International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: Lindemann family returns 33 long-sought ancient statues to Cambodia. “Billionaire George Lindemann showcased his collection of Khmer treasures and passed them on to his children. But investigations by ICIJ and others traced many of his prized antiquities back to pillaged sacred sites.”
New York Times: A Global Cyber-Scam Industry Is Booming in Plain Sight in Cambodia . “Around the world, reports of cyber-scam schemes targeting unsuspecting victims online have proliferated rapidly. Southeast Asia has become a center of gravity for those criminal syndicates, often in remote and war-torn corners. But in Cambodia, the scam industry has been flourishing well within the reach of officials.”
Committee to Protect Journalists: Cambodia blocks websites, social media accounts of 3 outlets ahead of Sunday election . “In a July 12 letter, the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia ordered local internet service providers (ISPs) to block the websites and social media accounts of The Cambodia Daily, U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Kamnotra, a new independent public database, according to reports by RFA, Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA), a local advocacy and news organization, and Voice of America (VOA), which is also funded by Congress. The order targeted a total of nine domains among the three news organizations, VOA reported.”
ProPublica: Authorities Raid Alleged Cyberscam Compounds in Cambodia. “Human traffickers who have forced workers to engage in investment scams that defrauded victims out of millions have been disrupted, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, Apple’s app store has removed an app that frequently facilitated the frauds.”
New York Times: Selfies Further Endanger Rare Phallic Plant, Conservationists Fear. “In Cambodia, video of women suggestively joking around with a protected carnivorous specimen prompted a government admonition: Hands off, people.”
BBC: The long struggle to return Cambodia’s looted treasures. “Cambodia is calling on the UK government to help it recover antiquities it says were stolen from its temples. The country’s culture minister says the Victoria & Albert and British Museums both have looted objects.”
New-to-me, from Center for Research Libraries: Global Press Archive CRL Alliance adds Southeast Asian Newspapers as digital open access collection. “The Center for Research Libraries and East View Information Services have launched Southeast Asian Newspapers(link is external), the fifth open access collection of titles digitized under the Global Press Archive CRL Alliance…. The Southeast Asian Newspapers collection encompasses over 265,000 digitized pages from 65 publications, including: Gia định báo (the first Vietnamese newspaper, published in Saigon from 1865–1910), Nagara vatta (the first Cambodian-language newspaper), and Bramartani (a weekly newspaper from Surakarka, Indonesia), among others.”
Khmer Times: Human traffickers use social media to lure job seekers to Cambodia. “Human traffickers in Việt Nam are finding ever more inventive ways to lure potential victims overseas for exploitation. Through social media networks like Facebook or Zalo, they are offering well-paid jobs at casinos or online games in Cambodia, before springing their trap.”
US Department of Justice: Major Collection Of Cambodian And Southeast Asian Antiquities Is Subject Of Forfeiture Action Filed In Manhattan Federal Court. “Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Ricky J. Patel, the Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Department of Homeland Security (‘HSI’), announced today the filing of a civil complaint seeking forfeiture of 35 Cambodian and Southeast Asian antiquities from a private American collection for the purpose of returning the antiquities to their countries of origin.”
New York Times: Cambodia Says Looter Helping It Reclaim Stolen Artifacts Has Died. “Cambodian officials say a reformed looter who directed a ring that pillaged Khmer-era temples for two decades, ending in the late 1990s, has died, but that they will continue to use the testimony he provided as they work to reclaim more stolen artifacts. The man, Toek Tik, 62, spent the last two years informing officials of his activities as he sought to help them reclaim hundreds of statues and other relics he said he had personally looted, many of which, Cambodia says, are now in private hands and museum collections.”
Association of Southeast Asian Nations: ASEAN launches first e-exhibition on cultural heritage digital archive portal . “‘Forging History’ brings focus to the roles of metals in transforming the ASEAN region’s history and cultures. It features 22 digitised cultural heritage treasures selected by guest curator Girard Phillip E. Bonotan with support from museums and archival institutions of the ASEAN Member States. Highlights of the e-exhibition include Buddhist manuscript cabinets from Thailand, golden crowns from Indonesia, and modern metal artworks created by Malaysian artists, among others.” You can get an overview of ASEAN and its member nations here.
Khmer Times: Lifting Cambodia out of the ‘COVID-19 Rut’ with support from the Cash Transfer Program. “In July 2020, the Cambodian government introduced a COVID-19 Cash Transfer program to help the vulnerable and those living in poverty ease the economic impact of the pandemic. The program is a monthly cash allowance on top of the subsidies already being received by qualified households through existing social assistance schemes. The program was greatly facilitated by a database and community based identification system that targets beneficiaries—a first for the country.”
Associated Press: Cambodia reopens 2 weeks early, buoyed by high vaccine rates. ” Cambodia reopened its borders to fully vaccinated travelers on Monday, two weeks earlier than originally planned, as it emerges from a lengthy lockdown bolstered by one of the world’s highest rates of immunization against COVID-19. The program allows visitors to skip quarantine measures if they are fully vaccinated, test negative 72 hours before they enter the country and test negative upon their arrival.”
Radio Free Asia: Facebook Papers: Chinese state-linked hackers targeting Cambodian opposition. “A hacker collective with suspected ties to Chinese intelligence has engaged in ‘consistent and long-term targeting’ of officials from the Cambodia National Rescue Party, an internal investigation by Facebook found.”
New York Times: Cambodia Says the Met Museum Has Dozens of Its Looted Antiquities. “The country’s culture minister cites new evidence, including the account of a reformed looter, to assert that numerous artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art were stolen from ancient sites.”
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