Ethnic minorities and indigenous people

An ethnic Phnong community in Kratie province’s Snuol district has accused local officials and soldiers of grabbing over 1,000 hectares of community forest and threatening the lives of local villagers for years, with the rights group Adhoc yesterday saying they would take the case to ...

The Cham families along the Tonle Sap in this area of Kandal have traditionally lived and worked on the river, some for more than five decades. But now they are building a village on land called “Islam Thmey”, or “New Islam”, to seek what they ...

Representatives of 40 families locked in a decade-old land dispute with a Chinese sugar company in Preah Vihear province blocked tractors from clearing land that the villagers say belongs to them, while 50 families in a separate land dispute in Koh Kong took their complaints ...

The campaign to cancel “irregular” documents from some 70,000 people – the vast majority of whom are ethnic Vietnamese – began in Kampong Chhnang province last month. Most interviewed there by The Post had no other documents, had lived in Cambodia for generations and had fled briefly during ...

Behind the traffic police station in Kampong Chhnang town, set against the picturesque backdrop of the Tonle Sap, immigration officials gathered thousands of ethnic Vietnamese to begin a nationwide process of revoking “improperly” issued documents this week. The plan to review birth certificates, identity cards, passports ...

Families living in a commune flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam have set up a new village on their community forest without the permission of local authorities. Residents of Sre Ko commune were offered new homes in a different area and compensation to leave ...

The last families refusing to relocate from their homes near the Lower Sesan II dam have accused local authorities of being unwilling to settle their case. ...

Villagers from Kbal Romeas, which will soon be completely inundated by the Lower Sesan II Dam, yesterday said they are still resolved not to leave their homes, contradicting accounts of an official who said the majority of the 58 families had already relocated last week. ...

The chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Legislation and Justice has called for a united effort to safeguard the rights and interests of indigenous peoples. Pen Panha said Cambodia paid attention to indigenous peoples in areas such as tradition, identity, land ownership, and rights to ...

Ten representatives of 143 indigenous families affected by the development of the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in Stung Treng province gathered yesterday to submit a petition to the Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister’s cabinet. ...

Representatives of the Pu Nong indigenous community in Mondulkiri province’s Bou Sra commune have accused the director of the Provincial Rural Development Department of forcing them to withdraw a complaint over the prevention of their indigenous peoples’ day celebration last year. ...

The Indigenous People Network and civil society organizations yesterday asked the government to speed up registration of indigenous collective lands. ...

The Cham community in Kratie province’s Snoul district is seeking aid from donors to construct a school for 100 Muslim students. ...

In an agreement mediated by the International Finance Corporation’s watchdog mechanism, a controversial Vietnamese rubber firm has reached a deal with 11 ethnic minority villages affected by its Ratanakkiri operations to return nearly 20 community “spirit mountains”, restore streams filled or polluted by its activities ...

Since Sunday, Military Police and provincial police officials have been stopping outsiders from entering Sesan district’s Srekor and Kbal Romea villages as 200 people – mostly ethnic minorities from all over Cambodia – continued to gather in defiance of the blockade for a series of events, including ...

The land concession overlaps the site of the Bunong community’s old village, their spirit forest and their burial grounds—religiously significant areas that, according to Bunong beliefs, are not to be disturbed or logged at the risk of incurring the wrath of local spirits. ...

Riot police were deployed near Phnom Penh’s Wat Chas on Monday to prevent about 30 people from marching to the National Assembly to submit a petition seeking a new national holiday marking the day the French officially handed former Kampuchea Krom provinces to Vietnam. ...

A newly elected commune chief in Ratanakkiri province has vowed to solve local problems by referring to his Jarai heritage and traditions.   ...

As Cambodians went to vote yesterday, more than 1,000 ethnic Vietnamese families living in floating houses in Kampong Chhnang province found themselves shunned by election officials on both sides of the border.   ...

UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, will question the government over its decision to deny asylum to the majority of Montagnards left in Cambodia, officials said, a month after the group was criticized for its role in repatriating some of the asylum-seekers to Vietnam. ...

Villagers from Stung Treng whose homes stand to be flooded by the Lower Sesan II dam met with representatives of the Ministry of Mines and Energy at an NGO Forum-sponsored meeting in Phnom Penh yesterday, in hopes of establishing a dialogue towards a long-awaited compromise. ...

More than 300 ethnic villagers at two separate locations in Preah Vihear province conducted traditional ceremonies yesterday beseeching the spirits for an end to their ongoing land dispute with the Chinese-owned Rui Feng sugar company. ...

Two hundred ethnic Phnong villagers in Mondulkiri’s Koh Nhek district launched a protest on Friday after the deputy district governor and an armed escort seized timber from their homes, before allegedly attempting to extort a bribe for its return. ...

An activist in Stung Treng province has been hauled before commune authorities, threatened with a defamation suit and allegedly warned he could be beaten to death for exposing land clearing in his native Thala Borivat district. ...