Govt testimony could bias KRT: PM

Photo by: AFP

Prime Minister Hun Sen arrives at Chaktomuk Theatre on Thursday for a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the National Bank of Cambodia.

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:04 Sebastian Strangio and Cheang Sokha

THE testimony of senior government officials could prejudice the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s upcoming case against four former regime leaders, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday, a day after the court made public documents summonsing six senior government officials to appear as witnesses at the hybrid court.

“These [officials] made the Pol Pot regime collapse, and they adopted the law on the Khmer Rouge tribunal, so if they go as witnesses, it would make the accused persons guilty,” Hun Sen said during a speech at Chaktomuk theatre on Thursday. “How is justice to be done? My main problem is that turning the plaintiffs into witnesses would doom the accused.”

The premier was responding to six letters of summons, dated September 25 and bearing the signature of International Co-Investigating Judge Marcel Lemonde, requesting that six government officials – Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Finance Minister Keat Chhon and two CPP senators – appear at the tribunal to provide testimony “in the framework of the investigation under way against Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and other leaders”.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan echoed the premier’s statements, saying the testimony of senior government officials was “not necessary”, since there are witnesses and documentary evidence to spare.

“I think there’s enough proof already. It’s not necessary. This court has to be fair for both parties,” he said.

On Thursday, it remained unclear whether the six officials would obey the summons and appear in court. Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said his boss, Hor Namhong, was too busy to have considered the issue, and officials representing Chea Sim, Heng Samrin and Keat Chhon declined to comment.

Senator Sim Ka could not be reached on Thursday, while Senator Ouk Bunchhoeun said that he “did not wish to elaborate” on the matter.

Pack your bags

A day earlier, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said that though the individuals could appear in court voluntarily, the government’s position was that they should not give testimony. He said that foreign officials involved in the court could “pack their clothes and return home” if they were not satisfied with the decision.

According to Rule 60 of the internal rules of the ECCC, if any witness refuses a summons to appear in court, the co-investigating judges may issue an order “requesting the judicial police to compel the witness to appear”.

If any of the six officials do fail to appear, however, the tribunal could face some thorny challenges in implementing the rule.

“The questions are whether Judge Lemonde would issue an order pursuant to Rule 60 and whether the judicial police would serve it [to the officials],” said Heather Ryan, a trial monitor at the Open Society Justice Initiative.

“We don’t yet know the answers to either of those questions.”

Ryan said that making the cover letters of the summonses public would “increase the transparency of the court and, hopefully, the chances that the summonses are respected”.

Court officials expressed hopes on Thursday that the officials would obey the court’s request regardless of their role in setting up the Khmer Rouge trial process.

“We would expect that any law-abiding citizen would comply with a summons issued by a court of law,” said tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen. “That would apply especially to any representative of organs that played a crucial role in setting up the ECCC.”

Although the cover letters to the summonses bear only the signature of Lemonde, observers and court officials downplayed speculation of a rift between the international investigating judge and his Cambodian counterpart, You Bun Leng.

“The fact that the cover letters were signed by Judge Lemonde alone is significant only if the attached summonses were also signed only by Judge Lemonde and if his Cambodian counterpart declined to signed them because he did not agree that the documents should be issued,” Ryan said.

Olsen said he could not say whether one or both signatures appeared on the official summonses since the documents had not been made public.

You Bun Leng did not wish to comment when contacted on Thursday.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP

Disqualify KRouge trial judge

Mr Karnavas said Mr Lemonde (left) was 'giving instructions to his investigators to game the process. In other words, to look primarily for evidence that supports the prosecution'. --PHOTO: REUTERS

Oct 9, 2009

PHNOM PENH - THE lawyer for a former Khmer Rouge leader on Friday filed a demand that the French investigating judge be disqualified from Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court for alleged bias.

Michael Karnavas, attorney for ex-Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary, said the motion was based on allegations that Marcel Lemonde told subordinates to favour evidence showing suspects' guilt over evidence of their innocence.

The tribunal was set up to bring to justice the leaders of the genocidal late 1970s Khmer Rouge regime. Mr Karnavas said Mr Lemonde was 'giving instructions to his investigators to game the process. In other words, to look primarily for evidence that supports the prosecution'.

The lawyer said he submitted his complaint based on a statement made by the former head of Mr Lemonde's intelligence and analysis team, Wayne Bastin, at an Australian police station on Thursday.

A copy of the statement obtained by AFP said Lemonde shocked subordinates in a meeting at his Phnom Penh home in August when he told them, 'I would prefer that we find more inculpatory evidence than exculpatory evidence'.

Under the Khmer Rouge court's regulations, investigating judges are required to be impartial while researching allegations made by prosecutors. Defence teams are not permitted to make their own investigations. 'How is it that (Lemonde) can remain in the position in light of what we know now?' Mr Karnavas said, adding that such behaviour was 'outrageous'. -- AFP

Ketsana’s costs pile up in K Thom

Photo by: WORLD VISION

Villagers displaced by Typhoon Ketsana bide their time at a makeshift shelter in Siem Reap province’s Sandan commune.

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:03 Chhay Channyda

AS the Kingdom continues to evaluate the destruction inflicted in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana, officials in Kampong Thom province say they are only beginning to get a handle on the level of damage.

Provincial Governor Chhun Chhorn said the total amount of damage in his province, Cambodia’s hardest-hit, was still unknown.

“The floodwaters are still like rivers, and it has hardly gone down,” he said. “Most of the roads in the districts are flooded, except roads in the towns.”

Chhun Chhorn said that around 3,000 families have been seriously affected, but that the figure could rise as receding floodwaters allow access to more remote areas of the province.

Over 30,000 hectares of rice paddies have been affected by the storm, he added, including over 17,000 hectares that have been completely destroyed.

“I do not calculate yet how much money we lost from agriculture, but I can say that we have lost a lot more than in other provinces. It could be double,” he said.

In Stung Treng province, Governor Loy Sophat said that 3,000 families remain affected by storm damage.

He added that 3,000 hectares of rice paddies were destroyed in the aftermath of the typhoon, and that the total agricultural cost to the province may be as much as US$3 million.

Workers protest factory’s closure

Photo by: Sovan Philong.

Frustrated garment workers face off against police officers following the sudden closure of Cambodia’s biggest garment factory, Tack Fat, in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district on Thursday.

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:03 Kim Yuthana and Khouth Sophak Chakrya

THOUSANDS of factory workers gathered in front of Phnom Penh’s Tack Fat garment factory after the company shut its doors on Thursday morning and announced a suspension of production in the midst of the global downturn that has seen dozens of other Cambodian factories close this year.

Factory workers, more than 1,800 of whom appeared in front of the facility in the capital’s Meanchey district, said the closure had come as a surprise, as factory owners had informed union representatives about it only a day before.

Twenty-eight year old Leap Chanthouen said that workers were told they will receive US$10 per month in salary while the factory is closed. She and other Tack Fat employees expressed frustration with the factory’s suspension, however, and said that the proposed compensation was not enough.

“It is unacceptable that the factory closed today,” she said. “We are here to protest.”

Meas Samphars, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said workers were demanding their salary from September as well as a 50 percent payment of their base salaries during the suspension in production.

Chiv Leang, a Tack Fat representative, emphasised the fact that his organisation is not closing permanently, adding that it plans to meet its obligations to the workers.

“We will pay them their September salary on October 10, and during the suspension, we will pay them $10 per month,” he said, adding that Tack Fat is negotiating with the Ministry of Labour regarding the terms of the suspension.

Kei Savuth, director of the Ministry of Labour’s labour conflict office, said his ministry was still considering whether to approve the suspension.

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said he suspected that the suspension was a move by the Tack Fat management to avoid paying worker salaries in the face of imminent closure.

“I believe that the factory owners intend to close the factory completely, but they are concerned that workers will ask for a seniority bonus if that happens, so they are using a suspension to avoid responsibility,” he said.

Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, dismissed this assertion, saying members of the Tack Fat management are victims in the same way that workers are.

“This is a function of the international economy right now – we are in crisis, the whole world is in recession,” he said.

“We would very much like to help [the workers], but unfortunately it’s not something we can do right now.”

Some 130 Cambodian garment factories have closed or suspended production in 2009, the Ministry of Labour said last week, leaving more than 30,000 workers jobless and an additional 30,000 temporarily out of work.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JAMES O’TOOLE

Exhibit shows Kingdom’s changing capital

Photo by: Sovan Philong.

A visitor uses his mobile phone to snap a picture of photographs charting the development of post-independence Phnom Penh at a new exhibition that opened Thursday in Wat Phnom.

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:02 Tep Nimol

A NEW photography exhibition celebrating the 575th anniversary of the capital’s founding in 1434 opened to the public in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

Showcasing arresting images of Phnom Penh throughout its tumultuous history, the exhibition includes 24 panels and 148 photos spanning several decades in the city’s recent past.

Organisers say they hope the display will help illustrate the reality of life in Phnom Penh, from its turbulent past to a more hopeful future.

The exhibition touches on the post-independence regime under Sangkum Reastr Niyum, the devastating rule of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979, the cautious post-conflict period and the rapidly developing capital as it stands today.

Mak Vann Sitha, Phnom Penh’s director of the Department of Cultures and Fine Arts, said he hopes the exhibition will capture the imagination of a national and international audience. The aim, she said, is to demonstrate how much Phnom Penh has developed.

About 162 million riels (US$38,812) has been spent on the exhibition, including costs for repairing and decorating the Wat Phnom exhibition hall.

City officials say they hope it will serve to illustrate how far the capital has progressed. “Phnom Penh is busy developing the city” to adapt to a changing, increasingly high-tech society, said Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun.

Exclusively yours

The suite at the One Hotel oozes contemporary chic. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:02 Lily Partland

The One Hotel in Siem Reap is certainly something of an oddity. In a town with a great number of sprawling four and five-star complexes, stumbling across a hotel with just one room, albeit it a lavish and multi-levelled room, is something of a surprise.

And while the little hotel is not exactly a raging revenue-raiser, it’s attracted a huge amount of international publicity, which the owner, Martin Dishman, has spun off into his other projects.

The American said opening a one-room hotel was “genius by default”. The idea hit Dishman in mid-2005 when he leased a small, two-storey building in Siem Reap’s latest hot spot, The Passage, then a mainly residential street. He figured that developing the entire building would be too expensive, and a no-expense-spared one-room hotel would be the way to go.

“It was a completely unplanned idea and the best part about it is, if I had opened two or three rooms here, we would have probably got 90 percent less press than we did with one room,” said Dishman.

Last year, two years after opening the One Hotel in February 2006, Dishman decided to “piggy-back” on the publicity he’d received from his unique hostelry to extend his business and open Be Hotel, with more rooms – three, to be exact. Now, Dishman wants to expand his empire throughout the region.

“I want to try to do something outside the country, maybe in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam or even Bali because I’m proud of what I’ve done. It’s kind of the American way: to expand and conquer and colonise.”

Photo by: Lily Partland

Managing Director of the One Hotel and Hotel Be Martin Dishman.

Dishman worked for almost 20 years for the Intercontinental Hotels Group, which owns The Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza franchises among others, and became a general manager at age 33. Despite some perks of the job, such as meeting visiting dignitaries, including Watergate-scooping journalist Bob Woodward, Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, and the Singaporean PM Goh Chok Tong, Dishman was ready for a new challenge.

When his request for a transfer to an Asian hotel went unfulfilled, he bit the bullet and came to the region without a job.

After stints in a hotel in Phuket and an office in Bangkok, he arrived in Siem Reap in January 2004 as general manager of the Shinta Mani hotel. After a year there, Dishman opened Siem Reap’s first gay bar, Linga Bar in The Passage behind Pub Street, and when a property became available across the alleyway, he decided to create his own hotel.

He developed the property, designed the room and created his very own masterpiece, with an accent on “genuine hospitality”. The project had a profound effect on Dishman, who insists he is delighted to be free of the shackles of corporate life.

“Working in American corporations can be good, but they can chew you up and spit you out too. As soon as you’re gone, there’s someone else to take your place and there’s no legacy to speak of – so this hotel may be something of a legacy.

“I was free to create something that I thought was pretty unique and a lot of fun. At the beginning I went to the airport and met every guest. It was fantastic. If you’re really into hospitality, that’s what it’s all about.”

___________________________________

The One Hotel costs $250 per night for single

or double occupancy, with a special pre-paid

internet rate of $195

if you book online at

http://www.theonehotelangkor.com/.

National swimming legend Hem Thon stays poolside

Hem Thon (far right) stands with the Cambodian National Swimming team by the swimming pool of the Olympic Stadium complex. Photo Supplied

Hem Thon (far right) poses with the 1964 Cambodian National Swimming team during his heydey as the top swimmer in the Kingdom.Photo Supplied

Friday, 09 October 2009 15:00 Ung Chamroeun

Cambodia’s most decorated swimmer of the 1960s talks out about his past and current involvement in the national team, with big hopes for the future

HEM Thon shows a determination that goes beyond his 67 years. The national swimming legend began his career in sports way back in the Sangkum Reastr Niyum regime of Norodom Sihanouk, and he gives a fascinating insight into his past.

Raised in Koh Dach commune, Kandal Province, Hem Thon was initially interested in football. He played for royal team, Cercle Royale Khmere, alongside the top national goalkeeper of the time, Lim Sak, who remained one of his closest friends.

It was not by accident that Hem Thon found himself in the swimming pool near Wat Phnom, at a site now occupied by the American Embassy. “Two reasons pushed me to join” the swimming team, he recalls. “Firstly, because the encouragement of older athletes, and secondly, I was alone because most of my football teammates went to China.”

The top national swimmer

Hem Thon quickly rose up the ranks, making his national championship debut in late 1960, where he finished in second place. From then on out, he dominated the domestic scene for a decade, taking nothing but gold.

Hem Thon says he lost count of the amount of medals he received from national swimming events, but remembers grabbing three bronze medals at his first international event, the 1963 Ganefo Games in Indonesia.

During the third SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1965, his medal haul included two silvers and three bronzes.

However, his happiest moment came in an international competition in Singapore in 1965, where he won gold in the 100m freestyle, beating swimmers from four other nations in the region. In total, Hem Thon won 12 medals at international competitions during his career.

His career as an athlete came to an end in 1971, with age becoming a factor and the political situation in the Kingdom rapidly becoming unsafe. During the Khmer Rouge regime, he relocated to Pursat province, where, tragically, five of his children died.

Photo by: Sovan Philong

Hem Thon discusses his experiences as a swimmer and later as a sports official during an interview with the Post Wednesday.

Despite ceasing to compete in the pool, Hem Thon was adamant about playing an active role in the development of sport in his home country. “I decided to return to the sports sector after the war because I don’t want to lose what I had done before,” he said.

In 1983, Hem Thon and a few friends started the Federation of Amateur Swimming of Cambodia, an internationally recognised organisation that changed to the Khmer Amateur Swimming Federation in 1996. Hem Thon was instated as General Secretary and head coach in 1994, as well as serving as a government official in charge of sport education until his retirement in 2000.

The national hero has stated that his mission will not be complete unless young Cambodian swimmers win medals from international competitions.

His talent in the water seems to have been passed down to his three sons, one daughter and one granddaughter. However, only his youngest son, 19-year-old Hem Thon Ponloeu, and his granddaughter, 15-year-old Hem Thon Vitiny, still compete in swimming, both featuring on the national team.

Much work still to be done

According to Hem Thon, the Cambodian swimmers of today are producing better performances than in his generation, but have a long way to go before they can begin to hold their own in regional competitions.

“While we are just starting the first step, other countries have reached the tenth step already,” he opined.

“It is difficult to say that [the young Cambodian athletes] will win medals from the upcoming SEA Games in Laos because, honestly, we are not well-prepared yet,” admitted Hem Thon. “But I hope in 2011 or 2013, they will realise our dream.”

Indeed, things look promising, with his granddaughter Vitiny making the last eight at the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand, setting a new national record in the process.

Despite his age, Hem Thon keeps remarkably busy. In the morning, he is often at Apsara TV, where he is one of a panel of experts on the sports news. Recently he was elected as a member of National Olympic Committee, a job he describes as complicated. Evenings nearly always see him training his students of the national team. The swimming federation has yet to find an office, so Hem Thon always takes related work to do at home.

“Most of the work I do voluntarily, and sometimes I spend my own cash,” he said. “If I didn’t think of the national interest, I may have left [the sport] a long time ago.”