Khmer Time/Taing Vida Monday, 29 August 2016
Svay Rieng provincial authorities shot back against charges that local officials were conspiring with Vietnamese nationals to allow them to rent land in Cambodia along the border, claiming that after their investigation they found Cambodian farmers were instead hiring Vietnamese farmers to work on their land.
But opposition party members responded by conducting their own investigation, naming specific officials that local residents say have been in charge of securing land for Vietnamese people.
Last week, five members of the opposition sent a letter to National Assembly President Heng Samrin and Interior Minister Sar Kheng, telling them local residents said officials in two communes within Chantrea district and one in Bavet City had worked with Vietnamese nationals to provide them with land titles, something expressly prohibited in an edict by the prime minister late last year.
Despite claims by the government that the practice had ended, commune residents said Vietnamese nationals were openly using Cambodian names on land titles and agreements and working with local government officials to flout Prime Minister Hun Sen’s decree.
But yesterday, Svay Rieng provincial administration director and spokesman Ros Pharith said members of the Provincial Expert Commission went to the communes to investigate the issue.
They said the farming land in Bavet City’s Prasat commune and Chantrea district’s Tuol Sdey and Chantrea communes was not being rented to any Vietnamese nationals. Cambodian farmers were hiring Vietnamese people to help them farm, he told Khmer Times.
The letter from the five Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) assemblymen said commune residents reported Vietnamese nationals were leasing 196 hectares in Tuol Sdey commune, 200 hectares in Chantrea commune and 40 hectares in Prasat commune.
“There is no land leasing. In the past, citizens here did not have enough farming machinery, so they hired Vietnamese technicians to help them. We interviewed citizens and commune chiefs and checked their answers against each other,” he said.
“According to experts, the water in the rice fields in two of the communes consisted of a sour substance, so Vietnamese technicians were needed to help neutralize the water to help Cambodian farmers.”
Mr. Pharith said his officials sent a report to the Interior Ministry and are waiting to hear back from them.
But CNRP assemblyman Kong Saphea, who represents Svay Rieng province, said yesterday that he went to Prasat commune and asked citizens there about the situation. Many, he said, told him that Chhim Savuth served as a “representative” and rented land to Vietnamese nationals with help from local commune and district authorities.
“I have asked local citizens. They said that land leasing to Vietnamese people is still occurring. The ‘research’ that the provincial authorities did was only calling commune chiefs to discuss the issue without checking any of the proper documents,” he said.
“It is a conspiracy from the commune to the provincial level to hide this kind of activity from the national government.”
According to Mr. Saphea, opposition members will send another letter to Mr. Kheng, asking him to check on this case and create a joint committee consisting of members from both parties to investigate the situation.
Following up on an edict released last November, Mr. Hun Sen wrote in a Facebook post two weeks ago that people living in provinces along the border with Vietnam had to stop renting and selling land to Vietnamese people and companies because it made things difficult for those attempting to demarcate the border.
He also said it would stoke fears that land would be permanently lost to Vietnam and ordered officials to prepare border poles as soon as possible.