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Asian countries launch swap agreement

March 24 2010
By Kevin Brown in Singapore
Financial Times

Thirteen Asian countries on Wednesday launched a $120bn currency swaps agreement to provide emergency US dollar liquidity to nations facing a foreign exchange crisis.

The Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation agreement, 80 per cent financed by Japan, China and South Korea, is a multilateral extension of a network of bilateral swaps deals reached after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

However, economists said it was unlikely to pave the way for an Asian Monetary Fund that could provide a regional alternative to the International Monetary Fund.

“There is certainly no harm in it, but it is quite a long way from here to any form of AMF,” said Michael Buchanan, Asia chief economist at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong.

“If you want to have true objective conditional lending, that is quite hard for neighbouring countries. It is much easier to rely on the IMF for that,” he said.

The agreement allows the three main financing countries and the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations to seek emergency dollar funding of between 0.5 and five times their contributions to the fund.

However, 80 per cent of any swaps approved will be subject to IMF conditions, such as economic reform programmes of the kind imposed by the global lender in 1997/98.

This leaves only 20 per cent of the fund subject to a purely Asian decision-making process. As a result no member country will be able to receive more from the fund than it has contributed, unless the IMF approves.

Officials say this restriction may be eased once a proposed regional surveillance unit is established to monitor economic trends and supervise the use of disbursements from the fund.’

However, much of the urgency behind the drive for a broader Asian financial institution has dissipated in the wake of the huge foreign exchange reserves accumulated by many Asian countries since 1997/98 through large and sustained trade surpluses.

The initial proposal for an AMF was made in 1997 by Eisuke Sakakibara, then Japan’s deputy finance minister, but it was never established because of strong opposition from the US.

The idea continues to surface in policy discussions, notably in Japan. Supporters such as Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, say an AMF could promote exchange rate stability, encourage regional bond market liquidity and project an “Asian voice” on financial matters.

It also retains some traction in south-east Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand that were angered by tough conditions attached to emergency loans extended by the IMF in 1997/98.

The Asean members of the multilateral agreement are Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Brunei and Laos. Hong Kong participates as a self-governing Chinese territory.

Cnemaspis neangthyi reveals itself

Wednesday, 24 March 2010
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
BBC

A new and extremely well camouflaged species of gecko has been discovered hiding in the forests of Cambodia.

Scientists working for Fauna & Flora International found the olive-green coloured gecko in the foothills of the Cardomom Mountains.

Called Cnemaspis neangthyi, the gecko is only the second species of its kind known to live in the country.

Scientists suspect it has lain hidden for so long due to its camouflage and habit of foraging in rocky crevices.

The new species was found during a reptile and amphibian survey led in June 2007 by Dr Lee Grismer of La Sierra University in Riverside, California, US and conservation organisation Fauna and Flora International (FFI).

Since then, scientific studies have revealed it to be a species new to science, due to its unique combination of colour pattern and scale characteristics.

There are currently 75 species of Cnemapsis known to science, of which 30 live in South East Asia, with only one other species present in Cambodia.

They have a relatively ancient body plan characterised by a broad flattened head, large forward and upward directed eyes, flattened body, long widely splayed limbs, and long inflected digits that help them to climb trees and rock faces and seek refuge within crevices.

Cnemaspis are diurnal species that usually go unnoticed because of their cryptic coloration and habit of foraging on the shaded surfaces of trees and overhanging rock faces.

Cnemaspis neangthyi was found living in the rocky foothills of Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, and is thought to live nowhere else.

The new species is olive-green with light coloured blotches containing a central black dot.

It also has a distinct light green chevron marking on its nape and a head with a distinct black parietal spot and radiating black lines extending from its eyes.

Its digits also have light yellow and black bands.

The Cardomom Mountains support one the largest and mostly unexplored forest regions in southeast Asia, which are thought to shelter at least 62 globally threatened animal and 17 globally threatened tree species, many of which are endemic to Cambodia.

Chhang Song, a chameleon-politician (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

2010-03-24
Xinhua

Some 40 foreign war journalists who were covering in Cambodia in early 1970s will get together in Phnom Penh next month, Chhang Song, former information minister said Wednesday.

He said for the first time since that horrible war, foreign war correspondents are returning to Phnom Penh for a reunion from April 20 to 23.

The event is organized by Chhang Song, the last Information Minister in the Lon Nol government who now divides his time between Cambodia and the United States and acts as a senior adviser to both the government and public-at-large.

For those who covered the Cambodian War between 1970 and 1975, the memories have always been particularly painful.

Chhang Song said a total of 36 foreign and Cambodian journalists were killed or disappeared, more than in the war in neighboring Vietnam.

Assisting Chhang Song in his quest is former Associated Press ( AP) correspondent U.S.-born Carl Robinson who covered the Cambodian War from neighboring Saigon, today's Ho Chi Minh City, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia.

While several reunions have been held over the past 15 years in Saigon, this is the first one in Phnom Penh. And, considering their age, this reunion will most likely also be the last one.

"Covering the war was so painful that many, even now, are unable to look back on that period," explains Robinson, who has only re-visited Cambodia in the past couple of years.

Cambodian government has granted permission for the construction of a memorial to the journalists who died in Cambodia while covering the civil war in the 1970s, according to local media report on Monday.

The memorial will be located in the Daun Penh district gardens opposite Raffles Hotel le Royal, it said.

Cambodia claims killing 88 Thais during 2008-9

Wednesday March 24, 2010

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia claimed Wednesday that its forces killed scores of Thai soldiers in clashes during 2008-9 around a disputed ancient temple along the frontier, but Thailand said only two or three of its troops had died.

Neither claim could be verified, nor was it clear why Cambodia chose to announce the casualty figures at this time amid continuing tension in relations.

Gen. Chea Tara, who commands Cambodian forces in the disputed area, said the situation at the disputed border near the Preah Vihear temple was now quiet but that soldiers of both sides remain on high alert.

"Now Cambodia has enough weapons and forces to protect its territory. You (Thais) don't want to be fighting with us," the general told hundreds of Cambodian government officials and lawmakers.

"We also have enough reserve forces and weapons to help the front line if needed."

The long-running dispute over Preah Vihear heated up in July 2008 when UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, approved Cambodia's bid to have the 11th century temple named a World Heritage site.

Thailand initially supported the bid but then reneged after the move sparked outrage and protests by Thai nationalists.

CICP head Cheang Vanarith says China's economic assistance has proved a boon for Cambodia (Photo: VOA - R. Carmichael)

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh 24 March 2010

In the past five years China and Cambodia have drawn ever closer, with Beijing investing billions of dollars in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. Cambodians see both benefits and potential risks in the relationship.

In the past five years, China has become Cambodia's most important source of foreign investment: Cambodia has approved $6 billion of Chinese investments since 2006, while China provided at least $2 billion more in grant aid and loans.

Those are big sums for Cambodia, which has a $10 billion economy.

The relationship between the two countries is nothing new. Chea Vannath, an independent analyst based in Phnom Penh, says China's influence goes back at least 1,000 years.

"So it shows a good relationship with China. Since then either during the bad time or the happy time, China and Cambodia always have - you can say - sweet and sour, or long-lasting relationship. Always," said Chea Vannath.

In recent years that relationship is one the Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen has come to value highly.

He has publicly welcomed the rapid increase in Chinese investment. He also says China is his kind of friend since he says, unlike some donors to this aid-reliant nation, Beijing provides cash with no strings attached and without interfering.

Cheang Vanarith is the director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, a research body in Phnom Penh. He notes that China's financial interests in Cambodia have other benefits for Beijing.

"But probably China looks beyond economic interests toward more strategic interests in this region. So China used to be the center of the universe. China is the kind of regional hub in terms of strategic (strategy) and economic (economy). Some people call it China returning to the past," he said.

But there are concerns about China's rising influence in Cambodia. For instance, some critics, including witnesses who recently testified in the U.S. Congress, say the money China invests in Cambodia's infrastructure ends up going to state-owned Chinese companies that build the roads and hydropower dams. These contracts are not open to public scrutiny or independent oversight.

The International Monetary Fund, among others, has expressed concern about Beijing's insistence that Phnom Penh pledge to buy all of the power the hydropower dams generate for 30 years.

That could total hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The IMF says Phnom Penh must ensure it does not lock itself into huge open-ended commitments for fear that the liability could harm the fight against poverty.

Despite those concerns, Cheang Vanarith says China will continue to expand its influence in Cambodia. He says China's friendship provides Cambodia with a useful balance against countries such as Thailand, with which it has historical disputes.

He sees few risks to the relationship, and says some of the money from China's aid and investment helps anti-poverty efforts.

But human rights activists say the relationship could be too cozy. They pointed to Phnom Penh's decision last year to send 20 Uighur refugees back to China, at Beijing's request. Days later Cambodia received economic assistance deals worth $1.2 billion.

The United States and other countries sharply criticized Cambodia for deporting the Uighurs, members of a Muslim minority group in China. But Cheang Vanarith says there has been no economic backlash.

"Yes, we got strong negative reaction from the U.S. But later stage it seemed to be O.K. The bilateral relations between Cambodia and the U.S., I could feel it's on the right track - coming back," said Cheang Vanarith.

Chea Vannath, however, like many civic activists, worries about China's effect on Cambodia's environment, and the effort to improve governance and human rights protections here.

China is ranked in 79th in the most recent Transparency International corruption perception survey, out of 180 nations. She says Cambodia ought to learn the lessons of governance from nations with a better track record on democracy and human rights.

"And with the money that goes along with lack of transparency, lack of democratic governance - not just governance, but democratic governance - the participation of people into the state affairs. That concerns us. Yes, it concerns me," she said.

It appears to be less of concern to the Phnom Penh government. Just this month, China and Cambodia agreed to continue strengthening the relationship and to cooperate on projects to develop Cambodia's agriculture, tourism and communications industries.

The Dark Side of China Aid

March 24, 2010
By CHRISTOPHER WALKER and SARAH COOK
The New York Times

The government in Phnom Penh, which has received substantial aid from the United States and other democracies, now receives comparable amounts from China. The Cambodian authorities have used this “assistance competition” to their advantage. Rather than combating corruption and implementing sorely needed reforms to the judiciary and media sector, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has shrunk space for alternative voices and independent institutions. Western donors, fearful of losing influence, have been increasingly hesitant to penalize the regime for its failures.

A growing number of developing countries receive billions of dollars a year in assistance, loans, and investments from China. Already in 2010, Beijing has committed $25 billion to Asean nations. In March, Zambia’s president returned from a trip to China with a $1 billion loan in hand.

As Beijing’s levels of foreign assistance swell and its relationship deepens with countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, a key question emerges: What impact will investments by an opaque and repressive superpower have on governance standards in the developing world?

Findings from a Freedom House analysis, “Countries at the Crossroads,” point to the challenges that many of these recipient countries confront as they struggle to build more transparent and accountable systems. Fighting corruption and safeguarding freedom of expression and assembly are proving especially difficult. The dark side of Beijing’s engagement, with its nontransparent aid and implicit conditions, risks tipping the balance in the wrong direction.

To appreciate the “China effect” on developing countries, it is essential to understand the methods Beijing is using to exert influence and warp incentives for accountable governance.

First, as international financial institutions and donor organizations seek to encourage stronger governance norms, aid from China has become an alternate source of funds. Recipient governments use these as a bargaining chip to defer measures that strengthen transparency and rule of law, especially those that could challenge elite power.

Cambodia is a telling example. The government in Phnom Penh, which has received substantial aid from the United States and other democracies, now receives comparable amounts from China. The Cambodian authorities have used this “assistance competition” to their advantage. Rather than combating corruption and implementing sorely needed reforms to the judiciary and media sector, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has shrunk space for alternative voices and independent institutions. Western donors, fearful of losing influence, have been increasingly hesitant to penalize the regime for its failures.

In October, the Guinean government announced a $7 billion deal with the China International Fund just as the international community was considering sanctions following a massacre of opposition supporters. The case underscores how even investments by a private entity, this one with ties to Beijing, can be manipulated to undermine efforts to support human rights standards.

Second, while “no strings attached” is commonly used to describe China’s approach in the developing world, the reality is not quite so benign. A combination of subtle and not-so-subtle conditions typically accompanies this largesse. Included among these is pressure to muzzle voices critical of the Chinese government, often undermining basic freedoms of expression and assembly in these countries. The authorities in Nepal, which have recently received a 50 percent boost in aid from Beijing, have violently suppressed Tibetan demonstrations, including the arrest of thousands of exiles in 2008. In December of last year, Cambodia’s government forcibly repatriated 20 Uighurs to China, where they face almost certain imprisonment and torture. Three days later, Beijing announced a package of deals with Cambodia estimated at $1 billion.

Even more democratically developed countries are not immune to such pressures. In March 2009, the South African government barred the Dalai Lama’s attendance at a pre-World Cup peace conference.

Third, Chinese aid funds are frequently conditioned on being used to purchase goods from firms selected by Chinese officials without an open bidding process. In Namibia, anti-corruption agencies are investigating suspected kickbacks in a deal involving security scanners purchased by the government from a company until recently headed by President Hu Jintao’s son. Beijing’s response has been to stonewall investigations and activate its robust Internet censorship apparatus, sanitizing online references to the case Chinese citizens might stumble across.

Observers such as the scholar Larry Diamond have identified countries that are semi-democratic, rather than autocracies, as the most promising ground for expanding the ranks of consolidated democracies globally. The patently negative aspects of the Chinese Communist Party’s developing world influence could deal a real blow to this aspiration.

Findings from Freedom House’s global analysis of political rights and civil liberties put this phenomenon in perspective. Over the past five years countries with only some features of institutionalized democratic systems have slipped significantly — 57 countries within the “partly free” category have experienced declines, while only 38 improved.

Beijing’s deepening involvement in these cases may generate a number of effects, some perhaps positive for short-term economic development. But the dark underbelly of the Chinese regime’s involvement — the opacity of its aid and the illiberal conditions that underpin it — means that over the long haul, incentives for strengthening accountable governance and basic human rights are being warped, or even reversed.

Christopher Walker is director of studies and Sarah Cook is an Asia researcher at Freedom House.

In Cambodia, unity is strength

March 24, 2010
By Gaffar Peang-Meth
Guest Commentary
UPI Asia Online

Washington, DC, United States, — No stone has been left unturned by writers in Cambodia and abroad in exposing the Hun Sen regime’s violations of human rights and lack of good governance. Endless appeals for change have been made by reputable national and international nongovernmental organizations.

But this is merely water off a duck’s back to the regime. It’s futile. Besides, the duck may even enjoy the water.

A former comrade-in-arms, now in the ranks of Premier Hun Sen’s armed forces – neutralized, sidelined and mistrusted, like others who chose to remain in the country and join Sen to earn enough money to live – tells me of the ruling Cambodian elite’s philosophy: “Write all you want until the cows come home. Nothing will change until we are ready. Besides, we can sue you!”

But Sen and his elite continue to fatten themselves with amassed wealth as they ride above the law, while the poor scavenge city dumps for food and are evicted from their land so it can be developed for others’ profit. The country’s natural resources are looted for personal gain, and many in the international community continue business as usual with Sen because it’s profitable.

It is an evident truth that the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, intended to establish democracy in the country, were never implemented.

Many have been sued by the government; the main opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, faces jail should he return to Phnom Penh from Paris. Earlier, royalist opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of King Sihanouk, half-brother of current King Sihamoni, swore off politics to be allowed to return from self-imposed exile in Malaysia. Ranariddh is quiet; as all the royals are quiet. The king continues to be Sen’s rubber stamp – even signing a royal decree nominating a neighboring country’s fugitive leader as advisor to the government.

Not that Cambodians and non-Cambodians don’t see and don’t know these things. They do, but most don’t think these things affect them directly and personally. Worse, many brush off what is unpleasant as they scapegoat others, assign blame and absolve themselves from culpability.

“There's none so blind as those who will not see,” a saying goes.

Another former comrade-in-arms who has read my columns over the years and is now also with the Sen regime, asked me, “You still want to transform ducks into peacocks?” The Greek philosopher Plato said long ago: “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”

Plato’s “fools” are dangerous because they are ignorant. Martin Luther King observed, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Last week, I emailed an acquaintance two quotes, one from prominent psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, “The system isn't stupid, but the people in it are”; and another from Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Who and what people are, I wrote, determine their actions. Thus, we must begin change with ourselves.

Back to Hun Sen’s Cambodia. Although Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party do have support inside and outside the country, Cambodian Action Committee for Justice and Equity president Serey Ratha Sourn’s pertinent question deserves consideration. “If Hun Sen and the ruling party have no fear of Cambodians at the grassroots level rising up at the right time in a People Power against them, why did he and the CPP rush a new criminal code limiting the number of demonstrators and block the rights of expression?”

Sourn doesn’t believe that an election in contemporary Cambodia would have any meaning. With power concentrated in the same hands that suppress dissent, trample laws and instill fear, Sen is certain to win and the election is only a tool to legitimize his oppression.

A grassroots activist, Sourn sees “People Power” as possible, and as the only route to bring change. He and his supporters are working to implement a strategy of “One Mission, One Message and One Multitude” – Sourn’s three M’s. So they devote their time to setting up networks of people, monks and youth.

While a Western reader wrote that “most people” in Cambodia “have accommodated to the prevailing political situation” and are moving on “to make ends meet rather than worry about how change could be brought about,” some Cambodians in the country have told me the people need to read my articles, but in the Khmer language – confirming Sourn’s and others’ contention that as Cambodians understand, they will rise up.

Talk of creating a government-in-exile has dissipated. Such an action would be futile. It would be easy to create and announce it. World governments might sympathize with Cambodians’ plight, but realpolitik dictates that they balance between the devil they know and the devil they don’t know.

Some history does seem to repeat. As it was in the 1970s and 1980s with the Cambodian Non-Communist Resistance and the associated coalition government, in the final analysis, foreigners called the shots.

Cambodians, like others in the world, are generally impatient with slow results in an era of push-buttons and of instant gratification. Many want change in Cambodia – and wish a government-in-exile or armed resistance would produce the change.

It is those impatient Cambodians who scoff at retired Johns Hopkins professor Rananhkiri Tith’s call for a “systematic overhaul” of Cambodian society as a way to slow down and perhaps “save” Cambodia from disintegration. Tith’s scheme would take a long time to be successful.

Lasting change has a chance as a population becomes more educated. But it could take 20 years before education bears fruit.

Sadly, while the Sen regime consolidates its power, his critics are in disarray. Cambodians have learned since their youth, “l’union fait la force,” or unity is strength. And many have learned U.S. founding father Benjamin Franklin’s words, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” as he called on American rebels either to band together or find themselves hung individually at the British gallows. Thus, E Pluribus Unum – out of many, one: the 13 colonies banded together as the United States of America.

Thus 233 years later, in July 2009, the 44th U.S. president, Barack Obama, told Ghana’s Parliament, “We must start with a simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans,” and, “With strong institutions and a strong will, I know that Africans can live their dreams.”

Cambodians should hear Obama’s words.
--
(Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in the United States. He can be contacted at peangmeth@gmail.com. ©Copyright Gaffar Peang-Meth.)

Cambodia finally drafting laws to curb acid attacks

Wed Mar 24, 2010
By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH (Reuters Life!) - Keo Sreyvy is scarred for life after hot acid was poured on her in a vicious attack. Her body is covered in burns. She is blind in one eye.

Like scores of other acid attack victims in Cambodia, Keo Sreyvy knows her attacker very well -- her brother-in-law -- but the police have so far done nothing to bring him to justice.

But after years of indifference to a rise in acid attacks across Cambodia, which have disfigured both men and women, authorities are drafting legislation to restrict acid sales and punish perpetrators, part of attempts to tidy up its image as the impoverished country develops its economy.

Often dismissed as fits of jealous rage, the attacks are now at the center of a national debate over how to treat a readily available substance used to clean jewelry, unclog drains, maintain vehicles and, increasingly, to attack people.

After seven attacks in 2008, the number jumped to 28 in 2009. Ten attacks have been reported this year alone, according to the nonprofit Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity.

Legislation in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, where acid attacks are also common, was being studied and a new law would soon be in place, said Ouk Kimlek, a top police general and senior Interior Ministry official.

Authorities say the law would punish attackers with up to life in prison and require all acid sellers be licensed. Both acid sellers and buyers would need to carry identification proving that they are older than 20.

"If he's arrested, I would ask that he is executed," said Keo Sreyvy, who was attacked a year ago by her brother-in-law, who blamed her for the breakup in his marriage.

"This left me a widow with three children. It's destroyed my body and my life," she said.
Rights groups normally critical of Cambodia's law enforcement agencies have heaped praise on the government for its newfound enthusiasm toward curbing the problem.

"We support the government," said Pung Chiv Kek, president of local rights group Licadho. "We want to see a good law."

Ziad Samman, a case coordinator at the Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity, said the attacks often went unpunished because they were dismissed as domestic rows.

The move comes as Cambodia seeks to clean up its reputation for human rights abuses, rampant corruption, and lax law enforcement, factors that have deterred foreign investors.

Strict laws on weapons sales made acid a cheap and readily available alternative, and victims are from both sexes.

Sam Bunnarith a former salesman, is now blind in both eyes after he was attacked by his own wife because of his infidelity.

"She didn't expect I would lose sight in both my eyes, she just wanted my face to look bad," he said, adding his wife wanted to disfigure him so he was no longer attractive to other women.

(Editing by Martin Petty and Miral Fahmy)

Hearing in Mu Sochua’s case to take place on 07 April

24 March 2010
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy

A source close the Supreme Court indicated on 23 March 2010 that the court will hold a hearing on 07 April to decide on the appeal case by SRP MP Mu Sochua who is accused of defaming Hun Xen. On 28 October 2009, the Appeal court held a hearing on this defamation case after Mrs. Mu Sochua appealed the decision handed down by the Phnom Penh municipal court which ordered her to pay a $4,100 fine. Mrs. Mu Sochua refused to pay that fine. The Appeal court upheld the decision issued by the lower court. Mrs. Mu Sochua then appealed to the Supreme Court at the end of 2009. Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, said that Mrs. Mu Sochua is currently traveling to the US and she will returned back by the beginning of April. However, he said that he does not know the date set for the Supreme Court hearing.

Eucalyptus a hidden cause of Southwest China's drought

By Chen Chenchen
Source: Global Times

ki-media.blogspot.com

Drought-plagued Southwest China is witnessing a bitter lack of water.

Wang Xuefeng, deputy director of the Climate Center of Yunnan Province, says the drought is a low-probability event. "It's like wining a prize in the lottery. In the long river of history, there's always one year in which such a drought takes place. If you think of it this way, things get much simpler," he said.

Is it really that simple? Though experts are still arguing over the causes of the worst drought in a century, the vast eucalyptus forests throughout the region are at least one hidden cause.

After Sinar Mas Group and Storan Enso, two leading paper-making manufacturers, launched projects in southwestern China in recent years, fast-growing eucalyptus trees have been massively promoted and planted, wiping out vast indigenous forests and natural weed trees.

Currently in Wenshan, Simao and Lincang, Yunnan Province, eucalyptus forests cover more than 20,000 square kilometers, in the wake of deals between Sinar Mas Group and local governments.

In Wenshan, Yunnan Province, despite the worries voiced by scholars from the very beginning, local officials showed great passion toward Sinar Mas Group's $1.8 billion investment, which was expected to bring 12,000 employment opportunities and annual value-added tax of 42.5 billion yuan ($6.22 billion).

Farmers, lured by higher pay, also joined the gigantic movement to plant fast-growing eucalyptus.

Nevertheless, the impact of the movement has been destructive. Eucalyptus, called the "despot tree" by locals, has gradually drawn out water and nutrients in the soil, and inhibited weeds, shrubs and herbal medicines. Animals can barely live on such bare land. And the special chemical fertilizer used in soil heavily pollutes water quality. In addition to the current drought, more unimaginable ecological costs are still ahead.

Due to its potential destruction of vegetation and water sources, Japan, Australia, Vietnam and Cambodia have all banned massive planting of fast-growing Eucalyptus to avoid ecological calamities. New Zealand also removed its previously planted mas-sive eucalyptus forests. Sinar Mas Group and Storan Enso, blamed for destroying ecological forests across the world, turned to China, well known for its emphasis on rapid economic development.

It's time for China to take action too.

Destructive eucalyptus forests should be removed, making room for ecologically sound forests. Paper-makers and local officials, who caused the situation with profit-oriented thinking, are now obliged to change it.

Local governments can provide these manufacturers with fund compensation and preferential policies in a bid to encourage them to change their current production mode. They should also urge the paper-makers to stop planting eucalyptus and help remove the destructive trees within a certain period.

Updating current paper-making practices is an urgent need, environmentally friendly paper-makers are called for, and wood resources should be used in a sustainable way.

Dancers under the KR regime

06 March 2010
By Chan Lyda
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

The KR regime was a bitter historical regime for Cambodia. Some choose to remain silent to forget about their past, but for Mrs. Sim Yim, a former artist, musician and singer under the Democratic Kampuchea (KR regime), she did note evade the truth about her artistic life under this regime.

Click here to listen to the audio program in Khmer (MP3)

Your Scene: Catch of the day in Cambodia

Source: Los Angeles Times (California, USA)

As Paul Prewitt of Laguna Beach watched from the shores of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, a woman and her children floated by with this reptilian passenger. “I wasn’'t sure whether the kids were playing with their pet snake or with their dinner,” Prewitt said. He captured the scene on this lake, which is better known for its harvest of carp, with a Nikon D-70. (Photo: Paul Prewitt)

Cambodia drug-resistant malaria stirs health fears

Sat Mar 6, 2010
Thin Lei Win

PAILIN, Cambodia (Reuters) - In a dusty village near the Thai-Cambodia border, 24-year-old Oeur Samoeun sits on a dark green hammock recovering from a strain of malaria that has resisted the most powerful drugs available.

Ravaged by days of fever and chills, he is considered lucky: the parasite has left his body. But for many others, the potentially deadly disease never quite disappears.

His province of Pailin is the epicenter of strains of malaria that have baffled healthcare experts worldwide, raising fears a dangerous new form of malaria could already be spreading across the globe.

"The fear is what we're observing right now could be the starting point for something worse regionally and globally," said Dr. Charles Delacollette, Mekong Malaria Program Coordinator at the World Health Organization.

A New England Journal of Medicine study last year showed that conventional malaria-fighting treatments derived from artemisinin took almost twice as long to clear the parasites that cause the disease in patients in Pailin and others in northwestern Thailand, suggesting the drugs were losing potency in the area.

That is echoed by U.S. development agency USAID, which says artemisinin-based combination therapy is "now taking two to three times longer to kill malaria parasites along the Thai-Cambodian border than elsewhere." The agency has helped to monitor the situation in the area for years.

The disease transmitted via mosquito bites kills more than 1 million people worldwide each year and children account for about 90 percent of the deaths in the worst affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia.

The studies shine a spotlight on the remote province of Pailin, a former stronghold of ultra-communist Khmer Rogue rebels and once renown for blood-red rubies and lush forests.

MULTIPLIED AND DISPERSED

Pailin is the origin of three drug-resistant malaria parasites over the past five decades. Thanks to prolonged civil conflict, dense jungles and movement of mass migrants in the gem mines in the 1980s and 90s, the strains multiplied and dispersed through Myanmar, India and two eventually reached Africa.

Few can say why it is a hotbed for drug-resistant malaria but experts point to a combination of sociological factors and a complicated history spanning the Khmer Rouge era when 1.7 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population, perished from execution, overwork or torture during their 1975-79 rule.

Driven from the capital, the rebels waged an insurgency from western Cambodia with Pailin one of their last holdouts until their defeat in the late 1990s.

"During the Khmer Rouge era, people came here illegally and when they get malaria, they go to the market, buy pills and self-medicate," Sophal Uth, a Pailin-based field officer for non-profit Malaria Consortium said. "It was difficult for the government to control."

With weak public health infrastructure and rising malaria cases, Cambodia made malaria drugs available over the counter more than a decade ago. Most Cambodians don't have access to public health services and rely on private medical centers.

The strategy carried risks. Easy access reduced the number of cases but also led to incorrect dosages and substandard or counterfeit medicine, which instead of killing the parasites only make them stronger.

For some like Oeur, a migrant worker who likely caught malaria on a logging trip or while sleeping in his rickety shed without a mosquito net, artemisinin-based medicine still works.

Artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood, or Artemisia annual plant, is the best drug available against malaria, especially when used in artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) medicines made by firms such as Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and France's Sanofi-Aventis.

MOST HAVE HAD MALARIA

After three days of ACT, Oeur is weak but parasite-free.

The Mekong River region of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos use ACTs against the "falciparum" parasite, the most severe form of malaria, as suggested by the World Health Organization.

"Artemisinin is the most effective antimalarial we have left," Dr. Chansuda Wongsrichanalai of USAID's office of public health in Bangkok said. "We don't have any ideal alternatives available and ready to for use in a control programme right now."

Pailin's gem mines are gone and so are most foreign migrants and the troops. Severe deforestation has left most hill tops barren. Yet the parasites are as virulent as ever. Most of its inhabitants have had malaria at least once in their lives.

Malaria experts, weary of being called alarmists, are quick to point out ACTs still work -- they are just taking longer. The WHO isn't even calling it drug-resistance, they preferred to use the term "altered response" or "tolerance to artemisinin."

"From a public health perspective, I don't think it really matters much if it's resistance or something else given that at the end of the month, patients are returning to the health facility with the same malaria," Dr. John MacArthur, chief of the President's Malaria Initiative at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Potential fallout from ACT resistance led the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund a $22.5 million containment programme. Cambodia will also receive $102 million from The Global Fund to fight malaria in the next five years.

The Gates Foundation programme aims to use screening, bed nets and grass-roots muscle to contain the parasites along the border area and eliminate them before they can spread further.

Last November, Malaria Consortium said studies show artemisinin resistance already may be present in Myanmar, China and Vietnam, where between 12-31 percent of patients still had the parasite in the system after three days of treatment.

(Editing by Jason Szep and Bill Tarrant)

Thai rice farmers fret about free trade

3/7/2010
Agence France-Presse

For many farmers in Thailand's rice belt, agreements between Asian countries to reduce trade barriers have not brought all the benefits that national leaders promised.

"We are afraid of the free trade area," says Chatree Radomlek, a 37-year-old farmer in Pathum Thani, about an hour's drive north of Bangkok but a world away from the capital's glitzy hotels and restaurants.

A rural community where local people boast of the nutritional benefits of eating field mice, its green paddies help make Thailand the world's biggest rice exporter.

But where humid weather and new farming technologies used to dominate local farmers' conversations, free trade is now the hot topic.

A free trade area between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Thailand is a member, and China took full effect on January 1, liberalising billions of dollars in trade and investments in a market of 1.7 billion consumers.

It is the world's largest free trade area by population, eliminating barriers to investment and tariffs on 90 percent of products.

"If cheap rice comes to Thailand from other countries, it might make our prices go down. I think the government should set up measures to protect us," says Chatree, looking out from under a wide-brimmed hat.

He says that rice from neighbouring Cambodia and Laos is "inferior" but that it could flood the Thai market, possibly leading Thai consumers to buy imported rice instead and lowering domestic prices for his grains.

Another fear is that middlemen could mix Thai rice with lesser varieties of the imported grain, hurting the quality of Thailand's product.

Bangon Radomlek, 57, says she has worked the rice fields since she was ten and adds, with a grin, that although the work is tough, "it's a life with freedom."

"But I don't like free trade," she says. "We only want to export. We don't want to import. We want to be the sole producer."

Rice is big business in Thailand. The country's Foreign Trade Department says that the nation exported 8.57 million tons of rice in 2009, worth five billion dollars.

It expects that the country will ship more than nine million tons in 2010.

The importance of rice to the economy led to a spat in recent months with fellow ASEAN member the Philippines, one of the world's biggest rice importers.

Bangkok wanted Manila to lower import tariffs on Thai rice to comply with the ASEAN free trade area but the Philippines said it could not afford to, fearing that freer trade would undercut its own rice industry.

Thailand's Commerce Ministry said the two countries had now struck a deal for the Philippines to buy 376,000 tons of Thai rice until 2014 without applying any of the usual 40 percent tariff.

The Philippines has the option, however, of not buying the rice if it produces enough for domestic consumption or finds a better price elsewhere. Manila will lower its tariff to 35 percent in 2015.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said the issue of rice underlines the sensitive nature of agricultural products and international trade.

He said "there are pros and cons" to free trade, meaning that while lower trade barriers could open more markets for Thailand, it also raises the prospect of cheaper rice entering the market from its neighbours.

Global Witness urges Cambodia’s donors to condemn sponsorship of military units by private businesses

Press Release – 05/03/2010
Source: Global Witness

"Since the end of Cambodia's civil war, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has operated as a vast organised crime network" - Gavin Hayman, Campaigns Director at Global Witness

Aid donors to Cambodia, including the US, EU, Japan, China and the World Bank, should send a strong message to the government that they will not countenance the bankrolling of Cambodia's military by private businesses.

The call follows the announcement last week by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the formation of 42 official partnerships between private businesses and Cambodian military units. The partnerships will "solve the dire situation of the armed forces, police, military police, and their families through a culture of sharing" according to a government memo.

Global Witness is concerned that this policy officially sanctions an arrangement where businesses get military protection in return for financial backing. A number of the companies named as military sponsors already have track records of using the military to protect their business interests. For example, Global Witness's 2009 report, Country for Sale, described how the Try Pheap Company used armed forces to guard a mine in Stung Treng Province.

Other high-profile Cambodian companies allegedly providing sponsorship include the Mong Reththy Group, the Ly Yong Phat Company, and the Chub Rubber Plantation Company.

"Since the end of Cambodia's civil war, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces has operated as a vast organised crime network," said Gavin Hayman, Campaigns Director at Global Witness. "It is unacceptable for private companies to be financing a military renowned for its corruption and involvement in illegal activities and human rights abuses."

The arrangement also threatens to undermine the legitimacy of international aid, especially in the case of donors such as the US who are directly funding the military. In 2009 the US spent more than $1 million on military financing, education and training in Cambodia.

"Yet again, Cambodia's donors are being mocked by the government's blatant violation of basic governance and transparency standards. The existence of a strong patronage system between the military and private business is not new. But what is different and shocking is that it has become official government policy," said Hayman. "Donors should send a firm and decisive message that Cambodia's military exists to protect the people, not the financial assets of a privileged few."

"This fire-sale of military units represents an appalling breach of governance standards and threatens to undermine the country's future stability," said Hayman. "The donor community has collectively poured billions into the restoration of peace and democracy in Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Surely they are not going to stand by and allow this to be undercut by a policy of selling off the armed forces to private business interests? This is tantamount to sanctioning a mercenary force."

/Ends

Contacts: Eleanor Nichol, +44 (0)7872 600 870

Notes for Editors

1.Global Witness has worked in Cambodia for over 15 years and published 18 reports on corruption within the management of the country's natural resources. For examples, see www.globalwitness.org

2.The policy of military-business partnerships was first reported in the Cambodia Daily on Friday 26 February in an article titled Businesses Tie Official Knot With Military. For a full list of companies and military units allegedly involved, contact Global Witness.

3. In the 2009 financial year, the US spent an estimated $1,106,000 on Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training in Cambodia, according to the US Department of State's Executive Budget Summary: Function 150 & Other International Programs Fiscal Year 2011, accessed at http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/135888.pdf

Click on the announcement in Khmer to zoom in

WHEN:
Saturday 20 March 2010 - Starting from 6PM
Sunday 21 March 2010 - Starting from 9:30AM

WHERE:
Khmer Palelai Buddhist Monastery
240 Greenwich St., Philadelphia, PA 19147

------

The Biography of Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda
(1913-2007)

Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda Var Yav was born on May 23, 1913, Buddhist Era 2457, in Baray village, Trang district, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia. Parents name were Var Kut and Kim Keav. He has no siblings, only child of the family.

Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda got ordained novice Monk on April 7, 1927, Buddhist Era 2416, at the age of fourteen (14) years old in Baray Temple, Baray Village, Trang District, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia.

Samdech received his religious education from third to first classes of Dhammavinaya, Takeo Province, Kingdom of Cambodia, 1929-1932, Buddhist Era 2472.

Samdech then got ordained Buddhist Monk on April 19,1934, Buddhist Era 2477, age of 21, Keo Preahplaeng Monastery, Phnom Penh City, Cambodia, by Samdech Preah Mahasumetatipadey Chourn Nath Jotanhano, King of Cambodian Buddhist Monks, as his ordaining teacher.

Samdech had traveled and relocated himself to many different Monasteries in Phnom Penh City for fifteen years (15) 1938-1953, Buddhist Era 2481 to 2495. Monasteries such as Sampaomeas Monastery, Langka Monastery, Ounalom Monastery, and Keo Preahplaeng Monastery.

Samdech has received and taken a lot of advantages to learn and educate one another in one way or another. He received several Master degrees from several countries all over the world. He could also speak and write in fifteen different languages such as Cambodian, English, Sangscrit, French, Lao, Chinese, Boengkali, Burmese, German, Pali, Thai, Vietnamesse, Japanese, Hindi, and last but not least Korean.

In 1978, Buddhist Era 2520, when Cambodian was in a civil war Samdech was busy coordination with the United Nations and the United States of America with Peter Pond, King Phumipokn Adoknyadat and Princess Maha Chakrey Serindorn of Thailand to help Cambodian refugees in refugees’ camps located along Thai-borders.

Samdech is a founder of International religious Council for Peace to search for a formal that can be used to find out truth, peace, and happiness. Samdech got appointed as King of Buddhist monks by Khmer Buddhists monks and laymen, by Cambodian leaders, and by the Cambodian people, and was officially recognized by United Nations and the United States of America in 1988, Buddhist Era 2530.

Samdech got honored “Doctorate” from Providence college, State of Rhode Island for his intelligence, compassions, and great favor in rescuing all kinds of human beings and educating about truth, happiness, and peace regardless of their classes which took place during Buddhist Era 2531, in 1989. Samdech also preach to educate Cambodian leaders of all parties and simple people to stop hatred and killing each other violently but to follow path of morality, good manners, truth, humanity, development, intelligence, and law as mean to resolve and settle all kinds of problems in own society. (Peace Maker all around the World)

Samdech got appointed member of Supreme International Religious Council and went to take part in an extraordinary meetings to discuss about altering war using military weapons to war using psychological weapon, in Chicago City, State of Illinois, in 1993, B. E. 2535.

Samdech wrote an book named “Step by Step”, a guide leading to truth, happiness, and peace for all Cambodians as well as for other nations in the whole world if they all follow the eminent path or ideas. His famous saying in the book he wrote was “The suffering of Cambodian has been deep, from this Suffering come great Compassions, great Compassions makes a Peaceful Heart, a Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person, a Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family, a Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community, a Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation, a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World, and may all Beings live in Happiness and Peace in Our Universe Forever.” This book “Step by Step” was published in 1993, Buddhist Era 2535 in many different languages.

Samdech has received nominee his first “Nobel Peace Prize” from Mr. Pell, Chairman of the House, senate of the United States of America in 1994, Buhhdist Era 2536. He also got elected as Supreme counselor of Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks Center, in the United States of America in 1994, Buddhist Era 2539-2544. He then received his second, third, forth, and fifth nominee “Nobel Peace Prize” in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, Buddhist Era 2537, 2538, and 2539.

Samdech, heroic leader of Dhammaytra walks, to share paying his gratitude to his country, religion, monarch, and people, by doing his best to stop wars as well as to cause true happiness and real peace to our beloved homeland Cambodia. He sacrificed all of his physical and spiritual strength, including his intelligence and skills, to help his homeland and many leaders on International Arena.

Samdech Preah Mahaghosananda has led Khmer Buddhist Monks delegates, Preah monastic Supreme Sao Khon Dhammathero, Venerable Yem Nak, and preah Bhikkhu Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join a special meeting with leaders of world religions, invited by United Nations, which held about 500 religions in the world participating, held in the Conference Hall of the United Nations, New York City for four days, which costed 100 millions dollars.

Samdech got appointed to lead the second Dhammayatra in Cambodia, which started moving from Siemrab Province to Phnom Penh City. The Dhammayatra walk was interrupted many times by war between government troop and Khmer Rouge. One B-40 bomb was dropped about two meters from Samdech, but fortunately it didn’t exploded probably due to the power of his purely holy mind and power of the Triple Jewels. Dhammayatra takes total times of 7 years from 1992 to 1998, Buddhist Era 2534 to 2540. For 7 years, the Dhammayatra walk took a total distance of more than 1 million kilometers.

Sandwich also joined meeting with leaders of Sri Lanka in Colombo City, Sri Lanoka to discuss about solidarity and sociology in which each leader must have good intelligence and compassion toward their own people, and have moral power to bring forth development, truth, happiness, peace to their own nation and people in the entire Sri Langka which took place in 1994,

Buddhist Era 2536.

Samdech offered his preaching on television and in radio of Israel to educate youngsters there, to make themselves good descendants of their families and country as “Bamboo-Shot in place of Bamboo”. The Fivefold characteristics of good descendants of families are “To listen and follow up with good advice of parents physical, verbally, and spiritually”, second “Take effort in learning up to higher education for knowledge is the basic of one’s own value and his family value as well as all times”, third “To listen and follow up with lesson taught use them to cause value to own self, family, country, and making own-self”, forth “To use knowledge that own-self has got as means of causing value and reputation to his own family and teachers”, and last is “To have plans of making, maintaining, and protecting own family and own country as well as walking towards real development, intelligence, justice, physically and spiritually, so they can catch up with modern societies of human in the whole world.

Samdech is a top Khmer Monastic intellectual, who has multi-Doctor degrees. He got Doctor degree in Buddhism Philosophy from NALANDA University, India, Honor Doctor degree from Rhode Island College, Doctor degree from Preah Suramair College from Phnom Penh City; Kingdom of Cambodia. He traveled all around the world with Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapanyo to join meetings with the International Peace Council in the state of Kentucky and Ohio and more. Samdech was a chairman of “Soul Memorial Ceremony”, for all Cambodian victims who passed away from 1975-2001; invited by Lady Doctor Roberson m an official of the Refugee Immigration Service Ministry of the United States of America.

Preah Samdech Mahaghosananda last breathe on this earth was located at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in North Hampton, Mass, third floor. In present there was Novice Rinh Kim, student of Master Venerable Pinn Mahamonirath Intapayno on March 13, 2007 at 8:15 a.m. with an announcement from his doctor.

-----
Maha Ghosananda
Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism
Spiritual Head of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists

By Netzwerk Engagierter Buddhisten
October 1997

Maha Ghosananda, 68, is a Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism and a well-known Buddhist leader worldwide. In particular, he has played a major role in various nonviolent activities to promote reconciliation among the Cambodian people following the nation's civil strife, offering support to refugees and encouraging the rebuilding of the nation. His warm personality and great compassion have won him accolades as "Cambodia's Gandhi," "a Living Treasure," and "the Living Truth."

Cambodia achieved independence from French colonial rule in 1953. In 1970, a coup took place after which the monarchy was replaced by a pro-American democratic government, but there was no end to the internal strife, and in 1976, Pol Pot established Democratic Kampuchea. That government pursued extreme communist policies, moving people from urban centers to the countryside for forced labor. Those other than farmers were severely persecuted, and it is said that more than two million Cambodians, including the country's leading intellectuals, died of illness or starvation or were executed during the three years and eight months of the Pol Pot regime. Cambodian Buddhism was especially hard hit, with the country's 3,600 temples totally shut down, and many members of what had once been a 60,000-strong Buddhist clergy persecuted and slain. Only 3,000 names were listed again as members of the priesthood after the Pol Pot regime collapsed in 1979.

Maha Ghosananda is one of those few remaining Buddhist clergy. When civil war broke out in Cambodia he was in southern Thailand engaged in the discipline of meditation and escaped the worst of the turmoil. Regrettably, however, most of his family in Cambodia was slain by the Pol Pot forces. Confronted by the tragedy that was engulfing his country, Maha Ghosananda threw himself with vigor into the nonviolent peace movement, doing all he could for his fellow Cambodians. He established temples in all of the Cambodian refugee camps on the Cambodia-Thailand border, including Sakeo and Khao-ee-dang, and traveled from camp to camp to preach. The sight of Ghosananda in his saffron robes stirred the Cambodian refugees to tears. Their weeping is said to have echoed throughout the refugee camps.

After the signing of the 1991 peace accord, Maha Ghosananda led the first of the Dhammayietra Walks for Peace and Reconciliation in emulation of Shakyamuni, who led his disciples to places of strife and warfare while practicing meditation and preaching detachment from suffering and the way to peace. When a procession led by Maha Ghosananda passed through villages, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people are said to have followed it. Through these Walks, Maha Ghosananda became a bridge of peace, bringing together people who had been separated by war, and wiped away their fears with his call for peace. He has continued to promote nonviolent means, not only for peace, but also for solutions to a wide range of peace-threatening issues such as deforestation and the use of land mines.

Maha Ghosananda has had a profound influence upon movements for peace around the globe through his advisory role in such NGOs as the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), and the Ponleu Khmer, the citizens' advisory council to the Cambodian Constitutional Assembly. He has been a leader in interreligious communication, as evidenced by his attendance at the sixth World Conference on Religion and Peace held in Italy in 1994.

Maha Ghosananda opens one of his many writings with the following verse:

The suffering of Cambodia has been deep.
From this suffering comes Great Compassion.
Great Compassion makes a Peaceful Heart.
A Peaceful Heart makes a Peaceful Person.
A Peaceful Person makes a Peaceful Family.
A Peaceful Family makes a Peaceful Community.
A Peaceful Community makes a Peaceful Nation.
And a Peaceful Nation makes a Peaceful World.
May all beings live in Happiness and Peace.

Maha Ghosananda offers his unlimited compassion to all people, whether friend or foe. In both spirit and deed, he has shown the way to a fundamental resolution of regional and ethnic strife around the world.

-----
A Brief Biographical Sketch
of Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda
"The Gandhi of Cambodia"

1929: Born in Takeo Province in south central Cambodia.

1943: Initiated into the Cambodian Buddhist Order.

1953: Entered Nalanda University in Bihar State, India.

1956:

Attended the Sixth Sangha Council of Buddhism (2500 BE) at Kaba Aye Pagoda in Rangoon, Burma, as member of the
Cambodian delegation under its former Sangha Raja, Chuon Nath.

1957: Studied with contemporary masters of Buddhism in Mahayana and Theravada traditions in Japan and Cambodia.

1969: Received doctoral degree from Nalanda University, title Maha Ghosananda bestowed. He also entered the hermitage of Thai meditation master Venerable Achaan Dhammadaro.

1978:

Met first influx of Cambodian refugees entering Sakeo camp following expulsion of Khmer Rouge regime from power.
Distributed tracts to the refugees, reminding them of the Buddha's words: "Hatred can never be appeased by hatred, hatred can only be appeased by love."

1978: Established temples in refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodia border.

1980:

Represented Khmer nation-in-exile as consultant to the UN Economic and Social Council.
Co-founded Inter-religious Mission for Peace. Launched ecumenical initiatives, world days of prayer for "Peace in Cambodia and the Whole World."

1981: Founded Buddhist temples in Cambodia and Cambodian resettlement communities in North America, Europe and Australia; currently oversees temples, establishes cultural and educational programs, sponsors meditations for peace, sponsors training programs for human rights advocacy and development of nonviolent conflict resolution.

1983: Met with His Holiness Pope John Paul II in Rome to discuss religious basis for world peace before planned meeting in Assisi.

1986: Invited by Pope to participate in Day of Prayer for Peace with world religious leaders in Assisi (now an annual event always attended by Maha Ghosananda).

1988:

Led contingents of Buddhist monks to U.N.-sponsored Cambodian peace negotiations, proposing a compromise and reminding national leaders that "Peace is our common goal."
Elected as Supreme Patriarch of Buddhism in Cambodia.

1989: Granted honoray doctorate of humanitarian service at Providence College, Providence, RI, USA.

1992:

Received the title Samdech Preah from King Sihanouk in Phnom Penh. Popularly known as Samdech Song Santipeap (the leaders of Religion for Peace) in Cambodia.
Led the First Dhammayietra-Walk for Peace and Reconciliation for one month through northern Cambodia just prior to full implementation of United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
"Step by Step: Meditations on Wisdom and Compassion" by Maha Ghosananda was published by Parallax Press, USA (since translated and published in Khmer, Thai, Spanish and Portuguese).
Awarded 1992 Rafto Foundation Prize for Human Rights, Bergen, Norway.

1993:

Led Second Dhammayietra through area of civil war before first Cambodian elections, encouraging citizens to overcome fear of political violence and intimidation and exerice their right to vote.
Named honorary leader of Ponleu Khmer, citizens' advisory council to the Cambodian Constitutional Assembly. Ponleu Khmer presents proposals for the protection of human rights and for nonviolent resolution of the continuing Cambodian conflict.
Invited to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.

1994:

Asked to bless the opening ceremony of the Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life at Auschwitz, Poland.
Led Third Dhammayietra through the most heavily war-torn western province of Cambodia. The walk was caught in crossfire between government and rebel forces and two peace walkers were killed. Proclaiming "this violence is indeed the reason we walk," Maha Ghosananda led the Dhammayietra to its completion.
Led contingent of highest-ranking monks to peace negotiations held under the auspices of King Sihanouk in Pyongyang, North Korea and to a second round of negotiations later in Phnom Penh.
Led interreligious delegation to peace negotiations in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to help seek an end to that country's long-standing civil war.
Nominated for 1994 Nobel Prize for Peace by US Senator Claiborne Pell, Chairman of US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

1995:

Nominated for a second time by Sen. Pell and an anonymous Nobel laureate for the 1995 Nobel Prize for Peace.
January: Dedicated Disabled Persons' Center, Phnom Penh.
February: INEB conference, ashram, Nakhon, Nayok, Thailand.
March: International Women's Day, Phnom Penh/Battambang.
March: Buddhist Teachers' Meeting (Asian-Western) Dharamsala, India.
April: International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, Atami, Japan.
International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture, Windsor Castle, UK.
May: Cambodian Engaged Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen, conference in Takmau.
May-June: Led Fourth Dhammayietra for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia, walking from the Thai border to the Vietnamese border. Continued calls for peace negotiations and educating public about the ongoing dangers from land mines and unexploded ordinance in Cambodia.
September: Preparatory meeting for a Peace Council, UK.
Led International Peace Day Ceremonies, during Cambodian Festival of the Dead, for a ban on land mines.
October : Attended UN Review Conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons to present the suffering of ordinary people due to land mines and plea for a total ban on them.
Toured Italy at invitation of the Italian Campaign to Ban land mines.
November: Founding meeting of the Peace Council at Windsor castle, UK.
The Peace Council includes several Nobel laureates and high representatives of all major world religions.

1996:

Nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace for third year in a row. Nominated in 1996 by American friends service Committee (1967 Nobel Prize recipients).
February: Led Ban Mines Week parade in Phnom Penh for a ban on land mines.
April: Attended UN Review Conference on Conventional Weapons, Geneva, to plea for a total ban on land mines.
May-June: Led the Fifth Dhammayietra for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia, focusing on deforestation and the link between the military, illegal logging and the on going civil war. Drew a link between healthy forests and the life of the Buddhist order. Members of Peace Council join the walk.
July: Invited to represent Theravada Buddhist lineage at Gethsemane Encounter, a Christian-Buddhist Monastic Dialogue at Gethsemane, Abbey, USA.
September: Met with opressed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Buddhist Sangha in Burma.
October: Delegates, State of the World Forum in San Francisco, California, USA November Met with Bishop Ruiz and members of Zapatistas in Chaipas, Mexico, as a member of the Peace Council.
December: Met with members of Khmer Rouge to arrange a route for the 1997 Walk for Peace and Reconciliation in Cambodia.
Patron of conference on Buddhism and Peace in Battambang, Cambodia, which was organized by Buddhism for Development group and was attended by representatives of different militant factions.

1997:

Nominated by a former Nobel laureate (anonymous) for the Nobel Prize for Peace for a fourth time.
March-April: Led the Sixth Dhammayietra through areas of Cambodia which were, until a few months before, under the total control of the Khmer Rouge. The people in the areas through which the walk passed witnessed the first freely organized event in their lives. Walk successfully concluded at the Angkor period ruins of Bantey Chammar.
May: Invited by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to co-lead an ecumenical service for Tibet at the national Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
June: As a Patron of the organization, he attended the International Network of Engaged Buddhists conference in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, which brought together Buddhist social activists from throughout Asia and around the world.
Visited Halockhani refugee camp on the Burma-Thai border at the invitation of the New Monk Relief Committee.
August: After the coup d'etat in July he led the first mass event calling for an end to the use of violence in Cambodian power struggles.
In Sri Lanka, where he received an award for peacemaking from the Sarvodaya organization.

Mu Sochua in Geneva, Switzerland. (William Dowell/GlobalPost)

The Cambodian activist and politician sees a jail sentence as the next step in her struggle.

March 6, 2010
By William Dowell
GlobalPost

GENEVA, Switzerland — Mu Sochua, one of the more impressive speakers at “Courage to Lead,” a recent gathering here of more than 40 women involved in human rights, is not a woman to be taken lightly.

After spending the last 20 years fighting for women's rights and against both human trafficking and general corruption in Cambodia, the deputy in Cambodia's leading opposition party has embroiled herself in a head-on clash with the country's perennial Prime Minister Hun Sen. The spat now seems likely to land her in jail.

At a superficial glance, the furor seems slightly silly. It began last spring when local tensions began to mount after Cambodian army soldiers burned several villages in an apparent land grab.

The army was not exactly popular in Mu Sochua's district, which includes Kampot, about two hours drive south of Phnom Penh. When Mu Sochua protested against a Cambodian army officer using official government vehicles during a political campaign, a scuffle ensued and Mu Sochua's blouse was accidentally ripped open. Hun Sen mentioned the incident in a speech, casually dismissing Mu Sochua as a hustler, who liked to expose herself and had a tendency to grab at men.

Mu Sochua has also accused the prime minister of calling her "cheung klang," which means "strong legs," in Khmer and is considered an insult.

If Hun Sen expected Mu Sochua to roll over, he was wrong. Mu Sochua promptly sued him for defamation in a Phnom Penh municipal court, demanding 500 Cambodian rials, or roughly 12 cents in damages along with an apology. Instead of apologizing, Hun Sen, who likes to go by the rather ungainly honorific “Samdach Akkak Moha Sena Padey Dekjo” promptly countersued.

Not surprisingly Mu Sochua's case was thrown out of court, while Hun Sen's stuck. Repeating his earlier slurs, Hun Sen went on to challenge Mu Sochua to take her case to international courts if she wanted, and to see how far that was likely to get her. Mu Sochua's parliamentary immunity was stripped away. An appeals court confirmed a lower court's verdict against her for libel, and the case is now headed for the Cambodia's Supreme Court, which Mu Sochua also expects to rule in favor of the “Samdach.” The penalty for losing the suit is a fine of roughly $4,100, but Mu Sochua refuses to pay it, and insists that she will go to jail for six months instead.

It may all seem like much ado about not very much, but Mu Sochua insists that there is a lot more at stake. Hun Sen, who was propelled into his current position after Vietnam ousted Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in 1979, has held onto power ever since by making sure that his party hand picks Cambodia's 13,000 village chiefs.

“This nation has to be built on the rule of law and not just one man,” says Mu Sochua. “These people are afraid of democracy. The way they maintain control is by not allowing the people to elect their village chiefs. The Cambodian people live in fear of the village chiefs. At the same time the country has opened itself up to a market economy, which brings in a lot of money that is not managed well, which is why there is so much corruption.”

Hun Sen, who at 57 shows no signs of planning an early retirement, has plenty of reason for wanting to take on Mu Sochua's party. In November 2009, he had Sam Rainsy, who leads the opposition, stripped of parliamentary immunity for the second time that year because Sam Rainsy had removed several posts marking the border with Vietnam. Rainsy contends that the Vietnamese, who were responsible for Hun Sen's rise to power in Cambodia, have been engaged in a land grab for themselves based on questionable treaty arrangements.

Mu Sochua insists that her spat focuses on Hun Sen's vulgar use of language and the corruption of Cambodia's legal system. “What is at stake,” she said, “is democracy. The space for democracy is narrowed by the power of the ruling party, and mainly by the power of Hun Sen, who has his hands in every institution, including the parliament and the courts. He didn't just insult me as a woman. He insulted the parliament as an institution. I am actually taking the justice system itself to court.”

The story gets a bit more complicated since Mu Sochua received a 2005 leadership award from the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation.

“This is also a challenge for the international community,” Mu Sochua says. “They invest $1 billion a year in Cambodia, but they never fulfilled their responsibilities by making it a condition that the government fulfills its obligations towards human rights.” Hillary Clinton delivered a brief address via satellite at the end of the Geneva meeting, but it was not clear what her take as Secretary of State would be on Mu Sochua's case.

Even more potentially troublesome for Hun Sen is the fact that Mu Sochua, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at San Francisco State University and a masters in Social Work at the University of California, Berkely, is married to an American who runs a major project on decentralization for the United Nations in Cambodia. “My husband is completely separate from my political life,” she explains. Her three children now live abroad, but both her husband and children are emotionally supportive. “I told my family that I am going to jail. Please don't talk me out of it. It has come to that point, Mom is going to jail,” she says. “It gives me peace in heart.” Whether it gives Hun Sen or his supporters peace of mind is another matter.

Is the Foreigners’ Imposition on Cambodians to Stop Using the Word Yuon a Form of Colonialism of the Mind? By Kenneth T. So

Dear Readers,

I assume by now most of you have read the article “Yuon: What’s in a Xenonym?” that was posted in the Phnom Penh Post (PPP) on February 8, 2010. Since then, there were some comments made on the article, specifically those made by Mr. Peter Starr (http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021031854/National-news/yuon-may-be-neutral-but-its-not-diplomatic.html) and Mr. Michael Hansen (http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010021131924/National-news/is-the-use-of-the-term-yuon-constructive.html).

After reading the two comments I decided to respond to them by sending my letter to the PPP on February 14, 2010. Until this day I have not heard anything from the PPP, not even an acknowledgment saying that they have received my letter. I know that the PPP cannot please all its readers and in general it has done a fair and decent job in its reporting. However, I think the PPP made a mistake in its judgment for not publishing my rebuttal letter. In spite of this, I still consider the PPP to be a good newspaper because it has not only enriched our Khmer culture but also opened up our society to the rest of the world. However, in order to be a great newspaper it must not only fix its mistake whenever there is one, but it must also learn from it.
I believe the reason the PPP refused to publish my letter because the insights and statements I brought up in the letter hit the nail right in the head and they were too close to foreigners’ feeling towards Khmers for the PPP to feel comfortable. Below please find my letter that the PPP refused to publish.

Is the Foreigners’ Imposition on Cambodians to Stop Using the Word Yuon a Form of Colonialism of the Mind?
By Kenneth T. So

Dear Sir:
February 14, 2010

This article is in response to all Westerners and/or foreigners who keep on insisting that the word Yuon is a pejorative and/or racist word. I was hoping the article that Dr. Sophal Ear and I wrote (Yuon: What’s in a xenonym?) would clarify any misunderstanding concerning this word, but some comments I read in your newspaper still leave me somewhat uneasy.

I appreciate the comments that Westerners and/or foreigners made in your newspaper very much and furthermore, I understand that they are constructive ones. In light of that, I still need to make the following points to defend our usage of the word Yuon when we speak or write in Cambodian. Personally, I do not support people using the word Yuon when expressing it in the English or French languages, but I do respect their freedom of choice.

Respectfully, I would like to specifically respond to Mr. Peter Starr in his article “Yuon may be neutral, but it’s not diplomatic” (Phnom Penh Post, 10 February 2010) and Mr. Michael Hansen in his article “Is the use of the term yuon constructive?” (Phnom Penh Post, 11 February 2010).

The story that Mr. Starr told about the Sino-Vietnamese Cambodian cook called Samlor Machou Yuon in the kitchen, but had to switch to calling it Samlor Machou Vietnam when he (she) brought it to the guest was very poignant to me. Mr. Starr said that the cook switched the name out of courtesy to the guests. I assume that the guests were mostly Caucasians. This is where Mr. Starr and I differ in opinion and understanding of Khmer culture. From my point of view, the cook did not do it for courtesy but rather for fear of being branded a racist by white foreigners. To me, this is a form of colonialism of the mind.

Additionally, if the word Yuon is pejorative or racist why would we honor the Vietnamese with the name of a dish that we love and consider as one of our national dishes? In my opinion, it is incorrect to call the soup Samlor Machou Vietnam (or Yuon) because this national dish does not taste or resemble the Vietnamese soup Canh Chua, which is sweeter and includes bean sprouts. I feel it is more appropriate to call this soup Samlor Machou Péngpoas.

When Mr. Starr mentioned that it was not statesmanlike for a member of a parliament to use the word Yuon (I assume the member of the parliament was speaking in Khmer and not in English or French), the only existing Khmer word to designate a Vietnamese, I also call this a form of colonialism of the mind.

Mr. Hansen explained his objection on the usage of the word Yuon by saying that the language changed over time, or that the context in which the word was used must be considered, or that one must listen to the tone of the voice carefully. Mr. Hansen is correct. This is true in any language and/or words one used. Replacing the word Yuon with Choun Cheat Vietnam (National of Vietnam) will not make any difference if one is loud, vulgar, and abusive.
Allow me to ask the following questions to Westerners and/or foreigners who think that the word Yuon is either pejorative or/and racist in nature.

Is it racist to say Lauk Neung Yuon (A respectful way of saying “He is a Vietnamese”)?
Is it racist to say Neang Srey Yuon Neung Sa’art Nas (That Vietnamese lady is beautiful)?

Is it racist to say Yuon Klas Chit La’or (Some Vietnameses have good hearts)?
As I have explained earlier, Yuon is a xenonym and is not a racist or pejorative word. Why is it alright for Westerners and/or foreigners to tell Cambodians to stop using this word, but they would not dare telling the Americans or the British to stop using the word German (and the French to stop using the word Allemand) and replace it with the word Deutsch instead? Is this the case of a double-standard because Cambodia is a small and defenseless country? Isn’t this the case of colonialism of the mind? Why won’t Westerners and/or foreigners also criticize the Thai for using the same word Yuon to call the Vietnamese? Isn’t it that they cannot harass the Thai like they can easily do it to the Cambodians? Yes, I call this a form of colonialism of the mind.

Colonialism does not just pertain to a powerful country occupying and ruling a smaller and defenseless country, but it also includes the rules and moralities that a powerful country imposes and dictates on a smaller and weaker country.

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Is the Foreigners’ Imposition on Cambodians to Stop Using the Word Yuon a Form of Colonialism of the Mind? By Kenneth T. So

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