CIVIL RESISTANCE
My TREASON & INCITEMENT MASS TRIAL (Initial Page on Trial Matters) TUESDAY, 14 JUNE 2022 VERDICT ANNOUNCEMENT Court Statement: Concluding Remarks ការការពារ ផ្លូវច្បាប់ របស់ខ្ញុំ [ ... ] |
CIVIC EDUCATION
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https://app.box.com/s/2sgc05964ehkbkvbs1s9foscq2miqg00
Application form for new NEC membership of Permanent Committee of National Assembly Application Process to become Candidates for Political Appointments to Constitutionally-mandated NEC Amends Agreement of Months-long Political Negotiation By Ms. Theary C. Seng Excerpts: The most problematic is the Nationality Declaration Form. Each applicant is required to agree to the following already-printed statement: “I have Khmer nationality from birth and I only have Khmer nationality.[i] “In the case in the future, I have another nationality besides Khmer, I am willing to resign from the NEC membership, and this Form will be deemed as my official resignation letter. “[1] In the case the applicant has another nationality besides Khmer, the applicant must attach with the application the official document of the foreign State that verifies the renunciation of that nationality.” As of this Sunday afternoon, Kek Galabru’s intention is unknown. But assuming she accepts both the CPP’s and the CNRP’s appointment of her to be the ninth neutral member of the NEC, the Nationality Declaration requirement of the application process—an administrative exercise-- effectively blocks her from even applying! ... In addition to issues of the prohibitive timeframe and the unconstitutional nonsense of the Nationality Declaration Form, it is also problematic that the application form and process of the Permanent Committee is more restrictive than the provisions of the NEC Law, mainly Article 6. For example, Article 6 states a qualification, the right to vote. This is broad. However, the NA Permanent Committee’s application form unconstitutionally narrows this to not a “right to vote” but “verification regarding voter registration from commune/sangkat authority that applicant has registered to vote.” Whether a person has the right to vote (NEC Law) and whether that person has registered to vote (application form) are two different qualifications. What if the person has the right to vote—being Khmer, 18 years old, etc.—but chose not to vote? The right to vote includes the right not to vote. We may disapprove with her choice, but our disapproval doesn’t cancel out her right to vote, which is the NEC qualification for membership. Or, what if the person has the right to vote but for circumstances kept her from registering within the timeframe period? Again, whatever else we may think regarding the circumstances, it doesn’t take away the fact that she has the right to vote. The right to vote is the qualification for NEC membership, not whether the person has registered to vote. Here, the NA Permanent Committee is effectively amending what the two working groups of the political parties had worked hard to negotiate over a period of months, when its role in this regard is only as a facilitation, administrative body. A more reasonable way would be to provide options to verify a person’s right to vote, by simply stating: “Provide documentation of your right to vote”. “Verification regarding voter registration from commune/sangkat authority that applicant has registered to vote” may be one among other attachments that an applicant provides. * * *
Note to RFA:Vietnamization
Please correct your broadcast of this Friday morning, 5:30 A.M. Phnom Penh time at 44:00 minute mark: Chun Chanboth gave an introduction of how Vietnamese authority is threatening Cambodian villagers not to plant on their own land in Tbaung Khmum Province (formerly part of Kampong Cham Province), bordering Vietnam. A more lengthy reporting by another reporter he named on this topic was to come on. Instead a replacement story about Chinese New Year (of over a week ago) came on instead.
http://streamer1.rfaweb.org/stre…/KHM/KHM-2015-0305-2230.mp3
Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal Charges 2 New Suspects
Associated Press / ABC News (America)
Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American human rights activist and lawyer, said she doubted that Hun Sen would allow the cases to proceed to trial, likening the court's proceedings under his pressure to "a political farce that is ridiculing the memory of the dead and grinding salt into the wounds of the survivors."
My longer comment in response to Eccc the Clown's Press Statement of yesterday:
The effort of the most recent International Co-Prosecutor (in the revolving door or list of prosecutors) to keep the charges alive against Meas Muth and Sou Met (case 003) and Ta Tith, Ta An, and Im Chaem (case 004) is honorable but woefully delayed in this tragicomedy that we continue to call a "court". The train of justice for the Cambodian victims has long left the station leaving all of us standing agape and naively waiting. As you may remember, I resuscitated these two cases from its years of coma by publishing the names of these 5 defendants in April 2011, that's 4 years ago! And this "court" came into operation in July 2006 with these cases already under consideration, that's 9 years ago! This "court" is a political farce that is ridiculing the memory of the dead and grinding salt into the wounds of the survivors. The international prosecutor's effort can be likened to arranging deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. Hun Sen has already determined the fate of these cases. The one grain of benefit in this sea of injustice is that his (int pros) effort is reminding the public of the injustice of it all by keeping the flicker of flame alive. That in itself is a form of justice--a scrap of justice--which is memory and public information. But that is all we Cambodians will get from this political theatre that goes by the name of a court--junk justice. * * *
Here in Cambodia, often looking into eyes of pain, violence or both (like those of Meas Muth and Im Chaem, pictured), I am reminded of the words of Jesus in the SERMON ON THE MOUNT (Matthew 5-7) over 2,014 years ago: "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good / healthy [generous], your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad / unhealthy [stingy], your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" In turn, these words of Jesus makes me mourn for my Cambodian people who consume VIOLENCE, particularly sexual violence (PORNOGRAPHY, including THE CHILDREN!), on a regular basis...
CAMBODIA'S CURSE (Joel Brinkley): "Human rights groups estimated that 650,000 more people had died in the year following the fall of the Khmer Rouge."
THEARY: So, in 1979-1980, Cambodia had a population of less than 4 million (5 M survivors MINUS these 650,000 deaths MINUS another 500,000 refugees who went to Europe, US, Canada, Austr/NZ).
For a people, malnourished with the women not menstruating from genocide and the similar destitution under occupation and famine, beginning in 1984, K5 Plan took another million of the male civilian population.
In law, we have a term for these abuses under occupation: GENOCIDE, the intentional destruction of a people.
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GENOCIDE CONVENTION
Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Article III: The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide.
Indochina Report Publisher M. Rajaretnam:
Dr. Luciolli's is the fourth in a series of exposes that Indochina Report has published on the Vietnamization process and confirms the previous analyses. The others in the series are: "The Vietnamization of Cambodia: A New Model of Colonialism" (pre-publication issue, October 1984), "The Military Occupation of Kampuchea" (Issue No. 3, July-September 1985), and "Vietnamized Cambodia: A Silent Ethnocide" by Marie Alexandrine Martin (Issue No. 7, July-September 1986).
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30 YEARS OF HUN SEN (Human Rights Watch, Jan. 2015) III. Hun Sen and the “K5” Forced Labor Program Vietnam installed a new government, mixing Hanoi-trained communists with former Khmer Rouge officers to run the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK)....Pen Sovann soon fell afoul of Hanoi and was arrested. He was replaced by Chan Si, who died in office in December 1984. Hanoi, impressed with the capacity and loyalty of the young foreign minister, promoted Hun Sen to the post of PRK prime minister on January 14, 1985. The PRK was a police state, with virtually no civil or political freedoms. Among the many serious human rights abuses of its rule, few were more notorious than the Kế hoạch năm or K5 plan. K5 involved the mass mobilization of Cambodian civilians for labor on the Cambodia-Thai border and which led to the deaths of many thousands of Cambodians from disease and landmines. Planned in early 1983 by the Vietnamese military command for Cambodia... The overwhelming bulk of this was carried out by the civilian population as planned.... According to Sin Sen, “K5 was led by Hun Sen. He was assigned this responsibility by Vietnam.”... [by July 1985] 90,362 ordinary people were involved in the construction work.... Overall, one million or more Cambodians may have been sent to the border. Read full report here:
Human Rights Watch | 12 January 2015 The 67-page report chronicles Hun Sen’s career from being a Khmer Rouge commander in the 1970s to his present role as prime minister and head of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). The report details the violence, repression, and corruption that have characterized his rule under successive governments since 1985.
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My commentary on the 30 year rule of Hun Sen
Based on a response to media inquiry (well-known wire service) which I've since edited and expanded: Thirty years ago, Vietnam gave birth to Hun Sen the Prime Minister. Thirty years later, the umbilical cord of Hun Sen and his CPP to Vietnam has not been severed. As a puppet of a historically aggressive, more powerful neighbor, whose annexation of Cambodia consistently over the years are well-documented but uninteresting to non-Cambodians, Hun Sen has consistently appeased and catered to the whims of its political master Vietnam. The facts are indisputable. However, these continuing national security concerns vis-a-vis Vietnam have been overshadowed by virulent charges of racism by foreigners of Cambodians. The unfortunate and potentially dangerous effect has been the silencing of any robust discussion. This in turn leaves the Cambodians frustrated that they can't even express freely what they daily experience in their own home--the flooding of illegal immigrants--while simultaneously are unfairly denounced with the ugly moniker of racism. The consequences of this puppetry for Cambodia has been detrimental for the country's development and Cambodians' healing and well-being from the first day of occupation in January 1979 with the cordoning and plundering of Phnom Penh. It is believed that Vietnam appointed Hun Sen when prior appointees have been less willing to implement the policy of the genocidal K-5 plan and the larger policy of "eating silkworm", that is, Vietnamization and outright annexation through the flooding of Vietnam's undesirables (de facto) and coercive territorial agreements (de jure). Hun Sen witnessed firsthand what happens should he deviate from the wishes of his brutal master: imprisonment of Pen Sovann (1st PM under occupation) in Hanoi, the murder of Chan Si (2nd PM) while in office. Since then, the unrelenting destruction of Cambodia under the leadership of Vietnam using the hands of Hun Sen has included the handing over more and more of national security and intelligence via Metfone whose parent company is Viettel of the Vietnamese military, national airlines which effectively is Vietnamese, the agreement for Vietnam to fly over Cambodia airspace, the destruction of land and sea via egregious contractual terms and conditions with Vietnam, and most recently the Vietnamization of provinces along the border with Vietnam under Hok Lundy and most recently in Kep and Kampot under the guise of religion and assisted by tycoon Sok Kong who publicly stated he's proud to be Vietnamese. It is superficially true that relative peace and stability occurred during the reign of Hun Sen's three decades in power. But Hun Sen's "achievements" are only relative to the blackness of the Khmer Rouge. Besides extinction (which first Vietnam stemmed and the international community resuscitated), Cambodia could not have fallen any lower in the scale of misery. Currently, Cambodians are not masters of their own home or future; they are slaves, servants and coolies who do the bidding of the wealthy, be they the Cambodian elites or the foreign guests. Cambodians are not agents of their lives and future; they lack agency. Hun Sen is responsible for this dire state of affairs. Over the past three decades of rule, Hun Sen has destroyed the natural resources and tendered away heritage and cultural rights to non Cambodians and those detrimental to the prosperity and sovereignty of Cambodia. The economic growth resulted from international assistance and the one-off in the selling of natural resources. Once gone, they're gone. Hun Sen's 30 years in power reflects his autocratic rule of aggression and violence. Examples abound over the years of his anti-democratic iron-fist rule where any opposition to his rule is violently crushed. Hun Sen's 30 years in power put him in the rarefied Club of Moldy Autocrats. However, globalization and the democratic surge of young Cambodians of the last election may have dulled the glow of infamy for these anachronistic megalomaniacs.
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HRRC Board meeting and Launch of Keeping the Faith Report Jakarta, 9-13 Jan. 2015
My new US passport!
Shiny and new! Passport of freedom, security, opportunity -- I love my US passport and being American-Cambodian. More...
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See you in the new year!
Now or never. Since contractually, it can't be never, it's NOW. Enough of reading and re-reading. It is time to WRITE! The books I'm taking with me as I hide for next 2 1/2 months to finish my writings. Yes, including a fake copy of my own memoir (to write and make notes in) published in London, 2005, the last time I had read the book.
Theary's Curriculum Vitae / Resume
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CNRP-NA nominates Ms. Theary Seng to NEC
CNRP Women's Movement Support Nomination of Theary C. Seng to NEC
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Cambodian-Americans Support Nomination of Ms. Theary C. Seng to NEC
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Support from various CNRP-NA branch leaders in California.
CNRP of Europe's nomination of Theary Seng
On Sunday, 7 September 2014, about 20 representatives of CNRP-Europe met in Paris and nominated me to CNRP president Sam Rainsy for NEC membership.
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Click on image to watch the Skype video interview with Andrew Stevens
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It's deja vu! Exactly one year ago, Sam Rainsy returned from a forced 4-year exile to an electric crowd of half a million (!) who came out to greet him. Like last year, I was fortunate to see the emotional outpouring of support from Cambodians from the back of the truck carrying Sam Rainsy. See photos of this amazing trip from the Airport to the CNRP HQ, 19 July 2014
Cambodian Unionists Mark Murder of Prominent Labor Leader (AFP | 22 Jan. 2014)
Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
My presentation on the first day was on The Right to Vote
Sam Rainsy Returns
to a Rapturous
Hero's Welcome
Photos: Theary C. Seng, 19 July 2013 More images taken by me from the truck carrying Sam Rainsy at my Facebook accounts and in KI-Media 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Global Convening to End Mass Atrocities Istanbul (16-21 June 2013) Istanbul, Turkey's largest city at 15 to 17 million people, is magical, as exquisitely stunning as one can imagine it to be and more (!!). Also known as Constantinople, named after the Roman Emperor Constantine who converted to Christianity in 4th century, it has now only one percent Christian out of 55 Million population.
I'm presenting on 19 June 2013 "Reconciling Peace with Justice in Cambodia: the Limitations of Tribunals to Address Mass Crimes"
https://www.box.com/s/g9go7em1jyvuhvy8jbjj
Click here to read narratives and see more photos, or go to Ms. Seng's Facebook accounts
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Theary C. Seng and the Road Ahead in Cambodia By Michelle Phipps-Evans Asian Fortune News, 3 Feb. 2013
The name Theary Chan Seng generates a fervor approaching reverence in the Cambodian community here and abroad. She is the Cambodian-born, American-educated lawyer and civil rights activist who founded the Cambodian Center for Justice & Reconciliation. It is a major component of another organization she serves as founding president, CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. This nonprofit group is dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles. It is actively engaged in the practice of democracy and reconciliation in Cambodia and the larger, globalized world. So who really is Seng, the person? She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime, and has spent almost two decades advocating for its victims, many of whom were orphaned, widowed, abused or molested—victims who were like Seng herself.
. . . Obama, in Cambodia for a Meeting, Sidesteps the Ghosts of History
International Herald Tribune (Peter Baker, November 20, 2012)
Theary Seng, president of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia, said, “President Obama should have met with the human rights community and activists challenging the Hun Sen regime, and while then and there, offer a public apology to the Cambodian people for the illegal U.S. bombings, which took the lives of half a million Cambodians and created the conditions for the Khmer Rouge genocide.”
Click here to read this complete news analysis
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Protests Greet Obama's Visit International Herald Tribune / New York Times PHNOM PENH — Theary Seng was taking aim with precision and anger. The 41-year-old U.S.-trained lawyer and a regular on Cambodia’s crowded protest circuit was about to throw a dart at a poster of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger is one of 13 politicians and senior Khmer Rouge leaders in a dart game created by Poetic Justice, a nongovernmental organization run by Theary Seng that highlights deficiencies of the special U.N.-backed tribunal judging the Khmer Rouge’s crimes. Each player gets five throws. A bull’s-eye is worth seven points. The highest score wins. Last Sunday afternoon, Theary Seng and three members of her staff were playing on Phnom Penh’s riverfront opposite the storied Foreign Correspondents’ Club. On this occasion — the fourth time the game has been staged in public — the point was to draw attention to the narrow scope of the Khmer Rouge tribunal ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit for a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Click here to read full article.
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Watch the TV3 New Zealand broadcast with Mike McRoberts (aired 21 Nov. 2012) At ASEAN summit, trade overshadows human rights
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Open Letter to U.S. President Barack Obama Published in The Phnom Penh Post, 20 November 2012
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Theary Seng and some 30 security (plus more embedded in Wat Phnom Penh and Sunway Hotel) Narrative of harassment and images of Ms. Theary C. Seng's stand-off with at least 30 big bulky, heavily armed security in front of US Embassy Phnom Penh (Tuesday, 19 Nov. 2012)
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Emotional Violence of Past Poetic Justice Dart Games flared into Physical Assault on Ms. Theary C. Seng and those around her along the Riverfront, Sunday, 18 Nov. 2012
Reykjavik, Iceland SESSION 3: CALLING 4.15 - 5.45 pm Led by Miriam Subirana, Foundation for a Culture of Peace The session includes: Theary C. Seng, Founder, Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, Cambodia
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More at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia... "Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Court 'Dying' ABC News film, aired 16 Oct. 2012
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Khmer Rouge defendant Ieng Thirith ruled unfit for Cambodian genocide trial due to dementia The Washington Post, 13 Sept. 2012 Of course if she is seriously ill with Alzheimer’s, she should be released. There is no point in trying an incapacitated person,” said Theary Seng, a human rights advocate representing some victims who are allowed a role in the proceedings. “The point is the (tribunal) is so late in coming. The political foot-dragging and inertia has caused this travesty of justice.”
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Poetic Justice and Civil Party Withdrawal in the News Nov. 2011 Ex-leader: Khmer Rouge atrocities are 'fairy tale' AP Newswire, 23 Nov. 2011 "I'm not surprised that Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary continue to deny their crimes as the charges against them of genocide, war crimes are very serious," said Theary Seng, a Cambodian lawyer and human rights activist who lost family members under their regime. "Even if I am not surprised, I am however disgusted by their lack of remorse for the suffering they caused. They are delusional in their denial in light of the weight of evidence against them - the mounds of skulls and bones, the horrific testimonies from every survivor of cruelty, the magnitude and scope of evil unleashed by them across the whole of Cambodia."
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"Khmer Rouge trial is failing Cambodian victims of Pol Pot's regime" Human Rights Watch Brad Adams' editorial The Guardian, 26 Nov. 2011
. . . "Justice Denied" Douglas Gillison, Foreign Policy Magazine, 23 Nov. 2011 . . . Deputy President of Victims Association, a Civil Party of the Orphans Class, Mr. CHEY Theara, Withdraws Civil Party Status, Denounces ECCC as Political Farce _______________________ PRESS RELEASE _______________________
Full statement in both Khmer and English in KI-Media. Here, if ISP censors in Cambodia.
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Khmer Rouge Trial Missing a Marquee Defendant Wall Street Journal, 21 Nov. 2011 “The release of Ieng Thirith is only one reflection of how incredibly late these trials are coming into place,” said Theary Seng, founder of the Cambodian Center for Justice and Reconciliation and herself, too, a victim of the Khmer Rouge regime, having lost her parents and spent five months in prison. She has withdrawn from the tribunal process, and instead put her energy into organizing public games of darts featuring the faces of the Khmer Rouge leaders along Phnom Penh’s riverfront – a “way of release” following victims’ frustrations with the trial process, mixed with “dark humor,” she said.
But the trial - a joint enterprise between the UN and Cambodia - has been heavily criticised. Theary Seng, whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge, said putting three people on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million simply wasn't enough. (BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011)
Khmer Rouge Trial: Cambodia Awaits Answers BBC News, 21 Nov. 2011
. . . AFP, 21 Nov. 2011 Khmer Rouge survivor Theary Seng told AFP she was "frustrated beyond words" that only Khieu Samphan looked likely to shed light on what happened. "The people want to know who is behind the Khmer Rouge, we want to see and understand the larger picture and we're not going to get that," she said.
From Tragedy to Sham in Cambodia Asia Times Online, 19 Nov. 2011 In KI-Media Others have gone further, arguing that the time might be ripe for the UN to pull the plug on the controversy-plagued court altogether. Last week, Theary Seng, a Cambodian-American survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and a prominent advocate for victims' rights, withdrew her status as a civil party to the court, describing the proceedings as a "complete sham". She said the UN should threaten to withdraw after setting some clear conditions for its continued participation. By pressing ahead, Seng said, the world body runs the risk of rubber-stamping a flawed process and further embedding cynicism in the Cambodian population. "I understand the unwieldiness of any large bureaucracy, but at the end of the day it comes down to personalities, and there have been extremely weak personalities," she said. "In this regard, the UN is complicit."
In the End, Loss of Faith in Tribunal: Former Complainant Hello VOA Special with Theary Seng, 16 Nov. 2011 Khmer Rouge Victim Quits Tribunal Saying UN-backed Court is a Sham DPA, 15 Nov. 2011
Prominent Victims' Advocate Quits Khmer Rouge Tribunal VOA International/English, 15 Nov. 2011 KRT Critic Offers 'Poetic Justice' The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Nov. 2011 Theary Seng Denounces Tribunal; Introduces Dartboard Scheme The Cambodia Daily, 16 Nov. 2011
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Click here to read the full press release...
More information at "ECCC Civil Party" More information at Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia Theary Seng Criticizes KRT as "Political Farce" The Phnom Penh Post, 10 Nov. 2011
Radio Free Asia (both AM and PM broadcasts on 10 Nov. 2011)
Cambodian-American Lawyer Withdraws her Civil Party Status Voice of America Khmer Service, 10 Nov. 2011
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