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More Montagnards arrive
A third group of Montagnards, including three children, reportedly crossed into Ratanakkiri province on Saturday, while a local NGO worker who has been assisting the asylum seekers claimed to have received death threats from a senior provincial official. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an ethnic Jarai villager told the Post that “nine newcomers arrived on Saturday including [three children], two girls and one boy, aged 5 and above”. The latest arrivals bring the number of Christian Montagnards – indigenous people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands – allegedly hiding in the province’s forests to 14. A smaller group of five came earlier this month.
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Civil Society Leaders Blast Plan to Ban Election Commentary
Civil society leaders on Sunday called on the country’s two major political parties to scrap plans to ban them from giving media interviews during election campaigns and from issuing statements that “insult” any party. CPP Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin and senior CNRP official Kuoy Bunroeun, who are leading talks to amend the national election law, said on Friday that they are considering such a ban to ensure that NGOs remain “neutral.” NGOs have long played a central role in Cambodia’s elections, conducting critical research into topics ranging from corrupted voter lists to election violence, and have provided a near constant check on the government, even at times when the opposition has cowered.
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Faintings up: Union report
About 1,800 people fainted at work in 2014, roughly 1,000 more than the previous year, according to Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) statistics surveying multiple industries in the Kingdom. Work-related deaths fell from about 96 in 2013 to 73 in 2014, while issues such as arrests and firings of workers rose, says a Thursday statement signed by Ath Thorn, president of the approximately 90,000-member confederation. Data came from a mixture of reports from CLC members and official statistics from the National Police Department, National Social Security Fund and other government bodies, Thorn said yesterday.
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King signs off on new traffic law, says gov’t
Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni has signed off on a more robust traffic law, completing the final step for legislation that could hit the streets as early as next month, according to the government’s National Road Safety Committee (NRSC). “He signed on the ninth of January,” said Chan Sokol, chief of the NRSC’s national and international relationships division. The bill sailed through the National Assembly in a few days of debate in December and passed the Senate just before the New Year.
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UN Says Nine New Montagnards Add to ‘Urgency’ in Ratanakkiri
Two weeks after five Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri province from Vietnam, the U.N. said Sunday that reports of the arrival of nine more—including three children—added to the situation’s “urgency.” Two ethnic Jarai villagers living in Ratanakkiri said the nine Montagnards—an indigenous group from Vietnam’s Central Highlands—arrived on Saturday and are hiding in the forest in Andong Meas district.
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UN Says Nine New Montagnards Add to ‘Urgency’ in Ratanakkiri
Two weeks after five Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri province from Vietnam, the U.N. said Sunday that reports of the arrival of nine more—including three children—added to the situation’s “urgency.” Two ethnic Jarai villagers living in Ratanakkiri said the nine Montagnards—an indigenous group from Vietnam’s Central Highlands—arrived on Saturday and are hiding in the forest in Andong Meas district. Wan-Hea Lee, country director of the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said in an email Sunday that her office was still discussing the Montagnards with the Interior Ministry, but did not say whether the U.N. would attempt to reach them.
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Officials to Return From Nauru Refugee Center Monday
A government delegation that traveled to the South Pacific island nation of Nauru last week to study the possibility of resettling in Cambodia some of the refugees Australia is currently holding there will return to Phnom Penh on Monday, a government official said. Cambodia signed a $35-million deal with Australia in September to take in an unspecified number of the refugees, but has yet to resettle any. Contacted Sunday in Phnom Penh, Sok Veasna, a director in the Interior Ministry’s immigration department, said the department’s director of refugee services, Kerm Sarin, was leading the delegation.
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Jailed family’s release demanded
Human rights group Adhoc has demanded the release of a couple and their 9-month-old child jailed amid a land dispute in Preah Vihear, calling their arrest a “grave human rights abuse”. Lim Sokhim, 45 and her husband Sorn Vuthy, 46, were detained on Tuesday along with their baby after protesting against the seizure of their property in Chheb district’s M’lou Prey 1 commune. The provincial forestry administration – which plans to build a road on the site – has filed a complaint charging the family with grabbing state land illegally.
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New Maps Show Heavy Deforestation In 2013
Newly released maps using U.S. satellite data show that Cambodia continued to suffer major deforestation in 2013, much of it in nominally protected forests and wildlife sanctuaries. In November 2013, the University of Maryland released what it said was the first study to combine a consistent measure of forest cover around the world with a high degree of precision—a resolution on the ground of 30 meters by 30 meters. Analyzing a trove of satellite data from 2000 to 2012, the study showed that Cambodia lost 7.1 percent of its forest cover over the past decade.
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UN Says Ratanakkiri Governor Unhelpful Over Montagnards
The governor of Ratanakkiri province is not cooperating with efforts by the U.N. to negotiate safe passage for five Montagnard asylum seekers who crossed the border from Vietnam nearly two weeks ago, a U.N. official said Thursday. Wan-Hea Lee, the country representative for the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said in an email that her office had attempted to open a line of communication with the governor, Thorng Savun, to discuss allowing the Montagnards to apply for asylum.
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Ministries Unclear Over Who Needs Work Permits
About three weeks after the interior and labor ministries announced a crackdown on foreigners without work permits, officials this week could provide few answers on how expatriates can comply with the country’s labor regulations.
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Meach Sovannara denied bail, again
Despite pledging to deposit $2,500 and surrender his passport, Cambodian-American opposition official Meach Sovannara was yesterday denied bail for a fourth time, and for the second time at the Appeal Court. After the unsuccessful hearing, Sovannara said that due to the political nature of the case, he would only be released if opposition leader Sam Rainsy can convince Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene. The Cambodia National Rescue Party information head has been detained since November 11 in connection with a July protest at Freedom Park that saw opposition protesters clash with district security guards.
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Union calls for higher pensions for teachers
A teachers union has demanded the government raise pensions for retired civil servants, police and soldiers at the same time as increasing public sector salaries. In letter delivered yesterday, Cambodian Independent Teachers Association president Rong Chhun called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to support retired government workers, who he said were languishing in poverty.
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Service for missing as Thailand stays silent
A Siem Reap family held a corpseless burial for relatives they are certain were killed by the Thai military last week, even though officials continue delaying and denying any identification of two charred bodies recovered along the border.
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After Reminder, Prime Minister Reflects on 30 Years of Power
Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that he had forgotten that it was 30 years to the day that he came to power until reminded by a journalist, and urged his many critics to reconsider their opinions of him.
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Villagers fight to save pond from being filled in
Villagers in Kampot town have filed a complaint against a businessman who has allegedly ordered the filling in of a pond dug during the French protectorate, which they rely on for their water supply.
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Pagoda killing: No murder charges for jailed monk
A teenage monk was charged in Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday over the fatal stabbing of a senior monk at the capital’s Samaki Rainsy pagoda on Monday, according to deputy prosecutor Chea Meth.
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Villagers Boycott Meeting With Military
Representatives of 75 families living on land granted to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces for a planned barracks, armory and training grounds in Siem Reap province’s Svay Loeu district said Wednesday that they boycotted a meeting about a recent dispute over the plot after military officials ominously requested that the talks be held in the forest and that a single villager attend.
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NA commission member visits K Chhnang KDC site
After promising in September to quickly resolve a years-long land dispute involving villagers and the politically connected development company KDC International, a member of the National Assembly’s human rights commission visited affected families in Kampong Chhnang province yesterday.
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Court Charges Monk With Intentional Violence
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged an 18-year-old former monk with intentional violence following his arrest Monday for stabbing an older monk to death at Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey, a court official said.
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