Mong Reththy Group Defend Gov’t Land Concession

The Mong Reththy Group on Thursday defended a government-granted land concession in Stung Treng province that was named by rights workers as a possible example of land grabbing that will be reported to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Cambodian Human Rights Ac­­tion Committee, NGO Forum, the Community Legal Education Cen­ter and Legal Aid of Cambodia presented five alleged land grabbing cases at a press conference on Wednesday. The groups said they plan to present their information to Hun Sen to assist in his recently proclaimed “war” on land grabbers.

Among the five are two economic land concession granted

by the Ministry of Agriculture: 100,852 hectares in Stung Treng province given to tycoon Mong Reththy’s Green Sea Industry Co, Ltd, and 10,000 hectares in Mondolkiri pro­vince allocated to the Chinese firm Wuzhishan.

Licadho President Kek Galabru said that the Mong Reththy concession is far in excess of the 10,000 hectare limit placed on economic land concessions by the Land Law, and that Wuzhishan has been responsible for taking a great deal of territory away from indigenous peoples.

Tann Monivann, vice president at the Mong Reththy Group, said that the concession was perfectly legal because the agreement was signed in 2000, before the Land Law came into effect.

However, the Agriculture Ministry’s Web site states that the Green Sea concession contract was signed on Nov 23, 2001—nearly three months after the passage of the Land Law.

Tann Monivann said that the government had already cut the size of the concession in half—and if the government wanted to take the entire concession back, his company would comply, but would expect compensation.

Minister of Agriculture Chan Sarun welcomed the NGOs’ decision to work with the prime minister on land grabbing, but declined to comment on any specific land concessions.

He did say that his ministry was going to ask all companies to return any lands in excess of 10,000 hectares to the state by March 2008. “If any company did not do anything on the land—like planting—the government will take back the land,” he added.

The three remaining cases in­volve unspecified military officials allegedly grabbing land. In Banteay Meanchey province, 1,320 hectares of land were allegedly taken from the families of demobilized soldiers who were only compensated $17.50 for three hectares of land. In Battambang province’s Bavel district, 20,000 hectares of land supposed to be set aside as a social land concession for the poor was allegedly sold off to speculators by military officials, the NGOs claim.

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