Global Diplomats Converge, Facebook Police Pounce, and Gibbons Return to Angkor Wat
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, August 5, and this is your WeeklDispatch.
CRITICAL MASS: Phnom Penh had a star turn as the epicenter of global diplomacy, bringing together heavy hitters from the world's superpowers at a combustible time. The most immediate impact? Traffic jams.
TIKTOK COPS: They’re called the Information and Quick Reaction Team of the Phnom Penh Police — but meet the government’s new Social Media Squad, which already pulled down a Facebook video it called “immoral.”
ANGKOR APES: An 11-year project to re-introduce pileated gibbons to Angkor Wat has been a howling success: Rescued primates are breeding and whole families are now swinging around the temples.
THE LEDE
Live Fire
Global political skirmishes stole the spotlight during the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Phnom Penh, with China furious about the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, and firing off missiles into waters off the hotly contested island.
Problems across the 10-member ASEAN bloc remain intractable, as the Myanmar conflict overshadows long-simmering issues like economic inequality, environmental damage and corruption.
ASEAN urged “maximum restraint” in the Taiwan situation, cautioning against moves that could destabilize the region. Malaysia led a push for stronger action against Myanmar, with some even suggesting suspension.
Bad Lands
The government pushed back against critics of a massive Phnom Tamao land-swap deal, saying the state-run Anti-Corruption Unit had found no evidence of graft in the process.
The government’s Forestry Administration, meanwhile, disputed claims of endangered animals living in the area, namely at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center and Zoo. Forestry officials said the mountain’s soil was too sandy for forests, and wild pigs in the area were destroying crops.
Bulldozers began razing Phnom Tamao last week. The government has swapped away some 75% of the mountain to real estate developers, who have not disclosed development plans.
Green Machine
The government sold about $600,000 in carbon credits from the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area in Mondulkiri and Kratie provinces.
Proceeds were distributed to about 20 villages, which used the money to preserve forests under a global U.N. framework known as REDD+.
Critics of the framework — and there are many — say the plan often does little to protect forests, or indigenous communities, and consistently overlooks environmental violations in the name of expediency.
Cambodia has seven REDD+ projects, and most have struggled to live up to expectations.
TALKING POINTS
Monkey Business
Gibbon populations are booming at Angkor Wat, fueled by an 11-year-old project to re-wild the densely forested, 6,500-hectare archeological park. More than a dozen pileated gibbons now live near the temples, and experts expect more. The program began in 2013 with two primates born from parents rescued from the wildlife trade.
Riel Politik
Washington’s see-saw foreign policy on Cambodia has scored few victories, and its sanctions have failed, according to a top U.S. think tank, which urged American policymakers to abandon punitive strategies, focus on damage control from China, and invest in Khmer-language media, among other moves.
Traffic Jam
Sixty-two Indonesians were rescued from scam compounds in Sihanoukville, the latest in a long list of forced labor cases across the Kingdom. The U.S. in July added Cambodia to its human trafficking blacklist, saying Cambodia “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.”
Moving Pictures
“Three-Colour Building,” a travelling art exhibit produced by the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, is back on the road following three years of inactivity from limited resources and the pandemic. The show will visit five provinces this year. Teachers praised the return.
Moral Hazard
The Information and Quick Reaction Team of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, call them the Social-Media Squad, ordered the removal of a racy Facebook video and demanded an apology from its Thailand-based creator. Police called the clip “immoral” and said it damaged the “dignity and values of Cambodian women.”
Sweatshop Fear
Workers have accused a Kampong Speu garment factory of employing at least 100 underage girls, often with the help of local officials who forge documents on workers’ behalf. Experts and media reports suggest the practice is widespread.
Virus Watch
Health officials announced more than 250 active Covid-19 cases Thursday, up dramatically from zero a few weeks ago. New cases came from community infections, officials said, suggesting the virus was again gaining a foothold. The Kingdom’s lone monkeypox patient was recovering, meanwhile, and no further cases had been detected.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
Police Chief’s Son Arrested In Killing Homicide
August 5, 2002
Police are preparing to arraign the 21-year-old son of Kandal province’s police chief on charges he shot and killed a bodyguard of Prime Minister Hun Sen on a crowded Phnom Penh street, Municipal Police said Sunday.
UN Seeks Mandate To Return to KR Talks
August 3, 2002
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is seeking an unlikely mandate from the world body’s security council before returning to talks with Cambodia on a Khmer Rouge tribunal, Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong said Friday after returning from an Asean meeting in Brunei.
VN Monk-Campaigner Feared Kidnapped
August 3, 2002
A Vietnamese monk considered by Hanoi to be a renegade human rights campaigner is feared kidnapped after fleeing to Cambodia, according to the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau, an arm of the outlawed Vien Hoa Dao Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
WEEKEND READING
Cambodia’s land grab endangers people, forests, and the climate
A six month data-driven investigation by CamboJa reveals that Cambodia’s land and the people who depend on it are in a perilous position.
Cambodians face sugar giant in Thai court
Groundbreaking legal action by displaced villagers crosses the border into Thailand to seek recompense and set a human rights precedent
Photos: Chinese missile launcher, Philip McMaster, via Flick. Pileated gibbon, via WikiMedia.
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