Bunong Residents Say Gov’t Gave Community Land to Tycoon

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Indigenous residents protest at the commune hall in Sen Monorom commune in O’Reang district on October 22. (Supplied)
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Indigenous Bunong families from Mondulkiri are petitioning government institutions about 255 hectares of community land transferred to a tycoon amid nationwide state-land privatizations.

Seven indigenous people representing around 130 families in O’Reang district submitted petitions to the prime minister’s cabinet, Land Management Ministry and Interior Ministry last week in Phnom Penh saying the land contained their burial grounds, spiritual forests and farmland.

Their complaints relate to recently released sub-decrees that transferred 334 hectares in two plots to oknha Choeung Thean Seng, the son of notorious Boeng Kak tycoon Choeung Sopheap. Some 79 hectares were in Sen Monorom city’s Romnea commune and 255 hectares in O’Reang district.

A government document suggests the plots were sold to the oknha for as little as 600 riel per square meter, or about $0.15.

Resident Cheus Mleung said the local Bunong community had been using the 255 hectares for growing rice and other traditional collective uses.

He alleged the land transfer had been made possible by collusion and forgery, and added that authorities did not consult with locals about the plan.

“That land is our collective land and now they are putting marker poles on our land. … Places for herding cows, buffalos, old plantations and new plantations. All are affected.”

Another resident, Ly Saroeun, added that the community depended on that land.

“I am really worried over the land issue. It really affects us. I can’t sleep. If we lose that land, how can we live?”

Residents said the Interior Ministry and the prime minister’s cabinet had not accepted their petitions due to technicalities.

Land Management Ministry spokesman Seng Lot and oknha Thean Seng could not be reached for comment.

O’Reang’s Sen Monorom commune chief Thvan Trel said she was raising the people’s concerns with the district and province, which were looking into the issue.

Trel previously told VOD that she was aware that the land handed to Thean Seng was affecting a large number of indigenous people.

“In O’Reang district, the land along the valley really belongs to the people, and they protest because it is their homeland. It has been like that since before. They actually used it along the valleys according to our indigenous traditions but for this case, I have no right to decide a solution for the people,” she said in October.

The residents’ petition to the prime minister’s cabinet said the land contained three spiritual forests and two burial grounds.

Prime Minister Hun Sen signed the sub-decree transferring the land to the tycoon in March.

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