News snippets about Cambodia

Snippets from Cambodian news

from June 4 Cambodian Daily

- swearing oath to ruling party

local CPP officials asked residents to swear an oath over a small Buddha that they are their families receive divine retribution (some reports said swore over death) if they betrayed the ruling party

It came about as before the commune council elections in April (like local government) CPP distributed 1, 895 sarongs and food but only received 1, 141 votes

Human rights workers, Khmer and expats, pointed out that just possibly this was intimidation

- 139 Cambodian deminers left for Sudan having learnt their trade helping clear land in Cambodia. It’s the first time Cambodia has been involved in an international UN peacekeeping operation

- Global Witness have released a sensational and sensationalist report on how the kleptocracy of Cambodia is illegally logging the country. (means governed by thieves if you like most expats here who asked what’s kleptocracy!?). The government banned printed copies and its been front page news of english language newspapers. Its all part of lead-up to the big donors meeting with the government, where Global Witness is complaining that donors (who Joanna works for) are not being tough enough on this dictatorship and actually are propping up the bad stuff happening

Executive summary very readable 2 pages if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/546/en/cambodias_family_trees

- The Khmer Rouge tribunal is still arguing about its rules and has taken 8 days to try to get consensus. Argument is between international standards and the Khmer legal non-system as fair as the news tells us

- Ratanakiri officials are to be disciplined or fired for letting the state run tv channel go off air for a month. Apparently there is a US$3,000 in electricity but the Information Minister said “that was an unacceptable excuse as government were always in arrears but a compromise could always be reached.”

- Cambodia’s prime minister refused to meet the Un human rights envoy and added “If you continue to stay in Cambodia another 1,000 years and if I survive another 1,000 years I still will not meet with you” (expats were waiting for childish, ner, ner ner and sticking out of tongue but that didn’t happen)

And last but not least ….

- In Mondulkiri (nearby province along the Vietnam border south of me) 8 newly elected commune councilors are being trained by the opposition party (whose leader has recently returned after the prime minister promised to not put him in jail as had previously been stated a number of times). The new councilors are mostly indigenous peoples and one is quoted as saying how he wants to protect his ancestral lands.