Members of the Kuoy hill tribe say they want the companies, Rui Feng and Lan Feng, to relinquish some 7,000 hectares of land that where granted by the government as part of 18,000 hectares in concessions.
Beehive owner Mam Sonando called for demonstrations in opposition of the government’s refusal to grant a license for an expansion of his operations.
Witnesses say at least nine people were injured when protesters clashed with police armed with shields, electric batons and smoke canisters.
The figure was a 24 percent drop from the same survey a year ago—prior to July’s marred elections and the political impasse and violent protests that followed.
Local human rights workers say the Australian and New Zealand-backed bank ANZ Royal has been financing a sugar plantation connected to forced evictions and other rights violations.
Demonstrations turned violent on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, ending in a shooting by police that left at least four people dead and nearly 40 injured.
Mam Sonando said he had been making this request since 2005, but it has always been denied.
Nearly 200 representatives from local rights and development organizations on Thursday submitted a petition to foreign embassies in Phnom Penh.
About 200 people took part in the ceremony, on the street outside the Wat Lanka pagoda where Chea Vichea was shot.
A day after nearly a dozen activists were briefly detained and later released, rights advocates say Cambodia’s progress toward democracy continues to falter.
Opposition officials said they were hoping to host a forum, but that the police presence, as well as the presence of pro-CPP activists scattered through the crowd meant a cancelation was the best idea.
The White House protest is one of a number of ongoing demonstrations in the US by Cambodians, while demonstrations in Cambodia continue as well.
The arrests took place in front of the US Embassy, where protesters had gathered to submit a petition calling for the release of 23 detainees caught up in demonstration crackdowns earlier this month.
Opposition officials welcomed the resolution on Monday, but a government spokesman said it was the result of a “misunderstanding.”
Cambodia has provided nearly $3.5 million for the national side of the court for 2014 and 2015, but Long Panhavuth said international donors need to put in more money.
Rithy Panh told VOA Khmer Thursday that the announcement should encourage other Cambodian artists, filmmakers and actors.
Delays at the court, which has had just one successful trial since its 2006 inception, meant that some suspects and defendants died before trials were complete.
The demonstrations went peacefully Friday, and representatives from each embassy and agency accepted the petitions without incident.
Mam Sonando has been denied permission from the ministry to expand his radio operations nationwide and to start a television station.
The court is currently preparing for the second stage of an atrocity crimes trial against aging leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, but critics of the court worry the two men will die in detention without seeing a verdict.
ព័ត៌មានផ្សេងទៀត
