Public land lease

Since 2009, local human rights group Adhoc has documented 623 cases of land conflict in the country, yet only a little more than 10 percent of those cases were brought to court. The statistics highlight the lack of trust ordinary Cambodians have in the court system, says Adhoc, ...

A Borei Keila protester received a summons yesterday to come to Phnom Penh Municipal Court to address a complaint of “incitement to commit a crime” filed by Suy Sophan, director of the Phanimex company, which evicted the Borei Keila families in January. Borei Keila resident Tim ...

An opposition lawmaker is calling for the government to publicise its licensing of Cambodian mines, claiming that parliament has never received formal documentation of licensed mining companies. In a letter to Minister of Industry Mines & Energy Suy Sem last week, Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court has charged a local police official with causing “unintentional injuries” during a shooting in February that left three garment factory workers injured in Bavet City, court officials said yesterday. Former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith was charged with the same crime ...

Sixty-nine families in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district have been ordered by the government to move from a 4,000-meter-square plot of land claimed by a local businessman, according to district authorities. The disputed area is part of a 9-hectare plot of land in Svay Pak commune owned by ...

About 100 villagers from Pailin province travelled to Phnom Penh yesterday to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their 70-hectare land dispute with the provincial governor, a village representative said. Dem Deam, 40, a resident of Pailin’s Stung Trang commune in Sala Krao district, ...

Two months after their release from Prey Sar prison, members of the so-called Boeung Kak 13 were yesterday at the forefront of more calls for authorities to mark out land promised to their community. About 50 Boeung Kak women and children gathered outside to urge authorities to ...

A mission to examine political rights in Cambodia has been increasingly overshadowed by the Kingdom’s dire land rights situation, the 2012 report from Cambodia’s UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights, published yesterday, shows. Cambodia’s rapporteur, Surya Subedi, conducted two fact-finding missions to Cambodia ...

About 50 villagers in Kandal province protested yesterday in an attempt to halt the activities of a Vietnamese sand-dredging company, which they said has caused a huge swath of their land to slide into the Mekong River. Residents of Kien Svay district’s Koh Prak village said ...

The Sahrika reports that around 50 villagers in Kandal province protested yesterday in an attempt to stop the sand dredging operation on the Mekong River. “The activity of sand dredging has severely affected our villagers’ lands and houses”, said village representative Tuy Phy. Kandal province residents believe ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a draft report on political rights in Cambodia, which made outline efforts being made by the government to reduce poverty and secure land titles for millions across the country, a measure that Cambodia must complete as a signatory ...

As Australian operator Toll Royal Railways looks at a possible withdrawal from in Cambodia, a new China-backed company tries to take over and promise to rehabilitate more tracks including Phnom Penh-Saigon Toll Royal Railway won in 2010 a concession to operate and upgrade the Cambodian rail ...

BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investment firm, has purchased a multi-million dollar stake in a mining firm with a gold exploration licenses in Cambodia. Stephen Promnitz, CEO of Indochine Mining, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and holds a gold exploration license in Kratie ...

Domestic rubber prices are likely to stay below 120 baht a kilogramme over the next five years due to the sluggish world economic outlook that has sapped demand. The lingering euro-zone debt crisis, weak growth in rubber-using countries and rising production in Asean will continue to ...

The government has reclassified 23,182 hectares of state land in Preah Vihear province for private development by three agro-industry firms, paving the way for them to secure economic land concessions (ELCs). Reclassification of state public land to state private land is a key step toward establishing ...

With renovation work on the country’s dilapidated railway at a standstill, the Ministry of Public Works has entered into talks with a regional consortium backed by one of the largest firms in China to replace the railway’s current operator, officials said yesterday. Faced with a ...

A company with ties to one of China’s top state-owned firms will look to push Toll Royal Railways and its local partner Royal Group of Companies out of a 30-year railroad concession with pledge to invest nearly US$850 million to revamp existing lines and build an additional ...

Four villagers accused of masterminding the theft and intentional damage of property belonging to Cheat Aphiwat Co Ltd in a land dispute will have another month to prepare for trial after right groups Adhoc garnered them a delay yesterday. A village chief and three other villagers ...

Borei Keila families have slept under staircases near piles of rubbish since they were forced from their homes on January 3, but they are hopeful of compensation following an unexpected visit from city officials last week. Representative Chum Ngan, 39, said village, commune and Phnom Penh ...

More than 100 Cham families living in boats on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Chongva peninsula have agreed to relocate upriver after they celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan over the weekend, a community representative said on Friday. Matt Kriya, a representative ...

Renaissance Minerals announced Friday it has discovered a high-grade gold deposit in an area in Mondolkiri province that lies within the Australian firm’s Cambodian Gold Project. The new find is located about 500 meters to the northeast of the company’s Okvau exploration zone. The announcement comes ...

Two men from Kratie province who were removed from a vehicle on Tuesday while traveling to Phnom Penh to demonstrate at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house over a land dispute, have been arrested by internal security police and charged with fraud, an official said yesterday. Sless ...

More than 180,000 hectares on 28 of Cambodia’s 64 islands were reclassified as state private property for 31 companies seeking land concessions between 2008 and 2010, government sub-decrees reveal. The reclassification sub-decrees, compiled by investigators at the rights group Adhoc, pave the way for firms to ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called investors from China’s Anhui province to invest in numerous sectors across Cambodia in an effort to spur two-way trade between the Kingdom and China in order accomplish their joint target of US$5 billion in trade by 2015. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s opposition party ...