Social development
Bavet Governor Summoned Over Shooting
The Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday summoned Bavet city governor Chhuk Bundith for questioning over his alleged role in the shooting of three female garment workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) in the province two weeks ago, court officials said. Human rights groups continued ...
Law Students Told To Avoid Thesis Topics
Fourth-year students at Phnom Penh’s Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE) have been barred from writing their theses on 14 topics, including Cambodia’s new bourse, according to a letter posted online yesterday. The letter, signed by the university’s research department director Kong Saphon ...
Mystery Surrounds SEZ Triple Shooting Case
Confusion continued to swirl around the fate of Bavet city Governor Chhuk Bundith yesterday after the Interior Ministry last week identified him as the sole suspect in the Feb. 20 triple shooting of protesters at a special economic zone (SEZ). While human rights groups claimed yesterday ...
Conference Highlights the Country's Math Deficiency
Education experts and professors from around the world gathered over the weekend in Phnom Penh to discuss ways to strengthen mathematics in Cambodia and other developing countries. the problem is not a lack of student capability, said Lin Mongkolsery, a mathematics teacher at the Institute ...
Minorities Seek Land Dispute March Approval
Local human rights group Adhoc has requested provincial approval to stage a large-scale march later this month involving hundreds of indigenous minorities embroiled in a land dispute in Ratanakiri province. The demonstration is being organized to bring attention to what minority villagers claim is judicial ...
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
Kandal villagers seek resolution to dispute
More than 200 villagers from Kandal’s Kien Svay district gathered in protest yesterday to urge the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution to resolve their long-standing dispute with a CPP official. The protesters assembled in the Samrong Thom commune brandishing photos of the prime minister and ...
Villagers Appeal to Halt Stung Treng Dam
Eleven village representatives from Stung Treng and Ratanakiri provinces traveled to Phnom Penh yesterday to meet with National Assembly lawmakers and appeal for an end to the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam. The hydropower project, funded by Vietnam Electricity, will flood tens ...
Police Hear Borei Keila Evictees' Apartment Claims
Ten representatives from the Borei Keila community met with Phnom Penh police chief Touch Naruth yesterday to discuss whether their housing documents could qualify them for an apartment, a representative said yesterday. Chhum Ngan said Mr. Naruth asked representatives to furnish housing documents from 106 ...
Kingdom’s arable land all but gone
If the government continues to grant economic land and mining concessions at the current rate, there will be no more arable land left in the country to give away within one year, a researcher from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights said yesterday. Pointing to the ...
Battambang families seek land-dispute aid
Representatives of more than 300 families in Battambang province’s Bavel district yesterday urged government officials to intervene in a land dispute with provincial authorities and a businessman. Representative Thuy Ry said the 305 families had lived on the 3,638 hectares of land in Ampil Pram Doeum ...
NGOs Urge Cambodia, Malaysia to Agree on Maid Protection
More than 60 Cambodian and international human rights groups and trade unions yesterday called on Cambodia and Malaysia to reach a bilateral agreement that would guarantee strong labor rights and working conditions for Cambodian maids employed in Malaysia. “The time is ripe for the Cambodian ...
Prayer Ceremony Held In Attempt to Stop Dam Construction
About 400 indigenous Lao villagers prayed and sacrificed chickens to a powerful local spirit yesterday in Stung Treng province, seeking supernatural help in halting the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam, villagers and commune officials said yesterday. The hydropower projects, funded by Vietnam ...
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
Gov't Launches Campaign to Clean Up Cities Nationwide
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said all of the country’s cities would compete with each other to beautify urban zones and attract more tourists in the newly devised Clean City contest. Nine Phnom Penh districts and 26 cities nationwide will be assessed on how clean ...
Former Borei Keila Residents Protest Apartment Rejections
About 40 evictees form the Borei Keila community blocked a road in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district for nearly two hours yesterday, protesting a letter written by municipal governor Kep Chuktekma stating that they had no right to state-provided housing. According to a copy of ...
Protesters try new tactics
Rocks were hurled, fires lit, hostages taken and the message delivered in no uncertain terms last week: Cambodians are increasingly willing to use violence against companies that intimidate them or ignore their demands. Twice – in Svay Rieng and Kampong Cham provinces – garment workers pelted ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022754739/National-news/protesters-try-new-tactics.html
Authorities Downplay Hostage-Taking in Land Dispute
Two days after Ratanakiri province villagers took hostage a group of local officials who were clearing land for a rubber plantation, authorities downplayed the incident, saying they had no plans to press charges and that “the problem has been settled.” A representative of the rubber company, ...
Bulldozing stopped, for now
Ethnic minority Tumpoun villagers yesterday delivered a thumb-printed petition to commune, district and provincial authorities in Ratanakkiri demanding intervention in a Lumphat district land dispute after villagers held five rubber plantation company employees hostage on Tuesday. Five employees of Jing Zhong Ri Cambodia Co Ltd were ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022454706/National-news/bulldozing-stopped-for-now.html
Gov't, NGOs Discuss Child Labor in Fisheries
Thousands of children are toiling in the country’s fisheries sector, living in conditions that are often hazardous to their health and depriving them of an education, government officials and UN representatives said yesterday at a workshop in Phnom Penh. Seventy-five percent of the 1.5 million ...
Villagers take hostages
The clearing of land for a Ratanakkiri rubber plantation had been frozen after more than 300 Tumpoun ethnic minority villagers captured a quartet of company security guards and another staffer, tied them up and held them hostage on Tuesday, company officials said yesterday. Jing Zhong Ri ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012022354691/National-news/villagers-take-hostages.html
Kingdom must diversify its economy, ADB says [Interview]
“I think when you have an economy that depends on the agricultural sector, there is a need to ensure that we strengthen the linkages between rural and urban areas. Our work also focuses on promoting education so that we can provide better employment opportunities for ...
Shootings May Impact Security Council Bid, Minister Says
Monday’s shooting of protesting factory workers by security guards at a Svay Rieng special economic zone could damage Cambodia’s international reputation and potentially impact the country’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking at the opening ...
Shootings May Impact Security Council Bid, Minister Says
Monday’s shooting of protesting factory workers by security guards at a Svay Rieng special economic zone could damage Cambodia’s international reputation and potentially impact the country’s bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday Speaking at the opening ...