ព័ត៌មាន
Locked-up villagers set off protests
More than 100 villagers protested in front of Banan district hall in Battambang province yesterday, demanding the release of six villagers who were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly accepting money to illegally divide state land. The six suspects have been accused of advertising land and then ...
Drought Damages Rice Seedlings Across Nation
Despite heavy rains in parts of the country, a month-long drought has destroyed over 10,000 hectares of rice seedlings in other areas, agriculture officials said yesterday. Battambang province was the hardest hit, with 4,640 hectares of seedlings destroyed by the drought and another 10,000 hectares affected. In ...
Bearing Gifts, Chinese Heads Visit Hun Sen
A delegation of Chinese officials yesterday donated two airplanes and signed an agreement to provide Cambodia with loans for a new hydropower dam in Battambang and the renovation of two national roads. The deals were made during a meeting in Phnom Penh between He Guoqiang, a ...
Gold Mines Blamed for Cattle Deaths Shut Down
Authorities in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district shut down eight unlicensed gold mines Saturday and Sunday after a study revealed they were producing toxic runoff blamed for the deaths of three cattle last week, officials said. Deputy governor Pech Choun said four mines in the area ...
Farmers Blame Gold Mines for Cattle Deaths
Villagers in Battambang province’s Phnom Proek district have called on the government to shut down several unlicensed gold mines being blamed for the deaths of cattle that drank from a pond contaminated by chemical runoff. “Three of the village’s cows died and two became sick after ...
Mother, son charged with stealing millions
A well-known Battambang businesswoman is on the run and her 18-year-old son is sitting in jail after the pair were charged with stealing millons from customers of their money exchange shop. “She had stolen moneys from many people who had transferred their moneys via her ...
Military police shoot three farmers over land concession
Military police in Battambang province shot three villagers in the legs during a confrontation between local farmers and a private company that was granted a land concession, a police official said. Phnom Penh district police chief Song Sopheak said employees of Suon Neang Sambath company, a ...
Villagers locked in land dispute threaten arson
Police and military police stopped about 200 villagers from entering rice fields in Battambang province yesterday, saying they had no right to harvest in the 100-hectare area because it belonged to well-known businessman Song Thon, villagers said. Chhut Mao, a 64-year-old village representative of Lvea commune, ...
Railway families to petition Asian Development Bank for help
Families evicted or still facing eviction to make way for an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system plan to petition the ADB today for help securing better compensation from the government. The ADB is putting up more than half the money ...
Report finds Cambodia's land disputes back on the rise
Following a dip in 2009, new land disputes increased last year by more than 50 percent to 28, while the total number of ongoing cases is now 282, according to a report released yesterday by the NGO Forum. Culled from media and field reports, each recorded ...
Fertilizer Giant Opens New Branch
The PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Joint Stock Company (PVFCCo) officially inaugurated its branch in Cambodia on July 29 with an aim to sell products directly to local farmers. Since the establishment of its representative office in Phnom Penh in May 2010, PVFCCo, an affiliate of ...
Japan Loans over $53 Million to Improve Agriculture and Education
Cambodia will receive a concessional loan package of $53.3 million US dollars from Japan to restore the irrigation canal system and another $700,000 dollars grant aid to enhance education materials for minerals resources and topology department of the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), the ...
Foreign Ministry Tells NGOs to 'Readjust' Their Actions
The Foreign Affairs Ministry met with to non-governmental groups yesterday and accused them of inciting families to oppose the rehabilitation of the Cambodian rail system, ordering the NGOs to “readjust” their workForeign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said his ministry invited Bridges Across Borders Cambodia and ...
Japanese Government To Loan $47M for Agro-Development
The Minister of Water Resource and Meteorology announced yesterday that the Japanese government’s international aid agency will provide his ministry with $47 million on loans for an agriculture development project near the Tonle Sap lake. During a donation ceremony for 144 Japanese-funded agricultural machines held ...
Farmers get permission to cultivate
Farmers who on Sunday said they had been shot at by Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers for trying to cultivate 390 hectares of disputed land in Battambang province’s Samlot district were granted permission yesterday to plant on some parts of the land, villagers and ...
Economic Census Sheds Light on Businesses
The Ministry of Planning yesterday released the preliminary results of the 2011 economic census, which found that Cambodia has a total of 503,008 businesses nationwide, of which nearly 20 percent are based in Phnom Penh. The census, which began on March 1 and was financed ...
Teenager Rescued From T&P Training Center
Police and a human rights group said they rescued a 15-year-old girl from the training center of an overseas job recruitment agency in Kompong Chhnang province on Saturday. A rights worker said two more underage girls had been saved from being sent abroad to work ...
More than 1,800 families seek help
About 60 people representing 1,850 families from seven villages in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district yesterday petitioned Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Prime Minister Hun Sen for intervention in a land dispute. Villagers claim that district authorities leased 4,095 hectares of their land in Chrey ...
B’bang Protesters Seek Help in Land Dispute
About 60 villagers from Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district gathered in Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum Park yesterday to prtotested against a 4,065-hectare land concession granted to a company for agriculture development. Korng Sokheng, a representative for 1,850 families, said villagers submitted a petition to Prime ...
PetroVietnam Fertilizer Opens Cambodian Branch
PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Joint Stock Company (PVFCC) opened a branch in Cambodia in order to facilitate the direct sale of their imported fertilizers to farmers directly. The company gave away 25 tons of fertilizer free in Battambang province in order to celebrate the opening. ...
Court issues injunction to top rice milling firm
Battambang provincial court has issued an injunction halting the sale of any part of Loran Import Export Company in a dispute over ownership of the prominent rice milling firm, according to a statement. The plaintiffs, including prominent media personality Soy Sopheap as well as Uy Ang ...
Rainfall relieves drought for Battambang farmers
Cambodia has met 82 percent of its expected 250,000 hectares of cultivated rice after rains have relieved the drought struck province of Battambang. 400 hectares is all that remains still at risk, a small section of the 10,000 rice growing hectares in the province. According ...
Crocodile Farmers Plagued by Volatile Market
Crocodile farmers are feeling the pinch after a year of volatile crocodile prices and market demand. Despite the spike in crocodile prices late last year – which followed on the heels of worrying lows between 2005 and 2007 – demand for the live exports of ...
Villagers Seek Premier’s Intervention for Land Titles
Villagers from Battambang province have submitted petitions to Prime Minister Hun Sen asking that land management officials grant them the titles to the land they claim to have lived and worked on for 30 years. Apparently they were previously granted the right to construct homes ...