News

Cambodia has delayed two of its military cooperation programs with Australia, the Australian Defense Department said Thursday, after it emerged this week that U.S.-backed programs had also been postponed following the July 28 national election. Dave Gordge, first secretary and deputy head of mission at the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said this afternoon he would “welcome” an international investigation into the contested results of Sunday’s election. “For the sake of free and fair elections, I welcome the international community, all political parties and the NEC to investigate this,” he told reporters, ...

CAMBODIA’S opposition has rejected the claim of victory by the ruling party of strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen in weekend elections, alleging widespread irregularities. “The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) cannot accept the results of the fifth parliamentary election because the CNRP has found a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) claimed victory in Sunday’s national election, but saw its majority severely diminished, ceding 22 National Assembly seats to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the party’s first major setback since the U.N.-backed election in 1993. According to ...

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party saw its ironclad grip on the National Assembly weaken dramatically, dropping 22 seats in winning 68 of 123, with the opposition the beneficiary and the CPP’s royalist coalition partners winning none at all in an election rife with alleged irregularities. Though ...

Tourism is one of the major sectors supporting the Cambodian economy. Last year, the country attracted 3.58 million foreign tourists, generating 2.2 billion US dollars in revenues. The Cambodian Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said Tuesday that the July 28 national elections in Cambodia would not ...

Cambodia’s charismatic opposition leader Sam Rainsy arrived in his home country on Friday morning after spending nearly four years abroad in self-imposed exile to avoid an 11-year prison sentence on charges of disinformation and destruction of public property. Hun Sen said his request to the ...

The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) plans to give its leader, Sam Rainsy, a hero’s welcome when he returns to the country on Friday after nearly four years in self-imposed exile. But unless action is taken quickly, Mr. Rainsy will be forced to deliver his first ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has signed off on a Royal Pardon, which would allow for opposition leader Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia ahead of the national election on July 28, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said. Mr. Rainsy has been in self-imposed exile ...

At a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday that scathingly rebuked Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling CPP, a U.S. lawmaker called for legislation to cut American aid to Cambodia following the national election on July 28. Representative Steve Chabot, who chaired the House Subcom­mittee ...

Lawmakers in the U.S. and human rights activists are pushing for cuts of more than $70 million in aid to Cambodia if Prime Minister Hun Sen wins the July 28 elections. Many factors have pushed the U.S. to this point be it unfair and unjust, such ...

Lawmakers from the European Union (E.U) are again urging the block’s trade commissioner to investigate Cambodia’s Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) over a raft of alleged rights abuses and consider revoking the duty free access their owners currently enjoy to member states. Going mostly to industrial ...

The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) has submitted a new law to the National Assembly for consideration that would institute a minimum monthly wage of $150 for garment workers and $250 for civil servants, the newly formed opposition party announced at a press conference yesterday. The ...

Less than 30 per cent of complaints filed to the government’s National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution (NALDR) throughout 2012 were resolved, according to its annual report released yesterday. According to the document, distributed yesterday at the NALDR annual convention, the government body, which comprises representatives ...

The US Congress has averted the “fiscal cliff” by passing a number of budget agreements, and Cambodian politicians and observers say the experience is a good example of compromise between two sides. Cheam Yiep, a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and head of ...

Cambodian politicians have begun a public campaign to defend their records on land policies, as they prepare for the run-up to July elections. Politicians from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, as well as the opposition Sam Rainsy and Human Rights parties, have said they will give ...

WASHINGTON DC – Seven opposition lawmakers say they have found new ways to reduce the national debt and are requesting that the National Assembly’s finance committee meet with them before drafting the 2013 national budget. The lawmakers, from the Sam Rainsy and Human Rights parties, say ...

Land disputes are expected to be a hot issue in next year’s election, overshadowing perennial issues such as illegal immigration, destruction of forests, corruption, and unemployment. Prime Minister Hun Sen himself has acknowledged that the government’s failure to resolve the issue will mean handing ammunition to ...

Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and visiting U.S. President Barack Obama met here on Monday to discuss a number of issues including old debt, human rights, democracy and forced evictions in Cambodia, a senior Cambodian official said. Hun Sen also raised the issue of old ...

U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Prime Minister Hun Sen on the government’s human rights record during a closed-door meeting between the two leaders in Phnom Penh yesterday, calling for fair elections and the release of all political prisoners. In the first visit to Cambodia by a ...

President Barack Obama arrives in Cambodia on Monday having just won four more years in office, but that is nothing compared to his host, Hun Sen. The 60-year-old Cambodian prime minister has held power since Ronald Reagan was in the White House, and says he’s ...

The US “pivot to Asia,” which will be punctuated next week with the Cambodian visit of US President Barack Obama, will likely put Cambodia in a tough spot in the region, caught between the renewed focus of the United States and the increased influence of ...

As Barack Obama prepares for the first visit by a United States president to Cambodia this month, the country is reportedly preparing for him too — by hiding street children from sight in Phnom Penh While the government has tidied its streets, protesters have begun camping ...