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CNRP pols fear possible set-up
An outspoken opposition lawmaker says he fears a set-up after a Svay Rieng woman was questioned in court yesterday over a complaint against him and others that she denies ever having made. A Svay Rieng Provincial Court summons, issued by deputy prosecutor Orng Ry and dated August 18, named sisters Soeung Hum and Soeung Phearum as plaintiff and witness, respectively, in an unspecified complaint against Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers Um Sam An and Real Camerin and party official Tach Setha. The complaint is in relation to a June 28 visit to disputed points on the Vietnam border that ended in brief clashes between Cambodians and Vietnamese citizens and authorities.
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Khmer Rouge Genocide Debate Moves to Trial
More than forty years after the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, ushering in a nearly four-year reign during which an estimated 1.7 million people died, hearings at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia on Monday turned to the charge of genocide for the first time.
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H&M eyes ‘fair wage’ push
Amidst ongoing negotiations to boost the minimum wage for garment workers in Cambodia, H&M, the world’s second-largest fashion retailer, has rolled out a program aimed at improving pay in the Kingdom’s factories, arguing that higher wages improve industrial relations and productivity. The introduction of the “fair wage method” in 68 factories in China, Bangladesh and Cambodia will focus on ensuring workers receive wage improvements “regularly and fairly”, although no exact wage level is being set, an H&M representative said yesterday. The new program comes at a time when the government’s Labour Advisory Committee is supervising sensitive discussions over raising the minimum wage, which is to be decided in October. “I want the negotiation for the minimum wage this year to go smoothly, so it can be accepted by everybody,” said Labour Minister Ith Samheng at a workshop on the issue in Phnom Penh yesterday. “We want the two parties [labour and management] to be in harmony.”
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CPP seeks to limit election campaigning
The ruling party wants to change the law governing commune elections to reduce the campaign period from 15 to 10 days and ban campaign rallies from spilling across commune boundaries, Interior Minister Sar Kheng has announced. Kheng, also deputy prime minister and vice president of the Cambodian People’s Party, claimed the reforms are necessary to maintain social security and order during the 2017 commune council vote. He pointed to the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s protests after the disputed 2013 national election to support the argument. “Our stance, we [the CPP electoral working group] believe that commune council election campaign should be conducted in the commune and should not cross to other communes,” Kheng said during a ceremony to swear in the new Preah Sihanouk governor on Monday. “But the [CNRP] want to march their campaigns without specific locations [in mind]. This would cause some trouble with the social security and order, and this would be hard to control.”
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Kampot Holdouts Take Compensation, Move Out
Six families in Kampot City accepted compensation of $3,000 each on Monday for their houses situated on a road that authorities want to expand, after initially rejecting the offer last week.
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In Sweeping Address, PM Defends Border Work
In a three-hour speech delivered on state television, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said his government has not ceded a single meter of land while demarcating Cambodia’s border with Vietnam.
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Ministry to Investigate Complaint From Seamen
The Interior Ministry’s anti-human trafficking department will investigate a complaint made against a local maritime school Tuesday by seven Cambodian seamen who fled from a pair of cargo ships last month after enduring what they described as slave-like conditions, an official said.
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Study notes trafficking's impact on child mental health
A new study on the mental health consequences for child survivors of trafficking reveals a high prevalence of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as well as a high risk for suicide and self-harm. Published yesterday in US medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, the study – billed by the authors as “the largest quantitative survey to date” on the subject – aggregated data obtained through survey research of 387 boys and girls aged 10 to 17 in post-trafficking facilities in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Lead author and lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Dr Ligia Kiss said while the data – collected over a three-year period – are only representative of rescued children, it “gives us a good hint of what is happening and the gravity of the consequences”.
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Parties Prepared To Monitor Voter Registration Pilot Project
PHNOM PENH—Cambodia’s political parties are preparing to monitor a voter registration pilot project, which will be held in November. The project will use computers and a digital system to register eligible voters for local elections in 2017 and national elections the year after, under the new National Election Committee, which was established earlier this year. Election observers and the opposition have complained that the old NEC was biased toward the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, and that voter registration was made difficult for supporters of other parties. Party representatives told VOA Khmer this week that they will closely monitor the new system and NEC.
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PM says senator’s arrest averted ‘serious chaos’
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday used a live television speech to justify the arrest of opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour over a Facebook post while also calling for his “conspirators” to return from hiding in Thailand and confess their crimes. Appearing on TVK yesterday, the premier said the government had taken action against the Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker to prevent social unrest, avert a civil war and stop a potential conflict with Vietnam. Sok Hour, seized by armed police on August 15, has been charged with forgery and incitement for posting on Facebook a “fake” version of a 1979 border treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam purporting to show the countries agreeing to dissolve their national borders. “This act was aimed at provoking anger among the people and causing a rift in national solidarity and unification and creating hostility between nations that could cause serious chaos to social security if it had not been prevented in time,” Hun Sen said.
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Parties Prepare for Three-Way Discussions on Wage
The Labor Ministry met with garment factory and trade union representatives behind closed doors in Phnom Penh on Tuesday to lay the groundwork for the start of talks over a new minimum wage for the garment sector later this month.
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ILO Says Latest Draft Law on Trade Union an Improvement
The regional director of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Tuesday that the latest proposed changes to Cambodia’s draft Trade Union Law—which has been blasted by employers and unions alike—marked an improvement over the last version, which the ILO had called a “step backward.”
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NGO files suit over ‘seizures’ in Phnom Oral
A Kampong Speu-based NGO has accused a police officer and several rangers working for the provincial Environment Department of seizing more than 100 hectares of Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, demanding a court order to restore the land and hold the parties to account. The Natural Resource and Wildlife Preservation Organization (NRWPO) has submitted a lawsuit to Kampong Speu Provincial Court, accepted on Monday, requesting the return of the land, which is protected by royal decree.
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Cambodia’s Hun Sen Orders Arrest of Map Detractors Amid Vietnam Border Dispute
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday ordered police to arrest anyone who accuses the government of using “fake” maps and ceding national territory amid an ongoing political dispute over the demarcation of the Southeast Asian nation’s border with neighboring Vietnam. During a three-hour televised speech, Hun Sen volunteered to step down if his government’s maps and a set of maps loaned to Cambodia by France last week to help resolve the dispute do not match. “I have already decided to step down if the French maps and [the government] maps are different—I would volunteer to go to jail,” the prime minister said. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has accused the government of ceding land to Vietnam based on a set of maps that adhere to a 1985 agreement signed by the two countries during Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia, and which the opposition has never recognized.
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Cambodia’s Montagnard Problem
In May, while much of the international media focused on Cambodia’s preparation for the arrival of refugees coming to Cambodia from Nauru as part of a controversial $35 million aid deal with Australia, Phnom Penh took efforts to block the arrival of a less welcome group of asylum seekers. “[A]lmost 1,000 [Cambodian] troops were deployed along the Vietnamese border…Soldiers…said yesterday that the main objective was clear: to catch Montagnards,” reported the Phnom Penh Post in early May. Fleeing Montagnards, a Christian minority tribal group from the Central Highlands of Vietnam whose persecution there is well-documented, have long been an enduring thorn in Cambodia’s side. Phnom Penh, a signatory of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol that mandates Cambodia allow asylum seekers to pursue protection claims, often deports them as illegal economic migrants.
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Social Media Allows Expression, But Users Weigh the Risks of Rumor
PHNOM PENH, (VOA) - For many young Cambodians, social media has become more than simply a way to communicate with friends, and is a major source of news about their country and the world. But while observers say such websites have increased awareness about political issues in recent years, users are having to learn to negotiate the pitfalls of false information and rumor. Facebook is the most popular social network in the country, and Cambodians use the site to share news stories, or firsthand accounts of events. With the country’s traditional media often seen as lacking in impartiality and serious analysis, social media provides a welcome source for an increasingly information-hungry population.
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Svay Rieng Unionists Appeal Convictions for Protest
A lawyer for four unionists who were handed suspended 18-month prison sentences for blocking a road last year filed an appeal with the Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Wednesday.
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Koh Kong crackdown
Seventeen human rights monitors, journalists and protesters were arrested in Koh Kong province yesterday morning when police and alleged “instigators” cracked down on a peaceful demonstration calling for the release of three imprisoned environmental activists. The group was held at the provincial police station for about eight hours, where they were interrogated about their “involvement” in the protest before eventually being released at 6:15pm. Speaking from the police station, In Kongchit, a provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho who was among those arrested, said he had been questioned about the purpose of the protest and who was leading it.
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Police Arrest 17 at Protest In Koh Kong
Police in Koh Kong province on Wednesday arrested 17 people—including four rights workers—near the provincial courthouse as protesters continued to call for the release of three jailed environmental activists, according to officials. The group was released shortly after 6 p.m.
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Bid to dismiss treason charges fails
The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled to keep opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour in prison, rejecting a bid by his lawyers to have his charges dismissed and arrest ruled illegal. Appeal Court judge Khun Leang Meng upheld the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s decision to arrest and charge the Sam Rainsy Party senator, despite his parliamentary immunity, according to Sok Hour’s lawyers Choung Choungy and Sam Sokong. Meng declined to release Sok Hour, a dual French-Cambodian citizen, over fears the lawmaker would “cause trouble” and would escape, his lawyers said.
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