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Adhoc rights workshops halted
Unformed police quashed a pair of USAID-funded human rights workshops in Preah Vihear and Ratanakkiri provinces yesterday, in what rights group Adhoc suggested was an act of politically motivated overreach. But commune, district and provincial authorities yesterday defended their decision to send in police to clamp down on the program, claiming Adhoc had not sought permission through the correct bureaucratic channels.
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After Protest, Dream Land Agrees to Severance
Former employees of the recently closed Dream Land amusement park in Phnom Penh agreed to severance packages of between $85 and $200 on Tuesday, company officials said. The employees protested outside the Daun Penh district amusement park on Monday, claiming it closed a month ahead of schedule and demanding one month’s salary and a portion of their annual bonus as severance. Dream Land, which officially shut down on February 29, sits on land slated for a $3-billion, 133-story twin-tower development.
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Women Freed From Prison After Order From Hun Sen
Two women who were jailed last week for allegedly breaching a court order related to an ongoing land dispute in Kompong Speu province were freed on Monday night—an hour after Prime Minister Hun Sen called for their release on his Facebook page. Government officials were quick to defend the premier’s order as an opinion that the court was free to ignore, but critics said the move only served to illustrate Mr. Hun Sen’s expansive powers, further compromising the independence of the judiciary.
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Kratie Protesters file Petition for Intervention in Land Dispute
About 100 villagers from Kratie province came to the capital yesterday to submit a petition to the prime minister’s cabinet and the Interior Ministry requesting government intervention in a land dispute case that has seen three of their fellow residents arrested, according to village representatives. The rights to a nearly 312 hectare plot of land in Chhlong district’s Damrey Phong commune is claimed to have been owned and farmed on by 104 families since 2011. The families said that last month, the land began being parceled out by the government and given to 998 other families as compensation for land lost elsewhere.
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Chief one of arrested ‘loggers’
Three Cambodian villagers, including a village chief from Banteay Meanchey’s O’Chrou district, were arrested on Friday by Thai police on suspicion of illegal logging, officials said yesterday. Man Thhey, deputy O’Chrou district police chief, told the Post that a group of 23 villagers from O’Beichoan commune had crossed the border undocumented, and while 18 escaped Thai authorities, three were arrested and are being held in Thailand’s Sala Krao province. Among them was Prev Chan village chief Phong Kim Leang. Two remain unaccounted for.
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Police Shut Down NGO Event for Indigenous Communities
Police in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday ordered rights group Adhoc to call off a planned workshop meant to inform local indigenous communities of their rights, claiming the NGO had failed to secure the necessary permission from authorities. Adhoc provincial coordinator Chhay Thy said he and his staff arrived at the Krieng village community center in Bakeo district just after 8 a.m. and that about 20 police arrived minutes later to shut the event down.
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Student Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Facebook Post
Kong Raiya, the first-year university student who called for a Kingdom-wide color revolution in a Facebook post last August, was convicted on charges of inciting chaos by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Mr. Raiya pleaded with the court to drop his charges, saying he did not understand the true meaning of his words when he first published them.
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Sides to sit down over factory strife
About 100 employees who were prevented from protesting on Monday after they were locked inside the Singaporean-owned Bright Sky factory in Phnom Penh took their case to the Ministry of Labour yesterday. Tep Ton, president of the Workers Development Union Federation, said the workers were concerned about losing their jobs after the factory, located in Por Sen Chey district, moved from producing garments to bags and wanted the ministry to intervene.
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Student gets 18 months for post
University student Kong Raiya – on trial over alleged incitement pertaining to a 2015 Facebook post – expressed optimism to reporters as he entered the courtroom yesterday, only to hang his head as the verdict against him was read aloud minutes later. In jail since last August after posting a Facebook status update calling for a “colour revolution”, the 25-year-old was found guilty by Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Heng Sokna and sentenced to 18 months in jail, guaranteeing another year behind bars.
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More Evidence of Illegal Logging Goes Up in Flames
Another fire which destroyed evidence seized during investigations into illegal logging has raised eyebrows about the timing of such blazes, which have followed a recent crackdown on illegal logging. The latest fire occurred on Sunday in Pursat province in a compound adjacent to a district Forestry Administration office.
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Jailed FB poster’s fellow students seek leniency
Students from Khemarak University filed a petition yesterday asking for leniency for a fellow student arrested last summer over inflammatory Facebook posts. Kong Raiya was charged with incitement last August over Facebook updates he posted under a pseudonym calling for a “colour revolution” in Cambodia. Phnom Penh Municipal Court is scheduled to deliver a verdict this afternoon.
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Preah Sihanouk Officials Meet Over Beach Compensation Plan
Preah Sihanouk provincial officials met on Monday to discuss an order from the national government to provide compensation for a number of families living and running businesses on O’Chheuteal Beach in Sihanoukville who are facing the threat of eviction.
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Workers locked in at Phnom Penh factory
More than 200 garment workers from Singaporean-owned Bright Sky factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district were locked inside the facility yesterday, after union leaders attempted to mount a protest, saying that workers were anxious their jobs may be at risk as the factory switches from garment to bag manufacturing. According to Tep Ton, president of the Workers Development Union Federation, workers at the factory were prevented from striking yesterday after the employer locked the doors from 11am to 3pm.
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Students File Petition Over Sokha, Complaint Over Mistress
With deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha refusing to discuss audio recordings alleged to be of him speaking with a mistress, a group of ostensibly concerned students turned to the National Assembly on Monday in their campaign for the truth. About 50 students who claim to be free from political interests submitted a petition with the National Assembly asking for Mr. Sokha to be summoned to answer questions about the recordings, in which a man and a young woman are heard discussing sex, pregnancy and paying for an apartment.
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Khmer Rouge Tribunal Charges Ta An With Genocide
Nearly a year after the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia charged former Khmer Rouge official Ao An, better known by his revolutionary alias Ta An, with crimes against humanity, the tribunal on Monday heaped a slew of new charges on the aging suspect, including genocide. Ta An, 83, was charged by International Co-Investigating Judge Michael Bohlander with committing genocide against Cham Muslims, along with crimes against humanity at a wide range of sites during his tenure as deputy secretary of the Central Zone of Democratic Kampuchea.
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Students Stand Up for ‘Color Revolution’ Classmate
A group of university students yesterday submitted petitions to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Ministry of Justice demanding the release of Kong Raiya, a first-year university student arrested last August for comments he posted on Facebook calling for a Cambodian “color revolution.” The petition was signed with six thumbprints by students at Khemarak University after he was arrested on August 21, 2015. The student faces up to two years in prison if found guilty of inciting chaos.
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Prime Minister Pledges Arrests Over False Debt Promises
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday threatened to have any politician arrested on the spot for promising to erase people’s debt if elected, revisiting criticism that he leveled against the opposition CNRP prior to the 2013 national election. In a speech at an annual microfinance conference at his office building in Phnom Penh, the premier said unnamed politicians had claimed that the government could make people’s loans disappear because their debt belonged to the state.
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Dreamland park staff seek payouts
Former Dreamland employees protested outside the recently closed amusement park yesterday to demand the company pay them entitlements owed under the Labour Law. Nearly 100 employees gathered for an hour in the morning until they were notified that the company was willing to negotiate.
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Residents Seek Legislative Intervention in Land Dispute
About 65 villagers from Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Srouch district handed out petitions yesterday urging the National Assembly to push the provincial court into releasing two of their leaders. Thirty-two-year-old Sy Sin from Taing Samrong commune said: “We rallied in front of the National Assembly demanding the release of our leaders, You Ron and Ith Rom, who were imprisoned last Friday by the provincial court.
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As Deadline Passes, O’Tres Beach Businesses Fight On
Although an eviction deadline passed on Sunday for guesthouses, restaurants and bars along Sihanoukville’s popular O’Tres Beach, less than half of the businesses had left as of the evening, with others seeking to negotiate a deal with authorities that would allow them to stay. Last month, business owners on O’Tres Beach and part of neighboring O’Chheuteal Beach were served with a notice giving them a month to leave the area, with authorities citing environmental concerns for the decision. They were given a firm deadline of March 13, told that because their establishments were on state land and had not been paying property taxes, the government was not required to compensate them for their losses.
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