Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

After 11 more Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam reportedly arrived in Ratanakkiri province late on Sunday evening, the United Nations yesterday said it was looking into unconfirmed reports from local villagers that eight others had been found dead in the province. While it was impossible ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court on Friday questioned an Areng Valley villager opposed to a government-backed hydropower dam over allegations of illegal logging but has yet to lay charges. ...

Police in Mondolkiri province on Tuesday burned down more than 130 shelters belonging to a community of ethnic Bunong families in Keo Seima district that authorities accuse of squatting on a Vietnam­ese rubber plantation, a local official said. ...

Ethnic minority villagers who live in the planned reservoir zone of the Lower Sesan II hydropower project along the Sesan and Srepok rivers have said they will not move from their homes unless the dam company and authorities pay for the removal of their ancestors’ ...

Despite Cambodia’s indigenous peoples being legally recognised and protected under the country’s Forestry and Land Laws, limited implementation combined with a lack of coordination have resulted in many indigenous communities being denied their land and legal rights, according to a report released this month by ...

Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Friday pledged to protect the culture of Cambodia’s indigenous minorities, before going on to say that those groups need to learn to survive without relying on the forests they have depended on for centuries. ...

Following talks with indigenous villagers over the weekend, which saw promises of jobs and English language lessons, there are high hopes that a foreign company looking to extract gold in Ratanakkiri will be awarded the first-ever mining licence in the province. Representatives of Mesco Gold met ...

A senior refugee department official has said that ethnic Jarai Montagnards fleeing alleged persecution in neighbouring Vietnam need to enter Cambodia via official checkpoints in order to register as asylum seekers on arrival. ...

Four of the 36 Jarai Montagnards deported last month have “disappeared” from their village in Vietnam’s central highlands, prompting fears among villagers that they may have been detained by the authorities. The group of 36 Montagnards was deported on the night of February 24 after attempting ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court has agreed to a request to delay the questioning of an anti-dam activist accused of illegally felling trees to build a community center in the Areng Valley. Ven Vorn—an ethnic Chong who has joined local protests organized by the NGO Mother ...

A plantation company with its sights set on a community forest long used by local ethnic minority Jarai in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district arranged a meeting with more than 200 villagers this week to try to persuade them to sign over the woodland. Representatives of the Heng ...

A Cambodian national who was allegedly arrested on Thursday alongside dozens of Montagnard asylum seekers remained missing yesterday, while those sent back to Vietnam were reportedly abused by authorities for their attempted escape. Forty-two-year-old Dy Heun, an ethnic Jarai from Ratanakkiri province, was officially reported missing ...

In the heart of the Areng Valley, on the edges of the rolling Cardamom Mountains, an old Bodhi tree pierces the thick green canopy. At its base, nestled in between its hanging roots, sits a ramshackle altar of tin and timber for the spirit of ...

A group of nine Montagnard asylum seekers hiding out in Ratanakkiri province had a close brush with law enforcement officials yesterday, even as a new group of the Vietnamese ethnic minority crossed the border into Cambodia, a rights group and a villager helping the hiding ...

The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if ...

Local officials in Ratanakkiri province are actively preventing a team of U.N. workers in the area from making any attempt to reach nearly 40 Montagnard asylum seekers now hiding in the province. ...

The Ministry of Interior on Wednesday said it was standing by its decision to not renew the visa of outspoken environmental activist Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson in the face of mounting pressure from fellow activists, NGOs, unions, students and monks—even opposition leader Sam Rainsy—to reverse course. ...

US Ambassador William Todd has spoken out about ongoing arrivals of Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam, saying that the international community is concerned about their treatment and urging the government to give the fleeing Christian minority unimpeded access to “internationally accepted asylum procedures”. ...

As security forces in Ratanakkiri province continued to seek the arrest yesterday of 32 Montagnards hiding there, villagers and a local rights worker said the harsh conditions had taken their toll on two of the asylum seekers. ...

Three Montagnards, including a 10-year-old girl, arrived yesterday morning at the government’s Refugee Department in Phnom Penh to process their asylum claims. ...

Three Montagnards, including a 10-year-old girl, arrived yesterday morning at the government’s Refugee Department in Phnom Penh to process their asylum claims. ...

Nine more Montagnard asylum seekers crossed into Ratanakkiri on Tuesday, bringing the total number hiding in the province’s O’Yadaw district to 32, a police official said Wednesday. ...

Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia and who are found to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam will not be allowed to stay in the Kingdom if a third country does not accept them, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday. Speaking after opening a workshop on violence against ...

Representatives of communities across the country who have had their lives upturned by development projects yesterday called on the government to rescind the economic land concessions at the centre of their disputes. ...