Seventy-five ethnic Cham families in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district have had 40 hectares of land returned to them following the intervention of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany in a long-running land dispute, officials said Wednesday.
Deputy Provincial Governor Bin Sam Ol said the families will be allowed to live on 40 of the 170 hectares of disputed land despite the Supreme Court having already ruled that the entire plot rightfully belonged to someone else.
Bin Sam Ol said villagers ignored the court’s order for them to leave the land and traveled to Phnom Penh to protest the decision outside Hun Sen’s home on Tuesday after six houses were dismantled a few days ago.
As a result of the protest, Bun Rany sent celebrity CTN television news anchor Soy Sopheap back with the villagers Tuesday to mediate a compromise between the villagers and the land owner Huy Heng, Bin Sam Ol said.
“[Soy Sopheap] came at the instruction of Chum Teav Bun Rany,” he said.
“This is a first step success. We could prevent the bulldozing of their houses and crops,” he added.
Soy Sopheap declined to comment Wednesday, saying that he didn’t want the event to be mischaracterized. “The problem is solved,” he said.
Bin Sam Ol said that in 10 days the provincial authorities would measure the plots each family would receive and demarcate all the land given to the villagers by Huy Heng.
Villager Sing Chuon said by telephone that he was happy with the solution despite not knowing whether he would keep all of his property. He added that he had lived on the land for seven years.
Provincial Governor Yuth Phouthang said villagers who have ownership documents would get their land back and others would receive enough land to farm for a living.
Contact information for Huy Heng could not be located Wednesday.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay said that Bun Rany’s intervention was symbolic of the inability of the country’s official institutions to serve the people.
“[Villagers] come to Phnom Penh and ask only two people to help them: the prime minister and his wife,” Son Chhay said.
“They know power is concentrated in this couple,” he said.
(Additional reporting by John Maloy)
