Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

Three community activists from Bou Sra commune in Mondulkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have claimed that they received death threats from the owner of four sawmills after they took photographs of alleged illegal logging from the community forest. ...

Another five people were arrested and five tractors seized in Preah Vihear province’s Prey Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary late last week, but all were subsequently released after being educated and ordered to pay fines, an environmental ranger said on Sunday. ...

Several families in O’Raing district’s Sen Monorom commune in Mondulkiri province express concern that they will lose their plantation and community burial land after seeing machinery arrive to excavate soil for the construction of an airport. They say the excavation is taking place in a ...

While indigenous communities in the Kingdom have largely obtained equal rights, they need to step up their advocacy when facing abuses and threats to their traditions, conservation NGO Save Cambodia’s Wildlife (SCW) said. ...

Bunong indigenous residents in Dak Dam commune in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district have accused the authorities of ignoring the clearing of community forest land at Chrey Thom waterfall resort and a local cemetery despite repeated complaints since 2017. ...

The Ministry of Environment on Friday approved the registration of the Yeak Laom Lake community natural protected area in Ratanakkiri province to support the preservation of natural resources, culture and eco-tourism. The indigenous community hailed the decision, but said it had come too late to ...

The provincial government on Tuesday ordered the creation of a forum in a bid to find a resolution in the 10-year land dispute between 12 ethnic minority communities in Ratanakkiri province and Vietnamese agribusiness giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) over 20 ancestral “spirit mountains”. ...

Four ethnic Kuoy villagers appeared in Preah Vihear provincial court on Wednesday for allegedly seizing two bulldozers from a Chinese-owned company in a December 2014 dispute that saw a group of locals attempt to prevent the firm from clearing their rice fields. The four were ...

A Bunong ethnic community representative on Tuesday claimed Mondulkiri provincial officials have not begun measuring land for the Hill Tribes Cultural Centre in the Phnom Dos Kramom mountain area even though they had received an order to do so from Prime Minister Hun Sen late ...

Eleven people at the centre of a case involving seven indigenous Bunong villages in Mondulkiri province pursuing legal action in France have expressed disappointment after the French embassy in Phnom Penh denied their visa applications to attend court. A press release said the 11 included ...

Seventeen families from Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, who claim they have lived in the area for two decades and are Cambodian by birth, protested against district authorities on Wednesday for designating them as Vietnamese immigrants. The families, from Chak Angre Krom commune’s Tuol Roka village, ...

Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts experts have expressed concerns that ancient sites are threatened by land clearing. The sites were classified into three types – religious, such as temples and shrines; ancient burial sites, which have suffered from raiders seeking precious objects; and other ...

Mondulkiri provincial ethnic community members on Friday demanded that the National Authority on Land Dispute Resolution return land they claim was taken from them by illegal settlers, as well as government departments. ...

Kampong Chhnang provincial authorities announced they have allowed 750 ethnic Vietnamese families living on the Tonle Sap river to stay until July, after more than 3,000 other Vietnamese families voluntarily relocated to designated areas on higher ground. Provincial governor Chhour Chandoeun said authorities made the decision ...

Fourteen indigenous families from Mondulkiri province’s Dak Dam commune have sought urgent intervention from local authorities and a human rights NGO after machinery was used to clear their farmland. ...

Stung Treng provincial authorities have unanimously agreed to the request and conditions of the ethnic Bunong community members from Kbal Romeas village who have been impacted by the Lower Sesan II dam in the province. However, the authorities are still considering requests and conditions laid down ...

A request from the Khmer Vietnamese Association for the Interior Ministry to delay the relocation of Vietnamese familes living on the Tonle Sap river in Kampong Chhnang province has been rejected. The KVA’s letter, submitted last week, asked the ministry to intervene in the relocation of ...

An investigative judge at the Preah Vihear provincial court warned that he would issue arrest warrants for two NGO staff and about 10 Kuoy indigenous villagers in relation to a land dispute with two companies if they failed to appear in court on Wednesday. ...

A truck transporting timber overturned on Thursday evening, killing one person and injured another. The incident at Sen Monorom commune, in Mondulkiri province’s O’Raing district, has added spark to the ongoing debate on forest crimes in the province. The province’s traffic police bureau director Yoem ...

UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia, Rhona Smith, has urged the government to speed up land registration for indigenous people to prevent possible further land clearance by opportunists. She said this during a meeting with the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and ...

Officials of the Kampong Speu provincial environment department have stopped some 300 members of the ethnic Suoy minority from building demarcation posts on a 15ha plot in Oral district. They said the land is located within the protected Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary and are probing ...

Indigenous people in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district yesterday expressed concern over logging activities in the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary, which they claim is allowed by some commune authorities.​ ...

A committee of more than 20 national and international organisations filed a petition to the EU on October 10 to prevent it from signing a timber trade agreement with Vietnam, noting that the deal would be disastrous to the Kingdom’s forests. The petition claims Vietnamese ...

The Poutil ethnic community members from Busra commune in Mondulkiri province’s Pichreada district handed two men to district police for further action on Thursday, after they allegedly cleared many hectares of forest in their community. ...