dkhmernews

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The former Khmer Rouge prison chief has denied he waterboarded or suffocated detainees as he detailed his torture techniques to Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial.Duch -- whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav -- apologised at the start of his trial last month for the torture and extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.But he said he had not used the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding, and had not put plastic bags over prisoners' heads because of the danger they could suffocate to death.
"The kind of waterboarding technique was not employed and the plastic bag was also not a kind of technique," Duch said.

Duch said he discussed interrogation tactics with Khmer Rouge cadres soon after he began working at the prison.

"There were two techniques. The normal beating technique and the electrocution technique with use of a telephone (line)... which was connected to an electric current to electrocute prisoners. That was true," Duch said.

The United States has been heavily criticised for using waterboarding to interrogate suspected Al-Qaeda prisoners, with many commentators citing it as a brutal method of the Khmer Rouge.

Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder over the extermination of thousands of people between 1975 and 1979 at Tuol Sleng and the nearby "Killing Fields."

However, he has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule, and maintains he never personally executed anyone.

He faces life in jail but the court does not have the power to impose the death penalty. Four other senior leaders from the regime are scheduled to be tried within the next year.

Many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.

The Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979 by Hanoi-backed forces who discovered Tuol Sleng and established the facility as a museum to display the regime's crimes.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — The former Khmer Rouge prison chief has denied he waterboarded or suffocated detainees as he detailed his torture techniques to Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes trial.Duch -- whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav -- apologised at the start of his trial last month for the torture and extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime's Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S-21.But he said he had not used the simulated drowning technique called waterboarding, and had not put plastic bags over prisoners' heads because of the danger they could suffocate to death.
"The kind of waterboarding technique was not employed and the plastic bag was also not a kind of technique," Duch said.

Duch said he discussed interrogation tactics with Khmer Rouge cadres soon after he began working at the prison.

"There were two techniques. The normal beating technique and the electrocution technique with use of a telephone (line)... which was connected to an electric current to electrocute prisoners. That was true," Duch said.

The United States has been heavily criticised for using waterboarding to interrogate suspected Al-Qaeda prisoners, with many commentators citing it as a brutal method of the Khmer Rouge.

Duch is charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and premeditated murder over the extermination of thousands of people between 1975 and 1979 at Tuol Sleng and the nearby "Killing Fields."

However, he has denied prosecutors' claims that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge's iron-fisted rule, and maintains he never personally executed anyone.

He faces life in jail but the court does not have the power to impose the death penalty. Four other senior leaders from the regime are scheduled to be tried within the next year.

Many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people through starvation, overwork, torture and execution.

The Khmer Rouge were ousted in 1979 by Hanoi-backed forces who discovered Tuol Sleng and established the facility as a museum to display the regime's crimes.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
By Dan Rivers
CNN Bangkok-based correspondent

Cambodia is a country that throws up the most staggering barbed facts that catch the mind and should stick inconveniently in our conscience.

As I put together “Killing Fields: The Long Road to Justice” for CNN, I kept tripping across breathtaking statistics that seemed too incredible to believe. Like, for example, a Yale University history professor's analysis of declassified military data that showed during America's bombing campaign over Cambodia from 1965-1973, the United States dropped more tons of ordnance on this tiny nation than the Allies dropped during the whole of the Second World War. A total of 2,756,000 tons of explosives was dropped on Cambodia, compared with 2 million tons dropped during World War II, worldwide.
It goes some way to explain how and why the vicious, bloodthirsty and unstoppable phenomenon that was the Khmer Rouge came to power. Simply put, faced with utter destruction by the United States or the promised utopia offered by Pol Pot and his ultra-communist henchmen, many Cambodian peasants chose the latter.

But that was before the killing started. Another head-spinning fact: After the Khmer Rouge swept to power in 1975 they killed a greater proportion of their own compatriots than any other regime in the 20th century.

It's facile and pointless to make some sort of genocidal league table, but what happened in Cambodia in just three years, eight months and 20 days was certainly as awful and unfathomable as events in Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Darfur.

I decided to revisit this terrible period, because it's now 30 years since the Khmer Rouge regime fell and finally a handful of its leaders are being put on trial at a special U.N.-backed war crimes trial. It's garnered few headlines internationally. Perhaps Cambodia is just too remote, too forgotten, and too insignificant in many peoples' minds to warrant attention. But that is exactly why I felt it was vital to shine a spotlight on what happened.

Another remarkable fact: Pol Pot's men remained a potent force in Cambodia's power struggle that verged on civil war for almost 20 years after they were forced out of power by the invading Vietnamese — a sinister culture of impunity that has strangled Cambodia while countries around it grew and prospered.

Even more incredible, the Khmer Rouge was backed by the United States, Britain, and other Western powers during the 1980s, despite the nightmarish mass-murder perpetrated by so many of the Khmer Rouge's Cadres. The United States viewed the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge as a useful counterweight to Soviet/Vietnamese influence in Indochina. The U.S. doctrine seemed to follow the maxim “My enemy's enemy is my friend.”

The impunity enjoyed by the top Khmer Rouge leaders is something the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia is trying to address. But it's taking a very long time. And as I found out in making our program, the trial process itself is mired in corruption allegations which some think may mean the entire process may collapse.

The United Nations is in a terrible bind over the issue. It's been forced into accepting a hybrid court system with the Cambodian government, which means the U.N. is not free to alone root out corruption quickly and surgically. Instead, as one defense lawyer told me, the corruption has been allowed to fester like a “cancer” eating away at the credibility of the trial. The prosecution, clearly worried about the courts credibility, also is pushing for the corruption to be addressed.
Already the costs for the proceedings are spiraling out of control: The budget will have swollen to more than $100 million by the end of this year, about US$20,000,000 per defendant. Or to look at it another way: the trial is costing a mere US$59 per victim.

What's also worrying is that the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a junior figure in the Khmer Rouge, has said that the trial should be limited to the current five defendants - and no more. He's said that expanding the circle of prosecution risks the stability of the country. But that means in practice that many of those involved in the slaughter during the Khmer Rouge period would remain unpunished.

The most notorious camp in Phnom Penh, called S21 or Tuol Sleng, was set up in a former school. The camp was designed to extract confessions from internal enemies of the regime, using whatever means deemed necessary. The result, according to meticulous Khmer Rouge records and survivor accounts, was the most brutal and sadistic torture camp imaginable: More than 14,000 prisoners were killed after enduring horrendous torture.

The chief interrogator at S21 was a man called Ta Chan, who led a team of interrogators. He has never officially been charged with any crime.

After quite some effort, we found out where Ta Chan lives. When we arrived at his modest wooden house in the far west of Cambodia, I got a glimpse of him. But he was apparently too scared to face our cameras, leaving his son to do the talking. His son said Ta Chan was old and his health was bad and that none of the family wanted to talk about the past.

By a stroke of luck we obtained and salvaged an old, barely functioning tape, shot by a Thai cameraman 10 years ago, that had never been broadcast. It contained the grinning image of Ta Chan showing off another prison he ran for the Khmer Rouge after they'd been forced to abandon S21. Here he was — one of the most notorious figures of one of the most bloody regimes in the world — and after twenty years, he was still in the prison business.

Now, finally Ta Chan's face will be known to the world. The question is, will he ever face trial for the heinous crimes survivors say he committed?

Dan Rivers is CNN's Bangkok-based correspondent reporting for 'WORLD UNTOLD STORIES: KILLING FIELDS: LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE' airing on CNN International May 1 at 1100, May 2 at 1630, May 3 at 0100, 0630 & 2230 and May 4 at 1030 Taipei Time. For more info visit www.cnn.com/worldsuntoldstories.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009
By Dan Rivers
CNN Bangkok-based correspondent

Cambodia is a country that throws up the most staggering barbed facts that catch the mind and should stick inconveniently in our conscience.

As I put together “Killing Fields: The Long Road to Justice” for CNN, I kept tripping across breathtaking statistics that seemed too incredible to believe. Like, for example, a Yale University history professor's analysis of declassified military data that showed during America's bombing campaign over Cambodia from 1965-1973, the United States dropped more tons of ordnance on this tiny nation than the Allies dropped during the whole of the Second World War. A total of 2,756,000 tons of explosives was dropped on Cambodia, compared with 2 million tons dropped during World War II, worldwide.
It goes some way to explain how and why the vicious, bloodthirsty and unstoppable phenomenon that was the Khmer Rouge came to power. Simply put, faced with utter destruction by the United States or the promised utopia offered by Pol Pot and his ultra-communist henchmen, many Cambodian peasants chose the latter.

But that was before the killing started. Another head-spinning fact: After the Khmer Rouge swept to power in 1975 they killed a greater proportion of their own compatriots than any other regime in the 20th century.

It's facile and pointless to make some sort of genocidal league table, but what happened in Cambodia in just three years, eight months and 20 days was certainly as awful and unfathomable as events in Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Darfur.

I decided to revisit this terrible period, because it's now 30 years since the Khmer Rouge regime fell and finally a handful of its leaders are being put on trial at a special U.N.-backed war crimes trial. It's garnered few headlines internationally. Perhaps Cambodia is just too remote, too forgotten, and too insignificant in many peoples' minds to warrant attention. But that is exactly why I felt it was vital to shine a spotlight on what happened.

Another remarkable fact: Pol Pot's men remained a potent force in Cambodia's power struggle that verged on civil war for almost 20 years after they were forced out of power by the invading Vietnamese — a sinister culture of impunity that has strangled Cambodia while countries around it grew and prospered.

Even more incredible, the Khmer Rouge was backed by the United States, Britain, and other Western powers during the 1980s, despite the nightmarish mass-murder perpetrated by so many of the Khmer Rouge's Cadres. The United States viewed the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge as a useful counterweight to Soviet/Vietnamese influence in Indochina. The U.S. doctrine seemed to follow the maxim “My enemy's enemy is my friend.”

The impunity enjoyed by the top Khmer Rouge leaders is something the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia is trying to address. But it's taking a very long time. And as I found out in making our program, the trial process itself is mired in corruption allegations which some think may mean the entire process may collapse.

The United Nations is in a terrible bind over the issue. It's been forced into accepting a hybrid court system with the Cambodian government, which means the U.N. is not free to alone root out corruption quickly and surgically. Instead, as one defense lawyer told me, the corruption has been allowed to fester like a “cancer” eating away at the credibility of the trial. The prosecution, clearly worried about the courts credibility, also is pushing for the corruption to be addressed.
Already the costs for the proceedings are spiraling out of control: The budget will have swollen to more than $100 million by the end of this year, about US$20,000,000 per defendant. Or to look at it another way: the trial is costing a mere US$59 per victim.

What's also worrying is that the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, himself a junior figure in the Khmer Rouge, has said that the trial should be limited to the current five defendants - and no more. He's said that expanding the circle of prosecution risks the stability of the country. But that means in practice that many of those involved in the slaughter during the Khmer Rouge period would remain unpunished.

The most notorious camp in Phnom Penh, called S21 or Tuol Sleng, was set up in a former school. The camp was designed to extract confessions from internal enemies of the regime, using whatever means deemed necessary. The result, according to meticulous Khmer Rouge records and survivor accounts, was the most brutal and sadistic torture camp imaginable: More than 14,000 prisoners were killed after enduring horrendous torture.

The chief interrogator at S21 was a man called Ta Chan, who led a team of interrogators. He has never officially been charged with any crime.

After quite some effort, we found out where Ta Chan lives. When we arrived at his modest wooden house in the far west of Cambodia, I got a glimpse of him. But he was apparently too scared to face our cameras, leaving his son to do the talking. His son said Ta Chan was old and his health was bad and that none of the family wanted to talk about the past.

By a stroke of luck we obtained and salvaged an old, barely functioning tape, shot by a Thai cameraman 10 years ago, that had never been broadcast. It contained the grinning image of Ta Chan showing off another prison he ran for the Khmer Rouge after they'd been forced to abandon S21. Here he was — one of the most notorious figures of one of the most bloody regimes in the world — and after twenty years, he was still in the prison business.

Now, finally Ta Chan's face will be known to the world. The question is, will he ever face trial for the heinous crimes survivors say he committed?

Dan Rivers is CNN's Bangkok-based correspondent reporting for 'WORLD UNTOLD STORIES: KILLING FIELDS: LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE' airing on CNN International May 1 at 1100, May 2 at 1630, May 3 at 0100, 0630 & 2230 and May 4 at 1030 Taipei Time. For more info visit www.cnn.com/worldsuntoldstories.

04/28/2009
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH - One sign came when she couldn't enter the existing library because the floor was covered with six inches of rice that had been put there to dry during harvest season.

Another was the selection of volumes, such as the organic chemistry textbooks, in English, that a well-meaning but obviously clueless charity donated to the rural school in the poor farming community.
Still another was the abundance of books in French and English, but the paucity of books in Khmer.

So, Peace Corps volunteer Emi Caitlin Ishigooka from Long Beach jumped at the opportunity to create a new library when approached with the idea by the director of the Cambodian school where she was teaching high school English.

A 26-year-old UCLA and Poly High graduate who will attend USC graduate school in public administration in the fall, Ishigooka recently returned from a two-year stint as one of the inaugural group of Peace Corps volunteers assigned to Cambodia.

While she has come back to the U.S. with the usual bucketful of stories about life in a village with no running water, strange encounters with the local fauna and edible delicacies such as fried tarantulas, it is the library she built in her second year abroad that has the most meaning.

In the truest of the people, by the people and for the people tradition, Ishigooka says that from the outset she wanted the students to be the driving force.

"From the beginning they had a major say," Ishigooka said. "They gave me the titles and subjects that interested them. I did keep one Norton Anthology, though."

Ishigooka applied for a grant from the Peace Corps, eventually raising about $3,500, including $300 or $400 from the students and the families themselves.

Once a new non-produce storing building was found, students began cleaning and decorating the new facility, including painting a large mural of the world on the wall.

"With the grant money, we were able to get books for all grade levels," Ishigooka said. And they were able to get them in Khmer: novels, history, poetry, even an edition in translation of Harry Potter.

The library was also outfitted with a listening center to help students with languages and other learning areas.

For Ishigooka, as important as getting the actual volumes, was giving the students a sense of ownership and responsibility for the library.

This included students volunteering to staff the library, setting schedules and actually be there during operating hours, along with maintaining the facility.

"This was built by an incredible group," Ishigooka says.

The best part, was "to see students make it their own. Now the student librarians are leaders and role models. And in the process we were promoting volunteerism, which for a Peace Corps volunteer is pretty phenomenal."

As she sits at a Starbucks near the Traffic Circle and begins to renew her relationship with coffee, finds a job, visits with friends, checks text messages, prepares for graduate school and negotiates with her mom for use of the car, the 26-year-old is very much back into the hectic flow of life of an young American woman on the upward career and educational track.

But a part of Ishigooka will always be in Cambodia, beyond the retainer a rat absconded with.

When Ishigooka looks back, she hopes she left something lasting and tangible.

"The kids are are so proud and took such good care of (the library) that I'm confident years from now it will still be there and be a big part of the school and community," Ishigooka says.

04/28/2009
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH - One sign came when she couldn't enter the existing library because the floor was covered with six inches of rice that had been put there to dry during harvest season.

Another was the selection of volumes, such as the organic chemistry textbooks, in English, that a well-meaning but obviously clueless charity donated to the rural school in the poor farming community.
Still another was the abundance of books in French and English, but the paucity of books in Khmer.

So, Peace Corps volunteer Emi Caitlin Ishigooka from Long Beach jumped at the opportunity to create a new library when approached with the idea by the director of the Cambodian school where she was teaching high school English.

A 26-year-old UCLA and Poly High graduate who will attend USC graduate school in public administration in the fall, Ishigooka recently returned from a two-year stint as one of the inaugural group of Peace Corps volunteers assigned to Cambodia.

While she has come back to the U.S. with the usual bucketful of stories about life in a village with no running water, strange encounters with the local fauna and edible delicacies such as fried tarantulas, it is the library she built in her second year abroad that has the most meaning.

In the truest of the people, by the people and for the people tradition, Ishigooka says that from the outset she wanted the students to be the driving force.

"From the beginning they had a major say," Ishigooka said. "They gave me the titles and subjects that interested them. I did keep one Norton Anthology, though."

Ishigooka applied for a grant from the Peace Corps, eventually raising about $3,500, including $300 or $400 from the students and the families themselves.

Once a new non-produce storing building was found, students began cleaning and decorating the new facility, including painting a large mural of the world on the wall.

"With the grant money, we were able to get books for all grade levels," Ishigooka said. And they were able to get them in Khmer: novels, history, poetry, even an edition in translation of Harry Potter.

The library was also outfitted with a listening center to help students with languages and other learning areas.

For Ishigooka, as important as getting the actual volumes, was giving the students a sense of ownership and responsibility for the library.

This included students volunteering to staff the library, setting schedules and actually be there during operating hours, along with maintaining the facility.

"This was built by an incredible group," Ishigooka says.

The best part, was "to see students make it their own. Now the student librarians are leaders and role models. And in the process we were promoting volunteerism, which for a Peace Corps volunteer is pretty phenomenal."

As she sits at a Starbucks near the Traffic Circle and begins to renew her relationship with coffee, finds a job, visits with friends, checks text messages, prepares for graduate school and negotiates with her mom for use of the car, the 26-year-old is very much back into the hectic flow of life of an young American woman on the upward career and educational track.

But a part of Ishigooka will always be in Cambodia, beyond the retainer a rat absconded with.

When Ishigooka looks back, she hopes she left something lasting and tangible.

"The kids are are so proud and took such good care of (the library) that I'm confident years from now it will still be there and be a big part of the school and community," Ishigooka says.

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 April 2009

Sitting on a small wooden bed inside a new mosque on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, So Pey Tah, a 50-year-old Muslim, sat talking with neighbors as all around her, Khmer compatriots were loudly celebrating the New Year.

Cambodia’s predominant Buddhists observe a lunar new year, in mid-April, in raucous celebrations that include three days of revelry, water fights, late-night dances and trips to the pagodas.
So Pey Tah, on the other hand, like most of Cambodia’s 500,000 Muslims, observed the holiday without burning offerings to the incoming spirit of the new year, selling sweets instead.

“We have to celebrate it together because we’re living in the same country,” she said. “But for me, we don’t make any offerings to welcome a new god, because we have a different religion.”

Adherents of Islam believe in one god, Allah, while Cambodian Buddhists mix animism with Theravada Buddhism, in customs influenced by ancient Hinduism.

Cambodia’s Muslims, commonly referred to as Chams, celebrate important Islamic holidays, such as the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and Ramadan, a period of fasting, said Suos Komrey, Cambodia’s prime Islamic leader, or mufti.

“All Cambodian Muslims can freely celebrate Khmer New Year but are not allowed to go to the pagoda for prayer,” he said.

However, Loh Abdul Rosman, imam of the Kilometer 9 Mosque, outside Phnom Penh, said it was an individual’s right to pray at a pagoda, even a Muslim.

Meanwhile, many Muslim youths enjoyed New Year celebrations.

“I feel happier than usual,” 20-year-old Meut Salah told VOA Khmer as the holiday was underway. “We are playing popular games with other Chams every night.”

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 April 2009

Sitting on a small wooden bed inside a new mosque on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, So Pey Tah, a 50-year-old Muslim, sat talking with neighbors as all around her, Khmer compatriots were loudly celebrating the New Year.

Cambodia’s predominant Buddhists observe a lunar new year, in mid-April, in raucous celebrations that include three days of revelry, water fights, late-night dances and trips to the pagodas.
So Pey Tah, on the other hand, like most of Cambodia’s 500,000 Muslims, observed the holiday without burning offerings to the incoming spirit of the new year, selling sweets instead.

“We have to celebrate it together because we’re living in the same country,” she said. “But for me, we don’t make any offerings to welcome a new god, because we have a different religion.”

Adherents of Islam believe in one god, Allah, while Cambodian Buddhists mix animism with Theravada Buddhism, in customs influenced by ancient Hinduism.

Cambodia’s Muslims, commonly referred to as Chams, celebrate important Islamic holidays, such as the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and Ramadan, a period of fasting, said Suos Komrey, Cambodia’s prime Islamic leader, or mufti.

“All Cambodian Muslims can freely celebrate Khmer New Year but are not allowed to go to the pagoda for prayer,” he said.

However, Loh Abdul Rosman, imam of the Kilometer 9 Mosque, outside Phnom Penh, said it was an individual’s right to pray at a pagoda, even a Muslim.

Meanwhile, many Muslim youths enjoyed New Year celebrations.

“I feel happier than usual,” 20-year-old Meut Salah told VOA Khmer as the holiday was underway. “We are playing popular games with other Chams every night.”

28 April 2009
By Ung Chansophea
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The Battambang deputy prosecutor summoned hospital staffs who left a pregnant woman to die on 15 March 2009 because she did not have the money to pay for the care.

Six Pailin hospital staffs are summoned on 19 May to present themselves to the Battambang tribunal in a case involving Van Yoeun.
Ang Neang, the deputy director of the Pailin hospital, who was on duty during the death, is among those who are summoned.

In the evening of 15 March, Mith Saron, a man who lost his right foot, drove Van Yoeun, his pregnant wife to the hospital because she suffered intense pain. Because he did not have the 100,000 riels ($25) that was requested from him, Mith Saron suffered the following sarcasm from the hospital staff: “How do you dare come to the hospital?”

Due to lack of medical care, Van Yoeun died at 5AM on that day.

While her husband did not want to bring this case to court, Koy Kanya, the Battambang deputy prosecutor, looked into the case and he sent out summons without giving any detail in the case involved.

“It must be about that pregnant woman,” said Chhorn Makara, the Adhoc NGO coordinator in Pailin. “Following the death of the patient, the police questioned the hospital staff and they had an order signed by Koy Kanya. If there was any consequence in this affair, it is normal that he [the prosecutor] looks into this case. He told me personally that it was a flagrante delicto case.”

28 April 2009
By Ung Chansophea
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Click here to read the article in French

The Battambang deputy prosecutor summoned hospital staffs who left a pregnant woman to die on 15 March 2009 because she did not have the money to pay for the care.

Six Pailin hospital staffs are summoned on 19 May to present themselves to the Battambang tribunal in a case involving Van Yoeun.
Ang Neang, the deputy director of the Pailin hospital, who was on duty during the death, is among those who are summoned.

In the evening of 15 March, Mith Saron, a man who lost his right foot, drove Van Yoeun, his pregnant wife to the hospital because she suffered intense pain. Because he did not have the 100,000 riels ($25) that was requested from him, Mith Saron suffered the following sarcasm from the hospital staff: “How do you dare come to the hospital?”

Due to lack of medical care, Van Yoeun died at 5AM on that day.

While her husband did not want to bring this case to court, Koy Kanya, the Battambang deputy prosecutor, looked into the case and he sent out summons without giving any detail in the case involved.

“It must be about that pregnant woman,” said Chhorn Makara, the Adhoc NGO coordinator in Pailin. “Following the death of the patient, the police questioned the hospital staff and they had an order signed by Koy Kanya. If there was any consequence in this affair, it is normal that he [the prosecutor] looks into this case. He told me personally that it was a flagrante delicto case.”

By VOA Khmer, Reporters
Reports from Phnom Penh & Washington
28 April 2009

Cambodia’s four main economic drivers have sustained multi-million dollar losses so far this year, despite insulation from the financial markets, a leading economist said Monday.A report released by the International Labor Organization released Monday shows losses of $280 million in garments, $260 million in tourism, $180 million in agriculture and $45 million in construction.

Despite those losses, Cambodia remains somewhat insulated from the global financial crisis, said Kong Chandararoth, president of the Cambodian Institute of Economic Study and Development.

“Our country is not close to the financial market, so that does not have an impact as serious as other countries,” he said, as a guest on “Hello VOA.”

Cambodia’s agriculture has also made the global financial downturn easier that industrialized countries, he said.

Organizations like the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank have warned that Cambodia’s economy will shrink this year, thanks to the financial crisis.

However, Kong Chandararoth said such predictions were “too dark about Cambodia,” and he predicted economic growth around 5 percent for 2009.

Cambodia’s situation is further different from other countries, he said, because it does not have a stock exchange or other financial markets, which have been hard-hit by the collapse of the US financial market.

Meanwhile, the government has prepared a package to restore the economy, including tax exemptions, tourism promotion, and help for construction, agriculture, garment factories and other investments.

The government announced Tuesday it will release $25 million to the agriculture and garment sectors, in an effort to mitigate the effects of the global downturn.

The money—$18 million to agriculture and $7 million to garments—will be used to increase farm production and help train people who have lost their jobs thanks to the slowdown.

Government officials made the announcement during the semi-annual donors meeting on Tuesday.

Cashing in on the killing fields

April 28. 2009
Jared Ferrie, Foreign Correspondent
The National (United Arab Emirates)

ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA - As his former boss faces war crimes charges for running a Khmer Rouge torture centre, the prison’s chief photographer plans to capitalise on his country’s dark legacy.
Nhem En hopes to raise at least US$500,000 (Dh1.8million) by selling two cameras he used to photograph many of the estimated 17,000 prisoners before they were tortured and executed.

“All Khmer Rouge leaders and prisoners at S21 were photographed with these cameras, so the buyers can take them to exhibits around the world,” said Mr Nhem, who said he had “met everyone” in the Khmer Rouge leadership while taking their portraits.

Mr Nhem said he has other items, including the alleged footwear of the regime’s leader, Pol Pot, which he also plans to auction off.

He said he would use the profits to build a museum in Anlong Veng, the former Khmer Rouge stronghold where he is now district vice governor. Many of the regime’s former figures hold positions of power in the area, which fell to the government in April 1998, ending two decades of civil war.

Mr Nhem is banking on curiosity about the regime that plunged Cambodia into “year zero” in an attempt to create an agrarian utopia by executing intellectuals and eradicating traditional family structures, among other disastrous policies.

Two similar museums in the capital, Phnom Penh, are popular with tourists. One of them is the former S21 prison, where many of Mr Nhem’s chilling black and white images are displayed, the prisoners staring wide-eyed with terror into the camera.

The most significant site in Anlong Veng is the grave of Pol Pot, who died, reportedly of a heart attack, as government forces were closing in. His remains were hurriedly cremated and they now lie buried beneath a rusting sheet of corrugated metal.

Although he is widely reviled as the mastermind of a movement that killed as many as two million Cambodians, his final resting place regularly receives visitors who sometimes leave offerings and pray.

One of them, Phan Phary, laid a bunch of bananas at the grave and lit a few sticks of incense before making a short prayer.

“I know Pol Pot killed a lot of people and he was a bad man, but he was the leader here and people living here respect him,” she said. “They need to respect him to bring luck and happiness for their families.”

Him Chhay, who lives in a small wooden house adjacent to the site, said Pol Pot was cruel during the Khmer Rouge’s reign from 1975 to 1979, but by the time he took refuge in Anlong Veng as an ageing guerrilla fighter he had softened.

“It’s better to have a big museum for Pol Pot’s grave because at least he is a former leader of Cambodia,” he added.

Youk Chhang, who heads the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge history, said it was not surprising that residents retain a conflicted affinity for Pol Pot.

He explained most were members of the Khmer Rouge who took refuge in the area, which was jungle at the time, where they continued to fight against the government.

“Pol Pot was the only person who took care of them, who gave them food to eat,” Mr Chhang said. “He’s a father, he’s an uncle. But he was the architect of the genocide of Cambodia.”

Mr Chhang said the brutal legacy of the Khmer Rouge has had a psychological effect on many who fought with the movement and have not yet been reintegrated into Cambodian society.

“They are in search of an identity. They are in search of themselves,” he said.

Mention of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal, which recently began trying the first of five former leaders of the regime, prompted ambivalent responses from some residents.

“I don’t listen to the radio; I don’t care about this. I’m very busy with no time to think about it,” said Chan Lay, a former Khmer Rouge fighter who lost his leg during the war and uses a prosthetic limb.

Another resident, Khieu Dum, said the tribunal “is no use for Cambodian people”. He is the son of Khieu Samphan, one of the regime’s top leaders, who is in prison awaiting trial.

“My father is innocent,” Mr Khieu said in an interview at the busy gas station he owns in the centre of town.

Mr Chhang, of the Documentation Centre, said he supports the idea of creating a museum in Anlong Veng because it would help people in the area understand and come to terms with their history. He was, however, sceptical of how Mr Nhem acquired the items, and he suggested the sandals in particular might be impossible to verify as authentic.

Mr Nhem insisted the items were real. He said he was given the cameras in 1976 to work as an official photographer at S21, the prison run by Kaing Guek Eav, who is now on trial and has confessed to ordering torture and executions.

As for his own role in the regime, Mr Nhem was unapologetic.

He said he realised later that the party’s leadership, known as Angkor, led the country into disaster. But he photographed the prisoners at S21 because it was his job and he was fully committed to the party.

“My life was for Angkar, so everything I did was to obey Angkar’s orders,” Mr Nhem said. “You can judge me as guilty or innocent.”

Cashing in on the killing fields

April 28. 2009
Jared Ferrie, Foreign Correspondent
The National (United Arab Emirates)

ANLONG VENG, CAMBODIA - As his former boss faces war crimes charges for running a Khmer Rouge torture centre, the prison’s chief photographer plans to capitalise on his country’s dark legacy.
Nhem En hopes to raise at least US$500,000 (Dh1.8million) by selling two cameras he used to photograph many of the estimated 17,000 prisoners before they were tortured and executed.

“All Khmer Rouge leaders and prisoners at S21 were photographed with these cameras, so the buyers can take them to exhibits around the world,” said Mr Nhem, who said he had “met everyone” in the Khmer Rouge leadership while taking their portraits.

Mr Nhem said he has other items, including the alleged footwear of the regime’s leader, Pol Pot, which he also plans to auction off.

He said he would use the profits to build a museum in Anlong Veng, the former Khmer Rouge stronghold where he is now district vice governor. Many of the regime’s former figures hold positions of power in the area, which fell to the government in April 1998, ending two decades of civil war.

Mr Nhem is banking on curiosity about the regime that plunged Cambodia into “year zero” in an attempt to create an agrarian utopia by executing intellectuals and eradicating traditional family structures, among other disastrous policies.

Two similar museums in the capital, Phnom Penh, are popular with tourists. One of them is the former S21 prison, where many of Mr Nhem’s chilling black and white images are displayed, the prisoners staring wide-eyed with terror into the camera.

The most significant site in Anlong Veng is the grave of Pol Pot, who died, reportedly of a heart attack, as government forces were closing in. His remains were hurriedly cremated and they now lie buried beneath a rusting sheet of corrugated metal.

Although he is widely reviled as the mastermind of a movement that killed as many as two million Cambodians, his final resting place regularly receives visitors who sometimes leave offerings and pray.

One of them, Phan Phary, laid a bunch of bananas at the grave and lit a few sticks of incense before making a short prayer.

“I know Pol Pot killed a lot of people and he was a bad man, but he was the leader here and people living here respect him,” she said. “They need to respect him to bring luck and happiness for their families.”

Him Chhay, who lives in a small wooden house adjacent to the site, said Pol Pot was cruel during the Khmer Rouge’s reign from 1975 to 1979, but by the time he took refuge in Anlong Veng as an ageing guerrilla fighter he had softened.

“It’s better to have a big museum for Pol Pot’s grave because at least he is a former leader of Cambodia,” he added.

Youk Chhang, who heads the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which researches Khmer Rouge history, said it was not surprising that residents retain a conflicted affinity for Pol Pot.

He explained most were members of the Khmer Rouge who took refuge in the area, which was jungle at the time, where they continued to fight against the government.

“Pol Pot was the only person who took care of them, who gave them food to eat,” Mr Chhang said. “He’s a father, he’s an uncle. But he was the architect of the genocide of Cambodia.”

Mr Chhang said the brutal legacy of the Khmer Rouge has had a psychological effect on many who fought with the movement and have not yet been reintegrated into Cambodian society.

“They are in search of an identity. They are in search of themselves,” he said.

Mention of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal, which recently began trying the first of five former leaders of the regime, prompted ambivalent responses from some residents.

“I don’t listen to the radio; I don’t care about this. I’m very busy with no time to think about it,” said Chan Lay, a former Khmer Rouge fighter who lost his leg during the war and uses a prosthetic limb.

Another resident, Khieu Dum, said the tribunal “is no use for Cambodian people”. He is the son of Khieu Samphan, one of the regime’s top leaders, who is in prison awaiting trial.

“My father is innocent,” Mr Khieu said in an interview at the busy gas station he owns in the centre of town.

Mr Chhang, of the Documentation Centre, said he supports the idea of creating a museum in Anlong Veng because it would help people in the area understand and come to terms with their history. He was, however, sceptical of how Mr Nhem acquired the items, and he suggested the sandals in particular might be impossible to verify as authentic.

Mr Nhem insisted the items were real. He said he was given the cameras in 1976 to work as an official photographer at S21, the prison run by Kaing Guek Eav, who is now on trial and has confessed to ordering torture and executions.

As for his own role in the regime, Mr Nhem was unapologetic.

He said he realised later that the party’s leadership, known as Angkor, led the country into disaster. But he photographed the prisoners at S21 because it was his job and he was fully committed to the party.

“My life was for Angkar, so everything I did was to obey Angkar’s orders,” Mr Nhem said. “You can judge me as guilty or innocent.”

27 April 2009
DAP News
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Hor 5 Hong was sent to the hospital in emergency while he was giving a speech at the inauguration of the new Cambodian consulate in Lowell, Massachusetts. However, he felt better after he was sent to the hospital.
Kuy Kuong, spokesman for the ministry of Foreign Affairs, told DAP on Monday 27 April that Hor 5 Hong feels better after US doctors saved him. Apparently, Hor 5 Hong suffers from severe fatigue during his travel.

Video by Licadho

Monday, 27 April 2009
Written by Vincent MacIsaac
Asia Sentinel (Hong Kong)

The rule of law goes by the board for Cambodia's land sharks


Video footage of an allegedly unprovoked attack by police on unarmed farmers in Siem Reap last month has sparked outrage in Cambodia because of what it showed and because the reaction from the national government sent another strong signal that state officials and those connected to them can violate laws with impunity, human rights groups say.
"Unless action is taken to defuse the tense land situation in the country, sadly there will likely be more shootings such as occurred in Chi Kreng [district, Siem Reap]," said Kek Galabru, president of to the Cambodian League for the Promotion of Human Rights (Licadho).

"Real action must be taken to address Cambodia's land crisis and to ensure that authorities do use violence against innocent villagers who are merely trying hold on their land," she said.

According to the monitoring department of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (Adhoc) the number of forced evictions in Cambodia is rising and land disputes are becoming more violent despite the free fall in land prices that began in the middle of last year and more frequent and fiery warnings from Prime Minister Hun Sen that any state officials involved in illegal land deals, no matter how high their rank, will be severely punished.

Moreover, the border conflict with Thailand and the subsequent build up of troops on the Cambodian side has increased land grabbing by the military as well as illegal logging in protected forests along the border, environmentalists and human rights investigators warn.

The Siem Reap farmers are the victims of both land grabbing and state-sanctioned violence, human rights groups say. At the root of the incident is a five-year dispute that escalated last December when two community leaders and one journalist were arrested following a court complaint from two businessmen who the farmers allege illegally obtained and then resold titles to 92 hectares of land they had been farming since, in some cases, 1982. In January farmers surrounded the provincial courthouse for 17 days to demand the release of the three.

It escalated further last month when a joint task force of about 100 police and military personnel opened fire on the farmers. The video of the crackdown almost never made it out of the rural pagoda where it was first shown, according to Buddhist monk Sovath Loun, who transmitted it to human rights groups in Phnom Penh via cell phone.

Sovath Loun, whose older brother and nephew were shot and wounded during the March 22 crackdown, said that at one point during his negotiations with district police over the incident, he was warned that if he didn't turn over his videos and photographs, the military might storm his pagoda in Chi Kreng district to seize them. The pagoda is located about 30 kilometers from Angkor Wat, the country's top tourist destination.

One video, which the monk obtained from a farmer who hid his video-equipped cellphone under his hat, suggests that the signal to begin shooting came from the deputy district police chief, and clearly identifies another officer who allegedly wounded two farmers after he opened fire with his AK47, according to the Cambodian League for the Promotion of Human Rights (Licadho). www.licadho-cambodia.org

The footage contradicts government claims that the police were acting in self defense, the league says, and it is calling for the prosecution of those who shot four farmers as well as the release of nine others subsequently jailed on charges of assault and attempted theft (of the rice they had planted).

"This was extremely serious violence against villagers committed by government armed forces, and it demands a strong response by the government. The police and other officials who committed this violence must be punished," Licadho said.

The province's governor, Mr. Sou Phirin, pledged to personally resolve the dispute following the protest at the provincial court, but his attempt at reconciliation aggravated it. He proposed that the businessmen be given the rice and farmers who had planted it be compensated by being paid for their seeds, according to the Adhoc report, which also said the governor's attempt at reconciling the two sides was marred by open hostility towards the farmers and their lawyer, whom he cursed at during the negotiations.

Sovath Loun's videos and scores of photographs include the aftermath as well as extremely graphic footage and photos from the hospital, including close ups of gaping wounds and doctors trying to treat them, as well as bleeding farmers beaten unconscious and tied together in rows. His videos and photos provide an extremely rare and detailed look into what many have been warning for years is, among other things, a grave threat to stability in Cambodia: the government's alleged complicity in allowing, and in some cases assisting, those in positions of power to steal land from the poor.

The 30-year-old monk first showed the videos to about 20 monks, nuns and laypersons at Vat Sleng Pagoda a week after the crackdown. The day after the first of several police officers paid a visit. The low-ranking officer had been instructed by the district chief of police to find out how many VCDs had been made and to take them, Sovath Loun said. "I asked the officer, ‘what law did I break?"

He broke the silence that ensued by enquiring further, "Do you want to borrow it or do you want to take it?"

"If you want to borrow it you can, but if you want to take it you can't," he continued. If the officer was devout he would be aware it would be a severe transgression to lie to a monk, while if he was merely superstitious he could be frightened into believing that a lie to a venerable monk in pagoda might be an invitation to bad luck for him and his family, he said.

The officer opted to relay the choice to his superiors. Over the next few days more officers and district officials visited him at the pagoda and the hospital where he was tending his brother and nephew. They told him to stop taking photos, turn over his VCD and sign a letter pledging not to disseminate the images, Sovath Loun said. He replied by telling them they could have the VCD if they signed a letter promising to resolve the land dispute and bring those who shot the farmers to justice.

During a second visit by police to his pagoda an officer warned him that if he kept the VCD he might have to deal with the military. Sovath Loun quoted the officer as saying: "The military might attack the pagoda to seize it."

On the third visit the monk turned over his VCD, but by this time he had already distributed about 100 copies throughout surrounding villages and widely transmitted the video of the crackdown taken by the farmer via his cell phone. This video ended up at human rights organizations based in Phnom Penh and on the internet (http://hub.witness.org/en/upload/shooting-chi-kreng-siem-reap-v2).

On April 2, Sovath Loun left his pagoda for Phnom Penh. "My heart was too heavy to remain in Siem Reap. I came here to try to regain my peace of mind," he explained at Ounalum Pagoda. The pagoda, which was founded in 1443, is the headquarters of the Cambodian Buddhism and has been experiencing a steady rebirth following its desecration by the Khmer Rouge.

Sovath Loun said his attempt to regain his peace of mind at the pagoda became more difficult after an advisor to the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia's Buddhists, a layman and official from the Ministry of Cults and Religion, arrived at the pagoda on April 10 in a silver Lexus and told him to order the about 100 farmers from his district who had sought refuge with him to return to Siem Reap on April 10.

He described the ultimatum as being inspired by politics rather than the teachings of Buddha. "The order came from the government," he said.

During their 30 minute conversation, he tried to explain to the advisor that his claim that the farmers were "disturbing the pagoda" was illusory. "I kept telling him that no monks had complained while the farmers stayed at the pagoda. Instead, we gave them food and blessings. We felt great sorrow for them."

The government advisor, whom the monk described as "aggressive", could not be swayed, and after he drove off in his silver Lexus Sovath Loun had to tell the panicked farmers to leave the pagoda and return to Siem Reap. By midafternoon all but four had left. Monks paid for those who could not afford tickets, he said.

The four who remain in Phnom Penh, identified by Siem Reap police as leaders of the group, are in hiding at a "safe house". They fear they will either be shot or arrested if they return to their villages, one said by telephone. Police are searching house to house in their villages for them, Chan Soveth, an investigator with Adhoc said. The disputed farmland is now under guard by armed police and soldiers, he added.

"There is no truth in [state-run] media," Sovath Loun said, explaining his motivation for compiling and disseminating the videos. "Soldiers and police have guns for protecting people not shooting them," he added before beginning his evening meditation on April 12.

Within a week, however, he had also left the pagoda, according to venerable monk Thaich Chhorn, who kept a written diary of the protests by the Siem Reap farmers in Phnom Penh . Thaich Chhorn said Sovath Loun, who is also a painter, left the pagoda to paint murals on the inner walls of another one in the countryside.

Sunday, April 26, 2009
By SHINO YUASA
AP

TOKYO - Asian health authorities were on alert Sunday, with some checking passengers and pork products from Mexico, as the World Health Organization declared the deadly swine flu outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic potential."

Japan's biggest international airport stepped up health surveillance, while the Philippines said it may quarantine passengers with fevers who have been to Mexico. Health authorities in Thailand and Hong Kong said they were closely monitoring the situation.

China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arriving in the country from swine-flu affected territories was required to report to authorities.

Malaysia and other Asian nations said they were awaiting further advice from WHO, whose Director-General Margaret Chan said Saturday the North American outbreak of a never-before-seen virus was a very serious situation with "pandemic potential."

At least 81 people have died from severe pneumonia caused by a flu-like illness in Mexico, according to WHO. Some of those who died are confirmed to have a unique version of the A/H1N1 flu virus that is a combination of bird, pig and human viruses.

U.S. authorities said 11 people were infected with swine flu, and all recovered or are recovering and at least two were hospitalized.

Mexico has closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters in a bid to contain the outbreak, which may have sickened about 1,000 people there.

"It would be prudent for health officials within countries to be alert to outbreaks of influenza-like illness or pneumonia, especially if these occur in months outside the usual peak influenza season," Chan said at a telephone news conference in Geneva on Saturday.

"Another important signal is excess cases of severe or fatal flu-like illness in groups other than young children and the elderly, who are usually at highest risk during normal seasonal flu," she said, adding, "the situation is evolving quickly."

At Tokyo's Narita airport _ among the world's busiest with more than 96,000 people using it daily _ officials installed a device at the arrival gate for flights from Mexico to measure the temperatures of passengers.

"We are increasing health surveillance following the outbreak of swine flu," said Akira Yukitoki, an official at the airport's quarantine station. He said more than 160 passengers arriving from Mexico on Saturday were screened by the thermographic machine. No one complained of fever or severe coughing.

The airport also plans to put up special signs for passengers going to Mexico, urging them to "wear masks, wash hands and gargle," Yukitoki said.

"What we have to do now is to see ... whether all cases in Mexico are epidemiologically linked," said Hong Kong's Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung. He refused to say whether Hong Kong would implement checks on people arriving from Mexico.

Asia has grappled in recent years with the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has killed at least 257 people worldwide since late 2003, according to WHO. Nearly 45 percent of the global bird flu deaths have occurred in Indonesia, with 115 fatalities.

Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic caused by viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals.

No vaccine specifically protects against swine flu, and it is unclear how much protection current human flu vaccines might offer.

Associated Press writers Gillian Wong in Beijing, Oliver Teves in Manila, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong, Grant Peck in Bangkok and Julia Zappei in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.

Cambodia to Reach Goal of 60 Pct Forest Coverage

2009-04-27
Xinhua

Cambodia is nearing its Millennium Development Goal of maintaining 60 percent forest coverage of its 180,000 square km of land by 2010, according to official figures received in Phnom Penh on Monday.

From 2004 to 2008, Cambodians planted more than six million trees, and the number will be much higher in the future, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries.
"We will grow and distribute 10 million trees to people throughout the country... and encourage tree planting on 10,000 hectares of land," said Ty Sokhun, director of the Forestry Department of the ministry.

Meanwhile, the government has also made efforts to curb illegal logging, closing 19 timber processing plants and making 225,477 hectares of forest land state property in 2008, according to the report.

The tropical rainforests of Cambodia are important centers of biodiversity that house at least 862 native tree species and 775 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles, according to research from the World Conservation Monitoring Center.

Weird World of Sport: Cock-fighting is weird. Why have cocks been chosen as opposed to ducks or swans?

Monday, 27 April 2009
Dom Joly
The Independent (UK)

I am in Cambodia doing "research" for a book I'm writing about my passion for travel to dodgy places. I'm visiting "The Killing Fields" tomorrow and today, I'm bizarrely off to see a man who is selling Pol Pot's shoes and loo. I've had my fill of dark depressing subjects in the last week or so and I decided to have a little look at the world of Cambodian sport.
The truth is it's a pretty minimalist area. They do play football here but they are spectacularly bad - so bad that most people support foreign teams. Their national football team was supposed to go to the Beijing Olympics but, according to rumours, the powers that be used the tickets to send their families there on a jolly.

The only real sport of any consequence here is kick-boxing. I know this sport as Thai kick-boxing but call it that here only if you want to lose your teeth. Here it's Cambodian kic-boxing, but it is exactly the same. Bouts are shown regularly on TV and the gambling is intense.

It's weird that in a country that has seen so much terrible violence in the last 50 years something violent like kick-boxing would be of such mass appeal. Violence, however, seems to be something that goes deep into the national psyche. The legendary French explorer of Indochina, Henri Mouhot wrote: "Cambodians appear only to have known how to destroy, never to reconstruct." He was obviously referring to their military history but it seems to apply to their sports as well.

While I was visiting one of the extraordinary temples that dot the countryside around the town of Siem Reap, I came across some amazing bas-reliefs on one temple called The Bayon. These bas-reliefs showed in some detail what Khmers, some 800 years ago, got up to for fun. Among others there was wrestling, hunting and elephant- and cock-fighting.

Wrestling, despite it's innate campness (something I've already written about having seen Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympics and then received much hate mail from big strong wrestlers so we won't go there again) is a fairly standard historical practice and you see it in all parts of the world on ancient illustrations. There's no beating about the jungle, it seems that a lot of men, when given the opportunity, love to strip naked and roll around on the floor scrapping – and fair play to them.

It's a moot point as to whether hunting is nowadays seen as a sport but way back then, it most definitely was. Elephant-fighting is understandable but cock-fighting, however, is a weird one. Why have cocks been chosen to fight through history as opposed to, for instance, ducks or geese or swans? It's always the poor cockerels who get blades attached to their legs and have to step into the ring. Rather embarrassingly I speak about this from some experience as, very unwillingly, I attended a cock-fight in Mexico once, where it is legal. It was while I was filming Happy Hour and the director thought it would add local "colour".

It was a deeply depressing experience. We entered through these doors that looked like they were to a dungeon and came out in a fully seated "cock-pit" complete with commentator on the PA and barely dressed conchitas serving Coronas. Hundreds of Mexican men (it was all men) were off their seats and throwing money about at a table where, what I took to be the bookies, were seated. Then a fight would start and two cocks would be brought in and rubbed up against each other while being held by their "trainers". They were then let loose and would fight rather pathetically on the dusty floor until one would go down and the winning cock would jump on him.

All the time the commentator was keeping a really monotone description going that I couldn't understand but probably went something like "And cock number one has jumped on cock number two, now cock number two has jumped on cock number one, now, great excitement as cock number one has jumped back on cock number two ... holy Pedro, is this a cock jumping and a half...."

It was depressing and left me feeling a little hollow. We didn't stay long. I've just been offered the opportunity to try another great Cambodian sport: blowing up a cow with an RPG. I gave this offer a miss but there are plenty of takers in the backpacking hostels around town.

Weird World of Sport: Cock-fighting is weird. Why have cocks been chosen as opposed to ducks or swans?

Monday, 27 April 2009
Dom Joly
The Independent (UK)

I am in Cambodia doing "research" for a book I'm writing about my passion for travel to dodgy places. I'm visiting "The Killing Fields" tomorrow and today, I'm bizarrely off to see a man who is selling Pol Pot's shoes and loo. I've had my fill of dark depressing subjects in the last week or so and I decided to have a little look at the world of Cambodian sport.

The truth is it's a pretty minimalist area. They do play football here but they are spectacularly bad - so bad that most people support foreign teams. Their national football team was supposed to go to the Beijing Olympics but, according to rumours, the powers that be used the tickets to send their families there on a jolly.

The only real sport of any consequence here is kick-boxing. I know this sport as Thai kick-boxing but call it that here only if you want to lose your teeth. Here it's Cambodian kic-boxing, but it is exactly the same. Bouts are shown regularly on TV and the gambling is intense.

It's weird that in a country that has seen so much terrible violence in the last 50 years something violent like kick-boxing would be of such mass appeal. Violence, however, seems to be something that goes deep into the national psyche. The legendary French explorer of Indochina, Henri Mouhot wrote: "Cambodians appear only to have known how to destroy, never to reconstruct." He was obviously referring to their military history but it seems to apply to their sports as well.

While I was visiting one of the extraordinary temples that dot the countryside around the town of Siem Reap, I came across some amazing bas-reliefs on one temple called The Bayon. These bas-reliefs showed in some detail what Khmers, some 800 years ago, got up to for fun. Among others there was wrestling, hunting and elephant- and cock-fighting.

Wrestling, despite it's innate campness (something I've already written about having seen Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympics and then received much hate mail from big strong wrestlers so we won't go there again) is a fairly standard historical practice and you see it in all parts of the world on ancient illustrations. There's no beating about the jungle, it seems that a lot of men, when given the opportunity, love to strip naked and roll around on the floor scrapping – and fair play to them.

It's a moot point as to whether hunting is nowadays seen as a sport but way back then, it most definitely was. Elephant-fighting is understandable but cock-fighting, however, is a weird one. Why have cocks been chosen to fight through history as opposed to, for instance, ducks or geese or swans? It's always the poor cockerels who get blades attached to their legs and have to step into the ring. Rather embarrassingly I speak about this from some experience as, very unwillingly, I attended a cock-fight in Mexico once, where it is legal. It was while I was filming Happy Hour and the director thought it would add local "colour".

It was a deeply depressing experience. We entered through these doors that looked like they were to a dungeon and came out in a fully seated "cock-pit" complete with commentator on the PA and barely dressed conchitas serving Coronas. Hundreds of Mexican men (it was all men) were off their seats and throwing money about at a table where, what I took to be the bookies, were seated. Then a fight would start and two cocks would be brought in and rubbed up against each other while being held by their "trainers". They were then let loose and would fight rather pathetically on the dusty floor until one would go down and the winning cock would jump on him.

All the time the commentator was keeping a really monotone description going that I couldn't understand but probably went something like "And cock number one has jumped on cock number two, now cock number two has jumped on cock number one, now, great excitement as cock number one has jumped back on cock number two ... holy Pedro, is this a cock jumping and a half...."

It was depressing and left me feeling a little hollow. We didn't stay long. I've just been offered the opportunity to try another great Cambodian sport: blowing up a cow with an RPG. I gave this offer a miss but there are plenty of takers in the backpacking hostels around town.