- By: May Titthara and Bridget Di Certo
- The Phnom Penh Post
- PM calls for Kingdom to focus on floods
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced that he had cancelled the annual Water Festival to preserve funds for addressing the effects of devastating floods that continue to sweep through the Kingdom. Speaking at a special Council of Ministers meeting yesterday to assess damage from the flooding, the premier said that the annual three-day Water Festival celebrations next month, including the renowned boat races, would be cancelled and the money people saved could be used to aid flood recovery. “Water levels are still higher than the warning levels in Phnom Penh and it would be a high-risk situation for boat racers and festival-goers,” Hun Sen said. “Additionally, the suspension will save money in the national budget and allow us to divert funds that would be used for Water Festival preparations to provide assistance to flood victims.”
Saturday, October 15, 2011
PM calls for Kingdom to focus on floods
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Begging for survival in Saigon
By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
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The Phnom Penh Post
After 11 years of begging on the streets of Ho Chi Minh city, 14-year-old Sok Sang still relies on body language and a cheerful smile as he wanders through markets from daybreak till nightfall seeking change from adults. He has picked up just a few phrases of Vietnamese, like “please give a little bit of money” and “do you want to buy a lottery ticket?”
The second phrase he learned about two years ago when police began cracking down on beggars because tourists found them disturbing. Beggars in Ho Chi Minh, including hundreds of Cambodian children, switched to selling lottery tickets to avoid being rounded up, detained and sent back to the parched fields of Svay Rieng province, where most of them were born.
Sok Sang left his home in Svay Rieng province’s Kampong Rou district with his older brother when he was three. He remembers almost nothing about it: not even his mother’s face. But even though he cannot remember what she looks like, he says he and his brother need to earn enough to send her about US$30 a month.
“I cannot waste the money that I earn because I have to send it to my mother to support my family. They have no land, no food. They need rice,” he explains, his smile quickly replaced by a look of depression.
The second phrase he learned about two years ago when police began cracking down on beggars because tourists found them disturbing. Beggars in Ho Chi Minh, including hundreds of Cambodian children, switched to selling lottery tickets to avoid being rounded up, detained and sent back to the parched fields of Svay Rieng province, where most of them were born.
Sok Sang left his home in Svay Rieng province’s Kampong Rou district with his older brother when he was three. He remembers almost nothing about it: not even his mother’s face. But even though he cannot remember what she looks like, he says he and his brother need to earn enough to send her about US$30 a month.
“I cannot waste the money that I earn because I have to send it to my mother to support my family. They have no land, no food. They need rice,” he explains, his smile quickly replaced by a look of depression.
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Monday, January 31, 2011
History a work in progress in one-time KR stronghold
By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
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The Phnom Penh Post
Banteay Meanchey province
Sittingunder a tree outside Malai High School, 20-year-old Phen Soeurm offers a dismissive approach to his history class typical of many his age.
As the teacher lectures, “the class just listens without paying attention at all,” Phen Soeurm says. “They just want to kill time.”
Here in this dusty district of Banteay Meanchey province, however, there is more to this phenomenon than a simple case of student laziness. The lecture in question covers the history of the Democratic
Kampuchea regime, an understandably sensitive topic in this former Khmer Rouge stronghold.
“Most students don’t want to study Khmer Rouge history because they don’t want to be reminded of what happened, and because all of their parents are former Khmer Rouge,” Phen Soeurm said.
In schools throughout the Kingdom, the introduction of KR-related material has been a sensitive project.
Prior to last year, high school history tests drew from a textbook that gave short shrift to the regime and its history, omitting some of the most basic facts about it. But on the 2010 national history exam, five of the 14 questions dealt with the Khmer Rouge period.
In addition to identifying regime leaders, students are asked to explain why it is said that Tuol Sleng prison was a tragedy for the Cambodian people; who was behind Tuol Sleng; how the administrative zones of Democratic Kampuchea were organised; and when the regime was in power.
These new additions to the exam follow the 2007 introduction of a government-approved textbook created by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia titled A History of Democratic Kampuchea.
DC-Cam has distributed roughly 300,000 of the textbooks to date in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, and plans to give away 200,000 more in 2011 and 2012.
Sittingunder a tree outside Malai High School, 20-year-old Phen Soeurm offers a dismissive approach to his history class typical of many his age.
As the teacher lectures, “the class just listens without paying attention at all,” Phen Soeurm says. “They just want to kill time.”
Here in this dusty district of Banteay Meanchey province, however, there is more to this phenomenon than a simple case of student laziness. The lecture in question covers the history of the Democratic
Kampuchea regime, an understandably sensitive topic in this former Khmer Rouge stronghold.
“Most students don’t want to study Khmer Rouge history because they don’t want to be reminded of what happened, and because all of their parents are former Khmer Rouge,” Phen Soeurm said.
In schools throughout the Kingdom, the introduction of KR-related material has been a sensitive project.
Prior to last year, high school history tests drew from a textbook that gave short shrift to the regime and its history, omitting some of the most basic facts about it. But on the 2010 national history exam, five of the 14 questions dealt with the Khmer Rouge period.
In addition to identifying regime leaders, students are asked to explain why it is said that Tuol Sleng prison was a tragedy for the Cambodian people; who was behind Tuol Sleng; how the administrative zones of Democratic Kampuchea were organised; and when the regime was in power.
These new additions to the exam follow the 2007 introduction of a government-approved textbook created by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia titled A History of Democratic Kampuchea.
DC-Cam has distributed roughly 300,000 of the textbooks to date in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, and plans to give away 200,000 more in 2011 and 2012.
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Fresh water for relocation sites
By May Titthara
Potable water will finally be available to 5,000 families living at three relocation sites on the outskirts of Phnom Penh through a World Bank-funded project to bring clean water to the poor.
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Ek Sun Can, director general of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, said the US$400,000 project will extend water supply pipes to Kraing Angran, Traipang Thloueng and Damnak Trayeung villages, bringing affordable, clean water to their homes.
“When they get clean water for use, the villagers will be healthy, their children will have time to go to school, they will not go to get water far from their home, and they will also not pay a lot of money,” Ek Sun Can said.
The villages, formed following mass evictions from the city to make way for new developments, have limited access to basic services and infrastructure.
Inhabitants of the three villages now rely on regular deliveries of water brought in by a private company that charges 3,000 riel (about $0.75) per cubic metre of water.
Those who cannot afford such an expense gather polluted water from nearby water catchments.
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Kampong Chhnang villager convicted of disinformation
By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
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The Phnom Penh Post
Kampong Chhnang provincial court yesterday convicted a villager from Kampong Tralach district of disinformation in connection with a land dispute involving development company KDC International.
Sam Chankea, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said Reach Seima, 30, was fined 2 million riel (US$495) and ordered to pay 8 million riel ($1,980) in compensation to the firm. Similar charges against villager Pheng Rom, 45, were dropped.
KDC accused the pair of disinformation and obstructing development after they claimed in 2009 that the company had illegally cleared 140 hectares of their land.
“The court should not have sentenced Reach Seima for defamation because the company does not have enough evidence and what he said to the media is true,” said Sam Chankea.
Sam Chankea is also facing a disinformation charge following complaints from KDC, stemming from a December 2009 radio interview in which he suggested that KDC’s land clearance may have been illegal. His verdict is likely to be handed down today.
KDC is run by Chea Kheng, the wife of the Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem.
The company, which claims to have purchased land in Lorpeang village in 1996, has filed five complaints against villagers since 2002.
Sam Chankea, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said Reach Seima, 30, was fined 2 million riel (US$495) and ordered to pay 8 million riel ($1,980) in compensation to the firm. Similar charges against villager Pheng Rom, 45, were dropped.
KDC accused the pair of disinformation and obstructing development after they claimed in 2009 that the company had illegally cleared 140 hectares of their land.
“The court should not have sentenced Reach Seima for defamation because the company does not have enough evidence and what he said to the media is true,” said Sam Chankea.
Sam Chankea is also facing a disinformation charge following complaints from KDC, stemming from a December 2009 radio interview in which he suggested that KDC’s land clearance may have been illegal. His verdict is likely to be handed down today.
KDC is run by Chea Kheng, the wife of the Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem.
The company, which claims to have purchased land in Lorpeang village in 1996, has filed five complaints against villagers since 2002.
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Villagers disrupt developers at Pursat casino site
By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
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The Phnom Penh Post
AROUND 30 villagers protested in Pursat province on Saturday, managing to halt the clearing of land for a casino project along the Thai border.
Villagers in Veal Veng district’s Thma Da commune say MDS, a local firm owned by tycoon Try Pheap, began encroaching on their farmland, triggering Saturday’s protest.
Moeung Pao, 45, said MDS employees stopped work when she fainted as an excavator escorted by police approached her home. She said she had told them to clear her body instead of the village’s land, but became nervous as the machine got closer.
Other residents also stood in front of their homes and on their land to protest against the clearing, which they claim will affect 84 families and 13 houses in their village.
Moeung Pao said yesterday that she has seen company project maps showing the village lying inside the development zone.
“If they want to take my village for development, why don’t they provide me with compensation?” she said. “I will not act against them if they provide fair compensation.”
Leng Van Doeun, another resident who ran to Moeung Pao’s aid after she fainted, described the protest as “very unjust” for the local people.
Villagers in Veal Veng district’s Thma Da commune say MDS, a local firm owned by tycoon Try Pheap, began encroaching on their farmland, triggering Saturday’s protest.
Moeung Pao, 45, said MDS employees stopped work when she fainted as an excavator escorted by police approached her home. She said she had told them to clear her body instead of the village’s land, but became nervous as the machine got closer.
Other residents also stood in front of their homes and on their land to protest against the clearing, which they claim will affect 84 families and 13 houses in their village.
Moeung Pao said yesterday that she has seen company project maps showing the village lying inside the development zone.
“If they want to take my village for development, why don’t they provide me with compensation?” she said. “I will not act against them if they provide fair compensation.”
Leng Van Doeun, another resident who ran to Moeung Pao’s aid after she fainted, described the protest as “very unjust” for the local people.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Villagers irate over drainage project
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post
The Phnom Penh Post
Residents of the capital’s Boeung Trabek lakeside gathered in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house in Phnom Penh before returning home and burning tyres near the lake to protest against the alleged loss of their farmland to a drainage project.
Oen Sothon, a village representative from Chamkarmon district’s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune, said 153 families had lost access to their farmland after 50 police officers set up a blockade in the area to protect the project.
“They are encroaching on the land where we’ve planted our crops,” Oen Sothon said.
Khut Khunvicheth, who also claimed to have been blocked from his land, said the blockade had been set up without consultation with residents affected by the move.
Many in the area are concerned that the land will be given to a private company rather than being used for the drainage project, he added.
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