Debate on land reform takes place in absence of the CPP

Civil society groups held a workshop in Phnom Penh on Thursday in which government officials and lawmakers were invited to discuss post-election land grabs and land-based conflict, although the ruling CPP failed to turn up to the event. Though incidents of land-grabbing appeared to decrease ahead of July’s national election, there were widespread reports of fresh land grabs within a few days of the CPP’s self-declared victory, said Vann Sophath, coordinating officer for the Cambodian Center for Human Rights’ (CCHR) land reform program. There are currently 33 separate ongoing cases of land conflict across 17 provinces, including in Mondolkiri, Ratanakkiri and Koh Kong, where vast swaths of forested and community land have been claimed by economic land concessions, Mr. Sophath said at the event, which CCHR hosted alongside the Community Legal Education Center and Equitable Cambodia at the Intercontinental Hotel. ... Speaking at the workshop, Khut Chanra, a villager from Mondolkiri province, appealed for the government to halt economic land concessions and social land concessions as they overlapped with his ethnic community’s ancestral land. “Recently, the government granted a 3,000 hectare social land concession without informing our community, even though it will bury our farmland,” he said. ... National Assembly spokesman and CPP lawmaker Cheang Vun said Thursday that government lawmakers had no time to attend discussions held by NGOs. “We don’t have free time to debate useless issues. We are busy with state work,” he said, declining to comment on whether he believed land grabs had increased after the election.

 Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/debate-on-land-reform-takes-place-in-absence-of-the-cpp-49282/