News

More than 60 families living in Boeung Kak I commune of Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork district were ordered by local authorities to remove fences and crops lining railway tracks by August 19. However, the people have protested and refused to follow the order. ...

Two prominent Boeung Kak activists are set to see an end to their years-long legal struggle with a final verdict set to be delivered on October 5. The Supreme Court had rejected their plea to restart an investigation into Daun Penh district security guards’ nighttime ...

Boeung Kak community land activist Tep Vanny was freed from Prey Sar prison on Monday night after a release warrant was issued by Phnom Penh Municipal Court. This followed a Royal Pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni. Three other Boeung Kak land activists were also released ...

Boeung Kak activists and family members of jailed protest leader Tep Vanny submitted a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet on Tuesday asking for her release or a reduction in her sentence. ...

Twenty-two families who were still protesting their evictions from the Boeung Kak lake area accepted offers from the city today, leaving 10 holdouts remaining more than a decade after the lake was first sold and filled in. The families, from Village 1, each accepted a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen, in an attempt to settle an eight-year land dispute, on Tuesday offered additional land in the Boeng Kak lake development to the seven families who had not yet accepted compensation. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday directed Phnom Penh Governor Khoung Sreng to quickly resolve land dispute claims by seven families residing in the Boeung Kak area, an order that flies counter to City Hall’s announcement in April that it had officially closed the resolution process ...

Ongoing land disputes between the Ministry of Land Management and the owner of development firm Phanimex are influencing White Building residents’ decision on whether to relocate or stay, according to Land Management Minister Chea Sophara. ...

Land rights activists from 10 communities in the capital yesterday submitted a request to City Hall requesting permission to march to the Anti-Corruption Unit’s headquarters and deliver a petition in support of human rights activists jailed this week. ...

Local developer Shukaku will step up construction of its controversial Boeung Kak lake development project this month, beginning work on a drainage system and corporate office, a spokeswoman told the Post yesterday. An updated master plan of Shukaku’s Phnom Penh City Centre project – an ...

Eight land activists put in prison last month after a swift trial say they will hold a hunger strike if they are not released. The eight activists were part of a roundup in November for street protests against city officials and a development project at ...

A group of civil society organization has condemned recent arrest of two citizens who were involved in a land dispute with the Khun Sear Import Export company, and called on the government to release them and ensure the safety of their family. In a joint statement ...

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists’ arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”. ...

Officials at the World Bank, which in 2011 froze new loans to Cambodia amid a furore surrounding the Boeung Kak lake evictions, have approved preliminary proposals to issue funding for a project that could see families forcibly removed in Kampong Thom province. Under the World Bank’s ...

Civil society groups have condemned the arrest, detention and conviction of seven Boeung Kok land activists, following their protests earlier this week outside Phnom Penh City Hall. Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged them with the violation of traffic law by blocking a public ...

Germany’s ambassador to Cambodia, Joachim Baron von Marschall, yesterday cautioned against too much optimism in the land sector in the face of ongoing disputes and forced evictions. The ambassador made the comments at a workshop on sustainable land policy in the capital, where speakers from ...

A Cambodian court on Tuesday sentenced seven female land rights activists, including a 75-year-old woman, to one year in prison each for blocking traffic during a protest. Judge Mong Mony Sophea of Phnom Penh Municipal Court ruled the women were guilty of “creating a public ...

About 100 residents of a community in the capital’s Russei Keo district yesterday rallied outside City Hall, demanding that authorities issue them land titles and end court action against six of their representatives. ...

Two protesters from the Boeung Kak lake community are weeks away from long-awaited land titles after City Hall officials yesterday measured plots for them amid a small crowd of angry former residents. ...

As the World Bank considers supplying fresh loans to Cambodia, a new study uses the country as exhibit A for how the financier effectively sponsors corporate land grabs at the expense of the rural poor it purportedly helps. Three years ago, the bank’s own inspectors found ...

A torrential downpour that lasted over three hours yesterday morning has left many in the capital struggling with flooded houses, businesses and travel conditions, sparking outcry that authorities have not done enough to manage the rain’s effects. Flooding took place in virtually every district in ...

Boeung Kak residents delivered a petition to the Singaporean Embassy yesterday, calling on it to pressure Singapore-listed HLH Group to halt dealings with a controversial development project at the site until a land row is settled. HLH Group entered a $14.9 million purchase deal in June ...

Developer Shukaku has sold off close to 1.3 hectares of land at the capital’s controversial Boeung Kak lake site to a Singapore-listed HLH Group company, according to a statement from HLH. HLH subsidiary D’Lotus Development purchased the land at Boeung Kak in Daun Penh district for ...

A group of about 100 people, including 50 or so monks, attempted to march yesterday to protest outside Phnom Penh’s Buddhist Institute, but were thwarted by droves of military police and district security guards on Sisowath Quay. No violence occurred as Independent Monk Network leader But ...