Villagers Protest After Sand Dumped on Land

Residents of Meanchey district protest against tycoon Sok Kong
after his company pumped sand into land
they claim was grabbed illegally. (Siv Channa)

By Khy Sovuthy | April 30, 2014

 

About 30 villagers in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district staged a protest Tuesday morning against tycoon Sok Kong, whom they accuse of piping dredged sand into their farmland and fishing ponds.
Fourteen families occupying 21 hectares of land in Prek Pra commune have been locked in a land dispute for years with Sok Kong Import Export Co., which they say illegally obtained the title to land they have occupied for more than a decade.

At the protest, villagers burned car tires and shouted accusations at the company, which has announced plans to embark upon a large-scale development project complete with flats, villas and markets.
“We protest against the Sok Kong company, which secretly dumped dredged sand on our land because they want to occupy our land,” said Lorn Pisey, 33.
According to Ms. Pisey, she and the other 13 families bought about 21 hectares of land in the area from a landlord who had lived there since 1983. But in 2010, the government granted a title to the Sok Kong company that overlapped with their land.
“The company colluded with the authorities to make the land title cover our land, and then started to fill it with sand before the national election,” she said.
Complaints have been filed with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Land Management, but no resolution has been reached.
Some said they would be happy to leave if the tycoon offered appropriate compensation.
“We want the company to give us appropriate compensation, but if the company doesn’t solve it for us, we will continue to protest and we will sacrifice our lives to live on the land,” said Sun Sokunthy, 47.

“Please Samdech Hun Sen and Samdech Kittiprittbandit Bun Rany Hun Sen, help intervene in our problem.”
Neither Sok Kong nor representatives of his company could be reached Tuesday, but Meanchey district governor Kuoch Chamroeun called the villagers’ claims unfounded.
“According to the documents, that land belongs to the [Sok Kong] company because they have the land title,” he said.

sovuthy@cambodiadaily.com

© 2014, The Cambodia Daily. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in print, electronically, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written permission.

Google removes ‘deceptive’ adverts placed by American anti-abortion groups

Google has removed a number of adverts placed in web searches by pro-life groups that violated its policy against deceptive advertising.

The adverts were created by groups known as “crisis pregnancy centres” and appeared in users’ searches as “abortion clinics”. However, individuals who clicked through were be provided with information that discouraged them from seeking an abortion.
Google’s decision to remove the adverts came in response to a campaign by Naral Pro-Choice America, who found in a sample of cities that 79 per cent of Google adverts for “abortion clinic” referred to websites that “don’t provide or refer for abortion care”.
"We have no problem with crisis pregnancy centers advertising online; we have no problem with their existing," Illyse Hogue, president of Naral, told the Washington Post. "That is their right in America.”
Hogue and Naral do, however, object to the deceptive way the centres were being advertised. Google agreed, with the ads not following their policy of being “factually supportable”, truthful and accurate.
"Google’s leadership in removing the majority of these ads is a victory for truth in advertising," said Naral  in a statement. "Countless women will be spared lies and shaming tactics intended to stop them from making their own decisions based on real medical advice."
Google removed adverts that were misleading, but kept others that were more accurate in their language, such as one “crisis pregnancy centre” that advertises itself as offering “free abortion consultation”.
"We're constantly reviewing ads to ensure they comply with our AdWords policies, which include strict guidelines related to ad relevance, clarity, and accuracy," said Google in a statement.  "If we find violations, we'll take the appropriate actions — including account disablings and blacklists — as quickly as possible."
The president of National Right to Life in the US, Carol Tobias, described the internet giant’s decision as “ridiculous”. “Pregnancy resource centres offer free services to women who aren’t sure what kind of help they want or need,” Tobias told the Wall Street Journal.
 

Click Here Go To Original Page