Economic land concessions and plantations

A district police chief in Kampong Chhnang province has been removed from his post over his alleged involvement in the sale of almost 130 hectares of state land to private buyers, provincial officials said yesterday. Kim Sareth, the chief of police in Toek Phos district, was ...

Kampong Chhnang authorities had sacked the Teuk Phos district governor and police chief after subordinate officers accused them of conspiring to sell almost 300 hectares of state-owned forest land to a private company, provincial officials said yesterday. According to a Kampong Chhnang official who declined to ...

A Council of Ministers official and her husband who were arrested in July for obstructing a land-titling initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Hun Sen have received bail, Stung Treng Provincial Court prosecutor Chroeng Khmao said Friday. Meas Sokhon, who works at the Council of the Ministers’ ...

Since 2009, local human rights group Adhoc has documented 623 cases of land conflict in the country, yet only a little more than 10 percent of those cases were brought to court. The statistics highlight the lack of trust ordinary Cambodians have in the court system, says Adhoc, ...

About 100 villagers from Pailin province travelled to Phnom Penh yesterday to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their 70-hectare land dispute with the provincial governor, a village representative said. Dem Deam, 40, a resident of Pailin’s Stung Trang commune in Sala Krao district, ...

A mission to examine political rights in Cambodia has been increasingly overshadowed by the Kingdom’s dire land rights situation, the 2012 report from Cambodia’s UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights, published yesterday, shows. Cambodia’s rapporteur, Surya Subedi, conducted two fact-finding missions to Cambodia ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a draft report on political rights in Cambodia, which made outline efforts being made by the government to reduce poverty and secure land titles for millions across the country, a measure that Cambodia must complete as a signatory ...

Domestic rubber prices are likely to stay below 120 baht a kilogramme over the next five years due to the sluggish world economic outlook that has sapped demand. The lingering euro-zone debt crisis, weak growth in rubber-using countries and rising production in Asean will continue to ...

The government has reclassified 23,182 hectares of state land in Preah Vihear province for private development by three agro-industry firms, paving the way for them to secure economic land concessions (ELCs). Reclassification of state public land to state private land is a key step toward establishing ...

Four villagers accused of masterminding the theft and intentional damage of property belonging to Cheat Aphiwat Co Ltd in a land dispute will have another month to prepare for trial after right groups Adhoc garnered them a delay yesterday. A village chief and three other villagers ...

Borei Keila families have slept under staircases near piles of rubbish since they were forced from their homes on January 3, but they are hopeful of compensation following an unexpected visit from city officials last week. Representative Chum Ngan, 39, said village, commune and Phnom Penh ...

More than 100 Cham families living in boats on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Chongva peninsula have agreed to relocate upriver after they celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan over the weekend, a community representative said on Friday. Matt Kriya, a representative ...

Two men from Kratie province who were removed from a vehicle on Tuesday while traveling to Phnom Penh to demonstrate at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house over a land dispute, have been arrested by internal security police and charged with fraud, an official said yesterday. Sless ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called investors from China’s Anhui province to invest in numerous sectors across Cambodia in an effort to spur two-way trade between the Kingdom and China in order accomplish their joint target of US$5 billion in trade by 2015. Meanwhile, Cambodia’s opposition party ...

As wealthy Gulf states look to meet their food needs by investing in agriculture projects abroad, Cambodia-with its underutilized land and attractive foreign investment policies-makes a nearly perfect investment destination. But endemic corruption, land conflicts, a badly implemented economic land concession program, and an unreliable judiciary could ...

Two land dispute protesters disappeared yesterday after being stopped by the police and detained while driving from Kratie province to Phnom Penh with a large group who intended to stage a protest in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house. About 200 villagers from Snuol district ...

Taiwanese food supplier Ve Wong, one of two sugar company owners locked in a long-running battle with villagers in Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel district, has made an eyebrow-raising offer – to give the disputed land back. The company’s offer, posted to the non-profit Business and Human ...

Cambodia annulled licenses to four private firms whose concession of 40,000 hectares threatens Prey Lang, one of the richest national forests. A letter from the Council of Ministers to the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Mining, in charge of managing the forests and the natural resources, ...

Former residents of the Borei Keila community who are embroiled in a land dispute with the Phanimex firm gathered yesterday for  prayer service in an appeal to the government to resolve their dispute. The residents claim the company failed to provide replacement housing or land to ...

An expedition to expose illegal logging uncovered about 50 hectares of clear-felled forest yesterday that activists from the Prey Lang Community Network have filmed and photographed to lobby government officials, a group representative said. Chum Yin said more than 60 villagers had traveled to seven villages ...

The homes of 137 families in Pursat province’s Phnom Kravanh district have been demolished since Tuesday, when more than 60 police, military forces and forestry officials began evicting families from land claimed by Touch Hiv, an agricultural company, local officials and villagers said yesterday. “We ...

More than 100 families who had their evictions delayed on Thursday in observance of a nationally broadcast speech by Prime Minister Hun Sen have once again been ordered to move out, according to local officials. Provincial governor Sboang Sarath said yesterday that the provincial court had ...

The media release from ministry of land management, urbanization and construction on August 10 said: after getting information of irregularity on implementing the social economic land for former armed forces and poor families which published in media on June 14,2012. Ministry set up a committee to monitor the ...

More than 100 Cham fishing families who moor their boat homes on the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula have been ordered to relocate, with one official saying the fishing boats were spoiling the beauty of the riverbank and the area around the new hotel. “We already ...