ODC English Site

More than 1,600 tons of cassava have been stuck at the Thai-Cambodian border in Banteay Meanchey for several days because Thai officials have banned imports of the crop in an effort to support domestic prices at home, officials and exporters said yesterday. The cassava, 800 tons ...

More than 100 female workers fainted yesterday in Kompong Speu province at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory manufacturing clothes for the US sports brand Nike, an official from the Ministry of Labor said. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety inside the ministry’s health department, said he ...

Kampong Speu provincial court issued summonses yesterday to five villagers from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, who are involved in a long-standing land dispute with Cambodia People’s Party senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar company. ...

កាលពីម្សិលមិញ មនុស្សប្រហែល៣០០ នាក់មកពីភូមិចំនួន៦នៅក្នុងឃុំក្បាលត្រាចខេត្តពោធិ៍សាត់បាន ធ្វើការតវ៉ានៅក្រៅការិយាល័យស្រុកក្រគររបស់ក្រុមហ៊ុនPheapimex Groupដែលជាការប្រឈមមុខដាក់គ្នាថ្មីបំផុតនៅក្នុងជម្លោះដីធ្លី មួយអស់រយៈពេល ១៣ ឆ្នាំមកហើយ។ តំណាងអ្នកភូមិមួយរូបឈ្មោះ ឌុក សារីបានឱ្យដឹងថា ពួកគេបានមកដើម្បីទាមទារឱ្យក្រុមហ៊ុននេះពន្យល់ពីមូលហេតុដែលបាន យកដីនិងបំផ្លាញទ្រព្យសម្បត្តិរបស់ពួកគេ។ ...

About 300 villagers in Pursat province’s Krakor district yesterday protested to stop the powerful Pheapimex Company from clearing their farmland after armed military police arrived in the area to guard the firm’s government-awarded land concession, villagers said. The company used two excavators and nine bulldozers to ...

Some of Southeast Asia’s most acute problems were left unmentioned yesterday when government-sanctioned civil society groups met with Asean leaders at the regional bloc’s summit in Phnom Penh. NGOs from eight of the 10 Asean states attended the meeting, but the Indonesian delegation pulled out, complaining ...

Kratie provincial authorities met with more than 500 Pi Thnou commune families seeking a social land concession yesterday, making good on a promise made last week in order to get villagers to end their blocking of national road 6A. ...

Approximately 65 percent of the country’s 3,492 registered international and local NGOs are inactive, leaving only about 1,350 active NGOs in the country, according to a report issued yesterday by NGO network Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC). The report, “CSO Contributions to the Development of Cambodia ...

Participants at the Asean Peoples’ Forum have called on regional leaders to halt plans to construct two controversial hydropower dams in Laos and Cambodia because of the large number of people who will be affected and the lack of public consultation. The forum in Phnom Penh, ...

Boeung Kak lake residents yesterday accused commune police of not fulfilling their duty of keeping them safe, forcibly expelling a number of officers from a press conference called to highlight the problem. ...

The Philippines thrust the South China Sea dispute to the forefront of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting yesterday, causing the topic to dominate discussions. Myanmar by-elections and North Korea also featured prominently on the eve of today’s ASEAN summit, overshadowing the foreign ministers’ planned focus on ...

Two environmental organizations sent letters to Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Friday appealing for them to halt the planned construction of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam in Stung Treng province. The Sesan 2, a Vietnamese-funded hydropower project, will cause ...

Cambodia’s Heng Development Co Ltd, in co-operation with Thai and Chinese companies, plans to invest about US$200 million in a water-treatment project this year, according to the company’s general director. ...

Representing more than 1,200 delegates from the 10 Asean countries, the Asean Peoples’ Forum issued a highly critical statement yesterday to visiting Asean leaders concerning issues such as land evictions, effects of large-scale hydropower projects and the opaque nature of drafting the Asean Human Rights ...

More than 400 families in Kampong Cham province’s Chup commune had filed a complaint yesterday to local authorities over relocation orders issued last week, villagers said. Hom Hon, 55, a retired rubber plantation worker and former employee of Sopheak Nika Investment Group Company, said that on ...

The Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) sent a letter to the Ministry of Labor yesterday requesting that all of the country’s factory owners pay workers their salary earlier than usual ahead of Khmer New Year. Workers are normally paid on the fifth to the ...

Two villagers from Koh Kong  province involved in a land dispute with a Chinese company were detained for questioning on Saturday afternoon, halting their plans to file a petition with the Chinese embassy during President Hu Jintao’s visit. Thirty-three other villagers who had planned to deliver ...

About half of the land concessions granted since 1994 are in the hands of Chinese companies, according to data released yesterday by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights. Ouch Leng, CCHR land reform project coordinator, said that from 1994 to 2012, the Cambodian government granted 4,615,745 ...

Members of the Asean People’s Forum, a coalition of NGOs that convened in Phnom Penh last week, declared yesterday that their rights had been violated after four workshops on sensitive issues were canceled by the venue where they met. In a statement representing more than 1,200 ...

Civil society groups from Thailand will boycott a meeting between NGOs and regional government representatives at this week’s ASEAN summit because their country’s delegate “does not represent Thai civil society”, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Premrudee Daoroung, a representative of Thai civil society groups, said her country’s ...

About 500 protesters erected barricades on National Road 76a in Kratie province’s Snuol district on Saturday to protest the loss of their farmland and homes to encroachment by three agro-industry firms: Sovann Rithy, Samnang Angkor and Dai Nam Cambodia, officials said yesterday. The protest, which remained ...

Just hours before Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Phnom Penh on Friday, a group of dismayed Koh Kong province villagers whose land is under threat from a sprawling Chinese tourism project were escorted onto a bus and sent back home before they were able ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court yesterday questioned two of the three female garment factory workers who were shot during a protest at a special economic zone (SEZ) in Bavet City in February, the provincial prosecutor said yesterday. Keo Nea, 18; Bun Chenda, 21; and Nuth Sokhorn, ...

Government officials did not, and Lao students could not, attend yesterday’s Asean Peoples’ Forum in Phnom Penh, where more than 1,500 members of civil society groups discussed the region’s most pressing issues, including human rights, poverty, land usurping and domestic violence. The three-day forum, which is not ...