Phnong May Remove Wuzhishan Border Posts Posts

Phnong ethnic minority villag­ers in Mondolkiri province threatened to begin removing posts de­marcating the boundary between their land and that controlled by Chi­­nese plantation company Wu­zhi­shan LS Group on Sunday.

The threat marks the latest con­­frontation between the minority villagers and the Chinese company, which they allege has en­croached upon their ancestral lands.

“Villagers have threatened ma­ny times to take away those posts,” said Hor Phlil, a member of O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom commune council.

“Provincial officials have never asked the villagers whether we ac­cept their division [of land] or not,” he said.

Following protests by Phnong villagers in O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom and Dak Dam communes in July, the government established national and provincial committees to resolve the land conflict.

Villagers asked that 3 km to 10 km of land be reserved for local use around their villages, but when provincial officials began erecting land demarcation posts last month, villagers said they were placed much closer.

Em Veasna, an investigator with Human Rights Vigilance of Cambodia, alleged that provincial authorities have also demarcated land for the villagers that has been planted with Wuzhishan pine trees with the intention that the villagers care for the trees.

“[That] is why villagers are very angry,” Em Veasna said.

Mondolkiri Governor Thou Son defended the demarcations and decision to give villagers land already planted with Wuzhishan trees.

“The company will provide them with work and other benefits,” Thou Son said, before accusing the villagers of planning to sell their land anyway.

“They need the land to sell so they can earn money as fast as pos­sible…. That is why they try their best to demand large plots of land,” he maintained.

But one local Phnong villager who gave his name as Phoeung said the governor’s accusations were misdirected.

“The powerful people…try to sell the land and grab it from others to earn money for their own pockets,” he said. “The less [land] we get, the less we can harvest.”