Two armed Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers have been stationed on disputed land in Kompong Chhnang province that is at the center of an ongoing court battle between villagers and the wife of Cambodia’s Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, according to villagers and local police.
The soldiers were originally stationed at a shelter built about 500 meters from the disputed land, in Kompong Tralach district’s Ta Ches commune. But on March 30, workers for the KDC International company, which is owned by Chea Kheng, Industry Minister Suy Sem’s wife, built a new shelter inside the contested area and the armed soldiers have been stationed there since, according to Reach Seima, a representative of Lor Peang village.
“I think the company built a new shelter on my mother’s land to provoke violence,” said Mr. Seima.
Chuop Chanthoeun, Ta Ches commune police chief, confirmed that the soldiers were now stationed inside the contested area, but said it was permissible, as KDC had legal titles to prove it owned the land.
“That newly-constructed shelter where the two district RCAF soldiers are stationed is built on land belonging to the company [KDC],” he said.
Mr. Chanthoeun, however, did not explain why combat soldiers were deployed to land belonging to a private company.
Land rights groups and representatives of the village have said that KDC bought part of a 512-hectare plot, but that the 69 families involved in the dispute retained ownership of 145 hectares of the land. KDC claims to have bought the entire plot of land and has produced documents in court to support its claim.
Though a court battle over the 145 hectares has been ongoing since 2007, employees of KDC have continued to work the land with the support of local government officials.
In November 2007, Lor Peang village representative Sar Song and villager Oun Som were arrested and imprisoned after an altercation in which they stopped workers hired by KDC from plowing contested farmland in March of that year.
Ms. Som was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was released in May 2009 after serving her full sentence. Mr. Song was sentenced to 10 years in jail, later reduced to six, and is scheduled to be released in November.
Sam Chankea, provincial coordinator to local rights group Adhoc, said KDC’s recent stationing of soldiers on the land was a provocative act, which would intimidate locals fighting to keep their land.
