Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

Two ethnic Jarai Montagnards claiming to have fled religious persecution in Vietnam may have been arrested by local police in Ratanakkiri province, a rights worker has said. The UN is seeking to intervene in the case and has requested government cooperation while several more Christian Montagnards ...

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation is willing to create relations with the 57-country Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said he was unsure if Cambodia eyed a status of an observer state or ...

More than a dozen ethnic Montagnards are hiding in the jungles of northeastern Cambodia after fleeing alleged religious persecution across the border in Vietnam, a member of a hill tribe living in the area said Monday. The 13 Christian Montagnards, who crossed into Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is trying to ease concerns over the social and economic costs of the country’s plan with Australia to receive refugees. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has called for the deal to be halted until Cambodia improves its refugee support system. Hun Sen ...

Local rights workers say they fear ongoing protests by the Khmer Krom minority in front of the Vietnamese Embassy could be putting demonstrators at risk of a blacklisting. ...

Ethnic Tumpoun residents from Ratanakkiri’s Banlung district sent petitions to authorities yesterday to protest plans to erect a Buddha statue at Yeak Loam Lake, saying it will bring bad luck to their villages. ...

Companies contracted to carry out social and environmental studies of the proposed Stung Cheay Areng dam in Koh Kong province yesterday confirmed that the Sinohydro Group is set to renew work in the Areng Valley in the coming days. The studies, which would pave the way ...

More than 200 ethnic families in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom town filed complaints to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and the provincial court yesterday, asking for the cancellation of Villa Development’s land concession and demanding $500 million for allegedly destroying their resin trees. The complaint is the ...

Three people in Cambodia were charged with the murder last week of a woman they believed to be a witch behind a spate of unexplained deaths in their community, according to a newspaper report on Monday. ...

Four Vietnamese women claiming to be working for a Vietnamese company attempted to obtain residency papers reserved for Cambodian citizens by bribing authorities in Ratanakkiri’s Sre Angkrang commune last week, police and an NGO said yesterday. The news comes as the government continues a “foreigner census” ...

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through central Phnom Penh yesterday morning calling for a controversial refugee resettlement deal between Australia and Cambodia to be scrapped. While the protesters echoed human rights concerns that have been repeatedly made about the scheme, an undercurrent of xenophobia was also present. After ...

More than 100 human rights activists, youths and Buddhist monks marched on streets here on Friday in the latest round of protests against a refugee deal that Cambodia signed with Australia last month. Under the deal, Australia will send refugees, who intend to seek asylum in ...

Another 17 people are to be deported for living illegally in Kampong Chhnang province, bringing the total number of deportations to more than 500 nationwide since a foreigner census began in late August. ...

Representatives of an ethnic Tompoun community in Ratanakkiri province filed two separate complaints with local authorities last week accusing a group of five environment department officials of extortion after the officials allegedly caught the minority villagers trapping illegally in a wildlife sanctuary and asked for ...

Three representatives of the Khmer National Liberation Front said they were attacked yesterday morning by Daun Penh district security guards while attempting to file a letter to City Hall requesting permission to hold an anti-Vietnamese protest later this month. ...

Vietnamese nationals were deported en masse this week from Svay Rieng province, with 142 illegal migrants sent back across the border in a single day, as Cambodia’s nationwide census of foreigners continues, officials said yesterday. General Sok Phal, director of the Interior Ministry’s Immigration Department, said ...

The Cambodian Interior ministry is carrying out a census to identify how many foreigners – legal and illegal – are living in the country. ...

About 200 ethnic Phnong villagers gathered in Mondulkiri province’s Bousraa commune yesterday to protest against several companies that hold economic land concessions in the area, which they say are destroying their traditional livelihoods. The villagers from Pech Chreada district accused the Kau Su Dak Lak Company ...

Minority villagers from Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district climbed up a mountain to a community forest yesterday morning to challenge a company they claim is illegally felling their trees. ...

Vietnam foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday requests the Cambodian administration to “take effective measures to stop those wrongful actions of protesters, which are not in line with the traditional friendship and sound relationship between Vietnam and Cambodia.”​ ...

Police in Ratanakkiri deported two more Vietnamese nationals living illegally in the northern province last week, bringing the number of expulsions to 14 as the Ministry of Interior’s census of foreigners continues, police said. This year’s census—which is now complete in Ratanakkiri, according to officials ...

Kampuchea Krom activists are planning yet another round of demonstrations to protest remarks made by a Vietnamese embassy spokesman in June, demanding Prime Minister Hun Sen cut diplomatic ties with Vietnam until a public apology is issued. ...

Secret storage depots for illegal timber hidden in the forest in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district were discovered by ethnic minority villagers on Friday, prompting a rights worker to suggest local officials were involved in the illicit trade. ...

Drive deep enough into Mondulkiri’s Pech Chreada district, and the rubber plantations that dot the roads fall away. Here, there is only mile after mile of lush, dark woodland: An ideal place to bury one’s dead and pay respects to the spirits that reside inside ...