The Cambodia Daily
Conflicting accounts of activists’ bus shooting
More than 50 land rights activists from two Phnom Penh communities filed a complaint Wednesday with police over an incident in which an unidentified man allegedly fired a shot at a bus transporting them from an anti-eviction protest in Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The city’s ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/conflicting-accounts-of-activists-bus-shooting-55016/
ACU says tainted health officials were never investigated
An official with the government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) said Tuesday that staff there were specifically instructed not to investigate allegations of large-scale bribery inside the Health Ministry so that the unit could settle the case out of court. On Sunday, ACU chief Om Yentieng told reporters ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-says-tainted-health-officials-were-never-investigated-54909/
Labor ministry to inspect migrant worker recruitment agencies
The government today will begin strict inspections of agencies that recruit workers to send overseas, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday. The labor minister has previously threatened to suspend or revoke the licenses of agencies that do not comply with labor laws. Speaking at a workshop ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-to-inspect-migrant-worker-recruitment-agencies-54925/
Court hears of Chinese marriage traffickers
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of three people who were charged with fraudulently obtaining passports for four Cambodian women in an attempt to send them to China for marriage. ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-hears-of-chinese-marriage-traffickers-54927/
Judges required to explain reasons behind pre-trial detention
Judges are now required to write a reasoned explanation when placing citizens in pre-trial detention, instead of simply checking a box as was previously practiced, Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana said Tuesday. But the Ministry of Justice is also considering amending the criminal procedure code to ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/judges-required-to-explain-reasons-behind-pre-trial-detention-54913/
Labor minister responds to brands’ concerns
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday that he has sent a letter responding to 30 international clothing brands who recently wrote to the government expressing their concerns over a draft union law which could allow for the arbitrary breakup of unions. Speaking outside a conference ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-responds-to-brands-concerns-54931/
ACU Threatens Jail for Students Caught Cheating
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) will join with the Ministry of Education this year to curb cheating during national-level high school and junior high exams, according to ACU chairman Om Yentieng. In order to eliminate old habits of purchasing answer sheets and paying bribes to exam monitors, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-threatens-jail-for-students-caught-cheating-54933/
European donors working on joint cooperation aid strategy
Cambodia’s European aid donors said Tuesday they are working on a new five-year “cooperation strategy” designed to increase the impact of the millions of dollars in loans and grants they give the country each year. With a combined $209 million in aid to Cambodia in 2012, ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/european-donors-working-on-joint-cooperation-aid-strategy-54937/
Sugar plantation under investigation for using child labor
Police and human rights workers are investigating claims that a Chinese-owned sugarcane plantation in Preah Vihear province has been employing child workers since December. Oeu Bunthany said the Y Heng Company fired her on Saturday after she complained to local police that up to 20 children ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sugar-plantation-under-investigation-for-using-child-labor-54866/
Government says drug seizures, trafficking rose in 2013
Drug seizures jumped last year, while drug arrests remained relatively steady, according to the annual report from the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) released Monday. As in 2012, methamphetamine retained its position as the most commonly seized type of drug. Police confiscated 17.3 kg of methamphetamine ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-says-drug-seizures-trafficking-rose-in-2013-54862/
ACU Says Police Chief Stole Money
The Anti-Corruption Unit revealed that a district police chief and his deputy in Kampot province who were arrested last week made more than $64,000 by embezzling money, taking bribes and stealing from his subordinates. Srun Lam, Banteay Meas district police chief, and his deputy, Mok Hort, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/acu-says-police-chief-stole-money-54874/
Land dispute families turn down offer of new apartments
Three families involved in a bitter land dispute with a powerful land developer in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district on Monday rejected City Hall’s offer of new housing, saying the apartments being offered were far too small. They also said they planned to file a complaint ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-dispute-families-turn-down-offer-of-new-apartments-54868/
New policy to combat corruption in schools
The Education Ministry will reconfigure how it ranks high school graduates seeking placement at state universities as part of its campaign to promote accountability in the school system, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron announced on Friday. Delivering closing remarks at the Education Ministry’s annual meeting, Mr. ...
Kuch Naren and Emily Wilkins
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-policy-to-combat-corruption-in-schools-54886/
Illegal ivory a sign Cambodia is new transit point
The seizure on Friday of a large haul of African elephant tusks in Svay Rieng province, only one month after police intercepted a large ivory haul in Siem Reap, could indicate that Cambodia is becoming a major transit point for illegal ivory, experts said Monday. The ...
Simon Henderson and Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-ivory-a-sign-cambodia-is-new-transit-point-54876/
Fish imports from Cambodia banned by EU
The European Commission (E.C.) will today ban all fish imports from Cambodia, carrying through on its threat made in November to punish the country for failing to show genuine commitment to tackling the global problem of illegal fishing, according to a memo released Friday. The ban, ...
Zsombor Peter and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fish-imports-from-cambodia-banned-by-eu-54770/
NGOs urge Gov’t to keep searching for missing Veng Sreng teen
A group of 54 local and international non-government groups said Sunday that the state may be behind the disappearance of a 16-year-old boy last seen bleeding from a bullet wound at a garment worker protest in January, and urged the government to investigate. Five garment workers ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-urge-govt-to-keep-searching-for-missing-veng-sreng-teen-54760/
Cambodia summons Thai Ambassador over deaths of loggers
Thailand’s ambassador to Cambodia was formally summoned on Friday to the Foreign Affairs Ministry over the shooting death last week of a Cambodian man who was among nine allegedly caught by soldiers cutting down forest across the country’s northwestern border with Thailand. ...
Saing Soenthrith
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-summons-thai-ambassador-over-deaths-of-loggers-54766/
Second haul of illegal ivory in a month found in Svay Rieng
Military police in Svay Rieng province on Friday seized more than 250 kg of elephant tusks stashed inside 10 suitcases in a van heading for the Vietnamese border, officials said. This is the second such haul in the space of a month, leading to fears Cambodia ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/second-haul-of-illegal-ivory-in-a-month-found-in-svay-rieng-54762/
Safe water lowers absenteeism
Reducing absenteeism in schools in developing countries may be as simple as providing students with safe drinking water. A new study indicates that, but researchers are not sure why. The study was done at eight schools in Cambodia where the attendance records of more than 3,500 ...
Joe Decapua
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/water-absenteeism-18mar14/1874739.html
Funcinpec continues to receive Chinese Communist Party support
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is providing financial and material support to the beleaguered Funcinpec Party to cover its rent, electricity, transportation and general administration expenses, as well as offering political training to its younger members, senior leaders of the royalist party said Wednesday. Funcinpec was ...
Alex Willemyns and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/funcinpec-continues-to-receive-chinese-communist-party-support-54553/
Housing rights activists protest slow justice
Housing rights activists from the Borei Keila and Boeng Kak communities protested in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday to urge authorities to speed up proceedings in an assault case they brought against Prampi Makara district authorities last month. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/housing-rights-activists-protest-slow-justice-54576/
As Wing Star Shoes strike enters third day, workers block road
Thousands of workers at the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. on Wednesday blocked the road to the factory in Kompong Speu province for two hours. They demanded the company raise their bonuses by $5 and properly enforce labor laws after arbitration talks failed Tuesday. It was ...
11,000 families refile old land dispute complaints nationwide
Rights group Adhoc on Wednesday helped 105 communities locked in long-running land disputes across the country refile their complaints with local courts and other state agencies in a concerted effort to push the government to finally resolve their cases. Covering a broad cross-section of the country’s ...
Proposed law gives new powers to Justice Ministry
The last of three draft laws written with the aim of cleaning up the courts establishes four new judicial chambers, but legal and political experts worry that it does little to loosen the grip of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Justice Ministry over the courts. The draft ...
Lauren Crothers and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/proposed-law-gives-new-powers-to-justice-ministry-54546/