Koh Kong Villagers May Triumph in Land Dispute
By Erika Kinetz and Lor Chandara
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
It has all the elements of the classic David and Goliath land disputes that rights workers say plague Cambodia, save one: This time the villagers might have won.
The dispute centers on three villages in Koh Kong province's Sre Ambel district, where rights workers say two companies controlled by CPP tycoon senator Ly Yung Phat have destroyed crops as they clear the way for a 20,000-hectare sugarcane plantation and processing factory.
On Sunday, at a meeting in Chi Kor village, which was brokered by rights groups and broadcast by CTN, villagers, local officials and a representative for Ly Yung Phat all signed an agreement that guaranteed the villagers the right to stay on their land, provided they can prove it’s theirs.
Under the agreement, the companies will continue to plant sugarcane around the villages, but only on the portions of their concessions owned by the state, local officials and human rights workers said.
Kem Sokha, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, which helped broker the meeting, said it was the first time rights groups had invited company representatives to talk directly with aggrieved community members and local officials in a public forum.
"I think it’s a good way," Kem Sokha said of the process.
About 300 villagers attended Sunday's meeting.
Koh Kong's deputy governor Bin Sam Ol, Suor Sitha, the deputy governor of Sre Ambel, Sin Kheam, the chief of Chi Kor commune, and Heng San, a representative of Ly Yung Phat, signed the agreement, according to a copy of the documents. Three village representatives and officials from CCHR, Licadho and the Community Legal Education Center also signed the agreement.
Ly Yung Phat said he sent a representative to the meeting Sunday but watched the actual proceedings on television.
"As you see we solved problems," he said. "We want to help develop the area and create employment and income generation for local people."
Despite the positive press, rights groups say a major loophole remains: Few of the villagers have land titles to the land they live on.
Kem Sokha said focal officials and the company representatives had agreed that even if they don’t have paper documents, villagers will be able to use witnesses to establish they have lived on the land and are its owners.
But how this will play out in practice is unclear.
"If one has enough documents of all kinds to prove they own the land, they can claim [ownership]," said Bin Sam Ol, the deputy governor of Koh Kong.
"But they cannot point their finger at here and there [and say] that it’s their land."
The dispute centers on three villages in Koh Kong province's Sre Ambel district, where rights workers say two companies controlled by CPP tycoon senator Ly Yung Phat have destroyed crops as they clear the way for a 20,000-hectare sugarcane plantation and processing factory.
On Sunday, at a meeting in Chi Kor village, which was brokered by rights groups and broadcast by CTN, villagers, local officials and a representative for Ly Yung Phat all signed an agreement that guaranteed the villagers the right to stay on their land, provided they can prove it’s theirs.
Under the agreement, the companies will continue to plant sugarcane around the villages, but only on the portions of their concessions owned by the state, local officials and human rights workers said.
Kem Sokha, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, which helped broker the meeting, said it was the first time rights groups had invited company representatives to talk directly with aggrieved community members and local officials in a public forum.
"I think it’s a good way," Kem Sokha said of the process.
About 300 villagers attended Sunday's meeting.
Koh Kong's deputy governor Bin Sam Ol, Suor Sitha, the deputy governor of Sre Ambel, Sin Kheam, the chief of Chi Kor commune, and Heng San, a representative of Ly Yung Phat, signed the agreement, according to a copy of the documents. Three village representatives and officials from CCHR, Licadho and the Community Legal Education Center also signed the agreement.
Ly Yung Phat said he sent a representative to the meeting Sunday but watched the actual proceedings on television.
"As you see we solved problems," he said. "We want to help develop the area and create employment and income generation for local people."
Despite the positive press, rights groups say a major loophole remains: Few of the villagers have land titles to the land they live on.
Kem Sokha said focal officials and the company representatives had agreed that even if they don’t have paper documents, villagers will be able to use witnesses to establish they have lived on the land and are its owners.
But how this will play out in practice is unclear.
"If one has enough documents of all kinds to prove they own the land, they can claim [ownership]," said Bin Sam Ol, the deputy governor of Koh Kong.
"But they cannot point their finger at here and there [and say] that it’s their land."
4 comments:
I must tell everyone that Ly yong Phat'mother hasn't bought any land in this area. How can this animal is allowed to use so much of land and let millions others to be landless. In China, this kind land owner must be beheaded for creating poverty every where in the country. Come on people stand up and Kick this animal to his face and buried him alive. We cannot allow people to have 20000 ha of land like that.
HUn sen will be assassinated by his bodyguard. That bodyguard will be considered as a hero in Cambodia...
It is coming soon...
when,or if it come true, you will be Sihanouk's main astrologer.
Are you ok to be his?
Who is this senator Ly Yung Phat? He is Vietnamese agent who grew up in North Vietnam near the border of China. He speaks Khmer very well. This is Vietnamese encrouchment of the land again. A couple months ago, The vietnamese sugarcane companies want to plant the crops in the provinces near Cambodia for their factory. This is a trick to grab the land. Later on they will claim this lands is belonging to Vietnam.
The questions is why they don't plant sugercane in their vast land in Vietnam?.
The powerful man in Cambodia can take away poor people's properties. Why Khmer don't stand up and rise up against these evils?.
Don't let them do that to you; otherwise, they do it again and again.
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