Former Khmer Rouge battalion deployed in senator's land dispute

via CAAI News Media

Wed, 24 Mar 2010

By : dpa

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian human rights group on Wednesday condemned the deployment of armed soldiers on behalf of a wealthy ruling party senator in a land dispute with villagers.

A document published last month shows Senator Ly Yong Phat of the Cambodian People's Party is a sponsor of Battalion 313, some of whose soldiers have been sent to his disputed land concession in Kampong Speu province in central Cambodia.

Battalion 313, formerly Khmer Rouge Battalion 37, has in the past been accused of illegal logging in the province.

Naly Pilorge, the director of human rights group Licadho, said the move was one which human rights workers had feared since Prime Minister Hun Sen last month called on local businessmen to partner with military regiments.

"Not a single soldier should be mobilized - whether former Khmer Rouge or not - to defend the interests of businessmen," she said. "Battalion 313 is one of those units that falls into this financial patronage system."

She said around 100 soldiers from three units had been deployed to the area, in addition to police.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence was not available for comment.

The deployment follows last week's protest by hundreds of villagers in Kampong Speu's Omlaing commune after workers from Ly Yong Phat's company tried to clear land for a 10,000-hectare sugar plantation. During the protest villagers burned down the sugar company's makeshift offices in the commune.

A villager told local media that troops had arrived on Tuesday.

"We saw a lot of former Khmer Rouge soldiers and provincial police who have come to protect the company after we burned down the office on Thursday," Suon Ly told the Phnom Penh Post newspaper.

Five villagers are set to appear in the provincial court Wednesday for questioning over the incident. Licadho said at least 500 villagers are headed to the court to support them, despite the presence of soldiers and police.

Land disputes are a growing problem in Cambodia, where land value has skyrocketed in recent years. At least 12 villagers were shot and injured by police last week in a separate land protest in Kampong Speu province.

The government has signed over hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to foreign and local investors in recent years in deals covering agriculture, rubber plantations and mining.

Kampong Speu province is to host thousands of soldiers from the United States and the Association of South-East Asian Nations next month as they take part in the US-led Global Peace Operations Initiative.