GMAC'S LATEST REPORT: COMBODIA LOSING COMPETITIVENESS

A report released yesterday by the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) claims Cambodia's garment sector is losing competitiveness at a regional scale as a result of low productivity, increasing wages and labour strife.

Two Months On, Official Says Refugees Beginning to Settle in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH—Two months after Cambodia received its first group of asylum seekers from Australia as part of a controversial resettlement deal, a Cambodian government official has said the refugees are “very happy” in their new homes. Four refugees arrived in Cambodia in early June, and are being provided orientation, health care and education, and employment services by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). How they fair in the country will likely decide the future of the resettlement program, which has drawn vociferous criticism from human rights campaigners who argue that Australia is neglecting its responsibilities by dumping refugees on an underdeveloped nation.

Cambodia Monks Arrested For Political Oppression? Human Rights Group Slams Drug Arrest

A pair of Buddist monks in Cambodia claim the government has framed them for drug possession and weapons charges because of their political activism. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday charged Dav Tep, 28, and Chea Vanda, 30, with possession of drugs and fake documents, and with making death threats, according to Muth Piseth, their lawyer. “My clients denied all the accusations of the police to the investigating judge because they did not do what the court charged them with,” said Piseth, an attorney working for rights group Adhoc, told Cambodia Daily. “They denied that any of that stuff belonged to them.”

Hun Sen Moves National Election Back to July

Prime Minister Hun Sen announced Monday that the next national election would be moved back to July 2018 and appeared to warn seven CNRP lawmakers charged with “leading an insurrection” last year to present themselves in court when summoned or risk being convicted in absentia. From Europe, opposition leader Sam Rainsy said the decision to abandon a February 2018 election, as pledged as part of last year’s political deal, reflected poorly on Mr. Hun Sen’s “trustworthiness” and suggested that trials for CNRP lawmakers would not surprise him.

Hun Sen’s Comments Draw Criticism From Cambodian Rights Groups

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s public use of derogatory terms when discussing an unnamed woman accused of injuring a security guard after allegedly kicking him prompted rebukes from rights groups in the country on Monday. At the inauguration of the Cambodia-China friendship bridge in Kandal province, Hun Sen publicly talked about the woman in the incident without mentioning her name, saying she was an extremely bad person who seriously injured the guard and referred to her as nhee, a term for a female animal, and mee srey, a term of contempt. The use of language used to address animals to refer to a woman is considered harsh and inappropriate in Cambodian society.

Crowdsourcing Cambodia’s Online Bill of Rights

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – As the government prepares to draft a new law on cybercrime, Internet users are speaking up about which rights they want to see protected. The Cambodian Center for Independent Media is currently drafting a “bill of rights” for Internet users, called the Statement of Principles of Internet Freedom. And in true Internet fashion, the CCIM decided to allow anyone to recommend changes to the statement on a wiki page. CCIM spokesman Sorthy So estimates that 2,000 Cambodians have already contributed recommendations of which rights they would want protected online since the site went online in February. They have posted comments on the wiki for the statement at netlawkh.org, and on the CCIM’s Facebook page.

លោក ហ៊ុន សែន រិះគន់​អ្នក​ធ្វើ​បាតុកម្ម​ថា​មិន​គិត​ពី​ប្រយោជន៍​សង្គម

Ministry Claims NGO’s Land Dispute Numbers Misleading

The Ministry of Land Management has again accused rights group Licadho of spreading false data that shows that the number of families embroiled in new or intensifying land disputes jumped threefold last year. In February, Licadho said that 10,625 families involved in land disputes approached the NGO for the first time in 2014 in the 13 central and western provinces it monitors. Licadho said the disputes involved some 50,000 people, and three times as many families as it recorded in 2013. The ministry disputed the figures within days, insisting that there were only about 1,260 unresolved land dispute “cases” across the country. However, it failed to make the distinction between families and cases, each of which can involve hundreds of families.

KDC locals hold curse ceremony

A hundred members of the Lor Peang community performed a cursing rite yesterday over a 10-year running land dispute with the KDC International Company. The traditional ceremony, meant to punish wrongdoers, was organised in response to a lack of government intervention between 90 families seeking compensation for 183 hectares of land acquired by KDC, despite many filed complaints. The Chinese company is co-owned by the wife of Cambodia’s Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem.

Montagnard group voluntarily sent home

Twelve Montagnards were voluntarily repatriated to Vietnam on Friday through a Ratanakkiri province border checkpoint after being cheated by a broker who promised them jobs in Thailand, according to officials. The Montagnards – a minority group from Vietnam’s highlands – sold their land, property and cattle about eight months ago after “a broker told them that working in Thailand would get them a bigger salary”, said Ratanakkiri deputy police chief Chea Bunthoeun. But the jobs never materialised so the group, which included two children, decided last week to return home.

Kompong Chhnang Court Investigates Police Chief Over Rape Claims

The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has opened an investigation into the alleged rape of a high-school student by a district police chief and summoned the 19-year-old to appear for questioning over the case, officials said Sunday.

Cambodia expels 1,484 illegal foreigners in 7 months: police

PHNOM PENH, (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has deported 1,484 illegal immigrants to their birth countries within the first seven months of 2015, the National Police's website reported Saturday, citing a senior immigration police officer. Major General Ouk Hai Seila, director of the General Department of Immigration's investigation and procedure department, said the deportees, including 170 females, are in 42 nationalities. "Up to 1,338 (or 90 percent) of the deportees were illegal Vietnamese immigrants," the website quoted him as saying.

Land Grabbers Back in Business

CHUUK DISTRICT, Kampot (Khmer Times) – Reinforcing a view that land grabbing is now a business for some rural Cambodians, several villagers who were paid Wednesday for ending their squat on a palm oil plantation reappeared 48 hours later, laying claim to different parts. The land squatting case has received wide publicity because it takes place on Virtus Green Plantations (Cambodia) Pte. Ltd., a plantation controlled here by T. Mohan, owner of Khmer Times. From Malaysia, Mr. Mohan is one of a few foreign investors in Cambodia to publicly denounce land invasions.

Cambodian, Myanmar ‘Slaves’ Rescued

SYDNEY (AFP) – Papua New Guinea Premier Peter O’Neill yesterday pledged support in tackling human trafficking, confirming the seizure of a boat carrying alleged slaves from Cambodia and Myanmar. Mr. O’Neill said the eight people were rescued from the fishing boat “Blissful Reefer” on July 27 in PNG waters. Officials were questioning the 19 crew, including the captain, in the capital Port Moresby while the eight were being kept in at safe site before their return home, he said.

NGOs Ask King Not to Sign NGO Law

A group of 26 local NGOs submitted a letter to King Norodom Sihamoni on Thursday calling on him to refuse to sign off on a controversial law regulating non-governmental groups in the country.

Criticism Mounts Over Charge Against Local Rights Defender

Human Rights Watch on Thursday added its voice to the criticism of Cambodia’s judiciary for defamation charges brought against Ny Chakyra, a senior human rights advocate who accused two judicial officials in Siem Reap province of misconduct in their handling of a land dispute.

Gov’t slams ‘interfering’ UN

Cambodia has rebuked the United Nations after a UN office released a statement admonishing recent political developments in the Kingdom, while an opposition lawmaker is making a last-minute attempt to stop one of those developments from becoming law. Last Friday, the Senate passed a draft NGO law that was viewed by rights groups as muzzling the sector, while on July 21, 11 opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party activists were sentenced to prison terms of seven to 20 years for a street protest that turned violent a year ago. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) lambasted both events on Monday.

Talks over e-registration

Members of the National Election Committee (NEC) met with government figures and representatives of NGOs in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss the electoral registration process, ahead of a new electronic system set to be rolled out next year. The meeting comes a week after the NEC sent a draft set of procedures and regulations to political parties, civil society groups and the Ministry of Interior for review, with recommendations needed to be submitted by August 6. According to Koul Panha, executive director of Comfrel, an election monitoring NGO, while the adoption of an electronic system represents the kind of change needed, how the change will be managed remains unclear.

Chinese Man Arrested ‘Trafficking’ Laborers

A Chinese man was arrested by anti-human trafficking police at Phnom Penh International Airport on Thursday as he prepared to board a flight to China with 18 Cambodian men he had organized to work illegally in a garment factory near the Burmese border, police said.

Six Arrested Over Gang Rape, Murder of Woman

Six construction workers were arrested on Wednesday and confessed to the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old karaoke-parlor worker in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district on Saturday night, police said Thursday.