More than a dozen villagers met with UN human rights representative Peter Leuprecht Sunday, raising complaints of the devastation that has emerged from the government’s policy of awarding land concessions.
After the meeting, villagers said they hoped Leuprecht would bring their complaints to Prime Minister Hun Sen, who three weeks earlier, had vowed in a speech to reform land concessions that have hurt the poor.
A woman from Kompong Thom province’s Tumring commune asked that the Chup Rubber Plantation Company give her the three hectares it promised before bulldozing her fields in 2001.
“I would like to appeal to Samdech [Hun Sen] to take action for the families who did not get three hectares,” Tok An said.
Villagers from Pursat and Kompong Chhnang provinces said they hoped the government would reconsider the boundaries of a 315,028-hectare concession awarded to the Pheapimex company in 2000, as it includes offices, pagodas and communal forests.
“Officials won’t recognize our right to the forest because they claim all the land belongs to Pheapimex company,” said Kuch Veng, a member of a Pursat community forestry group.
A man from Mondolkiri province asked that the government stop the Wuzhishan company, recently awarded 10,000 hectares in O’Reang district, from spreading herbicide on local hillsides.
“Ten buffalo have already died because they ate the [herbicide-treated] grass,” said Hor Phlil of O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom commune.
Leuprecht will discuss the issues with Hun Sen and ministry officials this week, said Saku Akmeemana, spokeswoman for the Cambodia office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Agriculture Minister Chan Sarun and Secretary of State Chan Tong Yves said Monday they could not comment on the complaints until after meeting with Leuprecht.
Om Yentieng, head of the government’s human rights committee, defended the government’s ability to resolve land disputes. “Any case raised by NGOs or Peter Leuprecht, they never solve, only the government solves the cases.” Om Yentieng said.
