Villagers No Longer Seen As Secessionists

Villagers locked in a land dispute in Pursat province’s Veal Veng district no longer pose a secessionist threat, and those remaining in the contested area will receive new plots of land on which to live, the district governor said yesterday. District governor Chhe Chhiv said that about 300 families—whose homes were demolished in Krapoeu Pi commune beginning on July 16—have already left the area and that the remaining 100 families living there would receive new plots of land nearby. “We have asked them [the remaining villagers] to come to register with officials and we will provide them land on which to build a house and grow crops,” Mr. Chhiv said, adding that the remaining families were living illegally inside state forest in both Krapoeu Pi and Pramoy communes. ...