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Cambodian PM Says Government Not Behind Lim Kimya’s Assassination

The Diplomat
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Cambodian PM Says Government Not Behind Lim Kimya’s Assassination

Prime Minister Hun Manet has mounted a spirited defense against accusations that his government and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) were behind the assassination of a rival politician in Bangkok earlier this month.

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While attending the inauguration of a new village, Hun Manet broke his silence on the death of Lim Kimya, a dual French-Khmer citizen and former member of parliament for the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), urging calm while Thai authorities carried out their investigations.

“No matter how clean we act, we’ll be accused. So, let Thailand handle it. If we don’t comply, even Thailand will criticize us,” he said, while criticizing Sam Rainsy, the leader in exile of the outlawed CNRP, for behaving like a “supreme court.”

In full: https://thediplomat.com/2025/01/cambodian-pm-says-government-not-behind-lim-kimyas-assassination/

Canada under pressure to stop importation of monkeys from Cambodia

Montreal Gazette
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Canada under pressure to stop importation of monkeys from Cambodia

Animal rights advocates are hoping a recent recommendation by the secretariat of an international trade agreement will push the Canadian government to halt imports of endangered monkeys from Cambodia to Canada for use in medical and pharmaceutical research.

Thousands of live long-tailed macaques have been imported into Canada from Cambodia since early 2023, with many going to facilities owned by Charles River Laboratories in Quebec. Charles River is one of the world’s largest suppliers of what the industry refers to as “non-human primates” for research. The company is based in Wilmington, Mass., but has several facilities in Quebec, including a 530,000-square-foot preclinical facility in Senneville, on the western tip of Montreal Island.

In full: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article686364.html

Four people die while huge crowd gathers in Phnom Penh to receive hongbao from Cambodian tycoon

AFP
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Four people die while huge crowd gathers in Phnom Penh to receive hongbao from Cambodian tycoon

At least four people were crushed and suffocated to death on Jan 23 in Cambodia after a large crowd gathered at a local tycoon’s home to receive Lunar New Year red envelopes filled with money, the police said.

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Pictures and footage shared by local media show hundreds of people pushing towards the vast gates of a mansion belonging to Mr Sok Kong – a close ally of former Cambodian leader Hun Sen – in downtown Phnom Penh.

“This morning tycoon Sok Kong gave out gifts and a lot of people came to his home, hoping to receive one,” Mr Sam Vicheka, a spokesman for the Phnom Penh Police, told AFP.

In full: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/four-people-die-while-waiting-to-receive-ang-pow-from-cambodian-tycoon

Cambodia’s exports of garments, textiles, shoes, travel goods hits nearly 14 billion in 2024

Apparel Resources
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Cambodia’s exports of garments, textiles, shoes, travel goods hits nearly 14 billion in 2024

In 2024, Cambodia exported US $ 13.92 billion worth of clothing, textiles, footwear, and travel items, rising 23 per cent over the previous year, according to a report from the Ministry of Commerce.

According to the data, textiles worth US $ 499 million were delivered to foreign markets last year, up 17 per cent. Garments exports totalled US $ 9.79 billion, a 24 per cent increase from the previous year.

Additionally, the study noted that travel items totalling US $ 1.95 billion were sold to foreign markets, up 19.6 per cent, and footwear exports totalling US $ 1.68 billion, up 23 per cent.

In full: https://apparelresources.com/default/cambodias-exports-of-garments-textiles-shoes-travel-goods-hits-nearly-14-billion-in-2024/

Phnom Penh Finally Breaks Its Silence After the Spectacular Assassination of Opposition Figure Lim Kimya

The Geopolitics
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Phnom Penh Finally Breaks Its Silence After the Spectacular Assassination of Opposition Figure Lim Kimya

In my article in The Geopolitics dated January 17, 2025, titled “The deafening silence of Hun Sen and the Cambodian government following the assassination of opposition figure Lim Kimya in Bangkok (January 7)”, I highlighted the strange attitude of the Cambodian authorities who, ten days after the bloody attack, still had not “condemned the attack, offered condolences to Lim Kimya’s family, or promised cooperation with Thai authorities to resolve the case.”

This has now changed, in a brutal and sudden manner, as if trying to address all questions at once in an equally strange and unceremonious way, as though those involved were hastily trying to dispel a heavy suspicion that has become too troublesome.

In full: https://thegeopolitics.com/phnom-penh-finally-breaks-its-silence-after-the-spectacular-assassination-of-opposition-figure-lim-kimya/

Police warn of paid trips to Cambodia, Thailand

Tapei Times
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Police warn of paid trips to Cambodia, Thailand

Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom.

Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051).

The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Dec. 3 last year, she found that she was part of a tour group of eight passengers, five of whom were young men.

In full: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/01/23/2003830700

Survey uncovers ‘wildlife treasure’ in Cambodian park — but also signs of threats

Mongabay
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Survey uncovers ‘wildlife treasure’ in Cambodian park — but also signs of threats

The first biodiversity survey ever conducted in one of northwestern Cambodia’s last forest frontiers has found potentially new-to-science species and recorded direct threats to what conservationists call a “small but precious” ecosystem.

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Spanning roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the Cambodian-Thai border, the 60,000-hectare (148,300-acre) Samlout Multiple Use Area is part of the greater Cardamom Mountain Range and straddles the provinces of Battambang and Pailin.

Samlout was one of the three first multiple-use areas declared in Cambodia more than 30 years ago. This designation indicates that the management of the protected area is meant to conserve natural resources, while also developing economic activities. Since then, however, the kingdom’s northwest has experienced deforestation at a rate matching a national, decades-long trend of forest loss.

In full: https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/survey-uncovers-wildlife-treasure-in-cambodian-park-but-also-signs-of-threats/

Is China Really Powerless to Stop the ‘Scamdemic’? The Truth Is More Complex

Time
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Is China Really Powerless to Stop the ‘Scamdemic’? The Truth Is More Complex

Pale, gaunt, and with a freshly shaved head, Chinese actor Wang Xing sat flanked by Thai police in the border town of Mae Sot on Jan. 7 to discuss his terrifying ordeal. The 31-year-old had flown to Bangkok for what he thought was a meeting with Thai movie executives. Instead, he was trafficked across the border to wartorn Myanmar’s lawless Myawaddy region, where he was forcibly put to work conducting online scams.

“The environment was very dangerous,” Wang said on a video filmed on his flight home published by Chinese media. “I can’t sleep. I didn’t even have time to pee.”

It’s a story so common these days as to barely warrant a shrug in law enforcement circles. Experts estimate that more than 220,000 trafficking victims from over 100 countries ranging from Ghana and Nigeria to Brazil and the UAE are held in “pig-butchering” scam operations—so named after fattening a hog for slaughter—in Myanmar and Cambodia alone. Many of the trafficking victims are young, tech-savvy graduates from regions where unemployment rates are high.

In full: https://time.com/7208652/china-pig-butchering-scamdemic-crack-down/

Cambodian police free US man who was kidnapped in Thailand, smuggled across border

The Nation
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Cambodian police free US man who was kidnapped in Thailand, smuggled across border

Cambodian authorities successfully rescued a man who was kidnapped in Thailand, drugged, and transported to Cambodia, where he was held captive. At the same time, his captors attempted to extort a ransom from his family.

According to a statement released today, January 21, by the National Police, the victim, identified as Yu Emil, is an American citizen of Taiwanese descent. The rescue operation was conducted on January 15, a day after the victim’s family reported the incident through the Ministry of Interior’s Facebook page.

The statement explained that Emil was abducted in Bangkok, Thailand, by a criminal network of Taiwanese nationals.

In full: https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/news/general/40045421

Rare species discovered deep within Cambodian mountains

CNN
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Rare species discovered deep within Cambodian mountains

The rugged Annamite Mountains, which stretch across Laos, Vietnam and northeast Cambodia, are renowned for their rich biodiversity. Nestled in the southwest of the range lies Virachey, Cambodia’s largest national park.

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The remote region is vast, covering more than 3,000 square kilometers, yet despite it being a protected area, it is largely unexplored and understudied. The first comprehensive biodiversity survey of the park was published on Tuesday, revealing the rare and threatened species that live there, including the Sunda pangolin, the clouded leopard and the sun bear.

Led by conservation organization Fauna & Flora, which describes the Annamites as the “Amazon of Asia,” the survey also documented nine species that have never been recorded in Cambodia before, such as the critically endangered large-antlered muntjac, Sokolov’s glass lizard and the Vietnamese leaf-toed gecko.

In full: https://edition.cnn.com/science/cambodia-biodiversity-rare-species-c2e-spc/index.html

Cambodian PM denies government behind killing of ex-lawmaker in Bangkok

AFP
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Cambodian PM denies government behind killing of ex-lawmaker in Bangkok

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet denied on Jan 20 that his government and father, former leader Hun Sen, were involved in the killing of an opposition politician in downtown Bangkok earlier in the month.

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Mr Lim Kimya, a former lawmaker for the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was shot dead on Jan 7 by a motorcyclist as he arrived in Bangkok by bus from Cambodia with his French wife.

Thai national Ekkalak Paenoi was arrested in Cambodia a day later and handed over to the Thai authorities.

In full: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/cambodian-pm-denies-government-behind-killing-of-ex-lawmaker-in-bangkok

French missionary remembered for exposing Khmer Rouge

UCA News
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French missionary remembered for exposing Khmer Rouge

Father François Ponchaud – who died in France aged 86 last week – has been remembered by colleagues and friends as a Catholic priest who worked tirelessly to revive Cambodia from the 1975-79 devastation wrought by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

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Former information minister Khieu Kanharith credited Ponchaud as “the first to draw world attention” to the plight of Cambodians living under the Khmer Rouge through his book Cambodge année zero (Cambodia: Year Zero), which was published in France in 1977 and translated into eight languages.

French academic Henri Locard agreed. “His Cambodia: Year Zero was the first and best book on deciphering Democratic Kampuchea, the most vicious totalitarian regime on the planet,” Locard said.

In full: https://www.ucanews.com/news/french-missionary-remembered-for-exposing-khmer-rouge/107617

‘French quality, Cambodian kindness’ at Accor hotels group co-founder’s hospitality school

South China Morning Post
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‘French quality, Cambodian kindness’ at Accor hotels group co-founder’s hospitality school

At 90, Paul Dubrule, the co-founder of French multinational brand Accor, was looking sprightly at his school of hospitality in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Swaying merrily to the uplifting tune of the 1969 song Les Champs-Élysées, the nonagenarian appeared to be conducting the 10 Cambodian students with his hands at a ceremony in November 2024 that celebrated the opening of a new amphitheatre.

Also present at the performance was Maud Bailly, chief executive of Sofitel, a luxury hotel brand under the Accor umbrella.

In full: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3295433/french-quality-cambodian-kindness-accor-hotels-group-co-founders-hospitality-school

Travelling solo in Cambodia: Nervous, chafing and covered in mosquito bites – I loved the chaos

Irish Times
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Travelling solo in Cambodia: Nervous, chafing and covered in mosquito bites – I loved the chaos

Solo travel was always something I wanted to do. I read The Top Five Regrets of The Dying when I was 19, and Bronnie Ware’s account of her work travelling around as a palliative care nurse has always greatly inspired me.

She detailed her experience of a nomadic lifestyle and the conversations she had with several people as they approached the end of their lives. One of the top regrets people had was not living the life they had wanted. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.’’

Her book heightened my want to volunteer abroad, to work with and learn from different people and to hear endless stories. And, without study or work to hide behind any more, and with a gnawing curiosity in me, I finally mustered up the courage to pack my bag last February.

In full: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-style/travel/2025/01/19/travelling-solo-in-cambodia-nervous-chafing-and-covered-in-mosquito-bites-i-loved-the-chaos/

Harrowing ordeal in Poipet: ‘They screamed in our ears’

Rappler
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Harrowing ordeal in Poipet: ‘They screamed in our ears’

“You guys cannot go back to Indonesia, you will die here,” Kiki recalled her Chinese supervisor telling her daily during her 3.5-month ordeal trapped in a Cambodian scam compound.

“Every day was filled with screaming. Women weren’t hit, but they constantly screamed in our ears,” she said. “I saw my friend get electrocuted, people getting hit. This was the first time I saw people get hit badly.”

Desperate to escape heartbreak after a divorce, Kiki, a 28-year-old singer from Batam Island, Indonesia, sought a fresh start in Cambodia. Instead, she found herself ensnared in a web of deceit and abuse.

In full: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/ordeal-poipet-cambodia-scams/

Cambodia extends mine-free deadline as villager, 2 deminers killed

AFP
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Cambodia extends mine-free deadline as villager, 2 deminers killed

A Cambodian villager was killed after he drove a truck loaded with cassava over an anti-tank landmine on his farm, an official said on Saturday.

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The incident happened in northwestern Battambang province on Friday when the unidentified villager “ran over an anti-tank landmine, the remnant of war,” Heng Ratana, director general of the government’s Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC), said in a Facebook post.

Two Cambodian deminers were killed on Thursday while trying to remove a decades-old anti-tank mine from a rice field that was once a battlefield between government forces and Khmer Rouge soldiers.

In full: https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3295320/cambodia-extends-mine-free-deadline-villager-2-deminers-killed

The Deafening Silence of Hun Sen and the Cambodian Government Following the Assassination of Opposition Figure Lim Kimya in Bangkok

The Geopolitics
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The Deafening Silence of Hun Sen and the Cambodian Government Following the Assassination of Opposition Figure Lim Kimya in Bangkok

On Jan. 7, 2025, the world learned with shock of the broad-daylight assassination of Lim Kimya in Bangkok.

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This political opposition figure, a former member of parliament for the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which had been arbitrarily dissolved by the authorities, was known for his outspoken criticism. He was gunned down in the streets under circumstances that raise numerous questions. The modus operandi of this assassination mirrors that of politically motivated killings in Cambodia.

What could have been a moment of reflection for the Cambodian government or a catalyst for political change has instead been met with the frozen silence of Hun Sen and the government in Phnom Penh, adding fuel to the controversy.

In full: https://thegeopolitics.com/the-deafening-silence-of-hun-sen-and-the-cambodian-government-following-the-assassination-of-opposition-figure-lim-kimya-in-bangkok/

French missionary who served Cambodia dies at 86

UCA News
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French missionary who served Cambodia dies at 86

Father François Ponchaud, a member of the Paris Foreign Missions (MEP) society who served the Church in Cambodia for 56 years, died on Jan. 17. He was 86.

Ponchaud died in MEP priests’  retirement facility in Lauris, France, where he lived since his return to France in 2021, 

He was born as the seventh of a family of 12 children in 1939 in Sallanches (Haute-Savoie). His father, Léon Ponchaud, was a general councilor of Sallanches, involved in the Popular Republican Movement.

In full: https://www.ucanews.com/news/french-missionary-who-served-cambodia-dies-at-86/107603

Fake profiles, real victims: Inside a Cambodian compound targeting Americans

Rappler
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Fake profiles, real victims: Inside a Cambodian compound targeting Americans

“Good evening, do you have a cat or a dog?” This was a typical opening line for Bayu, a 23-year-old Indonesian man who targeted unsuspecting Americans with flirty messages. His goal was simple: get them to reply and then smoothly transition to ask for their WhatsApp number.

Sometimes he would feign familiarity, starting with a casual, “Hello, we’ve met before?” before pivoting to a seemingly innocent question, such as, “Hello, do you have any recommendations for a holiday?”

“I was told to try to seduce American men. I was told to get their WhatsApp contact.”

In full: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/fake-profiles-real-victims-cambodian-compound-targeting-americans/

2 Cambodian experts were killed as they attempted to remove an anti-tank mine from a rice field

AP
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2 Cambodian experts were killed as they attempted to remove an anti-tank mine from a rice field

Two Cambodian deminers were killed Thursday as they attempted to remove an anti-tank mine left over from the country’s nearly three decades of war and disorder, authorities said.

The Cambodian Mines Action Center, the agency that oversees demining operations, said the two men had been working to clear mines from a farmer’s rice field in northwestern Oddar Meanchey province, which was an area of heavy fighting between the government and insurgent Khmer Rouge forces in the 1980s.

The two, identified as Pov Nepin and Ouen Channara, died at the scene after the mine they were working on removing exploded, the agency said.

In full: https://apnews.com/article/landmine-cambodia-killed-cmac-khmer-rouge-c4468881e8805a3106c56f8a2e664d34

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