News
Police back up district security guards after clashes at Phnom Penh's Freedom Park
Several security guards have been injured after an opposition-aligned protest turned violent in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The Phnom Penh Post is reporting that at least eight district security guards have been injured, some severely, and three opposition MPs have been arrested. ...
ABC Radio Australia News Staff
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2014-07-15/police-back-up-district-security-guards-after-clashes-at-phnom-penhs-freedom-park/1343133
How Cambodia’s secretive timber auctions are fueling the illegal logging trade
In the predawn hours of May 6, a flatbed truck packed with lengths of illegally logged timber sped past a checkpoint in Ratanakkiri province, knocking aside a police car and racing off. Police later tracked down the truck to a house in Banlung City. In the ...
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/how-cambodias-secretive-timber-auctions-are-fueling-the-illegal-logging-trade-63919/
Land concession woes aired
Village representatives in Ratanakkiri yesterday shared their land grievances with the European Union ambassador, requesting he relay to the government their appeal that no further 99-year land concessions be granted to private companies. Although the Post was not permitted to attend the full two-hour meeting, NGOs present at ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/land-concession-woes-aired
Khmer Krom monks clash with Cambodian police over Hanoi statement
More than a hundred monks and students from Vietnam’s Khmer Krom ethnic minority living in Cambodia clashed Tuesday with riot police and security guards in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh as they marched to demand an apology for statements by ...
Richard Finney
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/clash-07082014164311.html
Company ‘destroyed rice field’
Representatives of a Chinese firm embroiled in a land dispute in Preah Vihear province have destroyed a hectare of rice fields to drive a farmer away, villagers alleged yesterday. According to 45-year-old villager Tem Song, on June 28 six Cambodian and Chinese employees of Roy Feng ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/company-%E2%80%98destroyed-rice-field%E2%80%99
Working ‘mother’ kept child chained
A day after Prime Minister Hun Sen pointed out the need for more effective child protection in Cambodia, police in Koh Kong arrested and released a woman who admitted to chaining her 4-year-old “adopted daughter” inside their house eight hours a day for the past ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/working-%E2%80%98mother%E2%80%99-kept-child-chained
Cities, provinces ordered to report on illegal logging, fishing
In yet another attempt to stem the looting of Cambodia’s forests, lakes and rivers, the Interior Ministry has given all cities and provinces until July 20 to submit detailed reports on all the illegal logging and fishing taking place in their jurisdictions. The latest initiative comes ...
Illegal Ratanakkiri gem mine raided
District and military police in Ratanakkiri raided an illegal gem mine inside a Chinese company’s land concession on Saturday but failed to make any arrests, according to a rights group representative. Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, said about 200 illegal gem miners had settled on ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/illegal-ratanakkiri-gem-mine-raided
Man arrested, shots fired at land dispute protest
A villager was arrested and authorities fired shots Thursday in an attempt to quell a protest against the pending eviction in Preah Vihear province of more than 80 families at the hands of timber magnate Try Pheap, villagers said. Lor Chan, provincial coordinator for rights ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/man-arrested-shots-fired-at-land-dispute-protest-63224/
Villagers agree to remeasuring of disputed land
Villagers caught in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Kompong Speu province Wednesday attempted to reclaim farmland they say is theirs, but were thwarted by provincial authorities, who appeased them by promising to measure the land again. About 250 families in Phnom Sruoch district ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-agree-to-remeasuring-of-disputed-land-63077/
Ethnic activists targets of arrest, threats: NGO
More than 100 ethnic minority activists trying to protect community forests have been arrested, jailed, threatened and subjected to violence so far this year, a major local rights group has said. In a statement released yesterday, Adhoc condemned the “discriminatory” treatment of indigenous people who have ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ethnic-activists-targets-arrest-threats-ngo
Bunong vow to act against Mondolkiri loggers
Ethnic Bunong in Mondolkiri province’s Sen Monorom City said Tuesday that they would no longer cooperate with local officials in fighting illegal logging and that they would begin to confiscate loggers’ equipment and burn illicit timber themselves. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, representatives of ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bunong-vow-to-act-against-mondolkiri-loggers-62960/
Villagers accuse Mondolkiri company of major deforestation
Mondolkiri provincial villagers on Tuesday accused authorities there of colluding with a development company involved in serious deforestation. The Phnong minority villagers say the wife of the deputy provincial governor owns the company, Villas Development, which is allegedly involved in illegal logging. The activists spoke Tuesday ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/villagers-accuse-mondolkiri-company-of-major-deforestation/1948555.html
Land issues creating mistrust of local officials, observers say
Despite a number of agencies dispatched to solve land dispute, rights workers say people continue to face forced evictions and rights abuses by land developments. These problems are not being handled at the local level, fueling mistrust in local government, rights workers say. Rights workers from myriad ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/land-issues-creating-mistrust-of-local-officials-observers-say/1947717.html
Hun Sen calls on Thai junta to treat Cambodians well
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday called on Thailand’s ruling junta to ensure the safety of Cambodian migrant workers and to treat well those that are being deported. Up to 250,000 Cambodians have fled Thailand or been deported since the junta took control in a May ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/hun-sen-calls-on-thai-junta-to-treat-cambodians-well/1945505.html
Rights groups continue push to stop faulty judicial reform laws
Cambodia’s human rights groups are continuing to seek ways to prevent three draft judicial reform bills from becoming law. The drafts have already passed the National Assembly, but they have not been signed by the king. ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/rights-groups-continue-push-to-stop-faulty-judicial-reform-laws/1945553.html
Firm buying Boeng Kak land claims no knowledge of evictions
A Singapore-based firm whose subsidiary plans to buy land in Phnom Penh from which thousands of families have been forcibly evicted said Wednesday that the firm had no knowledge of the long-running land dispute. The firm, HLH Group, also denied any official or financial ties to ...
Zsombor Peter and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-buying-boeng-kak-land-claims-no-knowledge-of-evictions-62463/
HAGL filled in lakes: villagers
More than 100 families living in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district have filed a complaint with authorities, claiming a rubber giant – already accused of illegal logging – filled in two natural lakes, provincial officials said yesterday. Villagers, along with government officials, say Vietnamese company Hong Anh Gai ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hagl-filled-lakes-villagers
For villagers losing land, Hun Sen is last resort
Three separate communities from across the country were in Phnom Penh on Monday to petition Prime Minister Hun Sen to personally intervene to help settle their various land disputes. Communities affected by alleged land grabs in Phnom Penh and beyond often appeal directly to Mr. Hun ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/for-villagers-losing-land-hun-sen-is-last-resort-62200/
Hundreds plea for PM’s help
Hundreds of families descended on Phnom Penh yesterday to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen and the United Nations to intervene in three separate land disputes. More than 800 families from across the country gathered in front of Wat Botum at about 9am, where they submitted petitions ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-plea-pm%E2%80%99s-help
Questions raised over land sale at lakeside
Developer Shukaku has sold off close to 1.3 hectares of land at the capital’s controversial Boeung Kak lake site to a Singapore-listed HLH Group company, according to a statement from HLH. HLH subsidiary D’Lotus Development purchased the land at Boeung Kak in Daun Penh district for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/questions-raised-over-land-sale-lakeside
Big queues for $4 passport
A sub-decree aimed at stemming the massive influx of mostly undocumented Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand with a drastically reduced passport fee already appears to be generating an overwhelming response. Yesterday, an estimated 200 workers lined up outside the Battambang provincial passport office to get ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-queues-4-passport
Illegal workers arrested, face Thai court
Thai authorities have arrested and are preparing to try 13 Cambodian migrant workers who were allegedly caught with fake stamps on their work papers as they tried to return home, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong confirmed on Friday. The government also announced a plan to subsidize ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-workers-arrested-face-trial-in-thailand-62059/
Villager charged after blocking land clearance in Ratanakkiri
A villager representative in Ratanakkiri province was charged Thursday with unlawful interference in the discharge of public function after he led a group of neighbors to block a Chinese company’s bulldozer from clearing disputed land in Bakeo district on Sunday, a court official said. Morm Vanda, provincial deputy ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villager-charged-after-blocking-land-clearance-in-ratanakkiri-61961/