News

With the release of the government’s 2015 draft national budget Thursday, the opposition CNRP, whose 55 lawmakers joined the National Assembly in August, called Cambodia’s budget-drafting process “disgusting and unbelievable” on Friday. The draft 2015 budget calls for $400 million—or about 10.6 percent—more than 2014. ...

Education and health are set to receive large boosts in funding next year, according to the draft budget waiting approval at the National Assembly, which outlines total government spending of $3.75 billion. The draft budget allocates $324 million to the health ministry, up 24.7 per ...

Mao Monivann, a parliamentarian for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, says he has not received a response from top government officials on whether they are addressing the construction of a road from Vietnam into Mondolkiri province. ...

The ministers of education and health said Monday they expect an 18 and 15 percent increase to their ministries’ budgets, respectively, in the draft 2015 national budget signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday. ...

Senior opposition lawmaker Son Chhay has formally requested that the entire staff list of the National Assembly’s more than 1,000-strong secretariat be turned over to him for investigation as part of a bid to root out “ghost” workers and nepotistic appointments. As part of his one-man ...

At least 50 opposition party youth members and supporters are asking for permission to join the US-led fight against Islamic State militants, a leading activist said yesterday. In return, they hope the US will help them fight Vietnamese encroachment in Cambodia and take back the island ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday ordered that Cambodian-American businessman Richer San be released from prison, where he was being held on serious fraud charges, overturning the Appeal Court’s decision to reject his bail request a week earlier, court officials said Monday. ...

A Ministry of Commerce official said in a speech last week that the controversial draft cybercrime law was almost ready to appear before the National Assembly, though another government official dismissed this yesterday. At a conference on cybersecurity attended by representatives of the public and private ...

A British lawyer has filed new documents against senior Cambodian officials at the International Criminal Court, accusing them of systematic land grabs that constitute human rights abuses. A communication filed on Oct. 7 claims that over the last 14 years, an estimated 770,000 Cambodians, or ...

For 70-year-old Chan Shay, the choice between working through old age and a retirement in poverty is an obvious one. Shay, a cyclo taxi driver in Phnom Penh, said that while he dreams of retiring to his home in Takeo province, in reality he can see ...

Local rights group Adhoc on Thursday called on Prime Minister Hun Sen and other government officials to hold regular meetings with NGOs in order to better understand the human rights situation in the country. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy yesterday said that, contrary to his speech before the National Assembly last week, the Kingdom’s political crisis would not be resolved as long as opposition activists were still being harassed by the courts. If there are still CNRP members ...

The Council of Ministers this week announced two new spans across the Mekong River in the vicinity of the capital, one connecting the Chroy Changvar peninsula to Kandal’s Khsach Kandal district and another connecting Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district with Kandal’s Lvea Em. ...

A deal to end the political deadlock may reduce demonstrations in the streets, but the authorities are leaving nothing to chance – Daun Penh’s notorious district security guards are finally receiving proper government training. City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, who has previously said the baton-wielding district ...

Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries are preparing for a major regional meeting, which will be held in Burma Aug. 10. Analysts say Cambodia should raise ongoing security issues that threaten regional economic integration at the Asean Regional Forum. The South China Sea issue continues to ...

Try Chamroeun, a 19-year-old student, was planting soybeans on Sunday along with fellow villagers on a two-hectare (half-acre) plot in Preah Vihear province, when soldier Poeun Tash demanded that he stop, claiming the land belonged to his military boss, according to London-based environmental advocacy group ...

A “shadow cabinet” will be created inside the National Assembly once the CNRP’s lawmakers-elect swear into office, senior opposition party officials said Thursday, in a move that nine years ago saw an opposition lawmaker imprisoned on charges of inciting a rebellion. Prime Minister Hun Sen and ...

Despite multiple requests, the US Embassy has not been given access to visit dual citizen Mu Sochua since her arrest last Tuesday, officials said yesterday. “Consular officers attempted to visit Mu Sochua the evening she was arrested but were not permitted to see her and multiple ...

A day after the government issued a statement saying that 22 of the Daun Penh district security guards beaten by opposition protesters on Tuesday were in “critical condition”, officials yesterday told the Post that most of them are now well on the way to recovery. Daun Penh district ...

A Cambodian advocacy group says the Mekong Delta of Vietnam should be returned to the Khmer people who have lived there for generations. The region is still referred to as Kampuchea Krom, or Lower Cambodia, by many Cambodians, despite its partitioning to Vietnam by the French ...

Foreign donors should push Cambodia’s government to end its human rights abuses as part of its bid to maintain political control of the nation, a rights group said Wednesday, after Phnom Penh allegedly snubbed recommendations by foreign governments to improve the country’s rights record. Representatives of ...

In a bid to highlight abuses in the workplace, an NGO today will officially launch a website and hotline, allowing people to post stories as citizen journalists. The Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) will hold a ceremony this morning promoting their new project, Voice of the ...

A US diplomat says military aid to Cambodia is necessary to improve the professionalism of the country’s security forces. The US has been criticized for its military aid to Cambodia, following violent crackdowns on demonstrations this year. ...

Deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha has drawn the ire of the government and civil society groups after on Wednesday accusing Vietnam of orchestrating the Koh Pich bridge stampede that killed more than 350 people in 2010 as part of a plot to “eliminate the Khmer ...