bout 100 chefs and kitchen staff walked off the job at the capital’s NagaWorld casino yesterday as a workers’ strike at the luxury entertainment venue entered its fifth day.
More than 1,000 protesters — the majority of the casino’s workers — rallied outside the front entrance of NagaWorld, repeating calls that management reinstate four sacked food and beverage workers and comply with Arbitration Council decisions that date back years. …
Labour-rights campaigners have criticised the casino for ignoring Arbitration Council decisions and being intolerant of the in-house independent union. …
More than 100 mobile phone vendors protested yesterday outside the Phnom Penh headquarters of bankrupt mobile operator Mfone over their stocks of phone credit recharge cards that are now worthless, as the defunct company has transferred its subscribers to MobiTel, which does not recognize the credit coupons. …
“We spent cash buying Mfone credit, now we can’t sell it because Mfone is bankrupt,” said You Heng, 40, who owns a phone shop in Phnom Penh, and organized more than 100 vendors to protest at the Mfone office on Monivong Boulevard for several hours yesterday morning. …
At 9 a.m. yesterday, more than 200 soldiers, police and military police officers were gathered outside a large mansion on Street 55 in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. …
All were waiting for their promised “ang pao” – red envelopes containing cash usually handed out during Chinese New Year – from Choeung Sopheap, the powerful owner of controversial land development firm Pheapimex and the wife of CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin.
Pheapimex holds a number of economic land concessions around the country, most notably a 316,000-hectare site in Pursat province’s Krakor district where villagers have staged several protests alleging that their land was illegally cleared. Armed military police officers have been deployed to guard the concession. …
Rights groups have long accused government security forces, especially the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, of protecting the private land concessions of well-connected families in a clear conflict of interests. …
Chea Vannath, an independent political analyst, said this practice of private business owners providing money to state employees would inevitably raise questions. “What you see now is the result of the [informal] policy for the higher-ranking [officials],” she said. “So if there is any change, there needs to be a policy from the top that the military and the police have to be independent and not have…financial transaction whatsoever from the business or private sectors.” …
Four garment workers, three of them female, were injured yesterday morning when company and police officials clashed with protesters, union representatives said yesterday.
During the demonstrations for the reinstatement of fired workers and back pay, authorities beat two workers unconscious at a protest in front of the Master and Frank factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, while factory security officers injured two protesters at the Conpress Holdings factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, the union representatives said. …
As more than 100 protesters continued to spend their days camped outside the US embassy appealing for the release of two land activists, a delegation from Amnesty International visited the Boeung Kak Community yesterday to offer support for their fight…
Amnesty International would continue to monitor the case of Boeung Kak villager Yorm Boph nd Borei Keila’s Tim Sakmony. …
As Barack Obama was declared president of the United States for a second term yesterday, about 50 anti-eviction protesters for the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities camped out in front of the U.S. Embassy and appealed for the president’s help in addressing land rights when he visits Phnom Penh later this month.
But hours after the camp was established, roughly 100 riot police with batons and shields moved in under the cover of darkness and removed the peaceful protesters.
“We have come here to congratulate President Obama on his win, and we ask him to intervene and release our activists who are in prison,” said Boeng Kok resident Bouv Sophea, as she and other evictees knelt and prayed outside the embassy holding a large picture of Mr. Obama. …
About 100 residents embroiled in land disputes in Phnom Penh submitted a petition to the U.S. Embassy yesterday requesting that President Barack Obama raise the issue of evictions and reform of the country’s land concession policy when he visits Cambodia later this month.
The plea comes on the heels of a resolution passed by the European Parliament last month, which blamed economic land concessions licensed to agro-business companies for driving some 400,000 families off their land in the past 10 years. …
After the group submitted the petition to the embassy, they marched toward the Royal Palace only to be blocked by a line of police on Norodom Boulevard.
As they stood in front of the authorities the protesters shouted, “We are living under the pressure of this government. Please, President Obama, help us.”
Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Phnom Penh for the Asean and East Asia summits, which run concurrently between November 18 and 21. …
Protesters from both neighborhoods gathered in front of the Phnom Penh Court on Wednesday to demand the release of the three.
Phnom Penh Municipal Court is holding two more land protesters, following the detention of one woman on Tuesday.
The two activists, from the Borei Keila neighborhood, were detained after they appeared for questioning at the court Wednesday.
Am Sam Ath, lead investigator for the rights group Licadho, said the courts detained Tim Sak Mony, an activist from the neighborhood, and Top Kim Hong, the former village chief of Borei Keila…
Two land dispute protesters disappeared yesterday after being stopped by the police and detained while driving from Kratie province to Phnom Penh with a large group who intended to stage a protest in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house.
About 200 villagers from Snuol district traveled to Phnom Penh in the hopes that Mr. Hun Sen would intervene in their long-running land dispute with two rubber companies. But as they were driving through Kandal province’s Mok Kampoul district, police stopped a van carrying a group of protesters and ordered Sless Seth, 58, and Oeu Seth, 60, to disembark, according to villager representative Pit Sdam. …
As the detained men had been in possession of the only copy of the villagers’ petition, which they had hoped to hand to a representative of Hun Sen’s Cabinet, the group protested only briefly in front of the prime minister’s house before giving up and heading back to Kratie.
The villagers are part of a community of about 400 families who have been living in makeshift shelters near National Route 76A in Pi Thnou commune after being evicted in February from 750 hectares of disputed land claimed by the Sovannvuthy and Dai Nam rubber companies. …
Some 100 workers, along with the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, delivered a letter yesterday to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh asking Americans to boycott clothing made by Tai Yang Enterprises.
Surrounded by protesters, CCU President Rong Chhun said that the group was left with no other choice after authorities failed to find a suitable solution for the employees of the Levi’s and Gap supplier. …
More than a hundred supporters of imprisoned Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando gathered at the Preah Ang Dang Keu Shrine in front of the Royal Palace yesterday morning to offer prayers for his release.
Sporting shirts printed with photos of Mr. Sonando, the group lit candles and incense before chanting a prayer calling for his freedom.
Most of the protesters were members of Mr. Sonando’s Association of Democrats, an NGO that has been accused by the government of stoking a secessionist movement in Kratie.
“I think that arresting Mam Sonando has an impact on other people who love democracy,” said Touch Vanna, 60, Khsach Kandal deputy district chief of the Association of Democrats in Kandal province.
“I came to participate to pray at Preah Ang Dang Keu [to push the government] to release Mam Sonando…. He did not commit what the court charged him with.”…
Police released union employee Long Panha last night after taking him into custody during a clash between police officers and workers’ rights representatives near Wat Botum in Phnom Penh in which he was beaten and left bleeding from the head, NGO officials said.
According to Panha…police forced him to thumbprint a confession in which he apologised for instigating the conflict between police and protesters…
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 at Tai Yang Enterprises in Ang Snuol district have been ongoing since May, when workers learned that the factory had changed its name to Tai Nan and became worried that their severance payments would be lost.
Factory officials have said that the name change would not affect the workers’ payments. Additional demands include $15 each for transportation and housing fees each month. …
More than 100 villagers involved in a land dispute with an import-export company in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district protested Sunday against the firm’s alleged attempts to stop them from farming the area, officials and villagers said.
Meas Sarin, one of the protesters, said that about 300 families were accusing the MDS Import-Export Company of encroaching on their farmland in Thmar Dar commune. …
Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong’s visit to meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington was met with a small protest Tuesday from Cambodian-Americans voicing a number of grievances.
Video footage posted online shows a cluster of protesters outside the State Department building in Washington holding up placards with slogans including “We want no dictator,” “No fake democracy” and “Arrest Hor Namhong now.” …
Two new witnesses have been summonsed in the case against former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith, as the victims’ lawyer tries to prove he intentionally shot three female protesters outside a shoe factory in February.
Nouth Bopinnaroath, Svay Rieng provincial co-ordinator for the rights group Licadho, said the “important” witnesses had been called by investigating judge Pech Chhoeut to reassess the controversial charge of causing unintentional injury handed to the former governor. …
Boeng Kak protesters continued their fight for the release of 14 women and one man imprisoned since May 24, delivering a petition to the Senate and the Japanese Embassy on Friday that they hope will spur new intervention in the long-running land dispute.
More than 100 people—including evicted residents from the Borei Keila community—gathered outside the Senate and the nearby embassy shouting “free the 15!” Boeng Kak residents’ representative Bo Chhorvy said the imprisonment of the 15, which came after a peaceful protest against CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s real estate project at the former lake, was unlawful. …
About 100 residents from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community rallied in front of the National Assembly yesterday to demand the release of 13 women sentenced to jail last week and two others now in pretrial detention for opposing evictions resulting from a real estate project owned by a ruling party senator.
The demonstration made good on the community’s vow to continue protesting against the evictions from Boeng Kak even though such activity had led to the arrest of the 15—several of whom had been leading the community’s demonstrations.
Outside the National Assembly, protesters held up banners reading “Free the 15” and “Stop the violence.” “We will continue to protest until they release the 15 people,” said Yorm Bopha, one of the protesters. “We are very worried that the police will arrest us too, but we have no choice. We have to protest to demand their release.” …
Violence erupted yesterday morning during a long-running protest at a Phnom Penh factory that produces clothing for international brands H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss when about 1,000 workers broke the factory’s gate and started hurling rocks to break its windows, protesters and military police officers said.
About 300 police and military police arrived to block the factory’s entrance of SL Garment Processing Company in Meanchey district and dispersed the protesters.
“We all broke the two gates and pushed the motorbikes down. Then we ran away after the factory’s security guards held steel bars to fight back at us,” said Neang Met, 38, one of the protesters. …
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged and then immediately sentenced 13 women embroiled in a long-running land dispute with CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s private company to two-and-a-half years in jail.
The women, which included Heng Mom and Tep Vanny, were among the leaders of the Boeng Kak community’s years-long dispute with Shukaku Inc., Mr. Meng Khin’s firm.
Outside the courthouse, where dozens of people had gathered to support the women, authorities also apprehended two more women involved in the land dispute as well as activist monk Loun Sovath, who was filming a crowd of protesters in front of the courthouse. Police officers prevented journalists from entering the court, and court officials declined to comment after the sentence had been handed down. …
