Ce n'était pas la Fête des Eaux ! (2005-Avr-02) Phnom Penh : Le bateau-mouche L'Odyssée, avec à son bord 25 clients cambodgiens et français, revenait d'une promenade  à Roka Kaung sur le fleuve Tonlé Sap. À la hauteur de Arey Ksatr, derrière l'ex-dancing Qoungqea, un serveur bouscula et renversa une bonbonne de gaz dans la cuisine, causant une incendie et des explosions. Un policier rapporta par la suite qu'il n'y avait pas eu de mort, seulement un blessé par brûlure, un Français nommé Pierre Bitcheff, propriétaire du bateau-mouche. Neuf rescapés étrangers ont été tirés de l'eau par des pêcheurs du quartier Chrui Changva. [Koh Santepheap]

Reasons for the killing of a witness (2005-Mar-30)
         K.I. : In connection with a potential scandal related to the overpricing of the National Assembly’s new premises now under construction, a businessman named Kim Kheang died last month under mysterious circumstances (see KI, 20 February 2005: “Witness against Ranariddh might have been poisoned”). According to a 22 March 2005 document submitted to the tribunal by lawyer Som Chandyna who has gathered a series of documents related to the case, the death of Kim Kheang might be explained by the following facts:
         1- On 6 June 2002, out of 20 companies which had submitted a proposal for the construction of the Assembly premises, Giang Shi Trading & Construction led by Kim Kheang first won the contract and obtained a Letter of Acceptance, with an Australian company named 5 Golden Stars as partner. Giang Shi Trading & Construction would be paid $19.7 million by the Cambodian government over a period of 10 years, but it was asked to immediately deposit $1 million.
         2- On 4 September 2002, the Assembly asked Kim Kheang’s company to submit a new bid and raised the required deposit to $3.5 million. The Letter of Acceptance was downgraded to Letter of Intent. This abrupt change led Kim Kheang to issue a complaint.
         3- On 8 November 2002, the Assembly also delivered a Letter of Intent to 5 Golden Stars.
         4- On 17 September 2002, the Assembly surprisingly granted the construction contract to another company (a newcomer based in Thailand) named Insucon & Service for a cost of $25 million, while the required deposit was reduced to $1 million.
         5- Because it needed a partner, Insucon & Service decided to join hands with 5 Golden Stars, therefore indirectly involving also Kim Kheang’s Giang Shi Trading & Construction in the project. On 28 April 2003, the new consortium confirmed in writing that the construction cost of the new Assembly would amount to (only) $13 million.
         6- On 10 January 2003, the Assembly suddenly awarded the construction contract to a fourth company named Ly Chhuong, which had been eliminated at the 6 June 2002 public bidding. The official cost was finally raised to $26.7 million. On top of this inflated cost, Ly Chhuong will not have to make any deposit; on the contrary, it will receive a prepayment from the government of $11 million (!). Finally, the Assembly promises to pay Ly Chhuong the total amount due over a period of 6 years, instead of 10 years as previously decided for Kim Kheang’s company. The Assembly made its successive decisions as described above in a discretionary and inconsistent manner, without informing all the concerned companies involved in the competition. Kim Kheang apparently knew too much about the corrupt deals that were made in secret to finally eliminate him and his partners from the competition. He had obviously become an embarrassing witness. He was to testify before the tribunal against Assembly President Norodom Ranariddh on 17 February 2005. He died 10 days before the day he was due to appear in Court.

Saint Jean a-t-il vu le dragon rouge sino-vietnamien ? (2005-Mar-28)
         La Chine et le Vietnam partageaient le même culte des Ancêtres et célèbrent encore au même moment la nouvelle année représentée par un animal dans un cycle de douze (de la Souris au Porc). Ce fut un Français et jésuite, Alexandre de Rhodes, qui commença d'évangéliser le Tonkin en 1627 et inventa le Quoc-Ngu qui allait devenir l'écriture vietnamienne actuelle. De la Chine les Khmers empruntaient également les douze noms d'animaux pour leurs années, qu'ils mélangeaient cependant avec les dix ans du cycle hindou (numérotés de 1 à 0), les Hindous qu'on sait maintenant être l'inventeur du système décimal.
         Le 26 décembre dernier, au lendemain du Noël, un violent tremblement de terre (9.2 Richter) suivi d'un tsunami ont dévasté une partie de l'Asie du Sud-Est. Aujourd'hui, au Lundi de Pâques, presque au même endroit, un autre séisme (8.7 Richter) fait encore des morts, des blessés et des destructions. Pourquoi en ces jours de fêtes chrétiennes ? Est-ce une colère de l'Agneau ?
         Voyons ce qui fait que le Ciel a lancé ces avertissements aux habitants de la terre et aux rois du monde :

CAMBODGE Dictature, corruption, pauvreté, crimes, déforestation	CHINE Abus des droits de l'Homme, occupation du Tibet, menace à Taïwan, dynamitage du Mékong	INDE Pauvreté à côté des bombes atomiques, conflit du Cachemire
INDONÉSIE Conflits ethniques et religieux, déforestation	LAOS Persécution des minorités ethniques	MYANMA Dictature, conflits ethniques
SRI LANKA Conflits ethniques et religieux	THAÏLANDE Visées expansionnistes, conflits ethniques et religieux	VIETNAM Abus des droits de l'Homme, persécution des minorités ethniques et religieuses, visées expansionnistes

Western collectors pay Cambodian plunderers (2005-Mar-25)
           [ Excerpts from "Temple raiders of Angkor work for the benefit of Western collectors", by Jan McGirk and Daniel Howden ]
         Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer empire, has survived intact for 1,000 years. But now it faces a new threat. (...) The tell-tale signs of chiselling were all that remained where once a cross-legged Buddha would have sat. Elsewhere, carved panels had tumbled onto the jungle floor, heads had been clumsily hacked off and only amputated legs were visible where the torso of a goddess had been hauled away. (...) "It is tragic. And criminal," said Anabel Ford, a Californian archaeologist on a project to photograph the spring equinox at Angkor. "There is no way to know if it happened 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago, but there is no mistake that beautiful pieces are missing." (...) In 1971 Pol Pot's guerrillas moved into Angkor Wat, lit fires in the galleries, installed rocket launchers and started slicing the heads off sculptures. They sold their bounty across the border into Thailand to help finance the war effort. But it was after the fall of the Khmer Rouge that the pace of looting really picked up. Without the guerrillas to ward off potential thieves, the rape began in earnest. (...)

"Vandalism has multiplied at a phenomenal rate," the conservation agency said in a recent statement, with thieves "employing local populations to carry out the actual thefts. Heavily armed intermediaries transport objects, often in tanks or armoured personnel carriers." Today Angkorian antiquities can be browsed in air-conditioned comfort in Bangkok's River City complex or Singapore's Tanglin shopping centre. There are even persistent rumours of the existence of a catalogue containing detailed photographs of Angkorian statues and bas-reliefs, allowing wealthy Westerners to order items still in-situ. Three countries still allow antiquities to be purchased without documentation: Australia, Japan and Switzerland. On the black market, a life-sized Buddha from Angkor can fetch at least $250,000. (...)          King Norodom Sihanouk, who abdicated in favour of his son last year, contrasts the ancient glory with the modern theft of anything that might have a market: "It is very sad the Cambodian people were so masterful and skilful but now they plunder their own history."

GOD vs BUDDHA

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COURRI@L 2005

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