Self-censoring Thai PM threatens to sue newspapers

BANGKOK -- Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who has a notoriously combative relationship with his country's press, threatened on Sunday to sue two local newspapers.
Speaking on his weekly "Talking Samak Style" television show, the prime minister took two unnamed papers to task over their reporting of disputes over a temple on the Thai-Cambodia border.
Samak, who is known for his gruff, straight-talking style, recently cancelled his twice-weekly press briefings because he said he was worried he would publicly utter "rude words."
In his latest attack on the media, he said the newspapers had accused him of trading claims over the temple -- which is on Cambodian soil but to which Thailand has historically laid claim -- for financial gain over oil deals.
"That is absolutely unacceptable," he told viewers. "Tomorrow (Monday) my lawyer will certainly have a job to do. The only way out is through the court."
Samak did not give any details of the offending newspapers, or specifics of the allegations.
Thailand and Cambodia have historically both laid claim to the Preah Vihear temple, an ancient Hindu site perched on a mountaintop on the Thai-Cambodia border. The World Court in 1962 ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia.
The United Nations culture organization UNESCO last year decided against granting the temple coveted World Heritage status.
Rumors swirled that Thailand had blocked Cambodia's efforts to have Preah Vihear listed, but Cambodian officials denied this, and Samak has said he will not hamper attempts by Cambodia to try once again to have the site listed.
A former TV chef and self-styled "man of the people", Samak led the People Power Party (PPP) to an election victory last December and often uses his Sunday television show to complain about the Thai media.
When he announced he would no longer give his press briefings, he said that the public believed he used impolite words. "So to solve this problem and so that I do not utter such rude words, I must not talk," he explained.

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Extracted from Agence France-Presse
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Unesco calls off joint talks

Separate meetings now on Preah Vihear listing

THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation has cancelled a meeting with Thailand and Cambodia in Paris over efforts to put the Preah Vihear temple on Unesco's World Heritage list.
The meeting was supposed to be this Friday and Saturday, with Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama leading the Thai side in the talks.
The meeting has been tentatively rescheduled for May 13, Mr Noppadon said.
The talks will concentrate on Cambodia's proposal to register the ancient ruins, which are right on the border with Thailand.
The only easy access is through Thailand, and some of the border is not demarcated and claimed by both sides.
Unesco will now send its representative, Francesco Caruso, for separate talks with the Thai and Cambodian governments.
The UN agency gave no reason for the change.
Mr Caruso has been appointed by Unesco as a special coordinator between Thailand and Cambodia on the issue and is due in Bangkok next month.
"The Thai government welcomes the proposal and is ready to meet and discuss in good faith with Cambodia the outstanding issues so as to facilitate the process of registration of the temple," the ministry said.
Thailand and Cambodia have agreed in principle to jointly manage Preah Vihear and other ruins in Thailand in the area, but will not allow the project to affect the plan to demarcate the border there.
Preah Vihear, called Khao Phra Viharn in Thai, is on the Cambodian side of Si Sa Ket's Kantharalak district.
But it does not look like the issue will be easily settled.
On April 10, the government handed an aide-memoire to Cambodian ambassador Ung Sean to protest against the deployment of Cambodian troops at the ancient temple.
The government said the troop deployment violated Thailand's territorial sovereignty in the disputed areas along the border, and was also against the spirit of a memorandum of understanding in 2000 concerning the area around the temple.
The Cambodian government countered by summoning Thai ambassador Viraphand Vacharathit to deny all the allegations a day later.
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General news extracted from Bangkok Post
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Thailand and Cambodia to tackle temple dispute in Paris

Bangkok - Thai and Cambodian officials will meet in Paris next week to tackle their ongoing dispute over the registration of Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage Site, media reports said Friday. Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama has confirmed that he will head a delegation to discuss the contentious bilateral issue with Cambodia on May 2-3 at the invitation of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said the Bangkok Post newspaper.
UNESCO reportedly wants both sides to discuss Cambodia's proposal to register Preah Vihear, an ancient Hindu temple that straddles the Thai-Cambodian border, as a heritage site.
Thailand blocked the Cambodian proposal last year on the grounds that there is an ongoing territorial dispute about parts of the temple compound that were to be included in the World Heritage Site.
Ownership of Preah Vihear has been a contentious issue between Thailand and Cambodia for decades.
The dispute was taken to the International Court of Justice, which ruled on June 15, 1962, that the temple belonged to Cambodia.
Although the temple, perched on a cliff overlooking Cambodia, is now under the management of the Cambodian government, the easiest access to the site for tourists is via Thailand.
It is hoped that the demarcation disagreement will be settled before the next World Heritage committee meeting from July 4 to 12 in Canada.

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News extracted from The Earth Times
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Formal protest filed with Phnom Penh

Asked to remove troops from disputed area

THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL

The Foreign Ministry yesterday protested to Cambodia over its sending troops to the disputed area around Preah Vihear _ the ancient ruins on the border between the two countries.

Virachai Plasai, the chief of the Treaties and Legal Affairs Department, summoned Cambodian ambassador Ung Sean to register a protest against Cambodia's intrusion on Thailand's sovereignty. He said it was a violation of the 2000 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries over the Preah Vihear area.

Under the MoU, both countries agreed not to do anything to change the area in question.

This is the fourth time in five years that Bangkok has protested to Phnom Penh over the issue. The previous diplomatic protests were in 2004, 2005 and 2007 and involved the establishment of a state office, a temple and a road in the disputed area by Cambodia.

Thailand's protests have not resulted in any changes, however.

''This time we summoned the Cambodian ambassador to protest against them sending in troops and police and clearing landmines in the overlapping area in Si Sa Ket province,'' said Mr Virachai.

Cambodia was asked to withdraw its troops from the disputed area.

He said although the two countries have a joint border committee looking after their 800-kilometre border, it might take another 10 years to demarcate the 195km border in the Preah Vihear area, as the two countries use different maps. The disputed area covers 2,900 rai, or 4.6 square kilometres.

However, negotiations which aim to put in place a joint management over the disputed area are underway and expected to be in place before the border demarcation is completed, Mr Virachai said.

''Today's protest is done on a legal basis in an attempt to protect Thailand's rights over the disputed area,'' he said. It would not affect diplomatic and political cooperation between the two countries.

The Preah Vihear conflict came up after Cambodia made a proposal to have Unesco include the ancient ruins on the World Heritage list, ignoring a suggestion by Thailand that the proposal be jointly made because of the border problems.

Thailand put its case to Unesco, saying the two countries had not yet settled a demarcation agreement on land around the ruins, prompting the UN body to postpone the listing until the two sides settle their differences.

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Shared by BT; extracted from the Bangkok Post

Cambodia launches first satellite TV network

2008-04-03 20:02:35

PHNOM PENH, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The national Television of Kampuchea (TVK) and the Cambodian DTV Network Limited (CDN), a branch of the Shin Satellite Company from Thailand, here on Thursday launched Techo-DTV, the first satellite TV network of Cambodia.

"From now on, people in all the corners of Cambodia will be able to watch all programs of our TV networks easily through this satellite TV network," said Khieu Kahnarith, Cambodian government spokesman and Minister of Information.

People who live at all kinds of geographical locations will be able to watch TV programs through this satellite TV service, he said.

The Cambodia National Election Committee (NEC) will be able to use this satellite TV network to educate people about election process for the general election in July, he added.

Kem Kunnawadh, director general of TVK, said that Techo-DTV is the country's first satellite television network service that can provide Direct-to-Home (DTH) television programs to every household in the kingdom.

The viewers will enjoy watching all local Khmer channels and some foreign channels, he said, adding that people can also subscribe to pay TV service in the near future.

Dumrong Kasemset, Chief of Executive for the Shin Satellite Company, said that the main benefit of Techo-DTV service includes digital quality of picture and sound similar to that of DVD and convenience to install at every location of houses and buildings.

The DTV service sells 75 U.S. dollars with satellite dish and antenna.

Urban Cambodian people can now access cable TV networks, while about 20 percent of the 14 million population in remote places can't access TV service. Satellite TV will be their solution if they can afford it.

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BT

Cambodia suspends foreign marriages: Official

3 Apr 2008, 1209 hrs IST,AFP

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia has suspended marriages between foreigners and Cambodians amid concerns over an explosion in the number of brokered unions involving poor, uneducated women, an official said on Thursday.

The move follows an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report highlighting the plight of an increasing number of Cambodian brides migrating to South Korea in marriages hastily arranged by brokers who made large profits.

Some 1,759 marriage visas were issued by South Korea in 2007, up from just 72 in 2004, the report said.

While no systematic exploitation was uncovered, several cases of abuse did raise a red flag with the government, said You Ay, secretary of state with the Women's Affairs Ministry.

"Seven women have returned from South Korea because they could not stand what happened to them there," You Ay is said to have revealed.

"The government has temporarily suspended all (paperwork) for Cambodia women to marry foreigners," she said.

You Ay said the ban, which was approved last week, would be lifted after the government developed a legal framework to address mixed marriages.

"This suspension is to prevent human trafficking through marriage," she said, adding that while the brides often receive as little as 1,000 US dollars, agencies can make tens of thousands of dollars on each marriage.

"Cambodia is working to strengthen the laws on marriage," You Ay said.

IOM project coordinator John McGeoghan said that while the report targeted marriages between Cambodians and South Koreans, the potential for problems exists globally and that brokered unions needed to be better regulated.

Three South Korean marriage agencies have been closed down in Cambodia pending the government's decision on marriages to foreigners.

The South Korean embassy in Cambodia earlier this week halted issuing residency visas to Cambodian women wishing to marry Korean men.

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BT

Cambodians Missing, Homeless After Landslide

2008.04.01

A large section of land along Cambodia's Tonle Sap River in a crowded area of the capital, Phnom Penh, collapsed and sank April 1, taking dozens of homes and an unknown number of people with it. Photo: RFA

PHNOM PENH—Residents in a crowded area of the Cambodian capital were scrambling Tuesday to account for relatives and salvage what they could after a 50-meter bank of the Tonle Sap River slid into the water, leaving some 300 people homeless and an unknown number missing.

Phnom Penh Police Commissioner General Touch Naroth said 500 to 600 officers had been mobilized to rescue victims from the landslide at Reussey Keo. The area of the landslide was roughly 60 meters long and 30 meters wide, and it took some 38 houses with it, Touch Naroth said. Another senior official, Phnom Penh City Governor Kep Chutema, said city authorities were on standby in case of further landslides.

“We're not sure yet” how many people might have been submerged as well, he said. “But we picked up five children from the water and told people to collect their family members and review and count themselves. Now they are collecting their belongings.”

Chim Savuth, a human rights officer with the nongovernmental group AdHoc, said residents believed the landslide was caused by sand-dredging, although the Phnom Penh mayor, Kep Chutema, rejected that theory. “Last year it tumbled once and we told them not to stay in the area, but they never listen to us...the place was not safe,” Kep Chutema said.

Last year it tumbled once and we told them not to stay in the area, but they never listen to us...the place was not safe.

Phnom Penh City Governor Kep Chutema

Forty-eight homes belonging to 58 families were lost, Chim Savuth said, 10 more than the police reported. “Right now the competent authorities are searching for people. We’re unsure how many disappeared because it’s chaotic, but some people with minor injuries have been evacuated,” he said.

'We lost everything'

Victims described watching the riverbank break off in chunks and slide into the water before they could retrieve anything from their homes.

“My house had cracks about a week ago but we filled them up. Now three days later it just collapsed. It completely disappeared. Nothing was left standing,” Mrs. Seng Heng, 36, said. “We have lost a lot—we’ve been working in our business for a long time. Nothing is left.”

It was U.S. $700-800…Not much, but we are poor, and we have only this house. When it collapsed we lost everything. My child, too, is completely bereft…

Victim Meas Yang

Mrs. Meas Yang, also 36, cried as she described her loss. “It was U.S. $700-800…Not much, but we are poor, and we have only this house. When it collapsed we lost everything. My child, too, is completely bereft… I am just a vegetable vendor at the market.”

Kouk Sleh, deputy governor of Russei Kev district, went to inspect the affected site, saying the top priority was to aid and evacuate people from the area. “As of now we have not yet received much information. We ordered our men and village chiefs to take a census by asking each family whether anyone was missing,” he said.

“Some of the families weren’t sure whether their children were missing or out playing elsewhere,” he said. “They’re still worrying about the loss of their belongings, which made it difficult for us to talk to them.”

Emergency relief

“For the time being, we are continuing to investigate, and we will know soon who’s missing and so on. This is the first time that we’ve had this kind of accident, but we can say that this happened from a natural cause. No one did anything—it just happened.”

Phnom Penh municipal authorities have also distributed emergency food to the afflicted people.

Phnom Penh City Governor Kep Chutema said that initial relief for the victims include 50 kg of rice, 100,000 riel or about U.S. $25, a mat, and other supplies.

“City Hall is assigning officials to be on standby tonight because there could be further collapses. Worse, there is a gridlock on National Route 5, which could cause traffic accidents,” Kep Chutema said. “We’re still working on solutions for the citizens who are affected by this river bank erosion.”

Medical teams have also been posted to help treat the afflicted people, he said.

Original reporting by RFA's Khmer service. Khmer service director: Sos Kem. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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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.

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