice exporter.
The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Cambodia has risen to at least 17, the country's Red Cross said on Friday.
Three more people were reported to have been killed after Ketsana swept through the country earlier this week, said Uy Sam Ath, director of the disaster management department at the Cambodian Red Cross.
The new toll includes a man who died in eastern Mondulkiri province and two people -- a father and a daughter -- who drowned when their boat capsized Wednesday evening in central Kampong Chhnang province, he said.
Northern Cambodia suffered widespread flooding after the storm battered the country Tuesday evening, affecting thousands of people and destroying hundreds of homes across the country, officials said.
Ketsana has killed 16 people and left 135 missing in Laos, the country's Red Cross said.
Fourteen of the deaths came in southern Attapeu province on the border with Cambodia, said Bountheung Menvilay, head of the agency's disaster preparedness division.
Two other deaths came in Savannakhet province, but Attapeu and adjacent Sekong provinces were most affected by the storm, which passed through the country on Wednesday, the Red Cross official said.
"We do have casualties in that location," said government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing, who was unable to confirm the number of deaths.
Bountheung said most of the deaths came during flash floods caused by the storm which has displaced 37,500 people in one of Asia's poorest nations.
**************
Source: AFP
THUA THIEN-HUE, Vietnam — Asian nations were left counting the cost of Typhoon Ketsana Friday, with the death tolls rising in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, according to Red Cross reports.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
In Cambodia the number of deaths rose to at least 17, while 16 people were killed and 135 left missing in Laos, the Red Cross said on Friday.
With flood waters receding in much of typhoon-struck Vietnam on Friday, residents hung clothes out to dry, cleared fallen trees and cleaned the muck left by one of the country's worst disasters in recent years.
In the poor fishing village of Rong in Hue city, wet clothes hung on fences and trees while women moved furniture outside late Thursday to dry, or cleaned the muddy floors of their metal-roofed houses.
"We are still cleaning up but things will be OK," said Nguyen Van Tam, 48.
Vietnam's death toll reached 99 on Friday with another 14 missing, said an official from the national flood and storm control committee.
The heaviest toll came in the fishing province of Quang Ngai, in the area where Ketsana made landfall on Tuesday with winds that state media said reached up to 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour.
Quang Ngai recorded 27 deaths and there were 21 in Kon Tum, a mountainous province with a large population of poor ethnic minority tribes, the official said.
Officials are now concentrating on returning the evacuees to their homes "and cleaning the environment which was very polluted after the passage of the typhoon", an official from the flood and storm committee in Quang Ngai said late Thursday.
Some homes shown on state television looked like they had been hit by an earthquake.
Downed trees are being cut through with saws and people are sweeping debris off roads, television pictures showed. Soldiers are assisting in the effort.
"It was dirty but... we helped each other so it was a lot of fun," said Nguyen Van Ngoc, a sailor in Rung village.
He was among the hundreds of thousands of people who fled their homes because of the storm and said he only returned on Wednesday after the floodwaters, which had reached halfway up the wall of his metal-roofed house, had drained away.
"When the water receded there was mud in the house," said Tran Phuc, a father-of-six in Tong Chanh village south of Hue.
He said the family spent a day cleaning the floor and the furniture.
The typhoon caused damage initially estimated at 120 million dollars to Vietnam, the government said on Thursday in a detailed report obtained by AFP.
It said more than 170,000 homes were flooded while a similar number had damaged roofs, and more than 6,300 other houses collapsed, mostly in Quang Nam province.
Thousands of farm animals died and almost 50,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of farmland were damaged in the country which is the world's second-largest rice exporter.
The death toll from Typhoon Ketsana in Cambodia has risen to at least 17, the country's Red Cross said on Friday.
Three more people were reported to have been killed after Ketsana swept through the country earlier this week, said Uy Sam Ath, director of the disaster management department at the Cambodian Red Cross.
The new toll includes a man who died in eastern Mondulkiri province and two people -- a father and a daughter -- who drowned when their boat capsized Wednesday evening in central Kampong Chhnang province, he said.
Northern Cambodia suffered widespread flooding after the storm battered the country Tuesday evening, affecting thousands of people and destroying hundreds of homes across the country, officials said.
Ketsana has killed 16 people and left 135 missing in Laos, the country's Red Cross said.
Fourteen of the deaths came in southern Attapeu province on the border with Cambodia, said Bountheung Menvilay, head of the agency's disaster preparedness division.
Two other deaths came in Savannakhet province, but Attapeu and adjacent Sekong provinces were most affected by the storm, which passed through the country on Wednesday, the Red Cross official said.
"We do have casualties in that location," said government spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing, who was unable to confirm the number of deaths.
Bountheung said most of the deaths came during flash floods caused by the storm which has displaced 37,500 people in one of Asia's poorest nations.
**************
Source: AFP
Foreign Ministry: Cambodian premier to attend ASEAN Summit
BANGKOK, Oct 2 (TNA) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will attend the 15th Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) Summit in the Thai seaside report of Hua Hin at the end of this month, a senior Thai foreign ministry official said on Friday.
Speaking to journalists after a preparatory meeting planning arrangements for the upcoming ASEAN summit scheduled for October 23-25, Veerasak Futrakul, Permanent-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said bilateral talks between Thai and Cambodian leaders regarding the border dispute near the ancient Preah Vihear temple has not yet been set up.
The Thai permanent-secretary for foreign affairs added that an attempt to solve the border dispute is underway through the existing mechanism agreed by both sides.
Tensions along the Thai-Cambodian border near the 11th century temple renewed after the Cambodian premier announced on Monday that he had ordered his troops to shoot any intruders from Thailand who stepped on Cambodian soil.
Mr Hun Sen's stern statement came shortly after yellow-shirt protesters of Thailand's Peoples’ Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rallied in the Thai province of Si Sa Ket to oppose Cambodia's plan to build new structures in the contested 4.6 square kilometres zone surrounding Preah Vihear temple and clashed with local police and residents.
The United Nations cultural body UNESCO approved Cambodia's sole bid in July last year to list the 11th century temple as a world heritage site while the question of sovereignty over the land has never been clearly resolved.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva however shunned Mr Hun Sen's threat, saying his remarks were aimed for his domestic benefit and had happened many times.
He also affirmed the situation at the border is normal, the kingdom also remains ready to protect its sovereignty. (TNA)
*********
Source: TNA
Speaking to journalists after a preparatory meeting planning arrangements for the upcoming ASEAN summit scheduled for October 23-25, Veerasak Futrakul, Permanent-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said bilateral talks between Thai and Cambodian leaders regarding the border dispute near the ancient Preah Vihear temple has not yet been set up.
The Thai permanent-secretary for foreign affairs added that an attempt to solve the border dispute is underway through the existing mechanism agreed by both sides.
Tensions along the Thai-Cambodian border near the 11th century temple renewed after the Cambodian premier announced on Monday that he had ordered his troops to shoot any intruders from Thailand who stepped on Cambodian soil.
Mr Hun Sen's stern statement came shortly after yellow-shirt protesters of Thailand's Peoples’ Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rallied in the Thai province of Si Sa Ket to oppose Cambodia's plan to build new structures in the contested 4.6 square kilometres zone surrounding Preah Vihear temple and clashed with local police and residents.
The United Nations cultural body UNESCO approved Cambodia's sole bid in July last year to list the 11th century temple as a world heritage site while the question of sovereignty over the land has never been clearly resolved.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva however shunned Mr Hun Sen's threat, saying his remarks were aimed for his domestic benefit and had happened many times.
He also affirmed the situation at the border is normal, the kingdom also remains ready to protect its sovereignty. (TNA)
*********
Source: TNA
Cambodian communities facing forced eviction launch Inspection Panel complaint against World Bank
2 October 2009
Phnom Penh residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2009
Phnom Penh, Residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project. The complaint, submitted by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and registered on 24 September, alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has denied urban poor and other vulnerable households protection against widespread tenure insecurity and increasing forced evictions in Cambodia.
A major report about the Bank-financed project, “Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector,” was also released this week by three international human rights organizations, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) and Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA).
“The principal finding of the report is that, despite a seven-year, multi-million dollar effort to reform the land sector, Cambodia’s land administration institutions have failed to improve tenure security for vulnerable groups, who are routinely and arbitrarily denied access to land titling and dispute resolution mechanisms,” stated Salih Booker, Executive Director of COHRE.
Despite having legitimate rights to the land under Cambodia’s Land Law, thousands of families residing around Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake were denied titles when the area was adjudicated by LMAP in January 2007, the same month that a well-connected developer acquired a legally dubious 99-year lease over the area. Residents have since been subjected to intimidation and pressure to leave their homes by the developer and local officials. So far, an estimated 900 families have been evicted from their land to make way for the development, with more than 3000 families due to face the same fate.
The NGO report states that “[t]he fact that these households do not have title is often used against them as a justification for eviction, despite the fact that many have well documented rights under the law.” “Meanwhile,” the report continues, “the wealthy and well-connected have little difficulty in acquiring land title in high value areas in which poor communities reside due to their connections or their ability to pay the high ‘unofficial fees’.”
Both the complaint and the report cite numerous flaws of LMAP, including a failure to issue titles to vulnerable households in accordance with legal procedures, ineffective and corrupt dispute resolution mechanisms, and a failure to conduct essential public awareness campaigns and legal aid programs.
The report identifies the absence of transparent State land management as a key failure of LMAP, which has contributed to the problem of tenure insecurity throughout the country. It states that the lack of transparency and an unimplemented or inadequate legal framework has led to the loss of public spaces in both urban and rural settings, as well as the large-scale depletion of the country’s natural resources, especially forests.
“The mismanagement of State land has negatively impacted the poorest Cambodians most,” said BABSEA Director David Pred. “Rural and indigenous communities have been deprived of the land on which their lives depend in order to make way for Economic Land Concessions, and poor urban households have been denied the opportunity to secure their land tenure despite their legal entitlements, when they are wrongly labelled as squatters on State land.”
Boeung Kak residents who filed the complaint against the World Bank have requested to remain anonymous, citing concerns for their safety amidst increasing intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and political dissidents in Cambodia.
The Cambodian government abruptly ended its agreement on the project with the World Bank last month after a disagreement about the applicability of World Bank social safeguards in cases like Boeung Kak. Despite the government’s termination of the agreement, human rights groups have demanded that the Cambodian government continue to be held accountable for its contractual obligations to adhere to the project’s policy on involuntary resettlement.
“In light of the serious problems with the design and implementation of LMAP, it is incumbent upon the World Bank to conduct a thorough investigation of this project and its overall assistance strategy in Cambodia,” said Pred. “After seven years of wholly inadequate supervision of LMAP, the Bank has a responsibility to investigate and remedy the harms that have been caused to the Cambodian families who have been unfairly denied recognition of their land rights.”
“The World Bank should reconsider its approach to land titling programmes that it promotes worldwide, especially in countries without strong rule of law and the political will to protect people’s rights against powerful interests,” Booker added. “Through the Inspection Panel’s investigation, the World Bank can and should learn important lessons from LMAP.”
THE NOTICE OF REGISTRATION OF THE COMPLAINT IS AVAILABLE AT:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/Notice_of_Registration.pdf
READ THE REPORT:
Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector, Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Jesuit Relief Services, October 2009 (Acrobat PDF, 1.38 MB)
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO THE LINK BELOW:
************
SOURCE: Bank Information Center
Phnom Penh residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2009
Phnom Penh, Residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project. The complaint, submitted by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and registered on 24 September, alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has denied urban poor and other vulnerable households protection against widespread tenure insecurity and increasing forced evictions in Cambodia.
A major report about the Bank-financed project, “Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector,” was also released this week by three international human rights organizations, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) and Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA).
“The principal finding of the report is that, despite a seven-year, multi-million dollar effort to reform the land sector, Cambodia’s land administration institutions have failed to improve tenure security for vulnerable groups, who are routinely and arbitrarily denied access to land titling and dispute resolution mechanisms,” stated Salih Booker, Executive Director of COHRE.
Despite having legitimate rights to the land under Cambodia’s Land Law, thousands of families residing around Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake were denied titles when the area was adjudicated by LMAP in January 2007, the same month that a well-connected developer acquired a legally dubious 99-year lease over the area. Residents have since been subjected to intimidation and pressure to leave their homes by the developer and local officials. So far, an estimated 900 families have been evicted from their land to make way for the development, with more than 3000 families due to face the same fate.
The NGO report states that “[t]he fact that these households do not have title is often used against them as a justification for eviction, despite the fact that many have well documented rights under the law.” “Meanwhile,” the report continues, “the wealthy and well-connected have little difficulty in acquiring land title in high value areas in which poor communities reside due to their connections or their ability to pay the high ‘unofficial fees’.”
Both the complaint and the report cite numerous flaws of LMAP, including a failure to issue titles to vulnerable households in accordance with legal procedures, ineffective and corrupt dispute resolution mechanisms, and a failure to conduct essential public awareness campaigns and legal aid programs.
The report identifies the absence of transparent State land management as a key failure of LMAP, which has contributed to the problem of tenure insecurity throughout the country. It states that the lack of transparency and an unimplemented or inadequate legal framework has led to the loss of public spaces in both urban and rural settings, as well as the large-scale depletion of the country’s natural resources, especially forests.
“The mismanagement of State land has negatively impacted the poorest Cambodians most,” said BABSEA Director David Pred. “Rural and indigenous communities have been deprived of the land on which their lives depend in order to make way for Economic Land Concessions, and poor urban households have been denied the opportunity to secure their land tenure despite their legal entitlements, when they are wrongly labelled as squatters on State land.”
Boeung Kak residents who filed the complaint against the World Bank have requested to remain anonymous, citing concerns for their safety amidst increasing intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and political dissidents in Cambodia.
The Cambodian government abruptly ended its agreement on the project with the World Bank last month after a disagreement about the applicability of World Bank social safeguards in cases like Boeung Kak. Despite the government’s termination of the agreement, human rights groups have demanded that the Cambodian government continue to be held accountable for its contractual obligations to adhere to the project’s policy on involuntary resettlement.
“In light of the serious problems with the design and implementation of LMAP, it is incumbent upon the World Bank to conduct a thorough investigation of this project and its overall assistance strategy in Cambodia,” said Pred. “After seven years of wholly inadequate supervision of LMAP, the Bank has a responsibility to investigate and remedy the harms that have been caused to the Cambodian families who have been unfairly denied recognition of their land rights.”
“The World Bank should reconsider its approach to land titling programmes that it promotes worldwide, especially in countries without strong rule of law and the political will to protect people’s rights against powerful interests,” Booker added. “Through the Inspection Panel’s investigation, the World Bank can and should learn important lessons from LMAP.”
THE NOTICE OF REGISTRATION OF THE COMPLAINT IS AVAILABLE AT:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/Notice_of_Registration.pdf
READ THE REPORT:
Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector, Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Jesuit Relief Services, October 2009 (Acrobat PDF, 1.38 MB)
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO THE LINK BELOW:
************
SOURCE: Bank Information Center
Rescue Workers Search for Survivors from Asian Disasters, Death Toll Likely to Rise
By Daniel Schearf
Bangkok
02 October 2009
Authorities say the death toll from an earthquake in Indonesia is likely to pass 1,000 as underequipped rescue workers dig through rubble for survivors. And the Philippines is on alert as a new typhoon heads toward the islands days after Typhoon Ketsana killed more than 400 people there and in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
Indonesian rescue workers are digging by hand Friday, trying to find survivors among the hundreds of people believed trapped under piles of concrete.
Wednesday's earthquake struck off the coast of western Sumatra, with most of the damage in the city of Padang.
VOA's Jakarta correspondent, Brian Padden, has just arrived in Padang. He says the streets are busy with people and aid workers are pouring into the city.
"Just from the airport itself, it's like every third or fourth building we passed, there's serious damage, many have collapsed completely," he said. "Electricity is out everywhere. … There are long lines at gas stations, people are lined up with containers waiting to get the limited supply of gasoline that's here in the area."
Padden says the damage from Wednesday's quake is much worse than that from an earthquake in early September.
"In the last earthquake that hit Java, damage there was scattered, there'd be little pinpoints of damage. Here it seems everywhere, it's everywhere you look," he said.
Indonesia has asked for foreign aid to help with rescue efforts and support those affected by the 7.6 magnitude quake.
Numerous countries have offered assistance, including the United States, which pledged $3 million to help the quake victims.
Washington has also pledged aid for victims of a tropical storm that struck the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos this week. The storm killed more than 400 people in the region.
Typhoon Ketsana made landfall in the Philippines on Saturday, flooding parts of the capital, Manila and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
The Philippines is warning people to leave low-lying areas as another powerful typhoon nears.
In other natural disasters, the death toll from tsunami waves that hit the pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga is nearing 200.
***********
Source: VOA News
Bangkok
02 October 2009
Authorities say the death toll from an earthquake in Indonesia is likely to pass 1,000 as underequipped rescue workers dig through rubble for survivors. And the Philippines is on alert as a new typhoon heads toward the islands days after Typhoon Ketsana killed more than 400 people there and in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
Indonesian rescue workers are digging by hand Friday, trying to find survivors among the hundreds of people believed trapped under piles of concrete.
Wednesday's earthquake struck off the coast of western Sumatra, with most of the damage in the city of Padang.
VOA's Jakarta correspondent, Brian Padden, has just arrived in Padang. He says the streets are busy with people and aid workers are pouring into the city.
"Just from the airport itself, it's like every third or fourth building we passed, there's serious damage, many have collapsed completely," he said. "Electricity is out everywhere. … There are long lines at gas stations, people are lined up with containers waiting to get the limited supply of gasoline that's here in the area."
Padden says the damage from Wednesday's quake is much worse than that from an earthquake in early September.
"In the last earthquake that hit Java, damage there was scattered, there'd be little pinpoints of damage. Here it seems everywhere, it's everywhere you look," he said.
Indonesia has asked for foreign aid to help with rescue efforts and support those affected by the 7.6 magnitude quake.
Numerous countries have offered assistance, including the United States, which pledged $3 million to help the quake victims.
Washington has also pledged aid for victims of a tropical storm that struck the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos this week. The storm killed more than 400 people in the region.
Typhoon Ketsana made landfall in the Philippines on Saturday, flooding parts of the capital, Manila and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
The Philippines is warning people to leave low-lying areas as another powerful typhoon nears.
In other natural disasters, the death toll from tsunami waves that hit the pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga is nearing 200.
***********
Source: VOA News
PM Abhisit: Thai-Cambodian border situation 'normal'
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday that he believes Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's comment regarding Thai-Cambodian border disputes was aimed to impact Cambodia’s domestic political audience and that the overall situation along the Thai-Cambodian border is normal and bilateral relations are going well.
International media--Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse (AFP)--Monday quoted Mr Hun Sen as telling Cambodian officials that anyone from Thailand illegally intruding into Cambodian territory but claimed by both countries would be shot.
The Cambodian leader also said that if Thai officials negotiating the border demarcation present Thai maps during bilateral talks, Cambodian officials “should tear them up or walk out.’
Answering questions in Parliament Thursday, Mr Abhisit said he believed that Mr Hun Sen's remarks were aimed for his domestic benefit.
The situation at the border is normal, the military personnel of both countries are stationed as usual, particularly around the disputed area that they both claim, he said.
Mr Abhisit added that the remarks simply were Mr Hun Sen's style, considered normal, as it had happened many times.
However, he said, Thailand remains ready to protect the kingdom’s sovereignty, but any steps taken will be carried out carefully to avoid conflict and to protect Thailand's interests.
The government also affirmed the use of peaceful mean to solve the border disputes and the disputes between Thailand and Cambodia were not come from Minister of Foreign Affairs Kasit Piromya.
Members of the Opposition Puea Thai Party always charged Mr Kasit of being unfit to serve in government for his support for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which seized Bangkok’s two airports late last year, as well as for his denouncing Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen regarding a disputed temple on the border.
Mr Abhisit said after Mr Kasit assumed his post, he had visited Cambodia on several occasions without problems. Bilateral relations between the two neighbours remain positive, as some bilateral agreements were reached recently.
Moreover, the Cambodian premier also affirmed in past meetings that he would not let the border disputes obstruct expanded cooperation, the Thai premier said.
Mr Abhisit said he believed that the border disputes flared up when Noppadon Pattama was Minister of Foreign Affairs and signed a joint communique with Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sok An in June 2008 to support the Khmer application to list the 11th century temple as a World Heritage site.
When Mr Abhisit assumed office last December, he said his government must resolve the border dispute.
Tensions between the neighbouring countries flared after the United Nations cultural body UNESCO approved Cambodia's bid in July last year to list the 11th century temple as a world heritage site, while the question of sovereignty over the 4.6 square kilometres of surrounding land has never been clearly resolved, angering some Thais who continue to claim Thailand’s ownership of the site. (TNA)
***************
Source: TNA
International media--Associated Press (AP) and Agence France-Presse (AFP)--Monday quoted Mr Hun Sen as telling Cambodian officials that anyone from Thailand illegally intruding into Cambodian territory but claimed by both countries would be shot.
The Cambodian leader also said that if Thai officials negotiating the border demarcation present Thai maps during bilateral talks, Cambodian officials “should tear them up or walk out.’
Answering questions in Parliament Thursday, Mr Abhisit said he believed that Mr Hun Sen's remarks were aimed for his domestic benefit.
The situation at the border is normal, the military personnel of both countries are stationed as usual, particularly around the disputed area that they both claim, he said.
Mr Abhisit added that the remarks simply were Mr Hun Sen's style, considered normal, as it had happened many times.
However, he said, Thailand remains ready to protect the kingdom’s sovereignty, but any steps taken will be carried out carefully to avoid conflict and to protect Thailand's interests.
The government also affirmed the use of peaceful mean to solve the border disputes and the disputes between Thailand and Cambodia were not come from Minister of Foreign Affairs Kasit Piromya.
Members of the Opposition Puea Thai Party always charged Mr Kasit of being unfit to serve in government for his support for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which seized Bangkok’s two airports late last year, as well as for his denouncing Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen regarding a disputed temple on the border.
Mr Abhisit said after Mr Kasit assumed his post, he had visited Cambodia on several occasions without problems. Bilateral relations between the two neighbours remain positive, as some bilateral agreements were reached recently.
Moreover, the Cambodian premier also affirmed in past meetings that he would not let the border disputes obstruct expanded cooperation, the Thai premier said.
Mr Abhisit said he believed that the border disputes flared up when Noppadon Pattama was Minister of Foreign Affairs and signed a joint communique with Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister Sok An in June 2008 to support the Khmer application to list the 11th century temple as a World Heritage site.
When Mr Abhisit assumed office last December, he said his government must resolve the border dispute.
Tensions between the neighbouring countries flared after the United Nations cultural body UNESCO approved Cambodia's bid in July last year to list the 11th century temple as a world heritage site, while the question of sovereignty over the 4.6 square kilometres of surrounding land has never been clearly resolved, angering some Thais who continue to claim Thailand’s ownership of the site. (TNA)
***************
Source: TNA
UN expert: Free speech deteriorating in Cambodia
Associated Press
2009-10-01 06:41 PM
A U.N. human rights expert says freedom of speech is deteriorating in Cambodia after several government critics were convicted of defamation.
Surya Subedi says the conviction of an opposition lawmaker and two journalists in recent months "is a disturbing trend."
Subedi is U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for human rights in Cambodia.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, meanwhile, will debate a U.S.-Egyptian resolution on freedom of speech Thursday.
European countries have expressed concern that the resolution appears to endorse "codes of conduct" for journalists and give religions protection from criticism.
*************
Source: AP posted on Taiwan News
2009-10-01 06:41 PM
A U.N. human rights expert says freedom of speech is deteriorating in Cambodia after several government critics were convicted of defamation.
Surya Subedi says the conviction of an opposition lawmaker and two journalists in recent months "is a disturbing trend."
Subedi is U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy for human rights in Cambodia.
The Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, meanwhile, will debate a U.S.-Egyptian resolution on freedom of speech Thursday.
European countries have expressed concern that the resolution appears to endorse "codes of conduct" for journalists and give religions protection from criticism.
*************
Source: AP posted on Taiwan News
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Typhoon kills dozens in Vietnam, Cambodia
30 September 2009
By Tran Thi Minh Ha (AFP)
HOI AN, Vietnam — Typhoon Ketsana extended its trail of destruction across Southeast Asia Wednesday, killing at least 49 people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and unleashing some of the worst floods in a decade.
Tens of thousands of people fled as landslides wiped out homes and rising waters submerged villages and ancient world heritage sites, just days after Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines.
Ketsana barrelled towards Laos on Wednesday after being downgraded to a tropical depression, while aid workers struggled to reach stranded survivors and get urgently needed supplies to the homeless. Related article: Philippines destruction
Cambodia said 11 people died when the storm struck overnight, while the toll in Vietnam rose to 38 with 10 missing since Ketsana first hit the centre of the country on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Laos.
"This flooding might be bigger than the historic floods in 1999," said Nguyen Su, Communist Party chief in the Vietnamese town of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site, which was under three metres (10 feet) of water. Scene: Hoi An flooding
The town is a major tourist draw for its centuries-old pastel-coloured buildings.
On Tuesday flooding hit parts of Danang as well as Hue, the former capital and another World Heritage site, where residents used small wooden and steel boats to move around.
Central Vietnam bore the brunt of the typhoon's impact, with the country's flood and storm control committee saying that 168,585 people in six coastal provinces had been evacuated. Many areas were without power.
Aid agency World Vision said in a statement more than 5,800 houses in Vietnam had collapsed in floods and landslides with 163,000 houses having lost their roofs, but this was not immediately confirmed by the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said military helicopters could be sent to join the rescue effort.
"We will focus on rescuing those who are isolated," particularly in Kon Tum and Quang Ngai provinces, he said. "We have to immediately evacuate households on the banks of three rivers and areas that may suffer from landslides."
State-run Vietnam News carried a front-page photograph of houses almost submerged by brown floodwaters in Kon Tum. Flooding also struck 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres) of agricultural land, the storm committee said.
In Cambodia, authorities said thousands of people had been evacuated from their homes as the storm packed winds of up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) an hour.
Nine were killed and 28 injured in central Cambodia while two died in the northeast overnight as the country was battered by the storm, officials said.
"At least nine people were crushed last night when their houses fell down," said Chea Cheat, chief of the Red Cross office in central Kampong Thom province, adding that at least 92 houses in his province were destroyed.
International organisations and government officials in Cambodia said they were distributing tents and food while assessing damage.
Seth Vannareth, director of Cambodia's department of meteorology, said Cambodians were experiencing high flooding but the storm's winds were decreasing as it moved over the country towards Laos.
"It will not be very strong anymore. It is not a typhoon anymore," she said.
In Laos, five or six villages had reportedly been flooded in Savannakhet province and aid workers were making their way there by car, World Vision said.
"We have the capability to urgently ready 500 aid packs if our assessment teams find these are needed," World Vision aid worker Vatthanathavone Inthirath said.
Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons. At least 41 people died in September 2008 when Typhoon Hagupit struck the country's north.
The Mekong region, home to tens of millions, suffers regular seasonal flooding which kills dozens of people a year in Cambodia.
*******************
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5he1GqURhlak44Bhzgvx8gTG5w6GQ
By Tran Thi Minh Ha (AFP)
HOI AN, Vietnam — Typhoon Ketsana extended its trail of destruction across Southeast Asia Wednesday, killing at least 49 people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and unleashing some of the worst floods in a decade.
Tens of thousands of people fled as landslides wiped out homes and rising waters submerged villages and ancient world heritage sites, just days after Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines.
Ketsana barrelled towards Laos on Wednesday after being downgraded to a tropical depression, while aid workers struggled to reach stranded survivors and get urgently needed supplies to the homeless. Related article: Philippines destruction
Cambodia said 11 people died when the storm struck overnight, while the toll in Vietnam rose to 38 with 10 missing since Ketsana first hit the centre of the country on Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of casualties from Laos.
"This flooding might be bigger than the historic floods in 1999," said Nguyen Su, Communist Party chief in the Vietnamese town of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site, which was under three metres (10 feet) of water. Scene: Hoi An flooding
The town is a major tourist draw for its centuries-old pastel-coloured buildings.
On Tuesday flooding hit parts of Danang as well as Hue, the former capital and another World Heritage site, where residents used small wooden and steel boats to move around.
Central Vietnam bore the brunt of the typhoon's impact, with the country's flood and storm control committee saying that 168,585 people in six coastal provinces had been evacuated. Many areas were without power.
Aid agency World Vision said in a statement more than 5,800 houses in Vietnam had collapsed in floods and landslides with 163,000 houses having lost their roofs, but this was not immediately confirmed by the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said military helicopters could be sent to join the rescue effort.
"We will focus on rescuing those who are isolated," particularly in Kon Tum and Quang Ngai provinces, he said. "We have to immediately evacuate households on the banks of three rivers and areas that may suffer from landslides."
State-run Vietnam News carried a front-page photograph of houses almost submerged by brown floodwaters in Kon Tum. Flooding also struck 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres) of agricultural land, the storm committee said.
In Cambodia, authorities said thousands of people had been evacuated from their homes as the storm packed winds of up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) an hour.
Nine were killed and 28 injured in central Cambodia while two died in the northeast overnight as the country was battered by the storm, officials said.
"At least nine people were crushed last night when their houses fell down," said Chea Cheat, chief of the Red Cross office in central Kampong Thom province, adding that at least 92 houses in his province were destroyed.
International organisations and government officials in Cambodia said they were distributing tents and food while assessing damage.
Seth Vannareth, director of Cambodia's department of meteorology, said Cambodians were experiencing high flooding but the storm's winds were decreasing as it moved over the country towards Laos.
"It will not be very strong anymore. It is not a typhoon anymore," she said.
In Laos, five or six villages had reportedly been flooded in Savannakhet province and aid workers were making their way there by car, World Vision said.
"We have the capability to urgently ready 500 aid packs if our assessment teams find these are needed," World Vision aid worker Vatthanathavone Inthirath said.
Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons. At least 41 people died in September 2008 when Typhoon Hagupit struck the country's north.
The Mekong region, home to tens of millions, suffers regular seasonal flooding which kills dozens of people a year in Cambodia.
*******************
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5he1GqURhlak44Bhzgvx8gTG5w6GQ
Korea's Mother Theresa drops by
Unaisi Ratubalavu
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Lady Park, of Korea, makes a thank you gesture at the SCC chambers
SHE has been known as South Korea's Mother Theresa. Lady Park Chung-Soo has devoted her life to peace, schooling and helping children.
She arrived in the country yesterday for a two-day stopover on her way to Australia for a women's conference. For the last 40 years, she has been a religious worker, serving the public for world peace. Lady Park, 73, spent about 30 minutes talking to the management teams of the Suva City and Lami Town councils yesterday.
She has invested a lot of her time and money in the Himalayas, establishing junior schools and a hospital in Cambodia.
"I have established nine schools, some in India, in Korea and a special school for the physically challenged children in China," she said. Lady Park said she always felt sad to see people in pitiable circumstances.
At the 2009 Ho-Am Award Ceremony in Korea, Mother Park was selected to receive the prize on community service.
She also received a pure gold medal and prizemoney of $US160,000 ($F311,279) which she planned to use for expenses of a free relief clinic and education centre in Battambang, Cambodia.
She leaves for Australia today.
**************
Source: http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=130510
Cambodia Flooding: CWS situation report
Source: Church World Service (CWS)
Date: 29 Sep 2009
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM
CWS SITUATION REPORT: CAMBODIA FLOODING
SITUATION: Monsoon rains related to Typhoon Ketsana, which affected the Philippines, have hit Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Effects are particularly strong in Cambodia, where CWS Cambodia reports that in one province, Kompong Thom, 223 villages - some 14,744 families -- have been flooded out.
CWS RESPONSE: CWS Cambodia has conducted assessments and reports first priority needs in affected regions include food, shelter (plastic sheeting to protect family from the rain and heat), clean water, mosquito netting and water and sanitation units. CWS plans to distribute food and non-food items in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Kompong Thom provinces, all in northwest Cambodia. Further details about the response are pending.
For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is responding please visit www.churchworldservice.org or call the CWS
Hotline, (800) 297-1516.
CWS Emergency Response Program special contacts: (212) 870-3151
Program Director: dderr@churchworldservice.org
***************
Source: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ADGO-7WCS7N?OpenDocument
Date: 29 Sep 2009
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM
CWS SITUATION REPORT: CAMBODIA FLOODING
SITUATION: Monsoon rains related to Typhoon Ketsana, which affected the Philippines, have hit Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Effects are particularly strong in Cambodia, where CWS Cambodia reports that in one province, Kompong Thom, 223 villages - some 14,744 families -- have been flooded out.
CWS RESPONSE: CWS Cambodia has conducted assessments and reports first priority needs in affected regions include food, shelter (plastic sheeting to protect family from the rain and heat), clean water, mosquito netting and water and sanitation units. CWS plans to distribute food and non-food items in Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Kompong Thom provinces, all in northwest Cambodia. Further details about the response are pending.
For further information about disasters to which Church World Service is responding please visit www.churchworldservice.org or call the CWS
Hotline, (800) 297-1516.
CWS Emergency Response Program special contacts: (212) 870-3151
Program Director: dderr@churchworldservice.org
***************
Source: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/ADGO-7WCS7N?OpenDocument
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Cambodian gov't campaign to boost lighting awareness
PHNOM PENH, Aug 31, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A public information campaign aimed at warning people over the dangers of lightning will begin as the number of reported deaths from strikes rising, local media reported Tuesday citing government officials.
So far this year, the reported deaths from lightning have climbed to 135, while there were a total of 95 lightning deaths reported last year, the Phnon Penh Post quoted Keo Vy, a communications officer with the National Committee for Disaster Management, as saying.
In addition, 151 people this year have been severely hurt by lightning, which has also killed 36 domestic cattle throughout the country, "Now we are organizing banners to educate people throughout the country in order to educate them to protect themselves against lightning," Keo Vy said. "We cannot stop lightning," he said, adding that the banners will be distributed in districts throughout the country.
Seth Vannareth, deputy general inspector and director of Department of Meteorology said that lightning strikes occur mostly between May and October. But she said that the number of reported lightning strikes did not appear to be increasing.
Seth Vannareth attributed the apparent rise in deaths to better reporting from provincial and district officials and the rising use of electrical appliances.
"Nowadays, Cambodian people are using more appliances like telephones, televisions, radios and so on, without taking care of lightning," she said.
People lack the knowledge to protect themselves from lightning.. .. Do not use the phone or turn on the radio in the middle of a rice field during a rain storm," she said , adding "do not stand under trees during a rain storm, or hold onto metal objects."
*****************
Source: TMCNet.com
Link: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/08/31/4348234.htm
So far this year, the reported deaths from lightning have climbed to 135, while there were a total of 95 lightning deaths reported last year, the Phnon Penh Post quoted Keo Vy, a communications officer with the National Committee for Disaster Management, as saying.
In addition, 151 people this year have been severely hurt by lightning, which has also killed 36 domestic cattle throughout the country, "Now we are organizing banners to educate people throughout the country in order to educate them to protect themselves against lightning," Keo Vy said. "We cannot stop lightning," he said, adding that the banners will be distributed in districts throughout the country.
Seth Vannareth, deputy general inspector and director of Department of Meteorology said that lightning strikes occur mostly between May and October. But she said that the number of reported lightning strikes did not appear to be increasing.
Seth Vannareth attributed the apparent rise in deaths to better reporting from provincial and district officials and the rising use of electrical appliances.
"Nowadays, Cambodian people are using more appliances like telephones, televisions, radios and so on, without taking care of lightning," she said.
People lack the knowledge to protect themselves from lightning.. .. Do not use the phone or turn on the radio in the middle of a rice field during a rain storm," she said , adding "do not stand under trees during a rain storm, or hold onto metal objects."
*****************
Source: TMCNet.com
Link: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/08/31/4348234.htm
Cambodia records 31 cases of flu A/H1N1
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-01 14:49:18
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Health Minister Mum Bun Heng said on Tuesday that the Cambodia's flu A /H1N1 cases have increased to 31 after five people were confirmed positive of the flu in the country on Aug. 31.
"The five people are the latest cases in the country and they all are Khmer," Bun Heng told reporters at a ceremony of receiving a new thermal scanner from Singapore.
"They all are being treated by our doctors," Mum said, adding that "so far nobody died of the flu in the kingdom."
"We have strengthened our existing system to track the suspected people of the flu," he said. The new thermal scanner will be equipped at Phnom Penh International Airport and the old one at the airport will be transferred to install at the Poipet Checkpoint bordering on Thailand.
"We decided to install there because many tourists and travelers are crossing the land border everyday from Thailand into Cambodia. We have to follow them," he noted. "So far, we have had 14 Khmer infecting with the flu," he said, adding that the new thermal scanner is worth over 10,000 U.S. dollars and it is a charitable donation from Singaporean government.
Tan Yee Woan, Singaporean ambassador to Cambodia, said that "the globalization push people to travel a lot and they are facing with infecting the flu and we need to prevent it."
Sok Touch, director of communicable control department of Health Ministry, also expressed his concern, saying that "the second wave of infecting the flu is making us concern about the trend of spread. We have to take measures for the next season."
***************
Source: Article from China View
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/01/content_11978202.htm
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Health Minister Mum Bun Heng said on Tuesday that the Cambodia's flu A /H1N1 cases have increased to 31 after five people were confirmed positive of the flu in the country on Aug. 31.
"The five people are the latest cases in the country and they all are Khmer," Bun Heng told reporters at a ceremony of receiving a new thermal scanner from Singapore.
"They all are being treated by our doctors," Mum said, adding that "so far nobody died of the flu in the kingdom."
"We have strengthened our existing system to track the suspected people of the flu," he said. The new thermal scanner will be equipped at Phnom Penh International Airport and the old one at the airport will be transferred to install at the Poipet Checkpoint bordering on Thailand.
"We decided to install there because many tourists and travelers are crossing the land border everyday from Thailand into Cambodia. We have to follow them," he noted. "So far, we have had 14 Khmer infecting with the flu," he said, adding that the new thermal scanner is worth over 10,000 U.S. dollars and it is a charitable donation from Singaporean government.
Tan Yee Woan, Singaporean ambassador to Cambodia, said that "the globalization push people to travel a lot and they are facing with infecting the flu and we need to prevent it."
Sok Touch, director of communicable control department of Health Ministry, also expressed his concern, saying that "the second wave of infecting the flu is making us concern about the trend of spread. We have to take measures for the next season."
***************
Source: Article from China View
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/01/content_11978202.htm
World Bank in talks with Cambodia over evictions
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A senior World Bank official held talks with the Cambodian government over the forced eviction of people from their homes and said the development bank would continue to work with it on land reform to tackle the problem.
Land ownership is a controversial issue in Cambodia, where legal documents were destroyed and state institutions collapsed under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and the civil war that followed.
The World Bank joined with other aid donors in July to ask the government to halt forced evictions and the problem was raised again by its vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific Region, James Adams, during a visit last week.
"A major focus of the visit was Cambodia's urban land sector and the increasing numbers of disputes and evictions of poor people in urban settlements," the bank said in a statement.
"The discussions on land reform were constructive and it was agreed to continue these discussions over the coming week to agree next steps," it said.
The bank has provided funding of $24.3 million for a land management and administration project from 2002 to 2009, and an estimated 1.1 million land titles were issued, said Bou Saroeun, a spokesman for the World Bank in Phnom Penh.
Other donors such as Germany, Finland and Canada have together provided more than $14 million to support the land title project, Saroeun added.
*****************
Source: Article from REUTERS posted on Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:07am EDT(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)
Land ownership is a controversial issue in Cambodia, where legal documents were destroyed and state institutions collapsed under the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and the civil war that followed.
The World Bank joined with other aid donors in July to ask the government to halt forced evictions and the problem was raised again by its vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific Region, James Adams, during a visit last week.
"A major focus of the visit was Cambodia's urban land sector and the increasing numbers of disputes and evictions of poor people in urban settlements," the bank said in a statement.
"The discussions on land reform were constructive and it was agreed to continue these discussions over the coming week to agree next steps," it said.
The bank has provided funding of $24.3 million for a land management and administration project from 2002 to 2009, and an estimated 1.1 million land titles were issued, said Bou Saroeun, a spokesman for the World Bank in Phnom Penh.
Other donors such as Germany, Finland and Canada have together provided more than $14 million to support the land title project, Saroeun added.
*****************
Source: Article from REUTERS posted on Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:07am EDT(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)
More than 400 Khmer Krom families to demonstrate against canal construction plan
By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
A source indicated that more than 400 Khmer Krom families living in Krobao district (renamed Tinh Bien by the occupying Vietnamese regime), Motr Chourk province (renamed An Giang by neo-colonialist Vietnam) plan to hold a peaceful demonstration to protest against the plan to built a canal that would lead to the destruction and loss of several hundreds of hectares of their farmlands without any compensation.
Khmer Krom people among these 400 families told RFA over the phone from Krobao district, Motr Chrouk province, occupied Kampuchea Krom that there will be a joint uprising to stop these mechanical engines used to dig the canal: “For tomorrow, we have prepared ourselves, even if they (Viets) want to kill us, we are not afraid! I will go to the canal ditch on my land, I will not let them continue the digging anymore. We ask them to stop [the digging] right now, if they don’t resolve this issue for us, we will not allow them to continue their work, we’d rather die on our farmlands. They are currently digging [the canal], they will dig tomorrow, tomorrow is their main digging operation day. We have gathered from all the villages, we will not allow them to [dig] tomorrow.”
A representative of the group of protesting Khmer Krom people indicated that his family will lose 2 hectares of land from the plan to dig the canal across the rice fields that belong to 400 families: “The International human rights organization said that they will help Khmer Krom people to own lands for farm productions, just like the Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese families now own large tract of lands each, but for our Khmer people, who are the actual owners of our ancestral lands, we lose everything, there’s nothing left.”
A source indicated that a Vietnamese reporter from Prey Nokor city (renamed Ho Chi Minh city by the Vietnamese occupiers) came to investigate the issue with Khmer Krom people living in this area. The reporter asked whether the loss of farmlands was due to the plan to build the canal or not.
On Saturday 29 August, the Viet embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached to obtain clarification about the Khmer Krom demonstration planned for 30 August, nobody at the embassy picked up the phone.
Thach Setha, President of the Khmer Krom Community in Cambodia, said that the Viet government should compensate for the damage and loss of these farmlands: “We share the grief of our Khmer Krom people who are facing serious violations from the Yuon authority. We will seek interventions from the international community. At the same time, with the current visit of H.E. Khieu Kanharith in Kampuchea Krom, we are asking him to take a detour to visit [the affected area] and find a resolution for our Khmer people living there.”
A source indicated that the occupying Vietnamese authority in Krobao district, Mortr Chrouk province, occupied Kampuchea Krom, is currently putting in application the plan to dig a 10-km-long by 50-meter-wide canal that will cross the farmlands belonging to 400 Khmer Krom families. This canal will lead to the loss of several hectares of farmlands belonging to Khmer Krom people and no compensation will be provided by this loss.
****************
Source: Radio Free Asia, 29 August 2009
Posted on KI-Media on 30 August 2009
Radio Free Asia
A source indicated that more than 400 Khmer Krom families living in Krobao district (renamed Tinh Bien by the occupying Vietnamese regime), Motr Chourk province (renamed An Giang by neo-colonialist Vietnam) plan to hold a peaceful demonstration to protest against the plan to built a canal that would lead to the destruction and loss of several hundreds of hectares of their farmlands without any compensation.
Khmer Krom people among these 400 families told RFA over the phone from Krobao district, Motr Chrouk province, occupied Kampuchea Krom that there will be a joint uprising to stop these mechanical engines used to dig the canal: “For tomorrow, we have prepared ourselves, even if they (Viets) want to kill us, we are not afraid! I will go to the canal ditch on my land, I will not let them continue the digging anymore. We ask them to stop [the digging] right now, if they don’t resolve this issue for us, we will not allow them to continue their work, we’d rather die on our farmlands. They are currently digging [the canal], they will dig tomorrow, tomorrow is their main digging operation day. We have gathered from all the villages, we will not allow them to [dig] tomorrow.”
A representative of the group of protesting Khmer Krom people indicated that his family will lose 2 hectares of land from the plan to dig the canal across the rice fields that belong to 400 families: “The International human rights organization said that they will help Khmer Krom people to own lands for farm productions, just like the Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese families now own large tract of lands each, but for our Khmer people, who are the actual owners of our ancestral lands, we lose everything, there’s nothing left.”
A source indicated that a Vietnamese reporter from Prey Nokor city (renamed Ho Chi Minh city by the Vietnamese occupiers) came to investigate the issue with Khmer Krom people living in this area. The reporter asked whether the loss of farmlands was due to the plan to build the canal or not.
On Saturday 29 August, the Viet embassy in Phnom Penh could not be reached to obtain clarification about the Khmer Krom demonstration planned for 30 August, nobody at the embassy picked up the phone.
Thach Setha, President of the Khmer Krom Community in Cambodia, said that the Viet government should compensate for the damage and loss of these farmlands: “We share the grief of our Khmer Krom people who are facing serious violations from the Yuon authority. We will seek interventions from the international community. At the same time, with the current visit of H.E. Khieu Kanharith in Kampuchea Krom, we are asking him to take a detour to visit [the affected area] and find a resolution for our Khmer people living there.”
A source indicated that the occupying Vietnamese authority in Krobao district, Mortr Chrouk province, occupied Kampuchea Krom, is currently putting in application the plan to dig a 10-km-long by 50-meter-wide canal that will cross the farmlands belonging to 400 Khmer Krom families. This canal will lead to the loss of several hectares of farmlands belonging to Khmer Krom people and no compensation will be provided by this loss.
****************
Source: Radio Free Asia, 29 August 2009
Posted on KI-Media on 30 August 2009
Cambodia halves border troops
Aug 30, 2009
PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA has halved the number of troops around an ancient border temple that has been the scene of bloody clashes with Thailand, the defence ministry said on Sunday.
There have been several skirmishes between the two countries on the disputed frontier around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia since the ruins were granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.
'We have pulled out 50 per cent of the troops from Preah Vihear temple,' said Chhum Socheat, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence.
'This shows that the situation at the border is really getting better, and that both countries have a mutual understanding of peace,' he added.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last week said Thailand had just 30 soldiers on the border, meaning that Cambodia could stand some troops down and send them back to their provincial bases.
'We still have enough troops remaining to protect our territory,' said General Chea Dara, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.
He said if Thailand 'shows a softer manner' they could cut the numbers further. 'However, if anything happened, our troop mobility would be very swift,' he told AFP.
Thailand in June reignited the row over the temple when it asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the temple in Cambodia.
Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades. Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.
The last gunbattle in the temple area in April left three people dead while clashes there in 2008 killed another four people. The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia. -- AFP
*******************
Article from The Straits Times
Link: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_423273.html
PHNOM PENH - CAMBODIA has halved the number of troops around an ancient border temple that has been the scene of bloody clashes with Thailand, the defence ministry said on Sunday.
There have been several skirmishes between the two countries on the disputed frontier around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia since the ruins were granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.
'We have pulled out 50 per cent of the troops from Preah Vihear temple,' said Chhum Socheat, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence.
'This shows that the situation at the border is really getting better, and that both countries have a mutual understanding of peace,' he added.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last week said Thailand had just 30 soldiers on the border, meaning that Cambodia could stand some troops down and send them back to their provincial bases.
'We still have enough troops remaining to protect our territory,' said General Chea Dara, deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces.
He said if Thailand 'shows a softer manner' they could cut the numbers further. 'However, if anything happened, our troop mobility would be very swift,' he told AFP.
Thailand in June reignited the row over the temple when it asked world heritage body UNESCO to reconsider its decision to formally list the temple in Cambodia.
Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades. Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.
The last gunbattle in the temple area in April left three people dead while clashes there in 2008 killed another four people. The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia. -- AFP
*******************
Article from The Straits Times
Link: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_423273.html
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