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Vietnam Marks 30 Years Since War's End (2005-Apr-30)
         By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer : HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - Waving red flags, troops marched Saturday down the boulevard along which North Vietnamese tanks rolled into this city 30 years ago in a victory ending the Vietnam War. Hundreds of aging veterans, their chests decked with medals, watched from the sidelines as the soldiers headed toward the Presidential Palace. The legendary Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap was among them, standing alongside the president. Giant billboards of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's revolutionary leader, overlooked the parade route and adjoining streets, which had been blocked off to the public due to security concerns.
         On April 30, 1975, Communist tanks barreled through the palace gates in what was then Saigon, capital of South Vietnam. The city's fall marked the official end of the Vietnam War, and the United States' decade-long campaign against communism in Southeast Asia. The war claimed some 58,000 American lives and an estimated 3 million Vietnamese. "I was listening to the radio with my family and heard that Saigon had been liberated. I was very happy because for many years we weren't free. After 30 years we have rebuilt our country. Our land is safe and secure and I think the future will be better for my children," said To Thanh Nghia, 51, a government worker marching in the parade. The atmosphere in the country three decades later has been mostly festive, focusing on Vietnam's recent economic rejuvenation. Memories of the war and its aftermath are little more than anecdotes in history books for most Vietnamese who were born after it ended. "My father and grandfather fought in the war but I was too young. I think my future will be good because they created opportunities for my generation," said Nguyen Thanh Tung, an 18-year-old student.
         Along the grand boulevard where communist tanks once rolled, capitalism has taken solid root. Some parade floats, sponsored by Vietnamese banks, sported the logo of American credit card companies. One float featured women pushing shopping carts filled with supermarket goods. These days, Le Duan Street is home to Diamond Plaza, a glittering, upscale department store where French perfumes and Italian shoes are sold to an emerging urban, middle class. Along the same strip, a French-owned five-star hotel sits across the street from the U.S. consulate. While Vietnam proudly recalled its victories over both the United States and colonial France, the focus was clearly on the future. "Through our two resistance (wars) against foreign aggressors, the historical clashes in Saigon will always be in the forefront," President Tran Duc Luong said to cheers from the crowd. He called Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, the country's "economic locomotive."

Sihanouk (83 ans): Il y a 35 ans, nous étions très amis. Pourquoi Votre Excellence ne m'avez pas invité à cet anniversaire?
 Giap (94 ans): Phan Van Khai vient de dire qu'il faut "oublier le passé et regarder vers l'avenir"!
Sihanouk (83 ans) : Mais alors, vos promesses quant à nos frontières communes?
Giap (94 ans) : Ha! Ha! Ha! Mon ami, t'es vraiment naïf !
         With the president on the giant reviewing platform was a guest of honor, Raul Castro, the brother of Cuba's longtime leader Fidel Castro who stood by Vietnam's communist regime for decades. Also flanking the leader was Giap, the military mastermind behind the defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu and later, ousting the Americans. Despite Vietnam's remarkable recovery from the devastation of war, most of its largely agrarian population of 82 million remains poor with per capita income hovering around $550 a year. But Vietnam is on the crest of an economic wave, recording an annual growth of 7.7 percent last year -- second only to China in Asia. One of the biggest signs of that is the construction under way in much of Ho Chi Minh City. Luu Quang Dong, a 68-year-old veteran from northern Vinh Phuc province, traveled for four days via bus to attend Saturday's ceremony. Dressed in his olive uniform covered in red and gold medals, he said he made the trip to see the city he had stormed into three decades ago, arriving with his unit just minutes after the tanks crashed through the palace gates. "I wanted to come and see how much the city has changed," he said. Though the North and South reunified three decades ago, the task of reconciliation still looms large. On Friday, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai reached out to Vietnam's former enemies, urging them to "close the past, look to the future."
         The United States has become Vietnam's single-largest trading partner. But relations with overseas Vietnamese, who sent back nearly $4 billion in remittances last year, remain more sensitive. Despite the government's message of reconciliation, lingering mistrust continues. Earlier this week, the government banned a book of love songs from the pre-1975 era. "Thirty years after the war, the country is really reconciled now. Maybe some people still feel bitter about the liberation of Saigon but that number is very small," said Han Van Minh, 65, who was a sergeant in the Saigon army and now runs a small business.

Déminage : Le Canada donne 750 000 $
au Cambodge (2005-Avr-28)
         Koh Santepheap : Le gouvernement cambodgien reçoit trois quarts de million dollars du Canada pour le déminage dans les provinces de Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Battambang et la ville de Païlin.

Bandung : A spectre of another bipolar World (2005-Apr-24)
         Preab Pisey : On May 18, 1955, China was among the 29 countries from the Asian-African world that attended the conference held in Bandung, Indonesia. China's delegation, led by its then premier Zhou Enlai, threw its support behind African and Asian independence movements, as a way to counter U.S. and Soviet influences in the Third World. The trip was a diplomatic success for a communist country that had just emerged from years of war chaos and international isolation. 50 years later, China, represented by President Hu Jintao, is trying to reinvigorate Bandung Conference Spirit on behalf of a Renewed Strategic Partnership between Asia and Africa. Obviously the stakes did not fundamentally change. President Hu's trip is expected to reinforce perceptions of China as a leader of the Third World -- a non-western and non-colonial emerging superpower, eager to expand its scope of geopolitical influence in Asia, Africa and in the rest of the world. [RepublicofCambodia]

Norodom Sihanouk : Je n'aurais pas dû prendre ma retraite et je supplierais Samdech Hun Sèn de m'inclure dans la délégation cambodgienne!

Un Khmer de Long Beach : Si ce roi des cons n'avait pas trahi l'esprit des Non Alignés en cachant les Vietcongs, nous ne serions pas ici aujourd'hui à fêter le Chaul Chhnam! Vive l'Amérique!

Xi Shun : Je tiens à rassurer tout le monde que même si la Chine est devenue, comme moi, un géant, nous sommes tous des pacifistes. Sauf si....


Anti-US demonstration
in Bandung [Reuters]

Xi Shun, 2 m 38, de la Mongolie intérieure
[Photo AFP / Le Monde]

Phnom Penh government criticized at UN Human Rights Commission (2005-Apr-21)
         Samngatki : Presenting his report on Cambodia at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Peter Leuprecht, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General notably said on 18 April: “The [Phnom Penh] regime seems to be increasingly autocratic with a growing concentration of power in the hand of the Prime Minister Hun Sen behind a shaky facade of democracy (...). There is no separation of powers, and the rule of law, also in this respect, is elusive”. He also denounced the “massive corruption that reaches the highest levels of state” along with the prevailing impunity described as “a gangrene undermining the fabric of Cambodian society”.

Vélos électriques chinois (2005-Avr-21)

           Koh Santepheap : Une firme chinoise a fait cadeau de 20 vélos électriques à la police de Phnom Penh. D'une autonomie de 40 km à la vitesse de 30 km/h, la bicyclette est pédalable "à plat". La recharge des batteries prend 5 heures. Si les essais sont satisfaisants, la municipalité compte en acheter de 200 à 300 (prix unitaire : 290 $US). Le vice-président de la firme, Zhang Gui Hua, projette de monter, plus tard, une usine de montage au Cambodge, ce qui pourra couper les prix de 20 à 30%. La police distribue ces vélos électriques aux patrouilleurs de quatre quartiers de la capitale.

Ranariddh and the consequences of a lawsuit against L’Express (2005-Apr-21)
         K.I. : CPP mouthpiece Rasmei Kampuchea published on 21 April an article titled “Report on a lawsuit against L’Express has reached Prince [Ranariddh]”, in which a group of Funcinpec lawyers have reportedly weighed the pros and cons of a defamation lawsuit that the Prince is considering filing against the French magazine. The article specifies that if the Prince loses the lawsuit, there will be “heavily negative consequences” for him. This is the second time that Rasmei Kampuchea has pointed out the possibly bad consequences for Ranariddh of a complaint he would lodge with the French Court. Rasmei Kampuchea recalls that Ranariddh has accused Sam Rainsy of pushing the French magazine to write negative stories about him because the opposition leader has a “sister-in-law who works for L’Express” in Paris. Since Ranariddh has filed a defamation lawsuit against Sam Rainsy before the Cambodian Court and since L’Express has published even more serious allegations than those made by Sam Rainsy about Ranariddh’s corruption, the Prince realizes that he has to start a legal case against L’Express at the French Court.

 
17 AVRIL, 30 ANS DÉJÀ ! LE RÊVE DE NUON CHEA

La forteresse de Tuol Svay Prey évoque la révolution du Kampuchea Démocratique. Ang Kar est dur et résistant comme le roc. Hun Sèn bénit Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea. Aucun tribunal ne peut les juger!

[Hymne national du Royaume de Païlin]

 

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