News
King Norodom Sihamoni welcomes new Senate, urges respect for human rights
King Norodom Sihamoni, in an opening speech on Monday to Cambodia’s newly minted Senate, urged the legislative body to uphold human rights and justice. King Sihamoni warmly congratulated the 62-member Senate on its new mandate following almost a year of what observers have described as ...
Ben Sokhean and Erin Handley
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/king-norodom-sihamoni-welcomes-new-senate-urges-respect-human-rights
Kratie villagers claim at least two shot dead by officials, while authorities deny fatalities
Clashes between villagers protesting a land dispute and security officers erupted in gunfire yesterday in Kratie province, with a rights official initially reporting six killed, and villagers at the scene confirming at least two dead – while authorities provided a starkly different account, saying that ...
Kong Meta and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kratie-villagers-claim-least-two-shot-dead-officials-while-authorities-deny-fatalities
Sugar company's compensation deals leave families bitter in Kampong Speu
In 2010, more than 1,500 families in Kampong Speu’s Oral district were evicted from the land they had cultivated since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 to make way for a Phnom Penh Sugar Company mega-plantation. ...
Jack Davies and Bun Sengkong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sugar-companys-compensation-deals-leave-families-bitter-kampong-speu
World bank loans prompt credibility questions
The World Bank’s decision earlier this month to resume lending to Cambodia after a five-year moratorium has drawn criticism from development experts. ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/a/world-bank-loans-prompt-credibility-questions/3347308.html
Meeting touts new approach to rehab
Officials from provinces across the country gathered in Banteay Meanchey yesterday and the day before to learn about alternative community-based drug rehabilitation services and vocational training, anti-drug officials said. ...
Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/meeting-touts-new-approach-rehab
Drug center will not pursue 18 still free after mass escape
After more than 40 men broke out of a Phnom Penh drug rehabilitation center on Friday, officials said this week that they have called off efforts to arrest 18 escapees who remain at large, instead asking for their families to return them voluntarily. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/drug-center-will-not-pursue-18-still-free-after-mass-escape-108129/
New maid training DIY
Cambodian recruitment agencies are drawing up more extensive training programs for maids being sent to Malaysia following a lifting of a ban on the practice in December. ...
Sen David and Charles Rollet
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-maid-training-diy
Despite IOM deal, residency eludes refugees
When the International Organization for Migration agreed to help Cambodia with a controversial refugee resettlement plan earlier this year, it did so on the condition that the government furnish the refugees already in the country with the paperwork they need to find employment. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-iom-deal-residency-eludes-refugees-85689/
Rights group condemns trade union draft law
The Cambodian government is trying to weather criticism over the lack of transparency concerning the proposed draft law on NGOs that is now in the hands of the National Assembly. But another important draft law regulating trade unions is being heavily criticized for violating international ...
Donald Lee
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12089/rights-group-condemns-trade-union-draft-law/
UN in Montagnard talks
The United Nations’ refugee agency met this week with representatives of the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments to “discuss solutions” to the recent influx of Montagnard asylum seekers, with repatriation touted as a possible answer, the Post has learned. ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/un-montagnard-talks
Police deny arrest of 36 montagnards
The chief of police in Ratanakkiri province on Monday denied that authorities arrested 36 Montagnards, who the U.N. and local villagers say were deported to Vietnam last week while attempting to reach Phnom Penh to apply for asylum. ...
Chris Mueller and Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-deny-arrest-of-36-montagnards-78919/
Montagnards attempting to reach capital deported
A group of 36 Montagnard asylum seekers who went missing last week after they left their hiding places in the forests of Ratanakkiri province have been arrested and deported back to Vietnam, the U.N. and local villagers said Sunday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-deport-montagnards-attempting-to-reach-capital-78873/
Cambodia's treatment of Montagnard refugees focuses critics on Australia's asylum seeker deal
Cambodian authorities are hunting more than a dozen ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam, drawing international criticism and raising further doubts about Australia’s controversial agreement to send refugees to Phnom Penh. Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned ...
Lindsay Murdoch
http://www.smh.com.au/world/cambodias-treatment-of-montagnard-refugees-focuses-critics-on-australias-asylum-seeker-deal-20141203-11z808.html
KNLF remains on police radar
With 10 alleged members of the “terrorist” Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF) facing charges of treason, police yesterday threatened further arrests in Cambodia and abroad. The KNUF, or Tiger Head Movement, was accused of attempting to bomb the Cambodia-Vietnamese Friendship Monument in 2007, and the ...
Taing Vida
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/knlf-remains-police-radar
Cambodia PM attacked for praising notorius military unit
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has stirred disquiet after praising a military unit which has been heavily implicated in human rights abuses and political killings. The former Khmer Rouge commander – who has been premier for more than 25 years – gave a speech Monday thanking the troops of the notorius Brigade 70 for their ...
World Bulletin News Staff
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/146197/cambodia-pm-attacked-for-praising-notorius-military-unit
Journalist investigating illegal logging shot dead
A 49-year-old journalist reportedly investigating illegal logging in Kratie province was shot dead early Sunday morning. Within hours, police arrested three men—a commune police chief, a military police officer and a Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldier—for the murder, officials said. Taing Try, who contributed to ...
Saing Soenthrith and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/journalist-investigating-illegal-logging-shot-dead-69629/
Migrant kids’ schooling at risk
A plan floated in Thailand to cut state educational support to migrant workers’ children has drawn the ire of rights groups, which say thousands of Cambodian youths could be denied their basic right to education. According to Thai media, Kamol Rodklai, secretary-general of the Office of ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/migrant-kids%E2%80%99-schooling-risk
Cambodia asylum deal to go ahead despite intense opposition
Australia’s secret refugee deal with Cambodia is about to be signed, amid growing opposition to the transfer agreement. With a deal imminent, the office of Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm on Monday he was set to travel to Cambodia this week, while the Department ...
Uighurs ‘arrested’ at border
A group of 14 ethnic minority Uighurs, including six children, fleeing China were arrested on Saturday in the Thai border province of Sa Keo after Cambodian smugglers deserted them on Friday, Thai media reported yesterday. The five men, three women and six children who were apprehended ...
Amelia Woodside and Cheang Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/uighurs-%E2%80%98arrested%E2%80%99-border
Hun Sen warns against attempts to hold Cambodia ‘Hostage’
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday accused certain groups of trying to hold the nation “hostage,” saying his government was functioning normally despite opposition calls for him to resign and hold fresh elections following disputed polls. His administration has also drawn criticism over its heavy ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/warning-02102014190358.html
Donors Asked to Freeze Aid Over NGO Law
Ten international organizations including Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, and Global Witness have urged dozens of foreign ministers to consider freezing aid to Cambodia if the government passes the current draft of its proposed NGO law. In a letter sent Wednesday to 36 foreign ministers ...
China’s ‘No Strings’ Aid Increasingly Attractive
The timing couldn’t have been better. After a week in which one NGO was suspended and others warned to “readjust their work,” and the World Bank was finally forced to reveal that it had stopped loaning to Cambodia, the government announced over the weekend that ...
NGO Forum Breaks Silence on 'Warning'
NGO Forum confirmed yesterday it had received a “warning letter” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its advocacy on behalf of communities affected by a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID. The warning to the umbrella group of 88 ...