Elections are set to return to Cambodia in June next year, but the country’s political landscape remains shattered and largely lifeless. In part one, Ouch Sony speaks to several minor party leaders about the daunting task of trying to build up a political movement from nothing.
KAMPONG PHLUK, Siem Reap — Families living on the banks of the Tonle Sap lake say they are concerned about the currents feeding into the lake, which has been slow to rise again as the fish spawning season arrives.
They feel intimidated by authorities, and a village official was detained and questioned over the weekend for standing up for the community, but residents protesting the new airport have built a small barricade of branches and cursed the developers in a ceremony.
Cambodia has in recent months privatized more than 120,000 hectares of land, lake and sea, according to a review of decrees published this year. In Kandal, developer Khun Sea has received a Mekong island, where some inhabitants are previous evictees of Phnom Penh’s Diamond Island.
If authorities do not see empathy as reason enough to halt the eviction of hundreds of families on Phnom Penh’s rivers, they should do so because it is what’s best for the health of the city, and the health of the country at large, writes Quinn Libson.
Floating fish farms floated 5 km north temporarily, those without fish worked to dismantle their homes, and some moved onto a wooden platform on shore, as the deadline for Phnom Penh floating communities’ evictions passed this weekend.
After City Hall threatened to evict residents living on floating houses with less than two weeks of notice, the families are torn on what to do, some rapidly disassembling their floating houses and others stalling for time ahead of Saturday’s deadline.
A year after Wanchalearm Satsaksit vanished, authorities say there is no proof he was abducted in Phnom Penh. A joint investigation reveals details of the Thai dissident’s escape from Thailand, life in exile in Cambodia and the last days before he disappeared.
ANG SNUOL, Kandal — Some among 50 soldiers fired at the feet of a dozen farmers on Thursday, hitting and injuring one, as the Defense
A long-standing land dispute involving a CPP lawmaker, jealous neighbors armed with slingshots, and the alleged presence of shadowy land brokers in the background ignited into protest and a man’s arrest this week in Kandal province.
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