A long article about Cambodia

Margo Picken: The Beleaguered Cambodians

"Cambodia is ruled by longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian PeopleтАЩs Party. They govern with absolute power and control all institutions that could challenge their authority. Opposition political parties exist, giving the illusion of multiparty democracy, but elections have not been fair and the opposition no longer poses any threat to Hun Sen. The monarchy has survived but has little influence. The freedoms of expression, association, and assembly are severely curtailed. Human rights organizations are intimidated, and a draft law aims to bring them under the regimeтАЩs authority. The judiciary is controlled by the executive, and the flawed laws that exist are selectively enforced. Hundreds of murders and violent attacks against politicians, journalists, labor leaders, and others critical of Hun Sen and his party remain unsolved.

The UN Development Program and other UN agencies, which together contribute a considerable amount, are supposed to give human rights central attention in their programs; but they have been hesitant to take on human rights violations. The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank have generally steered clear of human rights altogether.

While donor nations have called for measures to strengthen the rule of lawтАФprimarily to improve the environment for foreign investment and private business developmentтАФthe results have been disappointing. The judiciary remains the creature of the executive, and an anticorruption law, under discussion since 1994 and then rushed through parliament in March 2010, is extremely weak. Meanwhile the discovery of potentially significant deposits of oil and natural gas has made concerns about corruption ever more pressing.

For all but a few Cambodians, the supposed тАЬbeneficiariesтАЭ of overseas development aid, the donor world is remote and hard to comprehend, and such organizations as Human Rights Watch and Global Witness urge donors to be far more exacting about the way their funds are used. Despite these concerns, in June, donor nations including Japan, the US, and members of the EU pledged a record $1.1 billion with few questions asked.

In the 1991 peace agreements, the тАЬinternational communityтАЭ assumed special responsibilities to the people of Cambodia that have yet to be properly honored. Cambodia today is a corrupt and cruel semi-dictatorship that should be getting much more scrutiny from the rest of the world. The Cambodian people deserve better. Thirty years after the appalling transgressions of the Khmer Rouge, much of the country still lives in fear."

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... tion=false

http://www.globalwitness.org/campaigns/ ... g/cambodia

Just what the world needs, more fucking NGOs and do-gooders from the West.
Cambodia should send the whiners packing on the next boat out!

When I look at what the Yanks, England and EU are up to, Pol Pot starts to look pretty good by comparison.

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Originally Posted by Thai Dyed

When I look at what the Yanks, England and EU are up to, Pol Pot starts to look pretty good by comparison.

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I can't remember the last time I read a more fatuous comment - and for this Forum that is saying something.

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Originally Posted by thonglor55

I can't remember the last time I read a more fatuous comment - and for this Forum that is saying something.

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Bloody hell thonglor I actually agree with you there :hello1:

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Originally Posted by thonglor55

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Originally Posted by Thai Dyed

When I look at what the Yanks, England and EU are up to, Pol Pot starts to look pretty good by comparison.

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I can't remember the last time I read a more fatuous comment - and for this Forum that is saying something.

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No Gents,

I am just finishing reading Pol Pot 'The Nightmare' and although I get and understand your points and exasperation at the Worlds policemen interfering, and the comment was probably throwaway,nothing can relate to the activities of the Khymer Rouge.

It was a very complex problem in Cambodia with constant interference,for their own ends, from the USA, Vietnam, France and the King of Cambodia.

Of course and as usual,the weakest bore the full brunt of it all. :crybaby: :crybaby:

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Originally Posted by kquill

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Originally Posted by thonglor55

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Originally Posted by Thai Dyed

When I look at what the Yanks, England and EU are up to, Pol Pot starts to look pretty good by comparison.

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I can't remember the last time I read a more fatuous comment - and for this Forum that is saying something.

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I am just finishing reading Pol Pot 'The Nightmare' and although I get and understand your points and exasperation at the Worlds policemen interfering, and the comment was probably throwaway,nothing can relate to the activities of the Khymer Rouge.

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That "nothing can relate to the activities of the Khymer Rouge" was the point I was making although I'm not sure you "got" that at all. I was making no comment about the world's policemen interfering. By comparison, Thai Dyed seems to be saying that "the Yanks, England and EU" are morally inferior to Pol Pot. As I said, that is a totally fatuous comment. Or perhaps you were agreeing with me and disagreeing with Thai Dyed? All-in-all your post is simply confusing as to where you stand.

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Originally Posted by thonglor55

...your post is simply confusing as to where you stand.

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I was actually rather touched by the story of how Pol Pot died. His wife discovered he was dead when she went to tuck in the mosquito net next to his bed.
[attachment=1:w0is0yvl]Wife of Pol Pot.jpg[/attachment:w0is0yvl]

Pol Pot's body in a Khmer Rouge stronghold near the Thai-Cambodian border. Pol Pot died on Wednesday, April 15, 1998.
"I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country." -Pol Pot
[attachment=0:w0is0yvl]Pol Pot dead.jpg[/attachment:w0is0yvl]

At least he died living in a middle of no where sh*t hole.

When I stayed in Phnom Penh, my hotel room at a big framed newspaper article from around the time Pol Pot fell from power. It featured a big portrait shot of him next to the article. One of the Cambodian boys I invited over one night immediately pointed to his face and said he was a bad man...

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Originally Posted by Koh Samui Luv

I was actually rather touched by the story of how Pol Pot died. His wife discovered he was dead when she went to tuck in the mosquito net next to his bed.

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cdnmatt has told us that his pornographer chums are great family men as well, as if that is some yardstick of moral integrity.

Thonglor55,

I was of course agreeing with you and in disagreement with Thai Dyed.

You are correct about the confusion when I inadvertently quoted two of you in my post...apologies for that!.... :sunny: