Approximately 150 parliamentarians, government officials, recruitment agency representatives, trade unions leaders, and development partners gathered here on Monday to discuss ways and measures to promote and protect the rights of Cambodian migrant workers.
Speaking at the opening of the parliamentary forum on the promotion and protection of the rights of migrant workers, Heng Samrin, President of the National Assembly, said that migrant workers have actively contributed to developing economy and society and the migrant workers overseas bring home money and skills.
“However, illegal migrant workers are often trafficked and abused sexually,” he said. “Therefore, we need to work together to discourage people from illegal migration.” …
Two senior officials in Preah Vihear under investigation by the Anti-Corruption Unit have been removed from their posts, including a tax officer who it is alleged had gotten away without officially stamping tax forms for an entire year, the ACU announced on Friday…
“We found that there were no taxation stamps for the whole year, but [he] just released the invoices,” he said…
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday accused unnamed individuals of attempting to grab land in Kompong Thom province by invoking his wife’s name and ordered one of his sons to investigate and give back any misappropriated land. …
According to Mr. Hun Sen, unscrupulous individuals were claiming that his wife Bun Rany and the Cambodian Red Cross, which she heads, had grabbed land in Kompong Thom province. …
Land grabbing by the powerful and government-issued economic land concessions have become a lightning rod for criticism of the ruling CPP government.
Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly castigated the Kampong Thom provincial governor in a speech on Saturday for allegedly claiming a large portion of land and saying it was needed for the local office of the Cambodian Red Cross, an agency lead by Hun Sen’s wife, Bun Rany.
He brought up the provincial governor, Chhun Chhorn, during a ceremony to distribute land titles to citizens in Kampong Chhnang province’s Kraing Leav commune. Chhorn had submitted a proposal, later rejected by the prime minister’s office, that 500 hectares of land be used for the Cambodian Red Cross. …
[Provincial governor Chhun] Chhorn told the Post that nobody controlled the land when he submitted the proposal, but 250 families have set up makeshift homes there now, and their timing couldn’t have been better.
Hun Sen, in the same speech, called on plots to be given to the new residents. …
The seized property of fugitive former ambassador Nan Sy has so far failed to fetch bidders, denying state coffers some $400,000 embezzled by the disgraced official.
The undeveloped 10 by 20 meter plot in Tuol Kork district was put up for auction last week in an effort to recoup some of the $432,876 stolen by Sy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation while he was ambassador to Brunei in 2008.
Defense lawyer for the ministry, Ky Tech, even invited family members of Sy, who was convicted in absentia last year but fled overseas, to make a bid for the land if they thought the price was good. …
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has summoned for questioning two human rights workers who have lodged court complaints against local officials for disrupting their land-rights workshop in July.
Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, and Chhim Savuth, a project coordinator for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), filed separate law suits over the July 26 meeting they were hosting for local villagers in Lumphat district’s Batang commune. Filed with the court on August 8, the suits accuse Batang village chief Pheng Main of defamation and commune police chief Phlang Mia of intimidation. …
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. …
Indeed, little more than a week after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s edict, Preah Vihear police chief Mao Pov was charged for allegedly firing four to five shots in Siem Reap’s Lok Yen Hotel after a boozy Sunday night dinner on September 30. …
But when it comes to displays of pistol packing displeasure, the undisputed Hall of Fame candidate is Teng Bunma, once described as the “trigger happy tycoon.” He was the first president of Cambodia’s Chamber of Commerce, and he also owned the InterContinental Hotel in Phnom Penh and Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper. …
Owners of the upscale 240 Phnom Penh condo development said yesterday that they have stopped construction, for the time being, in order to ensure the security of the nearby US ambassador’s residence.
“Construction at ‘240 Phnom Penh’ luxury apartments … has been temporarily suspended whilst our team works with the US Embassy and the Governor of Phnom Penh to ensure that the security of the US Ambassador’s residence is not compromised … in light of recent world events and the forthcoming ASEAN summit next month,” said the owner, Elaine Younn, via email. American officials have confirmed that President Barack Obama will attend the summit.
Michelle Bennett, a US Embassy spokesperson, said that she was unable to confirm that construction was halted due to security concerns. …
After calls from their lawyers late last month to speed up the appeals process, three former advisers to Senate President Chea Sim convicted of fraud last year will appear before the Appeals Court on November 7, court deputy prosecutor Tan Senarong said yesterday.
The three defendants – Pheng Kunthea Borey, Ponlork Ho and Khieu Bora – were first convicted last year for creating fake infrastructure and humanitarian contracts in order to take hefty commissions from foreign investments. Recently, however, worsening health problems have led their attorneys to call for hastier appeals, fearing that the trio may be unable to attend their own appeals if proceedings are delaying too long.
Thong Chan Rithy, Ponlork Ho’s defence lawyer, said he had received the summons, but even November 7 might be too late. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen again addressed recent criticism from [Surya Subedi] the U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia , during a speech yesterday in Bateay Meanchey province that focused on land disputes.
Mr. Hun Sen was speaking in Thma Puok district’s Banteay Chhmar commune, where he delivered land titles to 744 families, and warned companies with economic land concessions not to dispute overlapping claims to land with local residents. …
Mr. Hun Sen, who was adding to earlier criticism of Mr. Subedi by himself and other government figures, questioned yesterday why Cambodia always receives bad write-ups over human rights. …
Lying in a hospital bed at Phnom Penh’s Naga Clinic yesterday well-known tycoon Khaou Chuly said that he may appeal to the prime minister to intervene in an attempted murder conviction against his wife that was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Mr. Chuly, 83, has maintained his wife’s innocence throughout the two years that the case has been in court, and said yesterday that the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the guilty verdict against her had shaken him so badly that he had to be hospitalized.
He also said that he believed his son-in-law, Vice President of the Council for the Development of Cambodia Sun Chanthol, would “calm down,” but if not, he would call on Prime Minister Hun Sen to bring justice to himself and his imprisoned wife. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday appeared to add his voice to the strong government reaction against criticism from U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi.
Mr. Subedi last month delivered reports on human rights and economic land concessions in Cambodia to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. His observations have already met with criticism from Om Yentieng, president of the government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee, and spokesman at the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit Keo Remy. …
“I feel sorry that a person came to Cambodia and wrote a report concerning the human rights situation and reflected on whatever he wanted. They have the right [to write the report] and we have the right too, but there is a group that said it is advice from the U.N.,” Mr. Hun Sen said.
“He claims he is a law professor. If he is a law professor, why doesn’t he go to his country to help write a constitution?” Mr. Hun Sen said. …
Villagers took an increasingly vocal stand on land issues during rare opportunities to speak with National Assembly members this past year, according to the National Democratic Institute.
During the most recent town hall-style Constituency Dialogues, started by NDI in 2004 to promote contact between assembly members and communities, almost all constituents focused on land rights, with some travelling dozens of kilometres to voice their concerns, NDI director Laura Thornton said at a presentation on the dialogues report yesterday. …
The report finds that parliamentarians’ responses adhered closely to party lines, with ruling party CPP members stressing that concessions follow the “rule of law” and opposition members decrying foreign companies’ encroachment.
Nevertheless, NDI observed several instances after the dialogues in which members from each of the major parties heeded constituents’ complaints. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at the UN’s human rights envoy to Cambodia yesterday, saying Surya Subedi’s latest report skewed too heavily toward the opposition and suggested his talents might be better employed elsewhere. …
While the premier never mentioned the Nepalese national and Leeds University law professor by name, he made repeated reference to the rapporteur’s recent stinging reports, which were presented at theUN Human Rights Council held in Geneva last month. …
Hun Sen called the conclusions “unfounded”, adding that they reflected only the recommendations of an individual and not the UN as a whole. He also criticised the findings as supported only by civil society and opposition groups. …
Spokesman for the Council of Ministers Phay Siphan said yesterday that he hoped Subedi might take the premier’s words as a recommendation. …
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court will appoint a new judge to process complaints filed by ethnic Jarai minority villagers against a firm owned by Keat Kolney, the sister of Finance Minister Keat Chhon, regarding a land dispute that has now dragged on for more than five years.
Sixty-five Jarai families filed a complaint with the provincial court in 2007 alleging that Ms. Kolney’s firm fraudulently obtained 450 hectares of their land in O’Yadaw district’s Kong Yu village, 250 hectares of which have now been planted with rubber trees.
Judge Lou Sou Sambath, Ratanakkiri Provincial Court president, said yesterday that Judge Luch Lao will be tasked with settling the dispute, bringing to five the number of judges who have been appointed to the long-stalled case. …
Villagers accused of incitement in a long-running land dispute with a company owned by the wife of a government minister did not show up for scheduled questioning yesterday at the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court, officials said.
On September 17, KDC Development company, owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem, filed a criminal complaint against four villagers in Kompong Tralach district for inciting fellow villagers to illegally farm land claimed by the company.
The four accused … submitted a letter to provincial prosecutor Penh Vibol on Tuesday requesting that questioning be delayed until the provincial court has addressed civil complaints filed by 51 of the affected families in the past three weeks.
Mr. Vibol, however, denied the villagers’ request for a postponement and would move forward with criminal proceedings despite the failure of villagers to appear for questioning yesterday. …
A senior government spokesman held an impromptu press conference at the Council of Ministers yesterday to defend Prime Minister Hun Sen against critics and accused the U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia [Surya Subedi] of being biased in his assessment of the country’s electoral process.
In his defense, Keo Remy, spokesman at the Council of Ministers’ Press and Quick Reaction Unit, lambasted unnamed critics of Mr. Hun Sen who had apparently questioned how he could afford such a large house near to Phnom Penh’s Independence Monument. …
Mr. Remy went on to say that Cambodia would be a much more corrupt country if the opposition was voted into power. …
Kampong Chhnang villagers who have been hit with a new lawsuit over property that they and the wife of a senior government official both claim said yesterday that coming to court would be impossible, as they did not have a defense lawyer and needed time to locate land titles as evidence.
When asked for a delay, the court agreed and the provincial prosecutor has given the accused only until Wednesday to locate legal representation. …
The dispute ramped up in 2007, when KDC International, owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Minister of Industry Suy Sem, bulldozed 145 hectares of farmland in Lorpeang village in Kampong Chhnang’s Ta Ches commune without compensating local residents. …
The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has summoned four villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute over charges of alleged incitement and violence involving a company owned by the wife of government minister, a court official said yesterday.
Two summoned vllagers, from Kompong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune, faced similar charges last year but have continued a battle begun in 2007 with KDC company, which is owned by Chea Kheng, the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem. …
The latest legal action comes after more than 70 villagers, who had left the disputed land, moved back in May and began farming their old properties. …
Prime Minister Hun Sen has appointed his personal adviser Kong Vibol as director general of the General Department of Taxation at the Ministry of Economics and Finance, according to the Royal Book entry of August 22.
In addition to his expertise in taxation, Vibol is also secretary of state at the ministry and vice-chairman of the Council for Development of Cambodia.
The Royal Book entry also lists three other senior officials who were upped to the same title of under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Economics and Finance including Sar Theng, the former head of anti-smuggling at General Department of Customs.
