IT IS JUST MY OPINION

Today - September 24th - is the third and final day of the Buddhist Pchhum Ben Festival.  As it started on a Monday this year it meant that the people had the benefit of the weekend as well.  During this holiday time amost everyone - including my goodly partner - headed off to their hometowns in the Provinces.  The result is that the city of Phnom Penh has been almost deserted for five days and I am what would be described as "home alone".

I enjoy the peace and quiet and especially the fact that during this time there is very little traffic around and it is actually possible to walk  across any street without thinking that one might well come face-to-face with the Good Lord before you get to the other side.  Restaurants and businesses are closed and even the often aggressive tuk-tuk drivers have vanished from the scene all much to the puzzlement of any visitors who happen to be here during this time.

As for me - being home alone gives me time to do things that I have left undone for a while.  However it also allows me far too much time to sit in front of the television and watch programmes I would never otherwise watch, including the non-stop depressing world news that is brought to us these days.  This includes what I consider as the somewhat aggressive reporting by many CNN reporters (with  the exception of Mrs. Christiane Amanpour) who seem to think they know everything on every subject and the endless parade of "specialists" and "analysts" who say they do know everything.

This week we have been treated to nonstop coverage of the air attacks in Syria and Iraq.  I have no problem with that.  However there are a few things that bother me and I say again this is just my humble opinion with which many may disagree and that is fine.

If one is about to conduct an offensive against an enemy, I don't understand why one would publicly announce and even discuss the where, when and how of the event.  Nor can I see why it is necessary to announce with very detailed explanations what particular weapons will be used - even giving precise details of the aircraft to be used and their capabilities.  To me this seems a strange tactic not to mention dangerous as well. Yet not just Mr. Obama, his Secretary of State as well as his Secretary of Defence, but it seems almost every Army, Navy and Air Force general both retired or otherwise are having a ball giving out all possible details on national television several times a day.  Should not these detailed matters not be kept secret apart from saying "we are taking action"?   Why has everyone got to know everything?

Is it any wonder it has now been reported that many ISIS fighters had evacuated some of the targeted places ahead of the attacks?  I don't recall either Sir Winston Churchill or General Dwight Eisenhower announcing to the world - and they did have radio then if not television - exactly where, when and how the D-Day landings would take place.  Had they done so I imagine there might have been a very different ending to World War II.  Something to think about! 

To me another worrying factor is why the networks spend so much time interviewing so-called analysts and specialists who seem to enjoy telling the world that "we are in imminent danger of an attack" and that American civil aircraft are being targeted by the new Korosan group that was never mentioned before.  Is there really a need to scare people like this when so many people are today scared of almost everything anyway?  Scaring people like this is just what these terrorists want to happen, so I would appeal to the media - who probably won't listen - to stop these scary interviews and discussions.

I won't stop flying and I am not scared.  I have been in four air disasters in my life - one with my unflappable mother who calmly told me to "finish your dinner - as we are landing in the water it may be a long time before we eat again".  Those things didn't stop either me or my mother from flying again.  I have been in enough war zones and seen enough killings first hand but it hasn't stopped me travelling.  However not everyone is like me - which probably is a good thing.

As I said, these are just my opinions as I watch things unfurling.  Maybe those in high places have their reasons for disclosing everything before the event but my humble mind can't see the reason or understand why they do it.  Nevertheless, I do wish all this public discussion on the how, where and when plus the never ending speeches of the scare mongering analysts and specialists will stop.

THERE IS AWAYS SOME GOOD NEWS

This is my first blog for several months and I would like to start by thanking all the people who have written to me  - many of whom I don't know and who live in countries I have never visited - asking why I had stopped writing.  The reasons are many but mainly because during some floods here my laptop ended up in 18-inches of water and needless to say drowned quite dead.  Being the great procrastinator that I am, it was some time before I got around to buying a new one.  But now I am back on line again and can bore people with my writings once more.   Having said all of the above, even if I'd had my laptop, there has been so much going on in the world that I would not know where to start.

We are at the end of the summer of 2014 now.  Few could deny the fact that it has not been the best of summers and I am not talking about the weather.  That is always unpredictable wherever you are.  I am referring to the horrific, frightening and sad things that have been happening in so many places and that have brought the world once more to the brink of war.  So many commentators and analysts have spent the summer daily analyzing the situation that it is not for me to make more than a passing mention of them.

In no special order, we have seen the horrific and heinous acts of the militant group ISIS.  We have seen all too graphically on the television their brutal killings of captured Iraqi soldiers, the horrendous murders of (to date) three hostages - two American and one British - as well as their many other atrocities including their destruction of centuries old holy places.  There is the never-ending war in Syria as well as the fighting in the Ukraine, plus the seemingly almost genocidal action of Israel against the Palestinians.  So the list goes on and on and on and the media have a blast reporting all the gory details for our benefit.

However, there has been one piece of very good news amongst all the bad, but which has been ignored by most of the media.  What a pity good news is not considered interesting!

Ever since I came to live here in Cambodia some eight years ago, I have constantly in both my writings and speeches praised the people and the country as being special.  Unfortunately it is a country that is seldom thought of by most of the western and/or powerful countries and what a shame that is!  We may be a small country and we may be a poor country but it should be recognized that it is a country that moves forward.

In the last 30+ years Cambodia suffered through the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge when some 2-million of its people were killed or starved to death.  This was followed by the incredibly harsh bombing by America during the Vietnam war, occupation by Vietnam and finally civil war.  That is quite enough to depress any country big or small, but Cambodians are a strong people and they rebound.  The country now has one of the strongest economies in South East Asia and it is growing fast.

After all these events came the heavy-handed rule of the Prime Minister - Mr. Hun Sen - who was installed by the Vietnamese and who managed to put fear into any who opposed him.With a new generation of University educated young people eligible to vote in the last General Election in July 2013, the ruling party of the Prime Minister (CPP) suffered a huge defeat losing many seats to the Opposition party (CNRP).  However the all-powerful Prime Minister ordered the National Election Committee to alter the results in certain areas to show that he at least had a small majority.  The result of that were demonstrations by the opposition all over the country for almost a year.  Foreign pundits predicted another civil war.  The two parties met maybe just two times and never spoke again.  It was not a good situation and the Opposition refused to take their seats in the National Assembly.

However, the Cambodian people had learned a lesson from their previous history - fighting whether verbal or physical and violence get you nowhere.  Talking and compromise do.

There was much "behind-the-scenes"talk by various people - no less the unofficial quiet diplomacy of His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen Mother.  It was Their Majesties' gracious act in invited the leading officials of both parties to the religious rite for the internment of the ashes of the late King Norodom Sihanouk that finally brought the parties together.  At the ceremony the two parties were seated together.  At such an event you cannot just ignore the person sitting next to you for a couple of hours.  As a result, the following week the leaders of the parties sat down with His Majesty at the Royal Palace and sorted out their differences.  A few days later the Opposition members were sworn in by His Majesty and took their seats in the National Assembly.  We now have a stable government that is working as never before.

The Prime Minister came to understand that change could not be ignored.  He has clamped down corruption which was rife.  The demand for higher wages by the thousands of garment workers is being addressed.  Thousands of acres of agricultural and forest land that had been grabbed by foreign companies and some corrupt wealthy Cambodians has been taken back and is being returned to the local people.

However, not everything can be fixed in a matter of weeks.  It takes time, but I am proud of the way the country has come together and is progressing.  I am proud of those in authority who decided that it would be better to talk face to face rather than argue through the media.  I am proud of the efforts of Their Majesties on behalf of their people.  No wonder they are popular.  I am just sorry that these achievements of this small country have not been recognized around the world.

NOT JUST A WEAPON OF WAR!

It always amazes me how bad or tragic news always hits the headlines and stays there for days on end, whereas good news is relegated to maybe just one little mention but once or twice.  I think it must be because horrors and dramas, plus reports about people who really have done nothing of importance in life except happen to have money, carry a fascination for people these days - quite apart from the fact that headlines on these things sell the papers and advertising space on the radio and television.  I wonder really of what is the importance of four days of headline news that tell us that someone called Kim Kardashian (who is she anyway and what has she done?) suddenly changed the venue of her wedding from Paris to Italy, that she flew to Italy in a privately chartered jet from Paris and that she and her fiancee spent over $400,000 just to rent the castle where the wedding was held.!!   Let's get real!  Is all that really worthy of four days of headline news?   I don't think so.

Then there is the "flip" side of the news that was barely mentioned other than two short articles on the first and fourth day - the closing day.  I am talking about the "Global Summit To End Sexual Violence in Conflict" that was held in London and ended just yesterday (Friday).  That was an extraordinarily important event that was organized by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. William Hague and the actress Miss Angelina Jolie.  Apart from the BBC giving it full coverage and Miss Christiane Amanpour doing an excellent joint interview with Miss Jolie and Mr. Hague , the other media outlets - including the rest of CNN - and sources almost ignored it.

This 4-day summit in London really was an historic occasion.  It is almost three years since Mr. Hague and Miss Jolie got together and produced what was called "The Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict" and in that length of time they succeeded in getting 141 countries to sign on.  What an achievement!  Church Leaders, Heads of State, Diplomats, Politicians as well as survivors of rape converged on London for the occasion from all over the world.  What a tremendous achievement, and this morning I was so pleased to see that Miss Jolie's efforts in this matter have been rewarded by Queen Elizabeth making her an Honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire.

The world has got to stop and take notice of what has been going on.  So often people put down these things as something that happens in Third World countries, but as Miss Jolie and Mr. Hague so forcefully pointed out it happens everywhere - they saw it first hand in Bosnia and Serbia - countries not regarded as Third World.  Education on the subject is the only thing that will stop future soldiers from doing this and bringing to justice those responsible for these atrocities is also a "must".

However the whole question of violence against women cannot stop just in the area of sexual abuse as a weapon of war, bad as that is.  It is seldom mentioned - and it is certainly not generally talked about that 1 in 8 women in the United States are sexually abused and/or have violence used against them  In Australia the figure is 1 in 6.  I do not have the figures for the United Kingdom or the rest of Europe, but it goes on there as well, and in this otherwise beautiful country of Cambodia, violence against women whether sexual or otherwise is prevalent.

The whole subject that violence of any kind against women is totally wrong, is a very difficult subject to deal with for the simple reason people don't like to discuss it.  If someone has been through it, then they feel ashamed and are embarrassed to mention it.  In my days as a parish priest in London, mainland U.S.A. and Hawaii I came across many cases of where women stayed with abusive husbands or partners only because they were ashamed to tell people or to admit what was going on.  In some countries women are stigmatized, banished and regarded as outcasts if they have been raped and in some Middle East and African countries they can be tried as criminals and adulterers.

Every Monday evening I watch a programme on ABC - Australian Broadcasting Corporation from Sydney.  The programme is called "Q & A"- Question and Answer - during which members of the audience ask questions of the panel which is always comprised of well-known politicians, authors, actors or whomever.  Just two weeks ago the subject of violence in general came up and a well-known Australian journalist and critic surprised everyone by saying that she had been the subject of violence and rape, but she was not going to keep quiet about it.  She said she did not feel herself as a victim, but rather as a survivor and as such it was her duty to speak out.  A difficult attitude to take, but a right one nevertheless.

As Miss Jolie pointed out in her closing speech at the London Summit, sexual violence is not just a weapon of war - although the practice of that is decidedly prevelant has to be stopped - but it happens in all walks of life.  India has been rocked by horrific violence against women in the last couple of weeks.  Two teenage girls were raped and then hanged from a mango tree in their village.   Since then two other women in  Utar Pradesh State have also suffered the same fate.  Another young woman was stoned to death outside of a Court House because she had married the man of her choice, and the police - who since have been arrested fortunately, stood by and did nothing.

Both Miss Jolie and Mr. Hague said that every person can do something about it if only by speaking out against violence at every opportunity.  Every voice counts, and people should know that they need not be ashamed if they have been the subject of violence.  Asked by Miss Christiane Amanpour how else she was going to fight violence, Miss Jolie replied that she was taking up the subject of sexual violence in the U.S. armed forces.  That will be an uphill struggle for her as the Pentagon is firm in its many statements that there is very little of that going on.  Look and listen again, I say to them.

I congratulate both Mr. Hague and Miss Jolie for their initiative in tackling the very important subject in such a forthright manner, and I further congratulate Miss Jolie in receiving from Queen Elizabeth the honour of being made an Honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire.  Because she is not a British citizen, she cannot officially be called "Dame Angelina Jolie" but nevertheless it is an honour well deserved.

This is a subject that should never be forgotten or overshadowed by some so-called TV starlet's wedding.  This is an extremely serious matter with which the world has to deal and deal with now.

FOUR TIMES IN TEN DAYS?

When Mr. Larry King finished his well-liked TV show "Larry King Live" on CNN maybe two years ago, he was succeeded in a new but somewhat similar programme hosted by Mr. Piers Morgan.  Mr. Morgan had previously been - among other things - Editor of the English tabloid newspaper, "The News of the World".  I was never really a fan of Mr. Morgan's programme because I always felt he talked too much and vented his own views rather than listening to those of the person he was interviewing.  However, be that as it may, one thing I will always admire about him is the fact that he was never silent or withdrawing in his views about the liberal way guns are treated in the U.S.  As a result of this, it is no secret that Mr. Morgan's contract with CNN was not renewed earlier this year due to heavy pressure from organizations like the National Rifle Association.

During the past ten days there have been four deadly shooting sprees in the United States.  I just wait to see where the next one will be - no doubt next week somewhere - and what is being done about these events?   Absolutely nothing at all except that they are wonderful photo opportunities for politicians in Washington - even the President - who rush to the nearest camera and microphone and with long faces say "My prayers and thoughts are with the victims and their families and loved ones". Well, of course they are, but that doesn't solve anything.  They might as well just make a recording of those words and then just press a button and play it again when the next shooting takes place.  I am in no doubt of the fact that I shall probably have many harsh emails as a result of writing this, but we have to be practical and understand exactly what is what if anything is to be done to stop these.  One thing is painfully obvious, those in the National Rifle Association who so vehemently canvass for guns and weapons of all kinds to be available to all, are noticeably silent when these shootings take place.  Not even an word of condolence to those affected. So we have to look at everything very carefully to understand the situations.

The wording of the much quoted Second Amendment is very clear.  "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear shall not be infringed."  I have no problem with those words, but it doesn't require a person to have a degree from the Harvard Law School to know that the United States does already have a "well regulated militia" for "the security of the state".     This was a fact recognized until fairly recently and it is only since 1977 when there was what was virtually a coup d'etat at the Annual Convention of the National Rifle Association which brought in a group of ultra political conservatives to power.  This new group pushed for a what was then a novel interpretation of the Second Amendment - one that gave individuals, not just the militia - the right to bear arms.  It was then an uphill battle for them and at first they were scorned, and Chief Justice Warren Burger - who was certainly no liberal by anyone's standards - mocked this individual rights theory as "a fraud".  But the NRA kept pushing and in 1980 it received a tremendous boost by the election of Mr. Ronald Reagan as President, as it brought a guns right enthusiast to the White House.

It didn't stop there.  Mr. Orrin Hatch, the Senator from Utah as Chairman of a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee did a report that claimed to find "clear and long-lost proof that the Second Amendment was intended as an individual right of an American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner for the protection of himself, his family and his freedom," and as a result this theory was just absorbed into the law even though the "clear and long-lost" proof was never stated.

However, in a famous court case of "The District of Columbia vs. Heller" in 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the individual rights theory but in writing his opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said that the District of Columbia could not ban handguns because "they are the most popular weapon chosen by Americans for self protection in the home, and a complete prohibition of their use is invalid."    Alright - here we come to a most important and almost always ignored point.  Following Justice Scalia's opinion, the government cannot ban hand guns but it can ban other weapons.  How interesting.

All of the above may be long-winded, but I think it shows some points that are not generally known.  I would ask why does the National Rifle Association want to see the ordinary people going around carrying AK-47 rifles?   The NRA has never decried any of the shootings where these weapons have been used.  How can they say that the present system of "vetting" a person buying a weapon is good, when the young man who shot up the students in Seattle was known to be mentally disturbed - his parents had already warned the police about him - and had five guns all legally bought and licensed to him personally?  Something is surely amiss here.

I am sure little will be done to stop these shooting sprees, especially this year when there is a half term election coming up in October.  Those standing for election are only too anxious to hold on to their positions by not upsetting the NRA people so that they can benefit from their large contributions.  So what will happen?  More people will be shot dead and more politicians will just rush to the microphones and cameras to say "Our prayers and thoughts..........."

In a much publicized and somewhat pompous speech at West Point Military Academy a few weeks ago, Mr. Obama said that the world "looks to America as a leader".  He was right - the world looks to America as the leader in shooting rampages, as the leader where its politicians are willing to bow to pressure rather than care for the well-being and safety of its students in the universities around the country.

What a shame that is!

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT OR WHAT?

I haven't posted a blog since January!  I was so surprised when I realized that, as it is not like me to keep silent for so long.   On the other hand I can see no sense in writing just for the sake of writing.   That only produces something boring that no one will read.  I wait until I see something that really "hits" me so hard that I feel I have to say something.

A few things have surfaced this past week that have made me think, but none so much as that which I came across today.  So for now I will just concentrate on this one subject and perhaps deal with the others later on.

Not just me - but my entire family going way back to my Grandmother's time - have been against capital punishment under any circumstance whatsoever.  I am glad to say that capital punishment in Ireland was stopped the beginning of the last century, and here in this beautiful country of Cambodia, there is also no capital punishment which may surprise many people.   But this is a civilized country and killing someone just because they committed a crime is not on the table.  A long prison sentence is given instead.

Unfortunately in the U.S. - which considers itself to be foremost among countries where democracy, civil rights and such things are concerned is fast slipping down the rungs of the ladder in these matters.

In 2001 I wrote an article in the Honolulu Advertiser (which article can still be found on Google and still receives a lot of attention, much to my surprise) just before the execution of Timothy McVeigh for carrying out the Oklahoma bombing.  I wrote that article because certain TV companies were intending to televise the execution and broadcast it nationwide with the initial permission of the Federal authorities.  I asked in that article if the United States was becoming a nation like the people of the French Revolution and those involved in the burning of the so-called witches in days gone by who reveled in such spectacles, or the early Romans who enjoyed nothing better than to see people being thrown to the lions.  It is horrifying even to think of it.   As a priest of the Episcopal Church I queried why none of the Bishops or clergy of the Church spoke out against the horror of a televised execution immediately, but apart from the then Presiding Bishop -The Right Reverend Frank Griswold - none did.  It was so sad then to think that none of them were willing or brave enough to speak out.

Now I ask the same thing - why don't the leaders of the churches speak out against what is most definitely "cruel and unusual punishment".

This matter in particular concerns the State of Oklahoma.

Two men - Mr. Clayton Lockett and Mr. Charles Warner - had been sentenced to death a few years ago for murders they had committed.  Both were scheduled to be executed in April - I believe it was the 17th, but I am not too sure about that.  However both men were involved in a court fight concerning the drugs to be used in their execution. They wanted to know exactly what the drugs were and where they were obtained in view of the fact that the Danish firm that used to supply the execution drugs now refused to do so.  They challenged the State Department of Corrections' unwillingness to divulge the drugs that would be used in their executions.  The Oklahoma High Court initially issued a stay of their executions only to lift those stays last week in a ruling that the two men had no right to know the source of the drugs intended to kill them.  The result was that their executions were rescheduled for this week.

Regardless of the crime a person may have committed (and these days many people have been found to be not guilty of the crime for which they were sentenced to death thanks to DNA) to have your execution date set, then withdrawn a matter of hours before it takes place and then have it rescheduled once more and maybe rescheduled again, has to be nothing less than a traumatic experience.  But in the cases of Mr. Lockett and Mr. Warner, there is a great deal more to be taken in to consideration.

Mr. Lockett's execution was set for early in the afternoon and that of Mr. Warner was to follow (in exactly the same execution room) a mere two hours later.  However things did not work out as planned.  Mr. Lockett's execution was totally "botched" for want of a better word, had to be stopped and he actually died of a massive heart attack.

The first drug to be administered - Midozalam - is supposed to render the person totally unconscious immediately.  However, seven minutes later Mr. Lockett was still conscious and after sixteen minutes he tried to get up and it is reported that he tried to talk saying "Man".  Mr. Locket apparently lifted his head before prison officials lowered the blinds so that those observers present could not see what was going on.

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director, Mr. Robert Patton said that Mr. Locket was subsequently sedated (after he suffered a heart attack from the procedure!) and "then was given the second and third drugs in protocol"  This "protocol" includes the Midazolam which is supposed to cause unconsciousness, Vecuronium Bromide which stops respiration and then Potassium Chloride which is meant to stop the heart.

Mr. Patton then said the second execution scheduled for two hours later must not take place - at least for now.  The State Governor said she would call for a full inquiry.

Be that as it may - I just cannot comprehend how a State that calls itself a Christian State - or even a civilized State - can treat human beings like that regardless of what they might have done.   While all the court cases regarding the drugs to be used for executions were going on, why was there no protestation or outcry from the church and civic leaders about the matter - or anyone else for that matter? 

To me it is nothing less than "cruel and unusual - and I would add uncivilized - punishment" to put anyone through all of that regardless of their crime. It is a very sad reflection that the church leaders as well as the so-called respectable politicians do not say and do something to see this could never happen again.  They should also put an end to all executions which are nothing less than barbaric, as has happened in most of the civilized countries of the world.

A SAD STATE OF AFFAIRS.......

I have lived here in Cambodia now for some seven years and have said many times - both here when writing a Blog and many other places how much I like the country.  I really would not like to move and live anywhere else.  The people are smiling, hospitable, friendly and everything related to those categories.  It so happens the climate suits me too, and even though like everywhere else, the cost of living has increased over the years, it is still affordable to live here.  Plus the fact that Cambodia is very central in that it is only at the maximum, just a 2-hour flight to other cities in South East Asia.

Now having said all of the above, there is one thing that has caused a sad state of affairs.  That is the political situation here.  Not good.  The so-called ruling party headed by the Prime Minister Hun Sen has been in power now for some 30-years.  Hun Sen was originally installed as nothing more than a puppet Prime Minister by the Vietnamese after the fall of the dreadful Khmer Rouge regime when Vietnam took over Cambodia.  Since then the Prime Minister has made himself into the "strong man" of the area and stated publicly that he has no intention of standing down until he is at least 72 - he is now in his early 60's,

Whether you like Hun Sen or not - there is absolutely no argument about the fact that over the years he has made Cambodia one of the quickest growing and most stable economies in the area.   I have been coming here since the mid-1990's, and have seen tremendous progress in infrastructure, in education and in many other areas too.  However, corruption is rife.  Those who hold power - still people mostly from the Khmer Rouge era - have made themselves unbelievably wealthy due to corruption, rather than helping the poor in the Provinces who seem to get even poorer.  Not a good thing.  But in the past, as one entire generation missed out on an education thanks to the policies of the genocidal regime of the Khmer Rouge, people thought that they didn't have a voice, and so could not ask for better conditions.  As a result Mr Hun Sen ruled supreme.

Last year - 2013 - things began to change.  It was the year for a General Election and as usual the ruling CPP party foolishly thought everything was as before.  That people could be bought when it came to votes.   Before the election the Prime Minister handed out thousands of land titles to poor people in the Provinces who never had them before.  Naturally they liked him.  No question about that.  Then, shortly before the election Mr. Hun Sen made one of his famous long vitriolic speeches and said that if they didn't vote for him he would take back all the land titles he had given out a few months earlier.  That threat was a mistake, but you don't have to be a genius to understand why those people felt they had to vote for him.  And you can't really blame them either.

One big thing the ruling CPP party had not considered, was the fact that since the previous election a whole new generation of people have been educated, are university graduates and are no longer going to stand for corruption, nepotism and whatever else in that direction, have arrived on the scene and were determined to vote to change things.  A massive opposition party was formed with aggressive campaigning.  People seeing the strength of it came out to vote in bigger numbers than ever before with the result that the opposition party was deemed to have won.

This did not amuse the Prime Minister who refused to accept the vote and ordered some results to be changed.  It is a well known fact that the election results were altered on the Prime Minister's instructions.   It is well known that when a re-count was ordered in a couple of places, it was found that the voting records had not been sealed and hundreds of voting papers were tampered with.  In addition it came to light that hundreds of people who had registered to vote - and many of my friends come into this category - had their names removed from the voters' list because it was known they were supporters of the opposition.  So they were not allowed to vote even though they had proof they had registered in the correct manner.  Furthermore, the members of the National Election Committee which finally said everything had been fair and proper had all been appointees of the Prime Minister.  No more need be said on that matter!!

In another vitriolic speech, Mr. Hun Sen said (at a school graduation, can you imagine?) that if he was opposed he would bring out his personal body guard (which some say number 6,000) that he has personally armed, and there would be "blood on the streets".   Another mistake as the people here have had enough killing in the past.  The Prime Minister's popularity sank to next to nothing.

All of this has resulted in thousands and thousands of people taking to the streets daily demanding that Hun Sen step down and that new elections - fair and transparent ones - should take place.  Yesterday it was announced that the doctors, professors and teachers were now joining the protests.  The result?  Mr. Hun Sen stuck true to his word about bringing out the army and his armed body guard.  Out came the police, the army (which is under the control of his son) and a band of thugs paid by the state.  They attacked the crowd assembled for a protest march - all of which have been perfectly well organized and totally peaceful.  The police carried batons and the soldiers AK-47 rifles.  Five people were shot dead, and some 26 people injured while three military helicopters kept watch on the scene from on high, circling around for seveal hours.  Those who were not army or police - the thugs wealding iron pipes and sticks, wore red arm bands and certainly did not look like Khmer people.  It is believed - though I have no proof as of now - that they were Vietnam people brought in by the Prime Minister and paid by the State.  All this took place maybe ten minutes from my home in a place ironically called "Freedom Park".  Those who were attacked and beaten and in some cases detained, where old, young and even monks.

This behaviour makes me very sad because these wonderful people do not deserve to be treated like this.   When you see the videos of what happened yesterday and the day before, it looks like the people who were being peaceful and orderly were being treated as something less than animals.

So what can or should be done?  The situation can not continue for ever otherwise the place will become another Iraq, Congo, Egypt or Ukraine.

I believe at least two things would help - and the people here do need help.  Firstly, if the Prime Minister and his crowd had even a "titter of wit" they would see how unpopular they are, and also see what has happened in the past to leaders of dictatorial rule in other countries.   Remember the fate of Saddam Hussein, Momar Gadhaffi, Hosni Mukarak just to mention a few?  They all came to a sticky end by being nothing less than power-hungry and just plain stubborn.  There need not be the same situation here.  All Mr. Hun Sen has to do is say "OK - you take over and let me see how well you run the country over the next five years." If he did that, then I have no doubt his popularity would start to rise, and if the opposition did not do well, then he could return to power at the next election.   But you can never win by killing off you own people.

Secondly, whereas I am well aware that the world is watching the situation here - especially since the events of the past few days - but nothing has emerged except a weak platitude of a statement from both the United States and the United Kingdom, who both said "We condemn the violence....". Of course they do, but statements like that are nothing more than platitudes.  Something more has to be done if the country is not to end up in another civil war.   Both the U.S. and the U.K. are powerful members of the Security Council of the United Nations.  They should immediately bring a resolution to the Council condemning what is going on here.  That would be a strong message and one which I know would not be taken lightly here by either side.

Unfortunately this lovely country is of little use to the U.S. and little attention is normally paid to it.  Much the same can be said of the U.K. also.   Even so, I believe something has to be done and quickly and the more people that learn about what is happening here the better.  That is why I chose to write this, even though I know too well it may not make me too popular in some quarters here.