Preah Sihanouk farmers plan protest

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

FARMERS in Preah Sihanouk province said Tuesday that they are preparing to file a complaint with Kampong Seila district Governor Kheng Teng over a land dispute involving an NGO that provides assistance to the disabled.

On Monday, the farmers squared off on two separate occasions with workers from the Kampong Speu-based Cambodia Disabled Survivors’ Association, though officials intervened both times to prevent violence.

The NGO says it has been awarded land in Kampong Speu, Kampot and Preah Sihanouk provinces that is also claimed by the farmers, who were preparing to plant rice on Monday.

Mou Savoeung, a representative of the farmers, said they plan to stage a protest at the district governor’s home if they are denied access to the land.

“We want to get the results from him, and we need to start planting rice,” she said.

Kheng Teng said that he had received a report on the dispute and planned to respond to it on Thursday.

Villagers say slaying tied to land disputes

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A 60-YEAR-OLD man in Battambang province was shot and killed on Monday night by four unknown assailants in an attack that villagers linked to land disputes that stretch back to 2007.

Pich Sophon, a representative of families living in Chamlan Romeang Lea village in Battambang’s Samlot district, had been instrumental in advocating on behalf of 141 families involved in three land disputes – two with military officials in Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Region 5 and another with an unidentified Korean company, villagers and a rights worker said.

Sin Mey, who has served as a representative of the village, said Pich Sophon was killed while returning home after they had worked to collect thumbprints for a complaint to be filed against RCAF Region 5 and the Korean company.

“They shot him because they want to threaten the villagers so we will stop demanding to keep our land,” said Sin Mey, who said he too had been shot by unknown gunmen during an attack on April 4.

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Officials chart disputed land in Omlaing

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

OFFICIALS in Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune on Tuesday began measuring plots of land owned by families embroiled in a land dispute with the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, though some residents refused to allow the measurements, which they said would not include sections of land already cleared by the company.

Provincial authorities as well as TV commentator Soy Sopheap met on April 20 with about 500 villagers to decide on a procedure for recording measurements of the villagers’ farmland, which is located near a 9,000-hectare land concession awarded to the sugar company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat. Residents of Omlaing commune, located in Thpong district, have expressed concern that the concession overlaps with their farmland.

When last week’s meeting concluded, officials promised to return the following day to begin taking measurements, but then failed to return until yesterday.

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NGO, farmers at an impasse

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

ROUGHLY 100 farmers from Kampong Speu, Preah Sihanouk and Kampot provinces squared off yesterday on two separate occasions with an NGO that claims to own land they have cultivated in previous years, though officials intervened and prevented the altercation from spilling over into violence, witnesses said.

Mou Savoeung, a representative of the farmers, said they arrived at a section of the disputed land in Preah Sihanouk’s Kampong Seila district with three tractors early on Monday intending to prepare rice fields for planting. She said workers from the NGO, the Kampong Speu-based Cambodia Disabled Survivors’ Association, had been at the site and tried to obstruct their access to it, which led to the standoff.

“We were facing off with the members of the association because they did not allow us to plant on our rice field,” she said. “We nearly used violence, but our commune officers came one time to tell us to avoid violence and find a peaceful way.”

Tim Hong, the chief of O’Anlong village in Kampong Seila district, said he and district police had intervened to prevent violence, and that negotiations would be held today to resolve the dispute.

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Borei Keila families petition Hun Sen for better housing

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 MORE than 120 families facing eviction from their homes in Phnom Penh’s central Borei Keila community sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday requesting either US$40,000 in compensation or $20,000 and ground-floor apartments measuring 4 metres by 12 metres, representatives said Sunday.

The families have so far refused to register for on-site relocation housing offered by City Hall, saying the units in the building – which was opened on April 7 – are too small, and that those who do not receive ground-floor apartments will be unable to support themselves by running businesses out of their homes.

“They promised to provide us with 4-metre-by-12-metre [homes] with electricity and water supplied, but now they want to provide us with only 3.8-metre-by-9-metre [homes] without electricity or water,” said representative Nuth Sokly. “How can we accept it?”

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Both sides threaten violence in land spat

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

REPRESENTATIVES of around 400 residents of Kampot, Preah Sihanouk and Kampong Speu provinces said Sunday that villagers are prepared for a standoff today with an NGO they say has made an illegitimate claim to their farmland, and that they will not shy away from violence.

Mou Savoeung, one of the representatives, said hundreds of families have been at loggerheads with the Cambodia Disabled Survivors’ Association over the land since 2000, but that they need to prepare to plant rice because the rainy season is approaching.

“Every year, if we didn’t use violence against the NGO then we wouldn’t be able to farm,” she said. “I am afraid there will be more violence because the NGO will come to ban us.”

Touch Seouly, director of the Kampong Speu-based NGO, said local officials had given it ownership of the 1,654 hectares of disputed land in the three provinces, and that the farmers would not be able to plant rice this year.

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Lake plan remains shrouded

By Khouth Sophakchakrya and Irwin Loy
The Phnom Penh Post 

 PHNOM Penh officials met behind closed doors Thursday to discuss plans for the controversial Boeung Kak lake development site, though new details have been disclosed in recent days to some of the families who stand to be affected by the secretive project.

Residents were not invited to the meeting, while a reporter was also turned away – further proof, housing rights advocates said, of the lack of transparency surrounding the plans for the site.

Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema was scheduled to host a presentation Thursday to show the master development plan for the Boeung Kak lake area, where an estimated 4,000 families are facing eviction.

Asked to provide details after the meeting, Kep Chuktema said he was too busy to talk. Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun confirmed that the presentation took place, but declined to comment on its contents.

However, a newly produced graphic (see page 2) detailing the most recent vision for the development suggests the plan has changed from previous designs.

 

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Adhoc takes Cham logger case

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE rights group Adhoc plans to send a letter to Kratie provincial court today asking for the release on bail of 17 Cham Muslim residents of Snuol district who were charged Tuesday with illegal logging inside a protected forest area, provincial coordinator Thim Narin said Thursday.

She said the group has agreed to provide free legal representation in the pending trial.

The 17 villagers were arrested on Monday and charged the following day.

“We will send a letter on Friday asking for those people to be released on bail, and our office in Phnom Penh will provide them with two lawyers,” Thim Narin said.

Provincial prosecutor Chab Suoreasmey said Thursday that all 17 had engaged in “anarchy” by logging in the protected area.

However, Khuot Kai, 46, said his son was among the 17 arrested villagers, and that all of them had moved to Kratie from their native Kampong Cham because they wanted farmland of their own.

In Kratie, he said, they had been hired by the Vietnamese to work on farms.

“The Vietnamese hired us to work on farms for them, but we have decided to move” to Kratie, he said. “Now we want the court to release our villagers because it is an injustice for them.”

Talks address Kampong Speu dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post 
 

ABOUT 500 villagers from Omlaing commune in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district met with authorities on Tuesday to discuss setting boundaries between their farmland and land granted to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, though many who attended said afterwards that they still had concerns about how the dispute would be resolved.

Meanwhile, some 600 villagers continued to block National Road 52 until early in the afternoon to protest what they described as insufficient efforts on the part of the company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat, to work towards a resolution to the ongoing land row.

Representatives from the company were not present for Tuesday’s negotiations, which were held at the Omlaing commune office and attended by Deputy Provincial Governor Pen Sambou, Thpong District Governor Tuon Song and Commune Chief Hab Dam.

Well-known media personality Soy Sopheap, who serves as a commentator on Bayon TV, took charge of the talks, villagers said. 

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Kampong Speu villagers seek firm land boundaries

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

KAMPONG Speu villagers embroiled in a dispute with Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat met with local officials on Monday to reiterate their demand that clear boundaries be set between their farmland and land granted to the senator’s sugar company.

Meanwhile, about 300 villagers from Omlaing commune staged a protest near the site of the company’s 9,000-hectare land concession, located in Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, with the aim of preventing future clearing operations, villagers said.

On Monday evening, about 400 Omlaing villagers blocked National Road 52 to express their frustration with the company, said Am Sam Ath, technical supervisor for the rights group Licadho. He added that he worried that tension could spill over into violence.

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Takeo villagers forced to sign land over to NGO: witnesses

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 POLICE in Takeo province’s Kirivong district surrounded the homes of 50 villagers on Thursday, ordering them to go to the district police office, where they were told to sign an agreement turning over their land to a local conservation NGO, villagers said.

The villagers, who had participated in a land dispute-related protest broken up by police in the capital a day earlier, have accused the NGO Chamreun Chiet Khmer of planting acacia trees on land they claim to have inhabited for more than 20 years.

Chan Sophal, a member of the premier’s bodyguard unit who lives on the disputed land in Takeo, said six police officers arrived at his village early on Thursday morning to arrest the leaders of Wednesday’s rally. 

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Villagers feuding over Dangkor district land

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

MORE than 80 families from Dangkor district’s Choeung Ek commune protested in front of Wat Botum in central Phnom Penh on Thursday, requesting Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in a land dispute with recent arrivals in the area, villagers said Thursday.

Protestor Theb Korn, 47, who represents 84 families in Choeung Ek village, said a 60-metre by 265-metre plot of empty land has been illegally occupied by 26 families since 2007, and that it has been under the joint control of the villagers since 1980.

“In 2007, [three businessmen] come to ask our villagers to construct temporary houses to live [on the land], and promised to give it back to the 84 families when we needed it,” she said.

Villager La Luot said residents agreed for the three men to construct a 5-by-10-metre temporary house on the vacant land, but that the land was then illegally sold to the 26 families, who were previously landless.

“We would like to ask the prime minister to help us order the 26 families who settled on that land to tear down their houses and give the right back to us to control and share it among us,” he said.

Choeung Ek commune chief Cheng Soeun said the authorities had divided the remaining land into 5-by-10-metre plots to give to the 84 families, but that they wanted the newcomers to leave so they could get larger plots.

Hem Hen, one of the three men alleged to have illegally sold the land, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Citywide vice crackdown targets pornography at bubble tea shops

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

PHNOM Penh Governor Kep Chuktema has ordered city authorities to inspect bubble tea shops suspected of doubling as pornography theatres and drug dens, and Daun Penh district officials said they were also enforcing a crackdown on restaurants and bars that play loud music after midnight.

In a monthly meeting held at City Hall Monday, Kep Chuktema said illegal bubble tea shops – which have a dividing wall that prevents passersby from seeing pornography on show – were causing students to miss school and neglect their studies.

“The bubble tea shops that are divided by a wall not only cause students to miss school, but also can be drug-trafficking and drug-using areas,” he said. “Our authorities should go check and tell the shop owners to demolish [the wall].”

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Market eviction aborted

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

POLICE and military police on Tuesday abandoned attempts to forcibly evict vendors from Psar Snoeng in Battambang province’s Banon district, after almost 100 shop operators protested outside the market, the demonstrators said.

Bun Thet said that around 15 police officers arrived early Tuesday morning to remove vendors and conduct demolition at the site, but ditched their plans after seeing the protesters.

Vendors have been given two notices to leave the site, though deadlines have passed without incident.

Authorities say the site needs to be closed for a highway upgrade, and have suggested vendors move to a new privately owned market site.

Kandal land protesters freed

By May Tithara and Will Baxter
 The Phnom Penh Post

Kandal Province

POLICE in Kandal province said Monday that they had released 11 villagers who were arrested Sunday after a protest related to a land dispute with a private company. Meanwhile, farmers who have accused the company of making unfounded claims to their rice fields staged two more demonstrations in Kandal Stung district.

Eav Chamreun, the Kandal provincial police chief, said four of the 11 protesters detained after Sunday’s protest – during which 400 villagers blocked off a section of National Road 2 – had been released early Sunday evening after thumbprinting documents stating they would not protest again, and that the other seven had been released Sunday night.

“We asked them to make a contract saying they would not do this again, and accepting the blame for the protest,” he said.
“If they do this again, we will arrest them.”

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Ten demonstrators arrested

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post 

TEN residents of Kandal province were arrested Sunday after the violent conclusion of a protest in which 400 demonstrators blocked a section of National Road 2 to express their outrage at a private development company that on Friday dispatched bulldozers and excavators to disputed rice fields, a local rights group said.

The protest, which backed up traffic for 5 kilometres, began early Sunday morning and ended at 5pm, when about 100 regular and military police arrived in Kandal Stung district to disperse the group, said Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for Adhoc. When the protesters refused to disperse, Ouch Leng said, the police beat some with batons and arrested 10 men and women.

Kandal provincial police chief Eav Chamreun denied that police had beaten any of the protesters, and said that they had attempted to negotiate with the group for “about four hours” before deciding to arrest some of them. He said he did not know how many had been arrested, but that they were being held at the Kandal Stung district police office.

“Most of the people we arrested are ringleaders and drunken men, so we arrested them and will hold them at the district police office for questioning. They cannot take the road as their hostage,” he said.

A representative of the protesters, 45-year-old Than Vuthy, said they had decided to protest after three excavators and three bulldozers from the Heng Development Company appeared on Friday near a 200-hectare section of disputed land in Prek Sleng commune. 

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Prison officials confirm editor’s pardon: daughter

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE daughter of jailed newspaper editor Hang Chakra said Thursday that she had been informed by prison officials that her father would be released after receiving a pardoned from King Norodom Sihamoni.

Hang Chan Pisey said Thursday that she had contacted prison officials Wednesday evening and been told that Hang Chakra’s name had been included on a list of inmates the government had recommended be pardoned and released.

“The prison chief told me that my father will be released on the first day of the Khmer New Year [April 14], and if he is not released on that day he will be released a week after Khmer New Year,” she said.

Heng Hak, the director general of the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Prisons, told the Post on Wednesday that Hang Chakra was on a list of 75 people recommended by the government to be released during the upcoming round of Khmer New Year pardons, and that his release would take place in advance of the holiday.

“Hang Chakra is one of the 75 inmates who will be released from prison,” he said, adding that the editor was considered a “special case” and thus would be released early.

“He will be released before the New Year because he wrote a letter apologising to Prime Minister Hun Sen,” he said. 

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NGOs press sugar firm to solve land row

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

RIGHTS groups met with Kampong Speu provincial governor Kang Heang on Thursday in a bid to resolve a land dispute between farmers and the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

Meanwhile, Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) lawmakers called on the government to review the terms of the 9,000-hectare land concession awarded to the company. Rights groups say this concession could be illegal if, as suspected, Ly Yong Phat is also the beneficiary of an adjacent 10,000-hectare concession.

The Kingdom’s 2001 Land Law states that land concessions in excess of 10,000 hectares are illegal.

Chan Soveth, a senior investigator for rights group Adhoc, said members of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee met Thursday with the provincial governor and court officials to seek a solution for the hundreds of villagers who fear they will be pushed off their farmland by the plantation.

“We urge the provincial governor to solve the villagers’ land dispute in a just way and lift charges against their village representatives,” he said. 

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Govt approves editor’s release

By May Titthara and Sebastian Strangio
The Phnom Penh Post

JAILED newspaper editor Hang Chakra is to be released from prison during the round of Royal pardons coinciding with the upcoming Khmer New Year holiday, as are 75 other prisoners from across the Kingdom, an official at the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday.

Heng Hak, director general of the Ministry’s Department of Prisons, said that he has forwarded a short list of 404 pardon candidates to the Ministry of Justice, adding that the government had already singled Hang Chakra out for a pre-holiday pardon.

“Hang Chakra is separate – he is a special case because he wrote a letter apologising to Prime Minister Hun Sen, so he will be released before Khmer New Year,” he said.

Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition-aligned Khmer Machas Srok newspaper, was sentenced to one year in prison last June after he was convicted of spreading disinformation in a series of stories accusing officials of corruption. On July 8, he wrote to Hun Sen stating that he “repeatedly failed to act properly and seriously” while at the helm of the paper, and pledged to cease publication if he was released.

King Norodom Sihamoni traditionally offers pardons to prisoners on four occasions each year: Khmer New Year, Visak Bochea Day, the Water Festival and the King’s birthday.

Heng Hak said he has recommended that 75 of the 404 inmates – including eight women – be released from prison, with the remainder to receive reduced sentences.

He noted that prisoners must have served two-thirds of their sentences to be eligible for release, and one-third of their sentences to be eligible for a sentence reduction.

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