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Marquez knocks out PacquiaoSPORT BACK PAGE

High-tech food lab openedBUSINESS PAGE 7

Anti-China protests flare up again in VietnamWORLD NEWS PAGE - 11

A man inspects the aftermath of a fire at a night market in Siem Reap town on Saturday morning. Eight people were killed during the early morning blaze.WILL BAXTER

Thik Kaliyann and Alistair Walsh

Siem Reap

ADEADLY blaze rippedthrough a popular SiemReap night market killingeight people and leaving

two hospitalised with serious injuriesover the weekend.

On Saturday morning at about 2am

flames that authorities sayoriginated with an electrical faultdecimated market stalls beforeengulfing a housing complex above.

One woman died while clutchinga child.

Authorities are saying that the trag-edy at Siem Reap Night Market, a col-lection of more than 100 stalls locatedon Sivutha Boulevard in the centre ofthe town, resulted in the highest death

toll ever from a fire in recent memory.Four of the victims were children.

According to Siem Reap ProvincialGovernor Sou Phirin, initial estimates

place financial damages from the fireat more than $1 million.

Of the 106 stalls, 92 were completelyburned out, deputy chief of the firedepartment Chheun Chhang said, and10 fire engines responded immedi-ately to a blaze that took firefighters

some two hours to get under control.But Lau Sowong, the owner of a

hotel next door, disputed the account,saying it was more than an hour

before firefighters arrived at thescene. He was coming home from a

wedding party at 2am when he firstsmelled the smoke.

I checked the front of the marketand the fire was just starting, Lausaid. I called to my receptionist to

get all the guests out. The fire justkept burning more and started com-ing over the wall separating us.

The firemen didnt have enough

water to stop the fire and they weretoo late. It burned for nearly an hourbefore they came, Lau said, addingthat the hose was too short and

wasnt spraying enough water.The deputy chief of the fire depart-

ment did not return phone callsasking about the alleged hour-longdelay. The owner of the Siem ReapNight Market could not be reached for

comment.Of the men who were seriously

Market fire kills eightFour children among those dead in blaze

Continues on page 5

Mom Kunthear and Stuart White

MORE than 160,000 Cambodianmigrant workers in Thailand standto be deported if they have notregistered by a December 14 dead-line, potentially exposing them toabuses at the hands of employersand authorities, according to civilsociety.

Officials quoted by Thai state broad-caster MCOT said on Friday that only56,776 Cambodians have successfullycompleted the nationality verificationprocess, leaving another 165,654 Cam-bodians plus more than one millionmigrants from other countries opento arrest, deportation and, accordingto experts and rights groups, exploita-

tion, extortion and debt slavery.Though the Thai government has

extended the nationality verificationdeadline twice before, most recentlypushing it from June 14 to December14, labour expert Andy Hall of the Insti-tute for Population and Social Researchat Mahidol University in Thailand saidthat migrant workers faced unexpectedhurdles in applying.

Its not so difficult, its just corrupt,said Hall, noting that costs for, amongother things, bribes could run ashigh as $200 to $300. Its very expen-sive for them, and its a very bureau-cratic and corrupt process . . . Its notthe workers fault, its the employersand the officials fault.

Continues on page 4

Workerexpulsionlooming

NATIONAL

NEWSINSIDE PAGE 3RIGHTS ABUSES MOUNTING, REPORT CLAIMS

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Eight die in Siem Reap blazeContinued from page 1

injured in the fire, one wassent to Vietnam for additionalburn treatment.

The other, whose condition

was improving yesterday, wasrecuperating at the Jayavara-man VII Hospital, Siem Reapdistrict police chief ThoeungChendarith said.

Guests at the Angkor WallHostel next door, which isseparated from the night mar-ket only by an alley about twometres wide, recounted fleeinginto the street after waking toa commotion.

A Taiwanese national whodeclined to be named said she

was on the first floor of thehostel when shouting rousedher. She then heard a numberof bangs as lights blew out.

She knew something waswrong, and ran.

I was the most scared I havebeen in my life. I thought I wasgoing to die. There was onlyone exit, past the night market.

We covered ourselves in a wettowel and went out one at atime, the woman said.

The heat was intense. I wasthinking: what if the fire comesover here? This is the only exitfrom the building.

The smoke was thick, but itwas all going up. Down here, itwasnt too bad.

It only got worse. The firedestroyed the market, leavinga mass of burnt-out stalls,twisted metal and charredgoods at a time when SiemReap is at the height of its tour-ist season and visitors fromaround the globe stream intothe northwestern province tosee the Angkor temples.

The deaths and damage alsostruck a painful chord at theend of an otherwise momen-tous week for the provincialcapital. Siem Reap Internat-ional Airport celebrated its twomillionth visitor, and the town

was dotted with visual exhib-itions while it hosted the Ang-

kor Photo Festival, which en-ded on Saturday night.

For the market vendors whorely on the seasonal touristinflux every year to survive, theblaze was disastrous.

As usua l, Radi Koe hadlocked up her shop of woodensouvenirs and gone homearound midnight.

Koes phone rang with newsof a fire, but she had alreadyleft her shop and decided toreturn later.

I came here this morning,she told the Poston Saturday,and Ive lost everything. I lostmy shop and around $5,000 ofstock. Its very difficult.

Family members of people killed in a late-night fire mourn at the WatDamnak pagoda in Siem Reap town on Saturday. ALISTAIR WALSH

Casino employeesdispute to escalateMom Kunthear

UNION leaders rep-resenting workersat the TropicanaCasino and Re-

sort, in Banteay Meancheyprovinces Poipet town, areplanning to take an indus-trial dispute that has ragedfor months all the way to theNational Assembly in PhnomPenh.

Bot Vy, vice-president of theFree Trade Unions BanteayMeanchey branch, is hopingthat more than 300 workersat the casino will join him ona trip to the capital in com-ing days to demand certainconditions, including the re-instatement of two sackedunion activists.

We will hold a meeting to-gether and change the waythat we [make] demands

we will go to Phnom Penhtomorrow or after tomorrow,

Vy said yesterday.We are not forcing them

[workers] to follow us, but wewant them go with us happ-ily and willingly, the unionleader said.

The Tropicana Casino and

Resort has not budged on a

series of worker demands af-ter the latest two-day strike.

Among other things, work-ers at the popular border ca-sino were demanding thatthe company reinstate twosacked union activists andback-pay them since the dayof termination, Vy said.

He also wants the companyto come good on a promisefor a guaranteed maximum

eight-hour day, paid sickleave if an employee providesa medical certificate and 18days of annual leave, in addit-ion to Cambodias 26 nationalpublic holidays.

Hong Prakorb, deputy chiefof the Banteay Meanchey pro-vincial labour department,said he would wait for a for-

mal response from the casino

before taking further actionin the dispute.

The company representat-ives promised to give an an-swer to the workers demandstomorrow because they needtime to discuss with theirmanager, he said.

The Post could not reachrepresentatives of the Tropi-cana Casino and Resort forcomment yesterday.

In September, the casinoagreed to 18 of 21 grievances,including the unions dem-ands in relation to annualleave, sick leave and set work-ing hours, but workers main-tain the company never actu-ally followed through.

The casino has not agreedto reinstate sacked activistsincluding former union lead-er Sath Ser, who was fired inMarch in a move he alleges

was retribution for helpinganother worker who had beenunfairly dismissed.

We will . . .change the waythat we [make]

demands