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| People sit along railroad tracks outside their shanty homes in the Boeng Kak slum area of Phnom Penh (AFP/File, Nicolas Asfouri) |
AFP
PHNOM PENH — The Asian Development Bank on Friday defended two land rights organisations in Cambodia that have been rapped by the government for criticising an ADB-funded railway redevelopment project.
The attacks on the two groups, who monitor the relocation of families living near the railway tracks, come as the government is preparing a controversial law to regulate the activities of campaigners and charity workers.
"ADB views recent developments with the utmost seriousness," the bank said in a statement after the local Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) charity was slapped with a five-month suspension and international group Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC) was given a government warning over a critical report.
Both had been monitoring the project's resettlement of over 1,000 families and had provided "important information", the Manila-based lender said, adding it hoped they would "be allowed to continue making contributions".
The bank is providing $84 million in loans for the $140 million project to improve Cambodia's tattered railway system, with additional funding coming from the Australian government and Phnom Penh.
The government suspended STT earlier this month, ostensibly for failing to file the correct paperwork, but 40 non-profit groups said in a joint statement the real reason was the group's "legitimate work among urban poor communities".
BABC, meanwhile, was summoned to meet foreign ministry officials on Thursday to "clarify" a statement from October last year that said two children had drowned fetching water in a relocation site it said lacked proper facilities.
"The deaths of the children are not linked to ADB's project to restore the railway," foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told AFP, adding that the government had told BABC to "improve its work".
The action against the two charities has fuelled fears of a wider crackdown on civil society groups once the proposed NGO law takes effect, rights groups said.
The legislation has come under fire from campaigners in Cambodia and abroad for imposing burdensome registration requirements and giving the government the power to dissolve organisations.
In January the US State Department said it had "serious concerns" about the draft law and questioned whether the measure was even necessary.
Charities have played an active role in rebuilding Cambodia since it emerged from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and years of civil war, but they have on occasion clashed with the government.
4 comments:
Hey! teak Tnout Chouuuuu!
Hi Everyone,
One of KI-Media member who has his name in Facebook as Khmer Sovannaphumi but his real name is Pang Sokhoeun, former political asylum and now living in Sweden. He always copies news from here to post in his facebook profile to promote himself, but right now, he tries to remove and blocked anyone who dares to reveal his con activity particular he tries to hide what he has cheated his wife (Sreypov Chea) by having a girlfriend (Sokunthear Sam) behind his wife back. Now, his girlfriend had run way from him after she knew his cheating.
A con man Pang Sokhoeun as well as KI-Media like to insult to the government officers who have affairs, but himself does even worse than other people. What a shame!
When one person had posted in KI-Media and accused that a con man Pang Sokhoeun is a brother of Som Ek (former Chief of Tiger's head sign guerilla, who was arrested and put in prison by Cambodian government) during that time, a cheater Pang Sokhoeun came to deny in his blogs immediately and had pointed the blame to Mr. Sourn Serey Rotha, but this time, he has bury his head in the sand because he cannot deny the truth that he has cheated his wife. Right now, all he can do is removed and blocked anyone who dared to reveal his cheating.
These people will demanding lexus and new bangalow inorder to move out...?
they have no brain, living on the railway tracks! get educated for a living, please!
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