Preah Vihear villagers protest soldiers’ SLC
Villagers who allege authorities and armed forces in Preah Vihear province have been burning their houses and clearing farmland of 400 families, to create a social land concession, protested yesterday, calling on intervention from Prime Minister Hun Sen. The 5,557-hectare SLC in Kulen district’s Srayang village is supposed to house the families of 160 disabled soldiers, government sources say. Representatives of the 200 villagers protesting said they had lived on 2,000 of those hectares since 2002, when they received written commune council recognition that they were farming the area but no formal land titles. … In response to the complaints, officials from the prime minister’s cabinet and the Council of Ministers have agreed to visit the commune next Thursday to find a solution. Lim Leang, deputy chief of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet, said he had consulted with Preah Vihear Provincial Governor Oum Mara and agreed to make land titles for the villagers, though no clear data existed for their claims. …
