Sotheby's returns stolen ancient statue to Cambodia

English.news.cn   2014-05-08 10:52:44

PHNOM PENH, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The New York-based Sotheby's has delivered the 10th century sandstone statue of a Hindu warrior Duryodhana to Cambodia after a two-year legal battle was ended in December last year, said a press statement from the Cambodian Council of Ministers Thursday.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Minister Sok An made a special visit to the United States of America to receive the ancient statue of Duryodhana Wednesday afternoon in New York city, the statement said.
"This visit stresses the importance of the policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia to recover looted Khmer ancient artifacts," it said.
The Duryodhana statue, valued at more than 2 million U.S. dollars, was stolen in the 1970s in the Prasat Chen monument of Koh Ker temple complex, a remote archaeological site in northern Cambodia, which had been the target of widespread looting during Cambodia's two-decade civil war, which began in the late 1960s.
In March 2011, Sotheby's placed the piece on the cover of its auction catalogue for Asia Week. The dispute over the statue started since then when the Cambodian government asked Sotheby's to remove it from the auction list.
French School of Asian Studies' research team on Koh Ker definitely helped to demonstrate Cambodia's rights to the statue of Duryodhana thanks to the statue's pedestals found at the Prasat Chen monument in Koh Ker temple of Cambodia.
In April 2012, the United States Attorney filed a court action in Federal Court seeking forfeiture of the statue and handing back to Cambodia.
The court process lasted until December 2013 before Sotheby's decided to settle the case by agreeing to return the statue of Duryodhana to Cambodia.
"Cambodia wishes to thank the U.S. for its commitment to preserve cultural heritage of humanities and its strong willingness to promote the friendship and cooperation between the two countries," the statement said, appealing to other museums and art collectors around the world to follow the example of returning plundered treasures to their rightful owners as part of the worldwide campaign for the protection of cultural heritage.
In June last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York returned two 10th century stone statues of "Kneeling Attendants" to Cambodia after nearly 20 years on public display in the Met. The two statues were illicitly removed from the same temple at the time of Cambodia's civil war in the 1970s.

Editor: Xiang Bo

Passenger helmet law could save Cambodia 100 mln USD in 5 years: study

English.news.cn   2014-05-07 13:04:51

PHNOM PENH, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia could save nearly 100 million U.S. dollars in the next five years if a passenger helmet law is adopted this year, according to a new study released Wednesday.
The study on the cost and life-savings of the passage of the passenger helmet law was conducted by the Asia Injury Prevention ( AIP) Foundation with an aim to persuade the Cambodian government to immediately enact and enforce a draft traffic law mandating passenger helmet use.
"If the passenger helmet law is passed in 2014 and enforced in the beginning of 2015, helmet use rates among passengers are estimated to increase from 7 percent to 55 percent in 2015 and by 5 percent each following year, reaching 80 percent by 2020," the study results showed. "As a result, roughly 561 fatalities will be prevented, 10,572 head injuries avoided, and 98.6 million U.S. dollars saved from 2015 to 2020."
Pagna Kim, AIP's director to Cambodia, said this analysis demonstrated why the new law was urgently needed in Cambodia.
"We encourage stakeholders, partners, and the media to utilize this evidence in their advocacy efforts for the government to approve and enforce the draft law to reach the target of 80 percent passenger helmet use by 2020," he said during the launching of the study results.
Poeu Maly, secretary general of the National Road Safety Committee, said the study confirmed that the government was making the right move to have passengers, including children, mandated by law to wear helmet.
"The law is now moving forward and we are stepping up our efforts with hope that it will soon be approved and enforced as our goal is to save lives," he said.
Traffic accidents claimed 1,950 human lives and seriously injured 5,670 people last year, he said, adding that the accidents cost the country about 300 million U.S. dollars a year.
"Two thirds of the dead were motorcycle travelers and 66 percent of the victims sustained head injuries," he said. "Only 22 percent of the victims had worn helmets."

Editor: Fu Peng

Cambodia-U.S. trade up 11 pct in Q1

English.news.cn   2014-05-07 16:55:43

PHNOM PENH, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral trade volume between Cambodia and the United States had amounted to 845 million U.S. dollars in the first three months of 2014.
The number saw a 11-percent rise from 758 million U.S. dollars over the same period last year, figures release by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed Wednesday.
U.S is Cambodia's second largest export market after Europe.
During the January-March period this year, Cambodia's export to the U.S. was valued at 771 million U.S. dollars, seeing a year-on- year increase of 11 percent.
Meanwhile, the country's import from the U. S. was worth 74 million U.S. dollars, up 17 percent.
Main products Cambodia sold to the U.S. were garments and footwear. In return, it bought vehicles, machinery and medical equipment and supplies.
A spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce Kem Ratha said the surge in the bilateral trade was thanks to good relations and cooperation between the two countries.
Last year, the bilateral trade volume was valued at 3.01 billion U.S. dollars, up 3 percent year-on-year.

Editor: Yang Yi

Cambodia, Mongolia establish bilateral consultations

English.news.cn   2014-05-02 14:01:16

PHNOM PENH, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Mongolia on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of bilateral consultations, aimed at bolstering bilateral ties and cooperation, a Cambodian official said.
The deal was inked between Long Visalo, Secretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Damba Gankhuyag, deputy foreign minister of Mongolia.
"The MoU is very important to pave the way for the two countries to increase cooperation in bilateral, regional and international frameworks," Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters after the signing ceremony. "Under the deal, both sides also can exchange information and opinions on bilateral, regional and international issues."
He said it was the second document after the two countries signed an agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders in 2012.
Both sides also agreed to strengthen cooperation in economics, trade, investment and tourism.
Cambodia and Mongolia established diplomatic relations in 1961.

Editor: Yamei Wang

Mongolia intends to become ASEAN's dialogue partner, EAS member

English.news.cn   2014-05-02 15:27:15

PHNOM PENH, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Visiting deputy foreign minister of Mongolia Damba Gankhuyag said Friday that Mongolia has a purpose to become an ASEAN's dialogue partner and a member of the East Asian Summit (EAS).
Damba Gankhuyag unveiled the plan during a meeting with Cambodian deputy prime minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong, according to Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Hor Namhong said Cambodia welcomed Mongolia's intention to seek cooperation with ASEAN and EAS and recommended the country to submit documents to Myanmar, the current chair of ASEAN.
Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) group Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Currently, the bloc has established dialogue partnerships with ten parties: Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
For EAS, it is a forum held annually by leaders of 18 countries in the East Asian region.
Earlier in the day, Damba Gankhuyag signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of bilateral consultations with his Cambodian counterpart Long Visalo, aiming to promote bilateral, regional, and international cooperation between the two countries.

Editor: xuxin

Skirmish breaks out as Cambodian opposition defies ban on rallies

English.news.cn   2014-05-02 20:05:10

PHNOM PENH, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A skirmish between security forces and opposition party activists broke out on Friday afternoon near the capital Freedom Park as the opposition defied a government ban on rallies.
"At least two persons got injured on heads and bodies as security forces beat to chase away hundreds of opposition activists who attempted to gather on Norodom Boulevard, just east of the Freedom Park (the capital's designated protest site)," Am Sam Ath, a senior investigator for the rights group Licadho, said after the incident, adding that some of the activists hurled water bottles and stones at security forces.
"Those activists could not hold a rally this afternoon because security forces dispersed wherever more than 10 people got together around the area," he said.
The stretch of Norodom Boulevard in the east of Freedom Park was closed Friday afternoon to prevent opposition supporters from gathering as the whole Freedom Park has been surrounded by razor wires and barricades.
Sam Rainsy, president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), who was scheduled to address his supporters at the area, had canceled his plan. Instead, he decided to enter the residence of the United Nations Embassy nearby the park.
Gen. Kheng Tito, a spokesman for the National Military Police, said the group had tried to gather illegally so that security forces had to disperse them to ensure social security and public order.
The skirmish came after the opposition CNRP defied a government ban on rallies during a two-week commune council election campaign, which started Friday.
Phnom Penh Municipal vice-Governor Khuong Sreng issued a statement Wednesday to ban the CNRP from gathering at the Freedom Park or marching through streets in the city during the election campaign from May 2 to 16. He explained that the election is not a universal vote.
Sam Rainsy said Thursday that the ban was a violation of the law on election, which states that eligible political parties have rights to hold election campaign in order to propagandize about their parties' political platforms.
The commune council election, to be held on May 18, will be voted by only 11,459 sitting commune councilors -- typically along party lines -- for provincial, district and city councilors.
Five parties have registered their candidates for the election. Those parties are the ruling Cambodian People's Party, the opposition CNRP, the royalist Funcipec Party, the League for Democracy, and the Democratic Republic Party.
Political row between the Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling CPP and the Sam Rainsy's CNRP has persisted since the July's national election outcome indicated that the CPP won 68 parliamentary seats against 55 seats for the CNRP.
The opposition has refused to accept the results it says were marred by fraud, and it has boycotted parliament and staged a number of demonstrations to demand an early election.

Editor: xuxin

Cambodian court sentences Thai woman to 30 years in jail for drug trafficking

English.news.cn   2014-04-29 15:43:12

PHNOM PENH, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday convicted a Thai woman of drug trafficking and sentenced her to 30 years in jail, according to a verdict read by Judge Kor Vandy.
Wilawan Chinpang, 29, was arrested at Phnom Penh International Airport last July with 4.9 kg of crystal methamphetamines she imported from India.
She was charged with illegally transporting drug substance, said the verdict. The court also fined her 20,000 U.S. dollars.
According to the verdict, a 44-year-old Cambodian woman, Keo Dary, who assisted the Thai convict in trafficking the drug, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 5,000 U.S. dollars.
Under Cambodia's law, the convicts have one month to appeal against the verdict.

Editor: Luan