Social development
Ethnic minorities and indigenous people
Forest felled illegally, trio tells court
Three villagers in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district appeared in court yesterday after filing a complaint against a land concessionaire for illegally bulldozing community forest. The three represented more than 160 Phnong villagers in allegations that the provincial deputy governor’s company cleared 30 hectares of community forest ...
Phak Seangly
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-felled-illegally-trio-tells-court
Grave sites cleared by rubber firms: NGOs
Four Vietnamese rubber firms are responsible for destroying an estimated 1,000 hectares of community forest, including an indigenous graveyard, in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district, a group of NGOs have claimed. The land dispute involving 196 families living in Talav commune dates back to 2011, Chhay Thy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grave-sites-cleared-rubber-firms-ngos
Cambodia fights to balance Vietnam, China
When an ethnic Vietnamese crashed his motorcycle into an ethnic Khmer’s car in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district last Saturday night, he was attacked by Khmers shouting the racially charged term for Vietnamese — “yuon” — and beaten to death. That an ordinary traffic accident turned into ...
The China Post News Staff
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/special-to-the-china-post/2014/02/24/401368/Cambodia-fights.htm
Groups call for probe of racist mob killing
The Minority Rights Organization and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights on Friday condemned the racist mob killing of a 28-year-old ethnic Vietnamese man in Phnom Penh this week, which came after the destruction of Vietnamese shops last month and months of anti-Vietnamese rhetoric from ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/groups-call-for-probe-of-racist-mob-killing-52976/
Waiting for the deluge
The Lower Sesan II dam project is a microcosm of the carving up of Cambodia. In one of the world’s most diverse river ecosystems, the ground burns. Whole forests are felled with scant regard for the law, while the project is backed by the country’s ...
Daniel Pye and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/waiting-deluge
Villagers nab logging truck
In the latest case involving illegal logging in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district, two indigenous communities filed a lawsuit against three unidentified illegal loggers after confiscating a truck laden with luxury wood on Saturday, a rights monitor and villagers said yesterday. About 50 villagers turned over the ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/villagers-nab-logging-truck
World Bank To Review Environmental Complaints Against Company
The World Bank says it will investigate reports from indigenous groups in Cambodia that a company funded by the bank’s International Finance Corporation is involved in deforestation and land grabs. The bank’s Office of the Compliance Adviser Ombudsman, or CAO, will first examine the credibility of ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/world-bank-to-review-environmental-complaints-against-company/1853122.html
Minorities complain to IFC over rubber farm funding
More than a dozen ethnic minority communities from Cambodia’s northeast filed a complaint with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Monday, accusing it of breaking its own safeguard policies by investing in rubber plantations they say are stealing their land and illegally logging their forests. The ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minorities-complain-to-ifc-over-rubber-farm-funding-51868/
Families to file complaint with IFC over rubber plantations
Some of the hundreds of families losing land and community forest to Vietnamese-owned rubber plantations in Cambodia’s northeast will this week file a complaint with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) over the investment it has made in the plantations’ parent company. Eang Vuthy, executive director of ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-to-file-complaint-with-ifc-over-rubber-plantations-51765/
Khmer minority lack equal rights: report
Thach Ry, a 64-year-old Khmer Krom man, fled Vietnam in 2008 after authorities there tried to arrest him for protesting the government’s treatment of his community. Arriving in Cambodia with his wife and daughter, authorities here tried to arrest him, too, he said, so like many ...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/khmer-minority-lack-equal-rights-report
Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge Remain in a State of Limbo
Khmer Krom people fleeing persecution in Vietnam and denied refuge in Thailand are being sent to Cambodia, where the government does not ensure that their rights are protected, the Minority Rights Organization (MIRO) has said in a new report. The report—“Abandoned People Khmer Krom Seeking Refuge ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/khmer-krom-seeking-refuge-remain-in-a-state-of-limbo-51557/
Village chief ‘threatens’ over logging complaint
Villagers in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district have filed a complaint with rights group Adhoc, claiming their village chief has threatened them with arrest over a petition accusing officials of illegally logging a community forest. Sven Vev, 40, said he and three other representatives of the ethnic Tumpoun ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/village-chief-%E2%80%98threatens%E2%80%99-over-logging-complaint
Authorities break up gathering
Police and soldiers in Mondulkiri province broke up a gathering of ethnic minority villagers yesterday as they planned to hold prayers and call on the government to stop illegal logging. The ceremony, held in Mondulkiri province‘s Sen Monorom district, was to be attended by an estimated ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/authorities-break-gathering
Bunong Villagers Barred From Attending Illegal-Logging Protest
Authorities in Mondolkiri province’s Pech Creada district on Wednesday set up roadblocks to prevent indigenous minority villagers from traveling to Sen Monorom City to attend a demonstration calling for an end to illegal logging, villagers and authorities said. Some 300 indigenous villagers had planned to attend ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bunong-villagers-barred-from-attending-illegal-logging-protest-51137/
Kuoy tribe says 7,000 hectares overrun by Chinese companies
With a Cambodian delegation in Geneva defending its human rights efforts, a minority group in Preah Vihear province is calling for the cancellation of two licenses for Chinese companies accused of grabbing thousands of hectares of land. ...
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/kuoy-tribe-says-7000-hectares-overrun-by-chinese-companies/1839370.html
New protection for giant ibis
A newly demarcated wildlife and forest protection zone designed to safeguard Cambodia’s national bird, the giant ibis, along with a number of other endangered species, has been approved after more than 10 years in the making. A government sub-decree approving a protection zone spanning 66,932 hectares ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-protection-giant-ibis
Chainsaws confiscated by villagers
Ethnic Phnong villagers in Mondulkiri province’s Sen Monorom district will file a complaint with rights group Adhoc today against three men who allegedly illegally logged 10 cubic metres of timber from their forest. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-confiscated-villagers
Miners encroaching: villagers
Hun Sen’s army of student land measurers may have marked ground for them in 2012, but representatives of about 20 ethnic families in Ratanakkiri province said yesterday that their combined 50 hectares of land has now been invaded by hordes of families digging for gems. Chhay ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/miners-encroaching-villagers
UN Envoy Urged to Probe Arrest of Monks
The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, who began his 10th fact-finding mission to Cambodia on Sunday, has been asked to investigate issues faced by ethnic Khmer Krom people after five monks were arrested for participating in garment worker protests earlier this month. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-urged-to-probe-arrest-of-monks-50489/
Chainsaws destroyed by M’kiri minorities
More than 100 villagers from eight ethnic communities in Mondulkiri province on Friday symbolically burned two chainsaws allegedly used to illegally log community forest before delivering four others they had confiscated to the provincial forestry administration, participants and Adhoc said yesterday. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chainsaws-destroyed-m%E2%80%99kiri-minorities
Protesting villagers in hiding
Two ethnic Kuoy villagers in Preah Vihear province’s Tbeng Meanchey district are in hiding after rumours circulated yesterday that police were seeking to arrest them for participating in a protest against two Chinese plantation firms last week. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protesting-villagers-hiding
Activist Monks, NGO Workers Held After Preah Vihear Protest
Prominent activist monk But Buntenh, head of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice, was arrested in Preah Vihear province on Thursday, along with another monk and three NGO staffers who had traveled to the province to support a group of ethnic Kuoy villagers protesting ...
Julia Wallace and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/activist-monks-ngo-workers-held-after-preah-vihear-protest-49962/
CNRP backers' names taken
Indigenous Jarai people from Ratanakkiri province who attended the opposition’s mass protests in the capital in recent weeks have had their names taken by provincial police, raising concerns that they could face threats and intimidation. The names of 81 pro-Cambodia National Rescue Party Jarai from O’Yadav, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cnrp-backers-names-taken
Indigenous woes probed
Ethnic minority groups in Ratanakkiri province are facing widespread human rights violations, land loss and the exploitation of their natural resources, an indigenous peoples conference was told yesterday. More than 300 villagers from the province’s Tum Poun, Kreng, Prov, Kavet, Jarai, Kachok and Lun communities hosted ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/indigenous-woes-probed