CHIT
Families Told: Leave Historic Site
Khmer Times/May Titthara Tuesday, 26 July 2016 19 views
Small shops for tourists line the road to the top of Kulen Mountain, where residents are facing eviction. KT/Mai Vireak
SIEM REAP – The roar of engines from tourist buses and cars drowns out the nearby sounds of crickets and flowing water as 39-year-old souvenir seller Touy Samoeurn spoke about the situation plaguing her.
Ms. Samoeurn has spent more than 10 years calling Kulen Mountain home, residing in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district with more than 300 other families, most of whom are either current or former military officers.
But earlier this month, the provincial department of environment said everyone living on the mountain had to move so the government could apply for a UNESCO natural world heritage designation.
It is not a requirement for natural heritage sites to be free of settlements and the government has not explained why it is forcing the people living on the mountain to move.
Ms. Samoeurn never stopped glancing at visitors leaving their vehicles while explaining her frustration with the government’s inexplicable decision to force her from her home.
“I live here without affecting the environment and natural resources on the mountain. If they tell us to go to a new place, what can I do for business to feed my children? It will turn out like it did 10 years ago when we first came here,” she said.
She and other residents of the mountain have decried the lack of information given to them about the potential move. Despite no specific indication of where they are being moved to besides “to the foot of the mountain” and no idea about how much compensation will being given to them, Ms. Samoeurn and other vendors have already said they will not move.
Their businesses have allowed them to support their families and pay for their children’s education and they see no reason why they should be forced to move and give up their livelihoods, she said.
In addition to their familiarity with the tourist business, Ms. Samoeurn said many vendors along the road up the mountain had taken out bank loans to build houses and cover expenses. Many were worried that the change of location would affect their ability to come up with enough money to cover their loan payments.
“So if we are forced to leave here, how can we repay the bank,” she said, adding that she spent years working to build her home and the thought of giving it up was heartbreaking. “The government should find new options. Please think about our livelihoods which solely depend on sales to tourists.”
Kulen Mountain, originally named Mohinpit, covers an area of 37,500 hectares and is only 60 kilometers from Siem Reap town. The mountain holds a large amount of historical significance in Khmer history because King Jayavaraman II, in 802 AD, declared himself a god-king and announced his empire’s independence from Java there.
The peak of the mountain was used as his capital and more than 20 temples have been found dotted along the mountain’s green face.
The biggest tourist attractions are the waterfalls, which are sprinkled throughout the mountainside, and the giant statue of Buddha at the top of the mountain. Built in the 16th century, the Buddha has now become a place of worship for many in the area.
Due to the discovery of ancient Khmer architecture, the mountain is now not only a potential natural heritage site, but also a cultural one. The government is hoping to cash in on the mountain, aiming to protect every natural and man-made landmark on Kulen Mountain ahead of their UNESCO application submission.
As we rode up the mountain to Ang Thom Pagoda, Cheang Chanthou, a clothes vendor, said the families living there depended on tourism to support themselves. On an average day, she could make from 70,000 to 100,000 riel.
“We have no farmland, and if the authorities force us to leave here, our lives will be worse. We don’t know how to earn money, so I don’t want them to take us from this place,” she said.
Tan Samnang agreed with Ms. Chanthou and questioned how the government could make its decision without figuring out where they would move the families first. How could they be asked to prepare to leave their homes without any information, the souvenir seller asked.
“We don’t want to move. If the government evicts people from the area, we will starve to death,” Mr. Samnang told Khmer Times. “Also, some of our houses are worth thousands of US dollars. Where can we find the money to build a new house?”
He added more than 300 families have lived on Kulen Mountain since 1997, a large portion of whom are active or former soldiers in the army. It was astonishing, he said, that the government would move them after they all spent years improving their community on the mountain.
“I won’t leave the mountain because I have struggled for many years and our business is running smoothly,” he said.
Many others echoed this sentiment, saying their improvements to the area alone should give them license to stay where they are. Mak Kheang, 62, was not aware of the situation when asked about it, but expressed his concern about the potential move. Even if they moved families to the foot of the mountain, it would still be difficult for vendors to sell their wares to tourists.
“The authorities should understand that we have worked so hard to get to where we are today. They can’t change our places when we already have a good place to stay,” he said.
Phuong Lina, chief of the environment department in Siem Reap, said both military families and newcomers will be forced to leave, but added that they would not be moved far from where they work, to allow them to keep their current jobs.
“If they live here, we cannot take them far from their old place. It must be near their old place. According to the information, they are taking only the residential buildings, not the businesses,” he said.
Kim Chhay Heang, Siem Reap’s deputy provincial governor, said the Environment Ministry was working with Siem Reap provincial authorities to establish three commissions aiming to check on the protection of the environment on Kulen Mountain.
They have also created a commission to review their options on what to do with the people living on the mountain, who he claimed were living there “illegally.”
“Now there are about 400 to 500 families of soldiers and citizens who are living illegally in the Ang Thom area. Authorities plan to move them to the foot of the mountain, but we do not know the exact time to implement it,” he told Khmer Times.
In response to the outrage from many local residents, Khnang Phnom commune chief Seum Tam said he had only received information from higher government officials about instructions to organize military families who were “living in disorder.” Despite rumors in the community, he said the government move would not affect their stores and workplaces.
“I tried to tell them that, but they don’t believe me and always think the authorities are trying to hide information from them,” he said.
He added that no official decision had been made by authorities, but questioned the government’s motive behind the potential move.
“They’re just living to serve tourism,” he said. “Why do they have to change where they live if they haven’t cut down a single tree?”
Many families have built homes on the mountain. KT/Mai Vireak
CHIT
In Cambodia Friends of Kem Ley Fear for Their Safety
2016-07-27 RFA
Twin brothers, Chum Huor and Chum Huot, posted their picture on Facebook before fleeing Cambodia, July 14th, 2016. RFA
Cambodians with close ties to slain pundit Kem Ley are fleeing the country or going into hiding as they fear for their personal safety following the popular gadfly’s death and funeral, RFA’s Khmer Service has learned.
Chum Hour and Chum Huot, twin brothers and environmental activists who were close to Kem Ley, left Cambodia a few days after the killing and after they posted criticisms about the murder investigation on their Facebook pages and gave accounts of the slaying to the U.S. embassy.
The twins were granted refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights so they could move to another country. Exactly where is unclear.
They were granted refugee status with the assistance from the U.S.-based International Khmer Assembly (IKARE), IKARE Director Kosol Sek told RFA on Wednesday.
“The reasons IKARE helped these two environmental activists, is because the organization wanted them to continue the numerous works left behind by Dr. Kem Ley,” Kosol Sek said. IKARE is located in Minnesota where many expatriate Cambodians live.
The Chum twins aren’t the only Cambodians with ties to Kem Ley who fled. Many people who served on Kem Ley’s funeral commission have left the country or gone into hiding, among them Buddhist monk But Buntenh, president of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice RFA, sources tell RFA.
Kem Ley was shot dead on July 10 in Phnom Penh and buried in Takeo Monday after a weekend funeral procession that drew throngs of mourners and well-wishers.
Fear of reprisal
Buddhist monk But Buntenh, president of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice and a member of the Kem Ley funeral commission, recently told RFA that he feared for his safety after authorities went to his home village searching for his identification documents.
“We’re very concerned that they will cause trouble for him in the same way they did to Dr. Kem Ley,” his father But Sdeung told RFA. “I am deeply concerned about that, and I would like to appeal to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights to do whatever they can to protect the safety of all members of our family.”
A civil society official, who was also a member of Kem Ley’s funeral committee, said the authorities must take measures to protect them while some individuals have been threatened.
“Dr. Kem Ley’s funeral commission has been threatened since the delay of Kem Ley’s funeral procession and his burial,” said Moeun Tola, executive director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights and Labor (CENTRAL).
There were discussions about delaying Kem Ley’s funeral procession from Phonm Penh to his hometown in Takeo province to allow more mourners to pay their respects. In the end, the funeral procession went ahead on Sunday and hundreds of thousands of Cambodians jammed the streets to take part.
“The authorities must be responsible to take measures to protect the citizens and the members of Dr. Kem Ley’s funeral commission who have been threatened,” Moeun Tola said. “The authorities were not happy with the delay of the funeral, and the threats to the funeral commission bring more suspicion on the government.”
Cheang Sokha, executive director of the Youth Resource Development Program (YRDP), wondered what threat the funeral posed.
“What trouble does Dr. Kem Ley’s funeral cause to society?” he told RFA. “[There] should be a discussion for a solution. If there is any threat, it would not benefit society.”
Attempts to contact officials with the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police Commissariat went unreturned.
Just days before Kem Ley was gunned down, he’d discussed on RFA a report by the British NGO Global Witness detailing the extent of the Hun Sen family’s wealth.
A Cambodian court charged a former soldier named Oeuth Ang with premeditated murder for the execution-style killing. Authorities have said that Kem Ley was killed over an outstanding $3,000 debt to Oueth Ang, who gave his name as Chuob Samlab, a Khmer name meaning “meet to kill.”
“In such cases the authorities have always failed to find the real perpetrators. Scapegoats are always hired or threatened to cover up their mess,” Sam Rainsy said in a recent appearance on RFA’s Special Discussion Show. “Only those who have the highest authority would be the ones who ordered such killings.”
A worry for Hun Sen
While the killing appears to have stoked fear in people close to Kem Ley, Elizabeth Becker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former correspondent for The New York Times in Cambodia and Author of “When the War Was Over, A Modern History of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge,” said Hun Sen also appeared to be unnerved by the public’s reaction.
“Immediately everyone in the country presumed this was a murder ordered by the government of Hun Sen,” she said at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on Tuesday. “Cambodians of all ages and situations immediately gathered in the city of Phnom Penh.”
When the outpouring of support for Kem Ley failed to blow over, Hun Sen took more threatening action, she explained.
“They went to pay homage to the body, and by Sunday the government was so worried about a popular uprising that the government ordered tanks into the capitol and ordered the military and police in the streets, shut down gas stations and ordered all the TV stations not to cover the event,” she said.
“Yet hundreds of thousands of Cambodians defied their government’s bullying threats and marched in the funeral parade. They were mourning not just the loss of Kem Ley, the leader, but of the democracy that he championed,” Becker added.
Defense Ministry spokesman Chhum Sucheat told the Cambodia Daily on that the 10 tanks that were moved from the north to the south of Phnom Penh on Sunday night were being taken in for repairs, but he would not say where they went.
Reported by Sarada Taing, Nareth Muong, Savyouth Hang and Vuthy Tha for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Yanny Hin.Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
CHIT
NEC receives new voter registration computers
Tue, 2 August 2016
Bun Sengkong, Sen David and Ananth Baliga
The Phnom Penh Post
An official uses a camera to scan an identification card in the capital’s south during a trial of digital voter registration late last year. Hong Menea
The National Election Committee on Sunday received its first batch of 1,600 computers to be used for next month’s voter registration process, with the remaining 800 expected to arrive today.
Following long delays, NEC member and voter registration department chief Top Rithy said the committee was now aiming to load 150 to 200 computers a day with the voter registration software before dispatching them to the provinces.
“The government cooperated with the NEC and issued a letter to UNOPS [UN Office for Project Services], after which they cleared customs,” he added, referring to earlier reports that the consignment had been delayed following a customs holdup.
UNOPS spokesman Cillian Domhnall O’Cathail confirmed that the remaining 800 computers will arrive today, adding that the delay was not expected to disrupt the voter registration timeline.
UNOPS was tasked by the EU, a key donor for the project, to procure computers that will be used in the three-month-long effort to register Cambodia’s 9.6 million eligible voters.
Meanwhile, the CNRP yesterday said it would request the NEC consider registering voters during the three-day Pchum Ben holidays in October, given that most migrant workers would be at home for the holiday.
“We already know that most migrant workers abroad will come back [during Pchum Ben], so we will suggest the NEC to work for two of those days,” CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said.
Koul Panha, head of election monitor Comfrel, said it would be difficult to get staff to work during a national holiday, but the NEC could rotate them over the three days to allow people to register.
CHIT
Sokha's plea for ‘trust’ falls on deaf ears
Fri, 5 August 2016
The Phnom Penh Post
Opposition acting leader Kem Sokha speaks at the Cambodia National Rescue Party headquarters on Monday. Photo supplied
The Kingdom’s political stalemate looks set to continue, with an entreaty for cooperation from Cambodia National Rescue Party acting leader Kem Sokha yesterday swatted away by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
Sokha has now spent more than two months holed up in the party’s Phnom Penh headquarters after an attempt by armed police to arrest him in late May for ignoring a court summons linked to his alleged affair with a hairdresser.
The case, which has landed four human rights workers, an election official and an opposition commune chief in jail, has been widely slammed by critics of the government as a political ploy to neutralise their rivals.
However, the CPP has steadfastly denied this, saying that the defendants have broken the law and should face the consequences.
Speaking yesterday, Sokha, who is the party’s most senior leader in the country after CNRP president Sam Rainsy fled into self-imposed exile last year, issued a thinly veiled appeal to the CPP, saying it was time for talk and trust.
“I believe that it should be time for Cambodians to trust one another through expressing ideas and recognising the value of each other,” Sokha said. “We have to trust each other, stop colouring, threatening, killing, hating and taking revenge on one another, and turn to find a positive idea for serving all Cambodians protecting and developing the country together so it will become prosperous for all Cambodians in the future.”
However CPP spokesman Sok Eysan yesterday rejected the opposition’s message as a “trick”, saying the party cast itself in a positive light publicly but undermined their ruling counterparts, and caused “disunity” through what he said were unwarranted “attacks”.
“Do not shake our hand and step on our feet,” Eysan said, saying that it was “late” for negotiations.
He said the CPP would consider negotiations if the CNRP stopped its criticism, but also noted the party would wait for several ongoing legal cases against the opposition to finish before it engaged in talks.