Poipet in tourism drop

Photo by: Will Baxter

A lone tourist walks through the grounds of the Bayon Temple in Siem Reap province last year.

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Tuesday, 03 May 2011 15:02Sieam Bunthy

The recent border conflict with Thailand led to 17 percent fewer tourists entering Cambodia through the Poipet international border crossing in April compared to the month previous, according to officials.

Some 62,651 visitors entered Cambodia through the Banteay Meancheay province checkpoint in April, down from 75,636 in March, figures provided by immigration authorities show.

Leak Romnea, chief of Poipet checkpoint’s Administration Officer, said the sudden decline was due to the ongoing Thai-Cambodia border clashes.

“The number of visitors fell in the days following the explosions which occurred on April 22 – people are afraid,” he said. However, he stressed that the Poipet crossing itself has been physically unaffected by the fighting.

“Although the conflict erupted on the Oddar Meancheay province border, Poipet international gate remains open and trans-border ... transportation has not been affected.”

Cambodian Association of Travel Agents President Ang Kim Eang said the declining number of visitors was due to two main factors – the border conflict at the end of April, and the beginning of the wet season.

Thai visitors in particular were staying away, he said.

Tourists entering through Poipet are often headed to Siem Reap province, as well as Battambang and other nearby provinces.

Although arrivals had dropped in April, figures show 2011 has been stronger overall than 2010 for visitors entering through Poipet.

Some 297,289 total visitors have entered the Kingdom through the Poipet gate during the first four months of 2011, an increase of 69,397 visitors on the same period last year, according to the figures provided by Poipet checkpoint officials on Sunday.

Minister of Tourism Thong Khon pointed to the increase so far in 2011 as evidence of a growing tourism industry, though allowed that April’s eruption of hostilities has impacted the sector, particularly with a decrease of Thai visitors to the Kingdom.

“The conflict at the border between Cambodia and Thailand has not hit other foreign tourists coming to Cambodia, but the number of Thai visitors has decreased,” he said.

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Fire strikes factory warehouse

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Friday, 01 April 2011 15:02Tep Nimol

AN electrical malfunction caused a fire to ignite in the cloth storage facility of the River Rich Textile Factory located in the Prek Tapring village of Sa’ang district’s Sitbou commune in Kandal province on Wednesday.

Sa’ang district governor Koem Chankiri said the fire happened at about 7pm after the garment workers had already left the premises, adding that no workers were injured or killed in the fire.

Ming Pich, Sa’ang district police chief, said that police used four fire trucks in an attempt to extinguish the flames, which raged until about 11pm.

“The storage facility consisted of old sewing machines and out-of-date cloth and luckily the fire did not spread to the nearby buildings or the villagers’ homes,” he said yesterday.

As of yesterday, police had not calculated the losses caused by the fire, but Ming Pich confirmed that there was no foul play with regard to the cause of the fire.

“We will finish our investigation because it accidentally broke out; no one set fire to it,” he said.

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Suspects in armed force detained

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Friday, 01 April 2011 15:02Buth Reaksmey Kongkea

Seven people were arrested yesterday on suspicion of forming an illegal armed force that military police officials said went by the name Sovannaphumi Army.

Ya Kim Y, deputy commander of the Phnom Penh Military Police, said the suspects were arrested yesterday at two different locations in the Tuol Kork and Dangkor districts of Phnom Penh.

The arrests were made after Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun issued warrants in the case.

“These people were involved with the establishment of an illegal armed forces movement in Cambodia,” he said.

Ya Kim Y added that the suspects were now being detained at Military Police headquarters in Phnom Penh for further questioning and interrogation before being sent to court to face charges.

“They are now being detained under the strict control of the military police forces,” he said.

“They will be sent to the court for their charges after the completion of their interrogations and investigations.”

Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun declined yesterday to comment about the arrests of the seven suspects or to provide additional details about the case.

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Labour trainees charge false detention at IIS

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Friday, 01 April 2011 15:03Chhay Channyda

An official at the Community Legal Education Centre said yesterday that the group had received calls from four women training at the IIS labour recruitment company in Phnom Penh accusing the facility of false detention.

The women, aged between 18 and 24, said they were not allowed to visit family for months at a time, a claim the company denies, and were being asked to pay US$1,500 to be released form their contractual commitment to work for two years in Malaysia, according to Chhon Sokha, a labour program unit officer at CLEC.

Chhon Sokha said she received calls on Thursday morning from four workers living at IIS recruitment company’s offices, located in the capital’s Dangko district, who wanted to return to their families, but were unable to afford the additional $1,500 debt that would be added to the $200 dollars they already owed the company for training and administrative costs.

Hay Chetra, 20, one of the four trainees, said the company refused to give her permission to visit her family in her homeland, so she no longer wanted to fulfill her obligation to work overseas.

“I previously worked in Malaysia through another recruitment firm,” said Hay Chetra. “But while staying with IIS they have been so strict with us. So I don’t want this job anymore. I miss my parents.”

Thach Sotharath, the director of IIS, said workers were allowed to visit home two to three times during their three months living in the company’s Phnom Penh training facilities, but added that the company required express permission from parents or official guardians.

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Man About Town: 25 Mar 2011

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Friday, 25 March 2011 15:01 Peter Olszewski

HOTEL SCHOOLS COOPERATE

Two luminaries of the heady international hospitality industry were to be in town, flexing their wrists in preparedness for signing a memo of understanding tomorrow morning at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort.

The two high-profile signatories were to be Paul Dubrule, the French co-founder of the Accor group which owns the Sofitel hotel chain, and Michel Rochat, the general director

of L’Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne.

The historic memorandum was scheduled to set the agenda for a harmonious and productive working relationship between Siem Reap’s Paul Dubrule Hotel and Tourism School, and L’Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, one of the world’s leading hotel management institutes.

But late Monday evening, Rochat announced that he had to pull out of the trip due to an emergency crisis at the school in Lausanne.

The all-important cooperation between the two schools will go ahead, and Paul Dubrule School director Gerald Hougardy will fly to Switzerland in a fortnight to oversee the signing of the MOU.

Meanwhile, the inestimable Paul Dubrule himself is in town and ready to head the school’s annual bike rally on Sunday morning.

Dubrule’s attendance at the rally is becoming a tradition and this is certainly fitting seeing that in 2002, at the age of 68, Dubrule travelled just over 15,000 kilometres by bicycle from the French town of Fontainebleau to Siem Reap, partly to attend the grand opening of the school that bears his name.

NO VACANCY CONFERENCE

CAMBODIA and Siem Reap will figure significantly in No Vacancy, one of Asia Pacific’s leading accommodation industry conferences. The first Southeast Asian No Vacancy conference will be held in Bangkok on June 7, the day before the start of Thai Travel Mart.

No Vacancy has been running annually for the past five years in Sydney, Australia and is strongly supported by leading hoteliers, online travel agents, technology suppliers and industry groups.

Founder Martin Kelly told Man About that Cambodia and Siem Reap will be very much on the agenda, and that he is scouting around for Cambodian speakers to feature at the conference.

Interested Siem Reap parties can contact Kelly by emailing martin.kelly@traveltrends.biz

RAIN, RAIN, COME AGAIN

UNSEASONAL but very welcome rain deluged Siem Reap on Monday night, washing away the dust that’s such a problem during the dry season. It also set off a festive carnival-like atmosphere along the banks of the Siem Reap River early on Tuesday morning as hundreds of Khmer netted thousands of fish that were a bounty from the unexpected rain. In turn, large crowds gathered by the riverbanks to watch the fishing folk haul in their catches of small, slithering silver fish.

Included in the catch were silver-painted bananas that mysteriously appeared in the river over the weekend and which, before being identified, prompted an alarm that there had been a damaging fish kill.

Man About was on the river at dawn on Sunday morning to investigate, only to discover that what appeared to be a large patch of decidedly

dead floating fish was actually the aforementioned silver-painted bananas.

And speaking of rains, rivers and water, its good to see on these pages that this year, Siem Reap authorities have been very open in discussing why the town is yet again plagued with cuts to the water supply.

While we all appreciate the explanations, and now realise that the cuts are obviously planned beforehand, the plea to the authorities is to inform the public in advance of water cuts.

PEDOPHILE UPDATE

CONVICTED and jailed Siem Reap pedophile Nick Griffin has been the subject of close scrutiny in the Welsh media, where accusations have been made that he raped a boy while working in Wales.

This allegation was reported this week in Wales on Sunday, which said that during his time in Wales, Griffin was a fisheries manager and Scout leader in Llangollen, and that police are in investigating the claims that he allegedly raped a boy while running the Scout group in North Wales.

According to Wales on Sunday, North Wales Police told the publication that they took the allegations “very seriously”.

Charity volunteers who worked with Griffin in Siem Reap also told Wales on Sunday “of the disturbing behaviour they witnessed”.

The paper also quoted Sally Sayer, regional director of Volunteer Project Overseas, who lives in Siem Reap.

The publication reported that she said she had become concerned about 53-year-old Griffin and the orphanage more than a year ago.

The paper quoted her saying: “I didn’t have much to do with him at the start, but then in January last year I took over as project manager and I had a huge amount more to do with him.

“It was then that I started to look at things and think things were a bit odd.”

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Courts seen as avenue to flout justice

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Wednesday, 01 September 2010
Will Baxter and Sun Narin
The Phnom Penh Post

CAMBODIA’S courts and security forces are increasingly being used by government officials and private companies to intimidate land-dispute victims, trade unionists and journalists, according to a report to be released today by the rights group Licadho.

“Despite Cambodia being a signatory to numerous international treaties, and the passage of national laws guaranteeing the protection of human rights defenders, the situation has worsened for many [such activists],” Pung Chhiv Kek, Licadho’s founder and president, is quoted as saying in the report.

Those agitating for their rights have “faced an increasingly hostile environment over the past two years, enduring physical violence, illegal arrests, trumped-up criminal charges, obstructions to gatherings and movement, intimidation and forced evictions”, states the report, much of which is devoted to summaries of prominent cases.

Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, says in the report that bail is frequently used as a mechanism to limit activism, and that people arrested and then released on bail are often ordered by authorities to resign their leadership roles and cease organising protests.

Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for Licadho, said such tactics were employed to convince villagers that community representatives had “betrayed the people” and were colluding with companies attempting to grab their land.

“Even if the charges are completely fabricated, the arrest allows authorities to place an individual under surveillance,” Pilorge said, and pointed out that charges and surveillance “can linger for up to 15 years” for a felony and five years for a misdemeanor.

“But in many cases the authorities don’t even have to bother with a trial,” she said. “Intimidation is enough.”

“A typical example of this tactic occurred in May 2009, when four village representatives were detained by the Preah Sihanouk provincial court and accused of inciting and committing violence in connection with a land dispute,” the report says.

After two weeks of detention the men were released on bail, but the charges have never been dropped. Thus, the men are effectively barred from participating in any actions to protect their community’s land.

There are currently 62 human rights defenders unjustly imprisoned in Cambodia, according to Am Sam Ath.

The report also claimed that restrictions on freedom of assembly have increased following the passage of the Law on Peaceful Demonstrations in December 2009.

But Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that police always follow legal procedures when cracking down on “illegal
activities”.

Prum Sithra, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, said yesterday that police did not make unnecessary arrests. “We have to look deeply at each situation to determine why police have used violence on people,” he said.

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Peal Si Peal case: Suy Sopheap of Phanimex vs Hun Xen's daughter-in-law Yim Chhay Lin

Suy Sophan, owner of the Phanimex development company, appears at an event last month for evicted families receiving new homes in Dangkor district’s Tuol Sambo village. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Phanimex owner summoned

Friday, 27 August 2010
May Titthara and Veng Rachana
The Phnom Penh Post

PHNOM Penh Municipal Court has summoned the owner of a controversial local development company to appear next week over a land dispute pitting two of Cambodia’s elite against each other.

Court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said Suy Sophan, owner of the Phanimex company, had been directed to appear in court on Monday over a land dispute in Meanchey district, after a complaint was filed against her by Yim Chhay Lin. Yim Chhay Lin is the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly.

Suy Sophan said yesterday that she hadn’t received the summons.

“I will not go to the court,” Suy Sophan said. “I will have my lawyer clarify on my behalf.”

Phanimex was also involved in the eviction of several dozen families from Prampi Makara district’s Borei Keila community last year. The case drew international attention in part because of the eviction of roughly 40 families with HIV-positive members who were forced to move to Tuol Sambo village in Dangkor district, prompting critics to accuse the government of creating an “AIDS colony”.

The evictees were initially required to live in 3.5-by-4.5-metre metal sheds smaller than those required by the UN for emergency refugee camps, though many have since received permanent housing with the support of the NGO Caritas Cambodia.

Chub Sitha, chief of Meanchey district’s Prek Pra commune, said he did not know the details of the dispute between Suy Sophan and Yim Chhay Lin.

“We always see poor people lose in court against powerful people,” said Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for local rights group Licadho.

“It’s rare to see powerful people file complaints against other powerful people.”

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Beauty is only skin-deep

Cambodia cosmetic surgery undergoes uplifting period

Thursday, 26 August 2010
Kong Sokun
The Phnom Penh Post

PHORN Lisa isn’t just prepared to go under the knife for the sake of beauty – she’s willing to risk her health.

For Lisa it is her nose.

“I’m very afraid, but ready for it,” said the 25-year-old at a prominent cosmetic surgery clinic in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh.

“I want to have a beautiful sharp nose because I’m not satisfied with my Cambodian big nose.”

Despite the global economic downturn, health experts say the business of cosmetic surgery in Cambodia has doubled, or even tripled, in recent years.

Davy Ariya, the owner of a clinic in the capital, says clients include wealthy Cambodians as well as “medical tourists” from the United States, France and Australia.

“They mostly come for nose jobs, silicon implants, breast enlargements and scar revisions,” Ariya said.

A nose job usually takes less than half an hour at Ariya’s clinic and costs US$280 to US$600 depending on the quality of materials used in the operation.

Breast enlargements cost US$1,500 to US$1,700, a bargain compared to many countries even if it’s nearly three times the average annual Cambodian income.

“Although it is seen as frivolous, the upsurge in the number of customers who come to me shows cosmetic surgery has become acceptable to Cambodian society,” Ariya said.

Amid this surgical enhancement boom, many women are aiming for what they perceive as the more delicate looks of popular Korean and Chinese film stars.

But even as operations become popular among the emerging middle class, Cambodia remains a country where laws are loosely enforced and many people calling themselves doctors have little training.

“Some people have gone to learn (surgery) in neighbouring countries for just several months. They come back and boast that they are skilled,” said Sann Sary, head of the Ministry of Health’s department of hospitals.

He said cosmetic surgeons were required to register at Cambodia’s health ministry and have proper qualifications, but most of them operated freely and illegally.

“Some (illegal clinics) even go to great lengths to broadcast their clinics on television,” Sann Sary said.

Veasna, 40, profoundly regrets the face lift she had at a cheap clinic – and it is easy to see why. Her face is swollen and red, especially around the eyes.

“I’ve been in terrible pain,” she said, visibly upset and awaiting corrective surgery. “But I want to look young and beautiful. Otherwise, my husband will run away with other girls.”

Chhim Vattey, director of Phnom Penh’s Samangkar Luxe Salon, employs a doctor trained in Japan who often corrects the mess left behind by poorly qualified surgeons.

After more than two decades, Chhim Vattey said she is surprised that so many Cambodians visit surgeons who are not properly licensed.

“Look out on the streets and you’ll see scores of clinics mushrooming but without real qualification and skills. That’s why I still have many patients who are victims of cosmetic surgery.”

Dr Thoeung Chanseiha, a surgeon trained in France and Italy and currently working for Sok Hok Clinic, told the Post that the plastic surgery here is safe if the doctor is professionally trained and has proper modern equipment.

“Some clinics use cheap equipment imported from countries such as China, leading to the unsafe results,” he said.

Dr Thoeung also advises Cambodian people who seek plastic surgery to make sure that their surgeon has the proper licence authorised from the ministry, a degree, professional training in this type of surgery, and safe equipment.

Reid Sheftall, an American plastic surgeon based in Phnom Penh, said he often fixes breasts or noses that have been put out of position, or tissue which has been damaged under too much tension.

“Some patients have had free silicone injected into their noses, faces, breasts and hands,” Sheftall said.

“This is very dangerous because the silicone can migrate to other parts of the body and will form hard rubbery masses of scar tissue wherever it resides.”

Despite those horror stories, the health ministry’s Sann Sary said dubious surgical practices have continued in Cambodia’s quest for beauty.

“We have advised (people) that to open cosmetic clinics legally they must have an expert with qualification and years of experience because plastic surgery is a dangerous thing to do.”

Additional Reporting by AFP

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