All the News Without Fear or Favor The Cambodia daily Volume 64 issue 45 Tuesday, May 10, 2016 2,000 riel/50 cents Auctions of Illegal Timber To Resume, Officials Say By Aun PheAP And ZsomBor Peter The CamboDia Daily Top officials yesterday said the government would be auctioning off some of the 70,000 cubic me- ters of wood authorities have seized in recent months, back- tracking on a recent pledge Hun Sen made to stop the sales. The massive timber haul, enough to fill more than 2,000 stan- dard 20-foot shipping containers, was seized by a special task force that Prime Minister Hun Sen formed in mid-January to go after illegal wood stocks in the eastern provinces. For years, the government had been selling off seized wood in se- Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily cretive deals that seemed to favor Police apprehend Thav Kimsan, deputy director of advocacy for rights group Licadho, yesterday morning in timber traders close to the prime Phnom Penh's Dangkao district amid attempts to protest outside Prey Sar prison. minister and violated the Forestry Law by bypassing public auctions. In a surprise move at the Educa- Eight Arrested Over ‘Black Monday’ Protests tion Ministry’s annual meeting in By Ben sokheAn where four officials from the rights Dangkao district officials at a check - March, Mr. Hun Sen announced And GeorGe WriGht group Adhoc are incarcerated— point near the prison. an immediate halt to the sales. He The CamboDia Daily were later released, officials said. Three protesters from Phnom said all seized wood would from Eight human rights officers and Those arrested included two Cam- Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood now on be put to use building activists clad in black were arrest- bodian human rights workers, two —Bou Sorphea, Kong Chantha and schools, desks and whatever else ed yesterday during “Black Mon- of their foreign colleagues and four Song Sreyleap—and Sor Son from the ministry needed. day” protests in Phnom Penh, the local land rights activists. Borei Keila were arrested in Dang - “In the past, whenever we con- first in a campaign to free four fel- Ee Sarom, executive director of kao and Daun Penh districts shortly fiscated, we always found a bidder low rights workers and an election housing rights group Sahmakum before 9 a.m., Interior Ministry for exporting. But when they re- official who were jailed late last Teang Tnaut, and Thav Kimsan, spokesman Khieu Sopheak said. ceived the export rights, logging month on charges widely believed deputy director of advocacy for At about 11:30 a.m., Mathias still occurred,” the prime minister to be politically motivated. rights group Licadho, were bun- Pfeifer, a German adviser to local said at the time. The group—arrested en route to dled into a police van at about 8:15 rights group Licadho, and Anna “From this day on, all wood that a planned protest at Prey Sar prison, a.m. following an argument with Continued on page 2 Continued on page 6 Free English Press Masks an Unfair Media By Alex Willemyns It came three days after Anti-Cor- Cambodia there existed no state of The CamboDia Daily ruption Unit (ACU) Chairman Om law, it would not remain like this When 53 opposition lawmakers Yentieng also used the the pres- too long,” he said of the media land- wrote to King Norodom Sihanouk ence of English-language newspa- scape. “You are a long-time opposi- last month asking him to intervene pers to repudiate claims of lawless- tion now.” to end increasingly grave political ness in the CPP’s prosecution of its The argument has become some - repression in Cambodia, CPP critics. thing of a refrain for officials when spokes man Sok Eysan had a with- “The Daily dares not to insult faced with questions from the ering response. others crudely. They insult us in a English-language press over the “I’m waiting to see whether The high-calibre way, not low-calibre,” CPP’s subjugation of opponents. Maverick Mayor Duterte Set to Cambodia Daily packs up to flee or Mr. Yentieng said at a press con- Yet the CPP’s forbearance of con- Clinch Philippines Presidency starts digging trenches,” Mr. Eysan ference, pointing to the years of tol- stant criticism of its authoritarian Page 10 said. “If not, this proves that such a erance for such reporting. style can largely be attributed to the cambodiadaily.com claim is wrong.” “Hey, you should think: If across Continued on page 8 មានដំណឹងបែែសមែួលជាភាសាខ្មែរនៅខាងក្នុង The Daily Newspaper of Record Since 1993 2 The Cambodia daily TueSDay, may 10, 2016 ANd AlSo NEWSMAKERS Differential Logic Not Her Forte nVILNIUS, Lithuania - Pussy riotpunk performer nAdyA tolokonnikovA The waShingTon PoST curly hair and olive skin) was escort- is looking for a new audience—readers and, ideally, financial backers A traveler in Phila delphia Saw ed off the airplane. An agent informed who can turn her 2-year-old news website into a contender in Russia’s me- Something on her flight on Thurs- him he was suspected of terrorism. dia scene. She first rose to prominence by donning a balaclava and storm- day evening, so she Said Something. But those scribbles weren’t Arabic ing into Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral with others in February That Something was her seat- or terrorist code. They were math. 2012, shouting out a song against vlAdimir Putin, then getting jailed for mate’s cryptic notes, scrawled in a Had anyone Googled him before “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” But Tolokonnikova was script she didn’t recognize. Maybe it waylaying the flight, they might have wearing much less confrontational attire as she spoke at the Login tech was code, or some foreign lettering, learned that he—Guido Menzio—is festival in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, discussing plans to build up her on- possibly the details of a plot to de- a decorated economist. line media platform. “The real punk,” the 26-year-old told reporters, “is to stroy the innocent lives aboard Menzio was allowed to return to build institutions.” MediaZona, the website she helped found in 2014 with American Airlines Flight 3950. his seat. The woman never reboard- a focus on criminal justice news, has about 2.2 million visitors a month on various platforms, she said. (Reuters) So the 40-year-old man (with dark, ed the flight. released at about 7 p.m. The Cam- Municipal Court for questioning Rights Watch. Black... bodian officers and activists were over the scandal. Maina Kiai, the U.N.’s special released at about 6:30, he added. On Sunday, the government rapporteur on the rights to free- Continued from PAGe 1 Deputy municipal governor said the Black Monday protests dom of peaceful assembly and as- Maria Pettersson, a Swedish advis- Khuong Sreng said police had not would be viewed as a rebellion sociation, said he was disturbed by er for the group, were both detained technically arrested anyone. and an attempt to foment a “color claims from government spokes - and taken to the Interior Ministry’s “We already released them back revolution.” man Phay Siphan on Sunday that immigration department after be- home. We released them after we Contacted by telephone yester- the protests were tantamount to ing spotted wearing black T-shirts, compiled the report,” Mr. Sreng day prior to the release of the rights “an urban rebellion.” said Uk Heisela, chief of investiga- said. “We did not arrest them, we workers yesterday, General So - “Allowing peaceful dissent— tions at the department. just detained them for questioning pheak defended the arrests and expressed through speech, as- Barriers were set up in the morn- and then released them the same lambasted “arrogant” rights groups. sembly and association—is not ing along the road leading to Prey day.” “Like you know, their group only every government’s obliga- Sar, ensuring black-clad protesters The latest arrests come as the broadcasted to incite the people to tion under international law, it also and monks were kept far from the government has ramped up its in- wear black for Monday to release reduces the possibility of violent jail. Passing members of the public vestigation into a sex scandal in- officials,” he said. “They went crazy rebellion by creating a more inclu- were also pulled over and grilled by volving deputy opposition leader with freedom of expression. They sive society,” Mr. Kiai wrote. police if they happened to be wear- Kem Sokha. The four Adhoc offi- did not think they are under the law “It is disturbing to see Cambo- ing dark clothes. cials, together with National Elec- that controls them. They are the dia taking steps in the wrong direc- Major General Heisela said the tion Committee deputy secretary- people who violate the law.” tion on #BlackMonday,” he wrote. foreign offenders, Ms. Pettersson general Ny Chakrya, were jailed Gen. Sopheak then drew analo- Standing among protestors at and Mr. Pfeifer, were arrested for last week for allegedly conspiring gies between the peaceful protest the police checkpoint in Dangkao wearing black shirts, but sent to the to bribe the supposed 25-year-old and the civil wars that have raged just minutes before Mr. Sarom immigration department for failing mistress to deny the affair. in Syria and Libya since the Arab and Mr. Kimsan were arrested, Li- A U.N. official was also charged to produce their passports. Spring spread across the Middle cadho director Naly Pilorge spoke in absentia over the case, while an “They were wearing black shirts East in 2011.