Sugar-Plantation Residents, Worn Down by Dispute, Feel Hopeless About Vote

[geovalin]

Thon Sot boarded his koyun and took the usual route to his farmland in Preah Vihear’s Brame commune in February. The 58-year-old farmer drove along Road 64, which heads towards Stung Treng, took a right just before the abandoned Rui Feng sugarcane factory and arrived at his farmland.

 

The farmer was shocked to see people already on his land. They were tilling the land and preparing it for planting cassava. Four people with two tractors were doing the tilling. He politely asked who they were and why they were on his and other village residents’ land, not wanting trouble.

 

An argument ensued. Sot said the “new people” did not tell him who they were or where they came from. He had never seen them before. In the meantime, someone had called the district police, who broke up the argument. “But the next day they continued plowing,” Sot said, adding that they didn’t stop after that.

Other farmers who also confronted the new people were told one of the four was a manager at Rui Feng and another used to work at the company’s factory.

 

read more https://vodenglish.news/sugar-plantation-residents-worn-down-by-dispute-feel-hopeless-about-vote/