Covid-19 Fears, Cyber Attacks, CPP Power
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, July 30, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
PANDEMIC DAYS: The Delta variant has hit Cambodia and lockdowns, curfews and restrictions are back.
GOLD BUGS: The export of gold jumped by nearly 700% last year. Closed borders that thwarted rampant smuggling could be the reason.
SINISTER HOOCH: Seven more people died from drinking toxic homemade alcohol, bringing the nationwide total to 50 in recent months.
THE LEDE
Red Zone
The government on Thursday implemented a host of new regulations aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19. The new rules were prompted by fears of the fast-spreading Delta variant, which is proliferating along the Thai border.
Measures in the capital include:
9pm to 3am curfew
Facemasks required outdoors
Restaurants must enforce social distancing
Gatherings limited to 10 people, no alcohol allowed
Entertainment-venue ban extended until August 12
Restrictions are tighter in the provinces.
Chinese Cyber Attacks
Cambodia rejected U.S. claims that Chinese hackers breached its servers and stole sensitive environmental data.
Washington recently indicted four Chinese nationals on a litany of global cybercrimes, including hacking Cambodian government servers and stealing data pertaining to the use of the Mekong River. China has denied the allegations.
The Cambodian government, among China’s most steadfast allies, said China had no reason to steal such data because Cambodia always gave such information freely. The U.S. Justice Department claims evidence to the contrary.
Single-Party Power
The CPP pressure campaign shows no signs of yielding.
Kampong Speu authorities last week arrested a former CNRP activist on 2-year-old incitement charges after she refused to join the ruling party. Kem Tola fled the country in 2019, but returned earlier this year after the prime minister promised amnesty to overseas opposition members.
Upon her return, CPP officials urged her to join the party. She refused, and police jailed her soon after. Authorities deny the arrest was politically motivated.
Land Troubles
Government authorities push people from their land, often violently. News reports in the last week point to conflicts in at least six provinces. That’s likely just a small slice of a national problem.
In Tani village, Siem Reap province, landholders said provincial authorities are forcing them from their farms without fair compensation. In many cases, authorities have offered house-sized plots in return for hectares of farmland. Nearly two dozen families have refused, and authorities are now threatening to arrest holdouts.
Similar battles are unfolding in Banteay Meanchey, Koh Kong, Kandal, Kampong Speu and Kampong Chhnang provinces.
TALKING POINTS
Vaccine Markets
The government will allow private pharmaceutical companies to import Covid-19 vaccines. The move should ease vaccine accessibility and bolster the number of brands available. But probably at a price.
Airport Protests
Airport workers accused their employer of unfairly dismissing staff, underpaying laid-off workers, negotiating in bad faith and busting their labor union. Several dozen gathered outside the airport in Siem Reap to protest.
All That Glitters
The Kingdom last year exported nearly $3 billion in gold, an increase of 676% from 2019. The reason? Closed borders stopped gold-smuggling to Vietnam.
Toxic Hooch
Poisonous rice wine killed another seven drinkers in Kampot. More than 50 have died nationwide from bad hooch in recent months, nearly half of them in Kampot.
Critic Sentenced
The court sentenced a former CNRP activist to 18 months in prison and fined him $750 for comments critical of the government’s relationship with Vietnam.
End of Oil
Oil production at Cambodia’s six offshore wells has stopped, bringing an end to the Kingdom’s dreams of oil wealth. The only hope is a long-shot deal with Thailand over disputed fields in the gulf.
Covid-19 Watch
Good News: Cambodia reported 11 deaths on Thursday, the lowest daily total in five weeks.
Bad News: The Delta variant is here, and lockdowns are back.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Violence Erupts at Exam Site
July 26, 2001
A student examination site in Takeo province erupted in violence Tuesday as a group of youths allegedly tried to steal exam answers and police retaliated. In the worst of the violence, police officers allegedly beat a government official unconscious at the Chea Sim primary school.
Temple Looters Now Targeting Rural Cemeteries, Official Says
July 25, 2001
Although theft of artifacts from temples has declined, cemeteries in the northwest provinces continue to be looted, officials said.
Monitors Say Political Violence Increasing
July 21, 2001
As concern mounts over a string of shootings of commune election candidates, reports by opposition party officials and election monitors suggest these attacks are only a fraction of the politically motivated violence in Cambodia.
WEEKEND READS
They Were Once Luxury Venues. Now They Are Grim Covid Camps
As an outbreak seizes Cambodia, patients who test positive for the virus say they are being forced into quarantine centers that are more like makeshift prisons than hospitals.
Pushed to the streets: Phnom Penh’s sex workers during Covid-19
As KTVs and massage parlours continue to be interrupted, sex workers in Phnom Penh say they’re increasingly desperate for clients as debt piles up. With limited ability to change jobs and scant government aid, many have turned to the streets to find customers
Debt bondage and child labor remains stubbornly prevalent at brick kilns
The Cambodian government insists it is committed to cracking down on debt bondage at the nation’s notorious brick kilns, but the problem remains stubbornly persistent. The pandemic and economic blow to Cambodia’s poorest, meanwhile, has made conditions ripe for an expansion of what rights monitors call a modern form of slavery.