Long Beach man goes on trial in Cambodian coup case

From wire reports

Article Launched: 04/01/2008 08:22:47 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES - Jury selection is set to begin today in the trial of a Long Beach man who allegedly led the attempted overthrow of Cambodia's government in November 2000.

Yasith Chhun, the 51-year-old president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, is charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to damage or destroy property in a foreign country, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States, and engaging in a military expedition against a nation with which the United States is at peace.

Chhun has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

According to the prosecution's 31-page trial memorandum, Chhun met with former members of the Khmer Rouge military at the Cambodia-Thailand border in October 1998 to plan an overthrow of the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Khmer Rouge and its leader, Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The Communist organization was blamed for the deaths of more than 1 million people through execution, forced labor and starvation in what became known as the country's "killing fields."

After raising money in the United States - including staging a May 2000 fundraiser at the Queen Mary - the CFF launched "Operation Volcano," a major assault on Cambodian government buildings and the Sen administration, prosecutors claim.

On Nov. 24, 2000, Chhun orchestrated attacks on buildings housing Cambodia's Ministry of Defense, the Council of Ministers and a military headquarters facility, prosecutors said.

The failed coup resulted in the deaths of at least three CFF members, prosecutors said. An unknown number of civilians, members of the Cambodian National Police and Cambodian military were injured during the attempted coup, prosecutors said.

Chhun and his wife, Sras Pech, 42, are also facing separate federal charges alleging they ran a fraudulent tax-preparation business in Long Beach. Trial in that case is scheduled to begin on July 1.

***************************

Shared by BT

Rocketing inflation hurting Cambodia's poor, World Bank says

Phnom Penh - Double-digit inflation would not hurt the Cambodian economy overall but could have a dire affect on the country's millions of poor, a World Bank economist said Tuesday. Like most of East Asia and the Pacific, Cambodia had been badly hit by inflation with the year-on-year rate at the end of 2007 reaching a nine-year high of 10.8 per cent, Huot Chea said.

However, the bank said Cambodia's economy continued to grow rapidly with gross domestic product (GDP) up an estimated 9.6 per cent last year.

"High inflation rates will not pose a serious threat to the Cambodian economy but will impact on the poor," Chea told journalists.

"About 25 per cent of poor people spend 70 per cent of their income on food," the economist said. "As long as food prices keep rising, this will automatically impact on the poor."

He said inflation had pushed the price of the national staple, rice, up so far that what would have once bought 3 kilograms in some cases now just bought 1 kilo.

Hikes in international oil prices, which have put the cost of petrol up to 1.25 dollars a litre in a country where millions earn less than a dollar a day had also contributed, he said.

The bank also expressed concern about Cambodia's growing trade deficit, which it estimated would grow from 6.8 per cent to 7.3 per cent of GDP this year.

However, overall, it said Cambodia's economy was in good shape and was mainly being impacted by outside factors, including the rising world price of oil and the crisis in the US economy.

"Although risks have increased, economic prospects for 2008 remain strong," the bank said in a press release.

*************************

This article is extracted from:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/195931,rocketing-inflation-hurting-cambodias-poor-world-bank-says.html

*************************
Shared by BT

Cambodia: Infamous Grenade Attack Still Unpunished

31 Mar 2008 15:30:38 GMT

Source: Human Rights Watch

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

(New York, March 30, 2008) � The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should reopen its long-stalled investigation into the grisly grenade attack on an opposition party rally in Phnom Penh 11 years ago that left at least 16 dead and more than 150 injured, Human Rights Watch said today. The FBI investigation, which made significant progress in 1997, has been effectively abandoned. On March 30, 1997, a crowd of approximately 200 supporters of the opposition Khmer Nation Party (KNP), led by former Finance Minister Sam Rainsy, gathered in a park across the street from the National Assembly to denounce the judiciary's corruption and lack of independence. In a well-planned attack, four grenades were thrown into the crowd, killing protesters and bystanders, including children, and tearing limbs off street vendors. The grenade attack made headlines and provoked outrage around the world. On June 29, 1997, the Washington Post wrote:

"In a classified report that could pose some awkward problems for U.S. policymakers, the FBI tentatively has pinned responsibility for the blasts, and the subsequent interference, on personal bodyguard forces employed by Hun Sen, one of Cambodia's two prime ministers, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with its contents. The preliminary report was based on a two-month investigation by FBI agents sent here under a federal law giving the bureau jurisdiction whenever a U.S. citizen is injured by terrorism. ... The bureau says its investigation is continuing, but the agents involved reportedly have complained that additional informants here are too frightened to come forward."

"The FBI was close to solving the case when its lead investigator was suddenly ordered out of the country by the US ambassador, Kenneth Quinn," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The FBI has damning evidence in its files that suggests that Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the attack, but it has refused to fully cooperate with congressional inquiries or follow through on its initial investigation. Instead of trying to protect US relations with Cambodia, it should now finish what it started."

The FBI investigated the attack because Ron Abney, a US citizen, was seriously injured in the blast, which the United States at the time deemed to be an "act of terrorism." Abney had to be evacuated to Singapore to treat shrapnel wounds in his hip.

Instead of launching a serious investigation, then co-Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that the demonstration's organizers should be arrested and instructed police not to allow them to leave the country. (To read an Agence France-Presse account published at the time, please visit: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/28/cambod13086.htm).

On the day of the attack, Hun Sen's personal bodyguard unit, Brigade-70 (B-70), was, for the first time, deployed at a demonstration. Photographs show them in full riot gear. The police, which had in the past maintained a high-profile presence at opposition demonstrations to discourage public participation, had an unusually low profile on that day. Officers were grouped around the corner from the park, having been ordered to stay away from the park itself. Also for the first time, the KNP had received official permission from both the Ministry of the Interior and the Phnom Penh municipality to hold a demonstration, fuelling speculation that the demonstration was authorized so it could be attacked.

Numerous eyewitnesses reported that the persons who had thrown the grenades were seen running toward Hun Sen's bodyguards, who were deployed in a line at the west end of the park near the guarded residential compound containing the homes of many senior Cambodia People's Party leaders. Witnesses told United Nations and FBI investigators that the bodyguard line opened to allow the grenade-throwers to escape into the compound. Meanwhile, people in the crowd pursuing the grenade-throwers were stopped by the bodyguards at gunpoint and told they would be shot if they did not retreat.

"This brazen attack, carried out in broad daylight, ingrained impunity more than any other single act in recent Cambodian history," said Adams. "But that appears to have been one of its purposes � to send the message that opposition supporters can be murdered without ever facing justice."

In a June 1997 interview with the Phnom Penh Post, Hing Bun Heang, deputy commander of Hun Sen's bodyguard unit and operationally in charge of the bodyguards at the park on March 30, 1997, threatened to kill journalists who alleged that Hun Sen's bodyguards were involved. Hing Bun Heang has since been promoted as deputy director of Hun Sen's cabinet and, in September 2006, appointed as supreme consultant to Cambodia's Senior Monk Assembly and assistant to Supreme Patriachs Tep Vong and Bou Kry.

The bodyguard unit B-70 remains notorious in Cambodia for violence, corruption, and the impunity it enjoys as the de facto private army of Hun Sen. According to a 2007 report by the nongovernmental organization Global Witness, "The elite Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Brigade 70 unit makes between US$2 million and US$2.5 million per year through transporting illegally logged timber and smuggled goods. A large slice of the profits generated through these activities goes to Lieutenant General Hing Bun Heang, commander of the prime minister's Bodyguard Unit."

In one notorious case in 2006, two soldiers from B-70 shot a Phnom Penh beer promotion girl in the foot for being too slow to bring them ice. They were arrested by military police, but released hours later by their commander. A representative of the commander said the victim would be paid $500 compensation by B-70, but no criminal investigation or prosecution ensued.

"Instead of investigating the senior officer in charge of the bodyguard unit implicated in the 1997 grenade attack and who threatened to kill journalists reporting on it, Hun Sen has promoted him," said Adams. "Apparently, Hun Sen considers such a person qualified for a senior position in the country's official Buddhist hierarchy."

Given the serious and credible allegations of the involvement of the Cambodian military in the grenade attack, Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the United States has increased military assistance and training to the Cambodian military before it completed its investigation into the 1997 attack.

Human Rights Watch called on the US to ensure that it is not providing any assistance or training to current or former members of B-70 or other Cambodian special military units with records of human rights abuse. In an effort to solidify counterterrorism cooperation, the FBI in 2006 awarded a medal to the Cambodian Chief of National Police Hok Lundy for his support in the US "global war on terror." Hok Lundy was chief of the national police at the time of the grenade attack and has long been linked to political violence.

"No credible explanation has ever been offered for the deployment or behavior of Hun Sen's bodyguards on March 30, 1997," said Adams. "Their actions may reach the highest levels of the Cambodian government, yet the FBI investigation has been dropped. The fact that the US is providing military assistance instead of investigating the grenade attack shows that it is effectively complicit with the Cambodian government in abandoning any hope for justice for the victims of this horrific attack."

***************************
This article is extracted from:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/a71e288f176da13e8cd36bf5466e573e.htm

***************************
Shared by BT

People Power can change Cambodia

By SOURN SEREY RATHA
Guest Commentary

Published: March 31, 2008

CRANSTON CITY, R.I., United States, The ruling party of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in another politically motivated ploy to weaken rivals prior to national elections in July, arrested Tuot Saron of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party on March 18. He is now awaiting trial on trumped-up charges.

The authorities were planning to arrest at least two other party officials, whom they accused of intimidating and mistreating members of their own party who want to defect to the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

Rights watchdog Human Rights Watch said that such dubious arrests of opposition officials months ahead of an election "should set alarm bells ringing." Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said, "This divide-and-conquer strategy is a well-known tactic of Prime Minister Hun Sen to subdue his opponents." He said human rights had been violated in every election cycle in Cambodia.

The only way Cambodians can break Hun Sen's divide-and-rule plan is to unite and launch a People Power initiative. The term typically refers to the popular protest movements in the Philippines that led to the ouster of two presidents, most famously Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Such a movement should unite all opposition parties and the people of Cambodia to end Hun Sen's authoritarian rule.

People Power is also a social movement that could challenge Cambodia's Constitution and seek greater freedoms and rights for its people. Such collective and united efforts would not only give opposition parties the power to fight the current communist rule, but also the strength to denounce any government that comes to power and fails to act on its election promises of creating social harmony and looking out for the people's welfare.

In the past, Hun Sen has rejected People Power as a possibility. However, the ability of monks to vote is a real concern to the ruling party. Monks form an integral part of Cambodia's social community. They influence the faith and political perceptions of the people, 95 percent of whom are Buddhist.

Holding elections is a good thing, but most government atrocities and human rights violations occur after the elections are over. People Power can police the actions of any party that comes to power. In the current scenario, the legislative and executive branches of the government are controlled by the ruling Cambodian People's Party, which is averse to People Power. There is growing concern within the party that a mass protest movement could arise and depose Hun Sen.

Cambodia's veneer of political pluralism grew thinner in 2007. Last year saw the recurring pillage of Cambodian people's land and other natural resources and the jailing of government critics, independent media, and political dissenters, all under the pretext that the groups were attempting to weaken civil society. The Cambodian authorities have never conducted any serious investigations into these matters. Instead, Hun Sen has continued to arrest officials from opposition parties that voice dissent and organizers who stage demonstrations.

Politics in Cambodia have never fully recovered from the events of 1997. On March 30 that year, a grisly grenade attack at an opposition party rally led by former Finance Minister Sam Rainsy left 16 dead and more than 150 injured. In July of the same year a coup -- described by Cambodians as an executive usurpation of power by Hun Sen against Prince Norodom Ranariddh -- cost hundreds of lives. What remained after the coup was a ruthless pattern of extrajudicial executions aimed at rooting out Ranariddh loyalists. General Ho Sok was fatally shot -- presumed executed within the perimeter of the Interior Ministry building. After elections in 1998, Hun Sen presumably ordered his bodyguards and special police force to open fire on over 10,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the National Assembly.

From 1992 until 2006, almost 4,000 activists and supporters of the FUNCINPEC party -- National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia -- Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party, Sam Rainsy Party, and other small parties have been killed. At least 130 families have sought refuge in other countries, while 56 families still await political asylum in sympathetic countries elsewhere.

In 2007, in Preah Vihea province, 317 innocent families were evicted and their houses burned. In Phnom Penh, Chhruoy Changva, and Tonle Basac, military police officers arrested, razed, and burned houses displacing thousands of families. The officers claimed that the land belonged to private companies that would utilize it for public projects. Later, thousands of displaced families were relocated -- or rather dumped at sites outside the capital. These sites lacked drinking water and proper sanitation facilities.

Authorities in Phnom Penh and Battambang province seized all 2,000 copies of the inaugural issue of the monthly "Free Press Magazine" when it was distributed on Nov. 2, 2007. Fearing arrest, the magazine's editor-in-chief, Lem Piseth, and distribution director, Heu Chantha, have been in hiding, according to the Phnom Penh-based Cambodian Center for Human Rights.

Hun Sen has been exemplary in demonstrating how a dictator should cope with the West. He has allowed the development of opposition parties, but murdered their activists. He has allowed opposition figures to emerge, but has not attempted to successfully co-opt them into his regime. He has allowed unions and human rights groups to exist, but prominent individuals within those groups have been killed. When critics or opposition parties increase their efforts to organize rallies and programs for the poor and victims of abuse, political oppression escalates as the elite dig in to defend their interests.

People Power is a challenge, not only to the ruling party but also for the people of Cambodia if they hope to change the leadership and the regime. It is time for Cambodians to conduct a countrywide survey on whether they want to keep the monarchy or become a republic.

Foreign aid, including from the United States, still makes up about 50 percent of Hun Sen's budget. While Hun Sen claims Cambodia is on its way to democracy, what is really happening is the Vietnamization of the country. It's a wake-up call for all Cambodians to gear up for People Power.

--

(Sourn Serey Ratha is chief of mission of the Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodians Overseas, based in Rhode Island, United States. He was born to a farmer's family in Cambodia, earned B.A degrees in law and sociology in Phnom Penh and an M.A. in international policy from Mara University of Technology in Malaysia. He has been a social activist for his country on the national and international levels since 1997. ©Copyright Sourn Serey Ratha.)

*********************

Extracted from United Press International, Asia - Hong Kong, China

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/03/31/people_power_can_change_cambodia/9392/

********************

Shared by BT

Cambodia Remembers Dith Pran

By KER MUNTHIT –

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Dith Pran, the Cambodian journalist whose harrowing tale of survival was told in the movie "The Killing Fields," helped awaken the world to the Khmer Rouge's atrocities, people in his homeland said Monday.

Dith Pran, 65, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer at a New Jersey hospital, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times whose intertwined story was also told in the 1984 film.

Dith Pran was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, when the Khmer Rouge took power in April 1975. One of the movie's most tense scenes shows him risking his life to help save the Times reporter.

Schanberg was later evacuated from Cambodia with other Westerners, while Dith Pran stayed behind and struggled to survive under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.

The communist group's radical policies while in power in 1975-79 led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people from hunger, disease, overwork and execution. The sites where their bodies were unceremoniously disposed of became known as "killing fields."

While Dith Pran was just one of the millions of people who suffered under the Khmer Rouge, he was "the pioneer" in exposing the group's atrocities, said Chea Vannath, the former director of the nonprofit Center for Social Development.

"What was special about him is that he brought the Khmer Rouge's "killing fields" to the world," she said.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith agreed that Dith Pran "was the one who played a key role for the world to become conscious about the killing fields."

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, an independent center researching the Khmer Rouge's crimes, said it was "a very sad thing" that Dith Pran had died before Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal begins trying detained former Khmer Rouge leaders for their alleged roles in the atrocities.

But Dith Pran "continues to be with us now and in the future for the cause of genocide justice," he said.

Dith Pran managed to escape to Thailand in 1979 after Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia to oust the Khmer Rouge. He was later reunited with his family in the United States, where they had settled as refugees, and he became a photographer for the Times.

********************
The above news is extracted from The Associated Press: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jT_sILkpwNJH1Ey_oyQgdKlVN9fQD8VOBLJO0

*******************
Shared with you by BT

Happy Chinese New Year

Dear all my friend,

How are you?

Collecting Rice Cake

Dear all Battambang friend,



How r u all? How about ur holiday on Pchomben's day? U know on that day most of Bob's students and Chamnap's students that have no plan to go anywhere or no partner, they enjoy to collect Ann Sorm to roast and divided it to the Prisioner. We did like this every year. May be next year we need more frinds to help because this year we are late to collect it. However, we are please to do it. Hope to see u next year if u r free :)



Mom

I Have a Dream That One Day I............

Hi Dear Battambang Friend,

What happen in 10-11-12 in this month? Pchomben's day na. Where do you plan to go with yours, Special friend? good friend? coworker friend? family?

I go to Pagoda and my home town with my....... pareents.