nanimunirah

Cambodia: Ban designates new adviser for Khmer Rouge trials

2012-01-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

18 January 2012
UN News Centre

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has designated David Scheffer of the United States as the Special Expert to advise on the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT), it was announced today.

“Mr. Scheffer is very well qualified to provide expert advice on UNAKRT during this critical phase for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts Cambodia (ECCC),” stated the announcement.

The ECCC, set up under an agreement signed in 2003 by the UN and the Government, is tasked with trying those deemed most responsible for crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979 during which as many as two million people are thought to have died.

Mr. Scheffer, whose designation is for an initial period of six months, replaces Clint Williamson, whose term of office expired on 30 September 2011.

The new Special Expert was involved in the establishment of the ECCC, the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). He served as the US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues from 1997 to 2001.

It was also announced today that Mr. Ban has appointed John Hocking of Australia as the Registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

Mr. Hocking has been serving as the Registrar of the ICTY, which is based in The Hague, since May 2009.

He will continue in that position while working as the Registrar of the Residual Mechanism, which was established by Security Council to carry out a number of essential functions of the ICTY and the ICTR after the closure of the Tribunals.

The Residual Mechanism will have two branches, in Arusha – where the ICTR is based – and in The Hague, which will commence functioning on 1 July 2012 and 1 July 2013, respectively.

“As its first Registrar, Mr. Hocking will be responsible for the effective commencement of the functions of the Residual Mechanism,” stated the announcement.

Postcards from Cambodia

2012-01-18T20:11:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 18 January, 2012
By Mu Sochua

Sam Rainsy Party MPs, Sovan Pisaka and Mu Sochua were able to enter the Social Affairs Center(the small door was open very shortly for the security guard to enter) where 18 women and 2 children from Borei Keila had been illegally detained by the municipality since 11 January as they demonstrated outside of the municipality office to demand for housing and compensation for their belongings that were destroyed by PHANIMEX company.

The head of the center asked the two lawmakers to leave as they did not have permission. He then locked both gates. He informed both lawmakers that the women and children were at the center but were not registered. The municipality had asked him to watch over them.

MP Mu Sochua spoke to the women about their rights and the gross violation of human rights committed by the authorities and the company. The head of the company had been every day to force the detainees to thumbprint to accept her offer.

When asked what they wish to do, the women said they wanted to leave the center as they feel scared, unsafe and shame for having to be detained with homeless, mentally disturbed people, drug addicts and young men who are violent. They wish to obtain housing in Borei Keila as promised to them by the prime minister.

After our short meeting, the women gathered their belongings and started climbing over the fence.

Their husbands ad relatives who brought them food and medicines helped them from the other side of the fence and they quickly left the center for town.

The two MPs were locked inside the center for 15 minutes till the head of the center unlocked both gates.

SRP MPS, will send a letter to the Minister of Justice to request action from the municipality court against the authorities and the company for illegal detention.

Since the destruction of Borei Keila, no representative of the government has provided support or care for the victims. The office of the governor and local authorities have provided full protection and total carte blanche to the company to threaten the victims and manipulate the situation.

Cambodian Maid Claims She Was Treated Like A Slave In Malaysia

2012-01-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

Orn Eak (The Age)

MELBOURNE, Jan 18 (Bernama) -- A Cambodian maid has revealed that she was treated like a slave by her employer in Kuala Lumpur, according to a report in "The Age" newspaper Wednesday.

Apparently a one-metre snake "ended" Orn Eak's two-year ordeal when it entered her employer's apartment, and her services were subsequently terminated.

(Serpents, or nagas, play a particularly important role in Cambodian mythology.)

"When the snake crawled into my employer's apartment she blamed me and kicked me out," Orn Eak, 28, told the newspaper's Southeast Asia correspondent Lindsay Murdoch.

"I got the blame for everything, including the death of my employer's elderly mother."

Single with a five-year-old son, Orn Eak said she went to Malaysia to work because her mother was struggling to survive in their village in Kompong Thom province.

Orn Eak claimed she had no days off and worked from dawn into the early hours of the next morning, caring for her employer's disabled mother. She said she was often beaten and went hungry.

The mistreatment worsened after the old woman died in hospital.

Last October, Cambodia imposed a temporary ban on sending domestic workers to Malaysia following numerous complaints of abuse. The order was signed by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen following "some negative information" about the working environment of Cambodian maids in Malaysia.

Orn Eak's mother, Ee Tha, 55, told "The Age" that she received only two payments in almost two years from her daughter's employer totalling US$270 (about RM840). The employer deducted Orn Eak's flight ticket home from her salary, which was supposed to be US$180 (about RM560) a month.

When Orn Eak arrived back in Phnom Penh in November, a woman picked her up at the airport and took her to the employment agency.

"I told the story about the snake to a director. Five men came into the room and beat me. They pushed my head onto a glass door and kicked me on the ground," she said.

Ee Tha, who was asked to come to Phnom Penh to take her daughter home, said: "When I saw that my daughter's face and body were cut and bruised, my heart dropped."

After Ee Tha refused to leave the employment agency's office with her daughter until she was given the money she was owed, a director finally handed over US$1,200 (about RM3,740) - that meant Orn Eak earned only US$1,470 (about RM4,580) for nearly two years' work.

[Phan Imex] Firm refuses [Borei Keila residents] housing pleas

2012-01-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

Suy Sophan showing off her ill-acquired wealth (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

The owner of development firm Phan Imex Company said yesterday that 64 families from the capital’s Borei Keila community who were demanding compensation for houses demolished on January 3 did not have the documents to prove they had owned a house on the site.

Phan Imex president Suy Sophan told the Post yesterday that her company would not compensate these families for any losses, but would offer them “humanitarian” payments of US$200 to $500.

“Most of the protesters are those who have bought a house after 2003 or rented houses at Borei Keila,” she said.

“Many are children of the residents who have received flats from our projects – the company cannot give these people another flat.”

Ten families, most of whom had rented houses or cottages belonging to residents in Borei Keila after survey registration in 2003, accepted the offer, Suy Sophan said, with the “humanitarian” money intended to help families run businesses or return to their homelands.

However, Pich Lim Khuon, a representative of Borei Keila residents who refused to accept land and houses at relocation sites in Dangkor district and Kandal province, said that villagers had lost their ownership documents when their houses were destroyed.

“It is really unfair for us,” he said, adding that families who accepted the money had done so because they were children and relatives of families who had already received flats.

In 2003, Phan Imex agreed to construct 10 buildings on two hectares of land to house 1,776 families, in exchange for development rights to a remaining 2.6 hectares. The firm has constructed only eight buildings.

Thirty women and children detained last week during a protest led by Borei Keila residents remained in Prey Speu social affairs centre yesterday, while eight villagers arrested during clashes on January 3 were still being held in Prey Sar prison.

Meanwhile, a representative of villagers living at Boeung Kak lake yesterday met with World Bank representatives to discuss their living conditions.

Villager Tep Vanny told the Post that the World Bank had promised to help lakeside residents who were still facing eviction. The World Bank could not be reached for comment

[CPP-biased] Court rejects Mu Sochua request twice

2012-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday twice rejected opposition Sam Rainsy Party parliamentarian Mu Sochua’s application for parliamentary immunity restoration.

Mu Sochua’s filing yesterday morning was rejected by clerks who said it must be handed directly to acting prosecutor Sok Roeun, who was unavailable at the time.

“How does this court serve people?” Mu Sochua said.

“If poor people come from far away to file a complaint must they just wait until Mr Sok Roeun is available?

“This is the problem of the judiciary system in Cambodia,” Mu Sochua said.

“I don’t understand how the whole municipal court does not have anyone who can receive [my request]”.

The prominent parliamentarian said she had been disappointed by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court since its handling of her 2009 defamation complaint against Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“Starting from this point, I knew that Phnom Penh Municipal Court is a political tool court,” she said, adding that the National Assembly had docked 16.5 million riel [about US$4,125] from her salary – 8 million riel as compensation to Hun Sen and 8.5 million riel as a fine.

Yesterday afternoon, Mu Sochua’s secretary returned to the court to file her employer’s request, only to have it thrown out of court by Sok Roeun.

“The prosecutor said that the application form does not have enough relevant documents,” Mu Sochua’s secretary Chourn Sarak said.

When contacted yesterday, Sok Roeun said there was no supporting documentation attached to Mu Sochua’s request.

“Received. [But] there was no relevant documentation attached, there was only one piece of paper,” Sok Roeun said