https://www.voacambodia.com VOA Khmer: Your source for reliable news and expert analysis of news and current affairs in Cambodia and the world. https://www.voacambodia.com/Content/responsive/VOA/en-KH/img/logo.png https://www.voacambodia.com en 2019 - VOA 60 Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:53:15 +0700 Pangea CMS – VOA The discussion also marked the opening of an exhibition, “Four decades since the fall of the Khmer Rouge.” https://www.voacambodia.com/a/panel-discusses-the-role-of-arts-in-post-conflict-healing-process/4839731.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/panel-discusses-the-role-of-arts-in-post-conflict-healing-process/4839731.html Thu, 21 Mar 2019 00:54:47 +0700 CambodiaCultureCambodianoreply@voanews.com (Thim Rachna, VOA Khmer) Bernard Krisher founded the Daily in 1993 following the establishment of the Phnom Penh Post a year earlier, then published fortnightly. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/bernard-krisher-pioneering-english-language-newspaper-proprietor-dies-aged-87/4839642.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/bernard-krisher-pioneering-english-language-newspaper-proprietor-dies-aged-87/4839642.html Thu, 21 Mar 2019 00:10:33 +0700 CambodiaCambodianoreply@voanews.com (Kann Vicheika, Neou Vannarin, VOA Khmer) China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s and threatened to take it by force if needed. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/why-china-s-financial-incentives-for-taiwanese-flatlined/4839214.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/why-china-s-financial-incentives-for-taiwanese-flatlined/4839214.html Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:05:29 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Ralph Jennings) Thailand is preparing for a Sunday vote in its first general election since a 2014 military coup. Nearly 52 million Thais are eligible to vote, with some 75 percent expected to go to the polls, according to Aim Sinpeng, an assistant professor in the Department of Government & International Relations at the University of Sydney, who said, "Turnout is usually high in Thailand." Reflecting widespread interest in the general election despite limits on dissent, of the 2.6 million people who registered for early voting on March 17, 86.98 per cent of them turned up, according to Thai PBS. The military government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had repeatedly delayed the general election, first tentatively set for 2015, which means many people have expectations, based on a buildup OF "wants, and aspirations, and hopes for themselves and the society, which aren't being realized … under this kind of authoritarian culture, which the military government has created," said Chris Baker, a historian who co-authored "A History of Thailand" with Pasuk Phongpaichit. Key issues for voters include a sluggish economy —Thailand is Southeast Asia's second-largest economy after Indonesia — and growing inequality caused in part by a plunge in the world prices of commodities. The price of rubber, which supports one of every 10 people has fallen 65 percent since 2011. That happened against a faltering economy; Thailand has dropped 10 places on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index since 2007. That's the biggest decline among Southeast Asia's top economies, and globally, Thailand ranked 38 out of 140 countries last year, according to Bloomberg. Somprawin Manprasert, the chief economist at Bank of Ayudhya Pcl, told Bloomberg, "Thailand can ill-afford another period of lagging behind from political disorder. I believe we've bottomed out as people realize we need to improve productivity." Voters have choices — thousands of candidates represent dozens of political parties. New to the scene are the young voters, those between 18 and 24 years old, who "have grown up under military rule as they reached adulthood," said Carl Thayer, professor emeritus, at the University of New South Wales, Canberra and the Australian Defense Force Academy. He says these first-time voters, numbering 7 million or more, are looking for change, and in general, dislike military rule. But the youth bloc's preference may matter little, as the military, acting as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) appointed drafters of a new constitution — the 20th in Thailand since 1932 — and curbed debates on the legislation after taking power in a 2014 coup, the 12th since 1932 — that paved the way for Sunday's vote. Aside from the generational divide, there's a regional one among Thai voters. The north and northeast support parties affiliated with ousted populist Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck, who each served as prime minister until deposed in military coups. There's widespread support for the Democrat Party in the south. Sinpeng believes that the latest constitution ratified in 2017 structured elections to prevent a level playing field. "A number of key features of the constitution are quite non-democratic, and in fact reflect how the military can continue its political dominance going forward regardless of who's elected." Under the new constitution, the 250-member Senate will be chosen by the NCPO. The 500-member House will be elected by voters. Of those seats, 350 members (MPs) will be directly chosen by the voters in their constituencies. The remaining 150 will be allotted to political parties using a formula based on total election turnout divided by 500. To win with full control, one party would need to gain at least 376 seats, which will be, according to experts, impossible. The process, designed by the military to retain power, is expected to lessen the influence of larger parties while giving seats to many smaller parties, and forming a government will require the creation of a multi-party coalition. The many parties running in the general election break-out into distinct groups. Here are some of the ones to watch. The Palang Pracharat Party is pro-military. It named the current prime minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, as its candidate. He began his military career in the prestigious Queen's Guard, and became army chief in 2010. After the 2014 coup, he emerged as the acting premier, and the regime began cracking down on dissent. The anti-military faction is led by the Pheu Thai Party which is the largest of three major Thaksin-leaning populist parties. Also in this cohort is the Future Forward Party, founded in 2018 by auto parts tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit who has been described by local media as a "billionaire peasant" after he said that while he may be a member of the 1 percent, he represents everyone else. At 40, he's something of a millennial darling. The Democrat Party, one of Thailand's oldest, led by former prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva has been perceived as pro-business and pro-establishment. Although the party has been Thaksin's archrival, voters' growing frustration with the military has forced to Abhisit to vow not to support Prayut as prime minister. "Once the election results come out, [these parties will] have leverage to bargain, to be part of either side of the political divide," said Sinpeng, predicting that the smaller parties will "make or break who's going to be in the government." According to Thayer, that means "Thailand is likely to be governed by a coalition government of weak, medium-to-small political parties led by a prime minister who is not popularly elected." "The new government will be constrained in what it can do" he added as senior or retired bureaucrats, high-ranking military officers, and well-connected wealthy businessmen appointed by the military junta that seized power will continue to exert power behind the scenes," Thayer said. And, while the election will give legitimacy to Phalang Pracharat, which is backed by the military, Thayer suggested the upside will be that "for the first time in five years, political parties that oppose military rule will have legal status to register, to contest the elections, campaign, and have their representatives serve in the Lower House of Parliament." https://www.voacambodia.com/a/thais-head-to-polls-for-first-vote-since-2014-military-coup/4839212.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/thais-head-to-polls-for-first-vote-since-2014-military-coup/4839212.html Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:03:10 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Julie Kokis) A few seconds were all that it took to change ten-year-old Srey Pheak’s life forever. When she reached into the brick machine to clean off some clay, she got trapped. The machine quickly pulled her arm in, like it would with clay, and crushed it. “When the incident just happened, inside the ambulance, she asked me: ‘Mum, my hand is chopped. When I recover, will it regrow?’ I told her yes,” her mother Khim Channa recounts in the hospital while holding her daughter in her arms. But Srey Pheak’s arm won’t regrow, and her mother was unable to hold back her tears in the ambulance, she tells Voice of America. “I was crying, and she told me ‘mummy, don’t cry. I survive. It’s just the hand that’s chopped, I still have life in my body.’ She comforted me. It’s not me who comforted her,” the 34-year-old mother recounts, tears welling up in her eyes. While Channa tells how Srey Pheak lost her arm, her daughter is unable to speak. She is in visible pain, and where her arm was is now a patch of bandages. Drugged with pain killers and medicine, she can only stare into space, sometimes whimpering. It has been five days since the accident. Channa and her whole family lived and worked at a brick kiln factory in Kandal Province. Two of her three children — 12 and 10 years old — would help out for an hour or two a day, Channa says, to support the family’s income. Mother Channa and father Chheng Bunham together earned about $5 to $6 a day, barely enough to feed their family. “She came to help me because she saw that I’m very tired and very hardworking,” she says while caressing her daughter’s back. “I feel regret, but it’s too late now.” They moved to the factory about six years ago to take up a loan from the brick kiln owner to buy some land in their home province Kampong Cham. But instead of being able to pay off the $3,500-heavy loan, they worked hard every day just to sustain themselves. Laurie Parsons, a researcher at Royal Holloway University of Livelihoods and co-author of study Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia, said brick kiln owners attracted workers by offering to pay off loans they had taken up elsewhere. The workers were told they could pay back by working for the factory owners. On average, he said, workers owed just under $800 to the brick kiln owners, but also loans of up to $5,000 were not uncommon. In that sense, Channa’s case was unusual, he said, as she hadn’t been indebted before working at the factory. But she shared the common fate of many brick kiln workers: not being able to pay off the debt over years. Parsons explained that the workers were paid by the number of bricks they produced. As brick production was much more difficult during rainy season with clay not being able to dry quickly, brick workers had to take up additional loans during that period and found themselves trapped in debt bondage. But while Channa regrets having let Srey Pheak work, she did not blame the owner for her daughter’s accident in March. She said he had reminded them not to let their children work, and had now said he would cover the medical expenses, as well as school tuition fees, and waive her debt. Parsons said most brick kiln workers felt positively toward factory owners as they were repeatedly told that the owners were doing them a favor by letting them work to pay off their loans. “The brick kiln owners [say] that they don’t have to do it, but they do it out of the goodness of their heart,” he said. Channa said at least five other children were also working at the same factory. The factory owner could not be reached for comment. While authorities initially denied the existence of child labor, the Labour Ministry has now fined the factory and started a lawsuit against the owner. But Parsons said more far-reaching reforms that addressed the causes of child labor — debt bondage being a main factor — had to be implemented. One way would be for the government to extend the minimum wage beyond the garment industry to include brick factories. Ministry of Labour spokesperson Heng Sour said in a message to VOA that “we work on this with stakeholders,” without elaborating further. For Srey Pheak, this will come too late. “My daughter suddenly got very angry,” Channa says, explaining that her daughter could neither drink nor eat because of the medicine. “She said: ‘okay mum, I’m very sick, but I can’t eat, so just let me die then.’” While her mother does not know when they will be ready to leave the hospital, she says she knows one thing: she now wants to send her daughter to school. “I will tell her to study because now that she is handicapped, going to school will help her with the future,” she says.     https://www.voacambodia.com/a/child-loses-arm-in-cambodia-brick-factory/4839208.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/child-loses-arm-in-cambodia-brick-factory/4839208.html Wed, 20 Mar 2019 18:57:36 +0700 CambodiaCambodiaHuman Rightsnoreply@voanews.com (Leonie Kijewski, Kong Meta, VOA News) China has released a lengthy white paper that analysts say seeks to justify its anti-terrorism fight and de-radicalization measures in the western region of Xinjiang, where up to 1.5 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are estimated to have been forced into detention in what Beijing calls “vocational training centers.” The move, observers say, shows that China has already gone into overdrive to develop a counter-narrative and that it appears to be winning the propaganda war as many countries and Muslim organizations remain silent about the mass detention. Still, while the paper could've been an opportunity to set the record straight China did not say how many are being held in the centers. Estimates overseas are that more than a million have been caught up by the government extremism dragnet. The paper said that since 2014, nearly 13,000 "terrorists" have been arrested in Xinjiang.   Lengthy white paper   Of the 13,000, those who are “assessed to still be socially dangerous” would be relocated to the vocational training centers, or what rights groups called internment camps, after having served their time in jail.   Also, those who were exposed to extreme activism, but have not yet committed any crimes or are believed to be high risk of resorting to violent acts have been kept at the vocational training centers, according to the white paper. The white paper concludes that Xinjiang is China’s key battlefield to counter terrorism and asserts that its policies in the region have made a great contribution to the globe’s fight against terrorism.   Rights groups have voiced concern over China's emboldened stance, calling on international society to use sanctions against Beijing to counter its oppression of Muslims in Xinjiang.   The World Uighur Congress swiftly denounced the white paper, calling it a deliberate distortion of the truth, and arguing that China’s forced detention of more than one million Uighurs is unlawful.   “Accusations named in the white paper are hostile in nature and lack transparency. Uighurs suppressed and arrested by the local Chinese government there have never been legally convicted through due process before they are identified as terrorists,” argued Dilxat Raxit, spokesman of the Germany-headquartered exile group.   Unlawful detention of Uighurs   “Never has China provided any evidence to back up what it called a series of terrorist [acts],” he said, adding that the accused have no way to defend or clear their names.     According to the report, extremists had carried out thousands of attacks in China between 1990 and 2016.   Raxit said China’s counter-terrorism in Xinjiang represents its disguised efforts to carry out Sinification among the ethnic group. “We urge the international society not to be deceived by China’s continued attempts, through diplomatic means or [international] propaganda, to cover up its true intention of building re-education concentration camps [in Xinjiang],” he said, calling on international society to impose effective sanctions and stop China’s rights violations.   He added that, if China has nothing to hide, it should immediately allow the United Nations to send an investigation team to Xinjiang – one of the recommendations Beijing flatly rejected during its five-year periodic review at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva last week.   On the sidelines of council meetings, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told reporters that Beijing may gradually ease back the scale of re-education facilities if Xinjiang’s anti-terrorism fight shows signs of improving.   But he insisted that those human rights cases reported in the periodic review are not human rights issues, but issues related to China’s judicial sovereignty and fairness.   Propaganda war   “This shows China’s attempt to defend their brutal measures in violating human rights principles. Therefore, those who persist in the truth should debunk Chinese official’s narrative,” Albert Ho, the chairperson of Hong Kong Alliance, responded in a press statement on Monday. James Leibold, an associate professor in Chinese Politics and Asian Studies at La Trobe University, said that the latest report shows that every part of China’s propaganda machine has kicked in to help disseminate its messages across a range of platforms be it social or state media with an aim to win the propaganda war on Xinjiang policies.   “As far as I view it, it's an attempt to create a kind of credible and palatable counter-narrative that can be consumed and used by China’s trading partners to disarm growing international criticism of the really severe human rights abuses that are occurring in Xinjiang today,” Leibold said.   Leibold added that unfortunately, China at the present has the winning edge as few countries, other than the U.S. and some European countries, have come on strong on China.   In the Muslim world, Turkey is the only country that has been outspoken about China’s treatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. In contrast, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Kazakhstan have both sided with China’s anti-terrorism stance.   'Thought crime'   The white paper also sheds light on China's broad definition of what it considers to be extremists. That includes not only those who have been legally convicted but also those who have committed “thought crime,” notes Hong-Kong based Shih Chienyu, secretary-general of the Central Asian Studies Association in Taiwan. It means that any Xinjiang Muslim could be regarded as radicalized “provided their words and deeds do not conform [with] official [the state's] interpretations and practices of Islamic teachings in China,” Shih said in a recent report.   “The manifestation of radicalism is almost all-embracing, including the ways and content of preaching, marriages and funerals, property inheritance, religious appearance and costumes, and the format of education. Everything in daily life could belong to a category that requires regulation,” Shih added.   Shih, however, concluded that China’s strategy in Xinjiang, which involves detention or limiting individual freedom, will turn out to be a counter-productive failure as such a large-scale detention is not only hard to sustain but also invokes resentment that will eventually be difficult to eliminate.        https://www.voacambodia.com/a/rights-activists-denounce-china-xinjiang-white-paper/4837957.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/rights-activists-denounce-china-xinjiang-white-paper/4837957.html Wed, 20 Mar 2019 00:18:29 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Joyce Huang, VOA News) Social media platforms such as Facebook have become popular mediums for Cambodians to criticize authorities and protest against government policy. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodians-urged-to-use-care-on-social-media-platforms/4837946.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodians-urged-to-use-care-on-social-media-platforms/4837946.html Wed, 20 Mar 2019 00:12:39 +0700 CambodiaCambodiaPoliticsScience & Technologynoreply@voanews.com (Nem Sopheakpanha, VOA Khmer) The United States needs to target banks that facilitate illicit transactions for Pyongyang to increase sanction pressure on North Korea to the maximum, said experts.    The U.N. Panel of Experts on North Korea has released a report detailing how the country evades sanctions with tactics such as illegal ship-to-ship transfers of embargoed goods and the operation of front companies abroad by North Korean government agencies.      The report indicated foreign banks facilitate North Korea's financial transactions for "illegal ship-to-ship transfer of petroleum products and an increasing number of ship-to-ship coal transfers." The report said "financial sanctions remain some of the most poorly implemented and actively evaded measures."    The report was released last week, in the wake of the February breakdown of the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two leaders failed to agree on a denuclearization deal, with Washington refusing to accept Pyongyang's demand for comprehensive sanctions relief and Pyongyang rejecting Washington's request for full denuclearization.  Greater effectiveness   And while experts told VOA Korean that sanctions are working on North Korea, they suggested that tougher, more targeted sanctions, properly enforced, could be more effective in pressuring North Korea to denuclearize.    Joshua Stanton, a Washington attorney who helped draft the North Korean Sanctions Enforcement Act in 2016, thinks sanctions are "not enough" and "not property targeted." He suggests the U.S. should specifically target Chinese banks that facilitate illicit transactions for North Korea.   "Where we're really falling short is on pressuring the banks that hold the slush fund for North Korea's various government agencies," said Stanton. "Until we get serious about that, we will not be at maximum pressure. I will know that we have reached maximum pressure when I see the Treasury Department begin to issue really significant civil penalties against Chinese and other third-country banks."    George Lopez, a former member of the U.N. Panel of Experts for monitoring and implementing U.N. sanctions on North Korea, said "[Kim] does feel the pressure, even as his evasions succeed for the moment. … This is why he insisted on removal of these U.N. sanctions at the Hanoi summit."    Lopez continued, "This is maximum pronouncement of sanctions with minimal action to implement and enforce sanctions."     The report noted detailed sightings in North Korea of a Rolls-Royce Phantom, Mercedes-Benz limousines and Lexus LX 570 all-wheel-drive luxury SUVs, all in violation of sanctions on luxury items, according to the U.N. report.    Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, said, "The North Korean demand for comprehensive sanctions relief at the Hanoi summit suggests that Pyongyang believes the sanctions are indeed biting pretty hard." He continued, "Whether this will be enough [to induce denuclearization] is hard to say."   ​U.N. measure   A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2016 bans foreign financial institutions from having correspondent relationships with North Korean banks and North Korean bank representatives from operating on the territory of U.N. member states.   Stanton said Trump stopped the Treasury Department from issuing a package of designations just prior to his first summit with Kim in June 2018.     William Newcomb, a former U.S. Treasury official who was on the U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts on North Korea, said, "U.S. maximum pressure is crucially important because secondary sanctions can be used to hold violators, evaders and enablers financially and criminally accountable."    According to Stanton, North Korean government agencies operate "very significant multimillion dollars' " worth of money-laundering networks, such as Glocom, using Chinese banks.     The U.N. report indicates Glocom, a front company for North Korea selling sanctioned military equipment, is run by the country's Reconnaissance General Bureau agents who use "an extensive network of individuals, companies and offshore bank accounts" to conduct illicit financial activities. The report stated that a previous panel recommended that member states of the U.N. freeze bank accounts associated with Glocom.    Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute, said although sanctioning Chinese banks might not be sufficient because North Korea also uses cryptocurrency digital assets to secure financial transactions, "if the United States began targeting Chinese banks that have facilitated North Korea's transactions, it would begin to close off their ability to move money."    Stanton said, "The front companies and the ship-to-ship transfers are enabled by the fact that the banks aren't doing their job, and they're not doing their job because they're not afraid of enforcement."   Stiff penalties   Civil penalties that can be imposed on banks that conduct illicit transactions for North Korea, according to Stanton, can be substantial, depending on whether they neglected to exercise due diligence as required by U.S. law or willfully laundered money — in which case, any assets involved in transactions can be seized and forfeited.    Financial penalties can go as high as $9 billion, which was the case in 2014 for BNP Paribas, France's largest bank. It was fined for transferring billions of dollars for countries such as Sudan that were blacklisted by the U.S. Earlier this month, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, and Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, reintroduced the bipartisan Otto Warmbier Banking Restrictions Involving North Korea (BRINK) Act, named after the American college student who died shortly after he arrived in the U.S. after being detained in North Korea.      The legislation calls for the U.S. to impose mandatory sanctions on foreign banks that conduct illicit financial transactions for North Korea.    Lopez also emphasized that effective enforcement on illicit North Korean businesses operating abroad would prevent any banking transactions.    "Banks could not facilitate the illicit monies these partnerships produce if these ventures were shut down via more effective enforcement," said Lopez.  "It is the economic activities that need bank transfers that the sanctions must halt."  https://www.voacambodia.com/a/tighten-n-korea-sanctions-by-targeting-banks-experts-say/4837458.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/tighten-n-korea-sanctions-by-targeting-banks-experts-say/4837458.html Tue, 19 Mar 2019 18:56:31 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Christy Lee, VOA News) A water shortage affecting some 6 million people in the normally rainy Philippines reveals management issue and threatens the the economy if dry conditions persist.   A House of Representatives committee on development in the country's major city Metro Manila was set to hold a hearing Monday on the water shortage. Tap water disruptions this month have caused periodic water outages in parts of the sprawling city and adjacent Rizal province.  The presidential office has vowed to investigate, too, an office spokesperson was quoted saying on Friday via the official Philippine News Agency.   The probes come as Filipinos demand to know why zones served by one water supplier face interruptions while those under another supplier are getting normal flows. The problem could eventually erode business sentiment and the otherwise solid reputation of President Rodrigo Duterte in a mid-term election year, analysts believe.   “It is now confusing, because it’s got so many narratives being spun,” said Antonio Contreras, political scientist at De La Salle University in the Philippines. “Initially, it was because there was a shortage of rainfall. It is now being painted as a problem of management.”   Dry weather, low reservoir level   The cyclical world weather pattern El Nino, which raises ocean temperatures, has brought lower than average rainfall to the Philippines since February, the country’s weather agency says. El Nino has caused parts of nearby Indonesia to run drier this year to date, as well.   Today people around Metro Manila are told their water will stop for several hours at scheduled intervals, prompting families to stock up in advance or buy water outside. In parts of the country hundreds of kilometers away from Manila, farmers are struggling to raise crops on parched land.   The La Mesa reservoir just outside Manila reached a critically low level of 68.9 meters, down from an ideal 80 meters, on March 10. The supplier Manila Water has apologized to users and urged them to conserve as it disrupts flows.   Another reservoir that supplies Manila is staying above crisis levels, and the company that operates it is not disrupting water delivery.   Political, economic fallout   Some Filipinos wonder whether a government agency is fabricating a “crisis” so it can use emergency relief funds, Contreras said. Others suspect the president will leverage the water problem before  mid-term elections in May by solving it and looking like a "hero," he said.   El Nino could eventually “push rates higher” for water, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila. Commodities might cost more along with daily water use, he said. Still, he added, the shortage has not reached nationwide.   “Basically, it’s a disruption until such time you get a replenishment of the dam and other sources where they can get water,” Ravelas said. “I think we will probably see more of the effects in the coming months. If El Nino will be severe, then that could affect some agricultural products.”   A hit to agriculture could raise consumer prices and affect domestic spending, said Rahul Bajoria, senior Asia Pacific economist with Barclays in Singapore. Inflation became an issue in mid-2018 as prices of basic necessities rose.   Getting water back   A Manila Water official told the congressional hearing Monday that a “widespread water interruption plan” that took effect Thursday had allowed reservoirs to refill and pumping stations to stabilize.  “The results I have seen on the ground beginning March 15 and through this most recent weekend have been encouraging,” the official said, as quoted by the company website.   The Philippine government advocates construction of a new dam, called Kaliwa, with funding from China, as another water source, domestic media reports say. But the project has raised fears about environmental degradation.   Separately, the international charity Water.org says by the end of 2019 it plans to help more than three million people get safe water and better sanitation.   “Having a more robust climate change policy is something that would possibly impact long-term investment implications, but I think the near-term focus is pretty much on rehabilitation and making sure disruption is as limited as possible and water supply is adequate for normal day-to-day operations,” Bajoria said. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/water-shortage-reveals-management-issues-in-normally-rainy-philippines/4835782.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/water-shortage-reveals-management-issues-in-normally-rainy-philippines/4835782.html Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:38:46 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Ralph Jennings) On the night of Jan. 16, Kol Sat could not locate her husband even after contacting everyone she thought might know the whereabouts of Kong Mas. The next morning, her mother-in-law called with news: Police were questioning Kong Mas after arresting him the day before. Kol Sat, a garment worker in Phnom Penh, told VOA her husband had accepted a friend’s invitation to have coffee only to be picked up by authorities around 9:30 a.m., just hours after Kong Mas arrived in Phnom Penh from Siem Reap province, where he worked as a construction supervisor. His arrest was related to Facebook posts, said Kol Sat, 35. Among other things, he criticized the Cambodian government for its role in the possible suspension of Everything but Arms (EBA), the European Union’s initiative that grants Cambodia preferential access to its markets, a structure that can be removed if beneficiary countries fail to respect core human rights. Since then, the EU has taken the first step to suspend EBA. “I think it is just constructive criticism and he is just an ordinary citizen and he has personal rights to post,” Kol Sat said. “I think perhaps it is not wrong.” Article 41 enshrined in the Constitution of Cambodia states that “Khmer citizens shall have the freedom to express their personal opinions, the freedom of press, of publication and of assembly.” A series of arrests Kong Mas, 33, was one of the leading members in Svay Rieng province of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. His arrest is the latest in a series related to Facebook posts that the Cambodian government said were intended “to insult and/or incitement,” a charge often used to imprison government critics. It carries a prison sentence of six months to two years. The first prominent arrest occurred in August 2015 and resulted in university student Kung Raiya being charged with incitement for posting a call for a “color revolution.” In July 2017, police arrested Rom Chamroeun for posting an image of two pistols on his Facebook page with text seemingly directed at Cambodia’s prime minister that read, “Hun Sen I will kill you. Because if you aren’t killed, Cambodia will never have peace. Me and my siblings will shoot Mr Hun Sen someday, and his wife and children.” In February 2018, Sam Sokha was arrested after a video surfaced on Facebook that showed her throwing a shoe at a roadside billboard depicting Hun Sen and National Assembly President Heng Samrin. She could be heard saying, “These are the men who are destroying our nation.” She fled to Thailand requesting political asylum and was arrested for insulting Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party when she returned to Cambodia. All told, more than a dozen Cambodians have been arrested or detained for making political statements on Facebook, some of them after running afoul of a lese-majeste law passed in February 2018 that criminalizes criticism of the king and allows for sentences as long as five years. In some cases, however, the posters were released after writing a letter of apology to Hun Sen and pledging to stop political posting on Facebook. ‘Insulting and incitement’ charge Sam Sokong, the lawyer for Kong Mas, said his client’s arrest was “completely politically motivated” because the evidence consists of posts from April to December 2018 criticizing the government, supporting the campaign to not vote in the 2018 election, and calling for Sam Rainsy, an opposition leader, to return to Cambodia. On Jan. 16, just before his arrest, Kong Mas posted a 2-day-old Reuters story saying the EU had decided to take the first step in sanctioning [Cambodia] by removing the preferential treatment of its products such as garments and rice. Then he shared Sam Rainsy’s schedule of public meetings during a U.S. visit. And he posted that Hun Sen’s administration ignored problems faced by farmers such as the falling market prices for their output, according to his post viewed by VOA Khmer. “When authorities or the government are angry, they will file complaints and 100 percent of the time, the court has to take action in accordance with the complaints, whether or not they’re based on the law,” said Sam Sokong, who has represented five people arrested for their Facebook posts. Kong Mas has been charged with insulting and incitement. Silencing criticism The government has a history of silencing voices it believes have been raised in opposition. In November 2017, the CNRP, which nearly defeated Hun Sen’s ruling party in the 2013 elections, was dissolved. This came after a crackdown on critical media outlets including the closure of the influential English-language Cambodia Daily after the publishers received a large, overdue tax bill, and several local radio stations that broadcast factual programming in rural Cambodia, where ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) traditionally draws its support base. In addition to suppressing traditional media that are not pro-government, the CPP has pushed to dominate the internet, which the CNRP used to its advantage during the 2013 elections by attracting many young people through its mastery of platforms such as Facebook. ​Hun Sen is no slouch on Facebook. On his page, Samdech Hun Sen, Cambodian Prime Minister, the onetime Khmer Rouge commander posts photographs of himself posing with garment workers and students, and gushes about his love for his wife. If this makes the man who became prime minister in 1985 seem more approachable to Cambodia’s young and increasingly tech-savvy population, 40 percent of whom are avid Facebook users, that’s the point. At a groundbreaking ceremony for a flood protection and drainage improvement project in Phnom Penh on March 4, Hun Sen waved off rumors that Facebook might go dark by saying, “I am also a Facebook user, so why would I shut down Facebook?” Instead he ordered officials to draft an new anti-cybercrime law, and Meas Po, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said it will not affect freedom of expression. According to Meas Po, approximately 13.6 million people, or 82 percent of Cambodians, use the internet, and about 7 million use Facebook, making it the nation’s most popular social media platform. Among those Facebook users are community activists and opposition supporters who are increasingly subject to the same pressures as their counterparts in the traditional media, according to “Going Offline? The Threat to Cambodia’s Newfound Internet Freedoms,” a report released by the Cambodian rights group, Licadho in May 2015. “I don’t believe the authorities do not understand what freedom of expression means, but we know it depends on their interpretation,” said Am Sam Ath, Licadho’s monitoring manager. Phnom Penh Municipal Court spokesman Ly Sophana could not be reached for comment. ​Rights group’s concerns United Nations Special Rapporteur to Cambodia, Rhona Smith, said in an email to VOA Khmer that she is following a number of cases involving people arrested and even charged in connection with online posts. “I am reminded that freedom of expression and the controls that can be legitimately placed thereon are the same irrespective of whether the comments are made on Facebook, through other social media, or in printed media,” she said. “I have previously expressed concern at various provisions of the criminal code being used to limit freedom of expression in Cambodia,” she added. Am Sam Ath expressed his concern that if Hun Sen’s requested cybercrime law passes, it will be used to stifle citizens’ freedom of expression. “We are worried that [the government] will become even more strict about citizens’ freedom [of expression],” he said. “Perhaps more will be arrested.” “With respect to the cybercrime law,” Smith said, “I have not received information on this law. I can simply state that I hope that any law will give effect to Cambodia’s international obligations to ensure the appropriate balance between protecting national security and internet freedom.” Kong Mas’ lawyer, Sam Sokong, said he is asking the Supreme Court to release his client on bail. Kol Sat who visits her husband once or twice a week, said her husband has lost weight and has developed high blood pressure while jailed, adding “He should be released now.” https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-takes-aim-at-critics-on-facebook/4835777.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-takes-aim-at-critics-on-facebook/4835777.html Mon, 18 Mar 2019 19:31:27 +0700 CambodiaCambodiaPoliticsHuman Rightsnoreply@voanews.com (Sun Narin, VOA News) China’s “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the national legislature and the top political advisory body – wrapped up their two week long discussion Friday, leaving little reason for observers to believe major policy issues had been thoroughly debated. Instead, they said, most of the nearly 3,000 delegates of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) had been disempowered to challenge authorities. “Clearly [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is under pressure and precisely because he’s under pressure, feeling slightly vulnerable, not terribly but slightly vulnerable. He’s just not going to allow anybody to say anything and who’s going to take the risk?” said Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. ‘Dull and boring’ This year’s two sessions had turned out to be as “dull and boring” as he had anticipated two weeks ago, Tsang added. State media reported that the NPC’s secretariat had received 491 proposals – 487 proposed legislations and 4 regulatory recommendations – to be handled by the top body. In his work report delivered last March 8, Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC’s standing committee, pledged to move forward with revising urgently needed laws for deepening market-based reforms. The top legislature would expedite legislation in the domains of public well-being, national security, intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, social governance, and ecological advancement, enforce the principle of law-based taxation, and improve relevant laws on state institutions, he added. Also, deliberation on the Civil Code, formulation of Amendment XI to Criminal Law and the laws on promotion of basic medical and health care, real-estate tax, export control and integrated military-civilian development are also on this year’s legislative plan, according to Li. Constructive discussions? In spite of the lengthy agenda, where had all those constructive discussions been? If they’re in public good, why aren’t they made public? Tsang asked. The annual meetings are often seen as a carefully choreographed political show. Things got even more tightly controlled this year. Few of the supposedly highest parliamentary elite dared to speak up freely after Xi’s two-term limit was removed last year for him to consolidate his grip of power, said Xia Ming, professor of political science and global affairs at The City University of New York. “[At times when Xi’s] personal cult and dictatorship consolidates in Chinese politics, not a single delegate dares to touch upon major [politically sensitive] matters. For these delegates, the political red zone has been largely widened to have put a squeeze on their freedom [of expression],” Xia said. Sensitive ideas censored Politically sensitive ideas or proposals, in particular, are censored. For example, several of CPPCC delegate Zhu Zhengfu’s proposals, which urged authorities to be prudent on the practice of televised confessions, the adoption of unlawful evidence and the presence of lawyers during suspect interrogations, was removed from the Internet one day after they were circulated online. The meetings had provided nothing but opportunities for Xi’s cronies to allow their flattery toward the top leader to go a long way, the New York-based professor added. “These days, NPC and CPPCC [sessions] had clearly offered some political careerists a stage to put on a show – carefully choreographed and highly dramatic – so that they earn chances of promotion or grab more power. Their efforts are on public display,” Xia said. Xia said that a meaningful exchange of democratic views are normally possible in small groups and plenty of delegates with integrity spoke freely in the face of past top leaders. But since Xi has taken over, dissent has become rare. Both Professor Tsang and Xia, however, agreed that China has put forward several significant pieces of legislation involving foreign investment and related issues such as intellectual property rights protection to help address its trade negotiations with the United States. But it remains to be seen if the U.S. will be satisfied. “That may well be what they [the Chinese] intend to do. But the Americans are not interested in them passing a law, the Americans are interested in the implementation of it,” Tsang said. The more transparency, the better Sharing a different view, Ren Jianming, director of the anti-corruption and governance research center at Tsinghua University in Beijing, argued that the function of the two sessions has gradually improved to no longer serve as a rubber stamp. He, however, agreed that the top body should beef up its level of transparency by disclosing all proposals – good or bad, politically sensitive or not – for the public’s eyes since they’re in the interest of the general public. “Once [all ideas] and their related discussions are made public, a better solution can be brainstormed and found. There’s no need to blacklist [dissenting views] and then leave them unsettled. That way, it may be even harder to find a solution to the problem,” Ren said.   https://www.voacambodia.com/a/free-flow-of-ideas-absent-in-china-two-sessions-observers-say/4830883.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/free-flow-of-ideas-absent-in-china-two-sessions-observers-say/4830883.html Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:17:37 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Joyce Huang) North Korea says Pyongyang has no intention of giving in to Washington’s demands and Kim Jong Un would be making a statement soon on the possibility of further talks. Reports also indicate Kim may reconsider ending the more than yearlong ban on missile tests that have been in place. In a report from the Associated Press, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, who briefed reporters and diplomats in Pyongyang Friday, said Washington threw away a golden opportunity when Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump failed to reach a deal during their second summit, held in Hanoi in late February. President Trump said he walked away from the negotiating table because of different positions on what would be required for North Korea to receive sanction relief. President Trump said during a press conference that Pyongyang requested all sanctions be lifted in exchange for its continued moratorium on missile and nuclear tests, as well as the decommissioning of its Yongbyon test facility. North Korea claimed it had only requested a partial lifting of the sanctions. The Associated Press also reported Choe claimed, “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.” In a statement, the South Korean presidential Blue House said, “It is not reliable to judge the current situation only by remarks of Choe Son Hui. We closely monitor the situation. The government will put every effort to resume the North Korean - U.S. talks.” ​Threats of more sanctions Earlier this week, Moon Chung-in, South Korean Special Adviser to the President for Foreign Affairs and National Security, told reporters that increasing sanctions wasn’t an appropriate course of action if North Korea didn’t denuclearize. Moon’s remark was in response to a statement by U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton on Fox Business Network last week. “They’re not going to get relief from the crushing economic sanctions that have been imposed on them. We’ll look at ramping those sanctions up in fact,” Bolton said. “It is undesirable for the U.S. to impose additional sanctions if North Korea has not made an explicit provocation,” Moon said, “Extra sanction requires supporting reasons to justify, and without legit cause, it will prevent from two side talking.” Moon urged Pyongyang and Washington to continue their dialog and make “likely proposals” to facilitate denuclearization. In addition, Moon said, “The role of South Korea in this situation, or the role of President Moon [Jae-in] is not a mediator but facilitator, because a mediator should be an interest-free party, but South Korea is also involved in this problem.” ​Last ditch effort? In a statement following the State Assembly election last week, Kim may still be trying to salvage dialog with the United States, experts told VOA following the release of a statement that stressed the need for “the improvement of the economy and people’s daily lives.” Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, says Kim Jong Un’s message may be an indication the North Korean leader was indirectly expressing a willingness to continue talking to U.S. President Trump if Washington took action to bridge the gap between the two sides. “At this time, they (North Korea) are willing to reform and become more open, which requires sanctions being lifted, but they also need to show their willingness to denuclearize and are urging the U.S. president to take action,” he said. The Asian Forum Japan’s Senior Fellow, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, said that following the “humiliating” summit in Hanoi, Kim used his address to reiterate to the international community that North Korea wasn’t looking to have all sanctions dating back to 2009 removed, but the sanctions that have been the most impactful. Miller explains those are the sanctions that came after 2016 and have “effectively cut off North Korea, their supplies for coal, copper, crude oil, those are the ones that basically North Korea wanted relief [from].” ​Sohae launch facility Between Feb. 16 and March 2, the Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea project of the Henry L. Stimson Center, detected structures on the launch pad at the Tongchang-ri launch site, also known as Sohae, had been rebuilt, although now it appeared activity had ceased. “Recent commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station (Tongchang-ri) shows no changes to the launch pad or engine test stand between March 8 and March 13,” according to a post on the 38 North website. The site further explained, “In imagery from March 8, the construction observed over the past few weeks seemed to have been completed and the two facilities had been cleared of debris. At the launch pad, the rail-mounted transfer/processing structure had been moved to the edge of the pad and the environmental cover had been closed around the gantry tower. In imagery from March 13, the transfer structure remains in the same position and the environmental cover still conceals the gantry tower.” Kim Yong-hyun said the activity at Sohae may have been a ploy by North Korea to change the bargaining dynamics between Pyongyang and Washington. Seoul’s Korea Times newspaper quotes South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense expressing “uncertainty” if the activity at the Sohae facility signaled a true intention to carry out a launch. “[Kim Jong Un] pretended to play the Tongchang-ri card, but never intended to fire a missile to place pressure on the United States,” Kim Yong-hyun said. Miller also characterized the developments at Sohae as a way for North Korea to place additional pressure on Washington leading up to the summit to signal that the talks are a “fragile process,” but that approach didn’t yield the results Pyongyang had hoped for. The activity at Sohae “doesn’t necessarily really surprise me,” Miller said. Miller asserts that since activity was taking place before the Hanoi summit, it was not being conducted as a reactionary tool from no deal being struck in Hanoi. “I don’t think that really falls in the line of the way that the North Koreans approach things. I mean, they’re actually very rational, very calculated,” he said. Lee Ju-hyun contributed to this report. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/north-korean-actions-show-possible-negotiation-tactics/4830882.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/north-korean-actions-show-possible-negotiation-tactics/4830882.html Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:15:15 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Steve Miller) China used the closing of its annual top-level political meetings, or “Two Sessions,” to send positive signals about its commitment to resolve trade tensions with Washington and push forward economic reforms. Premier Li Keqiang also flatly denied U.S. warnings about the security risk Chinese tech giant Huawei poses, stating that Beijing will “never” ask companies to spy on other countries. The Huawei dispute, tech rivalry and tit-for-tat tariffs in the trade war are all part of a perfect storm of tensions brewing between Beijing and Washington, tensions the two countries are trying to manage and address. Huawei concerns Speaking with journalists at his annual press conference Friday, following the close of the National People’s Congress, Premier Li addressed the nagging question of concerns that China’s authoritarian government would use Huawei to spy on other countries. The United States has led a global charge in warning about the risks the company has posed. Washington has blocked Huawei from participating in the roll out of next generation (5G) mobile networks in America and urged other countries to follow suit. As countries from Asia to Europe evaluate their position on the company, Li said China’s government has never asked and will not ask Chinese companies to spy in the future. “This is not consistent with Chinese law and is not how China behaves,” he said. ​Trade talks Li said that while frictions exist and will continue between Washington and Beijing, shared interests between the two countries far outweigh their differences. “China and the United States as two large economies have become closely entwined through years of growing their relationship and years of cooperation,” Li said. “It is neither realistic nor possible to decouple these two economies.” Li said China would follow through on its reform pledges, including the implementation of regulations for a new foreign investment law. He added that China is also considering revising its intellectual property law. The Foreign Investment Law was passed Friday during the NPC’s closing session. Analysts have said the law helps to address some key concerns trade negotiators are grappling with, such as equal market access and forced technology transfers. But how it will be implemented is key. Li said that China will honor its commitments to continue pushing ahead with opening up and reform. He also said he was confident U.S.-China relations would keep moving forward and voiced hope that negotiators could achieve results in their trade talks. Shortly before Li’s press conference, the official state-run Xinhua news agency released a brief on the talks and a telephone conversation between China’s top trade negotiator, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “The two sides have made further concrete progress on the text of the trade agreement,” Xinhua said. It did not elaborate. Still, as U.S. China trade talks push on, there continues to be mixed signals about the likelihood of a possible positive outcome. The Xinhua report and Li’s remarks are a positive uptick. Earlier this month, a hike in tariffs was put on hold because of promising progress, but U.S. officials have recently noted that “major issues” remain. It is also unclear if the two countries’ leaders may soon meet. President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping were originally expected to meet at the end of March to sign an anticipated deal, but now that has reportedly been pushed back to sometime in April. Getting to a final agreement will not be easy and the question of enforcement and follow up will be key. The talks and tensions stretch far beyond trade and tariffs. “Now both China and the United States need to come up with a strategy, consider how to coexist harmoniously with each other for a long time, and form a new world order and that is not easy,” noted Han Jialiang, an independent scholar in Australia. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/china-trade-talks-denies-huawei-spying/4830879.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/china-trade-talks-denies-huawei-spying/4830879.html Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:14:59 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (William Ide) Two American B-52 bombers flew over the South China Sea on a training mission Wednesday for the second time in 10 days, acts that Beijing considers provocative. Chinese officials resent any challenge to their hold over hundreds of the sea’s tiny islets, which other countries claim, too. But China appears, at least for now, to be done adding positions in the sea that’s claimed in whole or in part by five other governments, maritime scholars agree. They say a seven-year effort to reclaim land for building on once uninhabitable atolls and reefs paused indefinitely two years ago because Beijing had reached the level of control it wanted over the waterway. “The Chinese basically feel that they have finished what they called the first stage of land reclamation in the South China Sea,” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate with the Stimson Center think tank in Washington. ​Indefinite pause Island building that started around 2010 led to the construction of aircraft hangars, radar systems and facilities to support fishing and oil exploration. Civilian populations live on a few islets. China controls the whole 130-island Paracel chain and seven major features in the Spratly archipelago. Chinese contractors created 3,200 acres of reclaimed land on the sea’s reefs and atolls to help develop them, according to a Pentagon estimate in 2016. “If the end goal is de facto control of the waterways and air space, then perhaps the number of features that China currently occupies are enough to achieve that end goal,” said Jonathan Spangler, director of the South China Sea Think Tank in Taipei. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or parts of the sea, which stretches from Hong Kong to the island of Borneo. Those governments prize the 3.5 million-square-kilometer waterway for its fisheries, shipping lanes and energy reserves under the seabed. The other countries, all militarily weaker, resented China’s landfill work and follow-up militarization, especially when projects overlapped their own exclusive maritime economic zones. Their opposition has prompted the U.S. government to periodically send naval ships and aircraft through the area. Washington does not have a territorial claim but says the sea should be open to everyone. China’s most recent significant dredging or landfill work took place on two Paracel islands in early to mid-2017, said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. Most larger-scale building had wrapped up in 2015, Poling said. ​Political will China might restart reclamation or take over more islands after settling the year-old Sino-U.S. trade dispute, Sun said. Chinese consider trade talks a “priority for now,” she said, and don’t want to take action that would anger Washington. While trade talks are going on, she said, China might just strengthen existing maritime claims. “The first stage is completed, so I think it’s more a question of political will to move forward with reclamation at this point,” she said. Beijing will avoid taking over more islets controlled by other countries, Sun added, because it wants to strengthen relations with Asian governments as a counter to U.S. influence in the sea. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes states that oppose Chinese maritime sovereignty claims, is talking with China now through 2021 about a code of conduct that would head off mishaps between ships. China hasn’t occupied any new features since 1994, though it took effective control of Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines after a tense standoff in 2012, setting off a four-year political spat. Since 2016, China has offered aid and investment to the Philippines, helping to ease friction. China probably won’t “proactively occupy new features” unless it feels pushed by a foreign government, Spangler said. Chinese officials cite historic documents to back their claim to about 90 percent of the sea. The government is now in a phase of “deployment of assets” to the islands it holds, Poling said. “I think there is a false assumption that not much is happening in the South China Sea, because there aren’t many clashes or incidents on the same scale, but China is continuing to fill in infrastructure on the islands at a fair clip and it’s already got the ability I think to use those islands,” said Euan Graham, international security director with the Lowy Institute for International Policy. “They have all the infrastructure in terms of fuel, hangar space for combat aircraft,” Graham said. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/beijing-done-for-now-acquiring-land-in-south-china-sea/4830876.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/beijing-done-for-now-acquiring-land-in-south-china-sea/4830876.html Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:13:40 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Ralph Jennings) The report highlighted the crackdown on political dissent ahead of last year’s general election, including the use of the judiciary to dissolve the country’s main opposition party and jailing of its leader, Kem Sokha. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-rejects-findings-of-us-rights-report/4830816.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-rejects-findings-of-us-rights-report/4830816.html Fri, 15 Mar 2019 23:19:19 +0700 CambodiaCambodiaHuman Rightsnoreply@voanews.com (Malis Tum, VOA Khmer) South Korea’s entertainment industry was upended this week after a celebrity’s cell phone, which was in for repairs, revealed widespread alleged acts of sexual misconduct. YG Entertainment, which is tied closely to the stars at the center of the scandal, has seen its stock fluctuate this week as high-profile K-pop singers tied to it were implicated in the illegal activity. It’s a blemish on South Korea’s leading cultural export that’s spawned the creation of a Seoul Metropolitan Police unit to look into the matter. At the center of the scandal are ex-Big Bang member Seungri (real name Lee Seung-hyun), Jung Joon-young, and FT Island’s Choi Jong-hoon. While Seungri hasn’t admitted to any specific acts of wrongdoing, Jung has. On Wednesday, Jung admitted to filming women he had sex with and then sharing the videos online. He said this was done without the knowledge or consent of his partners. "I admit to all of my sins. I filmed women without their consent, shared the videos in a SNS [social networking service] group chat and did such behavior without feeling any sense of guilt,” Jung said in a statement. He added, “Most of all, I kneel down to apologize to the women who appear in the videos and all those who might be disappointed and upset at this shocking incident.” Seungri apologized to his fans via his Instagram account, but has yet to elaborate on his role in the scandal. "I've disappointed so many people and made so many people angry, I want to apologize once more and I will cooperate with the investigation,” he said. Among K-pop entertainment labels, YG Entertainment, which signed Seungri, was hit hardest by the scandal. The firm’s stock price slid 14 percent on Monday, but has regained some ground since. JYP Entertainment and S.M. Entertainment, also K-pop powerhouses, saw their shares dip earlier in the week as the scandal’s scope grew, before the market reversed that trend. Choi’s agency, FNC Entertainment, announced the singer would stop performing with FT Island and place his career on hold. Some 126 officers are now part of the criminal investigation that includes members from the narcotics unit, serious crime squad, a regional investigation unit, and a cyber investigation team. Alleged criminal activity For ex-Big Bang member Seungri, questions over his involvement in alleged illegal activity date back to January, when authorities began investigating claims that the Gangnam club Burning Sun had drugged female patrons, who later said they were raped in the club’s VIP room. Seungri also stands accused of providing prostitutes for wealthy investors. At one point on South Korean television, Seungri claimed to be the owner of the Burning Sun, but as authorities began their investigation into the allegations the club provided gamma-hydroxybutyrate, a date rape drug to the female guests, it was revealed that the relationship had been severed. However, Seungri has admitted he bribed policemen in Gangnam with about $18,000 to help facilitate the entrance of underaged guests into the nightclub. In addition to admitting to using date rape drugs in the past, Jung Joon-young said he uploaded video footage he took to a private chatroom on multiple occasions. Jung said the women in the videos were filmed without their consent and even included some celebrities. At least 10 victims have been identified by authorities at this time. It’s not the first time Jung has been involved in a case involving nude images. In 2016, he was alleged to have recorded nude videos of his then-girlfriend. However, the case was dropped after a private digital forensics company contracted to retrieve the potentially illicit material said that nothing could be obtained from his mobile device. Suspicions have now arisen that some members of the police asked the technology firm to guarantee no data could be recovered in Jung’s case. Local media reported Thursday that the unnamed forensics firm was raided Wednesday in connection to the current scandal. Other group chat messages allege Choi Jong-hoon and others discussed payment being made to the police to cover up his drunk driving accident in 2016. Police Commissioner Min Gap-ryong has launched an internal investigation into potential cover-ups and police wrongdoing. Implications South Korea remains fixated on the scandal and the plethora of allegations that continue to emerge, but Choi Ji-eun, a former journalist and commentator on South Korean pop culture, said it’s too early to predict the scandal’s impact on the perception of nation’s music industry. “This is a criminal case of adult men, treating women as goods and sexual objects, but it is a bit early to predict the future of K-pop,” said Choi Ji-eun. Choi calls the problem “deep-rooted” and asserts it will not be easy to change the culture. But if those charged were to be found guilty and severely punished when they illegally film and share the footage; use date rape drugs, and commit sexual harassment, “it will break down the strong structure [of a male-dominated society] and vicious circle.” South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, as well as the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, declined VOA’s request for comment. Lee Ju-hyun contributed to this report.   https://www.voacambodia.com/a/wide-ranging-k-pop-scandal-envelops-south-korea/4829241.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/wide-ranging-k-pop-scandal-envelops-south-korea/4829241.html Fri, 15 Mar 2019 01:25:28 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia Analysts and business groups say the legislation is a step in the right direction, but still falls short. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/china-investment-laws-fail-to-deliver-raise-new-concerns/4829247.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/china-investment-laws-fail-to-deliver-raise-new-concerns/4829247.html Fri, 15 Mar 2019 01:25:09 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (William Ide) A senior U.S. official has rejected China’s claim that the mass internment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region is part of a counter-terrorism program and says it will backfire. The United States co-hosted an event on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council to put the spotlight on the dire situation of Xinjiang’s ethnic minorities. The United Nations says China is arbitrarily detaining more than one million Uighurs and other ethnic Muslims in so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang Province.  Human Rights activists say they are subjected to torture and brainwashing. Adrian Zenz, an independent researcher who focuses on China’s ethnic policy, says China is interning ethnic minorities, separating families and sending children to state-run orphanages to maintain ideological control over them. “All-in-all the Chinese State’s present attempt to eradicate independent and free expressions of distinct ethnic and religious identities in Xinjiang is nothing less than a systematic campaign of cultural genocide and should be treated as such,” said Zenz. China denies these charges. It says the de-radicalization of Uighurs in the camps is intended to counter terrorism and prevent violent extremism from gaining hold. U.S. Ambassador Kelley Currie says the conflation of ethnic and religious identity with terrorism and efforts to erase the identity of the Muslim groups is unjustifiable and outside any legal norms. She says it also is deeply counter-productive to China’s stated goal of preventing extremism. “By engaging in the wholesale repression of an ethnic and religious minority in this way, they are inviting further alienation, further isolation, further resentment among this community in a way that is not likely to lead to peaceful co-existence and the long-term stability of the region,” said Currie. Currie says the United States has been actively trying to engage Muslim majority countries to pressure China to change its repressive policies toward the Uighurs. She says Washington is disappointed by the lack of response from members of the OIC or Organization for Islamic Cooperation. She says the U.S. applauds Turkey’s recent statement publicly calling on China to close the re-education camps. Unfortunately, she says this comment was swiftly followed by retribution from China. China has demanded Turkey withdraw what it calls false accusations. Relations between the two countries remain tense and observers fear this ongoing spat could negatively impact their political and economic alliance. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/us-warns-china-s-detention-of-uighurs-to-counter-terrorism-will-backfire/4829240.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/us-warns-china-s-detention-of-uighurs-to-counter-terrorism-will-backfire/4829240.html Fri, 15 Mar 2019 01:23:46 +0700 Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asianoreply@voanews.com (Lisa Schlein, VOA News) Cambodia tells journalists to present the hive of Chinese investment as ‘a city of miracles’ set to rival a mash-up of Silicon Valley, Las Vegas, and Singapore. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-to-journalists-let-us-now-praise-sihanoukville/4829091.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodia-to-journalists-let-us-now-praise-sihanoukville/4829091.html Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:08:53 +0700 CambodiaCambodiaPoliticsEconomynoreply@voanews.com (Sun Narin, Aun Chhengpor, Sokummono Khan) Hun Sen said he would donate the proceeds from the seized assets to charity, but did not name any individuals who would be targeted. https://www.voacambodia.com/a/hun-sen-launches-legal-campaign-against-facebook-insults/4829072.html https://www.voacambodia.com/a/hun-sen-launches-legal-campaign-against-facebook-insults/4829072.html Thu, 14 Mar 2019 23:56:13 +0700 CambodiaCambodianoreply@voanews.com (Hul Reaksmey, VOA Khmer)