ODC English Site
On politics, silence gold: top monks
Cambodia’s highest monks have called on the clergy to refrain from joining any political demonstrations, calling it an abuse of morals and professional ethics. In a statement issued on Sunday and obtained yesterday, the three top Buddhist leaders liken joining protests to the act of killing. “An ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/politics-silence-gold-top-monks
Gov’t warns unions on demo
At least one union leader is butting heads with the Ministry of Labour as he encourages workers to join the planned opposition party demonstration on Saturday. A letter from the ministry sent to factories on Monday called on workers and unions to avoid participation in the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-warns-unions-demo
Planned Mekong dams need environmental assessment
The Cambodian government’s plan to build 20 dams along the Mekong River, with a view to boosting energy security, could harm food security and biodiversity in the region, as well as ignite a regional conflict over sharing of the river’s water, a conference has heard. ...
SciDev.Net News Staff
http://www.scidev.net/asia-pacific/water/news/planned-mekong-dams-need-environmental-assessment.html
Calls for Boeung Kak Activist’s Release Renewed on One-Year Anniversary
Cambodian and international rights groups have renewed their calls for the release of Phnom Penh housing rights campaigner campaigner Yorm Bopha one year after her arrest, urging the public and national leaders not to forget her during the country’s current political deadlock. Global watchdog Amnesty International ...
Radio Free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/yorm-bopha-09032013201419.html
Thai policy hits Cambodian cassava exports
Thailand’s restriction on agricultural imports earlier this year caused dramatic declines for Cambodia’s cassava exports during the harvest season, provincial border officials said yesterday. Cambodia’s exports of cassava reached 288,109 tonnes in the first six months of this year, a decline of 55 per cent from ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/thai-policy-hits-cambodian-cassava-exports
Parties urged to resume talks
Citing a lack of public confidence in the official post-election irregularity resolution process – namely, the Constitutional Council’s opening of vote packages – a coalition of leading civil society groups yesterday appealed to the two main political parties to swiftly come back to the negotiating ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/parties-urged-resume-talks
A man’s world
Straining under the weight of bricks, buckets and metal bars, a faceless army carry their loads from trucks to a massive building site on Penh Penh’s Diamond Island. Hidden beneath wide-brimmed hats and kramas masking their faces from dust and the sun, the battalion of ...
Frédéric Janssens
http://sea-globe.com/female-construction-workers-cambodia/
A lesson in caution
After nearly 50 garment workers were killed last year while travelling to or from their respective factories, the Ministry of Labour has urged truck drivers who cram dozens into the back of vehicles each day to take more care on the roads. In an information session ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lesson-caution
ODC Participated in the National ICT Workshop

ODC Research & Volunteer Coordinator and Panelists from Open Insitute, InSTEDD, and the Government. Photo Credit: ICT for Development Cambodia NetworkOn Thursday, 29 August 2013, the ODC Team attended the ICT4D Network’s National Workshop on “Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)”. In attendance was a ...
Sokimex Group Plans 15-Story Hotel Near Royal Palace
Local conglomerate Sokimex Group plans to construct a 15-story hotel as well as a supermarket and high-end shops on a more than 15,000-square-meter plot of land behind Phnom Penh’s Wat Ounalom, the firm’s founder, Sok Kong, said Thursday. Mr. Kong said his company had applied for ...
Aun Pheap and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sokimex-group-plans-15-story-hotel-near-royal-palace-41433/
Police Investigating Third Suspect in Mondolkiri Mining Fraud
Police said Thursday they are investigating the possibility of a third suspect who has been implicated in a fraud and forgery case over a mining deal, for which a Cambodian businessman and a Chinese associate are already awaiting trial. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ...
Simon Lewis and Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-investigating-third-suspect-in-mondolkiri-mining-fraud-41441/
NEC opens safety ballot boxes from Siem Reap
The National Election Committee (NEC) on Friday opened the safety ballot boxes from Siem Reap province to search for and verify any supposed election irregularities contained in documents 1102 and 1108, on Friday. The opening of ballot boxes from the 12 voting stations was held at ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=ZDVlNjIyMzA3MDk
Drop-off in beverage imports questioned
Despite the fact that beverage consumption in Cambodia is on the rise, government statistics show that imports of alcohol and non-alcoholic products in the first half of 2013 have declined by 51 per cent year-on-year. The seemingly conflicting figures left some scratching their heads. Meng Saktheara, ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/drop-beverage-imports-questioned
Embassies Warned CNRP Wants Coup
The government has informed foreign embassies in the country that the opposition’s threatened demonstrations over the election results are intended to illegally overthrow the elected CPP-led government, a ministry spokesman said Wednesday. Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that letters were ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/elections/embassies-warned-cnrp-wants-coup-41248/
Businessmen Charged Over Mining Deal Fraud
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged the Cambodian chairman of a local conglomerate and a Chinese business associate with fraud and using forged public documents, officials said Wednesday. Al Romny, 41, and Chinese national Chin Mongxin, 45, were arrested Saturday after an unknown complainant said ...
Eang Mengleng and Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/businessmen-charged-over-mining-deal-fraud-41261/
Cambodian Court Acquits Two in Slaying of Journalist
A Cambodian provincial court today dropped charges against a military police officer and his wife accused of murdering a reporter investigating the country’s illegal timber trade, drawing protests from the journalist’s wife and from human rights and environmental advocacy groups. Hang Serei Oudom, a ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/acquits-08282013145944.html
Strikers descend on ministry
Shouting their demands and trying to force their way through the gate, thousands of striking garment workers rallied in front of the Ministry of Social Affairs to no avail yesterday. The strikes came the morning after management posted a notice saying some 6,000 striking workers ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strikers-descend-ministry
Finance Ministry Accused of Ignoring Education Sector
The Ministry of Education on Tuesday again publicly accused the Ministry of Finance of not injecting enough funds into the education sector in order to bring Cambodia in line with the rest of Southeast Asia. Speaking at the close of a two-day workshop to formulate the ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/finance-ministry-accused-of-ignoring-education%E2%80%88sector-41040/
Fruit Trucks Block Road In Customs Fee Protest
About 30 truck drivers transporting fruit blocked National Road 5 in Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district for an hour yesterday after customs officials arrested six of their fellow drivers for refusing to pay fees they thought were unreasonable, drivers said. Nou Sal, 35, who transports ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/fruit-trucks-block-road-in-customs-fee-protest-40925/
Union reps claim factory beatdown
Union representatives who claim they were beaten to within an inch of their lives yesterday after they handed out pro-union leaflets in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district have vowed to take legal action. The 10 union members, who represent four different unions – the Union ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-reps-claim-factory-beatdown
Still at Large, Chhouk Bundith Has Case Sent to Appeal Court
Although the Svay Rieng Provincial Court announced the ex-governor’s sentence in June and ordered his immediate arrest, he has remained elusive to the authorities. His lawyers filed an appeal in July to the Appeal Court challenging the provincial court’s verdict. Sun Bunnarith, Chhouk Bundith’s lawyer, claimed ...
Khy Sovuthy and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/still-at-large-chhouk-bundith-has-case-sent-to-appeal-court-40914/
Court Questions Cambodian, Chinese Businessmen Over Fraud
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday questioned two businessmen over allegations of fraud and using forged public documents, including claims they faked a signature from Prime Minister Hun Sen in a mining transaction, court and police officials said. Deputy prosecutor Var Sakada said Cambodian Al ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-questions-cambodian-chinese-businessmen-over-fraud-40923/
UK to Request Extradition of Biofuel Company’s Chairman
The U.K.’s fraud office plans to request the extradition of a British national currently detained in Cambodia, after it brought charges against four people for their part in a $36 million Ponzi scheme involving a biofuel plantation. Gregg Fryett was arrested in Phnom Penh in March ...
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-to-request-extradition-of-biofuel-companys-chairman-40796/
UK to Request Extradition of Biofuel Company’s Chairman
The U.K.’s fraud office plans to request the extradition of a British national currently detained in Cambodia, after it brought charges against four people for their part in a $36 million Ponzi scheme involving a biofuel plantation. Gregg Fryett was arrested in Phnom Penh in March ...
Simon Lewis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-to-request-extradition-of-biofuel-companys-chairman-40796/