ដីធ្លី

A BHP Billiton mining deal being investigated for alleged corruption was personally overseen by Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, diplomatic cables reveal. The miner’s aborted attempt to establish a bauxite mine in Cambodia, and its hospitality program for Chinese officials at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are at ...

The British chairman of a Biofuel firm is facing up to 15 years in jail after he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in Phnom Penh on Saturday and charged with forgery, a court official said yesterday. Gregg Fryett’s company, Sustainable Agro Energy, has been ...

Villagers who confiscated land-clearing equipment during a forest patrol yesterday in Khsuem commune in Kratie province’s Snuol district are claiming the equipment belongs to a rubber concessionaire attempting to expand into state land, an allegation local authorities denied. Villager representative Mom Sokkin said the Binh ...

Dozens of families at Borei Keila have moved back on to land they were evicted from last year, despite intimidation and threats of arrest by security forces employed by developer Phan Imex. Earlier this month, security guards tore down the shelters of 12 families who had ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen warned thousands of villagers yesterday that his most popular initiatives, including his far-reaching land-titling scheme, will simply disappear if he is not re-elected in July’s national election – amid suggestions his campaigning has unofficially begun. In a marked shift from his apparent ...

Jarai ethnic minority villagers appeared at Ratanakkiri provincial court yesterday, demanding compensation from a Vietnamese company they say illegally cleared 30 hectares of community land in November last year. Chea Chanrith was granted a licence from the Ministry of Agriculture last year to clear land ...

The British chairman of an embattled agricultural investment firm was arrested Saturday by Cambodian authorities over charges of forging documents and using them in an attempt to illegally purchase thousands of hectares of land, a court prosecutor said. Greg Fryett, the main shareholder of Sustainable Agro ...

The legitimacy of a lawsuit filed by prominent businesswoman Chhin Sokountheary, also known as “Crocodile Grandmother”, accusing Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema of abusing his power by stealing some 34 hectares of privately owned land is being called into question by the Phnom Penh Municipal ...

Vietnamese enterprises are increasingly investing overseas, especially in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, it has been announced. Elsewhere in the region, the Viet Nam Rubber Group has invested in growing rubber plantations in Laos and Cambodia since 2007 and aims to own 100,000 hectares by ...

An indigenous ethnic Banong community in Mondolkiri province yesterday began the final stage in acquiring a communal land title, setting it up to become only the sixth community in the country to secure one of the coveted documents. Established by the 2001 Land Law, communal land ...

The Council of Ministers yesterday backed Prime Minister Hun Sen’s plan to rebuild the flattened homes of 49 families who were violently evicted earlier this month in Preah Sihanouk province’s Stung Hav district. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Hun Sen dismissed the Council of Ministers’ ...

Debt levels among the more than 1,000 families being evicted by a $142.6 million railway project bankrolled by Australia and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) have reached “crisis” proportions and require major intervention, according to a U.S resettlement expert who was hired by the ADB ...

Three ethnic Jarai minority communities passed a crucial hurdle on the way to obtaining communal land titles in government-sanctioned ceremonies this week. But a human-rights activist tempered the celebration, saying mass deforestation in the province had already stripped most of the land the villagers are ...

CONSTRUCTION is progressing on a $1.5 million baby-products factory that will be among the largest in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ). Combi (Cambodia), which owns the factory, announced the plans for its new facility in an online job listing yesterday. The five-hectare factory was scheduled ...

It was not the hero’s welcome that greeted Mam Sonando when more than a thousand boisterous supporters cheered his release from Prey Sar prison Friday and lifted the popular radio station owner onto their shoulders for an impromptu parade. But for the three unheralded farmers caught ...

Yet another resident of Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district came forward yesterday to join “Crocodile Grandmother” Chhin Sokoutheary in accusing city and district officials of issuing a false sub-decree to acquire land in the vicinity of Pong Peay Lake in Phnom Penh Thmey commune. Chea Savean, ...

Twenty-seven families in Oddar Meanchey’s Trapaing Prasat district filed a complaint with Hun Sen’s cabinet and the rights group Adhoc on Monday, maintaining that soldiers have been preventing them from farming since October 2012. A representative of the villagers, Soeung Sophea, 59, said yesterday that troops ...

Hun Sen asked authorities to maintain the pristine beaches along coastal provinces by not allowing any industrial factories to be constructed on or near them. The comment was aimed towards an agreement signed by Cambodian and Chinese companies late last month to build a $2.3 ...

Hun Sen announced that 1.5 mln hectares of Economic Land Concessions were granted to private companies. 1.2 mln hectares, 80 percent, of the concessions are used for rubber plantation sector. He said, that Cambodia still maintain[s] 9.2 mln hectares of forest land even though 1.5 mln ...

The Ministry of Tourism and the French TV channel TF1 have signed a deal on a “2013 action plan” that will promote Cambodia’s beach tourism. The agreement was inked yesterday by Tourism Minister Thong Khon and Franck Firmin Guion, the president of Adventure Line Product-ions (ALP). The plan ...

The Asian Development Bank has refused to release a critical study on the impacts its $141.6 million railway project is having on thousands of Cambodian families because disclosure of the report could hurt its relationship with the government, an ADB spokeswoman said. Raising concerns about the ...

Nearly 50 families in Koh Kong province’s Kiri Sakor district will finally receive official titles after repeatedly requesting – and being denied – student volunteers to measure their land, the villagers’ commune chief said yesterday. Koh Pol commune chief Ev Kosal, who participated in the meeting ...

Fifty Tampuon ethnic minority families protested yesterday in front of the Soeung Commune Hall in Bakeo district against their commune chief, who they allege sold land that belonged to the Ratanakkiri community. In a complaint filed to rights group Adhoc yesterday, the families claim that commune ...

Activists in Kratie province’s Snuol district seized seven chainsaws over the weekend and collected evidence that four police checkpoints were used to solicit bribes from illegal loggers, representatives of the network said yesterday. After scouring thousands of hectares of protected forest from Friday through yesterday, the ...