Land
Justice minister seeks briefing over years-old land dispute
The justice minister on Wednesday wrote to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court requesting that the judge in charge of a case surrounding a long-running land dispute report to the ministry, following intervention from the National Assembly’s human rights commission. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/justice-minister-seeks-topic-over-years-old-land-dispute-81308/
Land, insecurity linked: report
Rampant land grabs, economic land concessions and a disastrous land-titling program have fostered an environment of insecurity for Cambodia’s most marginalised citizens, according to a new report, which argues that the Kingdom needs to rethink its current business-centric development model. ...
Ethan Harfenist
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-insecurity-linked-report
In Mondolkiri, police return to raze remaining shelters
After overseeing the destruction of all but six of 172 temporary shelters that had been erected on farmland claimed by an ethnic Bunong community in Mondolkiri province on Tuesday, authorities returned to destroy the remaining structures Wednesday, again on the grounds that the land belonged ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/in-mondolkiri-police-return-to-raze-remaining-shelters-81241/
World Bank may be blind to harm of financial investments: Oxfam
The World Bank’s private sector arm may be doing more harm than good when it invests in private equity firms, banks and other financial intermediaries, global development group Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday. In one project indirectly sponsored by the bank’s International Finance Corporation ...
Anna Yukhananov
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/01/us-worldbank-investments-idUSKBN0MS5IJ20150401
Meeting between Koh Kong families, development firm fruitless
Representatives for some 200 families in a yearslong land dispute with the Union Development Group (UDG) in Koh Kong province met for the first time with both company and government officials Tuesday but left with little to show. ...
Hul Reaksmey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meeting-between-koh-kong-families-development-firm-fruitless-81149/
Police burn down Mondolkiri minority community’s shelters
Police in Mondolkiri province on Tuesday burned down more than 130 shelters belonging to a community of ethnic Bunong families in Keo Seima district that authorities accuse of squatting on a Vietnamese rubber plantation, a local official said. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-burn-down-mondolkiri-minority-communitys-shelters-81153/
‘Same faces’ protest against PM’s comments
Incensed by the prime minister’s assertion last week that the “same faces” always show up at protests, a group of Phnom Penh’s most prominent anti-eviction activists picketed City Hall on Monday to vent their anger. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/same-faces-protest-against-pms-comments-81088/
NGO: Data shows ‘wholesale sell-off’
Cambodia should urgently disclose all information about land ownership and rethink its “wholesale sell-off” of the country’s natural resources, a local rights group said yesterday. The call to release information about Cambodia’s land sector, including a declaration of revenues, came as Licadho released an analysis of ...
Daniel Pye and Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/ngo-data-shows-wholesale-sell
Firm accused of ‘taking over’ community forest
Villagers in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc against a logging company they say has claimed more than 9,000 hectares of community forest as its own and threatened residents against using the land. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/firm-accused-taking-over-community-forest
Six Vietnamese charged over logging; military collusion alleged
The Mondolkiri Provincial Court on Friday charged six Vietnamese nationals with illegally logging in the province’s O’Reang district, where they were caught felling first-grade Sokrom trees after allegedly crossing into Cambodia with the help of a local military officer, officials said Sunday. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-vietnamese-charged-over-logging-military-collusion-alleged-80981/
Villagers in Cambodia taught to fight back against land grabs
The barren land near Cambodian villager Ren Meas’ home used to yield cashew nut and root vegetable crops. Now the vast expanse lies bare and dry, levelled by bulldozers and set to become yet another rubber tree plantation. Australians are helping to combat the so-called land ...
Lauren Novak
http://bit.ly/1DhGhRg
Indigenous rights ‘denied’
Despite Cambodia’s indigenous peoples being legally recognised and protected under the country’s Forestry and Land Laws, limited implementation combined with a lack of coordination have resulted in many indigenous communities being denied their land and legal rights, according to a report released this month by ...
Ethan Harfenist
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/indigenous-rights-denied
Four children injured by UXO blast near school
Four children were injured, two of them seriously, after playing with unexploded ordnance (UXO) near their school in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kreng district on Tuesday, police said Thursday. ...
Saing Soenthrith and Alex Consiglio
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-children-injured-by-uxo-blast-near-school-80835/
Cambodian land grabs threaten traditional communities
Seoung Sarat survived several bloody Cambodian regimes and civil wars. But only when his country was at peace was he shot and lost a leg. The indigenous Tompuon man, now living in a borrowed home in the forest of Ratanakiri province, says he lost his right ...
Say Mony
http://bit.ly/1CszeV2
Khun Sear land dispute to be settled: lawyer
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court again delayed the trial of a woman whose family is locked in a land dispute with tycoon Khun Sear on Wednesday, this time at the request of her lawyer, who is advising the family to give up their five-year battle ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/khun-sear-land-dispute-to-be-settled-lawyer-80753/
Khun Sear Land Dispute to Be Settled: Lawyer
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court again delayed the trial of a woman whose family is locked in a land dispute with tycoon Khun Sear on Wednesday, this time at the request of her lawyer, who is advising the family to give up their five-year battle ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/khun-sear-land-dispute-to-be-settled-lawyer-80753/
Villagers dubious of thumbprint request
More than 100 ethnic Phnong families embroiled in a land dispute with Vietnamese firm Binh Phuoc Kratie Co in Mondulkiri’s Keo Seima district yesterday refused authorities’ requests to submit thumbprints as part of a suggested resolution to the issue, out of fear they would be ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/villagers-dubious-thumbprint-request
Salesman maimed by mine in B Meanchey
A traveling salesman lost his leg to a landmine on Monday after going hunting outside of a village with which he was unfamiliar in Banteay Meanchey province’s Thma Puok district, police said. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/salesman-maimed-mine-b-meanchey
Cambodia: local people risk everything to defend national park sold off to highest bidders
Botum Sakor national park is one of Cambodia’s biodiversity hotspots, where indigenous tribes have long lived in harmony with the forest and its wildlife, writes Rod Harbinson. But now they are being violently evicted as the park is being sold off piecemeal to developers for ...
Rod Harbinson
http://bit.ly/1NdKSoz
51% stake for private sector in SPV for four countries including Cambodia, Myanmar
The government plans to rope in private firms for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big diplomatic push to ‘Act East Policy’, with its proposed special purpose vehicle for investment in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam set to offer up to 51 per cent stake to the ...
Deepshikha Sikarwar
http://bit.ly/1C6Hhpf
Khun Sear disputants to see court
Land dispute activist Ly Seav Minh will remain in custody ahead of her family’s trial on Wednesday after a judge at the Supreme Court postponed her bail hearing. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/khun-sear-disputants-see-court
Illnesses blamed on cassava
Officials in Battambang and Pailin provinces yesterday pointed to local cassava producers as the cause of water pollution there, which has killed fish and induced illness in families living along tainted streams. Nine of the businesses in Pailin’s O’Tavao commune that produce the root vegetable are ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/illnesses-blamed-cassava
Eviction date draws nearer for Koh Kong villagers
Villagers in Koh Kong province involved in a land dispute with a Chinese company received notice on Saturday that the local government will soon implement a court order kicking them off their land, officials and a villager said. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eviction-date-draws-nearer-for-koh-kong-villagers-80583/
Hun Sen steps in to end dredging row
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that a recent decision to put the Mines and Energy Ministry in charge of all aspects of granting sand dredging licenses had to be made, because authorities were refusing to take responsibility for a process that has been blamed ...
Hul Reaksmey
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/%C2%AD%C2%ADhun-sen-steps-in-to-end-dredging-row-80578/