Four protesters seeking compensation from Phnom Penh’s new international airport development have been put in Covid-19 quarantine without cause, allege their wives, who accuse authorities of trying to silence the protests.
More than 2,000 people have visited a Phnom Penh mental health clinic in seven months, a doubling from last year, many of them suffering insomnia and developing unhealthy habits from worrying that they have Covid-19.
Srey Bandaul, 49, one of the founders of world-renowned art school Phare Ponleu Selpak, died from Covid-19 on Wednesday evening. “He passionately believed in arts as a tool to heal. Arts healed him and made him a more peaceful person. He truly embodied the arts,” the school’s director said.
Phnom Penh police detained 21 people and confiscated a further 132 vehicles Tuesday night as they tightened their crackdown on Covid-19 curfew violators.
Hundreds of Cambodians have been put in tents in the Thai border area, with many more arriving every day, as some have attempted to cross uncleared minefields amid border closures due to Covid-19, a local official said.
Phnom Penh Municipal Police say officers will get serious about enforcement of the capital’s curfew starting tonight, after meting out only “soft punishments,” including confiscating 1,053 vehicles, over the first four days of renewed Covid-19 restrictions.
Crowds of residents armed with sticks blocked an ambulance from bringing a Covid-19 corpse into two villages in Prey Veng province for burial, forcing authorities to take the local ethnic Cham resident’s body to his family’s hometown in Tbong Khmum province.
With just over a year left on a political ban for opposition officials, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he would hand out “rehabilitation” pardons only if it “makes me pleased,” while saying he would stay in power until he “no longer wants to do it anymore.”
Heng Sreynop says she lives in a red zone in Thailand, and fears Covid-19. She says she understands why the borders need to be closed, but it adds to the pressure. “If we wanted to escape, we couldn’t escape. We don’t know where to escape.”
As Phnom Penh officials handed out notices around town about the new two-week ban on dining in at restaurants, food vendors said that despite the seemingly endless Covid-19 disruptions, takeaway-only could still be OK for business.
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