One Child Dead, Others Rescued in Cambodia (2005-Jun-16)
By DANIEL LOVERING, Associated Press Writer
         SIEM REAP, Cambodia - Masked gunmen seized dozens of children at an international school Thursday in northwestern Cambodia, killing a 3-year-old Canadian boy and vowing to shoot the others one by one before police rescued the hostages, authorities said. The attackers stormed Siem Reap International School, grabbed students from several countries, and demanded money, weapons and a vehicle before police ended the six-hour standoff and took four young gunmen into custody.          The attackers shot the boy when authorities refused to meet all of their demands, then "threatened to kill the other children one by one," said Information Minister Khieu Kanharith. Authorities said they managed to talk the attackers out of the building after giving them a minivan and $30,000 in cash. When the men got into the vehicle with four children, security forces closed the gate to the school compound and launched an assault, yanking the men from the van. Nearly 40 children, some as young as 2, rushed past the school gate and into the arms of their panic-stricken parents. "I'm very relieved," said Tan Seok Ho of Singapore, who rushed to the school when she heard about the crisis from a friend. Her youngest child Levon was among those taken and released unharmed. "I'm happy to have him back in my arms again."
         Some parents, meanwhile, grabbed three of the hostage-takers from police and began beating and kicking them, said Prak Chanthoeun, the military commander. "We could barely control the angry crowd," he said. The crisis unfolded at Cambodia's tourism hub of Siem Reap, near its historic Angkor temples -- one of the world's most famous archaeological sites. The town is home to many expatriates, and the school killing quickly drew concern from governments around the region. Children from at least 15 nations -- including the United States -- attend the school. Hundreds of people gathered outside the yellow schoolhouse during the tense standoff, and three armored personnel carriers were parked on the road.
         The identity of the attackers was unclear, even after the standoff ended. Prime Minister Hun Sen said they appeared to be security guards at the school, but police later said teachers did not recognize them. The men originally took about 70 people but later released 30 of them, Khieu Kanharith said. They "were armed with shotguns" and demanded money, six AK-47 assault rifles, six shotguns, grenade launchers, hand grenades and a car, said Deputy Military Police Commander Prak Chanthoeum, who said three teachers were among those seized. Denis Richer, a Frenchman who teaches at another school in Siem Reap, said he tried to comfort the father of the young boy who died. "He was completely lost. He asked me to look for his wife, which I did. I found an ambulance to bring the couple to the clinic."          Police initially said there were six attackers, but later put the number at four. They said the hostage takers were 22 to 25 years old, and were from the southeastern province of Kandal. Witnesses said one of the attackers lay wounded on the ground after the siege had ended. The children, most of them aged 2 to 6, come from a variety of countries, including the United States, Italy, Japan, Britain and Australia. Khieu Kanharith described the boy who was shot as a 3-year-old Canadian. Embassy officials could not immediately confirm that, but a witness who knew the child also identified him as Canadian. [ Photos Reuters ]

1143 victimes d'accidents de circulation en avril (2005-Jun-11)

Koh Santepheap : Selon l'organisation Handicap International les accidents de circulation dans l'ensemble du Cambodge au mois d'avril dernier (mois de la fête du Nouvel An khmer) ont fait 1143 victimes, une nette augmentation pa rapport au mois de mars (832 victimes). A Phnom Penh, plus de 400 accidents ont causé la mort de 16 personnes, un accroissement de 9% par rapport à la même période, l'an dernier. La province de Kampong Cham fut celle qui a connu la plus grande augmentation du nombre d'accidents de circulation pendant ce mois.          Par ailleurs, les mines et autres explosifs ont fait de leur côté 80 victimes au même mois d'avril.

           PHOTO : Dans la ville de Siemreap, un estropié se déplace sur une planche à roues et fait appel à la générosité des gens pour faire vivre sa famille. Sann Ohn, 38 ans et sa femme So Voeun, 37 ans, ont travaillé tous les deux comme ouvriers de construction à Phnom Penh. Il y a trois ans, une voiture l'a heurté quand il traversait la rue au chantier avec un sac de ciment sur le dos. Un os de sa jambe gauche fut brisé, et sa jambe droite a dû être amputée. Sa femme travaillante nourrissait alors la famille - lui et leurs deux petits garçons. Maintenant que sa compagne, souffrant de tuberculose avancée, ne peut plus travailler, c'est à son tour de nourrir la famille ... en mendiant.

(2005-Jun-06)       Le Roi Règne, Le Premier Ministre Gouverne

Sarin Chhak (2005-Jun-04)
Border expert's fate a mystery
         By Julio A. Jeldres : The current debate over Cambodia's borders has involved references on several occasions to the name of Sarin Chhak, the eminent author of the only complete study (in four volumes) of the Kingdom's borders, whose whereabouts have been the source of much speculation following his disappearance immediately after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in January 1979. Sarin Chhak was born Khin Kaing, in Krangsla village, Prey Kabass district, Takeo province on January 2, 1922. He was the child of Mr. Khin and Mrs. Chhay Lak, both farmers. Because he had to help his parents on the farm, he was unable to attend primary school at an early age like other Cambodian children. During the French colonial period, a regulation forbade children of advanced age to enroll in primary school, so in order to attend, Kaing changed his name to Sarin Chhak because he did not want to disclose his real age. He was a good student and was, therefore, encouraged to pursue studies at a higher level. He graduated from Phnom Penh University with a law degree and obtained his Ph.D. in Economic Law in France in 1966. The topic of his dissertation was "The Borders of Cambodia".
         Paul Reuter, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris and one of Cambodia's lawyers in the Preah Vihear case, writes in the introduction to the first volume of "Borders of Cambodia" that "[Sarin Chhak's] work, brilliantly presented in front of the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of Paris, will permit the author to find an attentive audience, which shall not fail to appreciate the conscience, the tireless labor and the merits of the author." Adding that, "Sarin Chhak abstained from creating any polemic or of using words filled with bitterness and inviting us to believe that violence is not the only recourse to achieve an aim." Upon his return to Cambodia, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served in different posts within the ministry and also at the Cambodian Embassy in Paris. He was appointed Ambassador to the United Arab Republic (Egypt) in 1968, with residence in Cairo, while concurrently serving as Ambassador to Senegal.

Following the coup of March 18, 1970, Sarin Chhak denounced the coup, refused to recognize the Lon Nol government and declared his allegiance to Samdech Norodom Sihanouk as the legal Head of State of Cambodia. At the same time, he announced that the Cambodian Embassy in Cairo had become the "Embassy of Progressive Cambodia in the UAR". He was made a member of the Political Bureau and Central Committee of the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK), following its establishment in Peking in March 1970, and he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK) in May 1970. As such he traveled widely in Africa, where he had many friends and acquaintances urging the early recognition of GRUNK by several African countries. However, upon the arrival in Peking of Ieng Sary, the so-called "Special Envoy from the FUNK-GRUNK within Cambodia," things began to work against the royalist elements of the Front - including Sarin Chhak, Chea San, Huot Sambath and others - and in favor of the Khmer Rouge, whose representative in the Chinese capital was Ieng Sary. Sary had been tasked with changing the composition of FUNK and GRUNK and making them more in tune with Khmer Rouge policies and strategies. Until Sary's arrival in Peking, the Khmer Rouge had little influence on the Front's policies and activities, which were directed from the Chinese capital by Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Chairman of FUNK and Head of State, and Samdech Penn Nouth, Chairman of the Political Bureau of FUNK and Prime Minister of GRUNK. According to former members of FUNK and GRUNK who escaped the Khmer Rouge's gulags by exiling themselves to France, or who survived them, Sarin Chhak was highly appreciated by Sihanouk and former Cambodian Prime Minister and GRUNK's then-Prime Minister (1970-75) Penn Nouth but detested by Ieng Sary.

         Penn Nouth managed to get Sarin Chhak appointed Deputy Prime Minister of GRUNK, concurrent with his maintenance of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, just before the fall of Phnom Penh and this enraged Ieng Sary even further (1). After a mission to the United Nations in October 1975, during which he met with US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Habib, Sarin Chhak disappeared from the scene and later reappeared in the notorious Beoung Trabek concentration camp for diplomats run by the Khmer Rouge. Several people have said that after Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979, he was taken by Vietnamese soldiers to a Vietnamese military vehicle and driven to an unknown destination (2). Some of my sources, including the children of Sarin Chhak currently living in France, have suggested that the Vietnamese took Sarin Chhak and his wife to Hanoi, where they kept him under house arrest until his death in the early to mid-1990s (3). According to the same sources, during a visit to Hanoi by Sihanouk in July 1970, the Vietnamese hero General Vo Nguyen Giap asked one of his staff to point Sarin Chhak out to him. The same sources suggest that it was not in Vietnam's interests to leave Sarin Chhak free, particularly outside Cambodia, as his thesis had stated that portions of Cambodia's territories had been given to Vietnam, particularly in the south of the country. This had not been forgotten by the Vietnamese.
         In late 1979 former GRUNK Finance Minister Thiounn Mumm asked Ieng Sary to launch a campaign to find Sarin Chhak, but Mumm says Sary refused, arguing that once liberated he could turn against "Democratic Kampuchea" (4). In 1989, during the first Paris International Conference on Cambodia, the surviving children and grandchildren of Sarin Chhak wrote to Sihanouk and asked him to intervene for the release of their parents. Samdech Sihanouk wrote immediately to Mr. Hun Sen, but to the best of my knowledge, there was no answer from the latter (5). Then in September 1991 the family again wrote to Sihanouk advising that they had received reliable information, according to which Sarin Chhak and his wife had been kept until April 1991 in Vung Tau (also known as Cap Saint Jacques), a seaside resort about two hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City, and then taken back to Hanoi (6). Samdech Sihanouk wrote to Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet and to Hun Sen again. The Vietnamese leader replied that after a serious investigation, it had been found out that Ambassador Sarin Chhak and his wife were not in Vietnam (7). So, what happened to Sarin Chhak and his wife? It is a mystery. Was he taken to Vietnam and kept under house arrest until his death? Or was he killed by the Khmer Rouge? Let us hope that the forthcoming Extraordinary Chambers to judge the Khmer Rouge may bring to light some information on what happened to Sarin Chhak and his wife and allow their children and grandchildren to resume normal lives.

_____________________
(1) Author's interviews with the former GRUNK Ambassador to Algeria, the late Mr. Chem Snguon; GRUNK Minister of Armaments, General Duong Sam Ol and GRUNK Finance Minister Mr. Thiounn Mumm in Paris 1989 and 1995 respectively.
(2) Author's correspondence with the former GRUNK Ambassador to North Korea, the late Mr. Ang Kim Khoan, and interview with General Duong Sam Ol in Paris in 1995.
(3) Author's correspondence, 1997-2000, with Sarin Chhak's eldest daughter Madame Chhary Khin.
(4) Mr. Thiounn Mumm's letter to the author dated January 23, 1997.
(5) Letter from Samdech Norodom Sihanouk to Mr. Hun Sen, Paris, August 1, 1989, copy in my possession.
(6) Letter from Madame Khin Chhary to Samdech Sihanouk, Paris, September 11, 1991, copy in my possession.
(7) Letter of Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Paris, September 14, 1991, and response from Vietnamese PM dated October 9, 1991, copies in my possession.

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