Rainsy Says Those Behind Boeng Kak Deserve Jail

By Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter - August 6, 2013

The Cambodia Daily


Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday vowed to return Phnom Penh’s beleaguered Boeng Kak neighborhood to its residents and to have those who filled the lake with sand thrown in jail, should the opposition CNRP ultimately prevail in contesting the unofficial results of last month’s election.

The Boeng Kak neighborhood witnessed some 3,000 families forcibly evicted after the city leased the land to CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin in 2007. The area has since become the flashpoint of years of anti-eviction protests around the city, and also led the World Bank to suspend loans to the government over the unfair treatment of the area’s residents.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy addresses residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood on Monday. More than 3,000 families have been evicted from the site to make way for a massive real estate project headed by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin. (Siv Channa)

Mr. Rainsy, who made land rights a central theme of his election campaign and is contesting the ruling CPP’s claim of having won the July 28 poll, made a brief tour of the Boeng Kak area on Monday trailed by more than 200 excited residents waving CNRP signs.

“The people who filled in the lake are criminals and they will be put in jail because we need to keep this lake to relieve flooding in the city and this lake is also for tour­ism,” Mr. Rainsy told a crowd outside the home of the neighborhood’s leading activist, Tep Vanny.

Mr. Rainsy alleged that both Mr. Meng Khin, whose real estate firm filled in the lake, and former city governor Kep Chuktema, who oversaw the evictions when he was in charge of Phnom Penh, should be held legally re­sponsible for their actions.

“Kep Chuktema conspired with Lao Meng Khin, the owner of Shukaku Inc., who filled in the lake and took this land for their own interests, so they must be responsible for the filling,” Mr. Rainsy said.

Mr. Rainsy also demanded the release of Boeng Kak anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha, who is serving a three-year jail sentence for an incitement conviction her supporters believe was politically motivated to stop her protesting.

“We do not believe the current development is right, because we have seen that the development confiscates people’s land and destroys their homes. Real development creates progress for all people throughout the country,” Mr. Rainsy said to cheers and applause.

“We will not act like the previous government, which will step down soon because the people voted to drop the old prime minister,” he said.

Mr. Chuktema, who gave up the governor’s office earlier this year to mount a successful bid for Parliament on the CPP ticket in Phnom Penh, denied any criminal wrongdoing when contacted for comment Monday.
“He is not prime minister yet, but he threatens to arrest people and put them in jail. So does he deserve to be a political leader? And can the people believe him?” Mr. Chuktema said.
“I did nothing wrong,” he said.

Mr. Chuktema conceded that no development drive happens without mistakes, but then denied any responsibility for what had occurred at Boeng Kak because he was merely following un­specified orders from the national government.

“I just want to stay in peace because I have retired,” he added.

Mr. Meng Khin and representatives for his firm could not be reached for comment.

Throughout their protests, the Boeng Kak activists have often professed their devotion to the CPP, even bringing along framed pictures of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany and pleading for their help.
But Ms. Vanny, who has been at the center of those protests, said many of them have lost faith in the ruling party.

“We have lost belief in the CPP since they have been evicting people because of Kep Chuktema and Lao Meng Khin, and they always use the court system against the protesters,” Ms. Vanny said after Mr. Rainsy’s visit.

“I hope the new prime minister for the fifth mandate will be His Excellency Sam Rainsy, and I hope he will not disappoint the people and that Cambodia will become a real democratic country.”
Mr. Rainsy has not swayed everyone, however.

Heng Mom, a former ally of Ms. Vanny’s, said she stayed away from opposition leader’s visit to the area because she and 15 other families cut a deal with city officials just ahead of the election in which they would all receive titles to their threatened homes in return for their votes for the ruling CPP.

“The municipality promised to give land titles only to the 16 families because they promised to vote for the CPP,” she said.

Ms. Mom said she received a phone call from municipality administration chief Ket Chhe soon after the election promising the families that the titles would be delivered as soon as the NEC announced the official results, which are expected some time in September.

Mr. Chhe could not be reached for comment regarding the votes for land titles deal.
Municipality spokesman Long Dimanche declined to comment.

Housing rights groups say the government violated its own land laws in Boeng Kak by failing to give the thousands of families who once lived there the chance to apply for land titles.

Cambodia Polls Show Political Maturity, Democratic Progress: DPM

Aug 5, 2013
PHNOM PENH (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Cambodia's recent general election on July 28 reflects the country's democratic process and political maturity of Cambodians, Xinhua news agency reported.

At a meeting with outgoing German Ambassador to Cambodia Wolfgang Moser, Hor Namhong said the country's election was conducted in a free, fair and peaceful manner with over 68 percent of Cambodians coming out to cast their ballots.

Moser congratulated the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) on its victory in the election and said Germany would further promote bilateral ties and cooperation with Cambodia.

Initial poll results showed the CPP of Prime Minister Hun Sen won 68 parliamentary seats and main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) led by exiled leader Sam Rainsy obtained the remaining 55 seats.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, will be able to extend his governance by five more years with his latest victory.

A new National Assembly will be established not later than 60 days after the polls.

As Dams Loom, Mekong Fishermen Fear for Their Future

By Amelie Bottollier-Depois, August 5, 2013.

A fisherman stands on his boat as he lays his net in the Mekong river in Wiang Kaen, a district in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai bordering Laos on May 29, 2013. (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Wiang Kaen. The waters of the mighty Mekong have sustained generations of families but nowadays its fishermen often find their nets empty and fear hydropower mega-dams will destroy their livelihoods.

Pat Chaiwong has fished the Mekong in northern Thailand for three decades but good days are increasingly rare.

“Some days I can catch fish. Some days I don’t catch any,” lamented the 67-year-old, one of about two dozen fishermen in the community of Wiang Kaen in the northern province of Chiang Rai.

For many in the community, the reason lies upriver in the Chinese province of Yunnan where dams on the upper reaches of the river disturb the delicate cycle of nature.

“Usually the water would rise [and fall] with the seasons,” said fisherman Decha Chaiwong, 48.
Now it ebbs and flows depending on whether the dams are open or closed, he said.
“That’s why the fish have decreased.”

Today a new threat looms downstream in neighbouring Laos.

The Xayaburi hydropower project is one of 11 planned on the lower Mekong, raising worries for the future of the 60 million people in the region estimated to depend on the river in some way.

The 4,800 kilometer long waterway, the longest in Southeast Asia, is home to hundreds of species of freshwater fish including the endangered giant Mekong catfish, according to conservation group WWF.
Environmentalists warn that damming the lower Mekong would trap vital nutrients, increase algae growth and prevent dozens of species of migratory fish — including the giant catfish — swimming upstream to spawning grounds.

“If there is the Xayaburi dam, fish cannot lay eggs and the numbers of fish and their breeds decrease. There will definitely be a big impact,” said Niwat Roykaew, president of the Natural Resources and Culture Conservation Network in Chiang Rai province.

Many of the roughly 200 species in the lower Mekong swim upriver to spawn — one of the most important mass river migrations in the world, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

The hydroelectric project at Xayaburi, led by Thai group CH Karnchang, has sharply divided four Mekong nations — Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand — who formed the MRC, an intergovernmental group.
Communist Laos, one the world’s most under-developed nations, believes the planned 1,285 megawatt dam — which will cost $3.5 billion according to state media — will help it become “the battery of Southeast Asia.”

Thailand has agreed to buy most of the electricity generated by the project, but Cambodia and Vietnam fear the dam could seriously affect fish migration and sediment flows, hitting their farming and fishing industries.
Despite the concerns, construction on the main part of the dam began in November with Laos predicting completion by the end of 2019.

Niwat described the decision to go ahead without listening to people’s concerns as “a coup d’état against the Mekong River.”

“We’re the children of the Mekong River. We were born and grew up on the Mekong. It has taken care of us and provided for us. Then one day the dams came,” he added.

His association has filed a lawsuit against the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and the Thai government in an attempt to block the project.

Neither EGAT nor developer CH Karnchang responded to request for comment.

Laos has modified the design to try to minimise the impact, said Hans Guttman, chief executive officer of the Mekong River Commission Secretariat.

The changes include a system to flush sediment through the dams and allow fish to migrate through fish passages, he said.

“It is still obviously up for question whether this sediment flushing will work as envisaged because it has never been tested, and there is also concern about whether the fish passages will work on a structure this big,” he added.

In a study published in 2011, the MRC warned that the construction of 11 dams on the river in Laos and Cambodia as well as dozens more on tributaries, could cause fish catch to drop by at least 25 percent by 2030.

Thai villagers are fighting “on behalf of the Mekong” and also for people in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia who have less freedom of speech, said Pianporn Deetes with campaign group International Rivers.
“There are many festivals and traditions connected to the Mekong river,” she said, such as the mythical Naga snake that protects the Mekong.

“But if the dams are blocking the river, this means the Naga cannot move upstream,” she added.
The same goes for the Mekong giant cat fish, one of the world’s biggest freshwater fish which can reach three meters in length and 300 kilos in weight.

Already threatened by overfishing, only about 200 are estimated to remain, according to a recent study by WWF, which fears that dam construction will drive the iconic creature to extinction.
It has been years since one ended up in fisherman Pat’s net.

“In the past, I caught a lot of them but now not at all,” he said. “I don’t know where they all went.”
Agence France-Presse

Election Monitors Submit Request to Review NEC Documents

By Colin Meyn and Khuon Narim - August 5, 2013

The Cambodia Daily


Independent election monitors and civil society groups submitted a request to the National Election Committee (NEC) on Friday asking to review post-election voter rolls and Identity Certificates for Elections (ICE) forms in seven provinces in which reports of election irregularities were widespread on July 28
The Situation Room, a committee of civil society bodies that monitored the national election, has asked the NEC to disclose the names of people who voted in these provinces in order to check for cases of double voting, and to disclose details regarding ICE documentation used in some areas to assess the level of fraudulent voting, said Koul Panha, executive director of the Com­mittee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel).


The provinces include Prey Veng province, where reports of fraudulent use of ICEs was widespread; Phnom Penh, where monitors suspect high levels of double voting; and Siem Reap province, where election monitors witnessed thousands of members of the military being moved around the province on voting day, Mr. Panha said.

The other provinces with high levels of suspected voting irregularities and fraud include Battambang, Kompong Cham, Kandal and Kratie provinces.

Mr. Panha said that Comfrel and other election monitors were currently compiling their findings and will release a quantitative report on suspected irregularities in the coming days. However, without the NEC’s cooperation in reviewing voter names and documentation, a conclusive investigation of election fraud will not be possible, he said.

NEC Secretary-General Tep Nytha said Sunday that the organization had been too busy to consider the request for access to documentation from the independent election monitors.

“We haven’t checked their request yet because we don’t have time to check it, we are busy solving complaints,” he said, adding that the NEC has re­ceived only 10 reports of voters using false identification since the election a week ago.

“For the irregularity reports, our committee will start checking them on [August] 6,” Mr. Nytha said, adding: “Those issues have not seriously affected the results of the election.”

However, CNRP representatives in both Prey Veng and Kandal provinces said that they have received hundreds of complaints about fraudulent ICEs, double voting and missing names, but have yet to tabulate the total number of reported irregularities in their provinces. In Phnom Penh, as of Friday, they said they had received more than 2,000 complaints.

The Situation Room’s request for documentation comes as talks to form a multi-party committee composed of the CPP and CNRP have broken down, with the NEC laying blame on the CNRP for its insistence that the U.N. be involved in the investigation of election results, a request that the NEC says has no legal precedent.

Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said that election monitors were offering an apolitical way for the NEC to bring credibility to the election process.

“Whether they [the NEC] has this commission [with the CPP and CNRP] or doesn’t have it, we NGOs have to work our way. We want to solve the technical problems, not the political problem,” he said.
“We will continue to do our work, and we will show if the NEC likes to cooperate in transparent investigations,” he added.

(Additional reporting by Neou Vannarin)

Mekong residents voice their concerns

05/08/2013
VietNamNet Bridge – Residents living in the Mekong River basin are expressing concerns over water degradation in the Mekong river and its impact on farming, aquaculture and the livelihood of the millions of people who live in the region.

 People from Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam's Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta raised concerns last Thursday at a forum held by the Viet Nam River Network, Save the Mekong, the Southern Institute of Ecology and An Giang University, saying that their lives have changed negatively due to the changes in the river's water level.

They asked scientists, policymakers and governments to find proper solutions to balance the use of water between countries and sectors in order to ensure their livelihood and the future of the basin in the coming decades.

There are currently five big dams in operation along the Mekong river with 12 more dams proposed, which are expected to take a huge volume of water from the river, change its natural flow and destroy the fish habitat.

More than 130 scientists, farmers and officials from related agencies joined the forum. Representing farmers from Ca Mau Province, in the country's southern-end, Huynh Thi Kim Duyen said she and local residents have observed more erosion to the river banks in their neighbourhood.

Duyen, who is a member of the province's Women's Association and also a farmer, is aware of the change of natural flow resulting in erosion, giving no conclusion in the changes over upper power dams or impact the impact on climate change.

However, she noted that a small dam built on Quang Lo - Phung Hiep has turned the canal into a dead one. "I think the bigger dams would worsen the impact of the rivers that are tributaries of the Mekong River," she said.

"Erosion and declining fish populations have affected the lives of locals. People have to migrate from the erosion prone sites and move to urban areas to find jobs," Duyen also said.

Kong Chanthy, a Cambodian farmer said similar situations have also happened in his community. Lower water volume in the Mekong River has affected his cultivation, while increasing pollution has hindered his aquaculture.

Research over the last five years has shown that income from agroproducts and fishing by residents living in the basin have fallen critically. Omboun Thipsuna, representing seven of Thailand's north-eastern provinces, blamed power dams for causing the unnatural, sudden floods and the unexpected droughts that happen in the provinces.

Thipsuna said changes in the water volume along the Mekong Delta has affected the livelihood of farmers and fishermen. In Bung Kan, for example, the average income from fishing declined from 37,000 THB (US$1,200) to 5,000 THB ($166) a year in the past five years. Meanwhile, agricultural income dropped from 3,800 THB to 28,800 THB a year.

Speaking at the forum, Dr Duong Van Ni of Can Tho University confirmed the phenomenon observed by farmers and fishermen. "Water in the Mekong River has shown signs of changes in water volume and water quality," he said.

"Fish populations have fallen by one third recently," he added, according to research he conducted in Cambodia and Viet Nam. Ni forecasted a critical shortage of water for cultivation in Cambodia's Tonle Sap and Viet Nam's Cuu Long (Mekong) deltas.

Experts at the forum said power dams have changed the water volume and water flow of the Mekong River and concerns by residents living in the river basin are reasonable. They are calling governments and policymakers to sit down together to reach an agreement on how to properly share water from the river.
Source: VNS   

Cambodia to set up vote investigation committee

Xinhua | 2013-8-3

The National Election Committee (NEC), the ruling party and the opposition party on Saturday agreed in principle to establish a joint investigation committee into alleged irregularities during Sunday's general election.

The agreement in principle was made during a trilateral meeting, which was attended by NEC's chairman Im Suosdey, Secretary of State for Interior Prum Sokha, representative of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), and former lawmaker Kuoy Bunroeun, representative of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

"We have agreed to form a joint committee comprising the NEC, the CPP and CNRP in order to investigate the alleged irregularities during the poll," Tep Nytha, NEC's Secretary General, told reporters after the meeting, "the joint committee will be established as soon as possible."

He said all national and international observers would be allowed to monitor the investigation process.

"It is a good decision that can be acceptable to all sides and all voters," he said.

Kuoy Bunroeun confirmed to reporters after the meeting that the joint committee would be set up very soon to investigate vote irregularities on Sunday last week.

The initial election results showed that the CPP of longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen won 68 parliamentary seats and the CNRP of recently-pardoned leader Sam Rainsy got the remaining 55 seats.

The soon-to-be-formed committee came after Sam Rainsy announced Monday that the party did not recognize the results of Sunday poll, claiming widespread fraud, and called for the NEC to establish a joint committee to investigate irregularities.

Sam Rainsy claimed that about 1.3 million voters were unable to vote because their names were not on the voter lists.

In addition, he claimed that there were about 1 million ghost names on the voter lists and about 200,000 duplicate names.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday that his government and party will welcome the joint committee, which allows the participation from political parties, national and international NGOs in order to look into the alleged irregularities.

"This is a positive way to solve the remaining issues and to show transparency and find a solution that can be acceptable to all sides," the premier said.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, will extend his power by another five years due to Sunday's victory.

Despite its victory, the overall result in last Sunday's voting was a blow to the ruling CPP as it was able to get only 68 seats, a big drop from the 90 seats it got in the 2008 election.

In Sunday's election, the opposition CNRP showed a dramatic rise in the voters' support by winning 55 seats, up from just 29 seats in 2008.

No deadlock for upcoming new parliament, government: Cambodian PM

Xinhua | 2013-8-2

 Hun Sen visit Stung Meanchey Bridge in July 31, 2013. Photo: Quoc Viet/RFA
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday that there will be no political deadlock for the establishment of the upcoming new parliament and government.

"According to the constitution, a new government will be formed by a 50-percent plus one majority, or 63 lawmakers, in the new National Assembly," he said when he visited some farmers in southern Kandal province.

He said his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won an absolute majority vote in the Sunday election.

The CPP won 68 parliamentary seats in the poll and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) of recently- pardoned leader Sam Rainsy got the remaining 55 seats, according to the initial unofficial results.

"There will no deadlock for the new parliament and new government," he said."I will be the prime minister for the fifth five-year term government."

The premier said a new National Assembly will be convened by His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, King of Cambodia, no later than 60 days after the election.

"Any political parties do not attend the opening session of the new parliament, it means that they are against the King and abandon their parliamentary seats, so their seats will be given to other parties that have seats in parliament," he said.

His remarks came after some political analysts said that the opening of the new parliament needs a quorum of at least 120 out of the 123 elected lawmakers, and they commented that a new government will probably be delayed if the opposition lawmakers boycott the opening of the new National Assembly.

Hun Sen said that the parliament needs two-thirds majority, or 83 lawmakers, only for the amendment of constitution or the passage of NGO law, or the strip of lawmaker's immunity.

Under the constitution, the National Assembly consists of at least 120 members.

He said the number of at least 120 lawmakers is the size of the National Assembly, which does not mean that at least 120 members are required to attend the opening ceremony of the new parliament.

Meanwhile, the premier called for unity and solidarity among Cambodian people after the poll.

"The election is over, I'd like to appeal to all people with all political tendencies to make friends with each other, don't discriminate against each other," he said. "Politicians have disputes with each other, but finally, they will sit together in parliament."

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy announced Monday that the party did not recognize the results of the Sunday poll, claiming widespread fraud, and submitted a request to the National Election Committee (NEC) to demand for the establishment of an independent committee to investigate irregularities during the election.

It is unknown if the opposition party will boycott the upcoming National Assembly session.

Hun Sen said that the government and the CPP will welcome any existing NEC mechanism, which allows the participation from political parties, national and international NGOs, and UN experts in order to look into the alleged irregularities.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 28 years, will extend his power by another five years following Sunday's victory.

Despite winning the victory in the election, the results are a blow to the ruling CPP as its seats has dropped from 90 in the election in 2008 to 68 in the Sunday poll, while the opposition CNRP's seats have seen a dramatic rise from 29 seats to 55 seats.