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Cambodia
Land-grabbing in Cambodia
More than 80% of the cambodian population lives in the rural areas as farmers. Very few have titles on the land they inhabit and live off. Many have unofficially overtaken their land after the turbulent years of Khmer Rouge in the late seventies and the civil war that followed in the eighties. During this time, many cambodians were forced to flee their habitats to other areas or to escape the country entirely. This completely disrupted the patterns of land ownership and previous registrations of land were lost.
| Photo: Maia Kahlke Lorentzen |
| Farmers in Battambang province |
Furthermore, there is no tradition for land registration with the authorities in rural Cambodia, it is mostly dealt with at village level. Therefore, Cambodias rural poor face very unstable livelihoods with risk of evictions and violent takeovers. Every day, large groups of farmers are being evicted from land they have inhabited since the eighties, often because large businesses or investors are buying up large areas and clearing them with the help of local authorities. Forced evictions and land-grabbing are everyday occurances in Cambodia.
The system is the problem
Sam Vineath, project manager in DCAs partner Lutheran World Federation Cambodia, experiences land-grabbing up close in his work with the rural poor in Kompong Chhnang province.
”The problem lies within the system”, he explains ”The villages are poorly organized and people don’t know their rights. It is part of the cambodian culture to fear and respect those with power. When the judicial system is also not independent and the laws are not implemented by the authorities, you have a situation where the powerful will take what they want from the poorest. Right now they are taking their land.”
Children of activist arrested
The conflicts arising from land disputes often result in violent clashes between evicted inhabitors and the authorities. A recent forced eviction tragically ended in police gunning down and killing a couple, who were trying to prevent excavators from demolishing their house.
In Kompong Cham province, the rights activist Sray Horn has helped a group of farmers regain 431 hectares of land, that were unrightfully grabbed by a rubber plantation. Now he himself is charged with land-grabbing by the very same plantation and is living in hiding in Phnom Penh. The Kompong Cham authorities have arrested his children and say they will be keeping them in custody, untill they find him and his wife.
The laws have no effects
According to Sam Vineath the only way forward is for the people to keep protesting against land-grabbings, even though this can sometimes be risky. ”LWF tries to teach the people about their rights and to stand their with the authoritites. But we also work with the authorities and try to invoke a sense of responsibility towards the population and towards upholding the law.
Cambodia has a landlaw, which in theory should solve the current issues of evictions and land-grabbing.
”Cambodias landlaw is good” Says Mekh Sokhan from NGO Forum on Cambodia, a cooperation network working with land rights. ”But the law is not implemented by the authorities and the courts are controlled by the elite. So the existence of the landlaw makes no difference to the poor.”
UN special envoy critizises the goverment
A current land controversy between Keat Kolny, business woman and sister of the Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance, and a group of indigenous farmers from Ratanakiri has attracted the attention of the UN special envoy Yash Ghai. He visited the farmers in Ratanakri, to research their claim; that Keat Kolny has grabbed 430 hectares of their land for her plantation. The local authorities tried to break up the meeting and took photograps of the people present. Following this, Yash Ghai released a report critizising the lack of initiative to solve the land issues from the Cambodian government. He also critizises the international donors for their lack of demands to the government for action. Most ministers were angry and Hun Sen, the primeminister of Cambodia, personally dissociated himself from Yash Ghai and told him to solve the problems in his home country Kenya, before taking on Cambodias.
Many local human rights organisations agree with Yash Ghais report, however. DCA’s local partner, human rights organisation LICADHO states that the report is accurate and they hope it will affect the international donors to demand that the the government do more to solve the land issues in Cambodia.
