Land
Illegal Logging a Challenge for Carbon Trading
A Ministry of Agriculture official said yesterday he was aware of allegations of illegal logging by Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers within protected community forests in Oddar Meanchey province and was looking into it. “I am following this case, but I haven’t received their petition yet,” ...
Koh Kong Court Summons Journalists in Shooting Case
Two journalists from the Cambodia Daily newspaper have been called to appear in the shooting case of activist Chut Wutty last month. Chut Wutty had been escorting the two journalists, Cambodian Phorn Bopha and Canadian Olesia Plokhii, to investigate illegal logging ...
Thailand Says Border Logging Could Hurt Relations
The Thai Foreign Ministry has called on the Cambodian government to admit that its citizens are illegally logging for rosewood on Thai territory, The Bangkok Post reported yesterday. Cambodia should admit to the situation to preserve healthy bilateral relations between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said ...
Reckless mining in Prey Lang takes toll on environment
Chemical substances used in about 3,000 mining drills operating in the Prey Lang forest in Kratie and Kampong Thom provinces are wreaking environmental havoc and making people sick, a report by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights released yesterday says. Substances used by a number of ...
Cambodia suspends new land concessions to companies
Cambodia’s government, facing growing protests by villagers and warnings about disappearing wilderness, suspended the granting of land to domestic and foreign companies on Monday in a move to curb forced evictions and illegal logging. Rights groups in the impoverished but resource-rich Southeast Asian country said the ...
http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFL4E8G79HB20120507
UN Rights Envoy Visits R’kiri Land Concessions
The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, was in Ratanakkiri province yesterday as part of his weeklong visit to the country to investigate the impact land concessions have on local communities. Some rights groups have singled out land concessions as the premier human rights ...
Villagers Accuse Armed Forces of Illegal Logging
Over the past half year, the military has established dozens of bases in protected community forests in Oddar Meanchey province and used them as an inroad for rampant illegal logging, villagers and forestry administration officials said yesterday. Nearly 2,000 villagers from local forest communities have thumbprinted ...
Cambodia 'must admit to logging'
At a meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had admitted Cambodians were conducting illegal logging and that Thai authorities were right to attempt to defend their territory. On Saturday, 20 natural resource protection officials from Si Sa Ket province which borders ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/292142/cambodia-must-admit-to-logging
Cambodia closes probe into activist's shooting
The Cambodian government on Saturday said it had closed its investigation into the fatal shootings of a well-known activist and a military police officer after the arrest of a security guard. Ran Boroth accidentally shot dead In Rattana, a military policeman who had just gunned down ...
Boeung Kak rep infighting gets its day in court
Six Boeung Kak village representatives will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused of threatening to kill their one-time representative Ly Mom, who was spoke on their behalf from 2007 until last year. Although no charges have been laid, Ly Mom is demanding $10,000 from each ...
Court questions Koh Kong shooting suspect
One week after the shooting deaths of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, a suspect was sent to the Koh Kong Provincial Court for questioning late yesterday evening before being remanded to military police custody, a court official said. “The prosecutor hasn’t ...
Families ask PM to help end dispute
About 500 families from three communes in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kraeng district are seeking the prime minister’s intervention in a dispute with a rubber company over 1,000 hectares of land. Siem Reap provincial governor Chan Sophal said on Wednesday that Cambodian People’s Party lawmaker Seang ...
Protesters pushed back from World Bank Office
In what is becoming an increasingly popular – and coordinated – protest tactic among Phnom Penh’s dispossessed, several women took off their shirts and bras during a demonstration over land rights that briefly turned violent near the World Bank yesterday. About 100 protesters, most of them ...
Khy Sovuthy
Timbergreen official questioned in Chut Wutty shooting
The “company” that military police have declined to identify but said sent staff to confront activist Chut Wutty shortly before he was shot last Thursday is Timbergreen, a firm the slain activist had attempted to expose for illegal logging. Documents obtained by the Post yesterday and sources have ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012050355957/National-news/company-man-arrested.html
UN calls for independence in killing probe
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday called on the government to ensure its investigation into the deaths of forestry activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana remained independent, and raised concern over an apparent increase in attacks on ...
Chut Wutty death to be examined by committee
A joint investigative committee will be established to re-examine the killing of activist Chut Wutty and military police officer In Rattana, the head of the armed forces told the Post yesterday, after providing his own version of the incident to radio. Pressure from the families of victims and ...
Port in Kampot to turn province into regional trade hub
Kampot Port Co will break ground on a Kampot port in September, company officials said yesterday. The port will be an important part of a long-delayed Kampot Special Economic Zone (KSEZ), which is hoped to revitalise trade and commerce in the province. Vinh Huor, president of the ...
UN seeks full inquiry into Cambodian activist's death
The United Nations human rights office called on Cambodia on Tuesday to carry out a full investigation into the killing of an anti-logging activist and to ensure the safety of witnesses to the crime in which a policeman was also shot dead. Chut Wutty, director of ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/01/cambodia-un-activist-idUSL5E8G131820120501
Families of slain men question official version
Amid mounting calls for further investigation, officials said yesterday they were establishing a task force to look into the death of outspoken forestry activist Chut Wutty, while the family of the military police officer who allegedly killed Chut Wutty before turning the gun on himself ...
In Cardamom Mountains, Two Deaths Recounted
Deep in Koh Kong’s forested district on Thursday, Chut Wutty, 46, the founder of the Natural Resource Protection Group, and In Rattana, 32, a military police officer, were shot dead. Chut Wutty, a forestry activist who has dedicated himself to preserving Cambodia’s disappearing forests since ...
Suicide Cited in Military Police Officer’s Death
The military police officer who killed well-known anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty, 46, on Thursday in Koh Kong province then died by his own hand after turning his AK-47 assault rifle on himself in an apparent act of instant suicide following the slaying of the forestry ...
Borei Keila Evictees Protest Delayed Court Hearing
About 20 former residents for the Borei Keila community protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday after a judge delayed a hearing regarding their land dispute with the powerful Phanimex company, a lawyer for the residents said. The residents filed a complaint against Phanimex ...
Act on environment, UN urges
The government needs to enforce legislation on protecting the environment, even as it gives away masses of land and resources in concessions, or risk jeopardising its economic future, the UN assistant secretary-general for disaster risk reduction said yesterday. “The most critical impact of disasters today is ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012042755821/National-news/act-on-environment-un-urges.html
Chut Wutty slain: another chapter in bloody history
With his slaying yesterday in the jungles of Koh Kong province, Chut Wutty becomes one of the highest-profile members yet on a dark list of Cambodian activists who have been killed for making a stand against greed and corruption. Although the details of his death remain ...