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| By Emiko Stock | | | 22-08-2008 |  Kompong Chhnang (Cambodia). Saeth Mith
© Emiko Stock
Every third Friday of the month, “Cham Clichés” intends to go beyond frozen and monotonous representations of the Muslim community in Cambodia by offering several colourful portraits casting light on the diversity of the Cham community. The aim of this monthly column is to elude commonplace statements by studying a few clichés regarding characters - contemporary or ancient, historical or mythical - or ritual and everyday objects, and will put the focus on a multitude of key “Cham” protagonists. Purists might be surprised about the use of the term “Cham”- the word is usually reduced to the sole descendants of the Kingdom of Champa - to designate the whole of the Cambodian Muslim community, thus going beyond the simple “ethnic group”. This column echoes the general accepted meaning of the word “Cham”, a misnomer generally used to refer to the whole Muslim community of Cambodia. The first issue of a new monthly column on Ka-set about Chams in Cambodia features the portrayal of a man called Saeth Mith, a name laden with history and mystery.
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| By Stéphanie Gée | | | 14-08-2008 | Phnom Penh, 17/03/2004. Crack smoker
© John Vink / Magnum
According to the annual NACD (National Authority for Combating Drugs) report issued on Tuesday 12th August and carried out with the technical support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Cambodia sticks to its denomination as a transit country for illegal drugs and stands more and more as the traffic crossroads in this region, but remains a “minor” narcotic market in the Greater Mekong sub-region.
However, the document reveals that the status of drugs in Cambodia reached a critical point in 2007. Indeed, if methamphetamines are the most commonly used drugs in Cambodia, their stronger and more addictive version, known as “ice”, a crystallised version of methamphetamine, may well take over from yama methamphetamine tablets.
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| By Chheang Bopha | | | 02-07-2008 | Sou Sotheavy, 68, gay and married by force under the Khmer Rouge regime,
managed to sustain sexual relationships with men during this period, sometimes out of desire, and sometimes out of necessity
©John Vink/ Magnum
Gay men in Cambodia rarely have to be faced with direct hostilities on the part of their fellow-citizens, but are more often pressurised by their own family into complying with social conventions, most of the time by marrying a person of the opposite sex and starting a family. They often tend to conceal their identity but some simply cannot hold back their femininity. What type of life did they lead under the Khmer Rouge regime? How were they treated under the ideology of Democratic Kampuchea, which aimed at putting all Khmer people in a mould, destroying differences and imposing a morality and a way of life that resembled monastic life? Here are the stories of two survivors.
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| By Chheang Bopha and Stéphanie Gée | | | 27-06-2008 |  The Building (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). 21/01/2008: Ta Barang rules over the small world of chess players in a coffee house on the ground floor of the Phnom Penh building.
© Stéphanie Gée
We are waiting at the coffee shop on the ground floor of the Building. Around us, all kinds of white collars as well as students. The owner of the chessboards has not arrived yet, so we chat to while away the time. “Learning a foreign language is essential. Like knowing how to cook. If you have these two skills, you can make a correct living. Take my sister for example. She used to work in the restaurant of a barang [white expatriate]. Well, not only did she have free weekends, but she was also able to save some money. That's for sure, better not work for Cambodians, otherwise you will be on duty seven days a week!”, a plump young man says. His neighbour, who is in his fifties, concurs with him, “Yes, it's true what you say. Accountants also make good money. That is what my niece does. And besides, it's not a difficult job!”
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| By Stéphanie Gée and Chheang Bopha | | | 25-06-2008 | 
Ieng Sary being greeted by a Khmer Rouge delegation at Pochentong,
probably after a trip to China
© Kathleen O'Keefe Archives Ieng Sary, former deputy prime Minister and leader of the Khmer Rouge movement and, in this regard, the most visible figure, with president Khieu Samphan, of the sanguinary regime, will appear for the first time before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) as part of a public hearing held on June 30th. Following his arrest on November 12th 1997 with his wife Ieng Thirith and indicted by the ECCC on charges of crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the August 12th, 1949 Geneva Convention, Ieng Sary made the news by requesting that the court grant him conjugal visits with his wife. Following the example of his former peers, he did not express an inch of regret about the macabre outcome of the Khmer Rouge murderous madness and refuses to take any responsibility whatsoever. Here is the story of a character seen without any hesitation by the Cambodian people as one of the brains behind the Democratic Kampuchea regime. A name which, shortly after the beginning of the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, would stick to the idea of unwanted popularity in the overused expression coined by the Vietnamese: “the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique”.
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Analyses
| Dr. Raoul Marc Jennar reviews the list of agreements, treaties and other conventions signed in the last century. According to him, they confirm the sovereignty of Cambodia over the area of Preah Vihear which is now disputed by Thailand. |
Spotted on the web
| Short, poor, ill and corrupt, or, in other words, the new potential composite of the average Cambodian person elaborated on the basis of statistical figures circulated here and there by various international and national organisations intervening in Cambodia. |
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By Doris
By John Vink
By Doris