Despair in Pursat as students begin to exit [-Another one of Hun Xen's flip-flopping policies]

Youth volunteers depart Phnom Penh last month to take part in a government-initiated land measurement program. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Friday, 03 August 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

Nineteen families from Pursat province’s Prangil commune, plagued by a long-running land dispute with developer Pheapimex, are in despair now that student volunteer surveyors cannot help them reclaim land they say is rightfully theirs.

Villager Tes Chhieng Ly said that the residents would be forced to take protests to higher levels, after their plans to plead for help from student volunteers measuring their land were thwarted by Wednesday’s policy backflip by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

“Now, we don’t know what to do because volunteering youths are told that they have no obligation … we seem hopeless,” Chhieng Ly said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday revealed he had revised his land titling program – announced in June – which aimed to alleviate land disputes by employing over 2,000 university students, at $7 a day, to demarcate villagers’ land in state forests, former timber concessions and economic land concessions.

The amendment means students will no longer measure disputed land and has prolonged the original six-month timeframe of the project.

UN action needed for border row, groups say

Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Written by Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

CIVIL society groups on Monday criticised the government for not appealing to the United Nations for help in its ongoing standoff with Thailand over disputed territory along the border.

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union (FTU), said that if the government had complained to the UN earlier and stuck to their complaint, there would not have been any Cambodians killed over the issue.

At least thee Cambodian soldiers are dead after clashes last week with Thai troops on the border near Preah Vihear temple.

"Despite the fact that both sides sustained injuries of a similar magnitude, we are still filled with regret for the loss of our soldiers," he said.

"If the government had used the UN to solve this problem, there would be no dead soldiers," Chea Mony added.

An unknown number of Thai casualties were also inflicted.

Yong Kim Eng, president of the People's Center for Development and Peace, said Monday the government's efforts to resolve the dispute were muddled.

"At one moment, they say they want to complain to the UN. At the next, they don't," he said.

Early on in the three-month standoff, Cambodia threatened to file a formal complaint with the UN Security Council, but quickly backed down.

Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan said Monday that the UN and several "big countries" had encouraged Cambodia to choose negotiations.

"We have already written to the UN and sent information to Asean and Unesco. If these measures don't work, we will find another way," he said.