Searching Result
Found: 15,658
-
Government Cancels More Land Concessions
The Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday announced that since the 2013 national election it has canceled eight economic land concessions (ELCs) covering some 50,000 hectares belonging to companies that failed to honor their contracts with the government, and cut nearly 100,000 hectares out of four others. The announcement followed the release of new satellite data last week from the University of Maryland indicating that ELCs continued to be the main driver of rampant deforestation across Cambodia during the election year.
Read More -
Gov’t touts ELC revocations
Dozens of companies that have not met their commitments to invest in developing land granted to them in concessions have had their leases revoked since a moratorium on new contracts was passed in 2012, the government said yesterday. More than 600,000 hectares of land leased to 71 private companies has been reclaimed and put under the jurisdiction of relevant government agencies, according to Eang Sophalleth, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Read More -
Anti-Eviction Protesters Blocked From Freedom Park
A day after Phnom Penh authorities refused to allow a planned one-month anti-eviction protest to go ahead, government security guards Wednesday blocked a group of 20 demonstrators from entering Freedom Park and used barricades to trap them on a side street. The protesters, from eviction-hit communities including the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods, were calling for intervention in their land disputes and the release of 10 jailed activists.
Read More -
Refugee offer stands, but might fail: Kheng
The controversial resettlement deal with Australia that could see refugees currently living on the South Pacific island of Nauru sent to Cambodia may not go ahead due to an apparent lack of interest, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. “We have not decided yet” on when to bring the refugees over, he said. “The principle remains, but whether they will come or not, we do not know.” Kheng also said that Cambodian officials would visit Nauru again after a seemingly unsuccessful mission to the island last week.
Read More -
Three Refugees Met With Delegation, Minister Says
Three of the refugees Australia is holding at a detention center on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru agreed to meet with Cambodian officials who traveled there last week to assess the possibility of resettling some of the asylum seekers in Cambodia, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters following a meeting at the Interior Ministry, Mr. Kheng said that just three refugees—among hundreds currently being held at the center—spoke with Cambodian officials.
Read More -
Lawmakers Question Minister Over Migration
Rural Development Minister Chea Sophara met with the National Assembly’s commission on rural development, environment and water resources Wednesday for a review of the ministry’s work over the past year. Pol Ham, a senior CNRP lawmaker who heads the commission, told reporters after Wednesday’s closed-door meeting that the parliamentarians focused their questions on measures being taken to invigorate the rural economy so that Cambodians are not forced to relocate to find jobs.
Read More -
Crash compensation put off as info sought
Cambodian and Thai authorities are seeking compensation for the families of five Cambodians killed in a van accident in Thailand’s Songkhla province, but are still trying to determine whether the van was properly insured, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. According to ministry spokesman Koy Kuong, the victims were travelling in a van on Friday when it crashed into a tree and overturned, also killing the van’s Thai driver and injuring five more Cambodians.
Read More -
IOM willing to help with refugee plan
The International Organisation for Migration has told the Cambodian government it is willing to take part in the resettlement of refugees from Nauru if a number of conditions are met. A spokesman for the intergovernmental group said yesterday it would “be prepared to have a role in resettling the caseload from Nauru subject to certain conditions being present”, without describing them in detail. Australia signed a deal with Cambodia last year to resettle an unknown number of refugees from its detention centre on the Pacific island. Peter Dutton, Australia’s new immigration minister, told the ABC in an interview yesterday he would visit Cambodia soon.
Read More -
A tale of two Boeung Kak protests
The presence of dozens of riot police yesterday swiftly ended the first day of Boeung Kak land-rights activist Yorm Bopha’s planned month-long protest in the capital’s Freedom Park. At virtually the same time, Surya Subedi, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, visited a rival Boeung Kak group at imprisoned activist Tep Vanny’s house in Village 22, a meeting that attracted no attention at all from authorities. On Monday, City Hall refused to allow Bopha’s group – about 60 people from various dispute-afflicted communities – to use Freedom Park.
Read More -
Judicial reshuffle: Top judiciary posts filled by Sihamoni
King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday shook up the composition of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, officially instituting seven new members to the body overseeing the nation’s judiciary, while also disbarring one former prosecutor. Top Chan Sereyvuth, a former Pursat attorney, was officially disbarred five years after he was given 19 years in prison in connection to an extortion and abduction racket, said council secretary-general Sam Prachea Manith. Sereyvuth was found guilty for his involvement in arresting an illegal-logging suspect and demanding $3,000 in exchange for his release.
Read More -
Cambodia's Hun Sen hails 30 years as PM, but activists decry rule
Cambodian strongman Hun Sen marked three decades as premier on Wednesday hailing his role in rebuilding the war-torn nation, as rights groups lambasted him for using "violence, repression and corruption" to cling to power. The former Khmer Rouge cadre became the world's youngest prime minister when he took office on January 14, 1985 at the age of 32, his humble back story and sharp wit aiding his reputation for being in touch with ordinary Cambodians. But his administration has been widely criticised for graft, while Hun Sen stands accused of ignoring human rights abuses, stamping out dissent and rigging elections.
Read More -
Military Police Should Stop Viewing Protesters as Enemies
National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha’s recent remarks that he learned from Adolf Hitler constitute a clear faux pas. As the German Ambassador to Cambodia put it, Hitler was the leader of the brutal Nazi regime. The gap between Hitler and Pol Pot is quite narrow —both relied on a ruthless police force whose goal was to “investigate and suppress all anti-state tendencies,” according to Robert Gellately, a leading historian of modern Europe. The Gestapo, the Nazis’ official secret police, played an essential role in perpetuating the Holocaust by identifying potential victims.
Read More -
Peaceful Protest Turned Away From Freedom Park
Some 50 Daun Penh district security guards and about as many riot police prevented 100 anti-eviction protesters from gathering at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Tuesday after the city deemed the gathering illegal. The protesters were from a number of eviction-hit communities, including the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods of Phnom Penh and communities in Preah Vihear province.
Read More -
CNRP to Screen Banned Film on Slain Union Leader Chea Vichea
The opposition CNRP plans to screen the banned documentary film “Who Killed Chea Vichea?” this week to mark the 11th anniversary of the Free Trade Union (FTU) leader’s assassination in front of a newspaper stall in Phnom Penh on January 22, 2004. CNRP public affairs director Mu Sochua announced on her Facebook page Tuesday that the film—which strongly suggests that the government was complicit in the unionist’s murder—would be screened at the opposition’s Phnom Penh headquarters at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Read More -
Opposition Lawmakers Still Face Jail, Hun Sen Warns
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday accused the CNRP of violating the “culture of dialogue” that he and the opposition agreed to last year, and warned seven lawmakers charged with incitement and insurrection that their parliamentary immunity would not save them from prison. The seven CNRP lawmakers were charged over a protest at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park in July during which some opposition supporters beat district security guards, a few of them severely.
Read More -
Officials to Meet About Census Findings
The Interior Ministry’s immigration department will on Wednesday report the findings of a nationwide census of foreigners that began in August, an immigration official said Monday. “The general department of immigration will hold the meeting to total [the results] on January 21 at the Interior Ministry,” said Uk Heisela, chief of investigations at the department. “The census might finish before the meeting begins.”
Read More -
Ratanakkiri Governor Suspects Montagnards Smuggled by Locals
The governor of Ratanakkiri province said Monday that he suspects 14 Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in the forests of O’Yadaw district were illegally smuggled across the border from Vietnam by ethnic Jarai in the area. A group of Jarai villagers in the district have been helping the Montagnards evade authorities since a group of five arrived on January 3. Nine more arrived on Saturday. The same villagers also helped 13 Montagnards who crossed the border in late October to make contact with U.N. representatives in late December. The U.N. then transferred the 13 to Phnom Penh to apply for refugee status.
Read More -
New Election Law May Ban Foreigners From Campaigns
Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin said Monday that he had drafted an article for the new national election law that would ban foreigners and NGOs from voicing political opinions during national elections. Mr. Chhin has been leading the ruling CPP in negotiations with the opposition CNRP, whose delegation is being led by Kuoy Bunroeun, to amend the election law following a deal last year to create a new bipartisan election committee. Leaving electoral reform talks Monday, Mr. Chhin said the two parties had discussed a new article dealing with the hours that officials must arrive at polling stations, but said he was working on a more important topic.
Read More -
Workers March for Reinstatement of Leaders
Some 200 garment workers on Monday marched 7 km from their Kompong Cham province factory to the provincial labor department to deliver a petition demanding the reinstatement of three fired union representatives. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), led the striking workers from the Manhattan Textile and Garment Corp. factory in Kompong Siem district to the labor department, where officials refused to accept a petition, before moving on to the headquarters of the provincial government, where an official did receive the document.
Read More -
City Hall Turns Away Anti-Eviction Protesters
The Phnom Penh municipal government on Monday rejected a request from protesters to stage a one-month demonstration in the city’s Freedom Park for the release of 10 jailed activists and refused to receive their latest petition demanding a solution to their long-running land disputes. About 100 people from the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila neighborhoods, where residents have been protesting against forced evictions in their communities for years, gathered in front of City Hall on Monday morning to continue pressing for help.
Read More
Generously Supported by
