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IFJ protests crackdown on free speech in Cambodia (2005-Jul-23)
         The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, today protested against the Cambodian Government's seizure of a report on institutionalised corruption and its decision to deny environmental and human rights advocacy group Global Witness entry into Cambodia. "This systematic silencing and intimidation of people that expose corruption is alarming and should not be tolerated," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
         According to information received by the IFJ from its affiliate in Cambodia, the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), five Global Witness staff have been banned from entering Cambodia. On July 18, Global Witness' assistant Cambodia coordinator was stopped by immigration officials at Pochentong and put on a plane back to Thailand. It is believed the ban came directly from the Prime Minister, who ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to look into Global Witness' continued presence in Cambodia. Global Witness was also the target of this unjust crackdown when 2,100 copies of its report "Institutionalised Corruption and Illegal Logging in Cambodia's Aural Wildlife Sanctuary" were intercepted by customs officials at Pochentong Airport on February 20, 2005.
         The worrying crackdown on free speech appears to have been led by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who had formerly welcomed Global Witness' presence in Cambodia as early as November 2004. The Hun Sen government came to power on the back of a tough stance against illegal logging but has done little to address the fact that most of Cambodia's illegal loggers are either close acquaintances with, or related to, the Prime Minister. Instead, the government has taken steps to crack down on free speech that is critical of the corruption that is rife in the government and illegal logging sectors. The ban is a direct violation of civil liberties and is of great concern to the IFJ, which demands that freedom of political speech be upheld.
         The IFJ represents more than 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries.

           Preab Pisey : The issue raised by IFJ is not new. We all know how much the repression is pervasive in our homeland. Hun Sen's authoritarian drift is a recurrent practice in Cambodia. And now, the Cambodian people are not the only victims of this drift, but foreign people who try to defend the poor become also a target of PM Hun Sen. Should Cambodians' destiny still depend on the goodwill / illwill of a small group of people like Hun Sen & company ? [ in RepublicofCambodia ]

Australia has agreed to sign ASEAN amity pact, Malaysian minister says (2005-Jul-21)
         KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Australia has agreed to sign a nonaggression pact with its Southeast Asian neighbors, the Malaysian foreign minister said Thursday, and an Australian analyst said the decision will likely be announced next week at a regional security forum. Syed Hamid Albar told The Associated Press that his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer, personally conveyed the decision to him a few days ago. "The F.M. called me and informed me that Australia has agreed to ratify" the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, Syed Hamid said.
        Australia had long been opposed to the treaty, describing it as a remnant of the Cold War. Australian Prime Minister John Howard had said that Canberra is more interested in the "substance" of its relationship with Southeast Asian countries rather than binding treaties. The TAC requires signatories to renounce the use or threat of force against any member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. It allows for arbitration by a tribunal for disputes between signatory countries. Australia's stand had created suspicions among ASEAN countries, especially after Howard said he would be prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes if terrorists in neighboring nations were planning to attack Australia. ASEANhad told Australia it cannot attend the inaugural East Asia Summit in December in Kuala Lumpur unless it signs the treaty. It has been signed by seven other countries besides the 10 ASEAN members.
        Following the reversal of its stand, Australia "will be most welcome to the East Asia Summit. So that's very good. It will boost cooperation, understanding, goodwill in all dimensions of economic, political and security spheres," Syed Hamid said. Asked about the timing of the signing ceremony, he said: "I don't think there will be any problem. Whenever they want to sign it we can make the arrangements." Separately, Australian National University Asian security expert Tony Kevin [ 1 ] said Australia would likely announce its decision during Downer's trip to Laos starting Wednesday for the ASEAN Regional Forum, or ARF, Asia's biggest annual security meeting. Australia has concerns about ASEAN's mechanism for resolving disputes under the treaty and wants to retain a right to criticize countries such as Myanmar despite the treaty barring interference in signatories' internal affairs. Syed Hamid said ASEAN has provided clarifications on all issues sought by Australia.
         ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

[ By JASBANT SINGH, AP ]
____________________
(1) Tony Kevin has been Australia ambassador to Cambodia in the 1990s and was not liked by the Sam Rainsy Party for his pro-Vietnam-Hun Sen stance. [N.P.]

Reply to Angkor Borei News
(2005-Jul-15)

        1) Sisowath Sirirath's flattery for Sihanouk was no different from Norodom Montana's in the 1960s. The latter had been party chief amidst Norodom Norindeth and Sisowath Youttévong in the 1950s.
        He joined Sihanouk's Sangkum and -- while opponents executions and Vietcong presence in Cambodia were at their peak -- Montana wrote a eulogy to Sihanouk in Kambuja magazine titled "Une politique, un chef "!

        More recently, Norodom Vacheahra and Sirivudh, after being supporters of Sam Rainsy and having criticized Ranariddh, ended up re-joining their...FAMILY. Morality : The instinct of clan survival finira par l'emporter sur toute autre considération.

           2)Psychologiquement (et génétiquement?) la soumission plus que millénaire de notre peuple devant les 3 autorités (familiale, religieuse et étatique) a fait que nous sommes des soumis de père en fils, de mère en fille, et que nous commençons seulement à nous poser des questions. Tant et aussi longtemps que l'immense majorité des Khmers reste attachée à nos "valeurs" traditionnelles, l'éclosion de nouvelles idées restera insignifiante, l'immobilisme (la fameuse "discipline"!) continuera sous chaque régime, et on finira dans la gueule des loups viet ou/et thaï (qui embrassent très vite les nouvelles idées, même occidentales) sans même nous en rendre compte!

Un Marine khmer-américain tué en Irak
(2005-Jul-09)

Un soldat du corps des fusiliers-marins américain (U.S. Marine Corps),
Veashna Muy, 20 ans, a été tué sur les champs de bataille en Irak,
le 23 juin 2005.
Veashna Muy était fils de Madame Nong Muy et de Monsieur
Woody Chhiek, de Long Beach, Californie.
Les obsèques auront lieu samedi 9 juillet à Long Beach, Californie.

Prince Ranariddh’s assets
(2005-Jul-03)

        K.I. : We examine today the case of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, who is currently in France and will be in Singapore later this week to look after his assets there. Even though the Funcinpec and National Assembly President has been using different names and tricks (including shell companies) to prevent investigation into his recently amassed fortune, some of his assets have been identified as such:


Le président de l'Assemblée nationale du Cambodge a sa propre unité de gardes
basée près de sa villa de Veal Sbov et payée par le gouvernement.
        - In Cambodia: a luxurious villa in Phnom Penh (behind the Royal Palace); another luxurious villa at Veal Sbov (near Phnom Penh); two aircrafts he recently bought from France (Ranariddh spent $2.2 million for his two aircrafts); one helicopter; a number of luxurious cars and speedboats.
        - In Thailand: a luxurious apartment in Bangkok (Wireless Road, All Seasons Place, 19th floor).
        - In France: a luxurious apartment in Aix-en-Provence (3, avenue Jules Isaac, Jardin de Bellegarde); an apartment he recently bought for his second wife at Noisy-Le-Grand, near Paris (1 rue du Marnois).
        Ranariddh’s above assets, which constitute only the tip of the iceberg, are already worth some $10 million.

Donors frustrated with lack of progress in reform implementation
(2005-Jun-30)
        K.I. : At today’s special meeting between international donors and Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss fundamental reforms that the Cambodian government has committed itself to implementing since five to ten years ago, donor representatives were reportedly frustrated at the lack of progress in the implementation of three reforms considered as the most important and the most urgent in order to put the country on the right track :
        - Land reform
        - Judiciary reform
        - Anti-corruption reform.
        Beyond empty words, the absence of any progress whatsoever in the above three areas has led to an increase in poverty and a deterioration in human development indicators over the last ten years in spite of a massive international assistance amounting to more $5 billion. Some donors now start to seriously doubt the sincerity of Hun Sen and his team, to realize that they have been fooled for so long, and to understand that the current regime (which is based on systemic corruption, plunder and impunity) is unwilling and unable to implement the above reforms because such reforms would undermine the very foundations of the regime and make it collapse. Actually, donors are trapped and many diplomats do not dare to report the truth to their respective governments.
 
Les gens au pouvoir détruisent la forêt
d'Anlong Veng


          Koh Santepheap : Oddar Meanchey - Un fonctionnaire de l'office du gouverneur affirme que des déboisements ont été faits le long de la route Samrong-Anlong Veng par des militaires et des gens au pouvoir. Chacun de ces responsables a raflé de 10 à 20 hectares de déboisés et les a entourés de fils barbelés, tout près de la route. Ils aiment dire que leurs propriétés ont comme dimension la portée d'une balle de fusil. Les Eaux et Forêts ont tenté d'intervenir mais les abuseurs répondent que ces terres leur reviennent de droit, ils les ont libérées pendant la guerre. Ils n'avaient pas de possessions pour en vivre alors ils ont déboisé pour s'approprier les terrains.

Three Ma...jor PARASITES back in Cambodia (2005-Jun-23)
Three Majesties back in Cambodia
        Khmerintelligence.org : King Norodom Sihamoni, King-Father Norodom Sihanouk and Queen-Mother Monineath Sihanouk came back from China this evening on a commercial flight. Only a few Khmer dignitaries and foreign diplomats were at Phnom Penh international airport to welcome the three Majesties. Hun Sen, Ranariddh, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin were absent.

$50 M for the Thai, peanuts for Khmer skulls (2005-Jun-19)
        Khmerintelligence.org : $20 million in damages have been paid to Thai companies. As reported previously, the Cambodian government has accepted to pay $50 million in damages to Thailand (government and private companies) following the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh in 2003. According to the minutes of the meeting in Phnom Penh on 1 April 2005 between Cambodian Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Nam Hong and his Thai counterpart Kantathi Suphamonghon:
        - 17 Thai private companies have been claiming $34,403,927.24
        - There is an agreement to pay them over $20,000,000
        - 11 companies have already received $19,691,850.13 from the Cambodian government.
        - The 6 other companies will soon receive an amount in excess of $1,000,000.
        In the meantime, the Hun Sen government pretends it cannot afford to disburse some $13 million representing its previously agreed contribution to the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

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