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The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nong Duc Manh will pay an official visit to Cambodia on December 17-19 at the invitation of King Norodom Sihamoni. This is Mr. Manh’s second visit to Cambodia after his first in March 2005.

The visit aims to strengthen the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries and to elevate Vietnam’s position in the region, especially as the country will assume the chair of ASEAN in 2010.

Vietnam and Cambodia share a 1,000km long border and both use the Mekong River. They stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight against colonialism and the Pol Pot genocidal regime and have continued with mutual support and assistance during the current process of national construction and defence. Both countries have an open foreign policy of diversifying and multilateralising their international relations.

Over the past years, bilateral relations have developed well with an emphasis on ‘good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term stability. A regular exchange of high-level visits has been maintained to promote mutual trust and understanding. Relations between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the two Cambodian parties in the ruling coalition have also fared well.

Economic, trade and investment ties between Vietnam and Cambodia have grown and flourished constantly on a par with their political ties. Two-way trade has increased by 40 percent annually, reaching US$1.7 billion in 2008 and US$945 million in the past three quarters of this year.

Both countries have worked out measures to expand economic and trade cooperation, to raise bilateral trade to US$2 billion in 2010. They have also opened and upgraded a number of economic zones and markets along the border.

Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia has increased considerably, with 50 projects licensed and valued at US$640 million. These projects mainly focus on the exploration and exploitation of minerals, oil & gas, the construction of hydro-power electric plants and power transmission lines, rubber plantations and developing transport infrastructure.  

Progress has been made in several joint projects such as health care, education-training and science-technology. Since 1995, Vietnam has trained thousands of Cambodian officials, university graduates and post-graduates in economics, culture and science-technology. In 2010 Vietnam is expected to grant 550 scholarships to Cambodian students. In turn, Cambodia will also grant scholarships to Vietnamese officials studying the Khmer language.

Cambodia has appreciated Vietnam’s humanitarian programmes to provide medical check-ups and restore the eyesight of visually-impaired people in border provinces.

The two countries have also worked closely in regional and international forums, thereby elevating their status globally.

Vietnam visa waivers to last longer in 2010

Monday, 28 December 2009 15:01 Ith Sothoeuth

(Comments: Hun Sen continues to block the entry for the Khmer Krom people, but allows the Vietnamese to come into Cambodia at will. Even though this article only mentioned the Short term visitors from Vietnam. But, in view of the fact that there is such pervasive corruption in Cambodia, the real question is who will check the length of these Vietnamese stay in Cambodia? The answer is nobody will do anything to stop Vietnamese Tsunami, as they all know that Hun Sen has already agreed to allow Vietnamese to enter Cambodia, at will, since the supplements of the1979 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was signed by King Sihamoni with a strong push from former king Sihanouk.

The most baffling aspect of this love affair with the Vietnamese by Hun Sen and Sihanouk, is the fact that while allowing the Vietnamese to pour into Cambodia unopposed, they reject request by those Khmer Krom people who had to flee Vietnam due to the genocide being committed against them by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, without a word of protest from either Sihanouk, Sihnamoni, or Hun Sen.

“Nam Tien” or the “Southward March” is still being enforced and supported by Hun Sen and his CPP, with the tacit approval of Sihanouk and his son Sihamoni. 

So, the Vietnamization of Cambodia will be completed sooner rather than later. However, don’t blame the Vietnamese though. If the so-called Cambodian “leaders” such as Hun Sen and Sihanouk, not only, did not fight this Vietnamization process, but  did all they could to accelerate it. Poor Cambodian people, what a tragedy and what a pity for Cambodia.

Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 29, 2009)

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A deal allowing Cambodian and Vietnamese citizens to cross the border between the two countries without a visa will be extended from January 1 to allow visits of up to 30 days, according to Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said people holding ordinary passports valid for at least six months are only allowed to visit the neighbouring country for 14 days without a visa, based on a bilateral agreement signed November 4, 2008.

He said he hoped the move would give a further boost to the tourism sector, as was seen following the initial agreement.

“There are many tourism sites in Cambodia and Vietnam,” he said.

“If they only get a short time to visit, how can they visit them all? The longer they stay, the more money they spend.”

In the first nine months of the year, 42.82 percent more Vietnamese visited the Kingdom compared with the same period last year, which analysts have said is largely the result of the visa exemption.

Arrivals from Laos, which has a 30-day visa exemption agreement, were up 92 percent over the period, though from a much lower base.

Khmer Krom plead for citizenship

Friday, 25 December 2009 15:04 Cameron Wells and Vong Sokheng

(Comments: The Hun Sen regime supported by the new and old kings has chosen to remain silent, and has closed the door for the Khmer Krom by not allowing them to come and take refuge in Cambodia and thereby escaping from the Vietnamese genocide.

Yet, Hun Sen has been opening the door for all Vietnamese to flow freely into Cambodia, but he has also signed the Treaty of Peace, Cooperation, and Friendship with Vietnam in 2005, which is no more no less an extension of the 1979 treaty of the same name, that was imposed on Cambodia under the occupation by that country in 1979.

Unfortunately, most Cambodians, and especially by the old and the new kings, have not done anything to counter this slow but sure step toward the obliteration of Cambodia from the map of the world.

While Sam Rainsy has chosen the easy and publicity oriented but more risky way to remove the border markers in Svay Rieng province, instead of championing the Khmer Krom people cause by sponsoring a “law of return” as in the Jewish in case to return to Israel, in the national Assembly to allow all Khmer Krom to return to live in Cambodia, if they so choose.

A publicity stunt is only a noise making device, whereas a law of return for the Khmer Krom people is a real advancement for the Cambodian cause. Sam Rainsy should think about this venue as soon as possible. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 25, 2009)

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A GROUP of 24 Khmer Krom asylum seekers recently deported from Thailand arrived in Phnom Penh on Wednesday in a desperate bid to have their Cambodian citizenship confirmed by the government.

The group, part of an ethnic minority from the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam, were deported from Thailand on December 5 after fleeing Vietnam. They had been sheltered by the Independent Democratic Association of Non-Formal Economy in Banteay Meachey’s Poipet town.

Members of the group – which is currently staying at Wat Angtaminh near Phnom Penh International Airport – say they fear severe repercussions from the Vietnamese government if they are deported.

Members of the group say that when they fled Vietnam, they lost their homes and many possessions. Huynh Ut, 33, said his father is now disabled as a result of abuse by Vietnamese authorities. “They broke his skull and beat his body, and shocked him” with a stun device, he said. “After three months, the starvation made him disabled.”

Another member of the group, 56-year-old Choav Heng, said: “Yesterday, we went in to meet the UNHCR to fill in forms and register with the government so they can start to help us,” referring to the UN refugee agency. “We have sent many letters to the Ministry of Interior so they could see this case and try to help us, but we have not received a response. We have also written to the National Assembly, many NGOs and human rights organisations because we are in great difficulty. We don’t have any food. We don’t have any money. We don’t have anything for our daily lives.”

Though hungry, poor and with no place to live, the biggest worry for his group, said Choav Heng, is the constant fear of being sent back to Vietnam.

“The Vietnamese government still wants to catch us,” he said.

“We need protection. Because we are Khmer Krom, we would like the government to give us some security and confidence.”

He added: “We need the government and UNHCR to accept us as Cambodian people. We would like the government to help find us a place to stay near schools and markets. We also need land for agriculture.”

He said the group needed “help from the government with identification cards or any documents we need” to become Cambodian citizens. “For me, I would just like a place. A good place, any place that they can give us. We find it hard to be understood, [but] I hope in Cambodia we will be more accepted and better off.”

Ministry of Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak has said that if they are in Cambodia and are Khmers, they have an automatic right to citizenship, but also, earlier this month, that the arrivals had not yet been clearly identified as ethnic Khmers.

He did not detail exactly what the identification process involved.

“The asylum seekers must realise that the right for asylum is no longer under the authorisation of the UNHCR,” he said.

The UNHCR could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR spokeswoman in Bangkok, said on December 15 that the deportees had been at various stages of their asylum applications at the time of their deportation from Thailand.

She said the UNHCR regarded their deportation as a “serious matter” and had taken up the issue with the government in Bangkok.

“Our position is that no asylum seekers should be deported from Thailand unless their appeals have been processed and it has been properly established that they do not require international protection,” she said at the time.

She went on to add that there are “orderly procedures” for returning unsuccessful applicants to their countries of origin.

Striking similarities

The plight of the recent arrivals to Phnom Penh follows the deportation of 54 Khmer Krom, also by Thai police, in June.

Ang Chanrith, executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organisation, said the 54 were subsequently smuggled back into Thailand to make another bid for asylum. He said “more than 10” of the current deportees were also deported in June.

China agrees $1.2bn in aid for economic development

The Phnom Penh Post; Tuesday, 22 December 2009 15:01 Cheang Sokha

(Comments: the Chinese have always taken clues from Sihanouk. Since, the Chinese government is fully aware of the fact that Sihanouk is one hundred percent behind Hun Sen. Then it is normal and not surprising that the Chinese government had given this generous financial assistance to Hun Sen and his CPP.

Fortunately, most of this assistance goes directly to building physical and social infrastructure.  Therefore, this assistance does benefit, in an indirect way, the majority of the Cambodian people. Although, this does not mean that Hun Sen and his extended family members do not benefit from this large Chinese assistance. Hun Sen can always claim that it is he, who was able to get this assistance flowing into Cambodia, thereby getting more support in the form of more votes from the Cambodian people.

The ability to control financial resources from outside and inside combined with the total support by Sihanouk and the new king, has allowed Hun Sen to continue to keep his deadly grip on the destiny of the Cambodian people for a very long time to come.

 However, it also benefits Hun Sen, his family members and friends by giving them  the majority share of the contracts to build these infrastructural projects, such as roads, bridges, dams to those companies which are owned and managed by members of his extended family. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 22, 2009)

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Deals signed by vice president more than total offered previously

CHINESE Vice President Xi Jinping oversaw the signing of US$1.2 billion in economic agreements Monday during a state visit to Phnom Penh, deals worth more than the cumulative economic aid offered previously by Beijing over the past 17 years.

Xi’s delegation agreed the raft of aid deals following a reception with Prime Minister Hun Sen in what was the vice president’s first official visit to Cambodia since taking up the position last year.

The agreements – 14 in total – will see China offer economic grants and soft loans for the construction of roads, transport infrastructure, communication equipment and irrigation projects.

Other agreements include a soft loan for an electricity transmission loop line around the capital to be built by China National Heavy Machinery Co, and economic and technical cooperation with an interest-free loan of 50 million yuan ($7.3 million), along with another grant of the same value – also for technical assistance – although their exact use was not specified.

From 1992 up until Monday, Beijing had offered $930 million in low-interest loans and financial aid to the Kingdom, according to Information Minister Khieu Kanharith.

The world’s third-largest economy would also offer the Kingdom preferential market access for exports, he added.

“China allowed Cambodia to export 418 types of local products,” Khieu Kanharith told reporters in Phnom Penh after the signing ceremony.

However, the Kingdom does not produce sufficient exports, he said, adding that Chinese firms are welcome to invest further in Cambodia.

In the first nine months of 2008, approvals of Chinese investment in Cambodia hit a record $3.94 billion, according to figures by the Centre for the Development of Cambodia, compared with just $339 million during the same period this year.

Both sides agreed to increase cooperation within all sectors of the economy, the minister said.

Xi, who arrived in Cambodia on Sunday, will leave the Kingdom today after meeting with Senate President Chea Sim, National Assembly President Heng Samrin and King Norodom Sihamoni.

Thai note said to hint at attack on Cambodia

The Phnom Penh Post; Monday, 21 December 2009 15:02 James O'Toole

(Comments: It appears tat in front of Hun Sen continued provocations, the Thai government has run of patience and is apparently planning to take military action against Cambodia. That is exactly what Hun Sen wanted.

Then the Vietnamese, under, the imposed treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation will come again to “save” Cambodia. The consequence is that there will more Vietnamese pouring into Cambodia, in the form of Vietnamese soldiers who came to “save” Cambodia, at the request of Hun Sen. As in the past, these Vietnamese soldier will shed off their uniforms and remain in Cambodia as new colonizers.

The most striking facet of all this tragedy, there is a total silence from both the old and the new kings. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 21, 2009)

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THAILAND has developed a contingency plan for military action against Cambodia should the dispute between the two countries over fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s appointment as an adviser to Cambodia’s government escalate further, a parliamentarian from the Thai opposition alleged on Friday.

Puea Thai party lawmaker Jatuporn Prompan presented reporters with a copy of a note he said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya sent last month to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, according to Bangkok’s The Nation newspaper.

The note reportedly outlines several courses of action Thailand could pursue in its ongoing row with Cambodia.

“In the worst case, such as a violation of Thai sovereignty or anything resembling the establishment of a government in exile for Thaksin, Thailand would cut diplomatic relations and resort to using military force,” The Nation said.

Chawanon Intharakomansut, secretary to the Thai foreign minister, acknowledged the existence of the note but said Jatuporn had blown its significance out of proportion.

“It’s our plan to deal with Cambodia, but it’s a normal statement from the government of Thailand – it’s not something like he said, an assassination plan or anything like that,” Chawanon said. The secretary added that the document was “classified”, and that a committee had been set up to investigate how the note had been leaked.

Thailand withdrew its ambassador to Cambodia last month in protest of the appointment of Thaksin as an economics adviser, with Cambodia withdrawing its ambassador to Thailand shortly afterwards.

Cambodia, Vietnam OK deal on river ports

The Phnom Penh Post; Friday, 18 December 2009 15:02 May Kunmakara

(Comments: This article shows that Hun Sen with Sihanouk’s support is pushing Cambodia into Vietnam’s deadly embrace to complete the Vietnamization of Cambodia as soon as possible, while it is still feasible. Meanwhile, Hun Sen is doing all he could to provoke Thailand to start a war with Cambodia. This in turn, will allow Vietnam to come once more to “save” Cambodia from the imagined Thai threat.

So Cambodia is lucky to see that the Thais are not biting into this provocation and remains very restraint despite repeated provocations by Hun Sen on behalf of the Vietnamese. It is impossible to imagine how could Cambodia stop this multi-ways of opening of the border for the Vietnamese to be pouring into Cambodia without any control. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 18, 2009)

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CAMBODIA and Vietnam signed a bilateral deal Thursday that will allow greater access to each other’s port facilities, an agreement both sides said would boost trade across the border.

The deal means that ships from Cambodia will enjoy unlimited access to Vietnamese ports on the Mekong, and vice versa, following a more restrictive agreement signed in 1998 that limited Vietnam’s vessels to Phnom Penh.

“The agreement will increase trade activity and transportation on waterways in place of land routes, which have become overcrowded,” said Mom Sibon, secretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MPWT).

The deal promises to further access to Cai Mep deepwater port near Ho Chi Minh City, a facility opened this year that has cut days off shipping times to North America, Cambodia’s biggest export market.

Container traffic through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port – which has used the new Mekong route to Cai Mep – increased 8.61 percent in October year on year.

Both sides would establish a task force under the MPWT and Vietnam’s Ministry of Transportation to address issues such as cutting complicated documentation, said Mom Sibon.

Le Bien Cuong, Vietnam’s Phnom Penh-based commercial councilor, said the agreement would further diversify links between the two countries with the aim of annual bilateral trade of US$2 billion.

Trade between the two neighbours reached $1.049 billion in the first 10 months, a 36.15 percent drop on the same period last year when trade hit a record $1.493 billion.

PM pledges support for Vietnam investors

The Phnom Penh Post; Friday, 11 December 2009 15:00 Nathan Green

(Comments: the love affair between Hun Sen and Vietnam continues without any word of caution either the current king or the ex king. Who needs enemy when we have patriot like Hun Sen and Sihanouk. The Vietnamization of Cambodia is going full blast.

Don’t expect anything positive for Cambodia from the State Department either under Hillary Clinton.

In a recent meeting with a senior State Department official in charge of Southeast Asia section, I was told that there is no political dominance by Vietnam but only economic dominance. Then I could not resist but to tell him to read a little bit more of the history of Vietnam imperialism and colonialism in Southeast Asia.

On the other hand, who can help Cambodia when the Cambodian themselves did their best to accommodate Vietnamese colonialism in Cambodia. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 11, 2009)

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Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung thanked Prime Minister Hun Sen Wednesday for his government’s creation of a favourable environment for Vietnamese enterprises to investment in Cambodian aviation, banking, telecoms and agriculture, according to Vietnamese media reports. Ahead of the opening of the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos, he said he wanted to enhance cooperation with Cambodia in economic, trade and investment matters, the Vietnam News Agency reported. Hun Sen pledged to continue facilitating Vietnamese firms’ business activities in Cambodia, according to the agency.

HRP wants stats on immigration

The Phnom Penh Post; Thursday, 10 December 2009 15:00 Meas Sokchea

(Comments: It is never too late; this request is a move in the right direction by HRP. It is better to do this than to move the border markers as Sam Rainsy did recently in the Svay Rieng province. This request is not a provocative act, but, an justified one. This information should be available to start with.

Why does Hun Sen keep these statistics as a state secret? Because, it is politically costly for Hun Sen to make them public, as they demonstrate the state of danger for the Cambodian people by the presence of around, 2 to 4 million Vietnamese immigrants, most of them are illegal. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 11, 2009)

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PM denies KRT interference, warns of possible civil unrest

The Phnom Penh Post; Friday, 04 December 2009 15:05 Cheang Sokha

(Comments: I have so often said before that his trial is like the one that was set up by the Vietnamese in 1979, is only a show trial, to demonize the demons so as to make the Vietnamese and their stooges look better in the eyes of the international community. Now that that assigned goal of “demonizing the demons’ has been reached by the confession of Duch, there is no reason for Hun Sen to allow this trial to go ahead.

Every honest person would know that Hun Sen is the only person in Cambodia, who can start a civil war, and nobody else. It is to interesting to see what will the international community do with regard to Hun Sen’s obvious defiance and arrogance? Based on past experiences, the answer to that important question is, NOTHING!

Of course, the old and the new kings have no choice but to remain silent, because they owe their life to the Cambodian dictator. What a shameful bunch of people these royals are. Yet, there are still so many Cambodians, educated or not, who are still totally subservient to them. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 4, 2009)

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KR VICTIMS SURVEYED

Nearly two-thirds of direct victims of the Khmer Rouge regime are not ready to reconcile with former cadres, according to an unpublished study presented Thursday in Phnom Penh by the Berlin-based Treatment Centre for Torture Victims. The study, conducted between October 2008 and May 2009 in cooperation with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation, had a sample size of 1,079, of which 22 percent were civil party applicants.

KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Thursday repeated his claim that more prosecutions at the Khmer Rouge tribunal could plunge the country into civil strife, and also disputed allegations that he was interfering in the UN-backed court’s operations.

“Sorry, no more [prosecutions]. I would rather see the court fail than let the country fall into war,” Hun Sen said during remarks at the 11th annual national day for the disabled.

I would rather see the court fail than let the country fall into war.

Acting international co-prosecutor William Smith in September requested the investigation of five more suspects after a legal technicality allowed additional introductory submissions to go forward over the objections of national co-prosecutor Chea Leang. The same day Smith submitted the request, Hun Sen warned that more indictments would lead to civil unrest that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives.

He reiterated that claim Thursday, saying: “I am not interfering with the court, but it is not the court that stopped the war. Be careful. The court will create war, causing more divisions in society.”

He added: “Again and again, I see they want to question [more suspects]. Be careful, this is the issue of death.”

The premier has repeatedly been accused of trying to interfere with the work of the tribunal. A report released last month by the Open Society Justice Initiative stated that political interference “poses a serious challenge to both the credibility of the court and its ability to meet international fair trial standards”.

UN court spokesman Lars Olsen said Thursday that there was no chance the court’s independence would be compromised.

“The court will follow the law and make its decisions independently, according to the law,” he said.

“We do not seek advice from the executive branch or anyone else.”

Design of exchange finalised

The  Phnom Penh Post; Wednesday, 02 December 2009 15:01 Soeun Say

(Comments: How on earth can Cambodia with its totally corrupt political, legal, ad judicial system keep the planned stock market to function cleanly and efficiently. Even a country as developed and as transparent as the United States or Europe, cannot manage to keep the stock market from being manipulated b a few immoral and clever professional crooks, such as Mardoff, or Stanford, not to mention those who appear to be more respectable, such as Goldman Sachs, AIG. It is important to know that know that the financial market is not the main sector of the economy; it is only a supporting sector. The main sector of the economy is the real sector that produce good and services.

Because of its role as intermediaries between savers and investors, producers and consumers, and between local and international business agents, this sector needs to be regulated by the government who is supposed to be representing the interests of whole population, and not just few in Hun Sen family and friends’, as the international NGO “Global Witness” ha shown in  one of its penetrating article, titled “Cambodia’s Family Trees;”( http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/546/en/cambodias_family_trees) in which it sows how Hun Sen and his extended family and friends is controlling the whole economy of Cambodia for their won and not for Cambodia’s national interests and benefits.

In view of te fact that Cambodia economy is anything but corrupt unruly, and opaque, how on earth can anybody in their right mind expect this stock market to benefit Cambodia and the Cambodian people rather than just Hun Sen and his extended family? Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. December 2, 2009)

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Construction set to begin on new bourse this month, says finance official

THE construction of Cambodia’s stock exchange will finally begin this month at Phnom Penh’s Camko City after delays caused by a redesign of the US$6 million structure, a finance official said Tuesday.

Mey Vann, director of the Industry and Finance Department, told a signing ceremony for the building between the government and contractor World City Co Ltd that architectural plans had been finalised, and that the structure would be finished by the end of next year.

“We will delay opening the stock market in Cambodia until the end of 2010 because of the global financial crisis,” Aun Porn Moniroth, secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said at the ceremony in Phnom Penh, which included Minister Keat Chhon.

The Finance Ministry rejected a previous blueprint for the four-storey structure in July and asked South Korea’s World City to revise the plans to incorporate more Khmer elements to the design. Construction was previously scheduled to begin immediately after the end of the rainy season last month, but the design revisions pushed this date back further.

The new design combines both modern and traditional Khmer features, said Mey Vann, adding that the size – 6,682 square metres – and the cost remain unchanged. World City is covering the cost of the designs, building and land, he added.

Kheng Ser, assistant to World City Vice President Duk-kon Kim, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, said all infrastructure for the site was complete, confirming that the firm would “this month break ground on the project”.

Mey Vann told the Post on November 12 that the new bourse would receive a soft launch in January or February with still only 10 of the necessary 30 regulations related to its operation passed at that time.

No trading will take place, however, until the new building is constructed, before which time the Finance Ministry will run an office at which it will receive listing applications from interested companies.

Three companies are scheduled to list on the new exchange next year: Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Phnom Penh Port and Telecom Cambodia. Other companies – mostly banks – have said they are interested in listing, but most have said they will wait to see how Cambodia’s first bourse performs before making a final decision.

Construction to take a year

The new building is scheduled to take eight months to complete, according to Duk-kon Kim, with a further three months needed to bring necessary systems online, meaning the first opening bell is not likely to signal the start of trading until November 2010 at the earliest, nearly a year after the already revised opening date of the end of this month.

This means Cambodia is likely to now begin its first securities trading after neighbouring Laos, which in July signed a deal to open its first bourse in October, according to Bloomberg, also in conjunction with Korea Exchange.

                                          Cambodia needs 'systematic overhaul' of society

                                                            By Gaffar Peang-Meth 
                                                                Guest Commentary

                                        UPI, Asia on Line; Published: November 25, 2009

(Comments: I must thank Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth for his courage to stand up and to go against Cambodian conventional wisdom, which is never to criticize Cambodians especially in public. I give him a lot of credit not because he had given credit for daring to confront Cambodians on the basic weaknesses of the basic characteristics of the Cambodian society and individuals, but, more for his courage to write this article knowing that he will be ferociously vilified and criticized. (more on the main flaws in the cambodian individual and society please, click on this link, Who is Khmer? Some Selected Thoughts). 

He will most probably be accused of accepting my critical views on the flaws of the Cambodian individual character and society, but also of disturbing the Cambodian status quo of never to have a contrarian views anything on anything to do with Cambodia. If the Cambodian people want to escape a certain death by the hands of the Vietnamese government deadly strategy known as “Nam Tien,” they must change and fast. Time is not on their side. Once again, thank you, Dr. Gaffar, for your contribution in trying to give a better chance for the Cambodian people and society to survive the Vietnamese onslaught.

Last but not least, in no way, this attempt and effort to show the main flaws in the character of the Cambodian individual and society, infers that the Cambodian people have less intelligence or less talent. On the contrary, it shows that the Cambodian people have as much intelligence and talent that most people anywhere in the world. However, only where there is no repression in a society can those talents and intelligence be developed to the fullest natural extent for all those wo have them. In an oppressive regime like Cambodia, the natural talent and intelligence of those Cambodian people who have them, cannot be developed fully.

Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. novembe 25, 2009)

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Washington, DC, United States, — A “progressive and systematic overhaul” of its society is what Cambodia needs, according to Dr. Naranhkiri Tith, a specialist in country risk analysis, former civil servant with the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development and a former professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Overhaul Khmer society? Tith says that only by freeing itself from its past can Cambodia gradually resolve its economic, institutional, legal, political and social problems.

Cambodia has been a monarchy since the first century A.D. – except briefly under the 1970-1975 Khmer Republic under Lon Nol, and the 1975-1979 Democratic Kampuchea under Pol Pot. That is the legacy Tith refers to, although he knows that criticizing something that has been the only way and the only thought of a people for 2,000 years will not make him popular.

Yet Cambodia is the land of his birth, he insists, and no one is going to prevent him from thinking and applying his best thoughts to help bring change, even if he has to step on toes.

Actually, that’s what leaders do, says bestselling author, entrepreneur and blogger Seth Bodin. Leaders have curiosity, they ask questions, they challenge what is, and they commit to working to bring about change.

From the standpoint of former Czech playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel, who became the first president of the Czech Republic in 1993-2003, that’s what an intellectual does: to “constantly disturb … bear witness to the misery of the world … be provocative by being independent, rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations … be the chief doubter of systems.” An intellectual “stands out as an irritant wherever he is,” says Havel.

And to borrow Burmese human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s words, it is important for a person to have a “questing mind” that is always questioning and always seeking for ways and means to get out of and solve problems. For Suu Kyi, a questing mind is necessary to help withstand violence and oppression, especially in a society in which people are generally conditioned to obey without questioning the situation.

Khmer-born and Western-educated in Europe and the United States, Tith migrated to the United States in 1960-1961 because “I felt that I was not allowed to be myself,” he says. In other words, he could not grow.

Tith sees the “pervasive and crushing role of the monarchy,” combined with the conservative nature of Khmer society – “such as the belief in prophesies and the rigidity in social organization and behavior” – as contributing to the “inertia and the inability to allow new ideas and capable leadership and entrepreneurial spirit to emerge.” In the final analysis, this keeps Cambodia “perpetually underdeveloped,” he says.

For nearly five decades now I have reflected on Cambodia, which is also the country of my birth and of my primary and secondary education. I have thought about Tith’s descriptions of inertia and the inability to allow new ideas, capable leadership and entrepreneurial spirit to grow in Cambodia.

I remember reading a Cambodian statesman’s political analysis of Khmer history while doing research for my doctoral dissertation in the early 1970s, about Khmer valor, the Khmer Empire and the builders of Angkor, the Khmer “warrior race,” when Hindu influences were paramount. Then Buddha’s doctrine of peace, kindness, compassion and acceptance came to replace the old ways.

I have asked myself if there is a dichotomy within a person with an inner tug-of-war between the combative warrior personality and the peaceful Buddha-like personality.

I have read the late Khmer professor Sar Sarun’s “Proloeng Khmer” (1973) – and re-read time and again the translation, “Khmer Mentality,” in Tith’s website. Sarun describes the Khmer mentality as insensitive to social and legal rules except where there is coercion; an artistic spirit in a soft, fanciful and romantic state with a tendency to be confused about commitments.

I have asked myself, who and what is this Khmer whom Sarun was describing?

Visna Sann, author of “Who is Khmer?” (2005) wrote in Tith’s website, “Some Cambodians adhere to a policy of exclusion in which only 100 precent ethnic Khmers may be considered Khmer.” He described prejudices recounted by a Cambodian of Chinese heritage.

"I am disturbed by these examples of exclusion,” he wrote, “We cannot afford to exclude our own people.” Sann charged that Cambodia’s “policy of exclusion … has contributed to our country’s decline in the same way as Khmer fighting against Khmer.”

Tith includes in his website Marie A. Martin’s “Cambodia: a Shattered Society” (1994). She writes that, “respect for elders and for hierarchy remains sacrosanct” in Cambodia, and reminds us that, “In the traditions of Khmer moral training, to protest against a parent’s decision, to criticize one’s boss or spiritual master, to rebel against a husband is inadmissible.”

"It is understandable how such a mentality can lead to an abuse of power but also how dangerous a lack of wisdom and scruples can be, for once the link of confidence is broken, the divorce is irreparable and the authority is forever rejected. Younger persons must keep quiet,” wrote Martin.

"And adolescents have no chance to express themselves, much less to argue. It is not surprising if later they allow themselves to be trampled by an ‘elder’ who is in the wrong or less competent than they are, if they remain defenseless in the face of a national tragedy or prefer to let a foreigner speak or act in their place,” said Martin.

Of course, all these are not really pleasant to hear. But Tith isn’t afraid to confront them.

As the saying goes: “The past is behind, learn from it. The future is ahead, prepare for it.

The present is here, live it.”

_______________________________________________________________________

(Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. He currently lives in the United States. He can be contacted at peangmeth@gmail.com. Copyright Gaffar Peang-Meth.)

Malcolm Caldwell: Pol Pot’s Apologist

Michael Ezra

(Comments: This article is an eye opener for having a good background analysis on those leftist intellectuals who had given their intellectual unreserved support to the Khmer Rouge, and later on, to turn against the latter, when they no longer accepted Vietnam’s control on Cambodia. The most prominent among these leftist scholars include the names of Norm Chomsky, Malcolm Caldwell, George Hildebrand, Gary Porter. This state of mind of these leftist intellectuals was well captured by Ezra when he wrote;

“Malcolm Caldwell’s life thus reaches a dreadfully appropriate apothesis.’ [118] Malcolm Caldwell was not the only one who whitewashed the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. As Sophal Ear commented, along with Caldwell, there was Laura Summers, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, George C. Hildebrand and Gareth Porter, | 171 | as well as Torben Retbøll who were counted among the writers that ‘romanticised the Khmer revolution.’ [119] David Hawk of the Cambodia Documentation Commission noted, the persistence of Caldwell, Chomsky and others who defended Pol Pot ‘diverted attention and refocused discussion from “how should Khmer Rouge bloodlust best be exposed and protested” to “whether or not the refugee accounts were exaggerated and were the accounts of largely politically motivated propaganda.”

Unfortunately, these leftist scholars still hold sway in the Cambodian tragedy and destiny by making Vietnam and Hun Sen the “savior” of Cambodia and not the oppressors of the Cambodian people, by “demonizing the demons” strategy, as pointed out by Ezra in the quotation posted above. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 25, 2009)

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After his death, a memorial meeting attended by hundreds was held in his honour in London. [111] Numerous messages of condolences were sent. Labour Member of Parliament Joan Lestor wrote expressing her regret of the death of ‘a true fighter for socialism.’ [112] The Socialist Workers Party said that whilst they had differences with Caldwell, they mourned the death ‘of a courageous fighter against imperialism.’ [113] The Revolutionary Communist League of Britain

said that Caldwell’s death was ‘a tragedy for all the peoples of Indo-China, and especially the Kampuchean people.’ [114] The Cambodian specialists, Ben Kiernan and Chanthou Boua, wrote that ‘Malcolm’s scholarship and intellectual honesty, and his genuine enthusiasm and sacrifice for the poor and exploited will always be a constant source of inspiration to us.’ [115] Noam Chomsky wrote from the USA that ‘Malcolm Caldwell was a fine scholar, whose work was distinguished by integrity and passion.’ Chomsky added, ‘There can be no more fitting memorial to Malcolm ... than the willingness of others to take on the tasks that he confronted.’

[116]

A sympathetic obituary in the Guardian, noted that with Caldwell’s death, ‘Cambodia has lost one of the very few people in the West who were sympathetic to its revolution.’ John Gittings, who wrote the obituary, compared Caldwell to Noam Chomsky, ‘a lone heretic in the academic world of enormous personal charm who was respected internationally for views which many colleagues failed to understand.’ Gittings concluded that Caldwell’s work would ‘undoubtedly’ be ‘better appreciated after his death.’ [117]

The Daily Telegraph was more on the mark. In an editorial following Caldwell’s death, they noted he was ‘Intelligent and, by all accounts, charming’ but lamented that ‘he lent his energy and scholarship to the defence of one of the darkest totalitarian regimes of even this totalitarian century.’ They continued: ‘Few horrors of the new rulers of Cambodia seemed too vast for him either to deny that they were happening or to insist that they had all been exaggerated, or to imply that the victims had it coming to them anyway.’ They did not doubt his sincerity but noted

‘his activities were all the more appalling because of his sincerity.’ The editorial concluded, ‘no doubt his murderers thought his death necessary to their revolution.

Malcolm Caldwell’s life thus reaches a dreadfully appropriate apothesis.’ [118] Malcolm Caldwell was not the only one who whitewashed the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. As Sophal Ear commented, along with Caldwell, there was Laura Summers, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, George C. Hildebrand and Gareth Porter, | 171 | as well as Torben Retbøll who were counted among the writers that ‘romanticised the Khmer revolution.’ [119] David Hawk of the Cambodia Documentation Commission noted, the persistence of Caldwell, Chomsky and others who defended Pol Pot ‘diverted attention and refocused discussion from “how should Khmer Rouge bloodlust best be exposed and protested” to “whether or not the refugee accounts were exaggerated and were the accounts of largely politically motivated propaganda.”’ [120] ‘The Truth is,’ as Bernard Levin commented in The Times, ‘there is a Caldwell – or there are several Caldwell’s – for every tyrant, every murderer, every oppressor or torturer, who acts in the name of a political creed.’ [121] With the behaviour of those on the left who currently support genocidal organisations in the Middle East, Levin’s comment is as true today as when he wrote it over thirty years ago.

Sam Rainsy slams VN incursions

Friday, 20 November 2009 15:03 Uong Ratana

(Comments: What Sam Rainsy is saying in this article regarding the deflection by Hun Sen over Preah Vihear while ignoring the Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory is very true.

Of course, Hun Sen who is under the thump of the Vietnamese has no other thing to say but to lie that there is no problem with the east (Vietnam).

Another unpredictable negative impact from this is the situation of the Khmer Surin. Compared to the wholesale efforts by the Vietnamese to eliminate the Khmer Krom from the face of the earth, Thailand treatment of the Khmer Rouge is not only respectable but totally integrative, as Khmer Surin are allowed to reach the highest level in the government, civilian and military, including the post of prime minister and generals, the Khmer Krom are, to used Rebecca Sommers, a German Human Rights advocate, eliminated without bleeding.  

Having said that I hope that Sam Rainsy is not running back to Cambodia to ask pardon from Hun Sen to get his immunity back, as he did not long ago,, this year. He should follow Mu Sochua’s courage and example by refusing to give in to Hun Sen‘s threat. He also should be careful not to allow Hun Sen an opportunity to gain on this by accusing Sam Rainsy of inciting the Cambodian people to do physical harm to the Vietnamese residents in Cambodia.

In order to achieve this objective, he must repeatedly state publicly that he and his party will never used force against anybody in achievement this objective. In order word, his party policy philosophy must be based on “Ahimsa” or non-violence. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 21, 2009)

PRIME Minister Hun Sen is currently playing a “dangerous game” with the Cambodian nation by understating the threat posed by Vietnamese territorial encroachments, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said.

In a self-styled “message to the Cambodian people” released on Thursday, the Sam Rainsy Party president said the government is playing up the threat posed by Thailand but ignoring problems on its eastern border.

Sam Rainsy said the potential loss of 5 square kilometres of land in disputes with Thailand was dwarfed by the loss of “thousands” of square kilometres to Vietnamese incursions.

“This is an ongoing painful process that Mr Hun Sen does not want us to look at,” he said.

The message came just days after the National Assembly stripped Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary immunity over an October 25 incident in which he helped uproot six wooden posts marking the border with Vietnam in Svay Rieng province.

Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers, dismissed the allegations, saying Sam Rainsy was speaking from emotion rather than fact.
“To the east, we do not have any problems,” he said.

A Brief History of Zero and Angkor

Kristen McQuillin, July 1997 (revised January 2004)

(Comments: It is rare to hear good news about Cambodia. This article titled "A Brief History of Zero" is an exception to that sad rule about Cambodia. Cambodia is mentioned as one of the rare countries that is historically part of the concept of zero or "Sone" in Cambodian or Hindu. Without the concept of zero there would be no modern mathematics, without mathematics, there would be no trip to the moon of any any scientific inventions and discoveries.

However, a few words of caution are necessary. In ancient Cambodia (Angkor and pre-Angkor era), science and other intellectual pursuits were the domain reserved for an upper class known as the Brahmins (or Bakus in Cambodian). These people were usually and literally imported from India, and they were usually well integrated into the royal family through marriages; therefore, it was this class that may have brought the concept of zero into Cambodia, at that time. It was not widespread but very confined to that upper class. Enjoy. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 19, 2009) 

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Once upon a time there was no zero. Of course people knew if they had nothing, but there was no mathematical notation for it. Zero was independently invented only three times.

The first recorded zero is attributed to the Babylonians in the 3rd century BC. A long period followed when no one else used a zero place holder. But then the Mayans, halfway around the world in Central America, independently invented zero in the fourth century CE. The final independent invention of zero in India was long debated by scholars, but seems to be set around the middle of the fifth century. It spread to Cambodia around the end of the 7th century. From India it moved into China and then to the Islamic countries. Zero finally reached western Europe in the 12th century.

Before you continue reading the history of zero, please be sure you understand these underlying concepts : Number vs Numeral; Invent vs Discover & Place Value Notation

Babylonia: 300 B.C.

The Babylonians were the first culture to invent the place value system. They had a sexigesimal number system, that is, they counted in 60s, as we count in tens. When you count minutes in an hour or measure circles you are thinking in sexigesimal.

Of course the Babylonians didn’t use our numerals. They wrote in cuneiform, a writing system optimized for writing in damp clay tablets. They used two symbols to represent all the numbers from 1 to 59. The wedge was used for a one and the crescent equalled a 10. By grouping them together, they created symbols for all 59 numbers.

5 crescents + 4 wedges = 54

Beginning at 60, we see a place value. The number 61 would be written with one wedge to the left (1 sixty), and one to the right (1 one).

The number 124 (2 sixties + 4 ones)

The number 1856 (30 sixties + 56 ones)

And here’s the challenge that leads to the invention of zero. How do you indicate that there’s nothing in a particular place? How would you show the number 3604? 3604 is 1 "60 squared" + 4 ones but nothing in the sixties column. Well, scribes started leaving a blank space. But not all of them did that and even when they did sometimes it was a pretty small space—it was difficult to tell it was there. So one very bright scribe put in a symbol that already existed as a separator in literature, a sort of sideways, superscript, double wedge. Now it was easy to distinguish whether you meant 3604 or 64:

top: 64 (1 sixty + 4 ones)
bottom: 3604 (1 sixty2 + 0 sixty + 4 ones)

Babylonian mathematicians used the separator (effectively the first zero) in the middle position only. The person doing the calculations knew what order of magnitude he was working with and didn’t add any separators at the end of his notations. However, the astronomers started using the zero placeholder in at the end and at the beginning of notations. This allowed them to note fractional degrees and minutes of arc and made their computations more accurate.

Despite the invention of zero as a placeholder, the Babylonians never quite discovered zero as a number. On an accounting tablet recording the distribution of grain there is a notation at the end of a column of numbers that reads “The grain is exhausted.” Another example from the same era is a description subtracting 20 from 20: “twenty minus twenty…you see.”

Although we have evidence of zero from tablets in the Selucid era (4th to 1st C BC), it is possible that the zero was invented before that time. Many of the Seleucid era tablets are copies of much older documents. We’ll never know for certain, so we place the Babylonia zero around the 3rd century BC.

Central America: 350 CE

The Mayans, native inhabitants of Central America, were highly skilled mathematicians, astronomers, artists and architects. However, they failed to make other key discoveries and inventions that might have helped their culture survive. They never used the plow or metal tools and their civilization collapsed mysteriously around 900 CE.

They had a very complex calendar system and needed a placeholder in their elaborate date system. This lead to their invention of zero—600 years and 12,000 miles removed from the Babylonians.

The Mayans had several calendars. There was a 365 day civil year, a 260 day religious year and, key to their invention of zero, the complicated Long Count calendar which measured time from the start of the Mayan civilization (August 12, 3113 B.C.) and completes a full cycle on December 21, 2012.

It is the formal Long Count calendar that brought about the zero. The Mayan numerals were very complex in formal use—painted or carved heads or even full figures were used to represent numbers. When using these ornate carvings on a stelae, or stone tablet, the Mayans had a rather rigid graphic layout; each period of time had a space and all the spaces needed to be filled in. So a date that was 8 baktuns, 14 katuns, 3 tuns, 0 unials and 12 kins had to have one figure for each place. The zero was often represented by a shell shape.

Despite the use of zero in the place value system, it was never used for calculations. Once again, this stems back to the calendar. You may have noticed in the chart above that a 360 day year is 18 months (20 days to a month). This irregularity messed up an otherwise tidy vegisimal (base 20) system:

Decimal 10 is (1 x 10) + (0 x 1) = 10
Vegisimal 10 is (1 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 20
Mayan 10 is (1 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 20

Decimal 100 is (1 x 10exp2) + (0 x 10) + (0 x 1) = 100
Vegisimal 100 is (1 x 20exp2) + (0 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 400
Mayan 100 is (1 x (18x20)) + (0 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 360

Decimal 1000 is (1 x 10exp3) + (0 x 10exp2) + (0 x 10) + (0 x 1) = 1000
Vegisimal 1000 is (1 x 20exp3) + (0 x 20exp2) + (0 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 8000
Mayan 1000 is (1 x (18x20exp2)) + (0 x (18x20)) + (0 x 20) + (0 x 1) = 7200

India: 458 A.D. (debated)

The final independent invention of the zero was in India. However, the time and the independence of this invention has been debated. Some say that Babylonian astronomy, with its zero, was passed on to Hindu astronomers but there is no absolute proof of this, so most scholars give the Hindus credit for coming up with zero on their own.

The reason the date of the Hindu zero is in question is because of how it came to be.

Most existing ancient Indian mathematical texts are really copies that are at most a few hundred years old. And these copies are copies of copies of copies passed through the ages. But the transcriptions are error free…can you imagine copying a math book without making any errors? Were the Hindus very good proofreaders? They had a trick.

Math problems were written in verse and could be easily memorised, chanted, or sung. Each word in the verse corresponded to a number. For example,

viya dambar akasasa sunya yama rama veda
sky (0) atmosphere (0) space (0) void (0) primordial couple (2) Rama (3) Veda (4)
0 0 0 0 2 3 4

Indian place notation moved from left to right with ones place coming first. So the phrase above translates to 4,230,000.

Using a vocabulary of symbolic words to note zero is known from the 458 AD cosmology text Lokavibhaga. But as a more traditional numeral—a dot or an open circle—there is no record until 628, though it is recorded as if well-understood at that time so it’s likely zero as a symbol was used before 628.

Which it probably was, considering that 30 years previously, an inscription of a date using a zero symbol in the Hindu manner was made in Cambodia.

A striking note about the Hindu zero is that, unlike the Babylonian and Mayan zero, the Hindu zero symbol came to be understood as meaning “nothing.” This is probably because of the use of number words that preceded the symbolic zero.

Spreading Outward: China, Arabia and Europe

The Hindus influenced the numeration of nearby locales, and introduced the zero to the Chinese and to the Arabs who developed the modern day shape of numerals and passed them, along with zero, to the Europeans in the 12th century.

Although China independently invented place value, they didn’t make the leap to zero until it was introduced to them by a Buddhist astronomer (by way of India) in 718.

Although it seems strange to image a place value system with no place holder for “nothing,” it makes perfect sense when you see the Chinese method for writing and calculating numbers.

The Chinese used a counting board to do their mat, and an additive system to write their numbers. There was a symbol for 1 and a symbol for five and these symbols were added together to form symbols for other numbers up to 9. The numbers were actually rods arranged on a counting board which ran from left to right. Any missing places were left blank on the counting board. After the introduction of the zero symbol, the counting board could be retired. Numbers could be written on paper without the need of little rods and counting boards.

Arab countries in the MIddle East also got their zero from Indian scholars. Arab mathemeticians created a new form of writing numbers—the Arabic numberals we still use today. When Europe and the MIddle East began trade on a large scale, Europe adopted Arabic numerals and abandoned counting boards.

[Bibliography]

Underlying Concepts

"It must have required many ages to discover that a brace of pheasants and a couple of days were in both instances the number two."

Bertrand Russell

Number vs. Numeral

A number is a quantity, an abstraction of a collection of things; a numeral is a man-made symbol that represents the number.

Numerals (symbols) from various cultures look different, but all express the same number. Some are very complex, others are simple dots or circles. All four of these are symbols for the number zero. L to R they are from Babylonia, China, India and Central America. Words are also symbols that express numbers, but we don’t call them numerals.

Numbers (quantity) are always the same value, no matter what symbol or word is used to represent them. Uno, bindu, ichi, 1, single, solitary. All of these symbols represent the concept we know as “one.” The quanity does not change, even when the symbol is different.

Zero is a special case. Constance Reid, in From Zero to Infinity shows the difference between number and numeral with a set of simple math problems. It is easy to use zero when it is a symbol, but not always so easy to calculate with zero the number. What are the answers to the following math problems?

[Answers. symbol column: 11, 9, 10, 10. number column: 1, -1, 0, 0]

Invent vs. Discover

invent (v.) think up or mentally fabricate, esp a new device or contrivance. The numeral zero (symbol) was invented.
discover (v.) to be the first to find out, see or know about; to realize. The number zero (abstract) was discovered.

Place Value Notation

Place value notation uses numerals in different positions to represent different numbers. You may recall learning about the “tens” place and the “ones” place in elementary school; this is place value notation.

Our system uses place value notation; for example, 32 means “three tens and two ones.”

Place value notation is how zero was invented. It was a symbolic placeholder for an empty place (for example 302 or 3200). Previous to the invention of zero, either number might have been written as 32, leaving the reader to figure out the number from context. Zero was a big improvement for accurate accounting!

In most systems that use place value notation, the places are the exponents of the base. In our decimal (base 10) system we have places for: 1, 10, 10 squared (100), 10 cubed (1000) and so on. In a sexigesimal (base 60) system, the places are 1, 60, 60 squared (3600), etc. In a base 20 system: 1, 20, 20 squared (400), 20 cubed (800), and so on.

Value "Four hundred and twelve" in Base 10 & Base 60

Numerals 4-1-2 in Place Value Notation

Posted by kuri at January 10, 2004 09:05 PM

US/ASEAN: Obama Should Press Asian Leaders on Rights
Prioritize Burma, Free Speech, and Accountability at ASEAN-US Summit

From: HRW Asia <asia@hrw.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Subject: US/ASEAN: Obama Should Press Asian Leaders on Rights
To: HRW Asia asia@hrw.org

(Comments: Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asia is again and Barack Obama to seriously take seriously position and to act more openly on the abuse of human in Asian countries, especially in Burma and Cambodian, and Vietnam, follows:

“On Cambodia, Human Rights Watch urged Obama to openly challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s increasingly authoritarian practices, in which he and other ruling party officials use violence, threats, and the country’s notoriously corrupt judiciary to silence and imprison opposition party members, journalists, land rights activists, and other government critics.
 
Human Rights Watch also called on Obama to urge Vietnam, which will assume the chair of ASEAN in 2010, to set an example by improving its human rights practices. The government could start by releasing the hundreds of peaceful government critics, independent church activists, bloggers, and democracy advocates imprisoned in violation of international law on groundless national security charges for expressing peaceful dissent. “

This statement on Vietnam and Cambodia clearly contradicts the false claim by Vietnam that it “liberated” Cambodia. But, I must remind the Cambodian people that nobody can save Cambodia except the Cambodian people themselves who can carry out that monumental and difficult task. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 16, 2009)

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For Immediate Release

 
(New York, November 12, 2009) – US President Barack Obama should urge Asian leaders at the first ASEAN-US summit to unite in addressing the region’s most pressing human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today.
 
Human Rights Watch called on Obama, in his meetings with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to raise the lack of democratic change in Burma, restraints on freedom of expression across the region, widespread impunity for rights violations, and a weak regional human rights institution.
 
Obama, on his first visit to Asia as president, will meet with ASEAN leaders on November 15, 2009, the day after the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Singapore.
 
“Obama should use his first trip to Southeast Asia as president to put human rights on the ASEAN agenda,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Burma is the obvious place to start, but media repression and unpunished rights violations are rampant throughout the region.”
 
The Obama administration has undertaken a dual approach to Burma by beginning talks with Burma’s senior generals to press them to accept democratic change, while maintaining sanctions until there are genuine improvements. Senior US State Department officials visited Burma earlier this month, and on November 11, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the APEC summit, "We would like to see countries
individually and through ASEAN reach out to the Burmese leadership, persuade them that it's time to start planning for free, fair and credible elections in 2010.” Clinton also reaffirmed that sanctions
will not be lifted until there is progress on democracy in Burma.
 
Human Rights Watch urged Obama to call on all ASEAN leaders to speak forcefully and with one voice to call for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, including the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as for an inclusive political process ahead of the 2010 elections.
 
Obama should also urge ASEAN leaders to meet international standards of refugee protection, considering the large numbers of asylum seekers from Burma seeking sanctuary in Southeast Asian countries, Human Rights Watch said.
 
“ASEAN leaders have long sent mixed messages on Burma, so Obama should encourage them to unite in a strong statement of support for real democratic reforms,” Pearson said. “All ASEAN countries should oppose repression in Burma and adopt basic refugee protections to promote the rights of the Burmese people.”
 
For ASEAN to be an effective force for human rights, Obama should urge leaders to resolve ongoing human rights problems in their own countries, Human Rights Watch said. Obama should publicly reiterate the importance of freedom of expression and media freedom as an integral part of democratic society.
 
A major problem is the widespread use of legal systems in Southeast Asia to silence peaceful government critics, journalists, and human rights defenders, in violation of international law. Cambodia,
Indonesia, and Singapore use criminal defamation laws, Malaysia and Vietnam take advantage of overbroad national security laws, and Thailand makes arbitrary use of the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crimes Act.
 
On Cambodia, Human Rights Watch urged Obama to openly challenge Prime Minister Hun Sen’s increasingly authoritarian practices, in which he and other ruling party officials use violence, threats, and the country’s notoriously corrupt judiciary to silence and imprison opposition party members, journalists, land rights activists, and other government critics.
 
Human Rights Watch also called on Obama to urge Vietnam, which will assume the chair of ASEAN in 2010, to set an example by improving its human rights practices. The government could start by releasing the hundreds of peaceful government critics, independent church activists, bloggers, and democracy advocates imprisoned in violation of international law on groundless national security charges for expressing peaceful dissent.
 
Human Rights Watch also noted that in Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand, security forces continue to commit serious abuses without fear of punishment. Despite assurances from leaders that they intend to bring the perpetrators to justice, abusive officials are not being prosecuted successfully. Past violators go unpunished, while those implicated in abuses remain in the security forces and may even be promoted.
 
In Thailand, military and police officers known to have been involved in abuses during the 2003 “War on Drugs” and counterinsurgency operations have been promoted rather than punished. In Indonesia, human rights violators continue to be promoted within the Indonesian special forces branch, Kopassus, and the masterminds behind the 2001 murder of the human rights advocate Munir bin Thalib remain free.
 
Human Rights Watch urged Obama to make a firm commitment that US agencies will review information about units and individual members of security forces participating in US-funded programs to ensure that none have been implicated in human rights violations, particularly torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. Obama should also consider conditioning a greater amount of the US’s security aid on progress in prosecuting those abuses.
 
ASEAN members have ratified a charter that commits member states to protect human rights, but the Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, introduced at the 15th ASEAN Summit in October, is weak.

Several of the commissioners lack independence from their governments, and the commission’s mandate is largely limited to allowing members to promote human rights, rather than protecting them.
 
“Obama should let ASEAN know that the regional grouping can be a formidable force for human rights,” Pearson said. “But this means the new ASEAN human rights commission should have the power to protect people from abuses, not just pay lip service to human rights.”
 
To read the November 2009 Human Rights Watch news release, “US/China: Obama Should Raise Human Rights in China,” please visit: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/09/uschina-obama-should-raise-human-rights-china

 
To read the November 2009 Human Rights Watch news release, “Philippines: Clinton Should Press Arroyo on Killings,” please visit: http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/11/09/philippines-clinton-should-press-arroyo-killings
 
For more information, please contact: In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-212-216-1213; or
+1-646-291-7169 (mobile) In Delhi, Brad Adams (English): +44-7908-728-333 (mobile) In Hong Kong, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +852-6604-9792 (mobile)
In Bangkok, Sunai Phasuk (English, Thai): +66-81-632-3052 (mobile)

Cambodia rattles Thailand's chain

By Craig Guthrie

Asia Times; Nov 10, 2009

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KK10Ae01.html

(Comments: Craig Guthrie has succeeded to write a very good article out a very complex and complicate story on the row between Hun Sen and Thailand. Guthrie had perfectly described this situation when he wrote “Last month, Hun Sen hailed Thaksin as a "great friend" and a victim of a politically compromised judicial system.” Imagine Hun Sen described the Thai judicial system as “compromised”? What about the Cambodia judicial system which totally corrupt and under the thump of Hun Sen?

Logically, one cannot understand why Hun Sen’s behavior of trying to undermine Cambodia’s relations with Thailand, unless one put this in the broader historical and regional context. As Guthrie had pointed out that “Cambodia, still impoverished after a three-decade civil war and traumatized by the killings of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, is led by Hun Sen, a once barefoot temple boy who lived on handouts from Buddhist monks before becoming a teenage soldier. He first fought for the Khmer Rouge - a struggle that cost him his left eye - and then as part of the Vietnamese offensive that liberated the nation from the same radical Maoist regime in 1979. “

It is clear that Hun Sen does not care about the national interests of Cambodia at all. All he cares about is to serve his own interests, and those of his protectors, the Vietnamese. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 13, 2009)

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HUA HIN, Thailand - Cambodia's long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, with a thumping parliamentary majority and a war-traumatized electorate fearful of change, may well have one of the safest jobs in world politics. This certainly seems the case in comparison with neighboring Thailand, where the premiership has changed hands four times in the past two years.

Nonetheless, Hun Sen is likely grateful for the popularity boost Thailand's government may have handed him through its heated response to his recent praise of and job offer to former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Hun Sen appointed Thaksin, who has been criminally convicted on corruption charges, as an economic advisor. The latter, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup, now lives in exile. Last month, Hun Sen hailed Thaksin as a "great friend" and a victim of a politically compromised judicial system.

The Thai government has viewed the offer as interference in its internal affairs and downgraded diplomatic relations. Angry protests have erupted at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, and both nations last week recalled their respective ambassadors.

Armed troops have also lined up to defend the Thai Embassy in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, but few Cambodians expect a repeat of the 2003 anti-Thai riots, which saw the embassy burned to the ground and Thailand ready airplanes to evacuate its nationals in a dispute sparked by a Thai actress' alleged comments over national ownership of Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple.

Some Cambodians, accustomed to Hun Sen's well-known tactic of bolstering his political clout by offering loyalists plum advisor posts, see the latest spat in less emotive terms. In the leadup to 2008 elections, Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) attracted many high-level defectors from the main opposition, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), to join his army of over 100 well-paid advisors.

Hun Sen has said he would refuse to honor a bilateral extradition treaty with Thailand that would require him to arrest and deport Thaksin, who faces a two-year jail sentence in Thailand on the corruption conviction. Although Thaksin remains a divisive figure with great sway in Thai politics, Bangkok's reaction may be over more than political insecurities.

Billionaire Thaksin was appointed by royal decree last Wednesday as an advisor to both Hun Sen and Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. He is scheduled to land in Phnom Penh on November 12 to deliver a lecture to Cambodian economic officials and there are rumors circulating that he might meet with a group of Thai "red-shirt" protest leaders near the Thai border.

In Cambodia, the monarchy is seen as fair game for criticism by both the media and public. After observing for years former king Sihanouk's extravagant lifestyle and constant shifts to ensure his political survival - as well as political forays by other royal princes and princesses - many Cambodians are skeptical of the monarchy. The situation is very different in Thailand, where the monarchy is widely revered and where any perceived criticism of the crown can result in harsh jail sentences. One motivation cited by military coup-makers for their 2006 putsch was that Thaksin was disloyal to the crown - charges he's denied.

The differences between the two nations' histories and economic situations seem personified by their leaders. Thailand, one of the region's wealthiest nations and a member of the influential Group of 20, is led by Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Cambodia, still impoverished after a three-decade civil war and traumatized by the killings of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, is led by Hun Sen, a once barefoot temple boy who lived on handouts from Buddhist monks before becoming a teenage soldier. He first fought for the Khmer Rouge - a struggle that cost him his left eye - and then as part of the Vietnamese offensive that liberated the nation from the same radical Maoist regime in 1979.

Abhisit may have had a comparatively privileged upbringing, but Hun Sen enjoys political advantages. A seasoned leader, Hun Sen is in his 25th year in office - making his one of the longest-running premierships in the world. He led the CPP to 58% of the vote at general elections held in 2008, eclipsing widely the opposition SRP.

Abhisit, on the other hand, took charge last year as a result of Thailand's Constitutional Court disbanding the Thaksin-aligned ruling People's Power Party (PPP), which defeated his Democrat party at 2007 polls, on electoral fraud charges. His predecessor, Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law, was in the job for only 75 days. Somchai's PPP predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, lasted only nine months after he was ousted by a Thai court on corruption charges.

It is not the first time that Hun Sen has capitalized on political turmoil in Thailand, especially since bilateral tensions were re-ignited last year over the contested ownership of the land surrounding the ancient Preah Vihear temple, perched atop a steep cliff on the Thai-Cambodian border. When a United Nations body sided with Cambodia's claim, Thai nationalists ran across the border, prompting a military build-up by both sides.

Phnom Penh first appealed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and then to the UN Security Council to take note of the issue, taking the diplomatic high road. It is unclear how the Preah Vihear dispute would have played out if Thaksin, also Hun Sen's golfing buddy, had still been in charge in Thailand.

Some critics say the current tension is in part due to false assurances given in the past by Thaksin to Hun Sen about border delineation near the temple and other overlapping claims by the two countries. Thaksin's critics claim that he was willing to offer territorial concessions to Hun Sen in exchange for personal business interests, claims the exiled former premier has denied.

Thaksin last year proposed a multi-million dollar deal with Hun Sen to develop Cambodia's southwestern maritime province of Koh Kong, telling Thai media that he wanted to turn it into a "second Hong Kong". Hun Sen hailed the proposal as an opportunity to reduce poverty in Cambodian-Thai border areas.

Hun Sen's main domestic opponent says the premier's overtures to Thaksin are not motivated by scoring political points or a desire to uphold Khmer nationalism, but instead are due to pressure being exerted on him by Vietnam, the invading nation which initially installed him as premier in 1985 and which the opposition still claims has influence over the CCP government.

Sam Rainsy has called the argument between Thaksin and Abhisit a "political game" to turn the Cambodian public's attention to the west, in the direction of Thailand, while ignoring the east, towards Vietnam. Antagonism among Cambodians - over inward migration and alleged land grabbing - is much higher towards Vietnam, which occupied Cambodia between 1979 and 1989, than towards Thailand, which has made less controversial service-sector inroads into the country.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Hun Sen is trying to show that he is the defender of the national interests of Cambodia and that Thailand is the real enemy of Cambodia and not Vietnam," said United States-based Cambodian economist Naranhkiri Tith.

When the Thai government last week recalled its ambassador, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban asked what the Hun Sen government would say if Rainsy were appointed as the Thai government's economic adviser. Rainsy replied, "It would never cross my mind to serve a foreign government that is at odds with my own country."

Rainsy, in referring to an unnamed "foreign government", could at the same time have been making an allusion to the Cambodian prime minister, having constantly charged that Hun Sen is a "puppet" of Vietnam who consistently undermines the national interest to maintain close ties to Hanoi.

Hun Sen's comments suggest his provocative moves towards Thaksin may be linked to his perennial mistrust of Rainsy in a domestic political spat that has spilled over into international relations. On his arrival in Thailand for the 15th ASEAN summit in late October, Hun Sen said, "If Sam Rainsy can come to Thailand as he did recently to make statements against the Cambodian government, why can my good friend Thaksin not come to Cambodia?"

Hun Sen was referring to Rainsy's critical comments on his government's human-rights record and economic management when he spoke at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand in Bangkok in September. There, Rainsy echoed claims made by civil society groups that since the CPP won the 2008 election, it has cracked down in authoritarian fashion on dissenting voices, including journalists, civil society and opposition politicians.

Rainsy also raised sharp questions about the underlying health of Cambodia's financial system in the wake of the global crisis, insinuating that Hun Sen had motivation to divert national attention from his government's troubles and towards an old adversary in Thailand.

Abhisit's popularity soared after downgrading relations with Cambodia, according to one poll. Yet some analysts feel he's misplayed his diplomatic cards. "Abhisit has also made mistakes," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

"Allowing Sam Rainsy to speak out in Bangkok against Hun Sen and not doing enough to rein in right-wing groups who demonstrated at Preah Vihear areas certainly irked Hun Sen and rubbed the Cambodians the wrong way. This is why Hun Sen is unlikely to face a domestic uproar at home for being seen as standing up to Thailand."

Craig Guthrie is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.

(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.) 

'To live is to learn, that's how we grow'

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D.

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

November 11, 2009

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200911110300/OPINION02/911110320

(Comments: Life is sometime full of surprises. As in this case after so many years of having been  in the is country and worked in the institution, we sort of having lost contact with each other. Not long ago, thanks to another Cambodian-American friend, Sunna Som, we have renewed our relationship, and have found tout that we are in the same wave length as far as our views and efforts to help Cambodia and its people have a better chance to survive the final phase of the Vietnamization process which had totally obliterated a formerly Hindu country known as  Champa (or Linyi in Chinese), and now Kampuchea Krom (or Lower Cambodia now South Vietnam).

It is one of those fortunate events in life that brought us back together to continue to work for the benefit of all Cambodian people wherever they may live.

This article written by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth shows how we have reacquainted with each other and how our shared common view and assessment of the tragedy of Cambodia could contribute to the possibility for the Cambodian people to survive the Vietnamese onslaught, known as “Nam Tien” or southward March,” which no more no less, a history of Vietnam’s genocides against its weaker neighbors.  I do hope that we will able to work together for the benefit of all Cambodian people inside and outside Cambodia. Naranhkiri Tith Ph.D. Washington DC. November 11, 2009)

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Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

One day before he was shot and killed, King said in his "Mountaintop" speech: "We've got some difficult days ahead, ... Like anybody, I would like to live a long life, ... But I'm not concerned about that now, ... [God's] allowed me to go up to the mountain, ... And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight ... I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Earlier, King said, "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." King "walked the talk": "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

He also said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed."

Nothing is permanent in life except change, so, we can choose to be victims of change, or agents of change and transform our world. To live is to learn, and to apply what we learn to improve our circumstances and the lot of those around us. That's how we grow. A specialist counsels, rush not to conclude, it blocks the road to knowledge; keep asking questions and learn. Learning is perpetual.

There is a Web site, "Reflections of An Expatriate on Cambodia's Past, Present, and Future," by a former international civil servant, and former professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Dr. Naranhkiri Tith.

Khmer-born and educated in Europe and the United States, Tith integrates the historical, economic, social, cultural, and political, with supporting documents, to explain Cambodia's current tragedy.

He built the Web site, he says, as a "personal tribute" to all victims of the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen's "blind ambition and high treason," and Prince Sihanouk's "deceit, megalomania, and egomania." The Web site offers "A suggested roadmap to freedom for the Cambodian people."

Tith analyzes Cambodia's internal problems, and references the February 2008 report by Professor Yash Ghai, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, and Cambodia's external problems with her neighbors -- he sees the great danger posed by Vietnam to the east, that by Thailand to the west -- as factors contributing to Cambodia as "a failed state." He presents a roadmap, suggesting the use of non-violence to remove Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party from power: "Intractable, yes; impossible, no!"

Tith urges "a progressive and systematic overhaul" of the Khmer society, to "gradually" improve Cambodia's economic, institutional, legal, political, and social problems, "thus allowing the Cambodian people to survive and to prosper."

Tith left Cambodia for the U.S. in 1960-1961: "I felt that I was not allowed to be myself ... ." He laments how non-royal Khmers could not hope to "reach their full potential, intellectually or otherwise," as a commoner's achievement was "an attempt to compete" in a world French King Louis XIV dubbed, "L'Etat c'est Moi" or "I am the State."

Tith sees the Khmer monarchy's "pervasive and crushing role, ... combined with the conservative nature" of Cambodia's society -- including a "belief in prophesies and rigidity in social organization and behavior" -- as contributing "to the inertia and the inability to allow new ideas and capable leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit, to emerge." These characteristics, he says, "keep Cambodia perpetually underdeveloped."

In his Web site's "Special articles and essays on Cambodian behavioral and social characteristics," Tith writes, "Most Cambodians do not even know who they are, ... their identity," which has been "absolutely crushed" by the monarchy. Common Khmers claim their ancestors were "the builders of Angkor Wat," Tith says, yet, they "hardly know their great grandparents" -- while Chinese and Vietnamese know their ancestors "12 generations" back.

He examines the Khmer society's "flaws" and highlights the resulting "character and behavior" that impede success. An excerpt from Marie A. Martin's "Khmer Tradition and Customs: Rigid Respect for Social Hierarchy Leads to the Absence of the Right to Criticize," in her (1994) book, "Cambodia: a Shattered Society," is a must read.

I met Tith some thirty-six years ago, before the Khmer Republic under which I served crumbled under the genocidal Khmer Rouge's guns in 1975. "There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny," someone writes, "And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over."

Fate can be mysterious and ironical. After my nine years (1980-1989) in the Khmer People's National Liberation movement, to oppose Hanoi's occupation of Cambodia, block Pol Pot's return to power, and rebuild a new Cambodia, I returned to the U.S., joined the Johns Hopkins University political science faculty in 1990, when Tith was a professor at SAIS a stone's throw away. Yet we never connected.

A few weeks ago I e-mailed him. We found ourselves on the same page in "this enormous task of defending the Cambodian people and society against all odds," as Tith puts it.

As the saying goes: "It is by chance that we met, by choice that we became friends," and to borrow King's words, in "times of challenge and controversy."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Military beefs up defences

The Phnom Penh Post: Tuesday, 27 October 2009 15:04 Thet Sambath  

TROOPS in the northwest are stockpiling munitions following heightened tensions between Thailand and Cambodia in recent weeks, officers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) confirmed Monday.

RCAF General Men Saroeun, in charge of air defence in Military Region 5 based in Battambang province, said his forces had recently received significant supplies of new small arms and artillery. “We now have modern weapons to defend our nation,” he said. “We have what the Thai soldiers have. This is our strategy to defend our border.”

Tanks were seen being transported along National Road 5 last week in Battambang province, and an RCAF general, speaking on condition of anonymity, said missiles with a range of up to 60 kilometres had also arrived. In addition to 16 new tanks delivered to Military Region 5, he said, more than 700 RCAF officers have been issued K-54 pistols, marking the first time since 2000 that low-level commanders have been issued sidearms.

Chhouk Ang, commander of Border Police Battalion 911 in Banteay Meanchey province, said he received word from his superiors to be on alert in the wake of the spat between Hun Sen and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. “While we remain watchful at all times, we have put our forces on alert to prevent Thai forces from entering Cambodian territory,” he said.

But Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the re-arming was unrelated to tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, which intensified last week after Prime Minister Hun Sen invited fugitive ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to serve as his economic adviser.

“This has nothing to do with relations between Cambodia and Thailand. The Thai Foreign Ministry has said that Cambodia and Thailand have a good relationship and that Thaksin’s case is a personal issue,” he said, adding that such rearmaments are a normal part of military operations.