Fire season brings warning from ministry

As the Kingdom moves into the heart of the dry season, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries has issued a set of guidelines on the prevention of forest fires, stressing that jail is in the cards for those starting blazes.

The notice, issued to various government ministries on January 21 and obtained by thePost yesterday, says that while the time of year brings with it naturally occurring fires,those caused by human activity “are the most worrying issue”.

Punishment for setting fires in forests carries a three- to five-year prison sentence, and in the case of mangrove forests, five to 10 years, according to the document.

However, Forestry Management Office director Dr Kao Dana, said that despite having the laws on the books, arresting offenders has proved difficult in practice.

“We cannot arrest; when we arrive there, the people run away,” he said.

Based in Phnom Penh, Dana coordinates with the various provincial Forestry Administration (FA) offices to investigate fires and illegal logging. However, he says, the resources to crack down are lacking.

“Look at the experience in Japan … The government flies over the area and then you see the person burning,” he said, pointing out the wealthier country’s resources, adding that – airplanes aside – there are not enough firefighters and equipment is expensive.

While Dana could not speak to whether fires observed raging in Stung Treng, Koh Kong, Mondulkiri, Ratanakkiri and Kratie were due to logging activities, deforestation compounds the issue.

“[Loggers] first cut it down. After six months, the trees are dead; after that it can burn easily. The forest in Cambodia is not easy to burn unless you cut the old trees first,” he said, referring to how a tropical forest dries out once the canopy trees are felled.

Speaking by phone yesterday, Mondulkiri’s provincial governor, Svay Sam Eang, said there were a lot of “small” forest fires throughout his province.

Asked how the provincial government worked with the local FA to solve the problem, Sam Eang said “we have a plan” but did not go into detail.

Travel guide author Matt Jacobson, who has lived in the country since 1997 and travelled through Mondulkiri and Kratie just last week, said yesterday that he had not seen smoke from fires so bad “in years”.

The worst, he said, is in the Cardamon Mountains of Koh Kong, where he said visibility has dropped to the point where he can no longer see the Gulf of Thailand from coastal hills.

“It’s the worst in the country down here.”

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Firm denies circumventing Malaysia maid ban

Four domestic workers sent to Malaysia despite an official moratorium on the practice have been repatriated amid claims of unpaid wages and harsh working conditions, though the company that recruited them has insisted that the terms of their employment didn’t technically violate the government ban.

The four women, who were all from Kampong Chhnang province and who went to Malaysia in May, returned to Cambodia on February 25. However, three more women from the same province are reportedly being detained by Malaysian immigration authorities.

One of the repatriated women, Phon Srey Mey, 19, arrived back to her home in Koh Thkov’s Tamoul Krom village claiming she had worked for almost a year with no salary.

Srey Mey said yesterday that every time she would ask for her salary, her boss would tell her that she would get paid the following month.

“Every week, I had to borrow $7.50 from the team leader at the company,” she said. “We didn’t have enough food and the working conditions were very hard. If we couldn’t finish our work, they wouldn’t allow us to go home.”

Srey May said when she returned to Cambodia, the company made her sign a contract saying that her “salary” was money she had borrowed for expenses such as the cost of her passport and flight.

A ban on Cambodians going to work as maids in Malaysia was implemented in 2011 after a series of often brutal cases of abuse.

The company that recruited the four women, APTSE&C Cambodia Resources, claims the women were not working in Malaysia as maids.

However, the company the women worked for – H2O Cleaning Service – on its website described the women’s job as part-time maids, catering to employers who didn’t want to deal with problems that could arise from employing full-time domestic workers.

Labour advocate Moeun Tola, head of the labour program at the Community Legal Education Center, yesterday questioned the loophole and the effectiveness of the ban.

“I think the company tried to manipulate the ban,” Tola said.Heng Sour, spokesman for the Ministry of Labour, meanwhile said APTSE&C Cambodia Resources was not even licensed and recommended the women file an official complaint with the ministry so their cases can be investigated.

“We will take action if this company committed any wrongdoing,” he said. Saw Sreythea, 45, whose daughter also arrived last month, said she planned to file a complaint with the Ministry of Labour, but would wait to do so until her three nieces were released from Malaysia.

She added she was “afraid” the company could retaliate against her nieces. Sen Setthy Chey, executive director of APTSE & C Cambodia, said the owner of the company in Malaysia was arrested and the three other women were being held as witnesses. However, he insisted the women were not working as maids.

In December, both countries signed a memorandum of understanding to lift the ban, although the details are still being worked out.

Tola said his organisation had found the ban wasn’t effective in preventing maids from being sent to Malaysia.

“Maids were still sent,” he said. “It’s quite shameful for the Cambodian government not to fully manage the ban.”

Chum Sunry, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry helped repatriate 573 Cambodian workers in 2015, including 55 women from Malaysia and 82 women from China.

He said most of the women who were returned from Malaysia were maids.


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KRT witness recounts giving birth in security centre

When Moeurng Chandy gave birth to a daughter in prison at the Au Kanseng Security Centre in 1978, there was not a hospital or a midwife in sight.

As she testified at the Khmer Rouge tribunal yesterday, she had only the help of a male medic, who cut the umbilical cord, and other female inmates at the regime’s “re-education school”.

Chandy gave evidence immediately after her ex-husband Phon Thol – who said he had not spoken to his former wife since 1986 – vacated the witness stand.

It was the second day the court heard testimony regarding the Au Kanseng prison, located near the current provincial hospital in Ratanakkiri, which housed soldiers and civilians during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Responding to questions from prosecution lawyers, Chandy said she was tasked with cooking rice in the prison’s kitchen soon after giving birth.

“However, I did not have any breast milk to give my baby,” she said. “When you asked me this question, it triggers the pain inside me.”

“I asked for sugar cane juice to feed her, and that happened because I did hard work,” she continued. “I had to carry the wood planks from the forest.”

Describing a moment of warmth during an otherwise bleak existence, Chandy told the court how, when she was still weak from childbirth and given meagre food rations, her fellow inmates would take turns to carry her share of the wood.

“Luckily enough, the baby survived and is still living now,” she said.

Chandy also testified to having witnessed a security guard named Ta Auy murder a woman at the centre.

“That woman was smashed with the back of the hoe . . . [and] she died,” Chandy said.

“This was an actual incident I witnessed. He was so cruel and vicious.”

Rehashing topics addressed during her ex-husband’s testimony, Chandy spoke about a group of ethnic Jarai women and children she had seen arrive at the centre, only to be taken away shortly thereafter.

A few days later, she said, she found herself near a previously empty crater – caused by a B-52 bombing – some distance from the compound.

“I returned and could smell the decomposing bodies from the cracked-open soil,” she said.

Like Thol, she suspected the Jarai people had been “smashed” – the term by which the regime referred to executions – “and thrown into the pit”.

Chanthy and Thol were only reunited and managed to escape when Vietnamese troops invaded, forcing guards to evacuate the prison. The trial resumes on Monday.


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CRF kicks off annual forum with rice competition

The Cambodia Rice Federation opened its annual rice festival yesterday with a competition to find the country’s best rice, with Prime Minister Hun Sen scheduled to address the forum today.

The three-day festival, the fifth time it is being organised by the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF), gave out three awards in different categories, with the announcement of two other awards to be made by Hun Sen today. The competition was a way to push farmers and millers to increase the quality of rice produced in the Kingdom, said Sok Puthyvuth, president of the CRF.

“Based on this competition, the federation will know where the best rice is grown and farmers and associations can study and learn more about the technique used across the country,” Puthyvuth said.

The Battambang-based agricultural community of Sangha Phal was awarded the best paddy in the Kingdom, with its representative Nov Sopheap saying the 200 farmers who make up the community will now look to expand its operations and use better growing techniques.

“With the prize, we will expand membership and land that is farmed to produce more rice. We will also provide technical assistance to people to get access to good seeds,” Sopheap said.

Chan Pech, general manager of Cambodian rice miller Signatures of Asia, which won best parboiled rice, said his product was popular in the European Union, where it was appreciated for its quality.

“It makes us proud that Cambodia can produce the best quality of rice, like India or Pakistan. The prize will encourage us to strengthen the quality going forward,” he added.

Cambodia’s biggest rice exporter, Amru Rice, was awarded for having the best quality long grain white rice, while the remaining two awards will be for fragrant and jasmine rice. Over the next two days, the meeting will conduct sessions with technical experts looking to improve productivity and access to finance, as well has have panel discussions with government officials and the private sector.


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Third suspect held for Kampot murder

Police have apprehended a third suspect in the case of the suspected rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Kampot province, and have also found what they believe to be a second murder weapon.

Last Monday evening, victim Khun Nay disappeared in the Lboeuk commune of Chhouk district. On Wednesday at 6am, her mutilated corpse was found by her elder sister in a rice field a few hundred metres from her house, with grotesque injuries to her neck and face.

The first suspect, a 17-year-old boy, was brought in by police that day for questioning. Two days later police in Phnom Penh apprehended a second teenage suspect. According to Kampot deputy police chief Sau Kimoeun, both boys have been released.

The new suspect, identified as 24-year-old San No, was arrested on Saturday at 9am. He was found inside his house, located only 15 metres from the victim’s residence, where he lives with his wife and child, according to Lboeuk commune police chief Min Phal.

Phal said Kampot police had told him that they were “almost 100 per cent sure” this suspect was the killer.

Though the suspect has denied killing the girl, investigators found “blood on his collar and some scratches on his face and neck”, said Kampot deputy police chief Kimoeun.

“We will send him to the provincial court on Monday to charge him with rape and murder,” he added.

According to Lboeuk commune police chief Phal, villagers told investigators that they had witnessed the suspect involved in an argument with the victim on the night of her disappearance in which the victim allegedly remarked that the suspect had “an ugly face; no one loves you”, to which the suspect allegedly replied, “Wait and see.”

A fisherman who was out in the rice field that night told investigators that around 8pm he heard a ruffling in the distance. When he pointed his torch towards the noise, he saw a man running from a woman lying down in the brush. He thought he was witnessing a pair of hiding, spooked lovers, he said.

James McCabe, director of the Phnom Penh-based Child Protection Unit, which has been assisting Kampot police in the investigation, said that a new suspected weapon found at the crime scene on Saturday, a 10-centimetre wooden plank, had been ripped off from the suspect’s own fence. “It fit like a glove” on the fence, he said.

Another suspected weapon, a bloodied palm frond, had been found on Wednesday.

The blood found on the new suspect’s clothes would be sent to Vietnam for DNA testing, he added.


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New standards for recruitment agencies

The Ministry of Labour on Saturday issued a 12-point set of standards for recruitment agencies sending workers abroad, warning operators they have just over a month to comply.

The directive, issued by Minister of Labour Ith Samheng, is part of the government’s efforts to improve safety for migrants, particularly domestic workers, after a four-year ban on sending maids to Malaysia prompted by numerous reports of abuse was lifted in December.

“The Ministry of Labour will take legal action against all recruitment companies starting from March 1 if they do not obey the ministry’s principles, which are to ensure the safety of workers sent abroad,” Samheng warned in the letter.

According to the standards, recruitment agencies, which have been at the centre of many accusations of mistreatment, now must be registered with authorities, prove they have an office, a clear address, working telephone contacts and staff.

Further, firms must seek permission from the ministry to advertise their services, keep records of workers sent abroad and sign and obey contracts with their clients, including not sending workers to different places than listed in their agreement, which had been among the grievances levelled by those duped by dodgy brokers.

The companies must also pay into the National Social Security Fund, provide a building for training workers and a safe, hygienic place for trainees to live and must have a permanent representative stationed in their clients’ destination country.

The director of the recruitment firm Top Manpower, An Bun Hak, said his company already complied with the regulations and would offer comprehensive training to maids before they were sent to Malaysia.

The Ministry of Labour has established a working group with Malaysian authorities to implement the memorandum of understanding, signed in December, which lifted the ban and flagged new controls to monitor the welfare of Cambodian maids in Malaysia, where the government estimates 8,000 Cambodians continue to work.

The legal flow of domestic workers back to Malaysia is expected to start around the middle of this year, though many have travelled there illegally in recent years, suffering abuse with few legal protections to fall back on.

Chan Pheakdey, who worked as a maid in Malaysia before being rescued from an abusive employer, yesterday recalled her dealings with the broker who sent her abroad and failed to help when things went wrong.

“My employer did not pay my salary; my family went to the company’s office but they had moved and not left a contact. It was very difficult,” she said.


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Environmental activists briefly held in Laos

Two Cambodian environmental activists were reportedly detained by Lao authorities yesterday while photographing construction of the Don Sahong dam near the border with Cambodia’s Stung Treng province.

According to Se Seamdy, the leader of Youth for Social and Environmental Protection, the organisation to which the two activists belong, brothers Chum Huor and Chum Huot were on a boat with two other people when they were arrested and questioned for over an hour before being released.

“One of them got sick because he was so afraid,” he said.

While Seamdy denied media reports that the phones and cameras carried by the brothers had been destroyed by Lao authorities, Adhoc provincial coordinator Hou Sam Ol said yesterday that the devices had sustained water damage and were no longer functional. Seamdy declined to elaborate further on the circumstances of the detention, while Sam Ol said he had been told “that their phones dropped into the water, but it is not clear what caused that”.

In social media posts Huor and Huot appear carrying campaign banners that read “Together protect the environment”, and “Having Don Sahong means there is no dolphins”, referring to the endangered Irrawaddy river dolphins that inhabit stretches of the Mekong in Cambodia, and which experts warn may be eradicated by the dam’s construction.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) – the international body responsible for mediating disputes over the Don Sahong between Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia – has lost more than half of its funding for 2016-2020 compared with the last five years. What’s more, repeated requests to the Lao government for environmental impact assessments and scientific studies on the consequences of the Don Sahong through the MRC have been denied as the commission requires the consent of the Lao government.

Several studies have predicted significant losses in fish populations if the dam construction, which began in late 2015, moves forward. According to research presented in October at the Greater Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy in Phnom Penh, the Kingdom may lose up to 100 per cent of its migratory fish population as a result of Mekong river dam projects in Lao and Cambodia such as the Don Sahong.

Neither the Cambodian embassy in Laos nor a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could be reached for comment yesterday.

Mom Saroeun, Stung Treng provincial governor, speaking yesterday, said he was unaware of the incident.

 


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Timber burned at Mondulkiri ELC

Hundreds of logs of timber, including luxury wood, as well as sawmill camps were torched at a controversial Vietnamese-owned economic land concession in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district in an apparent bid to destroy evidence of illegal logging ahead of a raid by a new anti-logging committee.

Eng Hy, spokesman for the joint committee – formed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on January 14 to crack down on illegal logging and timber smuggling to Vietnam – said the team was investigating after inspectors found charred logs at the rubber concession of Binh Phuoc Kratie Rubber 1, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG).

“The burning down of timber did happen … Whether it was to destroy evidence or not, it is a crime,” Hy said, adding he had yet to receive a report from his men on the ground and could not talk in detail about the case.

“If it is the case that they tried to destroy evidence, we can use both the Forestry Law and the Criminal Code [to prosecute] but we do not know yet who set the fire.”

According to nearby residents of Sre Chhouk commune, which is home to mostly ethnic Phnong villagers locked in a long-running land dispute with the company, the burning of timber at the 5100-hectare concession started last week, though smoke from fires could still be seen yesterday night.

“They burned on the land of Binh Phuoc 1 a few days ago; when they could not hide [the wood] in time, they burned it,” said a 32-year-old Phnong villager, who declined to be named as residents had allegedly been threatened by the company, which could not be reached yesterday.

The stockpiles included luxury wood such as beng and thnong, which, for logs of larger diameter, can fetch up to $4,000 per cubic metre if sold across the Vietnamese border, according to an NGO Forum report.

Sok Rotha, Mondulkiri provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said several different stockpiles were set alight prior to the committee’s arrival.

“Hundreds of pieces of timber were burnt,” Rotha said, calling it an brazen attempt to conceal illegal logging that showed timber barons were “not afraid” of the government’s renewed push against the trade.

“The community network was banned from entering the sites where timber stockpiles were burned, they were strictly guarded. It is impossible that an outsider could have set the fire. It may have been the owner who burned the timber.”

Nearby communities have long accused the company of using its concession to launder illegal wood felled outside its boundaries and say wealthy businessman Seong Sam Ol – who along with tycoon Lim Bunna, has been named by the government as the crackdown’s prime target – is the timber’s buyer.

Yesterday, another community member, 38, said much of the timber held at the site came from outside the ELC, and included many resin trees logged from his community.

“I witnessed fires at three locations with over 60 pieces; each stockpile had between 20 and 30 logs, which belonged to Oknha Ol,” he said, referring to Sam Ol by an honorific title reserved for businessmen who donate more than $100,000 to the government. “They set fire to it themselves. They wanted to damage the evidence.”

Sam Ol could not be reached yesterday.

A 2013 report by the NGO Forum investigating logging in Keo Seima district, also connected to Binh Phuoc, described Sam Ol as a “powerful timber trader” who bought timber from the company and once led a group of armed guards to recover chainsaws seized from loggers by local villagers.

Hak Sophan, administrative director of Mondulkiri Provincial Hall, yesterday declined to comment on the case.

The 10-member committee, which is led by military police commander Sao Sokha, who has been accused of involvement with illegal logging in the past, has overseen raids at severalconcessions and timber warehouses in the past 10 days.


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Vietnam congress ‘not likely to affect Cambodia ties’

As Vietnam’s Communist Party continues its weeklong congress to choose its general secretary, experts and analysts said the outcome would likely do little to change the historically close relationship between Cambodia and Vietnam’s ruling parties.

Early media reports indicate that Nguyen Phu Trong will run for the post unopposed, though time still remains for another candidate to be named before the congress ends on Wednesday. However, the experts said, even if Hanoi’s most powerful position went to his top challenger, the current reform-minded Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, relations with Phnom Penh would be little affected.

“I don’t see any radical shifts in Vietnamese foreign policy toward the region or Cambodia as a result of the 12th National Congress,” said Paul Chambers, a professor of international relations at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University.

Chambers said that whatever the outcome of the party congress, Vietnam would continue to follow “a policy of balanced proximity” towards regional powers. Specifically, he said, Hanoi would continue “seeking to ensure that Cambodia’s government does not become overly chummy with Beijing”.

China has in recent years become Cambodia’s largest donor of foreign aid as well as its largest foreign investor and provider of military assistance. Meanwhile, Beijing and Hanoi are embroiled in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

“Vietnam will continue to use gentle diplomatic pressure to ensure that Hun Sen maintains a policy of general balance between Hanoi and Beijing,” he said, while adding that “the Cambodian military has such close linkages with the Vietnamese military that Hanoi need not worry so much anyway”.

Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia, agreed with Chambers that balancing China’s influence vis a vis Cambodia would remain a major crux of Vietnamese regional policy, but added that Cambodia would also continue to follow a similar policy of balancing “more powerful countries off each other”.

“The advantage of Chinese support for Hun Sen is that it’s given him a counterbalance against what used to be a smothering Vietnamese relationship,” he said.

Vannarith Chheang, a professor of comparative politics in Southeast Asia at the University of Leeds, said that border disputes would remain a major thorn in the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship, and would likely intensify in the run-up to 2018 Cambodian elections.

“Vietnam will seek to complete the border demarcation as soon as possible,” he said.

Even so, Carlyle Thayer, an expert on Southeast Asia at the University of New South Wales, said that Vietnam “puts a premium on maintaining good relations” with Cambodia. “Generally, as far as Vietnam’s policy towards Cambodia, it will be steady as she goes.”


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Groups urge Kerry to demand gov’t reforms

 

 



Five rights groups yesterday called for United States Secretary of State John Kerry to use avisit to Phnom Penh this week to demand the Cambodian government stop persecuting political opponents and rights, environmental and trade union activists.

Kerry will arrive on Tuesday to meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen and Foreign Minister Hor Namhong in a bid to “strengthen” the countries bilateral and economic ties, as well as discuss the premier’s upcoming trip to the US.

An open letter published yesterday, released through human rights umbrella group International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said any such improvement in relations should be made “contingent” on the government’s progress in promoting democratic reforms and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“We urge you to demand an immediate end to the government’s acts of intimidation, judicial harassment, and violence against opposition officials and the immediate and unconditional release of all 17 opposition members and supporters who are currently detained or imprisoned,” stated the letter, signed by representatives of FIDH, Adhoc, Licadho, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.

Government representatives were unavailable yesterday. Ruling party spokesman Sok Eysan declined to comment.


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Kingdom’s road infrastructure pressured by increased car sales

Rising incomes are driving the growth of new and used car sales in the Kingdom, putting pressure on the Kingdom’s limited road infrastructure, an industry specialist said yesterday.

Peter Brongers, president of the Cambodia Automotive Industry Federation (CAIF), said imports of new and used vehicles grew by over 10 per cent last year to 55,000, and can be expected to increase another 10 per cent in the coming year.

“Cambodians are getting wealthier and more and more can afford cars,” he said.

“There is also the fear that if they wait too long the prices will go up.”

Brongers said the rapid growth of car ownership is putting a strain on the country’s road network, which has the government scrambling to raise funds to develop the lagging infrastructure.

The easiest targets are new vehicles sold in licensed dealerships, which are already subject to a high tax rate. This has created an unfair advantage for grey-market used-car dealers, who continue to dominate vehicle sales while paying only a fraction of the taxes of new car dealers.

He said the disparity continues to grow, with existing taxes due to rise later this year.

“The government is currently looking to increase the special car tax from 50 per cent, to 60 per cent,” Brongers noted.

The tax increase, scheduled to go into effect in April, will make it even more difficult for authorised distributors to compete with grey-market dealers, he said.

Brongers suggested that the government distribute the burden of infrastructure upgrades more evenly by switching the emphasis of revenue generation to a road tax, which applies equally to owners of both new and used vehicles.

“The government needs to take action and lower the tax on car imports and replace that income with road tax, like [has been done] in Vietnam,” he said.

Despite the inequities, many of the Kingdom’s authorised car dealerships have been successful in growing their business. Brongers estimated that new car sales grew 7 per cent last year to a total of approximately 4,000 units.

RMA Cambodia, the local distributor of Ford vehicles, had a solid year in 2015, according to its public relations manager, Pao Roatana. He said unit sales increased 30 per cent last year, compared to 2014, which he attributed to the brand’s variety, compatibility with Cambodian road conditions and versatility.

“We have set our presence in Cambodia for the long term and our sales are increasing at a satisfying rate annually,” said Pao. “At the same time, we are expanding to other parts of Cambodia, in addition to our presence in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, to provide after-sales services to our customers.”

He estimated that sales would grow by at least an additional 30 per cent this year through the company’s expanded network.

Meanwhile, Pily Wong, CEO of Hung Hiep, the local authorised distributor of Volkswagen, attributed his company’s growing sales in new vehicles to more convenient payment options.

“Our marketing contributed to sales,” he said. “We introduced new free-interest loans and this program has been quite successful, because I can see how many people buy their car using our free-interest loan program.”

While Wong declined to give sales figures, he predicted that unit sales would continue to grow in 2016, provided the government takes action to support the industry.

“We have raised issues with the government about fair competition, road safety, environment, and these types of concerns,” he said. “We [also] proposed some solutions to the government.”


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Put more energy into power supply, firms told

Cambodia's electricity regulator yesterday urged licence-holding private sector players to hasten the spread of their distribution networks to meet the Kingdom’s target of 100 per cent electrification by 2020.

At a workshop held by the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC), the regulator’s chairman Ty Norin said 337 companies had been licensed to build distribution channels, outside of state-owned utilities supplier Electricite du Cambodge’s grid.

He said electricity had only reached 66 per cent of villages as of 2015, whereas it should have reached at least 96 per cent of villages using these existing licences.

“Some licence holders have not fulfilled their obligations to build the network as required by the conditions of their licence,” Norin said.

While grid infrastructure creation had matched the planned commitments of license holders until 2009, since then, he said, work has lagged behind the planned target of reaching all villages by 2015.

Norin added that the complete electrification of the country would cost close to $1 billion, a sum the government did not have, which is why the private sector was enlisted to assist in the task.

Speaking at the same event, Energy and Mines Minister Suy Sem said licence holders needed to fulfil their investment obligation for building the infrastructure, or else the authorities would find replacements for them.

“We cannot delay the implementation of the government plan, as under the licence conditions the holder must have enough capital for investment,” he added.

According to Sem, effective March 2016, the government will reduce energy costs to 480 riel per kilowatt hour for Cambodians consuming 10 or less kilowatt hours of energy per month.

In April 2017, it will reduce energy costs to 610 riel per kilowatt hour, down from 850 riel per kilowatt, for people consuming less than 50 kilowatt hours per month of electricity.

If the private players are unable to sell electricity at this rate to rural and low-use consumers, Sem said the government would compensate them for the price difference, provided they produced a valid case for the higher price.

The government would use the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) to support the losses of private distributors, Sem added.

“The REF will fund the loss, but distributors must have accurate reports on their cost of distribution,” he said.

According to statistics released yesterday, Cambodia consumed 1,985 megawatts of electricity last year, of which 1,569 megawatts was locally produced.

Imported energy amounted to 135.5 megawatts from Thailand, 277 megawatts from Vietnam and 4 megawatts from Laos.


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New flight to connect Bangkok to Siem Reap

Thai Smile Airways, a regional subsidiary of Thai Airways, will launch direct service from Bangkok to Siem Reap next month in a bid for a slice of the growing tourist traffic between the Thai capital and Cambodia’s biggest tourist draw, Angkor Wat.

The airline will commence service between Bangkok and Siem Reap with 10 flights weekly starting February 1 using Airbus A-320s in an all-economy configuration of 174 seats.

Sinn Chanserey Vutha, spokesman for the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation, said Thai Smile was issued a permit to operate the route this month, having previously operated flights to Phnom Penh as a codeshare for Thai Airways.

“[Thai Smile] had to build its market under the codeshare with the Thai Airways, but now the airline can be independent and have its own flight movements,” he said.

The new route gives parent company Thai Airways – which operates 17 flights a week from Bangkok to Phnom Penh – its first crack at Siem Reap’s busy international airport, which reported 3.2 million passenger arrivals and departures last year.

The Bangkok-Siem Reap route is currently dominated by Bangkok Airways, a full-service regional airline, and Thai AirAsia, a low-cost carrier (LCC). Cambodia Angkor Air, the Kingdom’s flagship carrier, also operates one daily flight.

Smile Air aims to position itself in the gap between full-service and budget carriers, with one-way flights on the route starting at $77 including taxes – comparable with AirAsia’s best fares.

“Thai Smile operates like an LCC because its business model aims at competing [with other LCCs] and domestic carriers,” said Vutha.

Ang Kim Eang, president of Cambodia Travel Agent Association, said Thai Smile's new route will help bring more tourists to Siem Reap and serve as a feeder to the Kingdom’s other tourist destinations.

“It is a good sign for Cambodia when there are more new airlines, and it reflects the ability of Angkor Wat temple to build the Kingdom’s reputation and attract more tourists,” he said.

Thai Smile Airways currently operates a fleet of 15 Airbus A-320s, with another five aircraft temporarily operating under Thai Airways’ air operator’s certificate (AOC). The company’s CEO, Woranate Laprabang, could not be reached for comment yesterday.


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Kingdom’s three airports to see passenger traffic take off

Passenger traffic at all three of Cambodia’s international airports is expected to grow this year despite the economic slowdown in Asia’s biggest economy, which could see many Chinese tourists tightening their belt.

Khek Norinda, communications director for Cambodia Airports, the French-Malaysian joint venture that operates the Kingdom’s three international airports, said the company forecasts combined growth of passenger traffic at the three airports to top 7 per cent in 2016.

“The main drivers of this increase are double-digit growths at Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville airports,” he said. “Traffic at Siem Reap airport may be softer due to a recent slowdown in tourist arrivals.”

Phnom Penh International Airport handled a record 3 million passengers last year, 15.5 per cent more than in 2014, according to Pichr Sopontara, Routes Development Manager at Cambodia Airports.

More than 3.2 million passengers passed through Siem Reap’s airport, the nation’s busiest, which recorded slower growth last year despite a 9 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic, he said.

Sihanoukville’s airport, by contrast, saw a surge in passenger traffic, in part due to its low base. The underserved airport handled twice as many flights in 2015, with the number of passengers increasing to 94,000, up from 51,000 passengers a year earlier.

Sopontara said the biggest growth in passenger traffic by nationality was from China. Some 480,000 Chinese visited the Kingdom in 2015, a 27 per cent increase over the previous year.

The growth of Chinese visitors was hardly surprising, given the sheer number of Chinese taking to the skies in 2015 and the strong ties between Beijing and Phnom Penh, said Ho Vandy, managing director of World Express Tours & Travel.

Despite troubling economic forecasts and the recent slide in the Chinese stock markets, Chinese outbound tourism continued into record territory last year. More than 109 million Chinese citizens travelled overseas in 2015, spending a total of $229 billion, according to a GfK survey released last week.

“China visitors have the potential to overtake Vietnam as the number one [source of international visitors] in the next few years,” Vandy said, estimating over 900,000 Vietnamese visited Cambodia in 2015.

Vandy played down the impact of China’s economic headwinds, saying he did not expect to see a slow-down in Chinese visits to the Kingdom.

“Even though China’s economy is slowing a bit, it will not impact the travel plans of individual Chinese or the size of Chinese investment in Cambodia,” he said.

“If we compare the size of Chinese investment in Cambodia to Chinese investment in their own country, it was just a small amount.”

As passenger traffic continues to grow, airlines are expanding their connections to the Kingdom. Cambodia’s three international airports recorded over 70,000 flight movements last year, a 9.1 per cent increase over 2014.

Sopontara said several new carriers are expected to add service to Cambodian cities in 2016, with Thai Smile Airways to commence Bangkok-Siem Reap flights on February 1, and Hong Kong Airlines to inaugurate flights from Hong Kong to Phnom Penh on February 27.

“Besides these, we are expecting another two or three airlines to come to Cambodia this year,” he said. “Some existing domestic and international airlines are planning to add more flights as well.”


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Green energy remains untapped

Cambodia is overly reliant on developing large-scale hydro and fossil fuel-fired power stations, and should look to diversify its energy generation portfolio through cost-effective non-hydro renewable energy technologies that also offer fewer social and environmental costs, a study released yesterday advised.

In a report titled Switching On: Cambodia’s Path to Sustainable Energy Security, investment firm Mekong Strategic Partners said the government was relying almost entirely on existing and planned hydro and coal-fired power stations to achieve its goal of electrifying 100 per cent of the Kingdom’s villages by 2020. It urged authorities to consider more investment in non-hydro renewable energy technologies, which would allow the country to pursue energy security while increasing energy access, reliability and affordability.

“Rapidly falling renewable energy technology costs mean Cambodia can cost-effectively strengthen its energy security by balancing proposed investment in large-scale hydro and fossil generation with accelerated investment in solar and biomass technologies,” the report said.

Cambodia’s overall electricity demand has been growing by about 20 per cent a year due to economic growth and a widening national grid that is making electricity accessible to a larger population. Domestic power generation – around 3,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) last year and supplemented by imported electricity – is expected to reach 7,600 GWh by 2020.

To date, investment in non-hydro renewable energy has yielded just 35 megawatts (MW) of the country’s approximately 1,600 MW electricity generation capacity.

The study, commissioned by the National Council for Sustainable Development (NCSD), found that large-scale hydro and coal-fired power plants currently provide power for between $0.08 and $0.11 per kilowatt hour, once transmission and distribution losses are factored in. But with prices dropping on solar technologies, industrial-scale installations can currently generate electricity profitably for as low as $0.12 per kilowatt hour – or less if grant funding is available.

The authors noted that in addition to being close to par on price, solar power generation has the added benefit of being most plentiful during daytime demand peaks, and can boost supply during the dry season, when hydropower output is much lower. Solar power generation facilities also have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than hydro or coal-fired power plants, and in many cases can occupy the rooftops of existing structures.

The Stung Atay hydroelectric dam in Pursat province, for instance, requires a 2,800-hectare reservoir to generate 327 GWh. A solar farm could generate the same output on just 460 hectares of land.

“Cambodia could add 1,000 GWh to its generating output by constructing 700 MW of utility-scale solar [farms] on 1,400 hectares of land,” the report said.

It recommended several potential targets for scaling up sustainable power generation, including a scenario that would see 350 MW of non-hydro renewable energy capacity by 2020. Pursuing this target would enable the government to defer plans for some of the coal-fired plants it is considering.

Minister of Environment Say Samal said there were considerable “external costs” associated with coal-fired and hydropower generation – such as pollution and damage to fisheries, respectively – so the government would study how increasing non-hydro renewable energy capacity could mitigate the impact while reducing long-term energy costs.

“Diversifying the power mix would hedge against the risks of over-reliance on large-scale central generation, which could see stagnating revenue in the coming 10-15 years due to the increasing cost-competitiveness of alternative generation technologies,” the minister said in a statement.

Tin Ponlok, secretary-general of the NCSD, said Cambodia has high potential for generating solar energy, and with the cost of installation continuing to drop the government should grasp the opportunity to diversify its energy mix. However, he said the study is just the first step and more investigation is required to determine a course of action.

“We need to further study the economic, social and environmental impact to help the government prepare a policy,” he said.

Kong Pharith, general director of solar products distributor IMB (Cambodia) Group Co Ltd, said the private sector is ready to jump in once the government approves a policy on non-hydro renewable energy.

“Many investors are waiting for this government policy, but the question is whether or not it will be open for the private sector to invest in,” he said.

Pharith said to be commercially viable, the private sector would need assurance from the government that it would purchase electricity produced by private solar farms at current market prices.

“We would agree on the same price that the government buys power from Thailand, Vietnam and Chinese hydropower projects,” he said.

“The cost sunk into building dams could also be used to develop solar farms with the same capacity, and without any damage to forests, land and water,” he added.

According to the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, the Kingdom’s domestic power generation capacity reached 1,569 MW in 2015, accounting for 74 per cent of the country’s total power supply. Hydroelectric dams accounted for 927 MW of domestic capacity, with coal-fired and diesel-fired thermal plants amounting to 368 MW and 218 MW, respectively.


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Drug czar visits rehab centre

Following a visit to a notorious drug detention centre on Tuesday, a top Cambodian anti-drug official offered suggestions for improving the site, although his recommendations failed to address civil society’s long-standing concerns.

Ke Kim Yan, president of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, during a Tuesday evening visit to the Orkas Knhom (“My Chance”) rehabilitation centre, one of a handful in the country, listed two critiques of the notorious detention centre.

Responding to “criticism from the public regarding many problems” in Orkas Knhom, Yan said that he worried patients, who are held at the centre involuntarily, were receiving drugs from family members coming in on visits.

“There may be drug deliveries happening in the centre, so we must investigate it,” he said.

In his second point, Yan said that during his visit he had asked the director to enlarge the rehabilitation centre.

“I suggested to the centre director to consider expanding, because there is still [free] land left around the centre,” he said.

Yan said that “newcomers and older patients should be separated”, stressing that newly arrived drug addicts, fresh off the streets, might cause patients who had been there longer to “become addicts again”.

“This is our main point. They should not mix together,” he said.

Users are kept at the facility from three months to two years, supposedly depending on the severity of their addictions, according to Orkas Knhom’s director Mom Chan Dany, who could not say yesterday if or when they would expand the size of the centre.

As for addressing Yan’s other suggestions, Dany said that they would try their best.

“We are pleased to receive [Yan’s] advice to reform the centre. Now we are trying our best to rehabilitate these patients. We wish for the addicts to be able to return to society,” she said, adding that the centre held 733 patients.

The recommendations, however, did not take into account longstanding civil society criticisms of Orkas Knhom and facilities like it.

According to investigations by Human Rights Watch, Cambodia’s drug rehabilitation centres offer little hope of actual rehabilitation, and are often hotbeds of violence, sexual abuse and forced labour, places for “undesirables” to be dumped and forgotten.

The advocacy group has called for the “immediate closure” of Cambodia’s drug detention centres.


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Pheap timber under scrutiny

Authorities from the government’s new anti-logging task force swooped into Stung Treng yesterday and inspected timber stockpiles belonging to the Kingdom’s most prominent logging magnate, Try Pheap, who has been accused of reaping immense profits from the clear-cutting of Cambodian forests for years.

In a video uploaded to local media, Ieng Vandy, the Stung Treng military police commander, questioned representatives of a vast, open-air locale filled with felled timber.

“We need to check whether the wood is legal or not, and where it comes from,” he said.

“Please, reporters help [show us] where there is timber, help provide information and cooperate with us, and I will go there immediately.”

Sorn Nimol, Stung Treng deputy provincial police chief, confirmed that authorities had visited timber stockpiles owned by Pheap and other businessmen in the districts of Sesan and Siem Pang and in Stung Treng city.

“[The raids] were not in a wildlife sanctuary but in locations where businessmen cut down the forest and stored the wood, but we still have no reports [about the raids’ results],” Nimol said.

Nimol added that timber owned by Kith Meng, one of Cambodia’s richest men, was also inspected.

Representatives for Pheap could not be reached. Questioned by a reporter, Meng said he was “overseas” and hung up.

The raids come after Prime Minister Hun Sen announced last week the creation of a commission headed by military police chief Sao Sokha – who has himself been accused of profiting from the timber trade in the past – to crack down on illegal logging, calling out wealthy businessmen Soeng Sam Ol and Lim Bunna for being involved.

Yet despite the flurry of activity yesterday, officials were tight-lipped about results obtained from the inspections of Pheap’s timber, which seem to have focused on checking whether it was legal or not.

Others, including military police spokesman Eng Hy and Environment Ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap, claimed to have no knowledge of the raids at all.

The question of what would happen to the timber if it ends up being seized by authorities is particularly salient since Try Pheap has the exclusive right to collect and sell off the Kingdom’s confiscated luxury timber.

Marcus Hardtke, Southeast Asia coordinator for German conservation group ARA, said that investigating timber owned by a man of Try Pheap’s level hinted at the crackdown’s true purpose.

“It could be a shuffle . . . to further monopolise the trade,” he said.

However, the Environment Ministry’s Sopheap defended the task force.

“The government is doing their job,” he said. “The crackdown is for real.”


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Koh Kong villagers deliver petitions

Seeking a resolution to a decadelong land dispute with two Koh Kong province sugar companies, about 100 villagers representing more than 500 families delivered petitions yesterday to four commune halls in Sre Ambel and Botum Sakor districts appealing for action.

Provincial Governor Bun Leut, notified of the planned demonstration last week, had previously announced it would not be permitted. However, the demonstrators proceeded according to plan, said community representative Nget Sem, delivering petitions requesting action over 2,446.5 hectares disputed with the Koh Kong Sugar and Koh Kong Plantation companies.

In Kongchit, provincial coordinator for Licadho, said all four commune chiefs confirmed receipt of the petitions and urged the commune authorities to work with higher levels of government to resolve the dispute.

Chi Khor Leu commune chief Chhau Vuth yesterday said the case was beyond his authority to solve. “I can only articulate this to the superiors at the district and province [level] so that they can consider, solve and contact with that company.”

Similarly, Meng Yuy, Dang Peng commune chief, said he could only forward the petition to district and provincial authorities as well as the companies.

Neither Koh Kong Governor Bun Leut nor company representatives could be reached for comment yesterday.

But Koh Kong Provincial Hall spokesman Ouch Touch said authorities will try to solve the dispute. “We try to solve it by the law. We never forget to keep any documents related with this dispute.”


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HRW slams ASEAN invites to US summit

Human Rights Watch has called on US President Barack Obama to make sure that human rights are at the top of the agenda when the US leader hosts the heads of ASEAN at a summit in California next month.

In a letter sent to the White House, dated January 19, the New York-based rights group calls out several authoritarian leaders across ASEAN that they say are responsible for “grievous human rights abuses [and] war crimes”.

HRW goes on to say that the summit “contradicts previous US policy” by extending an invitation to Prime Minister Hun Sen “who carried out a coup in 1997 and has ruled abusively in Cambodia for over 30 years”.

They also called on President Obama to hold sessions at the February 15-16 summit with leaders of civil society.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said yesterday that the US manages its human rights concerns through bilateral relationships and the California summit was a diplomatic opportunity for the US to meet with the bloc as a whole.

“It is in the interest of the US to work with ASEAN,” he said.


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Gov’t U-turn on Montagnard refugees

In a seeming about-face, the government has backed away from its looming deadline to deport more than 100 Montagnards currently seeking asylum in Cambodia, instead pledging to “expedite” the process of assessing their refugee status.

Following a meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh between Interior Minister Sar Kheng and the UN Refugee Agency, ministry spokesman Por Phak confirmed that the government would be working closely with the UN body to hasten asylum seeker processing.

“We will continue to work together with the UNHCR and the Montagnard refugees – with those that have been registered and those that are being processed in the near future,” he said.

“In the meeting, we agreed to expedite the process of registering the refugee status of the refugee Montagnards.”

Over the past 18 months, more than 200 Montagnards have fled the central highlands of Vietnam for Cambodia. The predominately Christian indigenous group alleges religious persecution in their homeland.

Only 13 Montagnards have thus far been recognised as refugees in Cambodia, while dozens have been summarily deported. Hundreds more have been left in limbo as the government has refused to process their claims, an obligation under the UN’s 1951 Convention on Refugees, to which they are a signatory.

In September, the government announced a three-month deadline for those waiting to be processed to return on their own accord or face being forcibly sent back to the Vietnamese authorities. That deadline was later extended to February.

Following the ultimatum, and amidst dwindling aid, several groups have since returned with assistance of the UN, who said it has received guarantees of safety from the Vietnamese government.

Local media reported late last night that the 13 who have already been granted refugee status would be resettled in the Philippines.

Interior Ministry spokesman Phak declined to comment on resettlement plans but said a deadline agreed to with UN to help find an offshore home for the 13 had passed.

“We are trying to do what we can in the best interests of the refugees,” he said.

The spokesman said there are more than 100 Montagnards still waiting to be processed but declined to comment on the government’s February deadline.

The government’s decision to process the Montagnards was welcome news yesterday for those working closely with the asylum seekers.

“If they agreed to register and speed up the process of assessing their status with UNHCR, then that is very good,” said Denise Coghlan, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Cambodia.

The Convention on Refugees defines a refugee as someone who, because of a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”, is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin.

“It’s good news if the Cambodian government is agreeing to fulfil its international obligation to give these Montagnards a fair refugee status hearing,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, via email.

“Let’s hope that this indicates a change of attitude recognising the Montagnards are fleeing serious rights violations in Vietnam that need to be taken seriously rather than being dismissed in the interest of maintaining fraternal relations between Phnom Penh and Hanoi.”

Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc in Ratanakkiri, where many of the Montagnards first entered the country, said it was a positive step, but cautioned that based on the government’s previous handling of Montagnard cases, the process would need oversight.

“The government cannot just conclude that they are illegal immigrants by just looking at them; they need to complete the proper process,” he said.

The UNHCR did not respond by press time yesterday.


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