Prek Kampish Commune-Kandal Stueng: Homestead land of people of 6 families in Kraing Svay village, Prek Kampish commune, Kandal Stueng district, Kandal province is being subjected to encroachment of one of powerful dignitaries, July 31, 2008.
Mr. Chhem Vuth, one of victims who has undergone encroachment said the villagers whose land is being grabbed are such as 1-Sok Burn, 2-Vann Thorn, 3-Nim Mok, 4-Chhan Chhunheng, 5-Phuong Thol and himself. The land grabbing done at the order of powerful dignitary Mr. Te Por. He added in the past, Mr. Te Por bought several hundred hectares of rice paddies of Srei Snom villagers behind their houses. When building fences, it intruded into 4m of public land behind their houses and until present time, this powerful dignitary has filled in their land with excavated soil encroaching on 2.5m more public land. He said when building fences on the public land, the villagers agreed because they didn’t want to have any problems, but after constructing fences, they even dumped excavated soil encroaching on our homesteads. The villagers here have lived on this land since 1982 and even registered and recognized by village and commune chiefs, but the village and community authorities haven’t issued land ownership certificates to them yet because they have constructed houses on canal and next to public road of the State.
On June 24, 2008, a middleman Mr. Veng Savuth bought land from two of 6 families which one family had received the value of US$22,000 and another family had only received US$10,500. One of two families had received deposit of US$2,000 and another had received deposit of US$500 in presence of Kraing Svay village chief Mr. Som Soth and the middleman promised to pay more, next month. But until now, that middleman wasn’t seen to bring more money, instead, the powerful dignitary Mr. Te Por brought machineries to carry excavated soil to fill in on their land.
When that powerful man filled in excavated soil there, he didn’t inform the settlers and local authorities. Seeing that the villagers and local authorities tried to stop them, but they were intimidated and frightened by the powerful man’s guns and machetes. Soil dumping done encroaching on the villagers’ ponds, water jars and clothes being dried behind their house and even cut all their plants such as mango and banana trees.
Soil dumping done just on the state owned canal make a road for people to travel easily and denied that he had threatened the people, a representative of powerful dignitary who wasn’t identified said.
This is an encroachment on the people’s land because they didn’t inform the owners of land and local authorities of their excavated soil dumping and didn’t listen to local authorities when forbidding them, the first commune chief of Prek Kampish Mr. Ken Sokorn said, adding that this case seems to be beyond his competence and he said he would send it to district authority for resolution.
This is a serious abuse imposed by powerful person upon ordinary, innocent people because this excavated soil dumping only done by an individual, wasn’t done in accordance with the rule of law. (By Ven Chhunheat)
