News
UN Envoy Asks Cambodia to Lift Demonstrations Ban
A U.N. rights envoy suggested Thursday that Cambodia lift a ban on public gatherings in the capital imposed amid a violent crackdown on demonstrators a month ago. Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s global Special Rapporteur for freedom of peaceful assembly and association, made the suggestion to Foreign ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rapporteur-02062014181843.html
New laws on judiciary due by ‘end of month’
The Ministry of Justice is kicking into overdrive its long-stagnated efforts to finish three fundamental laws on the function of the judiciary, saying it hopes to complete the laws – which it characterises as key judicial reforms – by the end of the month, the ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-laws-judiciary-due-%E2%80%98end-month%E2%80%99
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/
CNRP to try to visit jailed 23
Opposition party members will lead a delegation to the doors of Kampong Cham Correctional Centre 3 on Tuesday in the hope of visiting the 23 people imprisoned there following a violent crackdown on striking garment workers in early January. Despite having previously been denied access to ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-try-visit-jailed-23
New ICC filing in works
The opposition party’s planned complaint to the International Criminal Court against government officials for long-term rights abuses will likely be beaten to the punch by a US lawyer and rights activist, Voice of America reported on Friday. According to VOA, Morton Sklar, executive director of the ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-icc-filing-works
RFA, VOA agency fires back
The Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent US agency that oversees government-sponsored stations Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, has hit back after the Cambodian government accused the broadcasters of being tools of the opposition. In a statement released Thursday, BBG chair Jeffrey Shell rejected ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rfa-voa-agency-fires-back
CNRP Distances Itself From Threatened Social Media Activist
The opposition CNRP’s deputy public affairs director, Kem Monovithya, posted a statement to her official Facebook account on Saturday distancing the party from Thy Sovantha, a 19-year-old opposition activist with a large social media following, announcing that Ms. Sovantha was “not involved” with the CNRP. Last ...
Hul Reaksmey and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-distances-itself-from-threatened-social-media-activist-51218/
CNRP Spokesman Says He Advocated for Higher Troop Wages
CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann on Thursday moved to clarify his position on the armed forces after the Defense Ministry accused him of “looking down” on the government and the work of the army. In a lengthy written statement issued Thursday, Mr. Sovann spoke in glowing terms ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-spokesman-says-he-advocated-for-higher-troop-wages-51162/
Politics not quite all in the family
Kem Sokhon, the brother of Cambodia National Rescue Party deputy president Kem Sokha, is continuing to progress through government ranks. Sokhon – who has been openly critical of his brother’s policies since defecting from the opposition – told the Post yesterday he is now an adviser to senior ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/politics-not-quite-all-family
Death Threat Made Against CNRP’s Social Media Activist
Thy Sovantha is accustomed to being threatened on Facebook. But the 19-year-old CNRP youth activist, who became something of an online celebrity through the popular opposition Facebook page “I Love Cambodia Hot News,” says the latest threat against her, in which a copy of her passport ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/death-threat-made-against-cnrps-social-media-activist-51124/
Tourism Not Affected by Deadlock
International tourist arrivals to Cambodia for 2013 increased 14.1 percent over arrivals in 2012, despite lingering political uncertainty following the July election, according to preliminary annual figures from the Ministry of Tourism. The number of visitors entering the country last year reached 4.2 million, compared to ...
George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/tourism-not-affected-by-deadlock-51133/
Defense Ministry Statement Claims CNRP Belittles Troops
The Ministry of Defense released a statement Wednesday condemning an opposition party spokesman for allegedly “looking down on” Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government and the armed forces. The statement, dated Tuesday, attacked CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann for comments made to the media on January 23, in ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/defense-ministry-statement-claims-cnrp-belittles-troops-51131/
Another Military Official Accuses Opposition Party of Causing Chaos
General Neang Phat has become the second senior military official to wade into the current political impasse between Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP government and the CNRP, accusing the opposition party of trying to destabilize the country, according to a local media report. Gen. Phat, who ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-military-official-accuses-opposition-party-of-causing-chaos-51101/
New deadlock but old tactics, analysts say
Ahead of today’s hearing on Cambodia’s record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, opposition figures and analysts said the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has reverted to familiar tactics of post-election suppression. Analysts yesterday said that the breaking up of Cambodia National Rescue Party-led protests ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-deadlock-old-tactics-analysts-say
NGOs push for boost in female candidates
More than 50 per cent of candidates nominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party in the upcoming provincial and district council elections should be women, a coalition of 12 civil society groups said in a letter on Thursday. ...
Vong Sokheng and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-push-boost-female-candidates
Growing Unease Over Direction of the Country, Survey Finds
There was a shift of almost seismic proportions between January and November 2013 as the number of people who believe the country is being steered in the right direction fell sharply, while the number of discontented citizens rose, according to a new report. Launching its annual ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/growing-unease-over-direction-of-the-country-survey-finds-51034/
Tea Banh Tells Armed Forces to Defend Government
Defense Minister Tea Banh used the annual meeting of national military police in Phnom Penh on Wednesday to reiterate that the armed forces would remain committed to defending Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government in the ongoing political dispute with the opposition CNRP, local media and ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tea-banh-tells-armed-forces-to-defend-government-50987/
Unions to Proceed With Mass Rally in Freedom Park Despite Ban
Unions planning a mass rally at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday to call for the release of 23 detainees and a higher minimum wage in the garment industry say they will proceed with the event despite City Hall’s decision Thursday to deny permission. The nine ...
Unions take big picture view
Union leaders yesterday said that despite having held strikes calling for a doubling of the minimum wage that were supported and encouraged by the country’s opposition party, they did not feel betrayed that the wage hike was taking a backseat in political negotiations. Following a government ...
Mom Kunthear and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-take-big-picture-view
Chea Vichea Remembered 10 Years After Slaying
Ten years ago Wednesday, union leader Chea Vichea walked to his favorite newsstand in front of Wat Lanka to read the day’s headlines: Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered spending cuts, health officials were trying to handle the first outbreak of bird flu in Southeast ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chea-vichea-remembered-10-years-after-slaying-50962/
CNRP denied access to suspects
Phnom Penh Municipality has rejected a request from the Cambodia National Rescue Party to visit the 23 detainees held in Kampong Cham province’s Tropaing Phlong prison, also known as Correctional Centre 3. In a letter sent to the CNRP dated January 21, Phnom Penh Municipal Court ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-denied-access-suspects
After Arrests, NGOs Continue Petitioning to ‘Free the 23′
Following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday as they attempted to deliver a petition to the U.S. and French embassies seeking the release of 23 jailed protesters, NGO representatives quietly delivered similar petitions to the Japanese Embassy and European Union headquarters Wednesday. The petitioners, representing ...
Aun Pheap and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-arrests-ngos-continue-petitioning-to-free-the-23-50966/
CNRP Cancels Meeting as CPP Supporters Turn Out in Force
Several hundred civilian supporters of Prime Minister Hun Sen, backed up by an equal number of military police and provincial police armed with automatic rifles, batons and tear gas launchers, forced opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha to cancel a meeting with party followers ...
Phann Ana and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-cancels-meeting-as-cpp-supporters-turn-out-in-force-50938/
CPP Takes Steps to ‘Reform’ Human Rights Commission
Prime Minister Hun Sen passed a sub-decree late last year to expand the scope of his government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) by creating new departments and placing rights monitors in villages, according to a copy of the Royal Gazette dated December 31 and distributed ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-takes-steps-to-reform-human-rights-commission-50942/