3 land disputes

[geovalin]

Police visit families after court denies land claim

Fri, 6 June 2014

Vong Sokheng

A dozen families in Kampot province have said they fear that their land will be lost to developers after police turned up to enforce a court decision ordering the families to vacate the area to make way for a company known as Van Vanna. Hin Sy, 70, and her husband Kang Hav owned 1 hectare in Kampong Trach district before the decision.

But the couple did not register the land and receive a land title as required under Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law. The couple says that following the 12 families’ rejection of a $40,000 compensation offer, more than 30 officials attempted to evict them from the land.

Brigadier General Mao Chanmathurith, Kampot provincial deputy police chief, said police had backed off after residents protested. “But in the future, if the court orders us to detain them, we will do it,” he told the Post.

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Kratie land dispute goes on

Fri, 6 June 2014

May Titthara

Hundreds of families from Kratie province’s Snuol district who were promised new plots of land after a Vietnamese rubber firm evicted them last month have complained that provincial officials are allowing hundreds of interlopers to stake a claim instead.

The 405 families were evicted from the district’s Khsoem commune on May 2 and spent almost four weeks living in a Phnom Penh pagoda before accepting a government offer of a new 750-hectare social land concession in the same district on Sunday.

Nguon Vibol, a representative of the families, said yesterday that he intended to file a complaint to the government after discovering that the authorities responsible for drawing up the cadastral list had so far included about 1,040 families.

“We recognise only 405 families’ [claims]. We do not recognise the other people registered by the provincial officers. I think the authorities are putting pressure on us,” he said.

He added that people not in the original group of displaced families did not have a legitimate claim to the land and should be taken off the list.

“The authorities allow any people to register, so the authorities themselves have to find land for those people and the authorities cannot touch our land at all,” he said.

The families are mostly from Kampong Cham province and relocated to their former site in Snuol district in 2008. On May 2, Vietnamese rubber company Binh Phuoc II took over the 2,025-hectare site, which it plans to turn into a plantation.

Khan Chamnan, Kratie deputy governor, confirmed that more families had registered for the land than the original 405 who were displaced, but denied that it was the authorities’ responsibility to ensure that only those with a legitimate claim were included.

“The increase is their problem. It is not me who bloats the figures, and I don’t call and bring those people to come and register,” he said.

Chan Soveth, senior investigator at rights group Adhoc, said it was difficult enough to resolve the issue for the families who came to Phnom Penh, so the government should prioritise their requests.

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Suspects in dredging swim away

Fri, 6 June 2014

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

Suspected illegal sand dredgers swam their way to freedom on Wednesday afternoon when government officials shut down their operation in Kandal province’s Lvea Em district.

After receiving complaints from villagers in the area, a team from the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology’s sand management committee discovered four pumps dredging sand along the Mekong River, said Chan Yutha, a Water Resource Ministry spokesman.

The Water Resource Ministry had not licensed anyone to dredge sand since last year’s national election, Yutha said.

“On Wednesday afternoon, our inspection group ran an operation to stop the unlawful pumping of sand from the Kdey Takoy pagoda.”

When officials approached, men in a boat and a ferry near the machinery jumped off and swam away, Yutha said. All evaded arrest. While unaware of who was behind the pumping, officials impounded the boats and dredging equipment, and are waiting for someone to claim them.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/suspects-dredging-swim-away