"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation [against Hor Nam Hong] is still going around": Chea Vannath

"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation [against Hor Nam Hong] is still going around": Chea Vannath

Hor Nam Hong (L) and Sam Rainsy (R)In Cambodia, Sam Rainsy no worse for wear: legal officialsFriday, 30 January 2009 Written by Brendan Brady and Neth PheaktraThe Phnom Penh Post
PPenh legal minds say defamation ruling against Sam Rainsy will not reverberate locally; Hor Namhong waits for Cambodian case to progress.ALTHOUGH the local fallout of a French court ruling Tuesday against opposition leader Sam Rainsy for disinformation and defamation has yet to materialise, Phnom Penh legal officials doubt the verdict will hold sway in a Cambodian court.Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, who sought to sue Sam Rainsy for defamation in both French and Cambodian courts, has yet to deliver any resounding words calling for further punishment of the opposition leader, but Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said his boss was waiting for local officials to "further their investigation".

"Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation is still going around. "In his autobiography, Rooted in Stone, published in May last year, Sam Rainsy accused Hor Namhong of heading the Boeung Trabek "re-education" camp, where former diplomats and government officials from the Lon Nol and Sihanouk regimes were detained.Hor Namhong had previously filed a lawsuit in Phnom Penh in April after the opposition leader alluded to the minister's involvement in the leadership of the Khmer Rouge in a speech at the Choeung Ek "killing fields". Hor Namhong shelved the case, however, awaiting the French verdict addressing the more explicit comment Sam Rainsy made in his book.According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court President Chiv Keng, while the local case was ongoing, it would not be impacted by Tuesday's ruling, since that case "depended on facts from a different place".For Sok Sam Ouen, director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, more charges against the opposition leader would, in his opinion, effectively amount to double jeopardy, as the claim Hor Namhong objects to is the same.Sam Rainsy's lawyer, Kong Sam Onn, said any local legal action would require his client first be stripped of political immunity by order of the National Assembly.He also denied tremors from the French verdict would register in Phnom Penh since, he said, "there is no law allowing a Cambodian court to use an international decision to rule on a case".Sam Rainsy, for his part, remains unrepentant, telling the Post he "has no regrets and would not change a word."Accusation not debunkedWhile legal minds may see the opposition leader's local legal standing as no worse off, Chea Vannath, a commentator on domestic social and political affairs, described the verdict as a political victory for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, whose membership has been publicly linked to leadership roles in the Khmer Rouge.She said, however, the charge against Hor Namhong had not been laid to rest."Even though Sam Rainsy has lost for now, that accusation is still going around," she said.She said she expected the ruling party would continue to address public remarks linking it to the brutality of the ultra-Maoist regime when expedient.

Exercising our consumer rights to stop injustice

Exercising our consumer rights to stop injustice



The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Mu Sochua

Thursday, 29 January 2009

Dear Sir,The Phnom Penh Post article "We Have No Home, Say Evictees", published on January 26, 2009, is a story that is becoming a weekly, if not daily front-page feature in local and international news. As a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and other international treaties that prohibit forced evictions and related human rights violations, Cambodia is obligated to protect its citizens and stop illegal evictions. According to reports from international and local human rights organisations, over 150,000 Cambodians were victims of forced evictions and land grabbing in 2007 alone. This number is increasing daily. In addition to these grave violations, over 150 villagers and land-rights activists have been sent to prison. In most cases, arrests are executed without any court order. If and when trials are conducted, the courts will be influenced by powerful companies and authorities, including the military and the police, who have full interests in these land disputes.The majority, if not all, of Dey Krahorm's residents have full right to ownership according to the 2001 Land Law. Furthermore, the prime minister declared before the 2003 elections that the residents of this particular community and 100 other slum communities in Phnom Penh could stay and be part of development of their communities. The facts and evidence of their rights are plain, simple and clear. Let us think of the costs Cambodia and her society have to pay when families are destroyed and separated, when our children must grow in violence, deprivation and despair, when our youth fall into the hands of human traffickers and drug dealers, when our parents living with HIV/Aids leave behind children with HIV/Aids.Let us think of what we can do as a sign of solidarity to the victims of land grabbing and forced evictions. A very simple step is to identify the companies that won these land deals and reveal their investments in other economic activities. We can demand business with social responsibilities. We can exercise our consumer rights.Mu SochuaSRP lawmaker

Respect for International Humanitarian Law, in the Security Council

Statement by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, US Permanent Representative, on Respect for International Humanitarian Law, in the Security Council, January 29, 2009
Mr. President, thank you for your kind words of welcome.

As this is my first appearance in the Security Council, allow me to start by saying it is a deep honor to represent the United States at the United Nations. I look forward to working with all Security Council members on the full range of challenges and opportunities that confront us.

President Obama is committed to building strong international partnerships to tackle global challenges – in particular, enhancing global peace and security; combating terrorism and proliferation; addressing climate change; preventing genocide; alleviating poverty and promoting sustainable development; and supporting respect for human rights, democracy and human dignity.

These are shared challenges that no single nation can successfully tackle alone.
They require common action based on a common purpose and a vision of shared security, even when we have differences.

The United Nations is indispensible for advancing these goals and making our world a better, safer place.

Mr. President, I want to thank you for hosting this important meeting. And, I want to thank today's speakers for their briefings to the Security Council and more importantly for the work they do every day to promote adherence to international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians.

The challenge I want to focus on is how the United Nations can better protect the millions of vulnerable civilians who are caught in the crossfire of conflicts worldwide.

Mr. President, the United States is deeply committed to supporting and advancing international humanitarian law – both as a matter of national policy and as a basic precept for the entire international community.

In his inaugural address, President Obama rejected the false choice between our security and our values. He acted quickly, and in his first week in office signed Executive Orders to close the Guantanamo detention facility within one year, to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions, and to guarantee the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in custody during armed conflicts, including by providing access to all detainees by the International Committee of the Red Cross. He ordered the CIA to close all existing detention facilities. President Obama has made clear that the United States will work with the international community to defeat violence and terrorism in a manner consistent with our values and ideals.

Civilian protection is not just a moral duty; it must be a core element of military operations. The United States government understands that protection of civilians is a vital priority – indeed that it must be an essential part of our missions. In Afghanistan, an international coalition continues to combat Taliban forces that deliberately employ tactics designed to increase the number of innocent civilian deaths. U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan operate under rules and orders designed to prevent such casualties, and we will continue to review them to improve their effectiveness.

The United States is deeply concerned Mr. President about the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent weeks and the tragic suffering of Palestinian civilians, who require urgent humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. Violations of international humanitarian law have been perpetrated by Hamas through its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in southern Israel and the use of civilian facilities to provide protection for its terrorist attacks. There have also been numerous allegations made against Israel some of which are deliberately designed to inflame. We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate and we also call upon all members of the international community to refrain from politicizing these important issues.

Mr. President, we must find more effective means to protect innocent civilians around the world.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the fighting rages on and is reported to have resulted directly or indirectly in more than 5 million deaths, as well as countless rapes, sexual assaults, recruitment of child soldiers, and other major human rights violations.

The Uganda Lord's Resistance Army has for many years terrorized civilian populations and is responsible for a major humanitarian crisis today in the region. In Sudan, the genocide in Darfur continues. More than two and a half million persons have fled their homes and hundreds of thousands have died in the conflict to date. Recent fighting between rebels and government forces have put countless civilian lives at risk and the Government of Sudan continues its campaign of bombing innocent civilians. In both the Congo and Sudan, all parties to the conflict must stop the killing and abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law.

The United States is determined to act to prevent such violations of international humanitarian law. This means, in practical terms, preventing conflicts in the first place, keeping existing conflicts from escalating to mass atrocities, acting early and decisively when they occur, and ensuring that peacebuilding and post-conflict assistance consolidates peace durably once conflict ends. As agreed to by member states in 2005 and by the Security Council in 2006, the international community has a responsibility to protect civilian populations from violations of international humanitarian law when states are unwilling or unable to do so. But this commitment is only as effective as the willingness of all nations, large and small, to take concrete action.

The United States takes this responsibility seriously, and I look forward to the General Assembly's upcoming discussion of the Secretary-General's report on the responsibility to protect.

Mr. President, the United Nations is at the center of our collective efforts to promote respect for international humanitarian law.

Through peacekeeping, the United Nations protects vulnerable populations and helps to end violent conflict. Through the promotion of accountability, the United Nations helps to end impunity. Through the provision of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations reduces human suffering.

Yet, more needs to be done to clarify the role of UN peacekeepers with regard to civilian protection, to ensure that they have the resources necessary to accomplish their mandates and to accelerate their effective deployment in times of urgent need.

Furthermore, UN peacekeepers must respect international humanitarian law themselves and abide by the highest standards of conduct.

The United States supports the efforts the Secretariat has taken to address the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, but additional work is required to develop doctrine, standards, and training for peacekeepers so they adhere to and promote the highest standards of international humanitarian law and conduct in all missions, and in all their activities.
Anything less is unacceptable.

The ad hoc war crimes tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the hybrid tribunals in Sierra Leone and Cambodia, are actively prosecuting crimes involving violations of international humanitarian law. The International Criminal Court, which has started its first trial this week, looks to become an important and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda, and Darfur.

UN humanitarian agencies, such as OCHA, UNHCR, WFP and UNICEF, are performing vital and life-saving services for the most vulnerable populations. Similarly, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been active in providing assistance and protection to victims of conflict, often in places where other humanitarian actors are unable to operate.

The United States has long been a leading supporter of the ICRC's efforts to promote and strengthen international humanitarian law in countries around the world. We are proud to be the largest financial contributor to its essential work.

Mr. President, we call on all parties and all governments to live up to their commitments under international humanitarian law, abide by all Security Council resolutions, and cooperate with international investigations to end impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United States is steadfast in its commitment to safeguard human rights and end violations of international humanitarian law, both in conjunction with the United Nations, and through our other efforts throughout the world. Beyond this commitment, however, is a pledge by the United States to work together with the United Nations and international organizations such as the ICRC, in a new era in support for international humanitarian law. It is in this spirit of cooperation and determination that we will seek to use this body of international law to minimize human suffering and protect vulnerable populations.

Thank you Mr. President.
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Thailand: 19 soldiers injured in friendly fires in war exercise

19 soldiers injured in friendly fires in war exercise

The Nation
Lop Buri - Nineteen soldiers were injured, four severely, when they were shot at by a helicopter supposed to provide them air backup during a raid as part of a war exercise here Wednesday.

Sources said the mishap happened at about 10 am during an exercise on raiding by a battalion of the Lop Bur-based Special Warfare Command.

Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Anupong Paochinda witnessed the war exercise.

As part of the exercise, some 20 soldiers were flown on a helicopter to mount an attack on the enemies.

The soldiers were supposed to run to their destination while another helicopter was supposed to fire at the enemies to cover them. However, the friendly fires from the helicopter hit the soldiers.

They were rushed to the Ananda Mahidol Hospital.

The Nation

Khmer Rouge: KR museum to draw visitors north

KR museum to draw visitors north

The Phnom Penh Written by Sam Rith

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Owner of new Khmer Rouge museum in former communist stronghold Anlong Veng says he expects site to drastically increase tourist numbers once project is completed. Photo by: PHOTO COURTESY OF DC-CAM Photographer Nhem En in a picture taken during the Democratic Kampuchea era. Who is Nhem En? Original name: Nhem En Revolutionary name: none Joined KR: October 3, 1973 Introducer: Morn Village: Trapeang Meas Commune: Tra-ngil Family involvement: None Base opinions: No connection with the enemies SOURCE: KHMER ROUGE BIOGRAPNY SUPPLIED BY DC-CAM THE founder of a new museum for displaying Khmer Rouge memorabilia said he expects the attraction to draw more tourists to the remote Anlong Veng district in Oddar Meanchey province, which has already experienced a recent spike in both Cambodian and foreign visitors. Nhem En, Anlong Veng district deputy governor and the founder of the museum, said he expects the museum - which will feature 2,000 photos of Khmer Rouge leaders, audio recordings of Khmer Rouge songs and related documents - to trigger a tenfold increase in tourism to the district. The number of tourists to Oddar Meanchey province is already on the rise. More than double the number of tourists visited the district in 2008 compared with 2007: 97,566 Cambodian and 15,027 foreign tourists visited in 2008, compared with 40,458 Cambodian and 13,063 foreign tourists in 2007, said Kong Sophearak, director of the Statistics Department at the Ministry of Tourism. Better known for his meticulous, methodical photography of the doomed and dying inmates at Tuol Sleng torture prison, Nhem En said he has invested US$110,000 of his own money buying and clearing land for the museum. He said he plans to place the museum building on 10 hectares that have already been cleared, and will build an irrigation system modelled after those built by the regime on an adjacent 40 hectares that have yet to be cleared. In an interview with the Post, Nhem En appealed to business people, NGOs and the government to help finance the rest of the project, which he estimated to total $320,000. He said he would fund the museum himself and construct it piecemeal if necessary, though he would prefer to receive assistance from outside sources. "I will make my dream come true," he said. "I will not give up hope, even though so far I have received no funding from other sources." He said the museum - located near remnants of the Khmer Rouge regime including Ta Mok's house and Pol Pot's grave - would be of particular interest to foreigners. Hopes to boost tourism Presently, Nhem En estimates that between 20 and 30 foreign students visit Anlong Veng each day. When the museum is completed, between 300 and 500 foreign tourists will visit the district, he said. Kong Sophearak said the tourism ministry did not have data on the number of foreign tourists the specific district receives. One road is currently being built to connect Siem Reap to Anlong Veng, though it has yet to be paved. Yim Phanna, Anlong Veng district governor, said the road will be completed in April. The government is planning to build two more roads - one connecting Anlong Veng to O'Smach commune, Samroang district, Oddar Meanchey province, and one connecting Anlong Veng to Preah Vihear province. I will not give up hope even though so far I have received no funding... Still in need of support Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), expressed his support for the establishment of the museum, saying he had met with Nhem En many times to offer suggestions regarding the museum plans. DC-Cam has also provided technical support for the project, he said, though it has been unable to provide funding. Yim Phanna, Anlong Veng district governor, said he hoped the museum would attract more tourists to the district. "The museum could encourage more tourists who visit Angkor Wat temple to also visit Anlong Veng because the 124-kilometre road from Siem Reap to Anlong Veng is almost finished, Yim Phanna said. Vann Nath, a survivor of Tuol Sleng, said he did not object to the museum, noting that it would allow Nhem En to demonstrate his skills as a photographer. "It is up to him," he said.

Cambodia: Govt mulls torture watchdog

Govt mulls torture watchdog

The Phnom Penh Post Written by Vong Sokheng

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Proposed body to bring Cambodia in line with UN agreements THE Ministry of Interior and UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) held a workshop last week to study in detail requirements for the establishment of a government body to implement the UN Convention Against Torture. "We believe that torture is still a common crime ... occurring in prisons against those accused of doing something wrong," said Jason Barber, consultant to rights group Licadho, commenting on the proposed initiative. According to Barber, torture is still commonly used by police to extract confessions from suspects. The proposed subdecree would create a temporary body pending the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) that is consistent with the UN's Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), a legislative process that UN and government officials expect to take up to two years. Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, told the Post that the problem of torture had improved in some respects but that it was still a "bad habit" in the police force. He added that the proposed NPM could help to reduce instances of torture in the country, but only if it is independent and respects the spirit of existing international agreements. "I think that the NPM will improve the investigation process where it is respected," he said. "But I remain concerned about individual police officers, who still do not understand the principles of OPCAT." However, Som Kol Sokun, director of the Prison Department at the Ministry of Interior, who participated in the workshop last week, has denied torture allegations. "There is no torture in prisons, we have received no information," he told the Post last week.

Cambodia: Appealing France's verdict

Sam Rainsy to appeal France's verdict and will send more evidence to the court

Sam Rainsy Fined for Libel of Foreign Minister

By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 January 2009

A French court on Tuesday fined opposition leader Sam Rainsy and a French publisher $12,500 for public defamation of Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong.

The court found libelous one passage in a book written by Sam Rainsy and published by Jean-Etienne Cohen-Seat in May 2008, “The Roots in the Stone,” which accused Hor Namhong of collaboration with the Khmer Rouge and the deaths of “numerous” people, to a court announcement.

The costs include more than $5,000 for publishing a correction in two French newspapers.

The court order also included the deletion of one page of the book, which includes the sentence, “A few years later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs would be a collaborator of Khmer Rouge power, suspected for having caused the death of numerous persons, among them members of the royal family.”

Sam Rainsy said he lost the case because the French courts were not able to properly examine the case in Cambodia, and he planned to appeal.

“This is just a first step,” he said. “We will appeal and send more evidence to the court.”

During the April 2008 anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh, Sam Rainsy said both the Minister of Finance, Keat Chhon, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hor Namhong, had been members of the Khmer Rouge.

The editor of an opposition newspaper, Dam Sith, was jailed for one week in June 2008 for publishing Sam Rainsy’s remarks. Dam Sith was released on bail and later met with Hor Namhong, who then said he was dropping his suit against the editor to prevent clouding the upcoming national elections.

“This is the second round of justice given to me in France, and for the second time in Cambodia,” Hor Namhong told VOA Khmer.

Leadership is about more than charisma

From The Times

January 28, 2009

Companies can be at risk if they become too dependent on the cult of the chief executive

Fay Schopen


If there is a cult of the chief executive, then Steve Jobs must stand at its head. Many business leaders have been closely associated with their brands, but none more so than the chief executive of Apple. Mr Jobs, with his understated black polo necks and round glasses, has come to personify his company, a fact highlighted when recent news of his medical leave of absence caused Apple's share price to tumble.
“Apple is surprisingly dependent on Steve Jobs,” Tim Morris, director of the high performance leadership programme at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, said. “He has the magic combination of a fantastic technical insight and an ability to understand the market. He's also a master communicator.”
And he is an archetype, in his case the model of a charismatic leader - and that, in turn, is both a towering strength and a potential devastating weakness.
“Charismatic leaders can gather people behind them,” Jo Hennessy, director of research at the Roffey Park Institute, said. “They're inspiring and strong and, if they're able to engage staff, the results will follow.”
Maria Yapp, chief executive of Xancam, a business psychology company, said that “a big magnetic personality” can launch and revitalise brands, products and companies. “Tony Blair was great for new Labour to kick-start it,” she said, “and Steve Jobs has revitalised the Apple brand.”
But, Ms Hennessey said, “they're like the central pole in a big top: take the pole out and the tent will collapse.”
Rob Goffee, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and co-author of Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, said that strong leaders were good at developing disciples, but not successors. “The people that make leaders charismatic are their followers. Barack Obama, for example, is clearly charismatic, but he's also enigmatic. You can't pin him down and so he allows us to project our dreams and hopes on to him.”
Ms Hennessy said: “A charismatic leader who likes fame and glory may be more concerned about results today than a long-term legacy. When we coach chief executives to develop their own succession plans, we say: ‘Does it always have to be you? Can you spread the leadership around more?'”
Gareth Jones, visiting professor at Insead, the international business school, said that people were fascinated by how leaders got results. “We're interested in those who excite others to exceptional performance. For instance, when Martin Johnson led England to victory in the Rugby World Cup, people were saying: ‘How the hell did he do that?'”
Johnson's successors might have wondered the same thing and, perhaps, if some of his magic might rub off on them. Sadly, in Professor Jones's words: “You can't borrow someone else's charisma. The task for leaders is to work out what it is about themselves that is compelling. We're all looking for the next Richard Branson or Steve Jobs and we're not looking at the different ways people are leading.”
Professor Goffee said that figures such as John Major, the former prime minister, used their very ordinariness to lead: “I get worried about the use of the word ‘charisma', as people think that these are extraordinary qualities that ordinary mortals haven't got.”
Moreoever, the tide of popularity can turn quickly. Ms Yapp warned: “If you're known on the strength of your personality, it's much easier to fail. People in the City tend to panic and see Steve Jobs as being Apple, in the same way that they see Richard Branson as being Virgin.”
There are several things that companies can do to ensure that they do not fall victim to the cult of the chief executive. They can build the loss of a leader into disaster recovery plans, Barry Spence, chairman and chief executive of Cubiks, an HR consultancy, said. They should ensure that they have a strong organisational structure and management team underpinning the leader and that all those in that team get a chance to shine. Crucially, companies should build the product's reputation as strongly as they build personalities. “While James Dyson is regarded as an innovator, the product has been developed in parallel. So if Dyson went under a bus tomorrow, people would still buy Dyson vacuum cleaners,” Mr Spence said.
And while we may love inspirational but fallible leaders, only one thing matters to the markets: results. Last week Apple posted record revenue of $10.17billion (£7.19billion). As Mr Spence said: “The numbers will always win out.”
Famous Four
Henry Ford The founder of the Ford motor company revolutionised mass production and brought car ownership to middle-class Americans. An avowed anti-Semite, he was admired by Adolf Hitler
Sir Richard Branson The self-made entrepreneur launched the “world’s first spaceline”, Virgin Galactic, in 2004 and was ranked the 236th richest person in the world by Forbes magazine last year
Jack Welch The former chairman and chief executive of General Electric increased its value from $13 billion to several hundred billion. Dubbed “Neutron Jack”, it was joked that he eliminated employees but left the building standing
Dame Anita Roddick Founder of ethical cosmetics group the Body Shop, she was a high-profile environmental campaigner before her death in 2007

January 28, 2009

How to manage change at work effectively

Companies that are undergoing a programme of transition potentially face a series of problems and pitfalls

Source: Timesonline
Fay Schopen


Be ready
1 Change is a constant part of life, so prepare for it. Michael Jarrett, the author of Changeability: Why Some Companies Are Ready For Change and Others Aren't, argues that people who are prepared to embrace change have “changeability”, a key predictor of success. Build changeability into your company by cultivating strong leadership, talents and processes that match the requirements of the marketplace.
Have a purpose
2 “Ask as many people as you can why change is planned and if they hesitate or say ‘because everyone else is doing it', alarm bells should ring,” Richard Crouch, the head of HR and organisational development at Somerset County Council and a board member of The Public Sector People Managers' Association, said. He recommends that managers “acid test” reasons for change: good ones could be better service delivery or modernisation.
Act holistically
3 Managing change is akin to performing several different medical procedures at the same time, Jeanie Daniel Duck, a senior partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group, writes in the essay Managing Change: The Art of Balancing. “Each operation is a success, but the patient dies of shock.”
“You cannot do something in one part of the organisation without changing all parts of the organisation,” Nick James, an organisational development specialist, said. Even things that seem small, such as changing the way in which employees log their time, can affect the whole company.
Think long-term
4 “The whole process of integration could take several years, or some aspects of it may never happen,” Margaret Denton, a change management specialist who worked with ExxonMobil after their merger in 1999, said. “When people introduced themselves to others in the organisation, they always identified where they were from, Exxon or Mobil. They never said ExxonMobil.”
Look within
5 “In today's economic climate, you can't simply throw money at the problem or hire lots of people to effect change for you. It's like Manchester City Football Club: They want to buy loads of footballers, but they're hoping they're just going to turn up,” Steve Bicknell, the co-founder of Crelos, a business psychology consultancy, said, “[but] you've usually got a lot of people in-house that know the answers.”
Listen
6 “Don't just push information at people, encourage them. Involve them, ask what they're concerned about - and follow up,” Ms Denton said.
“The quality of communication is probably the most significant factor in whether or not change will succeed,” Miles Teasdale, the director of YSC, a business psychology consultancy, said.
Cultivate urgency
7 There is too much complacency in the workplace, according to the change management expert and author of A Sense of Urgency, John P. Kotter. He urges managers to fight this with action. “Demonstrate urgency. I know a manager who is brilliant at this. He will end a meeting by saying ‘This is what I'm going to do in the next seven days as a result of this meeting', then asks what other people are going to do.”
Expect emotion
8 Change can be a “fraught process”, Mr James said. He pointed out that many models used to predict how people will react to change are the same as those used to help people who are grieving. For many people, change will feel like a loss and they may react angrily before they can accept new processes and situations.
One size does not fit all
9 There are different types of change, Dr Jarrett said. One style he dubs “turnaround” and is seen when a new leader arrives and implements large organisational changes, such as the recent appointment of Edward Liddy, chief executive of AIG. Another model is to make lots and lots of smaller, incremental changes.
Help staff take control
10 Anthony Greenfield, author of The 5 Forces of Change, points to the television series Jamie's School Dinners as an example of buy-in. On the programme, children who refused to try healthy food were given cooking lessons. “They really got their hands on the issue. It's the same for everyone in any organisation - if you involve people, they will buy into it more,” Mr Greenfield said.
The five stages of grief
Although originally written by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to describe bereavement, this cycle is used to describe emotional reactions to all types of change or trauma
1 Denial: refusal of the facts or reality of the situation
2 Anger: this can be with themselves or others close to them
3 Bargaining: people seek to negotiate a compromise
4 Depression: sadness, fear and uncertainty as change is accepted
5 Acceptance: emotional detachment and objectivity

Rasmussen war crimes polling

Eximiner.com
January 27, 2:59 PM

by Jay McDonough, Progressive Politics Examiner

I write alot about torture here, or more specifically, the implementation of torture by the Bush Administration following 9/11. Military and intelligence personnel are on record asserting that torture is ineffective, yields unreliable information and places American troops at greater risk. As Major General Paul Eaton recently said:

“torture is the tool of the lazy, the stupid, and the pseudo-tough. It’s also perhaps the greatest recruiting tool that the terrorists have.” (Link)

But there's more to it than that for me. Anyone who speaks with authority argues torture is worthless and stupid, but I think it's shameful as well. I refuse to let go of my image of America as that whole shining beacon of light thing; a country grounded in fairness and justice and higher standards. A country we could always be proud and certain wouldn't resort to the kind of tactics used by the Nazis or KGB or Khmer Rouge. It was just unthinkable that, under any circumstances, the U.S. would stoop to that level of depravity. The Nazis and KGB and Khmer Rouge, of course, argued that they tortured prisoners because they had to - all in the interest of national security. The Bush Administration's use of similar justifications do nothing to differentiate the U.S. but, rather, just make the connections even more apparent.

So, I acknowledge there's an emotional component to my opposition to torture. And it's damn hard to even say out loud that my country tortured people in my name. And I suspect it's hard for a lot of Americans to acknowledge what's happened the last seven years - what we've allowed to happen in our name for the last seven years.

Having said all that, Rasmussen has a new poll on the subject:

Overall, among all voters, 25% believe war crimes were committed while 54% disagree.

Seventy percent (70%) of the nation’s voters say it would be bad for the United States if the former president and senior administration officials were brought to trial for war crimes. A majority of Democrats (53%) agree with that assessment.

Nineteen percent (19%) of all voters hold the opposite view and believe that bringing Bush Administration officials to trial for war crimes would be good for the nation.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of U.S. voters say Congress should hold hearing to investigate possible government wrongdoing during the Bush years. Democrats, by a 57% to 27% margin, believe such hearings should be held. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of unaffiliated voters agree as do nine percent (9%) of Republicans.

Twenty-eight percent (28%) believe Congress should hold hearings to investigate possible war crimes by the Bush Administration. Sixty-percent (60%) disagree.

Now, torture advocates might take heart in these numbers. Here's how I see them; one in four Americans believe the United States committed war crimes. (Honestly, I never imagined that in my life I would ever hear the terms war crimes and United States in the same sentence.) Notice also the large undecided numbers in each category. I would argue that as time passes and evidence becomes more available, the majority of those undecideds will conclude war crimes were, in fact, committed by U.S. forces.

On a related note, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture said yesterday he believes there is sufficient evidence to prosecute former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for war crimes.

"We have clear evidence," (Manfred Nowak) said. "In our report that we sent to the United Nations, we made it clear that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld clearly authorized torture methods and he was told at that time by Alberto Mora, the legal council of the Navy, 'Mr. Secretary, what you are actual ordering here amounts to torture.' So, there we have the clear evidence that Mr. Rumsfeld knew what he was doing but, nevertheless, he ordered torture." (Link)

It may be that Bush Administration officials do escape investigation of war crimes charges in the United States, However, my prediction is that, in a couple years time, the majority of Americans will believe these crimes were indeed committed. I would also predict that while the international community may call for investigations, the U.S. will want to look the other way and not pursue full scale investigations.

I suspect that for many, just like me and all those undecideds in the Rasmussen poll, it's almost too shameful to consider and too difficult to aknowledge as true.

France: French court fined Sam Rainsy

Sam Rainsy fined by French court, must pay 1 euro in damage compensation to Hor Nam Hong

28 Jan 2009
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The Paris tribunal sentenced the Cambodian opposition leader for public defamation against Hor Nam Hong, the minister of Foreign Affairs.

The sentence was handed down on Tuesday 27 January. Sam Rainsy was found guilty by the French court of publicly defaming Hor Nam Hong in his autobiography “Rooted in the stone,” which was published in France by Calmann-Levy in May 2008.

In this book, Sam Rainsy implied that Hor Nam Hong was a Khmer Rouge collaborator, and he caused the death of several people. Because of this, Jean-Etienne Cohen-Seat, the book editor, and Sam Rainsy must pay a 1,000-euro in fine each. They must both pay to Hor Nam Hong, the plaintiff in the legal case, a symbolic sum on 1 euro for damage compensation, as well as 4,500-euro based on the stipulation of Article 475-1 of the penal code.

In case the book is re-printed, the court also orders the removal from page 209 of the book the following sentence: “A few years later, the minister of Foreign Affairs would become a collaborator of the Khmer Rouge regime, and he was suspected of causing the death of several people, including members of the royal family.” Thus, the court is finding that Calmann-Levy, the book publisher, is responsible for this portion.

On the other hand, the Paris tribunal rejected all other complaints raised by Hor Nam Hong. The guilty party must pay the cost to publish a legal communiqué stating this sentence in two newspapers to be selected by Hor Nam Hong’s party.

Crise à Preah Vihear : les négociations entre Cambodge et Thaïlande reprennent sous de bons auspices

Crise à Preah Vihear : les négociations entre Cambodge et Thaïlande reprennent sous de bons auspices

Ka-Set Par Duong Sokha
26-01-2009
Après avoir été gelées des mois durant pour cause de troubles à Bangkok, les négociations entre la Thaïlande et le Cambodge semblent reparties pour un tour. Lundi 26 janvier, les chefs de la diplomatie des deux pays se sont entretenus durant plus d'une heure à Phnom Penh, avant de donner une conférence de presse conjointe. Le ministre Hor Namhong et son homologue thaïlandais Kasit Piromya, en visite au Cambodge, se sont mis d'accord "pour poursuivre pacifiquement les négociations bilatérales". "Le 6 février, a annoncé Hor Namhong, le ministre thaïlandais de la Défense effectuera une visite au Cambodge pour discuter du redéploiement des troupes armées à la pagode de Preah Vihear avec son homologue Tea Banh." Autre point sur lesquels les ministres ont accordé leurs violons, la tenue les 2 et 4 février de réunions du Comité mixte de la frontière khméro-thaïlandaise et, courant mars, d'une réunion entre les commissions techniques des deux royaumes chargées d'examiner leurs démarcations maritimes, qui elles aussi prêtent à polémique. Mais peut-être avant cette date, les deux camps aborderont cet autre épineux sujet au cours d'entrevues informelles. Les deux parties, a insisté le ministre cambodgien des Affaires étrangères, ont convenu que la résolution de la question frontalière qui les oppose se trouvait dorénavant en tête de leurs priorités, "comme nous l'avions dit en novembre [2008] à Siem Reap". La commission technique doit ainsi poursuivre son travail de mise à jour des bornes frontalières, 48 des 73 existantes ayant été identifiées à ce jour. "Une note positive : Son Excellence Kasit Piromya a promis de pousser les négociations afin que leur marche soit rapide. Il s'est également engagé à ce qu'un visa commun à nos deux pays soit mis en place afin d'encourager le tourisme." En sus de ces déclarations, le ministre thaïlandais a affirmé qu'il demanderait également à son gouvernement qu'un accord soit signé entre les deux pays visant à rapatrier au Cambodge des antiquités khmères volées se trouvant actuellement sur le sol thaïlandais. C'est ensuite le Premier ministre Hun Sen qui, l'après-midi, a rencontré Kasit Piromya, une entrevue qu'il a qualifiée, à la sortie, de "positive". Il a mentionné devant les journalistes le fait que le ministre thaïlandais lui avait remis une lettre du nouveau chef du gouvernement thaïlandais, Abhisit Vejjajiva, "dans laquelle il a pris en considération les propos que j'avais tenus à Oddar Meanchey", à savoir maintenir les négociations sur un plan bilatéral. "C'est un bon début. [...] Je l'ai aussi assuré de ma présence lors du 14e sommet de l'Asean [qui se tiendra en Thaïlande du 27 février au 1er mars]", a déclaré Hun Sen. Dans sa lettre datée du 25 janvier, Abhisit Vejjajiva se dit en accord avec Hun Sen sur la stratégie à suivre pour résoudre la question frontalière et sur l'importance à renforcer leurs relations bilatérales à l'avenir. Il promet que le gouvernement thaïlandais fera des efforts en ce sens, rappelant que leurs deux pays, voisins, sont de mêmes tradition et culture, et qu'il est "déterminé à apporter sécurité et bonheur aux citoyens de nos deux pays". Et le Premier ministre thaïlandais de terminer sur l'annonce de sa visite prochaine au Cambodge "pour renforcer les relations de nos pays dans tous les domaines".

Khmer-Siam:Border 'unchanged' despite talks

Border 'unchanged' despite talks

The Phnom Penh Post Written by Thet Sambath

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Soldiers at Preah Vihear say standoff continues in spite of dialogue between Cambodia and Thailand. Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON Cambodian soldiers (foreground and under blue tarp) and Thai soldiers (rear under green tarp) in Preah Vihear in a file photo. DESPITE continued dialogue Monday between Cambodia and Thailand's foreign ministers in Phnom Penh, commanders on the border say the military standoff there - now in its seventh month - continues to drag on. "Nothing has changed," Srey Doek, commander of Military Division 3, said Tuesday. "Our soldiers are standing in the same place as before." Tensions along the border were further complicated on Monday when a Thai solider was severely injured in a land mine accident around 200 metres from the Cambodian front lines, Neak Vong, deputy commander of Brigade 42, told the Post. The injury prompted Thai soldiers to shoot into the air in a bid to signal to superiors what had happened. Cambodian soldiers, unaware of the accident, went on red alert after hearing the shots, Neak Vong said. He added that Thai soldiers had been on patrol when the incident happened. "There are many mines in this area because it was a battlefield in the 1980s and 1990s. We know, and Thai soldiers also know, the area is full of mines, but they still violate [our territory on their patrols]," Neak Vong said. He said that five soldiers in civilian uniforms from each side continue to standoff at the contested Ta Moan Thom temple in Oddar Meanchey province. Troubles began on the border in July when Unesco listed the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site. Soldiers on both sides were killed and wounded when firefights broke out in October, but since then fighting has stopped, with both sides saying they are committed to dialogue in a bid to reduce the military buildup along the border.

Khmer-Thai: Sea border talk could be resolved?

Top negotiator doubts new sea border talks will solve dispute

The Phnom Penh Post Written by Cheang Sokha

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Var Kimhong points out that 2001 working group similar to that announced Monday failed to demarcate Thai-Cambodian sea border. Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong speaks to reporters following a meeting with his Thai counterpart Monday. CAMBODIA'S top border negotiator questioned Tuesday whether talks between Cambodia and Thailand regarding the countries' disputed sea border could lead to an actual agreement and official demarcation. Following a meeting Monday between Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, Hor Namhong announced that a joint technical working group charged with demarcating the sea border would be established in March at the latest. The exact date depends on when the Thai Cabinet could approve the head of its side of the group. But Var Kimhong, Cambodia's top border negotiator, said the announcement did not amount to a major breakthrough in the dispute, as the two countries had already created a working group in 2001 in a failed attempt to settle their disagreement. "The problem is that Thailand always changes the leader of its government, so we have to restart discussion of the issue with a new person," he said. "We are already prepared to work on this issue but we're waiting for the Thai side." He said the Cambodian side of the working group, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, remained in place. Thailand and Cambodia both assert claims over some 27,000 square kilometres of disputed maritime territory in the Gulf of Thailand that is believed to contain significant amounts of oil and gas reserves. An overseas subsidiary of American energy giant Chevron Corp holds a 55-percent interest in a Cambodian section of the Gulf of Thailand covering 6,278 kilometres. A more positive take Phay Siphan, spokesman and secretary of state at the Council of Ministers, had a more positive outlook on the announced talks, saying the two governments have previously focused almost exclusively on the land border to the detriment of maritime talks. He said that government officials would now begin researching the various memorandum of understanding and treaties relating to the disputed maritime territory in preparation for the talks. In addition to the announcement of new dialogue on border issues, the foreign ministers also announced Monday an agreement to scale back the number of troops remaining from last year's escalation at the temple.

Cambodia: Recycling free market myths

Recycling free market myths

Socialistworker. orgJanuary 21, 2009

IT SEEMS that conservative New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof missed the memo that the economic crisis has exposed his neoliberal "the free market will solve everything" ideology as bankrupt.

His January 15 column on the lives of the poorest of Cambodia, "Where Sweatshops are a Dream," while a good source of toilet paper, also provides an opportunity to confront neoliberalism for what it is and how it reveals the bankruptcy of capitalism in general.

Kristof's argument can be summed up in a two-sentence quote:

Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad. But while it shocks Americans to hear it, the central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don't exploit enough.

He argues that while those of us who oppose sweatshop labor are well-meaning (and naïve) idealists, to really improve the lives of the world's poorest people, those who survive by scavenging in landfills, we should advocate the expansion of sweatshops.

This argument is supported with such gems as: "Talk to these families in the dump, and a job in a sweatshop is a cherished dream, an escalator out of poverty, the kind of gauzy if probably unrealistic ambition that parents everywhere often have for their children," and "one of the best hopes for the poorest countries would be to build their manufacturing industries...but global campaigns against sweatshops make that less likely."

By referring to sweatshop a "cherished dream," Kristof reveals how privileged and out of touch he is. By simply recycling the old neoliberal argument, trumpeted by such organizations as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that free trade and "development" will end poverty, and that labor unions and standards, social services like public education, health care, and food subsidies for the poor are what is holding this project back, Kristof uses his podium to attack working people.

This argument states that poor countries can eventually develop into advanced economies free of poverty, which is implied in the term "developing countries." This theory has been proven false after decades of "development" that has done little (or worse) for the masses of people in the global South.

Removing barriers to trade and slashing social services has not alleviated poverty, but has deepened and spread it, and has worsened living standards for the working class as a whole in industrialized nations, as well as in developing countries like Cambodia.

Wages and benefits for workers in most industrialized countries, including the U.S., have stagnated or declined in recent decades, and as Eric Toussaint lays out in his book Your Money or Your Life, following a gradual increase in quality of life in the developing countries from 1945-80, "after 1982, eruption of the debt crisis and generalization of structural adjustment policies brought on the degradation of living conditions."

The capitalist class and its cronies in governments around the world, not anti-sweatshop movements or the broader labor movement, are to blame for the lack of jobs in the poorest nations.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

TODAY, PRODUCTION is slowing on a global level because of the contradictions of capitalism itself. The credit crunch that is a major cause of the deepening economic crisis has made it impossible for many businesses to secure the loans required to keep factories running.

On the demand side, workers whose living standards have been cut again and again during the three-decade-plus reign of neoliberalism, have watched their sources of credit evaporate and are no longer able to afford to buy the goods those factories would have produced.

Capitalists, in competition for a limited market defined not by human need but by those with the money to buy, continually seek to cut wages and increase productivity, so that fewer workers produce greater amounts of goods for less wages. This undercuts demand and leads to crises of overproduction like the one we're in today. Factories close, leading to even weaker demand, and the cycle repeats itself. This is not the work of omnipotent anti-sweatshop activists; it is a tendency built in to capitalism as an economic system.

The growing gap between rich and poor under late 20th and early 21st century world capitalism, both internationally and within the borders of individual nation-states, has led to the tragic absurdity of unemployment due to a lack of capital in some countries alongside unemployment due to an excess of capital in others.

And internationally, the means and potential exist to meet the human needs of everyone on the planet several times over.

This state of affairs underlines the relevance of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky's century-old theory of combined and uneven development, which provides a much better analysis for understanding and changing the world today than the pipe-dreams offered by apologists for capitalism. This theory argues that under capitalism national economies do not develop in an even or straightforward manner.

On the contrary, as capitalism proceeds, national markets become more and more integrated into the world economy while development proceeds unevenly. Some countries become highly developed while others stagnate and can go backwards, and within nations advanced production can exist side by side with some of worst conditions imaginable for human beings, with peasants living under near-feudal conditions and masses of the unemployed living off of refuse.

This is a chaotic process driven by competition and the drive for greater profits, for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many.

The only solution, according to Trotsky, was Permanent Revolution, an international revolutionary movement of the working class to expropriate the exploiters who benefit from our misery and take control over production and distribution to meet the needs of all.

The recent film Slumdog Millionaire, set in India and featuring images of modern skyscrapers towering above sprawling slums, strikingly illustrates the applicability of Trotsky's theory to today's world. Millions of Indians live in dire poverty, their ranks growing as farmers continue to be displaced by "special economic zones" where international corporations have free reign, while a few have become fabulously wealthy as a result of advanced development.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CAMBODIA IS an interesting example for Kristof to have chosen. As an American conservative pundit, Kristof is a member of a group that manages to discuss (scapegoat) African American poverty while minimizing or ignoring slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and institutional racism perpetrated and upheld by the U.S. ruling class, injustices that are at the root of the high rates of poverty faced by African Americans to this day. So it's no surprise that he manages to discuss poverty in Cambodia as if it, too, can be torn from its historical context and dealt with without holding to account those responsible for the current state of affairs.

In 1969-70, in the middle of its criminal war on the Vietnamese people, the U.S. military dropped over 100,000 tons of bombs on "neutral" Cambodia as part of "Operation Menu." The bombing killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodian civilians and paved the way for the rise of the brutal dictator Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, which killed 1.5 million more.

Instead of sweatshops to allow U.S. and other capitalists to exploit the survivors of this brutality and their descendants, the rich who benefit from the U.S.'s wars should be taxed and the money used for reparations so that no Cambodian has to pick through garbage to find food to eat.

More generally, a look at the history of imperialism and colonialism that continues to this day shows that the ruling classes of the U.S., Europe and Japan (the "Triad"), by far the richest in the world, built their fortunes by exploiting their own working classes while plundering, slaughtering and exploiting those of the Global South.

Pathetically, remittances from immigrants working low-wage jobs are responsible for a greater flow of money from the richest nations to the Global South than official aid, and the net flow of wealth is from the Global South to the industrialized Triad, as payments on debt and capital outflows greatly exceed any aid from the Triad.

To claim that employment sweatshops should be viewed as a "step up" for the world's poorest is to ignore this history of injustice and accept that a just and sane world is impossible, so we should settle for what little we have because "it could be worse." Instead of praying for jobs in sweatshops, we must demand the reparations we are owed by our exploiters.

Kristof, in a time when the rich are richer than ever and the U.S. government can find trillions of dollars to bail out the big banks, wants us to believe that the best the world's poor can expect is a chance for a sweatshop to open up in the neighborhood. In his sick version of reality, the labor movement, those who seek better wages, benefits and working conditions for the people who produce this wealth, is portrayed not as a champion of the poor but as an obstacle in their way.

In this time of crisis, we must reject this and every other cynical ploy to weaken the only force capable of fighting back against the ruling class's attempt to make us pay for their crisis: the international working class.

It is international solidarity, not sweatshops, that will improve the lives of those currently going without from Cambodia, to Cairo, to California. We need more of the solidarity shown by the hundreds of thousands around the world protesting the slaughter in Gaza; although they are not Gazans, they see an injury to the Palestinians is an injury to all. We need more of the solidarity exhibited by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) who shut down the west coast ports in the U.S. this past May 1 to protest the wars against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and immigrants in the U.S., and were joined by Iraqi dockworkers striking in their country.

We need to reach back into our own history, to proud struggles like the Seattle general strike of 1919, when workers took control of the city in a strike that halted shipments of arms being sent to crush the workers government in Russia, so that we might learn the lessons that will enable us to move forward to a better future.
Gary Lapon, Northampton, Mass.

Cambodia tribunal dispute runs deeper

Cambodia tribunal dispute runs deeper

Internatioanl Herald Tribune

By Seth Mydans
Published: January 27, 2009

PHNOM PENH: At first glance it seems to be simply a numbers game: whether to try 5, 10 or more defendants for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people at the hands of the Khmer Rouge three decades ago.

But as a United Nations-backed tribunal prepares to hold its first trial session next month, it is embroiled in a wrangle over numbers that goes to the heart of longstanding concerns about the tribunal's fairness and independence.

The Cambodian government, critics say, is attempting to limit the scope of the trials for its own political reasons, a limit that the critics say would compromise justice and could discredit the entire process.

"To me, it's the credibility of the tribunal which is at stake, its integrity and therefore its credibility," said Christophe Peschoux, who heads the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia.

The first defendant is the man with perhaps the most horrifying record: Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, the commander of the Tuol Sleng torture house in Phnom Penh, where at least 14,000 people were sent to their deaths. His trial is to open with a procedural hearing, set for Feb. 17, at which more substantive sessions, involving witnesses and evidence, are expected to be scheduled.

Those five defendants are enough, Cambodian officials say.

But foreign legal experts counter that within reasonable limits, the judicial process should not be arbitrarily limited.

After a decade of difficult and not always friendly negotiations between the United Nations and the Cambodians, a hybrid tribunal is in place, with Cambodian and foreign co-prosecutors and panels of co-judges in an awkward political and legal balancing act. Now, even before Duch's trial gets under way, that balance is being tested.

Last month the foreign co-prosecutor, a Canadian named Robert Petit, submitted six more names to the court for investigation, saying that he had gathered enough evidence to support possible charges. Petit's Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, objected - not on legal grounds, but for reasons that appear to reflect the government's position on the trials.

Additional indictments, the Cambodian prosecutor said, could be destabilizing and would cost too much and take too long and would violate the spirit of the tribunal, which she said envisioned "only a small number of trials."

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who bargained hard with the United Nations over the shape and scope of the tribunal, has said that trying "four or five people" would be enough, although there is no formal limit on the number.

Indeed, Peter Maguire, author of "Facing Death in Cambodia," suggests that Hun Sen's plan might be to try only Duch - "a garden-variety war criminal" - and hope the political defendants die before they can be tried and judged.

The additional names submitted by Petit have not been made public. But people close to the court say that none of them holds a significant position in Cambodia's current government.

Both Hun Sen and several senior members of his government were Khmer Rouge cadre, but experts say they do not fall under the scope of the tribunal and are not at risk of prosecution.

The mandate of the court is to try the top leadership of the Khmer Rouge and "those most responsible" for the crimes - that is, people like Duch, who oversaw the torture and killing of thousands of people.

In Cambodia, though, courts do not head off in their own directions without tight control from Hun Sen or the people around him. Some advocates of the tribunal - the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC - see it as offering Cambodia a model for a more independent judiciary.

"Some in Phnom Penh are apparently frightened that the ECCC might actually succeed - that it might serve as an example of accountability that could be applied more widely," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

"With the Feb. 17 start of the first trial fast approaching, now is the moment to show that the court is not a tool of the Cambodian government," he said. "The court's credibility is on the line."

Most Cambodians are eager to see Khmer Rouge leaders brought to trial, according to an extensive survey published last week by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.Those five defendants are enough, Cambodian officials say.

But foreign legal experts counter that within reasonable limits, the judicial process should not be arbitrarily limited.

After a decade of difficult and not always friendly negotiations between the United Nations and the Cambodians, a hybrid tribunal is in place, with Cambodian and foreign co-prosecutors and panels of co-judges in an awkward political and legal balancing act. Now, even before Duch's trial gets under way, that balance is being tested.

Last month the foreign co-prosecutor, a Canadian named Robert Petit, submitted six more names to the court for investigation, saying that he had gathered enough evidence to support possible charges. Petit's Cambodian counterpart, Chea Leang, objected - not on legal grounds, but for reasons that appear to reflect the government's position on the trials.

Additional indictments, the Cambodian prosecutor said, could be destabilizing and would cost too much and take too long and would violate the spirit of the tribunal, which she said envisioned "only a small number of trials."

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who bargained hard with the United Nations over the shape and scope of the tribunal, has said that trying "four or five people" would be enough, although there is no formal limit on the number.

Indeed, Peter Maguire, author of "Facing Death in Cambodia," suggests that Hun Sen's plan might be to try only Duch - "a garden-variety war criminal" - and hope the political defendants die before they can be tried and judged.

The additional names submitted by Petit have not been made public. But people close to the court say that none of them holds a significant position in Cambodia's current government.

Both Hun Sen and several senior members of his government were Khmer Rouge cadre, but experts say they do not fall under the scope of the tribunal and are not at risk of prosecution.

The mandate of the court is to try the top leadership of the Khmer Rouge and "those most responsible" for the crimes - that is, people like Duch, who oversaw the torture and killing of thousands of people.

In Cambodia, though, courts do not head off in their own directions without tight control from Hun Sen or the people around him. Some advocates of the tribunal - the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia, or ECCC - see it as offering Cambodia a model for a more independent judiciary.

"Some in Phnom Penh are apparently frightened that the ECCC might actually succeed - that it might serve as an example of accountability that could be applied more widely," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative.

"With the Feb. 17 start of the first trial fast approaching, now is the moment to show that the court is not a tool of the Cambodian government," he said. "The court's credibility is on the line."

Most Cambodians are eager to see Khmer Rouge leaders brought to trial, according to an extensive survey published last week by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cambodian Girls Driven to Prostitution

Cambodian Girls Driven to Prostitution

Radio Free Asia
2009-01-27

Economic hardship is pushing young Cambodian girls into the sex trade while legislation drives the trade underground.

AFP

Cambodian sex workers sit on the side walk along a street in Phnom Penh on Dec. 18, 2008.

PHNOM PENH—The girl from Prey Veng province has worked as a prostitute in the Cambodian capital for five months. Hard times, she said, have brought her here to earn money for her widowed mother and three younger siblings.

“I am unhappy with myself, but I pity my mother. No girl wants to do this horrible work,” the 15-year-old, who asked not to be named, said in an interview as she looked for business near the Suriya Supermarket.

“Sometimes, I get only one client in two or three days. Some clients ask me to have sex without using a condom, but I refuse. I say that if you sleep with me without using condom, I’d rather not take your money.”

Rising living costs are forcing more Cambodian girls under 18 into prostitution in urban areas such as Phnom Penh to support their families in the countryside.

The girls, spotted easily from around 8 p.m. as they scout urban streets and parks for customers, say they lack the education to find other work.

A dangerous trade

Several Cambodian girls who agreed to be interviewed said they engage in sex work despite its dangers because they cannot afford to quit.

“Clients take me to guesthouses. I get U.S. $10 per night. They gang-rape me and beat me,” another girl, 17, from Svay Rieng province, said.

In February 2008, the Cambodian government began enforcing the new “Law on the Suppression of Human-Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation” after years of U.S. pressure to crack down on sex trafficking.

Human rights groups, however, say the law and its enforcement have made life harder for the women they aim to help.

Prostitutes caught in police raids are made to pay fines of up to U.S. $200 for their release, the 17-year-old girl said.

“They take us to district police headquarters and take our money. If we don’t have the money, we will be kept in custody for two or three days. So we have to run for our lives when we see police approaching us.”

“Police arrest us in the hope that the brothel owners will pay, but if we don’t have anyone to pay for our release we will be sent to one of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It’s o.k. to live at the NGOs, but then our families have nothing to eat,” she said.

“If [the NGOs] want to help me, they should also help my family. Otherwise I can’t quit.”

Increasing poverty

Lim Mony, program manager for women’s issues at the nonprofit group ADHOC, the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, said the number of girls and women involved in sex work is increasing because of higher living costs and the lure of modern luxuries.

“Voluntary sex work by girls on the streets is difficult to define. Many of these girls first were lured and tricked into being sex workers by traffickers. Then, because of that, they began voluntarily selling their bodies. Other women have been voluntarily engaged in prostitution from the start,” she said.

According to Article 35 of Cambodia’s law on “Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation,” the prostitution of children is punishable with a jail sentence of two to five years and a fine of four to 10 million riel (U.S. $1,000 to $2,500).

But Ean Pheara, an assistant at the Phnom Penh-based People Improvement Organization, said impoverished and uneducated children remain among the most vulnerable workers in the sex industry.

This year, he said, the People Improvement Organization—which provides education and vocational training—taught 240 children the skills they will need to avoid being trafficked.

Heng Sithon, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs General Directorate for Social Development, agreed that anti-trafficking efforts must focus on Cambodia’s youth.

Sithon, whose work with the ministry provides education to rural children and their parents on how to protect themselves from trafficking, said more children and women are subject to trafficking “partly due to the migration of rural women looking for work who then are tricked into working in the sex trade.”

More awareness needed

ADHOC, along with the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), says that despite public awareness campaigns, law enforcement against prostitution and human trafficking remains ineffective.

“Really what [they] should be looking at is, if someone gets into a situation where they are forced [into prostitution] or where they are being severely exploited, how can they remove themselves from that situation and how can they best get the help that they need,” Elaine Pearson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, said.

“The basic effect of [enforcing the law] has been to drive the industry further underground. It certainly doesn’t mean that people have stopped selling sex altogether in Cambodia,” Pearson said.

“It’s become more difficult to monitor the conditions inside brothels, and it has made it more difficult for outreach workers ... to provide health services, to provide condoms to sex workers, and to provide education services which would actually improve the health and safety in that industry.”

In its most recent report on human rights around the world for the preceding year, the U.S. State Department noted that while the Cambodian Constitution prohibits prostitution, “there is no specific legislation against working as a prostitute.”

“Trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution was a serious problem, despite laws against procuring and kidnapping for purposes of sexual exploitation. There were reports that police abused prostitutes,” the report said.

“Despite sporadic crackdowns on brothel operators in Phnom Penh, prostitution and related trafficking persisted. Estimates of the number of working prostitutes ranged from 14,725 to 18,250. Sex tourism was a problem, fueled by pervasive poverty and the perception of impunity.”

Original reporting by Seang Sophon for RFA’s Khmer service. Service director: Sos Kem. Translated by Sothea Thai. Written in English for the Web by Joshua Lipes.

Thailand: Asean agreements get go-ahead

Asean agreements get go-ahead

By: Manop Thip-Osod and Mongkol Bangprapa
Published: 28/01/2009 at 06:03 AM
Bangkok Post

A joint sitting of the two houses yesterday endorsed all 20 draft agreements and contracts to be signed at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next month.

With the passage of the documents, the Democrat-led government then turned its attention to the 115-billionbaht supplementary budget bill, which will be tabled before MPs for debate today and tomorrow.

Jatuporn: Attacks foreign minister

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he hoped the extra budget bill would go through the House smoothly.

Parliament also agreed to set up a 36-member committee to study a draft agreement on human rights issues proposed by opposition chief whip Wittaya Buranasiri. The panel is expected to conclude its study within 15 days.

The administration needed parliamentary approval for the draft framework agreements to be signed during the Asean summit.

The ratification of the Asean-related documents did not go smoothly as the Puea Thai-led opposition and the government traded accusations, forcing co-chairs Parliament President Chai Chidchob and Senate Speaker Prasopsuk Boondej to twice call for a short recess to cool tensions.

The war of words started when Puea Thai MP Jatuporn Prompan, a core member of the anti-government United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, tried to turn the forum into a censure debate against Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

Mr Jatuporn questioned the minister's credibility in representing Thailand at the coming summit, citing his role in the People's Alliance for Democracy street campaigns.

He said Mr Kasit had made rude remarks about Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen last year when border tension erupted over Preah Vihear temple.

Mr Jatuporn's attack drew angry protests from Democrat MPs who questioned his affiliations with individuals accused of lese majeste.

After 30 minutes of commotion, Mr Chai called for a five-minute recess.

When parliament resumed, Mr Jatuporn continued his attack.

The main target of the opposition for two consecutive days, Mr Kasit defended the remarks about the Cambodian prime minister, saying they were made to protect Thai sovereignty.

His remarks were ‘‘justified'' given the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, Mr Kasit said.

He insisted his appointment as foreign minister was welcomed by the international community.

The afternoon session was less tense until Puea Thai MP for Chiang Mai Surapong Tovichakchaikul called a quorum check as several cabinet ministers and government MPs were not present.

Democrat MP Suvaroch Palang protested, saying MPs were scattered around the parliament and listening to the debate. But the opposition insisted on a quorum check.

This upset Democrat MP Boonyod Sooktinthai who attacked Puea Thai MPs.

Puea Thai's Sunai Chulpongsatorn criticised Senate Speaker Prasopsuk, who was in the chair, for not allowing opposition MPs to defend themselves. He was jeered when making sarcastic remarks about appointed senators.

Mr Sunai and Mr Boonyod exchanged heated comments until Mr Prasopsuk decided to call a 10-minute break.

Thailand: Kasit's rude verbal attack to Cambodia's Prime Minister

Crucial Asean bill pass in rowdy House session
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Published on January 28, 2009



Thai lawmakers yesterday approved a total of 41 crucial Asean and related agreements following a stormy House session which was suspended twice due to heated debates.

The passage of these agreements would allow the government to sign deals with its counterparts during the upcoming Asean summit from Feb 27 to March 1.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva would join other Asean leaders in signing eight pacts during the summit, while foreign ministers of Asean would sign five separate agreements.

The rest of 28 agreements will be signed by economic and other related ministers of the 10 Asean countries.

Article 190 of the Thai Constitution requires the government to seek parliamentary mandate before negotiating and signing any agreements with foreign countries.
The Asean documents include the Bangkok Declaration on the roadmap for an ASEAN Community and framework for the Asean human right body, which would turn Asean into a regional community and a legal-based organization.

Thai parliament also approved free trade agreements which Thailand would join other members and dialogue partners.

These free trade pacts included agreements between Asean and partners from India, China, Australia and New Zealand.

Foreign, commerce, labor, transportation and public health ministries would be involved.

Some bilateral agreements such as on human trafficking with Burma and on labor cooperation with South Korea were also approved.

A total of 36 member ad-hoc committee will scrutinize some of the pacts such as Asean document for human right body and a memorandum of understanding on labor with South Korea. The committee would complete their works within 15 days.

Chai Chidchob, who chaired the morning House session, asked a break for five minutes as the debate involving Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya's role in earlier street protests appeared to have gone beyond the limit.

Jatuporn Prompan from the opposition Pheu Thai Party heated up the session when he asked Kasit to clarify his role in the People's Alliance for Democracy's lengthy protest last year.

Kasit's rude verbal attack to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen during last year's protests was also cited as a harm to confidence among neighboring countries, the opposition MP said.

"Shame on you, Mr Kasit as you referred to Cambodian Prime Minister with such rude words," Jatuporn said in the parliament.

In a television talk show on October 14 last year, Kasit called Hun Sen a "thug" when Cambodia offered ultimatum for Thai troop withdrawal from Preah Vihear temple's vicinity.

Jatuporn's speech led to a number of objections from Democrat's members including Boonyod Sukthinthai, Chamni Sakdiset and Kraisak Choonhavan.

The debate aimed to ask approval for Asean pacts, rather than a censure motion against the foreign minister, they said in defending the foreign minister.

In response, Kasit said he exercised his right as a Thai citizen to launch the verbal attack to Hun Sen when the latter posed a threat to Thailand. But now he claimed to have a good term with Hun Sen.

Kasit also told the parliament that he saw nothing wrong with the airport closure since many airports around the world also needed to close after protests by pilots or ground staffs.

"I have never seen any countries compensate for the tourists for that matter," he said and added his government has a special care to compensate the travelers.

The afternoon session was also heated during a consideration of free-trade agreements when a Peu Thai MP urged Chairman Prasopsuk Boondej to count the quorum since saw small number of parliamentarians in the meeting room.

Democrat's Boonyod opposed the move saying many members listening out side while Peu Thai Party's Sunai Jullapongsathorn accused the chairman of siding with the government and referred to Boonyod as a pro-dictator journalist. Boonyod was an ex-journalist who hailed the 2006 coup.

Many non-elected senators joined the quarrel before the chairman call another break.