Editor: Al Santoli : On April 20, China’s Strongman Hu Jintao begins his first visit to Washington -- after being wined and dined in Seattle by US corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft. In the weeks before Hu’s visit, China’s Trade Minister laid the political/business groundwork with $16 billion of new business deals with large American corporations. At the same time, however, the Chinese government issued a series of new regulations to censor and control websites and others electronic media. In addition, new official restrictions were placed on Chinese broadcasters to ban the use of foreign news footage, as well as Western publications. Hu and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates celebrated massive new Chinese contracts and Hu’s promises of anti-piracy on Microsoft’s intellectual property which took precedent over the persecution of journalists and web surfers using Microsoft systems. More significantly, the new trade deals with a handful of doting American moguls, barely scratches the surface of the annual $200 billion trade advantage Beijing holds over the US, which has been synchronized with China’s massive military buildup.
        Bush Admin’s Illusory Alliance with Beijing:
         During the past year, senior Bush Administration officials have sent dangerous mixed-signals to Chinese leaders. On one hand, the Administration has expressed concern about China’s growing military buildup and growing competition over scarce natural resources, such as oil and China’s role in support of radical regimes, such as Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. On the other hand, Condoleeza Rice and Robert Zoellick at State Department and some officials at the Defense Department have called Beijing’s despotic communist leaders “shareholders” in creating a new international order. The facts, embodied by the Hu regime’s repression internally, the military buildup aimed at international expansion against US interests and their support of brutal and genocidal regimes around the world, show a dramatic contrast.
        Internal Repression:
         In addition to growing restrictions of freedom of expression and internet communication, the regime has played a feigned openness game with religious believers such Christians and Tibetan Buddhists while continuing strict control. Worse, Hu’s fascistic police have acted with unprecedented brutality to indigenous spiritual movements such as the Falun Gong, which has an estimated 100 million practitioners inside of China.
        Sujiatun Death Camp:
         The most recent shocking revelation has been the death camps for Falun Gong prisoners at places such as Sujiatun, which has been reported in the March 30, 2006 US National Review Online, the April 16 Toronto Sun, the March 24 Washington Times and throughout March and April in the international Chinese human rights publication Epoch Times.com. Witnesses include relatives of victims and medical personnel who have worked at the Sujiatun reputed death camp, located in northeast China. They tell of hundreds of Falun Gong prisoners who had their internal organs surgically removed – including hearts, kidneys, lungs, corneas, retinas and human skin - while they were still alive and sold to foreign recipients. The wife of a Chinese medical doctor involved in the grisly process told the Epoch Times: “Many Falun Gong prisoners were still alive when their organs were taken. After their organs were taken out, some – including those still alive -- were thrown directly into the crematorium to be burnt, leaving no evidence.”
         Jay Nordlinger, writing for the National Review Online, warns: “Robert Conquest, the renowned analyst of totalitarianism stated, ‘The world has seldom wanted to believe witnesses or survivors of mass murder. Ten or twenty years later [after any effective action could be taken to save victims], but rarely sooner." Testimony out of the early Soviet Union were scoffed at [by Western elite] as ‘tales from Riga.’ Tales of the Holocaust were initially called ‘Jewish whining.’ When escapees from Mao Tse Tung spilled into Hong Kong [telling of the murder of millions by the Chinese communists] they were called “embittered warlords.’”
        Beijing’s Support of Genocide in Sudan:
         Sudan is the scene of the most vicious mass murder and largest refugee population in the world today. The Number One supporter of the brutal Sudan regime is Beijing, which has substantial oil holdings in the area where the genocide is occurring. Beijing continues to militarily support and politically defend the Khartoum butchers against sanctions, while they continue their violent depopulation of the oil fields area. About 70 percent of Sudan’s oil exports go to China, and thousands of “guest workers” supplied by Beijing work on the oil pipelines. On March 27, 2006, syndicated columnist Bill Hawkins cites: “Around 80 percent of Sudan’s oil [profits go to buy weapons, primarily from China] while the general population remains one of the poorest in the world.”
        China’s Military and Political Support of Iran:
         On April 18, 2006 an article in the Asia Times reported an immense strategic shift in the balance of power throughout the Middle East and South Asia -- China and Russia invited Iran to become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an increasingly powerful multilateral security alliance created a counter-force to US influence in the region. As with Sudan, China and Russia have consistently opposed sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons program. The April 13, 2006 official Chinese People’s Daily stated: “The real intention behind the US fueling the Iran issue is to prompt the UN to impose sanctions, and to pave the way for a regime change. It is at the root of the nuclear issue.” In addition, in March 2006, China bought the rights to a large tract of land with potential oil fields in Iran along the Iraq border. This should be seen as a counterweight against a US military invasion of Iran. An April 17, 2006 publication by Charles Smith on Softwar.net, listed new generations of Chinese missile technology to counter US weapons systems being provided to Iran. These include the C-701 Kosar guided missile system and the C-802 Noor anti- ship missile which can sea-skim at supersonic speeds for up to 100 miles. In addition, the Shahab-3 ballistic missile has stealth capability and multiple- warheads, with dummy warheads to trick US Patriot anti-missile systems.
         Conclusion:
         History should be our greatest teacher. A great lesson in recent history is that of British and American business and political elite, including family- scions Prescott Bush and Joseph Kennedy, who believed that business with Hitler’s Germany would prevent attacks against their personal interests. More tragically, the life and death issues of the vile persecution of ethnic and religious minorities as well as, democratic activists, were not seen as the true nature of the fascist regime. Within a short time after Britain’s Neville Chamberlain declared “Peace is at hand,” after his summit meeting with Hitler, London itself was bombed mercilessly.
 

17 Avril 1975 : Des victimes n'oublient pas (2006-Avr-15)

         Amis et Compatriotes,
         Le mois d’Avril est très important pour nous Khmers. AVRIL nous apporte la joie de la Nouvelle Année et, après, l’APOCALYPSE totale de notre Pays : le génocide perpétré par les sauvages, sans foi ni loi, les Khmers Rouges – Le massacre avait commencé à partir du 17 Avril 1975 et l’horreur avait durée jusqu’en 1979 – Pour nous Khmers, il est donc très significatif de commémorer la mémoire de toutes nos victimes chaque année en Avril !
         Les deux Associations des victimes MVGKR et VGKR seront très honorées et souhaitent vivement vous compter parmi leurs amis en cette Journée du 31e commémoration des Victimes du génocide commis par les Khmers rouges. La cérémonie religieuse bang skaul se déroulera le Dimanche 23 Avril 2006 à partir de 9h à la Pagode de Vincennes comme chaque année. Un autel commémoratif sera érigé devant le Temple. Vous pourrez apporter du riz, des plats, des fruits et des fleurs ainsi que des bougies et des baguettes d’encens. Merci par avance.
         Pour toute l’Equipe de MVGKR et VGKR
                                    Les Présidents :      Lok OU Chal  -   Lok Srei B. UNG Boun-Hor

China's firm to plant rubber in Cambodia (2006-Apr-03)
         BEIJING: One of China's largest rubber producers has signed a contract with a Cambodian firm to plant rubber trees there, marking the start of a trend aimed at increasing China's supply, state media said Saturday. Under the agreement between the Hainan Natural Rubber Industry Group Corp and Suigang Investment Development Co Ltd of Cambodia, the Chinese firm would grow natural rubber on 62,659 hectares (154,767 acres) in Cambodia, the Xinhua news agency said. Hainan Natural Rubber would also be able to establish rubber and wood processing plants on the property and operate a rubber trade, it said. The use of foreign land to grow natural resources highlights China's need to satisfy growing demand for raw materials to fuel economic growth.

Hun Sen at rubber plantation

With just 600,000 hectares of arable land suitable for rubber planting in China, local producers were focusing on Africa and Southeast Asia where favorable land resources were still unused, Xinhua said. China had become the world's largest rubber consumer and importer since 2001, with domestic consumption hitting 2.04 million tonnes last year. However, it produced only about 500,000 tonnes a year. China's automobile industry alone would require some 716,000 tonnes of rubber by 2010, according to the Chinese Academy of Automobile Engineering. Xinhua quoted rubber expert Jiang Jusheng as saying that soaring world rubber prices, which had moved to 22,000 yuan (2,750 US dollars) per tonne from around 6,000 yuan (750 dollars) five years ago, had stung local producers. He said the agreement between the Chinese and Cambodian firms marked a turning point in the domestic industry as it pursued new development modes. Another Chinese rubber giant, Yunnan Natural Rubber Group Ltd planned to plant more than 3,000 hectares of rubber in Myanmar by 2010, and eventually expand it to 30,000 hectares, Xinhua said. [afp]

Kampot dam gets green light (2006-Mar-25)
Agreement meets three key local demands
         By Sam Rith , Phnom Penh Post : A Chinese company will begin building a hydro-electric power dam on the Kamchay River near Kampot soon after it wins expected approval from the National Assembly, said an official at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy (MIME). Bun Narith, deputy general director of the General Department of Energy at MIME, confirmed that negotiations with the Chinese state-owned company Sinohydro about the dam's construction were completed in late February. "And now the company is just waiting for a guarantee letter from the Cambodian government that will be soon approved by the National Assembly," Narith said. He said the senior minister at the Ministry of Economy and Finance had signed the project paper and already sent it to the Council of Ministers. "And now I have heard that the project paper has already been sent to the National Assembly." Nin Saphon, vice chairman of the National Assembly's ninth commission (public works, transport, telecommunications, post, industry, mines, energy and commerce), said that her commission had not yet received the dam building project paper.
         The dam project is planned for the Kamchay River, 15 km north of Kampot town, in Mak Prang commune, Kampot district. It has caused concern to both NGOs and some members of the public because of a lack of public participation in its feasibility study, environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment. Concern was expressed that the dam would flood 2,600 hectares in the Bokor National Park, adversely affecting wild animals and the livelihoods of people who harvest bamboo and rattan from the forest, and increasing the risk of malaria and dengue fever. Narith said that in the final negotiations the Cambodian government agreed that Sinohydro would build a 110-meter-high dam on the Kamchay River, two kilometers upstream from the scenic Tek Chhu waterfall. It will produce 193 megawatts of electricity.
         The company had agreed to three local demands that it had been resisting: to supply electricity to Kampot city and province (rather than transmitting it all to Phnom Penh), to use a high proportion of Cambodian labor, and to allow continued access to bamboo cutters. "We asked the company to supply electricity to the people in Kampot and to hire at least 90 percent Khmer workers when the project starts," Narith said. "And the company will not prohibit people who cross the site to cut bamboo during the four years' construction." Narith said the project will cost $280 million. It is thought to be China's single biggest investment in Cambodia. In the contract, signed on February 23, the Cambodian government allows Sinohydro to manage the power plant for 30 years after completion of the dam in 2010.
         The Kamchay River area has been the subject of interest from hydro-electric power prospectors since the early 1960s. A study carried out a decade ago by Canadian firms Pomerleau International, Hydro-Quebec and Experco, estimated that a hydro-electric power plant at Kamchay could generate 469 gigawatt-hours a year and reap $55 million a year from the sale of electricity. But early attempts to get the project underway halted in the mid 1990s, when the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) withdrew funding for the Hydro-Quebec-Pomerleau feasibility study. Narith said the last feasibility study was completed in late 2002 by the other Canadian firm, Experco.

GOD vs BUDDHA

camboDIATRIBE

COURRI@L 2006 ( PREVIOUS )

AUTRES SITES KHMERS

KUN PIMOJ 's HOMEPAGE

PHN@M-P@NH-P@TINS

FRAN-GLO-GIBWÉ

CANADA 3 FOUNDERS

MES EMAILS 2003

THE 6 COMMANDMENTS

MEET WITH GOD

PEN Nearovi, Montréal, Québec, Canada
(nearovi@sympatico.ca)