Tensions erupted this week as Banteay Meanchey villagers in a land dispute with the tank unit of RCAF’s Battalion 65 protested a move by land management officials to measure off plots on the disputed land, officials and a villager representative said.
The land management officials ventured to the disputed 97 hectares in Preah Netr Preah district’s Preah Netr Preah commune Monday to mark off plots for the families of the soldiers who are expected to move into the area, said villager representative Nhean Kim Lor.
The dispute began in December after soldiers from the tank unit set up tents on the land, which villagers have farmed since 1994, and claimed it for the army. Local officials have said that after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime the land did serve as a military base, but that troops vacated the land back in 1993.
“Those land management officials and soldiers were attempting to divide the land into small pieces,” Nhean Kim Lor said. “Then they would offer [a plot] to each soldier’s family to live on.”
The presence of the officials prompted a protest by villagers, which resulted in the land management surveyors cutting their visit short, she said.
Deputy Provincial Governor Im Phoansophal confirmed the presence of land management officials at the disputed site, but said those officials had no legal right to be there.
“I never ordered those officials to [take measurements], because it is illegal,” he said by telephone Wednesday, adding that he believes the villagers to be in the right regarding this dispute.
He said that he has ordered the district authority to come up with an alternate piece of land for the proposed tank base, because the land currently under dispute is essential to the livelihood of the villagers.
Contacted by telephone Wednesday, the head of RCAF Armored Command, Lanh Kao, said that the disputed land is 100 percent state property and will be used as a military base for his tankers.
“Villagers have no documents to prove their ownership because the land has been the state’s estate since many long years ago,” he said.
But Im Phoansophal disputed that interpretation of events, saying that he has found no documentation showing that the land in questions belongs to the military.
“Banteay Meanchey province was formerly a hot area during the civil war,” he said. “If the military could claim legal ownership of [this] disputed land, then it would seem that everywhere in this province belongs to the military because RCAF bases used to be located everywhere in my province.”
