von Amy Kazmin (Koh Kong)
Financial Times (Germany)
Land-grabbing is creating tensions in rural Cambodia as farmers are deprived of their livelihoods.
From his wooden house on stilts, Kong Song, a Cambodian farmer, points out the tractor kicking up a huge dust cloud on the land where he and his fellow villagers once cultivated water-melons, maize and other lucrative cash crops to supplement their rice harvests. The watermelons, sold at a nearby beach resort, helped the villagers of Trapeang Kandol buy motorbikes and mobile phones and finance wedding feasts - significant economic advances in the impoverished countryside.
But last November Mr Kong Song and 52 families in his village were ordered off their land by Koh Kong Sugar Industry, a politically connected company that claimed it had official permission to absorb the fields into a new plantation. Since then, the incensed farmers, with another 300 dispossessed families from the Sre Ambil district, have battled to reclaim land that has now been surrounded by a deep ditch, cleared with bulldozers and planted with sugar.
So far they have been met with brute force. Military police last year fired into a crowd of protesting villagers, injuring several. "We are so worried," says Mr Kong Song, who says he is left with just two hectares of paddy fields after the company seized five hectares from him. "I just think about how I can support my family because we depend on the land. We cannot survive with just two hectares."
The tensions in Sre Ambil are symptomatic of rural anger in an economically resurgent Cambodia as powerful companies take possession of vast tracts of increasingly valuable land with little or no regard for the farmers already cultivating the fields. Licadho, a human rights group, says it received complaints about 115 rural land-grabbing cases in 2006 and that authorities and companies are increasingly responding to protests with violence.
In the 1970s, the radical Khmer Rouge abolished private property, forcing people to live on collective farms. After their brutal reign, during which about one-quarter of the population perished, Cambodia was left with just 6m people and there was little pressure on land. But with the population now up to 13m and the economy growing rapidly, land values are rising sharply, prompting those with clout to snap up as much as they can.
Under Cambodia's progressive 2001 land law, farmers who have used land for five years peacefully and without dispute have the rights to it, but few poor farmers have undertaken the expensive process of obtaining full title, or are even aware such a process exists. While the World Bank is now assisting with land titling, it is a slow undertaking. Meanwhile, when villagers confront powerful claimants to their lands, local authorities and courts frequently say they are powerless to intervene.
Hun Sen, prime minister, recognises that growing rural discontent over land is a huge problem for his regime. "Landlessness and land-grabbing creates serious threat to the social and political stability of Cambodia," the long-time strongman said in February, vowing to punish any officials involved. But so far, analysts say, his approach has been ad hoc, merely forcing a pair of high-profile officials to relinquish some land.
For all the tough rhetoric, much conflict stems from state policies ostensibly intended to transform fallow or underutilised land into productive plantations for export-generating crops such as sugar. Since 1992, 57 companies, many with close connections to the ruling party, have been awarded "economic land concessions" covering nearly 1m hectares.
In theory, concessions should exclude farmers' lands or provide "fair, just compensation". But Henry Hwang, an adviser with the Cambodian Legal Education Centre, says these conditions are rarely met.
Koh Kong Sugar, partly owned by a businessman-senator, was last year granted a concession for 9,700 hectares of land in Sre Ambil, some of which was being farmed by villagers. In Trapeang Kandol the company offered compensation of $50 per hectare, although rights lawyers, who are pursuing the case in the courts, say fair market value would have been $500-$1,000 per hectare. While 23 families accepted the money, another 27 families rejected it.
In nearby Chouk Village, Lay Doul, a mother of seven who lost eight hectares to the sugar plantation, is furious at forces that she says are leaving villagers worse off than they were under the Khmer Rouge. "During the Khmer Rouge time, they said 'everything belongs to everyone', and they provided food for us to eat," she said. "Now they take our land, without paying anything, and they are happy and we are crying."
From his wooden house on stilts, Kong Song, a Cambodian farmer, points out the tractor kicking up a huge dust cloud on the land where he and his fellow villagers once cultivated water-melons, maize and other lucrative cash crops to supplement their rice harvests. The watermelons, sold at a nearby beach resort, helped the villagers of Trapeang Kandol buy motorbikes and mobile phones and finance wedding feasts - significant economic advances in the impoverished countryside.
But last November Mr Kong Song and 52 families in his village were ordered off their land by Koh Kong Sugar Industry, a politically connected company that claimed it had official permission to absorb the fields into a new plantation. Since then, the incensed farmers, with another 300 dispossessed families from the Sre Ambil district, have battled to reclaim land that has now been surrounded by a deep ditch, cleared with bulldozers and planted with sugar.
So far they have been met with brute force. Military police last year fired into a crowd of protesting villagers, injuring several. "We are so worried," says Mr Kong Song, who says he is left with just two hectares of paddy fields after the company seized five hectares from him. "I just think about how I can support my family because we depend on the land. We cannot survive with just two hectares."
The tensions in Sre Ambil are symptomatic of rural anger in an economically resurgent Cambodia as powerful companies take possession of vast tracts of increasingly valuable land with little or no regard for the farmers already cultivating the fields. Licadho, a human rights group, says it received complaints about 115 rural land-grabbing cases in 2006 and that authorities and companies are increasingly responding to protests with violence.
In the 1970s, the radical Khmer Rouge abolished private property, forcing people to live on collective farms. After their brutal reign, during which about one-quarter of the population perished, Cambodia was left with just 6m people and there was little pressure on land. But with the population now up to 13m and the economy growing rapidly, land values are rising sharply, prompting those with clout to snap up as much as they can.
Under Cambodia's progressive 2001 land law, farmers who have used land for five years peacefully and without dispute have the rights to it, but few poor farmers have undertaken the expensive process of obtaining full title, or are even aware such a process exists. While the World Bank is now assisting with land titling, it is a slow undertaking. Meanwhile, when villagers confront powerful claimants to their lands, local authorities and courts frequently say they are powerless to intervene.
Hun Sen, prime minister, recognises that growing rural discontent over land is a huge problem for his regime. "Landlessness and land-grabbing creates serious threat to the social and political stability of Cambodia," the long-time strongman said in February, vowing to punish any officials involved. But so far, analysts say, his approach has been ad hoc, merely forcing a pair of high-profile officials to relinquish some land.
For all the tough rhetoric, much conflict stems from state policies ostensibly intended to transform fallow or underutilised land into productive plantations for export-generating crops such as sugar. Since 1992, 57 companies, many with close connections to the ruling party, have been awarded "economic land concessions" covering nearly 1m hectares.
In theory, concessions should exclude farmers' lands or provide "fair, just compensation". But Henry Hwang, an adviser with the Cambodian Legal Education Centre, says these conditions are rarely met.
Koh Kong Sugar, partly owned by a businessman-senator, was last year granted a concession for 9,700 hectares of land in Sre Ambil, some of which was being farmed by villagers. In Trapeang Kandol the company offered compensation of $50 per hectare, although rights lawyers, who are pursuing the case in the courts, say fair market value would have been $500-$1,000 per hectare. While 23 families accepted the money, another 27 families rejected it.
In nearby Chouk Village, Lay Doul, a mother of seven who lost eight hectares to the sugar plantation, is furious at forces that she says are leaving villagers worse off than they were under the Khmer Rouge. "During the Khmer Rouge time, they said 'everything belongs to everyone', and they provided food for us to eat," she said. "Now they take our land, without paying anything, and they are happy and we are crying."
8 comments:
This is why Hun Sen and his party are eager to search and destroy weapons using pretext of keeping peace. Foreigners including Japaneses, Americans and others could careless if khmers are no longer populated the land of their country. They fear that the weapons will be used by khmers, the land owner for self defense.
This is world unjustice. This is the view of those who never know how it feel to be on the powerless end. Japaneses, Americans, french and other foreigners have no problem with neighbor race invading and mingling with their country.
Khmers do have terrible neighbors, especially vietnamese who never cease to want to acquire Cambodia. They just took Kampuchea Krom (South vietnam) recently and now Cambodia proper is about to be swallow by vietnam again.
All these are the work of foreigners. French ceeded Kampuchea Krom. Now the rest of the world wanted to give cambodia to vietnam also, knowing it or not. Khmers should rise up and defend themselves.
Without weapons, khmers farmers can only beg and pray for mercy from the traitors.
Court and police belong to Hun Sen that serve the vietnamese.
So, rise up khmers. You have nothing else to loose. You have to fight these thugs, tyrants and traitors with real bullets, axes and knives. You must use whatever force to defend your heritage and your livelyhood. Ten fingers begging and pleading will not give you peace and keep your children from starving.
Rise up khmers! Either you rise up and be courageous and proud to be khmers or die as cowards in the hands of the traitors Hun Sen, Sihanouk and their cliques.
In theory, concessions should exclude farmers' lands or provide "fair, just compensation". But Henry Hwang, an adviser with the Cambodian Legal Education Centre, says these conditions are rarely met.
In nearby Chouk Village, Lay Doul, a mother of seven who lost eight hectares to the sugar plantation, is furious at forces that she says are leaving villagers worse off than they were under the Khmer Rouge. "During the Khmer Rouge time, they said 'everything belongs to everyone', and they provided food for us to eat," she said. "Now they take our land, without paying anything, and they are happy and we are crying."
Ahh ... shut the fuck up! let's
see some ownership title.
2:27 AM
hey motherfucker, even if you have ownership title, you still can't do anything. You idiot, don yu realize that most of these people don't even know that ownership title exist. you need to go fuck yourself, people like you should go to jail. i pity you for this, you probably angry becuase your family is fucked up, asshole...
If there were still forests, farmers would have gone into hiding there and they would have fiercely fought against land-grabbers and corrupt officials. And I would have joined them.
You're wrong, 11:02, with
ownership title, you will be
compensated for your land at market
value.
Again, the problem is lack of
resources, we could have warned
squatters to stay off state's
property, but it costs a lot of
money to patrol every square
kilometer of state's property.
furthermore, we don't mind people
using it so long we can have it
back when we need it.
Good point, 11:09, that is another
good reason why we clear the
forest.
Through out my life, I see nothing but war and war and more war for Cambodia! This is such a sad fact for a country that has everything for Cambodian people to enjoy and live peacefully! I also found out that only a few riches and powerful Cambodian people who are creating all these upheaval in Cambodia because they have absolute power over peaceful Cambodian people! This is why democracy is necessary for a country like Cambodia!!!The majority of Cambodian should have some saying about their future and at the same time the even a small group of Cambodian should have some saying too!
Please let not allow a few thugs and bitches destroy Cambodia again and it is time for a change! I want to see Cambodia contribute something back to the world and not going around selling their misery to the world!!!
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