Thai Monuments Are Disappearing in the Dead of Night
This week’s student protests are part of a backlash against a monarchist elite trying to erase Thailand’s democratic history.
Revisiting Lon Nol’s Cambodia
Forty years on, former participants reflect on the country’s star-crossed republican experiment
An unsafe house
Did Beijing’s economic assistance to Cambodia influence Phnom Penh’s deportation of 20 political refugees?
In the shadow of Vine Mountain
With an Australian inquest set to revisit the killing of three Western tourists by Khmer Rouge in 1994, former cadres in Kampot reflect on the events that led to the men’s capture and killing
Chinese linked to filling of lake
CHINESE companies have been closely involved in the controversial development of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak since its inception, according to news reports and local rights groups, who said they became aware of the companies’ role after a research group from China visited the site last week.
China’s soft power hardens in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – A DAY after Cambodian authorities spirited 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers out of the country on an unmarked charter flight, China’s Vice President Xi Jinping touched down at Siem Reap International Airport. During his three-day visit in late December, the Chinese leader signed an unprecedented US$1.2 billion in economic aid agreements with...
Asylum policy failed Uighurs, activists say
REFUGEE advocates have criticised a new sub-decree handing responsibility for asylum cases to the Ministry of Interior, two days after 20 Uighur asylum seekers were deported to China in the face of international protests. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said on Sunday that the sub-decree, signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on...
Uighurs’ fate seen as stain on Kingdom
HUMAN rights activists have lashed out at the government’s deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China on Saturday, claiming it has committed a “grave breach” of international law under pressure from Beijing. Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said that 20 Uighurs departed Phnom Penh International Airport at 9pm on Saturday aboard a chartered flight...
Charting an uncertain path
After a tumultuous year, the Sam Rainsy Party finds itself at a crossroads, but observers are divided on its future prospects in a shifting political climate.
Officials destroy safrole oil stills
ANTI-DRUG officials say they are one step closer to eradicating illicit drug precursor production in the Cardamom Mountains following a recent patrol that led to the destruction of 18 illegal factories in the region. The grueling 10-day foot patrol, carried out by conservation groups in close cooperation with forest rangers from the armed services and...
Ancient language sits on the brink of extinction
ONE of Cambodia’s oldest known languages is teetering on the brink of extinction, according to language experts, who say its loss will erase the last vestiges of a culture stretching back far into Southeast Asia’s prehistory. The S’aoch tongue, a distant relation to modern Khmer, is now spoken by just a handful of villagers in...
Cambodia balances East and West
PHNOM PENH – AT a ceremony last month marking the construction of the US$128 million Cambodia-China Prek Kdam Friendship Bridge in Kandal province, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the growth in aid and investment from China was boosting economic development and strengthening his country’s “political independence”. “China respects the political decisions of Cambodia,” he...
Cambodia’s monarchy quietly evolves
PHNOM PENH–FIVE years on from King Norodom Sihanouk’s intricately-scripted departure from the political stage, Cambodia’s new monarch Norodom Sihamoni is quietly and finally emerging from his father’s shadow. Enthroned by French colonial authorities in 1941, Sihanouk grew into a national symbol and wily political operator, entrenching himself at the center of the country’s political life...
