Land dispute

Families protesting encroachment onto their land by a tycoon who is expanding a road in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district filed a complaint to the Prime Minister’s cabinet and the Municipal Court on Tuesday.

On Friday, employees working for tycoon Thong Sarath demolished fences on eight properties in Boeung Tompun commune’s Tnout Chrum village.

The affected villagers then rejected an offer of compensation made by Thong Sarath during a press conference on Tuesday to compensate them 300,000 [about US$73] riels each and build them new fences, arguing the proposed new fences fell inside their existing plots of land.

“Just 300,000 riels - please tycoon, keep it. I could not accept...I want him to rebuild the fence on the same location, not inside [our land],” resident Phang Hour Seng said on Tuesday.

Suos Sarin, chief of Boeung Tompun commune, said yesterday that Thong Sarath had been granted permission to expand a road leading to a development project by two metres on either side, which was encroaching into the village’s property.