Cambodian Villagers Block Digging Work by Chinese Company
2019-12-03
More than 100 villagers in eastern Cambodia’s Tbong Khmum province on Monday [2 December2019] blocked Chinese earthmovers digging a canal and destroying crops on disputed land, temporarily halting the work, local sources said.

Hamenivent Investment, a Chinese company that claims ownership of the land, had already cleared over 20 hectares of cassava and cashew farmland worked by residents of Dambe district’s Trapaing Pring commune, a resident of the commune’s Bos Snor village told RFA’s Khmer Service.

“This has interfered with villagers’ farming, and that’s why they have come to stop this company from clearing their crops,” the resident named Maut Mon said, adding that Hamenivent has also encroached on flooded forest land used by the commune as a shelter for spawning fish.

“”We want to the Chinese side to sign an agreement that they won’t come in here to continue clearing, as we are concerned for the loss of the lake and the fish in the shelter,” Maut Mon said.

Also speaking to RFA, Hoeun Sineath—a resident of neighboring Sre Praing village—said that the commune’s forest was registered for protection as a conservation area in 2002 by Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“The area is a flooded forest. It is a shelter for fish to lay eggs, and many wild animals used to live there, but there are many fewer there now,” he said, adding that China’s Hamenivent company, which has now cleared his farm and the farms of 21 other families in the village, has no legal right to the land.

'Don't go in there'
Representatives of Hamenivent Investment were unavailable for comment on Monday, but Dambe district governor Sok Sarith told RFA that the Chinese company now owns the disputed land, and that local villagers have been farming on company property.

“This land is not a communal forest or a fish shelter. It is the legal property of the Chinese company, and that company has the full right to work on that land within the limits of the law,” he said.

“Our authorities have always told people in the past, ‘Don’t go in there.’ But some people still continued to farm on that land,” he said.

However, villagers believe that local authorities had illegally conspired to sell a large part of the forest to Hamenivent and had arranged for the Chinese company to be issued with a land title proving ownership, village sources said.

Speaking to RFA, Leng Senghan—provincial coordinator for the Cambodian rights group Adhoc—said that Hamenivent’s destruction of crops and digging a canal to block famers’ access to their fields was in any case against the law.

“If we consider the view of the law, this was totally illegal, because these were actions that destroyed people’s property. And when you dig a canal to cut off a road, this destroys the property of the state,” he said.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 65500.html

Aint it funny how no-one ever says who originally owned the land, who sold the land,, what price, and when,, and exactly who bought it ,,,, eg, who are the shareholders in the Chinese company.

Everything is kept a secrete in Cambodia.

The latest protest is part of a long-running land dispute between 180 families and a Chinese company that has been going on since 2011 in Trapaing Pring commune, in Tbong Khmum’s Dambe district.

The origins of the dispute:
Villagers accuse firm of overreach
Chhay Channyda | Publication date 07 May 2015 | 08:24 ICT
Villagers from Tbong Khmum’s Trapaing Pring commune blocked an excavator yesterday that was allegedly intent on clearing land that they said is being illegally grabbed by a Chinese company.

On Tuesday, around 20 villagers filed a complaint to the National Assembly, accusing the firm of clearing more than the agreed-upon 300 hectares that 175 families in Dambe district sold in 2011, and accusing district authorities of allowing the land grab.

“We got $500 per family in 2011, but we only sold them half of our lands and the other half, we did not sell . . . but the company tried to grab our entire plantation and rice fields,” said resident Chim Yim, 61.

Sok Din, chief of Bosnor village, one of the most affected areas, said he supported the villagers’ complaint.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -overreach

More details here from earlier this year:
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ps-release