Tribunal Prosecutor Allays Cham Concerns

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 13 May 2010

White-haired and toothless, Leb Sarem was riding his bicycle from his home to pray at a nearby mosque in Preah Sihanouk province. Along the way, he stopped at a neighbor’s housing compound where last month he and other residents here in the village of Prek Torl met with an international prosecutor from the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal.

The visit, from UN prosecutor Andrew Cayley, set his mind at ease, Leb Sarem told VOA Khmer at the compound last week.

“Before he came here, I felt very tense,” the 67-year-old Muslim said. “But now I feel more relieved, because I hope that he will find justice for me by taking the Khmer Rouge leaders to trial sooner.”

Policy Alone Inadequate: Youth Advocate

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Facing a rising number of young people who are graduating school, looking for work and entering society in general, the government is drafting an official national youth policy. But advocates from the growing demographic say a policy alone is not enough.

“If we have only the document, but no institution to implement it, it will be useless,” Sun Chansen, president of the Khmer Youth Association, told “Hello VOA” Monday.

Sun Chansen, whose association represents six non-governmental organizations that work with young people, said a national youth council must be created to enforce the policy.

Cham Son Seeks Tribunal ‘Justice’ for Father

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 29 April 2010

Ly Sukei’s father was a well-educated Cambodian Muslim who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in 1975.

Now Ly Sukei is one of 228 Chams filing as civil parties at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, as the UN-backed court prepares to try at least four jailed leaders of the regime for genocide and other atrocity crimes.

“I filed a complaint to find justice for my father,” Ly Sukei told VOA Khmer at his home in Kampong Cham province, where many Chams lived and died under the Khmer Rouge.

On Island of Massacre, Chams Remember

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 27 April 2010 

On an island in the Mekong River in Krouch Chhmar district, about 50 km from Kampong Cham provincial town, lies a Cham village that is little more than a few bamboo, thatched-roof houses.

The village is on Koh Phal, or “Island of Harvest,” where Cham Muslims resisted the Khmer Rouge in an uprising in September 1975, just five months after the radical Maoists took power in Cambodia.

“The reason for the rebellion was that there was no more Islam,” Chet Sman, a 75-year-old widower and the head of one of the four families living here, told VOA Khmer in an interview recently. “The Khmer Rouge collected our Quran for burning and cut women’s hair, including my mother’s. This is the reason.”

Former Forest Hunter Turns Eco-Tour Guide

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 23 April 2010

The 54-year-old had been a guide since 2007, but he has not always been so kind to the forest. At one time, he was a hunter and a logger in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia’s ecological gem, where elephants, tigers and crocodiles still live—although in dwindling numbers.

An elephant killed in Africa

Grey-haired Soth Sophal prepared one recent day to lead a group of six villagers through the forest to a waterfall. He would guide them in a way responsible to the environment, showing off the natural splendor of the area, near his home village of Prey Praseth, in Preah Sihanouk province’s Kampong Seila district.

Youths Seek Jobs, Development in New Year

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Wednesday, 21 April 2010

Cambodia has fully entered the Year of the Tiger, and the country’s youths are now looking for the upcoming year to bring more opportunities in education and employment and allow them more chances to participate in social development.

“Today our young people sometimes do not have good jobs, or are jobless, and this causes problems in society on their graduation from university,” said Samreth Phoumy, a 20-year-old psychology student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, as she prepared for her holiday last week. “So, I want to see more job opportunities and the increased attention on them in the New Year.”

Cambodia has a burgeoning population of youth, and while many remain mired in poverty, a growing number have found routes to education, social development or politics.

Farmers Happy To Reduce Elephant Conflicts

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 

With more Cambodians clearing forest land for agriculture and an increase of development projects in remote areas like this, the habitat for wild elephants is decreasing, putting them in conflict with humans.

Chab Leoung, a dark-skinned farmer, sat behind his cottage one day in March, complaining of injuries to his jaw and foot. The 48-year-old was trammeled by an elephant while traveling in the forest in the Cardamom Mountains three years ago.

“A group of elephants first ran after my dog, but then one in the group turned on me,” recalled the father of four, who lives in Chi Phat commune, in Koh Kong province’s Thmar Bang district. “It hit me and then stepped on my face and my foot.”

‘Uncle Elephant’ To Accept Major Prize

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 20 April 2010 

When Tuy Sereivathana began working with an international conservation group in 2003, the first thing he thought of was the issue at hand: wild elephants in Cambodia, and especially in the Cardamom Mountains, were endangered.

This was because the elephants were raiding villages and destroying the crops of farmers, who in turn sought ways to hurt or kill the elephants. In some of these confrontations, people themselves were hurt or killed.

The elephants were reacting to the encroachment of humans into their migration routes, as people cleared forest land and built roads. The loss of habitat led to the confrontations, but more and more people were moving into the forests.

More for Victims in Acid Attack Law: Official

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Saturday, 10 April 2010

The government committee tasked with drafting legislation against acid attacks is considering provisions for the treatment and rehabilitation of victims, an official said Thursday.

“Acid attack victims suffer much more severely, both physically and mentally, than other types of victims,” said Teng Savong, a police general and secretary of state for the Ministry of Interior.

Rights groups have called for more measures to help victims of the disfiguring attacks, which are a common form of retribution in Cambodia. Teng Savong said the changes to the draft came from feedback from rights groups and others.

River Residents Watch as Mekong Shrinks

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 06 April 2010

Chea Veoung, a 32-year-old farmer in Kampong Cham province, looked desperately at the bank of the Mekong River recently, noting that a severe drop in its level was costing him three times as much in fuel just to irrigate his fields. “When the level gets so low, [the pump] consumes about 20 liters” of fuel, he said.