PM rules against villagers [-Another one of Hun Xen’s arbitrary decisions?]

Tuesday, 11 May 2010
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

KI Media

Villagers protest the presence of excavators on disputed land in Kandal province last month. (Photo by: Pha Lina)

AUTHORITIES in Kandal province’s Kandal Stung district announced during a meeting with villagers Monday that Prime Minister

Hun Sen’s cabinet had ruled that around 200 hectares of contested land in Prek Sleng commune belongs to the Heng Development Company, and that local residents have no legal claims to it, villagers said.

A letter from the cabinet, which also stated that the villagers had no right to protest the decision, was quickly denounced by the 18 village representatives present at the meeting as illegitimate.

Oeung Chanry, one of the representatives who attended, said the only explanation for the authorities’ announcement was that the letter was “fake”. “I cannot believe Prime Minister Hun Sen would do this,” she said.

Villagers say they have been farming the land since 1986, but officials claim the Heng Development Company purchased it in 1996 for commercial rice cultivation.

Oeung Chanry said that during the meeting, village representatives demanded that the company produce land titles to prove that they owned the land. “Who sold the land to them?” she said.

Mathieu Pellerin, a consultant for the rights group Licadho, said Sunday that the company had never provided proof that it possessed the appropriate land titles. “As far as we are concerned, we were never shown these documents,” he said.

However, Lim Leang Se, deputy chief of the premier’s cabinet, said, “Prime Minister Hun Sen has recognised that Heng Development Company is the owner of that land because they have the land title, and another part is for a fishing area.”

Ouch Leng, land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said the authorities should find a mutually acceptable resolution to the dispute. “If the authorities do not find a clear resolution, violence will occur,” he said.

Documentary : SRP invites govt to view Chea Vichea

Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
Documentary

KI Media

A lawmaker for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) said Monday that the party plans to screen the documentary Who Kill Chea Vichea? soon after its run at the Cannes International Film Festival in France concludes this month. Mu Sochua said a screening would be held at party headquarters at the end of the month, despite government warnings not to show it, and called on government officials to attend. “It will be screened soon. However, we must screen it at party headquarters. At the end of the film festival, they will give the film to us, and then we will screen this film,” she said. “Now let the government and the public come and watch the film with us together.” The government prevented activists from showing the film in public as part of Labour Day demonstrations on May 1. Tith Sothea, spokesman for the Press and Quick Reaction Unit at the Council Ministers, said on Monday that Mu Sochua’s invitation was evidence that the SRP was “mocking the government”. “The SRP should not call on [the government] to watch this film. It is just mocking the government, which says that the film is illegal,” he said.