Monday, June 25, 2012
 |
| Kun Kim (R) standing next to his boss, Hun Xen |
Monday, 25 June 2012
Buth Reaskmey Kongkea
The Phnom Penh Post
About 1,500 representatives of
military families in Oddar Meanchey province are planning to file a
complaint directly to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s office accusing a high-ranking
Royal Cambodian Armed Forces general of selling a large chunk of their
land to two Vietnamese rubber companies.
The soldiers, commanders and
deputy commanders living on the land in the province’s Trampaing Prasat
district, are part of the Sixth Intervention Brigade. They were expected
to submit the complaint against four-star General Kun Kim by
Wednesday.
But Kun Kim, who heads up the
office of the Mixed Chiefs of Staff, told the Post yesterday that the
claims are bogus, that families are occupying the properties illegally,
and that the Cambodian government granted the land to the two companies,
identified as Best Royal and Taining, in 2008.
“So far, the Royal Government of
Cambodia had not issued any sub-decree in granting these lands to the
troops and their families … but they have illegally cleared and
possessed it,” he told the Post yesterday.
Major General Chhum Kheng, a brigade
commander who lives in the affected district, said that as of yesterday,
bulldozers had cleared 4,000 hectares of land, destroying rice and
other planted crops.
Representatives for the two
companies identified in the complaint could not be reached for comment
yesterday.
A chief of staff for the brigade
living in the district told the Post that the loss of land was seriously affecting
the mental state of the troops.
“It has also affected their fighting spirits
and positions in defending Cambodian borders in the future,” said
the chief of staff, who asked to remain anonymous.
No comments:
Post a Comment