Land

A prime piece of Phnom Penh real estate was put up for auction last week by a South Koran government agency attempting to recoup taxpayers’ money lost during a bank collapse last year. Bids have been made that could see a new development on the site, ...

Unprovoked violence by government and private security guards, the use of weapons to quell protests, and communities resorting to violent means in land disputes is a growing cause for concern in Cambodia, the U.N.’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in its ...

A pair of reports to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva today and tomorrow paint a bleak image of a country whose rights record has worsened considerably over the past year. An annual report from the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in ...

Military officials are attempting to squelch a potential lawsuit from relatives of three people killed Friday when Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers smuggling wood through Siem Reap province drove a military truck, donated by the U.S. government, into the family’s motorbike, police officials said. ...

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 ...

A family of three, including an 18-year old girl, died when the driver of a military truck carrying illegally cut wood slammed into their motorbike in Siem Reap province, officials said yesterday. The family died at the scene while the occupants of the military truck, seen ...

Khon Kaen Sugar Industry KSL.BK, Thailand’s fourth largest sugar producer, expects revenue could grow as much as a fifth next year, fuelled by expansion and a bumper sugarcane crop in 2012/13, the company’s chief executive said on Monday Chalush said sugar production from factories in Laos ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen lashed out at unnamed “stupid” analysts for alleging that he was overseeing the issuance of land titles to a community in Kratie province on Friday to appease the suffering of the people there. “I would like to send a message to ...

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 ...

The director-general of Unesco on Thursday spoke out against the murder of journalist Hang Serei Odom in Ratanakkiri province, and called for the authorities to provide justice for the victim and his family. “I am deeply concerned by the killing of Hang Serei Odom,” Irina Bokova ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that Cambodia’s total land mass is some 300 square kilometers more than historically stated and wants to put the number in the constitution. His announcement is thought to be a response to political opponents and critics who accuse ...

Four Vietnamese nationals were arrested off the coast of Preah Sihanouk province Tuesday for allegedly smuggling illegally cut wood from the neighboring province of Koh Kong, officials said yesterday. Sak Sovann, crime unit chief for the Interior Ministry’s maritime border police department, said the four men ...

The Prey Lang community patrol network faced threats from illegal loggers after reporting the loggers’ names to authorities, along with the discovery of more than 120 cubic metres of illegally felled timber and seven chainsaws, a patrol representative said yesterday. Chheang Vuthy, a community representative from Kampong ...

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 ...

The Prey Long People’s Network yesterday said it found 121 cubic meters of cut wood and seven chainsaws belonging to illegal loggers after a coordinated patrol across four provinces that was prematurely aborted due to heavy rains. In a statement, the community group said it discovered ...

The man accused of shooting the man who shot environmental activist Chut Wutty last April had been summoned to the Koh Kong Provincial Court to stand trial next month on charges of unintentional homicide, a court official said yesterday. According to deputy prosecutor Srey Mak Ny, ...

A local journalist and a forestry officer who were arrested by military police forces in Kratie province last week for beating a man and firing a gun into the air were released on Monday as part of a compromise between the victim and his attackers. Srey ...

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 ...

The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court will soon summon a number of people for questioning in its investigation into the brutal murder of journalist Hang Serei Odom earlier this month, a court official said yesterday. Former military police Captain An Bunheng and his wife, Sim Vy, were ...

Threats, intimidation and, in extreme cases, even murder were endangering freedom of expression in Cambodia and leaving human rights at the crossroads, activists and NGO representatives said during a round-table meeting yesterday. The slaying of environmental activist Chut Wutty, the arrest of Beehive radio director Mam ...