VOD reporters followed the launch of the official campaigning period for the June 5 commune election on Saturday morning. The Candlelight Party held a march through Phnom Penh, while the ruling CPP conducted gatherings within communes. Other parties like the Grassroots Democratic Party and the Khmer National United Party also kicked off their campaigning.
Six sub-decrees signed in the span of a week privatized nearly 10,000 hectares across four provinces, with thousands of hectares going to unspecified families in northeastern provinces and a plot in Ream National Park adding to land tycoon Khun Sea’s property empire.
Fifteen individuals are being questioned by prosecutors following their arrests for the alleged illegal mining of marble in Stung Treng province.
Amid disquiet over a policewoman being made to apologize for breastfeeding at work, police explained that she had failed to ask permission before posting a photo to social media and “it does not look good.”
A provincial land management department director — formerly of Stung Treng, currently of Ratanakiri — has been charged with the forgery of public documents for allegedly issuing certificates to clear 77 plots of forestry land.
In Stung Treng, villagers are experiencing unexpected changes to their environment: disappearing fish, dying forests, eroding islands. As they grapple with changing natural cycles, they project their fears onto the giant Don Sahong dam that looms upstream.
Banana workers in Stung Treng said people were getting sick in droves at the plantation, blaming chemicals sprayed by drones flying overhead, as well as cramped living quarters and a lack of clean water.
Just one of the eight turbines at the 400-MW Lower Sesan 2 dam are presently operating due to low water levels, an official said, with the past week’s brief smattering of rain doing little to alleviate nationwide power outages.
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