The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court has placed eight men in pre-trial detention on charges of “intentional violence” in relation to a land dispute with tycoon Pheun Phalla, who holds the honorific “oknha” title, in Prey Nop district.

The land dispute involving oknha Phalla and 500 families living O’Oknha Heng commune’s O’Oknha Heng and O’Ta Sek villages erupted into violence on December 20.

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Administration and the O’Oknha Heng commune authority are investigating a land dispute involving 500 families living in O’Oknha Heng and O’Ta Sek villages that recently erupted into violence. In their initial conclusion, the authorities said the villagers are not squatters as alleged.

A Kampong Chhnang radio station owner was convicted for incitement on Tuesday and sentenced to 20 months in prison for reporting on an ongoing land dispute between villagers and the military in the province.

True to its reputation, Pakistan’s Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) is once again trying to forcibly occupy a prime land which has been given on lease to Teerath Singh, a Sikh resident of Nankana Sahib.    

According to highly places intelligence sources, the officials of ETPB in connivance with local police built the walls and laid the roof on the plot which was on lease with Teerath Singh.  

Police are still investigating the murder of a pagoda chief monk who was found dead on the morning of December 20 in Vihear Luong commune in Kandal province’s northernmost Ponhea Leu district.

The body of Chey Rith, the chief monk of Preah Chedei Thmey pagoda in Chedei Thmey village, was found in his room with bruises on his face and mouth and a rope had been tied around his neck.

The victim’s relatives claim that land titles and other valuable property have gone missing and were possibly stolen in the incident.

Eleven monks in Kampong Speu province have escaped to avoid being defrocked by the provincial monk council after authorities found that they were involved in state forest land encroachment.

Phnom Sruoch district’s deputy chief monk Venerable Nou Chin told The Post on December 8 that the provincial authorities had torn down some hermitages built illegally by the monks in the Kirirom National Park area.

The construction was led by Sam Norn, the former monk at the Buddhist Cultural Centre within the National Park areas.

Main photo: Fourteen Lao Christians evicted from their homes in Luang Namtha province's Long district are shown in a February 2020 photo. (Citizen Journalist)

Seven Lao Christians evicted from their homes in southern Saravan province in October for refusing to renounce their faith have returned to their village, but are being refused permission to rebuild homes demolished by authorities when they were first thrown out, RFA has learned.

Seeking quick returns, Chinese investors are driving a scramble for plantation land in parts of northern Myanmar.

• Top Indonesian ministers who pushed for the passage of a deregulation bill that benefits the mining and “dirty energy” industry have links to some of those very companies, a new report shows.
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Sandwiched between China and India, the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is feeling the squeeze as its giant neighbours square up for supremacy.

A close ally of India, Bhutan got a shock when China made sudden new claims in the summer - over a wildlife sanctuary in the east of the country, on land that had not been considered disputed.

Most Bhutanese commentators don't want to discuss this in detail, but many believe Beijing is trying to drag the Buddhist majority nation - population 750,000 - into the territorial stand-off with India.