Volunteers Move In to Measure Kratie Site

Two months after government security forces evicted hundreds of families from Kratie’s Broma village at gunpoint, residents who were permitted to remain there took their first steps toward legal land tenure. Scores of volunteers last week began to collect data of families in Chhlong and Snuol districts, measuring the land of those living in state forests, former timber concessions, and disputed land, Kratie provincial governor Sar Chamrong said. More than 60 of the student volunteers are currently posted in Broma village, in Kompong Damrei commune—a controversial location where the government staged a mass eviction in May, using heavily armed military forces to evict more than 600 families from a so-called secessionist area, and killing 14-year-old Heng Chantha in the process. …