Threat to unleash ‘paratroopers’ in land dispute

8 February 2014
The Cambodia Daily
Airports and air travel / Concessions / Crime and law enforcement / Government / Human rights / Industries / Land / Land policy and administration / Land tenure and land titling / Law and judiciary / Public land lease / Social development / Tourism / Transport and shipping / Transport infrastructure and facilities
Adhoc / Botum Sakor National Park / Brigade 911 / Khoem Chandy / UDG / Union Development Group

About 200 villagers locked in a land dispute with the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG) in Koh Kong province said they were warned on Friday that “paratroopers” would be brought in if they continued to block a road to the company’s headquarters in Botum Sakor National Park. The dispute between villagers and the Chinese firm, which is building a massive tourism resort on 45,000 hectares of land, has raged since 2008. But, it reached a new level of tension on January 21 when 45 homes belonging to the villagers were razed, allegedly by security forces working for UDG. On Wednesday, about 140 villagers began blocking a road leading to UDG’s offices, which led to a brief clash between the protesters and 40 UDG security guards and six soldiers armed with AK-47 assault rifles. On Friday, some 200 villagers moved to make their presence on the blocked road more permanent, erecting tents and laying large stones across the 55-km-long thoroughfare which links UDG’s offices to the provincial capital. … Kiri Sakor District Governor Khoem Chandy said on Friday that the authorities in his district and Botum Sakor district ordered about 100 families to vacate their land by October to make way for UDG’s planned, $3.8-billion resort of hotels, golf courses and a private airport. “[M]any have refused to leave, even though they were given new houses at a relocation site,” Mr. Chandy said. “Because of the bad traffic jam, we cannot allow them to keep blocking the road,” he said, adding that access to Koh Sdech commune is also snarled as a result of the blockade. Mr. Chandy dismissed the villagers’ allegations that UDG representatives had threatened to use paratroopers against the protesters, insisting that the protest would not turn violent. … However, Neang Boratino, Koh Kong provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, confirmed that the threats to unleash the elite military unit had been very real.

 Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/threat-to-unleash-paratroopers-in-land-dispute-51740/