| The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday sentenced two housing activists to three years in prison each on charges related to incitement in demonstrations. Supporters of Yorm Bopha and her husband, Lours Sakhorn, say they are being punished by the courts for exercising their right to assembly. Demonstrators gathered outside the court as the hearing was conducted Thursday. |
| A US-funded cultural preservation project among Cambodia's Cham Muslims has helped students learn to read and write in their traditional language and script. Some Cham are increasingly looking toward Arabic countries and organizations for support. And while this has caused some worry that the culture and some of its half a million people could fall under the influence of extremist groups, US Embassy officials say the project is not directly a counter-terrorism effort. |
Chan Soveth, a prominent rights investigator, appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday, but he was not detained. Chan Soveth has been charged with abetting the escape of several suspects in a security crackdown in Kratie province earlier this year. Police say he helped several men escape who were wanted in connection with an alleged secessionist plot that has already landed a prominent radio station owner, Mam Sonando, in jail. |
| PHNOM PENH - The leader of the youth wing for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party says he doubts he will get a fair hearing in his lawsuit against Prime Minister Hun Sen and other top officials, whom he says are culpable in the deadly bridge stampede of 2010. “The court can't provide justice because it is afraid of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s power,” Soung Sophorn told “Hello VOA” Monday. |
| In a brief meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday, US President Barack Obama focused many of his words on human rights in general. But he also named Mam Sonando, the imprisoned owner of Beehive Radio, as a particular concern. Mam Sonando is serving a 20-year prison sentence on charges he helped foment a secessionist movement in Kratie province. His supporters say he has been jailed because he is a vocal critic of the government. |
Residents who face eviction from their homes display signs with pictures of U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as they ask for help in protecting their rights during a protest ahead of their visit in Phnom Penh November 18
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PHNOM PENH - Before US President Barack Obama met with Prime Minister
Hun Sen, in what has been described as a “tense” meeting on Monday
night, demonstrators were blocked on the streets of Phnom Penh, where
they had attempted to reach the Peace Palace government building where
the meeting would be held.
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| President Obama arrived in Cambodia late on Monday for the annual ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asia Nations] and East Asia meetings. He met with Cambodian Premier Hun Sen and held what was described as a 'tense' discussion about human rights.
While the government said Cambodia was being 'framed' by such exaggerated concerns, police forces kept demonstrators far from the scene. Say Mony reports from Phnom Penh. |
People display portraits of U.S. President Barack Obama on the roof of their houses
near Phnom Penh Airport November 14, 2012. Around 182 families living around the
airport have been served with eviction notices ahead of Obama's historic visit to the country.
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Khmer PHNOM PENH - Eight residents of Phnom Penh were briefly detained through
Thursday evening, for painting the words “SOS” on the corrugated roofs
of their homes, next to pictures of US President Barack Obama. Their homes are adjacent to Phnom Penh International Airport, and the detainees, who were later released, said they had hoped Obama would see their signs from his plane when he arrives for a series of summits and meetings next week, and help them in a local dispute with authorities over their land. |
Cambodian Buddhist monks chant, offering prayers in front of the Royal Palace for
the late King Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Friday, Oct. 19, 2012.
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PHNOM PENH - Mourners of former king Norodom Sihanouk say they want to see the resumption of the late king’s once popular National Congress, a public forum where people could voice their grievances and raise problems for the state authority to solve.
While the body of the former kings lies in state inside the Royal Palace following his death earlier this month, many of his subjects still remember the congress, one of him best-known legacies. |
King Norodom Sihanouk spent much of his time in China after abdicating in 2004, never went before the court.
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PHNOM PENH - Like many other Cambodians, Pouch Kri reveres the “king
father,” Norodom Sihanouk, who passed away in Beijing last week. But the 74-year-old is also disappointed, he said, because one thing Sihanouk never did was clarify his role in the rise of the Khmer Rouge before the UN-backed tribunal underway in Phnom Penh. |
| The body of former King Norodom Sihanouk was returned to Cambodia Wednesday, guided through the streets of the capital in a funeral procession as throngs of onlookers and mourners crowded the streets. VOA Khmer's Say Mony reports. |
| TONLE SAP LAKE, CAMBODIA — Villagers on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, who depend on fishing for subsistence, say their livelihoods are threatened by illegal commercial fishing, which continues after a government ban. And they say authorities in charge of enforcing the ban are being bribed to look the other way. Despite a government ban on commercial fishing across Tonle Sap Lake - |
The 31-year-old artist, who has been deaf and dumb since birth, told VOA Khmer in a
recent interview that the skills have helped him express his feelings through abstract paintings.
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BATTAMBANG Province - At Phare Ponleu Selpak, an arts organization in Battambang city, Ot Veasna has been learning painting for about five years now.
The 31-year-old artist, who has been deaf and dumb since birth, told VOA Khmer in a recent interview that the skills have helped him express his feelings through abstract paintings. Using sign language and an interpreter, he explained the meaning of the painting skills he is honing. |
| Cambodian authorities sentenced Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando to 20 years in jail, on charges related to an alleged secessionist plot.
Rights advocates say there was little evidence in the case, which also saw jail sentences for 13 other people by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. All of them are accused of a conspiracy to establish a separatist zone in Kratie province. |
| Angry protesters gathered before Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday to demand the release of two jailed housing rights activists, performing spiritual rituals to curse court officials in a sign of their growing desperation. Some protesters threw salt and chilies at the court building, calling on Buddha to help victims of land grabs and praying that court officials be "demolished." VOA Khmer's Heng Reaksmey and Say Mony report from Phnom Penh. |
The Boeung Kak villagers have been protesting a 133-acre development project in
northern Phnom Penh since 2008, when the evictions began.
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PHNOM PENH - Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions.
This has turned the protesters and government officials into adversaries, leading to increased tensions, the residents say. |
| Amid tight security and crowds of protesters Tuesday, Phnom Penh Municipal Court opened a hearing against Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando, who is facing charges he tried to lead a secessionist movement against the government. Mam Sonando, 71, whose Beehive Radio is one of the few independent broadcast media outlets in the country, testified on his own behalf, in a sweeping case with nearly 100 witnesses. Riot police kept demonstrating supporters about 200 meters away from the court, as it began the highly charged hearing. |
| PURSAT Province - An ongoing ban on large fishing nets for
non-commercial fishing has made life difficult for many families on the
Tonle Sap lake. Residents in the floating villages here say they rely on fish to feed their families, but they are only allowed to use nets 50 meters in length or shorter. The ban, intended to mitigate overfishing of dwindling stocks in the Tonle Sap, is seasonal, but the ban has been extended from the end of July to the end of September. |
A tourist walks past photos of former prisoners displayed at Tuol Sleng genocide
museum, a former Khmer Rouge prison known as S-21, in Phnom Penh.
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PHNOM PENH — The identities of two Westerners whose images were found amid some 1,400 photographs from Tuol Sleng prison remain unconfirmed, researchers at the Documentation Center of Cambodia said.
Two researchers from the center showed the photographs to Kaing Kek Iev, the former head of Tuol Sleng better known as Duch, who is serving a life sentence for atrocity crimes at the UN-backed tribunal, but he was unable or unwilling to say who they were. |
A Japanese oil company, has been granted a rights by Cambodia Tuesday, May 4,
2010 ,to study a survey for possible oil onshore at the basin of Tonle Sap lake, file photo.
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BATTAMBANG Province - Despite a government cancellation of commercial fishing lot permission across the expansive Tonle Sap lake, fishing communities here say bribery of corrupt local officials have meant the illegal practice is actually increasing.
The ban was meant to decrease the rapid overfishing of the lake, a major source of food for much of the country, which has seen its stocks dwindle in recent years. |
| PHNOM PENH - The new US ambassador to Cambodia, William Todd, has initiated an Ambassador’s Youth Council, aimed at engaging young people in issues of national importance. But the new initiative faces a number of challenges, including the attitudes of youths themselves. |
Im Chaem is among the five suspects for further cases.
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ANLONG VENG - Despite some pressure on the Khmer Rouge tribunal to pursue more cases, former Khmer Rouge cadre in the former stronghold of Anlong Veng say they are uneasy with the prospect of further arrests.
One resident here in the district in Oddar Meanchey province, Um Mek, said he always wanted to see Khmer Rouge leaders held accountable for atrocities committed under their rule. |
| This week Southeast Asian leaders have scrambled to reach a consensus on how to handle territorial disputes in the South China Sea. VOA Khmer's Say Mony and Pin Sisovann report. |
Human sculls are displayed in the stupa of
Choeung Ek, a former Khmer Rouge
"killing field" dotted with mass graves
about nine miles (15 kilometers) south
of Phnom Penh,
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ODDAR MEANCHEY Province - In an effort to prevent future atrocities like those conducted under the Khmer Rouge, the Documentation Center of Cambodia has been erecting memorials at high schools across the country. The memorials are meant to prompt discussion of the regime, in hopes of more national reconciliation. One of these memorials was erected last month in the final stronghold of Democratic Kampuchea, as the Khmer Rouge is formally called, in the northwestern part of the country, Anlong Veng, in Oddar Meanchey province. |
David Scheffer, UN special expert to Khmer Rouge tribunal.
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In spite of the recent hurdles faced by the ECCC – ranging from the resignation of international prosecutors and judges and a lack of salary for its staffers – the recent appointment of a prominent academic expert on world war crime as a special expert to the tribunal by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promises the continued success of the court’s efforts. |
| Thirteen women hastily convicted in May after their arrest in a land demonstration were released from jail on Wednesday, following a decision by the Appeals Court. VOA Khmer's Say Mony reports from Phnom Penh. |
| The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal is facing a number of obstacles, from dwindling funds to ongoing criticism of the Cambodian government's hand in the court's decisions. However, David Scheffer, the UN's special expert for the court and a former US war crimes diplomat, says the tribunal is capable of delivering justice for the atrocity crimes of the Khmer Rouge. VOA Khmer's Say Mony interviewed Scheffer on a recent trip to Phnom Penh. |
Son Thann, 58, and now lives in Kandal province was also forced to marry one of the Khmer Rouge soldiers.
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A new documentary film premiered in Phnom Penh on Thursday reveal forced marriages ordered by the Khmer Rouge ahead of the Khmer Rouge tribunal's initial hearing of its four senior leaders late this month.
Red Wedding, which last 58 minutes, follows the current life of a woman who is bitterly describing her sufferings during the Khmer Rouge period when she was forced to marry one of their soldiers. Her unwanted husband raped her under the Khmer Rouge's orders, she said in the film. Pen Sokchan was 16 at that time. |
| Cambodians went to the polls on Sunday to elect local commune council leaders. Election officials said they were happy with the turnout. Many voters said they hoped to see change in local leadership, as they cast ballots mostly for four main parties. VOA Khmer's Say Mony has more from the polling stations. |
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As Cambodians prepare for local elections Sunday, voters say petty corruption in their villages is very much on their mind. Meas Sokim, a motorcycle taxi driver in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district, says he recently spent $10 to obtain his family’s record book from local authorities. That’s the amount he earns in several days as a driver, for a service that should be free, or cost little money, he said in a recent interview. |
Loun Savath said Thursday he is following the teachings of Buddha by defending
human rights and he vowed to continue his activism.
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Loun Savath, a monk and rights activist who was detained by plain clothes security officials Thursday, was released that night, after he agreed to sign a letter vowing to stop leading and participating in protests. However, he has promised he will not halt his activism.
Loun Savath was seized while observing a protest by villagers of the Boeung Kak lake development project. He has become a common figure at land protests, vexing Cambodia’s Buddhist leadership. |
 A villager is seen here tying timber to his motorcycle for trading with the logging company as two UN investigator are looking around in the compound of the logging company, April 27, 2012. |
Forestry advocates see more youth engaging in environmental protection, especially in forest communities where illegal logging is rampant.
“Previously, only elder people from the ages of 30, 40 or 50 up stood up to protect their forests, but recently more younger people have been participating in the anti-illegal logging movement,” Chhim Savuth, a community empowerment officer of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, told “Hello VOA” on Monday. |
Japanese entertainer Neko Hiroshi, left, poses with Cambodian winner Em Buntin
after a half marathon Saturday, June 18, 2011 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The
Japanese finished second. More than 1,000 Cambodians and foreigners took part
in the running, celebra
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Controversy is looming in Cambodia over the government's choice of Olympic marathoner, a Japanese-born comedian with Cambodian citizenship. The International Association of Athletics Federation said this week that the comedian, Takizaki Kuniaki, would not be considered eligible because he has not been a Cambodian citizen long enough. But Cambodia’s fastest marathoner, Hem Bunting, is not being considered either. |
| Family members and supporters of Chut Wutty, the conservationist who was shot dead in a remote region of Koh Kong province last week, say they will continue his work and seek to protect what remains of Cambodia's dwindling forests.
The shooting, which also saw the death of a military police officer, has underscored the dangerous work of activists in the arena of illegal logging and deforestation. |
In their search, however, the miners expose themselves to the risks of dust,
mercury and other chemicals used to purify gold. |
Poor villagers are increasingly looking for gold in a remote province of Cambodia following the recent skyrocketing price of the precious metal. But in their rush to find this buried fortune, they are at great risk of dangerous chemical exposure and malaria.
Phon Pheak and a few of his family members came to dig for gold here in Phnom Pang mountain in the village Prey Meas, or Forest of Gold, some 90 kilometers from Ratanakkir province’s Banlung city, with the international price of gold continuing its ascent. |
| Rights groups are calling for a full government investigation into the shooting death of a prominent land rights activist in Cambodia. Chut Wutty, an outspoken critic of illegal logging, died after being shot by military police. His son is asking the international community to find justice for his late father. One police officer also died in the incident which is still under investigation. Wutty's colleagues say the activist had previously received threats. |
| Family members and activists vow to follow a prominent environmentalist's footsteps after his shooting death in Koh Kong province last week. Chut Wutty, director of Natural Resource Protection Group, was shot and killed in a forest while escorting two journalists covering illegal logging. A military policeman was killed in the same incident and the Cambodian government says it will establish a joint committee to investigate. |
About half of Cambodia’s population of 14 million is aged between 15 and 30.
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Cambodia’s youth are often regarded as useful to politicians, but seldom are they given the chance to vie for elections such as those scheduled for this year and next.
This has made them “political slaves,” Yong Kim Eng, president of the People’s Center for Development and Peace, told “Hello VOA” on Monday. “They are just supporters, not decision-makers who can determine their own fates.” |
 at a hospital in Siem Reap. |
Eight-year-old Nan Kini remains in the hospital, after his heart
was repaired recently at a hospital in Siem Reap. He is frail, but he is
alive.
It has been a long journey for the family, one that often seemed hopeless. Nan Kini’s father, Huy Nan, says there were times he wanted to see his son die rather than suffer so much from heart disease. The 42-year-old motor-taxi driver says he could not afford to have Nan Kini treated and often had to borrow money to send him to the hospital. |
| Loun Sivaey has been working for years on this plot of land in Kra Lanh village, Pursat province, 170 kilometers from the capital. Now, a local company has come in to clear her and hundreds of other villagers from the land. The company has brought in bulldozers and security guards. Loun Sivaey says she and others are preparing to resist them. (Say Mony interviews residents in Pursat province.) |
Nearly 200 families were moved here from the city, following a forced eviction at
Borei Keila, a Phnom Penh neighborhood slated for development by the company
Phan Imex.
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Far from the Asean ministerial meetings underway on Monday, victims of forced evictions in Cambodia say they need regional leaders to help enforce human rights.
At a squalid relocation camp at Phnom Bath mountain, where many displaced families live in poverty, Nhim Sopha, 29, told VOA Khmer she needs Asean’s leaders “to help solve the problems, so that I can have a plot of land.” |
China claims the highlighted portion of the South China Sea. Many other governments
also claim all or part of the South China Sea.
|
Political analysts say Cambodia should take advantage of its
chairmanship of Asean this year in disputes over the South China Sea,
but the country is reluctant to do so for fear of a damaging its
relationship with China. Arata Mahapatra, the director of the Center for Asian Strategic Studies in India, told VOA Khmer Thursday that playing the role of neutral mediator would help raise Cambodia’s international prestige at a time when it is seeking a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council. |
An unidentified garment worker lying on a hospital bed with multiple gunshot wounds to her back.
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Victims of a shooting in the eastern province of Svay Rieng last month say they are now living in fear, as local authorities have failed to detain the man accused of shooting them, the former governor of Bavet city.
Chhouk Bandith remains free, after he allegedly shot into a crowd of garment workers who had gathered to protest working conditions at a special economic zone in Svay Rieng in front of Kaoway Sports factory.
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Sok Touch, rector of Khemarak University, on “Hello VOA” Monday.
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The Royal University of Law and Economics has issued a ban on more than a dozen research topics for students, but the head of a local institution says this will only hurt the country’s development.
The ban bars research on topics like drug abuse, land disputes, labor disputes and the stock market, as well as the Cambodian Red Cross, which is led by Bun Rany, the wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen. |
Results from a recent survey of 377 university students in the capital by the NGO
Forum found a majority did not know about the management and usage of those funds.
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Most Cambodian university students have heard of their country’s fledging extractive industry. But with little access to information, few are aware of how revenue from this industry is being managed. Most of this information remains unavailable, and some are now voicing their concerns about corruption and misuse of those revenues. “The news on television tells us little about mining extractions,” student Saing Kanha told VOA Khmer. |
The photographs, which depict life under the Khmer Rouge from a trip Becker took in
1978, will be housed permanently at the Bophana Center in the capital.
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Rare photos taken by American journalist Elizabeth Becker are now on display in Phnom Penh.
The photographs, which depict life under the Khmer Rouge from a trip Becker took in 1978, will be housed permanently at the Bophana Center in the capital. “I wanted an institution in Cambodia to have these copies for history,” said Becker, who covered the war in Cambodia for the Washington Post and authored a book on the Khmer Rouge. |
Khmer Rouge prison survivor, Chum Mey, sells books and magazines
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The United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal in Cambodia has ordered the Khmer Rouge’s main jailer to spend the rest of his life in prison for crimes it says were “among the worst in recorded history.” The tribunal said Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch oversaw a “factory of death” in the 1970’s at the feared Tuol Sleng Prison, where an estimated 14,000 people died. The prison itself, called “S-21” by the Khmer Rouge, is now a museum. One of two former inmates, Bou Meng sits outside the Tuol Sleng Museum selling copies of his biography, "A Survivor From Khmer Rouge Prison S-21". |
Khmer Rouge survivor Chum Mey, 81, right, talks to reporters as another survivor
Bou Meng, 70, left, listens at Choeung Ek stupa, former Khmer Rouge killing
field in the outskirt of Phnom Penh, file photo. |
Bou Meng and Chhum Mey spend less time at the trial of Khmer Rouge
leaders these days, and more time at the torture center they both
survived. The two men sit at the Tuol Sleng musuem, the former prison known the Khmer Rouge as S-21, selling the stories of their lives to tourists. The men say they are not happy to do so, but they have no choice if they want to earn a living. |
Him Sothearoth, (far left) is a 4th year student of International Studies at Royal
University of Phnom Penh with Cheang Sokha, executive director of Youth
Resource Development Program, on "Hello VOA" program on Monday.
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Cambodian youth need better knowledge and skills to compete within the Asean marketplace, as the region becomes more closely integrated, youth advocates say.
“It is difficult for individual young people, especially those in the countryside, to know what the job market demands, because their understanding of Asean is still limited,” Cheang Sokha, executive director of the Youth Resource Development Program, told “Hello VOA” Monday. |
| Cambodia is a member of the Mekong River Commission, alongside Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.But there are two countries that also have great influence over the Mekong—Burma and China—who remain mere partners in official discussions over the use the river.The relationship between the commission, Burma and China has come into sharp relief in recent months, as plans for the development of hydroelectric dams |
