Hun Sen Says Land Program Proving a Success

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said that the government had identified nearly 100,000 families who are now considered eligible for land titles, and that plans were in store to locate hundreds of thousands more in the coming month. Speaking at the inauguration of a new 128-km stretch of national road 62 in Kampong Thom province, Mr. Hun Sen’s words came just a week after he announced the students measuring land for the program will not work in areas where there are ongoing disputes, and that the time frame for measuring land might have to be extended. “We’re on our way to meeting our goal. We just need 5,000 more to reach 100,000 families. Our plan is to measure the land of more than 350,000 families on 1.2 million hectares of land in order to give citizens the safety of owning their land,” Mr. Hun Sen said, explaining that a total of 95,068 families had been added to the list of people eligible for land titles. Of those families 74,045 have had their plots of land demarcated. Still, Mr. Hun Sen did not say what plans were in store to provide the families with legal titles. Chan Soveth, deputy head of monitoring for rights group Adhoc, said it was impossible for his organization to independently corroborate the figures provided by Mr. Hun Sen as they had not been allowed to monitor the titling project. …