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Kandal Provincial Forestry Administration officers in cooperation with provincial economic police officers on Wednesday night arrested two men for allegedly transporting turtles and turtle eggs from Vietnam to Cambodia without authorization. Kandal Provincial Forestry Administration officer Pong Sarun told Khmer Times today that they seized more than 1,000 adult and 2,000 young turtles as well as 2,210 turtle eggs from them in Kean Svay district. He identified the two suspects as Som Saroeun, 28, a mini-bus driver and his assistant Keo To, 38. Both live in Svay Rieng province’s Romeas Haek district. Sarun said that at about 11 pm on Wednesday, the two suspects drove their mini bus from the Cambodia-Vietnam border, in Svay Rieg province, towards Phnom Penh and were stopped at a police checkpoint in Kandal province’s Kean Svay district. He said police inspected the vehicle and seized 1,017 adult turtles, weighing a total of 821 kilogrammes; 2,000 young turtles and 2,210 turtle eggs from them. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501027899/kandal-authorities-arrest-two-seize-over-3000-turtles/

Accounts of scam operations, forced labor and human trafficking have emerged from a number of Sihanoukville precincts where rows of stark concrete buildings stand with windows barred and entrances heavily guarded. In one notorious, crime-ridden area near O’Tres beach, victims say several scam operations surround Crown FC president Rithy Samnang’s KB Hotel, which is referred to in Chinese as Kaibo — the same name used for a nearby alleged forced-labor site. One of his partners in the hotel is a Chinese fugitive, wanted over money laundering. Other scam operations are allegedly housed within a separate Sihanoukville compound linked to Anco, a business run by Samnang’s father-in-law: prominent developer and CPP senator Kok An. read more https://vodenglish.news/victims-allege-sihanoukville-precincts-with-ties-to-major-businesses-are-sites-of-scams-torture-detention/

Federal immigration officials could soon resume arrests of Cambodians who hold deportation orders, and Fresno is among the cities that could be targeted, an attorney said Monday. Many Cambodians who hold deportation orders came to the U.S. as refugees during the U.S. secret bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. More came during the Khmer Rouge genocide a few years later, during which at least 1.7 million Cambodians were murdered by the regime. Deportations to Cambodia increased dramatically under the Trump administration, but came to a halt during the pandemic. But there are signs indicating that raids could soon hit Cambodian communities and deportations could resume, according to Anoop Prasad, a staff attorney at Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501027390/u-s-expected-to-resume-deportations-of-cambodians-to-cambodia-after-covid-pause/

Tuktuk drivers in Phnom Penh have taken delivery of the first electric three-wheelers assembled in Cambodia. Most of the more than 300 customers who pre-ordered the ONiON T1 will have to wait for another two to three months to pick up their vehicles as ONiON Mobility’s plant in Kandal province catches up with demand. Production was delayed from last year until January due to pandemic related supply chain issues since the parts are manufactured in South Korea. “If we could source parts locally it would be much better. So long as we can be assured of the quality we will use them,” said MVL Director of Global Business Development and Head of EV David Ly. ONiON Mobility was established by Singapore-headquartered MVL, which operates blockchain-based ride-hailing service TADA in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian nations. T1 designer Lee Chang-Hoon told drivers attending the handover ceremony at the company’s Sen Sok showroom the e-tuktuk was built for the region’s roads. It has a plastic body to keep drivers and passengers cool and prevent rust. The engine and battery pack are waterproofed to resist rainy-season downpours. The T1 also has twin-fork suspension to tackle Phnom Penh’s ever-present potholes. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501027207/cambodias-first-e-tuktuks-roll-out-in-phnom-penh/

In a hospital in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, a man in his early 30s is receiving a steady drip of two bags of blood a day. He has been there since Friday. His whole body is swollen, a mark of bloating from his condition, he has been told. Medical staff attend to him carefully. The man says he believes he is now recovering. The Chinese national this week alleged a scam operation in Cambodia had drawn blood from him multiple times since August, leaving him frail and putting his health at serious risk. He arrived in Cambodia in June. He had been a security guard in Beijing, but hearing there was better paying work in Guangxi province, near the Vietnamese border, he made the journey. After six nights at Pingxiang city on the border, he was offered an interview. He didn’t question that the interview was at night since it was purportedly for a nightclub. He was taken in a car with another job seeker. But after one change of cars, “a gun came out, and we realized it was too late.” read more https://vodenglish.news/trafficking-victim-alleges-his-blood-was-harvested-in-sihanoukville/

Panel discusses proposal for Beijing to open dams during wet season to offset dry season losses. Chinese dams along the Mekong River hold a massive amount of water in their reservoirs, but the government in Beijing might need to be paid to release water for downstream communities afflicted by droughts, a panel of experts said Tuesday. More than 70 million people from five Southeast Asian countries depend on the mighty Mekong for their livelihoods, primarily through fishing and agriculture. But China operates 129 dams upstream, including 11 mega-dams and has at least seven more in the pipeline. Such projects siphon off a significant amount of water before it reaches countries downstream, including Cambodia’s Tonlé Sap Lake where 2 million people depend on its fisheries, according to experts. “Those fishers are at risk [due to the] upstream dam restrictions during these times of low flow,” Brian Eyler, co-leader of the Mekong Dam Monitor, a project by the Stimson Center, a Washington think-tank, said during an online panel discussion. “I think there’s one thing that has to be addressed is how you compensate China for releasing water during the wet season. “For better or worse, these large dams were built in China. They’re there for a reason. There’s a profit motive behind them ... and when you ask somebody to stop doing that, you’ve got to give something in return,” Eyler said during an online panel discussion on Tuesday. Only two Chinese dams on the Mekong hold about 10 billion cubic km of water during the wet season to produce hydroelectricity during the dry season: the Xiaowan, the second largest dam in the Mekong River system, and the Nuozhadu, one of the world’s largest dams. Together, they hold about 20 percent of the water held back during the wet season, according to Eyler. The easiest solution, he said, would be to engage China since both dams belong to “one owner,” and “one government that oversees the operations.” Low-water levels are putting more pressure on the livelihoods of those who live along and depend on the Mekong River. Credit: RFA Insurance industry role Offering a potential solution, Alan Basist, a climatologist and co-leader of the Mekong Dam Monitor, said the insurance industry could collect money from lower basin countries and use those funds to offset China’s financial loss. “For example, the insurance industry goes to China and says we will pay you to release the water. We know that you will lose money because you cannot sell the energy during the dry season,” Basist said during Tuesday’s panel discussion. “Those types of arrangements have been done in different parts of the world, very successfully,” he said. “One of the advantages is that they can do an assessment of the economic and the environmental cost, and then adjust the payments so that it’s in line with the impacts that would happen.” Eyler agreed, saying “The insurance option ... is actually one of the cheapest and the most equitable options because it’s not necessarily the fishers of the Mekong who are paying, putting up the cash for that.” “When there is little water coming down from the north, the lower region will have less water,” says a Lao official who works closely with the Mekong River Commission. Credit: RFA A prolonged drought Experts have said that the Mekong is experiencing record low flows with longer dry and shorter wet seasons. The system is entering the fourth year of a prolonged drought caused by a lack of rainfall during the wet season, as well as a significant reduction of flow as dams upstream hold back a substantial amount of water. “We’ve been using satellite observations to identify how the water is flowing or not flowing through the Upper Mekong and we’ve learned very clearly that the dams have the ability to hold back a tremendous amount of water,” Basist said. “So, we’re seeing a significant reduction of flow,” he said. Meanwhile, Eyler said sudden releases of water by upstream dams could shock the river. In 2021, upstream dam releases on 22 occasions caused the river to rise by more than half a meter and then decrease by an equal amount when the releases stopped, he said. The water level increased or decreased by more than one meter on several occasions, Eyler said, adding “This is really concerning.” The waters of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province, northeastern Thailand, turned blue instead of its usual muddy color because of the upstream dams, as pictured in this photo of moored boats on Dec. 4, 2019. Credit: AP Fish will get confused The Mekong is also one of the world’s largest and most biodiversity-rich river basins, but the fluctuating water levels can harm species of birds and plants, experts say. Birds nest and lay eggs along the sandy river banks during the dry season, but the rising water levels can destroy the habitat and threaten critically endangered species, he said. Similarly, some trees along the Ramsar wetland protected sites in Cambodia are dying because of river changes. The river basin has more than 1,100 species of fish, which also are affected by the river’s changes. The dams worsen the impact of periodic droughts in the Mekong basin and rob the river of the “pulse effect” that spreads nutrients that support fisheries and farming, experts said. Nguyen Huu Thien, an independent climate and environmental consultant based in Vietnam, said those changing river signals are having a negative effect. “The entire ecosystem of the Mekong, especially migratory fish, depends on the fluctuation, the pulse of the floods, for starting the lifecycle activities, such as migration, and the seasonality of the flows,” he said. “The fish will be confused. They don’t know when to start migrating upstream to breed and I think we can expect that the fishery of the Mekong … is going to be wiped out.” Basist agreed. “If the fish are confused, if the natural rhythm … is not happening, and the flows are not occurring as would naturally happen with all these dams altering the natural rhythm of the river, then the Tonlé Sap Lake is no longer getting the pulse of the larvae, and that severely impacts the fishing industry,” he said. The Tonlé Sap Lake fishing industry has fallen about 40 percent compared to its long-term historical record, Basist said. Eyler said all blame should not be aimed at China. While the 11 largest dams are in China, Thailand has 152 completed dams, Eyler said, adding most are small and used for agricultural purposes. Laos has 68 dams and 37 more are under construction, Vietnam has 78 dams and Cambodia has nine. “So, it’s not just a China issue and how China is operating its dams that’s changing the nature of the river,” Eyler said. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/mekong-water-02162022094115.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Cambodia has been witnessing a five-year decline in its economic freedom, further depressed by score decrease in terms of labour and trade freedom recording a 2.4-point overall loss of economic freedom since 2017 and remains mired in the “Mostly Unfree” category. Despite this, Royal Academy of Cambodia researcher Hong Vannak insisted that the ranking was “not bad for Cambodia”, and that it was a reasonable reflection of the strengths and weaknesses of Cambodia’s economy. “Cambodia’s economic freedom score is now 57.1, making its economy the 106th freest in the 2022 Index of Economic Freedom. Ranked 21st among 39 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Cambodia’s overall score is below the regional and world average,” he told Khmer Times, referring to the Index of Economic Freedom released by the Heritage Foundation. The US-based conservative-leading think tank also revealed that Cambodia has an average economic growth of five percent annually over the past five years despite an economic downturn in 2020. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025759/cambodias-economic-freedom-down-slightly-says-report/

The prime minister and ASEAN chair says he will pass the crisis on to his successor. Hun Sen officially threw in the towel on solving Myanmar’s political crisis Wednesday, as top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) prepare for a retreat at which the junta’s failure to honor its commitments will likely loom large. Only a month and a half into assuming the rotating leadership of ASEAN, Cambodia’s prime minister admitted that Myanmar’s military regime has made no progress in resolving the situation in the country and said it is unlikely to do so during the remainder of his year as chair. “I’m in a situation where I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t, so just let it be,” the Cambodian strongman said while speaking in front of dignitaries, including Japanese Ambassador Mikami Masahiro, at the unveiling of a bridge in Kratie province. “If they don’t want to do it, we don’t need to worry. How can the cart move forward when the oxen are in front of it?” Hun Sen noted that there are “only 10 more months and 14 days left and my duty [as ASEAN chair] will be finished” and suggested that “the next chair of ASEAN take care of the issue” because of its difficulty. Hun Sen’s comments followed a Jan. 7-8 trip to Myanmar — the first by a foreign leader since the military coup — that drew widespread criticism for conferring legitimacy on the regime. The visit came barely two weeks after Hun Sen urged junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing during a video conference to uphold an agreement that he struck with ASEAN last year, known as the Five-Point Consensus. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the Feb. 1, 2021, overthrow of Myanmar’s democratically elected government, agreed to the consensus when he met ASEAN leaders in Jakarta last April at a summit convened to address the crisis in Myanmar. The agreement calls for an end to violence, dialogue between the junta and the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD), and for the ASEAN special envoy and delegation to visit Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned. Myanmar marked the first anniversary of the coup with no progress on those issues, while in the past year, security forces have arrested nearly 9,160 civilians and killed more than 1,550. Military conflict has engulfed large swathes of the country of 54 million, displacing more than 400,000 people. Hun Sen’s comments also came amid reports that Myanmar would not be sending a representative to Wednesday’s Foreign Ministers’ Retreat, days after the junta criticized fellow ASEAN member states for not extending invitations to its generals to bloc summits. ASEAN has barred high-ranking officials from the junta since Oct. 15 for failing to fully abide by the Five-Point Consensus. Junta Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin attends the ASEAN Foreign Minister Retreat via video conference, March 2, 2021. HANDOUT / AFPTV / MYANMAR RADIO AND TELEVISION / AFP Prospects for change Speaking to RFA’s Khmer Service, Cambodian political commentator Em Sovannary said that Hun Sen had handled the situation in Myanmar poorly, in part by failing to meet with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit to the country last month. But he suggested that the situation was not hopeless, given plans for the ASEAN special envoy to visit Myanmar later this year. “It isn’t a totally deadlocked yet. So, let’s try to begin [a different way],” he said. “If we keep trying, we cannot say it is over.” But Moe Thuzar, a Burmese expert on ASEAN affairs based in Singapore, said the bloc’s position will not change until the junta shows progress. “It has got to the point where ASEAN’s decision [not to invite the military’s representatives] is the ‘default,’” he said. “ASEAN will maintain this default position until they see junta implementing the Five-Point Consensus agreements, seriously and fully.” Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Myanmar analyst based in China, said she expects most ASEAN member states to continue pressuring the junta until it improves the situation inside the country. “The more the junta oppresses civilians, the more ASEAN countries will keep their distance,” she said. “They will be too afraid to show their support.” Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on Myanmar’s absence from the upcoming retreat went unanswered Wednesday. In a statement on Feb. 14, the junta’s foreign ministry said that ASEAN’s decision was not in line with the bloc’s charter, which pledges to respect the sovereignty of member nations, as well as basic principles of the U.N. charter. Burmese political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe told RFA that he sees no situation in which ASEAN will give in to Myanmar’s military regime if it chooses not to implement the Five-Point Consensus. “I assume that ASEAN members must be thinking that if they give in it will put the people of Myanmar into deeper crisis or create a tougher situation for political stakeholders in the country and prolong the power of the military regime, instead of leading to an effective solution,” he said. Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service and Myanmar Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/towel-02162022174658.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Ambitious plan to attract 10 million travellers is complicated by broken contracts and an uncertain pandemic recovery. Siem Reap, Cambodia – Down a dirt road in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, behind homes and a few sundry shops, construction teams are busy working to transform an empty rice field into an international airport capable of handling 10 million travellers by 2030. The Cambodian government has touted the Chinese-developed Angkor International Airport project as a boon for the province’s tourism industry, which was suffering from declining numbers of visitors even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities have also promoted the $900m airport, located about 50km (31 miles) from Siem Reap city, as a way of protecting the world-famous tourist attraction Angkor Wat, which suffers from noise pollution caused by the existing airport nearby. The project’s developer has promised to build a highway and commercial complex in addition to the airport, as part of a push to attract millions of visitors to the region each year. read more https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/16/in-cambodias-siem-reap-990m-airport-faces-hurdles-to-success

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The last known freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin on a stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia has died, apparently after getting tangled in a fishing net, wildlife officials said Wednesday. The aquatic mammal was found dead Tuesday on a riverbank in Stung Treng province near the border with Laos, Cambodia’s Fisheries Conservation Department announced on its Facebook page. The Irrawaddy dolphin, also known as the Mekong River dolphin, is classified as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Other groups of these dolphins are still to be found farther downstream in Cambodia and in two other freshwater rivers — Myanmar’s Irrawaddy and Indonesia’s Mahakam on the island of Borneo. The first census of Irrawaddy dolphins in Cambodia in 1997 estimated their total population was about 200. In 2020, the population was estimated to have fallen to 89, almost all in the group that still exists downstream from Stung Treng. read more https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-environment-and-nature-wildlife-cambodia-mekong-river-505d783c0b8577c352c7a7c1d98b3382

The Telecom Ministry confirmed this afternoon the controversial National Internet Gateway, expected to come online Wednesday, has been postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and potential disruptions to online traffic. The government released a sub-decree establishing the gateway on February 16, 2020, and said it would be implemented in 12 months. Telecommunications Ministry spokesperson Meas Po said Tuesday the gateway had been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, also alluding to the technical difficulty in implementing such a system. “Because it is an activity whenever we implement it, we have to prepare to install and order equipment in order to prepare and create the gateway. And we have to give licenses to any company that the government understands that has the ability to create the gateway. That’s why it can affect the traffic,” Po said. He did not answer questions on how long the gateway was delayed and denied the delay had anything to do with pushback from local and international rights groups. read more https://vodenglish.news/government-puts-controversial-internet-gateway-on-hold/

As the sun sets above the isolated village of Sre Ken, set in the rugged Oral district of Kampong Speu, the mountains that rise above on all sides fade to a soft purple before disappearing in the night. It was on a dim evening here that Pleng Komsot, whose family says is about 18 years old, is alleged to have murdered his stepfather, Srey Vath. A provincial deputy police chief confirmed Komsot was arrested two days after the January 10 killing. The young man now stands accused of premeditated murder after he confessed to hacking at Vath with a knife until his stepfather died, collapsing in the dirt outside a neighboring home. To explain why he’d done such a thing, Komsot accused Vath of being a sorcerer, of using black magic to harm others. On a recent visit to Sre Ken, reporters from VOD found that many other residents had also believed Vath to be a sorcerer. Even if they felt it, none who spoke with reporters expressed any sympathy for the dead man — not even a former drinking partner, who said he had experienced serious stomach pains that he claimed were due to the effects of one of Vath’s curses. read more https://vodenglish.news/malady-and-magic-the-murders-of-cambodias-black-magic-practitioners/

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat (AMM Retreat), which sees in-person attendance for the first time in two years following the Covid-19 pandemic, begins in a hybrid format today, minus a representative from Myanmar. The retreat in Phnom Penh is considered a trial for the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting scheduled for August which ASEAN Chair Cambodia is hosting. The AMM Retreat, chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Prak Sokhonn, will be held as a follow-up to the bloc’s leaders’ decisions on regional issues made during the 38th and the 39th ASEAN Summits which then-Chair Brunei hosted in October. During the closed-door meeting, Asean foreign ministers will discuss ways to further strengthen external relations with dialogue partners while maintaining and promoting the bloc’s solidarity and unity. “They will also discuss ways and means to mobilise joint efforts to build a stronger ASEAN Community,” Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said yesterday. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025766/landmark-meeting-cambodia-hosts-first-in-person-asean-event-after-pandemic/

Despite facing challenges over raw material supplies, strict crossing border measures imposed by the deadly Covid-19, Cambodia’s garment sector saw the robust growth of export last year. Figures from the General Department of Customs and Excise, released last week showed that the export amount of the garment, footwear and travel goods increased by 15.2 percent to $11.38 billion last year. Ly Khun Thai, Honorary President of the Cambodian Footwear Association, said that the increase of garment export was due to the increase in orders, some buyers have diverted orders from neighbouring Cambodia. “Buyers have changed orders from other countries due to unrest in politics and Covid-19 to Cambodia and due to vaccinations in many countries and the reopening of travel, many buyers have placed orders for these products from Cambodia,” Khun Thai said. Lim Heng, vice president of Cambodia, shared the same sentiment. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025229/cambodias-garment-export-nets-11-3-billion-in-2021/

The opening of a new international border between Cambodia and Thailand is expected to further enhance trade and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Experts believe that the opening of Thmar Da International Border will open up a special economic zone through domestic and international travels besides enabling trading between the two countries. Thmar Da International Border is located in Thmar Da Commune, Veal Veng District, Pursat Province, bordering Trat Province, Thailand. Already Thmar Da has invested in housing development, hotels, markets, casinos and resorts that leverage on its 1,500 scenic waterfalls and mountains. The Trat province in Thailand is also known to be a seaside tourist attraction. Plans are in the pipeline for various infrastructures to be constructed including the immigration, customs and excise buildings housing both the administrative and dormitory facilities, as well as parking lots, warehouses and container fields. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025053/new-cambodia-thai-border-set-to-boost-mutual-trade-and-tourism-say-experts/

A former university professor Michael J. Pepe, 68, a pedophile, was sentenced to 210 years in prison by a Los Angeles judge for molesting underage girls in Cambodia. U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer rejected the defense’s position that such a long sentence would be unduly harsh.“Pepe confined numerous preteen girls in his home,” said Judge Fischer. “The horrors he inflicted on those girls was more than unduly harsh, it was torture.” In papers filed before the hearing, the defense team, headed by veteran attorney Charles C. Brown, argued for a sentence of 25 years, saying Pepe’s “age and feeble health mitigate against the imposition of a sentence of death in prison.” The government team, headed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie S. Christensen, countered that Pepe’s health problems didn’t stop him from “taking Viagra and drugging, beating, and raping children on a near daily basis in Cambodia.” Pepe, a former U. S. Marine Corps captain, retired to Phnom Penh in 2003 and began teaching management classes at Pannasastra University and befriending Cambodian elites. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025239/u-s-pedophile-and-former-professor-commits-sex-crimes-in-cambodia-sentenced-to-210-years-imprisonment-in-the-u-s/

Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh has reached a stage in his career where his creativity is completely untethered. The 57 year-old auteur has won numerous plaudits for his documentary work chronicling the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide, a historical tragedy he endured firsthand — watching his parents, siblings and extended family perish of starvation and forced labor — before he escaped to Thailand and, later, France, where he discovered filmmaking. In 2013, Panh achieved a major breakthrough with The Missing Picture, a documentary that saw him abandon the cinéma vérité methods of his early work in favor of a wholly original aesthetic in which he used unmoving clay figurines, archival footage and poetic first-person narration to dramatize his family’s plight during the Pol Pot era. The meditative film won him the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar nomination in the best international film category. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501025294/cambodias-rithy-panh-new-movie-on-overcoming-pandemic-despair-with-everything-will-be-ok/

Officers allege their salaries were cut for political donations in latest allegation against the commissioner. A police commissioner in Cambodia has been accused of corruption by 28 of his subordinates, a signed letter by the accusers obtained by RFA revealed. In the letter, the 28 officers, representing themselves and more than 100 more colleagues who remained anonymous, accused Koeng Khorn, the commissioner of police in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng, of cutting their monthly salaries and using the money to donate to candidates from Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CCP) in upcoming local elections. The letter said that salaries were slashed between 200,000 riel (U.S. $50) to 4,000,000 riel ($1,000), depending on the rank of the officer. The officers urged the minister of interior to investigate the commissioner and his associates, who they said were corrupt. RFA attempted to contact Commissioner Koeng Khorn by telephone for comment, but he did not answer. The letter also accused him of ordering his deputy and two lieutenants to forcibly collect the thumbprints of the subordinate officers on documents that showed they agreed to the monetary donations and waived their right to protest. It finally asked National Police Commissioner Net Savoeun and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng to fire Koeng Khorn and seek his replacement. A Svay Rieng police officer told RFA’s Khmer Service on condition of anonymity that the ongoing corruption, partisanship and harassment of lower-ranking officers will negatively affect the department and its ability to maintain order. He said that during the commissioner’s more than 10-year tenure a host of irregularities have surfaced, including nepotism in hiring practices and bribery in exchange for promotions. The commissioner also pushed back the year in which the officers could retire with full benefits. National Police spokesman Chhay Kimkhoeun could also not be reached for comment. Sok Eysan, spokesman for the CPP, said that the ruling party has no policy for cutting the salaries of civil servants to increase political donations. If police were required to cut their salaries in this case, it is an effort to discredit the CPP, he said. Donating money to a political party must be voluntary and coercion to donate is illegal, Soeng Karuna, spokesman for the local Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, told RFA. He said the Ministry of Interior and the government should investigate the officers’ claims. “After a proper investigation is revealed, a clear action should be taken against individuals, who commit wrongdoing regardless of their roles. Legal action such as administrative penalties or a criminal punishment must be taken accordingly,” he said. Police in Svay Rieng previously wrote two letters complaining about Commissioner Koeng Khorn. In 2019, 57 anonymous officers said he accumulated tens of millions of dollars by corrupt means. But Koeng Khorn was never charged on any of the crimes alleged in that letter. National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun at that time said three officers investigated the case and found no wrongdoing. He said the allegations were baseless. In 2020, now hundreds of Svay Rieng police wrote a second anonymous letter accusing the commissioner of sending relatives to the border to collect money from tens of thousands of Vietnamese, who were allowed to enter Cambodia for one hundred thousand dong or about $5 each. Cambodian official Duong Ngiep, in a file photo. Photo: Facebook account of Duong Ngiep Jailed whistleblower Meanwhile, a court in the capital Phnom Penh Monday ordered into custody Duong Gniep, described in Cambodian media as the country's deputy secretary general of the Ministry of Interior, who recently publicly criticized the judges of the court for attempting to take a bribe from him. Duong Gniep is charged with defrauding Taiwanese business partners of millions of dollars in a fake real estate sale. On Feb. 7, he posted a video on Facebook in front of the Prey Sar Prison saying that he was ready to enter the prison after two judges of Phnom Penh tried to coerce him into giving them money to rule in his favor in his fraud case. In the video, Duong Ngiep claims that the judge turned his case “black” — that is, they extorted money from him. Duong Ngiep did not reveal how much money he paid to the judges, but said that they kept asking him to appear before them and he had to pay them each time. He said he appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials to help but was ignored. Duong Ngiep also said that he regretted supporting the CPP in the past as they did not help him out in the end. One day before his arrest, Gniep, who also holds honorable title Okhna (Duke in English), had written a letter of apology to the Phnom Penh court chief for questioning the honor of the court chief. He said the pressure of the court case contributed to his distress and confusion. Speaking to RFA during a live interview Monday, the President of Cambodia’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, Morm Sitha, said that the government should investigate Duong Ngiep’s allegations. “If the courts are not independent, it means that everything is missing from human rights and democracy. Investors would not come to invest in Cambodia if the court is corrupt,” she said. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong. https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/police-02142022185934.html Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Changes coming in this week will see all online traffic pass through a gateway to preserve ‘social order’ A China-style internet gateway scheduled to be imposed in Cambodia this week would grant the government far greater powers to conduct mass surveillance, censor and control the country’s internet, rights groups have warned. Human rights experts and media advocates fear the gateway could be a step towards the kind of censorship enforced through China’s Great Firewall – though some question what technical capacity Cambodia’s systems currently have, and say the process has lacked transparency. Under the changes, all online traffic must pass through a National Internet Gateway (NIG), which the government says will protect national security, help with tax collection and preserve “social order, culture and national tradition”. read more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/14/fears-cambodia-is-rolling-out-china-style-great-firewall-to-curb-online-freedom

No new fatalities have been reported for 40 days straight in Cambodia with the death toll remaining at 3,015. The first death was recorded on 11 March 2021, a direct result of the careless attitude of four Chinese nationals who escaped quarantine from the Sokha Hotel on 18 February 2021 and which subsequently came to be known as the February 20 Community event which led to the infection of more than 120,000 people and the deaths of the 3,015, most of whom had not been vaccinated. However, amid the positive news of no COVID-19 related deaths, the surge of Omicron variant of the coronavirus has caused alarm and fear that the Government may be forced to roll back some of the openness it enforced since November 1, 2021 due to public lethargy and apathy towards the virus. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501024487/no-new-fatalities-from-covid-19-have-been-reported-for-40-days-straight-in-cambodia-but-omicron-runs-wild/

A Khmer Buddhist Foundation, a nonprofit entity dedicated to preserving the culture of the Khmer population, announced that it has furnished over $1 million in grant funding to the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC) to source, preserve, restore and digitize nearly 1.5 million pages of palm-leaf manuscripts — the largest collection of Cambodian Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts in the world. The chief medium for Cambodian literature for hundreds of years has been the palm leaf manuscript. A South and Southeast Asian tradition for millennia, palm leaf manuscripts are typically short bundles of rectangular palm leaves that are tied together with colorful strings. Palm leaf manuscripts are created by drying and trimming young palm fronds and then using a sharp stylus to etch text onto both sides of each strip of palm leaf. Given their organic nature, the manuscripts are perishable and also vulnerable to insects and fire. To protect them from loss, scribes would regularly recopy manuscripts, transmitting knowledge from generation to generation. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501023822/khmer-buddhist-foundation-provides-1-million-in-grants-to-digitize-buddhist-palm-leaf-manuscripts/

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Labor Minister Ith Samheng said here on Friday that some 1.3 million Cambodians have been working abroad, sending home roughly 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. The minister revealed the figures at an annual conference of the National Social Security Fund, and added that 528,799 of the migrant workers are female. "The remittances have not only improved the livelihoods of their family members, but also contributed to boosting Cambodia's economic growth," Samheng said. Most of the laborers work in Thailand, and the rest are in South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, China's Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia, he said. He added that some 1.22 million Cambodian laborers have been working in Thailand, more than 45,000 in South Korea, 23,027 in Malaysia, 11,453 in Japan, 821 in Singapore, 202 in China's Hong Kong, and 43 in Saudi Arabia. ■ http://www.news.cn/asiapacific/20220211/27e7efc18d154a1e960cea96e55a0b09/c.html

Following a number of cases involving Thais being duped into working for cybercriminal gangs operating in Cambodia, the neighbouring country’s police have cast a net to seize nationals who are involved in such activities. Top officials from the Thai Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) and the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry met top brass in Cambodia earlier this week to discuss the extradition of cybercriminals believed to be hiding in the Kingdom. “A married couple was arrested on February 3 in Thailand’s Sa Kaew province for allegedly coordinating the transfer of Thais to work at two call centre gangs in Cambodia. This operation is reportedly overseen by a Chinese gang leader,” The Nation reported Police General Damrongsak Kittipraphat, deputy national police chief and director of the PCT, as saying. “The PCT is tracking down other accomplices and has called on the court to issue arrest warrants for 71 individuals involved with two cybercriminal gangs believed to be hiding in Cambodia.” read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501024487/no-new-fatalities-from-covid-19-have-been-reported-for-40-days-straight-in-cambodia-but-omicron-runs-wild/

Preah Sihanouk Provincial Police yesterday began investigating the murder of a Chinese national in Buon village, Buon commune Sihanoukville after a minor traffic accident resulted in a fight during which one of the drivers pulled a gun and shot the victim five times. Provincial police chief Major General Chuon Narin said yesterday: “We have not yet identified the suspect, the police are investigating now. We do not yet know the exact cause, whether or not the perpetrator and the victim may have had revenge issues with each other before or what conflict they had. We are researching.” He said that the victim was shot with five bullets, two on the left side of his head, one on the right side of his chest, one in his right shoulder and one in his left wrist. The Chinese woman was not injured. Commune police chief Lieutenant Sam Prak said that before the incident, a Chinese man and woman were driving in an Audi from east to west and a white Prius driven by two Chinese men was going in the opposite direction. read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501024425/chinese-national-shot-dead-after-traffic-accident/

Phnom Penh Municipality has issued a directive banning students from gathering at schools or public places on Valentine’s Day. Phnom Penh Governor Khoung Sreng said in the statement that the ban is aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 – particularly the Omicron variant, in the community. At the same time, the measure is also meant to protect “the good dignity and tradition of Cambodian nation”, as the foreign celebration has usually been associated with premarital sexual intercourse among the country’s teenagers. The directive states that ‘In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus and the new mutant type “Omicron” in accordance with the health rules and to ensure the preservation of the beautiful traditional culture of the Khmer nation in accordance with Guideline No. 09 February 11, 2022 of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2022, Phnom Penh Capital Administration would like to make the following recommendations: read more https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501024289/no-student-gatherings-on-valentines-day/