Mon, 21 Jan 2008
DPA
Phnom Penh - Cambodian hilltribe people will try self-policing and implement traditional fines in an effort to stop illegal land sales, a rights activist said Monday. Pen Bonnar of local human rights organization Adhoc confirmed local media reports that the Kreung ethnic minority of Rattanakiri province in the country's far north-east had turned to tradition to stop members of their community selling off land.
"They have to do something because people are selling off all their land even though it is illegal and they need it to grow crops," Bonnar said by telephone.
People found selling community land will now face fines of a jug of rice wine and a pig. Community leaders will have to forfeit a jug of wine and a cow. Cash fines would also be enforced, he said.
Land-grabbing and illegal sales of land are massive problems in Cambodia, which has only recently established a cadastral commission after 30 years of civil war. The Khmer Rouge regime wiped out ownership, and many people are uncertain which land is for the state, the community or themselves.
Remote ethnic minorities also sometimes fail to understand a cash economy, selling land without understanding they can no longer work on it after they receive the money.
"They have to do something because people are selling off all their land even though it is illegal and they need it to grow crops," Bonnar said by telephone.
People found selling community land will now face fines of a jug of rice wine and a pig. Community leaders will have to forfeit a jug of wine and a cow. Cash fines would also be enforced, he said.
Land-grabbing and illegal sales of land are massive problems in Cambodia, which has only recently established a cadastral commission after 30 years of civil war. The Khmer Rouge regime wiped out ownership, and many people are uncertain which land is for the state, the community or themselves.
Remote ethnic minorities also sometimes fail to understand a cash economy, selling land without understanding they can no longer work on it after they receive the money.
1 comment:
Voodoo curses?
These people must be crazy. It must take more than voodoo to have a real effect on these government crooks; they already have the most powerful protection they needed to ward off any voodoo curses that come to their way.
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