Cambodia’s eight-month political deadlock shows hints of ending
Talks between Cambodia’s ruling party and the opposition to resolve the impasse over last year’s election have been deadlocked for months. The two sides disagree on a number of issues, most significantly reform of the National Election Committee (NEC). But signs of a thaw have ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodias-eight-month-political-deadlock-shows-hints-of-ending/1884765.html
Cambodian court again delays trial of 23 jailed protesters
A court in Phnom Penh put off for the second time Tuesday the trial of 23 Cambodians arrested during a deadly worker strike crackdown, drawing criticism from rights groups who said the move was politically motivated. After a five-hour hearing, with hundreds of riot police manning ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/trial-05062014144900.html
Sar Kheng Accuses CNRP of Launching ‘Constitutional Coup’
Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng became the latest senior member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government to accuse the opposition CNRP of attempting to “topple” the government though what he claimed is a “constitutional coup.” In a posting to the Interior Ministry ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-accuses-cnrp-of-launching-constitutional-coup-51186/
Development pushes poor from land as Cambodia dams its rivers
“From my view, I don’t want to have it, but it is development, we can’t stop them,” says Srekor’s village chief, Leang Saroeurn. Cambodia’s impressive yearly GDP growth rates of 7 percent for the last decade have come, in part, through a ravenous consumption of the countries ...
Daniel Quinlan
http://asiancorrespondent.com/120212/development-drives-displacement-as-cambodia-dams-its-rivers/
Protest ban firmly in place on Women’s Day
Freedom Park was placed under lockdown and a march by land rights activists was blocked Saturday morning as Phnom Penh’s security officials were out in force to ensure that peaceful rallies on International Women’s Day could not go as planned. Prime Minister Hun Sen on February ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protest-ban-firmly-in-place-on-womens-day-53745/
‘Burst’ of land disputes sees dozens of Cambodians charged: rights group
Cambodian authorities have charged nearly half as many villagers in land dispute cases in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2013, a local rights group said Thursday, adding that most of the rows stemmed from government-granted land concessions. Following ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/land-05082014175124.html
Lao Dam troubles Mekong waters
Being landlocked and poor has always placed Laos at a disadvantage to its more powerful neighbors. The only body of water that offers Vientiane an international reach is the Mekong River, which flows through the heartland of Southeast Asia. Now, that river, which laps the western ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
http://www.irrawaddy.org/asia/magazine-regional/lao-dam-troubles-mekong-waters.html
Deal would send workers to Saudi Arabia
Cambodia is nearing a deal that would open a pipeline of workers to Saudi Arabia, a country where Southeast Asian migrants have in the past been abused and even executed for crimes that include “sorcery”. Following a meeting in Hanoi last week with Saudi Ambassador Salah ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-would-send-workers-saudi-arabia
As lake disappears, a development dilemma
Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom ...
Cameron Rhoads and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma-62718/
Kratie villagers block road after officials torch homes
Police and military police in Kratie province’s Snuol district on Wednesday burned to the ground 56 homes they said were on protected land, causing displaced villagers to block National Road 76 in protest for four hours, officials said. Snuol district Governor Kong Kimny said Thursday that ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kratie-villagers-block-road-after-officials-torch-homes-52232/
Fight to save B’bang heritage finds new allies
When an old building formerly owned by the state was demolished on the outskirts of Battambang City in February, for some, it was the last straw. The giant, freestanding colonial-era mansion with the round windows, the blue shutters and the cracking yellow paint had become one ...
Matt Blomberg and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fight-to-save-bbang-heritage-finds-new-allies-59105/
Environmentalists skeptical ahead of Laos meeting on hydropower dam
The four-nation Mekong River Commission (MRC) this week holds public consultations on the development of a large hydropower dam in southern Laos. The project is one of a series of planned dams in the Mekong River Basin that environmentalists say could harm an ecosystem critical ...
Ron Corben
https://www.voanews.com/east-asia/environmentalists-skeptical-ahead-laos-meeting-hydropower-dam
Railway families remain uncertain as commune election candidates silent on their relocation
Seng Pha, 63, is unable to read the leaflets of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) posted on the wall of her wooden house, but she recognizes one of the candidates running for commune chief, out of a total of 35, in Boeung Kak II commune. ...
Sorn Sarath
https://cambojanews.com/railway-families-remain-uncertain-as-commune-election-candidates-silent-on-their-relocation/
With vague details, pro-government unions accuse labor groups of inciting members to form new union
Some 200 unions and federations have accused two prominent independent labor organizations of inciting its members to leave and establish a new union. The claim was denied by one of organizations, which said it has never trained members of any of the signatories — many ...
Khuon Narim and Phon Sotthyroth
https://cambojanews.com/with-vague-details-pro-government-unions-accuse-labor-groups-of-inciting-members-to-form-new-union/
Incitement trial begins for NagaWorld union leader and eight strikers
NagaWorld union leader Chhim Sithar and eight co-defendants appeared for their first day of trial in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday. Sithar and all her colleagues, except for one, denied the incitement charges against them. ...
Khuon Narim and Sovann Sreypich
https://cambojanews.com/incitement-trial-begins-for-nagaworld-union-leader-and-eight-strikers/
Giant Ibis Union’s fight remains as the company goes back on promise
Living in a small concrete house with his wife and two young children, one kilometer away from Takhmao Bridge, ex-Giant Ibis Transportation employee Or Chanthy, 45, contemplates life’s challenges. ...
Eung Sea
https://cambojanews.com/giant-ibis-unions-fight-remains-as-the-company-goes-back-on-promise/
Cambodia very lucrative for investors
Economic diversification is attracting substantial sums of FDI from China and beyond. Rich in history and culture and blessed with wonderful natural and human resources that are driving its impressive economic growth and attracting record sums of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Kingdom of Cambodia offers ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=ZTk3NDYwNTAyZjc
Farmers Sue UK Sugar Firm For Millions
Hundreds of Cambodian families are suing the British sugar firm Tate & Lyle in one of the U.K’s highest courts over a pair of plantations in Koh Kong province they accuse of violently forcing them off their land and out of their homes. The British law ...
Baby milk recalled in Cambodia
Potentially contaminated infant milk powder that had been banned in China, Russia and Vietnam is now being recalled in Cambodia. The Cambodian distributor of a milk powder product that uses a suspect ingredient from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra is recalling thousands of units as a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/baby-milk-recalled-cambodia
Cambodia’s Economic Opportunity
While significant obstacles remain, the success of the rice sector is a potentially crucial driver in Cambodia’s prosperous and equitable development. Cambodia announced two major bilateral trade agreements recently, with the Philippines and Thailand, that are expected to further expand the country’s rice export sector. ...
http://thediplomat.com/2013/05/09/cambodias-economic-opportunity/