Cambodia Garment Wages Set to Rise as H&M Pushes New Approach
Swedish clothing giant H&M recently announced a program to boost wages for garment workers in its sub-contractor factories around the world, including in Cambodia, where the company is a leading buyer. H&M’s announcement comes at the end of a turbulent year in the garment sector ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-garment-wages-set-rise-hm-pushes-new-approach/1803179.html
Linking the worst factories with the labels
The building that housed USA Fully Field Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district stands empty now. The grounds are littered with garbage and boxes full of dusty brand labels that were stitched onto clothes by almost 400 workers before the factory owner fled in ...
Simon Henderson and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/linking-the-worst-factories-with-the-labels-55839/
Lead-up to poll saw SLCs spike
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 ban on the allocation of economic land concessions was supposed to halt the unpopular practice of turning over large swaths of property to developers. And going by the numbers last year, it worked. But in the vacuum, according to local rights ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lead-poll-saw-slcs-spike
Waiting for the deluge
The Lower Sesan II dam project is a microcosm of the carving up of Cambodia. In one of the world’s most diverse river ecosystems, the ground burns. Whole forests are felled with scant regard for the law, while the project is backed by the country’s ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/waiting-deluge
Teachers Told to Expel Corruption From Classrooms
Just weeks after the country’s only independent teachers’ association staged a strike for higher wages, Phnom Penh’s education chief told teachers this week that they must stop taking bribes to comply with the government’s promised reform agenda. Speaking to about 500 educators, mainly school directors, from ...
Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teachers-told-to-expel-corruption-from-classrooms-51158/
Hunters and Hunted
Unable to effectively police the Cardamoms alone, the Cambodian government partners itself with several international NGOs. The forests directly north of Highway 48 arc patrolled with the help of Wildlife Alliance. Beginning in 2002 with two ranger stations, Wildlife Alliance now operates six outposts in the ...
Kratie Village Sealed After Girl’s Killing
Kratie city – Soldiers and military police yesterday blocked all access to a village where a 14-year-old girl was shot dead by security forces on Wednesday while the authorities launched a massive operation to evict hundreds of families from the area under a cloak of ...
Sar Kheng Warns of ‘Trouble’ if Negotiations Stall
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Monday warned of “trouble” if opposition leader Sam Rainsy does not return to the negotiating table to hammer out a solution to a stalemate between the CPP and the opposition over irregularities during the July 28 national election. Mr. Kheng made ...
The Cambodia Daily
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/sar-kheng-warns-of-trouble-if-negotiations-stall-38401/
Cambodia's PM Hun Sen confirms controversial agreement to resettle refugees from Australia
Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has confirmed his impoverished country will accept refugees from Australia in a controversial agreement condemned by human rights and refugee advocates. In his first public comments on the agreement, Mr Hun Sen said Cambodia will be “heart-felt and generous towards ...
25 Years On, Prosthetics NGO Changes Direction
In 1990, Pen Hoeurng was out in the field tending her cows and buffalo when the rattle of machine-gun fire erupted in the surrounding forest and she was struck by a bullet from an M-16. Ms. Hoeurng, now 48, does not know whether she was shot ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/25-years-on-prosthetics-ngo-changes-direction-51761/
Illegal wood exports to China tripled in 2013
Cambodia’s exports of protected rosewood and other high-value timber to China more than tripled last year, according to U.N. figures cited in a new report that blames lax law enforcement across the Mekong region and skyrocketing demand in China for pushing some species to the ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-wood-exports-to-china-tripled-in-2013-58593/
City Defends Boeng Kak Project, Attacks Critics
The filling of Boeng Kak lake and the eviction of thousands of residents was necessary to root out the “prostitutes and terrorists” that were drawn to the area’s once-popular tourist zone, the Phnom Penh Municipality said in a statement yesterday. In a statement posted to its ...
Red Cross Criticized Over Slow Response to Floods
With thousands of families evacuated from their homes due to flooding, the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), the largest and best-funded humanitarian organization in the country, has yet to provide flood aid to many struggling communities, local officials said Monday. Families living in some of the worst ...
Aun Pheap and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/red-cross-criticized-over-slow-response-to-floods-44560/
As mosques are replaced, Cham minority could see heritage fade
Cambodia is home to some 400,000 Cham Muslims. The ethnic group, like many others, suffered terrible losses during the Khmer Rouge regime. Lives were lost and cultural landmarks destroyed. Now, as mosques and heritage sites around the country are demolished to make way for more ...
Poppy McPherson and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/mosques-are-replaced-cham-minority-could-see-heritage-fade
Investment Or Imperialism? Tracking China's Big Ambitions In Cambodia
A few years ago this scene would have played out in China. More specifically, it would have played out in a Chinese coastal region to which millions of rural folks had arrived looking for work. A huge hangar, piles of fabrics of all colors at both ...
Dozens of houses destroyed after Bassac river bank collapses following years of sand dredging
Kim Maneth had lived in her home along the river bank in Kandal province for four decades before it collapsed, along with dozens of other homes in an area where sand dredging has been rampant for years. ...
Sovann Sreypich and Runn Sreydeth
https://cambojanews.com/dozens-of-houses-destroyed-after-bassac-river-bank-collapses-following-years-of-sand-dredging/
Government Blasted for Eviction of Freedom Park
The U.N. and local human rights groups have condemned the government’s violent eviction of CNRP supporters from Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Saturday, as well as its indefinite ban on public protests in the city. On Saturday, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court also summonsed opposition leaders ...
Colin Meyn and Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-blasted-for-eviction-of-freedom-park-50132/
Victims Describe Deadly Clash at Monivong Bridge
Victims of the violent clashes that broke out between security forces and stone-throwing youths in Phnom Penh on Sunday night recounted the event Monday, with some saying they sustained injuries while battling against riot police and others saying they were simply unfortunate commuters trapped in ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/victims-describe-deadly-clash-at-monivong-bridge-42503/
Wife of Pailin Governor Reaps Benefits From Casino Deal
Venturing into Cambodia’s casino market in May 2011, Macau-backed gambling firm Entertainment Gaming Asia (EGA) promised tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of Pailin’s provincial governor in order to lease land for the construction of a new casino, documents filed with the U.S. ...
Simon Lewis and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/wife-of-pailin-governor-reaps-benefits-from-casino-deal-40660/
Security for Demonstration Brings Parts of City to Standstill
Parts of Phnom Penh came to a standstill Sunday as security forces closed off major and minor roads with razor wire and metal barriers and at one point even denied an ambulance access to a local children’s hospital. The measures were put in place for the ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/security-for-demonstration-brings-parts-of-city-to-standstill-42383/