By Prak Chan Thul
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
Nearly 1,000 villagers from Kompong Thom province have filed a complaint to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights claiming the government has given 1,000 hectares of their farmland to a South Korean papaya oil company, a rights worker said Wednesday. CCHR senior investigator Chheng Sophors said that 987 villagers in Kompong Svay district's Tbeng commune thumbprinted a complaint Dec 4 after discovering signs on their farmland Nov 19. "Villagers demand the land for farming, they don’t want any development," he said. "Villagers wonder why there was no agreement with them." Villager representative Chan Tha, 42, alleged that Provincial Governor Nam Tum took the land out from under the villagers. Nam Tum denied selling the land and claimed that most villagers are happy with the company. "We didn’t take their land, it is forest land," he said, adding that he gave it to the company for free because it would bring jobs and development to the area. He said that if villagers continue to protest, he would move the plantation to another location.
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