Cambodian FM says genocide trial a balancing act

2009-06-01

By KELLY OLSEN
Associated Press

Cambodia's genocide tribunal must balance the need for justice with that of ensuring stability in the Southeast Asian country, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Monday. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned that expanding the tribunal's scope beyond the five senior Khmer Rouge leaders in custody could divide the country. During its rule in the late 1970s, a total of 1.7 million people died and critics say that such a small number of defendants is unrealistic given the scope of the genocide.
Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said "we have to seek justice for our people" while considering the "peace and stability in the country." He said the government is not interfering with the operation of the tribunal. He was speaking in an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of a summit between South Korea and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that began Monday.

Cambodian-UN hybrid court for Khmer Rouge trial


Hun Sen, who is also attending the summit, said in March that expanding the genocide tribunal could spark a war and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in his impoverished country. But the comments merely seemed aimed at putting pressure on the tribunal.

Critics of the tribunal, which is jointly run by Cambodia and the United Nations, charge that the government has sought to limit its scope because other suspects are now loyal to Hun Sen, and to arrest them could cause political trouble. There have even been suspicions that the trials may be halted.

Human Rights Watch said in February that the tribunal's credibility was threatened by allowing "political considerations" to get in the way of additional indictments.

International prosecutor Robert Petit has said he wants as many as six more possible defendants charged, but Cambodian prosecutor Chea Leang has resisted that.

Duch, former-notorious S21 prison chief, is one of the on-trial five senior Khmer Rouge members

Hor Namhong also said that watching the genocide trials, which are televised in Cambodia, is difficult as it dredges up the suffering he and his family endured during the reign, which lasted from 1975-1979. He said that he and his wife lost more than 30 members of their family.

But he added that convictions may also ultimately prove cathartic.

"Maybe that could help people to calm down their moral suffering," he said.

Hor Namhong's own role during the Khmer Rouge regime has been controversial and the subject of several lawsuits. He was among hundreds of Cambodian intellectuals who were living abroad and returned home at the request of the Khmer Rouge.

Upon their return many were held at the Boeng Trabek re-education camp and eventually executed. Hor Namhong sued an opposition leader for suggesting that he held a position of authority at the camp.

Ex-Japan officials acknowledge nuke deal

TOKYO, June 1 (UPI) -- Four former top Japanese officials have acknowledged that Japan has a secret deal with the United States to allow nuclear weapons into the country.

Although the 1960 deal has been known in Japan since U.S. documents were declassified in the late 1990s, Tokyo has consistently denied it has any arrangement to allow nuclear-armed U.S. aircraft and vessels to stop over in the country without prior consultation. But now four former Japanese vice foreign ministers have confirmed the deal, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Monday.

It said the admissions by the top Foreign Ministry bureaucrats may serve to shatter Tokyo's tightly-held public position that it has always remained resolutely opposed to any kind of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.

One of the four told Kyodo he saw documents spelling out the arrangement and handed them down to his successor, saying, "It was a great secret," while another vice foreign minister said the ministry only informed politicians whom it saw as trustworthy.

The Foreign Ministry again denied any secret deals on the handling of nuclear weapons between Japan and the United States, Kyodo said.

New MFI to issue property loans

The Phnom Penh Post

Monday, 01 June 2009

First Finance – a joint venture with Phillip Capital Group of Singapore and private investors – says it will lend to the struggling property sector despite the continuing downturn and bad loans Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON The construction sector has seen reduced activity and an increase in nonperforming loans since the economic crisis hit WHILE most banks remain reluctant to provide real estate loans to customers amid the global financial downturn, a new microfinance institution set to launch June 8 says it will channel lending to house purchases and construction. "For the first time, home financing will be available to middle- and lower-income Cambodians," Talmage Payne, CEO of newcomer First Finance, told the Post on Friday. "We are going to offer a product that the other [microfinance institutions] are not touching - loans for house purchasing." First Finance is a joint venture between Phillip Capital Group and local individual investors. The Phillip Capital Group is a Singapore-based Asian financial house with operations in eight countries in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. "We see largely younger Cambodians getting educations who really want to improve their lives. Many of them want to own their first home," he added. He said First Finance will offer long-term repayment loans - up to 15 years - with a competitive interest rate. "The medium loan size is US$14,000, and clients will be required to use the title of the house or apartment they are buying as collateral." The UN Development Programme said last month that more than 30 percent of construction projects "may have been placed on hold due to the global downturn", while analysts have blamed a rise in nonperforming loans this year on the faltering property market. Payne said that despite the current downturn in real estate, First Finance had not been discouraged to invest. "The Cambodian economy will come back soon, so we want to be ready," he said. "For those people that have the income and resources, it will be a good time to buy because it's cheaper due to the downturn period." First Finance will expand to cities in Preah Sihanouk and Battambang provinces by 2010, said Payne. Hout Ieng Tong, president of the Cambodia Microfinance Association and general manager of Hattha Kaksekar Limited, said Sunday that he welcomed the new institution. "Most of the MFIs focus lending on small businesses rather than home buyers," he said, explaining that more customers benefitted from loans given to micro-, small- or medium-sized enterprises rather than individual real estate buyers. He said that Hattha Kaksekar planned to lend $30 million this year, but would not issue property loans. Bun Mony, a board member of the Cambodia Microfinance Association and general manager of Sathapana Limited, said Sunday this was a new market for MFIs. "First Finance will be an evolutionary institution, and its focus on loans for house purchases reflects the progress of the real estate sector in Cambodia," he said.