A former Mormon missionary has established a company selling human breast milk harvested from Cambodian mothers to customers in the US.

Ambrosia Labs collects the milk at a premises in Phnom Penh’s Stung Meanchey district, according to local church members acquainted with the company. It is then frozen before being sent to the US and pasteurised.

According to the Orem, Utah, company’s website, the milk costs $45 for 450ml.

In a tariff ruling published online by US Customs and Border Protection, the product was to be “sold as a food item for infants and as a nutritional supplement for bodybuilders”.

Ambrosia Labs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

However, in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune published yesterday, founder Bronzson Woods said the mothers were paid between $0.50 and $1 for each 30ml of breast milk, which was collected twice a day. He said the donors’ children were required to be at least 6 months old, the age before which the World Health Organisation recommends infants to be fed exclusively breast milk.

“We don’t want to be taking milk out of children’s mouths,” Woods said.

Woods first came to Cambodia as a missionary with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and returned earlier this year to set up the breast milk “donation centre”. “If someone wants human milk, they should be able to get safe breast milk from a trusted supplier at a reasonable price,” Woods said.

In the US, human breast milk is only commercially available through milk banks – which only supply mothers for consumption by infants – and so-called “peer-to-peer” services where providers and buyers complete transactions over the internet.

Ambrosia Labs major selling point is quality control compared to the peer-to-peer sellers, which can be contaminated with diseases.

In recent years, human breast milk has been hailed as a cure-all and “super food” with various supposed benefits.

However, an article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in June dismissed these purported benefits – which include boosting the immune system, increasing muscle mass, speeding recovery from exercise and curing erectile dysfuction.

“Such purported benefits do not stand up clinically, however,” the paper said. “Nutritionally, there is less protein in breast milk than other milks like cow’s milk. Chemical and environmental contaminants are known to make their way into breast milk, just like the food chain more broadly.

“No scientific study has evidenced that direct adult consumption of human milk for medicinal properties offers anything more than a placebo effect.”

Ros Sopheap, head of NGO Gender and Development for Cambodia, said there was a tradition in Cambodia of mothers breastfeeding the infants of neighbours who could not express milk temporarily. “Occasionally we help each other,” she said.

When asked what she thought of adults consuming breast milk, she laughed. “That’s very strange. This is the first time I’ve heard about it.”

Several more prison chiefs have been promoted amid a reshuffle in the sector, an official announced yesterday.

The moves will see Keo Non, deputy director of Trapang Plong Prison (M3) in Tbong Khmum province, take the reins at Banteay Meanchey Provincial Prison, whose current chief, Phin Yan, will become head of Trapang Plong.

Yan replaces Kea Sovanna, who has been promoted to deputy director of the General Department of Prisons’ operations department.

Meanwhile, Brach Sophy, deputy director of Prey Sar prison, will become deputy director of Correctional Center 4, a prison farm in Pursat province, where a recent Post investigation showed that inmates are used as free labour, the profits from which are funnelled to officials.

Taking Sophy’s place will be Phat Leng, now deputy director of the Prey Sar operations office.

The shake-up, approved on December 2, will be carried out before the end of the year, according to Sorn Keo, spokesman of the General Department of Prisons, who announced the appointments yesterday.

The reshuffling was not related to recent frustrations expressed by Prime Minister Hun Sen over the pardoning of violent criminals, he said. “The swapping of positions and responsibilities ... is normal and it is usually done within institutions . . . to improve efficiency,” Keo said.

Yesterday, in a ceremony at Phnom Penh Municipal Hall, Hou Puthvisal, director of Phnom Penh’s Police Judiciary (PJ) prison, was replaced by Pich Chorn, a former transportation department deputy director.

Puthvisal will now work as a deputy chief at the prisons department.

The son of a district military police commander in Battambang province was caught by forest rangers while allegedly transporting luxury timber yesterday morning.

Reuy Kakada, 15, the teenage son of Samlot district deputy military police commander Chhoeun Sophat, was detained along with his assistant, Heng Virak, 28, while transporting 20 logs of thnong and beng timber, according to Chan Socheat of the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which runs forestry patrols in the area.

“We spent all night waiting for the vehicle and it finally appeared at 4am . . . The vehicle passed us and we chased after it for about 1 kilometre. Then we managed to overtake it and stopped our car in front of them,” he said.

The timber was destined for Battambang town, he added.

Thorn Kimhong, director of the Samlot protected area, said the two men were being interrogated and had been informed that they had broken the law on protected areas.

“They hauled the timber from the protected area without having permission. By law, they can be fined from 1 million to 10 million riel [about $250 to $2,500].

However, if they refuse to pay the fine, we will forward their case to the courts,” he said.

As the driver was under-age and was not transporting timber specifically prohibited by law, such as Siamese rosewood, criminal proceedings would not be initiated, Kimhong added.

Sophat, the military police chief, had called the rangers to negotiate a settlement following the incident, he said, and to request his son’s release.

The commander has denied any connection to involvement in illegal timber dealing.

The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the jail sentences of tycoon Thong Sarath and his parents, all of whom were found guilty of illegal weapons possession by Phnom Penh Municipal court in June.

Sarath, head of the Borey 999 development project, was the prime suspect in the November 2014 shooting death of Shimmex Group chairman Ung Meng Cheu. His murder charge is still outstanding and that trial has yet to begin.

Police raiding the tycoon’s residences last year found 15 guns, including four AK-47s. Of those weapons, the tycoon and his family members were legally licensed to possess just two pistols, according to the municipal court.

Judge Tith Sothy Boraleak yesterday rejected as excuses the appellants’ testimonies that Sarath did not handle the weapons himself and that they were only used by his bodyguards, four of whom have been charged in Meng Cheu’s murder.

“The evidence and the witness [testimonies] are the same as what the police found – weapons at [Sarath’s] house, hidden in ceilings and secret places,” she said.

“Those weapons belong to Thong Sarath. Therefore, we decided to uphold the verdict and continue to detain the suspects.”

Sarath was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on his weapons charges. His parents were sentenced to two years each.

Contenders for the National Election Committee’s secretary-general role include the first Cambodian to graduate from Harvard University, a prominent NGO worker and the long-serving incumbent.

With the submission deadline on Saturday, the NEC has so far received 11 applications for the position, which has been opened up to public candidates for the first time in the Kingdom’s history after the committee was overhauled in April as part of the 2014 political deal between the ruling party and opposition.

Another 44 people have applied for the four deputy slots.

The successful candidates, due to be announced late this month or in early January, will oversee the NEC bureaucracy as it works to prepare for the commune and national elections, in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The NEC has not officially revealed the applicants yet, though some have already declared they were standing for the post.

Among them is head of NGO Buddhism for Development Heng Monychenda, a 56-year-old, Harvard-educated development worker; Ny Chakrya, head of investigations at rights group Adhoc; and Tep Nytha, the current secretary general, who has long been perceived by the opposition as a ruling party apparatchik.

Monychenda, a former monk who holds a masters degree in public administration, said his education, experience and lack of political affiliations made him a good fit for the job.

Chakrya, who filled out the application yesterday, said he wanted to reform the NEC to plug “gaps” in its functioning.

Nytha, who started at the NEC in 1998 as the secretary general’s cabinet chief, said he hoped to continue in the role but declined to discuss whether his history compromised his independence.

Long plagued by accusations of Cambodian People’s Party bias, the NEC was made bipartisan in April, a key part of the political deal that ended the Cambodia National Rescue Party’s boycott of parliament after the disputed 2013 election.

Hang Puthea, the nine-person committee’s “neutral” member, yesterday reiterated the fact that the candidates must have been born in Cambodia and cannot hold dual citizenship.

They also must be at least 30, hold a degree, have five years’ work experience and not be related to or allied with the deputy or leader of any political party running in the election, he said.

With the NEC racing to compile digital voter lists, executive director of election watchdog Comfrel Koul Panha said the secretary general role was “vital”.

“They are a key person, the right-hand of the committee; they will implement all the decisions,” Panha said.

Six alleged protesters in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town were arrested on Wednesday, provincial police confirmed yesterday, risking a fragile peace as garment workers return to work this morning after more than a week of unrest.

Since last week, thousands of protesting garment workers in Bavet have clashed repeatedly with police over demands to increase the minimum wage. The fresh arrests come amid demands from protesters to release four garment workers arrested last Friday for allegedly pelting a factory with rocks.

Kim Lai, provincial penal police director, said the six were arrested for damaging a fire truck during the worst of the clashes, which occurred on Tuesday and resulted in two police officers being injured by rock-throwing protesters.

“We knew clearly that they were involved because I was standing there watching them,” he said, adding that the six were all truck drivers who drive garment workers to their factories and that there was video evidence of their involvement.

Rights group Licadho identified the men as Loek Vicheat, 29; Pen Sambath, 28; Keav Pros, 33; Lang Phally, 20; Sous Yeat, 43; and Teav Phalla, 47.

Som Sophy, the 38-year-old sister of Loek Vicheat, confirmed that her brother was arrested Wednesday morning.

“Commune police asked him to come learn about the Traffic Law at the commune police station at about 11am, but he did not come home after that,” she said, proclaiming his innocence.

Thousands of garment workers from Bavet’s Manhattan and Tai Seng special economic zones began striking last week, demanding next year’s minimum wage for the sector be raised to $148 rather than the $140 mandated by the government in October.

The apparently leaderless protests, marred by allegations of violence on both sides, quickly spiralled out of control.

In a bid to smooth tensions, local authorities ordered on Tuesday night that all garment workers stay home from work on Wednesday and Thursday. They also promised to free four workers arrested last week on condition of bail.

But the latest arrests have raised concerns that violence could flare once again.

“These [arrests] contradict the agreement that unions, factories and the authorities made to improve the situation; it will pour gasoline on the fire, because authorities have not yet released the four workers, but now they have arrested six more, so workers will get even more angry,” said Nouth Bopinnaroath, provincial coordinator for Licadho.

Chea Oddom, provincial representative of the Cambodian Union for the Movement of Workers, had similar concerns.

“If they want the situation to be calm, they have to release the four and stop arresting more workers,” he said.

“The workers will be unhappy when they learn their drivers got arrested, and they will go on strike to demand their release.”

However, Ken Loo, spokesman for the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, brushed off concerns that the situation in Bavet could re-escalate due to the latest string of arrests.

“If they broke the law, then they should be punished,” he said. “I think that it is a small group organising and inciting the workers. If this small group is identified and arrested, then the situation will go back to normal.”

Additional reporting by Charles Rollet

The National Assembly has announced the formation of a bipartisan working group, first promised earlier this month, to examine the controversial draft trade union law.

The working group, which was established on Wednesday, is composed of five opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party members and five members of the Cambodian People’s Party.

Independent unions have criticised the latest version of the trade union law for making unions more open to government scrutiny, and enabling authorities to de-register them.

Ke Sovannaroth, the opposition head of parliament’s labour commission, hailed the working group’s creation.

“We need to discuss this draft law in order to protect workers’ interests, and before any approval, we need to ensure the draft law addresses what workers want,” she said.

CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the different wings of the working group would meet with each other next Tuesday.

“We will discuss this on the 29th at the National Assembly . . . If things are unclear, we will call on the [Ministry of Labour] to come clarify to us in order to make the law acceptable and in the interest of all workers and investors.”

Leng Peng Long, the general secretary of the National Assembly, said the working group was in “no rush” to pass the law.

“Now we need to collect more ideas to make the law become a good law.”

Leader of ASEAN countries have accepted US President Barack Obama’s invitation for a summit in California in the first half of 2016, the White House National Security Council told the media on Wednesday.

A date for the summit was not provided, though Japan’s Kyodo news service quoted an ASEAN official as saying it will be held on February 15 and 16. ASEAN spokespeople were not available for comment yesterday due to the Christmas holiday.

Nina Hachigian, the US ambassador to ASEAN, said in a conference call earlier this month that the summit will revolve around US-ASEAN economic integration, maritime cooperation, climate change, women’s opportunity and the South China Sea dispute.

ASEAN, as a bloc, is the US’s fourth-largest trading partner, according to Hachigian.

Experts said yesterday that for Prime Minister Hun Sen, the meeting will focus on trying to cajole the US into giving Cambodia preferential tariffs while playing down concerns about a crackdown on the opposition and civil society.

“US deals come with conditions, and if they are not fulfilled, the US might not want to buy more from Cambodia,” said economist Srey Chanthy.

According to data from the International Labour Organization, Cambodian garment and footwear exports to the US in the first half of 2015 fell almost 9 per cent – to $914 million – in the past two years.

Raymond Tam, a Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia member, blamed rising wages, lower competitiveness and the upcoming Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will give Vietnam duty-free access to US markets.

The US provides duty-free status to a range of Cambodian products as well, but excludes garments, the main export.

Hun Sen had asked the US to expand the system of preferences in November, but Ho Sivyong, the director of the export-import department at the Ministry of Commerce, said he expects the US to continue to find ways to exclude garments.

Analysts said that while the TPP and competitiveness are factors, the US will also be considering Cambodia’s political situation.

The US State Department’s Bureau on Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in November expressed concern about the recent beatings of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers and the parliamentary actions against CNRP leader Sam Rainsy and his deputy, Kem Sokha.

“Hun Sen won’t brook any interference in the treatment of opposition rivals,” said Southeast Asia expert Carl Thayer. “This puts the US at a dilemma – the US has to put the clamps on while trying to maintain a strategic relationship.”

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann yesterday said the US indeed needs to look into the human rights situation and apply pressure on the government.

“Two CNRP lawmakers were beaten in broad daylight by demonstrators who support Prime Minister Hun Sen, and CNRP leaders are still in jail for political reasons . . . Human rights activists and NGO rights were violated.”

A new TV station funded by the opposition will be beamed into homes in and around Phnom Penh by early next year, a CNRP spokesman said yesterday, though questions linger as to whether funding can make that a reality.

“We hope to have the first programs on TV in the next three to four months,” party spokesman Yim Sovann said, adding that the company set up to run the station had purchased a plot of land in Kandal province, where it plans to build a 100-metre antennae tower.

A $3 million fundraising drive to pay for Sun TV, as the station will be known, was launched by opposition leader Sam Rainsy in May.

However, the campaign has so far attracted pledges totalling just $700,000, of which only $500,000 has been received, according to Sovann.

“We have spent $107,000 of the money we have collected so far on a 1,200-square-metre plot of land,” he said. “We need about $1 million for everything – the land, antennae and a studio.”

Running costs were still being calculated, Sovann added, insisting the station would start to broadcast however meagre the resources at its disposal.

But according to a business adviser to TV station CNC, Huy Vannak – who is also an undersecretary of state with the Interior Ministry – the opposition has massively underestimated how much cash is required.

“You need between $8 million and $15 million to start a new station,” he said. “Just the tower and the antenna cost almost $1 million, then you need a studio, office, transmitter and cameras.”

Running costs are high, too.

“For a station in Phnom Penh, you need at least 200 staff,” Vannak added. “So to operate 12 hours per day, you would need between $100,000 and $200,000 per month, covering things like power, phone costs and salaries.”

Money aside, there remain administrative hurdles before Sun TV can go on air, Sovann acknowledged.

“We are in the process of transferring the land title from the buyer to us, which takes 45 days,” he said. “We went to the government office with the land owner on November 3, so in a week or 10 days, the transfer should be done.”

Permission had also yet to be obtained for building on the land.

“Once we get the title, we will submit our plan for the antenna tower to the ministries of urban planning and civil aviation,” Sovann said.

But dealing with the involved bureaucracy – and a shortage of cash – made broadcast in early 2016 unrealistic, according to a source familiar with the opposition TV project.

“It will be six months to a year, before we can broadcast,” the source said. “Getting permission for the antenna takes a couple of months, then it’s a few months to order the tower, and a few more to build it.

“What we have now is only enough for the antenna, tower and transmitter.

We still have to find between $250,000 and $500,000 to build and equip a studio, and we don’t yet have a budget for content,” they said, while adding they had already lined up a partner for news.

About 500 garment workers at the Mastex Incam factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district went on strike yesterday demanding better working conditions and benefits.

The workers claim their employer has violated their rights under Cambodia’s labour law, and that their requests for intervention made to the Ministry of Labour have gone unheard.

Mao Savoeun, who has worked for almost a year at the factory, said the employees were forced to do overtime and had been banned from taking holidays to meet company production quotas.

“When your parents die, we are only given half a day off,” she said, adding that workers would continue to strike until a solution was reached.

Mastex representatives could not be reached yesterday.

Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said the ministry had requested that the employer open negotiations with workers at the factory, but the company rejected their request.

The government cannot force the issue, he added, so workers were advised to file a complaint to the Arbitration Council.

“The ministry’s role is to reconcile the dispute, lobbying both sides to negotiate or review operations,” he said.

Yi Sarun, a representative with the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, urged Mastex “to find a solution to end the strike”.

Workers’ requests include holiday eligibility, no forced overtime without pay, a 75-cent lunch allowance and free maternal health checks.

Civil society and government representatives met at the Royal University of Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss how both sides can cooperate to formulate climate change policies that fulfill the Kingdom’s treaty obligations in the wake of the historic climate accord reached in Paris earlier this month.

The focus of the meeting was to present to attending government officials the “Joint Principles of Adaptation” (JPA), a set of seven policy guidelines adopted by civil society networks in 14 countries – including Cambodia – during the Paris climate talks.

Nop Polin, Cambodia’s civil society delegate to the talks, explained that “JPA is a way to get local voices incorporated in the policy at different levels in order to create community ownership”, an aspect absent from the Paris Agreement itself, to the chagrin of some observers.

Polin said he hoped the principles would “build trust” between civil society and the government, while also encouraging the government to take responsibility for its commitments.

For example, Polin said, “JPA includes making sure that EIAs [Environmental Impact Assessments] are meaningful.”

Chup Paris, deputy secretary general of the national council for sustainable development, said he welcomed the JPA, later outlining in an interview the principles of the government’s sustainable development policy.

“It is based on four pillars: economic development, environmental preservation, social wellbeing and preservation of culture,” he said.

Responding to whether the landmark accord would secure enough funding for Cambodia to meet its climate pledge, submitted to the UN in October, Paris said the Kingdom had little choice. “We need to implement it; it is legally binding . . . We need to do it or the negative impact of climate change will kill us,” he said.

While developing countries such as Cambodia submit pledges that are voluntary, the projects they outline become mandatory once financing becomes available – such financing being a key a provision in the Paris Agreement.

Rot Vannchai, a 23-year-old from Prey Veng province representing the Youth Resource Development Program, one of several youth groups in attendance, said the Paris agreement only went so far without political will from the government.

“I don’t have so much hope in the [Paris] agreement. At least for Cambodia, it depends on the implementation and commitment by the government . . . I hope the government recognises JPA and integrates it into their climate change response.”

A 57-year-old German man accused of sexually abusing at least five children at his rental home in the capital’s Chbar Ampov district was tried before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday.

Presiding judge Heng Sokna said Udo Sabiniewicz, owner of FX Animation Studios, was charged with “indecent acts against a minor" under Article 43 of the Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation following his June 16 arrest, prompted by complaints from the mothers of five boys, aged 7 to 13.

“He persuaded children to see TV and animation cartoons . . . in his rental house,” where he then sexually assaulted them, Sokna said.

Plaintiff Long Samnang, 37, Sabiniewicz’s house-cleaner for two months prior to his arrest, claims her son, 9, was abused and is seeking $5,000 in reparations.

Sabiniewicz yesterday maintained his innoncence, but admitted the children watched TV at his home.

“Their mothers brought them to my house in order to see my animation cartoon movies,” he said, adding that he did not abuse the children.

Real estate tycoon Sok Bun, charged with the brutal bashing of a former TV presenter in July, has applied to leave prison for medical treatment, claiming he is suffering from stress and high blood pressure, his lawyer said yesterday.

Yin Sophy said he had lodged a request to get Bun transferred from Prey Sar’s medical ward to an outside hospital, though investigating judge Leang Samnath had yet to respond.

“He now has hypertension [high blood pressure] and stress, because he’s been thinking so much,” Sophy said.

“I am worried that if he is not properly cared for and is not sent to hospital outside the prison for treatment, his condition will worsen and he will have a stroke.”

Bun’s attack on Ek Socheata, better known as Ms Sasa, shocked the country after footage of it emerged online.

The real estate mogul, who initially fled abroad before returning to face arrest, can be seen kicking and punching the former TV personality, who said she had tried to stop him from taking advantage of her intoxicated friend.

Though the family initially shunned his offers of compensation, Socheata’s lawyer, Put Theavy, said discussions about a “compromise” were ongoing.

Regarding the case, investigating judge Samnath was unreachable yesterday, though a clerk at Phnom Penh Municipal Court, who asked not to be named, said the investigation had yet to be finalized.

More than 160 families in Kratie province’s Snuol district have alleged that the Memot Rubber Plantation company has been using excavators to clear their land.

The families from Pi Thnou commune filed a complaint to the provincial office of local rights group Adhoc on Wednesday, claiming that since last week, the company has brought in excavators and security guards to clear about 6 hectares of land.

Villagers have so far managed to prevent the workers from clearing more land, according to Heang Cheav Kun of Adhoc.

“We have collected information as proof to seek intervention from the authorities to help the villagers,” she said.

The 9,850-hectare Memot rubber estate has existed since the French protectorate, and was privatised in 2008 after decades of state ownership.

Khem Sok, a villager who signed the complaint, said the company had tried to destroy land that contained banana trees the community harvests.

“Luckily, we stopped their activity quickly. They were clearing our land and farms, with banana trees and other plants, covering 6 hectares.”

But commune chief Poeun Vin yesterday said that the villagers had only moved onto the Memot concession after it was officially granted to the private company in 2008.

“They are newcomers who live and farm there. They suggested the government transfer some land as a social concession to them, but we are a local authority, we cannot rush a response to them,” he said.

Memot Rubber Plantation director Kim Sok Leap could not be reached yesterday.

Svay Rieng provincial court yesterday charged seven people for allegedly damaging a fire truck and injuring police officers during an unruly workers strike in Bavet town.

The decision came as many garment workers returned to their factories in Bavet’s special economic zones (SEZs) after a forced two-day shutdown to quell unrest following repeated clashes between police and protesters demanding higher wages.

Provincial penal police director Kim Lai alleged the six men – truck drivers for the garment factories arrested on Wednesday – and Chao Sakorn, a female garment worker detained on Thursday, attacked several police officers and damaged a fire truck on Tuesday, during the worst of the clashes.

“They were sent to court and charged with three different offences including intentional violence with aggravating circumstance, damage, and incitement,” Lai said, alleging Sakorn, 20, was among the most “cruel” protesters.

Lai said the group had been sent to the provincial prison, while more suspects were being sought over the violence, which left two police officers seriously injured.

“[We] are looking for other people involved with the case,” Lai said, adding that there was “enough evidence” for more arrests.

The seven accused join another four men charged with similar offenses on Monday for allegedly throwing rocks during the protests.

Thousands of garment workers from Bavet’s Manhattan and Tai Seng SEZs began striking last week, demanding next year’s minimum wage for the sector be raised to $148 rather than the $140 set by the government in October.

The apparently leaderless protests climaxed on Tuesday, after which authorities ordered workers to stay home for two days.

They also pledged to release on bail the four men charged on Monday, though the group remained in jail as of last night, according to their defence lawyer, Heng Bun.

Yesterday, Nouth Bopinnaroath, a provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho, said about 50 protesters had returned to work.

However, Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the number was higher.

“Workers in all factories but one are back at work, and in most factories the attendance is at least 80 per cent,” Loo said.

Additional reporting by Shaun Turton.

Last week an impromptu walkout sparked the worst factory worker unrest this year in Cambodia. And some say this is a case where worker representation could have actually prevented industrial action

On Wednesday, December 16, workers began streaming out of the imposing Kingmaker footwear factory in Svay Rieng province’s border town of Bavet.

“First, many left, but there were still some inside the factory. Then the factory ordered the rest of us out,” said Chan Saban, a slight 29-year-old woman who has worked there for three years.

“I just followed the rest and, after I got out, I went home.”

Saban didn’t realise it at the time, but the walkout set off a chain of events that sparked Cambodia’s worst industrial strife this year.

Kingmaker, which produces shoes for well-known Western brands such as New Balance and Clarks, is located in Bavet’s Manhattan special economic zone.

It was in this area with 28 factories that the workers from Kingmaker rallied others in nearby factories, quickly gathering steam.

By Thursday, some 30,000 of the 34,000 workers in the Manhattan SEZ and the neighbouring Tai Seng SEZ were on strike.

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And the strikes, based on demands for a higher minimum wage, soon devolved into violence.

Workers lobbed rocks at factories, while police and protesters clashed several times. 

The instability has resulted in scores of police flooding the area, a two-day government work stoppage order, and national authorities scrambling to find a resolution.
As of yesterday, Bavet is quieter – for the first time this week workers went to work peacefully, but only under the watchful eye of about 1,000 police.

But the origins of the protests remain mysterious, spotlighting how quickly seething discontent can turn into riots that have no clear leaders to negotiate with.

It also remains unclear whether the situation can be brought fully under control, especially as workers question the narrative that all the violence came from their side and authorities continue to arrest their friends and co-workers.

Reports that workers in Bavet were striking over an insufficient increase to the minimum wage seemed odd at first, given that next year’s rate of $140 per month, $12 more than the current $128, was announced well over two months ago, on October 8.

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But it appears that poor communication, along with a powerful sense of betrayal, contributed to a volatile mix. Most of the numerous garment workers interviewed by Post Weekend in Bavet said they had no idea what next year’s official minimum wage was. Many were under the mistaken belief that the government had promised a $20 rise every year.

Yin Mak, a 29-year-old factory worker in Manhattan SEZ’s Kaoway factory, said workers learned only recently and by word of mouth that 2016’s minimum wage was $12 rather than $20 higher.

“The workers were very angry when they learned that,” she said.

Compounding the problem was the lack of workers’ organisations in the SEZs, which could have been relied upon to disseminate the correct information about the wage when it was announced.

“They have kept firing our representatives since 2013, but when there are problems they always ask us to help,” said Chea Oddom, provincial representative of the Cambodian Union for the Movement of Workers as he detailed the difficulty of organising in the SEZs.

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As workers whispered of a government betrayal and the year came closer to ending, the strikes finally sparked on December 16 and quickly exploded into a mass movement. 

Caught off guard and with unions denying any involvement, employers and authorities were quick to blame rumour mongering and secretive organisations.

“There must be a mastermind because the perpetrators were well coordinated,” said Ken Loo, spokesman for the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia.

“I do not think workers from 40 different factories can spontaneously erupt with the same actions.”

No such mastermind was identified, and the situation spiralled out of control. 

Hundreds of military police flooded Bavet last Friday, while hoses from fire trucks were used to disperse a crowd of thousands on Monday.

On Tuesday, the situation took a turn for the worse when protestors in the Manhattan SEZ pelted police with rocks, injuring two and damaging a firetruck. Images from the clashes of workers ripping off chunks of concrete and hurling them at police flooded the news.

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“They used violence against us. We do not have the intention of hurting them,” said military policeman Keat Cheavorn as he sat in a clinic with a bandage on his head.

But garment workers interviewed by Post Weekend said the rock throwing was only a reaction to police abuses.

Pen Thear, a lanky 22-year-old, works at the DK factory in the Manhattan SEZ, and was one of 58 workers arrested on Monday outside the Tai Seng SEZ.

“When they asked us to sit down [after the arrest] that’s when they started beating us,” he said, showing marks on his back he said were from the police’s sticks.

“I came with three other men. All of them were beaten as well.”

Relatives of two of four men arrested on December 18 – Van Vicheat, 24, and Kong Phros, 27 – claimed their loved ones were beaten by police as well.

The wife of Phros, Chhim Lyna, said she learned her husband had been beaten by police after delivering food for him in jail.

“When they questioned my husband, they punched him twice in the face,” she said.

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On Sunday, the brother of Van Vicheat, Van Vichara, said his sibling was beaten “on his back and legs” after he was arrested.

Ken Loo of GMAC said he did not know of police officers beating workers following their arrest, but acknowledged that scuffles with police may have resulted in workers being injured.

He said, however, that it was “the workers themselves who were violent in the first place”.

Following the well-publicised rock-throwing incident on Tuesday, authorities vowed to bring order.

They condemned the violence, but also promised to release the four workers arrested last Friday on condition of bail. In a further bid to cool tensions, authorities ordered workers not to come to work for two days.

On Wednesday morning, police lined the highway connecting the Manhattan and Tai Seng SEZs to steer away garment trucks from delivering workers to factories, while village chiefs ordered the garment workers in their towns not to go to work.
The move exasperated employers, however, who said the two-day stoppage would cause millions of dollars in losses.

Following a meeting with officials, employers and authorities said the two-day break did not come from the government, but likely from the workers themselves, a claim contradicted by all the workers, policemen and village chiefs Post Weekend interviewed in Bavet on Wednesday morning.

During the stoppage, a time period presented to village chiefs as intended for de-escalation, authorities arrested another six truck drivers for allegedly damaging a firetruck during Tuesday’s clashes.

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Meanwhile, employers said the two days off would not be considered paid holiday, even though they were established indiscriminately for all workers.

Still, after two days of cooling off, the order appears to have worked – for now.

“Almost all the workers are back in the factories [yesterday], but we still keep watching and worry,” said Rex Lee, the manager of the Manhattan SEZ, who added that hundreds of police are still patrolling the area.

Indeed, the dispute is far from over. As employers urge authorities to make more arrests, workers are calling for those arrested to be released. 

Despite repeated pledges from authorities to release them, the four workers arrested last Friday remain under detention, while the six arrested truck drivers were charged yesterday along with another garment worker [see page 3].

William Conklin, country director of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, said the Bavet protests showed that productive labour relations remain a long way away in the Kingdom.

Conklin said making it less difficult to organise unions in the SEZs could have averted a crisis by keeping workers informed of things like next year’s exact minimum wage, while the past refusal of many factories to pay more than the bare minimum wage created a tinderbox-like situation.

“There’s a real lack of rule of law, and lots of cases of intimidation … maybe workers felt they were pushed to the limit,” he said.

“If [employers] keep exploiting labour and don’t pay attention to labour relations, they shouldn’t be surprised when there are outbursts like this.”

More than 100 people have applied to lead the National Election Committee’s secretariat, with the deadline set to close today.

Twenty-one people have thrown their hats in the ring to become the body’s secretary general, while 84 also applied for the four deputy secretary general slots, said NEC spokesman Hang Puthea.

The jobs are being publicly advertised for the first time in the Kingdom’s history after the NEC was reformed in April to become bipartisan.

Amid the flurry of last-minute applicants for the top job, was Kim Chhorn, a senior member of election watchdog Comfrel, Putha said.

Other contenders already revealed include the director of the NGO Buddhism for Development, Heng Monychenda; Ny Chakrya, head of investigations at rights group Adhoc; and Tep Nytha, the current secretary-general.

Puthea said he was surprised by the large response and hopeful the right candidate could be found. “We need a strong person who can help realise the goals of the NEC,” he said.

Three men who allegedly disguised themselves as vendors from the Phnong ethnic group in order to dupe customers into buying counterfeit honey were charged at the Mondulkiri Provincial Court on Sunday.

Chin Kong, 33, Vath Dany, 26, and Chhath Vichhay, 24, were charged with fraud under articles 377 and 378 of the Penal Code, according to Lieutenant Colonel Meas Samuth, a deputy chief of Mondulkiri provincial police.

Samuth added that the trio – who were all from Prey Khla commune, in Prey Veng town’s Svay Antor district, and have now been sent to the provincial prison – were likely to face significant jail terms.

“They will be sentenced to at least two years each in prison if they are found guilty as charged,” he said.

According to Koh Nhek district police chief, Major Kan Penh, the three suspects were arrested on December 25 after villagers complained they had been sold fake honey.

“They were disguised as Phnong ethnic people and riding old motorbikes to transport counterfeit honey,” he said. “

They cheated villagers by claiming the produce they were offering was pure honey, and selling it at a cost of between 100,000 riel [about $25] and 150,000 riel [just under $40] per litre.”

Police seized more than 40 litres of the fake honey and two old motorbikes following the men’s arrest, Khek added.

A tuk-tuk driver was handed a two-year prison sentence for dousing four women with boiling cooking oil and ordered to pay compensation at Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday.

Chan Soeun, 33, was charged with “committing an act of violence with aggravating circumstances” under Article 218 of Penal Code, according to judge Heng Sokna.

“Only four months of his sentence will be served, the rest was suspended,” Sokna said, adding that Soeun was also ordered to pay four million riel (about $1,000) compensation to his victims.

The court heard that on August 13 Soeun drove his tuk-tuk to the entrance of Depo market in Tuol Kork district, where he got into a row with another tuk-tuk driver who accused him of throwing an empty coffee cup over his head.

Two of the man’s friends, also tuk-tuk drivers, joined the aggrieved man in beating Soeun, who grabbed an oil-filled cooking pan from a snack vendor and attempted to douse his assailants with oil.

But instead the oil fell on four female shoppers, all of whom were injured, two seriously.

Soeun, who was not arrested until September 13, told the court he had no intention to hurt the victims.

“I was trying to defend myself because they [the three tuk-tuk drivers] had attacked and started beating me,” he said. “I deeply regret my unintentional mistake.”

Officials in Kampong Speu province have accused a man of illegally clearing dozens of hectares of land in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary to grow sugarcane.

Muong Phy, governor of Oral district, said local land broker Thorng Sokheng bought 100 hectares of land from villagers living on the fringes of the sanctuary, but he later began overstepping the lines of his purchase, illegally clearing land within the sanctuary over the past two years to make way for a planned sugarcane plantation.

“Now we hear that Thorng Sokheng is trying to contact officials [in the Ministry of Environment] to rent out the state land that has already been cleared … but no replies have been received,” Phy said.

Phy added that today, a working group composed of Ministry of Environment officials and local authorities would inspect the site to prepare for an eventual lawsuit. Sokheng could not be reached yesterday.

Yorng Phearum, deputy director of the Oral sanctuary, said the illegal clearing had been stopped by authorities, but not before 54 hectares were cut.

“We do not allow sugarcane plantations or other crops or buildings on the land because it is a wildlife sanctuary managed by the state,” Phearum said.

Since May 2010, the government has instituted a freeze on parcelling out state land to private companies, so attempting to rent out state land, especially in a protected area, is illegal, said Srun Darith, an Environment Ministry cabinet chief.

Darith said that because the land was cleared but not “occupied” yet, punishment would likely come in the form of a fine.

“For clearing sanctuary land, it is necessary to get the perpetrator punished in accordance with the law,” he said.