Cambodian monk defies his superiors to document and oppose land grabs

Ven Sovath Luon: leading struggle of poor farmers

Friday, September 16, 2011
CÍAN NIHILL
The Irish Times

According to Luon, the Buddhist hierarchy in Cambodia has been corrupted by close ties to power and no longer works for the good of ordinary people.

FRONT LINE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS: GOING AGAINST centuries of tradition, Buddhist monks across Cambodia have been ordered by their superiors not to give food or shelter to the Venerable Sovath Luon, whose only crime has been to stand up against brutal land seizures.

Known in some quarters as “The Multimedia Monk” for his use of video to catch human rights violations, Luon has risked defrocking and police brutality by documenting and often leading the struggle of poor farmers in his community.

Luon spoke passionately while at the Front Line Dublin Platform about what he sees as rampant corruption around him.

His activism started after he witnessed a land grab in his village in 2009, when police fired at unarmed villagers protesting against the confiscation of their fields. Land seizures are common in Cambodia, where large tracts are being sold, often to foreign investors, for logging, agriculture, mining, tourism and fisheries, displacing thousands of people.

“Big companies co-operate with the authorities, with the powerful men and grab the land from the farmer,” said Luon. Some 475 hectares were taken in his community when more than 100 military police violently forced 175 families off their land, “while farmers were harvesting rice”.

A number of farmers were shot, said Luon, who resisted attempts by the authorities to confiscate video footage he had captured of the incident. He is now making a documentary about both the event and the protests he has led since.

“They lost the land, they lost the law – that’s what made me stand up to lead them for justice, for human rights, to find respect for them.”

The Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, also called the Monks’ King, ordered Luon to stop his work opposing the land seizures.

According to Luon, the Buddhist hierarchy in Cambodia has been corrupted by close ties to power and no longer works for the good of ordinary people.

“They are speaking not for the law of Buddhism; [when] the Monks’ King is speaking, everything is politics,” said Luon.

An order from religious superiors banned pagodas (communities of monks) from feeding or housing Luon because of his activity.

“[It has been] very difficult because I am a monk, the monk [has] no house, only stay in pagoda” he said. For now, Luon has been forced to rely on the generosity of the villagers with whom he continues to protest.