CNRP chief: ‘trick’ led to villagers’ land grab
A CNRP commune chief accused of backing villagers occupying state land said yesterday that the group had been tricked by a broker into claiming the property, and called for them to remove structures erected on the site and leave.
Some 300 villages from Akrei Khsat commune in Kandal province’s Lvea Em district have laid claim to a roadside strip of land. The group accused the owner of the adjacent block of planning to seize the property and asked it to be split into plots for them.
The dispute appeared to turn political when Kandal Provincial Police Chief Eav Chamroeun on Monday accused the recently elected Cambodia National Rescue Party Commune Chief Touch Savuth of being behind the villagers.
Reiterating her previous rejection of those claims, Savuth said the dispute had started after a broker spread false information that the authorities were opening up the land for villagers to take.
“We have not concluded clearly who the broker is,” Savuth said.
Savuth, as well as Commune Police Chief Orn Penh, said most of the villagers had agreed to leave the area, and the few holdouts had been given three days to comply.
“Now they have dismantled most of the buildings that they built,” Penh said.
Reached yesterday, Chamroeun, the provincial police chief, declined to comment.