The Cambodia Daily
UN envoy raises assembly ban concerns
Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the freedom of assembly and association, met with a Foreign Affairs Ministry official Thursday and raised concerns about the government’s blanket ban on gatherings in Phnom Penh. His visit wraps up today, and a thematic report he will issue ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-raises-assembly-ban-concerns-51652/
Sugar Firm Offers Defense After Call for Probe of EU Trade Links
The director of a CPP senator’s sugar plantation accused of stealing land from hundreds of families said Wednesday that most locals were happy with the new jobs the plantation has generated, a week after a visiting European Union parliamentarian renewed calls for an investigation of ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-firm-offers-defense-after-call-for-probe-of-eu-trade-links-51545/
Hun Sen Hands More Four-Star Promotions to 6 Police Chiefs
In case the 29 officers Prime Minister Hun Sen promoted on January 30 to four-star general were not enough, six Interior Ministry police chiefs were also promoted to the same top rank late last month. A January 22 royal decree, obtained Wednesday, elevated the six lieutenant ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-hands-more-four-star-promotions-to-6-police-chiefs-51541/
Government Says US Praised Protest ‘Patience’
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said Wednesday that a senior U.S. diplomat had congratulated the government for its patience in dealing with recent protests, which were brought to a bloody end early last month when military police opened fire, killing five and wounding more ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-us%E2%80%88praised-protest-patience-51547/
Tuk-Tuk, Motorbike Drivers Want Vehicles Back
A dozen tuk-tuk and motorcycle-taxi drivers who say their vehicles were confiscated after police suppressed a demonstration in Phnom Penh last week gathered outside City Hall on Wednedsay to demand the return of their property. The drivers waited from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. hoping to ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tuk-tuk-motorbike-drivers-want-vehicles-back-51555/
Provincial Capital To Be Built on Teak Forest
The government has granted 322 hectares of state-owned teak forest in the newly formed Tbong Khmum province to the Interior Ministry so that the land can be used to build a new provincial capital, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday. “The government has decided to use more ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/provincial-capital-to-be-built-on-teak-forest-51553/
United Nations Envoy Visits After Protest Deaths
The U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, began a three-day unofficial visit to Cambodia on Wednesday, just one month after military police shot dead five protesters in Phnom Penh and the government imposed a ban on public gatherings. Mr. ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/united-nations-envoy-visits-after-protest-deaths-51551/
Villagers Sued for Property Damage by Company
Four villagers locked in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Banteay Meanchey province said Tuesday that they had been summonsed to the provincial court over a property damage lawsuit filed by the company. The suit was originally filed last year, but villagers said they ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-sued-for-property-damage-by-company-51458/
Test Drive Begins for New City Bus Service
Ten buses set off Wednesday morning along Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh on a month-long test-run to determine if the public is ready to jettison their motorbikes and luxury cars and hop on board mass transport. This is the second attempt by the Japanese International Cooperation ...
Hul Reaksmey and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/test-drive-begins-for-new-city-bus-service-51538/
Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge Remain in a State of Limbo
Khmer Krom people fleeing persecution in Vietnam and denied refuge in Thailand are being sent to Cambodia, where the government does not ensure that their rights are protected, the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) has said in a new report. The report—“Abandoned People Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/khmer-krom-seeking-refuge-remain-in-a-state-of-limbo-51557/
CMAC Closes Probe Into Fire Amid Allegations of Corruption
The Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) said Wednesday that it has closed its investigation into a fire at an equipment repair workshop in Battambang City on January 24 that destroyed equipment and vehicles worth an estimated $400,000. Heng Ratana, CMAC’s director-general, said that the fire had ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cmac-closes-probe-into-fire-amid-allegations-of-corruption-51543/
Hoteliers Are Warming Up to Phnom Penh
Compared to the bustling tourist center of Siem Reap, Phnom Penh has long stood in second place as an investment destination for international hotel operations. But as infrastructure slowly improves and the number of visitors to the capital continues to grow, international hotel chains are taking ...
Emily Wilkins
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/hoteliers-are-warming-up-to-phnom-penh-51460/
Phnom Penh Trash Collectors Dance for Demands
Piles of garbage festered on the streets of Phnom Penh on Tuesday as hundreds of workers employed by the city’s refuse collection company, Cintri, continued to strike for higher wages and better working conditions. At the company’s truck depot in Dangkao district Tuesday morning, more than ...
Ben Sokhean and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-trash-collectors-dance-for-demands-51432/
Hun Sen Promotes 29 to Four-Star General
Prime Minister Hun Sen approved a request from Defense Minister Tea Banh last week to promote 29 lieutenant generals to the rank of four-star general, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defense. The promotions, which follow repeated calls from General Banh last month for ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-promotes-29-to-four-star-general-51430/
Unions argue over wage committee reforms
Meeting for a minimum wage workshop on Tuesday, the country’s independent and government-aligned unions argued over reforms to the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), the body in charge of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs some 600,000 workers. The LAC, which is composed ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-argue-over-wage-committee-reforms-51452/
Garment Workers Injured in Svay Rieng Crash
At least 86 garment workers were injured when the 3-ton truck in which they were traveling overturned on National Road 1 in Svay Rieng province Tuesday morning, police and health officials said. In November, seven people were killed and 17 others seriously injured when a ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-injured-in-svay-rieng-crash-51454/
Long-Awaited Phnom Penh Bus Service Begins One-Month Trial
A fleet of 10 municipal buses was set to roll out early this morning, commencing a one-month public bus service trial along a single route on Monivong Boulevard. If successful, the bus route will mark the first step in establishing a long-overdue public transit system to ...
Simon Henderson and Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/long-awaited-phnom-penh-bus-service-begins-one-month-trial-51446/
Killing of Journalist May Not Be Linked to Illegal Fishing Reports
Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Tuesday said they were looking for three suspects in the murder of a local journalist on Friday night and may soon add more names to the list, but still had no motive for the attack. However, the provincial coordinator for ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/killing-of-journalist-may-not-be-linked-to-illegal-fishing-reports-51448/
US Ambassador Calls for Curbs on Corruption
U.S. Ambassador William Todd on Tuesday used his weekly newspaper column to urge Cambodia’s government to immediately conduct reforms that would even the country’s economic playing field, curb corruption, restore democratic freedoms and generally address the concerns of citizens who want change. “Corruption and nepotism contribute ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/us-ambassador-calls-for-curbs-on-corruption-51436/
National Rail Project on Hold ‘Indefinitely’
Work on a $143 million donor project to renovate the country’s creaking railway system, which is already over budget and years behind schedule, is now indefinitely postponed due to a lack of funds, with more than 300 km of rail still to be laid, a ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/national-rail-project-on-hold-indefinitely-51323/
Sonando Continues to Seek TV License, Radio Relay Station
Though the Ministry of Information has repeatedly rejected independent radio station owner Mam Sonando’s requests to obtain a television station license and a radio relay station, saying that there was “no space” for him, the government has approved at least three new TV licenses and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sonando-continues-to-seek-tv-license-radio-relay-station-51335/
No Results in Protest Shooting Investigations
At 10 a.m. on January 3, about 2,000 members of the security forces, mostly military police, advanced down Phnom Penh’s factory-lined Veng Sreng Street, spraying AK-47 assault rifle fire into a crowd of about 100 protesters who had been throwing stones and crude Molotov cocktails. ...
Khuon Narim and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-results-in-protest-shooting-investigations-51325/
Activists Say Human Rights Delegate Lied to United Nations
Mak Sambath, deputy chairman of the government’s Human Rights Committee, came under fire Monday from activists who accused him of lying to the U.N. in Geneva regarding land issues and the displacement of affected people. The criticism of Mr. Sambath’s report to the U.N.’s Human Rights ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/activists-say-human-rights-delegate-lied-to-united-nations-51341/
Rainsy to Meet Cambodian Workers in South Korea
Opposition CNRP leader Sam Rainsy is to meet with Cambodian migrant workers during a two-day trip to South Korea later this week, at the end of a European tour that has included stops in Geneva, Brussels and Paris. “He will be visiting [South] Korea to meet ...
Mech Dara and Alice Cuddy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rainsy-to-meet-cambodian-workers-in-south-korea-51349/