Sugar firm under fire
Asia’s largest sugar company has been accused of torching hundreds of homes, orchestrating the imprisonment of a pregnant activist and using security forces to beat villagers – among a raft of other grave human rights abuses – by communities in Oddar Meanchey province. The allegations levelled ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060366024/National/sugar-firm-under-fire.html
Commune officials to solve factory disputes
In response to a growing number of strikes in the country’s highly profitable garment sector, the government trained 15 handpicked commune officials yesterday to mediate and resolve factory disputes. The training was designed to teach commune councillors to defuse and resolve conflict, Buth Ji, director of ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/commune-officials-solve-factory-disputes
Violent Mob, Police Attack Peaceful Protesters
Riot police and groups of men in plain clothes armed with sticks, Tasers and slingshots violently attacked a group of anti-eviction protesters conducting a hunger strike at Wat Phnom late last night, injuring several people. Protesters from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community began the hunger strike ...
Simon Marks and Kevin Doyle
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/violent-mob-police-attack-peaceful-protesters-42892/
Cambodian-Americans Warn of Dangers of Political Deadlock
As demonstrations continued in Phnom Penh, Cambodian-Americans in Washington said this week that the international community can no longer stay out of Cambodian affairs, lest the political deadlock turn to violence. At a discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, held by the Khmer People’s ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodian-americans-warn-of-dangers-of-political-deadlock/1776213.html
Kids key in disaster planning
Stronger disaster planning is needed to avoid future devastation and loss of life caused by flooding, according to a report published by World Vision yesterday. The report, titled Cities Prepare, recommends that the Cambodian government and civil society work to place “a stronger emphasis on disaster risk ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kids-key-disaster-planning
People’s Assembly Will Rally at Freedom Park on Monday
About 1,000 members of the Cambodian Grassroots People’s Assembly—a network of communities throughout the country that includes farmers as well as land and labor activists—will rally at Freedom Park on Monday to demand an end to the current political impasse. The ruling CPP and opposition CNRP ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/peoples-assembly-will-rally-at-freedom-park-on-monday-45440/
Borei Keila Families Mark Anniversary Of Eviction
About 100 former residents of the Borei Keila community on Friday morning marked their violent eviction two years ago by authorities from their former neighborhood and demanded that their homes be rebuilt. “We are the families of Borei Keila, and with this ceremony we mark the ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-families-mark-anniversary-of-eviction-50070/
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
IDEMITSU of Japan to build bio-fuel factory in Cambodia in 2015
A world class Japanese Company, IDEMITSU, will build a bio-fuel factory in Cambodia in 2015, and will commence exploring bio-fuel in Cambodia for the first time in 2017, Mr. Heng Ratana, General Director of Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) told reporters yesterday. IDEMITSU has been ...
The Cambodia Herald
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NjQ3MGQ1NmRlY2R
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/
ANZ Bank accused of abandoning farmers after splitting with sugar firm
Early this month, in what looks like a failed attempt to save its reputation, Australia‘s ANZ Bank severed its ties with Phnom Penh Sugar, a company accused of a range of human rights abuses linked to its plantations in Kampong Speu province, Cambodia. The move ...
Funding boost for Cambodia’s hero mine-detecting rats NGO
The Belgian demining NGO APOPO, which is pioneering the use of mine-detecting rats in the former battlefields of Cambodia, has received funding from the German government to expand its mine-clearance work in the country. In November, the government gave the green light for APOPO to begin ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/funding-boost-for-cambodias-hero-mine-detecting-rats-ngo-54308/
NGOs lobby China, companies over Sesan dam
A group of 15 local and international rights groups Tuesday sent a slew of letters to the Chinese government and companies involved in the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province seeking a halt to dam construction due to serious environmental and social ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-lobby-china-companies-over-sesan-dam-59807/
Anti-Phanimex roadblock causes traffic snarl
About 200 villagers blocked National Road 5 in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district for about two hours Tuesday, lighting fires with wood and tires and causing a large traffic jam as they called for authorities to intervene in their ongoing land dispute with the Phanimex ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-phanimex-roadblock-causes-traffic-snarl-57772/
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
Lor Peang villagers march to Justice Ministry, National Assembly
A group of Kompong Chhnang villagers in a fight for land with the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem delivered petitions to the Ministry of Justice and National Assembly on Monday, one of five communities from across the country that have recently traveled ...
Khuon Narim and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lor-peang-villagers-march-to-justice-ministry-national-assembly-67138/
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
Gov’t teams up with Sweden, Unicef to revamp education
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on Wednesday launched the Quality and Inclusive Education Support Partnership, an initiative supported by Sweden and Unicef that aims to enhance access to education for children in the Kingdom, particularly from disadvantaged communities. Running from 2020 to 2023, the ...
Voun Dara
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/govt-teams-sweden-unicef-revamp-education
Human rights issues alleged in renewable energy sector report
The first human rights benchmark of renewable energy companies reveals serious weaknesses in industry efforts to protect workers and communities, creating risks in a sector vital to countering the climate crisis, according to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). However, Cambodia, which aims ...
Sorn Sarath
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50739595/human-rights-issues-alleged-in-renewable-energy-sector-report/
Thai protesters rally against Xayaburi dam construction
Protests over construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in northern Laos could spread from Thailand to Cambodia as communities along the Mekong River begin to feel its negative effects, an International Rivers programme director said yesterday. About 70 Thai villagers who rely on the ...