Illegal mines + Land battles + Illegal logging + Company destroyed rice fields

[geovalin]

Illegal Ratanakkiri gem mine raided

Mon, 7 July 2014

Phak Seangly

District and military police in Ratanakkiri raided an illegal gem mine inside a Chinese company’s land concession on Saturday but failed to make any arrests, according to a rights group representative.

Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for Adhoc, said about 200 illegal gem miners had settled on an old rubber plantation granted to the Swift Rubber Company in Laminh commune’s Trum village.

“The miners set up more than 100 camps at the plantation, where they used devices such as iron bars, logs, wood, strings and baskets for illegal and haphazard mining,” he said.

Mao Sun, Bakeo district police chief, confirmed that no one was arrested in the raid.

“When they saw our forces, they just ran into the forest,” he said, adding that Swift Rubber had requested that police evict the miners. “They are Cambodian people who often search the mine to support their families.”

Chhay Thy said it was unclear for whom the workers were illegally extracting the gems.

“Collusion may have been behind this case; otherwise, hundreds of miners would not have been able to work the company land. We asked the miners, and they said they dug for their boss, but they did not say who their boss is,” he said.

Adhoc is investigating a dispute between Swift Rubber and 120 families in Ratanakkiri’s O’Chum district, who claim they are being evicted without compensation from the firm’s 3,000-hectare concession.

A Swift Rubber representative – who could not be reached yesterday – said in May that the families are living illegally on company property.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Land battle leads locals to protest

Mon, 7 July 2014

Khouth Sophak Chakrya

About 100 villagers in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district who allege two powerful families are trying to push them off their land protested yesterday after workers fenced off more than 3 hectares of the land they claim in Kouk Rokar commune.

Ry Sorphea, 44, a representative of the villagers, said that 10 years ago, the 400 affected families bought the 450 plots of land from local businessman Kheng Song for between $1,000 and $1,600 each. “Song and the . . . authorities claimed that their land was not disputed or state land,” she said.

But another businessman, Keo Bengvoath, has now claimed the land as legally his.

The villagers want to be paid the current value of the land, which they estimate has risen to between $8,000 and $10,000.

Euong Seakkheng, Song’s wife, said the Bengvoath clan had not worked in cahoots with her husband, as the villagers allege.

Bengvoath’s lawyer, who requested anonymity, said that the land had been owned by his client “since 1993”.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Illegal logging reports sought

Mon, 7 July 2014

May Titthara

Interior Minister Sar Kheng has issued a letter calling on all municipal and provincial administrations to file reports to his office on the state of their efforts to combat the illegal exploitation of natural resources, including forests and fisheries.

The letter, dated July 4 and obtained by the Post yesterday, requires the officials to file the reports, which must also cover legitimate resource exploitation, by July 20.

“Please evaluate the activity of logging and fishery crimes across provinces and areas where it is happening,” the letter says. “Provinces with border checkpoints and [transportation] corridors are requested to report the transporting of logs, both legally and illegally, as well as the measures the authorities are taking [in response].”

In a story just last week in the Post, numerous sources detailed a large bribery network abetting the movement of illegally logged timber in Ratanakkiri province. The reporter personally witnessed bribes exchanging hands between traders and police.

The Kheng letter follows an April 24 Council of Ministers directive requesting that guidelines on the management, sustainable use and preservation of protected natural resources be drawn up. The reports are expected to lead to a set of recommendations being passed on to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

But Chhim Savuth, director of the NGO the Natural Resource Protection Group, questioned the motives behind the issuance of the letter, suggesting that it might be little more than a public relations exercise.

“If the government really wants to prevent forest crimes, it would not be difficult, because the logs are transported by huge trucks and they cannot be hidden like drugs. But those officers do not dare act, because those who do this kind of business are senior government officers,” he said.

Forestry Administration director Chheng Kimsun and deputy director Ung Samath could not be reached.

A recent report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries pointed to more than 80,000 hectares of land that have been “reforested” from 2008 to 2012.

However, several studies last year showed deforestation on a huge scale, with one paper finding that more than a third of the country’s forests have been lost since 1973.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Company ‘destroyed rice field’

Mon, 7 July 2014

Phak Seangly

Representatives of a Chinese firm embroiled in a land dispute in Preah Vihear province have destroyed a hectare of rice fields to drive a farmer away, villagers alleged yesterday.

According to 45-year-old villager Tem Song, on June 28 six Cambodian and Chinese employees of Roy Feng company sprayed a chemical substance on his rice, which he says destroyed the crop.

“My family has been waiting for the company to clear [another area] for us to plant rice, but because they have not done it, we returned to farm on the old land, but the company destroyed it with a chemical substance,” Song said.

“I am preparing lawsuits . . . and will file them this Wednesday to [rights group] Adhoc, the authorities and the court.”

Adhoc provincial coordinator Lor Chhan denounced the alleged action.

“The destruction of the villager’s rice like that is a serious violation of human rights and economic rights,” he said.

The company could not be reached for comment.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national