Combodia-Post

ABOUT 40 people who have fled to Phnom Penh to avoid arrest after recent land clashes in Oddar Meanchey province travelled to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence in Takhmao on Thursday to make a formal request for government intervention in their case.

Residents started fleeing to the city after authorities razed 214 homes in Oddar Meanchey’s Kounkriel commune in early October to clear 1,500 hectares of land for the construction of a sugar plantation by the Angkor Sugar Company, owned by CPP Senator Lee Yongphat.

“We sent a letter to the prime minister’s house because we want to ask him to provide us with a social land concession,” said villager Dit Saren, noting that the 30-metre-by-50-metre plots offered as compensation to villagers were too small to support their families.

Lim Leang Se, deputy chief of Hun Sen’s cabinet, said he had received a letter from the villagers and promised to forward it on to the National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes, promising that the issue would be investigated.

“We heard that the provincial authorities have settled their problems already, so they should accept compensation,” he said.

But Ton Nhorn, 72, said the 1-hectare plot was not enough to support the 10 members of his family, and that the government should reconsider its offers.

“If they don’t provide us with what we are suggesting, please give us about 3 hectares of farmland,” he said.

He said villagers had denied requests from Hun Sen’s cabinet to return to their home province, saying they fear arrest if they return.

KAMPONG Thom villagers involved in a violent land dispute with a Vietnamese rubber company say they have been cut off from food and other supplies after an influx of police officers to the area.

“Today we are facing a shortage of food because our rice stores are nearly finished,” said villager Po Kin. “We cannot go out, and also the vendors cannot come in, so it is very difficult for us now.”

Santuk district police Chief Ek Mat Muoly vowed to ramp up the local police presence after an altercation Monday between villagers and armed officers stationed on the 8,000-hectare economic land concession, which was awarded to the company in 2007 in a move that has been criticised by the hundreds of families already living there.

Villagers burned four vehicles owned by the company before the officers turned on them with knives, hatchets and canes, rights workers said.

Prom Saroth, one of the nine men who were injured, also complained of a food shortage on Thursday, adding that villagers were reluctant to leave because they feared retaliatory harassment from the officers.

“This morning, the police came into the village and opened fire into the sky, and then they shot two of our chickens and took them back to their place,” he said. Ek Mat Muoly denied that the incident had taken place.

Po Kin said residents’ fears had been exacerbated by the arrest on Wednesday of three men accused of inciting villagers to burn the excavator trucks. “Nobody dares to go out because yesterday three villagers took a moto to go buy food, and they were arrested when they left the village,” he said.

“We don’t know why they have not been released yet, and we heard they had been sent to the provincial police department for questioning.”

Ek Mat Muoly said the provincial court had issued arrest warrants for the men, identified by villagers as Heng Han, 66, Toy Sokhorn, 50, and Nai Kep, 21.

“The situation now is still tense, and we must spread our police to protect the company’s property because they come from their country to invest in our country,” he said.

Kampong Thom Governor Chhun Chhorn said Wednesday that 20 warrants had been issued in connection to the altercation.

Chan Soveth, a monitor for the rights group Adhoc, said he had urged the authorities to grant the villagers freedom of movement.

“It is difficult for them when they can’t go outside and people can’t come inside, and they are facing a lack of food,” he said.

Ek Mat Muoly said police officers would “only arrest the leaders who encouraged people to burn company and military police property.... Normal people will not be arrested”.

Provincial prosecutor Pen Sarath said the three arrested men had not been sent to the court as of Thursday afternoon.