March 05, 2008By LAO MONG HAY
UPI Asia Online
Column: Rule by Fear
HONG KONG, China - In recent years, land-grabbing has been a big issue affecting many people and forestry areas across Cambodia. It has been feared that the grabbing of people's land could spark a "peasant revolution" as in the past, which led to the harsh communist revolution of the 1970s. On March 3, 2007, Prime Minister Hun Sen set out to wage "a war against land-grabbers" whom he identified as officials of his own party, the Cambodian People's Party, and people in power.
These powerful and rich people have invariably, through illicit means, secured ownership of lands already rightfully owned or occupied by powerless and poor people. They have also secured cooperation from law enforcement agencies and courts of law to enforce their ownership and to evict the owners or residents. In addition, they offer to pay compensation that is not commensurate with the market prices of the affected lands and the hardship of relocation. This unjust compensation has led to protests that, in turn, have led to forced evictions and/or arrests, mostly on fabricated charges.
When Hun Sen launched this war, there were doubts about his seriousness in eradicating land-grabbing. There were charges he was just electioneering prior to the commune elections held in the following month as the opposition Sam Rainsy Party was staunchly opposed to land-grabbing and was already working hard to help its victims.
There were some grains of truth in the charges. The announced war contributed to appeasing many people and secured for the CPP through that election the control of 1,592 commune councils out of 1,621of these local bodies across the country. The SRP also made some gains, overtook the second largest party, FUNCINPEC, and obtained control of 27 councils.
The war immediately won a number of battles against several land-grabbers. An army major was arrested, for example, for encroaching on more than 1,500 hectares of state forestry land, and an army general was forced to return 200 hectares of land to the government, although no action was taken against him. Moreover, a tycoon and two associates were arrested for falsifying documents regarding 300 hectares of land.
Later, in July, Hun Sen ordered the demolition of a foreign-owned luxury housing estate built on a filled-in lake on the outskirts of Phnom Penh for obstructing the flow of water and causing floods in the capital.
No such canons have been heard in other cases, however, and land-grabbing has not subsided.
For instance, in January 2008, Cambodia's National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes said it had received 1,500 cases of land-grabbing and had addressed one-third of them. A human rights NGO, ADHOC, received 382 complaints against land-grabbing filed by people who came to seek its help in 2007, a figure down from 450 in 2006. However, it noted that the number of people arrested in protests against land-grabbing had almost doubled from 78 in 2006 to 149 in 2008, the number of forced evictions had increased from 16 in 2006 to 26 in 2007 and that these forced evictions had affected no less than 5,585 families.
Amnesty International said in a recent report that "at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being evicted in the wake of development projects, land disputes and land-grabbing." Land-grabbing is thus an enormous problem when Cambodia has 14 million inhabitants and slightly more than 1 percent of its population is facing such a risk.
Moreover, the gravity of the issue apparently has not decreased in 2008. According to the news stories on its web site, Radio Free Asia reported 29 cases of land-grabbing in Cambodia in January and February -- on average, one case every other day. An army general close to Hun Sen was involved in one case, and a tycoon close to the ruling circle was implicated in another.
Unfortunately, the record of Hun Sen's war against the grabbing of forestry land is not any better. In a recent report, Cambodia's Ministry of Environment said that "a number of armed men and powerful people" were grabbing forestry land, even in national parks. Such people threatened park rangers and cleared the forest for ownership purposes. The same ministry noted that local authorities had issued ownership titles to these land-grabbers and recognized their commercial transactions in the national parks.
Similarly, it has recently been reported that, despite the government's action to take land back, forestry land-grabbing has been on the increase in almost all provinces. This increase has run parallel to the rise in land prices, which have shot up by 50 percent over the last year in urban areas.
Hun Sen needs to do more if his war against land-grabbers is to score any victory and land-grabbing is to be eradicated. He needs to reign in officials in his own party and others in power, as well as the rich and the companies these powerful people have supported or are associated with, and to stop making any more land concessions to all of them. Furthermore, he needs to halt any eviction without just compensation for the evictees.
Moreover, Hun Sen needs to ensure effective enforcement of the land law and the law on the protection of nature with no favor given to any party. He should end the practice of using executive orders to adjudicate land disputes and should instead utilize the due process of law.
He should also cease his control of the courts of law, clean up their corruption, provide them with adequate resources and respect their judgments. He should likewise empower the cadastral commissions set up under the land law, now very weak and starved of resources, to adjudicate disputes over unregistered land, provide them with sufficient resources and respect their independence and their decisions.
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(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
These powerful and rich people have invariably, through illicit means, secured ownership of lands already rightfully owned or occupied by powerless and poor people. They have also secured cooperation from law enforcement agencies and courts of law to enforce their ownership and to evict the owners or residents. In addition, they offer to pay compensation that is not commensurate with the market prices of the affected lands and the hardship of relocation. This unjust compensation has led to protests that, in turn, have led to forced evictions and/or arrests, mostly on fabricated charges.
When Hun Sen launched this war, there were doubts about his seriousness in eradicating land-grabbing. There were charges he was just electioneering prior to the commune elections held in the following month as the opposition Sam Rainsy Party was staunchly opposed to land-grabbing and was already working hard to help its victims.
There were some grains of truth in the charges. The announced war contributed to appeasing many people and secured for the CPP through that election the control of 1,592 commune councils out of 1,621of these local bodies across the country. The SRP also made some gains, overtook the second largest party, FUNCINPEC, and obtained control of 27 councils.
The war immediately won a number of battles against several land-grabbers. An army major was arrested, for example, for encroaching on more than 1,500 hectares of state forestry land, and an army general was forced to return 200 hectares of land to the government, although no action was taken against him. Moreover, a tycoon and two associates were arrested for falsifying documents regarding 300 hectares of land.
Later, in July, Hun Sen ordered the demolition of a foreign-owned luxury housing estate built on a filled-in lake on the outskirts of Phnom Penh for obstructing the flow of water and causing floods in the capital.
No such canons have been heard in other cases, however, and land-grabbing has not subsided.
For instance, in January 2008, Cambodia's National Authority for the Resolution of Land Disputes said it had received 1,500 cases of land-grabbing and had addressed one-third of them. A human rights NGO, ADHOC, received 382 complaints against land-grabbing filed by people who came to seek its help in 2007, a figure down from 450 in 2006. However, it noted that the number of people arrested in protests against land-grabbing had almost doubled from 78 in 2006 to 149 in 2008, the number of forced evictions had increased from 16 in 2006 to 26 in 2007 and that these forced evictions had affected no less than 5,585 families.
Amnesty International said in a recent report that "at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being evicted in the wake of development projects, land disputes and land-grabbing." Land-grabbing is thus an enormous problem when Cambodia has 14 million inhabitants and slightly more than 1 percent of its population is facing such a risk.
Moreover, the gravity of the issue apparently has not decreased in 2008. According to the news stories on its web site, Radio Free Asia reported 29 cases of land-grabbing in Cambodia in January and February -- on average, one case every other day. An army general close to Hun Sen was involved in one case, and a tycoon close to the ruling circle was implicated in another.
Unfortunately, the record of Hun Sen's war against the grabbing of forestry land is not any better. In a recent report, Cambodia's Ministry of Environment said that "a number of armed men and powerful people" were grabbing forestry land, even in national parks. Such people threatened park rangers and cleared the forest for ownership purposes. The same ministry noted that local authorities had issued ownership titles to these land-grabbers and recognized their commercial transactions in the national parks.
Similarly, it has recently been reported that, despite the government's action to take land back, forestry land-grabbing has been on the increase in almost all provinces. This increase has run parallel to the rise in land prices, which have shot up by 50 percent over the last year in urban areas.
Hun Sen needs to do more if his war against land-grabbers is to score any victory and land-grabbing is to be eradicated. He needs to reign in officials in his own party and others in power, as well as the rich and the companies these powerful people have supported or are associated with, and to stop making any more land concessions to all of them. Furthermore, he needs to halt any eviction without just compensation for the evictees.
Moreover, Hun Sen needs to ensure effective enforcement of the land law and the law on the protection of nature with no favor given to any party. He should end the practice of using executive orders to adjudicate land disputes and should instead utilize the due process of law.
He should also cease his control of the courts of law, clean up their corruption, provide them with adequate resources and respect their judgments. He should likewise empower the cadastral commissions set up under the land law, now very weak and starved of resources, to adjudicate disputes over unregistered land, provide them with sufficient resources and respect their independence and their decisions.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
9 comments:
Actually, what we need to do is stop being Mr. Nice Guy and let squatters used the State's Land for free. We should patrol all of our lands and remove them right away upon discovery. And that should eliminate all virtual land grabbing issues that we have heard. Perhaps, the state should consider increase the budget to secure all State's land from squatters.
In addition, many good owners had made the mistake by letting villagers using their lands for a number years for farming free of charge, and when the owner required their land back, they they often have to turn to the court to have them evicted because the villager won't morally returned the land to the rightful owners.
Accordingly, I call on all owners of the land to stop being Mr. Nice Guy also because every time they seek the court to evict people from their land, government end up taking all of the blame.
I read your writing with great interest and (very)disturbing and appalling when you've alluded to a "peasant revolution," I find it rather pregnable argument, at least in part, and therefore I'm diametrically in a major dissension due to the fact that under the nightmarish horror of Khmer Rouge reign of terror was not precipitated by land-grabbing by the government (if any). Of course, you knew what precipitated the revolution in the early 1970s.
Come on Mr. Dr, you can do better than that!
these days, land-grabbings are real. they are committed by the rich and the powerful. while the poor and the powerless have been evicted from their lands without sufficient compensation, the rich and the powerful have been given hundreds and thousands of hectares of land concessions for free. peasant revolution did happen in cambodia in Samlaut in 1967. it happened because of land-grabbings by the powerful and the rich, govt. officials and business people. the peasants rose up and fought back. the govt.sent in the troops and brutally massacred the peasants. they escaped to Phnom Veay Chap and set up their base there. that was when the Khmer Rouge movement became stronger and stronger until it can topple the Lon Nol regime. now I think the peasant revolution will not happen again in cambodia because people are weary and tired of wars. but there might be revenge when these powerful and rich people are no longer in power. one day they will lose power, they cannot rule forever. Look at Bou Dinh (building?), Dey Krahom, Sambok Chap and Tonle Bassac residents, they resided there since 1979 but now they are forcibly evicted without adequate compensation and the corrupt officials in turn sold the land to property developers and pocket all the profits. Pure corruption!
5:04 PM
If you had your facts right (as you've asserted) -- you just made the Dr. less intelligent.
There are two sets of problems:
1. In 1979 there was no private ownership of land. So the people who settled the land after 1979 thought they owned it. But they were wrong. During the subsequent Communist regime, there was no private land ownership either. After 1993 the government was supposed to work on issuing titles according to pre-1975 records, which were scarce, if not non-existent. So the common law of ownership by possession was applied, that is, after 5 years of farming the land you become the owner. But the farmers still had to provide proof of their possession, which is usually done at the Sangkat. That process has not been completed. In many cases there are very difficult problems to resolve before a title can be issued. The squatters in the cities can rarely claim ownership by possession. Like in all slums in major cities throughout the world, the rural poor are drawn to the city thinking they can find jobs there. Having no housing they just live in ramshackle huts. There are plenty of those in Phnom Penh. You need to look at the people in Dey Krohom for instance. What work did they have? Or look at Bo Deng near the river.
2. After 1993 the powerful simply bought any land they thought desirable for a pittance and had titles issued in their name. When interest in real estate began to rise and new projects were envisioned the powerful were the first to know and quick to buy that land cheaply.
Now, some people think they can just grab it as the disenfranchised can't exercise their rights because of lack of knowledge and money.
In some cases what might appear as forced eviction is nothing but the development of a slum, in some cases it is unclear ownership, and in some cases it is land-grabbing by the powerful.
The interests of all parties involved must be weighed carefully, but sometimes the public interest, e. g. the development of a slum, is eminent. But, of course, in those cases the government ought to provide at least shelter for the displaced people. After all, the government is for the people.
These lines must be drawn carefully in order to assess the situation justly. A round-about condemnation does not help anybody, least of all the poor. It is unfortunate that many time human rights organizations do not draw those lines.
it is better for leaders to support a crisis like this instead of against it because for publicity it goes to show a good, dedicated leader who listen and hear poor, disadvantaged people's calling for help from the gov't. please keep this in mind; it can help political gain as well.
you fuck up officer let people setle on elegal places so you stupid official can collect rent every week to bride your superior.
When the land price get hight you fucking supperior sell them and force you to do the dirty work with some commision!
May ligthning strike the cheaters!
Guys, many good people has been kind to let squatters used their land free of charge, but what Dr. Lao and you is doing is spoiling that benefit for all squatters. Now they all have to pay rent, and from the salary they made in Cambodia, they will never be able to save enough to buy their own land. If that is not evil, I don't know what is?
3:48 AM
Hey, dude, count from one trillion to zero, than calm down!
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