Land

Forestry administration officials in Battambang province have stepped in to stop the destruction of a community forest area by military and police, officials said yesterday. Over two past months, soldiers, police and military police have destroyed part of the 1,335-hectare Prey Tralach forest in Rokha Kiri district, which ...

Two local human rights groups filed lawsuits yesterday at the Ratanakiri Provincial Court accusing commune and village officials of defamation and intimidation after they disrupted land-rights training session last month. On July 26, a group of armed officials stopped Adhoc and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said that the government had identified nearly 100,000 families who are now considered eligible for land titles, and that plans were in store to locate hundreds of thousands more in the coming month. Speaking at the inauguration of a new 128-km stretch of ...

Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction accused of land dispute-related corruption were arrested on Monday by the Anti-Corruption Unit. An official who declined to be named told the Post yesterday that Sa Reth Boramy, deputy general director of General Department ...

Chinese firms have huge ambitions for Cambodia, with a second firm this week proposing three projects worth an estimated US$6.5 billion to the National Assembly yesterday, but no deadlines were set for the implementation of the projects, according to officials. Pan Xiaoping, chairman of Ruijin Investment Holding Ltd, ...

More than 70 families in Pursat province’s Anlong Tnort commune plan to send a letter to their provincial hall today compelling officials to stop a private farming company from tearing down their houses on its 3,000 hectare economic land concession. Ratanak Visal Development Co Ltd’s security ...

Hun Sen, the prime minister of Cambodia, has said allowing the construction of a spate of casinos on the border was part of a “secret strategy” to protect the country’s territory from its neighbours. In a five hour speech addressing border demarcation issues with Vietnam, he ...

Property prices in Phnom Penh increased by about 15 percent at the end of June compared to the same period in 2011 , according to data released yesterday by local realty firm Asia Real Estate Cambodia (ARC). The average price of commercial property in Phnom Penh ...

CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat visited families embroiled in a long-standing land dispute with a Thai-owned sugar company on Monday in an attempt to convince them to drop their complaints against the firm at the court, villagers and officials said yesterday. The visit comes as pressure ...

Commune authorities and 41 Oddar Meanchey families Chheu Krom village staged a forum yesterday, accusing Royal Forces border soldiers of unlawfully grabbing their land and banning the villagers from farming in their area. The dispute, ongoing since 2008, has recently reached fever pitch as RCAF soldiers ...

Authorities have partially backed down on an order forcing 196 residents in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district to move their homes, but refused to scrap the plan completely when confronted at Chaom Chao commune hall yesterday. Phuong Sopheap, one of about 20 residents that congregated ...

Political activists and watchdog organisations say Cambodia’s US$13 million revenue from the mining sector over the last five years is exceedingly low and that the government must be more transparent. The claims come after the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy (MIME) released its figures on the mining ...

Sarorn Phi, 39, cautiously stops his moto 20 metres away from the large, signless boom gate blocking his path in Sesan district. He shuffles toward the security guard’s hut at the entrance to a sprawling Chinese rubber plantation and negotiates with the guard to enter ...

Representatives of 44 families embroiled in a violent land dispute in Banteay Meanchey province say they are living like squatters and haven’t been granted long-promised property in the area. Kao Ty, a defence lawyer for the families, said that his clients are among the more than ...

More than 100 villagers in Russei Keo district’s Prek Liep commune protested outside the Pur Thiproek pagoda on Saturday against plans to remove the crematorium, claiming the head monk had agreed to sell the land to a local property company. “That crematorium was built by ...

About 300 villagers living inside a social land concession in Preah Vihear province’s Kulen district protested at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum yesterday, requesting that Prime Minister Hun Sen stop provincial authorities from clearing their farmland in preparation for the area to be used to house ...

A trio of international NGOs representing lawyers and journalists added their voice last week to the mounting calls for the government to release radio station owner Mam Sonando and drop all charges against him “immediately and unconditionally.” Authorities arrested Mr. Sonando, owner of the independent Beehive ...

Villagers who allege authorities and armed forces in Preah Vihear province have been burning their houses and clearing farmland of 400 families, to create a social land concession, protested yesterday, calling on intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 5,557-hectare SLC in Kulen district’s Srayang village ...

A group of families whose homes are in the way of a municipal road-widening project rejected an offer from city hall on Friday to re­­­locate and receive financial compensation, representatives from the community said. Located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Tuol Kork district, community ...

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court has ordered villagers living on disputed land in Sihanoukville to leave the area by Thursday, according to a statement released by th the court yesterday. “We wish to inform people living in Muoy commune’s Phuom Bei village that on August 9, ...

In a rare victory for those battling to preserve Prey Lang forest, the government has cancelled four economic land concessions in the area totalling more than 40,000 hectares that threatened pristine ecosystems. Another 3,200 hectare ELC in Koh Kong province has also been cancelled, while two ...

For the past several days, Boonma and seven other Houay Souy villagers have travelled back to their homes near the Xayaburi Dam building site on the Lao side of the Mekong River. Since the beginning of the year they have been relocated to a new ...

Cambodian soldiers and police have been clearing undergrowth with pesticides and using bulldozers to bring down trees in an area of community forest, according to local groups. The alleged land seizure at the 1,335 hectare (3,300 acre) Prey Trolach commune forest, a four-hour drive from the ...

A sugar company originally part-owned by ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat that has long fought villagers over a land dispute in Koh Kong province is now under the complete control of two foreign-owned companies, statements released by the firms last week reveal. The Mitr Pohl ...