Once again, Hun Xen issued a
warning to all companies that receive land concession rights from the
government for development, telling them that they have to resolve all
incidents with affected villagers in regards to their concessions,
otherwise, these companies will see their concessions rescinded.

Hun Xen’s statement which was
adopted during the meeting of the Council of Ministers last Friday
claimed that: “Samdach Hun Xen advises the ministry of Agriculture, the
ministry of Environment and the ministry of Land Management, Unban
Planning and Construction to visit and resolve problems along the
various economic concessions where disputes are taking place, and they
must set up agreements between the people and the investors who provide
income to agriculture.” It added that Hun Xen threatened to cancel
economic land concessions to investors who do not resolve problems for
the villagers who have settled in these regions for a long time already.

This is an immediate reply that
was issued in regards to the land-grabbing of villagers by the Hun Xen
regime. Such land-grabbing led the villagers to stop supporting the
regime and caused uprise to protest against such action, just like the
case in Uddong district, Kampong Speu province at the end of June 2011.
In that protest, villagers used knives, axes and slingshots to chase the
authority agents who came to evict them from their lands for the sake
of the companies. Furthermore, donor countries and the World Bank have also issued strong criticisms [on this case], and the election is also fast approaching.