Tuesday, 1.5.2007 – May Day

The First of May is a National Holiday in Cambodia – therefore we do not have translations from the Khmer language press today.

But it is significant that a full page ad has been in several newspapers published in Cambodia, a “joint statement endorsed by 242 groups from Cambodia and 82 countries worldwide” – “calling on the Cambodian authorities to conduct a professional and thorough investigation into the murder of Hy Vuthy, the President if the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia.” As this murder comes after at least nine violent attacks on union leaders in Phnom Penh in 2006, the text continues: “We urge the public to join us in this call for justice, to give a clear signal to the perpetrators that their acts of violence against trade unionists or other human rights defenders will not be tolerated.”

Not only labor unionists, also five major buyers of Cambodian textile products have also raised their concerns – we did document a report, and we included references to the social responsibility statements of these companies. Some of our readers expressed surprise that big international business would make such statements of social responsibility public in their own name.

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These events and publications reflect another unfortunate event which brings the name of Cambodia again into the international press.

We dare to add today quite a different reference which we received from an occasional reader in Germany: the name of a successful young German soccer player – from the club “1. FC Nuernberg” – is achieving more and more attention. Why do we report this also? He will raise more and wider interest among the German sports fans for Cambodia. His name is Chunly Papenberg – his father is from Germany, his mother from Cambodia.

Cambodia is no longer the isolated country it was some years ago. Whatever happens – in industry here and in sports far away – it makes many people aware of what is happening in Cambodia – good and bad.