Posted on 12/26/2004 4:23:58 AM PST by Stoat
Cambodia, a country without a soul
By Julio A Jeldres
PHNOM PENH - During a recent visit to Cambodia, a Buddhist monk who has long been a good friend and adviser of mine said that Cambodia is a country that has lost its soul, and that the land that once had been blessed by Lord Buddha now has been cursed by men.
Sadly, I have to agree with this grim assessment because after reading the daily press cables and reports, the picture that emerges of today's Cambodia is far from the "oasis of peace" of the 1950s and 1960s. Trafficking of drugs and human beings is at its worst, corruption is out of control and poverty is unraveling the social fabric of the country, with robberies becoming a daily occurrence. The picture of Cambodia in 2004 is not a pretty one.
In early December, the international donor community, at its annual meeting in Phnom Penh, threatened to withdraw its funding if the Cambodian government did not put its house in order, in terms of transparency, good governance and an impartial judicial system - and make sincere and effective efforts to stop corruption. Just two days later, however, 91 women and young girls, almost half of them minors, were kidnapped by armed thugs from a women's shelter operated by Acting for Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP), a Cambodian non-governmental organization (NGO). The NGO is funded by the United States and several European countries, including France and Spain.
The group previously had been rescued from a hotel in Phnom Penh used as a brothel for sex trafficking of women and children. According to diplomatic sources, eight of the hotel's operators who had been arrested during the rescue operation by the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department of the Ministry of Interior on December 7 were not only subsequently released but also participated in the attack against the AFESIP shelter and the recapture of the women, all of whom are still missing.
In the days that followed the raid, questions were raised about the involvement of powerful Cambodian officials in the hotel's operation after the chief and deputy chief of the Interior Ministry's anti-trafficking unit were suspended from duty by an unsigned order of the director general of the Cambodian National Police.
The suspended head of the unit, General Un Sokunthea, has earned the respect of both Cambodians and the international community because of her efforts against human traffickers. Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian minister of women's affairs, responded to Un's suspension by telling the Cambodia Daily newspaper in Phnom Penh on December 14, "I am really disappointed that the Interior Ministry has taken this very strong stance against a high-ranking public official who has fulfilled her duty. She is a great example of someone who has given her best to combat trafficking and the exploitation of women in Cambodia."
Pierre Legros, director of Acting for Women in Distressing situations (AFESIP), also voiced support for Un, telling a press conference in Bangkok, "I do not understand why she has been targeted, because she has done a good job. It shows that there is a huge problem inside the government. I want justice for all civil servants that are doing their jobs in very trying circumstances."
Legros said "he failed to understand why such organized criminal syndicates do have better access to political influence than the people that are working to promote justice and the eradication of slavery".
In late October Cambodia signed a landmark accord to fight the modern-day slavery of human trafficking in the region. The United Nations-brokered agreement between Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar is world's first such agreement. The memorandum of understanding signed in Myanmar set forth a framework of action to fight human trafficking, and the plan is expected to be in place in the first quarter of 2005.
Following the raid on its premises and the suspension of General Un Sokunthea, AFESIP closed its doors and called for a thorough investigation of the affair with the participation of foreign observers.
The French ambassador wrote to the director general of the Cambodian national police expressing his failure to understand the raid against the NGO, which he said went against the rule of the law and the reinforcement of justice in Cambodia. He also asked for assurances that the security of French citizens working at AFESIP would be ensured, that the guilty be arrested and the victims liberated.
The European Union also expressed its outrage over the raid and the president of the Subcommission on Human Rights of the EU Parliament lent her support to AFESIP by saying she would pressure the Cambodian government to investigate the incident.
The US State Department reacted angrily to the raid as well, strongly condemning the attack and urging the Cambodian government "to rescue the kidnapped victims". By December 18, the US State Department was considering downgrading Cambodia's status on its global trafficking watchdog list over its handling of the raid on the women's shelter. A US Embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh said the US government was considering demoting Cambodia to "Tier 3" from its current "Tier 2" status on the trafficking list, which could trigger the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance from the United States, and may even mean imposing sanctions on the country. If the United States were to proceed with the downgrading, it would place Cambodia on a par with Myanmar, Cuba, North Korea and Sudan, among others.
Retired King Norodom Sihanouk also condemned the raid, calling it "a shame for us" on his website and writing that Cambodia's reputation could not have sunk lower.
While the condemnations of the raid were going on, police released eight suspects in a separate sexual exploitation case after an unidentified high official intervened in the probe, a municipal court prosecutor told the Cambodia Daily newspaper on December 16.
Observers in the Cambodian capital point to the raid against AFESIP as a reaction from government officials to the negative remarks addressed to the them by foreign officials at the donor's meeting, and feel that the same forces in the government are not interested in adopting the changes urged by the international community. This, they say, is evident by the recent appointment to the Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs of a senior female official who allegedly has a record with the Thai police as a trafficker of women herself.
Julio A Jeldres is a former senior private secretary to retired King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and chairman of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh.
This is to terribly sad...Cambodia in particular has suffered terribly from brutal, murderous and corrupt governments for as long as I can remember.
Although I haven't been to the country, I have met many Cambodian people here in the U.S. and they have all been extremely gracious and hardworking. Their countrymen deserve far better than this endless cycle of utter horror and depravity, but it appears that there is no end in sight.
This is yet another country that is a de-facto slave trading state, yet the Jesse Jacksons, the Al Sharptons, and the rest of the normally shrill American "civil rights establishment" will endlessly denigrate the United States for it's sins of hundreds of years ago yet remain deafeningly silent on current examples of brazen, shameless slave trading.
If America were as truly evil as the Jacksons and Sharptons made it out to be....
we would never know who they were....as they would not be here now....
imo
Agreed. They are only here in the USA doing what they do because they have seized upon a mechanism for gaining money, power and fame, and it's on the backs of America's black people...people who have a history of being taken advantage of.
Jesse, Al, and the rest of the American 'civil rights establishment' are no better than the slave traders....the slave traders at least are honest in that they are quite direct about their intentions and don't confuse their business model with concepts such as remorse or guilt and don't couch it under grand, noble facades. Jesse, Al and the rest, however, will do whatever it takes to keep America's blacks on the Liberal plantation, with the brass ring just beyond reach. After all, if America's blacks were to become more successful, Jesse, Al and the rest would be out of a job.
Modern-day slavery ping
ping
The gift of John F...kingKerry, Hanoi Jane, and pals keeps on giving.
Take anything said by any NGO group in Cambodia with a grain of salt. I have been there a number of times and I don't trust any of them at all. None of them care about Cambodia or it's people, only about their funding.
Excellent point. If the U.S. had been allowed to win in Vietnam, who knows how the political landscape in the rest of Southeast Asia would look today?
Just as the beacon of democracy that Iraq will soon become threatens the despotic regimes in the Middle East (enslaved people tend to demand freedom particularly loudly when they see it just across the border) a free and democratic Vietnam may well have served as a catalyst for democratic reforms in Southeast Asia.
If this democratic 'domino theory' had borne fruit, perhaps millions of Cambodians would have been spared the horrors of the Khmer Rouge? Without a Communist government in Vietnam, perhaps we would have numerous successful international trading partner alliances, with nations full of happy citizens in Southeast Asia by now.
sKerry, Kennedy, Fonda, and many others have oceans of blood on their hands.
UN money being used to purchase weapons which the army in turn uses to make money.
I remember sitting a bar having a beer and a guy ask me if I am interested in a girl. I said "no". A few minutes later he asked me if I was interested in a hand grenade. I laughed and asked him how he expected me to get it out of the country and he told me I could detonate it there if I wished. He said he had a lot of other stuff for sale including M16, AK47 (both Chinese and Russian), rocket launchers. He said I can look first and try and if I don't like then no need to buy. So I said "ok" - He agreed to pick me up at my hotel the next morning.
It is about a 45 minute drive from Phnom Phen - Im sitting in the back of a van with a german guy and a Cambodian army officer who has black teeth and is smoking a marijuana cigarette. He offers to me and the german but we both refuse.
We arrive at some shack and a shooting range outside of town. Two other expats are there, I forget where they were from. As we sit down at a covered wooden picnic table bench and the driver of the van comes over with two Carlberg beers. (US1 each) - Johnny Walker Black is (US2 per glass). We sit down a drink several beers and shots of whiskey - me and the German. Then out come the offers ~ The place is a shooting range - You rent weapons here to use - (maybe you can buy but I did not ask)
M16 and AK47 - One clip ammo - US20
Grenade - Chinese and Russian - US50
Rocket Launcher - US200
For an extra US100 you can purchase a cow which they go and tie to a post in the field and you can try your luck hitting him with a rocket launcher.
I spent US20 and tried out the old greasy Chinese AK47. 2 minutes later the clip is empty. Im offered another for another for US20 - I decline.
The German meanwhile had several beers and shots of whiskey - He tries out the rocket launcher with the optional cow. The first rocket misses and hits behind the cow on a mound of dirt. He is offered another rocket for another US200 - this one also misses the cow but explodes in the mud covering the cow in mud. He is offered another rocket for US200 and declines.
It starts to rain and we all loaded up in the van and are taken back to the hotel. On the way back the German asks about the cow he purchased - The driver shurgs him off and the army officer asks "What you want.. sausage?!" - I think the German was trying to get some money back for the cow or something I dunno - anyway - he said nevermind and then took the guy up on a hit off the doobie.
The next day I was offered to be taken to a riverboat casino but I declined.
I feel compelled to mention it was the 'Communist' Vietnamese who put an end to the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, not the west. Because of this, they felt the wrath of the Chinese military in their 1979 incursion across the Vietnamese border. Life is not always so clean cut.
About NGOs in Cambodia: Absolutely right. They are self-serving leftist meddlers interested only in their own funding, comfort and whining in the press. I worked there from 1995 to 2000 and they have done ENORMOUS harm to the country. As did the UN in the early Nineties. As did the Khmer Rouge before that. As did the American left in forcing us to withdraw from Cambodia and Vietnam and abandon the people there to the KR and other communists...
Jeez, are they still doing that? Shooting range for foreigners been going on there since 1995...sometimes overt, sometimes hidden.
I remember hearing about it when I was there in 1997. I avoided it because I knew I would end up spending a lot of money that I didn't have. IIRC, it was being run by the same guy who provided security/bodyguards at some of the clubs and bars around PP.
yet another stop along Henry Kissinger's long path of havoc
Care to explain?
You have to wonder how Kerry, Fonda, et al. can bear to look at themselves in the mirror. RATs are scared to death of Iraq working in the Middle East, thus encouraging democracy and peace. It's tantamount to RR's victory in the Cold War and the Wall coming down. RATs rushed to applaud Gorby for that. When Iraq works, and the rest of the Middle East comes to its collective senses, RATs will be all over the MSM cheering some Arab. Or maybe Chirac now that Arafat is dead.
Amazing how former Sec's of State seem to pass on to oblivion. Nobody remembers who said what, where, or when,or whose fingers were in what pie. We're too busy dealing with today's catastrophies.
Yup, same guy. Chinese-American drama queen, Victor something.
ping to self, later pingout.
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