Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Interior
Passports to be valid longer
Passports issued to Cambodians will soon be valid for 10 years instead of three, officials at the Ministry of Interior said yesterday. General Mao Chandara, head of the ministry’s General Directorate of Identification, said that by July, the department will begin to issue long-awaited 10-year passports. ...
Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/passports-be-valid-longer
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
Opposition councilors bemoan ministry directive
A number of provincial and district councilors aligned with the opposition have not been paid in the past two months following a Ministry of Interior directive in March calling for their salaries to be halted and positions revoked, according to the secretary-general of the Sam ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/opposition-councilors-bemoan-ministry-directive-58131/
Uneasy calm in Bavet as factories ordered shut
BAVET CITY, Svay Rieng province – The government has ordered all factories here to shut down until Thursday at the earliest in a bid to keep escalating strikes from spiraling out of control and spreading nationwide. “[Provincial] Governor Chieng Am said in a meeting yesterday [Monday] ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uneasy-calm-in-bavet-as-factories-ordered-shut-57723/
Villagers protest after sand dumped on land
About 30 villagers in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district staged a protest Tuesday morning against tycoon Sok Kong, whom they accuse of piping dredged sand into their farmland and fishing ponds. Fourteen families occupying 21 hectares of land in Prek Pra commune have been locked in a ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-protest-after-sand-dumped-on-land-57736/
Major General arrested on defamation charges
A two-star general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces was arrested Friday on charges of defamation, police and prison officials said Friday. On Friday, police officers from the Interior Ministry’s penal department arrested Major General Chea Dara, who works at the Ministry of Defense, following a ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/major-general-arrested-on-defamation-charges-57434/
Labor unions, associations not allowed to celebrate Labor Day at Freedom Park
Phnom Penh City Hall has refused labor unions and associations to celebrate 128th International Labor Day (May 1) at Freedom Park. The decision was made during a meeting on Thursday between representatives of labor unions, association and Phnom Penh City Hall officials. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YzFjZmRmZjg4ODE
Gov’t still considering taking refugees from Australia
Interior Minister Sar Kheng said Thursday that the government is still considering an Australian government proposal to take in asylum seekers intercepted while trying to reach the country. Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to swear in the heads of the new general departments of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-still-considering-taking-refugees-from-australia-57347/
Heads of new departments of immigration, identification sworn in
Interior Minister Sar Kheng presided over a ceremony in Phnom Penh on Thursday to appoint the directors of his ministry’s new general departments of immigration and identification, who have both stood down as National Police deputy commissioners to take up the positions. At the ceremony, General ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/heads-of-new-departments-of-immigration-identification-sworn-in-57344/
Concern over migration chief’s family connections
The appointment of General Sok Phal to head the Interior Ministry’s newly formed department to monitor migrant workers has raised concerns over his close familial connection to a labor recruitment industry fraught with human rights abuses. Gen. Phal’s sister, Ung Seang Rithy, is the owner of ...
Matt Blomberg and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
UN critical of pending asylum seeker deal
Officials with the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday spoke out for the first time against Australia’s plans to send some of the asylum seekers trying to reach its shores to Cambodia, saying the pending deal was not a “real ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/concern-over-migration-chiefs-family-connections-57202/
Cambodia unveils 2 suspects for hacking into gov't websites
Cambodia on Tuesday revealed two suspected hackers, who have attacked in large scales on the information technology networks of the national institutions, the National Police announced in its website. Bun Kingmongkol Panha, 21, and Chou Songheng, 21, both are the third year information technology students at ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-04/22/c_133281810.htm
Military cop investigated for alleged forest clearing
A deputy district military police chief in Kampong Thom’s Santuk district is under scrutiny for allegedly clearing up to seven hectares of community forest land for personal gain, and district officials are investigating the case with the aim of presenting it at the provincial court ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/military-cop-investigated-alleged-forest-clearing
Police invite hit-and-run officer to ‘solve problem’
A police officer who has been implicated in a fatal hit-and-run has been asked by local police in Kandal province to come to their office and negotiate a settlement for the victims’ families, police said Sunday. Ek Sovannara—the son of Ek Krit, a former Kandal provincial ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-invite-hit-and-run-officer-to-solve-problem-56770/
Rainsy courts Vietnamese
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday said that up to a quarter of a million ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia could be granted full citizenship rights via the Nationality Law if his Cambodia National Rescue Party were to come to power. The CNRP president has sought in ...
Kevin Ponniah and Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rainsy-courts-vietnamese
Land activists ‘under threat’
Cambodian land advocates face some of the most threatening and deadly working conditions in the world, according to a new report by UK-based environmental watchdog Global Witness. Since 2002, 908 reported killings linked to land activism have occurred across 35 countries – with 13 taking place ...
Amelia Woodside and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-activists-%E2%80%98under-threat%E2%80%99
Chemicals used for soap, not drugs, police say
Thirty tons of chemicals seized by police on Wednesday were used to make counterfeit soap, officials confirmed Thursday, refusing to release the name of the Chinese national arrested in connection with the raid. The liquid and solid chemicals were stored in blue vats, bottles and sacks ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chemicals-used-for-soap-not-drugs-police-say-56444/
Thirty tons of fake soap chemicals seized in Kandal
Police on Wednesday busted what they believe to be an illegal soap-making operation, seizing 30 tons of illicit chemicals and arresting a Chinese national in Kandal province. The chemicals, which were held in blue vats, were discovered at a warehouse belonging to a Chinese businessman in ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thirty-tons-of-fake-soap-chemicals-seized-in-kandal-province-56273/
Hun Sen urges safe driving during New Year
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday urged Cambodians to keep safe as they celebrate Khmer New Year this weekend and instructed law enforcement officers to be vigilant during a period renowned for causing an annual spike in traffic accidents. Speaking at a graduation ceremony on Koh ...
Khy Sovuthy and Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-urges-safe-driving-during-new-year-56040/
Australian PM confirms asylum seeker request
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday confirmed that Cambodia was in talks with his government to take in some of the refugees trying to reach his country’s shores, according to Australian media. Mr. Abbott’s statement was the first official admission from his administration that Australia ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/australian-pm-confirms-asylum-seeker-request-55850/
PM coy on Cambodia refugee deal
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is remaining coy about a potential refugee resettlement deal with Cambodia. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison met with Cambodia’s Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday. Mr Morrison is the second minister to travel to Phnom Penh for talks with the Cambodian government in the past ...
The Australian News Staff
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/morrison-in-talks-with-cambodia/story-fn3dxiwe-1226874177103
Preah Vihear Governor to close NGO office for inciting workers
Preah Vihear provincial governor Oum Mara has sent a letter to inform Interior Minister Sar Kheng that he is ordering an NGO to close its local offices, on the grounds that the organization is inciting villagers to destroy sugarcane farmed by a Chinese company. In the ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/preah-vihear-governor-to-close-ngo-office-for-inciting-workers-55773/
Lawmaker’s morning at park ended by district guards
Senior opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua walked into Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Wednesday morning, trailed by a small group of news photographers, and stopped to pose in front of about 100 municipal riot police exercising in the park. Ms. Sochua’s small act of defiance against the ...
Alex Willemyns and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmakers-morning-at-park-ended-by-district-guards-55636/
Interior Ministry says no to campaign demonstrations
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said yesterday that the government will not let opposition leader Sam Rainsy dodge a government ban on public gatherings by holding mass demonstrations during the campaign period before the May 18 district, provincial and city council elections. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-says-no-to-campaign-demonstrations-55530/