Funcinpec parliamentarians opposed to removal of their SRP colleagues' immunity
         K.I. 05 March 2005 : « Assembly's Legislation Committee Chairman: "Secret ballot required for vote on immunity" ». Ranariddh had to impose a vote by show of hands in order to attain his goal. It was at the cost of violating the Parliament's own rules that the Speaker was able to secure an impressive unanimous vote from all the parliamentarians who are supposed to support him.

           N.P. : Norodom Vacheahra said she would have voted against the removal if the very SRP parliamentarians stayed at the House and defended themselves.

Potential scandal at the World Bank
         K.I. : King-Father Norodom Sihanouk has noticed a 1st March 2005 article in the Bangkok-based daily newspaper The Nation that points to a potential scandal at the World Bank. The article titled "Cambodia, the World Bank and demobilization", by Sophie Richardson, elaborates on "bank complicity", involving "staff members in Phnom Penh, Bangkok, Singapore and Washington", in the fraudulent collapse of a multi-million dollar demobilisation program in Cambodia. The "bank complicity" is allegedly responsible for up to 40 percent of all misused funds.

Sans pluie, l'eau vaut de l'or (2005-Mar-01)          Kampong Trach, Kampot : En plus de la sécheresse en 2004, il n'est pas tombé une seule goutte de pluie depuis trois mois en cette saison sèche 2005. Les étangs se tarissent. Non seulement les villageois mais aussi leur bétail et les animaux d'élevage ont besoin de boire. Des gens viennent puiser de l'eau des srahh (large étang) dans les pagodes, d'autres, à bicyclettes, s'improvisent vendeurs d'eau (200 riels le bidon) qu'ils ont eux-mêmes achetée (100 riels le bidon) des propriétaires de puits. [Koh Santepheap]

Famine dans Kampong Chhnang (2005-Fév-27)          Radio Free Asia : Kdourch est un tubercule sauvage qui pousse dans la forêt. Les contes et légendes disaient que des gens sans ressources creusaient le sol pour en trouver et en mangeaient à la place du riz. L'adjectif Poul-Kdourch (intoxiqué par ce tubercule) est bien connu et utilisé au propre comme au figuré, car le tubercule est assez fréquemment toxique.          4000 familles dans le district Samaqqi Mean Chey, Kampong Chhnang, sont touchées par la sécheresse de l'année dernière et ont de plus en plus recours au Kdourch pour subsister. Les paysans se livrent à des activités complémentaires pour trouver de revenus. Ceux qui le savent, tissent les feuilles de latanier pour en faire des nattes. Les enfants aident leurs parents en allant couper du bois de cuisine pour en vendre. Le chef de district réclame des fonds pour réparer 4 réservoirs capables d'irriguer 10.000 hectares.

[Photos   Ouk Savborey]

From "Asia Security Monitor" (2005-Feb-25)

1) SOUTHEAST ASIAN STRIFE COULD DRAW AL-QAEDA
         February 19: Following a spate of recent bombings, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced his government’s plan to cut financial aid to Thailand’s restive south. Agence France Presse reports that the country’s majority-Muslim “red zones” – the Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces – could be denied development funds as a result of ongoing separatist violence and the pro-rebel stances of their respective administrations. The Thai Premier has publicly ruled out negotiations with the separatist elements, instead opting to “color-code” over 1,500 villages according to their degree of violence, separatist sympathy, and their level of government cooperation. More than 350 villages across the three major southern provinces could be affected by Thaksin’s controversial policy.

         The Philippine Star reports that Manila is poised to get a boost to the intelligence and counterterrorism capabilities of its military, courtesy of the United States. According to Philippine Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, the Bush administration has earmarked $4 million in 2005 for the “upgrade of equipment and training of intelligence elements” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The funds are part of close to $32 million expected to be provided by the United States to the Philippines this year as part of the ongoing counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and Manila.

         February 20: Terrorism analysts are warning that the tactics employed by the governments of Thailand and the Philippines in response to Muslim separatist violence could have unintended consequences. According to Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert with Singapore’s Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Arab pro-al-Qaeda websites are “highlighting the Thai issue,” and the “[p]rologation of this conflict will mean greater involvement of other regional groups and global groups like Al-Qaeda.” This is particularly true in the Philippines, which already has a “permanent Al-Qaeda presence,” Agence France Presse reports Gunaratna as saying. Robert Broadfoot of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Consultancy agrees; he tells the news agency that, “[t]he grievances in southern Thailand are local but as we saw in Indonesia and the Philippines, Al-Qaeda and international groups have been able to take advantage of those local situations.”

2) MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR PAKISTAN’S MILITARY
         February 13: Worried over Nepal’s deepening turmoil and authoritarian drift, India has cut off military aid to the government of King Gyanendra, the Associated Press reports. Since dismissing the government and declaring a state of national emergency on February 1st, the Nepalese government has rolled back individual freedoms and deployed its military against the country’s massive Maoist rebel movement. The moratorium comes as a major blow to Katmandu, which has received $93 million in military aid from New Delhi over the past three years. Nepalese officials, however, remain defiant; a day earlier, the South Asia Tribune had reported that King Gyanendra has intimated a cessation of military assistance from New Delhi could force Katmandu to reconsider the 40-year-old treaty between the two countries, and turn to Pakistan or China for arms supplies.

         February 18: The struggle for control of Pakistan’s military is reaching a boiling point, the South Asia Tribune reports. Since two failed attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, the Pakistani government has launched a clampdown on “internal rebellion” within the country’s military – one that has already garnered the death penalty for several rogue Army and Air Force officers. Now, however, Musharraf’s efforts to ingratiate his country’s military to the United States have widened the rift between the government and militant factions within the Army, Air Force, Police and Inter-Services Intelligence – setting the stage for a struggle for control between officials in Islamabad and “Islamic extremists and their ideological partners in the garrison [who] are acting in unison to eradicate the key American ally in the U.S.-led war against terror.”

         Koh Santepheap : Dans la province de Battambang, le vieux pont métallique enjambant la rivière Stung Sangkè est devenu dangereux. La rouille et l'absence d'entretien ont causé l'arrachage à moitié de deux plaques de revêtement de la dalle. Des accidents surviennent la nuit, le pont n'ayant pas d'éclairage. Au cours des deux semaines passées, 30 personnes ont été blessées par ces plaques. La population blâme le nouveau chef du district Battambang, Ouy Vy, l'accusant de désinvolture.

           N.P. : Dans des pays démocratiques, les ponts et routes sont plutôt sous la responsabilité des ministères de Transport ou des Travaux publics. Mais au Cambodge anarchique et corrompu, la population ne regarde que les personnes hiérarchiquement au-dessus d'elle dans la vieille tradition centralisatrice : chef de district, gouverneur de province, roi ... ou premier ministre. Les blessés peuvent toujours penser au dicton "Le sang crie, la peau appelle" ou plutôt, pour ce cas-ci, "Le pont crie, l'acier appelle" ...

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