Unregistered Cambodian stuck in immigration limbo

via Khmer NZ09-03-2010By Bae Ji-sookSok SenghorthAn unregistered Cambodian worker, diagnosed with an intractable disease while working here, is stuck in limbo as he is unable to benefit from the state health insurance he desperately needs to cover the huge cost of an operation.Doctors and civic activists in the southern port city of Busan are making efforts to help Sok Senghorth, 29, get a bone marrow transplant to fight the disease. Kosin University Gospel Hospital said Sok was diagnosed with aplastic anemia in May. According to the Mayo Clinic’s definition, aplastic anemia is a condition that occurs when a person’s body stops...

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Cambodia's Human Dump

http://www.joe.ie/via Khmer NZThe authorities have recognised that the dump’s comparatively central location means it could have value for development and as such has started expelling residents and banning scavenging. A new dump has been established further from the centre of Phnom Penh although there too the homeless and the desperate are barred from using it as a means of earning a living.With their homes and income gone and a total absence of anything resembling a welfare system, the former residents have been left longing after the days when they were permitted to live and work on a filthy, smoldering pile of rubbish that...

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Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn wins over his hosts in Phnom Penh with his humility - PM's Office Minister Ong-art builds on thawing relations with

Published: 4/09/2010via Khmer NzMade of the right diplomatic stuffAlongkorn: Show-stealer takes act abroadDeputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot has finally emerged from the shadows and is eager to show what he is made of.Mr Alongkorn recently paid an official visit to Cambodia, the first cabinet minister to have done so since bilateral ties were soured by the diplomatic spat over the Preah Vihear temple.He apparently was determined to turn the visit into an opportunity to showcase his vision as befits a deputy commerce minister.Cambodia was added to a list of neighbouring countries he has called upon to boost trans-border...

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Toxins In The Marketplace

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UN Expert Arrives to Assay Tribunal Progress

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom PenhFriday, 03 September 2010via Khmer NZPhoto: APExtraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, ECCC. Williamson, the former US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, arrived in Cambodia Wednesday night and met with court officials Thursday and Friday. He is expected to meet with Cabinet Minister Sok An, who oversees the court for the government, next week.The UN's special envoy for the Khmer Rouge tribunal has undertaken a series of meetings this week to report on the progress of the UN-backed court and weigh in on future funding.UN Special Expert Clint Williamson told VOA Khmer Friday night...

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EU To Look Into Sugar Deals, Land Disputes

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer | Phnom PenhFriday, 03 September 2010via Khmer NZPhoto: by Heng ReaksmeyVillagers in Kampong Speu protest against Phnom Penh Sugar Company for land grabbing, in May 2010. “Before the EU has agreements with companies in Cambodia, they should investigate whether those companies are involved in human rights abuses, before they take the goods for import into Europe,”Representatives of the rights group Licadho met with European Union officials on Friday, following reports this week that the EU's preferential trade polices were linked to agricultural land evictions.Officials from Licadho and the EU confirmed...

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Groups Prepare Complaints for New Corruption Investigators

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer | Phnom PenhFriday, 03 September 2010via Khmer NZPhoto: APThe Cambodia Independent Anti-Corruption Committee will also file a complaint over a 5-hectare land dispute in Phnom Penh, the committee's president.“All the complaints have the names and IDs of corrupt tax agents, and in each complaint there are about five to 15 complainants,” he said. “All the complaints will be submitted to the Anti-Corruption Unit in late September to stop and punish corrupt tax agents.”At least three local organizations say they are preparing a stack of complaints of graft and misdeeds for submission to the new national Anti-Corruption...

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Licadho Decries Steep Court Sentence for Staff Member

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, D.CFriday, 03 September 2010via Khmer NZPhoto: VOA, KhmerAm Sam Ath is a senior Licadho monitor. “I do not think it impacts the human rights defense process of Licadho,” the monitor, Am Sam Ath, said as a guest on “Hello VOA.” “But what we regret is that the Takeo court convicted Leang Sochoeun without proper evidence, and the verdict also did not comply with court independence and legitimacy at all.”The two-year jail sentence of a rights worker for Licadho will not deter the groups work, a senior Licadho monitor said Thursday.Leang Sochoeun, a staff member of Licadho, was handed the sentence...

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PM's Office Minister Ongart: Cambodian PM Hun Sen ready to talk with Abhisit

http://www.mcot.net/ via Khmer NZBANGKOK, Sept 3 - Thai Prime Minister's Office Minister Ongart Klampaiboon said on Friday Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Thailand and Cambodia are like “tongue and teeth” and that he is ready to hold bilateral talks with his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva in every forum and in any topic.Mr Ongart, the first Thai cabinet member visiting Phnom Penh since diplomatic ties were restored following the return to duty of the ambassadors of the two kingdoms after fugitive ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his advisory post with the Cambodian government.A diplomatic spat...

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PM, Hun Sen set to meet

Ong-art's visit to Phnom Penh helps boost ties Published: 4/09/2010via Khmer NZPrime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen look set to hold talks later this month to build on the improving ties between the two countries.He [Hun Sen] has voiced confidence that Mr Abhisit will stay in the post for a long time and that the prime minister has grown stronger and proved his leadership skills. - ONG-ART KLAMPAIBUL PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE MINISTERGiven the potential meeting of the two leaders, the Defence Ministry is considering postponing the Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) meeting scheduled for Sept 8-10 in...

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Cambodia's Seamstresses Exemplify Global Trends Toward Investment in the Female Market

via Khmer NZBY Jenara NerenbergMasterCard is eyeing the emerging middle classes of women in Asia and Cambodia is as good a test case as anywhere else -- and it offers a CSR branding point. Cambodia has been attracting a fair amount of corporate and "social business" interest in local seamstresses. Socially motivated businesses like Eve Blossom's Lulan Artisans and Elizabeth Kiester's Wanderlust, both for-profit social enterprises that use the talents of marginalized seamstresses, have set up shop here. But now two larger and much more corporate players have entered the scene: MasterCard and the ultra chic Hotel de la Paix, which...

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Alongkorn and Ong-art's Siamese sweet talk visit to Hun Xen

Hun Xen listening to Ong-art's (L) sweet talkDeputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn wins over his hosts in Phnom Penh with his humility - PM's Office Minister Ong-art builds on thawing relations with Cambodia with his own visit4/09/2010Bangkok PostABOUT PoliticsMade of the right diplomatic stuffDeputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot has finally emerged from the shadows and is eager to show what he is made of.Mr Alongkorn recently paid an official visit to Cambodia, the first cabinet minister to have done so since bilateral ties were soured by the diplomatic spat over the Preah Vihear temple.He apparently was determined to turn...

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Hun Sen realises the folly of supporting Thaksin

4/09/2010Kamol HengkietisakBangkok PostThe Cambodian government announced on Aug 23 that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had resigned as a personal adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen and as economic adviser to the Cambodian government, citing personal difficulty in fulfilling the roles. This paved the way for Bangkok and Phnom Penh to restore normal diplomatic relations, noted Nongnuch Singhadecha writing for Matichon.Even though some Thai critics remarked that it was a staged act by Thaksin and Hun Sen and that the Thai government should not put much faith in Hun Sen, Nongnuch believed it was in Cambodia's own interests to dismiss Thaksin as an adviser - otherwise Thailand would not resume normal diplomatic ties.After Thaksin resigned from his positions, the two countries...

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Secret titanium mine threatens Cambodia's most untouched forest

Cardamom Mountain Range waterfall popular with ecotourists. Photo courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.Map of the mining area. Click image to enlarge.American tourists on birdwatching tour led from Chi PhatSpoonbills in flight photographed from helicopter. Photos courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.Forest Cover StatisticsKhmer burial jars (300-500 years old) in one of 12 known archaeological sites in the Cardamoms. Photo courtesy of the Wildlife Alliance.Map of the mining area. Click image to enlarge.September 01, 2010Jeremy Hancemongabay.com Although the mining consortium, United Khmer Group, has been drawing up plans to build a massive...

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[Preah Vihear temple:] A closed case, except for some

September 2, 2010GUY BAKERBANGKOKOpinion sent to The NationPlease let me say that I once lived for about two years less than 10 kilometres from the Preah Vihear Temple, I visited it a number of times when it was open from the Thai side and I was surprised then, as I am now, that it does not legally belong to Thailand as it is almost inaccessible from Cambodia and it does "jut out" from Thailand like a Thai peninsula. All of that, however, is irrelevant.Songdej Praditsmanont quoted the 1962 court decision in part: "The natural inference was that she [Thailand] had accepted the frontier at Preah Vihear as it was drawn on the map, irrespective of its correspondence with the watershed line" (Court never decided on disputed land, 11 Aug). That was the court's decision that Thailand...

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Rights Workers Faced Increased Duress in 2008, 2009: Report

Licadho President Pung Chhiv Kek told VOA Khmer Wednesday the increase was a result of a judicial system that was biased toward the rich or powerful. (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)Heng Reaksmey, VOA KhmerPhnom Penh Wednesday, 01 September 2010 “Most of the violence has happened to community representatives in land grabs and in land violence against the Khmer Kampuchea Krom.”Cambodian human rights workers say they have faced increasing threats and pressure for doing their work over the past two years from police, courts and government officials.In a report issued Wednesday examining the years 2008 and 2009, the rights group Licadho...

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