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Gov’t to ask Thailand to look after fishermen
The Cambodian Human Rights Committee plans to ask Thailand to implement safety protections for Cambodian fishermen working in Thailand. CHRC head Keo Remy said on Wednesday the move was prompted by the recent repatriation of Cambodian fishermen who were enslaved on a Thai fishing boat. He said the request to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission would call for the protection of fishermen’s rights. However, he declined to detail the specific measures because the request was still being drafted.
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Prime Minister’s Children Accuse Media Of Colluding With NGO
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s children took to Facebook on Thursday with sarcasm and denials in reaction to a new report by Global Witness accusing the first family of using its political connections to amass a sprawling business empire rife with legal abuses. By mining the Commerce Ministry’s public corporate filings, the London-based anti-corruption group found 21 family members—from Mr. Hun Sen’s siblings and scions to nephews and nieces and their spouses—owning or investing in 114 companies with a combined capital of more than $200 million.
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Unionists Freed After Strike Called Off in Kampot
The Kampot Provincial Court on Thursday released three union leaders without charge after the Cambo T.D.G. garment factory dropped its complaint against the trio in return for an end to a two-week strike. Nearly half of the South Korean-owned factory’s 700 employees had been on strike since 21 workers were fired on June 24 for attempting to unionize, according to staff representatives. The three unionists were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly blocking the factory’s front gate and attempting to stoke the strike.
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Trial in absentia set for Rainsy
Self-exiled CNRP leader Sam Rainsy’s legal battles were compounded yesterday as a lower court concluded its investigation into the posting of a “fake” version of the Vietnam-Cambodia border treaty on his Facebook page and a trial date was set for a separate defamation suit. Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge Kor Vanny, in a letter dated June 30, said the investigation into jailed Sam Rainsy Party Senator Hong Sok Hour’s posting of an allegedly doctored version of the border treaty on Rainsy’s Facebook page last August had ended and that the prosecutor would decide the next step.
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‘Coup’ questions still echo, 19 years on
Political tensions ran high yesterday as ceremonies to commemorate a bloody takeover by the CPP following the 1997 elections became fodder for the current political players. On the 19th anniversary of the events of July 1997, in which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP snatched power from Funcinpec’s Prince Ranariddh, both the CNRP and former Funcinpec military commander Nhek Bun Chhay held remembrance ceremonies in Phnom Penh.
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Two Families Living in Hope
Ny Chan Reaksmey is only eight days old, but he has yet to meet the father who shares his family name. The young baby’s father is Ny Sokha, the head of monitoring for rights group Adhoc, who is detained in Prey Sar prison, accused of bribing a witnesses and conspiracy to bribe.
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Agriculture Official Demoted Over Land Sale
The director of Koh Kong’s provincial agriculture department has been removed from his position and demoted after an internal investigation found that he sold a plot of department land for hundreds of thousands of dollars and pocketed the profit—but faces no legal action. The case surfaced in May when six department officials accused director Meas Sopheap of selling the vacant plot in Khemara Phoumint City, measuring 150 meters by 245 meters, for $320,000, according to Ty Channa, director of the Agriculture Ministry’s human resources department.
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Hun siblings slam Global Witness report as ‘conspiracy’
Three of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s children took to social media yesterday to slam a report that revealed details of the ruling family’s business empire and alleged they amassed a “vast fortune”, while the premier himself uploaded an old picture of the family celebrating in his office. In statements on their respective Facebook pages, the premier’s daughter Hun Mana and sons Hun Manet and Hun Manith, criticised Global Witness’s “attack”, with Mana dismissing the group’s report, which is largely based on the government’s own data, as “lies and deceit” that would in fact “help my father in the coming election”.
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Strike’s end secures Kampot unionists’ release
Three union leaders arrested on Tuesday, following a two-week long strike at the Cambo TDG garment factory in Kampot, were released yesterday after the company withdrew its complaint. The three – Yon Sambo, a deputy secretary for the Cambodian Labor Union Federation; Meas Tom, a unionist for the Free Union Federation of Khmer Labor; and Sok Den of the Cambodian Worker Union Federation – were sent to court yesterday, but the charges were dropped after close to half of the 400 workers returned to work.
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Key CHRAC donor suspends funding
A key donor to the Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition (CHRAC) has suspended its funding, citing operational concerns even as other revenue sources are seemingly drying up for the organisation. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) on Wednesday decided to freeze its $35,000 annual funding to CHRAC after conducting an independent assessment of the NGO’S activities, according to country director Aksel Steen-Nilsen.
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Reporter Files Complaint Over Police Threat
The Mondolkiri Provincial Court will investigate a complaint filed by a local reporter on Thursday accusing a pair of police officials of accosting him for taking photographs of their illicit timber operation over the weekend, a court official said. Doem Soeun, a reporter for the Apsara News Network, has said that Suos Vora, a deputy police chief in Keo Seima district, and Mr. Vora’s younger brother Suos Angkea, a local border police official, caught him photographing a pile of illegally logged wood on their property and responded by deleting the photos, threatening him with a beating and detaining him for more than an hour.
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Media-pass mandate a double-edged sword for Cambodia's journalists
The government has issued new rules for journalists to acquire a media pass – a move designed to crack down on fraudsters but that also poses a barrier to independent freelancers. Ministry of Information spokesman Ouk Kimseng yesterday said that as of this month, the department will require applicants for a media pass to present their credentials from their organisation’s head.
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Government Issues Final ‘Samdech’ Warning
The Ministry of Information gave a final warning to media outlets on Thursday, ordering that they refer to Prime Minister Hun Sen and select officials with their honorific “Samdech” or face legal action, while a ministry official said insubordination could lead to the termination of licenses. Media outlets were first ordered in December to start using the honorific. In May, the ministry set a June deadline for newspapers and broadcasters registered in Cambodia to start referring to Mr. Hun Sen and top CPP officials as “Samdech,” a royally bestowed honorific that translates roughly as “the greatest.”
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Briefly Out of Hiding, Sokha Marks July 1997
CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha briefly left his haven inside the opposition party’s headquarters on Wednesday to lead a ceremony marking 19 years since the July 1997 factional fighting that led to First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh’s ouster. The second time Mr. Sokha descended the stairs of the building for a ceremony in its parking area since police attempted to arrest him on May 26, he led about 100 supporters to mark the day that then-Second Prime Minister Hun Sen cemented his grip on Cambodia.
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Wood-Trading Official Had Been Warned
A police official who fled his home in Mondolkiri province over the weekend after a journalist reported him for stockpiling valuable timber was previously warned about keeping illegally logged wood on his property, authorities said on Wednesday. Suos Vora, a deputy police chief in Keo Seima district, and Mr. Vora’s younger brother, Suos Angkea, a local border police official, absconded from their residence on Sunday when Forestry Administration officials showed up to inspect a pile of Beng, Thnong and Chambak wood stored there.
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Mitr Phol evictees vow homecoming
More than 100 villagers evicted to make way for a Mitr Phol sugar plantation have vowed to return to their land in a week after they were snubbed by the Oddar Meanchey provincial governor yesterday, according to community leader Hoy Mai. Forced at gunpoint in 2008 to vacate land they say had been in many of their families for generations to make way for three economic land concessions granted to Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol, the evictees filed a petition in February asking for their land back.
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CNRP asks for voting abroad to be allowed
The Cambodia National Rescue Party has formally asked the National Election Committee to allow Cambodian nationals who work overseas to vote. NEC spokesman Hang Puthea yesterday confirmed he had received a letter making the request signed by CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay and seven others and dated July 5. Puthea said the Election Law would have to be changed to allow overseas voting.
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Workers Demand Better Conditions
More than 7,000 workers from the Can Sports Shoe factory protested outside their workplace in Kampong Chhnang’s Samaky Meanchey district yesterday, demanding better working conditions. President of the Cambodian Youth Power Union League (CYPUL) Seang Rithy said workers had been protesting inside the factory since Monday and had been on strike since Tuesday, with a list of nine demands to the company including offering incentive bonuses and ceasing unfair penalties against workers for showing up only a few minutes late.
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Mam Sonando protest denied by city
Phnom Penh City Hall yesterday refused to grant permission for a protest over the jailing of rights activists on Saturday. In May, Beehive Social Democratic Party director Mam Sonando – who has been imprisoned three times in the past for allegedly inciting riots – declared he would lead a protest of 200 people through Freedom Park on July 9 unless four Adhoc staffers and a National Election Committee official were released.
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Returned UDG Evictees Want Double the Land
The 529 families who in 2010 traded their homes inside a $3.8 billion Chinese development project in Koh Kong province for land about 20 km away have petitioned local authorities to double the size of their replacement plots, officials said on Wednesday. The families, most of which accepted a few hundred dollars and 2.5 hectares inland from their old coastal homes in Kiri Sakor district, are among hundreds protesting the six-year-old deal after a group of holdouts negotiated better terms in May.
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