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Friday Edition All the News Without Fear or Favor The CAMBODIA DAILY Volume 67 Issue 30 Friday, February 10, 2017 2,000 riel/50 cents Malaria Death Count Drops to Just One in 2016 By Hannah Hawkins and Sek Odom The Cambodia Daily The number of malaria cases dropped by about 54 percent last year, with just one person dying from the mosquito-borne disease compared to 10 the previous year, according to the govern- ment’s latest annual malaria report. There was a significant drop from 51,262 cases in 2015 Reuters to 23,6327 reported last year, Buddhist monks and protesters march as a Malaysian NGO’s aid ship carrying food and emergency according to data released by supplies for Rohingya Muslims arrives at a port in Rangoon yesterday. Continued on page 6 With War-Era Debt Demands, US on Shaky Moral Ground million, saying that the money draft a deal that went unsigned he said, rubbing salt in the wound News Analysis was stained by the blood spilled as an officer at the U.S. Embassy by noting that Cambodia was By George Wright during a brutal U.S. bombing two decades ago. among only four countries in The Cambodia Daily campaign in border areas. “I come back; the issues re- arrears to the U.S.—the oth- But that didn’t stop U.S. main unsolved; and that num- ers being Sudan, Somalia and Prime Minister Hun Sen has Ambassador William Heidt from ber has grown to $500 million, Zimbabwe. made clear his belief that the stepping onto his proverbial soap- about. So to me, I think that is “I’m saying it’s in Cambodia’s U.S. has no grounds for lectur- box when asked about the loan unfortunate, I think that’s not interest not to look at the past, ing Cambodia about a war-era during a media roundtable last in Cambodia’s best interest to but to look at how to solve this debt that has ballooned to $500 week, noting that he had helped keep letting that grow forever,” Continued on page 7 Friday Feature Tu r f Wa r The son of the ruling party’s No. 3 is trying to make his mark as Nepal Endures, Get Riel, Film Fest Insight environment minister Page 8 What’s On, page 20 The Daily Newspaper of Record Since 1993 cambodiadaily.com 2 National The CAMBODIA DAILY Friday, February 10, 2017 Running the Quotes of the Week Numbers “You destroyed us and demand us to pay the debt.” —CPP spokesman Sok Eysan, responding to U.S. Ambassador William Heidt’s call $500M for Cambodia to repay a $500 million loan from the 1970s principal and interest “I see now the situation is messy and I’m feeling unwell.” Cambodia owes to the U.S. —Phnom Penh Municipal Court Presiding Judge Long Kesphirum, who adjourned from a loan dating back to the the latest hearing for Boeng Kak activist Tep Vanny after it descended into chaos Lon Nol regime in the 1970s “It’s game over.” 13 —Political analyst Lee Morgenbesser on the lack of tangible foreign support for democracy in Cambodia “I wish to recognize the truth that there are many people using chainsaws to cut League for Democracy Party down trees in some provinces, especially in Prey Lang.” members jailed in Kampot —Environment Minister Say Sam Al on seeking a ban on the import of chainsaws after being embroiled in a land dispute “I was the victim, but they have summoned me as a suspect.” —Land rights activist Chan Puthisak, who was summoned to court over a protest in which he was beaten and 49 injured by state security guards who have now accused him of attacking them out of 50, passports recovered From the Archives... February 9, 1999 after being stolen from an office building in Phnom Samlot Defectors Penh Welcomed Once Again SAMLOT DISTRICT, Battambang province - Deputy Prime Min- ister Sar Kheng on Monday wel- 538 comed defecting Khmer Rouge soldiers and families into the government fold for the second Cambodians living legally time, saying their reintegration is in the U.S. who have been the guarantee against the return of the Khmer Rouge. deported to Cambodia since But just over two years after 2002 after being convicted most of these former rebels went through a similar integration, of felonies, many of whom some cautioned they could still have never lived here return to the jungle once again if the political situation changes. “The second [integration] will possibly harder to do than 12,000 the first,” said Iem Phan... condominiums expected In Other News to be completed next year Hun Sen Leads in Phnom Penh, on top of Delegation to China 8,000 this year, according to real estate services EU to Give company CBRE Group $4.4 Million in Humanitarian Aid Friday, February 10, 2017 The CAMBODIA DAILY National 3 Three Kampot Police Officers Test Positive for Meth Use By Khuon Narim employed for about a month. added. start drug testing, and Defense The Cambodia Daily Maj. Gen. Chanmathurith said Testing of officers in Preah Ministry spokesman General he had asked National Police Sihanouk province started six Chhum Socheat said the Royal Three police officers have and Interior Ministry officials months ago, said Major Gener- Cambodian Armed Forces was been demoted after testing to fire them. al Chuon Narin, the provincial also considering a plan to test positive for methamphetamine “If there are police who have police chief. soldiers. as Kampot province began drug- drugs in their bodies, we will Battambang provincial po- Drug testing of military po- testing officers yesterday, with take legal measures, and if they lice said they also intended to lice officers is already underway. other provinces saying they had are involved in drug trafficking, already started testing their po- we will send them to court,” lice officers or have plans to do so. he said. National Brief It follows the launch of the National Police spokesman government’s six-month anti Kirth Chantharith said there was -drug campaign on January 1. no national plan to drug-test Police Burn 20,000 Plants in Marijuana Village In the first month alone, 2,428 police, “but we are not prevent- Up to 70 percent of the population of a village in Takeo prov- people were arrested for drug-re- ing any provinces from testing ince are said to have been involved in growing 20,000 marijuana lated offenses, including 1,243 police officers for drugs.” plants that were burned by police, according to officials. “We suspected users, according to In Pailin province, police have destroyed 20,000 marijuana plants.... The owners have fled,” government figures. chief Brigadier General Chea said deputy provincial police chief So Phy. Police conducted the “We received information that Chandin said drug testing for raids in Kiri Vong district’s Preah Bat Chonchum commune, officers in our police force were officers began earlier this week. along the Vietnamese border, on Tuesday and Wednesday, he involved with drugs. We called “We are law enforcement of- said. Between 60 to 70 percent of the villagers were involved in them to test their urine, which ficials who cannot be involved growing the cannabis, Mr. Phy said, speculating the drugs may tested positive for drugs,” said with drugs,” he said. “We have to have been exported to Vietnam. “How are we going to arrest Major General Mao Chanmathu- clean ourselves first, then clean them all?” he asked. “Almost everyone in the village grows it.” rith, Kampot’s police chief. others.” Provincial police chief Ouk Samnang said the growers might have The three officers—Sar Sam- Any officers caught using been unaware they were breaking the law. “We will educate them bath, 25, Oeng Pheareak, 25, would be fired from their jobs that it is a drug that affects society,” he said. “If they continue to and Teng Bora, 22—have been and sent for rehabilitation, he grow it, we will proceed with legal procedures.” (Chhorn Phearun) 4 National The CAMBODIA DAILY Friday, February 10, 2017 Three Years On, Gov’t, EU Still at Odds Over Sugar Evictions By Zsombor Peter and Van Roeun The Cambodia Daily Three years after starting work on a comprehensive com- pensation plan for thousands of families that accuse sugarcane plantation owners of stealing their land, the E.U. is urging the government to use independent experts to audit their claims in the face of persistent resistance from the prime minister. Hundreds of families from across four provinces journeyed to Phnom Penh last week with a petition urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to sign off on a plan—or terms of reference—for review- ing their claims. Exactly three years earlier, the government had agreed to start negotiating Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily those terms with the E.U., which Villagers from several provinces gather at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park to petition Prime Minister Hun imports some of the country’s Sen for help in their land disputes with a number of sugarcane plantations last week. sugar, to ensure the claims were audited fairly and independently. The E.U. says the govern- said Mr. Hun Sen is now refusing to Since receiving the petition, ment has been sitting on the “If he ignores or refuses to sign was the product of their however, the prime minister’s terms since October 2015. sign, he seems not to want to collaboration. cabinet has said that Mr. Hun Asked for comment on Mr. help the people,” Mr. Sokha said. The E.U.’s sugar imports Sen won’t be signing the terms Chandara’s recent remarks, E.U.