Land
Land tenure and land titling
Pheapimex Opponent Arrested
A well-known community representative who has long battled alleged land-grabbing by economic land concessionaire Pheapimex Group was arrested on fraud accusations and jailed in Pursat province’s Krakor district yesterday.Fellow community representative Lun Sivy, 42, said Kuch Veng, a member of the Cambodian Peace Network, was ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065715/National/pheapimex-opponent-arrested.html
Ethnic villagers, firm battle over Ratanakkiri plot
A local official and four ethnic minority Tompuon villagers appeared in a Ratanakkiri court on Friday to face accusations of land-grabbing and protesting against a private company that purchased their land in 2007, authorities said yesterday. Rocham Pheun, an assistant to the chief of Keh Chung ...
EU Won’t Investigate Land Concessions—for Now
The trade commissioner and foreign affairs representative of the European Union (E.U.) have turned down a request from 13 members of the European Parliament that they immediately investigate Cambodia’s much criticized economic land concessions, but said they were monitoring the issue closely. In a March letter ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-wont-investigate-land-concessions-for-now-25194/
Ministers sign deals to bolster trust
Thailand and Cambodia have signed four new agreements focused on bolstering trust and maintaining security. Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat made the announcement after the 9th GBC meeting at Wangjuntr Golf Park in Rayong’s Wang Chan district. He said one of the four agreements concerned the spread of ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/350635/ministers-sign-deals-to-bolster-trust
Jarai Man Exiled After He Opposes Land Deal
Commune authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district have allegedly banished a local resident for persisting with a lawsuit that accuses them of selling 500 hectares of community forest to two Cambodian developers for $300,000. Romas Svang, who is a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, filed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051765682/National/jarai-man-exiled-after-he-opposes-land-deal.html
Charges in Ratanakkiri arson
The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday charged two staffers of Vietnamese rubber concessionaire Hoang Anh Ratanakkiri (CRD) with causing intentional damage for allegedly setting fire to several homes belonging to a landowner with whom they were embroiled in a land dispute, deputy prosecutor Mom Vanda said. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051665652/National/charges-in-ratanakkiri-arson.html
Fear still lingers in Pro Ma
A year to the day since armed soldiers stormed into the remote village of Pro Mar in Kratie province, killing a 14-year-old girl, arresting her husband and evicting hundreds of families, Sreng Pho still has nightmares. “I’m really scared when I think back to that day ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051665654/National/fear-still-lingers-in-pro-ma.html
Two Held For Razing Huts In Land Dispute
Ratanakkiri provincial police on Monday arrested the chief of staff of a Vietnamese rubber concessionaire and his Cambodian translator who are believed to have burned down more than $5,000 worth of property related to a land dispute in O’Chum district, police said. Meas Pov Bora, chief ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051565632/National/two-held-for-razing-huts-in-land-dispute.html
Arrests Threatened In Ratanakkiri
Provincial authorities in Ratanakkiri have warned ethnic Jarai villagers that they will be arrested if they continue to stop bulldozers belonging to a Vietnamese company from clearing forest in O’Yadav district’s Paknhai commune, community leaders said yesterday. Sav Finh, leader of Lom village’s forestry protection committee, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051565625/National/arrests-threatened-in-ratanakkiri.html
Vietnam rubber tycoon rejects land grabbing accusations
A Vietnamese rubber tycoon has rejected accusations by Global Witness, a group that campaigns on resource issues, that it was involved in a land grabbing crisis in Southeast Asia. Doan Nguyen Duc, the chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group, told Vietnamese media the information ...
IFC, Deutsche Bank respond to Global Witness report
On May 13, we ran an interview with London-based NGO Global Witness accusing the Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation of financing two Vietnamese rubber companies that are allegedly involved in land grabs in Cambodia and Laos. We asked both banks for a response ...
Cambodia Plantations Not IFC’s First Controversy
In the wake of a new report from environmental rights group Global Witness rebuking the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Deutsche Bank for investing in rubber plantations accused of illegal logging and forced evictions, both institutions have denied responsibility and deflected the blame ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-plantations-not-ifcs-first-controversy-23793/
Villagers Burn Down Soldiers’ Shelter on Disputed Land
Three members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) on Monday filed a complaint with police in Kompong Chhnang province, accusing irate villagers of torching a wooden shelter built for them by the well-connected KDC agro-industry firm. The soldiers have accused local residents, who have been ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-burn-down-soldiers-shelter-on-disputed-land-23790/
Residents Rally At Palace For Release Of Land Activist
Around 30 residents from Boeung Kok, Borei Kei and Thmor kol communities gathered and knelt down Monday in front of the Royal Palace to seek intervention from the King to release jailed land activist Yorm Bopha. In the petition, they asked him to intervene the ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=OWNiYWVhYmQ4ZmM
The canes of wrath
Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia’s sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of ...
Villagers Make Heady Claims Against NGO
Families living in Koh Kong province have called on the provincial governor to intervene in what they claim are ongoing land disputes with Forestry Administration authorities and conservation NGO Wildlife Alliance. Thirty-eight families from Mondul Seima and Khemarak Pumin districts have 110 hectares of land between ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065550/National/villagers-make-heady-claims-against-ngo.html
New Kompong Thom Governor Vows to Give Land to Evictees
The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...
Private property, public greed in Cambodia
Mark Moorstein knew little about Cambodia before he got involved in a lawsuit on behalf of land owners there. But as it’s turning out, the suit could end up affecting most every country in Asia. Moorstein is a land-use lawyer in Northern Virginia who, like many ...
Kampong Thom Governor Vows to Give Land to Evictees
The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month. Security forces evicted villagers from ...
Father Suing Rubber Firm for Beating His Three Children
The father of three children attacked with wooden sticks and steel poles by employees of well-connected DM Group in Ratanakkiri province has filed a lawsuit against the firm, and is asking for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. .. The provincial court has charged the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/father-suing-rubber-firm-for-beating-his-three-children-22805/
Court Upholds Verdict for Minister's Wife's Firm
The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a verdict by Kompong Chhang Provincial Court over a land dispute in Konmpong Tralach district between a 70-year old woman and a company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy over a 3,000-square-meter parcel ...
Old Soldiers Won't Fade Away
“I don’t know how to protect the territorial integrity [of the nearby Cambodian-Thai border] – even my three hectares of land I cannot protect,” said Bun Chanthorn, 54, one of hundreds of retired and active soldiers who since 2010 have been battling the local authorities ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050765451/National/old-soldiers-won-t-fade-away.html
Boy Beaten by Plantation Staff Sent to Vietnam for Treatment
A 14-year-old boy severely beaten by employees of a well-connected rubber plantation company in Ratanakkiri province on Saturday was sent to Vietnam for treatment for a life-threatening blood clot in his brain on Monday, according to his father, while a soldier detained in connection to ...
Kids beaten over ELC
Five men working for Ratanakkiri rubber concessionaire DM Group, including a soldier, have been arrested for allegedly beating a villager and his children – one of whom, doctors say, may not survive – in a scuffle over their family’s land, the father said yesterday. Police confirmed ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050665430/National/kids-beaten-over-elc.html