Four arrested in Cambodian bomb plot

PHNOM PENH (AFP —  Jan 9.) — Cambodian authorities have arrested four men on suspicion of planting three bombs around the capital last week, a senior police officer said Saturday.

Deputy national police commissioner Sok Phal told reporters that one of the four alleged plotters was 44-year-old Som Ek, a dual Cambodian-Thai national who had previously worked as a Cambodian military policeman.

“He (Som Ek) told the police that his bomb plot was to bring attention to the group inside and outside the country, so he could extort money,” Sok Phal said.

“This is just some kind of business just to rob or extort money,” he added.

He said Som Ek had been arrested on Wednesday and told authorities that his group was backed by people outside Cambodia.

The deputy police commissioner gave no further details on the alleged group or other three suspects.

No one was harmed in the bomb plot in which police found three explosive devices on January 2 planted near the Ministry of National Defence and a television station.

Mine clearance personnel destroyed the bombs later that day.

South Korean Families of Air Crash Victims Sue Cambodian Airline

 

PMT airplane wreckage (Photo: AP)

Friday, 19 September 2008

 

SEOUL, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) – The families of over a dozen Koreans killed in a Cambodian jet crash last year have sued the airline, demanding US$4 million in compensation for its failure to prevent the errors that caused the accident, a Seoul court said Friday.

All 22 passengers and crew members, including 13 Koreans, were killed when a PMT Air propeller plane went down over a mountain in June last year. The Russian-made jet was flying from Siem Reap, home of the famous Angkor Wat temple, in southern Cambodia.

Investigators broadly concluded that the accident was caused by a technical error on behalf of the pilot, problems with the airport’s automated radar terminal system and defects in the plane.

A group of 11 families accused the airliner for failing to prevent the human and mechanical errors, demanding 4.5 billion won (US$4 million) in compensation for loss of income, funeral fees and for emotional duress, according to officials at the Seoul Central District Court.

“As the employer of the pilot of the plane and the contracted party for passenger transportation, PMT Air is responsible for compensation for damages incurred by the accident,” the families claimed in the court document.

Cambodia approves two new sub-decrees to manage weapon use

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — The Council of Ministers of Cambodia has approved two related sub-decrees that allow the Ministries of Interior and Defense to manage people’s weapons and evacuate areas deemed dangerous by their proximity to suspected explosives, national media reported Monday.

The sub-decrees are aimed at protecting the public and preventing danger that could harm lives or property, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said, citing a Council of Ministers statement.

The new sub-decree, which allows relevant authorities to evacuate both public and private land, will help provide people with security, Defense Minister Tea Banh was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

“In case of emergency, we will evacuate people, people who are living close to the Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) zone or an old weapons warehouse that could be dangerous,” he said.

Tea Banh said the other sub-decree is aimed at controlling the proliferation of arms within Cambodia.

The Interior and Defense Ministries will jointly spearhead efforts to collect unauthorized arms and register all the weapons in Cambodia, he added.

Editor: Bi Mingxin

P’chum ben festivities kick off sunday

The Phnom Penh Post- September 16, 2008 

 

 

Sek Yeam, 67, buys ansom chrouk, a traditional rice cake at O’russei Market on Sunday. (Photo: Heng Chivoan)

Ansom chrouk, a Khmer rice cake, is made throughout the 15 days leading up to P’Chum Ben. On Sunday, many Cambodians took the cakes to their local pagoda as a gift for the monks to mark the first day of P’Chum Ben. Over the next few weeks, devotees will flock to pagodas in the early hours of each morning to offer food to the spirits of their deceased relatives.

Circling the pagoda three times, believers throw handfuls of food as they walk while monks chant prayers for the dead. Devout Buddhists believe that if they do not bring food for their ancestors to seven pagodas during P’Chum Ben, they will be cursed with bad luck. Celebrations will culminate on September 28, 29 and 30. TRACEY SHELTON

Clinton foundation helps reforestation program in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) – The William J. Clinton Foundation will help reforestation and avoided deforestation program in Cambodia, National Television TVK channel reported Saturday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen supported that program and he recommended the Clinton Foundation to cooperation with Cambodia’s forestry administration on that program, Ira Magaziner, representative of Clinton Foundation in charge of climate change, was quoted by TVK as saying.

The Clinton Foundation will help to preserve the forestry in Cambodia, Ira said.

Hun Sen said that Cambodia has six baby forestry breeding stations and each place has about five million baby trees.

The Clinton Foundation will implement the program in 2009, Country Director Zach Katz said, without elaborating the amount of the fund.

The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is developing a regional forestry program covering Indonesia, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

Editor: Yan

Video: Cambodia’s team at Beijing Paralympics

HOUSING: Kookmin employees donate cash

The Phnom Penh Post – September 05, 2008

Written by Vong Sokheng

Forty-seven employees of Kookmin Bank, the largest South Korean bank in Cambodia, have donated US$22,000 to restore and build houses in Phnom Krom slum communities in Siem Reap province. Kang Chung Won, chief executive officer of Kookmin Bank, told the Post by email that the donated money has been used to build four new houses and to restore three others. In addition, the donation has been used to provide a free meal to around 2,400 children from the Phnom Krom slum area, said Kang. “Bread was also given to around 1,000 children.” Kang said that Kookmin Bank’s employees made a field investigation for the project in October 2007 and they have chosen to donate a bit of money to the project every payday. “Korea experienced poor economic conditions, too. We like giving a hand to Cambodia and developing together,” Kang said.

Cambodia’s population approaches 14 million

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Cambodia’s population is approaching 14 million people, more than half of whom are women, according to preliminary results from the first general census, local media reported Thursday.

“According to the preliminary results, the population of Cambodia stood at 13,388,910 at midnight on March 3, 2008, consisting of 6,495,512 males and 6,893,398 females,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, who also chairs the National Census Committee, was quoted as saying in the Phnom Penh Post.

The provisional figures at the national level indicate that the total fertility rate and growth rate of the population has slowed down as predicted, he added.

The census also found that while Cambodia remains a largely rural country, more people were living in cities, the newspaper said.

The average household contained 4.7 people, according to census figures.

The projected annual growth rate in 2010 is expected to be 1.54percent, still higher than that of East Asia, which stands at 1.3 percent.

Editor: Sun

Villages to be built at the border after PM orders better defences

The Phnom Penh Post – August 28, 2008

Written by Thet Sambath

Government hopes to populate isolated areas next to Thailand following a series of border incursions by Thai troops at two key temples

NEW villages are being established along the border with Thailand in Oddar Meanchey province as Cambodia builds up its defences against future incursions by Thailand, officials say.

The order to more heavily populate the frontier came last week from Prime Minister Hun Sen, who also has decreed that soldiers would be given land in the region to encourage them to settle there permanently.

Provincial Deputy Governor San Vanna said that the policy to promote settlement along the Thai border was a direct response to the encroachment by Thai troops at Preah Vihear and Ta Moan Thom temples.

“People constitute a strong fence to defend Cambodia’s borders,” San Vanna said.

Most of the 224 kilometres of border area in Oddar Meanchey is mountainous and heavily forested, with few roads or people.

“More new villages and people’s presence along border will help protect [our land],” San Vanna said.

“We rushed to form these new villages after receiving instructions,” he said. “I do not know how many villages have been formed to date as there has been no official registration yet.”

Defending the nation
Long Sovann, deputy governor of Preah Vihear province, said that he has not received any instructions to populate the 100-kilometre stretch along the border, which currently only has two villages.

“More villages along Preah Vihear’s border would help to defend the nation,” he said.

Battambang province Governor Prach Chan said that while he has also not received any instructions, Battambang’s three districts along the border are already densely populated.

But he expressed support for the government’s plan to populate the border areas.

“This is strategy to defend our nation as well as develop the area,” Prach Chan said.

The government also has plans to build two roads linking the border areas.

S Korean student donates $6,000

The Phnom Penh Post – August 28, 2008

Written by Cheang Sokha

A South Korean student has raised and donated $3,000 each to the National Paediatric Hospital (NPH) and Centre for Children’s Happiness (CCH) to help sick and orphaned children in Cambodia. Soo-ah Lee, who began raising the money 10 months ago in the United States, where she is studying, spent a few days in Cambodia last week to donate the money as well as stationery to the two organisations.