Court hearing postponed in forest shooting

By May Titthara

The Phnom Penh Post

 

A COURT hearing on complaints filed by Forestry Administration officials who say they were shot at by former soldiers when they tried to clear a protected forest area in Oddar Meanchey province was postponed Tuesday when a Siem Reap provincial court judge failed to show up for questioning.

A total of 11 officials based in Samraong were summoned for questioning, as were two RCAF soldiers accused of persuading 200 families to move to the protected area from their village 50 kilometres away.

Earlier this month, complaints were filed with the Interior Ministry and the Siem Reap court following an altercation in which members of military families living in the area allegedly opened fire on Forestry Administration officials and physically assaulted 10 of them.

“We came to appear at the court, but the provincial judges were absent because they were busy having a meeting in Phnom Penh. They should’ve confirmed with us – we have wasted our time,” said Von Buntheoun, the chief of the Forestry Administration office in Samraong town.

The case is being handled by the Siem Reap court because there is no court in Oddar Meanchey.
 

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Pair make bail in land dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Speu provincial authorities on Monday released on bail two men who had been detained for six days for their alleged role in the torching of a makeshift office of a company owned by a Cambodian People’s Party senator, villagers and rights groups said.

You Ren, 26, whose 62-year-old father, You Tho, was one of the two released men, said she was happy her father had been allowed to leave the provincial prison, but said she was concerned that he had been told he would need to check in twice a month with the provincial police office.

“My father is sick and old. It’s very hard for him to come two times a month, but he has to because he’s afraid the police will arrest him again,” You Ren said.

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Kampong Speu villagers awaiting representatives’ release

By May Titthara and Will Baxter 
The Phnom Penh Post

 ABOUT 200 villagers from Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district have vowed to greet two community representatives who are scheduled to be released Monday from Kampong Speu prison and escort them back to their homes, villagers said.

Meanwhile, a group of 400 villagers will be standing by to protest if the pair are not released by authorities as promised.

Suon Ly, a villager from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, said, “About 400 villagers are prepared to come to protest in front of the provincial court again if the authorities do not uphold their promise.”

Another villager, Hi Hoeun, said he did not have much faith in the authorities, and that they have lied in the past about efforts to resolve their ongoing land dispute. Photo By May Titthara

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Danish woman extradited

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 A DANISH woman sentenced to 15 years in prison for mailing thousands of codeine and Valium tablets out of Cambodia last year has been extradited to her native country, a prison official confirmed Sunday.

Johanne Vinther Axelsen was extradited to Denmark March 17, according to Heng Hak, director of the prisons department at the Ministry of Interior.

The move comes 14 months after Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Axelsen, 55, to a lengthy prison term on charges of drug trafficking.

In an interview with the Post last year, Axelsen said she would be allowed to return to Denmark if she paid US$20,000 – a sum she refused, she said, because she did not want “to pay any money to the corrupt court officials, who will use the money to buy a luxury house and car”.

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Cholera Suspected in Six Kratie Deaths

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh

At least six villagers have died and dozens fallen ill from severe diarrhea and vomiting in a suspected cholera outbreak in Kratie province, authorities said Friday.

The outbreak occurred in two villages of Chet Borey district, a remote area far from the provincial capital, said Choung Seang Hak, chief of Kratie provincial police.

At least 53 people were being treated at the provincial hospital while “several dozen” others were being treated in their villages, Sanday, Treap and Village 105, in Thmei commune, he said.

Ou Pilay, chief of the provincial hospital, said six people died from serious diarrhea and vomiting suspected from cholera, causing worries of an epidemic.

“The patients have the conditions of chest pressure, difficulty breathing, and have indigestion” caused by dirty drinking water, he said. A lack of hygiene and high temperatures also contributed, he said.

Villagers were treated with anti-bacterial medication, and the conditions of some have improved, he said.

Around 20 medical officers and several dozen civil servants, police and military police are staying in the villages to investigate the cause of the outbreak, the officials said. Six ambulances were also on standby in the villages.

Authorities are searching the homes of villagers for signs of the disease and have urged anyone sick to seek out the medical teams.

Choung Seang Hak said the “cholera epidemic” was now under control and no further deaths were reported.

Nationalist Party started to strengthen party's internal structure

By Khmerization
Source: RFI

The royalist Nationalist Party, formerly the Norodom Ranariddh Party, has restarted to strengthen the internal structure and power base of the party after years of internal wrangling and bickering, reports Radio France International.

In one of its biggest campaigns, the party has on Sunday has begun its big gathering in Kampong Speu province in preparations for the 2012 commune and 2013 national elections, when the two royalist parties, Funcinpec and Nationalist, are hoping to go to the elections in a single ticket.

In the past, party's provincial officials and activists are responsible for the strengthening of the party's power base. However, the party has changed tact by launching a campaign where all top party officials from Phnom Penh must personally go to the provinces and talk to the people and party members. Mr. You Hockry, the party Secretary General and 1st vice president, said this is done in order to the strengthen the party provincial structure and to fill in vacant party leadership positions in the provinces.

The Nationalist Party is a splinter group who broke away from Funcinpec Party when the latter removed Prince Ranariddh from the party presidency in 2006. Prince Ranariddh, along with other party members, then founded the Norodom Ranariddh Party and won two parliamentary seats in the 2008 election. Prince Ranariddh has since left politics in a political deal with Prime Minister Hun Sen to facilitate his return to the country after being convicted of embezzlement and of breach of trust by a politically-motivated court.

A one-star general shot and seriously wounded a motorcycle driver

By Khmerization
Source: Koh Santepheap

A military officer, with the rank of brigadier general and his bodyguard, had been arrested by military police after he shot and seriously wounded a remorque (a motorcycle-pulled trailer) driver after a minor traffic accident, reports Koh Santepheap.

The accident took place on the morning of Sunday 28th, at the intersection of Wat Ang Khmao pagoda in Sambor commune, Samrong Torng district of Kampong Speu province.

According to the report, the remorque driver took a turn to enter Wat Ang Kmao pagoda and the Camry, with number plate 2A3540, which travelled in high speed from the opposite direction, skidded off the road when the driver braked to avoid crashing into the remorque. The car driver, which has been identified as Brig-Gen. Soy Narith who is based in Kampong Speu, got off his car and started abusing the remorque driver, identified as 31 year-old Korng Korn. The verbal exchanges ensued and Gen. Soy Narith drew his K-54 pistol and shot Korng Korn in the cheek, with a bullet piecing through to the other end of his cheek.

Capt. Din Pharith, head of the Provincial Criminal Office, said Gen. Soy Narith and his bodyguard were arrested on the spot and the victim has been sent for treatment at Kampong Speu Hospital, then transferred to Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh where he has been in a serious condition.