Heritage meeting kicks off | National | National
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HERITAGE MEETING KICKS OFF Last Updated on 17 June 2013 By Vong Sokheng
Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomes the return of a Koh Ker statue during the opening session of the 37th World Heritage Committee at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh yesterday. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post Some 1,500 international delegates and government officials from more than 120 countries gathered in Phnom Penh’s Peace Palace yesterday for the launch of the UNESCO 37th World Heritage Committee meetings. At last night’s opening ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the attendees and stressed Cambodia’s commitment to preserving its heritage sites, even in the wake of booming tourism. He also offered especial thanks to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, which last week returned to Cambodia a pair of looted 10th-century statues, in a rare act of voluntary repatriation. From June 16 to 27, committee chair Cambodia and the 20 other current committee member states will select about 15 new UNESCO World Heritage Sites from a list of 31 candidates, spokesman Roni Amelan said at a press conference yesterday. Nominees recommended to join the current 962 World Heritage sites include China’s Tianshan Mountains, Italy’s Mount Etna, Japan’s Mount Fuji, North Korea’s Kaesong (capital of the medieval Koryo Dynasty), and the historic city centre of Agadez in Niger. Ek Tha, spokesman for the meetings as well as for the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit, said that as chair of the meetings, Cambodia had not nominated any of its own sites for inscription.
6/21/2013 4:19 PM
Heritage meeting kicks off | National | National
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“We wanted to show the national and international community that we are neutral” and that Cambodia is “playing a greater role at the global level by bringing together the cultural experts and policy makers to protect and preserve the cultural and natural heritage worldwide,” Tha said.
6/21/2013 4:19 PM
Endangered Sites Discussed During Heritage Meet | The Cambodia Daily
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Unesco director-general Irina Bokova, left, and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An attend a press conference on Monday during the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee. (Siv Channa)
6/21/2013 4:27 PM
‘Chinatown’ for Cambodia | Business | Business
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‘CHINATOWN’ FOR CAMBODIA Last Updated on 20 June 2013 By Rann Reuy
A man looks at Chinese Lunar New Year lanterns at a shop in Phnom Penh in February. Tourism officials are considering building a ‘Chinatown’ in the capital to attract more Chinese tourists. Photo by AFP Tourism officials yesterday said they were considering building a “Chinatown” in Phnom Penh in order to target more tourists from the second-biggest economy in the world. In a Seminar on Cambodia Tourism and Marketing Strategy Targeting China, held at the Phnom Penh Hotel yesterday, Thon Kong, Minister of Tourism, said Cambodia needs to create more modern shopping experiences to cater to Chinese visitors. “The main problem is, we lack the hotels, good restaurants, transportation services. Most importantly, we did only a little with advertising deep in the Chinese market,” he said, adding that “Chinese tourists prefer shopping more than other tourists”. “We need to do advertisements in Chinese language, websites in Chinese language.” The idea for “Chinatown”, in which governments and guide books promote tourism in areas with high concentrations of Chinese, is nothing new outside Cambodia. “This concept we are studying it and we will propose it to the government, because the idea of Chinatown is so attractive,” he said, offering no other details on timing and location except that it would be in Phnom Penh at a “proper place”.
6/21/2013 4:21 PM
‘Chinatown’ for Cambodia | Business | Business
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Bou Chanserey, deputy director of the department of planning and development at the Ministry of Tourism, said 83 million Chinese tourists left home to travel last year, and spending as a result amounted to roughly $12 million. In the same period, he said, about nine-million Chinese tourists entered ASEAN countries, with the majority traveling to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, while Cambodia received slightly more than 330,000. Cambodia hopes to nearly double that number by the end of 2015, he said, and reach 1.8 million by 2018. He said that tourism officials arranged plans to attract Chinese tourists from mainland Chinese cities with crowded populations, such as Beijing and Shanghai.
6/21/2013 4:21 PM
Lost ground in trafficking | National | National
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LOST GROUND IN TRAFFICKING Last Updated on 21 June 2013 By Kevin Ponniah and Sen David
Six trafficked fishermen and plantation workers arrive at Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday after working under inhumane conditions in Thailand and Malaysia. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post Cambodia’s efforts to combat human trafficking have worsened, the US State Department said yesterday, with its most recent annual trafficking report downgrading the Kingdom for the first time since 2009. The report, released by US Secretary of State John Kerry, slams the government for failing to make progress in holding human traffickers and child sex tourists to account, and alleges cover-ups by senior government officials. It points to “inadequate prosecutions and sentences” and weak efforts to identify and protect victims, as well as “endemic corruption”, as reasons for the lowered ranking. “The government did not make efforts to address trafficking-related corruption during the year, and complicity of government officials contributed to a climate of impunity for trafficking offenders and a denial of justice to victims,” it says. Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith rejected the report’s findings yesterday. “Cambodia is not behind on human trafficking, as we have been accused, because we know that it is a crime that the government cannot risk ignoring… and this is a job we work on every day,” he said. The 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report placed Cambodia on its Tier 2 Watch List – a sub-level ranking that
6/21/2013 4:11 PM
Lost ground in trafficking | National | National
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indicates a lack of evidence to prove the government has taken the anti-trafficking measures required for Tier 2 status. A Tier 2 ranking, however, only means that governments are “making significant efforts” to comply with minimum anti-trafficking standards. Cambodia had been ranked as a Tier 2 nation for the past three years, and the downgrade comes as the number of prosecuted traffickers more than halved to just 50 people in this reporting period, resulting in 44 convictions. Opposition MP Mu Sochua said she supported the Kingdom’s downgrade. “I wasn’t happy with [last year’s ranking], I think the US wanted to give the government a grace period, and I’m glad this year there is more of a warning. There is much to be done,” she said. However Steve Morrish, executive director of anti-trafficking NGO SISHA, disagreed with the report’s assessment. “I think [authorities] are trying very hard to improve the situation and I know that cooperation between the national police and the courts from SISHA’s perspective has been very, very good,” he said. “I think that Cambodia has come a long way in the last couple of years and is doing a lot better than before … There is more willingness from police to work on exploitation and trafficking crimes.” He added that declining prosecution figures could have a myriad of explanations beyond a waning commitment from authorities, such as a decline in traffickers or an indication that traffickers had adopted more sophisticated methods to evade better policing. Systemic corruption has stymied anti-trafficking efforts at all levels, the report notes, with some labour recruitment firms reportedly having financial connections with senior government officials – though no evidence is given. Sochua pointed to the large nightclubs, spas and massage parlours in Phnom Penh that act as fronts for brothels. “Don’t tell me these are just clubs. Behind every club of that size there is an official behind, police or military . . . They cannot open without the blessing, the support and the protection of high-ranking officials,” she said. “I think the report is correct. I think the level of poverty, the level of corruption and the level of impunity all creates a safe haven for trafficking.” In December 2011, Eam Rattana, the former Phnom Penh anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection chief was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison for complicity in an illegal prostitution ring. He escaped the charges and is said to remain at-large. The TIP report also cites the plight of Cambodian domestic workers in the region, particularly those left stranded in Malaysia after the government placed a ban on maids traveling there in 2011 amid reports of abuse. Moeun Tola, labour program head at the Community Legal Education Center, said many parents are still missing daughters who lost contact after their contracts were allowed to be extended without family approval.
6/21/2013 4:11 PM
Lost ground in trafficking | National | National
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“The problem is that there is no clear governance and no strong measures from the government to close those companies so the companies are just careless,” he said. Cambodia plans to send up to 400 maids to Singapore later this year under a pilot scheme after training, and if their safety can be assured, according to the Ministry of Labour, who could not be reached for comment yesterday. Chiv Pally, deputy director at the anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection department, denied the report’s accusations. He pointed to the recent arrest of Taiwanese national Lin Yu Shin, 53, who was arrested in Siem Reap on charges of trafficking Cambodians onto fishing trawlers off the coast of Africa, as evidence of government action. Lin’s company – Giant Ocean International Fishery – is estimated by CLEC to have trafficked some 1,000 Cambodians over the past few years who were lured with the promise of lucrative jobs. Last month anti-trafficking NGOs including the International Organization for Migration told the Post that the number of Cambodian men being trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels had exponentially increased this year. Just yesterday, six Cambodians who were rescued after being trafficked to work as fishermen and plantations workers in Malaysia and Thailand were repatriated, with 10 other rescued workers waiting to return. According to Tola, however, Cambodian labourers wanting to work abroad are caught in a double-bind as even when they go through legal channels, they face exploitation. “It’s a good step to arrest the Giant Ocean owner…but there are other agencies that are recruiting people and sending them to Thailand, Malaysia and other countries and putting them into slavery-like working conditions,” he said. Thailand was placed on the Tier 2 watch list for the fourth consecutive year and would have been relegated to Tier 3 had it not again been granted a waiver in exchange for unveiling plans that could meet anti-trafficking standards if implemented.
6/21/2013 4:11 PM
French Radio Expands Bilingual Service Programming to 14 Hours | Th...
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6/21/2013 4:24 PM
Cambodia Drops on US Global Human Trafficking Ranking | The Camb...
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6/21/2013 4:25 PM
Cambodia Drops on US Global Human Trafficking Ranking | The Camb...
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6/21/2013 4:25 PM