Khmer Information Center

Relocation may be offered to victims of Tuol Kork fire

2010-03-10T22:14:00.000-08:00

A victim of Monday night’s blaze in Tuol Kork district that destroyed hundreds of dwellings stakes out the plot where his home once stood, as residents of the Boeung Kak 2 commune neighbourhood devastated by the fire began trying to put their lives back together on Tuesday.

By: Phnom Penh Post

FAMILIES were assessing the damage on Tuesday after a fire ripped through Tuol Kork district’s Boeung Kak 2 commune on Monday evening, as local officials offered to relocate the displaced to plots of land in Kandal province.

Nuov Pheak, a commune official in Boeung Kak 2, said the blaze had left hundreds homeless, including 257 families, 181 students and 90 monks, with 178 homes and 31 dormitory rooms destroyed.

Local authorities are still unsure of how the fire started, he added.

“Currently, we are distributing food, tents and other materials to them for temporary living around the pagoda and the surrounding area,” Nuov Pheak said.

Gnith Khim, abbot of the commune’s Neak Von pagoda, said Tuesday that flames had spread from an area near the edge of the community into the dormitory rooms near the pagoda. He called for donations from the government and the private sector to support the dozens of residents who were gathering at his pagoda in the aftermath of the fire.

Photo by: Nick Sells (www.nicksellsphotography.com)

A man on Tuesday surveys the damage wrought by a fire that officials said left hundreds homeless in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kork district.

Speaking at the pagoda, Tuol Kork district Governor Seng Ratanak said he had been distributing food, water and tents to local residents. He said he was preparing for a meeting with community representatives in the near future in the hope of convincing them to move to Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district – an offer that has sparked questions about future development at the site.

“Phnom Penh authorities plan to provide 6-metre-by-12-metre plots of land ... for residents who volunteer to move there,” Seng Ratanak said.

Kong Keang, 48, who lost his home in the fire, said he had heard of plans to develop the area, but that he did not believe residents were being offered sufficient compensation.

“The authorities want us to volunteer to receive more than US$8,000 per family or agree to receive a 6-metre-by-12-metre plot of land in Kandal province,” he said. “Now, we are very concerned because the authorities can use [the fire] as an excuse to evict us to another place.”

Despite their reluctance to leave their homes, some residents may have few options.

Sen Sareth, 31, said she had operated a store in the community, but that it had been destroyed along with her home in the blaze on Monday night.

“The fire destroyed all of my property and my house,” she said tearfully, with her 7-year-old son at her side. “Now I need food and some money to reopen my business and support my family.”

Dentist charged in ‘acid’ case

2010-02-13T09:25:00.001-08:00

Dentist charged in ‘acid’ case

phnompenhpost FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2010 15:04 TEP NIMOL

Photo by: Uy Nousereimony

Empty acid bottles placed next to car batteries at a car supplies store on Monivong Boulevard last week.

APHNOM Penh dentist who stands accused of a disputed acid attack has been charged with assault.

Lim Soma, 41, was charged Tuesday, said Ek Chheng Huot, deputy prosecutor at Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Under the UNTAC criminal code, the charge is considered a misdemeanor. A conviction carries a sentence ranging from two months to five years in prison, depending on the severity of the injury.

But neither the assailant nor her target is happy with the charge.

Reached by telephone on Thursday, Lim Soma referred questions to a man she identified as her husband.

“It is unjust to me because the charge on my wife is too serious,” said the man, who declined to give his name.

“My wife did not attack with acid, just tooth-whitening liquid, and the victim did not have any injuries.”

Kea Sokheang, the employer of the victim, Hor Tin, who has spoken on his behalf since the January 4 incident, said he was pleased the court had finally charged Lim Soma after originally asking for the case to be settled out of court, but added that he had been seeking a more serious charge.

“The charge is too light,” Kea Sokheang said.

The two sides have presented vastly diiffering accounts of the incident. Kea Sokheang framed it as the result of a dispute between Lim Soma’s family and his own, with his employee an innocent victim of what he insisted was an acid attack.

Lim Soma, however, said she poured tooth-whitening liquid on Hor Tin to break up a dispute over a parking sign.

New attack reported
In a separate case, officials in Kampong Cham province are reporting a new acid attack – at least the seventh reported this year nationwide.

A rights advocate and a police official said that a man doused his wife with acid after a dispute on Tuesday.

“The victim was seriously attacked and sent to a hospital in Phnom Penh after a provincial hospital could not help her,” said Sam Sarin, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, who identified the victim as 25-year-old Phally Nay.

Keo Samneang, deputy police chief of Memot district, where the attack allegedly took place, said it was the first case of an acid attack in his district. He said police are looking for the accused man.

The most recent attack comes as government officials prepare to meet today as part of a newly formed committee examining acid attacks.

The committee’s head, Teng Savong, secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, said the group will discuss ways to regulate the sale of acid.

“What is important to us is to control acid [sales] and to put punishments on officials who cannot control the use of acid,” Teng Savong said.

Bird’s-eye view of 9/11 tragedy

2010-02-13T09:23:00.000-08:00

Bird’s-eye view of 9/11 tragedy

phnomPenhpost FRIDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2010 15:04 COURTESY OF ABC NEWS / NYPD / DETECTIVE GREG SEMENDINGER VIA AFP

Photo by: COURTESY OF ABC NEWS / NYPD / DETECTIVE GREG SEMENDINGER VIA AFP

This newly released aerial photograph taken on September 11, 2001, by the New York City Police Department and provided on Thursday by ABC News shows the collapsing World Trade Center in New York following attacks by terrorists. This and other aerial photos from the 9/11 attacks were obtained by ABC News, which in 2009 filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

2009-11-10T12:35:00.001-08:00

Bicyclist’s freewheeling feast

phnompenhpost, TUESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2009 15:00 ARIELLE BERNEY

Photo by: Arielle Berney

Author of gourmand cycling book The Hungry Cyclist, Tom Kevill-Davies is in Cambodia seeking suggestions on where to find the perfect meal as he pedals his way north to Tibet.

Food always tastes better when you’re hungry, says Tom Kevill-Davies, who is sampling hot pots, herbs and fish on his two-wheeled trek up the Mekong.

Deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, a scruffy Londoner manages to procure passage for a nine-day journey that will carry him and his bicycle down the Amazon River.

But his delight begins to dissipate when he sees his travelling companions: buffalos, pigs, chickens, ducks and other animals. The livestock is crammed below deck, next to the kitchen, while the cyclist joins the humans above.

When the rains come, the water floods the lower deck, causing the animal droppings to rise to the surface and ooze up through the floor planks of the rickety structure.

Atop the boat, people stand in pools of dung as the standard meal is dealt out: a bowl of soup made from riverwater and whichever hapless animal lay within reach of the cook.

“After two bites, my body rebelled,” the cyclist recalls.

Tom Kevill-Davies, 31, ranks this Amazonian culinary experience among his worst ever – and he has plenty to choose from. Disenchanted with his life at a London advertising firm, he hopped on his bike six years ago and sped off in pursuit of the most delicious meal he could find.

After spending two and half years biking from New York to California and on to Brazil, Kevill-Davies put his adventures to paper in The Hungry Cyclist, combining the excitement of biking with the thrill of discovering tasty food inunexpected locales.

This marriage of cycling and eating takes its strength not only from a love of food and biking, but also from the simple tenet that food will taste better to a ravenous cyclist.

Six weeks into a six-month journey around the Mekong region, Kevill-Davies is cycling and eating his way through Southeast Asia, recording recipes where he can, and relying on online translations to assist him.

“I’m interested in the context of food: why people are eating what they’re eating, the herbs, the hot pots, the use of fish in the area around the Mekong,” he said.

Before pushing off to explore Kampot and Kep, the hungry cyclist made the most of Phnom Penh’s delights throughout the Water Festival.

Kevill-Davies raved about the street food – the coconut soups, the “crunchy and chewy” tarantulas and snakes – and about the ambience of the festival, which he rated as one of the best experiences of his life.

Life on the road
But cycling around Southeast Asia is not without its obstacles. Throughout southern Vietnam he had to contend with police and government officials forbidding him to hang his hammock in some areas. With rural families torn between offering him hospitality and breaking the law, he would often be given a meal and sent on his way.

Heat, dehydration, sunburn, vicious dogs, eye infections from dusty roads and culinary disasters are daily hazards.

“I’m not making this sound good at all, am I?” he joked.

Then there is the loneliness. Up at 6am for a solo cycle until noon, a rest and a meal during the midday heat, and then back on the saddle until nightfall, when he sets up camp or finds a guesthouse.

Sometimes he will go weeks without conversation beyond the excited yelps of “Hello! Hello!” from village children.

“But,” he warned, “if you think cycling is lonely, writing a book is really lonely.”

Kevill-Davies described his 10-month writing odyssey as “mentally exhausting”, with days spent at a local London library among secondary school students cramming for exams and chomping on crisps. His sleep was destroyed by middle-of-the-night urges to scribble ideas down.

For now at least, Kevill-Davies is free of the stresses of book writing and is chronicling his journey – complete with photos, videos and recipes – on his blog: thehungrycyclist.com.

He welcomes suggestions of places to eat and visit as he attempts to make his way up the Mekong from Vietnam through Cambodia, Laos and China to the river’s source in Tibet.

And will this latest adventure ever be available in paperback?

“We’ll see,” he said. “First I’ve got to find out how it ends.”

2009-11-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

In Brief: Cambodia nets bronzes in Asian Indoor Games

phnompenhpost , TUESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2009 15:00 UNG CHAMROEUN

Cambodian athletes took home an additional three bronze medals from the third Asian Indoor Games, which wrapped up Sunday in Vietnam. Sok Chanmean and Ok Chimi won third place in the men’s petanque doubles, while Ke Leng and Ouk Srey Mom won third-place honours in the women’s petanque doubles competition. San Sophorn and Chea Srey Meas also took the bronze in the women’s shuttlecock. Earlier, Cambodia won one gold, four silvers and four bronzes in the martial art vovinam.

2009-11-01T13:07:00.001-08:00

Fixing Ears in Cambodia

Source: www.allearscambodia.org

During my recent travels in SE Asia, I was fortunate to spend an evening with Director Glyn Vaughan of All Ears Cambodia in Phnom Penh. What an amazing place and individual - both left a lasting impact on me and I continue to dwell over the experience.

Cambodia is an extremely poor country still recovering from years of war and strife from the Khmer Rouge regime. It does not allocate any government resources to its disabled people. As a result, thousands of hearing impaired children and adults are left without the education, hearing aids, or services they need to thrive and many end up destitute and/or reliant their entire lives on family for support.

An All Ears marketing piece indicates that "an estimated 2 million Cambodians suffer from disabling deafness...and over half of these cases could have been prevented." In fact, chronic ear infections are so common that, in many villages, it is considered normal. And, of the ones in need of hearing aids, less than 1% have them.

Dr. Vaughan, a British audiologist, has made it his life's mission to reverse some of these trends. He left his UK practice to move to Phomh Penh in 2003 to establish and run All Ears Cambodia full-time. He is the only degreed audiologist in the entire country, and his clinic is the only one of its kind in Cambodia. He self-trained two women and an assistant on the practice of audiology and now the four of them work relentlessly to provide support treatment, hearing aids, and rehabilitation to those in need in Phnom Penh and in many rural villages stretching across four provinces. The clinic also partners with 30 other NGOs that work with AIDS and landmine victims (hearing loss is a common side effect of AIDS). The organization supports the sole government audiology clinic at the state hospital through contributons of personel and through traning programs. They do a lot of education and awareness around hearing loss - how to protect your ears, what to do when you have an ear infection (don't pour kerosene in your ear, for starters…). Glyn and his team also wrote the country's first audiology manual in the Khmer language. The amount of work and the tremendous impact that this small group of committed people is making is incredible to comprehend.

Dr. Vaughan's passion is inspiring and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing him share his experiences. If you are looking for a worthy cause to support, this would be a great one. For more information, please visit; www.allearscambodia.org

Posted by Paige Stringer at November 1, 2009 8:31 a.m.

2009-11-01T13:04:00.001-08:00

Cambodia to start work on bourse in December

www.btimes.com.my Published: 2009/11/02

TOOLS

PHNOM PENH:Cambodia expects to begin construction in December on its first stock exchange, a government official said.

“We expect to have the ground-breaking ceremony in December,” Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, said .

Cambodian authorities have partnered with private South Korean developer World City Co Ltd to build a US$6 million, (US$1 = RM3.40) four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district, Cambodian and World City officials have said. — Reuters

2009-10-31T23:34:00.001-07:00

King crab?

Source: phnompenhpost, WEDNESDAY, 07 OCTOBER 2009 15:03 THOR SINA

Photo by: Thor Sina

The discovery of a “supernatural” crab that purportedly bears the ghostly image of King Norodom Sihamoni on its shell has driven throngs of Cambodians to a tiny farming village in Takeo province. Almost 2,000 visitors have lined up outside 24-year-old Dy Gao’s house in Sdok Prey village ever since she found the crab wriggling in a muddy rice field on Sunday, she said. “I’m a farmer. My living situation is very poor,” she said. “Since I took this crab home, I have felt safe and comfortable. It seems like I live with God.”

2009-10-31T23:29:00.001-07:00

Where the rubber meets the robe

Source: phnompenhpost, TUESDAY, 27 OCTOBER 2009 15:02 HENG CHIVOAN

Photo by: HENG CHIVOAN

Monks hitch a ride on a farmer’s mini-tracker on National Road 10 in Battambang province last week.

2009-10-31T23:27:00.001-07:00

Man About Town

Source: phnompenhpost, FRIDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2009 15:00 PETER OLSZEWSKI

Development in the air
Two wealthy Belgian developers flying into Siem Reap airport in their private jet on Wednesday had to wait in the air until a Cambodia Angkor Air plane carrying the prime minister, which was running late, arrived and landed.

Once cleared, the Belgians landed and immediately hightailed it, building plans in hand, to the site of their development – a proposed upmarket eco-lodge to be built on a large tract of land on the road from National Road 6 to the Angkor Golf Resort.

They were met at the development site by two key personnel from the FCC Group, giving rise to speculation of some sort of partnership, possibly a management deal, with FCC to run the eco-lodge.

Meanwhile, early on Monday morning, the Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, officially announced details of this November’s Johnnie Walker Cambodia Open golf tournament during a press conference at Angkor Wat.

The Open will be held at Sofitel’s Phokeethra Country Club in November, but as soon as the press conference wound up, the minister for tourism headed over to a rival course, Angkor Golf Resort, to play a few rounds and improve his handicap.

Talkfest underway
A talkfest titled Angkor Seminar is underway in Siem Reap, sponsored by the Friends of the Freer and Sackler Smithsonian Institution.
The lectures, held at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) Siem Reap, are in English, a welcome relief for mono-lingual Anglos as talk nights at EFEO are usually held in French.

Im Sokrithy kicked off proceedings last night with a talk about the Angkorian Road Network.

Saturday presents a double-header, with Christophe Pottier lecturing on The Ancestors of Angkor, and Jean-Baptiste Chevance talking about Retracing the Sources of the Angkorian Empire, by the Phnom Kulen Archaeological Program.

The schedule for the following days is:
Sunday November 1:
Darryl Collins and Hok Sokol: From Khmer villages to cities: Preservation of wooden houses.
Monday November 2:
Olivier Cunin: From Ta Prohm to Bayon - Contribution to the architectural history of the Bayon Style Monuments.
Tuesday November 3:
Martin Polkinghorne: Ateliers in the Age of Angkor.
Wednesday November 4:
Dominique Soutif: The property of the gods in inscription K. 947: using epigraphy in archaeology.

2009-10-31T23:23:00.000-07:00

Demining squad unearths rocket

Source: phnompenhpost, FRIDAY, 30 OCTOBER 2009 15:02 SAM RITH

Photo by: Photo Supplied

Officials with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre were called in to clear this 89mm rocket that was buried in front of Phnom Penh’s Baktouk High School in Prampi Makara district Thursday morning.

2009-10-31T23:19:00.001-07:00

Thomson Reuters

Construction of Cambodian bourse to begin in Dec

10.31.09, 03:19 AM EDT

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Cambodia expects to begin construction in December on its first stock exchange, a government official said, giving momentum to a long-delayed joint venture with South Korean investors.

Article Controls

'We expect to have the ground-breaking ceremony in December,' Mey Vann, director of the financial industry department at Cambodia's Ministry of Economy and Finance, told Reuters.

The idea of a Cambodian stockmarket has been floated since the 1990s but has struggled for traction in a country known for chronic poverty and a history of upheaval, including the Khmer Rouge 'Killing Fields'.

Cambodian authorities have partnered with private South Korean developer World City Co Ltd to build a $6 million, four-storey stock exchange on the waterfront of a new financial district, Cambodian and World City officials have said.

The area where the stock exchange will be built is flooded swampland on the edge of Boeung Kak Lake in the heart of the Phnom Penh. The end of the rainy season this month will clear the way for workers to begin building the exchange on the corner of what developers are calling Phnom Penh Boulevard.

Rate This Story

Your Rating
Overall Rating

Reader Comments

'Jungle Woman' Is Sick, Stressed Out

posted: 5 HOURS 25 MINUTES AGO

comments: 12

filed under: WORLD NEWS

PRINT|E-MAIL MORE

Text SizeAAA

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Oct. 30) — A woman dubbed the "jungle woman" after emerging naked and unable to speak from the wilds of northeastern Cambodia two years ago is sick and apparently suffering from mental illness, a doctor said Friday.

Hing Phan Sokhunthea, chief of Rattanakiri province hospital, said the woman, believed to be 28-year-old Rochom P'ngieng, was taken home Friday after four days in a hospital even though she remained weak and the cause of her nervous distress remained unclear.

Skip over this content

Out of the Wild

Heng Sinith, AP

4 photos

Rochom P'ngieng, who was dubbed the "Jungle Woman" after emerging naked and unable to speak from the wilds of northeastern Cambodia two years ago, is sick and apparently suffering from mental illness, a doctor said Friday. The 28-year-old woman is seen here in 2007.

(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)

http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id=762267&pid=762266&uts=1256943049

http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf

Out of the Wild

Heng Sinith, AP

She was brought from the jungle in early 2007 after being caught trying to steal food from a villager. Her case attracted international attention after a local family claimed she was their daughter, who was 8 years old when she disappeared in 1988 while herding buffalo in a remote area.

However, the relationship was never proven, and it was never established how she could have survived in the wild for 19 years. Some villagers suspected she was not Rochom P'ngieng, but someone else suffering from mental problems who had been lost in the jungle for a much briefer time.

The man who claims to be her father, Sal Lou, said Friday by telephone that the woman still does not speak any intelligible language.

He said his daughter was hospitalized Monday after she refused to eat any rice for almost a month.

"She was very sick and her condition looks worse than when she was first found," he said. "She is very skinny now."

He said he decided to take her back home after her condition didn't improve and she kept trying to run away.

The Rattanakiri doctor said a preliminary diagnosis found she suffered from a nervous condition.

"We wanted her to stay longer in the hospital, so that we could learn more about her mental state, but her father took her back home without letting us know," said Hing Phan Sokunthea.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2009-10-30 16:50:46

2009-10-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Leaders of 16 Asian nations meet in Thailand

Apichart Weerawong, Pool AP Photo

Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) join hands as they pose for a group photograph with partners from China, Japan, and South Korea during the ASEAN plus three summit in Cha-am of Hua Hin, southern Thailand Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009. The leaders are, from left, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and ASEAN Secretariat Surin Pitsuwan.

MORE PHOTOS

SHARE THIS STORY

Buzz up!

BY GRANT PECK; ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Published: 10/25/09 3:26 am | Updated: 10/25/09 3:29 am

Comments (0)

Recommend (0)

CHA-AM, Thailand --

Leaders of 16 Asian countries gave high priority Sunday to finding a new economic growth model to free half the world's population from merely serving as producers for the West, the Thai prime minister said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the leaders gave such a search "the utmost importance" at the annual East Asian Summit, which concluded Sunday. He told a press conference that Asian nations would have to strengthen their domestic markets and further liberalize regional trade.

"The old growth model where, simply put, we have still to rely on consumption in the West for goods and services produced here will no longer serve us in the future," said Abhisit, who hosted the meeting.

Asian leaders, a conference document said, noted that the region has shown signs of recovery from the global crisis and "regained its pace of economic growth."

"East Asia could therefore play a crucial role in driving global economic recovery and in reforming the international financial architecture," it said, noting that the Asian Development Bank recently revised its forecasts for East Asian economic growth from 3.4 to 3.9 percent this year and 6 to 6.4 percent in 2010.

The East Asia Summit followed Saturday meetings of leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations with heads of government from China, Japan and South Korea. Sunday's expanded talks brought in Australia, New Zealand and India.

The 16 leaders represent almost half the world's population and more than a third of the global GDP, according to Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The three-day conference included the launch of Southeast Asia's first human rights watchdog, and talks on economic integration of ASEAN by the year 2015, disaster management, climate change and military-ruled Myanmar, an ASEAN member widely criticized internationally for its human rights violations.

Abhisit said Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein told other leaders that he welcomed signs of engagement from various regions, a reference to Washington's recent announcement that it would seek high-level dialogue rather than shunning the junta. Thein Sein also said that he was optimistic that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, held in detention for 14 years, could contribute to reconciliation.

"ASEAN has always argued that engagement is the right approach. We feel that if everybody takes this approach we would be encouraging Myanmar in her successful implementation of her own roadmap (to democracy)," Abhisit said.

Southeast Asian leaders on Saturday called on Myanmar to conduct free and fair elections next year when the junta has promised to hold the first polls in two decades. Activists criticized the bloc for failing to take a tougher stand against one of the world's worst human rights offenders.

The conference signed or noted 43 documents, several focused on economic integration.

ASEAN countries have haltingly tried to integrate their economies, and are seeking to eliminate trade barriers within the bloc to bring about a European Union-style grouping by 2015.

"Over the past year we have proved that ASEAN continues to move forward. We have risen to the challenges of the times," Abhisit said, noting regional cooperation in coping with the global economic crisis, swine flu and several natural disasters in the region.

The next summits have been scheduled for Hanoi in April and October next year, when Vietnam assumes the ASEAN chairmanship.

2009-10-30T21:45:00.001-07:00

Thirty Years On, the Holocaust In Cambodia and Its Aftermath Is Remembered

by John Pilger
by John Pilger
Recently by John Pilger: War Is Peace. Ignorance Is Strength

The aircraft flew low, following the Mekong River west from Vietnam. Once over Cambodia, what we saw silenced all of us on board. There appeared to be nobody, no movement, not even an animal, as if the great population of Asia had stopped at the border.

Whole villages were empty. Chairs and beds, pots and mats lay in the street, a car on its side, a bent bicycle. Behind fallen power lines lay or sat a single human shadow; it did not move. From the paddies, lines of tall wild grass followed straight lines. Fertilized by the remains of thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, these marked common graves in a nation where as many as two million people, or more than a quarter of the population, were "missing."

At the liberation of the Nazi death camp in Belsen in 1945, The Times correspondent wrote: "It is my duty to describe something beyond the imagination of mankind." That was how I felt in 1979 when I entered Cambodia, a country sealed from the outside world for almost four years since "Year Zero."

Year Zero had begun shortly after sunrise on April 17, 1975 when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge guerrillas entered the capital, Phnom Penh. They wore black and marched in single file along the wide boulevards. At one o’clock, they ordered the city abandoned. The sick and wounded were forced at gunpoint from their hospital beds; families were separated; the old and disabled fell beside the road. "Don’t take anything with you," the men in black ordered. "You will be coming back tomorrow."

Tomorrow never came. An age of slavery began. Anybody who owned cars and such "luxuries," anybody who lived in a city or town or had a modern skill, anybody who knew or worked with foreigners, was in grave danger; some were already under sentence of death. Out of the Royal Cambodian Ballet company of 500 dancers, perhaps 30 survived. Doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers were starved, or worked to death, or murdered.

For me, entering the silent, gray humidity of Phnom Penh was like walking into a city the size of Manchester in the wake of a nuclear cataclysm which had spared only the buildings. There was no power, no drinking water, no shops, no services of any kind. At the railway station trains stood empty at various stages of interrupted departure. Personal belongings and pieces of clothing fluttered on the platforms, as they fluttered on the mass graves beyond.

I walked along Monivong Avenue to the National Library which had been converted to pigsty, as a symbol, all its books burned. It was dreamlike. There was wasteland where the Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral had stood; it had been dismantled stone by stone. When the afternoon monsoon rains broke, the deserted streets were suddenly awash with money. With every downpour a worthless fortune of new and unused banknotes sluiced out of the Bank of Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge had blown up as they fled.

Inside, a checkbook lay open on the counter. A pair of glasses rested on an open ledger. I slipped and fell on a floor brittle with coins.

For the first few hours I had no sense of even the remains of a population. The few human shapes I glimpsed seemed incoherent, and on catching sight of me, would flit into a doorway. A child ran into a wardrobe lying on its side which was his or her refuge. In a crumbling Esso filling station an old woman and three emaciated infants squatted around a pot containing a mixture of roots and leaves, which bubbled over a fire fueled with paper money: such grotesque irony: people in need of everything had money to burn.

At a primary school called Tuol Sleng, I walked through what had become the "interrogation unit" and the "torture and massacre unit." Beneath iron beds I found blood and tufts of hair still on the floor. "Speaking is absolutely forbidden," said a sign. "Before doing something, anything, the authorization of the warden must be obtained."

After a while, one sound had a terrible syncopation: rising and falling day and night. Without milk and medicines, children were stricken with preventable disease like dysentery. It seemed that the very fabric of the society had begun to unravel. The first surveys revealed that many women had stopped menstruating.

What compounded this was the isolation imposed on Cambodia by the West because its liberators, the Vietnamese, had come from the wrong side of the cold war, having driven America out of their country in 1975. Cambodia had been the West’s dirty secret since President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger ordered a "secret bombing," extending the war in Vietnam into Cambodia in the early 1970s, killing hundreds of thousands of peasants. "If this doesn’t work," an aide heard Nixon say to Kissinger, "it’ll be your ass, Henry." It worked in handing Pol Pot his chance to seize power.

When I arrived in the aftermath, no Western aid had reached Cambodia. Only Oxfam defied the Foreign Office in London, which had lied that the Vietnamese were obstructing aid. In September 1979, a DC-8 jet took off from Luxembourg, filled with enough penicillin, vitamins and milk to restore some 70,000 children – all of it paid for by Daily Mirror readers who had responded to my reports and Eric Piper’s pictures in two historic issues of the paper which sold every copy.

Following on from the Mirror, on October 30, 1979, ITV broadcast Year Zero: the silent death of Cambodia, the documentary I made with the late David Munro. Forty sacks of post arrived at the ATV studios in Birmingham, with £1 million in the first few days. "This is for Cambodia," wrote an anonymous Bristol bus driver, enclosing his week’s wage. An elderly woman sent her pension for two months. A single parent sent her savings of £50. People expressed that unremitting sense of decency and community which is at the core of British society. Unsolicited, they gave more than £20 million. This helped rescue normal life in faraway country. It restored a clean water supply in Phnom Penh, stocked hospitals and schools, supported orphanages and reopened a desperately needed clothing factory.

Such an extraordinary public outpouring broke the US and British governments’ blockade of Cambodia. Incredibly, the Thatcher government had continued to support the defunct Pol Pot regime in the United Nations and even sent the SAS to train his exiled troops in camps in Thailand and Malaysia. Last March, the former SAS soldier Chris Ryan, now a best-selling author, lamented in a newspaper interview "when John Pilger, the foreign correspondent, discovered we were training the Khmer Rouge in the Far east [we] were sent home and I had to return the £10,000 we’d been given for food and accommodation."

Today, Pol Pot is dead and several of his elderly henchmen are on trial in a UN/Cambodian court for crimes against humanity. Henry Kissinger, whose bombing opened the door to the nightmare of Year Zero, is still at large. Cambodians remain desperately poor, dependent on an often seedy tourism and sweated labor.

For me, their resilience remains almost magical. In the years that followed their liberation, I never saw as many weddings or received as many wedding invitations. They became symbols of life and hope. And yet, only in Cambodia would a child ask an adult, as a twelve-year-old asked me, with fear crossing his face: "Are you a friend? Please say."

October 31, 2009

John Pilger was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war correspondent, filmmaker and playwright. Based in London, he has written from many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of "Journalist of the Year," for his work in Vietnam and Cambodia. His latest book is Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire.

Kingdom loses three to typhoon

2009-09-13T07:37:00.001-07:00

phnompenhpost, FRIDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:02 KIM YUTHANA

Three Cambodians among the 192 still missing from Typhoon Morakot.

Photo by: BLOOMBERG

Flooding caused by typhoon Morakot devastated Taiwan last month.

THREE Cambodians are missing and feared dead after Typhoon Morakot tore through Taiwan last month, an NGO has confirmed.

Khat Srey Mach, 33, Kong Srey Mom, 32, and Mol Khmao, 29, have been missing since Morakot, one of the deadliest typhoons to hit Taiwan in recorded history, hit the island and prompted the worst flooding in 50 years.

More than 600 people died, according to the press agency AFP. They were believed killed by floodwaters and mudslides.

Forty-six were injured, and 192 people, including the three Cambodians, are still missing. In one incident, an entire hotel, empty at the time, was swept away by the waters, the BBC reported.

Ya Navuth, executive director of Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM) Cambodia, told the Post on Thursday that he had been made aware of the Cambodians' plight by officials at Taipei's Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City but had yet to make contact with their relatives. "We have not heard anything from the victims' families so far after announcing their disappearance," he said. The Cambodian consulate in Vietnam has also been informed.

Typhoon Morakot formed early on August 2 as an unnamed tropical depression. Within hours, it was upgraded to a tropical storm and assigned the name Morakot by the Japan Meteorological Agency. At its peak, Morakot's winds reached speeds of more than 150 km/h. It wrought catastrophic damage in Taiwan, prompting Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan to resign earlier this week.

Pensions shortfall delays retirement of 2,000 soldiers

2009-09-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

phnompenhpost, MONDAY, 07 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:04 CHEANG SOKHA AND TRACEY SHELTON

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

Sok Pol, 46, waits for customers in Central Market on Sunday. After five years of service in the Cambodian army, Sok Pol says he received no compension when he lost his right leg from a land mine and must now sell books to support his family.

System straining despite premier's urging: ministry.

A FUNDING shortage has kept more than 2,000 Cambodian soldiers in uniform beyond the retirement age of 60, a Defence Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

The delayed retirements are the latest symptom of a pension system that officials say has long been plagued by a lack of resources and administrative inefficiencies.

Defence Ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat said Sunday that there was nothing his ministry could do to address the problem beyond keeping a list of those who were set to retire.

"We have already prepared their names, but we cannot let them retire because we do not have the budget," he said.

His comments came four days after Prime Minister Hun Sen called on officials to expand the social safety net for veterans. Speaking at a Council
of Ministers plenary session, the premier told Finance Minister Keat Chhon to direct more money to the pensions, though he specified neither an amount nor a timeline for the request, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Hong Sreysambath, deputy director of the Veterans Affairs Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, said the department was making payments for 100,000 disabled and retired soldiers and families of deceased. Including relatives, the payments are currently supporting 600,000 people at a cost of US$12 million per year.

A 2004 article in the Cambodia Development Review, published by the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, found that 471,252 people were entitled to government transfers from Veterans Affairs. The total expenditure in 2003, according to the report, was $13.7 million, translating to an average of $29 per beneficiary per year.

According to the Veterans Affairs figures, more pensioners are now vying for less money. The results of a survey released last week by Handicap International suggest this has contributed to an even less efficient system.

The survey, which focused on land mine survivors, pointed to the pension system as "an area of least improvement", citing problems including "delayed payments, bribery and the selling of entitlements in times of need".

Ny Chakrya, head of monitoring for the rights group Adhoc, said Sunday that he approved of the government's plan to expand the safety net for soldiers but stressed the need to cut down on corruption and delays.

"This policy should serve as an incentive for military officers who have devoted their lives to the nation," Ny Chakrya said. "They need assistance when they retire."

Ex-soldiers say system neglects wounded vets

THE shortcomings of the pension system have been felt acutely by Teng Teung, 50, a former soldier who lost his right leg in a land mine explosion in Koh Kong in 1985. The native of Kandal said he was slated to receive 80,000 riels (US$19) from the provincial social affairs office each month, but that the money often came every three months instead.

"I receive the money, but it is very late," he said Sunday in Phnom Penh, where he begs for food. He said the payments were not enough to support him and his nine children.

Sok Pol said he lost a leg and a large part of his left foot from a land mine. He sells books about the Khmer Rouge era in in Central Market to provide for his family and cover the medical expenses for the large hole that remains in his foot. He said the pension system does not compensate even for injuries sustained while in service.

Working alongside him, Pring Chut, 46, said he has received no money for his 11 years of service in the military. He said he lost his left leg to a mine in 1989, and has since turned to selling travel and history books and hand-painted gift cards. A sign he carried Sunday read: "Buy a book to help me [have] a better life. Help me feed my family and send my kids to school."

2009-09-06T22:46:00.001-07:00

ចំប៉ីសៀមរាប

2009-09-06T21:56:00.001-07:00

As in other South-east Asian countries, it's not really necessary to speak the local language to get by in Cambodia. You will, however, undoubtedly have an easier and more enjoyable experience if you spend some time learning the Cambodian language - Khmer. Most Cambodians don't expect a foreigner to be able to speak any of their language and will surely appreciate if you make a little effort and can string a few sentences together in Khmer.

This web site is created mainly as a personal learning aid, but hopefully it can also be of some use for others trying to learn the Khmer language...

Khmer is a member of the Mon-Khmer group of Austroasiatic languages and is the official language of Cambodia. It is spoken by approximately 8 million people within the country, but speakers also live in the bordering countries Viêt Nam and Thailand. Smaller communities are found in the USA, Australia, France and Laos.

Although separate and distinct from its Thai, Lao, and Burmese neighbours, Khmer shares with them the common roots ofSanskrit and Pali. As a result of centuries of linguistic and cultural interaction and their shared faith in Theravada Buddhism, the Cambodian language shares many features and much vocabulary with Thai. Khmer is also related to Vietnamese. During French colonial hegemony, many French loanwords also entered the language. Furthermore, the rapid growth of international trade and tourism over the last few years has lead to an increasing number of English words being used.

Unlike the languages of its bordering countries, Khmer is not a tonal language, which means that there are no special intonations of words in order to alter their meanings. However, the lack of tones is compensated by numerous letters and the complexity of the Khmer pronounciation.

Khmer shares many common grammatical features with it's South-east Asian neighbours. As in English, the word order follows a familiar SVO (subject + verb + object) pattern. Some notable features of the Khmer language are the lack of verb conjugations, gender inflections, different endings for single and plural and no different endings for masculine and feminine. With neither complicated verb tenses nor singular and plural forms to memorise, Khmer grammar can be absorbed relatively painlessly.

The Khmer alphabet is descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India (which was originally developed to write Sanksrit) by way of the Pallava script, which was used in southern India and South-east Asia during the 5th and 6th Centuries AD. The oldest dated inscription in Khmer dates from 611 AD. The Khmer alphabet closely resembles the Thai and Lao alphabets, which were developed from it.

Khmer consonants with subscripts:

Did you know that Cambodia has the longest alphabet in the world??? It has 74 letters compared to the 26 in English...

Khmer language links:

Khmer Language Learning - Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University has put together a very useful section on the Khmer language. Recommended.

ilearnkhmer.com - An interactive website with sounds and cool animations to assist you in learning the Khmer alphabets. Consists of three different levels. In first grade you will learn to read, write and pronounce Khmer consonants, vowels and numbers..

Learn Khmer - Learn how to read and write Khmer. A comprehensive introduction to the Khmer language.

Khmer for Travellers - A concise and convenient introduction to the Khmer language with useful words and phrases that might come in handy when travelling in Cambodia.

Authentic Khmer - Online Khmer/English and Khmer/French digital phrase books.

Khmer Lessons - Online Khmer lessons (requires Macromedia Flash Player version 4 or higher).

Khmer Language - Provides links and services related to the Cambodian language, including online dictionaries.

Khmer Inscription and Language - Illustrated site devoted to early inscriptions in the Khmer language.

Omniglot - A guide to the Khmer writing system.

Khmer Fonts - Cambodian Information Centre provides Khmer Fonts and Keyboard layout.

Chekhov comes to Cambodia

2009-09-03T13:56:00.001-07:00

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:00 NORA LINDSTROM

Veteran director Brendan O'Driscoll hopes to raise chuckles with a pair of classic Russian one-acts this weekend as The Phnom Penh Players return to the stage

Photo by: DAVID MURPHY

Treading the boards under the gun: Christine Liehr and Stuart Jordan act out a scene from one of Chekhov’s renowned tragicomedies.

ANTON CHEKHOV: 1860-1904

BORN in 1860 in Taganrog, Russia, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov joined the nation’s most cherished storytellers. Although fond of vaudeville and farce, he made his name with epic tragedies. He began writing short stories while studying medicine at the University of Moscow and later mastered the one-act form, producing several masterpieces, most notably The Bear (1888) and The Wedding (1889). Moving onto full-length plays, Chekhov’s early attempts were unsuccessful. For his third effort, The Seagull

(1897), the future master honed his craft, and even then his success owed much to Moscow Art Theatre’s re-interpretation. This began a successful, if occasionally strained relationship. Chekhov insisted his plays were comedies and was often displeased with tragic readings. Nevertheless, Uncle Vanya (1899), The Three Sisters (1901) and The Cherry Orchard (1904) cemented Chekhov’s position as one of the greatest dramatists of all time. In his final years, Chekhov lived in exile in Crimea, dying from tuberculosis in 1904 at the age of 44.

THE capital's very own amateur theatre group, The Phnom Penh Players, is back with two performances of An Evening with Chekhov Comedies at Khmer Surin on September 4 and 5.

Consisting of two one-act comic plays by famed Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, the group hopes to get the audience laughing - not through modern slapstick comedy, but through the comic effect of occurrences in everyday life, as penned over a century ago.

The two plays, The Bear and The Proposal, are, according to director Brendan O'Driscoll, similar, but different. "They both look at the nature of love and relationships," he said, explaining that the former deals with gender roles and the emancipation of women, and that the latter is about a marriage of convenience.

"It's hard to believe this stuff was written over 100 years ago," O'Driscoll stated with admiration, adding that he believes the universal themes of the plays are what make them appealing even today.

Though a fairly recent arrival to Phnom Penh, O'Driscoll is a veteran of the theatre.

The Irishman was involved in more than 20 plays in Tanzania, where he lived before moving to Cambodia in August last year.

He also acted in the Phnom Penh Players' previous performance, Noises Off, in May.

"The Bear is my favourite one-act ever. I produced it in Dar es Salaam, and I wanted to direct it because you always think you know better than the director," O'Driscoll said.

Fearing only one short comedy would leave the audience discontented, he settled on The Proposal to complete the bill.

"I'm expecting a lot of laughs," O'Driscoll said. "But at the same time it's Chekhov, so it will give people something to think about as well. It's not just laughs for laughs sake."

SEATS PLEASE
An Evening of Chekov Comedies will be at Khmer Surin on Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm. Doors open 7pm. Tickets are US$10 at Java, Talkin’ to a Stranger and Rubies Wine Bar. Proceeds go to the Apsara Arts Association.

The director says he is a fan of classic plays, reasoning straightforwardly that "they're classics because they're so good".

When directing, he likes to stay true to the original play. "We're not doing Chekhov for idiots or anything," he said.

"We're staying faithful to the script, and the original tone of the play, but of course we're doing them in English, and we're not doing Russian accents."

Christine Liehr plays the lead in The Bear, despite being a newcomer to the world of acting.

She was involved backstage in the Players' previous production and after that experience felt the time was right to get on stage.

"Acting is not a secret passion, but it's something I've always wanted to do," she said, adding that the experience so far has been great.
She describes O'Driscoll as a fairly strict director. "He knows exactly what he wants," she said.

"In a way it's good, because he tells you straight, 'Do it like this, do it like that', but ... he's very direct and clear about what he wants," she concluded with a smile.

Like her director, Liehr enjoys the humour of the two plays, but admits it took a while to get into them.

She says the translations by Michael Frayn, on which the one-acts are based, help bring out the comedy of the pieces.

The rest, however, is up to the actors. "I hope the audience gets it, but it all depends on our acting," she said.

O'Driscoll, on the other hand, says he is certain the comedies will have the audience laughing.

"I think the audience will love them; actually, I really do," he said.

"There will be a couple of star performances, too," he added, though refrained from naming the stars, preferring to let the audience decide for itself.

Everyone involved in the play seems to agree it has been a fun four weeks putting the performances together.

Ronit Gerard, who, like Liehr, is a newcomer to the stage, describes it as a nice distraction from work.

"Everyone is here to have fun. That's why I like it. No one here takes it seriously," she said.

O'Driscoll agreed, saying that theatre groups are a great way to meet people from all walks of life, and urged those interested to audition for the Players' next performance, the annual Christmas panto.

Fish carcasses from die-off might be toxic

2009-09-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:03 KHOUTH SOPHAKCHAKRYA

Health official warns against eating potentially poisoned fish.

Photo by: Heng Chivoan

Fisherman Sok Yoeung, 62, oversees the netting of the few live fish remaining in the Tonle Sap river at Prek Phnov on Monday. Health concerns have arisen as fisherman continue to sell both live and dead fish collected from the river, which they say is polluted, for human consumption.

Amunicipal health official on Wednesday warned vendors not to sell dead fish culled from waters in Kandal province's Doung village, where thousands of fish have died in recent days from what residents say was toxic discharge from a local bio-fuel plant.

Dr Veing Thai, head of the Phnom Penh's municipal health department said eating contaminated fish could result in severe health problems.
"These kinds of toxins are resistant to the body's natural defences and can cause infection of the kidneys and liver," he said.

The health warning follows the closure Tuesday of a South Korean bio-fuel plant, MH Bio-Energy Co, in Doung village after residents complained a foul-smelling liquid discharged from the plant had killed thousands of area fish.

Ith Praing, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, said the closure would remain in effect until a government investigation determined that the plant was not responsible for the dead fish.

Yet area fishermen and vendors continue to purchase and sell the dead fish, with one vendor who refused to be named estimating that as many as 30 tonnes of the potentially contaminated fish had been collected by vendors for sale in markets.

Ou Hong, 56, a fish vendor in Russey Keo district's Chraing Chamrest II, said she was not concerned about the potentially contaminated fish.

"I don't have any problem eating the poisoned fish," she said, adding that she had also purchased about 8 tonnes of the potentially poisoned fish for drying and fish-paste production.

"I paid only US$610 a tonne. It is much cheaper than regular fish," which she said sells for more than $1,400 a tonne.

But Veing Thai said that if the fish are contaminated, eating them could cause severe illness or even death, and he urged municipal authorities to test the fish before allowing anyone to sell it.

Despite the warnings, Sok Touch, director of the Anti-communicable Disease Department at the Ministry of Health, said he was aware of no risks, and that it was a matter for the Ministry of Environment.

Lunh Hell, general director of pollution control at the Ministry of Environment declined to comment Wednesday, saying he was busy with meetings.

Seng Thim, head of the Bassac fishery office at the municipal Fishery Administration, said Wednesday that about 30 families from Doung village who claim their fish were killed by the plant leak were seeking compensation from the company.

He added that the results of tests to determine the cause of death of the fish in Doung village were expected today.

Victim grieves verdict

2009-09-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:03 MEAS SOKCHEA

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

In Soklyda breaks into tears during a press conference on Wednesday as she begs forgiveness from her aunt Ya Soknim for having a relationship with Chea Ratha that she believes led to the disfiguring acid attack on her aunt.

Abeauty queen whose aunt was scarred for life in an acid attack begged Prime Minister Hun Sen for protection Wednesday, saying she feared her family would be killed after a former high-ranking military official was acquitted of involvement in the crime.

"Every day I open my eyes and see the scar Chea Ratha left [on my aunt]," an emotional In Soklyda said during a press conference hosted by human rights group Licadho. "Now she has been acquitted, what am I supposed to think? We were scared before, but how can we live now? I implore Hun Sen to help me find justice."

Chea Ratha, former deputy chief of staff of the National Military Police, had an affair with In Soklyda that turned sour in early 2008. After In Soklyda went into hiding last April, Chea Ratha allegedly threatened the star's relatives, warning she would "spill blood", according to a joint statement released by Licadho and the Cambodia Centre for Human Rights on Wednesday.

Chea Ratha was particularly enraged with Ya Soknim, In Soklyda's aunt, whom she suspected of helping the star to flee, the statement continued.
On May 8, 2008, two men on a motorcycle accosted Yim Soknim and poured acid over her face and upper body. She suffered severe burns as a result, losing her right eye and breast. In tears, Ya Soknim addressed reporters at the conference, calling for greater legal protection for the poor. "I want to tell the world that this is the way Khmer courts operate," she said. "If offenders are acquitted, they will commit the crime again."

On Wednesday, Licadho and the CCHR jointly condemned Monday's verdict, in which Chea Ratha - along with several co-defendants - was cleared of all charges. "This is yet another blatant display of Cambodia's rampant impunity and culture of brutal violence," said Licadho Director Naly Pilorge. "What is so shocking in this case is the judges' apparent total disregard of evidence against Chea Ratha and her alleged accomplices.

"Cambodia's judicial system yet again allowed the strong - those with power and government connections - to victimise the weak. The court ruling like this only ensures that acid attacks will continue if the perpetrators aren't brought to justice."

They called on the Supreme Council of Magistracy to investigate Phnom Penh Municipal Court's handling of the case to determine whether the judges acted "inappropriately" in reaching their verdict. "Evidence of unethical or illegal conduct should prompt an official inquiry," they said in a statement.

Chea Ratha's lawyer, Keo Ya, dismissed the statements and accused In Soklyda and Ya Soknim of defamation. "My client was not behind this acid attack," he said. "If my client had acted like this, the court would not have acquitted her. If [the victim's family] is afraid, that is their business."

1 Year Later: Missing woman's family says "She's safe with God" (Click for The Star's special look at the history of Unique Living)

2009-09-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

shelbystar

Unique Living - Years of Struggle - Web Feature

Here are stories from The Star's online archives that chronicle the facility's history. Records from recent years are complete, while records from 2002-2005 are incomplete because of the archiving system used at that time. For complete archives, microfilm records are available for view and printing at Cleveland Memorial Library in Shelby.

SEPTEMBER 2008

Developing News: Unique Living shut down
2008-09-11

Local News: Officials search for new homes for Unique Living patients
2008-09-11

Local News: GPS system pondered for missing patients
2008-09-10

Local News: Missing woman case brings to light other problems at Unique Living
2008-09-09

Local News: Investigators turn to public for leads in missing woman
2008-09-08

Developing News: Search continues for missing Unique Living patient
2008-09-04

Breaking News: Officials search for missing Unique Living resident .
2008-09-03

Local News: The history of Unique Living
2008-09-03

AUGUST 2008

Local News: DSS monitors changes at Unique Living
2008-08-18

Local News: DSS working with Unique Living to improve facility
2008-08-15

JULY 2008

Lifestyles: Restaurant Ratings/Week of July 7-11
2008-07-15

Local News: Unique Living in limbo
2008-07-10

Debate: DSS should maintain openness
2008-07-05

Local News: DSS recommends state suspend admissions at Unique Living
2008-07-01

OCTOBER 2007

Local News: Three Cleveland DSS workers win state awards
2007-10-15

AUGUST 2007

Lifestyles: Weekly restaurant health inspections
2007-08-01

JUNE 2007

Local News: Project Lifesaver technology helps locate wanderers
2007-06-21

MARCH 2007

Local News: Unique Living under fire for health rating
2007-03-13

Local News: Wandering man turns up in Charlotte
2007-03-08

Local News: Missing man found
2007-03-08

NOVEMBER 2006

Local News: Pathways: Facility should make changes
2006-11-10

Local News: State recommends $16,000 fine for facility
2006-11-01

OCTOBER 2006

Local News: NC suspends admissions at Unique Living
2006-10-30

Local News: DSS Letters: Close or change Unique Living
2006-10-24

Local News: Do adult care homes offer appropriate care?
2006-10-16

Local News: Legislators look into adult care problems
2006-10-11

SEPTEMBER 2006

Local News: Disappearances, death spur study
2006-09-28

Local News: Program hopes to help lost dementia patients
2006-09-27

Local News: Unique Living resident takes off
2006-09-26

Local News: This time, did home report missing man fast enough?
2006-09-26

Local News: Governor's group: Unique Living should close
2006-09-18

Local News: Group to talk strategy
2006-09-12

AUGUST 2006

Local News: Investigation: Unique Living broke laws
2006-08-18

Local News: DSS Memo: Unique Living violations apparent
2006-08-18

Local News: Center plans hearing on dementia
2006-08-11

Local News: Lawndale assisted living home had complaints in ‘05
2006-08-09

Debate: It’s too soon to lay blame for tragedy
2006-08-09

Local News: Unique Living: Whitesides was 'not incompetent'
2006-08-07

Local News: DSS comments: Unique Living followed protocol
2006-08-07

Local News: Former living facility: Whitesides was unhappy
2006-08-07

Local News: How did 'Buck' die? The chronology of his last days
2006-08-07

Local News: Who was "Buck" Whitesides?
2006-08-07

Local News: Neighborhood: Enough!
2006-08-07

Local News: Lost man found dead
2006-08-05

Local News: Missing man found dead in the woods behind Unique Living
2006-08-05

Local News: Where is he?
2006-08-05

Local News: Family waits for answers
2006-08-03

MARCH 2005

Local News: Yelton's changes owners
2005-03-01

FEBRUARY 2005

Local News: Yelton's changing leaders
2005-02-12

AUGUST 2004

Local News: DSS to ask state to close Yelton's or stop admissions
2004-08-31

JULY 2003

Local News: Yelton's faces maximum penalty
2003-07-11

DECEMBER 2002

Local News: DSS: Yelton's violated agreement with state
2002-12-18

OCTOBER 2002

Local News: Yelton's resident dies from hot bath injuries
2002-10-29

Local News: Yelton's patient burned in bath
2002-10-22

911 Calls Database | Use this searchable database of 911 calls for service at Unique Living.

Click here to continue

(View Larger Map)

Here is part of the facility's history, according to The Star's archives:

2008
Facility closed.

Woman disappears from the facility.

Cleveland County Department of Social Services recommends that the state suspend admissions to the facility and appoint a temporary manager.

Facility's kitchen scores a 90 on its health department inspection.

In August, DSS gets an optimistic report about changes at the facility.

2007
The facility scores an 80 on a health department inspection of its kitchen.

The facility makes improvements and later in the year scores a 94.

2006
Kelly Neal "Buck" Whitesides, 59, disappears from the facility and is later found in Rutherford County. He is returned to the facility, only to disappear hours later. He is found dead days later, 844 feet from the home.

A second resident disappears and the home files a report within the state's mandated time frame. He later turns himself in to police in Maggie Valley.

The Governor's Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities recommends that the facility be closed.

Cleveland County Department of Social Services asks that the facility be closed or that its licensure be changed to that of a mental health facility.

Pathways urges licensure change to that of a mental health facility.

State suspends admissions and orders a $16,000 fine.

2005
Ownership changes; other staff changes.

Facility's name changed to Unique Living.

Upgrades and repairs planned for facility.

County DSS finds some claims against the facility are false.

2004
County DSS learns that a state-operated facility for people with mental illness, developmental disabilities and histories of substance abuse is releasing patients with significant criminal histories to Yelton's.

2002
Facility and state Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Facility Services reach a settlement that dictates that the facility not admit sex offenders and that it not employ anyone convicted of a violent crime.

A 66-year-old woman dies after sustaining burns in a bath at the facility. The worker involved was found to have a violent criminal history; facility officials said her history was because of marital problems.

2000
Admissions suspended for a time.

Yelton's is fined $10,000 after a 43-year-old woman choked on a sandwich and died.

Mouy Tang is missing from the Unique Living facility. There is a large reward for information on her whereabouts.

The Property

See an aerial view of the facility.

Although the Unique Living facility's specific owner information is not available through the county's Geographic Information System (GIS), some information is available on the property off Philadelphia Road, which was once the Philadelphia School.

Cambodian Gov´t sends Congratulatory Message to New Japanese PM

2009-09-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Written by DAP NEWS -- Wednesday, 02 September 2009 05:20

The Cambodian government on Monday sent a congratulatory message to the newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama after his election success on August 30, 2009, according to a spokesman of the Foreign Affair and International Cooperation Ministry.
“Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday sent a congratulatory letter to the new Japanese Prime Minister,” confirmed Koy Koung.
“In the letter, The Royal Government of Cambodia welcomed and showed applauding for newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama,” he added.
The strong cooperation in all fields between Cambodia and Japan has been improved and aid is being provided to Cambodia by the Japanese, aimed at reducing poverty.
Cambodian-Japanese cooperation will increase in all fields and a closer relationship with newly the elected Japanese Prime Minister will help ties “become more developed and better than before,” Koy Koung told DAP News Cambodia last week.
“Cambodia’s relationship with Japan will not be changed whoever will be the next Prime Minister,” said Koy Koung.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that world leaders are promoting globalization so that all fields of cooperation among Cambodia and Japan, especially assistance and aid, will be not change, Koy Koung reiterated.
Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), on Friday told DAP News Cambodia that the next Japanese Prime Minister will be careful in considering new projects as they dot want to waste their donations to Cambodia.
Japan on August 13, 2009 provided US$72 million in concessionary loans to develop Cambodia’s Sihanoukville port to expand its capacity.
“The fund is to improve the capacity of Sihanoukville port, the only international deep sea port in Cambodia, by constructing multipurpose terminals including a bulk terminal and oil supply base, and developing infrastructure related to the terminal at the port,” Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation told reporters.
The minister signed the exchange note with Shinohara Katsuhiro, Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia, with the presence of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
It will also help contribute to industrial development and economic growth in Cambodia. And it is the third time that Japan has helped Sihanoukville port since 1999 aimed at improving handling capacity of containerized cargos, Namhong said.

Japan also provided about US$10 million non-project grant aid for promotion of economic and social development efforts in Cambodia, Hor said, adding that since 1993, under the type of grant aid, Japan has extended to Cambodia a total amount of US$187 million.
In Japan’s historic election on Sunday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost power for only the second time in the post-World War II era. The opposition Democrats swept to power, winning 308 of 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to Japanese media.
According to a story in today’s New York Times: “Many Japanese saw the vote as the final below to the island nation’s postwar order, which has been slowly unraveling since the economy collapsed in the early 1990s.” In that period, Japan’s stock market fell 80 percent from its all-time high. Its real estate market lost 60 percent of its value.
Experts said a Japan led by the Democrats could put Tokyo into stiffer competition for leadership in Asia with Beijing in tackling non-traditional security issues including energy security, green growth, protecting sea lanes and disaster relief, Xinhua reported.
Hatoyama and the Democrats have called for a new arrangement for Japan’s most important security relations with the US, which for decades has had troops in the country.
Some analysts say Japan’s prospective effort to upgrade its role in the defense alliance may not be a good thing for China. US presence in Japan can be seen as a bottle cap keeping the Japanese military genie in the bottle, the Chinese analysts have argued.
The Democrats are seeking greater equality in the relationship that would allow Japan to act with greater flexibility. Some analysts worry that a more assertive Tokyo could lead to strained ties with Washington.
“However, the Democratic Party will probably sing the same tune with the US and move somewhat together” especially regarding the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), said Kim Sang-joon, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.
The Democratic Party is an unlikely alliance formed across the political spectrum and it remains to be seen how it will address many regional issues such as often-stalled free-trade talks with Australia and the ROK.
However, much view is still looking forward to see what will happen for the Cambodia-Japan’s cooperation as the new-elected PM from opposition party won the PM’s post.

Khmer Information Center

Relocation may be offered to victims of Tuol Kork fire

Dentist charged in ‘acid’ case

Dentist charged in ‘acid’ case

Bird’s-eye view of 9/11 tragedy

Bird’s-eye view of 9/11 tragedy

Bicyclist’s freewheeling feast

In Brief: Cambodia nets bronzes in Asian Indoor Games

Cambodia to start work on bourse in December

King crab?

Where the rubber meets the robe

Man About Town

Demining squad unearths rocket

Thomson Reuters

Construction of Cambodian bourse to begin in Dec

Article Controls

Related Stories

Rate This Story

Your Rating

Overall Rating

Reader Comments

'Jungle Woman' Is Sick, Stressed Out

Thirty Years On, the Holocaust In Cambodia and Its Aftermath Is Remembered

Kingdom loses three to typhoon

phnompenhpost, FRIDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:02 KIM YUTHANA

Pensions shortfall delays retirement of 2,000 soldiers

phnompenhpost, MONDAY, 07 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:04 CHEANG SOKHA AND TRACEY SHELTON

ជើងមេឃពណ៌ស្វាយ

ខ្លិនផាហ៊ុម

ចំប៉ាបាត់ដំបង

ជីវិតកម្មករត្បូង

រំដួលខេត្តសុរិន្ត

រាត្រីស្ងាត់

អនអើយស្រីអន

អកបឹងកន្សែង

វាលស្រីស្រណោះ

សំរស់នាងចែវទូកដរ

ខ្យងក្ដក់

ចំប៉ីសៀមរាប

Chekhov comes to Cambodia

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:00 NORA LINDSTROM

Fish carcasses from die-off might be toxic

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:03 KHOUTH SOPHAKCHAKRYA

Victim grieves verdict

phnompenhpost, THURSDAY, 03 SEPTEMBER 2009 15:03 MEAS SOKCHEA

1 Year Later: Missing woman's family says "She's safe with God" (Click for The Star's special look at the history of Unique Living)

Cambodian Gov´t sends Congratulatory Message to New Japanese PM