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Protest After Supreme Court Awards Pagoda Plot to Militia
Scores of angry villagers protested outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday after judges allegedly awarded a parcel of land in Kandal province to a private militia—overturning two earlier court decisions granting it to a local pagoda. As the villagers from Kandal’s Kien Svay district clamored outside the courthouse in Phnom Penh at about 9 a.m., Venerable Yan Vanthoeun said the court had effectively ripped the land out from under the pagoda he oversees, Wat Samraong Thom.
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Warrant for Kem Sokha On the Way, Court Says
A day after the ruling CPP decided deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha could be prosecuted despite his parliamentary immunity, a court official on Tuesday said an arrest warrant was forthcoming. Mr. Sokha twice failed to appear before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court when called as a “witness” in a prostitution case brought against an alleged mistress of his. On Monday, 68 CPP lawmakers decided his absence constituted being caught red-handed committing a flagrant crime.
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CPP Lawmakers Clear Sokha’s Path to Prison
Holed up in the CNRP’s headquarters for yet another day, deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha was still a free man as of late Monday night despite the ruling CPP’s lawmakers meeting in the National Assembly on their own earlier in the day to approve his arrest. Mr. Sokha has been provisionally charged for twice failing to turn up to court as a witness. He spent the day posting photographs on Facebook from the safety of the CNRP’s offices while some of the party’s lawmakers kept guard outside and others led a motorcade to petition the king to intervene.
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CHRC’s propaganda gaffes draw ridicule
The government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee was the subject of ridicule yesterday after a propaganda video tried to pass off snapshots of the Singapore skyline as those of pre-civil war Libya. The video, titled Using Rights in an Anarchic Way, part of a web series, was uploaded on Sunday.
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UN Statement Slammed for ‘Stunning’ Timidity
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the fractious political situation in Cambodia on Sunday, in a two-sentence statement issued through his press office that rights activists on Monday blasted for its timidity and brevity.
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Authorities block ‘Black Monday’ a fourth time
Land rights activists yesterday once again had their weekly “Black Monday” protest marches blocked by authorities. It was the fourth installment of the protests, which encourage activists to don black shirts and call for the release of five current and former human rights workers imprisoned for allegedly bribing a witness in connection with a sex scandal involving opposition acting president Kem Sokha.
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Council ups pressure on CPP ‘land grabber’
The Council of Ministers on Friday sent a letter to the Ministry of Land Management calling for ruling CPP lawmaker Lok Hour to resolve a raft of land disputes in Kandal province. Earlier this month, the ministry announced that Hour would be the first added to a blacklist of developers barred from buying, selling or transferring land while their disputes are unresolved.
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Villagers Want Park Director Fired for Razing Their Homes
Indigenous villagers in Mondolkiri Province have asked authorities to remove the director of a local wildlife sanctuary for ordering forest rangers to burn down their homes on the outskirts of Sen Monorom City last week.
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Timber Trade Continuing Despite Ban, Data Shows
Customs data from Vietnam confirms that thousands of cubic meters of wood worth millions of dollars is continuing to reach the country from Cambodia despite a blanket ban placed on such exports four months ago. As part of a sweeping crackdown on illicit timber stocks in eastern Cambodia initiated in mid-January, national military police commander Sao Sokha ordered an immediate stop to the export of all wood to Vietnam, acknowledging that much of the lucrative trade was illegal.
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Ministry Says No Government Help Likely for Koh Kong Villagers
The Ministry of Environment said on Monday that there was little hope that some 250 families who have returned to their former land in Koh Kong province would receive government support in their bid for further compensation from a Chinese firm developing a $3.8 billion tourism mecca in the area.
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CNRP deliver petition calling on King to intervene in political crisis
Twenty-three cars carrying more than two dozen opposition lawmakers yesterday negotiated their way past police road blocks and delivered a mass petition to the Royal Palace, calling on King Norodom Sihamoni to intervene and put an end to the Kingdom’s current political crisis. Setting off just hours after ruling party lawmakers voted to allow police to arrest the opposition’s acting president, Kem Sokha, the procession marked the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s first major public pushback against what’s been widely labelled a political crackdown.
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250k Cambodians subject to forced labour or marriage, report finds
Cambodia has the third-highest prevalence rate for modern slavery in the world, trailing only North Korea and Uzbekistan, according to the Global Slavery Index 2016, released this morning by the Walk Free Foundation. Using data gathered as part of the annual Gallup World Poll, Walk Free Foundation determined that as many as 256,800 Cambodians – 1.65 per cent of the population – are currently subject to forced marriage or labour.
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CNRP Seeks King’s Help
Opposition politicians submitted a petition signed by 170,000 supporters seeking Royal intervention yesterday after members of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) voted to allow the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to continue its prosecution of Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Kem Sokha. All 68 members of the CPP, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, voted to allow continued legal action against Mr. Sokha, the CNRP’s acting president. Mr. Sokha was summoned to court for questioning twice in relation to a sex scandal that has already managed to ensnare five civil society workers, but has ignored each summons.
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Villagers, coffee firm battle over Mondulkiri land
Tensions flared yesterday between 20 Bunong ethnic minority villagers and a coffee company operating on an economic land concession in Mondulkiri’s Pech Chreada district, prompting local authorities to investigate. Villagers saw about 10 “K PIS Investment” workers planting coffee on farmland claimed by both the company and Bunong villager Sreum Pyounh in Bosra commune’s Poulo village, according to community representative Kreung Tola.
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Police Scuffle With Protesters on Fourth ‘Black Monday’
Familiar scenes of police ripping banners during heated scuffles with protesters marked the fourth “Black Monday,” as activists continued to call for the release of human rights workers who have been in Prey Sar prison for almost one month. Around a dozen activists from eviction-hit communities congregated at the Choam Chao roundabout near the Phnom Penh International Airport at about 8 a.m. on Monday, holding multicolored balloons and banners calling for the release of four officers from local rights group Adhoc and an election official.
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PM Bodyguards Given Light Sentence
Three of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s former bodyguards were sentenced to four years in prison on Friday after being accused of participating in a brutal attack on two opposition party members during a pro-Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) protest in front of the National Assembly last October. In spite of the court’s initial decision, the men will only serve one year in prison after having most of their sentences suspended.
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CNRP Threatens Mass Strikes
The National Assembly will meet today to decide whether to strip acting opposition leader Kem Sokha of his immunity, a move that may result in mass strikes, the opposition warned yesterday. The opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) urged the National Assembly to act independently over the issue of a politician’s immunity, while threatening mass strikes in protest over the attempted arrest and charges slapped on acting CNRP president Mr. Sokha.
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Ethnic Community Rejects Mineral Exploration
(Ratanakiri) – Exploration company Angkor Gold Corp is working with NGOs to educate residents of Pate commune’s Plang village in Ratanakiri’s Ou Ya Dav district after villagers refused to give the company permission to explore for gold on their land. Sav H’lit, 47, the head of the Jarai community in Plang village, said the community of 104 families would not allow the company to explore their agricultural land out of fear of losing their land and environmental pollution.
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Complaint Against Sugar Company Withdrawn
More than 150 residents from Kampong Speu’s Oral district gathered at the Equitable Cambodia (EC) headquarters and the National Assembly on Friday to withdraw their complaints over land against the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which is owned by magnate Ly Yong Phat. The villagers came to Phnom Penh after they agreed to receive a minimum of $500-$10,000 per family in compensation from the company, depending on the size of the land in question, last week.
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Government Not Ready for World Bank Loans: US
The U.S. accused the Cambodian government of scaling back the space for free speech and the World Bank of failing to learn from its mistakes in justifying its decision to abstain from a recent Bank vote that approved a sheaf of new loans to Cambodia. The Bank’s board of executive directors approved four projects for Cambodia and $130 million in new loans to support them on May 20 at its headquarters in Washington. Perhaps as important as the money itself, the decision marked the end of a funding freeze the Bank imposed on Cambodia in 2011 in protest over the forced evictions of thousands of families from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood.
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