ដីធ្លី
Land Protesters Go Missing En Route to Rally
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 ...
New twist in Cambodian sugar firm saga
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 ...
Forestry Activists Find Illegal Timber Haul
Members of the Prey Long People’s Network ended a three-day patrol of the forest yesterday and said they had discovered about 300 cubic meters of illegally logged timber and swathes of state-owned forest being encroached on by private companies. “Authorities are paying no attention to itthey ...
Hundreds of Preah Sihanouk Families Forced From Homes
More than 100 families in Preah Sihanouk province were forcefully removed from their homes yesterday morning by at least 100 armed police officers who dispersed the crowd by firing shots into the air from AK-47 rifles and spraying villagers with water cannons, accoring to provincial ...
Prey Lang patrol claims more evidence
Community activists patrolling the Prey Lang forest for a second day yesterday claimed to have found more evidence of illegal logging – in the form of hundreds of cubic metres of timber and several hectares of cleared land. Prey Lang network representative Hoeun Sopheap said villagers ...
Arrested Land Officials Now Free on Bail
Four Land Management Ministry officials charged with corruption last week were released on bail yesterday, less than five days after arriving at Prey Sar prison for detention ahead of trial, officials said. Srung Leang, director of the prison’s center no. 1, said he received the written release order ...
Bail granted for disgraced officials
Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction arrested last week on bribery charges involving millions of dollars would be freed on bail in the next few days, officials said yesterday. Kuy Bunson, director of the Ministry of Interior’s prisons department, said he had ...
Charges vague as court calls in ADHOC official
In a mysteriously vague citation, Adhoc monitoring head Chan Saveth has been called to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to face charges of “providing assistance to specific perpetrators”. Although the court’s summons, which asks Saveth to appear on August 24, provides no specifics as to the ...
Cambodia Cancels Concessions Threatening Forests
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, ...
City Hall May Cut Airport Expansion Project in Half
The 30,000-square-meter expansion of Phnom Penh International Airport may be halved, saving some of the 262 families living on adjacent land from eviction, a government official said yesterday. Despite the possible change in plans, a majority of families could still face eviction because they live ...
Borei Keila Land Dispute Residents Pray for Help
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 ...
Villagers Restart Prey Long Forest Patrol for Illicit Activity
About 100 villagers in Kompong Thom province set out yesterday on a three-day patrol of Prey Long forest in search of illegal logging, their second since the April 26 shooting death of conservationist Chut Wutty. who was the organizer of the first patrols. Soem Sean, a ...
Group discovers illegal logging
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 ...
Homes Destroyed, One Arrested Amid Land Grab
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 ...
Prey Lang villagers on forest watch
Nearly 100 Prey Lang villagers in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district will today embark on a three-day “forest watch” mission to monitor what community representatives say are increased illegal logging activities in the jungle. This is the fourth time the community has conducted monitoring in the ...
Huge Chinese property project announced
Chinese firm Hainan Ruijin Investment Holding Company (HRIH) has announced an ambitious, US$5.8 billion property project including holiday resorts and high-rise apartments outside of Sihanoukville. Plans for the development, which has been dubbed Sihanoukville-Hainan City, have been approved by the Cambodian government. Further details, such as the ...
With Eviction Looming, Cham Fishing Families Live in Fear
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 ...
S'ville Families Get New Court Eviction Order
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 ...
Phnom Penh Court Charge Four Officials Of Land Ministry Over Corruption
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 ...
Casinos protect border line and sovereignty
Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday said: Cambodia has permitted the construction and opening of casinos at the border areas with neighboring countries for “secret strategy” to protect the country’s territory. He replied to opposition party who said gambling dens were harmful to the ...
Japanese Oji Paper Company To Plant Trees for Producing Paper in Cambodia
The 4th world class Japanese Oji Paper Co. Ltd will invest in tree planting in Cambodia for paper manufacture. The information was made known here on Aug. 7 by the Japanese company’s Director Mr. Shimamura Gemmei in a meeting with Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry ...
Land Ministry Officials Charged With Corruption
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has charged four senior officials at the Ministry of of Land Management with corruption and placed them in pretrial detention at Prey Sar prison on Thursday evening, officials said. On Monday, Sa Reth Boramy, deputy director of the ministry’s department of land ...
Cham Families On Riverbank Told to Leave
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 ...
Minorities Press Gov't for More Communal Titles
Hundreds of indigenous people called on government to pick up the pace in granting them communal land titles at a ceremony marking the U.N.-sponsored International Day of the World’s Indigenous People in Kompong Thom province yesterday. “The gathering today is to mark the 8th anniversary of Indigenous Day ...