Phnom Penh Post
Mong Reththy, a
former adviser to Prime Minister Hun Sen, speaks to reporters during a
tour of several of his company’s agro-industrial projects in Preah
Sihanouk province in 2011. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
More than 8,000 hectares of land was cut from economic and forest
land concessions owned by some of the country’s biggest tycoons and
awarded to villagers last month, according to documents from the Council
of Ministers.
Four sub-decrees signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen order that land
from four high-profile disputed areas be divided among nearly 3,500
families in four provinces.
The land is from controversial concessions in Pursat, Stung Treng,
Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk provinces — each of which has been involved
in long-standing land disputes.
Nearly 2,000 families in Stung Treng’s Thala Barivat district were
awarded 3,553 hectares from concessions granted to Pheapimex Fuchang.
The company, owned by Choeng Sopheap, the wife of ruling-party
senator Lao Meng Khin, has repeatedly found itself at the centre of land
disputes
involving hundreds of thousands of hectares across several provinces.
In Siem Reap’s Chi Kraeng district, 196 families have been given
1,090 hectares from a concession owned by Kain Co Ltd. In May, 2012,
families wrote directly to the premier, seeking intervention in their
dispute with the rubber company.
In Pursat’s Veal Veng district, 311 hectares of land inside the Phnom
Samkus wildlife sanctuary, along with 2,977 hectares owned by MDS
Import Export, was awarded to 835 families. The latter is carved from a
4,373 hectare economic land concession owned by MDS Import Export Co,
Ltd, which has been locked in a long-standing land dispute with hundreds
of families, who maintain the company has illegally grabbed their land.
And 305 families living in Preah Sihanouk were given 411 hectares in
Prey Nop district that formerly belonged to businessman Mong Reththy.
The re-assignment follows months of land demarcation undertaken by
cadastral officials working for provincial land management committees on
behalf of Hun Sen’s large-scale land-titling initiative.
In May, amid mounting pressure, the premier issued a moratorium on
economic land concessions and called for a reexamination of existing
concessions.
A month later, he ordered provincial authorities across the country
to demarcate land as part of a titling scheme intended to impact
millions. (Though wide-reaching, the former initiative has come under
fire, with observers noting that a loophole in the moratorium has given
the go-ahead to an unknown number of ELCs already in the pipeline at the
time of the ban.)
Mong Reththy, chairman of the eponymous Mong Reththy Group, said he
supported the sub-decree, and noted that the land awarded was just a
fraction of his concession, which totals more than 11,000 hectares.
“The land cutting has a small impact on my company, but it doesn’t
matter, because it benefits the residents who farm their lands, and I
will continue to invest my land,” he said.
Lim Leang Se, deputy chief of Hun Sen’s cabinet, declined to comment
on the sub-decrees signed by the premier, and referred questions to the
Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Ministry
spokesman Beng Hong Socheat Khemro could not be contacted yesterday.
Further details on the ELCs could not be obtained from the listing
hosted on the Ministry of Agriculture’s website, as the page had been
breeched by a pro-Taliban hacker.
Senior investigator for rights group Adhoc, Chan Soveth, said the
carving of these concessions was a step in the right direction, but
urged that more focus be paid to areas in dispute, noting that much of
the land demarcation thus far has addressed only non-disputed territory.
“The action of the government can reduce land disputes, but [in order
to do so], the government should focus on land disputes,” said Soveth.
To contact the reporter on this story: May Titthara at
titthara.may@phnompenhpost.com
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