Thursday, 12 July 2012

Phnom Penh Post
Youth volunteers board trucks before departing Phnom Penh last week to take part in a land measurement program organised by the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post
Military police in Stung Treng province arrested five government officials yesterday after they forcibly stopped student volunteers from measuring property lines as part of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s national initiative to help settle land disputes.

The volunteers, mostly university students, were measuring land for villagers in conflict with companies that had received economic land concessions in Samaki commune.

A deputy commander with the military police who didn’t want to be named said that five officials from the Ministry of National Defence and the Council of Ministers were arrested. He said some of them had positions as legal advisers to the government.