ODC English Site
After Threats to Cut Pay, Garment Workers Strike
Nearly 2,000 workers at the Gawon Apparel Co. garment factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao City protested in front of the factory yesterday after they were informed that they would lose pay for any days missed during the commune election, which takes place Sunday, union representatives ...
Southeast Asia's solid economic growth rides over global woes
Southeast Asia is showing stronger signs of resilience to global turbulence than the rest of Asia as buoyant domestic spending offsets struggling exports, while low debt levels give governments more room than their cash-strapped counterparts in the West to deliver stimulus. On Thursday, the Philippines became ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/uk-seasia-economy-idUKBRE85009U20120601
Int’l Groups Urge Gov’t To Free Boeng Kak 15
Freedom House and several other international human rights groups condemned the conviction of 13 Phnom Penh women last week who are locked in a land dispute with CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and called for their release in a joint statement issued Tuesday. The women were arrested ...
Borei Keila evictees will be given a lift back to vote
Borei Keila evictees will have a chance to revisit the area they were forcibly evicted from this Sunday when authorities truck them back from the makeshift tents of their relocation site for a special purpose – to vote. Touch Khorn, a representative of the Borei Keila ...
Protest Becomes Secession When Liberties Are Taken With Words
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: ...
Angkor Gold identifies northeast prospects
Angkor Gold Corp, a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company, has announced the identification of five new prospects in Ratanakiri province, according to a company statement. the mining firm said it planned to consolidate its gold prospects in the northeastern corner of the country. ...
Land’s ‘owner’ alleges violence
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012053156506/National-news/lands-owner-alleges-violence.html
Commune Vote Predictable, but Margins Less So
With Sunday’s commune elections quickly approaching, the five main political parties are all predicting substantial gains over how they faired in the last election in 2007, though none deny that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) will continue to dominate the polls. And with the entrance ...
91 NGOs Condemn Gov't Violence in Statement
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 ...
Violent crackdowns decried
Violent land evictions, unlawful prison sentences, shooting deaths and crackdowns on peaceful protests are all on a list of allegations a human rights group is voicing concerns about this week. The Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee condemned the incidents in a statement released on Tuesday, calling ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012053056473/National-news/violent-crackdowns-decried.html
Wait Out Elections, Firm in Land Dispute Told
Despite facing criminal charges, 70 villagers from Kompong Chhnang province embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the KDC Development Company have moved back onto the contested land, court officials and villagers said yesterday. KDC, which is owned by Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy ...
Farmers fear deal has strings
Forty Kampong Chhnang villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute with KDC International, a company owned by the wife of a senior CPP official, farmed contested land without interference on Monday, prompting some to wonder if they were being coaxed to vote for the ruling ...
Boeung Kak women kept away from NGO, reporters
Imprisoned Boeung Kak lake villagers, some crying, motioned to human rights representatives and Post reporters through a chain-link fence at Prey Sar prison on Tuesday. Their efforts to talk to the visitors were futile, however, as two guards stopped anyone from approaching the 13 women sentenced ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012053056483/National-news/silent-treatment-at-prey-sar.html
Cardamom Mountains Need Green Economy And Development
In a ceremony of launching new book highlighted solutions to Cambodia’s cardamom conundrum, Author and scientist Timothy Killen explains the potential for Cambodia to become a world leader by pursuing an innovative, low carbon, green development pathway that will foster economic growth and create opportunities for its people, while conserving the natural environment. “Cambodia is ...
Boeung Kak takes case to Assembly
About 200 people, including activist monk Loun Savath, rallied outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh yesterday in support of the 13 Boeung Kak women sentenced to prison in a three-hour trial last Thursday. Supporters of the women, including villagers, unions and human rights groups, called ...
Eviction worry delays Phnom Penh mega project
The developer of Phnom Penh’s US$1.6 billion Chroy Chungva City project has said ground would not be broken this year, raising questions about the future of the satellite city. Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) will delay the Chroy Chungva City project after what a local Chinese ...
Protesters Call For Release of Boeng Kak 15
About 100 residents from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community rallied in front of the National Assembly yesterday to demand the release of 13 women sentenced to jail last week and two others now in pretrial detention for opposing evictions resulting from a real estate project ...
Chut Wutty witness had eyes elsewhere
Another witness to the fatal shooting of prominent environmentalist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana has said he did not see who shot the men after testifying in Koh Kong provincial court yesterday. Puom Ravin, a 37-year-old employee of the logging firm Timbergreen said ...
Protesters Forgo Roadblock, Distribute Petitions
Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a long-running land dispute with two sugar cane plantations linked to CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat handed out petitions to passing motorists along National Road 48 demanding their land back. It was a change of pace for the villagers, ...
Cambodia wants Kuwait tourists
Tourism officials in the Kingdom have suggested that the Kuwaiti ambassador should push for direct flights between Cambodia and Kuwait, and invited Kuwaitis to invest in Cambodia’s soaring tourism sector. “We need more and more investment in the tourism sector,” said tourism minister Thong Khon. He ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052956447/Business/cambodia-wants-kuwait-tourists.html
Radio Competition Aims To Teach Labor Law
A radio competition organized by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia will enable garment workers to showcase their knowledge and teach the public about the country’s Labor Law, an ILO representative said yesterday. “The objective is not only to allow workers to express their ...
IT Firm Sues Thaicom Over Mfone Ownership
Thai information technology firm Infobahn Co. Ltd. has filed a lawsuit against telecommunications conglomerate Thaicom Public Company Ltd. for breaching an agreement made last year to sell 41.14 percent of its shares, a deal that also includes a 51 percent stake in the Cambodian mobile ...
Boeung Kak 13 to appeal
Thirteen Boeung Kak lake women who were sentenced to two and a half years in jail on Thursday following a lawyer-free trial that lasted just three hours will appeal their convictions, their distraught supporters said yesterday. As the reality of the trial, which rights groups have ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012052856427/National-news/boeung-kak-13-to-appeal.html
Trust govt, PM tells protesters
Prime Minister Hun Sen has told villagers they should not to protest in land disputes but rather seek help from authorities following a spate of violent crackdowns on demonstrations. The premier said protests affect public order and claimed they sometimes become violent in a statement signed ...