Imprisoned opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour, allowed to testify in
civilian clothes, is led to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday to
be a witness in a case against CNRP President Sam Rainsy. (Siv
Channa/The Cambodia Daily)
by Khy Sovuthy | December 10, 2016
An imprisoned opposition senator testified on Friday at the trial of opposition leader Sam Rainsy and two assistants that he had not contacted Mr. Rainsy before posting a video of a false border treaty onto the exiled CNRP president’s Facebook page.
The three defendants, all currently in France, were charged as accomplices in crimes committed by opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour when he posted the document—said to contain a key mistranslation of a 1979 treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam—last year.
Khmer National Liberation Front says members sought by both Thai and Cambodian police in Bangkok, fear for their safety
PHNOM PENH
The
leader of an outlawed Cambodian nationalist group has claimed that its
members are being hunted by both Thai and Cambodian police in Bangkok,
and that they are now on the run and fear for their safety.
Sam
Serey, exiled founder of the outlawed Khmer National Liberation Front
(KNLF), wrote in an email to Anadolu Agency late Tuesday that he is
“seriously concerned about the safety of KNLF members in Thailand”.
The
KNLF, which was established in 2012, considers Cambodia to be a
neo-colonial puppet, with its neighbor, Vietnam holding the strings.
Video posted online shows man declaring coup d’etat before listing 30 years of alleged human rights abuses by Hun Sen
World Bulletin / News Desk
Cambodian police
say they are investigating the declaration of a coup against the
government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, but have laughed off any
suggestion of the threat being serious.
A video posted to YouTube and the Facebook page of a Vichea Som on
Sunday showed a man sitting in front of a camouflage-print banner
declaring a coup d’etat before listing numerous alleged human rights
abuses by Hun Sen over the course of his more than 30 years in power.
Members of the Khmer National Liberation Front were sentenced to between
five and nine years in jail at Phnom Penh’s Municipal Court yesterday,
for ‘plotting’ to commit an attack. Hong Menea
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced Sam Serey,
the Denmark-based leader of the anti-government Khmer National
Liberation Front, and 10 other accused members of his group to between
five and nine years in jail for “plotting” to commit an attack.
The 10 besides Serey were arrested in October 2014 over a protest
they planned in front of the Vietnamese Embassy to demand respect for
the 1991 Paris Peace Accords. All have denied “plotting” anything.
For the many who have pinned their hopes on Sam Rainsy and Kem
Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party, it would be a crushing blow for
the delicate alliance to have come so far only to split now.
Yet less than six months from the June 4 commune elections – the most
important test yet of the nearly five-year-old experiment in placing
the downfall of Prime Minister Hun Sen ahead of competing egos – the
still-maturing marriage of convenience has never been so openly
fractious.
From Sokha’s open rebuke of Rainsy’s refusal to leave the safety of
Europe, to Rainsy’s obvious displeasure in giving up the title of
parliamentary “minority leader” for Sokha, never before have the deep
personal differences in the CNRP appeared so at risk of blowing up.
(Last month, Sokha’s daughter even publicly taunted Rainsy as “Peter
Pan” for his perceived childishness.)
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court today is set to hear the cases
of CNRP president Sam Rainsy and two of his Facebook administrators, who
stand accused as “accomplices” in the forgery and incitement case that
saw opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour sentenced to seven years.
Sok Hour was convicted over comments in which he said a copy of a
1979 treaty showed the government offering to “dissolve” its border with
Vietnam. The government accused him of forgery and incitement, saying
the real document used the word “redefine”.
Rainsy and admins Sambath Satya, 25, and Chong Leang Ueng, 20, were
named as co-conspirators because the remarks were posted on Rainsy’s
Facebook page. The two admins have reportedly received asylum in France.
On Facebook yesterday, Rainsy denied involvement, and called Sok
Hour’s conviction “ridiculous”, saying the offending document was simply
a mistranslation.
CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday the party hoped to negotiate
Rainsy’s outstanding cases. But the CPP’s Sok Eysan said Rainsy’s case
was “very tough”, calling him a “dishonest dialogue partner”.
Prosecutors in Mondulkiri province yesterday began questioning
the Dutch boyfriend of Nguyen Tangdung, a Vietnamese national accused of
videoing himself torturing a young boy.
Stefan Struik, 53, was arrested in Kampong Cham province on Tuesday
shortly after Tangdung fled to Vietnam, and has since been held by
police in Mondulkiri. Provincial court spokesman Meas Bros said
prosecutors had begun questioning Struik but had returned him to police
custody in the evening.
Prosecutor San Sopheak said he had not settled on a charge for
Struik, but expected to decide today. “Tomorrow we will know about that,
but at this stage we don’t know yet,” Sopheak said.
Tangdung continues to be held by Vietnamese authorities in Saigon,
where he was apprehended by plainclothes detectives on Wednesday.
Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin said he was unaware of what
progress had been made in talks for Tangdung to return and face justice.
Child Protection Unit director James McCabe said the abused boy and
his family had been sent to a Phnom Penh hospital for a check-up
yesterday, and that all were in good health.
On December 2, King Sihamoni issued a decree pardoning Sokha, who was
sentenced to five months in prison for missing a court appearance
earlier in the year.
PHNOM PENH —
Kem Sokha, the deputy leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, who was granted amnesty by King Norodom Sihamoni late last week on the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen, has said that he shares the same vision of a united Cambodia as his adversary.
On December 2, King Sihamoni issued a decree pardoning Sokha, who was sentenced to five months in prison for missing a court appearance earlier in the year.
Two days later, at a party meeting, Sokha said the pardon had been granted without condition and no deal had been struck.
PHNOM PENH — The use of debt bondage to retain workers in “contemporary forms of slavery” and child labor is widespread in Cambodia’s brick factories and authorities are making no efforts to eradicate the crimes, according to a new report by rights group Licadho.
On Friday December 2, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Licadho published the report “Built on Slavery: Debt Bondage and Child Labor in Cambodia’s Brick Factories”.
The report was based on a study of Cambodia’s main brick production center to the north of Phnom Penh, Kandal and Tbong Khmom provinces. Eleven sites were identified, containing over 100 factories that employed thousands of workers. Around 50 workers, including adults and children, were interviewed between June and August 2016.
Stefan
Struik, left, and a man he identifies as his boyfriend, Nguyen Dung,
appear in a video posted to YouTube in January. Mr. Struik was arrested
along with two Cambodians on Tuesday, while Mr. Nguyen is believed to
have fled to Vietnam, according to police.
A
Dutch national and two Cambodians were taken into police custody in
Kompong Cham province on Tuesday over videos circulated on Facebook
showing the physical abuse of a naked toddler, including torture with an
electric prod, officials said.
Deputy Kompong Cham police chief
Heng Sambath said the men were suspected of involvement in the torture
and rape of a child. He said the Cambodians—Ret Sothy, 28, and Oeu Nat,
25—worked for the Dutch man, who owns a plantation in Mondolkiri
province.
Ten
members of a government-branded terrorist group, Khmer National
Liberation Front (KNLF), who are on trial for incitement, renounced
their affiliations and praised the government on Monday, crediting a
jailed former ambassador to South Korea for their change of heart.
The men were arrested in October 2014
and accused of planning to “incite and cause violence in Phnom Penh,”
though KNLF president Sam Serey claimed they were merely planning a
peaceful demonstration in front of the Vietnamese Embassy.
Eleven
members of the government-branded terrorist group Khmer National
Liberation Front were handed five- to nine-year jail sentences on
Wednesday morning over 2014 plotting charges, even after most renounced
their ties to the group in court.
The men were arrested in October 2014
over plans for what they said would be a peaceful demonstration in
front of the Vietnamese Embassy, but authorities claimed the protest was
intended to sow violence and disorder.
A
former Khmer Rouge ministry official told the Khmer Rouge tribunal on
Monday that she was forced to have an abortion after her husband was
purged from the party.
Boeth Boeun was testifying in a segment
focusing on the roles of the accused—the Khmer Rouge’s second-in-command
Nuon Chea and head of state Khieu Samphan—in the crimes committed
during the Democratic Kampuchea era.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) shakes hands with new Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon (R) during a handover ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Phnom Penh, April 5, 2016
Kicking the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights out of Cambodia is raising worries among the country’s citizens that they will have no place to turn if the rights watchdog no longer has a place in the country.
“Cambodia will be a more authoritarian country without the U.N. office,” a rickshaw driver named Chhun Oeun told RFA’s Khmer Service. “Even now, with the U.N. office here, several human rights activists have been arrested, beaten, and jailed. I cannot imagine how much worse the situation will be if there is no such office.”
Am Sam Ath, a technical coordinator for human rights group Licadho, told RFA that closing the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia would be a loss for the entire nation as it will lose foreign aid and international respect.
The government wants to build a $100 million underwater aquarium along one of the country’s major rivers and is looking to Japan to foot the bill as part of efforts to protect the environment and attract tourists, according to senior officials.
In a post to his Facebook page on Friday, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced the plans, which he said were discussed during a meeting in his office building with Takahashi Fumiaki, president of the Japan-Cambodia Association, and Yamada Sohiko, an architect and potential developer.
Wan-Hea Lee, country representative of the UN Office for the High
Commissioner for Human Rights, speaks during a press conference in Phnom
Penh last month. Hong Menea
Observers yesterday characterised a threat by Foreign Minister
Prak Sokhon to close the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR) field office in Cambodia as a dangerous act of
brinkmanship, with many calling for donors to take a stand.
OHCHR’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government expired last December. Since then, the government has been demanding a controversial rewording of the memorandum placing an emphasis on what it views as an established diplomatic doctrine of non-interference.
Earlier this month, in response to remarks by OHCHR country
representative Wan-Hea Lee reported in the media, Sokhon issued a letter
saying the human rights office’s activities were “not legitimate” while
the MoU was expired.
Prime
Minister Hun Sen took to Facebook on Friday and Saturday to explain why
Cambodia was asking France to draw up a bigger version of the
colonial-era map the government is constitutionally bound to use to
demarcate its disputed border with Vietnam, saying the new map will be
more accurate.
Mr. Hun Sen used his busy Facebook page last week
to announce that Cambodia and Vietnam had just agreed to ask France to
turn the so-called Bonne map mandated in the Constitution—drawn at a
scale of 1:100,000—into a bigger version at a scale of 1:50,000.
A Cambodian police officer takes a selfie, later released online, with
Guido Eglitis, center, after he was arrested in Siem Reap province on
October 24, 2015.
An Australian fugitive who recently finished a year-long prison sentence in Siem Reap province for stealing a passport and camera while posing as an Interpol agent was working at the behest of an Australian police detective, emails show.
Guido Eglitis, 69, a private investigator who went by the alias James An, was arrested and charged with robbing British national David Scotcher, then the director of Learn4Life school, in October of last year.
Less than a month after a ban was announced on surrogate pregnancies, an Australian and Cambodian nurse and Commerce Ministry official were arrested by anti-human trafficking police in Phnom Penh on Friday evening for operating a surrogacy clinic, officials said on Sunday.
Keo Thea, chief of the city’s anti-human trafficking bureau, said that Australian national Tammy Davis-Charles, 49, who is listed as director of the Fertility Solutions PGD clinic, was detained on Russian Boulevard while she was traveling toward Phnom Penh International Airport after being monitored for 10 months.
FILE - Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks on Tuesday, September 20, 2016
during the inauguration of first-Japanese private hospital Sunrise in
Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district. ( Leng Len/VOA Khmer)
In a shock result that contradicted months of polling data and media
consensus, Trump will take up residency in the White House with
Republican majorities in the Senate and Congress.
PHNOM PENH —
Prime Minister Hun Sen and Cambodia’s senior opposition leader on
Wednesday congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential
election.
“I would like to congratulate His Excellency Donald Trump for achieving
victory in the US presidential election,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
FILE - Prison authority push Ny Sokha, Adhoc's head of monitoring, into a
car after the appeals court had announced its verdict on September 02,
2016. (Kann Veichika/VOA Khmer)
The Court of Appeals denied the bail request, which was made on a
number of grounds, including affects on the defendants’ health, after a
brief hearing.
PHNOM PENH —
A Cambodian court on Friday turned down a bail request from four
human rights workers and an election official who were jailed earlier
this year on corruption-related charges.
Ms. Tep Vanny, Beung Kok land rights activist, is escorted by police
officers at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh, on Thursday, November 17,
2016. (Kann Vicheika/VOA Khmer)
19 November 2016 VOA Khmer Kann Vicheika
Ms. Tep Vanny, Beung Kok land rights activist, is escorted by police officers at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh, on Thursday, November 17, 2016. (Kann Vicheika/VOA Khmer) Share
A senior North Korean diplomat has seized on the current dispute between the U.N.’s human rights office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to blast the U.N. for its regular criticism of Cambodia’s woeful human rights record.
Hwang Chol, a deputy director in North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, rebuked the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia in an interview with the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Reiterating a statement released by Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry earlier this month, he said the U.N.’s human rights body was violating the “principle of respect for sovereignty and non-interference in domestic affairs” in its work in Cambodia.
The Cambodian community in Atlanta has struggled with high unemployment and low access to education and healthcare.
WASHINGTON —
Cambodian-Americans have expressed hopes that President-elect Donald
Trump can address their economic and social concerns and strengthen US
foreign policy towards Phnom Penh.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has voiced his approval at Trumps victory over
Democrat Hillary Clinton, along with a number of other authoritarian
world leaders, prompting analysts to worry that a Trump presidency could
reshape foreign policy to downplay human rights concerns.
Nem Chhoeung, president of the Khmer Town Association in Atlanta, GA,
said he was concerned, “especially for minority groups like ours.”
“We are concerned about more deportation of immigrants, because he seems to be tough on that,” he said.
New York: A report which has surfaced online
together with convincing imagery suggests that Donald Trump has been
shot dead in the USA where he was addressing a campaign rally. The
report is however a hoax.
According to our sources within the Republican Party in the USA, the report is malicious false, and is pure satire.
The report aims to inflame relations between Republicans and Muslims,
as Trump has repeatedly accussed Muslims of being terrorists.
No major news outlets are carrying the same story either.
The report below first appeared online, before going viral.
A chilling Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) report circulating in
the Kremlin today is that US presidential candidate Donald Trump has
been targeted for death by either an individual or group who are in
possession of a micro electromagnetic pulse (EMP) “device/weapon” that
over the past month has twice been detected being used in the United
States against him.
According to report,Presidential candidate Donald Trump has been shot
twice and has survived the gun shots as he is said to be currently
recovering well at Livingstone Medical Center.
”A 24-year-old Muslim man just came from nowhere and shouted ”its now
time for revenge” before he shot Donald Trump twice,resulting in him
falling to the ground.”, said an eye-witness.
”We told him to stop preaching hatred and he never listened,now he
has just tasted own medicine”,said Hillary Clinton during a BBC news
interview.
According to reports,the 24 year old Muslim man (name withheld) was
later shot and killed by Mr Trump’s bodyguards soon after he shot Mr
Trump.
ANGKOR
CHUM DISTRICT, Siem Reap province – Authorities say they are continuing
to investigate the murder of political analyst Kem Ley, who was shot
dead in Phnom Penh four months ago today in what many believe was a
political assassination.
But here in the home commune of the suspected killer, Oeuth Ang, one gets the sense that police are doing nothing.
Oeuth
Ang is escorted through the Phnom Penh municipal police headquarters
during a press conference on July 10. (Khem Sovannara)“After
the shocking event happened they came, but since that, nothing,” said
Ket Hann, 32, a cousin of Mr. Ang, 43, who lived a few minutes away down
the winding dirt tracks of Nokor Pheas commune.
Cambodia
is on track to miss a critical 2025 deadline to clear its minefields
because it is spending too much money and manpower on land with few or
no mines, according to a new report that warns of “disastrous” consequences if the country fails to meet the target.
When
Cambodia signed the U.N.’s Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in 2000,
it made a pledge to clear its anti-personnel mines over the next 10
years with the help of international donors. Far from the goal, it won
an extension to 2019. With that target also out of reach, it is expected
to get another extension to 2025.
But
to meet it, the report says, Cambodia will need to significantly narrow
and shift its focus to the densest and deadliest minefields, changes
the government’s lead demining authority seems reluctant to make.
FILE - Cambodian opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour (L) of the Sam Rainsy
Party (SRP) is escorted by police officers at the Municipal Court in
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 02 October 2015.
Senator Hong Sok Hour was arrested in August last year after posting online what he claimed was part of a treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam that he said was evidence of Vietnamese transgressions. PHNOM PENH —
A court in Cambodia has sentenced an opposition senator to 7 years behind bars for offenses he was said to have committed during a campaign last year against alleged Vietnamese encroachment on Cambodian territory.
Senator Hong Sok Hour of the Sam Rainsy Party, who holds French citizenship, was arrested in August last year after posting online what he claimed was part of a treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam that he said was evidence of Vietnamese transgressions.
The
commander of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit denied on Tuesday
that three soldiers who served a year in prison for beating opposition
lawmakers ever belonged to the unit, despite their association being
widely discussed publicly and in court.
“They are not involved
with the bodyguard unit,” said Hing Bun Heang, head of the unit, when
asked about the officers. “Sorry, they aren’t involved with me,” he
added, declining to comment further.
Chay Sarith, 33, Mao Hoeun, 34,
and Suth Vanny, 45, admitted in court to attacking CNRP lawmakers Nhay
Chamroeun and Kong Saphea outside the National Assembly in October last
year.
During their trial, Mr. Hoeun testified that he had gone to a
protest outside the Assembly to “collect information” as a member of
the bodyguard unit’s “intelligence group,” though he refused to say who
gave the order or identify his commanding officers.
Cambodia
recorded almost $1 billion less in wood exports than the rest of the
world reported receiving from the country between 2005 and last year,
according to figures the countries supplied to the U.N.
From 2005
to last year, Cambodia’s National Institute for Statistics reported
about $338 million worth of exports in wood—including rough wood, fuel
wood, wood chips, charcoal as well as articles of wood such as
kitchenware—to the U.N. Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade).
During
the same period, other countries reported importing almost $1.3 billion
of the same goods, suggesting that almost three-quarters of the global
trade value in Cambodian wood was not captured by the government’s
figures. Vietnam accounted for over half of the import value, while
China captured about a third.
Minister of Defence Tea Banh arrives at a celebration of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces’ 63rd anniversary yesterday. Heng Chivoan
Wed, 9 November 2016 Mech Dara and Shaun Turton
Marking the 63rd anniversary of Cambodia’s armed forces, Defence Minister Tea Banh yesterday called on troops to protect the country from “colour revolutions” and “social turmoil”, a by-now familiar refrain that may say as much about Cambodia’s military history as its political present.
Speaking at the Ministry of Defence, Banh told top military brass and officials that the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces must “work with relevant authorities to protect security, public stability, prevent social turmoil and colour revolutions and strengthen democracy”.
Though the minister said the military’s role was to protect the “legitimate government”, his evocation of internal threats to the country appeared, yet again, a thinly veiled message to political opponents of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.
CPP social media official Som Soeun exits the Phnom Penh Municipal Court
yesterday after winning a defamation case against opposition leader Sam
Rainsy. Niem Chheng
Wed, 9 November 2016 Niem Chheng
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday found Cambodian National Rescue Party president Sam Rainsy guilty of defamation for claiming Prime Minister Hun Sen and his social media team artificially bolstered the premier’s “likes” on Facebook.
Rainsy was convicted of defaming Som Soeun, a CPP official attached to the prime minister, by accusing him of ordering CPP members and state employees to create “fake accounts” to like the premier in a Facebook post on March 9.
Opposition
Senator Hong Sok Hour was sentenced to seven years in prison on Monday
for forgery and incitement after presenting a border treaty on Facebook
that the CNRP says merely contained a mistranslation.
As part of a
provocative CNRP campaign last year aiming to expose Vietnamese
incursions into Cambodian territory, Mr. Sok Hour appears in a video
posted online in August presenting a doctored copy of a 1979 border
treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam that the senator later said he had
downloaded from Google years before.
Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour is escorted into the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh in June. (Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily)
Presiding
Judge Ros Piseth said Mr. Sok Hour was guilty of incitement, forging a
public document and using a forged document, handing him a seven-year
prison sentence. Mr. Sok Hour was absent from the sentencing—as were his
four lawyers.
In their place, several CNRP lawmakers were at the
Phnom Penh Municipal Court, including Son Chhay, who railed against the
verdict.
Opposition
leader Sam Rainsy was found guilty on Tuesday of defamation for claims
that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his social media team purchased Facebook
“likes” from so-called “click farms” overseas in order to bolster his
apparent support.
Mr. Rainsy was ordered to pay a 10 million riel
(about $2,500) fine and 15 million riel (about $3,750) in compensation
in a decision handed down by Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Im Vannak.
Som
Soeun speaks to reporters outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in
March after being questioned over a complaint he filed against
opposition leader Sam Rainsy over fake Facebook ‘likes’ claims. (Siv
Channa/The Cambodia Daily)
Judge Vannak also
said the decision would be broadcast for three days through the media,
though it was not immediately clear how this would be enforced.
The judge said that Mr. Rainsy had damaged the honor of Som Soeun, a government minister involved in the premier’s social media outreach efforts who filed the lawsuit.
He
did not say whether the court had investigated the veracity of the
claims that the ruling party had purchased fake likes, but said that a
message from Mr. Soeun instructing party members to help boost Mr. Hun
Sen’s online popularity had been manipulated by Mr. Rainsy.
The
CNRP president currently faces a two-year prison sentence over a
separate defamation case, but was officially exiled from the country
last month. He said in an email on Tuesday morning that he stood by his
claims.
People use chainsaws to cut a rosewood tree in Siem Reap on Sunday for transportation. Apsara Authority
Tue, 8 November 2016 Niem Chheng
A 100-year-old rosewood tree felled by the Apsara Authority after it was found partially cut was impounded by the Forestry Administration in Siem Reap on Sunday, with a forestry official and an activist questioning the necessity of the move.
The Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor Archaeological Park, said it cut down the 90-centimetre-thick tree after finding it partially sawn into by others. On its Facebook page, the authority said it removed the tree to prevent it from falling on pedestrians and to ensure that illegal loggers did not succeed in taking the endangered and valuable wood.
However, Tea Kimsoth, director of the Siem Reap Forestry Administration, indicated that it wasn’t necessary to fell the tree, adding that his authorities confiscated the luxury log.
LAS
VEGAS (AFP) – Floyd Mayweather accepted an invite to watch Filipino
icon Manny Pacquiao’s World Boxing organization (WBO) title fight on
Saturday, leaving many wondering if a request to step back in the ring
would be next.
Mayweather
had a front row seat at the Thomas & Mack Center to watch Pacquiao
easily beat former champion Jessie Vargas with a unanimous decision
victory.
Pacquiao
said on Sunday that he is eager to avenge his 2015 loss to Mayweather
and he doesn’t feel the contract negotiations would be nearly as
acrimonious as they were for the first fight, which became the richest
in boxing history.
“Not
only for myself, but the fans of boxing want the rematch then why not?”
Pacquiao told a group of reporters at his luxury suite at the Wynn
hotel and casino. “We can easily talk about that it is not a problem.
“Because we now have direct contact to them it would be easier to talk about when there will be a rematch.”
Sam Rainsy Party Sen. Hong Sok Hour is escorted from the supreme court
back to Prey Sar Prison where he is being detained, June 22 , 2016.
Exiled Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Sam Rainsy rallied to the defense of an opposition lawmaker sentenced to a seven-year prison term on Monday for posting a disputed copy of the border agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam on Facebook in 2015.
On Monday the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found Senator Hong Sok Hour guilty of forging and publishing public documents, and of incitement to cause instability, when he posted a disputed copy of a 1979 Cambodia-Vietnam treaty on Facebook that said the two countries had agreed to dissolve their mutual border.
Hong Sok Hour and his legal team refused to show up at the court on Monday.
One of his attorneys, Meng Sopheary, told RFA’s Khmer Service Hong Sok Hour and his legal team boycotted the proceedings because they are unjust, as the team was prevented from presenting evidence that showed the lawmaker was innocent.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court judge Ros Piseth said the court found moot Hong Sok Hour’s requests to summon experts on border issues.
Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during the inauguration of the
Sunrise Japan Hospital in Phnom Penh in September. (Siv Channa/The
Cambodia Daily)
by Kuch Naren | November 8, 2016
Prime Minister Hun Sen is drawing up a list of political analysts who mistakenly grouped him and Donald Trump with dictators like Robert Mugabe and Vladimir Putin, he said on Monday.
“Now I have to send Donald Trump what they all said, whether he wins or loses,” Mr. Hun Sen said of the notoriously litigious businessman.
The prime minister said on Thursday that he wanted the U.S. Republican presidential candidate to win today’s U.S. election because Mr. Trump “would not want to have war.”
A flurry of media attention quickly lumped Mr. Hun Sen’s endorsement with several ruling autocrats, including Mr. Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Mr. Putin of Russia and Kim Jong Un of North Korea.
But speaking to 3,800 graduating university students in Phnom Penh on Monday, Mr. Hun Sen said that he had merely offered his analysis, not an endorsement, and that pundits had been too quick to group him and Mr. Trump with autocrats.
FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shows the way to
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during a welcome ceremony outside
the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016.
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
08 November 2016 Neou Vannarin VOA Khmer
Manila’s realignment would have negative consequences for US influence in the Asean region diplomatically and economically, analysts said. PHNOM PENH —
When Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced in China that “America has lost me,” he became the most recent leader within the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to align with Beijing.
Duterte went one better in his speech on October 20 in China, proposing that an alliance between Manila, Beijing and Moscow could follow now that he had announced his “separation from the United States.”
UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) country
representative Wan-Hea Lee speaks during a press conference in Phnom
Penh last month. Hong Menea
Tue, 8 November 2016 Jack Davies
The United Nations is standing behind Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) country representative Wan-Hea Lee after a letter signed by Foreign Minister Prak Sokhon accused her of failing to respect Cambodia’s sovereignty.
Sokhon had taken umbrage at Lee’s public request for an explanation of the government’s decision to ban opposition leader Sam Rainsy from returning to Cambodia.
The letter, sent last Friday, also alluded to OHCHR’s lapsed memorandum of understanding with the Foreign Ministry, declaring the agency’s activities “illegitimate” until a new one was signed, something Sokhon said the government had made a “firm commitment” to.
Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at a graduation ceremony yesterday on
Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island, where he said his praise of Donald Trump
was not an endorsement. Facebook
Tue, 8 November 2016 Touch Sokha
In a clarification unlikely to affect today’s United States presidential election, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said his recent praise for Republican candidate Donald Trump was not an endorsement.
Hun Sen on Thursday said he wanted Trump to win the ballot over rival Hillary Clinton because he believed the real estate developer and reality TV star’s potential to improve US-Russian relations would be good for world peace.
But speaking to students at a graduation ceremony on Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island yesterday, the premier said his comments were merely an analysis of the election’s possible outcomes.
Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour is escorted into the Supreme Court in Phnom Penh in June. (Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily)
by Khy Sovuthy | November 7, 2016
Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty on Monday of incitement and forgery for presenting a fake border treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam on Facebook.
Neither Mr. Sok Hour nor his lawyer were present at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, but a number of CNRP lawmakers, including Son Chhay, attended the verdict.
After handing down the verdict, Presiding Judge Ros Piseth said Mr. Sok Hour had the right to appeal.
A little over a year since they brutally attacked two
opposition lawmakers outside the National Assembly, three troops from
the Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit walked free on Friday, having
completed the 12-month term of their four-year suspended sentence.
Director of operations at the Ministry of Interior’s general
department of prisons Be Tealeng said Mao Hoeung, Sot Vanny and Chhay
Sarith left Prey Sar prison following a court order on Thursday that
determined their punishment was complete.
“They can go work or do other business like other prisoners can after they leave prison,” Tealeng said.
Two separate traffic accidents left 19 passengers injured and
one dead this weekend in Pursat province’s Krakor and Bakan districts,
traffic police said.
The first accident injured 18 people, leaving 10 badly wounded, Pursat provincial traffic office director Sem Ros said.
The accident took place on Saturday when a lorry transporting oil
sped up to pass a car and collided with a van driving in the opposite
direction. Only one person in the lorry was injured, while 17 people in
the van sustained injuries.
“The injured people were hospitalised at Pursat Provincial Referral Hospital. No one has died from their injuries,” Ros said.
In a separate incident, a truck carrying a rice-harvesting machine crashed into a barricade in Bakan district.
The truck was driven by Chhin Van, 35, from Krang Sbov village, in
the commune of the same name, in Kampot province’s Chhouk district.
The rice-harvesting machine fell from the truck when the vehicle hit
the barricade, killing Nguon Meuy, 26, who had been sitting on top of
it, Ros said. One more worker, Pang Vai, 30, was also badly injured.
After
the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the U.N. human rights office had
“crossed a red line” with its criticism of the decision to exile
opposition leader Sam Rainsy from the country, a government spokesman on
Sunday called the body “illegal.”
Council of Ministers spokesman
Phay Siphan said the local office of the U.N.’s Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), would be operating illegally
until it renewed its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Foreign
Affairs Ministry.
Mr. Siphan said the punishment would be that the government would not pay any attention to the office or its activities.
From
left to right: Suth Vanny, Chay Sarith and Mao Hoeun arrive at the
Phnom Penh Municipal Court for a hearing on May 10. (Siv Channa/The
Cambodia Daily)
Three bodyguards to Prime Minister Hun Sen convicted of viciously beating
two opposition lawmakers last year were released from prison on Friday
after a year in jail and still no sign of a broader investigation into
allegations that the assault was orchestrated by commanding officers.
CNRP
lawmakers Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Sophea were pulled out of their cars
immediately after they left the National Assembly on October 26 and
repeatedly stomped on and kicked in the face and body by several men in
plain clothes.
In the modern history of Cambodia, no country has loomed as large as China. Beijing wields pivotal influence on its smaller and poorer southern neighbor – from providing ideological inspiration and patronage for the Khmer Rouge and its radical revolution in the 1970s, to granting a home in exile for Cambodia’s deposed monarch, to offering investment and legitimacy to Hun Sen’s authoritarian state today. For Hun Sen, China’s “no strings attached” aid has helped war-torn Cambodia build a modern infrastructure, and diplomatic support from Beijing helps him fend off human rights criticism from the West. At the same time, however, Cambodians are increasingly wondering if China’s footprint in their country is too big. Rural communities struggle with pollution and deforestation driven by Chinese resource extraction businesses, not all of which is done according to law, and farmers worry about their livelihoods as China’s expanding system of dams dramatically reduce water flows from the vital Mekong River. Cambodia’s Southeast Asian neighbors and fellow members of ASEAN complain that Phnom Penh now acts as a proxy for Beijing, dividing the 10-nation group on critical issues like the South China Sea.
This project aims to take a systematic look at the way in which Beijing has gained and continues to grow its influence over Cambodia. From military aid to infrastructure investment, to mining and logging and even to immigration, RFA’s Khmer Service will dig deep into this complex relationship.
Myanmar State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi speaks
at a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Nov. 4,
2016.
Myanmar’s de factor leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday that the government is exercising caution about whom to blame for deadly border guard attacks and subsequent violence in Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township, and pledged to conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with the law.
Security forces inundated Maungdaw after the Oct. 9 raids on three outposts near the Bangladesh border, in which nine officers died, to lock down the area and search for stolen weapons.
Local Rohingya Muslims have accused them of arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, arson, and rape. Security forces also cut off access to aid workers and journalists. The government and military, however, have denied that soldiers committed the atrocities.
Chhay Sarith (L), Mao Hoeun (C) and Sot Vanny (R) are shown on their way to Phnom Penh Municipal Court, May 10, 2016.
Three members of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s military bodyguard, convicted of the brutal beating of a pair of opposition lawmakers near the National Assembly last year, were freed Friday after serving only year in prison.
While Chhay Sarith, Mao Hoeun and Sot Vanny were sentenced to four years in prison, three years of that was suspended in what one of the victims called a “very light” punishment.
“I am so disappointed with the early release of the three perpetrators,” Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) lawmaker Kong Saphea told RFA’s Khmer Service.
“The sentence was very light and is not commensurate with the brutality they inflicted on me and my colleague,” he added. “My personal safety and security and that of my colleagues’ are at risk after these men are free.”
Unicef’s representative to Cambodia on Friday strongly urged government departments and NGOs to step up efforts to reduce malnutrition by identifying and refocusing their priorities in a country where 1 in 3 children are stunted.
Action plans to reduce malnutrition among children—which leaves them smaller, cognitively impaired and more likely to become ill—must be re-evaluated so they meet global sustainable development goals to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, Unicef’s Debora Comini told parliamentarians, NGO representatives and university students at an event marking the government’s third annual National Nutrition Day.
Placards held by Muslim villagers, are written in English with good hand writing, revealing the timed movement. Photo: MNA
Date: November 04, 2016
in: Feature, National
Union officials yesterday said they had satisfied the requirements of diplomatic officials for northern Rakhine State in the aftermath of the deadly armed attacks of 9 October.
Union Minister for Border Affairs Lt-Gen Ye Aung, Chief Minister of Rakhine State U Nyi Pu and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs U Kyaw Tin held discussions yesterday morning at the Rakhine State Guest House in Sittway with the UN resident coordinator/humanitarian assistance coordinator and ambassadors of foreign missions. After the meeting, the officials and diplomats visited Rakhine ethnic groups in Mawrawadi Village and Muslims residents of Zawmatat Village, where they were told that the village was peaceful, with no one involved in the recent attacks.
They also visited Alethankyaw, a village of over 11,000 inhabitants. Although the majority of the villagers are Muslims, there are a few Rakhine ethnics. Both groups live together peacefully, they said.
