Dirty Work

Source:Southeast Asia Globe
Thursday, September 29, 2011 - by Laura J. Snook 


The country's chief graft-buster on the fledgling effort to clean up the Kingdom.

Om Yentieng, the head of the new Anti-Corruption Unit

Abuses of power and grand corruption have become synonymous with Cambodia, a nation still struggling to restore order after decades of political violence.
A network of tycoons, political figures and government officials is accused of reinforcing the culture of impunity and limiting progress on reforms (Transparency International, which measures perceptions of corruption, ranked Cambodia 154th out of 178 countries in 2010 – alongside states such as Russia and the Congo).
Last month, after more than 15 years in the making, Cambodia’s anti-corruption law finally came into force. A few months earlier, the government’s fledgling Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) had secured its first high-profile conviction, that of provincial prosecutor Top Chan Sereyvuth.
ACU President Om Yentieng personally led police to Sereyvuth’s door and the prosecutor was subsequently sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment (the sensational trial of four-star general and former anti-drug czar Moek Dara, accused of soliciting bribes from drug traffickers and even stealing their shipments, continues). The Southeast Asia Globe recently met with Om Yentieng to discuss one of the Kingdom’s greatest challenges.
How would you assess the ACU’s first 12 months of operation?

You must remember the ACU doesn’t yet have teeth, but it is important the public is aware of what we are doing. We are working with the courts to ensure that, once a case is concluded, the details of the investigation can be made public. People should have the right to ask for this information. It will help educate society and prevent acts of corruption, and we want the public to be aware of the kind of tricks that are used.

You say you want to change public attitudes. How much importance does the ACU attach to prosecutions?

The aim of the ACU is to arrest one person in order to change the attitude and behaviour of 1,000 people, not to arrest 1,000 people in order to make one person be good. The concern I have is the difficulties or obstacles caused by some judges, when the investigating judge is also the judge in the trial.
What has the public response to the unit’s work been so far?

I believe the public applauds the achievements we have made and they are also looking forward to the ACU being more active. We have received 200 complaints about corruption so far. That’s a good sign from the people.

What measures does the ACU take to protect whistle-blowers?

The ACU makes it a priority to protect informants by protecting their identities. We think about transparency and protection before we publicise the complaint. The suspect must not know who the complainant is. Then people will support us more and provide more information to us. Step by step, they will be able to show their faces a lot more. If we destroy our sources, we will not survive, but if we protect our sources, we can develop. If we think we can’t protect a witness, we cannot send the case to court.   

When the deadline for asset declaration arrived earlier this year, several high-ranking officials resigned rather than fulfil their obligations. What was your reaction?

Even though there may be irregularities, the ACU is not able to catch or arrest them. It does not fall under our remit. Even checking the forms for mistakes is not our job. On the other hand, about 99% of officials came to declare their assets – a spiritual performance of good acts. We saw only one guy who was openly acting against this process, but, like a monkey, he cannot hide, even if he doesn’t respect us.

Critics have suggested the unit’s work is politically motivated. How would you respond?

We are trying to lead the ACU as one unit with no political factions, but outside the ACU there are probably factions in three or four political parties. We think we can cut across this by working together. The most important thing for us is proof: if you have strong proof, no one can convince us to abandon a case.

Organisations such as Amnesty International and Global Witness have, in the past, named senior government ministers in connection with corruption. Are you prepared to investigate the upper echelons?

Some of the articles are correct; some are not. We have to open ways of getting the information and proof provided by these media, rather than closing the door and receiving nothing.
What are your priorities for the next 12 months?

The most important thing is to get people to respect the law. We will focus on education and prevention. We have invited Cambodian artists to write songs or make movies about our work. We recently sent some people to Banteay Meanchey and they phoned to say they weren’t feeling comfortable, so we’re hoping to send weapons to them soon. We will face some problems, especially with drugs, because you can’t eliminate them. Even in jail, they continue
to sell drugs.

Cambodian Premier says his salary barely tops 1,100$

SATURDAY, 02 APRIL 2011 09:12 DAP-NEWS

PHNOM PENH, April 1 Kyodo - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday his basic monthly salary is 4.6 million riel ($1,150), and he owes money to no one.
The prime minister revealed his salary and lack of debts to the public for the first time while appearing at the Anti-Corruption Unit to declare his assets.
But Hun Sen added that although his salary is low, many of his expenses are covered by the state.
He did not, however, reveal what the expenses he incurs as prime minister are.
Under Cambodian law, personal documents or assets declared to the anti-corruption commission do not need to be made public unless the chair of the commission decides to do so during investigation of
corruption charges.
Om Yin Tieng, chairman of Anti-Corruption Unit, said that as of the end of March this year 11,329 people had already declared their assets.
There are 24,854 officials from 37 institutions, including politics, the civil service, the military, the police and the judiciary, that must declare their assets by April 7.
Those who fail to declare face between a month and a year in prison.
Asset declaration is required in every two years.
Anyone found guilty of graft can be jailed for up to 15 years.

Fighting Corruption

Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation
By SEN. EDGARDO J. ANGARA

September 25, 2010, 9:53pm

A REPORT by the Transparency International reveals that corruption has greatly held back efforts towards achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Where there are more corrupt practices, there is less progress on education (MDG2), maternal health (MDG5), and access to clean water (MDG7).

In the 2009 Corruption Perception Index, the Philippines ranked 139th out of 180 countries. The survey was topped by New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore as the countries with the least corruption. Our neighbors Thailand (84th), Indonesia (111th), and Malaysia (56th) have overtaken us. In the region, we only bested Timor-Leste (146th), Cambodia (158th), and Myanmar (178th).

The fight against corruption is a continuous struggle and is not limited by borders or cultures. That is the rationale behind the Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption (GOPAC). As the only Asian representative in GOPAC’s Executive Board, I took the lead in organizing the regional chapter, the Southeast Asian Parliamentarians against Corruption (SEAPAC) in 2005.

By linking with other parliaments, we build a strategy to combat corruption on an international level, while making a pact to fight corruption in each of our own governments and societies.

Strengthening institutions and enhancing governance mechanisms must be hallmark of every democratic system. This is where we, as parliamentarians, have the best chance to contribute. Parliamentarians are in the best position to ensure institutional integrity. We achieve this by crafting effective sanction policies through the passage of laws. In this sense we plot, not just track, our national anti-corruption agendas.

Of course, we should also go beyond merely crafting legislation. Our capacity to ensure institutional integrity requires that we monitor the implementation of these laws.

This coming Thursday, September 30, GOPAC’s Task Force on the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) will hold a two-day meeting in Manila. At the same time, SEAPAC will hold its Regional Meeting and discuss a plan of action for anti-corruption in the region. This is very much in tune with the Aquino administration’s current flagship program of anti-corruption.

High on the agenda is equipping lawmakers with tools to implement the UNCAC. The UNCAC, which the Philippines ratified in 2006, is the first international legally binding anti-corruption tool which obliges countries to implement changes in laws and institutions.

Corruption is a real obstacle to development and directly affects our people. On the other hand, putting in place anti-corruption and good governance mechanisms – like transparency, accountability, and integrity – have huge payoffs. Elimintating corruption through oversight institutions and legal frameworks – and ensuring their effective enforcement – will aid economic growth and bring back public trust in institutions.

Anti-graft bill set for passage in April

The Phnom Penh Post
Friday, 01 January 2010 15:03 Sam Rith and Sebastian Strangio

SRP, NGOs call for earlier disclosure.

THE government’s draft Anticorruption Law will not be debated by the National Assembly until at least April, senior officials have said, prompting concerns that the long-awaited law will not be made public until the middle of next year.

Cheam Yeap, a senior lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said the law is still in the hands of the Council of Ministers, which approved it for debate earlier this month, and that it will not be put forward in the Assembly at least until parliamentarians return from their three-month vacation, which begins this month.

As of Thursday, Cheam Yeap had still not seen the draft, which he said contains nine chapters and 57 articles, since it had not yet been released by the Council of Ministers.

“We are waiting to receive the Anticorruption Law, and we have been waiting since 1994,” he said. Previous statements by government officials have implied that the law will be made public when it is passed to the National Assembly in preparation for its debate and adoption.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council, said Thursday that he had “no idea” whether the draft will be passed to the parliament before or after its vacation, after describing it earlier this week as a “secret internal” government document.

But opposition party and civil society representatives say they want the law handed over to the National Assembly for debate and public scrutiny as soon as possible.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann lamented the fact that the draft had still not yet been received by the opposition parties. “For over 10 years, I have never seen the shadow of the draft of the Anticorruption Law,” he said. “The draft law, which has already been approved by the [Council of Ministers’] Plenary Council Session, should be sent to the National Assembly soon in order for the National Assembly to meet with citizens or organise seminars with participation from civil societies,” he said.

Hang Chhaya, executive director of the Khmer Institute for Democracy, said the formulation of the law had been a “very secret” process.

Hang Chhaya added that although the National Assembly’s three-month hiatus is an annual occurrence, the government should have prioritised the anticorruption legislation, given how long it has been promised.

“We would have preferred to deal first with the Anticorruption Law, which has been coming for more than a decade,” he said.

Unlike other laws that are made public after being approved by the Council of Ministers, the anticorruption bill was particularly sensitive for the government, and significant changes were expected over earlier drafts, he said.

“From the information we have, some articles of [the law] have been watered down,” he said, adding that certain articles relating to NGO asset disclosure made it all the more urgent that civil society groups got to see copies of the law.

“We want the right to have access and give input and recommendations,” he said.

Chan Soveth, a senior monitor at local rights group Adhoc, went further, saying the government’s approval of the draft Anticorruption Law was just a way of escaping the criticisms of the international community.

“Actually, the government does not yet have the will to speed up the passing of the Anticorruption Law.”

Cheam Yeap said he did not know for sure when the National Assembly would adopt the law, but said that it depends on the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen or a request from one-third of the parliament’s members.

Enforcement seen as key for anti-graft law

Monday, 14 December 2009 15:03 Chhay Channyda and Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post
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NONGOVERNMENTAL organisations have offered cautious praise following the approval of the long-awaited draft Anticorruption Law last week, but say the true test of the government’s commitment to stamping out graft will come with the law’s implementation.

Following its approval by the Council of Ministers on Friday, Council spokesman Phay Siphan described the draft as “a turning point” for the government in its attempts to strengthen the rule of law in Cambodia. This law “will let us know about abuses of power, maintain transparency and respect social equity”, he said.

The latest draft of the law, which has existed in various forms since 1994, has not yet been made public. But a statement released by the Council after Friday’s meeting shows it to be considerably shorter than previous versions. The statement said that the draft’s 57 articles were aimed at preventing corruption, punishing corrupt activities and fostering public participation in efforts to eradicate graft.

Phay Siphan added that the draft contains articles forcing civil servants and NGO workers to disclose the extent of their personal assets within 60 days of its passing into law.

NGOs said the passing of the law was a positive step forward, but that due to powerful patronage systems, the law will not prove a magic bullet.

“The law can be perfect, but in practice may not be possible to implement,” said Sok Sam Oeun, chairman of the Coalition for Integrity and Social Accountability, a coalition of 40 local watchdog groups. He said the approval of the draft law raised obvious questions about the body charged with enforcing the law, as well as its relationship with the government and law enforcement authorities.

“We are worried about whether or not [these bodies] can decide without political interference,” he said. “There must be political will from the prime minister.”

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, said it was almost certain the law would be misused in the short term, but that it would give activists a benchmark for judging official behaviour.

Over the long term, Ou Virak said, the erosion of the country’s endemic corruption could come from both top-down and bottom-up pressure, but that the latter – given legal backing by the new bill – would likely be more effective.

“In the long run, it will depend on the public,” he said. “That will be more slow and gradual, [but] it’s a more sure way of fighting corruption.”

Phay Siphan said the draft bill will be passed to the National Assembly within a week, but that he did not know when it is set for a vote.

R.P. trails neighbors in Transparency International’s corruption index

Top News
Written by Cai U. Ordinario / Reporter
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 21:00




WHEN it comes to corruption, the Philippines is only better than three of its neighbors in Southeast Asia—Timor–Leste, Cambodia and Burma—after having scored 2.4 and ranking 139th place to the bottom in the 2009 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) recently released by Transparency International.

Timor Leste scored 2.2, Cambodia 2.0 and Burma 1.4. The Philippines shares its score of 2.4 with Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The 2009 CPI includes 180 countries, the same number as the 2008 CPI.

While the country’s ranking improved from 141st with a score of 2.3 in the 2008 CPI, the country continued to lag behind most of its fellow members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

The Philippines lagged behind Singapore, which ranked third in the CPI with a score of 9.2; Brunei, 39th with 5.5; Malaysia, 56th with 4.5; Thailand, 84th with 3.4; Indonesia, 111th with 2.8; and Vietnam, 120th with 2.7.

“Overall results in the 2009 index are of great concern because corruption continues to lurk where opacity rules, where institutions still need strengthening, and where governments have not implemented anticorruption legal frameworks,” said Transparency International in a statement.

Transparency International said a country receiving a score of zero is perceived to be highly corrupt, while a country scoring 10 in the index is perceived to have low levels of corruption. The CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys.

“At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast-track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world, it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycle,” said TI chairman Huguette Labelle.

The TI said that when essential institutions are weak or nonexistent, corruption spirals out of control and the plundering of public resources feeds insecurity and impunity. Corruption, the organization said, also makes normal a seeping loss of trust in the very institutions and nascent governments charged with ensuring survival and stability.

Countries at the bottom of the index cannot be shut out from development efforts. Instead, what the index points to is the need to strengthen their institutions.

TI said investors and donors should also be vigilant in their operations and accountable for their own actions because they are demanding transparency and accountability from beneficiary countries.

However, the organization said that even industrialized countries cannot be complacent: the supply of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in these rich countries.

“Corrupt money must not find safe haven. It is time to put an end to excuses,” said Labelle. “The OECD’s work in this area is welcome, but there must be more bilateral treaties on information exchange to fully end the secrecy regime. At the same time, companies must cease operating in renegade financial centers.”

The report stated that bribery, cartels and other corrupt practices undermine competition and contribute to massive loss of resources for development in all countries, especially the poorest ones. Between 1990 and 2005, more than 283 private international cartels were exposed that cost consumers around the world an estimated $300 billion in overcharges, as documented in a recent TI report.

Highest scorers in the 2009 CPI are New Zealand at 9.4; Denmark at 9.3; Singapore and Sweden tied at 9.2; and Switzerland at 9.0. These scores reflect political stability, long-established conflict of interest regulations, and solid, functioning public institutions. “With the vast majority of countries in the 2009 index scoring below 5, the corruption challenge is undeniable.”

The Group of 20 has made strong commitments to ensure that integrity and transparency form the cornerstone of a newfound regulatory structure, which the TI said is critical to address corruption as a substantial threat to a sustainable economic future.

“The G20 must also remain committed to gaining public support for essential reforms by making institutions such as the Financial Stability Board and decisions about investments in infrastructure, transparent and open to civil society input.”

Cambodia: Anti-Corruption Advocacy of Bloggers

Source: Global Voices
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 @ 13:56 UTC
by Sopheap Chak

December 9 is annually celebrated as International Anti-Corruption Day. Cambodian bloggers share their views on the anti-corruption efforts of the government and other advocacy groups.


In denoting the International Anti-Corruption Day, annually celebrated on December 9th, the United Nation Office on Drug and Crime posted:

“Attitudes on corruption are changing. As recently as ten years ago, corruption was only whispered about. Today there are signs of growing intolerance toward corruption and more and more politicians and chief executives are being tried and convicted”

This phenomenon is reflected to some degree in Cambodia due to the fact that there are many discussions and awareness raising on corruption.

Borin who originated from Sihanouk Ville opened a critical discussion on the government’s claim that “Corruption is every where, even in the developed countries.” He accepted that corruption exists everywhere and varies in degree. While his blog’s commentators offered that there is the situation that corruption can be either acceptable or unacceptable, Borin resisted the fallacy of justification of corruption.

“Corruption is every where, but there are places that it is worse, and places that are better. So to say, a government is good enough because corruption is everywhere, is not acceptable. To say you’re good you must be ranked among the cleanest, not the dirtiest. To me there’s no acceptable corruption,” said Borin.

While acknowledging that corruption is hard to eliminate, Borin suggested that there must be an effort to reduce the degree of existing corruption, so that Cambodia will be ranked better in terms of anti-corruption.

KI Media recently posted a short article on the release of Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perception Index (CPI):

“Cambodia's rank moved to 158 out of a total of 180, a slight improvement over 2008 when Cambodia ranked 166. Among ASEAN countries, Cambodia ranks lowest along with Laos.”

Such ranking improvement signals a positive reform in the country while the Prime Minister Hun Sen also publicly announced that the long-awaited Anti-Corruption Law will be passed by December 11, which is apparently to coincidence with the celebration of the Anti-Corruption Day.

“I officially announce that the anti-corruption law will not be delayed anymore,” he said. “Within this year, the Cabinet will pass the long-awaited anti-corruption law,” reported VOA.

It is maybe also contributed by many efforts of the civil society movement ranging from the NGOs working group on anti-corruption to individuals who keep raising public awareness and advocating for the rule of law respect and “say no to corruption.” There is also an emerging blog advocacy initiated by more than 40 local NGOs with the funding from USAID through Pact-Corruption. This blog, with technical support from Open Forum, appears in both Khmer and English language under the name “Kampuchea Deumbey Pheap Saat Saam” or “Corruption-Free Cambodia.” Reading from the blog’s project, it says:

“The website, in short, is the important means to pave the way for the people, an information source to provide knowledge about the impacts of corruption, and an opportunity to all interested people to participate in the struggle to alleviate corruption and promote integrity.”

In his blog, Morn Vutha, a blogger and Project Coordinator of Open Forum of Cambodia, also launched a campaign to introduce the above Saatsam website with the appeal to the public to participate and give him feedback on blog design, so that it can better serve the public.

Similarly, a prominent blogher, Kounila Keo dedicates one of her blueladyblog.com’s content on corruption alone. In some posts, she shares her experience on facing corrupt officials and she keeps impressing that there are those who could become rich with honest business. In one of her anti-corruption articles, she ponders the root cause of corruption in Cambodia of which she attempted to link the role of trauma caused by the impact of civil war, poverty, and mainly the lack of certain education and greed. In her blog, she says:

“Between POVERTY and CORRUPTION, which one comes first? […] They both in fact complement each other. But in my point of view, a lack of certain education and moral value, greed and fear of anything bad that will happen to people again like wars are big contributors to corruption.”

She finally shared similar opinion to Borin that corruption does exist everywhere in the world and it is hardly to be stopped. However, she suggests the way that individuals can hugely contribute to reduce corruption by firstly stopping the evil within ourselves and persisting not to fall into the traps of corruption. In her ending post, she appeals:

“The nationals must feel sad about this ranking of Cambodia as such– or we can say, “Who cares?” .. But well, who cares for us if we don’t care for ourselves?… Without corruption, human rights value will be increased.

Asian legislators support fight against graft

Source: The Jakarta Post
Yuli Tri Suwarni , The Jakarta Post , Bandung | Thu, 12/10/2009 10:42 AM | National

Delegates attending the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) in Bandung, West Java, celebrated Wednesday the UN’s International Anti-Corruption Day.

Delegates agreed to three pillars against corruption: accountability, transparency and participation.
All countries attending the assembly have ratified the 2003 United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

The APA president, who is also the Indonesian House of Representatives speaker, Marzuki Alie, said the country’s willingness to ratify the convention showed its commitment to fighting corruption.

During the session, the delegates issued a joint declaration that corruption “will not only create static countries. It will even create significant deterioration in countries.”

Marzuki said corruption was an extraordinary crime that could damage national country. “We expect nations to no longer protect corrupt officials who have run away from their own countries,” he said.

He urged countries providing asylums to exiled foreign corrupt officials to deport them to their countries of origin.

Marzuki spoke on behalf of 41 lawmakers and 16 observers from Indonesia. He said every country had to increase efforts to eradicate corruption to bring prosperity to their own people.

He emphasized good governance on public information access as a means of combating institutionalized corruption. This way, he added, those fighting corruption would not be marginalized.

The head of the Indonesian parliamentary delegation, Sidarto Danusubroto, told the assembly the countries needed concrete action to fight corruption.

“This assembly has to set a common strategy to be implemented in our respective countries,” he said. “Concrete action is the greatest challenge in combating corruption.”

In other APA developments, delegates from five Asian countries proposed the establishment of the Women’s Asia Parliamentary Assembly.

Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, an Indonesian delegate, said of the 26 member countries attending the assembly, only five had women delegates.

She said these countries were Bangladesh, Cambodia, Singapore, South Korea and Indonesia. “We are lobbying other delegates to approve this proposal on Thursday,” she said on the sidelines of the session.

She said the women’s assembly had to be formed because the number of women was increasing in parliaments in many countries.

“This formation is aimed at achieving gender equality in parliaments in many countries,” she added. The assembly has also been working towards a resolution for Palestine.

Marzuki said the assembly would approve the resolution, which said Israel had committed human rights abuses and war crimes.

NGOs look to graft law as Penal Code OK'd

NGOs look to graft law as Penal Code OK'd
The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Sam Rith
Monday, 22 June 2009

THE Council of Ministers has approved the new draft Penal Code, which observers say they hope will pave the way for the passage of the government's long-delayed Anti-Corruption Law. During a plenary session Friday, the Council formally approved the 672-article draft law, which will now be sent to the National Assembly for adoption.

If passed, the new Penal Code will replace the UNTAC Law, which has provided the Kingdom's penal framework since 1992, adjusting it to new legal demands and updating it to "ensure freedom, prestige, social security and public order", according to a statement by the Council.

Civil society groups said the passage of the Penal Code left no excuses for the government not to pass the anti-graft legislation.

Yong Kim Eng, president of the People's Centre for Development and Peace, an NGO, said that if the Penal Code is adopted, it should provide the supporting legislation government officials have long claimed is lacking.

"Very often, the government has promised that after adopting the Penal Code, [they] would send the draft Anti-Corruption Law to the National Assembly for approval. That is why we are observing this closely," he said.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan confirmed Sunday that the draft Anti-Corruption Law was at the Council and waiting for the Penal Code - which contains articles related to corruption - to be adopted by the National Assembly.

But he said that if the Assembly objects to some points in the draft, they could send it back to the Council for amendment.

"So the fate of the Anti-Corruption Law is linked to the fate of the Penal Code," he said.

Cambodia Lashes US Over Corruption Statement

Cambodia Lashes US Over Corruption Statement

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
02 June 2009



Senior Cambodian officials told reporters Tuesday that remarks about corruption made by the US ambassador last week could damage diplomatic relations between the two countries.

US Ambassador Carol Rodley said at a ceremony for an anti-corruption concert Saturday that the practice costs Cambodia $500 million a year.

At a press conference Tuesday, Om Yentieng, a senior adviser to Hun Sen and head of the government’s anti-corruption body, assailed the remarks as “one-sided.”

US-Cambodian relations have thawed in recent years, and the Southeast Asian nation has emerged as a willing ally in the regional war on terror.

But donors have pushed Cambodia to reign in deep-rooted corruption and continue to seek the passage of anti-corruption legislation that has been in a draft stage for more than a decade.

US Embassy spokesman John Johnson declined to comment on the government’s statements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cabinet Minister sent official letters to the US Embassy saying the statement was regrettable.

The two government offices said the US was basing its view on a biased assessment from an opposition-aligned economic institute.

Indonesia,Thailand: Asia's most corrupt

Indonesia,Thailand: Asia's most corrupt

Thursday April 9, 2009
Bangkok Post



SINGAPORE / Indonesia and Thailand are perceived as Asia's most corrupt economies, with last year's cellar-dweller the Philippines making a marked improvement, an annual survey of foreign business executives shows.

Singapore and Hong Kong retained their rankings as the region's least corrupt economies, although there are concerns about private-sector fraud, according to the survey by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (Perc).

Despite the negative perception of Indonesia, Perc noted ``there has been a real headway in fighting the problem'' under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is seeking re-election in July's presidential polls.

KRT Corruption accusations

Corruption accusations overshadow Khmer Rouge genocide trial
1:02PM Monday Apr 06, 2009
AP

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodia's genocide tribunal reopens its historic trial of an accused Khmer Rouge torture chief today, but allegations of corruption threaten to overshadow the proceedings.

The UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Peter Taksoe-Jensen, is visiting Cambodia to meet with government and tribunal officials about allegations that Cambodian personnel taking part in the U.N.-backed tribunal were forced to pay kickbacks to obtain their positions.

Defence lawyers and human rights groups suggest that the allegations, if unanswered, could sink the tribunal's credibility. They also pose a financial threat, since foreign aid donors who provide the budget for Cambodian personnel are withholding their funds pending a resolution of the issue.

Last week, the tribunal began trying Kaing Guek Eav, 66, who was commander of Phnom Penh's S-21 prison - also known as Tuol Sleng - when the communist group held power from 1975-79.

As many as 16,000 men, women and children are believed to have been tortured there before being sent to their deaths.


Kaing Guek Eav, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as homicide and torture.

Four more senior leaders of the group are also in custody and expected to be tried sometime over the next year. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from forced labor, starvation, medical neglect and executions under the Khmer Rouge.

In a dramatic opening personal statement to the court, Duch took responsibility for his actions and delivered a public apology for horrific activities detailed in the indictment against him read out earlier.

The corruption allegations, which were originally levelled two years ago by the Open Society Justice Initiative, a New York-based watchdog group monitoring the tribunal, have been publicly denied by Cambodian and some UN officials.

But they were revived in February when a report surfaced on the German parliament's website alleging that a top UN tribunal official had acknowledged the kickbacks and accused a senior Cambodian administrator of corruption.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has only grudgingly supported the tribunal, last week attacked it for considering expanding the scope of defendants, a move he claims would be divisive for the country.

In what seemed to be an expression of contempt for the corruption allegations, he suggested the UN could just leave and let Cambodia run the trial on its own. The tribunal employs joint teams of Cambodian and international court personnel.

UN legal expert Taksoe-Jensen is scheduled to talk with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Monday in a third meeting on the corruption issue. Previous meetings have not resulted in agreement on how to deal with the allegations.

Lawyers for two defendants yet to be tried attempted to argue last week that the corruption allegations demonstrated that the judicial process was flawed, and the issue should be considered in their appeals for the release of their clients for pre-trail detention.

The arguments by the lawyers for former Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary and former head of state Khieu Samphan were not allowed by the judges. Lawyers for Nuon Chea the Khmer Rouge's top ideologue, had earlier raised similar arguments.

London-based Amnesty International has urged the UN and the Cambodian government to address the corruption allegations, saying they cast "serious doubts on the chambers' competence, independence and impartiality."

Cambodia's Day in Court

Cambodia's Day in Court
2009-03-29

Five ex-leaders of the Khmer Rouge go on trial, and Cambodia's youth get a chance to learn the truth about an era kept secret for the last 30 years.


PHNOM PENH—On April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge troops “liberated” Cambodia from the Khmer Republic led by president Lon Nol.

Huge crowds lined the streets of the capital, Phnom Penh, welcoming the Khmer Rouge army. Some waved white flags, expressing more enthusiasm than fear—believing that war in Cambodia was finally over.

“City-dwellers queued along the pavement, applauding the soldiers and expecting victory and peace. The soldiers smiled and didn’t take any actions against the people, so we trusted them,” one witness recalls.

“When they entered the city,” says another, “the people cheered, and Khmer National Radio broadcast songs of victory.”

Kem Sokha, now president of the Human Rights Party, in Cambodia, was 22 and a law student at the time.


He wanted a change of regime because he saw too much corruption in what was then the Khmer Republic. He says that he, along with countless other Cambodians, welcomed the Khmer Rouge soldiers.

“I was a student at the law school. At the time, I was demanding freedom and social justice and fighting against corruption in society. I wanted a change. So at that moment, I thought this new group would be for the better,” Kem Sokha says.

The welcome was short-lived.

Less than 24 hours after they marched through the city, Khmer Rouge troops began to evacuate Phnom Penh.

“The began forcing people to leave the capital,” one witness says. “Then we began hastily gathering up some belongings. They told us to take something with us and walk straight out without returning.”

“Many intellectuals were executed right away. We saw many dead bodies along the way as we marched out from the capital.

Pol Pot regime


More Cambodians were killed in the years that followed under a government that called the country Democratic Kampuchea—but that became known to the world as the Pol Pot regime.

“One of my children was killed in Prek Tamak and so was my husband,” one woman recalls. “My younger brother was accused of being a thief ... Then he was beaten every night."

"My mother was so fatigued ... She told me that she was dying and [said], ‘Go with your family, and try to go back to our hometown.’ We didn’t return home, and then my younger brother was executed.”

Swift destruction


From April 17, 1975 to Jan. 7, 1979, Cambodia was subjected to one of the swiftest and most destructive revolutions in world history. No one was untouched.

In less than four years, as many as 2 million Cambodians—or one in four—died from overwork, malnutrition, suicide, execution, or lack of medical care.

All the executions and most of the other deaths can be traced directly to the policies imposed on the people of Cambodia by the Communist Party of Kampuchea and led from the shadows, in the name of "Angkar Padevat," by Pol Pot.

And in tiny, impoverished Cambodia, the horror unfolded largely unnoticed by the outside world.

Not taught


Many young Cambodians now know little about the Khmer Rouge era, because the government hasn’t allowed Khmer Rouge history into the national curriculum.

Eng Sodavy, a student at Boeung Trabaek High School, says Khmer Rouge history was hardly taught.

“I was told little about the Pol Pot time. I knew about it not from my studies, but from elderly people,” Eng Sodavy says.


“I want to know more about what difficulties people encountered and how much struggle they endured. I seem [only] to have heard of killings during the Pol Pot regime.”

The exclusion of Khmer Rouge history from schools partly reflects political conflicts, says Sim Soriya, deputy director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.

He says lessons about the Khmer Rouge were at first incorporated into textbooks but were later removed for political reasons.

Youths note tribunal


But students have taken note of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which will try former Khmer Rouge leaders.

Teacher Sambo Manara said the creation of the ECCC to try former Khmer Rouge leaders has attracted his students’ attention.

“When the courts were established, there seemed to be some … momentum in the students’ curiosity,” he says.

“In particular, they became extremely interested because they had never before believed” accounts of what had happened during the Khmer Rouge regime, he says. “They began to learn.”

Five on trial


After years of negotiations, the United Nations and the Cambodian government agreed in 2005 to set up the ECCC.

On July 3, 2006, 17 Cambodian and eight international judges were selected to preside over the proceedings of former Khmer Rouge leaders.

The long delay saw Pol Pot himself die, in 1998, before he could face trial.


His lieutenant Ta Mok, known as “The Butcher,” died a prisoner in July 2006. Other top leaders of the regime—Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, and Nuon Chea—are alive but elderly.

Only five top Khmer Rouge leaders are expected to face trial. First in the dock is Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

He has already admitted and apologized for his role in the deaths of thousands of Cambodians as head of Phnom Penh's notorious S-21 torture center.

His trial opens Monday, March 30.

This segment was first in a series by RFA's Khmer service, broadcast ahead of the trials that will bring to justice top leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Written by Sok Ry Som and Maly Leng with David Chandler as historical consultant. Khmer service director: Sos Kem. Executive producer: Susan Lavery.

It Takes a Village

It Takes a Village
An American Heiress Aims to Rescue Cambodia by Giving Orphans a Family

By ANNE HYLAND
Here on the banks of the Mekong River, a New York socialite is trying to fashion Cambodia's future.

Her vision: to help shape the next generation of leaders for this small, corrupt and poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country, still recovering from the 1970s genocide that wiped out a quarter of its population.


Elizabeth Ross Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune, has set up an orphanage, Sovann Komar, on the outskirts of Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

"I've been very, very fortunate in my life and I always wanted to do something larger with the gifts I have been given -- and I don't mean just financial. I mean my own personal internal resources," says the 58-year-old Ms. Johnson, who has invested millions of dollars in the project and says she is in it for the long haul. "I thought there was a way for me to be useful here."

Today, Sovann Komar, which in Khmer -- the Cambodian language -- means Golden Children, is home to 56 children between the ages of 3 and 8. They come from all over the country; some are orphans, others abandoned. And they all share the surname Sovann, or Golden. (Children in government orphanages are given the surname Rorth, which translates loosely as "belonging to the government.")


Sovann Komar operates under a family-oriented concept. It recruits married, childless Cambodian couples in their 20s and 30s to act as foster parents for five or six children at the orphanage until all of them finish high school. There are 10 foster couples. Each foster mother (the husbands usually have jobs elsewhere) is paid a monthly salary of $175 to $200 plus living expenses such as food and medical care. The package includes free housing in the Sovann Komar compound of wooden homes, a library and elementary school. By comparison, a teacher or a policeman in Cambodia typically makes just $20 to $30 a month.

The foster parents agree not to have any children of their own for three years after they start at the orphanage, to give them time to bond with the foster children. After that, they are encouraged to have only two biological children, whose living expenses are covered by Sovann Komar. Additional offspring are the financial responsibility of the parents. Each couple also gets a trained full-time child-care worker to assist them.

Ms. Johnson wants the children at Sovann Komar to become honest politicians, business leaders, teachers and philanthropists. In an interview, the normally publicity-shy Ms. Johnson says, "I'm not a trained social worker, but I felt what we should give these children are loving parents, a safe environment, lots of opportunities, lots of ideas and an amazing education."

A petite blonde whom the children call "Aunty" or "Grandma," Ms. Johnson first came to Cambodia in 2002 on a holiday. She met Sothea Arun and Arn Chorn-Pond, who had grown up as orphans after their families were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The two men, who share a passion to rebuild their homeland, had established a nongovernmental organization, Cambodia Volunteers for Community Development, to provide such services as free English language lessons and computer classes to help young people get jobs.


Inspired by their personal histories, in 2003 Ms. Johnson founded Sovann Komar, which she calls a "children's village," setting it up as a registered U.S. charity. Ms. Johnson hired Mr. Sothea, now 37, to help manage the project. (Mr. Chorn-Pond isn't involved with Sovann Komar.)

"Elizabeth has a good heart for the children," says Mr. Sothea, a thin, soft-spoken man, who has a photograph of the heiress on the wall of his office. "When she saw the orphans she cried," he adds. "She really wants to help these kids and to give them a good beginning."

As for Ms. Johnson's ambitions for his homeland, Mr. Sothea, who was orphaned at the age of 4 when the Khmer Rouge killed 36 members of his extended family, says he believes Sovann Komar can produce a generation of Cambodians free of corruption, unlike the leaders of the past few decades. "If you look at some of our leaders they came from a background of killing and violence. They are corrupt. We hope this young generation will make the Cambodian society better," Mr. Sothea says. "We have a great plan for the future and we will teach them step by step how to be good people."

Foster parent Si Len, 34, says he and his 29-year-old wife, Meas Savin, came to Sovann Komar to help build the kind of "society that we want to have...by raising some of the children." Mr. Si, who works for Digital Divide Data, a nonprofit group that trains disadvantaged young Cambodians in business skills, likes to joke that he and his wife had six children in two months. The children range in age from 3 to 5.

It's unclear how many orphans or abandoned children there are among Cambodia's 14 million people. A 2005 survey by Holt International, a child-welfare agency, put the number of child-care facilities in Cambodia at least 204; the agency determined that the greatest need for child care arose from children born to single mothers, parents who died and poverty. According to the World Bank, a third of Cambodians live below the country's poverty line of less than 45 U.S. cents a day.

"Many of the children in Cambodian orphanages, whether good or bad orphanages, are not orphans. They are there primarily because of poverty, and their families are not able to provide adequately for them," says Jason Barber, a consultant with the Cambodian League for Promotion and Defense of Human Rights in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Barber argues that, except in cases of child abuse, investing in programs that provide small grants or loans to raise family incomes is a better long-term plan than creating child-care facilities, even family-oriented ones like Sovann Komar.

The idea of a family-oriented orphanage like Sovann Komar isn't new. In 1949, Austrian philanthropist Hermann Gmeiner founded SOS-Kinderdorf International, now the umbrella organization for SOS-Children's Villages around the world that provide a similar family environment.

SOS-Kinderdorf has three Cambodian orphanages where children live with surrogate mothers. The mothers aren't permitted to be married or have their own natural children. Each mother, who is paid $100 a month, rears as many as 15 children, although the average number is nine.

Geraldine Cox, a 62-year-old Australian who founded Sunrise Children's Villages in Cambodia about 15 years ago, runs two orphanages and hopes to open a third next year. The latter will be modeled on the family-oriented concept and cater to children orphaned by AIDS.

Finding surrogate parents is a challenge, Ms. Cox says: "It's very hard to get a Cambodian couple that doesn't drink, gamble, smoke and where the husband does not hit the wife."

Logistics aside, one of her biggest hurdles is more fundamental: instilling a moral compass in the next generation in a country that anticorruption advocate Transparency International ranks among the world's most graft-ridden.

"It's trying to make the children understand the difference between right and wrong in a country where people have done terrible things just to survive," Ms. Cox says. "It's a real challenge teaching the kids to understand that corruption isn't the way to be successful. The problem is they see corruption in Cambodia does make people rich and successful."

While Ms. Johnson, who has four children of her own and cares for a Cambodian boy, says her efforts to establish Sovann Komar have been "tough," she's optimistic about making a difference. "I think the families feel very fortunate to be here and that they are part of something that is going to really create some change for the better," says Ms. Johnson, who visits the orphanage at least once a year. "Maybe we're not going to change the destiny of Cambodia, but in our own little way I think it will have a wonderful ripple effect."

—Anne Hyland is a Bangkok-based writer.

Torture evidence presented at Khmer Rouge trial

Torture evidence presented at Khmer Rouge trial

Victims were slowly drained of blood, according to documents read at the trial of "Duch," head of the S-21 prison. He is accused of torture, murder and crimes against humanity.

By Brendan Brady
March 31, 2009

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia -- Medics working for Cambodia's former Khmer Rouge rulers at a notorious death camp slowly killed prisoners by draining their blood to be used for infusions for privileged cadres, according to allegations presented Monday at a hearing for one of the regime's leaders.

Kang Kek Ieu ran the S-21 prison, also known as Tuol Sleng, where more than 12,000 men, women and children were tortured before being executed in the nearby "killing fields" outside the capital, Phnom Penh. The rail-thin former teacher faces charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder before the court, which is run by both Cambodian and international officials.


Kang, 66, known as Kaing Geuk Eav in tribunal filings but best known by the nom de guerre Duch, is one of five detained senior leaders believed to be the architects of the Maoist regime's fanatical rule in the late 1970s, under which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished from overwork or starvation or were slain.

The regime's leader, Saloth Sar, better known as Pol Pot, and its military chief, Ta Mok, have died.

In custody and under investigation by the court are Khieu Samphan, the group's head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; his wife, Ieng Thirith, who was minister of social affairs; and Nuon Chea, or "Brother No. 2", the movement's chief ideologue. All four are old and ailing, and their trials are unlikely to begin until next year. They face a maximum of life imprisonment.


Unlike the other figures in detention, Kang, who is now a born-again Christian, has acknowledged his crimes and asked for forgiveness.

He is expected to make a full confession, but that will not end the trial. According to the tribunal's rules, he cannot plead guilty -- a confession will be treated as an element of evidence. Kang is also expected to argue in court that he was following orders and would have been killed had he not obeyed.

He spoke only briefly Monday, identifying himself with his name and aliases and giving the names of his wives and children.

While the trial opened formally last month, Monday marked the beginning of substantive hearings under the court's top judge, Nil Nonn. Prison guards, survivors and family members of those brutalized at Tuol Sleng will be called upon to testify.

A clerk read out the grisly allegation that about 1,000 prisoners died from having their blood slowly drained, along with an exhaustive list of alleged crimes by Kang.

Others who suffered were present at the packed courthouse to watch.

Orm Chanta's husband did not pass through Tuol Sleng but what he suffered was just as cruel. Orm, 69, said she witnessed her husband being buried alive by Khmer Rouge cadres after they shot him. His crime, they said, without elaborating, was being "a traitor to the regime."

Orm said that his education and profession -- he is a doctor -- made him suspicious to the regime, which particularly targeted those with money, an urban background and an education, the antithesis of the regime's vision of an agrarian peasant society.

"I have for a very long time been determined to come today to see if the pain in my heart can heal," she said, bursting into tears.

Van Nath, one of the prison's few survivors, said he witnessed prisoners being waterboarded, doused with battery acid or simply bludgeoned to force them to admit to imaginary crimes against the regime. He survived only because of his artistic skills, which he was forced to use to paint propaganda portraits of Pol Pot, who died in 1998.

Van, who did not attend Monday's hearing, said he had been "waiting for justice every day" since his captivity.

The court has suffered through years of political obstruction, judicial bickering, corruption allegations and funding shortages.

Observers have urged the Cambodian side of the court to allow further investigations to begin. Canadian prosecutor Robert Petit's move to add to the docket a handful of unidentified figures he describes as key enforcers was blocked by his Cambodian colleague, Chea Leang, a niece of the current deputy prime minister.

She has argued that additional prosecutions could prove destabilizing, overstretch the tribunal's limited resources and would run against the spirit of the 2003 U.N. treaty establishing the court, which called for only "senior leaders" of the regime and "those who were most responsible" to be tried.

Many senior Cambodian government posts are held by former Khmer Rouge, and experts say the government fears a wider roundup could expose them to scrutiny. Though facing stiff resistance, Petit has argued that expanding the court's reach would play a key role in validating its work.

Brady is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Keo Kounila contributed to this report.

Is Cambodia the Most Corrupt Country?

The most corrupt countries

By Jack Gage Forbes.comPublished: March 24, 2009

Corruption is on the march. In 2008, the number of countries sinking deeper into the clutches of influence peddling, bribery and scandalous business dealings outpaced improvements by a 2 to 1 margin. Countries falling by more than 10 spots outnumbered risers 8.5 to 1.

Chad leads the way down in this year's report. With a heavy reliance on foreign assistance (mostly for oil exploration and development), the Sudanese neighbor gets black marks for corruption in the ranks of government officials--not surprising given its military dictatorship has been in place for 19 years.

No. 2? The Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, where president Kurmanbek Bakiyev faces mounting opposition brought to a fevered pitch by recent allegations that his administration organized the assassination of a former administration official. Others in the top 10 include Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Cambodia and Ecuador.

In terms of economic impact, the debilitating affect of corruption is tangible: More than 5% of global gross domestic product, or $2.6 trillion, was smuggled, used for bribes or stolen from taxpayers in the past year, says the World Bank in a recent report. For honest companies, moving from a low corruption climate to one where corporate and government misdeeds are more prevalent can represent as much as a 20% additional tax on top of the normal costs of doing business.

Socioeconomic risk experts at the Eurasia Group also warn of corruption's corrosive effect on foreign investment. Especially in times of sluggish economic activity--and in many developed nations, recession--the added drag of distrust on the part of investors and business owners can take a mighty toll.

"Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development," says Fluor Corp. CEO Alan L. Boeckmann in the report.

Nations with the highest risk of corruption are often the desperately poor, where foreign aid and assistance can easily be transferred through back channels of oppressive regimes. As a result, the impact of corruption can extend well beyond any economic detraction to affect the quality of life for millions of citizens.

"Corruption is a major cause of many human rights abuses," says Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, in a December 2008 report by watchdog Transparency International.

One example Khan cites is Zimbabwe, the poorest nation in the world at just $200 of GDP per capita. The African nation fell 13 places among the 127 countries in our ranking, according to TI's perceived levels of corruption. Recent reports accused president Robert Mugabe of stealing over $7 million in foreign aid meant for the distribution of medicine to combat, among other diseases, widespread malaria in the region. Instead, Mugabe allegedly used the payments to fund political activities.

Even in developed nations, corruption can often occur in the procurement of government projects--and within established corporations. Italy fell 12 spots in the corruption category after its government passed legislation granting top officials immunity from prosecution while in office. Perhaps not coincidentally, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had been involved in an ongoing investigation regarding the payment of more than $500,000 from undisclosed funds to the husband of an Olympic minister in the U.K.

Japan and Canada were also cited in a 2008 report by Transparency International as having sub-par enforcement standards vis-à-vis accepted G7 guidelines for bribes from foreign businesses. TI could find only one case in each country pursued by local authorities, compared with more than 40 investigations in Germany, 19 in France and 16 in Switzerland.

Industries can also be particularly prone to corruption, with greater levels of bureaucracy often increasing the likelihood of misuse. TI contends that public construction projects, water sanitation, oil and gas development and defense contracting most often show a proclivity for abuse of public and investor funds.

Exams bring usual financial stress

Exams bring usual financial stress

Phnom Penh Post
Written by Mom Kunthear and ChraNn Chamrouen
Tuesday, 24 March 2009

As exam time rolls around again, parents say the obligatory bribe amounts are increasing.

AS first-semester high school exams began across the country Monday, many parents cursed the endemic corruption of Cambodia's education system as they handed over cash to ensure their children passed their exams.

Kim Dara, father of a student at Chhbar Ampov High School, recently forked out over US$50 to ensure his son passed all of his exams.

Though his son will still sit the exams, his actual score will not be recorded due to the deal his father has made with his teachers.

"This is a serious problem for me, as I am not a rich man," he told the Post Sunday.

"I cannot stand the corrupt behaviour, and I think all students should be assessed by their actual capabilities, but still I am afraid my son will fail so I pay the money."

Kim Dara divvied his generous bribe between the various test subjects for which his son was required to sit, making sure teachers of the essential subjects - mathematics and literature - received the largest amounts.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said he has heard numerous reports of similar cases, with the general sum of 20,000 to 40,000 riels (US$4.87 to $9.74) sought per paper.

"This is a serious problem, and it's imperative the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport take measures to solve it immediately," he told the Post Sunday.

He added that if the practice was not stopped, it would seriously undermine Cambodia's education system.

"CITA does not have the authority to stop or reprimand the teachers in question, but we can send a recommendation to the ministry. However, this problem indicates a wider issue. The teachers demand this money because they are not being properly looked after by the government, and in a way they don't have any control either," he said.

However Chay Cheb, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, said corruption was merely hearsay.

"This rumour begins every exam day and it is not true," he told the Post.

Partial fund for KRT from Japan

Japan gives "urgent" funds to Cambodia Khmer trial


Fri, Mar 20, 2009
AFP



PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA - Japan announced an "urgent" US$200,000 ($302,386) donation to the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal Friday, allowing it to pay Cambodian staff after donations dried up following corruption claims.

A leading judge at the war crimes tribunal said earlier this month that the court did not have enough money to pay local staff after accusations of graft made donors wary.


"In response to the request from the royal government of Cambodia, the government of Japan has made an urgent decision to contribute US$200,000...to finance the Cambodian share of the trial budget," said a press statement by the Japanese embassy.





Under the complicated tribunal agreement, Cambodian and international staff have separate budgets funded by countries including Japan, France, Australia, Germany and the United States.


The court's first trial is under way, but the Cambodian side has been hit by claims of political interference and a scandal in which local staff were allegedly forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs.


Japan said it "places emphasis on progress of the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as it believes this process will promote peace, democracy, the rule of law and good governance in Cambodia."


The long-awaited first Khmer Rouge trial began last month when the regime's notorious prison chief, Kaing Guek Eav, better known by the alias Duch, went before the court.


He is one of five former Khmer Rouge leaders scheduled to be tried by the court.


Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia. --AFP

Can Cambodia Truly Benefit from Its Oil Resources?

Cambodia's coming oil economy

Analysis: What might oil drilling do to a poor country, its people, and its government?

By Patrick Winn - GlobalPost
Published: March 18, 2009 07:46 ET
Updated: March 18, 2009 12:09 ET

BANGKOK – Haunted by war, and wracked by poverty, Cambodia has had little opportunity to enjoy one its few blessings.

The nation of 14 million people, sandwiched between Thailand and Vietnam, is flush with natural resources. Veins of iron and gold run beneath its soil. Natural forests offer a wealth of timber. Most promising of all are Cambodia’s deposits of oil and gas, believed to snake offshore all the way through the kingdom’s lush interior.

As Cambodia’s leaders begin to parlay these natural blessings into wealth, selling off drilling rights to firms across the globe, American oil companies are taking notice.

So, too, are the watchdogs.

Foreign aid, in large part from U.S. tax dollars, accounts for half of Cambodia’s national budget. Much of this is aimed at the more than one-third of Cambodians living on roughly 50 cents per day.

While Cambodia’s ruling party could use the coming resource wealth to wean the country off foreign aid — and potentially lift millions out of poverty — leaders already appear to be hording this money for themselves, watchdogs say.

According to Global Witness — the U.K.-based non-profit that helped expose the West African “blood diamonds” trade — the coming oil wealth will likely just entrench Cambodia’s ruling cabal in corruption.

“In a couple of years, the elites will be so wealthy it will be hard to rewind the tape,” said Global Witness Director Gavin Hayman during a business trip in Bangkok. The non-profit recently published an investigative report on Cambodia’s growing oil wealth.



(This map, prepared by U.K. nonprofit Global Witness, reveals the offshore Cambodian territory U.S. energy firm Chevron plans to drill for petroleum. Source: Global Witness)

According to International Monetary Fund forecasts, Cambodia’s annual oil revenue should begin at about $174 million in 2011 and climb to $1.7 billion by 2021 — and plunge thereafter as resources are sucked dry.

This oil future has grabbed the attention of the global oil industry.

Just this past weekend, U.S. oil industry representatives invited Cambodian energy leaders to observe drilling operations near the Gulf of Mexico, home to dozens of major offshore oil rigs.

“Cambodia is on the verge of an oil and minerals windfall,” said Eleanor Nichol, a Global Witness campaigner. “The stakes are very, very high.”

A global fuel chase has led many foreign firms to cut deals with Cambodia’s ruling party. They’ve since carved the nation into 20-odd oil-and-gas districts that will be developed.

Most firms with Cambodian oil concessions are Chinese, some with little experience in the energy sector. Various South Korean, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern companies round out the concession holders.

But the best-known energy firm with Cambodian drilling rights is the California-based Chevron Corporation.

Chevron is preparing as many as nine wells for what it calls a “complex reservoir” off Cambodia’s coast. The firm is now “working closely with the Royal Government of Cambodia to complete the fiscal and legal framework that will be required for the development of petroleum resources in Cambodia,” said Gareth Johnstone, Chevron’s Asia-Pacific media director.

Chevron is a high-profile member of the Extracative Industries Transparency Initiative — an anti-corruption movement devoted to “full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.”

No allegations of corrupton have been made against the company, though the oil giant has come under pressure from watchdog groups to be more transparent in its dealings here.

Chevron will not reveal its payments to Cambodia nor its start-up drilling dates, said Johnstone, who is based in Singapore.

Cambodia is rated the world’s 18th most-corrupt country by Transparency International, which publishes the world’s leading corruption measure. Chevron also operates in Burma, run by an oppressive military junta.

When resource-rich areas are ready for excavation, Cambodia’s government is suspected of dispatching soldiers and police to forcibly remove residents. According to Human Rights Watch, armed government militants have torched homes and pushed out hundreds of families. Once excavation begins, soldiers are believed to stand watch over the sites as international firms do their work.

Global Witness’ work in Cambodia has brought death threats and a promise from one senior official to hit investigators “until their heads are broken,” Nichol said.

Repeated inquiries to the Cambodia’s National Petroleum Authority were ignored. With no explanation, some emails to the entity’s listed addresses were automatically routed to Petroleum Geo-Services, a Norwegian firm specializing in finding oil and gas reserves.

Cambodia’s U.K. ambassador, Hor Nambora, issued one of Cambodia’s more public rebuttals to corruption claims. “It is naive for Global Witness to imagine that Cambodia’s international donors are not fully aware of the way the Royal Cambodian Government’s (sic) conducts its affairs,” Nambora wrote in a release.

His response included an odd, mocking parody of a Global Witness document called “Rubbish Report by Global Witness.” It features an image of a comically upright baby sea lion saying, “I shall not tolerate such rubbish. Good day, sir.”

Last year, Cambodia absorbed roughly $1 billion in foreign aid. Even as major donors acknowledge Cambodia’s corruption, money continues to pour in.

In 2008, U.S. Agency for International Development offered $54,994,000 to Cambodia in various programs targeted at health, education, human rights and more. The agency, in a corruption assessment, expressed frustration that “donor resources are being wasted and diverted.”

Many Cambodian bureaucrats, the USAID report stated, are “masters of spin” and “… most reform efforts have had limited impact on a persistent, less-than-scrupulous opponent.”

Many donors decide that, even if aid is filtered through corrupt bureaucrats, pulling back funding will only deprive the poor, Hayman said. And further, Western powers and their donation arms now worry that strained relations will push Cambodia dangerously close to China.

Still, analysts say the Cambodian government craves something China can’t offer — legitimacy in the Western world. American aid, and ties to giant firms like Chevron, supply much of this esteem.

The Western world, however, can only use this leverage for so long. Once Cambodia’s rulers hit the oil-and-gas jackpot, Hayman said, they’ll be too rich to reign in.

“They’ll have so much money from oil and mining,” he said, “that they’ll be untouchable."

Other recent GlobalPost stories from Thailand:

Cambodia: When will court air its "dirty laundry?"

When will court air its "dirty laundry?"

The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Elena Lesley
Saturday, 14 March 2009
As the court's Cambodian side nears bankruptcy -- and funding to pay its staffers' March salaries remains uncertain -- the need to address corruption at the tribunal becomes increasingly urgent. Numerous donors have said they will not pledge money to the court's Cambodian side until this issue is satisfactorily resolved.


The Defense Support Section issued the following statement about corruption allegations at the court at the close of this month's plenary session:

"The DSS welcomes the statement by the international judges affirming their concern about unresolved allegations of corruption within the ECCC. This reinforces their position at the last Plenary that kick-back allegations must be dealt with 'fully and fairly [...] and in a transparent manner' and will be a comfort to all those who fear that the administration of justice within the ECCC may fall prey to political compromise."


When the tribunal's fifth plenary session opened March 2, Judge Silvia Cartwright vowed that international judges would not let corruption "interfere with the tribunal's delivery of justice for the people of Cambodia."


In late February, local media publicized a German report in which the tribunal's UN administration chief was quoted saying that Cambodian staffers were forced to pay kickbacks for their jobs. The revelations in the report sparked additional press coverage and raised ever more daunting questions about the ECCC's legitimacy.

"The latest revelations about alleged misconduct and corruption at the Khmer Rouge tribunal have startled even its most jaded critics," scholar John Hall recently wrote in the International Herald Tribune. "Indeed, the nature of this dirty laundry suggests that the UN-backed tribunal is so deeply flawed that its very existence needs to be reevaluated."

Hall has previously written that apparent political interference regarding additional prosecutions at the court could also cripple the tribunal's international reputation.

Interestingly, in a statement this week, Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith told reporters that the court should focus on speeding up trials for the five defendants already in custody instead of pursuing additional prosecutions. This appears to mirror the sentiments of Cambodian Co-Prosecutor Chea Leang, whose opposition to additional prosecutions is viewed by many as a politically motivated stand.