Journalist and forestry officer released in deal [-Travesty of justice lingers on...]

Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post

A local journalist and a forestry officer who were arrested by military police forces in Kratie province last week for beating a man and firing a gun into the air were released on Monday as part of a compromise between the victim and his attackers.

Srey Vutha, deputy commander of the Kratie provincial military police, said that Khuth Khy, a reporter for Today News, and Seng Chantarun, director of the Sandan Forestry Administration, were let go after they confessed to their mistake and were “educated” by the military police.

The agreement, he said, was brokered between the accused, the police, the victim, and the provincial governor. The police did not say what conditions, if any, pertained to the contract that all parties signed.

Journalist, forest official allegedly beat logger

Monday, 17 September 2012
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post

a trend had recently emerged of local journalists attaching themselves to provincial forestry officers in Kratie and stopping people involved in the timber trade, demanding bribes in return for not reporting on their activities.

A local journalist and a forestry official were arrested by military police in Kratie province’s Sambo district on Friday night for allegedly discharging a weapon into the air and beating a man with a boat oar in an extortion bid gone awry.

According to district military police commander Chung Sokunthea, Khuth Khy, a reporter for the Khmer-language newspaper Today News, and Sandan Forestry Administration director Seng Chantarun allegedly set upon a man in a rowing boat while attempting to extort money from him for transporting luxury wood.

“This journalist and the forestry official were arrested by our military police forces after they opened fire to threaten and stop a boat rower on the river who had stocked and carried two pieces of luxury wood for making beds for his own use,” Sokunthea said, adding that the victim had suffered an injury to his shoulder.

សេចក្តី​ជូន​ដំណឹង​ ពី ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍

Monday, 17 September 2012
ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍

ដោយ​ថ្មី​ៗមាន​លេចឮ​នៅ​តាម​បណ្តា​ខេត្ត​ ខ្លះ​ថា មាន​ជន​ខិល​ខូច​មួយ​ចំនួន​បាន​លួច​ប្រើ​ឈ្មោះ​ជា​បុគ្គ​លិក​កាសែត ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ ទៅ​ប្រព្រឹត្ត​អំពើ​ល្មើស​ច្បាប់ ដូច​ជា​ជំរិត​ទារ​ប្រាក់ និង​តាម​កាក់​រថយន្ត​ទារ​ប្រាក់ ...ជាដើម ដែល​ជា​ទង្វើ​ប្រាស​ចាក​ពី​ក្រម​វិជ្ជា​ជីវៈ​អ្នក​សារ​ព័ត៌មាន និង​ច្បាប់​ស្តី​ពី​របប​សារ​ព័ត៌មាន ដែល​ជា​មូល​ដ្ឋាន​គ្រឹះ​របស់​កាសែត ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ បាន​ប្រកាន់​យក​ក្នុង​ការ​ប្រកប​វិជ្ជា​ជីវៈ​សារ​ព័ត៌មាន​សេរី ឯករាជ្យ និង​មិន​លម្អៀង​នោះ ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ សូម​ជម្រាប​ជូន​ដំណឹង​ដល់​សាធារណ​ជន មេត្តា​ជ្រាបថា ៖ ប្រសិន មាន​ជន​ណា​ម្នាក់​ប្រើ​ឈ្មោះ ថា​ជា​បុគ្គលិក ឬ ភ្នាក់​ងារ​របស់​កាសែត ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ សូម​សាធារណ​ជន ពិនិត្យ​ប័ណ្ណ​សម្គាល់ នាម​ប័ណ្ណ ឈ្មោះ និង​លេខ​ទូ​រស័ព្ទ ឲ្យ​បាន​ច្បាស់ ហើយ​បើ​មាន​ការ​សង្ស័យ​ដោយ​ប្រការ​ណា​មួយ សូម​ទាក់ទង​មក​កាន់​អ្នក​គ្រប់​គ្រង​ តាម​ទូរ​ស័ព្ទ​លេខៈ 012 862 612,​ 012​ 921​ 053 ​ ឬ 012 ​517 949​ ។

ជនណា​ដែល​បង្ខូច​កេរ្តិ៍​ឈ្មោះ ភ្នំពេញ ប៉ុស្តិ៍ ចាំ​បាច់​ត្រូវ​តែ​ទទួល​ទោស​តាម​ច្បាប់​ជា​ធរមាន៕

សូម​អរ​គុណ!

គេ​ចោទ​ថា CPP កាត់​ប្រាក់​ខែ​នគរបាល​ជាតិ​យក​ទៅ​បម្រើ​បក្ស

Friday, 18 May 2012 12:02
គឹម យុទ្ធណា និង​ Shane Worrell
The Phnom Penh Post

ភ្នំពេញៈ គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន​កម្ពុជា ត្រូវ​បាន​គេ​ចោទ​ថា បាន​កាត់​ប្រាក់​ខែ របស់​នគរបាល​ជាតិ យក​ទៅ​បម្រើ​ដល់​ការ​បោះឆ្នោត ឃុំ​ សង្កាត់ នៅ​ថ្ងៃ​ទី ៣ ខែ​មិថុនា និង​ការ​បោះឆ្នោត​ជាតិ ក្នុង​ឆ្នាំ ២០១៣ ខាង​មុខ​។ នេះ​បើ​តាម​ការ​អះអាង​របស់​ក្រុម​មន្រ្តី​នគរបាល​នៅ​អគ្គ​ស្នងការ​នគរបាល​ជាតិ។

មន្ត្រី​នគរបាល​ជាតិ​ម្នាក់​ ដែល​សុំលាក់​អត្ត​សញ្ញាណ ដោយ​សារ​តែ​បារម្ភ​ពី​តួនាទី​របស់​ខ្លួន បាន​អះអាង​ថា ប្រាក់​ខែ​របស់​មន្ត្រី​នគរបាល ចាប់​ពី​មន្ត្រី​ថ្នាក់​អនុប្រធាន​នាយកដ្ឋាន​រហូត​ដល់ មន្ត្រី​នគរបាល​ធម្មតា​ត្រូវ​បាន​កាត់​តាម​ចំនួន​តិច ឬ​ច្រើន ទៅ​តាម​តួនាទី​របស់​នគរបាល​ទាំង​នោះ​។ លោក​បាន​និយាយ​កាល​ពី​ម្សិលមិញ​ថា ការ​កាត់​ប្រាក់​ខែ​នេះ​ត្រូវ​បាន​ថ្នាក់​ដឹក​នាំ​ប្រាប់​ថា យក​លុយ​ចូល​បក្ស​ដើម្បី​បម្រើ​ការ​ឃោសនា​បោះឆ្នោត ឲ្យ​គណបក្ស​ប្រជាជន។ ប្រភព​ដដែល​បាន​បន្ថែម​ថា មន្ត្រី​ថ្នាក់​អនុប្រធាន​នាយកដ្ឋាន ត្រូវ​បាន​កាត់​ចំនួន ១០​ម៉ឺន​រៀល ថ្នាក់​ប្រធាន​ការិយាល័យ ៥ ម៉ឺនរៀល មន្ត្រី​រងការិយាល័យ ៣ ម៉ឺនរៀល នាយ​ផ្នែក​ការិយាល័យ ២ ម៉ឺន​រៀល នាយរង​ផ្នែក​ការិយាល័យ​១ម៉ឺន​រៀល និង​មន្ត្រី​នគរបាល​ធម្មតា​មួយ​ម៉ឺន​រៀល ដោយ​ប្រាក់​ខែ​ទាំង​នេះ ត្រូវ​កាត់ ជា​រៀង​រាល់​ខែ ចាប់​ពី​ខែ​មេសា​កន្លង​មក​នេះ​រហូត​ទៅ​ដល់​ការ​បោះឆ្នោត​ថ្នាក់​ជាតិ​ឆ្នាំ ២០១៣ ខាង​មុខ។

Cambodia arrests 166 Chinese for extortion

Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Agence France-Presse

PHNOM PENH—Cambodian police on Thursday arrested 166 Chinese nationals for allegedly extorting money from victims abroad using Internet phone services, an official said.

A Vietnamese woman was also held in a massive police operation, national police spokesman Kirt Chantharith told Agence France-Presse, with arrests in the capital Phnom Penh, the southern town of Sihanoukville and the eastern province of Svay Rieng.

“They used the Internet to extort money from people overseas,” said Chantharith, adding that the extortion gang had “many tricks” to blackmail their targets, without providing further details.

He said the crackdown followed complaints from numerous victims.

Extortion in NE Prison Leaves Spirits ‘Broken’

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 January 2008

Detainees in a prison in the northeast province of Mondolkiri are being held in poor conditions far beyond legal limits, raising suspicions of corruption, a prison official said Tuesday.

Prisoners who can’t bribe their way out of detention grow sick as they are held without trial, and “their spirit is broken,” the official told VOA Khmer, on condition of anonymity.

At least two women and five men are serving time without trial, some as long as one year, in the Mondolkiri facility, the official said.

Charges range from theft to murder to adultery, the official said.

“There are many people, and they are sick,” the official said. “They have not been sentenced. Their spirit is broken.”

“Each person is asked to pay at least $1,500” to be released the official continued. “The smallest amount, $1,500.”

Mondolkiri Prison Chief An Kimleng dismissed the allegations.

“Fines” for detainees prior to trial dates are possible, he said, but “the prison chief has no right to put people on trial.”

Em Veasna, a human rights worker in Mondolkiri, said such cases of extortion were likely, especially if news of them was trickling out.

Mondolkiri Court Chief Lou Sousambath could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Smiling Past Corruption [-Sr World Bank officials let the Cambodian gov't get away with corruption]

October 11, 2007
The Wall Street Journal (USA)

Robert Zoellick outlined a vision for the World Bank yesterday, at a speech marking his 100th day as president. His theme: "inclusive and sustainable globalization." Whatever that means.

We long ago became accustomed to the toothless catchphrases by which the bank shovels money (now more than $30 billion a year) out the door, and it remains to be seen if Mr. Zoellick's agenda will amount to more than a high gloss on the status quo. To his credit, the former U.S. Trade Rep is emphasizing the importance of free trade to economic development, still a controversial point at an institution that was once home to anti-globalization guru Joseph Stiglitz. But the real test of his tenure will be whether he can restore the bank's reputation, especially regarding the corrupt uses to which its loans are often put, and the bank staff's habit of looking the other way.

That point was brought home last month by Paul Volcker's report on the bank's anticorruption efforts, which painted a vivid picture of institutional resistance to having its projects "exposed as rife with corruption." Mr. Volcker avoided specifics, though we revealed the devastating 2005 report by the bank's internal anticorruption unit (INT) on bank funding for drug procurement in India. The losses in that one case ran into the tens of millions of dollars.

A senior operational bank source has now showed us a second set of INT reports concerning corruption in seven projects in Cambodia. The reports are so sensitive that they were never shared with Cambodia's government, lest they put the lives of whistleblowers at risk. We have therefore agreed not to publish or quote directly from the documents, as well as to obscure certain details. But take our word for it: These are remarkably specific reports that document corrupt practices and name officials and companies by the dozen. Even more astonishing, senior bank officials have essentially let the Cambodian government get away with it.

As usual, the projects have the most benign-sounding names: "Land Management and Administration"; "Provincial Rural Infrastructure"; "Flood Emergency Rehabilitation"; "Provincial and Peri-Urban Water Supply and Sanitation," and so on.

Yet in each case, evidence of extortion, bribe-taking, bid-rigging and procurement manipulation was rampant. In one or more of the projects, 75% of companies seeking project work admitted to offering bribes to government officials, some of them in the tens of thousands of dollars. In another project, investigators found that contracts for 17 out of 18 new office buildings were manipulated in favor of just one company, and that they had been built with substandard materials -- or not built at all. The jockeying for bids even led to contracts being taken out on people's lives. And so on and on, causing one to wonder what part of the World Bank's work in the country wasn't corrupted.

When INT released these reports inside the bank in May 2006, then bank-president Paul Wolfowitz immediately put the projects on hold, and demanded the Cambodian government refund the $12 million the bank estimated it had lost to corruption. Bank sources tell us Mr. Wolfowitz would have pulled the bank out of Cambodia altogether, but he was prevailed on to adopt what amounted to a "stop-go" strategy toward Cambodia.

The bank's bureaucracy had its own ideas. Within months the bank had lifted its suspension of the land management project and two others. In February, James Adams, the bank's vice president for the East Asia and Pacific Region, wrote to the Cambodian Finance Minister noting brightly that despite the INT's findings, the bank was ready to forgive: "Considering the Government's expressed commitment to improve governance and fight corruption . . . the Bank proposes to seek the immediate refund of only a portion of the [bank] funds against the misprocured contracts." We're told that not one company has been debarred, despite INT's recommendations.

In August, Mr. Zoellick visited Phnom Penh, where he announced that the bank "wants to assist the Government to enact reforms to reduce rural poverty, encourage social development, improve the business and investment climate, and strengthen the rule of law." Yet if the INT reports mean anything, it is that Cambodia's government cannot administer even the most basic projects honestly. It's far from clear that further aid won't simply generate more corruption, however many strings are attached.

* * *

Mr. Zoellick is still new to his job, and no doubt he is eager to win over the staff that ousted his predecessor. Yet Mr. Zoellick's most basic obligations are not to them. They are to the bank's donors and to the world's poor, both of whom are cheated when corruption is tolerated. Cambodia is one country where that happens. If the bank isn't willing to act against it, then Congress should deny the bank more money until it does.

Police Arrest Two for Alleged Extortion

Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
10 August 2007

Cambodian authorities have arrested two men and charged them with extorting money from a foreign company, officials said Friday.

Srey Mouy Heang, 25, and Maj. Yim Neang, 37, were charged with from a foreign company. Srey Mouy Heang is the president of an environmental consulting firm, and extorting $380,000Yim Neang is a Ministry of Interior official, authorities said.

Om Yentieng, director of Cambodia's anti-corruption unit, told reporters Friday the government had enough evidence to prove the pair extorted funds from an unnamed foreign company.

"It's more that duping, it's extortion," he said. "These two men extorted $380,000 from a foreign company. We have charged them with extortion."

The company is reportedly a Russian mining company based in Pailin, but Om Yentieng declined to reveal its name.

The two men falsely used the names of Prime Minister Hun Sen, Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng, Hun Sen's relatives, and the Ministry of the Environment to extort money, Om Yentieng said.

Opposition lawmaker Yim Sovann said it is not enough to arrest only a few people.

"I support any action to protect the Cambodian people and foreign investors," he said. "But there are many cases that affect the image of our country, such as corruption, that the government has to solve."

Cambodian Center for Human Rights official Ou Virak urged the government to conduct a proper investigation and allow the court to proceed fairly and independently.

"We must show the public that the court is transparent and fair," he said.

Cambodian authorities arrest two in anti-corruption sting

Fri, 10 Aug 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian authorities arrested an Interior Ministry official and a private businessman on suspicion of extorting money from a mining company, the head of the government's anti-corruption authority, Om Yentieng, announced Friday. Speaking at a press conference in the capital, Yentieng said Yim Neang, 37, a deputy chief of the Interior Ministry's international relations office, and Srey Muy Hieng, 25, a director of a company which conducted environmental impact studies, remained in custody.

He said the pair had been arrested late last week in a top secret operation after anti-corruption officials received information that the pair were demanding 380,000 dollars in bribes from an unnamed mining company operating in the country's far north-west.

"This foreign company was very scared. They did not cooperate with the authorities because they heard Yim Neang use the name of (Prime Minister) Hun Sen's son," Yentieng said.

He did not say how the authorities became aware of the complicated scam, in which police allege the men falsely claimed they were demanding money on behalf of several high ranking officials, including Environment Minister Mok Mareth and Interior Minister Sar Kheng.

He said they further demanded 100,000 dollars as part of the total which they claimed was for Hun Sen's election campaign. Cambodia is scheduled to hold national elections in 2008.

Warrants obtained from Phnom Penh Municipal Court allowed authorities to access the mens' email and text messaging accounts, where they allege they found hard evidence of the plot as well as documents falsely claiming one of Hun Sen's five children was behind them.

Yentieng said no government officials named by the pair knew anything about the scam and the pair's claims they were working with high ranking officials were entirely false.

He said the pair face charges of fraud, bribery and possibly intent to kidnap, all of which authorities said carry potential penalties of five to 10 years in prison.

"I appeal to all foreign businesses working here or planning to do business here to please deal directly with relevant authorities and avoid brokers," he said.

Despite double digit growth, Cambodia is still struggling to attract foreign direct investment, in part due to its image as a country rife with endemic corruption.

A long awaited anti-corruption law is yet to be passed by the National Assembly, and the government set up the anti-corruption body under the Council of Ministers about one year ago as a stop gap measure in the face of mounting criticism from donors that it was doing too little to combat corruption.

Last Sunday World Bank president Robert Zoellick again warned during a press conference that corruption remained a key concern for that body, which has suspended projects in the past over allegations of corruption.

Mok Chito rejects Heng Pov’s accusation

Friday, July 20, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Mok Chito, penal police chief of the Ministry of Interior, rejected the claim made by Heng Pov who accused him of involvement in money extortion on rich businessmen. Mok Chito told The Cambodia Daily over the phone on Wednesday that Heng Pov is a loose canon and a criminal, and that his claim revealed to the court should not be heeded, Mok Chito said: “Let him say whatever he wants. He attacks the government, he attacks everybody.” Mok Chito added: “Let the public judge about what the truth is.” Mok Chito added that Heng Pov deserves the 39-year of jail sentence, and that for whatever he did he deserves (the sentences). In the courtroom, Judge Chey Sovann rejected Heng Pov’s accusation that Mok Chito put the fake money in his house. Chey Sovann said that Heng Pov’s accusation is only a pretext to get himself out of trouble.