DHL opens new office in Cambodia

By NewsDesk

Share DHL, the world�s leading logistics company, today opened its new premises for its Global Forwarding arm in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Located in the Regency Square Business Complex close to the capital�s center, the new office will serve as a �DHL Fashion and Apparel Center of Excellence� to support the established textile and garments industry in Cambodia, and also bolster DHL�s services to customers in the oil and energy sector.

�The new office reflects our commitment to expand our reach in the region and to continually invest in Cambodia. We are very optimistic about the country�s growth potential � gross domestic product growth stands at 5.5 per cent in 2010, higher than the forecast of 4.9 per cent[1] by the World Bank. We believe that 2011 will be an even better year for Cambodia now that economic recovery is well underway,� said Amadou Diallo, Chief Executive Officer, Africa and South Asia Pacific, DHL Global Forwarding.

Is she our "national champion" or our "national Geisha"? You decide

First lady "national champion" Chumteav Bandit Dr. Dr. Dr. Bun Rany Hun Xen

Traditional Japanese Geisha

Natural skin tone versus national champion skin tone

The Bangkok Post has obtained new evidence that Thailand did use cluster munitions

EXPLOSIVE: Kim Samnang, who lost his forearm; and what is believed to be a cluster bomb, found near Svay Chrum village.

Sign Convention on Cluster Munitions

20/02/2011
Bangkok Post
EDITORIAL

One of the most disturbing aspects of the renewed hostilities along the Thai-Cambodian border is the reported use of cluster munitions or bombs. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen first made the allegation, as printed in the Feb 11 of The Phnom Penh Post: ''They launched a cluster bomb. Is that a clash?''

Thailand denied the allegation, and army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that in fact Cambodia had used the controversial weapon. Colonel Sanserd said a Cambodian cluster bomb attack was responsible for the death of Thanakorn Poonperm, deputy commander of the Paramilitary Rangers Company. Cambodia denied this charge.

Cambodian army deputy chief General Hing Bunheang and the director-general of the government-run Cambodian Mine Action Centre, Heng Ratana, backed up Hun Sen's allegation, but several sources, including Carl Thayer, a professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy, cast doubt on the claim.

However, the Bangkok Post has obtained, and published in today's edition, new evidence that possibly supports the Cambodian assertion that Thailand did use cluster munitions.

Thus far the Thai army has not produced evidence that cluster bombs were used against its soldiers.

The use of cluster bombs by one or both sides is a very serious issue, and it should be further investigated.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions currently has 108 signatories, has been ratified by 48 states and became international law for the states parties when it entered into force on Aug 1 of last year. However, neither Thailand nor Cambodia has signed the convention.

This failure to sign is particularly perplexing in the case of Cambodia, which was heavily bombarded with cluster munitions by US warplanes during the Vietnam War.

According to the website Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor (http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/cp/display/region_profiles/theme/572), ''The Kingdom of Cambodia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, despite the fact that it was an early, prominent, and influential supporter of the Oslo Process that produced the convention.''

The website goes on to explain that there is a direct link between the failure to sign the convention and tensions with Thailand over Cambodia's application to Unesco for world heritage site status for Preah Vihear. The report quotes a Cambodian government spokesman as saying: ''Due to the fact that Thailand does not yet sign the treaty ... we can delay a bit our adhesion to the treaty.''

Both sides deny using cluster bombs, but neither side denies having them, and it is likely that the border tensions have also influenced the Thai government's decision not to sign the convention, which requires that parties ''destroy their stockpile of cluster munitions within eight years of entry into force'' of the convention.

Destruction is absolutely, without a doubt, what should happen to the many large stockpiles of these cruel weapons scattered around the world.

All weapons of war sow horror, but these are perhaps on another level because they are so dangerous to civilian populations.

After they are dropped from the air or fired from mortars, they are designed to break open in mid-air, releasing bomblets over a wide area. In places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, where cluster bombs have been widely used, the menace is compounded because the small objects are sometimes mistaken for toys by children.

They often remain deadly and undetected for many years. In that sense they are similar to land mines, which are still killers in Cambodia and to some extent in Thailand, where some border provinces were mined during the 1980s to keep the Khmer Rouge out. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre states there may be as many as six million mines still laid in Cambodian fields and small villages.

Thailand and Cambodia have officially prohibited land mines as signatories to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and both countries should follow up on that action by signing and ratifying the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The fact that Thailand and Cambodia are adamant in their insistence that their respective militaries have never used the repugnant weapons against the other is proof that they view such behaviour to be unacceptable, even in a battle zone.

Why not make this position official?

UN Rep Investigates Land Dispute

Surya Subedi talks with Hun Sen (L) in Phnom Penh, Jan 19, 2010. (AFP)

2011-02-18
Radio Free Asia

A UN official visits the site of a land dispute as part of his inquiry into human rights in Cambodia.

A United Nations human rights representative visited a Cambodian village community embroiled in a land dispute on Friday as part of a fact-finding mission for a set of wider reforms he is recommending to the country�s leadership.

The visit by Surya Subedi, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, came on the fourth day of a 10-day trip to the country, and followed a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen where he expressed concerns about the country�s court system and a new law on nongovernmental organizations.

Subedi told RFA that it is important to take the complaints of Cambodia�s rural population into consideration in addition to speaking with high-level officials while forming an overview of the country�s human rights situation.

�I wanted to speak to people from all walks of life in Cambodia, and I wanted to see the villagers for myself to listen to them directly�their grievances�and then see for myself the area where they are living now and the conditions there as well. This is purely a fact-finding mission and � [for] information gathering,� Subedi said.

He traveled to the site, in central Kompong Chhnang province, to investigate a land dispute case in which NGO worker, who represented the villagers, had been jailed. The dispute was with a company owned by Lauk Chumteav Chea Kheng, the wife of Cambodia�s mining minister.

Land grab

Sam Chankea was convicted in January of �defamation� against KDC International Co. after he told RFA in a 2009 interview that the company had committed an �act of violation� when it confiscated land from the villagers, because the provincial court had yet to rule on the disputed property.

The dispute dates back to 2002 when KDC International took possession of some 184 hectares (455 acres) of land from more than 100 families in the area.

�I now have a much better idea and information about the plight of the villagers and the disputed land," Subedi said.

"I will try to speak to government authorities about what they have been doing about this dispute and what the response of the other party has been and what other avenues there are to look after the interests of the villagers,� he said.

�I will consider whether I will need to intervene at certain levels of government authorities, and if I decide to do so, I will not hesitate to do so.�

Subedi said that he had a number of meetings scheduled with various ministers and that he planned to use the Pursat land case as an example of how the government must work to improve its human rights record.

Fact-finding meetings

In addition to meeting with the prime minister, Subedi has been busy since arriving in Cambodia on his fourth mission for the U.N., meeting with officials from the ruling party and from the opposition, observing trials, and speaking with NGOs.

On Wednesday, the special rapporteur met with Thun Saray, director of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) to discuss the concerns of domestic NGOs operating in the country.

�The problems include a land crisis that adversely affects the people. We propose a swift and satisfactory solution for those who have been affected by the land conflict,� Thun Saray said in an interview recounting their conversation.

The land issue in Cambodia dates from the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime, which forced large-scale evacuations and relocations throughout the country.

This was followed by mass confusion over land rights and the formation of squatter communities when the refugees returned in the 1990s after a decade of civil war.

Housing Cambodia�s large, young, and overwhelmingly poor population has posed a major problem ever since.

Judicial reform

Thun Saray also advised Subedi that Cambodia�s notoriously ineffective judicial system is in dire need of restructuring.

�The justice system should be reformed. We all see the shortcomings and flaws in the system. The reform should start by looking into the flaws point by point. For example, the flaws happen in the process of trials and court proceedings which result in unjust rulings,� he said.

�The public is unsatisfied with the current process of court trials. We have to look, investigate these shortcomings, and fix them.�

More than one-quarter of Cambodian court defendants reported being tortured or coerced into confession, and ordinary people said they lack faith in the justice system, according to a 2009 judicial review released by Cambodian anti-corruption organization The Center for Social Development.

Poor training of the judiciary, bribery, torture, underfunding, a lack of independence, and frequent pre-trial detention of prisoners for terms exceeding the legal limit of six months are among problems with the judiciary often cited by rights organizations.

At the end of his last visit in June, Subedi said the judiciary faced �tremendous challenges in delivering justice for the people of the country, especially the poor and marginalized,� adding that some judges were simply not interested in upholding the law.

NGO law

Thun Saray also discussed a controversial draft law put forth by Cambodia�s National Assembly which would severely curtail the ability of foreign and domestic NGOs operating in the country to carry out their work.

Last month a U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States had �serious concerns about the law as drafted and strongly opposes the enactment of any law that would constrain the legitimate activities of NGOs.�

The State Department urged Phnom Penh to consult with NGOs on the substance of the draft law and to �reconsider whether such a measure is even necessary.�

Cambodia�s government has long had an antagonistic relationship with human rights groups and NGOs operating in the country.

Last year, Hun Sen said he wanted the U.N. human rights office in Cambodia closed and its representative, Christophe Peschoux, sacked.

Subedi is expected to hold a press conference in Phnom Penh on Feb. 24 during which he will review some of the key issues raised during his visit before compiling a report for the United Nations.

He last presented his findings to the U.N. in September 2010.

Reported by Pon Bun Song and Khe Sonorng for RFA�s Khmer service. Translated by Vuthy Huot. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Speak Truth To Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark - the Play by Ariel Dorfman - FREE ADMISSION but come early!

CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education is proud to present Speak Truth To Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark, a play by Ariel Dorfman based on Kerry Kennedy's book Speak Truth To Power, as part of the 2-day launching events in Phnom Penh of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights' project by the same name, with performance by the Phnom Penh Players with introduction by Ms. Kennedy. This coming THURSDAY, 24 February 2011 at PUC Auditorium (Norodom Blvd.). FREE ADMISSION, on a first-come-first-served basis. So, COME EARLY!

- Theary C. Seng, CIVICUS Cambodia founding president, Phnom Penh