Union Complains of Spate of Illegal Garment Factory Firings

Union leader Pav Sina on Tuesday said garment factories around the country illegally fired dozens of his local representatives last year, far more than in 2013, and urged the government to help get their jobs back. Mr. Sina’s Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) is one of the fastest growing unions in the country and was among the more strident during negotiations between the unions and factories over a new minimum wage for the garment sector last year. At a press conference Tuesday, he said 65 of his representatives at several factories were illegally fired in 2014 for carrying out legitimate union activity, a sharp increase from the four who were fired the year before.

Malaysia work horrors aired

When 26-year-old Toch Nai returned from Malaysia last year, the only “souvenirs” she says she brought back were the wounds she suffered from beatings. Nai, a domestic worker, endured four years of torture at the hands of her employer. And a year after returning to her homeland, she is still struggling to come to terms with her experience. “I came back home, but I will never forget.… My beating souvenirs are my wounds on my eye, arm and ear that I suffered from my employer,” she said. “Until now, I have not got any justice.”

Appeal Court Upholds Controversial Convictions

The Court of Appeal on Monday upheld the protest-related convictions handed down to 11 activists in November, but reduced the prison sentences of all but the most high-profile members of the group. Rights groups called the decision “indefensible.” Seven of the defendants were arrested in mid-November for blocking traffic during a protest in front of Phnom Penh City Hall against the municipal government’s failure to address the repeated flooding of their Boeng Kak neighborhood. The other four were arrested the next day for “obstructing public officials” while protesting outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the arrest of the first seven.

Three More Montagnard Asylum Seekers Arrive in Phnom Penh

Three Montagnard asylum seekers arrived in Phnom Penh last week and are applying for refugee status at the Interior Ministry’s refugee department, the U.N. and a rights group confirmed Monday. Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc in Ratanakkiri province—to which nearly 30 Montagnard asylum seekers have fled over the past three months—said the three arrived in the capital on Wednesday. “Today, the U.N. confirmed that they received three Vietnamese Jarai in Phnom Penh,” he said, referring to the Montagnards. Mr. Thy said a Cambodian Jarai villager, who is helping to translate for the Montagnards, told him the group comprised two men and a woman.

For many, work-school equation doesn’t add up

Almost a quarter of Cambodian students aged 7 to 14 are forced to give up school because their work intercedes, according to a new study by UNESCO. Looking at what keeps kids from the classroom and why initiatives to get them back are stalling, the study found a high correlation between students who work and students who drop out. “There are strong links between being a child labourer and being out of school and the two challenges must be addressed together,” says the report, titled Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All. “On the one hand, child labour needs to be reduced in order to increase school attendance. On the other hand, increased school attendance is the most effective way to reduce child labour.”

Montagnards bypass R’kiri

The latest Montagnard asylum seekers to arrive in Cambodia have bypassed the northeastern province where 14 others are currently in hiding and headed straight to the capital to meet with UN officials yesterday, who referred them to the government’s Refugee Department. The three Christian Montagnards, a woman and two men all in their early 20s, travelled from Vietnam’s Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces and crossed through Bavet International Border last Tuesday before heading onwards to Phnom Penh, according to an ethnic minority Jarai villager and local rights group Adhoc.

Phnom Penh Airport Cleaners Strike Over Salaries

More than 100 cleaners employed by Cambodia Airports walked off the job at Phnom Penh International Airport on Monday and protested outside the terminal’s entrance after their request last week for higher salaries went unanswered, a union official said. “In the afternoon, more than 100 cleaners protested at Pochentong Airport when the airport did not [respond] to their request,” said Tuon Saren, a coordinator at the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, which organized the strike.

‘No proof’ in Koh Kong land fight: judge

Villagers in Koh Kong province were sent back to the drawing board yesterday, when the Court of Appeal upheld the provincial court’s decision that about 62 hectares of land belongs to Heng Huy Co. The land in Sre Ambel district’s Chi Khor Krom commune has been the subject of controversy between Heng Huy and 15 families, who say their land was taken in 2010, villager representatives said in court yesterday. “The complaint is wrong,” Appeal Court judge Plang Samnang said, explaining that villagers had no proof the land ever belonged to them. “They can file again, after they ask the [provincial] court to confirm it is their land, and confirmations are certified by the authorities.”

Soldiers, including one ex-con, arrested over land-clearing allegation

Three soldiers, one of whom was previously implicated in the murder of an environmental official, were arrested last week in Preah Sihanouk province for allegedly clearing an area of protected forest land in Ream National Park, officials said yesterday. Provincial deputy prosecutor Ros Saram said that two of the soldiers were arrested on Thursday alongside the operator of an excavator they were using to clear the land. The following day, a third soldier, Thorn Virak, was arrested. “The driver and three soldiers were charged with clearing the forest land in Ream National Park without permission and they were detained in the [provincial] prison” to await trial, Saram said.

An ‘indefensible’ verdict

Despite hopes to the contrary, 10 female land activists, including seven well-known Boeung Kak lake protesters, and a monk, had their convictions upheld yesterday morning at the Appeal Court, two and a half months after they were arrested and sentenced to a year in prison within 24 hours of their respective arrests. Although most received slight reductions in their prison terms and fines, it appeared to be of little consolation. Following the verdict, the jump-suited defendants yelled and protested the “injustice” of the decision in the courtroom before being dragged out and into waiting police vans.

Police Deport 7 Montagnards From Ratanakkiri to Vietnam

As 14 Montagnard asylum seekers continue to evade authorities in the forests of Ratanakkiri province, an official said Sunday that police deported seven “Vietnamese Jarai” from the northeastern province on Saturday. Ratanakkiri provincial police chief Nguon Koeun said border police arrested the seven on Saturday in O’Yadaw district’s Paknhai commune and handed them over to Vietnamese authorities near the border later that day. “We arrested those people because they crossed the border illegally and farmed in our Khmer land,” he said. “They are not Montagnards, they are Vietnamese Jarai people,” he added.

Official dismisses Thai report on border plan

The government has dismissed a report in Thai media claiming that Cambodia has agreed to jointly develop villages in a disputed border area, saying “the information was wrong”. On Friday, the Bangkok Post, citing Thai Army chief Udomdej Sitabutr, reported that Thailand and Cambodia had agreed to join forces to develop 60 villages on the An Ses, or Chong Arn Ma, border crossing, “in accordance with newly inked agreements”. But the cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Tea Banh released a statement to “dismiss the publication of untrue information”. The cabinet stressed that “during a courtesy call by a Thai army delegation … there were no talks on this issue”.

Evictees Prevented From Screening Video to Mark Anniversary

About 100 former members of the Dey Krahorm community returned to the site of their brutal eviction in central Phnom Penh on Saturday afternoon to mark six years since they were forced off their land, but were prevented by authorities from screening a video of the events around their removal. Chan Vichet, 36, a former Dey Krahorm resident who organized the planned screening, said police began patrolling the street next to the gathering, which was held near the eviction site in Chamkar Mon district, at about 4 p.m.

Out of the woods: Forest crime often goes unpunished

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries saw at least 2,400 cases of forest- and wildlife-related crimes in 2014, of which almost 1,800 were forwarded to the courts, though fewer than 10 people were sentenced in relation to the crimes, ministry figures say. Only seven people were either educated on forest crimes or made to face legal action, a low figure that ministry administration official Thorn Sarath attributed to the relatively minor nature of most of the crimes and the difficulty in identifying perpetrators. Many cases, he added, don’t result in arrests because suspects flee and “people do not help the authorities catch the perpetrators”.

Cambodia court upholds convictions for land rights activists

A Cambodian court on Monday upheld convictions for 11 land activists involved in protests last year while marginally reducing most of their sentences, as rights groups decried the latest strike against freedom of expression. In November, 10 female activists -- including a 75-year-old woman -- and a defrocked Buddhist monk were each sentenced to a year in prison for blocking traffic or obstructing the work of officials during protests in Phnom Penh. Cambodia's Appeal Court upheld the guilty verdicts but reduced eight of the activists' jail terms to 10 months while the sentence for the eldest campaigner -- Nget Khun, known locally as "Mommy" -- was cut to six months.

Villagers want ELC revoked

Hundreds of indigenous families from Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district have demanded the government cancel the economic land concession of a Vietnamese rubber company that they say is illegally prospecting for gold. About a dozen people representing 384 families handed a petition to CNRP lawmakers yesterday requesting Jing Ly Investment Co’s ELC be scrapped. In the letter, organised by the rights group Adhoc, the group accused the company of clearing 150 hectares of some 784 hectares of forest reserved for the indigenous communities.

CAMBODIA: HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION REMAINS CRITICAL - CIVICUS INTERVIEW WITH CHAK SOPHEAP (CCHR)

CIVICUS speaks to Ms. Chak Sopheap, Executive Director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), about ongoing restrictions on civil society organizations and human rights defenders in Cambodia since general elections held in 2013.

Three Arrested for Trafficking Cambodian Brides to China

Municipal anti-human trafficking police arrested three suspects in the past two days for allegedly sending at least four Cambodian women to marry men in China over the past year. Municipal anti-human trafficking police chief Keo Thea said one of the four Cambodian women sent to China returned on Tuesday after being stopped by Chinese police at an airport there on Sunday. “Chinese police stopped her at the airport,” he said, noting she was lost and asked police for help. “When Chinese police sent her back to Cambodia, the suspects found out and demanded $10,000 from her” to recover the cost of arranging her travel and marriage in China.

In total, 17 judges and prosecutors were apppointed and transferred.

17 judges and prosecutors from the Ministry of Justice and the court of first instance were appointed and transferred.

Boeung Kak activists’ release sought