tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/cambodia-2886/articles
Cambodia – The Conversation
2024-02-29T02:27:39Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224726
2024-02-29T02:27:39Z
2024-02-29T02:27:39Z
Cambodia’s new leader may sound like a reformer in Australia next week, but little has changed back home
<p>When Cambodia’s new prime minister, Hun Manet, visits Melbourne next week for the <a href="https://aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au/">ASEAN Australia Summit</a>, he may seem a welcome change from his long-serving authoritarian father Hun Sen. But hopes for a democratic and human rights renaissance in this genocide-ravaged and long-misgoverned country remain sadly misplaced.</p>
<p>Hun Sen, who had ruled Cambodia for 38 years, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/21/world/asia/cambodia-hun-manet-prime-minister.html">transferred</a> power to his son, the 45-year-old Hun Manet, last August.</p>
<p>In Australia next week, the soft-spoken, Western-educated and technocratically savvy Hun Manet will likely present himself as the face of a modern, developing Cambodia, talking the talk of economic reform and more effective governance. However, his father’s talk back home is jail for his critics. And his father continues to call the shots that matter.</p>
<p>Hun Sen, still only 71, remains president of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and is in practical control of what effectively remains a one-party state. And he is, for good measure, the de facto constitutional head of state, as well. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/senate-president-election-hun-sen-manet-c8613f0cc226f938f3e09b28e65a565e">expected</a> new president of the Senate, he will act for King Norodom Sihamoni when he is out of the country – as the king often has been, not least when <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/king-again-beijing-contested-party-laws-signing">controversial legislation has been signed</a> into force.</p>
<p>The governing CPP has successfully used broad defamation laws to prosecute government critics in the courts. Last year, an opposition leader, Son Chhay, a dual Cambodian-Australian citizen, was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/charged-fined-and-frozen-out-the-australian-man-taking-on-asian-strongman-hun-sen-20230215-p5ckuh.html">ordered</a> to pay $US1 million (A$1.5 million) in damages for saying the CPP bought and stole votes. Jail awaits if he cannot pay.</p>
<p>Commenting on this case, the deputy head of one of the country’s leading NGOs, Soeng Sengkaruna, whose long record of defending human rights was detailed in co-author Gordon Conochie’s book <a href="https://atigerrules.com/">A Tiger Rules the Mountain – Cambodia’s Pursuit of Democracy</a>, said the CPP <a href="https://cambojanews.com/cambodia-daily-corrects-report-amid-legal-case-against-soeng-senkaruna/">should stop</a> using the courts to silence the opposition. </p>
<p>This led the party to sue him this month, too, <a href="https://cambojanews.com/former-pm-hun-sen-threatens-adhocs-soeng-senkaruna-with-lawsuit-following-comments-in-media-report/">seeking</a> US$500,000 (A$770,000) in damages. Knowing the prospect of the courts defying the CCP’s wishes, he and his family have now fled the country.</p>
<h2>Power concentrated in one family</h2>
<p>With Hun Sen doing the heavy lifting in controlling the political environment, Hun Manet has been able to concentrate on managing government departments and delivering public services, keeping one step away from allegations of human rights abuses. This has encouraged some <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Cambodia-s-Hun-Manet-given-wary-welcome-by-West-despite-rights-record">media and diplomats</a> to dream <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9YPe3gO2iY">he will grant liberal freedoms</a> when given the opportunity.</p>
<p>But there is no reason to believe a few years studying in America and Britain will lead Hun Manet to discard the authoritarian and paternalistic culture in which he has been immersed for most of his life. </p>
<p>This is a political culture, much influenced by Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore, where family trumps the individual, economic rights trump political rights, liberal freedoms need to be constrained lest they brew discord and disorder, and wise rulers should not be held back by the separation of powers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodian-strongman-hun-sen-wins-another-landslide-election-will-succession-to-his-son-be-just-as-smooth-209967">Cambodian strongman Hun Sen wins another 'landslide' election. Will succession to his son be just as smooth?</a>
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<p>However, a great many Cambodians, including reportedly <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/sar-kheng-rejects-allegations-cpp-division">some in the CPP itself</a>, have not been persuaded that family values justify so many powerful roles being occupied by Hun Sen and his progeny. In addition to Hun Manet now serving as prime minister: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Lieutenant General Hun Manith (middle son) is chief of the Defence Ministry’s Intelligence Department </p></li>
<li><p>Hun Many (youngest son) is a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hun-many-manith-manet-sen-nepotism-9f70d85a2668384ab1efeb82782c3f8f">new deputy prime minister</a>, the minister for civil service and president of the CPP’s youth wing </p></li>
<li><p>daughters Hun Mana and Hun Maly <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/reports/hostile-takeover/">hold interests in a swathe of companies</a>, including Cambodia Electricity Private that sells electricity to the government, as well as television, radio and newspaper outlets</p></li>
<li><p>and Hun Mana’s husband, Dy Vichea, is <a href="https://southeastasiaglobe.com/police-chief/">deputy national police chief</a>. He is also one of many powerful party figures who hold <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-25/cambodian-pm-henchmen-splash-millions-on-melbourne-property/10355246">multi-million dollar commercial and residential assets in Australia</a>. </p></li>
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<p>Cambodia is growing economically and the cityscape is now gleaming with skyscrapers. But it <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/cambodia">ranks 158th out of 180 countries for corruption</a>. And a country where one family dominates government and commerce, and leaders are appointed because of their family connections, is at profound risk of kleptocracy.</p>
<p>Cambodia’s democratic and human rights deficit remains profound, with: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>opposition parties <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65478798">dissolved</a> or <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cambodia-opposition-party-election-hun-sen-63659ff8f2de992d84d2be748afbab8b">excluded from elections</a> and their members <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/19/cambodia-harassment-arrests-opposition-activists">threatened with arrest</a></p></li>
<li><p>mass surveillance <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20220216124054-u6xyw">strengthened</a></p></li>
<li><p>independent media outlets <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/03/28/hun-sen-closes-in-on-independent-media-in-cambodia/">shuttered</a>. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The government’s obsession with control extends to the diaspora: Cambodian-Australians joining protests in Melbourne may put their families back home <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/cambodian-australians-fear-threats-violence-when-regime-leader-visits-20240124-p5ezob.html">at risk</a> of visits by the authorities.</p>
<h2>Australia should use its leverage</h2>
<p>Australia should continue to support the economic and social development of Cambodia, but also those Cambodians who are striving for democracy and freedom of expression. Targeted sanctions against those accused of human rights violations can and should be applied.</p>
<p>Australia <a href="https://cambodia.embassy.gov.au/files/PENH/20231214-Australian-Embassy-media-release-Roundtable-on-Australia%E2%80%99s-new-Development-Partnership-Plan-English.pdf">recently consulted with 14 Cambodian ministries</a> on its new Development Partnership Plan for Cambodia – but no alternative civil society voices. We have leverage, and should use it – not just to promote economic development, but the decent governance so many Cambodians want and deserve.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-australia-have-the-political-will-or-leverage-to-support-change-in-cambodia-100829">Does Australia have the political will – or leverage – to support change in Cambodia?</a>
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<p>The CPP has called liberal democracy <a href="https://www.mfaic.gov.kh/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/4T2-Stability-12-February-2018.pdf">unattainably “pure and perfect”</a>. However, Cambodia’s own constitution – accepted as part of the <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/30th-anniversary-cambodias-peace-agreements">peace process</a> following the civil war, in which Australia played a prominent part – says this is exactly what the country should be.</p>
<p>The millions of Cambodians who vote when they can, rally for human rights and risk jail to protest abuses show that belief in true democracy is not a minority aberration. Australia should be standing with them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Evans was Australia’s foreign minister (1988–1996) and played a leading role in initiating the Paris Peace Agreements that ended Cambodia’s civil war.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon Conochie is author of the new book, A Tiger Rules the Mountain - Cambodia's Pursuit of Democracy.</span></em></p>
Hun Manet, the son of longtime authoritarian leader Hun Sen, arrives in Melbourne next week at a time of increasing crackdowns on dissent and the opposition in the country.
Gareth Evans, Distinguished Honorary Professor, Australian National University
Gordon Conochie, Adjunct Research Fellow, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219296
2023-12-08T13:36:18Z
2023-12-08T13:36:18Z
The landmark Genocide Convention has had mixed results since the UN approved it 75 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564027/original/file-20231206-17-lncvwh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman prays in front of skulls at a memorial in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, marking the genocide that happened under the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-prays-in-front-of-skulls-at-the-choeung-ek-memorial-news-photo/960278782?adppopup=true">Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seventy-five years ago, in the wake of Nazi atrocities, the world made a vow. </p>
<p>Countries pledged to liberate humanity from the “odious scourge” of genocide when, at the United Nations, they established a new convention on <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">preventing and punishing genocide</a> on Dec. 9, 1948. </p>
<p>Has the international community lived up to this promise? </p>
<p>Amid genocide accusations and mass violence in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, China and elsewhere, the answer would seem to be obvious: “No!” </p>
<p>But the reality is more complicated. It also offers a glimmer of light at a very dark moment. </p>
<p>As someone who has studied genocide for years and <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765698/anthropological-witness/">testified on the topic</a> at an international tribunal, I view the legacy of the U.N. Genocide Convention – including its effectiveness in preventing genocide and holding perpetrators accountable – as a mixed bag with some good but also some ugly. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black woman wearing a gray outfit that looks like a sari holds her hand to her chest and stands in front of shelves filled with old looking clothing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564029/original/file-20231206-29-j2p3xy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A survivor of the Rwandan genocide looks at clothes of genocide victims who were killed by Hutu militants in 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/juliet-mukakabanda-a-survivor-that-will-testify-in-france-news-photo/1240477849?adppopup=true">Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The story of the Genocide Convention</h2>
<p>It is a minor miracle that there is a U.N. Genocide Convention, a treaty that over 150 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and Israel, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml">have ratified</a>. </p>
<p>Countries are obsessed with protecting their sovereignty and power. They gave up a bit of both by passing this convention. </p>
<p>The word genocide had been coined only four years earlier by a Polish lawyer, <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/coining-a-word-and-championing-a-cause-the-story-of-raphael-lemkin">Raphael Lemkin</a>. Why, he wondered, was it a crime to kill one person but not an entire group? </p>
<p>In 1946, at the newly formed U.N., Lemkin began lobbying diplomats. Two years of grinding U.N. debate ensued before the convention was finally – and barely – passed. </p>
<p>The convention <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml">defines genocide</a> as “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” These acts range from killing to the forced transfer of children from one group to another group. </p>
<p>But the convention’s shortcomings quickly became apparent. </p>
<h2>The bad − a convention rigged for the powerful</h2>
<p>The Genocide Convention was the product of political bargaining, compromise and pressure from some of the world’s great powers. As a result, the convention also has <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/problems-of-genocide/1C48C9BAE4A2CA4EA6727F19771651A6">major weaknesses</a>. </p>
<p>First, it does not protect everyone from genocide. It shields racial, ethnic, national and religious groups, but leaves others, such as <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/bucknell/the-politics-of-genocide/9781978821507/">political groups</a> and economic groups, unprotected. </p>
<p>As a result, the mass targeting of people from particular political groups or economic classes – which has happened in communist <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia">Cambodia</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/08/03/giving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/">China</a> and the <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2010/09/23/naimark-stalin-genocide-092310/">former Soviet Union</a> – isn’t technically considered genocide. </p>
<p>This limitation was intentional. The <a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5556.htm">Soviet Union</a>, for example, made sure such groups weren’t included in the convention, since it worried about possible future prosecution. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781351214100-3/historical-perspective-jeffrey-bachman?context=ubx&refId=c6169777-cd53-4e19-bb34-c359a761e515">Cultural genocide</a> was also dropped from the convention’s final draft, since imperial powers like France and the United Kingdom worried about being culpable for acts of cultural destruction in their colonies.</p>
<p>These shortcomings created more problems, including letting culprits off the hook. Perhaps, worst of all, these omissions suggest that enslavement, the use of atomic weapons, apartheid and the targeting of political groups are somehow less serious, since they don’t fall under the convention’s genocide umbrella. </p>
<p>And then there was the problem of enforcement. While the convention was legally binding for those who ratified it, there was no international police force holding people or governments to account for violations – and countries were left to determine whether they wanted to include the convention in their own national laws. </p>
<h2>The ugly − a convention without teeth</h2>
<p>Lacking enforcement powers, the new convention proved largely ineffective during the Cold War that began intensifying in the late 1940s.</p>
<p>This predicament helped lay the ground for a lot of ugly – <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003185291/genocide-adam-jones">tens of millions dead</a> and mass suffering.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia">Cambodia</a>, for example, the Khmer Rouge enacted policies that resulted in the death of up to 2 million of its 8 million inhabitants. Some groups, including intellectuals and ethnic and religious minorities, were singled out for execution from April 1975 to January 1979.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/blog/new-details-emerge-about-atrocities-in-guatemala">Guatemalan military targeted</a> and killed thousands in indigenous Mayan communities, with the violence peaking in the early 1980s. </p>
<p>Genocidal violence continued after the Cold War ended in the late 1980s.</p>
<p>The 1990s started with extremists from the dominant <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/rwanda">Hutu ethnic group in Rwanda</a> slaughtering about 800,000 Hutu moderates and Tutsi people, an ethnic minority. Ethnic Serbs also killed an <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina">estimated 100,000 civilians</a> in <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/bosnia-herzegovina">Bosnia</a> as the former Yugoslavia imploded. </p>
<p>The 2000s <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/burma">were riddled</a> with other <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/china">infamous failures</a>, including government-backed militias in Sudan killing 400,000 civilians in <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/darfur">Darfur</a> from 2003 through 2005 and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/sudan-darfur-fighting-war-crimes-705bdb1ac90fc7b2903f68e6f666c3ca">again today</a>. </p>
<p>More recently, Russia’s military perpetuated atrocities against Ukrainian civilians during its 2022 invasion and war with <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/ukraine">Ukraine</a> – another instance of likely genocide. And supporters of <a href="https://theconversation.com/both-israel-and-palestinian-supporters-accuse-the-other-side-of-genocide-heres-what-the-term-actually-means-217150">Israel and the Palestinians</a> are now both making accusations of genocide. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three people wearing dark clothing, including one man with an army vest, stand in the snow. The woman and one man cover their mouths and look away, one man looks forward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564030/original/file-20231206-27-s9b39b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People gather close to a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine, on April 3, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-react-as-they-gather-close-to-a-mass-grave-in-the-news-photo/1239718685?adppopup=true">Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The good − baby steps and halting successes</h2>
<p>Amid these repeated failures, it may seem difficult to find reasons to mark the convention’s 75th anniversary. </p>
<p>But there are positives. </p>
<p>First, compared with 75 years ago, there is now a <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int">broad network</a> of international <a href="https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1502&context=gsp#:%7E:text=National%20Mechanisms%20are%20vehicles%20through,atrocity%20crimes%20as%20parties%20to">and domestic</a> organizations and individuals working to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/">prevent genocide</a>. </p>
<p>These groups <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/myanmar-ffm/index">conduct investigations</a>, <a href="https://www.globalr2p.org">issue alerts</a> and use <a href="https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=gsp">behind-the-scenes diplomacy</a> to keep peace.</p>
<p>Many governments also are prioritizing prevention. This includes the U.S., which passed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/plaws/publ441/PLAW-115publ441.pdf">Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act</a> in 2018, formalizing prevention as a U.S. national interest and mandating <a href="https://www.state.gov/atrocity-prevention/">annual reports</a> on U.S. government progress in mainstreaming prevention.</p>
<p>Third, there has been progress in terms of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003185291/genocide-adam-jones">accountability</a>. Different international courts have used the Genocide Convention to convict perpetrators for genocidal acts committed in places such as <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/rwanda-the-first-conviction-for-genocide">Rwanda</a> and <a href="https://www.icty.org/en/press/radislav-krstic-becomes-first-person-be-convicted-genocide-icty-and-sentenced-46-years">Bosnia</a> in the 1990s. </p>
<p>And, critically, there is an International Criminal Court that can hold political leaders accountable for genocide. This <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/ICCAtAGlanceEng.pdf">Netherlands-based court</a>, set up in 2002, has not yet convicted anyone of genocide, though. </p>
<p>Finally, prevention efforts have had full or partial successes. They have curtailed budding genocidal crimes in places like <a href="http://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/dpe/modern_conflicts/burundi.pdf">Burundi</a>, <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2020/10/19/cote-d-ivoire-election-tensions-erupt-in-fatal-ethnic-clashes//">Cote D’Ivoire</a>, <a href="https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/03/21/division-threatens-gambia">Gambia</a> and <a href="https://www.c-r.org/programme/horn-africa/kenya-conflict-">Kenya</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://kroc.nd.edu/research/books/responding-to-genocide-the-politics-of-international-action-2013/">Early warnings, diplomacy and political will</a> have often been key to these successes – such as when, with U.N. backing, an Australian-led force brought a stop to escalating violence in <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691150178/if-you-leave-us-here-we-will-die">East Timor</a> in 1999. </p>
<p>It is hard to feel hopeful at this difficult moment as violence in the Middle East and Ukraine rages on. But I think it’s important to recognize the halting progress that has been made during the 75 years since the Genocide Convention was passed – even as much work remains to fulfill the promise that genocide will never again happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Hinton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
While the Genocide Convention has helped raise awareness and prevent ethnic violence from escalating, it has not stopped many accusations of genocides, including violence in Darfur and in Ukraine.
Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218917
2023-11-30T05:02:58Z
2023-11-30T05:02:58Z
Henry Kissinger has died. The titan of US foreign policy changed the world, for better or worse
<p>Henry Kissinger was the ultimate champion of the United States’ foreign policy battles. </p>
<p>The former US secretary of state <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-30/henry-kissinger-dies-aged-100/103171512">died</a> on November 29 2023 after living for a century.</p>
<p>The magnitude of his influence on the geopolitics of the free world cannot be overstated. </p>
<p>From world war two, when he was an enlisted soldier in the US Army, to the end of the cold war, and even into the 21st century, he had a significant, sustained impact on global affairs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kissinger-at-100-his-legacy-might-be-mixed-but-his-importance-has-been-enormous-206470">Kissinger at 100: his legacy might be mixed but his importance has been enormous</a>
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<h2>From Germany to the US and back again</h2>
<p>Born in Germany in 1923, he came to the United States at age 15 as a refugee. He learned English as a teenager and his heavy German accent stayed with him until his death.</p>
<p>He attended George Washington High School in New York City before being drafted into the army and serving in his native Germany. Working in the intelligence corps, he identified Gestapo officers and worked to rid the country of Nazis. He won a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/30/henry-kissinger-nobel-prize-winning-warmonger">Bronze Star</a>. </p>
<p>Kissinger returned to the US and studied at Harvard before joining the university’s faculty. He advised moderate Republican New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller – a presidential aspirant – and became a world authority on nuclear weapons strategy. </p>
<p>When Rockefeller’s chief rival Richard Nixon prevailed in the 1968 primaries, Kissinger quickly switched to Nixon’s team. </p>
<h2>A powerful role in the White House</h2>
<p>In the Nixon White House, he became national security advisor and later simultaneously held the office of secretary of state. No one has held both roles at the same time since.</p>
<p>For Nixon, Kissinger’s diplomacy arranged the <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-kissinger-vietnam-war-legacy">end of the Vietnam war</a> and the pivot to China: two related and crucial events in the resolution of the cold war. </p>
<p>He won the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1973/summary/">1973 Nobel Peace Prize</a> for his Vietnam diplomacy, but was also condemned by the left as a war criminal for perceived US excesses during the conflict, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-kissingers-bombing-campaign-likely-killed-hundreds-of-thousands-of-cambodians-and-set-path-for-the-ravages-of-the-khmer-rouge-209353">bombing campaign in Cambodia</a>, which likely killed hundreds of thousands of people.</p>
<p>That criticism <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/henry-kissinger-dies_n_6376933ae4b0afce046cb44f">survives him</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/nixon-mao-meeting-four-lessons-from-50-years-of-us-china-relations-176485">pivot to China</a> not only rearranged the global chessboard, but it also almost immediately changed the global conversation from the US defeat in Vietnam to a reinvigorated anti-Soviet alliance.</p>
<p>After Nixon was compelled to resign by the Watergate scandal, Kissinger served as secretary of state under Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford.</p>
<p>During that brief, two-year administration, Kissinger’s stature and experience overshadowed the beleaguered Ford. Ford gladly handed over US foreign policy to Kissinger so he could focus on politics and running for election to the office for which the people had never selected him.</p>
<p>During the turbulent 1970s, Kissinger also achieved a kind of cult status. </p>
<p>Not classically attractive, his comfort with global power gave him a charisma that was noticed by Hollywood actresses and other celebrities. His romantic life was the topic of many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/27/henry-kissinger-100-war-us-international-reputation">gossip columns</a>. He’s even <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1998/02/05/uncovering-the-sex-lives-of-politicians/3bb26a91-03ec-4a14-8958-f6ac0d95b260/">quoted</a> as saying “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”.</p>
<p>His legacy in US foreign policy continued to grow after the Ford administration. He advised corporations, politicians and many other global leaders, often behind closed doors but also in public, testifying before congress well into his 90s. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nobel-peace-prize-offers-no-guarantee-its-winners-actually-create-peace-or-make-it-last-213340">The Nobel Peace Prize offers no guarantee its winners actually create peace, or make it last</a>
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<h2>Criticism and condemnation</h2>
<p>Criticism of Kissinger was and is harsh. Rolling Stone magazine’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/henry-kissinger-war-criminal-dead-1234804748/">obituary of Kissinger</a> is headlined “War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies”. </p>
<p>His association with US foreign policy during the divisive Vietnam years is a near-obsession for some critics, who cannot forgive his role in what they see as a corrupt Nixon administration carrying out terrible acts of war against the innocent people of Vietnam. </p>
<p>Kissinger’s critics see him as the ultimate personification of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tortured-and-deadly-legacy-kissinger-and-realpolitik-in-us-foreign-policy-192977">US realpolitik</a> – willing to do anything for personal power or to advance his country’s goals on the world stage. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sitting at a desk gives directions to three other men at the desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562590/original/file-20231130-19-h7o8mw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, leaves behind a controversial legacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/washington-dc-usa-january-6-1983-1858047433">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But in my opinion, this interpretation is wrong.</p>
<p>Niall Ferguson’s <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Kissinger.html?id=H_ujBwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">2011 biography</a>, Kissinger, tells a very different story. In more than 1,000 pages, Ferguson details the impact that world war two had on the young Kissinger. </p>
<p>First fleeing from, then returning to fight against, an immoral regime showed the future US secretary of state that global power must be well-managed and ultimately used to advance the causes of democracy and individual freedom.</p>
<p>Whether he was advising Nixon on Vietnam war policy to set up plausible peace negotiations, or arranging the details of the opening to China to put the Soviet Union in checkmate, Kissinger’s eye was always on preserving and advancing the liberal humanitarian values of the West – and against the forces of totalitarianism and hatred. </p>
<p>The way he saw it, the only way to do this was to work for the primacy of the United States and its allies. </p>
<p>No one did more to advance this goal than Henry Kissinger. For that he will be both lionised and condemned.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tortured-and-deadly-legacy-kissinger-and-realpolitik-in-us-foreign-policy-192977">A tortured and deadly legacy: Kissinger and realpolitik in US foreign policy</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lester Munson works for BGR Group, a Washington DC consultancy, Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Studies Centre. He is affiliated with George Mason University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.</span></em></p>
Former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger has died, aged 100. His legacy, including his involvement in the Vietnam war, is long, complicated and divisive.
Lester Munson, Non-resident fellow, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209353
2023-11-30T02:50:05Z
2023-11-30T02:50:05Z
Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562233/original/file-20231128-29-pn24j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C40%2C2980%2C1925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aftermath of U.S. bombs in Neak Luong, Cambodia, on Aug. 7, 1973.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CambodiaDestructionNeakLuong/64e54641784d404d8be12149a0b65694/photo?Query=US%20bombing%20cambodia&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=49&currentItemNo=23">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Henry Kissinger, who died on Nov. 29, 2023 at the age of 100, stood as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/">colossus of U.S. foreign policy</a>. His influence on American politics lasted long beyond his eight-year stint guiding the Nixon and Ford administrations as national security adviser and secretary of state, with successive <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11640562/kissinger-pentagon-award">presidents</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/280402-trump-meets-with-former-nixon-adviser-henry-kissinger/">presidential candidates</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4037547-state-department-asked-about-birthday-party-what-does-secretary-blinken-like-about-henry-kissinger/">top diplomats</a> seeking his advice and approval ever since.</p>
<p>But his mark extends beyond the United States. Kissinger’s policies in the 1970s had immediate impact on countries, governments and people <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/stephen-g-rabe-kissinger-and-latin-america-intervention-human-rights-and-diplomacy-ithaca-ny-and-london-cornell-university-press-2020-ix-316-pp/9ECA0805AEF4A0F01D1C7A72DB68A5BE">across South America</a>, the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/kissinger-in-the-middle-east/">Middle East</a> and <a href="https://www.history.com/news/henry-kissinger-vietnam-war-legacy">Southeast Asia</a>. Sometimes the fallout – and it was that – lasted decades; in some places it continues to be felt today. Nowhere is that more true than Cambodia.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/4031078">scholar of the political economy of Cambodia</a> who, as a child, escaped the brutal Khmer Rouge regime with four siblings, thanks in large part to the cunning and determination of my mother. In both a professional and personal sense, I am aware of the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/05/23/henry-kissinger-cambodia-bombing-survivors/">near 50-year impact</a> Kissinger’s policies during the Vietnam War have had on the country of my birth.</p>
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<img alt="A man in spectacles speaks into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562234/original/file-20231128-17-sp0qw3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Henry Kissinger in 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DrHenryKissinger/11f28708044a4e17a31fef86986716e1/photo?Query=henry%20kissinger%20cambodia&mediaType=photo,video,graphic,audio&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>The rise of the murderous regime that forced my family to leave was, in part, encouraged by Kissinger’s policies. The cluster bombs dropped on Cambodia under Kissinger’s watch <a href="http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2023/cambodia/impact.aspx">continue to destroy the lives</a> of any man, woman or child who happens across them. Indeed, when the current U.S. administration announced its intention in 2023 to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, the prime minister of Cambodia was quick to call out the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3227129/ukraine-should-shun-us-cluster-bombs-learn-cambodias-painful-experience-pm-hun-sen">lingering damage the munition causes</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Island of peace’</h2>
<p>Counterfactuals are not the best tool of the historian; no one can say how Cambodia would have developed were it not for the Vietnam War and U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia.</p>
<p>But prior to the U.S. bombing of Cambodia, the country was touted as an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/01/world/in-cambodia-king-sihanouk-once-more-moves-deftly-among-powers.html">Island of Peace</a>” by then-leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk, with a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-08-me-813-story.html">developing economy and relative stability</a>.</p>
<p>After Cambodia gained independence from its French colonial masters in 1953, Sihanouk presided over what was <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/violence-and-the-civilising-process-in-cambodia/golden-years-of-sihanoukism-19551966/14A4A3B5B9AF2C9846BCDF518302B5D8">seen as a golden age</a> for Cambodia. Even Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern-day Singapore, visited Cambodia to learn lessons on nation-building.</p>
<p>The country’s independence from France did not require any hard fight. Neighboring Vietnam, meanwhile, gained independence only after the bitter anti-colonial First Indochina War, which concluded with a rout of French troops <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/dien-bien-phu">at Điện Biên Phủ</a> in 1954.</p>
<p>However, Cambodia’s location drew it into the subsequent war between the newly independent communist North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam.</p>
<p>Cambodia wasn’t officially a party in the Vietnam War, with Sihanouk declaring the country neutral. But Washington looked for ways to disrupt communist North Vietnamese operations along the <a href="https://www.nga.mil/defining-moments/Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail.html">Ho Chi Minh Trail</a> – which cut across Cambodia’s east, with Sihanouk’s blessing, and allowed the resupply of North Vietnamese troops on Cambodian soil.</p>
<h2>Kissinger’s ‘menu’</h2>
<p>Kissinger was the chief architect of the plan to disrupt that supply line, and what he came up with was “<a href="https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/1969-1971_vietnamization/Operation-MENU-Begins/">Operation Menu</a>.” The secret carpet-bombing campaign – with breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, dessert and supper representing different targets and missions within Cambodia – was confirmed at a meeting in the Oval Office on March 17, 1969. The <a href="https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/documents/haldeman-diaries/37-hrhd-journal-vol01-19690317.pdf">diary entry of Richard Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman</a>, reads: “ … Historic day. K[issinger]‘s 'Operation Breakfast’ finally came off at 2:00 pm our time. K really excited, as is P[resident].”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/virtuallibrary/documents/haldeman-diaries/37-hrhd-journal-vol01-19690318.pdf">following day</a>, Haldeman wrote: “K’s ‘Operation Breakfast’ a great success. He came beaming in with the report, very productive.”</p>
<p>And so began four years of Kissinger’s legally dubious campaign in Cambodia.</p>
<p>To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">title of William Shawcross’ damning book</a> exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973. </p>
<p>During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated <a href="https://apjjf.org/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html">500,000 tons of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country</a>.</p>
<h2>Secret and illegal war?</h2>
<p>Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/2009/11/23/polling-wars-hawks-vs-doves/">turning against American involvement</a>. The bombing campaign is also <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780815412243/Sideshow-Kissinger-Nixon-and-the-Destruction-of-Cambodia-Revised-Edition">considered illegal under international law</a> by many experts.</p>
<p>But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.</p>
<p>It resulted in the direct <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians</a>. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But <a href="https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=2412">estimates on the number of deaths</a> range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/tl02.html">Most estimates</a> <a href="https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=2412">put the death toll</a> <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/atrocityendings/2015/08/07/cambodia-u-s-bombing-civil-war-khmer-rouge/">in the hundreds of thousands</a>.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s campaign also destabilized Cambodia, leaving it vulnerable for <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/cambodia">the horrors to come</a>. The capital, Phnom Penh, ballooned in population because of the displacement of more than a million rural citizens fleeing U.S. bombs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the bombing of Cambodian citizens contributed to an erosion of trust in Camodia’s leadership and put at question Sihanouk’s policy of allowing the North Vietnamese access through the country’s east. On March 18, 1970, Sihanouk was <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/remembering-cambodias-1970-coup/">ousted in a coup d’etat</a> and replaced by the U.S.-friendly Lon Nol. Direct U.S. involvement in the coup has never been proven, but certainly opponents to Lon Nol <a href="https://archive.org/details/mywarwithcia00noro">saw the hand of the CIA</a> in events.</p>
<p>The ousted Sihanouk called on the country’s rural masses to support his coalition government in exile, which included the Khmer Rouge. Until then, the Khmer Rouge had been a ragtag army with only revolutionary fantasies. But with Sihanouk’s backing, they grew. As journalist <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-fantasy-of-king-sihanouk">Philip Gourevitch noted</a>: “His name became the Khmer Rouge’s greatest recruitment tool.”</p>
<p>But Kissinger’s bombs also served as a recruitment tool. The Khmer Rouge were able to capitalize on the anger and resentment of Cambodians in the areas being shelled. Rebel leaders portrayed themselves as a force to protect Cambodia from foreign aggression and restore order and justice, in contrast to the ruling government’s massive corruption and pro-American leanings.</p>
<p>Kissinger’s bombing campaign was certainly not the only reason for the Khmer Rouge’s rise, but it contributed to the overall destabilization of Cambodia and a political vacuum that the Khmer Rouge was able to exploit and eventually seize power – which it did in 1975, <a href="https://sfi.usc.edu/collections/cambodian-genocide">overthrowing the government</a>.</p>
<p>Led by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge inflicted unimaginable atrocities upon the Cambodian people. Its genocidal campaign against political opponents, Cambodian minorities and those deemed counterrevolutionaries saw <a href="https://sfi.usc.edu/collections/cambodian-genocide">between 1.6 and 3 million people killed</a> through executions, forced labor and starvation – a quarter of the country’s then population.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A young soldier in fatigues props a human skull on top of his rifle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562236/original/file-20231128-23-a1qdp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Khmer Rouge soldier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/with-a-skull-on-the-muzzle-of-his-m-16-rifle-a-khmer-rouge-news-photo/515109502?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The scars from that period are still felt in Cambodia today. Recent research even points to the economic impact Kissinger’s bombs continue to have on farmers, <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/03/20/american-bombing-50-years-ago-still-shapes-cambodian-agriculture">who avoid richer, darker soil</a> over fears that it hides unexploded ordnance.</p>
<p>Anti-Americanism is no longer prevalent at the everyday level in Cambodia; indeed, the opposite is increasingly becoming true as China’s financial and political embrace becomes suffocating. But anti-Americanism is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-former-khmer-rouge-commander-who-still-leads-cambodia-is-again-stoking-anti-american-sentiment/2018/05/11/679ea9c8-4cf6-11e8-b966-bfb0da2dad62_story.html">frequently used in rhetoric</a> by leading politicians in the country.</p>
<p>I don’t agree with some other scholars that Kissinger’s bombing campaign can be definitively proven to have resulted in Khmer Rouge rule. But in my view, it no doubt contributed. Hun Sen, Cambodia’s autocratic leader who ruled for 38 years before passing the prime minister baton to his son in August 2023, has <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/talk-prime-minister-hun-sen">cited the U.S. bombing of his birthplace</a> as the reason he joined the Khmer Rouge. Many others joined for similar reasons.</p>
<p>As such, the devastating impact of Kissinger’s policies in Cambodia cannot be overstated – they contributed to the unraveling of the country’s social fabric and the suffering of its people, leaving behind a legacy of trauma.</p>
<p><em>This article was amended on Dec. 4, 2023, to revise the estimate of tonnage of ordinance dropped on Cambodia in U.S. bombing campaign.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209353/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophal Ear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A Cambodian scholar who fled the Khmer Rouge as a child writes about the legacy of Henry Kissinger, who died at the age of 100 on Nov 28, 2023.
Sophal Ear, Associate Professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216407
2023-11-21T16:54:44Z
2023-11-21T16:54:44Z
Tropical forest loss from growing rubber trade is more substantial than previously thought – new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560146/original/file-20231117-28-el36oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4193%2C2785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hevea brasiliensis is grown in the world's most biodiverse areas.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/worker-people-working-tapped-rubber-tree-229853572">dangdumrong/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over 4 million hectares of tree cover – an area equivalent to the size of Switzerland – may have been cleared to make space for rubber plantations since the 1990s. Out of all the rubber planted, 1 million hectares may have been established in <a href="https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/">key biodiversity areas</a> – sites that contribute significantly to biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.</p>
<p>These are the findings of our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06642-z">recent research</a>, which mapped the conversion of land to rubber tree plantations across south-east Asia. The likely pace of forest loss that we found surpasses <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab0d41">previous estimates</a>.</p>
<p>The global demand for natural rubber, which is found in thousands of products including vehicle and aeroplane tyres, is increasing. In <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12967">separate research</a>, published in July 2023, we estimated that between 2.7 million and 5.3 million additional hectares of plantation area could be needed by 2030 to fulfil this additional demand. This is a concern. Research has found that rubber plantations support <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fconl.12967&file=conl12967-sup-0001-SuppMat.pdf">nowhere near as much</a> biodiversity, nor do they contain as much carbon, as natural forests.</p>
<p>Most natural rubber is made by extracting latex – the liquid sap – from the <em>Hevea brasiliensis</em> tree in a process called “tapping”. As a tropical species, the places suitable for <em>Hevea brasiliensis</em> cultivation coincide with some of the world’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098222031006X">most biodiverse regions</a>. Thailand and Indonesia, for example, are the world’s <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12967">leading rubber producers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Rubber plantation farming area in the south of Thailand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560147/original/file-20231117-22-xe0hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rubber plantation in southern Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rubber-plantation-farming-area-south-thailand-2271258833">JIMBO EKAPAT</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rubber’s impact on forests</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12967">reviewed</a> more than 100 case studies to understand what types of land are being converted to rubber. In many cases, rubber replaced natural forests. But we also noted instances of other plantation types and agricultural systems transitioning to rubber. </p>
<p>We then examined national statistics regarding the extent of rubber plantations and their productivity per hectare. Our findings revealed a global trend of expanding rubber areas in producer countries, coupled with static or declining yields. </p>
<p>Low yields are partly due to tapping less frequently in countries where prices are relatively low – though they are also probably caused by suboptimal tapping practices. As existing rubber stockpiles are eventually exhausted, prices should theoretically increase again, potentially leading to more frequent tapping of plantations that are currently not or only infrequently tapped. However, past trends suggest that more land will be established for rubber cultivation to meet the growing demand, rather than using existing plantation land more effectively. </p>
<p>Ivory Coast in west Africa emerged as a new hotspot for expanding rubber plantations. These plantations seem to be displacing cocoa <a href="https://www.fao.org/forestry/agroforestry/80338/en/">agroforests</a> (where trees or shrubs are grown around or among other crops or natural vegetation) in the region.</p>
<p>Using cutting-edge analysis of satellite data, which was based on the unique timing of rubber tree leaf drop compared to other tree cover, we more recently generated <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06642-z#data-availability">high-resolution maps</a> of rubber distribution and the associated deforestation. </p>
<p>Our mapping revealed Cambodia as a country of particular concern, with 40% of rubber plantations associated with deforestation. These plantations were often located within protected areas.</p>
<h2>Supporting livelihoods and economies</h2>
<p>Most rubber that is produced in Asia is grown by <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2012.750605">smallholder farmers</a> – people who farm less than five hectares of land. Rubber production thus forms the basis of many regional economies and supports the livelihoods of millions. Producing rubber sustainably in existing plantations, and avoiding further plantation expansion, is a critical part of protecting forests and supporting people. </p>
<p>In June 2023, the EU adopted a new <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230414IPR80129/parliament-adopts-new-law-to-fight-global-deforestation">regulation</a> to curb the EU market’s impact on global deforestation. Alongside several other commodities, rubber is <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12967">covered by this legislation</a>. Any company looking to sell products containing these commodities on the EU market can only do so if suppliers can show that they were not sourced from land deforested after December 2020.</p>
<p>On the one hand, there is a risk that the new law may inadvertently marginalise rubber smallholders. Rubber is typically collected by middlemen and can change hands several times before reaching a processing facility. Smallholders will also largely be unaware of the new regulations and often may not have documentation showing their official land tenure. </p>
<p>Given the complexity of tracing smallholder rubber, larger tyre manufacturers and other rubber consumers may choose to source their rubber from industrial plantations that have the resources to prove that their rubber is compliant with the EU’s new regulation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mechanic pushing a black tyre in a workshop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560148/original/file-20231117-29-qludbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rubber is found in thousands of products, including vehicle and aeroplane tyres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-mechanic-hands-pushing-black-tire-779811436">Standret/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Opportunities for farmers</h2>
<p>But, accompanied by the need to trace rubber supply, the new regulation could also offer opportunities to help smallholders improve their rubber production methods. Our <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12967">research</a> from July 2023 found that reducing land availability for rubber expansion could indirectly drive increases in production efficiency on existing land. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017312669?via%3Dihub">evidence</a> that this is taking place in Mato Grosso – the largest soy and cattle-producing state in Brazil. Double cropping (where several crops are planted in the same area and in the same crop year) rates were significantly higher in regions where forest conservation policies were more stringent.</p>
<p>Natural rubber should not be demonised. Rubber plantations have the potential to sequester carbon and continue contributing to the long-term <a href="https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/40328214/Mighty_Earth_Agroforestry_Rubber_Report_May_2021.pdf">wellbeing</a> of smallholder farmers. </p>
<p>There is also evidence suggesting that rubber agroforests can support at least some biodiversity. In a <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13530">study</a> published in 2019, we found a higher abundance of butterflies in rubber agroforests compared to monocultures. The presence of birds also increased in tandem with the height of herbaceous vegetation within rubber plots.</p>
<p>But this does not mean that the growing demand for natural rubber should be accepted as inevitable. A clear approach to reducing the adverse effects of rubber on forests and biodiversity is to curb our use of cars, especially in more developed regions where efficient public transport systems are, or can be, established. This would not only address carbon emissions from fossil fuels but would also reduce demand for rubber.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Warren-Thomas receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council/UK Research and Innovation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Antje Ahrends receives funding from the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund through the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project (ES/S008160/1) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/X016285/1). The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is also supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment.</span></em></p>
Rubber plantations are replacing forests, particularly in tropical regions.
Eleanor Warren-Thomas, Lecturer in Conservation and Forestry, Bangor University
Antje Ahrends, Head of Genetics and Conservation, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/211559
2023-08-30T15:07:24Z
2023-08-30T15:07:24Z
Ukraine war: after the shooting stops landmines will keep killing – as we’ve seen in too many countries
<p>By the time the shooting stops <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/making-ukraine-safe-again-cleaning-one-worlds-most-mine-contaminated-countries">the UN predicts that Ukraine</a> will be one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. Deaths caused by landmines and other unexploded ordnance are now common. According to Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, in March alone, “<a href="https://www.kmu.gov.ua/en/news/promova-premier-ministra-ukrainy-denysa-shmyhalia-na-zasidanni-uriadu-04042023">724 people have been blown up on Russian mines, 226 of them killed</a>”. </p>
<p>The use of landmines is <a href="https://disarmament.unoda.org/convarms/landmines/#:%7E:text=The%20Anti%2Dpersonnel%20Landmine%20Convention,so%20to%20assist%20affected%20countries.">illegal under international law</a>. The <a href="https://www.apminebanconvention.org/">Anti-personnel Landmine Convention</a> bans the stockpiling, transfer and use of anti-personnel landmines, requires countries to clear them on their territory and calls for international cooperation in mine clearance from affected countries.</p>
<p>The extensive and fast-moving battlelines in Ukraine (including large areas in the east of the country occupied by Russian troops and their allies since 2014) means that landmines have been planted in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/13/landmine-use-ukraine">11 out of the country’s 27 regions</a>. This is a situation that changes significantly with any shift in the location of frontlines.</p>
<p>The result for the conflict itself is that the heavily mined areas along Russian defensive lines have significantly slowed the Ukrainian counteroffensive as sappers have to clear what one Ukrainian commander described as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/13/ukraine-desperate-for-help-clearing-mines-says-defence-minister">five mines for every square metre</a>” in some places.</p>
<p>Landmines also make it very difficult for humanitarian organisations to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ukrainian-red-cross-warns-of-land-mine-threat-for-decades/a-64504735">move relief supplies</a> in areas that may or may not have been cleared. Sometimes the status of mine clearance in an area is hard to tell – for example, the destruction of the Nova Karkhova and Mokri Yaly dams significantly affected the landscape over a large region and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/kakhovka-dam-floods-amplify-ukraine-mine-emergency">huge areas had to be resurveyed</a>.</p>
<h2>Case study: Angola</h2>
<p>The really insidious thing about landmines is they persist, even after a conflict formally ends. This is a humanitarian tragedy that adds to the complexity of post-war development and presents huge environmental problems. For example, during a research trip to Angola in 2019, in <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/angola/thirty-years-landmines-cuito-cuanavale-still-kill-and-maim">Cuito Cuanavale</a>, a town and municipality in Cuando Cubango province, my group of researchers encountered roads that are still inaccessible nearly 40 years after the conflict due to the presence of mines.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soviet-era anti-tank landmine (TM-57) in a forest in Cuito Cuanavale,Angola 2022." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545533/original/file-20230830-24-mos2r7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Soviet-era anti-tank landmine (TM-57) in Cuito Cuanavale that was laid during the Angolan civil war. This picture was taken in 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cuito-cuanavale-angola-29-june-2022-2220634223">Ronan Shenhav/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The mines have cut off whole municipalities, with implications for access to some of the regions and to Angola’s efforts in <a href="https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/socio-economic-impact-of-avm-in-angola_web.pdf">diversification of its economy</a>. During our visit, our safest option was flying, an option that is out of reach for most Angolans. </p>
<p>It’s a similar situation in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, where the conflicts ended in the 1970s. Millions of tonnes of ordnance that was dropped by the US remain unexploded in the landscape, leaving <a href="https://www.stimson.org/2021/ramp-up-u-s-engagement-with-war-legacies-in-southeast-asia/">many thousands of civilians killed or seriously injured</a> over the years. It’s especially a problem in countries whose economies are predominantly agricultural. Farmers take their lives in their hands when they plough their fields or prepare their paddy fields.</p>
<h2>A land contaminated</h2>
<p>Ukraine’s reconstruction can’t begin until roads, fields and areas around strategic infrastructure are cleared. </p>
<p>After the war, getting humanitarian aid to civilians will be critical but also difficult. Many of the roughly <a href="https://www.inew.org/ukraine-a-year-of-civilian-suffering-from-bombing-and-shelling-in-towns-and-cities/">14 million people who are displaced</a> and about 8 million who have fled to neighbouring countries will want to return. This will be impossible without surveying the land, getting rid of mines and declaring it safe. </p>
<p>Once that is done, the public will need to be educated about the risks of unexploded ordnance. This will continue as long as there are mines and unexploded bombs in the ground – which <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/post/14439">could be decades</a>, as we have seen elsewhere. </p>
<p>Landmine contamination will seriously impede Ukraine’s economic recovery. In a country that was known as the “<a href="https://www.farminglife.com/country-and-farming/why-is-ukraine-known-as-the-breadbasket-of-europe-heres-what-it-produces-and-exports-3584361">breadbasket of Europe</a>” for its fertile soil which produced <a href="https://www.fas.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-04/Ukraine-Factsheet-April2022.pdf">41% of the country’s exports</a>, about <a href="https://www.globsec.org/what-we-do/press-releases/walking-fire-demining-ukraine#:%7E:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20Russia's,explosive%20ordnance%20or%20armed%20hostilities.">five million hectares (50,000km²)</a> of agricultural land is currently unsuitable for use due to mines, contamination with explosive ordnance or armed hostilities. A report on de-mining from international thinktank <a href="https://www.globsec.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/Demining%20in%20Ukraine%20report%20ver5%20web.pdf">Globsec</a> has predicted a 45% reduction of arable grain land after two years of war.</p>
<p>De-mining will involve the removal of vegetation and the use and deployment of heavy machinery. This will include the detonation or disposal of large quantities of explosives and the generation of a great deal of waste – – some of it toxic – but even so an arduous task to clear. Inevitability, this will cause <a href="https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cisr-journal/vol25/iss3/12">cause soil to degrade</a>. Much of the soil will lose its capacity to store water, nutrients and carbon, which will weaken its ability to grow crops or support the wider ecosystem. </p>
<p>To give you an idea of the scale of this problem, a study found that before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, an estimated 16,000km² of eastern Ukraine was <a href="https://www.globsec.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/Demining%20in%20Ukraine%20report%20ver5%20web.pdf">contaminated by landmines and unexploded bombs</a> after the incursions in Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. </p>
<p>Now the problem is much greater, potentially involving 174,000km² (about the size of England and Wales combined) and vastly <a href="https://ecopolitic.com.ua/en/news/nazvani-kolosalni-sumi-rozminuvannya-ta-vidnovlennya-gruntiv-ukraini-pislya-vijni-2/">more costly</a>. The same report said 414,56km² had been cleared between 2015 and 2021, which gives you an idea of how demanding and painstaking this work is.</p>
<h2>Costly legacy</h2>
<p>As of July 8, the World Bank estimated that mine clearance and mitigation once the war was over would cost more than <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/07/1138477#:%7E:text=As%20of%20June%2C%20540%2C000%20items,action%20services%2C%20according%20to%20UNDP.">US$37 billion (£28.5 billion)</a>. This is huge – especially when you consider the cost of the continuing humanitarian crises and conflicts in other regions. </p>
<p>To compound the problem, there have been reports that Russia has been using several new types of landmines developed since 2021, the properties and capabilities of which will not be fully understood until the work starts in earnest.</p>
<p>So while the world prays for an end to the fighting, peace will bring its own dangers and stresses as people return to their lives in places that may hold hidden dangers that threaten their daily routine. Living in these mine-contaminated communities will add to the emotional and psychological stress for those people who are having to pick up the pieces of livelihoods destroyed and their communities severely disrupted.</p>
<p>Recovery will not be complete until these people’s streets and farms are cleared, their livelihoods restored and their children can go to school or play outside without fear of explosions. This could take decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Njeri receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council NGO Impact Acceleration Account Funding (ESRC - NGO IAA); She has also consulted for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), for the study on Angola; and has recently consulted for REMEODY a consultancy organisation on a project on mine action and community resilience. She is affiliated with 2 Charities as a Trustee; CEOBS <a href="https://ceobs.org/">https://ceobs.org/</a> and REVIVE <a href="https://revivecampaign.org/">https://revivecampaign.org/</a></span></em></p>
Landmines are killing thousands in Ukraine. Clearing the land and making it safe for people is likely to take decades.
Sarah Njeri, Lecturer Humanitarianism and Development, SOAS, University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210472
2023-07-28T10:17:11Z
2023-07-28T10:17:11Z
Cambodia: five decades on from the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen proves himself the ultimate survivor with his plan to hand power to his son
<p>Cambodia’s newly re-elected prime minister, Hun Sen, has confirmed he will hand over the premiership to his son, Hun Manet, in August after 38 years at the top of the country’s politics. Hun Sen, who has been at the helm of the Cambodian government since 1985, won a <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodian-strongman-hun-sen-wins-another-landslide-election-will-succession-to-his-son-be-just-as-smooth-209967">“landslide” general election victory</a> on July 23. </p>
<p>That general election, the seventh of Cambodia’s modern era, was designed to display a transition of sorts back to a multi-party democracy after the country became a one-party state in 2018. The <a href="https://phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/ruling-cambodian-peoples-party-poised-next-five-year-term">five seats won</a> by the royalist Funcinpec party <a href="https://www.mfaic.gov.kh/posts/2023-05-27-Press-Release--Cambodia-s-commitment-to-a-multiparty-democracy-remains-steadfast---affirms-the-Foreign-Ministry-s--11-41-53">are claimed to be</a> (token) evidence of this. In reality, the power of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is unfettered.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodian-strongman-hun-sen-wins-another-landslide-election-will-succession-to-his-son-be-just-as-smooth-209967">Cambodian strongman Hun Sen wins another 'landslide' election. Will succession to his son be just as smooth?</a>
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<p>A common mantra in Hun Sen’s rhetoric is “<a href="https://www.voacambodia.com/a/hun-sen-prides-himself-on-win-win-policy-at-un-regional-meeting/4935212.html">peace and stability</a>”, something that particularly resonates with the prime minister’s contemporaries. But the reality of life in Cambodia is quite different – <a href="https://cambodia.unfpa.org/en/publications/general-population-census-kingdom-cambodia-2019">barely 10% of its population</a> were adults when Hun Sen first became prime minister. </p>
<p>For the few old enough to remember life before, it was a period of scarcely imaginable horrors – famine, civil war, and the genocidal “killing fields” regime of the Khmer Rouge.</p>
<p>Hun Sen himself <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/12/30-years-hun-sen/violence-repression-and-corruption-cambodia">served with the Khmer Rouge</a> in the early years of the regime, later fleeing to Vietnam. He returned to Cambodia with the Vietnamese invasion of 1978 and took the position of foreign minister – before, in 1985, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/7/22/cambodias-sham-election-might-be-hun-sens-last">becoming prime minister</a>. </p>
<p>A UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (<a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/past/untacbackgr1.html">Untac</a>) was created in 1992 to oversee the Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia Conflict, with the withdrawal of all foreign forces and the first democratic elections of the modern era in 1993.</p>
<p>That election was <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2051_93.htm">actually won</a> by Funcinpec, but Hun Sen rejected the result and negotiated a role for himself as the country’s second prime minister. He consolidated his position <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/07/27/cambodia-july-1997-shock-and-aftermath">with a coup in 1997</a>, and his CPP party has won every subsequent election.</p>
<h2>Dealing with the opposition</h2>
<p>The biggest electoral shock <a href="http://iric.gov.kh/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Cambodian_National_Assembly_Election.pdf">came in 2013</a>, when the newly formed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), combining the Human Rights Party and the Sam Rainsy Party, secured 44% of the votes to the CPP’s 49%. </p>
<p>Rainsy, then leader of the CNRP, and Hun Sen have a long-established political rivalry. Rainsy has <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/10/cambodian-court-sentences-opposition-leader-to-life-imprisonment/">innumerable convictions for offences</a> including insult, treason and electoral offences – and almost as many pardons. He remains based in France in self-imposed exile. </p>
<p>In 2013, controversy over the results evolved into a boycott of Cambodia’s elected national assembly (the lower house of the bicameral parliament). Eventually, a plan was agreed for the CNRP to share some power in committees and an accord was concluded – but it did not last long.</p>
<p>The CNRP maintained its political momentum. In local-level elections in June 2017, it again secured almost 44% of the votes cast, giving the party a realistic chance of building on this in the next rounds of elections. Political and social debate and opposition were, however, heavily restricted in the run-up to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3894454c-4681-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996">the 2017 local and 2018 national elections</a>. </p>
<p>Political rhetoric from the CPP warned of violence and bloodshed, or even civil war, should they fail to be re-elected. A number of laws were deployed to restrict political commentary, with the CNRP and its supporters often targeted. </p>
<p>One of Cambodia’s main independent newspapers <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodia-daily-closure-a-major-blow-for-freedom-of-information-and-expression-in-the-country-83472">closed in September 2017</a>. Its last front page carried the arrest of Kem Sokha, then leader of the CNRP, on treason charges. Various radio stations were also forced to close, and public debate was restricted and ever more regulated. Electoral law amendments restricted the role of Rainsy and curtailed political opposition.</p>
<p>In November 2017, the CPP used one of those new processes to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodia-heads-towards-one-party-state-and-a-democratic-crisis-85515">dissolve the CNRP</a> and redistribute all local-level seats it had won in the June 2017 local election – primarily to the CPP. </p>
<p>While Kem Sokha was arrested in September 2017, it wasn’t until March 2023 that he was <a href="https://phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/ex-cnrp-leader-kem-sokha-gets-27-years-barred-politics">finally convicted</a> of conspiracy with a foreign power and treason, and sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment. He is also banned from involvement in politics. Following the 2018 National Assembly elections, Cambodia became a one-party state, with the CPP winning all the seats.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodia-treason-trials-the-latest-in-the-countrys-slide-to-autocracy-151048">Cambodia: treason trials the latest in the country's slide to autocracy</a>
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<p>At the 2022 local elections, the CPP secured 74% of the vote. This time, the main opposition came from the Candlelight Party (drawing in part on elements of the former CNRP), which <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/cambodia-confirms-cpps-landslide-victory-in-commune-election/">achieved 22%</a>. But Candlelight was <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/candlelight-party-disqualified-july-general-election">disqualified from fielding candidates</a> in July 2023’s national election, due to apparent irregularities in its registration documentation. </p>
<p>Not taking any chances, political rhetoric from the CPP continued to highlight the dangers of voting for opposition parties, and led to Facebook (a widely used platform in Cambodia) <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66062752">considering banning Hun Sen</a> for a video threatening to beat up opposition figures.</p>
<h2>A new generation?</h2>
<p>Given all this, the general election results <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodian-strongman-hun-sen-wins-another-landslide-election-will-succession-to-his-son-be-just-as-smooth-209967">have come as no real surprise</a>. With the prime minister handing the leadership of the country to his son, it is expected that many of Hun Sen’s cabinet will also step down and hand over to <a href="https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/cambodia-hunsen-hutt-07242023140632.html">younger relatives</a>. </p>
<p>Hun Sen has indicated that the transfer of power is part of his <a href="https://phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/end-era-hun-sen-passes-baton-son-manet">plan for continuing peace, stability and development</a>. He will retain leadership of the CPP and remain a lawmaker, <a href="https://phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/end-era-hun-sen-passes-baton-son-manet">assuming leadership of the Senate (upper house)</a> when the incumbent retires. Many commentators expect him to continue to wield influential power over the country and its politics.</p>
<p>While a new generation of political faces may connect more with the youthful population of the country, they may struggle to reconcile the authoritarian state they inherit with the liberal multiparty democracy called for by Cambodia’s constitution.</p>
<p>The true test of stability in a democracy is, arguably, continuity during a transition of leadership and change of governing party. With Hun Sen choosing to step aside now, there are five years for Hun Manet to shape his power before the future of the CPP is tested in the next set of elections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhona Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As he prepares to hand over power to his son after 38 years in power, veteran Cambodian leader Hun Sen, has come a long way since his early days as a Khmer Rouge fighter.
Rhona Smith, Professor of International Human Rights, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209967
2023-07-24T02:12:21Z
2023-07-24T02:12:21Z
Cambodian strongman Hun Sen wins another ‘landslide’ election. Will succession to his son be just as smooth?
<p>On December 24, 2021, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, 70, chaired a meeting of the Cambodian People’s Party, which has ruled the Southeast Asian country since 1979. The meeting saw his eldest son, Hun Manet, 45, <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50994699/hun-manet-unanimously-elected-to-be-the-future-prime-minister/">unanimously selected</a> to be the future prime minister. </p>
<p>After years of speculation over the identity of the strongman’s political successor, it was both an unsurprising and uninspiring choice.</p>
<p>A similar lack of surprise and inspiration encapsulates Cambodia’s general election this past Sunday. Even by the low standards of Southeast Asia, it was one of the worst sham votes in living memory. Up against a mix of 17 emasculated, feeble and grovelling opposition parties, Hun Sen’s party quickly boasted it had won in a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/un-pls-help-cambodia-pm-hun-sen-s-party-claims-landslide-election-win-in-unopposed-election-20230724-p5dqnl.html">landslide</a>”.</p>
<p>The entire event amounted to nothing more than a gigantic confidence trick designed to foist a political reality on repressed citizens – formulated without their consent and enforced without their approval. </p>
<p>Hun Sen’s transition of power to his son is now assured. The only question is when. The strongman said last week it could happen <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thousands-rally-cambodias-ruling-party-election-campaign-finale-2023-07-21/">in a matters of weeks</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538879/original/file-20230724-79526-6g4pyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hun Sen raises a ballot before voting at a polling station in Kandal province on Sunday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Heng Sinith/AP</span></span>
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<h2>Preparing for a sham election</h2>
<p>The campaign period for this year’s election featured the usual dose of manipulation and misconduct – all of which was aimed at guaranteeing few, if any, surprises at the ballot box.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-16/cambodia-disqualifies-sole-opposition-party-ahead-of-election/102350226">In May</a>, the National Election Committee barred the leading opposition Candlelight Party from competing in the election because it had failed to provide the necessary documentation. This documentation, ironically, had been taken in a police raid years earlier.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/ahead-election-cambodia-amends-law-bar-non-voters-contesting-future-2023-06-23/">In early June</a>, the National Assembly amended the election law to bar non-voters from ever running for office, as well as penalise anyone who calls for election boycotts. For the fledgling opposition, boycotts were a new and desperate tactic aimed at discrediting the electoral process.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/world/asia/cambodia-hun-sen-meta-facebook.html">In late June</a>, Hun Sen also had a very public spat with Meta, Facebook’s parent company, after its oversight board recommended his account be suspended for threatening political opponents with violence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/cambodian-government-blocks-news-sites-before-unopposed-election-/7185151.html">And last week</a>, the government blocked the websites of several news organisations, including Radio Free Asia. It was all just business as usual in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hun-Sens-Cambodia-Sebastian-Strangio/dp/0300190727">Hun Sen’s Cambodia</a>.</p>
<p>The uncomfortable truth is such elections have never been more than a means for Hun Sen to hold onto power with an ever-tightening grip, as opposed to an opportunity for his opponents to ever gain power. </p>
<p>Since the occupying Vietnamese forces <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/15/world/new-cambodian-premier-named.html">installed</a> him as leader in January 1985, the ageing strongman has slowly but methodologically bent the political system to his will. </p>
<h2>How do dictators stay in power?</h2>
<p>How has he accomplished this feat over the past 38 years? Based on my research in the field of authoritarian politics, two significant factors stand out. </p>
<p>The first thing Hun Sen did was <a href="https://www.leemorgenbesser.com/_files/ugd/ca20d0_672663d4d08646d6b7e9af89c9ef9517.pdf">personalise power</a> by following the “playbook” of other strongmen like Paul Biya in Cameroon, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Idi Amin in Uganda. Among his actions across four decades of authoritarianism: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>he acted as a gatekeeper of the process by which people are appointed to high office</p></li>
<li><p>appointed relatives to high-level posts in the party, military and government</p></li>
<li><p>took control of the state security apparatus and created his own paramilitary group outside the normal chain of military command </p></li>
<li><p>and monopolised the decision-making process within the ruling party, while also controlling who enters and exits its executive committee. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>By 2005, Hun Sen alone had discretion over personnel policy and the distribution of rewards throughout Cambodia’s political system.</p>
<p>The second thing Hun Sen did was entrench a harsher form of dictatorship in Cambodia, transforming the country in recent years into a genuine <a href="https://www.leemorgenbesser.com/_files/ugd/ca20d0_0abb970b8b59403f930d59464c23c31b.pdf">one-party state</a>. </p>
<p>In July 2015, the government rammed through a bill designed to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/jul/13/ngo-alert-cambodia-legislation-gives-government-new-powers-to-monitor-fine-or-disband">suppress</a> civil society groups. The law used arcane compliance requirements related to funding, reporting, registration and political neutrality to limit their operations.</p>
<p>Then, in August 2017, the Finance Ministry <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/cambodia-daily-newspaper-closes-over-disputed-tax-bill-n799671">went after</a> the independent English-language newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, for a decade’s worth of alleged back taxes. It was merely the start of sustained campaign aimed at ridding the country of an independent media. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court then <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42006828">dissolved</a> the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the only serious challenger to the ruling party, on the fictitious grounds it was trying to topple the government in a “colour revolution.” Hun Sen has repeatedly rolled out this allegation against anyone who disagrees with him.</p>
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<h2>How does one dictator pass the reins to another?</h2>
<p>It was against this backdrop that Hun Sen spent Sunday going through the motions of sanctioning one last sham election, at least as prime minister. </p>
<p>Having used his personal power to banish political opponents, monopolise the media landscape, disempower civil society organisations, crush mass protests and arbitrarily rescind the political rights and civil liberties of citizens, the path is now clear for Hun Manet to succeed him. So, what will happen next?</p>
<p>Leadership succession can be the Achilles heel of dictatorships. The process can sometimes encourage infighting among political elites and potentially plunge a country into chaos. The evidence suggests strongmen are more likely to give up power when they satisfy four preconditions:</p>
<p>1) <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7718896/Nursultan-Nazarbayev-Kazakh-leader-of-nation-hatches-succession-scheme.html"><strong>Immunity</strong></a>: they can ensure legal protection for any alleged crimes committed while in office.</p>
<p>2) <a href="https://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=20958"><strong>Security</strong></a>: they have a paramilitary force or formal position at the apex of the security apparatus.</p>
<p>3) <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/31/financier-bill-browder-says-vladimir-putin-is-worth-200-billion.html."><strong>Wealth</strong></a>: they have a stash of cash and/or a portfolio of properties to fund their retirement.</p>
<p>4) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/19/cuba"><strong>Trust</strong></a>: they appoint someone to take over who can protect their immunity, security and wealth.</p>
<p>Having so far satisfied all but the need for <a href="https://english.cambodiadaily.com/news/rainsy-claims-hun-sen-sought-immunity-law-54185/">immunity</a>, Hun Sen is now well-positioned to pass power onto his son. </p>
<p>Typically, when political succession occurs in dictatorships, the new strongman receives the benefit of the doubt from a slew of hopeful foreign states and optimistic foreign journalists. This comes from a place of exhaustion and exasperation: surely he can’t be worse? </p>
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<p>Hun Manet, who was <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/cambodia-will-hun-manet-be-more-pro-us-than-his-father/">trained</a> at the United States Military Academy at West Point and received a PhD in Economics from the University of Bristol, will be yet another beneficiary of this mindset. </p>
<p>But like the sons of other strongmen, such as Ilham Aliyev (the son former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev), Bashar al-Assad (son of Hafez al-Assad in Syria), Joseph Kabila (son of Laurent Kabila in Congo) and Kim Jong Un (son of Kim Jong Il in North Korea), Hun Manet has been groomed in the image of his father. </p>
<p>There is nothing to suggest Cambodia’s next prime minister won’t also have a sham election up his sleeve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209967/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Morgenbesser receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>
Leadership succession can be dangerous for dictatorships, encouraging infighting among political elites and potentially plunging a country into chaos.
Lee Morgenbesser, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208708
2023-06-30T22:35:33Z
2023-06-30T22:35:33Z
Cambodia PM Hun Sen will shut down opposition on election day – even if he can no longer threaten voters on Facebook
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535079/original/file-20230630-14093-3ojj3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C25%2C5746%2C3879&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cambodian PM Hun Sen takes a selfie -- but where will he post it now? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cambodias-prime-minister-hun-sen-takes-selfies-with-a-news-photo/1258807502?adppopup=true">Rang Xhhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen will no longer be able to use his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/world/asia/cambodia-hun-sen-meta-facebook.html">Facebook page</a> to air threats of violence against opposition supporters – but that doesn’t mean he can’t still suppress their vote as the country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/30/world/asia/cambodia-hun-sen-meta-facebook.html">prepares for a general election</a>.</p>
<p>On June 30, 2023, the Facebook page of Hun Sen – who has ruled the country as leader of the Cambodian People’s Party for almost four decades – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66062752">appeared to have been deleted</a>. It wasn’t immediately clear whether <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66062752">Hun Sen had removed the page</a> or Meta had taken it down. But it follows a <a href="https://www.oversightboard.com/news/656303619335474-oversight-board-overturns-meta-s-decision-in-cambodian-prime-minister-case/">recommendation by the oversight board</a> of Facebook’s parent company to “immediately suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook page and Instagram account for six months” over a video in which he calls on political opponents who allege vote-rigging to choose between the “legal system” and “a bat.” In the video posted on Facebook on Jan. 9, Hun Sen also threatens to “gather CPP people to protest and beat (opposition) up.”</p>
<p>The decision comes as a slap in the face for Hun Sen, who <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/cambodias-prime-minister-hun-sen-huge-facebook-fan-100535327">had regularly posted on Facebook</a> to his 14 million followers. But as an <a href="https://thunderbird.asu.edu/about/people/staff-faculty/sophal-ear">expert on Cambodian politics</a>, I know it will do little to affect the result of the general election scheduled for July 23, 2023. Cambodia has had Hun Sen as prime minister <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cambodia-hun-sen-hun-manet-prime-minister-0095b3362ca2d5af4f14dd77c76ef351">for 38 years</a>. And recent events have only tightened Hun Sen’s grip on power.</p>
<h2>Many parties, no opposition</h2>
<p>Voters heading to the polls will again be presented with a lack of real choice – as has been the case in the six national parliamentary ballots held since <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44966916">nominally democratic elections were restored</a> in 1993.</p>
<p>It isn’t that there won’t be many parties that voters will be able to choose among on July 23. In fact, there will be numerous parties on the ballot, along with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. In the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/29/cambodia-hun-sen-re-elected-in-landslide-victory-after-brutal-crackdown">2018 national election</a> there were 19 parties other than the CPP.</p>
<p>The problem for democracy watchers is that the list of parties allowed to run does not include the main opposition party, the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/tag/cambodia-national-rescue-party-cnrp/">Cambodia National Rescue Party</a>. The CNRP was conveniently <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2017-12-06/cambodia-supreme-court-dissolves-main-opposition-party/">dissolved on Nov. 16, 2017</a>, by order of the Cambodian Supreme Court – which has as its head a permanent committee member of Hun Sen’s CPP.</p>
<p>Further, the Candle Light Party – the last vestige of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cambodia-opposition-party-election-hun-sen-63659ff8f2de992d84d2be748afbab8b">real, credible opposition in Cambodia</a> – was not permitted to register for the forthcoming election for bureaucratic reasons. The missing paperwork that prevented registration is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cambodia-election-candlelight-party-deny-registration-7436b0572eefb9b5be3fa724d3cb2fcb">believed by CLP supporters</a> to have been taken during a police raid on opposition headquarters years ago.</p>
<p>These measures build on decades in which Hun Sen and his ruling CPP have <a href="https://www.brusselstimes.com/141921/how-hun-sen-killed-democracy-in-cambodia">removed real choice</a> from Cambodian ballots. And for Hun Sen and the CPP it has been effective: In the last election, held in 2018, the CPP <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/7/30/cambodians-spoil-ballots-to-protest-poll-critics-labelled-a-sham">garnered 77% of the vote</a> and took all 123 seats in the National Assembly.</p>
<h2>Khmer Rouge commander to autocratic leader</h2>
<p>Hun Sen rose to power after being installed as deputy prime minister and foreign minister by the Vietnamese forces that <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pol-pot-overthrown">liberated Cambodia in 1979</a> from the Khmer Rouge – a murderous regime in which <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/12/30-years-hun-sen/violence-repression-and-corruption-cambodia">Hun Sen served as a commander</a> – and then occupied the country for a decade.</p>
<p>With his country still under Vietnamese occupation, Hun Sen became prime minister in 1985 after his predecessor, Chan Sy, died in office. Since then, he has used the power of incumbency – along with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/09/05/un-office-says-hun-sen-forces-executed-40/20d602e8-9078-41eb-8c34-2e385e86bcc7/">large dose of brute force</a> – to remain in office. </p>
<p>Even when the CPP <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/06/11/phnom-penh-rejects-results-of-election/c43a7f1e-abcf-4ebd-b3b2-fe757f96f930/">lost the popular vote in 1993</a>, Hun Sen was able to elbow his way into a prime ministership-sharing position as “second prime minister” with equal power to the “first prime minister,” Prince <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/former-cambodian-prime-minister-prince-norodom-ranariddh-has-died-information-2021-11-28/">Norodom Ranariddh</a>, in a deal engineered by Ranariddh’s father, King Norodom Sihanouk.</p>
<p>After falling out with his co-premier, Hun Sen <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/07/27/cambodia-july-1997-shock-and-aftermath">orchestrated a coup in 1997</a> and replaced Norodom Ranariddh. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00049910050007032">an election the following year</a>, Hun Sen resumed the role of sole prime minister and embarked on a campaign of repression – arranging for political enemies to be <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/12/30-years-hun-sen/violence-repression-and-corruption-cambodia">arrested, jailed and sometimes exiled</a>.</p>
<p>He let his guard down in 2012 by allowing opposition leaders Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy to <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0008472/">form the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party</a>. The CNRP came within a whisker of defeating the CPP in the 2013 election – some might even argue that it did, but for who <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-election-count/cambodia-election-crisis-deepens-as-opposition-rejects-results-idUSBRE97B02I20130812">controlled the counting of the votes</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, attempts to mount opposition to the CPP have been further blunted by the fact that Cambodia’s economy and society have undergone remarkable change – allowing Hun Sen to <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prime-minister-hun-sen-shares-message-of-economic-growth--covid-response-success-with-north-american-diaspora-301546659.html">claim credit</a> as <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501245617/cambodias-economy-resilient-despite-external-factors-says-pm-hun-sen/">a sound manager of the economy</a>. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Cambodia’s annual gross domestic product growth averaged nearly 8% <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/cambodia/overview">from 1998 through 2019</a>. Meanwhile, gross national income based on an average individual’s purchasing power <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=KH">has also grown sixfold</a> since 1995, from US$760 to $5,080.</p>
<p>It has come at a cost though. Economic and infrastructure growth has been <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/cambodia-protests/cambodian-farmers-rise-up-over-land-grabbing-idINSGE62I07I20100319">on the back of a land grab</a> that has disadvantaged rural farmers. I heard of one farmer who described economic development as meaning “they build a road and steal my land.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men in hard hats shake hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535086/original/file-20230630-37566-mwecug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen shakes hands with China’s ambassador to Cambodia, Wang Wentian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cambodias-prime-minister-hun-sen-shakes-hands-with-chinas-news-photo/1258495631?adppopup=true">Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And frequently that road has been Chinese-built with loans that the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/cambodia-seeks-more-loans-from-beijing-amid-fears-of-debt-trap-/6943062.html">Cambodian people and their progeny will have to repay</a>. </p>
<h2>From autocracy to nepotocracy?</h2>
<p>Yet, Hun Sen is unwilling to open his record to the scrutiny of voters or a free press.</p>
<p>In advance of the July 23 vote, the government has cracked down on independent media. One of the last truly independent outlets, the Voice of Democracy, was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64621595">shuttered by Hun Sen</a>. Its crime? To publish a story reporting that the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/hun-sen-s-eldest-son-emerges-as-likely-successor-in-cambodia/7118136.html">prime minister’s son and heir apparent</a> signed, on behalf of his father, an official government donation to Turkey after the earthquake. Only the prime minister is allowed to sign off on foreign aid packages, and Hun Sen said the report had damaged the government’s reputation.</p>
<p>The source had been a senior government official. Yet, Voice of Democracy was nonetheless blamed and told to apologize, which it did, but then was still shuttered.</p>
<p>While Hun Sen has been successful in controlling the media and suppressing opposition in Cambodia, he is unable to prevent international scrutiny and sanction.</p>
<p>Cambodia’s anti-democratic rule and human rights abuses have been <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20230310IPR77236/human-rights-breaches-in-iran-tunisia-and-cambodia">condemned by the European Union</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-cambodia-politics-idAFKBN1DE2LY">the White House</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/03/cambodia-un-experts-condemn-verdict-against-opposition-leader-kem-sokha">the United Nations</a>.</p>
<p>Even prior to the most recent crackdown on opposition parties and independent press, the U.S. had <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0475">placed some Cambodian generals on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability list</a>, used to sanction “perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world.” The EU, for its part, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_1469">cut by 20% the number of Cambodian goods eligible for zero duty imports</a> over human rights concerns – a move that will cost Cambodia an estimated 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in annual revenue.</p>
<p>But such moves have done little to nudge Cambodia toward democratic practices – and neither will Facebook’s decision to deprive him of a social media account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophal Ear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Social media account of Cambodia’s long-serving leader was deleted amid a spat with Facebook over videoed threats of violence against opposition supporters.
Sophal Ear, Associate Professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206742
2023-06-07T12:24:51Z
2023-06-07T12:24:51Z
This course studies NGOs aiming to help countries recover from mass atrocities and to prevent future violence
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530156/original/file-20230605-23-e0xtco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C293%2C3856%2C2311&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A witness cries while giving testimony in a trial against former Guatemalan dictator Gen. José Efraín Ríos Montt in 2013. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ana-de-leon-cries-while-giving-testimony-as-witness-in-the-news-photo/165201899">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em></p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Introduction to Nongovernmental Organizations”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>I’ve long studied mass atrocities perpetrated against people based on their religion, ethnic background, political views or simply some aspect of their identity. Over the past decade, I came to realize that what I’d learned from history classes and news media about the Nazi Holocaust, the Cambodian killing fields, the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda, and the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s taught me what happened and why. I didn’t know, and wanted to learn, what could have been done to prevent that violence and what happened afterward to prevent it from happening again. </p>
<p>I learned that nonprofits play a critical role in preventing mass atrocities and helping communities recover from them. I developed this course to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13876988.2023.2201806">teach students about the nongovernmental organizations</a>, as these groups are called outside the United States, that do this work.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>It focuses on five countries with a history of mass atrocities – or the risk of experiencing them in the future – and the often difficult <a href="https://monitor.civicus.org/">work NGOs do</a> in those places. Students learn about the history of conflicts and the potential for future identity-based violence in nations like Myanmar, Colombia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and South Africa.</p>
<p>In addition, students regularly meet with staff from NGOs in each of those countries to learn what they do to address past violence and prevent it in the future. </p>
<p>Two examples are <a href="https://www.cbmitrovica.org/">Community Building Mitrovica</a> in Kosovo, and the <a href="https://www.districtsix.co.za/">District Six Museum</a> in South Africa. Community Building Mitrovica operates in a city with a population that’s evenly divided between Albanians and Serbs. It delivers programs that increase understanding and enhances the capacity of the two ethnic groups to live together peacefully.</p>
<p>Cape Town’s District Six Museum tells the story of the displacement of residents and the destruction of the District Six neighborhood under apartheid while also working to rebuild that community in post-apartheid South Africa. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C55%2C4575%2C2900&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman walks past displays outside a museum." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C55%2C4575%2C2900&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530144/original/file-20230605-27-kvgg5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The District Six Museum commemorates a Capetown neighborhood South Africa’s Apartheid government demolished in 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photograph-taken-in-the-city-centre-of-cape-town-on-news-photo/1199755969?adppopup=true">Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>Systematic identity-based violence is more common than you might think. Mayans in <a href="https://theconversation.com/guatemalas-history-of-genocide-hurts-mayan-communities-to-this-day-97796">Guatemala</a> were victims of genocide in the 1970s and 1980s, as were Indigenous women in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-canada-committed-genocide-against-indigenous-peoples-explained-by-the-lawyer-central-to-the-determination-162582">Canada</a> over the past 100 years. Repressive governments in <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-condor-why-victims-of-the-oppression-that-swept-1970s-south-america-are-still-fighting-for-justice-186789">Argentina, Chile and Uruguay</a> assassinated political opponents in the 20th century. <a href="https://theconversation.com/ugandas-anti-homosexuality-law-is-a-patriarchal-backlash-against-progress-206681">Uganda in May 2023 enacted a law that criminalized homosexuality</a>, making <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/mar/14/lgbtq-crackdowns-uganda-environment-hostile">LGBTQ people fear they too could become victims of identity-based violence</a>.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Threats of violence against groups due to their identity persist in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-republican-transgender-laws-pile-up-setting-2024-battle-lines-2023-05-18/">the United States</a> and <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trans-rights-lgbt-latin-america-brazil-bolsonaro/">globally</a>. Recent political attacks on transgender and other LGBTQ people reflect this threat. NGOs are using their knowledge and skills to stave off the threat of violence against them. </p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT50KiRsTbA&ab_channel=PBSNewsHour">PBS NewsHour</a>”: A segment on the trial of former Guatemalan President José Efraín Ríos Montt for genocide, and the role of NGOs in bringing him to trial.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/research/program-for-the-advancement-research-on-conflict-collaboration/e-parcc/cases-simulations-syllabi/cases/kifaya-enough-dangerous-speech-for-south-sudanese">#KIFAYA</a>: A case study of young South Sudanese activists from different ethnic groups who created a music video sung in several local languages to call for an end to interethnic violence and hate speech.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-missionary-61230211/">The Missionary</a>”: A podcast that tells the story of the harm people from wealthy nations can do when they lack the skills and local knowledge to do NGO work outside their home countries. This podcast focuses on a U.S. woman accused of providing medical care in Uganda without any training. </p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Students ideally acquire a deeper appreciation of the hard work required to address the underlying causes of mass atrocities and identity-based violence. They learn about people who have dedicated their professional lives to reducing the threat of violence – and their successes and failures. I hope it motivates some of them to work in this field, either through volunteering or their professional careers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention at Binghamton University, which sponsored the development of this course, receives funding from an alumnus to underwrite the cost of the stipends the course provides to participating NGOs.</span></em></p>
College students learn about people who have dedicated their professional lives to reducing the threat of violence – and their successes and failures.
David Campbell, Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200214
2023-04-04T12:16:46Z
2023-04-04T12:16:46Z
How much is the world’s most productive river worth? Here’s how experts estimate the value of nature
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519125/original/file-20230403-22-i7bnbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5520%2C3668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Establishing the financial worth of a river's fish is complicated when many people don't sell the fish they catch.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-january-5-2018-shows-women-removing-news-photo/902376180">Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Southeast Asia’s Mekong may be the most important river in the world. Known as the “mother of waters,” it is home to the world’s largest inland fishery, and the huge amounts of sediments it transports feed some of the planet’s most fertile farmlands. Tens of millions of people depend on it for their livelihoods.</p>
<p>But how valuable is it in monetary terms? Is it possible to put a dollar value on the multitude of ecosystem services it provides, to help keep those services healthy into the future?</p>
<p>That’s what my research colleagues and I are <a href="https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/cambodia/fact-sheets/wonders-mekong">trying to figure out</a>, <a href="https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/cambodia/fact-sheets/wonders-mekong">focusing on</a> two countries that hold <a href="https://wwfasia.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/key_findings_mekong_river_in_the_economy.pdf">the river’s most productive areas</a> for fishing and farming: Cambodia and Vietnam.</p>
<p>Understanding the value of a river is essential for good management and decision-making, such as where to develop infrastructure and where to protect nature. This is particularly <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/mekong-river-cambodia-recovery">true of the Mekong</a>, which has <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/trouble-mekong">come under enormous pressure</a> in recent years from overfishing, dam building and climate change, and where decisions about development projects often do not take environmental costs into account.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A brown river winds through a steep cliffs with a road and some buildings along the banks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519126/original/file-20230403-28-5xowi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Mekong River winds through six countries, across 2,700 miles (about 4,350 kilometers) from the mountains to the sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/downstream-from-the-controversial-gongguoqiao-dam-on-the-news-photo/479183194">Leisa Tyler/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>“Rivers such as the Mekong function as life-support systems for entire regions,” said Rafael Schmitt, lead scientist at the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University, who has studied the Mekong system for many years. “Understanding their values, in monetary terms, can be critical to fairly judge the impacts that infrastructure development will have on these functions.”</p>
<p>Calculating that value isn’t simple, though. Most of the natural benefits that a river brings are, naturally, under water, and thus hidden from direct observation. Ecosystem services may be hard to track because rivers often flow over large distances and sometimes across national borders.</p>
<h2>Enter natural capital accounting</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbd.int/business/projects/natcap.shtml">theory of natural capital</a> suggests that ecosystem services provided by nature – such as water filtration, flood control and raw materials – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5478.395">have economic value</a> that should be taken into account when making decisions that affect these systems.</p>
<p>Some people <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/15/price-natural-world-destruction-natural-capital">argue that it’s morally wrong</a> to put a financial price on nature, and that doing so undermines people’s intrinsic motivation to value and protect nature. Critics say valuations <a href="https://neweconomics.org/2020/01/can-a-natural-capital-approach-restore-nature-in-the-uk">often do not capture</a> the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/6569122-Pelenc-Weak%20Sustainability%20versus%20Strong%20Sustainability.pdf">whole worth of a natural service</a>.</p>
<p>Proponents maintain that natural capital accounting puts a spotlight on <a href="https://theconversation.com/putting-a-dollar-value-on-nature-will-give-governments-and-businesses-more-reasons-to-protect-it-153968">natural systems’ value</a> when weighed against commercial pressures. They say it brings visibility to natural benefits that are <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/case-natural-capital-accounting">otherwise hidden</a>, using language that policymakers can better understand and utilize. </p>
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<img alt="Two people in a motor boat move through a section of lake with trees and small islands of vegetation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519127/original/file-20230403-18-8kpwds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">More than a million people live on or around Tonle Sap lake, the world’s largest inland fishery. Climate change and dams can affect its water level and fish stocks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-october-13-2020-shows-a-boat-driving-news-photo/1230240288">Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Several countries have incorporated natural capital accounting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.09.008">in recent years</a>, including <a href="https://www.wavespartnership.org/en/knowledge-center/natural-capital-accounting-and-policy-costa-rica">Costa Rica</a>, <a href="https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&SDDS=5114">Canada</a> and Botswana. Often, that has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/gretchen-daily-natural-capital-environment/">led to better protection</a> of natural resources, such as mangrove forests that protect fragile coastlines. The U.S. government also <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2023/01/19/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-releases-national-strategy-to-put-nature-on-the-nations-balance-sheet/">announced a strategy</a> in 2023 to start developing metrics to account for the value of underlying natural assets, such as critical minerals, forests and rivers.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://seea.un.org/news/new-business-and-natural-capital-accounting-case-studies-released">natural capital studies</a> have largely focused on terrestrial ecosystems, where the trade-offs between human interventions and conservation are easier to see. </p>
<p>When valuing rivers, the challenges run much deeper. “If you cut down a forest, the impact is directly visible,” Schmitt points out. “A river might look pristine, but its functioning may be profoundly altered by a faraway dam.”</p>
<h2>Accounting for hydropower</h2>
<p>Hydropower provides one example of the challenges in making decisions about a river without understanding its full value. It’s often much easier to <a href="https://www.omnicalculator.com/ecology/hydroelectric-power">calculate the value of a hydropower dam</a> than the value of the river’s fish, or sediment that eventually becomes fertile farmland.</p>
<p>The rivers of the Mekong Basin have been widely exploited for power production in recent decades, with a proliferation of dams in China, Laos and elsewhere. The <a href="https://monitor.mekongwater.org/virtual-gauges/?v=1642195188734">Mekong Dam Monitor</a>, run by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.stimson.org/project/mekong-dam-monitor/">Stimson Center</a>, monitors dams and their environmental impacts in the Mekong Basin in near-real time.</p>
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<img alt="Map showing the river through Vietnam and Cambodia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518678/original/file-20230331-26-r2tgxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The lower Mekong River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/lower-mekong-river-basin-0">USGS</a></span>
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<p>While hydropower is <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/benefits-hydropower">clearly an economic benefit</a> – powering homes and businesses, and contributing to a country’s GDP – dams also <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/is-building-more-dams-the-way-to-save-rivers">alter river flows</a> and block both fish migration and sediment delivery.</p>
<p>Droughts in the Mekong in recent years, <a href="https://asmc.asean.org/asmc-el-nino/">linked to El Niño</a> and exacerbated by climate change, were made worse by dam operators holding back water. That caused water levels to drop to historical low levels, with devastating consequences for fisheries. In the Tonlé Sap Lake, Southeast Asia’s largest lake and the heart of the Mekong fishery, thousands of fishers were <a href="https://www.voacambodia.com/a/fishers-leave-crisis-hit-tonle-sap-lake-in-search-of-livelihoods-ashore/6695988.html">forced to abandon their occupation</a>, and many <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/mekong-river-fish-migrations">commercial fisheries</a> had to close.</p>
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<iframe frameborder="0" class="juxtapose" width="100%" height="400" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=7b7e5f2e-cf6e-11ed-b5bd-6595d9b17862"></iframe>
</figure><figure><figcaption>Hydropower dams like the one in the photos above in Cambodia can disrupt a river’s natural services. The Sesan River (Tonlé San) and Srepok River are tributaries of the Mekong. Move the slider to see how the dam changed the water flow. <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91761/a-new-reservoir-in-cambodia">NASA Earth Observatory</a></figcaption></figure>
<p>One project under scrutiny now in the Mekong Basin is a small dam being constructed on the Sekong River, a tributary, in Laos near the Cambodian border. While the dam is expected to generate a very small amount of electricity, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/viet-nam/202205/sekong-a-dam-lao-pdr-and-mekong-delta-a-moment-decision-viet-nam">preliminary studies show</a> it will have a dramatically negative impact on many migratory fish populations in the Sekong, which remains the last major free-flowing tributary in the Mekong River Basin.</p>
<h2>Valuing the ‘lifeblood of the region’</h2>
<p>The Mekong River originates in the Tibetan highlands and runs for 2,700 miles (about 4,350 kilometers) through six countries before emptying into the South China Sea.</p>
<p>Its <a href="https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/cambodia/fact-sheets/wonders-mekong">ecological and biological riches</a> are clearly considerable. The river system is home to over 1,000 species of fish, and the annual fish catch in just the lower basin, below China, is estimated at more than <a href="https://www.mrcmekong.org/our-work/topics/fisheries/">2 million metric tons</a>. </p>
<p>“The river has been the lifeblood of the region for centuries,” says Zeb Hogan, a biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, who leads the USAID-funded <a href="https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/cambodia/fact-sheets/wonders-mekong">Wonders of the Mekong</a> research project, which I work on. “It is the ultimate renewable resource – if it is allowed to function properly.”</p>
<p>Establishing the financial worth of fish is more complicated than it appears, though. Many people in the Mekong region are <a href="https://www.theforgottenintl.org/in-the-world-today/subsistence-fishing/">subsistence fishers</a> for whom fish have little to no market value but are crucial to their survival.</p>
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<img alt="Two women row a small boat in through a narrow channel in the Mekong Delta. Another boat is passing them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519129/original/file-20230403-14-qk2mdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is essential to transportation, food and culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-on-a-rowing-boat-on-mekong-river-near-my-tho-village-news-photo/849862626">Sergi Reboredo/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The river is also home to some of the largest freshwater fish in the world, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adb2956">giant stingray and catfish</a> and critically endangered species. “How do you value a species’ right to exist?” asks Hogan.</p>
<p>Sediment, which fertilizes floodplains and builds up the Mekong Delta, has been relatively easy to quantify, says Schmitt, the Stanford scientist. According to his analysis, the Mekong, in its natural state, delivers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw2175">160 million tons of sediment each year</a>.</p>
<p>However, dams let through only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw2175">about 50 million tons</a>, while <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-is-facing-a-global-sand-crisis-83557">sand mining</a> in Cambodia and Vietnam extracts 90 million, meaning more sediment is blocked or removed from the river than is delivered to its natural destination. As a result, the Mekong Delta, which naturally would receive much of the sediment, has suffered <a href="https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/livelihoods/in-vietnam-mekong-delta-sand-mining-means-lost-homes-and-fortunes/">tremendous river erosion</a>, with thousands of homes being swept away.</p>
<h2>A potential ‘World Heritage Site’ designation</h2>
<p>A river’s natural services may also include <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/w15071279">cultural and social benefits</a> that can be difficult to place monetary values on.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/cambodia-seeks-unesco-world-heritage-status-to-protect-a-mekong-biodiversity-hotspot/">new proposal</a> seeks to designate a bio-rich stretch of the Mekong River in northern Cambodia as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If successful, such a designation may bring with it a certain amount of prestige that is hard to put in numbers.</p>
<p>The complexities of the Mekong River make our project a challenging undertaking. At the same time, it is the rich diversity of natural benefits that the Mekong provides that make this work important, so that future decisions can be made based on true costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Lovgren works as a research scientist on the Wonders of the Mekong project, which is funded by USAID, at the University of Nevada, Reno.</span></em></p>
Putting a dollar value on nature has staunch opponents who say it’s morally wrong, but without it, building dams and other infrastructure can run roughshod over vital ecosystems.
Stefan Lovgren, Research scientist College of Science, University of Nevada, Reno
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/191060
2022-09-23T01:45:18Z
2022-09-23T01:45:18Z
A UN-backed tribunal on Khmer Rouge crimes just confirmed the conviction of key leader Khieu Samphan. What now?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486202/original/file-20220922-8022-3dfuxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C2000%2C1323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nhet Sok Heng/Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia via AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia has just concluded its largest trial, concerning crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The tribunal’s appeal judges yesterday confirmed the conviction against 91-year-old <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/indicted-person/khieu-samphan">Khieu Samphan</a>, the former head of state, for his role in these crimes.</p>
<p>Yesterday’s decision was a turning point. After this, there will be no further trials in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. But what will the lasting impacts of these trials be?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/khmer-rouge-genocide-nuon-cheas-death-has-major-implications-for-justice-in-cambodia-121582">Khmer Rouge genocide: Nuon Chea's death has major implications for justice in Cambodia</a>
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<h2>What was the Khmer Rouge regime?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-10684399">Khmer Rouge</a>, otherwise known as Communist Party of Kampuchea, held power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Their ascent to power followed a period of violent authoritarianism, conflict and the loss of half a million lives during US <a href="https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabombing_oct06.pdf">bombing</a> in the Vietnam war. </p>
<p>While many Cambodians initially welcomed the Khmer Rouge’s victory, this popular support was short-lived. Life under Khmer Rouge rule meant forced labour, starvation, and the constant threat of torture, imprisonment and death. </p>
<h2>Prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge</h2>
<p>In 1979, the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge and installed a tribunal to prosecuted Communist Party of Kampuchea Prime Minister Pol Pot and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary in absentia.</p>
<p>After that largely symbolic effort, there was no accountability for the crimes of the Khmer Rouge for several decades.</p>
<p>However, following negotiations between the Cambodian People’s Party (still in power) and the UN, in 2003 a tribunal was established to prosecute senior Khmer Rouge leaders and “those most responsible” for the crimes.</p>
<p>Known officially as the <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/">Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia</a>, this UN-backed tribunal started work in 2006. Its jurisdiction covers crimes defined in Cambodian law and international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. </p>
<p>There is now a permanent court to prosecute these kinds of crimes: the <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/">International Criminal Court</a> in The Hague. But it can only address crimes committed after 2002, whereas the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia’s mandate reaches back to the 1970s.</p>
<h2>The trials</h2>
<p>In its 16 years of operation, the UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has completed just three trials. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/case/topic/90">first trial</a>, it found Kaing Guek Eav (alias “Duch”), former head of the S-21 prison, guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes. </p>
<p>S-21 was used to torture suspected enemies of the regime. An estimated 12,000 men, women and children were detained there; only 12 are known to have survived. Duch’s conviction was upheld on appeal, and he died in prison in 2020.</p>
<p>The next case concerned four Communist Party of Kampuchea senior leaders: Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/indicted-person/ieng-thirith-former-accused">Ieng Thirith</a> was found unfit to stand trial in 2012 and <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/indicted-person/ieng-sary-fomer-accused">Ieng Sary</a> died in 2013, leaving only two defendants in the case.</p>
<p>Due to the complexity of the case, the tribunal split it into two phases. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/document/court/case-00201-judgement">2014</a>, the tribunal convicted Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan of crimes connected to the expulsion of Cambodia’s urban population into rural worksites. This conviction was mostly upheld in <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/document/court/appeal-judgement-case-00201">2016</a>, with both defendants receiving a life sentence. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/document/court/case-00202-judgement">2018</a>, it convicted both men of further crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.</p>
<p>This conviction covered forced labour, the torture and execution of suspected dissidents, crimes targeting ethnic, political and religious groups, and orchestrating forced marriages with a view to incentivising population growth.</p>
<p>The judgement also recognised many rapes by Khmer Rouge cadre in worksites and prison sites, although these crimes were not formally charged. </p>
<p>Both men appealed the 2018 judgement, but Nuon Chea <a href="https://theconversation.com/khmer-rouge-genocide-nuon-cheas-death-has-major-implications-for-justice-in-cambodia-121582">died</a> shortly after at age 93, leaving Khieu Samphan as the sole appellant.</p>
<h2>Genocide</h2>
<p>The case that ended yesterday was the Cambodia tribunal’s only case to include charges of genocide.</p>
<p>Nuon Chea was convicted of genocide against the ethnic Vietnamese and Cham groups; Khieu Samphan was convicted of genocide against the ethnic Vietnamese only.</p>
<p>These legal findings do not necessarily square with popular conceptions of genocide in Cambodia, where “genocide” has come to mean the atrocity crimes against the entire population. </p>
<p>But in <a href="https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf">international law</a>, “genocide” is defined more narrowly – it only captures crimes committed with an intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. </p>
<p>Nor do the tribunal’s genocide findings necessarily accord with the perspectives of the targeted groups. Our research suggests the <a href="https://reparations.qub.ac.uk/assets/uploads/Cham-Culture_Book_LV06.pdf">Cham</a> and <a href="https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/agispt.20190322008162?casa_token=mQfkRaa8F5oAAAAA%3A4Eh93XegG0k6CSEhBIAOgvsc5iYmIB4SKVjbMmnKYr6rfDg9EmjS6POkXPKD8Ha-kZw0MEKlQyQ0kg">ethnic Vietnamese</a> communities do not always draw clear distinctions between their experience, and that of the broader Cambodian population. While they wanted the tribunal to recognise their suffering, this did not have to include a conviction of genocide targeting them exclusively. </p>
<p>But ultimately, these legal details may not matter. It seems the 2018 genocide conviction was meaningful for many Cambodians, who viewed it as affirming their experience of “genocide”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1573070390620028928"}"></div></p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Many Khmer Rouge leaders died before they could be indicted, and attempts to prosecute other suspects were <a href="https://www.justiceinitiative.org/publications/political-interference-extraordinary-chambers-courts-cambodia">blocked</a> by the Cambodian government.</p>
<p>Now, attention is turning to the tribunal’s <a href="https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en/articles/co-rapporteurs-residual-functions-related-victims-deliver-their-report">legacy</a>.</p>
<p>Already, there are signs it affected the historical record. For example, the pattern of forced marriage and sexual violence recorded in its judgements was not widely acknowledged by Cambodian or Western historians prior to these trials.</p>
<p>But the full extent of the tribunal’s impact will take decades to assess.</p>
<p>It is yet to be seen whether it effected the rule of law in Cambodia, whether its judgements and reparations brought a meaningful sense of justice to survivors, and how the judgements will influence understandings of the regime and its crimes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodians-await-crucial-tribunal-finding-into-1970s-brutal-khmer-rouge-regime-106078">Cambodians await crucial tribunal finding into 1970s brutal Khmer Rouge regime</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary Grey receives funding from the Australian Research Council and University of Sydney, and has previously received funding from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Killean does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many Khmer Rouge leaders died before they could be indicted, and attempts to prosecute other suspects were blocked by the Cambodian government. Now, attention is turning to the tribunal’s legacy.
Rosemary Grey, Lecturer in Law, University of Sydney
Rachel Killean, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178503
2022-05-24T12:28:00Z
2022-05-24T12:28:00Z
Scientists at Work: How pharmacists and community health workers build trust with Cambodian genocide survivors
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463796/original/file-20220517-13-z54dgh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C766&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Community health workers assist patients as they gather their medications and supplements to discuss them during remote visits with pharmacists.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy of Khmer Health Associates</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wartime trauma paired with starting over in a new country make getting health care particularly challenging for immigrant refugees. Talking to a doctor or getting prescriptions filled in an unfamiliar language is hard enough. But for refugees, the physical and psychological scars of escaping war or genocide can complicate their health needs and getting them met.</p>
<p><a href="https://pharmacy.uconn.edu/person/christina-polomoff/">I am a clinical pharmacist</a> trained in improving medication safety and effectiveness in the outpatient setting. Starting in 2019, I was with a team of pharmacists serving Cambodian American patients in Connecticut and Rhode Island. I spent 15 months there studying the role of pharmacists and <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/healthdisp/role-of-community-health-workers.htm">community health workers</a> in helping disadvantaged immigrants get medications they need and learn to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2021.10.031">take them consistently and safely</a>. </p>
<p>Many of them had fled the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1993.03510050047025">Khmer Rouge</a>, a brutal political party and military force operating under the regime of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/pol-pot">Pol Pot</a> in 1970s Cambodia. They had witnessed executions, survived starvation or suffered <a href="http://cambodialpj.org/article/justice-and-starvation-in-cambodia-the-khmer-rouge-famine/">famine-related diseases</a>. </p>
<p>As pharmacists, we learned that the best way to care for these patients was by listening to and learning from the community members they trusted. It’s a lesson for health care providers that could prove useful as the U.S. <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/refugees">welcomes new refugees</a> from countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine. </p>
<h2>Unsafe medicine</h2>
<p>As a traumatized population, Cambodian refugees might be wary of strangers. They may avoid anyone thought to be a government or other official. Consequently, they often rely on their own beliefs and assumptions, even about health. </p>
<p>Our research team learned that some Cambodians expect to receive medications for every illness. It reassures these genocide survivors that something is being done about whatever’s wrong.</p>
<p>If a doctor doesn’t give them a prescription, they might seek out one who will prescribe medicine. Still, they may take the medicine for only as long as they’re feeling sick. If side effects occur, they may decide the dose is too large and reduce how much they take. And medications are often shared among friends and family. </p>
<p>Limited English proficiency can keep immigrants from seeking medical care. When they do, language barriers make it difficult for health care providers to understand a patient’s symptoms and to prescribe the right medication, especially since interpreters are not always available. So, in immigrant communities, translating often falls to family members, sometimes children.</p>
<p>The presence of family members, especially children, can influence what patients and pharmacists say, particularly with sensitive subjects like mental illness or reproductive health. And translating in a medical setting can be a tremendous burden on children. During our research, we learned about a 7-year-old daughter who had been the one to translate her mother’s cancer diagnosis. </p>
<h2>Established relationships</h2>
<p>Locally based community health workers have been addressing these problems. With language interpretation skills and health information, they help residents in their own communities manage their mental and physical health.</p>
<p>Our research team of four pharmacists worked with five community health workers from <a href="https://khmerhealthadvocates.org/">Khmer Health Advocates</a>, a West Hartford, Connecticut-based organization for Cambodian American survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide and their families. After four decades in the area, Khmer Health Advocates knew its community best. That’s why we followed the organization’s lead as it directed recruitment for our study.</p>
<p>The health workers introduced us and our research project at churches, temples and events like the Cambodian New Year celebration. They also went to health clinics Cambodians use and put up fliers at Cambodian businesses. </p>
<p>The health workers also reached out to residents individually, connecting with people on a personal level. As genocide survivors themselves with training in trauma-informed care, they met patients in safe, familiar locations like their homes. They ate together and discussed not just the study, but familiar concerns like the financial hardship of restarting life in a new country and having to accept low-paying service jobs. In all, the community health workers helped recruit 63 patients to work with the pharmacists.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and two women sit at a table where health information, checklists and other papers are spread out." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462313/original/file-20220510-545-834gu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With training in trauma-informed care, the community health workers work directly with residents to help them improve their mental and physical health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy of Khmer Health Associates</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cross-cultural problem solving</h2>
<p>The health workers schooled us in Cambodian culture, which greatly values showing respect. The “sampeah” greeting, for example, consists of palms pressed together in a praying gesture while bowing the head. The higher the hands and lower the bow, the greater the degree of respect being shown.</p>
<p>We also learned idioms to help us understand the patients’ descriptions of their symptoms. For example, “spuck” is what they call neuropathy or nerve damage. It’s a common symptom among those who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1536504220920197">endured beatings</a> during the conflict. Another phrase is “kdov kbal,” meaning “hot head,” to describe a feeling of heat in the brain interfering with thinking. And “phleu” refers to losing the train of thought, like with cognitive impairment.</p>
<p>Community health workers also helped the patients trust us pharmacists to help them manage their medications.</p>
<p>When it was time to meet with pharmacists, the health workers had already interviewed the patients to document the medications, herbal products, traditional Khmer medicines and dietary supplements they were taking. The patient would gather them all in preparation to talk with the pharmacist as the health worker sat with them.</p>
<p>When I met with patients over video from my office, the health worker held each medication to the camera. Then I talked with the patient about doses, side effects and any questions they had. I explained ways to take medicine to avoid side effects, and I noted possible drug interactions for my recommendations to their doctors. Through all of this, the health worker translated from English to Cambodian, from medical jargon to culturally appropriate terminology and back again.</p>
<p>We helped the 63 patients resolve <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.japh.2021.10.031">more than 80%</a> of their medication-related issues, a good resolution rate for any community, English speaking or not. Patients also got better at remembering to take medications, taking the correct doses and in taking them more consistently. Our study found that community health workers and pharmacists working together were crucial to these patients getting better at managing their medicines. </p>
<p>I saw up close how a cross-cultural team can effectively resolve medication-related problems in an immigrant community. With war and genocidal conflicts driving international migration, this model is applicable now when the health of the most vulnerable is increasingly at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The funding for this work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Grant DK103663).</span></em></p>
Studying medication use in a traumatized population of immigrants required pharmacists to listen to and learn from trusted community health workers.
Christina Polomoff, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180828
2022-04-11T12:09:24Z
2022-04-11T12:09:24Z
Water fights, magical decapitated heads and family reunions – the Southeast Asian festival of Songkran has it all
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456993/original/file-20220407-24-rurnnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C20%2C3351%2C2272&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People celebrating the Songkran Festival in Luang Prabang, Laos, in April 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/april-15-2021-people-sprinkle-water-to-each-other-news-photo/1232379173?adppopup=true">Xinhua/Kaikeo Saiyasane via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many countries in Southeast Asia, such as Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, the arrival of spring also marks the beginning of the new year. <a href="https://www.m-culture.go.th/en/article_view.php?nid=45">Songkran</a> (สงกรานต์), as the festival welcoming in the new year is called in Thai, is often celebrated with playful water fights on city streets over the course of three chaotic days. </p>
<p>In 2022, Songkran will begin April 13 and last until the evening of April 15. The dates are calculated via the <a href="https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/121460">lunisolar</a> calendar, which accounts both for the movement of the sun through the zodiac and the moon’s cycles. Specifically, the dates mark the period when the Sun’s leaving the constellation of Pisces and entering Aries.</p>
<p>Over these days, cities turn into playful battlegrounds. Children emerge armed from their houses and bands of revelers gather on the sides of the roads ready to waylay passersby. This, though, is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47920868">a war with water</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://berkeley.academia.edu/AndrewJohnson">scholar of Thai religion and culture</a>, I have done fieldwork in Bangkok and <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/ghosts-of-the-new-city-spirits-urbanity-and-the-ruins-of-progress-in-chiang-mai/">Chiang Mai</a> off and on for many years. I first encountered Songkran in Bangkok in 2010, and it was shocking for me. After sustaining a few discreet squirts from children in my neighborhood I emerged into a full melee; staying dry was simply out of the question. </p>
<p>In Theravada Buddhism, the religion practiced from Sri Lanka to Laos, this is the most significant holiday of the year. The day is known as <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/siem-reap-insider/angkor-sangkran-again-during-new-year-period">Sangkren</a> in Cambodia, <a href="https://sonasia-holiday.com/sonabee/thingyan-festival-myanmar-new-year">Thingyan</a> in Myanmar, or simply Pi Mai in Laos.</p>
<p>In the diaspora, Songkran festivals happen wherever there is a Theravada temple, most <a href="https://thainewyear.org/">notably in Los Angeles</a> and <a href="https://www.watthaidc.org/events/songkran-festival/">Washington, D.C.</a></p>
<h2>A grand carnival</h2>
<p>The festival is a clear display of “sanuk,” the Thai emphasis on making activities fun, when many hierarchies of class and generation are suspended, at least during the water war. </p>
<p>In the days before the beginning of Songkran, roadside stalls start to sell cheap plastic water guns – many of which break by the first pull of the trigger – to “armed” groups of children, who wait to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udyok536EZ8">soak</a> adults whom they previously obeyed and respected. The most creative children fill their water tanks with ice, ensuring that the victims wince when they’re hit. </p>
<p>Along major streets in Bangkok, or around the city moat in Chiang Mai, groups gather, firing water pistols and lifting goopy handfuls of <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/522115/the-story-of-powder">chalk powder</a> to slap on each other’s faces – the chalk, incidentally, being a traditional sunscreen, often promoted as a <a href="https://www.sanook.com/women/63815/">natural beauty aid</a>. </p>
<p>In the past two years, concerns over COVID-19 have put a damper on the festivities, as <a href="https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/songkran/songkran-2022-bma-allows-water-splashing-from-covid-safe-distances-in-private-venues">governments try to limit</a> the number of participants and contact between them. </p>
<h2>Carnival time</h2>
<p>Having spent a significant part of the past 20 years living in and writing about the region, I am struck by how Songkran mixes a public carnival and family connections. In rural villages, Songkran means reunions as well as parties. Many families are supported by remittances from members working in Bangkok or abroad, and the holiday provides a chance to return home with gifts, money and temple donations. </p>
<p>Here, too, things turn into a party. In 2015 I spent Songkran in a fishing community <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/mekong-dreaming">near Nong Khai</a>, in northeast Thailand. The town was suddenly full of new faces – people who had been working in factories in Korea, had married overseas, or simply lived and worked in Bangkok. In the mornings of each day, a tent was set up alongside the road, with dishes of spicy som tam <a href="https://www.seriouseats.com/som-tam-green-papaya-salad-5208332">papaya salad</a>, minced pork <a href="https://www.seriouseats.com/laab-moo-isan-isan-style-minced-pork-salad-5205873">larb</a> and copious amounts of <a href="https://www.singhabeerusa.com/leo-beer/">beer</a>. </p>
<p>A hose fed constantly into a series of buckets, and as cars came down the highway, each of us would carry a fully laden bucket of cold water out into the road to soak the drivers. </p>
<p>Of course, this mix of chaos and alcohol can have dire consequences. The numbers of traffic fatalities spike during Songkran week each year – in 2018, there were <a href="https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/30343425">418 deaths</a> linked with drunken driving in Thailand alone. </p>
<h2>Mythic origins</h2>
<p>There is more to the holiday than just a water fight. In <a href="https://learnthaistyle.com/what-is-songkran-festival/#:%7E:text=Legend,this%20challenge%20must%20be%20beheaded.">Thai versions of</a> Hindu-Buddhist myth, the day draws from the rituals surrounding the severed head of Kapila Brahma, or Kabila Phrom in Thai, a Hindu sage who challenged a poor child with a riddle. A child who guessed incorrectly would lose his head, and the confident sage announced that he himself would suffer the same fate if the child guessed right. But the child could understand the speech of animals and overheard the correct answer. The sage lost his head, but his magic was so strong that his severed head would make the rains end if tossed into the sky, or cause the seas to dry if it touched the ground. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://burmese-buddhas.com/blog/burmese-festival-thingyan/">the Burmese version</a>, this myth stems from a conflict between two groups of divinities, and the headless Brahma’s body was granted a new elephant’s head and thus transformed into the Hindu God Ganesh. </p>
<p>In each version, a group of divine women – daughters of the sage in some versions, daughters of the god Indra in others – then took the original head and enshrined it in a cave on Mt. Kailash in western Tibet. Each year, one of the daughters would mount a different beast depending on the day of the week on which Songkran falls and take the severed head in a procession.</p>
<p>This year, the appointed daughter rides a donkey, carries a champaka flower, and wears green – something which everyday believers can do, too, to increase their fortunes. In Bangkok, this divine procession takes the form of a parade and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/2016-bangkok-wisut-kasat-miss-songkran-fashion-photos">beauty contest</a> to elect “Miss Songkran.”</p>
<h2>A time for reflection</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a face mask pouring water over a bronze-colored Buddha statue that is decorated with flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456995/original/file-20220407-24-za83w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman pours scented water on a Buddha statue during Songkran at the Wat Pho temple in Bangkok, Thailand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-scented-water-on-a-buddha-statue-as-they-celebrate-news-photo/1232284817?adppopup=true">Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>European celebrations of the new year happen during the winter, when days are short. Those are celebrations of <a href="https://www.sapiens.org/culture/renewal-rituals/">resilience</a> amid hope that the world is about to turn toward light and warmth again. </p>
<p>But in Southeast Asia, the season of difficulty does not coincide with the winter. Indeed, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/thailand/bangkok">daylight time differs</a> by only just over an hour between June and December, and the winter months have <a href="https://en.climate-data.org/asia/thailand/bangkok/bangkok-6313/">temperatures</a> that remain quite pleasant. </p>
<p>The significant seasonal variation is, instead, the <a href="https://eos.org/science-updates/evolution-of-the-asian-monsoon">monsoon</a>. April is the moment just before the hot and dry weather breaks, when monsoon is set to begin and agriculture is at its most desperate. The water wars acquire a sympathetic sort of magic, presaging the rainwaters to come.</p>
<p>It is also a time to thank those who have provided support and bring hope for what is to come. Each Songkran, individuals go to the temples close to their hometown, where they donate, listen to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSOMxDsBrSE">Buddhist sermons</a> or perform acts of service.</p>
<p>Many honor their elders by <a href="https://baanunrakorg.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/rod-nam-dum-hua-a-water-pouring-ceremony/">pouring water</a> over their elders’ palms and also over images of the Buddha, a symbolic giving of coolness and moisture, given the month’s nearly unbearable heat and dryness.</p>
<p>Each of these aspects – the carnival water fight, the mythic story of the rain-destroying head, the bathing of elders’ hands and the image of the Buddha – point toward the significance of water as a source of renewal. It is also a celebration of life in the midst of hardship; a sign of its resilience and, even, its joy.</p>
<p>[<em>3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-3-in-1">Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Alan Johnson receives funding from the Fulbright-Hays foundation, the Mario Einaudi Center, and the Humanities Korea foundation.</span></em></p>
In Southeast Asia, Songkran is a time to celebrate the coming year with water fights, honoring elders and offering prayers.
Andrew Alan Johnson, Visiting Scholar of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177956
2022-03-14T14:09:18Z
2022-03-14T14:09:18Z
What your T-shirt reveals about ‘carbon colonialism’ and the global economy’s vast hidden emissions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449882/original/file-20220303-8225-1gj60mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Well travelled...</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tshirts-hanging-on-clothesline-front-blue-1714874713">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where does your T-shirt come from? It’s a question that apparently can be answered with an awkward neck twist and a glance at the label. But the real answer is way more complex.</p>
<p>Even producing a single T-shirt relies on coordinating an array of interconnected supply chains, usually spanning multiple nations. This globalised system is a marvel of human ingenuity and logistics. </p>
<p>But it also can obscure the true carbon emissions of the products we use, raising serious questions about their sustainability. And it enables wealthier countries to effectively outsource their emissions to less wealthy ones via <a href="https://wyaj.uwindsor.ca/index.php/wyaj/article/view/4893">“carbon colonialism”</a>.</p>
<p>Let’s say your T-shirt’s label reads: “Cambodia”. It’s fair to assume that this clearly indicates its origin. But that’s not the whole story.</p>
<p>Cambodia exports <a href="http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/newxtweb/">40,000 tonnes</a> of garments to the UK annually (4% of British clothing), and most depart from the port of Sihanoukville. At <a href="http://ports.com/sea-route/#/?a=4443&b=3251&c=Port%20of%20Sihanoukville%20(Kampong%20Saom),%20Cambodia&d=Folkestone%20Harbour,%20United%20Kingdom">18,244km</a> from the UK’s main shipping port, Felixstowe, that’s a huge distance for your T-shirt to travel. But as colleagues and I revealed in <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ede332153d01455ccf35f36/t/61bb5202b8309d434c0b57a4/1639666210516/Disaster+Trade+report.pdf">our recent research</a>, this is only the final leg of an even longer journey.</p>
<h2>The Chinese connection</h2>
<p>Unlike other garment exporters, such as Bangladesh or Vietnam, Cambodia doesn’t grow cotton. Nor does it spin cotton, or manufacture artificial fibres. Instead, Cambodian factories import textiles from abroad, often only providing the finishing touches to partly completed garments. So, although your garment may say it’s from “Cambodia”, the textiles probably came from further afield – much further.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Map of Cambodia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449888/original/file-20220303-23-1bjcpvq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sihanoukville is Cambodia’s major shipping hub.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sihanoukville-pinned-on-map-cambodia-432294514">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Between 2015 and 2019, 89,721 tonnes out of the total 161,455 tonnes of garments that the UK imported from Cambodia can be indirectly linked to cotton products, knitted fabrics and artificial fibres supplied to Cambodia by China. And most of China’s garment industry is located in the coastal provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Hubei – roughly 2,500km to 6,000km from Cambodia. </p>
<p>But the process stretches further still. 84% of China’s domestic cotton production occurs in the far western province of Xinjiang. This means the raw cotton processed in China’s coastal factories must first travel between 3,000km and 4,300km by rail from Xinjiang: roughly the distance between London and Lagos.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-fashion-expert-why-im-cutting-my-wardrobe-down-to-ten-items-this-month-177936">Sustainable fashion expert: why I'm cutting my wardrobe down to ten items this month</a>
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<p>So even before your T-shirt labelled “Cambodia” arrives in Cambodia, the raw materials have travelled between 5,500 and 10,300km, by sea and rail. This adds a huge hidden carbon cost to the final garment.</p>
<p>And yet there is even more to the story. China is the largest cotton grower globally, producing over 25% of the world’s total crop. But it is also the world’s premier apparel manufacturer, and demand considerably outstrips supply. China produced 6.07 million tonnes of raw cotton in 2018-19, but consumed <a href="https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/report/downloadreportbyfilename?filename=Cotton%20and%20Products%20Annual_Beijing_China%20-%20Peoples%20Republic%20of_4-11-2019.pdf">8.95 million tonnes</a>, leaving a massive shortfall.</p>
<p>China compensates for this shortfall with imports. Most – 88% of the total – come from Australia, US, Uzbekistan, India and Brazil. The distances travelled by these imports vary – from about 1,350km (between Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang, China) to a maximum of 35,700km (between Los Angeles, US and Shanghai, China, <a href="http://ports.com/sea-route/port-of-shanghai,china/port-of-los-angeles,united-states/#/?a=0&b=0&c=Port%20of%20Shanghai,%20China&d=Port%20of%20Los%20Angeles,%20United%20States">if via Panama and Suez</a>).</p>
<p>So the Cambodia label on that T-shirt marks just one stop along a vast global journey. Indeed, before you bought it in the UK, the T-shirt – and the raw materials behind it – probably travelled between 25,000km and a whopping 64,000km (over-one-and-a-half times the Earth’s circumference).</p>
<h2>A long way round</h2>
<p>A supply chain of this length is alarming. But the broader implications are starker still.</p>
<p>A typical T-shirt is expected to produce 6.75kg of carbon during its <a href="https://prod-drupal-files.storage.googleapis.com/documents/resource/public/International%20Carbon%20Flows%20-%20Clothing%20-%20REPORT.pdf">production and sale</a>. A product’s carbon footprint is often estimated by adding up the carbon generated during the entire production process. This includes, for example, the growth of the cotton, its processing into textiles, its manufacture into clothing, transport, retail, usage, and disposal. </p>
<p>And when a country imports a product, all of these emissions are added to its imported, or embodied, carbon footprint. Since the processes involved are so complex and varied, however, we tend to use average figures for a given part of the production process, rather than empirically measuring the entire supply chain. </p>
<p>But this system fails to take into account the vast “hidden” distances our example T-shirt – and the raw materials behind it – travelled. At 25,000km, where the cotton comes exclusively from western China, the transportation of that single Cambodia branded T-shirt would likely emit 47g of C02. This is 7.1% of the carbon emitted during its entire production and 50% more than the estimates used by sustainability advocacy groups such as <a href="https://prod-drupal-files.storage.googleapis.com/documents/resource/public/International%20Carbon%20Flows%20-%20Clothing%20-%20REPORT.pdf">the Carbon Trust</a>. </p>
<p>At 64,000km, where the cotton originates from the US or Brazil, the T-shirt will generate 103g of CO₂ on its journey around the world. That’s over 15% of the total emissions generated during its production and more than triple the average value on which carbon footprints are calculated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shipping containers at sea" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451398/original/file-20220310-21-1w2jtn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On its way…</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-top-view-container-ship-full-1273165201">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>These errors may not seem like much on a single T-shirt. But they make a huge difference when scaled up to cover the entire UK-Cambodia apparel trade. Those 40,000 tonnes of clothing imported to the UK from Cambodia each year would be generally estimated to produce 8,304 tonnes of CO₂. Yet the true figure, taking into account the hidden distances travelled by the raw materials, is between 13,400 tonnes and 28,770 tonnes. That’s up to 20,466 tonnes unaccounted for: the equivalent of 4,422 cars being driven for a year.</p>
<p>Now imagine these numbers scaled up to truly reflect every product sold globally.</p>
<h2>Invisible systems</h2>
<p>Figures like these illuminate the otherwise invisible systems underlying our everyday lives, casting doubt on many of the assumptions we make about sustainability. Indeed, the lack of transparency surrounding global supply chains means that many sources of emissions are either hidden or significantly underestimated. And their extraordinary complexity impedes detailed analysis and undermines accountability, concealing many carbon emissions from public view.</p>
<p>This ability to “hide” emissions in complex global production processes has been called a <a href="https://www.climateworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Carbon-Loophole-in-Climate-Policy-Final.pdf">“carbon loophole”</a> or even <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/windyrbaj33&div=30&id=&page=">“carbon colonialism”</a> as it allows major importing economies to move carbon intensive production processes out of their headline domestic emissions statistics and onto those of other countries, often with less capacity to measure the full extent of these impacts.</p>
<p>And there is now growing recognition that these problems may lie at the root of our more general failure to <a href="https://norden.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:951500/FULLTEXT02.pdf">cut carbon emissions</a>. In total, imported emissions now account for <a href="https://www.climateworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Carbon-Loophole-in-Climate-Policy-Final.pdf">a quarter of global CO₂ emissions</a> – and addressing this should be seen as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/climate/outsourcing-carbon-emissions.html">next “frontier of climate policy”</a>.</p>
<p>The single country origin label sewn into your T-shirt is an illusion, reflecting a problem that affects so many of the items we purchase and use daily. In fact, that country of origin is just one stop on a global journey of assembly that is anathema to truly sustainable production and a key obstacle in our fight against the climate crisis. </p>
<p>A better understanding of this hidden geography is the first step towards tackling the opaque and misunderstood carbon footprints of our global economy – and decolonising systems of environmental accounting that favour the world’s biggest polluters.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated to amend details of the distance travelled between Los Angeles and Shanghai.</em></p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Parsons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Your T-shirt may have travelled one-and-a-half times round the world to reach you.
Laurie Parsons, Lecturer in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160914
2021-05-19T21:04:57Z
2021-05-19T21:04:57Z
COVID-19: which countries will be the next to see a big spike in cases?
<p>Beneath the many complexities of the marathon that is the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a simple hypothesis: if the coronavirus is introduced into a susceptible population, and those people are able to mix, then there will be significant community transmission. Across 2020 and 2021, we have seen this happen around the world, including, recently, <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-in-india-an-unfolding-humanitarian-crisis-159654">in India</a>. </p>
<p>Could we see further situations like those in India, with cases rapidly spiking and health systems being overwhelmed? The short answer, sadly, is yes. </p>
<p>Globally, there’s been an encouraging downturn in daily new cases in May 2021, but despite this, cases are still at a very high level overall, with worldwide statistics masking huge differences across countries and areas. The global vaccine rollout is also progressing slowly, with most of the world <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_vaccinations&Metric=People+vaccinated&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=%7EOWID_WRL">still susceptible to COVID-19</a>. These factors mean there’s potential for further spikes like those seen in India. </p>
<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_smoothed_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=OWID_WRL~IND~NPL&hideControls=true" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>We only need <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/10/nepal-covid-uk-g7">look to Nepal</a> to see a similar situation unfolding. Other countries have rising caseloads too, with many eyes looking nervously at Latin America, south-east Asia and some of the smaller island nations.</p>
<h2>Who else is at risk?</h2>
<p>In terms of where <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases">cases are increasing</a> most quickly (at time of publication), the website Our World in Data highlights Laos, Timor, Thailand, Cambodia, Fiji and Mongolia as the countries where numbers have recently doubled in the shortest period of time (ranging from 16 to 23 days for these countries; for comparison, the doubling rate for India ahead of its second wave was 43 days). When looking at the countries whose reported deaths are currently doubling most quickly, it’s Timor, Thailand, Mongolia, Cambodia and Uruguay (range: four to 31 days).</p>
<p>For countries such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and also Vietnam (highly praised so far), it’s high susceptibility to COVID-19 that’s the problem. They’ve had <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_smoothed_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=LAO%7EKHM%7ETHA%7EVNM">few cases in the past</a>, so there’s little natural immunity, and they’re now experiencing outbreaks amid an inability to procure a large vaccine supply. Vaccine coverage <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_vaccinations&Metric=People+vaccinated&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=LAO%7EVNM%7EKHM%7ETHA">therefore is low</a>. Thailand and Vietnam have given a first dose to just 2% and 1% of their populations respectively.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, it’s the mixing part of the equation that’s more of a concern. Japan, for example, is soon to host the Olympics, attracting athletes, dignitaries, coaches and media from every corner of the globe. Despite a <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=total_vaccinations&Metric=People+vaccinated&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=%7EJPN">ramping up of vaccine distribution over the past month</a>, the programme has been sluggish, with less than 4% of the population having received a first dose. In this author’s view, the Olympics should not go ahead this year. </p>
<p>Latin America continues to experience a huge burden of COVID-19 disease and so is also at risk. Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Colombia are all still in <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_smoothed_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=IND%7EUSA%7ECAN%7EDEU%7EFRA%7EURY%7EARG%7ECRI%7ECOL%7EGBR">the top ten countries</a> in terms of daily new confirmed cases per million people. On the other hand, sub-Saharan Africa has on the face of it – with some exceptions – handled the pandemic relatively well, with <a href="https://gh.bmj.com/content/6/5/e004762">countries praised</a> for an early and decisive response, having learned lessons from the west African Ebola outbreak of 2013-16.</p>
<h2>Working with uncertain data</h2>
<p>Of course, our conclusions must be cautious. Creating high-quality real-time data during a public health emergency is complicated, and data is patchy and slow in most parts of the world. The extent of transmission within <a href="https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/COVID-19%20progress%20report%20-%2004.10.20%20-%20FINAL.pdf#_ga=2.187962024.1633760846.1620939375-885267545.1620939375">refugee camps</a> and in conflict settings, for instance, is very much unknown. Some vulnerable areas may slip under the radar.</p>
<p>The reporting of data may also be influenced by local politics. Some countries, such as Tanzania, have chosen to downplay the severity of COVID-19. The former Tanzanian president, John Magufuli, died in March 2021 – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/tanzanias-president-john-magufuli-dies-aged-61">news coverage</a> suggested he may have died of COVID-19 amid reports of uncontrolled outbreaks around the country and sharp increases in deaths. However, officially the impact of COVID-19 in Tanzania has been <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_smoothed_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=Cumulative&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=%7ETZA">low</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, Belarus is reporting low death rates (27.8 per 100,000), having refused to consider COVID-19 a serious threat. But the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE) <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/special-analysis/estimation-excess-mortality-due-covid-19-and-scalars-reported-covid-19-deaths">has modelled</a> the country’s actual death rate to be one of the highest in the world, at 472.2 per 100,000 people. IHME modelling puts Azerbaijan at the top of that list, with a death rate of 672.7 compared with official numbers of 46.3 per 100,000.</p>
<h2>Politics and mixing</h2>
<p>The timing of elections and volatility of political governance may be interesting factors to observe when trying to predict future spikes in cases. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56858980">Political mass gatherings</a> in India are likely to have contributed to the extensive recent transmission. The prime minister and health minister encouraged people to attend, wrongly believing earlier in the spring that India had reached the end stages of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/31/coronavirus-trump-campaign-rallies-led-to-30000-cases-stanford-researchers-say.html">Donald Trump’s campaigning events</a> caused numerous super-spreading events in the US, while <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/10/myanmars-high-risk-election/">in Myanmar</a> there were reported breaches of COVID-19 protocols due to electioneering and mass gatherings. Myanmar’s elections in October 2020 were preceded by the highest spike in cases the country had experienced. Soon after the election, stricter policies were put in place and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&pickerSort=desc&pickerMetric=new_cases_smoothed_per_million&Metric=Confirmed+cases&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Align+outbreaks=false&country=%7EMMR">case rates lowered</a>. Countries that engage in similar behaviour – or, like India, declare success too early – could well be the next hotspots.</p>
<p>Of course, the next outbreak may prove difficult to spot. Few of us could easily point to Timor on a map. This lack of knowledge influences our perception over local situations and also the news coverage that countries get. Compare Nepal and Timor to Brazil and India, on which public reporting has been extensive. Plus, some countries might not be reporting good-quality data – Belarus, Azerbaijan or indeed Russia may have much bigger burdens of COVID-19 than appears to be the case.</p>
<p>The “next big outbreak” will be reliant on a perfect storm of a few variables coming together. At the core of this storm will be a slow vaccine rollout and susceptible populations mixing freely. Political rallies, large-scale festivals and protests are examples of mass gatherings that can seed new outbreaks and facilitate sufficient spread to rapidly overwhelm a health system. But depending on where this happens, we may not even notice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Head has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development.</span></em></p>
Low levels of immunity and high levels of mixing are a perfect setting for the next big outbreak.
Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow in Global Health, University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157573
2021-05-07T18:02:01Z
2021-05-07T18:02:01Z
A metropolis arose in medieval Cambodia – new research shows how many people lived in the Angkor Empire over time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397658/original/file-20210428-17-13vmme1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1519%2C23%2C6137%2C3776&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A visualization of daily life around Angkor Wat in the late 12th century.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Chandler, Mike Yeates, Chandara Ung and Brent McKee, Monash University, 2021</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How big were the world’s ancient cities? At its height, the world’s first city of Uruk may have had about <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Sumerian-World/Crawford/p/book/9781138238633">40,000 people</a> about 5,000 years ago. In the medieval period, London may have had a population of about a quarter of a million people, growing to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/may/15/the-evolution-of-london-the-citys-near-2000-year-history-mapped">approximately 600,000</a> by the early 17th century.</p>
<p>One of the world’s largest ancient cities lay in the jungles of Southeast Asia in the greater Angkor region located in contemporary Cambodia. This medieval site was home to the Angkor or Khmer Empire from the ninth to 15th centuries. You might be familiar with the famous Angkorian temple, Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Angkor Wat temple with palm trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398762/original/file-20210504-23-13gomqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Angkor Wat temple is one of more than a thousand built during the Angkor Empire in this region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alison Carter</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>But most people don’t realize that Angkor Wat is just one of more than a thousand temples in the greater Angkor region. Our research suggests that this settlement may have been home to between 700,000 and 900,000 people at its height in the 13th century. This means that the population of Angkor was roughly comparable to the almost 1 million people who lived in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400074134">ancient Rome at its height</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lc4nOFgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">how our</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=13qNQ8EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">interdisciplinary team</a> came up with our <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/19/eabf8441">population estimate for Angkor and how it grew over time</a>.</p>
<h2>Mapping medieval structures in Angkor</h2>
<p>Over the last 30 years, archaeologists working in collaboration with Cambodia’s <a href="http://apsaraauthority.gov.kh//en">APSARA Authority</a> have been exploring the jungles and rice fields of Cambodia, documenting thousands of medieval features that remain inscribed on the landscape. This work has included digging traditional excavation sites, surveying the landscape from the back of dirt bikes and scanning satellite imagery for traces of these ancient features.</p>
<p>Our knowledge of the region entered a new era in 2012, when researchers from the <a href="https://angkorlidar.org/">Khmer Archaeological Lidar Consortium</a> organized a mission of airborne-laser scanning across <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668/">this World Heritage site</a>. Called lidar, this technology was able to do in a few days of scanning and data-processing what had previously taken archaeologists months if not years of work: see through dense vegetation to accurately map the ground surface of Angkor.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="archaeological map of Greater Angkor Region" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392721/original/file-20210331-15-1509jfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top: The greater Angkor region’s civic-ceremonial center was surrounded by rice fields and the Angkor metropolitan area. Transportation and hydraulic features such as roads, canals and dikes integrated the region. Bottom: Major temples labeled on map of the civic-ceremonial center. Figure originally published in Science Advances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">C. Pottier, D. Evans and J-B. Chevance</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1306539110">this lidar data</a>, researchers were able to map tens of thousands of archaeological features at Angkor. Because Angkorian people, like many Cambodians today, built their houses out of organic materials and on wooden posts, these structures are long gone and not visible on the landscape. But lidar revealed a complex urban landscape complete with city blocks consisting of the mounds where people built their houses and small ponds located next to them.</p>
<p>This work has created one of the most comprehensive maps of a sprawling medieval city in the world, leading us to ask: How did the city develop over time, and how many people lived here?</p>
<h2>Deducing who used these structures and how</h2>
<p>Our new research <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/19/eabf8441">published in the journal Science Advances</a> created a comprehensive database that unites 2012 lidar mapping work with a massive archaeological data set acquired by an <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/centres-institutes-and-groups/angkor-research-program/research-projects.html">international</a> <a href="https://www.efeo.fr/base.php?code=21">team</a> of scholars over the last 30 years. Our goal was to combine all available data into one framework so we could understand which buildings had existed at various points in time and then ascribe the right number of people to each structure in order to come up with overall population estimates.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Human faces carved into stone towers of an Angkor temple" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392725/original/file-20210331-19-upqwis.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The face towers at the Bayon Temple are a well-known feature of the ‘downtown’ area of the greater Angkor region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alison Carter</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The part of Angkor’s landscape that most people are familiar with is what we call the civic-ceremonial center – it includes major stone temples such as <a href="https://earth.google.com/web/@13.5052745,104.044007,54.22888627a,62199.74748178d,35y,0h,59.00480404t,0r/data=CjISMBIgOTc5MTkxYzBmZGM2MTFlNjkwOTYxYjMxZWFiNDNjN2QiDHNwbGFzaHNjcmVlbg">Angkor Wat and the Bayon</a>. These areas are similar to what you might consider “downtown.” We think many of the people living here supported the operation of the temples and state government as craft specialists, artisans, dancers, priests or teachers. These people would have relied on rice surplus generated by farmers, although recent work suggests they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2020.100213">may have also tended small house gardens</a>.</p>
<p>People who inhabited the occupation mounds and rice fields in the surrounding Angkor metropolitan area had a different kind of lifestyle. These people were predominantly farmers and would have spent their days planting and harvesting rice.</p>
<p>The third area of occupation was on the embankments of roads and canals. Very little research has been done on the embankments, but some members of our team think that people lived on these features and would have been engaged in trade and commerce.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Contemporary dwellings in Cambodia built on stilts" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392730/original/file-20210331-21-10hd7cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contemporary Cambodian homes built on posts can be made of more modern materials or traditional wood and thatch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alison Carter</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Placing people on a timeline</h2>
<p>Next we wanted to figure out when people were using these structures and if they were living in different areas at different times.</p>
<p>In some cases, we could use inscriptions and changes in the decorative styles of the temples to help date features on the landscape. In other cases, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205649">we used machine learning algorithms</a> to sort temples in terms of similarity based on every bit of information we have about them: orientation, size, artifact types, pedestal types and so on. Then we used the known dates we do have for some temples to predict dates for others based on how close they are to each other on the algorithm’s graph.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Artist's aerial reconstruction of a medieval Angkor settlement" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397660/original/file-20210428-19-710taa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reconstruction of a medieval settlement and village shrine in the south of Angkor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Chandler and Micheal Lim, Monash University, 2011</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Combining the lidar data showing the location of mounds and our database dating features on the landscape, we were able to estimate the growth of the population over time in these areas. But it was tricky and will require some additional work to confirm our model.</p>
<p>Using excavation data from work by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/angkor-wat-archaeological-digs-yield-new-clues-to-its-civilizations-decline-116793">Greater Angkor Project at Angkor Wat</a>, we hypothesize that households in Angkor’s civic-ceremonial center and on the embankments were approximately 6,500 square feet (600 square meters). Ethnographic data suggest that there may have been five people in a household of this size.</p>
<p>Estimating population in the rice fields surrounding the civic-ceremonial center, what we call the Angkor metropolitan area, was more difficult as few occupation mounds remain. However, dispersed among rice fields were temples, which were likely the social basis for these communities. These areas are similar to farming communities in the U.S., where people are primarily involved with agriculture but congregate at their places of worship. Ethnographic data suggests each of these small temples may have served about 100 families, or 500 people.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9QzNVorZOUM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Animation of the population density and growth of Angkor over time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early stages of Angkor’s growth, we found fairly equal population in the civic-ceremonial center and Angkor metropolitan area, but then the population in the countryside exploded as the city began to grow. In contrast, the civic-ceremonial center’s population grew more slowly until the late 12th century. Our ongoing research explores how and why these changes took place. Densities also increased in both the Angkor metropolitan area and the civic-ceremonial center, which provides clues about how population levels and land-use patterns evolved over the city’s life span. </p>
<h2>Cities gone for centuries hold lessons for today</h2>
<p>By viewing this data in aggregate, we were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together and reconstruct the past landscapes of Angkor like never before. Combined, we start to get a pretty clear idea of how the city developed, including who was living where and when as well as how that affected the development of the city.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Our research has broad implications that reach far beyond how many people lived in the greater Angkor region over a thousand years ago. Researchers can apply this precise information about how a city grew, how many people lived there, where they lived and what they did to the challenges of contemporary cities.</p>
<p>What makes them resilient to climatic, social and political challenges? How do you support this many people living in close quarters? What happens when people congregate in a small space and the populations get larger and larger over time? Are there efficiencies of scale? Do cities lead to inequality? Are there universal and mathematical truths that define the relationships between people and cities?</p>
<p>By looking at examples of urbanism from the past, researchers can start to answer some of these questions for the future of today’s cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Klassen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the European Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Kyra Carter received funding from the University of Oregon Global Oregon Faculty Collaboration Fund, supported by the Global Studies Institute in the UO Office of International Affairs, the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP1092663, the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration Grant Number #9602-14, and the Dumbarton Oaks Project Grant in Garden and Landscape Studies.</span></em></p>
Combining archaeological evidence, aerial scans and machine learning algorithms, researchers modeled how this medieval city grew over time.
Sarah Klassen, Postdoctoral Researcher of Archaeological Sciences, Leiden University
Alison Kyra Carter, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Oregon
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/154491
2021-02-04T18:10:15Z
2021-02-04T18:10:15Z
In 2010, a virus similar to SARS-CoV-2 was already present in Cambodia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382238/original/file-20210203-23-cnbn7h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C192%2C4288%2C2541&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A swarm of bats flies out of a cave near Phnom Sampeau, Cambodia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Phnom_Sampeau#/media/File:Nowhere_near_the_peak_now_(14452935885).jpg">S. Shankar/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In November and December 2010, UNESCO and Cambodian authorities invited researchers from the <em>Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle</em> in Paris to explore several sites in northern Cambodia. The goal was to study the biodiversity of bats near the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1224/">Temple of Preah Vihear</a>, and a large number of bats species were caught during this survey, including eight types of horseshoe bat (genus <em>Rhinolophus</em>). They’re of great interest for virologists, as they are the reservoir of all Sarbecoviruses, the group of coronaviruses that includes SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, respectively responsible for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2020-0044">SARS epidemic in 2002-2004 and the current Covid-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>In 2020, 10 years after the expedition, the samples stored in a freezer at -80°C were taken out and tested by the Institut Pasteur of Cambodia (IPC) to look for Sarbecoviruses. A PCR test showed two positive results and a full sequencing of their genome started. Two variants of a virus close to SARS-CoV-2 were discovered in two bats of the species <em>Rhinolophus shameli</em> we captured in 2010 in a cave in the province of Steung Treng.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381759/original/file-20210201-17-164zxrj.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A <em>Rhinolophus shameli</em> bat, the entrance to the cave where a large colony of this species nested, and the forest clearing near the capture site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandre Hassanin</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results of this research are freely available on the <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428212v1">bioRxiv website</a> and pending peer review. (This practice is now widely used to rapidly transfer new knowledge about the Covid-19 pandemic.)</p>
<h2>SARS-CoV-2-like viruses are present in bats in the Yunnan province of China and in mainland Southeast Asia</h2>
<p>The discovery is important because the virus is the first found outside China that is close to SARS-CoV-2 – of the 29,913 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_alignment">aligned bases</a> in the two viruses’ genomes, 93% are identical. All those previously described were detected in animals collected in China, including two viruses found in two species of <em>Rhinolophus</em> bats in southern China, and two more divergent viruses (90% and 85%) found in pangolins seized by Chinese customs in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces.</p>
<p>The new virus from Cambodia was detected in a bat species endemic to Southeast Asia that does not extend beyond Yunnan, where the two previous bat SARS-CoV-2-like viruses were found.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382623/original/file-20210204-20-1gel4or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geographical distribution of the three bat species in which viruses close to SARS-CoV-2 have been sequenced. The colored dots indicate the localities of origin of the viruses RaTG13 (blue), RmYN02 (green), RshSTT182 and RshSTT200 (red).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandre Hassanin, iucnredlist.org</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The direct implication is that viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-020-0771-4">circulating for several decades</a>, as revealed by molecular dating, throughout Southeast Asia and Yunnan, and that different species of bats could have exchanged these viruses in the caves they inhabit.</p>
<p>Chinese researchers have been searching for Sarbecoviruses throughout the country for about 15 years. They found more than 100 SARS-CoV-like viruses but only two related to SARS-CoV-2. The new data thus validates the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2-like viruses are present mostly in Southeast Asia, while SARS-CoV-like viruses are dominant in China.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382624/original/file-20210204-14-1lt2ooe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of Covid-19 patients per million inhabitants (in blue) and deaths per million inhabitants (in red) for the different countries of Southeast Asia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandre Hassanin, worldometers.info/coronavirus</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The data in the figure above indirectly support the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 group actually originated in mainland Southeast Asia. Indeed, human populations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam appear to be much less affected by the Covid-19 pandemic than other countries in the region, such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. This suggests that the populations of these four countries may be benefiting from a level of herd immunity to Sarbecoviruses.</p>
<h2>Pangolins contaminated by bats in Southeast Asia</h2>
<p>Apart from bats, the Malayan pangolin (<em>Manis javanica</em>) is the only wild animal in which SARS-CoV-2-like viruses have been found. The problem is that these discoveries were made in a rather special context, that of pangolin trafficking. Several sick animals were seized by Chinese customs in Guangxi province in 2017-2018 and in Guangdong province in 2019.</p>
<p>Even if the viruses sequenced in pangolins are not that close to SARS-CoV-2 (one was 85% identical and the other 90%), they indicate that at least two Sarbecoviruses could have been imported into China well before the Covid-19 epidemic. Indeed, it has been shown that pangolins from Southeast Asian countries have contaminated each other <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/mamm/ahead-of-print/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044.xml">while in captivity</a> on Chinese territory.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382628/original/file-20210204-16-1u8zyoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pangolin, one of the most poached animals in the world, could have served as an intermediate host in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wahyudi/AFP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question remains on how the pangolins became infected initially. Could it have been in their natural Southeast Asian environment, before being captured? The discovery of a new virus close to SARS-CoV-2 in bats in Cambodia supports this hypothesis, as <em>Rhinolophus</em> bats and pangolins can meet, at least occasionally, in <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/mamm/ahead-of-print/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044.xml">caves in Southeast Asia</a>. This strengthens the hypothesis that <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-origins-genome-analysis-suggests-two-viruses-may-have-combined-134059">pangolin trafficking</a> is responsible for multiple exports of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses to China.</p>
<h2>The “snowballing” effect of breeding small carnivores</h2>
<p>In 2002-2004, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/mamm/ahead-of-print/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044/article-10.1515-mammalia-2020-0044.xml">several small carnivores</a> kept in cages in Chinese markets or restaurants were found positive for SARS-CoV, such as the masked palm civet, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_dog">raccoon dog</a> and the Chinese ferret-badger.</p>
<p>These small carnivores are solitary and nocturnal mammals – just like pangolins. In the wild, the occasional contamination of an individual of these species by a bat Sarbecovirus has very little chance of causing an epidemic. However, an infected individual placed in an intensive breeding facility can lead to a rapid and uncontrollable evolution of this type of virus.</p>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/11/utah-10000-minks-dead-from-coronavirus">American minks</a> bred for their fur were contaminated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus from humans in Europe and the United States. In November 2020, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/denmark-announces-cull-of-15-million-mink-over-covid-mutation-fears">millions of mink in Denmark were culled</a> after they became infected with Covid-19 and in turn passed a mutated form back to humans.</p>
<p>The Covid-19 crisis taught the world that keeping immense numbers of small carnivores in captivity is a <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/172">major health risk</a>: viruses can spread and evolve rapidly in breeding facilities, potentially producing more contaminating or more dangerous variants. As pangolins and small carnivore species were frequently stored and sold together in wet markets, a “snowballing effect” due to interspecies viral transmission could be the last step in starting the human Covid-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>This scenario is mot likely as nearly <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/06/pangolins-poached-for-scales-used-in-chinese-medicine/">1 million pangolins have been trafficked in the past decade</a> and millions of small carnivores are <a href="https://reporterre.net/Mounting-evidence-suggests-mink-farms-in-China-could-be-the-cradle-of-Covid-19-22020">bred in fur farms in China</a>.</p>
<p>To test this hypothesis and understand why epidemics are emerging in China and not elsewhere, it would be interesting to look for possible infection by Sarbecoviruses in samples from American minks and raccoon dogs bred for their fur in China. These samples exist, they have been collected in the last two decades to study the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.07.010">canine distemper virus</a> or avian flu viruses <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2017.01.028">H5N1</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetmic.2015.01.009">H9N2</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was translated from the original French by Elsa Couderc with help from DeepL.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandre Hassanin ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
A bat virus discovered a decade ago in Cambodia indicates that pangolin trafficking remains a credible explanation for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Alexandre Hassanin, Maître de Conférences (HDR) à Sorbonne Université, ISYEB - Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (CNRS, MNHN, SU, EPHE, UA), Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152179
2021-01-28T00:25:23Z
2021-01-28T00:25:23Z
Why is it so difficult to stamp out seafood slavery? There is little justice, even in court
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380996/original/file-20210127-23-i29cs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies. </p>
<p>The Taiwanese fleet, which operates in all reaches of the globe, is alone <a href="https://www.ait.org.tw/2020-trafficking-in-persons-report-taiwan/">estimated</a> to have around 100,000 foreign fishers in its crew, mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Cambodia.</p>
<p>These fishing vessels mainly catch tuna, marlin and swordfish, but they <a href="https://ejfoundation.org/reports/illegal-fishing-and-human-rights-abuses-in-the-taiwanese-fishing-fleet-2">have also been found</a> to catch threatened species, including sharks, dolphins, turtles, whales and seabirds. Much of the catch is sold fresh to markets in Asia, but is also processed in countries like Thailand and <a href="http://changeyourtuna.org.au/">exported beyond Asia</a>, including to Australia.</p>
<p>The conditions on many of these vessels are shocking. The fishers are often expected to work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, leaving little time for adequate rest.</p>
<p>Food is often in poor supply, expired or rotting, and a one-litre ration of drinking water must be shared among three men. Injuries, illness and physical and sexual violence are commonplace. The number of deaths on these ships is <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-new-zealand-stateless/2018/05/9fdf62aa-greenpeace_misery_at_sea-report-lowres.pdf">increasingly drawing attention</a> from the international community. </p>
<p>As part of our research on human trafficking and slavery in distant waters fisheries, we interviewed 25 Indonesian boys and men working on these ships over the past year, and another 48 Cambodian and Filipino men from 2015–19.</p>
<p>One thing the men emphasised was how they were promised salaries of around AU$300–600 per month, only to later discover the wages were not paid to their families back home. Instead, massive deductions, fines and fraudulent contracts kept them in a state of constant debt.</p>
<h2>What constitutes human trafficking</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/protocoltraffickinginpersons.aspx">UN Trafficking Protocol</a>, human trafficking involves three elements: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>deceptive or fraudulent recruitment</p></li>
<li><p>facilitated movement to the place of exploitation</p></li>
<li><p>exploitation at the destination. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our interviews with victims confirm all three elements are very clearly present. So, why then is it so difficult to address this problem?</p>
<p>One reason is the main responses to seafood slavery have centred on trying to improve supply chain transparency rather than focusing on justice itself, such as securing compensation for the fishers, supporting them through the legal process and effectively criminalising traffickers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-how-many-people-are-enslaved-in-the-world-today-107078">Fact check: How many people are enslaved in the world today?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In Australia, the focus on supply chains has meant tracing the seafood we import to ensure there has been no forced labour or human trafficking. </p>
<p>Ensuring supply chain transparency is an important part of <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153">Australia’s 2018 Modern Slavery Act</a>. Non-government organisations, such as <a href="https://beslaveryfree.com/">Be Slavery Free</a>, are also advocating for a uniform labelling system for <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2016/June/Seafood_Country_of_Origin_Labelling">all imported seafood</a>.</p>
<p>While this is important, the focus on supply chains does not offer a complete solution to the problem. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1088477870568210432"}"></div></p>
<h2>Our research into three human trafficking cases</h2>
<p>Between 2015–20, we reviewed three legal cases of human trafficking in Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines involving Taiwanese-owned vessels. We also interviewed dozens of victims who were witnesses or plaintiffs in the cases. Our initial findings suggest much more can be done to protect trafficked fishers and provide them with access to justice.</p>
<p>One of the problems with the current justice response in many countries is it focuses on criminalising traffickers, while the victims are not always able to pursue civil claims.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-slave-caught-seafood-off-your-plate-105861">How to keep slave-caught seafood off your plate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the Philippines case, for instance, the victims were not offered the opportunity to make a civil claim, and their involvement in the case against their traffickers was limited to giving evidence as witnesses. </p>
<p>Even in this capacity, there was not much support for them. They had to travel to the trial at their own expense and were not allowed to leave the Philippines until it ended, more than two years later. For the men, the legal proceedings actually worsened their financial insecurity. </p>
<p>As one of the Filipino victim witnesses lamented, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I should never have agreed to be a witness in this case. I have no job or income since coming back from the boat, but the [prosecutor] doesn’t care about that at all, only that I show up to give the testimony when he calls.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No compensation or restitution for the men</h2>
<p>In the Cambodian case we reviewed, four Taiwanese traffickers were convicted of human trafficking and <a href="https://www.voacambodia.com/a/fishing-company-owner-awaiting-sentence-for-trafficking/1677481.html">one was subsequently jailed</a>. The other three remain at large.</p>
<p>But it has now been seven years since the conviction and the fishers have still not received the US$2,500 or so they were each awarded by the court. Without the money to start a small business or pay off debts, many had no choice but to try their luck on fishing vessels again. </p>
<p>In the Indonesian case, the victims received restitution of US$1,850 each, but this was a fraction of the US$9,200–11,000 they had sought to cover three years of unpaid salaries. One of the victims told us,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we decided to take it instead of getting nothing at all.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Light punishments for traffickers</h2>
<p>Even in terms of punishing traffickers, the criminal cases have not acted as a significant deterrent to others. </p>
<p>In the Philippines case, for example, only two low-level recruiters were convicted. The owners of the labour recruitment agency in Singapore were not investigated and remain in business.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese captain of the vessel was also never prosecuted, even though there were <a href="http://twc2.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Diluted-Justice-Oct-2016-FINAL-VERSION.pdf">serious allegations</a> of physical abuse and the suspicious death of one Filipino fisher.</p>
<p>In the Indonesian case, the owners of just one of the two manning agencies were convicted. The investigation of the second agency was halted because it claimed to be no longer operational.</p>
<h2>What can Australia do differently</h2>
<p>In December, the Australian government released its <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/reports-and-publications/submissions-and-discussion-papers/combat-modern-slavery-2020-25">National Plan of Action to Combat Modern Slavery</a>, which outlines key initiatives over the next five years to respond to slavery, both in Australia and the Indo-Pacific region. </p>
<p>It is heartening to see a significant focus on justice in this plan. We suggest a few additional steps the government should take:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>work through regional mechanisms like ASEAN and the <a href="https://www.baliprocess.net/">Bali Process</a> to ensure investigations of traffickers can proceed cooperatively across jurisdictions and include labour recruitment agencies, boat captains and senior crew, and owners of fishing fleets</p></li>
<li><p>better support fishermen through the legal process, including providing resources for NGOs to assist them</p></li>
<li><p>urge countries involved in the trade to make it mandatory for remedial justice and civil claims to occur alongside criminal proceedings</p></li>
<li><p>coordinate between source countries of fishers, port states and fleet states to ensure fishers are protected and appropriately supported.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fishing-industry-must-do-more-to-tackle-human-rights-abuses-heres-where-to-start-149762">Fishing industry must do more to tackle human rights abuses – here's where to start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To date, justice that ensures the resilience of victims and reduces their vulnerability to re-trafficking has either not been effective or pursued at all. We need to recognise justice is largely about financial compensation and ensuring the enforcement of fishers’ labour and employment rights. </p>
<p>As one of the Indonesian fishers reflected,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nothing good has come out of this case. Now I must go again to try my luck working in Thailand. What other option is there?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Supply chain transparency is important, but countries like Australia also must do more to support the justice process, such as securing compensation for fishermen and putting traffickers in jail.
Sallie Yea, Associate professor & Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe University
Wayne Palmer, Research fellow, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151048
2020-11-27T17:53:36Z
2020-11-27T17:53:36Z
Cambodia: treason trials the latest in the country’s slide to autocracy
<p>If you are simply going on the number of political trials in Cambodia at the moment, the country would seem to be politically unstable – a hotbed of unrest. Hundreds of people are on trial for incitement, conspiracy, and violence endangering the nation. But the prime minister, Hun Sen, who has been in power since 1985, <a href="https://www.information.gov.kh/detail/361323">regularly insists</a> that his tenure has been characterised by peace, stability and development – despite <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/677630/hun-sen-touts-peace-coup-attempt-thwarted/">internal</a> and <a href="https://pressocm.gov.kh/en/archives/13782">external</a> threats. He is the world’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23257699">longest-serving head of government</a>. </p>
<p>Stable or not, more than 100 people were summoned to attend Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday November 26 2020 on charges including violence endangering Cambodian institutions (Article 451 Criminal Code), conspiracy (Article 453) and incitement to commit a felony (Article 495). The cases were immediately adjourned until 2021. </p>
<p>This marks the latest event following a series of arrests over the past 18 months of people affiliated with the former <a href="https://thediplomat.com/tag/cambodia-national-rescue-party-cnrp/">Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP)</a>, raising alarm among civil society organisations including <a href="https://aseanmp.org/publications-2/">ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights</a>, <a href="https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/3882-csos-express-concern-over-judicial-harassment-of-former-cambodia-national-rescue-party-members">national organisations</a>, <a href="https://www.forum-asia.org/?p=32840">Forum Asia</a> and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/02/cambodia-over-145-opposition-members-summoned">Human Rights Watch</a>.</p>
<p>Some background is necessary to understand these events, both in terms of the current politics of Cambodia and in terms of the fractured relationship between two of the main players: the country’s prime minister, <a href="http://www.samdechhunsen.gov.kh/">Samdech Techo Hun Sen</a>, and his long-time antagonist, <a href="http://samrainsyanz.org/">Sam Rainsy</a> – interim leader of the CNRP.</p>
<h2>Current political situation</h2>
<p>Cambodia has a bicameral system, with its members of parliament elected to the National Assembly and an upper Senate comprising senators elected primarily by local councillors. Cambodia’s previous local elections in June 2017 brought victory for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) but increased gains for the CNRP. The subsequent general election in July 2018 resulted in what is effectively a one-party state, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodia-heads-towards-one-party-state-and-a-democratic-crisis-85515">as foreseen</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cambodia-heads-towards-one-party-state-and-a-democratic-crisis-85515">Cambodia heads towards one-party state – and a democratic crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-party-to-rule-them-all-cambodias-supreme-court-rules-the-dissolution-of-opposition-party-87761">decision of the Supreme Court</a> to legally dissolve the CNRP, the CPP – led by Hun Sen – won all 125 seats in the 2018 National Assembly election and the 58 seats of the 62-member Senate that are indirectly elected.</p>
<p>Kem Sokha, former president of the CNRP, was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/cambodia-kem-sokha-arrest-hun-sen.html">arrested and detained</a> in September 2017 (after the successful local elections) on charges of treason and conspiracy with foreign states, <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/ministry-slams-murphy">notably the USA</a>. His trial commenced in January 2020 and was greeted with concern by national <a href="https://www.licadho-cambodia.org/pressrelease.php?perm=445">civil society groups</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25472">UN special procedure mandate holders</a>. Proceedings were <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/sokha-trial-delay-mutually-agreed">suspended indefinitely</a> in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>He was <a href="https://vodenglish.news/kem-sokha-on-tour-goodwill-trips-or-a-way-to-do-politics/">banned from all political activity</a>, as were <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-politics/cambodias-main-opposition-party-dissolved-by-supreme-court-idUSKBN1DG1BO">118 former senior CNRP figures</a>. “Political activities” is a term accorded <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50774284/khmers-help-khmers-pm-tells-officials-not-to-hinder-sokha-from-aiding-flood-victims/">a broad scope</a> of interpretation by the authorities in Cambodia. </p>
<p>But history is somewhat more complex – many of those summoned this week were linked to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sam-Rainsy">Sam Rainsy</a>, CNRP president, currently in self-imposed exile. Both he and Hun Sen regularly engage in verbal spats, often deploying personal, highly inflammatory rhetoric which, as UN special rapporteur, I have <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24579&LangID=E">regularly condemned</a>. To understand their fractured and fractious relationship, a little history will help.</p>
<h2>Sam Rainsy and Hun Sen</h2>
<p>Sam Rainsy has been in or on the periphery of politics in Cambodia for most of the modern period. He was first elected as a member of the royalist FUNCINPEC party at the UN-administered elections <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/arc/2051_93.htm">in 1993</a>. He served as minister of economy and finance before <a href="http://archive.ipu.org/hr-e/158/158cmbd1.htm">his expulsion</a> a year later. He then founded the Khmer Nation Party – subsequently renamed Sam Rainsy Party – and was reelected in the 1998 and 2003 general elections with his party gaining seats. </p>
<p>In 2005, in the wake of a number of (criminal) defamation charges lodged against him, Rainsy had his parliamentary immunity revoked and <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/02/06/cambodia-opposition-politicians-arrested-forced-flee">he fled</a>. He was tried in absentia, convicted and, following a royal pardon at the request of Hun Sen, he returned to Cambodia in 2006, standing in the 2008 general elections.</p>
<p>This pattern of exile, trial in absentia and pardon was repeated over the subsequent decade. In August 2019, he announced his intention to return to Cambodia in November that year. Aggressive rhetoric and tensions <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25260&LangID=E">ratcheted up</a>, with authorities denouncing this as a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-politics-idUSKBN1WM11V">planned coup</a>. CNRP members and affiliates were arrested and many had travel documents revoked. Sam Rainsy <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/8/cambodias-sam-rainsy-faces-hurdles-as-he-attempts-to-return-home">claimed</a> he was prevented from travelling to Asia. </p>
<p>At the same time around 70 former Cambodia National Rescue Party associates and members, considered supporters of Sam Rainsy, who had been arrested, were <a href="https://undocs.org/A/HRC/45/51">released from detention</a> and Kem Sokha was <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/cambodia-reprieve-for-kem-sokha-a-token-gesture-that-should-not-distract-from-human-rights-crisis/">released from house arrest</a>. Sam Rainsy remains overseas.</p>
<h2>To the future</h2>
<p>It is now two and a half years until the next scheduled general election and less than 18 months before local elections. Commentators such as <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2020/09/with-new-arrest-cambodias-permanent-crackdown-intensifies/">Sebastian Strangio</a> and <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/11/hun-sen-goes-for-the-legal-kill-against-rival-cnrp/">David Hutt</a> highlight the continuing crackdown on political opposition while also probing for signs of <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/strongman-hun-sen-showing-signs-of-weakness/">political weakness</a> in advance of the next elections. It’s an “all time low” for democracy, as the director of the Cambodian Centre for Human Roghts, Chak Sopheap <a href="https://southeastasiaglobe.com/cambodias-peace-and-democracy/">has noted</a>. Indeed it was <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national-politics/pm-vows-protect-hun-family">recently reported</a> that Hun had said there could be no compromise or rapprochement.</p>
<p>The trials are the latest in a long line of proceedings against opposition political actors in Cambodia. Laws on plotting, incitement and defamation are regularly invoked to arrest and detain individuals. Often, individuals are then released from detention under judicial supervision, so neither detained nor charged. Under Cambodian law, release under judicial supervision can be indefinite with charges resurrected years later, contrary to <a href="https://undocs.org/A/HRC/45/51">international human rights</a>.</p>
<p>The future for Cambodia’s constitutionally enshrined liberal multiparty democracy is not positive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhona Smith is currently the independent UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia. This article is written in her private, academic capacity and does not necessarily reflect views of the United Nations. She declined to provide a profile picture.</span></em></p>
In 35 years as leader, prime minster Hun Sen has steadily undermined democracy in Cambodia.
Rhona Smith, Professor of International Human Rights, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148685
2020-10-26T11:59:14Z
2020-10-26T11:59:14Z
Rats help clear minefields in Cambodia – and suspicion of the military
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365117/original/file-20201022-24-te90ey.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1645%2C921&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rats that can sniff out land mines are changing the perception of the military in Cambodia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darcie DeAngelo</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: Dr. Darcie DeAngelo is a medical anthropologist at the
Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP) at Binghamton University, State University of New York. In <a href="https://youtu.be/8TDmElh5P7Q">this</a> interview, she explains the relationship between locals who live near minefields in Cambodia and the mine detectors, often former military combatants, who are viewed with suspicion because of divisions caused by the series of civil wars between the 1970s and 1990s.</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8TDmElh5P7Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dr. Darcie DeAngelo explains how rats have had a positive impact on the relationship between villagers who live near minefields and soldiers who clear the mines.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why are there so many unexploded bombs and minefields in Cambodia?</h2>
<p>Cambodia is known for being the site of U.S. bomb droppings during the Vietnam War and for the Khmer Rouge genocidal regime, which also planted land mines from 1975 to 1979. Today a majority of Cambodia’s population is <a href="https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/fr312/fr312.pdf">age 35 or younger</a>, which means most of the population has grown up since the Khmer Rouge regime ended in 1979. This statistic fails to take into account the uneven distribution of the regime’s end in the country as fighting continued in the northwest of the country where the Vietnamese and their Cambodian allies fought to keep the Khmer Rouge army out of the country. </p>
<p>Most of the land mines in Cambodia were planted between 1985 and 1989, when the Vietnamese-allied government installed a “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/09/lifting-the-bamboo-curtain/306945/">bamboo curtain</a>” against the invading Thai and Khmer Rouge along the Thai-Cambodia border in the northwest. This area, called the K5 belt, remains the most densely land-mine-contaminated region of the world, a 1,046-kilometer (650-mile) strip of land with “up to <a href="http://the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2019/landmine-monitor-2019/contamination-and-clearance.aspx">2,400 mines per linear kilometer</a>.” Cambodia’s problem of millions of undetonated land mines makes it the country with the highest population of amputees in the world. On average it has 100 land mine accidents per year.</p>
<h2>Why are the military and other de-mining organizations viewed with suspicion by the locals?</h2>
<p>Land mine clearance requires a huge amount of military infrastructure. Decontamination, which is the term used for removal of land mines, depends on the same military skill sets that contamination depends on. So people who are de-miners are often soldiers or former combatants in Cambodia, and the divisions from the civil war still run deep. The largest de-mining organization in the country is part of the military branch of government. </p>
<p>The current Cambodian state has been running operations to clear the land mines since the 1990s, but the state is also rumored to grab village lands, <a href="http://the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2019/landmine-monitor-2019/contamination-and-clearance.aspx">disappear people</a> who disagree with the ruling party, and quell legitimate protests, so de-miners carry a stigma of military corruption. </p>
<p>After war and mass atrocity, the state loses legitimacy. And so what happens is the villagers distrust even peacekeeping efforts, so even efforts to decontaminate the country result in a kind of mistrust. When you distrust the state, you need to build state legitimacy, and de-mining offers a real opportunity for states to do so. They can rehabilitate soldiers and build relationships between villagers and soldiers. But in Cambodia, I heard from villagers that they distrusted the de-miners and found them untrustworthy. They didn’t think that their land would be returned to them when the land mines were cleared, which causes some problems when it comes to information about where the land mines are.</p>
<h2>How does mine clearing with rats work?</h2>
<p>Rats are being used in de-mining because of their incredible sense of smell, relatively low cost of maintenance and ease of transport. Just like dogs, they don’t detect any false positives, as a metal detector would.</p>
<p>In the minefield, the rat is connected to two de-miners who walk on cleared corridors with the decontaminated area in between them. The de-miners step down the field in unison as the rat sniffs for mines in the pit, scratching twice when it smells TNT. Then the de-miner maps the location, and clicks a clicker, telling the rat it can go get its reward, a delicious banana. </p>
<p>The rats don’t get blown up by the mines because they’re so light. The rats each weigh 1 to 3 pounds, so they are weightless to a land mine, which usually requires a minimum of 11 to 35.3 pounds of pressure to activate. </p>
<h2>How did the introduction of rats to de-mining change how it is viewed in Cambodia?</h2>
<p>Rats have successfully been used to decontaminate Mozambique in Africa, and as for their import into Cambodia, the success story really lies in the fact that the organizations using them have been able to obtain donations and become independent so that they can work on demilitarizing the de-mining industry.</p>
<p>Rats don’t fit in with the military aesthetic of de-mining, unlike dogs, which are military aid animals and have been used within militaries for centuries. The image of a soldier proudly standing next to his dog is very different from a soldier cradling a small rat in his arms. So when the villagers first saw the rat, they were a little bit puzzled, but I actually think the rat humanized the de-miners in a way that demilitarized them. When they see the rat with a soldier, it’s more of this kind of absurdity. So it make them pause and think, “OK, what is a rat doing there?” Villagers have said in interviews that they wondered about it and it made them take a second glance. It undermines the kind of villainous characterization of the de-miners for the villagers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.apopo.org/en">APOPO</a>, an organization that uses the rats in de-mining, posts publicity photos where the rats snuggle with their handlers. Since then the land mine detection dog organizations have started posting photos of their dogs being playful, and pictures of the puppies. So there is an effect which pervades other organizations, and demilitarization is seen as something to be valued, even in a highly militarized industry. These are opportunities for demilitarization of de-mining for the country itself, for the state and for people’s trust in authorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darcie DeAngelo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rats used in mine-clearing operations are changing the perception of the country’s military, which is viewed with suspicion after decades of civil war.
Darcie DeAngelo, Postdoctoral fellow, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/147907
2020-10-14T19:12:02Z
2020-10-14T19:12:02Z
Europe’s second wave is worse than the first. What went so wrong, and what can it learn from countries like Vietnam?
<p>Europe is again in the grip of a COVID-19 resurgence, with outbreak hot-spots in the United Kingdom, Spain and France each reporting thousands of new daily cases. </p>
<p>The level of infections are now higher than in March and April across many countries, after restrictions were significantly eased over summer. But now many areas are being forced to re-introduce varying levels of restrictions, though most countries are resisting nationwide lockdowns.</p>
<h2>Second wave peaks are significantly higher than in the first wave</h2>
<p>During the country’s first wave, France’s daily new case numbers reached a peak of just over 7,500 on March 31. Its new peak was recorded on Sunday with <a href="https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/fr">26,675</a> new cases in the previous 24 hours, over three times higher than the first peak.</p>
<p>Spain has recorded <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/spain/">over 30,000 cases in the last week</a>, with more than 20,000 of these coming from the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/covid-europe-second-wave/2020/10/12/8aacfadc-0c66-11eb-b404-8d1e675ec701_story.html">Madrid region</a> alone.</p>
<p>In the first wave, the UK had a peak number of 7,860 daily cases on April 10, which has jumped to a peak of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/">17,540 on October 8</a>.</p>
<p>However, these are only the new cases reported from the testing sites. These numbers are known to underestimate the true number of infections, because many people have no symptoms and so are unlikely to get tested.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/largest-testing-study-coronavirus-publishes-latest-findings">Researchers from the Imperial College London</a> tested 175,000 people in the UK — whether they reported symptoms or not. They found 824 were positive, and used this to estimate there were around 45,000 new daily infections between September 18 and October 5. This would amount to more than double, or often more than triple, the official daily new positive tests results reported during that time.</p>
<iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&minPopulationFilter=1000000&country=ITA~FRA~GBR~ESP~DEU&region=World&casesMetric=true&interval=smoothed&aligned=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<h2>‘Restriction fatigue’ bites amid European summer</h2>
<p>Summer is the vacation season and a “golden goose” for European economies, so many countries <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-latest-europe-opens-up-for-tourism/a-53646330">lifted various restrictions</a> to enable tourism.</p>
<p>Many people had a sense of regained freedom and a feeling of lesser need to adhere to physical distancing measures over the summer months. This was reflected in another <a href="https://ichpanalytics.imperialcollegehealthpartners.com/t/BDAU/views/YouGovICLCOVID-19BehaviourTracker/Homepage?%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&%3Adisplay_count=n&%3AshowVizHome=n&%3Aorigin=viz_share_link">ongoing research project</a> by Imperial College. Researchers found many Europeans surveyed had relaxed their behaviour in the last few months, compared to in April.</p>
<p>Indeed, Europe’s second wave points to an element of restriction fatigue after months of restrictions on daily life and with economies faltering. WHO Europe director Dr Hans Kluge <a href="https://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/statements/2020/statement-rising-covid-19-fatigue-and-a-pan-regional-response">acknowledged</a> “It is easy and natural to feel apathetic and demotivated, to experience fatigue”. He called on European authorities to listen to the public and work with them in “new, innovative ways” to reinvigorate the fight against COVID-19.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Health-care workers treating a patient in Madrid, Spain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363313/original/file-20201014-22-160bt6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health-care workers attend to a patient in Madrid, Spain. Intensive care wards are filling up across the city amid a resurgence of the virus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bernat Armangue/AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Restrictions are returning, but no national lockdowns yet</h2>
<p>In recent weeks, many European leaders have announced targeted, localised restrictions, but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/covid-europe-second-wave/2020/10/12/8aacfadc-0c66-11eb-b404-8d1e675ec701_story.html">no national lockdowns</a> as yet.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.gouvernement.fr/en/coronavirus-covid-19">French government</a> reimposed restrictions in many urban areas, including limiting the capacity of restaurants and classrooms, and closing bars and gyms.</p>
<p>Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez introduced travel restrictions to and from Madrid, which inspired protests and earned his government a “<a href="https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2020-10-12/spains-national-day-celebrations-marked-by-political-tension-and-protests.html">criminal and totalitarian</a>” label from dissenters and their political opponents on the far-right.</p>
<p>Like France and Spain, the UK government is not planning to reimpose a national lockdown despite a record number of cases. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opted for “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/12/boris-johnsons-latest-covid-strategy-no-hope-and-no-end-in-sight">a balanced approach</a>” enforcing a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000007391187/boris-johnson-tiered-cotronavirus-lockdown.html">three-tier alert system</a> across England — medium, high, and very high — depending on the severity of outbreaks.</p>
<p>Before the emergence of the European second wave, Germany was a <a href="https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/05/12/women-leaders-shine-during-covid-19-pandemic/">role model</a> for its successful approach to combating the virus. This image will be hard to sustain though, as in the past few days <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/german-new-coronavirus-cases-rise-at-fastest-pace-since-april-3/ar-BB19XKGk">the country</a> has experienced its highest daily increase in cases since its peak in early April. The country’s capital Berlin, famed for its rich nightlife, entered its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/berlin-nightlife-given-first-curfew-in-70-years-as-covid-cases-surge">first curfew</a> in 70 years from October 10.</p>
<h2>Europe could look to the success of countries like Vietnam</h2>
<p>By contrast, several South-East Asian countries are doing exceptionally well. Over the past two weeks, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia have reported around 0-5 daily new cases on average despite dense populations. It’s important to note there may be undercounting in case counts and deaths, but this doesn’t detract from the overwhelming success these countries have had.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.brinknews.com/how-did-vietnam-and-cambodia-contain-covid-19-with-few-resources/">Vietnam’s</a> total number of <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/viet-nam/">cases is just 1,113</a>, which is extremely low for a population of nearly 100 million. One tactic used by health authorities has been targeted testing, where they’ve focused on high-risk individuals and on buildings and neighbourhoods where there have been confirmed cases. Health authorities have also implemented extensive contact tracing, and aimed to identify those at risk of exposure regardless of symptoms. The country also set up quarantine facilities for infected people and international travellers, minimising spread inside households.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/thailand-defies-odds-to-successfully-manage-coronavirus-pandemic/12359632">Thailand</a>, health volunteers have been visiting areas of clusters, triaging cases, sending people with symptoms to medical clinics for testing, and dispelling rumours and misinformation. They have also taught people how to properly wash their hands, emphasised the importance of masks, and dispensed hand sanitisers. In addition, the Thai Department of Disease Control has been contacting hospital staff from every province to ensure they know how to detect cases and how they can prevent outbreaks in the hospitals. This education, and the army of volunteers, have helped keep total number of cases to just over 3,500.</p>
<p>Despite having a relatively <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/What-lies-behind-Cambodia-s-surprise-coronavirus-success">weak medical system</a>, Cambodia’s total case numbers are extremely low at <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/cambodia/">just 283</a>, with zero deaths. The country has conducted extensive contact tracing, utilising <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/14/thailand-malaysia-vietnam-how-some-countries-kept-covid-at-bay">2,900 health-care workers</a> who were trained in contact tracing at the start of the year. The country also went into a strict lockdown early in the pandemic including by <a href="https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/luck-culture-helped-cambodia-contain-coronavirus">shutting schools and entertainment venues</a>. Travel has also been restricted. Almost 80% of Cambodia’s population lives in rural areas with a low population density, making it easier to manage the spread and to allocate resources to denser, higher-risk locations such as Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/good-news-stories-from-vietnams-second-wave-involving-dragon-fruit-burgers-and-mask-atms-145940">Good news stories from Vietnam's second wave – involving dragon fruit burgers and mask ATMs</a>
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<p>Having experienced the SARS and avian flu epidemics, many Asian countries took the threat of <a href="https://www.brinknews.com/how-did-vietnam-and-cambodia-contain-covid-19-with-few-resources/">COVID-19 seriously right from the beginning</a>. In addition, many countries implemented strict mask wearing and physical distancing early. Targeted testing, education and the involvement of the community are critical in responding to COVID-19.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maximilian de Courten has previously received funding from the NHMRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bo Klepac Pogrmilovic and Vasso Apostolopoulos do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Coronavirus is surging in Spain, France, Germany and the UK, after many countries relaxed restrictions over the summer. They should look to success stories like Vietnam.
Maximilian de Courten, Health Policy Lead and Professor in Global Public Health at the Mitchell Institute, Victoria University
Bo Klepac Pogrmilovic, Research Fellow in Health Policy at the Mitchell Institute for Education and Health Policy, Victoria University
Vasso Apostolopoulos, Professor of Immunology and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Partnerships, Victoria University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/142353
2020-09-27T11:47:45Z
2020-09-27T11:47:45Z
Cambodia is an inspiration for the healing power of art after a crisis
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346960/original/file-20200711-50-zalx6r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1356%2C667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">At a dance class supported by Cambodian Living Arts, students from the Bassac community
learn classical Khmer dance at Sothearos School in Phnom Penh in 2012. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Daniel Rothenberg)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even though history has seen different disasters and humanitarian crises, one fact remains: we try to understand what is happening by seeing how others coped, comparing our reaction to theirs. These comparisons allow us to shed light on the best practices for managing or emerging from a crisis.</p>
<p>We note with the COVID-19 pandemic that <a href="https://theconversation.com/deconfinement-il-ny-a-pas-de-solution-parfaite-139426">there is not one response to crises, but many responses</a> that are adapted and implemented through trial and error.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://occah.uqam.ca/a-propos/">Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Aid</a> our team was interested in a few examples <a href="https://occah.uqam.ca/publications/covid19-lart-et-la-culture-comme-moyen-emergent-postcrise/">where art and culture have been used</a> to <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/policy-optionsat-25/the-arts-and-culture-as-new-engines-of-economic-and-social-development/">encourage development</a> at the social, community, economic and civic level in various countries, including Haiti and Cambodia.</p>
<p>Cambodia is a special case. It was able to use art and culture to find a way to rebuild itself after the genocide that began in 1975 and ended with the fall of the Pol Pot regime in 1979. While the context is different, is there a way we can draw inspiration from the Cambodian example to recover from the current health crisis?</p>
<h2>Art and culture in crisis</h2>
<p>First of all, what do we mean by “<a href="https://occah.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Analyse-comparative-du-d%C3%A9confinement-8-pays-V2.pdf">crisis</a>?” Are we simply referring to the health aspect?</p>
<p>Our government decision-makers have categorized the current period as a “<a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6793794/coronavirus-pandemic-war/">war</a>” against an invisible enemy. But a war leaves after-effects that are not only structural but <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/6/5d03b22b4/worldwide-displacement-tops-70-million-un-refugee-chief-urges-greater-solidarity.html">social, societal and humanitarian</a> as well. Also, as in armed conflicts, this “health war” has imposed a front line in hospitals and seniors’ residences.</p>
<p>In times of war, art and culture, which are important pillars of our societies, are hit hard and sometimes even strategically destroyed.</p>
<h2>The rebirth of art in Cambodia</h2>
<p>Cambodia has a long and rich history dating back to before the Middle Ages. It was during the golden age of the Khmer Empire (between the ninth and 13th centuries) that arts and culture became integrated into society through religion, rites and customs. </p>
<p>However, for recent generations, this rich Cambodian culture with its oral tradition was greatly affected by <a href="https://time.com/5486460/pol-pot-cambodia-1979/">the genocide</a> under the tyrannical Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. At this time, arts and culture almost completely disappeared, as did nearly 20 per cent of the population (between 1.7 million to 3 million people), exterminated by Pol Pot’s dictatorship. The dictatorship fell from power in 1979. Instability and conflict remained for some 20 years.</p>
<p>In 1998, after Pol Pot’s last uprising in 1997, Arn Chorn-Pond founded the Cambodian Master Performer Program, which became <a href="https://www.cambodianlivingarts.org/">Cambodian Living Arts</a>, in order to restore art to its former glory. Born in Cambodia into a family of genocide survivors, he studied in the United States and worked as a social worker there for a few years before returning to Cambodia.</p>
<p>Today, Cambodian Living Arts brings together several hundred artists and employees working at different levels including arts education and heritage protection as well as the development of tomorrow’s leaders, markets and strong networks.</p>
<p>This non-profit organization uses art and culture to fulfil its mission of healing trauma, safeguarding traditions, restoring meaning to the community and training young people to contribute to the development of the country. It now has an expanded ecosystem of partners in other parts of the world.</p>
<p>As Phloeun Prim, the non-profit’s current executive director, explains, the destruction of cultural symbols and artifacts, such as religious and cultural sites, monuments and works of art, is an integral part of the consequences of conflict. The oppressor, be it another country or a dictator, <a href="http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/910351569914286207/pdf/Culture-in-Post-Crisis-Situations-Opportunities-for-Peacebuilding-and-Sustainable-Recovery.pdf">will seek to uproot the oppressed group</a> from its identity, culture and societal vision.</p>
<h2>A brutal stop with the pandemic</h2>
<p>Although it hasn’t destroyed infrastructure, the global pandemic has hit the cultural sector hard with the closure of theatres and cinemas, bans on mass gatherings and the cancelling of festivals. The performing arts, visual arts and access to heritage often appear to have been last to be considered in reopenings while workers <a href="https://ilostmygig.ca/">dependent on the gig economy</a> have lost many opportunities.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/support-for-artists-is-key-to-returning-to-vibrant-cultural-life-post-coronavirus-138048">Support for artists is key to returning to vibrant cultural life post-coronavirus</a>
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<p>In compensation, the federal and provincial governments have offered some <a href="https://canadacouncil.ca/press/2020/03/advance-funding">assistance</a> to the sector to survive and <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-announces-51-million-to-get-film-sets-rolling-1.5022939">to develop</a>.</p>
<p>However, as we can see with <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/concert-venues-theatres-cinemas-in-quebec-can-reopen-as-of-june-22-1.4986074">the debate around opening performance venues</a>, economic measures are not enough for everyone and do not guarantee that the public will be there. The abrupt and prolonged halt in cultural activities, as well as the prospect of a second wave of COVID-19 contamination, suggest that there will be repercussions for a long time to come. A strategy of cultural regeneration supported by our governments and strong institutions, such as the Cambodian Living Arts in Cambodia, should be considered.</p>
<p>This regeneration work was essential for Cambodia’s recovery. Added to this was the need to transmit culture in order to rebuild bridges between generations, between individuals and between institutions. To share one’s art orally does not only mean passing on know-how. It also means passing on people skills.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An older man leans over a younger man showing him a percussive instrument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341083/original/file-20200611-114096-oe642z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Master Ling Srey teaching Kantaoming, traditional Cambodian music used at funerals, in Siem Reap province, Cambodia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Matthew Wakem)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By teaching his art, the master transmits his identity to the other. And the student has the duty to appropriate this knowledge in order to take it further and create his own interpretation of the symbols. This is what creates more resilient societies.</p>
<p>Today, Cambodian Living Arts continues to invest in current and <a href="https://canadacouncil.ca/spotlight/2016/10/cultural-leadership">future cultural leaders</a>. They are the ones who will have to rebuild in the new post-crisis environment, where interactions, communities and identities will no longer be the same.</p>
<h2>Reaching out to the public</h2>
<p>At home in Québec, for example, we see local initiatives. <a href="https://socom.ca/gestev-et-musicor-spectacles-lancent-td-musiparc-presente-par-videotron/">TD Bank and Vidéotron</a> have partnered to present musical performances on outdoor stages, in a “drive-in movie” format, where spectators can enjoy the event in their vehicles.</p>
<p>Others choose to travel to people. This is the case of the <a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/musique/2020-06-10/des-spectacles-deambulatoires-a-longueuil">Théâtre de la Ville</a>, in Longueuil near Montréal, which offers a travelling program of three shows. In this way, art met the public, a bit like street theatre, at the beginning of the confinement. Similarly, <a href="https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/musique/2020-06-15/le-festif-devoile-ses-immersions-musicales">Le Festif</a>, in Charlevoix, offers immersive listening sessions outdoors.</p>
<p>Teaching and propagating culture is about coming together and finding each other. Moreover, as noted by the UNESCO International Bureau of Education, <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000129759">every human being is capable, through art, of re-establishing their link with society</a>.</p>
<h2>Finding a new normal</h2>
<p>Our approach to art, culture and artist-citizen interactions will change in the <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/tout-le-monde-en-parle/site/segments/entrevue/175060/lepage-audet-crise-humanitaire-coronavirus">new post-COVID reality</a>. We will have to relearn, trust each other and then let ourselves forge new ways while respecting the rules.</p>
<p>A study by <a href="https://habo.studio/entertainment-barometer-april-2020/">Habo studio</a> shows that the return to “normalcy” in the consumption of the arts is not coming soon. It will take at least until 2021 (and perhaps 2022, according to some decision-makers in the field) before attendance levels return to pre-COVID levels, at least <a href="https://medias.quartierdesspectacles.com/documentation/rapport-leger-sondage-quartier-des-spectacles-mai2020-final.pdf">for the Montréal region</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/a-z/2019-coronavirus/gatherings-events-covid19">Québec’s rules for indoor and outdoor gatherings now vary regionally</a>, the cultural sector continues to explore virtual or <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/live-theatre-returns-to-montreal-1.5671863">outdoor alternatives</a>, and stay attuned to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/health-professionals/mass-gatherings-risk-assesment.html">health regulations</a>. Like us, it will be seeking to define its new normal.</p>
<p><em>Phloeun Prim, Executive Director of Cambodian Living Arts, co-authored this story.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142353/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Cambodia found the strength to rebuild itself
through art after the 1979 genocide. While the context is different, this example suggests the importance of art in navigating COVID-19.
Alexandre P. Bédard, Postdoctoral research associate, Department of Management, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Caroline Coulombe, Professeur, Département de management / Department of Management, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
François Audet, Professor, School of Management Sciences, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140197
2020-07-21T09:31:58Z
2020-07-21T09:31:58Z
Microfinance loans could spell disaster in the time of coronavirus
<p>When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus in 2006 for his concept of microfinance, it brought what began as a local policy experiment in the 1970s to global attention.</p>
<p>Microfinance programmes – small-scale lending programmes targeted at low-income households that normally fall through the cracks of formal lending systems – were supposed to provide the poor with the capital they need to open a street stall, invest in their farmland, or buy materials to make handicrafts.</p>
<p>Up until the late 2000s, microfinance was hailed as a financial <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/gender/assets/documents/research/choice-constraints-and-the-gender-dynamics-of-lab/Is-Microfinance-a-Magic-Bullet-forWomen%27s-Empowerment.pdf">magic bullet</a> by many. It would lift the world’s poor out of poverty and empower women. Only, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. </p>
<p>Such loans have undoubtedly helped many people. Yet the capacity of microfinance to “make poverty history” has been repeatedly <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/the-crises-of-microcredit/">called into question</a> by researchers. In their <a href="https://www.ids.ac.uk/publications/impact-of-financial-inclusion-in-low-and-middle-income-countries-a-systematic-review-of-reviews/">review of the research</a>, development scholars Maren Duvendack and Philip Mader found that the effects of microfinance loans on poverty, health and other social outcomes were “small and inconsistent”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the growth and widespread privatisation of the sector has seen <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2014.963507">increasingly vulnerable households</a> brought into microfinance schemes, often in the name of helping them to recover from ecological and economic shocks. And despite years of controversy over its effectiveness, 2019 saw a <a href="http://www.convergences.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Microfinance-Barometer-2019_web-1.pdf">historical peak</a> in both the number of borrowers globally, rising to 140 million, and the sum total of all loans owed to microfinance institutions (MFIs), at US$124 billion (£99 billion).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/347308/original/file-20200714-139854-6gzls7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A microfinance borrower and debt bonded worker extracts raw silk from cocoons in a small production unit in South India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Devika Raman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Microfinance in a pandemic</h2>
<p>We now have a unique opportunity for reflection. In April 2020, the International Labour Organisation estimated that 1.6 billion informal workers across the global south could see <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062792">their livelihoods destroyed</a>. So what role has microfinance played in helping to alleviate this crisis?</p>
<p>Only a few months into the pandemic, little is known for sure. Yet prior research offers some stark insights in this respect. Crucially, it betrays <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10357823.2014.963507">the extent</a> to which microfinance loans are repaid not through profits from the small businesses they help, but wages and salaries they have played no role in creating. Microfinance loans are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13600818.2015.1064880">often used</a> to meet daily expenses such as health and food, rather than set up businesses. Worse still is the precarious nature of the income needed to repay these loans.</p>
<p>In Cambodia, for example, microfinance loans are often <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333079002_Blood_Bricks_Untold_Stories_of_Modern_Slavery_and_Climate_Change_from_Cambodia">taken out by labourers</a> in the garment and construction industries, many of whom are migrants from rural areas pushed out of agriculture because of flooding and forced to take on this low paying work in the cities. These borrowers are in no position to establish their own businesses but use the loans to buy the goods they need during times of scarcity and struggle to repay them with their earnings from wage work. </p>
<p>When levels of debt become unsustainable, many are forced to seek out <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848619858155">debt bondage</a> – labour, often compelled, as a means of paying off debt – on brick kilns to repay microfinance loans. Now borrowers with no incomes as a result of the pandemic but with microfinance loans to repay could be at higher risk of entering such exploitative work.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346095/original/file-20200707-194409-1qctch8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Piseth loads a brick kiln with a bag full of garment offcuts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Cristofoletti/Ruom © 2018 Royal Holloway, University of London</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many cases, then, loans threaten livelihood security rather than creating it. This has been thrown into stark relief by the COVID-19 crisis. The shutdown of large parts of Cambodia’s dominant garment industry and laying off of over <a href="https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/buyers-urged-pay-200000-face-layoffs">200,000 workers</a> has seen many families faced not only with a loss of income, but also pressing monthly loan repayments they are unable to repay. Many families say they are <a href="https://www.voacambodia.com/a/families-fear-banks-more-than-virus-as-loans-loom-over-their-heads/5398713.html">more afraid of the banks</a> than the virus.</p>
<p>This is hitting women hardest. Microcredit is primarily targeted at women, meaning that the worries of daily income for household needs and debt repayment fall <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7645">overwhelmingly on female shoulders</a>.</p>
<h2>From non-profit to commercial</h2>
<p>The commercial nature of the microfinance sector is key to understanding the pressure borrowers face. In some of the most heavily indebted countries, such as Cambodia and India, the microcredit sector has shifted from a not-for-profit approach to a <a href="https://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/why-doesnt-microfinance-work/">neoliberal model</a> dominated by commercial banks. While previously loans were tightly regulated in terms of amounts, interest rates and collateral, and often underwritten by states when necessary, now <a href="https://www.cadtm.org/How-the-Bank-s-push-for">lending has expanded</a> to allow more unstable borrowers to take part without state protection or relief in times of crisis. </p>
<p>Returns for microfinance investors are incredibly high, with average portfolio yields in 2017 reported at <a href="http://www.convergences.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Microfinance-Barometer-2019_web-1.pdf">19.2%</a>, in comparison with <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Confronting_Microfinance.html?id=bM2qkd7Z4j0C&redir_esc=y">5-10%</a> for commercial and retail sectors. Microfinance borrowers pay a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2010.00283.x">much higher rate</a> to borrow than their wealthier counterparts. In India for example, debtors are lured to take on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258513089_Microfinance_debt_and_Over-indebtedness_Juggling_with_money">unsustainable amounts of debt</a>, with MFI loan officers incentivised to increase borrower numbers, and then disciplining them to repay through threats and abuse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346096/original/file-20200707-194413-1nt639h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A waste site on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, used by the garment industry to dispose of offcuts. Some of these are intercepted by kiln owners and used as cheap fuels in kilns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Cristofoletti/Ruom © 2018 Royal Holloway, University of London</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Microfinance loans, then, are hardly a tool of resilience, especially when widespread shocks such as a global pandemic threaten not only borrowers but the industry itself. In India, while microfinance repayments are <a href="https://thewire.in/business/microfinance-coronavirus-lockdown">on hold</a> – for now – interest continues to accrue, safeguarding returns to their investors through a period when borrowers have no incomes.</p>
<p>Further, the <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/will-microfinance-survive-the-covid-19-crisis-yes-it-will-thrive/articleshow/75913802.cms?from=mdr">push for microfinance lending</a> as part of plans to re-stimulate the economy could leave borrowers impoverished by expensive debt through a period of uncertain employment. Existing and future loans pose a serious threat to poor women.</p>
<p>The coronavirus-driven labour crisis across much of the developing world, therefore, risks a second crisis, with food insecurity combined with threats from creditors. Rather than empowering households, and particularly women, microfinance is instead physically depleting them, as the delicate tightrope walked by low-income households is made still more precarious by the demands of debt.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus in 2006 for his concept of microfinance, it brought what began as a local policy experiment in the 1970s to global attention…
Vincent Guermond, Research Associate in Geography, Royal Holloway University of London
Laurie Parsons, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Royal Holloway University of London
Nithya Joseph, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nithya Natarajan, Lecturer in International Development, King's College London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131804
2020-02-18T15:15:42Z
2020-02-18T15:15:42Z
Cambodia punished by EU over human rights violations – through limits to its trade access
<p>The jobs of many hard-working women in Cambodia are at risk after the EU announced its intention to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/3/2020/EN/C-2020-673-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF">partially withdraw free access</a> for Cambodian goods to the EU market due to the country’s “serious and systematic violations of human rights”.</p>
<p>As one in a group of <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html">least-developed countries</a>, Cambodia enjoys the most preferential trade arrangement with the EU under the <a href="https://trade.ec.europa.eu/tradehelp/everything-arms">Everything But Arms</a> (EBA) tariff, which offers quota and duty-free access to the EU single market for all goods except arms. Cambodia currently exports more than €5 billion of goods to the EU, <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/cambodia/">most from its thriving garment sector</a>. </p>
<p>In order to qualify for the EBA scheme, countries have to <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2019/637931/EPRS_ATA(2019)637931_EN.pdf">comply with many different</a> UN and International Labour Organisation conventions on human rights.</p>
<p>Standard tariffs <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=International_trade_in_goods_-_tariffs">will now apply</a> for certain products to Cambodia, including low-added-value garments and shoes, travel goods and sugar. But other products are still covered by the EBA, including high-added value clothes and shoes, and bicycles. </p>
<h2>Using tariffs as a lever</h2>
<p>This partial withdrawal of preferences of a country under the EBA tariff is unprecedented. The EU has fully and partially withdrawn trade preferences in the past – for <a href="http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1663">Sri Lanka</a> and <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/belarus/">Belarus</a> – but these countries were under less beneficial arrangements in the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/development/generalised-scheme-of-preferences/index_en.htm">Generalised Scheme of Preferences</a>. </p>
<p>The EU’s decision to only partially withdraw preferences for Cambodia arguably reflects the adverse impact of a full withdrawal on the socio-economic rights of the thousands of people working in the affected sectors. A full withdrawal would arguably also restrict current supply chains into the EU. </p>
<p>The withdrawal is due to occur in August, bar any objection from the EU Council or parliament. The Cambodian government has time to ameliorate the situation, and the withdrawal decision could be reversed should the political space be opened significantly in the next few months. The EU Commission would look for the establishment of active political opposition, removal of restrictions on NGOs and more freedoms of assembly, expression and association.</p>
<p>However, the view of the Cambodia Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is clear: it <a href="https://pressocm.gov.kh/en/archives/63406%20MoFAIC%20feb%202020">called</a> the EU’s decision “unjust” and “politically driven”. The government also refutes the claims of violations of human rights. A spokesperson said the government: “Remains firm in its principled position in rejecting any attempt by external parties in their use of trade and development assistance as pretexts to justify their interference in Cambodia’s internal affairs.”</p>
<p>Such rhetoric is familiar to those in Cambodia. The government has <a href="https://www.mfaic.gov.kh/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Ministry-of-Foreign-Affair-201704-388.pdf">frequently railed against</a> external interference in the internal affairs of the country. It has engaged in discussions with the EU for two years, since “enhanced engagement” was <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_4467">initiated</a> after concerns were expressed in <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2017-0497_EN.pdf">the European Parliament</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/11/636482-un-rights-chief-voices-concern-about-cambodia-election-after-opposition-ban">at the UN</a>. The process to temporarily suspend EBA privileges was <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_882">initiated</a> in February 2019.</p>
<h2>Freedoms curtailed</h2>
<p>Such decisions on trade preferences are not technically sanctions, but they are designed to encourage the state to move into closer alignment with civil, labour and political rights. The EU is particularly concerned about the lack of a credible political opposition party in Cambodia, after the former opposition was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cambodia-politics/cambodias-main-opposition-party-dissolved-by-supreme-court-idUSKBN1DG1BO">dissolved by the Supreme Court in late 2017</a>. The country is now a de facto <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/11/17/cambodia-becomes-the-worlds-newest-one-party-state-china-democracy-dictators/">one-party state</a>.</p>
<p>The leader of the former opposition, Kem Sokha, is <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50680158/kem-sokhas-treason-trial-begins">currently on trial for treason</a> after he was detained in September 2017. His <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/70204/statement-spokesperson-latest-developments-cambodia_en">release from house arrest</a> in November 2019 was welcomed by the EU but was not enough to assuage concerns. Human rights defenders, especially those working on land issues and <a href="https://seekingjusticeincambodia.com/">civil and political rights</a>, are frequently arrested, followed and have their <a href="https://cambodia.ohchr.org/en/news/end-mission-statement-special-rapporteur-rhona-smith-her-7th-mission-cambodia">activities curtailed</a>, as I’ve detailed in my role as the UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia.</p>
<p>There are ongoing violations of <a href="https://cchrcambodia.org/index_old.php?url=media/media.php&p=report_detail.php&reid=140&id=5">rights and freedoms</a> in Cambodia, though the country has made much progress made in the <a href="https://cambodia.ohchr.org/en/un-human-right-mechanisms/annual-report-of-special-rapporteur">wake of its tragic past</a>. The EU has <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/3/2020/EN/C-2020-673-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF">acknowledged this progress</a> in several areas.</p>
<h2>Setting a precedent</h2>
<p>The loss of this export market could have a negative impact on the socioeconomic rights of many people working in the textile sectors. Around 800,000 people, mostly women, <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/549413/eba-removal-wont-affect-development-projects-eu/">are employed in factories</a>. </p>
<p>A fifth of Cambodia’s exports to the EU are affected, worth <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_229">almost a billion euros</a>. But the measures taken by the EU against Cambodia are unlikely to have as dramatic an impact as <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50681539/facing-risks-as-eba-decision-looms">some feared</a>. As the EU targeted its withdrawal at lower value items, where more people work, it will affect them, but the higher-skilled sector won’t be affected. Moreover, there are opportunities for Cambodia to conclude trade agreements with China (currently an influential development partner) or indeed with a post-Brexit UK, which has been one of the EU’s largest importers of Cambodian products.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the shockwaves may reverberate further. The EU continues to monitor human rights and labour rights in other EBA beneficiary countries including <a href="http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6418-2018-INIT/en/pdf">Myanmar</a> and <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/bangladesh_en/69148/The%20European%20Union%20and%20Bangladesh%20held%20the%209th%20session%20of%20their%20Joint%20Commission">Bangladesh</a>. Either or both could yet have their trade preferences fully or partially withdrawn.</p>
<p>The EU’s decision to partially withdraw preferences appears an attempt to balance its concern over civil and political rights with concerns over the impact a full withdrawal could have on socioeconomic rights of Cambodian workers, and perhaps the EU’s own markets. The Cambodian government <a href="http://en.freshnewsasia.com/index.php/en/localnews/16597-2020-02-04-05-49-57.html">continues to emphasise</a> its success in securing the peace and dramatic economic progress in the country in the 21st century. The EU decision focuses on justice and freedom but tries to mitigate the impact on development. It is a move that could have implications around the world for countries that do not uphold their human rights commitments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rhona Smith currently serves as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, an unpaid independent role. This article is written in her academic capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of the UN or her role as Special Rapporteur.</span></em></p>
For the first time, the EU has withdrawn some trade preferences for a developing country on its Everything But Arms tariffs.
Rhona Smith, Head of School, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.