President confident in prospect for Vietnam-Cambodia ties — Talk Vietnam

President confident in prospect for Vietnam-Cambodia ties — Talk Vietnam



Vietnam and Cambodia have plenty of rooms to further their ties, President Truong Tan Sang told Rasmei Kampuchea, the largest daily in Khmer language in Cambodia ahead of his visit to the country on December 23-24.

The front page of the daily published on December 21 covered an interview with the President by its Editor-In-Chief Pen Samitthy.

The Vietnamese President said his visit aims to further deepen the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia, meeting aspirations of the two peoples.

In the coming time, he expressed wish for facilitating visits at all levels to raise mutual understanding.

Both countries should strengthen cooperation across tourism, telecommunications, banking, oil and gas, industry and agriculture, towards achieving a trade value of 5 billion USD in 2015 as agreed, he said.

He added that science-technology, education, health care and culture also need due attention.

Vietnam will provide more scholarships for Cambodian graduates and post-graduates studying in the country, he promised.

He suggested raising awareness of younger generations about the tradition of bilateral ties and working on land border demarcation for a borderline of peace, friendship, cooperation and development.

On regional and international arena, the two countries should offer mutual support within the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam development triangle, the Ayeywady – Chao Praya – Mekong economic cooperation strategy, the Greater Mekong Sub-region, ASEAN, and the United Nations, he said.

He noted that history recorded all difficulties that had been jointly surmounted by the two countries and sacrifices they had made for each other for their national independence and freedom, saying these are invaluable pride that need to be handed down to next generations.

The President said the political and diplomatic ties between the two countries have been deepened basing on the mutual trust and understanding.

Economic, trade and investment cooperation was given top priority in the bilateral connection while that in security and defence received a lot of attention.

Affiliation in education, training, healthcare and culture has been unceasingly boosted, the President told the paper.

He noted that the two countries’ cooperation within multilateral mechanisms has been strengthened over the past times.

In the end of the interview, the State leader expressed his full belief that the bilateral friendship and coordination across the board will go forward with great strides.-VNA

Forced evictions leave thousands homeless in Cambodia, says UN expert

The forced evictions of tens of thousands of Cambodia’s poor constitute a “grave breach” of human rights, a United Nations independent expert said today, calling for damages to be paid for lost homes and the provision of alternative housing.
In the middle of the night last week, over 130 families were forced to leave their homes without prior notice in the capital, Phnom Penh, so that a private company could redevelop the site. The shelters in the poor community were destroyed, and there have been reports that before the eviction, the community suffered intimidation and that the area’s representatives were subject to criminal charges.
“It is regrettable that the ongoing negotiations with residents were abandoned, casting aside a valuable opportunity to reach a just and lawful solution to this longstanding dispute,” said Raquel Rolnik, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, in a statement. “It is now of utmost importance that the rights of the residents to fair compensation for their lost homes and property and the provision of adequate alternative housing are fully respected.”
She noted that last week’s evictions in Phnom Penh are not isolated, but are “[alarmingly]” on the rise, with tens of thousands of people losing their homes and becoming even more destitute.
In the South-East Asian nation, the expert said, there has been a “consistent pattern” of rights violations tied to forced evictions, including the systematic lack of due process, inadequate compensation, and the excessive use of force.
“Given the disastrous humanitarian situation faced by the victims of forced evictions, I urge Cambodian authorities to establish a national moratorium on evictions until their policies and actions in this regard have been brought into full conformity with international human rights obligations.”
Ms. Rolnik, who reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, took up her post last May and serves in an independent and unpaid capacity, as do all Special Rapporteurs.

Religious freedom in Vietnam?

About 4,000 Buddhist leaders are in Vietnam for a major conference being held under the auspices of the United Nations.

According to Paul Ai, the United Nations seems to be ignoring the fact that Vietnam is one of the world's centers of religious persecution. Ai was jailed nine times in Vietnam before coming to the United States, and he says the conference is just a public relations ploy for the country. "The government of Vietnam sponsors this [event], and it's kind of funny because the government is paying all the costs. So this tells you this is a government event even more than a Buddhist event," Ai explains. He would prefer for Vietnam to be honest about religious freedom. "I just want to see [the] Vietnam government really open the country for all other religions to involve [and] to help the people. Before the fall of Saigon, there were many schools sponsored by different religions, many hospitals, many orphanages, and they did a great job. Now Vietnam is faced with many problems with drugs [and] with all kinds of criminal problems because people have no belief[s]," Ai contends. Ai believes Vietnam could create a positive image if it became serious about religious freedom. Vietnam could improve its image in this area, according to Ai, by halting persecution and releasing people of faith who are imprisoned. "I hope that if Vietnam really wants to tell the world that they have religious freedom, please release the people who are arrested and put in jail because of their faith. And please, let all the churches in Vietnam resist her until the people have freedom to worship," Ai pleads.