WEEKEND EDITION The CambODIa DaIly All the News Without Fear or Favor Volume 60 issue 43 Saturday-Sunday, January 31-February 1, 2015 Self-Criticism At Center of CPP Congress By aNd 2,000 riel/50 cents Afghan in Uniform Kills 3 At Military Site K uch N areN K hy S ovuthy B y a li l atifi loS angeleS TimeS The CamboDia Daily As it began a three-day party congress in Phnom Penh on Friday, the ruling CPP blamed internal dysfunction and corruption for shock losses in the July 2013 national election, which was followed by a turbulent year marked by a political deadlock, mass opposition demonstrations and the government’s brutal suppression of dissents. In a report distributed to CPP officials who attended the opening of the congress at its Phnom Penh headquarters, the ruling party lays out a remarkably honest assessment of why it suffered a major blow to its popular support in the election. “Although our party was victorious, the drop in votes was the most noticeable characteristic,” says the report, which was marked “classified” and obtained from a party member who attended the closed-door morning session of the congress. “There are a number of key reasons why we have lost votes,” the 26-page report says, listing the first reason as the failure of the government to properly implement what the CPP says were “very good policies for every sector.” “Secondly, misconduct such as corruption, nepotism, the abuse Continued on page 2 2015 Photo Festival Prompts Reflections on Past and Future Weekend Page 1 cambodiadaily.com - An Afghan in military uniform shot to death three foreigners on Thursday at Kabul International Airport’s military facility, the U.S.led coalition said. The attacker was then shot and killed by security forces. The International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan did not immediately state the foreigners’ nationalities and released few details of the attack. The Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack. An airport official speaking to reporters earlier said he had been told of a shooting at the facility that left at least two Americans wounded. Citing an unnamed Defense Department source, the Washington Post later reported that all three dead foreigners were Americans and that a fourth American was wounded. no motive for the attack was immediately released. numerous people with the U.S.-led coalition have been victims in recent years of so-called insider attacks by Afghans, though the assaults have diminished as the foreign forces Continued on page 6 KAbUL Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily Prime Minister Hun Sen presides over the afternoon session of the first day of a three-day CPP congress in Phnom Penh on Friday. Thai Vigilantes Fight Against Human Trafficking reuTerS bAn bAng yAI, Thailand - bulletproof vest, shotgun, sunglasses: Kompat Sompaorat could be mistaken for a member of a SWAT team. He actually belongs to a motley group of Thai civilians who, frustrated by their government’s lackluster response to human trafficking, have taken up arms to patrol one of Asia’s busiest smuggling routes. For three months now, scores of volunteers have patrolled the estuaries and jungles of Phang nga province, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand, a short drive from the famous resort island of Phuket. They are motivated by humani- tarian concerns, they say, but also worry that the presence of armed smugglers and impoverished refugees in the vicinity could lead to an increase in crime and scare away tourists. “There are big big guys behind this trade—so big we can’t do anything about it. We can’t touch them,” said Kompat, as the volunteers arrive at an abandoned smuggling camp near the village of ban bang yai strewn with children’s shoes, women’s camisoles and trash. “We can only try to save their victims,” he said. Despite pledges by Thailand’s military junta to combat human trafficking, the volunteers say the The Daily Newspaper of Record Since 1993 influx of illegal migrants is growing, many of them Rohingya Muslims from western burma, and little is being done to stop the gangs that transport and abuse them. Every year, thousands of Rohingya and bangladeshi boat people arrive in Thailand, brought by the smugglers. They are then taken by road to desolate camps, where traffickers demand a ransom to smuggle them south across the border to Malaysia. Last year Thailand was downgraded to the lowest tier on the U.S. State Department’s influential Trafficking in Persons Report, which annually ranks countries by their countertrafficking efforts. Continued on page 6 The CambODIa DaIly 2 aNd also Incredible California Conviction reuTerS - A man who dresses as the comic superhero Mr. Incredible has been sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to attacking a woman costumed as batgirl in a Hollywood boulevard turf dispute, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Muhammet bilik, 35, was also ordered to attend anger management therapy, perform 20 days of LOS AngELES roadside cleanup and stay away from the so-called Hollywood Entertainment District where the spat erupted. A video of the incident captured by a passerby and posted on youTube shows bilik, in his Mr. Incredible costume, slamming batgirl into a rack of souvenir baseball caps as Chewbacca and Freddy Krueger characters attempt to intervene. SaTurDay-SunDay, january 31-february 1, 2015 Newsmakers n notorious former rap music mogul marioN “Suge” KNight is suspected of running two men over with his truck after an argument on a film set in Southern California, authorities said. Knight arrived at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department West Hollywood station with his attorney at about 12:30 a.m. to be interviewed by homicide detectives as a person of interest, according to authorities. The confrontation began about 3 p.m. Thursday when Knight and two unidentified men began arguing on the set of “Straight Outta Compton,” a biopic about the group n.W.A., said Captain John Corina. About 20 minutes after the alleged argument, the victims were at Tam’s burgers near Central and East Rosecrans avenues, authorities said. Knight is believed to have followed the men in his truck and run them over in the parking lot, Corina said. One of the victims, 55, died. The other, 51, suffered undisclosed injuries, Corina said. (LAT) Congress... 1 of power, big gaps between upper and lower-level officials, between government officials and the people, between rich and poor, the lack of confidence in the judicial system, inequality, the effectiveness of the implementation of laws which remains so limited, the issue of public services, land and forest issues...made people lose trust in our leadership,” the report says. “Although these lacking points were caused by a number of officials, the influence was very wide on our party’s popularity; as the common Khmer proverb says ‘one fermented fish causes a bad smell for all the fish in a basket,’” it continues. The report says that damage to the CPP’s popular support was also caused by border and immigration issues, which it says have been seized on by the CnRP “to attract support from those who have extreme opinions, especially among youth who lack correct understanding about history.” The success of the CnRP at attracting support at the local and national level is listed as the fifth reason for the CPP’s recent struggles. Opening the afternoon session of the congress—held on the capital’s Koh Pich island—Prime Minister Hun Sen assured more than 1,300 party members in attendance that CPP President Chea Sim, who suffered a stroke in 2000 and has been in increasingly poor health, would remain in his position until he died. “As long as he is alive, he will remain the president of our party. This is the political principal of leaders of the Cambodian People’s Party,” Mr. Hun Sen said in his brief opening remarks. Earlier this week, Mr. Sim’s chief bodyguard said the CPP president was undergoing a medical checkup in Vietnam and was unlikely to make it back to Cambodia in time for the party’s congress. coNtiNued from page Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily CPP members attend the afternoon session of the party's congress on Friday at Koh Pich City Hall in Phnom Penh. In a speech following Mr. Hun Sen’s remarks, national Assembly President Heng Samrin, who is also the CPP’s “honorary president,” blasted the opposition’s efforts to disrupt the government following the 2013 election. Despite official results showing that the CPP won 68 seats to the CnRP’s 55, the opposition claimed that it would have won the election if not for manipulation by the ruling party, and launched a series of mass protests that culminated in its occupation in December 2013 of Freedom Park, which became a home base for daily demonstrations numbering in the tens of thousands. “After the national election in July 2013, Cambodia’s situation was interrupted by the opposition and their supporters who did not recognize the results of the election,” Mr. Samrin told party members packed into Koh Pich City Hall. “They incited demonstrations, riots, interruption [and] turmoil using all kinds of tricks with the purpose of toppling the government and the Cambodian People’s Party and to push Cambodia’s situation to move away from democracy and abuse the Constitution and laws, opposing the decision of the majority of people who voted,” he said. nonetheless, Mr. Samrin said that the election and its aftermath was cause for soul-searching within the ruling party. “These matters require us to thoroughly study the cause that resulted in such a situation, meanwhile evaluating carefully strong points, weak points and lessons from new experiences for the party, pushing for timely and effective reform,” Mr. Samrin said. Since last year’s July 22 political deal between Mr. Hun Sen and CnRP President Sam Rainsy, which saw the CnRP’s 55 lawmakers end their 10-month boycott of parliament, the opposition has touted a “culture of dialogue” between the two parties; a contrast to its efforts to delegitimize the CPP government following the 2013 election. Contacted by telephone Friday, Mr. Rainsy said that the CnRP was still broadening its support based on the quality of its ideas and proposals put forward while in opposition. “We will continue to compete with the CPP; compete for the support of the population. And I think we, meaning the CnRP, are on a winning track because we compete with ideas, we compete with proposals, we don’t compete with money, with intimidation, with disinformation,” he said. Mr. Rainsy wished the CPP the best in its efforts to reform. “I wish the CPP good luck in reforming their policies and in reforming themselves, but I doubt whether they will be able to reform themselves in the way the people want—to see a responsible party, a party leading the country to behave,” he said. “because I think the corruption in the CPP in endemic, is systemic, so any serious reform to curb corruption would undermine the very foundation of the CPP.” (Additional reporting by Colin Meyn) International Brief -----Blast at Shiite Mosque in Southern Pakistan Kills 49 ------ SHIKARPUR, Pakistan - At least 49 people were killed in a powerful explosion at a crowded Shiite mosque in Pakistan during Friday prayers, the latest sectarian attack to hit the South Asian nation. Police said the blast was caused either by a suicide bomber or an explosive device which went off when the mosque was at its fullest on Friday afternoon in the center of Shikarpur, a city in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh. Radical Sunni Islamist groups often target mosques frequented by minority Shiites, whom they see as infidels. Earlier this month, six people were killed and 17 wounded by a suicide bomber outside a Shiite mosque in the city of Rawalpindi, also after Friday prayers. “We are trying to ascertain the nature of the blast,” said Shikarpur Police Chief Saqib Ismail Memon. “A bomb disposal squad is examining the scene.” Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo, head of the regional civil administration, told reporters that the death toll had reached 49. In chaotic scenes that followed the blast, part of the mosque collapsed after the explosion, burying some of the wounded under rubble. bystanders pulled people from the debris and piled them into cars for the journey to the hospital. (Reuters)