Doubt lingers despite Kratie dispute accord
About 160 villagers from Kratie province’s Meanchey village cancelled plans to block National Road 7 yesterday after provincial authorities and a Vietnamese rubber company agreed to their requests regarding an ongoing land dispute, but some expressed skepticism that the agreement would last. Village representative Saren Ket told the Post that rubber firm CIV Develop Agro Industry and provincial governor Kham Phoeun had agreed yesterday to return farmland to villagers that was taken from them nearly four years ago. The rights to 300 hectares of land around the village have been in dispute since 2008, when the Vietnamese company began claiming legal ownership of more than 1,000 hectares of land in the area. Saren Ket said the villagers were dubious that the company would carry through with its promise to return the land. “I don’t trust their promise 100 per cent,” he said. …
