Social development
Ethnic minorities and indigenous people
Villagers wary of M’kiri mine project
An environmental impact assessment released on Friday for a $245 million mining project slated to begin operations in Mondolkiri province next year has raised concerns about its potential effects on the environment and local communities. The project, proposed by the Chinese-owned Alex Corporation, would see a ...
Phak Seangly and Jack Davies
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-wary-mkiri-mine-project
Timber inspection halted in Ratanakkiri
Authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district were thwarted in their attempt to inspect an ethnic Jarai community’s timber stocks on Tuesday, with some officials and observers ascribing the incident to a clash of cultures. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/timber-inspection-halted-ratanakkiri
Research shows full reach of indigenous population
Cambodia’s indigenous groups populate much more of the country than was previously known, but many are also at risk of disappearing, according to yet-to-be-published research. ...
Cristina Maza
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/research-shows-full-reach-indigenous-population
Sub-decree could back evicted villagers’ claims
A little-publicized sub-decree signed in July and discovered by the Post yesterday in an NGO database raises questions as to whether the eviction on Saturday of six ethnic Kuoy families in Preah Vihear was in contravention of an order by Prime Minister Hun Sen. ...
Jack Davies and Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sub-decree-could-back-evicted-villagers-claims
Ethnic minority families claim violent evictions in Preah Vihear
Six ethnic Kuoy families were violently evicted from their homes in Preah Vihear over the weekend, according to eyewitnesses, with further evictions threatened for another 13 families this morning. ...
Kong Meta
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-minority-families-claim-violent-evictions-preah-vihear
170 Vietnamese asylum seekers given two weeks to leave
Almost two years since the latest wave of Montagnard asylum seekers began crossing into Ratanakkiri province claiming to be fleeing persecution in Vietnam, an immigration official said on Wednesday that the 170 remaining in Phnom Penh had two weeks to return home or face forcible ...
Aun Pheap and George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/170-vietnamese-asylum-seekers-given-two-weeks-leave-119215/
Jarai say no to Ratanakiri gold mine
An insurrection led by ethnic Jarai villagers against the Kingdom’s first commercial underground gold mine, to be operated by Indian-owned Mesco Gold (Cambodia), looms over the green, serene remote hamlet of Plung, a few kilometers from the Vietnamese border, in Ratanakiri’s O’Yadaw district. ...
Sonny Inbaraj Krishnan and May Kunmakara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/30569/jarai-say-no-to-ratanakiri-gold-mine/
Ven Vorn loses appeal
Environmental campaigner and Areng Valley community leader Ven Vorn lost his appeal against his one-year suspended sentence for “collecting forest products without permission” yesterday at the Appeals Court. Judge Kim Danny did not give reasons why the court decided to uphold the March ruling of the ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/30048/ven-vorn-loses-appeal/
Vietnamese families leave the Tonle Sap
Ethnic Vietnamese residents of Tonle Sap Lake are continuing to head back to Vietnam in droves due to overbearing and costly rules being strictly enforced by local authorities, robbing many of them of the only homeland they have ever known. Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) official Seorn ...
May Titthara
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29279/vietnamese--families-leave-the-tonle-sap/
Ethnic minority forest being gutted: activists
Half of a Kuoy ethnic community forest in Stung Treng province – for which villagers are seeking official recognition – has been logged in the past three years for private commercial gain, according to recently returned environmental activist twins Chum Hout and Chum Hour. Seven ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-minority-forest-being-gutted-activists
Ethnic education aid sought
The NGO Forum on Cambodia yesterday demanded government funding for higher education for indigenous students to mark World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. ...
Touch Sokha
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-education-aid-sought
Ethnic forest patrol ambushed in Preah Vihear
Four members of a forest patrol were ambushed in Preah Vihear’s Cheam Pen community forest on Tuesday afternoon, according to deputy forest chief Ros Lim. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-forest-patrol-ambushed-preah-vihear
Call for faster land titling for indigenous communities
NGO Forum director Tek Vannara yesterday called on the Ministry of Land Management to speed up collective land titling for indigenous communities. ...
Thik Kaliyann
http://bit.ly/2afc0Mv
Sacred site threatened by construction in Mondulkiri
Villagers in Mondulkiri province are protesting the construction of a Ministry of Mines vocational training centre on a piece of land they say is sacred with cultural significance to people across the province. ...
Phak Seangly and Ananth Baliga
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sacred-site-threatened-construction-mondulkiri
Tigers and tubers—secrets of Bunong healers
When French pharmacologist Francois Chassagne set out to catalogue traditional medicine used by Cambodia’s Bunong ethnic minority group in 2013, he came across a surprising remedy for burns: tiger breastmilk. ...
Ben Paviour
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tigers-and-tubers-secrets-of-bunong-healers-114163/
Deal to end Phnong’s five-year land dispute
A community of ethnic Phnong people in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district has accepted a settlement from a Vietnamese rubber firm ending a five-year land dispute. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/deal-end-phnongs-five-year-land-dispute
Ethnic community rejects mineral exploration
Exploration company Angkor Gold Corp is working with NGOs to educate residents of Pate commune’s Plang village in Ratanakiri’s Ou Ya Dav district after villagers refused to give the company permission to explore for gold on their land. ...
Ven Rathavong
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25519/ethnic-community-rejects-mineral-exploration/
Protests planned for Preah Vihear sugar plant’s opening
Preah Vihear’s deputy governor has vowed not to let protesters near Prime Minister Hun Sen as he cuts the ribbon on a $360 million sugar mill in Tbeng Meanchey district today. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protests-planned-preah-vihear-sugar-plants-opening
Dam-affected villagers make case to UN envoy
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia met with Stung Treng Governor Mom Saroen yesterday to discuss the plight of ethnic minorities in the province affected by the Lower Sesan 2 dam project. ...
Jack Davies
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dam-affected-villagers-make-case-un-envoy
Cambodia's lust for rubber drives ethnic group from land
For generations, the indigenous Bunong were famous as the great elephant keepers and masters of the forests in eastern Cambodia. They called the fertile, rolling hills of their ancestral homeland “meh ne,” or mother – a source of food, livelihoods and self-identity. ...
Malcolm J. Foster and Denis D. Gray
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/cambodia-s-lust-for-rubber-drives-ethnic-group-from-land-1.2834335
Cambodia: UN rights expert launches fact-finding mission on women and indigenous peoples
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia today announced she will be visiting the country Monday to assess the enjoyment of rights by women and indigenous peoples in the country. ...
UN team
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53477#.VuvB3ua6OLo
Indigenous community’s collective land still in danger: Report
The collective land of indigenous communities in Cambodia will continue to face encroachment from economic land concessions and the actions of private companies in the future despite the Cambodian Government’s moratorium on granting ELC licenses, according to a Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) report ...
Chea Vannak
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/21322/indigenous-community---s-collective-land-still-in-danger--report/
Families in Ratanakkiri file ELC complaint
More than 220 ethnic Tompuon families in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint to rights group Adhoc over a 2,000-hectare land dispute against an economic land concession. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/families-ratanakkiri-file-elc-complaint
Police guard Muslim school from rocks, threats, feces
Police have been deployed to guard a beleaguered Muslim school for young women in a predominantly Cham community in Tbong Khmum province, amid ongoing attacks against the facility by unknown assailants, and death threats against educators, officials said on Wednesday. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-guard-muslim-school-from-rocks-threats-feces-105320/