A Reason for Hun Sen’s Contempt for Thailand

7 October 2009

Last Friday (October 2), Pheu Thai MP Chalerm Yoobamrung admitted to have given to Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen an audio clip that features Foreign Affairs Minister Kasit Piromya criticizing him. He explained that as some people were trying to root out exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, he could do the same to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva....

What I saw on the news the next day was the picture of the Cambodian prime minister exchanging greetings and pleasantries with the Thai foreign affairs minister in the second meeting of foreign ministers from Japan and five countries on the Mekong River, held in Siam Reap province of Cambodia.

Earlier, Hun Sen said with strong words that he had ordered his troops to shoot Thai trespassers if they illegally crossed the border to Cambodia’s territory. He also threatened to withdraw from the ASEAN summit to be held in Thailand at the end of October.

However, just a few days after Hun Sen’s declaration, a source at the Thai Foreign Ministry revealed that the Cambodian leader would definitely attend the summit.

I recounted these events in order to show how crafty Hun Sen is and that he could use the Preah Vihear dispute as political ploy at will.

And while Chalerm was bragging about his secret delivery of Kasit’s clip, I could imagine Hun Sen sitting on his prime minister chair and enjoying the Thai government and the Opposition fighting each other

In Hun Sen’s eyes, Chalerm is perhaps a bit like a mischievous kid, an image that is a stark contrast to a prior impression that the Thai politician was respectable and, most of all, mature.

Chalerm’s move is quite embarrassing to the nation considering Hun Sen had long gotten his hands on the clip complete with a Cambodian subtitle. It is said that he had ordered his men to check on the background of anyone who spoke about his country.

It is not surprising at all that the Cambodian prime minister would be well informed of what happened in Thailand as he has an embassy and many news sources here.

Can you imagine what Hun Sen would think after he received the clip with the sender’s name of Charlerm?

What would you say if a member of your rival approaches you and offers to sell information to you?

If that occurred to me, as a good citizen who has every conscience to protect the interest of his own country, I would ask myself, how in the world could this guy be disloyal to his country?

And that might explain why Hun Sen is always looking at Thailand with disdain.

Cambodia's trade with Hong Kong down 24 pct to end July

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral trade between Cambodia and China's Hong Kong dropped 24.39 percent in the first seven months year-on-year, local media reported Wednesday.

Citing the data released by... the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, the reports said trade between the two sides fell to 288 million U.S. dollars from 380.94 million dollars last year.

Hong Kong's total exports to Cambodia fell to 279 million dollars from 375.5 million dollars, while Cambodia's shipments in return increased to 9 million dollars from 5.44 million dollars during the year up to the end of July.

The figures were released Tuesday at a press conference to attract Cambodian companies to hold trade exhibitions in Hong Kong.

"The drop was because of the global financial crisis. However, now trade between Cambodia and Hong Kong is becoming stable because the economy is not so bad; it may not drop further," Johnny Wan, senior exhibitions manager at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

Cambodia's main exports to Hong Kong were food items, garments and footwear, and gemstones, he said. "Cambodia has so many good products, but foreigners may not know much about them, so Cambodia should promote more ... through trade shows and marketing," Wan said.

Infant Saved After H1N1 Claims Mother

By Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
06 October 2009


Cambodian health authorities operated to save the life of a premature child taken from its 25-year-old Cambodian mother, who died of H1N1 flu on Tuesday, officials said...

She was seven months pregnant, and officials at Calmette hospital saved the child through a cesarean operation, Minister of Health Mam Bunheng told reporters.

"The baby is lucky after doctors operated on its mother," he said. "The baby was born healthy."

The woman's death brings the toll from the disease to three in Cambodia, with an estimated 120 infections. A 47-year-old Cambodian man died of the virus, sometimes called swine flu, on Monday.

"We should strengthen people's health, because the epidemic of sine flu virus is fast," Mam Bunheng said.

The World Health Organization estimates more than 340,000 confirmed cases of A H1N1 worldwide and more than 41,000 deaths.

SC edict not to go wide of mark

The Supreme Court Tuesday spelt out sermons for both lawyers and journalists not to make observations or news influencing the judicial process during the appeal hearing in the Bangabandhu Murder Case as the proceedings for a second straight day were wrapped up, reports UNB.
Tuesday''s hearing resumed with... submissions made by Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, the counsel for Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda and Lt Col (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (Lancer), before a five-member Appellate Division bench constituted to deal with and dispose of the long-pending appeals of the condemned former army officers.
The hearing session will resume today (Wednesday) to pick up the points next along the line laid down in the paper-book on the case history.
After two years'' inordinate delay, the hearing got down underway Monday with the reading out of excerpts from the bulky paper-book containing the whole case documents, including the lodging of the First Information Report (FIR) and all judgments.
The High Court finally affirmed the death sentences against twelve of the accused, acquitting three others, on April 30, 2001.
In November 1998, the trial court, however, sentenced a total of 15 retired and dismissed army personnel for the August 15, 1975 carnage, subject to High Court confirmation.
Earlier during first day''s hearing Monday, Barrister Mamun read the case history from the paper-book before the appeal court.
During the course of reading out, the Appellate Division bench reminded the counsel of limitations confining the deliberations to the five points on which leave was granted for filing appeals against the High Court judgment and the relevant part involving the appellants in order to "avert repetition".
The five points are: whether Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most of his family members as a result of a mutiny, whether the evidences adduced by several witnesses are contradictory, whether delay in filing the First Information Report (FIR) is reasonable as held by the lower court, whether there is any conspiracy behind this murder, and whether disposal of the death references of six accused out of 15 by the 3rd judge in the High Court was correct and legal.
Before daybreak on August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the nation, and his family members, except his two daughters - incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were fortunately abroad at the time -- were massacred by a splinter group of the country''s armed forces that had changed the course of politics in the newly liberated Bangladesh.

Khaleda endorses Jalil remarks about elections

Sees conspiracy behind education policy

BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia endorsed ex-Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil''s London remarks that Awami League came to power following an understanding with the military-backed caretaker government, reports UNB.
"There is no reason to disbelieve the remarks by the general secretary of the party in power," she said while... addressing a meeting on Monday night with a delegation of Teacher-Employee Oikya Jote to mark the World Teacher Day and on the proposed National Education Policy at her Gulshan office.
Opposing the proposed education policy, Khaleda said if this policy is implemented, joblessness would be created door-to-door upsetting the government agenda for providing job to every house.
The former Prime Minister apprehended the proposed education policy would harm the country religiously and socially. She urged the teachers to build up resistance in phases if such an education policy harms national interest.
Khaleda smelt foreign conspiracy behind the proposed education policy, saying that the present situation has come to such a pass that "not only you will lose your jobs, but you will lose the country and sovereignty."
She called for salvaging the country with united efforts by implementing action programs in phases.
The BNP chairperson observed that having experienced the past nine months'' rule, people started realizing that the country would not have landed into such a situation if BNP were in power.
Khaleda said the present government wants to erase the memories of slain President Ziaur Rahman who ensured freedom of all religious faiths. She said, "Any bid to banish Zia will boomerang and Zia will be more popular to the people."
Chief coordinator of the Teacher-Employee Oikya Jote principal Selim Bhuiyan led the delegation.
Leaders of various teacher and employees'' organizations of education sector were on the delegation. Among them were secretary-general of Bangladesh College Teachers Association principal Mogisuddin Mahmud, chairman of Bangladesh Madrasha Teachers Association MA Latif and its secretary-general Delwar Hossain, secretary-general of Bangladesh Higher Secondary Teachers Association principal Mahbubur Rahman Mollah and M Zakir Hossain, secretary-general Bangladesh Headmasters Association.
Criticizing the proposed national education policy the delegation leaders called for raising voice under Leadership of the Opposition in Parliament Khaleda Zia for canceling the national education policy which did not incorporate Islamic education and deprecated it as well.
BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain and BNP leaders former Education Minister Dr Osman Farruk and former state minister for education Ehsanul Huq Milon also spoke at the function.

Opposition should join JS for national welfare: PM

Opposition role in democratic system focused during Hasina-Moriarty meet

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the abstaining opposition party should join Parliament and keep their constructive opinions in the House on every national issue for the nation''s welfare, reports UNB.
She made the suggestion when US Ambassador
James F Moriarty paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister at the PMO Tuesday and the two sides discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral interest of Bangladesh and the United States.
The main opposition BNP has long been abstaining from attending the parliament session following a dispute over sitting arrangement in the front row.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, Prime Minister''s Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the US Ambassador discussed various issues of bilateral, regional and international development.
As they discussed the role of opposition party in a democratic system, Sheikh Hasina told the US envoy that her government is "firm on strengthening further the foundation of parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh".
"The people of the country expect the opposition party join parliament and help the nation in achieving its desired development targets by placing their opinions and views," the Prime Minister said.
Hasina and Moriarty also exchanged views on the adversities of global warming and the challenges of climate change as a result.
The recent visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New York on the occasion of UN General Assembly session and her various events there were also discussed during the meeting.
Moriarty mentioned Bangladesh''s success in disaster management and highly praised Sheikh Hasina''s speech at the UNGA and the World Climate Conference-3 in Geneva. He said she has been successful in giving the world community "necessary direction for identifying the risks of climate change and the solutions to tackle the challenges".
"Besides, Sheikh Hasina''s speech has presented the significance of food security in a world facing the economic recession," the US Ambassador was quoted as saying.
The Prime Minister in the meeting mentioned her talks with United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, US President Barack Obama and her wife Michel Obama, and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at various events in New York.
Sheikh Hasina told the US Ambassador that she has invited US President and Mrs Obama to visit Bangladesh and they accepted her invitation.
As Moriarty praised Bangladesh''s role and contribution to UN Peacekeeping Mission, Hasina said Bangladesh deserves high representation in the policymaking level of the peace-policing operations under blue-helmet.
She again mourned the death of Senator Edward Kennedy and prayed for his departed soul. The premier said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman''s family and the Kennedy family have a close relation at the familial level.
Sheikh Hasina noted with gladness that late Edward Kennedy''s son Patrick Kennedy has joined the Bangladesh Congressional Caucus.
The Prime Minister also urged the US government to give duty-and quota-free access of more Bangladeshi products to the American market.
Hasina called for more US investment in various development sectors of Bangladesh and boosting bilateral trade and business.
The Premier said her present government is working relentlessly to create a social-safety net in the country through creating employment opportunities, providing mass people with quality health and education facilities.
In this context, the Prime Minister mentioned that the government has a plan to make education up to degree level free and promised to attain food security of the country again like the past Awami League government.
She further laid emphasis on the reopening of Dhaka-NY flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
As various matters of Bangladeshi expatriates in the USA came up for discussion, Sheikh Hasina requested the US government to take maximum care of the Bangladeshi people over there.
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister MA Karim was present.

Coping with natural disasters

It has been a terrible period for countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with natural calamities of one kind or another bringing death and destruction to their lands. On September 26, Typhoon Ketsana ploughed through the Philippines before tearing into Vietnam, Cambodia, and ...
Laos. The storm produced the worst flooding in decades across the northern Philippines, caused extensive damage in the countries it swept through, and killed several hundred people. Before the Filipinos could catch their breath, Typhoon Parma hurtled through the less populated north-eastern part of their island nation before heading towards Taiwan. On September 29, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake set off a lethal tsunami that levelled the idyllic Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga. The towering walls of water claimed many lives and wiped out whole villages. Less than a day later, a quake of magnitude 7.6 shook southern Sumatra in Indonesia. Some 1,000 people have been killed in the coastal city of Padang and it is feared thousands more lie trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The temblor has torn up roads, making it difficult to reach aid to devastated villages in the interior.

Natural disasters are, of course, beyond human control. But human action and inaction can profoundly affect their outcome, exacerbating or mitigating their effects on people. This point was forcefully made in the United Nations 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. Although natural calamities strike the wealthier nations too, the risk of death and economic loss from such events is heavily concentrated in developing countries and within these countries, it is the poor who disproportionately suffer. As U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon observed: “Pre-emptive risk reduction is the key. Sound response mechanisms after the event, however effective, are never enough.” With just such foresight, Japan has been able to build one of the world’s most prosperous economies on densely populated islands that face the ever-present threat of earthquakes and tsunamis. India too is vulnerable to natural calamities. A report produced by the Central government a few years ago noted that about 60 per cent of the country is prone to earthquakes of various intensities; over 40 million hectares can be flooded; about eight per cent of the land can be hit by cyclones; and 68 per cent of its area is susceptible to drought. Governments in India and other developing countries must find practical ways to reduce their vulnerability to a variety of natural hazards that extract such a cruel toll from their people and economies.

From Killing Fields to Fields of Dreams

Joe Cook (L) (Photo: LA Time)
Cambodian baseball players

October 6, 2009
John Perra
Editor: John Feffer
Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org)

Cambodia is an unlikely place for baseball. There is chronic poverty, lingering post-war trauma, and rampant human trafficking. Children are more likely to work or rummage through the fetid muck of the Steung Meanchey dump than go to school or play.

But for the last seven years, Joe Cook, a Cambodian refugee, has been teaching the game in his homeland, building Cambodia's first ball field. Last year, he even managed to put together a national team. In March, they finally won their first game, playing a short series against a team from Vietnam. Considering the violent history the two countries share, just playing the game was an accomplishment beyond any scorecard.

Becoming Joe Cook

For Joe Cook, playing games came to an abrupt end in August 1975. He was Jouret Puk then, the son of a high-ranking Cambodian official who commanded nearly 3,000 troops. "My little sister and I were playing behind our house," Cook remembers. "All of a sudden we saw people dressed in black and red marching toward us. We were scared and we hid behind a tree." Those people were the Khmer Rouge and they invaded his village, burning homes to the ground. "They got us all in one place," he recalls, "then they forced us to march to a camp," he says. Cook's father was killed, and his family was split up and forced into labor camps. Cook's youngest sisters were among the 2 million executed by Pol Pot's regime. In 1978, Cook, then eight, escaped his camp with his mother and oldest brother, trying to reach the Thai border.

For a week, they made their way barefoot. "It was only 18 miles to the border but it turned into 80 because we had to keep moving back and forth, criss-cross because landmines were everywhere. So were the Khmer Rouge, and the Vietnamese who had just invaded." The three refugees had only a small cup of rice between them, so to survive they ate crickets, grass, leaves, and tree bark. "I can remember catching frogs and eating them alive," Cook says. The pools of water they came across were polluted with the dead bodies of pigs, cows, and people. "I tried to brush the blood back to drink," he recalls, "It was so thick and bitter." Bodies lined the roads and when they ran into other people escaping from the camps, they would barter for food.

Finally, they made it to the Thai border and then to a series of refugee camps. In the Philippines, they found a sponsor through the U.S. embassy and arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee in May 1983. "We couldn't even pronounce Tennessee. And we thought America must be near France because you had to take a plane to both of them," he says.

In America

There, everything was new. "I thought it was like a dream," Cook says, "A stove, a toilet, a TV. It was fascinating." And then there was the game he saw being played near his home.

"All I knew was that it was some kind of sport," he says. It was baseball. "I watched them behind a fence," he recalls, "I saw them having fun. I saw happy faces. As a kid in Cambodia, there was never happiness. But I knew in baseball is happiness. I kept going back every day. Finally I got the guts to go onto the field."

Through a combination of limited English and gestures, he made it clear to the coach that he wanted to play too. "When he gave me a glove so I could play catch, it felt like he had given me the whole uniform. I was like the other kids," he recalls. It was the start of a deep passion.

Baseball was also a way to assimilate. He became "Joe Cook," a chef in a Japanese steakhouse in Alabama, listening to Atlanta Braves baseball on the radio in his kitchen. He married and had two children.

In 2002, Cook's older sister Chamty, who he thought had perished, called from Cambodia. After years of brutality in the labor camps, she had been released in 1990 and used the Internet to track down members of her family. Cook agreed to reunite with her in Cambodia.

As a way of honoring him, Chamty wanted to travel to the airport to meet him. But the transportation costs were more than she could afford. She made a difficult decision. So as not to lose her brother again, she sold her son to traffickers. "When I arrived and found out, I was devastated," Cook says, choking up, "She didn't understand that I could've met her anywhere. I never would've wanted her to do that." The first thing he did was buy back his nephew, Chea Theara, for $86.

Bringing Baseball Home

"He was so happy, so proud that his uncle had the ability to do that, he wanted to show me his town and also share his town with me," says Cook. Chea showed Cook his school in Baribo, a village in Kampong Chhang province about 68 miles west of Phnom Penh, and near it an open field. Cook thought it would make a good spot for a baseball diamond. "What's baseball?" Chea asked. "It's a crazy game that I love," Cook told him, "I'll come back and bring equipment and teach you."

And he did. Eventually he built Cambodia's first baseball field in Baribo and began instructing kids there in the fundamentals of the game. Soon he was feeding them, teaching them English, and establishing the national team that includes Chea on its roster.

For several years, Cambodia's government wanted to shut down baseball in Cambodia. It was too American for them, according to Cook. "They kept saying, 'how about soccer?'" he says.

Although also a product of Western influence when the French brought it to Cambodia in the 1930s, soccer has been a hugely popular sport in the country for decades. The skill of Cambodia's players was the envy of much of Southeast Asia until the Khmer Rouge all but put an end to the sport. It wasn't until the 1990s that Cambodian soccer began to regain its strength, with teams competing and winning in international tournaments.

Likewise, Pradal Serey, an ancient boxing style best known for its martial arts roots and kicking technique, has begun to reemerge as a national sport. It too was nearly lost to history when the Khmer Rouge banned traditional martial arts and executed its boxers.

But Cambodia has spent more than a decade now regaining its athletic prominence. It returned to the Olympics in 1996 after a 24-year absence and has participated in those games ever since.

Coming Around to Baseball

Despite the national focus on soccer, Cook kept baseball in Cambodia going, supporting the game out of his own pocket and getting some help with equipment and coaches from Major League Baseball. Then this year, the national team started winning, beating Vietnam in that friendly series and gaining professional bragging rights by besting Malaysia in May in an official game between the countries. A governor donated land for another field after that.

Cambodia's people are starting to come around to the game. Other baseball clubs and organizations have sprung up in the past few months, including one in the capital city of Phnom Penh. The organizer of that group is a young man in his earlier twenties who calls Cook "Bong," the Khmer word for "brother," a sign of respect. That pleases Cook and he laughs, "I am baseball's big brother." In reality, Cook is now president of the Cambodia Baseball Federation.

In August, Cook developed the first regional leagues within Cambodia. The Braves, representing the west, and the Royals, in the east, play each other nearly every day. "Someday I want to build a stadium here," says Cook. The image of a stadium leaves even him, baseball's true believer here, awestruck. "Can you imagine a baseball stadium in Cambodia?" he asks.

John Perra is a journalist, a contributor to Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson (Da Capo 2009), and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

Cambodia: BarCamp Phnom Penh 2009

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
By Tharum Bun
Global Voices Online

More than 800 tech-inclined Cambodians gathered at the second annual BarCamp Phnom Penh on October 3-4, 2009 at Paññasastra University of Cambodia.

Last year's success inspired this small, growing technology community in Cambodia to discuss openly issues important to them. BarCamp Phnom Penh has now become an annual technology conference in this nation's largest capital city, inviting some participants from across the country and the region, many are tech enthusiasts from Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

In a blog post on CNNGo, technologist and traveler Preetam Rai, who visited this year's participatory workshop-event, wrote about Cambodian women in technology that:

It should be said that women are very prominent at Cambodian Barcamp events, and seeing such large numbers of women at tech meetings still surprises their male attendees. But the women aren't just showing up — they're running the show.

How BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘09 is run, organized and contributed is uniquely interesting. It does introduce Cambodians a new way, if not a breakthrough, in which learning, collaboration, sharing and networking can take place here in Cambodia.

A prolific Vietnamese blogger, Nguyen Anh Hung, who participated Cambodia's BarCamp last year, is traveling to the Cambodian capital with more of his fellow friends for this BarCamp Phnom Penh ‘09.

“It’s here again. We (the folks in Ho Chi Minh City) will be flocking to the capital of beautiful Cambodia once again to attend the largest technology unconference in the country to date. Last year it was a greatly successful event attended by some 300 people from around South East Asia.”

Not only this annual event plays a role to foster open communication in Cambodian society, but it helps build a strong foundation for Cambodia's future in the area of Information and Communication Technologies.

Going to conferences is about getting inspired. It’s about getting some new ideas swirl around in your head. During that event, we will see skilled speakers with a lot of experiences and confidence on stage giving a talk on a topic that they really want to share, wrote Samnang Chhun, a Phnom Penh-based Software Developer.

Like many other developing countries, debate on free/open source software as an alternative to propriety software will not end any time soon. Despite the two-day conference offered mixed results to every participant, online discussion has not finished yet.

Michael Smith Jr., from Yahoo Inc., wrote in an email:

[it] looks like a good turnout. I would hope that for any future ones Yahoo Inc. can get more involved to sponsor and maybe have a session.

A-two-minute video clip (taken by German new media consultant Thomas Wanhoff) of Cambodia's BarCamp can be viewed here.

BarCamp, an innovative “impromptu” gathering that began in 2005 in Palo Alto, California, helps “open source” enthusiasts share information about technology in an informal setting. The idea quickly spread from California to the rest of the world, arriving in Bangkok in 2007 and now in Phnom Penh.

Police, FBI Bust Seven in Major Drug Raid

Chhay Sinarith shows the seized heroin packages and other paraphernalia (Photo: Bunry, Koh Santepheap)

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
06 October 2009

Cambodian police working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested seven people and seized 16 kilograms of heroin, following three months of investigation, officials said Monday. Police also found counterfeit US dollars in the Oct. 2 raid.

“In the operation, we did an investigation and tracked [the suspects] down for almost three months, with the support of the FBI representative in Cambodia,” said Chhay Sinarith, chief of the Interior Ministry’s security department.

Suspects were arrested in Phnom Penh and Stung Treng province. The raid included the arrest of Lam Sokha, a suspected trafficker who has been arrested and released in recent years, police and court officials said.

The seven suspects were sent to Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday and would be questioned by prosecutors this week, officials said.

Police said the heroin moved through neighboring countries through Stung Treng, which borders Laos.

The discovery of heroin, crystal methamphetamine, or “ice,” drug production and counterfeit money made the raid a major case, Chhay Sinarith said.

The US State Department praised Cambodia for its anti-drug efforts in 2009, but said the country faces increasing problems of consumption, trafficking and the production of dangerous drugs.

The State Department warned that crackdowns on trafficking in Thailand and China had made Cambodia an attractive route for traffickers, while internally, use of amphetamines, including ice, was escalating.

3 Cambodians die of flu A(H1N1)

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 6 — The Cambodian Health Ministry said on Tuesday that two more Cambodians died of A(H1N1) virus so far, raising the total death number to three in Cambodia.
A 24-year-old pregnant woman and a 41-year-old Cambodian man became the second and third person that died of the flu A(H1N1) after a 40-year-old woman died late last month.

"We all regret for those persons who died of the disease," Mum Bun Heng, health minister said in a news conference at the Calmette Hospital here.

He also appealed to all local people to take care of themselves from this flu and to observe proper hygiene and sanitation.

"We should be cautious in the upcoming Royal Water Festival which falls on Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 because people are crowded at that time," he said, calling on people who have been infected with the flu not to go to the festival to avoid spreading it to other people.

Usually, in the water festival, millions of Cambodian people across the country will rush on to Phnom Penh to celebrate the boat racing.

And so far in total, about 120 people have infected with the flu in Cambodia. The ministry said that it will update the information on website in each week. (PNA/Xinhua) vcs/utb

Khmer Song-Srok Tirk Pneak Min Mean Kmean Panharaha Te!

SUPER WOMAN Hang Meas Sokun Nisa Khmer Song Music

Goods and tourists now moving more quickly between Vietnam and Cambodia

06/10/2009

(Post by CAAI News Media)

VietNamNet Bridge – A Vietnam and Cambodia border agreement is boosting exporting and tourism and making the future existence of a three-country visa a possibility.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Photo: AP)

Following the agreement, which took effect on September 30, goods consignments carried overland between Vietnam and Cambodia will be able to cross borders without having to change vehicles as before.

According to Pham Xuan Thu, head of the supply division of HCM City-based Saigon Paper Company, the changes make it much faster for his organisation. Before it meant considerable delay and borders and a change of vehicle.

Now, Thu says, the company is planning to carry goods directly from Vietnam to Cambodia and further lower time and cost.

It is expected that with the new road transport agreement, it will take Vietnamese businesses 15-30 minutes only to fulfill administrative procedures at the border gate.

One director explained that previously businesses had to spend two days and one night to carry goods from HCM City to Cambodia through Moc Bai border gate in Tay Ninh province, 70km northwest of HCM City, including half a day to load and upload goods. In order to bring goods to the centre of Phnom Penh, he had to pay $2,500-$2,800 as a transport fee for every 12 metre-long vehicle which is equal to a 40 feet container vehicle.

A sales agent of a plastics company, said that as vehicles can now go straight to Cambodia across the border - the risks in cargo carrying are minimised. He says that the changing of vehicles at the border gates often led to the theft of goods on the way.

The road transport agreement has been welcomed not only by producers and traders, but by tourism firms as well.

Currently, Vietnamese tourists mostly go to Cambodia through Moc Bai international border gate. As most of Vietnamese vehicles are not allowed to enter Cambodian territory, tourists have to walk through the border gate to fulfill administrative procedures and then take Cambodian vehicles to continue the trips, which is really inconvenient to tourists.

Nguyen Van My, director of Lua Viet Travel Firm, said that most tourists want to stay in the same vehicle throughout their trip. It’s hoped the agreement will also boost tourist numbers.

So Mara, a senior official of Cambodian Ministry of Tourism, emphasised that the road transport agreement is an important step in applying the one-visa scheme for three countries, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

It is believed that this would greatly increase tourism all round.

Deadly Typhoon Heads Toward Taiwan

Typhoon Parma is headed for Taiwan Sunday after cutting a destructive path across the northern Philippines -- the second storm there in eight days.

Poor planning blamed for Philippines flooding

PHOTO

Houses destroyed by flooding after Typhoon Ketsana passed through Marikina City, east of the Philippines capital Manila. [ABC]

Wires

(Post by CAAI News Media)

Philippine officials are blaming poor urban planning for the extreme flooding caused by two recent typhoons that killed nearly 300 people.

President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman, Cerge Remonde says lapses in urban planning saw housing estates and shantytowns spring up near reservoirs and lakes.

He says widespread devastation by Tropical Storm Ketsana and Typhoon Parma shows the urgency of re-planning Metro Manila.

Mr Remonde says problems that need solving include insufficient drainage, clogged waterways, uncontrolled housing development, and the proliferation of slums along riverbanks.

Ketsana dumped a month's worth of rain over Manila within a few hours on September 26, triggering the country's heaviest flooding in 40 years.

Flood water has been slow to recede in the capital.

Parma, hit Luzon eight days later, boosting the stagnant flood waters and ruining vast areas of rice fields.

Relief effort

Meanwhile, the American military says hundreds of its troops are involved in the flood relief effort in the Philippines.

Officials say marines and sailors posted in the Manila area have been helping to clear roads, deliver supplies and provide basic medical care.

Gwendoline Pang, of the Philippine Red Cross, says continuing bad weather is hampering progress.

"In the evacuation centres, it's so congested, and they've been there for more than a week already, almost two weeks. Also the clean-up effort is becoming very challenging, because before we can clean up the area, another typhoon is coming again," said Ms Pang.

Cambodia death toll

The death toll in Cambodia is at least 17 after Typhoon Ketsana swept through the country.

But the National Committee for Disaster Management believes that number is likely to increase still further.

Ketsana caused widespread flooding in Cambodia, destroying homes and crops, and displacing thousands of families.

It passed through after earlier battering Vietnam and the Philippines, where hundreds of people died.