News

A Stung Treng spokesperson has defended the use of violence in arrests related to “red-handed” crimes as he responded to a video of seemingly unnecessary violence while handcuffing a man in front of his young child. ...

Two village officials from Oddar Meanchey province filed complaints on Friday against one-star General Duong Sina, accusing him of using violence against them and two other villagers, though Military Police yesterday said the general appeared to have fled. ...

Helping women find better employment opportunities is key to ensuring they feel able to report rape and sexual abuse, government and civil society representatives said yesterday. Although Cambodian courts are prosecuting an increasing number of cases involving violence against women, economic concerns stop many from reporting ...

Less than 30 per cent of complaints filed to the government’s National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution (NALDR) throughout 2012 were resolved, according to its annual report released yesterday. According to the document, distributed yesterday at the NALDR annual convention, the government body, which comprises representatives ...

Unprovoked violence by government and private security guards, the use of weapons to quell protests, and communities resorting to violent means in land disputes is a growing cause for concern in Cambodia, the U.N.’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in its ...

A pair of reports to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today and tomorrow paint a bleak image of a country whose rights record has worsened considerably over the past year. An annual report from the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in ...

Gun violence and fatal traffic accidents are hurting the government’s efforts to boost tourism, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, urging local authorities to take action-even against the powerful. Mr. Hun Sen also said the government has earmarked sites for two new international airports to cater to ...

Land issues will continue to be a serious problem for Cambodia’s government, given the high number of continued crackdowns, arrests and violence, analysts say. “If an issue is covered and unsolved, one day it will explode,” Lao Monghay, an independent political analyst, told “Hello VOA,” in ...

This month’s eviction of villagers in Kratie province that resulted in the death of a 14-year-old girl was one of many such violent incidents over land that have erupted in Cambodia in recent years. But what set the May 16 violence apart was a word: ...

Six residents of the Boeung Chhouk community in the capital’s Russei Keo district have been summonsed to court to answer charges they used violence against the supposed owner of their land – a person they claim never to have met. Khiev Chenda, 42, one of six ...

Ninety-one NGOs put their names to a statement yesterday condemning the government’s escalating use of armed force against peaceful protesters and urged the authorities to engage with them to “break the current cycle of violence and impunity.” Joined by local human rights groups such as Adhoc ...

Violence erupted yesterday morning during a long-running protest at a Phnom Penh factory that produces clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss when about 1,000 workers broke the factory’s gate and started hurling rocks to break its windows, protesters and military police officers ...

Government security forces shot dead a teenage girl in Kratie province yesterday morning in a coordinated operation to arrest protesters locked in a long-running land dispute with a rubber company accused of stealing their land. The provincial governor said the joint forces opened fire to defend ...

One of the first things UN Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi did on his week-long fact-finding mission in Cambodia was visit the grave of slain environmentalist Chut Wutty. It wasn’t on the itinerary, but Subedi, rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, said he wanted ...

A representative of clothing brand H&M said yesterday that there was no conclusive evidence proving that staff from their supplier factory in Kandal province had committed violence against a union representative on Wednesday. Nhem Samphose, a representative for the Free Trade Union at New Archid Garment ...

Human rights group Licadho raised the alarm yesterday over the increased use of armed force by authorities as they seek to suppress protests over Cambodia’s numerous land disputes. It noted that during the past two months, security forces have opened fire on villagers during three ...

The postponed 2nd Thailand Trade Exhibition 2011 will not be reorganised this year due to budget restrictions, according to Jiranan Wongmongkol, commercial counsellor based at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. The trade fair was originally scheduled for May 19 to 22 at Phnom Penh’s ...

Twenty-nine community representatives from Kampong Speu’s Phnom Sruoch district travelled in person to the National Assembly building in Phnom Penh yesterday to file a complaint against provincial governor Kang Heang and other officials, accusing them of “robbing a total of 950 hectares of farm land”.  ...

The last of the Chi Kraeng villagers has been freed by the Appeal Court after it upheld their acquittal. The villagers had originally been convicted of forcibly detaining two businessmen over a land dispute involving 475 hectares of rice paddies in Siem Reap in 2009. ...

The president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions said yesterday that he would defy a municipal order banning employees from June Textile Factory from marching to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house to seek resolution in a labour dispute. According to a report from a City ...