Land
Public land lease
Indigenous communities say authorities collude with loggers
Indigenous villagers in Mondolkiri province say relevant authorities that are supposed to crack down on forestry crimes instead collude with logging companies and powerful businessmen, allowing them cut down trees. That has put their forest tribal traditions and livelihoods, which are dependent on forests, in ...
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
Cambodian Villagers Express Helplessness to Protect Forest
Prey Lang is one of Cambodia’s few remaining large forests, covering approximately 3,600 square kilometers across four northern provinces. The forest is home to about 200,000 mostly indigenous people, who depend on it for their livelihoods, according to the Prey Lang Community Network. But, the ...
Say Mony
http://www.voanews.com/content/illegal-logging-in-cambodian-forest-worries-natives/1928013.html
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/
K Speu families threaten to take back farms
Representatives for about 250 families involved in a long-running dispute with an agri-business firm in Kompong Speu province have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc and say they will attempt to retake land that was stolen from them. About 60 of the villagers traveled to ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/k-speu-families-threaten-to-take-back-farms-60033/
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/
Villagers defy ban, march to Gov’t buildings
More than 200 people from the group Land Communities for Peace marched from the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) to the National Assembly on Thursday in defiance of a ban issued by City Hall. Phnom Penh deputy governor Khuong Sreng said the protest would not be allowed after ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-defy-ban-march-to-govt-buildings-60037/
NGOs lobby China, companies over Sesan dam
A group of 15 local and international rights groups Tuesday sent a slew of letters to the Chinese government and companies involved in the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province seeking a halt to dam construction due to serious environmental and social ...
Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngos-lobby-china-companies-over-sesan-dam-59807/
Villager travels to Parliament over land row
A representative of villagers involved in a land dispute in Mondolkiri province appealed to the government Tuesday to address their displacement after their shelters were destroyed by police and soldiers in a forced eviction Monday. Chan Rithy stood outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh on ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villager-travels-to-parliament-over-land-dispute-59795/
Suspected land scam artists sent to court
Eight huts were torn down and about 50 families were ordered to vacate land yesterday in Mondulkiri province’s Koh Nhek district as the couple whom police said illegally sold them the plots was arrested and sent to court. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/suspected-land-scam-artists-sent-court
Lawmaker blasts illegal logging in Stung Treng
Two draft laws on judicial reform were easily passed by the single-party National Assembly on Friday but the session was overshadowed by a rookie lawmaker’s attack on lax enforcement of forestry laws in Stung Treng province. On the fourth day of the third plenary session of ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-blasts-illegal-logging-in-s-treng-59494/
Hun Sen returns from fruitful week in China
Prime Minster Hun Sen arrived back in Phnom Penh on Sunday after a weeklong visit to China for an international summit during which Chinese Premier Xi Jinping pledged $145 million in aid and soft loans to Cambodia. On Monday, AKP reported that China promised to ...
Phorn Bopha and Simon Henderson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-returns-from-fruitful-week-in-china-59560/
Villagers in R’kiri dispute block road
Villagers in Ratanakkiri province blocked National Road 78A on Thursday for more than three hours as authorities tried to push through to evict them in favor of a rubber company, police and villagers said. About 400 villagers blocked the section of the road that links O’Chum ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-rkiri-dispute-block-road-59442/
City Hall offers final warning to displaced farmers
A group of about 200 farmers from Kratie province refused on Thursday to leave a pagoda in Phnom Penh—their home base for protests against their eviction at the hands of a Vietnamese rubber company—as the city’s deputy governor warned them that the municipal government would ...
Aun Pheap and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-offers-final-warning-to-displaced-kratie-farmers-59436/
Ratanakkiri homes razed as authorities move in
More than 400 people clashed with police and military police in Ratanakkiri province on Wednesday as authorities attempted to bulldoze their houses to make way for a rubber company plantation, villagers said. Authorities managed to bulldoze the houses of about 200 families, who they said had ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-homes-razed-as-authorities-move-in-59341/
Gov’t called on to save forests
Villagers from forest communities in nine provinces called on the government yesterday to take action after alleging that “the rich and powerful” are causing the “serious destruction” of their livelihoods. The villagers, with the support of two NGOs – the Children’s Development Association and Community Peace-Building ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-called-save-forests
Land fight in Kampong Speu
Some 250 families in Kampong Speu province’s Phnom Sruoch district have sought intervention from rights group Adhoc to help resolve a land dispute involving a business they allege is headed by the son of former provincial governor Kang Heang. Families from three villages say Heang, who ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-fight-kampong-speu
Workers fired after strike
Two factories in the Manhattan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town have fired more than 40 workers since thousands-strong strikes ended early this month, unions say. Terminations at Best Way and Fico garment factories were bosses’ way of exacting revenge for the ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-fired-after-strike
Sexual abuse among claims against HAGL
Sexual assault and the annihilation of sacred graveyards are among the many claims levelled at Vietnamese Rubber giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) by villagers in Ratanakkiri province, a report by the World Bank’s investment arm reveals. In February, 17 indigenous communities that accused HAGL of ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sexual-abuse-among-claims-against-hagl
CPP-friendly businessman launches newspaper
T Mohan, a Malaysian publisher and businessman arrested in the 1990s for attempting to extort a casino executive, is back in Cambodia’s newspaper market. The Khmer Times, the latest English-language news offering from Mr. Mohan, hit newsstands earlier this month, with a government spokesman even resigning ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cpp-friendly-businessman-launches-newspaper-58610/
Can’t fight, forced to take flight
The residents of Por Sen Chey district’s Prey Chisak village could do nothing but stand and stare. Early yesterday, representatives of Green Goal, a private company tasked with measuring and marking sought-after property for Phnom Penh’s airport expansion, arrived in the village and started to measure ...
Chhay Channyda and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/can%E2%80%99t-fight-forced-take-flight
Court temporarily halts lease transfer for victory beach
Russian businessmen Nikolai Doroshenko and Sergei Polonsky are locked in a legal dispute over Sihanoukville’s Victory Beach following Mr. Polonsky’s release from prison last month, according to copies of court documents obtained Monday. The Preah Sihanouk provincial court has temporarily prevented Mr. Doroshenko from transferring the ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-temporarily-halts-lease-transfer-for-victory-beach-58598/