ការារាំងក្រុមបាតុករមិនអោយចូលបាតុកម្មនៅទីលានប្រជាធិប្បេយ្យ

The crackdown waltz

Unimpeded gatherings in the capital over the past two days, following the arrest of 11 activists on Tuesday, have brought the government’s seemingly selective enforcement of a ban on protests into sharp relief.

Yesterday, a day after people gathered in the capital for a remembrance ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the murder of union activist Chea Vichea, dozens of activists marched through Phnom Penh to deliver petitions to seven foreign embassies.

More violence at Freedom Park

Security forces beat protesters with truncheons and stunned them with electric cattle prods as more violent clashes broke out in Phnom Penh this morning between authorities and protesters trying to gather in Freedom Park.

One of a number of clashes in and around Freedom Park was sparked by a protester kicking a helmeted security guard in the groin near Naga bridge, prompting authorities – which included municipal security guards and military police – to charge at a group of protesters and beat them with truncheons.

GMAC calls for factories to shutter

As workers protest in their thousands, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) this morning strongly urged its member factories to close for the rest of this week, fearing strike-related violence.

“If the workers are working in the factories, some bad elements of the demonstrators will go around and destroy your factories gates and properties in order to force the workers out to join the demonstration to demand a wage of US$160,” reads a letter sent by email and obtained by the Post. “It is safer if there are no workers in the factories.”

Protest paths converge

Drawing on leader Sam Rainsy’s deep connections to the labour movement, the Cambodia National Rescue Party announced plans to mobilise strikers at factories this morning and lead thousands on marches around Phnom Penh.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said last night that elected lawmakers would be sent to factories to meet workers striking over the garment sector's minimum wage.

Accident tally still high: govt

The number of fatalities associated with road accidents in Cambodia remains stubbornly high in an early assessment of traffic accident data for the first 10 months of 2013.

According to a report produced by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and obtained by the Post yesterday, 1,727 people have died in road accidents up until November, only eight deaths fewer than the same period last year.

Monivong blockage goes on

Boeung Kak villagers, backed by monks from the Independent Monks Network, blocked Monivong Boulevard for the third straight day yesterday as they continued their protest over compensation they say they were forced to accept when evicted from their land in 2008.

Unlike the situation at Tuesday’s roadblock – which saw security forces beat up two protesters and a monk – there was little police presence in evidence yesterday, even as protesters burned tyres in the street and shouted through a megaphone at officials inside Phnom Penh’s Municipal Hall.

CNRP softens talk conditions

The opposition has said it has not set any preconditions on the content of cross-party talks expected to be held next week with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in an agenda submitted yesterday.

But opening the talks to the media and international arbitration was important to build trust between the two parties and the public, Cambodia National Rescue Party leaders stressed.

CNRP president Sam Rainsy said yesterday that while international arbitrators should be present at the meet, what had earlier been cast as firm preconditions for dialogue could now be part of the debate.

A confronting force on streets

As protests against land grabbing have increased in Phnom Penh in the past five years, so too have violent crackdowns by the authorities.

Police have been criticised for their treatment of protesters – which has included beatings with electric batons and kicks to the stomach of pregnant women.

But in recent years, activists and NGOs say, private security guards employed by the Daun Penh district have increasingly been the ones inflicting violence on the predominantly female groups of activists.

‘Face’ seen in tamarind sprout

A tiny tamarind tree that sprouted from the ground on Tuesday has lit the superstitions of a growing network of residents in the capital’s Sen Sok district who believe it resembles a human face.

Phann Srey Phen, 31, discovered the tiny 10-centimetre “magic” tree in the corner of a room in her house in Teuk Thla commune.

“When I saw it, I felt it smile and dance at me, waving from side to side, so I called my neighbour to come see it,” Srey Phen said yesterday.

KRT wraps up first sub-trial

Co-defendants Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan – regarded as the most senior surviving members of the Khmer Rouge – yesterday maintained their absolute innocence for the crimes of the regime.

Delivering their closing statements at the tribunal during the last day of hearings in the first sub-trial and their final chance to defend themselves before the chamber delivers a verdict, the accused flatly denied responsibility for the criminal charges.

Outsider party urges CNRP to ‘take a seat’

The head of the tiny Khmer Economic Development Party (KEDP), which failed to win a single seat in the July 28 elections, yesterday called on the opposition to take its 55 seats at the National Assembly and form a coalition with the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

Businessman Huon Reach Camroeun, whose party declared during the election campaign that it would win seats in at least seven provinces, said yesterday it was time for the country to unite.

Artefact protection boot camp

Seeking to further stanch the illegal flow of plundered statues and plaques torn from ancient temples to the world’s black market, officials from Cambodia and the US gathered yesterday for the launch of a three-day cultural property crimes workshop.

“We want to prevent our heritage from being smuggled out of the country,” said Ratanak Kry, professor at the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions and one of the event organisers.

“Before, our prosecutors and judges had no specific training in this area.”

ihanouk remembered a year on

Some of those who knew Sihanouk from close and afar share their recollections as a memorial statue of the late King Father is unveiled in Phnom Penh.

លោកស្រី មូរ សុខហួរ បាននាំយកស្បៀងអាហារទៅចែកជូនបងប្អូនជនរងគ្រោះដោយសារទឹកជំនន់ នៅខេត្តបាត់ដំបង

CNRP ready to talk

Following a high-level meeting yesterday, Cambodia National Rescue Party leader Sam Rainsy said that his party would seek to restart negotiations with the ruling party and possibly join the government.

The move marks an apparent about-turn from a party press conference held on Wednesday when Rainsy threatened a general strike against the “illegitimate” government and said the CNRP’s leverage would be strongest if it remained outside parliament.

UXO deaths, injuries continue to decrease

Deaths and casualties from unexploded ordnance are down significantly this year as compared with the same period in 2012, according to eight-month figures released by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre.

UXO deaths dropped nearly 30 per cent from 2012 – down from 26 deaths in the first eight months of last year, to 19 deaths over the same period this year.

One side of the aisle

With all 55 elected opposition lawmakers absent, the National Assembly opened yesterday morning with a single party stepping forward to represent the nation.

Despite the opposition boycott and scenes of violence that have erupted across the capital in the past week, what unfolded inside the assembly’s walls was a highly choreographed and sanitised production.

Sixty-eight ruling party lawmakers, along with dozens of high-ranking government officials and diplomats, attended the session presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni. In the afternoon, they were officially appointed during a ceremony at the palace.

Labour monitor to name factories

Responding to deteriorating working conditions in the garment sector, the UN-backed Better Factories Cambodia program is going to make public, for the first time in years, how factories fare against international labour standards, the monitoring group said.

Starting in January, BFC, which is part of the International Labour Organization, will publish quarterly online compliance reports for more than 450 exporting garment factories that have already had two or more assessments and are registered with the program.

Rainsy calls Assembly meeting ‘communist’

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, along with the rest of his party, condemned the opening of the National Assembly yesterday, saying in a speech delivered in Siem Reap that the action violated the constitution and had reverted the country to “communist” rule.

Even as rumours swirled about a fake letter purporting to show Cambodia National Recue Party second-in-command Kem Sokha promising to join the parliament in exchange for key positions in the assembly, Sokha and Rainsy presented a unified front in lambasting the ruling Cambodian People’s Party for refusing to delay the body’s first meeting.