Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

Representatives of 14 ethnic mi­nority communities in Ratana­kkiri province on Friday accepted $1,700 each from Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) to buy a buffalo and hold a ceremony to appease the spirits that had been disturbed by the firm’s plantations. ...

The move toward modernity and development is often represented in numbers: growth in GDP, wellness indicators and many other kinds of statistics. ...

With the deadline looming for hundreds of Montagnard asylum seekers in Cambodia to return “voluntarily” to the site of their alleged persecution or be forced back across the border, a group who have spent months living in the shadows this week spoke out about their ...

Two Muslim Rohingya refugees have volunteered to resettle in Cambodia as part of a controversial deal in which Australia has promised to pay more than U.S. $40 million in costs and aid to the Southeast Asian country for taking refugees off its hands, a Cambodian ...

A group of 900 Bunong villagers are seeking the removal of the governor of Mondolkiri, complaining in a petition that was submitted to the government Monday that he does not respect the rights of ethnic minorities in the province. ...

Eleven international organizations on Thursday condemned Cambodia’s plan to repatriate scores of Montagnards who claim to be fleeing oppression in Vietnam, while the government on Friday reiterated its position that the Montagnards were not legitimate refugees. ...

Fearing the loss of their water source, hundreds of villagers of the Jarai ethnic minority last week continued to block an Australian gold mining company from accessing a plot of land in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district that is licensed for exploration.Angkor Gold Company, which first ...

Indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province on Monday called for an investigation into a saw mill they say has polluted their local waterway and caused residents to contract a skin disease. ...

The relatives and neighbors of two sisters who were arrested in Phnom Penh last week over the alleged sexual enslavement of their 13-year-old niece are angry. Members of the mostly Cham Muslim community living along the Tonle Sap river in Russei Keo district’s Chraing Chamreh ...

Around a thousand people from Cambodian government institutions, experts and aid workers as well as community members gathered Sunday to shine a light on a variety of issues faced by the country’s indigenous peoples — including access to modern health care. ...

Twelve Montagnards were voluntarily repatriated to Vietnam on Friday through a Ratanakkiri province border checkpoint after being cheated by a broker who promised them jobs in Thailand, according to officials.​ ...

A school meal program run by the World Food Program (WFP) has run out of funds, forcing it to transfer about half of its schools to government care. ...

Just days after a dozen Montagnard asylum seekers returned to Vietnam having given up on being granted refugee status, 11 more arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, according to the United Nations. ...

Up to 1,500 new educators, almost all exclusively Muslims from the Cham Community in Cambodia, will be recruited to join the country’s teaching force. ...

An intensified campaign of religious and political persecution of Montagnards by security forces in Vietnam is responsible for more than 150 of the group fleeing to Cambodia, while authorities in both countries are working together to track down asylum seekers crossing the border, Human Rights ...

After spending five days hiding out in the forest in Ratanakkiri province, two teenage Montagnard asylum seekers made their way to Phnom Penh on Friday where they joined more than 100 others waiting to be registered. ...

In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, bringing the number waiting to apply for refugee status to 109, according to the United Nations. Vivian Tan, regional spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said the Montagnards – an indigenous group ...

Far from urban comforts and civilization, Belgian photographer Cédric Delannoy spent three years in remote Ratanakiri indigenous villages. After hunting for forest crickets with local children, washing his clothes in a stream and attending village meetings, Mr. Delannoy became part of a community that would ...

Sixteen Cambodian students studying in war-torn Yemen were scheduled to fly out of Oman’s capital, Muscat, late Monday night and were expected to arrive in Phnom Penh at 3 p.m. Tuesday. ...

The Mondolkiri Provincial Court on Saturday charged a man with having sex with an underage girl, but a rights worker and the girl’s father said Sunday that the allegations were fabricated in retaliation for the man’s involvement in recent protests against a Vietnamese rubber plantation. ...

Villagers in Ratanakkiri province discovered yesterday that a corpse previously believed to be a Vietnamese Montagnard was a local man, as they reportedly met with a United Nations official to discuss the fate of asylum seekers still hiding in the area. A group of ethnic Jarai ...

Authorities in Ratanakkiri province on Tuesday said local residents were probably lying about having recently come across the partially buried body of a Montagnard asylum seeker from Vietnam. ...

Eight Cambodian nationals studying in Yemen remained trapped in the capital of Sanaa on Monday as sectarian violence continued to consume the country, officials said. ...