News
Gunslinger Tycoons
PM Hun Sen’s September 20 cri de couer beseeching powerful officials and their friends and families to not fire or wield their weapons in restaurants and other public places, especially those haunts frequented by foreigners, threatens to spoil the sport most enjoyed by the Kingdom’s well-heeled elite. ...
Officials Halt Clearance of Community Forest
Forestry administration officials in Battambang province have stepped in to stop the destruction of a community forest area by military and police, officials said yesterday. Over two past months, soldiers, police and military police have destroyed part of the 1,335-hectare Prey Tralach forest in Rokha Kiri district, which ...
Police Detain Man Seeking Justice for Sonando
A 75-year-old man living near the former site of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake was detained by police on Thursday after he was found collecting thumbprints from villagers for a petition calling for the release of jailed independent radio station owner Mam Sonando, villagers said ...
Villagers’ homes levelled in Pursat
A coalition of about 30 soldiers, police, forestry officials and military police armed with chainsaws razed some 40 houses belonging to villagers in Pursat province’s Santre commune yesterday, claiming the villagers were illegally living in a state forest, villagers and officials said. According to resident Chin ...
Men charged in bulldozing protected forest
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged two government officials and four farmers from Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district with encroachment onto protected land after they allegedly bulldozed a flooded forest that was designated as a protected fish hatchery, police and NGO officials said. ...
Workers Claim Police Beat Them During Factory Protest
About 10 workers were beaten by police and military police during a protest over severance payments yesterday in Kandal province, workers and union representatives said. Protests at Tai Yang Enterprises—which supplies clothing to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy—in Ang Snuol district have been ongoing ...
Cops allegedly attacked garment strikers
Police have been accused of punching and shoving garment workers from Tai Yang and Camwell factories in Kandal province as the month-long strike over bonuses continued yesterday. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said 11 people had been slightly injured after being attacked ...
Municipality Blames Trade Union for Violent Protest
The Phnom Penh Municipality issued a statement yesterday accusing the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions of violating their agreement when a garment workers’ protest on July 11 turned violent. Some 20 garment factory workers from the Tai Yang factory had marched to submit a petition to ...
Police Arrest Six Villagers Accused of Fraud
Police in Battambang arrested six villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a local businessman on Wednesday after 10 other villagers accused them of defrauding families in the area, deputy provincial governor Uy Ry said yesterday. However, villagers and rights workers in Kors Kralor district said ...
Alleged 'secessionist' faces 15 years
Beehive radio station director and accused “secessionist” Mam Sonando was sent to Prey Sar prison yesterday, where he will be detained until his trial on formal criminal charges including insurrection, a conviction that alone could result in up to 15 years behind bars. After two and ...
Mam Sonando Charged, Jailed Ahead of Trial
After two hours of questioning, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sent independent radio station owner Mam Sonando to Prey Sar prison for pretrial detention, where he will await a hearing on allegations that he tried to foment a secessionist movement in Kratie province. As Mr. Sonando was being questioned, ...
Alleged Kratie 'secessionist' arrested
Police in the capital yesterday arrested the alleged leader of a “secessionist plot”, Beehive Radio station director Mam Sonando, who had already been abroad for two months when hundreds of security personnel stormed a Kratie province village in May. Khieu Sopheak, a spokesman for the Ministry ...
Union Official Forced to Sign ‘Confession’
A union representative who was beaten and detained by police during a protest Wednesday was released after being forced to sign a statement taking responsibility for starting a fight with authorities, union officials said yesterday. A bloodied Rong Panha, a representative of the Cambodian Alliance of ...
Union Representative Beaten, Arrested by Police
A union representative was beaten with electric batons and arrested by police in Phnom Penh yesterday after more than 20 garment workers marched to submit a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet. The petitioners, workers at the Tai Yang garment factory who belong to the ...
Official Arrested Over Abuse of Land Program
Police in Stung Treng province on Tuesday arrested a Council of Ministers official and her husband for trying to cheat a land-titling program Prime Minister Hun Sen announced last month, according to local officials. It marks the second time this week that authorities arrested or detained ...
Bloody crackdown on garment strike in Phnom Penh
A union employee representing striking workers from a factory that supplies Levi’s and Gap was left a bloodied mess near Wat Botum yesterday after police allegedly attacked him. According to rights groups, police set upon Long Panha, of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), who ...
Police Detain Recruitment Agency Chief for Suspected Fraud
The director of a recruitment agency in Siem Reap will face fraud charges today at the provincial court for allegedly taking money from victims in exchange for promised jobs in the U.S., police said yesterday. Hong Bunhav, chief of research and investigations section of the Siem ...
Police Seize Excavators Used to Dig Reservoirs
A further nine excavators used in the creation of illegal reservoirs have been seized by military police in Kompong Thom province’s Stong district, bringing the total number of machines confiscated this week to 38, police said Thursday. Twenty-nine excavators were seized during raids around the Tonle ...
Clash thwarts union’s march
Police clashed with strikers as thousands of garment workers from factories that sell to Levi’s and Gap were blocked as they marched from Kandal province towards the capital yesterday, union representatives said. The 4,000-strong group’s march, as threatened by Cambodian Confederation of Trade Unions president Rong ...
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3,000 Factory Workers Block Road; Protests Set to Continue
About 3,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy blocked traffic for nearly five hours yesterday on National Road 4 in Kandal province, as part of a protest for more benefits and severance pay, protesters and police said. Protests ...
4000 Garment Workers Protest Over Severance Pay
Two garment workers were injured yesterday during a factory protest in Kandal province when they clashed with 50 police and military police, a union representative said. About 4,000 garment workers of Tai Yang Enterprises in Ang Snuol district held a protest to demand their severance payments ...
Cambodian Workers Get Passports Back, Return Home
Fifty-eight Cambodian migrant workers, 40 of whom who were reportedly arrested and beaten by the police in Thailand’s Songkla province last month, returned to their home provinces on Saturday after their employer gave back their passports, said a worker representative yesterday. “We don’t know yet if ...
Global death toll of environmental activists rising, report says
In April, Chut Wutty was shot to death in the Cambodian forests he was so outspoken in defending, a slaying that outraged human rights activists suspicious of the conflicting explanations given by police. His death appears to be part of a chilling trend. Growing numbers of activists ...
City Rounds Up Homeless Before Asean Meeting
Police in Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon began rounding up homeless people as part of the city’s preparations for next month’s Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting, officials said. “We collect them because we don’t want them to affect foreign tourists as we prepare for the arrival of the ...