Angkor.com

Tonle Sap: The flowing heart of Cambodia - NPR, December 6, 2005
Much of Cambodia's psyche is connected to water -- the Water Festival is a national holiday -- and fish supplies as much as 70 percent of the protein in the nation's diet. But there are fears the world's most productive fishery may be on the decline...

Cambodian border town bets on vice - Chicago Tribune, December 8, 2005
The noonday sun does not discriminate. It scorches old men wheeling ragged, homemade carts stacked high with sandals and baskets to market across a bridge at the Thai border. Korean tourists sweat while waiting in line for Cambodian visas...

Faster track to Angkor Wat - Bangkok Post, December 5, 2005
Tourists destined for Angkor Wat in Cambodia by car can expect to travel a shorter distance as Phnom Penh has begun constructing a new Poi Pet-Siem Reap route to facilitate trade, investment and tourism. Construction of the 147-kilometre route was opened by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Nov 19 with Sanoh Thienthong, the Thai Rak Thai party's chief adviser, participating as a representative of the contractor, SPT Civil Group...
The route will help shorten the time it takes to travel to Angkor Wat to between two and three hours from six to seven hours at present on the existing road, which is in bad need of repair. It will also serve as a gateway for trade, investment and tourism among four countries...

Land rights the preserve of Cambodia's elite - Reuters, November 23, 2005
For Noun Savy and her family, the end of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in her tiny corner of northwest Cambodia did not mean the start of peace.
Instead, she and hundreds of villagers found themselves under attack from police and soldiers in the pay of powerful businessmen bent on evicting them from their homes along the Thai border in the shadow of giant casinos which have sprung up there...

Cambodia embraces cell-phone craze - Rocky Mountain News, July 31, 2005
Cambodia, a developing country in Southeast Asia, illustrates how cell phones are catching on, especially with young people, thanks to new technology, competition and declining prices...
There are three major telephone companies: Mobitel-CamGSM Co. Ltd., Cambodia Samart Communication and Cambodia Shinawatra Co. Ltd.
The three companies are owned by foreign businessmen.
To draw more customers, Samart launched new phones last year that allow Cambodians to send text messages in Khmer characters...

Cambodian Prince Ranariddh has bought an island in Thailand? - Khmer Intelligence, July 31, 2005
[Rumors from Khmer Intelligence... What could this island be 'near Samui Island'? Under what ownership structure could Ranariddh own a Thai island? BTW: Ranariddh's condo in All Seasons Place is on the 19th floor.]
Ranariddh has bought an island in Thailand (3)
Prince Norodom Ranariddh has become much richer than one could have thought. Regarding his properties, it has become recently known in Bangkok among diplomats and intelligence experts that Ranariddh has acquired an island near Samui Island where he is to establish a resort and golf club with a French associate married to a cousin of his first wife, Princess Marie. The French associate’s name is Alain Dupuis.
Normally in Thailand foreigners are not allowed to buy properties such as the one mentioned above, only condominiums, but the Thai authorities have made an exception for the Khmer prince in order to be able to manipulate him whenever Thai interests need help in Cambodia. Ranariddh already owns a luxurious condominium in Bangkok, at one of the most expensive buildings in the capital city of Thailand, the “All Seasons Place.”

Cambodia's bizarre freedom fighters - On Line opinion, July 6, 2005
...The leader of this quixotic attempt was American-Cambodian Chhun Yasith, a small town accountant, more adept it would later appear at juggling figures and de-frauding the US taxman than at leading revolutions or bringing about regime changes...

UN official calls on Cambodia to cancel concession on indigenous land - UN News Center, July 6, 2005
...He asked Government to cancel the agreement of last August to provide an initial 10,000 hectares of state land to Wuzhishan L.S. Group for a pine tree plantation in Mondulkiri province, with a promise of a further 189,999 hectares.
"As with other economic land concessions, no environmental or social impact assessments were carried out, and local populations and authorities were neither informed nor consulted," he said.
The concession encompasses hilly grasslands and dense forest in the valleys and along the waterways of southern Mondulkiri. In September, the company started spraying the hills with large amounts of the herbicide glyphosate, later burning sprayed areas. The hills are used by the Phnong to graze their cattle.
Ancestral burial areas and spirit forests have also been desecrated and the company has taken farm lands and rice fields, Mr. Leuprecht said. The concession should not have been approved as the Land Law establishes the right of indigenous people to collective title, he added.

Tower of key Angkor temple in danger of collapse, researchers say - The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 5, 2005
The central tower at Bayon temple, one of the key Angkor temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia, also site of the famous Angkor Wat temple complex, is at risk of collapse, according to research by the Japanese Government Team for Safeguarding Angkor...

Journalists protest authorities' plan to evict newsstands from Phnom Penh streets - Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), June 22, 2005
A national journalist organisation and newspaper stall owners are protesting the Phnom Penh municipality's plan to remove dozens of newsstands from the streets in the capital to make way for its new development plan.
The Club of Cambodian Journalists (CCJ) was quoted by the "Phnom Penh Post", in its latest issue, as saying that any attempt to prohibit or curtail the distribution of news and information was a violation of Cambodia's press law and the people's basic freedom under a democracy. CCJ urged the Phnom Penh municipality to shelve its plan to evict the newsstands.
Another English-language daily, "Cambodia Daily", in its 17 June 2005 edition, quoted Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun as saying the removal of newsstands was necessary to beautify the city and make it a "tourist city." Their presence on the roadsides, he said, is "against the principle of development."
The "Koh Santepheap" ("Island of Peace") reported in its 20 June issue that newspaper vendors were dismayed by the authorities' allegation that their newsstands affected "the public order" and argued that it is incorrect for the government to force them off the streets since they pay taxes and other fees.
According to the Khmer-language daily, the treatment was discriminatory against newspaper sellers, since other traders such as those who sell gasoline, furniture and fruits have not been notified to move their businesses from the roadsides.
The municipality said it would build "Khmer-style" newsstands in another area around Phnom Penh, but one newspaper seller said the government must have other motives. "The intention of the municipality is to prevent people from debating on [issues critical of the government] through newspapers," said the seller. "What is the use of having newspapers without the sellers?" she asked.
BACKGROUND:
There are dozens of newspapers and magazines in Phnom Penh, but many are out of the reach of the average daily wager. It is thus common to see Cambodians, especially students and drivers of taxis, motorcycles and the local pedicabs, sit or stand around newsstands to read for free.
The Phnom Penh municipality's tourism development plan to remove newsstands from roadsides could affect people's access to information. The municipality had once previously moved newsstands from the main roads to small inner streets, where motorcades of the prime minister or foreign delegations would not pass. The sellers complained about the drop in their sales because people had difficulty finding them.

$20 million in damages have been paid to Thai companies - Khmer Intelligence, June 15, 2005
As reported previously (KI, 7 May 2005: “A new attempt to stall the Khmer Rouge tribunal”), the Cambodian government has accepted to pay $50 million in damages to Thailand (government and private companies) following the anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh in 2003.
According to the minutes of the meeting in Phnom Penh on 1 April 2005 between Cambodian Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Nam Hong and his Thai counterpart Kantathi Suphamonghon:
- 17 Thai private companies have been claiming $34,403,927.24
- There is an agreement to pay them over $20,000000,000
- 11 companies have already received $19,691,850,13 from the Cambodian government.
- The 6 other companies will soon receive an amount in excess of $1,000,000.
In the meantime, the Hun Sen government pretends it cannot afford to disburse some $13 million representing its previously agreed contribution to the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

Cambodia mulls special shoes requirement for Angkor Wat tourists - Channel NewsAsia, June 6, 2005
Tourists to Cambodia's historic Angkor temples may soon be required to rent out special shoes to prevent further damage to the complex, officials said Monday...

Chinese logging company engaged in massive deforestation in Cambodia - Khmer Intelligence, June 7, 2005
According to the pro-CPP newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea dated 5-6 June 2005 (article misleadingly titled: “Provincial governor of Mondolkiri fraudulently signed a 86,894-hectare land concession to a Chinese company in violation of land law procedures”), Prime Minister Hun Sen on 5 August 2004 personally approved two land concessions totaling 199,999 hectares in Mondolkiri province (North-East of Cambodia) to a China-based company named Wuzhishan LS Group, allowing the company to cut existing trees [of various tropical species] in the forest-covered areas and [later on hopefully] replace them with “pine trees”. The Chinese logging company has started to exploit its concessions by effectively cutting trees, confiscating local farmers’ lands and chasing the local inhabitants made up, in that region, essentially of ethnic minorities. Under the protection of some units of the “national” armed forces, the company is terrorizing the local people and destroying their homes and plantations. It is reportedly using herbicides and other chemicals that have caused the poisoning of streams and ponds and resulted in numerous cases of illness or death of humans and animals.
Wuzhishan LS Group is involved in massive deforestation in other parts of Cambodia, including Kompong Chhnang and Pursat provinces, where it is also violently clashing (especially in Pursat's Krakor district) with local farmers in its joint operation with Pheapimex Group owned by Ms. Phou (KI, 11 October 2003: “Ms. Phou, Cambodia’s richest lady”; KI, 15 June 2004: “Gold mines in Cambodia”). To read Rasmei Kampuchea’s article in Khmer

Senatorial elections to be held on 22 January 2006 - Khmer Intelligence, April 27, 2005
The government has reportedly decided that the first ever senatorial elections in Cambodia will be held on 22 January 2006 to replace the up-to-now appointed members of the Upper House. But the forthcoming elections will be of an indirect (non universal) type where only the present 123 National Assembly members (who were elected in 2003) and the some 13,000 commune councillors (elected in 2002) will be the voters who will elect the new 61 Senators with a six-year term.
Predictable results based on the voters’ political affiliations:
- CPP: 40 seats (against 31 seats now)
- Funcinpec: 14 seats (21 seats now)
- SRP: 3 seats (7 seats now)
- King’s Representatives: 2 seats (2 seats now)
- Representatives from the National Assembly: 2 seats (0 seat now).
Number of popular votes collected by the three parties at the latest election in 2003:
- CPP: 2.45 million votes
- Funcinpec: 1.07 million votes
- SRP: 1.13 million votes.
Based on the 2003 election outcomes, CPP will therefore have 13 times more seats in the new Senate than SRP even though it had only 2 times more votes; Funcinpec will have 4 times more senatorial seats than SRP even though it had fewer votes. This is due to the fact that between the two elections in 2002 and 2003, SRP’s popular votes jumped by over 50 percent while Funcinpec’s were practically stagnant, and the CPP’s votes decreased by approximately 10 percent.

Angkor guide
Chris Hawke writes: I went to Siem Reap this summer and was awe-struck by the brilliant architecture. My guide was fantastic, and I really want to help him out because he was very kind and honest. I helped him make a Web page for free on Yahoo to get more business. Here is the link.

50th anniversary of the Non-Aligned movement - April 13, 2005
Thanks to Khmer Intelligence for pointing out the 50th Anniversary of the Non-Aligned Movement and noting that Among the Founding Fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement (Chou En-lai, Nasser, Nehru, Sihanouk, Suekarno, Tito), only Cambodia’s ex-King Norodom Sihanouk is still alive.

New Airport opens in Poipet Cambodia - April 7, 2005

Political maneuvering in Cambodia - Khmer Intelligence, April 6, 2005
Increase in political tension
King-Father Norodom Sihanouk’s popular Web site was shut down for 3 days (April 2 to 5) possibly as a result of a political crackdown by the Phnom Penh government. Prime Minister Hun Sen has recently reacted very strongly to critical analyses and comments by the retired King and his childhood friend Ruom Ritt, whose caustic letters were regularly posted on the royal Web site.
The mounting tension is reflected in an April 5 article in The Cambodia Daily titled “Hun Sen Criticizes Retired King’s Past Actions”, and in an April 5 e-mail from the King-Father’s official biographer Julio Jeldres titled “Prime Minister's Threats”.
Hun Sen was particularly upset by the King-Father’s recent diplomatic initiative in the form of an Open Letter to the Governments of Vietnam, Thailand and Laos (see KI, 01 April 2005: Ex-King Norodom Sihanouk implicitly calls Hun Sen and Ranariddh “traitors”).
As an indication of his unhappiness with the current situation in Cambodia, the retired King – who has been denouncing corruption and human rights abuses – has gone into another self-imposed exile by postponing his return from China until (at the soonest) July 2005, whereas he was expected to be back in the country for next week’s celebrations of the Cambodian New Year. The former Monarch is also disappointed because his initiative to help resolve the current political crisis (triggered by the removal of the parliamentary immunity of three opposition lawmakers last February) was turned down by Hun Sen and National Assembly Speaker Norodom Ranariddh – who lets Hun Sen attack his royal father.
See English translation of the King-Father’s Open Letter
See 5 April 2005 article in The Cambodia Daily
See Julio Jeldres’s 5 April 2005 e-mail

The Strange Terrorism Threat From Cambodia - Strategy Page, March 14, 2005
...For example, the mysterious freighter that took on an unknown load in North Korea recently, and is bound for an uncertain destination, seems to have a Cambodian registry. Cambodia only has 211 vessels registered that are 1000 tons (GRT) or larger. One would think that keeping track of them would be easy, but the Cambodians have been having trouble for quite a while. In the early '90s the Cambodia Shipping Corp., with offices in Phnom Penh and Singapore, was given a contract by the Cambodian government to handle its ship registration. The company offered online registration, which made it easy to register a ship, with minimal verification of their ownership or condition. This turned out badly. Cambodian registered ships were soon being caught hauling cocaine, prostitutes, and sundry other shady cargoes. And then there were the numerous accidents (a dozen in 2001 alone). In 2002, nine Cambodian registered vessels were barred from calling at European ports, out of a total of 66 sub-standard vessels of all types (oil tankers, bulk carriers, chemical tankers, passenger), from all nations that were blacklisted (Turkey came it at 26 and St. Vincent at 12)...

The "Outpost of Tyranny" flap - March 1, 2005

US does not consider Cambodia as an "Outpost of Tyranny" - Samleng Yuvachun Khmer, Vol 12, #2404, 25.2.2005
...Khmer Intelligence is believed to be a news service organized by the opposition party. So, what it has fabricated and disseminated as a decision by the US State Department is simply being used for political gain.
However, the calarification given by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh dealt a heavy blow to the opposition party that tends to fabricate many stories such as defamation asserted by the leader of the opposition party against Samdech Krom Preah Norodom Ranariddh.

Khmer Intelligence - 24 February 2005: "Myanmar" or "Cambodia": Confusion comes from China
Following the correction Khmer Intelligence made earlier today (KI, 24 February 2005: "Correction of a mistake") and the statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia titled "United States has not designated Cambodia as an 'outpost of tyranny'" that was issued also today to deny "a report by the Khmer Intelligence electronic wire service on February 23 that was picked up by other media", our source of information "CambodiaNews" has just revealed the name of
the organization that had first distorted Condoleezza Rice's words: China's XINHUA News Agency, in a report in French posted on its Web Site on February 22. XINHUA did make the mistake when translating the corresponding Financial Times's article from English to French: "Myanmar" became "Cambodge". See XINHUA original report in French or (here).

Khmer Intelligence - 24 February 2005: Correction of a mistake
Khmer Intelligence received today an e-mail from U.S. Ambassador Charles A. Ray, saying: "Your statement that Secretary Rice is quoted by Financial Times as including Cambodia as one of six "outposts of tyranny" is incorrect. The six countries she listed, and as stated in the FT article of January 22, are: Myanmar, Cuba, Belarus, North Korea, Iran, and Zimbabwe."
KI acknowledges Ambassador Ray's correction and apologizes to all its readers for publishing an inaccurate piece of information (KI, 23 February 2005: "US Secretary of State calls Cambodia an 'outpost of tyranny'") from the electronic news service "CambodiaNews" (22 February 2005: "Condoleezza Rice : Cambodge, Cuba, ... consid?r?s
comme des 'avant-postes de la tyrannie'"). "CambodiaNews" apparently made a mistake in their translation of the corresponding Financial Times's article from English to French (Myanmar instead of Cambodia). In the future, KI will carefully check any alleged translation made by other people before publishing any news. All "news" proven inaccurate have been deleted from KI Web site.

COMMENT: Phnom Penh's political theatrics - New Straits Times, February 15, 2005

'List of 98 MPs who cowardly voted to strip their colleagues' immunity on Feb. 3, 2005' - Sam Rainsy Party

The immigrant who became the 'doughnut king' had wealth and clout -- and a nasty gambling habit. Now he sleeps on a trailer porch. - LA Times, January 19, 2005
This is an amazing story...

Press Releases: Preparing to Pulp the Pulp Merchants? Cambodian Government Announces Legal Action against Predatory Paper Giant - Global Witness, December 31, 2004

Thailand and Cambodia to celebrate 55 years of diplomatic relations - TNA, March 2, 2005
Thailand and Cambodia plan to celebrate the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year with a series of cultural exchanges, the Thai Ambassador to Cambodia said in Phnom Penh on Wednesday...

Cambodia's 'tenth dancer' - BBC, February 28, 2005
The story of a Cambodian dancer who is the only member of her troupe to survive the Khmer Rouge is to run in London...

Cambodia set to build trans-border industrial zone - VNA, February 17, 2005
Cambodia will begin construction of Koh Kong trans-border industrial zone in Cambodia's Ban Cham Yeam, east of Thailand.
The project will include such items as water supplying, telephone and electric systems and other infrastructure.
Once completed, the project will be the first world-ranked industrial zone in Cambodia. It is expected to attract enterprises in the fields of garment and textile production, agricultural machines, consumer products, glass and motorbike accessories.
The project will also create thousands of jobs for local farmers.