The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 629 - Sunday, 13.9.2009
Is the Mirror a publication on legal affairs? No. But we have been dealing a lot during recent weeks and months with problems related to laws – their existence or non-existence, their different interpretations, and their enforcement of non-enforcement. And we have done so because of the irritation to which this leads – in the country and between representatives of Cambodia and persons and institutions in other countries.
The Mirror, Vol. 13, No. 629 - Thursday, 10.9.2009
"Takeo: The Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Samdech Dekchor Hun Sen, continued to criticize the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, saying that according to the majority vote formula, to try more former Khmer Rouge leaders is impossible, because the Khmer and the foreign judges and co-prosecutors are having disagreements, and are only wasting more money.
Whenever there are large scale development actions planned, there are almost always also some people affected negatively, everywhere in the world.
The following report about how a Ratanakiri deputy governor publicly speaks of the need to carefully weigh positive goals and unavoidable negative results, is an example that is worth of being taken care of widely in the country: “Development cannot avoid certain impacts that we try to steer clear of.” - “First we need to assess the impacts on the society, the economy, and the environment, especially to organize plans with the participations from all relevant institutions and from the communities, before any projects are finally decided.”
There is no doubt – according to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, this is a country which is to live as a state of law.
But we are mirroring, almost every week, where laws of the country, or regulations pronounced by the government, or orders given by persons in positions of high responsibility are disregarded. This is a fact, but this should not happen. Of course small or big violations of laws happen in every country. When we mirror quite a number of such violations, we do not focus on what violations of the law are committed just by some individuals. But we focus on examples where violations happen within the structures of society and its administration by the government.