Blast in 'retaken' Pakistan area

Pakistan's army said it had largely driven militants out of the Swat valley

At least 29 people have been killed in a bombing near Swat valley in north-west Pakistan, officials say.

The explosion hit a security convoy in Shangla district - an area the military said it had retaken from militants.

It is the latest in a string of attacks and comes ahead of an expected army assault against the militants in South Waziristan near the Afghan border.

On Saturday militants stormed the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Pakistan has vowed to hit back "imminently".

The Pakistani Taliban said it was responsible for the attack in Rawalpindi, saying it had been carried out by a Punjab faction of the group.

Spokesman Azam Tariq said it was to avenge the recent killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud by a US drone.

Dozens hurt

The latest attack took place early in the afternoon in the town of Alpurai.

Security officials say a car blew up near a hospital in the market as a convoy of troops was passing by.

NORTH-WEST PAKISTAN BLASTS 5 October: Five killed in suicide blast in UN's Islamabad office 26 September: 16 killed in two car bombs in Peshawar and Bannu 18 September: 33 killed in market blast near Kohat 30 August: Suicide bomber kills 14 police recruits in Swat valley 27 August: 22 police guards killed at checkpoint on Afghan border 14 August: Seven killed in market blast in Dera Ismail Khan 5 June: Mosque blast kills at least 38 in Upper Dir district

Dozens of people, including security personnel, are said to have been injured in the explosion.

It is not known if it was a suicide attack.

Witnesses said area was strewn with debris. A military spokesman said several trucks were destroyed in the blast.

Shangla district borders the Swat valley.

In June the army declared an anti-Taliban offensive in the Swat valley a success. But there have been isolated incidents of violence since then.

Some analysts say that in the wake of the army onslaught a number of militants fled to neighbouring districts.

During the anti-Taliban offensive fighting also spilled into Shangla district.

Over the past few months troops have also been gathering on the border of South Waziristan, where the Taliban have one of their main strongholds.

After Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a US missile in early August, there was a relative lull in Taliban attacks.

But there has been a resurgence in militant activity since the start of this month.

Insurgents celebrate legacy

Photo by: Sebastian Strangio

In a photo displayed during Friday’s ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, Son Sann, the group’s founder and president, speaks with villagers inside its liberated zone, Sok San village, Battambang province, in 1985.

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Without the resistance, Cambodia would be wearing a vietnamese hat.
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Veterans of the KPNLF mark their 30th anniversary, saying their nationalism and fight against communism and corruption remain relevant to the Kingdom.

THREE decades on from the founding of the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front (KPNLF) in the remote jungles of Battambang province, veteran resistance fighters say the group’s controversial legacy – and that of its president and founder Son Sann – remain relevant in a changing Cambodia.

One of the main resistance factions to emerge along the Thai border following the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge regime by Vietnamese troops in January 1979, the KPNLF prompted controversy for its role in the decade-long civil war against the Hanoi-backed government in Phnom Penh.

During a ceremony at the Son Sann memorial stupa in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district on Friday, a dwindling group of KPNLF veterans gathered to reflect on their experiences in the resistance and promote the continuing pertinence of the faction’s goals.

Svay Ngov, a soldier who lost both of his legs in the service of the KPNLF, said the sacrifice was worthwhile in the pursuit of the group’s aims.

“I made sacrifices for the sake of my conscience, which was to fight against the foreigners who invaded Cambodia, fight against the Khmer Rouge and fight against corruption in society,” he said in a speech at the ceremony.

“These three core issues remain unresolved.”

Son Soubert, Son Sann’s son and an active member of the movement, said it played an integral role in establishing the 1993 Constitution and helped usher in the current system of multiparty democracy.

“We fulfilled our aim of bringing about national reconciliation and, even if we have never ruled the country, we still continue to play a role in promoting democracy,” he said on Sunday.

Controversial role

The KPNLF was established on October 9, 1979, by a small group of nationalists, “white” Khmers and officials from the Sihanouk and Lon Nol regimes, unified in their opposition to communism and to the presence of Vietnamese forces in the country.

Recruiting its support from the flood of refugees seeking sanctuary in its bases along the Thai border, the KPNLF – with support from the United States, Europe and China – provided social services and waged a continuing insurgency against the Phnom Penh government.

The Cold War calculus of the age, however, created strange bedfellows. In June 1982, Son Sann entered into a coalition – the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) – with the royalist Funcinpec and remnants of the Khmer Rouge, an association that even today prompts controversy.

General Dien Del, the KPNLF’s former general chief of staff who was present at the founding of the group in 1979 and travelled to China to procure its first shipment of military aid, said the group’s aim was to act as a bulwark against the “Vietnamisation” of the country during the occupation of the 1980s.

Despite the Vietnamese military withdrawal from the country in 1989, however, Dien Del said, its influence remained.

“Even if the foreign troops withdrew, civilians remained and supported the Phnom Penh government,” he said, referring to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) – the successor to the communist regime of the 1980s.

“Now there are Vietnamese everywhere because slaves of the Vietnamese took control of the country.”

When asked whether the Vietnamese deserved any credit for overthrowing Pol Pot, Dien Del stood firm.

“Not at all,” he replied. “They were an occupation force. Without the resistance, Cambodia would be wearing a Vietnamese hat.”

Cheam Yeap, a senior CPP lawmaker, denied the charge, saying that by throwing in its lot with Pol Pot, the KPNLF had squandered its credibility.

“After we rescued the people from Pol Pot and stopped Pol Pot from returning to the country, the [KPNLF] and Funcinpec set up an alliance with the Khmer Rouge,” he said, emphasising the CPP’s independence from Vietnam.

“[We] have never taken a foreigner as our boss. Those criticising us should check and balance their historical background.”

Despite the controversy of its anti-Vietnamese nationalism, old resistance fighters said their animating principles – to resist foreign occupation, prevent a return to the “genocidal” Khmer Rouge regime and fight corruption – have been undiminished by time.

“Today, we find that all of these principles are still critical,” said Pol Ham, who joined the KPNLF in 1979 and served as the head of its information service from 1989 until 1991.

“We have contributed a lot to the liberation of our country and for [its] reconstruction.”

Noble end

After the signing of the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, the KPNLF collapsed after its civilian and military wings split into separate political parties to contest the 1993 elections.

Despite the party’s ignominious end, however, others said Son Sann was still able to play an instrumental role in the peace process.

“When people were repatriated from the border, the seeds of human rights and democracy were created inside the country,” said Lao Mong Hay, a researcher for the Asian Human Rights Commission who served as an aide to Son Sann from 1988 to 1992, in an interview in February.

“Unfortunately, because Son Sann was not successful at the elections, we could not translate the ideas that we cherished into concrete actions.”

Typhoon aid goes slowly to Kampong Thom

Monday, 12 October 2009 15:04 Ian Paynton

There are fears that some villages and people have not yet been reached by the Typhoon Ketsana cleanup programme in Kampong Thom, despite the gradual recession of flooding, relief workers said Sunday.

Country head of Oxfam International in Cambodia, Francis Perez, said retreating floodwaters have left thick mud, making access to remote areas of the worst-hit province “restricted”.

“We are still concerned about the sanitation and public health of the villages in the safe areas, but I’m also sure that there are some small villages we haven’t reached yet, and this is a major worry for us,” he said.

The national death toll of 24 had not increased as of Sunday evening, but another concern was the forecast of further downpours.

“If the forecasts are true and it rains some more in Kampong Thom, it will make it even harder to deliver aid to the area. This is a huge concern because food from Phnom Penh has already been moving slowly,” Perez said.

“We will work closely with the Red Cross and the government to ensure supplies arrive as soon as possible,” he added, speaking two days after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered cooperation among government officials and relevant aid groups. In Friday’s cabinet meeting, the premier encouraged all parties involved in the cleanup to ensure “no one dies of hunger” in the Kingdom’s worst-hit area, and that “agricultural infrastructures are restored”

Second bias motion planned

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Marcel Lemonde attends a Khmer Rouge tribunal conference at Raffles Hotel La Royal earlier this year.

So Sovann, defence lawyer for former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, said Sunday that his team planned to file a motion today to dismiss Co-Investigating Judge Marcel Lemonde for bias in the investigation of his client.

The move follows a similar motion filed Friday by Michael Karnavas and Ang Udom, defence lawyers for Ieng Sary, former foreign minister under the Khmer Rouge regime, which charged Lemonde with pursuing a “personal agenda” at the tribunal instead of conducting an objective investigation.

“I will also file a complaint against Lemonde about his lack of impartiality,” So Sovann said, referring to the motion filed on behalf of Ieng Sary.

“These allegations could also affect my client.”

On Friday, Ieng Sary’s defence team filed a motion demanding the removal of Lemonde, saying recent comments allegedly made by the judge demonstrated an “impermissible bias and predilection towards the [prosecution]”.

“His immediate disqualification is imperative in fairness to Mr Ieng Sary and the other Charged Persons,” Karnavas and Ang Udom wrote.

The motion was based on a witness account provided by Wayne Bastin, a former chief of the Intelligence and Analysis Unit of the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges. In an affidavit signed on Thursday, Bastin said that during an August meeting, Lemonde stated his preference that investigators “find more inculpatory evidence than exculpatory evidence” in the case against the former regime leaders.

“To suggest his preference for investigative efforts to be channelled in search of more inculpatory and less exculpatory evidence is nothing more than a veiled instruction for the investigators to act in a complicit manner,” stated the motion, which will now be reviewed by the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber.

Investigating judges – unlike prosecutors – must remain impartial in their examination of the case, seeking out exculpatory evidence as well as evidence of a defendant’s guilt.

On Sunday, Karnavas said Lemonde’s comments were an “ominous sign” for his client’s right to a fair trial, and that nothing short of the judge’s removal would solve the problem.

“I think this is a severe blow to the ECCC’s reputation,” he said. “The only viable option at this point is for Judge Lemonde to step aside.... For the sake of the ECCC, I think it would be best to spare a knock-down, drag-out confrontation on this matter.”

Observers, however, said it remained unclear just how the allegations against Lemonde would affect the tribunal.

“It is clear that the investigating judges have an obligation to impartially investigate both inculpatory and exculpatory evidence,” said Heather Ryan, who monitors the court for the Open Society Justice Initiative.

“It is less clear whether the single statement quoted in the motion is sufficient to call the impartiality of Judge Lemonde into doubt such that he should be removed.”

Anne Heindel, a legal adviser for the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, said that whatever the truth of the allegation, the court had a duty to investigate it thoroughly.

“If it’s true, I think it’s a very big problem. [But] I think if it’s handled appropriately, the court could weather this,” she said.

Lemonde could not be reached for comment on Sunday, but court spokesman Reach Sambath said it was “too early” to say whether he would be forced to resign. Lawyers for defendants Nuon Chea and Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, could also not be reached.

Burnt-out village smoulders

Photo by: Photo Supplied

Villagers watch as their homes are burned to the ground during their eviction from disputed land in Oddar Meanchey province.

HUMAN rights advocates are demanding answers after armed policemen dismantled and burned dozens of villagers’ homes on disputed land in Oddar Meanchey province.

Residents from Bos village, in Oddar Meanchey’s Kaun Kriel commune, said nearly 100 houses were taken apart, then burned to the ground by provincial authorities on Friday.

They contend it was part of an effort to evict residents from disputed land that is also claimed by Angkor Sugar Company. Villagers believe the operation is owned by Ly Yongphat, a member of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

Um Sam Ath, an investigator with human rights NGO Licadho, said authorities had no warrants when they razed the houses, nor did they give the villagers any prior warning of their “violent actions”.

“The authority must solve this case in a transparent way,” said Um Sam Ath.

“They should negotiate with the villagers until both sides reach an agreement. Licadho is watching closely and is trying to speak to the authority about this case.”

A representative of 214 families battling the company for rights to the land said Friday’s actions were carried out by 100 armed police officers and led by Vat Paranin, secretary general in Oddar Meanchey province.

Vat Paranin could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Villagers say they have lived on the land since 2003. In 2008, Angkor Sugar Company started to clear out farmland, kicking villagers out and accusing them of living on company-owned property, said representative Vong Veng. The land claimed by both Angkor Sugar and the villagers comes to roughly 1,500 hectares, he said.

Vong Veng accused the authorities of colluding with the company to force them to leave the land.

The families evicted last week have taken refuge 3 kilometres away at Kork Thlork pagoda, he said.

“They evicted us without paying us any compensation at all,” Vong Veng said. “We do not have anything to eat.”

Fourteen people among the villagers have gone into hiding, afraid that they will be arrested for allegedly inciting the villagers to stand up to the authorities, said another resident, An Srean.

Angkor Sugar Company could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Khmer Rouge case judge 'biased'

Ieng Sary's lawyers say the judge has trampled over his rights

Saturday, October 10, 2009
By Guy De Launey
BBC News, Phnom Penh

Lawyers for Cambodia's former foreign minister have called for the removal of the judge investigating his role in the Khmer Rouge era.

Ieng Sary is charged with crimes against humanity for his part in the deaths of as many as two million people in the late 1970s.

His defence team claims the judge at the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal, Marcel Lemonde, is biased.

The controversy is the latest in a series of problems to hit the tribunal.

'One-sided investigation'

The defence team's claims are based on a sworn statement by a former member of the investigating judge's staff.

Wayne Bastin accused his boss, Mr Lemonde, of instructing his team to concentrate on finding only incriminating evidence.

Under the rules of the tribunal, the investigating judges are supposed to be impartial - and should also seek out evidence which might exonerate defendants.

Mr Bastin admitted that Ieng Sary's defence team had encouraged him to make the statement.

But he insisted that he had enjoyed a good working relationship with Judge Lemonde - and only came forward because he felt "morally and ethically" obliged.

Ieng Sary's lawyers said the investigating judge had "trampled over" the rights of their client.

The tribunal's pre-trial chamber will now rule on whether Mr Lemonde should be disqualified.

It has already rejected two attempts to disqualify court officials on the grounds of bias.

Progress in the case against Ieng Sary and his three co-defendants has been slow.

But closing statements in the trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief are expected next month.

SRP MPs addressing the National Assembly floor on the draft penal code (criminal code)

Recently the draft penal code (criminal code) was submitted to the National Assembly for debate and ratification. Several SRP MPs stood up to discuss shortcomings of this draft law. The following are videos of their interventions at the National Assembly floor.


SRP MP Mu Sochua

SRP MP Eng Chhai Eang

SRP MP Kimsour Phirith

SRP MP Ly Srey Vyna