[Demographic Vietnamization: Rubber, Logging, Kratie, Memot, Border, Military] Memot villagers petition PM

Villagers from Kratie province's Memot Rubber Plantation hold pictures of Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh on Monday, as they submit a petition asking for his intervention in their land dispute. Licadho

Memot villagers petition PM

Phnom Penh Post | 27 March 2018

Around 150 villagers from Kratie’s Memot Rubber Plantation petitioned the prime minister on Monday, asking that the company include them in a land compensation plan that currently only includes some of the concession’s residents.

The plantation was the site of a shooting by security forces earlier this month, injuring three. Initial reports suggested protesters were killed, though no evidence has surfaced to support the claim.

Villagers travelled to Phnom Penh on Sunday and submitted the petition to the Council of Ministers, asking that they be included in any resolution involving the plantation.

Read more: Authorities deny six killed in Kratie clash between protesters, soldiers

Memot Rubber released a statement after the protest saying that around 3,000 hectares would be set aside for villagers but did not provide additional details.

Kong Chamroeun, an official who accepted the petition, said the document will be reviewed but that most of them had occupied the land following the granting of the company’s land concession in 2008.

“I think they are people who migrated there to clear it since 2014. They should consider themselves lucky we did not press charges against them,” he said.