News

Villagers living in raised houses on the capital’s Boeung Tumpun lake fear their eviction is on the horizon as sand pumping increases at the site, they said yesterday. In recent months, heavy machinery has been at work at the Boeung Tumpun site. Sand pumping has ...

More than enough vacant plots exist within Boeung Kak lake’s 12.44-hectare concession area to house those denied land permits, a new NGO report says. Sahmakum Teang Tnaut claims to have found “a viable and practical” solution for households excluded from the unmarked land the prime minister ...

Adding to a growing body of research into the flaws of Cambodia’s $142 million railway rehabilitation project, a report published yesterday said soaring debt levels are crippling families forcibly relocated by the project. In the report by land rights organization Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), researchers tracked ...

Students, NGO workers and map enthusiasts came together Saturday in Phnom Penh to contribute information to an online map of Cambodia as part of a worldwide mapping effort, the event’s organizers said yesterday. The global project, known as the OpenStreetMap Project (OSM), uses a similar concept ...

A group of NGOs on Friday called on Australia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to suspend work and funding for a government-led project to rehabilitate the country’s railway system should authorities in Poipet City follow through on an eviction notice delivered to 22 families ...

Housing rights groups yesterday criticized resettlement packages paid out by the government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to people displaced by the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railways, saying the packages do not account for growing inflation. A joint statement issued yesterday by Housing Rights Task Force, ...

The Asian Development Bank said yesterday problems with a railway rehabilitation project – funded by the bank and AusAID – identified by a local NGO that was suspended by the government last month “may require further investigation or analysis”. In July, STT released a report ...

A TAXPAYER-FUNDED development project is mired in controversy after the Cambodian government launched a crackdown against land rights organisations critical of the compulsory resettlement of families. The Cambodian government has cautioned a small group of foreign organisations against stirring up unrest among those being forced off ...

NGO Forum confirmed yesterday it had received a “warning letter” from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over its advocacy on behalf of communities affected by a railway rehabilitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and AusAID. The warning to the umbrella group of 88 ...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry met with to non-governmental groups yesterday and accused them of inciting families to oppose the rehabilitation of the Cambodian rail system, ordering the  NGOs to “readjust” their workForeign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said his ministry invited Bridges Across Borders Cambodia and ...

International NGO Bridges Across Borders and umbrella group NGO Forum met yesterday morning with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who accused both of making “false” and “unfair” claims to the Asian Development Bank about the death of two children relocated by a railway ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said that the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s railways will not be at the expense of those who live along the lines and has pledged to address the issue. Resettlement has been a problem for the rehabilitation but a new plan ...

Compensation for Phnom Penh villagers set to be displaced by railway reconstruction may be insufficient due to a “systematic downgrade” of the value of their homes by the government, a report released yesterday said. The report, issued by the NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, said the ...