The first of 10 Mondulkiri public officials implicated in illegal land grabbing in the province has been transferred from his position — a warning to others, according to a government spokesperson, but for local rights monitors a sign of continuing impunity over imprisonable crimes.
Prime Minister Hun Sen urged the country to commit to protecting peace as hundreds of land disputants protested in Phnom Penh on Monday, saying that while they remain marginalized, threatened and “in tears,” the people don’t have peace.
The Justice Ministry said it has cleared 8,000 backlogged court cases, though closure eludes a defendant with a 12-year-old charge.
Twenty villagers engaged in a dispute with a rubber plantation over more than 400 hectares of land in Tbong Khmum province were released from custody on Tuesday after they were arrested the day before for allegedly damaging the company’s land-clearing machinery, an official said.
More than 700 Oddar Meanchey families on Friday won an appeal in a Bangkok court to pursue a class-action lawsuit against a Thai sugar company, more than 10 years after their houses were burned and razed by military forces including those allegedly hired by the plantation.
More than 30 families protested a land broker’s court complaint against them on Monday, claiming they were granted the land from Phnom Penh City Hall in a land swap 16 years earlier.
Phnom Penh city governor Khuong Sreng blamed long-running land conflicts in the capital on interference from politicians and supposedly paid protesters, but some civil society members dismissed his claims as a frame-up and deflection.
About 100 people involved in a land dispute with a Chinese company in Koh Kong province protested in front of the provincial hall on Monday, seeking a response from authorities who had earlier promised a resolution to the decade-long conflict.
Three land rights activists say they were beaten at the Banteay Meanchey provincial military police headquarters alongside a fellow detainee who later died after being transferred to the provincial prison.
The Ministry of Land Management on Thursday denied requests to intervene in a Koh Kong sugar land dispute following villagers’ protests that foreign firms had failed to provide promised compensation for their evictions.
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