News

Senor members of the monastic community yesterday detained Buddhist monk Loun Savath, an award-winning human rights activist, after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court. Monks, police and unidentified men in plain clothes violently forced Loun Savath into a ...

Security forces and employees of a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province continued to drive families out of their homes yesterday ahead of today’s government-imposed eviction deadline. Officials and villagers say most of the roughly 200 families have already left. With more than 300 security personnel posted ...

Thirteen women protesters from Boeung Kak lake were yesterday sentenced to two and a half years in prison after a three-hour trial that was widely condemned as illegal – and which prompted SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua to urge the international community to suspend aid to ...

A representative of a factory that produces clothing for international clothing brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss warned yesterday that its buyers will place orders elsewhere if the strike for higher wages and benefits in its two factories continues. An official at the American Center for ...

Workers from SL Garment factories and union representatives held their second round of talks at the Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday as strikes at the Levi’s, Gap and H&M suppliers continued for the 12 day straight. ...

A combined force of police, soldiers and military police last night set a deadline of 8am this morning for villagers in Mondulkiri province’s tiny Rayum commune to leave their homes or face forcible eviction. Authorities, who have surrounded the village for a week, say the villagers’ ...

Loun Savath, a monk and rights activist who was detained by plain clothes security officials Thursday, was released that night, after he agreed to sign a letter vowing to stop leading and participating in protests. However, he has promised he will not halt his activism. Loun ...

The World Bank’s biannual report on Cambodia was largely positive given dire economic prospects in Europe, which economists agreed were closely tied to the Kingdom’s key export sectors. The report, released yesterday, predicted 6.6 per cent growth in gross domestic product Manufacturing is predicted to slow slightly this year, ...

The number of protests over land disputes increased in 2011 as forced resettlement, restrictions on freedom of assembly and the harassment of peaceful protesters continued to tarnish Cambodia’s human rights record, Amnesty International said in its annual report released yesterday. Noting the huge impact of economic ...

More than 100 staffers protested outside a Honda NCX company in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune yesterday because they say employees are being sacked for trying to unionise, among other grievances. Soeurn Sot, a technician at the company, said during the protest that if ...

The Malaysian company that operates the KFC fast food restaurants in Cambodia has announced the venture made losses of more than a quarter of a million dollars in the first three months of this year. In its first-quarter report to the Malaysian stock exchange, QSR Brands ...

The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port was making every effort to speed up preparations for its listing on the Cambodia Securities Exchange, the port’s chief executive officer, Lou Kim Chhun, said this week. The company would list 15% of it’s stock to begin with, and would ‘study ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) has set a minimum capital requirement for securities firms A statement from the SECC, released yesterday, said that securities underwriters are required to hold a minimum of 40 billion riel of their shareholder’s equities It also requires securities firms to maintain ...

Thirteen land protesters who were seized during a demonstration earlier this week were handed heavy prison sentences after a quick court hearing on Thursday, even as two more people were arrested and a monk was facing the threat of defrocking for participating in similar land ...

China sees Cambodia as one of the potential trade and investment partners among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and pledges to boost closer economic ties between the two countries, said a senior Chinese official on Tuesday. Wan Jifeisaid that his visit to Cambodia ...

Despite offering an uplifting outlook for Cambodia’s economy this year, economists at the World Bank said yesterday that it could still succumb to volatile commodities prices, particularly food and gas. Speaking to journalists after the release the bank’s East Asia and Pacific Economic Update for 2012, ...

In the face of increasing economic land concessions and ongoing restrictions on expression, disaffected Cambodians were increasingly taking to the streets with success, Amnesty International representatives said yesterday at the launch of their annual report. Amnesty reported that Cambodians continued to face challenges to their human ...

About 300 workers from a Phnom Penh factory that assembles Honda motorcycles went on strike yesterday to rally for the reinstatement of their union representatives, in accordance with an order by the Arbitration Council, union representatives said yesterday. Yoeurng Sopheara, a legal officer at Cambodia Labor ...

After more than a year of speculation on Cambodian rice exports to China, a rice exporter this week said China has granted the Kingdom permission to ship milled rice northward. Despite a growing stack of quasi-agreements for exports, regulatory issues have plagued the prospects of tapping ...

The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...

Eighty-two per cent of 1,200 people surveyed feel that Cambodia’s democracy works, despite 50 per cent calling corruption a major issue in the national government, according to figures released by the Center for Advanced Study yesterday. The CAS, a non-partisan research NGO, disseminated the results of ...

The Kratie Provincial Court wrapped up initial questioning yesterday of eight villagers charged in connection with what officials have claimed was a secessionist movement, court officials said. The eight were questioned on Tuesday and yesterday, and face between one and eight counts each of insurrection against ...

Security guards clashed yesterday with workers from two SL Garment factories that supply Levi’s, Gap and H&M, as the number of employees protesting exceeded 5,500 – or more than 90 per cent of the staff. Protester Kim Voeun, 32, said security guards, in the presence of ...

About 4,000 garment workers from factories that produce clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss continued protesting yesterday in Phnom Penh for higher wages, union representatives said. Singaporean-owned SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd. parked three large trucks in front of their Meanchey district factories ...