Community representatives from Kratie submit a petition to officials of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction on 7 November 2024.

A community affected by a land conflict in Kratie province camped outside of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction in the capital yesterday to call on authorities to resolve a dispute with Kasekam Youveakchun Svay Rieng Co. Ltd, a company which started clearing their land and crops in June of this year.

Around 30 community members, who represent 252 families in Kratie’s Sambor district, arrived in Phnom Penh on Wednesday and waited outside the ministry’s front gate to request meetings with government officials to submit a petition. Officials from Kratie province, including the deputy governor, met with them in Phnom Penh and asked them to return to the province, but community members insisted on sleeping outside the ministry in a makeshift camp using hammocks, mats and blankets until a solution was found.

The Land Ministry received their petition this morning before the group sought to travel together to submit their petition to the Interior Ministry and Prime Minister’s Cabinet. Only a small number of community members were permitted to travel across the city, while others continued to stay outside the Land Ministry where they were monitored by officials and district security guards.

The dispute is linked to the Kasekam Youveakchun Svay Rieng company, which in June this year started to clear land that was previously part of an Economic Land Concession granted to a Singaporean company in 2009. This is the second time the community has come to Phnom Penh to raise this issue. They previously petitioned various ministries after the company started clearing their land, after which some of them received court summons for alleged illegal possession of land and for using violence.