Embattled villagers fight on

First, agricultural company DM group displaced them, now a recently arrived commercial farmer has threatened their lives and chased them off their new land, said representatives of 12 families engaged in a long-standing land dispute in Ratanakkiri province. On Wednesday, the 12 Tampuon ethnic minority families filed a complaint to the provincial court against Kuchu Chanbonak, a relative of the commercial farm’s owner, accusing him and other employees of destroying their crops and using guns to threaten them, said villager representative Seoung Yarat. … The families’ land – one hectare in Lumphat district’s Kaleng commune – was given to them by commune authorities in 2008 after DM Group pushed them off their old land. Authorities have been largely unresponsive to the complaints of the 136 Tampuon families who since 2005 have continued to dispute DM Group’s encroachment on 260 hectares of their land. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011160746/National/embattled-villagers-fight-on.html