The National Assembly’s Human Rights and Complaints Commission has asked the government to grant land titles to more than 500 families in Tbong Khmum whose land is claimed by a rubber plantation.

Residents in Memot district’s Tromoung commune have been fighting relocation since 2008 when the government awarded a 9,100-hectare development contract to Memot Rubber Plantation Development Company.

After visiting the site yesterday, the lawmakers sided with villagers who they said had lived there since 1979. “They are the forest owners there . . . if they are forced to leave, their livelihood will be affected,” said Eng Chhay Eang, the commission’s chairman.

In August the Tbong Khmum provincial governor was ordered to resolve the dispute and grant 524 families land titles, but Memot district governor Cheng Bunna said negotiations were ongoing.