Cambodia Defends Flag Burning Protest as ‘Freedom of Expression’

 
Cambodia on Friday defended a group of demonstrators who burned a flag of Vietnam in front of Hanoi’s embassy, saying the act was part of freedom of expression allowed in the country, rebuffing demands from the neighbor that they be punished.

Cambodian Ministry of Interior Spokesman Khieu Sopheak said that the flag burning during a protest by the Khmer Krom ethnic minority would not affect relations between the two countries.

The demonstrators were simply “expressing their opinions in a democratic country,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“Protesters commonly burn flags around the world—it may be unethical, but as long as it is done during a lawful protest, it is acceptable,” he said.

Khieu Sopheak reminded Hanoi that protesters in Vietnam had frequently burned Chinese flags in demonstrations following Beijing’s deployment in May of an oil rig in disputed waters off Vietnam’s coast in the South China Sea.

Protests are extremely rare in Vietnam and are often brutally repressed by the authorities, as dissent is not tolerated in the one-party communist state.

Khieu Sopheak explained that the political systems of Cambodia and Vietnam are “different” and that Hanoi could not expect Phnom Penh to react the same way to protests by its citizens.

“Cambodia is different from Vietnam. Cambodia adheres to a form of liberal democracy with a multi-party system. Cambodia allows freedom of expression under the framework of the law,” he said.

“This incident does not represent or reflect the foreign policy of the Cambodian government and it does not affect Vietnamese-Cambodia relations. [The demonstrators] were simply expressing their opinions in a democratic country.”

Flag incident

On Aug. 12, some 600 Khmer Krom protesters gathered at the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh demanding an apology from Hanoi for a June statement made by an embassy official claiming that Khmer Kampuchea Krom provinces had long been under Vietnam’s control.

The embassy official, Trung Van Thong, had said that Khmer Kampuchea Krom, a region comprising much of present-day southern Vietnam, belonged to Vietnam even before it was officially ceded to it by France in 1949.

At one point during the demonstration, prominent monk and protester Seung Hai burned a Vietnamese flag, which was then stomped and spat upon, according to a report by the Cambodia Daily.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement on Wednesday that the act “ran counter to the fine traditional neighborliness between Vietnam and Cambodia and deliberately offended the feelings of the Vietnamese people,” according to a report by Vietnamese state media.

“Vietnam demands that Cambodia strictly try these extremists in accordance with the law and take effective measures to prevent similar actions from repeating in the future,” Binh said.

Khieu Sopheak on Friday called the protests over Thong’s statement warranted, adding that Vietnam had overreacted to the flag burning incident.

“The demand [of the protesters] was appropriate and [Le Hai Binh’s] comment [appears] to be his own personal point of view,” he told RFA.

“We respect the good relationship between the two friendly countries.”

Political capital

The demand for an apology from Vietnam over Thong’s statement has also been taken up by opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy.

“If the Vietnamese Embassy does not apologize, the Cambodian people should use their fingerprints to file a petition to oust [Thong] from his post and force him out of Cambodia,” Sam Rainsy said Friday.

Last week, Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed the hope that the CNRP would refrain from whipping up anti-Vietnam sentiment for political gain.

CNRP lawmakers had recently rejoined parliament after breaking a political deadlock with Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) following disputed elections in July last year.

The CNRP has accused Hun Sen of being a "puppet" of neighboring Vietnam. Many Cambodians are wary of Vietnam’s influence over their country’s affairs.

An estimated 1.7 million people, or one in four Cambodians, died in what came to be called the “Killing Fields” after the ultra-Communist Khmer Rouge took power in 1975. The regime was unseated when Vietnam invaded the country four years later.

Vietnam occupied the country for a decade before withdrawing its troops and signing the Paris Peace Agreement to restore sovereignty and stability to Cambodia.

History

France’s Cochinchina colony, which included the former provinces of Kampuchea Krom, was officially ceded to Vietnam in 1949, but had been under Vietnamese control since the mid-17th century.

One of the most important seaports of Kampuchea Krom, once called Prey Nokor, is now known as Ho Chi Minh City—the financial hub of Vietnam and one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia.

Since Hanoi took control, the Khmer Krom living in Vietnam—believed to number considerably more than one million and who are ethnically similar to most Cambodians—have increasingly faced social persecution and strict religious controls, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

On the other side of the border, the Khmer Krom who leave Vietnam for Cambodia remain one of the country’s “most disenfranchised groups,” Human Rights Watch said.

Risking it all for rosewood

At dawn on the Dangrek Mountain range, 62-year-old logger Suon Song* uses an empty beer can to boil water for his morning coffee. He’ll need it to stay alert during the illegal and dangerous work ahead, after the first of several sleepless nights in the densely forested terrain that forms a natural border between Cambodia and Thailand.

Each logger carries up 70kg of wood Heng Chivoan

Since Song and his two companions began felling trees in the forest in 2001, they have faced countless encounters with the black-clad Thai soldiers that patrol the area, many of which have featured gunfire. One has been shot and survived.
The three neighbours, originally from Prey Veng province and now living in Oddar Meanchey, are among what they estimate to be 1,000 Cambodians who risk their lives each year crossing the border in search of endangered Siamese rosewood and other luxury wood.
Last year, according to the Ministry of Interior, 69 Cambodians were shot dead while illegally crossing the Thai border. In March this year, 12 were said to have been killed in a single day.
“No one wants to risk their lives like this – if we could earn a living by any other means, we would,” says Song.
These two- or three-day trips, which the group makes together many times a month, begin with uncertainty. A Post Weekend reporter accompanied them for the first night of the trip, as they ventured out into the mountains.
Ahead of the journey, as Suon Sokunthea* packs her things (rice, rice pot, dried fish and other necessities) into a small bag, she doesn’t know whether she will be in Thailand or Cambodia that afternoon.
“It depends on the wood,” the thirtysomething mother says. “If we spot the trees in our territories, we will do it there, but if we find nothing, we will make up our minds to risk life and limb finding rosewood in Thailand.”
While many of the Oddar Meanchey villagers in this line of work collaborate with middlemen who work with soldiers on checkpoints along the border, she, Song and Suong Sothea*, another neighbour, work independently so as to save the money.
The officers, Sokunthea explains, buy the timber from the middlemen and allow the villagers safe passage, indicating where the best wood is to be found. But the group sets off without a clear destination.
“Crossing the border is our last choice, and our lives are at risk, but we do not want to come home empty-handed,” she explains. “We want to come back with some money, whether it is a lot or a little, because our children waiting at home need food to eat.”

A chainsaw is used to cut the wood Heng Chivoan

The foot of the mountain range lies about 5 kilometres from the village, and the group travels by road. Once there, Song stashes his motorbike in the undergrowth. The life of a logger is risky, he says – he has to be wary all the time.
It’s a four-hour trek through the forest to the summit, which is divided between Cambodia and Thailand and is home to most of the luxury wood. There are a handful of checkpoints, but mostly it’s unclear which part of the forest belongs to which country, meaning they never know when soldiers might appear.
To ensure their safety, the group sticks to hard and fast rules. While they carry chainsaws, trees are felled by hand when the group believes they are in Thai territory, to avoid attracting the attention of the soldiers.
The actual logging is only done under cover of darkness – daytime is reserved for finding the wood.
“We take turns to watch every direction when we are busy cutting… Whenever one of us sees something strange, we drop all our things and run for our lives,” says Song. “Sometimes we run away from our own shadows.”
Trudging through the forest, Song wishes the rains would come. That’s the safest time of day – when the Thai soldiers won’t come out to patrol.
“We never think about being cold,” he explains. “What we want is the quickest way to transport the wood back to Cambodia, so we can live for another day.”
Of the three in this party, fifty-something Sothea has come closest to being killed. Her leg bears the scars of a bullet wound.

One of the loggers collects water from inside the wood Heng Chivoan

In the past, Sokunthea has discovered the bodies of Cambodians shot by soldiers. Most of those who die are new to the trade, she says, and are not familiar enough with the terrain to know where is best to run away.
But, this time, the group makes a happier discovery among the undergrowth: an agarwood stump, and two tnong trees.
After rosewood, the tnong tree is the most lucrative find. These stumps are likely the handiwork of loggers working with Thai and Cambodian soldiers, the group believes.
It will take two days to dig them out: a laborious process.
Each villager can carry between 60kg to 70kg, which they can sell for $70 or $80 in the village.
But the return from the mountain will be fraught. Once they have hauled the wood to the foot, the group is usually confronted by soldiers, who demand bribes. If the loggers try to escape, the timber will be seized.
The loggers lose about 70 per cent of their potential earnings this way. If the wood is worth $100, the workers will take home about $30.
“We are faced with many difficulties, and sometimes we cannot eat rice for two days – but the bosses earn a lot of profit,” says Song.

Logger Suon Song sips water collected in a banana leaf Heng Chivoan

Touch Ra, deputy director of the Chaom-Sa Ngaom border checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey province, acknowledges that Cambodian soldiers facilitate and in some cases drive the illegal logging trade in the province.
Measures to stop people from crossing the border are not perfect, because the soldiers urge them to continue, he said.
“It is true that some soldiers have been involved in the crime, but I do not know which ones yet,” said Ra.
Once in the hands of the middlemen, the wood then makes its way to China, where the desire for faux antique furniture has left a “bloody trail of death, violence and corruption in its wake”, according to a May report by global NGO the Environmental Investigation Agency.
As a result, the Chinese government bears some responsibility for the loss of life that occurs in the procurement of wood, said Ouch Leng, director of the Cambodian Human Rights Task Force.
“The soldiers along the border receive the advantages from those villagers who risk their lives, so the responsibility for the shooting of Cambodian people who cross the border lies with the Chinese government, since China buys the luxury timber,” Leng said.

Loggers Suon Song and Suong Sothea light a campfire Heng Chivoan

In an order on the prevention and crackdown on logging dated February 22, 2013, Prime Minister Hun Sen said: “If there is a border crossing involved, the commander of the unit which is standing at that point has to be responsible to the government.”
Back at the summit of the mountains, it all seems unfair to the three loggers.
The villagers in their poverty-ridden district have limited employment alternatives, and even this dangerous job barely feeds their families, says Sothea.
“I have done this job for years and have saved nothing to show for it, only this scar from the Thai soldiers - but I am lucky that I didn’t die.”
*Names have been changed to protect identities.

More are charged over park protest

 
Two more opposition supporters have been summonsed to appear in court for questioning over their alleged involvement in a violent protest near Freedom Park, a move that threatens to further destabilise relations with the ruling party mere weeks after an agreement was reached to end a historic boycott of parliament.Thirty-five-year-old An Paktham, a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party youth wing, and 51-year-old Pich Samnang, a tuk-tuk driver, have been charged with intentional violence and joining an insurrection against public civil servants.
According to summonses issued last week by Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Keo Mony, Paktham must appear in court on August 28 and Samnang on August 26. If they do not appear as scheduled, “we will issue the warrant of arrest”, Mony wrote.

During the July 15 protest, at which hundreds of CNRP supporters joined together to call for the government to reopen the then-heavily fortified Freedom Park, the crowd responded to the violent attempts of the notoriously aggressive Daun Penh security guards to disperse them with brutal mob beatings.Speaking to the Post, both Paktham and Samnang said they would appear in court, but rejected the charges.“Although it could ruin my life, I must go [defend myself] because I have never done anything bad to people, or even animals,” Samnang said. “If there is any evidence, please convict me. But if there is no clear evidence, I will probably sue Mr Keo Mony back.”
Samnang, who said he is not an official CNRP member, said that he carried a loudspeaker in his tuk-tuk to the protest.

“I am worried,” he said of his coming court date. If the courts were independent and neutral, he added, “I would not be worried.”Paktham also said he was not involved in any of the violence and was merely at the park as an observer, adding that rather than attacking the security guards, he tried to intervene to prevent the beatings.“When I appear [in court], I want to ask the judge who summonsed me what proof he had that I fought public civil servants,” Paktham said. “This issue is politically motivated because we are the youths of the [opposition],” he added.
Mony yesterday declined to comment on the case.The summonses bring the number of CNRP supporters and lawmakers called to court over the violence to 14.Three opposition party youth activists have yet to be granted bail.Last week, CNRP leader Sam Rainsy said continued arrests and a failure to drop the existing charges against party members would be taken as a sign that the Kingdom’s political crisis was still ongoing.

Focus should be on reducing prostitution's harm to society

Why do you think that Ha Noi's decision to introduce the measure to "out" people paying for sex will make prostitution a bigger issue for society?
At present, I'm conducting a survey on the sex trade in several different localities. Ultimately I want to use the findings to write a proposal with measures to reduce the negative impacts of prostitution on society, such as the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.
Through my work, I can say that prostitution is ubiquitous in Viet Nam, be it in the cities or in remote rural areas.
Karaoke houses, rest-houses and hair salons have become venues for prostitutes to operate. Others have become more brazen, approaching people in the streets and asking if they want some "happy time" with attractive girls.
What are your thoughts on the measures introduced by the Ha Noi Anti-Social Vices Department to publicise the names of people paying for sex or force them to do community service activities, such as street sweeping?
Ha Noi and other cities have previously introduced strict measures to reduce the number of prostitutes, including sending them to rehabilitation centres to educate them and equip them with job skills so that they can become conscientious citizens after they're released.
But, we have realised that such measures don't work. When we have a problem, we should attempt to deal with it within itself. Trying to solve it by changing too many things will only create new problems. Now we want to list the names, ages and addresses of all the men caught in the act, so to speak, but I don't think it will work.
Men wanting to have sex outside their marriages still do it, but in a sneaky way. But more seriously, is that they are having unsafe sex and heightening the risk of spreading harmful diseases.
So far fines have failed to deter illegal prostitution. In your view, how can we solve this problem?
Paying for sex should not be considered as a decadent act as some people often think about it. When men live far away from their wives, paying for safe sex could be a way out for them. Or is the case for some single women, responding to nature's call - it is not a crime.
Looking at the issue from a human perspective, prostitution has helped to solve a sensitive social need. However, if we let prostitution take place in an uncontrolled environment, it will have serious consequences, including the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. We need to think about controlling prostitution in a rational way.
What are your suggestions to solve the problem?
Prostitution has become a very difficult and complicated issue to find an answer or control it.
In my opinion, we should tighten the granting of licenses to "sensitive" businesses, like hotels, restaurants, massage parlours and others. They should be located far away from residential areas and schools to help authorities to monitor their business and even intervene when necessary.
For the immediate future, if we cannot "eliminate" prostitution, we should come up with measures to reduce its negative impact on society.

Peace cannot be compromised or imposed: Deputy Defence Minister

Senior Lieutenant General Vinh made the statement in an interview granted to VNExpress on the sidelines of an international conference on multilateral diplomacy held recently in Hanoi. Following are excerpts from the interview.

 

Gen. Vinh, How does multilateral diplomacy impact on national defence and security?
This is the first time we have organised such a conference reviewing Vietnam’s engagement in regional and global cooperation structure. The participation of globally renowned politicians and scholars is testimony to the openness in Vietnam’s foreign policy. In other words, our policymaking is transparent.
On national defence, this multilateral forum is preventing conflicts and wars.
We have attended numerous international forums, let alone this forum in Hanoi. The fact is that our voice has been recognised internationally because Vietnam not only pays attention to its interest, but links them to the interests of other countries in the region and the rest of the world.
The recent tension in the East Sea is a case in point. Vietnam’s stance [of settling of territorial disputes through peaceful means and in accordance with international law] has received great support from the international community.
You have said ‘The world is totally in chaos if a self-localized nation self-imposes its will on common problems of the world’. In fact, chaos is erupting here and there. What is your opinion of this?
In a flat world, the interests of each country depend on the common development of the whole community. If a country imposes itself on other countries for its own best interests, it will eventually have to pay the price and sooner or later suffer defeat.
It is said that a big state wins over a smaller state, yet I think this development rule will not serve the big state well if the goal is to achieve sustainable peace. A country can use its power to coercively seize interests of another country, but it will forever face irresolvable serious consequences. Peace, stability and development cannot be achieved through coercion or imposition.
Looking back on Vietnam’s history, we won all the past wars waged by foreign aggression. We won not because we were more powerful than our enemies, but the world and our foes realised that they were unjust wars.
In multilateral relations, countries’ interests are different and even contradictory. What challenges is Vietnam confronted with in defending its sovereignty, especially at various multilateral forums where Vietnam has smaller voice?
In international relations, it is a normal occurrence that a contradiction may arise from countries in defending their interests. However, countries have many things in common that can be used to settle differences. Multilateral relations are to find out the common interests for cooperation and settle differences, playing by the rules.
At the Hanoi conference on multilateral diplomacy, the Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam is shifting its position from ‘positive’ to ‘active’, contributing to building the rules. This is a common trend globally. General institutions will help countries avoid conflict and escalation.
In the face of challenges, we make public our proper behaviour, by raising the issue of not only our national sovereignty, but also the interests of other countries, notably security in the region and the world.
For example, if the East Sea is unilaterally controlled by a country, regional peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation is threatened, and this is the matter of not only Vietnam but the international community.
The biggest national defence lesson we have learnt is that a war ends in success only when it is a just or righteous war. The world should be fully aware of this lesson, so as to prevent a country taking any unilateral actions or using force against Vietnam.
Vietnam’s defence policy heightens peace and self-defence, but Vietnam will never accept peace through compromise and imposition.
Is a military cooperation agreement between countries of similar concern valuable to Vietnam given the current context?
In foreign relations in general and multilateral relations in particular, Vietnam does not target any country in defending its sovereignty. We need a consensus of all nations sharing common interests and affected if Vietnam's sovereignty is threatened.
Engaging in an alliance with a group of countries means we will restrict our interests in a local framework. The greatest strength of Vietnamese nation lies in the great national unity bloc, independence, self-reliance, and expanded relations under the motto of multilateralization and diversification of international relations.
Development must be based on trust, so how will Vietnam-China relations be improved following the recent setback?
Although there are a number of differences that need to be resolved in bilateral relations, Vietnam and China have huge interests to reconcile these differences. It is time to re-evaluate areas of bilateral relations.
China proposed putting aside disputes and developing together. We can accept this proposal only when both sides figure out where the dispute comes from, in accordance with international law, not carrying out unilateral actions, especially not using force or disguised force.
Strategic trust is developed from strategic interests. The more strategic interests, the more strategic trust grows. It is no easy task, but I believe both Vietnam and China are able to harmonise their interests for common development.

Americans charged in death of woman found in suitcase in Indonesia

 

Two Americans have been charged with murder in the death of a Chicago woman whose bloody body was found this week in a suitcase outside an Indonesian hotel, police in the Indonesian province of Bali said Friday.Heather Mack, 19, and Tommy Schaefer, 21, both of the Chicago area, have been charged with murder in the death of Mack's mother, Sheila von Weise Mack, said Col. Djoko Hari Utomo, Bali's chief of police.

Authorities say the badly beaten body of Sheila Mack, 61, was wrapped in a blood-stained bedsheet and placed in a large hard-sided suitcase. They say a young couple put the suitcase in the trunk of a taxi outside Indonesia's St. Regis Bali Resort on Tuesday and went back into the hotel, telling the cab driver that they would be back.After a lengthy wait, the cab driver noticed blood and contacted police. Authorities at the South Kuta station in Bali opened the case and found the body, police said.

Heather Mack and Schaefer were arrested after being found Wednesday morning at another hotel about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the St. Regis, police said.

Dockworkers find 35 'screaming' stowaways in a container

 

Dockworkers at a major London port discovered 35 people inside a shipping container Saturday morning.One of them, an adult male, was declared dead at the scene, according to Essex police Superintendent Trevor Roe.Several others -- including children -- were said to have "significant health problems," according to a police statement.

Daniel Gore of England Ambulance Service said the patients -- all of whom were conscious when they were found -- are being treated for dehydration and hypothermia at three London-area hospitals.

None of their conditions are believed to be life-threatening, he said.

What caused the one death was not yet known. A homicide investigation is under way, according to Roe.

'Screaming and Banging'

Workers at Tilbury Docks made the discovery after "screaming and banging was heard from inside the container," Roe said.The stowaways are from the Indian subcontinent, said Roe, but it was not immediately clear if that is where their maritime journey originated, or when it did.

What is known is that the container they were in arrived to Tilbury -- located on the River Thames about 30 miles east of London -- aboard a ship owned by P&O Ferries at 6 a.m. (1 a.m. ET) from the Belgian port city of Zeebrugge after a nearly nine-hour trip.

Company spokeswoman Natalie Hardy told CNN that P&O Ferries operates two such trips a day between London and Zeebrugge.

She said P&O Ferries does not inspect the contents of the containers it transports as a matter of company policy. Such checks, according to Hardy, are the responsibility of the UK Border Agency.

There were 50 containers on the ship, according to Roe. He said they would all be thoroughly searched.British authorities blasted the "criminal networks" engaged in human trafficking.

"Today's tragic incident at Tilbury is a reminder of the often devastating human consequences of illegal migration," Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said in a statement. "This incident is now a criminal investigation. Border Force officers are fully engaged with Essex police and the Tilbury port authorities as the necessary steps are taken towards bringing those responsible to justice."