End right to unionize, businesses ask Hun Sen
Prime Minister Hun Sen told business leaders and government officials Tuesday that he will not tolerate “illegal” labor strikes that harm investment, but avoided judgment on a request to withdraw ratification of a U.N. convention protecting workers’ rights to unionize. Speaking at the 17th Government-Private Sector ...
Hul Reaksmey and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/end-right-to-unionize-businesses-ask-hun-sen-53516/
Gov’t pins $275,000 in protest damage on CNRP
A government committee charged with assessing damage from the garment worker protests in December and January has put the value of the destruction at over $250,000. It places blame squarely on the opposition CNRP and a trio of union leaders. That committee’s report, released Thursday, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-pins-275000-in-protest-damage-on-cnrp-55123/
Can’t fight, forced to take flight
The residents of Por Sen Chey district’s Prey Chisak village could do nothing but stand and stare. Early yesterday, representatives of Green Goal, a private company tasked with measuring and marking sought-after property for Phnom Penh’s airport expansion, arrived in the village and started to measure ...
Chhay Channyda and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/can%E2%80%99t-fight-forced-take-flight
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
CNRP Youth Activist to Protest Over Leaked Passport Details
An outspoken CNRP youth activist who claims that her passport application was leaked by immigration police said Thursday that she will lead protests in front of the Ministry of Interior and Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Phnom Penh if authorities do not attempt to ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-youth-activist-to-protest-over-leaked-passport-details-51160/
Cambodia route reopens for Uighur refugees
Recent arrests by Thai authorities of groups of suspected Uighur refugees along the Cambodian border have experts convinced that Cambodia has once again become a transit hub for members of the minority group fleeing religious and political persecution in China. Last week, 14 Uighurs were reportedly ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-route-reopens-for-uighur-refugees-57340/
Four face charges in incitement case
Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday summonsed three well-known rights workers and a journalist to appear for questioning next week over years-old incitement charges in connection with a long-standing land dispute. In a summons signed by deputy provincial prosecutor Chea Sopheak, the court ordered Radio Free Asia journalist Sok Ratha, ...
Boeung Kak women kept away from NGO, reporters
Imprisoned Boeung Kak lake villagers, some crying, motioned to human rights representatives and Post reporters through a chain-link fence at Prey Sar prison on Tuesday. Their efforts to talk to the visitors were futile, however, as two guards stopped anyone from approaching the 13 women sentenced ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012053056483/National-news/silent-treatment-at-prey-sar.html
Inflation fuels protest over petrol prices
More than 200 factory workers gathered at Freedom Park near Wat Phnom yesterday to urge the government to cut taxes on petrol, saying fuel prices were driving food prices beyond what they could afford. But the government is doing all it can to curb inflation ...
Forests Are Key to Climate Protection, UN Says
Destruction of Cambodia’s forests is one of the biggest threats to the country’s ability to effectively deal with the effects of climate change, the UN warned in a new report to be released today. Cambodia is one of the most vulnerable countries in the region ...
Trade unions demand change to draft law
A group of independent trade unions yesterday put forth a list of demands for changes to Cambodia’s first trade union law, which will be finalised by the government in the coming months. Unionists said the revisions were necessary, as the current draft law would undermine unions ...
Welfare plan full of goals, short on details
Cash transfers to the poor and public works programs for the unemployed are spelled out in a new five-year plan the government launched yesterday in a bid to expand the country’s threadbare social welfare programs. Though full of ambitious targets and budgets, the ‘National Social Protection ...
Oz Minerals Sells M'Kiri Gold Assets
After more than three years of disappointment in its search for large gold deposits in Mondolkiri province, Australian mining firm OZ Minerals has decided to sell its Cambodian assets to another Australian company In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, OZ Minerals said that it ...
Hundreds Protest Dam Plans
More than 500 ethnic minority residents of riparian communities in northeastern Cambodia held a peaceful protest Tuesday against the construction of a Vietnamese-led hydroelectric dam that will relocate them from their ancestral land. The villagers, who live along the Se San River in Stung Treng and ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/dam-02282012135535.html
Beer Promoters Allege Bias Following Strike
Beer promoters in Phnom Penh claimed Monday that they are Being discriminated against for staging a month-long strike last summer, and their livelihoods are under threat. In July and August, hundreds of promoters for Cambrew Ltd – which produces and distributes Angkor Beer – went ...
Hun Sen bans industry fishing at Tonle Sap lake permanently
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday extended indefinitely a ban on commercial fishing in Tonle Sap lake, citing ongoing illegal fishing to the detriment of local villagers. The premier had first imposed the ban on 35 fishing lots in the lake in August, as a result of ...
PPWSA sets an IPO date
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority aimed to raise US$20.4 million in a long-awaited initial public offering scheduled for mid-April, the company said yesterday during its first pitch to investors. “We’ve targeted trading for the 18th of April,” said Han Kyung-tae, managing director of Tong Yang ...
Indigenous land exploited
The Royal Government of Cambodia and private land developers were exploiting indigenous communities in Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri provinces by signing concession deals for the communities’ land without prior consultation, advocates said yesterday. “We urge the government as well as the private sector to respect [indigenous peoples’] ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012030254821/National-news/indigenous-land-exploited.html
Sub-Decree to Require Licenses fro Tour Guides
The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a sub-decree requiring tour guides to obtain licenses from the government in an effort to regulate and improve quality of service in the tourism sector. The sub-decree aims “to define the procedure to manage tourist guides,”and requires current ...
Strong Rains Hasten Rice Planting Across Country
Good rains have boosted rice cultivation across the country, and nearly 90 percent of farmers have completed planting their paddies, although planting in Svay Rieng province is lagging due to drought, and agriculture official said yesterday. Chan Heng, administration bureau chief of the Agriculture Ministry’s administration ...