KI Media: “Congratulations to Ms. Tor Kim Sy, recipient of a scholarship to study Math in the US!” plus 23 more

Joint authority force in Preah Vihear province have discovered several metal pieces made from aluminum spread on the ground. The parts could be pieces a small plane flying over Kulen district, located about 40 km southwest of Preah Vihear city.

The discovery was made after 3 loud explosions were heard in the air on Tuesday morning.

Research teams from the joint force including soldiers, military police and CMAC employees, indicated that several metal pieces measuring 4 to 7-cm thick, as well as an electrical box were found near a villager's house and also in several locations in the forest located in Kulen district, south of Sroyong commune, after several consecutive explosion sounds were heard. The sound created panic among villagers located about 40-km around the area.

On Tuesday 16 August, Sor Thavy, the deputy district governor of Preah Vihear province, said that several explosion sounds were heard at about 6AM, then the authority started the search immediately after villagers from Kulen district reported that they saw metal pieces raining down from the sky near their houses.

The Preah Vihear provincial authority made a preliminary assessment that the metal pieces could be parts of a small spy plane that were remotely controlled and that there were no pilot in the plane.

Nevertheless, the Cambodian authority did not yet find proof that these metallic pieces were part of spy plane, nor did they find where did the plane come from or its country of origin.

Development experts warn that the government's draft law on NGOs remains restrictive and will hamper future development if it is not corrected.

"The law is still problematic and the comments that were brought forward by the NGO community and associations, some of them were not entirely picked up," said Borithy Lon, executive director of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, a consortium of non-governmental agencies.

Borithy Lon said those concerns include provisions for registration, which must be completed before an organization can operate in the country, making it open to government interpretation. The draft is also unclear on punishments for NGOs and recourse for legal action against them, he said.

The NGO law moved to the Council of Ministers for approval in July, after which it must be debated by the National Assembly and the Senate.

Throughout the draft process, a number of NGOs warned the law contains regulations that leave it open to political manipulation against organizations that run counter to government interests.

Oxfam America said in a statement Friday that the third draft of the law, which ignores many recommendations from the development sector, does not respond to Cambodia's development needs.

The law could create a reluctance of investors and donors to put funding into the country, said Gregory Adams, director of aid effectiveness for the organization.

"Cambodia has been making significant progress in recent years," he said. "It's starting to take a bigger role on the world stage, but if this law goes forward as it is now...we're really concerned about a lot of that progress coming to a halt or being slowed."

Sue Gunawardena Vaughn, Southeast Asia program manager for Freedom House, agreed. A similar law restricting NGO freedom in Ethiopia led to slowed development, she said.

The law will put Cambodia at a "crossroads," she said, and lawmakers now must decide which way they want to take the country.

Flooding along the Mekong River in three provinces has claimed six lives and left hundreds of families homeless, authorities said Monday. Five of the victims were children.

Though the flooding has abated somewhat in the provinces of Kratie and Stung Treng, it has continued farther south, in the populous province of Kampong Cham, Mao Hak, director of the meteorology department of the Ministry of Water Resources said.

The flooding left 570 families homeless and has inundated some 5,200 hectares of farmland, he said.

Mekong flooding began last week after heavy rains, and though it has abated in the upstream provinces, the river is expected to swell farther downstream, he said.

Keo Vy, chief of cabinet for the National Disaster Management Committee, said 17 districts in three provinces were flooded.

"If the water lasts for more than 10 days, rice plants will be destroyed," he said.

Two jailed Khmer Rouge leaders are expected to appear before tribunal judges later this month, to discuss their health difficulties in the face of an impending atrocity crimes trial.

Nuon Chea, who is now 85 and was the chief ideologue of the regime, and Ieng Thirith, 79, the former social affairs minister, will go before the Trial Chamber.

Two other leaders, Khieu Samphan and Ieng Sary, will not appear, as they have not filed against upcoming hearings on account of health.

The trial of all four leaders, who are accused of atrocity crimes including genocide, is the tribunal's second, its largest and most complex to date. A full trial is expected later this year.

Taking up a defense that Khmer Rouge tribunal investigating judges have already alluded to, atrocity crimes suspect Meas Muth said in a recent interview that accusations against him by prosecution fall out of the mandate of the UN-backed court.

Investigating judges Siegfried Blunk and You Bunleng said in a statement earlier this month that they have doubts about whether five suspects named by prosecutors for potential indictments fall under the court's mission to prosecute those "most responsible" for Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Meas Muth was recently named as a suspect by the Christian Science Monitor and on the New Zealand website Scoop. Scoop published introductory submission documents by prosecutors in the court's Case 003 that were also obtained by VOA Khmer.

According to the prosecution, Meas Muth was the secretary of Division 164 of the Khmer Rouge military and was a member of the regime's central committee or an assistant central committee, which included military and political party responsibilities. Prosecutors say this put him in the "superior echelons" of the regime, since only the Standing Committee was higher.

Prosecutors say Meas Muth and another suspect, Sou Met, were responsible for crimes including "forced labour, inhumane living conditions, unlawful arrest and detention, physical and mental abuse, torture and killing."

This included crimes associated with Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, an execution site in Stung Tauch, the construction of the Kampong Chhnang airfield, and purges in the Central, New North and East zones. This also included crimes associated with S-22 Security Center, the Wat Eng Tea Nhien Security Center, the Stung Hav rock quarry, the navy, and other security centers, as well as in armed conflict against Vietnamese forces.

Meas Muth was in charge of the navy, along with his other duties, in today's Preah Sihanouk and Kampot provinces. Prosecutors say he was responsible for purges in areas under his command, that he sent hundreds of people to S-21, and oversaw the forced labor site at the Stung Hav rock quarry.

From June 1975, the prosecution wrote, Meas Muth and Sou Met, "were senior leaders during the Democratic Kampuchea period and / or persons most responsible for the crimes described."

Now 71, Meas Muth lives in Samlot district, Battambang province. In an interview in July, he told VOA Khmer any accusations against him were not legal under the rules of the court. He said that the court should not try more than the five Khmer Rouge leaders currently in custody and warned against instability if more cadre are indicted.

"The law is limited" to the five, he said. "If more is done beyond that figure, what happens to the law?"

"Second, if it does more, how will that impact affairs of national security?" he asked. "It impacts others, because the Khmer Rouge was not just a few people. It was a lot, inside, outside, near and far."

Former Khmer Rouge soldiers are now guarding the frontier, he said, where there is a prolonged military standoff with Thailand.

He said the case against him, as well as another, Case 004, are not against those "most responsible," a key consideration for the court.

"Now the senior-most leaders and the most responsible persons are at the court already," he said, referring to Tuol Sleng prison chief Duch, who was tried in 2009, and Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith, who are expected to face a full trial later this year.

The prosecution, however, is seeking his indictment for tens of thousands of killings. According to the introductory submission, Meas Muth, had regular contact with senior leaders and sent prisoners to S-21, which led to their executions.

The submission is now with the investigating judges, who must determine whether Meas Muth and others should be indicted and brought to trial. Critics say the judges have not done enough to investigate, and some tribunal experts worry cases 003 and 004 will not be prosecuted because they are opposed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and other current political leaders.

In his division, "there were a few cases" sent to S-21, he said.

"The courts should know the origin of the Khmer Rouge," he added. The Khmer Rouge were born of the US-backed coup that toppled then-prince Norodom Sihanouk, who then encouraged Cambodians to fight to reseat him, Meas Muth said.

"So the source and the main master of the Khmer Rouge was first the US, and second, Samdech Euv," he said, using the Khmer honorific for monarch.

"If there was no appeal from Samdech Euv for his children to 'go to the jungle,' to resist, there would be no Khmer Rouge," he said. "The full story is that."

"If they just try the mid-level [cadre]," he said, "that seems not really right."

Thousands of Boeung Kak lake residents who have been fighting a protracted battle with Phnom Penh and a development company have seen their fortunes reversed and have been granted a small plot of land on which to resettle.

Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a subdecree Aug. 11, giving 1,000 families still living near the lake approximately 12 hectares of land on the planned 133-hectare development site.

The order came just days after the World Bank said it would withhold funding to Cambodia if a resolution over the dispute were not found.

World Bank officials, lake residents and rights monitors all welcomed the decision, which prevented thousands from being evicted from land they had fought to keep.

Annette Dixon, the World Bank's Cambodia country director, said in an email that Hun Sen's decision "appears to be a positive development, and we hope that it will lead to a good outcome for the residents of Boeung Kak."

The Center on Housing Rights and Evictions said the order was the beginning of the end of a five-year battle, "all but ending fears of evictions for the remaining residents."

Residents had continually appealed to the city and national government, to no avail, often clashing with police or authorities in violent protests but stubbornly remaining on land they said they were entitled to hold under Cambodian land policies.

They had refused buyout or resettlement offers from the developer, Shukaku, Inc., which began filling the lake with sand in 2008, flooding the neighborhood with overflow.

Tep Vanny, a representative of the residents, said they were "proud" of their struggle, and were happy with Hun Sen's "win-win strategy."

But not everyone was convinced the new order would mean security.

Keh Chan Reksmey, 31, said she was still afraid rich or powerful people would be able to take her land through forgery or fraud.

Another resident, Pov Sophear, 36, said she wanted Hun Sen, the World Bank, donors and NGOs to monitor the land handover, to ensure it was fair and transparent.

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, a rights group, urged local authorities to "implement this sub-decree with care and respect."

The lake residents have provided a "good model for other communities," he said. "And our society can now make developments without tears and blood."

Please find below:

Why we think you should read Hun Sen's response? Because it provide you with the details of the project and its impacts. Furthermore, it also shows how Hun Sen's regime treats the opposition when it comes to critical questions affecting national issues.

Since Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam are already members of the Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Thailand would find it very useful if it also joined, because it could get to know others and learn without borders, a senior official said yesterday.

Next week, Thailand will consider entering 30 items, including fish sauce, the recipe for tom yam kung (spicy shrimp soup) and the carving of banana stalks, as part of the national intangible cultural heritage list for this year. If Thailand joined the convention it could easily propose more items to be added to the list.

Somchai Sianglai, permanent secretary at the Culture Ministry, said the minister, Sukumol Kunplome, provided details of a discussion with the Foreign Ministry to the Cabinet yesterday. In the meeting between the two ministries, it was decided that Cambodia registering its heritage did not affect Thailand's right to register its own cultural legacy. Next week the Culture Ministry will hold a meeting with the Foreign and Commerce ministries as well as members of the media to come up with initial guidelines.

Department of Cultural Promotion chief Apinan Poshyananda said that initially 30 items would be registered as national intangible treasures pending the committees' final decision.

The items include readings of the Sepa-Thai poem, carving of banana stalks, the Thai sport of kite flying, the greeting gesture known locally as wai, the Songkran festival, the recipe of tom yam kung and fish sauce.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will visit Cambodia late this week to meet with leaders and investors in Phnom Penh, notably on an oil-and-gas concession in the Gulf of Thailand where claims overlap, a Pheu Thai Party source said yesterday.

Thaksin, who is expected to be in the country for two days from August 19 on Friday and Saturday, will take some foreign investors to meet and play golf with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Defence Minister Tea Banh to make the business deal, the source said.

Many Pheu Thai MPs are preparing to greet Thaksin while he is in Cambodia, the source said.

Thaksin will help negotiate with Cambodia on a plan for joint development of a petroleum venture in the Gulf of Thailand where both countries claim the rights. He wants state-run PTT to have a stake in the oil-and-gas concession or enter a joint venture with Cambodia, the source said.

Thaksin has asked Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan to cooperate with Cambodia on the energy deal, the source said.

Thaksin is always welcome in Cambodia, as he has personal connections with Hun Sen. He was an adviser to the prime minister and the Cambodian government but stepped down after the position provoked serious conflict with Thailand.

However, the maritime deal between Thailand and Cambodia is in limbo, as the former government under Abhisit Vejjajiva scrapped a 2001 memorandum of understanding signed with the neighbouring country. It remains unclear whether the pact has been terminated.

Thaksin began making high-profile visits to foreign countries shortly after his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra took office as prime minister.

He is scheduled to visit Japan late this month under a plan facilitated by Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul. The private visit needed involvement from the Thai government as Japanese immigration law prohibited any foreigner sentenced to more than one year's imprisonment from entering the country. After the Thai government request, the Japanese Justice Ministry issued Thaksin a special entry visa, according to a Japanese official.

Yingluck said her government did not make the request to Japan but Surapong simply told Tokyo the current Thai government had no policy to block Thaksin's movements abroad.

"It's under consideration by the Japanese government; nobody could order [another] foreign government," she said.

Asked why the government had not asked for Thaksin's extradition from Japan, Yingluck said her government had no special policy concerning the former prime minister.

Two newspapers critical of the Cambodian ruling party - The Water & Fire News and The World News - have been shut down permanently by the government.

Their publishing licences were revoked on 3 August because of 'a perceived insult to the ministry of information."

Five men have also been convicted of "provocation" for distributing pamphlets critical of the state. They revealed the Cambodian government's ties to the Vietnamese government and accused prime minister Hun Sen of selling land to foreign countries, calling him a "traitor" and a "puppet of Vietnam."

The current debate over Cambodia's borders has involved references on several occasions to the name of Sarin Chhak, the eminent author of the only complete study (in four volumes) of the Kingdom's borders, whose whereabouts have been the source of much speculation following his disappearance immediately after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in January 1979. Sarin Chhak was born Khin Kaing, in Krangsla village, Prey Kabass district, Takeo province on January 2, 1922. He was the child of Mr. Khin and Mrs. Chhay Lak, both farmers. Because he had to help his parents on the farm, he was unable to attend primary school at an early age like other Cambodian children. During the French colonial period, a regulation forbade children of advanced age to enroll in primary school, so in order to attend, Kaing changed his name to Sarin Chhak because he did not want to disclose his real age. He was a good student and was, therefore, encouraged to pursue studies at a higher level. He graduated from Phnom Penh University with a law degree and obtained his Ph.D. in Economic Law in France in 1966. The topic of his dissertation was "The Borders of Cambodia".

Paul Reuter, a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris and one of Cambodia's lawyers in the Preah Vihear case, writes in the introduction to the first volume of "Borders of Cambodia" that "[Sarin Chhak's] work, brilliantly presented in front of the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of Paris, will permit the author to find an attentive audience, which shall not fail to appreciate the conscience, the tireless labor and the merits of the author." Adding that, "Sarin Chhak abstained from creating any polemic or of using words filled with bitterness and inviting us to believe that violence is not the only recourse to achieve an aim." Upon his return to Cambodia, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served in different posts within the ministry and also at the Cambodian Embassy in Paris. He was appointed Ambassador to the United Arab Republic (Egypt) in 1968, with residence in Cairo, while concurrently serving as Ambassador to Senegal.

Following the coup of March 18, 1970, Sarin Chhak denounced the coup, refused to recognize the Lon Nol government and declared his allegiance to Samdech Norodom Sihanouk as the legal Head of State of Cambodia. At the same time, he announced that the Cambodian Embassy in Cairo had become the "Embassy of Progressive Cambodia in the UAR". He was made a member of the Political Bureau and Central Committee of the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK), following its establishment in Peking in March 1970, and he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK) in May 1970. As such he traveled widely in Africa, where he had many friends and acquaintances urging the early recognition of GRUNK by several African countries. However, upon the arrival in Peking of Ieng Sary, the so-called "Special Envoy from the FUNK-GRUNK within Cambodia," things began to work against the royalist elements of the Front - including Sarin Chhak, Chea San, Huot Sambath and others - and in favor of the Khmer Rouge, whose representative in the Chinese capital was Ieng Sary. Sary had been tasked with changing the composition of FUNK and GRUNK and making them more in tune with Khmer Rouge policies and strategies. Until Sary's arrival in Peking, the Khmer Rouge had little influence on the Front's policies and activities, which were directed from the Chinese capital by Samdech Norodom Sihanouk, Chairman of FUNK and Head of State, and Samdech Penn Nouth, Chairman of the Political Bureau of FUNK and Prime Minister of GRUNK. According to former members of FUNK and GRUNK who escaped the Khmer Rouge's gulags by exiling themselves to France, or who survived them, Sarin Chhak was highly appreciated by Sihanouk and former Cambodian Prime Minister and GRUNK's then-Prime Minister (1970-75) Penn Nouth but detested by Ieng Sary.

Penn Nouth managed to get Sarin Chhak appointed Deputy Prime Minister of GRUNK, concurrent with his maintenance of the Foreign Affairs portfolio, just before the fall of Phnom Penh and this enraged Ieng Sary even further (1). After a mission to the United Nations in October 1975, during which he met with US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Habib, Sarin Chhak disappeared from the scene and later reappeared in the notorious Beoung Trabek concentration camp for diplomats run by the Khmer Rouge. Several people have said that after Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979, he was taken by Vietnamese soldiers to a Vietnamese military vehicle and driven to an unknown destination (2). Some of my sources, including the children of Sarin Chhak currently living in France, have suggested that the Vietnamese took Sarin Chhak and his wife to Hanoi, where they kept him under house arrest until his death in the early to mid-1990s (3). According to the same sources, during a visit to Hanoi by Sihanouk in July 1970, the Vietnamese hero General Vo Nguyen Giap asked one of his staff to point Sarin Chhak out to him. The same sources suggest that it was not in Vietnam's interests to leave Sarin Chhak free, particularly outside Cambodia, as his thesis had stated that portions of Cambodia's territories had been given to Vietnam, particularly in the south of the country. This had not been forgotten by the Vietnamese.

In late 1979 former GRUNK Finance Minister Thiounn Mumm asked Ieng Sary to launch a campaign to find Sarin Chhak, but Mumm says Sary refused, arguing that once liberated he could turn against "Democratic Kampuchea" (4). In 1989, during the first Paris International Conference on Cambodia, the surviving children and grandchildren of Sarin Chhak wrote to Sihanouk and asked him to intervene for the release of their parents.Samdech Sihanouk wrote immediately to Mr. Hun Sen, but to the best of my knowledge, there was no answer from the latter (5). Then in September 1991 the family again wrote to Sihanouk advising that they had received reliable information, according to which Sarin Chhak and his wife had been kept until April 1991 in Vung Tau (also known as Cap Saint Jacques), a seaside resort about two hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City, and then taken back to Hanoi (6). Samdech Sihanouk wrote to Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet and to Hun Sen again. The Vietnamese leader replied that after a serious investigation, it had been found out that Ambassador Sarin Chhak and his wife were not in Vietnam (7). So, what happened to Sarin Chhak and his wife? It is a mystery. Was he taken to Vietnam and kept under house arrest until his death? Or was he killed by the Khmer Rouge? Let us hope that the forthcoming Extraordinary Chambers to judge the Khmer Rouge may bring to light some information on what happened to Sarin Chhak and his wife and allow their children and grandchildren to resume normal lives.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's new government will focus on increasing people's income and holding down the cost of living rather than simply aiming for higher economic growth, a senior minister said on Tuesday ahead of a cabinet meeting to discuss priorities.

The government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra took office last week and will present its policies to parliament next week, around Aug. 24.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittirat Na Ranong told reporters that among the priorities were a minimum wage of 300 baht ($10) a day, a starting salary for university graduates of 15,000 baht a month, a cut in company taxes, a reduction in fuel prices and a campaign against drug use.

"Other governments would have insisted on economic growth, which is understandable. But what we care about most is not just growth, but increases in people's income, and how to distribute this higher income to everybody fairly," Kittirat said.

The government seems determined to push ahead with the populist programme that won it a landslide election victory on July 3, although some economists warn this could set off a wage-price spiral.

The proposed nationwide minimum wage, for example, would mean an increase of 90 percent in some provinces, which is bound to hurt small businesses. These firms say they would not be helped much by an offsetting cut in corporate tax to 23 percent from 30 percent.

Kittirat, who has direct responsibility for rice as commerce minister, made no reference to that as he went into the cabinet meeting.He said ministers would study the outgoing government's policies before deciding which to continue.

"I didn't say we would immediately cancel all of their policies. We'll look at those policies thoroughly before making any decision," he said.

(Reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak; Writing by Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Rowing legend Rob Hamill is back doing what he loves.

The Atlantic Rowing Race winner from Te Pahu, outside Hamilton, has wanted for years to pit rowers against each other in a race across the Tasman Sea.

And last week he launched Team Gallagher a four-man team who will race against themselves in a rowing adventure expected to take anywhere between three weeks and three months.

"The idea is to get across as quickly as possible and it's the first time a human-powered vessel will go west to east and around Cape Reinga," Mr Hamill said.

"The idea is to eventually make it a race."

Mr Hamill's enthusiasm was contagious, said Margaret Comer, a corporate services executive with the sponsor, Gallagher Group.

"Sometimes it's hard to find individuals with that pioneering spirit. It has the promise of being something really exciting. And let's face it, they're all four good-looking boys."

Group chief executive Sir William Gallagher sailed across the Tasman with his father in 1959 and expected the row would be tough.

"We know what the waters are like and they're not that kind to you."

The team's orange 10.5m boat has room for three people to row at a time and two sleeping compartments.

It will be manned by team leader Nigel Cherrie, Hamilton rower Andrew McCowan, Wellington-based rower Martin Berka and Sir Peter Blake's Dunedin-based son James Blake, who will also capture the epic adventure on camera.

When asked about the practicalities of a sea voyage in a giant fibreglass canoe, Mr Blake said going to the toilet and cleaning teeth wouldn't be an issue.

"You just do it as you normally would," he said.

Mr Cherrie admitted he was a little nervous about the row which will begin at Sydney Harbour Bridge and end at the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

"There are going to be great days and there are going to be really tough days."

The team will be on standby from October 24, waiting for the best weather in which to start the 1400 nautical mile (2500km) voyage.

Victims of land disputes nationwide are being encouraged to unite, as figures released yesterday highlighted the magnitude of what is often referred to as an "epidemic of land grabbing".

CCHR presented the findings of its study on land conflicts in Cambodia at a press conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. As many as 47,000 families had been or could be affected by land conflict cases, some of which are ongoing, covered in the study.

The study, which was restricted to publicly available information, found that there had been 223 land conflict cases from 2007 to 2011. These comprised 165 reported land grabs and 66 evictions. More than 9,000 square kilometres of land had been confiscated during the period, the study found.

At the conference a number of land conflict victims delivered emotional accounts of losing their homes and land, and the impact it had on them.

Venerable Loun Sovath, the senior monk in Siem Reap' province's Chi Kraeng district, said that evictions violated human rights and international laws. "I call on the government, relevant ministries and stakeholders to enhance respect for human rights and the law," he said. Loun Sovath has become an outspoken voice on land rights issues over the past two years, combining human rights and a respect for the rule of law with peaceful advocacy grounded in Buddhist precepts. His advocacy on behalf of communities involved in land disputes began after two members of his family were shot during a land dispute in 2009.

Prey Lang committee chief Moeurn Sopheap also called on victims to band together.

"People must know that as the victims we have rights to make complaints. We have to unite, combat and protest against those violating our rights," Moeurn Sopheap said.

Prey Lang forest, which covers sections of four provinces, was in the spotlight earlier this year when hundreds of residents were evicted to make way for rubber plantations.

About 30 per cent of land conflicts in CCHR's study occurred in or around Phnom Penh, while border provinces accounted for 27 per cent.

Nearly half of all cases involved violations of human rights. A third of all land conflict victims were reportedly arrested while 45 per cent were subjected to intimidation or destruction of property.

CCHR president Ou Virak said the study would not have been possible without help from victims. He encouraged victims, various stakeholders and NGOs to rally together to combat land conflicts.

"These conflicts destroy lives. Cambodia has had enough of land grabbing and impunity, and real reform is required to ensure equality and security in the land sector," he said.

The study's findings will be presented to government ministries, parliamentarians and NGOs, he said.

The figures were limited to publicly available data as CCHR did not want to present statistics that the government would be likely to immediately dismiss. Ou Virak said. "We have more information on more cases, but we wanted to play the low-ball numbers."

The Ministry of Land Management had seen the figures and responded, which was a positive step forward, he said. But they disputed the figures and came back with a total of only 5,000 cases, a fraction of 47,000 the centre had found, he said.

The ministry declined to comment yesterday.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has signed off on an offer for on-site relocation for Boeung Kak lake residents, perhaps bringing to a close an embarrassing chapter in the development of Phnom Penh's urban landscape.

Hun Sen signed a sub-decree on August 11 that set aside 12.44 hectares of Srah Chak commune in Daun Penh district to be "offered to the people" for on-site relocation, according to a copy obtained yesterday by the Post.

The sub-decree ordered relevant ministries and Phnom Penh City Hall to "implement this sub-decree effectively".

Community leaders yesterday responded positively to the offer, which was about 2.5 hectares shy of their demand. "We are very happy . . . we have been waiting many years for this decision from the leader of the government," Nun Sokheng, a representative of villagers in Srah Chak commune's Village 23, said last night.

Roughly 1,000 families, who have braved bloody rallies and remained steadfast in their epic fight for fair compensation or on-site housing, appear set to benefit from the deal.

Protests over the development had become a near-daily occurrence in Phnom Penh, but a seemingly far more persuasive form of pressure came last week when the World Bank announced its suspension of millions of dollars in funding to the Kingdom. The internat-ional body announced it would not provide any new lending to Cambodia "until an agreement is reached with the residents of Boeung Kak lake".

Three projects worth US$128 million were marked as awaiting approval.

Sia Phearum, secretariat director of the Housing Rights Task Force, said yesterday it was "good information for the Boeung Kak residents" and "very intelligent of Premier Hun Sen that he can find a good solution for helping these people".

But reports that representatives from the private company developing the lakeside began buying up homes three days ago, in anticipation that the sub-decree would result in increased land values, raised questions about the bargain.

Sia Phearum said people who community members had recognised as representatives of Shukaku Inc had bought lakeside houses at prices ranging from $30,000 to $200,000.

"When the government dissemin-ated this decree … the company tried to buy out the villagers," he said, adding that he did not know how many homes had been purchased.

Shukaku, which is owned by ruling- party senator Lao Meng Khin, was granted a 99-year lease in 2007 to develop the 133-hectare site. It later joined with Chinese firm Erdos Hong Jun Investment Company, which has a 51 per cent stake in the project.

The development has displaced an estimated 15,000 people, many of whom felt forced to accept meagre compensat-ion or resettlement options.

Residents were offered a mere $8,500 in compensation or apartments in Dangkor district and payments of two million riel ($495), despite the fact that some held plots of land worth as much as $150,000.

Ek Madra, a spokesman at the Press and Quick Reactions Unit at the Council of Ministers, said yesterday he could not comment because he had no information on the issue. Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan could not be reached last night.