Hun Sen has decided to drop a government lawsuit against senior opposition official Kong Korm over possession of land that belongs to the Foreign Ministry, potentially ending a weeklong saga where the prime minister has targeted the Candlelight Party adviser.
Senior opposition official Kong Korm has been slapped with another lawsuit claiming $1 million in damages by the Foreign Ministry for registering ministry land as personally owned, an issue first raised by the prime minister in a tirade on Monday.
The government will take nearly 1 million hectares out of protected areas across the country to create “community zones” with land titles, but the exact locations of these areas — and who will get titled land — are still unclear.
The Ream transfer shows details of the government’s exchange not typically released in other deals, even those involving vast tracts of land.
A new ruling-party commune chief in Koh Kong province has refused to accept a petition from village residents asking for a resolution to their dispute against Senator Ly Yong Phat.
Around 40 families in Kandal province said the government had cleared their farmland without any notice or compensation, with a local official saying the land will be used to construct a canal and dirt road.
The Kuy community has long been in dispute with Sambath Platinum, to which in 2011 the state granted nearly 2,500 hectares of land for a rubber plantation in Boeng Per Wildlife Sanctuary.
The government cut nearly 1,000 hectares of land from three provinces and Phnom Penh, distributing land to an oknha, a World Bank land project and the capital’s administration.
Six sub-decrees signed in the span of a week privatized nearly 10,000 hectares across four provinces, with thousands of hectares going to unspecified families in northeastern provinces and a plot in Ream National Park adding to land tycoon Khun Sea’s property empire.
Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the Interior Ministry permission to sell 100 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake that it was granted earlier this year so the ministry can fund a reconstruction of its existing office building.
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