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Strongman Hun Sen’s last bid to control Cambodia’s vocal civil society
Earlier this month the Cambodian government passed a law which could seriously undermine freedom of civil society in the country. The Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) imposes new rules such as mandatory registration of all national and international organizations and the filing annual reports to the government about the activities and finances of all civil society associations. The controversial legislation was passed by all 68 parliamentarians from PM Hun Sen’s party, while opposition boycotted the vote. Civil society associations have been heavily protesting against LANGO, which tightens government control over civil society per se. Critics and voices from the protests in front of parliament in Phnom Penh last week suggest that Cambodian government has waged an all-out war on the third sector. As president of Cambodian Center for Human Rights Virak Ou said: “Ultimately, the fear is that the law may be used as a legislative weapon to stifle grassroots democracy and freedom of expression and association in Cambodia, in violation of the Constitution and the principle of the rule of law.”
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Cambodian tycoon attack victim: 'I cannot accept what he did to me'
A Cambodian TV star who was filmed being dragged to the ground and punched and kicked in the head says she refuses to be daunted by the wealth of her assailant. CCTV footage of the violent assault by real estate tycoon Sok Bun on Ek Socheata, better known as Sasa, has shocked the country of 15 million. The 28-year-old TV host and actor said the attack happened at a Japanese restaurant in the early hours of 2 July. She said she was protecting a drunk Japanese friend whom Sok Bun and his bodyguard were trying to put in a car.
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Police Searching for Nurse Accused of Rape
Police in Kratie are searching for a nurse who allegedly raped the wife of his patient at the provincial referral hospital on Saturday, officials said Sunday.
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Five Arrested Over Anti-NGO Law Leaflets
Authorities in Phnom Penh arrested and released five activists on Saturday for handing out leaflets urging residents to “Say No” to a pending NGO law that critics fear will be used to muzzle critics of the ruling CPP.
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Six Montagnards Seek Refugee Status in Cambodian Capital
Six ethnic Montagnard Christians who fled Vietnam and illegally entered Cambodia to seek refugee status have arrived safely in the capital Phnom Penh, an official from a local human rights group said Monday. Chhay Thi, a provincial coordinator for Adhoc, said the group of two women and four men fled Gia Lai province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on July 16 and arrived in O’Yadaw district in northeastern Cambodia’s remote Ratanakiri province on July 18. The members of the group told him that they had left Vietnam because of lack of freedom and human rights persecution, he said. “They told us that they faced difficulties living in their hometowns,” Chhay Thi told RFA’s Khmer Service. “The Vietnamese authorities persecuted them by denying them religious freedom and prevented them from using the Internet or social media to communicate with their families abroad. These are the reasons they left their hometowns to seek refugee status.”
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LANGO Passed, What Comes Next?
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – The National Assembly passed the controversial Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) last Monday amid protests from local and international civil society groups (CSOs), a boycott from the opposition party, and mounting international pressures. What happens next? Some local and international CSOs have protested against LANGO by calling it “repressive and unnecessary.” The US and EU have raised concerns that LANGO will restrict the freedom and rights of CSOs and that they will closely monitor the implementation of the law and its impacts on CSOs. Lack of inclusive and open dialogue and consultation is the root cause of misperception, misunderstanding, and distrust between the government and some CSOs. The ongoing debates on LANGO clearly reflect deep distrust between the government and CSOs, particularly those working on human rights, democracy, social justice, and environmental protection.
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NGO Law Set To Pass Senate This Week
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – The contentious law on associations and NGOs will likely pass the Senate this week, after it is reviewed tomorrow and Wednesday opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) senator Kong Korm said yesterday. This will occur despite another warning late last week from a UN expert who said the legislation could have “disastrous” effects, a warning that Council of Minister’s spokesman Phay Siphan dismissed as insulting to Cambodians. “They are our development partners, not our masters,” he told Khmer Times. “What other country do they use such language with? It is insulting. We are not children,” Mr. Siphan said.
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NEC: Digital Voter Registry To Reduce Fraud
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – The new computerized registry of voters for the next election will catalog citizens’ real names, reduce fraud, and get rid of the double-name glitches that plagued the last election cycle, says NEC spokesman Hang Puthea. The NEC recently announced that voters will start to register their names into the new system by early 2016, with support coming from the EU and the Japanese government. Mr. Puthea said the new digital registry will have fewer spelling mistakes than the old hand-written system which had been used for decades.
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Gov’t: Foreigners Banned From Protesting
Foreigners who join protests against the government will now be subject to arrest and deportation, Phnom Penh’s governor and the government’s spokesman said yesterday, in the latest effort by the CPP to curb outside influence in the country’s political affairs.
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Enacted in Haste, the NGO Law Is Off to the Worst Possible Start
The debate over the Law on Associations and NGOs (Lango) has been disappointing. So many core issues have not been addressed. The ruling party seems to be reasserting a contention that only “we know what is best for people.” Time will prove whether this is right or wrong. In the meantime, many citizens could miss out if NGO efforts are curtailed, as has been suggested by donors.
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Workers to march as talks stagnate
Hundreds of workers at garment factories demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Labour yesterday, as talks between factory officials and employee representatives remained deadlocked. Collective Union of Movement of Workers president Pav Sina, who has been helping unaffiliated staff at Akeentex Pte Ltd in Phnom Penh to negotiate their demands, said yesterday that about 500 employees demonstrated outside the ministry while he attended the meeting inside.
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Senators eye boycott on LANGO
Amid mounting international criticism of the National Assembly’s recent passage of a controversial new law regulating NGOs, 11 Sam Rainsy Party senators announced yesterday they will take a page from the CNRP playbook and also boycott the upcoming vote on the bill. In a letter sent by ranking SRP senator Kong Koam, dated July 16, the party argues that the nation’s NGOs have faithfully followed the nation’s constitution, making the law unnecessary, adding that it would in fact cripple government effectiveness and infringe on needed services.
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Workers to march as talks stagnate
Hundreds of workers at garment factories demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Labour yesterday, as talks between factory officials and employee representatives remained deadlocked. Collective Union of Movement of Workers president Pav Sina, who has been helping unaffiliated staff at Akeentex Pte Ltd in Phnom Penh to negotiate their demands, said yesterday that about 500 employees demonstrated outside the ministry while he attended the meeting inside.
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Enacted in Haste, the NGO Law Is Off to the Worst Possible Start
The debate over the Law on Associations and NGOs (Lango) has been disappointing. So many core issues have not been addressed. The ruling party seems to be reasserting a contention that only “we know what is best for people.” Time will prove whether this is right or wrong. In the meantime, many citizens could miss out if NGO efforts are curtailed, as has been suggested by donors.
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12 Montagnards repatriated
Twelve Montagnard asylum seekers were “voluntarily” escorted back to Vietnam yesterday evening after spending months in Phnom Penh hoping to be granted refugee status. The group, which included three young children, was escorted by officials from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav International Border Checkpoint and handed over to Vietnamese authorities shortly before 7pm. Vivian Tan, UNHCR’s spokeswoman, said the group’s return was facilitated “at their [own] request and on an exceptional basis . . . after verifying that they had opted for it voluntarily.” She added that the Vietnamese government had “agreed to receive them and given assurances that it will not discriminate against or punish them. It has also provided assurances that UNHCR will be able to visit them after their return home.”
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PM to Tycoon: “Your Money Can’t Fix Thisâ€
PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted the tycoon filmed beating a former TV presenter as public anger shows no sign of abating after the video of the attack went viral. “Do not wait for the police to come and handcuff you,” Mr. Hun Sen said, referring to real-estate tycoon Sok Bun. “Your money cannot fix this.” “Stop insisting that you have money,” the prime minister said, alluding to Mr. Bun’s offers to pay compensation to Ek Socheata, who is also known as Ms. Sasa.
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UN Helps 12 Montagnards Return to Vietnam
The U.N. on Thursday facilitated the voluntary return of 12 Montagnard asylum seekers to Vietnam after the group spent months in Phnom Penh hoping to be granted refugee status, the U.N. and a rights worker said.
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Sok Bun arrest warrant issued
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday issued an arrest warrant for property mogul Sok Bun, more than two weeks after he allegedly savagely beat a former TV hostess in a Phnom Penh restaurant. Shortly after the warrant was issued, Prime Minister Hun Sen demanded Bun’s quick arrest and suggested he would not be able to buy himself out of trouble. “Even if you settle outside of court, the prosecution will not end,” he said during a graduation ceremony at the National Institute of Education. The warrant, signed by municipal court prosecutor Hing Bunthorn and issued by investigative judge Leang Samnath, says Bun has been charged with intentional violence with aggravating circumstances, while his as-yet-unidentified bodyguard faces charges of attempted murder and using a weapon without permission.
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ILO Hopes to Inform Wage Talks With New Quarterly Bulletin
In the inaugural issue of its bulletin on Cambodia’s $5.8-billion garment industry, the International Labor Organization said Thursday that business remained strong on the back of rising exports despite a 28-percent hike to the sector’s minimum wage in January.
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Adhoc case ‘is a rights violation’
The International Committee of Jurists has given its backing to human rights activist Ny Chakrya, calling for the Cambodian government to end legal proceedings against him. “The legal harassment of Ny Chakrya for merely raising allegations of human rights violations is itself a clear violation of human rights,” the ICJ’s international legal adviser Kinglsey Abbott is quoted saying in a press release dated Tuesday. Chakrya, who heads the human rights and legal aid section of local NGO Adhoc, spent two hours being grilled at court on Monday. He faces potential charges of “public defamation”, “acts of slanderous denunciation”, and “publication of commentaries to put pressure on the judiciary”.
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