70 Families Face Eviction in Kompong Speu

At least 70 families are facing eviction from land along National Road 4 in Kompong Speu prov­ince—land which reportedly be­longs to the Sokimex company, officials and human rights workers said this week.

Seventy-three families have lived on more than 7,000 square meters of land that they found un­­occupied, though protected by a concrete barrier, since 1997, said Chan So­veth, an official with the Cambo­dian Human Rights Action Com­mittee. Seeing no buildings on the land, the families broke through the barrier and settled there, Chan Soveth said.

They will now be evicted, said Phauk Sam En, Kompong Speu’s second deputy governor. The families were ordered to leave after the courts sided with Soki­mex’s claim that it was the rightful owner to the land.

The land will be part of a road ex­pansion project, Phauk Sam En said.

But the families have not been fairly compensated for a move away from the land, Chan Soveth said. “The villagers should have been compensated, so that they could make a living,” he said.

Provincial authorities were set to remove the villag­ers on Mon­day, but that plan has been postponed, Chan Soveth said.

The families were ordered to leave the land as far back as 2000, when the courts ruled in favor of Sokimex, which was able to show a proper land title, said Pol Vorn, director of the Kompong Speu provincial court.

The families had demanded they be relocated to land near where they had been living, but the request was impossible to fulfill, Phauk Sam En said.

As many as 200,000 Cambodi­ans face land disputes with powerful officials and companies, as Cambodia’s land laws still struggle to provide solutions.

 

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