Happy New Year!!! Ya, a bit late.

I know it is a bit late,  but I had to attend parties and visit relative all over the place.  So here it is, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It is traditional for most people to have a “new year resolution” for every new year. Mine is to stay healthy, keep busy, and to always appreciate the love of my wife and my entire extended family from America to Cambodia.

I also wish for peace and prosperity in Cambodia and in our confusing neighbor, Thailand.

Cambodian Patriotism denied by their own (stupid?) general Srey Doek

Radio Free Asia
By Mom Sophon
1st January, 2009
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Mr. Kem Sokha (pictured), president of the Human Right Party, has told Radio Free Asia on the 1st of January, 2009 by accusing the military leadership in Preah Vihear of discrimination by not allowing him to distribute aid to the soldiers based in the areas.

Mr. Kem Sokha said that his aides went to ask permission before going there but was told by Gen. Srey Doek, commander of Intervention Force of division 12 based in Preah Vihear, that he cannot allow Mr. Kem Sokha to distribute aid in the Preah Vihear areas by using the pretext that he cannot guarantee the safety for Mr. Kem Sokha.

Mr. Kem Sokha said: “I really regret this because I am a Khmer too and that our Khmer army chose not to allow me to go there. I go there in my capacity as a member of parliament, on my legitimate mission, but the military leader of our army said that he cannot guarantee my safety for me to visit our soldiers. This shows that he is incompetent, even to guarantee the security of a member of parliament. And I went there not for political reasons. I went there in my capacity as a member of parliament and I got a permission from the president of the National Assembly.”

There is no reaction from Gen. Srey Doek to these allegations yet.

Mr. Kem Sokha said that, his aims of going there is to visit the Khmer villagers and soldiers based there and to bring donations from Khmers living in the United States who sent their donations through him.

He said that the donations include some medicines, balms and food, like canned fish, dried fish and condensed milk, plus $US5,000 in cash.

Meet the new Thai Prime Minister

Monday, December 15, 2008
Al Jazeera

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the leader of Thailand’s Democrat party, has been chosen by parliament to become the country’s new prime minister.

The 44-year-old career politician was born in Britain to medical professor parents.

Educated at Eton College and Oxford University, he graduated with first class honours in politics, philosophy and economics.

Though popular with the foreign business community, Abhisit has found little support with rural northeastern Thais who make up the country’s majority and are the backbone of support for Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup who has remained the focus of anti-government protests since.

In nearly three years as opposition leader, Abhisit’s excursions outside Bangkok or the Democrat heartlands of the south were rare and almost always met with hostility, sometimes even in the form of flying rotten vegetables.

Criticism

Abhisit says he wants clean government and he denounced the 2006 coup against Thaksin, but critics say he is an opportunist who has received help from the military and the anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

He failed to condemn the PAD, even when the demonstrators occupied Bangkok’s two airports late last month, and it was his party’s decision to boycott a snap election in 2006 that precipitated the constitutional crisis that eventually led to the coup against Thaksin.

His policies borrow heavily from Thaksin, in particular the commitment to continue the universal public healthcare scheme and cheap rural loans introduced during Thaksin’s five years in office.

Abhisit has also vowed to push for more overseas free trade deals but at the same time reverse Thaksin’s partial privatisation of some state firms.

Two flying shoes thrown at Bush during his farewell visit in Iraq

Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush ducked two shoes thrown at him by a man during a press conference in the Iraqi prime minister’s office to mark the signing of a security agreement.

Bush wasn’t hit by the shoes, which both sailed over his head after they were thrown one after the other. The president shrugged and said “I’m OK” after the incident in Baghdad today. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” Bush said afterwards.

In Arab culture, throwing shoes is a grave show of disrespect. “This is the farewell kiss, you dog,” the man shouted in Arabic.

After U.S. troops pulled down a statue of former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi bystanders tossed shoes at it, according to news reports at the time. Bush said today’s incident was an example of free speech in a democracy.

The man threw the shoes from about 25 feet away as Bush, standing with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, made formal remarks before the signing of the Iraqi-U.S. agreement. Maliki tried to block the second thrown shoe as it flew toward Bush, according to video of the incident shown on television.

Wrestled to Ground

The shoe-thrower, who was in a group of journalists, was wrestled to the ground and taken away. “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq,” shouted the man, later identified by the Associated Press as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi- owned station based in Cairo, Egypt.

At the signing ceremony, Bush said a free and democratic Iraq will now become “a force for freedom” and a “source of stability in a volatile region.”

“There is still more work to be done,” Bush said. “The war is not over.” The president said that with the agreement, “and the courage of the Iraqi people, and the Iraqi troops, and American troops and civilian personnel, it is decisively on its way to being won.”

Bush arrived today in Baghdad on a surprise visit — his last to Iraq as commander-in-chief — to celebrate the agreement, thank U.S. troops and meet with Iraqi leaders.

It was Bush’s fourth visit to a nation transformed by the U.S.-led war he started in 2003. It follows three weeks after Iraq’s parliament approved an accord with the U.S. that provides for the withdrawal of American troops by the end of 2011.

Obama’s Plan

President-elect Barack Obama has said one of his first acts as commander-in-chief would be to direct his military commanders to begin withdrawing troops “as quickly as we can” while maintaining stability in Iraq, ensuring the safety of U.S. troops and preventing a resurgence of terrorism.

The president has made three previous unannounced trips to Iraq — on Thanksgiving 2003, June 13, 2006, and Sept. 3, 2007.

While those earlier trips were intended largely to bolster troop morale and shore up domestic support for the unpopular war, Bush’s latest Iraq visit amounted to a valedictory appearance. He leaves office on Jan. 20.

Bush ended his visit to Baghdad by addressing more than 1,000 troops at Camp Victory, the staging area in Baghdad for U.S. forces. He was greeted by cheers and whoops inside the late Saddam Hussein’s Al Faw palace, where he stood beneath an American flag that reached nearly to the rotunda of the palace.

The surge of additional U.S. troops sent to Iraq early last year to quell sectarian violence has been “one of the greatest successes in the history of the United States military,” Bush said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edwin Chen in Baghdad at echen32@bloomberg.net

Thailand in deep political turmoil; may lead to civil war.

Tuesday December 2, 2008
By NIRMAL GHOSH
ANN/ The Straits Times (Singapore)

BANGKOK: Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday disbanded the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) leading to the dissolution of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat’s government.

The court also banned PPP’s executive board members, including Somchai, from politics for five years.

It further ruled to dissolve Chart Thai Party, imposing the same ban on its executive board members for five years.

On Monday, Thai police had asked the military to help step up security in the capital, fearing that pro-government supporters would react violently should the PPP be declared illegal for electoral fraud in last year’s polls.

Already, anti-government protesters in Bangkok have come under attack in recent days. Pro-government “red-shirts” are said to be prepared to head for the capital from the provinces in their thousands once the signal is given.

The court verdict may prove a turning point in a country roiled by months of political turmoil.

The conflict pits the yellow-shirted members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) against Somchai and his government, seen by them as corrupt proxies of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

In their campaign to bring down the government, the PAD’s supporters seized the Prime Minister’s official compound in Bangkok in August and, last week, took over both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports.

The airport seizures have stranded over 350,000 travellers in Thailand. Various airlines and governments were scrambling Monday to deploy more flights to Phuket, Chiang Mai and U-Tapao to get them out.

Meanwhile, in a switch of tactics, the PAD moved most of its supporters at Government House to the airports on Monday.

“We are not abandoning the site,” PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila insisted. By evening, hundreds were still ensconced in the compound.

As all sides braced themselves for the court decision, senior members of the PPP were said to be urgently considering alternatives should the party be thrown out of power.

Already its members are describing a dissolution of the party as a “judicial coup.” The judgment could come within days, if not Tuesday itself.

One option is for the PPP itself to dissolve Parliament before the judgment is out, and to call an election — which it is sure to win.

In this scenario, its MPs would merely switch to another party, Puea Thai, and fight the election.

Another option is for the PPP to set up a “government in exile” and create a resistance movement nationwide, should there be a military coup.

The mechanics for this are being worked on right now, but the idea is not new: It was considered but not implemented in September 2006 when the army toppled the Thaksin government.

It is not clear where such a “government in exile” would be based, but Thaksin is said to be in Cambodia while also working on setting up a base in Dubai.

Somchai, who was asked by reporters Monday when he would return to Bangkok, remarked that he could run the country from anywhere.

“The place is not an issue as long as I can work and get cooperation from all parties,” he added, insisting that he was not stepping down.

For the moment, Chiang Mai is his base as the northern city is home ground for him — and Thaksin — making it harder for the army to detain him in the event of a coup.

The political upheaval has also disrupted plans for Asean meetings from December 13 to 17.

“I will propose at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) to postpone the summit to March as we can’t open our airport for leaders’ planes to land yet,” foreign minister Sompong Amornwiwat said.

Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono proposed his country as an alternative venue.

Indonesia and Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan were offering to hold the meeting of its foreign ministers and East Asian dialogue partners in the Asean Secretariat offices in Jakarta, while the finance ministers could meet in Bali, he said.

Thailand’s crises takes a toll on Cambodian tourism, estimated at a loss of $1 million per day

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 November 2008

Thailand’s political crisis is costing Cambodia’s tourism sector $1 million a day in lost revenue, tourism officials say, while worries are growing about security for an upcoming Asean conference and the resolution of a monthslong border standoff.

Anti-government demonstrators have closed Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in their efforts to oust the prime minister. In Cambodia, 10 flights per day have been canceled between three airlines, and tourism officials say they are missing 2,000 tourists per day as a result.

Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Tourism Association, estimated that the average tourist will spend $500 on a four-day trip in Cambodia, amounting to a loss to Cambodia of around $1 million per day.

“The cancellation of international flights affects hotels, restaurants and the work of tour guides, guest houses, taxi drivers, tuk-tuks,” said Bath Sambo, president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Worker Federation. “We are very concerned about this.”

Officials also said Friday the instability could mean a cancellation of the Dec. 14 Asean meeting, which is to be held chaired by Thailand and held in Chiang Mai.

“In my opinion, the delay of the Asean summit is necessary because of the complicated situation in Thailand, where no one is responsible for the anarchy,” Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said.

The “complicated situation” in Thailand will also adversely affect talks next month, where a joint border committee was expected to discuss demining and demarcation, Hor Namhong said.

PAD upting their anties. Shooting at airport personel.

BANGKOK, Nov 25 (TNA) - The second day of the anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD)’s latest protests turned violent as thousands of protesters blocked the entrance to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport in preparations for a protest of the returning home of Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat after a shooting with government supporters earlier on Tuesday.

Confusion and other obstacles faced both arriving and departing passengers as the protesters blocked the entrance to the airport from the motorway, virtually paralysing traffic in the area. Such action prompted airline passengers and cabin crew to walk, lugging their suitcases to the terminal.

PAD protesters were expected to spend the night as Mr. Somchai’s plane has been delayed and would not arrive until Wednesday night.

The flight, which Mr. Somchai is on, will land at another airport outside Bangkok instead of Suvarnabhumi to avoid confrontation with protesters, according to Nattawut Saikua, government spokesman.

Mr. Somchai had attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru, and is flying from there for home.

Serirat Prasutanont, acting director of Suvarnabhumi airport and acting president of Airports of Thailand (AoT), said officials had urged the protesters to gather peacefully and allow passengers to enter and leave the airport without inconvenience.

He said the protesters were requested to gather at the airport’s parking lot, but no response from the PAD protesters has been made so far.

In the late aftrenoon, police said PAD protesters opened fire and shot on government supporters on Bangkok’s Vibhavadee Road leading to the government’s temporary headquarters. The police said at least five people were wounded, and several motorcycles torched in the attack.

The violence occurred on a road leading to the government’s temporary headquarters at Don Mueang airport where protesters laid siege for the second day. (TNA)

Cambodia promised no Preah Vihear issue during ASEAN meeting

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) — Cambodia will not list its dispute with Thailand over the ownership of the 900-year-old Preah Vihear Temple into the agenda of the ASEAN Summit next month in Bangkok, Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial News said on Friday.

“The ongoing world financial crisis will top the agenda of the summit, and we will not raise the Preah Vihear issue there,” Cambodian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong was quoted as saying here on Thursday at a press conference.

Cambodia needs not to do that, because all ASEAN member countries and other nations friendly to Cambodia have said that they expect Cambodia and Thailand to solve their dispute through bilateral negotiations, he said.

According to the outcome of the recent meeting between the foreign ministers of the two Southeast Asian nations, the two sides will start to measure the border line and locate the existing border posts in December, and the Joint Border Committee and both foreign ministers will convene new meetings in January, said the Cambodian Foreign Minister.

Earlier this week, Phay Siphan, secretary of state of the Cambodian Council of Ministers said that Cambodia will not boycott the summit in Thailand, even as the two countries have border dispute.

An armed clash in October killed two Cambodian soldiers and wounded two others, after Thai troops entered the disputed border area over sovereignty claim.

There are now 73 demarcation posts along the 805-km border between Cambodia and Thailand, 50 percent of which are recognized by the Thai side. Cambodia still plans to plant hundreds more posts there in order to specify the border line.

In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded the Preah Vihear Temple and its surrounding lands to Cambodia, but Thai nationalists have turned down the decision and used to stir up protests and demonstrations over its ownership.

Thai general re-assigned and makes a bold prediction

Fri 21 Nov 2008

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A maverick Thai general who has threatened to bomb anti-government protesters and drop snakes on them from helicopters has been reassigned as an aerobics teacher, the Bangkok Post said on Friday.

Major-general Khattiya Sawasdipol, a Rambo-esque anti-communist fighter more commonly known as Seh Daeng, reacted with disappointment to his new role as a military instructor promoting public fitness at marketplaces. “It is ridiculous to send me, a warrior, to dance at markets,” he said, before launching an attack on his boss, army chief Anupong Paochinda. “The army chief wants me to be a presenter leading aerobics dancers. I have prepared one dance. It’s called the ‘throwing-a-hand-grenade’ dance,” he said.

Seh Daeng is something of a folk hero in Thailand on account of his reputed undercover exploits in Cambodia and Laos during the Cold War.

His predictions of grenade attacks against People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters occupying Government House made headlines last month, especially when they turned out to be correct.

One protester was killed and 23 wounded by a grenade blast on Thursday.

Seh Daeng has denied any involvement.

Grenade blast at the Thai Prime Minister Office

Thursday, November 20, 2008
By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service

BANGKOK, Nov. 20 — An explosion at an anti-government protest site in central Bangkok early Thursday killed one man and wounded 23 others, prompting a leader of the demonstration to call for a mass rally against the government on Sunday.

Police said they believe the explosion was caused by a grenade. It exploded about 3:30 a.m. at Government House, the prime minister’s office complex that demonstrators have occupied since late August. The explosive landed on the canvas of a large marquee, showering those who were sleeping below with shrapnel.

“It landed on the roof, otherwise many more people would have been injured,” said Kamron Trongma, who was nearby when the explosion happened.

Police told news services that a 48-year-old man received shrapnel wounds to the chest and neck area and was killed. Some of the others who were injured were taken to hospitals.

The demonstrators, led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, have vowed to bring down the government, which they accuse of being a proxy for controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The current prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, is Thaksin’s brother-in-law.

The dispute between the predominantly urban, middle-class demonstrators and the government, which was voted into power last year with the backing of millions of Thailand’s rural poor, has paralyzed the country’s political process and gouged deep political divisions between the rural and urban populations.

The demonstrators have ruled out any compromise, vowing to maintain their protest until the government is forced out of office.

In the wake of the attack, media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul, the protesters’ most influential leader, called on supporters to gather Sunday for a major rally against the “killer government.”

He accused the police of cooperating with whomever attacked the protesters Thursday.

“Without police cooperation, they could not have access to such weapons,” he said.

Thursday’s death is the fourth associated with the current protests. In early September a supporter of the government was killed in a clash with demonstrators. Last month a protester died after she was hit in the chest by a tear gas grenade fired by police trying to clear demonstrators from barricades around the nearby parliament building. On the same day, another protester was killed in an explosion in a car.

Thaksin, who became a billionaire in the telecommunications industry, has fled Thailand, where he faces a jail sentence after being convicted in October of charges of breaching conflict-of-interest laws. His whereabouts are not known because he left his home in Britain recently after his visa there was revoked.