The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) calls for an immediate end to the illegal land-clearing and military violence against families in Preah Sihanouk’s Prey Nob district. The disputed land is claimed by Chinese-owned Yi Chea Company, a resort company which has enlisted the help of the Cambodian military’s Brigade 31 to forcibly clear the land.

The dispute began in early 2009, when Yi Chea Company started clearing a 3,300-hectare land concession within Ream National Park given by the government. But the concession overlapped with the land of 116 families from Ream and Thma Thom villages.

Local authorities recognize the families were living on the land since mid 90s, some prior to the creation of the National Park in 1993. Yet, villagers were not consulted prior to the issuing of the concession and no talks were initiated to discuss compensation for the possible loss of land. Nor is that the first controversial land concession granted in the National Park. In February 2008, some 58 families - also from Prey Nob district - faced threats to force them to leave their land after the government awarded it to Evergreen Success Asia Resort Company.

On Monday, four individuals, including a 68-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy, were injured during a violent dispersal of about 100 villagers by seven Yi Chea Company security guards and twenty-five Brigade 31 soldiers. The armed force was mobilized to protect ongoing clearing of land by the company.

The Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) Brigade 31 unit, based in Kampong Speu, has a history of unlawfully taking part in forceful eviction of civilians. Throughout most of 2008, its soldiers were mobilized to evict hundreds of families in Taken commune, Chhuk district, Kampot.

“The use of military force to evict civilians from their homes is both illegal and immoral,” said LICADHO President Kek Galabru. “This is a brazen misappropriation of public resources for private benefit - both the misuse of the military and the giveaway of national park land.”

LICADHO renews its condemnation of the unlawful use of the military against civilians in Cambodia’s ongoing land crisis. As such, LICADHO urges the Military High Command and Ministry of Defense to:

- Conduct a credible investigation and punish the commanding officers who led the soldiers during the incident in order to send a clear message to all armed personnel.

- Issue an order prohibiting RCAF forces nationwide from any involvement in evictions and landgrabbing.

LICADHO also calls for the government to review its concessions within the Ream National Park and to open discussions with residents affected by these concessions. Finally, LICADHO urges authorities to fully implement the National Land Law and to issue land titles to those eligible in accordance with Articles 30 & 38 of the law.

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