Land

Some of the 200 families evicted from a village in Mondolkiri province’s Koh Nhek district last week said yesterday that they were taking up temporary residence in nearby villages and forests because they could not afford to go home, or had no land to return ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has accused the well-known monk and human rights advocate Loun Sovath of incitement for unspecified actions committed in Cambodia and abroad, according to court documents obtained Friday. The court documents, signed by Investigating Judge Duch Kim on Feb. 14, were sent ...

KOH KONG, Cambodia – Frustrated by government inaction, Cambodian citizen patrollers are risking their lives to take on the country’s illegal loggers in a bid to save their shrinking forests. The shooting of a prominent environmentalist by a military policeman last month after he refused to ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged and then immediately sentenced 13 women embroiled in a long-running land dispute with CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin’s private company to two-and-a-half years in jail. The women, which included Heng Mom and Tep Vanny, were among the leaders of ...

Senor members of the monastic community yesterday detained Buddhist monk Loun Savath, an award-winning human rights activist, after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court. Monks, police and unidentified men in plain clothes violently forced Loun Savath into a ...

Security forces and employees of a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation in Mondolkiri province continued to drive families out of their homes yesterday ahead of today’s government-imposed eviction deadline. Officials and villagers say most of the roughly 200 families have already left. With more than 300 security personnel posted ...

Thirteen women protesters from Boeung Kak lake were yesterday sentenced to two and a half years in prison after a three-hour trial that was widely condemned as illegal – and which prompted SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua to urge the international community to suspend aid to ...

A combined force of police, soldiers and military police last night set a deadline of 8am this morning for villagers in Mondulkiri province’s tiny Rayum commune to leave their homes or face forcible eviction. Authorities, who have surrounded the village for a week, say the villagers’ ...

Loun Savath, a monk and rights activist who was detained by plain clothes security officials Thursday, was released that night, after he agreed to sign a letter vowing to stop leading and participating in protests. However, he has promised he will not halt his activism. Loun ...

The number of protests over land disputes increased in 2011 as forced resettlement, restrictions on freedom of assembly and the harassment of peaceful protesters continued to tarnish Cambodia’s human rights record, Amnesty International said in its annual report released yesterday. Noting the huge impact of economic ...

Thirteen land protesters who were seized during a demonstration earlier this week were handed heavy prison sentences after a quick court hearing on Thursday, even as two more people were arrested and a monk was facing the threat of defrocking for participating in similar land ...

In the face of increasing economic land concessions and ongoing restrictions on expression, disaffected Cambodians were increasingly taking to the streets with success, Amnesty International representatives said yesterday at the launch of their annual report. Amnesty reported that Cambodians continued to face challenges to their human ...

The protectionist bent of conservation groups and the development agenda of the government can come together in Cambodia to create a green economy. That is the message of a new book Conservation International (C.I.) launched yesterday in Phnom Penh, outlining practical options for saving the environment ...

The Kratie Provincial Court wrapped up initial questioning yesterday of eight villagers charged in connection with what officials have claimed was a secessionist movement, court officials said. The eight were questioned on Tuesday and yesterday, and face between one and eight counts each of insurrection against ...

With a looming deadline to move still two days away, police yesterday stormed tiny Rayum commune in Mondulkiri province, dismantling and burning at least 50 homes belonging to villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company. Seng Channy, a villager representative who escaped ...

As the eviction deadline looms for residents of a Mondolkiri village embroiled in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation, police have begun to dismantle vacant homes in the village, an official and a villager said yesterday. Sin Seng, 43, a resident of the remote ...

Thirteen women hauled into police vehicles during a demonstration at Boeung Kak lake on Tuesday were being held without charge at Phnom Penh police headquarters last night. About 70 Boeung Kak villagers rallied outside Phnom Penh municipal court yesterday in support of the arrested women, who ...

Thirteen Boeung Kak women, including a 67-year-old, were arrested and forced into police vans and trucks yesterday as about 200 Phnom Penh municipal police and security officers cracked down on a 100-strong demonstration at the site. The group, which included Boeung Kak lake residents, evictees and ...

An additional 200 armed police officers have moved into a village in Mondolkiri province where families locked in a land dispute with a Vietnamese-owned rubber plantation have been given until Friday to clear out, police and villagers said yesterday. Police had already moved about 100 officers ...

Authorities set a May 25 deadline yesterday for residents of Mondulkiri province’s Rayum commune in Koh Nhek district to leave their homes, prompting the deployment of additional provincial forces to the area. Villager Seng Channy, 52, said that the coalition of about 300 police, soldiers and ...

Nearly 100 Boeung Kak lake villagers took to city hall yesterday carrying mattresses, umbrellas and food to protest what they called government inaction on the long-standing land dispute over their eviction from the lake. ...

Surrounded by 100-armed police officers, authorities in Mondolkiri province yesterday said the roughly 200 families living on a rubber company’s land concession in Koh Nhek district have until Friday to leave their homes. After having already seen district police burn down three of their homes over ...

Villagers detained during a bloody crackdown in Kratie province last week in which a 14-year-old was shot dead have accused security forces of brutal acts of cruelty, including forcing pregnant women to stand naked in the sun for hours. The villagers from Pro Ma village in ...

One hundred and thirty-five ethnic Kouy families from the Brame, Srae Preang and Bos Tom villages in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district gathered on Saturday and yesterday to protest the Lan Feng Company’s alleged bulldozing of their farmland. ...