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| Villagers protest against land concessions the government has granted in Prey Lang forest during a demonstration at the Freedom Park in Phnom Penh last week. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan) |
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post
Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmakers sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday requesting that he cancel all economic land concessions in Prey Lang forest following public outcry over the issue.
The letter, signed by nine parliamentarians, singles out a 6,044-hectare concession to Vietnamese-owned CRCK Rubber Development Co Ltd, but also calls on the premier to cancel the other concessions in the forest. The lawmakers also suggested that the government support listing Prey Lang as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Hun Sen approved a 70-year lease for CRCK in September 2009. In May last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries signed a contract with the company, and CRCK began clearing forest in order to make way for a rubber plantation early this year, according to reports from local residents.
In the letter, the SRP lawmakers cited signatures from 29,208 people from four provinces who requested their intervention in the matter.
“Those violations have resulted in losses to a very worthy natural resource to the area, including natural forest, fruit-productive forest, wild animals and all kinds of biodiversity,” the MPs wrote, adding that the economic and cultural interests of locals, especially members of the Kuy ethnic minority, have also been adversely affected.
The forest, which stretches for roughly 3,600-square kilometres between the Mekong and Stung Treng rivers across parts of four provinces – Kampong Thom, Kratie, Preah Vihear and Stung Treng– lacks state protection despite its rich biodiversity and value to local people.
The Prey Lang network, a local activist group, says more than 40,000 hectares in the forest have been granted for rubber plantations alone, while 27 exploration licences and related concessions have been handed to mining firms.
Chhun Chhorn, Kampong Thom provincial governor, defended the actions of CRCK yesterday, claiming that the concessions in Prey Lang would bring development to the area and suggesting that the SRP lawmakers were playing politics with the issue.
“It is their right, awarded by the government, to clear that land to plant rubber. They are not acting illegally,” he said.
Chhun Chorn said people have used the forest for hundreds of years but are still poor and will find a better living by working for rubber plantations and factories.
Mem Sotharavin, an SRP lawmaker from Kampong Thom province, said CRCK’s practice of importing labour from Vietnam undermined any development it may bring to the area.
“I support development, but it should avoid [negatively] affecting people,” he said. “People have not had jobs [from the concession] at all. If people have jobs as [Chhun Chhorn] said, it is no problem.”
8 comments:
That show u how stupid Hun Sen and it government IS! Dont know how to make money for themself! they just wanted kickback money instead of doing honest business in Cambodia. Do you see Land concession in Vietnam or in China for other country. Vietnam dont give even the Chinese land concession. The 2 communist country know Khmers goverment is weak and stupid. they why hey want to rent ours land.
we must build more highways in order to connect to all our khmer provinces to phnom penh, the capital city of cambodia, really! isolation no longer can be tolerated in cambodia, ok!
Hun Sen approved a 70 yearlease for
CRCK in September 2009.
Vietnam govt company is destroying
seven Khmer forests,not just Prey Lang.Who are working in the rubber
fields? Vietcong(Vietnamese
soldiers are working there.
Roung Damrei (part North of Khmer
Krom)Vietnam king had done the same
thing by using Vietnamese soldiers
to clear forests,Khmer lost the
whole Khmer Krom to Vietnam in 1949.
Now Vietnam govt has been using
the same trick to swallow Khmer
land.
Thank for Khmer Kuoy and SRP.
EVIDENCE OF POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS AND KILLINGS OF FUNCINPEC LOYALISTS.
LIST OF INSTANCES OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS during 1997 coup by PM Hun Sen. These people with their name list below were murdered by PM Hun Sen.
• Ho Sok, 45, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and second ranking FUNCINPEC official in the Ministry of Interior.
• 2-3. Gen Chao Sambath, alias Ngov, Deputy-Chief of the Intelligence and Espionage Department, RCAF Supreme Command since 1993
• 4 and 5. Maj. Gen. Ly Seng Hong, Deputy-Chief of Staff, RCAF General Staff (second highest-ranking FUNCINPEC official in the RCAF General
• 6. Colonel Sok Vireak, Chief, Transmission Bureau, Army General Staff. A former KPNLF General Staff officer in charge of military training who joined Nhek Bun Chhay after the Paris Agreements. Status
• 7. Colonel Thlang Chang Sovannarith, Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Fifth Military Region, RCAF General Staff
• 8. Colonel Hov Sambath, Deputy-chief of Military Training Bureau, RCAF General Staff
• 9. Lietenant Colonel Sao Sophal, 42, an officer of the First Bureau of the RCAF General Staff.
• 10. Navy First Lt. Thach Soeung, aged about 30, an ethnic Khmer from southern Vietnam, stationed at Dang Kaum Navy base on the eastern bank of the Tonle Sap.
• 11 to 14. Seng Phally, Lt. Col. Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Vickika - security officers working under Gen. Chao Sambath.
• Seng Phally, alias Huot Phally, aged 25, single, a gendarme who worked as chief of the security team at the Pipoplok 2 Hotel/Casino
• Lt. Col. Chao Keang, aged about 25. He was an officer in the Research and Intelligence Bureau of Chao Sambath
• Chao Tea, 29, brother of Chao Keang, a security guard at the Regal Hotel/Casino. His body bore a bullet hole in the left side of the chest and in the right side of the stomach. He was also handcuffed and blindfolded
• Thong Vicchika, aged about 27-28, a body-guard of Chao Sambath and a security staff at the Regal Hotel/Casino.
• Dr. Seng Kim Ly, a military medical doctor
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Four unnamed body-guards of Nhek Bun Chhay were summarily executed after his office-cum-house in Somnang
• Major Lak Ki, Head of Operations, Research and Intelligence, RCAF High Command
• Pheap, a body-guard of Major Lak Ki, in his late twenties
• Dok Rany, 27, an officer and body-guard of Gen. Chao Sambath who worked at the Research and Intelligence Bureau
• Ros Huon, aged 23, Sopheap, aged 25, two alleged members of the Gendarmerie
• Dok Sokhun, alias Michael Senior, a Khmer-Canadian journalist who taught English at ACE Language School in Phnom Penh
• Major Aek Eng (CPP), Head of Administration of Phnom Penh Thmei police station
• At least four, and possibly up to 22 persons described as FUNCINPEC soldiers executed and cremated in Pich Nil on 9, 10 and 11 July 1997 by Military Region 3 soldiers. Status: Confirmed executions in at least 4 cases
• 34 to 36 (and possibly 45). On 17 July, at about noon time, the body of a soldier was witnessed floating near the bank of the Tone Bassac near the Watt Chum Leap, in the village of the same name, Rokakpong commune, Saang district, Kandal province. The body was headless and both hands were tied up behind the back with a kramma. It was dressed in dark olive military uniform
• 37 and 38. Two unidentified men, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind the back. Status: Confirmed executions
• Pheap, aged 33, a bodyguard of the First Prime Minister. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Sok Vanthorn, 21 and Sou Sal, two villagers from Ampeov village, Kompong Speu province. Status: Confirmed execution.
• Brig. Gen. Chea Rittichutt, a founding member of the Moulinaka movement and the Governor of Kep-Bokor
• Navy officer Meas Sarou, Deputy-director, First Bureau, Navy, based in Chrouy Changvar, and one of his body-guards, and a third person, a woman named Luch.
• Ung Sim, Second Deputy Governor, Kompong Speu province - missing since his arrest, reportedly near Pich Nil by CPP soldiers on 7 or 8 July 1997.
• Col. Sam Sarath, Deputy Chief-of-Staff, Third Military Region
• Put Som Ang, male, aged 42, a KNP activisit in Siem Reap province, and Sam Sophan, 38, an activist in Takeo province
• Major So Lay Sak and Major Chin Vannak, officers working in the Logisitics department of the RCAF General Staff
• Som Taing, Deputy Chief, Inspection Office, Provincial Governor's Office, Kompong Speu
• Chum Sarith, Chief, Criminal Bureau, Provincial Police, Sihanoukville
Forty-six bodies were brought in and dumped at the crematorium of a Phnom Penh pagoda between 5 and 9 July
In the case of Ho Sok (executed on 7 July, brought to Watt Lanka on 8 July); of Seng Phally, Chao Keang, Chao Tea and Thong Viccheka (executed on 5-6 July and brought by the police to Wat Unalom on the morning of 7 July - see cases number 13-16 above) and in the case of a fifth corpse which was brought to the same pagoda on the same morning, but which could not be identified, the police ordered that cremation of the bodies be conducted without question and without proper cremation permit.
Between 9 and 11 July, according to a variety of reliable corroborating accounts, the bodies of 4 and probably up to 22 soldiers were alleged to have been executed in Pich Nil and burned
Plus many and many more names with lose count that order and executed by Hun Sen and CPP.
Mr Sam Rainsy, you must find justice for the death above and all Cambodian people blood that have been murdred by PhD Dr. Hun Sen from 1970 to today.
Please Mr Sam Rainsy find justice for the death from international court such as American Court, All European Court, Australian Court, Japan Court...Don't let criminal like PhD Dr. Hun SEn get away with his crime agianst humanity.
But sir! PhD Dr. Hun Sen murdered a lot of Cambodian citizenship. They are asking for their Justice now.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen is a criminal against Humanity that is a very very great crime in these world communities.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen gives most Cambodia territories to Vietnam such as the treaties 1979 to 1986.
He is not following the peace agreement Paris.
He has been murdered a lot of Cambodian people such K5. 1997 coup,...plus son and so on with heap of Cambodian people blood on his and his families hands. They are criminal against humanity.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't kill Cambodian people like PhD Dr. Hun Sen does every day.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't give Cambodia lands, sea, and islands to Vietnam as PhD Dr. Hun Sen does.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't billionaires like PhD Dr. Hun Sen. where does they get the money from if we all just rise up from war with empty hands 1979 as PhD. Dr. Hun Sen speech.
Mr Sam Rainsy doesn't make Cambodian people suffer today but PhD Dr. Hun Sen does.
PhD Dr. Hun Sen committed heap of crime so far.
It is time Mr. Sam Rainsy must bring justice to the Cambodian people.
Hi dear,
The concession of Prey Lang by a slaver of YuonHanoi, Hun Sen. An underworld has been leading the country to be destroyed and murdered to be slaver of Younhanoi.
The family of Dog leading the country to smash nation to be crony... without thinking the destiny of his nationals.
Chao mok
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