Farmland fight

More than 200 villagers from four villages in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district gathered yesterday to ask Samrong Rubber Industries to stop bulldozing their farmland.

Meach Leav, 44, the villagers’ representative, said that more than 200 villagers from as many families in Lum Tong commune gathered to negotiate with the company, under the watch of commune and district authorities. The company had been using seven excavators to bulldoze the villagers’ peanut and cassava farmland since Monday, which they had reacted to with violence, he said.

Commune and district authorities had since asked the villagers to negotiate with the company to find a resolution to the dispute.

Samrong Rubber was granted a 70-year lease on the land in 2006. Nhem En, deputy governor of Anlong Veng district, said the company had promised to give 400,000 riels [US$100] to each family, but the villagers had refused the offer.

Ouk Savuth, a Samrong Rubber representative, could not be reached for comment.