The Cambodia Daily
Australia Pledges $3M for Information Departments
The Australian government has pledged $3.02 million toward three provincial information departments, which it said would help “increase citizens’ ability to voice their opinions.” ...
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, ...
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 ...
Garment Staff Resume Work After Deal is Struck
Garment workers from Phnom Penh’s Lim Line factory will resume work today after reaching an agreement with the factory following 11 days of protest that culminated in a violent strike Friday, a union and a factory representative said yesterday. ...
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 ...
H&M finds no evidence of violence at supplier factory
A representative of clothing brand H&M said yesterday that there was no conclusive evidence proving that staff from their supplier factory in Kandal province had committed violence against a union representative on Wednesday. Nhem Samphose, a representative for the Free Trade Union at New Archid Garment ...
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 ...
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
Study to determine cost to finish railway
With funds almost exhausted on the $140 million rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railway network, the government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have decided to conduct a study to determine how much more money is needed to complete the project, a government consultant said yesterday. Paul Power, ...
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 ...
City's public transport may take 10 years to materialize
A public transportation system for Phnom Penh is still years from becoming a reality, according to a presentation during a meeting on urban transit on Friday at City Hall, but the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will begin a survey at the end of May ...
Salt farmers extend season by one month
In an effort to make up for the low salt yield this year caused by unexpected rainfall during the dry season, farmers in salt-producing Kep and Kampot provinces said yesterday that they would try to continue harvesting the mineral for another month even though the ...
Families of slain men question official version
Amid mounting calls for further investigation, officials said yesterday they were establishing a task force to look into the death of outspoken forestry activist Chut Wutty, while the family of the military police officer who allegedly killed Chut Wutty before turning the gun on himself ...
Ministries' poor accounting leads to diverted emergency cash
Poor accounting practices by ministries between 2005 and 2010 required them to seek additional government funds to the tune of $578.79 million, which was reserved for national emergencies, according to a multi-year budget analysis released on Friday by the NGO Forum on Cambodia ...
In Cardamom Mountains, Two Deaths Recounted
Deep in Koh Kong’s forested district on Thursday, Chut Wutty, 46, the founder of the Natural Resource Protection Group, and In Rattana, 32, a military police officer, were shot dead. Chut Wutty, a forestry activist who has dedicated himself to preserving Cambodia’s disappearing forests since ...
Suicide Cited in Military Police Officer’s Death
The military police officer who killed well-known anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty, 46, on Thursday in Koh Kong province then died by his own hand after turning his AK-47 assault rifle on himself in an apparent act of instant suicide following the slaying of the forestry ...
Borei Keila Evictees Protest Delayed Court Hearing
About 20 former residents for the Borei Keila community protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday after a judge delayed a hearing regarding their land dispute with the powerful Phanimex company, a lawyer for the residents said. The residents filed a complaint against Phanimex ...
Tonle Sap illegal fishing increased, group says
Tonle Sap fishermen and fisheries experts said yesterday that illegal fishing on the lake had increased substantially since Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled commercial fishing lots in March and urged authorities to crack down on violators. The prime minister suspended commercial lots across the country last ...
Puma wants facts behind governor's charge
German sportswear brand Puma is seeking information on why the Svay Rieng Provincial Court decided to charge former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith with causing unintentional injuries, a Puma representative said yesterday. Mr Bundith is the sole suspect in a shooting in Bavet City on February ...
Malaria cases up among laborer community
Cambodia has made real progress in decreasing cases of malaria – already surpassing the Millennium Development Goal for malaria four years ahead of the 2015 target – but certain communities still face major challenges in combating the disease, officials said yesterday on World Malaria Day. Although ...
Sihanoukville Port plans to list on stock exchange in July
While the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority’s (PPWSA) share price continued to fall yesterday, a second state firm came a step closer to joining it on Cambodia’s nascent stock exchange by announcing plans to register by the end of July. At a ceremony marking the first ...