Unoriginal but cheap

In a city where $6 for a burrito is becoming common, Salsa Cabana offers a cheap fix for frugal TexMex lovers. Located on Street 288, in the heart of expat territory, the new eatery offers a similar menu to Phnom Penh’s many other burrito and taco joints, but at lower-than-average prices. It’s a no-frills sort of place – just one long room on the first floor of a shophouse with a bar at the front and two rows of tables. Decorations are minimal aside from a crayon-coloured mural of flowers at the back of the room. The owner hails from Tokyo, according to the menu, where the original Salsa Cabana was established in 1995. A single Japanese chef, who doesn’t speak English, so it’s unclear if he is actually the owner or just the manager, mans the grill behind the bar where he fires up standard TexMex options. It advertises itself as a “Latin Oriental Bar” but the Asian influence seems minimal. The “Cambodian deep-fried shrimp tacos” are no different from a shrimp taco from Baja. But did I mention it’s all cheap? We decided to sample a bit of everything: the burrito platter ($4), the tacos platter ($4), chips and salsa ($3), the shrimp taco ($4), and taquillas ($4). While unremarkable, it was all tasty. What stood out most was the sour cream hot sauce – although it lacked strong flavour, it gave Northeast Thai curry a run for its money for spiciness. Only the tiniest drip is necessary – add more and your taco may require a pepper spray permit from the Ministry of Interior.

Commission

As a historically significant year for female sporting success in Cambodia rolls over, headlined by Sorn Seavmey’s Incheon Asian Games taekwondo gold medal in October, the Kingdom begins the New Year with a bold initiative to give greater visibility to women and sport issues. The National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, in conjunction with the country’s Women and Sports Commission, will be laying out the red carpet for delegates and field experts from the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia attending a four-day women and sport seminar for Asia at Siem Reap’s Sokhalay Angkor Resort and Spa from January 8 to 11. The opening day’s plenary session offers presentations from Cambodia, Indonesia, South Korea, Mongolia, Bangladesh and Pakistan on their national initiatives. Over the next three days, discussions and training sessions will touch on wide-ranging issues including leadership qualities, communication and networking skills, coaching and mentoring and strategic proactive steps to ensure equitable representation of women in Southeast Asia. On the sidelines of the seminar, the participants will be entertained by a welcome dinner hosted by NOCC president and Tourism Minister Thong Khon on January 8 as well as a tour of the Angkor temple complex. “The four-day seminar is a great step forward for Cambodia as we strive ever harder to support the government’s firm policy of gender equality. An overwhelming consensus has now emerged that we need to create more opportunities for women,” NOCC secretary general Vath Chamroeun told the Post yesterday. “Interaction with various regional NOCs and representatives and experts from both the IOC and OCA will be highly beneficial for our formulation of sound strategic initiatives in empowering women, both in the administrative and competitive wings of sports.

Rui Feng firm

One day after hostages were briefly detained in a Preah Vihear province land dispute with Chinese concessionaire Rui Feng International, another protest has flared up against the company in a nearby commune over the demarcation of contested property. More than 40 villagers from 80 families in Chheb district’s M’lou Prey I commune demonstrated yesterday morning against a group measuring more than 16 hectares of land claimed by residents. “The chief of the village, commune, and [representatives of] Rui Feng company demarcated into our land where we’re living, and we protested to stop them,” said resident 46-year-old Sorn Vuthy. “After the demarcation is completed, they will tell us to dismantle our homes and we’ll be forced to leave. Authorities just told us they will find a new place [for us].” The villagers, however, are refusing to leave, claiming that their presence predates that of the company’s. Vuthy also alleged that corruption was occurring side by side with development. Families that are able to pay local authorities can buy more distance between their land and what’s being measured, he said. Commune chief Heng Phuon, however, denied the corruption allegations and said authorities were not measuring the land for the company, but for widening the road. “The villagers just lived there between 2013 and 2014, not longer than that. We told them to leave, because there is a government plan to expand the road,” he said, adding that the authorities have provided another place for them. Lor Chann, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that the act is a “violation of human rights”.

Miscommunication’ sparks increase

Cases of illegal fishing were on the upswing in 2014, with the Fishery Administration blaming the rise on a lack of communication between its officials, fishermen and local authorities. At a press conference yesterday to announce the results of a yearlong crackdown on illegal fishing, Nao Thouk, the director of the Fishery Administration, said his department had been hampered by poor communication and cooperation. According to a report released at the meeting, there were 4,347 cases of illegal fishing over the past 12 months, compared with 3,700 in 2013. Of the 166 people that were charged with illegal fishing during 2014, 114 were imprisoned, he said, adding that those convicted were fined more than 448 million riel (about $112,000) in total. Illegal fishing hot spots were in provinces surrounding the Tonle Sap river basin, including Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Kandal, the report revealed. During the meeting, officials discussed the challenge of bribery, saying military police were known to receive bribes from illegal fisherman in exchange for information about the fishery’s crackdown.

Will 2015 be a year of change

Earlier this month, in Prey Sar prison on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, I sat and talked with Tep Vanny, Song Srey Leap, Kong Chantha and Nget Khun, four inspirational activists from the city’s Boeung Kak lake community. They were jailed in early November after protesting against the now infamous 2007 real estate deal which saw the lake filled with sand and thousands of people forcibly evicted. They looked pale and tired, but spoke with quiet dignity of their determination to seek justice for the loss of their land. In today’s Cambodia, they are not alone. Steady economic growth and a large influx of aid since the end of civil war in the early 1990s have brought significant change to the country. According to World Bank estimates, Cambodia achieved the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2009, and Phnom Penh is now dotted with a growing number of sleek new apartment buildings, shopping malls and fashionable coffee shops. However, as the country’s violent past recedes, Cambodia is in the grip of a volatile new conflict over land and natural resources. Policies pursuing economic liberalisation, export expansion and foreign investment have led to rising prices and an insatiable demand for land, leading to frequent clashes between the interests of local communities and politically connected big business. With large swathes of the country leased for commercial exploitation through economic land concessions, insecurity of tenure due to a widespread lack of formal land titles and weak rule of law have facilitated a wave of land grabs and forced evictions, sometimes accompanied by shocking levels of violence. The scale of the problem can seem overwhelming, but despite the dangers, brave men and women across Cambodia are standing up to challenge violations of their land rights. Often, they are met with harassment and attacks. Within 36 hours of the arrest of seven Boeung Kak lake community activists on November 10, including those I met with, all had been detained, interviewed by a prosecutor, charged with obstructing traffic, tried, convicted and sentenced to a year in jail and issued a $500 fine, the maximum permitted under the law. A further three women and a monk faced similar treatment the following day, detained while protesting the arrest of their fellow activists and hastily convicted of obstructing public officials.

Logging body count

In the past year, just one Cambodian logger has been killed by Thai security forces after illegally crossing the border from Oddar Meanchey province in search of luxury rosewood, according to a provincial police report that was released this week, which directly contradicts the findings of a local rights group. According to the report, which was sent to the Ministry of Interior on Monday and obtained by the Post yesterday, between November 2013 and November 2014 Thai soldiers opened fire six times on Cambodian loggers, killing one woman and injuring five other people. A further 45 loggers were arrested over the 12 month period, the report says. “The provincial authorities had tried to prevent them from illegally crossing to log the rosewood,” it adds. But Srey Naren, the provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said the official count does not represent the true scale of fatalities incurred on the popular logging route. Naren said that eight Cambodian loggers were in fact killed over the 12-month period. He added that this still marked an improvement on previous years. The fatalities have “dramatically decreased because people in the province have stopped going to log”, he said. Suon Rithy, a former logger based in the province’s Trapaing Prasat district, agreed. “We used to go logging . . . but now we do not dare because there are way too many deaths and arrests. Most of the people who go logging come from other provinces, not from Oddar Meanchey,” he said. Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, but said in September that throughout 2014 no Cambodian nationals had been harmed after illegally crossing the border.

Kratie to host first

The National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, in coordination with several ministries and government agencies, will organise the Kingdom’s first Mekong River Festival from March 13 to 15 next year in Kratie provincial town, located on the east bank of Asia’s seventh longest river. Covering an estimated distance of 4,350km and originating in the Tibetan Plateau, the Mekong flows through China’s Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, eventually merging into the sea in Vietnam. “This trans-boundary river is a sustainable lifeline for thousands in Cambodia and the three-day festival is to raise awareness among the people to keep it pollution free and more importantly protect the Irrawaddy dolphin population which has made the province its home,” said NOCC secretary general Vath Chamroeun. “Cambodia as a member of the Mekong River Commission plays an important role in this co-operative network and this is a celebratory event just like our Sea Festival. “It is quite rare to find dolphins in a river and we are fortunate to have them in hundreds here. So dolphin preservation is also one of the main themes of this festival,” added the secretary. While the focus during the festival will be on highlighting Mekong as a great source of sustainable life and the role it has played over centuries in shaping the lives of people living along its path, the fun element will include a range of sporting activities. Traditional boat racing is likely to be the main attraction but Kratie’s famed sandbars will also be utilised for several games such as volleyball and wrestling.

Thai PM vows

Thailand's General Prayuth Chan-ocha has appointed himself head of a last-ditch effort to reverse the nation’s record on abusing migrant workers before annual international trafficking rankings are compiled. Last week, the Thai prime minister launched new initiatives and committees explicitly targeted at appeasing the US government, which last year relegated Thailand to the lowest possible ranking on its Trafficking in Persons report. The bruising downgrade was largely attributed to abuses of foreign labourers, especially men from Cambodia and Myanmar forced to crew notoriously exploitative fishing vessels. In his latest attempts to address the damning report, General Prayuth elected himself head of anti-human trafficking and illegal fishing policies, which will watch over various subcommittees overseeing fishing crews, migrant workers and child labour. The subcommittees will report achievements next month before compiling updates for the US, Thai government media said. As part of the stepped up efforts, Prayuth also announced enhanced regulations of the $8 billion-a-year seafood industry, including a new registry of trawlers and their mostly undocumented migrant crews. Chronic shortages in the underpaying and brutal sector have resulted in an illicit supply of an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 migrants from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Thailand has long been criticised – including in the trafficking report – for addressing the exploitation of its foreign labourers with a string of unmet promises and policies never implemented, a problem Prayuth acknowledged.

Pakistan tennis star

One of the world’s top-10 doubles players and Pakistan’s Davis Cup spearhead for nearly a decade Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi is among the six players going through their paces at a pre-season camp being directed by veteran American coach Robert Davis being held in both Phnom Penh and Kep. The coastal town of Kep has been a home away from home for Davis, who also plays an ambassadorial role for Tennis Cambodia. But for his trainee of 10 years Qureshi, who took Pakistan to the World Group playoffs in 2005 and is the only player from that country to figure in a Grand Slam final, this is his first visit to Cambodia after missing out on several previous occasions. “Working with Robert for so long, I’ve been meaning to come to the training camp here in Cambodia for the past couple of years but it just never worked out with my schedule,” said Qureshi after the first phase of the camp, which began on Christmas Day, and ended at the Sofitel Hotel courts in Phnom Penh on Sunday. “I’m glad it finally did work out because I’m in love with the country, and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to come back once more,” he added. Qureshi hit the road for Kep yesterday with the five others – Gong Mao-Xin of China, Toshihide Matsui of Japan, Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia, Bun Kenny of Cambodia and Singapore’s WTA circuit regular Sarah Pang – to train there till January 2. Like Qureshi, Gong is a first-time visitor to Cambodia. He is a regular doubles player for the Chinese Davis Cup squad. In 2011, he hit a career high ranking of 294 in singles and is currently ranked 139 in doubles.

Officials charged

Two police chiefs in Ratanakkiri province were charged and imprisoned on Saturday for allegedly allowing illegal logging by Vietnamese nationals in the area. Pak Nhai commune police chief Poy Chroch, 32, and border police chief Rochorm Em, 47, of Border Protection Platoon 4, were apprehended on Friday and summonsed to court for questioning following suspicions that they permitted five Vietnamese men to illegally cross the border and clear the forest in O’Yadav’s Pak Nhai commune, according to Chhay Thy, a provincial representative from rights group Adhoc. “The two officers were charged for allowing people to log and sent to pretrial detention on Saturday for giving permission to have the forest cleared,” said Ratanakkiri Provincial Court president Sous La. The two police chiefs will stay in pretrial detention prior to their court case around three months from today. Their arrests came after five Vietnamese nationals were charged in November for using automatic chainsaws to log timber without permission in the area, Thy said. The Vietnamese men have been kept in pretrial detention since then. Due to Chroch and Em’s alleged roles as public officials, they were charged under Article 100 of the 2002 Forest Law. Under the article, local authorities and officers who commit illegal activities that directly or indirectly interfere with enforcing the law or give permission to break the set regulations governing Cambodia’s forests shall be sentenced to one to five years in prison or fined between 10 million to 100 million riels (about $2,500 to $25,000). In interviews in 2013, Chroch denied knowledge of illegal logging by Vietnamese nationals in Ratanakkiri.

Makeover for trauma

The Royal University of Phnom Penh’s psychology students have become the first in the world to be taught a new holistic model of trauma treatment aimed at helping refugees. It’s hoped the model could be useful as Cambodia faces an influx of refugees via Australia’s detention centres and asylum-seeking Montagnards from Vietnam. Developed by Harvard University’s refugee trauma program, HPRT, the “H5 Model” has been designed to get counsellors to concentrate on survivors’ “trauma stories” in order to better understand their personal contexts and consequently provide better care. Michael Hirsch, a visiting assistant professor who began teaching the newly developed model at RUPP this year, explained that other therapy models did not take into account survivors’ individual living situations, cultural and religious beliefs or health. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy provides techniques to change a patient’s thought processes but does not address patients’ individual context. The H5 Model, on the other hand, is based around exploring five overlapping areas key to trauma recovery: human rights, humiliation, self-healing, health promotion and habitat.

Where are the

As Cambodia is experiencing continuous, but at times, uneven economic growth, it is time to ask how to make it more inclusive. A key aspect of this equation will be how to handle the issue of land conflict and how to ensure that women benefit from the growth they contribute to. While it is often said that economic growth contributes to gender equality, not everyone agrees. Economists Naila Kabeer and Luisa Natali argue that whereas gender equality contributes to economic growth, the reverse is not generally true. Growth either has no impact or, in some cases, has adverse impacts on gender equality. In Cambodia, women play a key role in economic growth, both through their high levels of economic activity and by providing the workforce for major export industries. But looking at women on the margins raises concerns about those who are left behind. These marginalised women include the inmates at CC2 Women’s Prison. While they are not representative of the general population they do represent a cross-section of Cambodians who have experienced what it means to be left out of the country’s rapid development. Each of these women has her own story. Eleven of the women are being incarcerated for activities related to land conflicts. Seven of them were arrested on November 10, charged and convicted within 24 hours for obstructing public traffic under Article 78 of the Traffic Law. The women had dragged a bed onto Monivong Boulevard in an attempt to urge Phnom Penh authorities to act on the latest flooding affecting their homes. With Boeung Kak Lake now filled for commercial development, flooding in the area has significantly worsened. The following day, three women land rights activists protested the arrest of the seven and were themselves arrested and convicted for obstructing officials with aggravating circumstances under Article 504 of the Criminal Code. All 10 have been sentenced to one year in prison and fined 2 million riel ($500). They all appealed against their convictions.

Massage shop fire

Two children died in a fire at a Sihanoukville massage parlour over the weekend. Chov Sreu, 7, and Sy Tha, 9, were sleeping on the balcony of the Commune 2 property, where their mothers work as masseuses, when the fire started at about 5am on Saturday. According to commune chief Kem Sea, the blaze was sparked by an electrical fault and spread quickly through the two-storey building’s top floor, fuelled by bedding, a mosquito net and other material. Though six people live at the house, only the children were trapped, Kem said. “No one could help them in time,” he said. “The fire was really strong.” Kem estimated the damage at about $10,000, with a motorbike and four televisions among the items destroyed. Four firetrucks from the same commune also attended to a blaze at a convenience store yesterday, which started about 12:10pm when a gas tank exploded, according to the Interior Ministry. That fire, which took just under an hour to douse, caused no injuries. Meanwhile, construction workers in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town were lucky to avoid injury when their temporary accommodation went up in flames on Saturday. Poipet Governor Ngor Meng Chroun said that about 50 rooms were damaged at a structure built by the Sok Sreng Company to shelter its workers. Meng Chroun suggested an electrical fault, an incense stick or workers cooking rice as possible causes.

Has the money spent

Recently widowed and with a newborn baby, Pannha* left her home in Cambodia to work in Malaysia – where she was promised a job in a sewing factory. When she arrived, however, she was given an umbrella, a bag and a metal bowl, and brought to the market. The job she was promised, never materialised. Instead, she was told to beg for money or be sent to jail with her baby. Each day, Pannha asked strangers for a few coins. While she made a significant amount from begging, she was unable to keep the money as her broker ordered her to pay back the cost of transportation to markets, housing, electricity, food, bowl, umbrella, bag, water supply and the rest for paying debt. When she was able to escape, eventually, she returned to Cambodia. But her life did not improve. She was a victim of human trafficking, and her life is in no better condition than when she left two years earlier. Over the last 15 years, this type of story has been repeated over and over. Young people continue to be persuaded to work in richer countries. When they arrive, the jobs promised to them never materialise. Instead, they are forced into jobs they didn’t want or didn’t sign up for. In these jobs, they face violence, extremely difficult working conditions and exploitation. It’s a sad admission that the problem hasn’t ended, despite the millions of dollars that have been poured into anti-trafficking work in the Greater Mekong Sub-region for well over a decade.

Don Sahong Dam

Today, the Mekong River Commission is holding its first regional public consultation on the Don Sahong Dam in Pakse, Laos. We believe the Don Sahong Dam poses an unacceptable risk to regional fisheries, food security and the future of the Mekong, and as such, should be immediately cancelled. The Don Sahong Dam imperils a critical and ecologically unique area of the Mekong River. The Hou Sahong Channel, on which the Don Sahong Dam would be built, is one of the main pathways in the Mekong, used year-round by fish migrating between Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Blocking the Hou Sahong Channel will have an irreversible impact on fish migration and, consequently, on food and livelihood security throughout the Mekong. The environmental impact assessment for the Don Sahong Dam failed to properly address the threat to regional fisheries. Despite the project being located less than 2 kilometres from Cambodia, the transboundary impacts of the project were not adequately considered or assessed. Construction and operation of the Don Sahong Dam will require significant change in the hydrology of the area, increasing the Mekong River’s dry season flows through the Hou Sahong Channel from 4 per cent to 50 per cent. Such changes would affect the renowned Khone Phapheng Falls and threaten the globally protected wetlands at the Stung Treng Ramsar site in Cambodia. The proposed mitigation measures, upon which the project’s success hinges, have never been tested in the Mekong region, and regional experts have expressed fears that these measures will not be sufficient to mitigate the loss of the Hou Sahong Channel for fish migration. The decisions that have been made about the design and operation of the Don Sahong Dam are based on assumptions which gamble with the future of the Mekong River and her people.

Gov’t seeks

The Ministry of Economy and Finance says it is preparing simplified and standardised accounting procedures, targeted specifically at strengthening the books of small- and medium-size Cambodian businesses, although the release date has not been specified. The ministry is developing new forms that are intended to make bookkeeping more stream-lined for small businesses, improve tax collection efforts for the government and make it easier for lending institutions to evaluate loans. Ngy Tayi, secretary of state at the ministry and head of the National Accounting Council, said that while Cambodia has had accounting standards for about a decade, few small businesses actually fill out the current forms. Tayi said that owners will only need up to six months informal training to be able to fill out the new reports. “It is a key part of developing the Cambodian economy, because small and medium enterprises share a large percentage of the country’s accelerating economic growth,” he said, adding that SMEs will be able to save money on accounting services. “It will be easier for them to declare their taxes to the government and access loans from any banks.” According to the 2011 Cambodian Economic Census, Cambodia has more than 500,000 SMEs operating in the country, a figure that represents 99 per cent of all businesses and an estimated 1.67 million jobs. Many Cambodian SME owners still record their income and expenses in handwritten notebooks making it difficult for them to accurately gauge the competition, said Ly Visal, office manager of Federation of the Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC).

Lucky bastards

By day a relaxed hangout spot, by night a relaxed cocktail bar: new Australian-run watering hole and eatery Che Culo brings casual, high-quality service to Cambodia With its high, peaked roof, patterned floor tiles, curved alcoves and cut-out bricks, Che Culo – a new Australian-owned bar in BKK1 – has something of a Mediterranean theme. The food too has Greek, Spanish and Italian influences; small tapas-style dishes at night and light pastas, salads and sandwiches during the day. “It’s loosely based on that whole [Greek island] Santorini, Italian and south of Spain feel, but done really well using local materials,” said manager and co-owner Nick Hattingh, 31, a typically laconic 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry in Australia who has a tattoo of the bar’s logo on his left arm (acquired following a particularly boozy free-flow Sunday brunch at the Sofitel). “We haven’t imported anything. Everything has been locally sourced. Even all our ceramics – plates and stuff – are made in Siem Reap.” Hattingh opened the bar earlier this month with fellow Australians, Locky Paech, 34, who Hattingh had worked with back home setting up and running various award-winning drinking holes such as Sticky Bar, the Norfolk Hotel, Eu-de-Vie and The Forresters, and architect and builder Daniel Jury, 34.

Koh Kong villagers

Villagers angered by the continued drive by Chinese firm Union Development Group to evict them from their homes in Koh Kong province have been threatened with force after they blocked a road leading to the district governor’s house. On Tuesday, about 30 security guards from the company entered Prek Smach village in Kiri Sakor district, which is protected against forced relocation by a government order, intending to destroy houses. Villagers intervened, according to a community representative, 71-year-old Prak Thorn. But the guards returned the same afternoon with a dump truck full of sand, which they used to block access to village. “So we decided early this morning to block another road in front of the district governor’s office, which is a new road that was built by the district governor himself,” Thorn said. “The Union Development Group still wants us to move from here, even though they know we won’t move, and the authorities cannot do anything because they get money from the company,” he said. UDG was granted a 36,000-hectare land concession in Kiri Sakor and Botum Sakor districts in April 2008 for a $3.8 billion mega-tourism zone. Another adjacent concession for a hydropower dam brought the total land under the firm’s control to 45,000 hectares. In Kong Chit, the provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho, said the company has been ordered to halt forced evictions in the area and refrain from using violence. “A lot of people know that most of the authorities, including the district governor and the chief of the commune, get money monthly from the company to listen to their wishes,” he claimed.

Suspects’ wives seek

The wives of tycoon Thong Sarath’s bodyguards – who are accused of murdering businessman Ung Meng Cheu on their boss’s orders – say they’re living in fear and have been blocked from seeing their husbands. Four of Sarath’s bodyguards are currently in detention after being charged with shooting Meng Cheu on November 22. Their boss, who is also a deputy chief of cabinet in the Ministry of Defence, is accused of masterminding the hit and has fled the country. Held are alleged gunman Seang Veasna, 44, and driver Ly Sao, 43, as well as Meas Sambath, 27, and Kouy Chanthol, 29, who are accused of being on another motorbike involved in the assassination. Yesterday, the wives of three of the men waited at the courthouse expecting to see Veasna and Sao when they were brought in for questioning, only to be told the case was delayed. “We three wanted to meet our husbands, but no one has allowed us,” Long Dany, wife of Ly Sao, said. Dany speculated that Veasna’s wife, the only partner so far allowed a visit, might have been permitted because the alleged gunman had reportedly confessed to the crime. At the time the men were charged, police said all the suspects had admitted to killing Meng Cheu, but the men have since told reporters their confessions were coerced. Pok San, wife of Kouy Chanthol, said she had heard that both Veasna and her husband had been threatened and forced to confess. She added her family’s life had become difficult. “Fewer neighbours contact us, and I do not want to go out in public too often,” she said. Sambath’s wife, Nop Lida, dismissed rumours of the suspects receiving a payment for the hit. “We are innocent,” she said.