Dear Editor,

Having seen the article published on June 25 on page four of the Khmer-language Phnom Penh Post, headed “After declared pausing, PM Hun Sen provides land concession to seven companies”, by May Tithara, and on page one of the English-language Post, headed “Hun Sen grants four ELCs, leases allot 35,000 hectares in protected areas”, by the same media, the Cabinet of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen wishes the editors-in-chief of both papers to publish the following clarification:

Citing the Royal Gazette that “ . . . have signed to provide another seven land economic con-cessions of 56,586 hectares to seven companies . . . ”, the Cabinet of Samdech would like to clarify that the seven sub-decrees (three of them, as the cabinet has already required the Cambodia Daily to clarify, were ratified on May 18, 2012 and the other four on June 7) are the continuation of a procedure of granting land concessions approved before May 7, under order No. 01 BB, signed on May 7, 2012.

Please refer to Point 4 of the above order, which states that “Land economic concessions that have already received official permission from the government before the issue date must remain in force in accordance with legal principle and procedure.”

Samdech Techo’s Cabinet regrets that the well-known Phnom Penh Post did not further clarify the clarification of Cabinet as the Cambodia Daily did on June 16-17, when it published a supplementary article headed “Government denies flouting ban on concession”.

The Cabinet of Samdech Techo Prime Minister Hun Sen views the publication of an article without legal and procedural basis as deliberate defamation.

Ho Sithy

Chief of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet

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