Police raid Kandal village: residents

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

RESIDENTS of Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district said Sunday that military police visited their village over the weekend with the aim of arresting two men involved in a land row with the Heng Development Company.

Residents said the raid occurred one day after about 200 police violently disrupted a protest in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh villa; however, the chief of the military police in Kandal Stung district denied the allegation.

About 150 villagers from Kandal Stung and Takhmao districts gathered in the capital on Friday to protest plans by the Heng Development Company to develop an 878-hectare expanse of disputed rice fields that they say currently provide for 2,513 families. Villager representatives say the families have been farming the land since 1986, but district and provincial officials have said that the company purchased the land legally in 1996.

Police broke up the protest at around 12pm on Friday, arresting six villagers. 

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Company withdraws Omlaing complaint

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Phnom Penh Sugar Company has withdrawn a criminal complaint against two residents of Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune who had been accused of inciting villagers to protest against a 9,000-hectare land concession and of burning company property, a court official said Sunday.

Kampong Speu provincial court prosecutor Khut Sopheang said the complaint had been withdrawn on Friday.

“The reason that the company withdrew the complaint was because both parties have a better understanding and they want the situation to get better,” Khut Sopheang said.

The company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat, has been awarded a 9,000-hectare concession in Thpong district that abuts a 10,000-hectare concession awarded to the Kampong Speu Sugar Company, which is registered in the name of Kim Heang, Ly Yong Phat’s wife.

This arrangement has drawn criticism from local rights groups, who contend that it violates Article 59 of the Land Law, which limits the size of concessions to 10,000 hectares.

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Kampong Speu villagers reject firm’s relocation offer

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

VILLAGERS involved in a land dispute with a sugar company in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district on Thursday rejected an offer to exchange their land for plots near the foot of Pis Mountain, saying the area is not arable.

They also bemoaned the unwillingness of provincial authorities to allow all affected villagers to relocate to an area along National Road 52, another option offered by the company.

Suon Ly, a villager who visited the two proposed relocation sites on Thursday, said the Pis Mountain site could not be farmed because the soil is too rocky.

“We want to live along Road 52 because the soil is better and it has a pond, so it is better for planting,” he said.

Thpong district Governor Tuon Song said he agreed that “all villagers” affected by the concession should be allowed to relocate to the site along National Road 52, though provincial officials have said that space there is limited.

More than 2,000 families in 11 villages in Omlaing commune are facing eviction to make way for a 9,000-hectare concession granted to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

In a Wednesday meeting, Ly Yong Phat told villagers they would not be allowed to plant crops on the disputed land this year, and that they would be forced to relocate, but he promised to provide them with replacement land matching the size of their current plots.

Still in a temporary home, years after eviction

By Mom Kunthear & May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE lawyer for 13 families seeking relocation housing from the developer 7NG after being violently evicted from the Dey Krahorm community in January 2009 was summoned to Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday, only to learn that a hearing in the case had been postponed because company representatives had failed to appear.

Meanwhile, hundreds of villagers who were evicted from the same central Phnom Penh community in 2007 – and who have been living in unsanitary conditions in Dangkor district ever since – said Monday that they plan next week to seek intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen in their separate row with the company, which they say has left them homeless for nearly three years.

Te Channan, the lawyer, said he had intended to present evidence in support of his clients’ compensation requests, and that he was growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in the case.

“7NG’s lawyer repeatedly asked me to deliver evidence on May 24 related to the 13 families who have not received homes, and the company was supposed to provide their evidence to me in return. But they did not show up, so we did not get any result,” he said, and added that he did not know when a new court date would be set. 

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Arrests feared in Svay Rieng

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A GROUP of roughly 200 villagers involved in a land dispute with a rubber company in Svay Rieng province travelled from Romeas Hek district to the provincial court on Monday to accompany five men who have been summoned to appear in a related case.

About 400 families in Romeas Hek have accused the Peam Chaing Rubber Company of threatening to seize their farmland, more than 800 hectares of which allegedly overlaps with a 3,960-hectare concession awarded to the company in 2007.

Earlier this month, some of the villagers had a dispute with company workers, and they have been accused of destroying police property and “briefly kidnapping” a company representative.

One of the villagers, Yea Yeoung, was arrested shortly after the altercation. Police in Romeas Hek district’s Tres commune have tried to arrest 14 others, all of whom – along with one other villager – have also been summoned to appear before the court on Tuesday, according to documents provided on Monday by the rights group Adhoc.

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KSpeu land row heard at forum

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

H

UNDREDS of villagers affected by an economic land concession in Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune complained during a public forum Thursday that soldiers and company employees were preventing them from planting corn on their land, even though they had been issued new land titles.

During the forum, organised by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), villagers, rights groups, parliamentarians and local authorities discussed disputes stemming from the 9,000-hectare land concession granted to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which is owned by Cambodian People’s Party senator Ly Yong Phat.

“Even though some villagers have gotten new land titles from the provincial authorities, the soldiers are not allowing them to plant corn on their farmland,” said San Tho, a villager who attended the forum.

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Protesters plan to block Road 5

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

AFTER camping out in front of the Kampong Chhnang provincial governor’s office for three days and two nights, about 100 villagers from Kampong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune plan to block a section of National Road 5 today in an effort to persuade authorities to allow them to plant rice on land that is the subject of a dispute with KDC International Company, representatives said Wednesday.

The dispute, which dates back to 2001, centres on a 145-hectare area of land claimed by 64 families as well as the company, which is headed by Chea Kheng, the wife of Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem.

Chheng Rum, a villager who was among those protesting outside the office of Touch Marin, the governor, said Wednesday that the villagers were seeking permission to plant rice soon in order to support their families.

“We wanted to block the road [on Wednesday] but did not have enough people, so we will block the road on Thursday when more villagers can come to help,” he added.

Touch Marin declined to comment on the dispute on Wednesday.

Ouch Leng, land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said local officials have not shown any willingness to engage with the families, and that no negotiations had resulted from this week’s demonstration.

“They do not care about these villagers. They are partial to the company,” he said.

The website of the rights group Licadho states that the families have lived on the disputed land since 1982, but Chea Kheng claims to have purchased the land in 1996 from Thay Hy, a Ta Ches commune councillor.

The land is currently lying fallow, as it has since 2008, when the company constructed a fence around it.

Koh Kong villagers seek more money

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

AROUND 200 villagers from Koh Kong province protested in front of Wat Botum on Tuesday, calling on Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their dispute with a Chinese company, which they have accused of shortchanging them on compensation.

The villagers say that China’s state-owned Union Development Group, which plans to develop a US$3.8 billion seaside tourist zone on 36,000 hectares in Koh Kong, has reneged on promises to provide fair compensation to more than 1,000 families who will be displaced by the project in Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts.

Villagers have been offered land and $300 in exchange for relocating, but Chhem Amara, whose family stands to be affected by the project, said this was insufficient. 

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Protesters target resort plans

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

HUNDREDS of villagers from Koh Kong province say they will gather at the National Assembly in Phnom Penh today to protest against a Chinese company they say has cheated them out of land to make way for a US$3.8 billion seaside resort project.

Locals say China’s state-owned Union Development Group, which is developing the 36,000-hectare coastal tourist zone, has reneged on promises to provide compensation for more than 1,000 families affected by the project in Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts.

Keo Khorn, a village representative, said that during negotiations with provincial authorities and company representatives in January, villagers were told they would receive compensation of $8,000 per hectare. But he said they are now being offered only $300 per hectare and told that if they do not accept, they will receive nothing. Most villagers, he added, have refused to accept the lower offer.

Villager Che Hean said that on April 29, the provincial governor showed villagers a letter signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen that cancelled their land titles and said their land had been awarded to Union Development Group.

“The letter cancelled the villagers’ land titles and ... set a one-month deadline for villagers to move off the land,” he said. “The deadline has nearly been reached, so the villagers are worried we will lose our land. That is why we will go to ask for the prime minister’s help.” 

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Land Dispute: Villagers protest in KChhnang

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

and Dispute

Around 100 villagers from Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach district protested in front of the provincial governor’s office on Monday to ask that they be allowed to plant rice on a 145-hectare area of land that has been the subject of an ongoing dispute involving the wife of a government minister, villagers said Monday. The villagers also asked for the release of seven people who were jailed between 2002 and 2009 in connection with the land row. Of the 108 families originally involved in the dispute, 64 are still holding out against KDC International Company, whose president Chea Kheng is the wife of Suy Sem, the minister of industry, mines and energy. Chheng Rum, a villager, said, “We just want to ask the provincial governor to allow us to plant rice on the disputed land because we have missed out on planting rice for one year already.” He added that they would also request pardons for seven imprisoned villagers. Touch Marin, Kampong Chhnang provincial governor, declined to comment, and Hou Chanthou, Kampong Tralach district governor could not be reached.

‘Slaves’: migrant speaks of abuse

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

EIGHT migrants who said they were forced to work like “slaves” on a Malaysian fishing vessel were returned to Cambodia Saturday after spending five months in immigration detention, officials and rights groups said.

The migrants reported that they had each been held as virtual servants on the vessel for between one and three years before making a harrowing escape last December. Their stories are part of what rights groups say is an alarming trend of male migrant workers leaving the country in search of job opportunities, only to find themselves marooned on foreign fishing vessels with few resources and little chance of escape.

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Officials to make call on Kraya handouts

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

OFFICIALS in Kampong Thom province’s Kraya commune say they will decide this month whether to grant plots of farmland to villagers evicted from their land in December, but affected families remain concerned they will not be able to plant crops ahead of this year’s wet season.

The evicted villagers – many of them military veterans – have been shifted to a relocation site at Kraya’s Thmor Samleang village, where they have built homes, but are still awaiting replacement farmland promised by the authorities.

Kampong Thom Deputy Governor Out Sam On said there had been a delay in the granting of the land because officials were checking to see that prospective plots did not have other owners.

 

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Monk free on bail following alleged rape

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

PREY Veng prison officials have released on bail a chief monk accused of raping the wife of a business tycoon, after thousands of Svay Anthor district villagers gathered outside the prison to protest his detention.

Bun Sa Em, the chief monk at Prey Chraing pagoda, which is located in Svay Anthor, said on Thursday that provincial court officials had summoned him for questioning on May 5 in connection with the alleged assault, at which point he was charged with rape and arrested.

Both he and several of the villagers who protested said the complaint had been brought by a Phnom Penh-based tycoon who had grown jealous of the monk’s success at the pagoda.

“This chief of the monk is a really good monk, and he is good at constructing the pagoda and helping the villagers’ children. All of the villagers here don’t believe that he did what they said,” villager Lim Cham Nan said.

“The real reason that one family accused him of rape is because they are jealous of him,” he added.

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Villagers accuse media of bias in land dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

VILLAGERS involved in a land row with the Heng Development Company in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district publicly accused Deum Ampil News publisher Soy Sopheap of disseminating disinformation Tuesday after he published and broadcast stories that the villagers say demonstrated bias towards the company.

A print story, published Tuesday, quoted at length the owner of the company, Seang Chan Heng, as well as two letters issued on May 7 by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet.

The letters stated that on October 5 of last year, Hun Sen decided that the Heng Development Company was the rightful owner of the 200 hectares of disputed land because the company had obtained the proper land titles.

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Summonses reportedly issued in forest spat

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

SIEM Reap provincial court has reportedly summoned 11 community forest monitors and three soldiers involved in a March altercation over land in Oddar Meanchey province that officials say has been settled illegally.

Word of the summonses came Tuesday from those who were involved in the March altercation, though the prosecutor handling the case denied that any had been issued.

Sa Thlai, the provincial chief of community forests, said the summonses, received Tuesday morning, order him and 10 members of his staff to appear at the court on May 25, when they will be questioned individually between 8am and 2pm.

He added that all who had been summoned would appear.

“We will be on time to appear at the court to clarify about how soldiers clashed with our monitors when we went to ask them to tear down their illegal settlements in the protected forest area on March 11,” Sa Thlai said.

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Police destroy cassava crops in Svay Rieng

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

POLICE burned 8 hectares of newly planted cassava on disputed land in Svay Rieng province on Saturday, one day after the provincial court issued 10 new arrest warrants in the case, villagers said.

Officials and police in the Romeas Hek district, where farmers are engaged a dispute with the Peam Chaing Rubber Company, denied any knowledge of the burning, and the provincial court declined to comment on whether arrest warrants had been issued in the case.

But district police chief Chum Ry said that at least 10 warrants had been issued by the court on Friday for illegal detention and destruction of property belonging to police and the company.

About 400 families in Romeas Hek district have accused the company, which in 2007 was awarded a concession totalling nearly 4,000 hectares, of threatening to impinge on their farmland. On May 2, Yea Yeoung was arrested after police accused him of destroying police property and “briefly kidnapping” a representative of the company during a protest. Police said last Thursday that they had tried and failed to arrest four other alleged “ringleaders”.

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Tension still runs high in Kampong Speu

By May Titthara & Will Baxter 
The Phnom Penh Post

RIGHTS groups and villagers from Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district have warned that violence could erupt again if action is not taken to resolve an ongoing dispute between local residents and a sugar company in Omlaing commune.

On Saturday, about 50 additional soldiers, most of whom are from Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Battalion 313, arrived at a disputed area in the commune to provide security for employees of the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, who on Sunday continued to clear land despite protests by about 600 residents. Roughly 100 soldiers were already stationed there.

On Saturday “soldiers came in strongly to defend the equipment of the company”, said Mathieu Pellerin, a consultant for local rights group Licadho.

“We are extremely worried about the potential for violence. When you bring the military into the equation, there is just that much more of a chance for violence,” he added. 

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Land Dispute : Villagers to meet over Kandal row

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Land Dispute
Village representatives from Prek Sleng commune in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district will attend a meeting at the district governor’s office Monday to discuss a 200-hectare plot of disputed land that has been awarded to the Heng Development Company, villagers said. Oeung Chanry, a village representative, said Sunday she had received a letter from district authorities inviting her to an 8:30am meeting after she and 17 other villagers delivered a complaint to Prime Minister Hun Sen Friday. “We filed a complaint to the prime minister in Phnom Penh because the authorities here do not care about us,” she said. On April 4, Heng Development Company dispatched bulldozers to the disputed land, a move that spurred some 400 villagers to block National Road 2 in protest. Eleven villagers were arrested during the demonstration. Lim Leang Se, the premier’s deputy chief of cabinet, said that Kandal Stung district Governor Choie Sobin would explain the situation to the villagers. “Hun Sen has recognised that Heng Development Company has ownership of that land because they have land titles,” he said.

Men flee arrest in Svay Rieng land dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

POLICE in Svay Rieng province on Wednesday night tried and failed to arrest four men they have accused of being “ringleaders” in a protest related to a land dispute involving a rubber company, villagers and officials said.

On Sunday, Romeas Hek district police arrested Yea Yeoung immediately after the protest, accusing him of destroying police property and “briefly kidnapping” a representative of the Peam Chaing Rubber Company, which was granted a concession totalling nearly 4,000 hectares in the district in 2007. More than 400 families say the concession impinges on their land.

Yea Yeoung remains in police custody, and he has not been charged with any crime, Romeas Hek police Chief Chum Ry said Thursday.

Sam Dara, the police chief of Tras commune, where the disputed land is located, on Thursday confirmed reports from villagers that police officers had tried to arrest four more protesters on Wednesday night.

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Villagers take land dispute to Chea Sim

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

ABOUT 200 residents of Svay Rieng province involved in a land dispute with a rubber company travelled to the home of Senate President Chea Sim on Tuesday to protest the continued detention of one of their representatives, after Romeas Hek district police prevented them from going to Svay Rieng town, villagers said.

The same villagers on Monday staged a protest in front of the Romeas Hek district police office following the arrest of Yea Yeoung, whom authorities have accused of “briefly kidnapping” a company representative.

Prior to his arrest, Yea Yeoung had been advocating on behalf of more than 400 families who say they will lose their land to the Peam Chaing Rubber Company, which was granted a concession totalling nearly 4,000 hectares in 2007.

Upon arriving at Chea Sim’s home in Prey Veng province’s Komchay Mear district, the villagers presented the complaint they had prepared for Svay Rieng provincial officials to a woman who greeted them, villager Pao Chhat said.

Sorn Sam Oun, another villager, said it was just as well that they had been blocked from going to Svay Rieng town.

“We have filed complaints many times to the provincial governor, but they have never responded,” he said. “So we want Chea Sim to help us now. We have lost confidence with the provincial authorities.”

Romeas Hek Police Chief Chum Ry denied that his officers had blocked the road to Svay Rieng, but said the villagers should not travel to Svay Rieng in a large group. 

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Dey Krahorm families go to court

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A LAWYER for 13 families who were evicted from the capital’s Dey Krahorm community last year appeared in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday in a bid to secure compensation from the development company that cleared their land and now occupies the site.

Te Chamnan, the lawyer for the 13 families, said his clients were called to the court to present information in their case against the 7NG development company, whose employees dismantled 144 homes in the Dey Krahorm community last year in one of the city’s most widely publicised forced evictions.

“The 7NG lawyer repeatedly asked me to clarify why these 13 families did not receive a home at the relocation site, and he said they will check this problem again,” Te Chamnan said.

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Publisher may file complaint over threat

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE publisher of a Khmer-language newspaper said Tuesday that he is considering filing a complaint with the Interior Ministry after receiving an anonymous letter on Sunday in which the writer threatened to kill him and his staff.

Soy Sopheap, publisher of Deum Ampil News (DAP) and a commentator for Bayon TV, said he suspects that the letter, delivered to his office by a man on a motorbike, was motivated by a series of stories printed in his paper.

“Now I am waiting to see how serious this is, and then I will file a complaint to the Ministry of Interior,” he said.

He said the threat had probably come in response to stories published in DAP accusing two men of fraud.

“I am not scared of the threat,” he said. “I wanted to laugh when I saw this letter, because we are no longer in a war regime.”

The Club of Cambodian Journalists issued a statement expressing concern about the threat, and called on authorities to arrest those responsible for the letter.

“CCJ considers the letter a serious threat,” the statement reads. 

Villagers meet for parley in land row

Ou Mom and May Titthara 
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.

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Official rejects NGO land claim

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

THE governor of a district in Preah Sihanouk province where farmers squared off with NGO workers over farmland earlier this week said Thursday that the group’s director had been unable to show sufficient documentation supporting its claim.

Kampong Seila district Governor Kheng Teng said he had ordered Touch Seouly of the Kampong Speu-based Cambodia Disabled Survivors’ Association to present documents proving he had been awarded contested land in Kampong Speu, Kampot and Preah Sihanouk provinces, and that a meeting was held Thursday.

“On the document, the [Kampong Speu] provincial authorities allow the development of land on about 1,500 hectares, some of which is in Preah Sihanouk province, but it is only signed by the Kampong Speu provincial governor,” he said.

“It must be signed by all three provincial governors,” he added.

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