Villagers Protest Eviction by Chinese Company
More than 100 villagers living on a 20-hectare swath of a rubber plantation in Ratanakkirri province gathered outside O’Chum commune hall yesterday to protest their eviction at the hands of a Chinese company, local officials and rights activists said. About 120 families from Trang Churng Village in O’Chum district, who are living on the land that was sold by locally owned Tay Seng Company to China’s Fib Rubber Co. Ltd. in 2010, called for authorities to intervene after they were informed by representatives of the company that they would be evicted. … But commune chief Kham Sovy said that there was nothing that local officials could do to help, as the land was legally purchased by Fib Rubber Co., even though the villagers have been living on the land for nearly two decades. … Cambodia’s land law stipulates that the state has an obligation to grant ownership to any Cambodian person who, for at least 10 years prior to the passing of Cambodia’s new Civil Code in 2011, had uncontested possession of the land. But O’Chum district governor Pak Son said that the villagers must go. “We explained that they are living here illegally . This is not an economic land concession, this is company land,” he said. The villagers can apply for a social land concession through their villager or commune chiefs,” he added. …
