Apr 29, 2010
By Donald Kirk
Asia Times Online (Hong Kong)
SAIGON - North Korea's apparent torpedoing of a South Korean navy ship and getting away from the scene of the crime with no more than recriminations and oratorical flourishes ringing in the ears of the perpetrators demonstrates a reality from which there is no escape. The North still has thousands of artillery pieces within range of metropolitan Seoul and the nearby port of Incheon as well as missiles with the range to reach anywhere in the South, and nobody in South Korea really wants to challenge that kind of threat.
South Korea is doing so well economically and living standards are so high that the idea of seeking anything other than rhetorical revenge for the sinking of the Cheonan with a loss of 46 lives on March 26 appears almost unthinkable. Certainly South Korea would get no support for such a venture from its American ally, bogged down in wars in the Middle East and attempting to force South Korean generals reluctantly to believe they should take full command of all forces in the South in the event of a second Korean war.
While South Korea's economy grows at a pace ahead of that of the rest of the industrial world, South Korean military people worry over what they see as the North's alarming new strategy. That is, to chip away at the South Koreans with attacks such as that on the hapless navy corvette in the West or Yellow Sea - and maybe bold quick hits on Seoul and Incheon.
The point, according to JoongAng Ilbo, one of South Korea's major newspapers, would eventually be to occupy a portion of metropolitan Seoul and then to negotiate a ceasefire. The paper quoted a military intelligence source as saying North Korea had strengthened its mechanized forces near the line with South Korea. At the same time, North Korea is bolstering naval forces on its southwest coast and threatening new attacks on South Korean vessels along the Northern Limit Line below which the South bans all North Korean boats.
While reluctant to do anything that might provoke armed conflict with North Korea, US and South Korean analysts wonder how long the North can carry on with such impunity. They see no let-up in the harshness of life for the vast majority of North Koreans - and ask whether any system can endure forever while the economy deteriorates, citizens gain slightly more knowledge of the outside world via illicit cell phones and short-range radios and ailing Dear Leader Kim Jong-il smoothes the way for transition of power to his youngest son.
For precedent, it's tempting to turn to the case of Cambodia after the victory of the Khmer Rouge in April 1975.
The Dear Leader's rule may not be cruelest the world has seen since the defeat of Adolf Hitler's Germany in 1945 or the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1953. That distinction probably belongs to Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, who ruled from the once tranquil capital of Phnom Penh until December 1978 when Vietnamese communist troops drove them out. About two million people are estimated to have died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge from starvation, executions, torture and disease.
Although comparisons may seem far-fetched, the suffering under the Khmer Rouge is reminiscent of that endured for many more years in North Korea.
Today, however, Phnom Penh is bustling, alive with shops selling an incredible range of exotic silk, statuary, silver objects and souvenirs. Restaurants offer any kind of menu. The streets are swarming with traffic as motor scooters dart in and out and larger vehicles carry people and commercial products. Motorcycles pulling what look like small old-fashioned carriages offer taxi services. Internet cafes thrive in every market place. Casinos and nightclubs lure those in search of higher-priced fun, and the National Museum and Royal Palace offer lush and rich glimpses into Khmer civilization and heritage going back 2,000 years.
So what lesson is there in the transformation of Cambodia from a frightening dictatorship into a hustling if not exactly democratic society? Cambodia's present system, in which Hun Sen has ruled as prime minister with the backing of Vietnam almost constantly for 25 years, is obviously not ideal. Many of the country's 15 million people continue to suffer economically.
And it's fair to assume that torture and killing go on, although not on a mass scale. In an imperfect world, however, Cambodia gives every appearance of having recovered its erstwhile reputation as an "oasis of peace". That was how then prince Norodom Sihanouk - who before and after ruled as king - described Cambodia when it was navigating a treacherous course of neutrality as American and South Vietnamese forces fought the North Vietnamese until the US-backed regime fell in Vietnam two weeks after the defeat of that in Cambodia in 1975.
Incredibly, Sihanouk has survived, so much so that in his old age he endures as a kind of king emeritus above the tawdry power politics that periodically shakes up the elite of the capital six years after his eldest son, Norodom Sihamoni, was crowned as his successor.
The survival of the throne, however, represents a grand compromise in which momentous changes had to occur before Cambodia could begin to reach its current level of peace and prosperity. The Pol Pot regime had to fall, and the men around him, those responsible for forms of torture matched and exceeded only by the security apparatus of Kim Jong-il, had to flee, be killed or captured, to disappear forever. The lesson here may not be lost on South Koreans or their American ally.
There is, however, another irony here: that communist Vietnam, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, united between North and South Vietnam, drove out the Khmer Rouge. How was it that the forces of a communist country, against which the Americans and South Vietnamese, supported by two divisions of South Koreans, had fought for a generation, could have accomplished such a stunning success for the everlasting benefit of the Cambodian people?
The answer in part is that Vietnam, after the communist victory in 1975, was never a terrible dictatorship on the scale of North Korea. As Vietnam's leadership went through its own tortuous policy shifts, market capitalism began to flourish. Vietnamese gained a level of cultural and economic freedom that had not appeared possible in 1975. Moreover, Ho Chi Minh, who led Vietnam's communist regime until his death in 1969, never gained a reputation for pervasive cruelty over his own people even as he ruthlessly suppressed opponents.
Vastly different though the societies and cultures of Cambodia and North Korea undoubtedly are, the conclusion seems clear. There can be no real compromise with the Kim Jong-il regime. The history of regimes such as that in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge is they do not willingly yield, do not suddenly adopt humanitarian policies and do not give up the props of their rule, notably their weapons. It's wishful thinking to expect North Korea to shift its policies or honor any agreement on much of anything, including its nuclear weapons program. It took an upheaval to bring about relief from suffering in Cambodia, and it will take another to reform North Korea.
Donald Kirk, based in Seoul, covered the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia for newspapers and magazine, writing two books about them. He has also written three books on Korea, most recently Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Cambodia is Facing up to its Genocide says Youk Chhang
More than 30 years after the darkest chapter in its history, Cambodia remains a damaged and fragile society, Youk Chhang, an expert on the Cambodian genocide and the man leading the Documentation Center of Cambodia told an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
April 2010
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — More than 30 years after the darkest chapter in its history, Cambodia remains a damaged and fragile society, a leading Cambodian genocide expert told an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Cambodia is still suffering from the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, the brutal, ultra-communist regime that ruled the Southeast Asian country from 1975 to 1979. Cambodia is like shattered glass, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). "It's a fragile, broken society as a nation. People are divided," he said in an April 22 talk. "You drop a glass on the floor. It’s broken."
DC-Cam, a Phnom Penh non-profit group founded in 1995, gathers and researches information and materials related to the Khmer Rouge regime. DC-Cam's twin missions are preserving Cambodia's historical memory and helping to bring justice for victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities. The group has collected more than one million documents, interviewed thousands of former Khmer Rouge cadres and identified or mapped 20,000 mass graves and nearly 200 prisons. Its documentation has served as evidence in the United Nations-backed genocide tribunals being held in Cambodia to try former regime leaders. It has the world's largest repository of Khmer Rouge-related materials, much of it available online for free.
At Stanford, Chhang also had a positive message about Cambodia's progress toward renewal and reconciliation. Cambodian schools are beginning to teach the full history of the Khmer Rouge period, a step toward confronting the past and moving on. The genocide tribunals are underway, potentially bringing justice and closure. And DC-Cam's mission of educating the world about the Cambodian genocide could help prevent such atrocities in the future.
"The job of the whole nation is to pick up all the little pieces to put back together," said Chhang. Cambodians, can "be proud of the genocide that we have lived through." "I’m proud to tell you that I have survived genocide and can tell you the story. I am no longer a victim," declared Chhang, who was named one of the world’s 100 "heroes and pioneers" by Time magazine in 2007.
The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979, aiming to build an agrarian utopia based on Maoist ideals. About two million Cambodians lost their lives under the Khmer Rouge to execution, starvation, disease, or overwork. Thousands of Cambodians were forced to labor in the countryside. Political enemies were slaughtered, giving rise to the term "killing fields", portrayed in a 1984 movie of the same name.
Chhang was 14 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, forcing him and other teenagers into hard labor in the countryside. Chhang's brother-in-law died after a public beating to punish him for stealing leftover cucumbers to feed his pregnant wife, Chhang's sister. The sister was accused of eating the stolen food and perished after her stomach was cut open.
The genocide has left Cambodians deeply divided. Chhang said his niece, who lost her mother in the butchering, is now in her late 30's and living in Maryland. She refuses to return to her homeland and disagrees with Chhang's work in support of the genocide tribunal. Chhang's mother, who lost her own parents, siblings and some of her children, has forgiven the Khmer Rouge perpetrators and is indifferent toward the tribunals. "In the same family, my niece, mother, and I are divided about how justice should be done," said Chhang. "I support the tribunal. I want justice. I would not reach for forgiveness without prosecution."
The Cambodian genocide tribunal, established in early 2006 with support from the UN, so far has tried one defendant, the former chief of a notorious torture prison. Four other top Khmer Rouge officials are being held for a second trial. Donor countries have provided more than $100 million to support the proceedings, according to the Associated Press. Although some have criticized the tribunal as too little, too late, Chhang sees it as necessary step in Cambodia’s healing process. "The tribunal is about the future, basically."
He also believes that teaching history to a new generation of Cambodians will promote reconciliation. To that end, DC-Cam has published the first Cambodian textbook on Khmer Rouge history, a topic long ignored in the nation's classrooms. Fourteen years after the idea for the textbook emerged, the history book is finally being used in Cambodian high schools this year.
Chhang's talk was sponsored by at the business school's Public Management Program; the Stanford Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies; and MBA student participants in a recent service learning trip to Cambodia and Thailand. In addition to speaking to GSB students, Chhang was scheduled to speak with Hoover Institution officials about digitizing and archiving DC-CAM's materials.
DC-Cam was founded as an office of the Yale University Cambodian Genocide Program. It became an independent institute in 1997. It employs about 50 people and has funding from the U.S. and Swedish governments.
— Maria Shao
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/chhang-Cambodia.html
April 2010
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — More than 30 years after the darkest chapter in its history, Cambodia remains a damaged and fragile society, a leading Cambodian genocide expert told an audience at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Cambodia is still suffering from the legacy of the Khmer Rouge, the brutal, ultra-communist regime that ruled the Southeast Asian country from 1975 to 1979. Cambodia is like shattered glass, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). "It's a fragile, broken society as a nation. People are divided," he said in an April 22 talk. "You drop a glass on the floor. It’s broken."
DC-Cam, a Phnom Penh non-profit group founded in 1995, gathers and researches information and materials related to the Khmer Rouge regime. DC-Cam's twin missions are preserving Cambodia's historical memory and helping to bring justice for victims of Khmer Rouge atrocities. The group has collected more than one million documents, interviewed thousands of former Khmer Rouge cadres and identified or mapped 20,000 mass graves and nearly 200 prisons. Its documentation has served as evidence in the United Nations-backed genocide tribunals being held in Cambodia to try former regime leaders. It has the world's largest repository of Khmer Rouge-related materials, much of it available online for free.
At Stanford, Chhang also had a positive message about Cambodia's progress toward renewal and reconciliation. Cambodian schools are beginning to teach the full history of the Khmer Rouge period, a step toward confronting the past and moving on. The genocide tribunals are underway, potentially bringing justice and closure. And DC-Cam's mission of educating the world about the Cambodian genocide could help prevent such atrocities in the future.
"The job of the whole nation is to pick up all the little pieces to put back together," said Chhang. Cambodians, can "be proud of the genocide that we have lived through." "I’m proud to tell you that I have survived genocide and can tell you the story. I am no longer a victim," declared Chhang, who was named one of the world’s 100 "heroes and pioneers" by Time magazine in 2007.
The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, ruled Cambodia from April 1975 to January 1979, aiming to build an agrarian utopia based on Maoist ideals. About two million Cambodians lost their lives under the Khmer Rouge to execution, starvation, disease, or overwork. Thousands of Cambodians were forced to labor in the countryside. Political enemies were slaughtered, giving rise to the term "killing fields", portrayed in a 1984 movie of the same name.
Chhang was 14 when the Khmer Rouge came to power, forcing him and other teenagers into hard labor in the countryside. Chhang's brother-in-law died after a public beating to punish him for stealing leftover cucumbers to feed his pregnant wife, Chhang's sister. The sister was accused of eating the stolen food and perished after her stomach was cut open.
The genocide has left Cambodians deeply divided. Chhang said his niece, who lost her mother in the butchering, is now in her late 30's and living in Maryland. She refuses to return to her homeland and disagrees with Chhang's work in support of the genocide tribunal. Chhang's mother, who lost her own parents, siblings and some of her children, has forgiven the Khmer Rouge perpetrators and is indifferent toward the tribunals. "In the same family, my niece, mother, and I are divided about how justice should be done," said Chhang. "I support the tribunal. I want justice. I would not reach for forgiveness without prosecution."
The Cambodian genocide tribunal, established in early 2006 with support from the UN, so far has tried one defendant, the former chief of a notorious torture prison. Four other top Khmer Rouge officials are being held for a second trial. Donor countries have provided more than $100 million to support the proceedings, according to the Associated Press. Although some have criticized the tribunal as too little, too late, Chhang sees it as necessary step in Cambodia’s healing process. "The tribunal is about the future, basically."
He also believes that teaching history to a new generation of Cambodians will promote reconciliation. To that end, DC-Cam has published the first Cambodian textbook on Khmer Rouge history, a topic long ignored in the nation's classrooms. Fourteen years after the idea for the textbook emerged, the history book is finally being used in Cambodian high schools this year.
Chhang's talk was sponsored by at the business school's Public Management Program; the Stanford Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies; and MBA student participants in a recent service learning trip to Cambodia and Thailand. In addition to speaking to GSB students, Chhang was scheduled to speak with Hoover Institution officials about digitizing and archiving DC-CAM's materials.
DC-Cam was founded as an office of the Yale University Cambodian Genocide Program. It became an independent institute in 1997. It employs about 50 people and has funding from the U.S. and Swedish governments.
— Maria Shao
http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/chhang-Cambodia.html
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Rebellious Mood Takes Root in Rural Thailand
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Red-shirted protesters in Bangkok on Friday. Farmers who say they were never interested in politics are donating large sums to the red-shirt movement. (Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times).jpg)
The widow of Praison Tiplom, a protester killed in Bangkok, held a picture of her husband during his funeral last Saturday. (Thomas Fuller/The International Herald Tribune).jpg)
The red shirts have a core of support in Khon Kaen. (The New York Times)April 23, 2010
By THOMAS FULLER
The New York Times
KHON KAEN, Thailand — Six weeks of demonstrations by red-shirted protesters turned violent this week in Bangkok, but the capital is not the only place with a whiff of insurrection in the air.
On this poor and rugged plateau in Thailand’s hinterland, farmers who say they were never interested in politics are donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the red shirt movement. In at least three northeastern cities, red shirts are holding nightly rallies, sometimes drawing thousands of people.
This week, Red Station Radio, an antigovernment FM station based here in Khon Kaen, about 280 miles north of Bangkok, broadcast a warning that a train was heading to Bangkok carrying military vehicles. In no time, hundreds of red shirt supporters, who have followed the protests daily with the broadcasts, mobilized to block it.
Indeed, this rural region — home to a third of Thailand’s population — forms much of the core of the red shirt movement, demonstrating the magnitude of the challenge facing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whom the protesters are pressuring to step down and call new elections.
On Friday, protest leaders in Bangkok offered to negotiate an end to the standoff if Mr. Abhisit would dissolve Parliament within one month, instead of immediately. The gesture eased tensions slightly a day after one person was killed and scores were wounded when grenades exploded near red shirt barricades in the capital.
But the anger here in the countryside will not be easily dissipated after simmering for more than three years since the military coup that overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire tycoon turned prime minister, who is seen as the first politician to have seriously addressed the concerns of the poor.
Mr. Thaksin’s wealth and patronage network remain important drivers of the protests, but the movement also appears to be taking on a grass-roots character, with farmers and villagers finding common cause and demonstrating a new assertiveness.
The people of this northeastern plateau, known as Isaan, speak dialects similar to the Lao and Cambodian languages and generally work as farmers, manual laborers and factory workers.
The red shirts have railed against the “double standards” in Thai society — the wealthy, the Bangkok elite and the top military brass break laws with impunity, the protest leaders say, while the poor are held to account.
Radio stations like Red Station Radio have played a crucial role in spreading that message in the countryside. Red Station Radio, which operates from an unmarked office, has rapidly expanded since it started operating in November, and now has six affiliates in and around this city.
Its disc jockeys urge supporters to disrupt visits by senior government officials. One D.J. is even a full-time police officer, who uses the on-air name Noi Tamrung to protect his identity and, he says, avoid being fired. Many other police officers also back the movement, its supporters say.
“Don’t come here — that’s the message,” said Noi Tamrung. “We reject anyone from this government.”
Government supporters have called for the stations to be shut down, and the government has already banned some Web sites of the red-shirt movement, including the site of Red Station Radio. But the red shirts here have vowed to physically block any attempt to close the station, such is its support among farmers.
One farmer, Takum Srihangkod, listens constantly to broadcasts of protests in Bangkok with a cheap Chinese-made radio that he tucks into his waistband, next to his slingshot.
“Abhisit doesn’t want anything to do with poor people,” Mr. Takum said of the prime minister as he tended his cattle. His radio even stayed tuned to the protests as he muscled out a newborn calf in a difficult birth.
Supporters of the government often portray the red shirts as a mob for hire, mercenary protesters who receive a daily stipend. In a country with a long tradition of vote buying, that may be true for some.
But villagers bristle when asked if they are being paid to protest. Local officials and police officers describe a widespread fund-raising effort to support the demonstrators in Bangkok.
“We help each other,” said Triem Tongkod, a farmer who grows sticky rice in a village outside Khon Kaen. Pickup trucks with loudspeakers travel through his village periodically asking for donations. “You give what you can afford,” Mr. Triem said.
Last Saturday, at a Buddhist temple about 35 miles outside Khon Kaen, Mr. Triem was one of thousands of people who attended the funeral of Praison Tiplom, a protester killed in the April 10 crackdown on the red shirt protests in Bangkok. A total of 25 people died, including five soldiers, in circumstances that remain under investigation.
The deaths of protesters have become an opportunity to rally support and gather donations. At the funeral last Saturday, organizers collected about $9,400 for Mr. Praison’s widow, according to Num Chaiya, a D.J. at Red Station Radio who helped organize the funeral.
It was far from a typical somber ceremony, the crowd cheering loudly as Mr. Praison’s coffin, draped with the Thai flag, was carried around the crematorium three times. “Give a big hand to a warrior of the people!” Mr. Num exhorted the crowd. Almost all wore red.
Organizers of the red shirts have begun selling DVDs eulogizing the dead protesters and showing scenes of the April 10 crackdown. Along the highway, one DVD salesman, Pornchai Nanthaphothi, operates a stall festooned with red flags and other red shirt paraphernalia. A bandanna he sells is embossed with the words, “I’m not scared of you.”
“This area is nearly 100 percent red,” Mr. Pornchai said.
Successive Thai governments, including the current one, have tried to develop the Isaan region, but persistent income inequality and the need for more doctors, universities and jobs have fueled the protest movement, said Krasae Chanawongse, a medical doctor by training who has worked as a minister in four previous governments.
Thailand’s centralized political system has engendered a “colonial attitude of governors” posted here, he said. “They are more or less dictating, not consulting,” he said.
Some analysts question the durability of the red shirts, because of their close affiliation with Mr. Thaksin, but supporters here in the northeast say the movement has taken on larger goals.
In a country that has seen more than a dozen coups over the past eight decades, Chaisawat Weangwong, a 42-year old rice farmer, said the crisis had opened his eyes to the influence of the military in Thai politics and the need for a system where “the majority chooses the winner.”
“This is not for Thaksin,” he said. “This is for democracy.”
Thursday, April 22, 2010
BHP faces investigation into $2.7m Cambodia graft claim
April 22, 2010
Matt Chambers and Matthew Stevens
The Australian
BHP Billiton yesterday joined Rio Tinto in battling graft allegations, saying it had uncovered evidence of possible corruption by employees on an overseas project.
The Australian understands the conduct, now under investigation by the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, relates to a bauxite exploration project in Cambodia.
BHP has admitted making a $US2.5 million ($2.7m) payment to the community near the bauxite project, in the northeastern Cambodian province of Mondulkiri, near the Vietnamese border.
A Cambodian government minister described the payment as "tea money", a local term for unofficial payments to government officials.
BHP has rejected this, saying the money was put into a development fund investing in local social welfare programs. The company said it had paid $US1m in September 2006 to the Cambodia government for bauxite exploration rights.
BHP yesterday declined to reveal where the alleged corruption occurred, stressing only that it was not China. It would not comment on what the behaviour involved and whether employees had stood down or been fired but it said the activities involved mineral exploration, not marketing its products.
Last month, Rio sacked four workers, including Australian Stern Hu, after they were convicted of bribery and stealing commercial secrets related to deals to sell iron ore to Chinese steel mills. Rio has introduced sweeping changes to its Chinese operation and is conducting a review to avoid a repeat of the scandal.
Yesterday, BHP said the alleged corruption was uncovered after the SEC queried it during an investigation into mineral exploration projects.
"The company has disclosed to relevant authorities evidence it has uncovered regarding possible violations of applicable anti-corruption laws involving interactions with government officials," BHP said yesterday in a statement.
According to a report in The Cambodia Daily in July 2007, the nation's National Assembly was told BHP had paid $US2.5m to the government to secure exploration rights to a bauxite deposit in Mondulkiri with Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi.
The claim was made by the then water minister, who described the payment as "tea money".
The minister's comments informed a report into Cambodian corruption by the non-government organisation Global Witness. The report, Country for Sale, details the claims and BHP's rejection of them.
Global Witness wrote to BHP in October 2008 requesting details of any and all payments made to the Cambodian government.
BHP responded saying it had put $US2.5m into a development fund and it had paid $US1m in September 2006 to the government for bauxite exploration.
"BHP Billiton has never made a payment to a Cambodian government official or representative, and we reject any assertion that the payment under the minerals exploration agreement is, or amounts contributed to the Social Development Projects Fund are, `tea money'," the miner said.
While Global Witness did not draw any negative conclusions about the management of the development fund, it did identify an issue with the $US1m payment to government, although one outside the control of BHP.
Matt Chambers and Matthew Stevens
The Australian
BHP Billiton yesterday joined Rio Tinto in battling graft allegations, saying it had uncovered evidence of possible corruption by employees on an overseas project.
The Australian understands the conduct, now under investigation by the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, relates to a bauxite exploration project in Cambodia.
BHP has admitted making a $US2.5 million ($2.7m) payment to the community near the bauxite project, in the northeastern Cambodian province of Mondulkiri, near the Vietnamese border.
A Cambodian government minister described the payment as "tea money", a local term for unofficial payments to government officials.
BHP has rejected this, saying the money was put into a development fund investing in local social welfare programs. The company said it had paid $US1m in September 2006 to the Cambodia government for bauxite exploration rights.
BHP yesterday declined to reveal where the alleged corruption occurred, stressing only that it was not China. It would not comment on what the behaviour involved and whether employees had stood down or been fired but it said the activities involved mineral exploration, not marketing its products.
Last month, Rio sacked four workers, including Australian Stern Hu, after they were convicted of bribery and stealing commercial secrets related to deals to sell iron ore to Chinese steel mills. Rio has introduced sweeping changes to its Chinese operation and is conducting a review to avoid a repeat of the scandal.
Yesterday, BHP said the alleged corruption was uncovered after the SEC queried it during an investigation into mineral exploration projects.
"The company has disclosed to relevant authorities evidence it has uncovered regarding possible violations of applicable anti-corruption laws involving interactions with government officials," BHP said yesterday in a statement.
According to a report in The Cambodia Daily in July 2007, the nation's National Assembly was told BHP had paid $US2.5m to the government to secure exploration rights to a bauxite deposit in Mondulkiri with Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi.
The claim was made by the then water minister, who described the payment as "tea money".
The minister's comments informed a report into Cambodian corruption by the non-government organisation Global Witness. The report, Country for Sale, details the claims and BHP's rejection of them.
Global Witness wrote to BHP in October 2008 requesting details of any and all payments made to the Cambodian government.
BHP responded saying it had put $US2.5m into a development fund and it had paid $US1m in September 2006 to the government for bauxite exploration.
"BHP Billiton has never made a payment to a Cambodian government official or representative, and we reject any assertion that the payment under the minerals exploration agreement is, or amounts contributed to the Social Development Projects Fund are, `tea money'," the miner said.
While Global Witness did not draw any negative conclusions about the management of the development fund, it did identify an issue with the $US1m payment to government, although one outside the control of BHP.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tech giant EMC seeks to take advantage of emerging opportunity
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:01
The Phnom Penh Post
Ellie Dyer
MULTI-NATIONAL technology infrastructure firm EMC hopes to invest in Cambodia in order to make the most of emerging market opportunities, the company’s Asia Pacific president said Tuesday.
Steven Leonard told the Post, via phone from Singapore, that the US-based business has put US$2 billion aside to invest in the Asia-Pacific region by 2014.
He said the company, which competes with brands such as IBM and HP, is now looking to Cambodia for potential opportunities.
A group representative added via email that the Kingdom “has been identified as one of EMC’s fast-emerging growth markets across the Southeast Asian region”.
“We need to be in Cambodia and we want to do that in a more meaningful and substantial way,” said Leonard on Tuesday.
He added that EMC is working with a number of Cambodian telcos, which he declined to name.
"We need to be in cambodia and want to do that in a more meaningful way."
EMC provides businesses with both hardware and software to secure or encrypt data such as billing records, bank systems and archives. It has 43,000 employees across the world and earned $14 billion in revenue in 2009. Around 12 percent of revenue is currently derived from the Asia-Pacific region.
On Sunday, 400 representatives of the company completed a two-day event detailing their achievements in Siem Reap. Leonard, who returned from the Kingdom to Singapore days ago, has carried out several fact-finding missions to see where potential opportunities may lie and has met with government officials.
He added that EMC as yet has no permanent presence in the Kingdom, an issue they are currently considering.
“Cambodia is at a real transition intersection. There are so many opportunities. The country is rising up from a difficult past.
“A lot of companies have been here since the 1990s, but in terms of multi-nationals there is still an opportunity to get in early. I hope we can be a part of Cambodian growth,” said Leonard, before adding that software provision is “at the ground floor” of development in Cambodia.
The president added that, to his knowledge, no similar firms yet have a presence in the Kingdom. He said he believes that multinational entry into Cambodia has “an important part to play” in creating a diverse business community.
“It’s a foundation for Cambodia, or any other country, to continue to develop IT to help give opportunities to citizens,” he said, citing the benefits for education and knowledge expansion that technology can bring.
He was unable to say how much money EMC is set to invest in the Kingdom.
EMC has already announced investment in India, where it is expanding infrastructure at the India Center of Excellence, and Singapore, where it is opening its first technology development lab outside of North America. It has also sought out investment opportunities in China.
The Phnom Penh Post
Ellie Dyer
MULTI-NATIONAL technology infrastructure firm EMC hopes to invest in Cambodia in order to make the most of emerging market opportunities, the company’s Asia Pacific president said Tuesday.
Steven Leonard told the Post, via phone from Singapore, that the US-based business has put US$2 billion aside to invest in the Asia-Pacific region by 2014.
He said the company, which competes with brands such as IBM and HP, is now looking to Cambodia for potential opportunities.
A group representative added via email that the Kingdom “has been identified as one of EMC’s fast-emerging growth markets across the Southeast Asian region”.
“We need to be in Cambodia and we want to do that in a more meaningful and substantial way,” said Leonard on Tuesday.
He added that EMC is working with a number of Cambodian telcos, which he declined to name.
"We need to be in cambodia and want to do that in a more meaningful way."
EMC provides businesses with both hardware and software to secure or encrypt data such as billing records, bank systems and archives. It has 43,000 employees across the world and earned $14 billion in revenue in 2009. Around 12 percent of revenue is currently derived from the Asia-Pacific region.
On Sunday, 400 representatives of the company completed a two-day event detailing their achievements in Siem Reap. Leonard, who returned from the Kingdom to Singapore days ago, has carried out several fact-finding missions to see where potential opportunities may lie and has met with government officials.
He added that EMC as yet has no permanent presence in the Kingdom, an issue they are currently considering.
“Cambodia is at a real transition intersection. There are so many opportunities. The country is rising up from a difficult past.
“A lot of companies have been here since the 1990s, but in terms of multi-nationals there is still an opportunity to get in early. I hope we can be a part of Cambodian growth,” said Leonard, before adding that software provision is “at the ground floor” of development in Cambodia.
The president added that, to his knowledge, no similar firms yet have a presence in the Kingdom. He said he believes that multinational entry into Cambodia has “an important part to play” in creating a diverse business community.
“It’s a foundation for Cambodia, or any other country, to continue to develop IT to help give opportunities to citizens,” he said, citing the benefits for education and knowledge expansion that technology can bring.
He was unable to say how much money EMC is set to invest in the Kingdom.
EMC has already announced investment in India, where it is expanding infrastructure at the India Center of Excellence, and Singapore, where it is opening its first technology development lab outside of North America. It has also sought out investment opportunities in China.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Finance officials come up with work-habit ideas
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The Japan Times
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
A Finance Ministry project team compiled a set of proposals Monday to reform the ministry, focusing on achieving a more efficient working style and better work-life balance for its bureaucrats.
The ministry's officials are generally considered the elite of the nation's bureaucrats, but they also have a policy-wonk image.
Some of the 50 proposals encourage officials to use their paid vacation, take parental leave and have family members visit the ministry once in a while.
"In our ministry, not many male workers have had child-care leave, but I think if the situation is right they should take it more," said Hidenori Sakota, director of the ministry's policy planning and research division.
Sakota is part of the project team that has 20 members from various sections of the ministry.
The workload for central government bureaucrats is notoriously heavy. For instance, when budget-related bills are deliberated in the Diet, some Finance Ministry officials often have to work all night to prepare notes so Cabinet ministers can answer questions during committee sessions.
When Naoto Kan became finance minister in January, he instructed the bureaucrats under his sway to create an in-house project team to come up with suggestions for reforming the ministry and its work style, with the catch phrase "bureaucrats can go out on dates on weekdays."
The team's report calls for other reforms as well, such as more interaction with the private sector and other ministries.
Kan said that while the report is well-written, it should have addressed more specific issues.
"I'd give it a 77" out of 100, he said.
The Japan Times
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
A Finance Ministry project team compiled a set of proposals Monday to reform the ministry, focusing on achieving a more efficient working style and better work-life balance for its bureaucrats.
The ministry's officials are generally considered the elite of the nation's bureaucrats, but they also have a policy-wonk image.
Some of the 50 proposals encourage officials to use their paid vacation, take parental leave and have family members visit the ministry once in a while.
"In our ministry, not many male workers have had child-care leave, but I think if the situation is right they should take it more," said Hidenori Sakota, director of the ministry's policy planning and research division.
Sakota is part of the project team that has 20 members from various sections of the ministry.
The workload for central government bureaucrats is notoriously heavy. For instance, when budget-related bills are deliberated in the Diet, some Finance Ministry officials often have to work all night to prepare notes so Cabinet ministers can answer questions during committee sessions.
When Naoto Kan became finance minister in January, he instructed the bureaucrats under his sway to create an in-house project team to come up with suggestions for reforming the ministry and its work style, with the catch phrase "bureaucrats can go out on dates on weekdays."
The team's report calls for other reforms as well, such as more interaction with the private sector and other ministries.
Kan said that while the report is well-written, it should have addressed more specific issues.
"I'd give it a 77" out of 100, he said.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Population shrank by record 183,000 in '09
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Kyodo News
Japan's population has entered full-scale decline and shrank by a record 183,000 people over the past year, government data showed Friday.
As of Oct. 1, the population stood at an estimated 127,510,000 after shrinking by a record 0.14 percent, contracting for the second year in a row.
The year-on-year drop is the third to strike Japan since 1950, when comparable data first became available, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in the report. The other two shrinkages occurred in 2005, when it fell by 19,000, or 0.01 percent, and in 2008, when it contracted by 79,000, or 0.06 percent.
The ministry said its estimate was based on the results of the 2005 national census, annual data on births and deaths, and immigration data on entries and departures.
The female population stood at 65,380,000, down 61,000, or 0.09 percent, as deaths outnumbered births by 5,000, marking the first natural decline.
The male population stood at 62,130,000, down 121,000, or 0.20 percent, for the fifth consecutive annual decline as deaths exceeded births by 54,000.
Japan's population has entered a stage of full-scale decline as both men and women recorded natural decreases, ministry officials said.
The figures in the latest report included foreigners who stayed in Japan for 91 days or more and foreign students. The number of Japanese came to 125,820,000, revealing a decline of 127,000, or 0.10 percent.
The number of people who entered Japan totaled 3,114,000, up 250,000 from the previous year, while those who left the country stood at 3,237,000, up 329,000, meaning that social factors caused the total population to shrink by 124,000.
Of the 124,000, foreigners accounted for 47,000, marking the first decline in 15 years linked to social factors.
The officials attributed the decline in the foreign population to the recession triggered by the collapse of trading house Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008.
Many foreigners lost their jobs and returned to their home countries as the financial crisis unfolded, the officials said.
The number of people aged 65 and older came to 29,005,000, up by 789,000 and accounting for 22.7 percent of the population.
In contrast, those aged 14 or younger fell by 165,000 to 17,011,000. The productive segment of the population, or those between the ages of 15 and 64, came to an estimated total of 81,493,000, shrinking by 806,000.
Kyodo News
Japan's population has entered full-scale decline and shrank by a record 183,000 people over the past year, government data showed Friday.
As of Oct. 1, the population stood at an estimated 127,510,000 after shrinking by a record 0.14 percent, contracting for the second year in a row.
The year-on-year drop is the third to strike Japan since 1950, when comparable data first became available, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in the report. The other two shrinkages occurred in 2005, when it fell by 19,000, or 0.01 percent, and in 2008, when it contracted by 79,000, or 0.06 percent.
The ministry said its estimate was based on the results of the 2005 national census, annual data on births and deaths, and immigration data on entries and departures.
The female population stood at 65,380,000, down 61,000, or 0.09 percent, as deaths outnumbered births by 5,000, marking the first natural decline.
The male population stood at 62,130,000, down 121,000, or 0.20 percent, for the fifth consecutive annual decline as deaths exceeded births by 54,000.
Japan's population has entered a stage of full-scale decline as both men and women recorded natural decreases, ministry officials said.
The figures in the latest report included foreigners who stayed in Japan for 91 days or more and foreign students. The number of Japanese came to 125,820,000, revealing a decline of 127,000, or 0.10 percent.
The number of people who entered Japan totaled 3,114,000, up 250,000 from the previous year, while those who left the country stood at 3,237,000, up 329,000, meaning that social factors caused the total population to shrink by 124,000.
Of the 124,000, foreigners accounted for 47,000, marking the first decline in 15 years linked to social factors.
The officials attributed the decline in the foreign population to the recession triggered by the collapse of trading house Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008.
Many foreigners lost their jobs and returned to their home countries as the financial crisis unfolded, the officials said.
The number of people aged 65 and older came to 29,005,000, up by 789,000 and accounting for 22.7 percent of the population.
In contrast, those aged 14 or younger fell by 165,000 to 17,011,000. The productive segment of the population, or those between the ages of 15 and 64, came to an estimated total of 81,493,000, shrinking by 806,000.
Redress OK'd for Minamata sufferers
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Kyodo News
The government on Friday adopted the redress measures for unrecognized Minamata disease sufferers at a Cabinet meeting, including a ¥2.1 million lump-sum payment and ¥12,900 to ¥17,700 in monthly medical allowances per person.
Under the scheme, the sufferers, expected to total more than 35,000, are relieved of medical expenses for treatment, including acupuncture and moxibustion therapy.
The government plans to start accepting applications as early as May 1, the anniversary of the official recognition of Minamata mercury-poisoning disease in 1956, when a memorial service for the victims is held each year in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture.
It will be the largest settlement since a rescue package was compiled in 1995 by the government for unrecognized sufferers of the nation's worst industrial pollution case.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters: "I feel pain when I think about the hardships of those who have suffered for a long time. As a state, I apologize for that."
The neurological illness caused by mercury-tainted water that was released into the sea by chemical maker Chisso Corp. has affected coastal residents in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures. It was also confirmed in Niigata Prefecture in 1965, which was found to be caused by wastewater from a Showa Denko K.K. plant.
Redress applicants are required to submit medical certificates.
The move came after the Kumamoto District Court presented settlement terms, including the lump-sum payment and medical allowances, in a damages suit filed by unrecognized sufferers against the central and Kumamoto Prefectural governments, as well as Chisso.
Both sides have basically agreed to accept the court-brokered settlement plan.
Kyodo News
The government on Friday adopted the redress measures for unrecognized Minamata disease sufferers at a Cabinet meeting, including a ¥2.1 million lump-sum payment and ¥12,900 to ¥17,700 in monthly medical allowances per person.
Under the scheme, the sufferers, expected to total more than 35,000, are relieved of medical expenses for treatment, including acupuncture and moxibustion therapy.
The government plans to start accepting applications as early as May 1, the anniversary of the official recognition of Minamata mercury-poisoning disease in 1956, when a memorial service for the victims is held each year in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture.
It will be the largest settlement since a rescue package was compiled in 1995 by the government for unrecognized sufferers of the nation's worst industrial pollution case.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters: "I feel pain when I think about the hardships of those who have suffered for a long time. As a state, I apologize for that."
The neurological illness caused by mercury-tainted water that was released into the sea by chemical maker Chisso Corp. has affected coastal residents in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures. It was also confirmed in Niigata Prefecture in 1965, which was found to be caused by wastewater from a Showa Denko K.K. plant.
Redress applicants are required to submit medical certificates.
The move came after the Kumamoto District Court presented settlement terms, including the lump-sum payment and medical allowances, in a damages suit filed by unrecognized sufferers against the central and Kumamoto Prefectural governments, as well as Chisso.
Both sides have basically agreed to accept the court-brokered settlement plan.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Analysts lift GDP estimate for 2009
The Phnom Penh Post
Thursday, 08 April 2010 15:01 Ellie Dye
THE World Bank has readjusted upwards estimates for Cambodia’s GDP performance in 2009 after unexpected signs of improvement emerged in the economy late last year.
Economists who drew up the biannual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, released by the World Bank Wednesday, estimated that the Kingdom’s GDP contracted by 2 percent in 2009, 0.2 percent less than an estimate five months ago.
This contrasts with the government’s official assessment that GDP expanded 0.1 percent last year. The government has previously rejected estimates of recession in the Kingdom. Other international analysts including the International Monetary Fund and the Economist Intelligence Unit have estimated contractions in GDP last year.
The World Bank report released Wednesday forecast GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2010, up from a 4.2 percent prediction in November. Garment exports – Cambodia’s main earner – are expected to expand 2 percent this year, after contracting 16 percent in 2009.
Huot Chea, the World Bank’s country economist, told the Post via email Wednesday the adjustments were made after aspects of the economy “improved unexpectedly in the last quarter of 2009”.
A doubling of agribusiness exports, a halt in the decline in tourists arriving by air, and signs that domestic credit and inflows of foreign domestic investment had “begun rebounding” were indicators of change, he said.
“The other crucial point was that garment exports were previously expected to drop by a 20 to 25 percent range, but ended up by declining less than 20 percent,” he wrote.
The World Bank report said Cambodia’s economy suffered “a serious setback” after the global economic downturn, but “signs emerged [in] late 2009 that the winds were shifting”.
The adjustments also reflect feelings among World Bank economists that the region has weathered the credit crunch.
“East Asia has recovered from the economic and financial crisis, largely thanks to China,” the report said, a viewpoint reiterated by leading economists Wednesday.
Speaking via video from Tokyo, the World Bank’s chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, Vikram Nehru, congratulated ASEAN leaders in advance of the 16th annual summit, to begin in Hanoi today, on their handling of the economic crisis.
Nehru advised leaders to stay on top of regional development through better trade facilitation and managed migration and likened the economy to a bicycle.
“You have to continue reforming or else you fall off,” he said.
He also advised developing economies like Cambodia to look towards middle-term economic goals in the year ahead.
The report likens Cambodia’s situation to that of Vietnam a decade ago, when Vietnam chose to open its economy to foreign investment and began ambitious structural changes that boosted fixed investment to 32 percent of its GDP.
The World Bank estimates Cambodia’s foreign direct investment will grow to US$725 million in 2010, up from $515 million in 2009 and nearly rebounding to 2008 levels, when investments came in at $795 million.
The report’s principle author, Ivailo Izvorski, said through videolink Wednesday that developing nations should continue to make structural changes and increase capacity to make the most of prospective growth.
“Now developing countries have to get used to slower growth of their exports,” he said. “Before the economic crisis we were in a bubble.”
In its report, the World Bank also warned Cambodia of potential challenges in the year ahead.
Cambodia’s growth forecast could be put at risk by “the fragility of the global recovery, the uncertain capacity of the economy to diversify and the limited scope for a stronger recovery in credit”.
Huot Chea said after Wednesday’s conference that Cambodia could further protect itself from external shocks by diversifying its export markets, especially in garments, which are currently concentrated in the United States, which was hit especially hard by the economic crisis.
Cambodia managed to significantly raise exports to markets including Japan and Laos last year. However, trade rose from a small base in most cases.
Thursday, 08 April 2010 15:01 Ellie Dye
THE World Bank has readjusted upwards estimates for Cambodia’s GDP performance in 2009 after unexpected signs of improvement emerged in the economy late last year.
Economists who drew up the biannual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, released by the World Bank Wednesday, estimated that the Kingdom’s GDP contracted by 2 percent in 2009, 0.2 percent less than an estimate five months ago.
This contrasts with the government’s official assessment that GDP expanded 0.1 percent last year. The government has previously rejected estimates of recession in the Kingdom. Other international analysts including the International Monetary Fund and the Economist Intelligence Unit have estimated contractions in GDP last year.
The World Bank report released Wednesday forecast GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2010, up from a 4.2 percent prediction in November. Garment exports – Cambodia’s main earner – are expected to expand 2 percent this year, after contracting 16 percent in 2009.
Huot Chea, the World Bank’s country economist, told the Post via email Wednesday the adjustments were made after aspects of the economy “improved unexpectedly in the last quarter of 2009”.
A doubling of agribusiness exports, a halt in the decline in tourists arriving by air, and signs that domestic credit and inflows of foreign domestic investment had “begun rebounding” were indicators of change, he said.
“The other crucial point was that garment exports were previously expected to drop by a 20 to 25 percent range, but ended up by declining less than 20 percent,” he wrote.
The World Bank report said Cambodia’s economy suffered “a serious setback” after the global economic downturn, but “signs emerged [in] late 2009 that the winds were shifting”.
The adjustments also reflect feelings among World Bank economists that the region has weathered the credit crunch.
“East Asia has recovered from the economic and financial crisis, largely thanks to China,” the report said, a viewpoint reiterated by leading economists Wednesday.
Speaking via video from Tokyo, the World Bank’s chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific, Vikram Nehru, congratulated ASEAN leaders in advance of the 16th annual summit, to begin in Hanoi today, on their handling of the economic crisis.
Nehru advised leaders to stay on top of regional development through better trade facilitation and managed migration and likened the economy to a bicycle.
“You have to continue reforming or else you fall off,” he said.
He also advised developing economies like Cambodia to look towards middle-term economic goals in the year ahead.
The report likens Cambodia’s situation to that of Vietnam a decade ago, when Vietnam chose to open its economy to foreign investment and began ambitious structural changes that boosted fixed investment to 32 percent of its GDP.
The World Bank estimates Cambodia’s foreign direct investment will grow to US$725 million in 2010, up from $515 million in 2009 and nearly rebounding to 2008 levels, when investments came in at $795 million.
The report’s principle author, Ivailo Izvorski, said through videolink Wednesday that developing nations should continue to make structural changes and increase capacity to make the most of prospective growth.
“Now developing countries have to get used to slower growth of their exports,” he said. “Before the economic crisis we were in a bubble.”
In its report, the World Bank also warned Cambodia of potential challenges in the year ahead.
Cambodia’s growth forecast could be put at risk by “the fragility of the global recovery, the uncertain capacity of the economy to diversify and the limited scope for a stronger recovery in credit”.
Huot Chea said after Wednesday’s conference that Cambodia could further protect itself from external shocks by diversifying its export markets, especially in garments, which are currently concentrated in the United States, which was hit especially hard by the economic crisis.
Cambodia managed to significantly raise exports to markets including Japan and Laos last year. However, trade rose from a small base in most cases.
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