I began the day at the CAFOD temporary office. This is a single room about 15ft square and housing a staff of seven. They are often out of the office but it is nonetheless crowded. The building next to their permanent offices was sold and demolished. The plan was to replace it with a fourteen storey building. The building work and drilling made their building unsafe and work impossible. I went to see the site and was amazed by the sight of about 20 workmen and women (and some children) shoveling soil and making rudimentary preparations for the building. It was clear that they, and the children, live on site for the period of building. There was a rough shelter with open sides where they eat and sleep. It is probably two or three families who contract for the work, hiring in machinery when required. I have no confidence at all in the structure that will rise fourteen storeys.
I met all the CAFOD staff. Five are Cambodians, one Chinese Australian and one Filipino. They are a very impressive group. They described their own particular responsibilities and some of their projects. Then we were off in a tuk-tuk (motorbike taxi) to see something of Phnom Penh.
I was able to get the idea of the shape of the city, which is surprisingly compact given that it houses four million people. By legend, a woman call Penh found a box of four statues of Buddha on the banks of the Mekong and she housed them on the hill (Phnom means hill) and thus the name of the town which grew there was simply called Phnom Penh. Today there is a small temple with beautiful wall paintings, and an impressive number of pilgrims (as opposed to tourists).
We saw the fortress-like American Embassy and the Royal Palace and then we visited the very distressing museum called S21 - or the Tuol Sleng Museum. I have visited the like in Rwanda and East Timor. In 1975 the Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21. It soon became the largest centre of detention, torture and extermination in the country. Between 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people were taken to execution at Choeung Ek (also known as The Killing Fields). The museum is preserved in all its horror.
There was a visit with Kiko to Development Partnership in Action (DPA), a CAFOD partner. They specialise in many of the fields of CAFOD's expertise: Natural Resource Management, Climate Change, Land Grabbing, Mineral Exploitation, Deforestation etc. They have many projects in the distant and remote parts of Cambodia, largely among the indigenous peoples, of whom there are some 500 groups.
The next stop was the British Embassy and a conversation with Michelle Broadbent, the Deputy Ambassador, about the work done in conjunction with CAFOD. We covered much the same ground here as at our final meeting of the day at the offices of the Delegation of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia where we met with Egbert Walter (First Secretary) and Vannsin Song, the Cambodian Programme Officer. There was good news, such as reports of a fast growing economy which benefits so many. But though 40% of the population have significantly benefitted, 20% still live with less than 1.25 US Dollars per day and another 20% are just above that level. There is a middle class of just 12%.
We learned about the comprehensive laws to protect the indigenous peoples but then learned that the process of becoming licensed as an indigenous group requires the work of expensive lawyers and the licensed land costs per hectare (demanded of a people of the land who barely have any money). Add to that the fact that only ten licenses are issued each year and the process looks hopelessly long and expensive for most.
People speak of corruption and bribery being rife in the country. The good news here is that this year there was a clamp down on the 'purchase' of High School diplomas. As a result 75% of all the students who took the exams failed. The Ministry of Education held firm and allowed retakes in October, the results are awaited. But 10,000 students deferred to retake next summer. There is an indication here that standards will improve.
