Representatives of more than 100 ethnic Kuoy villagers plan protest over the opening of a $360 million sugar mill – one of the largest in Asia– owned by Chinese company Rui Feng (Cambodia) International, which has been involved in series of land disputes with local villagers since 2012.
Around 150 villagers in northwestern Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province have blocked a Chinese concession holder from clearing land they say was reserved for grazing their cattle.
More than 300 villagers formed a human barrier, blocking bulldozers owned by the two foreign companies, Vietnamese developer Thy Nga and Taiwanese firm PNT who are encroaching ancestral farmland and operating outside of the boundaries set by their concessions.
Around 50 villagers representing 90 families from Lor Peang village in Kampong Chhnang province presented petitions to the U.S. and European Union embassies among others, accusing KDC International—a company run by Chea Keng, wife of Cambodia’s Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem—of encroaching on their land.
A Cambodian minority group in northern Preah Vihear province is calling for the cancelation of two licenses for Chinese companies accused of grabbing thousands of hectares of land.
