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GMAC tries to discredit union leader at court
Questioning of a union leader found in possession of about 50 bamboo sticks is scheduled to continue in Phnom Penh Municipal Court today, after his arrest on Tuesday. Cambodian Labour Solidarity Union Federation president Seang Rithy had 51 bamboo sticks in the trunk of his car as he led a strike at Apsara garment factory in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district. Police determined that the sticks were meant to be used as weapons, but Rithy said they were intended for use as poles for small flags. “Our union does not use violence or incite workers to hold strikes, but the workers asked us to help,” said union vice president Lo Sopheak. “The factory itself hires thugs to use violence against us.”
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Residents file petition over cracks
Dozens of families living in Phnom Penh’s iconic White Building filed a petition to City Hall yesterday morning, urging authorities to put an end to nearby construction work, which they say has left large cracks in the structure, and demanding compensation. Residents say the crack, which is more than 1-centimetre wide, suddenly appeared on Sunday evening across all four floors in the southern part of the historic apartment block. Authorities on Monday suspended the construction of an 11-storey hotel just metres away pending investigation.
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Thailand Undecided Over Fate Of Cambodian Migrant Workers
Thailand has still not decided what will happen to the 738,000 Cambodian migrant workers currently living in the country on temporary work permits when those documents expire at the end of March, an official from the Thai Labor Ministry said Wednesday. The Cambodian and Thai labor ministries met Wednesday at Phnom Penh’s InterContinental Hotel to discuss updating a 2003 memorandum of understanding (MoU) on migrant workers. Speaking to reporters after the closed-door meeting, Winai Luewirojn, the deputy permanent secretary of Thailand’s Labor Ministry, said there were about 738,000 Cambodian workers on temporary work permits, which are set to expire on March 31.
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KRT hears of killings, rapes at prison
Thousands of people were tortured and murdered at Kraing Ta Chan Security Centre, including two children who were smashed against a tree and had their organs taken, a civil party told the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday. Say Sen, testifying in Case 002/02 against former Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, described his five-year incarceration at the prison in Takeo province, calling its horrors “beyond our understanding”.
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Gov’t boots out family
A family of Montagnard asylum seekers, including two young children and a 9-month-old baby, has been deported to Vietnam, where the father was reportedly beaten by authorities for attempting to escape. The fate of the five Christian asylum seekers had been unknown since their arrest in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district on Sunday, with officials there refusing to reveal any information about the group’s whereabouts. But Moeng Sineath, spokesman for Ratanakkiri Provincial Hall, confirmed for the first time yesterday that the group had been deported.
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Six Unionists Arrested, Released In Bavet City Over Incitement
Six union organizers were arrested in Svay Rieng province Wednesday while distributing letters to workers in an attempt to refute rumors that their union had taken cash in exchange for not protesting over the firing of eight of their members, according to the union and police. Shortly before 5 p.m., police arrested six members of the Collective Movement of Union of Workers outside the Manhattan Special Economic Zone in Bavet City and brought them in for questioning at the Bavet commune police station, according to Hun Savorn, deputy Bavet City police chief.
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KRT Hears of Prison Horrors ‘Beyond Understanding’
The horrifying conditions inside the Kraing Ta Chan prison were once again the focus of hearings Wednesday at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, with a civil party telling of brutality that was “beyond description.” The third former inmate of the prison to present evidence in the second phase of Case 002 against Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, Say Sen described babies being smashed against trees and women being raped with rifles. Mr. Sen, who was a teenage inmate in the Takeo province prison between 1974 and 1979, said he was assigned to dig pits and bury bodies of fellow prisoners.
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NGOs slam proposed law on election speech
Cambodia's leading human rights groups have condemned the ruling and opposition parties’ reported efforts to stymie their voices during election campaigns, arguing such restrictions would violate freedom of expression. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party have been negotiating changes to the Election Law in line with a July agreement to overhaul the electoral system.
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Families say firm cleared land, graves
More than 100 families in Rattanakkiri’s O’Chum district are demanding a solution after a Chinese company allegedly bulldozed their land and nearby family graves to create a rubber plantation. According to community members and rights group Adhoc, Swift Rubber Ltd cleared land surrounding the houses of 102 families in O’Chum commune between Sunday and Monday. “The company has cleared about 300 graves,” said Kroeng ethnic group representative Kham Brang.
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Montagnard presence denied
Government spokesman and four-star General Khieu Sopheak has threatened to sue an NGO worker over his “false allegations” about Montagnard asylum seekers. In a Monday interview with Voice of America, Interior Ministry spokesman Sopheak denied reports that five Montagnards – a mother and father, their two young sons, and 9-month-old daughter – were arrested in Ratanakkiri on Sunday. Sopheak said authorities had only arrested “illegal Vietnamese immigrants”, and called on Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc and the monitor who first reported the arrests, to either prove they were Montagnards or rescind the allegations.
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Strike arrest: Union leader busted over bamboo
Police arrested a labour representative yesterday in front of the capital’s Apsara garment factory and seized 51 bamboo sticks in his possession on suspicions of planned violence. According to Choam Chao commune deputy criminal police officer Ngo Serey, the arrest was made due to authorities’ belief that the suspect, Solidarity Worker Federation president Sieng Rithy, planned to wreak havoc at the factory. “When the workers were on strike, the authorities checked and found the sticks in the union president’s car boot and we arrested him,” Serey said.
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Strike-Leading Union Head Arrested in Phnom Penh
The pugnacious leader of an independent workers union was arrested outside a garment factory on Phnom Penh’s industrial outskirts Tuesday morning for leading what police described as “illegal striking and an anarchic union.” Seang Rithy, who heads the Cambodian Labor Solidarity Union Federation, a group that specializes in supporting strike activity, was arrested at about 10 a.m. outside the Cambodian-owned Apsara Garment Factory in Pur Senchey district, according to Choam Chao commune police chief Theng Kosal.
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Cambodia’s NGOs Say Measures Proposed by Parties Would Curtail Free Speech
Nine nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday slammed Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties for considering measures that would ban them from giving interviews or making statements deemed “insulting” to political parties during election periods, saying the restrictions would violate free speech. During recent negotiations on electoral reform, Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), and Kuoy Bunroeun of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), reportedly stated that the measures were being considered to ensure the neutrality of NGOs. In a joint statement, the NGOs—including local rights groups and media watchdogs—said the restrictions would go against the Cambodian constitution and binding international treaties to which Cambodia is a party, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of expression.
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Koh Kong dam not on hold
Prime Minister Hun Sen has seemingly backtracked on his reported assurances that construction on the controversial Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province would not be allowed to start in the near future, as a letter written by the premier last month reveals that the project is ongoing. In October, opposition leader Sam Rainsy told reporters that Hun Sen had assured him the project could be “postponed to the next term to let the next generation decide”. But a five-page letter signed by Hun Sen on January 15 and obtained by the Post yesterday seems to indicate that the dam is still officially on the agenda, as studies necessary to green light construction are ongoing.
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Pagoda Rejects City’s Claims of Violence
The head monks of Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey on Tuesday drafted a letter rebutting City Hall’s claims of illicit and immoral behavior at the pagoda, which has drawn the government’s ire over the past year by supporting evicted villagers from across the country. On Friday, following last month’s fatal stabbing of one monk at Samakki Raingsey by another, the city announced that it had formed a committee to investigate alleged “anti-government acts” at the pagoda and find out if it was accredited by the Ministry of Cults and Religion. The letter, which the pagoda’s head monks plan to submit to district and religious authorities today, rejects claims made in recent days by City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche that they have used violence on several occasions.
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Cambodia’s NGOs Say Measures Proposed by Parties Would Curtail Free Speech
Nine nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday slammed Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties for considering measures that would ban them from giving interviews or making statements deemed “insulting” to political parties during election periods, saying the restrictions would violate free speech.
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Draft Law Could Mean a Crackdown on Online Freedom, Expert Says
WASHINGTON DC—A draft telecommunications law is causing concern from rights groups, who say it threatens freedom of speech online, one of the few spaces open to political discussion. The popularity of social media and the ubiquity of mobile phones and other platforms have exploded in Cambodia in recent years.
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Draft Law Could Mean a Crackdown on Online Freedom, Expert Says
WASHINGTON DC— A draft telecommunications law is causing concern from rights groups, who say it threatens freedom of speech online, one of the few spaces open to political discussion. The popularity of social media and the ubiquity of mobile phones and other platforms have exploded in Cambodia in recent years. But language in the draft law concerned with “national security” could hint at a crackdown by the government if it is ever approved, Ok Serei Sopheak, a governance expert, told “Hello VOA” last week. “If the government cites only national security concerns to prosecute anyone or check their account at will, it’s very dangerous and a big concern,” he said.
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Phnom Penh Residents Protest Ongoing Bassac Sand Dredging
More than 100 people in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district protested near their homes along the Bassac River on Sunday against ongoing sand dredging, which they say is threatening to cause their homes to collapse. “We protested today to demand the authorities take the two sand dredging barges to somewhere else, because all of the people are worried for their homes, as they will collapse because of the sand dredging,” said Sam Sina, a 51-year-old resident. “We will protest again to block National Road 1 if the authorities do not find a solution for our demands,” he said.
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In Restive Pagoda, City Sees Threat of ‘Secession’
Phnom Penh City Hall has created an ad hoc committee to investigate whether monks at the restive Samakki Raingsey pagoda—a hotbed of anti-eviction activism that has raised the ire of local authorities over the past several months—have been properly ordained. Rights groups and monks at the pagoda say the move is a ploy to silence one of the few pagodas in the city not under the thumb of the ruling CPP and to stamp out legally protected dissent.
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