CIVIC EDUCATION

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Where I go for AGGREGATED news on Cambodia, plus...

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On Dec 26-29, 1979 [by now, Cambodia under one full year of Vietnamese occupation], the musician Paul McCartney and Kurt Waldheim, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, organized a four-night benefit, Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, to raise funds for UNICEF and UNHCR. The concert featured Paul McCartney and Wings, The Who, Queen, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, The Clash and other artists at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England.

K5: Kingdom of Night

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Photo: International Justice Mission

Beauty is Freedom.  Freedom is Beauty.

On her base, in all different languages reads,"What would the world be like if women were truly safe to be free?" (Photo by Ben Canales)

DEFIANCE!

Defiance against violent CPP cowards!

July 2013 Pre-Elections

Embedded in FREEDOM is RESPONSIBILITY.

(Freedom minus responsibility is anarchy, the state of the Kew-Kew! Kew-Kew!)

(Photo: Free Thinkers Club facebook)

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The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

- I Kings 19: 11-12

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Prime Minister Hun Sen's worst nightmare:

Mr. Ung Bun Heang ("Sacrava")

of the censored Sacravatoons.

Khmer Post Meach Sovannara, Sacravatoons' Ung Bun Heang, Theary Seng, SRP president (Sydney) Chhayri Marm (Sydney, 11 Oct. 2012)

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"At its heart, wisdom is the ability to live well."

"Three things appear again and again as features of those who live well: (i) wise people read life and its patterns well; (ii) wise people apply these insights skilfully to the choices at hand; [(iii) wise people stay open to new possibility and understanding] (iv) wise people act with integrity and care." (p. 17)

WISE: Leadership that Lasts

(revised edition, forthcoming 2013)

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The ORIGINAL SOURCE of CIVIL RESISTANCE:

The Sermon on the Mount

www.box.com

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Implicit in FREEDOM is RESPONSIBILITY.

Freedom - Responsibility = Anarchy

- Khmer Democrat (KI-Media)

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“You may choose to look the other way

but you can never say again

that you did not know.”

― abolitionist William Wilberforce

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Poverty is Not Fate; It is Man-made.

Theary Seng speaking at the P-8 Rock Concert in front of some 80,000 people and countless millions TV viewers -- with Bono, Muhammad Yunus, etc. (July 2007, Germany)

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We shall overcome

a beautiful rendition by Diana Ross in Budapest

In celebration of the Protester!

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"Yuthethor Aid-chai"

Harvard University's JUSTICE with Prof. Michael Sandel

A free online course with 12 episodes (24 lectures)

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Who Killed Chea Vichea?

The award-winning film about a slained hero and a good friend, including an interview with me.

Narrative in KI-Media

Spoken Word Poetry

"SOUND IS POWER"

Sarah Camille Ramin Osmundsen

I was privileged to hear Sarah at the HUMAN RIGHTS HUMAN WRONGS Film Festival, Oslo, Feb. 2011.

The CONTINUUM OF DESTRUCTION

Policy of the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge

being implemented by ruling Cambodian People's Party

to the deafening silence of the international community

which has poured BILLIONS of enabling U.S. dollars

to entrench the autocratic hold of Hun Sen and his CPP.

The Roots of Evil The Banality of Evil

DEMOCRACY REGRESS!

-  Rainsy Sentence Shatters Pretense of Democracy (HRW, 24 Sept. 2010)

-  Cambodia top court rejects appeal by country's exiled opposition leader
(AP, 1 Mar. 2011)

-  Opposition Leader Sam Rainsy Removed from his Position as MP
(Free Press Magazine, 16 Mar. 2011)

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A challenge is only an opportunity in disguise -

here's our opportunity to advance

the CONTINUUM OF DEMOCRACY

by raising our voices collectively, stridently

for

DEMOCRACY PROGRESS

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EGYPT IS FREE !!

WALK (RIOT) LIKE AN EGYPTIAN !!

How to Start a Movement

Online Petition

to Respect Constitution and

Paris Peace Agreements re Border.

Very easy and quick to complete.

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Bloggers, Media Students Push for Free Speech in Cambodia

PBS (USA), 6 April 2011

Government blocked KI-Media

and all blogspot.com sites via EZECOM* and

Vietnamese-military-owned Metfone internet service providers.

The Phnom Penh Post (19 Jan. 2011)

Radio France Internationale (19 Jan. 2011)

Xinhua News Agency (19 Jan. 2011)

* restored, thus accessible as of 20 Jan. 2011 noon.  But Metfone still blocking, but can get around by going to the last mirror site (scroll down, below).

*  EZECOM has resumed blocking KI-Media again as of 9 Feb. 2011, and possibly now also by online.com.kh.

*****

The Government to shut down KI Media

(Radio Free Asia, 16 Dec. 2010)

DISSENT !

If this should happen, here's a KI-Media Mirror websites (with instructions on how to get around the blocking of access) now up and running.

Or

Alternatively, the most simple way to access KI-Media or any website that is blocked by the Phnom Penh dictatorial regime is to go to a website which provides a free proxy to access any blocked websites. One such free proxy website is

www.anonymouse.org

or

http://www.hideglobal.com,

then move to the bottom of the page and type the address of the blocked website you want to access. For a list of free proxy websites, please visit: http://www.tech-faq.com/proxy.

http://ki-media2.blogspot.com

or

http://kimedia.wordpress.com

or

http://www.ki-media.co.cc

Banning KI-Media?  I say, Viva KI-Media!

Sacrava, Dec. 2010

FREE

Mr. SENG Kunakar

NOW!

UN Employee [Seng Kunakar] Walks Free

(The Phnom Penh Post, 21 June 2011)

Civil society criticized the arrest of Seng Kunakar

(RFA, 19 Dec. 2010)

Rights groups slam jailing of WFP employee in Cambodia

(AFP, 20 Dec. 2010)

Lawyers condemn incitement case

(Phnom Penh Post, 20 Dec. 2010)

UN staffer jailed for "anti-government" materials

(Phnom Penh Post, 19 Dec. 2010)

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Sam Rainsy KANGAROO COURT Saga

CIVIL RESISTANCE

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POWER TO THE PEOPLE (by John Lennon, Black Eyed Peas) - Videos / Lyrics

(FOR GOD'S SAKE) GIVE MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE
(by Chi-Lites) - Videos/lyrics

FREEDOM by Paul McCartney - video/lyrics

WAVIN' FLAG (FIFA World Cup 2010 Song) by K'naan - Video/lyrics

Cambodia: Rainsy Sentence Shatters Pretense of Democracy

Conviction of Opposition Leader Showcases Political Control of Judiciary

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

September 24, 2010

"President Obama and other world leaders need to let Hun Sen and his government know that the free ride is over." -- Sophie Richardson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch

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Civil Resistance via my Facebook Profile Photo

and other forms of satyagraha

in the traditions of

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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We are all SAM RAINSYs.

In solidarity with praCh of MUJESTIC (who created the above profile) and other Cambodian democrats here and overseas, I changed my Facebook profile photo on Thursday, 23 Sept. 2010 to the above photo of opposition democracy leader Sam Rainsy who was convicted in absentia by the kangaroo court to 12 years jail.

As of this Saturday morning, I posted the following on Facebook: 

"CIVIL RESISTANCE:  this is MY FACEBOOK PROFILE PHOTO TILL democracy leader Sam Rainsy has his political immunity restored and is able again to compete in the upcoming 2013 national elections.  The least I can do to express my disgust at the state of affairs (Saturday, 25 Sept. 2010)."

Key Dates

Demonstration against PM Hun Sen at UN headquarters, 24 Sept. 2010

United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York where the criminal complaint against Hun Sen was lodged.  Standing on the right is Mr. Morton Sklar, Attorney, Founding Executive Director Emeritus, World Organization for Human Rights (USA), 24 Sept. 2010.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

COMPLAINT AND PETITION REQUESTING
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION
OF HUN SEN, PRIME MINISTER OF CAMBODIA
SUBMITTED TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE U.S.,
THE CRIMINAL DIVISION OF THE U.S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, THE U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT
OF NEW YORK, AND FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

CONCERNING FALSE AND FRAUDULENT STATEMENTS, AND MISREPRESENTATIONS AND THREATS MADE TO OFFICERS OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION DURING THE COURSE OF AN OFFICIAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, IN VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. SECTION 1001 and SECTION 115(a)(1) (B) and (b)(4), AND CONSTITUTING OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE IN VIOLATION OF 18 U.S.C. SECTION 1501, et seq.

Submitted by Morton Sklar
Founding Executive Director Emeritus (retired)
World Organization for Human Rights USA
with, and on behalf of,
the Sam Rainsy Party of Cambodia
(the largest political opposition group)
and the following named Complainants:
Sam Rainsy, Ly Neary,
Lay Chan Thou, and Nguon Huon Heun
and U.S. citizen Ron Abney

Contact Information: Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Telephone: (1) (301) 946-4649(301) 946-4649

COMPLAINT AND REQUEST FOR CRIMINAL
INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION
OF HUN SEN, PRIME MINISTER OF CAMBODIA
AND NAMED SUBORDINATE OFFICIALS

I. Overview: On March 30, 1997, a vicious grenade attack was carried out against a peaceful political rally taking place across from the Parliament building in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. According to a U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry on the attack, Prime Minister Hun Sen's Personal Bodyguard military unit may well have been responsible for planning and organizing the attack, and for obstructing the capture of the grenade throwers. A team of FBI investigators was sent by the U.S. Government to compile information and evidence concerning the attack because at least one U.S. citizen was injured by the explosion of the grenades, meaning that U.S. criminal law had been violated. The FBI investigations produced a great deal of information and evidence implicating Hun Sen and his personal military unit as likely perpetrators of these violations of U.S. criminal laws, much of which was presented in testimony and submissions made to the U.S. Congress.

[ full text ]

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was accused of being behind a deadly 1997 attack on a political rally by an opposition leader.  (Photo: AFP)

Cambodian Opposition Leader Seeks US Case against PM

(AFP, 24 Sept. 2010)

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy during a video conference (AFP, 24 Sept. 2010)

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Initial Reactions to Criminal Lawsuit against PM Hun Sen

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
(KI Media, 24 Sept. 2010)

I read the "Complaint and Petition Requesting Criminal Investigation and Prosecution of Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia" with great interest and absorption. (I highly recommend reading it through; riveting, like a narrative rather than a legal brief.)

A few initial thoughts surfaced immediately:

1. Brilliant timing. It was obvious and acknowledged as such that the Complaint/Petition is timed to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Hun Sen's visit to the United Nations General Assembly meeting. This had the dramatic effect and optimal impact of highlighting the Cambodian human rights and justice issues before the world stage when all the world's eyes and media are focused on the UN Summit.

2. US Image as a Rule-of-Law country challenged. The brief indirectly (or maybe directly) challenges the United States as a country which prides itself as a bastion of the rule of law, democracy, human rights principles. "Yeah? Let's see..."

In particular, the Complaint/Petition challenges the esteem of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other US high-vaulted institutions to act to redress the derision and contempt toward them by the Cambodian government. It's like a 6th-grade bully on the playground sticking out his tongue and finger to the US justice system, taunting the FBI with a "Na-na-na-na-boo-boo, we violated your criminal laws; so, what are you going to do about it? Na-na-na... We have China!"

3. Rally against Hun Sen. I can understand the disappointment of Cambodian-Americans and other democracy supporters from other parts of the world who would have liked to join in this demonstration, who find the announcement of the Rally given too late for proper planning.

But in reading the Complaint/Petition and the German-sense of impeccable timing with the release of the Complaint/Petition and the associated Rally, not much could have been be done. It was an issue of triage: which is more important, getting people out there or protecting the secrecy of the lawsuit? Here, the secret timing of the public announcement of this Complaint/Petition, only after making sure the Prime Minister is irreversibly in the air to NYC with no possibility of a return or time to counter-act beforehand, won out.

4. Vindication for Sam Rainsy. The opposition democracy leader knows well his opponent, knows well the Cambodian landscape, knows well his people on the ground inside and outside the government, knows well the geopolitics regionally and internationally. He knows the era he lives in.

Rather than thinking of his ego or succumbing to the taunts for his return to a jail cell - an irresponsible, high risk adventure to his personal security, his political voice, work and mobility--not to mention to the cause of democracy, as at this point, no one can compare to the husband-and-wife team--he opts to take the high ground and stay away (not out of fear, for he has shown to be fearless time and again since the early 1990s, and most tellingly, the grenade assassination attack on him at the Easter Massacre of 1997, and still since, reflected in his continuing to be outspoken 13 years later and going).

But he knows the 21st century of political activism where information communication technology makes "virtual presence" many times more important than physical presence, his presence is still feared and a focus of crackdown by a regime trembling before this kind of intelligence, wherewithal and political force.

For example, if Sam Rainsy had been imprisoned (and who knows what other ill-fated crimes await him if he returns under the present legal conditions), this lawsuit would not have seen the light of day or gain the momentum it is enjoying.

Cambodian-Americans and supporters of democracy from other parts of the world demonstrating against human rights violations and the conviction of opposition leader Sam Rainsy at the United Nations during the visit of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other world leaders for the MDG Summit (Photo: Michael Duong, 24 Sept. 2010)

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LIST OF CONTENTS, POSTINGS, LINKS

of

Satyagrapha "Soul Force"

Civil Resistance

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* Inspiration

-  Satyagraha ("Soul Force"), Mahatma Gandhi

-  Sermon on the Mount (Beatitudes), by Jesus Christ

-  Love (I Corinthians 13), by St. Paul

-  Speak Truth to Power, by Kerry Kennedy

-  A Tiny Ripple of Hope, by Robert F. Kennedy

-  Perils of Indifference, by Elie Wiesel

-  I've been to the Mountaintop, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

-  Beyond Vietnam - Time to Break Silence, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

- I have a Dream, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

-  Letter from Birmingham Jail, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

-  Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace Prayer, by  St. Francis of Assisi

-  Suffering of Cambodia Prayer, by Moha Ghosananda

-  Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela

-  From Dictatorship to Democracy (KI Media chapter-by-chapter series, full online text 4th Ed. May 2010), by Gene Sharp

-  Give Peace a Chance (How to Overthrow a Dictator) Q & A, The New York Times with Gene Sharp

*  Background on Cambodian Judiciary

-  Cambodia:  Rainsy Sentence Shatters Pretense of Democracy - Conviction of Opposition Leader Showcases Political Control of Judiciary (Human Rights Watch, 24 Sept. 2010)

-  Human Rights Defenders Face Shrinking Space in Cambodia, International Federation for Human Rights and World Organization Against Torture (Sept. 2010)

-  UN Diplomat Denounces Court System, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Surya Subedi

-  Political Interference at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Open Society Justice Iniative (July 2010)

-  Photo Diary of a Cambodian Democrat during Times of Repression, by Theary Seng (mid-2009)

The Beleaguered Cambodians, by Margo Picken (New York Review of Books, 15 Dec. 2010)

*  praCh Ly MUJESTIC

-  "it's not just music, it's a movement" website

-  For Cambodian rapper, 'words are weapons' (Press Telegram, 9 April 2010)

*  Ms. MU Sochua, SRP Member of Parliament

-  "Be loud, be fearless, be united"

-  Follow her blog

*  Labor union leader CHEA Vichea

-  Who Killed Chea Vichea?, the documentary film

-  Theary Seng's meeting with director Bradly Cox and her film review

*  Deportation of Cambodian-Americans

*  Dream for Darfur with actress Mia Farrow

-  Follow Mia's blog

-  Dream for Darfur

-  In Cambodia, Jan. 2008

*  Playwright Catherine Filloux

-  Killing the Boss, a play

*  Inspirational Examples from around the world

-  People Power Revolution (Edsa or Yellow Revolution), the Philippines

-  Velvet Revolution, Czech Republic

-  Orange Revolution, Ukraine

-  Solidarity of Polish Labor Union

-  Saffron Revolution, Burma

-  Facebook / Jasmine Revolution (or Dignity Revolution), Tunisia

A Date with a Revolution, the Lotus Revolution, Egypt

The New York Times editorial, 30 Jan. 2011

Vital Voices' tribute to Aung San Suu Ky, April 2011