Public land lease
Concessions
Protesting families demand answers from ADB
Phnom Penh families who face losing a part of their land to a railway rehabilitation project being funded primarily by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) protested in front of the bank’s country headquarters Monday over what they say has been a lack of transparency about ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protesting-families-demand-answers-from-adb-66271/
Chroy Changva families accept OCIC package
Thirty-one families in Chroy Changva district Monday agreed to move off land that has been slated for a $3 billion development project in exchange for an apartment and a market stall nearby, officials said. ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chroy-changva-families-accept-ocic-package-66280/
City Hall meets evictees to discuss compensation
Phnom Penh city officials on Tuesday for the first time met face to face with former residents from the Borei Keila neighborhood, who have regularly protested since their forced evictions in 2012. Phnom Penh Governor Khun Sreng said the forum will work toward sorting out “real ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/city-hall-meets-evictees-to-discuss-compensation/2410789.html
Boeng Kak evictees protest at Singapore Embassy
A small group of evictees from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood protested in front of the Singapore Embassy Monday morning against a Singaporean company’s plan to buy a plot of land inside the neighborhood, from which they say they were pushed out illegally. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-evictees-protest-at-singapore-embassy-65708/
Embassy asked to intervene
Boeung Kak residents delivered a petition to the Singaporean Embassy yesterday, calling on it to pressure Singapore-listed HLH Group to halt dealings with a controversial development project at the site until a land row is settled. HLH Group entered a $14.9 million purchase deal in June ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/embassy-asked-intervene
Five families accept flats in Chroy Changva
Five families among a community of 40 that have been fighting a powerful developer for land they live on in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district accepted compensation packages on Monday, the first cracks in a previously united community. ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/five-families-accept-flats-in-chroy-changva-65420/
Boeng Kak’s best teach villagers protest 101
When two middle-aged novices emerged with signs protesting the development of disputed land near the tip of the Chroy Changva peninsula on Thursday, one of the country’s foremost anti-eviction activists was there to tell them they were doing it all wrong. Ms. Vanny, who was ...
Matt Blomberg and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kaks-best-teach-villagers-protest-101-64920/
Minister meets NGOs over ongoing UDG dispute
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Thursday met with U.N. and NGO representatives to discuss the ongoing dispute between the powerful Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) and villagers in Koh Kong province who say they were kicked off their land and had their shelters torched. In ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-meets-ngos-over-ongoing-udg-dispute-64952/
B Kak factions file competing lawsuits over clash
Rival factions in the increasingly bitter dispute over land in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood filed lawsuits against each other at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday over a clash late last month. The two sides, in what once was a unified front against the neighborhood’s ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/b-kak-factions-file-competing-lawsuits-63868/
Boeng Kak families ask ACU to probe Senator’s land sale
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood lodged a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Monday, asking it to investigate 12 current and former government officials and Senator Lao Meng Khin over the senator’s plans to sell land they say was stolen from ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-families-ask-acu-to-probe-senators-land-sale-63453/
Protest continues as company fills in lake, threatens livelihoods
More than 300 villagers who live around Boeng Samraong lake in Phnom Penh’s Prek Pnov district protested for a third day straight Sunday against a private company they say has been filling the lake with sand, threatening the livelihoods of local rice farmers and fishermen. The ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protest-continues-as-company-fills-in-lake-threatens-livelihoods-63310/
Officials ‘take cut’ of dam compensation
Officials involved in negotiating compensation offers between the developers of the Lower Sesan II dam and affected villagers have kept a portion of the money paid out to 12 families for themselves, according to an official. Duong Pov, Stung Treng provincial administration director, claimed that a ...
Phak Seangly and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-%E2%80%98take-cut%E2%80%99-dam-compensation
Developer ordered to halt work on disputed land
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district Wednesday ordered the private firm heading a $3-billion real estate project on the peninsula to temporarily stop pumping sand onto land being contested by about 40 local families, but urged the families to reconsider the compensation on ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/developer-ordered-to-halt-work-on-disputed-land-63087/
Boeng Kak factions brawl over police base
The once unified fight of the Boeng Kak lake community against their forced eviction visibly fractured over the weekend, as factions within the community accused each other of literally casting the first stone in a brawl that broke out Saturday over a new military police ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-factions-brawl-over-police-base-62731/
As lake disappears, a development dilemma
Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom ...
Cameron Rhoads and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma-62718/
Hun Sen’s sister tied to company in Boeng Kak land sale
A development firm owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and accused of illegally evicting thousands of families from central Phnom Penh recently sold a small piece of its project area for $14.9 million to a company with ties to one of Prime Minister Hun ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-sister-tied-to-company-in-boeng-kak-land-sale-62344/
UN visits evictees, site of $3.8B tourism project
About 50 families gathered under a timber roof here Sunday among muddy fields granted to them as compensation after China’s Union Development Group (UDG) began to turn their coastal homeland into a $3.8-billion tourist mecca. The families, who now live in timber houses dotting the barren ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-visits-evictees-site-of-3-8b-tourism-project-62081/
Officials protect private company’s machines
Chroy Changva district security guards Thursday stopped villagers from preventing a private company from pumping sand onto the wetlands behind their homes. The Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC) is building a $3-billion real estate project, known as “Chroy Changva City, City of the Future,” on the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-protect-private-companys-machines-61335/
Environment Ministry breaks ground on new location
The Ministry of Environment broke ground Monday on its new location on a piece of land near Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island after the environment minister called off a land swap that had been shrouded in secrecy. About 200 officials attended the ceremony in Chaktomuk commune, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-breaks-ground-on-new-location-60873/
Villagers block machines in long-running land dispute
About 60 villagers in Kompong Chhnang province’s Kompong Tralach district blocked two heavy tractors sent to clear a boundary Monday on disputed land they maintain was illegally grabbed by a company owned by the wife of Mines Minister Suy Sem. KDC International, which is owned by ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-block-machines-in-long-running-land-dispute-60330/
Villagers won’t swap land for apartments
Villagers who claim a development project in Russey Keo district has already taken a bite out of their land said yesterday that they fear the plan will swallow the rest of their property, as they filed petitions and met with local authorities. Members of 80 families ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-won%E2%80%99t-swap-land-apartments
Dredging for development
With some people eating lunch off a tablecloth on the ground as children played in the distance, the scene in a small village in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district yesterday afternoon looked somewhat like a picnic. But villagers had gathered there, a few metres from a ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dredging-development
Gov’t orders halt to Koh Pich expansion
The owner and developer of Koh Pich in Phnom Penh has been ordered by the government to scale back its expansion of the island, according to the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. According to a statement posted to the ministry’s website on Wednesday, the Overseas ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-orders-halt-to-koh-pich-expansion-60029/
Company digs trench around family’s home
Hang Chantha watched in horror last weekend as a private company battling to take her land dug a four-meter-deep trench around the perimeter of her home. “After the company dug, I could not sleep at night; I was afraid my house would fall,” she recounted Thursday, ...
Ben Sokhean and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-digs-trench-around-familys-home-60031/