Khmer Rouge prison boss 'likely' to appeal sentence

Comrade Duch is unhappy? (Photo: Reuters)

27 July 2010
Radio New Zealand News

A Khmer Rouge prison boss found guilty of murder, torture and crimes against humanity is likely to appeal against his 35-year jail term.

A United Nations-backed tribunal on Monday jailed Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, in its first verdict on the Killing Fields revolution blamed for 1.7 million deaths in Cambodia three decades ago.

Duch has admitted overseeing the torture and deaths of up to 15,000 people in 1978. However, he will serve only 19 years after the court subtracted 16 years for time already served.

Former New Zealand governor-general Dame Silvia Cartwright was one of two international judges who, along with three Cambodian judges, decided Comrade Duch's fate.

Dame Silvia says one of Duch's lawyers argues that the Extraordinary Chamber of the Courts of Cambodia had no authority to conduct the trial.
Brother of NZ victim wants to meet Duch

New Zealander Rob Hamill says he wants to meet the man responsible for the prison where his brother was tortured and killed.

Kerry Hamill ended up in Duch's notorious Phnom Penh prison after the yacht he was sailing on with two friends strayed into Cambodian waters in 1978.

One of the men was shot immediately, but Mr Hamill and Briton John Dewhirst were tortured and interrogated at the prison for two months before they died.

Rob Hamill says he is waiting to hear if it is possible to meet Duch.

What the Viet couldn't achieve thru armed invasion, they are now doing with money and the CPP's help

VN businesses increase interest in Cambodia

July, 27 2010
VNS (Hanoi)

HA NOI — In the past year ,Vietnamese business groups have revved up investment in Cambodia and actively contributed to the country's social security programmes, said the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Cambodia (AVIC).
At a review meeting in Siem Reap on Sunday, AVIC said Viet Nam had become the third largest foreign investor in Cambodia, after China and the Republic of Korea.

Addressing the meeting, Tran Bac Ha, general director of the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), which helped pave the way for Vietnamese businesses to set up representative offices in Cambodia, said Vietnamese investment to Cambodia had grown rapidly in the past year. Vietnamese businesses were granted licences for 63 projects with a combined investment capital of US$900 million.

Various Vietnamese economic groups and corporations have entered the Cambodian market, investing in different areas including telecommunications, finance and banking, air transport, agriculture, light industry, rubber and industrial tree planting, mining, energy and healthcare.

Aside from trade and investment activities, Vietnamese businesses have also pledged $6 million in funding to local social welfare schemes.

As part of the move to promote Vietnamese investment in the country, the Bank for Investment and Development of Cambodia (BIDC), a Cambodia-based affiliate of BIDV, opened a new branch in Siem Reap.

The BIDC earlier set up branches in HCM City and Phnom Penh in order to create a link between the financial markets of Cambodia and Viet Nam, and provide financial service packages for Vietnamese enterprises wishing to invest in Cambodia.

Vietnamese investors in Cambodia include the Viet Nam Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel), BIDV, the Viet Nam Coal and Minerals Corporation (Vinacomin), Viet Nam Airlines and Hoang Anh Gia Lai group.

Khmer History MP3

Life in the Ansorm Chek kingdoom seen by the keen eyes of Cartoonist Sacrava: You'd better clap

Click on the cartoons to zoom in
Cartoons by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Life in the Ansorm Chek kingdoom: Don't mess with the Cee-Pee-Pee

Stories inspired by the Iron Curtain
Adapted by Lucky Unlucky

Lucky Unlucky note: Some readers were wondering whether the use of the “Ansorm Chek kingdoom” is an insult on our revered Khmer dessert or not? Well, not too long ago, the Royal Government of the kingdoom of Cambodia issued a declaration stating that Cambodia is NOT a “banana kingdoom.” In respect to this declaration, I have decided that I should use our popular Khmer dessert to denote our illustrious kingdoom instead. That’s all. Thank you!

Who set up the CPP?

Radio Bayon is asked:
-Was the CPP set up by our illustrious politicians or by genius scientists?

Radio Bayon answers:
-Of course it was invented by our illustrious politicians. Scientists would have tested it on monkeys in advance.
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Thug Kid (Khmeng C-Peal-Peal)?

Manouth, a kid in the kingdoom of Cambodia, stands up on his desk during class and starts cursing everyone of his classmates around. The teacher shouts at Manouth, tries to get him off the desk and threatens him. Manouth is not afraid of anything, he shouts to the teacher: "Go to hell you stupid witch!"

Then the teacher tells him, she'll call the director. The nasty kid aggressively replies: "Who? The director? Oh, that ape face? Tell him to shut his stinking mouth up and wash his smelly butt!"

The teacher unable to calm him down, goes to the school director and tells him what is going on. The director is extremely angry. Opens a shelf and takes the school students' personal data list out. "Let's see who his parents are, we'll call them!" As he finds that Manouth’s father is the CPP party provincial boss and his mother is the president of the local Cambodian Red Cross chapter, his speech freezes...

Teacher: "Well? What's their phone number?"

The director (with shaking lips): "W-w-well, why don't you go to hell, you idiot witch and I'll shut my stinking mouth up and g-go wash my smelly butt right now!"