PM’s Advisor Calls for Investigations into Corruption and Land Grabs in Mondulkiri

In a letter to the Ministry of the Interior dated Jan. 11, Pen Ean—an advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen—called for an investigation into Mondulkiri Province’s O’Raing District Governor Seik Mony who Ean accused of selling indigenous land to wealthy buyers and abusing his power to threaten indigenous communities.

Indigenous communities have complained of O’Raing District Governor Seik Mony taking their land, saying belongs to the state and then selling it onto wealthy buyers



PHNOM PENH--In a letter to the Ministry of the Interior dated Jan. 11, Pen Ean—an advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen—called for an investigation into Mondulkiri Province’s O’Raing District Governor Seik Mony who Ean accused of selling indigenous land to wealthy buyers and abusing his power to threaten indigenous communities.



Ean wrote that Mony’s plans were “Not to protect the legitimate interests of the little ones, but the protect the rich and powerful.”



Addressed to Interior Minister Sar Kheng, the letter detailed a conspiracy among O’Raing District authorities to sell off state land traditionally inhabited by indigenous communities. Besides reporting the district authorities to Kheng, Ean also alerted the Governor of Mondulkiri Thong Savon by submitting a request for intervention from the Sen Monorom community in O’Raing District.



Mondulkiri’s Deputy Provincial Governor Cheak Mengheang, said that the provincial administration is waiting for the ministry’s order to investigate and then the governor can take action, but so far, they have not received any legal letter from the ministry.



“We haven’t got the information of which location land has been abused in, we just heard from news institutes, and so we’re waiting for orders and how we should take actions,” he said. “If we went to investigate directly, we would report the actual facts who and how state land was really violated before reporting to the governor, then the ministry will take actions,” he said.



Neither O’Raing District Governor Mony nor Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak could be reached for comments at press time.



Ean said he has received applications from indigenous Bunong communities regarding land that they have lived on and used for generations but that was seized by officials who told the communities that the land belonged to the state.



Then, the communities were told the land was no longer state land, but rather the property of unnamed but assuredly wealthy buyers who now possessed land titles to parts of O’Raing District that the indigenous communities lived on. The communities were then told they were illegally occupying privately owned land.



“The victims were the people with no power, no links of patronage—just normal citizens,” Ean said.



Phleuk Phirum, a Bunong Indigenous Network Leader in Mondulkiri Province, said that indigenous communities are largely illiterate and have little knowledge or experience of law enforcement since they typically live in accordance with their own ancestral cultures. Often, she added, this means they lack legal documents to prove ownership over community land.



“I hope the ministry will take action transparently and fairly,” she said.



“It’s so difficult when they told us to leave with their [land] titles, while we live and farm here since our ancestors,” Phirum said. “We don’t understand much about the land titles or legal documents, we don’t know how to protest legally, even when we asked for help from the commune authorities, they didn’t give us the solution, they seem to be in systematic cooperation.”



She said that O’Raing District Governor Mony made land titles for the land belonging to indigenous communities, he then sold them on to other buyers.



“Authorities have threatened us into selling the land with their guns worn on their waists or sometimes they used high ranking officials’ names to buy our land at lower prices, so some indigenous people have to agree to sell,” she said.



Land grabbing remains a popular form of corruption among local officials in Cambodia and is not confined to O’Raing District or even Mondulkiri Province, said Pen Bunnar, a human rights advocate with local rights group ADHOC, who added that the country needs a government that will take action immediately and restore trust and justice for citizens.



“It’s about thousands of hectares of state land and indigenous people’s land which District Governor [Mony] abused to sell to the rich, the courts need to thoroughly investigate his actions,” he said, noting that these are crimes and he should face the law rather than simply be transferred to another location where he can go on to commit more crimes.



“I really support strict measures from the government against the O’Raing governor, but these measures should be implemented against all officials who abuse state land. We cannot only move him to another position without enforcing criminal law, so those officials will not be afraid of the law,” he said.



Prime Ministerial Advisor Ean called on Interior Minister Kheng to use his authority and inspect sub-national levels, along with launching a specific investigation into O’Raing District Governor Mony and the other district authorities he collaborated with.



Ean said he wanted justice for the people and for good, law-abiding officials, while those who abuse their positions of power need to be punished properly to protect the leadership of the government.



In November 2021, nearly 60 indigenous families in Pou Treng Village, Dak Dam Commune, O’Raing District, accused district authorities—including District Governor Mony—of conspiring to obtain land titles for more than 80 hectares of land which were sold to traders. The 60 families demanded the authorities to return the land to them.


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