Land

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, ...

Nearly 100 families who live in three villages in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune near the Phnom Penh International Airport have been told by district authorities they have seven days to relocate and will be given no compensation. However, the residents are refusing ...

On Saturday, the family of slain environmental activist Chut Wutty will commemorate the 100 days, or thereabouts, that have passed since his death in a case that remains unresolved even though six eyewitnesses have already been questioned. The official story is that he was killed by ...

Sugar factories from Tay Ninh Province have spent over VND110 billion (US$5 million) to plant sugar cane in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng Province for the 2012-2013 crop, said the Tay Ninh People’s Committee. Vietnamese sugar producers have planted the crops in Cambodia as sugar cane in ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday questioned six people, including a provincial director of water resources and a commune chief, over allegations that they cleared part of a flooded forest in Kompong Thom to illegally construct reservoirs on the Tonle Sap. Earlier this month, military ...

Local police in Ratanakkiri province’s Veun Sai district yesterday tried to shut down a community meeting in which villagers were being educated about land rights, because it was being held without permission, rights workers said. According to Pen Bonnar, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, two ...

A coalition of about 30 soldiers, police, forestry officials and military police armed with chainsaws razed some 40 houses belonging to villagers in Pursat province’s Santre commune yesterday, claiming the villagers were illegally living in a state forest, villagers and officials said. According to resident Chin ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday charged two government officials and four farmers from Kampong Thom province’s Stoung district with encroachment onto protected land after they allegedly bulldozed a flooded forest that was designated as a protected fish hatchery, police and NGO officials said. ...

The Lao government’s refusal to halt the construction of a controversial mainstream Mekong dam is “making a mockery” of an agreement between the four Mekong countries, international conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said yesterday. Though Laos had agreed in December to suspend construction of the ...