SIEM REAP PROVINCE
AROUND 50 military and civilian police officers and Environment Department workers destroyed at least 100 homes on contested land in Oddar Meanchey province Tuesday morning, dismantling some structures and burning others to the ground, officials and rights workers said.

Police said afterwards that they carried out the operation in accordance with orders from Siem Reap provincial court, but villagers and the rights group Adhoc blasted the move as premature, noting that a court case related to a dispute over the land remains unresolved.

Representatives of the families that lost their homes say the land – located near Kulen-Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in Anlong Veng commune’s O’Ampil village – was purchased from Environment Department officials in 2000, with each family paying US$1,000 for 30-by-200-metre plots. In 2007, however, Environment Department officials moved to evict the families, prompting them to file a complaint with district officials.

When no action resulted from that complaint, the families in 2009 took their case to Siem Reap provincial court, which earlier this month accused five Environment Department officials of illegally selling protected state land. Two of those officials were arrested on May 4, and three others remain at large.

The court has since March 2009 ordered the arrest of six villagers accused of cutting down trees in a protected area. One of the villagers is still behind bars.

Srey Naren, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said Tuesday that some 300 families were living in the village, and that 200 homes were destroyed. He emphasised that the dispute over the land should have been settled in court.

Referring to the villagers, he said, “Their complaints are still in court, and they have shown a lot of documents proving they bought the land from officials.”

Chao Samneng, chief of the Anlong Veng district crime office, said there were at most 200 families in the village, and placed the number of destroyed dwellings at 103. He said that these were “huts, not homes”.

He added that officials had been ordered by the court to evict the families, and had opted to destroy their homes when they refused to leave.
“They are so stubborn, so we burned their homes,” he said, and added that no injuries had been reported.

He referred further questions to provincial Governor Pich Sokhen, who could not be reached. Siem Reap provincial court prosecutor Ty Soveinthal also could not be reached Tuesday, but deputy prosecutor Toch Sopheakdey said the homes had been ordered destroyed because “it relates to the protected forest area in the national park”.

He added that he could provide no updates on when the land dispute might be heard in court.

Chhaom Chhoeun, 42, whose home was among those destroyed, said he had gone into hiding in the forest.

He criticised officials for failing to warn the families that an eviction was coming.

“If they were coming to burn down the villagers’ houses, they should have told us in advance so we could have saved our property. Now I have lost everything, even my rice,” he said. “We will stay out on the land tonight.”

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Contacts:

World Bank, Phnom Penh:

Bou Saroeun (855) 23-217-301

sbou@worldbank.org

Australian Embassy, Phnom Penh:

Lachlan Pontifex (855) 12-900-911

lachlan.pontifex@ausaid.gov.au

Phnom Penh, August 4, 2009 – Today the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the World Bank signed a US$13 million agreement to support Cambodia’s poorest and most vulnerable people by strengthening food security and social safety nets.

The World Bank has approved the Smallholder Agriculture and Social Protection Development Policy Operation to support the efforts of the Government of Cambodia to mitigate the combined impacts of the global food price and economic crises. The program aims to boost food security for poor households and expand safety net support.

“Even though Cambodia is a rice exporter, the poor are highly vulnerable to high food prices and it was not clear that smallholder farmers had the needed support for them to take advantage of higher prices to produce more,” said Annette Dixon, World Bank Country Director. “We hope that this operation will reinforce the excellent work of other programs from Government, NGOs and donors supporting agriculture and social protection in Cambodia. It will also help the poor to improve their agricultural production and access to market, and to protect the most vulnerable group through better policies.”

In particular, the program sets out to ensure better oversight and regulation of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and seeds to improve food productivity at the small farm level. It will also accelerate the registration of farmers’ groups so that individual farmers can better access credit and marketing opportunities for their crops. At the same time, the program will improve targeting of the country’s social protection systems to reach the country’s neediest people.

The US$13 million DPO is made up of an $8 million grant from the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) and a $5 million credit from IDA, the World Bank’s fund for low income countries. The GFRP, to which the Australian Government was a significant contributor, is managed by the World Bank and provides financial and technical support to countries affected by the global food crisis.

The Australian Government, through AusAID, is contributing $AUD2.8 million for analytical and capacity building support and the design and evaluation of pilot activities to support the program. “We support the Cambodian Government’s focus on strengthening services for farmers—to increase productivity and also to combat poverty. The supply of better seeds and fertilizer and ensuring social safety net help reaches the poorest of the poor are welcome, concrete steps by the Royal Government, along with more support for farmer associations,” said Margaret Adamson, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia.

Source: World Bank, Cambodia.

LICADHO deplores the authorities’ renewed campaign to unlawfully arrest homeless persons, beggars, sex workers and other “undesirables” from the streets of Phnom Penh. In recent days, such arrests have led to women and children being sent to stay in a government social affairs center whose staff include alleged rapists and murderers, and to sex workers who have HIV/AIDS being detained at an NGO shelter where they were denied their life-sustaining antiretroviral medicines.

“Once again, the government is treating poor people who live and work on the streets as though they are criminals,” said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. “This has nothing with to do with actually trying to help these people – it is simply intended to drive them off the streets in order to ‘beautify’ the city.”

Over the past month, dozens of people have been arbitrarily arrested from the streets, particularly in Daun Penh district along the riverside and around Wat Phnom, in night-time sweeps by district security guards or police.

More than 100 of the arrested people – mainly the homeless, beggars or scavengers – were sent to the government-run Phnom Penh Social Affairs Center at Prey Speu, on the city outskirts in Chom Chao district. The center has for years been used to illegally detain such people, and appalling abuses including rape and murder have allegedly been committed against detainees by guards there in the past, according to LICADHO investigations.

In 2008, based on eyewitness testimony, LICADHO sent detailed information to the government about abuses at the Prey Speu center, including the alleged beatings to death of at least three detainees by guards. LICADHO provided the names of guards who were allegedly involved in abuses, and requested that they be suspended from their positions pending an official investigation.

At least two and possibly more of the guards implicated in alleged rape and murder at the center in the past remain working there. No proper investigation by the authorities was conducted.

“It is indefensible that, more than a year after the abuses at Prey Speu were exposed, there has been no serious government investigation into the crimes committed there, and at least some of the alleged perpetrators remain working there,” said Naly Pilorge.

“The fact that the authorities are still sending women and children to this center, where alleged rapists and murderers continue to work, shows the blatant lack of concern for the welfare of these vulnerable people.”

Although, unlike in the past, the people currently being sent to Prey Speu are not being detained in locked rooms, LICADHO believes that many of them stay at the center against their own free will. Having been arbitrarily arrested and delivered to the center, they are offered the choice of staying there “voluntarily” or leaving. However, if they chose to leave, they are not given any transport back to Phnom Penh – they must walk the more than 20km themselves, unless they have money for a motorcycle taxi. (Usually they are penniless, having had their money and any property of any value stolen from them during or after arrest, according to arrestees spoken to by LICADHO.)

Threats of violence have also reportedly been used to coerce people to “agree” to stay at the center. Several people interviewed by LICADHO said that they were threatened, while being taken to Prey Speu, that if they left the center, returned to the city and were re-arrested for sleeping on the streets, they would be punished by being beaten severely.

“Previously, people were detained at Prey Speu by being locked up in rooms. Now, they are being detained there by fear because of threats,” said Naly Pilorge.

Sex workers are not among those being sent to Prey Speu currently, unlike in the past, as far as LICADHO is aware.

However, they are also being targeted for arrest in the current campaign – reportedly, more than 60 sex workers have been arrested in Daun Penh district so far this month. As well as unlawful arrest, some have been subjected to other abuses including, in an at least one case, detention at an NGO shelter.

On the night of July 19, 12 adult sex workers were arrested by police near Wat Phnom and taken to a local police station where they were locked in a bathroom. Several were kicked or beaten by police, either during arrest or at the police station, according to witnesses. In the morning, after being fingerprinted and photographed, they were taken to the Phnom Penh Social Affairs Department and then to an NGO shelter.

They were locked in a room at the NGO center, according to three of the woman who were later interviewed by LICADHO. They were allowed out of the room at mealtimes but were not permitted to leave the NGO compound.

The majority of the women were not released for three days (several were freed earlier), and only after the NGO was informed by LICADHO and other organizations that it had no right to detain them.

Among the 12 sex workers were at least four who have HIV/AIDS and are on anti-retroviral (ARV) medicine. The women, who did not have their drugs with them at time of arrest, missed three days of medicine while detained at the NGO. One of them later told LICADHO that she and the other HIV+ women informed the NGO staff that they needed their ARVs. The reply was that the NGO only had paracetamol and other minor drugs. The woman, aged 25 and who had been on ARVs for six months, said she asked the staff to borrow a phone to call someone to bring her medicine to the center, but was told that this was against the NGO’s policy.

ARV medicine must be taken on time and in the correct dosage; missing doses can lead to resistance to the medication to develop, rendering it useless in fighting the HIV virus.

“Denying ARVs to people whose lives rely on them has serious and potentially life-threatening consequences for their health,” said Naly Pilorge. “As a result of being arrested by the police and then detained by an NGO, the health of these women was directly threatened.”

LICADHO appeals for an immediate halt to the authorities’ campaign to arbitrarily arrest sex workers, homeless people and others who live or work on the streets. In addition, it once more calls for the closure of the Prey Speu center and the immediate suspension of staff there against whom allegations of serious crimes have been made, pending a long overdue proper investigation into abuses at the center by authorities.

“Locking up people and abusing them with impunity does nothing to reduce poverty or address the core reasons why they are on the streets in the first place,” said Naly Pilorge. “The government must stop punishing the poor.”

For more information:

Naly Pilorge, LICADHO Director, 012-803-650

Am Sam Ath, LICADHO Monitoring Supervisor, 012-327-770

Source: CAMBODIAN LEAGUE FOR THE PROMOTION AND DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS.

July 16, 2009— Development Partners are calling upon the Royal Government of Cambodia to stop forced evictions from disputed areas in Phnom Penh and elsewhere in the country until a fair and transparent mechanism for resolving land disputes is put in place and a comprehensive resettlement policy is developed.

Development Partners recognize that land issues are an ongoing challenge to development in Cambodia and urge the Government to adopt fair and transparent systems for land titling, including in urban areas, which recognize and protect the equal rights of all citizens.  Development Partners stand ready to support the establishment of national policy guidelines which would ensure that evictions and resettlement follow due legal process and provide just compensation to affected individuals.

The World Bank and a number of Development Partners have been working closely with the Government on securing land titling in Cambodia.  The Government is commended for issuing more than one million land titles because this offers the opportunity for improved growth and poverty reduction.

However, in an environment of escalating urban land values in Cambodia and speculative land buying and selling, urban dwellers are under threat of being moved to make way for high value property development. This has become a major problem in Phnom Penh and other fast growing cities in Cambodia – creating uncertainty for, and putting at risk the livelihoods of, thousands of poor people living in disputed urban areas. This is a result of policies and practices that do not reflect good international practice in dispute resolution and resettlement and do not make effective use of the procedures and institutions allowed for in Cambodian law.

International experience has established that secure land tenure is vital in ensuring economic growth and reducing poverty and that fair, well-implemented resettlement processes are key to an effective land tenure and titling system and protecting the rights of all people.

Development Partners reaffirm their commitment to work with the Government to help address  land issues in a just and equitable manner and to ensure that the rights of poor people are promoted and protected.

signed by:
Embassy of Australia
Embassy of Bulgaria
Embassy of Denmark / Danida
Embassy of Germany
Embassy of the United Kingdom
Embassy of the United States of America
Swedish International Development  Agency (Sida)
Asian Development Bank
Delegation of the European Commission
United Nations
World Bank

© 2009

The World Bank Group

, All Rights Reserved.

Legal.

]]> http://newskh.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/development-partners-call-for-halt-to-evictions-of-cambodias-urban-poor/feed/ 0 newskh http://newskh.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/getting-petroleum-products-to-market/ http://newskh.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/getting-petroleum-products-to-market/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:26:54 +0000 newskh http://newskh.wordpress.com/?p=146 ]]> The sharp price increases in the world oil market in 2007 and 2008 took everyone by surprise. And just as some oil analysts were forecasting US$200 a barrel or even higher, the oil price collapsed in the last four months of 2008. The speed at which the price changes on the world market were transmitted to retail prices became the subject of much debate. Consumers the world over argued that something was not right with the way their petroleum markets were functioning, benefitting oil companies and harming consumers. What determines these prices? This briefing note provides an overview of the petroleum product supply chain and factors contributing to retail prices.

Oil prices rose from 2004 to historic highs in mid- 2008, only to fall precipitously in the last four months of 2008 and lose all the gains of the preceding four and a half years. The pace at which retail prices rose and fell during this period became the subject of much discussion. Consumers felt that retail prices caught up rapidly with world market prices as long as prices were rising, but fell all too slowly when the world oil price began to collapse. How does a petroleum product market work? What are the main determinants of retail prices? This note describes different stages in the petroleum product supply chain (Figure 1).

Crude Oil Supply

The cost of crude oil is a major component in the price of gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and other fuels. In 2007 in the United States, for example, the average retail price of regular gasoline was US$0.74 per liter, of which the cost of crude was $0.43 (or 58 percent), refining costs and profits $0.13, distribution and marketing $0.07, and government taxes $0.11 [1]. Crude oils vary in price because they differ in quality. Crude oil is extracted and transported to a refinery, typically by ship or pipeline. Because each refinery is configured for specific types of crude, minimizing cost is not simply a matter of purchasing the lowest-cost crude. As [2] explains, the “sweeter” (less sulfur-containing) and lighter the crude oil, the more expensive it tends to be. Everything else being equal, the closer the refinery

is to the source of crude oil, the lower the price of crude oil at the refinery gate.

Refining

Crude oil is next processed into finished products in refining facilities. Refineries are generally large- scale and located near major markets with complex processing facilities adapted to the market requirements. These requirements include relative amounts of different fuels consumed—a market with high ownership of cars may consume more gasoline than one that is dominated by industrial activities requiring more fuel oil for boilers and diesel fuel for freight transport— and fuel quality such as the octane number of gasoline. Among Cambodia’s neighbors, Singapore is the largest refining center. Spot prices (prices for immediate delivery and payment) of petroleum products in Singapore are quoted on a daily basis and set the benchmark.

Product Supply

After refining, petroleum products of the required amount and quality are purchased and transported to storage facilities close to the final markets. This activity entails coordination of procurement and transport logistics, including considerations of volumes required, procurement methods, price, location, contracting terms, and supply reliability. Transport modes from refineries to secondary storage include marine tankers, pipelines, road tankers, rail, and barges. In Cambodia, the largest oil terminal in the country is at the site where there was once an oil refinery. Located some 10 kilometers north of the main port of Sihanoukville, the refinery opened in 1969 and was destroyed a year later at the outset of civil war. Sokimex holds a concession for managing the terminal. The pier serving the terminal is the primary point of entry for petroleum products and is managed by Sokimex Jetty Corporation. There are other smaller oil terminals in the country

Wholesale Distribution and Marketing

Wholesale distributors are generally synonymous with oil marketing companies, of which Sokimex is the largest in Cambodia. Other major wholesale distributors in the country include Tela, Total, and Caltex. Wholesale marketing involves the acquisition from the bulk supply link of petroleum products of the quality and in the volume appropriate to the market. Products are delivered by road tanker to the oil marketing companies’ affiliated (branded) retail service stations, as well as to bulk consumers such as power generation plants, industry, large commercial customers, government agencies, and transport fleet operators such as trucking companies and bus operators. In other countries, oil marketing companies may also deliver petroleum products to independent retailers under supply contract sales arrangements. Oil marketing companies may own the assets used in its operations (Sokimex runs its own fleet of road tankers) or outsource most of the road transport activities to independent owner operators and use storage depots owned by others under throughput fee arrangements.

Retail Distribution and Marketing

Retail marketing involves selling gasoline, diesel, and lubricants at service station outlets and kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) through other shops. Depending on the arrangements with dealers, oil marketing companies have varying degrees of ownership of the assets of their own network. When an oil marketing company first enters a new market, it is common to start out with largely self-owned and operated facilities such as trucking and service stations, but many increasingly outsource such activities as the business matures. The degree to which oil marketing companies own and operate assets varies by company philosophy, strategy, and the level and duration of involvement in a particular market.

Special Case of LPG

LPG can be sourced from a refinery or a natural gas processing plant. Natural gas is a mixture of several compounds including LPG components, and LPG is separated from the rest of natural gas during gas processing. Worldwide, 60 percent of LPG comes from natural gas. LPG is transported by large LPG carriers, pipelines, or trains to storage terminals which may be underground, refrigerated, or pressurized. LPG is next delivered by train, road, coastal tanker, or pipeline to cylinder filling plants and intermediate-size storage areas where it is generally stored in pressurized vessels or spheres. Cylinders are filled with LPG at bottling plants. Trucks transport LPG cylinders from the bottling plant to retailers as well as to bulk customers. LPG is available to endusers through cylinder sales points such as commercial stores and service stations.

LPG can be used for many different purposes: for cooking, heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, and as an automotive fuel. Because LPG is transported and stored in pressurized containers, it is more expensive to distribute than liquid fuels. To use LPG as an automotive fuel, the vehicle engine needs to be modified. There are three barriers to using LPG as a household cooking and heating fuel. First, the household needs to pay a down deposit for an LPG cylinder, which could cost upwards of US$20 a cylinder. Second, LPG is not a cheap fuel. Its world price doubled between 2004 and 2008, and metal management—distributing and storing LPG in pressurized containers—adds to the cost of using LPG. Third, because LPG needs to be stored under pressure, it is sold in discrete quantities matching the size of the LPG cylinder, typically in increments of 10–15 kilograms at a time for household use. A daily wage earner may have just enough cash to buy a very small quantity of kerosene for cooking every so many days, but such a purchasing pattern is not generally an option for LPG users. Introducing small LPG cylinders addresses this barrier to a degree, but international experience has been mixed. Because there are economies of scale in cylinder management,

selling LPG in small cylinders substantially adds to the cost of fuel distribution, making LPG much more expensive on a weight basis.

Factors Affecting International Prices

Prices are determined by as much by the balance between supply and demand as by costs of production. This can be readily seen by considering the crude oil price movement since January 2004 (Figure 2). The price more than quadrupled by mid-2008, not because the cost of crude production had quadrupled, but because global demand for oil grew much faster than the rate of supply increase during this period, creating a tight market. Similarly, oil prices collapsed in the last four months of 2008, not because it suddenly became much cheaper to produce crude oil, but because demand for oil collapsed in the face of the world financial crisis.

Sources: Platts Oilgram Price Reports for crude oil, gasoline and diesel, Reuters for LPG. Note: Crude oil is the average of West Texas Intermediate, Brent, and Dubai Fatah. Gasoline is 92 research octane number unleaded and diesel is 0.05 percent sulfur gasoil in Singapore. LPG is the average of Saudi Aramco contract prices for propane and butanes.

Because crude oil accounts for most of the production costs of refined products (77 percent in the U.S. example given above), the prices of petroleum products rise in tandem with crude oil prices, but even here there is no one-toone correspondence between crude price and product price changes. This is apparent from comparing the prices of gasoline and diesel in Singapore in Figure 2. Their prices were the same in some months but diverged sharply in May–July 2008. Between January and June 2008, the average of three benchmark crude oil prices rose 45 percent, the price of regular gasoline in Singapore rose 39 percent, and that of diesel rose 55 percent. The much higher diesel prices reflect greater demand resulting in a much narrower supply-demand gap for

diesel than for gasoline, driven in Asia in part by China reportedly building stocks of diesel ahead of the Beijing Olympics and coal shortages requiring more diesel use for power generation. Widespread power shortages generally increase demand for diesel fuel and drive up diesel prices. There are also seasonal variations in demand: gasoline is consumed more during the summer driving season in the northern hemisphere, and conversely demand for heating oil increases in winter. Demand fluctuations in large markets can affect global demand and hence world prices. Refineries can, to a degree, adjust production of different fuels to better match demand, but conversion of residual fuel oil to gasoline and diesel or a large increase in the production of diesel in the

place of gasoline would require new processing units and large investments.

Looking to the future, (relatively) low oil prices and the financial crisis are resulting in delays and cancellations of oil projects, raising the specter of a supply shortage once the global economy begins to recover. Underinvestment today could indeed erode spare capacity with economic recovery and oil supply could begin to tighten again, taking the world oil market into a new cycle of high prices.

Factors Affecting Domestic Prices

The landed prices of petroleum products are determined by the developments in the world oil market. Shipping petroleum products to Cambodia incurs costs for freight, insurance, wharfage (charge assessed against cargo for usage of a wharf or pier and its facilities), inspection, demurrage (charge for detaining a ship over and above the time normally given to unload), and marine transit losses (the amount unloaded in Cambodia would always be slightly less than the amount of fuel loaded). Congested ports, slow customs clearance, and any other factor delaying discharging of the fuel could incur large demurrage costs. Once landed and sent to a bulk oil terminal, petroleum products incur additional costs, including storage, transport, retailing, and wholesalers’ and retailers’ profit margins.

Because crude oil and petroleum products are quoted in U.S. dollars, exchange rate fluctuations affect domestic prices. However, the Cambodian economy is highly dollarized and the relationship between the riel and the dollar has been stable.

Taxes make up a sizable fraction of retail fuel prices in many countries. Taxes on petroleum products are a critical source of government revenue for low-income countries because taxing fuel is one of the easiest ways to get revenue: collecting fuel taxes is relatively straightforward and there is generally a robust relationship between consumption of fuels as a group and income—consumption tends to go up at the same rate as income [3]. In Cambodia, petroleum products are subject to import, excise, and value-added taxes and a small specific tax. The first three are in percentage terms, and as such price increases are magnified in absolute terms as international prices rise. For example, an excise tax of 33.3 percent on 900 riel is 300 riel, but becomes 900 riel if the fuel price triples. That is to say, taxes levied in percentage terms transmit any change in world oil prices to the final end-user prices. In contrast, specific taxes, which are set in riel instead of in percentages, are independent of the price of the fuel, making their “rates” relatively high when world oil prices are low (that is, when translated into percentage terms, the tax rate is high), and conversely low when world oil prices are high. In Cambodia, import, excise, and value-added taxes are based on reference prices rather than the actual landed costs, and the government froze the references prices in 2004, keeping them artificially low when the world oil prices soared in the subsequent years. This step correspondingly prevented the retail prices from rising in tandem with world oil prices, benefitting consumers but at a significant cost to the treasury.

Relative magnitudes of the above components may be gleaned from the suggested retail price structure of refined products in Tanzania in November 2008. Taking kerosene as an example, kerosene at the port of loading cost US$0.47 a liter, freight and insurance $0.06, wharfage $0.008, inspection upon landing $0.006, and transit losses $0.003. Local transport costs add $0.008 a liter, oil marketing companies’ margins $0.083, and taxes and other government-imposed fees $0.05, resulting in a suggested retail price of $0.69 a liter; taxes and other levies on gasoline and diesel are much higher than for kerosene [4].

As with the prices on the global market, supply and demand interactions influence domestic prices. Fuel shortages cause retail prices to soar, and a large surplus tends to push down prices. The market structure and the level of regulatory enforcement matter—a lack of competition tends to keep prices higher than in a highly competitive market, and rampant commercial malpractice (short-selling, mislabeling, fuel adulteration) also affect price levels.

Observations

Petroleum product prices are determined by demand and supply in the world and local economies. Global fuel demand is affected mainly by economic conditions, and also electricity supply shortages (for diesel) and the weather (for heating oil). A disruption anywhere in the supply chain could lead to fuel shortages and price hikes. In addition, the market structure and consumer behavior in the petroleum sector also affect the price movements, which will be the subject of the next briefing note.

References

[1] www.eia.doe.gov/bookshelf/brochures/gasolineprices primer/printer_friendly.pdf.

[2] World Bank. 2007. “Introduction to Oil and Gas” Petroleum Sector Briefing Note No. 1, March.

[3] Robert Bacon. 2001. “Petroleum Taxes.” http:// go.worldbank.org/FTOBS3ETC0.

[4] EWURA. 2008. www.ewura.go.tz/pdf/Notices/ 2 Petroleum%20 Pricing % 20 Formula % 2 0 -%20November%202008.pdf

The National Assembly on Monday voted to strip the parliamentary immunity of Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers Mu Sochua and Ho Vann during a closed-door session, opening the two opposition leaders to prosecution in law suits filed against them at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Ninety of the 111 lawmakers present voted by a show of hands to take away Ms Cochua’s immunity, and 91 voted in favor of stripping Ho Vann’s immunity, according to senior CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap. Under the Constitution, a two-thirds vote of the Assembly – or 82 lawmakers – is needed to remove a parliamentarian’s immunity. The ruling CPP ALONE Currently has 90 members in the Assembly.

Security was tight for Monday’s session, with clusters of anti-riot police stationed around the Assembly and military police positioned at regular intervals many blocks from the compound. With the session being held behind closed doors, journalists, foreign diplomats and NGO representatives were barred from viewing the debate – a decision that was decried by representatives of the US, French, British, and German embassies.

Ms Sochua faces defamation charges leveled against her by Prime Minister Hun Sen because she filed a defamation suit of her own against the premier. Her own lawsuit against the prime minister was thrown out of court earlier this month. Mr Vann has been accused of defamation and incitement by 22 senior RCAF officials for supposedly criticizing graduate degrees they had received from a Vietnamese military institute.

The debate on whether to remove Ms Sochua’s immunity had been anticipated since last week when it was placed on the Assembly’s official schedule, but the decision to include a vote on Mr Vann’s immunity came as a surprise to many, being added to the agenda at the last minute.

Mr Yeap said that National Assembly President Heng Samrin decided to include Mr Vann’s case in Monday’s Assembly agenda after receiving a request from the Ministry of Justice on Friday.

“The National Assembly doesn’t have to announce it before the meeting; we have complied with the Assembly’s internal regulation,” Mr Yeap said.

Foreign diplomats hoping to attend Monday’s session of parliament were left frustrated by the decision to keep the debate out of the public eye.

“Representatives from the American,, the German, the British and the French embassies are here this morning and unfortunately we were refused entry. We are surprised and disappointed about this. We don’t understand why access has been denied,” British Embassy Deputy Head of Mission Elizabeth Evans told reporters outside the Assembly compound.

Her disappointment was echoed by German Ambassador Frank Mann and French Embassy Charge d’Affaires Laurent Lemarchand, who both also sought entrance to the Assembly session on Monday morning.

“[T] here has been no reason given why today this is not a public session. So of course we are disappointed,” Mr Mann told reporters. “We will leave and we will ask ourselves, and of course we will ask the government, what has been the reason for rejecting our participation today,” he said.

US Embassy spokesman John Johnson said in an e-mail Monday afternoon that his embassy was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision not to make the session public.

“It is a matter of concern if the Cambodian people cannot witness and hold accountable their elected members for their actions on the floor of the National Assembly,” Mr Johnson continued.

Mr Yeap said that the Assembly president called for the closed session after receiving a request from 54 CPP lawmakers – well more than the one quarter of lawmakers needed to make such a petition.

He also brusquely dismissed the complaints of the barred diplomats, saying: “The National Assembly has complied with the law regardless of whether they are happy or not happy.”

SRP and Human Rights Party parliamentarians stormed out of Assembly on Monday after lawmakers from the CPP, Norodom Ranariddh Party and Funcinpec stripped Ms Sochua’s immunity.

The opposition lawmakers came out to face the media in front of the Assembly wearing surgical masks with an ”X” drawn across them as a protest, according to the lawmakers, meant to show that there is no freedom of expression in Cambodia.

“The Assembly lawmakers were raising hands to strip immunities of SRP lawmaker Ho Vann and myself very unjustly…They didn’t consider the national interest,” Ms Sochua told reporters. “They have considered their party’s interest by providing benefits to Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose comments affected my reputation and my roles as a lawmaker.”

“Is the Assembly [for all] or is it the CPP’s National Assembly? And we see that it is very dangerous for democracy,” She added.

Ms Sochua said that her lawyer has appealed the Phnom Penh court’s dismissal of her defamation complaint against the prime minister, which claims that the premier defamed her in an April 4 nationally broadcast speech.

“Our country is facing another danger, the judicial system which is being influenced from above The judicial system doesn’t regard the law and only complies with the powerful people. It is very dangerous for all people,” she said.

Mr Vann told reporters that he was surprised to learn that the Assembly had also moved to take away his immunity.

“I didn’t know in advance. I thought my case had been finished. I didn’t anticipate that. I am a victim. I want all people to consider that,” he said.

Mr Vann added that he would continue with the court process in his case.

What this development means in the immediate future for both lawmakers remained uncertain Monday.

Deputy Municipal Prosecutor Sok Roeun, who is handling both cases against the lawmakers. declined to comment Monday, saying he was too busy to speak with a reporter.

But Phnom Penh Court Director Chiv Keng said by telephone Monday that both cases are still in the deputy prosecutor’s hands, which means that formal charges have not yet been brought against either lawmaker. For that to occur, Mr Roeun would have to first pass on the cases to an investigating judge.

Even if they are charged, it is uncertain whether Ms Sochua would be arrested or detained ahead of trial. as defamation no longer carries a prison term penalty. Mr Vann, however, potentially faces two separate charges of incitement: incitement leading to the commission of a crime and incitement not leading to the commission of a crime. If convicted of the latter he could face between one and five years in prison, but if he is convicted of the former he could be treated as an accomplice to these, as yet unspecified, crimes and sentenced accordingly.

Judge Keng also denied that the government has pressured the court in the matters concerning Ms Sochua and Mr Vann.

“The government does not influence the court the government has a lot of work to do,” the court director said. “We comply with the law. This is the rule of law,” he continued.

A collection of local NGOs and rights groups, as well as some opposition-affiliated unions, issued a joint statement Monday afternoon condemning the​ decision to strip Ms Sochua’s and Mr Vann’s immunity, calling it a “Significant blow to democracy and freedom of expression in Cambodia.”

“The removals of parliamentary immunity and the recent increase in defamation, disinformation and incitement charges against journalists, civil society members and opposition party leaders is reminiscent of the 2005 crackdown on opposition and non-governmental voices.” the statement read, referring to the arrests of then-Cambodian Center of Human Rights president Kem Sokha and several others, as well as the stripping of the immunity of SRP lawmakers Sam Rainsy, Cheam Channy and Chea Poch.

“The recent  acts of the government prove that it continues to use the criminal charges of defamation, disinformation and in citement to silence critics and attack democratically elected representatives of the people,” continued the statement, which was signed by representatives from Licadho, CCHR, and the Community Legal Education Center among others.

The US Embassy also expressed concern over the removal of the lawmakers’ immunity and the current state of freedom of expression in Cambodia.

“We are concerned that two parliamentarians were left exposed today by the National Assembly to criminal prosecution, and have been disappointed to see the constriction of free expression in Cambodia over the past several months.” embassy spokesman Mr Johnson wrote in an e-mail.

“The Embassy believes that the progress that the country has made in the area of freedom of expression is threatened by recent developments. It appears that the courts are being used to intimidate critics of the government. Free speech and freedom of the press are fundamental rights in democracies throughout the world, and public figures and politicians should be prepared to receive both praise and criticism from the people they govern as part of the democratic process.”

Officials from the French, German and British embassies said they will be following the matter, but did not comment directly on the removal of the parliamentarians’ immunity.

Prime Minister Hun Sen took up the issue in a nationally broad cast speech from Kandal province on Monday, saying that the Assembly stripped the two lawmakers’ immunity in order to uphold “democracy and the rule of law.”

“Two lawmakers were stripped of their immunities…for the court to prosecute them. From now on we are strengthening democracy and the rule of law, this is not an anarchic democracy. Democracy must have the rule of the law,” the prime minister said. “Even though you are lawmakers, if you breached the law, the court must prosecute them, but before that the Assembly stripped their immunities.”

The premier also warned unspecified foreigners to stay out of Cambodian politics, otherwise they would also face legal troubles of their own. However, it was uncertain whether his remarks were directed at the embassies that sent diplomats to the Assembly for Monday’s session.

“Foreigners and other people, don’t play with the law,” Mr Hun Sen warned. “If they play with the law, we will have other laws to sort out those anarchic people. We are using the court to avoid violence. You can say anything but don’t affect anyone,” he warned.

(Additional reporting by John Malay and Simon Marks)

Source: The Cambodia Daily Volume42, Issue73.

62 refugees arrested by Thai police on June 12 say they are holding discussions with UN officials and Thai authorities in order to avoid deportation.

KHMER Krom detainees languishing in a Thai detention centre since their arrest last week say they have held meetings with officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Thai immigration officials in an attempt to avoid being deported back to Cambodia.

Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN Khmer Krom monks at a ceremony on June 4, marking 60 years since the loss of Cambodia's southern territories to Vietnam.

On June 12, Thai authorities arrested 62 Khmer Krom who claim they were seeking political asylum after fleeing persecution in southern Vietnam.

“At the moment, UNHCR is interviewing Khmer Krom people who are detained at the Thai immigration centre,” said Soeun Savang, 50, one of the detainees captured in the June 12 sweeps.

Originally from Vietnam’s Ca Mau province, Soeun Savang took refuge in Takeo before fleeing to Thailand in March 2007, after being accused of fabricating legal documents in an attempt to form a Khmer Krom group in the province.

“I have already received refugee status from UNHCR, and I am looking for a third country that will grant me political asylum. But the Thai authorities don’t recognise the UNHCR letter – they still arrested and detained us.”

Ang Chanrith, executive director of the Khmer Krom Human Rights Association, said he would travel to Thailand in July to speak with Thai authorities and UNHCR officials about the detainees.

“We will request that the Thai authorities do not deport these people to Cambodia or Vietnam,” he said Sunday.

“If they do, these people will not feel safe. They fled from Kampuchea Krom because of political pressure and human rights violations … by the Vietnamese authorities.”

Buddhist monk Tim Sakhorn, who fled to Thailand in April after being briefly released from his Vietnamese house arrest, said he was still awaiting the result of his own refugee application amid the crackdown by Thai immigration officials.

“After a mass arrest of Khmer Kampuchea Krom by Thai police, I am concerned about my security even though I have a grant from UNHCR to stay in Thailand. I am living under Thai law,” he told the Post.

Kitty McKinsey, public information officer for UNHCR Asia, could not comment in detail, except to say that the Bangkok office was “closely following up this issue with the Thai government”.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SEBASTIAN STRANGIO

Source: Phnom Penh Post.

Khmer Dressing

This is the kinds of Khmer dressing.  You are always seen them with these clothing in wedding ceremony or party…etc. Most of such clothing is designed and made by Cambodian tailors.

After more than a week of anti-NGO comedy sketches broadcast on national television, many Phnom Penh residents said Monday that they wished their much loved performer would keep politics out of comedy.

The most recent program, performed by the Krem comedy troupe and aired for the first time Saturday on Bayon TV, portrayed wealthy NGO workers and journalists staging fake evictions and scenes of poverty to dupe their foreign donors, who were portrayed as womanizing lushes who never leave their fancy hotel rooms during visits to Cambodia.

Previously, the Koy comedy troupe had performed live sketches depicting NGO workers as rich scammers who receive funding from international donors for the sole purpose of criticizing the government.

“I want to see comedians doing something educational, not political,” Daun Penh district resident Chheng Noy, 68, said on Monday, adding that she switched the channel when the sketches started last week.

Lihov, a tuk tuk driver, said that he caught about 10 minutes of the Bayon program on Saturday night, and it didn’t make him laugh.

“It made me scared…I don’t want the comedies to continue,” he said, adding that he used to work for an NGO.

“They follow the rules,” he said of NGOs. “This comedy is not true. If affects seriously the honor of NGOs.”

Sokha Santanea, 26, a barber, said that he had not seen the programs, but doubted that NGO workers could be more corrupt than government officials.

“Maybe only 1 percent of NGO people are corrupt, but many people in the government do corruption,” he said.

It was also misleading to portray NGO workers as more wealthy than government officials, because even distant relatives of people in the government seem to be rich, he added.

“If someone doesn’t have relatives in the government, they graduate from school and can’t  find employment,” Mr Santanea said.

Mab, a motor-taxi driver, said that he did not believe that NGOs in Cambodia were deceiving their international donors. “The NGOs also help Cambodians to have stronger rights,” he said.

However, tuk-tuk drive Mom said he was still pondering the implications of the comedy shows, as he agreed that it was possible to fake pictures of evictions.

“They could do that, It’s hard to say,” he said of such pictures.

One woman, who asked not to be named, said she found the Bayon program entertaining. “I just watched it because it was funny,” she said. “I don’t care about politics. I don’t know if it’s rights or wrong.”

And a Western man who overheard reporters asking questions about NGOs on Monday shouted that the NGO acronym really stands for “No-Good Opportunists.” He said that NGOs in Cambodia take money to pay for expensive SUVs:

“Not a penny goes to feed the children.”

CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said Monday by telephone that people need to understand the comedies.

“They play for fun, and sometimes they just try to educate the public. It is their right to play.”

He added that the comedians portrayed the activities of NGOs accurately.

“Forty-five percent of funds reach the people’s hands and 55 percent is used to pay for hotels and to buy luxury cars like Land Cruisers.”

When asked about corruption and the luxury cars that government officials driver, he said, “There is corruption in Cambodia. We have tried to counter it, step by step.”

SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann said that he had only read about the comedy programs, which also showed unnamed opposition lawmakers conspiring with NGOs.

“The media should be neutral, They should be independent of politics,” he added.

Mr Sovann said that the television stations should now present the responses of NGOs and international donors.

“[The comedians] can express their opinion, but the TV should get balanced information.”

Source: The Cambodia Daily, Volume 42, Issue 67.