Public land lease

The day after the government deported a foreign activist opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province’s Areng Valley, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday invited activists in the valley to secede from Cambodia, but warned that rocket launchers could be deployed if ...

Villagers in Banteay Meanchey province on Saturday protested against a local military official’s plan to build a reservoir on their land, then sell the dirt at a profit. ...

fter rights group Licadho released a statement Thursday saying that more than 10,000 Cambodian families were newly affected last year by land disputes in the 13 provinces where it has monitors—a three-fold increase from 2013—a government spokesman on Friday slammed the NGO’s report as “baseless ...

The number of families newly affected by land disputes last year was three times that of 2013, according to figures documented by local rights group Licadho. In a statement released yesterday, the group “strongly expresse[d] its concern” at the surge in disputes, noting that in 2014 ...

A surge in land disputes in Cambodia affected more than three times as many families last year as in 2013, a local rights group said Thursday, urging Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to address the issue with “long-term lasting solutions” instead of making empty promises. Rights ...

Parliament’s Human Rights Commission has asked the Ministry of Justice to suspend a court verdict that could see 20 Koh Kong families, who are holding out against giant Chinese firm Union Development Group, lose their homes. ...

Two major US beverage companies say they are mindful of alleged human rights abuses amid sugar plantations in Cambodia and will not do business with those proven to be involved in them. Representatives from Coca-Cola and Pepsi both said in emails to VOA Khmer that they ...

The Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone has 77 tenants from nine countries and 80 per cent occupancy, but high electricity costs and corruption remain a drag on profits. The main issue is electricity costs, says PPSEZ chief executive Hiroshi Umaetsu. “If [electricity] goes from 19 ...

In a new report, U.K. environmental rights group Global Witness places Cambodian timber magnate Try Pheap at the heart of a vast illegal logging operation driving the country’s rarest tree species to the brink of extinction with the collusion of government and military officials. “The Cost ...

Korea Forest Service (KFS) has been working to promote overseas partnership with Southeast Asia countries by aiming to expand afforestation by 1 million hectares by 2050 from 314,000 hectares in 2013. It established relations with Indonesia to collaborate in planting trees on 700,000 hectares, and ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has invited the patriarch of a family locked in a land dispute with real estate tycoon Khun Sear to “clarify” his complaint against four officials he claims conspired to sell his home in Boeng Kak I commune without his consent, ...

About 50 protesters, mainly from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak and Borei Keila communities, demonstrated Wednesday morning outside City Hall to demand that governor Pa Socheatvong help them stay within their eviction-hit communities. ...

About 100 former members of the Dey Krahorm community returned to the site of their brutal eviction in central Phnom Penh on Saturday afternoon to mark six years since they were forced off their land, but were prevented by authorities from screening a video of ...

Security guards from a Chinese firm building an airport to serve a planned resort in Koh Kong province Thursday destroyed the homes of 11 families and bulldozed 30 hectares of farmland in an area claimed by both the company and residents. The Union Development Group (UDG) ...

Villagers in Kampot town have filed a complaint against a businessman who has allegedly ordered the filling in of a pond dug during the French protectorate, which they rely on for their water supply. ...

Some Siem Reap families are balking at the Apsara Authority’s order for them to leave their homes – which were allegedly constructed illegally – and move to a government-provided settlement by Friday. ...

A temporary structure built on the Buddhist Institute’s land by Na­gaCorp, which added to swirling rumors late last year that the growing casino empire was planning to develop the land and prompted hundreds of monks to march in protest, has been removed. ...

A Chinese-owned company embroiled in a land dispute with villagers in Koh Kong province agreed yesterday to reopen a road that it had blocked on Wednesday, sparking violent clashes. ...

Opposition CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang on Thursday wrote to the environment minister urging him to ensure security guards for a Chinese firm building a $3.8-billion tourist complex in Koh Kong province do not evict some 30 families clinging to their homes in the areas. China’s ...

About 100 villagers embroiled in a land dispute in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changvar district gathered on National Road 6A at 7am yesterday, blocking the road with wooden beds and their bodies for three hours. The protest stems from a December 15 court injunction ordering 30 villagers ...

The operator of Cambodia’s largest industrial park, the Phnom Penh SEZ, plans to list on the Cambodian Securities Exchange (CSX) next year in an attempt to raise $15 million to set up another economic zone in Poipet City, according to the company and media reports. ...

Forty NGOs from around the world have called on the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to begin preliminary examinations into claims that Cambodia’s “ruling elite” were accused of committing crimes against humanity. On October 7, British lawyer Richard Rogers submitted ...

A father and daughter, arrested last month following a complaint by a powerful landowner who wants their land in Phnom Penh, called on the tycoon to engage with them face to face in a courtroom hearing yesterday. ...

The governor of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district said he has asked the Overseas Cambodia Investment Company (OCIC) to compensate the owners of two restaurants that were flooded Wednesday after the firm’s excavator ruptured a nearby levee that had been holding back a pool of ...