Heang Rithy, president of the Cambodian National Research Organization a critic of the government’s human rights record, said Monday he was threatened by gunpoint Thursday night.

The organization documents human rights abuses, especially in the growing problem of land-grabbing. Heang Rithy is an outspoken critic of the Cambodian government.

Heang Rithy filed a complaint with the Ministry of Interior Friday, claiming he had been driving to his office Thursday night, in Chamkar Mon district, when a luxury car with military police plates pulled in front of him and stopped. The driver pointed a pistol at him and told him to step out of his car and threatened to shoot him, according to the complaint.

Heang Rithy said Monday he was worried the threat was related to his work, especially radio broadcasts on Beehive Radio FM105 criticizing the government’s human rights efforts and detailing rights abuses.

Ministry of Interior officials could not be reached for comment Monday, a national holiday.

Maj. Huot Sam Ol, commander of Chamkar Mon military police, said he received a direct complaint from Heang Rithy.

“But I think it is not a political threat,” he said. “Just a traffic incident.”

Military police would investigate, he said.

Heang Rithy said the threat was not traffic related.

Chan Soveth, an investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said Monday he received a complaint from Heang Rithy but had not yet opened an investigation. It was difficult to judge whether the threat was political or traffic related.

Noun Kim Sry, center, mother of jailed Born Samnang, joins in a call Tuesday for a Supreme Court hearing for her son and fellow convicted prisoner Sok Samoeun.

Born Samnang, 28, and Sok Samoeun, 40, have been in jail since their arrest in January 2004, following the shooting of labor leader Chea Vichea.

Both men were found guilty of the murder of Chea Vichea and face 20 years in prison each. They were arrested shortly after the killing and were convicted despite the absence of witness testimony or a murder weapon and in the face of convincing alibis for both.

The Appeals Court upheld a guilty verdict in April 2007. The Supreme Court has not set a date to hear their final appeal. A Supreme Court prosecutor said Tuesday he was not aware of any hearing date.

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Federation of Unions, said Tuesday the two men have waited 17 months to have a hearing by the Supreme Court, a violation of a law that requires a hearing within six months of receiving a case.

About 100 people, including family of the accused, gathered outside the prison Tuesday morning to watch the release of 1,700 white balloons into the air above the prison.

The garment industry must work to decrease illegal strikes and better train workers before the end of the year, when competition from Chinese could further damage the sector, a new analysis suggests.

Growth within Cambodia’s top industry slowed in 2008, and a recent International Labor Organization report found that of 35 labor strikes in 2007, 32 were illegal. Meanwhile, the amount of value a Cambodian worker can add to a garment is much lower than in neighboring countries.

Price competition is expected to increase when the US lifts safeguards on Chinese exports at the end of the year, according to the Cambodia Institute of Development Study, which issued a monitoring report in July.

“As price competition will likely continue to intensify…Cambodian factories will likely lean on the strategy of labor compliance in the short term and raising productivity and skills in the long term,” according to the report.

Union leaders need to be trained to understand the basics of the global economy and be ready to compete in it, said Kang Chadararoth, director of the Institute.

Workers and managers must learn to resolve their problems to keep a factory viable, he said.

“We have to take responsibility, even if we are workers depending on monthly wages. If the factory is good we get more wages,” he said. “The factory owner also has to do the same thing. If they pay the workers on time...care about working conditions, have good relationships, then the environment of the factory is good, and you are able to compete better.”

Kaing Monika, an official with the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia, said Cambodia had a productivity problem, not a labor compliance problem. Nearly 90 percent of factories complied with labor laws, he said.

Commerce Minister Cham Prasidh said the government has been aware of the lifting of trade barriers with Vietnam and China and has been preparing for the competition.

“We have made a working conditions policy for all factories to respect the rights of workers, and we use this reputation to attract buyers,” he said. “We are succeeding and we are a country as a good symbol to the world.”