Some 200 Koh Kong farmers locked in a long-running land dispute with two sugar plantations met Tuesday with a representative of the Thailand-based owners for the first time since the land dispute began in 2006. Khamrom Phochai, a…representative of Thailand’s Khon Kaen Sugar Industry…said the report, received last month from commune officials, claimed that only nine families were still in dispute with the plantations…“After today’s meeting, I realized that there are 200 families still in dispute and asking for their land back…I will make a formal report to send to my boss in Thailand since the company wants to end the dispute with the local villagers as soon as possible,” he said. Many of the families in dispute with Khon Kaen sugar were violently evicted from their homes and farms…and have staged many protests…to demand the return of their roughly 2,000 hectares of land taken by the owners of the plantations. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand is currently investigating Kong Kaen and said last year that preliminary findings allowed for “reasonable belief” that the families’ rights had been breached. [also mentions Ve Wong Corporation]