A/HRC/18/46 land title under articles 30 and 31 of the 2001 Land Law. The security forces have also used intimidation and violence against protesters. Since August 2008, Shukaku began filling the lake with sand and many families have moved from the site, accepting an inadequate package of compensation in the face of the threat of an eventual forced eviction. However, it is estimated that 1,500 families still remain under threat of forced eviction. While some dialogue has taken place between affected communities who remain in the Boeung Kok Lake area and the Municipality of Phnom Penh, much remains to be achieved in terms of compensation and solutions for onsite upgrading. 11. With the help of the international community, the Government has embarked on an ambitious land-titling programme in the country which, however, often lacks transparency regarding economic land concessions. Land grabbing by the rich and powerful has at times overshadowed the progress made in land titling. While some of the economic and social land concessions have been for bona fide public purposes, the same cannot be said of some other such concessions. 12. Furthermore, individuals advocating for the rights of their communities to land have often been subjected to arbitrary arrest or unfounded charges. A lack of dialogue and consultation with potentially affected communities before the granting of economic land concessions is an unfortunate pattern that the Special Rapporteur has observed, as is the failure to conduct an environmental impact assessment. The Special Rapporteur had expressed hope in his report of last year that the Government would create a mechanism in conjunction with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in an attempt to address the growing number of land disputes (A/HRC/15/46, para. 32), and he was encouraged by the announcement made by the Chair of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee to create such a mechanism in May 2011. 13. The Special Rapporteur has observed a trend characterized by the convergence of the State apparatus with private business interests. In February 2011, the Special Rapporteur visited the Kampong Chhnang province and witnessed for himself the situation of some villagers from Lorpeang village, Taches commune, Kampong Tralach district who had been evicted from their land in early 2008 without compensation, even though a case concerning the situation of those and other villagers was pending in the district cadastral commission, and had been sent to the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution. Despite the communities’ claim to it, their land was taken over by KDC International, a company run by the wife of a Government Minister. Eight villagers, including a village chief and a staff member of an NGO who assisted the affected villagers, were charged with property infringement, incitement, and dissemination of disinformation (more details in para. 21 below). 14. In June 2011, the Special Rapporteur met with three families who were forcibly evicted from their homes in Sangkath Phnom Penh Thmey commune, Russei Keo district (now Sen Sok district), despite the lack of an official decision on the land in question that had been pending since 1992. The families reportedly bought the land from a military officer in 1992 (they have the purchase document, but attempts to secure a land title from the municipality have been unsuccessful). Since September 2003, there had reportedly been multiple attempts to seize the land and evict the families, with little or no compensation, against which the families protested. The case was examined first by the municipal court, and then sent to the municipal cadastral commission in 2004, and had remained pending and unresolved for several years. 15. In June 2011, a violent clash occurred between authorities of Kampong Speu province and villagers of Oudong district over a disputed 65-hectare plot of land currently used for rice production, and the intended destruction of three houses on the land used by five families. Four members of the gendarmerie and at least six villagers reported injuries. The clash was the culmination of a long-standing dispute over the parcel of land, on which 6