Land

An opposition Sam Rainsy Party activist who was badly beaten on September 16 by riot police during a protest against the demolition of homes at Boeng Kak lake filed a complaint yesterday with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against developer Shukaku Inc and the officers ...

Armed villagers from Kratie province’s Snoul district protested yesterday against district officials and a Vietnamese company they believe wants to cheat them out of their farmland. The rights to 300 hectares of land around Sre Cha commune’s Meanchey village have been highly disputed since 2008, when ...

Five hundred hectares of Mondolkiri land inside a protected wildlife sanctuary have been granted to a rubber company, sparking concerns among indigenous minorities who rely on the forest. According to a sub-decree dated August 31 and signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the government approved an ...

Eight families whose homes were demolished at Boeng Kak lake last week have called on the Ministry of Interior to take action against the private construction firm – Shukaku Inc, owned by ruling party senator Lao Meng Khin – and district officials who ordered the ...

Top government officials yesterday either declined to comment or said they had no knowledge of a letter from Finance Minister Keat Chhon to Prime Minister Hun Sen proposing to bar all foreign NGOs from “advocacy” work in the country, as well as stopping foreigners from ...

Amnesty International has called on the government to halt forced evictions at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake, and urged the authorities to punish the police officials responsible for the beating of an opposition Sam Rainsy Party member and Boeng Kak residents during a protest at ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen received a proposal from Finance Minister Keat Chhon in June seeking to bar “foreign NGOs” from advocacy work in Cambodia, as well as preventing foreigners from working with local advocacy groups because of activism around the rehabilitation of the nation’s railway, ...

Surveys conducted by the World Wildlife Foundation have revealed that the world’s largest population of banteng, an endangered species of cattle that once thrived in the Kingdom, remains at risk due to economic land concessions and poaching inside protected areas The number of banteng in Cambodia ...

Brighton Mining Group (ASX: BTN) has completed negotiations for the acquisition of a major interest in gold mining assets held directly or indirectly by Brighton Mining Limited (BML), boosting its concession holdings in Cambodia. These include the interest of BML in the Cambodian concessions held by ...

About 500 villagers from six districts in Kratie’s Snoul district protested on National Road 7 yesterday, in a bid to find a solution to their land dispute with two Vietnamese rubber companies. Cars, trucks and buses were gridlocked from 8:00am to 12:00pm along National Road 7 ...

Opposition party members and a human rights group yesterday condemned the demolition of eight homes and businesses at Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake on Friday, calling the act a violation of the law. Two excavators belonging to Shukaku Inc tore down homes as riot police pushed ...

Excavators flattened eight houses and shops at the north end of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake on Friday as baton-wielding riot police pushed back distraught residents and badly beat one protestor who was among hundreds of locals who rallied against the latest round of demolitions. The ...

Unlicensed real estate developers may find their projects blacklisted if they fail to register with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), a ministry official said yesterday. The MEF published the names of three developers in a local paper last week and has promised to warn ...

Tractors carried members of 50 families from Lor Peang village in Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach district to the provincial courthouse early yesterday morning, where their hopes faded as they waited for court officials to accept their latest complaint against a company they accuse of ...

A villager living at Boeung Kak lake claimed yesterday that staff from Shukaku Inc, owned by ruling party senator Lao Meng Khin, threatened to demolish her home if she rejected an alleged US$80,000 offer to purchase the property Lao Vann, deputy director-general of Shukaku Inc, yesterday ...

Preah Vihear temple may have been the scene of the country’s heaviest military engagement in recent years, but visitors have not been scared off by the confrontation, according to local tourism officials. Kong Vibol, Preah Vihear provincial director of the department of tourism, claimed that his ...

Members of 34 families facing eviction from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community yesterday called on five foreign embassies and the European Union to pressure the government into granting them land titles. They are among the 46 poor and untitled families living in Boeng Kak who have ...

Construction of a US$1.6 billion satellite city on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar peninsula will begin this year after officials inked a contract yesterday with local firm Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC). Dubbed “City of the Future”, the project would include a national stadium, a 60-hectare park, ...

Sixty villagers from Kratie province staged a protest Friday in Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park, claiming that their land had been grabbed by three private companies, and appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their case. Slesh Vansoekrya, a representative of the villages, said ...

Opposition party lawmaker Son Chhay has sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Sok An asking for the immediate suspension of a Vietnamese rubber plantation in the endangered Prey Long forest, accusing the firm of illegal deforestation. In the letter dated Wednesday, Mr Chhay also asked ...

Cambodia expects to almost double the amount of land used to cultivate rubber between now and 2020, a move that rights groups say could result in more evictions across Cambodia. Ly Phalla, director general of General Directorate of Rubber Plantations, said yesterday that there are ...

Authorities in Kompong Thom province yesterday forced a pagoda to withdraw its invitation to host a workshop about forest protection, continuing their pressure on two NGOs that provide community legal education in the province, a monk and NGO worker said. Chin Neth, chief monk at ...

The government yesterday lashed out at a letter sent by opposition lawmakers to the World Bank that urged the bank to increase pressure on the government to end forced evictions, land grabbing and threats against community members involved in land disputes with well-connected companies. Council ...

During the past four years, Cambodia has seen drastic decreases in rare species of trees due to illegal logging, community research from the National Resource Protection Group indicates. If continued unabated, illegal logging threatens to wholly deplete Cambodia’s rare tree species, Chut Wutty said. Cambodia’s ...