Screenshots

My first meal in Phnom Penh was at the FCC, or The 'F' in the lingo of the locals.

I wonder if FCC still stands for Foreign Correspondents' Club ala FCA of Singapore, where journalists congregate and food is great. Except for the small collection of photos capturing war-torn and rustic Cambodia, and merchandising items ala Hard Rock Cafe, this place doesn't tell much about its link to the Press until you hit the ABOUT US button, where a 1993 entrepreneurial outing now looms big.

The local curry I had (US$9.50, Angkor Twist US$3.50) was certainly great, punctuated with the presence of expatriates who thronged this colonial remnant of French tastes, overlooking Tonle Sap, greeting intense tropical heat with open verendah. I, for one, just made up the statistics who co-helped fund the tut tut driver's daily intake.

Parliamentarian's role

Tomorrow, I am going to play the role of a parliamentarian and attend a workshop on defence procurement in Southeast Asia. It's an event organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Forum on Security Sector Governance (IPF-SSG) in various countries, including Malaysia (read: Sokhoi aircraft and Scorpene cubmarines). This is a new area I'll try to understand and learn more about.

On October 13, I will have the opportunity to take a look at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, or the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC).

You see, the Khmer Rouge regime took power in Cambodia on April 17, 1975 and was overthrown on January 7, 1979. By the time this period of 3 years, 8 months and 20 days of madness was up, about three million people were believed to have perished in vain as victims of brutalities. Unfortunately, the end of Khmer Rouge era was followed by a civil war which finally ended in 1998, when the Khmer Rouge political and military structures were dismantled but none of the brutal perpetrators of the Killing Fields were brought to a war crime tribunal to be tried.

In 1997, the government requested the United Nations (UN) to assist in establishing a trial to prosecute the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge. In 2001, the Cambodian National Assembly passed a law to create a court to try serious crimes committed during the Khmer Rouge regime 1975-1979. This court is called the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea (Extraordinary Chambers or ECCC).

However, the government of Cambodia insisted that, for the sake of the Cambodian people, the trial must be held in Cambodia using Cambodian staff and judges together with foreign personnel. In order to fulfil international standards of justice, Cambodia later invited international participation due to the weakness of the Cambodian legal system and the international nature of the crimes.

An agreement with the UN was ultimately reached in June 2003 detailing how the international community will assist and participate in the Extraordinary Chambers. But, at this juncture, I am not sure when the trial will begin. For the record, though this special new court was created by the Cambodian government and the UN, it is neither dependent on them.

My participation in the whole process is hosted by Germany-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1925 as a political legacy of Germany’s first democratically elected president, Friedrich Ebert.

UPDATES: There's a fine place for French cuisine called Van's. No website, it's located next to the post office along Street 102, Sangkat Wat Phnom, Kwan Daun Penh. Set dinner at US$9.00, house wine US$6 per glass.

Internet in my hotel (it's a former detention during Khmer Rouge's time), delivered via high speed WiFi, is US$20 (RM70.00) for 8 hours! The system here works like a prepaid mobile-phone card, the value perishes as you use and the US$20 block is valid for one month, you can log in-and-out anytime.

Photography... Getting tired of the weight of full gear whenever I travel, I am making the first attempt in fixing a full-frame Nikon D3 with a 50mm F/1.8 for street shots, non-flash. Hopefully something nice comes out of it.