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Hun Sen's volunteers: why are dressed in military fatigue? Hun Sen's private army disguised as volunteers?
Monday, 02 July 2012
By Vong Sokheng
Phnom Penh Post
Prime
Minister Hun Sen said yesterday 700 volunteers from the Cambodian
People’s Party had fanned out across eight provinces to measure
properties and provide titles to villagers who have been displaced by
land disputes. [New recruits for Hun Sen's private army to be commanded by his son, Hun Manith].
Speaking to about 10,000 villagers in the Kroch
Chhmar district of Kampong Cham province, the premier said that 700 out
of a total 1,100 volunteer youth were already deployed at Kampong Cham,
Kratie, Rattanakkiri, Mondulkiri, Kampot, Banteay Meanchey and
Battambang provinces in cooperation with local authorities.
“[Their]
obligation this time is to resolve problems [villagers have been having
while living] on the state land, including forestry concession,
economic land concession and the state land where the villages were
illegally occupied,” said Hun Sen. “I will hand over land certificates
for the villagers after the process is done in order to ensure that
villagers have legal rights to own the land.”
He also appealed to
villagers to cooperate with each other in the demarcation process in
order to facilitate a smoother back and forth with local authorities who
will ultimately provide the legal documents.
Im Chhun Lim, the
Minister of Land Management told the volunteers at the end of last week
that an estimated 350,000 families were living on about 1.2 million
hectares of state land.
“The government has a clear policy, and
it will resolve the problems for villagers so that they will have
appropriate legal documents for the land, and furthermore, it will stop
new encroachment on state land,” Chhun Lim said.
Hun Sen was in
Kampong Cham to mark National Fish Day, which he and senior officials
did by releasing about 500,000 baby fish and 100,000 baby lobsters into a
reservoir in Kroch Chhmar district.
On March 8 of this year,
the premier announced the closure of 35 commercial fishing lots around
the Tonle Sap Lake, citing illegal over-fishing.
“This is the final fishery reform and the number of fish has been increasing after the closure of fish lots,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vong Sokheng at sokheng.vong@phnompenhpost.com
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