News

Three alleged members of a money-laundering operation worth more than $11 million who were arrested earlier this year in Phnom Penh have had their cases sent to court and are now awaiting trial, Om Yentieng, head of the Anti-Corruption Unit, said yesterday. The three suspects – ...

As political deadlock continues, Minister of Defence Tea Banh yesterday used the unveiling of 12 Chinese-made military helicopters to announce that the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces stand “ready to protect” the government and constitution, following what he called “free and fair” elections in July. Speaking in ...

The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have evicted nearly 1,000 families in 14 provinces in the past five years, ostensibly to build military bases, according to a report released by rights group Adhoc yesterday. The report outlined Adhoc’s concerns over ongoing land disputes between local communities and ...

A Cambodian provincial court today dropped charges against a military police officer and his wife accused of murdering a reporter investigating the country’s illegal timber trade, drawing protests from the journalist’s wife and from human rights and environmental advocacy groups. Hang Serei Oudom, a ...

The government on Wednesday insisted that its decision to postpone U.S.-backed military assistance programs following the July 28 election would not have a negative impact on relations between the two countries. Marie Harf, the spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, also said on Tuesday that ...

Cambodia postponed U.S.-backed military assistance programs immediately after the July 28 national election, officials of both countries confirmed Tuesday, in a move that analysts said reflects a strain in relations after years of strengthening military ties. The U.S. has in recent years expanded training and other ...

Local cadastral land officials, a district governor and RCAF personnel all own plots of a social land concession in Preah Vihear originally intended to be distributed to poor villagers, local rights group Adhoc alleged. In 2007, the government granted 556 hectares of land in Choam Ksan ...

A land titling campaign in Cambodia launched and financed by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s lacks transparency and could leave thousands of people landless, a human rights group said Wednesday, urging the country’s donors to push for reform of the program. The campaign, which employs volunteer youth ...

Some 300 families from Bantey Meanchey province’s Preah Netr Preah district-embroiled in two separate long-running disputes with Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF)-yesterday submitted complaints to the provincial governor asking for permission to temporarily farm on the land until the ownership dispute is resolved, villagers and ...

A father whose three children were badly beaten by employees of a rubber plantation has accused a Ratanakkiri Provincial Court judge of threatening to send two sons, aged 14 and 21, to jail unless they accept $1,000 in compensation and drop the assault complaint. Ry Saron ...

Three members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) on Monday filed a complaint with police in Kompong Chhnang province, accusing irate villagers of torching a wooden shelter built for them by the well-connected KDC agro-industry firm. The soldiers have accused local residents, who have been ...

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 ...

A 14-year-old boy severely beaten by employees of a well-connected rubber plantation company in Ratanakkiri province on Saturday was sent to Vietnam for treatment for a life-threatening blood clot in his brain on Monday, according to his father, while a soldier detained in connection to ...

The military’s ongoing clearing of community forests in Oddar Meanchey province risks derailing Cambodia’s first forest-based carbon trading scheme backed by the U.N., according to the latest assessment of the project. Community forest groups, who stand to earn millions from the project, said on Wednesday that ...

The British former Chairman of a troubled biofuel firm, who is in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prision on forgery charges, has claimed he is the victim in the case for which he is awaiting trial. Gregg Fryett was arrested in Phnom Penh on March 23rd and ...

The British chairman of a Biofuel firm is facing up to 15 years in jail after he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in Phnom Penh on Saturday and charged with forgery, a court official said yesterday. Gregg Fryett’s company, Sustainable Agro Energy, has been ...

Amid reports that a second Cambodian has been killed this year by Thai armed forces while illegally logging in Thai border territory, officials had little detail yesterday on a government directive that is aimed at ending the international demand for rosewood from Cambodia. Prime Minister Hun ...

For four years now, this mineral-flecked land deep inside the Prey Lang forest has drawn thousands of small-scale seasonal miners. There are perks to working the dry season: space is one, avoiding the unofficial “taxation” system is another. For years, development agencies have urged a sweeping ...

Senior members of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) yesterday seized about a tonne of luxury rosewood near the house of a two-star general in the Choam Ksan district of Preah Vihear province after a night hunting for illegal smuggling. General Ngeth Chanthon, deputy general of ...

Seven representatives of 415 families entangled in an unresolved land dispute with a deputy commander of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces have received a second summons to appear in Battambang Provincial Court to clarify accusations that they had vandalized the commander’s property, “They not only ...

The court investigating the murder of a journalist has questioned a notorious former Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) colonel, who was last heard of serving a 10-year prison sentence for attempted murder, a court official said yesterday. The Ratanakkiri Provincial Court has this week questioned a ...

An American-made army truck that was allegedly used to smuggle illegal timber through SIem Reap province, and which crashed and killed a family of three on Friday, was not a U.S. government donation, the embassy confirmed yesterday. A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said an inspection ...

Military officials are attempting to squelch a potential lawsuit from relatives of three people killed Friday when Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers smuggling wood through Siem Reap province drove a military truck, donated by the U.S. government, into the family’s motorbike, police officials said. ...

A family of three, including an 18-year old girl, died when the driver of a military truck carrying illegally cut wood slammed into their motorbike in Siem Reap province, officials said yesterday. The family died at the scene while the occupants of the military truck, seen ...