Public land lease

Japanese conglomerate Hitachi on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with three major companies to conduct a feasibility study on the potential development of a new special economic zone (SEZ) in Kandal province, said the CEO of one of the signatories. ...

The National Assembly’s anti-corruption commission submitted a letter to the Phnom Penh Municipal Hall last week requesting an update on the resolution of the long-running dispute between evicted Borei Keila villagers and development firm Phan Imex. ...

More than 100 demonstrators continued to stage an anti-eviction protest in front of Koh Kong province’s city hall after a jailed community leader was denied bail yesterday. ...

A 60-year-old woman was injured and sent to hospital yesterday when police cracked down on anti-eviction protesters blocking a busy bridge in Koh Kong province, villagers said. More than 100 villagers locked in a dispute with the company that manages the Koh Kong Special Economic ...

About 40 security guards armed with axes and AK-47s and working for the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) on Sunday demolished the homes of three villagers who claim to own land on UDG’s sprawling $3.8-billion beachside tourist development in Koh Kong province, villagers said. ...

Representatives of some 100 families living at the top of a waterfall on the outskirts of Sihanoukville blocked a major highway on Saturday to protest the destruction of their homes and crops by authorities earlier that day, villagers and local officials said Sunday. ...

Security guards hired by the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) thwarted an attempt Friday by 10 villagers to bring a halt to the company’s clearing of land in Koh Kong province, locals said. ...

Representatives of 273 ethnic Bunong families from Mondolkiri province submitted a petition on Thursday to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet in Phnom Penh, seeking the cancellation of an economic land concession they say has infringed on their ancestral lands. ...

About 500 villagers involved in a protracted land dispute with a rubber company blocked National Road 7 in Tbong Khmum province’s Memot district on Thursday to demand titles to land they say they have lived on since 1980. ...

More than 130 families will be relocated to make way for a multibillion-dollar development project in the capital’s Chroy Changva district after an agreement was signed yesterday by villagers, district officials and the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation (OCIC ) said.​ ...

People near the Phnom Penh International Airport in Kakap commune in Por Senchey district sought help from Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged political activist Ouk Pich Samnang with intentional violence, causing damage to public property and obstructing the work of authorities after he drove his tuk-tuk through a security barricade near Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house during a protest ...

Some of the families in a protracted land dispute with a pair of Thai-owned sugar plantations in Koh Kong province say they were pressured over the weekend into signing compensation deals with the firms they could not read, because they were written in Thai, and ...

One of 11 firms that had their economic land concessions revoked by the Ministry of Environment on Friday has continued to work its former land in Banteay Meanchey province, according to local residents. ...

A British lawyer has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court, writes Kevin Ponniah, alleging that a wave of violent land-grabbing that has displaced 770,000 people has been carried out by Cambodia’s ruling elite, and that it amounts to a crime against humanity. ...

Representatives of 142 families from Pursat province’s Veal Veng district filed complaints with the provincial governor Monday seeking intervention in their land dispute with powerful timber and casino magnate Try Pheap. ...

Eighteen land rights protesters from Preah Vihear province were injured during a clash with district security guards in Phnom Penh on Monday after they attempted to deliver a petition at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house, a rights group said. ...

After promising in early September to settle a land dispute between farmers in Kompong Chhnang province and a company owned by the wife of a government minister within a week, the National Assembly’s human rights commission has yet to find common ground between the two ...

Businesswoman Suy Sophan remained unrepentant after a closed-door meeting with lawmakers at the National Assembly on Thursday about her controversial Borei Keila property in central Phnom Penh, continuing to deny that she broke a contract to provide all evictees with new apartments. ...

A British lawyer has filed new documents against senior Cambodian officials at the International Criminal Court, accusing them of systematic land grabs that constitute human rights abuses. A communication filed on Oct. 7 claims that over the last 14 years, an estimated 770,000 Cambodians, or ...

The 200 Cambodian families suing U.K. firm Tate & Lyle in London over sugar the company has bought from a pair of local plantations accused of stealing their land have switched lawyers, delaying the start of the trial, which was expected to start this month. ...

About 300 villagers from 10 communities in Preah Sihanouk province blocked a road in front of the provincial hall for more than two hours Monday demanding intervention in their land disputes. ...

About 80 villagers locked in a land dispute in Preah Vihear province found their planned march to the National Assembly blocked by security forces in the capital’s Meanchey district yesterday. Village representative Meng Chanthorn said that the quashed march, which was ultimately abandoned without the use ...

About 100 residents of a community in the capital’s Russei Keo district yesterday rallied outside City Hall, demanding that authorities issue them land titles and end court action against six of their representatives. ...