Union to Defy Order, March to Commemorate Chea Vichea’s Slaying
About 150 garment worker union representatives will defy a ban on public assemblies and mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of union leader Chea Vichea by marching from their office in Chamkar Mon district to the site of his murder at Wat Lanka on ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-to-defy-order-march-to-commemorate-chea-vicheas-slaying-50846/
Marchers to flout ban on protests
Hundreds of civil society representatives, garment workers and community groups are expected to take to the streets this morning to deliver petitions to foreign embassies calling on the government to release the 23 people arrested during garment worker strikes earlier this month and find justice ...
Kevin Ponniah and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/marchers-flout-ban-protests
New laws on judiciary due by ‘end of month’
The Ministry of Justice is kicking into overdrive its long-stagnated efforts to finish three fundamental laws on the function of the judiciary, saying it hopes to complete the laws – which it characterises as key judicial reforms – by the end of the month, the ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-laws-judiciary-due-%E2%80%98end-month%E2%80%99
Cellcard advert questioned
The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) is calling out telecommunications firm Mobitel over a TV ad that shows a young Cambodian man who is shocked and dismayed when he meets, on a blind date, what appears to be a transgender woman. Lasting about 60 seconds, ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cellcard-advert-questioned
It’s paradise – for some
On the shore of Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district overlooking a cluster of islands, a flourishing new golf course lies vacant but for a handful of workers tending its empty greens. The Romanesque hotel behind it, replete with a bold central dome, luxury VIP suites ...
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/its-paradise-%E2%80%93-some
Chong villagers block Chinese engineers from reaching dam
A group of 20 ethnic minority Chong villagers in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley blocked the road Friday to prevent a group of Chinese engineers from reaching the site of a controversial proposed dam. A number of Chong villagers have been intermittently camping near the road ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chong-villagers-block-chinese-engineers-from-reaching-dam-58944/
Sesan Dam Construction to Start Next Month
Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam will begin early next month, residents and authorities said after a meeting in Stung Treng province on Monday. Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem for the first time gave a time frame for the construction of the dam ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sesan-dam-construction-to-start-next-month-51080/
Government works on Australia refugee plea
Government officials have got to work parsing a controversial request that Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the region with a spotty record handling refugees, take some of Australia’s asylum seekers. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop made the request to Prime Minister Hun Sen ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-works-on-australia-refugee-plea-54044/
Sorya bus drivers fired after wage strikes
At least eight bus drivers from Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation company were fired last week for leading a strike before Khmer New Year to demand higher wages, employees and union representatives said Sunday. About 80 drivers went on strike on April 3 demanding a $60 increase ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sorya-bus-drivers-fired-after-wage-strikes-56764/
Cambodia bans trade unions from marking May Day at capital's Freedom Park
Cambodian authorities on Wednesday refused permission for the 18 opposition-aligned trade unions and associations to celebrate an International Labor Day event on May 1 at the capital’s Freedom Park. “The Phnom Penh Municipality does not allow the trade unions and associations to organize this event at ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/30/c_133301779.htm
Hun Sen’s student volunteer land-titling program under fire
More than a year after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling program was suspended in the lead-up to the 2013 national elections, it has still not begun again despite government claims that the program would resume following the poll. The unfinished work left by student volunteers, who ...
Ben Sokhean and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-student-volunteer-land-titling-program-under-fire-65503/
Printing shops’ refusal to print strike leaflets delays unions
A coalition of labor unions will today begin distributing leaflets calling on supporters to attend a nationwide strike in March, two days after the planned distribution date due to the fact the majority of printing houses in the city refused to print the flyers. Union representatives ...
Matt Blomberg and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/printing-shops-refusal-to-print-strike-leaflets-delays-unions-52708/
Parking rules kicked to kerb
City Hall is turning its focus to Phnom Penh’s “anarchic parking” situation. Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong yesterday said the municipality plans to cancel old contracts awarding private companies the right to charge for parking in certain parts of the city, and introduce new restrictions on ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/parking-rules-kicked-kerb
Ivory haul investigation kept under wraps
Customs officials over the weekend said they will shed no further light on Friday’s massive haul of three tons of illegal elephant ivory at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port—Cambodia’s biggest-ever ivory seizure—until investigations are complete and a case can be sent to court. A scan on containers that ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ivory-haul-investigation-kept-under-wraps-58470/
Phnom Penh pagoda offers haven for the marginalized
When 200 villagers from Kratie province walked into Samakki Raingsey pagoda seeking safety and shelter early this month, they weren’t the first to do so. The villagers, whose homes in Snuol district had been torched by authorities just days earlier, were walking a well-trodden path—a path ...
Mech Dara and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/author/matt-blomberg/
Brands dodge blame over substandard factory
Behind the walls of the nondescript Hung Tak garment factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, more than 400 workers have been toiling in substandard conditions to cut and stitch clothing for some of the world’s biggest brands. But since the factory was named by the ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/brands-dodge-blame-over-substandard-factory-64606/
Tempers flare at bus protest
Resolution continued to elude 17 former bus drivers for the Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation Company yesterday when a demonstration at the company’s headquarters was roughly dispersed by company security after the ex-staffers tried to block buses from leaving. Sambath Vorn, president of the union whose founding ...
Mom Kunthear and Tat Oudom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tempers-flare-bus-protest
Wanted: big trucks for a big crowd
With the spectre of potential garment-sector unrest on the horizon and emboldened communities protesting land disputes, the National Police is buying what appear to be the authorities’ first water-cannon trucks designed specifically to control demonstrations. In advertisements in yesterday’s Post and Post Khmer newspapers, the ...
Kevin Ponniah and Chhay Channyda
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/wanted-big-trucks-big-crowd
Thai condo collapse kills 3 Cambodian migrants
At least six people, including three Cambodian migrant workers, were killed late on Monday when a condominium construction project north of Bangkok collapsed, according to news reports, officials and witnesses at the scene. Twenty-four people, at least one of whom is Cambodian, were also injured in ...
Vong Sokheng and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thai-condo-collapse-kills-3-cambodian-migrants
What lies beneath: The fight to save Phnom Kulen
Illegal logging and destructive farming practices have archaeologists racing to rescue an ecologically crucial mountain and its hidden temples. Some 80 per cent of the forest on Phnom Kulen – one of Cambodia’s National Parks – has disappeared due to a combination of illegal logging, ...
Poppy McPherson and Vandy Muong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/what-lies-beneath-fight-save-phnom-kulen