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RECENT NEWS
Open letter to World Bank President Jim Kim
May 09, 2013
We are 364 families of the Boeung Kak community. We used to live and work around the lake, which is located in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In 2007, our lands were leased to Shukaku Inc., owned by the ruling party senator Lao Meng Khim. We were subsequently threatened with forced eviction, and when we resisted, we faced several years of threats and intimidation, as well as intentional flooding of our homes, making them uninhabitable. As a result, we had no option but to accept the compensation offered – either US$8,500 or a plot at a relocation site - and leave our homes of many years.
May 07, 2013
Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia's sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of the pie.
Images of bulldozed homes, shot animals and razed crops are not what European consumers expect to be confronted with when biting into a sugary treat. However activists calling for an international boycott of US-owned Tate & Lyle Sugars, which is based in London, say this is what has happened in Cambodia in recent years as well-connected companies continue to flout the law in the pursuit of profit.
An Open Letter to International Garment Brands Sourcing from Cambodia
April 29, 2013
May 01, 2013 - On this International Labor Day, we, the undersigned civil society groups call upon all international garment brands sourcing from Cambodia to publicly denounce two recent baseless judicial decisions related to the garment sector. The first is the recent imprisonment of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun. The two men were scapegoated and wrongly convicted in the 2004 murder of labor leader Chea Vichea. The second is the government's failure to appropriately prosecute Chhouk Bandith, a well-connected former town governor who shot and severely injured three female garment factory workers.
The Chinese North-South Railway Project
April 09, 2013
In early January 2013, the Cambodian media and the international press reported the signing of a major deal with two Chinese companies for a railway construction and port development project, joining a new steel plant in Preah Vihear province to the coastal area of Koh Kong province. The project includes a purpose-built port and over 400 kilometres of railway running from the north of the country to the southwest. Although the project involves multiple components, for the purposes of this paper it will be referred to as the North-South Railway Project.
Vanny is winning the Vital Voices Award tomorrow
April 01, 2013
"Beoung Kak lake resident Tep Vanny beat out 10 international activists to win a human rights award as part of the Movies that Matter Film Festival in The Hague... Vanny, 32, who has been imprisoned, beaten and threatened during years of protesting against land evictions, was a protagonist in the documentary Even a Bird Needs a Nest, which led to her winning the Amnesty International-sponsored 5,000-euro Golden Butterfly: A Matter of ACT Human Rights Award. "http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032964785/National/activist-abroad-tep-vanny-wins-human-rights-award.html
And, Tep Vanny is winning the Vital Voices Award tomorrow! "The Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards honor and celebrate women leaders around the world who are the unsung heroines working to strengthen democracy, increase economic opportunity, and protect human rights. Every year since 2002, we have gathered at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to recognize women who are social entrepreneurs, political representatives, businesswomen, human rights defenders and civil society advocates. http://vitalvoices.org/node/69
Denial of Release Pending Appeal Highlights Political Interference in the Court System
March 27, 2013
March 27, 2013 - LICADHO, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), Equitable Cambodia (EC), and Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) express their deep disappointment at the Supreme Court's failure to release Boeung Kak land rights activist Yorm Bopha on bail. Bopha's request was heard this morning by the Supreme Court, while some 100 community activists from Boeung Kak and other communities under threat of eviction rallied outside. Bopha's young son and her husband Lous Sakorn were also among the crowd.
Cambodia Resettlement Debacle Cover Up: ADB Conceals Critical Expert Report
March 18, 2013
(Phnom Penh, March 18, 2013) Equitable Cambodia (EC), Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) and Inclusive Development International (IDI) regret the Asian Development Bank's refusal to disclose a critical independent expert report on the impacts of involuntary resettlement caused by the Railway Rehabilitation Project in Cambodia.
Appeal Court Orders Release of Mam Sonando, Kan Sovann & Touch Ream
March 14, 2013
Phnom Penh (March 14, 2013) – We, the undersigned civil society groups, welcome the Court of Appeal's long-overdue decision today to release independent radio station owner Mam Sonando and his two co-appellants, Touch Ream and Kan Sovann, but caution that a long road remains to rehabilitate Cambodia's democracy ahead of National Assembly elections in July.
Police Beat Boeung Kak Protesters, Leaving Five Injured
March 13, 2013
Phnom Penh (March 13, 2013) – Authorities' escalated their ongoing crackdown on the Boeung Kak Lake community today, as police launched a brutal attack on demonstrators who had gathered in a public park outside the Prime Minister's house.
Three people were detained and five were seriously injured, including Lous Sokorn, the husband of imprisoned Boeung Kak rights activist Yorm Bopha. The demonstrators were calling for the release of Bopha, who has been designated a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International.