M’kiri governor revokes land ownership of ministry official
THE Mondulkiri provincial administration has annulled the ownership of 990ha in Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuary after finding that a senior justice ministry official had encroached on a conservation zone.
The prov incia l hall said Seng Sovannara – t he Ministr y of Justice’s undersecretar y of state and a member of t he nationa l-level working group for Mondulkiri prov ince – had lied to loca l aut horities in obtaining paper work to claim t he land for private ownership.
A letter issued by prov incia l governor Svay Sam Eang and seen by The Post on Wednesday said Sovannara’s occupation of t he 990ha at t he sanctuar y in Koh Nhek district’s Or Buonloeu commune was not legal and overlapped wit h a protected area.
“The land in question overlapped with a conser vation zone belonging to the state and is under the management of the Department of Environment. So the administration rules the paper work null and void,” said t he letter.
The administration is a lso inspecting another zone in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuar y in O’Raing district on which Sovannara had a llegedly encroached.
Prov incia l administration of ficia ls who asked not to be named said Sovannara’s paper work was signed and stamped in Januar y by loca l aut horities – from t he v illage chief to t he prov incia l governor.
The of ficia ls said Sovannara had used the stamped documentation to
claim 292ha in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuar y in O’Raing district’s Sen Monorom commune and another 990ha in the Phnom Prich Wildlife Sanctuar y in Koh Nhek district.
Reached by The Post on Wednesday, prov incia l hall spokesperson Sok Sera acknowledged t hat the governor had signed and stamped the paper work ceding the 990ha land to Sovannara.
However, he said Sovannara had lied to t he loca l aut horities in his proposal for the land which he claimed would be for communal use.
“Now, we are a lso inspecting another zone in the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuar y. We will a lso revoke his ownership of t he [292ha] there. The commune aut horities reported to us t hat t he land did not af fect any t hing. But after an inspection, we found that the land overlapped with a conser vation area,” he said.
Sera said because Sovannara had accepted the annulment and had not cleared or sold t he land, t he prov incia l hall would not file a complaint to the court. Commune officia ls, he said, a lso were not being subject to administrative disciplina r y action.
“The v illage and commune authorities signed the paper work for Sovannara’s land ownership in the conser vation zone because they were not aware of t he law.
“They turned a deaf ear when we went to educate them about the law. We’ve a lways told them to be careful in issuing land ownership paper work,” he said.
Sera noted t hat t he aut horities would a lso probe v illagers’ a llegation t hat Sovannara had claimed another 472ha of communal land i n Sen Monorom commune for private ownership. The v i l lagers claimed t he Interior Ministr y had ceded the land to them i n 2015.
On August 13, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng announced the removal of Sovannara from the nationa l-level working group for Mondulkiri.
Ministr y of Justice spokesman Chin Malin said Sovannara’s a lleged encroachment on state conser vation zone was an indiv idua l matter.
Sovannara could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.