Land
Land tenure and land titling
Court asked to cancel warrant for 'Crocodile Grandma'
Defence lawyers representing well-known businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary, also known as the “Crocodile Grandma”, requested the Court of Appeal to consider voiding the tycoon’s warrant for arrest yesterday. Sokountheary was convicted for encroaching on public land and sentenced in absentia to four years and six months in ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/court-asked-cancel-warrant-crocodile-grandma
Boeung Kak villagers closer to land titles
It’s taken years of waiting – and protesting – but families in the capital’s Boeung Kak community yesterday saw City Hall officials measure land in their villages. Representatives of the city were deployed yesterday to villages 24, 22 and 6 to demarcate land as a step ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boeung-kak-villagers-closer-land-titles-linkfix
World Bank Says Freeze on Lending Remains
After repeatedly equivocating about whether it has lifted a 2011 freeze on new lending to Cambodia in response to the government’s forced evictions of families in Phnom Penh, the World Bank has said that the suspension is still firmly in place. “The World Bank has not ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-bank-says-freeze-on-lending-remains-46681/
Land Dispute Families Submit Complaint Over Snake Attack
Three families involved in a land dispute with a private company filed a complaint Monday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court accusing the company’s owner, businessman Khun Sear, of waging an ongoing campaign of intimidation as he tries to force the families from their homes ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-dispute-families-submit-complaint-over-snake-attack-46605/
National Park Near Preah Vihear Temple To Be Closed
The national park near the ancient Khmer Hindu temple of Preah Vihear will be closed from Monday, eight days before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues its ruling on disputed land, located near the temple, contested by Thailand and Cambodia. The closure, which would ...
Bernama News Staff
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=990656
Farmers Accuse Mining Company of Threatening Land Grab
Some 300 farmers protested for a second day at their local commune office in Preah Vihear province Thursday against a mining company they accuse of threatening to steal their land unless they accepted its compensation offer to relocate. The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy granted ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/farmers-accuse-mining-company-of-threatening-land-grab-48209/
A confronting force on streets
As protests against land grabbing have increased in Phnom Penh in the past five years, so too have violent crackdowns by the authorities. Police have been criticised for their treatment of protesters – which has included beatings with electric batons and kicks to the stomach of ...
Shane Worrell and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/confronting-force-streets
Family evicted after ‘Death threats’
An ethnic Jarai family has been evicted from their Ratanakirri province village where they say they received death threats over a land dispute. This is the third time the family has abandoned their home after they field a lawsuit against three commune authorities in 2011, alleging ...
Phak Seangly, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Evictees, Activists Scuffle With Police in Front of City Hall
Evictees and anti-eviction activists on Wednesday briefly scuffled with police and security guards after cutting off traffic in front of Phnom Penh City Hall to demand that businesswoman Suy Sophan compensate them for homes that were bulldozed early last year. Human rights group Adhoc said at ...
Khuon Narim and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-activists-scuffle-with-police-in-front-of-city-hall-46362/
Cobras Thrown Into Land Dispute Family’s Home
Three highly venomous cobras were thrown early Tuesday morning into the Phnom Penh home of a family locked in a dispute with a private company that wants to develop the family’s land in Tuol Kok district. Ly Sreang Kheng, 58, his wife Mok Siv Hong, 51, ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-cobras-thrown-into-land-dispute-familys-home-46359/
RCAF evicting for bases: NGO
The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have evicted nearly 1,000 families in 14 provinces in the past five years, ostensibly to build military bases, according to a report released by rights group Adhoc yesterday. The report outlined Adhoc’s concerns over ongoing land disputes between local communities and ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rcaf-evicting-bases-ngo
More “Empty promises” for Boeung Kak
Boeung Kak Lake residents say they’ve been given another hollow promise after Phnom Penh’s governor failed to start measuring property for land titles on Wednesday. On Monday, Governor Pa Socheatvong met with 76 Boeung Kak Lake families and, according to those in attendance, promised that land ...
Sopheak Chakrya, P.6
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
Protesters Stop Try Pheap Tractor From Clearing Land in Preah Vihear
More than 100 people on Thursday protested and stopped a bulldozer belonging to businessman Try Pheap from clearing their land next to a rubber plantation he owns in Preah Vihear’s Rovieng district, villagers and local officials said. Oeun Sitha said he was among more than 100 ...
Petition for Investigation Into Sugar Trade Gains Support
More than 55,000 people have joined an online petition set up by a pair of French nongovernment groups urging the European Union (E.U.) to immediately launch an investigation into local sugar plantations accused of illegally evicting hundreds of Cambodian families. At the center of the dispute ...
Zsombor Peter and Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/petition-for-investigation-into-sugar-trade-gains-support-45704/
City Says It Will Provide Land Titles to 33 Boeng Kak Families
Phnom Penh Municipality will provide land titles to 33 more families living in the city’s Boeng Kak neighborhood, a municipal official said Tuesday, roughly a third of those still seeking property rights in the area that has seen some 3,000 forced evictions. “First, we will solve ...
Khy Sovuthy and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-says-it-will-provide-land-titles-to-33-boeng-kak-families-45710/
Man Arrested Over Murder of Rubber Farmer
A man has been arrested for his alleged role in the killing of a landowner following a dispute over a boundary at a rubber plantation in Ratanakkiri province, deputy provincial police chief Phen Dina said Tuesday. Sok Na, 48, who was arrested on Monday evening at ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/man-arrested-over-murder-of-rubber-farmer-45712/
Villagers protest alleged land grab
More than 150 families from Koh Kong’s Botum Sakor district were confronted by authorities when they staged a protest on Monday demanding compensation from agro-industrial giant Sinimexim Investment Co Ltd for bulldozing their plantation land. District Governor On Phearak said authorities had to intervene to uphold ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-protest-alleged-land-grab
Police beat Borei Keila activists blocking road
Yet another clash between protesters and police resulted in at least three women being knocked unconscious in the capital yesterday. A Post reporter saw police punch and use batons to quell protesters after a group of about 250 people, including many from the Borei Keila community ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/police-beat-borei-keila-activists-blocking-road
Land-titling process ‘urgent’, Oxfam says
Accelerating the mapping and titling of rural farmland should be an “urgent” priority of the government and civil society, particularly when it comes to protecting indigenous peoples’ and women’s rights, Oxfam representatives said yesterday. The remarks followed the release of an EU-funded survey of rural communities’ ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-titling-process-%E2%80%98urgent%E2%80%99-oxfam-says
Ex-Finance Minister’s Sister Buys Up More Ethnic Jarai Lands
About 50 ethnic Jarai families in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadaw district have sold their farmland and part of the forests their culture depends on to the sister of former Finance Minister Keat Chhon, rights group Adhoc said Monday. Last year, the ethnic minority Jarai in the district ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ex-finance-ministers-sister-buys-up-more-ethnic-jarai-lands-45093/
Anti-Eviction Protesters Clash With Security Forces
Protesters, including a band of angry monks, clashed with military and riot police on Thursday in Phnom Penh as authorities tried to prevent a local housing rights group from carrying out a rally against forced evictions. Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF), a coalition of five local ...
Alex Willemyns and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/anti-eviction-protesters-clash-with-security-forces-44882/
Villagers in Land Row Complain of Death Threat
Four representatives of villagers locked in a land dispute with the well-connected KDC company have filed a complaint with the Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court after they received death threats. “The anonymous letter was a threat against our lives,” said Reach Seima, one of the representatives, adding ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-land-row-complain-of-death-threat-44714/
Tep Vanny—From Boeng Kak Protester to Globe-Trotting Advocate
On the morning of September 23, anti-eviction champion Tep Vanny was grappling with a legion of security guards blocking the entrance of the Daun Penh district offices while fellow protesters dismantled a razor-wire barricade nearby. The next day, she was on a plane to Washington ...
Mech Dara and Ben Woods
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tep-vanny-from-boeng-kak-protests-to-globe-trotting-advocate-44583/
Cambodia: Chut Wutty's legacy creates an opportunity for land justice
In Cambodia, there is talk of change. Not just from Hun Sen, the prime minister, who has promised reforms after his party suffered a significant blow in recent elections, but from environmental activists and campaigners, who say there has never before been such an opportunity ...
Kate Hodal
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/02/cambodia-chut-wutty-land