Land tenure and land titling

The former deputy administration director from Kratie province was arrested yesterday, accused of incitement for interfering with the work of student volunteers in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling project, an official said. Chin Hongsry, 60, is accused of undermining the volunteers by telling the villagers to ...

Dozens of women and children from Phnom Penh’s Boeng Kak neighborhood demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Woman’s Affairs yesterday to demand that the minister recant her claim that they had attacked police during a June 27 protest in which one of the women ...

Four villagers accused of masterminding the theft and intentional damage of property belonging to Cheat Aphiwat Co Ltd in a land dispute will have another month to prepare for trial after right groups Adhoc garnered them a delay yesterday. A village chief and three other villagers ...

Two men from Kratie province who were removed from a vehicle on Tuesday while traveling to Phnom Penh to demonstrate at Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house over a land dispute, have been arrested by internal security police and charged with fraud, an official said yesterday. Sless ...

A Chinese academic with close ties to China’s state security apparatus has claimed that Beijing coordinated with the Cambodian government to influence the outcome of the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh, according to the Financial Times. In an interview with the Financial Times on Wednesday, Chen ...

More than 180,000 hectares on 28 of Cambodia’s 64 islands were reclassified as state private property for 31 companies seeking land concessions between 2008 and 2010, government sub-decrees reveal. The reclassification sub-decrees, compiled by investigators at the rights group Adhoc, pave the way for firms to ...

Taiwanese food supplier Ve Wong, one of two sugar company owners locked in a long-running battle with villagers in Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel district, has made an eyebrow-raising offer – to give the disputed land back. The company’s offer, posted to the non-profit Business and Human ...

Cambodia annulled licenses to four private firms whose concession of 40,000 hectares threatens Prey Lang, one of the richest national forests. A letter from the Council of Ministers to the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Mining, in charge of managing the forests and the natural resources, ...

Former residents of the Borei Keila community who are embroiled in a land dispute with the Phanimex firm gathered yesterday for  prayer service in an appeal to the government to resolve their dispute. The residents claim the company failed to provide replacement housing or land to ...

Forestry administration officials in Battambang province have stepped in to stop the destruction of a community forest area by military and police, officials said yesterday. Over two past months, soldiers, police and military police have destroyed part of the 1,335-hectare Prey Tralach forest in Rokha Kiri district, which ...

About 300 villagers living inside a social land concession in Preah Vihear province’s Kulen district protested at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum yesterday, requesting that Prime Minister Hun Sen stop provincial authorities from clearing their farmland in preparation for the area to be used to house ...

A trio of international NGOs representing lawyers and journalists added their voice last week to the mounting calls for the government to release radio station owner Mam Sonando and drop all charges against him “immediately and unconditionally.” Authorities arrested Mr. Sonando, owner of the independent Beehive ...

Villagers who allege authorities and armed forces in Preah Vihear province have been burning their houses and clearing farmland of 400 families, to create a social land concession, protested yesterday, calling on intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 5,557-hectare SLC in Kulen district’s Srayang village ...

In a rare victory for those battling to preserve Prey Lang forest, the government has cancelled four economic land concessions in the area totalling more than 40,000 hectares that threatened pristine ecosystems. Another 3,200 hectare ELC in Koh Kong province has also been cancelled, while two ...

Local authorities, including a heavily armed police officer, broke up a training session on land rights in Ratanakkiri province’s Lumphat district on Friday, claiming the two groups had no legal right to hold such a meeting. The move marks the second time in less than a ...

Nearly 100 families who live in three villages in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune near the Phnom Penh International Airport have been told by district authorities they have seven days to relocate and will be given no compensation. However, the residents are refusing ...

A law on the management of farmland currently being drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture is a threat to private landowners as it imposes criminal penalties for farmers who do not abide by new powers the government would have to demarcate land, a human rights ...

About 20 families in Koh Kong province are accusing provincial authorities and military police of blocking them from farming on land that is part of a dispute with a Chinese development firm stretching back almost five years. The rice farms are in Botum Sakor district, which ...

While Mam Sonando lay in a cramped Prey Sar prison cell yesterday, sweating out a fever, some 100 members of the Association of Democrats burned incense and kneeled in prayer at the Preah Ang Dang Keu shrine, calling for the outspoken Beehive Radio director’s release. With ...

A draft agricultural land law threatens to eliminate property rights and effectively remove all limitations on the size of economic land concessions, a coalition of civil society groups said in a statement released.The draft of The Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land, ...

Villagers locked in a land dispute in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district no longer pose a secessionist threat, and those remaining in the contested area will receive new plots of land on which to live, the district governor said yesterday. District governor Chhe Chhiv said that ...

Two months after government security forces evicted hundreds of families from Kratie’s Broma village at gunpoint, residents who were permitted to remain there took their first steps toward legal land tenure. Scores of volunteers last week began to collect data of families in Chhlong and Snuol ...

More than a hundred supporters of imprisoned Beehive Radio owner Mam Sonando gathered at the Preah Ang Dang Keu Shrine in front of the Royal Palace yesterday morning to offer prayers for his release. Sporting shirts printed with photos of Mr. Sonando, the group lit candles ...

Ministry of Interior officials announced yesterday that three more villagers accused of involvement in a “secessionist plot” in Kratie province turned themselves in and confessed their guilt on Saturday, taking advantage of the prime minister’s offer of immunity for those who agree to act as ...