By Sav Yuth
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
A group of about 200 villagers from Lvea village, Sre Noy commune, Varin district, Siem Reap province, armed with knives and axes, have surrounded several pieces of machinery on Tuesday afternoon to oppose the land clearing planned by the Banya Group Co. Ltd. in order to build a satellite tourist city on several thousand hectares of land in the region.
The villagers said that they have gathered based on a company summon because it sent out invitations to district, commune and village officials to a meeting to negotiate on a land dispute case involving the Banya Co. However, when the villagers arrived, there were no officials who came to the meeting, but they were met by the land clearing machinery instead, so they have decided to stop these machineries from clearing the villagers’ rice fields: “They cleared the area in front of my rice field, this is opposite to the promise they made during the negotiation. Therefore, the villagers want the land clearing bulldozers to pull out, but they confronted us.”
The villagers claimed that when they were surrounding the machinery, a large contingent of police officers and soldiers was sent in to the location. Nevertheless, representatives of the Banya Group Co. Ltd. could not be reached to provide clarifications on this issue.
Chhim Chhun, the Varin deputy-district governor who came to the look at the dispute, said that the reason the villagers were protesting against the Banya Co. is because some of their rice fields are included in the area to be cleared, but that the company did not pay them a proper compensation yet: “The company did not resolve the issue yet, so the villagers stopped the land clearing machinery, but the land clearing did not start yet. I don’t know their goal, I only represent the authority helping to facilitate the situation for the people only.”
Suos Narin, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights organization in Siem Reap, said that the constant protest by the villagers stems from the fact that the commune authority did not resolve the issue of money distribution to the villagers from the compensation amount paid by the company. However, the villagers said that they cannot accept the offer of $200 compensation for each hectare of their land. “The protest did not stop because the villagers demand much more for each hectare of their land than the $200 the company is willing to compensate for. They want $7-8,000 per hectare,” Suos Narin said.
In the afternoon of 12 Feb, Sou Phirin, the [CPP] Siem Reap provincial governor, said that he will invite district officials and commune councilors to meet at the provincial administration office in order to find a mean to resolve this issue, and to find out who the land actually belongs to, whether it belongs to villagers or not: “The district governor … must find the truth as to whether the land belongs the state or to the villagers.”
At the end of December 2008, a group of villagers from 6 villages located in Sre Noy commune have demonstrated against the Banya Group for four consecutive days once already when the government provided 7,000 hectare of concession land to this company to develop a satellite tourist city, and to preserve the natural forest in that region.
The villagers said that they have gathered based on a company summon because it sent out invitations to district, commune and village officials to a meeting to negotiate on a land dispute case involving the Banya Co. However, when the villagers arrived, there were no officials who came to the meeting, but they were met by the land clearing machinery instead, so they have decided to stop these machineries from clearing the villagers’ rice fields: “They cleared the area in front of my rice field, this is opposite to the promise they made during the negotiation. Therefore, the villagers want the land clearing bulldozers to pull out, but they confronted us.”
The villagers claimed that when they were surrounding the machinery, a large contingent of police officers and soldiers was sent in to the location. Nevertheless, representatives of the Banya Group Co. Ltd. could not be reached to provide clarifications on this issue.
Chhim Chhun, the Varin deputy-district governor who came to the look at the dispute, said that the reason the villagers were protesting against the Banya Co. is because some of their rice fields are included in the area to be cleared, but that the company did not pay them a proper compensation yet: “The company did not resolve the issue yet, so the villagers stopped the land clearing machinery, but the land clearing did not start yet. I don’t know their goal, I only represent the authority helping to facilitate the situation for the people only.”
Suos Narin, an investigator for the Adhoc human rights organization in Siem Reap, said that the constant protest by the villagers stems from the fact that the commune authority did not resolve the issue of money distribution to the villagers from the compensation amount paid by the company. However, the villagers said that they cannot accept the offer of $200 compensation for each hectare of their land. “The protest did not stop because the villagers demand much more for each hectare of their land than the $200 the company is willing to compensate for. They want $7-8,000 per hectare,” Suos Narin said.
In the afternoon of 12 Feb, Sou Phirin, the [CPP] Siem Reap provincial governor, said that he will invite district officials and commune councilors to meet at the provincial administration office in order to find a mean to resolve this issue, and to find out who the land actually belongs to, whether it belongs to villagers or not: “The district governor … must find the truth as to whether the land belongs the state or to the villagers.”
At the end of December 2008, a group of villagers from 6 villages located in Sre Noy commune have demonstrated against the Banya Group for four consecutive days once already when the government provided 7,000 hectare of concession land to this company to develop a satellite tourist city, and to preserve the natural forest in that region.
