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The board had called for a six-month suspension from Facebook and Instagram. Meta will not suspend Cambodia’s former Prime Minister from Facebook and Instagram, declining to follow a recommendation from its Oversight Board. The board, which functions independently from the social media company, had recommended Meta suspend then-Prime Minister Hun Sen's Facebook and Instagram accounts for six months for inciting violence. In a response to the case published Wednesday, Meta said a long-term suspension “would not be consistent” with its policies. “Upon assessing Hun Sen’s Facebook Page and Instagram account, we determined that suspending those accounts outside our regular enforcement framework would not be consistent with our policies, including our protocol on restricting accounts of public figures during civil unrest,” the company wrote. Meta’s handling of the high-profile case has been closely watched around the world, with many viewing it as a test of the company’s policies governing speech from politicians, who have historically had more leeway on the platform. In a statement, an Oversight Board spokesperson said the group "stands by" its recommendations, “Elections are a crucial part of democracy and social media companies must ensure their platforms are not misused in ways which threaten to undermine them. read more https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-declines-oversight-board-recommendation-to-suspend-cambodias-former-prime-minister-170531152.html

A storm of protest has erupted after a parent published images of her son dressed as genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler for his school fair project. Social media user “Sam JJ GL” proudly posted the images of her teenage son attending a school fair at the New Generation School in Phnom Penh with the description “Come to meet Adolf Hitler Today my dear son has a program at his school fair (New Generation NGS). This year, there are a lot of different topics, science, national history and international…. My baby’s theme this year world war 2. He dressed as Hitler, the main character that caused WWII outbreak, and represented the Nazi-German symbols the world feared during WWII. Not intended to follow Hitler’s actions. And this is just the show that attracted the audience to visit the History Club, which is a second world war history research.” The youth sported a trademark Hitler moustache, as well as a Nazi party armband – complete with the swastika symbol A torrent of online criticism erupted via social media – including comments like: “Even so he’s asking for big trouble dressing up as Hitler their are people that would kill him just for dressing up like that. “Your son depicting Hitler is like him dressing up as Pol Pot it shouldn’t happen. Those two people should have not been born into this life. Need to educate him better” read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501351041/controversy-after-student-dresses-as-adolf-hitler-for-school-fair/

Cambodia and Myanmar are the epicenters of a new human trafficking scourge in Southeast Asia, report says. Hundreds of thousands of people across Southeast Asia have been enslaved and forced to carry out online scams worth billions of dollars, a new U.N. report says, with Cambodia and wartorn Myanmar the worst affected and Thailand serving as a major trafficking hub. The report from the U.N. human rights office notes the latest scourge of human trafficking to hit Southeast Asia is markedly different from the type that historically impacted the region: outflows of uneducated and poor citizens for forced sex work and manual labor elsewhere. Instead, the new multi-billion dollar trafficking industry that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by inflows of foreign citizens – some even with higher educations – for scamming. The report says “many of the victims are well-educated, sometimes coming from professional jobs or with graduate or even postgraduate degrees, computer-literate and multi-lingual” and are being recruited by traffickers “under the pretence of offering them real jobs.” Many come from other Southeast Asian countries, but there are also many victims from China, South Asia, East Africa and the Middle East, it says. They often arrive in one country, such as Thailand, expecting to work there, but are then surreptitiously ferried into a second country, such as Myanmar or Cambodia, where their passports are taken. There, the U.N. says, they are kept under the watch of armed guards and forced to work in industrial-scale online scam operations, using elaborate scripts – and posing as romantic flames or investors – to trick people in wealthy countries to send money back to their captors via trusted cryptocurrency platforms like Binance or Coinbase. “The scams are often sophisticated; fake websites are built to showcase fraudulent data in order to convince the target that there are significant profits to be made,” the report says. “People who are targeted can also receive small amounts of money to convince them of the legitimacy of the platform. The scam is usually a long process in which targets are approached for weeks or months to build trusted relationships.” A victim of a Chinese scamming gang shows a scar on his leg after being tortured, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sept. 27, 2022. (AFP) The carefully prepared scripts are used to target people on popular services including Facebook, Grindr, Hinge, Instagram, Line, LinkedIn, Meet Me, Muslima, OkCupid, TikTok, Tinder, WeChat and WhatsApp, among other online-dating and social-networking platforms. Victims who don’t comply, or don’t meet revenue targets, are tortured, it says. Many are told they are working off a debt incurred to transport them to the country in the first place. The debt increases when they are “sold” to new captors, and their families often extorted to free them. Cambodia and Myanmar Online-scam slave compounds are believed to have generated at least $7.8 billion in revenue globally in 2021, the U.N. says, with “billions” of that arriving in Southeast Asia, thanks to the region’s many casinos and “special economic zones,” where law enforcement can be lax. Exact figures about such trafficking are “difficult to estimate because of its clandestine nature and gaps in the official response,” it notes. But “credible estimates” indicate at least 120,000 people have been held in scam compounds in Myanmar and 100,000 more in Cambodia, where the problem is centered on the coastal casino town of Sihanoukville. A combination of weak government institutions, rampant corruption and visa-free travel across the region have all conspired to make the region vulnerable to scam slavery, the U.N. report says, with traffickers also becoming adept at seamlessly shifting operations across borders. “States may not have the necessary capacity in, or experience with, the types of investigative techniques required for the investigation and prosecution of allegations of human rights abuses in the context of organised crime and cross-border operations,” the report says. At best, many officials may not be trained to recognize when foreigners are being trafficked into the country, and many victims furthermore have rights to visa-free entry into the countries, either under each country’s own immigration laws or under the ASEAN visa-free travel program, which waives visa requirements for citizens of the bloc. But the report also notes the role that corruption plays, and the widespread pattern of officials either turning a blind-eye to – or even actively protecting – the scam compounds for a cut of proceeds. That has made Myanmar, torn apart by conflict since the February 2021 military coup d’etat, particularly impacted by such trafficking. “The military coup, ongoing violence and armed conflicts in Myanmar, and the resultant breakdown in the rule of law, have provided fertile ground for an exponential rise in criminal activity,” the report says. “Following the coup, transnational organised criminal actors were able to widen their existing activities within the country by working with factions within the armed forces and various militia groups,” it says. “Many of the scam centres in Myanmar are located in weakly regulated – and often porous – border areas which are characterised by a lack of formal law enforcement structures, oversight and accountability.” Fixing the problem The emergence of scam compounds since the COVID-19 pandemic has become an increasing focus of world governments, given the transnational nature of its impacts, with victims on both ends of the scam coming from an increasing array of countries worldwide. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in June awarded Cambodian journalist Mech Dara with a Hero Award for his groundbreaking work uncovering scam compounds in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken presents Cambodian journalist Mech Dara with the TIP Report Hero award in Washington, D.C., June 15, 2023. (Sarah Silbiger/Reuters) But the problem keeps popping up in new places. This week, the mother of a teenage Laotian girl trapped in a scam compound in Myanmar told Radio Free Asia that her daughter said she would be beaten with a metal bar 50 times if found using a cellphone. To help end the problem, the U.N. report recommends that Southeast Asian governments focus on training immigration officials to better recognize trafficking of foreigners into their countries, and continuing to combat official corruption that has protected many scam compounds. But it also says those who come forward about their time trapped in the scam compounds should not be punished for carrying out scams, or for being in the country “illegally” and for working without a labor permit. “A human rights-based approach to trafficking in persons works to avoid re-victimisation and thus recognises that punishing a victim of trafficking for unlawful acts committed as a consequence of their being trafficked is unjust and hinders the possibility of their recovery,” it says. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/un-scam-compounds-08292023134753.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

The El Niño, La Niña, and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Forecast indicates that the El Niño event developing remains high until early 2024, typically causing warmer conditions in the region. According to the seasonal forecast for the period between August to October 2023 of International Research Institute (IRI) of Columbia University and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Cambodia has high likelihood to experience hotter conditions but to receive above-normal rainfall amount – which may adversely impact agricultural production during this period. Favorable rainfall and temperatures in July 2023 improved vegetation conditions, which remained normal to above-normal in most parts of the country. However, the vegetation situations in northwestern parts of the country still remains slightly below-normal. According to the official Facebook page of the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, by July 2023, the total area of wet-season paddy cultivation was about 2.45 million hectares which represented 93.8% of the annual plan in 2023, and it was 5.4% higher than the same period last year. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501350875/cambodia-has-a-high-likelihood-of-experiencing-hotter-conditions-but-receiving-above-normal-rainfall/

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a statement on Saturday, saying air pollution is responsible for nearly one in every five deaths among children under five in Cambodia. The Cambodian Ministry of Health and UNICEF jointly released the kingdom’s first Children’s Environmental Health (CEH) assessment, which highlighted the major environmental health risks that children face, including exposure to air pollution, water and food contamination, toxic metals, pesticides, and hazardous waste. “The climate crisis is a child rights crisis. Children are now more exposed than ever to intense and destructive environmental hazards that jeopardize their fundamental rights, including their right to survive and thrive,” UNICEF Representative in Cambodia Will Parks said in the statement. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501349596/unicef-says-air-pollution-responsible-for-1-in-5-deaths-among-u-5-cambodian-children/

Police in Tboung Khmum province yesterday collaborated with provincial military police and mobile custom officers to crack down on an illegal tobacco factory producing counterfeit ‘ESSE’ brand cigarettes. Police seized tonnes of fake cigarettes from the factory located near the Cambodia-Vietnam border in Da commune of Memot district. Tboung Khmum Provincial Economic Police Officer Major Long Sambath said yesterday that the illegal cigarette factory was owned by a Cambodian tycoon. Maj Sambath said that provincial economic police were monitoring and investigating activities at the factory for one month before raiding it yesterday morning. He added that a local tycoon who is believed to be the owner of the factory was not present during the police raid. He remains at large, fleeing ahead of the police raid. However, he added that police have already established the identity of the factory owner. He said authorities intend to summon the person responsible for operating the factory to question him about the production of counterfeit tobacco products. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501350601/police-shut-down-fake-cigarette-factory/

Despite announcing a crackdown last year, the illegal operations have continued to flourish, protected by powerful officials with close ties to the government. Around the world, reports of cyber-scam schemes targeting unsuspecting victims online have proliferated rapidly. Southeast Asia has become a center of gravity for those criminal syndicates, often in remote and war-torn corners. But in Cambodia, the scam industry has been flourishing well within the reach of officials. For much of last year, dozens of nations reported that criminal gangs operating in Cambodia had lured tens of thousands of people into the country with the promise of high-paying jobs and free housing. Instead, they were forced to work for online scam mills while under intense surveillance in nondescript compounds, part of a multibillion dollar industry that has entrapped victims on both sides. read more https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/world/asia/cambodia-cyber-scam.html

Cambodia’s state-owned news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) recently published an article, forecasting the foreign policy of the Royal Government for the seventh term under the leadership of new Prime Minister Hun Manet. The article highlighted that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a top priority in Cambodia’s foreign policy. In addition, Cambodia also aims to promote efforts to build the ASEAN Community and further expand relations with external partners, in order to maintain peace, stability, and prosperity in and outside the region. Besides, before officially taking office, on his social network account, Dr. Hun Manet once mentioned and affirmed that Cambodia needs to befriend with all countries from the point of view of a multilateral mechanism. The AKP said that the Cambodian government under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Manet will adhere to the political line in the direction of firmly safeguarding peace, stability, security, order, and national unity. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501349068/cambodia-to-prioritise-asean-in-foreign-policy-media/

Cambodia attracted around 3.03 million international travellers in the first seven months of this year, a whopping 308 percent increase from the same period in 2023, according to a report from the Ministry of Tourism. “The total number of international visitors to the Kingdom was around 2.27 million. Cambodia received a total of 3,037,344 international travellers in the first seven months of this year,” Top Sopheak, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Tourism, told Khmer Times yesterday. While the number of international tourists was 6.20 million in 2018 and 6.6 million in 2019, it slumped to 1.31 million in 2020 and 196,495 in 2021 due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The tourism sector showed signs of revival in 2022, with the number of international tourists surging to 2.27 million. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501348848/cambodia-attracts-over-3m-intl-visitors-in-7-months/

An afternoon of enjoyment turned into tragedy when 3 teenagers drowned in a Kandal lake. The incident took place at 2 pm on August 22, 2023 at Prek Thom Bridge, Bridge 62, Lute 18 called Luta Prak, Wat Po Rama, called Wat Po Yuon in Pratheat village, Prek Sdey commune, Sampov Poun city, Kandal province. A witness – a 62-year-old woman named Srey Touch, who lives in the commune where the incident took place – said that the place where the girls went to swim is a well known local leisure spot with lot of shade trees. She added that there are vendors there, and every day there are people who come to sit by the lake for swimming. She added that on the afternoon of August 22, four schoolgirls from Kampong Kong commune went to visit Chong Prek. One of them got into difficulties, and the other 3 went to her aid. Tragically, 3 girls drowned in total. Villagers found the body of a girl at 3 pm the same day and the other 2 bodies were found 30 minutes later read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501348538/3-schoolgirls-drown-in-lake-tragedy/

But critics say corruption and nepotism will be hard for the new prime minister to overcome. Prime Minister Hun Manet said he wants to turn Cambodia into an upper middle-income country by 2030 – and a high-income country by 2050 – in an hour-long speech to ministers at his first cabinet meeting on Thursday. Hun Manet, the eldest son of longtime leader Hun Sen, took over as prime minister earlier this week after the newly sworn-in National Assembly gave its official approval. “The core of the strategy is to focus on governance and modernize state institutions to become modern public administration,” the 45-year-old said during the meeting televised by national broadcaster TVK. Hun Manet read from a 22-page strategy memo that he said would serve as a roadmap for increasing employment, reducing poverty and promoting good governance while maintaining peace and political stability. The government’s goal is to make Cambodia an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income one by 2050, he said. An upper-middle income country has a gross national income per capita of between US$4,256 and US$13,205, according to the World Bank, where Hun Manet worked as an intern decades ago. A high-income country has a gross national income per capita of more than $13,205. Cambodia had a per capita income of US$1700 in 2022, World Bank figures show. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet [rear, center], presides over the first council of minister’s session at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Aug. 24, 2023. Credit: Tang Chhin Sothy/Pool via AP ‘Can’t just eliminate nepotism’ But Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, said the strategy will be hampered by Cambodia’s ingrained corruption and nepotism. Hun Manet will have to look out for his family’s interest and other allies first, he said. “This is a cancer in society. He can’t just eliminate nepotism and then do reform,” he said. The most effective way to implement the new strategy would be to reopen the political space, show respect for human rights and be more accepting of the roles that local and international NGOs play in society, legal expert Vorn Chan Lout told Radio Free Asia. It should also establish a policy of not prosecuting opposition party figures, he said. “The core element is to restore the rule of law,” he said. Activists and leaders from the country’s main opposition party, the Candlelight Party, faced threats, harassment and arrest over the last year as the ruling Cambodian People’s Party prepared for the July 23 national elections. The CPP won 120 of the National Assembly’s 125 seats. The Candlelight Party was not allowed to compete after the government’s National Election Committee cited inadequate paperwork. The NEC’s decision was widely condemned as politically motivated. Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hun-manet-cbinet-meeting-08242023164527.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

More than a decade has passed, but Sorya (not her real name) still remembers the day that a few vehicles pulled up to her Cambodian village, packed her and her five siblings up and drove them away from everything they knew. It was the last time she saw her parents, a couple steeped in such poverty that they were driven to sell their children to survive. Sorya was barely six years old. Trafficked to Thailand as an illegal immigrant, she was passed through several hands and forced to endure unspeakable exploitation and abuse for years. “I was alone, in pain and afraid,” she told Salt&Light. “I had never received love and care. I didn’t know how to speak out. I was trapped and didn’t get a chance to go to school. I had low self-esteem and was always frightened.” Fortunately, Sorya was rescued by the Thai police and sent to Hagar Cambodia. Hagar Cambodia is part of Hagar International, a non-profit that serves victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking. read more https://saltandlight.sg/news/her-parents-sold-her-to-traffickers-when-she-was-six-hagar-singapore-calls-for-urgent-donations-amid-rising-number-of-victims/

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has welcomed a newborn Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin, bringing the total number of newborn dolphin calves to six so far this year, the Fisheries Administration said in a news release on Wednesday. The latest born dolphin calf was spotted by tourist boat operators on Monday at the Kampi dolphin pool in northeast Kratie province's Mekong River while swimming alongside seven adult dolphins, the news release said. "The new calf is about two weeks old," it said. According to the news release, six dolphin calves were recorded in 2022, and the same number was also reported in 2021. The Mekong Irrawaddy dolphins have been listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species since 2004. The Fisheries Administration estimated that there are approximately 90 Irrawaddy dolphin populations in the Cambodian portion of the Mekong River in the Kratie and Stung Treng provinces. https://english.news.cn/asiapacific/20230823/e00961a8b3694220a86466353a9f9846/c.html

Bulk of suspects have yet to be charged after nearly a week in jail. A Taiwanese drug lord serving a 52-year-prison sentence who was freed in a brazen raid last week was rearrested on Tuesday, according to Cambodian authorities. Lt. Gen. Mak Chito, deputy national police commissioner in charge of drug crimes, told RFA that Chen Hsin Han was arrested in a Phnom Penh housing complex following tips from witnesses and suspects. "We have prepared additional plans. We haven't concluded the operation yet,” he said. “We have learned of new suspects and we are investigating them. We will continue to arrest more suspects.” Chen, in prison since 2009 on drug trafficking charges, escaped on the morning of Aug. 17 after five armed assailants burst into a Siem Reap dental clinic, handcuffing the prison guards who had brought him there for treatment. The following day six Cambodian American men and one Chinese American woman were arrested in two locations in Phnom Penh on suspicion of helping Chen escape. In a press conference Tuesday, police said a total of 11 people were arrested including a Saudi national who allegedly had passed along information that helped in the raid and a Chinese national believed to have provided funds for food and accommodation . "They organized as a group including those who prepared weapons for them. We know where they bought the weapon from," said Mak Chito. He said that six more Turkish suspects are on the run. Though none of the group have yet been charged, police widely circulated a handout naming the seven who were arrested last week as Chloe Yinrong, Phev Praseth Seth, In Channty, Savy Savuth, Som David, Rem Sophal and Frost Sarath Sean. Chen Hsin Han, who was in prison for drug trafficking in Cambodia, is seen in custody in this undated photo. Credit: Fresh News Seeking defense lawyers Mak Chito said the U.S. Embassy had visited the suspects. He admitted eight of the 11 suspects have been detained without charge beyond the 48-hour limit, saying it was due to their lack of defense lawyers. Sophea Sean, sister of Frost Sarath Sean, told RFA that her family — all of whom live in the United States — had been struggling to obtain a lawyer remotely with little knowledge of Cambodia. “He is a loving brother, son and friend. Everyone who knows him knows he doesn’t get in trouble with the law. He doesn’t have a criminal background,” she wrote in a text message. Sophea Sean said she and her family believe her brother was rounded up with the others possibly because he was staying in the same hotel when the police came. She noted that her brother, who works as a casual longshoreman in San Pedro, is “pretty well off financially so that wouldn’t be a motivation for him.” “Me, my family and friends are 100% sure that he is innocent. He was not involved in that crime. I hope that Cambodian officials only convict people on factual evidence.” At Tuesday’s press conference, nine of the suspects were lined up for photos, during which time Chloe Yinrong shouted that the arrests were a “scam.” “It’s not true!” she exclaimed, CamboJA reported, citing a live broadcast of the conference posted by state-run Bayon TV that has since been removed. “It’s a scam,” she shouted. “Do you really believe they hired all these people to rescue someone?” Taiwanese court documents uncovered by RFA Investigative revealed that as recently as 2020 Chen was conducting drug smuggling operations from prison through outside associates. Fellow inmates interviewed by CamboJA spoke of immense bribery that allowed Chen numerous perks and wide scale influence behind bars. Am Sam Ath, deputy director of rights group Licadho, told RFA there were many suspicious elements to the case and urged authorities to conduct a transparent investigation to find those who were behind Chen's escape. He pointed out that while political prisoners are rarely granted outside medical care despite suffering serious conditions, those with the means to pay for it suffer no such restrictions. "This is a lesson for authorities, especially for the prison department to organize forces for criminals during medical treatment," he said. Translated by Yun Samean. Additional reporting by Abby Seiff. Edited by Malcolm Foster. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/drug-trafficker-rearrest-08232023163241.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Washington — Incoming Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet is inheriting a country with deep economic inequality and widespread financial discomfort, according to a new survey from the U.S.-based analytics firm Gallup. Though confidence in key institutions such as the military and banks are relatively high — each at 82% of respondents — there is an underlying economic anxiety, particularly when it comes to affording food. That's according to the Gallup survey conducted in September and October last year and released earlier this month. "The percentage of Cambodians struggling to afford food has fallen from its height of 72% in 2013 but remains persistently high at 58%. Among the poorest 20% of society, the inability to afford food reached a record high of 87% last year," Gallup says in its country report on Cambodia. "In no other country in the world is there greater inequality between the rich and poor in their ability to afford food." More Cambodians were positive about the economy than negative, with 47% saying the standard of living is getting better, compared with 27% who said it was getting worse. But that 47% too was among the lowest levels in the region. And only 6% of Cambodians reported feeling that they were living comfortably on their income in 2022, which was tied with Laos as the lowest in Southeast Asia. According to the World Bank, Cambodia's per capita gross domestic product as of 2022 was $1,787, compared to $2,088 for Laos. Julie Ray, Gallup's managing editor for world news, said that underlying economic insecurity could become problematic for Cambodia's government "if the economy suffers any more than it is." However, Gallup notes that inflation has fallen from 8% in 2022, when the poll was taken, to 1% in 2023, which likely alleviated some of the immediate economic stress. "So there's some real challenges economically," Ray said in a telephone interview this month. "The inequality is that undercurrent that you have the haves and have nots. And, of course, there's inequality between the rural and urban areas and in Cambodia. So I think those are going to continue to be challenges." Ray also pointed to areas of improvement highlighted by the data, such as major gains in perceptions of personal health and health care in the nearly two decades since Gallup started the poll. In 2006, 41% of Cambodians said health problems were preventing them from doing normal activities for someone their age. By 2022, that dropped to 29%. "While still among the highest in the region, the gap has narrowed dramatically. The prevalence of health problems is now on par with Thailand, Laos and Myanmar," the Cambodia report said. Gallup notes in its report that it has not asked "certain politically sensitive questions" since 2017, when the ruling Cambodian People's Party began a crackdown on dissent that has caused many media and democracy groups to either shut down or leave the country. Ray said the decision to avoid some questions was made in consultation with research partners working on the ground in Cambodia and was not dictated by the government. She said asking people about their opinions of the country's leadership, for example, could draw the ire of the government and "would likely jeopardize the entire project." "In addition, if we did ask those questions in the field, it could present a safety issue for our interviewers – if they get reported to the local authority for asking them," she added in an email. Still, a government spokesman took issue with the findings of the questions Gallup did ask in its annual survey. Theng Panhathun, spokesperson for the Ministry of Planning, questioned the sample selection and other technical aspects of the poll. He noted that as of 2020, the poverty rate stood at 17.8%, according to the United Nations Development Program — though he said the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased that figure. "It is hard for me to comment" on Gallup's findings, he said. Gallup's report was released just weeks ahead of a generational change in leadership in Cambodia, where Prime Minister Hun Sen — in power since 1985 — will hand control to his son. Across the government, ruling party stalwarts are stepping back, in some cases ceding their portfolios to their offspring. Hun Sen will remain president of the Cambodian People's Party, along with being president of the Senate and chief adviser to King Norodom Sihamoni. And according to the Gallup poll, he is leaving his son with a mixed legacy. "Gallup data show that in many ways, Hun Manet is inheriting a relatively stable country where confidence in several institutions … runs high, but inequality does too," its report says. Sun Narin of VOA Khmer provided additional reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. https://www.voanews.com/a/survey-spotlights-deep-economic-inequality-in-cambodia/7237422.html

The new Prime Ministers of Cambodia and Thailand will work together to boost the cooperation between the two neighbouring countries. The comments were made by Hun Sen, President of Supreme Privy Council to His Majesty the King, on his social media networks yesterday evening. “Today is a beautiful day as two neighbouring monarchies (Cambodia and Thailand) receive a new Prime Minister on the same day,” he wrote. “Although I will step down as Prime Minister of Cambodia, effective from Tursday, I would like to send a congratulatory message to His Excellency Srettha Thavisin, who has been elected by the National Assembly as the new Prime Minister of Thailand,” he added. “I hope the two new Prime Ministers will work together to further boost cooperation between the two countries,” Hun Sen concluded. Srettha Thavisin, 60, from Pheu Thai Party was elected new Prime Minister of Thailand after receiving parliamentary support in a vote on Tuesday. He won 482 votes, far from the 376 votes needed for victory, putting an end to three months of political deadlock. AKP-C.Nika https://www.information.gov.kh/articles/111558

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Khuon Sudary was elected on Tuesday as the president of Cambodia's National Assembly for a new five-year term, becoming the first woman to hold this top post, according to the state-run National Television of Cambodia (TVK). Sudary, 70, is currently a member of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP)'s Standing Committee, and used to be the second vice-president of the National Assembly in the old term. She was elected after the CPP won a landslide victory in the July 23 general election, winning 120 out of 125 seats in the National Assembly. Some 123 lawmakers unanimously elected her as the president during a "package vote." They also voted for CPP lawmakers Cheam Yeap and Vong Sauth as the first vice president and the second vice president, respectively. Besides, the parliament elected chairpersons and vice chairpersons of the 10 specialist commissions in the legislative body. The National Assembly in the seventh legislature consists of 125 lawmakers including 120 from the CPP and five from the royalist Funcinpec Party https://english.news.cn/20230822/dda2603958fe4ea790d05f302c9dd273/c.html

The restoration team from the Department of Conservation of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology of the APSARA National Authority is restoring the Naga balustrade on the ground floor in the south of Angkor Wat to avoid high risk. Archaeologist of the Department of Temple Preservation and Archaeology, Say Sophearin, said that the Naga balustrade and sandstone pedestals of Angkor Wat at the southern staircase are nearly a thousand years old. About 10 meters long, there is a high risk that some spots have broken stones and their foundations have been washed away by the rain, causing large stones to separate, making it very prone to the collapse of the Naga head. He said that since the beginning of July, the team has temporarily dismantled the Naga balustrade, after the approval of Adhoc experts, and from the beginning of August, the team began to dismantle the staircase platform to remove the cracked stones, clean them, and put them back in their original position. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501347257/experts-restore-the-naga-balustrade-at-the-southern-ground-floor-of-angkor-wat/

Acleda Bank Plc plans to expand the KHQR system to non-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, said a senior bank official. The official said that the plan will actually be implemented after the cross-border payment connectivity is made between Cambodia and Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. The cross-payments between Cambodia and these countries have been made without charging fees, except for the Cambodia-Laos transactions. Mar Amara, Senior Executive Vice President & Group Chief Financial Officer of Acleda Bank, told Khmer Times last Sunday that the sponsoring bank Acleda Bank plans to develop cross-border payment transactions using the KHQR code between Cambodia and India, Japan and South Korea. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501347404/acleda-bank-to-expand-khqr-beyond-asean/

Cambodia’s parliament has overwhelmingly elected Hun Manet to succeed his father, longtime autocratic ruler Hun Sen, as the country’s prime minister. The selection of the 45-year-old Hun Manet as Cambodia’s new leader comes just weeks after his father announced he would be stepping aside after nearly four decades in power, prompted by the landslide victory of his ruling Cambodian People’s Party in parliamentary elections. The election was denounced by Western governments and human rights groups as a sham because the main opposition party was banned from taking part. Hun Manet won a parliamentary seat as a member of the CPP. A graduate of the U.S.-based West Point Military Academy, Hun Manet has served for years in Cambodia’s military, holding various posts, such as head of counterterrorism, deputy military commander and army chief. He also holds a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University in Britain, all in economics. The generational change of power will also be reflected in Hun Manet’s Cabinet, with several members being the children or relatives of ministers who served under Hun Sen. The new ministers will include Hun Manet’s youngest brother, Hun Many, who will serve as minister of civil service. The 71-year-old Hun Sen is a former member of Cambodia’s notorious Khmer Rouge, which has been blamed for the deaths of nearly 2 million people from starvation, illness and executions during its brutal reign in the 1970s. He has gradually eliminated political opposition and independent press during his 38-year rule, while also moving Cambodia to greater economic and military ties with China during his reign. He says he will continue to play an active role in Cambodian politics, including serving as president of the Senate and leader of the CPP. https://www.voanews.com/a/son-of-longtime-cambodian-ruler-chosen-to-succeed-father-as-new-prime-minister/7234934.html

But analysts and opposition figures doubt they will heed his advice. In an opening speech to Cambodia’s newly elected parliament on Monday, King Norodom Sihamoni called on lawmakers and the government to reconcile their deep divisions, though political commentators and opposition officials say the effort will amount to naught. The July 23 elections, won by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in a landslide, have been widely criticized by Western governments and opposition activists within the country because authorities kept the main opposition Candlelight Party from participating on a technicality. Three days after the election, Prime Minister Hun Sen – who has ruled the country since 1985 – announced he would step down and hand power to his eldest son, army chief Hun Manet. The king, who has served as the head of the country’s constitutional monarchy since October 2004, issued a royal message calling on members of the National Assembly and the government to forge national reconciliation and adhere to the four Brahmanical principles of Buddhism. Norodom Sihamoni said he expected the new government to win the trust of the National Assembly to develop and strengthen the comprehensive social protection system for Cambodian citizens. A high degree of unity and solidarity would ensure the strong existence of national identity, promote socioeconomic development and boost morality for the harmony of society, the king said. “On this great occasion, I wish the 7th National Assembly to run smoothly and carry out its role with a responsible conscience in order to achieve new successes for the common good of the motherland,” the king told the 125 lawmakers, all of whom except five were from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CCP. The others were from Funcinpec led by Prince Norodom Chakravuth, the king’s nephew. Hun Sen, former National Assembly President Heng Samrin, and Interior Minister Sar Kheng also were in attendance. ‘Fake’ election Political analysts and opposition officials said the king’s speech reflected his view that the country’s political divisions would harm the nation, though the situation would not likely change. Um Sam An, a senior official from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, said the king’s remarks were intended to guide the new government and lawmakers back onto a democratic path for the benefit of society following what he called “fake” elections. The CNRP official also said that the king was likely dissatisfied with the leadership of the previous one-party government, which often persecuted dissidents and opposition groups. “He warned the deputies to be kind and treat the people well,” Um Sam An said, adding that the political crisis in Cambodia has gotten worse with the holding of “fake” elections this year and in 2018. “So, he understands that democracy and respect for human rights will only get worse in Cambodia,” said Um Sam An. Hun Sen dissolved the opposition CNRP in 2017 and later prevented the party’s leader, Sam Rainsy, from returning to Cambodia to stand trial on charges that rights groups said were politically motivated. Political commentator Kim Sok condemned the new government, saying it was born of the fraudulent elections. “This illegitimate government and parliament face a huge reaction from the international community, the reaction of the people who will protest around the world,” he said. “And in the face of both economic and social crises, poverty and unemployment will occur. All these crises weaken our country.” Knowing these prospects, the king has called for national unity, and that is all his authority allows him to do, Kim Sok added. CCP spokesman Sok Eysan told Radio Free Asia that the king's statement was a general message to people from all walks of life, and not a reference to the new government or the National Assembly. He also said that national unity depended on the attitude of the opposition. Patrick Murphy, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, who attended the opening of the National Assembly, sent a positive message to the newly elected lawmakers. “As the new gov’t. begins its tenure, it can restore multi-party democracy, end political convictions, and allow independent media to reopen & function without interference, he tweeted. Translated by Sokry Sum for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/kings-speech-08212023172901.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

The Ministry of Health has decided to close a hospital in Phnom Penh, after it was discovered that the hospital was employing illegal foreign doctors, following an inspection after the death of a foreign national last week The Ministry has named the offending establishment as Beethoon Cambodia Hospital, located at 506 Monivong Blvd., Sangkat Tonle Bassac, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh. The decision came after the death of a Chinese woman being treated at the hospital According to a press release issued last night, the decision to close the hospital was made because it did not comply with the technical conditions and did not comply with the warranty contract when requesting to open the department. The hospital broke the law on the management of private professions in the field of accompanying medicine and medical assistance and Sub-Decree No. 94 on the Procedures and Conditions for Permitting Foreigners to be Associate Medical Practitioners and Professional Medical Assistance Private in the Kingdom of Cambodia, as well as Prakas No. 034 OPSMIP of the Ministry of Health, by illegally employing foreign doctors without a license, which led to the death of a foreign patient who died in In Beethoon Hospital, Cambodia on August 18, 2023. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501346390/phnom-penh-hospital-closed-by-ministry-for-illegal-foreign-doctors-after-womans-death/

Two non-governmental organisations have joined hands with a private company to produce eco-bricks from plastic waste in a novel initiative to address the issue of environmental pollution. According to a press release by the Ministry of Information, Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT), Tonle Sap Lake Waterkeeper and Siem Reap Eco-brick Company have constructed a factory at Sangkat Chreav in Siem Reap province for processing plastic waste, mostly plastic bags, to produce eco-bricks. At a seminar on Saturday, organized to create awareness about the project and also to conduct a visit to the project site, Sok Thy, Founder of the Eco-Bricks company said that the old practice of making bricks from clay poses a risk to workers during the production process and a lot of firewood is also burnt during the process. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501346751/siem-reap-factory-makes-eco-bricks-from-plastic-waste/

After 38 years, Cambodia’s leader is handing his son the keys to the family business. Can it survive without him? After nearly four decades in office, Hun Sen this week steps down as Cambodia’s prime minister. The National Assembly sat for the first time Monday, one day before the new premier is set to be sworn in. On Aug. 22, he will hand power over to his eldest son, Hun Manet, who was just 8 years old when his father took charge of a communist regime embroiled in a civil war and held afloat, barely, by foreign aid. The 71-year-old strongman prime minister is bequeathing his son a country that has changed considerably over the course of his reign. Cambodia is on track, by World Bank estimates, to reach upper-middle income status by 2030, but inequality is rampant and poverty remains widespread. The government Hun Manet, 45, inherits is one where it pays to have powerful parents. His incoming defense minister, Tea Seiha, is the son of his father’s long-serving defense minister, Tea Banh, who was appointed in 1989. His new interior minister, Sar Sokha, too, is taking over from his own father, Sar Kheng, who has held the top security position for 31 years. It’s a generational change of government taken to its most literal extreme. The new minister of commerce, Cham Nimol, is the daughter of Cham Prasidh, who ran the ministry from 1994 to 2013. The minister in charge of the civil service, meanwhile, is Hun Manet’s younger brother, Hun Many. Control of Cambodia’s central bank is passing from Chea Chanto, in charge since 1998, to his daughter, Chea Serey. In fact, almost a quarter of the 125 ruling party candidates who ran in the July 2023 national election are related, according to a recent analysis by the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association. The newest government reflects the Cambodia that Hun Sen has built through decades of political violence and institutional control. It is one where absolute poverty has fallen, but where an idealistic system of electoral government created by the United Nations in the 1990s has been transformed into a constellation of family fiefdoms, glued together only by a knack for corruption. “It is a ‘clanic’ succession; it is a whole clan renewing itself,” Sam Rainsy, Cambodia’s longtime opposition leader, told Radio Free Asia this month. “The regime has become a hereditary dictatorship.” Then-Foreign Affairs Minister Hun Sen holds a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 31, 1983. Credit: Francis Deron/AFP Young reformist A low-level Khmer Rouge military commander who turned on Pol Pot’s regime two years before its 1979 fall, Hun Sen rapidly rose to power in Cambodia’s Hanoi-backed revolutionary regime. In 1985, at the age of 33, he became the world’s youngest head of government and set about negotiating an end to the civil war with then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the father of Cambodia’s independence. Viewed as a reformist at the time, Hun Sen bucked the older conservative wing of the regime to reach an agreement with Sihanouk’s shadow government that resulted in the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement and the U.N.-run elections. The globally funded nation-building exercise, estimated to have cost in the end more than $20 billion, was meant to instill in Cambodia a vibrant multi-party democratic system, complete with an independent media and a professional civil service. Instead, a series of power grabs by Hun Sen – particularly a coup d’etat in July 1997 and the crackdown that followed the rise of Cambodia’s united opposition in 2013 – mean those who openly oppose his rule could at best hope for prison or exile overseas. Smoke from a burning fuel station billows into the sky as a Cambodian family makes its way out of Phnom Penh amid fighting between forces loyal to the two prime ministers, July 6, 1997. Credit: David van der Veen/AFP After the 1997 coup, U.N. investigators found evidence that at least 40 of Hun Sen’s political rivals had been executed. In ousting his co-prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, he effectively overturned the results of the 1993 U.N.-run elections that the latter had won. It would not be until the 2013 election that a viable challenge to his rule would re-emerge, when two long-bickering opposition parties merged into the Cambodia National Rescue Party and almost came to power in an election they said they only lost due to voter fraud. Months of demonstrations calling for a new vote followed. When the protests later dovetailed with a nationwide strike of garment workers calling for an increase in their $80 minimum monthly wage, the government responded with violence. Military police shot dead at least five of the workers, injuring and jailing dozens more. Hun Sen was once a hope for change but has become “the one who destroyed the political system in Cambodia,” said But Buntenh, a monk who helped lead protests after the disputed 2013 election before fleeing in 2017 amid a crackdown on regime critics. “I recognize that he contributed to the rebuilding of Cambodia after the genocide, even though that had included him as a commander of the genocide,” But Buntenh, who now lives in Massachussets, told RFA. Hun Sen also was instrumental in the development of the Paris Peace Agreement. “That I accept and I appreciate,” he said. “But the people hate him because he took full control and ruled the country with his entire family, and takes Cambodia, as a nation, to belong to his family.” An injured Cambodian garment worker escapes from riot police in the compound of a Buddhist pagoda in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 12, 2013. Police fired live ammunition during clashes with protesting garment workers. Credit: AP Succession, ‘HBO-style’ Maintaining power has required more than just the violent vanquishment of foes. Hun Sen has also had to keep his own party behind him, even when not everybody has seemed on board. In the end, Hun Sen’s own succession plan required him to cut similar handover deals with Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defense Minister Tea Banh. Such an across-the-board generational transfer is necessary, explained Sam Rainsy, given the “dangerous and sensitive situation” of Hun Sen standing down while two powerful ministers with large security forces behind them could still loom over his son. “Politically speaking, and psychologically speaking, those older officials cannot work under Hun Manet, so they all have to go,” Sam Rainsy said. “And Hun Sen has to find compensation for his colleagues, so he promised they will be replaced by their sons as well.” Hun Sen’s plan for his son to be his successor required him to cut deals with Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defense Minister Tea Banh [pictured], who both have large security forces at their disposal. Credit: Heng Sinith/AP file photo But it also speaks to the fragmented nature of the government Hun Manet is taking over, one in which he lacks even the power to select his own most important cabinet ministers. “It all resembles a kind of dynastic, corporate handoff,” Sophal Ear, a Cambodia expert at Arizona State University, told RFA. “It’s ‘Succession’ HBO-style, except within a government.” The state is me Though he’s standing down as prime minister, Hun Sen will hold plenty of prime positions, including Senate president, a role that will make him the acting head of state when King Norodom Sihamoni is out of the country. “I’m not going anywhere,” Hun Sen noted in an Aug. 3 speech, in which he also warned he could return as prime minister if Hun Manet is endangered. “I’m just not going to be prime minister anymore – but I will still have power, as the president of the ruling party.” The role of CPP president may have newfound prominence in Cambodia. As the government-aligned Khmer Times noted in its report on his speech, Hun Sen pledged to respect the independence of the new government but noted their decisions “must not be different from the policy of the party that has made a promise to the electorate.” In some ways, it’s a reversion to Hun Sen’s roots, as a young revolutionary trained by political minders from Vietnam, where the Communist Party secretary-general runs the show, and the prime minister, as head of government, implements party edicts. Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen takes a selfie with a fan during an inauguration ceremony for a Phnom Penh road project, August 3, 2023. Credit: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Stability, but for how long At the very least, Hun Sen will be able to say he left behind a system of government that has lasted, said Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra and an election observer during the 1993 U.N.-run elections. “Hun Sen will bequeath to Cambodia the longest-serving and most stable regime since Cambodia attained independence in November 1953,” Thayer said, even if the outgoing premier “also will go down in history as the destroyer of multiparty democracy in Cambodia.” Hun Manet’s government, he added, will have a chance to “overcome baggage from the past” and forge new policy paths, as it searches for legitimacy. Hun Manet, son of Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun, shows his inked finger after voting in Cambodia's general election, in Phnom Penh, July 23, 2023. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters One of the weaknesses of a personalist authoritarian regime is its reliance, at the end of the day, on its central persona. Rainsy, the opposition leader, said that while the passing of ministerial fiefdoms from parent to child across the regime this week was meant to shore-up Manet’s position, there are no long-term guarantees. “As long as Hun Sen is in good health, as long as he can show authority and threaten everybody, then this can last,” he said. “But the very day Hun Sen shows a sign of weakness, the day that his health deteriorates to the point that his authority is not as it is now, Hun Manet will not be able to hold onto his position.” https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hun-sen-legacy-08182023094118.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Images have been released of seven captured criminals – involved in the armed storming of a Siem Reap dental clinic that freed a Chinese criminal who was serving a 52 year drug sentence – with police confirming that all 7 ‘hired criminals” are United States citizens who planned the crime in the USA before coming to Cambodia. A scan of one of the men’s passports names him as In Channty, aged 34, from the state of California General Mak Chito, Deputy Commissioner of the National Police, confirmed through a press conference today that so far seven criminals – 6 men and a woman – have been arrested, including six Cambodian-Americans (holding US passports) and Chinese-American (holding an American passport). The General added that the well-organized criminal group had been planning their activities for the past two months in the United States before they arrived in Cambodia about 2 weeks ago. He described them as “hired criminals”. General Neth Savoeun, General Commissioner of the National Police, stated yesterday that police arrested 6 criminals who were involved in the incident on the 17th of August. https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501345554/us-citizen-among-6-arrested-for-armed-storming-of-siem-reap-clinic-to-free-foreign-prisoner/