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CPP Senators Approve NGO Law as Hundreds Protest
As hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Senate Friday morning, 44 ruling party senators voiced their support for the controversial NGO law before approving it unanimously and sending it on to the Constitutional Council. Senate spokesman Mam Bun Neang said that eight senators offered their opinions in support of the law—roundly derided by NGOs and international donors—before approving it at the end of a 3-hour meeting. Eleven Sam Rainsy Party senators boycotted the session.
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Cambodian Opposition Party Leader Decries Sentences as Act of Repression
The leader of Cambodia's opposition party on Thursday denounced the conviction and sentencing of 11 party activists to prison terms of up to 20 years for participating in a protest that turned violent as a "brutal act of repression." Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), issued a letter from Paris, where he is on a trip to build support for Cambodia's democratic ambitions, to respond to public criticism of him on social media that he was an irresponsible leader for leaving the country on Tuesday, the same day that the CNRP activists were convicted.
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Protesters to appeal Veng Sreng sentences
More than 20 of the 23 people who received suspended prison sentences of between one and four and a half years for their involvement in garment worker protests in early 2014 are appealing the verdict. A total of 23 people were arrested on January 2 and 3 of 2014 for taking part in a January 2 protest in front of Yakjin (Cambodia) Inc in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district and a protest on Veng Sreng Boulevard the next day, at which military officials shot at least five dead. All were found guilty of charges including intentional violence with damage.
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District Police Chief Accused of Raping Student Suspended
A district police chief in Kompong Chhnang province was on Thursday suspended amid an investigation into claims that he raped a high-school student in his office before threatening to murder her family if she told anyone about the assault.
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Gov’t, Civil Society Butt Heads as LANGO Goes to Senate
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – The Senate is scheduled to vote Friday on the controversial Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO), despite a boycott by the opposition party and heated opposition from civil society. The draft law has drawn flak from human rights organizations, the main opposition political party, and citizens who say it gives the government excessive control over NGOs and creates a chilling effect for free speech. Government supporters, meanwhile, say that the legislation will prevent terrorism and money laundering, while removing a tool foreign governments use to interfere with national politics.
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France a Better Place to Fight Convictions: Rainsy
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said Thursday that he will be more able to fight the recent imprisonment of CNRP activists from abroad, while a prominent member of the opposition said the jailings could be a sign of worse things to come before the next elections.
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Factory libraries push literacy
n an effort to encourage literacy among garment factory workers, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and NGO Sipar are working together to open libraries in 15 factories in the Kingdom in the next three years. Sipar first launched the project as a pilot program about a year ago, opening libraries in three factories across Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Sipar director Hok Sothik said yesterday. GMAC has partnered with them for the full-scale project, which will last until at least July of 2018. “We call them library resources centres,” Sothik said. “Because we try to put there not only books, but also materials related to different problems related to [topics including] health and hygiene.” GMAC secretary-general Ken Loo could not be reached for comment yesterday. The total budget of the project amounts to about $640,000, according to a Sipar project summary.
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Cambodian Senate OKs restrictions on non-government groups
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia's Senate on Friday approved tight restrictions on non-governmental organizations, rejecting appeals from rights groups that say the law could be used for political repression. About 400 protesters gathered peacefully outside Parliament during the vote on the bill, which states that local and foreign non-governmental organizations must register with the government, and that all NGOs must be politically neutral. It also gives the government unchecked power to block registrations and dissolve groups in the name of national security. Senators from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party boycotted the session in protest against the bill, as the party's lawmakers in the lower house did last week when the bill passed there.
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For Montagnards, the Pressing Question of ‘Voluntariness’
The Cambodia Daily reported on July 17 that 12 Montagnard asylum seekers had returned to Vietnam with the assistance of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
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Youth seek voices in government
At a dialogue yesterday with parliament members, youth representatives called for more electoral transparency and for participatory roles in government. “The dissemination of information is not broad enough,” master’s student Sotherary Chun, 26, told the lawmakers and her fellow youth yesterday, explaining rural residents, migrants and marginalised communities are often excluded from political discourse. “Even though I am a woman, I think I can participate in politics because it is my right, my duty,” she said, adding she aspires to be a politician.
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Charge upped in acid verdict
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday to change the charges against a man accused of an acid attack from violence to attempted murder, following an appeal earlier this month. At 4am on the morning of September 15, 2011, Pov Kolab, 24, accosted Kong Touch, 50, as she entered a rubber plantation and doused her with acid, according to court documents. In 2012, Kolab was charged with causing violence with acid and sentenced to 10 years in prison and a 20 million riel ($5,000) fine. While Kobal appealed for a reduced sentence on July 7, the prosecution appealed to increase the charge to attempted murder, and yesterday, presiding judge Khim Ponn said he believed the stronger charge was appropriate.
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Hundreds Demonstrate Against Pending NGO Law in Provinces
Hundreds of people gathered in provinces around the country Wednesday to demonstrate against a pending NGO law that opponents fear will be used to muzzle groups that criticize the ruling CPP.
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Cambodian Opposition Party Leader Decries Sentences as Act of Repression
The leader of Cambodia’s opposition party on Thursday denounced the conviction and sentencing of 11 party activists to prison terms of up to 20 years for participating in a protest that turned violent as a “brutal act of repression.” Sam Rainsy, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), issued a letter from Paris, where he is on a trip to build support for Cambodia’s democratic ambitions, to respond to public criticism of him on social media that he was an irresponsible leader for leaving the country on Tuesday, the same day that the CNRP activists were convicted. “Sometimes I can be more effective abroad in defending Cambodia’s democratic cause,” he said. “I have colleagues whom I fully trust when it comes to dividing and sharing the workload.”
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Land Disputes Down in 2015 Due to ELC Freeze
Although the number of land disputes across the country decreased in the first six months of the year—largely due to a freeze on the granting of economic land concessions—little has been done to resolve existing disputes, according to a report released Wednesday by rights group Adhoc.
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CNRP Says Convictions Violate Political Deal
The conviction on Tuesday of 11 opposition activists on charges of insurrection—labeled “absurd” and a “travesty” by rights groups—contradicts the political agreement that ended a yearlong political deadlock last July, the CNRP said in a statement Wednesday.
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Cambodia: King should reject Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations
Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Salil Shetty, has written to His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, Cambodia’s monarch, calling on him to reject the draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO). The letter refers to the King’s constitutional role as the protector of rights and freedoms for all citizens and as the guarantor of international treaties, stating that the LANGO will, if passed, violate these rights and guarantees.
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Concerns mount as Cambodian Senate to vote on NGO law
Cambodian senators have been urged to seriously amend or reject a controversial law on the regulation of NGOs when it goes to a vote tomorrow, a rights group said Thursday. In an open letter addressed to Senate President Say Chhum -- sent out Thursday by Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap -- the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations is described as being a source of “grave concern” as it stands. It is also accompanied by an analysis of the law’s key concerns, as well as some recommendations. “It would be an important development if the details of these reservations could be considered by you, prior to the vote of the [law] at the forthcoming Senate meeting,” Sopheap wrote. “Such consideration would in turn enrich and legitimize the Senate deliberations and decision-making process,” he added. “In the event that the law will be approved without amendment, the legitimacy of the [law] and the democratic nature of Cambodia will be brought into question amidst significant public scrutiny and criticism.”
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Court Upholds Life Sentence in Rape-Murder Case
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday upheld a life sentence handed down to a 24-year-old farmer for raping and murdering his former fiancee in Kandal province before attempting to commit suicide, his lawyer said.
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Opposition Activists Convicted of Insurrection
Three opposition activists were sentenced to 20 years in prison and eight others received seven-year terms Tuesday over a 2014 clash between protesters and security guards at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park that was deemed an insurrection.
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New asylum seekers in Phnom Penh
Just days after a dozen Montagnard asylum seekers returned to Vietnam having given up on being granted refugee status, 11 more arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, according to the United Nations. Vivian Tan, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said the new arrivals “bring the total number of Montagnards awaiting registration in Phnom Penh to over 150”. Since October, members of the minority group have flooded into Cambodia citing religious and political persecution. So far, just 13 have been granted refugee status, while dozens have been deported. Chhay Thy, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said six of the asylum seekers entered through O’Yadav district on Saturday, but didn’t have details of the other five arrivals.
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