© John Vink / Magnum Photos

Revellers flock at the chinese pagoda on top of Wat Phnom on this second day of the Lunar New Year. More HERE…

The Chinese New Year celebrations have started. For the 14th consecutive year I missed the dragon and lion dances in front of the Royal Palace. I never seem to get the timing right… But journalists were warmly welcome to attend the celebrations at the Chinese Embassy… More HERE.

A group of citizens, representing nearly 200 NGO’s and associations, continued a tour of several embassies initiated on January 23rd, to deliver a petition requesting the release of 23 people arrested during the violent crackdown by armed forces on striking workers this last January 2nd and 3rd (see HERE). After having given the petition to […]

According to an article from the Phnom Penh Post of January 28th, more than 100 labour union representatives were fired in the wake of the strikes for wages which were violently cracked down upon by the armed forces earlier this month. About 1000 workers from the industrial area of Vattanac II walked out because 11 […]

Mam Sonando, Beehive Radio owner, gathered supporters to march to the Ministry of Information to request a frequency for a TV station. The protest was dispersed by Gendarmerie and Riot Police using cattle prods and smoke bombs when the crowd of some 500 stayed a while in front of the Minsitry, blocking traffic on Monivong […]

At 4:00AM on the morning of January 24th 2009, bulldozers and many dozens of breakers armed with crowbars had a passage opened by riot police firing tear gas through a flimsy barricade set up by the remaining inhabitants of the Dey Krohom community. It was to be one of the more violent evictions in the […]

After the march and gathering of more than 9 people ban proclaimed by the Phnom Penh Municipality, it is hard to assess when the authorities will let their Communal ‘Security’ Officers loose on peaceful gatherings. When 11 people were arrested for a few hours day before yesterday, no one from the 50-something people from the […]

Ten years ago, union leader Chea Vichea was killed by a gunman while reading his newspaper near Wat Lanka. The killer still roams free… In the tense post-election climate which saw violent crackdowns on striking workers on January 2nd and 3rd, a commemoration was held in the streets of Phnom Penh today, with an unauthorised […]