Woman reenacts model's murder

Friday, 26 October 2012 Kim Sarom and Shane Worrell, From The Phnom Penh Post

Suspect Sun Kimheng (L) re-enacts the killing of Spy model Lim Srey Pich with a volunteer yesterday, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2012 in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Vireak Mai/Phnom Penh Post

Less than a month ago, Lim Srey Pich was celebrating her 19th birthday in style after winning a modelling competition that was set to make her the face of Spy Wine Cooler on television and in magazines.

Yesterday, a woman police say has confessed to the murder was re-enacting how she allegedly lured the diminutive teenager to her house on Tuesday and strangled her with a length of wire before disposing of her body.

The daughter of a wealthy car dealer, Srey Pich, also known as Lim Yurimey, was found dead in a canal in Kampong Speu’s Kong Pisei district early Wednesday after going missing the day before.

Deputy municipal police chief Chuon Narin said that within hours of Srey Pich’s disappearance her parents began receiving text messages from their daughter’s mobile demanding ransom money.

US museum takes Khmer Rouge notes

Friday, 26 October 2012 Joe Freeman

Youk Chhang (L), director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, American journalist Elizabeth Becker (C) and a delegation from the United States Holocaust Museum visit a Khmer Rouge era crime site in Kampong Chhnang province on Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. Photograph: DC-CAM/Socheat Nhean

A delegate from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is wrapping up a fact-finding mission to Cambodia to create a display about the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge and the ongoing war crimes tribunal to bring the regime’s most senior leaders to justice.

Adding Cambodia-specific information would be a first for the museum, placing the crimes that took place between 1975 and 1979 amid a vast exhibition whose primary documents, footage and interactive materials focus primarily on the mass extermination of millions of Jews at the hands of Nazis during World War II.

Michael Abramowitz, director of genocide prevention efforts at the museum, said that including Cambodia would build on displays already in place highlighting crimes against humanity in other countries in the wake of the Holocaust, such as Rwanda and Bosnia.

We should be united

Friday, 26 October 2012 Princes Soma Norodom, From The Phnom Penh Post

The future of the country’s royal institution has been in the minds of Cambodians as they mourn the loss of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. Not only has this topic been addressed by the locals, but by the international forum.

I have been asked about the future of the monarchy by several international media outlets including CNN, AsianAffairs.com and the German press agency.

As a journalist, in a country with little freedom of the press, it’s a skill to disseminate the facts without jeopardizing your career.

During the memorial ceremony for His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk on October 17, 2012, I witnessed that unity was weak among the Royal Family members and a division within the current government.

Asian Development Bank may back disputed dam

Friday, 26 October 2012 David Boyle, From The Phnom Penh Post

The Asian Development Bank is considering providing funds to a controversial 400 megawatt dam project in Laos that could have adverse impacts on the Mekong River in downstream Cambodia. 

Conservation group International Rivers wants the Lao government to pull the plug on the $1 billion Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy dam because the firms developing it have not publicly released impact assessments and a resettlement plan, in violation of the country’s laws.

Christine Genalin Uy, an investment specialist at the ADB’s private sector operations department, said yesterday the bank was considering a funding request for the project on the proviso that these requirements were met.

Families ink deal to save canal homes

Friday, 26 October 2012 Chhay Channyda, From Phnom Penh Post

Eight of 12 families protesting against a forced eviction in Phnom Penh’s Nirouth commune have thumb-printed an agreement yesterday that save their houses from being demolished in the course of clearing the obstructed Prek Barang canal, residents said.

Deputy Meanchey district governor Heak Chanleang penned the agreement, saying he would “leave all 12 families living in the same condition, but residents must help authorities clear rubbish under their houses and make it easy for the excavator to get in the canal”, a feat made possible by an agreement by residents to remove the back portions of their homes to make way for the barge carrying the excavator.

Sun Heng, 45, who was the first to thumbprint the pact, said she believed the agreement would hold, but said: “If our houses are affected, we will protest.”

The remaining families, however, said their neighbours had been cheated. “Why do people quickly believe the authorities when they know the barge cannot get access until we remove our houses?” Sok Phearin, 32, asked.

Missing girl feared trafficked

Friday, 26 October 2012 Rosa Ellen and Buth Reaksmey Kongkea, From The Phnom Penh Post

Meas Bopha (L) speaks to the Post yesterday, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2012, about her missing 15-year-old daughter, Meas Bophea, (R). Photograph supplied

Meas Bopha, 47, sits in an outdoor pagoda over a lotus-filled pond on her property in Kampong Speu, home to 10 of her 12 children, and wipes back tears as she talks about her missing teenage daughter, Bophea, who vanished one morning last week.

The day she disappeared, Bophea, 15, woke up at 4am and prepared fried fish and rice porridge for the family’s breakfast. Her younger sister recalls waking up and seeing her, but the teenager told her to go back to sleep.  

Bophea once asked her mother about working in a factory to help her out. 

PM urges migrant protection

Friday, 26 October 2012 Vong Sokheng, From The Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen during a speech in Phnom Penh, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2012. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Some 285 million workers will migrate for employment when ASEAN countries open their borders to each other in 2015, Prime Minister Hun Sen predicted yesterday, as he urged speedier regional legislative action to ensure they could travel safely. 

At an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council meeting, the premier warned that some countries’ legislative barriers could prevent ASEAN from producing the necessary legal frameworks by the 2015 deadline.

Politics ‘behind journo deaths’

Friday, 26 October 2012 May Titthara, The Phnom Penh Post

The body of journalist Hang Serei Oudom is examined by investigators in Ratanakkiri province. His corpse, which police said bore wounds probably inflicted by an axe, was found in the trunk of his car. Photograph supplied

Twelve journalists have been killed in Cambodia since 1993, according to a report from the rights group Adhoc, which believes much of the bloodshed was politically motivated.

The body count was included in a round-up of abuses against the media in a report the group released on Wednesday.

In addition to the slayings, the tally included the names of 17 journalists who received death threats, 12 who have been imprisoned and one injured in what the group deemed revenge for his work. 

More Lao dam deals inked

Thursday, 25 October 2012 David Boyle and Shane Worrell

Villagers stand on the banks of the Mekong in Xayaburi province, Laos, near the building site of a controversial dam. Photograph: International Rivers

Laos has contracted firms to build and operate another significant hydropower plant on the Mekong River system, adding to the existing furore over potential effects on downstream countries such as Cambodia from the controversial Xayaburi dam.

The contracts, reportedly worth $1 billion, are for a series of three dams making up the Xe-Namnoy plant on two tributaries of the Se Kong River, which flows into the Mekong from the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos – just some 100 kilometres from Cambodia.

Because of this close proximity, communities on the Cambodian-Lao border would feel particularly acute downstream affects; however, since no impact assessments of the project had been made public, this was hard to measure, conservation group International Rivers warned yesterday. 

Palace visits may start on Friday

Thursday, 25 October 2012 May Titthara, From Phnom Penh Post

A girl is carried after fainting during the final day of official mourning for the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk on Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012, in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Alexander Crook/Phnom Penh Post.

Mourners who have spent days waiting outside the Royal Palace to big farewell to the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk could be granted entry to see his body as soon as tomorrow, an official said yesterday.

As it emerged that 233 people were hospitalised after fainting outside the palace in a week of official mourning that ended on Tuesday, Nhek Bun Chhay, deputy leader of the royal committee co-ordinating Sihanouk’s funeral, said members of the public were free to apply for entry to the palace.