Land
Angry villagers block dusty quarry road in Takeo province
About 300 angry villagers blocked a dusty road in Takeo province’s Bati district on Friday, demanding that three quarrying firms follow through on promises to pave it, a local official said Sunday. The villagers are unhappy that the quarrying firms’ trucks kick up massive amounts of ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angry-villagers-block-dusty-quarry-road-in-takeo-province-53403/
Spirited protest at Riverside
Land activists said it was a spiritual ceremony; authorities described it as the latest attention-grabbing from “professional protesters”. Whatever the case, once the familiar scuffling between menacing security guards and civilians had passed yesterday, a demonstration calling for the release of 21 workers and activists arrested ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/spirited-protest-riverside
City Hall breaks ground on new 11-story $3.5 million office
The Phnom Penh Municipality has broken ground on a new 11-story $3.5 million building that is intended to house the city’s public services, the municipal spokesman said Monday. Long Dimanche said construction on the building, which is being erected on a 1,000 square meter plot of ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-breaks-ground-on-new-11-story-3-5-million-office-53439/
Families file complaint over Pailin governor
The 19 families in Pailin province who were told by police and military police on Saturday to vacate their land filed a complaint with Adhoc on Monday, the provincial coordinator for the NGO said. Authorities told the families to move on Saturday from the 95-hectares they ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/families-file-complaint-over-pailin-governor-53443/
Pailin governor orders 19 families to move off his land
More than 60 police and military police informed 19 families farming on a plot of land in Pailin province’s Sala Krao district on Saturday that they would have to move as they were growing crops on state land. However, Prak Sophima, provincial coordinator for rights group ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pailin-governor-orders-19-families-to-move-off-his-land-53397/
NGO declares Coca-Cola’s visit compromised by police
Auditors from the Coca-Cola Company visited Oddar Meanchey province on Friday to investigate allegations of land grabbing against sugar plantations that supply the global drinks giant, but called off a community meeting because of a heavy police presence, an NGO said Sunday. Chun Bora of the ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ngo-declares-coca-colas-visit-compromised-by-police-53395/
Battle over river in Svay Rieng
Authorities in Svay Rieng town are ignoring locals’ complaints over a Chinese firm that has allegedly been filling in a river in preparation to build a canal, villagers said yesterday. More than 130 families in Svay Teu commune, Svay Rieng province, have delivered petitions to provincial ...
Kim Sarom
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battle-over-river-svay-rieng
Villagers in land dispute are summoned, but not questioned
Five Kompong Chhnang villagers locked in a land dispute with a company owned by the wife of Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem, who had repeatedly tried—and failed—to file a complaint with their provincial court, were summoned for questioning at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-in-land-dispute-are-summoned-but-not-questioned-53334/
Rare statue unearthed by Chinese developer
A Chinese-owned company in Preah Vihear’s Tbeng Meanchey district stumbled across an 8th-century sandstone carving of the Buddha while excavating land there on Wednesday, the provincial culture department said yesterday. Oug Vireak, a deputy with the culture department, said the firm Lan Feng had been bulldozing ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rare-statue-unearthed-chinese-developer
Details murky in Environment Ministry Phnom Penh land swap
In 2011, the Environment Ministry entered into a deal with the Ratana Cooperation and Construction company to swap its valuable 2,400-square-meter location on Sihanouk Boulevard in Phnom Penh’s Tonle Bassac commune for a 9,000-square-meter plot of land and a new headquarters 20 km away in ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/details-murky-in-environment-ministry-phnom-penh-land-swap-53323/
Complaints against rubber company to be assessed, World Bank Office says
The World Bank’s ombudsman office says it will assess a complaint from indigenous groups in Ratanakkiri province that a bank-supported company has damaged the forest and surrounding communities. Seventeen different groups joined in the complaint, claiming the Hoang Anh Gia Lai rubber company, which receives ...
Police demolish shelters of Kratie families for second time
Police in Kratie province on Wednesday demolished the makeshift tents of about 300 families accused of squatting on public land inside a conservation area, two weeks after they forced many of the same families out of the area. Some of the families say they have lived ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-demolish-shelters-of-kratie-families-for-second-time-53291/
Environment minister visits UDG; Villagers disappointed
Environment Minister Say Sam Al failed to meet the villagers locked in a long-running land dispute with the Chinese-owned company Union Development Group (UDG) on Wednesday, despite visiting company officials in Koh Kong province, according to a rights worker and a provincial official. Mr. Sam Al ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-minister-visits-udg-villagers-disappointed-53277/
Coca-Cola auditors visit sugar suppliers
Third-party auditors hired by The Coca-Cola Company are conducting an audit of Cambodian sugar suppliers, NGO and community representatives said yesterday. “Coke has commissioned them to conduct an assessment on their suppliers. They will talk to all parties, the community, NGOs and the company,” said Eang ...
Kevin Ponniah and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/coca-cola-auditors-visit-sugar-suppliers
Four tons of dead fish found in Kompong Cham lake
About four tons of fish were found dead on the surface of Boeng Vien lake in Kompong Cham province this weekend, leading villagers to collect them to make emergency batches of the fermented fish paste known as prahok. Srey Santhor district governor Heng Vanny said that ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-tons-of-dead-fish-found-in-kompong-cham-lake-53295/
IFC accepts complaint over Ratanakkiri rubber plantations
The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ifc-accepts-complaint-over-ratanakkiri-rubber-plantations-53251/
Forest promises ‘unfulfilled’
As illegal logging continues to take a toll on the country’s woodlands, civil society groups yesterday called on the government to stay true to its commitment of providing an extra two million hectares of community forest by 2029. During a two-day conference in the capital, participants ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-promises-%E2%80%98unfulfilled%E2%80%99
Forest felled illegally, trio tells court
Three villagers in Mondulkiri’s Sen Monorom district appeared in court yesterday after filing a complaint against a land concessionaire for illegally bulldozing community forest. The three represented more than 160 Phnong villagers in allegations that the provincial deputy governor’s company cleared 30 hectares of community forest ...
Phak Seangly
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.phnompenhpost.com/national/forest-felled-illegally-trio-tells-court
More pre-Angkorian temples found within land concessions
Seven pre-Angkorian temples have been discovered on two land concessions in Preah Vihear province, but while an Environment Ministry official said Tuesday that the ministry had no knowledge of the temples when they granted the concessions, the Culture Ministry said their existence had long been ...
Denise Hruby and Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-pre-angkorian-temples-found-within-land-concessions-53263/
Environment minister to visit UDG project in Koh Kong province
Environment Minister Say Sam Al is scheduled to visit Koh Kong province today, while a representative of Chinese-owned company Union Development Group said the minister is expected to pay a visit to their 45,000hectare land concession, which has been the cause of a long-running land ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/environment-minister-to-visit-udg-project-in-koh-kong-province-53249/
UDG accused of farming instead of building
The Chinese-owned Union Development Group in Koh Kong province is bulldozing swaths of its land concession, originally intended for a massive tourist resort, to plant cassava and palm oil trees instead, a CNRP lawmaker-elect said Monday. Son Chhay, lawmaker-elect and CNRP chief whip, visited the area ...
Lauren Crothers and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/udg-accused-of-farming-instead-of-building-53164/
Grave sites cleared by rubber firms: NGOs
Four Vietnamese rubber firms are responsible for destroying an estimated 1,000 hectares of community forest, including an indigenous graveyard, in Ratanakkiri’s Andong Meas district, a group of NGOs have claimed. The land dispute involving 196 families living in Talav commune dates back to 2011, Chhay Thy, ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/grave-sites-cleared-rubber-firms-ngos
Ministry of Environment decides to move office again
The Ministry of Environment will relocate its offices to a plot of land near NagaWorld Hotel and Casino in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district after its planned new headquarters in Meanchey district were declared too far from the city’s center by the new environment minister, ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-environment-decides-to-move-office-again-53144/
Dredging ferry catches fire
A sand-dredging ferry caught fire and two of its pumping machines exploded yesterday in Kandal’s Kien Svay district. The blast sent a black plume of smoke over the Mekong and caused oil to leak into the river. Yem Sokhum, Phomthom commune police chief, said that according to ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/dredging-ferry-catches-fire