Covid-19 Closures Return, Khmer Rouge Tribunal Ends, Landmine Museum Closes
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, August 20, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
CLOSING TIME: Khieu Samphan laid it bare in his remarks at the final public hearing of the Khmer Rouge tribunal: “I will die seeing death.”
HEAVY HAND: Rong Chhun, the firebrand labor leader, got two years in prison and a $100,000 fine for suggesting the government gave land to Vietnam.
BIG BANG: Cambodia Landmine Museum, opened in 1997, has run out of money and could be gone. “It's over. I have no hope now," the founder said.
Delta Blues
Roadblocks, closures and street-by-street quarantines are back — just don’t call them “red zones.”
By mid-week, Phnom Penh had recorded 118 cases of the deadly Delta variant and health workers raced to set up mass-quarantine facilities in schools, event centers and wedding halls.
Markets were shut and streets blocked across several districts and health experts said the situation was likely far worse than official numbers suggested.
Still, authorities seem reluctant to reinstall the harsh, color-coded lockdown rules that prompted protests from residents who complained they couldn’t get to work or even buy food.
A new surge of Delta cases, however, could force City Hall’s hand.
Truth and Justice
Jailed government critics were evidence of Cambodia’s commitment to democracy, the Justice Ministry said, adding that any public campaigns demanding their release were illegal.
The comments, which came as the court sentenced another four detractors to prison, reinforced fears of a widening dragnet against dissenters.
Rong Chhun, a high-profile union leader, was given two years in prison and fined nearly $100,000 for suggesting Cambodia ceded land to Vietnam. Two of his colleagues received 20-month terms for protesting for his release. A university professor was given 18 months for mocking Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Unlike environmental and political activists, NGOs and rights workers have mostly evaded arrest since a clampdown on civil society began in 2017. Their luck could be running out.
Luggage Lizards
Bad-luck bus company Vireak Buntham was fined $30,000 by Siem Reap forestry officials for illegally transporting 984 dead geckos.
Bus company officials cried foul. The owner said his company was merely delivering a parcel. He scoffed at police claims that he was responsible for inspecting packages, confiscating illegal goods or arresting wrongdoers.
Why would anyone want 1,000 dead geckos? The reptiles are popular ingredients in Chinese medicine, purported to cure everything from HIV to cancer. The parcels were headed to an address in Sihanoukville.
TALKING POINTS
The Last Hearing
The Khmer Rouge tribunal closed its final public hearing with a dramatic monologue from Khieu Sampan, the last surviving senior official of the Pol Pot regime. “No matter what you decide, I will die in prison,” the former Khmer Rouge head of state said. “I will die always remembering the suffering of my Cambodian people. I will die seeing death.”
Flight Ban
China banned flights from Cambodia after passengers from Phnom Penh tested positive for Delta. The two-week suspension starts on Monday.
PM Pushes Longan
The government bought more than 100,000 tons of longan from farmers facing ruin over a Thai ban on imports. Traders on the border said hundreds of tons of the fruit would have spoiled.
Bird Patrol
Conservationists found more nests but fewer birds during a July patrol of the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Ratanakiri province. The park is home to adjutants, giant ibis and more than 30 other species, many endangered.
The Great Escape
Hei Man, the TikTok-famous African lion, escaped his posh Phnom Penh villa and frightened pedestrians on their way for morning cappuccino. The owner told VOD the big cat’s cage was too small and he was building a larger one. He told the Khmer Times a disgruntled employee let the lion loose as revenge.
Landmine Museum
The coronavirus has shut down Cambodia’s world-famous Landmine Museum, which closed its doors for good after nearly two years of pandemic restrictions. The museum was founded in 1997 by Aki Ra, a former child soldier who laid landmines for the Khmer Rouge.
Covid-19 Watch
GOOD: More than 70% of adults have been fully vaccinated. Active cases dropped below 3,000 for the first time in five months and continue to trend downward. Deaths also continued to drop.
BAD: Border provinces are struggling with an influx of migrants, many of them carrying the coronavirus. Officials have detected Delta in all but three provinces, and it’s spreading fast.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Khieu Samphan Letter Denies Responsibility
August 18, 2001
Just a week after King Norodom Sihanouk signed the Khmer Rouge tribunal bill into law, the man who was for millions the face of the genocidal regime Friday issued his first-ever public statement regarding his role in the Khmer Rouge, denying any part in the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians.
KR Intellectual, Friend of Pol Pot, Passes Away
August 18, 2001
Mey Mann, a low-level Khmer Rouge member and intellectual who befriended Pol Pot in the 1940s and later expressed regret at joining the movement, has died of lung cancer. He was 81.
5 Years Later, KR Questions Unanswered
August 16, 2001
Together, the married couple fought for the Khmer Rouge. It consumed the woman’s life for 22 years, and yet today she has little to show for it other than memories of fierce battles she says she would rather forget.
The Amazing Life Behind a Popular Bar
August 18, 2001
It’s Friday afternoon, still hours before the Heart of Darkness comes to life, before it becomes difficult to move through the crowd, before the speakers start to blast “I Will Survive” and “It’s Raining Men.”
WEEKEND READING
Courting justice: when legal challenges to corporate land grabs go wrong
In July 2021, a French court ruled against a group of Indigenous Bunong farmers from Mondulkiri in Northeastern Cambodia. Represented by French Laywer Fiodor Rilov, and with civil society support, the group accused the French Bolloré Group and their subsidiary company, Compagnie du Cambodge (controlled by Socfinasia) of illegal land seizures and the wanton destruction of Bunong sacred forests and their way of life.
Cambodian dam a ‘disaster’ for local communities, rights group says
Rights activists allege that a Chinese-financed hydroelectric project in northeastern Cambodia has been a human rights “disaster” after it displaced nearly 5,000 Indigenous and ethnic minority people.
Environmental Activists in Cambodia Are Resorting to Disguises to Avoid Arrests
The group has gone to extraordinary lengths to try and protect their identities amid a crackdown.
Gecko photo from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/reptilesplus/8501263358