Khmer Times/Taing Vida
Wednesday, 02 November 2016
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday again ordered Kandal provincial authorities to stop residents from leasing land to Vietnamese farmers, repeating a similar demand from in August.
The appeal comes only days after the head of the Kingdom’s border committee openly said there was nothing Cambodia could do to stop Vietnamese soldiers from building on Cambodian land.
In a formal discussion with provincial officials streamed on his Facebook page, Mr. Hun Sen said they had to all work harder to promote the province’s business prospects to bring jobs to their people.
Kandal province has more than 150 garment factories, so garment workers should be taken care of and their living situations should be improved, he said.
But the majority of his talk was on the border with Vietnam and the efforts government officials had to put in to foster good relations with their Vietnamese counterparts.
“Border demarcation will be faster and the leasing of farm land should be stopped in all forms. I would also like to remind authorities to prevent all types of crime and drug trafficking as well as gambling,” he said.
Governor Mao Phirun told Khmer Times yesterday that under his leadership, the province was “safe” and was a “good area” for residents. Despite reports from multiple outlets claiming otherwise, he said leasing farmland to Vietnamese nationals had been stopped entirely.
“The leasing of farmland to Vietnamese farmers has been stopped completely since July after the government announced the decision to do so to secure both countries along the border. So far, border demarcation in this province has never been an issue,” he said.
On Sunday, border committee chairman Var Kimhong told local media there was nothing Cambodia could do to stop Vietnam’s unilateral constructions. Their diplomatic notes, of which they had sent dozens to Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry begging them to stop, have been completely ignored, and Mr. Kimhong said that other than war, there was no other recourse Cambodia could take on the issue.
Five Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) members sent a letter to Interior Minister Sar Kheng and National Assembly President Heng Samrin in late August asking them to look into and potentially stop people living along the border with Vietnam in Svay Rieng province from leasing nearly 500 hectares of land to Vietnamese farmers.
Mr. Hun Sen banned Cambodians living along the country’s border from selling or leasing farmland and residential land to people from neighboring countries Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in an edict released on November 17, 2015.
The main purpose of the directive was to help residents use their own land for cultivation, but government officials also said demarcating border posts would be more difficult if foreigners occupied land inside Cambodia. He also said the areas lacked official borders on both sides and proper land titles with the correct number of hectares had not been issued for some land owners.
He repeated his edict in August when he wrote on Facebook that the practice had to stop for Cambodia to be able to fully demarcate its borders.
“We forbid them from renting land to Vietnamese people. This is not only for Takeo province, but for every province which shares a border with Vietnam,” he wrote.
In October last year, the Interior Ministry sent a letter to every governor of provinces along the border with Vietnam, telling them to stop any residents renting or selling land to Vietnamese nationals, citing reports that farmers were allowing foreigners to cultivate plantations in provinces along the borders with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
The governor of Tbong Khmum province, Prach Chan, told Khmer Times in March that residents in his province had frequently rented their land to Vietnamese nationals in the past.
“Previously, there were a number of people in Ponhea Krek district and Memot district who rented their land to Vietnamese farmers,” Mr. Chan said.
Svay Rieng governor Chieng Am told Khmer Times in January that the issue was far more complicated than people were making it seem.
“Authorities already banned local villagers from renting land [to Vietnamese nationals]. I admit that many villagers had leased land to Vietnamese people for farming because they are poor, while Vietnamese [investors] can open big factories along the border and need land to do this,” Mr. Am said.
Koeut Phally, the Svay Rieng provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that the government directive reduced the number of people renting their land to Vietnamese nationals, but the problem was still occurring because it was intricately tied to the issue of Vietnamese immigration trends.
“For the last three years, we haven’t found any serious problems because the land leasing contracts expired and the rights were returned back to the owners,” she said. “These are farmlands which Vietnam is using to plant [sugar] cane, and most Cambodians rush to Vietnam to be beggars and earn money there.
“This is a problem and the government needs to create work opportunities for its citizens in their own country.”
Opposition party members claimed in August that government officials were profiting from the practice, taking a cut of all profits in exchange for rubber-stamping land documents.
Svay Rieng 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.