More Talk, But Still No Timetable

Odd to see mention in the Australian media of the long-promised Cambodian genocide tribunal; and yet fail to localise the piece by including a reference to the aussie contribution to its funding.

According to the National Nine News item, an AP story, the tribunal will be called the Extraordinary Chambers.

Apparently a new statement from the United Nations has declared enough contributions had been received to finance staffing and operations of the proposed genocide tribunal "for a sustained period of time."

The UN announcement did not discuss a timetable, but said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was determined to see the new legal institutions up and running "as soon as possible."

But a pledge to start soon is hardly fresh news; and has been heard before. And there is still the matter of Cambodia's contribution towards this sum yet to be resolved.

Sorry, Not Dead

In an odd development concerning the health of former monarch Norodom Sihanouk, who is currently receiving treatment cancer, the BBC reported that the former king of Cambodia has posted on his website an apology for not being dead.

Norodom Sihanouk said, "Many people want me dead as soon as possible," so he must offer his "humble apologies" for not yet obliging. The BBC said he was responding to reports of his deteriorating health and a request from a journalist who wanted to put together an obituary.

Link

World Affairs

ABC Radio Australia reports that Cambodia has signed an international deal aimed at beefing up border security and stop the country being the weakest link in Southeast Asia's fight against terrorism. Britian is putting US$1 towards the three-year project.

Meanwhile Channel NewsAsia reveals that Cambodia is one of 16 countries to sign a pact to combat piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia.

And Vietnam News Agency (VNA) tells that Health officials of Cambodia are engaging in talks with those of Laos and Vietnam to discuss ways to jointly monitor potential outbreak of infectious diseases in any one of their countries.

He [one Veitnamese health official] emphasised the need for close coordination of all countries around the world in general and the Mekong basin countries in particular in monitoring and preventing infectious diseases.

And the Philippine Daily Inquirer carried as story explaining that U.S. diplomat Joseph Mussomeli had been the subject of some controversy prior to being named as the new envoy to Cambodia.

[The current charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Manila,] Mussomeli is packing his bags weeks after the Philippine government admonished him for the "Afghanistan" remark, which he made in an Australian TV interview on April 5.

Scenes Around Wat Nokor

A few more examples of street scenes outside Wat Nokor.


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Legends of Wat Nokor

Finding a definitive version of the history to Wat Nokor can prove elusive.

In Ethnic Chinese in Cambodia, Penny Edwards offers two versions of oral history about the thirteenth century Chinese temple at Wat Nokor in Kompong Cham.

These relate how either the Khmer Prince Serei Sokun-Nobot or King Jayavarman VII built the temple to repay Chinese who had saved their life.

Tales of Asia website also puts a somewhat cheeky spin on the first of these two legends.

Legend 1: Khmer prince named Serei Sokun-nobot, who was fond of fishing, is swallowed by a giant fish which then swam to China. A Chinese fisherman eventually splits open the fish's belly and took the prince to the Chinese Emperor. The Emperor recognised Serei Sokun-nobot and provided three boats for him to sail back to Kompong Cham where he settles with his Chinese escort. Serei Sokun-nobot finds a wife, who on their wedding day sees a mole on the Prince’s head realises this is her long lost son. "You are the son I lost to the river when you went fishing one day as a little boy," she cries. When she discovered that the Chinese had brought him back to Cambodia, the mother asked her son to let the Chinese build a temple in the grounds of the Khmer palace at Wat Nokor.

Legend 2: Partly based on an inscription at Wat Nokor. In the thirteenth century, Jayavarman VII was attacked by Cham forces, who stormed the Bayon palace. He fled to Siam to ask for help. Jayavarman VII returned to the Bayon palace but the Chams defeated the Khmers.

Jayavarman VII then asked a Chinese fortune-teller, "Will I ever be King again?" The Chinese fortune-teller predicted "Yes, you will, but first you must head east."

So the King asked the Chinese to prepare a boat for him and to travel with him so that he could hide himself among the Chinese passengers. A boat was prepared, and he headed east by river, while his troops headed east by land, on elephants. When they reached the Mekong, they stopped. The Cham troops followed him there, which is why that place is known today as Kompong Cham.

Siamese troops arrived and attacked the Chams. The Khmer troops waited until both sides were exhausted, and then joined in the fray. They pushed the Chams back as far as Kroch Chmar, and they pushed the Siamese troops back down the Mekong river. Many Siamese were killed in this battle, and hence the place-name "Kompong Siam."

Peace came to Cambodia again, and Jayavarman VII set up a new palace at Kompong Cham, known as Wat Nokor. As an expression of his gratitude to the Chinese who had helped him escape, he invited the Chinese to live in the palace grounds and had a Chinese temple built for them.

Guns: the Will, and the Way

There is a will. But is there a way?

Cambodia National Assembly has passed a gun control law to ban the distribution, trading or hiring of any of the tens of thousands of weapons and rounds of ammunition left behind by decades of civil war, dating back to the Khmer Rouge genocide in the 1970s.

The government demonstrates it is serious about increasing its security legislation to bring the country into line with international anti-terrorist conventions.

However as the perhaps overly candid head of a European Union-backed weapons control and destruction programme in Phnom Penh concedes:

There are always questions about implementation

Link

Parade Eventually Wins Them Over

Greg Mellen of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group's Press-Telegraph describes the inaugural Cambodian New Year's Day parade for Long Beach, and how earlier uproar about its timing had faded.

As the discord intensified in the weeks leading up to the parade, more than 2,000 residents signed a petition against the April 17 date, which was supported by organizers.

It was eventually pushed back a week.

Link

Rice Fraud

AFP yarn in The Daily Telegraph tells that eight more Cambodian staff working for the UN's food agency have been sacked or resigned in the wake of a $US900,000 ($A1,153 million) rice fraud scandal, bringing the total to 15 employees.

Seven local staff working for the World Food Programme (WFP) were dismissed or stepped down early last year after the agency discovered discrepancies in its $92 million, three-year Food for Work programme.

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A Time To Reflect

Gerard Henderson, executive director of the Sydney Institute, reminds us in a piece the Sydney Morning Herald that New Year's Day next year will see the release of the Whitlam cabinet papers for 1975.

This should provide some insight into government thinking during the period when Pol Pot's communist Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia.

The suggestion is that Australia's left at that time was naive, simplistic and typical of Western myopia.

He [Whitlam in September 1978] was particularly emphatic about Cambodia, declaring: "I make bold to doubt all the stories that appear in the newspapers about the treatment of people in Cambodia." This was a severe case of denial.

Link

Exploring Wat Nokor

This blog has been overly blotted with news monitoring in recent weeks. This was due largely to our interesting in seeing how the world media would treat the 30th anniversary of Year Zero.

Even with Australia's contribution to the U.N.-tribunal, the anniversary didn't even raise a blip in the nation's scanning of world news. How strange.

But would it really have been any different if the pages set aside for world news were not so fully laden with news from Rome about the new pontiff and the elaborate inauguration Mass at St Peter's? Probably not.

But to lift the mood a little, and return this blog to its previous retracing of steps, here are more pictures from Wat Nokor.


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005
Looking up to the skies above.


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005
A vivid mix of old untreated stonework and bright, freshly painted motifs.


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005
A little of the streetlife near the temple.

Royal Watch Continues

As foreshadowed earlier, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni has left for Beijing to visit his ailing father, retired King Norodom Sihanouk.

Link

Media Laps Up Chan's Visit

AFP does a piece on Jackie Chan's plans for a film about Cambodia.

Link

Answers on How West Can Fit

In sharp contrast to the ham-fisted approach criticised here, there are also stories of western business bending to suit Cambodian communities.

The Standard tells that "Cambodia victims of war win orders", by Samantha Brown (Agence France-Presse).

Instead of having aquariums mass-manufactured in China, New Zealander Phil Elliott gave the orders for his expanding franchise business to a non-profit organization in Cambodia.

Development Technology Workshop, a charity working with the handicapped to build industry in one of the world's poorest countries, is a business incubator park set up a year ago by Mick Stimpson.

``We didn't choose Cambodia to have our aquariums made because it was cheaper or more convenient, or for any other reason than the people here need the jobs,'' he [Elliott] said.

``We also saw that people were disabled and my father was a war amputee ... We thought, okay we'll do it, we'll overcome the obstacles even though we could probably get a cheaper product in China.''

So even with a 150-page plan we see that business does not need to be super efficient to be super effective.

Link

Aftermath of Year Zero

Interesting piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by Karen J. Coates* on how the Killing fields still define present-day Cambodia.

Thirty years, an entire generation, has elapsed since then. The guilty live freely among their victims, their neighbors. The young grow up not comprehending the past. And a deep chasm cleaves society today.

* Coates is a Wisconsin journalist based in Thailand. Her new book, "Cambodia Now: Life in the Wake of War," was published this year.

Link

Western Answers Might Not Fit

This news item somehow annoys me. Four business school students from the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg U.S., have provided a 150-page business plan for the Cambodian women in the Sobbhana Foundation who make hundreds of products such as handbags, furniture and tapestries that sell in a boutique in Khan Doun Penh.

They found (surprise, surprise) the organization wasn't run like a business.

Managers didn't know their sales numbers because they didn't keep records. Nor did they know the price of a yard of silk or how much time goes into making an item.

This is hardly surprising given that Cambodia has a shortage of business savvy people following the events in the 1970s.

But for me one of the more worrying findings in the report is its suggetions that the foundation centralize operations rather than having five operations where they make silk.

Although centralizing operations can lead to more consistency in the product, what about the knock-on effect of closing four of the five operations?

What might be overlooked in this business-orientate analysis is that the organization might not need to be run like a business. Its purpose might be to help five communities by providing jobs, income, and the social network for Cambodian women and children. Maximum efficiencies does not always equal maximum justice.

Link

History Lessons

Here is an interest collection of details about The Ankorian Period from the early ninth century to the early fifteenth century.

It deals with, among others, the reigns of Jayavarman II, Yasovarman I, Suryavarman II, and Jayavarman VII.

Link

Royal Watch

Voice of America reports "Cambodian Prince Warns of Former King's Weakening Health" with audio by Kate Woodsome.

Gives a potted history of the elderly monarch who abdicated in October because of poor health. But the mercurial leader has remained vocal about the country's political and social affairs as a blogger.

Sihanouk's sharp-tongued Internet postings about corruption, prostitution and Prime Minister Hun Sen's government kept him a star in this Southeast Asian nation.

The monarch's pen pal Ruom Ritt, widely believed to be a pseudonym for Sihanouk, also has used the Internet to blast Hun Sen for his strongman tactics.

The diatribes came to a head last month, prompting an angry reaction from Hun Sen, who suggested Ruom Ritt should hurry up and die.

Sihanouk announced neither he nor his pen friend would publish any more commentaries about Cambodian politics.

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Chan returns to Cambodia

China Daily covers Jackie Chan's three-day trip in which he is campaigning for a global ban on land mines and is scouting film sites in Cambodia to make a movie about the effort.

During a 2004 visit to promote awareness about HIV/AIDS issues for UNICEF, Chan was introduced to demining activities in Siem Reap province, Cambodia's main tourist destination, and met with children who became amputees because of land mines.

Chan later said the visit caused him to dream about digging land mines for a week.

Link

More Court News: Trademark Battle

Also making court news was a battle of the beers. Through the Supreme Court in Cambodia, Budejovicky Budvar has claimed the latest round in its global battle with Anhueser-Busch for the Budweiser and Bud trademarks. That one case has been running since 2000, but it is one of about 40 lawsuits pending worldwide.

As explained here, the Czech brewer of Budvar won the right to sell beer under the Budweiser and related names in Cambodia.

Link

Putting a Price on Justice

Newsday carries “U.S. Wants Khmer Court Justice Assurance” by William C. Mann of Associated Press.

It provides some update on U.S. thinking concerning the proposed U.N.-backed tribunal.

The United States will pay none of the $56.3 million needed for a tribunal to punish members of the Khmer Rouge for Cambodia's killing fields of the 1970s until convinced that the trials will meet international standards of justice, the State Department said Thursday.

"The United States joins the millions of Cambodians, Cambodian-Americans and others in remembering the victims of this deplorable regime," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday in a statement marking the Khmer Rouge anniversary.

But, he said, "For the United States to contribute to this process, we believe, as U.S. law stipulates, that the tribunal must meet internationally recognized standards of justice. As the formation of the tribunal moves forward, we will engage with the Government of Cambodia, the United Nations and interested countries to achieve this goal."

Link

Adoption At Any Price?

The British High Court reserved judgement on a challenge by six couples against a Government ban on the adoption of Cambodian children.

According to the report in the Scotsman:

The Government, along with other Western countries, took action because of growing corruption and child trafficking in Cambodia.

There was particular concern that sufficient safeguards were not in place to prevent children being adopted without proper consent from their birth parents.

Earlier in the week Times Online carried this report by Alexandra Blair.

It quotes one couple as saying that with 5 per cent of the population orphaned, largely by the Aids epidemic, the extended family system could no longer cope.

Unicef estimates there are around 670,000 orphaned children in Cambodia. Since 1998, more than 2,300 Cambodian children are believed to have been adopted by Western couples. In 2000, Hun Sen, the Prime Minister, briefly banned all adoptions abroad before lifting the ban, pending regulation.

Several Western countries, including the United States and France, have imposed similar bans to Britain after it emerged that poverty-stricken families were giving up children for cash and that other children were being bought directly from orphanages.

Link

Drought Action

As previously mentioned, there has been growing concern for ongoing drought conditions in Cambodia. A sudden flurry of news today indicates that some international relief may is being provided.

Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reports in "UN food body begins rice aid to Cambodia" that:

The WFP will distribute about 1,000 tonnes of rice to about 50,000 farmers in five provinces over the next three months.

And Xinhua News Agency - through the China View website - reports "UN food agency offers rice aid to Cambodia":

Among 24 provinces and municipalities, Kompong Speu and kompongCham provinces are the hardest hit areas. Emergency rice distribution began on April 6 and 10 provinces will receive rice aid, including Battambang, Kompong Cham, Kompong Chhnang, Kompong Speu, Kampot, Kompong Thom, Kandal, Kratie, Prey Veng and Pursat.

"Year Zero" Late-comers

1: Radio Free Asia in "Scholar Describes Fall of Phnom Penh, 30 Years Later" interviews Philip Short, whose book "Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare" was published in February.

2: SanDiego Union-Tribune report "Cambodia becoming increasingly autocratic-U.S. envoy" adds further background to help fit Peter Leuprecht's ealier mentioned report into a political timeframe.

Cambodia was facing two inter-related problems – corruption and impunity – but the government was being 'ostrich-like' in denying their existence, he added.

The international community has been pouring money into Cambodia since the early 1990s to help rehabilitate a nation devastated by three decades of civil war and the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge, but over a third of the 13 million population still lives on less than $1 a day.

3: And one that is fast becoming my newspaper of choice, the International Herald Tribune prints "Cambodia's darkest day", by Sichan Siv (who is now a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations). It give an firsthand account of fleeing Phnom Penh.

I came to learn that my mother, along with my older sister, brother and their families, had been clubbed to death by the Khmer Rouge. Of the 16 of us who left Phnom Penh together on April 17, 1975, I am the only survivor.

4: Daily News offers "I was spared to tell my story", by Joe Milicia. Largely a reprint of the interview with Loung Ung previously seen at the links here.

Impunity systemic: report

U.N. human-rights expert Peter Leuprecht is quoted as saying rampant corruption in Cambodia is hindering the country's progress toward democracy and economic development.

Mr Leuprecht calls impunity a "gangrene" that undermines the fabric of Cambodian society. He says the necessary mechanisms for accountability are not in place.

He is reported in a news report as saying the proposed U.N.-backed tribunal could have a good effect on the administration of justice in Cambodia in setting standards in the separation of powers.

Lisa Schlein's report files for Voice of America can be heard here.

"Year Zero" and the International Dateline

Allowing for international time differences, media in some parts of the world have been arriving at April 17 a little later than Australia.

Here is some of the "Year Zero plus 30" coverage from around the globe.

1: Voice of America offers "30 Years After the Khmer Rouge, Justice in Cambodia Still Illusive", by Heda Bayron in Hong Kong.

30 years on, justice for the victims has yet to be served. ... Analysts say Cambodia is running out of time because the top Khmer Rouge leaders may be too old and sick to stand trial.

The piece also quotes Sok Sam Oeun, director Cambodian Defenders Project, and details his push for the proposed United Nations tribunal.

2: The Boston Globe's website offers "The aftershocks of the Khmer Rouge", by Karen J. Coates (author of Cambodia Now: Life in the Wake of War.)

Justice has two parts: punishing the guilty and honoring the victims. Twelve million of those victims are alive today. .... [so] who's the trial for? .... few people really talk about Cambodians. That's wrong.

The article does a vox pop of four Cambodians - translator and mototaxi driver Ke Monin, Po Kith Ly, doctor Ang Sody, and Youk Chhang.

3: The Manila Times offers "The final hours of Cambodia's Khmer Republic", by Jean-Jacques Cazeaux, of Agence France-Presse.

It recaps events over from April 15 to 17, 1975 "as the last lines of resistance were crushed under the Khmer Rouge's advance around Phnom Penh".

For the following 48 hours, day and night without interruption, the reporter witnessed the crumbling of the regime, the distress of its leaders, the final rounds of Cabinet talks and ultimately the collapse of the Khmer Republic.

4: Santa Cruz Sentinel tells of "A tale of two lives: Cambodian genocide tore two sisters apart", by staff writer Peggy Townsend.

It tells of author's Loung Ung's life being turned upside down.

On April 17, 1975, Pol Pot took over Cambodia, and the Khmer Rouge rolled into the city, setting in motion a series of events that would bring the death of Ung's parents and two of her sisters - and separation from her beloved sister, Chou.

More About "Year Zero"

Today marks 30 years ago since the communist Khmer Rouge seize Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, in 1975.

Looking for mentions in the world press, I've found:

1: Available at SignOnSanDiego.com by the Union-Tribune is "Khmer Rouge foot soldiers rue their revolution that became mass murder". Written by Ker Munthit of Associate Press.

Among the biggest losers are guerrillas like Nai Oeurn, many of whom have moved back to their impoverished villages and face suspicious neighbors who still remember the Khmer Rouge days.
...
Pol Pot died in the jungle in 1998, and about a dozen top Khmer Rouge aides may face a U.N.-assisted tribunal that is supposed to open this year. The foot soldiers, however, have been left to make their own peace with the past.

2: Available through AlertNet, a service of Reuters is "30 years after "Year Zero", Cambodia seeks justice". By Lach Chantha (with additional reporting by Ek Madra).

It follows Bou Meing, 64, as he returns to Tuol Sleng, the high school which became "Cambodia's Auschwitz".

As an artist who could churn out portraits of Pol Pot, the ultra-Maoist regime's reclusive leader, he is one of seven out of an estimated 17,000 Tuol Sleng inmates who lived to tell the tale.

"Whenever the Khmer Rouge tribunal happens, I'll stand as a witness and point to those who arrested me and my wife and I will ask them: 'Where is my wife?' If they say she was killed, then the court should sentence them," Bou Meing said.

"Year Zero" plus 30

I'll be hunting through various world resources over the next few days to find what level of coverage was given to the 30th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge march into Phnom Penh.

As usual, the International Herald Tribune has an outstanding piece that neatly ties current events with a first-hand account from the scenes of yesteryear.

James Pringle writes:

I was in the first small party of Western journalists to visit Toul Sleng in April 1979, soon after Phnom Penh's liberation by the Vietnamese Army. There was still blood on cell floors, and starving Cambodians picked up individual grains of rice from the ground outside. Deuch, now in custody, was discovered in 1999 working in a refugee camp, proclaiming himself a born-again Christian.

Link

Catharsis or Cruel Again

Debate about the merits of a U.N. backed tribunal has been an on-going subject for examination in this blog.

Although now almost 16 months old, this CBC News Radio report by Stephen Puddicombe makes some interesting points. Here are some key extracts:

International human rights officials believe the war-crimes tribunal can be a catharsis for people like Sokon, and help Cambodians come to terms with what happened.
...
There are plans for a war-crimes tribunal in Cambodia. The details of the tribunal are still being worked out. But there will be at least five judges, three from Cambodia and two international. There has been no decision on who will be tried or when the trials will start. So far only two former Khmer Rouge leaders are in jail.
...
For some Cambodians, no amount of Christian atonement, or Buddhist forgiveness, or even justice at the hands of a tribunal, can ever be enough.
...
Steven Park believes all Cambodia suffered under the Khmer Rouge. Many who committed acts of brutality were also victims of equal cruelty. How can you pass sentence on a bloodbath?
...
He's not sure if anything can help the victims of those crimes erase the memories and give his people a night of peaceful sleep at last.

Link

Countdown to April 17: Part 3

Also spotted today is this piece in the New Zealand Herald by Janna Hamilton entitled: 'Killing Fields' survivors still wait for justice.

Justice goes beyond a tribunal for many of the survivors and a fair tribunal on Cambodian soil could spark other improvements in the country.

Link

Chan Campaigns for Landmine Removal

China's Xinhua News Agency reports that film action hero Jackie Chan will make a three-day tour of Cambodia to help raise for landmine removal projects in Battambang province.

Link

With Mum in Tow

Also recommend a warmly written piece by Elliot Wilson for China's Weekend Standard in which he recounts taking his mum to Cambodia for a terrific adventure.

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Dancing to Two Beats

Much like the earlier piece concerning Loung Ung, so too is Cambodian-American choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, 38, "feeling the pull of two cultures".

Her story and her role in upholding Cambodian mythology through dance taught at the Khmer Arts Academy, is told by Seth Mydan today in the International Herald Tribune.

Link

Countdown to April 17: Part 2

Refugee Loung (pronounced Loo-ONG) Ung told her story of survival five years ago in the best-seller ``First They Killed My Father'' -- a textbook reported now used in some Cambodian schools today to give children an insight into the country grim history.

Joe Milicia of Associated Press gives a terrific profile on how Loung has "weathered the humiliating awkwardness of American puberty". Full access to the three-page piece at The Chanticleer Online requires registration but it is well worth the effort.

She [Loung] turns 35 on Sunday, the 30th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge's takeover of Cambodia. Her brother chose her birthday when he filled out her refugee papers. He did not want her to forget Cambodia.

Cows Elude the Law

The dry season means grazing animals are drawn to grassy areas normally frequented by tourists. But the police commissioner has ordered a crackdown in an effort to keep dung a considerable distance from vistors' shoes.

Police say at least 30 buffaloes and 10 cows had been regularly meandering through the [temple] ruins seeking food.

But I do get a laugh from the that thought that six policemen devoting six hours to the netting the offenders has resulted in them "only managed to seize one".

Link

Count Us Too

Coverage today from Xinhua News Agency shows that tourist arrivals for Cambodia peaked in February. Hey, Tan and Trev were a part of that increase.

Cambodia's international visitors in February 2005 increased sharply compared with the same period last year.

The figures in the website of Tourism Ministry on Wednesday show that 125,326 foreigners visited Cambodia, up 54.68 percent compared with 81,021 last year.

Link

Countdown to April 17

As suggested last month, it will be interesting to keep tabs on the world’s media to see what level of coverage is provided for the 30th anniversary of Khmer Rouge entry to Phnom Penh.

The first item I’ve spotted is Alex Hinton’s piece in the The Christian Science Monitor entitled: "Lessons from killing fields of Cambodia - 30 years on". He writes:

I offer four suggestions in the spirit of George Santayana's oft-cited words "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

I’ve often hear that quote, but until today never realized it could be sourced to any single person.

The four points he lists makes for interesting reading. Particularly:

In our age of terrorist fear, as suspect Arabs and Muslims vanish, are tortured, or held without trial, the Khmer Rouge period cautions us about the dangers of political paranoia. The enemy within, too often, turns out to be ourselves as - driven by fear - we violate the rights of others.

Link

Still More Nokor

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

It is the mix of styles that perhaps makes Wat Nokor most interesting.

The main shrine of sandstone and laterite was first built in the 8th century and added to throughout the Angkor period and later.

There are gray and drab sections that look neglected, and other parts that strikingly modern. It has alcoves with Buddha images, while paintings within the inner sanctuary are kept in good condition by monks belonging to the modern pagoda attached to the temple.

Back for More Nokor

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

First built in the 8th century, Wat Nokor is known locally as Wat Angkor.

It is a real gem of a ruin.

Although not obvious from the pictures on offer yesterday, it is a suprisingly large construction.

There are three outer walls with gopuras at each compass point. This shot is at the rear of the building, looking out towards the neighbouring village.

Wat Nokor is worth exploring at a slow pace because it offers lots of carved apsaras that decorate the walls and a number of sandstone and laterite buildings and libraries.


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Slow Pace Retraces Journey

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

The pace of this blog has caught us by surprised. Even with daily entries, it seems to take about one month to chronicle the events of one day experienced.

Tan (pictured) thinks it is absolute madness - but on to "day 3" from the itinery.

With the greatly improved road surfaces following a recent spurt in capital works, a short bus ride takes us from Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham where we are to stay overnight.

It is from here we visit an 11th century Buddhist shrine, Wat Nokor (also pictured).

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Cold War Hangover

Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune promised a second installment and here returns to explain why the U.S. is lagging behind in international efforts to fund a Khmer Rouge trial.

He argues that the current U.S. view on Cambodia is a cold war hangover; and calls for its immediate change.

This extraordinary American refusal to give any money for a court that might bring some Cambodians a belated sense of justice for the most sweeping crime since Hitler's genocide amounts to the latest twist in a tangled U.S. policy whose main characteristic has been incoherence.

... in the light of a past that can make no American proud, the U.S. approach to a tribunal on which the United Nations and Cambodia have agreed amounts to another chapter in a squalid saga.

... the United States has a historic responsibility to help get the promised Khmer Rouge trial started. For that, the congressional ban on funding the court should be lifted and intense U.S. monitoring maintained of how money is spent and how the trial progresses.

To do otherwise would compound hypocrisy with hypocrisy, giving ammunition to America's enemies.

Link

Infrequent Visitor

The National Nine News carries an AP story in which Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill labels Cambodia as a “weak link” and a long-term issue in the region’sbid to counter terrorism.

Senator Hill this week made a three-nation tour that takes in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Perhaps most interesting is that his visit to Vietnam was the first by an Australian defence minister since 1973, and the first by an Australian defence minister to Cambodia. His comments were then made during the Thailand leg of the tour.

Now if a guest was to visit your home for the first time in 32 years, (in deed for the first time ever) would you take seriously any views expressed a side-window that might be easy to open?

And what would be your reaction if you only heard about the comment after the visit, and through a neighbour?

Link

Deal or No Deal

Interesting twist today sees an unexpected delay in the deal to privatise the killing fields genocide memorial.

As news of the controversy grows, it seems as if municipal authorities and the Japanese company are now keen to back away from the proposal. Guy De Launey for BBC News reports:

But at the last minute, the signing ceremony was cancelled.

Both the governor and deputy governor of Phnom Penh found they had conflicting appointments elsewhere.

How strange that they should both be double-booked.

Link

Law and labour reform

An interesting yarn by David Lynch that tells of a push to reforms labour laws in Cambodia's sales pitch: Sweatshop-free products.

“Garment factories in Cambodia … aren't gloomy pits of Dickensian misery. Instead, Cambodia is seeking to become the rare Third World country to develop economically while treating workers reasonably well.”

As an industry, it is a lynchpin for today’s economy. Yet up until the mid-199s, Cambodia didn’t have a garment industry.

Today 230 garment factories it employs 265,000 people, and its $1.9 billion in exports represent roughly 80% of the country's total export earnings.

“No other country depends as much on its garment industry as Cambodia. And no other garment industry so depends upon the United States, which buys two-thirds of the shirts, trousers and jackets made here.”

To carve out a market niche in a highly competitive free market as global tariffs shift and quotas diminish, Cambodia is billing itself as sweatshop-free.
Cambodian labor law stipulates a $45 monthly minimum wage and a six-day, 48-hour workweek with no more than two hours of daily overtime. Compare that with yesteryear.

“In the 1980s and 1990s, factory conditions here, including widespread compulsory overtime, were typical for a developing country.
“In 2000, Nike pulled out of Cambodia temporarily after a British documentary found underage workers in one of its contractor factories.
“Last year, two labor union officials, including a member of the ILO's advisory committee, were killed in what Amnesty International suggests were politically motivated shootings.
“Amid a 2-year-old ban on demonstrations, unauthorized labor protests have been violently disrupted by a government-linked student group known as the "pagoda boys," the human rights group says.

Unfortunately the real question is: who cares? Whether Cambodia’s push succeeds might ultimately depend upon whether American consumers demand more than low prices from their clothing stores. Do the issues of human rights have a stronger pull than the demand of consumer purse strings.

"The really big question is: Do consumers care?"

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Battambang: still in Getaway's footsteps

Curious to find this evening's coverage on Getaway totally avoids any mention of the Killing Fields.

Wonder if that means it'll get an airing as a future clip?

The fact sheet for this episode certainly reads as if it is merely days 8-9 of our itinerary -- and stuff this blog is still a long way off from recapping in our slow, methodical recollections of our trip.

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Commodity or Commemoration

Here is a further update on the news of the sale of development rights to Cambodian genocide memorial.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that such a controversial move would spark questions, with some factions voicing concern that the deal will turn victims' memories into commodities.

One source says that commercialising the atrocities could also undermine the coming trials of surviving Khmer Rouge officials.

But perhaps the most startling item in Kate Woodsome's news report is the figure the Cambodian government is said to be gaining from this deal -- a mere $15,000 annually for the first five years.

At this tiny overhead, the gate-takings should quickly recoup the developer's outlay.

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What Price on History?

More scenes from Ta Phrom:

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Given the pounding Cambodia experience in its turbulent history, we were puzzled as to certain treasures could have survived the destruction of the Khmer Rouge.

For instance, why did the rich tiles of the Silver Pagoda still in place? Or why do ancient buildings like Ta Phrom still stand?

Our guide said the answer was quite simple. The Khmer Rouge had a public image to protect among the international community, despite its attempts to isolate Cambodia from the rest of the world. So they kept the Silver Pagoda as a token conservation effort, just in case foreign dignitaries might want to visit it.

Even today, there is a big business in the up-keep of bygone items.

And Cambodia is not adverse to the idea of earning a little profit by leasing chunks of itself to foreign corporations to maintain (while also in harvesting tourism dollars).

For instance, this week the 'Killing Fields' gravesite were privatized in Cambodia.

”The mayor of Phnom Penh says a Japanese company, JC Royal, has signed a 30-year deal to manage the Cheoung Ek "Killing Fields" genocide memorial on the outskirts of the capital.

The firm will have to plant trees and flowers at the site, which is home to a memorial tower of 8,000 human skulls, as well as build other visitor facilities.

In return, JC Royal will be able to charge foreign tourists a fee to enter the site.

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Built to Last

Through the hotel reception desk, we arrange for a taxi to take us 40km out of Phnom Penh to Ta Phrom temple.

For a 12th century structure, it is maintained well amid its setting of flowers and trees.

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

The guidebook says it was built by the King Jayavarman VII on the place of a sanctuary of the 7th century and near Tonle Bati lake.

Our pictures certainly do no justice to the superb sculptures of Apsaras and low reliefs from angkorian period.

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

A horde of children descends on us the minute we alight from the taxi. They ask for pens “for school”. We ask why “why are you not at school now?” They ask for “candy”. We honestly tell them that we have none. They offer us flowers and fruit – which we decline as we suspect these generous “gifts” will involve financial compensation.

It is a slow day at Tonle Bati – and we are obviously the only tourists choosing to make the journey. So the children then decide to assign themselves as our guides and proceed to escort us throughout the temple, along the riverbank, to a the village Wat, and then back to the taxi – all the time chatting to practice their English.

It was a pleasant, low-key way to chat with the locals for about 90 minutes. As we head back to the taxi, Tan scrapes together a few odd pens from her bag and distributes a few Reil we depart.

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

It is only the next day, when we meet our Intrepid guide for the first time, that we discover how responsible our behaviour had been. Don’t foster a culture of begging by giving sweets to kids.

View from Above

For a different view of Phnom Pehn try this shot from space.

The image was obtained by SIR-C/X-SAR on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on April 15, 1994 and shows an area about 27 km.

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Back After 25 Years

The Modesto Bee in Canada today carries this yarn about Peter Sareth Pen who "will move back to one place he thought he could never return: Cambodia".

Having lived in America for 25 years, he returns to a place he described as changing forever - but it will be a home coming tackled in stages. First to Cambodia, then maybe later to his village.

"Probably one day, I'll go back to my hometown, but I don't plan to live there," Pen said. "I don't see the people I used to know. I don't see the place I used to live -- it's not there anymore. The school I used to go to isn't there."

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Cheap Head

Okay, today we wrap up the story started April Fool's Day set at the Russian Market.

We plunged even further into the gloomy depths, and after a couple of turns was wondering if I was completely lost. I swear, I hadn't passed the same stall twice.

Tan paused at one stall where a girl was selling kramas, those ubiquitous
checkered cotton scarves Khmers wearing in all types of weather.

Then on we pushed. I discovered later that she was checking prices on items - one of which she was to later purchase at Siem Reap. It is pictured below (along with our disinterested model).

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

The price for our bargain: head hunted at only $US 30.

Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

A Trial in Denial

For Cambodia's dead, farce heaped on insult. So says Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune in his article calling on the U.S. to get behind an international attempt to raise cash for a war crimes trial.

A few days ago, March 28, the member states finally pledged $38.48 million for the trial, $4.52 million short of the $43 million goal.

So, in theory, the tribunal for the largest mass murder since the Nazis is being held up by a missing four million bucks.

The world's attention is elsewhere, but the farce surrounding the planned United Nations-backed tribunal to judge crimes by the Khmer Rouge that led to the deaths of more than 1.5 million Cambodians has become sufficiently grotesque to merit some consideration in Washington and other capitals.

Roger provides considerable insight as to various reasons why enthusiasm for the trial has been difficult to muster. But he pulls no punches in calling America to task on this item.

But let it be clear: The United States is legally barred from giving any money to a UN-backed tribunal to try the worst single crime since Hitler.

I doubt that Rice has had much time to focus on this anomaly. But perhaps she should find time. The accumulation of fudging and evasion that has delayed the trial would be risible if it were not shameful.

Well I for one certainly intend on keeping watch on Cohen's forthcoming columns this week to see what develops.

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Health Reforms

So is Cambodia's health system still shattered after nearly three decades of war? Is corruption rife? Do tiny salaries paid to doctors and nurses mean rebuilding the system is an uphill battle?

Elsewhere in today's media coverage is an interesting admission from one international body entrusted with helping Cambodia move forward with health reforms.

"A lot has been done, but on paper we don't seem to have made much progress," UNICEF's country representative Rodney Hatfield concedes.

This same article also goes some way towards explaining why Dr Beat Richner clashes with authorities.

Richner's stance on free treatment, however, has earned him criticism from multilateral organisations and donors who prefer to see a user-pays system in place and who he says have accused him of subverting attempts to strengthen the system.

"This is absolutely stupid to do this liberal, capitalist idea for the health sector if people have no cash ... Our idea is that all children have the right to be treated. It's only subversion of corruption," he [Dr Richner] retorts.

According to the report, well-heeled tourists responded to Dr Richner's call in the past year to give $2.2 million dollars and on average, about 300 blood donations per (aproximately 30 percent of the campaign's requirements).

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Dollars for Scholar

Graduate student, Nirav Shah, is no stranger to challenge - having pursued a joint degree in Medicine and Law.

Funded by the Henry Luce scholarship, he has already applied his medical knowledge to reforms in Cambodia’s health care system. And as the new recipient of a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, he will return to the Cambodia to help reform its justice system.
William Harms reports Nirav Shah first worked in Cambodia to deter corruption in the health care system.

Through the [Henry Luce] scholarship, he was chief economist for the National Institute of Public Health in Phnom Pehn from 2002 to 2003. In that position, Shah helped decrease the potential for corruption by reducing the number of decisions being made by local and national health care authorities.

Shah's comments tend to help demonstrate the accuracy of Dr Beat "Beatocello" Richner's claims that of health care system was in dire need of reform.

“We tend to think of corruption as being a moral problem, but I looked at the ways in which it is an institutional problem,” Shah said. “In the previous system, decisions about health care needed to be approved at 13 different steps, each providing an opportunity for a bribe to move the decision along.”

Something that is not mentioned in Dr Richner's lectures is that corrective action has been taken by people such as Shah.

Apparently through Shah’s work, the health care system was reformed to require only six steps of approval. As a result, according to the William Harms report, more funds were now available to care for Cambodian people seeking health services.

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To market, Two markets

Tuol Tom Pong (the Russian Market) can boast diversity.

There are herb stalls next to chicken stalls; fruit next to grease-caked motorbike parts; pottery next to clothing; antiques next to vegetables.

Rows of fresh flowers to the right of us, and to the left women squatted over small charcoal fires to tend to roasting chestnuts.

Dim and dank, we pushed our way forward through the throng.

We are here because it is the better of the two markets in Phnom Penh for tourists. It probably has the best selection of souvenirs.



Copyright Tan and Trev 2005



Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Across town is Psah Thmei (central market) which sells all sorts of items. It probably has better prices on produce and commodities, as it seems to be where more locals shop.

At the center of its maddening array of diverse stalls is a large orange building with a roof of concentric circles thinning out into a pyramid. "An art deco ziggurat," in the words of the Lonely Planet guide.

At the hub of both markets we were amazed to find a brilliantly lit arcade of gem sellers, wristwatch dealers, money-changers, makeup counters and perfume shops.

It was like pealing your way through an onion only to find a pearl at its core.

But we gave the glass cabinets little thought and pushed forward, ever forward. Our's was a different mission and our goal was clear. We were hunting for a little head.

Hunting For Head

The tourist section at Phnom Penh's Russian market can seem a little seedy.

Stepping off the well-lit steet and into its gloomy depths, one can quickly become disorientated within just a few turns in this maze of stalls and vendors.

As we plunged into this dark warren, Tan would make sudden and irratic stops to inspect a maddening array of items. Each different commodity has it's own little ghetto, and it was all here.



Copyright Tan and Trev 2005


Copyright Tan and Trev 2005

Some were devoted solely to indulging the more traditional tourist pursuits with items like t-shirts ("I survived Phnom Penh", "Tintin in Cambodia," "Danger: Landmines"), Angkor paperweights, small Buddha statues, beautiful paintings and ornamental carvings available for a fraction of what you would pay at an upmarket gallery or boutique in the West.

Hunting for a bargain? Then find a fake Rolex for $30? Or grab a bootleg CD's pirated from the today's popstars at $3 each? This is the land of the rip-off.

But we were on a different mission. We push onwards, ever onwards. Our
goal was clear. We were on the hunt for a little head.