ដីធ្លី
Courts step up charges in land disputes
The number of criminal charges meted out to villagers embroiled in land disputes rose by more than 50 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the rights group Adhoc yesterday. The rights group found that the courts charged 475 villagers ...
Soldiers shoot villagers over land protest
Violence erupted yesterday in Kratie province’s Snuol district where six people were shot and injured when RCAF soldiers working for a rubber company opened fire on a crowd of villagers who were trying to stop the company from clearing land in the area, police and ...
Villagers in Prey Long Forest seize load of illegal timber
Faced with continued illegal logging in Prey Long forest, villagers in Kompong Thom province’s Sandan district once again took the initiative to seize a large haul of illegal timber from local loggers. Villagers, however, said that local officials are complicit in the logging ring and ...
Land grants affected 11,377 families in 2011, rights groups say
More than 11,000 families were affected by government-granted economic land concessions in 2011, nearly 3,000 more families than were affected the previous year, according to figures released yesterday by local rights group Licadho. A total of more than 2 million hectares of the country’s forests and ...
Firm refuses housing pleas
The owner of development firm Phan Imex Company said yesterday that 64 families from the capital’s Borei Keila community who were demanding compensation for houses demolished on January 3 did not have the documents to prove they had owned a house on the site. Phan Imex ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012011854001/National-news/firm-refuses-housing-pleas.html
Locals protest Pheapimex land clearance; deny role in murder
About 200 villagers, who have been embroiled in a long-running land dispute with the well-connected agro-business Pheapimex over a 316,000-hectare economic land concession in Pursat province, staged a protest yesterday against the company’s continued efforts to clear their farmland. The protests came just three days after ...
Deadline extended for comment on new urban planning rules
The Ministry of Land Management is giving a brief reprieve to non-government groups and donor partners who missed yesterday’s deadline to comment on a draft sub-decree aiming to guide and regulate the country’s urban development. After making the Sub-Decree on Urban Planning and Town Areas public ...
Digging of deep quarry halted after protesters block road
Authorities in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district have ordered a land excavation company to stop digging an enormous quarry in Prek Kampoes commune that villagers claim has damaged surrounding rice paddies. Last Wednesday, about 100 villagers blocked National Road 2, burning car tires in protest against the ...
Law drafted to enforce environmental reports
The Ministry of Environment has drafted a law that will hand out fines and prison terms for companies that fail to complete and submit Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) on the development projects they undertake. According to a copy of the EIA draft law, fines of 100 ...
No sign World Bank will renew funds
Just over a year since the World Bank froze its funds to the government, the bank yesterday reiterated that a decision on whether or not it would start providing loans again remains nowhere in sight. In August, the World Bank announced that it would not provide ...
Amnesty calls for release of detained protesters
Amnesty International yesterday called on authorities to immediately release the 30 women and children from the Borei Keila community being detained against their will at Phnom Penh’s Prey Speu Social Affairs Center. “Those people never should have been arrested in the first place,” said Amnesty’s Deputy ...
Eviction clock ticks for families in Preah Vihear
More than 130 families in Preah Vihear province who continue to defy eviction orders will not receive any compensation if they do not leave their homes by Friday, the Choam Ksan district governor has warned. Choam Ksan district governor Sok Hai yesterday said police and military ...
Demand for office space making a comeback
After a slow year in 2010, demand for office space in Phnom Penh is beginning to rebound as occupancy levels in new and existing units increase, real estate experts said yesterday. However, it is still unclear whether or not there is enough demand to fill ...
Gov't group issues rare statement on illegal logging
Spurred on by a rash of recent news about illegal logging activities around the country, and concerns about its public image, a government-led group on forestry issued a rare public statement yesterday urging its partners to help crack down on the illicit trade. In a statement ...
Hun Sen calls off deals on protected land
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered an end to all private land deals inside the country’s protected areas and warned local businessmen and officials against making such illegal deals. “All official paperwork in connection with natural protected areas is invalid,” he said while speaking at the ...
Probe under way on military logging case
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has launched an investigation into an October 2010 incident in which three RCAF soldiers allegedly opened fire on Forestry Administration officials who had just confiscated a haul of illegal wood, one of the officials involved said yesterday. An RCAF official, meanwhile, said ...
Preah Vihear families seek top-level intervention
Families continuing to defy eviction orders in Preah Vihear fear police and authorities will use violence to remove them from their homes this week, villagers told the Post yesterday. Representatives of Svay Chum village in Choam Ksan district’s Kantuot commune trekked to Phnon Penh on Friday ...
Mob breaks evictee into home
A PROTEST on the fifth storey of a residential high-rise in Borei Keila ended with authorities fleeing the scene and incensed villagers breaking down a door yesterday. About 50 villagers converged on the site to protest against Phan Imex and authorities evicting a man from his ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011122253561/National-news/mob-breaks-evictee-into-home.html
Prey Lang protesters on run after police allegedly pay a visit
TWO activists involved in last month’s Prey Lang forest protest against illegal logging fled their houses yesterday in Sandan district in an attempt to evade local authorities, villagers reported. Roeun Sopheap, village representative in Sandan commune, said he fled his home yesterday after finding several police ...
Hun Sen sets out northeast development plans
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday outlined the government’s plans to spur economic growth in the northeast of the country through implementing a wide range of projects in sectors such as agriculture and the extractive industries. Rights workers have warned that little information on the plans for ...
Called to court: Summonsed woman brings crowd of 150
A woman summonsed to Kampong Speu provincial court over a land dispute yesterday returned home without being arrested after about 150 protesting villagers turned out to support her. Rath Thavy, provincial monitor for human rights group Adhoc, speculated that the court decided not to arrest Khem ...
Gathering of youths makes case for forests
Cambodia’s National Youth Congress called on the government yesterday to act to protect the country’s natural resources from illegal traders. About 100 young people from 30 colleges in Phnom Penh, Kratie and Kampong Thom Chhnang provinces attended a discussion about protecting natural resources – with a ...
Logging in the wild west
Illegal logging of staggering proportions abetted by military personnel is decimating stocks of luxury rosewood in the Central Cardamom Protected Forest, while the conversation group tasked with protecting the area and its government counterparts deny the trade is even happening. In a period of several hours ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011122153536/National-news/logging-in-the-wild-west.html
Incitement claim: monk called to court over land protest
A Kampuchea Krom monk was issued a summons yesterday to appear in a Phnom Penh court tomorrow to face accusations of incitement. In a letter obtained by the Post yesterday, the investigating municipal judge, Duch Kimson, ordered Sieng Sovannra, a monk at the Samaki Raingsey pagoda, ...