A thief in the night

Fri, 3 December 2004

Youk Chhang

On November 29, at 4:25 a.m., a bandit invaded my house. Just as he crawled and moved towards the stairs, I happened to walk down. So, we met. As I chased him, I noticed that he was a young skinny boy of about 12 or 14 years old. He wore black clothes and a white krama covered his head. He ran towards the rear side of the house, trying to escape by climbing down a small set of steps. But I caught his hand. Then, all of a sudden, he reminded me of the Khmer Rouge time. I was about his age when I stole rice from the rice fields for my pregnant sister who had been starving for months and months. The boy triggered the bad memories of how much I suffered when Khmer Rouge guards hit me with an axe, and of how desperately I wanted to live.

The guards put me in jail for weeks and I had to endure their cruel punishments. That painful memory is still with me today, and it returned most vividly last night when I caught the boy's hand. Emotionally, I released his hand allowing him to escape. Had I pushed him a bit, he would have fallen to the ground from the three-story building and would have died instantly.

I am glad that I decided not to do that. Even though I released him, I still wanted to teach him that stealing is wrong. So I alerted the neighbors. Panicking and confused, the boy dropped himself from the building and ran towards the fully lit streets where morning exercise people and a restaurant security guard were chatting. The guard chased him, holding a big stick. Suddenly, everyone who saw the incident screamed: "Arrest the boy but do not beat him." He was caught by the security guard, who later decided to let him go home. I could not go back to sleep, but I felt relieved that my bad memories probably saved the boy's life, and also taught me to forgive. I was also impressed with how those witnessing the incident responded to such an incident. If people don't take the law into their own hands, there is hope for better human rights protection.

I hope the boy has learned a lesson, and that from now on he will try to be a good person. I hope someone can convey my message to him.

Youk Chhang - Director, Documentation Center of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

DC-Cam to Help Burma Record Rights Abuses

BY DENE-HERN CHEN | AUGUST 5, 2013

Prominent Khmer Rouge research organization the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) is collaborating with a network of Burmese groups seeking to create an archive of human rights abuses in Burma as the country transitions from a military regime to a fledging democracy.

The Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma), which includes local NGOs dedicated to advocating for Burmese political prisoners, ethnic minorities and women’s rights, is planning to implement the Unofficial Truth Project (UTP), which will document ongoing rights violations in the country, Han Gyi, a coordinator for ND-Burma, said by email.

DC-Cam Director Youk Chhang visited Burma last month to discuss the challenges that come with documenting human rights violations, said Mr. Han Gyi, adding that the Cambodian center’s expertise in compiling and understanding documents and evidence would be helpful in assisting ND-Burma.

“The project aims to provide a basis for the government to provide reparations, especially to those with urgent needs,” Mr. Han Gyi said. “In the long term, the aim is to prevent serious human rights violations.”

Because many members of the current government are from the previous regime, the word “truth-seeking” or “truth commission” in the vein of DC-Cam would be considered threatening, said Mr. Han Gyi, which is why it is, for now, an unofficial project.

After decades of military rule, Burma is opening up, introducing reforms such as free elections, increased press freedom and the release of some political prisoners.

However, human rights violations still persist in the country, most recently due to the growing polarization between Buddhists and minority Muslims. In the past year, more than 200 people have been killed in religious clashes and more than 150,000 have been displaced—the majority stateless Muslims known as the Rohingya.

Mr. Chhang said Sunday that ND-Burma would be sending some members to Cambodia on August 11 for about two months to learn documentation techniques.

“For me, it is fortunate to have the chance…to guide them through the political minefield of a project of this sort, caught between the sometimes polar opposites of ensuring that historical records are preserved in their entirety and maintaining a sufficiently positive relationship with both the…government and the background players which inevitably will include key remnants of the old regime,” he said.

© 2013, The Cambodia Daily. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in print, electronically, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

Myanmar to follow Cambodia’s lead in documenting recent history

Chit Minh Lay visits Toul Sleng. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Myanmar is in the process of setting up a documentation centre to reflect on decades of human rights abuses. It’s using the records of Toul Sleng prison as inspiration.

When Chit Min Lay first visited Toul Sleng last month, the cramped cells and blood-splattered walls were eerily familiar. It looked just like “his jail”: the concrete box in Myanmar where he spent 14 years as a political prisoner. He saw the photographs of victims, and turned away.

“I didn’t dare to see their faces, because I lost my friends in prison. I didn’t want to see these horrible things.”

Youk Chhang at the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). VIREAK MAI

During his month-long stay in Cambodia, which ended on Wednesday, 38-year-old Chit Min Lay returned several times to Toul Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. In the prison the Khmer Rouge called S-21, about 14,000 men, women and children were tortured and then executed.

He talked with Chum Mey, one of a handful of known S-21 survivors. The 82-year-old is one of two former inmates who came back to the place they were detained to sell memoirs, take pictures and talk to visitors.

Chit Min Lay was transfixed. He wanted to take Mey to Myanmar, he wrote later. The pair spoke for a long time, and took photos together: two former prisoners, separated by a few hundred miles.

Chit Min Lay and fellow Burmese activist Nang Htoi Rawng have spent the past month in the Kingdom working with the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), which collects documentation and evidence about the Khmer Rouge regime.

One of the goals of the organisation which sent them is to create a documentation centre to serve Myanmar. There, where many human rights abuses have taken place, record-keeping is still in its infancy.

Jolie unveils new film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap

King Norodom Sihamoni gives flowers to Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie at the premiere of Jolie’s new film First They Killed My Father on Saturday in Siem Reap. STR/AFP

After the ministers, dignitaries and survivors of the Khmer Rouge had filed in Saturday evening, and Angelina Jolie had greeted the arrival of King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, the lights in the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom finally dimmed for the world premiere of First They Killed My Father.

For a brief moment, the rustling of insects was the only sound before the audience of more than 1,000 was transported back to April 12, 1975.

An adaptation of Loung Ung’s autobiographical book recounting her and her family’s suffering under the Khmer Rouge, the Jolie-directed film depicts in vivid detail the forced evacuations from Phnom Penh, the journey to the brutal labour camps in the country’s northwest, and, for Ung, the conscription of children as soldiers into the ranks of the Revolutionary Army of Kampuchea. Ung, who is portrayed in a highly emotional performance by child actress Sareum Srey Moch, was five years old when her family was ordered out of the capital.

For some fellow survivors in attendance at the world premiere, the depiction on the big screen was a harrowing trip back to the country’s darkest chapter.

Say Vorphorn, a 45-year-old doctor in attendance, said that while his experience as a child-survivor of the Khmer Rouge could not be compared to Ung’s, the loss of his own father resonated strongly.

“I was 3 years old during that time, but I didn’t suffer as much because my mother was a cook … [but] I feel this deeply inside my heart because my father was killed during that time,” he said.

Ma Rynet, the star of The Last Reel, who played an extra in a scene in which a captured Khmer Rouge soldier is beaten by angry villagers, said that seeing the final product brought her to tears.

“I hope the world will know Cambodia through this film,” she added.

Shot in the country between November 2015 and February 2016, the movie employed more than 3,500 background actors to recreate scenes showing the population transfers and forced collectivisation of the Khmer Rouge, as well as battle sequences from the eventual Vietnamese invasion that toppled the regime. The film is in Khmer, with occasional French and Vietnamese, and will be released later this year on Netflix.

Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung arrive at a press conference for Jolie’s film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap on Saturday. Eli Lillis

In an interview with The Post, Jolie said that beyond highlighting the potential of Cambodia for filmmakers – foreign and domestic – she hopes the film will in some ways reintroduce the country to international audiences.

“I hope that people will not just look at this film as a history lesson but they will walk away with a new love and respect for the country,” she said. Attending the film with her six children – one of whom is Cambodian – Jolie has pledged to remain involved in supporting the local film industry.

After attending the premiere, Youk Chhang, the executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, said the movie represented a new approach to portrayals of the trauma of the Pol Pot regime.

“I think that this film, for the first time, would train [a Cambodian audience] to look for a beauty in the darkness,” he said, noting that human scenes, in which Ung shares a cricket to eat with her sister, or is hit by her brother after stealing rice, “really capture the heart”.

Himself a child survivor, Chhang felt that it accurately captures the emotional complexities of a childhood experience of mass atrocity.

“Children don’t use physical resistance, they use emotion. It’s the only form of resistance to fight [with] … I think Angie [Jolie] captured the complexities of the emotion on the camera.”

Jolie, speaking to The Post after the film’s Saturday press conference at the Raffles Hotel, said that rendering a child’s point-of-view on-screen was a central challenge in orchestrating the camera-work with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle.

A difficulty was not just having shots at Ung’s low height but deciding “what she will and will not look at”.

“That point of view grows. At a certain point she cannot look at blood, and when she’s older the POV matures and gets hardened and she starts to witness things she didn’t when she was younger,” she said.

Loung Ung, in an interview on Saturday, said that she hoped the film may break misconceptions about the emotional experience of surviving war and genocide.

“I think people will see that it takes more than anger, [and] it takes more than strength to survive. It takes love, it takes soul and we Cambodians have that in spades,” she said.

Another survivor, Sin Nou Visakha, 65, broke into tears as she spoke to The Post after the screening, calling “the image the same as reality”.

She hoped the film could educate Cambodia’s youth about the horrors of the past.

“I want the young children to watch this, more than old people, because we have been through it and some of them don’t believe that we suffered like that.”

First They Killed My Father will be screening in Phnom Penh at Olympic Stadium on Tuesday, February 21, at 6pm and in Battambang on February 23. It will be available on Netflix later this year.

Mon, 20 February 2017

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon l the Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia in brief: February 21, 2017

© Pha Lina CPP amends Party Law, opening door to dissolving opposition "The triumph of dictatorship": Observers say the swift passage of amendments to the Law on Political Parties severely curtails human rights and could see the ruling party dismantle its chief political rivals. Former CNRP president Sam Rainsy, who resigned from the opposition ahead of the new law, called on the international community to "address the fact that they paid for a democratic system which is now lurching towards a one-party state". READ MORE Plans to excavate in PP dug up A large-scale project to dig and transport soil was recently given the green light by Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong in Por Sen Chey district in contradiction with a longstanding government ban on the practice. In 2005, the government decided to halt soil digging in the capital. READ MORE  Woman delivers baby on bridge Twenty-nine-year-old expectant mother Ny Chamroeun was rushing to the hospital yesterday morning when congestion on the Monivong Bridge slowed her down, forcing her to deliver her baby in the middle of Phnom Penh traffic. Chamroeun felt contractions at about 7am and had hopped onto a motodop to take her to hospital. READ MORE  Cluster model to entice SEZ investors Kerry WorldBridge Logistics SEZ will partner with German experts to make its industrial park more attractive to German manufacturers and other potential tenants. READ MORE Thai firm to energise Poipet industrial park Phnom Penh SEZ inks a deal with a private Thai energy firm to connect its nearly-completed industrial park in Poipet to the grid. READ MORE Most popular story from yesterday  © STR/AFP Jolie unveils new film First They Killed My Father in Siem Reap After the ministers, dignitaries and survivors of the Khmer Rouge had filed in Saturday evening, and Angelina Jolie had greeted the arrival of King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, the lights in the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom finally dimmed for the world premiere of First They Killed My Father. READ MORE

Cambodian hotel industry shows growth

Rooms and lobby area in the 5-star Sokhalay Resort in Siem Reap. Supplied

A recent study has found that the hotel service quality in Cambodia is improving due to rising competition and the industry’s readiness to compete regionally.

A recent report by the Bunna Realty Group shows that as of the third quarter of 2015, there are 317 hotels with 15,000 rooms in Phnom Penh, and 417 hotels with 17,000 rooms in Siem Reap; 133 hotels with 4,000 rooms in Sihanoukville, and 45 hotels with 1,600 rooms in Battambang.

The same study also identified that within Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, only 892 hotels could be deemed to have at least a two-star ranking.

In addition to the breakdown of the sector, the study also looked at hotel occupancy rates. Of the hotels surveyed in Phnom Penh from January to November of this year, occupancy reached 68 per cent; while it was 66 per cent in Siem Reap, 74 per cent in Sihanoukville, and 75 per cent in Battambang.

The study also looked at the hotel’s ranking compared to price. Two-star hotels offered rooms ranging from $21 to $60, whereas 3-star hotels cost from $60 to $200 for a room. 5-star hotels saw the greatest range of prices at $150 to $2000 per night, based on the room type, size and amenities included.

Hen Socheat, Bunna Realty Group director announced that private online bookings cost more than bookings made through travel agencies.

“The rate of hotel occupancy via online booking is about 71 per cent on average,” he said.

He added that the improvement in services seen in the growth of the hospitality sector came from better coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and private sector training programmes.

However, the study concluded that during the peak months from December to February every year, hotels reach near full occupancy especially in Siem Reap when bookings rise to 100 per cent. Socheat said that this signifies the need for hotel expansion.

Room and service quality in Cambodian hotels is constantly increasing. Supplied

However, Ho Vandy, an adviser to the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, said these statistics are not credible due to the fact that the study was undertaken via an online survey, and did not consult with private hospitality companies that work directly with clients and their partners.

Socheat admitted that the statistics in this study could have been skewed.

Based on the Ministry of Tourism’s statistics from 2013 to 2014, Vandy explained that in Phnom Penh there were a total of 7,807 rooms across 170 hotels, and 477 guesthouses adding an additional 6,614 rooms.

“Meanwhile, in Siem Reap, there were only 175 hotels but they had a total of 11,620 rooms, with an additional 3,927 rooms from 254 guesthouses,” he said.

Government data also showed that there were only 54 hotels in Sihanoukville, totalling 2,697 rooms with an additional 2,734 rooms from 187 registered guesthouses.

For Battambang, the government study yielded 32 hotels with 1,620 rooms.

From this comparison, the number of hotels in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanouk province have more than doubled, while those in Battambang province has also seen a notable increase, all within one year.

Nevertheless, both statistics show that the hotel industry is growing.

Thu, 26 November 2015

Siv Meng l the Phnom Penh Post

Din Somethearith: Chief Executive Officer of eight hotels

Learning from the experience of someone successful in both goal setting and goal achieving is very important. Many people know how to set goals, but not many people know how to achieve them.

“My first goal is to get higher education,” says the businessman behind the success of Frangipani Villa Hotels, a famous accommodation group. “Those who are well educated will have a successful life.”

“I knew that business is a big dream. To make the dream come true, I needed higher education,” he elaborates.

With the mention of Frangipani Villa Hotels, some may already know who this man is. Din Somethearith, 40, is a co-founder and chief executive officer of Frangipani’s eight hotels located in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Growing up, Somethearith lived with his mother, his father was killed in Pol Pot regime. He couldn’t afford to study all high school subjects part-time. On top of that, he walked to school everyday until he was in grad 11, when he got his first bicycle.

Despite the hardship, he still received good grades on his high school final exam. “Only 20 to 30 students got the grade at that time,” he recalls. For his bachelor degree, he decided to pursue his passion in structural design by studying Architecture and Urbanism at the Royal University of Fine Arts.

A Bachelor of Arts wasn’t enough for Somethearith, he wanted a master degree. Without sufficient money to pursue his Master’s, he knew he had to score high on English and computer skills to get a scholarship.

Students typically spend hundreds of dollars a month to study English and computer at good schools. Somethearith didn’t have this luxury. He says, “I spent 300 to 500 riel per hour to study English, and I just sat down and watched my seniors working at the computer and asked them whenever I didn’t understand anything.”

By the end of year 2000, the persistent young man achieved his second goal for a scholarship to pursue a Master Degree in Urban Environmental Management in Thailand following his Bachelor of Arts graduation. He could finally receive a master degree like he always wanted. But what he needed more at the time was experience working in the fields related with his major, says Somethearith.

“When I came back [from Thailand], I worked as a consultant for five years for various institutions such as, UN, ADB, JICA, etc. All of my work was related to urban development,” he says.

In February 2007, Somethearith’s life reached high note when he became Country Manager for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) in Cambodia.

Also in 2007, the now-Frangipani Villa Hotels CEO, who has always wanted financial freedom in addition to higher education, began to build up his business team of three members and started his first boutique hotel –Frangipani Villa 60s Hotel.

Because of clear goals and strong commitment them, supported by the strong team, the Frangipani group expanded to one more hotel in 2008. Somethearith left UN Habitat in 2010 to concentrate on his business. Under his refocus on Frangipani, the group established another hotel in 2010, two more in 2011 and three in 2012.

“Success is when I set a goal and achieve it in a period of time,” says Din Somethearith, giving an example. “When I was young, I wanted a bicycle. So if I could save money to afford it, it’s my success.” says Somethearith.

Looking back to 2002 when he returned from studying in Thailand, his friends were driving cars already while he had little money left. Despite this, he knew clearly that he was on the right track. “I had nothing, but I didn’t worry because I had high education, so my next steps would be faster than other people,” he says. Because of this belief, the hotel group has established eight successful hotels in only five years.

There are four main steps behind his success to goal achievement: choosing the right mentors –mostly his relatives, seniors and teacher, studying what he loves, gaining experience, and in particular, withstanding the challenges. Din Somethearith adds, “don’t give up when you face obstacles because they just come to test your life.”

Wed, 18 September 2013

Dara Saoyuthnea l the Phnom Penh Post

Apartments take on new life as hotels

High rise apartments and condos continue to be built in Phnom Penh, but some existing ones are being converted into hotels. Moeun Nhean

Phnom Penh investors and property owners are getting creative in the wake of subdued demand and oversupply in the residential market, with some deciding to renovate existing apartments and remodel them into hotels.

It looks like the apartment market has finally filled over the brim, as is evident from the many apartment owners seeking to remodel their apartment properties into hotels instead. Experts, however, have advised the opposite, warning the hotel industry is not in great shape either.

Din Somethearith, president of the Cambodian Hotel Association (CHA), told Post Property there is a fair number of apartments located in the Tonle Bassac and Boeung Keng Kang areas that are being renovated into hotels due to the current apartment oversupply and downcast demand.

However, Somethearith suggested the apartment cum hotel remodelling move would not prove beneficial.

Interview Co-founder and CEO of renowned The Frangipani Hotel Group, Somethearith Din

Thu, 12 May 2016

Post Staff l the Phnom Penh Post

Co-founder and CEO of renowned The Frangipani Hotel Group, Somethearith Din, speaks to Post Property about the quaint appeal of boutique hotels within the Kingdom.

What distinguishes a boutique hotel from a standard hotel?
A boutique hotel is associated with charm. They are smaller sized and usually hold less than 100 rooms. However, in Cambodia, boutique hotels mostly consist of less than 50 rooms.

How is the aesthetic and architecture different from boutique hotels? 
As a very well crafted and decorated hotel, a boutique hotel normally promotes local arts and culture because it is smaller in size and thus requires – and can afford – more dedication to its architecture and décor.

Can you estimate for us how many boutique hotels are in Phnom Penh, or are members of the Cambodia Hotel Association (CHA)?
While many small and minimum-sized hotels label themselves as boutique hotels, there are no more than 100 boutique hotels in Phnom Penh. The CHA has around 20 boutique hotels as members in Phnom Penh and the boutique hotel members are higher in number in Siem Reap.

Tourism licences to go online

Foreign travellers and expats overlook the sunset on the Tonle Sap river at the FCC last year. POST STAFF

The Ministry of Tourism launched a new online system yesterday to register tourism-related businesses and tour guides who need a licence, in order to ease the licence inspection process and boost government revenues, said a senior ministry official.

Neb Samouth, director general at the Ministry of Tourism, said the online system is part of governmental reforms to simplify the licence-registration process, which has to be done every year, and aid with the inspection of unlicensed businesses.

“The goal is to reduce the unnecessary barriers for the private sector as part of government reforms,” said Samouth.

The new system, which will replace the traditional registration process by 2016, will help the government increase tax collection as each business will now be issued an ID and Quick Response Code, making tracking the companies easier.

“For the private sector, the system will save their time. For the public sector, the system will create a database for us by creating ID and QR Code for each business and tour guide and therefore we could better manage the inspection of unlicensed businesses and tour guides,” Samouth said.

He added that, with the new system, the government plans to get the close to 30 per cent of unlicensed businesses to register by 2016.

In the traditional system, businesses would have to submit a list of documents at the ministry’s provincial tourism departments, after which, the documents would be sent to the ministry in Phnom Penh and sent back with the approved licence, making it a long and cumbersome process.

Now, however, businesses and tour guides can visit www.cambodiatourismindustry.org andwww.touristguide.com respectively to send in their online applications. Licences will be issued three days after submission and the system will notify businesses a month before their licence is up for yearly renewal.

Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, said he welcomed the online system and that it would help reduce the amount of time needed to register for a license.

“The online system is more flexible and it saves us time and money. For people in the provinces, it will be so much easier for them,” he said.

The online system will help reduce unfair competition among registered and unregistered businesses, encouraging the latter to register themselves, said Thoun Sinan, managing director of travel company B2B Cambodia.

“It is unfair when businesses with a licence pay proper tax and then fail to compete in term of pricing with the unlicensed ones as they are not obligated with tax,” Sinan said.

“The database from the system will show who are with licences and who are not. So customers will be able to decide,” he added.

Last year, Cambodia received a total of 4.5 million tourists, generating around $3 billion in revenue and creating more than 620,000 jobs. As of 2014, the Kingdom had close to 940 hotels, 1,571 guest houses, 1,399 restaurants, 864 tour operators, 335 tourism resorts and more than 5,000 tour guides.

Tue, 21 April 2015

Chan Muyhong l the Phnom Penh Post