Public land lease

A local investor revealed yesterday that the construction of the US$100 million Kampot sea port had been further delayed by rain. Vinh Huor, president of the Kampot Special Economic Zone, (KSEZ) said: “We are preparing to be better, and that may take some time. I am ...

Construction of the US$100 million Kampot sea port had been further delayed by rain, materials not being available and incomplete preparations, a local investor revealed yesterday. Vinh Huor, president of the Kampot Special Economic Zone, (KSEZ) said of the delay: “We are preparing to be better, ...

More than 60 people yesterday rallied at the National Assembly, the UN Human Rights Office, the Danish Embassy and the German Embassy as part of a petition campaign to seek the release of two jailed women from the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities. Villagers and ...

The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court has summoned four villagers embroiled in a long-running land dispute over charges of alleged incitement  and violence involving a company owned by the wife of government minister, a court official said yesterday. Two summoned vllagers, from Kompong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune, faced similar ...

Among thousands of residents in the Boeung Kak Lake district of the capital whose land has been targeted for redevelopment by a Chinese-financed real estate company, Tep Vanny carried a letter explaining the “sadness and suffering” caused by the project — which has turned Phnom ...

A Malaysian company has been granted three tracts of land totaling more than 23,000 hectares for oil palm and rubber plantations in Preah Vihear province, according to documents submitted to the Malaysian stock exchange. The acquisition flout the legal maximum of concession land that a single ...

Boeung Kak and Borei Keila villagers embroiled in longstanding land disputes with two private companies in Phnom Penh say the authorities are protecting business interests over the public, as thousands of families lose their homes under forced evictions. This has turned the protesters and government officials ...

An international rights group yesterday said the situation of human rights in Cambodia was continuing to worsen and accused the government of being “at war” with its own citizens over access to land. In its briefing paper, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also said that Cambodia was ...

Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities delivered petitions to the offices of the European Union and World Bank yesterday in their ongoing attempts to enlist Cambodia’s aid donors in their efforts to have jailed anti-eviction activists released from Prey Sar prison. ...

Sao Sareoun and Ly Chanary, the two land-rights activists arrested outside the three-hour trial of 13 women from Boeung Kak lake in May, hope an easing of bail conditions is a sign authorities are planning to drop charges against them. The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled ...

An ongoing project to build hotels, luxury villas and a casino on Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain is a threat to the area’s unique animal and plant species, according to two new studies. Local conglomerate Sokimex Group has been granted property development rights on the entire mountain, ...

Investment in the Cambodian construction sector reached US$1.38 billion in the first seven months of 2012, an 85-percent rise over the same period last year, according to figures from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. During the January to July period this year, the ministry ...

Economic land concessions strewn over the remote Western Siem Pang forest, in Stung Treng province, are threatening the survival of Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, a report reveals. The forest, flanking the Kingdom’s border with Laos,  is home to five critically endangered bird species, yet ...

Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood burned straw effigies symbolizing corrupt government officials yesterday to mark the one-year anniversary of the demolition of eight homes at the contested site. Roughly 100 protesters gathered at the site of the demolitions and set fire to eight scarecrow-like effigies- one ...

Heavy machinery is pumping millions of tonnes of sand from the river into the Boeung Tumpun lake in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The area is home to some 2000 families and rumours suggest they will be evicted to develop the land once the lake is filled. The ...

Once a majority ethnic minority province where Tampoun, Jarai and Kreung speakers outnumbered the Khmer, Ratanakkiri is now one of the country’s fastest growing provinces where inhabitants of lowland provinces, particularly Kompong Cham, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng, are flocking in search of a better ...

Ethnic Bunong villagers in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Chreada district are bitterly divided over how best to protect their ancestral land amid efforts by authorities to map it in preparation for property titles. Bosra commune chief Yoeth Sarin said that since student volunteers-deployed across the country as ...

International human rights groups added their voices to the chorus of criticism over the detention of two female anti-eviction activists from the Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, accusing the court of failing to honor fair trial standards. In a statement issued late Thursday, Amnesty International, ...

More than 200 motorcycle-taxi drivers gathered in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park yesterday, for the third time, to protest against human rights groups who have characterized the recent arrest of two anti-eviction activists as politically motivated. The little known taxi drivers’ union, Cambodia for Confederation Development Association ...

Fifty Boeng Kak and Borei Keila residents rallied outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday and submitted a petition demanding the release of two anti-eviction activists they say have been jailed on trumped-up charges. Four representatives from the two groups were allowed to enter the ministry yesterday, ...

Free of the police resistance that thwarted their march the previous day, about 65 Borei Keila and Boeung Kak community supporters marched to the Ministry of Justice yesterday in another effort to have land dispute activists Tim Sakmony and Yorm Bopha freed from pre-trial detention ...

Human rights monitoring groups and Cambodian activists are calling for an international boycott of Tate & Lyle and Domino Sugar, who do business with sugar suppliers accused of participating in government-sanctioned land grabs and illegal evictions throughout rural Cambodia. According to the Cambodian League for the ...

High-profile Phnom Penh businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary has called on Prime Minister Hun Sen to return 33 hectares of prime land in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district to her company, which lost the rights to it when the government claimed the land in July. Sokountheary said she ...

Imprisoned Yorm Bopha has either been unjustly targeted for her role in Boeung Kak lake eviction protests or is responsible for the vicious beating of two motodops, depending on which protesters’ chants were true yesterday. It was land evictees versus motodops in the capital as two ...