A least 50 cows have died at a Vietnamese plantation in Ratanakkiri over the past several weeks, with some officials blaming food poisoning.

The cattle came from Vietnam and belonged to Hoang Anh Andong Meas, a subsidiary of Vietnamese agricultural firm Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

Authorities, experts and locals had different estimates of the death toll. Provincial agriculture director Soy Sona said that only 50 had died, while Phan Bel, a nearby village chief said that at least 80 had died. Local villagers put the number above 300.

“The animals ate palm oil food and they died from poisoning. We don’t know whether the palm oil was sprayed with [chemical] substances,” said Sona, adding that the cows had been burned.

However, a villager speaking on condition of anonymity said he witnessed the carcasses brought out of the company to be sold.

“I saw them transporting dead cows but we were unable to stop it,” confirmed Sre Angkrang commune chief Chhim Sokhim. Traders bought some of the carcasses, he said.

Some local villagers’ cows died during this period as well, from food and water shortages stemming from the drought. But villagers said the plantation had plenty of feed and water.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai director Nguyen Van Thu could not be reached for comment. His assistant said that he was unaware of the deaths.

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Storms and lightning strikes have killed more people in the first five months of this year than in the same period in 2015, an official said yesterday.

National Committee of Disaster Management spokesman Keo Vy said the uptick did not include three people killed during lightning storms on Wednesday, which injured 12 people and damaged 620 houses in Stung Treng, Kampong Speu and Battambang provinces.

Vy said from January to the first week of May, 85 storms hit the capital and 20 provinces, killing seven people and injuring 71. At the same time, 2,433 houses were damaged, included 473 severely.

During the five months, lightning has killed 15 people, injured 16 and left a dozen cattle dead.

“The number of deaths caused by storms has increase four-fold, while the death toll caused by lightning slightly increased,” Vy said.

Separately, since January, some 362 fires have killed 13 people and injured eight, according to the Interior Ministry’s fire department director, Net Vutha.

Vutha said 43 per cent of the fires – which damaged 601 houses and 1,220 market stalls – were caused by electrical faults, 36 per cent by careless power usage, and 20 per cent by other factors.

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Two months after revelations that the majority of new fans to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook account were coming from outside Cambodia, the page has experienced an abrupt drop in foreign “likes”.

Beginning early this year, the page of the self-proclaimed “e-premier” saw a boost in “likes”from countries such as India, Myanmar and Brazil, gaining hundreds or thousands of followers per day from each.

But on May 7, the flow of new “likes” arriving from those countries plummeted, according to data from social media analytics site SocialBakers.

The influx of new likes from abroad has fallen to a fraction of the prior rate, while likes from within Cambodia have remained steady.

On some days, certain countries have registered negative growth. For example, the size of the prime minister’s Indian fanbase decreased slightly on May 8, 10 and 11, when a week prior it had been increasing by 2,000 to 3,000 likes per day.

In March, technology and social media experts told the Post that the flood of new followers from abroad could be evidence that the page was boosting its numbers by purchasing likes from so-called “click farms”.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials have denied this suggestion, instead attributing the rapid growth to the premier’s popularity abroad.

But the sudden halt seemingly gave those theories credence. “This is probably the best indication that the allegations were true,” said an anonymous IT expert based in the capital. “These things don’t just happen by accident.”

Government spokesman Phay Siphan yesterday said he “did not know” about fake “likes” but reiterated the premier’s Facebook page was intended as a tool to hear the views Cambodians. “It is not a competition,” he said.

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The new minister of public works and transportation yesterday threatened to introduce tough new measures, including fines, for officials who turn a blind eye to overloaded vehicles, which he claimed caused $100 million in road damage every year.

Minister Sun Chanthol yesterday said in a meeting that fines would be introduced for scale station officials who conspired with transport companies to allow overloaded trucks to travel, but he did not stipulate the cost of the fines or elaborate on potential “administrative discipline”.

“We have to have our measures, and we cannot let them collude with one another and allow the [overloaded] vehicles to run on the road and damage 100 kilometres of road; we have to fine our officials. We will prevent this at the root,” he said.

Also in the minister’s sights were almost 2,000 repair garages that had not yet registered with the government to ensure vehicles were kept at regulation standards.

San Chey, network fellow for Cambodia Affiliated Network for Social Accountability–EastAsia Pacific, said he welcomed the reinforcement but said the issue was “nothing new”.

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Twenty six men armed with plastic jugs and three hoses drawing water from the Sangke River are all that stand between what’s left of the Prek Toal bird sanctuary, and a fire that has already destroyed more than 5,000 hectares of flooded forest.

Prek Toal forms the “core area” of the Tonle Sap biosphere, an area some experts have called the single most important breeding ground for water fowl in Southeast Asia.

“In 16 years of patrolling, I have never seen a fire like this,” said one Environment Ministry ranger who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press. The men, who have been divided into three teams, are trying to contain a fast-moving fire on difficult terrain.

Suspected negligence started the fire in early April and it has since spread across the wetlands thanks to exceptionally dry conditions related to the El Niño-induced drought, climate change and yet-to-be-understood changes of the Tonle Sap flood cycle.

For the past 10 days, the conflagration has come within hundreds of metres of Prek Toal village, and on Wednesday, a column of smoke loomed over the floating settlement.

Variable winds that changed direction by the hour meant the group of rangers and volunteer villagers, none of whom had protective clothing, were constantly outmanoeuvred.

Read: Scenes from a drought

“It is very difficult to fight this fire because it burns the peat underground,” the ranger continued, explaining that the very surface they stood on was fuelling the conflagration. The burned ground now presented an added obstacle, as it was liable to give way. The amateur fire fighters could only tread on ground that had been dampened and tested first.

“We cannot run fast,” he said.

Still-smouldering patches dotted the charred earth, while about a hundred metres away, flames consumed trees that during the wet season would be half submerged. The men hurried across the hot ash to dump water wherever smoke rose from the ground, as the burning peat could potentially kindle fires in new directions.

At one point, a connection in the hose came apart. For a few minutes, the team was in disarray as one man equipped with a screwdriver and circular clamps sprang into action, binding the tubing back together.

A man carries a container of water toward a fire in Battambang’s Prek Toal village earlier this week in a desperate effort to control the blaze. Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon

Meanwhile, Prek Toal core area director Long Kheng was in Phnom Penh on Wednesday reporting to officials the situation on the ground and collecting salaries for the rangers and the villagers who volunteered to fight the fires.

“A lot of forest was burned outside the core area,” Kheng said in a phone interview, adding that there was no estimate yet available on how much fire damage the Tonle Sap biosphere suffered as a whole.

“Inside the core area, at least 25 per cent of the flooded forest area’s total area [21,342 hectares] was burned,” he claimed. Kheng said that he was also appealing to UNESCO for support.

“We will have to plan to assess the impact of the fire, and we have to have a forest fire response management plan for the Tonle Sap [area], which is different from the uplands,” he said.

“The forest fire affects the local community’s livelihoods; it’s the habitat of the water birds and other wildlife, but it’s also important for the fish, and if there’s no flooded forest . . . the fishermen will not find food, you know? Their livelihood will also be impacted.

“Prek Toal is the heart of the Tonle Sap; it supports the fish stock in the Tonle Sap lake. If there’s no forest, the fish stock will decline,” Kheng continued. The UNFAO predicts a 17 per cent drop in fish production this year due to El Niño.

“The international community and the Cambodian government should pay more attention,” Kheng said.

Independent researcher Veerachai Tanpipat, in an email late last month, said findings “showed that fire activities in the region are still going on, which is not normal, as forest fire season usually should be over by now”.

Meanwhile, experts from ASEAN nations are set to discuss the region’s fire concerns later this month at a meeting organised by the Thai Royal Forestry Department and the Korean Forest Service.

“We hope, we will talk more about how to find ways to work together in order to get forest fires in this region under control again,” Tanpipat said on Tuesday.

Back in Prek Toal, the forest ranger’s short-term assessment was grim.

“We can’t control the fire”.

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A vulnerable Irrawaddy dolphin was found dead in Kratie’s Sambor district on Tuesday after being caught in fishermen’s illegal gill nets, authorities and environmental watchdogs said.

‘‘I think this dolphin may have been dead for three or four days – its body was swollen and rotten, and its tail was tangled in nets,’’ said Seang Sokhim, a guard for the Koh Pdav natural dolphin pool.

Emma Fry, a communication assistant with the World Wildlife Fund, said the female dolphin was 183 centimetres long and weighed 80 kilograms.

This is the first time that locals saw a dolphin succumb to illegal fishing equipment, according to Sokhim.

However, communities in Stung Treng and Kratie have been aware of gill nets’ threat to dolphin populations for a long time, according to experts from WWF and environmental group MLUP Baitong.

Dolphins entangled in the nets usually die because they can’t come up for air, they said

WWF country director Chhith Sam Ath said yesterday last year’s survey found only 80 dolphins in Kratie and Stung Treng. Nine dolphins died over the course of 2015. So far, two have died this year.

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Despite the Foreign Ministry declaring that United Nations staffer Soen Sally has diplomatic immunity, police will still arrest the human rights worker on sight because the Interior Ministry has not been told otherwise, an official said yesterday.

On Monday, the Post reported the Foreign Affairs Ministry had requested that the “competent authorities” stop legal action against Sally after determining he was protected under international law.

The request was forwarded to court officials two weeks ago, Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry told local media yesterday.

But speaking via phone yesterday, Interior Ministry spokesman General Khieu Sopheak said the court was yet to strike out Sally’s warrant, meaning his officers remained duty-bound to arrest the UN official, “immunity or no immunity”.

“For us to cease pursuing his arrest there needs to be a request from the court to cancel the arrest warrant . . . When the court cancels it, it will be finished,” Sopheak said.

Sopheak likened Sally’s case to that of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange – who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for years – saying Sally could “live his whole life in [a UN compound], it is possible, but when he comes out police will arrest him”.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court president Taing Sunlay yesterday said the court had not received the missive, and declined to comment further.

Sally, an official from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), ischarged alongside six other individuals for allegedly conspiring to bribe the purported mistress of CNRP leader Kem Sokha in a case widely considered politically motivated.

Reached yesterday, Justice Ministry spokesman Chin Malin also said the Foreign Ministry had yet to follow up on its request – which was communicated to the UN last Thursday – with the necessary paperwork.

“I cannot comment on the immunity because so far we have not got any formal information or notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yet,” Malin said. “So far we have got the information from the news.”

Sounry, of the Foreign Ministry, yesterday hung up on a reporter, and subsequent attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Since Sally was summonsed over the case last month, his whereabouts have been closely guarded by the UN, which on Sunday said they believed the Foreign Affair’s statement would resolve the matter.

Via email, OHCHR country director Wan-Hea Lee said the situation remained unchanged.

“Our staff have immunity under the Convention. Exchanges with the Royal Govt (sic) have taken place on the matter.”

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A shipment of 113 new fire trucks arrived from China via the Sihanoukville port yesterday, and will be distributed across the country.

Neth Vantha, the deputy municipal fire chief at the Ministry of Interior, said 99 trucks will go to the provinces while the rest will be kept at the ministry. He declined to say how much the trucks cost.

"Provinces . . . are still lacking fire trucks to use in faraway areas," he said. "We will deliver [these trucks] to those areas for effective intervention."

In 2017, the ministry will order more trucks, he added.

There were 590 fires in Cambodia in 2015, an increase of 14.7 per cent from the previous year. They killed 35 people and consumed almost 600 homes.

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Cambodia’s foreign officials remained on the defensive yesterday in the face of allegationsin a Fairfax Media report that diplomats in Australia abused their alcohol and tobacco diplomatic concessions, while analysts said the government will need to act if more diplomatic faux pas emerge.

Cambodian Ambassador to Australia Koy Kuong told Khmer language media that the matter involving the Cambodian embassy’s provider – Unique International Duty Free in Melbourne – was investigated by the Australian Border Force and resolved in late 2015, but was not linked to his embassy.

Kuong, who on Tuesday told the Post the embassy “had done nothing wrong,” hung up on reporters seeking clarification about the new revelations.

According to media reports, individual diplomats are entitled to import 120 litres of spirits, 500 litres of alcohol and 10,000 cigarettes tax-free every six months for their personal use (and double that for the embassy itself).

But Australia’s high tax threshold on those items means illegally selling them on could turn a hefty profit at the expense of Australian tax-payers – an amount estimated at A$200,000 (about US$147,000).

Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry, who served as ambassador to Australia before Kuong took over the reins in June last year, rebuffed the suggestion he might also be investigated for the alleged tax fraud.

“You want to ask me if I am under investigation? You need to wait for the official response from the embassy,” he said.

Duty free, 50 cigarettes would cost about US$11, but at retail, they could cost up to US$44; a litre of vodka priced at US$42 in a local store would only cost US$22 duty-free.

Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia expert and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales, said he was not surprised “rogue diplomats could be tempted” by “making double in profit”, but stressed that it was likely only one or two embassy officials were embroiled in the scheme, not the entire embassy.

“The ambassador is expected to be in control of his embassy. But he can’t root out all the corruption, he can only react when it happens,” Thayer said.

However, he said, if a third or fourth diplomat caused foreign headaches for the government – coming after South Korea envoy Suth Dina’s expulsion on corruption charges and this latest case – the government would need to act swiftly to save face internationally.

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Cambodia’s ambassador to Australia yesterday swiftly denied allegations of corruption amid reports the embassy is under investigation for links to an alleged alcohol and tobacco black market that took in roughly $200,000.

According to Fairfax Media, the Australian Border Force is investigating the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in the Australian capital of Canberra because of alleged abuses of diplomatic “duty-free” privileges, which were used to make a profit.

It is the second corruption scandal to rock Cambodia’s foreign office in the past month, with the Kingdom’s ambassador to South Korea, Suth Dina, arrested and charged with unlawful exploitation and abuse of power in early April after an Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) probe turned up 12.7 kilograms of gold and US$7.2 million cash in his possession.

The Australian Border Force would not confirm the investigation, responding to the Post’s requests for clarification only to say that “the ABF does not comment on any investigations”.

Fairfax reported yesterday that large amounts of tobacco and alcohol were suspected to have been ordered by embassy officials through Unique International Duty Free, based in Melbourne, but the goods were never delivered, and were instead sold off the shelves at retail price in an estimated A$200,000 scheme.

While diplomats are able to import up to 10,000 cigarettes, 500 litres of beer and 120 litres of spirits every six months for personal use (and embassies can import twice that amount), it is illegal to sell on the highly taxed goods without paying taxes to the Australian government.

But Cambodian Ambassador to Australia Koy Kuong stressed that there had been no wrongdoing on his watch. “Our embassy and staff have not done anything wrong or illegal in Australia,” he wrote in an email.

“We always follow strictly the rules and laws of the land.”

Kuong, however, has only been in his post since last year, when he replaced outgoing ambassador Chum Sounry.

Now the spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sounry yesterday professed ignorance of the investigation.

“I have no information,” he said.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan also said he was unaware of the probe.

The owner of Unique International Duty Free, Seng Taing, yesterday told the Post he did provide goods for the Cambodian Embassy, but claimed the transactions were all above board.

Taing, who was born in Cambodia but moved in 1980 to Australia, where he is now a citizen, rebuffed the suggestion he had skimmed some A$200,000 from selling on the goods. “No, I do the right thing,” he said. “It is nothing to do with me . . . the Australian government allows [the Cambodian diplomats] to buy to the limit.”

“My store is duty free; the government allows me to sell tax free,” he added, declining to comment further.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade could not be reached for comment yesterday.

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Amid a devastating drought, the need to dig more, and deeper, wells is threatening to overwhelm the government’s relief budget, according to government and relief agency officials.

The cost of wells rises exponentially with depth. And as groundwater continues to drop, itself exacerbated by the digging of more and more wells, deeper is the only place to go.

“In the past, we made normal wells, but now the simple well does not work,” said Pum Channy, secretary-general of the Cambodian Red Cross.

Men Neary Sopheak, deputy-general of the Red Cross, said that the CRC is working with provincial authorities to dig between 20 and 200 wells in affected villages or communes.

Private wells are often up to 30 metres deep, according to Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology Secretary of State Bun Hean, while government-made wells are up to 60 metres. Sopheak said government wells can be as deep as 80 metres in the mountains.

Both agree that many of the 30-40 metre wells around the country have run dry and the same has begun happening to the 60-metre versions.

“In Kampong Thom, provincial authorities requested for wells to be at least 100 metres deep,” because shallower wells will be ineffective, Sopheak said yesterday.

This is much costlier. Wells of 30-40 metres can cost up to $500. Wells deeper than 70 metres can cost $2,000 and wells of 100 metres can cost $7,000 or more, according to both Hean and Sopheak.

Hean said that this will likely exceed the government’s relief budget, leaving Cambodia at the mercy of international donors.

The need to dig deeper stems mostly from the worst water shortage in half a century. However, according to a February study by Stanford University researchers, a long-term trend of overreliance on groundwater has also led to depleting reserves.

That study found that groundwater use is rising 10 per cent each year. More wells can depressurise underground aquifers, preventing the water from being pushed up, according to a Mekong River Commission water expert who asked to remain anonymous.

About 2.5 million people are affected by the drought, with 500,000 yet to receive assistance according to the National Committee for Disaster Management.

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Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday for the first time publicly addressed the fate of four Adhoc officials and a National Election Committee member arrested last week in relation to the Kem Sokha mistress scandal, floating a possible resolution – a royal pardon. But the suggestion came with a caveat.

Speaking to graduating students from Vanda Institute on Koh Pich, Hun Sen said that while he could ask the King to issue a pardon, it would not be considered if civil society groups kept pushing him while legal proceedings were ongoing. In fact, they would only succeed in making life more difficult for the jailed quintet.

“I do not have the right to interfere with the court’s process,” he said. “But after the verdict becomes final, it is in the hands of the prime minister, who is allowed to make a request to the King for amnesty or pardon.

“Don’t make demands for individuals who have made mistakes,” he continued. “But if you are gentle, I will think about it. If you are arrogant, I will think about that, too.”

The premier’s hint at an amnesty for the quintet came a day after eight people who had attempted to protest for their release were hauled off to jails around Phnom Penh and questioned before being released.

The crackdown on the seemingly benign gathering dubbed “Black Monday” was a necessity, Hun Sen told the students, explaining that he had directed Interior Minister Sar Kheng to suppress any allegedly illegal activities irrespective of the colour associated with the protest.

“Some may call it orange, some red and others black, but for me, if any colour is associated with illegal activities, we will arrest them and the courts will uphold the law,” he said.

Monday’s civil society protest involved NGOs and rights groups asking supporters to dress in black and march to Prey Sar prison, where the four Adhoc staffers – Ny Sokha, Yi Soksan, Nay Vanda and Lem Mony – are being held.

Former Adhoc official and current NEC deputy secretary-general Ny Chakrya is being held at the capital’s PJ prison.

The protest resulted in the hours-long detainment and questioning of four rights group staffers, including two foreign NGO consultants, and a quartet of land rights activists.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said the government’s concern about a potential colour revolution was a result of the opposition’s failed “lotus revolution”, referring to protests that followed the 2013 elections.

“So we identified this as an urban rebellion in the city and we had to handle it,” he said, referring to Monday’s protest.

Siphan said that the government had been made aware of the Black Monday campaign after a dinner last week hosted by the US Embassy and attended by family members of the jailed Adhoc officials, going on to identify political commentator Ou Virak, an attendee at the dinner, as one of its ringleaders.

Virak said it was “ridiculous” to point to a reception at the US Embassy where other ambassadors were in attendance as a place where brainstorming for the protest might have occurred. “This is paranoia,” he added. “What am I going to say to that?”

Pheav Mey, Vanda’s wife and one of the attendees at that dinner yesterday said that the prime minister’s speech had given her hope her husband would be released. “I do not know about the legal procedures, but in the past, if the prime minister says something like that, we can have some hope,” she said.

She added that she dressed in black on Monday to only request Vanda’s release, adding that “if my husband is released, I will stop dressing in black”.

While government officials in the past have said only inmates who have served two-thirds of their sentence were eligible for pardons, lawyer and former head of the Cambodia Defenders Project Sok Sam Oeun said the constitution gave the King a blanket right to issue pardons, with no riders attached.

“The law does not clearly give any criteria, and we have also never seen the King give pardons himself – only after a recommendation is made to him,” he said.

Today, the CNRP acting president Kem Sokha is due to appear before court in relation to a defamation suit, but opposition lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said he would hold to the party’s decision not to honour the summons, and face arrest if necessary.

“The position of our lawmakers was made clear on May 4, so there is nothing to change,” Chhay Eang said. “If the [court] arrests [Kem Sokha], it is a very serious violation of the law.”

On Monday, Anti-Corruption Unit president Om Yentieng said in a radio interview that Sokha would be committing a “real crime” if he failed to show today and could be subject to arrest.

Sokha was summonsed after social media celebrity Thy Sovantha sued him for defamationfor disparaging her in leaked audio recording purportedly between him and alleged mistress Khom Chandarathy.

Sokha and fellow CNRP lawmakers Tok Vanchan and Pin Ratana have also been summonsed next week for questioning related to prostitution.

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During a closed-door session at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday, Muslim community leader Ahmad Yahya denied defaming fellow community leader Othsman Hassan.

Outside of the court, Hassan said he filed the suit because Yahya had told local media and a Muslim radio station that Hassan requested approval to build a road through land belonging to the mosque at Boeung Kak. The road has become a source of tension in the Muslim community, with some believing it will disturb the faithful during prayers.

Hassan, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, maintained the plan was initiated by Phnom Penh City Governor Pa Socheatvong.

But Yahya, himself a secretary of state at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said that it was Hassan who drew the first design for the road and that he also had plans to build condominiums in the area.

“I really didn’t defame him,” Yahya said, adding that the lawsuit was a waste of time. Socheatvong didn’t return a request for comment yesterday, but City Hall administrative director Meas Chanyada confirmed Socheatvong was behind the road, which was part of the 2035 city master plan.

“It’s not Hassan who initiated the project,” Chanyada said.

Hassan did acknowledge, however, that he would like to see the area developed with high rise buildings to benefit the Muslim community.

“We should not let the land go unused,” he said. “We are planning on how to use the land properly.”

Hassan said that he would leave it up to the court to decide on the case.

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Two of Justice Minister Ang Vong Vathana’s alleged partners in an offshore business venture were accused of forging documents, impersonating advisers to US presidents and passing themselves off as UN affiliates, and were arrested shortly after their purported business relationship ended, a newly released document indicates.

On April 4, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced Vong Vathana was one of dozens of senior political figures around the world identified among documents leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca as having offshore business interests. Vong Vathana was listed as a shareholder in the British Virgin Islands-incorporated RCD International Ltd.

At 1am yesterday, the ICIJ published details of the 214,000 companies mentioned in the leak, including the names and addresses of their shareholders. Alongside Vong Vathana, four other shareholders were named as owning shares in RCD International from 2007 to 2010: Dr Soush Saroeun, Dr Lek Bopha and Dr Ray Chhat Dam, all Cambodian, and Arthur Chan Wai Kong, from Malaysia.

While there were minor discrepancies in the spelling of the names of Saroeun and Dam in the transcription of the handwritten register of interests found among the leaks, Saroeun confirmed in an interview yesterday that both were shareholders.

Saroeun and Dam last made headlines when they were arrested on December 18, 2010, on suspicion of fraud and forgery. An onshore company the pair shared in Cambodia, Asia Real Property – Office of International Treasury Control (ARP-OITC) had been passing itself off as an affiliate of the United Nations, had allegedly forged a letter of credit from HSBC and had claimed Dam was an adviser to US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. At the time, UN and US Embassy spokesmen denied any link with Dam or the company.

Their arrests came just over a month after RCD International was struck off the British Virgin Islands corporate register and declared inactive.

In 2006, the year before his name appeared alongside Vong Vathana’s on RCD International’s register of shareholders, Ray Chhat Dam was also sued by the mayor of an Ecuadorian town over an alleged advanced-fee scam.

RCD International shareholder Saroeun said yesterday afternoon that he had not been aware Vathana was a shareholder, and was also unable to comment on the company’s activities, saying he ultimately came to suspect it was not a “real company” and severed ties.

“He just told me he is the international master commitment holder,” Saroeun said of fellow shareholder Ray Chhat Dam, whose initials the company name bears.

Chhat Dam is also the self-appointed chairman of the United Nations Office of International Treasury Control (UNOITC), from which ARP-OITC, the company he shared with Saroeun until 2010, takes the second half of its acronym.

However, spokesmen for the intergovernmental organisation have repeatedly stressed that the UNOITC has nothing to do with the UN, despite Dam and associates’ protestations to the contrary.

A message sent yesterday afternoon to a Facebook profile bearing Dam’s name and photograph remained unseen and unanswered as of press time. The profile lists his profession as executive chairman of the OITC.

Ray Chhat Dam (left), chairman of ARP-OITC group, enters Phnom Penh Municipal Court in 2010. Sovan Philong

It remains unclear what happened to the fraud charges against Chhat Dam and Saroeun. In February 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen gave a speech in Chat Dam’s reported home province of Banteay Meanchey in which he said he “found out that [Dam] really cheated, and then sent the case to the court and now he is in prison”.

Saroeun yesterday would say only that his legal situation was “clear”, and that authorities didn’t “have any problem” with him or Chhat Dam, who he believes left Cambodia in 2010.

Saroeun also identified fellow former RCD shareholder Lek Bopha as an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Sok An. While Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan was unable to confirm this, a Council for the Development of Cambodia PDF dated 2013 does list a Mr Lek Bopha as an adviser to the Council of Ministers.

The chequered past of Vong Vathana’s alleged business associates raised serious questions, observers said yesterday.

Political analyst Ou Virak said the justice minister’s obligation to perform due diligence when entering into commercial partnerships was greater than that of an ordinary citizen and called for an inquiry into how Vong Vathana came to be doing business with suspected fraudsters.

“We have to have an investigation into why was he doing it. Why was this the case? Was he unfortunately named or was he a willing party in all of this?” Virak said, adding that he doubted such an investigation would take place. “I don’t have confidence in the political system.”

San Chey, executive director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability, echoed Virak’s sentiments in an email last night, saying the public’s eyes are on the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in expectation that it will open an investigation. He similarly added that he had only a “minor hope” that it would.

ACU director Om Yentieng said in April that he was considering opening an investigation into Vong Vathana’s alleged offshore business dealings. Representatives of the ACU were not reachable for comment yesterday and government spokesman Phay Siphan did not respond to further inquiries last night as to whether an investigation is planned.

It remains unclear what Vong Vathana’s level of involvement in RCD International was. Both he and Justice Ministry spokesmen have vigorously denied any connection to the company, and spokesmen yesterday declined multiple invitations to comment on the fresh evidence published by the ICIJ.

Ou Virak said he found it unlikely Vong Vathana is the only public official in Cambodia to have been mixed up with unfortunate business partners.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is actually something that’s going on with other officials,” Virak said. “But again, we don’t know. It’s something that I think needs to be addressed and I think the government needs to show that they’re taking measures to make sure that these things are addressed.”

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Two of three members of Prime Minister’s Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit on trial for viciously beating two opposition lawmakers outside parliament last year took the stand yesterday, with more evidence suggesting the attack was coordinated emerging during the second and final day of sitting.

Soldiers Sot Vanny, 45, and Mao Hoeung, 34, yesterday echoed previous testimony by their co-accused, 33-year-old Chhay Sarith, claiming their attack on opposition CNRP parliamentarians Nhay Chamroeun and Kong Sophea was in response to “insults” levelled by the lawmakers.

The parliamentarians – ripped from their cars and assaulted by at least 16 men soon after a mass pro-government rally against opposition leader Kem Sokha – have repeatedly rejected this assertion.

Yesterday, evidence from tuk-tuk driver Ek Sophearak, a witness to the beating, also suggested the suspects’ actions on October 26 were not spontaneous.

Sophearak said he was driving past at about 12pm when he saw about 10 people with red kramas tied around their waists, jump over a fence from inside the National Assembly to chase down and stop the lawmakers’ cars as they reached the south exit.

After the beating, the assailants escaped the scene in coordinated fashion, he said.

“They got on two trucks that were waiting; one of the trucks is white and its number plate was 1939. The trucks were Korean-made, like those that factory workers take,” Sophearak said.

During his testimony, Hoeung described repeatedly kicking and hitting both victims, and confirmed he belonged to the bodyguard’s 2B unit based in Kandal province’s Takhmao town for three years and was trained in Vietnam.

He said his job was to gather intelligence for his superiors, whom he refused to discuss. He confirmed both Vanny and Sarith were also members of the unit, which is under the premier’s command.

Sot Vanny – a 20-year veteran of the premier’s bodyguards – was even cagier when probed about his superiors, becoming visibly irritated on questions of training and discipline. On the morning of the attack, he recalled drinking coffee with 10 friends – some police officers – before hearing about the protests on the group’s walkie talkies.

“Then, we dispersed to our targets and I had to pick up Mao Hoeung at a cafe near the Independence Monument so that he could go and get the information about the demonstration,” said Vanny, who confessed to beating the lawmakers but denied damaging their cars.

The Post last month revealed evidence showing soldiers were ferried from a Bodyguard Unit base in Takhmao run by deputy Bodyguard Unit commander Deang Sarun to the anti-Sokha protest.

During the hearing, lawyer for the victims Sam Sokong argued the attack was “clearly planned and managed”.

“The accused Sot Vanny said he drank coffee with 10 people in the morning, and one of the witnesses said he saw 10 people jump out of the parliament building. So, it is consistent,” he said.

The lawyers for the suspects, who are charged with intentional violence with aggravating circumstances and property damage, yesterday requested a reduced sentence and for the latter charge to be dropped.

Choung Choungy, also representing the victims, demanded the suspects each pay both victims $25,000 in damages.

A verdict is due on May 27.

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After a four-hour standoff, police yesterday fired four tear gas canisters into a Kampot province home to subdue a man accused of slicing the throat of a microfinance institution worker.

Officers arrived at the Chhouk district home of Brok Vet, 47, at about 12pm yesterday after neighbours reported the father of two had allegedly killed a man, later identified as Chim Borin, a 26-year-old Amret Microfinance Institution employee.

“Our police surrounded the house to catch the suspect, who had climbed up on the roof for nearly four hours,” said Kampot provincial police chief Mao Chanmakthurith.

“We decided to use tear gas grenades because the suspect had a sword in his hand and we didn’t want to expose the police to danger.”

After subduing Vet, whose wife, son and daughter were not at home, officers discovered Borin’s body with its throat cut.

The victim was on a routine call to collect money, according to Chanmakthurith.

Though yet to ascertain a motive, Chanmakthurith said a member of Vet’s family had told police the suspect was mentally ill and appeared “possessed” in the days before the attack.

Choun Sokha, chief of Trameng commune, said the suspect, who will face further questioning at the provincial court, was a regular customer of Amret, whose staff visited monthly.

“He did not tell us if he was saving or borrowing money; it’s a personal thing,” Sokha said.

Amret’s Kampot branch declined to comment.

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A special economic zone developer will be allowed to continue bulldozing a mangrove forest in Preah Sihanouk province’s Teuk Thla commune, the provincial governor said yesterday.

Civil society groups had persuaded the provincial Fisheries Administration to ask the governor to protect the ecosystem, which is important for fish breeding.

But the governor said the Bin Hai Special Economic Zone, currently under construction by tycoon Hean Kheang, has a legitimate land title and the area is no longer state property.

“They have the land title and they asked for the development and we cannot stop them,” Governor Yon Min said yesterday.

Bin Hai and its owner could not be reached for comment.

According to a statement by the provincial fisheries office, 1,000 hectares of mangrove forest have been provided to the SEZ to develop. The call to protect the area came from the NGO Cambodia National Research Organisation, its director Sok Sokhom said yesterday.

Unchecked development in mangrove forests decreases fish populations “exponentially”, which spreads poverty through nearby communities, according to Alex Gonzalez-Davidson, founder of environmental advocacy group Mother Nature.

Kao Dana, director of the forestry management office at the Forestry Administration, said mangroves are especially vulnerable this year. Wildfires have decimated thousands of hectares of flooded forests as their waters recede due to drought.

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Anti-economic crime police in Pursat province arrested four fishermen and seized more than 10 boats, some 400 kilograms of fish and five sets of illegal fine-meshed trawling nets totalling some 2,000 metres in length in a protected area on Monday.

Meas Bunthoeun, chief of provincial police unit, said yesterday that the operation took place on the Tonle Sap lake with the cooperation of Fisheries Administration officials in Bakan district.

Though authorities managed to arrest four men – whom they identified as Vietnamese nationals – the rest of their fishing party of more than a dozen managed to escape.

“After the arrest, the four suspects were sent to Pursat town police station and the evidence was sent to [the] Fishery Administration office. Now they are being interrogated,” Bunthoeun said, adding that the four are expected to be sent to court for processing today.

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More than 200 people representing three Preah Vihear province communities were set to discuss land disputes yesterday when police broke up their public forum, according to Tork Hong, a representative of a local community from nearby Prey Lang forest.

Organisers of the forum, which had been scheduled to take place in Chey Sen district’s Tasou commune, had sent a letter to District Governor Chum Poy’s office inviting him to speak, Hong said. However, yesterday morning, police arrived to break it up.

“They banned us from using a microphone or talking to people and asked people not to gather. And they said our letter is not correct, not enough. We wanted the district governor to come to the event in person to hold a question and answer session, but he didn’t even attend and closed our event,” Hong said.

Lor Chan, a provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said he believed the forum was broken up to allow the governor to save face, a move he considered legally dubious.

“I think it is against the law, the Cambodian constitution, which includes the right to hold public forums, the right to assembly and the right to express opinions,” Chan said. “The district governor’s office cannot face the people’s questions because he has not solved the land disputes.”

The event was not the first of its kind to be broken up. Hong said a previous forum had been broken up in 2014. In that instance, she said, the district governor had explicitly given the event permission, but police arrived on the day saying the provincial governor had overruled him.

Representatives of the district governor’s office and district police were unreachable for comment yesterday.

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Three foreign holiday-makers had their travels cut short when they were apprehended on Cambodian soil after they sailed from Vietnam without a visa.

The three – Russian nationals Anastasiia Gudimenko, 20; Mikhail Smolin, 28; and Kazakh national Vitaliy Yartsev, 53 – admitted to Preah Sihanouk provincial immigration police that they docked at the port of Sihanoukville on May 5 and spent three days in the Kingdom before their arrest.

Choun Narin, Preah Sihanouk provincial police chief, said the three were arrested on Sunday at a restaurant.

Narin said that the men told police they had crossed the maritime border illegally after they sailed from the shores of Nha Trang, in Vietnam.

The three had travelled to Cambodia in February this year by bus on valid visas, but were lacking the necessary documents on their latest trip.

They have been charged with crossing into Cambodia and remaining there illegally.

Police are preparing to send them to the General Immigration Department, where the trio are expected to be deported to their home countries but are not expected to face court or be fined.

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