Cambodia Environment

Released on = May 1, 2007, 11:51 pm

Press Release Author = Aticha Pasaprates / Le Meridien Angkor

Industry =

Press Release Summary = Le Meridien Angkor Spa has an extensive range of traditional
Khmer treatments administered by professional and well trained therapists in a chic
Khmer environment

Press Release Body = Le Meridien Angkor Spa has an extensive range of traditional
Khmer treatments administered by professional and well trained therapists in a chic
Khmer environment. Featuring a stunning Khmer themed swimming pool, with great
columns reminiscent of bathing pools from ancient times. Pamper yourself with one of
our unique Khmer Spa treatments such as the “Hot Stone Facial.” Using an ancient hot
stone therapy passed down over the centuries this treatment permeates the deeper
layers of the muscles and facial tissue, and has a mini face lift effect as the
muscles are toned and tightened. Enjoy tender relief from headaches and stress as
this massage restores your ability to breathe deeply and enter a true state of
relaxation. A unique Khmer Face Mask, ingredients including tea, milk, lemon
essential oil and jojoba oil will then be applied to finish off this treatment to
perfection.

Le Meridien Angkor is the closest hotel to the extraordinary World Heritage site of
Angkor Wat and only a 15-minute drive from Siem Reap International Airport, making
it the perfect residence and starting point for visitors to this fabled land. All
rooms are elegantly designed with unique Khmer influences, had-crafted accessories
and exquisite works of art all combined to provide unrivalled luxury. Its
extraordinary Khmer themed pool area set within a palm grove is perfect for themed
dining beneath Khmer stars. The hotel also features spa and reflexology sanctuary
that offer rejuvenating and reenergizing treatments.

Discover more simply e-mail reservations@angkor.lemeridien.com , call the hotel
directly +855 63 963 900 or visit www.lemeridien.com/angkor

Enjoying the world of Le Méridien - special and memorable experiences around the globe.


Notes to Editors:
Le Méridien
Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, with its portfolio of 130 luxury and upscale hotels in
53 countries worldwide, is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Le
Méridien enjoys a strategic alliance with JAL-owned Nikko Hotels, providing loyal
guests access to an additional 52 properties around the world. In the 2005 Luxury
Brand Status Index survey Le Méridien was recognised as one of the top 15 luxury
hotel brands. For more information, please visit www.lemeridien.com

Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure
companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries
and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood® Hotels is a
fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the
following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®,
Sheraton®, Westin®, Four Points® by Sheraton, W®, Le Méridien and the recently
announced aloftSM and ElementSM Hotels. Starwood Hotels also own Starwood Vacation
Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality
vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit
www.starwoodpressclub.com.

The Beauty and Darkness project provides information on the recent history of Cambodia, particulary the Khmer Rouge period. This includes materials pertaining to Cambodia, as well as information about Cambodian refugees and immigrants abroad. Articles are categorized within the menus at the top of each page. The following links might be useful starting points:

The Banyan Tree
A five-part article detailing Cambodia's recent history.

Oral Histories
A set of oral histories and biographical articles about Cambodians.

Photos
Several sets of photographs, including roughly 800 pictures from Cambodia, and from Khmer communities abroad.


Facts and Figures
Maps and basic statistical information.

Travel
Trip journals, travelogues, and general information about touring Cambodia.

General Articles
Links to many articles on various aspects of Cambodian history and culture.
Phimeanakas

Specific information can be located by using the site search page, and the most recent additions are listed on the What's New page. This site is primarily concerned with historical and cultural information. For news on current events in Cambodia, the Yahoo World News: Cambodia site and the Phnom Penh Post Online are excellent resources. For information on the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal, see the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor.More...

BORDER CLASHES BETWEEN VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA; PROCEDURAL CLASHES BETWEEN THE PROSECUTION AND THE DEFENSE
May 25, 2009

By Laura MacDonald, Member of the New York Bar and Consultant to the Center for International Human Rights, Northwestern University School of Law

Download this blog entry as a PDF

Webcast of Trial Proceedings - Transcript
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9


Vietnam versus Cambodia

The Trial Chamber took a break from resident expert Craig Etcheson’s testimony on the structure and policies of the Khmer Rouge to hear visiting expert Nayan Chanda’s testimony on the armed conflict that waged between Vietnam and Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Among his many qualifications, Chanda covered Indochina for the Far Eastern Economic Review during the relevant time period and later wrote a book on his findings entitled, Brother Enemy: The War After the War. He is currently the Director of Publications and the Editor of YaleGlobal Online Magazine at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

Under hours of questioning from Judge Silvia Cartwright, Chanda detailed armed conflict along the Vietnam-Cambodia border – which started in 1975, slowed in 1976, and then gradually intensified from mid-1977 until January 7, 1979 when Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh. Chanda described battles over several islands in the Gulf of Thailand, air raids on villages on both sides of the border, and the expulsion of Vietnamese nationals and sympathizers from Cambodia. Given that thirty-plus years have passed, Chanda’s recollection of some specifics in Brother Enemy was understandably lacking; however, at moments, he was able to describe events and interviews vividly. Chanda recalled a March 1978 visit to a Vietnamese border town about which he still has nightmares. He said the village looked like it had been “hit by a storm” and the bodies of civilian men, women, and children lined the streets. In a mud hut, he saw the words “this is our land” scribbled in Khmer.

Chanda explained that the international community was ill-informed during the early years of the conflict because both Vietnamese and Cambodian officials sought to keep the hostilities secret. Despite attacks on Vietnamese soil in the beginning, the Vietnamese were careful not to anger the Khmer Rouge as they did not want a full-scale war. In mid-1977, however, the Khmer Rouge severed diplomatic relations with Vietnam and denounced the country publicly. Shortly thereafter, the Vietnamese commenced major attacks on Cambodian territory.

The judges and the prosecution spent much time questioning Chanda about the rationale and origins of the conflict. In short, Chanda explained that Vietnam sought a “special relationship” with Laos and Cambodia believing the three countries should cooperate to protect their sovereignty and social systems. When Pol Pot came to power, he decided and made known that his party was something original, not in any way related to Vietnam. Chanda discussed “racist” Khmer Rouge propaganda describing all Vietnamese people as brutal, aggressive, and expansionist. This party line made anyone with sympathy for or relations with the Vietnamese an enemy of Cambodia. While territorial disputes were the flashpoints of the conflict, Chanda tried to illuminate the long, complex history behind them.

The Accused Person, Kaing Guek Eav (Duch), does not contest the existence of an armed conflict. He claims that he heard about the conflict, but never in detail. Duch noted today that he had confidence that Pol Pot would maintain the sovereignty of Cambodia.

Civil Law versus Common Law

After the prosecution had questioned Chanda for an hour or so, international defense counsel Francois Roux rose to his feet in passionate objection. Roux argued that the prosecution’s common law-style cross-examination of Chanda was completely unnecessary and a “waste of time” in this civil law context where over a year of investigation had been done and the judges had thoroughly questioned the witness. Roux further suggested the prosecution was unfairly using this witness to build evidence against Ieng Sary and Khieu Samphan, other indicted Khmer Rouge officials whose names had been mentioned during Chanda’s testimony.

International co-prosecutor Alex Bates responded that Roux’s objections were the waste of time and that he would not dignify the other accusations with a response. Bates noted that Chanda was not heard during the investigation phase of this case and, therefore, the prosecution was seeking to establish his expertise and allow him to express his knowledge of Cambodian and Vietnamese policies.

Each of the four civil party groups spoke in support of the prosecution, including civil party lawyer Silke Studzinksy who insisted that everyone has heard Roux’s impressions about the common law and civil law systems and they need not be repeated. The Chamber ruled Roux’s objection “ungrounded” and allowed the prosecution to continue questioning Chanda.

Chanda will return tomorrow to finish his testimony on armed conflict. More...

Every year the Khmer New Year is celebrated around April 14-16, and it is the most important holiday in the Cambodian calendar. For other holidays, people tend to come to Phnom Penh to celebrate, but for this festival everyone goes home to the province where they grew up and Phnom Penh is relatively deserted. The government this year put out flags along many streets and this one is in front of the Maryknoll office.




The Royal Palace is suitably decorated for all big public holidays. This structure is a royal viewing standing, overlooking the river. The only time it is used is during the boat races for the Water Festival when the king presides.



This year the city government put out thousands of small flags along many streets. There does not seem to be any pattern for which streets get them and which ones don't, or how many flags are allocated to one block. Some houses have three or four in front of them while other streets may have only two or three flags for the whole block.

For major holidays and celebrations, the waterfront is crowded with onlookers. There are now some of these toilets permanently situated near the river, but before the new year celebration more were brought in.

The city beautifies the city for the three-day new year celebration and flower vendors like these sell the flowers that are traditional for each household.

Cambodia has international airports at Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Direct flights connect Phnom Penh International Airport [4] (previously Pochentong International Airport) with China (Guangzhou Hong Kong Shanghai), Laos (Vientiane), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, South Korea (Incheon/Seoul), Taiwan (Taipei), Thailand (Bangkok) and Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City).

Direct flights connect Siem Reap - Angkor International Airport [5] with Laos (Pakse Vientiane), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, South Korea (Incheon/Seoul), Taiwan (Kaohsiung Taipei), Thailand (Bangkok U-Tapao (Sattahip/Pattaya)) and Vietnam (Hanoi Ho Chi Minh City).

Travellers going specifically to visit the Angkor temple ruins may prefer to use Siem Reap as it's only a few minutes away from the main sites; however as Bangkok Airways has a monopoly on direct flights between Bangkok and Siem Reap, it's a lot cheaper to fly to Phnom Penh and to take the bus (or cross overland from Bangkok).

Low-cost carrier Air Asia [6] has introduced flights from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap, while Jetstar Asia [7] has begun flying from Singapore to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Other airlines operating flights to/from Cambodia include Asiana Airlines [8], Bangkok Airways [9], China Southern Airlines [10], Dragonair [11], Eva Airways [12], Korean Air [13], Lao Airlines [14], Malaysia Airlines (MAS) [15], Shanghai Airlines [16], Siem Reap Airways [17] (a subsidiary of Bangkok Airways), SilkAir [18], Singapore Airlines [19], Thai Airways International [20], and Vietnam Airlines [21].

Warning: if arriving to or exiting Cambodia through China, you are now required to purchase a Chinese Visa, $130 for US Citizens, with a 4 day processing time. This is a new rule (April '08) based on the bilateral cost for a Chinese citizen obtaining a visa to visit the US. Consider this when booking your flight, and either have the Visa prior to departure, or better yet, come in through Thailand or another country.

e-Visa fees are collected by a Malaysian company called CINET Sdn Bhd operated by Mr Hong, TY Thong and Adrian Phang. All the fees are paid into Mr TY Thong's Paypal personal account.

All visitors, except (as of February 2009) citizens of Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Laos and Vietnam need a visa to enter Cambodia. The official price for a tourist visa is US$20, and US$25 for a business visa - but expect much higher prices (US$30 or more for the tourist visa) to be demanded at land border crossings.

Visas can be obtained at any Cambodian embassy or consulate overseas. Visas are also available "on arrival" at both international airports, all six international border crossings with Thailand, some international border crossings with Vietnam, and at the main border crossing with Laos.

Tourist visa: when applied for in advance, these are valid for 90 days (ie must be used within 3 months), and good for a 30 day entry permit stamp which can be extended once only for a further 30 days in Phnom Penh (or elsewhere via agencies) at a cost of US$15.
Business visa: the best choice for stays over two months and/or multiple entries, as they can be extended indefinitely (approx US$140 per 6 month extension) and have multiple entry status when extended. Most Phnom Penh travel agencies process the extensions.
To apply for a visa, you will need one or two (depending on where you apply) passport-size photo(s) (although when applying on arrival, the fee for not having one is usually only US$1-2), a passport which is valid for at least 6 months and has at least one completely blank visa page remaining, passport photocopies when applying at some embassies/consulates (not needed if applying on arrival), and clean US$ notes with which to pay the fee (expect to pay a substantially higher price if paying in a local currency).

e-Visa scam?

The original provider of the e-Visa service was kicked out in murky circumstances, and their site [2] now rails against the evils of the new provider. However, travellers who have obtained e-Visas with the new system report no problems using them.


Alternatively, citizens of most nations can now apply for an e-Visa [3] online. The cost is US$25 (US$20 + US$5 processing charge) instead of the normal US$20, and you get the visa by e-mail in 3 business days. For the e-visa you will need one photograph of yourself. You can scan your passport photo (into .jpg format, please!) or take a passport photograph of yourself with a digital camera.

With the e-visa you will breeze through immigration. The e-visa will come back as a PDF file. You will then need to print out two copies (one for the entry and one for the exit). After printing out your two copies, cut out the e-visa part and put both copies into your passport.

For those entering by air, the e-Visa is valid at both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap airports. It's cheaper to get your visa on arrival at either airport. However if you get a visa in advance (online or from an embassy/consulate) you do get to skip two lines at the airport: the line to apply for the visa, and the line at the cashier to pay the fee. Of course, if you checked luggage, you'll probably have to spend the saved time waiting for your bag.

For those entering overland, do note that overland e-Visa entries are restricted to just three border crossings: Bavet (Svay Rieng) from Moc Bai (Tay Ninh Province, Vietnam); Koh Kong (from Hat Lek / Trat, Thailand); and Poipet (from Aranyaprathet, Thailand). However getting a visa in advance (online or from an embassy/consulate) is definitely the way to go in order to avoid the common scam of visa overpricing at border crossings (see Scam alert).

If you are a foreign national, be aware that you will have to pay an airport departure tax when you leave Cambodia through the airports, about $25 for international flights, it is about $4-6 for internal flights between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

The two pillars of Cambodia's newly-stable economy are textiles and tourism. The latter has grown rapidly with over 1.7 million visitors arriving in 2006. The long-term development of the economy after decades of war remains a daunting challenge, as the population (more than half under 27 years of age) lacks education and productive skills, particularly in the poverty-ridden countryside, which suffers from an almost total lack of basic infrastructure. 80% of the population still gets by on subsistence farming. On the brighter side, the government is addressing these issues - plus government corruption - with assistance from bilateral and multilateral donors.

Sexual division of labor patterns are similar in Khmer society now to what they were in pre-revolutionary days, but with increased flexibility. Men and women both engaged in a broad spectrum of tasks in pre-war society, though men or women may have tended to do one task more than the other. Now women do more of all sorts of tasks, while male labor tends to be concentrated in the areas that he traditionally performed.

One of the major changes is the emergence of an urban mercantile class of ethnic Khmer women. In the 1980 and early 90s Khmer women dominated in market selling in areas that were previously completely operated by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese. While Khmer women had controlled small markets in the countryside in former times, they now dominated in the central markets and in many kinds of shops, from selling gold to importing household appliances. It is unclear whether or not this is still the case in Phnom Penh markets and shops since there has been a re-emergence of ethnic Chinese traders in the mid and late-1990s.

Women interviewed said that they usually hold the money in the household, letting their husbands keep small amounts of pocket money. They further said that economic decision making in the family was usually mutual, that is most decisions are made after discussion between the wife and the husband.

Garment Factories

One dramatic change in employment opportunities for women has come with the opening of garment factories in the 1990s. In 2000, 70 percent of Cambodia’s exports were garments, valued at $980 million. This sector provided jobs to some 160,000 workers, the vast majority young women (Cambodian Development Resource Institute [CDRI] 2001:1-2). Most of these workers are uneducated, young women who have come to the city from rural areas. CDRI found that with extensive overtime the women can make about $61 per month, half of which they spend on subsistence. In order to send money back home, they minimize their own spending. They suffer from frequent illnesses due to inadequate diet and long hours of overtime work (CDRI 2001:4). These circumstances seem to open dramatic possibilities for change from traditional gender roles. With these women living mainly with each other, there are no male relatives to "watch over" them. With their own limited earnings they may be making decisions on their own about the course of their lives in a way impossible in the past.

Prostitution

It is sometimes reported that prostitution came to Cambodia with the UNTAC mission in 1992-93. This is certainly untrue. As in neighboring Thailand, it was considered acceptable for men to visit prostitutes as their budget allowed; just as it was crucial for a woman to remain a virgin until married and thereafter be loyal only to her husband. In 1989-90, when I first lived in Cambodia, there were certain areas of the city that were the domain of prostitution, including the famous dike area in Tuol Kork. The prostitutes included both ethnic Khmer and many women from Vietnam.

But in 1992-93, during the UNTAC mission, prostitution expanded dramatically. UN staff had very high salaries and few places to spend their money. After the UN mission, the high levels of prostitution continued, in part because of a new demand for international sex tourism (in part related to the Thai sex industry), and in part because rising incomes among urban Khmer meant men had more cash to spend. With this explosion in sexual activity, and with newly opened borders -- including the border to Thailand, which was in the grips of an epidemic – HIV/AIDs also burst on the Cambodian scene. Today Cambodia has one of the highest infection rates in Asia, 2.8 percent of the population.

Khmer women have always been co-workers with men in the production of rice. Because their days are filled with agricultural labor, women often rise at very early hours to do household duties before they leave for the fields. Women in the vegetable growing areas report getting up at 3 or 4 am in order to clean the house before beginning to carry water to their fields for several hours before the heat of the day. Women in the city report getting up at 5 or 5:30 and doing their laundry, house cleaning and other household tasks before going to their workplaces. They do the shopping on the way home from work late morning, cook the mid-day meal, work in the afternoon, cook again, and do household tasks again before retiring. The image from all of my research over the years is of women in constant motion.

The literature on women in development around the world presents similar pictures of women doing "double duty," engaging in agricultural labor or wage employment, and taking care of the household tasks. There are however some unique characteristics of the Khmer situation.

Because women are the only wage earners in many families, children, especially girl children, end up taking on many of the household tasks, which means that more girls do not receive an education. The dramatic success of Khmer women in business has meant that in many families the income from the woman's trade is far higher than the husband's income from government service. Many officials will admit that they live on their wife's income from some form of market selling.

One reason women in Southeast Asia are often judged to be treated within their societies as "relatively equal" to men, is that most societies in the region have kinship systems that are organized bilaterally. People who are related to either the bride or the groom are considered to be relatives (this is in contrast to patrilineal or matrilineal where the couple after marriage are considered to be related only to the husband's or to the wife's side respectively). Bilateral kinship is the most familiar system to western observers, since our own family organization is also structured in this way. In a bilateral system there exists a large body of people to whom one is related, and whom one can call on for support. This body of people constitute a large pool of relatives called "bang p’aun " in Khmer, meaning literally "the olders and the youngers." Khmer often do not know the exact relationship of an individual to them, only that they are somehow "bang p’aun ". This category can also be extended through the establishment of fictive kin relationships where people "become" relatives by promising their allegiance to one another.

After marriage, Khmer express a stated preference for going to live with the family of the bride (uxorilocality). Traditionally a man would have had to do brideservice of two or three years for the bride's family before the wedding. The young man would have lived with and worked for the girl’s family, so they would have known him well. Khmer say that this pattern is safer for the girl who is afraid to leave her family. Although uxorilocality is the ideal, research shows that Khmer in fact are very pragmatic and go to live where the conditions are most favorable for the couple. According to Ebihara (1977), Khmer residency patterns are more likely to be the result of a process over time, rather than a single decision. Immediately after the wedding the couple will live with either the family of the groom or the bride, with slightly more choosing the bride's family. Whether or not they stay in that household will depend in part on where they are likely to inherit a house and land and where elderly parents need to be cared for. Over time many young couples will move out and establish their own separate residences.

Residence with or near the relatives of the woman's side can reinforce her position within the marriage and put the couple on more equal footing. If, for example, there is a problem of domestic violence, the woman will have relatives close by on whom she can call for protection. In a less extreme example, a women can influence family decisions by having relatives nearby who can help to accomplish a particular task in the way that she prefers.

The parents of the couple traditionally arranged marriages. The Khmer say "num min thom cheang nil ," the cake is not bigger than the scale; meaning that children do not know better than their parents how to make such judgements. Today young people are generally given a say in the matter, at least the right to refuse someone they find unacceptable. The young couple may know each other, in which case the proper procedure is for the young man to ask his parents to approach the parents of the woman. Marriages are not seen as the joining of two individuals, but as the linking of two families -- and their extended family networks. Marriage arrangements are often openly strategic; people hope to marry into families that are wealthy and/or well connected.

Brideservice was replaced in the 20th century by bridewealth, money paid from the family of the groom to the family of the bride. The money is used for the wedding arrangements, and often the balance is given to the couple as money to establish a household. This money was sometimes referred to as "the price of the mother’s milk" or "the worth of a house" (Ebihara1968: 471-472).

Given the demographic situation discussed above, recently there were opportunities for young men to improve their social status and that of their family by marrying wisely. The range of choices open to men was greater than that for women, particularly over the age of 25 or so, when it becomes almost certain that the woman will never marry. In the 1990s, some weddings involved waiving the bridewealth, or allowing the bride’s family quietly to slip a portion of the payment to the groom’s family in advance, only to have it ceremoniously returned during the course of the marriage negotiations.

In the countryside, households are often multigenerational. In the past, a couple might live with their children and a surviving parent or parents. After the Khmer Rouge regime, there were more variations on this form of extended household, with people taking in kinsmen in need, siblings, aunts, and so on – particularly widows (see Ebihara and Ledgerwood 2002).

Between 1.7 and two million Cambodian died during the war years in the early 1970s and during the years of Democratic Kampuchea, from 1975 to 1979. During the Khmer Rouge period, people died of starvation and disease as well as from execution. More women than men survived the traumas of this period. Women are better able to survive conditions of severe malnutrition, fewer women were targeted for execution because of connections to the old regime, and fewer women were killed in battles. Many women told me that they survived those years of horror because they had to care for their children (see Ebihara and Ledgerwood 2002).

During the 1980s and early 90s, men continued to be drained off from society to go to serve as soldiers. This was particularly evident in rural areas where one could enter a village and find no men between the ages of about 15 and 50. Many men were killed or disabled, others might still have been alive but were off with their military units, with resistance factions at the border, or hiding from conscription.

What this meant was large numbers of widows and older women who had not married before the Khmer Rouge period who subsequently never married. There were significantly higher numbers of women than men in the adult population. The most commonly cited figures in the early 1990s were that 64% of the adult population was female and women head 35% of the households nationwide. Ledgerwood (1992), found a figure of 25% female-headed households in certain areas. Other parts of the country that were particularly devastated by fighting, on the other hand, ratios were higher. In the wet-rice growing area where we conducted research, widows headed 41% of the households. Other studies have noted that it was not rare to find villages where the figure was 50% (UNICEF 1990:111).

What this meant was a severe shortage of male labor power. Women were forced to take on various tasks that were previously performed primarily by men. This included tasks in the countryside such a plowing and other preparations for cultivation. It also included work in urban areas, particularly employment within the state bureaucracy. According to Boserup, in 1962, less than 1% of Khmer women were employed in "clerical" or "administrative" positions (1970:241?) In 1990 one third of the Khmer state employees were women (UNICEF 1990), though the higher in rank, the lower the female to male ratio. It is not clear the degree to which the sex ratio within the state bureaucracy is returning to pre-war patterns now that the national sex ratio is returning to normal.

Throughout the 1990s, the gender ratio evened out dramatically. Nationwide statistics for 1995 showed a population over twenty years of age that was 48 percent male and 52 percent female; the 1998 census showed a total population that was 51.8 percent female (UNFPA 1995: 5-7, National Institute of Statistics 1999). In part this reflects the extremely high birth rate during the 1980s and 90s, 2.5 to 3 percent annually. Ebihara and Ledgerwood have also argued that the rapid correction of these statistics must reflect in part the undercounting of men during the 1980s and early 90s. After the Paris Peace Agreement and the 1993 UN sponsored elections, many men returned home from military service (whether or not they were recorded as formally having left their posts). Men also returned from the resistance factions on the border. And men were also free to live openly in rural villages again because of the end of conscription (see Ebihara and Ledgerwood 2002:279-280).

Before one begins discussion of the place of women in Cambodia, one needs to understand something of the hierarchical nature of Khmer society. All relations in Khmer society are organized hierarchically. The nature of the language itself reflects this; pronouns are not neutral but express the status of the speaker and the person addressed. Common verbs, particularly the verb "to eat" similarly show the relationship between the person who is speakingjavascript:void(0) and the person who is being addressed or referenced. Where other factors are relatively equal, the markers of place within society that take precedent are age and sex. People usually refer to one another by kinship terminology that reflects the age and sex of the person who is referenced. Thus people call a cyclo driver "uncle" and a waitress "younger sister". In terms of status, age is more important than sex. For example, the common terms for siblings in a family are "older" and "younger", recognizing the overriding importance of birth order; in contrast to the English terms "brother" and "sister" which place a greater emphasis on sex. Young people must show respect to their elders, both male and female.

Social status is also related to a range of other factors which include: wealth, reputation of the family, political position, employment, the character of the individual and religious piety (see Ebihara 1968 and Ledgerwood 1990). Where a person falls within the society hierarchy is a combination of all of these different elements. Gender is only one of a range of factors that influences where a person is ranked in Khmer society.

This system of conceptions of status is rooted in Buddhist ideas of merit and karma. A person's level in society is a product of their activities in previous lifetimes and their activities in this life will similarly effect subsequent incarnations. A high ranking person in this life is thus a person full of merit and should demonstrate this meritorious nature by redistributing his goods and interceding on behalf of those who are less fortunate than himself. The social order is thus also a moral order, with implied moral duties. Khmer society is organized around followers attaching themselves to persons of higher status.

Between 1993 and 1996, the Government of Cambodia enacted several key pieces of environmental legislation to establish the legal framework to control, use and manage its natural resources and urban environment. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) is the key agency responsible for environmental protection and natural resources conservation, while the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is responsible for forest management. Roles and responsibilities among different government agencies overlap in functional areas such as land tenure administration, coastal and marine resource management, wildlife conservation, and protected area management. These overlaps, as well as shortages in skilled staff and insufficient budget allocations, constrain the government’s ability to sustainably manage its natural resources and environment. However, Cambodia's environmental institutions have become more open to public participation, which was made mandatory, as part of the EIA approval process, in 1999.

The World Bank is helping to increase environmental capacity and information with a range of analytical and advisory services. These include the publication of annual country Environment Monitors and by helping the government better understand poverty- environment linkages through a Poverty-Environment Nexus Study.

As the country grows economically, more and more people gravitate towards urban centers in provinces such as Phnom Penh, Kandal, Prey Veng, and Takeo. The resulting higher quantities of untreated urban domestic sewage, industrial effluent and solid waste are polluting surface and ground water in many of Cambodia’s cities and towns. Throughout the country, sewerage system coverage is limited and/or no longer functioning, resulting in increased health risks to urban and peri-urban populations, including higher incidences of diarrhea and cholera.

In addition, the growth of unplanned settlements outside of Phnom Penh is increasing pressure on the city’s existing wastewater infrastructure and the system of natural drainage, which to date has served as the traditional environmental safeguard against flooding. Many flood protection sleeves have been occupied by migrants, restricting water flows and compounding the sanitation problem.

The disposal of hazardous (mostly industrial) waste is also a growing problem in Phnom Penh. There are no special landfills or other treatment facilities for toxic, hazardous or medical waste, which is often burned at open dumpsites, together with solid waste.

The World Bank’s principal initiative in this area is the Provincial and Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation Project. It is financing water supply systems in provincial towns and districts, public toilets (in schools, markets, and hospitals), household toilets, soak-away pits for septic tank effluent and wastewater disposal. Assistance to prepare a wastewater strategy and master plan for Phnom Penh and a possible follow-up wastewater management project is under discussion.

The forests of Cambodia are diverse and comprise a variety of evergreen, deciduous, mixed and mangrove forest types. Current estimates of remaining natural forest cover vary considerably, but the consensus is that about half of Cambodia’s land area has some form of forest cover. Weak governance and unsustainable resource use, shifting cultivation in the upland areas, especially in the northeast of the country, and forest clearing for agriculture are causing rapid deforestation. As a result, Cambodia’s rich natural habitats have been significantly degraded, affecting the quality and quantity of habitat for biodiversity and non-timber forest resources, both important elements of food and livelihood security.

Cambodia’s coastal, marine and freshwater resources are also being degraded by a combination of river and coastal sedimentation (often linked to logging), conversion of mangroves, poorly managed shrimp aquaculture and salt farming and dynamite fishing. Pressures on aquatic resources and on environmentally-significant wetlands are also increasing rapidly, most notably from over-fishing, illegal fishing practices, increasing use of hazardous pesticides, and conversion of flooded forests, as well as swamp drainage for agriculture.

World Bank assistance on natural resource management focuses on forest management, land titling and biodiversity conservation. A Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project is helping Cambodia establish an effective logging concession management system and reduce illegal logging. A Land Management and Administration Project is being implemented to improve citizens’ land security and create an efficient land market by providing 1 million families with land titles. Finally, the Biodiversity and Protected Area Project is helping design and build the capacity to operate a well-managed national protected area system.

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Urban Environmental Challenges

As the country grows economically, more and more people gravitate towards urban centers in provinces such as Phnom Penh, Kandal, Prey Veng, and Takeo. The resulting higher quantities of untreated urban domestic sewage, industrial effluent and solid waste are polluting surface and ground water in many of Cambodia’s cities and towns. Throughout the country, sewerage system coverage is limited and/or no longer functioning, resulting in increased health risks to urban and peri-urban populations, including higher incidences of diarrhea and cholera.

In addition, the growth of unplanned settlements outside of Phnom Penh is increasing pressure on the city’s existing wastewater infrastructure and the system of natural drainage, which to date has served as the traditional environmental safeguard against flooding. Many flood protection sleeves have been occupied by migrants, restricting water flows and compounding the sanitation problem.

The disposal of hazardous (mostly industrial) waste is also a growing problem in Phnom Penh. There are no special landfills or other treatment facilities for toxic, hazardous or medical waste, which is often burned at open dumpsites, together with solid waste.

The World Bank’s principal initiative in this area is the Provincial and Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation Project. It is financing water supply systems in provincial towns and districts, public toilets (in schools, markets, and hospitals), household toilets, soak-away pits for septic tank effluent and wastewater disposal. Assistance to prepare a wastewater strategy and master plan for Phnom Penh and a possible follow-up wastewater management project is under discussio

Sustainable use of Cambodia’s natural resources is a key factor to the country’s development. Approximately three-quarters of the population are directly engaged in agriculture and depend upon the land for their daily subsistence. Agriculture and forestry contribute nearly 40 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Tourism, which is based on the country’s cultural and natural wonders, also contributes significantly to economic development. Reliance on these industries means that sustainable management of natural resources and other aspects of the environment are vital for improving rural livelihoods and for economic growth.

Under the honorary patronage of the Most Venerable Samdech Maha Ghosananda, KEAP's honorary founding patron, a dozen Cambodian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) led by Ven. Nhem Kim Teng, Cambodia's "ecology monk," are endeavoring to help save Cambodia's environment through the network of Buddhist temples in the country. Initial technical and financial assistance to produce training materials for this project was provided through the United Nations Development Programme's Environmental Technical Advisory Programme (ETAP), whose environmental education unit was coordinated by KEAP's founder and executive director, Peter Gyallay-Pap. The UNDP program closed as scheduled at the end 1998 and the actual training and follow-up/application phases of the project are still awaiting implementation. Anticipated follow-up support from governmental donors did not materialize due in the aftermath of the 1997 political and military unrest that ousted Cambodia's elected First Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Rannaridh. Your support can ensure that this program can continue and thereby have a long-term positive impact on Cambodia's environment and quality of life. The purpose of the program is to train hundreds of monks in core district and sub-district (commune) temples to mobilize the people to learn about, protect, and improve their local environments while also putting moral pressure on the country's leaders to stop the plunder of Cambodia's resources.

The first, or materials development phase of the project was completed in early 1999 by the NGO working group with assistance from the Buddhist Institute's EESEAP (see above) and technical and financial assistance from ETAP. Produced were a color-illustrated community learning tool, A Cry from the Forest, targeted at the local populations served by the temple; a smaller, supplementary text for all the monks and nuns affiliated with a wat; and learning tapes, which includes a Khmer-dubbed video of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh produced by the International Society for Ecology and Culture. The next phase in the project, for which funding is desperately needed lest this program lose momentum, is training the headmonks and/or deputy headmonks of core temples at district-level workshops. These four-day residential workshops are conducted by the monk master trainers with technical backstopping from the local NGOs participating in the consortium. The cost for organizing and conducting a residential (5-6 nights) workshop for some 30 participants, representing 15 core temples, is approximately $1,500 - or $100 per temple. The expected outcome of the workshops are monks and in some cases also nuns equipped with and able to use training materials and to lead learning-and-doing activities to protect and enhance the local environment served by the temples. This self-help participatory process through the temples will also help strengthen civil society structures in the country; promote the healing, reconciliation, and renewal process; and provide hope for a more sustainable future.

Sponsor a life-supporting environmental education workshop through a local Cambodian NGO

Hun Sen issued a warning to the daring Thai troops stationed along the border near Preah Vihear temple. He said that if Thai soldiers want to fight to take back Preah Vihear temple, Thai army must prepare to bring in at least 30,000 to 50,000 of its soldiers. Hun Sen made this declaration at the National Education Institute in the morning of Tuesday 30 June 2009. Hun Sen claimed that he told Suthep Thaugsuban, Thailand’s deputy-PM, and Prawit Wongsuwan, Thailand’s defense minister, during their private visit with him last Saturday, that if Thailand wants to fight to take back Preah Vihear temple, Thailand will need at least 30,000 to 50,000 troops to fight against 10,000 battle-scarred Cambodian soldiers. Hun Sen added that Thailand counts a population of 70 million and an army of more than 300,000 men, whereas Cambodia counts a population of 14 million and an army of about 100,000 men. Therefore, if Thailand wants to attack Cambodian troops, they have to bring in a force of 30,000 to 50,000 soldiers to fight the 10,000-strong Cambodian troops.

CAMBODIA, c=Cabodian'people, April 19, 2004 (ENS) - Along the Mekong River and its tributaries, live 250 million people, most of them in rural areas. Five entire countries - Cambodia; Laos, Myanmar, formerly Burma; Thailand; Vietnam; and one Chinese province - Yunnan - are encompassed in the region.

Environmental degradation remains one of the most pressing challenges in the countries sharing the Mekong River - a region rich in resources but with a high poverty rate.

The scarcity of environmental information has been is a constraint on sustainable development planning and decisionmaking in the subregion, but that problem was solved today with the release of the "Greater Mekong Subregion Atlas of the Environment," the first book of its kind defining the area, jointly published by the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

Chino
Tadao Chino of Japan is president of the Asian Development Bank At a launch of the atlas in Manila, Asian Development Bank President Tadao Chino called on all stakeholders in the region to work "hand in hand for the preservation of the environment for the benefit of future generations."

The atlas documents cross-border environmental issues such as hydropower developments along the Mekong and its tributaries, canalization and other navigational improvements in the Upper Mekong, conflicting maritime claims to offshore fisheries resources, and illegal cross-border trade in timber, wildlife and rare and endangered species.

For the first time in one volume, maps, remote sensing images, and statistics on one of the most culturally, ethnically, and biologically diverse regions in the world are displayed.

In the Foreword, Chino and UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer observe that, "The atlas clearly demonstrates how the countries of the subregion are bound by shared natural resources, the commonality of the challenges facing these countries, and the need for subregional cooperation in conserving the environment to enable them to pursue sustainable development goals." Learn more Cambodia


Cambodian
Woman of Cambodai(Photo courtesy Cambodia Lonline)
They cite the commitment of the leaders of the Greater Mekong countries in their 2002 Summit declaration which said, "We must and will better protect our environment. We will take responsibility and leadership for the sustainable management of our natural and shared resources."

The atlas shows how the region's current population is expected to grow to 290 million by 2015. Economic growth over the next two decades is likely to come from increases in manufacturing and services, rather than agriculture.

The atlas makes it possible to get a detailed overview of the region, its peoples and their demands on the region's resources.

Thailand, the Greater Mekong's economic hub, looks set to double its demand in natural resources in the next 25 years as a result of economic growth and rising consumption levels. Although agriculture employs 50 percent of Thailand's people, it accounts for just nine percent of GDP.


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Fish rearing pens in Cambodia .
Agriculture is currently practiced on 21 percent of the subregion's land. As farmers struggle to fill the stomachs of a growing population, the atlas allows predictions that include - wetland conversion to agricultural land, forest encroachment and more salinization, water pollution from nutrients and increased soil toxicity from chemical use.

People are predicted to leave the rural areas in search of jobs in the cities. Provision for 50 percent more people in urban areas will be needed in less than 15 years, the atlas shows.

Water and air pollution in the region are localized but troubling. Basic sewage and drainage systems are not well maintained, and there are serious air, surface and groundwater pollution in major metropolitan areas, particularly disposal of industrial effluents and toxic and hazardous by-products of the growing industrial sector, the atlas shows.

There are now 550 protected areas in the subregion, of which 380 have biodiversity conservation as a major function. Initiatives to protect other significant areas of biodiversity include the designation of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve, where many of Cambodia's 500 species of freshwater fishes are found.

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Fishing activities on Tonle Sap river that connects the lake of the same name with the Mekong River.
The 55 million or so people in the Lower Mekong River Basin - about a third of the subregion's area - consume an average of 56 kilograms (123 pounds) of fish per person per year.

Despite poor regulation, overharvesting, and destructive fishing practices, fisheries yields have been stable or even increasing, but urgent safeguards need to be put in place, UNEP warns.

Forty percent of the subregion is classified as forested land but "current rates of exploitation are unsustainable and deforestation is a challenge across the region," the environmental agency says.

Effective conservation of rich biodiversity regions like the Annamite Range rainforests - situated along the border of Lao PDR and Vietnam and the only place where new species of large mammals have been discovered in the past 50 years - may require the establishment of transboundary protected areas.

The atlas assessed country progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, and shows more needs to be done to meet the targets committed to by governments. It shows one in five people still live in poverty and large gaps between the haves and have-nots in each country.
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