Preah Sihanouk provincial officials said Thursday that authorities had demolished a fence built directly on O’Chheuteal beach overnight after social media criticism and news reports.
The owner of a concrete-and-brick wall being built directly on Sihanoukville’s O’Chheuteal beach in recent weeks remains a mystery, with authorities and workers alike refusing to say who is cordoning off the public beach.
A military general and his soldiers violently took over land in Sihanoukville, bringing knives, making threats and destroying fences, alleges a complaint from residents.
Oral district residents are pitching tents in community forests to fend off soldiers who have received rights to the land by government order, as the Kampong Speu provincial administration pursues lawsuits against the residents for not making way.
Mondulkiri’s provincial spokesman says widespread loss of protected land — amid the creation of a new anti-logging task force on Tuesday — “has nothing to do with powerful people or high-ranking people.”
As two senior Kampong Chhnang police officers were arrested over the weekend for grabbing flooded forest land, rights NGOs said any officials caught clearing flooded forests around the Tonle Sap lake should face punishment for their crimes.
Following Prime Minister Hun Sen’s command two weeks ago to stop the Tonle Sap’s destruction, provincial governors say they have retaken thousands of hectares of protected flooded forests but are still working on investigating perpetrators.
Military police and provincial officials again rushed around the Tonle Sap lake on Wednesday, destroying dozens of cottages, removing thousands of land-marker poles, accepting 675 hectares from a police deputy, and arresting several residents.
Hun Sen launched into a tirade on Sunday against alleged “anarchic deforestation” along the Tonle Sap lake, even ordering the use of the “infantry, navy, and helicopters” to crackdown on land grabbing and encroachment.
Seng Sovannara was removed from his Justice Ministry position in 2019 following accusations that he had taken control of 990 hectares in a wildlife sanctuary and threatened indigenous Bunong villagers to hand over 472 hectares of their land.
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