Kandal province: People of 324 families from Robos Angkanh village, Prek Eng commune, Kien Svay district gathered in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s residence, Kandal province to ask for his intervention on their land dispute resolution, August 6, 2008.
The villagers are coming here to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen for resolution to their land conflict because that they have lived on that land since 1990, but local authorities seem to ignore and don’t agree to issue land ownership certificates for them. Instead, commune and district authorities had conspired with each other to sell that land to rich dealer and even issued land ownership certificate to rich dealer, one of all protesters Mr. Un Pouv said.
One of all protesters Miss. Sam Bath said before that land belonged to people of 324 families, but in 1986, Cambodian People Party (CPP) asked for this land for construction of school, pagoda and hospital. Then, the people agreed to offer this land to CPP and latter on, CPP removed all the plants and crops from the land and also promised to grant US$50 as a compensation for one banana tree and US$300 for one mango tree. 2-3 years after clearing the land, development wasn’t seen to happen and compensation wasn’t offered, the villagers came to build their houses on that land again.
The government officials who conspired to sell that land are 1-Phay Bunchhoeu, 2-Chhoeun Mao, 3-Neth Saren, 4-Heng Thiem, 5-U Chhoeung, Mrs. Keo Ratana who joined the protest said. All the protesters raised the banners written “Please Prime Minister dismiss these 5 corrupt officials who conspired each other to steal the people’s land for sale to rich dealer”. She added that currently, all the villagers live as if they have no custodian to care for and support them. There are village and commune authorities, but they have neglected their people and even taken the people’s land for sale to rich dealer. Where will they go to live?
Mrs. Keo Ratana said “I am coming here to ask Prime Minister Hun Sen to be our parents because currently, we have no parents”. She appealed to Prime Minister Hun Sen for assistance in solving land dispute for villagers, otherwise, they would be evicted and if that happens, they don’t know where else to live.
From the past on, this land has belonged to CPP and the people have lived on it without permission from village and commune authorities, so local authorities couldn’t issue land ownership certificates for them, Prek Eng commune chief Mr. Neth Saren said, adding that “selling this land to rich dealer is the business of CPP”.

Mr. Heng Thiem couldn’t be reached for comment on that land problem by saying that he was busy “in the meeting”. (By Chhunheat)