Social development
Ethnic minorities and indigenous people
Cham lawmaker envisioned
A Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker is calling on young Cham party activists to rally support for the opposition party, expressing a desire to see a politician from the Muslim minority join the National Assembly. ...
Niem Chheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cham-lawmaker-envisioned
Land activist arrested, freed in Preah Vihear
An ethnic Kuoy land rights activist was detained by police in Preah Vihear province on Monday after taking part in an ongoing protest against three businesses that villagers claim encroached on their farmland, officials said. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-activist-arrested-freed-in-preah-vihear-104391/
More Montagnards opt to return home
More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations.Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/more-montagnards-opt-return-home
17 Montagnards prepare for return to Vietnam
More Montagnard asylum seekers prepared to return to Vietnam yesterday after giving up on obtaining refugee status in Phnom Penh, while five Rohingya refugees set off for resettlement in Canada. ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/17-montagnards-prepare-return-vietnam
Ministry requests governor response to minorities
The Interior Ministry on Friday released a letter that it sent to Mondolkiri provincial governor Eng Bunheang asking him to respond to a petition—filed last month and thumbprinted by 900 members of 17 ethnic minority Bunong communities—requesting his removal. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-requests-governor-response-to-minorities-100365/
Firm gives Ratanakkiri minorities cash for ceremony
Representatives of 14 ethnic minority communities in Ratanakkiri province on Friday accepted $1,700 each from Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) to buy a buffalo and hold a ceremony to appease the spirits that had been disturbed by the firm’s plantations. ...
Khuon Narim and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-gives-ratana%C2%ADkkiri-minorities-cash-for-ceremony-100330/
Youth lead tribal push for development
The move toward modernity and development is often represented in numbers: growth in GDP, wellness indicators and many other kinds of statistics. ...
Ros Chanveasna and Raquel Bacay
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/17771/youth-lead-tribal-push-for-development/
A dreaded homecoming
With the deadline looming for hundreds of Montagnard asylum seekers in Cambodia to return “voluntarily” to the site of their alleged persecution or be forced back across the border, a group who have spent months living in the shadows this week spoke out about their ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dreaded-homecoming
Two more Rohingya Muslims seek resettlement in Cambodia
Two Muslim Rohingya refugees have volunteered to resettle in Cambodia as part of a controversial deal in which Australia has promised to pay more than U.S. $40 million in costs and aid to the Southeast Asian country for taking refugees off its hands, a Cambodian ...
Yeang Sotheameta and Chandara Yang
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/two-more-rohingya-muslims-seek-resettlement-in-cambodia-10132015141643.html
Hundreds of minority villagers seek M’kiri governor’s ouster
A group of 900 Bunong villagers are seeking the removal of the governor of Mondolkiri, complaining in a petition that was submitted to the government Monday that he does not respect the rights of ethnic minorities in the province. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hundreds-of-minority-villagers-seek-mkiri-governors-ouster-96510/
Groups urge gov’t not to return Montagnards
Eleven international organizations on Thursday condemned Cambodia’s plan to repatriate scores of Montagnards who claim to be fleeing oppression in Vietnam, while the government on Friday reiterated its position that the Montagnards were not legitimate refugees. ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/groups-urge-govt-not-to-return-montagnards-95556/
Locals block gold exploration
Fearing the loss of their water source, hundreds of villagers of the Jarai ethnic minority last week continued to block an Australian gold mining company from accessing a plot of land in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district that is licensed for exploration.Angkor Gold Company, which first ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/locals-block-gold-exploration
Villagers in Cambodia’s Stung Treng say waterway contaminated by local sawmill
Indigenous villagers in northeastern Cambodia’s Stung Treng province on Monday called for an investigation into a saw mill they say has polluted their local waterway and caused residents to contract a skin disease. ...
Men Sothy
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/contamination-09142015173926.html
Community defends sisters in sex-slave case
The relatives and neighbors of two sisters who were arrested in Phnom Penh last week over the alleged sexual enslavement of their 13-year-old niece are angry. Members of the mostly Cham Muslim community living along the Tonle Sap river in Russei Keo district’s Chraing Chamreh ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/community-defends-sisters-in-sex-slave-case-91346/
Cambodia's indigenous people discuss health care issues
Around a thousand people from Cambodian government institutions, experts and aid workers as well as community members gathered Sunday to shine a light on a variety of issues faced by the country’s indigenous peoples — including access to modern health care. ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.aa.com.tr/en/health/571181--cambodias-indigenous-people-discuss-health-care-issues
Montagnard group voluntarily sent home
Twelve Montagnards were voluntarily repatriated to Vietnam on Friday through a Ratanakkiri province border checkpoint after being cheated by a broker who promised them jobs in Thailand, according to officials. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/montagnard-group-voluntarily-sent-home
UN agency cuts school meal program
A school meal program run by the World Food Program (WFP) has run out of funds, forcing it to transfer about half of its schools to government care. ...
Va Sonyka
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13587/un-agency-cuts-school-meal-program/
New asylum seekers in Phnom Penh
Just days after a dozen Montagnard asylum seekers returned to Vietnam having given up on being granted refugee status, 11 more arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, according to the United Nations. ...
May Titthara and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-asylum-seekers-phnom-penh
PM reaches out to khmer muslims
Up to 1,500 new educators, almost all exclusively Muslims from the Cham Community in Cambodia, will be recruited to join the country’s teaching force. ...
Chea Vannak and Donald Lee
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/13209/pm-reaches-out-to-khmer-muslims/
Persecution of Montagnards on rise, report says
An intensified campaign of religious and political persecution of Montagnards by security forces in Vietnam is responsible for more than 150 of the group fleeing to Cambodia, while authorities in both countries are working together to track down asylum seekers crossing the border, Human Rights ...
George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/persecution-of-montagnards-on-rise-report-says-86712/
R’kiri asylum seekers get to the capital
After spending five days hiding out in the forest in Ratanakkiri province, two teenage Montagnard asylum seekers made their way to Phnom Penh on Friday where they joined more than 100 others waiting to be registered. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rkiri-asylum-seekers-get-capital
NGO gives Hun Sen’s land titling project mixed marks
In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-gives-hun-sens-land-titling-project-mixed-marks-85297/
Montagnard numbers swell in Phnom Penh
More Montagnard asylum seekers from Vietnam arrived in Phnom Penh over the weekend, bringing the number waiting to apply for refugee status to 109, according to the United Nations. Vivian Tan, regional spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), said the Montagnards – an indigenous group ...
Alice Cuddy and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/montagnard-numbers-swell-phnom-penh
Three years with indigenous tribes
Far from urban comforts and civilization, Belgian photographer Cédric Delannoy spent three years in remote Ratanakiri indigenous villages. After hunting for forest crickets with local children, washing his clothes in a stream and attending village meetings, Mr. Delannoy became part of a community that would ...
Marina Shafik
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12061/three-years-with-indigenous-tribes/