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Questions over China dams
Some questions remain about whether hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China exacerbated conditions during Cambodia’s devastating drought of 2010, environmental groups say, as China’s dam program powers ahead. When the first power-generating unit was switched on last month at China’s giant 262-metre tall ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102359350/National-news/questions-over-china-dams.html
First & Main gear goes cheap
Workers from bankrupt plush-toy factory First & Main are still owed money after the Ministry of Social Affairs auctioned $200,000 worth of factory equipment for just $21,000, a labor rights advocate said Sunday. More than 350 workers were left stranded when the US-owned teddy bear factory closed in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102359360/National-news/first-a-main-gear-goes-cheap.html
Thailand cracks down on exploitative factory
In a rare intervention, the Thai Labor Ministry has stepped in to stop the exploitation of migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar at a seafood factory in the country’s south, correspondence obtained by the Post reveals. The ministry found the Phatthana Seafood factory, in Songkhla province, which employs ...
Killer in Chut Wutty Case Could Be Free Within Days
The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday convicted a private security guard of accidentally killing the military police officer who allegedly shot dead the country’s most prominent environmental activist, Chut Wutty, and sentenced him to two years in prison. The presiding judge, Kham Sophary, then immediately suspended ...
Wutty Case wraps with sentencing
At the close of a case that remained shrouded in controversy until the end, Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday found former security guard Ran Boroth guilty of the unintentional killing of military police officer In Rattana, the man on whom authorities pinned the murder of ...
Six Brokers Arrested for Trying To Send Workers to Thailand
Six people were arrested in three separate incidents for trying to send 236 Cambodians into Thailand where they were to work illegally, police said yesterday. Prak Saony, Kompong Chhnang provincial anti-human trafficking and juvenile protection bureau police chief, said that police arrested five people in a ...
Window closing on AHRD: NGOs
Time is running out to rid the proposed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration of clauses that would restrict peoples’ rights rather than protect and enhance them, civil society groups said yesterday. Nay Vanda, deputy head of the monitoring section of rights group Adhoc, said civil society groups needed more ...
NGOs Ask Asean for More Say on Human Rights
Less than a month before Asean heads of state are expected to approve the first-ever human rights declaration for the regional group, Cambodian and Indonesian NGOs yesterday urged member states to give their organizations a larger role in the process. In the works for more than ...
'Threats' made over farmland
About 200 families in Koh Kong province’s Botum Sakor district were threatened with legal action yesterday by the district governor, who told them their 100-hectare plantation had been earmarked for development by a Chinese firm, a village representative alleged. Two days later, Botum Sakor district ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102259338/National-news/threats-made-over-farmland.html
Runoff From Illegal Gold Mines Cause Cow Deaths
Toxic runoff from small-scale gold mining operations in Battambang province killed two cattle on Wednesday, the latest casualties from pollution in the area led to the closing of more than 100 mines earlier this year. Officials from the provincial mines department yesterday said they were unaware of ...
Rights Workers in Court Over Intimidation
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two human rights workers who have lodged court complaints against local officials for disrupting their land-rights workshop in July. Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, and Chhim Savuth, a project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), filed ...
Two Thousand More Students to Measure Land
Following a ceremony to honor late King Father Norodom Sihanouk on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich, more than 2,000 additional student volunteers were deployed yesterday morning by the Ministry of Land Management to measure plots of land in 19 provinces, officials said. Mr. Chhun Lim [Land Management Minister] said that ...
Jailed Radio Station Owner Launches Appeal
Mam Sonando, the independent radio station owner whose jailing for 20 years earlier this month provoked international condemnation of the country’s courts, has launched an appeal, his wife and a prison official said yesterday. Mr. Sonando, the owner of Beehive Radio, was convicted by the Phnom ...
Mekong River threatened by transport of dangerous goods
The Mekong River Commission has released a comprehensive risk analysis of the transport of dangerous goods and issued recommendations to prevent oil spills, industrial waste and other emerging threats from navigation. Developed by the MRC Navigation Programme in Phnom Penh, the risk analysis finds that the ...
Rights Activist Denies Phnom Penh Move Is Due to Charges
A Ratanakkiri-based human rights worker charged by the Ratanakkiri Provincial Court with inciting ethnic minority villagers to protest during a 2009 land dispute with a private agro-industry company has been transferred to work in Phnom Penh. Pen Bonnar, Ratanakkiri provincial coordinator for Adhoc , said yesterday ...
Cambodia denies it plans to build a nuclear power plant
The Cambodian government says reports that it is planning to build a nuclear power plant are untrue. Cambodia denies it plans to build a nuclear power plant (Credit: ABC) A report originating in the Bangkok Post newspaper has been replicated internationally. It says the Prime Minister Hun ...
Unexplored Cambodia Shines For Angkor Gold
On top of impressive growth, the Royal Government is opening the country to international investment As for mining: the country is now open for international business. The stable, democratic government passed anti-corruption laws in 2011 and has dedicated itself to working with private business The most active ...
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unexplored-cambodia-shines-for-angkor-gold-2012-10-17
Govt urged to detail link to Cambodia's nuclear plan
Anti-nuclear activists have called on the Thai government to clarify its involvement in Cambodia’s controversial plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the border province of Koh Kong. The activists doubted Phnom Penh’s capacity to single-handedly build and manage such a vast and risky project. Santi ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/316888/govt-urged-to-detail-link-to-cambodia-nuclear-plan
Cambodian Scholar Suggests Pernicious Effects of Aid Dependence
For political economist Sophal Ear, this view is more nuanced. In his book ‘Aid Dependence in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermined Democracy‘, published by the Columbia University Press (2012), years of dependency are not showing positive results in the rehabilitation of Cambodia, its democracy and war ...
http://asiancorrespondent.com/90669/cambodian-scholar-suggests-pernicious-effects-of-aid-dependence/
Aviation in the Kingdom soaring with new flights and airport plans
Cambodian aviation continues its ascent with the Oct. 1 launch of Singaporean low-cost carrier Tiger Airway’s daily direct service to Phnom Penh, ongoing airport expansions and the announcement of several new airport projects. Currently, there are more than 20 international airlines offering service to Cambodia for a ...
Russian border guards seize vessel flying Cambodian flag off coast of Primorye
The coastal guard has seized a fishing vessel flying the flag of Cambodia off the cost of Primorye, the press service for the Border Guard Department of the Federal Security Service for the Primorye Territory has reported. The vessel Anteus (registered in Cambodia, owned by the ...
H&M meets NGOs and factories to improve working conditions
H&M Hennes & Mauritz’s head of sustainability Helena Helmersson was in Cambodia last week to meet with ILO/Better Works Cambodia on how to improve working conditions in export garment factories. Helmersson said in a blog post that the lack of dialogue between workers and factory management ...
Student surveyors home for holidays
After months spent surveying land for an ambitious land-titling project, thousands of student volunteers have been granted a short reprieve to return home over the Pchum Ben holiday, the prime minister announced yesterday. At a graduation ceremony in the capital yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said ...
Health Woes Speed Fraud Appeal
After calls from their lawyers late last month to speed up the appeals process, three former advisers to Senate President Chea Sim convicted of fraud last year will appear before the Appeals Court on November 7, court deputy prosecutor Tan Senarong said yesterday. The three defendants ...