Land

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 ...

Nineteen families from Pursat province’s Prangil commune, plagued by a long-running land dispute with developer Pheapimex, are in despair now that student volunteer surveyors cannot help them reclaim land they say is rightfully theirs. Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday revealed he had revised his ...

The Philippines has summoned Cambodia’s ambassador over comments linked to Manila’s territorial row with Beijing. Hos Sereythonh was asked to explain remarks accusing the Philippines and Vietnam of playing “dirty politics” over the issue of Asean and the South China Sea. [H]e did not turn up on ...

About 200 vendors from Phnom Penh’s Tomnup Market gathered in front of the Appeal Court yesterday morning to protest an earlier ruling by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court that paved the way for the market’s reconstruction. In 2011, the market’s owner, New Rich Cambodia ...

More than 250 families ordered to leave their homes next to Phnom Penh International Airport to make way for expansion plans yesterday with City Hall to fight the eviction. The 256 families living in three villages in Pur Senchey district’s Choam Chao commune are demanding compensation ...

In a 10-page filing, the lawyer for independent radio station owner Mam Sonando yesterday urged the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to release his 71-year-old client on bail, arguing that he is no flight risk and the legal arguments for keeping him are flimsy. But while ...

A 75-year-old man living near the former site of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak lake was detained by police on Thursday after he was found collecting thumbprints from villagers for a petition calling for the release of jailed independent radio station owner Mam Sonando, villagers said ...

Local authorities, including a heavily armed police officer, broke up a training session on land rights in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district on Friday, claiming the two groups had no legal right to hold such a meeting. The move marks the second time in less than a ...

In his first public meeting in weeks, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An on Friday met with a delegation of Thai officials in Phnom Penh and pledged Cambodia’s commitment to resolve a decade-old maritime dispute over contested maritime space in the Gulf of Thailand. Speaking to reporters ...

The Koh Kong Provincial Court yesterday postponed the hearing of a controversial case against a Thai-owned sugar company that more than 200 families alleged had taken their land for the company’s sugar plantations, lawyers and village representatives said yesterday. Ny Sorphornneary, the lawyer for the families, ...