CAMBODIAN LIVELIHOODS BEYOND HIV

Sam Samrithea shook his head as Thai Bunthorn laid out the plan for his next money-making scheme.
 

“No, pig raising is too hard. Pigs are more money. They get infected. You have so much potential with your chickens. It’s a risky investment,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

Mr. Bunthorn then floated the idea of starting a fish farm, which Mr. Samrithea again shook his head at before calmly refocusing the conversation on his chicken farm.
 

“It would be better if you stuck with chickens,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

Mr. Samrithea – formerly the social enterprise manager for Khana, the largest NGO providing HIV prevention, care and support services in Cambodia – walked over to Mr. Bunthorn’s chicken cages and started giving tips on how to expand them.
 

Mr. Bunthorn, 39, has been living with HIV since 1999. His brother died from AIDS in the early ’90s when the country was still trying to get a handle on the epidemic after its 1991 arrival in Cambodia.
 

In 1995 alone, there were an estimated 23,000 new infections and Mr. Bunthorn said there were no drugs available for his brother at the time.
 

“I’m lucky that I have survived this long,” he said while sitting next to his wife – who is also HIV positive – his mother and his young son.
 

He was born in Poneras village in Kampong Chhnang province and moved between working as a motodop and a laborer before his diagnosis.
 

With the help of Mr. Samrithea and Khana, he is transitioning into farming and is slowly learning the ins and outs of chicken raising, eagerly picking up on the sort of minutia that separate successful chicken farmers from the rest.
 

Mr. Samrithea and Mr. Bunthorn met through Khana’s Livelihood Program, a somewhat revolutionary approach in Cambodia to addressing the social stigmas, poverty and health issues that people with HIV struggle to overcome on a daily basis.

Sam Samrithea (right) discusses Thai Bunthorn’s chicken farm. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

To commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1, US Ambassador William Heidt and UNAIDS country director Marie-Odile Emond urged Cambodia to “continue efforts to protect human rights, to ensure respect for all, to combat discrimination and to enable legal and policy environments,” for people infected with HIV.
 

But how do you combat discrimination? How do you ensure respect for all?
 

Despite the herculean efforts of both Cambodian medical officials and international organizations to successfully fight the epidemic’s spread in the kingdom, the next step in the process has largely been ignored.
 

The estimated number of new HIV infections fell from its peak of 20,978 in 1995 to 1,003 in 2014 and people living with HIV among adults aged 15 and over decreased from its peak of 102,440 in 2000 to an estimated 72,159 in 2014.
 

However, the lives of these 72,159 people living with HIV have rarely been explored.  Outside of providing medical care and vital antiretroviral therapy (ART), few have asked them how they were coping with the virus, ignoring studies that show strong links between depression and poor adherence to ART, a more rapid progression of HIV and a lower quality of life.
 

Sadly, the situation is dire for many infected with HIV, even those now receiving regular treatment for the virus.
 

Khana’s researchers found that Cambodians with HIV were 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who were not infected.
 

“There is a vicious cycle between HIV infection and poverty, wherein HIV-affected households are more likely to develop economic problems, which in turn worsen individuals’ symptoms,” they wrote in a study last year.
 

“Using only medical approaches is insufficient for supporting people living with HIV who are dealing with these multifaceted problems.”
 

Due to the physical toll of the treatment, many people with HIV have to search for new, less physically intensive professions, which can be difficult in small towns and villages where social stigmas around the virus outweigh all other factors.
 

This is where Khana stepped in.

Im Srey Mom and her family on their farm in Kampong Chhnang province. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

Mr. Samrithea has worked on a variety of local economic programs for Khana since August 2007 and said the Livelihood Program started in April 2010.
 

Khana’s executive director Choub Sok Chamreun, one of the founding members of the program, said the idea for the initiative sprouted from the beneficiaries themselves, who told of ceaseless financial troubles and outright discrimination by local community members.
 

One of the goals of the Livelihood Program was to help people with HIV learn how to properly save their money and integrate them into more formal lending practices that can spare them the aggressive interest rates of private loan sharks.
 

For some infected with HIV, treatment can be a costly burden on already tight budgets. In a survey of 510 people with HIV involved in their programs, Khana found their average monthly income to be just less than $88.
 

“We help people save money and promote saving behavior for our beneficiaries. We have learned from our studies that the poor don’t know what they should save for,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

“They keep their money in the wall so it’s too accessible. They use it and lose it.”
 

Mr. Samrithea explained that Khana, along with their implementing partners at local NGOs, created village savings and loan (VSL) associations comprised of anywhere between 10 and 30 people.
 

These groups were initially meant to stimulate the local economy and increase the savings of people with HIV in the community.
 

“Once they form the group, the first thing we tell them is that there will be three benefits from doing this,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

“Their own savings, loans to group members at reasonable interest rates and emergency loans in case something happens.”
 

The VSL group creates a set of rules and regulations on a variety of things – interest rates, time limits on reimbursement, punishments for late payments, the group’s meeting schedule – before signing on the dotted line.
 

Each person can buy any number of shares, usually for between 5,000 and 10,000 riel, and the group puts the total sum in a local bank. After 10 to 12 months of accruing interest, people can cash out or put their money in again for the next year.
 

In each successive year, Khana takes less and less of a role in the group in the hope that participants will continue it on their own. But they do continue their support in other ways.
 

“Once people know how to save, give loans and pay loans, then the Khana staff works with them to see how they want to use the money. How are they going to use their new savings?” he said.
 

“Some people want to open small businesses, some people want to raise cows or chickens.”
 

The groups, he said, morphed into brainstorming sessions, with people contributing their own knowledge of certain fields or tasks to help others start businesses and try new things with their savings.
 

Once the beneficiaries figure out their plan of action, Khana provides them with free skills training sessions to help them along.
 

“This is a unique program in Khana. We are providing capacity building in technical skills through trainers with years of experience. They get theoretical skills and practical skills from watching,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

All of the skills training sessions are held at Khana’s Livelihood Learning Center in Kampong Chhnang province. Beneficiaries are invited to come for free and allowed to stay at the center for the duration of the training. More than 2,000 people have come to the center for classes.
 

Sim Nhep has worked at the center since it was created in 2012 and said local government officials were helpful in providing Khana with land for the facility.
 

For him, participation in the classes at the center was personal. His cousin has HIV and that has propelled him into helping more people with the virus.
 

“They are poor, but they can still get help for these activities. The support, both financial and medical, from Khana brings hope to infected people,” Mr. Nhep said.
 

“We want to make them feel important. We want to let them know that they matter.”
 

Mr. Nhep is an experienced teacher at this point, and Mr. Samrithea said the trainings are a mix of classroom sessions on theory and hands-on lessons.
 

“We are not teaching them from step one. We are only picking up on the areas that are hardest for them,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

“For chicken raising, we focus on chick selection, vaccination and medicine because many farmers have to deal with deaths. It’s the number one failing in the business.”
 

They also allow people in the group to give tips from their own experience, and this part of the program ended up blossoming into something greater than expected.
 

“We adopt storytelling because we feel that by using stories they can learn a lot from their peers. This is very practical. It’s easy for them to understand and they enjoy an environment where they are comfortable and learning,” he said.
 

The collaborative – as well as lucrative – nature of the groups fostered an unexpected closeness between the participants, turning the VSL associations into something more akin to support groups.
 

Members share their daily struggles with HIV equally as often as they share recipes and business tips.
 

“People with HIV and AIDS need not only medicine, not only prevention, but a livelihood to sustain themselves. By creating the VSL group, they have a platform and mechanism where they can meet, talk about their problems, share their experiences and support each other,” Mr. Samrithea said.
 

“It’s become about more than savings.”
 

The groups have been so successful in some communities that people who are not infected with HIV are eager to join, bringing a new fold into the initiative’s efforts to address the problems of people with HIV more holistically.
 

Siyan Yi, the founding director of the Center for Population Health Research at Khana, said interaction and exposure are integral for people with HIV.
 

“When you live alone, you just don’t know a better way. In the Livelihood Program and VSL, we did not restrict it to only PHIV [people with HIV]. The group only needs to be led by someone with HIV.
 

“When people in the community join, it may help reduce the gap. They work together and speak together and indirectly reduce discrimination.
 

“People still feel it, the shame of the disease,” he said.
 

“But the goal of the program is to reduce the stigma and discrimination in the community, so we provide an opportunity to improve their socio-economic conditions while at the same time connecting them to those who do not have HIV.”
 

Mr. Bunthorn, who has been involved in the Livelihood Program since 2011, said his VSL group finished its fifth year in December and their 30 members, both people with and without HIV, plan to sign up for another year.
 

“I’m proud to be a member of this group. I’m proud to have their support for my ideas and I’m proud to have such good relations with all of the VSL members,” Mr. Bunthorn said.
 

Mr. Yi was adamant that the program needed to be kept going, as Khana’s own research found that it was immensely helpful to almost everyone involved and gave the NGO an opportunity to conduct a variety of groundbreaking surveys on the HIV population in Cambodia.
 

“As you can see, people living with HIV can live normal lives for a long time. So it’s not just about the disease. It’s about the living conditions, the quality of life. Their overall well-being,” he said.
 

“If we only provide medical care and prevention, it will not solve the problem. We have to provide other support to improve their quality of life.”
 

Im Srey Mom agreed wholeheartedly.
 

The 44-year-old mother of four discovered she was HIV positive in 2011, months after her husband, 52-year-old Proeung Sinat, tested positive for the virus.
 

She started participating in Khana’s programs in 2012, joining a VSL group in her home village of Andong Rovieng in Kampong Chhnang province and subsequently receiving business training from the NGO. Her husband, who moved to the area from Battambang province, attended a poultry farming course and has been running his farm for a year now.
 

Their VSL group, she said, was made up entirely of people with HIV and is set to begin its fourth year after a short hiatus.
 

“We have access to loans for medicine and for our business and, at the meetings, we talk about health issues and each person goes around and talks about themselves,” she said.
 

“We feel happy, friendly and open to speak about any issues. By joining this program we can get skills training and have access to ideas about what kind of things we can do with ourselves, both from the group and from the program.
 

“No matter what, we want to continue this, even without the NGO.”
 

In Tek Hout commune, Kampong Chhnang province, Sun Thom’s VSL group helped her expand from chicken farming into making furniture out of coconut shells. Ms. Thom, 43, and her husband, Pov Sovann, moved to the area eight years ago from Kandal province and soon after realized they were both HIV positive.
 

Ms. Thom was forced to sell all of her land in Kandal province and spend everything they had on their treatment and children.
 

They both joined Khana’s programs in 2011, with Ms. Thom taking part in a food processing training session and Mr. Sovann learning chicken farming at the Livelihood Center.
 

They now have 200 chickens and are expanding into other small businesses with their savings from the VSL group, which finished its fifth year in December and has grown from five members to 30.
 

Many of those involved in the group are not HIV positive and plans are underway to split it into two groups to accommodate the deluge of new members for the next year.
 

The VSL group is depositing almost 10 million riel (about $2,500) in their local bank this year, more than they ever have before.
 

“This is what happens when both [HIV and non-HIV] work together. We settle issues easily and motivate each other,” she said.
 

Despite the overwhelming success of the program and the wealth of information gained on Cambodia’s HIV population, funding for the program ended in 2015. Mr. Samrithea said the donors, one of which is USAID’s PEPFAR program, wants more of a focus on health as well as medical treatment and asked them to move on from the Livelihood Program.
 

Cambodia’s success in fighting HIV and AIDS has become a problem for those living with the virus as international donors – who provide the lion’s share of monetary support for HIV and AIDS programs in Cambodia – move funding to other more at-risk nations and populations.
 

“Cambodia’s showing of success in response to HIV and AIDS has led to the funding from donors to decline since late 2015. About $20 million has been cut since then and this funding is going to get less and less in the near future,” Khana executive director Mr. Chamreun said.
 

He added that Khana is now looking into grants from the US as well as from UK Aid Direct and is already preparing proposals that will include some form of the Livelihood Program.
 

UNAIDS chief Ms. Emond said that while funding for HIV/AIDS programs was secured through 2017, subsequent years are shrouded in uncertainty.
 

“The funding for national AIDS response remains highly dependent on external resources, mainly the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the US government, whose contribution has been declining for a few years,” she said.
 

“Though there has been some additional national funding allocated for the AIDS response, this does not totally compensate for the external resources’ decline.
 

“Cambodia is on the right track to be among the first countries to achieve its national goals of the elimination of new HIV infections and ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2025 [even before the global goal] but sufficient and well prioritized investment in the coming years will be decisive to make this a reality.”
 

She went on to lament the decline in the number of livelihood programs and said it was key in helping at-risk populations cope with their ailment and advance in society.
 

“Increasingly, people living with HIV who are on HIV treatment are doing much better in terms of health but indeed still need livelihood opportunities and want a job as any other Cambodian as they do not want to be dependent on aid. With external funding declining, there has clearly been a decline of livelihood programs specific for HIV-affected communities,” she said.
 

Even though funding for the programs is largely nonexistent now, both local and international groups have tried to help people with HIV integrate into broader social protection programs that are not specifically tailored to people with the virus.
 

The problem that they face, she said, is discrimination, both in the community and in the distribution of services and resources.
 

“Some key population groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people or people who inject/use drugs who are at higher risk for HIV also face additional livelihood hardship and difficulties to find jobs because of stigmatization and discrimination or other reasons,” she said.
 

“This can be a vicious circle leading some to a poverty trap which further increases their vulnerability to HIV and other health and social issues.”
 

The government, she said, has pledged to “not let successful programs collapse because of a lack of funding,” but the meager amount of subsidies they are now trying to provide will not offset the loss of international donations and cannot sustain efforts like Khana’s Livelihood Program.
 

In spite of the tenuous future of funding for HIV programs in Cambodia, the VSL groups Khana started continue to grow and expand with some freelance help from the local NGOs they worked with in the community. Mr. Chamreun said more than 4,000 people with HIV in 12 provinces participated in the program throughout its run.
 

Mr. Samrithea left Khana last September and took a job at the Mine Action Authority. But he was strident in his beliefs about the effect of Khana’s work and how worthwhile their mission was – while they had it.
 

“The key change is behavior. They know they can save and are willing to save. This is the biggest change. The change is in the confidence in knowing that they can do things like this. They are proud to participate in this social activity.
 

“Before, when there was an invitation to join any social activity, they were scared. But with the change in their livelihood, they seem to want to show themselves to the community. Some even talk about their HIV status without being asked,” he said.
 

“They are now like everyone else in the village.”
 

When asked if he was worried about what would happen to the program’s beneficiaries if there was no one to nurture the Livelihood Program and expand it, much less continue it officially, Mr. Samrithea turned and waved his hand at me as if I’d suggested pig farming.
 

“We were just watering these seeds,” Mr. Samrithea said. “The potential was always there and will be.”

THE WIND UP: BASEBALL CONTINUES GROWTH IN CAMBODIA

Kong Yen rubbed the dirt off his nose with his thumb and put the edge of his glove right under his eyes, staring directly into the meatiest part of the catcher’s mitt waiting more than 18 meters away. 
 

A row of children perched themselves against a nearby fence watching intently as Yen picked up his right leg high, wound up his arm and fired his pitch. 
 

A tall Malaysian batter waiting at the other end didn’t flinch and crushed the ball with the thickest part of his bat before sprinting to first base.

Yen scooped up a new ball from the catcher, firmly adjusted his cap and waited as the next batter readied himself.
 

In most Major League Baseball (MLB) stadiums during a regular season night, a base hit would elicit boos from the home crowd, maybe even a thrown cup or two, depending on the pitcher. 
 

But on this field, in this province, in this country, there were only cheers and whoops. That the game was being played at all, much less on a mint green field in the middle of Kampong Thom province, was cause for celebration. 
 

The Kingdom has hosted Thailand’s national baseball team before, but this event – with the Malaysian National Baseball team and a university team from Hanoi in attendance – was billed as the first international baseball tournament held in Cambodia. 
 

While the tournament was the main focus of the event, there was a larger effort to show how legitimized the sport has, and can, become in Cambodia. Thanks to the solid foundation set up by Joe Cook, the Cambodian-American who brought baseball to Cambodia in 2002, there are Cambodians – like Yen – with serious baseball talent.
 

The problems that players like Yen face are organizational. The team succeeded in getting together and entering the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand only to suffer a series of brutal defeats. 
 

Most players on the team had no experience against outside competition and, more importantly, there were pitches they had never seen before because none of the pitchers in Cambodia were good enough to throw them yet, particularly the breaking ball – an especially deadly pitch.
 

In total, their opponents scored 113 runs to their 13.
 

The embarrassing losses, coupled with a 2009 bombshell article from ESPN detailing Cook’s mismanagement of the national baseball team’s funds, left the team in disarray. 
 

A member of the national baseball team dusts himself off after sliding home. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

Nhem Thavy, the CPP parliamentarian for Kampong Thom province, managed to pick up the pieces, eventually building his own regulation baseball field next to his resort on Bronze Lake and taking the reins as president of the Cambodia Baseball Federation in 2010.
 

Thavy can trace his love of baseball back to two traditional Khmer games he remembers playing as a kid – “Swar Dandoeum Tee” and “He-ing” – that when combined bear an eerie resemblance to America’s national pastime.
 

“But I remember when we first went to the ministry [of education, youth and sport] and they looked at us and said, ‘Baseball? What is that?’” he said.
 

Since Prime Minister Hun Sen took a renewed interest in the country’s sporting achievements, the government has tried to be more proactive in supporting a variety of grassroots efforts to teach sports like baseball. 
 

Thavy says the federation was asked by the government to teach physical education (PE) classes using baseball in four high schools and two primary schools in Phnom Penh. In addition to the schools in the capital, schools near the field in Kampong Thom province get regular visits from national baseball team members, who teach techniques and basic ball skills to younger students.
 

The goal, Thavy says, is to start from the bottom by teaching kids the game at a young age and expanding it to cities and provinces across the country. Schools in Battambang and Siem Reap provinces have already expressed interest in starting their own regional teams and receiving training from national team members. 
 

Catcher Kan Sokhon waits for the pitch. (Photo: Jonathan Greig)

All of these efforts are in anticipation of the 32nd SEA Games, which will be hosted by Cambodia in 2023. Thavy is hoping to have a full-fledged team ready to compete by then, and few people are more instrumental to this effort than Tony Nishimura, vice-president of the federation and head coach of the national team.
 

Nishimura was hired in 2011 to handle the baseball end of the operation while Thavy dealt with the funding, and he has eagerly latched on to their idea of starting the sport early with primary school students.
 

“[Previously], they just tried to pull out a military guy, a soccer guy, whoever had the best physicals. Put them in a dormitory, hire a Japanese or Korean coach to teach them for like six months or a year. Like they are instant noodles,” Nishimura said. 
 

“We want to do this completely different. We want to make this country famous for baseball. That’s why we’re starting from the elementary, primary and high school level. If we can build that infrastructure, then every year we can have tryouts and selections.”
 

Despite his belief that the process will be slow and may take years, the PE courses are already paying dividends.
 

“We started PE classes eight months ago at Boeung Trabek Primary/High School,” Nishimura said. 
 

“They are playing real baseball now. They know the rules, they know how to play it. They are quick learners, and rumors are spreading to other schools who now want baseball for their PE classes.”
 

Ultimately, Nishimura wants to create an under-15 team, an under-18 team and a fully-manned national team. He also said he was considering a women’s team. 
 

The baseball federation is now faced with a good problem: there are too many schools and groups who want to play baseball and not enough coaches, volunteers, equipment or fields where they can play.
 

Thavy said most of the national team players either run PE classes or teach baseball after school twice a week and on Sundays they hold open practices for anyone who wants to join. To deal with the lack of volunteer coaches, Thavy has looked outward to the MLB and other professional leagues around the world for help.
 

Baseball coaches have been coming to Cambodia to teach players the game since 2002 and Todd Bess, a well-traveled baseball aficionado, is helping Thavy ramp up the federation’s efforts to attract foreign coaches, equipment and expertise on how to build upward. 
 

“Every time I’m on an airplane in the US, I can look down and see 20 baseball fields in a major city. In Cambodia, you can count the number of fields on one hand. Anything big starts small,” he said.
 

“The biggest thing behind what we’re doing here with baseball is with schools at the center of it. Any sport only lasts for a short time, but the education that people can acquire, that can never leave.”
 

Thavy is already making plans to take the sport to between 15 and 20 schools in Phnom Penh by 2017, as well as to create two teams in Preah Vihear – one in Poipet and another in Battambang. Building baseball fields in Phnom Penh seemed impossible, he said, so his hope is that soccer fields can be partially converted into baseball diamonds if there was enough demand.
 

The baseball federation was officially recognized by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport as well as the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia earlier this year and an NGO is now working on translating an official book of baseball rules into Khmer, which would allow the federation to certify baseball coaches and teachers. 
 

The sport will be added to the national budget next year and will receive some government funding, according to Thavy.
 

But baseball in Cambodia is expensive. All the equipment has to be imported – usually through large donations from professional teams in Japan and the US – and once it gets here, it can be costly to transport the gear to schools that need it.
 

Just the cost of renting or buying land for baseball fields is prohibitive for many schools. The 70-year-old federation president said he is looking into attracting corporate sponsors, but is holding out hope for more participation from the Cambodian-American community, both financially and with baseball.
 

Those most affected by the baseball cash shortage, however, are the current members of the national baseball team. Many of the players spoke of walking a tightrope between staying involved in an activity they love and providing for their families in the most real
sense.
 

The federation gives them housing – next to the baseball field in Kampong Thom – and provides them with a stipend. But Kan Sokhon, the 29-year-old catcher, and pitcher Yen said it was not enough to support their families. 
 

Both men are fathers of young children and work as farmers throughout the week, shuffling between their fieldwork and their baseball PE classes at the local elementary school. 
 

Many of the current national team players will be too old for the squad participating in the 2023 SEA Games and some have decided to hone their skills for the next generation.
 

“I have been playing for 12 years and I picked up playing the infield quickly. Now they are starting younger. They already throw like we do,” Sokhon said.
 

Yen, a lanky 24-year-old from Preah Vihear province, said he was immediately tossed on to the pitcher’s mound when the coach saw how fast he could throw four years ago, but yearned for more instruction now that he is progressing.
 

“I really want to learn more, but our living situation is hard because we get some money from the federation but we have to keep our side business as farmers,” he said.
 

“I dream of being a pitching coach. I want the federation to teach me how to play and coach so I can do this.”
 

Back on the mound, Yen fixed his hat, eyeing the new batter stepping to the plate. He wound up and fired off a pitch that was just a bit too high above the plate.
 

As the Cambodian announcer, in his best American accent, yelled, “BALL,” Yen brushed off the dirt staining the blue “Cambodia” stitching on his jersey and prepped for the next pitch.
 

Additional reporting by Ven Rathavong

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/33204//

ROSEWOOD EXPORTS VIOLATE UN TREATY: ORG

BY JONATHAN GREIG AND PAV SUY

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a report this week saying Cambodia is in direct violation of a UN treaty due to the increased logging and export of rosewood.
 

Siamese rosewood, designated an endangered species by the UN due in part to the voracious appetite for it in China, is protected under the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
 

While the CITES Appendix II protection for Siamese rosewood took effect in March 2013, during the first 18 months of its enforcement Cambodia continued to export copious amounts of the wood, with more than 12,000 cubic meters of Siamese rosewood being given legal permits for export from the Kingdom between June 2013 and December 2014.
 

“In one year alone, Laos and Cambodia appear to have harvested and exported a volume equivalent to the largest known population of Siamese rosewood remaining in the world,” the report said.
 

Wood species with CITES designation are not necessarily banned from international trade, but their export must be authorized by a country only if “relevant authorities are satisfied trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild and that the timber is legal,” the report added.
 

Prime Minister Hun Sen doubled down on the CITES designation for rosewood, telling neighboring countries in 2013 that the trade and distribution of rosewood had been banned, while imploring them to stop buying rosewood from Cambodia.
 

In January and April in 2014, the EIA specifically asked Cambodia whether it had issued CITES export permits, to which it said it had not. But the CITES database showed that other countries had imported 964 cubic meters of wood from Cambodia at that point. With no legal source of rosewood, it is unclear how legitimate, government-stamped wood could have been exported.
 

The EIA said the CITES permits given to the 964 cubic meters of rosewood were “either incorrectly or illegitimately” handed out.
The exports, despite flouting Mr. Hun Sen’s ban, would have been accepted internationally if Cambodia had done its own survey of the amount of rosewood left in the country and decided the amount did not threaten their existing stock. But no survey has ever been done, and when asked, the spokesman for the Ministry of Environment even questioned why anyone would want to know the size of the country’s rosewood timber stock.
 

“We will never evaluate the amount of rosewood in terms of hectares because everything is mixed in together,” ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap said. Despite the specific requirements laid out in the CITES designation, Mr. Sopheap continued to ask why it was necessary to know how much rosewood was left in the Kingdom.
 

Mr. Sopheap’s comments fall in line with what the EIA said in their report: “Neither Laos nor Cambodia have credible inventories of remaining populations to justify any exports at all, or likely any evidence of legality, as required under the convention.”
 

EIA Senior Forest Campaigner Jago Wadley said Mr. Sopheap’s response “would appear to confirm our allegations that Cambodia does not have even an indicative inventory of Siamese rosewood stocks, and that it cannot have conducted the legally-required NDF [Non-Detriment Findings], and that it has therefore structurally violated CITES rules when issuing CITES export permits for 12,000 cubic meters of the species.”
 

“The EIA believes that Cambodia has only issued CITES export permits for Siamese rosewood because it is happy to violate, ignore or abuse a UN treaty, and is willing to use that UN treaty to falsely legitimize the illegal timber trade,” Mr. Wadley added. “We believe the CITES export permits should not have been issued, and suspect corruption and a rule of law defect in the country are causal factors.”
 

In terms of the permits that were issued for exported rosewood, Mr. Sopheap told Khmer Times to contact the Ministry of Agriculture, which did not respond to requests for comment.
 

He went on to tout the government’s efforts to create protected areas and set up patrols to combat illegal loggers, ignoring questions about why and how more than 12,000 cubic meters of rosewood were given permits for export.
 

The EIA was harsh in their condemnation of Cambodia’s actions, and said appropriately tough legislation was needed to force Cambodia into compliance.
 

“Laos and Cambodia have systemically disregarded the most basic legal safeguards of UN trade rules for endangered species in ways that seriously undermine the credibility of CITES, while edging Siamese rosewood ever-closer to extinction,” Mr. Wadley said. “CITES intervention is urgently required.”
 

The EIA report calls for an immediate end to any and all rosewood exports until Cambodia can show statistically that any trade of rosewood, much less the massive amount now being conducted, would not be detrimental to the already dwindling stock.
 

“All the indicators betray a governance culture where the rule of law is replaced by forms of state-sponsored crime in key ministries which influence the implementation of UN treaties such as CITES,” Mr. Wadley said, adding that Cambodia had to conduct “Legality Acquisition” tests on each consignment of timber that was exported, and only issue CITES permits after the wood’s legality had been confirmed.
 

As there is no legal source of rosewood in Cambodia, this would currently be impossible, he said.
 

“Cambodia also needs to clamp down on the forms of cronyism and corruption that have resulted in well-connected individuals being given extraordinary access to illegal timber stockpiles in the country, in ways that make it look like a governance black hole.”

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/26627/rosewood-exports-violate-un-treaty--org/

DUCH DENIES RAPE AT S-21

Before starting his third day on the witness stand, Kaing Guek Eav, the former head of Khmer Rouge detention center S-21, was told by the court’s president that he was free to incriminate himself, as his trial had finished and he is already serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity.
 

Yet when asked yesterday about multiple accusations of rape at S-21 by Civil Party Co-Lawyer Marie Guiraud during testimony for Case 002/02 involving Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, Mr. Guek Eav vehemently denied the charges, exclaiming: “Who dared to engage in sexual rape? Nobody.
 

“I don’t believe it was that easy to rape a woman in the open,” he added. “That person would have been beheaded.”
 

Ms. Guiraud continued to ask him about specific testimony from previous witnesses who claimed to have either seen or heard about rapes at the detention center. But Mr. Guek Eav refused to accept the allegations, even going so far as to defend the same Khmer Rouge leaders he had spent the previous days incriminating.
 

He started the line of questioning by admitting to one rape at S-21 involving one of his old teachers.
 

“I only knew of one case. A young man raped my former teacher. It was related to a mistake made during the interrogation process,” he said. “I believe there were not many instances of rape at S-21.”
 

But as he was asked more questions about specific instances of rape, he became more bullish and animated, slamming any assumption that rape was allowed at S-21 and even saying the accusations were fabricated.
 

In between his vehement denials, he managed to slip in excuses about why he may not have known about rapes at S-21, claiming at one point that it was his subordinate Ta Hor’s responsibility to handle any cases of sexual assault.
 

“It was not my responsibility,” he said. “And this does not reflect CPK [Communist Party of Kampuchea] policy.”
 

Mr. Guek Eav, known to many as Duch, started the day with more questions from Assistant Prosecutor Dale Lysak about the specifics of interrogations at S-21. He told the court the methods of torture often changed based on who was in charge.
 

When Ta Nat, Mr. Guek Eav’s predecessor, was in charge, electrocutions were more common and more prisoners were killed during torture. But when he took the reins, physical beatings were more prevalent.
 

He revealed a variety of horrifying facts about interrogations, including that women were often tortured by the wives of those in charge of S-21, and electrocutions were carried out by attaching phone lines to each of a prisoner’s big toes. His superior Vorn Vet suggested they use plastic bags to suffocate prisoners because they would not leave any bruises.
 

But Mr. Guek Eav seemingly tried to absolve himself of some of the blame for the torture that took place at S-21, saying: “S-21 was only an instrument of the party.”
 

Once Mr. Lysak finished his questioning for the day, Ms. Guiraud began to ask questions about specific prisoners killed at S-21 and the situation surrounding their arrest, beginning with Chao Seng, founder of the Pedagogical Institute of Cambodia.
 

Mr. Guek Eav was particularly remorseful when asked about Mr. Seng, expressing multiple times that he wished he could meet with his wife and another relative to express his sorrow and anguish about what happened to him.
 

He told the court he had been instructed by superior Son Sen and the “party center” to arrest Mr. Seng, but to give him a different name in S-21’s records.
 

“I could not protect him. That is the truth. For me, Chao Seng did many good things,” he said. “I want to meet them [Mr. Seng’s wife and a relative] to express my regret and apologize that I could not protect their man.”
 

He says he tried to keep Mr. Seng alive, but was asked by Mr. Chea himself where he was and why he was still alive after a few months at S-21.
 

Ms. Guiraud then moved on to four westerners who were killed at S-21, focusing on Michael Scott Deeds and another man, both of whom were captured by Navy forces along the coast.
 

Mr. Guek Eav said once the men were brought to S-21, he was ordered by Mr. Chea to burn their bodies.
 

“He told me in person ‘we are not Cuba, exchanging prisoners for other prisoners or goods’,” he said. “They had to be burned to ashes so that there was no evidence remaining that any westerner was arrested and smashed by us. That was the strict instruction I had to follow.”
 

Mr. Guek Eav said the men were burned along with car tires and their ashes were dumped into a pond along Mao Tse Tung Boulevard.
 

He also took time out to refute the translation of a widely circulated quote attributed to him and to the larger Khmer Rouge propaganda machine by historians and witnesses. The oft-mentioned “It is better to arrest 10 innocent people than let one traitor go” was incorrect, according to Mr. Guek Eav.
 

“This is wrong. It has been mistranslated,” he said. “Son Sen told me ‘to keep is no gain, to remove is no loss’.”

http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25992/duch-denies-rapes-at-s-21/

US PREPS KINGDOM FOR NUCLEAR ENERGY

The US Department of Energy (DOE) held a workshop on “Nuclear Safeguards and the Additional Protocol” at Phnom Penh’s Sunway Hotel yesterday, highlighting the need for more technical knowledge and greater information sharing on nuclear power in Cambodia.

The workshop comes on the heels of a visit by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev last November, when the two countries signed a “memorandum on nuclear cooperation” that revealed the government’s efforts to obtain nuclear power with assistance from Russian experts.

Cambodian officials have not given details about the Russian agreement since it was signed. But Reuters reported from Russia that Sergei Kiriendo, the head of the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom, said Russia could help with technical support, research and training if the Kingdom chooses to go ahead with the nuclear option.

“The Cambodian government is mulling…a nuclear power station,” he said. “Perhaps, it is better to begin with a research reactor and a research center in Cambodia.”

Cambodia depends heavily on imported fuel and power. Electricity in the country is among the most expensive in Southeast Asia and a common source of complaint from investors.

Most of the electrical energy that Cambodians use on a daily basis is imported from neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand.

To deal with frequent energy shortages, the Kingdom is seeking nearly $3 billion in foreign investment to build six hydropower plants by 2018 as it seeks to keep up with rising domestic power demands.

Of all ASEAN nations, Vietnam is the farthest along in its nuclear program with plans to start construction on a nuclear plant slated for 2018-2019. Malaysia and Indonesia are also moving forward with potential plans for nuclear energy, but there have been few concrete developments. Russia is assisting both Vietnam and Indonesia with their nuclear efforts.

The US workshop, hosted by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and attended by MME Deputy Director General Dr. Chan Sodovath as well as representatives of other US agencies, focused on the formalities of having nuclear energy, including how to prepare for declarations on international nuclear safeguards.

The workshop also covered how Cambodia can introduce the Additional Protocol (AP), which allows the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect nuclear sites and request information from countries that approve the AP.

“The United States has long considered the international safeguards system to be a central pillar of the nuclear nonproliferation regime’s strategy for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” said Anne Harrington, Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at the DOE.  “President Obama re-emphasized the importance of safeguards in his 2009 Prague speech, when he called for ‘more resources and authority’ for international inspections.”

The US Embassy applauded Cambodia for approving the AP more than one year ago, saying, “Entering the AP into force is an important milestone for IAEA Member States, and workshops focused on the AP help to ensure that even states such as Cambodia – with small amounts of nuclear material – develop the necessary infrastructure and safeguards-supporting capacity to fulfill their responsibilities.”

OBAMA NOMINATES NEW AMBASSADOR TO KINGDOM

US President Barack Obama announced William Heidt as his choice for ambassador to Cambodia on Tuesday.

Mr. Heidt is a career diplomat currently serving as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment at the Department of State, a position he has held since 2012. 

This won't be Mr. Heidt's first time working in Cambodia. He served as Economic and Commercial Officer at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh from 1997 to 1999.

He has worked in embassies across the world, with stops in Indonesia and Poland as well as a post working for the US delegation at the UN in New York. 

If he is confirmed for the post, he will be replacing William Todd, who has worked as ambassador to Cambodia since 2012.

This story ran on April 8, 2015.

UNION PRESIDENT CHEA MONY TO STEP DOWN

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union (FTU), has decided not to seek reelection after leading one of Cambodia's largest trade unions for 11 years.

Mr. Mony was elected in 2004 after his brother and founder of the union, Chea Vichea, was assassinated in Phnom Penh following his dismissal from the INSM Garment Factory for starting a union at the factory.

In a meeting at the FTU headquarters in Phnom Penh Sunday, Mr. Mony announced his decision in front of over 100 representatives from factories across the country.

Despite rules stating that presidents can only stay in office for two consecutive three-year terms, Mr. Mony ran again in 2010 after saying he would retire due to health concerns.

He expressed remorse for staying in power for so long, but said he felt he needed to run again in 2010 due to ongoing strikes his union was involved in at the time.

Mr. Mony's time as president was marred by defections and claims that he used the union to make himself rich. But under his watch, the FTU contributed to the effort to raise Cambodia's minimum wage and secure certain benefits for factory workers.

The FTU helped kick start Cambodia's labor rights movement 20 years ago and currently has 60,000 members, most of whom are garment factory workers.

*This story ran on July 20,, 2015