ODC English Site
Hun Sen Takes Aim at US During Speech
Addressing the killing of 14-year-old Heng Chantha for the first time since she was shot dead last month by government security forces, Prime Minister Hun Sen offered his condolences before declaring that the killing of the teenager was not as serious as the U.S. bombing ...
Passenger Traffic At International Airports Continues Upward Trend
Passenger traffic at Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanouk international airports saw a combined 18.9% growth in May 2012, with passenger numbers totaling 283,000, the report from SCA, society concession airport said on June 7. It adds: ‘This brings the year-to-date passenger arrivals and departures to 1.89 million, a sterling 21.8% jump.’ ...
Satellite Shots to Help Settle Deforestation Claims
New satellite images of Oddar Meanchey province promise to help settle wildly conflicting deforestation estimates inside a 64,000-hectare area, which is set to anchor the country’s first forest-based carbon trading scheme. With the project potentially ready to sell carbon credits to foreign firms in a matter ...
Britain’s Fraud Office Probes Biofuel Scheme
A biofuel company is currently under investigation for fraud in the U.K. after millions of dollars of investors’ money was spent on a jatropha plantation in Banteay Meanchey province that never produced even a single drop of biodiesel. The company, London-based Sustainable Agro Energy PLC, had ...
Cambodia PM vows to fix land disputes
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday gave authorities six months to end a spate of land disputes pitting developers against villagers that have sparked increasingly violent protests. Hun Sen ordered officials to visit contested areas and issue deeds to families facing illegal evictions, a move ...
http://www.brecorder.com/world/southeast-asia/62295-cambodia-pm-vows-to-fix-land-disputes-.html
Activists’ Jail Sentences Under Review
A Cambodian court is asked to re-examine the jailing of Boeung Kak land activists. Cambodian authorities have asked a court to review the jailing of 13 women involved in a land dispute as protests over their sentences escalated with over 100 demonstrators threatening Thursday to march ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/boeung-kak-06142012183002.html
Final Witness Questioned Over Chut Wutty’s Death
The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday questioned the seventh and final witness to the April 26 shooting death of well-known environmental activist Chut Wutty by provincial military police officer In Ratana, court officials said. Srey Makny, the court’s deputy prosecutor, said witness Bou An was questioned ...
Bearing Gifts, Chinese Heads Visit Hun Sen
A delegation of Chinese officials yesterday donated two airplanes and signed an agreement to provide Cambodia with loans for a new hydropower dam in Battambang and the renovation of two national roads. The deals were made during a meeting in Phnom Penh between He Guoqiang, a ...
Boeung Kak 13 case shifts to Appeal Court
The case of the 13 imprisoned Boeung Kak women is in the hands of the Appeal Court now, the women’s defence lawyer said yesterday. Lawyer Harm Sunrith said that Phnom Penh Municipal Court had sent the case to the Appeal Court on Tuesday, adding that he ...
Maids’ families seek answers
The families of six maids from Kampong Chhnang province who left to work in Malaysia have filed complaints with human rights group Adhoc after losing contact with the women for more than two years, rights workers said yesterday. Soum Chankea, Adhoc’s provincial co-ordinator, said the complaints ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456795/National-news/maids-families-seek-answers.html
Justice Ministry Won’t Press Court Over Jailed 13
The Ministry of Justice will not press the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to review the case of 13 Boeng Kak residents sentenced to jail last month for demonstrating against a CPP senator’s real estate project, despite asking the court to consider releasing the women. Now that ...
Forum On Women's Entrepreneurship Promotion
Her Excellency Dr Ing Kantha Phavi, minister of women’s affairs said: “Economic empowerment of women is a key strategy to promote gender equality and poverty alleviation and it is clearly articulated in specific targets under CMDG3 as one important goal among nine goals to be achieved by 2015.” Her announcement was made during the forum on ...
Chut Wutty slaying witness questioned
Another witness to the fatal shootings of environmental activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana was questioned at Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday. Bou Orn is the third employee of logging company Timbergreen – a firm Chut Wutty was investigating for alleged illegal logging ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456797/National-news/shooting-witness-questioned.html
Families file complaint about bulldozed houses
Seventeen villagers from Banteay Meanchey province’s O’Chrou district filed a complaint yesterday with the rights group Adhoc after their homes were allegedly unlawfully bulldozed in June last year. ...
US Official Meets Asean Leaders Over Corruption
U.S. Ambassador to Asean David Carden met with judges and Justice Ministry representatives from all 10 Asean countries in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss the importance of fighting against corruption and upholding the rule of law for foreign investors. “Cambodia will prosper if outside investment comes ...
Ministry eyes Boeung Kak sentence
The Ministry of Justice has called on the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to re-examine whether the decision to sentence 13 Boeung Kak women to two and a half years in jail was just, according to a letter obtained by the Post yesterday. The letter was ...
Firm Says Logging Won’t Derail Carbon Credits
The U.S. firm selling credits for a carbon trading scheme that could earn Cambodia tens of millions of dollars said yesterday that sales could start in a matter of months, despite mounting claims of deforestation within the community forests set to anchor the project. Leslie Durschinger, ...
Zsombor Peter and Kuch Naren, P. 1
Justice Ministry Seeks Review Of Jailed 13
The Justice Ministry has written to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court requesting that it review the case of 13 Boeng Kak women recently jailed for demonstrations against a CPP senator’s real estate project, a ministry official said yesterday. Bunyai Narin, deputy Cabinet chief for the Justice ...
Koh Kong dispute gets fresh hearing
The Koh Kong Provincial Court summonsed 23 villagers from Chikor Leu commune to present themselves – and any relevant documents – at a July 12 hearing with representatives of the two sugar companies that bulldozed their farmland and evicted them from their homes in 2006. ...
Integration for ASEAN legal eagles discussed
More than 70 judges and judicial officials from ASEAN member states attended a US-supported ASEAN workshop in Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss legal and judicial cooperation, the protection of investors and the state of the rule of law in the region. ...
Lawsuit Filed Against Banteay Meanchey Land Protesters
Banteay Meanchey’s provincial environment department, a local company and two bulldozer drivers, have sued four villagers in Banteay Meanchey province over their alleged role in a violent land protest in February. The villagers, who have been summoned for questioning this week, stand accused of intentional property ...
Commmander Files Complaint Against Forestry Chief
A military police commander has filed a complaint against a Forestry Administration chief whom he accuses of wrongly sending authorities to search a truck suspected of transporting illegally logged luxury wood, officials said yesterday. When Forestry Administration officials searched the truck at a military police base in Kompong Thom province on ...
Koh Pich hopes gem fair shines
The five-day Cambodia Gems & Jewelry Fair (CGJF) will kick off on June 14 at the Diamond Island (Koh Pich) Exhibition Centre and will be hosted by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce in association with Hong Kong’s World Trade Fair Ltd. the CGJF has attracted companies ...
Report slams Boeung Kak 13 sentencing
The 13 Boeung Kak lake women imprisoned after a three-hour trial on May 24 were tried unjustly on charges that had no basis, according to a Cambodian Center for Human Rights report released yesterday. Ou Virak said the women’s sentencing, which came two days after ...