Khmer Rouge child survivor weeps for mother
PHNOM PENH (AFP) — A former child survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime’s main torture centre sobbed Thursday as he told Cambodia’s war crimes court of his harrowing separation from his mother at the jail.
Norng Chan Phal, who was around nine years old at the time, also described seeing bodies when Tuol Sleng prison was finally liberated after invading Vietnamese-backed forces toppled the 1975-1979 movement.
He was testifying at the trial of jail chief Duch, who is accused of overseeing the torture and execution of around 15,000 people who passed through Tuol Sleng.
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UPDATE 1-Millicom says several suitors eyeing Asian business
* Review of Asian ops progressing as planned
* Goldman Sachs appointed advisor
(Adds detail, background)
STOCKHOLM, July 2 (Reuters) - Niche telecom operator Millicom (MICC.O) (MICsdb.ST) said on Thursday the strategic review of its Asian business was going as planned and that several potential investors were eyeing the assets.
“Goldman Sachs has been appointed to advise on the process and, to date, expressions of interest have been received from a number of parties,” the company said in a statement. It did not name the suitors.
The operator said earlier this year it could sell part or all of its operations in Asia, where the company runs businesses in a number of countries including Cambodia and Sri Lanka. [ID:nLL17217]
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Cambodian PM to visit France in July
PHNOM PENH, June 30 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Tuesday that he will visit France on July 13 to strengthen the bilateral cooperation.
“We will be absent from the country for a short period of time because I will visit France and I also will meet with French President late afternoon on July 13 if the schedule is not changed,” he told a University graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh.
“I will be invited to join a ceremony of French Army March on July 14,” he said, adding that he will attend his son’s graduation ceremony in an army school in France.
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Cambodia donates $1.2 mln to World Food Program to reduce hunger
PHNOM PENH, July 1 (Xinhua) — Cambodian government on Wednesday donated 1.2 million U.S. dollars to World Food Program to help reduce the hunger and malnutrition in this country, according to WFP statement.
The statement released Wednesday said the donated fund will help provide food assistance to over 800,000 poor rural Cambodian people affected by food insecurity brought on by last year’s high food prices and this year’s global economic crisis.
“WFP is very grateful for this generous contribution,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP Cambodia’s representative.
According to the statement, it’s the third donation from Cambodian government to WFP since 2007, but did not elaborate the total amount contributed.
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Khmer Rouge torture survivor saw “hell on earth”
PHNOM PENH, July 1 (Reuters) - One of the few survivors of the Khmer Rouge’s notorious Tuol Sleng prison gave chilling testimony of “hell on earth” when he faced his former torturer at a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal on Wednesday. Like another survivor who testified at the joint United Nations-Cambodian tribunal, Bou Meng said he was alive only because he was an artist and Duch, the torturer, liked his drawings of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
Meng was accused of spying for the United States in 1977 and was taken along with his wife to the S-21 interrogation centre, once a school and now a museum to the horror of the Khmer Rouge regime.
He was one of only seven people to survive the prison, where more than 14,000 men, women and children died during Pol Pot’s 1975-1979 “killing fields” reign of terror.
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Thai FM: Thai-Cambodian relations cordial despite border dispute
BANGKOK, July 1 (Xinhua) — Thai-Cambodian relations are still cordial and the border dispute near Preah Vihear Temple will be solved, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said here Wednesday.
On June 25, both sides stepped up reinforcements at the disputed border after the Thai government announced it planned to ask the UNESCO to review the World Heritage status given to Hindu Temple of Preah Vihear during the UNESCO committee meeting in Spain last week.
UNESCO’s inscription of the temple in July last year is against the UNESCO’s regulations and spirit since it has created a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, the Thai government said.
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Cambodian Defense Ministry appoints spokesman
PHNOM PENH, July 2 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Defense Ministry has appointed a spokesman for facilitating work in providing the military information to foreign and local media, local media reported on Thursday.
General Tea Bah, deputy prime minister and national defense minister, appointed Chhom Socheat, a three-star General and under-secretary of state for Defense Ministry as spokesman for the ministry, the Khmer Language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea quoted the statement from Defense Ministry as saying.
“In the past, events especially the information about military actions such as the actions at areas near Preah Vihear temple were classified as a sensational information and have not been provided clearly and accurately,” Chhom Socheat said.
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Thais Maintain Stance Over ‘Heritage’ Temple
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated his opposition to the listing of Preah Vihear temple as a Unesco World Heritage site Tuesday, despite a rejection of the UN agency that the temple be jointly managed.
Abhisit rankled Phnom Penh last month when he suggested that Thailand and Cambodian both maintain the 11th-Century temple, which has become the center of a longstanding military face-off along contested border areas nearby.
Abhisit told Thai media on Tuesday he stood by his position and would not remove the heavily armed troops that have been entrenched along the northern border since July 2008.
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Dance Production Performed in Washington
The dance performance “Agangamasor,” a new show by the Cambodian Buddhist Society, played in Washington last week, adding a new dimension to a classic story.
The dance tells of a royal guard in Preah Eysor’s palace, Agangamasor, who becomes frustrated with the torments of visiting devadas and eventually turns on his royal patron.
Agangamasor uses a magical diamond finger given to him by Preah Eysor to banish the devadas to the end of the universe, and the king fears his royal guard is plotting to overthrow him. He flees, and the God of Justice, Preah Noreay, decides Agangamasor and his evil soul must be vanquished.
Preah Noreay transforms himself into a beautiful celestial dancer, a woman named Tepapsar, luring Agangamasor to fall in love with her. She tricks him out of the diamond finger, without which Agangamasor is no match for the god.
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Photographer Hei Han Khiang, ‘Right Place, Right Time’
After Hei Han Khiang survived a forced labor camp for children under the Khmer Rouge, he wanted little more than to live a life of peace. But innate talent and dogged pursuit enabled him to become an accomplished photographer.
Now living in the New York, Hei Han Khiang was born in 1968 to a family of six near Phnom Penh’s Damkor Market. His father was a teacher and noodle shop owner.
The Khmer Rouge pushed the family to Battambang province as the regime enacted Year Zero, and Hei Han Khiang lost an older brother and older sister. After the regime’s overthrow, the family sought refuge in the US, by way of Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Finally, in 1981, they arrived in New York.
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