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Ieng Sary Stable, But Still in Hospital
PHNOM PENH - Former Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary is in stable condition in a Phnom Penh hospital, but his diagnosis will not be made public, officials said Friday. Ieng Sary, the former foreign affairs minister for the regime, has been in the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital since Monday, breathing from oxygen and mostly unable to speak, according to his lawyer.
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Housing Activists Stage Demonstration for Women’s Day
PHNOM PENH - More than 300 protesters from the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila forced evictions gathered on Friday, holding a demonstration to mark International Women’s Day and to demand the release of a land activist from jail. The demonstration moved about the city, as participants called for the release of Yorm Bopha, who was sentenced to three years in jail in December on charges related to violent demonstrations.
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Khmer Rouge Tribunal Stalls Amid Troubles
PHNOM PENH — The United Nations-backed tribunal investigating Cambodia's murderous Khmer Rouge movement ran into more trouble this week, suspending hearings after a strike over unpaid wages and the illness of one of the three defendants.
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Rise in Cambodia’s Women Prisoners ‘Alarming’
Cambodia’s women prisoners are increasing at an alarming rate, amplifying concerns about pregnant inmates and detainees with children in an overburdened jail system, a rights group said this week. With the incarceration rate of women growing four times faster than that of men, Cambodian authorities should consider policies jailing women over petty non-violent offenses, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho) said Thursday. The group, which distributed food and supplies to women prisoners to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, counted 1,270 female inmates in Cambodia’s prison system at the end of 2012, a 39 percent increase from two years ago.
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Cambodian journalist off the hook on two charges
Prosecutors at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh have dropped two serious charges against the prominent government critic Mam Sonando. The independent broadcaster had been accused of inciting insurrection. Cambodia's courts have a well-earned reputation for doing the executive's bidding, and in recent years numerous charges against government critics and rights defenders have been criticized as acts of state-directed intimidation. However, few of those cases have raised eyebrows quite as much as the conviction of Mam Sonando, the owner of Beehive Radio, who was locked up on the grounds that he had masterminded a movement to break away from Cambodia.
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Prosecutor Wants Change to Sonando Charge
In a bizarre twist at the Appeal Court hearing of jail radio station owner Mam Sonando , the prosecution yesterday asked that judge drop the charge against Mr. Sonando of inciting antigovernment violence , but the asked the court to uphold another charge of leading an insurrection. Both charges carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
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Five European Activists Questioned by Police After Factory Visit
Five European activists from the Clean Clothes Campaign-which advocates for better conditions in garment factories-were questioned for more than five-and- a half hours by police in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district for not carrying passports while visiting a strike at a local garment factory, police and activists said yesterday.
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Ieng Sary’s Condition in Hospital Worsening, Lawyer Says
PHNOM PENH - Jailed Khmer Rouge leader Ieng Sary is in the hospital in serious condition, his lawyers said Wednesday, renewing fears that he and two other aging defendants may not see their atrocity crimes trial through to the end. Ieng Sary, 87, the former foreign affairs minister of the regime, was sent sent to the hospital Monday and has seen his health degenerate in recent days, defense lawyer Ang Udom told VOA Khmer.
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Amid Strike, Government Urged to Provide More Funds to KRT
The Cambodia Human Rights Action Committee has called on the government to honor its duty to pay the wage of national staff at the Khmer Rouge war crime tribunal, 30 of whom began to strike on Monday to have their overdue wages paid.
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Activists Tie Saffrom Robes to Trees to Protect Forest.
More than 400 activists fighting the destruction of the Prey Long forest held a ceremony yesterday in which they tied Buddhist monk’s robes around cut down of tree-a gesture of protection-to stop them from being cut down.
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A positive move? Cambodian court drops Sonando charges, adds more
On March 6, 2013, after a two-day hearing, the prosecutor asked the Phnom Penh Court of Appeals Court to drop the two main insurrection charges against Cambodian activist Mam Sonando. The judge added a new charge for “inciting the clearing of forest land” and Sonando is still facing an indirect insurrection charge, but overall it was a good day for human rights in Cambodia.
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Appeals Court Considers Case of Beehive Radio Owner
PHNOM PENH - The Cambodian Court of Appeals on Monday began a hearing in the case of jailed Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando, as hundreds of supporters gathered outside the court demanding his release. Mam Sonando is serving a 20-year prison sentence on charges he helped foment a secessionist movement in Kratie province, charges that rights workers say have little evidence and were leveled at him after his public criticism of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Beehive Radio broadcasts programming from the Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other international agencies. The United States and others have called for Mam Sonando’s release.
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Protests Over Mondolkiri Electricity Prices Resume
About 100 residents of Mondolkiri province’s Sen Monorom City protested yesterday for the third time in the past two weeks in front of the provincial office of state electricity provider Electricite Du Cambodge (Edc), demanding that their electricity fees be decreased .
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Cambodian Court Hears Veteran Journalist's Appeal
Jailed Cambodian independent radio station director Mam Sonando on Tuesday rejected charges that he was behind a secessionist plot, as a court began hearing an appeal against his 20-year imprisonment. “I didn’t establish any secessionist region as the court’s charges say,” the veteran journalist and Beehive Radio station director said as about 500 supporters, mostly from his Association of Democrats, protested outside the court calling for his release.
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Khmer Rouge defendant in critical condition: lawyer
PHNOM PENH (AFP) -- A former Khmer Rouge leader on trial for genocide is in critical condition in hospital, his lawyer said Wednesday, stoking fears that top figures in the murderous regime may never face justice. Ieng Sary, who at 87 years old is the oldest defendant at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court, was hospitalised on Monday with stomach problems -- the latest in a string of ailments. "His situation is critical now," Ieng Sary's Cambodian lawyer Ang Udom told AFP. The former French university radical, who later emerged as one of the few public faces of the Khmer Rouge during its brutal rule in the late 1970s, has difficulty eating and has been vomiting, he said.
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Tribunal Officials Begin Talks With Interpreters After Walkout
PHNOM PENH - Khmer Rouge tribunal officials began negotiations on Tuesday with translators at the UN-backed court who walked out at the beginning of a hearing on Monday. The 28 translators have not been paid since December, as the court struggles to find funding from donors, and they say they will not work until they receive at least part of their salaries. The surprise walkout on Monday halted proceedings at the court, which operates in English, French and Khmer, as it undertakes an atrocity crimes trial of three former Khmer Rouge leaders.
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Community dialogue in Siem Reap Province
There’s a feeling of post-lunch lethargy in the village of West Tbaeng as the mournful voice of a funeral song mingles with the steady patter of a wet season downpour. Villagers trundle along the potholed muddy roads on bicycles or on foot or head back to work in the fields crammed on Cambodia’s ubiquitous farm transport vehicle, the koo-yurn or “cow machine”. Located 62 kilometres east of the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, the picturesque rural village is the centre of Tbaeng Commune, one of 100 communes in Siem Reap Province. The village could be the embodiment of what many have labeled the “paradox” of Siem Reap: while the provincial city continues to attract the biggest tourist dollars in Cambodia, residents in the mostly rural province remain some of the country’s poorest. Tbaeng Commune Chief HeipTaa sits bespectacled in a corner office of the council building, his back to French-style shutters that open on to a lotus pond. The 62-year-old has held his position since 1980 as a member of the country’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party. “We have good cooperation in this commune between the councillors, police, other local authorities, and the citizens,” he says. “I think of the people, the villagers, as my parents. I want to show them high respect because they live in this community. The councillors are elected by the people so they must work with the people. The councillors are not the boss, the people are the boss.” The Cambodian Centre for Independent Media has come to Tbaeng Commune to run a program based on this philosophy. For two years, the NGO has taken its “Good Service, Good Society” program on tour to 20 communes throughout Cambodia. The program aims to foster dialogue between Cambodia’s lowest level of government, the commune council and citizens, and to improve the distribution of public information on civil registration and other matters. CCIM holds public forums where villagers are invited to pose questions directly to those that govern them. Cambodia’s commune councils and local authorities are often rife with corruption, both large-scale and petty, and the forums are designed to give communities a platform to hold their leaders to account. There are 1641 families living in Tbaeng Commune, 7869 residents in total. Eighty per cent are farmers, while 20 per cent work on plantations. Like communes across Cambodia, Tbeang has been the site of long-running and heated land disputes between locals and authorities. According to the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, at least 229 families in Tbeng Commune have been affected by land disputes involving a total of 1417 hectares of land since at least 2007. Investigations by CCHR reveal three separate conflicts between villagers and authorities including, the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Siem Reap Provincial Forestry Administration and the national, provincial and commune levels of government, including Tbeang Commune Chief HeipTaa. 58-year-old San Ny says the loss of her land has virtually destroyed her livelihood. She’s taking shelter from the rain with her neighbour, 67-year-old Ton Kuon, at a small general store selling snacks and household items.
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Sonando Protesters His Innocence at Appeal Court
Independence radio station owner Mam Sonando gave another spirited defense on the first day of an Appeal Court hearing yesterday against his conviction for encouraging an alleged secessionist in the rural Kratie province.
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Verdict of Sonando to be announced
PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) -- The Court of Appeals said that it will announce its final verdict for Mam Sonando on Thursday next week. The court has changed its charges after questioning three accusers and reading reports from five eye witnesses that were against him. Now the charges are related to forest violations. He could face up to ten years imprisonment if found guilty. Am Sam Ath, senior investigator of human rights group LICADHO, said both sides have no merit. "According to residents from Proma village, he had met with them for only ten minutes about the secession issue," he said. "Mam Sonando should be a free man, it's injustice happening." "The allegations are not fair," Sonando said in the hearing Tuesday. "I will not accept the verdict of the lower court." The appeal has been going on since Tuesday. Supporters gathered in front of the court asking for his release. Mam Sonando, 71, was sentenced in October, 2012, to 20 years imprisonment.
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Hun Sen Says CPP Largess Will End if Election Is Lost
Less than five months from the national election , Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday warned the public that his ruling CPP would stop making charitable donations forward infrastructure and national development if the party is not r-elected.
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