U.N. mandate necessary in Cambodia

UPI Asia Online
By Lao Mong Hay

Hong Kong, China — In the 1970s and 1980s, the Cambodian people suffered successively from the extension of the Vietnam War, massive human rights violations and another protected war of ten years commonly known as the Paris Peace Agreements. As an integral part of a comprehensive settlement of the latter war in 1991, Cambodia agreed to adhere to international human rights standards and norms in order to prevent the return of the policies and practices of past rights violations.

Those peace agreements have provided for, among other things, a temporary administration of Cambodia by the U.N. and close monitoring of the human rights situation in Cambodia by the U.N. Human Rights Commission, including, if necessary, by the appointment of a Special Rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia. Since the end of that U.N. administration in 1993, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights opened a field office and the U.N. secretary-general appointed a special representative for human rights in Cambodia to help the country meet its human rights obligations, as well as to monitor the human rights situation.

However, the Cambodian government, which has since been effectively run by the Cambodian People’s Party, formerly a communist party, has not been happy with the U.N. human rights mandate. The relationships between the government and the high commissioner’s field office, on the one hand, and the secretary-general’s special representative, on the other, have been characterized by continued conflicts.

These conflicts have become open and very acrimonious in recent years, when the Cambodian government openly attacked the incumbent special representative, Professor Yash Ghai from Kenya, following the latter’s reports and statements criticizing the government’s failure to honor its obligations. The government has called once for Ghai’s sacking and, having failed, refused to cooperate with him and also threatened to close down the field office.

The U.N. human rights mandate is now being reviewed in the current session of the Human Rights Council beginning this week. This review has caused a lot of anxiety in Cambodia’s civil society, as they fear the mandate could end. There is a risk that the Cambodian government would not only cease honoring its human rights obligations but also that any human rights gain achieved since 1993 would be reversed.

The U.N. mandate has contributed to improving a certain number of human rights. The rights of women and children are much better, although violence against women, woman trafficking and child labor remain serious national issues. More Cambodian women are playing an active role in public affairs, and school enrollment of children and girls is higher than before.

The press has more freedom. Legal and judicial reforms have been undertaken, though at a very slow pace. Codes of procedure have been enacted and there is more compliance with them as the police force and judicial officers have gained better technical expertise and training, although the justice system and the police still have a lot of flaws and shortcomings. Resorting to torture and ill-treating accused persons is less frequent, although crowded prisons, lack of hygiene and inadequate food rations remain big problems.

However, despite these positive developments, the Cambodian government has yet to honor many fundamental rights enumerated in the peace agreements. Over recent years, there has been a reverse in the freedom of assembly and association when, in the past, peaceful public demonstrations and protests were practically banned and force was used to enforce it.

As was observed in the latest electoral process, political control of the media persists; the arrest and killing of journalists as well as threats and intimidation continue and at least one journalist has fled the country fearing personal security.

There is no rule of law yet as the judiciary has remained under executive control of the rich and the powerful. As Ghai observed, “State authorities, as well as companies and politically well-connected individuals, show scant respect for the rule of law,” and that the courts and legal profession “have failed the people of Cambodia woefully.”

There is little respite from deprivation of private property without just compensation as the rich and the powerful have often connived to grab land from the poor and the weak. It has been reported that some 150,000 Cambodians are facing the risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes and lands to make way for development or city beautification. Ghai observed that such people are living in fear: “fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts.”

Moreover, the Cambodian government has not fully honored the right of all Cambodian citizens who undertake activities to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. It has frequently obstructed human rights defenders who frequently face threats and intimidation, or even death. Furthermore, the government has already planned to enact a law to curb the activities of human rights nongovernmental organizations.

These organizations, which have actively promoted human rights, the rule of law and democracy, are at the mercy of the government. There are as yet no national institutions for democracy and the rule of law that are functional, independent and impartial that can protect the rights of Cambodian citizens.

Due to the absence of such institutions and the weakness of civil society organizations, the U.N. human rights mandate is necessary, both for the protection and promotion of human rights and for the development of those institutions in Cambodia.

The Cambodian government must offer a more effective alternative before it calls for an end to its obligations under the Paris Peace Agreements.

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(Lao Mong Hay is a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)

Local film takes its viewers to war-torn 1970s Cambodia

AL

By MIKE BRANTLEY

TV & Media Editor

“Residue,” a locally produced short dramatic film about the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement in Cambodia in 1970, will be screened Sunday in Mobile.

Made by filmmakers Nathaniel Nuon, Jared Davis and Wade Miller under their Sothea Pictures banner, the film soon will be showcased as well at three film festivals in southern California. It is an official selection of the Temecula Valley International Film Festival, the San Diego Asian Film Festival and the San Diego Film Festival.

In Mobile on Sunday, the film will be shown at The Wine Loft at 9 Du Rhu Dr. Admission is free, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. and the screening beginning at 7:30 p.m.

“Residue,” which was largely shot at a pre-renovation historic home in Fort Conde Village and in other Mobile locations, was directed by Nuon from a script written by Davis and Nuon.

Miller, producer of the film, described the story it tells as “controversial and intriguing” as it deals with the CIA’s involvement in Cambodia and then picks up six years later for “the chilling aftermath.”

“Residue” is fiction based on history, Miller said. Providing backdrops for the story are the Lon Nol coup d’etat of 1970 and the rule of the Khmer Rouge in 1976.

“We are shedding some light on a part of history that is not taught much, especially in the United States,” Miller told the Press-Register.

When the film begins, the war in Vietnam has begun to spread across that country’s border with neutral Cambodia. Fearing the spread of communism, Miller explained, the CIA targeted Cambodia for clandestine operations.

The story focuses on a group of 12 secret army Cambodian soldiers trained by the CIA to take out communist Vietnamese targets inside Cambodia in order to make way for a new pro-American government.

But once the coup is successfully executed, one by one each member of this secret team is killed.

Partway through the film, the scene shifts forward six years, with the Khmer Rouge in power and thousands of people dying daily. One young man escapes capture and sets out on his own personal war against those he feels are responsible for what is happening in his country.

“When your country is in peril, what would you do?” asks screenwriter Davis in a media release supporting the film. “How far would you take it? Sometimes you have to do what is best for your country. Sometimes people do terrible, horrific things like fight wars, and take human lives, not because they are necessarily evil people, but because they believe with all their conviction and soul that they are doing the right thing for their families, themselves and for their country.”

Director Nuon said the two time periods depicted in “Residue” were “crucial years” when Cambodians hoped and strove for peace only to find their country engulfed in civil war and then genocide.

The director made reference to The Killing Fields, a collective name for a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979.

Nuon said that in the film “the Khmer genocide is like a character in itself, always present, and always looming over the characters haunting them every step of the way.”

Miller said that while “Residue” was shortened to meet the submission criteria of the festivals, those who attend the screening in Mobile Sunday may be treated to a longer, 23-minute cut. It is possible, too, that the film will be shown more than once at The Wine Loft on Sunday to accommodate whatever size crowd turns out, the producer said.

“We took some behind-the-scenes footage and pictures,” he said. “We’ll be showing that, too.”

Witness to Cambodia’s birth pangs

The Financial Times
By Raphael Minder

Among his childhood memories, Sam Rainsy recalls sitting with his father on the rooftop terrace of their beautiful house in Phnom Penh, watching pelicans land next to their water tank. “In Cambodia, which is full of superstitions, friends and neighbours kept telling us that these pelicans would end up by bringing us bad luck,” he writes in his autobiography, Des Racines dans la Pierre (Roots in the Stone).

Sam Rainsy and his family have certainly endured plenty of misfortune. Their ups-and-downs mirror those of a country that ranks among Asia’s fastest-growing economies, but that returned to multi-party democracy only 15 years ago, after decades of war and a genocide that wiped out about a quarter of the population.

Sam Rainsy has been an integral part of Cambodia’s recovery, now as the leader of the country’s main opposition party. But much of his life has been spent in France and other places of exile, first because of his father’s political downfall, which ended with his death in mysterious circumstances, and then because of his own clashes with Hun Sen, the country’s long-standing prime minister.

Still, that geographic distance in no way reduces the insight this book provides into events that have shaped Cambodia following a century of French colonialism, starting with the 1954 Geneva conference to reconfigure the former Indochina. Sam Rainsy’s father was one of Cambodia’s lead negotiators there, playing off tensions among more formidable government representatives such as Zhou Enlai and Vyacheslav Molotov to ensure that another foreign power would not fill the void left by the French.

The Geneva agreement guaranteed Cambodia’s independence but was followed by the bleakest period in its history, climaxing in the Khmer Rouge’s terrifying attempt to establish an agrarian utopia in the late 1970s. While that tragic episode was largely domestic, Sam Rainsy says Cambodia remains the Poland of Asia, sandwiched between two bigger neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam, and prone to being drawn into wider conflicts such as the Vietnam war.

This book is an often touching family history, but it also highlights the broader challenges faced by any war-ravaged country. After a successful banking career in Paris, Sam Rainsy returned to Cambodia in 1992 and within a year was put in charge of the finance ministry. Given the limited pool of talent, his wife Saumura was forced against her wishes to become deputy governor of the central bank.

For somebody with such a strong financial background, Sam Rainsy devotes surprisingly little of his book to Cambodia’s economic resurgence, during which it has attracted billions of dollars of foreign investment and achieved average annual growth of 9 per cent over the past decade. Instead, he focuses excessively on the political jockeying in Phnom Penh, complicated by feuding within the royal family.

Sam Rainsy paints a grim picture of corruption in Cambodia, starting with his short-lived crusade, as finance minister, against tax evasion and smuggling. His strategy appears to have been remarkably naive at times. One ill-prepared boat attack against smugglers on the Mekong river, which he led, nearly cost him his life after the accompanying United Nations troops refused to get involved in the gunfight.

He has harsh words for foreign powers, including his otherwise beloved France, which he accuses of turning a blind eye to killings of political associates. Sam Rainsy has himself survived several assassination attempts, including a grenade attack that killed 19 -people.

“Paris preferred to forget the bloodstains on the suits of the ruling leaders in Phnom Penh in order to strike economic and technical co-operation agreements with them,” he writes.

This book was published in the run-up to July’s general election, which returned Hun Sen to power with a landslide victory. Despite Sam Rainsy’s claim that Cambodians “want to get out of this old, neo-communist and mafiosi regime”, many pundits believe that the 55-year-old Hun Sen has never had a stronger power base, almost justifying his boast that he would run the country until the age of 90. Rather than repressing opposition in the manner of the Burmese junta, Hun Sen has benefited from Sam Rainsy’s challenge, which has been crucial to Cambodia’s democratic credentials.

The book’s title refers to the blend of architectural and natural beauty found around Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s cultural treasure, where trees grow among the ruins. Although Sam Rainsy might not like the idea, it also seems an appropriate symbol for Hun Sen’s deep-rooted control over his country.

The writer is the FT’s Asia regional correspondent

Documents: 177 people were released from Khmer Rouge torture centre

Phnom Penh – Documents showed 177 prisoners were released from the Khmer Rouge’s notorious S-21 torture centre, the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam) told local media Thursday in a dramatic turnaround from previous statements that only seven people had survived.

DC-Cam previously maintained only a handful of people had survived the torture centre by the time the Khmer Rouge fell in 1979 and up to 16,000 had died there. DC-Cam is credited with archiving thousands of documents left by the 1975-79 Democratic Kampuchea regime and being the foremost documentary authority on it.

DC-Cam has supplied the bulk of documentary evidence to the joint UN-Cambodian court set up to try former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

‘These are documents sitting there for the past 30 years,’ the English-language Cambodia Daily quoted DC-Cam director Youk Chhang as saying.

Chhang said the 177 released prisoners should ‘not be considered survivors as they had been spared by their captors.’

He was unavailable for comment Thursday as to why DC-Cam had not drawn public attention to the historically invaluable documents earlier nor perused testimonies of released prisoners before the indictment of former S-21 jailer Kaing Guek Euv, alias Duch, if it knew of them.

In July 2007, DC-Cam initially disputed the claims of Chim Math, who was subsequently recognized by others as S-21’s first known female survivor, saying no available documents supported her claims.

It was unclear if the new evidence would affect the defence case for Duch, who was expected to face court as early as October.

Duch is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity and has not denied overseeing the centre, where men, women and children were beaten, starved and subjected to horrors, including being forced to wear buckets of live scorpions on their heads.

In his August 8 indictment, the co-investigating judges upheld the previously held theory that nobody was ever released.

Up to 2 million Cambodians perished under the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge regime.

Source: M&C

កម្ពុជា​ស្នើ​ឲ្យ​ដាក់​បញ្ចូល​អតីត​គុក​ទួលស្លែង​ជា​សារមន្ទីរ​ចងចាំ​របស់​ពិភពលោក

វិទ្យុអាស៊ីសេរី
ដោយ ហ៊ុយ វណ្ណៈ

សារមន្ទីរ ​ឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្ម​ប្រល័យ​ពូជសាសន៍​ទួលស្លែង ដែល​ជា​អតីត​មន្ទីរ​ឃុំឃាំង​ធំ​មួយ​របស់​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម ក្នុង​ក្រុង​ភ្នំពេញ ត្រូវ​បាន​រៀបចំ​ដើម្បី​ដាក់​បញ្ចូល​ជា​សារមន្ទីរ​ចងចាំ​របស់​សកលលោក​នៃ​ អង្គការ​យូណេស្កូ ឬ​ហៅ​ជា​ភាសា​អង់គ្លេស​ថា Memory of the World។

RFA file photo
ទេសចរ ​បរទេស​ឈរ​មើល​​រូប​ថត​នៃ​ជន​រងគ្រោះ​ដែល​ស្លាប់​ដោយ​សារ​ការធ្វើ​ទារុណកម្ម ​និង​ការប្រហារ​ជីវិត​នៅ​គុក​ទួលស្លែង​ ក្រោម​របប​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​ពី​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៧៥​-១៩៧៩។

លោកស្រី Isabel Qowxavez ជា​មន្ត្រី​អង្គការ​យូណេស្កូ ប្រចាំ​នៅ​ប្រទេស​កម្ពុជា និង​ជា​អ្នក​ជួយ​សម្រប​សម្រួល​រៀបចំ​ឯកសារ​ស្តីពី​ការដាក់​បញ្ចូល​សារមន្ទីរ ​ទួលស្លែង​ចូល​ជា​សម្បត្តិ​មនុស្ស​ជាតិ​នេះ បាន​ប្រាប់​វិទ្យុ​អាស៊ីសេរី​ថា ឯកសារ​ស្នើ​សុំ​នឹង​ត្រូវ​បញ្ជូន​ទៅ​កាន់​ការិយាល័យ​អង្គការ​យូណេស្កូ នៅ​ទីក្រុង​ប៉ារីស ប្រទេស​បារាំង នៅ​ថ្ងៃ​សុក្រ សប្តាហ៍​នេះ។

សូម​ជម្រាប​ថា នេះ​គឺ​ជា​កិច្ច​ប្រឹងប្រែង​របស់​កម្ពុជា​ថ្មី​មួយ​ទៀត ក្នុង​ការ​ដាក់​កេរ​ដំណែល​របស់​ខ្លួន​ចូល​ទៅ​ជា​សម្បត្តិ​សម្រាប់​មនុស្ស​ ជាតិ បន្ទាប់​ពី​ប្រាសាទ​ព្រះវិហារ​ខ្មែរ ដែល​ស្ថាបនា​ក្នុង​សតវត្សរ៍​ទី​១១ ត្រូវ​បាន​ដាក់​បញ្ចូល​ជា​បេតិក​ភណ្ឌ​ពិភពលោក​កាល​ពី​ថ្ងៃ​ទី​៧ កក្កដា ឆ្នាំ​២០០៨។

លោក ជ័យ សុភារ៉ា ជា​ប្រធាន​សារមន្ទីរ​ឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្ម​ប្រល័យ​ពូជ​សាសន៍ ទួល​ស្លែង បាន​ថ្លែង​បញ្ជាក់​ពី​ក្តី​រំពឹង​របស់​លោក​យ៉ាង​ដូច្នេះ​ថា ៖ «យើង ​គិត​ថា នៅ​ក្នុង​ន័យ​មនុស្ស​ជាតិ​នេះ វា​មាន​តម្លៃ​ខ្លាំង​ណាស់។ ចង់​និយាយ​ថា ការប្រល័យ​ពូជ​សាសន៍​មួយ ដែល​កើត​នៅ​ក្នុង​យុគ​សម័យ​មួយ​ពី​ចន្លោះ​ឆ្នាំ ៧៥ មក ៧៨​នេះ គឺ​ប្រជាជន​យើង​ស្លាប់​ទៅ​នេះ គឺ​ស្លាប់​ដោយ​អយុត្តិធម៌។ ដូច្នេះ វា​មិន​មែន​ថា ការ​ឈឺ​ចាប់​ហ្នឹង វា​មិន​មែន​នៅ​តែ​ក្នុង​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា​ទេ គឺ​ការ​ឈឺ​ចាប់​ហ្នឹង មាន​សម្រាប់​ប្រជាជន​ទាំង​អស់ ក្នុង​ពិភពលោក​ដែរ ព្រោះ​ជា​ឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្ម​មួយ​ប្រឆាំង​នឹង​មនុស្ស​ជាតិ»។

សារមន្ទីរ​ទួលស្លែង ត្រូវ​បាន​ជួយ​រៀបចំ​ជា​លើក​ដំបូង​ដោយ​អ្នក​ឯកទេស​សារមន្ទីរ​ជន​ជាតិ​វៀតណាម ​មួយ​រូប​ឈ្មោះ ម៉ៃ ឡាំ ដោយ​ប្រែ​ក្លាយ​ពី​គុក​របស់​ខ្មែ​ក្រហម​មួយ ឈ្មោះ​មន្ទីរ​ស-​២១ ដែល​ត្រូវ​បាន​បោះបង់​ចោល​នៅ​ក្រោយ​ការ​ដួល​រលំ​នៃ​របប​ខ្មែរក្រហម​នោះ។ សារមន្ទីរ​ទួលស្លែង ត្រូវ​បាន​បើក​ឲ្យ​ភ្ញៀវ​ជាតិ​និង​ភ្ញៀវ​អន្តរជាតិ​ចូល​ទស្សនា​ចាប់​តាំង​ពី ​ឆ្នាំ​១៩៨០​មក។

នៅ​ក្នុង​សារមន្ទីរ​ទួល​ស្លែង ដែល​មាន​ទម្រង់​ជា​អគារ​សាលារៀន​កំពស់​៣​ជាន់ និង​មាន​ចំនួន​៤​ខ្នង​ធំៗ​នោះ គឺ​មាន​ដាក់​តាំង​រូបថត​អ្នក​ទោស​ជា​ច្រើន​ពាន់​សន្លឹក ឧបករណ៍​ធ្វើ​ទារុណកម្ម លលាដ៍​សាកសព​អ្នក​ទោស​ដែល​ត្រូវ​បាន​សម្លាប់​ក្នុង​របប​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​និង​ ឯកសារ​ដើម​របស់​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​ជា​ច្រើន​ម៉ឺន​ទំព័រ។

លោក ជ័យ សុភារ៉ា មាន​ប្រសាសន៍​ទៀត​ថា កេរដំណែល​នៅ​សារមន្ទីរ​ទួលស្លែង ត្រូវ​បាន​ប្រើប្រាស់​យ៉ាង​ទូលំ​ទូលាយ​ដោយ​អ្នក​សិក្សា​ស្រាវជ្រាវ​និង​ មន្ត្រី​ច្បាប់​នៅ​សាលាក្តី​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​ដើម្បី​ជា​ភស្តុតាង​ក្នុង​ការ​ ជំនុំ​ជម្រះ​ក្ដី​អតីត​មេដឹកនាំ​ជាន់​ខ្ពស់​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម ដែល​រួម​មាន​ទាំង កាំង ហ្កិចអ៊ាវ ហៅ ឌុច ជា​អតីត​ប្រធាន​គុក​ទួលស្លែង ហើយ​ទទួល​ខុស​ត្រូវ​លើ​ការ​ស្លាប់​រង្គាល​មនុស្ស​ជាង ១២.០០០​នាក់ នៅ​ទីនោះ​ផង​ដែរ៕

Tradition goes airborne

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by ANITA SUREWICZ AND MOM KUNTHEAR

A unique museum in Phnom Penh preserves a high-flying tradition and encourages a new generation to go fly a kite RICK VALENZUELA Kite-maker Roeung Sareth assembles a kite on Monday at the Kite Museum in Phnom Penh. KITE flying throughout Cambodia’s history has always flourished during times of freedom and diminished during times of war,” says Sim Sarak, mastermind of the one-of-a-kind National Kite Museum in Phnom Penh. “Kite flying is all about peace and happiness,” said Sim Sarak, who is also co-author of the book Khmer Kite. “Since 1992 a small number of older people who flew kites before the civil war and still remember ways to make them have taken to making kites again.” Kites have a long and vibrant history and hold an important place in the country’s culture. “Kite flying in Cambodia dates back to 400BC when the Phnong people of the northern provinces invented the ‘khleng’, or rapacious bird, an unsophisticated version of today’s kite,” Sim Sarak said. “In Angkorian times kites were considered as gods of the wind as they were thought to create winds when flown.” The kite-flying festival traditionally marked the end of the wet season, Sim Sarak said. Ancient Khmer kings celebrated the festival on the full moon of the first month of the Khmer calendar, which falls in November or December. “This is the time of the year, after planting and before harvest, when the farmers could spare the time to make and fly kites,” Sim Sarak said. Sim Sarak never forgot his early fascination with kites before the Khmer Rouge put a stop to the tradition in the 1970s. “When I was nine, I used to fly kites in Kampong Cham province. My friends and I would compete with each other to see who could keep their kite in the air the longest.” Building on this childhood obsession and the wish to preserve the tradition, Sim Sarak and his wife, Cheang Yarin, created the National Kite Museum in 2003. The museum now holds a collection of 200 kites from various times and different parts of the country, as well as kites flown at national and international festivals. Most famous is the Khleng Ek, or musical kite, equipped with a vibrating hummer that produces seven different sounds and comes in 27 distinct designs. “The Khleng Ek is fitted with a musical bow which produces a beautiful and ‘eerie’ sound when it vibrates in the wind,” said Sim Sarak. “The bigger Khleng Eks have a wing span of more than four metres, and around 5 people are needed to get the kite up in the air.” Making a Khleng Ek is a difficult process which usually takes around a week. “The kite is made out of natural materials including bamboo, rattan, slek trang [leaves prepared for writing], or silk.” The nation’s first kite-flying festival in 135 years was held in Phnom Penh in 1994 and brought together enthusiasts from nine provinces.  By 2007, all provinces were represented. “This year the kite festival will be held December 6,” Sim Sarak said. “Last year about a hundred competitors attended, and I am expecting a similar number of participants this year.” A location has yet to be chosen, but past festivals have been held in Hun Sen Park. Sim Sarak hopes that Cambodia will not lose the tradition of kite flying again. “With elders passing on their knowledge, kite flying is becoming more popular among the younger generation, and I am hoping that as long as there is peace in the country the tradition will not be lost again.”

Hinduism throbbing high in South East Asia-II

Sanskrit influence in Vietnam
By Ratnadeep Banerji (www.organiser.org)

Cambodia or Kambodia is veritably the English transliteration of the French name Kambodge implying for Sanskrit Kamboja. The Funan kingdom existed in the 1st century BC as a pre-Angkor Indianised Khmer kingdom located around the Mekong Delta with its capital at Vyadhapura. Funanese culture was a blend of native beliefs and Indian ideas with Sanskrit as the court language. Funanese advocated Hinduism till the advent of Buddhism in the fifth century AD. Thus Funanese were the first in Cambodia to usher in Hinduism.

In ancient Sanskrit literature, there are references of Kambojas located in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. The Kamboja transmigration from north-west India is a fascinating chapter recognised by most of the historians.

The Khmer empire in the Indochina archipelago was founded by Jayavarman-the-second of the Kambojas which went on to become the largest empire of south-east Asia. He had earlier been a resident at the court of Sailendra in Java and towed away the Hindu culture to Cambodia. In 802 AD he declared himself Chakravartin, commemorating a Hindu ritual taken from the Hindu tradition. He founded his new capital and named it Hariharalaya after the name Harihara, a Hindu deity prominent in pre-Angkorian Cambodia having Hari and Vishnu on opposite sides.

His successors went on to build several Hindu temples. Suryavarman the second went on to make what remains the largest temple complex in the world at Angkor Wat in the early 12th century AD.

Cambodia has one of the only two Brahma temples in the world. The empire’s official religions included Hinduism besides Mahayana Buddhism till the advent of Theravada Buddhism in the 13th century.

Myanmar erstwhile Burma
A paltry 2 per cent of the Burmese population amounting to 240,000 accounts for Hindus that too happen to be Burmese Indians. But Hinduism held a major sway over Burmese history and thereupon its literature. Yama Zatdaw is Burmese rendition of the Ramayana. The dominant ethnic group, Bamar living mostly in countryside follow Nat worship which has several adaptations of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The Burmese God Thagyamin, King of the Nats rides a three-headed elephant is identified with Indra, the king of Hindu Gods. Burmese Buddhists are devouts of Thuyathadi, counterpart of Saraswati. As the Goddess of knowledge, She is avidly worshipped by students before examinations. Some other Gods are as well worshipped by Burmese Buddhists.

Burmese language as such contains plethora of loanwords from Sanskrit and Pali, many being connected with religion. In Burmese culture several Hindu traditions are still perceived especially on the Burmese New Year festival, Thingyan and also during weddings. Hinduism alongwith Buddhism greatly influenced the royal courts of Burmese monarchs including their formal royal titles. The coronation ceremonies were also Hindu in origin. The architecture seen at places like Bagan reflect profound Hindu influence.

Thailand
The Khmer empire had a strong Hindu lineage. Thailand’s epic Ramkien is based on the Ramayana. The city Ayutthaya, capital of Ayutthaya province is named in remembrance of Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama as in Thai Ramkien. Sadly in 1767 this city which was then among one of the world’s largest cities was razed down by the Burmese army, with only ruins left that has now been converted into a historical park and accorded a UNESCO heritage site. Several Brahminical rituals are still in vogue: use of holy strings and pouring of lustral water from conch shells. The well-known Erawan shrine has the idol of Phra Phrom, counterpart of Lord Brahma and statues of Ganesha, Indra and Shiva among other Hindu deities. Interestingly, Garuda stands insignia for the monarchy.

Vietnam
The kingdom of Champa was initially under the influence of Chinese culture. But from 4th century onwards when it took on Funan kingdom, Indian culture steadily kept creeping all throughout. This can be gauged from the fact that Champa was a confederation of five principalities— Indrapura, Amaravati, Vijaya, Kauthara and Panduranga each named after a historic region of India. Sanskrit was accorded a scholarly language and Shaivism became the state religion; Hinduism too getting a boost. This scenario remained until the 10th century when Arab maritime trade threw its Islamic mantle over Champa, then an important hub on the spice route.

From around the 4th century AD, royal temples started coming up in a valley two kilometers wide, mostly devoted to Shiva and also some to Vishnu and eventually grew to be one of the most prominent temple complexes of southeast Asia. My Son bears strong architectural resemblances with India. It had its own architectural template of that period now denoted by scholars as My Son E1 named after a particular edifice that stands emblematic of the birth of Brahma from a lotus issuing from the navel of sleeping Vishnu and the entire thing placed upon Shiva-linga serving as a pedestal. In 1969, The Vietnam War with American bombing did havoc to this temple complex. It has been selected as a UNESCO World Heritage Selected Site

Laos
It used to be a part of Khmer Empire. Phra Lak Phra Lam is the Laotian adaptation of Ramayana and is very similar to Ramakien in Thailand.

The Philippines
The chiefs of many Philippine islands were called Rajas until the advent of the Arabs in 1450. The prevalent script was derived from Brahmi. The vocabulary found in all Philippine languages bears a strong bond with Hinduism. Several statues of Hindu Gods and Goddesses were hidden to prevent their destruction by Arabs and Spaniards. One such four-pound gold statue of Golden Tara, a Hindu-Malayan goddess was found in 1917 lying on the bank of Wawa River, projecting from the silt in ravine after a storm and flood. This 21 carat statue is dated from the period 1200s to early 1300s. Another gold artifact of Garuda was found at Palawan. Hinduism was deterred by Javanese missionaries spreading Islam and then kept at bay by the Spaniards spreading Christianity.

Meta House in Phnom Penh Opens Exhibition Remembering the Vietnam War

PHNOM PENH.- “Art of Survival” is back! The Khmer Rouge genocide and its impact on the Cambodian society today is reflected by Cambodian artists Pich Sopheap, Chat Piersat, Chhouen Rithy, Chan Vitarin, Ching Taingchea, Khauch Touch, Koung Channa, Phe Sophon, Kong Vollak, Kvay Samnang, Tor Vutha and many more – accompanied by foreign guests such as Vietnamese-Khmer artist Le Huy Hoang, who visits Phnom Penh for the first time since the 1980s. Other participants are Bradfort Edwards (USA), Panca Evenblij (Netherland) and Ali Sanderson (Australia), Virginie Noel (Belgium) and Herbert Mueller (Germany). Special screenings take place on the META HOUSE rooftop – about the KR genocide and the Vietnam War.

For the highly acclaimed AOS exhibition Meta House is partnering with the “Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center”. The center (founded by famous film director Rithy Panh) collects and safeguards audiovisual documents about Cambodia in order to open access to the memory and pass it on to the new generations. At Bophana they will also screen the video documentation of the first AOS exhibition “Cambodian artists speak out: The Art of Survival” (Khmer/Engl.), that has been produced in cooperation with the KONRAD–ADENAUER–FOUNDATION (KAS). The book with the same title will also be available in both locations.

Boasting more than 200 square meters of art exhibition space, the three storey META HOUSE gallery in Phnom Penh/Cambodia offers an excellent space for artists-in-residence and visiting artists to interact. The kingdom’s first art/media/communication center promotes the development of contemporary art in Cambodia through local and international exhibitions, workshops, community-based projects, artist exchange programs and by fostering links with South East Asian and international universities, galleries, curators, non-governmental and governmental organizations.

Source: Art Daily

Movie to tell story of Errol Flynn’s son

Sean Flynn, an actor-turned-journalist and son of Hollywood icon Errol Flynn, will be the subject of a big screen biopic.

While working as a photojournalist for Time, Flynn disappeared in the Cambodian jungle in 1970 and was never heard from again.

Both Flynn and a CBS colleague were believed to have been captured by the Viet Cong or the Khmer Rouge.

Before turning to journalism, Flynn – the only son of Errol Flynn and French actress Lili Damita – worked as an actor for several years.

He appeared in a sequel to Captain Blood, in which his father starred.

Millennium and Ralph Hemecker’s Mythic Pictures are developing Flynn.

Hemecker, a prolific TV writer who created the TNT movie Witchblade, will direct.

He is also writing the screenplay with Perry Deane Young, who wrote the book on which the movie will be based.

Source: ABC News

First-time author pens historical novel about Preah Vihear

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Titthara May

Twenty-six year old legal officer wrote the book in his spare time in a bid to educate his countrymen about the history of the temple HENG CHIVOAN Taing Ratana inspects the book he wrote detailing the history of the Preah Vihear temple. In light of the current military standoff over Preah Vihear temple, Taing Ratana, a 26-year-old legal officer for the secretariat of the Constitutional Council and part-time author, could be forgiven for expecting better-than-average sales for his first book. Bes Dong Phnom Dang Rek (The Heart of the Dang Rek Mountains), which is to be published next month, is a novel-cum-history book which sets out the recent history of the hotly contested ancient Hindu temple, including a fictionalised account of the international lawsuit that resulted in Cambodia’s sovereignty over the temple being recognised in 1962. “Most Khmer people don’t want to read about history,” said Taing Ratana. “If I wrote a history book, people would be less interested. So I changed it into an historical novel [that] details the genesis of the lawsuit until success at the Hague in June 1962.” Newspaper sales are currently up across the Kingdom as Cambodians eagerly follow events on the Preah Vihear frontline but the author says the idea for the book arose in 2001 while he was a first-year law student and became interested in the history of the temple. He began writing the book in February 2002 and completed it in June 2004. After the anti-Thai riots in 2003, Taing Ratana decided not to seek a publisher for his manuscript because “I didn’t want to change history, I didn’t want myself, by writing the book, to trouble history, and I didn’t want readers to be angry with other nations after reading it”. “Most Khmer people don’t want to read about history.” “I just want readers to learn something and love our ancient culture,” he said. With UNESCO’s recent listing of Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site, however, his friends began encouraging him to publish the work, which begins with the 1954 conflict between Cambodia and Thailand and the legal machinations that followed in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. “I want all Cambodians and the younger generation to know in more detail about the Preah Vihear lawsuit and what went on during that time,” he said, adding that he planned to donate most of the first edition of 1,000 copies to libraries and schools. Khmer Writers Association vice chairman You Bo said that the novel was a very interesting book, with meaning and structure that makes the reader want to continue to turn pages.