The Phnom Penh Post
FOUR villagers who fled their homes in Battambang province to avoid arrest in 2008 returned to their village yesterday for the first time in two years, after surfacing in Phnom Penh over the weekend to join a protest that was quashed by police.
On Sunday, about 50 villagers from Battambang’s Kors Kralor district were forcibly dragged onto a bus and returned to the countryside after staging a protest near Prime Minister Hun Sen’s home in the capital.
The villagers were seeking to draw attention to their long-running land dispute with Long Sidare, a military police officer in Phnom Penh.
Van Dy, 42, one of four fugitives who participated in the protest yesterday and then returned home to Duon Ba village after a two-year absence, said that she had come out of hiding to support her community and prevent further loss of villagers’ land.
Villagers say that Long Sidare has, since September 2008, been trying to evict 415 families from 1,672 hectares of land to make way for the development of a rubber plantation. So far, he has allegedly forced more than 100 families from the land.
On Sunday, about 50 villagers from Battambang’s Kors Kralor district were forcibly dragged onto a bus and returned to the countryside after staging a protest near Prime Minister Hun Sen’s home in the capital.
The villagers were seeking to draw attention to their long-running land dispute with Long Sidare, a military police officer in Phnom Penh.
Van Dy, 42, one of four fugitives who participated in the protest yesterday and then returned home to Duon Ba village after a two-year absence, said that she had come out of hiding to support her community and prevent further loss of villagers’ land.
Villagers say that Long Sidare has, since September 2008, been trying to evict 415 families from 1,672 hectares of land to make way for the development of a rubber plantation. So far, he has allegedly forced more than 100 families from the land.
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