Canadia takes offices to next level

After repeated delays, Cambodia’s tallest building will test a sluggish office space market

Photo by: Sovan Philong

Builders continue work this month on Canadia Tower’s new offices, which are due to be opened on the market before the end of the year.

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Low occupancy at the new buildings is probably a result of ineffective marketing.

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AS new office buildings in Phnom Penh sit vacant in the midst of a contracting economy, eyes in Phnom Penh are tilting upwards in anticipation of the opening of Cambodia’s first skyscraper.

“As far as the rental office market in Phnom Penh is concerned, Canadia [Tower] will be a barometer in terms of rental values, in terms of the levels of demand, and take-up rates,” said Daniel Parkes, country manager at property services company CB Richard Ellis Cambodia.

“Everybody is looking at Canadia and waiting to see what happens to that before they make any judgements on the market here.”

Judging by figures released recently by Bonna Realty Group, owners of existing office space are already struggling to find tenants, with occupancies at the newest buildings hovering around the 50 percent mark.

According to the group, the capital’s Icon Professional Centre on Norodom Boulevard has rented between 20 percent and 30 percent of its office space. The Delano Business Centre on the corner of streets 134 and 169 has managed to fill 40 percent, at a starting price of US$15 per square metre per month.

The Attwood Business Centre, located out of town near the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone and the airport, reported 55 percent occupancy. The B-Ray Tower reported 71 percent occupancy in September and the Bo Retra 87 percent.

Of the older properties, Cambodian Priority Property Investment still had 11 percent of its office space on the market, and the Intelligent Office Centre on Monivong Boulevard 9 percent, and both the Phnom Penh and Hong Kong Centres were practically at full occupancy.

Given its relatively low quality level, Parkes said the Phnom Penh Centre’s high occupancy was a combination of the long history of limited office supply in Phnom Penh and the poor job the owners of new buildings were doing in persuading tenants to upgrade.

“The low occupancy at the new buildings is probably a result of ineffective marketing in the Cambodian real estate market,” Parkes said.

How Canadia Tower does on the marketing front will soon be evident. The original opening date of September 9 was missed, but with Canadia Bank, the building’s owner, preparing to move its retail banking operations and headquarters into the building over the Water Festival, a opening of the tower is not far away.

Canadia Bank CEO Charles Vann said recently it was talking to prospective tenants about contract details, but refused to disclose the level of interest in the building, who the company was talking to and how many contracts had been signed. He said only that the company was staying firm on its well-publicised asking rate of between $30 and $35 per square metre, “plus or minus”.

Parkes said he expected the price to soften, particularly for prospective tenants looking for long-term leases on whole floors, though smaller tenants would be looking at top dollar.

“The floor plate is around 1,000 square metres, so anyone looking for around a 250-square-metre office, or a quarter of that, will be looking at paying a premium,” he said. “But with a big multinational taking a whole floor for 10 years on level 13, 14, or 15, say, you could expect the rent to come down quite a lot, and there will probably be incentives, such as a contribution to the fit-out.”

Another key property to come on the market is the $9 million Cambodia-Korea Phnom Penh Gyeongbuk Culture, Tourism and Trade Promotion Centre (PGCT Centre) on the corner of Sothearos and Sihanouk boulevards, next to the Phnom Penh Centre.

Built by Korean company DKC&C Co, the three-storey building was due to open in July but is now expected to open its doors next month. Project manager Park Hee-chan said the asking price for office space was $25 per square metre per month but declined to say whether any contracts had been signed.

Parkes said the building was likely to be the only Grade B offering in the city, with the rest around Grade C, but that the premium rentals it was seeking appeared to be priced beyond the current market, despite the attractiveness of the site.

“The location is cracking,” he said. “It’s probably the best location in Phnom Penh. You can see the river, its near the Palace. It’s also low-rise, so not many operators will be able to claim the address.”

Canadia aims high end
That is certainly not the case for Canadia Tower, but it will always have one major advantage over its competitors, at least for the foreseeable future.

Though the building has yet to be inspected, Parkes said he expected it to be a major advancement in terms of quality compared to anything else previously seen in Cambodia. “It obviously depends on the final fitout, but it is likely to be the first grade-A office space in Cambodia,” he said.

Siem Reapers are licenced to shock

Claire Coxon, Charlie Kumar and Tania Palmer at last year's Angkor What? Bar's annual pub crawl.

IT’S a scary concept. Organisers of Saturday night’s Pub Street Halloween parties are urging punters to dress to shock in an attempt to better – or perhaps worsen – the historical 2005 foul-and-fetid worst fancy dress record set by Abacus restaurant co-owner Renaud Fichet.

Fichet’s 2005 get-up was a downright shocker, setting an all-time low in the annual worst fancy dress contest run by Linga Bar.

Over-egging the details, the bar’s managing director Martin Dishman recalls the stench of the pig’s head, entrails and trotters Fichet wore a little too clearly.

Linga Bar stages its fourth annual Lingaween costume party on Saturday October 31, kicking off at 9pm.

Dishman says, “It’s a Western event, but from the beginning we’ve tried to make it fun and interesting for everyone,” he says.

“We have body and face painting for the Khmer kids, so the locals get a kick out of it too. It’s just a chance to have fun and let your hair down. For me it’s our most fun event of the year.”

He said he expects the costume competition to be intense over three categories: best, worst and most creative costumes.

“I wanted to recognise the efforts of people, and make it worth their while. So the top prize is a one night stay in a suite at Hotel Be. I think it’s going to be based on an audience vote.”

Another Halloween highlight tomorrow night will be Angkor What? Bar’s infamous fifth annual pub crawl. Beginning at X-Bar at 7pm, revellers will push on to Molly Malone’s, then Warehouse, Miss Wong Cocktail Bar and Red Piano with the grand finale planned for the Angkor What? Bar.

Full of goodwill, Angkor What manager Charlie Kumar says the Halloween bash is a signature annual event for the bar, which gets the community together to have a “good laugh”.

“We’re trying to make it a community event, so the way we see it it’s the official welcoming of the high season for us. It’s a small town and we have to support each other,” he declared.

As usual Angkor What will be decked out in all things terrifying, and Kumar says he hopes to top last year’s attendance of 52. Attendees should arrive in their most impressive costumes and, with people famously going to a lot of effort, there’ll be more than a little competition for attention.
“You’d be surprised at the effort people make,” he says.

Siem Reap’s most infamous nightclub, Sok San Palace, will host a small party in a room decorated in ghostly decor and pumpkins. General manager Tobias Castelijn says staff will be in costume, there will be a costume competition and the cocktail list will be scarier than usual.

Expect the Sok San bash to build up a head of steam late in the evening.

Over at Siem Reap’s newest and largest nightclub, Pyramid, on the outer limits of town on the road to Phnom Penh, a joint Halloween and first birthday celebration will be a big drawcard for Khmer ragers.

Pyramid promises entertainment from 8pm until midnight, including popular Khmer comedian Mr Kreum and a drag fashion show by the Sindy Group. Disco manager Somoeun Pov said there’ll also be surprise guest singers disguised in costume.

After midnight, the festivities will transmogrify into a sweat-drenched dance party in the inimitable Pyramid style.

Climate change still a hot topic

Photo by: JOHN MCDERMOTT

350 riders in front of Angkor Wat on International Day of Climate Action.

MORE THAN 350 people rode bicycles from Siem Reap town to Angkor Wat last Saturday afternoon to raise awareness about climate change, ahead of the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Oppressive weather conditions and minor misunderstandings with the Apsara Authority over access to the temples didn’t stop the crowd enjoying what was one of more than 5,200 activities orgainised in 181 countries as part of International Day of Climate Action on October 24.

The Singing Tree Cafe’s Michael Batura, one of the organisers, said it was a successful outing.

“There were lots of children and it was a great day. It was quite hot and a bit like trying to herd cats, but we got there in the end,” he said.

“Photographer John McDermott climbed on top of a van to take some photos of us in front of Angkor Wat, and some people were carrying the prayer flags that we had painted in the morning. It was probably the biggest global climate change action ever organised, so it was a great feeling to be a part of it.”

One participant, expat Stuart Cochlin, said he was pleased at the number of Khmer people involved.

“What was very good was that it was about 80 percent Khmer, 20 percent expats, which was very refreshing, particularly for something to do with the environment. There was also local Khmer media and that was good.”

The Siem Reap gathering was part of a worldwide initiative, coordinated by global grassroots action group 350. The number refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, regarded by some scientists as a safe upper limit, which has already been exceeded.

Temple bike ride just the ticket for a fun day out

Riders at last year's Angkor Wat Bike Race on the temple course.Participants in this year’s fourth annual Angkor Wat Bike Race and Fun Ride on Saturday December 5 will have a choice of completing one or three laps of a course which winds around temples including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

The 30-kilometre one-lap course caters for amateurs, while the three-lap course is for more competitive cyclists. The event attracts international interest because of the spectacular temple scenery.

So far 50 people have registered, with another 100 or so expected to sign up before the day. Last year 125 people competed, and ride coordinator Drew McDowell of the Village Focus International NGO said he was hoping to better that number.

The race, held the day before the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, is a fundraiser for Village Focus International which works on projects in education and rural development.

There will be a dinner on the evening before the ride and brunch afterwards at extra cost.

The race will start in front of Angkor Wat at 6am. Participants will receive a T-shirt, a certificate of completion, and a basket of Kampot peppercorns.

The entry fee is US$50 for foreigners and $25 for Khmers with a special offer of $2 for Khmer women, some of whom will be given free bike rental.

Hair-styling goes catwalk

Photo by: STEFANIE IRMER

A view of the front elevation showing the salon's sharp exterior lines.

THE spectacular front-elevation of the De Gran hair salon is designed in rectangles, framing the blue sky above Phnom Penh and inviting a look inside. This minimalist building’s modern Japanese architecture and interior design make an interesting addition to the Cambodian urban landscape.

Reduced to a strict geometry, the building speaks its own language while referencing contemporary Japanese architects such as Fumihiko Maki or Tadao Ando. Combining the symbolic significance of architectural forms with a careful choice of materials, its colour accentuation contrasts with the dominant white.

The striking fact is that the building was designed by De Gran chief executive Jun Kikuchi, a hairstylist by profession. With the support of his friend, Japanese interior designer Suzuki Kuniaki, he realised in Phnom Penh his vision of a self-designed salon. Kikuchi runs four hair salons in Tokyo, but it was only in Cambodia that he could fulfil his dream of designing and building a hair salon of such a scale, opening his salon in February 2009.

The white rendered masonry walls pronounce rectangles as the main geometric figure, except for the guard hut on the sidewalk, which is organically convoluted. The concept for the spacious ground floor of the two-storey building seems to be transparency, while the VIP area on the first floor is screened.

Photo by: STEFANIE IRMER

Treatment chairs straddle the catwalk-style interior space.

The building's U-shape plan embraces an outside entrance area and a walkway flanked by a brace of water basins. This reception area is reminiscent of the stage-like layout of Khmer temple architecture, but Kuniaki’s intention of using water was for its cooling effect and refreshing character, supporting the transition from outside to in. Two lines of cream leather chairs facing each other in both arms of the building behind full glazed walls emphasise the catwalk-like character of the entrance.

The interior has a remarkable composition: fine black ironworks at the entrance door, black ceramic floor tiles and a reception desk in black marble contrast with the plain white walls. Kikuchi and Kuniaki form accents not only by playing with materials but using a reduced colour scheme: red chairs in a contemporary design at the reception area and light blue curtains along the glazing.

Both floors – the airy working area on the ground floor and the private VIP rooms upstairs – contain simple furnishings. The working equipment is, for a hair salon, greatly reduced, with associations of high technology and aesthetic design: the chairs for shampoo and haircuts are height-adjustable; tools appear when needed from backstage; the mirrors, documenting the haircut, are almost self-supported. Such lighting features or decoration as the chronometer on the first floor and the staircase gives character to the place with clear and sober expression.

Apart from its modern appearance and high-quality finishes, the project could integrate some elements of green architecture. Unfortunately, being unable to source some equipment in Cambodia, Kikuchi chose not to include sustainable architectural features in his design.

Two new air routes to Vietnam in planning

Cambodia and Vietnam aviation officials are planning to launch two new aviation routes between the two countries, officials said Thursday.

The routes will connect Phu Quoc Island, off the southern coast of Vietnam near the mouth of the Mekong River, with Sihanoukville International Airport, and the southern province of Can Tho with Phnom Penh.

State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) Undersecretary of State Soy Sokhan said the SSCA and its Vietnamese counterpart were conducting a joint feasibility study on the routes.

“We see huge potential for these routes,” he said. “Sihanoukville International Airport will be a popular destination for the tourism industry, but the Phnom Penh International Airport also has great potential for cargo shipments.”

It was too early to estimate when that feasibility study would be completed, he said, but one flight was expected to be scheduled daily in each direction on both routes.

Flag carrier in running
SSCA Secretary of State Mao Havannal said the routes had not yet been allocated to any carriers but confirmed that Cambodia Angkor Air had been involved in discussions. The airline is 51 percent owned by the Cambodian government in a joint venture with Vietnam Airlines.

Ho Vandy, co-chairman of the Government-Private Sector Forum’s Tourism Working Group, said Phu Quoc Island and Can Tho province were both popular tourism hubs in Vietnam and could be valuable feeders for the Cambodian tourism sector if the routes became available.

Star-Cell records static revenue growth in Q3

Subscriber numbers bounce back from dismal second quarter, according to announcement, with 150,000 users by this month

Photo by: SOVAN PHILONG

A sales assistant checks her phone Thursday at a Star Cell sales office in Phnom Penh.

TELIASONERA AB, the Stockholm-based mobile firm that manages Cambodia’s Star-Cell, announced late Wednesday that revenues from the Kingdom remained static in the third quarter as profits before tax for its overall operations rose 5.7 percent year on year to 5.04 billion kronor (US$720 million).

In its financial report for the June-to-September quarter, Teliasonera announced revenues of 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.13 million) for its Cambodia operation, taking revenues for the first nine months of the year to 24 million kronor ($3.406 million).

Sweden’s largest mobile operator did not publish net profits for its Cambodia unit, although it announced increased profitability overall “despite price erosion caused by growing competition and increasing price sensitivity among customers”.

Stocks in the firm fell 1.79 percent in Stockholm by 10.30am Thursday to 47.32 kronor.

Since Applifone, the local subsidiary of Teliasonera, launched in Cambodia in October 2007, five new operators have also entered the market prompting companies including Millicom International SA, the majority shareholder in market leader Mobitel, to complain of diminishing profitability this year.

In Wednesday’s announcement, Teliasonera said that it had added 2 million subscriptions with the acquisitions of operations in Cambodia and Nepal in September last year when it bought a 51 percent stake in TeliaSonera Asia Holding BV from Visor Group, which owns Applifone outright.
Most of these subscriptions were added in Nepal.

The company announcement stated it had 141,000 total users in Cambodia at the end of the third quarter of which only 1,000 were post-paid.

According to company figures, this represented a decrease of 3,000 users since the end of the last quarter of 2008, the first full quarter of operations since Teliasonera’s acquisition was announced on September 21 last year.

User numbers volatile
At the end of the second quarter, Star Cell saw its users plummet to 64,000 from a peak of 150,000 at the end of the first quarter, according to company data, an anomaly that remains unaccounted for.

Jen Borja Bornas, Applifone’s media manager in Cambodia, declined to comment Thursday on revenues and user numbers.

In Cambodia, mobile sector executives have noted a trend among users of swapping among competing operators’ SIM cards – often given away free of charge – in a bid to take advantage of increasingly competitive tariffs.

The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is currently working on a prakas, or edict, on pricing after competitors accused the newest operator, Beeline, of price-dumping and triggering a barrage of schemes offering free within-network calls.

Operators were due to submit a detailed breakdown on their costs by today with the aim of establishing a minimum tariff across the sector.

They will kill us all'

Police load a dead body into a UN ambulence after an attack Wednesday on the Bekhtar Guesthouse in Kabul, Afghanistan. AFPTHE lodge where I stay in Kabul was badly damaged October 8 when a suicide car bomb exploded 80 metres down the road near the Indian embassy. Seventeen innocent Afghans working in photocopy shops near the embassy were killed and another 60 wounded, while Indian diplomats went unharmed. No apologies were offered by the perpetrators for the killings.

Nobody was hurt at my lodge, but 75 windows were blown out. The next day, I was talking with the owner who, for the third time in three years, had to fork out US$3,000 to fix his windows. I asked him: What would happen if NATO pulled out of Afghanistan? He replied without hesitation, looking me straight in the eyes while obviously referring to the Taliban and their allies: “They will kill us all.”

His comment struck a still-raw nerve. Thirty-five years ago, in November 1974, I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia. As a young backpacker, I was foolhardy enough to spend six weeks poking around a country at war.

At the time, the US congress was debating whether to continue or cut off aid to the beleaguered and corrupt Lon Nol government. After more than four years of civil war and the disaster of America’s experience in neighbouring Vietnam, congress and the American people were fed up with everything to do with both countries.

In Siem Reap, I met a Cambodian man who spoke English. He graciously offered to show me around the few parts of the town still under government control. The Communist Khmer Rouge controlled the Angkor temples and the surrounding countryside. There were intense firefights at night. At one point, my host turned to me and said: “I hope America doesn’t abandon us. If they do, the communists will kill us all.”

As an erstwhile anti-Vietnam War protester in the US, I brushed off his comments, thinking how nothing could be worse than the corrupt, US-backed Lon Nol government. I was wrong. The US cut off aid and the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh five months later, imposing a reign of terror unparalleled in modern history.

After three-plus years in power, before being ousted by the Vietnamese, Pol Pot and his KR henchmen had left almost 2 million Cambodians dead, roughly a third of the entire population.

The struggle to recover from that horror continues to this day. I know. As a publisher in Cambodia, I documented this painful process in great detail for 17 years, like a meticulous storyteller of horrific tales about lost, shattered souls.

The Obama administration is presently engaged in one of the most intense debates it will face: whether or not to increase US troop levels in Afghanistan. Without access to military intelligence, I don’t know, but what is clear is that ISAF Commander General Stanley McChrystal’s 66-page report to President Obama, leaked to the Washington Post in August, is one of the most interesting and thoughtful analyses on the current situation in Afghanistan that I’ve read. In fact, it’s the only one. Sadly, nothing else significant has been made public from inside governmental or UN circles. What’s most striking is that McChrystal’s report is even more critical of NATO’s policy to date since 2002 than what one reads in the established press. The general seems to have scooped the media on that one.

If the concerned public wants to make an informed opinion on the troop level debate, they should read the report cover to cover. This may be a lot to expect, given the increasing Twitterisation of global culture. Can anyone read more than 140 characters these days? Lives, however, are at stake. This stuff matters to us all, and the situation on the ground here is terribly complicated. Troop levels are only half the debate.

In the 10 weeks I’ve been in Afghanistan, I have not met a single Afghan yet who likes the current government – or any government in living memory, for that matter. Afghanistan is listed as having the 176th-most corrupt government in the world by Transparency International, out of a total of 180. It’s no wonder people here don’t like it. Since the Taliban were overthrown in 2002, Afghans expected and deserved much better.

Whatever the result of the debate about troop levels, if the international community doesn’t drop the hammer, privately or publicly, on any new government formed after the runoff elections on November 7 to cut graft and improve services to the people, any decision on NATO force structure may not matter.

Barring discernible change on the good governance front in the next two years, it’s a sure bet Afghan cynicism will increase, the Taliban will get stronger, public support for any continued troop deployments here in the West will continue to wane, and we should all prepare to inure ourselves for the day when “they will kill us all”.

Swine flu kills fourth person in Cambodia

A FOURTH person has died from swine flu in Cambodia, bringing the number of confirmed infections in the country to 239, officials said Thursday.

The capital and seven provinces have so far been affected by the spread of (A)H1N1: Kandal, Takeo, Kampong Speu, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Chhnang and Svay Rieng.

Last week, a 51-year-old woman died after contracting the virus, bringing the Kingdom’s total number of swine flu-related deaths to four. “She had breathing difficulties before she contracted the virus,” said Ly Sovann, deputy director of the Communicable Disease Control Department at the Ministry of Health.

Cambodia’s first confirmed fatality was a 41-year-old woman who died on September 27. In early October, a 41-year-old man and a 25-year-old pregnant woman also died after contracting the virus.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said the ministry has prepared about 500,000 information brochures, which will be delivered to the public during the Water Festival. Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday appealed to rural villagers visiting the capital for the boat races to wear masks to prevent virus transmission.

Health officials advise people to wash their hands frequently, refrain from spitting in public, use tissues to cover coughs and avoid crowds.

Individuals experiencing any symptoms such as high fevers (above 38 C), coughing, headache, muscle ache, sore throat and nose congestion should call the swine flu hotline at 115, 012 488 981 or 089 669 567.

Leaders see threat to Buddhism

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

A fellow monk shaves the head of a boy joining the monkhood in Battambang earlier this year.

TWO MONKS CHARGED IN MURDER; THIRD STILL AT LARGE

Two monks from Phnom Penh’s Stung Meanchey pagoda have been charged with murder following the death last week of a fourth-year medical student who chastised them for drinking alcohol. Another suspect, who is not a monk, has also been charged, police confirmed, and a third monk accused in the murder remains on the run. Monks Van Socheat, 19, and Nhem Vuthy, 20, were charged this week, said Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Hing Bunchea. The pair’s alleged accomplice, Chem Pros, was also charged. “We charged them yesterday on the murder case, and now we will investigate more,” Hing Bunchea said. The victim, 24-year-old Veth Vireak, was beaten to death. It is alleged the monks were furious after he scolded them for getting drunk on 10 litres of palm wine. Kong Samorn, deputy police chief in Meanchey district, said the group will be held in Prey Sar prison while an investigation is carried out. The monks had been ordained for five years before last Friday’s attack. If they are convicted of the murder, the monks could be defrocked and jailed, officials have previously said.

LEADING Buddhist intellectuals and civil society groups have called on the government to address a recent outbreak of offences ranging from drunkenness to rape and a deadly beating all allegedly committed by monks.

They warned that if the behaviour of monks continues to deteriorate, it could seriously diminish the position of Buddhism within Cambodian society.

Miech Ponn, an adviser to the Mores and Customs Commission at the Buddhism Institute, said that in the past, cases of monks’ engaging in sexual relationships were exceptionally rare, and that he had never heard of monks drinking wine, let alone killing people.

“Even though these have been isolated cases, they have the potential to impact Buddhism in Cambodia as a whole,” he said. “I think either the Ministry of Cults and Religions or supreme patriarchs should take action in order not to have such acts – drinking wine and killing people – occur among the monks again.”

Miech Ponn also suggested that the cause of such incidents might be the modern technology to which monks are increasingly exposed. Earlier this month, an 18-year-old monk in Kampong Thom province was charged with beating and injuring a fellow monk who failed to answer a call from the perpetrator on his mobile phone.

Thun Saray, president of the rights group ADHOC, echoed Miech Ponn’s concerns, urged the country’s religious authorities to find ways to strengthen discipline among members of the Buddhist community because of their role in society.

“If monks act the same as other people, they will cease to be respected, and no one will believe in them anymore,” he said. “It is a big loss of honour to Buddhism that there were cases of monks killing people because Buddhism tells people not to kill anything that is alive.”

Min Khin, minister of cults and religions, said Thursday that he was too busy to speak.
Tep Vong, supreme patriarch of Cambodia, said he was aware a monk had been charged with killing a nun earlier this week in Banteay Meanchey province and welcomed the legal action.

“I do not have any particular advice on the issue because Buddhism already takes a clear position against killing animals and human beings,” he said, adding that anyone who committed a crime should be brought before the courts.

He also insisted that his adviser, Kiet Chan Thouch, chief monk of Wat Leu in Preah Sihanouk province, was not guilty of getting drunk and attacking fellow monks in his pagoda, as was recently alleged.

“I already investigated [Kiet Chan Thouch’s] case, and the accusations against him are untrue,” he said. The supreme patriarch is now pursuing legal action against Kiet Chan Thouch’s accusers, who he said had deliberately set out to damage the man’s reputation.

According to the government, Cambodia has more than 4,300 active pagodas and 60,000 monks. Ninety-five percent of the Kingdom’s population is Buddhist.

Fishermen take row over resort to PM’s house

FISHERMEN from Kampot province travelled to Takhmao on Thursday to submit a petition urging Prime Minister Hun Sen’s intervention in a dispute involving a proposed coastal resort development they say threatens their community fishing zone.

The fishermen, from Kep Thmey village in Kampot’s Chhouk district, arrived at Hun Sen’s residence just a day after they held protests against the Keo Chea Development Company, which is reclaiming coastal land for the construction of the resort.

They said the 200-hectare reclamation effort will affect the residents of Kep Thmey and Torteng Thngai villages, most of whom rely on local fisheries, putting up to 1,000 livelihoods at risk.

Defamation: Mu Sochua to appeal to highest court

Defamation
OPPOSITION lawmaker Mu Sochua will today file an appeal to the Supreme Court against her conviction for defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen, a court official said Thursday. The outspoken Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian vowed to take her case to the higher court earlier this week after her conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeal, a move she described as “politically motivated”. The original ruling, handed down by the Municipal Court in August, found Mu Sochua guilty of defaming the premier and ordered her to pay a total of 16.5 million riels (US$3,963) in fines and compensation. Despite the Appeal Court’s decision, Mu Sochua remained defiant on Wednesday. Speaking outside the Court of Appeal, she again said she had no intention of paying the fine. The prime minister sued Mu Sochua for defamation in April after she filed her own complaint that he had made derogatory remarks about her during a press conference. Her lawsuit, however, was dismissed by the Appeal Court on October 14, whereas Prime Minister Hun Sen’s proceeded.

City Hall says vendors must sell somewhere else this year

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Kirira plays on the boat his village’s team will be racing during the Water Festival this weekend. His family is camping by the riverside along with the team in preparation for the festival.

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They are from the provinces, so they don’t know much about public order.

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THE telltale signs of Water Festival – racers readying boats on the Tonle Sap, clusters of villagers fresh from the provinces, an influx of portable toilets – could already be seen along Sisowath Quay on Thursday afternoon, three days before the festival officially begins.

One festival staple, however, was conspicuously absent: the scores of street vendors who typically set up along the main roads, eager to hawk
their wares in the capital, which generally welcomes more than 2 million visitors for the annual spectacle.

In a move to improve “public order”, City Hall has banned street vendors from Sisowath as well as Sothearos and Norodom boulevards, instead compelling them to gather on the grounds of Wat Ounalom and along Street 154.

“We will not allow them to sell on the busy streets because we want to manage them and maintain public order,” said Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun. “They are from the provinces, so they don’t know much about public order.”

The move has dismayed vendors, who expressed concern that their earnings would plummet if they were forced to sell from low-profile locations.
“This year I will not be able to earn nearly as much as last year because the authorities will not allow us to set up in front of the pagoda,” said Sou Chea, a 47-year-old vendor sitting on Street 154 amid the more than 100 woven baskets she brought to the capital from Kandal province. “The festival-goers will not know that they need to come here to buy my baskets.”

She said she and other vendors from her village had made the trip for the past six years, and that revenue from her baskets – which go for 7,000 to 15,000 riels – totaled around US$50 annually.

“We have no choice except to obey the authorities, but it is a lot easier to sell on the river,” she said.

Meanwhile, local authorities on Thursday morning told more than 40 vendors stationed in front of Wat Ounalom that they would be moved inside the pagoda grounds today.

Sok Penhvuth, deputy governor of Daun Penh district, said that the new restrictions on vendors would “make the city beautiful and reduce traffic jams”.

The news left Pet Chheu, a 55-year-old vendor who had never before been to the capital before arriving on a Thursday morning bus, wondering whether she would be able to sell enough toys, bracelets and rings to afford the $5 bus ticket back home to her native Siem Reap.

“I came here for the festival, but also because I was wondering what Phnom Penh looks like,” she said. “I am really excited to be here, but if they don’t allow me to sell on the road, I don’t know how I will pay for another bus ticket.”

City police arrest 17 suspected prostitut

A POLICE crackdown on massage parlours and hotels in Phnom Penh ahead of the upcoming Water Festival has led to the arrest of 17 coining girls on suspicions of offering paid sexual services.

The girls who offered the traditional medical procedure were arrested in Daun Penh district on Wednesday and have been sent to the municipal social affairs office for vocational skills training.

Sok Penhvuth, deputy governor of Daun Penh district, said Thursday that officials want to prevent the spread of disease as the capital’s population swells ahead of the three-day festival.

“We don’t want to see the boat racers bring diseases such as HIV/AIDS back to their wives. We want to protect the men in case they get caught up in the festivities and forget about health and safety,” he said.

Ly Rosyami, deputy governor of Russey Keo district, said authorities will continue surveying massage parlours, guesthouses and hotels today and tomorrow.

“During the three days of the Water Festival, we will have representatives standing outside each massage parlour, coining shop and karaoke bar to distribute condoms and provide health information to customers,” she said.

Mann Chhoeun, deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said the intention was not to close down businesses but to prevent the spread of diseases.

“I want to say to them they can win a boat race but they cannot win against HIV/AIDS,” he said.

He added that authorities will cooperate with NGOs to organise health seminars for boat racers at their team tents.

Friday, 30 October 2009 15:02 Mom Kunthear

A POLICE crackdown on massage parlours and hotels in Phnom Penh ahead of the upcoming Water Festival has led to the arrest of 17 coining girls on suspicions of offering paid sexual services.

The girls who offered the traditional medical procedure were arrested in Daun Penh district on Wednesday and have been sent to the municipal social affairs office for vocational skills training.

Sok Penhvuth, deputy governor of Daun Penh district, said Thursday that officials want to prevent the spread of disease as the capital’s population swells ahead of the three-day festival.

“We don’t want to see the boat racers bring diseases such as HIV/AIDS back to their wives. We want to protect the men in case they get caught up in the festivities and forget about health and safety,” he said.

Ly Rosyami, deputy governor of Russey Keo district, said authorities will continue surveying massage parlours, guesthouses and hotels today and tomorrow.

“During the three days of the Water Festival, we will have representatives standing outside each massage parlour, coining shop and karaoke bar to distribute condoms and provide health information to customers,” she said.

Mann Chhoeun, deputy governor of Phnom Penh, said the intention was not to close down businesses but to prevent the spread of diseases.

“I want to say to them they can win a boat race but they cannot win against HIV/AIDS,” he said.

He added that authorities will cooperate with NGOs to organise health seminars for boat racers at their team tents.

Officials downplay planned PAD protest

A CAMBODIAN official responded Thursday to Thai media reports of a planned protest by People’s Alliance for Democracy members outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok on Monday.

The English-language daily newspaper The Nation reported earlier this week that PAD members planned to protest outside the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok in response to comments made by Prime Minister Hun Sen during the weekend’s ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, during which he said that Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup, had been treated unfairly by Thai authorities.

Hun Sen’s comments were seen as undermining Thailand’s judiciary credibility, The Nation reported.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Thursday that the government was not surprised by the announced protest.

“It is not the first time that PAD has warned Cambodia about a protest, but we are not concerned because the Cambodian embassy and its
diplomats are under the careful protection of Thai authorities,” Koy Kuong said.

Koy Kuong added that Cambodia has yet to receive official confirmation that Thaksin has plans to visit the Kingdom.

“There is no official notice about his visit. We just heard that he told supporters that he would fly to Cambodia soon, but I think these sources of information are reliable,” he said, referring to Thai press reports that Thaksin had informed supporters via teleconference that he intended to take Hun Sen up on his offer to visit Cambodia.

Nuon Chea team blasts KRT judges

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday published a letter from the Nuon Chea defence team accusing the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges of having “spent the better part of the last two years confirming a particular set of historically accepted ‘truths’” rather than conducting its work impartially.

The October 15 letter listed a number of “failings”, but emphasises a witness account provided earlier this month by Wayne Bastin, a former chief of the Intelligence and Analysis Unit at the office, charging that Judge Marcel Lemonde encouraged investigators to “find more inculpatory evidence than exculpatory evidence” while putting together cases against former regime leaders.

The letter also stated that more than half of 15 requests for investigative action submitted by lawyers for the regime’s Brother No 2 have gone unanswered, “despite the fact that we have requested in most cases to be consulted in advance”.

In a reply dated October 27, the office said it was “impossible to comment upon” a motion to dismiss Lemonde filed by defence lawyers for former foreign minister Ieng Sary in light of Bastin’s statement. Judges Lemonde and You Bunleng added that they would “continue to conduct the judicial investigation with impartiality and with all necessary vigour”.

20,000 hectares handed to poor, disabled soldiers since 2007.

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Soldiers guard Preah Vihear temple in July. The government says it is has given 20,000 hectares of land concessions to retired and disabled soldiers.THE government has given away more than 20,000 hectares of state land since 2007 as social land concessions to the families of poor and disabled war veterans as a supplement to their national pensions, according to a statement issued by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday.

Since 2007, the government had cleared 2,057 hectares of forested land in Siem Reap, 1,200 hectares for 240 disabled soldiers in Kampot, 173 hectares for 100 families in Stung Treng and 16,400 hectares for 1,912 families in Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district, according to the statement.

“The main issue in providing social land concessions to the ex-armed forces is to set up a social safety net for those who have poor families so that they can build houses and cultivate the land,” read the statement.

Prak Chanthoeun, director general at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said Thursday that the government had formed a committee to evaluate the situation of retired and disabled soldiers in order to ensure they are eligible for the land.

“The land is offered as an incentive for what they have devoted to the nation,” Prak Chanthoeun said. “The offer is only open to the real poor and landless soldiers.”

Mu Sochua, a lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said the social land concessions were a priority for poor and disabled troops but said the division and granting of the land should be conducted transparently and confined to areas that are suitable for agriculture.

“It should be real retired or disabled soldiers who get the land, and the division should be equal,” she said.

Prak Chanthoeun said the committee was seeking additional land for the concession programme and was conducting research about the number of retired or disabled soldiers needing land.

The government is currently spending about US$1 million a month supporting about 100,000 disabled and retired soldiers and the widows of those who have died in service. When their families are included – parents, widows and children – the Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible for about 600,000 people.

Hong Sreysambath, director of the ministry’s Pension Office, said he had deleted some old names of retired, disabled or deceased war veterans, but that the new names on the pension payroll were increasing yearly.

“The ministry is auditing and reviewing the exact number of ex-armed forces receiving pensions,” he said.

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Court upholds Mu Sochua conviction

Photo by: Sovan Philong

Parliamentarian Mu Sochua appeared in court on Wednesday as the judges rejected her appeal of a defamation conviction.

THE Court of Appeal has upheld the defamation conviction of opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua, an outcome the Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian described as “politically motivated”.

In a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Seng Sivutha affirmed the ruling handed down by the Municipal Court in August, which found Mu Sochua guilty of defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen and ordered her to pay a total of 16.5 million riels (US$3,963) in fines and compensation.

During the hearing, Mu Sochua was defiant, appearing in court without a defence attorney and refusing to answer any questions because of her lack of counsel, she said.

“I don’t want other lawyers to become victims like Kong Sam Onn,” she said, referring to her former defence lawyer, who resigned and defected to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in July after he was also sued for defamation by the premier.

After the hearing, she rejected the court’s decision and pledged to take her appeal to the Supreme Court.

“I’m not going to pay the fine – I’ve said that before clearly,” she said. “I’m just giving the courts of Cambodia another chance to prove that they can do their job.”

In a statement released after the hearing, the SRP decried the outcome as a “mockery of justice” that merely mimicked the verdict handed down in August. “The Appeal Court, ignoring principles of fair trial, blindly affirmed the decision of the Municipal Court: The accused was denied her rights to be represented by a lawyer of her choice, and to be judged by an independent and impartial tribunal,” the party stated.

The prime minister sued Mu Sochua for defamation in April after she filed her own complaint, claiming he referred to her in a speech as a cheung klang – a Khmer term meaning “strong leg” but considered derogatory when used in relation to women. Her own lawsuit against Hun Sen was dismissed by the Appeal Court on October 14.

Hun Sen’s lawyer, Ky Tech, said during the hearing that Mu Sochua’s comments about her own lawyer were an attempt to politicise the issue, and that the wording of Mu Sochua’s lawsuit – in which she requested 500 riels in symbolic compensation – was clear evidence that she aimed to attack and insult the prime minister.

“She held a press conference to defame Samdech Hun Sen and said she would sue [him]. She demanded 500 riels, but this amount could not wash away the stain on her reputation if she had really been defamed by Hun Sen,” Ky Tech said.

“There was only one aim – to defame Samdech Hun Sen.”

Rights activists, however, said the verdict was a clear case of political manipulation.

“Poor people can’t make complaints against high-ranking people. This is the custom of Cambodia,” said Chan Soveth, a senior monitor at local rights group Adhoc.

The outcome of the appeal, he said, was a foregone conclusion from the moment the original verdict was delivered.

“The Phnom Penh court had made its decision already, [a] decision made not by the court but by high-ranking people. The Appeal Court could not make a new ruling,” he said.

Thida Keus, executive director of rights group Silaka and secretary general of the Committee to Promote Women in Politics, said she was disappointed the court did not conduct its own investigations into the case, adding that the verdict could discourage women from getting involved in politics.

“Since [Mu Sochua] is among the most proactive women activists and lawmakers in Cambodia, I am disappointed she wasn’t given more respect,” she said.

“I feel very sad that this has happened – not just for women, but also for the public and the international community who know the judicial system in Cambodia is not free.”

The ruling came a week after the Governing Council of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union adopted a resolution expressing “deep concern” at the sentencing of Mu Sochua for making statements that “clearly fall within the limits of her freedom of expression”.

The resolution, adopted in Geneva on October 21, also decried the removal of Mu Sochua’s parliamentary immunity in June to pave the way for the defamation case, and said she “did not enjoy her right to legal counsel of her choice” following Kong Sam Onn’s resignation in July.

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Cambodia to warn people against A/H1N1, HIV/AIDS at water festival

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian authorities have prepared two messages on prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS and A/H1N1 virus at the upcoming water festival, government and international organization officials said Friday.

Sok Touch, director of the communicable disease control department of Ministry of Health said his ministry has prepared some 500,000 leaflets to be distributed during the three-day festival.

He said the leaflets recommend the attendees to the event to be well aware of the disease by which it encourages people to avoid the flu by "covering up cough and wash hands among others."

Also, Dan Bora, communication officer of Population Service International (PSI) said about 1,000 volunteers coordinated by PSIand in cooperation with national AIDS authority will hand out 250,000 condoms during the three-day event.

He said brothels will be the main target for distributions of the condoms.

Cambodia is known as a successful country in curbing with the spread of HIV/AIDS through a campaign of "100 percent condom use."

Chea Sokhom, secretary general of the National and International Festival Committee, said Thursday that 391 boats with more than 25,000 racers have been registered to take part in the water festival which is scheduled to begin from Nov. 1 through 3.

Cambodia's boat races or water festival is a three-day event crediting Cambodia's strong armed forces in defeating enemies by using boats.

King Norodom Sihamoni is expected to preside over the races, and will be accompanied by the government leaders, including Prime Minister Hun Sen and members of the foreign diplomatic corps.

Every year, millions of Cambodians are coming from across the country and are flocking to Phnom Penh to view and enjoy the boat races.

The 1,700-meter race is held on the Mekong River in the capital in front of the Royal Palace.

Cambodian PM to attend first Mekong-Japan summit in Japan

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen will lead a high delegation to participate in the first Mekong-Japan Summit from Nov. 6 to 7, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan, according to a statement released by the Cambodian Foreign Ministry on Friday.

The statement said the delegation will include Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Cham Prasidh, senior minister and Minister of Commerce.

"This forthcoming summit clearly demonstrates the political commitment at the highest level of the Mekong countries and Japan for a comprehensive development of the Mekong region, including management of the Mekong River," the statement said.

During his stay in Japan, Hun Sen will be received in the Royal Audience by His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito at his Royal Palace, meet Takahiro Yokomichi, speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan, Eda Satsuki, president of the House of Councilors, and also hold a bilateral meeting with Hatoyama Yukio, Prime Minister of Japan.

The statement said at the end of the summit, Hun Sen will attend a joint press conference and signing ceremony on the Tokyo Declaration on a "New Partnership for the Common Flourishing Future" between Japan and the Mekong region countries, appended with the Japan-Mekong Action Plan.

Cambodia can deny Thaksin extradition bid

Cambodia can deny Thaksin extradition bid by Thailand: Attorney-General

BANGKOK, Oct 30 (TNA) - Cambodia reserves the right to deny a request by Thailand to extradite ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra if he stays in the neighbouring country, but substantial grounds must be provided for the denial, according to the Attorney-General Julasingh Wasantsingh. Mr Julasingh said he did not focus on anybody in particular, but would touch only on the principle that even though Thailand and Cambodia had signed an extradition treaty, in practice the country which was asked for the extradition has the full right to deny the request. However, that country must justify its denial in line with international practice. As for Mr Thaksin’s case, the Office of the Attorney-General has not been informed about his whereabouts so the office could not make the request. If the police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirm that Mr Thaksin is in Cambodia, Thai officials would seek extradition, but it depends on Phnom Penh's decision. He added that Thailand had formerly denied such requests from some countries, but the kingdom was able to provide strong grounds to clarify its decisions in the past. Mr Hun Sen told reporters during attending the 15th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand that Mr Thaksin could remain in Cambodia as his guest and could be his economic advisor, saying he was not interfering in Thailand's internal affairs, but that Cambodia has the right to exercise its sovereignty and make such a decision. Ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006, convicted and sentenced to a two-year jail term for malfeasance in the controversial Bangkok Ratchadapisek land purchase, Mr Thaksin now living in self-exile abroad and is reportedly a close friend of Mr Hun Sen. (TNA)

Thai-Cambodian Tension Tests Claims of Regional Peace

A demonstrator holds a banner with pictures of exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen during a rally outside the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok on October 27. (Photo: Reuters)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
IPS WRITER

BANGKOK — The relationship between Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand and Cambodia enters another uneasy stretch following a round of verbal salvoes fired before and during a just concluded regional summit, where much is made of strides in achieving unity.

The Thai media had also stepped into the fray to take on the comments made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that appeared to get under the skin of the Thai government, host of the 15th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which ran from Oct. 23-25.

On Tuesday, one Thai commentator described Hun Sen as a "big bully" for the remarks he made just before flying into Cha-am, the resort town south of Bangkok where the Asean summit was held, and soon after he landed.

"Hun Sen Shows Lack of Class and Tact," declared the headline of an editorial in a Sunday newspaper. It seethed with anger about the Cambodian leader's "provocative remarks."

Hun Sen, the region's longest-serving premier, upset the Thais by publicly throwing his weight behind Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai premier who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and now living in exile to avoid arrest after being found guilty of violating conflict of interest laws.

Cambodia will offer Thaksin a home, Hun Sen said, before arriving in Cha-am, and then added that Phnom Penh would not extradite the fugitive ex-Thai leader if Bangkok made a request. The increasingly authoritarian Cambodian leader also revealed a role he had for the like-minded Thaksin in the future Cambodia—as an economic advisor.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva shot back. "Don't allow anybody to use you as a pawn," he said at a press conference toward the end of the summit, where the outcome of the 10-member regional bloc was to have been the focus.

"If former prime minister Thaksin moves to Cambodia, it will have an effect on our relationship," said Kasit Piromya, Thai foreign minister, in another press conference.

Both Abhisit and Kasit belong to a coalition government that was formed last year with the backing of Thailand's powerful military. It followed a controversial court verdict that resulted in the collapse of a coalition government of Thaksin's allies, who were elected at a December 2007 poll, the first since the 2006 putsch.

Thaksin has been making desperate bids to return to Thailand or to live in a country closer to home than in the Middle East, where he often resides. But he has made little headway with the members of the 42-year-old Asean due to the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of a member country that binds this 10-member bloc.

Asean, which has just become a new rules-based unified entity, includes Brunei, Burma (or Myanmar), Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, in addition to Thailand and Cambodia.

The war of words that overshadowed the Asean summit added a new twist to an already testy relationship between the two countries that share an 800-kilometre border, much of it being disputed and not clearly marked because Thais and Cambodia use different maps.

The most visible symbol of the underlying tension between the two Southeast Asian kingdoms is a 10th century Hindu temple, Preah Vihear, that sits atop a steep cliff on the Thai-Cambodian border.

The temple was claimed by the French colonists who ruled Cambodia using a disputed 1907 map. After the French left, the Thai troops took over the temple but handed it back to Phnom Penh following a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague. Since then troops from both countries have faced each other along the heavily mined border.

Since July last year, Preah Vihear has become a flashpoint, stoked by deep-seated nationalism on both sides. It followed a ruling by the World Heritage Committee that month that recognized the temple as a world heritage site and concurred with the ICJ's ruling that the temple belonged to Cambodia.

Thai nationalists were enraged, prompting both Cambodian and Thailand to reinforce their military strength in the still contested land—some 4.6 square kilometers—surrounding the temple.

In April, the soldiers from both countries exchanged gunfire, leaving three people dead.

Over a month before the recent summit, Hun Sen had ordered Cambodian troops to fire if any Thais crossed the border illegally. Around the same time, in September, members of a right-wing conservative Thai political movement marched to the disputed site to flex their patriotic stripes.

Thailand was put on notice by Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong that Phnom Penh wanted the border dispute placed on the agenda of the 15th Asean summit. But Bangkok rejected the call, insisting that the dispute be addressed through bilateral negotiations than have this issue "internationalized or raised within the Asean framework."

This verbal tit-for-tat even drew Cambodia's envoy in Thailand to comment in the Bangkok Post newspaper on the eve of the summit. "No peace-loving nation on earth like Cambodia wants to make political gains by provoking armed conflict with its neighbors," wrote ambassador You Ay. "The recent tension between the two countries began with the yellow-shirt protesters from Thailand who wanted to enter our Preah Vihear temple."

The simmering tensions between the two Southeastern nations has not gone down well with the rest of Asean, given the bloc's habit of saying it does not need a regional dispute-settling mechanism because the region's leaders are committed to regional peace through local solutions.

Cambodia broke with this tradition last year when the Preah Vihear issue flared up. It reported the dispute to the United Nations Security Council without getting a nod from its Asean allies, prompting Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to warn of the regional bloc's credibility being at stake.

Thai officials are hoping that a quieter approach will help calm tensions between the two countries. "We want people along the border to live peacefully," said Kasit, the Thai foreign minister. "There is a need for civility to forge a relationship and build a relationship as much as possible."

Hun Xen's heaven is Thai hell?

Sunday , October 25 , 2009
Thai Talk - Analysis and comments on political and current affairs
The Nation

Thaksin and Suu Kyi: How can you compare hell with heaven?

By Yoon , Reader : 1637 , 20:26:57

Cambodian PM Hun Sen says Thaksin Shinawatr should get the kind of world attention that Aung San Suu Kyi gets.

That statement has inevitably become immediately controversial, for obvious reasons and the "uncomparable comparison" has drawn reactions from various quarters.

The most striking perhaps has come from former diplomat Surapong Jayanam who was once Thai ambassador to Burma.

Surapong usually doesn't pull punches when it comes to making his political statements.

So, when Hun Sen said he considered Thaksin as respectable as Suu Kyi, Surapong retorted:

"The difference between the two is like heaven and hell."

Do I have to ask who's heaven and who's hell?

Jungle woman' hospitalised

Rochom P'ngieng

October 30, 2009
From correspondents in Cambodia
Agence France-Presse

CAMBODIA'S "jungle woman", whose case gripped the country after she apparently spent 18 years living in a forest, has been hospitalised after refusing food, her father and a doctor said today.

Rochom P'ngieng, now 28, went missing as a little girl in 1989 while herding water buffalo in Ratanakkiri province around 600km northeast of the capital Phnom Penh.

The woman was brought from the jungle, naked and dirty, in early 2007 after being caught trying to steal food from a farmer.

She was hunched over like a monkey, scavenging the ground for pieces of dried rice in the forest.

She could not utter a word of any intelligible language, instead making what Sal Lou, the man who says he is her father, calls "animal noises".

Cambodians described her as "jungle woman" and "half-animal girl".

Sal Lou said Rochom P'ngieng was admitted to the provincial hospital on Monday and had not adjusted to village life.

"She has refused to eat rice for about one month. She is skinny now.... She still cannot speak. She acts totally like a monkey. Last night, she took off her clothes, and went to hide in the bathroom," Sal Lou said.

"Her condition looks worse than the time we brought her from the jungle. She always wants to take off her clothes and crawl back to the jungle," he added.

Doctor Hing Phan Sokunthea, director of Ratanakkiri provincial hospital, said the woman was "in a state of nerves".

"Doctors have injected her with medicine twice a day to treat nervous illness but she still cannot control herself," he said.

Sal Lou said his family found it difficult to house the woman and he would appeal to charities to take over her care.

The jungles of Ratanakkiri - some of the most isolated and wild in Cambodia - are known to have held hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.

In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they supported.