The Cambodia Daily
Nhek Bun Chhay loyalists stripped of government roles
Twelve government advisers—many of them said to be allies of KNUP leader Nhek Bun Chhay—have been stripped of their positions in a suspected purge of officials loyal to the former general. ...
Chhorn Phearun
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/nhek-bun-chhay-loyalists-stripped-of-govt-roles-132754/
Situation room seeks meeting with Minister
Two key members of the election monitoring group dubbed the Situation Room are seeking a meeting with Interior Minister Sar Kheng to discuss a recent government order that would bar the NGO consortium from continuing its work for next year’s general election. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/situation-room-seeks-meeting-with-minister-132742/
Vietnam pledges $25m to cambodia for national assembly building
Vietnam has pledged $25 million to Cambodia to build a new National Assembly secretariat building in Phnom Penh, while also promising greater cooperation on a range of issues between the two nations, officials said on Thursday. ...
Global Fund donates $98m despite graft investigation
Global Fund will provide $98 million to fight malaria, tuberculosis and AIDs from 2018 to 2020, an official said on Thursday, with the donor seemingly banking on improved oversight to prevent alleged government fraud and nepotism it described as recently as March. ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-fund-donates-98m-despite-graft-investigation-132750/
French project to set up day care services for factory workers
France has pledged nearly $400,000 to set up maternal health and early childhood services, including child care centers, at a dozen garment factories across Cambodia, the French Embassy said on Wednesday. ...
Hannah Hawkins
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/french-project-to-set-up-day-care-services-for-factory-workers-132702/
NEC urged to Let Cambodians vote abroad
NGOs on Wednesday renewed a push for the National Election Committee to let Cambodians working abroad register to vote, as an opposition lawmaker also challenged the committee to back up its claim that current laws would need to be amended to make it happen. ...
Phan Soumy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/nec-urged-to-let-cambodians-vote-abroad-132706/
CNRP to ask king to snub new party law changes
The CNRP is expected today to urge King Norodom Sihamoni to withhold his signature from a set of changes to the Law on Political Parties designed to sideline opposition figure Sam Rainsy. ...
Ben Sokhean and Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-to-ask-king-to-snub-new-party-law-changes-132705/
Police burn 60,000 marijuana plants at Takeo village hotspot
Police destroyed more than 60,000 marijuana plants spread across 3 hectares of land in a well-known Takeo province hotspot for growing the illegal crop, officials said on Tuesday. ...
As company clears land, Bunong villagers fight for ancestral home
The land concession overlaps the site of the Bunong community’s old village, their spirit forest and their burial grounds—religiously significant areas that, according to Bunong beliefs, are not to be disturbed or logged at the risk of incurring the wrath of local spirits. ...
Brendan O’byrne
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-company-clears-land-bunong-villagers-fight-for-ancestral-home-132609/
Embassy in Malaysia lacks funds to send workers home
An official at the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said on Monday that with more Cambodians seeking support and refuge amid a labor crackdown by Malaysian authorities, the embassy’s budget was not enough to pay to bring them home. ...
Leng Len and Hannah Hawkins
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/embassy-in-malaysia-lacks-funds-to-send-workers-home-132613/
Waters rising in Sesan dam villages as holdouts sit tight
Rescuers armed with speed boats and emergency supplies have been deployed to two Stung Treng province villages where residents remain despite expected flooding as the country’s largest hydropower dam undergoes testing. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/waters-rising-in-sesan-dam-villages-as-holdouts-sit-tight-132614/
White Building demolition begins as holdouts move out
Two excavators turned bricks to rubble with ease on Monday as walls jutting out from the ground floor of Phnom Penh’s dilapidated White Building slowly tumbled to the ground. ...
Janelle Retka and Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/white-building-demolition-begins-as-holdouts-move-out-132612/
After protest, farmers’ unrest spreads to neighboring districts
After about 500 protesting farmers blockaded a national road in Battambang province last week, local authorities in neighboring districts are now making efforts to placate hundreds of other farmers also restless over depressed corn and cassava prices. ...
Leng Len
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protest-farmers-unrest-spreads-neighboring-districts-132586/
Takeover of Zaman possible, ambassador says
Turkey is in talks with the Cambodian government over the possibility of taking control of the Zaman-operated schools in Phnom Penh, which it alleges have links to a “terrorist organization” behind last year’s attempted coup, the Turkish ambassador said on Friday. ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/takeover-of-zaman-possible-ambassador-says-132562/
Plans for another ‘Hun Sen High School’ renaming canceled
A provincial governor’s request to rename a Siem Reap City high school after Prime Minister Hun Sen has been abandoned, according to an official and the school—a decision some have speculated was influenced by online criticism of the suggested change. ...
Rachna Thim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/plans-another-hun-sen-high-school-renaming-canceled-132584/
Embassy in Malaysia sheltering nationals amid crackdown
The Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has seen an influx of nationals seeking help securing work documents—along with food and shelter—amid a crackdown on unregistered workers in the country, an embassy official said on Thursday. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/embassy-malaysia-sheltering-nationals-amid-crackdown-132519/
Corn farmers block road over low prices
Hundreds of corn farmers blocked a main road in Battambang province on Thursday, hoping the barricade would persuade Prime Minister Hun Sen to put pressure on traders to raise the dwindling crop prices that are hurting their livelihoods. ...
Leng Len
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/corn-farmers-block-road-over-low-prices-132502/
Gov’t to continue drug crackdown with nearly $1m budget
Prime Minister Hun Sen has authorized a six-month extension of the government’s anti-drug campaign, an anti-drug authority official said on Thursday. ...
Phan Soumy and Matt Surrusco
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-to-continue-drug-crackdown-with-nearly-1m-budget-132497/
Gov’t rejects 11th-hour reprieve for Sesan dam families
An official in Stung Treng province said there was no way to grant a last-minute reprieve requested on Thursday by villagers whose homes could be flooded within days once testing of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam begins on Saturday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-rejects-11th-hour-reprieve-for-sesan-dam-families-132499/
Prison Sentences Handed Down in Mondolkiri Child Torture Case
The Mondolkiri Provincial Court this morning sentenced Dutch man Stefan Struik, 53, to two years in prison for helping his Vietnamese boyfriend, Nguyen Thanh Dung, 34, flee the country after videos of Mr. Nguyen torturing a 2-year-old Cambodian boy were posted on Facebook. ...
Phan Soumy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/breakingnews/prison-sentences-handed-mondolkiri-child-torture-case-132490/
International group demands severance for shuttered factory’s workers
An international alliance of NGOs has started a campaign to urge two prominent U.K. clothing retailers and a Canadian brand to compensate 208 factory workers who lost their jobs when the Chung Fai Knitwear factory abruptly closed a year ago. ...
Julia-grace Sanders
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/intl-group-demands-severance-for-shuttered-factorys-workers-132451/
Car window smashed after dropping off activist monks
A large rock smashed through the side window of a car that had just dropped off members of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice in Kandal province on Tuesday night, the group’s leader But Buntenh said on Wednesday. ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/second2/car-window-smashed-dropping-off-activist-monks-132465/
Parliament boycotts bear little fruit for opposition
While highly contentious new rules were being passed in the National Assembly on Monday banning the CNRP from collaborating with its former leader Sam Rainsy, photographs were posted to Facebook of senior opposition lawmakers dining at a riverside hotel in Kampot province. ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/parliament-boycotts-bear-little-fruit-for-opposition-132457/
Government: Angkor Park squatters allowed in to avoid violence
The director of the government body that manages the Angkor Archaeological Park on Wednesday conceded that the hundreds of families they are now struggling to evict were allowed to move into the park illegally in the lead-up to the June 4 commune elections, though he ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-angkor-park-squatters-allowed-in-to-avoid-violence-132455/