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Gov’t Defiant as NGO Law Moves to Council
The government has remained steadfast in the face of domestic and international criticism as the controversial draft NGO law, already passed by the National Assembly and Senate, moved this week to the Constitutional Council, the final step before it is signed into law by King Norodom Sihamoni.
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Anti-Dredging Protests in Koh Kong Called Off
Representatives of about 100 villagers and activists in Koh Kong province on Wednesday said they decided to temporarily halt their campaign against two sand-dredging companies because a group of suspected agitators had appeared in the area.
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Opposition to submit complaint over LANGO
The opposition is expected today to lodge a constitutional challenge to the controversial law on associations and non-governmental organisations (LANGO) in a last-ditch effort to stop the legislation before it’s signed by the King. In a 15-page letter to Constitutional Council President Ek Sam Ol, signed by at least a dozen lawmakers and obtained yesterday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party argues that the LANGO, opposed by hundreds of NGOs, the UN, the EU and the United States, breaches several points of the Kingdom’s constitution. Among the violations, says CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay, are restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression, protected by article 41, and the right to establish associations, stipulated in Article 42.
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Acid murder trial under way
The trial of a woman accused of using acid to murder a teenager she suspected of having an affair with her husband began in Phnom Penh yesterday, almost five months after the attack. Sroeun Nann, 40, was arrested on March 6, the same day she threw acid over the face and body of 15-year-old Meas Vanny. Nann accused the girl of romantic involvement with her husband, who worked at the same garment factory where Vanny was a security guard. After more than two weeks of agony, the teenager – who was previously reported as being aged 20 – died of her injuries on March 21. While Nann has admitted to the attack, she denies meaning to murder Vanny.
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Cambodia Remains on US ‘Watch List’ for Trafficking
PHNOM PENH—Cambodia remains on a watch list at the US State Department, for failing to do enough to combat human trafficking. In its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department kept Cambodia a “tier 2” country. “While the government continued to prosecute and convict traffickers, including one case involving the forced labor of Cambodian men on commercial fishing vessels, it failed to increase overall efforts to combat all forms of human trafficking from the previous year,” the State Department said in a statement.
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Families fear eviction in dispute with Try Pheap
Twenty-three families in a village in Pursat province currently embroiled in a land dispute with a company owned by tycoon Try Pheap have claimed that authorities are putting pressure on locals in an attempt to quash the issue. The families, from Sangkum Thmey village in Veal Veng district, trace their roots in the area to the Khmer Rouge era, when their relatives were moved and integrated there. However, the Pheap-owned MDS Import Export Co has claims to more than 4,400 hectares in the area. Resident Prak Sophal, 60, said she and her fellow residents fear that the authorities, who have called into question the people’s ownership and the authenticity of their certificates, will not allow them to return to their lands.
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Governor on Interpol List Three Years After Shooting
An international arrest warrant has finally been issued for Chhouk Bundith, the former governor of Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City who went into hiding before being found guilty of shooting three garment workers three years ago, according to National Police spokesman Kirth Chantharith.
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Man Arrested for Rape Of Teenage Daughter
A farmer was arrested in Kampot province on Wednesday morning for allegedly raping his 13-year-old daughter three times in the forests of Chhuk district after taking her with him to trap wild animals, police said.
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ELCs tied to destruction of forests in new report
Cambodis's most crucial forests are disappearing at a rate of more than 2,000 kilometres a year, as agricultural firms continue to harvest timber by illegal means in protected areas and national parks, according to a study from Washington-based Forest Trends. The report, released yesterday evening, uses satellite imagery to link “the growing number of industrial agricultural development projects to the escalating destruction of Cambodian forests”. Combining data culled from NASA satellite pictures of 32,053 hotspots during the 2012-13 dry season with the measurement of carbon emissions, Forest Trends determined that companies controlling ELCs were logging some of the country’s oldest and most valuable forests.
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Report Challenges Gov’t Land Concession Claims
Cambodia is experiencing a “total system failure” of its forest management regime in the face of the government’s widespread and unlawful use of concessions meant for growing crops to let companies harvest timber, according to a new report by U.S.-based environmental protection group Forest Trends.
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Lifespan of ELCs slashed by gov’t
The government has declared leases on plantations will be limited to 50 years, slashing the length of some existing concessions in half, though neither ministry responsible for overseeing the move would confirm the legal basis for doing so. The decision was announced in a press release issued by the Ministry of Environment yesterday, with its chief of cabinet, Srun Darith, saying the policy would be implemented on new and already- existing economic land concessions (ELCs). “Most of the existing ELC companies have no contract. For those companies with contracts, they will be reviewed,” he said. Eang Sophalleth, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, confirmed his ministry would also be implementing the plan
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New group of trafficked fishermen reach home
Yet another group of rescued Cambodian fishermen believed to have been trafficked and forced to work on Thai fishing vessels arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. “They arrived today [Tuesday] at 4:15pm,” ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said yesterday, adding that all 33 of them had been interviewed by the Cambodian Embassy in Indonesia. Indonesian authorities, along with embassy officials in Jakarta and personnel with the International Organization for Migration, emancipated the 33 men from three different areas within Riau Islands province, a small yet sprawling archipelago in the area between Sumatra, Borneo and mainland Malaysia.
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Gov’t revises trade union law
Several of the more contentious points from Cambodia’s draft trade union law have been dropped, a pro-government union leader said yesterday, although at least one major union remains unsatisfied with the pending legislation. Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng told reporters yesterday that the law was “90 per cent” complete and would be sent to the Council of Ministers next month. “We will try our best to have an agreement from everyone on this law and make conflicts a small thing,” he said on the sidelines of the fourth and final meeting with stakeholders on the law, a meeting the Free Trade Union sat out, having declared it “useless”. Speaking after the meeting in Phnom Penh, Som Aun, president of the pro-government Cambodian Council of National Unions (CCNU), said that the draft law was an improvement over the current Labour Law. “Most of the points that the unions were concerned about were solved and dropped,” Aun said.
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Boeng Kak’s ‘Mummy’ Receives Land Title
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district said Tuesday that land titles were handed to two more families from the Boeng Kak neighborhood, including that of 76-year-old land rights activist Nget Khun, known also as “Mummy.”
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Civil Party Blames King Sihanouk for Khmer Rouge Suffering
A survivor of the Pol Pot regime told the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday that he holds the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk responsible for the trauma he endured under the ultra-Marxists.
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Cambodia: Drop Prosecution of Rights Defender
(New York) – Cambodian authorities should drop the prosecution of a human rights defender who raised concerns about the conduct of the judiciary in a land dispute case, Human Rights Watch said today. On May 15, 2015, judicial authorities publicly accused Ny Chakrya from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) of defamation, malicious denunciation, and acting “to apply constraint upon the judiciary.” Together, the three offenses are punishable by up to a year-and-a-half in prison, plus fines. Three days earlier, Ny Chakrya had announced the filing of a formal complaint against a prosecutor and a judge for procedural irregularities in the prosecution of two local activists in a Siem Reap land case.
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Sesan villagers reject offer, call for studies
Villagers in Stung Treng province have rejected a new compensation offer from the firm building the divisive Lower Sesan 2 hydropower dam. Dozens of residents of Srekor village yesterday told a public forum attended by representatives of the Hydro Power Lower Sesan 2 Company (HPLS2) and government officials that they would not accept land and additional benefits, and called on the government to suspend the dam’s construction. “I can live naturally on my own, so please drop this development plan,” said villager Sarom Thun. Other villagers said a suspension of construction would allow time for an independent study of the dam’s effects.
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Environment Ministry Says Will Reduce ELC Terms to 50 Years
The Environment Ministry announced Tuesday that it has slashed the contract periods of 16 companies granted economic land concessions (ELCs) and said that all concession-holders in the country would soon see their lease terms reduced by decades.
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Ministry Presses Ahead With Draft Union Law
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday that he hoped to have a draft of a controversial union law before the Council of Ministers next month and put to a vote at the National Assembly in short order. Despite a few major concessions to its critics though, some unions remain concerned about the legislation.
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‘Surprise’ over trafficking rank
Cambodia's low rating in the United States’ Trafficking in Persons report, which was the same as last year’s, comes as a surprise to some non-governmental organisations that say the government’s efforts to tackle human trafficking have been delivering results. When the US State Department’s TIP report was released yesterday, Cambodia remained a Tier 2 country on the watch list for the third year running. Even though Cambodia managed not to tumble down to the lowest rank of Tier 3 – usually being on the watch list for more than two years in a row would result in an automatic downgrade, but Cambodia received a special waiver – some have expressed surprise at the result.
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