Villagers Sued for Property Damage by Company

6 February 2014
The Cambodia Daily
Agricultural policy and administration / Agriculture and fishing / Economic land concessions and plantations / Judiciary and courts / Land / Land policy and administration / Land tenure and land titling / Law and judiciary / Public land lease
Banteay Chhmar Commune / Council for Agricultural and Rural Development / Leang Bou Company / Prasat Tbeng village / Tamaing village / Yim Chhay Li

Four villagers locked in a land dispute with an agribusiness firm in Banteay Meanchey province said Tuesday that they had been summonsed to the provincial court over a property damage lawsuit filed by the company. The suit was originally filed last year, but villagers said they had not known about it until receiving the summonses last week, shortly after they confiscated machinery from six men working for Leang Bou company whom they suspected of preparing the disputed land to be cleared. … More than 500 families from two villages—Prasat Thbeng and Tamaing—have been contesting Leang Bou’s claims to more than 1,700 hectares of land in Thmar Puok district since 2008, when the company was granted a concession to start a plantation on land that villagers say they have been farming since 2000. Mr. Vanna said that Tamaing village chief Tes Neat had also been summonsed, along with villager representatives South Im and Keo Thy. … According to a copy of Mr. Thean Teu’s business card, which he distributed recently to villagers living on the disputed land, he is an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Li and a member of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Bodyguard Unit. … District Governor Blek Vary said the government had created a committee on January 6 to measure the disputed land and handle the issue.

 Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/villagers-sued-for-property-damage-by-company-51458/