Bank comes under scrutiny

Photo by: Marisa Reichert A motorbike passes by PHSME Specialized Bank Ltd on Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh yesterday.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/Friday, 01 April 2011 15:03Mary KozlovskiThe chairwoman and majority shareholder of a Phnom Penh specialised bank has been indicted in Canada for allegedly laundering tens of millions of dollars in drug money, highlighting concerns about the Kingdom’s financial regulatory capacity.Cambodian-born Lech Leng Ky, chairwoman and majority shareholder of Peng Heng SME Ltd – a specialised bank that has operated in Phnom Penh for the past decade – is on trial in Montreal with her husband, Chun...

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Strike at sportswear factory continues

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIFriday, 01 April 2011 15:03Mom KunthearAbout 1,000 workers continued to strike for a sixth consecutive day at the 8 Star Sportswear Ltd yesterday, demanding the company pay workers a US$2 per month attendance incentive fee on top of two concessions already made.Phim Chamnan, law coordinator for the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said almost all of 8 Star’s workforce had joined the strike at their factory in Meanchey district’s Stung Meanchey commune and had vowed to continue to do so until the company met their final demands. “The three points that the workers have demanded from the company are an additional $2 more for an attendance incentive and 2,300 riels for food and holiday [leave] for the Khmer New Year from...

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Photo by: Heng Chivoan Riot police provide security yesterday while homes are dismantled in Tuol Kork village, in Russei Keo district’s Tuol Sangke commune.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/Friday, 01 April 2011 15:03Meas SokcheaRoughly 200 armed military police and police from Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district descended upon Tuol Sangke commune’s Tuol Kork village yesterday to enforce a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a former Funcinpec minister, demolishing the homes of forty-two families, who said they had lived on the land for years.“I don’t know where I will live, I have only this spot,” Kun Sunlok, a local villager, said yesterday....

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Hun Sen set to declare assets

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIFriday, 01 April 2011 15:03Vong SokhengPrime Minister Hun Sen is to declare his assets today to the Kingdom’s Anti-Corruption Unit that, though not to be released publicly, is expected to serve as an example for other officials in ongoing efforts to tackle graft. Sar Sambath, permanent member of the ACU, said yesterday that although the contents of the declaration would remain private, Hun Sen would publicly drop off his asset declaration documents today. “By law, documents of the asset declaration by Prime Minister Hun Sen would be kept as confidential the same as other officials, but the process is open for the press to see.”Yet critics have expressed concern over the effectiveness of the confidential nature of the declaration process,...

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Duch: It wasn’t me

Photo by: Reuters Former S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, sits in the courtroom at the Khmer Rouge tribunal on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in July 2010.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:03James O’Toole and Cheang SokhaKaing Guek Eav struck a defiant tone yesterday in his final appearance before the Khmer Rouge tribunal, denying responsibility for his leadership of S-21 prison and asking the court to release him “in order to seek justice and truth for the Cambodian people”.Speaking at the end of three days of appeal hearings before the tribunal’s Supreme Court Chamber, the man...

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Resentment over NGO law spreads

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:03Thomas Miller and Vong SokhengOrganisation representing hundreds of NGOs and associations yesterday came out strongly against the second draft of the government’s controversial NGO law, some threatening political fallout, while the government defended the law.Three umbrella groups, which have represented hundreds of organisations in closed-door negotiations with the government in recent weeks, said they saw “no progress” in the second draft.“The [majority] of the changes are minor and fail to address the fundamental concerns raised by [civil society organisations],” Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project, said in a statement released by the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, NGO...

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Court concludes case over forged passport

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:03Buth Reaksmey KongkeaPhnom Penh Municipal Court concluded its trial yesterday against two Cambodian police officers and a Bangladeshi national for producing a fake passport.Presiding Judge Duch Kimsorn said that Seng Phirun, 48, an officer of the Phnom Penh military police, Ky Sam Ath, 43, deputy chief of the passport police office in the Ministry of Interior, and Sid Dik, 36, a Bangladeshi national, were charged for the production of an illegal passport for a second Bangladeshi man, Na Simorn, 35. Duch Kimsorn said that Sid Dik was arrested on May 14 last year in the Stung Meanchey commune of Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, after complaints were filed by Na Simorn.Ky Sam Ath and Seng Phirun were arrested on...

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Montagnard concerns: HRW

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:03Thomas MillerState-sponsored harassment of Montagnards in Vietnam has increased in recent months, Human Rights Watch said in a report to be released today, raising questions about how Cambodian refugee policy might deal with a new wave of asylum-seekers from the Central Highlands.“Vietnam’s state media has presented the latest round of arrests, beatings, and intimidation as a response to conflicts between rubber plantation guards and ethnic minority highlanders,” the report states.Vietnamese authorities have claimed “success” at preventing hundreds of people from fleeing the Central Highlands illegally for Cambodian territory, HRW said. Vietnam has also received hundreds who were repatriated from the Kingdom.“There...

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Some Tack Fat workers take buyout

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:03Tep NimolFormer employees of the Tack Fat garment factory split yesterday over a compensation offer from the bankrupt manufacturer after a fraction of the more than 1,000 laid-off workers accepted an offer one union representative said amounted to about US$200 each. Ke Soksithiny, a member of the government lead committee overseeing compensation negotiations, said 100 workers had accepted a deal offering three out of the five points of compensation the company is required to pay as stipulated in Cambodia’s 1997 labour law. “The central government does not side with the workers and mistreat the employers; their dispute is like the tongue and the teeth that we must coordinate,” he said. Financial needs during...

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Rice export target given price tag

Villagers harvest rice in Siem Reap province late last year. Cambodia hopes to meet an export goal of one million tonnes per year by 2015. Photo by: Will Baxter http://www.phnompenhpost.com/via CAAIThursday, 31 March 2011 15:01Chun SophalACHIEVING Cambodia’s goal of exporting one million tonnes of rice per year by 2015 will require investments of US$350 million over the next four years, according to a Ministry of Economy and Finance official.“Cambodia currently has the capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes of rice for export, because we lack capital and high-standard rice mills,” said Ministry Secretary of State Hang Chuon Naron...

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