To impose more pressure on the government, the environmental watchdog Global Witness has presented its latest findings on rampant illegal logging to King Norodom Sihan­ouk.

A Funcinpec activist in Kom­pong Thom was shot dead over the weekend in the 12th alleged political killing in six weeks, a party official said.

A baby girl snatched from her house in Tuol Kok three weeks ago has been reunited with her mother after her abductor led police to the family to whom the child was sold.

The government continues to struggle to transform the former embattled Khmer Rouge zone of Anlong Veng into a place where people can develop their lives, an RCAF general acknowledged Tuesday.

Some Say Feud, Others Say Politics

Shattering the uneasy calm of the first 10 days of the official campaign period, an explosion ripped through a park in central Phnom Penh on Monday night, killing a young woman and wounding eight others, police and hospital officials said.

Tourist arrivals in Cambodia during the first five months of 1998 were down 38 percent compared with the same period last year, according to statistics from the Tourism Ministry.

Garment workers from Phnom Penh’s Seng Yong factory will be paid overtime and given time off to vote in the election, union officials said Monday, after workers went on strike.

At least 15 people have died of cholera in the last two weeks in the crowded border town of Poipet, although health officials believe the outbreak has been contained.

Deposed first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh vowed at a memorial service Monday that he would find justice for victims of last July’s factional fighting and of other political violence.

A 27-year-old monk at the capital’s Wat Srah Chok has been defrocked after the discovery of his month-long affair with a widowed cigarette vendor.

Faced with poor roads, the rainy season and a shortage of time, the National Election Com­mittee has contracted with a helicopter company and is negotiating a deal with Royal Air Cambodge to transport ballots to and from remote areas, NEC officials said Monday.

Finance Minister Keat Chhon reiterated Monday Cambo­dia’s determination to join Asean, des­pite the current economic turmoil that has engulfed many countries in the regional grouping.

Sy Kan, 56, knows her vote is supposed to be secret. She heard the message from Untac Radio in 1993 and she wants to believe in it now. But sitting last week talking to a young student near her Tuol Kok home, she confessed she is worried.

“I have heard that people can know my secret because of modern electronic systems like the computer, so I’m afraid of being harassed next time if I don’t vote for them,” Sy Kan said.

Patiently, Bun Socheath, a 19-year-old student at Santhor Mok High School, explained to her that computers are only used to re­cord registration information, not votes themselves.

“One must realize that a ballot you cast for any party in the election is unknowable,” he said. “It is cheating your own conscience if you don’t vote for a party that you like.”

After 20 minutes, Sy Kan was finally convinced and confident that no one will know which par­ty’s box she ticks July 26.

Bun Socheath is not an elections official or a volunteer for an election watchdog group. He is simply a conscientious student who views it as his duty to dispel myths about the election.

But around the country, there may not be enough Bun So­cheaths to combat what many see as an orchestrated campaign to undermine voters’ confidence in ballot secrecy.

Potential voters have had their thumbprints taken, their registration cards collected and their voter identification numbers recorded. They’ve been told that their information is “in a computer” and in some cases, that the CPP has satellites that can see into the voting booth, human rights investigators say.

As a result, apprehension about ballot secrecy appears to be rife, especially among Cambodia’s un­educated rural poor, said Chea Vannath, acting president of the Center for Social Devel­op­ment.

The superstitions and poverty of little-educated peasants fuel the tactics, Chea Vannath said. Peo­ple who swear an oath of loyalty or who accept gifts, often feel they will be punished or face religious damnation if they do not vote for that party.

The CPP has strongly denied using any such tactics and scoffs at the suggestion of a campaign to make people doubt the confidentiality of their vote.

Still, Lao Mong Hay, president of the Khmer Institute for Demo­cracy, said people do not seem as confident about the secret ballot as in 1993. And he said such a  lack of trust could jeopardize the entire election.

“Secrecy of the vote is the guarantee of free elections,” he said.

“Without secrecy of vote, there cannot be free choice,” he said. “If people have to look over their shoulder, there is no point.”

For this reason, several campaigns have begun to convince voters that, despite what anyone says, they can vote their consciences with confidence.

The National Election Com­mittee, which Lao Mong Hay has previously criticized for not emphasizing ballot secrecy, is currently preparing seven television and five radio spots focusing on the issue.

“We will release all the broadcast spots and documents in the coming days to educate people to understand that nobody can know the content of their secret ballot,” NEC spokesman Leng Sochea said last week.

“Education and information is the key to the election. So we have to keep people informed of their concerns in order to make way for [free and fair] elections,” he said.

The NEC also plans to distribute about 50,000 copies of the message from King Norodom Sihanouk convincing people their votes will be secret, and appealing to them to vote according to their conscience.

Another statement, written by UN Secretary General Kofi An­nan in support of the King’s ap­peal, will also be distributed in the election run-up.

NGOs and election watchdog groups also are working to combat apprehension about the confidentiality of the vote.

The election group Neutral Im­partial Committee of Free Elec­tions for Cambodia last week show­cased one in a series of educational dramas to be performed in rural areas.

The drama depicts a family conflict breaking out after a man accepts a bribe from a party to collect votes, but his wife and children refuse to go along with it.

The man panics, believing he and his whole family could be killed unless they vote for that party.

Like Sy Kan, he knows that computers are used in the electoral process but mistakenly believes they can be used to reveal his vote.

An argument in the family is broken up by electoral officials, who explain that the poll is conducted secretly, with voters marking their papers in private booths before putting them in the ballot box after which no-one can know how they voted.

“A performance like this is very helpful for poorly-educated people in the countryside who don’t have TV or radio,” explained NICFEC president Hang Puthea, at the launch of the education campaign on Thursday. This is the second program of its kind to be undertaken by NICFEC: A similar voter registration campaign reached around 430,000 in 15 provinces, and it is hoped this one will have a similar reach.

Mom Sok, deputy chairman of the National Election Committee’s education and training department, welcomed the initiative’s efforts to combat the fear and misinformation rife in the provinces.

Having failed to move the international community with a second boycott threat, the opposition Son Sann and Sam Rainsy parties announced Sunday they would participate in July 26 elections despite serious reservations.

Ninety-three-year-old Con­stitutional Council dean Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum was sworn in Saturday as a member of the country’s su­preme legislative appeals body, one month after he failed to show at the original ceremony.

Two Sam Rainsy Party workers claimed they were beaten and held for nine hours in the Bassac squatter camp in Phnom Penh on Sunday.

The first anniversary of last July’s factional fighting was marked Sunday by a me­morial march through the capital organized by Son Sann Party supporters.

Rumors of war filled the air several days before Dy, a military policeman, found himself running for his life on July 5.

Prince’s Bodyguard Recalls Terrifying Hours

Thong Serey Both was eating noodles at about 8 am at a streetside stall when he first saw the tanks rolling up Street 228.

Cambodia Rebuilds in the Aftermath

Cambodia still has a way to go before it regains the momentum it had built before last year’s factional fighting, analysts and government officials said this week. But one year later, the country ap­pears to be gradually recovering.