Lakeside families face summonses

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Eight families whose homes were demolished at Boeung Kak lake last month appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen to intervene in their case yesterday amid the rubble of their former homes and a flurry of summonses they say are intended to silence their dissent.

The families, who on October 4 filed a complaint against real estate developer Shukaku Inc, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Lao Meng Khin, said they have received separate summonses to appear for questioning today and Wednesday in the Shukaku case, while the company has not been asked to appear. 

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Kampong Chhnang villager convicted of disinformation

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Chhnang provincial court yesterday convicted a villager from Kampong Tralach district of disinformation in connection with a land dispute involving development company KDC International.

Sam Chankea, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said Reach Seima, 30, was fined 2 million riel (US$495) and ordered to pay 8 million riel ($1,980) in compensation to the firm. Similar charges against villager Pheng Rom, 45, were dropped.

KDC accused the pair of disinformation and obstructing development after they claimed in 2009 that the company had illegally cleared 140 hectares of their land.

“The court should not have sentenced Reach Seima for defamation because the company does not have enough evidence and what he said to the media is true,” said Sam Chankea.

Sam Chankea is also facing a disinformation charge following complaints from KDC, stemming from a December 2009 radio interview in which he suggested that KDC’s land clearance may have been illegal. His verdict is likely to be handed down today.

KDC is run by Chea Kheng, the wife of the Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem.

The company, which claims to have purchased land in Lorpeang village in 1996, has filed five complaints against villagers since 2002.

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Villagers irate over drainage project

May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Residents of the capital’s Boeung Trabek lakeside gathered in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s house in Phnom Penh before returning home and burning tyres near the lake to protest against the alleged loss of their farmland to a drainage project.

Oen Sothon, a village representative from Chamkarmon district’s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune, said 153 families had lost access to their farmland after 50 police officers set up a blockade in the area to protect the project.

“They are encroaching on the land where we’ve planted our crops,” Oen Sothon said.

Khut Khunvicheth, who also claimed to have been blocked from his land, said the blockade had been set up without consultation with residents affected by the move.

Many in the area are concerned that the land will be given to a private company rather than being used for the drainage project, he added.

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Employee of sugar firm sues villagers

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A REPRESENTATIVE of the Phnom Penh Sugar Company has filed a complaint accusing five villagers in Kampong Speu province of illegally detaining her for several hours last month during a confrontation related to an ongoing land dispute.

Chheang Kimsruon said yesterday that she had filed the complaint with the provincial court last Friday, though she refused to provide the names of the accused.

The complaint stems from an incident that took place on August 23, when about 300 villagers from Omlaing commune, located in Kampong Speu’s Thpong district, blocked National Road 52 for about 10 hours.

More than 2,000 families from Omlaing commune have been affected by a 9,000-hectare concession granted to Phnom Penh Sugar, which is owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

Following the incident, Chheang Kimsruon claimed that her health had been at risk during the incident because she is diabetic.

“It is my right to protect myself, so I have filed a complaint against five village representatives,” she said. “I did not file the complaint on behalf of the company. I filed it on my own.”

Villagers say that they blocked the road in an effort to prevent the company’s employees from tearing down homes in O’Thmar Chruok village, and to force the company to negotiate. They contend that their intention was never to “detain” Chheang Kimsruon.

Phal Vannak, a village representative, yesterday said again that the villagers “just wanted to negotiate”.

Meanwhile, two other villagers involved in the same dispute are due to appear at the provincial court today to answer to allegations that they are living on the company’s land.

Chhuon Chuon, a 60-year-old teacher and one of the two men summoned, said yesterday that he planned to ask the court for a delay because he had been unable to find a lawyer.

Evictees face a difficult transition

By May Titthara and Will Baxter 
The Phnom Penh Post

Kandal province
OVER the past eight months, Chork Teng has become an adept hunter of frogs and freshwater crab, stalking her prey at night in the rice fields near her ramshackle home in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district.

But she laments the fact that she has been forced to adapt to this scavenger’s lifestyle.

A former resident of the Dey Krahorm community in central Phnom Penh, hers was among the 144 families evicted in a violent operation in January 2009, when police and construction workers employed by local developer 7NG Group levelled all remaining homes at the site.

The families were initially relocated to Dangkor district. Then, on December 12, 2009, a total of 467 former Dey Krahorm families and vendors were relocated yet again to the Tang Khiev community in Ponhea Leu’s Phnom Bat commune, said Va Savoeun, the community’s chief.

However, as a result of the lack of employment opportunities at the relocation site, which is over 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh, more than 240 families have since returned to the city to seek jobs, Va Savoeun said.

Chork Teng said that before the eviction she had been a construction worker.

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Villagers’ letter rejects offer for pagoda’s destruction

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

VILLAGERS in Kandal province sent a letter rejecting a deal paving the way for the destruction of a pagoda situated on disputed land yesterday, one day after an article was printed granting the pagoda a two-month reprieve.

Tuol Tamark pagoda sits on land in Kandal Stung district that officials say was purchased by the Heng Development Company in 1996.

Representatives of 2,676 families say, however, that they have a legal right to the disputed 1,044 hectares because they have been farming it since 1986.

On August 15, representatives from the Heng Development Company set an August 30 deadline for villagers and monks to tear down the pagoda.
An article in the Nokor Wat Daily newspaper printed on Monday, however, said the pagoda, located in Ampov Prey commune, could remain standing until the conclusion of Buddhist Lent in late October.

The owner of the Heng Development Company is Sieng Chanheng, the main financial backer of Nokor Wat Daily and whose daughter is its
publisher.

Kong San, a pagoda committee member, said yesterday that a letter had been sent to the Ministry of Cults and Religions, the provincial Department of Cults and Religions and the company rejecting an arrangement in which the pagoda would be destroyed in exchange for US$10,000. The abbot who allegedly brokered the deal last month, San Kimsong, has since gone missing, Kong San said.

“All of us did not agree to tear down the pagoda, but the abbot agreed to let the company tear down the pagoda in October,” Kong San said.

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PM enters land row involving sugar firm

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Speu province
PRIME Minister Hun Sen has weighed in on a controversial land row pitting more than 2,000 families in Kampong Speu province against a prominent ruling-party senator.

In a letter addressed to National Assembly President Heng Samrin, Hun Sen said land had been set aside to accommodate those threatened by a sugar plantation under development by one of the senator’s companies.

After receiving copies of the letter yesterday, residents accused the company of failing to comply with recommendations outlined by the premier.

The dispute pits 11 villages in Thpong district’s Omlaing commune against the Phnom Penh Sugar Co, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat, which has been granted a 9,000-hectare sugar concession in the area. Tension erupted into violence in March when a mob of villagers torched a makeshift office owned by the sugar company.

Hun Sen’s letter, issued in response to questions submitted by opposition parliamentarians in March, said the concession agreement with Phnom Penh Sugar was made with the understanding that no development would take place on 1,050 hectares of land “occupied by the people or forests important to the environment”, leaving 8,343 hectares for development as a sugar plantation.

Of the 1,050-hectare area, it promised that 204 hectares would be set aside for landless farmers.

“The company, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and local authorities, has organised 204 hectares of land for people who lack land, and plans to build schools, medical centres, markets and a pagoda for people in this area,” the letter said.

Villagers said they had not seen the letter, dated June 29, before yesterday, and that none of the promises mentioned by Hun Sen had been kept.

“I think that the company received this letter before us, but they did not respect the government.... They regard the prime minister’s words as having no meaning,” said Phal Vannak, a village representative.

A group of 500 residents gathered outside the firm’s office in Omlaing commune yesterday morning in the hope of raising the letter directly with the company, but dispersed just after noon when they received no response.

Villagers wield Hun Sen letter in land dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Kampong Speu province
MORE than 500 Kampong Speu province villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a local sugar company demonstrated in Thpong district yesterday, accusing the company of failing to uphold promises contained in a letter from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The villagers gathered near the Omlaing commune office of the Phnom Penh Sugar Company at around 8am, intending to read staff members a copy of the letter given to them by Sam Rainsy Party activists.

The letter, signed by the premier on June 29, states that the firm’s plantation development could not take place on 1,050 hectares of land occupied by local people and “forests important to the environment”.

Eeang Chiva, a village representative, said the letter showed the company had acted illegally in clearing land claimed by local communities.

“The government issued a letter to clarify that what the company did was illegal and different from what the government decided,” he said.

A total of 11 villages in Omlaing commune – home to more than 2,000 families – have been affected by the Phnom Penh Sugar concession.

Ouch Leng, land programme officer for local rights group Adhoc, criticised the government for not forwarding the letter to the affected families. 

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Koh Kong villagers attempt to block road

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

VILLAGERS involved in a long-simmering land dispute in Koh Kong province say they will send a new petition to authorities, after four protesters suffered injuries this past weekend while attempting to block a national road.

Ouch Leng, a programme officer for rights group Adhoc, said villagers blocked National Road 48 in Sre Ambel district Friday as part of a demonstration aimed at drawing attention to a dispute that could see 34 families evicted.

But a motorist who was angry with the traffic jam caused by the protest clashed with villagers, resulting in injuries to four of them, Ouch Leng said.
“The car owner tried to crash into the bed that villagers used to block the road,” said Ouch Leng, who described the injuries as “not serious”.

The villagers say they could be on the verge of eviction after a company owned by Koh Kong businessman Heng Huy set today as a deadline for the clearance of roughly 100 hectares of disputed land. The Supreme Court last year ruled that the land belonged to Heng Huy and another businessman.

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Threats fly between parties in land dispute

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

KAMPONG Speu province residents entangled in a land dispute with a Cambodian People’s Party senator said yesterday they would countersue if a representative of the senator’s company followed through on a threat to pursue legal action against them.

Chheng Kimsruon, a representative of the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Senator Ly Yong Phat, said yesterday that she planned to meet with her lawyer today to discuss the possibility of bringing a complaint against You Tho and four other villagers in Thpong district’s Omlaing commune.

The complaint threat stems from a demonstration last Monday during which, Chheng Kimsruon said, a group of villagers surrounded her car and prevented her from moving for eight hours. She said the actions of the villagers placed her health at risk because she has diabetes.

“I am sick. I was stuck, and I had no food and no medicine for treatment,” she said. “I will file the complaint accusing those villagers of physically abusing me.” She added: “We rent the land from the state, and we provide jobs for villagers in this commune to reduce poverty, but they always make a problem with us.”

A total of 11 villages in Omlaing have been affected by a 9,000-hectare land concession granted to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which lies adjacent to a 10,000-hectare concession registered in the name of Ly Yong Phat’s wife, Kim Heang.

As part of demonstrations last Monday, about 300 villagers blocked a section of National Road 52 in Kampong Speu after accusing company employees and soldiers from Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Battalion 313, which is paid to provide security for the company, of attempting to tear down homes.

You Tho denied having been present for last week’s demonstration, saying he was “at a workshop”, and that a complaint from Chheng Kimsruon would prompt a countersuit from villagers. The 64-year-old, who was detained for less than a week in March in connection with an incident stemming from the dispute, said he would ask that the company be held accountable for the period he spent behind bars.

“I will do as the company does,” he said.

Ouch Leng, land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said any move by the provincial court to investigate a complaint from Chheng Kimsruon would amount to evidence that “the company is using the court as a tool to take over the villagers’ land”.

SRP visits detainees’ families

By May Titthara and Will Baxter 
The Phnom Penh Post

NINE members of the opposition Sam Rainsy Party met yesterday with the families of 12 Siem Reap villagers jailed last week in relation to a local land dispute.

Ke Sovannaroth, an SRP parliamentarian representing Siem Reap, said that the party organised the visit in order to offer its moral support to the families of those jailed.

“The court did not provide justice for these people,” she said. “These villagers are the victims in this land dispute.”

Last Friday, Siem Reap provincial court sentenced nine of the villagers, from Chi Kraeng district’s Chi Kraeng commune, to three years in prison each after convicting them of forming an illegal armed force.

Three other villagers were sentenced to three years in prison on charges of illegal confinement. The nine, originally charged with attempted intentional manslaughter, were arrested after a March 2009 altercation in which police allegedly fired on a crowd in Chi Kraeng commune, injuring four.

Sok Kimseng, a provincial councilor for the SRP, said the families should continue to seek justice in the case.

“Villagers have suffered, lost their land, they have been shot at and detained in prison, he said. “Meanwhile, the people who committed violence against these villagers are still free.... It shows that there is a lack of justice in our court system.”

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Villagers snub $10,000 offer for pagoda

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

KANDAL province villagers involved in a land dispute with a prominent development company say they cannot accept an offer of US$10,000 in exchange for tearing down a cherished pagoda.

In an article published yesterday in the Nokor Wat Daily newspaper, the head of the Heng Development Company is quoted as offering the villagers $10,000 in compensation for destroying the pagoda. Company director Sieng Chanheng owns Nokor Wat Daily.

“All people who know they have done wrong have to move from that land,” Sieng Chanheng was quoted as saying in the newspaper. “The company will provide $10,000 after they have torn down the pagoda.”

Sieng Chanheng could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But villagers and members of the local pagoda committee say the offer is unacceptable.

Kong San, a member of the Tuol Tamork pagoda committee, said villagers would never agree to tear down the pagoda. They want to keep the temple for devout Buddhists, Kong San said.

“Even if they offer us a million dollars, we will not agree,” he said.

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Phanimex owner summoned

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 PHNOM Penh Municipal Court has summoned the owner of a controversial local development company to appear next week over a land dispute pitting two of Cambodia’s elite against each other.

Court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said Suy Sophan, owner of the Phanimex company, had been directed to appear in court on Monday over a land dispute in Meanchey district, after a complaint was filed against her by Yim Chhay Lin. Yim Chhay Lin is the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the daughter of Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly.

Suy Sophan said yesterday that she hadn’t received the summons.

“I will not go to the court,” Suy Sophan said. “I will have my lawyer clarify on my behalf.”

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Villagers decry missed meet

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 AROUND 300 Kampong Speu farmers involved in a land dispute with a sugar company owned by Cambodian People’s Party senator Ly Yong Phat protested yesterday after a company representative allegedly broke a promise to attend a meeting aimed at resolving the conflict.

On Monday, villagers from Omlaing commune, in Thpong district, blocked National Road 52 in a bid to prevent Phnom Penh Sugar Company workers from clearing their farmland.

Villagers said that after they blocked the road, company representative Chheng Kimsruon agreed to a meeting at the Omlaing commune office, saying she would be “killed by a lightning strike” if she did not attend.

Phal Vanank, a local representative, said the company’s promises were just a ruse to get the villagers to clear the road.

“Everything that company has promised before is a lie, even though under the rain she dared to swear to villagers that she would die if she did not come to the meeting,” he said.

A total of 11 villages in Omlaing commune – home to more than 2,000 families – have been impacted by a 9,000-hectare concession granted to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which lies adjacent to a 10,000-hectare concession registered in the name of Ly Yong Phat’s wife, Kim Heang.

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Villagers fight to save pagoda

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 MORE than 300 villagers distributed fliers to passing motorists outside Kandal provincial court yesterday, condemning a local development company’s recent threats to tear down a nearby pagoda.

On August 15, representatives from the Heng Development Company, which is owned by businesswoman Sieng Chanheng, set an August 30 deadline for villagers and monks to tear down Tuol Tamork pagoda in Kandal Stung district’s Ampov Prey commune, said Kong San, a pagoda committee member.

“We will not agree to tear down the pagoda because the company has no right to that land,” he said, and challenged it to produce a land title to support its claims.

He said the monks asked the company to extend the deadline until the conclusion of Buddhist Lent in October.

Chea Hy, a village representative who helped to hand out the leaflets, said that the pagoda was constructed in 2000, and was officially recognised by local authorities as a legal religious structure in 2007.

“The company’s owner is trying to use her power to remove the pagoda,” Chea Hy said.

“How can someone do that if they are a good Khmer citizen who respects Buddhism?”

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Road blocked over dispute

May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

 Kampong Speu province
AROUND 300 villagers embroiled in a land dispute with a sugar company owned by a prominent senator blocked National Road 52 in Kampong Speu province yesterday in an effort to prevent the company’s employees from tearing down villagers’ homes.

“We blocked the road because we wanted the company’s staff to come out and negotiate with villagers,” said Suon Sokunthear, a 38-year-old villager from Omlaing commune, in Thpong district.

He said that employees of the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat, had recently demolished the homes of three families in O’Thmar Chruok village.

Company employees and soldiers from Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Battalion 313, which is paid to provide security for the senator’s company, attempted to raze additional homes yesterday morning, prompting the villagers to block National Road 52 with farm machinery and bed frames, he added.

Mon Sarin, 26, said that soldiers from Battalion 313 accused her on Sunday of living on company land and ordered her to dismantle her home. The soldiers returned yesterday with an excavator and attempted to demolish her house, she said.

“I have been living on my land since 2000, but the company just arrived in this area recently,” she said. “Because the company’s staff wanted to tear down my home, my villagers decided to block the road.”

About 50 local police, military police, and soldiers armed with guns and electric batons were on site to provide security for the company’s staff during the villagers’ protest, she said.

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Families request delay in national park dispute

By Sun Mesa and May Titthara 
The Phnom Penh Post

ROUGHLY 60 families involved in a land dispute with a company in Preah Sihanouk province’s Ream National Park asked the provincial court to postpone their hearing so they could find legal representation.

Village representative Prum Vinh, 53, said villagers in the province’s Prey Nob district were issued a court summons in relation to a land dispute with the local Oeung Sisruon Company, which is developing infrastructure for drinking water in the commune.

“They issued a court summons to us on August 11, ordering us to appear at the court to clarify why the company has accused us of living on private property,” he said. “They requested us to appear on August 24, but that is too soon for us to find a lawyer.”

He said the 60 families had lived on the disputed 1.7-hectare plot of land since 2004, but had not been aware the land belonged to anyone.

“The villagers have lived here with no land titles,” he said. “But this land does not belong to anybody, because we lived here when the land was covered in forest.”

He said the company first filed a complaint against the villagers in 2006. “At first I didn’t know the land was Ream National Park, but if anyone wants to come take our land [that person] must provide fair compensation.”

However, Ream commune chief Lin Sarin said villagers living there had been doing so illegally. “The government granted an economic land concession to Oeung Sisruon in 2007, to develop clean water on the land,” he said.

Cheap Sotheary, Preah Sihanouk provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said both parties were abusing a national park that had been certified since 1993.

“The court can process this case as long as the plaintiff owns the land title,” he said.

“We hope the judiciary in this case will use suitable procedures.”

However, deputy provincial court prosecutor Kem Eang said he had not yet heard about the case involving the villagers. “We have a lot of prosecutors and I don’t know who will cover this case,” he said.

Representatives of the Oeung Sisruon Company could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Deputy district governor Buon Huor also declined to comment, saying he did not know about the case.

Battambang fugitive tells of flight to forest

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

ONE of three village representatives sought by police on charges related to a land dispute in Battambang province surfaced in Pailin province yesterday after hiding in the forest for the last week to avoid arrest.

“The three of us got lost and separated because the police were following and trying to arrest us. Now I don’t know where the other two representatives are,” said Van Dy, a 42-year-old village representative from Kors Kralor district’s Doun Ba commune.

“I had no food in the forest, so I had to eat different kinds of leaves,” she said. During her flight, she had avoided roads and populated areas, she said. She also asked that her exact location not be revealed.

Van Dy and two other village representatives went into hiding on August 12 after another representative, Nha Mak, was arrested at his home in Doun Ba commune on August 9.

On August 22, 2008, Van Dy, Nha Mak and three other village representatives were sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for robbery and destruction of public property. One man, Hun Sengly, was arrested shortly after the verdict, and the others fled their homes.

Earlier this month the group emerged from hiding to lend support to their community, which is embroiled in a long-running land dispute with Long Sidare, a military police official in Phnom Penh.

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More families cleared to farm disputed land

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

OFFICIALS in Battambang province’s Samlot district met yesterday with local military officers to ask that around 20 families be allowed to resume farming on land that in recent months has been the subject of a violent dispute.

Deputy district governor In Savrith said that officers from Royal Cambodian Armed Forces Military Region 5 had allowed 21 families to resume cultivating their crops yesterday, though a final agreement would not be reached until later this week.

“I don’t think there will be a problem because Military Region 5 has already agreed to accept the return of another group of farmers,” he said.
On July 8, 58 families were given permission to resume farming on a 390-hectare plot in Samlot’s Kampong Lpov commune.

A total of 78 families claim that they have farmed the land since 2005, and that since 2009 soldiers from Military Region 5 have been trying to force them off the land.

The dispute came to a head on July 1 when 10 soldiers opened fire on a group of 60 farmers planting corn in the area. Although none of the farmers were hit by bullets, two were later injured when soldiers reportedly beat people who refused to stop farming.

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Help us, Hun Sen

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

By Sovan Philong

Vendors from Tuol Kork Market hold up pictures of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife Bun Rany yesterday outside the premier’s home in Phnom Penh. About 50 vendors joined the demonstration yesterday to appeal for Hun Sen to intervene in an ongoing dispute with the owner of the market, who they say has increased the rental price of stalls. Vendor representative Ven Moly said the market owner had announced plans to more than double the rental fees for some of the market’s 200 stall-holders, and that some vendors would soon be charged as much as US$350 per month.