The Cambodia Daily
NGO Representatives Chosen Months Ago, Statement Claims
An NGO director and a youth leader from two little-known organizations were elected by 2,779 NGO and youth association members at a meeting on March 15 to represent civil society at a meeting with Asean leaders next week, according to a statement released by state-run ...
Internet Cafes, Phone Kiosks Told to Install Security Cameras
The government has instructed the owners of all venues providing Internet and telephone access to the public to install security cameras on their premises to record the identity of users in an effort to crack down on terrorism and cyber-crime, states a government directive obtained ...
New Law to Force Garment Factories to Provide On-Site Housing
In an effort to stop mass faintings at garment factories, a government committee will issue a prakas this year aimed at reducing fatigue among workers by requiring factories to establish on-site housing, an official said yesterday. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational training at the Ministry ...
Australian Paper Alleges PM’s Nephew Linked To Crime Ring
Australian newspaper The Age alleged yesterday that Australian authorities have linked Hun To, a nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen, to a crime syndicate involving heroin trafficking and money laundering. According to The Age report, Australian police were planning to arrest Mr. To in Melbourne but ...
NGOs Say Railway Compensation Report Devalues Homes
Housing rights groups yesterday criticized resettlement packages paid out by the government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to people displaced by the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railways, saying the packages do not account for growing inflation. A joint statement issued yesterday by Housing Rights Task Force, ...
One Killed and One Injured While Logging Across Borders
One man was killed and one injured in two separate shooting incidents that took place last week at the borders with Thailand and Laos, officials said yesterday. In both cases, the Cambodians are believed to have been shot while illegally logging highly coveted luxury rosewood in ...
Study Begins for Underpass on Russian Boulevard
The Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC) is conducting a feasibility study to construct a 272-meter-long underpass that will run beneath the intersection of Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard and Monivong Boulevard, City Hall announced on its website Friday. “It’s a new plan and another solution to ...
Violence in Land Disputes Up, Rights Group Says
A total of 36 protests involving economic land concessions ended with violent intervention from armed authorities last year, according to data released this week by local rights group Adhoc. More than a fifth of the cases involved the long-simmering Boeng Kak lake evictions, in which ...
Boeng Kak Protesters Deny Role as SRP Activists
On Friday morning, five Boeng Kak land dispute activists marched into the Sras Chak commune office in Phnom Penh and demanded that their names be removed from a registration list of election monitors working for the Sam Rainsy Party. The activists said they had been listed ...
South China Sea Will Not Surface at Asean
Cambodia, in its role as Asean chair, has decided that the thorny issue of the South China Sea will not be on the agenda at next month’s Asean Summit in Phnom Penh, CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap announced yesterday. “Cambodia is a neutral country, and based on ...
Environment Minister Denies Hardship at Tourism Project
The Minister of Environment has countered a rights worker’s claim that villagers relocated to make way for a Chinese-backed mega-tourism project in Koh Kong province lack proper access to medical care. About 1,100 families have been forcibly evicted from their coastal villages in Botum Sakor National ...
60,000 Evicted in 2011 Alone; Majority From Phnom Penh
Nearly 60,000 people were forcibly evicted from their homes last year alone, often being moved to inadequate relocation sites where they face unemployment and rising debt levels, according to a report by rights group Adhoc released yesterday. A total of 59,904 people from 127 communities were ...
Cambodia Surges Full-Speed Ahead With Land Concessions
The government has already granted roughly 300,000 hectares in economic land concessions (ELC) so far this year, according to data released by a local rights group yesterday. The figure, which amounts to 40 percent of the total land concessions granted in all of 2011, has ...
Boeng Kak Protesters Burn Effigies of ‘Bad Officials’
About 100 residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community took to the streets yesterday dragging straw and cloth effigies representing local officials who are attempting to evict them. ...
ADB Won’t Pay to Finish Rail Project
Having already spent millions of dollars, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will not foot the additional $70 to $90 million in funds still needed to complete more than half of Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project, an official from the ADB said yesterday. Toll Royal Railways, a joint venture ...
Kompong Cham Pepper Enjoys Healthy Trade in Thailand
Though less well-known than Kampot pepper, the price of Kompong Cham province pepper has increased by 44 percent from last year and is developing a following in Thailand, farmers and vendors said. With a total of 906 hectares of land dedicated to cultivating pepper in Kompong ...
Imports Fill the Gap as Domestic Silk Production Dwindles
Cambodia is importing hundreds of tons of silk from China and Vietnam to compensate for a fast-declining domestic industry, which is suffering due to producers opting to grow other crops instead or raising silk worms, according to silk producers. Men Sinoeun, director of the Artisans’ Association ...
Mondolkiri Minority Group Granted Communal Land Title
Residents of an ethnic minority village in Mondolkiri’s Seima Protected Forest on Monday became the first community in the province to receive a communal land title, land management officials said yesterday. About 500 indigenous Bunong families from Andoung Kraloeng village in O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom commune ...
Scores Released After Fishing Crimes Amnesty
An estimated 73 suspects and convicts involved in illegal fishing were released on bail in accordance with a blanket amnesty granted by Prime Minister Hun Sen earlier this month, a court official said yesterday. Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the Ministry of Justice’s annual ...
Cambodia to Send Observers to Monitor Burmese Elections
Cambodia will accept an invitation from Burma to send observers to monitor its historic April 1 elections, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said yesterday. Mr. Kanharith spoke with reporters after a meeting between Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting Burmese President Thein Sein, who promised that his ...
Hundreds of Villagers Block Road to Protest Land Clearing
About 400 villagers in Kratie province’s Snuol district blocked national road 76A for three hours yesterday to demand that authorities release a villager who had been arrested earlier in the day for allegedly inciting villagers embroiled in a land dispute, villagers and a district official ...
Bus Companies Warned of Three Strikes Rule
Bus companies that are involved in crashes or break the law will receive two warnings before being summarily closed down by the government, a senior official said yesterday. Responding to a recent spate of serious tour bus crashes, Peou Maly, deputy director-general at the transport department ...
Six Loggers Repatriated From Thailand; 38 Facing Jail
Six Cambodians suspected of entering Thailand last month to log trees were released by Thai authorities yesterday and repatriated to Preah Vihear province, local officials said. ...
Smoke-Free Asean Region Will Get Hun Sen’s Support
Asean member countries were called on yesterday to work toward a “100 percent smoke-free” region, and Cambodia’s most famous smoker, Prime Minister Hun Sen, is behind the initiative, a government spokesman said. ...