Land
Land policy and administration
Provisional sand dredging licenses awarded
The Ministry of Mines and Energy on Friday announced the provisional winners of its public auction to award four licenses to dredge sand on a stretch of the Mekong River clogged by a build-up of silt, which is obstructing the passage of vessels through the ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/provisional-sand-dredging-licenses-awarded-85500/
CNRP lawmaker accuses police of stopping border post trip
CNRP lawmaker Mao Monyvann on Wednesday said his delegation of opposition lawmakers and party supporters was once again thwarted in their efforts to visit a disputed border post along Cambodia’s contentious frontier with Vietnam, this time by Cambodian police. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cnrp-lawmaker-accuses-police-of-stopping-border-post-trip-85360/
Hanoi official meet over CNRP's border trips
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday received Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo official Le Hong Anh at his office in Phnom Penh and asked that Vietnam remain “calm” over recent fact-finding trips to the border led by opposition lawmakers. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pm-hanoi-official-meet-over-cnrp-border-trips-85289/
NGO gives Hun Sen’s land titling project mixed marks
In perhaps the most comprehensive review to date of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 2012 land titling project, the NGO Forum on Tuesday said the campaign has yielded major benefits, but not without some serious costs—particularly for the country’s beleaguered indigenous communities. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-gives-hun-sens-land-titling-project-mixed-marks-85297/
PM wants boundaries issue clarified
Prime Minister Hun Sen reacted to the Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers’ accusations of irregularities in the determination of the Cambodian-Vietnamese boundaries. ...
Va Sonyka
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12093/pm-wants-boundaries-issue-clarified/
Boeung Trabek residents resist offers
Residents of Phnom Penh’s Boeung Trabek area yesterday balked at the options to either pay the government for land certificates or sell their land to the municipality during a forum attended by local authorities, area inhabitants and housing rights officials. City officials earlier this year said ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boeung-trabek-residents-resist-offers
Border chief says locals to blame for land loss
The head of the government’s border committee said Tuesday that villagers in Tbong Khmum province who are angry about Vietnam claiming 16.6 hectares of land they had farmed failed to inform authorities that they used the land before the countries signed a 2011 border agreement. ...
Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/border-chief-says-locals-to-blame-for-land-loss-84978/
Sen Sok land dispute families butt heads in Municipal court
A representative of 163 families who were awarded a hectare of land four years ago after a lengthy legal battle accused one of the awardees in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday of inventing a different group of 163 families with claims to the ...
Communities unite against companies, court
More than 1,500 villagers on Tuesday marched from seven districts in Preah Vihear province to the provincial capital to call for action against companies involved in various land disputes, but a clampdown by police meant that only about 120 made it to the protest site, ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/communities-unite-against-companies-court-84891/
Developers eagerly await dredging license auction
Developers are eagerly anticipating today’s auction of four licenses to dredge sand on a section of the Mekong River, the first bidding round for licenses since the government began a nationwide crackdown on illegal sand dredging in April. ...
Ven Rathavong and Igor Kossov
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/11905/developers-eagerly-await-dredging-license-auction/
Apsara fires back at villager accusations
Describing complainants as opportunists, the Apsara Authority on Sunday rejected allegations that it has not complied with a sub-decree ordering it to return 220 hectares of land to local villagers in Siem Reap province. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/apsara-fires-back-villager-accusations
Cham scuffle with soldiers near disputed border area
More than 300 locals from Tbong Khmum province accompanied by opposition lawmakers scuffled with Vietnamese soldiers Sunday morning while trying to reach a disputed 16.6-hectare plot of land along the country’s border with Vietnam. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cham-scuffle-with-soldiers-near-disputed-border-area-84664/
Prison refuses to release woman despite order from court
Despite an order from the Supreme Court, officials at Prey Sar prison Thursday refused to release a woman on bail who has been jailed since November as part of a bitter land dispute with tycoon Khun Sear, her lawyer said. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prison-refuses-to-release-woman-despite-order-from-court-82544/
Families renew call for help in land dispute
Representatives of 29 families involved in a land dispute with the Defense Ministry in Phnom Penh visited the National Assembly on Thursday, seeking a response to a petition they submitted last month asking for intervention. ...
Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-renew-call-for-help-in-land-dispute-82538/
In coverage of land dispute, a publisher’s interests served
In this sparsely populated area along the eastern fringe of Bokor National Park in Chhuk district, villagers are scrambling to claim sandy, arid land as an international company surges ahead with its palm oil plantation. As in many of the hundreds of unresolved land disputes playing ...
Matt Blomberg and Aun Pheap
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/in-coverage-of-land-dispute-a-publishers-interests-served-82523/
Ministry to auction Sand-dredging licenses
The Ministry of Mines and Energy will hold an auction next month putting up for sale four licenses to dredge sand along a stretch of the Mekong River, according to a statement posted to the ministry’s website on Tuesday. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ministry-to-auction-sand-dredging-licenses-82457/
Boeng Kak families accept swap to end land disputes
At least 16 more families that have been locked in a bitter and lengthy dispute with the municipal government over land in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood accepted municipal governor Pa Socheatvong’s offer of a land swap Thursday morning. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/boeng-kak-families-accept-swap-to-end-land-disputes-81780/
Survey finds deep discontent as Cambodian land disputes continue
According to a new survey, land disputes in Cambodia lead to employment insecurity, causing poverty, food insecurity, and increasing physical and psychological insecurity. The survey found that most expressed a desire for the government to eliminate land disputes and set a clear policy to address ...
Neou Vannarin
http://bit.ly/1H3iZQi
Sand dredgers freed in capital, jailed in Kandal
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday fined and released 10 workers swept up in a crackdown on illegal sand dredging operations by the Ministry of Mines and Energy last week. ...
Ben Sokhean and Alex Consiglio
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sand-dredgers-freed-in-capital-jailed-in-kandal-81451/
Eleven arrested over illegal Sand dredging
Three owners of sand dredging companies were among 11 people arrested Thursday by military police—working in tandem with the Ministry of Mines and Energy—for operating without a proper license, according to a spokesman for the ministry. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eleven-arrested-over-illegal-sand-dredging-81320/
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
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
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/
City hall makes offer on land to families of Chroy Changva
Families living on contested land on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula were on Wednesday given a choice by municipal governor Pa Socheatvong: give up 90 percent of your land and live on the remainder or sell it all at $40 per square meter. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-makes-offer-on-land-to-families-of-chroy-changva-80097/