All the News Without Fear or Favor The CAMBODIA DAILY Volume 67 Issue 74 Thursday, April 13, 2017 2,000 riel/50 cents Leak Links Minister, PM’s Bodyguard Compound $337K infill project completed in 2014 By Sek Odom and Ben Paviour The Cambodia Daily A document leaked yesterday links Lim Kean Hor, minister of water resources and meteo- rology, to more than $330,000 worth of infill work done at the Kandal province compound of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s per- sonal bodyguard unit, with Mr. Reuters Kean Hor’s efforts, if not the A guide speaks inside the 170-meter Juche Tower in central Pyongyang yesterday, ahead of Saturday’s 105th dollar amount attached to them, anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founding father and grandfather of the current ruler. confirmed by senior members of the unit. A report dated April 9, 2014, Xi, Trump Discuss North Korean ‘Menace’ and posted yesterday on the Facebook page Thleay, or “leaks,” Reuters Trump, in an early morning since North Korea’s first nuclear appears to show Mr. Kean Hor note on Twitter, said the call test in 2006. updating Mr. Hun Sen and his BEIJING - Chinese President Xi with Xi, just days after they met The communication between wife Bun Rany on infilling work Jinping called for a peaceful res- in the U.S., was a “very good” the leaders underscored the he completed that year at the olution of rising tension on the discussion of the “menace of sense of urgency as tension esca- Toul Krasang bodyguard camp Korean Peninsula in a telephone North Korea.” The call came lates amid concern that reclusive in Takhmao City, which is said conversation with U.S. President as an influential state-run Chi- North Korea could soon conduct to host hundreds of troops loyal Donald Trump yesterday, as a nese newspaper warned that the a sixth nuclear test, or more mis- to the prime minister. U.S. aircraft carrier strike group Korean peninsula was the closest sile launches, and Trump’s threat Continued on page 2 steamed toward the region. it has been to a “military clash” Continued on page 18 Starvation Threatens Millions in War-Torn Nations By Max Bearak But this year, South Sudan vere hunger, even in inhospita- and Laris Karklis slipped into famine, and Nigeria, ble climates, would be almost The Washington Post Somalia and Yemen are each on unthinkable without war. the verge of their own. Fam- Each of these four countries Our world produces enough ine now threatens 20 million is in a protracted conflict. While food to feed all its inhabitants. people—more than at any time humanitarian assistance can save When one region is suffering since World War II. As defined lives in the immediate term, severe hunger, global humani- by the U.N., famine occurs when none of the food crises can be tarian institutions, though often a region’s daily hunger-related solved in the long term without a Chosen by Angel, Banana cash-strapped, are theoretically death rate exceeds 2 per 10,000 semblance of peace. The threat Prices Rise for New Year capable of transporting food and people. of violence can limit or prohibit Page 5 averting catastrophe. The persistence of such se- Continued on page 20 The Daily Newspaper of Record Since 1993 cambodiadaily.com 2 National The CAMBODIA DAILY Thursday, April 13, 2017 Thousands of Election Body Workers Missing Weeks of Wages By Phan Soumy announcement yesterday, but tional- and provincial-level work- hard and they are very patient, The Cambodia Daily offered no explanation. ers had been paid for February, even though the NEC couldn’t NEC spokesman Hang about half of all the contracted pay them on time,” he said. Tens of thousands of workers Puthea said the salaries for the workers, and that even they only An NEC official familiar with contracted by the government to roughly 90,000 workers were received their salaries on April 6. the problem, who spoke on condi- prepare Cambodia for the June handled by the Finance Min- He said the government had tion of anonymity because he was 4 commune elections, many of istry, which also hadn’t provid- hoped to catch up by the start of not authorized to comment to the whom are still waiting to be ed an explanation. He said the Khmer New Year, which begins media, said the committee has paid for work in February, will workers—whom the government on Friday and ends on Sunday. been late in getting employment have to wait for their March and started hiring in February at na- Despite the delays, Mr. Puthea records to the ministry because April salaries until after Khmer tional, provincial and commune said the workers were not slack- of workers who have quit or died. New Year. levels—should be paid in the ing and all preparations for the The official said the salaries The National Election middle of each month. poll would be completed on time. for March and April would total Committee (NEC) made the But Mr. Puthea said only na- “In fact, they are working very about $4 million. The spokesman said he was financing appeared to be more with Thailand in Preah Vihear Bodyguard... not sure how Mr. Kean Hor had of an ethical question than a le- province. Continued from page 1 financed the work—whether he gal one—at least if the money Mr. Hun Sen’s bodyguard had possibly dipped into ministry came directly from Mr. Kean unit grew from a roughly 60- “To comply with the high coffers or paid for it himself. Hor personally. man security detail in the mid- advice of...Bun Rany Hun Sen, “I am not sure whether it “However, the National Au- 1990s into a loyalist force that I assigned a technical working was his own money or not,” he dit Authority should check the rivals the national military of group and some machinery to said, declining further comment. ministry’s budget whether it was Senegal in size, and is key to the transport dirt to infill a plot of Hing Bun Heang, head of the really not used by the minister for prime minister’s hold on power, land at Toul Krasang bodyguard unit, also confirmed the work that case,” he wrote in an email. according to political scientist camp,” the note says, using Ms. took place, but referred further Sorpong Peou, a professor of Lee Morgenbesser, of Australia’s Rany’s full name. questions to the minister. international security in Sophia Griffith University, in a paper “I would like to pay all ex- “Please ask him whether he University in Tokyo, in his 2000 published in February. penses,” it says. spent his own money,” he said. book “Intervention and Change Mr. Kean Hor was last swept Neither Mr. Kean Hor nor a If the document is accurate, in Cambodia: Towards Democ- up in scandal in 2007, when he Council of Ministers spokesman Mr. Kean Hor’s workers hauled racy?,” said the compound was told the National Assembly that could be reached to confirm the and leveled 23,487 truckloads believed to serve as a base for Australian mining company authenticity of the document, of dirt totaling 234,870 cubic between 1,000 and 1,400 troops BHP paid $2.5 million in “tea which was posted on a page that meters from 2013 to 2014. The as well as Russian-made military money”—a colloquial phrase has dumped a number of unflat- pricetag on the project was put trucks, tanks, armored personnel for bribes—to the government tering photographs, documents at $337,079. vehicles and a helicopter. to secure exploration rights in and other material related to the Satellite imagery from Goo- In June 2009, the compound northeast Cambodia. prime minister and his family. gle Earth shows what was in was rocked by a series of ex- Mr. Kean Hor told parlia- However, Ya Touch, a spokes- 2012 a green plot of land directly plosions that left two injured ment that the prime minister man for the prime minister’s elite northwest of the area labeled as and officials tightlipped. A lo- had called him from Australia bodyguard unit, confirmed that the bodyguard compound trans- cal village chief told reporters and urged him to use the money Mr. Kean Hor had contributed forming into a barren splotch of that the explosion occurred as to immediately get started on a to the infill work. brown by 2014. two truck drivers refueled a $2 million irrigation project in “He helped lots of things, es- San Chey, country director of truck filled with B-40 rockets Pursat province. pecially on infilling dirt here,” the NGO Affiliated Network for that was headed from the base “Samdech Prime Minister he said. Social Accountability, said the to Cambodia’s disputed border was really happy,” he said. And Also... 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