Ethnic minorities urge redistribution of land

The Phnom Penh Post
Wednesday, 09 September 2009 15:02 Sam Rith

ETHNIC minority groups said Tuesday that unused economic concessions in Cambodia's northeast should be the first to be broken up under a plan approved last week by the government to provide fallow land to retired soldiers.

"We only see the companies logging and clearing the forest, but did not see them plant anything," said Ros Han, director of Indigenous Rights Active Members, a national indigenous peoples network.

Ros Han estimated that as much as 70 percent of the 4 million hectares of economic concessions located on land inhabited by ethnic minorities was in Ratanakkiri, Mondulkiri, Stung Treng and Kratie provinces.

"On most of that land so far we have not seen any development," Ros Han said.