World Quotes

Michael Jordan: After being rejected from his high school basketball team, he ran home, locked his room and cried

2016-04-22T13:47:00.001+07:00

Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials, MJ, is an American retired professional basketball player. He is also a businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets.

Steve jobs: at the age of 30 he was devastated and depressed after being sacked from the company he started

2016-04-22T13:46:00.000+07:00

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs was an American information technology entrepreneur and inventor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.; CEO and largest shareholder of Pixar Animation Studios;[3] a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT Inc.

Abraham Lincoln: his fiance died, failed in business, had a nervous breakdown and was defeated in 8 elections

2016-04-22T13:44:00.001+07:00

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.

Walt Disney: Fired from a newspaper for Lacking imagination and Having no original ideas

2016-04-22T13:42:00.001+07:00

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor, and film producer. He was a prominent figure within the American animation industry and throughout the world, and is regarded as a cultural icon.

Albert Einstein: He wasn't able to speak until he was almost 4 years old and his teachers said he would, never amount to much

2016-04-22T13:35:00.001+07:00

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science.

Jack Ma failed the college entrance exam Twice and got rejected from 30 jobs including KFC

2016-03-24T13:46:00.001+07:00

Jack Ma or Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate and philanthropist. He is the founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a family of successful Internet-based businesses.

Soichiro Honda inveted a Piston ring, got rejected by Toyota

2016-03-24T13:44:00.005+07:00

Soichiro Honda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. In 1948, he established Honda and oversaw its expansion from a wooden shack manufacturing bicycle motors to a multinational automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.

Richard Branson survived through Dyslexia in his teenage

2016-03-24T13:43:00.002+07:00

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies.

Bill Gates before microsoft he created Traf-o-Data but it didn't work out and the idea became obsolete

2016-03-24T13:41:00.004+07:00

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, and computer programmer. In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, which became the world's largest PC software company.

Colonel Sanders was rejected 1009 times before his first chicken was sold

2016-03-24T13:39:00.001+07:00

Colonel Harland David Sanders was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken and later acting as the company's goodwill ambassador and symbol.

Henry Ford burned through all the money from his first group of investors without producing a Car

2016-03-24T13:37:00.000+07:00

Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.

If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die - Warren Buffett

2016-03-24T13:16:00.003+07:00

Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist.

Women's Day Forum Blocked

2014-03-12T10:26:00.002+07:00

A show of force by authorities today at Freedom Park suppressed a planned public forum on garment industry issues, causing union leaders to cancel the event timed to International Women’s Day.
The leaders of 18 union confederations had planned to discuss issues including the continued push for a $160 minimum monthly wage and the release of 21 activists and workers detained during a January crackdown - despite City Hall and the Ministry of Interior forbidding the gathering in decisions earlier this week.
“I’m disappointed that the government didn’t allow it and that the authorities blocked Freedom Park,” Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said after the incident. “Freedom Park [should allow] for freedom of the workers.”

As early as 7am police manned barricades blocking off the park and side streets leading there. By 8am, black-helmeted Daun Penh district security guards wielding batons stormed through a crowd of about 50 gathered near the blockade, blowing whistles, shouting and herding the group toward the Naga Bridge.
The scene remained tense, as the growing group of activists –which reached about 500 at its height – shouted at security guards, who continued holding demonstrators at the bridge, until about 10am, when union supporters drove security guards back, taking up position across from Freedom Park.
During a brief press conference, several union leaders condemned today’s police action and the earlier decision to forbid the meeting as oppressive toward workers.
“This is an illegal action of the government authorities,” Thorn said at the conference. “The government banned the forum… but they have not provided any solution.”
Ken Chhenglang, vice president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, said the forum could have been an opportunity to open a dialogue between government and unions.
“I think if the government allowed us to have a public forum here, we could provide a lot of provide a lot of information to workers,” said Chhenglang, who pointed out that government officials including Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon and Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng were invited to participate in the forum.
Had government officials allowed the event and participated, Chhenglang said, a nationwide stay-at-home strike planned to begin Wednesday, could have been averted.
Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy also briefly attended the gathering across Freedom Park to much fanfare, throwing his support behind workers.
“Today is International Women’s Day, and most garment workers are women,” Rainsy said. “They demand a minimum wage of $160 and the release of those 21 men, and I strongly support those objectives.”

Link!

Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy Returns to Cambodia

2013-07-19T13:38:00.005+07:00

I have come home to rescue the country, he told a crowd of supporters at the airport. I am happy to be here

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has returned to Cambodia, days before a general election.

Mr Rainsy had been living in France after being jailed in absentia in 2010 on charges he said were politically motivated.

But he was granted a royal pardon last week and was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters as he arrived back in Phnom Penh.

Cambodia goes to the polls on 28 July, with PM Hun Sen expected to win.

Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving prime ministers, has been in power in various coalitions since 1985.

Cambodia had come under pressure from the US over the issue of Mr Rainsy, with a State Department spokeswoman calling on the authorities to allow him to return "without fear for his personal safety or incarceration".

Last week a number of US lawmakers also called for aid to Cambodia to be cut unless the polls were free and fair.

The opposition leader was granted a royal pardon on 12 July at the request of Hun Sen, Cambodian officials said.

'Rescue the country'

Sam Rainsy, 64, arrived back in Cambodia on a flight from Bangkok.

Large crowds welcomed Mr Rainsy as he arrived back in the Cambodian capital

"I have come home to rescue the country,'' he told a crowd of supporters at the airport. "I am happy to be here!''

His Cambodia National Rescue Party will face Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party - which currently has 90 of the 123 National Assembly seats - in the polls.

The last election, in 2008, was criticised by European Union monitors, who said it fell short of international standards.

The governing party dominated the media and the National Election Committee, and tens of thousands of people were disenfranchised, the monitors said.

Sam Rainsy is currently unable to run in these polls because his name has been removed from the electoral register, but an opposition spokesman said his presence was expected to "galvanise activists and voters".

The spokesman also said the party was looking into ways to register Mr Rainsy as a candidate.

He had been living overseas since 2009, after he was stripped of immunity from prosecution and faced charges.

In 2010, he was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of manipulating a map to suggest Cambodia was losing land to Vietnam.

Link! BBC International News

Hunger Strike Ahead of Hearing

2013-06-04T13:59:00.003+07:00

Residents of the Boeung Kak lake community participate in a hunger strike in front of Phnom Penh’s Court of Appeal yesterday. The protesters are calling for the release of jailed campaigner Yorm Bopha, a key player in the evictee community.

Two days before the appeal trial of imprisoned Boeung Kak lake activist Yorm Bopha, some of her supporters went on a hunger strike yesterday to demand her release.

Led as usual by Boeung Kak activist Tep Vanny, the group of four, dressed in white, set up outside the Court of Appeal in Phnom Penh at about 9am and laid flowers spelling “Free Bopha” on the pavement.

One, Bo Chhorvy, said the group, all women, would remain there until this morning.

“We will keep striking here until Tuesday and will return again on Wednesday to support and encourage Yorm Bopha when the Court of Appeal hears her case,” she said.

But it wasn’t to be: Chhorvy, who had not eaten since Sunday night, fainted at about 8:30pm, while fellow activist Bov Sophea followed about 10 minutes later.

They were taken to NGO Licadho’s clinic for treatment, while the remaining two vowed to continue through the night.

In her prison cell at PJ prison, Bopha was also refraining from food yesterday, said her husband, Luos Sakhorn.

“My wife told me that she will not eat anything if Boeung Kak villagers set up this strike in order to gain justice and freedom for her,” he said.

Bopha was arrested in September, convicted of assault and sentenced in December to three years in prison.

Rights groups say the allegations against her – that she ordered her two brothers to savagely beat two motodops with an axe and screwdriver – were fabricated to silence her community.

They point to the fact that the two victims drank a large quantity of rice wine before the alleged attack but delivered precise testimony.

Supporters of the motodops have also staged protests, claiming the matter is a clear-cut assault case.

Come from!

The Great Rubber Rush

2013-05-16T10:55:00.001+07:00

A Vietnamese company operating in Cambodia is in possession of 16 times the legal amount of economic land concessions (ELC), while another has nearly five times what it should – and both are logging illegally, an international investigation released today reveals.

In Rubber Barons, the UK-based NGO Global Witness accuses state-run Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG) and privately owned Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) of destroying lives and the environment in Cambodia and Laos in their quest for rubber, a commodity that nets about $200 million in exports from the Kingdom each year.

Under Cambodian law, an individual can hold a total of 10,000 hectares of ELC land. But according to the Global Witness report, VRG possesses 161,344 hectares of rubber plantations in the Kingdom, spread across seven provinces.

HAGL, the subsidiaries of which have been accused multiple times in the past three weeks of illegal logging in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, holds at least 47,000 hectares of ELC land.

“Cambodia and Laos are in the grip of a land-grabbing crisis, driven by Vietnamese ‘rubber barons’,” the report says. Of 2.6 million hectares of land leased by the government to private companies up until the end of 2012, 1.2 million hectares were for rubber plantations, Rubber Barons continues.

“[HAGL] and [VRG] . . . have leased vast tracts of land for plantations in Laos and Cambodia, with disastrous consequences for local communities and the environment.”

Such consequences included food and water shortages, loss of livelihoods without compensation and the destruction of burial grounds and sacred forests.

For those who protested against eviction or forest clearing, intimidation, violence and arrests were common.

“Often, the first people know about either company being given their land is when the bulldozers arrive,” the report says. “The indigenous ethnic minorities of Cambodia and Laos appear to be disproportionately bearing the brunt of these land grabs.”

Global Witness, which was expelled from Cambodia in 2005 for its activism, also accuses both companies of illegally logging outside their concession areas – an allegation rights groups and villagers have also made to the Post in the past month.

“HAGL is alleged to have contracted a powerful Cambodian tycoon to clear and process timber from its concessions,” the report says.

Villagers have told Global Witness that HAGL subsidiaries had struck this deal with tycoon Try Pheap, it continues.

“Member companies of VRG appear to have high-level connections with Cambodian government officials and have partnered with a notorious illegal logging syndicate.

“[Officials] have licensed concessions in contravention of their own laws and failed to take action when HAGL and VRG openly ignore these same laws.”

Uk Sokhun, secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, and Ith Nody, his undersecretary of state in charge of ELCs, hung up on a reporter yesterday when asked about the claims. Try Pheap could not be reached for comment.

Veil of secrecy

Another reason the two companies have been able to get away with breaking the Land Law is because of “corporate secrecy”, the report claims.

“The ability of both companies to exceed the legal threshold for concession holdings in Cambodia appears to be as a result of hiding their beneficial ownership behind complex layers of shell companies.”

HAGL owns companies such as Hoang Anh Andong Meas, Hoang Anh Oyadov and Heng Brothers, all in Ratanakkiri province.

Headed by Doan Nguyen Duc, HAGL is one of Vietnam’s biggest private companies. According to Global Witness, Nguyen Duc holds 48 per cent of the company, which also deals in property, hydropower and mining.

It is believed that VRG owns numerous companies including Dong Phu and Dong Nai in Kratie province.

Leng Rithy, president of the Vietnamese Rubber Enterprise Federation, is the Cambodian representative for VRG.

Global Witness called on Cambodia and Laos to cancel concessions of known firms owned by the two Vietnamese companies.

Hidden backers

Megan MacInnes, head of the land team at Global Witness, said regulations were needed to deter financial backers of companies involved in illegal concessions or logging.

“Until [this happens] . . . international banks and financial institutions will continue to turn a blind eye to the human rights abuses and deforestation they are bankrolling,” she said.

Elaborating on this, Global Witness accuses the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – the financing arm of the World Bank – and Deutsche Bank of funding the two companies in question.

“Deutsche Bank has significant holdings in both companies, while the IFC invests in HAGL,” its statement says.

“Deutsche Bank and the IFC should take urgent steps to ensure that HAGL and VRG comply with the financial institutions’ legal and corporate environmental and social requirements,” the report continues.

Hannfried von Hindenburg, head of communications for IFC East Asia and the Pacific, said his company had a stake in the investment firm Vietnam Enterprise Investment Limited (VEIL), which is managed by another Vietnamese company, Dragon Capital. This firm, von Hindenburg said, had an investment in HAGL.

“IFC will carefully study the findings of the Global Witness research, and taking this research into consideration is part of our ongoing monitoring of our investments in Dragon Capital and VEIL,” he said.

The Post understands that Dragon Capital representatives, who could not be reached yesterday, recently visited the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary to examine claims of illegal logging.

According to Global Witness, Deutsche Bank “holds 1.2 million shares in Dong Phu, a member of VRG”.

But a spokesman for the bank said it did not provide any financing at all to HAGL, Dong Fu or VRG and should not have its name associated with any of these allegations.

“The DWS fund [an asset management branch of Deutsche Bank] shares referred to are held on behalf of investors,” he said. “Deutsche Bank provides clerical trustee services to HAGL as it does to many thousands of listed companies globally.”

In the past month, the Post has reported multiple times on alleged illegal logging within the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary.

Chhay Thy, a provincial investigator for rights group Adhoc, has estimated that as many as 16,000 trees have been felled in the wildlife sanctuary alone.

Neither HAGL nor VRG could be reached for comment.

Link!

From Prison, an Accidental Activist

2013-05-09T11:04:00.005+07:00

Boeung Kak activist Song Srey Leap takes part in a protest in Phnom Penh last month. Srey Leap says she had not been motivated to take part in demonstrations until after she was arrested last year.

When Boeung Kak lake protesters converged on the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to demand justice for imprisoned activist Yorm Bopha last month, an increasingly familiar face was at the front.

After her fellow activists chanted, released birds from a cage and then dispersed, Song Srey Leap, 27, remained at the court’s entrance.

Crying, she continued screaming for justice as police – who likely recognised the face before them – watched her every move.

A year ago, Srey Leap wasn’t an activist. Her community was in the grip of an enduring land dispute and her mother was a regular protester, but Srey Leap was only a silent observer.

“I would only sometimes attend protests, on the weekend, when I wasn’t working,” she said yesterday. “But I never spoke with police. I was only ever watching.”

Almost a year ago, things changed. Srey Leap was arrested with 12 other women as she observed another protest, she said.

The group, soon known as the “Boeung Kak 13”, was sentenced – in a three-hour trial – to two-and-a-half years in Prey Sar prison.

“Some women came back to our village and said officials were receiving orders on walkie-talkies to begin arresting women,” Srey Leap said of the events leading to her arrest. “I heard this and went to the [nearby protest] to warn people to come back.”

Soon after, Srey Leap was detained on the sand dunes of Boeung Kak as she headed home with Phan Chhunreth, who was also arrested and imprisoned.

Although released on appeal 34 days later, the women’s convictions – for encroaching on private property and disputing authority – remained.

“I felt very angry with authorities,” said Srey Leap, who is the youngest of the 13. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I tried to explain this to police when I was arrested, but they didn’t listen.

“During our three-hour trial, I was questioned for two minutes. It ended with the court clerk saying police wouldn’t have arrested me if I’d done nothing wrong.”

The treatment of the women and two others detained at their trial and sent to Prey Sar was widely condemned last year. Critics accused the government of trying to silence protesters.

If that was its aim, Srey Leap’s arrest had the opposite effect – in prison, her silence gave way to forthright dissent.

“I’d never been to a prison before. I felt like my life was ruined,” she said. “I was surrounded by people who had done things like stolen a bag – and they were serving three to five years. Yet we know of corrupt officials who have been convicted of crimes and are still free.

“When we were in prison, I thought, ‘If I can get out, I will make a plan to find our community a resolution.’”

Since her release, Srey Leap has been at most Boeung Kak protests, often at the forefront. Her mother, Ieng Bunnary, has protested less and focused more on providing for the family, leaving her daughter to become an almost full-time activist.

The 27-year-old acts as a communications officer for the Boeung Kak community, and when she’s not protesting, she’s often devising better ways to protest.

“I’m not protesting because I’m angry with the authorities. I feel angry, sure, but I don’t want revenge. I want a solution for the people.

“And it’s not just about Boeung Kak for me now – we need the courts to stop corruption and stop the powerful controlling them. They need to follow the rule of law and give everyone justice – even the poor.”

The likely attempt to stifle the Boeung Kak activists appeared to have backfired, said Sia Phearum, secretariat director of rights group Housing Rights Task Force.

“I think the authorities gave experience to them,” he said. “After they went to prison, they saw more injustice around them.

“We have found them doing more after prison. Srey Leap especially has become more active. She doesn’t want to sleep – she has found the issues around her serious.”

Link!

Cambodian Activist Awarded for Work on Land Rights

2013-05-08T14:16:00.000+07:00

Cambodian land rights activist Tep Vanny has received an international award for leading a battle against forced evictions with a vow to spare no efforts to win the freedom of a jailed fellow campaigner.

The housewife, who has been representing evicted residents from the Boeung Kak lake neighborhood in Phnom Penh which was razed to make way for a luxury residential development, was presented on Tuesday with the Leadership in Public Life Award by Vital Voices—a Washington-based organization that trains women leaders and social entrepreneurs.

“To me—just like other women in Boeung Kak who are suffering from forced evictions—this award is very meaningful,” Tep Vanny said during her acceptance speech at the award gala, which was also attended by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“It means that the whole world has heard their voices and that the world is showing support for the Boeung Kak villagers. They don’t have to be alone anymore.”

She vowed to continue her demand for compensation for the more than 4,000 families who were relocated from the site since 2008 when Chinese-Cambodian company Shukaku Inc. grabbed their land and began draining the lake for commercial development.

“When I return I will continue my campaign,” she said, adding that 61 families are still holding out for a small parcel of land on the 133-hectare (330-acre) site.

Tep Vanny also vowed to continue seeking the freedom of Yorm Bopha, who was ordered jailed for three years for committing “intentional violence" in connection with the beating of a suspected thief. Human rights groups have said she was targeted for championing the right to housing for the Boeung Kak evictees.

“I hope that we will have a good result [in our fight] for Yorm Bopha,” she said.

Secretariat director of Cambodia’s Housing Rights Task Force Sia Phearum, who was invited to attend Tuesday’s reception, told RFA’s Khmer Service Wednesday that the award would “change the situation in Boeung Kak.”

“Even though it is a bit difficult for the government to accept, I hope that through Tep Vanny’s award … the government will be forced to recognize the truth and act to serve the people,” he said.

Sia Phearum said that during his visit to the U.S. he met with State Department officials and members of the New York-based Human Rights Watch to ask for their intervention in the Boueng Kak issue and to assist in obtaining Yorm Bopha’s release.

‘The reality in Cambodia’

On Monday, Tep Vanny sat down with RFA’s Khmer Service in Washington to discuss the situation of the Boeung Kak villagers, saying she believed that the award—and a tour in Europe last week to promote a related documentary film—will help bring international attention to the dispute.

"The world is monitoring this case,” she said. "Our struggle is no longer useless and we are no longer isolated like before.”

But she said she would not be satisfied until the government releases Yorm Bopha, honors the land request of the remaining families at the site, and ends “widespread forced evictions” in Cambodia.

Tep Vanny said that she has been under constant surveillance by police in Cambodia and expressed frustration that the government would rather “threaten” her than listen to her concerns.

“Every time we submit petitions [to the government] for help, there are hundreds of police officers at the scene,” she said.

She said that she was saddened to have to speak negatively about her homeland while traveling abroad, “but this is the reality in Cambodia.”

“The government is killing us little by little … We are suffering rather than dying instantly.”

Link!

Koh Kong Land Reps Descend on PM

2013-05-07T11:35:00.003+07:00

About 70 representatives from five communities locked in land disputes in Koh Kong province protested in Phnom Penh yesterday, but were thwarted in their efforts as they called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to deploy his army of youths to measure their land and issue titles.

Three of the communities represented are in dispute with Chinese company Union Development Group, which received 36,000 hectares in economic land concessions (ELCs) in 2008 and about 9,000 more in 2011.

The total size of the concessions breaches the Land Law, under which a company is allowed to possess up to 10,000 hectares of ELC land.

As a result of the concessions, more than 1,100 families across Botom Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts are being evicted.

The other two communities represented at yesterday’s protest are in dispute with Heng Huy Agriculture Company in Sre Ambel district.

Rong Ky, a representative of 40 families who say their land is being taken, said police blocked the protesters as they tried to reach Hun Sen’s house.

“They said they would deliver our petitions on our behalf, but we disagreed. This led to confrontation for a while,” he said. “Our dispute has not been resolved, please let people have the right to live on the land and wait for a resolution.”

Phav Nhoeung, whose community in Sre Ambel district is in dispute with Heng Huy Agriculture Company, said the prime minister should send students to measure the families’ land as part of his national titling process.

“The authorities are not following Hun Sen’s directive. The company is taking our land,” she said.

Chan Soveth, senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, said the village representatives had travelled many times to the capital in hope that the prime minister would intervene to help end their land disputes.

“They keep protesting because the youths who went down to measure the land don’t seem as independent as the first group,” he said. “That’s because the local authorities – working on behalf of a company’s representatives – point them where to go.”

Lim Leangse, deputy chief of Hun Sen’s cabinet, said he had not yet received the petitions and declined to comment.

Link!

Cambodia Economic Land Concession

2013-04-21T08:48:00.001+07:00

Fight for the Frontier

2013-04-18T09:06:00.000+07:00

On Monday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, legal teams from Cambodia and Thailand will begin presenting arguments over a small swath of land along the border between the countries.

The long-awaited judicial battle is being waged over a few square kilometres of mountainous terrain next to the Preah Vihear temple, a majestic ruin sitting atop a cliff in the north of Cambodia. The disputed area is about the size of central Phnom Penh, but the history leading up to it goes back more than 100 years – some say further.

At the source of the story sits the temple, and wrapped around it are aspects of most modern conflicts: culture, military exchanges, politics, diplomatic relations, colonialism and nationalism.

What follows is a basic primer on the subject, crafted after consulting court documents and talking to historians, experts and officials involved on both sides.

When did the conflict over the temple begin?
Seeds of the legal dispute were sown in the early 1900s, when France, which controlled Cambodia as a protectorate, and Thailand, an independent power known then as Siam, signed off on a series of maps that established boundaries between the two Southeast Asian countries.

The French put the temple of Preah Vihear, which was built in honour of the Hindu god Shiva around AD 900, during the reign of Angkorian King Yasovarman, on the Cambodian side of the maps. The matter, for a time, was considered closed.

But, as in other countries with colonial pasts, the trouble began simmering when the colonisers left. In 1953 Cambodia gained independence. Court records show that in 1954 Thai troops temporarily occupied the temple.

“The Thai-Cambodian border was fixed by a commission dominated by the French, and the Thais acquiesced to the French decision to include PV [Preah Vihear] inside Cambodia,” historian and Cambodia expert David Chandler said.

“They [the Thais] waited until the French were gone to say anything, ie: they accepted the border they had agreed to, under unprovable duress.”

The ownership claims, however, may be even older and more complicated, though not as well documented. According to journalist John Burgess, the author of A Woman of Angkor, accounts from the 1920s and 1930s show that Thais in the area treated the temple as a Thai possession, and that the temple may have passed in and out of Siamese hands hundreds of years ago. Cambodians, too, have retained strong ties over time.

“The main cliff at the temple is named after Ta Di, said to have been a Khmer commander who threw himself off the cliff rather than submit to capture by a Siamese force that was seizing the temple,” said Burgess, who is working on a book about Preah Vihear.

“At this point, I don’t know whether Ta Di is legend or a documented historical figure, but pretty much all Cambodians in the Preah Vihear area know about him, as do many beyond it. There are two statues of him on the plain below the temple, one at a museum, one near the foot of the ancient eastern steps. Today, Cambodian security people at the temple pray to him (there’s a small shrine to him in a niche right on the cliff’s edge) and see him as the guardian against Thai encroachment.”

When did the case first go to court?
Six years after independence, in 1959, the case went to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and three years later, judges awarded the temple to Cambodia, citing the series of maps – specifically a 1907 map – that had been first produced by French cartographers and which showed Preah Vihear inside Cambodia’s borders.

The legal disagreement stems from the use, in the creation of the maps more than a century ago, of a watershed line along the eastern sector of the Dangrek mountain range – where the Preah Vihear temple sits – as the basis for demarcating most of the border, but not as the basis for the border area around Preah Vihear. The resulting map, according to court interpretation of the Thai claim, “had never been accepted by Thailand or, alternatively, that if Thailand had accepted it, she had done so only because of a mistaken belief that the frontier indicated corresponded with the watershed line,” and that “the true watershed line would place the temple in Thailand.”

The court disagreed, putting forth the rationale that Thai officials at the time “said nothing”, and that the Siamese Minister of the Interior, Prince Damrong, thanked the French minister in Bangkok for the maps.

“If the Siamese authorities accepted the . . . map without investigation, they could not now plead any error vitiating the reality of their consent,” a court summary of the judgment states.

But the argument today isn’t about the temple. It’s about the land surrounding the temple, right?
Yes and no, because the developments over the temple are the source of the contested land claim. After the ICJ decision in 1962, the controversy cooled for a few decades, until the listing of Preah Vihear on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2008.

Anne Lemaistre, spokeswoman for UNESCO in Cambodia, said “the problem was unforeseen at the time of the preparation of the nomination dossier. To illustrate this, in 2007, during the World Heritage Committee session, a decision was adopted stating that: ‘The State Party of Cambodia and the State Party of Thailand are in full agreement that the Sacred Site of the Temple of Preah Vihear has Outstanding Universal Value and must be inscribed on the World Heritage List as soon as possible. Accordingly, Cambodia and Thailand agree that Cambodia will propose the site for formal inscription on the World Heritage List at the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee in 2008 with the active support of Thailand.’”

The Thai argument, however, explained by Thailand’s Ambassador to The Hague Virachai Plasai, centres on the map Cambodia submitted in the World Heritage site nomination plan in 2007 in Christchurch, New Zealand.

“That map encroached upon some of our territory in Thailand; that’s why we became aware of the problem,” he said. “I think it is clear that the Thai government is not going to ask for the temple back.
The temple is not an issue now since 1962, the question is the land around it.

“What is surprising about that is that the line that is shown on that map is not the line that they pleaded in the original proceedings,” he added.

Virachai said the difference in the maps amounted to the “the famous 4.6 square kilometres” to the northwest of the temple, cited in reports as the area under contention.

The Cambodian government counters that it has not deviated from the original map used in the first ICJ decision to award Cambodia the temple.

“It has never changed,” said Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Press and Quick Reaction Unit at the Council of Ministers.

What is the status of the area now? Is it safe; is there fighting?
While cross-border clashes between 2008 and 2011 damaged the temple and led to an unknown number of casualties on both sides – an official count was never released – soldiers began redeploying outside of a court-established Provisional Demilitarized Zone last year, and it has been mostly all quiet on the northwestern front, with the exception of troop stirrings and protests against the ICJ jurisdiction on the Thai side, since the redeployment.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed for calm in a speech yesterday, but it is difficult to say what will happen in the short term, as the court won’t deliver its verdict until October or November. The decision will likely have more of an impact in Thailand, where everything Preah Vihear is more of a political tinderbox.

In Cambodia, with the calm in the area since the last round of fighting in 2011, Preah Vihear temple, situated in the province of the same name, and sandwiched between the provinces of Siem Reap and Stung Treng, has once again turned into a tourist destination.

Pheng Sam Oeun, an archaeologist with the National Authority for Preah Vihear, said that tourists are started to stream back to the temple on an average of dozens a day.

“We say to the visitor that nothing happened at the site, they can come any time; we’re open to visitors from 7am to 5pm.”

A temple’s troubled history

9th-12th centuries
Preah Vihear, a temple honouring the Hindu god Shiva, is built on Dangrek mountain range by King Yasovarman as one of many hilltop structures in the Angkor era.

1907
French officials produce maps that place the Preah Vihear temple inside Cambodia. Maps are presented to Thailand, and according to a later court decision no opposition was raised.

1953
Cambodia achieves independence from France. Preah Vihear issue comes to the fore. About a year after independence, Thais briefly occupy Preah Vihear.

1962
International Court of Justice awards Preah Vihear to Cambodia in a decision based on earlier French maps.

2008
UNESCO lists Preah Vihear as a World Heritage site. Tension builds and deadly clashes occur; fighting continues intermittently over next three years.

2011
Ceasefire brokered and Cambodia asks International Court of Justice to interpret its 1962 ruling to deal with the surrounding territory under dispute.

2013
Legal teams from both countries dispatched to International Court of Justice for hearings in April on territory around the temple amounting to 4.6-square kilometres.

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The European Union

2013-03-29T13:56:00.003+07:00

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental negotiated decisions by the member states.Institutions of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, the Court of Auditors, and the European Parliament. The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens. The EU's de facto capital is Brussels.

The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), formed by the Inner Six countries in 1951 and 1958 respectively. In the intervening years the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993.The latest amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.

The EU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area (which includes 22 EU and 4 non-EU states) passport controls have been abolished.EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital,enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development.

A monetary union, the eurozone, was established in 1999 and is composed of 17 member states. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. Permanent diplomatic missions have been established around the world. The EU is represented at the United Nations, the WTO, the G8 and the G-20.

With a combined population of over 500 million inhabitants, or 7.3% of the world population, the EU, in 2011, generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of 17.6 trillion US dollars, representing approximately 20% of the global GDP when measured in terms of purchasing power parity. The EU generated the largest nominal GDP and GDP PPP in the world. The EU was the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

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Activist Yorm Bopha Denied Bail

2013-03-28T15:54:00.001+07:00

Jailed Boeung Kak activist Yorm Bopha hugs her son yesterday outside the Supreme Court during a break in proceedings at her bail hearing in the capital.

Supporters of imprisoned Boeung Kak lake land activist Yorm Bopha surged into the grounds of the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh yesterday morning, screaming and crying, after Bopha's second appeal for bail was rejected and she was escorted to a van bound for Prey Sar prison.

The protesters, among more than 100 who had gathered outside, screamed at officials and banged on the windows of the van before it sped off – with Bopha shouting out of the window. In the streets, others tore a styrofoam “scales of justice” apart before setting the pieces alight.

Bopha, 29, who was sentenced in December to three years in prison, had quietly entered the court hours before, hopeful a panel of five judges would release her on bail before her appeal hearing – a date for which has not been set.

“I think that if the court is independent, I will be released on bail,” the activist said. “I hope to get justice and I will not surrender – I’m going to struggle until I get it.”

Bopha was arrested in September on intentional-violence charges, accused of ordering an axe attack on two motodops in Boeung Kak’s Village 22 on August 7.

Her supporters and rights groups call the charges baseless and motivated by a desire to silence her community.

In a hearing that lasted about 25 minutes yesterday, Bopha said her reasons for seeking bail were a heart condition that required regular treatment and a need to care for her family, including her nine-year-old son, Lihour.

“My husband will put forward four million riel [$1,000] for bail, and I will report to the court when asked to,” she told judges.

In putting forward reasons why the court should reject that application, court prosecutor Seng Bunkheang said Bopha had already been found guilty of the assault and was a flight risk.

In a curious moment, Bunkheang added that Bopha’s was a “special case”.

When one of Bopha’s two lawyers, Horm Sunrith, asked what the prosecutor meant by “special”, a judge intervened to say that Bunkheang did not have time to explain it in detail.

In delivering the judges’ decision some hours later – after a smiling Bopha, with her son on her knee, had held a press conference outside – Khim Punn, president of the five judges, said Bopha would remain in Prey Sar prison.

“The Supreme Court has not approved her application, because the heart condition Yorm Bopha has spoken of has not been verified in official documents from health authorities,” he said. “Furthermore, the suspect was already sentenced to prison by the municipal court on December 27.”

A calm Bopha, surrounded by security guards and fellow Boeung Kak activist Heng Mom, said her fight for justice would continue.

“This is my message to our community: Don’t give up or think that I can’t be freed. We must keep going in our struggle for our land rights,” she said, raising her hand before being forced into the awaiting van. “Struggle, struggle – justice will happen.”

Like many other supporters, Mom was overcome with emotion at the sight of her friend being taken away.

“I hoped today would be freedom day for Yorm Bopha, but this is unjust... very unjust. Why?” she said, crying.

As news spread of the court’s decision, protesters, many dressed in “Free Bopha” T-shirts and some armed with megaphones, shouted that the court “was blind and unjust” and later made their way to the Royal Palace to appeal for King Norodom Sihamoni’s intervention.

During Bopha’s trial in December, her husband, Lous Sakhon, received the same sentence, though it was immediately suspended, while her brothers Yorm Kanlong and Yorm Sith – who allegedly committed the violence on motodops Nget Chet and Vath Thaiseng – were sentenced to three years in absentia and warrants issued for their arrest.

Sakhon yesterday maintained that his family had not played any part in the attack.

“[The court] demanded evidence from Yorm Bopha, but they did not demand that the motodops show evidence that Bopha was involved in beating them,” he said.

Among the crowd at the court’s entrance, on the corner of Sothearos Boulevard and Street 240, was Tim Sakmony, a 65-year-old activist from Borei Keila who spent months in Prey Sar prison with Bopha last year before her release in December.

“We were arrested within a day of each other,” she said. “She’s like a little girl – she has no power to fight against the two men. Where is the justice and where are the human rights?”

Rights groups were asking the same questions yesterday as they called for the Appeal Court to set a date for her hearing.

“The procedural and substantive flaws in Bopha’s original trial were so dramatic, so blatant, that it’s impossible to conclude that this conviction isn’t politically motivated,” Naly Pilorge, director of rights group Licadho, said in a statement that also carried the names of NGOs STT, Equitable Cambodia and Cambodian Legal Education Centre.

“The evidence against Yorm Bopha is very weak, with some witnesses admitting to being intoxicated when the incident took place,” rights group Adhoc said in its own statement.

“Not a single witness has claimed that she or her husband took part in the violence themselves.”

Bopha’s son Lihour, 9, was also questioning the justice system yesterday, as he explained that his mother’s absence was affecting his performance at school.

“I do not know what I can do if the court is not independent,” he said.

Thousands of families have been evicted from the now filled-in lake area since 2007, when the government granted a concession to CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s Shukaku Inc to develop a satellite city.

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Association of Southeast Asian Nations

2013-03-28T14:02:00.000+07:00

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN pron.: /ˈɑːsi.ɑːn/ AH-see-ahn, rarely /ˈɑːzi.ɑːn/ AH-zee-ahn) is a geo-political and economic organization of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and and the working language is English. The headquarters is in Jakata, Indonesia. Secretary General is Le Luong Minh hwo living in Vietnam. Its aims include accelerating economic growth, social progress, cultural development among its members, protection of regional peace and stability, and opportunities for member countries to discuss differences peacefully.

ASEAN covers a land area of 4.46 million km², which is 3% of the total land area of Earth, and has a population of approximately 600 million people, which is 8.8% of the world's population. The sea area of ASEAN is about three times larger than its land counterpart. In 2011, its combined nominal GDP had grown to more than US$ 2 trillion. If ASEAN were a single entity, it would rank as the eighth largest economy in the world.

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Largesse and Threats Ahead of Election

2013-03-26T16:11:00.003+07:00

Youth volunteers prepare to depart Phnom Penh to take part in the government’s land measurement and titling scheme in 2012.

Prime Minister Hun Sen warned thousands of villagers yesterday that his most popular initiatives, including his far-reaching land-titling scheme, will simply disappear if he is not re-elected in July’s national election – amid suggestions his campaigning has unofficially begun.

In a marked shift from his apparent generosity of last week, which included returning land to evictees in Preah Sihanouk province and adding $2 to a monthly garment wage increase, the prime minister used a ground-breaking ceremony for a bridge to predicted regression should the CPP fall from power.

“You come to Hun Sen for help with problems relating to markets, bridges [and] roads,” he said during a speech to about 10,000 villagers in Kandal province’s Koh Thum district. “But when July comes, you must help me, just once. I ask for only one vote each.”

The prime minister’s rhetoric – although contradictory – is nothing out of the ordinary, according to government spokesman Phay Siphan, who noted that Hun Sen makes headlines all year round.

Independent analysts and the opposition, however, see Hun Sen’s latest political twisting and turning as signs his election campaign has already begun, albeit unofficially.

“You would call it electioneering – reduce resentment and anger to get [voter] support,” independent analyst Lao Mong Hay said, referring to Hun Sen’s gestures of last week. “He has done this in the past. Politicians like to show the public they care.”

As well as intervening in the wage issue and overturning a sub-decree that wrested land in Preah Sihanouk back from tycoon Cheam Phen – sparing 49 families from permanent relocation – Hun Sen also publicly declared last week he had sacked Yean Sina, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, over his alleged part in the beating of 10 journalists.

Koul Panha, executive director of election-monitoring NGO Comfrel, did not consider Sina’s sacking a strategic move to sway voters, but believed Hun Sen’s land and wage moves were.

“I think with the minimum wage, it’s an election motivator, and also the land [issue],” he said.

“Starting January, things have been a little more intensified. During this time, [the government] has focused more on economic issues. Minimum wage is a core issue too... but not education and health.”

In coming months, Panha said, corruption will be an issue that will likely shape campaigning, and Hun Sen can be expected to generate televised messages aimed at young voters.

“This time, they will target youth,” he said. “They will look at the first-time voters. But the CPP will focus on entertaining voters, not on policy. They’ll use singers and comedians. The opposition will focus on education.”

With regards to the land issue, Nicolas Agostini, a legal adviser focusing on land rights at Adhoc, said any steps Hun Sen has taken in the lead-up to July’s election – dating back to last year’s decision to deploy student volunteers to fast-track his national land-titling scheme – should not be seen as a policy shift.

“With land, they did enhance land-title security through the new scheme in non-disputed areas... but they are not the people and communities who are most in need. On one side, you see the prime minister getting benefits from these [announcements], but the real problems are not addressed.”

The deployment of youth volunteers had been “outside legal framework”, Agostini added, and steps need to be taken to tackle problems faced by indigenous communities seeking communal titles, farmers in disputed areas and villagers in informal urban settlements.

During his speech yesterday, Hun Sen said he still believed the CPP has the ability to retain at least two-thirds of the country’s National Assembly seats.

As it stands, the CPP holds 90 of 123 seats, or 73 per cent.

Hun Sen’s claim that certain major projects could be in jeopardy if the CPP loses does hold some weight, with CPP-affiliated tycoons frequently funding what should be public development works. But political analysts have suggested the newly formed Cambodian National Rescue Party could chip away at the CPP’s hold on the National Assembly regardless of such threats.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son Chhay believes the CPP is already feeling pressure from the CNRP, prompting Hun Sen to begin electioneering months out from the national ballot.

“During the 2008 election, he went to Sihanoukville and gave some land back – five years later, he’s doing the same thing. He gives the land back, he speaks ill of officials.”

Unlike Panha, Chhay considers the sacking of Sina to be significant in its timing.

“Normally, these are people outside his circle, like [Sina], who was from Funcinpec. [Hun Sen] can use it as an example and display it to the public. It’s not a new thing, but this time it’s more serious than ever before.”

The reason for this, Chhay believes, is because more voters are becoming dissatisfied with the CPP and willing to speak up about it, including through public protest.

“I’m surprised. It’s quite early. But from my own observations, every time there is an election coming, there will be some reverse behaviour from [Hun Sen] towards the abuse of his people,” he said.

But though it may appear otherwise, Siphan, from the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit, said nothing Hun Sen or the government had done thus far constituted campaigning.

“The activity of the prime minister makes the front page every week of every year,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it is part of an election campaign. Thirty days before the election, that’s when we’ll start. That’s the law.”

That’s a sentiment that suited Mong Hay, who said any political matter prior to the end of June should be discussed – for as long as politicians want – in the confines of the National Assembly.

“At the end of June, OK, that’s the election campaign. You can talk to people all you want then. But until then, leave people in peace. Go to the parliament and have a forum there,” he said.

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