Despair in Pursat as students begin to exit
Nineteen families from Pursat province’s Prangil commune, plagued by a long-running land dispute with developer Pheapimex, are in despair now that student volunteer surveyors cannot help them reclaim land they say is rightfully theirs. … Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday revealed he had revised his land titling program – announced in June – which aimed to alleviate land disputes by employing over 2,000 university students, at $7 a day, to demarcate villagers’ land in state forests, former timber concessions and economic land concessions. The amendment means students will no longer measure disputed land and has prolonged the original six-month timeframe of the project. … About 12,000 families are tangled in land disputes on a Pheapimex economic land concession that extends over both Pursat and Kampong Chhang provinces and covers over 315,000 hectares.
