First Vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management (also sacked) is owner of Kampot Zoo, Minister Nhim Vanda (or I should say ex Minister).

Firefly wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 4:05 am First Vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management (also sacked) is owner of Kampot Zoo, Minister Nhim Vanda (or I should say ex Minister).

Yep. ' Terrible zoo. Many of us fondly called him the minister FOR natural disasters.

This story was big news back in my early days in cambodia. Wildlife Alliance ambushed this little bit of wildlife trafficking in downtown Phnom Penh. After a few days of power-tussling the poor beast was returned to the Minister who commented "My men were just taking the ape to the doctor - see i love my animals"

See AFP story below

"An orangutan has been seized from a senior government official in Cambodia as the animal was being driven across Phnom Penh in a taxi.

The four-year-old ape is said to have been rescued by wildlife conservationists in an operation backed by Cambodian military police.

But the official concerned – National Disaster Committee Nhim Vanda – says he received the orangutan two months ago, and had permission to keep the animal in one of his two private zoos.

He also says he will be filing a complaint if the ape is not returned.

“They arrested my orangutan. If they don’t give the animal back to me at my request, I will strongly attack the group,” he told AFP news agency."

Firefly wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 4:05 am First Vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management (also sacked) is owner of Kampot Zoo, Minister Nhim Vanda (or I should say ex Minister).

This guy isn't very bright. He got sack because HE called him asking where he was, it went like :
- "Where are you ?"
- "On disaster site, Sir!"
- "That's weird, I came here directly from Bangkok too, I don't see you."

So far, five Chinese, a Vietnamese and a Cambodian face charges over the building collapse.

Cambodia charges Chinese nationals over deadly building collapse
25 June 2019
Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court charged seven people on Tuesday, including five Chinese nationals, with involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy after 28 people died in a collapsed building on the weekend.

Some 26 people were injured after the Chinese-owned building collapsed on Saturday in the coastal town of Sihanoukville, prompting Prime Minister HE to fire a top disaster management official.

Investigators are trying to determine what caused the seven-storey steel and concrete structure to crumple without warning before dawn, trapping construction workers who were sleeping on the site. The last two survivors were found on Monday.

The port and resort town has seen a rush of Chinese investment in recent years, especially in the casino, property and tourism sectors, and questions have been raised about construction standards.

Prosecutors charged two Chinese nationals, the building owner Chen Kun and construction supervisor Deng Xing Gui, with involuntary manslaughter, causing unintentional injuries and damage, according to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court.

Three other Chinese nationals, a Vietnamese and a Cambodian were charged with conspiracy related to the charges, the court documents showed.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-camb ... SKCN1TQ0CZ

How Cambodian workers risk their lives in China-funded construction boom, toiling for $13.50 a day
27 June 2019
When Sam Sok took a US$6-a-day (S$8.15) job as a construction labourer in Sihanoukville she knew it could be dangerous, but the deaths of 28 workers in a building collapse - with her nephew among the missing - have laid bare the risks many like her face to earn a living.

She left her eight-year-old son with neighbours more than 100km, one of thousands pushed by poverty seeking to cash in on the once sleepy seaside town's Chinese-funded construction boom.

The work is mostly unregulated, low paid, often dangerous - and sometimes deadly.

"We do this because of money but now … we are afraid that we might meet the same unfortunate end," the 32-year-old said.

"We work in fear now," she said, from a hospital in Sihanoukville, where she was searching for her missing nephew.

Many were buried in their sleep when the Chinese-owned building - which was still under construction - crumbled before dawn on Saturday, and she fears her nephew was among them.

Like most migrant workers, the labourers lived in the structure they were building, having travelled far from home to earn a bit of cash to get by.

Like so many others, Sam Sok chased rumours of riches in Sihanoukville, having heard from villagers in her hometown about the money to be made.

She earned US$6 a day ferrying metal and wooden planks at different sites in the fast-booming city, where dozens of Chinese-funded casinos and hotels are being built to serve a mushrooming tourism industry fuelled by visitors from China.

With wages reaching as high as US$10 per day, the money is often better than what workers could make on a farm or even in a factory.
https://www.asiaone.com/asia/how-cambod ... g-1350-day

Cambodia Promotes Former Governor of Sihanoukville Who Resigned Over Fatal Building Collapse
By VOA Cambodia -
June 29, 2019
Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni on Thursday appointed the former governor of Preah Sihanouk province as secretary of state to the Ministry of National Defense, days after he resigned over a fatal building collapse, drawing condemnation from observers who called the promotion a “slap in the face.”
In full: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 70549.html

^^ You can't make this shit up.

Reminder. It's not only in Sihanoukville that buildings are collapsing in Cambodia due to shoddy workmanship.
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