ABC Radio Australia
Cambodia's indigenous community has called on the government to live up to its obligations under local and international law and protect their interests. Representatives of Cambodia's 17 ethnic groups are urging the government to suspend hundreds of concessions awarded to foreign and local companies they say are operating on their land. The call comes after a recent United Nations committee hearing submitted evidence about serious shortfalls in Phnom Penh's commitment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Pheap Socheat, indigenous Bunong people representative; Chhit Sam Ath, executive director Cambodian NGO Forum; Graeme Brown, consultant, indigenous people's rights
CARMICHAEL: Representatives from four of Cambodia's indigenous communities said Wednesday the government must start protecting their interests, and stop carving up traditional lands into concessions for investors.
Cambodia's indigenous people are worried that their way of life, traditions and customs are being destroyed as investors get huge parcels of land in 99-year concessions with no consultation or compensation for those who have used the land for generations.
The representatives from four of the country's 20 or so tribal groups were in Phnom Penh Wednesday to give their thoughts on the findings of a United Nations committee that earlier this month examined Cambodia's compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The UN committee found extensive problems with the government's award of land concessions affecting indigenous people, including corruption, impunity and widespread reports of intimidation against those who try to protest the loss of communal land.
The UN committee says "a proper balance" must be found between the country's development needs and the rights of its people. Economic development, it says, cannot come at the cost of the rights of the most vulnerable.
Pheap Socheat is a representative of the Bunong people from the north-eastern province of Mondolkiri. He explains that the lives, culture, tradition and religion of Cambodia's indigenous people are inextricably bound up with the land and natural resources.
The answer, he says, has been provided by some experts who believe that those traditions will die out. And the loss of land pushes the indigenous people further into poverty, contrary to donor-funded goals and the government's commitment to reduce widespread poverty.
For that reason alone the representatives stress that donors - which last year provided almost 1 billion US dollars to the government - must monitor Phnom Penh's compliance on the issue.
Graeme Brown is an independent consultant on the rights of indigenous people. He says the problem of land loss has reached crisis point with vast tracts given over to concessions for agriculture and mining as well as hydropower projects.
CARMICHAEL: Asked what can be done about it, Brown says the answer is straightforward.
BROWN: The solution in actual fact is really quite simple. It's like the indigenous people say: Implement the laws - there is no shortage of laws in Cambodia to rectify the problem. Then we have to examine deeper why the laws aren't being implemented, and people have to be held to account for that. So: who is supporting who, and what's not being done need to be asked.
CARMICHAEL: Chhit Sam Ath heads the civil society grouping called NGO Forum, and says at least 1 million hectares of economic land concessions have been granted so far.
He says indigenous people should be given traditional rights to forests - which they have used for generations as a source of food, medicine and for cultural purposes.
Chhit Sam Ath says the irony of land registration in Cambodia is that investors are able to get huge economic concessions with ease, but indigenous communities have as yet been unable to register even a single parcel of communal land.
CHIT SAM ATH: As we already repeated again and again, the indigenous people's land has not been registered and the land concessions have been given almost on a daily basis. And the land registration is so, so, so slow that as of now there is not one piece of land registered yet. And when the land has been granted as a concession how can we register the land because there is no land to be registered?
CARMICHAEL: Dam Chanthy, a woman from the indigenous Tampuon tribe from Ratanakkiri in north-eastern Cambodia, says that if the government is serious about preserving the identity and traditions of the indigenous people, then it must start to pay attention to what they need too.
Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Pheap Socheat, indigenous Bunong people representative; Chhit Sam Ath, executive director Cambodian NGO Forum; Graeme Brown, consultant, indigenous people's rights
CARMICHAEL: Representatives from four of Cambodia's indigenous communities said Wednesday the government must start protecting their interests, and stop carving up traditional lands into concessions for investors.
Cambodia's indigenous people are worried that their way of life, traditions and customs are being destroyed as investors get huge parcels of land in 99-year concessions with no consultation or compensation for those who have used the land for generations.
The representatives from four of the country's 20 or so tribal groups were in Phnom Penh Wednesday to give their thoughts on the findings of a United Nations committee that earlier this month examined Cambodia's compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The UN committee found extensive problems with the government's award of land concessions affecting indigenous people, including corruption, impunity and widespread reports of intimidation against those who try to protest the loss of communal land.
The UN committee says "a proper balance" must be found between the country's development needs and the rights of its people. Economic development, it says, cannot come at the cost of the rights of the most vulnerable.
Pheap Socheat is a representative of the Bunong people from the north-eastern province of Mondolkiri. He explains that the lives, culture, tradition and religion of Cambodia's indigenous people are inextricably bound up with the land and natural resources.
The answer, he says, has been provided by some experts who believe that those traditions will die out. And the loss of land pushes the indigenous people further into poverty, contrary to donor-funded goals and the government's commitment to reduce widespread poverty.
For that reason alone the representatives stress that donors - which last year provided almost 1 billion US dollars to the government - must monitor Phnom Penh's compliance on the issue.
Graeme Brown is an independent consultant on the rights of indigenous people. He says the problem of land loss has reached crisis point with vast tracts given over to concessions for agriculture and mining as well as hydropower projects.
CARMICHAEL: Asked what can be done about it, Brown says the answer is straightforward.
BROWN: The solution in actual fact is really quite simple. It's like the indigenous people say: Implement the laws - there is no shortage of laws in Cambodia to rectify the problem. Then we have to examine deeper why the laws aren't being implemented, and people have to be held to account for that. So: who is supporting who, and what's not being done need to be asked.
CARMICHAEL: Chhit Sam Ath heads the civil society grouping called NGO Forum, and says at least 1 million hectares of economic land concessions have been granted so far.
He says indigenous people should be given traditional rights to forests - which they have used for generations as a source of food, medicine and for cultural purposes.
Chhit Sam Ath says the irony of land registration in Cambodia is that investors are able to get huge economic concessions with ease, but indigenous communities have as yet been unable to register even a single parcel of communal land.
CHIT SAM ATH: As we already repeated again and again, the indigenous people's land has not been registered and the land concessions have been given almost on a daily basis. And the land registration is so, so, so slow that as of now there is not one piece of land registered yet. And when the land has been granted as a concession how can we register the land because there is no land to be registered?
CARMICHAEL: Dam Chanthy, a woman from the indigenous Tampuon tribe from Ratanakkiri in north-eastern Cambodia, says that if the government is serious about preserving the identity and traditions of the indigenous people, then it must start to pay attention to what they need too.
All relevant authorities, please think again. Stop your harmful actions now. Most of our people are being suffered. Please pretend yourselves as them, then you will feel what they do now.
ReplyDeleteI know you are not sufferred because those people are not you, your relatives, your love. But do you think that all your relatives, your loves will always rich, high ranking? Please imagine or put yourselves into the situation of being homeless, poor. You will understand those people being sufferred by your actions. I strongly believe that any of your grandchildren, great-grand children, great-great-grand children and your futher generations will fall into that situation one day. I don't think all your love will always be in good conditions.
The National Assembly passed the new Land Law of 2002 which allows for the protection of immovable property of indigenous communities (Art.22,part 2) this allows for the indigenous community to cultivate the lands in their possession according to the rules of collective use, and no member has the right to dispose of their allocated share of the property(art 27) No authority outside the community may acquire any rights to the land (Art 28.) The law is already available, each indigenous community should apply with the Ministry of Land Management to ensure their collective rights to the land.
ReplyDeleteThis problem is fueled by land concessions for various projects.
ReplyDeleteThe 2002 Land Law, Article 49 states that Land Concessions shall respond to a social or economic purpose and may not be more than 10,000 hectares(Art.50). The granting of land concessions for residences, agricultural use shall be determined by sub-decree(Art.60), although concessions for mining for example are not covered within the land law(Art. 50).
"And when the land has been granted as a concession how can we register the land because there is no land to be registered."
ReplyDeleteThe Land Law of 2002 allows for those in uncontested possession for 5 years, prior to the enactment of this law, to obtain definitive title(Art.30), but that the period to be registered can be extended by "competent authority"-presumably the Cadastral authority for the "reconstitution of the cadastral plan and land register, and that the "competent authority" shall continue to issue "titles of possession" to the land(Art.40).The title of possession is not ownership title, except it may constitute "title of ownership" in the absence of any dispute as to ownership of the land at the time the "land register" (lixit) was created.(Art40). "Notwithstanding the foregoing, any person who, due to ignorance or negligence failed to resister his possession, has the right to protections just as the title owner in absence of valid dispute.(Art.42)