Residents living along Prek Tnaut river that snakes from Kampong Speu to Kandal say they have mostly stayed away from using the polluted river, but are now seeing it turn an oily black color and smell noxious.
Watching from outside the Sokha Hotel, activists and human rights defenders in Cambodia and Myanmar shrugged: As usual, they said, it was doubtful the yearly summit would lead to any material change for their situations.
Cambodian activists and opposition politicians made a last-ditch effort to catch the attention of U.S. President Joe Biden before he arrived at the Asean Summit, hopeful that the U.S.’s self-image as a protector of democracy could help elevate their plight.
Meetings played out behind closed doors on the first day of the Asean Summit in Phnom Penh on Thursday as hundreds of workers scurried throughout the Sokha Hotel’s labyrinthic interior to tape down innumerable red carpets and arrange flowers.
STUNG TRANG DISTRICT, Kampong Cham — Workers at a banana plantation where three people died and 66 others were hospitalized in late October are fleeing to their home provinces, fearful that exposure to pesticides stored near their onsite dormitories is behind the deadly incident.
The parallels to 2017’s “death of democracy” have been striking as Prime Minister Hun Sen threatens to dissolve Cambodia’s largest opposition party, leaving Candlelight leaders to grapple with what — if anything — they can do about it.
Floodwaters have inundated a small relocation site inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese residents. The site has no running water or electricity, and a promised garment factory that was supposed to provide the 150-odd families with an employment opportunity remains half finished. To make matters worse, permanent residency cards given to residents are not being recognized by public utilities and private businesses, illustrating the discrimination faced by one of Cambodia’s largest ethnic groups.
A protest drawing several thousand people from across Angkor Archaeological Park took an abrupt turn Friday, when the land management minister said there were no plans for a mass relocation from the park’s Preah Dak commune – days after residents said authorities had told them the opposite.
A popular English teacher at the Australian Center for Education has been terminated after a series of “inappropriate” messages with a former student was leaked on social media, the school said Monday.
Crops have been destroyed and farmers jailed in Chung Plas and Memang, communes straddling the border of two Mondulkiri wildlife sanctuaries. Restrictions appear to residents to be shifting and arbitrary — at the mercy of environment officials on patrol.
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