The Phnom Penh Post
Siem Reap Province
OFFICIALS in Siem Reap province on Thursday engaged for the first time with villagers embroiled in a land dispute that over the past 16 months has resulted in a shooting, two court cases, 12 arrests and – early last year – a mini-revolt that saw protesters briefly lock lawyers and judges inside the provincial courthouse.
At an all-day “Peace Table” forum convened by the Community Legal Education Centre, residents from neighbouring Chi Kraeng and Anlong Samnor presented claims to land they have been fighting over since 1986.
Choung Ratana, secretary general of Siem Reap provincial hall, and Sok Bora, who represented the Justice Ministry, presided over the meeting along with CLEC lawyer and representative Huon Chun Dy. Conspicuously absent, however, were two businessmen whose recent claims to the land have ratcheted up tension between the two communes, ultimately fuelling a March 2009 shooting that left four Chi Kraeng villagers wounded.
After multiple rounds of presentations, the meeting ended inconclusively, with the officials in attendance saying little beyond praising the fact that discussions had unfolded civilly. The outcome frustrated those who have been pressing for a resolution.
“For this case, I think only Prime Minister Hun Sen can resolve it, because the provincial authorities have no interest in helping us,” said Kao Soupha, a lawyer who last June brought a complaint on behalf of the four men injured in the March 2009 altercation against military police officers accused by witnesses of opening fire on demonstrators.
OFFICIALS in Siem Reap province on Thursday engaged for the first time with villagers embroiled in a land dispute that over the past 16 months has resulted in a shooting, two court cases, 12 arrests and – early last year – a mini-revolt that saw protesters briefly lock lawyers and judges inside the provincial courthouse.
At an all-day “Peace Table” forum convened by the Community Legal Education Centre, residents from neighbouring Chi Kraeng and Anlong Samnor presented claims to land they have been fighting over since 1986.
Choung Ratana, secretary general of Siem Reap provincial hall, and Sok Bora, who represented the Justice Ministry, presided over the meeting along with CLEC lawyer and representative Huon Chun Dy. Conspicuously absent, however, were two businessmen whose recent claims to the land have ratcheted up tension between the two communes, ultimately fuelling a March 2009 shooting that left four Chi Kraeng villagers wounded.
After multiple rounds of presentations, the meeting ended inconclusively, with the officials in attendance saying little beyond praising the fact that discussions had unfolded civilly. The outcome frustrated those who have been pressing for a resolution.
“For this case, I think only Prime Minister Hun Sen can resolve it, because the provincial authorities have no interest in helping us,” said Kao Soupha, a lawyer who last June brought a complaint on behalf of the four men injured in the March 2009 altercation against military police officers accused by witnesses of opening fire on demonstrators.
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