Land
Public land lease
Villagers agree to remeasuring of disputed land
Villagers caught in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Kompong Speu province Wednesday attempted to reclaim farmland they say is theirs, but were thwarted by provincial authorities, who appeased them by promising to measure the land again. About 250 families in Phnom Sruoch district ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-agree-to-remeasuring-of-disputed-land-63077/
Developer ordered to halt work on disputed land
The governor of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district Wednesday ordered the private firm heading a $3-billion real estate project on the peninsula to temporarily stop pumping sand onto land being contested by about 40 local families, but urged the families to reconsider the compensation on ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/developer-ordered-to-halt-work-on-disputed-land-63087/
Villagers accuse Mondolkiri company of major deforestation
Mondolkiri provincial villagers on Tuesday accused authorities there of colluding with a development company involved in serious deforestation. The Phnong minority villagers say the wife of the deputy provincial governor owns the company, Villas Development, which is allegedly involved in illegal logging. The activists spoke Tuesday ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/villagers-accuse-mondolkiri-company-of-major-deforestation/1948555.html
Boeng Kak factions brawl over police base
The once unified fight of the Boeng Kak lake community against their forced eviction visibly fractured over the weekend, as factions within the community accused each other of literally casting the first stone in a brawl that broke out Saturday over a new military police ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-factions-brawl-over-police-base-62731/
As lake disappears, a development dilemma
Looking out from his house, held up by three-meter stilts on a peninsula that juts into Boeng Tompun lake, Chan Sokhom can see the sand inching closer to him every day. Within a few years, the sand will likely reach his doorstep. By then, Mr. Sokhom ...
Cameron Rhoads and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/as-lake-disappears-a-development-dilemma-62718/
Firm buying Boeng Kak land claims no knowledge of evictions
A Singapore-based firm whose subsidiary plans to buy land in Phnom Penh from which thousands of families have been forcibly evicted said Wednesday that the firm had no knowledge of the long-running land dispute. The firm, HLH Group, also denied any official or financial ties to ...
Zsombor Peter and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-buying-boeng-kak-land-claims-no-knowledge-of-evictions-62463/
Evictees abandon new land
About half the Koh Kong province villagers relocated to make way for a Union Development Group resort project have abandoned the new homes provided for them, citing poor conditions and an inconvenient location, a village representative said yesterday. More than 1,000 families living in the province’s ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/evictees-abandon-new-land
HAGL filled in lakes: villagers
More than 100 families living in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district have filed a complaint with authorities, claiming a rubber giant – already accused of illegal logging – filled in two natural lakes, provincial officials said yesterday. Villagers, along with government officials, say Vietnamese company Hong Anh Gai ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hagl-filled-lakes-villagers
Hun Sen’s sister tied to company in Boeng Kak land sale
A development firm owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin and accused of illegally evicting thousands of families from central Phnom Penh recently sold a small piece of its project area for $14.9 million to a company with ties to one of Prime Minister Hun ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-sister-tied-to-company-in-boeng-kak-land-sale-62344/
For villagers losing land, Hun Sen is last resort
Three separate communities from across the country were in Phnom Penh on Monday to petition Prime Minister Hun Sen to personally intervene to help settle their various land disputes. Communities affected by alleged land grabs in Phnom Penh and beyond often appeal directly to Mr. Hun ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/for-villagers-losing-land-hun-sen-is-last-resort-62200/
Hundreds plea for PM’s help
Hundreds of families descended on Phnom Penh yesterday to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations to intervene in three separate land disputes. More than 800 families from across the country gathered in front of Wat Botum at about 9am, where they submitted petitions ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-plea-pm%E2%80%99s-help
Questions raised over land sale at lakeside
Developer Shukaku has sold off close to 1.3 hectares of land at the capital’s controversial Boeung Kak lake site to a Singapore-listed HLH Group company, according to a statement from HLH. HLH subsidiary D’Lotus Development purchased the land at Boeung Kak in Daun Penh district for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/questions-raised-over-land-sale-lakeside
UN visits evictees, site of $3.8B tourism project
About 50 families gathered under a timber roof here Sunday among muddy fields granted to them as compensation after China’s Union Development Group (UDG) began to turn their coastal homeland into a $3.8-billion tourist mecca. The families, who now live in timber houses dotting the barren ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-visits-evictees-site-of-3-8b-tourism-project-62081/
Mega First boosts spending on Lao dam, Cambodian rubber project
Malaysia’s Mega First Corp Bhd says it increased spending on a controversial dam project in Laos and a new rubber project in Cambodia by 45 percent to MYR 50.4 million ($15.7 million) in 2013. Project development expenditure on the Don Sahong dam on the Cambodian border ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MmI4Yzk4ZDQ4MjA
Release our relatives: evictees
The families of four people from Pailin province’s Krinh village who have been incarcerated since March for allegedly living on state land are calling for their release. Fifty-year-old Nheb Nharn said that he and his wife, Om Som Ath, had lived on the land in Stung ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/release-our-relatives-evictees
Officials protect private company’s machines
Chroy Changva district security guards Thursday stopped villagers from preventing a private company from pumping sand onto the wetlands behind their homes. The Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC) is building a $3-billion real estate project, known as “Chroy Changva City, City of the Future,” on the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-protect-private-companys-machines-61335/
Timber seized during bust
Mixed security forces led by Kratie province’s court prosecutor yesterday arrested six people in a huge illegal logging bust, confiscating more than 100 cubic metres of protected luxury-grade timber. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/timber-seized-during-bust
Timber seized during bust
Mixed security forces led by Kratie province’s court prosecutor yesterday arrested six people in a huge illegal logging bust, confiscating more than 100 cubic metres of protected luxury-grade timber. The arrests of both Cambodian and Vietnamese nationals were the culmination of a three-day crackdown by prosecutor ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/timber-seized-during-bust
PPSEZ to get clinic
A private clinic aiming to provide medical care to factory workers in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (SEZ) will open this month, the health centre’s managing director said yesterday. ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ppsez-get-clinic
Environment Ministry breaks ground on new location
The Ministry of Environment broke ground Monday on its new location on a piece of land near Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich island after the environment minister called off a land swap that had been shrouded in secrecy. About 200 officials attended the ceremony in Chaktomuk commune, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-breaks-ground-on-new-location-60873/
Evictees reject latest offer from UK sugar firm
Representatives for the 200 Cambodian families suing U.K. sugar firm Tate & Lyle for allegedly profiting off of their stolen land say they have rejected the firm’s latest offer to settle the dispute and are looking forward to their first court date, set for October. The ...
Kuch Naren and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-reject-latest-settlement-offer-from-uk-sugar-firm-60869/
Families claim intimidation in land dispute
Twelve families locked in a land dispute in Kampot province blocked a construction company on Wednesday from dumping earth onto fields they maintain are theirs, villagers and a rights worker said Thursday. The villagers say the company began encroaching on their land in 2011, when they ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-claim-intimidation-in-land-dispute-60595/
Kratie land dispute goes on
Hundreds of families from Kratie province’s Snuol district who were promised new plots of land after a Vietnamese rubber firm evicted them last month have complained that provincial officials are allowing hundreds of interlopers to stake a claim instead. The 405 families were evicted from the ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/kratie-land-dispute-goes
Activist set to receive recognition in Boston
Housing rights activist Yorm Bopha, who spent nearly a year in jail for leading demonstrations, will receive a reward and recognition for her work. The James Lawson Award, named for an American activist and given for nonviolent achievements, will grant her $6,000 in Boston later ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/activist-set-to-receive-recognition-in-boston/1928496.html