The Chi Khor Krom land activist community said that authorities thwarted their peaceful gathering under the pretext that they were causing “chaos and social insecurity” while Cambodia hosts the Southeast Asia Games.

The information comes from a Facebook post added on May 14 by the “Chi Khor Krom Community, Koh Kong Province” page, which has been connected to the LYP Sugar Disputes in this database. According to the community, about 50 authorities stopped a protest and threatened a community member, identified as Chhun Ran, saying that she must agree not to organize gatherings at her house anymore.

Sre Ambel district deputy governor Hong Bros arrived among the government officers and said the protests could not continue. A community leader told its members that there are plans for a social land concession for 955 low-income families, according to the post.

The community last held a protest at the Land Management Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Cabinet drop-off location on March 29, according to their page.

This dispute has been ongoing since at least 2006 according to news reports, but the community members have said they can trace their residence of this land back for generations. The tycoon and senator Ly Yong Phat has two land concessions that pass through Koh Kong’s Chi Khor Krom commune — Koh Kong Plantation and Koh Kong Sugar Industry — which overlap with land from at least 1,000 families. Disputants of the Ly Yong Phat concessions often protest alongside families in dispute with Heng Huy, another oknha-owned concession in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district.