Cambodia: Prime Minister forms inter-ministerial panel to review land concessions; NGOs call for policy revamp
“Hun Sen in New Push to Tackle Land Crisis But NGOs Call for Total Review”, 24 August 2014
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has set up an interministerial panel to tackle the worsening problem of land grabs in the country, but nongovernmental organizations say his own policies are fueling the crisis and need urgent revamp. Hun Sen announced the setting up of the new committee…saying it would report directly to him and review economic land concessions across the country in a bid to identify companies not adhering to their contracts with the government…When Ny Chakrya [of rights group Adhoc] took Hun Sen to task for pleading ignorance of the land dispute issue in Snuol district, the prime minister publicly rebuked the Adhoc official, calling him a "foolish kid" and "very arrogant." "That foolish kid thinks that he has VOA and RFA [but] I have TV," Hun Sen said, referring to U.S.-based broadcasters Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, and his government monopoly of televised media…