The Cambodia daily All the News Without Fear or Favor Friday, March 13, 2015 Volume 60 Issue 78 2,000 riel/50 cents Group Finds ‘Systematic’ Abuse at Garment Plants B y Z SOmBOr P eter THE CAMBODIA DAILY Forced overtime, child labor, union busting, abuse of short-term contracts and shadowy subcontracted factories remain rampant in the country’s $5.75 billion garment sector amid “dismal” government oversight, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in a new report. “Work Faster or Get Out: Labor rights abuses in Cambodia’s Garment Industry,” released yesterday after interviews with hundreds of workers at dozens of factories last year, also blames the major international brands sourcing from Cambodia, including H&M and Adidas, for not doing enough to help workers. The government and factories say the abuses are more the exception than the rule. “But what we have found is systematic problems,” Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy director for Asia, said at the report’s launch in Phnom Penh. “We see systematic use of [fixed duration contracts] to keep everybody on short-term contracts and ensure that they have no security at work. We see systematic union busting, retaliation against workers for exercising their rights guaranteed in the Constitution and in the Labor Continued on page 2 Siv Channa/The Cambodia Daily General Sao Sokha, commander of the military police and president of the Football Federation of Cambodia, congratulates national team players after they beat Macau 3-0 in their first World Cup qualifier at Phnom Penh's Old Stadium yesterday. (Story page 21) Ministry Sold Land From Under 163 Families B y S ek O dOm THE CAMBODIA DAILY The day before a hectare of land in Phnom Penh was set to be divided among 163 families who won a rare land-dispute victory over a wealthy businesswoman, the Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday is sued a letter claiming it gave the entire plot to a construction firm in 2009. The families were granted the 9,982-square-meter plot in Sen Sok district by the Phnom Penh Mu - LOS ANGELES TIMES Page 3 cambodiadaily.com that a deputy prosecutor from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, aided by police, intended to intervene yesterday and properly divide up the land among the 163 families. Before the work could begin, however, the Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday sent a letter to Municipal Court director Taing Sunlay claiming the ministry previously owned the plot and in 2009 gave it the Kim Hap Company as part of a land swap. Continued on page 7 Two Police Officers Shot During Ferguson Protest B y m att P earce Court Orders Family off Khun Sear's Land, Lawyer Says nicipal Court in 2007 following a dispute with local businesswoman Keo Neam. Ms. Neam unsuccessfully challenged the municipal court’s decision, which was upheld by the Appeal Court in 2008 and by the Supreme Court in 2011. One of the awardees, Chea Sarom, has since claimed the whole area for her family and prevented the others from settling on it. But on Wednesday, deputy district governor Mou Manith said Two St. Louis County police officers were shot outside the Fergu son Police Department during another night of protests in the troubled Missouri city, police confirmed early yesterday. St. Louis County Police chief Jon Belmar said two officers were hospitalized after the shooting, which occurred shortly after midnight during demonstrations that followed the resignation of the Fer guson police chief Wednesday. “These police officers were standing there, and they were shot-just because they were police officers,” Belmar told reporters. An officer from the St. Louis County Police Department, 41 years old and a 14-year veteran, was shot in the shoulder, and an officer from the Webster Groves Police Department, 32, was shot in the face, he said. The turbulent night followed Wednesday’s announcement that Ferguson Police chief Thomas Jackson planned to resign in the The Daily Newspaper of Record Since 1993 wake of a scathing U.S. Justice De partment investigative report that followed the fatal police shooting last summer of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black man. Violent protests followed the shooting, and more demonstrations erupted when a grand jury elected not to indict the white officer, Darren Wilson, who said he shot Brown after the young man tried to grab his gun. The Justice Department also cleared Wilson, who has since left Continued on page 17