Boeng Kak Villagers’ Request for Land Title Ignored

About 60-70 people from eight villages around Boeng Kak Lake in Srah Chork commune, Toul Kak and Daun Pend district, Phnom Penh gathered March 22, 2010, around 8:00 AM, in front of Phnom Penh Municipal Hall, holding photos of Prime Minister Hun Sen, his wife Bun Rany Hun Sen, Senate President Chea Sim and slogans written in Khmer scripts to seek help from people in the photos regarding the confrontation of being evicted; and to ask for legal title from the government because they have been living in the area for a long time. In addition they also wanted to clarify the case of intervention from the National Land Conflict Resolution Committee and the Cabinet of Office of Councils of Ministers, which requested Sukaku Inc, Company to halt its sand dredging, waiting until fair and just resolution made in advance.

That day 7 of them were asked in to discuss the matters. They were told by a group of, what the villagers said, inspections that they had not received any letter or document from the cabinet yet. Therefore the authorities asked to return home. However, the group promised they would do more research on that and then submitted to the governor to check and deal with the problem.

As well, there were some 20 staffs of Sukaku Inc. wandering around the group of people. Some of them were wearing security uniforms and some others were wearing civil uniforms. They were also taking pictures of the villagers’ activities; especially as they were interviewing with media.

After having met with the authorities, one of the representatives asserted that Mr. Lao Meng Khim had accused them of inciting other villagers to protest against the company and were opposition activists. She claimed in the condition of anonymity that she was so furious to hear that and answered back that the villagers came here only to seek intervention from the government; and if the authority said like that, who would villagers come up to for assistance when they faced difficulty like this?

It has been seen that related to this case, the above authority was trying to intimidate the village representatives to stop them from protesting. This act violated freedom of expression of local villagers whose rights have been abused.