The Cambodia Daily
Bale festival seeks to spark pastoral tourism
Driving on National Road 6 through recently harvested rice fields, six 10-meter-tall structures emerge like vortexes from the sparse terrain. Not far along is the commotion of a country fair: bale mazes, archery games, face painting, a ferris wheel and blaring Khmer pop music. Welcome to ...
Aria Danaparamita and Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bale-festival-seeks-to-spark-pastoral-tourism-77574/
Rice Federation may rely on banks, gov’t for capital
The Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) plans to borrow at least $400,000 for international marketing campaigns if it fails to meet its goal of raising $777,000 for the plans through imposing export fees on its members, the organization’s president said Friday at CRF’s annual conference. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/rice-federation-may-rely-on-banks-govt-for-capital-77548/
Interior Ministry reminds civil servants of ban on two jobs
Department heads within the Interior Ministry must immediately begin enforcing a Royal Decree issued in October that prohibits civil servants from holding two government jobs at the same time, according to a letter issued by ministry Secretary of State Sak Setha last week. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-reminds-civil-servants-of-ban-on-two-jobs-77588/
Electoral reform talks stuck on issue of Assembly seats
The CPP and CNRP again returned to the issue of the number of National Assembly seats in their twice-weekly reform talks on Friday, but appeared to be further apart than ever, with the ruling party demanding that parliament continue to have 123 seats “forever.” ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/electoral-reform-talks-stuck-on-issue-of-assembly-seats-77550/
British fraudster’s appeal dismissed by court
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the latest appeal by jailed British businessman Gregg Fryett to have his trial for fraud delayed because he failed to file his appeal request within the permitted timeframe. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/british-fraudsters-appeal-dismissed-by-court-77554/
Monks ask commissions to join city hall inspection
Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey, under scrutiny by City Hall for alleged “anti-government acts,” on Friday requested three commissions of the National Assembly to accompany municipal officials to a planned inspection of the pagoda on Tuesday afternoon. “I sent the letters to request the first commission ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/monks-ask-commissions-to-join-city-hall-inspection-77562/
Women turn to mobile apps to end violence
Phat Sreytouch, a former beer promoter, recalls being the constant subject of harassment from the men she served in beer gardens, many who felt they were within their rights to touch her and her colleagues. In a new initiative aimed at ending such attitudes and ...
Holly Robertson
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/women-turn-to-mobile-apps-to-end-violence-77544/
Court charges union leader with making threat, extortion
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday charged an independent union leader with making a threat accompanied by extortion after he was arrested with 51 bamboo poles while leading a strike of about 100 garment workers on Tuesday. According to Article 232 of the Criminal ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-union-leader-with-making-threat-extortion-77471/
Timber trader Try Pheap linked to logging racket
In a new report, U.K. environmental rights group Global Witness places Cambodian timber magnate Try Pheap at the heart of a vast illegal logging operation driving the country’s rarest tree species to the brink of extinction with the collusion of government and military officials. “The Cost ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/timber-trader-try-pheap-linked-to-vast-logging-racket-77466/
Workers say shuttered factory managers took them hostage
A Chinese-owned garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district locked up about 300 workers for two hours on Wednesday morning to force them to accept reduced salary payouts before it shuttered operations due to financial losses, union officials and the former workers said Thursday. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-say-shuttered-factory-managers-took-them-hostage-77469/
Forestry officials summoned for meeting over extortion case
Sixteen forestry officials from three provinces were summoned to a meeting in Phnom Penh on Thursday after their names were found on a list of 49 suspected extortionists that police in Kompong Chhnang province seized from a truck that had been transporting illegally logged wood ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/forestry-officials-summoned-for-meeting-over-extortion-case-77405/
Rights groups ask World Bank to hold meeting with evictees
Rights groups have asked the World Bank to schedule a “special meeting” with evictees before deciding whether to lift a freeze on new loans to Cambodia, and to hold it in Thailand so that participants can speak their minds without fear of reprisal from the ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-groups-ask-world-bank-to-hold-meeting-with-evictees-77417/
Municipal Court questions arrested union head
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday began questioning union leader Seang Rithy, who was arrested outside a garment factory in Pur Senchey district on Tuesday while leading what police said was an illegal strike. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/municipal-court-questions-arrested-union-head-77411/
CPP blasted for promotions of military, police
At least 80 of the 306 new members of the CPP’s expanded central committee are members of the country’s military or security forces, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday in a statement, which says the promotions are meant to secure the loyalty of security forces. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-blasted-for-promotions-of-military-police-77421/
Thailand undecided over fate of Cambodian migrant workers
Thailand has still not decided what will happen to the 738,000 Cambodian migrant workers currently living in the country on temporary work permits when those documents expire at the end of March, an official from the Thai Labor Ministry said Wednesday. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thailand-undecided-over-fate-of-cambodian-migrant-workers-77407/
Six unionists arrested, released in Bavet City over incitement
Six union organizers were arrested in Svay Rieng province Wednesday while distributing letters to workers in an attempt to refute rumors that their union had taken cash in exchange for not protesting over the firing of eight of their members, according to the union and ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-unionists-arrested-released-in-bavet-city-over-incitement-77403/
Rights groups ask World Bank to hold meeting with evictees
Rights groups have asked the World Bank to schedule a “special meeting” with evictees before deciding whether to lift a freeze on new loans to Cambodia, and to hold it in Thailand so that participants can speak their minds without fear of reprisal from the ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-groups-ask-world-bank-to-hold-meeting-with-evictees-77417/
Strike-leading union head arrested in Phnom Penh
The pugnacious leader of an independent workers union was arrested outside a garment factory on Phnom Penh’s industrial outskirts Tuesday morning for leading what police described as “illegal striking and an anarchic union.” ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/strike-leading-union-head-arrested-in-phnom-penh-77342/
Pagoda rejects city’s claims of violence
The head monks of Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey on Tuesday drafted a letter rebutting City Hall’s claims of illicit and immoral behavior at the pagoda, which has drawn the government’s ire over the past year by supporting evicted villagers from across the country. ...
Mench Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pagoda-rejects-citys-claims-of-violence-77350/
Anti-Corruption Unit probing 49 officials in extortion case
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) says it has opened an investigation into a suspected extortion case but urged the media to refrain from reporting on it after a list of the suspects and their phone numbers was posted online by a number of news outlets. ...
Without citizenship, Vietnamese remain adrift
Though they live in floating houses moored to the banks of the Tonle Sap river, few of the nearly 2,500 ethnic Vietnamese villagers here can truly call Cambodia home. Thousands built floating homes on the Tonle Sap, a cheaper and more attainable alternative to settling ...
Chris Mueller and Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/without-citizenship-vietnamese-remain-adrift-77344/
Hun Sen defends proposed Areng valley dam
In the government’s latest defense of a proposed dam in the heart of the sparsely developed Cardamom Mountains, Prime Minister Hun Sen in a letter downplayed the impact the project would have on the hundreds of ethnic minority families it would displace and touted its ...
Zsombor Peter and Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-defends-proposed-areng-valley-dam-77352/
Pagoda rejects city’s claims of violence
The head monks of Phnom Penh’s Wat Samakki Raingsey on Tuesday drafted a letter rebutting City Hall’s claims of illicit and immoral behavior at the pagoda, which has drawn the government’s ire over the past year by supporting evicted villagers from across the country. ...
Mench Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pagoda-rejects-citys-claims-of-violence-77350/
Cobra clan dad asked to ‘clarify’ complaint
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has invited the patriarch of a family locked in a land dispute with real estate tycoon Khun Sear to “clarify” his complaint against four officials he claims conspired to sell his home in Boeng Kak I commune without his consent, ...
Hay Pisey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cobra-clan-dad-asked-to-clarify-complaint-77266/