Isan gets set for Ketsana

The Meteorological Department is warning 10 northeastern provinces they will bear the brunt of Typhoon Ketsana, which is moving swiftly towards the coast of Vietnam and is due to hit Thailand tomorrow.

Weather Forecast Bureau director Somchai Baimuang explains the possible impact of Typhoon Ketsana on Thailand. Heavy rains and flash floods are expected in the Northeast Wednesday. SOMCHAI POOMLARD

The provinces bracing for severe weather conditions are Amnat Charoen, Buri Ram, Mukdahan, Nakhon Phanom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Roi Et, Sakon Nakhon, Si Sa Ket, Surin and Ubon Ratchathani.

The typhoon is moving westward at a speed of 15 kilometres an hour.

"More rain is likely with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall," the Meteorological Department said yesterday.

"People in risk areas along foothills near waterways and in lowland areas should beware of flooding conditions during this period."

Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department chief Anucha Mokkaves said flood relief officials could handle the coming storm and all provincial agencies had been alerted to monitor the situation closely.

The Irrigation Department was also discharging water from its reservoirs to prepare for heavy rains, its director-general Chalit Damrongsak said.

Anont Sanitwong na Ayutthaya, director of the Climate Impact Science and Technology Centre, said Thailand would face heavy rain but not strong winds from Typhoon Ketsana because the storm should ease while it passes over Vietnam and Laos.

Typhoon Ketsana is now moving away from the Philippines after it devastated many parts of the country. The death toll there has reached 140.

The Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman said no Thais living in the Philippines had been affected by the typhoon after it hit Manila.

The Philippines appealed for international help yesterday and warned a new storm could strike this week, with tens of thousands of citizens still displaced from their homes.

At least 32 people were reported missing, and authorities were still trying to verify scores of unconfirmed deaths, including in hard-hit Manila and nearby Rizal province, where there were reports about 99 more people had died, Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

Tens of thousands of Philippines residents began a massive clean-up of the carnage left by Typhoon Ketsana, which struck on Saturday, bringing the region's worst flooding in 42 years and triggering deadly landslides.

The extent of the devastation became clearer yesterday with mud-covered communities, cars upended on city streets and huge numbers of villagers without drinking water, food and power.

Since the storm struck, the government has declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

The homes of more than 450,000 people were inundated. About 115,000 of them were brought to 200 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters, officials said. Troops, police and volunteers have been able to rescue more than 7,900 people, Mr Teodoro said.

He told a news conference help from foreign governments would ensure the Philippine government could continue its relief work. Government welfare officials have begun focusing on providing food, medicine and other necessities to those in emergency shelters.

President Gloria Arroyo has said Ketsana and the flooding were "an extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us".

The US has donated US$100,000 (3.3 million baht) and deployed a military helicopter and five rubber boats manned by about 20 American soldiers from the country's south, where they have been providing counter-terrorism training. The United Nations Children's Fund has also provided food and other aid.

Officials expected the death toll to rise as rescuers penetrate villages blocked off by floating cars and debris.

The 42.4cm of rain that swamped metropolitan Manila in just 12 hours on Saturday exceeded the 39.2cm average for all of September, chief government weather forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said.

Developing, developed countries in blame game

The start of environment talks in Bangkok has been swamped with petitions as developed and developing countries accuse each other of not doing enough to combat climate change.

There had been strong indications the two sides of the development coin were moving towards overcoming their differences and gearing up towards a new deal. But the Bangkok talks have started disappointingly and have turned into a platform for delegates to make more demands than commitments.

Developing countries yesterday called on developed nations to commit to firm emissions targets and financial assistance, while developed countries said poor nations needed to do more to cut their greenhouse gas outflow.

Green groups observing the talks called on negotiators to work harder and faster to prepare a more "precise and readable" text for the Copenhagen climate summit in December.

"Time is not just pressing. It has almost run out," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said in his opening remarks.

Mr de Boer said he hoped the Bangkok meeting would produce clarity on developed countries' financial support to poorer nations in tackling climate change.

"At the end of the Bangkok talks, we are expecting to see practical meaning of technology transfer and financial mobilisation," he said.

Connie Hedegarrd, Denmark's minister for climate change and energy, called on developed countries to make an urgent commitment to deliver fast-track financing for climate change adaptation.

"Developed countries must prove that they are serious," Ms Hedegarrd said in her opening speech.

"Here in Bangkok, we need to be more precise on what kind of actions should be financed."

Shortly after the opening session, the European Commission held a news conference at which it called for stronger contributions from developing countries in reducing carbon emissions growth.

"What has been missing here is concrete proposals from developing countries, including India and China, on what they will do [to cut greenhouse gas emissions]," said Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Commission's chief climate negotiator.

"We need a firm commitment from developed countries and the developing countries to act."

The EC has been heavily criticised for its financing scheme. It earlier this month estimated that developing countries would need at least 100 billion euros (4.9 trillion baht) a year to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to climate change, but pledged to pay only 2 billion to 15 billion euros a year.

Tove Ryding of Greenpeace said the EC's pledge was like "throwing the tips and running away from the bills".

Hun Sen orders army to shoot Thai trespasses

Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered his troops on Monday to shoot any trespassers in a simmering border dispute with Thailand and angrily blasted the neighbouring nation's territorial claims.

Cambodian PM Hun Sen

His remarks came a little over a week after Thai protesters rallied at the disputed border area near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple, the site of clashes that have killed seven soldiers since tensions flared last year.

"If they enter again, they will be shot," Mr Hun Sen told officials who applauded as he publicly ordered troops along the border to fire against civilian or military "invader enemies" who illegally enter Cambodia.

"Troops, police and all armed forces must adhere to the order... for invaders, shields are not used but bullets are used," Mr Hun Sen said in the speech at the opening ceremony for Cambodia's new Ministry of Tourism building.

Mr Hun Sen also lambasted Thailand's claim to the disputed 4.6 square kilometres of land around Preah Vihear, saying he may raise it at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting next month.

"This is a unilateral claim with the ambition of occupying Cambodian territory... If the Thai prime minister put the (unilaterally-drawn) map in front of me, I would tear it," Mr Hun Sen told the audience.

"Cambodia does not want war, but Cambodia deserves the right to destroy enemies in its territory," he said, adding that he would take the issue to the UN Security Council in the case of any aggressive action by Thailand.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over the land around the Preah Vihear temple for decades, but tensions spilled over into violence last July when the temple was granted UN World Heritage status.

Although the World Court ruled in 1962 that it belonged to Cambodia, the most accessible entrance to the ancient Khmer temple with its crumbling stone staircases and elegant carvings is in northeastern Thailand.

Soldiers from Cambodia and Thailand continue to patrol the area, with the last gunbattle near the temple area in April leaving three people dead. The border between the two countries has never been fully demarcated, in part because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

New book assesses tribunal

Photo by: Photo Supplied

A DC-Cam Peace and Justice walk, led by nuns, monks and Cham Muslim leaders, heads towards the Khmer Rouge tribunal.

(Post in http://www.khmernz.blogspot.com/)

Monday, 28 September 2009 15:03 Robbie Corey-Boulet

DC-Cam effort addresses administration, challenges for survivor participation.

THE Khmer Rouge tribunal’s efforts to engage survivors have been hindered by a severe lack of resources, and administrative issues such as unresolved corruption complaints threaten to compromise progress in the courtroom, according to a new book from the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam).

The release of On Trial: The Khmer Rouge Accountability Process, scheduled for Saturday, roughly coincides with the third anniversary of the tribunal’s founding, initially with three-year mandate. In addition to topics such as the tribunal’s history and operations, the book includes chapters assessing its performance in three areas: rulings, administration and survivor-engagement.

The chapter on survivors, written by Sarah Thomas and Terith Chy, states that an under-resourced Victims’ Unit and ill-equipped civil party lawyers have detracted from survivors’ contributions to the proceedings.

The unit, they say, “has suffered greatly as a result of its late creation and the half-hearted support of donors”, making it necessary for outreach and other tasks to be delegated to NGOs and other intermediary organisations.

Though they note that the processing of complaints and civil party applications has been aided by the hiring of more data-entry clerks, more than 1,500 forms had not been processed as of late July, they say.

In an interview with the Post, Terith Chy, head of DC-Cam’s Victim Participation Project, said there was still a chance the forms could be useful in the shaping of the tribunal’s second case, but that “the window of possibility for this is … rapidly closing” as the investigation phase winds down.

Though they claim that the reliance on intermediary organisations “has been so extensive as to be overwhelming”, the authors argue that the unit should not try to take the lead on outreach.

“Having conducted outreach for almost two years, intermediary organisations possess far greater experience in the provision of victims’ rights education than the unit and have already secured the involvement of more survivors than the court may be able to handle,” they write.

The chapter goes on to describe civil party lawyers as inexperienced and outmatched by the prosecution and defence teams — a situation the authors say was inevitable, given that the tribunal does not fund civil party representation. In the trial of Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, pro bono lawyers recruited through intermediary organisations “lacked the resources necessary to match the other parties, including the necessary administrative, investigative and technological capabilities”, the authors say.

In addition to pushing for the appointment of court-recruited legal teams, the authors advocate stronger intervention by judges in the civil party process, which they say could have prevented many of the problems that arose during the Duch case.

In a separate chapter, John Hall, an associate professor at California’s Chapman University School of Law who has written extensively about the tribunal, writes that administrative issues “have risen to such a level that they threaten to damage the legitimacy and viability of the legal process”.

After detailing allegations of a kickback scheme on the Cambodian side of the tribunal, Hall criticises the “apparent lack of teeth” of the independent counsellor position, an anticorruption mechanism announced last month.

In an interview with the Post, he said it “seems highly unlikely” that Cambodian staff would be comfortable bringing their complaints to the counsellor, Uth Chhorn.

Hall also criticises the donor community for failing “to exert the full potential of its fiscal, moral and political leverage” in pushing for “more effective anticorruption mechanisms”.

(Editor’s note: Robbie Corey-Boulet was acknowledged for having provided comments during the preparation of Hall’s chapter on administrative issues.)

Health project reduces fees

Photo by: Sovan Philong

A young child receives medical care at Treal Health Centre in Kampong Thom province. Vouchers that can be exchanged for medical treatment have proved a success, NGOs said in a new report.

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Monday, 28 September 2009 15:03 James O’toole and Mom Kunthear

A joint project between the Ministry of Health and local NGOs reduces debt from health-care expenditures for thousands of Cambodian families, study shows.

AMINISTRY of Health programme designed to minimise health care fees for the poor has saved thousands of families from millions of dollars of debt, according to a report released today by University Research Co (URC), a local NGO.

The URC report evaluates the performance of Health Equity Funds (HEFs), a health-financing scheme operated jointly by the government and NGOs that offers financial support to poor Cambodians who make use of public health facilities. “This is done,” the report explains, “by purchasing health services on [poor people’s] behalf, providing them with transport reimbursements and providing the patients’ caretakers with money to cover food expenses.”

Health-care debts force 100 million people worldwide into poverty each year, Oxfam International said in May 2008. It is this threat, said Minister of Health Mam Bunheng, that HEFs have been urgently addressing.

“This project has been successful because it allows poor people to access services at hospitals or health centres without paying fees out-of-pocket,” the minister said.

While there are more than 30 separate HEF schemes currently operating in Cambodia, just 22 schemes on which URC cooperated were supporting 20 percent of all inpatients in the Cambodian public health system as of December 2008. Residents of communities served by HEFs, URC said, are making increased use of public health facilities while at the same time incurring significantly less health care-related debt compared with their counterparts in areas lacking HEFs.

In 2007, according to the government’s Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey, there were 27 operational districts in Cambodia supported by HEFs, compared with 49 without them. In those 27 districts, URC estimated that equity funds reduced health-care debt for nearly 20,000 households, saving them US$7.2 million in total.

Tapley Jordanwood, the URC health-financing team leader and one of the authors of today’s report, said that candidates for HEF support are identified on a local level, as local residents and commune council members deliberate on which community members should receive HEF cards that can be redeemed for treatment at public health facilities. “The actual mechanisms by which [HEF distribution] works are very unique to Cambodia,” Jordanwood said.

Mam Bunheng said the government was pleased with the development of the programme and hopes to implement it more widely in the near future. Funding is currently in place from both the government and other institutions, including the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development, to expand HEF coverage across the Kingdom in the next few years.

Though there are still thousands of Cambodians who are at risk of falling into poverty from health costs, Jordanwood said that the distribution of HEF cards in poor communities is hoped to coincide with greater reliance on public health facilities nationwide.

“People make decisions in their home when they get sick,” Jordanwood said. “When they have a card, then they have some confidence.”

B’Bang fishermen decry ‘weak’ crackdown

Photo by: Sovann Philong.

A government official addresses disgruntled students during a press conference on Friday.

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Monday, 28 September 2009 15:03 Chhay Channyda

MEDICAL students who failed their first-year exams plan to continue their protest against the University of Health Science despite government warnings of stiff crackdowns on further demonstrations.

The students say the government is trying to intimidate them after officials threatened legal action against students who continue to cause “disorder in the public places”.

“This is intimidation to us,” said student representative Keo Moly after a government press conference Friday. “We fear for our safety.”

However, she said students would continue to protest.

The students have been at an impasse with university and government officials since earlier this month, when more than half the students failed

their first-year exams.

The government had offered to let the failed students retake the entrance exam and repeat their first years, or move to another school. The students, meanwhile, want the full exam results released, saying the results were unfair.