ព័ត៌មាន
Farmers Petition to Change Agricultural Draft Law
About 200 farmers protested in front of the Ministry of Agriculture on Friday and submitted a petition requesting changes to a draft law on the management of agricultural land, which rights groups have said could effectively legalize land grabs from poor farmers. The government says the ...
Boeung Kak Resolution Speeds on
Responding to a new plan put forward by members of the Boeung Kak community and NGOs last month, Phnom Penh Municipal Hall announced on Friday that it had drawn up a list of all families who remain excluded from the 12.44 hectares Prime Minister Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013061066166/National/boeung-kak-resolution-speeds-on.html
Boeung Kak villagers, city officials talking titles
Local authorities met with Boeung Kak community members yesterday to register villagers left out of the oft-criticised resettlement scheme as a first step to providing them with titles and onsite housing. More than 10 officials including police, commune and village chief, as well as representatives of ...
Ratanakkiri Dispute Case Drags on
A village chief and an ethnic minority Tompuon villager were the latest people brought before the Ratanakkiri court for questioning after a private company accused villagers of destroying its property. Kvas Cheav, 57, village chief of Par Or in Keh Chung commune, told the Post that ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060666099/National/ratanakkri-dispute-case-drags-on.html
Land Battle Headed to Court
Eight ethnic Tampuon villagers from Ratanakkiri’s Bakeo district will file a lawsuit at provincial court today alleging that more than 70 hectares of protected forest have been illegally cleared by a police official and six villagers from a neighbouring commune. Ting Kham Se, 52, of Laminh ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052765851/National/land-battle-headed-to-court.html
Eviction Protestors Block Phnom Penh International Airport
About 20 people protesting their pending eviction from their homes near Phnom Penh International Airport blocked people from leaving or entering the airport for about half an hour yesterday, before a large force of police broke up their protest. In July, authorities told 182 families ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eviction-protesters-block-phnom-penh-international-airport-26147/
Students Protest At UN Envoy’s University Lecture
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi on Tuesday received a thorny reception from hundreds of students at a Phnom Penh university, who angrily questioned his impartiality and unfurled banners calling for him to end his work in Cambodia. Special rapporteur Subedi delivered a lecture to about ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/students-protest-at-un-envoys-university-lecture-25855/
Dad ‘Threatened’ by Court
The father of three youths allegedly beaten by DM Group workers earlier this month said court officers yesterday threatened to imprison him if he did not agree to compromise with the company and drop the case. Ry Sarun appeared at Ratanakkiri Provincial Court yesterday to answer ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052265776/National/dad-threatened-by-court.html
Trade Deal Threat Still On Table
The European union’s executive arm has responded to its parliamentarians’ concerns over rights abuses stemming from Cambodia’s economic land concessions, maintaining that, should the need arise, it “will be ready” to withdraw from its preferential trade agreements with the Kingdom. In a joint letter to concerned ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065716/National/trade-deal-threat-still-on-table.html
Arrests Threatened In Ratanakkiri
Provincial authorities in Ratanakkiri have warned ethnic Jarai villagers that they will be arrested if they continue to stop bulldozers belonging to a Vietnamese company from clearing forest in O’Yadav district’s Paknhai commune, community leaders said yesterday. Sav Finh, leader of Lom village’s forestry protection committee, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051565625/National/arrests-threatened-in-ratanakkiri.html
IFC, Deutsche Bank respond to Global Witness report
On May 13, we ran an interview with London-based NGO Global Witness accusing the Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation of financing two Vietnamese rubber companies that are allegedly involved in land grabs in Cambodia and Laos. We asked both banks for a response ...
The canes of wrath
Satiating the demands of the global sugar industry is big business for Cambodia’s sugarcane plantations. Yet accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the Kingdom have left a bitter aftertaste for many on the ground as companies vie for a larger slice of ...
Firm Given Rights to All ELC Timber in Ratanakkiri
The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a deal with Try Pheap Import Export to give the firm the right to purchase all timber felled in economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, according to a letter sent from the Agriculture Ministry to the Forestry Administration ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/firm-given-rights-to-all-elc-timber-in-ratanakkiri-22788/
Father Suing Rubber Firm for Beating His Three Children
The father of three children attacked with wooden sticks and steel poles by employees of well-connected DM Group in Ratanakkiri province has filed a lawsuit against the firm, and is asking for tens of thousands of dollars in compensation. .. The provincial court has charged the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/father-suing-rubber-firm-for-beating-his-three-children-22805/
Court Upholds Verdict for Minister's Wife's Firm
The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a verdict by Kompong Chhang Provincial Court over a land dispute in Konmpong Tralach district between a 70-year old woman and a company owned by the wife of the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy over a 3,000-square-meter parcel ...
Non-Government Groups Take Stock of the Country’s Rights Records
The government’s abuse of land rights and indigenous minorities were among the top concerns raised Tuesday by non-governmental groups at a workshop in Phnom Penh on Cambodia’s progress toward achieving a long list of U.N. human rights recommendations. As part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/non-government-groups-take-stock-of-countrys-rights-record-21113/
Adhoc defends Staffer in Incitement Claim
Human rights group Adhoc yesterday criticized a commune official in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district for accusing one of its staff of incitement and spreading disinformation after villagers traveled to Phnom Penh in March to protest over a land dispute with well known businessman Try ...
Farmers Sue UK Sugar Firm For Millions
Hundreds of Cambodian families are suing the British sugar firm Tate & Lyle in one of the U.K’s highest courts over a pair of plantations in Koh Kong province they accuse of violently forcing them off their land and out of their homes. The British law ...
Land Titling Program Favors Wealthy Businessman
In Washington today, attendees of the World Bank’s Annual Conference on Land and Poverty will hear a flattering account of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ambitious project to furnish nearly half a million Cambodian families with new private land titles just in time for July’s national ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/land-titling-program-favors-wealthy-businessman-17831/
Hun Sen Thanks Student Land-Titling Volunteers
Student volunteers from across the country yesterday took a break from their land-measuring duties to attend a pre-Khmer New Year ceremony at Phnom Penh’s Koh Pitch where they were presented with a thank-you letter from Mr. Hun Sen. Since Mr. Hun Sen launched the land titling ...
Initial Mapping For Communal Titles Underway in Mondolkiri
Initial mapping of three ethnic minority Banong communities in Mondolkiri province got underway yesterday, a critical step in their plans to gain much coveted communal titles to their ancestral land. Established by the 2001 Land Law, communal land titles were designed specifically to protect the ancestral ...
Hun Sen Seeks Chinese Help for Bridge Project
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged China to come up with enough funding for Cambodia to build a 3.5km bridge across the Tonle Sap and connect National Road 6 in Kampong Thom with Kampong Chhang province. Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for a $20 million Chinese ...
Rubber firm is felling state forest: villagers
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 ...
Largesse and threats ahead of election
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013032664688/National/largesse-and-threats-ahead-of-election.html