Hun Sen’s student volunteer land-titling program under fire
More than a year after Prime Minister Hun Sen’s land-titling program was suspended in the lead-up to the 2013 national elections, it has still not begun again despite government claims that the program would resume following the poll. The unfinished work left by student volunteers, who were tasked with measuring and demarcating land plots, is now exacerbating land disputes across the country, according to rights groups and villagers. Mr. Hun Sen first announced the land-titling project in June 2012, setting a goal of sending student volunteers out across the country to provide land titles to 470,000 families on 700,000 plots of land covering a total of 1.8 million hectares of land by June 2013. This time frame proved overly ambitious, and the camouflage-wearing volunteers were recalled a few weeks before the general elections to avoid the appearance of electioneering, with the prime minister promising they would be sent back out if the CPP claimed victory. …
Ben Sokhean and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sens-student-volunteer-land-titling-program-under-fire-65503/
