Hottest Time Since 1854, Walking Street Plan Proposed, Massive Drug Bust in Capital
Good morning, Cambodia. It's Friday, May 3, and this is your Weekly Dispatch.
DIGGING IN: Hun Sen is hellbent on pushing through the $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal and he made that clear in characteristic fashion, bellowing at Vietnam: “Don’t call. There is no more negotiation.”
HARD LUCK: The Supreme Court refused to overturn the convictions of labor leader Chhim Sithar and seven other members of the embattled NagaWorld union. Another win for the mega-casino over its workers.
SURVEY SAID: The Kingdom’s assessment of local media was an Only-in-Cambodia moment. Nearly all the reporters praised their complete journalistic freedom — then they lined up to get their government press cards.
THE LEDE
Red Light
Phnom Penh's top city official rolled out remarkable plans to create three pedestrian-only zones in the heart of Phnom Penh, seeking full completion by 2025.
The 57-hectare project would stretch in three segments from the old colonial Post Office district to Wat Botum Park — meaning a huge chunk of the venerable Daun Penh district.
Governor Khuong Sreng unveiled the project with vigor, urging city officials to get started at once, and promising vibrant urban boulevards of shops, restaurants and bars.
Fears of a sleazy, Phuket-style Walking Street may be premature: more local reporting found that the timelines, locations and other specifics were still fuzzy.
Hot Times
Scorching, boiling, flaming — even history-making — hot weather is upon us and forecast to get even hotter.
The Kingdom's top weatherman said temperatures across the country would this week reach 43C, the most searing heatwave in 170 years, and officials scrambled to issue protective measures.
Some of the advice was obvious: Hun Sen said shut schools, the Health Ministry advised staying in the shade, and a loopy principal proposed wrapping wet towels around students' heads.
Other problems could be serious: power cuts, over-stretched social protections and water shortages that could lead to widespread crop failures — all of which would burden the slowly recovering economy. Stay cool out there.
Hidden Gems
The discovery of a lost sandstone turtle highlights a series of startling finds suggesting that Angkor’s temples have yet to fully reveal their secrets.
Archaeologists uncovered the 800-year-old statue at the Bayon, where researchers recently discovered an ancient pond. At Ta Prohm, the jungle temple made famous in Angelina Jolies’s “Tomb Raider,” teams unearthed more than 100 statue fragments from just below the surface, while researchers at the Rolos group uncovered several ancient temple foundations.
Taken together, the finds could alter the global understanding of Angkor’s history, and experts are now pressing to expand the sites, certain that more discoveries await.
TALKING POINTS
Fire Storm
A massive munitions blast that killed 20 soldiers and damaged two dozen buildings was caused by scorching heat and human error, the defense ministry said, although details remained sketchy. Personnel were unloading ordnance when a single shell exploded, starting an hour-long explosion that shattered windows a kilometer away. The prime minister has demanded answers.
On Board
Hun Sen laid to rest any downstream rebuttals in Vietnam’s state-run media over the $1.7 billion Funan Techo Canal, promising to forge ahead with the China-funded project and ridiculing the thought of negotiations. In the Kingdom’s state-aligned media, Cambodians said they loved the project.
Dirty Dozen
Supporters of Chut Wutty, the forest activist shot dead in 2012, urged the government to reopen his case, saying little evidence backed official explanations of his murder. About 20 activists from Mother Nature, the banned pressure group, marched to the Ministry of Justice, joining civil society leaders in calling for a new investigation.
Gavel Down
Activists and pro-labor groups gathered May 1 to call for more rights and protections. It had little effect: The Supreme Court this morning ruled against Chhim Sithar, the imprisoned NagaWorld union leader whose lawyers had appealed to overturn her conviction on incitement charges for leading a strike against the mega-casino.
Sharp Sting
A gargantuan drug bust nabbed more than 158kg of crystal meth, 22kg of ketamine and 7kg of heroin. Six arrests were made, according to local media, and police confiscated three cars, $300,000 in cash, 43 properties, and froze 23 bank accounts. Separately, 76 public officials and police officers were fired for testing positive for illegal drugs.
Soft Copy
The Kingdom’s first industry-wide survey on domestic media brought back fascinating figures: Some 80% of respondents said they had “complete freedom” to report and publish, while more than 90% supported legal penalties for unethical journalism. Global watchdogs disagree: Last year, Cambodia ranked 147 out of 177 nations.
Vino Mango
An enterprising farmer in Pailin province is turning unused mangoes into wine. The unsold fruit, which goes for 250 riel per kilo, goes through a monthslong fermentation process, resulting in a $10 bottle of wine. The farmer had earlier success with longan wine and has at least one fan: U.S. Ambassador Patrick Murphy. Check for the first mango vintage in October.
BACKPAGES: From The Cambodia Daily Vault
The Mystery Behind 1997 Grenade Attack Continues to Inspire Flurries of Controversy
May 3, 2004
Meters from where shrapnel ripped through a crowd of protesters and sowed fear into Cambodia’s budding democracy movement seven years ago, Jackson Cox stepped to a microphone Tuesday in front of the survivors of the March 30, 1997 grenade attack.
You are Angkar
May 1, 2004
We had felt the Khmer Rouge advance on Phnom Penh for days.
Licadho Assails, Police Defend Use of Torture
June 28, 2004
Local human rights group Licadho called for stronger action against torture in a statement marking the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on Saturday, while a top police official on Sunday defended the use of strong-armed interrogation methods.
Photos: Street 136 Phnom Penh , Bryon Lippincott, Flickr. NagaWorld protests, Unicorn Riot.
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