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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Court calls on HRP leader for testimony

By May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

HUMAN Rights Party president Kem Sokha has been summoned by Phnom Penh Municipal Court for questioning in a case that critics have branded frivolous.

Phnom Penh deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said yesterday that charges have not been filed against the opposition politician, who used to head the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.

“We have ordered him to appear at the court on September 6 at 2pm,” Sok Roeun said.

The case in question stems from complaints filed in 2006 by former CCHR staffers accusing Kem Sokha of defamation and the use of false documents in his response to the accusations.

Chhim Phalvorn, a former CCHR staff member and a complainant in the case, said he had evidence to present in court to prove Kem Sokha had misused funds and dismissed staff members without cause.

“I am pursuing my right as a victim to find justice in this case,” he said.

But Ou Virak, the current president of CCHR, said the dated complaint was just an excuse for the court to harass an opposition leader. He pointed to Monday’s disinformation conviction of an employee of local rights group Licadho in Takeo province as typical of the continued harassment faced by rights advocates.

“There’s no reason to pick up an old case just to put pressure on an opposition party,” Ou Virak said.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said the case was a waste of time in light of the judiciary’s other priorities.

Kem Sokha was one of several activists arrested and charged with defamation during a government crackdown in 2005; however, he was released from prison and pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni in 2006. He could not be reached for comment, and was travelling in the United States as of last week.

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”.