This man is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity… General Rios Montt has known better times… Author of a coup in Guatemala, he headed a ruthless counter insurgency campaign from 1982 to 1983. Guatemala’s 36-year long civil war during which some 200,000 Guatemalans were killed ended in 1996. General Rios Montt was indicted for genocide and crimes of humanity. He now stands trial in Guatemala City.
The Guatemalan refugee situation in Mexico was the first leg in the story I did on refugees in the world (see here).
I later worked on a Mam community in Todos Santos (see here) where General Rios Montt, himself born in Huehuetenango which is not that far, had the nerve to try and convince the Mam he so thoroughly persecuted to vote for a candidate of his party in the 1995 elections.
GUATEMALA. Todos Santos. 02/11/1995: General Rios Montt, former participant in a military coup, supporting the FRG candidate Alfonso Portillo. The FRG scored second at the 12/11/1995 elections.
Posted Tuesday Apr 02, 2013, in
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I am working on ‘A Fine Thead’, my next ebook about the garment industry workers which hopefully will be released in time for the opening of an exhibition on the walls of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh at the end of May. Meanwhile ‘Same Same‘, ‘Royal Silence‘ and ‘30 Years for a Trial‘ are available at the iBookstore on iTunes.
A Fine Thread Sshot1
A Fine Thread Sshot2
Tep Vanny will be awarded the ‘Leadership in Public Life Award’ by ‘Vital Voices’ this April 2nd in Washington DC, in the presence, so I heard, of Vice President Joe Biden and former Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton. But if she was singled out for the award, most of the women of Boeung Kak Lake equally deserve it.
The people from Boeung Kak Lake are fighting to preserve their land. But in fact they are fighting for so much more than just their land. Their first demonstrations (see here) date from February 2008. So many years later, so many demonstrations, fights, screams, disappointments later, they go on fighting. Here are 34 photographs of Tep Vanny, taken over the years.
It seems there isn’t. Two days after Yorm Bopha was denied bail by the Supreme Court, the Boeung Kak Lake ladies were in front of the Royal Palace, seeking an intervention by King Norodom Sihamoni for her liberation. There were about 40 of them. And at least as many policemen in uniform under the shadow of a tree. Yorm Bopha was designated as ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ by Amnesty International.
(see here, and here)
And a reminder: ‘Quest for Land‘, 11 years of land issues in Cambodia for the iPad is available on iTunes…
The hopes were high and the anger was intense with the Boeung Kak Lake community members this morning at the Supreme Court when they heard that Yorm Bopha, a very vocal activist involved in a lingering land issue (see here and here) and accused of having assaulted a tuktuk driver, was yet again denied bail. Yorm Bopha was designated as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International.
Meanwhile, that same morning, the former Governor of Bavet walks free after the Appeals Court dropped the charges against him. Chhouk Bandith wounded three garment factory workers with gunshots during a strike.
This is a follow-up post on the ‘Quest for Land‘ story which is available as an iApp on iTunes.
The water sprit said:’The dam will not be built before five years’… That is what the chamane told the Poum Thmey villagers gathered at the spirit house on the banks of the Srepok river, near the rapids where the Lower Srepok3 dam’s construction is planned. They took their longboats, zigzagging upstream through the rocks hidden in the water, carrying with them a piglet, joss sticks, a few mats and jars of rice wine. Once at the spirit house, people prayed behind it and at the foot of trees, lighting joss sticks and spilling drops of rice wine. A few banners saying ‘The river is our livelihood’ were tied next to the spirit house which by now was decorated with red cloth. The musicians started to play and the chamane, a first grade schoolteacher, started dancing.
Five Years of respite. Respite? The Sesan2 dam which will be built downstream, will most likely already have had a radical impact on the fish population of the Srepok river and on the lives of the indigenous populations. There is a price to pay for development. Some will pay more than others.
This is the last post about the Three Rivers Dams project for now. Most of the photographs can be found at this link. An ebook is under construction and will be available in a couple of months. Stay tuned…
’30 Years for a Trial’ reviewed by ‘The Cambodia Daily’. The ebook about Duch’s trial, the Khmer Rouge director of ‘S21’ where some 15,000 people were tortured and later killed, is available on iTunes at this link.
The ebook, with texts by Robert Carmichael and photographs by John Vink gives insight on the backstage of the trial and the context of what might well be the only Khmer Rouge to be sentenced.
CAMBODIA. Phnom Penh. 23/03/2013: Review of ’30 Years for a Trial’ in The Cambodia Daily March 24th 2013.
Posted Monday Mar 25, 2013, in
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Poum Thmey, squeezed between a land concession and a flooding river (see here) will have to cope with the consequences of the possible construction of the Lower Srepok3 dam, just a few km upstream, where a barrier of rocks creates a series of rapids in the river. A feasability study was conducted by a Chinese state-owned company and engineers have been drilling the site to get soil samples which they left under the house they rented house in the village for 150$/month. The 300 megawatts dam should be 53 km high and 10 km long, flooding more than 750 km2 inside the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary with a fairly obvious impact on the ecosystem there.
People in Phum Thmey know about the dam of course. A bunch of Chinese engineers don’t go unnoticed in a village… All they can do is wish the dam will not be built, protest with what they have and invoke the water spirit.
