News

Oddar Meanchey province deputy governor Lon An yesterday confirmed CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat’s involvement in a trio of sugar cane plantations that rights groups took to the National Human rights Commission of Thailand last week, but denied their allegations of rights abuses. The deputy ...

A year to the day since armed soldiers stormed into the remote village of Pro Mar in Kratie province, killing a 14-year-old girl, arresting her husband and evicting hundreds of families, Sreng Pho still has nightmares. “I’m really scared when I think back to that day ...

Ratanakkiri provincial police on Monday arrested the chief of staff of a Vietnamese rubber concessionaire and his Cambodian translator who are believed to have burned down more than $5,000 worth of property related to a land dispute in O’Chum district, police said. Meas Pov Bora, chief ...

Corruption, a weak judicial system and the potential for complicity with human and labour rights abuses are key risks for firms looking to invest in Cambodia, a new report [by Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk and strategic consulting firm] analysing investment risk in the Kingdom ...

The World Bank has revised its growth prediction for Cambodia upwards to 7 per cent for 2013, from its January prediction of 6.7 per cent, a revision it attributes to the performance of the Kingdom’s agriculture, tourism and garment sectors. Cambodia’s outlook is generally positive, according ...

More than 25 families living on the site of the long-disused airfield in Preah Vihear province have been ordered to move off the land, a district official said yesterday. “The authorities are forcing residents to leave without compensation and this eviction is illegal because they ...

More than four years after the violent forced eviction of about 800 families from Dey Krahorm in the capital’s high-rent Tonle Bassac commune, small-scale construction is finally beginning on the site. In the past month, the skeletons of a future barbecue restaurant and a beer garden ...

The U.N.’s expert on housing rights has cited the World Bank’s failure to help thousands of families evicted from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood as a prime example of why the bank needs to make human rights a focus of its land sector programs worldwide. At ...

In a bizarre twist at the Appeal Court hearing of radio station owner Man Sonando, the prosecution yesterday asked that judges drop the charge against Mr. Sonando of inciting antigovernment violence, but then asked the court to uphold another charge leading to an insurrection. Mr. ...

The convicted ringleader of a so-called secessionist movement in May in Kratie province, who is currently in self-imposed exile to avoid a 30-year prison sentence, has said that he will soon return to Cambodia to organize a large-scale demonstration against the government. Bun Ratha—who was sentenced ...

Despite a court-ordered land title in their favour, 163 families in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district last week watched excavators rip apart their homes at the behest of two district deputy governors. The forced eviction, denounced in a petition delivered on Friday to Prime Minister Hun ...

Human rights groups in Cambodia fear a new south-east Asian declaration of human rights could conversely offer the government in Phnom Penh a figleaf to clamp down on dissent. Cambodia signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) human rights declaration on Sunday, two days ...

More than 300 families embroiled in a land dispute with notorious, and now defunct, NGO Darpo said yesterday that they had filed complaints to the Preah Vihear Provincial Court on Wednesday accusing a Koh Santepheap reporter of disinformation and calling for his arrest and $4,000 ...

Hundreds of families from more than a dozen communities joined local human rights groups yesterday as they rallied outside the National Assembly for World Habitat Day, calling for an end to forced land evictions in Phnom Penh. Among those protesting were residents from the Boeng ...

A group of families in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district gathered in their sludge-filled street yesterday, fearing authorities were moving in to evict them – for a second time. Many of the Andong village residents had taken the day off work; if anyone was coming ...

Children played along the banks of Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula yesterday, while their parents napped under the shade of their bright yellow and blue boat homes. But members of this Cham fishing community overlooking Phnom Penh’s city space said it was a very different scene on ...

More than 70 families in Pursat province’s Anlong Tnort commune plan to send a letter to their provincial hall today compelling officials to stop a private farming company from tearing down their houses on its 3,000 hectare economic land concession. Ratanak Visal Development Co Ltd’s security ...

Another alleged “secessionist” involved in a land dispute was arrested yesterday in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district, where villagers said authorities continued a prolonged forced eviction that has led to the destruction of some 500 homes. Three other men accused of attempting to create an autonomous ...

There were scenes of jubilation in Cambodia’s capital last month when a group of 13 imprisoned women – including a 72-year-old grandmother – was set free by an appeal court. The women were arrested in May during peaceful demonstrations against the forced eviction of thousands ...

A combined force of police, soldiers and military police last night set a deadline of 8am this morning for villagers in Mondulkiri province’s tiny Rayum commune to leave their homes or face forcible eviction. Authorities, who have surrounded the village for a week, say the villagers’ ...

Six Boeung Kak village representatives will appear in Phnom Penh Municipal Court accused of threatening to kill their one-time representative Ly Mom, who was spoke on their behalf from 2007 until last year. Although no charges have been laid, Ly Mom is demanding $10,000 from each ...

In what is becoming an increasingly popular – and coordinated – protest tactic among Phnom Penh’s dispossessed, several women took off their shirts and bras during a demonstration over land rights that briefly turned violent near the World Bank yesterday. About 100 protesters, most of them ...

The last of the nearly 800 families from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak community who are in line for land titles will not receive their long-awaited ownership records for another “two or three weeks”, a city official said yesterday. The families were spared eviction at the hands ...

Human rights group Licadho raised the alarm yesterday over the increased use of armed force by authorities as they seek to suppress protests over Cambodia’s numerous land disputes. It noted that during the past two months, security forces have opened fire on villagers during three ...