Phnom Penh, August 24, 2015: A group of NGOs working on the development project of the Union Development Group Co. Ltd. (UDG) joined the meeting with a senator Ly Yong Phat, the shareholder of the UDG development project, at Sunway Hotel, to discuss and seek for the intervention over the long-running land dispute between affected communities and the Chinese company (UDG), in which happened in Botom Sakor and Kiri Sakor District, Koh Kong Project. The NGO representatives that joined the meeting included NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF), Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), ADHOC and Khmer Kampuchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Associations (KKKHRDA).
On the same day, Senator Ly Yong Phat facilitated another meeting between the same NGO representatives and Ministry of Environment (MoE), represented by H.E Say Sam Sal, Minister of MoE, Deputy Secretariat of State and Advisor to discuss over the same issue by seeking for alternative opinions and solutions to the problems.
Several meeting results were produced from a half day meeting such as:
- CSOs/NGOs raised the requests from the communities regarding the leopard skin policy implementation over their housing territory for the company and me
- Senator Ly Yong Phat is willing to facilitate more meetings between NGOs and other decision makers from this UDG development project
- Senator Ly Yong Phat, in cooperation with MoE and NGOs, is going to form his team, in order to conduct the research on the remaining families, who denied to relocate. This process of data gathering will monitor closely from NGOs
- A public forum, in which participate all related stakeholders in this development project, will be organized after result found by the research team.
