Land

As mining companies continue to scour Cambodia for minerals, work is also under way to build a network of local monitors and activists to shed light on the country’s often-opaque mining sector and its practices. {T]he Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted an unknown ...

A fisheries official accused of involvement in the clearing of an area of protected flooded forest in Kampong Thom province in July was questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Korn Chanseiha, chief of the Fisheries Administration’s Stong district office, is one of about 20 officials ...

More than 180 families living adjacent to the Phnom Penh International Airport were told yesterday that they must vacate their homes to make was for a security road to ensure the safety of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to visit in November. Var Sarang, deputy ...

A okyo-based human rights group has called on the government to cease forced evictions and branded the use of armed forces against ordinary citizens defending their land as an :unforgivable human rights violation.” Human Rights Now (HRN), which in June sent a team of Japanese investigators ...

A district police chief in Kampong Chhnang province has been removed from his post over his alleged involvement in the sale of almost 130 hectares of state land to private buyers, provincial officials said yesterday. Kim Sareth, the chief of police in Toek Phos district, was ...

Kampong Chhnang authorities had sacked the Teuk Phos district governor and police chief after subordinate officers accused them of conspiring to sell almost 300 hectares of state-owned forest land to a private company, provincial officials said yesterday. According to a Kampong Chhnang official who declined to ...

A Council of Ministers official and her husband who were arrested in July for obstructing a land-titling initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Hun Sen have received bail, Stung Treng Provincial Court prosecutor Chroeng Khmao said Friday. Meas Sokhon, who works at the Council of the Ministers’ ...

Since 2009, local human rights group Adhoc has documented 623 cases of land conflict in the country, yet only a little more than 10 percent of those cases were brought to court. The statistics highlight the lack of trust ordinary Cambodians have in the court system, says Adhoc, ...

The Kampong Thom Provincial Court yesterday charged a man with clearing state-owned forestland after he was arrested on Monday along with 13 other villagers, according to provincial prosecutor Ben Sarath. Heoun Sokha was arrested in Kraya commune’s Santuk district after he was found by police clearing ...

A Borei Keila protester received a summons yesterday to come to Phnom Penh Municipal Court to address a complaint of “incitement to commit a crime” filed by Suy Sophan, director of the Phanimex company, which evicted the Borei Keila families in January. Borei Keila resident Tim ...

An opposition lawmaker is calling for the government to publicise its licensing of Cambodian mines, claiming that parliament has never received formal documentation of licensed mining companies. In a letter to Minister of Industry Mines & Energy Suy Sem last week, Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Son ...

About 60 farmers met yesterday in Phnom Penh to rise their concerns about the law on the management of farmland that is currently being drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture, which critics say will legalize land grabbing. The latest public version of the draft law grants power ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court has charged a local police official with causing “unintentional injuries” during a shooting in February that left three garment factory workers injured in Bavet City, court officials said yesterday. Former Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith was charged with the same crime ...

Sixty-nine families in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district have been ordered by the government to move from a 4,000-meter-square plot of land claimed by a local businessman, according to district authorities. The disputed area is part of a 9-hectare plot of land in Svay Pak commune owned by ...

Kampong Thom’s provincial governor wrote to Prime Minister Hun Sen last month to apologize and explain why district and fisheries officials were involved in clearing an area of protected flooded forest, according to a copy of his letter obtained yesterday. In the July 9 letter, written ...

About 100 villagers from Pailin province travelled to Phnom Penh yesterday to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their 70-hectare land dispute with the provincial governor, a village representative said. Dem Deam, 40, a resident of Pailin’s Stung Trang commune in Sala Krao district, ...

Two months after their release from Prey Sar prison, members of the so-called Boeung Kak 13 were yesterday at the forefront of more calls for authorities to mark out land promised to their community. About 50 Boeung Kak women and children gathered outside to urge authorities to ...

A mission to examine political rights in Cambodia has been increasingly overshadowed by the Kingdom’s dire land rights situation, the 2012 report from Cambodia’s UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights, published yesterday, shows. Cambodia’s rapporteur, Surya Subedi, conducted two fact-finding missions to Cambodia ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday approved a new sub-decree geared toward increased protection of the endangered Mekong river dolphin through a series of fishing and motorised transport restrictions in the Mekong river in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces. The Council of Minister’s sub-decree, obtained on ...

a gold rush came to Angkor Borei district over the weekend, with dozens of villagers trying their hand at treasure hunting after word got out that there was gold to be found in the soil of a newly dug road in Prek Phtorl commune. The area ...

A hearing date has been scheduled next month at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court  for Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando, who has been detained on charges related to insurrection, his lawyer said yesterday. The trial is set for Sept. 11, Mr. Sonando’s lawyer, Sok Sam Oeun, said ...

After a day sewing, treating fabrics and ironing, workers steam out of the Maurea Garment Factory in a suburb of Phnom Penh. Unilke some other factories, this one doesn’t have to deal with work slowdowns due to electricity outages of high monthly energy bills since ...

The former deputy administration director from Kratie province was arrested yesterday, accused of incitement for interfering with the work of student volunteers in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling project, an official said. Chin Hongsry, 60, is accused of undermining the volunteers by telling the villagers to ...

About 50 villagers in Kandal province protested yesterday in an attempt to halt the activities of a Vietnamese sand-dredging company, which they said has caused a huge swath of their land to slide into the Mekong River. Residents of Kien Svay district’s Koh Prak village said ...