Land
Land tenure and land titling
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
New Governor Promises to Solve Land Disputes
Phnom Penh’s new governor used his swearing in ceremony to Friday to boldly vow to solve some of the municipality’s longest-running and most high-emotive land disputes. Pa Socheatvong officially took over on Friday from outgoing governor Kep Chuktema, who served as the city’s chief for 10 ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-governor-promises-to-solve-land-disputes-21897/
Pushing the ELC envelope
Three companies accused of illegal logging in Ratanakkiri province are in possession of a combined 30,000 hectares of economic land concessions (ELCs) that are likely illegal because they are owned by the same parent firm. Hoang Anh Andong Meas, Hoang Anh Lumphat and Hoang Anh Ouyadav ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050365405/National/pushing-the-elc-envelope.html
NGO, Boeung Kak activists offer solution
The Boeung Kak community and a land rights NGO yesterday released a proposed demarcation plan they say could solve the long-standing land dispute. In a map presented yesterday, villagers said they had agreed on a land division that would make room for 70 families locked out ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050365397/National/ngo-b-kak-activists-offer-solution.html
Land Concession Evictees Petition Hun Sen for Help
Representatives of 157 families evicted in 2010 from a social land concession in Preah Vihear province belonging to businessman Pen Lim, a one-time adviser to Senate President Chea Sim, were in Phnom Penh yesterday to petition Hun Sen. The families say they were forced off the ...
High Risk Seen in Kingdom’s Business Environment: Report
Corruption, a weak judicial system and the potential for complicity with human and labour rights abuses are key risks for firms looking to invest in Cambodia, a new report [by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm] analysing investment risk in the Kingdom ...
Angry Villagers Confront Workers
Jarai minority villagers in Ratanakkiri’s O’Yadav district protested in two locations yesterday against a Vietnamese company that community leaders say has been clearing their protected land and forcing villagers to accept inadequate compensation. Community leader Sev Hem said 30 angry villagers directly confronted five Company 72 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050165347/National/angry-villagers-confront-workers.html
City Hall Denies Evicting Family Despite Fencing Off Homes
Three families protesting the fencing–off of the Phnom Penh building in which they have lived for decades were assured yesterday by City Hall-which “swapped” the property and the land on which it is built earlier this month-that they will not be evicted from the building ...
Land Case Involving Minister’s Wife Is Heard
The Court of Appeal yesterday heard the case of a land dispute between a 70-year old woman from Kompong Chhang province and a company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy over a 3,000 square meter parcel of land. In May ...
Draft of New Public Land Policy Is Released
The government on Friday released a draft of a new public policy guide on the county’s contentious land sector, a move that was welcomed by NGOs, who also called for the government to hold further consultations on the draft. Local rights groups have singled out ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/draft-of-new-public-land-policy-is-released-20672/
Preah Vihear Authorities Destroy Airfield Homes
Authorities have demolished the homes of 25 families living on the site of an obsolete airfield in Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district, a rights group and the families said Sunday. The families were ordered to move off the land on Wednesday, with the district governor ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/preah-vihear-authorities-destroy-airfield-homes-20688/
Forest Allegedly Cleared By Company
Local authorities and Ratanakkiri provincial forestry officials yesterday visited an area in O’Yadav district where community leaders say a Vietnamese company known as “Company 72” has razed an estimated 1,000 hectares of protected forest since 2011. “The villagers complained to the authorities many times, but ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042965293/National/forest-allegedly-cleared-by-company.html
Adhoc defends Staffer in Incitement Claim
Human rights group Adhoc yesterday criticized a commune official in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district for accusing one of its staff of incitement and spreading disinformation after villagers traveled to Phnom Penh in March to protest over a land dispute with well known businessman Try ...
Families Foresee Rocky Road Ahead
Fourteen Phnom Penh families claimed yesterday that government maps showing their houses in the path of a road-widening project were inaccurate and would condemn them to eviction without adequate compensation. Ek Malin, 57, a representative of the community on Street 347 in Tuol Kork district’s Boeung ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042665262/National/families-foresee-rocky-road-ahead.html
40 hectares razed in R’kiri
More than 40 hectares of protected forest in Rattanakiri’s O’Yadav district was razed by a Vietnamese company over the course of six days before they were stopped yesterday by villagers and investigators from rights group Adhoc, a local official said. Sav Hlin, a village chief in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042665270/National/40-hectares-razed-in-r-kiri.html
Rubber Firm Accused of Illegal Deforestation
A rubber company that has been repeatedly accused of encroaching on communal land belonging to an ethnic minority in Ratanakkiri province has cleared 150 hectares of forest outside of its economic land concession (ELC) in the past month, according to the senior investigator for local ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rubber-firm-accused-of-illegal-deforestation-20367/
Incitement, Disinformation Suit Filed Against Rights Worker
A commune official in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district has filed a lawsuit accusing a human rights worker of incitement and disinformation after villagers the NGO staffer spoke to traveled to Phnom Penh to protest over a land dispute involving a well-known businessman Try Pheap. Pursat ...
Decision Pending in Dispute Between Villagers, Businesswoman
Farmers in Kompong Chhnang province locked in a land dispute with a local businesswoman are waiting for the government to make a decision on who owns the property after student volunteers measured the area earlier this month as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nationwide ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/decision-pending-in-dispute-between-villagers-businesswoman-20022/
Families Ordered to Leave Disused Airfield Land in Preah Vihear
More than 25 families living on the site of the long-disused airfield in Preah Vihear province have been ordered to move off the land, a district official said yesterday. “The authorities are forcing residents to leave without compensation and this eviction is illegal because they ...
Villagers Protest Eviction by Chinese Company
More than 100 villagers living on a 20-hectare swath of a rubber plantation in Ratanakkirri province gathered outside O’Chum commune hall yesterday to protest their eviction at the hands of a Chinese company, local officials and rights activists said. About 120 families from Trang Churng Village ...
Land-Titling Project Denied Minorities of Property Rights
Hundreds of indigenous minorities in Ratanakkiri province are being made worse off by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling scheme which, rather than securing their property rights, is contributing to the loss of their ancestral lands, according to a new report. The report supports complaints aired since ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-titling-project-denied-minorities-of-property-rights-19528/
Thai-Cambodian trade along Surin looks set to prosper further
The commerce affairs office in northeastern Surin has reported robust trade along the Thai-Cambodian border despite unresolved Phra Viharn [Preah Vihear] temple dispute. Mr. Sitthiporn Bangkeaw from the Office of Commerce Affairs Surin revealed that even though the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s public hearings in ...
http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNECO5604220010001
Adhoc Investigator Under Investigation for Inciting Protest
Officials in Ratanakkiri province are investigating the provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc for incitement after he helped villagers organize a demonstration, ultimately canceled, against a Vietnamese rubber company in O’Yadaw district. Mr. [Chhay] Thy, [Adhoc’s Provincial Investigator] said yesterday that he met with about ...