What a High-Level Sacking in Vietnam Reveals About Communist Party Rifts
Vietnam’s campaign against corruption notched a significant victory earlier this month with the removal of a top Politburo official for “very serious mistakes and violations” while he was chair of PetroVietnam, the state-owned oil and gas company. But analysts say that there is a more complicated story behind the rare Politburo sacking—just the fourth in...
Crony In the Forest
On Google Maps the Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Cambodia is marked by a patch of theoretical green, like each of the country’s 32 national parks and protected areas.
Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless
The family of Cambodian dictator Hun Sen sits on at least $200 million. But it might not save them from populist anger.
More managed democracy for Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia’s senate elections, held on January 29 to select members of the country’s upper house, came and went largely unnoticed. The poll barely registered in the international media, and local critics dismissed it as an undemocratic charade for selecting members to an inert and largely powerless body. Voting for 57 of the...
Corruption hobbles Russia’s Far East
Moscow is looking to Russia’s Far East as a region poised for better times, and a building boom aims to make Vladivostok an investment hub. But young residents are still leaving the city in droves.
Split personalities revealed in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – As part of its ongoing release of leaked United States diplomatic cables, the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks this month released its small cache of Cambodia-related dispatches. The 777 cables from the US Embassy in Phnom Penh – an eagerly awaited bounty for Cambodia-watchers and local analysts – span the period from 1992 to...
Slow justice in Cambodia’s war crimes tribunal
Senior Khmer Rouge officials go to trial later this month but there are increasing concerns that the government is meddling in the judicial process, writes Sebastian Strangio from Phnom Penh
Potemkin graft crackdown in Cambodia
PHNOM PENH – ON the morning of May 12, Cambodia’s local newspapers ran photos of a bedraggled figure being escorted from a small courthouse. The man, who wore a crumpled green shirt and clutched a water bottle as he leant on the shoulder of a security guard, was Top Chan Sereyvuth, a former prosecutor at...
Limited liability for Khmer Rouge tribunal
PHNOM PENH – Sometime later this year, Cambodia’s war crimes court will convene its second trial at which four ailing Khmer Rouge leaders will face a raft of charges including crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. The four accused – Khmer Rouge “Brother No 2” Nuon Chea, former foreign minister Ieng Sary, head of...
Patrols combat illegal fishing
Community fishing patrols in the waters around Koh Rung Sangleum island have taken a bite out of a once-rampant trade in coral and other resources. By Sebastian Strangio & May Titthara.
PM slams critics over revenues
PRIME Minister Hun Sen lashed out at critics of the government’s handling of extractive-resource revenues on Wednesday, branding them “thieves” and saying that tensions between Cambodia and international watchdog Global Witness stem from a “sexual scandal” involving the group’s staff. Speaking at the opening of a two-day mining conference in the capital Wednesday, Hun Sen...
Sand exports go on unabated
A RECENT boom in sand exports from Cambodia to Singapore, fuelled by a “complete lack” of transparency and government regulation, could severely damage the country’s riverine and coastal ecosystems, according to a report released on Monday by international anticorruption watchdog Global Witness. The 40-page report, titled Shifting Sands, argues that exports to Singapore, where the...
