The day to celebrate has finally arrived and we (DFI) are proud to announce a total of 19 events worldwide with amazing programs for this first edition of CFD. Spreading on all continents and even in virtual worlds we hope that there is an event for you and if not, hopefully you can get ready for next year and have something running in your area. We are already working with several organizations to try to make it easy to find free culture artists around the world and look forward to build on this successful beginning. So for now let’s just enjoy the show and celebrate Free Culture together!

Christmas has turned to be big business, and that is not only the case in countries with a history of Christian traditions. Not all who enjoy this business or some related customs seem to know that it is a day which has been set to remember the birth of Jesus.

Visak Bochea – វិសាខបូជា – or Visak Day, was a National Holiday in Cambodia on 5 May 2012 – and according to present Cambodian custom, many government offices, banks, bigger businesses, and some NGOs transferred the work free holiday, as it fell on a Saturday, to Monday 7 May – not caring at all that the date for this religious memorial day follows the full moon in May, which was this year on a Saturday. But again, not so many people seem to know much what the meaning of this day is. “It is the Buddhist Christmas Day or whatever!”

This day is an annual holiday observed differently by Buddhists in many regions of Asia and beyond, under different names, like in Cambodia – វិសាខបូជា – China – 佛誕 and 衛塞節 – India, Indonesia – Waisak – Japan – 花祭 – Korea – 석가 탄신일 and 釋迦誕身日 – Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand – วันวิสาขบูชา – and Vietnam – Phật Đản. Sometimes informally called “Buddha’s birthday,” it actually relates to the birth, the enlightenment, and the passing of Gautama Buddha.

“The decision to agree to celebrate the Vesak day as the Buddha’s birthday was formalized at the first Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists held in Sri Lanka in 1950. The Resolution that was adopted at the World Conference reads as follows:

“That this Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, while recording its appreciation of the gracious act of His Majesty, the Maharaja of Nepal in making the full-moon day of Vesak a Public Holiday in Nepal, earnestly requests the Heads of Governments of all countries in which large or small number of Buddhists are to be found, to take steps to make the full-moon day in the month of May a Public Holiday in honor of the Buddha, who is universally acclaimed as one of the greatest benefactors of Humanity.”

In addition to this general geographic and historic survey, I did not find much information how this day is commemorated – obviously differently – according to different traditions in different countries.

I take this occasion to share a one of the collection of 101 Zen Stories published under the name of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and widely known in the USA, and translated into German under the title of Without Words – Without Silence.

101 Zen Stories

A university student while visiting Buddhist Zen Master Gasan (峨山 – “Mountain Cliff”) asked him: “Have you ever read the Christian Bible?”

“No, read it to me,” said Gasan.

The student opened the Bible and read from the book of Matthew:

“And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory [King Solomon who reigned from about 970 to 931 BC, the mighty builder of the first temple in Jerusalem, reputed to have been great great in wisdom and wealth] clothed himself like one of these… So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Gasan said: “Whoever uttered those words I consider an enlightened man.”

The student continued reading:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and they who seeks find, and to them who knock it will be opened.”

Gasan remarked: “That is excellent. Whoever said that is not far from Buddhahood.”

No related posts.

In order to complement the nice web banners already available to place on blogs and websites the DFI marketing team has just launched a CFD countdown to further help with CFD promotion. In the same manner as we handled the different time zones for SFD we followed the same rules allowing everyone to display a countdown matching their own area. Of course translations are welcome (though none are available yet) and full instructions are available on the wiki. Simply ping us on the forum and we’ll activate the additional language right after checking all the files. And for the ones in a hurry just copy the sample code below (assuming you’re at UTC-4):

<a href=”http://www.culturefreedomday.org/”><img src=”http://www.culturefreedomday.org/countdown/banner1-UTC-4-en.png” border=”0″ width=”160″ height=”90″ alt=”Celebrate Free Culture with us on May 19!”></a>.

As we are one month away from Culture Freedom Day, event registration has now officially opened! Simply create your event page on the CFD Wiki where you should provide information about the venue, the schedule and anything else you deem important. Then just fill up the form right here and within minutes you should receive an activation email which will validate your participation while displaying your event on our worldwide map. Of course should you have any question or problem during the process you can either post a question in our forum or try to catch us on IRC.

Official voices had frequently commented, saying that everybody should be patient and not worry – as things go according to the law. So I also waited, expecting thee would be a final, clarifying action by the authorities for which so many people are waiting. Instead of waiting further, I write a mid term (?) report.

On 5 March, two weeks after the shooting and almost as long as the time that had passed since the Minister of the Interior said that the suspect had been identified, the spokesperson of the Council of Ministers Phay Siphan still appealed to be patient: “We have to go with due process.”

But what is this “due process” in a society governed by the rule of law? It is not just what is written on paper and announced by some authorities – “the rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated.”

United Nations – Rule of Law – Website & Document Repository

Promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels is at the heart of the United Nations’ mission. Establishing respect for the rule of law is fundamental to achieving a durable peace in the aftermath of conflict, to the effective protection of human rights, and to sustained economic progress and development. The principle that everyone – from the individual right up to the State itself – is accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, is a fundamental concept which drives much of the United Nations work.

The principle of the rule of law embedded in the Charter of the United Nations encompasses elements relevant to the conduct of State to State relations. The main United Nations organs, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, have essential roles in this regard, which are derived from and require action in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.

“For the United Nations, the rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.”

Report of the Secretary-General on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies (S/2004/616)

What does all that mean when one contemplates the following events?

• 20.2.2012 About 6,000 workers demonstrated at a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng, and demanded payments beyond the monthly minimum wage of US$61, asking for additional remuneration for food and transport. When the demonstration turned violent, three women were wounded, hit by bullets. One of them was hit in the back, with the bullet piercing her lung.
• 29.2.2012 Representatives of Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam Ath visited the shooting victims in hospital, offered approx. $500 each, and requested to thumbprint – sign – documents promising not to file legal complaints against the suspected shooter. One of the wounded woman said, “I don’t want to file a complaint because I don’t want to have problems anymore.”- There were also other voices: “It is attempted murder… If the court does not issue an arrest warrant, the people will lose confidence in the court system.”
• 1.3.2012 Another Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng, stated that the city governor of Bavet, Chhuk Bundith, is a suspect in the shooting, and the Ministry of Interior had known the identity of the shooter for more than one week already. “To arrest the suspect, it is not for the Interior Ministry to do. It is for the court to authorize.”
• 2.3.2012 The daily newspaper Koh Santepheap published a photo, with one person raising a handgun, and several armed police and military police accompanying him, at the SEZ. The photographer described also where the group in the picture moved around, but he kept his anonymity, claiming to be afraid of bad consequences. – The same photographer who had given detailed descriptions about the circumstances, where and when he had taken the picture, later claimed that the picture was several years old, depicting another gun wielding incident related to land conflicts in 2007.
• 2.3.2012 There were also reports that the suspect had been arrested while trying to cross into Vietnam. The spokesperson of the Council of Ministers said he had also heard about the arrest – but nobody would later confirm the veracity of these rumors.
• 5.3.2012 It was reported that the Svay Rieng Prosecutor Hing Bunchea had said that any decision about the suspect would depend on an investigating judge. “When I finish my review of the case file I will send it to the investigating judge, but I do not yet know when.”
• 5.3.2012 Finally, the suspect was summoned to appear in court for questioning, on 16 March 2012. An arrest warrant had not been issued, said provincial Prosecutor Hing Bunchea, as he is “following procedures.”
• 9.3.2012 It was reported that by an order of the Prime Minister, the suspect had been removed from the position of Bavet city governor. “The government transferred Chhuk Bundith to be a provincial officer so that the court is able to summon him for questioning…”
• 9.3.2012 Some of the largest buyers of Cambodian export products expressed their concern about the slow progress of taking action in response to the shootings in the SEZ where three workers had been victimized, in a letter addressed to Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, calling “to conduct a full and transparent investigation… and hold those responsible for injuring the workers accountable.” It is estimated that much more than half of the foreign exchange earnings of Cambodia are produced by the workers in the garment industry; the buyers include American Eagle Outfitters, Colombia, H&M, Puma, and others.
• 12.3.2012 Neither any government agency nor the Garment Manufacturer’s Association in Cambodia did respond to solicitations by the media to provide a position in response to the letter from the major buyers.
• 15.3.2012 Svay Rieng Court Prosecutor Hing Bunchea reportedly told The Cambodia Daily that the suspect had admitted to have discharged his gun into the air.
• 17.3.2012 Subsequently, the prosecutor denied this report as wrong, claiming that the suspect had only taken and shown his gun, but he did not remember whether he actually fired the gun. It remains a mystery how the three women were hit by bullets. The prosecutor will therefore summon the victims wounded by the shooting for questioning “sometime later this month.”

Due process applied, according to the rule of law, as described in the UN document described above? There has to be “legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency.”

During these days, Moen Tola, an officer of the Cambodian human rights organization LICADHO, reminded the public about the case of the Cambodian UN employee Seng Kunakar, who had been accused of printing out seven or eight pages of text, critical of the Cambodian government, from an – at that time – openly accessible website in 2010, and he had shared these printouts which a small number of friends. In less than 48 hours over a weekend – when courts normally are not in session – he was arrested, convicted, and jailed.

Related posts:

1. Why did the Rule of Law fail at the Riverfront in Phnom Penh?
2. Why such selective law enforcement?
3. After the International Women’s Day 2012

Good traditions – but looking towards the future – should be developed. The following is such an attempt, following on publications during the past years. On 11 March 2007, I had written about the origins of the International Women’s Day, related to the first all women’s strikes in the garment industry, in Lowell in Massachusetts/USA. What I consider worthwhile here is to think about the fact that the first strike of women textile workers, as described above, took place in Lowell/USA, now one of the three centers of Cambodian-Americans in the USA. And nowadays, Cambodian women textile workers are among the major workforce earning money for the country by the things they produce for export, while they are not much recognized for their role – and three of them have even been shot at during a recent strike in Svay Rieng.

Having read a lot of appeals made again at the occasion of this day – internationally and nationally, I decided to share information about a very practical experiment started by Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding of the European Union [EU] one year ago. She challenged business leaders to increase women’s presence on corporate boards, calling them to sign pledges abut what they actually do and not only say. And their responses would be published by March of this year. This was to be operated through specific, public declarations: “Women on the Board Pledge for Europe” on her official website.

She made this appeal after a meeting with business leaders on the role of women in decision-making, where she got the usual verbal assurances that everybody would surely make their best efforts.

This pledge represents a voluntary commitment by publicly listed companies to increase women’s presence on corporate boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020. It is open for signature by all publicly listed companies in Europe.

“I had a first constructive discussion with business leaders to hear their views on increasing female participation in Europe’s boardrooms,” said the EU’s Justice Commissioner. “While some business leaders consider regulatory intervention – as seen in Norway, France, and Spain – as indispensable, others pointed to promising self-regulatory initiatives. Discussions between my services and representatives of the social partners showed similar positions.”

“Enhancing women’s participation in boardrooms can make companies more profitable and trigger sustainable economic growth.”

“For the next 12 months, I want to give self-regulation a last chance. I would like companies to be creative so that regulators do not have to become creative.”

“What counts for me is the outcome. My goal is to bring women’s presence on the boards of the major European publicly listed companies to 30% in 2015 and to 40% by 2020.”

New Commission figures presented today [2011] show that only 12% of board members at Europe’s largest companies are women and in 97% of cases the board is chaired by a man. Progress over the past years has been very slow: the share of female board members in the EU has increased by just over half a percentage point per year over the last seven years. At this rate, unless action is taken, it will take another 50 years before there is a reasonable balance (40% of each sex) on company boards. In the meantime, public-listed firms in the EU keep losing out on female talent.

Member States and companies have taken various measures to address the situation, ranging from “soft measures” such as corporate governance codes and charters to legislative measures, such as gender quotas.

Not expressions of good-will, but numbers – one year later – should show what is really going on. The following are sections from the new European Commission report from 5 March 2012.

European Commission weighs options to break the ‛glass ceiling’ for women on company boards

A report published today [2012] shows that limited progress towards increasing the number of women on company boards has been achieved one year after EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding called for credible self-regulatory measures. Just one in seven board members at Europe’s top firms is a woman (13.7%). This is a slight improvement from 11.8% in 2010. However, it would still take more than 40 years to reach a significant gender balance (at least 40% of both sexes) at this rate.

Gender balance in top positions has been shown to contribute to better business performance, improved competitiveness and economic gains. For example, a report by McKinsey [Women Matter: Making the breakthrough] found that gender-balanced companies have a 56% higher operating profit compared to male-only companies. Ernst & Young [Scaling up - Mind the (gender) gap] looked at the 290 largest publicly-listed companies. They found that the earnings at companies with at least one woman on the board were significantly higher than in those that had no female board member…

“One year ago, I asked companies to voluntarily increase women’s presence on corporate boards. My call was supported by the European Parliament and forwarded to business organizations by Ministers of Employment, Social Affairs and Gender Equality in many EU Member States. However, I regret to see that despite our calls, self-regulation so far has not brought about satisfactory results,” said Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission and the EU’s Justice Commissioner. “The lack of women in top jobs in the business world harms Europe’s competitiveness and hampers economic growth. This is why several EU Member States – notably Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain – have started to address the situation by adopting legislation that introduces gender quotas for company boards. Some countries – Denmark, Finland, Greece, Austria and Slovenia – have adopted rules on gender balance for the boards of state-owned companies. Personally, I am not a great fan of quotas. However, I like the results they bring…”

Background

A growing body of evidence points to significant economic benefits from a better gender balance in economic decision-making. Having more women in top jobs can contribute to a more productive and innovative working environment and improved company performance overall…

Women ask more questions and are less willing to get into uncontrolled risks. That is why these companies make fewer mistakes.

Any plans to put a similar challenge to public institutions in Cambodia?

To achieve similarly positive results of significant economic benefits requires that women shall not hesitate to speak up and ask more critical questions, and that men at present in decision making positions shall learn more to listen to such questions.

Women speak up increasingly, but most notably in the public in relation to conflicts in the garment industry, and also when communities are faced with plans to relocate or to evict them – many women live up to their leadership roles.

Related posts:

1. International Workers’ Day – and Loyalty Day?
2. Justice and money
3. Why are international indices often flatly rejected in Cambodia?

The UN Human Rights Council – an “inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe” – had decided, in September 2011,

“to convene, within existing resources, at its nineteenth session, a panel discussion on the promotion and protection of freedom of expression on the Internet, with a particular focus on the ways and means to improve its protection in accordance with international human rights law.”

It further requested “the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to liaise with relevant special procedures, States and other stakeholders, including relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, with a view to ensuring multi-stakeholder participation in the panel discussion.”

Now, during its session from 27 February to 23 March 2012, the Human Rights Council held a panel discussion on the right to Freedom of Expression on the Internet during it’s meeting on 29 February 2012. For the preparation of his event, a Concept Note [which can be accessed here under Concept paper - panel on FOE and Internet] had been elaborated which says among others:

The objectives of the panel are to:

• Draw attention to current challenges posed to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression and opinion on the Internet;
• Identify positive and practical steps that Member States can take to respect, protect and promote the right to freedom of expression on the Internet; and
• Identify positive and practical steps that Member States can take on the key recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

The panel will aim to meet these objectives through an interactive discussion around the following questions:

• All States have an obligation to guarantee all individuals’ right to freedom of opinion and expression exercised through any communications medium, as stipulated in articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Internet is a unique and powerful tool which facilitates individuals “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds” inexpensively and instantaneously regardless of frontiers. How can this right be best respected, protected and promoted when exercised through the Internet?

The session of the UN Human Rights Council on the right to Freedom of Expression on the Internet was opened with a statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pilla, where also different stakeholder, including from civil society – Anriette Esterhuizen, the Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communication – made their contributions, as can be see in the following video clip.

I share this information here, because Mr. Xia Jingge, representing China, stated that he is not only presenting the position of his government on the issue of the Freedom of Expression on the Internet, but that he is also speaking on behalf of Cambodia, and of some other countries.

A non official translation of a transcript of the Statement makes it possible to see in which way the concerns expressed in the Concept Note to “identify positive and practical steps that Member States can take to respect, protect and promote the right to freedom of expression on the Internet” are implemented:

I am honored to deliver a joint statement on behalf of the following countries: Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Congo, Cuba, Democratic Peoples Republic of [North] Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritania, Myanmar, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zimbabwe and China.

The Internet has become an indispensable tool of our daily lives and plays an important role in human development. The right to freedom of expression is one of the fundamental human rights and should be respected and protected. Free expression of opinion, receipt and dissemination of useful information through different media, including the Internet, can further the promotion of mutual understanding and common development of the peoples. However, freedom of expression is not absolute and should be exercised in strict accordance with the international law, especially with respect to art. 19, 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 4 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Neither should it be used as a pretext for activities in violation or even destruction of human rights and elements of freedom, the absence and abuse of freedom of expression on the Internet in particular, can encroach on the rights and dignity of other individuals and social stability and security and even national security. The Internet is often used to propagate terrorism, extremism and racism, xenophobia even ideas of toppling legitimate authorities. Moreover, the Internet is used by some groups to distort fact, exaggerate situation and provoke violence in an attempt to acetate tension it appears and gain political benefits and is also used by criminals for outlawed activities and have access to facilities. The Internet has also been used to disseminate pornographic and violent information that corrupts people’s mind, affront their cultural values and induce them to be involved in criminal activities, in this regards, children are most vulnerable and frequently become active victims. The digital divide has prevented people from developing countries from access to information through the Internet. We affirm the importance of using the Internet in compliance with Intellectual Property rights protection. At the same time, we believe any technical impediment to restrict access to the Internet in the name of intellectual property rights should not be used. We call on the international community, to cooperate to promote access to the Internet and new technology in the developing countries.

Mr. Moderator, all stakeholder of the Internet should make concerted efforts to prevent and combat the abuse of Freedom of Expression on the Internet. Internet users of all countries should respect the right and dignity of others; contribute to maintaining social stability and safeguarding national security. The Internet industry should act to foster a crime free, reliable and secure cyberspace, Governments should strengthen legislation in efforts of Internet regulation and law enforcement activities, with the aim of combating criminal activities. All countries should start as soon as possible to discussion on effective ways to promote international cooperation on Internet regulation for building safety and confidence on the Internet. Thank you, Mr. Moderator.

It is not explained which Ministries of the Kingdom of Cambodia were involved in proposing to join the Statement presented by the representative of China also on behalf of Cambodia.

Related posts:

1. The UN Human Rights Day – on Social Media on the Internet!
2. Why I canceled my Internet account with Online
3. Who is blocking Internet access, acting against government policy?

Developments in Myanmar start to get more and more attention in the international press, and also in what is being reflected into local publications in Cambodia. The Cambodia Daily reported – quoting Reuters: In Burma’s Kachin, Suu Kyi Stirs Hopes for Peace for Rebels.

If I had not been in Yangon on 12 February 2012, I would probably not have know that this day was dedicated to an important historical memory: it was the 65th Anniversary Union Day.

General Aung San, the father of the present democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, played an important role in the process of achieving independence for the Union of Burma from British colonial rule – though he was assassinated 1947, half a year before this goal was realized.

In August 1943 Japanese military forces, that had taken control in many countries in south-east Asia, declared Burma to be independent from British rule. Aung San was appointed minister in charge of the military. But he did not see that the Japanese forces provided real independence – so he contacted the British authorities in India and organized an anti-Japanese uprising in March 1945 and helped, with his forces, that the Japanese military was defeated.

The important next steps toward independence were a negotiation with the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee leading to an agreement, signed on 27 January 1947, that Burma would gain independence during the next 12 months. Soon after this, Aung San was also able to achieve an agreement, signed on 12 February 1947 in Panglong, where leaders of the major non-Burmese ethnic groups – there are more than 100 languages spoken in the area brought together under British colonial rule – “Myanmar is a federal republic made of seven purely Burmese divisions (Sagaing, Mandalay, Magwe, Pegu, Irrawaddy, Rangoon, Tenasserim) and seven states with non-Burmese population (Kachin, Chan, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Arakan, Chin).” [Source with some information about the major ethnic groups, including historical politicl struggles]

The text of the 1947 Union Agreement speaks about it’s anti-colonial goal:

A conference having been held at Panglong, attended by certain Members of the Executive Council of the Governor of Burma, all Saohpas [traditional ethnic leaders] and representatives of the Shan States, the Kachin Hills and the Chin Hills, the members of the conference, believing that freedom will be more speedily achieved by the Shans, the Kachins and the Chins by their immediate co-operation with the Interim Burmese Government, have accordingly, and without dissentients, agreed as follows:

…(V) Though the Governor’s Executive Council will be augmented as agreed above, it will not operate in respect of the Frontier Areas in any manner which would deprive any portion of these Areas of the autonomy which it now enjoys in internal administration. Full autonomy in internal administration for the Frontier Areas is accepted in principle…

…(VII) Citizens of the Frontier Areas shall enjoy rights and privileges which are regarded as fundamental in democratic countries…

So the Union of Burma achieved independence from British colonial rule in 1948 – based on this document assuring “rights and privileges which are regarded as fundamental in democratic countries.” But in reality, for decades, in many of the ethnic non-Burmese regions, there has been military resistance against the central government. For example, the Karen National Liberation Army, the military branch of the Karen National Union, has been fighting since 1949 for the self-determination of the Karen people.

The new government, which came into place after the 2010 elections – criticized by many as not having been free and fair – announced that a new chapter of history is to start. Peace negotiations have been going on between the government and the major ethnicity based resisting armies, and some agreements have already been reached.

While I was in Myanmar, I saw a report about one of these peace negotiations – on television for hours! Though I could not follow the language, I could read the following acronyms on the wall of the room where the negotiations took place:

The peace negotiations between the Karen National Union and the Karen National Liberation Army, until recently considered to be enemies of the state, could be observed by the TV viewing public. Cameras were obviously not only allowed for a brief photo session – they were welcome to let the public observe the whole process in detail, including controversial exchanges, showing maps while arguing back and forth. – I have taken some picture from the TV screen (therefore of minor quality) which I share here as an example, how the government and their armed adversaries, show to everybody the difficulties of their relations, but also the seriousness of their effort to find a new start together.

Government delegation arrives by helicopter

The delegations meet

The all male civilian government delegation

The KNU/KNLA delegation

In the KNU delegation were two women

No wonder that the English language daily newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, had every day slogans appealing for unity on their front page. Unity among different peoples was central when they had agreed on a common goal: to achieve independence. But instead there has been conflicts, suffering, military confrontation, and the loss of many lives. Now a new start is attempted:

Related posts:

1. Why such selective law enforcement?

While I was in Myanmar for a week, there were also the celebrations for the 65th Union Day, remembering events in 1947 which led to independence from colonial rule. In his speech at the occasion, U Thein Sein, the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, did not only look back, but also into the future, reflecting the new policies of the new government:

In building the democratic nation, three main pillars – legislative, executive and judicial powers – are to be practiced democratically in compliance with the constitution. So, people’s representatives elected by the people are amending, supplementing, and revoking old laws, and formulating and enacting new ones.

Successful establishment of a modern, developed democratic new nation calls for a combination of democracy with good governance, and the new government, therefore, is focusing on good governance and clean government.

The rule of law is of crucial importance to the establishment of a democratic nation. All the citizens, including those personalities, organizations, and staff enforcing the rule of law, are to abide by law. As for the rule of law, the government is protecting every citizen to be able to enjoy equal rights, while strengthening the judicial pillar.

(From a translation in the daily English language newspaper New Light Of Myanmar, 12 February 2012)

After coming back and reading through the newspapers from the week of my absence from the Cambodia, it was quite a challenge to understand some things that were going on, and the challenge continues until the time of this writing.

There were reports that Royal Cambodian Armed Forces – RCAF – troops with AK-47s and machine guns had been deployed to control a group of about 200 villagers who protested that some people in a land conflict had been jailed in Kompong Speu, and they wanted to petition for their release. It was also reported that the military leaders threatened the demonstrators: they might be beaten, and even shot, if they did not go away. Not only the report of the deployment of military force to confront a peaceful demonstration of civilians was a surprise, but that this happened only some days after the Prime Minister had criticized the use of violence against protesting villagers. I had written about this: 18 January shooting – Prime Minister’s interventions bringing changes?

But almost more surprising were some reports about the events in Kompong Speu.

The spokesperson of the Council of Ministers Phay Siphan was quoted as saying, “No one except the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, or RCAF commanders have the power to dispatch the military,” and he added that he does not know who ordered the troops to intervene.

The bureau chief of the provincial authorities in Kompong Speu Vann Sokha was quoted to have said, “I have no information, if this action really took place, it goes against what Prime Minister Hun Sen said.”

Some days later, there was still conflicting information. Major General Kong Bunthorn from the Military Region 3 said that provincial authorities had ordered the troops. But the chief of the provincial administration Soeur Soknal claimed that he had no information about the presence of soldiers.

Who is in command?

There were other, similar reports. There are again sand barges on the river in Kampot, transporting sand to other places. One report claims that 18 such barges full of sand traveled down in one afternoon only. But the city governor Nak Sovannary was quoted to have said that he does not know anything about the legal status of such dredging, or whether licenses have been obtained, “Some of the dredging is for local demand and some is for export.” But two years ago Prime Minister Hun Sen had declared that no sand exports are allowed any longer.

Who is in command?

Then, on 20 February 2012, it was reported that the RCAF officer Kim Sarong and three soldiers had been arrested for smuggling illegally logged luxury wood. But later the same day they were released after their commander Lieutenant General Yim Leang intervened, promising they would be punished “under military police rules.” – But officers of the Forestry Administration said, “There have been three times this year that our Forestry Administration officers confiscated illegal rosewood transported by cars with military license plates.”

Who is in command?

On the other hand, it seems to be possible that law enforcement happens, if there is a request from “higher up” to do so. The Supreme Council of the Mohanikaya Buddhist Order had requested that spit-roasted cows should not be displayed in front of restaurants facing the streets any longer, as such “displays could confuse foreign visitors, who think Cambodia is a non-violent Buddhist society.” By Friday, restaurants had removed spit-roasted cows from where the public could see them. Chhim Dyna, the chief of the Daun Penh district administrative office, reported that police had been sent to the restaurants, instructing them to comply this this new order: “We will confiscate the cow and the grills if they continue to display them to the public.”

The Cambodia Daily added, “Nheb Tat, a monk at Wat Ounalom, said he has been pleased with the result of the crackdown, and hopes the government to crack down on other issues commonly associated with popular barbecue restaurants, such as public drunkenness and violence.”

Maybe also other problems in society could be addressed in this way?

Just while finalizing this, I received the news that a couple of hours ago, three Cambodian garment worker women, taking part in a strike involving more than 1,000 people in a special industrial zone in Bavet near the border to Vietnam, have been shot – and one is reported to be in a critical condition.

These events have already been reported also in Singapore on TV and by news agencies in many countries. The LICADHO human rights organization compiled news from the last 2 months, during which there had been 5 other incidents where armed security forces or private guards hurt 19 people, 7 of them by gunfire.

Concerns had been expressed – as reported above – that some methods of roasting cows “could confuse foreign visitors, who think Cambodia is a non-violent Buddhist society.” Obviously there are more events happening which might confuse foreign visitors so that they may doubt that Cambodia is a non-violent Buddhist society.

Related posts:

1. On Law Enforcement
2. 18 January shooting – Prime Minister’s interventions bringing changes?
3. The Russian Prime Minister Putin prepares for the next elections

The following Opinion piece, published in The Washington Post – but abbreviated here – is quite interesting as a programmatic declaration towards the presidential elections in Russia, scheduled for 4 March 2012. In a way, it is also a response to the recent massive protest demonstrations against the former president and present prime minister, who aims to become president again.

In this context, some statements which are similar to some fundamental principles in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia deserve special attention – like Article 35: Any suggestions from the people shall be given full consideration by the grant of the State – or Article 51: All power belongs to the people. The people exercise these powers through the National Assembly, the Senate, the Royal Government and the Judiciary. The legislative, executive, and judicial powers shall be separate.

But some remarkable additional elements in the statement by the Russian prime minister are that he refers here to the emerging important role of civil society, and to the opportunities which the Internet provides, which require

…to modernize the mechanisms of our democracy so that they correspond to this increase in social activity.

In this regard, I propose introducing a rule for a mandatory parliamentary review of any legislative initiative that has more than 100,000 supporting signatures on the Internet. A similar practice exists in the United Kingdom.

The full article, as published in The Washington Post, can be found by a mouse click here, while the longer version in English, under the headline Democracy and the quality of government on the website of the Government of the Russian Federation is here; it is prefaced with a quote from the article itself:

The full article in Russian is available here.

Opinions

My vision for a better Russia

By Vladimir Putin

True democracy is not created overnight. Society must be ready for democratic mechanisms. The majority of the population must feel they are citizens and be ready to devote attention, time and effort to participating in the process of government.

In the 1990s we in Russia encountered both anarchy and oligarchy. Our society consisted of people who had freed themselves from communism but who had not yet learned how to be masters of their own destinies. Society went through a difficult process of development. And this enabled us all, working together, to drag our country out of the mire, to revive the state and to restore the sovereignty of the Russian people, which is the basis of true democracy…

Today, however, our society is completely different from what it was at the turn of the 20th century. People are becoming more affluent, educated and demanding. The results of our efforts are new demands on the government and the advance of the middle class above the narrow objective of guaranteeing their own prosperity. We worked for that.

Our civil society has become much more mature, active and responsible. We need to modernize the mechanisms of our democracy so that they correspond to this increase in social activity. The political climate, like the investment climate, demands constant improvement…

We must create a political system in which it is possible — and necessary — to be honest. Whoever puts forward a proposal or a program should be responsible enough to carry it out. Those who elect decision makers should understand who and what they are voting for. This would produce trust, constructive dialogue and mutual respect between society and the government.

Modern democracy as government by the people cannot be limited to simply casting votes. Democracy, in my view, is the fundamental right of the people to elect their government as well as to continuously influence it and the decision-making process. In this regard, I propose introducing a rule for a mandatory parliamentary review of any legislative initiative that has more than 100,000 supporting signatures on the Internet. A similar practice exists in the United Kingdom.

Internet-based democracy should be integrated into the overall development of institutions, especially at the municipal and regional levels, creating a referendum-based democracy…

Crucially, we need to oversee a shift in the mind-set of public service to build a competitive environment for living, creating and doing business in Russia. Talk about corruption in Russia is commonplace; in our history, there have been attempts to curb it through repression. Of course, the fight against bribery relies on repressive measures. But the problem is much more profound. It comes from government agencies’ lack of transparency and accountability to society and the poor motivation of civil servants. Here, in my view, we face huge difficulties.

Polls tell us that the teenagers who in the 1990s dreamed of becoming oligarchs now aspire to be public servants. Many view public service as a source of fast and easy cash. As long as this incentive exists, purges will be useless — unmasked thieves will only be replaced by others.

To combat systemic corruption we need to unbundle power and property and to separate executive power from the system of checks over it. The political responsibility for the fight against corruption must be shared by the government and the opposition.

We should identify corruption-prone functions within the executive power and the management of state corporations. An official in such a role should be eligible for a high salary but should agree to absolute transparency, including declaring their expenses and big family purchases, current place of residence, how they pay for vacations and so on.

Above all, we should make justice available to everyone by introducing administrative proceedings not only for businesses but also to hear disputes between citizens and officials. Civic organizations will be granted the right to file lawsuits with the aim of defending their members’ interests. A common database of all arbitration-court decisions is operational and accessible to all; now, we have to set up a similar database across the courts of general jurisdiction.

We will act consistently, reasonably and with determination. We will eliminate the root causes of corruption and punish particular officials. We defeated oligarchy. We will surely defeat corruption.

Related posts:

1. 18 January shooting – Prime Minister’s interventions bringing changes?
2. Looking at Cambodian-Thai relations: changes after the elections in Thailand?
3. A Broad Social Movement against Corruption – in India

This is just a brief note saying that I was in Yangon for one week, to attend a Barcamp meeting of about 4,000 computer users of different levels. I will report more, and not only about this meeting. Also about visiting several lakes in the city of Yangon. And also about the impressive political changes taking place since my last visits at the Barcamp meetings 2010 and 2011.

But I would like to take this opportunity to share two pictures – the first I took a few years ago, after take-off from Phnom Penh, and the other before landing to Phnom Penh yesterday.

Some years ago

The former lake - filled with sand

Related posts:

1. “…ordinary people who risked their lives…” – part of the forgotten history of Phnom Penh

The Phnom Penh Post had reported on 31 January 2012:

A Cambodian People’s Party member found guilty of attempted vote-buying in last Monday’s Senate election had been let off too lightly with a fine and should face legal action, an opposition Sam Rainsy Party councilor said yesterday.

At a hearing of the Battambang Provincial Election Commission last week, CPP member Cheam Pe A was fined US$1,230 after he was caught on tape offering SRP Tuol Ta Ek commune councilor Mok Ra $700 to cast his vote for the ruling party.

Vote buying is bad – hardly anybody will defend it openly, though it is probably being done a lot – and not only in Cambodia.

But I also want to try to understand what its means and how it has to be considering what is at present being reported almost every day about the primaries of the Republican Party in the USA – and the huge amounts of money being spent. And this is only part of the procedures to determine who will be the candidate of this party during the next US presidential elections, to be held on Tuesday, 6 November 2012.

There have been several attempts in the USA trying to restrict the influence of money on politics. And I will also provide some information about the “First Amendment” – an important addition to the Constitution of the USA.

In response to corruption scandals in 1998 in the state of Arizona, there had been state regulations to control campaign finance and to minimize the effect of private money on elections.

But in 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States of America restricted such attempts, striking down the so called “Millionaires Amendment” in a court case, and providing First Amendment protections for personal contributions made for a candidate.

In 2011, the Court further restricted methods of campaign finance restrictions, striking down a public financing system. – In a number of democratic countries, election campaigns are financed by public funds, being made available to all, also to small political parties with a public standing, under certain clearly defined conditions.

The Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled, however, that to restrict financial donations for political purposes would be a restriction of the freedom of speech, arguing that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech.

To understand the context – though this does not mean to understand the court’s decision itself – a brief reference to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, which was adopted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, may be useful.

Soon after that, during the years 1789 to 1791, the widely shared notion of important missing elements lead to the adoption of several amendments to the Constitution – the first ten of them were combined as the Bill of Rights – to guarantee certain personal freedoms, and to limit the government’s power by obliging it to be under this legislation. The First Amendment merits to be quoted in full here, as it is often instrumental in finding basic legal orientation.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

But while it is a basic constitutional guideline, its meaning is also often fundamentally contested, as can be seen in a 2010 ruling on political financing, which was passed only by a 5 to 4 majority of judges of the Supreme Court.

John Paul Stevens, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the USA from 1975 until his retirement in 2010. At that time he was the oldest member of the Court. He published his legal opinion – against the opinion of the majority, from which I quote:

At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense…

And as Justice William Brennan wrote in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964, the First Amendment provides that “debate on public issues … [should be] … uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.”

However, Americans vigorously dispute the application of the First Amendment.
Most people believe in the right to free speech, but debate whether it should cover flag-burning, hard-core rap and heavy-metal lyrics, tobacco advertising, hate speech, pornography, nude dancing, solicitation and various forms of symbolic speech.

The New York Times had reported about two years ago, on 21 January 2010:

Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit

WASHINGTON — Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

The ruling represented a sharp doctrinal shift, and it will have major political and practical consequences. Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted…

President Obama called it “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

The Cambodia Daily had, on 7 February 2012, Tom Toles’ political cartoon from the Washington Post “Game is Over” – presenting in simple language what this Supreme Court’s decision, passes with the narrowest possible margin, and heavily criticized by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, as “a rejection of the common sense of the American people.”

“Corporations are people.” – “Money is speech.” [Click on the picture to enlarge it]

During the present primaries to identify the candidate of the Republican Party who will face the current president, Barack Obama, as the candidate of the Republican Party huge amounts of money are spent during the competition between different candidates of the same party. One can assume, that even bigger amounts will be spent to buy votes against Barack Obama – no, this is not called vote buying, this is just that the money of individuals and of corporations is considered to be free speech.

Special structures in this environment are Political Action Committees (PACs).

As a super PAC the organization can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as wealthy individuals. Speaking in character, Colbert [the creator of one of these PACs] said the money will be raised not only for political ads, but also “normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel,…”

As the following figures show, PACs use money to support a candidate with staff, television ads, special meetings, etc. – or, as Mr. Colbert said – by providing luxury hotel stays. But PACs spend also a lot of money to attack competitors.

I cannot follow this argument – I can only share some information which is available in the media. The following was downloaded on 7 February 2012 at 22:45, Phnom Penh time; to click on the pictures will enlarge them.

US Republican Party Primary updates...

When Newt Gingrich seemed to rise in popularity, Mitt Romney’s PAC friends spent a lot of funds to attack Gingrich – and Mitt Romney had an impressive gain in popularity. That is how big money translates into free speech and then leads to success in elections? That is how democracy works – the one-person-one-vote system?

Related posts:

1. Big Trouble, Money – and Taking Away Some by Taxation
2. International Workers’ Day – and Loyalty Day?
3. How comes that there is a lack of clarity about Cambodia’s foreign debt?

This is to document events related to the shooting of villagers on 18 January 2012 who saw their land getting lost – until finally the Prime Minister intervened on 31 January 2012, ordering decisive action to be taken. But new reports on 2 February 2012 do not show that the atmosphere has changed.

Land disputes happened in increasing numbers since many months. Some cases of violent evictions had received also wide international attention – like the destruction of the settlement in Dey Krahom – the continuing conflicts around the Boeng Kak lake (the lake has by now completely disappeared, it has been filled with sand) – and the struggle of a final group of residents evicted from the Borei Keila area.

A security guard hired by TTY points an assault rifle at villagers during a protest in Kratie province earlier this month when four villagers were shot (Phnom Penh Post)

Now is was reported that four protesters had been shot, and at least one is in a serious condition in a hospital in Vietnam. The Cambodia Daily reported on 20 January 2012 also about a general climate of increasing tensions:

Courts Step Up Charges In Land Disputes

The number of criminal charges meted out to villagers embroiled in land disputes rose by more than 50% in 2011, compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the rights group ADHOC yesterday.

The rights group found that the courts charged 475 villagers embroiled in 220 land disputes last year, compared to 306 charges laid in 2010. The number of people that fled their homes for fear of arrest also rose to 335 people, and 88% rise compared to 2010. Out of all those who were charged last year, 133 were arrested, 56 were detained, and 84 were released.

“The majority of innocent people were charged, arrested and detained by the courts in order to force them to thumbprint documents that gave their land to private companies or powerful people,” said Ouch Leng, a land rights officer for ADHOC, who compiled the figures.

The Cambodia Daily had reported on 20 January 2012:

The government yesterday ordered the arrest of uniformed guards who shot at the group of villagers, injuring at least four, after a land dispute had turned violent Wednesday…

The gun man – identified as Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers by one government official – opened fire after about 300 villagers approached workers of TTY Co. LTD to demand that they stop clearing a stretch of land along the road in Snuol district, where villagers were drying their cassava harvest.

One could have expected that order by the government would initiate a process towards punishment for the perpetrators and justice for the victims. In its edition one day later, The Cambodia Daily reported however, that the director of the TTY company, Mr. Na Marady, declared that he would not implement an agreement made between the provincial authorities and the affected villagers, allowing them to keep their land and their houses, and those injured during the shooting would be compensated, and their medical bills would be paid. He also denied that the gunmen were his guards.

Snuol district, Kratie province: On 18 January 2012, military personnel acting as security guards for TTY Co. Ltd opened fire on a group of villagers who had gathered to prevent clearing of their farmland by company's excavators:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VJ0d-7953I

There were new changes, according to The Cambodia Daily of 24 January 2012: Mr. Na Marady agreed to give back some land, as he had received an order by the government. But he gave a report about the shooting which is not substantiated by a video which was taken by a mobile phone:

The guards just fired on the ground and the bullets accident ricocheted. If they shoot at villagers intentionally… many people would be dead now,” said Mr. Marady, who declined to comment on the gunmen’s identities.

Though the authorities promised almost immediately last week to arrest the guards who had shot the four protesters, police have yet to even identify the shooters – pictures of whom have circulated widely in the media – let alone make a single arrest.

Prime Minister Hun Sen used the opportunity of a road construction ceremony in Mondolkiri on 31 January 2012 to address the shooting; according to The Cambodia Daily, he said:

Prime Minister Hun Sen… called on the director of the TTY rubber company to help find the company’s guards, who are still at large…

Mr. Hun Sen also warned other land development companies to refrain from using violence in land disputes with local communities, or they will risk losing their economic land concessions…

“I have ordered [officials] to take strict measures in this case. The perpetrators have to come out to confess and we have to investigate how the company got the guns.”

The Prime Minister then turned to TTY Director-General Na Marady, who was in the crowd of assembled officials, and warned him to cooperate better with authorities to help find the guards who opened fire… Adding that company management would otherwise be held responsible for the incident.

“Oknha Na Marady, you would know the perpetrators clearly; please identify the shooters. If not, you would face questioning.”

“Anywhere there are problems with villagers, the company has to stop [land clearing] immediately. If not, the company has to be responsible, I would like to condemn this action, and I will take the land concessions from any company that causes violence to villagers.”

After these stern warnings against land development companies that use violence in land disputes with local communities, a victimized villager expressed hope: “We will get land soon because the believe in Samech Hun Sen’s recommendation.” And human rights organizations’ staff expressed similar confidence: “The Prime Minister has previously already said that government armed forces cannot be hired to protect companies.”

New reports in The Cambodia Daily on 2 February 2012 destroyed these hopes.

Municipal security guards force a woman into a police van on 1 February 2012 (Cambodia Daily)

One day after Prime Minister Hun Sen warned against the use of violence in land disputes, six female protesters from the Borei Keila and Boeng Kak communities were violently packed into a police van yesterday after municipal authorities blocked them from marching on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard.

The protest, which started peacefully, escalated at around 11 a.m. when about 100 residents from Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila community, who were violently evicted from their homes last month, gathered with about 50 residents from the Boeng Kak lake area at City Hall to demand that authorities address their ongoing land dispute grievances.

More than 100 riot police who had created a barricade with their shields prevented the protesters, who have now been demonstrating for weeks, from walking along Monivong Boulevard, resulting in the outbreak of violence…

The police and security guards eventually threw five female protesters from the Borei Keila community and one from Boeng Kak lake into a parked police van.

“They grabbed me like a pig or an animal and threw me inside the prison van, and my head hit the car wall,” said Ath Samnang, 28, a Borei Keila resident, who spoke yesterday afternoon from inside the municipal police station where she was detained.

The family and friends of the shooting victim, who had to be transported to a hospital in Vietnam, have spent already US$6,000 for transportaion, operations, and treatment; they are still waiting for the promised financial help.

Three quite different voices have been reported to have expressed their dismay:

Sia Phearum, Secretary-General of the Housing Rights Task Force: “We monitored the protest and found that the local authorities and Phnom Penh municipal authorities have no capacity to solve the problem – they just know how to beat people and arrest people. I think they also disrespect the Prime Minister.”

Mu Sochua, member of Parliament, called on Phnom Penh municipal governor Kep Chuktema to seek solutions. “This is a total culture of impunity. No use of force by the police is justified, and the governor hasn’t even come to address this.”

Seniors CPP lawmaker and de facto ruling party spokesperson Cheam Yeap said the authorities had no right to detain land dispute protesters. “Villagers have rights for protesting, and the authorities had no right to arrest them.”

It is time and again surprising to observe that there are cases where law enforcement authorities start to act only after being reminded by the Prime Minister about their duties. And also, how quickly such orders are forgotten and not adhered to again.

Related posts:

1. Council of Ministers and UN Special Expert – continued
2. Conflicts and solutions – lower and higher interventions
3. On Law Enforcement

The following items are added as follow-up to the previous posting here: Council of Ministers Spokesperson Censured UN Special Expert on 26 January 2012.

On Friday, 27 January 2012, The Cambodia Daily reported:

In a letter addressed to Mr. Scheffer dated yesterday, Mr. Siphan said his comments on the meeting were misinterpreted. According to Mr. Siphan, he had only said that Mr. Scheffer “understood” Mr. Sok An’s position “that the Royal Government of Cambodia cannot overturn the decision of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy.”

“I never suggested that agreement had been reached at the meeting,” he told Mr. Scheffer in the letter. “I hope this clarification will help to reassure you.”

Only on 28 January 2012, the Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the Office of the Council of Ministers published the following report dated 13 January 2012:

SUMMARY REPORT OF THE MEETING OF
THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE MAGISTRACY
ON THE PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF
MR. LAURENT KASPER-ANSERMET
AS INTERNATIONAL CO-INVESTIGATING JUDGE IN THE ECCC

On 13 January the Supreme Council of the Magistracy met to vote and count the ballots concerning the proposed appointment of the International Co-Investigating Judge in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.

The meeting discussed the request by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to appoint Mr Laurent Kasper-Ansermet as International Co-Investigating Judge, forwarded by the Royal Government to the Supreme Council of the Magistracy for its consideration.

Following discussion, the meeting reached the view that Judge Laurent Kasper- Ansermet’s posting of a considerable number of documents on his Twitter account concerning the ECCC, and specifically concerning Cases 003 and 004 since his appointment as Reserve International Co-Investigating Judge, would appear to violate of the Code of Judicial Ethics, the Internal Rules and legal principles as follows:

1. compromising the confidentiality and integrity of investigations by the public circulation of five names connected to ECCC Cases 003 and 004, which are protected by Article 121 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Rule 56 (1) of the ECCC Internal Rules and Rule 19 of the Code of Judicial Ethics adopted by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy. This information was circulated despite the clear opposition of the Co-Investigating Judges expressed in their public statement issued on 9 June 2011;
2. criticizing both of his own colleagues, Co-Investigating Judges You Bunleng and Siegfried Blunk, by distributing information which violates several principles, namely Article 3 (1) of the ECCC Code of Judicial Ethics and Article 15 of the Code of Judicial Ethics adopted by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy on 5 February 2007, which states: “a judge should not express any opinion that could lead to conflict or criticism of judicial officers holding differing opinions”. Furthermore, this distribution could have an adverse impact and cause confusion or doubts regarding [his/her] impartiality, which is prohibited by Rule 8 of the Code of Judicial Ethics adopted by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy and could undermine the standing and integrity of the ECCC, which is prohibited by Rule 7 (2) of the Code of Judicial Ethics of the ECCC.

According to the results of the ballots cast and counted, the members of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy decided not to appoint Mr Lauret Kasper Ansermet as international Co-Investigation Judge, replacing Mr Siegfried Blunk who has resigned

Phnom Penh, 13 January 2012

Several observations are noted here, some related to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, some related to older publications, in an effort to understand better what is being reported. Any clarifications or comments are – as always – welcome.

A summary of the proceedings of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy – part of the judicial branch – is presented by the Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the Office of the Council of Ministers – part of the executive branch. All such decisions are to be seen in the context of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, from which follow some quotes:

• Article 51:
  … The legislative, executive, and judicial powers shall be separate.
• Article 128:
  The Judicial power shall be an independent power
• Article 130:
  Judicial power shall not be granted to the legislative or executive branches.
• Article 133:
  Judges shall not be dismissed…

Already on 13 January 2012, The Phnom Penh Post had reported under the headline KRT judge backflip:

Details about communications between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Prime Minister Hun Sen had been published but later declared retracted. These exchanges of letters and reports about meetings related to the planned change in the position of the judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who had been appointed as Reserve Co-Investigating Judge on 1 December 2010 to succeed the Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk who had declared to resign on 9 October 2011, claiming that there had been political interference, compromising the independence of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The Council of Ministers’ spokesbody, the Press and Quick Reaction Unit [PQRU], issued a press statement yesterday, including details of letters between the premier and Ban.

However, it was quickly replaced by a three-paragraph statement on the government’s position toward the endorsement of Swiss judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, who will oversee controversial cases 003 and 004 with his Cambodian counterpart.

“We wish not to reveal details about the communications,” Ek Tha of the PQRU told the Post after the sudden replacement of the lengthy and detailed press statement with one of just three paragraphs.

“The first press release was done by another staffer – that information is not for the media, we wish to retract the first statement.”

The “retracted” press statement detailed a November 3 response letter from [Prime Minister] Hun Sen to [UN Secretary-General] Ban [Ki-Moon]’s October 18 request to him that the Supreme Council of Magistracy appoint Kasper-Ansermet as the new co-investigating judge.

“Response from the Prime Minister to the Secretary-General suggesting prudent consideration in the light of ‘certain activities by Mr Laurent Kasper-Ansermet that have been brought to public attention’,” the press statement reads.

However, this and the details of 11 other exchanges between the UN and the Royal Government of Cambodia regarding the endorsement of Kasper-Ansermet were replaced by the Press and Quick Reaction Unit with a three-paragraph press statement only 50 minutes later…

“In general, there have been communications and written letters [about the appointment],” Ek Tha [of the Press and Quick Reaction Unit] said, without providing further detail. “The Prime Minister talks at the national level and represents the national interest of Cambodia on the international stage.” – “We have never interfered with the work of the court,” Ek Tha said.

However, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan denied there had been any correspondence at all between Hun Sen and Ban [Ki-Moon].

“The Council of Ministers has drafted some reports, a profile of [Kasper-Ansermet] to give to the Supreme Council of Magistracy for information in making their decision whether to approve him,” Phay Siphan told the Phnom Penh Post yesterday.

Yesterday’s government press statement also said that the Supreme Council of Magistracy was now “independently carrying its normal procedures and legal considerations before a decision would be made.”

It is surprising that mentioning the names of Meas Ruth, Sou Seth, Im Charm, Ta An and Ta Tito related to the Cases 003 and 004 is now considered “compromising the confidentiality and integrity of investigations” – these names have been mentioned on the Internet hundreds of times since the early months of 2011.

On Friday, 27 January 2012, The Cambodia Daily had also reported:

…Finishing off his first visit as the UN’s new special expert on the court, David Scheffer on Wednesday said Judge Kasper-Ansermet had no need for re-approval by the Supreme Council of the Magistracy – having been approved once as a reserve investigating judge – and expected him to continue his investigations at the tribunal as soon as he returned from Switzerland…

Without going into specifics, Mr. Scheffer, the UN special expert, said Wednesday that Deputy Prime Ministers Sok An left him “optimistic” about Judge Kasper-Ansermet’s future after their meeting the day before.

“If it [the investigation] encounters difficulties, we’ll deal with those difficulties if and when they arise,” Mr. Scheffer said.

“I was not informed at all last night that those difficulties would be presented, so my expectation now is that [Judge Kasper-Ansermet]… will be able to fulfill his duties in the country.”

Looking forward to the return of Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet to Cambodia.

Related posts:

1. Council of Ministers Spokesperson Censured UN Special Expert
2. Three press statements on the Khmer Rouge Trial
3. “Restricting all discretionary powers of Ministers, Members of Parliament, and bureaucrats will reduce corruption”

Some readers may remember that on 20 October 2011, I documented three quite different press statements – all issued on the same day, all related the Khmer Rouge Trial, from the following sources:

• The Office of the Council of Ministers, Royal Government of Cambodia, Press and Quick Reaction Unit
• Lars Olsen, Legal Communications Officer, Public Affairs Section, United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials
• United Nations Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Ms. Patricia O’Brien

Now we have a similar, though different case. The Press and Quick Reaction Unit of the Office of the Council of Ministers distributed a press release on 24 January 2012, publishing the same text also on their website:

Joint Statement by Deputy Prime Minister His Excellency Sok An and Ambassador David Scheffer, Special Expert to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Joint Statement
by Deputy Prime Minister His Excellency Sok An and
Ambassador David Scheffer,
Special Expert to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

This afternoon Deputy Prime Minister His Excellency Sok An met with Ambassador David Scheffer, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Expert on the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials, to discuss the ongoing cooperation of the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia in support of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

Their discussions were frank and constructive, and covered a range of important issues facing the ECCC. They agreed that the trial proceedings before the ECCC are a historic achievement in serving the interests of justice and the victims.

Although the Deputy Prime Minister and the Special Expert have differing views on the interpretation of the ECCC Agreement, they intend to continue their close discussions on the most critical issues, and both remain optimistic that the Court can achieve its mandate.

Phnom Penh
24 January 2012

But on 26 January 2012, The Cambodia Daily reported the following:

The UN’s special expert on the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday denied the government’s claim that he had accepted Cambodia’s rejection of its nominee for the investigating judge and said he expected Laurent Kasper-Ansermet to carry out his full duties in the role.

The Supreme Council of the Magistracy turned down Judge Kasper-Ansermet’s appointment to international co-investigating judge at the tribunal on 13 January. In turn, the UN accused the government of breaching the deal they struck in 2003 for a hybrid war crimes court that would try the most senior and most responsible leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

But after a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and UN special expert David Scheffer on Tuesday, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told the media that Mr. Scheffer had agreed with the deputy prime minister that the Supreme Council’s decision to not appoint Judge Kasper-Ansermet could not be overturned.

Yesterday, Mr. Scheffer categorically denied that account.

“He mischaracterized what I certainly communicated in my meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Sok An,” Mr. Scheffer said in a news conference. “There was never any agreement with Sok An that that decision to not appointed the UN appointee could not be overturned. There was no agreement.”

So far, as the UN understood the agreement, said Mr. Scheffler, who helped draft the original 2003 deal with the government, the reserve judge had every right to take on the full duties of investigating judge without a second approval.

“So I made that very clear, and our view is that this particular individual, Judge Kasper-Ansermet, has clear authority to fulfill his duties in this country, and we look forward to him doing so,” he said.

“This is not some situation yesterday where the United Nations agreed with the rejection of this judge by the Supreme Council. Quite the reverse; we object very strongly to that rejection, and we say that, regardless off it, he has authority under the treaty. So I want to make that very clear,” he added.

Mr. Siphan, the Council of Ministers spokesman, stood by his account of Mr. Scheffer’s meeting with Mr. Sok An, and his claim that Mr. Scheffer had agreed that there was no overturning Judge Kasper-Ansermet’s rejection.

The following report by The Cambodia Daily of 26 January 2012 adds a new element:

Mr. Siphan… censored Mr. Scheffer for taking his clarification to the comments attributed to him to the public. “I wish to see him more professional,” Mr. Siphan said. “He should call me first. He’s not in a position to react to the newspaper.”

Does this mean that a high-ranking officer of the United Nations should first get clearance before he can speak to the press? Obviously there is a discrepancy between the atmosphere in the press release by the Quick Reaction Unit of the Office of the Council of Ministers, and what Mr. Scheffer’s sees as a fundamental conflict between the present position of Cambodian authorities and the contracted agreement of 2003.

Related posts:

1. Three press statements on the Khmer Rouge Trial

All organizing teams of a Software Freedom Day 2011 event are invited to submit their event report in order to participate in the Best SFD Event Competition 2011.

For the winning teams we have very amazing prizes! We are very proud to be able to offer in partnership with our sponsors, Lemote, a manufacturer of MIPS computers using only free software and free drivers. Lemote will provide 3 Yeeloong netbooks for the winners of 2011. Besides, the Free Software Foundation will be providing again Richard Stallman Essays and Richard will sign the book himself for the 2nd year. Big thank you to Lemote and the Free Software Foundation.

For the 2011 competition, three teams will be selected as usual by the Software Freedom International board and reading previous years winning entries should give you some inspiration (this was a free tip!).

Submission deadline is February 16th, 2011 2012 (UTC 0500) and the winning teams will be announced in early April the latest. And of course the submission link itself which I shouldn’t forget to remind you about is at http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/cgi-bin/report.py . Join the competition now and good luck to all!

PS: We are very concerned about SOPA and have joined the strike as many others. SFD website will come back from the dark on 19th January.

Come join us for our first birthday on the roof of Hackerspace. There will be a BBQ, drinks, music, fun and lots and lots of laughter!

Beers, soft drinks, water will be on sale by Hackerspace or feel free to bring your own!

All the fun starts at 6pm on Sunday 22nd January. The location of Hackerspace is shown on the map here.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

From the Hackerspace Phnom Penh Community.

Party Time! Hackerspace Phnom Penh First Birthday Party!

While we had all those GNOME people around we took the opportunity to set up some extra sessions for the “public” to benefit of the event. March 31st and April 1st saw 4 extra sessions organized with specific objectives separate from the GNOME 3.0 release: student training sessions over 2 days, one full day for a business sessions and a distribution collaboration meeting while we had some of the right people on site.

The student training was very popular, all the tickets sold out within a day and the trainers nicely extended the session by doing an extra day in order to accept more students.  In total over 250 students were trained and introduced to the Google Summer of Code program. We received a lot of positive feedback and it was nice to see that participants are all very passionate about joining the GNOME community. As usual, we collected email addresses and will make sure they can join the local GNOME User Group later! For those who may not know I will talk about Building a GNOME User Group on Sunday (hopefully my voice will return – maybe too much GNOME people baby sitting?). It is probably a good idea to come and discuss if you are interested to learn some of the tricks to establish or grow your own community.

April 1st (yesterday) was the last day before the conference, so I spent most of my time with the volunteer team to make sure everything was ready for The Day including the three tracks, the exhibition hall and a few other details.

Being part of this hackfest really made me happy and I wouldn’t have thought being around all these GNOME hackers could be such an enjoyable experience! I was also very impressed by how productive each respective team – release, marketing and GNOME.Asia – has been on its own and in their collaboration with one another. Everyone has been working really hard to ensure the success of GNOME 3.0 and of the GNOME.Asia Summit. The hard work of the past 8 months for some, and more for others, was definitely worth it! Please stay tuned as I will continue to cover the two conference days on this blog.

Three press statements on the Khmer Rouge Trial – all issued on the same day of 20 October 2011

This afternoon H.E. Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Ms Patricia O’Brien, Under Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, met at the Office of the Council of Ministers to discuss recent developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

Both Parties reiterated their strong support for the work of the ECCC, their appreciation to the donors, and pride in its success achieved to date, including unprecedented public participation. They stressed the critical importance of Case 002 as one of the most significant cases in international judicial history, bringing to trial all the surviving senior leaders of a genocidal regime.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the need for decision makers on both sides to discharge their responsibilities without allowing themselves to be distracted by intense speculation, pressure and interference from the media and other outside parties.

They welcomed the imminent Final Judgment in Case 001 and the announcement that the substantive trial in Case 002 will commence on 21 November 2011 and they expressed their desire that the judicial processes move forward speedily and smoothly.

H.E. Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An, and Ms. Patricia O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, met this afternoon to discuss recent developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The Legal Counsel’s visit follows the resignation on 9 October 2011 of international Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk. In his press release of 10 October 2011, Judge Blunk linked his resignation to statements by senior officials of the Royal Government of Cambodia opposing the progress of Cases 003 and 004.

The Legal Counsel referred to the Secretary-General’s strong support for the work of the ECCC.

The Legal Counsel expressed concern regarding recent developments at the ECCC. She reiterated the United Nations’ consistent call upon all persons to respect and support the integrity and independence of the ECCC judicial process.

The Legal Counsel strongly urged the Royal Government of Cambodia to refrain from statements opposing the progress of Cases 003 and 004 and to refrain from interfering in any way whatsoever with the judicial process. She emphasized the obligation of the Royal Government of Cambodia to cooperate fully with the ECCC.

H.E. Deputy Prime Minister, Sok An, and Ms. Patricia O’Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs, the Legal Counsel, met this afternoon to discuss recent developments at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

The Legal Counsel’s visit follows the resignation on 9 October 2011 of international Co-Investigating Judge Siegfried Blunk. In his press release of 10 October 2011, Judge Blunk linked his resignation to statements by senior officials of the Royal Government of Cambodia opposing the progress of Cases 003 and 004.

The Legal Counsel referred to the Secretary-General’s strong support for the work of the ECCC.

The Legal Counsel expressed concern regarding recent developments at the ECCC. She reiterated the United Nations’ consistent call upon all persons to respect and support the integrity and independence of the ECCC judicial process.

The Legal Counsel strongly urged the Royal Government of Cambodia to refrain from statements opposing the progress of Cases 003 and 004 and to refrain from interfering in any way whatsoever with the judicial process. She emphasized the obligation of the Royal Government of Cambodia to cooperate fully with the ECCC.

Related posts:

1. Some very rich want to pay more taxes
2. World Press Freedom Day 2011
3. Some Pictures as Background Information – after the Surprise at the Court

There is some follow-up news to the last blog here, from 1 January 2012, on Royal pardons. I had quoted a report saying that Foreign Minister Hor Namhong had stated on 29 December 2011: “There is the law and only prisoners who have served two thirds of their jail term can get a royal pardon from the King.”

But contrary to this law, a Russian citizen was set free, a man with enormous financial resources, who had been convicted for sexual abuses affecting young girls from the age of 6 to 16, more girls than in any other court case in Cambodia so far.

There was quite some press coverage, also in Khmer language publications. Here follow some selected quotes from The Phnom Penh Post of 3 January 2012:

• Provincial police in Preah Sihanouk: Lost track of him the day after Christmas.
• Border police: Requesting photographs.

  The Phnom Penh Post helps out with this problem:

  

  Convicted pedophile Alexander Trofimov (right) poses with a young unidentified girl in this undated photograph.

• Government spokesmen know nothing or offer vague ideas.
• Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak: He did not know whether the recently released Russian national – who is wanted in his home country for alleged sex crimes against six girls aged nine and 10 – was still in Cambodia or had left for another country. He might have changed his name again and left the country.
• National Police Chief General Pin Piseth: Referred questions to the force’s spokesman Kirth Chantharith, who said police were not even looking for Trofimov. “Trofimov is free to stay in Cambodia, and he has no obligation to inform the police. If his visa is valid, he is free to stay.”
• [And all this related to a person who should not have been pardoned and released – according to the statement by Minister Hor Namhong, quoted above.]
• Ou Virak, the Head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights was quoted to have aid that this is not just one irregularity. The called pedophile pardons as being “symbolic of many problems in Cambodia,” including the lack of a functioning judiciary in the context of a culture of impunity.

What is needed, therefore, is clearer, better law enforcement? Several voices had been reported to ask for an investigation and public disclosure of the procedures that led to the release of Trofimov/Molodyakov after spending only less than half of his four years sentence in prison – while high ranking persons like the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong stressed that a pardon is legally possible only after two thirds of the prison term has been fulfilled – a position also confirmed by Liv Mauv, the deputy head of the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Prisons – and the same Ministry declared that his name had not been on the list of 642 people for whom a pardon was requested from the King.

Is it correct to assume that the Prosecutor General of Cambodia is now searching how this breach of law could happen, and who is responsible for it, so that justice is upheld?

So law enforcement will bring justice.

But during these days, we observe a serious of violent events in Phnom Penh – all the result of claimed law enforcement.

In 2003, the Pheapimex company had reached an agreement with the authorities to develop an area in Borei Keila for its own business interest, promising to build 10 buildings for 1,776 families to be displaced. But Pheapimex constructed only 8 buildings. The chairwoman of Pheapimex, Suy Sophan, is now quoted to say that “the offer of 10 buildings was just an estimate” and that the company “could only afford to build eight buildings” – about 300 families were left out. Some agreed later to be relocated, but others remained in the places they used to live, negotiating for more compensation or better alternatives.

On 3 January 2012, their poor housing was destroyed, under the protection and actions of law enforcement personnel, though it was reported that no representatives of Phnom Penh City, nor of the Pheapimex company were present at the site during the violent clashes during the eviction.

The Prampi Makara District Governor Som Sovann had been quoted as saying that “the squatting families were being removed from the area for aesthetic reasons” to create a clean city. For the evicted people, this meant to be trucked to places 30 or 45 kilometers away, where there is no electricity and no potable water, no schools and no medical facilities.

Further scenes of how law enforcement was enacted can be seen on two brief videos here, in English (1 min. 25 sec.):

For further reflection on this video, I looked up what Wikipedia, the free Internet encyclopedia, says about justice – and I found this:

Related posts:

1. Who else but the victims are concerned with the disappearing lake?
2. Transiting – from the Past through the Present into the Future
3. Justice and money

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) carries, with every e-mail sent, the following line:

“…a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”

Have a look – click! – at their resources: the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, and the Sleuk Rith Institute – the latter is a Permanent Documentation Center of Cambodia, explaining that it refers to “Sleuk Rith, dried leaves that Cambodian religious leaders and scholars have used for centuries to write on them and to document history, disseminate knowledge, and preserve culture.”

There are many people who do not share this conviction. They say we just have to be positive, look into the future, forget the past, newer waste time looking back whatever it was, things will be all right if we just think of and trust in a better future.

I cannot share this disregard for the foundations on which we may build the future, our future.

There are lots of reasons to look back when looking ahead. Because we hope the future will not continue to repeat some problems of the past, but allow us to have a “happy new year” as most greetings around this time of transition from 2011 to 2012 say. I collected some of the wishes I got:

- bring many opportunities to your way – OK
- to explore every joy of life – every?
- wishing you the best – thanks
- reaching impossible heights – impossible hights carry the danger to fall down deeply
- happy holidays and a healthy and successful 2012 – healthy, OK, but what is success?
- a happy new year with all your wishes fulfilled – all?
- turning all dreams into reality – but the dreams of some are the nightmares of others
- a very happy new year full of health – it did not work well for 2011
- great opportunities for Internet synergies – OK, let’s continue to work on it
- safe holidays – safe holidays at home, not on the road; most people in the country do not travel
- now free installation for $100 – a surprise as even “free” costs $100
- health, prosperity – health: taking care and listening to the doctor; prosperity: I need more advice
- turning all efforts into great achievements – agreed, achievements require efforts
- building a peaceful society through education – all the educated who have power agree?
- peace and prosperity – some fights for more prosperity take the peace away from others
- Happy holidays! and everything else for a happy 2012 – what everything?

What is the reason for repeating so many nice generalizations year after year, which have not been fulfilled after similar ones were sent a year ago?

So this is the challenge: we cannot know ourselves if we do not have an accurate memory of our own past. To go with a clear mind into 2012 requires that we reflect seriously about 2011. What, then, would be a happy new year?

Surely not the same for everybody individually. But I personally hope for an environment where it is easier to understand simply and clearly the rules of life that can be trusted for all of us. For a society, that means to know what the laws governing society are clear, and that they are the same for all.

Unfortunately, there are many examples remembered from the past year which have created confusion. What happened, and why, has to be clarified, faced, and properly dealt with, so that things from the past that went wrong will not be repeated in the future. We have to know what went wrong in the past, to trust that it is possible to change things – they will not just change automatically, changes require action. Without this hope it is not easy to look confidently towards the future.

On 30 December 2011, there were the following two headlines on facing pages in The Cambodia Daily, to which I add some explanatory background information from various previous reportings:

Pardon for Vera Elusive After Ministers Meet

Two Thai nationals, Mr.Veera Somkwamkid and his secretary, Ms. Ratree Pipattanapaiboon, were arrested after crossing into Cambodia on 29 December 2010. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court had convicted them for spying, illegal entry into Cambodia, and entering a restricted military area. They were sentenced to jail for eight and six years respectively.

On 29 December 2011, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong was reported to have confirmed the government’s official position that Mr. Veera and Ms. Ratree would have to serve out at least two thirds of their jail terms first; adding that concerning the pardon, there is the law and only prisoners who have served two thirds of their jail term can get a royal pardon from the King.

Two-thirds of 8 and 6 years are 5 ½ and 4 years.

Early Release of Pedophiles condemned by Rights Group

On 20 December 2011, Alexander Trofimov (his real name is sometimes stated to be Stanislav Molodjakov) was pardoned and released from prison. He had been convicted for sexual crimes – the largest conviction of one person in Cambodia. In 2007 he was charged for buying sex from six girls between the ages of 6 and 16 – but after that, 13 more girls accused the Russian businessman of sexually abusing them. He was convicted to serve 17 years in jail.

Before his arrest he was leading a Russian-led investment group developing Koh Pous (Snake Island) into a high class tourism “mega resort” through a US$300 million project.

But there are further mysteries. A Ministry of Interior official said Trofimov’s name was not on the list of 642 inmates that had been sent to the King for pardons and reduced sentences for the mass release in December. Liv Mauv, a deputy head of the ministry’s department of prisons, said, “I don’t know what special condition allowed Alexander Trofimov to be pardoned,” explaining that inmates must serve two-thirds of their sentence before they are eligible for pardon.

Since 2003, many foreigners were jailed for child sex crimes or deported to face trial in their home countries. He is also being investigated in Russia in connection with child sex allegations. But a request by the Russian government to extradite Trofimov had been rejected by the Cambodian appeals court in 2007, where his prison sentence of 17 years was reduced to 7 or 8 years (according to different reports).

In the Russian press it was also reported that the

Cambodia’s King pardons Russian pedophile. The pedophile was granted amnesty by King Norodom Sihamoni…

Trofimov’s case has been the highest profile case in Cambodian history as it involved the largest number of underage victims molested by one person. The country is riddled with poverty and police corruption, and has long been known as “pedophile heaven.” Several years ago, the government of Cambodia decided to fight for a better image of the country.

RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.

Mr. Pavel Seskanov, the head of the consular section of the Russian embassy in Phnom Penh, was quoted to have said on 27 December 2011 that the Russian embassy had requested the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking for an update on a renewed Russian extradition request.

So far, it is not publicly known where the person sought is, nor what kind of response the Cambodian government is giving to the Russian embassy.

Two-thirds of 17 years would have been more than 11 years; after the reduction to 7 years two thirds is more than 4 ½ years.

My own big wish for 2012?

That law and law enforcement become more transparent, less mysterious, with less contradictions. And therefore more just. So that poor moto-doub motorcycle taxi drivers are not held up by a group of several police with walkie-talkies, tracking them, and fining them, for not having the correct double rear-view mirrors – which they should have, as it improves their own safety – while big black cars race along at the same time, crossing the middle line of a road, with or without having number plates, endangering others. But the police does not care. Or why can they not care in such cases?

Only by remembering and facing what was and is wrong, there may be a way to overcome it.

Related posts:

1. In India and in Cambodia – disagreements about social activism
2. Justice and money
3. Why are international indices often flatly rejected in Cambodia?

Ruby Programming Study Group

Exciting NEW Ruby Study Group

Sessions are EVERY Thursday at Hackerspace from 6pm -> 8pm.

Format for the evening will be:

• Discussion of one Ruby concept (e.g. Lambda, Proc and block)
• One or two programming exercises to cement the previous discussion (e.g. implement a counter using a Lambda)
• One major programming challenge that can be worked on over several weeks (e.g. build a program that outputs LCD style numbers from a string input)

Hope to see you all on Thursday evenings!

Darren

Guarding a Christmas shopping tree

Yesterday I was asked about why there is a Christmas holiday in “the West” which is now also taking on in Cambodia: to be nice to others by giving gifts, and also the business community is promoting this as a welcome opportunity to increase sales.

So I looked up again the old stories in the Bible in the books of Mathew and Luke, according to the New International Version of an English translation. I abbreviated it some, and I added some comments. The two other books in the series – Mark and John – do not say anything about the birth of Jesus; they just record other things that they had known about him, considered to be important.

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son (Mathew):

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah [an expected leader, giving hope for the future] came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but she was found to be pregnant. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream:, “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people.”

When Joseph woke up, he did what [he had dreamed] the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Just like good journalists do, Mark put in a clear time reference: when the “world-wide” census was held – while the land was under foreign domination by the regional power of the Roman Empire. Even so, the dating – written down much later by the authors of the Bible, human beings with limited knowledge of distant historical facts – is not clear. Wikipedia says:

“The Gospel of Luke links the birth of Jesus to a “world-wide” census ordered by the Roman emperor Augustus carried out while Quirinius was governor of Syria. This is thought to be a reference to the census of Judea in 6/7 AD; however, Luke also, like the Gospel of Matthew, dates the birth to the reign of Herod the Great, who died in 4 BC, ten years before the census of 6 or 7 AD. According to Raymond E. Brown, most modern historians suggest that Luke’s account is mistaken.”

On the way to be registered

And just like it was for the census in Cambodia, or for the registrations for elections, everyone has to travel to their home-town.

Though Joseph and Maria were not married, they traveled together.

The Birth of Jesus (Luke):

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth to Bethlehem. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger [an open box in which feed for livestock is placed], because there was no room available for them in the guesthouse.

It was a long way from these events remembered until today, but it changed a lot. How many of the Christmas shoppers, watching Christmas trees, think about the history that the boy born in Bethlehem ended up as criminal, being executed as a violator of traditional culture and religion, a despised criminal, where only some women who did not accept that this was the end of their hopes and lives:

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

But Wikipedia collected more from many scholarly writings:

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’ most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of “seven demons”, conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses. She became most prominent during his last days, being present at the cross after the male disciples (excepting John the Beloved) had fled, and at his burial.

Pope Gregory the Great’s homily on Luke’s gospel dated 14 September 591 first suggested that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute: “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? … It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the ointment to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.”

In 1969 the Vatican, without commenting on Pope Gregory’s reasoning, implicitly rejected it by separating Luke’s sinful woman, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdala via the Roman Missal.

This identification of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute was followed by many writers and artists until the 20th century. Even today it is promulgated by some secular and occasional Christian groups.

No related posts.

Introductory Photography Workshop
- 3 nights this January

Intro: What is a camera? (Wed, January 11)

Exposure: What makes a photograph? (Wed, January 18)

Putting it together: Vision and composition (Wed, January 25)

Workshop: 7pm – 8pm
Video: 8pm – 10pm

A three part introductory photography workshop. This course is aimed at people just starting to take their hobby more seriously or those who’ve been making photographs for a while but want to refresh on some of the basics.

Each workshop will be followed by a video presentation from the acclaimed BBC series The Genius of Photography.

A camera is not necessary to take part however access to a camera with manual controls (such as DSLR or an advanced point-and-shoot type camera) will be helpful.

For more information or to reserve a spot please email justinpn@gmail.com

Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

On the occasion of the Human Rights Day, celebrating human rights and commemorating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted on 10 December 1948, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published a Statement specifically referring to the role of the Internet for the protection and promotion of human rights:

Today, as in the past, editorial and financial factors – as well as access – determine whether or not protests, and repression of protests, are televised or reported in newspapers around the world. But, wherever it happens, you can now guarantee it will be tweeted on Twitter, posted on Facebook, broadcast on Youtube, and uploaded onto the internet.

That is why I also quote here from her Statement, including, at the end, the reference to the Internet resources used by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

2011 has been an extraordinary year for human rights.

A year when a single word, embodying the thwarted quest of a single impoverished young man in a remote province of Tunisia, struck a chord which swiftly rose to a crescendo.

Within days it had rolled into the capital, Tunis, with such a roar that, in just four weeks it knocked the foundations from under an entrenched and apparently invincible authoritarian regime. This precedent, and its radical revision of the art of the possible, quickly reverberated into the streets and squares of Cairo, followed one after another by towns and cities all across the region, and, ultimately, in different forms, across the world.

That word, that quest, was for “dignity.”

In Tunis and Cairo, Benghazi and Dara’a, and later on – albeit in a very different context – in Madrid, New York, London, Santiago and elsewhere, millions of people from all walks of life have mobilized to make their own demands for human dignity. They have dusted off the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and demanded “freedom from fear and freedom from want,” the Declaration’s shorthand for all the civil, political, social economic and cultural rights it contains. They have reminded governments and international institutions alike that health care, and education and housing, and access to justice, are not commodities for sale to the few, but rather rights, guaranteed to everyone, everywhere, without discrimination.

 
In 2011, the very idea of “power” shifted. During the course of this extraordinary year, it was wielded not just by mighty institutions in marble buildings, but increasingly by ordinary men, women, and even children, courageously standing up to demand their rights. In the Middle East and North Africa, many thousands have paid with their lives, and tens of thousands have been injured, besieged, tortured, detained, and threatened, but their newfound determination to demand their rights has meant they are no longer willing to accept injustice…

The message of this unexpected global awakening was carried in the first instance not by the satellites of major media conglomerates, or conferences, or other traditional means – although these all played a role — but by the dynamic and irrepressible surge of social media.

The results have been startling.

By the end of this first year of the global awakening, we have already seen peaceful and successful elections in Tunisia and, earlier this week, in Egypt — where the turn-out for the first truly democratic elections there for decades has exceeded everybody’s expectations, despite the shocking upsurge in violence in Tahrir Square.

Today, as in the past, editorial and financial factors – as well as access – determine whether or not protests, and repression of protests, are televised or reported in newspapers around the world. But, wherever it happens, you can now guarantee it will be tweeted on Twitter, posted on Facebook, broadcast on Youtube, and uploaded onto the internet. Governments no longer hold the ability to monopolize the dissemination of information and censor what it says…

On Human Rights Day 2011, I urge everyone, everywhere to join in the internet and social media campaign my office has launched to help more people know, demand and defend their human rights. It is a campaign that should be maintained so long as human rights abuses continue.”

Internet resources (accessible by a mouse click on the color-highlighted items):

As part of the campaign, on 10 November an online discussion began on Facebook and Twitter (#CelebrateRights) in English, French and Spanish called “30 Days and 30 Rights.” It is also being carried in Chinese on Weibo – 微博 – Pinyin Wēibó. It counts down to Human Rights Day on 10 December with a daily posting about one specific article of the Universal Declaration – 30 in total.

In addition, the High Commissioner for Human Rights is hosting an event at 9:30 EST in New York on the eve of Human Rights Day (i.e. 9 December), when she will answer human rights questions sent in via different social media platforms from all corners of the world. The event will be webcast and streamed live. Stay tuned, and send in your questions, using #AskRights

For more information on the Human Rights Day campaign.

Follow the live tweet of the High Commissioner’s press conference on Twitter at #CelebrateRights

Follow us on Facebook.

Make a wish for Human Rights Day.

For more information on the High Commissioner’s social media conversation

Check our YouTube Channel for videos related to Human Rights Day.

As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights referred in her Statement to “Tunis and Cairo, Benghazi and Dara’a, and later on – albeit in a very different context – to Madrid, New York, London, Santiago and elsewhere, [where] millions of people from all walks of life have mobilized to make their own demands for human dignity, I add here references to the Arab Spring (Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests).

A link also follows here to activities of people which had started in the USA under the slogan Occupy Wall Street – the leaderless movement of people from many different backgrounds and political persuasions, with the common goal to no longer silently tolerate the greed and corruption they see in the holders of big economic power, with material – as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said – that does not easily make it into news televised or reported in newspapers, but is on the Internet.

It is interesting that in the Occupy Wall Street reporting, there is also a quote from the 1944 State of the Union Address by a republican US president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is no surprise that also President Barack Obama recently referred to President Roosevelt’s vision of a more just United States of America:

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

Is this vision not the same for every nation, that the future development of a country cannot be achieved if it is disregarding injustice – “if some fraction of our people – whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth – is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure”?

Which are the fractions in Cambodia – one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth?

Related posts:

1. Why I canceled my Internet account with Online
2. World Press Freedom Day 2011
3. Who is blocking Internet access, acting against government policy?

The lake that had been - all pictures can be enlarged by a mouse click

Some years ago, departing on a flight to Bangkok, I took this picture – a historic reminder of something that is no more. The struggle of the residents around the lake has been regularly reported, their claim that – according to Cambodian land laws – people who have been in uncontested residence for a certain number of years can apply for land registration: the procedure for land registrations had been financially supported formerly by the World Bank – until the Cambodian government canceled the relevant contract with the World Bank after senior management of the bank had questioned the way in which this program was implemented – excluding the residents around the lake. Then there were adjustments – the Prime Minister decreed that a certain piece of land should be made available for re-development at-the-site for some residents (after others had accepted re-location to a far away site without a school for their children, and without easy access to participate in the informal sector of the economy, including short term employment in the capital city). Some families, still threatened by relocation, have excluded from his scheme for procedural reasons which the victims did not understand in time.

A dredging ship, where the Mekong and the Tonle Sap river meet - with pipes extending to the left

During a visit in March 2011 I had seen some of the destruction, but there did not seem to be immediate physical danger for the people still in some of the houses – though the flooding of some other houses had forced their inhabitants to flee, loosing their properties.

I will not try to document the continuing legal and the related police battles here. I just want to show some of the physical features of what is happening to replace the lake, to make place for more high rise buildings, while other construction sites in town are either partly finished but idle, because the finances foreseen to complete them are no longer available, or they are completed but find hardly enough renters to fill this new space – and pay for it.

Dredging into the pipe system

Transporting sand by barges

Sand and mud from the Mekong river is either pumped directly through a long pipe system into the lake, or it is first transported by barges to take the same final destination.

The pump

At the end, the landfill is pumped into the former lake – by now the remaining water level is higher than many of the remaining houses – and the lake is “secured” by a wall of soft mud and sand.

The most scary point I saw was a small piece of “dam,” made of mud and garbage, where the water level is already reaching it’s upper rim. Fortunately, the rainy season seems to be over – otherwise a heavy downpour, or a dog digging for something, might suddenly open an outlet, and the flowing water might trigger a flood, quickly inundating many houses still inhabited.

Talking to many people in Phnom Penh about the city losing its lake, and the people around losing their homes and livelihood, I am time and again surprised that many people do now know much about what is going on just right behind Calmette Hospital, the largest medical care facility in town. The authorities have provided a place where those who consider themselves to be victims can “legally” make their problems public at the “Democratic Corner” or “Freedom Park.”

Even here, not more than 200 people are permitted to demonstrate

As Boeng Kak Lake area residents realize that their calls for attention by demonstrating at the “Freedom Park” neither receive much attention from the authorities, nor do they attract much solidarity from many residents in town, the value of such a specially designated place for demonstrations is more and more doubted. After the ribbon-cutting to open the “Freedom Part,” representatives of the authorities to whom the voices of the demonstrators are directed, are no more there. Efforts by victimized people to bring their concerns instead directly to the City Hall of Phnom Penh to get personal attention, led to violent confrontations with the police.

While such efforts, to have human communication going on, have not progressed well, machinery seems to have replaced dialogue: the pumps are running.

Related posts:

1. Justice and money
2. Some very rich want to pay more taxes
3. “…ordinary people who risked their lives…” – part of the forgotten history of Phnom Penh

The Meta House in Phnom Penh has at present an exhibition of photographs and corresponding testimonials of stories about moral courage of ordinary people who risked their lives to save others. These are related to actions during the Holocaust to the periods of violent conflict in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Cambodia. The exhibition is also an effort, as described in The Cambodia Daily, to provide the “narrative of rescuers instead of the constant narrative of perpetrators and victims.”

I take this occasion to add here information from a book about the “rice lift” to Cambodia in March 1975, which I found recently: Larry Partridge: Flying Tigers over Cambodia – An American Pilot’s Memoir of the 1975 Phnom Penh Airlift (McFarland & Company, Jefferson/North Carolina, and London, 2001, 196 pages).

Though I live in Cambodia since 1990 and try to learn about the old and the recent history as background for the dynamics in present day Cambodian, I had never heard about the “rice lift.” I read this book with great attention, appreciating the many details described. It is written by an American civilian pilot, who writes:

“…we were officially listed as noncombatant personnel, but nobody mentioned that to the people who attempted so many times to do us harm. What ‘noncombatant ‘ meant, in our case, was we weren’t allowed to shoot back.”

The book contains much more than a simple description of a terrible period of history. The author shares his own inner struggles about his involvement in an almost impossible task – and he describes how many other people, Cambodians and other foreigners, lived through this period – or lost their lives. In the following, I let Larry Partridge speak, for large sections, in his own words.

On 1 March 1975, a Flying Tiger cargo plane – this company was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States – was on the way from Manila to Bangkok, with a one-hour stopover planned on the ground in Saigon. The USA had already announced in 1969 to withdraw all troops from South Vietnam, but the situation in Cambodia had become more and more critical. During this stopover, while the pilot – Larry Partridge – and the co-pilot – Jim Winterberg – were looking forward to a nice seafood dinner in Bangkok, things changed completely. The station manager of Flying Tigers informed them that the Khmer Rouge had completely surrounded Phnom Penh: “The airport was still open but was now within range of rebel artillery, and normal air traffic had come to a halt. There were at least one million refugees as well as residents in the city and starvation was rapidly approaching.” Rice was available, Flying Tigers had assigned an airplane – but they needed a crew; would they volunteer, instead of continuing to Bangkok? They could stop again any time. “Under the circumstances, neither of us felt that ‘no’ was an option.”

DC-8-63

Next morning at 4:00 they were woken up to take a car at 5:00 to the airport, where a DC-8-63, already loaded with 48 tons of rice, was waiting for them to be taken to Phnom Penh.

They got the local standard flight instructions: After takeoff, circle over the airport while climbing to 15,000 feet [approx. 4,600 meters], an altitude considered to be safe from ground-to-air missiles used. The first words they picked up on the air traffic control radio on the way to Phnom Penh was the warning “incoming” – which meant that artillery, rockets, or both were hitting the airport where they were to land soon. They had been told that “if an incoming rocket was going to be a hit-or-near-miss, someone at Tailpipe Bravo [the special bunker with the air traffic control on the ground] would usually see it falling, giving everyone a few precious seconds to get behind or under something. The 105 mm artillery was dangerously different in that it gave no warning! If it had your name on it you would never know what hit you.”

“The one thing that did kind of confuse the issue was the shelling was now light enough to allow most of the usual air traffic to come and go again. This was great for moving goods and people, but there was little coordination between all the different operators, both military and civilian… ‘be advised that there is traffic all over the place – high, low, fast, and slow.’”

Thus started the daily routine. Depending on the military situation at the Phnom Penh airport, there were up to four flights between Saigon and Phnom Penh per day: ‘…incoming – you’ll see some smoke off to the right, you want to go around? – Um… we just saw two hits by the terminal, is that it? … We’ll land OK…’

One problem after the other appeared: “While the unloaders were happily doing their thing,” a check revealed “that the brakes were still very hot. This was caused by landing a heavy airplane on a fairly short runway on a hot day. If we were going to take off and spend some time at a cool altitude this would not be a problem, but after the short flight back to Saigon the brakes would still be hot and the risk of blowing a tire would be very real. The typical family car carries around 30 psi [air pressure] in its tires. The DC-8-63 main wheel tires used 200 psi and if the internal temperature reached a high enough point, the tire would explode with the force of a sizable bomb… Normally, the solution would be to spend an hour or so on the ground, but that was totally out of the question.”

“Just as we started up the runway, two T-28 fighters landed, facing us and turned off on the terminal ramp to await our passage. This was definitely not standard procedure for a peacetime airport, but somehow it seemed safe as all the pilots involved were highly skilled and on top of the situation.”

“As we ended our first day on the job… we had a lot to think about. A quick, unremarkable dinner and it’s off to bed we go.”

Most of the following days follow a similar pattern: flight preparations and loading – or unloading in Phnom Penh – observing ‘incoming’ shooting while preparing to land or when on the ground, reflections on what is going on – especially related to other people in this situation.

“As we sat on the ramp unloading we could see the Khmer Rouge were trying to do their job as hit after hit thumped into as small farm about 400 yards [approx. 350 meter] off to our right and forward a bit. That’s a clean miss, but the way they are hitting in the same small area worried us a lot as an adjustment in our direction would have been deadly… Silently, we wondered about the family that had once lived there. Were they still alive? One can usually come up with some reasons a warring faction does this or that, but blasting a gentle little farm to bits while trying to destroy an airplane full of food?”

One of the ground staff “pointed out an old couple on the ramp and told us their story. Probably in their seventies, she had something in her apron and he was carrying a small pail with a handle. The ‘something’ in her apron was sand and his pail held thin tar. Every time an incoming round pecked a small hole in the ramp they would quickly fill it with sand and tar (a regular crew patched the large ones). They just showed up one day and started filling holes while everyone, military and civilians alike, assumed that someone of authority had allowed them into the area. Questions were finally asked and it became clear that they had just quietly arrived on their own. This caused a big row among the Cambodian troops who were supposed to be enforcing a super-secure perimeter around this ramp. The Old Couple just ignored all this and stayed on the job they created while shouts were shouted and fingers were pointed. Finally, everyone cooled down and after it was decided that they were not KR agents, an officer asked them where they lived. The Old Man stood quietly while she gestured toward a small pile of belongings… Using scrap corrugated sheet metal, some troops assembled a lean-to and the Old Couple had a humble home again. Their ‘pay’ for the job was whatever spilled rice they could sweep up plus handouts from Tailpipe Bravo [the air traffic control bunker].”

Once the head of the US Federal Aviation Administration Southeast Asia Region came to inspect the operation and went also along on a flight to Phnom Penh. He understood that the shrapnel on the runway took a heavy toll on the wear of tires which had to be changed more frequently than normal. He wondered “why we didn’t ask for a truck with an electro-magnet under it (they’re used for picking up metallic foreign objects that could damage the aircraft). I pointed to a wrecked and burnt-out vehicle that was the magnet bearer. The man who had been driving it was dead. The runway was just too dangerous a place for any length of time.”

Some flights were routine without trouble: “Land, taxi in, park at Tailpipe Bravo, shut down number 1 and 2 engines [but leave number 3 and 4 running, as there was no electricity supply on the ground to start up the engines again], wave at the Old Couple, offload, restart 1 and 2, taxi down the runway, do a u-turn, line up, and we were off and headed back to Saigon.” But time on the ground had to be kept short: the unloading of 48 tons of rice took less than 10 minutes, and the record of the shortest time from landing to liftoff achieved once was only 13 minutes.

There was always reason for such haste.

“We were lined up on final approach… I saw a few people walking or riding on bicycles… A group of monks in their saffron robes! It all looks so normal! This isn’t a war zone… We got a gentle landing but it was accompanied by the ugly rattling of shrapnel as we passed through a double cloud of black smoke! A brown puff just to our left, then ‘Krack!’ We were on the taxiway facing the ramp when a large cloud of brown smoke appeared right in the offloading area. I said, ‘Aw shit, someone got hurt by that one!’

After we were parked I looked to the right and spotted the Old Woman. Tears rolled down her face as she looked at me. I had no trouble spotting the blood and body parts the was trying to hide.

The score was: Four killed outright, two lost both legs and died on the way to an aid station, and one more died at the station. Several others were wounded.

Bad news, good news. The good news was the Khmer Rouge shooter didn’t put two or three more rounds into the same spot. That probably would have ended the Ricelift.”

The Ricelift staff did a lot of thinking: “All the work, the hot days, the discomfort, and the risk were now just silly things that probably, in the end, would mean nothing. – Sure we got paid, but we would also get paid for flying a load of toys from Hong Kong to Seattle, or a bunch of tourists from New York to St. Martin. I think, to our credit, neither Big John [from the flight control bunker at Tailpipe] nor any of us ever seriously considered turning our backs on these people in spite of the doubts and the probable outcome. Where there is a grain of hope there is … hope.”

After surviving another attack – “waiting for hearts to either restart or to stop forever” – “John asked how much longer we were going to stay on this lousy job. I told him a long as he and Tailpipe Bravo kept up their end we’d do the same. He smiled and said: ‘That’s the answer I had for you if you asked first.’ He was going to say more but was rudely interrupted by the usual ‘incoming’ and a thump.

Offload completed, we quickly taxied to the west end and commenced our last takeoff of the day. We hadn’t really talked about it but we all had come to the same conclusion about the same time. We were trapped!

If we continued to fly supplies into Phnom Penh, our friends at the airport and the city’s occupants might eventually die. If we (everyone in the airlift) decided discretion was the better part of valor and pulled out, the wholesale killing of thousands of men, women, and children would start within a matter of hours. The situation was that critical. A handful of civilian volunteer aviators had been unwittingly endowed with powers normally reserved for Gods and Generals!”

Various companies and planes were flying to Phnom Penh

From Saigon:

• Airlift International – C-130 Hercules – fuel oil and rice
• Flying Tiger – DC-8 – rice, having started the Ricelift
• World Airways – DC-8 – truck parts, fuel oil, some rice

From U Tapao in Thailand:

• Bird Air – C-130 Hercules – ammunition to Phnom Penh, ammunition and food to Neak Loeung (dropped by parachute)
• Trans International – Curtis C-46 – gasoline and parts, meat, canned goods, some fresh vegetables

The Flying Tiger team had made a realistic appraisal of the limited value of their efforts of carrying 48 tons of rice per flight.
“At the office someone had totaled the poundage flown on our flights alone, not counting other crews or airlines. It came to 2,737,600 pounds of rice. That would have been impressive, except for the depressing fact that the estimated population (including refugees) of Phnom Penh was around three million souls. In ten hard days we had managed to deliver less than a pound of rice per person, not per day, but total.”

There were also regular personal contacts in Saigon. Their 13 year old newspaper salesgirl had asked them: “’How long you gonna go to Phnom Penh?’ I had to tell her we didn’t know. ‘Anyway, nobody tries to kill me, but you better stop going to Phnom Penh.’”

“One of us remembered her asking if we were going to church on Sunday – when we answered no, she said if we fly airplanes and fly them to Phnom Penh, we really should go to church, and we could go to hers. When I said that we weren’t Catholic she just said, ‘That’s okay, you be with me.’ – ‘You keep goin’ to Phnom Penh somebody’s gonna make a hole in you.’

When the time comes, how the hell are we going to extract ourselves from this ‘Family’ we are gathering around us?”

As early as 18 March 1975, the director of Flying Tigers Flight Operations, Oakley Smith, had started to talk to the two pilots about being replaced – at that time they had completed 46 flights. “’As soon as I can dig up a couple of replacements. You guys are outta here.’” Why wasn’t I happy about what I had just heard? What the hell is wrong with me?! I had done some thinking and I said I would gladly go home on one condition: I would be allowed to return in two weeks. Jim said: ‘Me too.’ Jim and I had never talked about this and I was pleasantly surprised to find he felt the same. It would be a shame to break up a team. Oakley seemed genuinely puzzled so I added to Jim’s nods that we felt we were helping our friends. ‘It’s a very hard thing to explain.’

We had often talked about the day we could get the hell out and go home, but when Oakley actually offered it that day I almost panicked. I didn’t understand what had happened to me (us) but something had screwed with our good sense. After I stumbled through this silly explanation Oakley said he thought he understood, but when our replacement arrived we would go home. After two weeks, if we still felt the same way he would personally arrange our return to Saigon.”

On 23 March 1975 information came in that “two pilots were on their way to relieve Jim and me. We could plan on flying tomorrow if Phnom Penh was open, and we’d probably by leaving for home sometime on Tuesday.

I felt it again. Panic was too strong a term, but close to what I felt when I thought of leaving.

I thought about Maria attending Mass in the morning and the comfort she and others must be enjoying by having at least that age-old ritual to rely upon. I envied her.

I wondered how my family was getting along. If I miss them so much, why am I almost afraid to go home. Am I not ‘me’ any more? How could I change so much in just three weeks?

When Jim [the other pilot] and I talked about going home, I mentioned my strange reaction to the thought. Jim was surprised to find that e wasn’t alone in feeling this way. He didn’t understand it either but agreed it was very real.

I had a double lump in my throat. A big one for the family I would be coming home to and one only a little smaller for the family I would be leaving behind.

24 March 1975 would still be a normal working day. “The first news of the day wasn’t pleasant. A C-47 carrying fuel oil into Phnom Penh was hit by a SAM-7 missile while approaching to land – it “turned into a ball of fire and plunged into the ground a few miles west of the airport. As this was in Khmer Rouge territory there was no way to check, but it was assumed that all four souls on board had returned to earth for the last time.

Soon, we were on our way into the shooting gallery. We came sliding in at 15,000 feet and spiraled steeply down for our landing. If we did take a bad hit, at least our remains would end up in friendly territory.

Our Cambodian boss had a full crew again. Several soldiers had volunteered to leave the relative safety of the bunkers and learn how to unload DC-8s. Everything seemed to click and we were back to the speedy offloads.

Then a large ‘Thump’ as we turned and headed for the runway. Very quickly we were airborne. Just two more trips without mishap would mean Jim and I were done. Fifty-three ‘missions’ completed without a scratch. No more ‘Thumps’ followed by the harsh rattle of metallic hail. No longer would we have the ‘pleasure’ of learning what fresh human blood smelled on a hot day.

If we were lucky, we could stop trying to think of some way to help the thousands of gentle people in two nations who were strangling on the putrid fumes generated by the fallout of battles between so-called left and right.

Yes, I was in a very somber mood on this, our last (one way or another) day.”

Then again the standard air traffic control radio on approaching Phnom Penh: “…descend and land your discretion … active is runway 05 … traffic is Blue 46 inbound, you’ll both be here about the same time so maybe you can work together on landing sequence … incoming is still pretty quiet.”

The pilots of the two planes radioed each other – they were lined up so that Blue 46 would land first, the DC-8 second.

“Blue 46 showed a puff of blue tire smoke as she touched down. The timing looked perfect, they would be turning off to their ramp well before we passed that spot. Then the day turned bad. Really bad – a large blast of brown smoke erupted just in front of their number one (left) engine and beside the cockpit. Blue 46 began a slow turn to the left and ended up in a cloud of dust.

Later we compared notes and it was unanimous we all felt we would very likely have been in Blue 46′s place had they not asked to go ahead of us, thus slowing us down.

As we left, we saw an Air America helicopter had landed beside Blue 46. We knew then that if necessary, Blue 46′s crew would soon be in Saigon for medical attention.

On the way back, the next words from Saigon were: “’You guys are through for the day. Phnom Penh is shutting down for a while. Enjoy it, this will be your last landing in Saigon.’

Damn, it felt strange to gather up my stuff and prepare to leave my job here. Fifty-two times on the bull’s-eye was enough.

[As for the Blue 46:] Shrapnel had bounced off the pavement and punched holes in the lower left side of the cockpit. A large piece entered just below the Captain’s ribcage and after doing grievous damage exited just below his right shoulder. Amazingly, he was still alive. The co-pilot had less severe but painful wounds to his left neck area.”

The following day, on 25 March 1975, the pilots would be on a flight to Hong Kong, proceeding to Tokyo and Anchorage, then home.

When a stewardess on the China Airlines plane saw the Flying Tigers stickers on the luggage of the two pilots, she asked if they new anything about the airlift to Cambodia. “’Ma’am, we are the airlift.’ I assured her there were others involved, but we were the first pilots to start the ‘Ricelift’ out of Saigon. ‘You guys look pretty tired. Was it bad?’”

Departure was delayed until a man in a co-pilot’s uniform with a large bandage entered from the back entrance, and then another heavily bandaged person was carried on a stretcher.

“Our stewardess friend said the patient was a Chinese pilot who had been severely wounded in Phnom Penh and was on his way to Hong Kong for special surgery. ‘Do you know anything about it?’ she asked. Jim turned and stared out of the widow, leaving me to answer the question.

They had been blown off the runway right in front of us as we landed in Phnom Penh.

I looked toward the rear and I noticed the medical attendant and our stewardess friend were having a serious conversation with the Chinese co-pilot [of the Blue 46]. He turned and when he saw my concerned expression he came up to me and said: ‘He is dead now.’”

“When I left Saigon, I expected to return in two weeks, so I just said ‘See you later’ instead of good-bye. This book will be my closure and a way of finally saying good-bye to the many people we tried so hard to help.”

Larry Partridge never came back again. On 17 April 1975 the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh. The foreign air control ground staff at Tailpipe left before, flying to U Tapao in Thailand. It was later reported that the Cambodian staff unloading the Ricelift planes were beheaded for having cooperated with the enemy.

Related posts:

1. Why did the Rule of Law fail at the Riverfront in Phnom Penh?
2. International Workers’ Day – and Loyalty Day?
3. Why I canceled my Internet account with Online

On 13 September 2011 I had reported: “Some very rich want to pay more taxes.”

They ask for it again:

Millionaires to US Congress: Raise our taxes

By ALAN FRAM – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress’ deficit-reduction supercommittee face daily pressure from groups defending programs like Social Security, veterans benefits and defense spending from cuts. This week will offer something different: Millionaires insisting that their own taxes be raised.

A group called Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength is sending about two dozen of its members to the Capitol on Wednesday to ask lawmakers to boost taxes on people earning at least $1 million a year. They say they have planned meetings with seven members of the deficit-cutting panel or their staffs, plus others sessions including with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and even Grover Norquist, the conservative anti-tax activist.

The group claims more than 200 members, mostly Democrats and progressives, organizers say. Leaders say their ranks include Ben Cohen, a founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream; fashion figure Susie Buell; the actress Edie Falco and executives from major Internet companies like Google and Ask.com.
“Any deal reached by the supercommittee that does not ask millionaires to pay their fair share should be vetoed,” the group said Monday in an email.

The full text is here.

Who is rejecting this? Some of the other rich.

Related posts:

1. Some very rich want to pay more taxes

While the debt crisis of some European countries is debated day by day, with figures of funds needed to fix the situation increasing over the last weeks and months, there was also some debate related to Cambodia’s obligations to pay back its international loans.

International loans related discussions, and negotiations related to Cambodian debts incurred by former governments from the USA – during the Lon Nol government – and from the Soviet Union – during the State of Cambodia era – had been in the press in the past from time to time.

Recently, higher debts to be paid back to China started to be widely discussed. But there was disagreement in public news reports about the amount of money owed by Cambodia.

On 26 October 2011, The Cambodia Daily had reported, referring to Mr. Cheam Yeap, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Economics, Finance, Banking and Auditing:

Cambodian debt to China now stands at $4 billion, 35 % of last year’s gross domestic product and more than half of the country’s total outstanding debt to foreign donors…

He added that Cambodia’s total amount of outstanding debt has reached $7 billion, a figure that includes $1.8 billion in debt to Russia [when both countries were socialist allies] and the USA [US$444 million, by now, with interest - contracted during the Lon Nol government] that was accumulated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr. Yeap said he was unaware of the terms and conditions on the debt to China, but analysts say that the terms on Chinese loans are some of the least affordable among all of Cambodia’s donors…

China also provides the least favorable terms on concessionary loans, offering an interest rate of 2% on most loans, five times higher than that of countries like South Korea and Japan, according to a recent study released this months by the NGO Forum.

On 3 November 2011, The Cambodian Daily reported a correction of some of the figures which had been reported one day before:

… Mr. Hun Sen announced that Cambodia’s national debt stands at only $2 billion, contradicting information provided last week by Mr. Yeap, the chairman of that National Assembly’s Commission on Finance, who had pegged the debt level at $7 billion, including $4 billion owed to China alone…

“Some have put forth that Cambodia is in debt to China for about $9 billion, but I would like to make it clear here that up until now, grants, non-interest loans and low-[rate] concessional loans altogether have reached $2 billion,” the Prime Minister said.

“If the lender is not scared, we should not be scared. It should be lenders like China, Japan, and Korea that must be scared that we won’t have enough to pay them back.”

Mr. Yeap said he did not understand exactly what the prime minister meant regarding national debt but said the Prime Minister must be a right “because he has the documents about that.”

“Normally, [Mr. Hun Sen] manages all this, so I’m not clear on what he means.”

On the following day, 4 November 2011, The Cambodian Daily wrote that “Government Officials [are] At Odds Over Debt Levels”

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia’s debt stands at just $2 billion, contradicting information provided by CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap last week that the number is actually $7 billion, or 63% of last year’s gross domestic product.

Mr. Yeap, chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Finance, retracted that figure yesterday, claiming he no longer knew what it was.

“We don’t know how much we owe in total,” Mr. Yeap said, adding that he was uncertain about whether Mr. Hun Sen’s claim was accurate or not, since he did not follow the speech.

The Cambodia Daily adds that the “mystery behind Cambodia’s debt levels comes as governments worldwide are paying close attention to their budget deficits…”

Last week, the National Bank of Cambodia said Cambodia’s debt at the end of 2010 stood at $5.4 billion, of which $2.5 billion was loans from other governments. The Ministry of Finance in March said the total for the same period stood at just $3.1 billion.

“I do not know about this issue, so I dare not to answer,” said Ut Chhorn, an Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, referring all questions to Finance Minister Keat Chhon.

Secretary of State at the Ministry Ouk Rabun also declined to comment.

Clarifications are necessary. That not everybody has all figures present all the time is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is that the persons involved, or the newspapers reporting, did not point to the place where all information about such loans is stored and available – or is it not? The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia says in Article 90:

The National Assembly is an organ which has legislative power, and performs its duties as provided for in the constitution and laws.

The National Assembly shall approve the national budget, state planning, loans, financial contracts, and the creation, modification and annulment of tax.

The National Assembly shall approve administration accounts.

Would it not be easiest just to pick up the figures from the administration of the National Assembly? The approval of all loans and financial contracts that affect the national budget and state planning are recorded at the National Assembly. That is what the Constitution says. If a list with all approved loans and their conditions would be accessible to the public, there would be no public concern and controversy, confusion, and mystery about the level of international debt.

An Internet web site of the National Assembly or of the Ministry of Finance, with a list of all loans approved by the National Assembly, according to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, would clarify the situation about necessary future paybacks.

At the same time some public clarification might be achieved related to the government’s Social Development Fund – an administrative account? – into which huge payments by foreign oil and other natural resources exploring companies were made, and often with widely disparaging reports emanating from different government institutions about the amounts and their designation.

Related posts:

1. Some very rich want to pay more taxes
2. Big Trouble, Money – and Taking Away Some by Taxation

SEEKING KHMER
HTML WEBSITE UPDATER with Photoshop Skills
FOR IMMEDIATE HIRE

Workload:
Meet with Website Content/Design Manager 1 hour
Turn around updates by the following meeting next week

About Content:
New content will almost always fit into current formats. Only sometimes will new pages be made, and the design will be explained in detail.

Content in English

Skills in Photoshop / cropping, resizing images necessary as I will deliver files sometimes in need of cropping/adjusting and resizing.

Payment:
Can negotiate monthly salary or hourly after discussion

www.sasabassac.com
Please call Erin 012 507 917
erin@sasabassac.com

Digital Drinks Phnom Penh is a Monthly meet-up for Phnom Penhers interested in all things digital. Join us to meet others interested in digital marketing, design, development, social media, blogging and anything else digital.

RSVP:
Register for the first Digital Drinks event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalDrinksPP
Also sign-up to the notifications email list to get future invites.

WHEN:
From 6:30pm, Wednesday November 2.

WHERE:
Our first meet-up is being held at The Empire, located on Street 130. The nearest cross-street is St 5… so it is pretty close to the riverside. More information on The Empire Facebook page

AWESOME:
The Empire will be extending Happy Hour to 9pm… just for us! woo woo.

Urban Voice Information Event

6pm Thursday 3rd November

@ Hackerspace PP

Urban Voice is new website that provides a map-based visualisation of developments in Phnom Penh, based on the idea of crowdsourcing information.

Using the Ushahidi crowdmapping platform, members of the public can submit reports to Urban Voice concerning any urban development issue, from deteriorating roads and flooding to the location of public buildings or new skyscrapers. The citizens of Phnom Penh have many different interests and Urban Voice is the place where these can be brought together. Urban Voice is a source of information, as well as a site for civic engagement.

Following our presentation at BarCamp PP Urban Voice will be hosting an information and discussion evening @ Hackerspace demonstrating how to use the website and how you can become involved in the future development of Urban Voice site.

FREE DRINKS AND SNACKS PROVIDED!
HackerspacePP:

#91, St 454, Phnom Penh
Map available at: http://www.hackerspacepp.org/find-contact-hackerspacepp/

For more information please email us at: info@urbanvoicecambodia.net

Download the flyer:  Urban Voice event at Hackerspace 3.11.2011

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=236966029690664

Twitter: @UrbanVoiceCam

It had been reported that the Prime Minister had signed an order on 15 October 2011, saying:

From now on recruiting, training and sending of women to work as maids in Malaysia is temporarily suspended.

Such an order did not come as a surprise, because there had been repeated reports about exploitation and abuse of Cambodian women, working in Malaysia, and there had been repeatedly also reports that the agencies in Cambodia did recruit trainees which are younger than the rules prescribed, and also, that some of the trainees were held against their will in training centers. Two Cambodian women working in Malaysia committed suicide during recent months.

This order of the Prime Minister – clear in wording and in spirit – was welcomed by many, speaking for a Cambodian labor union [reported in the Khmer language on-line newspaper Cambodia Express News - CEN - http://www.cen.com.kh], by Human Rights NGOs, and by concerned family members and politicians. The Ministry of Labor obviously saw it differently.

It was reported that the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training met with the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies on 17 October 2011. Subsequently it was reported that the Ministry saw a loophole in the words of the Prime Minister, claiming that in spite of this ban, already registered women would be allowed to continue their training and to be sent to Malaysia. As there are about 7,000 persons receiving training at present (3,000 of them registered with the Ministry to go to Malaysia), this “interpretation” of the order of the Prime Minister – finding a “loophole” – would in practice mean that business as usual is continuing.

Minister of Labor and Vocational Training Vong Sauth was quoted to have said that the order of the Prime Minister was not violated, claiming that the words of the Prime Minister noted above actually have a different meaning:

These words mean to suspend the new recruitment activities, so if they are recruited already and have signed job contracts, they will go.”

To add more back ground and context: It is surely not widely known that already about 30,000 Cambodian women are employed in Malaysia. According to a Malaysian law on migrant workers, the lowest age limit is 21 years, but some women in training said that they are 18 years old. From one recruitment agency’s training center in Phnom Penh, Century Manpower, 22 persons in training – aged between 13 and 25 – had been freed by a Military Police raid earlier in October, and on 20 October 2011, 4 underage girls were set free by a police raid on the training facilities of the SKMM Investment Group in Phnom Penh.

In spite of the “loophole” claimed by the Minister of Labor, the Association of Cambodia Recruitment Agencies declared on 20 October 2011 that their 13 members with no longer continue training and sending household helpers to Malaysia. Their president said they had taken these decisions voluntarily, “This is our own decision. We have to protect our reputation… I don’t want these things to be on the front of the newspapers.”

A Secretary of State of the Interior Ministry welcomed this decision of the Association of Cambodia Recruitment Agencies:

This is in accordance with the government ban order… It’s not good to send women to work as domestic workers in Malaysia, where they face serious risks.

Ministry of Labor officials are reported to have declined any comment on this decision of the Association of Cambodia Recruitment Agencies which had now stated that they would not use the “loophole” offered by the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training.

In the meantime, it has also been reported every day that groups of women are still leaving Cambodia on flights to Malaysia to work as household helpers.

These events show that not only the spirit of the order to suspend the training and sending of domestic helpers to Malaysia was violated. It is also difficult to see how such a “loophole” could be interpreted, reading the clear words of the Prime Minister, who is at present abroad.

These events belong into a wider context: the frequently appearing problem that words of an order or of the law are not implemented, but even brazenfacedly contravened.

On 21 October 2011, private armed security guards at a rubber plantation in the Snuol district of Kratie province detained a group of villagers and members of the local authorities for several hours, who wanted to inspect 200 hectares of contested land that belongs to the farmers, they claim. A Snuol district governor criticized the detaining of government officers and rights workers:

The company was wrong for holding rights workers and our officials who were permitted to measure the disputed area.

In this case, the permission issued by a district authority was violently disregarded by a private company. In the other case, a government minister found a way to interpret the Prime Minister’s order to open a “loophole” – and it was finally a private business association, that first had welcomed the “loophole,” but after some back and forth, decided “voluntarily” to act according to the Prime Minister’s order.

[Most of related information reported in The Cambodian Daily.]

What is the meaning of law and order, if such actions continue publicly, disregarding the implementation of law and order?

Related posts:

1. Justice and money
2. Some very rich want to pay more taxes
3. After the International Court of Justice Order of 18 July 2011

Last weekend Hackerspace was home to teams building up their business prototypes for Cambodia’s first Startup Weekend event!

Here are some pictures of that event kindly sent to me from Justin (who is based at Kinyei in Battambang)

SFD 2011 worldwide map: 442 SFD teams from 86 countries registered!

2011 Software Freedom Day is approaching, are you ready yet?

To add to the collection of our Software Freedom Day music library (yeah we can call it a library now, we have two) we have another song named Free, A Song For Software Freedom to complement the excellent SFD song “Celebrate Software Freedom Day”. Both songs are licensed under CC-BY-SA, so you should feel free to share it with your friends especially during the Software Freedom Day! A special thanks to Erwin Galang, Meric Mara, Deng Silorio and Karl Ramirez for the composition of those two very cool SFD songs!

And since we are discussing the day itself please do document your event, use the #softwarefreedomday tag, upload photos, make movies, blog, tweet (on identica of course!) and get ready for the SFD 2011 competition. While we haven’t made any formal announcement yet we have some pretty exciting gifts again this year which we are sure will please all your team. Stay tuned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqP6eJd6GZc

2011 Software Freedom Day is approaching, in order to help you with planning, we have set up a few important pages where you can find resources for your SFD event including the brand new SFD song “Celebrate Software Freedom Day”, torrent links to DVDs (OpenDisc SFD version, FreeCulture, FreeDistro), FLOSS application for Mac DVD, logos, slides, videos, templates, all source files of whatever you can find on the wiki and plenty of more stuff. Head to our marketing wiki page to find a list of those. A special thanks to 8LayersTech, Erwin Galang, Meric Mara and Deng Silorio for the composition of the very cool SFD Song!

We will continue working on providing more slides and ideas by the end of the week. Please also feel free to upload your cc licensed slides and other resources to share with other teams.

All the best to your preparation!

On top of the badges we now have a multi-lingual countdown counter supporting all time zones. Currently twelve languages are supported (English, German, Portuguese, French, Khmer, Sinhalese, Persian, Korean, Spanish, Galician, Chinese simplified and traditional). Feel free to place one of the counters in your website or blog. It is very easy to add a new language should you need it and even documented.

Link to countdown usage page:
http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/en/participate/countdown
Link to translation howto:
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/CountDown/
Link to promotion badges:
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Promote

A big thank you goes to all the translators who have helped us to create the necessary png files for each language!

Happy SFD preparations!

Alongside with the hot release of Rails 3.1 this week, we will have a mini hackathon day this Sunday (Sept 4th) having fun and hacking apps on the new Rails3.1 release.

Event details are as follows:

Time: 9.00am till late

Place: Hackerspace Phnom Penh Note! changed venue to InSTEDD iLab (Phnom Penh Center, 4th Floor, Building B1, Sangkat Tonle Basac, Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh)[View Map]

Agenda: It won’t be a hardcore hackathon, but the idea is to get your hands dirty with Rails 3.1. Come up with your own simple idea and hacking the app using Rails 3.1 release, have fun!

Contact: SamnangChhun(016701721), Alvin (012213715)

*Note: there will be an introductory session after the Saturday Devcamp (Sept 5th), those who want to know more about hackathon, or are interested to join, check us out in the Devcamp/HackerspacePP.

Exciting monthly DevCamp is coming again. For this August, we’re going to have our DevCamp event a bit late than what we had planned as we are having interesting speaker Mr. Peng Boren, software developer from Nokor-IT, willing to share his knowledge on using Limon font and Khmer unicode on android application. On that day he is going to explain the constraints on building android application that could correctly display Khmer characters and share his solution and findings accompanying with Demo.

Here are the details of the event:

Ruby programming study group is up!

We have two energetic students here, Samda and Chaung started this. They made it to Hackerspace today just to start learning Ruby, and managed to finish 4 exercises on “Learn Ruby the Hard Way“. They decided to run a study group for this, so for those who are interested in joining the study group, you can either come tomorrow (Thurs, Sept 1st) or next Tuesday (Sept 6) to meet them and discuss more about the study group.

The current study group members are:

• Samda
• Chaung
• Samdy
• Liyong

Please feel free to contact Samda (muy.samda13 at gmail dot com) or Chaung (sengthaichor at yahoo dot com) if you have any question.

At a Google Tech Talk in 2008 Matsumoto further stated, “I hope to see Ruby help every programmer in the world to be productive, and to enjoy programming, and to be happy. That is the primary purpose of Ruby language.”

A lot of people often ask what HackerSpace Phnom Penh is all about and I’m glad to answer. But as you all know a picture speaks a thousand words.

Here’s a series of pictures taken on Friday 26th of August, just another day at HackerSpacePP.

4pm: Jack (left) playing with his new toys that just arrived in the post (Arduino delivery) and Ole putting together web and iOS clients for out torrent server and media library.

Did anyone see an instruction manual?

4.45: Serious work underway in the co-working space or is it the countdown to beer o’clock.

7.30pm: The attendees of Alvin’s iOS development group wrapping up for the evening.

7.55pm: Chris & Darren doing some evening Upstart hacking in the cage.

8.26: The movie night kicks off with Pirates of Silicon Valley.

9pm: Chris annoying all of the movie attendees by using flash photography during the movie.

So there you have it, a snapshot of the kind of things you can expect when you visit Phnom Penh HackerSpace.

FOSSASIA 2011 was announce officialy during the Desktop Summit 2011 and it will take place in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam on November 11-13. This year FOSSASIA is focus on "Women in IT" and "Mobile Applications". I am going to there and present my Google Summer of Code 2011 project "Appshell" and moonOS will appear in the FOSSASIA as well. We will try to make fun and get more new ideas to improve moonOS for the next version moonOS 5.

So see you in FOSSAISA 2011. 

Since its launched a week ago, we already have 188 SFD events registered from over 60 countries.

Team packs are now READY to ship and the deadline to request for this excellent Schway is TOMORROW! If you plan to organize a Software Freedom Day (SFD) event this year, but haven’t registered yet, you should do it now! Schwag availability is subject to first come first served basis (200 packs in total) and each pack will include:

• 3 t-shirts
• a 2-meter long banner
• 20 stickers
• 10 tshirt transfer labels (make your own SFD tshirts)
• 3 DVDs (OpenDisc, FreeCulture and FreeDistro (PC-BSD ISO included) and Free BSD)
• 20 balloons
• a  flyer

Registration is very easy, you just need to :

• Create a wiki page of your event here, and then
• Submit your event information here

If you have any issue regarding registration, please:

• Read the create the team page howto or,
• Contact us via email: sfd-discuss(at)sf-day.org or IRC: #sfd @freenode server.

If you wonder what is SFD or how to organize or participate in a SFD event? Please go to our website and read our startguide.

If you have already registered your SFD event, you should receive your team pack in early September. All the best to your preparation!

Please help us to promote Software Freedom Day by placing a SFD web banner on your website / blog and link back to your SFD event page or softwarefreedomday.org front page.

On 25 July 2011, we recieved a big donation of $500 from Thomas Walters that make us surprise because we never got any big donation like this since moonOS 1 release. We will use the donatation money to buy a new hosting and Internet connection in our place.

Thank you so much Thomas Walters for supporting moonOS.

This is with a great pleasure (and small delay) that we are announcing registration opening for SFD 2011! In fact some of the SFD team leaders have already started to create their wiki pages and participated in the soft opening and registration testing that we started 2 days ago. Most bugs should have been cleared out of the way and we remain available for any problem you may encounter through email or on IRC (#SFD on freenode). A special thanks goes to Fred, who wrote us this brand new registration script for 2011 and the many years to come!

We also want to particularly thank our sponsors who are making this possible, namely Canonical, Google, Nokia/Qt in China and Linode. We have also attracted more media sponsors this year (from 2 to 5 in total now) where we are running a A4/Letter size ad in the August/September edition for most (some are quarterly magazines). In no specific order those are Linux Magazine (long time partner), Linux Journal (yeah, welcome!), Ubuntu User, Admin Magazine and Smart Developer. And we are still in discussion with 2 or 3 other organizations.

Like last year there are about 10 days to goodies deadline (limited to the first 200 teams and Canonical is still providing Ubuntu CDs), so just go create a new team page under http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2011 (not continent this year) and fill the registration form! In 2011 goodies will include tshirts, tshirt labels, banners, stickers, balloons and DVDs (OpenDisc, FreeCulture and FreeDistro).

Last but not least we want to thank all the new volunteers who have joined the SFD global marketing team and are helping with global tasks. One of the net outcome has been our new SFD logo for 2011 which we will keep moving forward (thank you David, Jeff and Maxus Singapore) and the multimedia DVD which we have finally managed to make (thank you Diego and Marcos). All artworks are available here and under a CC-BY license.

Please also help us to spread the words and promote Software Freedom Day by placing one of the banners here! And happy SFD preparations!

Do subscribe to the discuss mailing list if you haven’t yet, read SFD Planet (we also have Spanish, Portuguese and German – URLs need to be updated), read our blog to keep posted (or RSS feed to it) as well as check out the SFD 2010 winners for inspiration and thank you to Makerbot and FSF for the prizes.

Software Freedom Day 2010 Best Event Competition result announcements: Africa, Asia and Australia under the spotlights!

Hudson, New Hampshire (July 21, 2011) – Software Freedom International is proud to announce the SFD 2010 best event competition results. Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with the goal of educating the public about the existence and the benefits of using FOSS in education, in government, at home and in business.

The SFD Best Event Competition is an international recognition of the efforts made by individual organizing teams in regards to spreading the importance of Software Freedom and reaching out to the relevant groups of people in their area. Each year three teams are chosen and the awards given to those teams are meant to help them further in their tasks for the years to come.

This year, two leading organizations from the Free and Open Source Software movements have joined us to reward those exceptional achievers: the Free Software Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the Free Software movement, and Makerbot, a private company pushing the concept of Free Software to physical media and making an fully open source 3D printer.

• SFD team Melbourne, Australia
• SFD team Yaoundé QV, Cameroon team
• SFD team SPCF-CITE, Angeles City, Philippines

The GNOME.Asia Committee is inviting proposals to host GNOME.Asia Summit during the 1st quarter of 2012. GNOME.Asia Summit is the yearly GNOME Users and Developers Conference in Asia. The event focuses primarily on the GNOME desktop, and also covers applications and the development platform tools. It brings together the GNOME community in Asia to provide a forum for users, developers, foundation leaders, governments and businesses to discuss both the present technology and future developments.

GNOME.Asia Summit was held in Beijing, Ho-Chi-Minh City, Taipei and Bangalore respectively over the last four years. We would like to continue finding new locations as we spread GNOME throughout Asia, and we are looking for local organizers to rise to the challenge of organizing an excellent GNOME event. The GNOME.Asia committee will assist in the process, but there is a definitive need for individuals to be actively involved and committed to the planning and delivery of the event.

You can learn more about GNOME.Asia Summit at our official website: http://www.gnome.asia

For those of you who would like to host the next GNOME.Asia Summit in 2012 you are hereby invited to write a formal proposal to the gnome-asia-committee-list (at) gnome (dot) org . The deadline for the proposals is July 4, 2011 Monday UTC 2359. Please send your proposal to gnome-asia-committee-list (at) gnome (dot) org. We might invite you to present your proposal in more details over our regular IRC meetings, or send you additional questions and requests. Results will be announced by the end of July 2011.

The conference will require availability of facilities for one week, including a weekend, during the 1st quarter of 2012 (January to March 2012). Dates should avoid other key free software conferences or other events that may have conflict and will be confirmed together with other GNOME teams which might get involved.

Key points which proposals should consider, and which will be taken into account when deciding among candidates, are:

• Local community support for hosting the conference.
• Venue details. Information about infrastructure and facilities to hold the conference should be provided.
• Information about how internet connectivity will be managed.
• Lodging choices ranging from affordable housing to nicer hotels, and information about distances between the venue and lodging options.
• The availability of restaurants or the organization of catering on-site, cost of food/soft drinks/beer.
• The availability and cost of travel from major Asian and European cities.
• Local industry and government support.
• Please provide a reasonably detailed budget.
• Bear in mind that at GNOME.Asia Summit, the hallway track and social activities are also very important.

Please check the GNOME.Asia Summit check list [1] and howtos [2] when putting together a proposal. Please also feel free to contact gnome-asia-committee-list (at) gnome (dot) org if you have any questions.

Please help to spread the words and we are looking forward to hearing from you soon!

GNOME.Asia Committee

[1] http://www.gnome.asia/about/gnomeasia/event-organization-checklist
[2] http://www.gnome.asia/about/gnomeasia/summit-planning-howto

After Beijing, Ho-Chi-Minh City and Taipei, the forth GNOME.Asia Summit took place in Bangalore, India on April 2nd and 3rd 2011. Organized right before GNOME 3.0 release the feedback has been overwhelming with many people telling us it was the best Free and Open Source Software conference ever in India! Having chosen a theme to echo the changes GNOME is going through “The next generation free desktop: GNOME 3.0″ we were able to deliver over 40 presentations and lightning talks from 30 speakers coming as far as Canada, USA, France, Germany, Belgium,  Sweden. Of course Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, the Philippines and India were well represented too. In short the whole world came to speak about GNOME at the GNOME.Asia Summit 2011 in Bangalore and apparently really enjoyed it!

On the attendance side out of the 1,400 online registrations a thousand participants actually showed up at the conference (very consistent ratio over the years when registration is free) with a split of 80% students and 20% professionals. Of course this wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our 15 sponsors and partners (yeah!), the 30 volunteers who helped us on site and the 6 exhibitors who took the time to bring valuable activities and discussions during our breaks. A special thank you also goes to the journalists who made it to the conference and helped to cover the event.

In terms of successes it was the first time we had over 90% GNOME related talks, which is a 20% improvement over our “previous record” in Beijing 4 years ago!  We can already feel the good things coming out of this event such as several GNOME User Groups in the making all over India (Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, etc) as of now busy with website building and members recruitment, or GNOME.Asia new popularity generating a lot requests from various Asian communities to host the next summit.

Another major achievement of the GNOME.Asia Summit 2011 was the diversity and range of activities offered together with the summit. On top of the conference,  we also hosted :

• 5 days hackfest attended by 17 hackers (Release, Marketing and GNOME.Asia teams), with successful outcome ranging from team building (April Fools joke), a successful and on time GNOME 3.0 release, GNOME.org ready for launch and GNOME 3 website improvements, release notes, advocacy, etc.
• 1 day installfest on a hundred machines all using the latest and greatest of OpenSUSE
• 5 days GNOME 3.0 helpdesk where we helped a hundred users to copy GNOME 3 images to their USB sticks or directly supported installation on their laptops
• 2 days student training with 7 talks and 3 hand on sessions per day, reaching out to 260 students
• 1 day business session with 4 talks given by The GNOME Foundation, Oracle, EDF and Lanedo
• 2 days shooting of marketing video campaign “I am GNOME”
• 1 face to face distribution collaboration session between interested parties on site

A huge thank you goes to the GNOME release, marketing & GNOME.Asia teams, our speakers, our trainers, our volunteers and our participants as well as our sponsors and partners Google, Oracle, Mozilla, Novell, Lemote, Lanedo, EDF, Candis Group, JoomlArt!, Dayananda Sagar Institutions, Intel, Airtel, Convergent, Linux Format, Linux Pilot, and The Hindu. We also would like to specially thank Bharath who worked around the clock and allowed us to put things together in Bangalore. We couldn’t have made such a wonderful event without all of you!

And now you can enjoy those great moments that made the whole event unforgettable! For those of you living in Asia it is time to subscribe to the GNOME.Asia, GNOME Bangalore or GNOME India mailing list if you have done so yet, and for everybody else time to try out GNOME 3 and visit a launch party in your area. Last but not least, see you all next year!

Following the release of GNOME 3.0, the world has been celebrating GNOME 3 here and there starting from April 6th: 141 registered GNOME 3 release parties spreading over 47 countries according to this wiki page. Being on the GNOME.Asia committee for 4 years already, I am happy to see that 43% (61 parties) of the release parties are from Asia (in 15 countries), India actually organizing the most (20% i.e. 29 parties in total), followed by Greater China (9% i.e. 12 parties in total). That makes me feel that all those efforts and time spent on GNOME.Asia are starting to bear fruit.

In Europe, we have 41 parties (almost 30%) coming from 21 countries, Germany leading the pack with 8 parties, followed closely by Spain and France (6 parties respectively).

The Americas have 36 parties (25%) coming from 8 countries with Mexico hosting almost half (16 parties i.e. 11%). And finally we also have 3 parties in Africa. While this is not a lot for such a big continent it is definitely a start for GNOME and we should try hard to keep those people motivated and participating in the project.

In Greater China, it’s worth mentioning that organizers from Taipei, Kaohsiung, Beijing and Hong Kong coordinated their events to provide live video between each others. It is a good sign for the community to see collaboration among different cities or countries and maybe something we could extend on different aspect of GNOME.

Another challenge among us now is to transform those celebrations into deep involvement in the project. GNOME has a lot to offer, and that was very obvious when we discussed with the college hosting GNOME.Asia 2011, however the road to participation is not always clear to everyone. I wonder what could be the most effective way to achieve this goal and would be happy to hear how people started to get involved at first (maybe something to learn there?).

It is now time to promote GNOME 3 by blogging about your parties! Don’t forget to tag your blog posts,  microblogging messages and photos with #gnome3parties, and link them to the GNOME wiki page. You can also join the best photo competition by simply adding your photo link here.

Already 5 days in Bangalore, India and time to give an update on what has been done and what’s left to finalize. I have indeed been silent the past 2-3 months preparing the GNOME.Asia Summit and working on Software Freedom Day to get up to speed for 2011. So I am at my first GNOME hackfest and from what I have been told, one of the biggest ever. In total we have about 16 people working on the GNOME 3.0 release, from making sure we catch all the critical bugs, to fixing them, writing documentation (I’ve just been assigned to write some missing sections – that will be my first contribution to the GNOME code base) and preparing the associated marketing campaign (which has already started of course).

On top of those major tasks we are also providing training to the students of Bangalore (2 days totalling 200 seats), organizing a business session with case studies to explain to local companies how others make money with GNOME and Free Software, running a helpdesk to support people curious about GNOME 3.0 and, making sure that all the necessary tasks for the GNOME.Asia Summit have been completed. I have to send a huge thank you to Bharath for his devotion and support everyday and all the sponsors who have made this great event possible. It is a real pleasure to see so many people supporting us and we can definitely feel the pressure not to disappoint anyone.

In that respect I have been particularly impressed with the release team who is not taking their task lightly and have somewhat skipped the group meals since Tuesday. They still move from the hotel to the hackfest location with us but seldom leave their keyboards. The above photo is a shot I just took in their room before writing this post… Of course no one in the team has written their talk for the weekend, but that shouldn’t prevent participants from attending

On the bright side we have reached 1400 registrations for the summit and I doubt anything could stop the success of what we’ve been working on for the past 6 months. India even got qualified for the cricket world finals, which has only happened twice since 1975 (2003 best runner up, 1983 winner). So obviously everything is on our side and the 3.0 release should be a magnificent one.

Last but not least I want to thank the GNOME Foundation for its support and allowing me to join the hackfest and the conference.