Land
Swap deal struck: Families to move for city development
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. ...
Kim Sarom
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/swap-deal-struck-families-move-city-development
People near the airport seek Prime Minister’s intervention in land dispute
People near the Phnom Penh International Airport in Kakap commune in Por Senchey district sought help from Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/people-near-the-airport-seek-prime-minister%E2%80%99s-intervention-in-land-dispute-7558
One million hectares reclassified, gov’t says
More than 1 million hectares of forest terrain and land leased by private companies has been put under government control since Prime Minister Hun Sen initiated a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) in May 2012, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and ...
May Titthara
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/one-million-hectares-reclassified-gov%E2%80%99t-says
Rosewood haul found in truck with Sokimex logo
Ten tonnes of protected rosewood found stashed in a tanker truck bearing the logo of petroleum giant Sokimex was seized by police in Oddar Meanchey province on Friday. In August, police found 14 tons of rosewood hidden in the tanker of another truck bearing the ...
Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/rosewood-haul-found-truck-sokimex-logo
Political activist charged with intentional violence
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 ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/political-activist-charged-with-intentional-violence-70999/
Evictees sign payout deal they can’t read
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 ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-sign-payout-deal-they-cant-read-without-lawyers-70997/
Company keeps farming on revoked plantation
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. ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/company-keeps-farming-on-revoked-plantation-70546/
Illegal logging ravaging the last forests, activists say
Forestry activists say at least 55,000 tons of luxury wood were sent from Cambodia to China this year alone. Activists from communities that live near or among some of Cambodia’s last forests told reporters Wednesday that illegal logging is ravaging their homelands, part of a “systematic” ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/illeal-logging-ravaging-the-last-forests-activist-say/2492309.html
ICC told: Cambodia land-grabbing is 'crime against humanity'
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. ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2602209/icc_told_cambodia_landgrabbing_is_crime_against_humanity.html
Families in Try Pheap dispute petition governor
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. ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-in-try-pheap-dispute-petition-governor-70405/
Protesters clash with security guards in capital
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. ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protesters-clash-with-security-guards-in-phnom-penh-70393/
Lor Peang farmers reject assembly’s land swap
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 ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lor-peang-farmers-reject-assemblys-land-swap-70267/
Borei Keila owner defiant after meeting lawmakers
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. ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/borei-keila-owner-defiant-after-meeting%E2%80%88lawmakers-70137/
Gun goes off, killing logger in Veal Veng
An illegal logger in Pursat province accidentally shot a member of his own work group on Monday, according to Veal Veng district police. The loggers were allegedly going after protected timber in the Mount Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in Veal Veng, a preserve in the Cardamom ...
Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/gun-goes-killing-logger-veal-veng
Land concessions cancelled
The government has seized back more than 12,000 hectares of land previously awarded to seven companies as economic land concessions (ELCs), according to a letter from the Council of Ministers. It explains that licences awarded from 2006 to 2011 for eight ELCs in the provinces ...
Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/land-concessions-cancelled
Lawyer files complaint at International Court over land grabs
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 ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/lawyer-files-complaint-at-international-court-over-land-grabs/2486158.html
Government nullifies land licenses of three companies
Cambodian government has revoked licenses of economic land concessions of three companies in Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Kampong Speu provinces, according to sub-decree. The sub-decree dated October 7 said 1,635 hectares of economic land concessions have been taken back from Vimean Seila LTD, Vatanak Co., ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/government-nullifies-land-licenses-of-three-companies-7495
Lawyer swap delays ‘blood sugar’ trial in UK
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. ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawyer-swap-delays-blood-sugar-trial-in-uk-69998/
Truck full of rosewood seized
A provincial military police commander was named yesterday by a major conservationist group as the alleged owner of a huge haul of illegal rosewood confiscated in Kampong Speu province this week. At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Wildlife Alliance rangers intercepted a truck carrying 12.5 cubic ...
Phak Seangly and Alice Cuddy
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/truck-full-rosewood-seized
Logging crackdowns up 81 pct, gov’t says
A nine-month report from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) shows that the number of illegal logging crackdowns increased 81 per cent – to 1,891 – compared with the same period last year, a spike one official attributed to a change in smugglers’ ...
Sen David and Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-crackdowns-81-pct-gov%E2%80%99t-says
Soldiers took our cameras, allege NGOs
Activists from two local rights groups yesterday accused soldiers in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district of seizing their cameras and stopping them from investigating a land dispute. ...
Phak Seangly
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/soldiers-took-our-cameras-allege-ngos
Sihanoukville villagers block road in land dispute protest
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. ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sihanoukville-villagers-block-road-in-land-dispute-protest-69764/
Ratanakkiri trappers accuse rangers of extortion
Representatives of an ethnic Tompoun community in Ratanakkiri province filed two separate complaints with local authorities last week accusing a group of five environment department officials of extortion after the officials allegedly caught the minority villagers trapping illegally in a wildlife sanctuary and asked for ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-trappers-accuse-rangers-of-extortion-69770/
Airport fight comes to city
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 ...
Pech Sotheary
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/airport-fight-comes-city