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
Cambodia eyes to become region's prominent gems, jewelry market
Cambodia has eyed to become a precious stone and jewelry hub in Southeast Asia region in the near future, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said Thursday. Speaking at the opening of the 5th international gems and jewelry fair here, the minister said that with the fast ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-06/13/c_132452793.htm
Teachers Group Threatened Over Planned Pay Protest
The Interior Ministry on Wednesday threatened to revoke the license of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association (CITA) if it goes ahead with a planned demonstration next week seeking higher wages for the country’s educators. An official at the ministry said that the move to revoke the ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-group-threatened-over-planned-pay-protest-49855/
Update says rubber company up to old tricks
Vietnamese rubber firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) has failed to keep its commitments to address human rights and environmental abuses at its plantations in Cambodia, Global Witness said in a statement yesterday. In May, the London-based NGO published an investigation into two Vietnamese rubber companies ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/update-says-rubber-company-old-tricks
World Bank says Cambodian political uncertainty has 'Unclear' impact
The World Bank said Monday that the impact of Cambodia’s political uncertainty was “unclear” but left its growth forecasts unchanged for this year and next year. “The Cambodian economy remains robust amidst a challenging global economic environment,” the bank said in its East Asia and Pacific ...
The Cambodia Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=OTBjN2JiMjBlMzI
Cambodia: Chut Wutty's legacy creates an opportunity for land justice
In Cambodia, there is talk of change. Not just from Hun Sen, the prime minister, who has promised reforms after his party suffered a significant blow in recent elections, but from environmental activists and campaigners, who say there has never before been such an opportunity ...
Kate Hodal
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/02/cambodia-chut-wutty-land
Group Defies Government Ban to Demand Detainees’ Release
Defying a new ban on public gatherings, more than 50 activists and monks gathered outsiDe the local U.N. human rights office Monday morning to Demand the immediate release of 23 men who were arrested earlier this month during violent clashes between police and garment workers. The ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/group-defies-government-ban-to-demand-detainees-release-50483/
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
Sacked bus drivers petition Labor Minster
A group of bus drivers and representatives of the Cambodian Labor Confederation (CLC) on Tuesday submitted a petition to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng to intervene in their dispute with the Sorya Bus Transportation Company. At least eight drivers were fired last week shortly after they ...
Ben Sokhean and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sacked-bus-drivers-petition-labor-minster-57092/
Again, abuse in China alleged
Four parents in Kampong Cham province have filed complaints with provincial police alleging that their daughters are being sexually abused by their husbands in China, officers said yesterday. Thol Meng, deputy bureau chief of the provincial anti-human trafficking department, said a total of 10 concerned mothers ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/again-abuse-china-alleged
Laos draws ire of neighbors with Mekong River dam plans
Laos will push ahead with its ambition to become the “battery of Southeast Asia,” planning a Mekong River dam that has drawn opposition from neighbors and threatens to involve China and the U.S. Four Mekong River nations are scheduled to meet June 26-27 in Thailand to ...
Bloomberg News Staff
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-06-03/laos-draws-ire-of-neighbors-with-mekong-river-dam-plans
NGO says work on Don Sahong dam under way
A conservation group has said its recent trip to Laos revealed that construction on a controversial hydropower dam decried by neighbouring Mekong countries is already under way. International Rivers representatives visiting the proposed site of the 260-megawatt Don Sahong Hydropower Project earlier this month say they ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngo-says-work-don-sahong-dam-under-way
Land issues creating mistrust of local officials, observers say
Despite a number of agencies dispatched to solve land dispute, rights workers say people continue to face forced evictions and rights abuses by land Developments. These problems are not being handled at the local level, fueling mistrust in local government, rights workers say. Rights workers from myriad ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/land-issues-creating-mistrust-of-local-officials-observers-say/1947717.html
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 ...
Garment union president in court over incitement allegations
Ath Thorn, the president of the union that led strikes at the SL Garment Factory last year, appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for questioning over allegations of incitement. The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers democratic Union (CCAWDU), headed by Mr. Thorn, spearheaded ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-union-president-in-court-over-incitement-allegations-56136/
M’kiri villagers petition over illegal logging
Nearly 200 people from 25 different communities converged on the Mondolkiri Provincial Hall Monday to file complaints and petitions calling for an end to illegal logging and environmental degradation. The action comes two days after armed commune police blocked 16 rights workers and journalists from visiting ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mkiri-villagers-petition-over-illegal-logging-57612/
Five months on, witnesses recall Muon Sokmean’s beating
Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...
Mech Dara and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/five-months-on-witnesses-recall-muon-sokmeans-beating-59115/
Big queues for $4 passport
A sub-decree aimed at stemming the massive influx of mostly undocumented Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand with a drastically reduced passport fee already appears to be generating an overwhelming response. Yesterday, an estimated 200 workers lined up outside the Battambang provincial passport office to get ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-queues-4-passport
Raid on house finds 84 workers
Before dawn yesterday, Thai military officials raided a house not far from the border, finding dozens of undocumented Cambodian workers crammed into a room awaiting transportation deeper into the country. The 84 workers were woken, taken into military custody and deported, but the brokers who had ...
Cheang Sokha and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/raid-house-finds-84-workers
Chinese humanitarian aid reaches Cambodian people in E. province
Cambodia on Wednesday continued distributing China-donated relief items to some 3,088 families, who are victims of last year’s flood, HIV/ AIDS patients, disabled people and orphans. Cambodian Red Cross president Bun Rany, the wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-03/05/c_133162740.htm