The Cambodia Daily
Families Protest Eviction by Chinese Company
Forty-two families from Preah Vihear province’s Chheb district on Sunday held a demonstration to protest their pending eviction in favor of a Chinese company that plans to establish a sugarcane plantation on the land the families have occupied for almost three years. Local authorities have told ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-protest-eviction-by-chinese-company-47808/
ACU’s Denial of Graft Belied by Evidence
A recent claim by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) that a public health officer accused of demanding bribes to manipulate lucrative contracts did nothing wrong contradicts admissions of illegal activity by both the government and the officer himself, according to interviews and email messages reproduced in ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acus-denial-of-graft-belied-by-evidence-47788/
Anti-Graft Unit Says Health Center’s Procurements Were Correct
The government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Friday that it has investigated the public procurements of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (NCHADS) and found they were carried out correctly, despite an exhaustive investigation by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-graft-unit-says-health-centers-procurements-were-correct-47767/
Impunity Reigns as Fatal Shootings Continue to Go Unpunished
Impunity reigns in Cambodia on the back of two consecutive years of fatal shootings by state forces for which perpetrators have evaded justice, local rights group Licadho said Friday in a statement to mark International Day to End Impunity on Saturday. Since the start of 2012, ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/impunity-reigns-as-fatal-shootings-continue-to-go-unpunished-47769/
Ratanakkiri Temple Now in Land Concession
Like most millennium-old structures discovered in the forests of Cambodia, the locals had known all along about this one. Jarai minority villagers in this remote spot in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district not only knew about it, but they revered the red-brick temple, using it as a ...
Kuch Naren and Michelle Vachon
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-temple-now-in-land-concession-47779/
VN Rubber Company Says It Improves Forest
The Vietnamese Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) company, the majority shareholder of several economic land concessions in Ratanakkiri province, on Friday rebuffed accusations that it had logged forests and forced evictions, claiming that its activities improved the environment and the livelihoods of locals. Through several companies, ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/vn-rubber-company-says-it-improves-forest-47771/
Meas Sotha—The Man at the Center of the SL Factory Strike
Meas Sotha is not leaving the SL Garment Factory. As tensions between management and workers have intensified over the past five months, Mr. Sotha and his role at the strike-plagued factory have moved center stage. Workers claim that since Mr. Sotha took over from a previous SL ...
Colin Meyn and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meas-sotha-the-man-at-the-center-of-the-sl-factory-strike-47684/
Prosecutors, Police Discuss Closer Cooperation
Court prosecutors and judicial police held an open meeting at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday to discuss the need for closer cooperation between the two groups in arresting and prosecuting criminals. Appeal Court prosecutor general Ouk Savuth said the meeting was called due to ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prosecutors-police-discuss-closer-cooperation-47686/
Information Minister Orders TVK to Scrap Tedious Coverage
If Information Minister Khieu Kanharith is any indication, even the government is tiring of state television. Mr. Kanharith announced on Facebook on Wednesday that he had personally ordered the state-run TVK channel to stop broadcasting the comings and goings of state officials on foreign excursions. Mr. ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/information-minister-orders-tvk-to-scrap-tedious-coverage-47680/
MobiTel Named in Leaked Australian Phone Tap Document
When one of Australia’s top intelligence agencies in 2009 presented staff with a slideshow detailing their attempts to intercept mobile telephone calls by Indonesia’s president, first lady and top officials, it also revealed other possible spying targets—including one of Cambodia’s largest mobile operators, MobiTel, according ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobitel-named-in-leaked-australian-phone-tap-documents-47672/
Global Fund Says World Mosquito Net Supplies Not Jeopardized
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday denied reports that its suspension of all contracts with two major mosquito net suppliers found to have bribed Cambodian officials would cause a shortage in the worldwide supply of the critical malaria deterrent, but ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-fund-says-world-mosquito-net-supplies-not-jeopardized-47676/
Environment Ministry Denies Issuing New ELC to Logging Firm
The Ministry of Environment on Thursday denied that a private agro-industry firm had been issued an “unofficial” land concession inside Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, as stated on Monday by the provincial governor. In response to claims by local officials that Daun Penh Agrico Co. Ltd. ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-ministry-denies-issuing-new-elc-to-logging-firm-47675/
Anti-Eviction Activist Yorm Bopha Freed on Bail
The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily freed jailed Boeng Kak anti-eviction activist Yorm Bopha on bail, but sent her case back to the Court of Appeal to be reinvestigated. During the hearing, which lasted an hour and a half, dozens of monks and supporters of the ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-eviction-activist-yorm-bopha-freed-on-bail-47709/
SL Workers Demand Representatives Reinstated
About 200 workers protested outside SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district Wednesday demanding that managers reinstate 19 union representatives before a 15-day deadline set by the government elapses. The Council of Ministers has ordered the factory to rehire the fired unionists or face punitive ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sl-workers-demand-representatives-reinstated-47539/
Hun Sen’s Student Volunteers to Resume Land-Titling Program
The government is set to start re-deploying student volunteers to measure and demarcate plots of land across the country as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme, which was briefly suspended ahead of July’s national election. The program was announced by the prime minister in ...
Kuch Naren and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-student-volunteers-to-resume-land-titling-program-47528/
Official Says Legality of Sanctuary Logging Unknown
A district-level Environment Ministry official in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday claimed that he had no way to determine the legality of logging operations by firms with private land concessions inside the province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary. The claim by Chou Sopheak, director of Lumphat district’s environment department, ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/official-says-legality-of-sanctuary-logging-unknown-47518/
Finance Ministry Defends Ambiguity in 2014 Budget Bill
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday defended itself against recent reports that some 45 percent of the government’s $3.4 billion draft budget for 2014 remains unallocated, issuing a statement explaining that the money will pay for loans, subsidies and other vital expenses. According to the statement, ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/finance-ministry-defends-ambiguity-in-2014-budget-bill-47530/
Police Have Not Enforced Traffic Laws for Four Months
Traffic police across the country have still not resumed enforcing traffic laws after a pre-election enforcement moratorium that was meant to last just a few weeks ahead of the July 28 poll, according to government and U.N. officials. “The superiors ordered [police] to stop, for a ...
Khuon Narim and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-have-not-enforced-traffic-laws-for-four-months-47521/
Three Cambodians Killed Illegally Logging Across Thai Border
Thai forestry officials killed three Cambodians who were illegally logging on Tuesday, in what they said was a shootout in Thailand’s Sisaket province, a border official said Wednesday. The latest deaths bring the number of Cambodians who have been shot while logging across the border this ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-cambodians-killed-illegally-logging-across-thai-border-47532/
New Picture Book for Kids Published in Khmer
Cambodia Airports and the NGO Sipar, an organization that supports literacy and the publishing sector in Cambodia, jointly released a Khmer- and English-language book for toddlers about transportation Wednesday morning. “The Picture Book on Vehicles” is part of Sipar’s first collection of books for toddlers written ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-picture-book-for-kids-published-in-khmer-47537/
ELC in Nature Preserve Is Illegal, Government Spokesman Says
An “unofficial” land concession granted earlier this year to an agro-industry firm that has logged luxury hardwood in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary is in violation of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs), a government spokesman said Tuesday. Phay Siphan, ...
Aun Pheap and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/elc-in-nature-preserve-is-illegal-government-spokesman-says-47379/
Court Charges Official With Corruption Over Pension Scandal
The Kompong Cham Provincial Court on Saturday charged the chief of Srei Santhor district’s social affairs office with corruption following his arrest by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Friday for withholding pensions and other bonuses from retired teachers, a court official said Tuesday. Provincial court deputy ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-official-with-corruption-over-pension-scandal-47381/
World Toilet Day Highlights Sanitation Solutions
Tuesday marked World Toilet Day, the annual attempt to push the issue of open defecation back into the spotlight and highlight the preventable illnesses that are caused by what is still a very common practice in Cambodia, which has the lowest toilet coverage in Southeast ...
Simon Henderson and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-toilet-day-highlights-sanitation-solutions-47393/
ACU Arrests Customs Officer, Two EdC Staff
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) arrested a senior customs official in Preah Sihanouk province and two Electricte du Cambodge (EdC) officials in Mondolkiri province in separate corruption cases this week, ACU and court officials said Friday. Mondolkiri Provincial Court prosecutor Khut Sopheang said two staff members of ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-arrests-customs-officer-two-edc-staff-48225/