According to opposition lawmakers and rights groups said yesterday that they disagreed with injustice letter from Prime Minister Hun Sen on land dispute case in Kampong Speu province.

PM Hun Sen responded in a printed letter to lawmakers that the 9,000 hectares in Kampong Speu province had been lawfully given to the Phnom Penh Sugar Industry, Co., Ltd, a company which involved with land dispute.

“Ministry of Agriculture issued the legal letter to Phnom Penh Sugar Industry in order to make sure the land is belonging to the company,” PM Hun Sen wrote in his letter, reacting to the appealed of the opposition lawmakers in Sam Rainsy Party.

An opposition party spokesman, Yim Sovan, said that he would not accept the respond of the Prime Minister because it did not come from an actually investigation, but based on a firm statement itself.

Cheang Kim Son, a company representative, said that she agreed with PM Hun Sen’s correspondence because her firm was not only legal and followed the Ministry of Agriculture regulation, but also did not intrude on the land of the villagers.

However, villagers who involved with that land said that they were pushed off 2,000 hectares because of the company expansions

“We protested the concession in March, but we did not receive any good resolutions except arrested and put in jailed,” a villager said.

At least 400 families said that they were forced to leave their land. Now they are demanding for compensation in order to live in other places.

“I will not accept what PM Hun Sen had responded to the villagers,” Chhan Sovet, an researcher for the rights group Adhoc

In PM Hun Sen’s letter also blamed the opposition party and Adhoc for encouraging people to remonstrate, while Yu Thou, village representative, denied that no one encouraged them to protest.

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