Rui Feng firm

One day after hostages were briefly detained in a Preah Vihear province land dispute with Chinese concessionaire Rui Feng International, another protest has flared up against the company in a nearby commune over the demarcation of contested property. More than 40 villagers from 80 families in Chheb district’s M’lou Prey I commune demonstrated yesterday morning against a group measuring more than 16 hectares of land claimed by residents. “The chief of the village, commune, and [representatives of] Rui Feng company demarcated into our land where we’re living, and we protested to stop them,” said resident 46-year-old Sorn Vuthy. “After the demarcation is completed, they will tell us to dismantle our homes and we’ll be forced to leave. Authorities just told us they will find a new place [for us].” The villagers, however, are refusing to leave, claiming that their presence predates that of the company’s. Vuthy also alleged that corruption was occurring side by side with development. Families that are able to pay local authorities can buy more distance between their land and what’s being measured, he said. Commune chief Heng Phuon, however, denied the corruption allegations and said authorities were not measuring the land for the company, but for widening the road. “The villagers just lived there between 2013 and 2014, not longer than that. We told them to leave, because there is a government plan to expand the road,” he said, adding that the authorities have provided another place for them. Lor Chann, provincial coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that the act is a “violation of human rights”.