The Phnom Penh Post

Opposition party leader Sam Rainsy yesterday said he would go ahead with threatened protests whether or not permission is granted, citing the 1997 grenade attack at a workers’ rights rally as proof of how meaningless such authorisation is. Speaking at a hastily-planned ceremony – the second ...

Still agitated 20 minutes after the rally in front of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd had dispersed yesterday, Choem Som Im held up seven fingers as she jerked her arms forward and spoke in an equally sharp tone. The dilemma, faced by many garment workers, ...

More than 100 sand-pumping systems and 40 boats have been impounded by the Kandal provincial Department of Water Resources and Meteorology in order to prevent riverbank collapse as water levels continue to rise. Chun Penglong, the provincial department director, told the Post yesterday that navy police and the ...

Two monks living a remote pagoda in Kampong Speu province’s Oral district said yesterday that a shot had been fired at their living quarters last Tuesday in what they suspected was a threat motivated by their conservation efforts and participation in an opposition rally. Venerables Sam ...

Though authorities have called on residents to move to higher ground, those in some of the worst flooded areas of Cambodia said yesterday that they had neither the means nor the ability to do so. Instead, they said, they will remain in their rapidly flooding ...

Preparing for a demonstration expected to draw thousands of garment workers this morning, Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said yesterday that he feared the possibility of a heavy-handed military police response. About 4,000 workers gathered at SL ...

Amid growing urbanisation, Lucky Supermarket opened three more branches in Phnom Penh’s suburbs over the weekend, targeting a new consumer base living around the city. With the additional branches, Lucky now counts 10 outlets in Phnom Penh, including one mini-mart at Koh Pich. ...

Following a high-level meeting yesterday, Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy said that his party would seek to restart negotiations with the ruling party and possibly join the government. The move marks an apparent about-turn from a party press conference held on Wednesday when Rainsy ...

Nearly half of defendants lack legal representation, 80 per cent are held in pretrial detention, and a sizeable chunk confess before they get a hearing, according to an online public database released yesterday by the Cambodia Center for Human Rights. The database reveals numerous infringements on ...

Defence Minister Tea Banh yesterday said the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces are ready to protect the Kingdom’s constitution should the opposition’s threatened general strike fall on the wrong side of the law. “A nationwide general strike or mass demonstration must be held under the framework of ...

The government’s latest five-year strategy calls for a complete halt to economic land concessions (ELCs) and an inquiry into those still in the pipeline. But the plan has drawn scepticism from conservationists and rights groups, who pointed out that loopholes have been liberally applied after the ...

The plan to build the US$1.1 billion Booyoung Town commercial city and housing estate on Russian Federation Blvd near the 7 Makara Bridge is moving forward slowly while the political situation remains unclear. Despite the political situation, construction at Booyoung Town was slowly moving forward and ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the role of the newly christened Ministry of Public Function, explaining that the body would oversee the reform of the Kingdom’s civil service, including the salaries of its employees – a major plank in the opposition’s campaign platform. As a ...

The Cambodian government has privately pledged that it will pass the long-awaited “three fundamental laws” aimed at reforming the judiciary during the first session of parliament in early 2014, UN rights envoy Surya Subedi said. The laws – which focus on codifying the court’s jurisdiction, laying ...

Nathan Horton’s business model is straightforward. A professional photographer, Horton helps amateur photographers take pictures abroad. Photo tourism is an increasingly lucrative trade in Cambodia. Horton, who runs half-day jaunts in Phnom Penh and longer journeys into the provinces, is one of the practitioners capitalising on ...

Construction has started on the 22-storey Toyoko Inn Hotel, which will cost US$20 million to build, near the Hang Bridge. The project is due to be completed in November 2014. Touch Somnang, the Project Manager for the Koh Pich development project, said the Toyoko Inn Hotel ...

Three officials from Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district were charged on September 10 for threatening and intimidating a villager after he filed a lawsuit related to the corrupt sale of community land in 2011, according to a letter obtained by the Post yesterday. Romas Svang, 47, of Yatung commune, received ...

The death toll from recent flooding continued to rise yesterday, with meteorology officials voicing concerns that floods in some parts of the country could rival the catastrophic ones of 1996, which claimed almost 170 lives and affected more than a million Cambodians nationwide. At least 25 ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blasted election watchdog Comfrel for “provoking chaos” with its pre-election announcement that the indelible voter ink could be easily removed. Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly, Hun Sen said the NGO deserved a share of moral responsibility for some ...

Frustrated Boeung Kak and Borei Keila community members flooded past a Daun Penh road barrier yesterday after attempting to lodge complaints with district authorities in connection with Sunday’s violence at Wat Phnom. On Sunday night, a brutal raid on a peaceful vigil of about 20 protesters ...

Management at the Chhin Chin garment factory yesterday agreed to meet workers’ demands to receive their wages before the Pchum Ben holiday after a 150-worker demonstration briefly blocked National Road 4 in front of the factory. Workers at the factory, which is located in Phnom Penh’s ...

The former director of a Vietnamese-owned rubber firm was sentenced in absentia to two and a half years in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday, and ordered to pay $800,000 in compensation for defrauding his former employer, a court official said yesterday. “The ...

Rights groups and the United Nations yesterday urged the Supreme Court to drop the case against two men widely believed to have been wrongfully convicted of the slaying of unionist Chea Vichea when it convenes this morning. Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun were re-arrested in ...

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says much work is still needed to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a single market for trade and development in 2015. Lee, head of the most advanced economy in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, ...