Some Thais couldn't fathom that their own soldiers shot their own people

Thai soldiers charge and shoot in the air, in the direction of Thai supporter of exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (not in photo), in Bangkok on April 13. Thai troops fired warning shots and tear gas in clashes with petrol bomb-hurling protesters in Bangkok Monday, leaving 70 injured as the government launched a crackdown to enforce a state of emergency. AFP / Getty Images / Nicolas Asfouri

Cambodians and Burmese

Thursday, 20 May 2010
Originally posted at http://thailandtrouble.blogspot.com/2010/05/cambodians-and-burmese.html

Cambodian mercenaries were manning army positions protesters told me at Bon Kai and Din Daeng during the afternoon on 18 May. The only evidence they could offer was that some of the troops they had tried to talk to could not speak Thai. A young woman, who was still selling drinks outside the Erawan Hotel while her baby perhaps just a year old lay sleeping on the ground as the army was advancing up Ratchaprasong, called from within the refuge of Wat Pathumwanaram to tell me it was too dangerous to outside as there were Burmese troops. Later when I reached Siam Square, where there had apparently been fighting between armed civilians and troops I only met Thai infantry.

Could the government find enough Burmese or Cambodian mercenaries, put them in Thai uniforms and train them with Thai weapons at short notice? What benefits might there be other than increasing numbers of dependable troops in light of rumours of many junior soldiers being red?

Or might it be that these rumours are without substance but spread and are believed because they relieve people of having to accept that they are facing, and being shot by, soldiers who like themselves are Thai? Some may be comforted if it is Burmese or Cambodians who are there to impose the state's will and defend its interests because of the generally negative stereotypes attached to these nationalities?

Not dissimilar is the disagreement and even mystery over the identities of a handful of civilians with rifles who it seems fought with troops in and around Siam Square. I got no closer than eight, maybe six, feet to one man with an M16 for just a few minutes. It was not possible to talk. Some protesters say these men are Red, a proto-militia perhaps, but one protester insisted their identity and motives were a mystery. But what could motivate a small group of men other than anger, belief or vengeance to fight against the much greater numbers of the army when their only advantage may have been intimate knowledge of the urban terrain? On the other hand it may not matter because that they were there and fighting troops makes for common cause with people of the Red movement, whether they of the mind to pursue their demands by peace or through force. Thus their exploits may enter into Red mythology. Are these men drawn from the same group of men-in-black caught on film on 10 April? The armed man I saw was only wearing a black jacket, his jeans were blue and he wasn't wearing a hat or balaclava. Being dressed quite differently from the men-in-black may suggest he was from a different group?

There is a large black market in military weapons in Thailand. Hitmen, enforcers and mercenaries are apparently relatively common livelihoods. It may not be difficult for either the government, Reds or other elements to finance hired hands to do violent work. Many hands may willingly take up such duties spurred on by the intensity of feelings and the depths of division in the country. This violent backdrop, the lack of evidence, and the interests of all players to pin blame on rivals for killings forms a difficult environment for building confidence, stability and engagement but a fertile one for rumour and suspicion.

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Cambodian and Burmese accused of involving in Bangkok bloodshed and arson

An army soldier stands guard over anti-government "red shirt" supporters detained at a Buddhist temple in central Bangkok May 21, 2010. Troops manned razor-wire roadblocks and searched vehicles for weapons in Bangkok on Friday, two days after they ended anti-government protests that descended into the worst violence in modern Thai history. They also swept through the capital's posh central shopping area, searching for weapons and explosives in the now-deserted battleground. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

By Sokhoeun Pang
Originally posted at The Son of The Khmer Empire

The war between the Redd shirts and the elite Bangkok last week did not paint only a bad picture of Thailand itself, but it even dragged Cambodia and Burma to the same level of negative image. The rumours are palying now in both sites of the Thai factions: The Red accuse the Thai elite govt of having Cambodian mercenaries in the Thai military troops for crashing and killing them and yet the Thai elite govt accuses the Red of having Cambodian mercenaries among them for Bangkok arson. You can read them here, here, here, and here. Below I just extract from Thailand’s Trouble:

Cambodian mercenaries were manning army positions protesters told me at Bon Kai and Din Daeng during the afternoon on 18 May. The only evidence they could offer was that some of the troops they had tried to talk to could not speak Thai. A young woman, who was still selling drinks outside the Erawan Hotel while her baby perhaps just a year old lay sleeping on the ground as the army was advancing up Ratchaprasong, called from within the refuge of Wat Pathumwanaram to tell me it was too dangerous to outside as there were Burmese troops. Later when I reached Siam Square, where there had apparently been fighting between armed civilians and troops I only met Thai infantry.

Thailand’s Trouble also gives analytic questions below regarding to the allegation of the RED.

Could the government find enough Burmese or Cambodian mercenaries, put them in Thai uniforms and train them with Thai weapons at short notice? What benefits might there be other than increasing numbers of dependable troops in light of rumours of many junior soldiers being red?

Or might it be that these rumors are without substance but spread and are believed because they relieve people of having to accept that they are facing, and being shot by, soldiers who like themselves are Thai? Some may be comforted if it is Burmese or Cambodians who are there to impose the state’s will and defend its interests because of the generally negative stereotypes attached to these nationalities?

NOTE: I don’t want to add any more idea related to this post since I just reacted in my previous post: Thais spread rumors that Khmer mercenaries among the red shirt, regarding to this issue.

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Thai spread rumours that Khmer mercenaries among the red shirts

A Thai shows Khmer Sak (Khmer Tattoo) on his back during Thai Tattoo Festival

By Sokhoeun Pang
Originally posted at The Son of The Khmer Empire

The Irish Time published an article on Siamese recent bloodhed titled :Mop-up operation in Bangkok under way, which described the situation in Bangkok during the past, present, the damage, the rebuilding Siamese society, etc., and especially about the RED shirts violence which has again something related to Khmer. Read the article below.

Rumours swirl in the capital. Many say the Black Shirt hardcore rioters were made up of Khmer mercenaries from Cambodia. I witnessed one fighter with elaborate Khmer style tattoos on his neck and arms, but these are also popular in Thailand.

With this rummour Khmerization has reasonably reacted that:

Many red shirt protesters were mainly made up of ethnic Khmers and Laotians living in the northeastern provinces of Thailand who are Thai citizens. We need to remember also that the Thai media owned by the Red Shirt Movement also accused the Abhisit government of dressing up Khmer prisoners in military uniform and sent them to crackdown on the red shirt recently. How true are these rumours? Nobody knows.

Then followed by some anynomous commentators in Khmerization:

Anonymous said...

This is a ridiculous accusation. Such rumor are a bunch made up lies trying to point fingers at Cambodia for Thailand’s own embarrassing uncontrollable political bloodshed. Keep your own fight and your own problems in your own country. Keep your fights to yourself. Don’t try to incite and inflame Cambodia into involving in your bullshit chaotic political madness.

Anonymous said…

It is ridiculous that Khmers have become convenient scapegoats for all the Thai political problems. Khmers have gone through enough suffering and bloodshed so they would be scared to get into such dangerous game. If they found some Khmer-speaking protesters among the red shirts, they must be ethnic Khmers living in Thailand called Khmer Surin. These claims are total lies to try to sow hatred among the Thais against Cambodia and the Khmers people. The yellow shirts who brought Abhisit into powers have caused border conflict with Cambodia when they stir up trouble along the border that saw Thai troops occupying a strip of lands in Preah Vihear temple in 2008 that caused armed clashes and tensions until today. Stop blaming Khmers for all your problems. Enough is enough!

NOTE: If such a rumour is true then I can say that most Thais are born to be arrogant , insincere, and the enemy of the Khmers. They should understand that not only the million Khmer ethnics who live in Thailand are fond of Khmer Sak/Chak Sak/Khmer Yant/Sak Yant (Khmer tattoo), but even the pure Thais, they do love it for they believe Khmer tattoo is not only just an art like any other tattoo in the world, but it has the magical power for protection, luck and success. For example Khmer geometric tattoos, meant to protect the wearer, originally as protection during war/fighting times. Visibly, Khmer tattoo is popular throughtout Thailand and even foriegners. You can see such Khmer tattoo everywhere like on the human body, in the shops, in the houses, in the taxi, in the bus, in the train in Thailand and even with Thai overseas. Please see some of the beautiful Khmer tattoos in Thailand are being used by boxer, taxi drivers, and businessmen: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

I believe the rumour is true and circulated intentionally and politically in order to:

• tell the world that Thai people are nice people, gentle people, peace-loving people, and non-violent people.
• make the Khmer as scapegoat to appease Thai anger against each other and turn the revenge/hatred towards Khmers and esp. the bloody Thai elite and royal family will not be held responsible for the bloodshed.
• to save the good face of Thailand because Thai people are known for face-saving people and coward to accept their own shame as a real human being. Generally, when it comes to a good thing Thais like to say it is Thai and yet when it comes to a bad thing the Thais like to say it is Khmer. For instance, please observe the tattoos in the links provided above if the Thais say a word that these tattoos are Khmer tattoos and those who have those tattoos claim that they are Khmers. They proudly say those are Thai tattoos and they are Thais to show the world. But when it comes to a bad thing happened in the last week the Thais jump up and twisted that those who were violent were Khmers because they had Khmer tattoos.

It also seems that the Thai ultra-nationalism propaganda since 1850s to treat Khmer as “Khmamen padong” - the jungle and uncivilized people, still lives on today, or it reflectively seems that Thai people are still ignorant despite technology, communication, knowledge in the world are widely developed and accessible.

Lastly, I’d like to advise Thais people that they should be brave enough to recognize their bad deed and nature just like other human being, because no one is perfect even our worshiping Buddha. My last word:

If You Thai people don’t know how to pay back your gratitude towards Khmer who once sheltered you and enlightened you architecture, art, dance, writing, and political organization, please stop painting us bad or making us your scapegoat through your arrogant attitude, hatred, ignorance, brutality, shame, irresponsibility, cowardice, jealousy, and inhuman manner.

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Cambodia Remembers Victims of Khmer Rouge

Cambodian students re-enact torture executed by the Khmer Rouge to mark the annual "Day of Anger" at Choeung Ek, 20 May 2010. (Photo: VOA - R. Carmichael)

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh Friday, 21 May 2010

"Cambodian people respect the people who were killed in the Pol Pot regime," said Pa Socheatvong. "Pol Pot betrayed the country by using the people's blood as capital, so people [are] very angry with the Pol Pot regime."

In Cambodia, May 20 is known as the Day of Anger.

Each year on this day, hundreds of Cambodians head to the Chhoeung Ek killing field site on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. There a ceremony is held and a play put on to recall the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

It is a time to remember the millions who died under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime that ruled the country between 1975 and 1979.

More than 1,000 people gathered this year at the Chhoeung Ek memorial site outside Phnom Penh. There were hundreds of Buddhist monks, dignitaries, and many elderly people.

The key part of the ceremony is a macabre play staged by students. About a dozen are cast as black-clad Khmer Rouge soldiers; three dozen more are their victims.

With barked orders, gun shots, screams and tears, the Khmer Rouge and their victims act out the murders, just yards from the mass graves that form this notorious killing field where thousands died.

Pa Socheatvong is a deputy governor of Phnom Penh. He says May 20th was chosen because that was the day in 1976 when the Khmer Rouge instituted their policy to kill people.

"Cambodian people respect the people who were killed in the Pol Pot regime," said Pa Socheatvong. "Pol Pot betrayed the country by using the people's blood as capital, so people [are] very angry with the Pol Pot regime."

The performance by the students is chilling, realistic and disturbing. Many in the crowd wipe away tears during the 15-minute performance.

At the end of the play, other soldiers burst in with guns and Cambodian flags and drive away the Khmer Rouge.

That moment refers to the invasion in late 1978 by Vietnamese troops and Cambodians that saw the end of the Khmer Rouge rule of the country.

The man who sent so many people to their deaths here at the Chhoeung Ek killing field went on trial last year for crimes against humanity and war crimes. His name is Comrade Duch, and he admits he ran the S-21 torture and execution center in Phnom Penh. Judgment in his case is likely to be handed down in the coming weeks.

If Duch is found guilty - as is thought likely - he will be the first former Khmer Rouge to be sentenced for crimes committed at that time. It is a landmark case.

No-one knows how many people died during the Khmer Rouge's rule of Cambodia, estimates range from 1.5 million to three million.

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Speaking through songs [by Laura Mam]

Wednesday, 12 May 2010
By Tharum Bun

Phnom Penh Post

My dream “is to write meaningful and original Khmer and English music that is relevant to the soulsearching of the next generation of Khmer people all over the world,” said 23-yer-old Laura Tevary Mam, a Khmer-American whose music has been reaching the Khmer diaspora through the internet. “I want to bring Khmer music back to life.”

Laura’s presence on YouTube, beginning in April 2008, has attracted millions of views, as she has used the site as a stage to perform for fans across borders and continents. She is finally beginning to receive attention from fans in Cambodia, which her parents left more than two decades ago.

“Laura’s craving to write music will offer a missing part that this country has longed for,” Said Prum Seila, a senior media student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh who did a research study on YouTube access in the Kingdom. “When I introduced her YouTube channel to my circle of friends, they became fascinated by her solo performance and the word began to spread online and offline.”

Laura’s grandfather was a Cambodian congressman in the 1960s, but she has grown up in an entirely different world with her parents in California. She was encouraged as a musician from a young age. “My father is a wonderful singer and still sings in weddings to this day,” she wrote in an email to Lift. “He taught me a lot about how to express emotion when singing, and I have always been inspired by him.” Now a talented singer, guitarist and writer, she hopes to use music to reconnect with her countrymen in Cambodia. She periodically releases new music videos through video sharing websites like YouTube and her personal blog.

The graduate of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, sees her role as “one pillar of a bridge of communication between all of us through music and a movement of self-understanding”. She added that she hopes that Cambodian artists can revive Khmer music and help reconcile political conflicts in the Kingdom.

Releasing her music online has given her a platform to reach international audiences so that her voice can be heard around the world and the world can give her feedback. She says creativity is spurred on by the chance to perform, “and Cambodians love to perform, it’s in our blood”. The Cambodian Diaspora musician said that “it is when artists come together that creativity seems to jump. You learn a lot from being around a lot of different kinds of artists and seeing life as art; it can inspire more creativity than most people know.”

While Laura says she is inspired by Ros Serey Sothea, Cambodia’s most beloved singer of the golden era, her fame has come in a very different way. Armed with a laptop and a built-in webcam, she can capture and broadcast her performances from her very own bedroom. “YouTube changed my life by allowing me to connect with all kinds of different encouraging people. These people inspired me to write music for the people and from my heart without fear.”

Music has often helped Laura ease the pain that comes from a life spent questioning her mother and family about what occurred in the past, who they were now and who Cambodians were before the war. “I started writing my own songs because it acted as a journal for me whenever I was sad. It became my therapy,” she explained. “And finally in college, I started playing for crowds and started feeling comfortable putting these journal songs out to the public.”

Supported by her experiences as a musician, she encourages other young Cambodians to express their fears, loves and desires for the future.

“Art and pop culture is already within us. My dream is to coax this out of the youth and to inspire Cambodians to simply understand themselves and their history by expressing themselves.”

Thyda Buth says of her daughter, “When I was pregnant with Laura, I prayed to Buddha to please give me a happy beautiful child who is very kind. Buddha answered my prayers and more. Laura is strong, talented, grounded and extraordinarily bright.”

As an employee of a non-profit organisation that does conservation work at World Heritage sites, including Cambodia’s ancient Banteay Chhmar temple, Laura has also found time to continue her musical endeavours. Last year, she formed a band, Like Me’s. Her dream is “to play at Olympic Stadium in Cambodia for everyone with Preap Sovat! I want Preap Sovat to sing a song to music that I wrote. I want to bring new original music to Cambodia, music that we didn’t take from any other country. Music that is written by a Khmer heart, sung by a Khmer woman and played by a Khmer musician.”

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Dengue Fever brings Cambodian rock back to Phnom Penh

FEVERISH: Native Cambodian Chhom Nimol and her band play in Phnom Penh. (Dave Perkes, /Dave Perkes)

The L.A. band, whose sound was inspired by the Cambodian pop of the '60s, rocked the home country with originals and favorite covers.

May 23, 2010
By Dustin Roasa, Special to the Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia - On a muggy evening last week, a crowd of thousands gathered around a temporary outdoor stage in this city's Cambodian Vietnamese Friendship Park. As with most nights, the manicured grounds had a carnival atmosphere, with mobile vendors selling sweets wrapped in banana leaves, and rows of middle-age women stepping their way through aerobics routines during the respite from the blazing sun.

But this night was different, because the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever, which takes its inspiration from Cambodian rock music of the 1960s, was scheduled to perform a free show. Even though most of Dengue Fever's lyrics are sung in Khmer, and Cambodians know many of the 1960s songs that the band plays cover versions of, this was only its second trip here since forming in 2001.

The U.S. Embassy brought Dengue Fever to Phnom Penh as part of celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of U.S.-Cambodian diplomatic relations this summer. In addition to this concert, the band played a benefit show for a cultural preservation organization, participated in a panel discussion and screened a documentary about its 2005 tour here called "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong," all of which were well attended.

"It is nice to get to connect so heavily with Cambodia. It is definitely where our hearts lay," said bassist Senon Williams.

At 8 p.m., Dengue Fever's five American backing musicians strode onto the stage. Sporting facial hair of varying lengths and wearing fedoras and tams, they looked very much the West Coast indie-rock veterans they are.

Following them onstage was Battambang-born vocalist Chhom Nimol, whose heavy eye makeup and floor-length lilac evening gown made her look every bit the daughter of Cambodian singing royalty that she is.

"Hello, are you feeling happy?" Chhom shouted in Khmer, her hands pressed together in front of her lips in the traditional Cambodian greeting. In the crowd, clumps of Cambodian teenagers wearing skinny jeans and pastel-hued flannel shirts sewn in the country's garment factories cheered, while fathers balanced toddlers on their shoulders for a better view.

The band launched into "Lost in Laos," a festive song with a charging, rockabilly saxophone. But as the band began playing its second song of the night — a cover of "Please Shave Your Beard," a ballad originally sung by Ros Sereysothea, one of the biggest stars of the 1960s Cambodian rock scene — another anniversary resonated.

Thirty-five years ago last month, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh and plunged the country into a utopian nightmare that resulted in an estimated 1.7 million deaths. One of those killed was believed to have been Ros, along with dozens of other musicians, filmmakers and artists who had made Phnom Penh in the 1960s the epicenter of a renaissance of Cambodian art and culture unrivaled in the country's modern history.

Under the leadership of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, pop music flourished in stable, pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. As war raged next door in Vietnam, singers such as Ros and Sinn Sisamouth heard American and British rock and surf music on Armed Forces Radio and shaped it to their own ends, blending its energy and catchiness with traditional Khmer melodies and lyrical themes.

Dengue Fever keyboard player Ethan Holtzman discovered Cambodian rock when he was backpacking here in 1997. He was riding in the back of a truck with a friend when the driver played a cassette compilation of songs by Ros, Sinn and others.

"The psychedelic and surf-rock guitar were familiar enough to me, but it had this whole other element. What really struck me was the way the Cambodians brought their own traditions into it through the vocals and instruments. It took it to another level and became Cambodian psychedelic," Holtzman said.

These artists wrote and recorded thousands of songs, which they performed on radio and in nightclubs to rapturous audiences. "It was an exciting time," said actress Dy Saveth, 66, who starred in more than 100 films and counted most of Phnom Penh's creative elite, including Ros and Sinn, among her social circle.

But in 1970, Sihanouk was deposed in a coup. With a new pro-American government in place, Cambodia became entangled in the Vietnam War and began losing ground to a growing communist insurgency.

Phnom Penh fell on April 17, 1975, and the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and forced people into labor camps, where nearly all the rock musicians are presumed to have died. Most of their recordings disappeared with them. Not content with the music's physical destruction, the Khmer Rouge also sought to erase it from the nation's collective memory, forbidding the singing of old songs and replacing them with paeans to revolutionary zeal.

Singing rock and roll became a subversive — and extremely risky — act. "I used to sing Sinn's songs to myself while I was being forced to tend cattle, but I had to do it softly so that the Khmer Rouge guards would not hear me," said Pol Mony, 48, a Phnom Penh native who grew up near Sinn's house. Pol recently began transcribing the music and lyrics of recordings from the period and collecting them in an online archive that he launched in 2003.

Efforts to preserve the music, film and architecture of the era have recently gathered steam. Dengue Fever is a driving force in this movement. In January, the band released a compilation of 1960s songs called "Electric Cambodia," and its tour here generated an unprecedented interest in the era — although the band's initial impulse was musical, not academic.

After Holtzman returned from his backpacking trip with a handful of cassettes he had bought in a local market in Phnom Penh, he and his brother Zac, a guitarist and vocalist, decided to form a band that would play these songs. They recruited bassist Williams and drummer Paul Smith (horn player David Ralicke joined after the band's first show). But the band members knew they needed a Cambodian singer. They scoured Long Beach's Cambodian community for vocalists and eventually persuaded Chhom, then a recent transplant from Cambodia, to join.

Dengue Fever's self-titled debut, released in 2003, contains mostly covers of Cambodian rock classics, although at the time the band didn't know the tragic fate of the singers. But the group also began branching out from its Cambodian roots, populating its second and third albums with more original compositions, including some with English lyrics. "We're trying to shine a light on this body of work, but we're not traditionalists," Williams said. "The music was a catalyst for original songs."

As Dengue Fever's following grew in the United States and Europe, it often found itself straddling the line between indie rock and world music audiences. But in Cambodia, those distinctions matter very little, particularly for Chhom, who had a successful solo career here before moving to the United States. "I feel excited and nervous playing in Cambodia. There will be a lot of family and friends in the crowd," she said during a rehearsal.

Near the end of its set at the anniversary concert, the band played a cover version of "Where Are You From?" a well-known Ros and Sinn duet. Cambodian American hip-hop artists Pou Khlaing and Tony Real, who have a large following here, joined the band onstage and rapped Sinn's parts, to the clear delight of the young Cambodians in the audience. At the edge of the crowd, a group of break dancers had turned off their portable stereo and were twirling their bodies to the sounds coming from the stage.

As the song played, Seung Sreng, a 65-year-old woman with closely cropped silver hair, broke into a smile. "I think it's great that Americans are playing our music," she said. She had first heard "Where Are You From?" as a young woman in the 1960s, but she hadn't heard it played live in a very long time. "I'm having so much fun tonight. I'm so happy," she said.

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Reach for the sky

A street of new housing in Phnom Penh
The city’s Canadia Tower

May 21 2010
By Elaine Moore
Financial Times (UK)

Above the tumultuous streets of northern Phnom Penh, the new Canadia Tower reaches 30 storeys into the sky, dwarfing the palaces and temples that grace the rest of the city’s skyline. The glass-fronted tower is now the highest building in Cambodia and marks the start of an ambitious plan to attract increased foreign investment to this small Asian market.

Known as the “pearl of Asia” in the early 20th century, Phnom Penh has suffered years of civil war and a repressive communist regime, but its architecture of golden-tipped temples, red-roofed houses and French colonial mansions is still distinctive. The Canadia Tower, also known as the OCIC Tower, is instead designed to imitate and rival the sort of modern office space available in bigger neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

The soaring structure will soon be joined by other high-rises across the city, offering homes as well as offices. Some are being funded locally, others by foreign investors (mostly Korean) but all the financial backers hope they will attract wealthy foreigners and persuade locals to forgo their traditional two-storey Khmer villas for an apartment (or an office) with a view.

A new law permitting foreigners to buy condominiums in these skyscrapers will for the first time, the government hopes, encourage a wave of overseas interest.

But the new style of living might take some adjustment, according to local property experts. “Living in a condo is a new concept for Cambodian people,” says Bun Phearith, sales agent at Bonna Realty Group, one of the largest estate agencies in Cambodia. “But it’s an idea that is gaining popularity. Among our younger clients the first properties they ask about are apartments in multi-storey buildings.”

The Canadia Tower stands on Monivong Boulevard, down which Khmer Rouge soldiers marched in April 1975 when they took over Phnom Penh and began to systematically destroy all traces of urban modernity in Cambodia. In just three years, eight months and 20 days, the terrifying success of their vision caused the deaths of millions. By the time the Khmer Rouge were driven out, Phnom Penh was a ghost town.

Senaka Fernando, chairman of the British Business Association in Cambodia, arrived in the capital in 1994 as peace was finally taking hold. “Back then, when planes landed in Phnom Penh at night there was nothing to see – no lights, no large buildings,” he recalls. “The changes that have taken place here over the past 16 years are remarkable.”

Between 2000 and 2009 economic growth in Cambodia averaged 8 per cent. To reflect its success, gleaming high-rises were planned at the height of Cambodia’s property boom. The real estate sector was suddenly awash with money, and prices rose accordingly. Between 2005 and 2008 the cost of property in some areas of Phnom Penh rose from $550 per square metre to $5,000 (Cambodia’s property prices are routinely quoted in US dollars).

Developers planned a series of huge towers and a ring of satellite towns on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Speculators bought up land for better roads, more shopping malls and larger office blocks. The tallest building planned was the International Finance Centre (IFC). This $1bn complex, backed by South Korean company GS E&C, was to have housed a shopping mall, 1,064 apartments, 275 serviced apartments and a school within its 52 storeys.

Then the bubble burst. As the global recession hit south-east Asia, building works ground to a halt and land cleared for work remained empty. Investors took their money away and, according to the International Monetary Fund, the Cambodian economy contracted by 2.5 per cent in 2009. Buildings such as the IFC tower were put on hold or scaled back and property prices in the city centre fell by up to a third.

Not even the Canadia Tower has escaped the downturn. Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC), owner of Canadia Bank, had hoped to persuade the country’s biggest organisations to set up shop inside. But much of the building remains empty and prospective tenants are now being offered a 50 per cent discount if they agree to lease space for a year or more.

Yet there are signs that the Phnom Penh property market is finding its feet again. Those who held on to properties as investments are now looking to sell, real estate agents say. Acleda Bank, a Cambodian commercial bank, has also reported an increase in the number of mortgages issued for residential property at the end of 2009.

Although the number of property transactions is nowhere near the heady levels of 2008, there is a feeling that the market is settling down. Thomas Sterling, country director of Cambodian property managers Sterling Project Management, believes the price crash was in some ways a good thing. “There was so much speculation that it became questionable whether there was any real market for property in Phnom Penh,” he says. “The recession has acted as a natural correction to cap prices.”

Properties in the most desirable areas, such as the riverfront, now fetch around $2,500 per sq metre, according to Bonna Realty. In the north of the city, along the wide streets of what used to be the French quarter, buyers can expect to pay around $1,250 per sq metre.

Rather than new and large-scale projects, the renewed interest is in select projects that are already under way, such as Gold Tower 42. Twenty storeys of the $300m South Korean project, financed by DaeHan Real Estate Investment and built by Yon Woo, are already up and the tower should be complete by late 2011. All of the office space, and half of the residential space has already been sold.

Across town, developers of the Diamond Island project are hoping to finish ahead of schedule. About half of the 168 homes built in the first phase of the project, on sale for $200,000-$1m, have been sold according to managers for developers OCIC. The rest was slated for completion in 2016 but the developers hope to bring this forward by two years. Other satellite towns include the Grand Phnom Penh International City, which will contain 4,000 residential units, and the $2bn Camko City project.

Interested overseas buyers have been given a helping hand by new government regulations. Previously, foreigners who wanted a stake in land had to establish a joint venture with a Cambodian national. But Cambodia still has a way to go before it attracts large numbers of overseas investors. Electricity prices are high and blackouts are not uncommon; phone networks can be unreliable and corruption is still a problem.

Foreign investors might also have qualms about buying into developments that have had a negative impact on the country’s poorest people. The losers in the evolution of Phnom Penh from backwater to international city are the citizens evicted from property that was sold to developers with minimal compensation.

But with the IMF now predicting growth of 4.8 per cent in 2010 and Cambodia’s links to the rest of the region strengthening, investors who choose carefully could find themselves first into a country attracting more international attention each year.

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"Baby Hor Banh-chor Global Witness" a Poem in Khmer by Sék Serei

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"Yuon Puon Tumpear Srok Khmer" a Poem in Khmer by Yim Guechsè

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"Yuon Puon Tumpear Srok Khmer" a Poem in Khmer by Yim Guechsè

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Earthy and aromatic Cambodian flavors top their Thai counterparts

Fried tilapia (All photos: Hugo Kugiya)
Num banh chuk

Tola Kruy behind the counter at Queen's Deli

May 20, 2010
By Hugo Kugiya
Crosscut.com

Eating on the Edge: At the family-owned Queen's Deli in White Center, let trust and curiosity be your guides.

The day I ate Cambodian food for the first time also happened to be the day of White Center Spring Clean 2010. Volunteers wearing purple T-shirts spent a Saturday in May cleaning and beautifying the streets and public spaces in the transforming, unincorporated neighborhood on a hilltop south of downtown Seattle.

Part of neither Seattle nor Burien, the two cities that border it, White Center is the petri dish of our civic aspirations, a somewhat isolated, urban community plotted with the best intentions, the kind of place many who live in Seattle probably wish the city was like: still small enough to allow for the effort of the individual, but big enough to stand for something.

King County spent $15 million here over the last five years to repair storefronts, restore a park, install wireless Internet, build new sidewalks and a community center, and finance the construction of the Greenbridge project, a mixed-income housing complex that replaced distressed and dangerous public housing originally built to temporarily shelter Boeing workers.

Beset by poverty for decades, White Center was that invisible, avoided place, of interest to few with political or cultural power. As it often happens in places like White Center, immigrants to the city settled here: Somalis, Ethiopians, Mexicans, El Salvadorans, Vietnamese, Russians, and Cambodians. Block for block, it is undoubtedly one of the most diverse places in King County, and a great bet for eating.

The spiritual and cultural heart of the Seattle area’s Cambodian community is in White Center, one of many places across the country where Cambodian immigrants have landed since 1979, when the Khmer Rouge regime fell from power, the country’s genocide ended, and its refugees started settling in the U.S.

According to U.S. Census data, most Cambodian Americans live in California and Massachusetts, followed by Washington state. One of the few museums in the world devoted to the history of Cambodia’s “killing fields,” (referring to the genocide of 1 million to 2 million Cambodians following the end of the Vietnam War) started in White Center, although it has been temporarily relocated to the Wing Luke museum in Seattle's Chinatown.

None of this was on my mind the weekend afternoon I visited the Queen’s Deli, one of the few Cambodian restaurants in the Seattle area. I was preoccupied with the dearth of Cambodian dining options (despite the number of immigrants in the area), a curious circumstance given the number of Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in the city — Cambodia shares borders as well as plenty of cultural DNA with Thailand and Vietnam. Thai food in particular is so ubiquitous, it is nearly as emblematic of Seattle as salmon and teriyaki.

The Kirirom Restaurant & Bakery in Lynnwood recently closed, and a pho restaurant replaced it. That leaves the Phnom Penh Noodle House in Chinatown as the only other option around here, although Phnom Penh is more of a hybrid of Cambodian, Thai and Chinese.

Queen’s Deli has the distinction of being surrounded by other Cambodian businesses and being patronized mostly by Cambodian immigrants. A few blocks away, the largest grocery in the neighborhood, the Samway market, is owned by the Yim family, from Cambodia by way of Louisiana. The Queen’s Deli is owned by the Kruy family — husband Chengtay, wife Chamtong and their adult son Tola, 23, who grew up near Phnom Penh but attended high school in Kent and is now a student at Highline Community College. The Kruys opened Queen’s Deli less than two years ago.

Tola said the restaurant's name refers to his mom, who does all the cooking and runs the kitchen. "My parents wanted to give the restaurant a Cambodian name, but I didn't want to do that," he said. "I didn't want people to think the food was just for Cambodian people."

While tables are abundant, the restaurant is more of a takeout joint. Women come to buy bags of sweet rolls and other baked goods. Families order ahead for trays of fried noodles for birthday parties. Men grab sandwiches made with grilled pork and baguettes — Cambodia or Kampuchea (an older, more faithful English transliteration) was formerly a French protectorate — wrapped in butcher paper. The restaurant has plenty of pre-made food to go: hot-out-of-the-oil rice-flour donuts; colorful, gelatinous sweets; a Cambodian version of a hambao, stuffed with mushrooms, onions, and pork; and various noodles and sautéed dishes kept in hot trays behind the counter.

But for those with a little time, the most rewarding dishes are those made to order. Dishes are constructed from scratch and take some time in the small kitchen. The best among them are soups and stews that share hints of similarity with Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian food. Bright aromatics like ginger and lemongrass are part of the cuisine as are peppery herbs, rice noodles and curries. Cambodian food is less spicy and sweet than Thai food. But if the difference between Cambodian food and other Asian food can be reduced to one ingredient, it would be prahok.

Prahok is to Khmer cooking — Khmer also refers to the language of Cambodia and to its people — what fish sauce is to Thai cooking. It is fish paste, made from the gutted, scaled, salted, fermented remains of various freshwater fish. It is a pale, pinkish grey in color and possesses a pungent aroma that gives Khmer food a deep, earthy flavor. The flavors of the Thai food we consume locally seem elementary by comparison. Prahok is used in most Khmer dishes, as a base of flavor to build on.

The dishes at Queen’s Deli cost $7 or less. The menu contains some photographs that are of some help to those new to Cambodian food. Otherwise, a certain trust and sense of curiosity are the best guides. Friendly and helpful, Tola is also happy to explain the menu and inform your choices.

He is likely to suggest num banh chuk ($6), ribbons of thin rice noodles served in a pale-colored sauce, made with prahok, ground lemongrass and spices that impart a subtle, curry-like flavor. The sauce is soupy in consistency but dense with flavor. Mixed into the sauce is ground pork, chopped long beans, cucumbers, mint leaves, and bean sprouts.

Another idiosyncratic dish is samloh kako ($7), referred to on the menu as Cambodian ratatouille. The designation is a bit misleading, as the dish is more of a savory stew. It too possesses a pale, somewhat unappetizing, green-gray color thanks to the prahok. The flavor, however, does not disappoint. The dish is traditionally made with fish, but on Tola’s suggestion, I ordered it with pork rib on the bone. The stew contains bits of pumpkin, eggplant, and leafy herbs. Like the num banh chuk, it is not spicy, allowing you to take in and appreciate the depth of its flavors.

To oversimplify, Cambodian food is rustic compared to Thai food. The preparation is elegant but basic. Take the fried tilapia ($6), skin-on, deep-fried cross sections of fish tossed with onions sliced longitudinally with small slabs of ginger and whole, fermented beans. Served with plain rice, the dish is slightly sweet, mostly salty, and funky in the best possible way. You can imagine it cooked at home. That is the overall effect of the Queen’s Deli. It feels like a home kitchen, somewhere far away.

So much of White Center feels that way, a world apart from the city most of us know. With the streets now shiny and less threatening, the mainstream is finding its way here too. The Dubsea coffee shop in the Greenbridge development is a bright, airy hangout as sleek and cool as any in Capitol Hill. It serves Stumptown coffee beans, and baked goods from Macrina and Le Fournil. Full Tilt serves its gourmet ice cream here — it operates two other stores in Columbia City and the University District.

The beauty of White Center is that it contains, in equal parts, the familiar and the unfamiliar. Starting in June, the Kruys are proud to report, the Queen’s Deli will start serving Cambodian hot pot, which the owners found difficult to describe, saying only that it is not like any other kind of hot pot you have eaten, a claim I would bet on with confidence.

If you go: Queen’s Deli, 9808 14th Ave. S.W., Seattle, 206-767-8363. Open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A former national reporter for Newsday and The Associated Press, journalist and author Hugo Kugiya writes about the Northwest for several publications, including his former employer, The Seattle Times. He has covered sports, crime, transportation, legal affairs, and music. His book 58 Degrees North was a finalist for the 2006 Washington State Book Award. You can reach him at hkugiya@yahoo.com.

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Seeking Inspiration From Cambodian History [-Keep up the good work, Laura! Thank you!]

Cambodian-American singer-songwriter Laura Mam shares her soulful sound with NPR's Tell Me More. (Ryan Coquilla)

May 19, 2010
National Public Radio (USA)

Click here to watch other video clips by Laura

You would not tell from her sweet-as-honey voice and gentle lyrics that Laura Mam's family history has been one of pain and struggle.

Her parents managed to escape the brutal regime of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, but many of their family members were less fortunate. Mam's father lost both of his parents and four of his five brothers. Throughout Mam's life, he refused to talk about the painful memories. Yet, despite the silence she was able to learn bits and pieces about her family's past from a book written by Mormon relief workers who helped Mam's family get to the United States.

"There are a lot of broken chains that people...they don't want to necessarily talk about because it was very painful. I've been very lucky to know just a little bit of history because most Cambodian kids don't know much about their parents at all," Mam explains.

But in addition to the millions of lives, the viciousness of the regime also did not spare the cultural life of the country.

"Cambodian music after the war — the Khmer Rouge, was so intent on destroying everything that existed beforehand; they got rid off everything. They got rid of all the artists, all the intellectuals and they did not want this to be known," says Mam.

Now, the recent UC Berkley graduate, together with her band, The Like Me's, have made it their mission to revive the long lost, thriving Cambodian music scene of the 1960s.

"It inspires me to want to hold onto something and to know who I am because it feels like everything has been forgotten and left in shadow," Mam says. "And I'd like for our generation to bring that back to light because often times we grow up not knowing much about ourselves at all."

As a tribute to Pan Ron, one of Cambodia's first female singer-songwriters who perished during the regime, Mam and her band did a cover of her famous song — "Sva Rom Monkiss."

Mam and The Like Me's have only been able to record a few songs with the help of friends and family in garage studios. However, their powerful music and message of hope has turned them into an inspiration for the Cambodian community all over the United States.

"I really want to kind of show Cambodians that we have so much that we have forgotten and if we were just to remember it through music then we could have a good time while also becoming self-conscious in a way," Mam says.

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