ODC English Site
‘Croc grandma’ gets four years
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday convicted local tycoon Chhin Sokountheary of encroaching on public lands and sentenced her in absentia to four years and six months in prison. Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Ly Lipmeng said yesterday that Sokountheary, who is also known as ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012122160412/National/croc-grandma-gets-four-years.html
Chinese Steel Giant Gets Ready for Cambodian Arm
A massive Chinese steel firm, with which Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a $2 billion deal to build a steel mill in September, has formed a subsidiary company in Cambodia, according to a company announcement. Delong Holdings Limited, which is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange but has ...
Cambodia exposed to large fiscal risks from disasters
Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned yesterday. In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in the ...
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-12/20/content_16035026.htm
Jarai Call for Vietnamese Rubber Companies to Cease Logging
Representatives of an ethnic Jarai community in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district, along with local human rights group Adhoc, have called on two Vietnamese rubber companies to cease the clearing of forests on their ancestral land and exporting the logs to Vietnam. The companies, Day Dong Yoeun ...
China is top dam builder, going where others won't
Up a sweeping jungle valley in a remote corner of Cambodia, Chinese engineers and workers are raising a 100-meter- (330-foot-) high dam over the protests of villagers and activists. Only Chinese companies are willing to tame the Tatay and other rivers of Koh Kong province, ...
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/12/18/2809176/china-is-top-dam-builder-going.html#storylink=rss
Cambodia exposed to large fiscal risks from disasters
Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines are the three Southeast Asian countries most heavily exposed to fiscal risks from disasters, the World Bank warned Wednesday. In its annual economic update on East Asia and the Pacific, the bank said the region was the most disaster-stricken in ...
The Cambodian Herald Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=NzMyZGM3M2ZiN2Y4ODU1ZDM0ODJjYmI5NDQwMTM3
Cambodia acquits ex-governor of shooting at protesting factory workers
A former Cambodian governor accused of shooting three garment workers during a labour protest was acquitted in a ruling that prompted outrage Wednesday from rights groups who say it highlights the impunity surrounding the country’s political elite. Former official Chhouk Bandith was governor of Bavet town, ...
Families May Lose Farmland To Social Land Concessions
More than 100 families face the loss of their rice fields over a social land concession that was granted to the families of military veterans in Stung Treng province, local authorities and villagers said yesterday. Seven families, who depend on their rice and mango harvest in ...
Cameras blocked by cops: CCHR
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights says that a company with a controversial economic land concession in Koh Kong province banned the centre’s officers from photographing the area and ordered police to grab their cameras. Officers from CCHR traveled to Sre Ambel district on December 14 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121960362/National/cameras-blocked-by-cops-cchr.html
Job losses ‘discrimination’
More than 60 union leaders lost their jobs at garment factories in the past nine months for trying to unionise co-workers, their representatives claimed yesterday. Fourteen members of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions endured threats, discrimination and ultimately a message they were no longer welcome ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121960367/National/job-losses-discrimination.html
New species, old threats to wildlife: WWF
From a devilish-looking bat to a frog that sings like a bird, scientists have identified 126 new species in the Greater Mekong area, the WWF said Tuesday in a new report detailing discoveries in 2011. But from forest loss to the construction of major hydropower projects ...
Kreung Minority File Complaint Over Land Clearing
Ethnic minority Kreung villagers filed a complaint against commune level authorities on Saturday for allegedly accepting money from a businessman to clear their ancestral land for a new rubber plantation in Ratanakkiri province, local NGOs and villagers said. ...
$500M Leaves Cambodia Illegally Each Year
Almost $500 million a year was taken out of Cambodia in “illicit financial flows” between 2001 and 2010, a report released yesterday in the U.S. claims. People in the Cambodian finance sector, however, expressed doubts about the accuracy of the figure, which appears in a report ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/500m-leaves-cambodia-illegally-each-year-6748/
Government offshore oil block deadline passes
LAST week marked the arrival and passing of 12/12/12, the Cambodian government’s original date for the commencement of oil extraction from the Block A oilfields in the Gulf of Thailand, with no activity on the site. Chevron currently holds a 30 per cent interest in the ...
Hun Sen Warns of Labor Shortage, Praises Japanese Investment
Cambodia is facing a grave labor shortage due to the large number of workers seeking jobs in Thailand, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, urging employers to help reduce illegal migration by improving working conditions at home. Mr. Hun Sen also applauded growing Japanese investment in ...
Cambodian PM vows to protect environment
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday he decided to choose environment protection, not to choose 30 billion U.S. dollar expected revenues from the exploitation of titanium ore in Southwestern Cambodia. “According to a feasibility study, titanium ore deposit in Chhiphat district in Koh Kong province ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/17/c_132046623.htm
Hun Sen Again Orders Stop to Illegal Logging
Prime Minister Hun Sen has again ordered local officials to step up their efforts to stop illegal timber being cut down and transported from Cambodia’s forest’s in response to an apparent rise in forest crimes. Thousands of cubic meters of luxury wood, as well as ...
Lawmakers Reject Petition
Lawmakers from Cambodia’s ruling party on Monday refused to accept a petition from hundreds of people who held a rally calling for the government’s help in resolving land disputes, drawing criticism from activists who questioned the effectiveness of the country’s parliament. The appeal, which contained more ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/petition-12172012164439.html
Villagers denied land titles after demarcation
Sixty families in Kompong Cham province’s Krathor district are planning to file a complaint with provincial authorities after local land management officials decided to take away their registration documents for land titles under Prime Minister Hun Sen’s recently launched titling program. Pon Pumm, 44 a farmer, ...
Fresh arrests on Laos border
Cambodian authorities announced yesterday they would release six Laos who were arrested in Cambodia last Thursday on suspicion of illegal logging, provided that Laos cooperates with broader border negotiations in Stung Treng province’s Siam Pang district, where the men were arrested. Svay Nhoun, a Stung Treng ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121760313/National/fresh-arrests-on-laos-border.html
Official says resettlement sites are good for development
Widely different interpretations of the government’s land policy were voiced at a conference on Land Security and Housing Rights on Thursday in Phnom Penh, with civil servants defending mass relocations, while rural evictees spoke of being forced into poverty due to loss of their land. ...
Cambodia passes fire prevention draft law
The Government of Cambodia on Friday passed a draft law on fire prevention in order to contribute to maintaining security, social safety, public order, and life and property protection, according to a media statement released after the weekly Cabinet meeting. In the meeting, Hun Sen ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-12/14/c_132041591.htm
Beehive Radio owner loses appeal
The Phnom Penh Court of Appeal ruled Friday that Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando should continue serving his 20-year sentence for sedition. On October 1, the radio station owner was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined 10 million riel in relation to a ...
Strikers know when to fold 'em
More than 300 workers from the Tropicana Casino and resort in Banteay Meanchey provinces’s Poipet town obeyed a court order to end striking and return to work yesterday and official said. Hong Prakorb, a provincial official for the Labour Ministry said more than 200 workers ...