Ministers Declare Details of Choeung Ek Lease

In a statement released Thurs­day afternoon, the Council of Mi­n­is­ters revealed details about the much-criticized agreement handing the Choeung Ek genocide me­mor­ial site over to a private Ja­pan­ese company.

Claiming that the public was not receiving a “correct picture” of the deal, the unsigned statement from the Council of Ministers be­gan by stating that the deal was struck to “preserve and improve” Choeung Ek “in order to accommodate the expected increased number of visitors…in the coming years.”

Though the municipality has been able to maintain Choeung Ek for 25 years, “insufficient capacity” to deal with annual flooding and the need for “adequate control and service facilities” threatened the site’s survival, the Council of Min­isters stated.

Proposed improvements to the site include a “better” access road, a sur­rounding fence, trees and “im­proved guide capacity,” along with a place for silent prayers, a museum and documentary film stu­dio.

Though the deal was signed by Ko­ji Yamamoto, as president of the JC Royal Company, the entire concession agreement is apparently still controlled by the government, through JC Royal’s “voluntary chairman” Chea Vandeth, who is also Cabinet chief of the Coun­cil of Ministers, the Council of Ministers stated.

While admission fees will in­crease to $3 for foreigners, Cam­bo­dian nationals will only be re­quired to pay 500 riel if they want to enter the proposed film studio.

Though the concession was granted to JC Royal because Phnom Penh municipality does not have the capacity to maintain the site, future profits will not go to the Japanese company, which is a non-profit, but will go to an organization established by Prime Min­is­ter Hun Sen.

Profits from Choeung Ek, ex­ceeding expenses, will be handed over to the Sun Fund, which was established by Hun Sen in 2002, “to support the revival of Khmer education.”

Hun Sen is the fund’s honorary chairman, and Chea Vandeth is the fund’s secretary-general, the Council of Ministers revealed.

According to the Council of Min­­isters, the Sun Fund has built 10 school buildings, arranged study tours of Japan for Cam­bo­di­an students and teachers and provided three scholarships to study in Japan.

Though funded by benefactors in Japan and Cambodia, the JC Royal Company was established solely to raise revenues for the Sun Fund, according to the statement.

Contacted on Thursday, Chea Vandeth said he could not remember exactly how many Cambodian students and teachers had toured Japan through the Sun Fund, but it was around 10, he said.

The Sun Fund currently has two Cambodian students studying in Japan, he added.

Reporters were unable to locate a telephone number or address for the Sun Fund’s office in Cam­bo­dia, and a Web search found no mention of the organization or JC Royal President Koji Yamamoto.

Youk Chhang, director of the Doc­­umentation Center of Cam­bo­dia, said on Thursday that he had not seen the Council of Ministers’ statement but said the details of the contract were largely irrelevant as it did not address the matter of signing over a national symbol to a foreign company.

“This is not the point. Memories cannot be contracted,” he said.

Also, the involvement of government officials in the deal showed that a “conflict of interest” was at work, Youk Chhang said, adding that if money to renovate the site was the main issue, many people would contribute to support the genocide memorial.