Solved puzzle reveals fabled Cambodian temple

By Suy Se (AFP) –

SIEM REAP, Cambodia — It has taken half a century, but archaeologists in Cambodia have finally completed the renovation of an ancient Angkor temple described as the world's largest three dimensional puzzle.

The restoration of the 11th-century Baphuon ruin is the result of decades of painstaking work, hampered by tropical rains and civil war, to take apart hundreds of thousands of sandstone blocks and piece them back together again.

"When I first saw how devastated the monument was, I never thought we would be able to put it back together," said Cambodian restorer Ieng Te, who joined the project as a young student in 1960 and was tasked with numbering stones.

"I am so happy and excited that we were able to rebuild our historic temple," the now 66-year-old said as he oversaw the final construction activities at the site.

On a recent rainy morning workers were adding a final layer of paint to newly-installed wooden staircases at Baphuon, one of the country's biggest temples after Angkor Wat, the largest structure in the famed Angkor complex.

It is one of the last jobs to be done before the temple reopens to the public next week, finally revealing itself in full glory after spending decades in pieces.

Cambodian King Sihamoni and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon will be among the first to tour the impressive three-tier temple during an inauguration ceremony on July 3.

The story of the 10-million-euro ($14m) renovation began in the 1960s when a French-led team of archaeologists dismantled the pyramidal building because it was falling apart, largely due to its heavy, sand-filled core that was putting pressure on the thin walls.

The workers numbered some 300,000 of the sandstone blocks and laid them out in the surrounding jungle.

But efforts to rebuild the crumbling towers and lavishly ornamented facades abruptly came to a halt when Cambodia was convulsed by civil war in 1970.

The records to reassemble Baphuon, including the numbering system, were then destroyed by the hardline communist Khmer Rouge which took power in 1975.

In 1995, when the area in northwestern Cambodia was again safe to work in, the French government-funded project was restarted under the leadership of architect Pascal Royere from the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO).

"It has been said, probably rightly so, that it is the largest-ever 3D puzzle," Royere told AFP.

The team carefully measured and weighed each block and then relied on archive photos stored in Paris, drawings and the recollections of Cambodian workers to figure out where each part fits.

"We were facing a three-dimensional puzzle, a 300,000-piece puzzle to which we had lost the picture. And that was the main difficulty of this project," Royere said.

"There is no mortar that fills the cracks which means that each stone has its own place. You will not find two blocks that have the same dimensions."

The restoration of Baphuon, one of Angkor's oldest ruins, was completed in April and Royere said it was a moment of joy for the 250-strong, mainly Cambodian, team.

Finishing the "unique" undertaking was "a collective satisfaction because it was a complicated project," he said.

Built around 1060 by King Udayadityavarman II in honour of the Hindu god Shiva, Baphuon was the country's largest religious building at the time, 35 metres high (114 feet) and measuring 130 by 104 metres (426 x 340 feet).

In the 16th century, a 70-metre long reclining Buddha statue was built into a wall on the second level using stones from the top of the temple.

These two phases of construction, hundreds of years apart, further complicated the restoration, said Royere, and working during the rainy season proved another major challenge.

But those struggles are behind him now and as the Frenchman watched camera-toting tourists amble along the long elevated walkway that leads to the temple, he said he was confident the site would become a top attraction.

Located at the heart of the Angkor park, it "certainly promises to be a great success," he said.

Gazing up at Baphuon, first-time visitor to Cambodia Gayle Sienicki from Washington DC marvelled at the temple's long journey to recovery.

"It's just amazing, I mean truly amazing, that they could take these bits of stones and figure out how to put them all back together," she said. "I'm in awe. I think this is just the coolest thing."

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Cambodia’s ruling party marks founding anniversary

The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) held a meeting in Phnom Penh on June 28 to mark its 60th founding anniversary (June 28).

Addressing the meeting, CPP President Chea Sim affirmed his Party’s consistent ideal and goal of tirelessly striving for the Cambodian people since the CPP, formerly known as the People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea, was established 60 years ago.

He stressed that the CPP gathered the people to overthrow the Khmer Rouge genocide regime (1975-1979) and win the victory on January 7, 1979.

The CPP leader said attributed the victory and national recovery associate with great national unity strength, patriotism and impartial, timely and effective assistance of friend countries and the peace-loving force on the world.

Chea Sim also reviewed Cambodia ’s achievements in process of the national concord and rebuilding under the CPP’s leadership.

The country posted an economic growth rate of 5.9 percent in 2010, which is expected to be 6 percent in 2011 and 7 percent in the following years, he said. Cambodia ’s poverty reduction rate dropped to 26 percent last year, and it is likely to decrease to 19.5 percent by 2015.

At the meeting, the CPP leader voiced his Party’s support for the tribunal on the Khmer Rouge’s crimes.

The CPP will continue to enter in league with the FUNCINPEC and cooperate with other patriotic forces in the society, he said.

He expressed his belief that elections of senate, lower house and localities in the coming time will be conducted freely and equally.

The CPP continues to support its Vice President and Prime Minister Hun Sen to stand for the post as prime minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia for the fifth term, Chea Sim added.

From: http://www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn/International/2011/6/94050/

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KRouge defendant vows to help court find 'truth'

(AFP) –

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A top ex-Khmer Rouge leader on trial for genocide on Thursday vowed to cooperate with Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court to reveal the truth about the country's "Killing Fields" era.

"I personally am not fully knowledgeable about everything, but I will try from the bottom of my heart to make sure that everything is fully revealed," said Khieu Samphan, the former head of state of the brutal regime.

"This is the most important moment for me and for my compatriots who are eager to know and understand what happened between 1975 and 1979."

Along with "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea, ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary and his wife, one-time social affairs minister Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan faces charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The elderly defendants are the most senior surviving members of a regime whose reign of terror led to the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, overwork or execution. The four deny the accusations against them.

As their trial entered its fourth day with a debate about witness and expert lists, the defence complained that the court had failed to admit many of their proposed witnesses.

Khieu Samphan, dressed casually and reading a brief prepared statement, urged judges to accept his key witnesses "in order to have a fair trial and so that the truth and my honesty and fairness can be revealed".

The 79-year-old also paid his respects to the hundreds of Cambodians, including many monks, who packed the court's public gallery, and acknowledged them with a traditional greeting -- the first suspect to do so.

The public face of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan has never denied the horrors suffered by the Cambodian people.

But he claims he was an intellectual and a nationalist and knew little, until long afterwards, of the devastation that was wrought under the regime.

Led by "Brother Number One" Pol Pot, who died in 1998, the movement emptied Cambodia's cities and abolished money and schools in a bid to create an agrarian utopia before they were ousted from the capital by Vietnamese forces.

The initial hearing is set to conclude on Thursday, with full testimony to follow in the coming months.

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Greek parliament approves austerity programme

Parliament passes second vote on austerity package following overnight clashes that rocked the capital.


Greece's ruling socialist party has passed a second austerity bill needed to implement an austerity package to secure more funds from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The vote saw 155 members of parliament voting in favour of the bill, 136 voting against and five abstentions.

Politicians voted on Thursday on the second of two austerity bills that are key to receiving funding, after endorsing an initial law on Wednesday to slash $40bn off the national debt.

The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou won the first vote by 155 to 138 votes.

But the package of taxes, spending cuts and privatisations has angered many Greeks, with thousands taking to the streets, and police clashing overnight with protesters ahead of Thursday's vote.

Clean-up operation

Central Athens, grounded to a halt during violent protests and a 48-hour strike by powerful public and private sector unions. Teams of street cleaners on Thursday swept up broken masonry and shattered glass after the night of clashes.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips reporting from Athenssaid: "Syntagma square was a battleground for two days; the air thick with acrid tear-gas."

"They [police] are certainly on alert," Philips said. "But at the moment it's all about a clean up in the city centre after two days of violence and a two day general strike," he added.

The five-year austerity package will allow Greece to secure a second bailout of $17bn of emergency loan funds from the EU and the IMF on top of last year's $157bn bailout.

Papandreou, who reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to secure support for the bills, said he was determined to push through reforms.

"Today, I am more determined than ever," he said earlier. "Now is the time to tackle everything that is wrong with everything that hurts us, that holds us back."

European reaction

Across Europe, officials hailed the first vote as an act of "national responsibility."

"That's really good news," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on her way out of an economic forum in Berlin. Germany is Greece's biggest creditor.

Relief was the main response from the markets. Soon after the vote, the euro rose against other world currencies, including the American dollar.

Investors around the world cheered the news, but protesters, fighting tear gas, hurled whatever they could find at riot police and tried to blockade the parliament building.

Christine Lagarde - named the next head of the IMF - called on Greece's opposition parties to offer support. The IMF provides about 30 per cent of Greece's bailout fund.

European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, said in a statement that the Greek parliament's approval of the bill is a "vital step back" from a debt default.

Unions to continue agitation

Thursday's vote enables individual budget measures and creates a privatisation agency, but unions have vowed to oppose privatisations and other austerity steps.

Clashes between police and protesters broke out outside parliament, with the booms of stun grenades and tear gas resonating across the square outside the parliament on Wednesday.

Riot police fired volleys of tear gas at swarms of young men who were hurling rocks and other debris as well as setting fire to rubbish containers.

Most of the anti-government protesters who marched to the square stayed clear of the fighting, but they vented their anger at the political establishment with chants and insults.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Matina Stevis, a Greek journalist, said: "I can almost hear the sighs of relief from the rest of Europe, but this is not good news, it has been an incredibly dramatic day in Athens."

Stevis said that she was worried that the austerity package was too harsh and unimplementable.

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Cambodia a capital success

By Julie Masis

PHNOM PENH - Cambodia's capital today is unrecognizable compared with five years ago. Then the tallest structure was a seven-story hotel and vast areas of the city would have appeared dark due to a lack of reliable electricity.

Now there are nine buildings of 20 or more stories and 55 structures of between 10 and 19 stories, according to the city's department of construction. More high-rises are on the way: projects have been approved to build at least 200 additional buildings with more than 10 floors, including a 60-story skyscraper.

New apartment blocks are proliferating and land prices are

soaring, to as high as US$3,000 a square meter from around $100 five years ago.

The building spree has propelled Cambodia's recent fast economic growth, the second-highest in Asia after China over the past decade, and increased consumer spending power. Prime Minister Hun Sen has presided over the country's rapid capitalist transformation after decades of debilitating civil war - although about one third of the population still subsists under the poverty line.

Jean-Michel Filippi, a university professor who leads guided tours of Phnom Penh, says that when he first arrived in the city it looked like "a giant village". Streets were unpaved and muddy; chickens, pigs, and ox carts roamed freely across the city; residents often threw their garbage right out of their windows; there were few motorbikes and even fewer cars.

His impression was that the city than was populated with "non-urban dwellers" who "reproduced the structure of the village in an urban place". This was not far from the truth. In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh, the radical Maoists expelled the city's population to the countryside to build an agrarian utopia. Nearly two millions lives were lost in the process over the next four years. After the Vietnamese invasion ousted the regime, Phnom Penh was repopulated with people who had never lived in a city.

In recent years, Phnom Penh has been transformed into a bustling urban metropolis. Ox carts have disappeared and dusty roads have been paved and are regulated by traffic lights. Once quiet streets are now packed with rush-hour traffic jams.

The number of vehicles in Cambodia has tripled in the past five years, reaching more than 1.5 million for the country's nearly 15 million population, according to the government. The vast majority of those vehicles have been registered in the capital. Every day about 80 new cars are registered in Phnom Penh, compared with only one car per day in all of Cambodia's provinces, according to Ung Chun Hour, director general of transport at the ministry of public works and transport.

"The number of motorbikes and cars is still going up, and it's going up faster in Phnom Penh than in the provinces," he said.

The growing gridlock is indicative of rising prosperity. Annual growth of around 9% over the past decade has been driven by services and manufacturing, centered around the capital.

"If we look at the drivers of growth - mainly garment exports - the factories are based around Phnom Penh or in Phnom Penh," says Neak Samsen, a poverty specialist at the World Bank office in Cambodia. "There's a lot of development in Phnom Penh City compared to other parts of the country."

Until recently, Phnom Penh's economy was entirely cash-based. The first ATM machine in Cambodia opened here in 2004. Now there are more than 500, with one on almost every corner of the city. Of the 35 different banks that operate here, only three maintain branches outside of the capital, says World Bank economist Huot Chea.

For the city's residents, the rapid development has translated into a significant improvement in their standard of living. While the average income in Cambodia is still around $1 a day, the average monthly income in Phnom Penh is three times higher, or about $100 per month, according to National Institute of Statistics' Cambodia's Socio-Economic Survey for 2010.

While around 30% of the population still lives under the poverty line (defined by the government as subsisting on a little less than 75 cents per day), fewer than 1% of Phnom Penh residents are poor by this definition, according to a joint World Bank - National Institute of Statistics Study.

Heng Sinet, a Phnom Penh college student, said that 10 years ago her family had no phone or computer, and relied on an old black and white television set for news and information. Now, her seven-member household owns two computers and nine mobile phones.

Sovan Chanrathana, another Cambodian college student, said that in 2003 she just had one pair of shoes, two shirts and two skirts to last her a whole year - and bought her clothing second-hand. Now she purchases new clothes, owns three pairs of shoes, rides a motorbike instead of a bicycle, and can afford to go out to eat.

"Before, when I went to school, I never bought something to eat," she said. "Now when I'm hungry, I eat out."

New businesses, meanwhile, have mushroomed to meet rising consumer demand. Air-conditioned supermarkets, 24-hour convenience stores attached, and high-end restaurants and clothing boutiques have sprung up over the past five years. The past year has seen an explosion in Western style coffee-shops offering up wireless Internet, $3 iced coffees and freshly baked pastries.

Ten years ago most people in Phnom Penh didn't even know what a muffin was, says Dana Langlois, who owns Cambodia's first American-style cafe, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary earlier this year. She estimates that the city is now home to at least a hundred upscale cafes and says all the new competition has not hurt her business.

"Now the market is times ten," she says. "Before you were dealing with 10,000 expatriates, now you've got a million Cambodians as a potential customer."

Julie Masis is a Cambodia-based journalist.

(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

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UQ’s Engineering students Make it So in Cambodia

University of Queensland undergraduate engineering students will apply their innovation and skills to ensure a floating village in South East Asia has access to a sanitary waste management system.

The project is being conducted as part of 2011's Year of Humanitarian Engineering and the Make it So campaign.

The Tonie Sap is a combined lake and river system of major importance to Cambodia.

As the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia, Tonle Sap is home to a number of communities who live in floating villages on and around it, who do not have access to appropriate lavatory facilities.

This has resulted in widespread contamination of the lake and a range of health issues affecting locals within the region.

In collaboration with Engineers Without Borders, UQ's Innovate Team (UQIT), consisting of five engineering students, intend to rectify this situation through the development of a floating bio-digester which will enable local communities to produce useable methane gas and fertilizer from their sanitary waste.

Senior Lecturer Dr Timothy Nicholson said that the Make it So Campaign, in conjunction with courses undertaken at UQ, had allowed students to work on the conceptual design of a new cutting-edge engineering product in multidisciplinary teams.

“The bio-digester project involves students in both technical and business oriented aspects of development such as: clarification of customer requirements; formal product specifications; cost estimation and risk assessment methods; project management plans and business skills,” Dr Nicholson said.

The Make it So Campaign began as a competition in 2010, allowing people to share their visions about what they wanted to see “made so” by engineering teams.

UQ's bio-digester project is a direct result from an idea which was submitted during last year's Make it So Campaign.

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering student and UQIT Operations Manager Mr Daniel Gillick said that the Make it So campaign was a great opportunity for the participating students to sharpen the skills they had learned in the classroom and improve the lives of others.

“Conventional engineering projects are commercially motivated, with heavy interests on generating return," Mr Gillick said.

“Shifting the focus towards humanitarian engineering that is community oriented has been an insightful and rewarding challenge.”

Media: Dr Timothy Nicholson (t.m.nicholson@uq.edu.au or 3365 4081) or Madelene Flanagan (m.flanagan@uq.edu.au or 3365 8525)

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Thailand rejects Cambodia’s conditions to defer Preah Vihear management plan

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PARIS, June 23 – Thailand has refused to accept a draft resolution proposed by Cambodia with conditions that the consideration on the Preah Vihear management plan could be postponed until next year if Thailand allows international observers into the contested area around the temple and restoration of the ancient Hindu temple damaged in recent border clashes, according to the head of Thailand’s delegation to UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC) meeting.

Thai Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti heading the Thai delegation at the heritage committee's 35th session at the agency’s Paris headquarters told reporters that a representative of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova gave Cambodia’s draft resolution to Thailand on Wednesday. Cambodia stated in its draft that Thailand fired at Preah Vihear temple and caused damage to the ruins. Thailand refutes the claim.

Thailand resolved that the Cambodia’s conditions were unacceptable after it reviewed details of the draft, according to Mr Suwit.

The Thai team is scheduled to meet the UNESCO director-general’s representative again at 11pm Thursday (Thailand time).

Thailand wants the meeting to defer considering the Cambodian management plan until the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules on its complaint, and not until Thailand and Cambodia finish demarcating the common border.

Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear temple was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

In April, Cambodia asked the court to clarify its1962 ruling on the ancient Hindu temple on its disputed border with Thailand following recent deadly armed clashes between the two neighbouring countries.

The world court, based in The Hague, ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both Phnom Penh and Bangkok claim ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre (1.8-square-mile) surrounding area. (MCOT online news)

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ambodian Gold Rush Lures Foreign Giants

A Cambodian man looking for gold at O'Clor village in Mondulkiri province, some 550 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh. (AFP Photo)

O'Clor, Cambodia. Squinting in the harsh midday sun, Ry Kuok emerges slowly with a bag of rocks on his back from a hand-dug mine in a remote corner of Cambodia known as the "Gold Forest".

He's one of hundreds of prospectors searching for the yellow metal in the isolated village of O'Clor in northeast Mondulkiri province, where a modern-day gold rush is threatened by the arrival of foreign mining giants.

On a good day, the 29-year-old can earn about $12.50. Not bad in a country where a third of the population survives on less than a dollar a day.

The work is dangerous, difficult — and completely illegal.

Carried out by tens of thousands of Cambodians across the impoverished country, the practice has been quietly tolerated by the government for decades.

But that is about to change as companies move in and invest millions of dollars to develop a gold mining industry, leaving no room for illegal prospectors.

"I don't expect we can mine here for much longer," said Kuok as he sifted through his dirty rocks looking for any glints of gold.

"We have been told that a company has bought the area and we are not allowed to dig deeper tunnels."

Cambodia is known to host at least 19 gold deposits that have attracted the interest of mining firms from Australia, China, South Korea and Vietnam.

Industry experts estimate the country is about five years away from large-scale gold extraction but the true extent of the nation's gold assets remains unclear.

In what was hailed as a promising discovery, Australian miner OZ Minerals last year announced a 605,000-ounce gold find in Mondulkiri province but it recently said further drilling projects had disappointed.

Even so, Richard Stanger, president of the Cambodian Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, said the mining industry "could be a major contribution to the economy of Cambodia in the future."

The illegal O'Clor mine is located in Prey Meas, which translates as the "Gold Forest", and is a treacherous five-hour drive from the province's main town of Sen Monorom.

Stripped of its vegetation to make way for a large pit, the mining village's brown, barren landscape is dotted with wooden shacks, piles of litter and shallow pools — a sharp contrast to the green and hilly surroundings.

But to miners like Kuok, whose family moved to the area in 1981, it is home. For now.

The government has granted a Chinese firm the rights to search for the precious metal in the forest and it has already begun its exploration work right next to the O'Clor mine, which lies in the firm's concession area.

A guard at the site said the company's name was Rong Chheng but few details have been made public about the firm or its concession agreement, a lack of transparency that critics say is typical for the country's mining sector.

"There is still very little information about the process of allocation of mining rights in Cambodia and what payments are made for their receipt," said George Boden from environmental watchdog Global Witness.

Gold prices have struck record highs on international markets and even broke through the $1,500 an ounce barrier in April as investors sought a safe haven in the face of economic uncertainty and high inflation.

Most of the illegal miners in the "Gold Forest" earn several hundred dollars a month selling their specks of gold to local traders, income that has been boosted by the soaring bullion price.

"We can survive because gold is expensive now," said 51-year-old Sum Sokhon, raising his voice over the noise of his stone-crushing machine.

But life in an illegal gold mine town is far from easy. "The area is so dirty," said Sokhon. "We worry about our health. People get sick a lot."

Hazardous materials such as mercury or cyanide are often used in the gold extraction process in illegal mines and can pose serious health risks, said Glenn Kendall, an advisor for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Cambodia.

The chemicals can cause anything from headaches to damage to the nervous system, according to experts.

There are also few safety measures in place and mine blasts and tunnel collapses have claimed lives in O'Clor over the years.

"Small-scale mining is a dangerous occupation," said Kendall, adding that the choice to become an illegal miner was usually driven by poverty.

He said the fate of the illegal workers was in the hands of the government, but with the right regulation, small--scale miners could co-exist with the professional mining companies.

Kong Pisith, chief of Mondulkiri's industry, mining and energy office, said the "Gold Forest" miners would eventually have to halt their activities.

"When the extraction starts, they can't mine here anymore. They may become workers for the companies or they will have to change jobs," he said.

Prospectors like Sokhon fear the Chinese mining firm will reap the rewards of their hard work.

"Cambodian people found the gold, but the company is getting the gold," he said.

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