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Thailand Says Border Logging Could Hurt Relations
The Thai Foreign Ministry has called on the Cambodian government to admit that its citizens are illegally logging for rosewood on Thai territory, The Bangkok Post reported yesterday. Cambodia should admit to the situation to preserve healthy bilateral relations between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said ...
Laos Says Xayaburi Not Environmental Threat
The Laos government has said that all the necessary environmental assessments for the Xayaburi dam on the Mekong River have been completed and that no damage will be inflicted on the fisheries in countries further downstream when built, an official at the Cambodia National Mekong Committee said yesterday. Watt Botkosal, ...
Reckless mining in Prey Lang takes toll on environment
Chemical substances used in about 3,000 mining drills operating in the Prey Lang forest in Kratie and Kampong Thom provinces are wreaking environmental havoc and making people sick, a report by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights released yesterday says. Substances used by a number of ...
Cambodia suspends new land concessions to companies
Cambodia’s government, facing growing protests by villagers and warnings about disappearing wilderness, suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies on Monday in a move to curb forced evictions and illegal logging. Rights groups in the impoverished but resource-rich Southeast Asian country said the ...
http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFL4E8G79HB20120507
UN Rights Envoy Visits R’kiri Land Concessions
The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, was in Ratanakkiri province yesterday as part of his weeklong visit to the country to investigate the impact land concessions have on local communities. Some rights groups have singled out land concessions as the premier human rights ...
China Exim Bank to put $235m in steel, media
The Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) planned to invest US$235 million in two Cambodian mega projects, one of which was the modernisation of a TV station that one analyst said might not be necessary given the country’s level of development. During a meeting with Prime Minister ...
Chut Wutty investigation wraps following shooting charge
An unintentional murder charge handed to security guard Ran Boroth on Friday for allegedly killing military police officer In Rattana has left rights groups asking why officials initially claimed the deceased man had committed suicide. Only three days after it was established by Prime Minister Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050755993/National-news/case-closed-in-shooting.html
Government Ends Probe Into Shooting
The joint committee established to investigate the shooting deaths of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana closed its investigation Saturday, saying the death of the environmentalist was due to a “misunderstanding” and the death of the officer, unintentional. Speaking at a conference ...
Villagers Accuse Armed Forces of Illegal Logging
Over the past half year, the military has established dozens of bases in protected community forests in Oddar Meanchey province and used them as an inroad for rampant illegal logging, villagers and forestry administration officials said yesterday. Nearly 2,000 villagers from local forest communities have thumbprinted ...
Thailand Asked to Help Stop Labor Smuggling
Cambodian officials asked their Thai counterparts during a meeting Friday to crack down on human smugglers on their side of the border who bring Cambodians in to work in Thailand. Banteay Meanchey provincial government spokesman Ouk Keoratanak said a delegation led by provincial Deputy Governor Try ...
Cambodia 'must admit to logging'
At a meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had admitted Cambodians were conducting illegal logging and that Thai authorities were right to attempt to defend their territory. On Saturday, 20 natural resource protection officials from Si Sa Ket province which borders ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/292142/cambodia-must-admit-to-logging
Cambodia closes probe into activist's shooting
The Cambodian government on Saturday said it had closed its investigation into the fatal shootings of a well-known activist and a military police officer after the arrest of a security guard. Ran Boroth accidentally shot dead In Rattana, a military policeman who had just gunned down ...
Boeung Kak rep infighting gets its day in court
Six Boeung Kak village representatives will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused of threatening to kill their one-time representative Ly Mom, who was spoke on their behalf from 2007 until last year. Although no charges have been laid, Ly Mom is demanding $10,000 from each ...
Court questions Koh Kong shooting suspect
One week after the shooting deaths of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, a suspect was sent to the Koh Kong Provincial Court for questioning late yesterday evening before being remanded to military police custody, a court official said. “The prosecutor hasn’t ...
Families ask PM to help end dispute
About 500 families from three communes in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kraeng district are seeking the prime minister’s intervention in a dispute with a rubber company over 1,000 hectares of land. Siem Reap provincial governor Chan Sophal said on Wednesday that Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Seang ...
Tourism Industry's Growth Offers Job Creation For Local Labor Force
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia is trying to boost the tourism industry after its contribution to economic growth and offering job creation as ASEAN economic integration 2015 is moving and the free flow of workforce mobilization has been needed to help ensure steady growth. Cambodia’s tourism sector, in 2011, offered 350,000 direct jobs and millions of ...
Protesters pushed back from World Bank Office
In what is becoming an increasingly popular – and coordinated – protest tactic among Phnom Penh’s dispossessed, several women took off their shirts and bras during a demonstration over land rights that briefly turned violent near the World Bank yesterday. About 100 protesters, most of them ...
Khy Sovuthy
Union leader hurt in strike
Thousands of garment workers went on strike yesterday demanding higher wages, fees for transportation and housing, and in one case, the elimination of smelly odours caused by a fish farm near their factory. Workers burned tyres and one union leader was allegedly assaulted with an electric ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355951/National-news/union-leader-hurt-in-strikes.html
Timbergreen official questioned in Chut Wutty shooting
The “company” that military police have declined to identify but said sent staff to confront activist Chut Wutty shortly before he was shot last Thursday is Timbergreen, a firm the slain activist had attempted to expose for illegal logging. Documents obtained by the Post yesterday and sources have ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355957/National-news/company-man-arrested.html
Partners Help Urban Food Security Project In Phnom Penh
PHNOM PENH: Fisheries Administration and FAO launch the Inception Workshop on Micro and Small Enterprise Development to Achieve Food Security, Food Safety and Self Reliance for Urban Poor in Phnom Penh, citing that it will help local community. At the workshop, H.E. Kao Sochivy, deputy director general of fisheries department said: “urban food security project ...
UN calls for independence in killing probe
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday called on the government to ensure its investigation into the deaths of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana remained independent, and raised concern over an apparent increase in attacks on ...
Sihanoukville port construction in final phase
The government will spend a total of $85 million, funded by a Japanese government loan, for the third and final phase of the expansion of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which will more than double the port’s import-export capacity by 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. “It ...
Water minister urges Laos to halt Xayaburi
Cambodia has urged Laos to halt construction of the controversial Xayaburi hydro dam project in the country’s north, a letter obtained by the Post yesterday reveals. “Preliminary construction on Xayaburi dam has continued despite the lack of regional agreement,” Minister of Water Resources and Cambodia National Mekong Committeechairman Lim ...
Chut Wutty death to be examined by committee
A joint investigative committee will be established to re-examine the killing of activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, the head of the armed forces told the Post yesterday, after providing his own version of the incident to radio. Pressure from the families of victims and ...