While indigenous communities in Cambodia stayed home to stem the Covid-19 outbreak, a Vietnamese rubber firm bulldozed their land. Experts say disputes arising from Cambodia's complicated land management system will be difficult to resolve.

When the indigenous Kreung and Kachok communities locked down their villages in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province in March to keep safe from the novel coronavirus, no one knew change was afoot in their ancestral forest.

Sai Wansai — Among stories dominated with the handling of Covid-19 pandemic and the escalation of Arakan armed conflict together with its human rights violations committed against the civilians, a less mentioned issue and rare report of Military or Tatmadaw land confiscation and the local protest against it made headlines recently in southern Shan State.

A Lao woman held since March for protesting the government seizure of village land for a medical college and hospital was released after her family accepted compensation for their property loss, RFA has learned.

Keo, a resident of Xiengda village in the Saysettha district of the Lao capital Vientiane, was detained on March 16 after arguing with police in a dispute that was later shown in a video published on Facebook, local sources told RFA in an earlier report.

She has now been freed from detention, a family member told RFA’s Lao Service on June 8.

Siem Reap provincial deputy governor Ly Samrith expressed concern that land registration plans for residents scheduled to be completed by late 2021 could not be achieved because 80 per cent of the land had not been registered.

Land dispute issues are a major factor that poses a hindrance to the registration process in the province, Samrith said.

On May 22, the Georgian Parliament endorsed the amendments to the Forest Code of Georgia with its third reading with 79 votes in favor and none against – amid strong criticism voiced by the civil society organizations.  

A journalist and radio station owner in Kampong Chhnang province was jailed on Friday on incitement charges in relation to his “exaggerated and inciting” news coverage and comments on a land dispute, officials said. 

Sok Udom, owner of the 99.75 FM radio station and Rithysen news website, was provisionally detained after he was questioned in court and charged with incitement to commit a felony, said Chhuon Sivin, a provincial court spokesman.

Fourteen people have been identified for inciting more than 70 villagers to burn down two ranger stations in Taveng commune, Taveng district, Ratanakkiri province. District officials will bring the case to court, said Ministry of Environment secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra.

Speaking to The Post on Monday, Pheaktra said some villagers grabbed land at a protected area and after the rangers intervened they set the stations on fire. “This is unacceptable, and the ringleaders must be held responsible for their action according to the law for destroying state property.

JAKARTA — Two people have died in a series of land disputes between major companies and rural communities in Indonesia.

Activists have denounced the escalation in the conflicts, saying businesses shouldn’t be taking advantage of the country’s focus on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic to further their own — often illegal — interests.

Kampong Thom provincial governor Sok Lou said he would investigate a land conflict in Boueng Leav commune, Santuk district, where villagers have accused an agriculture official of destroying their cashew farms. The official claims it was the villagers who illegally occupied the land.

The governor said on Tuesday he could not yet judge which side is right or wrong.

“I will go down to see the place, but I just want to say for now that the location was a protected area and no villagers lived there before.

The International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has said in Abuja that it has observed recurrent cases of land disputes arising from the lack of proper demarcation by the department of development control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

The country head of the IHRC in Nigeria, Ambassador Friday Sani at a press conference on Friday expressed concern that the body has also observed alleged violation of human rights by field officials of the department of development control of the FCTA.

A National Court proceeding  led by a landowner group from Porgera mine in Enga province to claim environment damages against Barrick Niugini Limited will return to court in July this year for further direction.
The Tuanda Incorporated Land Group (ILG) who owns 608.9 hactares customary land of the mine  led court proceedings against Barrick Niugini Limited on damages caused from mining activities to environment and social wellbeing of the people.

In a bid to create avenues of job creation for Ghana’s teeming unemployed youth, the government through its numerous policies, programmes and initiatives instituted the ‘one district, one factory’ programme to be implemented in the various districts of the Volta Region.

The programme is also intended to provide opportunities for the private sector to cash in by setting up factories and industries using indigenous raw materials and also making use of local labour as a way of creating employment.