Ratanakkiri official defends disputed land
A Ministry of Interior immigration official at the centre of a long-running land dispute in a gem mining district of Ratanakkiri spoke out for the first time on 29 October, just days after 200 villagers protested what they termed their illegal eviction.
The villagers from Bakeo district’s Keh Chung commune claim they had been farming and mining for gems on the land in Keh Chung since 2005, and said Heng Socheat had no right to evict them as he had bought the land using aliases and possessed invalid land titles.
