NatioNal [page 3]DiDNt have a cow

BusiNess [page 7]reform miNDeD

worlD [page 12]plaNe crash

TVK director resigns af-ter failing to air the Royal Ploughing Ceremony live

Inspired by Australia, the gov-ernment is considering changes to the mining laws

A Lao air force plane carrying senior government officials goes down

MONDAY, MAY 19, 2014 Successful People Read The Post 4000 RIEL

Issu

e N

uM

BeR

1927

May Titthara and Sean Teehan

BEFORE dawn on Saturday, family members of Moun Sokmean found him distressed and incoherent.

Over the past several months, Sok-mean, who was left blind in one eye after being beaten by authorities during a January 3 garment sector protest, had complained of headaches and other ailments. But this time was different.

His father, Luch Pouy, and a cousin put the 29-year-old on a motorbike and rushed him to a doctor. When they arrived at Visal Sok clinic in the capitals Chamkarmon district at 3:15am, it was too late, Pouy said. Sokmean had died on the way there.

I took him by my motorbike to a pri-vate clinic, but when we reached the clinic, the doctor said he had already passed away, Pouy said yesterday.

Sokmeans family say his death is the result of the vicious assault by author-ities, though a lack of proper medical care in the aftermath may have also lessened his chances of survival.

His father said Sokmean attended the January 3 protest on Veng Sreng Boulevard. Like many other protesters,

Election officials pour ballot papers onto a table for counting at a voting station at Yokunthor High School in Phnom Penh yesterday morning. HENG CHIVOAN

Post Staff

CAMBODIAS subnational elections went off without a hitch yesterday, with the oppositions improved per-

formance in 2012s commune elections translating into solid gains at the dis-trict, provincial and municipal levels though a bit more modest than the party had predicted.

Yesterdays vote was open only to the Kingdoms roughly 11,000 commune councillors, and in spite of isolated

cross-party voting, the results stuck closely to party lines, according to largely identical unofficial results released by the two parties.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party won a majority in two districts one in Prey Veng and anoth-er in Kampong Cham province and captured about 23 per cent of the seats up for grabs, a figure that represents significant gains on their previous

position, and that was only a few points shy of the partys share of seats at the commune level.

The CPP, however, maintained its grip on the lions share of positions, winning a total of 2,543 seats.

Though CNRP president Sam Rainsy had previously predicted his party would win in six districts, he nonethe-less heralded yesterdays results as a victory for democratic forces.

It means that the democratic forces represented by [the CNRP] have our representatives in every district, Rain-sy said, trumpeting the unprecedented gain of council chief positions in two districts. This is first time that democ-racy has invaded into the structure of the state at the grassroots level, [and] that we have received the titles of dis-trict council presidents in a district in Prey Veng and a district in Kampong

Cham province. It means that now the democratic forces can hold on against the ruling party.

[The CPP] cannot do whatever it wishes, and we will use our forces to bring democracy to the grassroots, he added.

Rainsy also mentioned taking steps to restart the stalled dialogue between his party and the CPP over the opposi-tions ongoing boycott of parliament.

Longtime CPP lawmaker Cheam

Election sticks to scriptGains for CNRP as CPP takes 195 districts

Continues on page 2

Continues on page 4

Protester injured at rally dies

National2 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Vacancy Announcement Number: 14/GS/SSS/17

Functional Title and Grade: Security Ofcer (Protection Unit) (G-3)

Department/Service: Security and Safety Section, UNAKRT

Remuneration: Starting from US$ 9,200 gross per annum depending on relevant background and experience.

Number of Positions: One

Duration: The initial appointment is limited to one year only. Extension of the appointment is subject to extension of the mandate and /or the availability of funds.

Deadline for Applications: 24 May 2014

For more details, visit our web site: http://www.unakrt-online.org/06_recruitment.htm

AdvertisementVacancy Announcement

National AIDS Authority (NAA)The oce of sub-recipient for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria

The National AIDS Authority (NAA) is designated as the Sub-recipient to receive grant from PR/NCHADS on behalf of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)/SSF for HIV/AIDS Component. The NAA invite applications from qualied and experienced candidates to apply for the position of as below:

IEC Material Technical Advisor1. IT Technical Assistant2. Technical Advisor to conduct national review challenges and laws and 3. policies barriers affecting young people, aged 15-24, from MARPs in access to health-care and social service

The National Technical Assistant on Website Operation4. It is highly recommended that interested applicants shall obtain the full detailed Term of Reference (TOR) for the post before submission of the application. The full TOR can be requested from the SR ofce by email or directly contacting the SR ofce or visit www.naa.org.kh; detail address is provided below. Applicants without prior knowledge of TOR will not be accepted.

Interested candidates should submit their CVs, including a cover letter, by 22nd May 2014 at 17:00 pm with attention to:

Ms. Muth Seineada, Email: mseineada@yahoo.comNational AIDS Authority ,Building #16, Street corner 271 & 150, Sangkat Toek La-ark 2, Khan Toul Kork.Tel: 023 885 129, 012 824 047

Only short listed candidates will be contacted for further interview.

Mom Kunthear

PUBLIC school teachers are demanding the government provide them the health insur

ance their meagre civil servant salaries cant cover.

yesterday, 40 teachers from Takeos Tram Kak district joined the call for health insurance during a Cambodian Independent Teachers association (CITa) meeting banned by district officials.

District Governor Tek Tonglim had tried to prevent the teachers from gathering, sending a letter to CITa on Friday informing them that no meeting would be permitted during Sundays commune council elections. The teachers met anyway and had no problems, according to Takeos CITa director.

During the meeting, teachers complained of being unable to afford even basic medical care, let alone treatment for more severe illnesses.

Last year, I got Chikungunya [a tropical disease] . . . and I had to spend more than $30

for treatment. It is not much for the rich, but it was too much money for me to pay, said Nget Neang, a teacher at Kla Krohem primary school in Takeo.

Teachers, who typically earn a starting salary of $100 per month, have for years called on the government to raise their wages, and in January, hundreds of teachers around the Kingdom staged strikes de

manding $250 per month. Rong Chhun, president of

CITa, said upcoming strikes will add health insurance to the list of demands.

If they receive health insurance, it will help them reduce their spending, he said.

Cambodia spends much less on health per capita than other countries in the region, doling out just over $50 per capita in 2012, compared with the regional average exceeding $700.

While Thailand has had universal health care since 2002, and Vietnam plans to expand its socialised system from 64 per cent of the population to all citizens by the end of year, the Cambodian National Social Security Funds announcement last month that it would start providing privatesector workers health insurance was met with some scepticism.

a ministry of Health official who declined to be named as he lacked authority to speak to the press, yesterday scoffed at the idea of similar insurance for civil servants, adding that it was highly unlikely the government could do more than continue subsidising health expenses for poor Cambodians any time soon. minister of Education Hang Chuon Naron could not be reached. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LAIGNEE BARRON

Teachers union pushes for insurance benefits

Election sticks to scriptContinued from page 1

yeap confirmed yesterday that new discussions were in the works, but blamed the last breakdown in talks on a disagreement between Rainsy and CNRP Deputy President Kem Sokha, and suggested that the CNRP focus on internal unity before returning to the table.

as for yesterdays results, yeap expressed little concern at the oppositions gains.

We just received the general election results. Of the 197 districts and cities, the CPP has [won] 195. Two only [went] to the CNRP, yeap said.

I approve of this result, he added.

at yokunthor High School in Phnom Penhs Chamkarmon district, the site of the largest polling station in the city, voting finished before 9am, and the counting attended by a handful of observers and local councillors, most of them from the opposition was a largely subdued affair.

CNRP spokesman yim Sovann said during a visit to the station that without universal suffrage, the election was not important at all, but nonetheless decried

the governments disruption of opposition campaign rallies in the leadup and accused the CPP of trying to buy votes.

Our members have been tried with phone calls for vote buying, but none of us have sold our conscience or fear any intimidation, he said.

The results at yokunthor were mostly unsurprising.

at the district level, the vote split cleanly along party lines, with the CPP earning 75 votes to the CNRPs 33. at the municipal level, however, the CNRP managed to pick up an extra vote, which became a cause for celebration among the opposition councillors still observing the proceedings.

Despite having still lost by 40 votes, one CNRP supporter crowed into a cellphone, Thirtyfour! Thirtyfour!

Iv Thavy, a CPP observer at the station, said he was untroubled by the lost vote.

We lost one vote, but its a democratic election, and its the freedom of the voter, he said. We saw the counting and we cannot deny the result. I accept it.

The CNRP also won another symbolic victory yesterday in

the form of a public defection by CPP Deputy District Governor Nhem En of Oddar meanchey provinces anlong Veng district.

Known to most for his history as the official photographer at the Khmer Rouges infamous S21 torture centre, En said yesterday that he had become disillusioned with the CPP after they failed to help his son, who En maintained was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife.

Today, I handed my weapon to the district governor and officially resigned as deputy district governor in order to join the CNRP, said En, who has held the post for almost 20 years, ever since Khmer Rouge forces reintegrated with the government in 1996.

I served the CPP very long, but the party cannot help find justice for my family member, he added.

En maintained that he would run as a parliamentarian in the next national election, but CNRP spokesmen could not be reached last night to confirm the assertion. REPORTING BY STUART WHITE, MEAS SOKCHEA, CHHAY CHANNYDA

AND VONG SOKHENG

Election officials supervise a woman as she votes yesterday at Yokunthor High School in Phnom Penh during the provincial elections. HENG CHIVOAN

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

SIX men and boys were charged by Pailin Provincial Court on Saturday with gang raping a 14yearold girl until she was unconscious.

Ty Vin, 23, yun Eab 23, and four alleged teenage assailants ranging from 15 to 19 years old, were arrested on Friday following a complaint from the victims family, said Chorm Vanthy, chief of Pailins serious crimes police.

according to Vanthy, the victim told police she had been sitting at a park in front of Pailin towns Provincial Hall on Thursday evening when a classmate she knew invited her to come drink with his friends.

The six then gave her wine until she was drunk, then drove her to Phnom yat, a religious monument, where they raped her until she was unconscious and left her, Vanthy al

leged, adding that the six will await trial at the provincial prison.

The victims mother told the Post yesterday that she demands the suspects be punished and also be ordered to compensate her daughter $20,000.

They are the gangsters in this province. my daughter told me that they raped her until she was unconscious even though she pleaded, asking them not to rape her, she said.

a UN study published last September found extremely high rates of gang rape in Cambodia, where one in five men admit to raping someone, and 5 per cent of all men say they have participated in a gang rape.

In February, two teens in Kandal were charged with gang raping a sevenyearold girl, while in November, 10 men allegedly gang raped a 18yearold in Banteay meanchey.

Six charged with gang raping teen

I had to spend more than $30 for treatment. It is not much for the rich, but it was too

much money for me to pay

National3THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Cheang Sokha

aFTER serving just a few weeks of an eight-month prison sen-tence, a two-star general of the Royal Cambodian armed Forces (RCaF) was granted a royal pardon on Friday, a de-cision described by some as a mockery of justice and oth-ers as not surprising.

a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, bearing the signa-ture of King Norodom Sihamo-ni and dated may 16, orders 45-year-old Chea Dara to be released from Phnom Penhs Police Judiciary (PJ) prison, where he was being held for a defamation conviction.

The Royal Pardon comes into effect on the date signed, the letter says.

Hou Puthvisal, director of PJ prison, confirmed yesterday that Dara was released on Fri-day evening.

In 2010, Dara filed a lawsuit claiming he was cheated out of millions of dollars in a fake land deal by General Doeun Sovann and land dealer Chuob Chan. The two counter-sued for defamation and won.

While Dara was convicted in absentia by the Supreme Court on December 9, it took police more than four months

to track him down. He was ar-rested at a restaurant in Cham-karmon district on april 25.

Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said that while Daras release defies Cambodian jurisprudence, it is not surprising.

according to the law, one should serve two-thirds of their sentence [before being re-leased], but the King still has the power, he said. People need to know there is a legal system so they will not do anything wrong. In many cases when po-litical [or] military [figures] are involved, [pardons are issued].

In practice, for special cases like Sam Rainsy, theyve never served any time, he said, re-ferring to two separate royal pardons granted to the oppo-sition leader. But opposition lawmaker-elect mu Sochua said that Rainsys evasion of prison was not the same.

With mr Rainsy, it was a political issue; he should nev-er have been there, she said, adding that the release of fig-ures with links to the ruling party is very common.

It creates a culture of impu-nity; its a mockery of justice, she said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ALICE CUDDY

after weeks in prison, general given pardonTVK director steps down

Vong Sokheng

KEm Gunawadh, the longtime director-general of state broad-caster TVK, resigned from his position on Saturday after the

television channel failed to broadcast the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony over-seen by King Norodom Sihamoni.

The shock resignation has been wel-comed by many as a rare show of ac-countability in Cambodia.

at the annual ceremony held this year in Kandal provinces Takhmao town seven different foods are laid before royal oxen, and the fortunes of Cambodias crops are interpreted based on what the animals choose to eat.

Following Gunawadhs resignation, the ministry of Information, which oversees TVK, issued a public apology, blaming a lack of communication and teamwork.

at this time, the ministry is prepar-ing to improve our [practices] in order to avoid [issues like this] occurring again, the statement says.

Gunawadh declined to comment yes-terday, while Information minister Khieu Kanharith could not be reached.

a TVK staff member speaking on the condition of anonymity said internal divi-sions behind the scenes at TVK may also have contributed to Gunawadhs decision to leave, as staff have been unable to unite to work together in a fractured en-vironment. The source added that there may have been confusion over whether the ceremony needs to be live broadcast if it takes place outside the capital.

TVK deputy director-general Pang Nath has been appointed acting head, which a number of staff are not happy with, the source said, adding that they could strike if that position becomes permanent.

Kanharith has remained tight-lipped on the resignation, telling news site Thmey Thmey that Gunawadh merely wanted to relax for a while.

Royal palace official Oum Daravuth, an adviser to the secretariat of the Queen mother, said: His majesty the King is not angry and had no reaction at all to TVK not broadcasting the ceremony.

moeun Chhean Nariddh, a media aca-demic, said he was happy to see that Gu-nawadh had shown a model of being accountable to Cambodian society but

added that other professional issues at the helm of the state-controlled broad-caster may have been affecting him.

maintaining a media blackout of op-position might have been a very stressful issue for mr Gunawadh [as a professional journalist].

On Thursday, TVK aired videos from the opposition party highlighting violent po-lice crackdowns on recent protests as part of equal airtime given to political parties before yesterdays subnational election. Opposition public affairs head mu Soch-ua rejected the idea yesterday that air-ing the footage had anything to do with the resignation, saying that the failure to broadcast the ceremony was an insult. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN PONNIAH

A pair of royal oxen are led around a field in Kandal province on Saturday during the annual Ploughing Ceremony, believed to predict the fortune of the nations crops. VIREAK MAI

National4 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Grenade meant for prosecutorPhak Seangly

THE deputy prosecutor of Kampong Thom province went into hiding yesterday after an unidentified attacker threw a grenade into his house on Sat-urday evening, damaging prop-erty but causing no injuries.

Say Nora, who was not at home when the attack occurred, said the attempt on his life fol-lowed the arrest of 11 members of an illegal logging syndicate.

It is a serious threat against my life, but I practised my duty to serve the interests of the nation, he said. The criminals and black marketeers are furi-ous with us. a grenade is not a knife . . . for sure it was an attempt to kill me.

Heng Bona, Kampong Rotie commune chief, said no sus-pects had yet been identified.

Ith Sothea, chief provincial prosecutor, said the threats and intimidation started after he took over the post earlier this month and ordered his staff to arrest illegal loggers.

Our actions affect their interests and profits, so they did this to threaten us to stop taking action against them, he said.

Protester injured in January rally dies Continued from page 1 he worked at a garment factory on Veng Sreng, one of several inside Canadia Industrial Park. The demonstration, part of a nationwide strike aimed at prodding the government to raise the minimum wage to $160, spiralled out of control.

Workers hurled rocks and molotov cocktails, and mili-tary police responded with beatings and gunfire, killing at least four people.

Twenty-three people were arrested on that day and on January 2. They are facing charges ranging from incite-ment to intentional violence.

Pouy said that while his son attended the protest, he car-ried no weapons.

Three days after Sokmean was beaten, family members took him to the Khmer-Sovi-et Friendship Hospital, said Naly Pilorge, director of rights group Licadho.

after receiving treatment for a month, Sokmean returned home blind in his left eye and unable to work or care for his 3-year-old son due to frequent headaches and other effects from his injuries, Pouy said. His family could not afford brain scans or other procedures that might have identified the exact

nature of his injuries. No answers are forthcom-

ing. Immediately after his sons death on Saturday, Pouy said, he took the body to a pagoda for cremation. No autopsy was performed and doctors at Visal Sok clinic did not release an official cause of death.

Khmer-Soviet Friendship

Hospital director Ngy meng yesterday declined to com-ment on Sokmeans case or on how doctors there typically treat patients with severe head trauma. a neurologist at Royal Rattanak Hospital declined to comment on the proper course of treatment in similar cases.

moeun Tola, head of the la-

bour program at the Communi-ty Legal Education Center, said that if authorities had provided sufficient medical attention to those injured at the protest, this guy would not have died.

The government [should feel obligated] to pay compen-sation to the victims, and if the government is really responsi-

ble for its own people, it should not respond in that way.

But government officials have publicly said they will not compensate any victims of the crackdown, said Dave Welsh, country manager for labour rights group Solidarity Center.

Victims, families and NGOs calling for medical aid will like-ly have to pin their hopes on international clothing brands who buy from factories where victims worked or on other in-dependent groups, Welsh said.

For families to get justice, its sadly going to go to other members of civil society, he said. The government is on record as providing no justice.

military police spokesman Kheng Tito said yesterday that there will be an investigation into Sokmeans death, though he did not provide more details.

In time, Pouy will speak with rights workers to discuss the possibility of taking legal ac-tion against authorities, he said. But for the moment, he is more concerned with bringing Sokmeans ashes to his home province of Kampong Speu for a memorial service on Friday.

We dont have money, so we will celebrate the seven days ceremony and 100 days ceremony at the same time, Pouy said.

Protesters gather at a burning makeshift roadblock on Phnom Penhs Veng Sreng Boulevard during clashes with police that turned deadly in early January. phA LINA

Credentials were faked, police sayButh Reaksmey Kongkea

BANTEAY Meanchey Provincial Court on Saturday charged an unemployed 23-year-old man with impersonating a military police officer and using the guise to defraud two men out of $6,000 a payment they believed would buy them jobs with the military police in Phnom Penh, authorities said yesterday.

Poipet military police com-mander Colonel Muth Ham said suspect and Preah Sihanouk province native Lim Meng is in detention awaiting trial for impersonating a public servant position and fraud, for which he could face up to six years in prison and $2,000 in fines.

He wore a military police uniform and wore the rank of second lieutenant and present-ed himself as a national mili-tary police officer, Ham said yesterday. He went to Poipet town to recruit people to work as policemen.

He required villagers or those who wanted to work as military policemen to pay him $3,000 each, and he promised to offer them jobs with nation-al military police.

Chinese reluctant to return Kevin Ponniah and May Titthara

THE vast majority of Chinese nationals who have fled to Cambodia from Viet-

nam since riots broke out in that country early last week are sticking it out here until it is safe to return, a Chinese Embassy official said yester-day, with immigration police estimating that at least 1,600 ethnic Chinese have now crossed the border.

About 100 people flee-ing the anti-China protests have returned to their home country on flights from Cambodia, Yang Qing Lian, head of the consular section at the embassy, said, though he added that figure was a rough estimate.

Right now, Ive got the in-formation that some Chinese nationals, not too many, have returned to China already . . . but most Chinese people are staying in Cambodia to wait until the situation gets better in Vietnam. So most Chinese people will go back [to Viet-nam], he said.

Only 300 of those who fled to Cambodia have been in contact with the embassy, he continued, making it difficult for officials to keep track of

the total group, most of whom are believed to be staying in Phnom Penh.

Mam Yoy, deputy immigra-tion police chief at the Bavet border checkpoint in Svay Rieng, said that more than 1,600 ethnic Chinese have crossed into Cambodia from Vietnam since Tuesday. Most are main-land Chinese, but about 100 are Taiwanese nationals, he said.

But today, there were only about 30 Chinese com-ing across, so the situation

has returned to normal, Yoy said yesterday.

The government has wel-comed the temporary guests, mostly businessmen worried for their safety, who began crossing the border after fac-tories in Vietnam that rioters believed to be Chinese-owned were attacked last week.

The riots were sparked by Chinas decision to move an oil rig into an area of the South China Sea that both nations claim sovereignty over.

On Friday, the Chinese Em-bassy sent a letter to Cambo-dias Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs, asking the government to ensure the safety of those fleeing Vietnam.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, more than 3,000 Chinese citizens had been evacuated from Vietnam as of Saturday. Two Chinese have been killed and more than 100 have been in-jured as a result of the pro-tests, it reported.

Chinese people walk across the Cambodia-Vietnam border at Bavet city in Svay Rieng province on Friday to escape anti-China protests and violence. AFp

In brief Weekend storms kill two, damage propertyRAINSTORMS on Saturday killed two people, including a Chinese national, and damaged six homes, according to the National Committee for Disaster Management. Guo Baoxing drowned in Koh Kong province when a rented boat sank during the storm. He was a sand-dredging worker for a Singaporean company, said Khun Mara, deputy director of immigration in Koh Kong. Eight others were rescued. In Kratie provinces Chlong commune the same day, 56-year-old construction worker Seng Bunly was found dead under a fallen tree branch. KHOUTH SOpHAK CHAKRYA

Citizen patrol says men were clearing forestTWO suspects accused of illegally clearing a community forest for the Chea Chamnan company were remanded into custody on Saturday after authorities were tipped off by a Kampong Thom community patrol. pouk Chantra, chief of the Balang commune forestry administration, said the suspects were sent to the court on Saturday for further investigation. Chea Chamnan representatives could not be reached. pHAK SEANGLY

National5THE PHNOM PENH POST MAY 19, 2014

National6 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Brotherly love lacking in act of alleged arsonA BANTEAY Meanchey man burned more than a bridge on Saturday when he drunkenly set alight his brothers home, the same home where hed been living, police said. The 28-year-old returned to Cam-bodia last month after working in Thailand. According to police, he drank more than his fill and, in a rage, set fire to the house. When authorities arrived, he allegedly chased them with a machete. He confessed after his arrest, insisting he was too drunk to control himself. kAM-PUCHEA THMEY

Six months later, cops arrest one in gold scamFOOLS gold fraud came back to haunt a woman in Phnom Penhs Russey keo district on Saturday, about six months after the deed. In November, the suspect and three accom-plices pulled off a scam on a 23-year-old woman, dropping a bag of fake gold near her while the other two pretended to find it, promising to split the goods if the woman gave them about $1,000 worth of jewel-lery she had. The woman con-fessed when police tracked her down. Authorities are still looking for the other three. kAMPUCHEA THMEY

Alleged motorbike thief gets the mob treatmentBYSTANDERS in kampong Cham attempted to knock some sense into a would-be motorbike thief on Friday but only succeeded in beating him senseless. The suspect, 23, saw an opportunity in an unattended motorbike a grocer parked out-side a market while he grabbed lunch, police said. When the grocer saw a man trying to break the lock, he shouted for help. Villagers responded by beating him unconscious. Police arrested the man, who allegedly confessed. They also asked villagers not to injure suspects. NOkORWAT

Suspect couldnt resist life of crime, police sayA PREAH Sihanouk drug dealer is out of business after a raid on his rental room on Friday turned up five grams of meth-amphetamine and drug para-phernalia. Police received infor-mation that the 32-year-old, who was incarcerated in 2011 for distribution, was back at it. After his release, the suspect was jobless and fell back into the criminal life, police said. kOH SANTEPHEAP

Twenty beers put truck drivers plans on iceDRUNk driving can be the undoing of even the most experienced motorists, as one Mondulkiri ice vendor learned on Friday. After finishing his deliveries, the 28-year-old drank more than 20 beers with his friends, police said. While driving his truck home, he allegedly crashed into two gro-cery shops, severely injuring himself as well as slightly injuring one grocer and dam-aging property. Police released him after he took responsibility for the accident. NOkORWAT

Translated by Phak Seangly

PolicebloTTer

Job Opening

Executive Director,

The American Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (AmCham)

The Executive Director is a full-time position based in Phnom Penh reporting directly to the AmCham Board of Governors, and supported by one local Administrative Assistant. AmCham is a non-proit institution with a 100-plus membership which represents companies with over 115,000 employees in Cambodia.Duties and Responsibilities:Coordinate monthly Board of Governors meetings and serve as secretary responsible for producing meeting agendas and minutes.Organize and manage monthly Networking Night events for members and non-membersOrganize and manage monthly luncheons with guest speakers and other events as required and generate ideas for future events.Oversee member relations, including processing new applications and securing annual membership dues.Manage membership and media mailing lists. Oversee regular updates for AmCham Cambodia website.

Oversee AmCham inances. Coordinate and attend meetings for AmChamscommittees, including Events, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Membership, and OSAC and serve as secretary responsible for producing meeting agendas and minutes. Liaise with US Embassy on private sector issues and joint activities. Liaise with Cambodian Government oficials as needed.

Liaise with other AmChams in the Asia-Paciic region as needed. Liaise with other business associations in Cambodia. Undertake other responsibilities as deemed appropriate by the Board of Governors.Candidates must have a Bachelors degree, must be luent in English, must have well-developed writing skills and good public speaking skills. Strong administrative and organizational skills are also essential. Private sector experience a plus. Knowledge of Excel, InDesign, and Photoshop desired.Candidates should submit CVs to: admin@amchamcambodia.org

In brief Lawmakers asked not to pass judiciary lawsCIVIL society groups on Friday called for three judicial draft laws, which they claim could jeopardise the independence of the courts, to not be passed by the National Assembly this week. We have found that provisions of the draft laws jeopardise the independence of the judiciary, Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center of Human Rights (CCHR), said at a press conference on Friday afternoon. The laws on the organisation and function of the judiciary are scheduled to be debated on Tuesday. BUTH REAkSMEY kONGkEA

Strike at Caltex on hold as firm reviews wagesCALTEX staff agreed to return to work following a weeklong strike over pay and benefits after being promised a $20 one-off bonus and a wage review on Friday. Sar Mora, president of the Cambodia Food and Service Workers Federation, said that Caltexs parent company, Chevron, had promised to assess over a two-month period how much it could pay employees. About 300 workers in Phnom Penh joined the strike on May 12. SEN DAVID

Victims kin no right to cashSen David and Mom Kunthear

THE National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has defended its deci-sion not to pay a sur-

vivors pension to the family of a teenager killed in a ceil-ing collapse at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province last may.

On the anniversary of the collapse on Friday, the Post reported that the family of Kim Dany had received only funeral costs from the NSSF following her death, because they were under the age of 55.

Sum Sophorn, deputy ex-ecutive director of the NSSF, said in interviews on Friday and yesterday that the fund would not pay out any parents younger than 55 if their chil-dren were killed at work.

The parents must be 55, he said. In the case of Kim Dany . . . her case has not fulfilled our conditions, he said. It doesnt matter if it is the first, second, third or 10th anniversary, her family wont get any money.

Under the law, survivors of an employee killed at work including parents provided for by the victim, as in the case of Danys household are eligible for a survivors pension. It does not appear to

specify age restrictions.although Danys family re-

ceived a sizeable payout from asics the Japanese company that sourced from Wing Star and they are not seeking money from the NSSF, concerns were raised by la-bour rights group Solidarity Center that the NSSFs failure to pay could set a precedent in an industry flooded with

young workers.But Sophorn said any such

payments to a victims family would be illegal.

We cannot pay money against our law, we will be guilty, he said.

For each worker, employers are required to contribute a fig-ure equivalent to 0.8 per cent of their salary to insure them in the event of injury or death.

Despite millions pouring into the NSSF from the gar-ment industry, Pav Sina, presi-dent of the Collective Union of movement of Workers, said it was a complicated process for victims to receive payouts.

I think the NSSF must be responsible for everything for the victims family, he said. The NSSF must support the parents until they die.

Rescue workers search rubble for survivors at a collapsed section of the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province last year. PHA LINA

7THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

BusinessUSD / JPY

101.5

USD / SGD

1.251

USD /CNY

6.23

USD / HKD

7.7519

USD / THB

32.47

AUD / USD

0.935

NZD / USD

0.8635

EUR / USD

1.371

GBP / USD

1.6789

Indicative Exchange Rates as of 16/5/2014. Please contact ANZ Royal Global Markets on 023 999 910 for real time rates.

USD / KHR

4,028

Oz an example for mining reformEddie Morton

InspIred by australian mining regulations, the Cambodian government is considering a raft of

changes to the mineral re-sources mining law, including a rethink of the sectors com-paratively high tax rate.

Citing discussions held with Western australia state mining industry representa-tives last week, meng sakt-heara, secretary of state at the ministry of mines and energy (mme), said Cambodias 30 per cent tax on mineral re-sources, mining, and oil and gas operations was outdated.

From my perspective and to be fair to both sides, I would say the current 30 per cent tax rate should go down to about 20 per cent, saktheara said, adding that his ministry was yet to speak with the ministry of Commerce regarding any proposed changes.

saktheara made the com-ments after returning from a weeklong fact-finding tour of Western australia and its mining sites. The visit was organised in part by the West-ern australian governments International mining for de-velopment Centre.

Last week, australias co-alition government officially scrapped the countrys con-troversial mineral resources rent tax (mrrT), which was implemented in 2012 by the previous government. The mrrT placed a 22.5 per cent levy on mining companies profits above a$75 million (Us$70 million).

We spoke with private

sector representatives [dur-ing the tour] and they clearly were not happy with the min-ing tax. The government abol-ished it, so it is a good lesson to learn from a country that has learnt from the policy, saktheara said.

I think it is time to rethink our fiscal policy and to adopt international best practice one that ensures revenues both for the government and does not jeopardise pri-vate investment.

In what appears to be a rep-lication of the australian tax-ation system, saktheara said the Cambodian government would consider a higher tax rate for oil and gas firms. aus-tralia taxes oil and gas mining operators at 40 per cent.

Taxation issues continue to stall negotiations between the Cambodian government and Chevron over a 4,700-square-kilometre site called Block a in the Gulf of Thailand, which was declared economi-cally viable by the energy gi-ant in 2010.

saktheara said the proposed changes would not expedite or delay negotiations with Chevron over the site.

a full oil and gas extraction law and new mining licens-ing regulations will also be drafted by the end of 2015, according to saktheara, with laws surrounding worker safety, social responsibility and biodiversity also in line to be strengthened.

mam sambath, executive di-rector of extractive industries nGO development and part-nership in action, was cau-tious about the governments

latest approach and called for more community and cross-ministry consultation.

reforms are important and they need to be done. But a thorough assessment of the communities affected by mining operations and the environmental effects must be made first, he said.

The mme needs to cooper-ate with the ministry of agri-culture, the ministry of envi-ronment to really understand how communities livelihoods and the surrounding environ-ment is being affected by in-coming mining industry.

during its seven-day aus-tralian tour, the Cambodian

delegation held meetings with the Western australian governments department of mines and petroleum, pri-vate sector representative body the australian petro-leum production and explo-ration association, law firm Hunt and Humphrey Lawyers and accounting company

pricewaterhouseCoopers.Contacted yesterday, dele-

gation industry representative richard stanger, president of the Cambodia association for mining and exploration Com-panies, declined to comment on the potential changes to the Kingdoms resources min-ing sector.

An excavator operates near the main haul road in the Fimiston Open Pit, known as the Super Pit, in Kalgoorlie, Australia, last year. BLOOMBERG

Business8 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

JaPaNS eight carmakers have joined forces to develop envi-ronmentally friendly engines to stave off fierce competition from foreign rivals, a press re-port said yesterday.

Two of Japans leading uni-versities will join Toyota, Hon-da, Nissan, Suzuki, mazda, mitsubishi, Daihatsu and Fuji Heavy in the project, which is mainly aimed at slashing en-gine emissions to meet tougher environmental standards, the business daily Nikkei reported.

By 2020 the group plans to develop technology that can cut diesel engine carbon-di-oxide emissions by 30 per cent from 2010 levels.

The manufacturers plan to adapt the technology for com-mercial use in both diesel and gasoline-powered vehicles, the Nikkei said, hoping to gain a leg up over European carmak-ers as well as helping to meet tightening environmental reg-ulations around the world.

Despite growing demand for EVs, internal combustion en-gines are expected to remain the main source of power for cars for the time being. afp

Japans car firms team up on green engine tech

Banned but useful: officials on FBFelicia Sonmez

CHINaS Communist authorities ban their own people from ac-cessing major global

social media sites including Fa-cebook, Twitter and youTube. But when it comes to self-pro-motion they are increasingly keen users themselves.

The official news agency Xinhua, the Communist Par-tys official mouthpiece the Peoples Daily and state broad-caster CCTV all have Twitter accounts, as do a host of city and provincial authorities.

When the city of Hangzhou, renowned for its lakes and ca-nals, looked to raise its inter-national profile it turned to Facebook, the worlds most-popular social network.

Chinas internet users, who now number 618 million, have been blocked from using Facebook since 2009.

But the citys modern mar-co Polo competition akin to australias Best Job In The World contests involves no fewer than six Facebook apps.

The winner, to be an-nounced on Tuesday, will re-ceive $55,000 and a two-week trip to Hangzhou in exchange for promoting the city on Face-book and Twitter for a year.

michael Cavanaugh, a con-sultant for British-based PR agency One, which has been promoting the contest, told aFP increasing official use of such sites was inevitable. But he declined to say how the winner was expected to post to them from within China.

Chinas Communist au-thorities maintain a tight grip on expression both on- and off-line fearful of any dis-sent that could spiral into a

challenge to one-party rule. Some Chinese Internet users and businesses use virtual private networks to bypass the vast censorship appara-tus known as the Great Fire-wall, and state-run media often use foreign bureaus to accomplish the same goal.

Hangzhou itself used a digital agency in Hong Kong, where Facebook is not blocked, to administer its contest an growing trend by

cities and provinces within Chinas borders.

meanwhile, the social media giant is actively seeking busi-ness in the country.

We want to help tour-ism agencies in China tell the rest of the world about the fabulous things in China that are really not that well-understood, Vaughan Smith, Facebooks vice president of corporate development, told a Beijing audience last month.

Facebook is reportedly in talks to open a sales office in the Chinese capital, and in re-cent weeks the company has quietly posted Beijing-based job openings on its website.

Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based tech consul-tancy BDa, said Chinese local authorities had huge budgets and their tourism advertise-ments were probably lucra-tive for the multibillion-dollar firm. However, Facebook was unlikely to see them as a way of gaining access to Chinese users, Clark said.

Theres kind of a common-sense, logical middle ground where Facebook and China will agree to trade with each other. This is business sense.

But critics of Chinese cen-sorship say such schemes give Beijing a soft-power boost through sleight-of-hand.

a co-founder of anti-censor-ship website GreatFire.org who uses the pseudonym Charlie Smith said: I think the aver-age Western netizen doesnt put two and two together and realise actually, these websites are blocked in China.

That helps China, for sure, because it gives this impression that Facebook is actually open and free for the people who dont know that it isnt. afp

Facebooks logo is reflected in a window overlooking the Beijing skyline. afp

Exports expand

HK the new market for organic rice

In A first for the Kingdoms organic rice, the Cambo-dian Center for Study and Development in Agricul- ture (CEDAC), successfully exported its produce to Hong Kong earlier this month, the organisations top official confirmed yesterday.

While the US and Germany have traditionally been the key markets for Cambodian orga-nic rice, with about 300 tonnes sent there last year, CEDAC president Yang Saing Koma told the Post that his organi-sation has exported 30 tonnes to Hong Kong this year, as the market for the Kingdoms natural produce expands.

It is an early step with a small amount exported, but it is another positive sign to prove that we have new mar-ket for our product, he said.

Farmed without using synthetic pesticides or che-mical fertilisers, organic rice production must adhere to a stringent process in order to receive certification.

Komar estimates CEDAC will export at least 400 tonnes this year, up from about 320 tonnes in 2013. HOR KIMSAY

Markets9THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Business

Thai recession threatT

HaILaNDS pro-longed political crisis is raising the risk that the nation will be the

only one of Southeast asias biggest economies to slide into a recession this year, un-dermining its allure as a man-ufacturing center.

The countrys gross domestic product probably shrank 2.2 per cent in the three months through march from the previ-ous quarter, when it expanded 0.6 per cent, according to the estimate of 12 analysts sur-veyed by Bloomberg ahead of

data due today. Economists at DBS Group Holdings Ltd and mizuho Bank Ltd said Thai-land could experience two consecutive quarters of con-traction this year.

Thailand may be the out-lier in terms of one that could fall into a technical recession, said Vishnu Varathan, a senior economist in Singapore at mi-zuho Bank. For a long time re-gionally, the way Thailand was looked at was that the econ-omy ran on a separate track from its politics, but I think that assumption cannot be

taken for granted any more.Protests that began late-

October to unseat yingluck Shinawatra as prime minis-ter have stalled infrastructure spending and contributed to Honda motor Cos decision to delay building a factory.

Demonstrators have thwart-ed meetings between election officials and an acting pre-mier who was installed after a court forced yingluck to step down, casting doubt on a vote planned for July and prompting ratings companies to warn of a negative impact. blOOMbeRg

A man reads a newspaper featuring ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra on its front page. blOOMbeRg

Chan Muyhong

THE annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony turned up a less than promising outlook for the next harvest season on the weekend, though some farm-ers remain sceptical of the tra-ditional forecast.

The ceremony, held on Sat-urday in Kandal provinces Takhmao town, marks the be-ginning of the agricultural pro-duction and rainy seasons. The royal oxen, which are charged with the official job of forecast-ing the upcoming harvest, this year ate only a little bit of corn, rice and beans, which tradition says equates to just a fairly good prediction and far from the excellent forecast farmers had been hoping for.

I also fear that the harvest will not be so good this year because of bugs or flooding, Nem Kourn, a rice farmer from Battambang province, said.

But Kourn did not take the traditional forecast as a given. He said in his experience the royal prediction has proved ac-curate 60 per cent of the time.

meas Leun, a corn farmer in Pailin, said she too wasnt sold on the outlook.

I will be ready for risks hap-

pening to my crops throughout the year, she said. Though the prediction of a good har-vest can be good news for farmers, getting higher prices for their harvested crops is even better news.

Sok Chamroeun, executive director of Khmer Farmers association, said that though the forecast helps farmers to prepare for the worst, having proper irrigation systems in place was the way to best miti-gate risks.

The government should also look in to finding more markets for farmers, he said.

Pich Romnea, deputy direc-tor of the ministry of agricul-ture, Forestry and Fisheries paddy rice production depart-ment, said he expected yields this year to be similar to those of last seasons crops.

The ministry is ready to take measure for any risks including bugs, flood and drought, he said.

Figures from the ministry of agriculture shows last years total paddy rice production reached 7.2 million tonnes.

meanwhile, production of corn, bean, sweet potato and other vegetables reached 8.6 million tonnes.

Farmers not sold on cows crop prediction

BOE governor warns of risks in housing marketTHE British housing market has deep, deep problems and is the biggest risk to the countrys financial stability, the governor of the Bank of England has warned. When we look at domestic risk, the biggest risk to financial stability, and therefore to the durability of the expansion those risks centre on the housing market, Mark Carney said. The bank this week hiked its 2015 growth forecast, but fears are growing of a new housing bubble, after prices rose 10.9 per cent across Britain in the year to April, and 18 per cent in London, according to mortgage provider Nationwide. Afp

Tech giants end war over handset patentsGOOGLE and Apple, the two technology titans behind the worlds top smartphone platforms, have called a truce in a long-running patent war. Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies, the firms said in a joint statement. Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The companies made it clear that the detente does not include licensing their technology to each other. Afp

Credit Suisse to admit illegal activities: reportSWISS banking giant Credit Suisse is set to sign a document admitting it had unwittingly run a criminal enterprise in its past wooing of US tax dodgers, media reported yesterday. We were running a criminal enterprise, but we didnt know, reads the document cited by the SonntagsZeitung weekly. Switzerlands second largest bank was expected to sign the document, obtained by the paper from lawyers close to the case, in a bid to avoid criminal prosecution in the US, it reported. The bank refused to comment on the report. Afp

Business10 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Fixed Deposit Interest RatesCambodian

Financial Institutions

On Deposits3 Months 6 Months 12 Months

As of MAY 16, 2014 USD RIEL USD RIEL USD RIEL

PRaSac 5.50% 6.50% 6.50% 7.50% 8.00% 9.75%

aBa Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

acLEDa Bank 2.50% 5.00% 3.75% 6.00% 5.00% 7.00%

aNZ Royal Bank 1.35% 3.50% 2.50% 4.00% 3.50% 5.50%

Bank of India 2.25% N/a 3.00% N/a 4.00% N/a

cambodia asia Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

cambodia Mekong Bank 2.75% N/a 3.25% N/a 3.50% N/a

cambodian Public Bank 2.00% N/a 3.00% N/a 3.75% N/a

canadia Bank 2.50% 5.00% 3.50% 6.00% 4.75% 7.00%

Maybank 2.25% N/a 3.25% N/a 4.25% N/a

MaRUhaN Japan Bank 2.00% 2.00% 3.00% 3.00% 4.50% 4.50%

RhB Indochina Bank 2.75% 4.00% 3.50% 5.00% 4.75% 6.00%

SBc Bank 3.00% N/a 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a

Union commercial Bank 3.50% N/a 4.50% N/a 5.50% N/a

Gms $35m fine comes with oversightGENERaL motors Co wont be able to extri-cate itself from regulatory troubles stem-ming from its recall of 2.59 million small cars by writing the government a check.

apart from a record $35 million fine less than two hours worth of Gms projected 2014 revenue the Detroit automaker has agreed to oversight by the US National Highway Traffic Safety administration (NHTSa) down to what phrasing to avoid in safety communications and who must attend certain meetings.

The agreement overlays efforts by Gm chief exec mary Barra to overhaul the com-

panys bureaucracy to make sure safety issues get elevated more quickly. By mak-ing some of the changes legally binding, the agreement may give Barra more lever-age to shake up a Gm culture that, before the companys US bailout, often prized cost savings above other considerations.

The NHTSa has been probing why it took the largest US automaker years to address engineering concerns and consumer com-plaints about engine stalling in some small cars dating from 2004. at least 13 fatalities have been linked to the defect.

Gm has agreed to meet the NHTSa on a

monthly basis to go over company chang-es. It has also promised to review its changed organisational structure with the safety agency and promptly respond to feedback. It agreed to meet with the NHT-Sa monthly for a least a year longer if the agency requests to discuss nonpublic technical service bulletins, warranty claims and field reports that may indicate emerg-ing safety defects.

The deal even requires Gm to change the lingo it uses in training employees, by disavowing wording diluting the urgency of potential safety defects. BLOOMBERG

THE ancient aztecs and Chi-nese did it thousands of years ago, and now a Berlin startup hopes to provide food for 21st-century urbanites by us-ing aquaponics, a combina-tion of rearing fish and grow-ing vegetables.

Set up inside the brick walls of an old brewery, the compa-ny ECF, short for Efficient City Farming, is using an age-old technique to grow tomatoes, peppers and greens in a min-iature container farm, fertil-ised with fish excretions.

Our vision is to give city dwellers access to agricultural goods produced in a sustain-able way, said Nicolas Leschke, who founded ECF two years ago with a business partner.

aquaponics, as the method is known, combines the tech-niques of hydroponics, or cul-tivating plants in water, with aquaculture or the rearing of fish in tanks.

Because it allows food to be produced directly in cities, not the distant countryside, the environmental and financial costs of conserving and trans-porting the goods are greatly reduced, Leschke said.

and last but not least, it guarantees access to fresh products, he added, snacking on a home-grown swiss chard, a leafy green vegetable popu-lar in mediterranean cuisine.

The business has set up a prototype container farm on two levels, with a fish tank at the bottom and a small green-house at the top. Separate to the aquarium is a tank with a filter that uses bacteria to transform the ammonium of the fish ex-cretions into nitrates.

The nitrate-enriched water is then pumped to irrigate a greenhouse where the plants grow, not in soil but in a hydro-ponic bath of flowing water en-riched with mineral nutrients.

The roots of aquaponics have been traced back to the aztecs, who raised plants on islands in lake shallows, and to Far Eastern cultures that farmed rice in paddy fields in combination with fish.

The farm will sell fruit and vegetables in a dedicated store on the premises, plus deliver to locals who subscribe to a week-ly basket of fresh produce.

It will also sell barramundi, its chosen breed of fish, to restaurants, or if someone calls up and says I am having a big barbecue at the weekend, I need 10 of them.

With its products grown next door, ECF is embracing a powerful social trend. For more and more consumers, knowing something has been grown or reared locally is now more important than it being organic. Afp

millenia-old farming method feeds modern city dwellers in Berlin

An African elephant walks through Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Afp

Hunters bemoan banGodfrey Marawanyikaand Brian Latham

aS PROFESSIONaL hunter Cliff Walker sets out before dawn in Zimbabwes Zam-

bezi River valley to find a lion for his US client, he has el-ephants on his mind.

Walker, 37, says a US ban on ivory imports from Zimbabwe and Tanzania in February may cost him tens of thousands of dollars. While Gavin Shire, spokesman for the US Depart-ment of Fish and Wildlife Ser-vices, said last month that the ban was temporary, Walker thinks it will dissuade clients from coming to the country.

I had six quotas for elephant trophy hunts for american clients, Walker said in an in-terview in the matetsi Lot 1 in northwestern Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls. I spent a lot of money to get those quotas.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wild-life management authority di-rector-general Edison Chidz-iya travelled to Washington last week to lobby against the

ban, which government offi-cials say will cost the southern african nation vital foreign ex-change. Before the ban, Zim-babwe was expecting to earn about $60 million from trophy hunting this year, up from $45 million last year.

The US government banned ivory imports from Zimbabwe because it does not have suf-ficient information on the number of elephants in Zim-babwe to determine if the population of the animals is sustainable, Shire said.

We were caught napping by the US ban as we didnt an-ticipate it, Langton masunda, chairman of Hwange-Gwayi-Dete Conservancy in mata-beleland North province, said. We now have to look at Rus-sian and Chinese markets, and at other nationalities in-terested in sport hunting in-stead of relying on americans who think they are the only ones with the big bucks.

Zimbabwes hunters, who undergo some of the most rigorous training in africa, can earn as much as $2,000

a day helping clients shoot anything from antelope to lion and elephant.

a client will pay about $30,000 in permit fees and for the hire of a professional hunter to get an elephant. a lion kill will likely cost a hunt-er about $55,000, according to the authoritys guidelines.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife management author-ity says the 100,000 elephants in the country destroy trees and food supplies needed for other species. Only neighbor-ing Botswana, with a popu-lation of about 120,000, has more of the pachyderms.

If you dropped 80,000 to 100,000 elephants in Califor-nia, they might learn pretty damned quick that you need some balance, retired hunter alec Robinson said.

Elephant conservation will ultimately suffer from the ban, according to Lampies Breden-kamp, who hunts every year in Zimbabwe. as soon as you ban hunting, theres no income for the people and they resort to poaching. BLOOMBERG ECF founder Nicolas Leschke checks his crops in Berlin on May 5. Afp

11THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

WorldIran: nuke deal still possibleIranIan Foreign minister mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday that clinching a final nuclear deal with world powers is still possible, despite a tough round of talks this week.

agreement is possible. But illusions need to go. Opportu-nity shouldnt be missed again like in 2005, Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to Irans long-stalled dispute with world powers over its suspect nucle-ar program.

Iran and six world powers ended a fourth round of nucle-ar talks in Vienna on Friday with no tangible progress.

Britain, China, France, rus-sia, the United States and Ger-many known as the P5+1 group want Iran to radically scale back its nuclear activities, making any dash for an atomic bomb virtually impossible and easily detectable. The parties want to clinch an accord by July 20, when a november interim deal expires, under which Iran froze certain activities in return for some relief from crippling Western sanctions.

In return for further con-cessions, the Islamic repub-lic, which denies seeking an atomic weapon, wants the lifting of all Un and Western sanctions, which have badly damaged its economy.

The fourth round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 ended on Friday with both sides complaining that major gaps remained ahead of the July 20 deadline.

Huge gaps remain, there is really more realism needed on the other side, a Western diplomat said. We had expected a little more flexi-bility on their side.

yesterday, Irans English-language Press TV cited the countrys deputy foreign min-ister, abbas araghchi, as say-ing that the next round of talks were to be held in Vienna on June 16-20.

ali akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Iranian supreme leader ayatollah ali Khamenei, was upbeat about the prospects of an agreement being reached.

There is hope for a positive outcome in the talks, as long as other parties show their good-will like Iran, he said. I am hopeful the talks will yield positive results.

Failure to reach an accord by July 20 could have calamitous consequences, potentially sparking conflict neither Israel nor Washington rules out military action and creating a nuclear arms race in the mid-dle East.

negotiators could in theory extend the deadline, but both US President Barack Obama and his Iranian counterpart could struggle to keep their respective sceptical and impa-tient hardliners at bay. AFP

Vietnam stifles new rallies as China fumesVIETnamESE security forces stifled fresh protests yesterday over Chinas plans to drill for oil in contested waters, as Beijing sent five ships to help evac-uate its nationals from Vietnam follow-ing deadly mass riots last week.

Chinas state media said more than 3,000 of its citizens had already returned home in recent days after the territorial tensions and riots sent relations between the frequently quarrelsome communist neighbours spiralling to their lowest point in decades.

Enraged mobs torched or otherwise damaged hundreds of foreign-owned businesses last week, officially killing two Chinese nationals and injuring about 140.

While Chinas deployment of the giant rig is seen in Vietnam as a grave provo-cation, the ferocious public reaction appeared to catch authorities by sur-prise. Fearing an impact on vital foreign investment, Vietnamese authorities

took no chances yesterday as activist groups tried to stage further demon-strations, though they insisted they would be peaceful.

Hundreds of security personnel swarmed over streets leading to the sprawling Chinese Embassy in Hanoi, restricting access to the neighbourhood and other suspected protest sites.

Blogs by civil society groups involved in the protest call said activists were detained in several areas around the country or prevented from leaving their homes. Chinas Xinhua news agency said the Chinese nationals brought home included 135 people hurt in the unrest last Tuesday and Wednesday including 16 critically injured.

China also said it was dispatching five ships to bring home even more of its nationals and would suspend some bilateral exchanges with its southern neighbour. The recent violence was damaging the atmosphere and condi-

tions for exchanges and cooperation, a foreign ministry statement said.

The Chinese side as of today . . . sus-pended part of its bilateral exchange plans, it said, without giving specifics of the plans. China will see how the situation develops and look into taking further steps.

China had earlier warned its citizens against travel to Vietnam following what it called the explosion of violence and has urged its nationals still in the coun-try to increase safety precautions.

The oil rig standoff has further poi-soned relations between two countries that have fought territorial skirmishes in the past and are increasingly at odds over their South China Sea claims.

Workers demonstrated in 22 of Viet-nams 63 provinces last week, according to the government, with furious mobs torching foreign-owned factories and enterprises believed to be linked to China or which employed Chinese per-

sonnel. Hundreds of businesses were hit, Vietnams government has said.

China is widely accused in Vietnam of bullying behaviour stretching back more than 1,000 years, and Hanois communist government occasionally allows protesters to vent anger.

But the recent outbursts have sent the government scrambling to limit dam-age to a developing economy depend-ent on foreign investment.

We will not allow any acts targeting foreign investors, businesses or indi-viduals, to ensure that the regrettable incidents will not be repeated, Dang minh Khoi, assistant to Vietnams for-eign minister, said on Saturday.

We ask countries to continue to encourage their investors and citizens to rest assured on doing business in Vietnam.

Vietnamese officials say more than 300 suspected perpetrators were being prosecuted. AFP

modi: 21st century belongs to IndiaJason Burke

narEnDra modi, the controversial Hindu nationalist who won a land-

slide victory in Indias general election on Friday, met senior leaders of his Bharatiya Ja-nata party (BJP) yesterday to begin the process of forming a government.

Tens of thousands of sup-porters welcomed him as he made a triumphant entry to the capital Delhi on Saturday.

The new prime minister was until a few years ago the little-known chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, but his blending of nationalism with the promise of economic and cultural revival struck a chord with voters.

India is still reeling from the scale of modis win. Few predicted his conservative, pro-business Bharatiya Ja-nata party, in opposition since 2004, would win 282 of the 543 directly elected seats in Indias lower house. With existing al-lies, the total number of par-liamentarians in the current BJP-led coalition rises to more than 340. no party has won by such a margin since 1984.

The results were historic . . . It is evident that the In-dian voter has delivered an epochal verdict, wrote anil Padmanabhan in Mint, a lo-cal business newspaper.

The centre-left Congress, which has governed India for all but 18 of the past 67 years, won only 44 seats, consider-ably lower than the most pes-simistic of its own internal predictions and its worst per-formance. rahul Gandhi, 43, scion of Indias most famous political dynasty and the face of the partys campaign, ac-cepted responsibility for the defeat at a press conference on Friday night.

modis plane arrived from

Gujarat, where he was born and which he has run since 2001, at 11am and a mo-torcade of a dozen vehicles cruised along streets cleared by police from the airport to the BJP headquarters in the centre of the city. roads for half a mile around the build-ing had been closed and large numbers of security person-nel deployed.

now we are in an abso-lute majority we are capable of doing anything, said Bala Das Sharma, 42, a homeo-pathic doctor from the nearby town of Ghaziabad, who had travelled to salute the new prime minister. nikas Ku-mar, a bank employee in the booming satellite town of Gurgaon, and his wife Gitika, a human resources executive, had brought their daughter. I wanted to feel a part of it, to be proud of it, to know our vote counted, said Kumar, 39.

modi, 63, a former tea seller whose background sets him apart from the established political and cultural elite of Delhi and was a major factor in his success, spoke briefly to party workers. This vic-tory belongs to you, he told them, before leaving for the holy city of Varanasi, one of the two seats from which he was elected, where he was to offer prayers on the banks of the Ganges at sunset.

The huge win has raised con-cerns in some quarters in India and overseas. most analysts had predicted the BJP would form a government with coali-tion partners from among In-dias powerful regional parties. These would have been a brake on any hard-line agenda.

The new prime minister is a deeply polarising figure who many muslims in India around 14 per cent of the population fear. modi, the

former organiser in the coun-trys biggest Hindu revivalist organisation, has been ac-cused of failing to stop, or even encouraging, sectarian riots in which 1,000 people, mostly muslims, were killed in Guja-rat shortly after he took power there. The violence followed an arson attack on a train full of Hindu pilgrims in which 59 died. modi has always denied wrongdoing and a supreme court investigation found in-sufficient evidence to support the charges against him.

modi, who has never held of-fice at national level, pledged in his first speech after learn-ing of the scale of his victory to fulfil the dreams of all of In-dias 1.25 billion people.

I want to take all of you with me to take this country forward . . . it is my responsi-bility to take all of you with me to run this country, he said. He promised to make the

21st century Indias century.International investors and

local businessmen have wel-comed the huge mandate for the BJP, which has promised to implement wide-ranging economic reforms. Though economic growth was strong through much of the decade of rule by Congress, it has fal-tered in recent years.

modi made good gover-nance and development the main focus of his campaign, deriding Gandhi as a prince-ling who had little concept of the aspirations of the 551 million people who voted in the bitter and protracted six-week contest.

Gandhi, whose mother, So-nia, led Congress to victory in 2004, fought a lacklustre cam-paign. Party officials sought to insulate the nehru-Gandhi dynasty from criticism on Sat-urday. It is not about the re-sponsibility of one particular person or another, one said.

It is possible, though far from probable, that the crushing defeat will force the Congress into a radical re-structuring to make the party more transparent, representa-tive and responsive to voters.

For his part, modi is likely to use his personal victory to lever out many old-guard figures within his own party who opposed his rise. ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior BJP leader, said that the mood among officials was as sober and sombre in victory as [it would have been] in defeat.

The BJP won more than 30 per cent of votes cast, with Congress on 19 per cent. Due to Indias British-style first past the post electoral sys-tem, some smaller parties did extremely well with tiny overall vote shares. about one voter in 100 used the none of the above option, introduced for the first time in this poll. the guArdiAn

Chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat and Bharatiya Janata Partys prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi waves as he arrives at party headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday. AFP

World12 THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

CAMBODIA COMMUNITY JUSTICE ASSISTANCE PARTNERSHIP (CCJAP)

INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB)

The Cambodia Community Justice Assistance Partnership (CCJAP) continues the support that Australia has 1. provided over the past 17 years in the criminal justice sector in Cambodia; the assistance has moved from being donor-driven and institutionally focused to an increasingly community oriented and locally owned and administered program of support to provide communities with equitable access to justice.

The aim of CCJAP is to provide safer communities for women, youth and children through less crime. CCJAP 2. will work toward strengthening court and prison systems through more eective management of pre-trial arrangements, use of non-custodial sentencing and improved prisons.

Now the Ministry of Interior invites sealed bids from eligible bidders for construction of prison small scale 3. infrastructure and equipment, to be constructed in Kampong Speu, Battambong, Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kampong Cham and Say Rieng provincial prisons.

Procurement Method will be conducted through National Competitive Bidding (NCB) procedures consistent 4. with:

Royal Government of Cambodia: Procurement Manual for Externally Financed Projects/Programs in Cambodia, September 2005 and,

Government of Australia: Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines.

Interested qualied eligible bidders are invited to obtain a copy of the bidding documents free-of-charge from 5. the address given below by submitting a written application and by providing a copy of their current company legal certication (Ministry of commerce; Ministry of Economic and Finance; Ministry of land Management and Urban Planning and Patent year 2013 and 2014), there shall be no other condition for obtaining the bidding documents.

To be considered eligible applicants must:6.

Be a legally constituted rm - copies of original documents dening the constitution or legal status, place of registration, and principle place of business shall be submitted with the bid.

Have completed within the last 3 years contracts of similar nature of at least 50% of the value of the bid.

Not be under any notice of disbarment issued by the Government, The ADB, World Bank or other projects.

Bids must be delivered to the address given below at or before 7. 2:30 hours on 11 June 2014. Late bids will be rejected. Bids will be opened in public immediately thereafter at the address given below in the presence of the Bidders representatives and the projects beneciaries. Bidders representatives who choose to attend shall be allowed to be present in person.

All bids must be accompanied by a bid securing declaration, as described in the bidding documents, any bid not 8. accompanied by one will be rejected as non-compliant.

The bidding process is as follows:9.

Start of bid document distribution: 8:00 hrs, 13 May 2014

Deadline for Submission: 2:30 hrs, 11 June 2014

The address referred to above where properly sealed and stamped bid must be addressed is as follow:10.

To: Lt.Gen. Kuy Bunsorn

Director General Department of Prison, as Project Director;

Chairman of Procurement Committee;

Ministry of Interior,

Address: CCJAP Oce, 2nd oor of the Department of Local Administration (DOLA building)

Norodom Boulevard,

Phone & Fax: 023 726 207,

Email:nouarun@ccjap.org

War declared on Boko HaramN

igeria and its neighbours vowed on Saturday to join forces against

Boko Haram under an ac-cord described as a declara-tion of war on the islamic militants holding more than 200 schoolgirls.

meeting in Paris, Nigerian President goodluck Jonathan and his counterparts from Be-nin, Chad, Cameroon and Ni-ger approved an action plan to counter an organisation blamed for 2,000 deaths this year as well as last months abduction of the schoolgirls from northeastern Nigeria.

Underlining their threat, Boko Haram was suspected of carrying out another attack on the eve of the summit, kill-ing one Cameroonian soldier and kidnapping 10 Chinese workers in Cameroon.

We have seen what this organisation is capable of, French President Francois Hollande said. They have threatened civilians, they have attacked schools and they have kidnapped citizens of many countries.

When more than 200 young girls are being held in barbaric conditions with the prospect of being sold into slavery, there are no ques-

tions to be asked, only ac-tions to be taken.

The action plan will involve coordination of surveillance efforts aimed at finding the girls, the sharing of intel-ligence and joint efforts to secure the porous borders in the region, according to the summits conclusions.

in the longer term, the countries agreed to forge a regional counter-terrorism strategy under the auspices of the existing but barely active Lake Chad Basin Commis-sion, with technical expertise and training support from the UK, France, the eU and the US. The countries also agreed

to push for UN sanctions against the leaders of Boko Haram and another Nigerian islamist group, ansaru.

The west african countries have already been promised help in the form of surveil-lance tools and expert military advice from Britain, France and the US as they seek to combat a group that Hollande said had forged links with ter-rorist groups all over africa.

The african leaders echoed that warning. We are here to declare war on Boko Haram, Cameroon President Paul Biya said. and Chads idriss Deby warned: Terrorists have already done enough

damage. Letting them con-tinue would run the risk of allowing the whole region to fall into chaos.

Nigerias Jonathan, criti-cised for what many see as a lacklustre response to the abduction, stressed his com-mitment to finding the girls. We are totally committed to finding [them], Jonathan said. Weve been scanning these areas with surveillance aircraft, he added, saying Nigeria had deployed 20,000 troops to find the girls.

Boko Haram is no lon-ger a local terror group, he said. From 2009 to today it has changed and can be de-scribed as al-Qaeda in west-ern and central africa.

The pressure on the lead-ers in Paris to come up with concrete steps to address the crisis intensified when gun-men launched the Cameroon attack. militants stormed an encampment used by Chinese road workers late on Friday in a region of northern Cam-eroon just across the border from the town where they ab-ducted the girls a month ago.

a Cameroon soldier was killed in a firefight and 10 Chi-nese workers were believed to have been taken prisoner by the gunmen. AFP

Nigerias President Goodluck Jonathan (centre) is escorted by French President Francois Hollande following a summit in Paris on Saturday. AFP

a LaoS air force plane car-rying senior government of-ficials has crashed, killing the countrys defence minister and at least five others.

The plane came down in a forested area of Xiangkhoung province, near one of Laoss major archaeological sites, the Plain of Jars, the Thai for-eign ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said.

Laos National Television showed images of the aircraft with smoke rising from its charred remains.

The defence minister, Douangchay Phichit, was one of the countrys deputy prime ministers and a high-ranking member of Laos Politburo, the main decision-making body for the nations ruling Communist party.

also among the dead were his wife, the governor of the capital of Vientiane, Sukhan mahalad, and two other se-nior officials.

The russian-made plane left the capital early on Sat-urday morning, heading for an official ceremony in the northeastern province of Xiangkhoung, about 290 miles away.

The cause of the crash is not yet clear, but a witness said

the plane crashed just over a mile away from the airport where it was due to land.

around 20 people were be-lieved to have been on board, according to Nipat Thonglek, the Thai defence ministrys permanent secretary. He said he was given the information by authorities in neighbour-ing Laos who did not imme-diately release details of the other passengers.

Thailands Thai rath news-paper identified the plane as a russian-made antonov aN-74.

a Laos air force plane has crashed on its way to Xiang-khouang province in the north of the country. The mayor of Vientiane, the de-fence minister of Laos and his wife were on board, an official told reuters.

Thailands foreign ministry said it had been informed by Laoss government that the plane had crashed at 6.15am.

Laos is one of the poor-est countries in asia, under its authoritarian communist one-party government, and has a poor track record on air safety. Last october a civilian plane crashed into the me-kong river, killing all 49 peo-ple on board. THE GUARDIAN

Laos crash kills defence minister, senior officials

World13THE PHNOM PENH POST may 19, 2014

Technical Coordination Advisor (Re-announcement)Programme/Division : Technical Coordination Unit, Ofce of the CEOPost Level : M-13Work location : Vientiane, Lao PDRContract type/ Duration : Fixed-term appointment / One-year contract renewable

Mekong River Commission

Key Responsibilities:Provide advice on and ensure better quality and integration across all MRC programmes; Support Programme Coordinators in operational management of their programmes and projects through a result-oriented project cycle management approach; Advise the CEO on programme development strategies; Actively helps pursue the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Mekong River Commission, by driving and promoting it both internally and externally as regards policy and organizational development aspects;Prepare and organise MRC annual international events/ conferences;Design and implement consistent MRC programme workplans and establish an inte-grated workplan monitoring system; Monitor on-going programme activities and identify gaps and duplications; Responsible for quality assurance of technical reports and project proposals; Identify inter-programme cooperation opportunities and establish the appropriate mechanisms; Ensure integration of cross-cutting activities such as strategic planning, programme promotion and facilitation, information management, development of rules and procedures, and integrated capacity building; Improve MRC project and programme management guidelines for more efcient and harmonized formulation and reporting; Design and implement an MRC evaluation system; Other related duties, as required by the CEO.

Qualications/Requirements:

Advanced degree (Masters Degree or higher preferred) in Water Resources/Natural Resources Management, sustainable development or a related discipline; At least 15 year experience in international technical cooperation in the eld of Water Resources/Natural Resources Management and Development; preferably in the scope of river basin organizations and integrated water resources management; Demonstrated experience and skills in strategic planning for regional/international organizations;Extensive experience in project/programme management including the formulation, coordination, and results based monitoring and evaluation of international programmes; Strong communication skills, both interpersonal and written, to fulll the diverse technical and managerial requirements, and to effectively coordinate with MRC programmes and a wide range of regional stakeholders;

Proven experience and facilitation skills in organizing international events/conferences; Capacity to work in a multicultural environment essential; Computer prociency and good knowledge of the possibilities and use of electronic information systems; Fluency in English, both written and spoken.

The job description and other information can be obtained at MRC website http://www.mrcmekong.org/working-with-mrc/employment. Qualied female candidates are encouraged to apply. Only short-listed candidates will be notied.

Closing date for applications: 6 June 2014

Application procedures: Only nationals of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam are eligible to apply. The application should include (i) a cover letter outlining clearly how the candidate meets the requirements of the position, (ii) a detailed CV, and (iii) MRC Personal History Form. The position title and section/division must be indicated in the cover letter.

The application should be sent to the National Mekong Committee in the applicants home country:

Cambodia National Mekong CommitteeP.O.Box 623, 364 Monivong Blvd., Sangkat Phsar Doerm Thkouv, Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, CambodiaTel. (855-23) 216 514 Fax. (855-23) 218 506E-mail:cnmcs@cnmc.gov.kh or khom.sk@gmail.com

Lao National Mekong CommitteeKhunbulom Road, Chantabouly District, Vientiane, Lao PDR. Tel. (856-21) 260 983 Fax. (856-21) 260 984E-mail: lnmcs@monre.gov.la

Thai National Mekong CommitteeDepartment of Water Resources180/3 Rama 6 Road, Soi Phibul Watana BuildingPhayathai, Bangkok 10400 ThailandTel. (66-2) 271 6165, 271 6620Fax. (66-2) 298 6605E-mail: tnmc@dwr.mail.go.th

Viet Nam National Mekong Committee23 Hang Tre, Ha Noi, Viet NamTel. (84-4) 825 4785 Fax. (84-4) 825 6929E-mail: vnmc.personnel@gmail.com

The role of MRC is to promote and coordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries mutual benet and the peoples well-being

MRC Secretariat is now recruiting a highly qualied candidate for the position of

EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Financial Analyst

The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh is seeking an individual for the Financial Analyst position for the Ofce of Financial Management (OFM), USAID/Cambodia.

The Financial Analyst performs a wide range of nancial analyses necessary for the effective and efcient management and control of the USAID program funds. Other position duties include the conduct of audit reviews; assisting in the determination of nancial feasibility of development projects and in the design of internal management controls. The incumbent will be responsible to collect and present facts and recommendations clearly and concisely.

Salary: The annual salary range for this position is USD 19,168 29,711.

Required Qualications

Bachelors degree in Accounting, Financial 1. Management, Auditing, or Economics.Five years of experience in professional accounting, 2. auditing or nance.Level IV (uent) Speaking/Reading/Writing English 3. and Khmer are required. Language prociency will be tested.

Application Procedure

The application deadline is June 2, 2014. Interested candidates must submit applications by email to RecruitmentPHP@state.gov using the Universal Application for Employment as a Locally Employed Staff or Family Member (DS-174) form. The application form and complete details on this position can be found at http://cambodia.usembassy.gov/employment_opportunities.html.

Note: All Ordinarily Resident (OR) applicants must have the required work and/or residency permits to be eligible for consideration.

Syrian general killed in combat, says officialTHE chief of Syrias air defence forces, General Hussein Isaac, has been killed in combat near Damascus, a security official said yesterday. The general died of wounds suffered in fighting at Mleiha, a key battleground southeast of the capital, making him one of the few top-ranking officers whose deaths have been announced during Syrias three-year war. The air defence forces headquarters is in Mleiha, a key flashpoint in current fighting around Damascus. Because the rebels do not have an air force, the forces under Isaacs command have rarely been deployed for air defence. AFP

Iraq election candidate kidnapped in BaghdadMIlITAnTS kidnapped a candidate from a small Shia Muslim political party yesterday as officials in Iraq prepared to announce the results of last months general election. Rahman Abdulzahra al-Jazairi is the general secretary of Hezbollah Warithun, an offshoot of the main Hezbollah party in Iraq. It is not expected to win any seats in parliament following the April 30 vote, results of which were due to be released later yesterday or today, election commission officials say. AFP

S Sudan on brink of human disasterRobin Lustig

It IS happening again. twenty years after the genocide in Rwanda, 30 years after the famine in

Ethiopia, africas twin scourg-es are back.

this time it is a single coun-try facing a double disaster. South Sudan, the worlds newest nation, not yet three years old, is on the brink of catastrophe.

In melut, on the banks of the Nile, close to the oilfields and the border with Sudan, the signs of impending di-saster are impossible to miss. this week the worlds rich-est nations will have one last chance to make good their promises of help.

Nearly 20,000 people have fled to the refugee camps in melut since fighting between rival government factions broke out last December. In total, more than a million people have fled from their homes and, with the rainy season starting, more than a third of the population 3.7 million people are already facing emergency and crisis levels of hunger.

there is no food here, a man says beneath an acacia tree in one of meluts make-

shift camps. No food. We eat leaves from the trees and the women go out to collect firewood. But when the rain com