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.”
With their case reaching a French appeal court today, a Bunong community says their claims to land are in contention, while villagers say debt and wage labor are supplanting their traditions.
Mondulkiri has been a hotbed for illegal land grabs and land speculation. Interior Minister Sar Kheng in October warned local officials from engaging in land grabs and corruption.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng advised Mondulkiri’s new governor and his officials to stay away from corruption after 10 predecessors were implicated in illegal land grabbing, even as at least half of those 10 remain in their jobs.
About 10 community members patrolled O’Reang district’s Sen Monorom commune on Wednesday and found about 100 hectares of the sanctuary and 12 hectares of community forest being cleared by machinery
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.
Indigenous communities say speculators have accelerated illegal land sales and Covid-19 restrictions are preventing members from patrolling the protected area.
Two Svay Rieng land dispute representatives have been charged again for violating Covid-19 law; separately, Mondulkiri province indigenous families file a land clearance complaint against a Takhmao city resident.
Mondulkiri’s plan to build a special economic zone with casinos and warehouses in an area one official described as filled with evergreen forest has yet to progress after six months, as provincial leaders say they are still waiting for a response from the central government.
Indigenous Bunong protesters have filed a complaint to the Interior Ministry saying local officials and traders sold off nearly 20 hectares of state mountain land to Phnom Penh police chief Sar Thet and former Ratanakiri military police commander Kim Reaksmey.
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