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Plan to negotiate ends Siem Reap airport strike
Workers at Siem Reap International Airport have ended an 11-day strike after agreeing with the company on a plan to negotiate over their grievances, a union rep said yesterday. Staff returned to work on Friday after the Cambodia Tourism Industry Worker Trade Union (CTIWTU) and Cambodia Airport Management Services, part of the firm that runs the airport, agreed to three-way talks involving the government. On November 24, 148 of the management service’s 500 employees went on strike, disputing the alleged hiring of nonunion labour and accusing the company of forcing workers to perform tasks outside their job descriptions.
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Kem Sokha promises not to bow to threats
Days after Prime Minister Hun Sen alluded to stripping opposition members of parliamentary leadership roles, Cambodia National Rescue Party deputy head Kem Sokha announced that he takes the threats as a sign of a job well done. Speaking to hundreds of people in Svay Rieng province’s Romeas Hek district on Saturday, Sokha affirmed that poking the bear is part of the opposition’s job. “Some people asked when I was threatened, was I scared or not. I would like to tell all of you about politics: When our competitors react, it means that we have done well and [we] have to do more [criticism]. But if our competitors praise us, [we] have to be fearful,” Sokha said.
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Kingdom’s internet ‘partly free’
Cambodia's internet freedom has been ranked as “partly free” for the second year in a row, according to a report released by a watchdog on Friday. The Kingdom scored 47 out of 100 in a report from Freedom House, with 100 being the least free and zero the most free. The ranking comes amid concerns that a planned cybercrime law would severely restrict internet freedom in the Kingdom. Cambodia received similar scores to last year’s report in most categories, though the report noted that some political and social content was now blocked in the country when it wasn’t previously.
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Cambodia's culture of impunity: What price for a life?
The officer escaped - but then resurfaced in August as a free man. He had reached a deal, it was reported, with the court, which closed the case after he paid $1,500 (£960) to Sam Yin's relatives. "I heard about the compensation, but I can't confirm it," Takeo province's deputy police chief Suon Phon said in September. Officers could only be dispatched to apprehend the suspected killer when the court issued an arrest warrant, the deputy police chief said, adding this week that he has yet to receive one.
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Cambodia: Death Highlights Detention Center Abuses
(New York) – The Cambodian government should promptly close all centers arbitrarily detaining people outside the criminal justice system, Licadho and Human Rights Watch said today. The abusive nature of these centers was highlighted by the death on November 26, 2014, of a man who was arbitrarily detained and denied medical treatment at the Prey Speu center outside Phnom Penh. “Keeping Cambodia’s detention centers open is an endless invitation to the authorities to violate the human rights of people deemed ‘undesirable,’” said Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho. “The systematic abuse of Cambodia’s most vulnerable people occurs at these centers and the government should close them immediately.”
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Law passed to tackle road toll
After four days of debate, the National Assembly yesterday passed a sweeping new traffic law that for the first time will require motorbike passengers to wear helmets and limit the number of passengers. Road safety advocates hope the new law, which replaces one passed in late 2006 and carries stiffer penalties for most offences, will help tackle the Kingdom’s road death toll of an average of six fatalities a day, though questions remain about how well it will be enforced. The 92-article law stipulates mandatory helmet use for all motorbike passengers, including all children above the age of three. Under the current law, only drivers are required to wear helmets.
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Jarai turn down UN’s offer to help move Montagnard
With local authorities on Thursday refusing to cooperate with U.N. representatives attempting to meet with 13 Montagnards hiding in Ratanakkiri province, ethnic Jarai villagers in the area said they declined an offer from the delegation to help move the asylum seekers, as the operation was too risky.
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Independence of NEC crucial, watchdogs say
Two prominent members of watchdog group the Electoral Reform Alliance have warned that members of a revamped National Election Committee will have to be placed under tight restrictions to ensure that they do not act in a politically partisan manner. Ou Virak, chairman at the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, and Hang Puthea, executive director of the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia, said yesterday that they were deeply pessimistic that a new NEC made up almost exclusively of members from both parties could be independent.
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Protest still on: youth leader
Ignoring objections and even vague threats made by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Cambodian activists in South Korea plan to stage a protest on Sunday ahead of a five-day summit Prime Minister Hun Sen is scheduled to attend on December 10. Around 1,500 opposition supporters intend to rally in Seoul and sign a petition demanding jailed Cambodia National Rescue Party member Meach Sovannara’s immediate release, according to an organiser.
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Hun Sen says minority leader can’t give order to military
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday clarified that opposition leader Sam Rainsy will not gain the same powers that he has as Cambodia’s head of government, despite the pending appointment of Mr. Rainsy as the parliamentary minority leader “with a rank equal to the prime minister.” Speaking at the National Institute for Education during a university graduation ceremony, Mr. Hun Sen said that Mr. Rainsy’s coming appointment is simply part of a broader reform that could one day see the leaders of other parties in the National Assembly also formally recognized.
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Monks arrested in Thailand
Nineteen Cambodian monks were arrested and defrocked in Thailand on Tuesday after police found them illegally camping in the forest and soliciting donations, authorities confirmed yesterday. Immigration police and Royal Thai Police in Phuket began their search after receiving complaints that the monks were asking residents and tourists for cash donations.
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Company behind B Kak project says land sale in doubt
The company behind the controversial development of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood says that a pending multimillion-dollar land sale to a Singaporean firm was unlikely to happen due to financial difficulties on the part of the prospective buyer. In June, the HLH Group announced that its new subsidiary, D’Lotus Development, had agreed to pay $14.9 million for a 1.35-hectare plot of land from Shukaku Inc., a firm owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin.
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Dispite a title on par with Premier, Rainsy will hold no real power
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday sought to make clear that, although there will soon be two other people in Cambodia with a rank “equal” to his, only one man really calls the shots. Last Friday, Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy agreed that the internal rules of parliament would soon be amended to officially recognise minority parties in the National Assembly, and specifically a US-style minority leader with a rank equal to the prime minister.
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CNRP lawmaker challenges minister on state of roads
An opposition lawmaker Wednesday used a sitting of the National Assembly—called to pass the third and fourth chapters of the new traffic law—to demand that Transport Minister Tram Iv Tek repair Cambodia’s dilapidated roads or resign from his position. The National Assembly on Monday passed the first two chapters of the new traffic law by a near-unanimous vote before gathering again Wednesday to consider the next two chapters concerning drivers and the use of headlights and horns.
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Least developed nations trapped in ‘ vicious circle’
The world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – of which Cambodia is one – are stuck in a paradox of rapidly growing economies that veer far short of global goals to reduce poverty, according to a recent report by the United Nations. Cambodia continues to be ranked as one of 48 LDCs that are “trapped in a vicious circle of economic and human underdevelopment”, the report by UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development arm, says.
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Murder ‘Mastermind’ on run; parents arrested
In a raid last night, municipal police arrested the father and mother of a senior Defense Ministry official suspected of being the “mastermind” behind the murder of a prominent businessman in Phnom Penh last month, only hours after the parents announced they had sent their son into hiding.
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Some Fear Political Deal Will Hurt Long-term Democracy
A deal between the ruling party and opposition in July may have ended a yearlong political deadlock, but some rights workers now worry the compromises will not be worth the long-term costs to Cambodian democracy. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party have made a number of agreements, including allowing the opposition to have its own TV station, reorganizing the National Election Committee election body, and creating a minority leadership position in the parliament with rights as a “dialogue partner” with the prime minister.
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UN heads to Ratanakkrir to meet with Montagnards
The U.N. on Wednesday sent a delegation to meet a group of 13 Montagnard asylum seekers hiding in Ratanakkiri province, despite the Interior Ministry insisting that the organization first obtain permission from the government, which has yet to be granted. Local police have been searching for the Montagnards—who have been camped out in the forest since fleeing from Vietnam over the past five weeks—but have so far failed to locate them. In interviews with reporters last week, members of the group, which includes 12 men and one woman, said they would be severely punished if they were returned to their homeland and called on the U.N. to rescue them.
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Disability benefits will be broadened by gov’t
A Ministry of Social Affairs official yesterday announced that, starting next year, the government would offer regular payments of 20,000 riel (about $5) to all disabled Cambodians, a benefit that so far has only been available to retired disabled soldiers. In an announcement that coincided with Cambodia’s National Day of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs Secretary of State Sem Sokha said the frequency of payments would be based on the severity of the recipient’s disability.
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Manhunt for tycoon on
Police stormed into a house in the capital’s Meanchey district last night, detaining the parents of Thong Sarath, a tycoon who earlier in the day went into hiding to escape questioning over the murder of businessman Ung Meng Cheu. “Sarath is the ringleader in this murder, but he has fled,” said Chhuon Narin, deputy chief of the municipal police . “His parents will be questioned tonight.”
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