Violence Against Women is No Rationale for Military Violence

August 5, 2010 04:05 PM
Source: Huffingtonpost

The picture tears into you. Her eyes are haunting and courageous, her face brutally butchered. This is the face of an Afghan girl named Aisha who was attacked by her family that was supported by the local Taliban commander, according to the August 8th TIME magazine.

I wish that I could say such pictures are shocking or unfamiliar, that I have never seen such violence inflicted on a human being. As someone who has spent 14 years leading a grantmaking foundation that advances women’s rights, however, I cannot say that.

I have met with women with faces like Aisha’s in Bangladesh, where lovers or jealous husbands have thrown acid on their faces to scar them for life. I have spoken with women missing limbs because pimps mutilated them in Cambodia. I have heard from Bosnian women whose vaginas have been shredded by soldiers who inserted pointed objects and guns into them. I know women in India whose faces and bodies are a mass of burned flesh because they did not bring enough dowry. And, you don’t have to leave the United States to see such brutality. Last November I met a woman from Tennessee whose ex-husband beat her with an iron rod within an inch of her life – her jaw is shattered, her nose is broken, her left eye does not see.

I have seen their suffering and am inspired by their resilience. I am awed by their determined use of non-violent strategies as they struggle to ensure a different future for us all. I hope someday to see their smiling faces and their triumphs on a TIME cover…

The TIME article suggests that the United States must maintain its military forces in Afghanistan to protect Afghan women from the Taliban. I am painfully aware of the conditions facing Afghans who live on less than $2 per day in midst of violence, yet I am unable to stomach this flimsy justification for more war, occupation, and militarization. Guns, soldiers and military presence do not increase security. To the contrary, they lead to less personal and bodily freedom for women and girls.

This is clear to the parents of the 12-year-old Okinawan girl who was raped by a navy seaman and two U.S. marines in 1995. It is clear to women survivors of rape by UN “peacekeepers.” Closer to home, it is clear to the families of the three female soldiers who were murdered by their military husbands or boyfriends in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The North Carolina Observer editorial put it squarely: “It’s an old argument. We train men, and now women, to wage war, then we are baffled when they do that to each other.”

Boeung Kak land reclassified

THURSDAY, 05 AUGUST 2010 15:02
By: MAY TITTHARA AND SEBASTIAN STRANGIO
Phnompenhpost

Photo by: Sovan Philong An aerial view of the south side of Boeung Kak lake, as seen from the Canadia Bank tower in October last year.

LARGE portions of the city’s Boeung Kak lakeside have been reclassified as state private property under the joint control of City Hall and the local company behind the controversial filling of the lake, according to a recent sub-decree.

The document, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on July 20, states that 126.85 hectares of the lake and its surroundings are to be “considered as a state private property for Shukaku Inc Company to develop based on the government’s purpose”.

“The area mentioned above is legally managed and controlled by related Ministries and Phnom Penh Municipal Hall with the cooperation of Shukaku Inc Co Ltd,” the sub-decree states. Unlike state public land, which includes lakes, rivers, roads and parks, state private land can be legally leased or sold to companies or individuals.

In February 2007, Shukaku, an obscure local firm owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin, signed a lease agreement with the municipality giving it the right to develop the lakeside, then a state public property. The following year, it began filling in the lake to make way for a 133-hectare housing and commercial development at the lakeside. Housing rights advocates say that more than 4,000 families will be displaced by the project.

PM takes firm stand on disease

THURSDAY, 05 AUGUST 2010 15:02
By: TEP NIMOL AND DAVID BOYLE
Phnompenhpost

Photo by: Heng Chivoan Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at a graduation ceremony at Koh Pich Centre in Phnom Penh yesterday.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered provincial authorities to suspend the importation of pigs from Vietnam and Thailand in response to an outbreak of diseases that experts said was on the verge of destroying the Cambodian swine industry.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh, the premier said an outbreak in Thailand and Vietnam of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, also known as blue-ear, had spread to Cambodia in May, and posed a threat to public health.

“I would like to appeal to provincial authorities, especially provinces near the borders of Vietnam and Thailand, to suspend pig imports,” he said.
However, Hun Sen conceded that it would be impossible to completely stop the illegal importation of pigs from neighbouring countries.

“This order is not a violation of the World Trade Organisation, but it is a measurement to protect the animals’ lives and prevent infectious disease,” he said.

He also urged pig vendors not to take advantage of any resulting supply shortfall by raising prices.

Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun said at a press conference yesterday that hundreds of pigs had died recently, but that not all had been afflicted with blue-ear. He attributed the outbreak to a recent decision by the Vietnamese government to order pig farmers to slaughter animals affected by the disease.

Instead of complying with that order, Vietnamese pig farmers “evacuated their pigs to Cambodia, the nearest place”, and a lack of regulations on imports fuelled the domestic spread of blue-ear, Chan Sarun said.

He said the government would not compensate farmers affected by the outbreak. Neither he nor Hun Sen said when the import ban would be lifted.

Curtis Hundley, chief of party at USAID’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise agency, said blue-ear had the potential to bring the pig industry to its knees, costing investors and farmers tens of millions of dollars.

“We’re talking somewhere between 1 or 2 million pigs, and each pig is worth about US$100 at market, so it’s a huge industry here,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said he welcomed the ban, and urged the government to retain it long enough for the industry to recover and draw investment.

“When the industry is destroyed like it is now, it’s going to take at least five months just to get the pigs ready for the market, and it’s going to take at least a year for this industry to recover,” he said.

During a similar outbreak in 2007, the government banned the importation of pigs from Thailand and Vietnam for eight months.

According to Global Trade Atlas, Thai swine exports to Cambodia rose from 2,273 pigs in 2007 to 866,199 in 2009, and were worth $45 million that year.

Cambodia reports 88 lightning deathes

August 05, 2010
Source: Xinhua

Cambodian government said Thursday that 88 people, mostly in rural areas — have died of lightning strikes.

Keo Vy, communication officer of National Committee of Disaster Management said that by the end of July, there were 88 people have died in lightning strikes.

However, he said, the figure is still less than that in the same period last year as 110 died of lightning incidents.

Keo Vy noted that Pursat province, located about 200 kilometers north of Phnom Penh was recorded with more victims than the other 23 provinces and cities throughout the country.

He said last year more than 20 victims reported from Pursat province alone.

By mid June this year, Cambodia recorded only 48 deaths by lightning.

For several occasions, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has alerted and made an appeal to public to take more precaution, saying the lightning seemed fiercer in recent years.

Lightning which occurs every year in Cambodia, normally starts in rainy season which begins from May through October.

The report file by the National Committee of Disaster Management showed that the total figure of deaths last year was recorded at 140 and 95 deaths were recorded in 2008.

Most of the victims were living in rural areas.

Thailand Is Waiting For Appropriate Time To Talk With Cambodia – Suthep

August 05, 2010 15:47 PM
Source: BERNAMA

BANGKOK, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said that Thailand is now waiting for an ‘appropriate time’ to hold talks with itsneighbouring Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple dispute, Thai News Agency said Thursday.

“The talks could be held later when both nations are more calm, and that is why Thailand did not reserve the right to begin talks,” he said when asked to comment on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s statement on Wednesday.

Abhisit said he was ready to assign his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban to hold talks with Cambodia on the Preah Vihear dispute if the Khmer leadership gives a positive signal for negotiation.

Tension between Thailand and Cambodia rose after the Thai government’s delegation objected to Cambodia’s unilateral management plan of the ancient temple as the two neighbours could find no common ground to settle the disputed 4.6 sq km of land adjacent to the temple which was granted world heritage status in 2008.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) through its World Heritage Commission (WHC) consequently last week postponed its discussion of the plan until next year when it meets in Bahrain.

On another issue, Suthep urged civil groups to refrain from rallying under a state of emergency.