409 Families in Yea Angk Protested against CT Mart Company over Land

Not different from villagers in Prambei Mon commune, 409 families in three villages, Kraviek, Prich Khpos and Peanich, Yea Angk commune, Thpong district, Kampong Speu have faced the same problem. About 1,000 hectares of land have been grabbed by CT Mat Company.

The people stated to live in the area in 1979. Since then they have been farming and depended on non-forest products for a living. Later on, in November 2005 local authorities visited the area and persuaded villagers to sell out their land around Phnom Preah Mountain. At that time, the authorities threatened that whether or not they agreed to sell it, the land would be also seized. Some people felt frightened and had no choice to sell their land. They got 250,000 riels per hectare. However, if they sold out 5 hectares, they received the worth of only 3 hectares; whereas the rest of the money the authorities said they would keep it for the government. What was worse was that 6 families had also sold their land, but they never received a single riel.

The conflict took place in 2006, when CT Mat Company started clearing and bulldozing villagers’ farmland to plant cassava and acacia trees in Phnom Daun Thien, La Dob and Andong Koy sites, where the residents had not sold yet. They filed complaints with communal and district authorities to help, but the solution could not be made.

On August 11, 2009 some villager representatives lodged joint complaints with the national institutions, such as the National Assembly, the National Authority of Land Conflict Resolution and the Cabinet of Prime Minister to intervene the case.

Up to present, still the problem has not been solved.