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Police Single Out Nine Montagnards as Seven More Arrive
Police in Ratanakkiri province located and attempted to arrest a group of nine Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in the forests of Lumphat district Tuesday, ethnic Jarai villagers and an official said, after seven more Montagnards crossed into the province on Monday. Lumphat district police chief Soy Thai said his officers were actively searching for the group of nine after they evaded arrest.
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Muslim Woman, Girl Back From Malaysia
A day after opposition leader Sam Rainsy publicly took up their cause, a young Cham Muslim woman and girl were repatriated Tuesday after being trafficked into the Malaysian sex trade and were greeted by Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong. The victims, aged 15 and 23, returned at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning and were met in Phnom Penh by their mothers and by Mr. Rainsy, who had campaigned on their behalf on Monday after hearing that authorities had ignored their families’ pleas for help.
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Cambodia’s Hun Sen Defends Deportation of Spanish Activist
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday defended his government’s decision to deport a Spanish environmentalist who had led a campaign against a controversial dam project, though he reiterated a pledge that the dam would not be built under his watch. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, director of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, was put on a plane to Thailand Monday night—three days after his visa had expired—and placed on a black list that may prevent his return to the country, despite appeals from opposition politicians and civil society.
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CHAK SOPHEAP, 29, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAMBODIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Chak Sopheap, at just 29 years old, is the youngest Executive Director for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), one of the most active human rights organizations in Cambodia. Born in Kampong Cham province, her parents moved the family to Phnom Penh to give their children better economic opportunities. As a child, she once dreamed of being a doctor, to serve the poor, but now her dream is to help create a freer, more open and just Cambodia.
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‘I will come back,’ says deported activist
Referring to Cambodia as “my country”, Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, a vocal environmental activist and Spanish national who was deported Monday, yesterday vowed to return and continue his struggle to save the Areng Valley. “I am a Cambodian and I have been illegally exiled from my country for speaking the truth and defending our country’s natural resources,” the anti-dam activist told the Post in a Facebook message from an undisclosed location. “I will come back, that is for sure. The only thing I don’t know for sure is when.”
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‘Don’t talk about Areng’
Prime Minister Hun Sen for the first time yesterday publicly announced that construction of the Areng Valley dam would not go ahead in this mandate, issuing the promise in a speech that sought to curb the outpouring of criticism over the abrupt deportation of anti-dam activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson. The premier yesterday said that the valley – home to one of the Kingdom’s most unspoiled forests, and a hotbed of biodiversity – should be left to younger generations.
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PM Threatens Use of Rockets in Areng Valley
The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if they did. Addressing an audience of government officials at a National Clean City Day event on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island, Mr. Hun Sen took aim at Spanish national Alex Gonzalez-Davidson—who was expelled from Cambodia on Monday night—and fellow activists who briefly blocked a government convoy on its way to the site of a proposed hydropower dam in the valley in September.
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Preah Sihanouk Communities Protest Over Land Conflicts
About 100 villagers representing 19 communities in Preah Sihanouk province marched to the provincial hall in Sihanoukville on Tuesday, demanding intervention in their land disputes. The protesters—hailing from Sihanoukville and the province’s Stung Hav and Prey Nop districts —gathered in the provincial capital’s Bei commune and marched 8 km to the provincial hall, where they protested for an hour before deputy governor Srun Sroan accepted their petition and organized a meeting with provincial officials.
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Montagnards flee R’kiri police raid
A group of nine Montagnard asylum seekers hiding out in Ratanakkiri province had a close brush with law enforcement officials yesterday, even as a new group of the Vietnamese ethnic minority crossed the border into Cambodia, a rights group and a villager helping the hiding families said. Some 40 police officers in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district attempted to raid the camp of nine Montagnards who had crossed into Cambodia about two weeks ago, but the group dispersed into the forest, said the villager, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
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Anti-Graft Agency Seeks Evidence of Court Bribery
The head of the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Monday that it would investigate whether the former director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, who was abruptly removed from his position last week, took bribes in relation to a high-profile murder case. Ang Mealaktei was officially removed as the city’s top judge on February 17, the day after Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a speech that the municipal court may have taken millions of dollars to reverse a bail decision.
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Union Leader Lodges Complaints Over Alleged Death Threat
Union leader Pav Sina on Monday filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry after an administrator at a Chinese-owned window factory in Svay Rieng province allegedly told three other members of his union that some factory owners were pooling money in order to have Mr. Sina assassinated. “We filed a complaint to the Ministry of Interior and ask for protection from the ministry for my safety because I am concerned about my safety after the threat,” said Mr. Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), adding that he also filed complaints with rights group Licadho and the U.N.
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Airport Community Blocked From Marching to Hun Sen’s House
Villagers facing eviction due to the planned expansion of the Phnom Penh International Airport were blocked from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house Monday, but eventually succeeded in delivering a petition to a representative of the prime minister’s cabinet. At 9 a.m., about 50 police officers and Chamkar Mon district security guards blocked an equal number of demonstrators at the corner of Street 51 and Sihanouk Boulevard. After about an hour of pushing and shoving, the protesters agreed to take a roundabout route to Wat Botum park, where they delivered their petition to Kong Chamroeun, a secretary in Mr. Hun Sen’s cabinet
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Defiant activist ejected
Outspoken environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson was deported from Cambodia last night after being detained along with a colleague from his conservation group. Gonzalez-Davidson and his Mother Nature co-founder San Mala were detained without charge by immigration officials at around 1:15pm in the riverside area of Phnom Penh. General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, suggested the ministry had shown restraint in not bringing criminal charges against the activist.
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Access-to-information draft law ‘on schedule’
The Ministry of Information and a handful of outside organisations released the first two chapters of the long-awaited access-to-information draft law at its second working group meeting yesterday. During a two-hour meeting held at the ministry, technical working group members consisting of ministry officials, UNESCO and civil society groups, discussed chapters one and two of the proposed law, which has been in the works since 2007.
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Cambodia’s Hun Sen Defends Deportation of Spanish Activist
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday defended his government’s decision to deport a Spanish environmentalist who had led a campaign against a controversial dam project, though he reiterated a pledge that the dam would not be built under his watch. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, director of the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, was put on a plane to Thailand Monday night—three days after his visa had expired—and placed on a black list that may prevent his return to the country, despite appeals from opposition politicians and civil society.
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ACU set to call ousted judge
The Anti-Corruption Unit will summon ousted Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Ang Maltey this week for questioning in connection with alleged bribes paid by the parents of a fugitive tycoon to secure their release on bail earlier this month. Anti-Corruption Unit president Om Yentieng told reporters at ACU headquarters yesterday that he had launched a sweeping investigation into the release of Oknha Thong Sarath’s parents and had already questioned a number of individuals related to the case.
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More trafficked in 2014: gov’t
A mother whose daughter was trafficked into the Malaysian sex industry has pleaded with lawmakers to help rescue her child, as new figures from Cambodia’s Interior Ministry reveal an upswing in human trafficking victims rescued last year.
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IOM signs on to refugee deal
The International Organization for Migration has formally agreed to help refugees living in Australian-run detention camps on Nauru resettle in Cambodia after persuading the government to give them the right to live and work anywhere in the Kingdom. The IOM has mulled getting involved in the controversial scheme for months, following a request from member states Cambodia, Nauru and Australia.
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Access-to-information draft law ‘on schedule’
The Ministry of Information and a handful of outside organisations released the first two chapters of the long-awaited access-to-information draft law at its second working group meeting yesterday. During a two-hour meeting held at the ministry, technical working group members consisting of ministry officials, UNESCO and civil society groups, discussed chapters one and two of the proposed law, which has been in the works since 2007.
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Gov’t Arrests, Deports Vocal Anti-Dam Activist
Immigration officials put outspoken environmental activist Alex Gonzalez-Davidson on a one-way flight back to Spain last night, only hours after Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly called on the tireless anti-dam campaigner to leave the country. “He is on the plane. He flies to Bangkok tonight,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said by telephone.
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