The British founder of a Cambodian orphanage is facing prosecution for sexually assaulting a boy in his care.
Nicholas Griffin, 52, was held when police raided his isolated base in countryside near Siem Reap, in the north-west of the country.
Up to 100 children were moved to a safe house in an operation that involved British and local investigators.
Mr Griffin, originally from Wales, left Britain in 2006 before founding the Cambodia Orphan Fund, one year later.
He faces a potential 10-year jail sentence over a claim he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy.
Fortress-like building
He was originally held on suspicion of breaking child labour laws and his orphanage licence.
The orphanage manager, a Cambodian man, has been charged with the illegal removal of a child to the orphanage.
Jim Gamble, of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), said Cambodian police are now examining claims of "institutional abuse" within the orphanage, which occupies an unusual fortress-like building.
Mr Gamble added: "The UK and Cambodia may have different legal systems and law enforcement practices, but we share a clear, joint commitment: to prevent harm to children."
He said the operation demonstrated the value of the organisation's international child protection network.
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Friday, October 22, 2010
Briton on child sex abuse charge in Cambodia orphanage
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Flooding impacts provincial prison
Severe flooding in Northwestern Cambodia has left Banteay Meanchey provincial prison under more than 70 centimetres of water and created increasingly worrisome humanitarian conditions at the facility, prison officials and rights workers said.
Thean Chhorvoan, acting director of Banteay Meanchey provincial prison, said floods hit the detention centre beginning last Saturday and had been rising ever since.
“On Tuesday, the water level rose to a half-metre, and as of Thursday, the level of water has risen to 70 centimetres, even though authorities have used four generators to pump out water from the prison around the clock,” Thean Chhorvoan said.
The area around the prison was also flooded, he added.
Thean Chhorvoan said yesterday that administrators had no immediate plans to evacuate inmates from the prison because they had succeeded for the time being in diverting the floodwaters from the prisoners’ sleeping area.
But Chea Sothea, a prison monitor for local rights group Licadho, said inmates were having trouble sleeping as water seeped into their quarters.
With the prison’s latrine flooded, she added, inmates had been forced to defecate in plastic bags, creating an extremely unsanitary environment that had led several prisoners to fall ill with diarrhea.
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Police arrested 10 murder suspects
Meanchey district police have apprehended 10 men suspected of involvement in the brutal murder of three family members whose slashed and beaten bodies were found in their home in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district on Tuesday.
The three victims – 16-year-old Ry Nalin and her parents, 52-year-old Ry Saron and 46-year-old Ne Sovannary – were found in their home in Village 7 with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut. The house had also been robbed.
Mean Heng Tith, deputy district police chief, said 10 male suspects aged between 16 and 35 had been arrested and temporarily detained for questioning in connection with the incident.
He said all 10 suspects live in Meanchey district’s Chak Angre Leu commune but declined to provide any further details because of ongoing investigations.
He also stressed that no one had been charged.
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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Groups Warn of Abuse Increases in Land, Resource Deals
Villagers in the provinces of Koh Kong and Kampong Speu have alleged that sugar plantations operated by Ly Yong Phat have pushed them off their land.
“Land concessions are affecting Cambodian villages and communities in some provinces,” said Thun Saray, president of the rights group Adhoc, speaking at a national conference for advocacy in Phnom Penh.
The number of land issues has increased over the last nine months, he said, leading to an increase in rights abuses.
An Adhoc study of land issues in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kampong Speu, Koh Kong, Oddar Meanchey, Preah Vihear, Stung Treng and Banteay Meanchey found 272 ongoing land disputes. As a result, it found 128 people had been arrested and more than 100 had evaded detention. Fifty-five people remain in custody, facing criminal charges related to protests in the disputes.
Wednesday's conference brought together hundreds from across Cambodia, some of whom were representatives of villages feeling the strain of land concessions.
“Now there are 31 families with land issues with the Heng Houy [sugar plantation],” Phoa Ngeng, a resident of Chi Kar Krom commune of Koh Kong province's Sre Ambel district, said.
People there live in fear, she said, with at least one or two people summoned to provincial court every day. She called on the national government to stop providing land concessions to private companies to prevent rights violations.
Heng Houy, the head of the company, has said he obtained the concession legally and had purchased land legitimately from villagers.
Ongoing disputes create the loss of farmland for villagers and other livelihoods, villagers at the conference said. Meanwhile, minority villagers have been pushed from homes and forests that are an important part of their culture.
Meanwhile, exploitation of resources, including for hydropower, have increased the burdens on some villagers.
For example, the Srepok and Yali hydropower dams in Vietnam have created poor living conditions for people downstream.
Kong Chanty, a resident of Stung Treng province's Sesan district, said Wednesday that the dams have pushed more than 1,000 families from 18 villagers from their homeland.
“Now we have moved the houses to a near area, and we lost villages and the land, the farming fields and our ethnic culture,” he said.
Ban Ki-moon Expected Later This Month
Ban Ki-moon, right, Secretary General of United Nations meets with Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Cambodia, left, at United Nations, September 2010.
“The impression about this trip is that it is to focus on the Khmer Rouge tribunal,” said Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights.
However, if Ban is traveling with the vice chairman of the UN's Human Rights Commission, rights abuse could be on the agenda, he said.
The UN may be pushing for more funding at the tribunal, which has struggled financially all year, while it must also push for independence at the court, he said. The court also needs a proper mechanism to fight allegations of corruption, Ou Virak said.
Koy Kuong, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Ban was expected Oct. 26 through Oct. 28, but he did not outline details for meetings.
Earlier this year, Ban made an appeal to donors to fund the UN-backed court, which has tried one former Khmer Rouge, and is preparing a case for four more.
Further indictments have proven difficult, and critics say the government has hampered the work of the court, especially with the refusal of six senior government officials ignoring summonses from the international investigating judge.
A diplomat in New York said donors are waiting to see a strategy for winding down the court before they commit to more funding.
Seng Theary, founder of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation and a participant in the trials so far, said she hoped Ban's visit would relieve the pressures of funding, as well as political interference, for the court.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Life term sought for Khmer Rouge jailer sentenced to 19 years for war crimes, other offences
By The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Prosecutors have appealed for a life sentence against the former Khmer Rouge jailer who in July received what many considered a lenient penalty for war crimes, crimes against humanity and related offences.
Cambodia's U.N.-backed genocide tribunal convicted Kaing Guek Eav — also known as Duch — and sentenced him to 19 years after considering that he co-operated, showed some expression of remorse and was not in the Khmer Rouge's inner circle.
Tribunal spokesman Lars Olsen said Tuesday prosecutors have filed documents seeking to have the court impose a stiffer sentence. The appeal was lodged Oct. 13 but posted publicly by the tribunal Tuesday.
In announcing their intention to appeal in August, the prosecutors said the original judgment "gives insufficient weight to the gravity of Duch's crimes and his role and his willing participation in those crimes."
The tribunal is seeking justice for the estimated 1.7 million people who died from execution, overwork, disease and malnutrition as a result of the radical policies of the 1975-79 communist Khmer Rouge regime.
Duch's lawyer had also announced his intention to appeal the court sentence and seek his client's release, but it is unclear whether he has officially done so.
Duch (pronounced DOIK) was the first defendant to be tried. He supervised a prison where as many as 16,000 people were tortured before being taken away for execution.
Also found guilty of torture and murder, Duch was originally sentenced to 35 years. Time served reduced the sentence 11 years, and he was compensated five years for illegal detention in a military prison.
Four more defendants are expected to go on trial by the middle of next year: Nuon Chea, the Khmer Rouge ideologist; Khieu Samphan, its former head of state; Ieng Sary, its foreign minister; and his wife Ieng Thirith, who was minister for social affairs.
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Parents, daughter murdered in Phnom Penh
A mother, father and their 16-year-old daughter have been found murdered in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmon district, their bodies apparently slashed and bashed with knives and bats.
Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth said the bodies of the three victims –Ry Nalin and her parents, 52-year-old Ry Saron and 46-year-old Ne Sovannary – were found in their home in Village 7 with their hands tied behind their backs and their throats cut.
He said the three victims had multiple injuries inflicted with a variety of weapons.
“The suspects used a rope and killed the victims by stabbing them with a knife, [and also attacked them with] an axe and a bat. It is a cruel murder,” he said.
The killings bring to five the number of multiple murders reported in Cambodia since July.
The most recent such case occurred on October 9, when a 47-year-old woman, her 24-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old waitress were shot dead in Kandal province’s Takhmao town....read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.
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Monday, October 18, 2010
Hun Sen Accuses Sam Rainsy of Serving Foreign Interests
Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned the opposition party not to personalize a conflict against him and accused its leader of serving Thailand's interest.
The accusation came after 26 Sam Rainsy lawmakers filed a petition last week to summon the premier to explain on the alleged military training to Thai red shirt protesters inside Cambodia.
“Do not turn it into a conflict with Hun Sen,” Hun Sen said on Monday at a public forum. “[You] have a problem with the law. It’s a legal matter, but [you] have tried to turn it into a dispute against me.”
Sam Rainsy has been sentenced to 12 years in jail on charges of falsifying public documents, disinformation and destruction of border markers in Svay Rieng province.
“I never take a personal issue as a big one,” Sam Rainsy told VOA Khmer by phone from France. “I only file complaints against the Vietnamese in order to protect Cambodian territorial integrity. Cambodian people have fallen victims to the culture of impunity in the past 20 or 30 years. The powerful have a bad habit of killing people at will. I must work to end this impunity for the sake of people’s peace.”
Sam Rainsy announced last Saturday through a video conference to his supporters that he had filed complaints to the courts in the US, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands -- alleging Hun Sen of collusion in a number of violent incidents in Cambodia.
Sam Rainsy accused Hun Sen of being responsible for the 1997 grenade attack on the opposition rally; extrajudicial killings in the aftermath of the 1997 coup against it coalition partner Funcinpec; the killings of non-violent demonstrators and monks in 1998; and atrocities against civilians along the border during the civil war in the 1980s.
In September Sam Rainsy launched a campaign to mobilize international support to pressure the Cambodian government to bring him back into the country. But Hun Sen insists that the opposition leader must at least serve two third of his punishment.
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Conservation group urges action to save Angkor, other developing world cultural heritage sites
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - A U.S.-based foundation is urging concerted international action to preserve world-famed cultural heritage sites at risk of loss or damage, including Cambodia's ancient Angkor Wat temple complex, one of the great landmarks of Asia.
The Global Heritage Fund says in a report circulated Monday that "of the nearly 500 global heritage sites in the 100 poorest and emerging countries of the world ... over 200 are facing irreversible loss and damage today."
Among the other sites highlighted are Sumerian archaeological sites in southern Iraq it says that are subject to massive looting; the ancient city of Hasankeyf in Turkey that could be flooded by a new dam project; and Kashgar in western China, where old quarters face demolition under government plans to guard against earthquakes that will relocate over 50,000 people.
"The trend of loss is accelerating due to the simultaneous man-made threats of development pressures, unsustainable tourism, insufficient management, looting, and war and conflict," says the report, "Saving Our Vanishing Heritage: Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage."
The report says that visitors to Angkor Wat increased by 188 per cent from 840,000 in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2009. The temples were built when Angkorian kings ruled over much of Southeast Asia between the ninth and 14th centuries. After centuries of abandonment — and neglect in the 1970s during a civil war — they have emerged as Cambodia's leading tourist destination.
Visitors climbing over the ruins is causing "heavy deterioration of original Khmer stonework," the report warns. It adds that hotels and restaurants nearby are sapping region's aquifer, which has caused the famed Bayon temple's 54 towers to sink into the ground.
Tan Sambu, an official of the Apsara Authority — the Cambodian government office that oversees the temples — said it has issued guidelines for tourists, telling them not to touch carvings and statues. Earlier this year, South Korea provided $9.2 million to build a new road that will circle the temple complex and reduce traffic inside the heritage area.
"Of course when there are many tourists visiting, the deterioration of the original stonework at the temples can't be avoided, but our agency has tried to reduce the effects as much as possible," Tam Sambu said.
The Global Heritage Fund report calls for the preservation of heritage to be recognized as a global priority like combating climate change and biological diversity. It is due to will host a forum on the issue Tuesday at California's Stanford University.
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Sunday, October 17, 2010
Flooding on Thailand-Cambodia border still critical
(NECN/MCOT: Sa Kaeo, Thailand) - The border district of Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew province was under water for the second day on Sunday, with more than 1,000 households being affected.
Flooding in the municipal area and Aranyaprathet's market was described as the worst in 13 years, forcing local residents and vendors to move their belongings and goods to areas with higher ground. Buddhist monks had to wade through floodwaters while on their morning alms rounds.
Many roads in the Aranyaprathet municipal area were heavily flooded and several sections of them could not be used by small passenger cars.
At the border market of Rong Kluea, which was earlier heavily inundated, saw receding levels of floodwater and was returning to business as usual. However, officials were removing large amounts of garbage brought by floodwater.
At Sa Kaew's Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint, cargo trucks from Thailand were prevented by Cambodian authorities from entering that country due to severe flooding in Cambodia's border town of Poipet. The Cambodians said there was no space left to store new goods and the local warehouses were being flooded.
Officials at the Aranyaprathet customs house said the Cambodian authorities order continued for the second day Sunday.
They said each day more than 150 trucks carrying Thai exports to Cambodia pass the Baan Klong Luek border checkpoint. It was estimated that the suspension of cargo transport caused 50 million baht in loss of revenue each day for Thai exporters.
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Mekong countries should delay dam projects for decade: study
Countries in the lower Mekong River region should delay any decisions about building hydropower dams for 10 years, an influential new study said Friday, warning of the many risks involved.
The recommendation was made in a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report commissioned by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental advisory body that deals with all Mekong River-related activities.
The MRC -- which represents Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam -- is studying the possible construction of 11 hydropower projects on southeast Asia's longest river.
"The recommendation to defer dam construction for a 10-year period is very significant," said Tiffany Hacker, an interim communication advisor for the MRC.
Environmental groups have long objected to damming the river, arguing that it would damage fragile ecosystems.
The assessment, led by consultants with the help of the MRC, government agencies and civil society representatives, said more time was needed to study the risks that come with building dams in such a complex environment.
"The mainstream projects are likely to result in serious and irreversible environmental damage and... losses in biological diversity and ecological integrity," the report said.
It also warned that the dams would have a negative impact on fisheries and could "lead to increasing food insecurity for millions of people".
The MRC stressed that it was under no obligation to follow the report's recommendations, but Hacker told AFP that member countries were "likely to take the findings seriously".
The four countries will now study the findings "for at least six months" before deciding on how to proceed, Hacker said.
More than 60 million people rely in some way on the river, which is the world's largest inland fishery, according to the MRC.
The wildlife group WWF has warned that the Mekong giant catfish -- one of the world's biggest freshwater fish -- could be driven to extinction if plans to build hydropower dams on the river go ahead, blocking spawning grounds.
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Nine years old girl allegedly tortured
Officials are investigating allegations that a 9-year-old girl was tortured while working as a housemaid for a family in Pursat province.
Ben Sivla, a commune councillor, said the girl’s neighbours reported the case to police and rights workers on Saturday after she fled the house where she lived and worked in Krakor district’s Anlong Thnout commune.
“She ran away from home because her [employers] fought her and accused her of taking their money,” she said.
She said officials had found “many wounds” on the girl’s head, hands, face and back – some of which appeared to have been inflicted with knives and ropes – and that the girl appeared to have been the victim of ongoing abuse.
“She has both new wounds and old wounds on her body,” she said.
She said the girl – who had previously worked for two other families and was sold to her current employers in exchange for 100 kilograms of rice – was being sheltered in an orphanage pending the results of an investigation, which would include interviews with the girl’s former employers.
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Saturday, October 16, 2010
PNoy names envoys to Cambodia, Brunei
MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino has reappointed Noe Wong as ambassador to Cambodia and named retired general Nestor Ochoa as ambassador to Brunei.
Aquino had appointed Ochoa as acting armed forces chief at the start of his presidency, but was replaced by General Ric David.
Wong, a former admiral in the Philippine Navy, was appointed ambassador to Phnom Penh by President Arroyo.
Their appointments will have to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.
Cambodia and Brunei are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a cornerstone of Philippine foreign policy.
The Presidential Communications Operations Office said the President also appointed the following to the Cebu Port Authority:
Vicente T. Hualdo Jr. and Engr. Ben Acol as commissioners representing the shipping sector;
Arturo R. Barit, representing the cargo handling sector;
Atty Joselito Pedaria;
Engr. Carlos G. Co and Engr. Dennis Villamor, representing the business sector.
The Cebu Port Authority is under the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).
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Sex Workers Advised to Use Condoms to Prevent HIV Infection
As per the international Independent Commission on AIDS in Asia, 10 million women indulge in sex with 75 million men, who further have sex with additional 50 million people.
Steve Krauss, who is the Regional Director of UNAIDS Asia Pacific, said, “The technology is there to prevent infections, but punitive laws get in the way”.
The international community until recently was singing paeans for Cambodia for effectively implementing its 100% Condom Use Programme, according to which it was necessary for the sex workers to use condoms during sex.
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But commencing the national anti-trafficking law in the year 2008 largely illegalized sex work and forced the sex workers to hibernate.
After the closure of most whorehouses in Cambodia, majority of sex workers adopted other professions like working in karaoke bars, massage parlors and parks, putting them at increase risk to police corruption and HIV infection.
Andrew Hunt, creator of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers said that police believe that its main duty is to clamp down on sex workers use condoms as evidence.
Hunter also said that the police require legal training, as many nations refuse to present condoms as evidence in court.
Hunter further stated that majority of sex workers believe that amendments should be done both in the judicial procedure and accessibility to justice.
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UBELONG Contributes to Reaching the MDGs In Cambodia
In September we proudly supported our volunteering projects in Cambodia by donating money from the UBELONG Fund to help reach the UN's Millennium Development Goals.
(I-Newswire) Washington, DC, October 16, 2010 - We recently proudly supported our volunteering projects in Cambodia by donating money from the UBELONG Fund to the Salvation Center Cambodia (SCC), a local Cambodian organization devoted to sustainable community development. The money was used to help a school for disadvantaged children in the Som Reang Mean Chey community of Phnom Penh. Specifically, it went to provide the children with school uniforms and materials, including plants for the school’s educational garden.
Our donation was made as part of a larger city-wide event that brought together various organizations to raise awareness and fundraising in support of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to end extreme poverty by 2015. During the event, volunteers from across the world solicited donations from local business and held discussions with locals and tourists about the MDGs. The volunteers also played games with local children and helped them to create community gardens and learn English.
For the volunteers, the festivities were an opportunity to learn about the MDGs, as well as contribute firsthand to poverty alleviation efforts. In line with the UBELONG mission, volunteers of all backgrounds were able to contribute and make a difference. UBELONG co-founder Raul Roman was in Cambodia visiting the UBELONG projects during the run-up to the event and, as he notes: “It was inspiring to see locals and international volunteers from all walks of life working together. Any barriers that may have existed because of culture, language or nationality were overcome as people came together with the aim of making a positive difference.”
Looking ahead, we look forward to continuing our support of local organization like SCC. In the next 12 months we anticipate that over 1,000 volunteers of all backgrounds and nationalities will join our programs. These volunteers represent the core of our efforts to assist communities. We encourage you to explore our volunteering opportunities in both Cambodia and the rest of the world, and to help spread the word about UBELONG.
To learn more about our projects in Cambodia and throughout the world, please visit www.ubelong.org.
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Friday, October 15, 2010
Chaotic But Widespread Voting in Philippines: Monitor
Despite concern raised by critics, a Cambodian election expert says Cambodia's process is better than some, particularly the Philippines.
“Because in the Philippines, there is behavior that does not follow procedures and the election law, so they can't compare to Cambodia,” said Keo Darith, a monitoring coordinator for the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.
Cambodia's electoral organization is orderly, better equipped and includes secret ballot booths, he said, as a guest on “Hello VOA.” Keo Darith recently monitored an election in the Philippines.
Cambodia is preparing for commune elections in 2012 and national elections the following year. In past elections, some groups, including the opposition, have complained of registration and voter-list flaws that denied some the right to vote.
The National Election Committee this month has begun to register new voters, in a process that ends Oct. 20.
The Philippines, which has been a democracy since 1946, operates in a system of electoral anarchy, where folded papers are used as ballots and 10-year-old children vote in lieu of their parents, Keo Darith said.
For all that, voters are more attentive than in Cambodia, which in recent years has seen a drop-off in election participation and where access to voting information is limited, he said.
Keo Darith said he supports a computerized voter list equipped with biometrics that would make it easier for people to vote.
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Council of Ministers Approves $2.3-Billion Budget for 2011
Last month, September, Cambodia purchased 94 T-55 tanks from eastern Europe to bolster its military capacity.
The Council approved military and security spending of $298 million, including $185 million for the Ministry of Defense.
The Ministry of Interior was budgeted $111 million, the Ministry of Health $165 million and the Ministry of education $218 million.
Defense and security spending reflected an increase of $22 million over the previous year, the largest increase overall.
Spending for the Ministry of Interior rose $1 million, while the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education saw increases of $21 million and $20 million, respectively.
DirectRooms.com - Runners Raise Money for Landmine Survivors in Cambodia
Experienced and amateur runners will be stretching off and warming up in preparation for the Angkor Wat half marathon taking placing at the start of December DirectRooms.com can reveal.
PHUKET, THAILAND, The race will see competitors sprinting from the start line to gain an early lead before settling into a more gradual pace as runners take to the course to raise essential funds for people affected by landmines.
Cambodia has one of the highest percentages of people maimed by anti-personnel land mines in the world and the country is still littered with the devices resulting in more people needing help. The race aims to support people who have been injured with medical care and provide prosthetic limbs which need replacing every three to four years.
The money raised from race entry fees and from runners collecting sponsorship money is donated to the Hearts of Gold charity.
Athletes will be trying to complete the 21km course in the shortest time possible which starts and finishes from the world famous Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. For people that feel they can't tackle the whole half marathon distance but still want to take part there is a 10km run for men and women and also a 3km run for families.
Spectators staying in a Siem Reap hotel can also see contestants taking part in the 21km wheelchair race and all events are being held on 5th December 2010.
Lek Boonlert, marketing head at www.DirectRooms.com commented: "The race is for a great cause and generates much needed funds for landmine victims. Hundreds of people will be taking part and hotel accommodation will be getting booked up so any visitors heading to the city should make an early online reservation."
About DirectRoomsDirectRooms an independent discount hotel Reservations Company based in Asia. Established and online since 2000 with over 50,000 hotels worldwide.
For further information
please contact Lek Boonlert:Email: email us hereTel: + 66 (0)76 241 145.
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Foreign visitors to Angkor Wat rise by a quarter to 804,000
Phnom Penh - The number of foreign tourists visiting the Angkor Wat temple complex, Cambodia's key tourist attraction, climbed 24 per cent in the first nine months of this year, local media reported Friday.
The Apsara Authority, which manages the temples, told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that 804,000 people had visited the complex this year compared with 649,000 in the same period last year.
However Bun Narith, who heads the Apsara Authority, said the impact on revenues was unclear.
'(For example) some 200 to 300 government delegations attended meetings in Siem Reap, and they visit Angkor Wat for free,' he said.
The president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents said up to 80 per cent of foreign tourists visit Angkor Wat, which is situated outside Siem Reap town in western Cambodia.
'Most guests think they haven't seen Cambodia if they miss visiting Angkor Wat,' Ang Kim Eang said.
The number of tourists to the kingdom is up 15 per cent this year, but big-spending visitors from the United States and the United Kingdom are down 4 per cent. The average foreign tourist spends 112 dollars a day when in-country.
Most of this year's increase in tourist numbers has come from neighbouring Vietnam, whose citizens typically spend less and do not stay as long.
The government is targeting 2.4 million tourists this year, 11 per cent up on last year.
Tourism is one of Cambodia's four economic pillars, along with agriculture, garment manufacturing and construction. Agriculture was the only pillar not badly hit by the 2008 global economic crisis.
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Union rejects industry offer
THE Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia said yesterday that it would drop all complaints related to last month’s strikes in exchange for apologies from workers and unions, an offer a prominent union leader said had been rejected.
GMAC Secretary General Ken Loo said the offer had come following “several meetings” with union leaders and government officials convened in an attempt to resolve the outstanding disputes within the industry.
“We have two main conditions that we deem necessary. Firstly would be at the confederation level, we need a letter of apology ... not to us, but rather to all stakeholders,” Loo said.
“Secondly, at the enterprise level, the workers in question at the enterprise level have got to apologise to the factories.”
“If the unions accept the facts and acknowledge the fact that they were in the wrong, that’s the end of the issue.”
But Kong Athit, secretary general of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, said GMAC’s offer was unacceptable.
“We cannot do that because we are not wrong and the government did not accuse us of being wrong,” he said. “If we apologise to them, it means we admit we were wrong, and then they can make more problems for us.”
Loo said 67 union representatives in total remained suspended in connection with strikes held last month to protest the minimum wage for garment workers. A total of 358 workers who protested the suspensions of their representatives had been fired because they ignored court orders requiring them to return to work within 48 hours, he added.
Kong Athit disputed these figures, however. He said 106 union representatives remained suspended and 677 workers had had their contracts terminated after protesting these suspensions.
Loo said that if the unions and workers did not agree to apologise, the factories that had filed complaints would continue to pursue them through the court system.
“If they don’t feel they were in the wrong, obviously they don’t have to apologise,” he said. “Obviously, we don’t think we were wrong, and the unions don’t admit they were wrong, but somebody’s wrong, so we can only turn to the courts to intervene.”
In a speech last month, Prime Minister Hun Sen called for employers to drop complaints against workers and union representatives.
Tuomo Poutiainen, the chief technical adviser for the International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia programme, said it was still possible to find a compromise that would suit both the unions and the employers. He pointed to last month’s signing of a memorandum of understanding between union and industry representatives related to dispute resolution as a promising step for the Kingdom’s industrial relations.
“In my opinion, there’s basis to find positive cohabitation, and that would play well for the future of the industry,” Poutiainen said.
On Monday, 22 union representatives who had been suspended at the Sangwoo garment factory in Kampong Speu province were allowed to return to their jobs following a meeting with factory management.
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