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ADB’s efforts to make good off to shaky start, audit finds
A review of the Asian Development Bank’s actions to remedy “major” failings in its provision of compensation and resettlement to thousands of families affected by a $143 million railway project it funded has found the bank failed to meet a number of its commitments. The ADB’s internal audit of the project by its compliance review panel (CRP), begun in 2012, last year recommended the bank rethink its entire approach to dealing with the 4,000 affected families, which the ADB later admitted had become poorer as a result of resettlement, land loss and mounting debts.
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Court hearing runs gamut for Kem Sokha
After spending seven hours being grilled at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday on topics ranging from post-election violence to a November land rights protest, National Assembly First Deputy President Kem Sokha will not be making any further court appearances, his lawyers said. Leaving the closed-door session yesterday, Sokha, deputy leader of the opposition party, told reporters that he had been questioned about a vast array of seemingly nonsequiturial issues but not charged or questioned in connection with any crime.
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Indonesia forms team to probe fishing slavery allegations
Jakarta (AFP) - The Indonesian government has announced it will form a special team to investigate allegations of slavery in the fishing industry, as officials prepare to return hundreds of foreign crewmen to their homelands.
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Survey Finds Deep Discontent as Cambodian Land Disputes Continue
PHNOM PENH - According to a new survey, land disputes in Cambodia lead to employment insecurity, causing poverty, food insecurity, and increasing physical and psychological insecurity. A 110-page report called "Human Security and Land Rights in Cambodia," which was conducted by the Cambodia Institution for Cooperation and Peace and funded by the British Embassy in Phnom Penh, found land disputes are leading to livelihood insecurity, poverty and mental suffering. Those with little or no education as well as widows are the most vulnerable victims of land grabbing in Cambodia.
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Court's ex-chief arrested on corruption charges
Disgraced former Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Ang Maltey was arrested yesterday afternoon under allegations of widespread graft, according to a military police official. National Military Police spokesman Brigadier General Kheng Tito said Maltey was arrested at the headquarters of the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) following two days of questioning by the body over the allegations.
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New NEC Members Named, With Vote to Go Ahead Today
A vote at the National Assembly to officially select the nine members of the new National Election Committee (NEC) was on Wednesday rescheduled for Thursday, hours after the names of the presumptive candidates were leaked. Officials from the CPP and CNRP had touted Monday for the National Assembly’s vote to select the candidates but announced the change of schedule after a meeting at the parliament building Wednesday.
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US picks new chief envoy to Kingdom
US president Barack Obama yesterday announced his intent to nominate William Heidt as the country’s next ambassador to Cambodia. According to a statement released by the White House, Heidt, a “career member of the Foreign Service”, is currently the executive assistant to the under-secretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the US State Department.
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Cooperation on dolphins urged
The World Wildlife Fund has called for closer cooperation between Cambodia and Laos to protect the Mekong River dolphin, in the wake of the death this week of a female thought to be one of less than 85 left in the river. With a population in the thousands as recently as the 1960s, numbers of the Mekong River dolphin, also known as the Irrawaddy dolphin, have dwindled to the point that it is now listed as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
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Moluccas: Cambodian fishermen among hundreds of enslaved migrants
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least 58 Cambodian citizens are among the more than 300 fishermen, forced to work in conditions of slavery, discovered and rescued recently in a remote island in the Moluccas province, Indonesia. In recent days, the government of Jakarta has discovered a group of migrant workers trapped on the islet of Benjina, following an investigation conducted by some reporters of the Associated Press (AP) which lasted over a year. The investigation revealed the presence of fishermen from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia trapped on the island; the migrant workers were forced to work under threats, in conditions of semi-slavery, on board vessels flying the Thai flag, specialized in trawling in Indonesian territorial waters.
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Authorities Dismiss Reports of Dead Montagnards as Rumor
Authorities in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday said local residents were probably lying about having recently come across the partially buried body of a Montagnard asylum seeker from Vietnam. Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said on Monday that villagers in O’Yadaw district’s Sesan commune reported seeing eight bodies floating down the Sesan River the week before. He said Tuesday the villagers later claimed to have found one of the bodies, that of a Montagnard, partially buried along the riverbank.
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Cambodian Court Questions Opposition Party Official for Seven Hours
A Cambodian court filed no charges against a high-ranking opposition party official on Wednesday after seven hours of questioning him on accusations that he incited deadly riots at a garment factory complex in January 2014, the politician’s lawyer said.
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Staffers call for closure of Nauru sit
The Australian government ignored allegations of physical and sexual abuse of asylum seekers held on the Pacific island of Nauru for more than a year without taking action, staff at the detention centre have alleged. Twenty-three current and former staff signed an open letter calling for all remaining asylum seekers on the island to be sent to Australia and the detention centre to be shut down, the Guardian Australia reported yesterday.
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58 Cambodians Among Slaves Rescued in Indonesia
At least 58 Cambodians were among the more than 300 enslaved fishermen recently rescued from a remote island in Indonesia’s Maluku province, an intergovernmental migration body said Tuesday. The Indonesian government rescued the fishermen from the island village of Benjina on Friday, following a yearlong investigation by The Associated Press (AP), which revealed that migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia were stranded on the island after being forced to work on mostly Thai-captained fishing boats trawling Indonesian waters.
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NEC finalises shortlist
Women's rights groups yesterday seized on discussions between the ruling party and opposition over appointments to the new National Election Committee to demand a female presence on the body. However, just hours after their protest, it was revealed that only one of 24 official candidates was a woman. Six days ahead of a vote by lawmakers on the NEC’s nine positions, about 200 representatives of a coalition of 40 organisations attempted to march on the National Assembly to voice their concerns over women’s potential exclusion from the body.
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Preah Vihear soldiers hit by lightning
Three soldiers stationed near Preah Vihear temple on the Cambodian-Thai border were injured during a storm on Monday, with two being struck directly by lightning. More than 10 houses in Choam Ksan district’s Sra Em commune were also damaged or flattened during the storm, according to local authorities. Peak Chheng, the Sra Em commune police chief, said while there had not been much rain, strong winds battered houses during the storm, which also saw soldier Pen Pichay, 27, have his arm broken by a piece of falling wood.
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Applicants for New NEC Put Cases Forward
Applicants for the new bipartisan National Election Committee (NEC) include a ruling party lawmaker, four current members of the NEC, an outspoken union leader and the chief adviser to deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha, according to a list released by the National Assembly on Tuesday. The National Assembly will convene a plenary session on Monday to select the nine members of the new election body, whose creation was central to the deal that ended the CNRP’s postelection parliamentary boycott last year.
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Draft food law could be ready by July: UN
The first draft of a long-awaited food law that aims to regulate food safety and quality “from the farm to the table” could be completed as soon as July, UN and government officials said yesterday. Speaking at a World Health Day event, Nina Brandstrup, country representative of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said there is “a group of people who are currently working on a first draft and there is a plan to have a workshop probably in July to discuss that draft”.
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Women’s Rights Activists Dispersed by Police
About 100 women’s rights activists were prevented from riding tuk-tuks to the National Assembly and the Phnom Penh headquarters of the ruling CPP on Tuesday, but successfully delivered a petition to the opposition CNRP demanding female representation on the reformed National Election Committee.
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Police Seeking ‘Leftists’ Over Archway Arson
Police in Siem Reap City are searching for a group of “leftists” who allegedly burned an archway built for the Angkor Sangkranta New Year festival that had drawn public scorn for being of a Vietnamese or Chinese style instead of Cambodian. According to police, the archway, built over an entrance to the Angkor temple complex in bright red and yellow and adorned with hanging red lanterns, caught fire at about 2 a.m. Tuesday
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Finance Ministry Sets Forth Rough Plans for 2016 Budget
The Ministry of Finance unveiled its strategic plan for next year’s budget during a forum Tuesday at the ministry in Phnom Penh, placing a focus on increasing state revenue, ramping up industrial productivity and spreading the benefits of economic expansion.
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