The Cambodia Daily
Soldier Held After Aiding Two Slain Loggers
The Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court on Saturday charged a 31-year-old soldier for helping villagers who were shot dead after crossing the Thai border while logging for luxury timber, officials and a rights worker said yesterday. Mao Chenda, 20, and Ung Theara, 17, villagers from Anlong Veng ...
Puma Factory Reaps Rewards Of Paying for Workers’ Meals
A factory supplying shoes for German sports brand Puma has experienced no mass faintings and seen overall productivity improve since it started providing meals to its workers last year, a Puma representative and a factory official said yesterday. Workers at Huey Chuen (Cambodia) Corp. Ltd. in ...
Rains Lead to Reduction in Salt Harvests
Heavy rainfall in April and May has cut salt production by a third in Kep and Kampot provinces even though farmers extended the harvest season there by a month, farmers said yesterday. Last year, farmers were able to produce about 90,000 tons of salt on 4,500 ...
Plans for Angkor Restoration To Be Discussed in Siem Reap
Representatives from international and national teams involved in the restoration and preservation of the Angkor Archeological Park are meeting today in Siem Reap City to discuss the future of the site. Gathered for the Technical Session of the International Coordinating Committee of Angkor (ICC), the representatives ...
SRP Says Rural Gains Coincide With Land Grabs
While preliminary results from Sunday’s commune elections indicate that the SRP took a thumping in urban centers—the SRP lost all three of their commune chief positions in Phnom Penh—the party appears to have made gains in rural areas locked in land disputes. Though the figures are ...
Productivity Could Increase if Manufacturers Feed Workers
More than 60 percent of garment factory owners believe that the productivity of their workers could increase if nutrition levels improved and over half would be willing to provide meals for their workers as long as it came at the right price, according to a ...
CPP Claims 72% of Seats In Communes
The CPP yesterday declared victory in Sunday’s commune election, saying it had taken 72 percent of the country’s commune councilor seats and all but 41 of the country’s 1,633 powerful commune chief positions. The SRP in turn said it took 19 percent of the available councilor ...
SRP Seeks Suspension of All US Military Aid to Cambodia
Opposition lawmaker Mu Sochua departed for the U.S. yesterday in hopes of pressuring Washington into suspending all military aid to Cambodia over the government’s use of soldiers to defend the land holdings of powerful business families. “We have enough evidence that soldiers are providing protection to ...
City Blames B Kak Protests On ‘Foreigners’
The Phnom Penh municipality defended itself for the first time this weekend against sustained criticism from rights groups over the jailing of 13 female protesters from Boeng Kak, blaming the backlash on the “insanity” of unnamed foreign provocateurs. SRP lawmakers, meanwhile, met with the women in ...
Radio Ban Sparks Debate of Media Freedom in Cambodia
While observers yesterday accused the government of censorship for ordering radio stations not to transmit international broadcasters over the election weekend, a government spokesman defended the move. On Sunday, a Ministry of Information official said the ministry had ordered local F.M. stations not to transmit Voice ...
KR Bank Official Quizzed Over Disappearances
On his second day of questioning by prosecutors at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, the deputy director of the foreign commerce bank during the Pol Pot regime, Sar Kim Lomouth, said he feared for his safety following the purging of several superiors at the Ministry ...
Agriculture Ministry Announces Seasonal Fishing Ban
The Ministry of Agriculture’s fisheries administration announced yesterday that the seasonal nationwide ban on commercial fishing is now in effect, according to a statement. Signed by the director general of the fisheries administration, Nao Thuok, the announcement states that the fishing ban north of Phnom Penh’s ...
SRP Asks King Sihamoni to Pardon Boeng Kak 15
Members of the opposition SRP on Saturday sent a petition to King Norodom Sihamoni asking him to pardon the 13 Boeng Kak residents who were sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail on May 24 after holding a peaceful protest against CPP senator Lao Meng Khin’s ...
Ministry Bans US-Backed Radio Broadcasts for Election Weekend
The Ministry of Information ordered local radio stations not to transmit programs from U.S.-backed broadcasters over the election weekend, an official said. Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government’s official broadcaster overseas, and Radio Free Asia (RFA), a station funded in part by the U.S. government, ...
Factories Lend Travel Money to Ensure Garment Workers Vote
Often vilified for paying low wages in less than optimum work environments, Cambodia’s garment factory owners got into the swing of the commune elections this week, with many companies providing loans to help their workers travel home to vote. With about 400,000 employees, the garment industry’s ...
Ahead of Vote, Hun Sen Breaks Silence to Make Land Promises
Just days ahead of Sunday’s commune elections, Prime Minister Hun Sen again broke his pledge to remain silent during his party’s campaign period and sought to ease the concerns of communities whose livelihoods have been threatened by land disputes. Speaking to villagers through a mobile telephone, ...
City Hall Installs More Cameras To Monitor Congestion
Phnom Penh City Hall has installed five new surveillance cameras at major intersections around the city in order to help traffic police monitor increasingly congested roads, police and an official at an Internet service provider (ISP) said this week. Paul Blanche-Horgan, CEO of ISP Ezecom—the firm which set up the ...
Group Starts Online Petition to Stop Land Dispute Violence
Hoping to end the cycle of violence in land disputes in Cambodia, and to garner public support for people who are the victims of land grabbing, five concerned citizens held a press conference Friday to announce the launch of their own online petition whose results ...
Government Creates 4 New Fishing Conservation Areas
In an effort to increase fish stocks, the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday adopted a sub-decree to create four conservation areas in Kandal, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng and Takeo provinces where all fishing activities will be prohibited. Signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 6, ...
Children of Jailed 15 Make Plea for Parents
Relatives and neighbors sang, cried and pleaded outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday for the release of the 14 women and one man arrested last week for protesting against CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s controversial Boeng Kak real estate project. Worried by reports that the World ...
KR Banking Chief Says Institution Was Sham
On his first day of questioning at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, Sar Kim Lomouth, the deputy director of the State Bank of Democratic Kampuchea, described how the national financial institution was nothing but a charade during the Pol Pot regime. Currency had been abolished and financial transactions eliminated under ...
Abused Maid to Remain in Malaysia for Case
A hospitalized Cambodian woman who was severely beaten and subjected to humiliating abuse while working as a maid will remain in Malaysia to see out the legal process against her Malaysian employers, an official said yesterday. Tan Mong Huwai, 36, and his wife, Eng Lay Sang, ...
Villagers in Land Dispute Questioned by Court
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned four Russei Keo district villagers from two families who have been embroiled in a land dispute for two years with a local businessman, lawyers said yesterday. The families are accused of physically attacking landowner Lao Tong Ngy, a man ...
After Threats to Cut Pay, Garment Workers Strike
Nearly 2,000 workers at the Gawon Apparel Co. garment factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao City protested in front of the factory yesterday after they were informed that they would lose pay for any days missed during the commune election, which takes place Sunday, union representatives ...