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More timber burns in Mondulkiri as NGO calls for answers
Timber stockpiles in two former Mondulkiri economic land concessions went up in flames over the past few days, with authorities blaming forest fires, an explanation one observer characterised as an “excuse”. The ELCs had their licences withdrawn in 2014 for breaching their operating conditions. One formerly belonged to Kasekam Khmer Angkor Agriculture and the other, to Investment & Development Dai Nam (Cambodia). Since then, tycoons Try Pheap and Lim Bunna have been granted the right to collect wood at the two sites, according to the Ministry of Environment.
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Takeo Governor Says Historic Village Is Not Lost to Vietnam
Takeo provincial governor Lay Vannak on Wednesday threatened to arrest anyone who claims that officials surrendered to Vietnam two of the boulders that constitute the historic “Three Rocks Village” on the eastern border of Borei Cholsar district.
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Nation Still Lacks Basic Political Rights, Report Says
When it comes to political rights and civil liberties, Cambodian citizens continue to be “not free,” according to U.S.-based organization Freedom House, which released its “Freedom in the World 2016” report on Wednesday.
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Drama as Trial of Accused Child Abuser Delayed
The trial of a German expatriate accused of sexually abusing five Cambodian boys was delayed at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday, with the judge briefly taking the bench before stating that he did not have time to preside over the scheduled hearing. Udo Sabiniewicz, 56, his legal team, and at least two of his alleged victims showed up at the municipal court in the afternoon only for Presiding Judge Heng Sokna to announce that he had a scheduling conflict.
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HRW slams NGO Law, court cases in report
In what has become a yearly tradition, Human Rights Watch levelled a broadside of criticisms at the Cambodian government yesterday, accusing it in its annual report of enacting “draconian” legislation and granting itself broad “arbitrary powers” to suppress dissent. The global report’s Cambodia section details a litany of alleged abuses including, among other things, the suppression of civil society, the jailing of more than a dozen opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party activists, the mob bashing of two CNRP lawmakers and the pursuit of politically motivated court cases against party members, including leader Sam Rainsy.
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Police deny shooting at Veng Sreng
Despite the absence of the defendants and their lawyers, the Appeal Court yesterday heard the case of 13 demonstrators convicted over a violent minimum wage protest on the capital’s Veng Sreng Boulevard in January 2014, where security forces allegedly shot to death at least four people and wounded many others. Appeal Court judge Chay Chandaravan confirmed the hearing went ahead, though the group, who were released from custody in May 2014, after being handed suspended sentences for intentional violence, were not in attendance.
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Access to information law site goes online
In an apparent move towards transparency, the Ministry of Information launched a website where visitors can post opinions and suggestions for a long-awaited freedom of information law, though an observer yesterday cautioned the suggestions will need to be heeded for the initiative to be judged a success. The website which went live yesterday, www.a2i.info.gov.kh, made in conjunction with UNESCO with support from the Swedish government, features drafts of the upcoming public information law with comment sections where “visitors can write comments or requests for each article”, according to MoI spokesman Ouk Kimseng. The law, which was first proposed over 10 years ago, is expected to be fully drafted by 2018, he said.
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Siem Reap protesters make divine appeal
About 80 protesters from Siem Reap’s five-star Victoria Angkor Resort gathered in front of a local shrine yesterday to pray for the provincial court to cancel an injunction released on January 6 ordering them to stop demonstrating at the hotel’s entrance. "Seeking help from the sacred statues is the last resort for us, because we have no more trust in authorities or the court," said Morm Rithy, president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation, as he stood in front of the shrine to Preah Ang Chek and Preah Ang Chorm.
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Angkor beer promoters to hold off on protests
The union behind the protests of 22 Angkor beer promoters, half of whom said they were fired last week for going on strike, says it will not hold renewed demonstrations on the case until after a final decision is handed down by the Arbitration Council. The 11 promoters, whose strikes were sparked by lengthened nighttime working hours with no additional pay, said they were fired on Thursday despite an order from the council that all protesters would return to work while it deliberated on the case.
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Chroy Changvar road row pushes into Day 2
A protest against city hall’s decision to clear residents’ land for a new road on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula without paying compensation yesterday entered its second day. About 100 protesters forced bulldozers to temporarily stop work on the road – being built about 100 metres west of National Road 6A – by setting tyres alight in their path.
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Kerry Stresses Security and Trade During Visit
Speaking from the garden of Raffles Hotel on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the “urgent challenge” of countering extremism, building business ties and seeing Cambodia become a thriving democracy were at the top of his agenda during his daylong visit to Phnom Penh. Mr. Kerry, whose trip to Cambodia comes ahead of the February U.S.-Asean summit in Sunnylands, California, described his morning meetings with Prime Minister Hun Sen and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong as being “candid and constructive.”
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Cambodia on ‘Cusp’ of Authoritarianism: Report
After a breakdown in political discourse last year led to a sometimes-violent offensive against opposition leaders and activists, Cambodia slipped 10 spots in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Democracy Index—to the “cusp” of authoritarianism. The report, released late last week, says that while Cambodia was given a boost in the 2014 index thanks to that year’s deal between the government and opposition CNRP—which ended a 10-month political impasse—recent developments have caused the country’s democratic situation to deteriorate.
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Kingdom’s democracy rank slips
Cambodian democracy regressed last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2015 Democracy Index, which indicates that the Kingdom is “on the cusp of the ‘authoritarian regime’ category”. The index measures five categories – electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture – none of which saw an improvement over the Kingdom’s 2014 scores.
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PM defends logging tycoons
Prime Minister Hun Sen has defended the actions of two prominent tycoons accused of logging vast stretches of forest in Cambodia’s protected Virachey National Park as “legal,” according to a letter obtained by the Post. Warning that Virachey’s forest would be “extinct in the very near future”, 23 opposition lawmakers sent a letter to the premier in July asking for an immediate halt to logging in the park by tycoons Try Pheap and An Marady.
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Residents protest land clearing on Chroy Changvar peninsula
Several families yesterday burned tyres to protest the bulldozing of their land to make way for a road that will run next to a billion-dollar satellite city project on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula. Built by City Hall, the road will be set 100 metres west of National Road 6A. It will run alongside the Chroy Changva Satellite City, planned by tycoon Pung Khieu Se’s Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation, which is embroiled in a land dispute with six communities living on the site.
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PM Threatens Tit-for-Tat Political Protests Ahead of US Trip
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday threatened to rekindle demonstrations against the CNRP if he is met by protesters during a trip to the U.S. next month for a meeting of Asean leaders. The last time Mr. Hun Sen made such a threat, in response to demonstrations against him during trips to New York and Paris, the result was an October 26 protest in Phnom Penh at which CNRP lawmakers Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Saphea were severely assaulted by pro-CPP demonstrators.
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Timber burned at Mondulkiri ELC
Hundreds of logs of timber, including luxury wood, as well as sawmill camps were torched at a controversial Vietnamese-owned economic land concession in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district in an apparent bid to destroy evidence of illegal logging ahead of a raid by a new anti-logging committee. Eng Hy, spokesman for the joint committee – formed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on January 14 to crack down on illegal logging and timber smuggling to Vietnam – said the team was investigating after inspectors found charred logs at the rubber concession of Binh Phuoc Kratie Rubber 1, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG).
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Letter Urges Kerry to Pressure Government on Human Rights
Ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s planned visit to Cambodia this week, local and international NGOs have urged Mr. Kerry not to sign any new bilateral agreements unless Cambodia vows to improve its human rights and democracy efforts. “Repression, human rights abuses, and impunity in Cambodia must stop,” reads the open letter, which was released on Sunday and signed by the directors of the International Federation for Human Rights, Adhoc, Licadho, Forum-Asia and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
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New standards for recruitment agencies
The Ministry of Labour on Saturday issued a 12-point set of standards for recruitment agencies sending workers abroad, warning operators they have just over a month to comply. The directive, issued by Minister of Labour Ith Samheng, is part of the government’s efforts to improve safety for migrants, particularly domestic workers, after a four-year ban on sending maids to Malaysia prompted by numerous reports of abuse was lifted in December.
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Borei Keila families get flats, payouts
Thirthy-one evicted Borei Keila community families received flats and another four families got $15,000 buyouts on Saturday as part of a “lucky draw” organised to resolve their years-long land dispute. Mean Chanyada, administration director at Phnom Penh Municipal Hall and the president of the committee tasked with resolving the dispute, said that only 31 flats were still available at Borei Keila, “but 35 families were determined by the joint committee’s evaluation [to be eligible for flats], so the committee decided to put in four lucky draw sheets that are worth $15,000 each instead”.
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